Should you run a User-Generated Content (UGC) promotion on Facebook or a dedicated microsite?

Here’s the deal. In support of an upcoming campaign, we’re considering a UGC promotion. I’m torn whether it should be conducted entirely within Facebook, or if we should build a microsite to host it.

The market is local (Winnipeg), so broad reach is less important than participant’s social influence on each other.

Desired outcomes include brand awareness, engagement, and viral sharing. The lurkers—people who don’t contribute content, but passively receive it through sharing—are almost as important as the participants.

Facebook seems like fish in a barrel (easier to reach because they’re right there), whereas a microsite seems like fish in the ocean (more of them who travel farther).

What do you think? Is it a better idea to run a UGC promotion inside of Facebook, using the built-in network & functionality there, or would you build a destination to aggregate submissions & let people share from there? Please comment below whether you favour Facebook or a  microsite, why, and if I’m overlooking anything.

Social Objects: branded content, understanding & brandvocacy

In preparation for my new job as United Way of Winnipeg‘s Interactive & Social Media Engagement Manager, I’ve been reading a few of the current SoMe classics, including Brian Solis’ Engage!

I’ve heard Brian reference “social objects” on his blog, and I’d already come to the conclusion that brands will be better understood in the social world by creating and spreading content of their own, as opposed to just listening and participating in existing conversations.

As part of my engagement strategy I’m going to produce simple videos that convey just how important and life-changing the programs United Way supports are to the people who use them. There are a thousand amazing stories out there, and I believe that if people just heard them, they’d be moved to donate—whether for intellectual or emotional reasons.

These stories, in social media marketing terms, are “social objects”—ideas around which people who care can congregate, comment, and share to their networks.

Here’s my conception of a social object creating “brandvocates”—fans advocating your organization’s work:

1] Content is published to the social web. 2] It sparks conversation, creating a perception of the brand in people’s minds. 3] People share the content & their newfound understanding of the brand that produced it.

And here’s a more structured version of Brian’s idea, showing the journey from content to conversation, to enhanced brand perception and brandvocacy:

Perhaps Brian will drop by and tell me if I’ve got the concept down!

Branding is out of our hands, PR becomes the new content nexus

BP’s brand disaster is as large and ill-contained as its oil disaster. The popularity of @BPGlobalPR, a guerilla attack on BP’s lame brand disaster mitigation PR, shines a light on the death of brand in the age of social media.

“Branding” is a strategy to differentiate your product/org. To set it apart through look, experience, and “serendipitous” appearances in news (earned media) and awareness (advertising) streams.

What does “branding” mean when people disregard messaging? It means your product/org is judged based on its actions and public opinion thereof. Client-facing communications—marketing communications, PR, and brand interactions like special events—now need to centre on giving people something good to talk about.

• Offering quality interactions (a great product, a great time, great customer service)
• Inviting people to participate (cool projects that spark the imagination while repaying the community)
• Communicating the successes of the brand (allowing brandvocates to tell their stories)

PR is now being thought of as a strategic content creation and dissemination tool. Shaping the brand through word-of-finger.

A social media crisis of faith

Facebook. I used to love you, but I had to kill you.

Whether there’s a Facebook exodus come May 31 or not, I have really sobered up to the whole MySpace/Friendster/’it was the style at the time’ social network fad issue. I didn’t believe in it until now. I mean, I knew intellectually that once upon a time MySpace got cool and then uncool, but was sure that could never happen to Facebook. They have half a billion users, for pity’s sake. Like 1/16th of the earth. What could happen to bugger that up?

Facebook’s recent PR shitstorm has largely played out among the digerati, and my sense is that the Average User will continue tending their Farmville real estate come the end of May, oblivious to arcane issues of private data and opt-outs and personalization. That may come to pass, but my faith has been badly shaken.

Like a spooked investor, I see the danger of putting all your eggs in one basket. Building a large Facebook following—instead of a more robust social strategy—could be an unfortunate resource sinkhole, should the bubble burst and the massive social network hustle itself right out of business.

Let’s be proactive and pretend, for a minute, that Facebook is on its last legs as a home for brands.

What’s a marketer to do? Here are some ideas for staying afloat in an uncertain social future.

Diversify your assets

If your core contribution is viral content, spread it out. Use Facebook to point fans to content and foster discussion there, but use YouTube and your own blog/site to host the original stuff. If you’ve just been riding the wave so far and not really developing your own content to share, get busy.

Make real friends & find out where else they hang out

You should already be doing this, but be sure to engage your active Facebook commenters to the point where you feel you really know each other. Google ‘em and follow them on Twitter or on their own blogs. Make the relationship bigger than Facebook, which will help make it deeper anyway. Should a new network arise to take FB’s place, these will be the people you’ll refriend.

Host an IRL event pronto

Get your social scene out and mingling for real as soon as possible. If you’re a non-profit, stage a volunteer event. If you’re a small business, invite people over for a (insert product here) tasting or a workshop. Move the virtual to real life now. This capitalizes on the work you’ve done so far. The point of meeting these people online was to take them to the next level of interaction with your business anyway.

Insource the connections you’ve made

Got an email newsletter, a mailing list, an inhouse CRM strategy? Migrate your new bffs to your own platform. Bring them into the fold. Throw them a discount if you can, and try to attach them to your brand’s inner circle. If you’ve got your own communication strategy running parallel, now would be a good time to solidify subscribers drawn from your FB fans. Invite them personally.

Nonprofits & new media: Winnipeg’s Siloam Mission connects with the community through social media

Siloam Mission, a Winnipeg non-profit offering services to people experiencing homelessness, has done an amazing job reaching out to the community through social media.

Blair Barkeley, Siloam’s Website and Social Media Coordinator, has been a “connecting point between the compassionate and Winnipeg’s less fortunate”, and I chatted with him about his experience.

Unfortunately Blair, along with 17 other staff at Siloam, was laid off “due to a 15 to 25 percent decrease in donations and public support”. Today is his last day, and I’m sorry to see this channel of public outreach temporarily lost.

You can donate to Siloam Mission right here.

Q. Siloam Mission is using many social media channels (Larry Updike’s blog, Facebook, Twitter, Twestival, YouTube). Where did that social media savvy come from? Was a it a directive from management that resulted in a social engagement hire, or did a young person with a digital skill set come on board and bring the idea to the CEO? Was there an identified need to engage with Winnipeggers (either in the online space, or just in general)?

Blair Barkeley: Siloam’s social media savvy actually came from both. A web & social media position was created by management for the very purpose to get into the whole social media world and start connecting with new people and new possible supporters. And then I was hired to fill the position.

My job and goal was to engage with people online and starting entering the new social media phenomenon so that Siloam Mission could capture a whole new rage of supporters. Read the rest of this entry »

Cooperation makes it happen. Working together. Dig it?

Early on in the web, the people who made websites were those who were technically inclined and skilled with coding. Once the commercial web was up and running, around the turn of the century (mindblowing, eh?), it became apparent that ecommerce didn’t just need to function – web design was a form of marketing communication, and it turned out the job of designing sites was a graphic design situation. People with an understanding of formal design, communication, and visual persuasion took their rightful place and the UI/UX designer was born. Only now do you see complex coding not in the job description of designers, as employers recognize the distinction between the two skill sets.

Something similar is afoot in the realm of social media. Among the backlash against the glut of gurus, ninjas, and wizards, there is an emerging skill set that has little to do with understanding the difference between an API and an IPO. Enter the socialites.

I’m reading Tara Hunt‘s The Whuffie Factor, and in it she details the physical extent she went to in order to properly market a startup. She moved to new city—a new country, in fact—and her network and reputation there were small. To forge relationships that could be brought online, Tara went out every single night, sometimes to a few places, to meet people in real life. Socializing, if you will.

I’m doing a series of interviews with filmmakers like Melissa Pierce on fundraising creative projects through social media, and repeatedly the story that unfolds is one of real life relationships going online. Face to face, or at least a mediated one to one, making people’s acquaintance and cooperating to do something mutually beneficial.

The social medium is probably finished being the message, except in terms of impressing customers that you’re meeting them on their terms. It’s time to get down to what social media makes so easy: people meeting, expressing interest in each other’s projects, sharing neat stuff, and helping each other out when we can.

This is why social media can never be put on an agency’s deliverables checklist. It takes time. It takes personal investment. It’s a network buzzing around individuals. It’s social capital (the new kind, not the classic kind) that’s lost when individuals leave organizations.

I’ve asserted before that orgs should seek out staff with large personal networks. Influence can’t be bought, only built over time by building trust.

Trust is why we shouldn’t despair that social media is being ruined by marketing. The positive energy required to build community is self-perpetuating and forces companies to toe the line. No one’s going to build a giant network one friendship at a time only to serve them spam when they come over for dinner.

The gurus who totally get Twitter lists can now give way to the friendly, helpful, interesting, genuine people who intuitively understand that cooperation and friendships are the best way to get where we’re going.

Social Butterflies: Adele McAlear on women in social media

Next in a series of interviews with female Canadian social media stars! The premise, which you can read about here, investigates how women act towards each other in the quest to be head social butterfly.

Today we welcome Adele McAlear, a Montreal marketer who’s feminist street cred includes being the founding Executive Director of the Vancouver chapter of DigitalEve International, a non-profit organization for women in technology. She also contributes to Technically Women.

In almost 3 years of working in social media, I’ve had overwhelmingly good experiences with women being supportive and helping each other to get ahead. There have been one or two instances that were a little less than pleasant, but I’m willing to chalk those up to people just having a bad day. (Or perhaps I don’t want to bring down the whole gender for the rare instance where all was not smooth.)

For myself, I will help people, regardless of gender, whom I believe are genuine and who treat me with respect. I won’t  go out of my way to help people when I’m made to feel like I’m simply a stepping stone to get someone else. You know, the people who look through you to the next person up the food chain as they stare blankly with a false smile. But, I’ve had that feeling from both men and women, so I don’t think that it’s gender-specific.

I’ve found fewer instances of the “Old Boys” club in social media, but it’s still alive and kicking. I was trying to think of why more people of both genders follow men and I think it comes down to men being perceived as more influential in business. Like the concepts of fame begetting fame; of men making more money than women for the same job, of why women pay more at the dry cleaners.

That said, I have some great cheerleaders who are men. And I have some who are women. I think that my experiences in social media are really just a reflection of society at large.

Social Butterflies: Monica Hamburg on women in social media

Next in a series of interviews with female Canadian social media stars! The premise, which you can read about here, investigates how women act towards each other in the quest to be head social butterfly.

Today we have Vancouver’s own Monica Hamburg. Monica’s a writer and social media consultant/evangelist. She also speaks about social media strategy and tactics, and writes a blog of the weird.

Very loaded topic. Before I address this, I need to remark that I’m a feminist. It should go without saying (but it can’t) that I believe in equality for women – and that I am fully aware of the issues we face. And now to the stuff that will get me hated. Sadly, in general, women aren’t always each other’s best allies. In some cases, there is competitiveness that surrounds the way some women interact with one another. Also, there is not much to be gained from excluding men – while there is a great deal that can be learned from working together. And, in my experience, exclusively female groups have their own issues.

The thesis that women are better at social media than men… well, I think this is one of those “I want to believe that we’re better” statements. Even if we are to assume that men and women have these stereotypically distinct approaches, there are great advantages to the other angle. Sure, women can be chattier are sometimes more intimate – but men are often more willing to state their opinion and allow themselves to remark on things with humour. While this may not always translate as “likeable” it does lead to more instantaneous connections – and a deeper feeling of collusion.

Of course, what it comes down to is the person. I really try to stay away from the “popularity contest” aspect of Twitter etc. The concept of “head butterfly”, rubs me the wrong way. I try to help people who are respectful (among other qualities) – and I make a sincere attempt not to judge someone based on their social web popularity or lack thereof.  It would be profoundly ignorant of me to assume that a person’s value is based on how many followers or connections they have.

Certainly, I’ve seen the concept of cattiness present itself on social networking sites – and I’ve seen men react in embarrassing ways too. I’ve also had a great deal of support from both genders – recommendations for talks, endorsements and the like.

But, if I’m going to make a huge blanket statement – overall, men have been more willing to accept my sense of humour – at least at the beginning.  But times they are a changing.

Social Butterflies: Kelly Rusk on women in social media

Next in a series of interviews with female Canadian social media stars! The premise, which you can read about here, investigates how women act towards each other in the quest to be head social butterfly.

Kelly Rusk is Manager of Marketing and Communities at Ottawa media analysis and PR measurement firm MediaMiser, and she blogs about community and conversations at Web 2.What? She has nice hair.

While women may be more inclined to social media, it seems in terms of influence (i.e. number of followers, subscribers, fans etc) men still seem to win every time. I’ve seen tons of links leading to that conclusion and it’s been bothering me lately about why that’s the case. NYU professor (and social media author) Clay Shirky did an interesting post that theorizes about it.

I think on a macro level, women want to be supportive of other women, when it comes down to individuals “cattiness” can exist (and I definitely don’t think it’s intentional).

This past September myself and two friends co-founded Girl Geek Dinners Ottawa which is a spin off of Girl Geek Dinners London (and now takes place in over 45 cities in 22 or so countries). And as such I made a conscious decision to be more open and supportive of other women… Not that I wasn’t before (and I certainly was never publicly critical of any women), but if I found myself thinking negatively about another woman in a professional capacity, I now make an effort to reach out or try to meet her with an open mind.

What I learned from talking to Kelly

The idea that women who self promote are perceived as “bitches”, and that inhibits them from speaking up, surfaced a few times the comments of Clay Shirky’s A Rant About Women. It’s a good idea to examine your preconceptions once in a while.

Winnipeg now has its very own version of Girl Geek Dinners, so get yourself over to Facebook and check it out.  The inaugural dinner just went down, featuring Coree Francisco of Girl One Interactive. I hear it was both girly and geeky Why not put yourself out there and speak at the next event in March?

Social Butterflies: Kate Trgovac on women in social media

The first in a series! The premise, which you can read about here, investigates how women act towards each other in the quest to be head social butterfly.

Here’s Kate Trgovac, Vancouver social media star and co-founder/President of LintBucket Media, which sounds like a very cool place to work. Kate blogs about social media over at My Name Is Kate.

Provocative topic and series of questions! Well … while I am the first person to complain about the lack of prominence of women in marketing in general and social media in particular in Canada, I’m concerned when we start saying things like “women are more suited professionally to social media b/c of ABC” because that leaves the door WIDE open for statements like “men are more suited professionally to be a doctor, be prime minister, be a brigadier general b/c of XYZ (or PMS, as the case may be)”. While, historically, women in society may have had more call to develop and use skills that are aligned with social media, in general, anyone, regardless of gender, can work on their people skills and start to turn a taciturn nature to a more social one (we only need look to Austen’s Mr. Darcy for evidence of this )

Regarding the cattiness, I have not personally noticed that women are harsher to their own. I have witnessed both genders being catty to their own sex and to the opposite one. And I have experienced incredible generosity from both genders as well. We are in one of the most narcissistic and self-involved industries around. Heavens, we use our product (media) to talk about our product (media) – our professional lives as social media marketers are the very definition of “self-referential”. Combine that attitude with the money that flows around the marketing, technology and media industries, and you have a recipe for cattiness that has nothing to do with gender. Frankly, we’re ALL waving our chubbies (natural or strap-on) around to compare size and ultimately grab a piece of the pie for ourselves. Read the rest of this entry »

Tactica Interactive launches social media campaign Reason to Live

Tactica Interactive, Winnipeg-based interactive agency & my husband’s company, recently launched the Reason to Live campaign with the Manitoba Suicide Line. The launch, held at Klinic, featured Minister of Healthy Living Jim Rondeau & some moving Aboriginal singing from one of the campaign participants and his father.

“A key component to this approach is the use of social marketing strategies to reach youth in particular, and spread the message about the resource,” says Tim Wall, Director of Counselling Services at Klinic. According to Janet Smith, Program Manager for the Manitoba Suicide Line, “using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube can play a critical role in suicide prevention and engage youth in conversations that promote awareness, understanding and help-seeking behaviours”.

The viral components of the campaign, designed for easy social sharing on Facebook and Twitter, include several powerful videos telling the stories of Manitobans whose lives have been affected by suicide. Watch for yourself; the first-person accounts are very compelling. Tactica’s social media strategy is already having an impact, according to program managers; with callers indicating they’d seen the message of hope online.

The challenge with this project was that it needed to have a social component, but there was no content to share. Tactica had to figure out what was the most compelling aspect of the Suicide Line’s work, which was of course the personal accounts of people who’ve dealt with suicide. Tactica decided to produce a series of videos, the most direct and easily shareable method of storytelling. If you want people to talk, you’ve got to give them something to talk about.

Social Butterflies Series: Canadian Women in social media talk about women in social media. But not like that.

Introducing an interview series with some of the most influential Canadian women in the social media scene, wherein they ponder the thesis:

“Women are more suited professionally to social media, because they’re friendlier, chattier, reveal more and make alliances more quickly than men do”.

I picked the brains (ew) of a number of very generous and influential ladies, including Kate Trgovac, Kelly Rusk, Monica Hamburg, Adele McAlear, and Tara Hunt, on their experiences with other women in their careers. Given that social media is a bit of a matriarchy, had they encountered professional kindness from other women in the popularity contest that is social media, or does cattiness get in the way?

“Are you helpful to other women jockeying for head social butterfly—spreading the love—or do you confess to not linking it up like you should to hold others down? Do you have a sneaking suspicion that’s happened to you, or seen it happen to someone else?”

This topic is such a hot button and the answers are so good that I have to devote a post to each of them, so those will be coming right up!

Who should “do” your social media? A totally general guide

The below are generalizations intended to help small to medium business owners get their feet wet in social media. There are brilliant exceptions to every rule.

You’re convinced. You heard social media marketing will be a $3 billion industry in the next five years. This is where it’s at. You’re all set to jump into a new decade with a totally techno, super digitally online cyber social media strategy, on the internet and everything. You’re going to listen, make friends, strike up conversations, the whole bit.

You look around your organization and wonder “who the heck is going to do our social media”?

There’s no universal right answer, but there’s a right answer for your company, for sure. It depends what you’re going to use social media for, and the answer to that might make the choice of mediator obvious (see “Customer Service). But barring an “everybody lives the brand, tweet as you will” Zappos-style strategy, you’re probably going to have to pick somebody (and if you’re a Tony Hsieh level-thinker, you don’t need to read any farther. Go innovate!).

Let’s start with a job description. What’s this future socializer going to do? They’re going to socialize! Fundamentally they’re going to make friends with other people and seek to help them out with their troubles, sometimes brand-related, and sometimes hopefully not. Read the rest of this entry »

What should you do with your advertising budget in 2010?

The spread of smartphones and location-aware mobile technology is opening up a (smaller) world of local marketing possibilities.

3 words: location, location, location. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

You’re the CEO, Senior VP of Marketing, and Chief Janitor of your very own local small business. You typically place an ad in the yellow pages, stuff a few dayglo flyers in mailboxes, and have a brochure website with an infrequently-updated ‘news’ section (because frankly, you can’t think of a whole lot of news with which to fascinate the public). You’ve heard of this new-fangled socialized media thing, but near as you can tell it’s all retired ladies stalking their in-laws and teenagers sending untoward photos to each other. But you also hear it costs less than fluorescent photocopies.

With major marketing superpowers like Pepsi skipping the superbowl and Coke basically declaring websites obsolete in order to refocus ad dollars on social media, Local Small Businessmen can safely assume the research is in, and traditional advertising isn’t. Social media is officially a great publicity channel. But what makes 2010 the year to dive in? Read the rest of this entry »

Social search is going to change the web: A social media how-to guide for brands who want people to say nice things about them

Mmmk, I don’t think I fully grasped what social search meant for brands when I first wrote about it. A recent Altimeter post by Charlene Li, who I had the pleasure of seeing at last year’s SXSWi, really broke it down for me. It’s ok to be confused about this, because it’s a big jui jitsu match right now between the web’s sweatiest heavyweights, and when the dust settles the web will be fundamentally different.

So, while the eventual goal will be search results that are local and profile-based to some extent (your friends talking about what you’re interested in), the first deals between Twitter, Facebook, Bing* and Google will focus on real time trending topics and authority, meaning someone with a lot of followers (or fans, or friends, presumably) will come in at the top of the results, and people’s interactions with brands (good and bad) will spread like so much melted Cheez Whiz**.

For brands, companies, and organizations, this means less direct control over messaging than ever. Your own site pages will not necessarily be the most important results when the real-time web is elevated to equal status with the “brochure web”. The opinions tweeted by your customers/users/whoever wants to say anything about you will be very visible when people search you. Customer service is your new brand experience and the resulting word-of-mouth is your new advertising.

A moment to ponder Heather Locklear, here.

So what’s a poor org to do? How do we “make sure” people are saying nice things about us? Read the rest of this entry »