Direct response marketing and social media have not evolved yet.

Posted on March 14, 2008 by marc meyer

This morning as I was laying in bed deciding if I should get up. I start thinking of the strangest of things. One of them being direct response marketing, which is built on the premise that the customer is required or prompted for an immediate response. Of course it comes in many forms. “Act now”,… call this 800 number within the next…”order now and we’ll also add…”. You all get the point.

So my thoughts were, can there be a business model that ties in social media to direct marketing? I immediately went and Googled, “direct response marketing and social media”, and the results look like this:

Thats great, the results show 3 links with stars that point back to Emerson Direct sites. Apparently we are one of the few companies actually engaged in thinking and writing and actually trying to meld the 2 disciplines into a viable working business model that clients and companies can utilize in driving traffic, sales, and eyeballs to their products and services.

Ok so here’s the deal. I looked at the first result on the page and the original article came from Hollis Thomases at Clicks, the article Social Media Advertising: No Direct Response Proposition asserts that because of the ROI driven impatient nature of most DR marketers, the social media marketing model does not work. A valid point given the amount of time it takes to establish and grow any social network. But is it really? Or is that just a knee jerk reaction? Given the explosive growth and the phenomenal nature of social networks, my question would be, Why wouldn’t you want to go after targeted traffic congregating in one place? Isn’t that the challenge? To find that traffic, that demographic, so that you can market to it?

Hollis states that:

The problem with reconciling direct response (DR) advertising and social media is that to most advertisers, it’s all about a mathematical equation. If the numbers don’t work, they see the campaign as a failure. This mentality just doesn’t jibe with how social media ad campaigns succeed. Social media is about nurturing. In fact, the process is really more marketing than advertising, period. So unless the DR marketer is comfortable with the “D” standing for “delayed,” channel your ad dollars elsewhere.

I can again, partially agree with that but… Here are some questions that marketers and advertisers can ask themselves:

1) Why can’t Youtube, Flickr, and any type of VOD(video on demand) be a vehicle for a DRTV type of marketing? There are already a ton of advertisers taking advantage of viral videos. What do you see in the first 10-20 seconds of a lot of the video you see? A quick spot. What about URL’s watermarked on the bottom of videos? Why or what is stopping a DR marketer from tryinig to piggyback or create a DR spot that is used only in a Youtube type format? has it been done? I’m not sure. But I’m going to venture to say yes it has. Perhaps because of the fear of a low ROI or the time it takes for some of these social media sites to evolve it has driven marketers into a position of paralysis by analysis?

Isn’t a viral video a type of DRTV? Think about it, it spread so rapidly because the RESPONSE is so instant! The same holds true for direct mail for example. Isn’t a viral email the same as direct response mail? Your response to the email is direct, immediate and viral. Your attention is captivated and you must act. And what do you do? You send it to your favorites, the people that are most like you. Targeted, immediate and impressionable.

So the question remains: Can you or do you build relationships, which is the basis of social media in favor of a direct and immediate reponse? Or is there a happy medium? The only way for DR marketers to find out is to try. Sure it’s easy to say it doesn’t work and to fall back on what you know, but why would you ignore one of the most amazing technological advances to come along since Google?

Can social media alter or change a company’s negative public perception

Posted on March 12, 2008 by marc meyer

One of the great things that I love about Linkedin is that you can share information pretty freely with your peers. Of course isn’t that what social networking is supposed to be? One of the many ways that you can share and exchange information is by merely asking or answering industry specific questions.

As I was reading some questions and answers earlier today on Linkedin, I received a phone call from a client who had a client who had a problem. The problem was that this client who had been in business for over 15 years, had some disgruntled customers who had decided to take their grievance or beef online in the form of a forum and blog post. It was more than just one person but it was not an overtly large number. One of the issues appeared to be that instead of calling or going directly to the client to vent or air their grievances, they decided to just go right online and post it. “To let the people know”!

As luck or the SERPS would have it, some of these posts and forums take on a life of their own. They morph into something larger than it really needs to be, and as I said the SERPS will keep these posts alive a lot longer than they need to be. In that pretty soon, when someone might do a search on Company A, instead of getting Company A’s website as the top search result, they get the angry blog post instead. This effect that it has had on the company, it’s image and it’s ability to do business is and has been, to say the least, “not good”.

Don’t get me wrong, in some cases, this form of online vigilante justice is completely warranted as a way to warn others, of unscupulous companies. But what about the companies that have been in business for over 15 years who do things on the up and up, and they just so happen to anger someone? They anger someone who knows how to blog.

Their reputation is forever linked to a SERP that reflects a possible isolated incident for all the world to see, and for all the world to come up with the “3 second impression”. i.e scan the results, read a negative blurb and come up with a negative impression. In other words; especially in the online world, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Or do you?

So I was asked if I could help. I’ve actually done it for other clients and it’s a tough haul. Like George Clooney’s role in Michael Clayton, I had been asked to go in and “clean up” a situation. So given that the call came in as I was answering a few questions on Linkedin, I thought that Linkedin might be a good forum to ask the following question: Could social media, given that it’s sites can be spidered very quickly by the search engines, be a way to alter or change a company’s negative public perception?

The answers have come in fast and furious and they really do hit on the touching points of what social media is, what social media can do and what it cannot do. And as much as it is the 6th Estate, it still has some unwritten rules. But lets take a look at some of the responses and you tell me what you think.

This interesting answer to the question comes from Andrew Munro: I think the answer is “it depends…”. I’m fairly certain that a social media blitz will not be “enough to stem negative press” but it may help. One thing to be aware of is that changing any sort of negative perception requires a lot of time and energy. It’s not a quick fix. You need to identify what aspects of the perceptions are key and hen determine how to set about changing those. A first step would be to identify who the key influencers are on the subject, then think about how you build relationships with them to either support them (if positive) or to encourage them to change their views (if negative). Those are the individuals who – through their blogs etc – can help to change perception for you. ANother thing to be aware of is that you need to be subtle and considered about this. Any appearance of trying to manipulate opinion, buy opinion, deceive etc etc etc will blow up in your face and worsen the situation. Think carefully about what you are trying to achieve.

The next answer from Louis Rosas-Guyon who says: “If the company addresses the issue frankly with an open and honest approach then they stand a solid chance of recovery. Americans love it when the guilty apologize. However, if the company adopts a position where they try to spin the situation or to attack then they are doomed to failure. I have always found it’s just better to tell the truth. It is amazing how quickly people rush to forgive you.”

Next up is Sallie Goetsch who really is blunt in her assertion that “Unless the company fixes the problem(s), *nothing* will stem the tide of bad publicity. And it’s better for any company to have a social media presence already established than to suddenly create profiles on all the networks and start sending “We don’t suck, really” messages out on Twitter. Nevertheless, it seems that one company with a consistently bad rap, TSA, has managed to improve its relations with some of its public by means of a blog with open comments. Do everything you can to get your side of the story out–including using social media, but not forgetting more traditional media. But first, fix the problem.”Last up is Erin Berkery who states: “While not every company can alter their negative perception online, there are steps that can be taken both to improve public perception, and the performance of the company.
For example if a company finds a forum discussing their bad performance, it gives them a chance to answer in a specific and tailored way to people who often have had direct problems with their service.
I’ve worked for companies with web forums, and they would regularly post ‘How are we doing?” topics. This would allow them to address what comes up, and (if needed) apologize and deal with it in a professional way.
It also is a good place to explain nuances of the company that the consumers may not understand. It is useful why certain practices perceived as ‘bad’ might actually be better for the consumer.
However, in all of those situations the companies were actively looking to improve themselves, not just their image. If it’s just a PR blitz just to get the word out, many tech savvy people who are in social networks will not be impressed. Also if it is not followed consistently-for example if someone is in a forum for two days explaining why the company performed a certain action, and then never returns, the perception will be ultimately worse than if they were never online. “

So essentially what you are seeing is that all of these people, myself included, feel that though you can stem the negative perception, your best way to “react” to it is to be as proactive, forthright, and honest as you can in re-creating and expounding on your “real” or desired public persona. You are never going to please everyone but if you are upfront and address the issues in a social networking environment, it can go a long way in repairing and heading off any further misdirected public perception. What do you think?

Viral Video Explained

Posted on March 7, 2008 by marc meyer

Here are 3 great examples of viral videos. The viral elements are so apparent when using these 3 videos as examples of viral marketing. In short order, they can all scale quickly, which means that the viral growth is exponential, i.e. it can spread quickly. The sharing of the link or the video is effortless, and lastly it’s humorous/touching/strikes a nerve. The first video has been viewed over 900,000 times. Which is a pretty solid number.

Now 900,000 for a viral video might seem like a large number but if we look at the numbers associated with Jimmy Kimmels F@cking Ben Affleck Response to Matt and Sarah video, you’ll begin to re-think what is construed as a viral video.

Currently that Jimmy Kimmel video has been seen almost 9 million times. That’s right, 9 million times. I would suspect that the Hey Jude video will eventually spike pretty high. But as you can see, the power possessed by a truly viral video can reach far and why and travel quicker than a tornado warning. Now admit it, right now you are thinking of sharing this post with someone who might appreciate it? It’s not hard to do, you merely send the link and off it goes. Quick, efficient and no sweat for you. Viral.

To finish off this post, here is the viral video that prompted Jimmy Kimmel’s response video. The Sarah Silverman-Matt Damon Video has been seen by almost 13 million people and blogged about over 1900 times. Make that 1901 times.

User-generated content. 10 tips for marketers.

Posted on March 5, 2008 by marc meyer

Web 2.0 has empowered online users like never before. Because of this, it has opened up and increased the desire for marketers to tap into this group to unleash the potential to virally market products and services to levels only dreamt of previously. Here are 10 things marketers need to be aware of as they dip their toes in the water.

The Sixth Estate-respect its potential

If the 5th estate is the broadcast media then the 6th estate is anyone with a computer. Think about it, the 6th estate is, at this juncture, online users; every day run of the mill online consumers who can and do, crank out information, opinions and content, without the fear of any type of backlash. They can say virtually anything online and find an audience for it. Marketers can never underestimate the power of the this user. Regardless of their lack of an audience, all it takes is one piece of media that no one has ever seen. So never discount anything or anyone’s potential content or group in marketing your product.

The Marketing upside for user generated content will never be greater, so what are you waiting for?

But within that forum for their opinion, their thoughts, and their comments, lies potential. Marketing potential. The marketing potential of user generated content has never been greater than it currently is. The marketing impact and influence that user-generated content has over people, products, ideas, and decisions has never been more valued and never been more underutilized. User generated content if positioned correctly, can create a viral buzz for anything. The reason for this is that the growth of social networks is growing at a pace that rivals and exceeds the dot com boom of the late 90’s. To be more sucinct, a new blog, it’s been said, is created every second. THAT means, that someone is creating content. A user is creating content that COULD influence others. If a marketer has not immmersed themselves in all things social media driven, now is the time.

Marketers think they know how to position themselves

For marketers, the challenge has always been how to leverage and push their product. One key is to take the leaders, the movers and the shakers of user generated content and have them buy in. Or you position a product or marketing promotion in front of “a group” in which they want to participate, they want to crank out content and they want to share it with their peeps. The marketer can dangle rewards and other incentives to do this, and that can work but… The reward or payoff for the user, is the desire to be noticed, or found, or be recognized for their efforts in creating some viral multi-media based piece of content that “may” take on a life of it’s own. YouTube is a classic example of this.

Marketers should know that all creators of UGC are secretly hoping and looking for their 15 minutes.

Those people who don’t have an audience yet, may be wanting to grow to online stardom levels seen by those who have cultivated their sites over time. Some great examples of this would be The Drudge Report, Shoemoney, Guy Kawasaki, and Seth Godin. All of these folks have a loyal and large following. With the ease that it takes them to crank out a piece on something they may like or dislike or mention casually, they can influence thousands of people, who then can influence thousand of others. Instant traffic and instant credibility to something that previously had nothing. Therein lies the potential that marketers salivate over.

Marketers could theoretically get to these influencers and have them, for a price, (bare in mind that everyone can be bought, don’t be so naiive to think they cant) pitch or promote a product, a service, a sight, or whatever and in turn it will, if it hasnt already happened, have a direct and immediate impact on the audience of that influencer. An indirect example of this is Google adsense ads sprinkled all over sites with high traffic.

Marketers need to be transparent

Within social networks for example, people who blatantly pitch a product can be looked upon has disingenuous, and thus will never be taken seriously. So a marketer needs to immerse themselves within a group and become more of an under the radar type of person who slowly and yet effectively influences the rest of the group. By doing this they gain street cred and legitimacy whenever they speak about anything. Thus, if they tell or mention or post about widget x rocking their world, then the rest of the group may listen. If marketer y comes right out of the blocks and says, “check out this kick ass product,” they’ll never get off the ground.

Marketers need to incent and leverage the group

Traditional online marketers look at social networks in a similar fashion, with the thinking, “I can market right to this captive audience”. And they are right! With some specific niche based social groups numbering in the thousands and within those groups are thousands more, marketers can tap directly into those groups who are possibly waiting or are ripe to be pitched with products, services and offers. If the pitch is right and the timing is perfect, it can be huge. To that end If a marketer can work with and enlist users of THAT group to carry the flag on behalf of a product, if they can get that user to become an evangelist of that product, then they will have hit the mother lode.

Marketers need to realize, it’s a marathon not a sprint

Although a new blog is created every second, a new blog does not grow its base overnight. It, like any social group grows over time. Marketers have the ability to drive traffic using specific and traditional means, but there still needs to be some meat on the bone, once someone arrives to the group and or the blog. And that does not happen quickly. Marketers have to acquire some street cred. They have to be able to establish a presence either under the radar or not. Social users have the ability to fact check more than they ever have and they do, thus the marketer needs to realize that. If they smell a rat, you are done. So stay cool. If the marketer paces themselves, the reward at the end will be recurring and not just a one time deal.

Screwing up is viral too

If you think success is great and viral and exciting; then keep in mind that if you mess up, if you wrong the consumer, then you can expect an equally as strong and viral reaction. With that failure or error in judegment comes a stickiniess and a refusal to forget that can kill a marketing campaign faster than bug spray. What’s more, with a users ability to fact check, they will to see if you have done something in the past that caused someone to post and vent online and complain. They will find it, and when they do, you and your marketing campaign or efforts will fail. You’re done. So in other words, the key to your future success is predicated on your online reputation and past. If you make a promise, you better keep it. If you have a made a promise, you better have kept it.

Know your audience and why they are creating their content

Marketers have to realize that the premise of all user generated content is that you have this person who wants to be seen or heard. You have to ask the questions: Why? What are they trying to get out of it? What is the purpose? Do they want a job? Are they venting? Do they want to be a star? A wannabe journalist? The more you know about your market, your audience and the reasoning behind their actions, the easier it will be to create a plan that will enlist their help, or incorporate their readers or audience into what you are trying to achieve. It may just be that all their user generated content is for entertainment and nothing more. It might be they are doing it, because they can. Which is cool. It’s merely up to you to figure that out.

You will never know as much as them, deal with it and then embrace it

You think you are on top of things, but you have no idea. Unless you have built the social site they are flocking to or you are immersed in their culture, you will never know as much as them and you will never fully know what they are thinking. So never pretend to, if you do they will bust you. Remember that with the user comes a sense of entitlement. Its the new culture. I’m going to get mine and I have a right to it. It may be why they think they should be a star. And you know that all might be well and good but remember, as a marketer the idea is to influence, and push ideas, products and services. It doesn’t mean you have to sleep with them, it just means you need to know that they think they know more than you do. They might and if they do, let them. Just learn, absorb, take it all in and then go get it! Give them what they need and you get to profit from their efforts.

Social Networks’ Global Reach

Posted on February 29, 2008 by marc meyer

Courtesy of Le Monde here is a cool map of how strong each social network is all over the world. The map provides great insight into what is the network of choice in various parts of the world.

Stating the obvious MySpace has a slight lead on Facebook in North America, while Orkut is growing in popularity in Brazil and India. What’s neat is that most users beyond the Big 2 don’t know about these other popular and accessible sites, thus bringing into focus sites we rarely talk about in the US “starved for anything social media related” press. Examples of sites you might know about are: Cyworld and Mixi which are the #2 and #4 social networks in Asia-Pacific, while Netlog, Yonja, and Skyblog are #3, 4, and 5 in Africa, respectively. And, in addition to being really popular in Latin America, hi5 is apparently #1 in that destination vacation spot… Mongolia.

How important is uptime in Social networks?

Posted on February 28, 2008 by marc meyer

Apparently not too important to the folks at Bebo According to Royal Pingdom (great name by the way) which measures downtime using Pingdom’s uptime monitoring service.

Bebo’s downtime has increased significantly lately and has had by far the most downtime of the 14 social networks monitored for the survey. More than 12 hours of downtime in less than two months is a lot, and it could possibly be caused by the new open application platform that Bebo launched in December, allowing third-party developers access to its platform, Facebook style. It could be putting more strain on Bebo’s systems than they anticipated.

The two giants in the field, MySpace (with 25 minutes of downtime) and Facebook (with one hour and 35 minutes of downtime), can both be considered to be within acceptable limits, especially MySpace.

Social networks, just like any other websites, will occasionally suffer from downtime, either planned or unplanned. However, social networks have a different type of usage than most websites, with frequent visits from the same user and many page views per visit. Therefore downtime can often be even more noticeable and frustrating to social network users.

Below are the results of the survey.

Social Network	Home page (monitored)	Downtime in 2008 (until Feb 25)
Bebo	www.bebo.com	12h 28m
Windows Live Spaces	spaces.live.com	7h 25m
Friendster	www.friendster.com	6h 0m
hi5	www.hi5.com	5h 5m
Reunion.com	www.reunion.com	2h 55m
LinkedIn	www.linkedin.com	4h 0m
Classmates.com	www.classmates.com	2h 5m
Facebook	www.facebook.com	1h 35m
Orkut	www.orkut.com	1h 10m
Last.fm	www.last.fm	1h 10m
Xanga	www.xanga.com	45m
MySpace	www.myspace.com	25m
LiveJournal	www.livejournal.com	10m
Yahoo! 360	360.yahoo.com	5m

* According to Royal Pingdom: If a web page is not reachable, returns an error, or takes longer than 30 seconds to load, it is considered as down. Downtime is always confirmed from two geographically separate locations.

Business Social networking experiment part 2.

Posted on February 28, 2008 by marc meyer

Well ecademy was certainly interesting. Priding itself with the tag line; “Successful business people join ecademy to do more business”. After the relatively pain free login, I was taken to this page that had sooo much information for me to read and soo much information that they wanted, that I became somewhat discouraged and I’ve decided to move onto the next site on the list. Not a good start for a business social networking site. It shouldn’t be so hard! One note, I keep getting lots of unsolicted emails from users welcoming me etc etc.. The only difference is their names aren’t Mandy, Ashley, and Monique…

Next on the list entremate and I have just clicked on the darkest, most illegible eula/t&c I have ever encountered. God knows what I just agreed to. Time to edit the profile. Not much here to be honest, and it seems to be essentially a bbs. Now how far is that going to get me?

Next up was Friendly Favors, I’m going to give them a second chance on a first impression since I was getting database errors for the better part of yesterday.

Konnects, I liked, it was fairly intuitive and easy to set up and the influx of emails wasn’t too bad. That’s one bad aspect of Ecademy, they like to spam with people essentially “there” to help you. But we’ll see. Here is Konnects pitch: Do more with Konnects Get your own professional space online:

Grow your business

Find a Job

Access 1000’s of communities

Centralize your network

Join discussions

Let others find you

and much more.

Something to remember is that with all social networks, it doesnt happen overnight and with each network that you are in, you have to get your bearings and contribute and share and grow your page and your presence. With that being said, When I logged in to Networking for Pros, they essentially said, screw the advertiser model, we want your money to use our site. So I said to Networking for Pros. screw you, I want free. And Off I went.

Real contacts touted itself as a social networking site but really its the old Monster jobs site model. Its employers connecting with job seekers and nothing more, so I was outta there. And on to Ryze I went. I signed up and was fully expecting quite the expereince given all of the back slapping it gave itself. But to be honest, I didn’t think there was much under the hood. You know one of the things that a lot of social networks assume is that you are able to or want to,”invite your friends”. Has it dawned on anyone that maybe you don’t have any friends or maybe you don’t wanna invite anyone within your circle? That might be why Facebook has a leg on all of these. They allow you to look for your group and just join. Then it’s up to you to connect within the group.

So I came away from Ryze with a shrug of the shoulders and a “oh well” attitude with zero expectations. I liked Spoke, it had a nice interface and essentially asked for the same ole same ole in regards to the information it was looking for, but it might be worth going back and building on the intial info that I have provided them. The last one in the group is Teng which is is a professional community of selected Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, vice presidents and directors of technology with organizations ranging from startups to the global Fortune 100, from non-profits to government agencies. The interface sucked so I’m not sure if it’s just a source site for someone to collect names. I went through the initial steps, so I’ll let you know.

Ok, so I have gone through all of the sites that were on the list and for now I’m going to focus on 3 of them for now. Those will be Spoke, Konnects and Ecademy. Those 3 seemed to be the best of the bunch and may have the most potential for something. I’ll try and go back and contribute and share and upload and do the things we do in social networks, but for now, you’ll just have to wait and see. One more thing, I did not include Linkedin and Plaxo, which were suggested, because one is clearly THE business social network at the moment and the other is more of a tool for sharing contacts. So I wanted to look beyond those. especially the ones that I can get something from without shelling out any coin. Have I missed one, that we should evaluate?

Customer Acquisition in Social Media Marketing

Posted on February 26, 2008 by marc meyer

After reading this entry in Top Rank Blog about tips for marketing with social media, something crossed my mind. Though there were some great tips on things that people can do to use the power of social meda to bolster marketing, I was not seeing THE sure fire way. It was gray. I think it’s still gray, and I’ll tell you why.

Lets take for example Client A. Client A wants to use social media, has heard about social media or at least has heard about blogs for example, and wants to use it to drive traffic to his or her sites, increase sales and or use it for branding purposes. That seems to be a safe assumption for most companies.

Well those are all well and good, but first things first. Where does the client go? You have consultants running around out there claiming to know how to do it, but by the looks of the tips. I saw nothing that was a “business process”. I saw a here try this, or this works, or a you might want to try this or I have seen that…..Get the point? A client needs to know what are you going to do, how are you going to do it, how long is it going to take, and what will I get from your efforts, amongst other things.

The problem is, with social media, though you can measure traffic to a certain degree, the “process” or the initiation of a social media campaign is not an overnight phenomenon. there are some instances of it occurring from a viral marketing standpoint but It’s a process that needs to be cultivated. The issue that most clients have with this business model is that they don’t have time to nurture their presence in social networks. Their businesses require immmediate results and returns.

Businesses know this and need to know this: 1) Here is my customer I know what it takes to acquire this customer via this form of advertising, sales and marketing and channel. 2) Here is my customer, what is it going to cost me to acquire that customer through social media? And what are the steps that you are going to take and what are they going to cost me for you to achieve that? After you first explain to me what social media is…

After they ask you “Is it like Myspace”?

If you the social media marketer come to me and say, “We’re going to create a Facebook group for you, A couple of blogs, maybe a bbs, a couple of microsites, and we’re also going to Twitter and use Stumbleupon as well as a handful of others.” I’m first going to say, “Huh? and then “ok, what is that going to do”? And you’ll say, “We’re branding you, and we’re driving traffic to these sites and pages and they’re finding out more about you”!. To which I will say, “Thats great, how many sales can I expect? What kind of conversion rates can I expect from social media???” At that point I better get a really good answer or another plan that perhaps uses a widget or two that is placed in strategic social media sites that can drive traffic and convert sales.

That’s the real question, or rather one of the many questions. Here they are and you might want to use them as you are approached by social media marketers or companies who will claim to know what they are doing.

What is your social media plan?
Do I need sales, leads or traffic
What types of social media do you plan to use and why those? and why not these?
What will be the upfront costs? What ongoing costs can I expect?
What will be the costs of customer acquisition? A cost per acquisition model certainly applies here!
How long will it take to roll this plan out
What kinds of deliverables can I expect and when
What is your track record
Have you ever worked with this type of product or my type of company before?
How successful have you been
What will it take to manage it on my own
Lets focus on some deliverables
Lets set some benchmarks with incentives
What is your plan to integrate this social media plan with our other marketing plans
What if you fail
What guarantees do I have
References

The key here is alot of agencies are starting to add social media as it’s own division within their companies. Though there are very few companies and agencies who have done it right over a sustained period of time, because of the “new-ness” of it all. It’s up to you to figure out who can deliver what, and in what time frame. The last thing you need is for someone or some company to experiment with your brand as they muddle their way through figuring out just what works and what doesn’t work with social media marketing.

Lastly what companies and businesses and people need to realize is that social media marketing is a moving target. It’s changing and morphing into something different every day. The reason is, marketers are figuring out new and unique ways to leverage the media to the advantage of the client. Some are proven, some are loopholes, some are brainstorms and some are just plain strokes of genius. Though you still need a concrete strategy as you go forward. It doesn’t hurt to have someone who is willing to take a chance or try something different on your behalf. Keep that in mind as you work your way down the bulleted list. The first of many steps will be finding someone who knows social media marketing and actually has a business model wrapped around social media marketing. As it is a moving target, I’m sure that there are some differring opinons on this. What do you think?

The top 15 political social networking sites

Posted on February 18, 2008 by marc meyer

This is a definite “now ” category since we are in the midst of deciding who will be running for president. This list will change but currently it consists of a little bit of everything that is currently relevant to electing the next president. Interestingly enough, the internet has become more and more of a prominent player in helping us decide who we like, fund-raising, and obviously campaigning. Here are our top 15 in no particular order:

essembly-essembly is a free, non-partisan social network that allows politically interested individuals to connect with one another, engage in constructive discussion, and organize to take action.

Election2008 TV– Looks like a social networking site, feels like a social networking site, but kind of an odd name..

20DC-20DC is the first step in the future of politics. The way we elect candidates, organize action, disperse information and even fundraise is changing as fast as Internet technology develops. 20DC has a vast array of features that allow for political discussion and organization

Connect2elect-Connect2Elect is an independent, unbiased matching service that uses some of the coolest technology on the Web to give citizens the power to navigate through the oftentimes confusing process of selecting the best candidate for the most important job in America.

RedBlueAmerica-RedblueAmerica.com is a place where people can find out how people with differing views from their own think. It is a place where they can test their thinking against the best thinking on the other side. It is a place where they can stay current – where they can find fodder for today’s equivalent of water cooler conversations – knowing that they’re getting the whole story. It is a place where they can talk with people who think differently, people who want to engage in a civil conversation about the issues. It is a place where they can share their thoughts, a place for thoughtful dialogue

Politweets- Political twitter

Adonkeyandanelephantwalkintoabar-Probably the best name of the bunch, A Donkey and an Elephant is a social tool and political aggregator for folks into politics and activism from all political spectrums. Connect with other activists in your area and find like-minded groups and events! A great way to keep on top of what’s going on in your area.

Policosmos-a nonpartisan network designed to bring citizens, candidates and elected politicians together in an online community.

Mondoglobo-Interesting name as well, All political change starts with defiance of some authority, some established power structure that does not want to be weakened or eliminated. We are reminding concerned citizens of this simple fact, and bringing non-authoritarians together

TakePart-Locks up my pc with some sort of quicktime error, so use at your own risk.

techPresident-“It is time to find out who can actually claim to be the country’s first TechPresident.”

Rockthevote-Rock the Vote is a non-profit, non-partisan organization, founded in 1990 in response to a wave of attacks on freedom of speech and artistic expression. Rock the Vote engages youth in the political process by incorporating the entertainment community and youth culture into its activities. From actors to musicians, comedians to athletes, Rock the Vote harnesses cutting-edge trends and pop culture to make political participation cool.

Ifimpresident–wel-kuh m] ifimpresident.com (iip for short) is a network that lets your share your political views. [iip nooz] news from established sources presents you with stories to comment/reply to. [iip dis-cus-sions] discussions allow you to create a post, and dialogue with others from the community. [iip pol-uh-sees] policies let users establish their views on some topic, and see how many people agree. [iip e-lek-shun] the 08′ election keeps you updated on news stories from the upcoming election. [iip pro-fayle] your profile provides you with updates of you and your friends actions, to keep the dialogue going.

Lastly Im going to combine Facebook and Myspace into 2. Though they are not niche based, they are still 2 very powerful social networking tools used by the candidates in their efforts to connect with voters.

Are there any social networks geared towards or for the voters that I’m missing? Candidate based social networks do not count, though I’m sure some are equally as powerful at convincing voters that their way is the right way, as the above mentioned are at enlightening poltically minded, socially conscious voters. We shall soon see.

Social networks tied to every product, service and brand…Don’t laugh.

Posted on February 13, 2008 by marc meyer

So the logical evolution of social networking is taking hold. In todays volatile marketplace, the success of manufacturers, advertisers, marketers, and media companies in creating long-term value and stickiness depends primarily on their ability to develop great stategies wrapped around great value propositions quickly. So what better way than to use the power of social networks?

I use the terms great strategies and value props. because todays consumers are as discerning as they have ever been. Why? Because they are armed to the teeth with more information than they know what to do with. And now with social networks, the ability for consumers to talk and share and recommend virally, is as big a challenge for marketers et al. as it has ever been. But it can also be a major home run if done right.

That strategy appears to have taken flight with Viacom for instance. You may not know Viacom as well as you do their MTV properties. Having said that, MTV has recently announced that is jumping back into the social-networking game. In 2005, News Corp. outbid Viacom for social-networking giant MySpace.com. Since then, Viacom has largely been on the sidelines in the growing market. Now the company is focusing on creating a vast array of highly targeted Web sites that are loosely connected and focus mostly on programming such as VH1 Classic, Jackass, and Sucker Free on MTV.

When we mentioned product-centric strategies earlier, this is a case in point where Viacom/MTV has a solid brand they are looking to grow and expand into new markets and new channels using all of the resources available to it. One of them being social networks.

MTV’s highly-targeted web sites will be at the core of the company’s digital efforts. MTV sees its content as its strength, and thus they have decided to wrap that content with the power of social networking. In the past year, the company has constructed 32 new sites. The idea is to create a type of assembly line for Web sites. Those sites that find an audience will continue to be nurtured and those that don’t will be stripped down and “reskinned,” or refitted for the next experiment. Kind of like the 10 day “look-see” contracts athletes get in professional sports. They essentially have 10 days to impress. If they don’t, away they go.

Interestingly enough, the company doesn’t plan to spend a lot of cash in promoting the sites. The reason being that they have the utmost confidence in their content and the viral ability of the Web to spread the word. Given that lack of faith, I’m going to give Viacom/MTV a 10 day look-see to see if this particular strategy pays off. It almost gives you the sense that they are saying,”we love your idea, we just don’t want to sink much money into it, until it works”.

While killer business processes, off-the-hook customer service, and bleeding edge technology all play vital roles in todays web 2.0 world, companies that create and buy into solid product-centric strategies and processes with the customer in mind, will be those that build valuable loyal brands and profitable businesses beyond the 21st century. It remains to be seen though if this particular strategy will pay off for Viacom/MTV.