So Proud of my Alma Mater

Purdue University has developed a system that will soon integrate social tools such as Twitter and Facebook into the classroom. Taking a cue from many tech conferences, students will be able to post questions to a public forum visible to the professor and rest of the class. In addition, the system employs a Digg-style system which lets students vote up and down questions that they think is most important.

I'm incredibly proud of my former school for not just using this kind of technology, but for BUILDING it. 

Go Boilers!

Social Monitoring. Garbage In. Pretty Garbage Out.

If you've done a bit of of work in the digital marketing arena lately, then odds are you're familiar with the various social monitoring tools available to help bring metrics and clarity to a chaotic stream of data. The number of options is impressive, but realize that the majority of them also share the same weakness.

The reality is that we're in a f a "garbage in, pretty garbage out" situation. While the tools are becoming increasingly detailed and complex in terms of chopping up data, visualizing trends, and even gauging sentiment, the majority of them still are populated by the same simple back-end data: RSS. 

Challenges with data coming from RSS feeds:

1. Lots of unfiltered spam. Although tools are being implemented to block this out, certain categories like pharma and e-commerce are bombarded with keyword spam.

2. Repetition. In the age of the the retweet and digg link there is a vast amount of RSS data that is redundant. While it's important to know how much a message is being rebroadcast, by simply taking a feed vs. grouping items as original vs. repeat monitoring tools can often create a false sense of importance around a conversation.

3. Text Heavy. Text is core to how a RSS works. While social media channels are primarily text based, there are some big players like YouTube and Flickr that have the potential to distribute viral content in a visual manner which monitoring tools often cannot see. Obviously tagging exists, but this assumes that the someone took the time to implement tags (which often isn't the case.)

The only current solution to the above issues is implementing human power. Unfortunate most of us simply don't have the time or resources to delegate teams to do this kind of work. There has not been enough monetary justification to do anything above and beyond spot-checking the work of robots and algorithms. The point here is, take the output of social monitoring tools with a grain of salt. Understand the specific business needs you're trying to address before pulling piles of data from these tools.

If you're looking to expand on your ability to respond rapidly during a crisis, are you measuring the time and volume of your press releases? Are you correlating the growth of your following to the subsequent volume of rebroadcasts?

If you're launching a discussion forum are you tracking overlaps between the outside social web and your domain? Shortened URLS leading back to the forum?

Social Monitoring is an extremely young enterprise. It has its pitfalls but also has amazing opportunities. As brands are jumping into the social web (and naturally wanting the metrics to justify that decision) they need to remember that data streaming in is going to evolve and setting baselines and expectations now should be handled carefully. We're going to see monitoring start to focus more on quality not quantity as filtering improves and algorithms move closer to mirroring human analysis. Until (if) that happens, be careful when investing a great deal of money, time, and trust into clumps of data that have been reformatted into a somewhat more organized and visually appealing package.

Social Media IS Self Promotional. Just like every market.

But the problem lies in the implications many of those people are making. What many of the naysayers are alluding to is that social networks, let's use Twitter as an example, is comprised most of "social media experts" "consultants" and other individuals who add very little value to society. But in reality, the majority of twitter isn't composed of people self promoting their social media consulting, it's people who are self promoting REAL things. There are doctors tweeting about eye surgery, franchise pizza owners talking about their ventures in new media, start-ups sharing their growth, and even agency folks promoting their speaking gigs.

Twitter is a construct of various parties promoting themselves. But if everyone is promoting different things, you now have a marketplace.

People promote different things on Twitter and the majority of the time, you're not going to be in the market for any of them. But this mirrors real life. We see car ads when we're not looking for a new vehicle. We get supermarket circulars even though we shopped yesterday. We get advice from relatives, even though we never asked for it. The difference between self promotion on Twitter and the self promotion in life, is that you generally can't unfollow things or people in the real world.

Image Credit

The Perfect Pitch isn't a template, it's a Timeline

This post was co-written by Len Kendalland Dave Fleet. Dave heads the Social Media Practice at Thornley Fallis Communications in Toronto, Canada. You can find him at davefleet.com or @davefleeton Twitter.

As a public relations professional, it's easy to get caught-up in the importance of a news release. You spend hours writing it and tweaking it; the client obsesses over every word of it; it becomes the focal point of your announcement.

This tends to apply to any document that gets put into formal writing in PR. News releases, social media releases, letters to editors, you name it. If it's going across the wire, or into a journalist's hands, it gets attention.

The reality, however, is that the formal materials are only one piece of the media relations process. They're important, but they sit alongside many other aspects of the media relations function. Your pitch, your story angle, your careful timing and more all play a role.

Perhaps the most important of these other aspects is the relationship you have with journalists (or bloggers). A good relationship will get your email read when it might have been deleted or your call answered instead of sent to voicemail.

In this respect, the ideal pitch isn't really a pitch; it's a timeline. It's a long-term process of building a relationship; identifying the journalist's needs and preferences, and building familiarity so you can make their life easier while achieving results for your clients. The pitch is just one stop along that road.

Who has time to do this?

Developing a relationship takes time. Developing relationships with many people takes even more time. And time is not something that agency folks have much of. So how does a person in PR manage the task of gaining the support of influential entities without dedicating unrealistic resources?

Continue reading at MarketingProfs Daily Fix 

The Social Media Asterisk

The Legal Department. It is both the savior and the inhibitor of business.

As marketers, we often see “legal” as an entity that prevents us from executing or planning content marketing programs. On the flip side in defense of legal, social media content can often land a brand in a lot of trouble. As we continue down these unexplored roads, one thing is very clear. A happy medium is going to have to be found. Social Media is not going away and neither is the necessity for brands to participate in it.

Offering an all-encompassing solution for baby-proofing social media is not something this post aims to do, but hopefully the following tactic may help move brand marketers and their legal counterparts into a more amicable place.

Enter The Social Media Asterisk. For the purpose of this hypothetical example let’s refer to it as:

*DD

In this example, *DD will translate to “Digital Disclaimer.” Rather than 1) Clutter digital content with legal phrasing or 2) Avoid creating that content due to fear of legal consequences, I’m proposing that a simple *DD is included in every piece of social content.

If it’s a tweet it will end in *DD or the bio will include it.

If it’s a Facebook fan page, it will include a *DD link.

If forum post it will end with *DD

You get the picture.

Above I mentioned that *DD could also be a link. This link would lead to a destination where legal departments would have the room to stretch their legs. To continue using the same example let’s call it:

DD.com/yourbrand

DD.com would be a neutral network that would house the social media guidelines, TOS, caveats, etc. that would help convey the legal requirements that a brand needed to publicize in order to help avoid (obviously not always prevent) future litigation specifically when it comes to public statements made via social networks. 

The *DD network would also serve a few other helpful purposes:

1) Brands could publicly display which social networks they were registered on and what the official handle is. This would prove useful when brand hijackers try to create false information. Bloggers and Journalists could reference the profile on dd.com and confirm whether the statement came from a credible source.

2) A small fee paid by brands registered on DD.com would go towards raising a collective awareness (advertising, pr, etc) amongst consumers about DD.com.

3) Each brand page could host a forum for consumers to ask questions about the product, brand, or legal implications. Instead of this conversation taking place on Twitter on Facebook (where the majority isn't interested) it will take place in a destination where both parties are looking to discuss these types of issues.

4) Unlike a magazine ad or television commercial, the language in a *DD page would be very flexible and able to change at a moments notice (an important factor during crisis management or other public issues.)

Bring on the Devil's Advocates:

Believe me. When writing this post I kept the innocent consumer in mind, as well as the overly litigious one. I am not suggesting the above is a perfect plan. It's simply an idea that hopefully will push us forward in finding a middle ground for participating in the next wave of the web.

But if that isn't enough for you.... *DD

3)

Iran and Social Content. Tread carefully.

I usually don't talk about politics or philosophy on this blog, but as the Iranian situation is now intersecting with technology, I wanted to share some thoughts...

As Iranian leadership continues to shut down communication with the outside world by banning foreign journalists and blocking certain web channels, we here in the U.S. are applauding the power that social media is giving to Iranian protesters in terms of sharing their voice with the rest of the world. Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc are being filled with peepholes into people's lives and struggles and it's obvious that the majority of Americans and our media support these actions.

Let me be clear, I support the freedom of speech and I support what the protesters are doing. But I do wan't to offer a reality check:

The power that social media now wields in Iran to help act on the behalf of what is "right and good" as we percieve it, can just as easily be used for the opposite.

"Evil doers" are going to figure something out. They're going to figure out that they can't block this wave of information anymore. So the only option they are going to have is to fight fire with fire and stage their own information to pull the will of the crowd towards what they want to happen. Let's pretend for a second that the Iranian opposition leader Mousavi was in fact "evil." That once his green wearing supporters somehow managed to get him into power, that he would commit worse crimes against his people and the world than Ahmadinejad. AGAIN NOT SAYING THIS IS THE CASE, JUST CREATING A HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION. If such a thing were to take place it would be a very scary reality wouldn't it? It would mean there was an entity thatl was able to stir up the power of the masses, to flood twitter, to turn our avatars green, and to make us collectively bring something horrible into the world.

My point? We need to step back and be more critical than ever. Social media has the power to sway the hearts and minds of people around the world. This time it's for a cause you believe in, but next time it may not be.

Social Greedia

With the rise of spammers across social networks as well as the "social media experts," I couldn't help but contribute a new word to the Marketing Profs Addictionary. Have you been a victim of "social greedia" lately? Check out the full definition here.

6 Twigrees of Separation

Six degrees of separation (also referred to as the "Human Web") refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is no more than six "steps" away from each person on Earth.

With Twitter, the theory doesn't exactly work the same because this social network allows for anyone to essentially to connect to anyone else directly. So instead of looking at the idea in its traditional sense, the concept above points out the different layers of connections that an average to heavy user would experience with the micro blogging service.

Each person may have varied numbers of degrees that apply to them, but in my own case, the six categories below do cover off on almost all of the Twitter folk I follow and engage.

1. Connections made prior to Twitter:

Individuals who you already know. Whether friends, colleagues or acquaintances, these are people who also belong to the relatively small group of Twitter users, or those who you convinced to join. The connection you have on Twitter with this first tier is significantly different that the rest. Their vague tweets can be 100% clear to you and "inside conversations" can happen frequently (sometimes to the dismay of those who follow you).

2. Local Connections:

Perhaps more of a product of those who use Twitter heavily, the local aspect is becoming a more important type of connection within this network. This layer of Twitter is composed of those who you actually have met in person, or very likely could in the future (especially if those locals share a similar industry or interest).

Geography, Industry, and Interest can obviously skew the weight of where your connections live, but for many, seeking out local individuals to follow provides us with many benefits:

-Local News (Either Faster than the mainstream news)

-Events (Tweetups are commonplace now, especially during conferences) In Chicago we even have a website now dedicated to such instances. www.chicagotweetups.com

-Discussions of locally relevant topics as Olympic Bids, Pizza Quality, or Corrupt Governors

3. Frequent Engagers:

Are there people that you haven't met or corresponded outside of twitter however you send them @'s and DMs on a fairly regular basis? Those would be your frequent engagers. Generally individuals who are in the same niche interest group as you. The category of "Social Media" is probably the largest sub segment of Twitter and because so much content is pumped out daily on this topic, engagement among the individuals in the category is high.

4. Industry Peers:

The bridge is short between layers 3 and 4, but there is a defined point of differentiation. Like the Frequent Engagers, industry peers are composed of those who follow the same topics as you or belong to organizations in your field.

In my own case, I like to follow folks at other digital agencies or who work independently in the digital media space. It keeps me informed of what is going on in the marketplace even though I don't actively seek out conversations with those profiles.

5. Twitter Celebrities:

Those who are unfamiliar with Twitter might not understand this small group of people, but there are just some individuals that generally HAVE to be followed. A few of the popular ones are @ChrisBrogan, @Scobleizer, @GuyKawasaki, and @GaryVee. Now I don't want to imply these people don't add any value to your twitter stream. They absolutely do and that is why they have the number of followers in the first place. But the direct engagement with these folks is often quite low. The reason so many follow them is because they are often the center of many twitter conversations and if you aren't following them, you will miss out on much of the context.

Side note, I have had the pleasure of speaking with 3 of the 4 individuals above either in person or via twitter so I don't want to imply they are completely disconnected with the masses. It's simply a matter of numbers.  A person with 20,000+ followers is going to see a lot of communication and responding to all of them is virtually impossible.

6. Robots, Feeds, etc. Little-to-no Human presence.

There are many twitter profiles that aren't actively manned by a person or team, but rather are just feeds from another source. The most common tool used for this is Twitterfeed which essentially posts a tweet every time a blog or article is posted on a site.

Some of the larger media outlets do this such as @CNN, @HuffingtonPost and @Wired keep the profile automated. Others like @NPRNews, @SunTimes and @The_Onion mix in automated tweets with a few personal interactions as well.

What about brands?

The one segment of twitter profiles I didn't cover in the 6 Twigrees is Brands. They are certainly becoming a more noticeable part of this social network (as you can in the growing Twitter Hard Hat Certified List) however I haven't quite fit them into any category. I supposed if there was a 6.5, they would go there. Brands on twitter are generally not automated, but from the perspective of how far they are removed from an individuals interest or personal connection, unless a person is in love with a brand, the connection is weak. How can this reality be changed? What can brands learn to make themselves more approachable?