Posts from September 2009
Let the voting begin.
By Elena Moffet | Sep 30, 2009 5:29:14 PM
Below are the submissions for our next social media event. We're taking votes over on our Facebook page. The eight with the most votes will be our presenters for 21 Slides!
1. Lessons Learned from LOLcats.
There's a lot to be learned from the popular LOLcat meme. Why is www.icanhascheezburger.com so successful? What attracts users and keeps them coming back? Are there lessons to be learned from this phenomenon? (yes!) My presentation will include a brief history of the LOL meme, explore the magic ingredients of this social media success story, and present a few key takeaways that can be applied to social media and digital marketing in general.
2. Pulling the Pages out of Facebook: Social Web Optimization
Recent moves towards the vision of the Semantic Web by Google and Yahoo! are accelerating adoption of geeky sounding things like XFN, Microformats, and RDFa. These standards have the potential to move social networking out of walled gardens and into the open Internet itself. I'll look at how semantic markup adds social value to Web sites now, and speculate on what the social future of the Semantic Web might look like.
3.The Social Media Mindset: An InfoCamp case study
The 15th of October is 4 days after the 3rd annual InfoCamp (which I can already tell you is going to kick ass). This year, attendance grew sharply, and interest in InfoCamp hit a critical mass of sorts. InfoCamp is a crowdsourced conference. It is real-time, in-person social media inside a conference format. It is the wikipedia to more traditional conferences’ Encyclopedia Britannica. This gravitation towards InfoCamp is part of a larger expectation that drives social media – that users can and should generate their own content in a variety of formats, not just digital ones. I’ll show how we used social media to promote InfoCamp. I’ll show examples of how people used our Wiki, twitter, and facebook presence before the event. I’ll show examples of how social media was used during and after the event.
4. Social Media: All that Glitters is not Gold
A covert mission of exposing a very traditional retail company to social media. One woman. No budget. Few tools. And now with internet restrictions!
5. OMG my (online) life is over. Mom's on Facebook.
How to gracefully deal with the generation gap as your parents, aunts, uncles, and even grandparents join in this "social media" thing. Mom keeps spamming your Facebook posts with mom-comments, Dad got lost in quizzes, but at least neither of them Twitter (whew).
6. The Desperate Housewives of Facebook: Why are they so goddamn bored?!
Facebook recently published an audience statistic that stated the most prolific segment on their site was maried women between the ages of 35-40. Basically, housefraus. And honestly, we know it's true. From their seemingly exhausting ability to post up-to-the-minute updates on their over-achieving children, their opinions of Oprah's afternoon guest, how precious someone's twins are, and what god awful family vacation they're planning. Why do they torture us so? And, more importantly, why are they addicted to FaceCrack? This presentation works off this crazy data point to get to the bottom of the Facebook Housewife craze -- and exposes the horror below.
7. Cinching All My Love to You: A Social Media Romance
Here’s a little story about Jack and Diane two American kids growing up in the heartland. No wait, that’s been done before. This presentation is the story of Jo and Nancy, a relationship that starts, develops, and ultimately meets its end on CinchCast.com. Through the words, voice, images and text of our two love birds, attendees will experience the excitement new love can bring...and the drama when things don’t work out as planned. This presentation will be better than any Knot’s Landing or Melrose Place re-run. It is love social media style.
8. Humanizing Social Media: A Few Stories.
Social media is the place where stories are shared and experiences are formed. Only when brands provide return on emotion to their customers, can they fully benefit from social media. People want to know that they’re being heard. By acknowledging their contributions, and teaming up with their most loyal customers, brands can begin to build stronger relationships with their fans. I’d like to share some collected examples of how companies are using social media to build deep and long lasting relationships with their enthusiasts. Some you’ve heard of, others will surely be new.
9. Are you ready for a mobile makeover?
I spearheaded a campaign in which I was able to get the attention of the powers that be over at Waggener Edstrom. A very special twitter page, a facebook fanpage and some fabulous videos on youtube, helped me break the mold.
10. Government is no longer the bureaucratic monolith you thought it was
At the Washington State Department of Transportation we are using Twitter, YouTube, Blogger, and Flickr and other social media tools to reach audiences. While I don't want to focus on any one element or tool I plan to share amazing stories of how we used them during "snowpocalypse" to help people get home, and won several national awards for it. Also we have incredible direct messaging features that folks in seattle should be aware of. Did you know you can get seattle area travel times, mountain pass reports and border wait times via Twitter direct message?
11. Social Telephone Game :: It’s never what they say, it’s what they mean
Do you flinch every time you see your brand muddied up on the social web? Are your inboxes across various social media channels filling up with hate mail? Here's some encouraging news for you: your unhappiest customer is not likely what they appear to be. Learn how to read between the lines of your social community and harness them for the brand advocates they are.
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12. Defamation and Social Media – A Practical Guide to Covering Your Ass
Should you really send that tweet calling your competitor a “douchebag”? What about that status update letting the world know how your mechanic is a “lying, cheating scumbag who would steal medicine from a pediatric ward?” How liable are you for giving all the baddies out there a well-deserved, spleen-filled bitch-slap? In this session, I will walk through a very quick explanation of defamation law and explain how it might apply to the social media landscape. I will also provide a few practical ways that might protect your right as an American to roast the bejeezus out of the asshats of the world, without getting sued into oblivion.
13. An Ecosystem Approach to Social Media: Turning Crap Into Fertilizer
The landscape of social media is a complex system. So are ecosystems: gardens, wetlands, and forests are full of complex webs of dependencies (nutrients, shelter, food) and controls (checks & balances). There are well-established methods for describing and designing ecosystems to produce desired results - and revenue. So the question is: how do we design social media to satisfied customers and cold, hard cash? The answer: Crap. In nature, it's the "nightsoil" that keeps the system going. One creature's crap is another's food. We can identify the byproducts of social media - the waste, the shite, the cruft, the fluff - and find ways to make it feed the system, we've created a self-sustaining Poop Loop. In fact, if we DON'T have a strategy to process the crap, it'll poison the system. So we need to find ways to turn social media manure into fertilizer. How is it done? First identify role types. Then map their inputs and outputs. Finally, design mechanisms to connect one entity's outputs to another's inputs. Congratulations, you've just turned crap into fertilizer. Just one of the many lessons we can learn from ecosystem science.
Cast your vote on our Facebook page!
Social Media & SEO: You've got it whether you want it or not
By Rich Devine | Sep 21, 2009 1:16:59 PM
The first media types, Bought and Owned are generally controllable – Earned Media, while manageable, is NOT controllable. Whether your business has a deliberate strategy for Earned Media or not – your business may still have a presence.
Perfect Example: Dominos Pizza.
Remember last April when an unfortunate viral video was distributed through YouTube and elsewhere that exposed some subpar food preparation practices? Dominos employees Kristy and Michael filmed themselves doing some rather non-appetizing things to the food prior to serving it to customers. The Consumerist has a nice write up of the incident.
It’s an excellent example of the viral impact of social media, whether intended or not, and how social media relates to SEO. Shortly after Kristy and Michael uploaded their video to YouTube, it was being spread around the web at one of the faster rates recorded for viral content. On its first day, over 1 million people viewed the video – even before news stations started running the story.
Prior to the incident, Dominos did not have a concerted earned media strategy. This was evidenced by their lack of saturation in search engine results pages (SERPS). Having a high SERP saturation not only allows corporations to control the messaging for their brand, but it also helps engage your brand with customers who have expressed some degree of intent or interest. To their credit, Dominos’ reactive handling of the event was well-executed. They started out by posting a reply to the original video right on YouTube. Instead of burying their response in a press release that hardly anybody would see, or buying a full page ad in the New York Times, Dominos took their response to where the discussion started and was still taking place. They also created a Twitter account and hired someone to monitor Twitter and answer questions from anybody who would ask.
These were all the right things to do, but the fallout could have been managed with less negative exposure had Dominos established an earned media presence prior to the video incident. If they had an already established presence, a search for “Dominos” would have shown fewer negative news pages and more of their Twitter account, Facebook page, YouTube videos, and other pages. They could have achieved a much quicker response addressing the issue using SEO results as well. Conclusion: Understand that social media has converged benefit as an important SEO driver as well. A good social media offering can benefit your SEO position by increasing exposure in search results, building relevant inbound links (Dominos has 16,300 links to the rebuttal video for the allegations), helping control brand perception, and increasing universal search presence. Earned media isn’t necessarily the most appropriate channel for broadcasting or advertising – but it does provide a highly effective and efficient way to listen and engage with customers and audiences. Social and SEO should be an essential, ongoing part of an Earned Media campaign -- rather than an afterthought or a reaction to a crisis. Authors: Rich Devine (richd@zaaz.com) Ryan Jones (ryanj@zaaz.com)
The example above illustrates the importance of using earned media for reputation management. And while PR crises may be rare -- earned media channels like SEO and Social Media are still critical for establishing your brand, engaging with customers, and driving business performance.
Justin Schoen (justins@zaaz.com)
A Tour of ZAAZ
By Ryan Turner | Sep 18, 2009 9:44:07 AM
This is kind of fun. The folks over at Drifting Creatives posted a video of our Seattle headquarters, with my colleague Rachel as tour guide. I like how they captured our vibe, especially with the tunes that take me to my happy place:
Rachel walks you through our usability lab, talks a bit about web optimization, and even takes you behind the infamous Z-Bar.
You should come visit us too! See my previous post about our upcoming social media event.
October 15th is the Next ZAAZ Social Media Event: 21 Slides
By Ryan Turner | Sep 14, 2009 9:55:38 AM
Mark your calendar: Our ongoing series resumes October 15th. And this time, you can participate. Here is the announcement:
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What is 21 Slides?
90 minutes. 8 social media presenters. Five minutes each. No more than 21 slides. Add beer.
ZAAZ is inviting local social media digerati, strategists, and media dabblers of all backgrounds to submit presentation ideas to compete for the eight available 5-minute presentations slots. The submissions are reviewed by the event directors to assess quality and social media relevance (no vacation slide shows, please) – then the approved submissions are posted with a brief description on this Facebook event site and presented to the community at large for a vote. The 8 most popular topics as voted by the community will be chosen to present at 21 Slides – with a clear winner being adorned with a social media tiara and sash.
Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=258514510526&ref=mf
Participants in the presentations are encouraged to take creative risks, in terms of content and presentation, and to not just show-off their social media project portfolios. That would be lame.
We’re looking for submissions that present an engaging narrative that tells a powerful story (whether through humor, empathy, concern, enlightenment) about the role or influence that social media can have in our lives today.
Anyone and everyone is encouraged to submit a topic, subject to a few rules of course:
1. All presentations are 5 minutes max (and we do mean five minutes)
2. Social Media reference must be in the title of the presentation (and the primary focus)
3. No one may have more than 21 slides (get it?)
4. Commercials suck (don’t sell anything)
5. Event directors reserve the right to reject submissions based on content appropriateness.
Some possible presentations you might see at our 21 Slides event:
• An interactive PowerPoint that shows how you saved the breakfast sandwich purely on retweets.
• An uncensored look at some of the most powerful video imagery coming out of Iran on YouTube.com
• How to track Hurricane Bill using only your iPhone
• Junk you can do on Twitter besides lame ass status updates S
• 10 ways to spice up your love life digitally
SUBMISSION TIMELINE:
September 10 – 22 :: Submissions accepted (PLEASE SEE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES BELOW)
September 22 :: Submission period closed and top concepts are reviewed for relevancy
September 24 – 31 :: Voting opens for top submissions
October 1 :: Final presentations announced
October 5 :: Presentations due from winning presenters (this means your full five minute presentation)
October 15 :: Happy Hour starts @ 6:00 PM, lights dim at 7PM and the show begins.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Send an email to 21slides@zaaz.com by September 22 with the following information included in the body of your email. You will receive email confirmation that your submission was received.
• Your full name
• Your email address
• Title of you presentation
• Describe presentation with as much detail as possible so we get the gist
• Twitter name
• What do you want the audience to walk away with from your presentation?
• How will you deliver your presentation? (PPT, slideware, tweets, interactive, etc.)
• What element of social media will you speak to?
• How do you plan to spice up your presentation? (lighting yourself on fire is grounds for immediate rejection – and so last century)
At the 21 Slides event, the presentations are preceded by a Z-bar sponsored happy hour after which the lights are dimmed, the crowd is hushed, and the social media enlightenment begins. In the spirit of community participation, we will have a split screen showing a live feed of twitter comments on the presentations as they unfold on stage.
See you there!
The Compete Picture
By Shane Atchison | Sep 11, 2009 9:42:54 AM
Let's say you're a mobile device company about to launch a big new product...at about the same time that your more visible competitor is doing the same thing. Knowing that said competitor is pulling out all the stops to market its product and that consumer interest is near an all-time high, wouldn't you want to piggyback on that momentum? To ride that larger marketing wave?
Wouldn't it be great if you could know ahead of time, with clarity, where that wave will break? And which part of the wave is best for surfing so you can perform alongside all the other riders and maybe even get the ride of the day?
These days it's becoming easier for companies to do just that -- in informed ways that weren't possible even a few years ago. Large-scale competitive benchmark tools routinely serve up consumer intelligence data to the world's top brands, helping them sharpen marketing efforts based on historical metrics and the online behavior of millions of Internet users.
When you have one of the world's largest consumer-behavior databases in the world, you know a thing or two about how people travel down the purchasing funnel. Jeremy Crane, managing director of online media and search for Boston-based Compete, puts it this way: "We do the research so companies can put it into practice." Compete typically analyzes data over a six-month period, starting with a major marketing or sales event and working backwards. It sorts through its massive behavioral data to see how consumers narrowed their focus over that period from nonbranded search ("cars," "trucks") to branded search ("Audi TT," "Ford F-150") just prior to purchase.
Compete's data translates into targeted, strategic marketing and branding campaigns for companies that need to know how to speak to consumers at different points in the funnel. "You have to know the mind set of consumers and where they are," says Crane. "From a marketing perspective, it's about using your resources wisely. Being in the right place and saying the right things at the right time." The messaging extends to everything from search analytics to major branding to specific copy. With research backing it all up, there's no guessing involved.
Getting back to our mobile scenario, if the smaller company is privy to relevant data that shows how consumers behave leading up to major product launches, it can plan accordingly to capture and ride some of that market lift. In a way it's like drafting in the Tour de France. One reason Lance Armstrong won the tour seven times was because he drafted, riding in the middle of the peloton until the time was right, tapping its momentum and conserving his own energy, waiting for the right moment and situation to use his spend.
Drafting in the marketing sense means staying current and close to the pack, knowing the impact of trends and technology and what your peers are up to, so that when consumers go searching for that big campaign, you'll be there too to get your share of consumer attention. And if you plan it right, you may ride your best wave or race to the finish, with the help of a few million Internet users.
