VMR Digital Advertising Blog

Catholic Advertising Principles: The Cultural Benefits of Advertising

Sun, 29 Dec 2019 03:50:21 GMT

A series exploring Catholic principles for advertising

The Pontifical Council for Social Communications' document, Ethics in Advertising , provides a useful ethical frame of reference for individuals and organizations, regardless of their religious affiliation. The report looks at the profound impact of advertising - harms and benefits - and highlights moral principles and norms that can help to ensure its impact is positive rather than negative.

As for the benefits of advertising, the document discusses economic benefits, cultural benefits, benefits of political advertising and moral and religious benefits.

I'd like to take a closer look at the cultural benefits of advertising by quoting from that section of the document:
" Because of the impact advertising has on media that depend on it for revenue, advertisers have an opportunity to exert a positive influence on decisions about media content. This they do by supporting material of excellent intellectual, aesthetic and moral quality presented with the public interest in view, and particularly by encouraging and making possible media presentations which are oriented to minorities whose needs might otherwise go unserved."

"Moreover, advertising can itself contribute to the betterment of society by uplifting and inspiring people and motivating them to act in ways that benefit themselves and others. Advertising can brighten lives simply by being witty, tasteful and entertaining. Some advertisements are instances of popular art, with a vivacity and elan all their own."

There are, therefore, two primary cultural benefits according to Ethics in Advertising, the first of which is the impact advertising has on supporting quality media content with the public interest in view.

This is a point worth considering for organizations who are only thinking of advertising as a means of self- or brand-promotion. The best advertising, if aligned with Catholic principles, is always done with the public interest, hopefully served by the media where the ads appear, in mind.

As an advertiser, you have the opportunity to be a patron of the common good - through the media outlets your ad dollars support.

Digital Advertising Impression Viewability Explained

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 23:30:06 GMT

A brief introduction to digital advertising impression viewability and how it works

This video explains how viewability works.

Introduction to StoryBrand

Thu, 03 Oct 2019 16:02:58 GMT

The StoryBrand framework can transform your marketing

Everyone loves a good story. What if you could make use of the power of storytelling in your digital marketing and advertising, to communicate more clearly and effectively? What if doing so could help you get better results? The video below provides a great introduction to the power of the StoryBrand framework to help you do exactly that.

Top 5 Digital Advertising Mistakes & Lessons Learned

Mon, 23 Sep 2019 22:26:57 GMT

Unrealistic expections and poor planning top the list

Over the last ten years, I've had the opportunity to work on digital ad campaigns for universities, book publishers, films, charities, and local businesses. In that time, I’ve made my share of mistakes and learned lessons from those mistakes along the way. Here are five of the many mistakes I made and the lessons you can learn from them.

Unrealistic Expectations

This is number one for a reason. When I first started planning and executing digital ad campaigns, I expected that the ads would result in immediate sales. I thought the process went something like this: 1. See an ad. 2. Click on the ad. 3. Buy the product promoted in the ad. That's direct response advertising, right? I learned the hard way that it doesn't quite work like that. Not by a long shot. Getting results from advertising takes extensive planning, effective creative and repeat exposure. Although the tactics of digital advertising are vastly different from offline advertising, the fundamentals - despite what others may say - remain the same.
Poor Planning

Speaking of planning, with most of my campaigns, I only had a Plan A and typically that was to sell something like a book or a ticket to an event or a donation opportunity. The reality is that most people don’t click...

Read this post in its entirety at https://www.catholicmarketing.com/content/873884/1/top-5-digital-advertising-mistakes-and-lessons-learned

How to Improve Banner Ad Click Thru Rates

Sat, 01 Dec 2018 20:32:00 GMT

Three tips to Boost Banner Ad Performance

So you've been running a display ad campaign and you're click thru rate is lower than you'd like it to be. What to do? Here are three tips for boosting click thru rates on display ad banners:

Add animation
Add a clear call to action button
Split test different creative variations

Regarding 1 and 2, if you have a designer on staff, I highly recommend using either bannersnack.com or canva.com. Both are super easy to use. Bannersnack will allow you to create fully animated html5 banners with solid call to action buttons that are (this is very important) fully compliant with ad serving platforms like the one we use to allow proper click tracking.

Bannersnack recently introduced a super nifty "Magic Animator" that makes the process of animating your banners incredibly easy.

As for Tip #3, it's always a good idea to create slightly different variations of your ad concept because ads servers where your display ads run typically have the ability to automatically allocate more impressions to the ad version that is getting the best click thru rate. (Be sure to ask the ad sales rep of the publisher if they can enable CTR performance optimization).

So, for example, you might split test

a call to action button where the wording is "Learn More" vs. "Click here"
a photo where the people are looking at each other vs. a photo where the people are looking at the person viewing the ad
video in the ad, instead of a photo (this is referred to as an in banner video ad)

Canva is somewhat similar to bannersnack but does not allow you to create fully animated html5 banner ads. Instead, canva allows you to create more simple gif animations. The main issue you will run into when using Canva is that the file size of the gif animations you create will be larger than the recommended 100 - 150 KB file weight for display ads. This file weight issue is the main reason, advertisers have moved toward html5 animations which are able to pack Flash-like animation into very small file sizes. As for Flash, it is no longer an option for display ads since modern browsers no longer support the display of flash ads.

If you need help with design and development, VMR can definitely do it very quickly and effectively. Or we can provide banner design consulting to give you feedback and suggestions to improve your designs in accordance with your brand guidelines.

Focus on Traffic Optimization, Not Sales CRO

Tue, 30 Jan 2018 17:07:43 GMT

Avoid the rabbit hole of Sales CRO

It sounds simple enough but it's easier said than done: If you want to drive optimal conversion results for a digital ad campaign, focus on the factors that will help you deliver those conversion results. In digital advertising, like it or not, the most important factor affecting results couldn't be simpler. It's traffic and non-sales conversion events, not sales conversions.

Read the rest on Medium here .

Facebook’s New Lead Generation Ad Format

Tue, 27 Oct 2015 16:41:00 GMT

Facebook just launched a new ad type called Lead Generation ads. I really like this because it makes the process of filling out forms much easier for mobile users in particular and Facebook has done a nice job of addressing the privacy concerns of people who see these ads. Regarding ease of use, if you […] The post Facebook’s New Lead Generation Ad Format appeared first on VMR. Facebook’s New Lead Generation Ad Format was first posted on October 27, 2015 at 4:41 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Facebook just launched a new ad type called Lead Generation ads. I really like this because it makes the process of filling out forms much easier for mobile users in particular and Facebook has done a nice job of addressing the privacy concerns of people who see these ads. Regarding ease of use, if you need to collect an email address in the form, it is auto-populated from the Facebook users profile so they do not need to complete that part of the form. As for privacy, according to a recent post by Facebook ,

You’re probably wondering what types of questions you can ask in your lead form. And the answer is that the sky is the limit…You can use the pre-built question fields or create your own custom questions.

Here’s an example ad:

Check out this post from Digital Marketer which has more information about this new ad type and the opportunity it presents for Catholic marketers with direct response advertising objectives.

Specs can be found here:

http://www.catholicaudiencenetwork.com/facebook-lead-generation-ad-creative-specs.html

There’s also a nice introductory video and video screenshare of exactly what the user experience looks like that you can view on Facebook’s site here as well.

January 2016 UPDATE:

We’re now able to set up an integration between various email providers such as Mailchimp (as well as CRM providers such as Salesforce) and Facebook Lead Ads so that leads that Facebook collects for you through the Lead Gen campaign are automatically synchronized (via the Facebook advertising API) each day between Facebook’s servers and your Mailchimp, Salesforce.com or other account.

In case you’re wondering, here are the Lead Ads terms of service as of September 14, 2015

Lead Ad Terms
Facebook provides a feature that enables you to run an advertising unit which allows a Facebook user to provide their email address or other user information to you (“Lead Ads”). By clicking “Accept” and using this feature, you agree to the following:
A. You are solely responsible for ensuring that each Lead Ad submitted by you complies with the SRR (as defined below, including the Facebook Advertising Policies located at https://www.facebook.com/policies/ads, which includes the Lead Ads Policy, and the Facebook Platform Policy located at https://developers.facebook.com/policy/) and all applicable laws, rules and regulations (including providing all necessary disclosures to Facebook Users). If you are accepting these terms on behalf of a third party, you represent and warrant that you have the authority as agent to such party to use such feature on their behalf and bind such party to these terms.
B. You will ensure that each Lead Ad includes the following disclosures to Facebook users: (i) all disclosures necessary and sufficient to comply with applicable laws, rules and regulations, including any necessary offer terms promoted in the Lead Ad (e.g., criteria to qualify, expiration date, or limitations on redemption) (“Offer Terms”); (ii) a clear and prominent disclosure that if a user submits data to you through a Lead Ad, such data will be governed by your privacy policy; and (iii) a link to your privacy policy. You will further ensure that no Lead Ads will be targeted to any minors.
C. “Lead Ad Data” means the information that a Facebook user elects to send to you through a Lead Ad, which may consist of such Facebook user’s email address and any additional user information.
D. You may only use the Lead Ad Data in accordance with your privacy policy and any Offer Terms, consents, or additional terms and conditions agreed to by the Facebook user when agreeing to provide Lead Ad Data to you through the Lead Ads. If you are receiving Lead Ad Data on behalf of an advertiser, you may only use or share such Lead Ad Data on such advertiser’s behalf and you may not augment, commingle, or supplement such Lead Ad Data with any other data from any other advertiser. You may only use the Lead Ad Data in accordance with these terms, the Facebook Advertising Policies, and all applicable laws, rules and regulations (including all applicable data privacy, advertising, telemarketing or other laws, including without limitation, as applicable, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 and its implementing regulations, 47 U.S.C. § 227 and 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200 and the Telemarketing Sales Rule, 16 C.F.R. Part 310, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 and its implementing regulations, 15 U.S.C. § 103 and 16 C.F.R. Part 316)).
E. You may not sell Lead Ad Data under any circumstances, and you may not transfer Lead Ad Data except as explicitly provided in the next sentence. Subject to your privacy policy, these terms, any Offer Terms, and your compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations, Facebook is not restricting you from transferring Lead Ad Data with an Affiliate, franchisee or third party acting solely on your behalf to fulfill the purpose for which the Lead Ad Data was collected (as described to the user at the point of collection). In the event you share Lead Ad Data with an Affiliate, franchisee or third party acting on your behalf, you do so solely at your own risk and you will ensure that any such Affiliate, franchisee or third party complies with these terms and all applicable laws, rules and regulations. “Affiliate” means an entity which, directly or indirectly, owns or controls, is owned or is controlled by or is under common ownership or control with you.
F. You will have in place appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect Lead Ad Data against accidental or unlawful destruction or accidental loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access, and which provide a level of security appropriate to the risk represented by the processing and the nature of the data to be protected. Lead Ad Data may be made available to you through protocols specified by Facebook (including Facebook APIs), and your use of such protocols must comply with Facebook’s Platform Policy.
G. You will not use Lead Ad Data in connection with any SMS, MMS, or other short code programs.
H. Facebook may modify, suspend or terminate access to, or discontinue the availability of, the Lead Ads feature at any time. You may discontinue your use of the Lead Ads feature at any time.
These terms govern your use of the Lead Ads feature. They do not replace any terms applicable to your purchase of advertising inventory from Facebook (including but not limited to the Facebook Advertising Policies), and such terms will continue to apply. This Lead Ads feature is part of “Facebook” under Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms, the “SRR”), and your use of the Lead Ads feature is deemed part of your use of, and actions on, “Facebook.” In the event of any express conflict between these terms and the SRR, these terms will govern solely with respect to your use of the Lead Ads feature and solely to the extent of the conflict. Facebook reserves the right to monitor or audit your compliance with these terms and to update these terms from time to time, and your continued use of this feature constitutes acceptance of those changes.
Last Modified September 14, 2015

The post Facebook’s New Lead Generation Ad Format appeared first on VMR .

Facebook’s New Lead Generation Ad Format

VMR

Display Advertising: Is 0.1% a Good Click Thru Rate?

Thu, 15 Oct 2015 01:46:00 GMT

For a display advertising campaign, 0.1% is a respectable click thru rate. That works out to 1 click per 1000 ad displays. Facebook ads often generate click thru rates that are much higher than that but keep in mind that you need to take Facebook’s click thru stats with a grain of salt as they count a lot of events as clicks that one would not typically consider to be a click which artificially inflates Facebook click thru rate numbers.

Google happens to have a terrific resource for evaluating how well your ad campaign is doing in relation to campaigns from other organizations in the same industry. You can view display benchmarks according to Google here .

Display Advertising: Is 0.1% a Good Click Thru Rate?

VMR

Social Ads More Effective Than Search Ads For Product Discovery

Fri, 27 Sep 2013 01:46:00 GMT

A May 2013 research study conducted by Forrester Research and commissioned by Google Wildfire indicates that social ads are potentially more effective for brands looking to reach new customers. You can request a copy of the study by clicking here. Survey respondents were asked “Which of the following ways do you typically discover or find […] The post Social Ads More Effective Than Search Ads For Product Discovery appeared first on VMR. Social Ads More Effective Than Search Ads For Product Discovery was first posted on September 27, 2013 at 1:46 am.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Survey respondents were asked “Which of the following ways do you typically discover or find out about new products, brands, or services?”

Thirty-four percent said “Internet searches via search engines”, while a whopping 41% (a higher rate than all other responses) said “Seeing ads on social networks.”

This study suggests that social ads can in some cases be more effective than search ads for brands looking to increase market share by attracting new customers.

The study also suggests an ad campaign on social networks, like Facebook, can be a more effective tactic for improving product awareness than other popular tactics such as wall posts, email ads, and display ads.

Have you read this study? What do you find to be interesting about the research? Does it surprise you that social ads seem to outperform search ads (SEM).

The post Social Ads More Effective Than Search Ads For Product Discovery appeared first on VMR .

Social Ads More Effective Than Search Ads For Product Discovery

VMR

A Discovery-Based Approach to Maximizing Social Media ROI

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 21:35:00 GMT

Companies large and small are often criticized for acting like inexperienced children or sophomoric students in their approach to social media. But I’d argue that in some cases, the former, child-like approach, may not actually be as foolish – or childish – as it sounds. In fact I’d argue it can be a pure stroke […] The post A Discovery-Based Approach to Maximizing Social Media ROI appeared first on VMR. A Discovery-Based Approach to Maximizing Social Media ROI was first posted on August 10, 2012 at 9:35 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Allow me to explain.

As a child, pretty much the entire world is uncharted territory. And I’m sure I was not alone in being constantly reminded by my parents – the authorities – to brush my teeth and to avoid eating too many sweets.

But being a child, I never really learned and understood this lesson until I did the opposite of what they told me to do. Then and only then did I evaluate, internalize and then take corrective action based on the results – a painful visit to the dentist’s office.

I think a similar discovery-based approach, painful as it can be, makes perfect sense when trying to assess the value of your company’s social media efforts. It’s a bit counter-intuitive, so again, please allow me to explain.

Let’s say you’re not sure whether your inbound marketing is paying off.

A discovery-based approach would enable you to stop doing it in order to better evaluate the value of doing it.

By analyzing the effects of not doing it, you can assess, for example, whether your business results were negatively impacted? And if so, which ones?

Or, take Facebook. Is your investment in Facebook advertising a waste of money or are you generating positive business results from those ads?

Perhaps the single most effective way to shed more light on that question is to stop advertising and see what happens.

This discovery – based planning approach is of course nothing new to the world of business. Harvard Business Review magazine featured an article about it in its July 1995 issue which I recommend you read if this topic is of interest to you.

All of this leads me to a conversation I initiated earlier today on Blog Talk Radio with Otto Pilot Media’s Alexandra Gibson on whether GM made a mistake in dropping all of its Facebook advertising earlier this year .

I asked Alexandra to comment on this because I had read her intelligently conceived and expressed opinion in an Op-Ed she posted to Otto Pilot Media’s blog. I recommend you read the full article here .

And you can listen to the Blog Talk Radio interview here or by clicking on the play button below (if you have Flash enabled):

internet radio

Hugh Macken Live

I agree with Alexandra’s contention that (quoting from her Op-Ed) “GM needed to develop a way to convert ad viewers to leads, to pull them in to the GM community through great and fun content, and to measure how many converted even in that first step.”

But I also can’t help but wonder:

Might GM have pulled the ads as part of a discovery-based strategy that would incorporate intelligence gained by not doing what the “authorities” at Facebook told them to do?

Might GM be evaluating the ROI of not advertising on Facebook right now?

No pain…no gain?

The post A Discovery-Based Approach to Maximizing Social Media ROI appeared first on VMR .

A Discovery-Based Approach to Maximizing Social Media ROI

VMR

A Critical Email Marketing Share Link You May Be Missing

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:06:00 GMT

I received an email this morning from Persuasive Concepts and noticed something I don’t typically see in email marketing newsletters. As you can see in the image below, Persuasive Concepts added a “Subscribe Here” button to the bottom of the email. At first glance, you might wonder why you’d have a “Subscribe Here” button on an […] The post A Critical Email Marketing Share Link You May Be Missing appeared first on VMR. A Critical Email Marketing Share Link You May Be Missing was first posted on June 20, 2012 at 6:06 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

I received an email this morning from Persuasive Concepts and noticed something I don’t typically see in email marketing newsletters. As you can see in the image below, Persuasive Concepts added a “Subscribe Here” button to the bottom of the email. At first glance, you might wonder why you’d have a “Subscribe Here” button on an email that has been sent to someone who is already subscribed to your e-newsletter. But if you think about it, it does make sense because it is entirely possible that the person who originally received this email forwards it to a friend either using the “Forward this email to a friend” link or simply by clicking “Forward” using their email client app. So for example, if I forwarded this email to my friend James, he would not be added to my email marketing list. Nor should he be if you want your business to be CAN-SPAM compliant. But what if James sees the email you sent him and wants to subscribe as well? Is there a link like the one highlighted in red below that he can click on if he chooses to subscribe?

Personally, I think a “Subcribe” link is something that should be on every email marketing template. What surprises me is how few email marketing platforms offer this link by default.

What do you think? Are there potential downsides to adding such a link or do you agree with me that it really is a no brainer if you want one more effective, CAN-SPAM compliant way to grow your email marketing database? I’d love to hear from email marketing platforms as to whether they think adding this link makes good sense and whether their platform allows for this functionality to be easily added to their templates.

Does CampaignMonitor offer this functionality by default? ConstantContact ? MailChimp ? Vertical Response ? Infusionsoft ? Icontact ? Others? Should they? What sort of results have email marketers gotten from using this approach to grow their list? Do these providers provide a way to track how many of my new subscribers are coming from the “Was this email forwarded to you by a friend…Subscribe Here” link? Can I track which of my initial subscribers generated the new subscribers through this link? Perhaps even see the connection between the two subscribers in my email analytics?

The post A Critical Email Marketing Share Link You May Be Missing appeared first on VMR .

A Critical Email Marketing Share Link You May Be Missing

VMR

GM Brands To Drop Facebook Ads by Mid-2012, says GM spokesman

Wed, 16 May 2012 20:16:00 GMT

General Motors Manager of Cross Brand Communications and Media Relations Tom Henderson, confirmed in a phone interview with VMR Communications earlier today that by mid-year GM and all brands including Chevy, Cadillac and others will cease advertising on Facebook. Mr Henderson hastened to add that GM and the brands are as committed as ever to their […] The post GM Brands To Drop Facebook Ads by Mid-2012, says GM spokesman appeared first on VMR. GM Brands To Drop Facebook Ads by Mid-2012, says GM spokesman was first posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:16 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

When asked if Facebook’s IPO had anything to do with the timing of the ad pull-back announcement, Henderson replied, “Absolutely not. We are constantly evaluating and our marketing mix.”

Henderson explained that recent marketing mix evaluations have resulted in GM’s plans to discontinue advertising on Facebook as of mid-2012. He noted that GM’s ad spend on digital platforms has increased steadily in recent years, now accounting for 25 to 30 percent of the company’s total ad budget.

The post GM Brands To Drop Facebook Ads by Mid-2012, says GM spokesman appeared first on VMR .

GM Brands To Drop Facebook Ads by Mid-2012, says GM spokesman

VMR

Facebook Advertising: Better Interest Targeting Needed

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:18:00 GMT

4/26/2012 Update: A Facebook representative has informed V M R that the Facebook Ad change proposed below is “in the works.” The source could not confirm a specific timeline for when the refinement feature described below would be added. Facebook needs to add one more option to its interest targeting capabilities to improve low click […] The post Facebook Advertising: Better Interest Targeting Needed appeared first on VMR. Facebook Advertising: Better Interest Targeting Needed was first posted on April 25, 2012 at 7:18 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Facebook needs to add one more option to its interest targeting capabilities to improve low click through rates versus google and other online advertising options. This one addition would, I believe, also result in enhanced Social Reach and better Ad overall ad conversion as well.

Currently advertisers can target ads for users with Interest x OR Interest y but not Interest x AND interest y. So for example, I can target Facebook users who are interested in with SEO or Social Media but I cannot target users interested in both SEO and Social Media. Or, if I am a book publisher selling a book about Pope Francis, I can target Facebook users who are interested in the Pope Francis or books, but not Pope Francis AND books.

The former, which I’ll refer to as disjunctive (OR) refinement, certainly can be useful for ad campaigns that want to target those interested in either interest category. But a conjunctive (AND) refinement option for agencies like mine that want to leverage the true power of Facebook’s social graph is necessary for refined interest targeting.

Why? Because better refinement can yield much better bottom line results for both Facebook and Facebook advertisers.

And that’s a conjunction worth its weight in Facebook Ad credits.

Do you agree? Disagree? What other options do you think would help to improve Facebook ads?

—

Related Links:

The post Facebook Advertising: Better Interest Targeting Needed appeared first on VMR . Facebook Advertising: Better Interest Targeting Needed was first posted on April 25, 2012 at 7:18 pm. ©2015 " VMR ". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Inbound and Outbound Marketing: Foes or Friends?

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:39:00 GMT

Inbound marketing alone can be a recipe for failure. That’s the view of Jon Miller, VP of Marketing at marketing automation IT provider Marketo who defines inbound marketing in a recently published Marketo inbound marketing whitepaper as “The process of helping potential customers find your company – often before they are even looking to make a […] The post Inbound and Outbound Marketing: Foes or Friends? appeared first on VMR. Inbound and Outbound Marketing: Foes or Friends? was first posted on April 16, 2012 at 6:39 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

I tend to agree with both Jon’s definition of inbound marketing and his contention that inbound marketing alone is not enough. But I think it’s important to note that if you asked inbound marketing evangelists like Hubspot CTO Dharmesh Shah, I think they’d agree as well that a mix of outbound and inbound approaches makes perfect sense. Indeed, Shah has explicitly stated as much on quora over the last few years. For example:

Hubspot’s CMO Mike Volpe also points out – on quora – that the cost per lead is 60% lower using an inbound-marketing focused approach.

Where Marketo and Hubspot may disagree, therefore, not so much on whether outbound marketing approaches are necessary but rather the degree to which businesses should focus their efforts on inbound approaches as opposed to outbound approaches.

And that is a perfectly legitimate debate worth having.

Equally important for marketers to discuss is how best to integrate the two approaches strategically rather than implementing them as stand-alone approaches that are executed as completely separate marketing initiatives.

With this discussion in mind, I’d like to propose a new term to describe marketing strategy that involves a synergistic combination of outbound and inbound approaches: Mixbound Marketing.

A good example of a social media- oriented mixbound strategy that combines both traditional outbound approaches and inbound approaches would be using Facebook Sponsored Stories (outbound with a social layer) to amplify the reach of a Facebook Page that focuses mainly on growing its fan base and engagement rate with an organic approach that is rooted in posting remarkable content to the Facebook Wall (inbound).

Another example would be Organic SEO combined with Paid SEO/SEM.

And lest I leave out perhaps the best example: I learned about Marketo’s inbound marketing whitepaper (inbound/content marketing) thanks to a Facebook Ad (outbound marketing).

Outbound and inbound marketing approaches should complement rather than compete with one another. And I don’t know if I’m the first to use the term but I refer to the synergistic, *strategic* merging of the two approaches as “mixbound marketing.”

Further information on inbound marketing and outbound marketing and the benefits of each:

The post Inbound and Outbound Marketing: Foes or Friends? appeared first on VMR .

Inbound and Outbound Marketing: Foes or Friends?

VMR

How Social Media Pros Can Optimize…Their Time

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:01:00 GMT

Advice abounds relating to how to optimize your website, your linkedin profile, your Facebook news feed and virtually every other aspect of your social media marketing. But what about your time? Overlooking this issue, can be costly in terms of lost productivity. With that in mind, I hope you’ll consider joining my live conversation with […] The post How Social Media Pros Can Optimize…Their Time appeared first on VMR. How Social Media Pros Can Optimize…Their Time was first posted on April 13, 2012 at 4:01 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Liz Pearce, COO of LiquidPlanner.com

Liz is the COO of LiquidPlanner, a priority-based, predictive project management solution for professionals working within enterprises and within agency project teams. The focus of our conversation will be how to use time tracking and analysis to boost your team’s performance in the age of disruptive social media . Liz won’t just be talking theory. She’ll be speaking from her experience as well, having managed over 100 projects at a time at Google. She’s also held product and project management positions at Sony and Amazon.

You can listen live online here .

On a related note , I’m delighted that this interview is sponsored by Ragan Communications , one of the world’s leading resources for communications and marketing professionals. Ragan will be presenting a conference at Cisco headquarters in San Jose, from May 8 – 9. The conference is entitled, “ Advanced Social Media Strategies for PR, Marketing and Corporate Communications .” Of course, one of the topics, among many that will be addressed at the conference, will be using social media to enhance the productivity of marketing, product development, PR and executive teams.

Indeed, the opening keynote will be presented by Carlos Dominguez (@carlosdominguez) who is the Senior Vice-President for the Office of the Chairman and CEO at Cisco. Dominguez will be discussing the skill sets required for today’s professionals to adapt to changing markets, one of which is their ability to manage their time effectively in the age of disruptive media. He’ll also be addressing:

Attendees of the conference look to be in for a real treat given the impressive roster of presentations from professionals working inside the executive trenches of leading enterprises like IBM, Cisco, SAP and Adobe. They will be sharing their insights based on experience. That experience – sharing will be complemented by analyst insights from renowned IT research firms Forrester Research and Altimeter Group .

Among the speakers:

The post How Social Media Pros Can Optimize…Their Time appeared first on VMR .

How Social Media Pros Can Optimize…Their Time

VMR

Internal Collaboration is the Way to Win with Social Media Says GM Executive

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 06:07:00 GMT

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know I’ve been critical of many companies for not quite “getting” social media, in some cases not even by a long shot. But I can tell you after engaging in private discussions earlier this week with General Motors Director of Social Media Mary Henige […] The post Internal Collaboration is the Way to Win with Social Media Says GM Executive appeared first on VMR. Internal Collaboration is the Way to Win with Social Media Says GM Executive was first posted on March 31, 2012 at 6:07 am.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Mary Henige, General Motors Director of Social Media & Digital Communications

Our thirty-minute, wide-ranging conversation yesterday on Blog Talk Radio was co-sponsored by LiquidPlanner.com and Ragan Communications . Henige, a 25 – year corporate communications veteran at GM and award-winning corporate communications professional, outlined the company’s approach to social media as it relates to both internal and external stakeholders. In doing so she stressed the importance of an empowering corporate culture that has provided the foundation for strong levels of internal communication. It’s that internal communication and collaboration that have been key to GM’s recent social media successes according to Henige.

“It’s not magic,” said Henige. “What we do in social media is a lot of hard work, it’s engagement, it’s building relationships and that’s something that people in corporate communications and media relations are particularly skilled at doing.”

What struck me as most interesting was the willingness and ability of Henige and her counterparts in marketing to take a collaborative approach to social media rather than one based on a turf-war mentality.

What’s even more interesting to me is the nature of that collaborative relationship. Indeed, one of the most important roles of the social media team led by Henige in relation to social media appears to be that of a trusted internal social media consulting center of excellence. According to Henige, “Because we serve as a resource to our internal…colleagues, our expertise is sought after all the time.”

Citing GM’s sponsorship of the South by Southest Conference as an example, Henige stressed that the collaboration between GM corporate communications and various departments within the divisional brands like Chevrolet have been key to GM’s success.

“Increased collaboration is the way that you win…[Responsibility for social media – related initiatives] should be shared. If you really want to do [social media-related initiatives] well, you need to leverage the expertise of each team…We’ve made great progress this last year.”

Interestingly the collaboration has extended beyond the marketing and PR silos to also include increased teamwork between corporate communication and customer assistance. And the results there have been equally impressive.

As an example, Henige pointed out that her team was “able to help customer service reduce their lead time from about 24 hours based on when they were online down to about 90 minutes just because we were able to filter out so much of what they were seeing.”

We asked Henige to outline some of GM’s goals for social media and she explained that while the brands that fall under the GM umbrella were primarily concerned with goals related to lead generation, customer loyalty and ultimately sales, GM corporate’s first priority for the use of social media was enhancing the corporate reputation and regaining customers’ trust in the aftermath of GM’s bankruptcy.

She stressed that listening was a key component in these efforts.

“Listening is very important…We’re there and we’re still listening. And that has [also] given us a great way to collaborate among GM employees globally.”

GM uses SocialCast as its internal enterprise collaboration application of choice and the user adoption rate has been solid with some 27,000 employees joining the internal community hosted by the web application in a single year, according to Henige. She says GM has also begun using the Town Hall feature set that Socialcast offers which has allowed managers within GM to hold Town Hall meetings online with GM employees to further enhance internal communication.

From a strategy perspective, the March 2010 appointment of Selim Bingol as GM’s new Vice President of Global Communications appears to have had a positive impact on the significant progress GM has made on the social front. According to Henige, Bingol, who recently started blogging at a new GM blog called BTW , stressed the importance of benchmarking GM’s social performance which prompted Henige’s team to undertake a gap analysis that helped to identify areas of strength as well as areas in need of improvement.

GM’s social media benchmark approach, its marketing and communications’ employees willingness to collaborate rather than compete internally, and its efforts to ensure that the GM story is communicated clearly, may together help to explain the company’s significantly improved reputation.

The recently released 2012 Harris Poll Reputation Quotient (RQ) study evaluates customer and other stakeholder perceptions of the 60 most visible companies in the country, across 20 attributes that are grouped into six dimensions of reputation:

General Motors saw the greatest increase this past year among all 60 companies whose reputations are measured in the report, showing gains in every one of the six aforementioned dimensions of reputation.

Some other points of interest regarding GM’s social media – related initiatives:

If you’d like to listen to the conversation in its entirety, you can do so by clicking on the “play” button below or by going to the episode showpage on Blog Talk Radio .

internet radio

Hugh Macken Live

What comments from GM’s Mary Henige did you find to be of particular interest? Are there are questions you would like us to address next time? Please feel free to comment below. I’ll be listening!

***

Recommended Resources related to this post:

Upcoming event related to this post:

The post Internal Collaboration is the Way to Win with Social Media Says GM Executive appeared first on VMR .

Internal Collaboration is the Way to Win with Social Media Says GM Executive

VMR

General Motors’ Mary Henige To Share GM’s Social Media Success Story

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:09:00 GMT

On Friday, March 30th at 1pm EDT, well-known social media strategist and author Deirdre Breakenridge will join me for an exclusive thirty-minute live conversation with Mary Henige who currently serves as Director of Social Media and Digital Communications at General Motors. Henige has been with GM for over 25 years and currently leads GM social media […] The post General Motors’ Mary Henige To Share GM’s Social Media Success Story appeared first on VMR. General Motors’ Mary Henige To Share GM’s Social Media Success Story was first posted on March 28, 2012 at 6:09 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Mary Henige, General Motors Director of Social Media & Digital Communications

Henige has been with GM for over 25 years and currently leads GM social media strategy; employee policy and training; Blogs; Community engagement on GM’s corporate brand channels; and crisis monitoring and response.

Her team works in cooperation with other areas to broaden the reach of GM’s “stories” including video development and media outreach.

GM has received both mainstream media and blogger attention at this year’s South by Southwest Conference. We’ll talk with Henige about that success and the resources and tools GM makes use of to develop and execute its social media strategies. And we’ll discuss how and why marketing and PR at GM have managed to work together so effectively – more effectively than many in the marketing/PR agency world might imagine.

The discussion, which will take place on Blog Talk Radio , is sponsored by LiquidPlanner , (affiliate link) a leading enterprise-class online project management application and Ragan , provider of world-renowned newsletters, conferences, research reports and guides for leading corporate communicators.

You can listen live on Friday at 1pm EDT / 10 AM PST on Blog Talk Radio.

The post General Motors’ Mary Henige To Share GM’s Social Media Success Story appeared first on VMR .

General Motors’ Mary Henige To Share GM’s Social Media Success Story

VMR

Inbound Marketing Pioneer, Hubspot Expert On Blog Talk Radio

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 01:51:00 GMT

Inbound marketing pioneer Paul Roetzer was kind enough to join me on Blog Talk Radio last week. Paul is the founder and CEO of PR 20/20 and the author of the recently published book The Marketing Agency Blueprint: The Handbook for Building Hybrid PR, SEO, Content, Advertising, and Web Firm (Wiley) (Affiliate Link). Paul also happens to be someone I genuinely admire […] The post Inbound Marketing Pioneer, Hubspot Expert On Blog Talk Radio appeared first on VMR. Inbound Marketing Pioneer, Hubspot Expert On Blog Talk Radio was first posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:51 am.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Inbound marketing pioneer Paul Roetzer was kind enough to join me on Blog Talk Radio last week. Paul is the founder and CEO of PR 20/20 and the author of the recently published book The Marketing Agency Blueprint: The Handbook for Building Hybrid PR, SEO, Content, Advertising, and Web Firm (Wiley) (Affiliate Link). Paul also happens to be someone I genuinely admire for his hybrid marketing and PR acumen, his business savvy and his generosity to his profession. He is most defintely worth watching. And listening to. With regard to the latter, if you have a minute or two, listen in to my conversation with Paul from last Friday for the sort of brilliant, practical insights on inbound marketing you will only find from someone who has walked the walk as Paul Roetzer and his firm PR 20/20 most definitely have. Feel free to share your thoughts regarding the interview as well. You know I will be listening…to you!

internet radio

Hugh Macken Live

The post Inbound Marketing Pioneer, Hubspot Expert On Blog Talk Radio appeared first on VMR .

Inbound Marketing Pioneer, Hubspot Expert On Blog Talk Radio

VMR

Google Analytics New Social Media ROI Reports Fall Short

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:53:00 GMT

I love what I’ve seen thus far from reports online about the new social media ROI reports within google analytics. Users will start seeing them today. Some will see the changes in the coming weeks. But I’d still love to see an analytics tool that would show me the Google Page Rank or SEOMoz rank […] The post Google Analytics New Social Media ROI Reports Fall Short appeared first on VMR. Google Analytics New Social Media ROI Reports Fall Short was first posted on March 21, 2012 at 5:53 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

The post Google Analytics New Social Media ROI Reports Fall Short appeared first on VMR .

Google Analytics New Social Media ROI Reports Fall Short

VMR

Social Media Analytics Tools Need Better SEO-Impact Reporting

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:12:00 GMT

Radian6 and other monitoring platforms need to improve their reporting of the SEO impact / ROI of social media engagement. I’ve tested literally dozens of social media monitoring and analytics tools over the past few years. Radian6 has always been at the top of my list in terms of overall power and functionality for major brands. […] The post Social Media Analytics Tools Need Better SEO-Impact Reporting appeared first on VMR. Social Media Analytics Tools Need Better SEO-Impact Reporting was first posted on March 14, 2012 at 4:12 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Radian6 and other monitoring platforms need to improve their reporting of the SEO impact / ROI of social media engagement.

I’ve tested literally dozens of social media monitoring and analytics tools over the past few years. Radian6 has always been at the top of my list in terms of overall power and functionality for major brands. SproutSocial is pretty slick for small businesses and agencies. Engage121 is among the best I’ve seen for national brands and franchises with lots of local storefront local sales or storefront outlets. But there are literally thousands of tools on the market. ( SocialMention is among the best free tools I’ve seen).

And maybe it’s just me but I cannot for the life of me understand why none of the major social media monitoring and analytics platforms are focusing on providing helpful ROI analytics related to the search engine optimization (SEO) impact of social activity.

Even newly emerging star SocialReport.com (which looks to me to be among the best-in-class in overall social media ROI reporting) seems to miss the boat on SEO. (Please do correct me if I am wrong!)

Notice the focus of their ROI feature set is on conversions :

Please, don’t get me wrong: I think it’s FANTASTIC that tools like Radian6 and SocialReport are helping marketers track conversions. But if Radian6, SocialReport and others are only focusing on tracking conversions, share of voice, sentiment and other metrics that link back to specific social mentions then they are missing entirely the crucial analysis and reporting of the SEO impact of those mentions and the conversions. For example, did Company ABC just improve its Search Engine Result Page (SERP) ranking as a result of Joe Blogger’s latest blog post? What impact did ABC company’s 200% increase in fans have on its ranking? Was there a change in MozRank that correlates with the SERP ranking change?
It is extraordinarily difficult to isolate social mention variables in order to correlate them with SEO impact but it seems to me monitoring analytics tools, perhaps in partnership with best-in-class SEO analytics tools like SeoMoz , need to be moving much more aggressively to tackle this analytics challenge.

Am I the only one? Is SEO impact not an important part of the ROI measurement puzzle that is being overlooked by Radian6 and other monitoring platforms? Search is where the rubber meets the road. I’m thinking social media marketers could put the pedal to the medal with better SEO insights.

And you? What do you think?

The post Social Media Analytics Tools Need Better SEO-Impact Reporting appeared first on VMR .

Social Media Analytics Tools Need Better SEO-Impact Reporting

VMR

Inbound Marketing Agency Pioneer Paul Roetzer To Appear on Blog Talk Radio

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 22:28:00 GMT

This Friday at 1:00 pm EDT, I will be chatting live with Paul Roetzer, founder and CEO of PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency. We’ll be discussing Roetzer’s recently published book The Marketing Agency Blueprint: The Handbook for Building Hybrid PR, SEO, Content, Advertising, and Web Firm (Wiley) (Affiliate Link). We’ll also be discussing the Hubspot Value Added Reseller Program […] The post Inbound Marketing Agency Pioneer Paul Roetzer To Appear on Blog Talk Radio appeared first on VMR. Inbound Marketing Agency Pioneer Paul Roetzer To Appear on Blog Talk Radio was first posted on March 12, 2012 at 10:28 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

PR 20/20

(Wiley)

Hubspot Value Added Reseller Program

Marketing Agency Insider online community

Here is an excerpt

1. Estimated hours.
2. Hourly revenue target (HRT).
3. Costs.
4. Perceived value.
5. Builder vs. driver.
6. Loss leader.
7. Service level

Blog Talk Radio

The post Inbound Marketing Agency Pioneer Paul Roetzer To Appear on Blog Talk Radio appeared first on VMR .

Inbound Marketing Agency Pioneer Paul Roetzer To Appear on Blog Talk Radio

VMR

A Conversation with Thunderbird’s PR & New Media Specialist Samantha Novick

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 22:10:00 GMT

Introducing the Digital Reality Conversation Series: The following is the first in what will be a series of conversations (some written and some recorded on Blog Talk Radio) between VMR and other digital media marketing agency and in-house practitioners. There’s no shortage of insightful talk about digital and social media marketing theory. But as Chris […] The post A Conversation with Thunderbird’s PR & New Media Specialist Samantha Novick appeared first on VMR. A Conversation with Thunderbird’s PR & New Media Specialist Samantha Novick was first posted on March 6, 2012 at 10:10 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Introducing the Digital Reality Conversation Series : The following is the first in what will be a series of conversations (some written and some recorded on Blog Talk Radio) between VMR and other digital media marketing agency and in-house practitioners. There’s no shortage of insightful talk about digital and social media marketing theory. But as Chris Brogan of ChrisBrogan.com recently opined:

With those words in mind, these conversations will hopefully complement the theory-oriented dialogue by introducing our online community to some of the best and brightest marketing and communications leaders who are putting the best theories to work. Our focus will be how best to apply the theories to the every day practice and implementation of internet marketing and communications initiatives in the age of the real-time web. I’m delighted to share the first conversation in this series, with a rising star in the world of digital marketing and communication, Thunderbird’s Samantha Novick. – HM

Samantha Novick is Public Relations and New Media Specialist for Thunderbird School of Global Management, one of the world’s most prestigious international business schools with operations in the U.S., Geneva, Moscow and Beijing. Samantha’s past professional experience includes work as a journalist and editor for newspapers and magazines in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East.

In September 2012, she taught in the N2K Media Sustainability Program at Thunderbird, sponsored by the US Army and the State Department, which delivered business skills training to radio broadcast journalists from Afghanistan. Her program focused on social media engagement via mobile and SMS technology, essential in a country with less than 6 percent Internet penetration.

A journalism graduate from Arizona State University who has undertaken advanced coursework at The World Bank Institute and Thunderbird, Samantha is a member of the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations and leads the Academic Conference Call series between Thunderbird and the Council on Foreign Relations. She is an avid hiker and world traveller. What follows is the result of an email exchange in February of this year. Special Thanks to Samantha for her willingness to be interviewed by VMR.

Hugh Macken: Samantha, can you summarize in a nutshell the nature of your social media /new media work experience at Thunderbird to this point?

Samantha Novick: I am responsible for leading and executing our institutional social media strategy. That means taking care of the content for our diversity of social media sites— http://knowledgenetwork.thunderbird.edu/research/social
Mainly, I work with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. I also work with different stakeholders around campus to help them meet their goals through social media. So that could mean assisting someone in Executive Education with finding a new client through LinkedIn. Or by helping someone in Admissions and Recruiting publicize their event through Facebook or a combination of platforms. I’m there on the strategy side, but also spend a fair amount of time training and helping my colleagues understand these platforms and utilize them to their best advantage. I also guest lecture in our digital marketing class and in our global business plan course.

HM: It sounds as if you’ve worn quite a few hats at Thunderbird. Of all your roles, which one (if you could pick one) do you feel has had the biggest impact on Thunderbird’s embrace of and success with social media communications? Strategy leadership? Execution/Content Development? Training/Education?

SN: I feel that my most valuable contribution to Thunderbird has been the training and mentoring I’ve been able to give to my colleagues and even those outside the organization in social media. One of the best parts of my job is being able to work with someone else and show them how they can achieve one of their goals in a new way. Sometimes these training sessions turn into big strategy sessions, and that’s when it gets really cool. You can see people looking at sales, connections and their personal network differently. There is always an excitement about it too, and it is great to be in a position to encourage that discovery.

Social media is not completely rewriting business development, but it is changing it. And I want my organization to be on the cutting edge of that trend. So being in the position to dispel myths, provide a new way of thinking and share my experiences has been really powerful.

HM: Do training sessions often turn into strategy sessions and vice versa?

SN: Usually. What I do when I go through training an individual or a group, is customize the presentation to their needs as much as I can. It is always very fluid and there will be lots of questions. I always start each training session with—- “what do you want to accomplish? What is your top goal with this?” These types of questions. That usually sets the tone of the discussion differently, and we work out as a team how to make social media work for them.

HM: How do you respond to colleagues who ask you how to link social media outreach to quantitative ROI measurements?

SN: I always tell colleagues to have a very clear goal in their mind before doing anything in social. What do you want to get out of this? You don’t know how many times I have gone into meetings with people who can’t answer this question, or else say— “well, we just have to be there.” That doesn’t tell me anything, and that doesn’t help you. Define what you really want— Do you want to have a better line of communication to prospective clients or the media? Do you want to have a quicker, more transparent line of communication to your customers? Would you like to be better aware of your competitors? Would you like to connect with prospective clients in XYZ industry? Social media is a tool you can use to meet some of these objectives. Say you are in the business development side of a firm, and you handle B to B sales. If you need to close three deals this quarter, there are certainly ways you can use social media to help you meet that. It can help complement the work you are already doing—- hitting the pavement, collecting business cards at conferences, making cold calls.

HM: Do you have to report the ROI from your work? What qualitative or quantitative measures do you find to be most useful?

SN: At this point, I am not asked to report anything more than follower or fan growth per each platform, even though that only tells part of the social media story. I like to look at metrics like number of retweets, mentions and click-throughs on links. Other things could be the number of online RSVP’s you receive on Facebook or LinkedIn events. These show how engaged your audience is with your brand. I think Crowdbooster is a pretty adequate platform for providing this kind of data. It can also gauge your impressions— an estimate of the total possible number of times someone could have seen your tweet.
I frequently will “favorite” tweets that have something really positive or constructive to say about our brand. These are great to have easily accessible, and help to make a case to someone who is wary. Anytime you can participate in a conversation that you couldn’t have been apart of before is a value add.

HM: Does Thunderbird use social media monitoring using tools like Radian6 or Crimson Hexagon or google alerts to evaluate sentiment or share of voice?

SN: We use Cision and Google alerts to monitor our web coverage, but do not necessarily pay for any further advanced social media monitoring. For an organization of our size, it doesn’t really make sense. I also feel that the technology behind social media sentiment analysis has a little ways to go before it is worth investing in.

HM: What is one of your top strategic priorities / goals for 2012 for Thunderbird’s social media outreach?

SN: I think that we would like to do more with international social networks, specifically influential platforms in China such as Renren, Sina Weibo and Tudou. There is huge potential here if it is accessed effectively. Also I think that we would like to do a better job of monitoring foreign language content and becoming more prominent in international blogs. We could do a lot more by utilizing our international base and our foreign language capabilities.

Interested in checking out our next conversation in the Digital Reality Conversation Series? Click here for more information on Hugh’s upcoming conversation with PR 20/20 ‘s Paul Roetzer. Paul is the author of the recently published and highly acclaimed book (affiliate link) The Marketing Agency Blueprint: The Handbook for Building Hybrid PR, SEO, Content, Advertising, and Web Firms (Wiley).

If you have any comments or questions you’d like to add to continue the conversation with Samantha Novick, please feel free to do so below!

The post A Conversation with Thunderbird’s PR & New Media Specialist Samantha Novick appeared first on VMR .

A Conversation with Thunderbird’s PR & New Media Specialist Samantha Novick

VMR

B2C Facebook Engagement MUCH Better on the Weekend

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 05:11:00 GMT

A recent report from Argyle Social indicates that engagement is significantly higher on the weekends. Here’s the infographic: The post B2C Facebook Engagement MUCH Better on the Weekend appeared first on VMR. B2C Facebook Engagement MUCH Better on the Weekend was first posted on February 25, 2012 at 5:11 am.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

A recent report from Argyle Social indicates that engagement is significantly higher on the weekends. Here’s the infographic:

The post B2C Facebook Engagement MUCH Better on the Weekend appeared first on VMR .

B2C Facebook Engagement MUCH Better on the Weekend

VMR

How Anyone Can Edit Your Facebook Places Page – Legally

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:53:00 GMT

What if I told you anyone in the world with a Facebook account can edit your Page without being an Admin? And that doing so does not violate Facebook’s terms of service? I’m guessing, if you’re like one of my clients, you’re frowning right about now. And to be honest, I can’t say I blame […] The post How Anyone Can Edit Your Facebook Places Page – Legally appeared first on VMR. How Anyone Can Edit Your Facebook Places Page – Legally was first posted on December 30, 2011 at 9:53 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

What if I told you anyone in the world with a Facebook account can edit your Page without being an Admin? And that doing so does not violate Facebook’s terms of service?

I’m guessing, if you’re like one of my clients, you’re frowning right about now.

And to be honest, I can’t say I blame you.

As a post by All Facebook from earlier this year makes clear, anyone can click “edit” to make changes to a Places page.

And although the changes submitted in this way by the general public have to go through an approval process – Get this – The Facebook Page Admins…do not appear to be part of that approval process. Indeed, it appears it is entirely up to Facebook to determine whether a suggested edit gets published as an official change to the info sub tab of your Facebook Page.

I recently had to explain this to one of my clients… I can’t say I blame them for being dumb-founded.

A little loss of control they can deal with…but this??? I think Facebook needs to give a little territory back on this one. Or at the very least clarify how the approval process actually works.

What do you think? Should your approval be required or at least requested for suggested edits to your Places Page?

The post How Anyone Can Edit Your Facebook Places Page – Legally appeared first on VMR .

How Anyone Can Edit Your Facebook Places Page – Legally

VMR

Promoting Events on Facebook: A Diocesan Case Study

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:05:00 GMT

Can a pastor or a Diocese looking to promote a Church event do so by using Facebook? That’s a question you might be asking as the holiday season is just around the corner and you look to find creative – and free – ways to promote your Church’s events using Facebook. The answer is an […] The post Promoting Events on Facebook: A Diocesan Case Study appeared first on VMR. Promoting Events on Facebook: A Diocesan Case Study was first posted on July 27, 2011 at 9:05 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Can a pastor or a Diocese looking to promote a Church event do so by using Facebook?

That’s a question you might be asking as the holiday season is just around the corner and you look to find creative – and free – ways to promote your Church’s events using Facebook. The answer is an emphatic yes!

The Diocese of Bridgeport made use of Facebook Pages to promote a vocational discernment event for young people.

The event was named “Summer Vocation Days.”

According to the event’s website page:

The diocese created a Facebook Page specifically for the event, which you can view here and a somewhat impressive 112 people had become a fan of the page as of the writing of this post. (The total may have been higher or lower immediately prior to the event.)

The landing page for the Facebook Page prompted visitors to “Like this page to get updates.” And below that call to action was a brief message with nicely done graphics encouraging visitors to also click on another link in order to register. That link then connected to an online registration page.

According to the Diocesan website approximately 60 young people participated in the event.

One Facebook application the Diocese did not appear to employ was the Facebook Event application which allows Facebook users to indicate whether they plan to attend a particular event. An online registration page would still be necessary to record additional details and to collect payments from registrants, but using the Event app is a very smart idea because of the positive peer pressure that results. And every online registration form related to a Facebook Page can prompt the registrants to share the fact that they are attending on Facebook and encourage them to send an invite to their friends.

As for the Facebook Event application, if Jane Smith clicks on the “I’m attending” button within the Facebook Event page, all of her friends see that she will be attending. This, of course, can be an encouraging sign to Jane’s friends who may otherwise avoid attending the event if they do not know who else is going.

Photo Credit: Christ be our light by Dave Ceasar Dela Cruz

The post Promoting Events on Facebook: A Diocesan Case Study appeared first on VMR .

Promoting Events on Facebook: A Diocesan Case Study

VMR

Why I am – about Google +

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 21:11:00 GMT

What will google plus mean for brands and non profit organizations? The post Why I am – about Google + appeared first on VMR. Why I am – about Google + was first posted on July 13, 2011 at 9:11 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Seriously though, I guess the biggest question in my mind regarding the new social media platform is whether there will be anything even remotely comparable to Facebook Pages.
From what I’ve seen so far, google + is for circles of friends to communicate in real time.
But what about brands? What about organizations?
Will they be able to set up a profile similar to a Facebook Page profile on google +?
Deep Focus’ Ian Schafer wrote a thought-provoking post (worth reading) that suggests Google Plus will revolutionize how brands share content and the importance of content quality.

Really? How so? How will this be any different than twitter or Facebook?

I’m genuinely curious. And…since I never got an invite, I’m a bit in the dark about this. I’d really appreciate an inside heads up from someone more in the know on this topic than me.

Please feel free to comment below!

The post Why I am – about Google + appeared first on VMR .

Why I am – about Google +

VMR

Social Fundraising Using Facebook: Exhibit A Courtesy of UCSF Challenge for the Children

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 19:28:00 GMT

The UCSF Challenge for the Children Facebook Causes campaign provides a good example of a successful cause-related marketing strategy using Facebook Causes. The post Social Fundraising Using Facebook: Exhibit A Courtesy of UCSF Challenge for the Children appeared first on VMR. Social Fundraising Using Facebook: Exhibit A Courtesy of UCSF Challenge for the Children was first posted on June 8, 2011 at 7:28 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff

In last week’s post , I discussed cause-related marketing and why it can be a terrific fundraising approach for non profits dealing with the negative effects of a slumping economy.

Let’s take a look at one non-profit who benefited from a cause-related marketing campaign: The UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital .

The hospital is named after Marc Benioff, who is the Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com , a publicly-traded (NYSE: CRM) on-demand cloud computing company that in 2010 brought in approximately $1.6 billion in revenues .

The UCSF Children’s hospital chose to make use of the Facebook Causes app in its online social fundraising campaign.

I’ll let Marc Benioff explain the logic behind leveraging the power of Facebook to raise money and support from people who who would have otherwise never even known about the hospital, let alone the exciting fundraising campaign on Facebook to support it.

So what were the results of this campaign?

In a word, amazing.

Over 65 different teams from all over the world competed to raise the most money for this cause. And donations came from over 164,000 people.

In under 60 days.

What’s revealing for our purposes in this post as we look at cause-related marketing is how businesses reached out to their customers and other contacts to raise money for this cause.

Take a look:

You’ll notice the cause started by Zynga was responsible for over 163,000 donations. Zynga is a software company that develops social games played on various social networks including, of course, on Facebook. If you’ve been on Facebook for any length of time, you’re probably familiar with a few of the games Zynga has developed: CityVille , FarmVille , FrontierVille , Mafia Wars , Zynga Poker , Café World, Treasure Isle, YoVille, FishVille and PetVille.

But I digress.

In October of 2009, Zynga’s co-founder, Mark Pincus , founded zynga.org. Its mission? Get this: To transform the world through virtual social goods.

Those virtual social goods came in handy for the UCSF Challenge for the Children campaign.

According to a UCSF press release :

Now how’s that for an innovative fundraising idea? Forget cookies and brownies. Sell virtual candy canes!

That’s assuming you’ve got a willing audience ready to buy them, of course! Zynga has over 250 million customers.

There were other companies and celebrities who leverage the power of their social networks on Facebook to raise money for UCSF Children’s Hospital as well. As you can see below, companies like AOL pitched in as did celebrities like Ashton Kutcher .

Hopefully this gets you thinking about ways your fundraising campaign might be able to tap into not just the pocketbooks of your most loyal supporters, but also, perhaps more importantly, their connections and influence.

How can you see such an approach working for your organization? Do you have any questions or comments related to this post? Please feel free to comment below!

Photo Credits:

Marc Benioff : https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/db2266f5/File%3AMarc_Benioff_in_2009.jpg

Mark Pincus : https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/db2266f5/File%3AMarkpincus2.jpg

The post Social Fundraising Using Facebook: Exhibit A Courtesy of UCSF Challenge for the Children appeared first on VMR .

Social Fundraising Using Facebook: Exhibit A Courtesy of UCSF Challenge for the Children

VMR

In A Tough Economy, Non Profits Should Try Cause-Related Marketing

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 21:05:00 GMT

Cause-related marketing (CRM) offers a uniquely powerful way for non-profits to partner with corporate supporters during difficult economic times. The post In A Tough Economy, Non Profits Should Try Cause-Related Marketing appeared first on VMR. In A Tough Economy, Non Profits Should Try Cause-Related Marketing was first posted on June 1, 2011 at 9:05 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Cause-related marketing (CRM) offers a uniquely powerful way for non-profits to partner with corporate supporters during difficult economic times. And for those of you struggling to make sense of how to make good use of social media like Facebook, you’ll be happy to know CRM also happens to be a terrific strategy for both businesses and non profits on social networking sites like Facebook.

You can think of CRM as a win-win-win for (1) business, (2) non profits and (3) the non-profit’s beneficiaries.

In this edition of our newsletter I’d like to focus on clarifying our terms to make sure we understand what CRM is and what it is not.

First off, CRM is not marketing aimed at changing societal behavior. So, for example, an MADD radio campaign to reduce drunk driving would not be an example of CRM.

Also, CRM is not a type of corporate philanthropy. Corporate philanthropy generally requires that a business give financial support or in-kind grants to a charity without any expectation of corporate gain in return.

With CRM, a business may have altruistic motives but CRM is expected to positively benefit the business’ bottom line while benefiting a charitable cause in the process.

Let’s look at one early (though not the earliest) example of CRM. It occured in 1983 when American Express partnered with the Statue of Liberty Restoration Project. What’s important to note here to understand the difference between CRM and corporate philanthropy is the non-charitable business impact to American Express’ bottom line.

Put simply, American Express had a business objective of increasing transaction volume and new customer acquisition volume. Its non profit partner, The Statue of Liberty Project, had a charitable objective of ensuring the long-term well being of the Statue of Liberty. In order to accomplish both of these objectives, American Express and the Project chose a CRM strategy in which American Express donated one penny for every transaction and one dollar for every new card issued to new customers.

The result was outstanding for (1) the charity, (2) the business partner’s bottom line, and (3) the many millions of tourists who would later visit the Statue. In only four years, $1.75 million was raised for restoration, new American Express customer applications grew by 45% and customer transaction activity jumped 28%.

This example is one of many that illustrate how CRM has been used for the benefit of both non-profits and their for-profit partners.

NEXT WEEK: An example of a successful online CRM campaign using Facebook.

Photo Credit: charity: water by Julia Roy

The post In A Tough Economy, Non Profits Should Try Cause-Related Marketing appeared first on VMR .

In A Tough Economy, Non Profits Should Try Cause-Related Marketing

VMR

Facebook Causes: Don’t Forget Main Street

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:30:00 GMT

I was hoping I could tout the wonders of Facebook Causes for small and mid sized businesses in their cause-related marketing efforts. Not so fast. The post Facebook Causes: Don’t Forget Main Street appeared first on VMR. Facebook Causes: Don’t Forget Main Street was first posted on March 25, 2011 at 6:30 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

I have to admit, I was frustrated. Very frustrated.

As a consultant who advises small and mid sized organizations, I was really hoping I could tout the wonders of Facebook Causes for small and mid sized businesses in their cause-related marketing efforts during my upcoming presentation at the Central Wisconsin Social Media Conference and in general when I advise SMBs.

I really took seriously Causes supposed embrace of the notion of equal-opportunity giving.

To quote from the Causes’ app description:

This line in particular made me sure Facebook Causes would be the perfect tool for businesses with limited resources:

All of that is true. But it hides a disturbing fact:

Small and mid-sized businesses, precisely because of their smaller budgets, do not typically have anywhere close to the financial resources required (usually a minimum of $10,000) if they want to start a cause.

Jake mentioned that there are other Facebook apps out there for small business that are useful.

And that too is true.

But why should small business have to think smaller than the 100+ million users who currently use the Facebook Causes app? Why not create a turn-key solution (that would not cost a fortune for Causes developers to customize for each campaign as they do with the big brands) for small and mid-sized business to create true equal opportunity on Causes?

I really hope Causes will consider working with those of us in the small biz community who want to tap into the growing number of smaller businesses on Facebook who can and want to make a world of difference with what I believe is the best tool on the market – Facebook Causes.

The challenge is providing a solution that is profitable for Facebook Causes (which is actually a for-profit company) as well.

I believe that’s possible. It will require some creative thinking on the part of Causes, the small business community and individuals like myself who admire their work and believe in dreaming big by acting…

….small.

Photo credit: “Main Street Vs. Wall Street” by Eric Ortner of Ortner Graphics

The post Facebook Causes: Don’t Forget Main Street appeared first on VMR .

Facebook Causes: Don’t Forget Main Street

VMR

“The Corporate Blogging Book” Defuses the Fear Factor

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 21:58:00 GMT

Fear is the elephant in the room when corporate blogging is the topic du jour. And Debbie Weil's no-nonsense approach to that topic in particular is what I like most about the latest edition of her highly regarded "Corporate Blogging Book." The post “The Corporate Blogging Book” Defuses the Fear Factor appeared first on VMR. “The Corporate Blogging Book” Defuses the Fear Factor was first posted on March 14, 2011 at 9:58 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Of course, there are lots of books – and blogs, of course! – on blogging. I’ve always viewed Debbie as the expert’s expert on this topic. But more importantly, corporate executives themselves view Debbie as the expert. Like Bob Lutz, former vice chairman of GM, for example, who wrote the forward to the book.

But back to Debbie. It’s hard to call her a social media marketing expert. She’s much more than that: She’s a first rate digital communicator who is greatly admired by those of us who live and breathe in the world of social media and executives who do not. We’re all looking for level-headed answers and a down-to-earth approach to the questions we face every day relating to internal and external blogging.

Debbie supplies the answers with wit, wisdom and a refreshing warmth that permeates her writing.

The fear-based questions are by far the most common of the questions and at first blush the trickiest to handle but Debbie masterfully illustrates, from her hands-on experience in advising the C-Suite, not just book knowledge, the best way to deal with those questions. In a word: Head on. Indeed, she seems to argue for an approach that embraces the questions and even the messiness of the process so that better strategies and guidelines can emerge.

For example, Debbie astutely points out the importance of not relying on dryly written policies and procedures that are crafted by those sitting on high. Instead she proposes a more transparent, bottom-up approach and quotes the wise counsel of intellectual property attorney Denise Howell:

Blogging is about to get much more popular and multifaceted than ever before. (See my previous post on Cloudforce for a glimpse of what the future holds for internal microblogging and enterprise 2.0.)

Be ahead of the fear curve rather than being dominated by it by taking the first step and reading this book.

But don’t take that advice from me. Take it from Bob Lutz, former Vice Chairman of GM, who wrote the forward for “The Corporate Blogging Book” in which he offers the following advice if you’re still not convinced:

Burying your head in the sand out of fear is a strategy to be sure.

But before you decide to go that route, you’ll be doing yourself and your company a favor if you at least download a free sample of Debbie’s book, here .

Full disclosure: The link immediately above is not an affiliate link. Neither Hugh Macken nor VMR Communications, LLC has been compensated in any form to write this post.

The post “The Corporate Blogging Book” Defuses the Fear Factor appeared first on VMR .

“The Corporate Blogging Book” Defuses the Fear Factor

VMR

Seven Takeaways from Cloudforce

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 08:18:00 GMT

The user-interface model for the future of enterprise software looks an awful lot like Facebook. The post Seven Takeaways from Cloudforce appeared first on VMR. Seven Takeaways from Cloudforce was first posted on March 4, 2011 at 8:18 am.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

1. Facebook is the User Interface Model of Choice

The user-interface model for the future of enterprise software looks an awful lot like Facebook. At least according to Marc Benioff who I think is rightly passionate about his belief that so-called “Cloud 2” platform architecture similar to that of Facebook is best suited to bridging the gap between what Salesforce Chief Scientist JP Rangaswami refers to as “systems of record” and “systems of engagement.”

2. Native Social Media Integration Has Improved But Has a Long Way to Go

The Salesforce team clearly understands the importance of bringing relevant conversations occurring in the social web into the Salesforce user interface and fully integrating those “systems of engagement” with the Salesforce systems of engagement such as Chatter. But I’m not sure they fully appreciate the massive scope, scale and strategic business importance of platforms other than the Big Two – Facebook and Twitter. The major problem, in my view is that presently Salesforce offers only very limited native integration with only the Big Two and none of the many thousands of social sites consumers are using today.

Image Credit: The Conversation Prism , by Brian Solis and Jess3

When I asked Benioff if he thought it would make sense for Salesforce to acquire a social media monitoring firm such as Radian6, he replied that the company is always looking at acquisition possibilities and he hinted that the popularity of the Radian6 app which will soon be unveiled in the Salesforce App Exchange will be a significant factor in determining whether any such acquisition might have merit.

3. Ensuring Maximum User Adoption within Salesforce is the Best Way to Move the Needle on Customer User Adoption

Salesforce is one of the very few technology companies with a Chief Adoption Officer, namely Polly Sumner who spoke briefly during the analyst luncheon. So I was surprised to note – in light of the priority the company seems to be placing on UA, and in light of Benioff’s entreaties for attendees to ask Salesforce employees how they were using Chatter – that one Salesforce employee I spoke with was using email to communicate with a colleague who was also at #Cloudforce. Salesforce would do well to tweak the product or roll-out processes to ensure more broad-based Chatter adoption within its own ranks and then blog about such adoption experiences as extensively as possible.

4. Marc Benioff Is a Dynamic Leader and is Not Afraid to Link the Salesforce Brand Strongly to His Persona

He’s a superb leader with a natural ability to inspire the best from those around him. Benioff’s style of leadership appears to me to be quite similar to his approach to software development: It is highly collaborative, decentralized and against the grain. For example, I was quite impressed, during the analyst lunch I had the privilege to attend, to note his ability to ask various members of his executive team to answer questions posed by those in attendance. Like his mentor Steve Jobs at Apple, Benioff has a warm and engaging personality that lends itself to brand dependence – and perhaps over-reliance – on his persona. It would be wise for Benioff to begin sharing the limelight more strategically with potential successors. Seesmic.com and LeWeb founder Loic Le Meur does not have the same level of executive experience but Benioff may wish to bring Lemuir on the Salesforce executive team to ensure Salesforce has more than one “face of the franchise.”

5. Integrated Philanthropy Is Central to the Salesforce Business Vision and Could be a Strategic Differentiator

Contrary to the opinion of esteemed economist Milton Friedman, the “business of business” is not only business according to Benioff. Integrated philanthropic initiatives, centered around causes benefitting children, have become a hallmark of the Salesforce brand. Benioff’s participation in America’s Promise, a program spearheaded in part by Benioff’s mentor Colin Powell in 1997, appears to have had a lasting impact on not only the Salesforce co-founder’s philanthropic vision but his business vision as well. As Benioff states in his latest book, “Behind the Cloud,” co-written by Carlye Adler:

As I mentioned to Salesforce’s Gordon Evans, I see Chatter as having the potential to be used as a cross-enterprise, real-time collaboration platform to solve global challenges. Salesforce will need to find creative ways to provide for such collaboration without threatening its reputation as a highly secure repository of business data.

6. Native Integration of More Social Media Systems of Engagement is Imperative

Natively integrating password and non-password protected external systems of engagement such as YouTube.com, Linkedin.com, Quora.com, GetSatisfaction.com, the blogosphere and other social outposts which will continually emerge may not be in high demand presently but as enterprises and SMBs become more aware of the vast scope of social media and understand use case scenarios and ROI opportunities, I suspect Benioff will realize that it may make sense to ensure more native, easy to use integrations with such sites. And that may necessitate a strategic acquisition of a social media monitoring platform such as Radian6 that has a slick workflow dashboard or perhaps – more appropriately – a data mining – focused platform such as DataSift where the Salesforce user interface would compensate for the lack of a sophisticated workflow dashboard.

Salesforce appears to be waiting for demand to emerge but in a highly complex industry where customers need an educational partner just as much as a solutions partner, this may not be the wisest approach. Salesforce – or one of its competitors – may decide to pro-actively educate customers on why such integration is critical to ensuring all systems of engagement are integrated with systems of record and accessible in a user interface that accommodates the differing executional needs of business groups (eg, Customer Service, Sales, PR, Product Development, Legal, HR, etc…).

7. The Future for Salesforce and Its Customers Looks Extremely Bright

Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, Linda Crawford, Peter Coffee, Gordan Evans, and others could not have been more gracious and open to chatting with me during #Cloudforce. And that culture of transparency and openness is what impressed me the most. It was quite literally something I could touch, feel, see and hear today at #Cloudforce. The future looks extremely bright and I feel privileged to be a part of this very exciting moment in the social technology industry’s history.

Did you attend #Cloudforce? What were your take-aways? If you did not attend, what more would you like to know about Salesforce and the future of socially-integrated enterprise software?

—-

Correction : The original version of this post referred to Cloud 3. Although “Service Cloud 3” was announced during Cloudforce, when Salesforce executive Marc Benioff refers to the “Facebook Imperative,” it is what he calls the next phase of computing, or Cloud 2, not Cloud 3. Special thanks to Carlye Adler for clarifying this. – Hugh Macken, March 14, 2011

The post Seven Takeaways from Cloudforce appeared first on VMR .

Seven Takeaways from Cloudforce

VMR

5 Ways to Correlate Social Media Metrics with the good old Bottom Line

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 20:47:00 GMT

The C-suite deserves to know which of their social media investments are paying off and which ones are just one big waste of time and money. The post 5 Ways to Correlate Social Media Metrics with the good old Bottom Line appeared first on VMR. 5 Ways to Correlate Social Media Metrics with the good old Bottom Line was first posted on December 9, 2010 at 8:47 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Or maybe it’s just that I’d simply like to have more of it just because I can’t run my business without it. But one way or another, one thing I know for sure:

Making money ethically – and profit in particular – is the #1 goal of my business.

And if you’re in business, it better be your #1 goal as well.

I’m certainly not advocating greed or that you make money your god.

On the other hand, the amount of money your business makes is really the only metric that ultimately matters and I think those of us who live and breathe in the social media strategy world need to listen more closely to those outside of the echo chamber – especially those whose business is understanding the factors that influence the bottom line. But more on those folks in a minute.

In fairness, I need to acknowledge Jim Sterne , co-founder of the Web Analytics Association , Kyle Lacy , author of Twitter Marketing for Dummies , and Wendy Troupe, CEO of Terametric , a cross-channel analytical measurement and optimization solutions provider, who together delivered a comprehensive and thought-provoking webinar today on measuring twitter ROI. Their webinar got especially interesting for me toward the end and I thought it might make sense to continue the discussion that began to emerge on the issue of correlating social media metrics with financial ROI.

So here then is my first bit of food for thought for you to munch on courtesy of one whose business is analyzing the factors that influence a corporation’s bottom line. namely, Blake Fernandez, an oil industry research analyst with Howard Weil , an energy investment boutique that provides equity research, institutional sales and trading, and investment banking services.

According to the company’s website, their “Annual Energy Conference is one of the premier energy investor conferences in the industry… [It] attracts institutional investors from all over the world to New Orleans for presentations by, and interaction with, CEOs and other top-level management representing a broad range of energy companies.”

CFOs and CEOs at major corporations like BP take seriously what Blake Fernandez and his financial research peers have to say. Mainly because they understand money and what factors correlate with making more or less of it. I think it makes sense for those of us in the social media community to understand how social media is perceived from a financial perspective and I could not think of a better firm to help us in that regard than Howard Weil.

Mr Fernandez was kind enough to respond to an email (an edited version of which follows) that I sent to him many months ago. So with apologies to Mr Fernandez for not publishing this sooner, I think it’s about time I shared his views. Here then is my email and the response:

Mr Fernandez’s response to my 3 questions are below:

What I find interesting about Mr. Fernandez’s response is the issue of correlation . It’s all well and good to quote stats that companies performing well in the stock market are more likely to have invested in social media communications but the more important question is whether their increased social media investments positively correlate with increased shareholder value.

That’s a question that VMR helps our clients address using a variety of methods including (1) linear, (2) polynomial, (3) exponential, (4) logistic, and (5) general nonlinear regression analysis , among other methods….Like playing rock, paper, scissors, shoot!

We believe the C-suite deserves to know which of their social media investments are paying off and which ones are just one big, fat waste of time and money.

The post 5 Ways to Correlate Social Media Metrics with the good old Bottom Line appeared first on VMR .

5 Ways to Correlate Social Media Metrics with the good old Bottom Line

VMR

Facebook Messages: Chris Penn on How to Prepare for “Email Marketing’s Biggest Challenge Ever”

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:48:00 GMT

On Friday of this week, we'll be discussing email marketing strategy and the potential impact of Facebook's Project Titan with Blue Sky Factory's VP of Strategy & Innovation, Christopher Penn. The post Facebook Messages: Chris Penn on How to Prepare for “Email Marketing’s Biggest Challenge Ever” appeared first on VMR. Facebook Messages: Chris Penn on How to Prepare for “Email Marketing’s Biggest Challenge Ever” was first posted on November 17, 2010 at 3:48 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

On Friday of this week (at 3pm EDT), I’ll be chatting with special guest Christopher Penn of Blue Sky Factory on Blog Talk Radio and with all who care to join us using Facebook’s Live Stream and twitter (#emchat). We’ll be discussing email marketing strategy in general and these questions in particular:

1. What is Facebook’s Project Titan? 2. Will Titan usher in the end of an era for email marketing as we know it? 3. How can offline conversions from email marketing campaigns be tracked within google analytics? 4. What is the most common mistake email marketers make and how is it costing them dearly? 5. Blue Sky has unveiled a new featured called Social Sync. What is social sync so useful? 6. What’s the best way to grow your email subscriber base? 7. Is email marketing compatible with the social web or will the social web render email marketing obsolete? 8. What is the best way to ensure maximum email open rates? 9. How does Blue Sky compare to other email marketing companies? 10. Mobile internet use is rising rapidly. What services is Blue Sky offering to help marketers reach mobile email users?

Please join us by

[oleggo-livestream]

The post Facebook Messages: Chris Penn on How to Prepare for “Email Marketing’s Biggest Challenge Ever” appeared first on VMR .

Facebook Messages: Chris Penn on How to Prepare for “Email Marketing’s Biggest Challenge Ever”

VMR

Problem Solved? UNC Bans Twitter Use By Football Players

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 17:37:00 GMT

Banning your employees or athletes from using Twitter does not prevent third parties from posting something that causes legal problems and damages reputations. The post Problem Solved? UNC Bans Twitter Use By Football Players appeared first on VMR. Problem Solved? UNC Bans Twitter Use By Football Players was first posted on October 14, 2010 at 5:37 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Karlie Justus wrote a thought-provoking post recently on the pros and cons of banning social media at your B2B company . Banning your employees or athletes from using Twitter does not prevent third parties connected with your employees or your athletes from posting something online that results in legal problems and/or a damaged reputation.

Take t he case of University of North Carolina, whose football coach, Butch Davis ( according to an ESPN report ) informed players yesterday that they are now forbidden from using the popular microblogging service.

This move is understandable in light of all the problems UNC has had as a result of Twitter. But my concern -perhaps unfounded – is that Butch Davis and other college coaches think they have eliminated the risk that Twitter and other social media pose when they ban its use by the people who are under their supervision.

A larger risk most definitely remains. And here’s why:

One of the biggest misconceptions about social media risk in general is that if you stop employees, contractors, athletes and others under your supervision from communicating through social channels, then you eliminate social media risk altogether. After all, your organization is, therefore, “not getting into social media” by doing so.

Right?

Wrong.

Here’s the reality: Even if you could block people under your supervision from using social channels 24/7 (which of course you cannot practically or legally speaking for corporate employees), you’d still have the problem of *third parties* outside of the institution posting information, images and other material that could result in just as many headaches.

Again, UNC is a good case in point. As the Washington Times reported , Natalie Nunn was a model who had appeared on the reality television show “Bad Girls Club”, not an athlete at UNC. But her tweet *referenced* an athlete, and ended up being one of the many factors contributing to an NCAA investigation and the athlete’s suspension by the team.

The debate about whether to ban people affiliated with your organization from using social channels is a fair one. But focusing on that debate often results in overlooking the fact that unaffiliated third parties can cause just as many headaches and pose every bit as much of a threat from a legal and corporate reputation perspective.

The legal system is not likely to bury it’s head on this.

Neither should you.

Failing to understand the fully transparent and vast online ecosystem (Twitter is one of literally hundreds of social sites used by today’s young people) known as the social web is a strategy that has already gotten plenty of companies and organizations in legal hot water, resulted in massive financial losses and damaged their reputations in the process.

At the very least, learn from their mistakes: Formulate, Implement and Enforce.

One final piece of advice for Butch Davis and other coaches around the country: The best way to keep your school out of the headlines is to keep your athletes on the straight and narrow. That’s one very, very tall order, which is why I agree with ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit, who recently suggested on ESPN radio that, in order to help address the issue of sports agents paying college athletes , sports program’s should have one full-time person whose sole responsibility is to watch over the well-being of the athletes.

In light of all the potential headaches that social media can cause for athletic programs, I would propose that that number should be two full-time supervisors. Kids need to be protected from themselves and taking just this one step would go a long way toward nipping the problem in the bud.

This really just scratches the surface of this issue but hopefully it gets you thinking in more level-headed terms about the magnitude of the threats for every organization and person regardless of their official involvement in the social web.

Photo Credit : Are We Done Yet , by Paul Sapiano

Important: “Any information contained on this site is general in nature. You should not rely on any articles, postings or other information on these pages as legal advice or to create an attorney-client relationship. If you are in need of legal advice concerning a particular matter, you are encouraged to contact an attorney in your state.”

The post Problem Solved? UNC Bans Twitter Use By Football Players appeared first on VMR .

Problem Solved? UNC Bans Twitter Use By Football Players

VMR

Visualize Social Connections with Mind Mapping?

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:17:00 GMT

Neither MindJet nor any of its competitors currently offers Social Network API-driven Visualization Maps. They ought to. The post Visualize Social Connections with Mind Mapping? appeared first on VMR. Visualize Social Connections with Mind Mapping? was first posted on August 30, 2010 at 10:17 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Surprisingly, though, neither MindJet nor any of its competitors (to my knowledge, at least) currently offers Social Network *API-driven* Mapping.

Say wuh?

Say this…

Go on over to http://apps.asterisq.com/mentionmap/
Type in the username of someone on twitter you’d like to know more about in terms of their connections. Try chrisbrogan for example. Then, press Start.

Pretty nifty, right? Hat tip to the folks at Asterisq.com.

But here’s what I have a hard time understanding: To my knowledge, there’s not a single mind mapping application out there (mindjet being the best of the best from what I have seen) that is able to tap into the APIs of social outposts like twitter to create these sorts of maps.

Why not?

What if you could automatically create maps like this based off of your linkedin connections?

Or your blog community?

Did I mention Facebook?

How might you use a mapping tool like this that was able to tap into social network APIs?

I’d love to hear your ideas.

As always, I will be listening!

Full Disclosure: Neither VMR nor Hugh Macken is currently affiliated with MindJet or Asterisq.com in any way.

Photo Credit: Social Butterfly, by Prince Mik

The post Visualize Social Connections with Mind Mapping? appeared first on VMR .

Visualize Social Connections with Mind Mapping?

VMR

What is Social Network Analysis? Ask David Nour.

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:48:00 GMT

Social Network Analysis, in its simplest term, is the process of mapping and measuring relationships and flow between people, groups, organizations, and other information/knowledge-processing entities. The post What is Social Network Analysis? Ask David Nour. appeared first on VMR. What is Social Network Analysis? Ask David Nour. was first posted on August 18, 2010 at 5:48 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

What is Social Network Analysis?

Author: David Nour

Relationship Economics is about understanding both the art and science of business relationships. It has been my experience that though many get the art – 30 second introductions, remembering names, building rapport – few truly understand the science. The concept of Social Network Analysis (SNA) has been in existence since the 1930s and is the intersection of psychology, anthropology, sociology, organization design and mathematics – specifically graph theory. Its roots are ingrained in academic circles and are too complex for many to comprehend, much less apply to teams within organizations.

What is Social Network Analysis?

Social Network Analysis, in its simplest term, is the process of mapping and measuring relationships and flow between people, groups, organizations, and other information/knowledge-processing entities. SNA provides both a mathematical and a visual analysis of human relationships. The term has been used as a metaphor for over a century to convey complex sets of relationships between members of a social system. In 1954, a social scientist, Jay Barnes, began using this term to denote patterns inside and outside founded groups such as tribes or families and social categories such as gender or ethnicity. In recent years, SNA has evolved from suggestive metaphors to a true analytical model in various methods and research circles.

Analysts are able to deduct key insights from a deep dive of “whole to parts” from structures to individual interactions and from behaviors to attitude. By studying the whole network, which contacts specific ties or relationships between individuals, key assumptions can be made as to the frequency, quality and expansive nature of an interaction between two individuals.

Think about it: Why do you socialize with some co-workers more than others? Why do some colleagues’ names appear more often in your Sent e-mail folder than others? Give me a copy of a person’s calendar and checkbook and I can tell you the breadth and depth of their relationships. The same could be said for several key attributes of individuals with whom you tend to engage considerably more often than others. A number of those attributes could be easily explained by your role or realm of responsibilities.

Other attributes of our most valued links simply include people who get us. These are the people who are a lot like we are and with whom we have chemistry. If you have been through any of the behavioral or psychological assessment tools, you realize that similar profiles naturally gravitate toward each other.

Why Social Network Analysis Matters

The shape of our social network – whether small or more expansive, both internal and external – can also highlight the true collaborative nature of an individual or team. In other words, a group of individuals who only communicate and collaborate with one another already share the same knowledge, and to a greater extent, the same set of contacts. Conversely, a group of individuals with connections to a broader, more diverse array of social worlds is more likely to have access to a broader knowledge base and, by deductive reasoning, access to greater opportunities to overcome obstacles.

This is why it is critical to prioritize diversity as the single biggest asset in your portfolio of relationships. The broader your social network, the bigger your relationship bank and sphere of influence.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/networking-articles/what-is-social-network-analysis-2712955.html

About the Author

David Nour is a social networking strategist and one of the foremost thought leaders on the quantifiable value of business relationships. In a global economy that is becoming increasingly disconnected, David and his team are solving global client challenges with Strategic Relationship Planning™ and Enterprise Social Networking best practices.

David is the author of Relationship Economics (Wiley, 2008), The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Raising Capital (Praeger, 2009), ConnectAbility (McGraw-Hill, 2010), and the Social Networking Technology Best Practices Series. He is a contributor to The Social Media Bible (Wiley, 2009) and is currently researching and writing his next commercial book on Listen Louder .

David’s unique perspective and independent insights have been featured in a variety of prominent blogs and print publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Association Now, Entrepreneur and Success magazine.

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Photo Credit: US Congress Twitterers by Indegree by Porter Novelli Global

The post What is Social Network Analysis? Ask David Nour. appeared first on VMR .

What is Social Network Analysis? Ask David Nour.

VMR

Web Analytics Tools only Part of the Social Listening Solution

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:55:00 GMT

Social media listening and analytics experts Jon Burg and Avinash Kaushik are worth listening to. The post Web Analytics Tools only Part of the Social Listening Solution appeared first on VMR. Web Analytics Tools only Part of the Social Listening Solution was first posted on August 5, 2010 at 9:55 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Jon is a Senior Emerging Channels Specialist at Digitas, which is a digital marketing and media agency and member of the Publicis Groupe S.A. He recently wrote a very useful post on the criteria enterprises can use to evaluate listening vendors like Radian6, ScoutLabs, and Attensity360 as well as full service (often tool-agnostic) listening firms such as Sentiment360, Spotter, VMR and others.

Jon makes a number of excellent observations in the aforementioned post including the fact that “ Technology [alone] will not get you to the promised land.”

Indeed, some would say it won’t even get you close.

According to the Web Analytics 90/10 rule put forth by highly regarded web analytics strategist, educator and author Avinash Kaushik, 10% of web analytics expenditures ought to be spent on the technology. The remaining 90% are best spent on expert human analysts.

Do check out Jon’s post and Avinash’s. Both are well worth your time to read if you are interested in the field of social media listening and analytics.

Photo Credit: Read or Listen? by Sudarshan Vijayaraghavan

The post Web Analytics Tools only Part of the Social Listening Solution appeared first on VMR .

Web Analytics Tools only Part of the Social Listening Solution

VMR

Better Social Insights Needed for BatchBook.com Social CRM

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 22:11:00 GMT

I like everything I've seen about Batch Book social CRM except the inability to easily bring into a record that person’s public social media profile accounts. The post Better Social Insights Needed for BatchBook.com Social CRM appeared first on VMR. Better Social Insights Needed for BatchBook.com Social CRM was first posted on July 16, 2010 at 10:11 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

I admit my expectations were quite high given all the positive press to date. In a post for Mashable.com, Brogan narrowed down exactly what he liked the most about Batch Book:

John Jantsch, one of the leading small business development and business planning experts in North America also gave it two thumbs up:

You get the picture. Renowned small business experts like Jantsch and social media community experts like Brogan have sung the praises of Batch Book. And built-in social network insight reporting seems to be what those who really like it love the most. The company itself seems to practically hang its hat on this feature.

Maybe I’m being overly critical but the important first part of contact-centric social media monitoring that involves bringing into a record a person’s social media profiles is something Batch Book could do a lot better.

Here’s specifically what I mean. Here are two examples of profiles I tried to create for two people – Avinash Kaushik and Paul Miller – I don’t know much about other than the insightful things I’ve read from them online. I wanted to learn more about them, their social footprint, and follow the other insights they are sure to share in the future.

So, when you first go into a contact record in order to start adding contact details you see a “Search Social Network” button, as you can see below:

Here’s an example of my search for Paul Miller’s public social network accounts. Note that I did enter Paul’s individual work email address before doing this search.

In fairness to BatchBook, they do offer a nifty feature called Super Tags which enables you to manually add social network account URLs associated with your contacts.

But having seen what contact-centric social search tools like Gist.com can do, I was hoping for more sophisticated profile search technology from Batch Book too.

Having said all this, there is one option with Batch Book that I figured might reverse my disappointment with the limited social profile account search capabilities. It’s something with which readers of this blog will already be familiar:

It’s Flowtown.com and it too has taken the small business email marketing world by storm. For good reason, in my opinion. For those who don’t know, Flowtown is a service that, to quote from the Batch Book website

I had a feeling that the integration that Batch Book offers with Flowtown would resolve the issue I’ve outlined above. At least, that is what I was hoping.

In order to integrate with Batch Book, though, I had to upgrade to a paid Flowtown account which starts out at $17 per month, which I did.

I then tried out the service on one of the contacts above and here’s what I got:

So the integration definitely solved problem #1 (not narrowing things down enough) but I was a little disappointed still that only 3 social network profiles were included and nothing else.

What even more interesting is that Flowtown itself does a spectacular job of building a complete profile of someone as long as you have their email address. With just an email address, Flowtown came up with the following in a matter of seconds:

Do you see all of the blanks that Flowtown just filled in?

Let me list them:

Please chime in here. Social CRM is hugely important for today’s marketing and PR professionals and its in our best interests to share ideas with one another to help inform the decisions of those who are building the exciting social business technologies of tomorrow.

Full Disclosure: Neither Batch Book nor Flowtown are clients of VMR Communications, LLC or Hugh Macken.

The post Better Social Insights Needed for BatchBook.com Social CRM appeared first on VMR .

Better Social Insights Needed for BatchBook.com Social CRM

VMR

NSA taps PR Expert Pamela Gilchrist for Twitter Strategies Presentation

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:48:00 GMT

International award winning speaker Pamela Gilchrist will be presenting Tweet This! at the National Speakers Association Convention at the Orlando World Center Marriott on Tuesday, July 20 at 4pm The post NSA taps PR Expert Pamela Gilchrist for Twitter Strategies Presentation appeared first on VMR. NSA taps PR Expert Pamela Gilchrist for Twitter Strategies Presentation was first posted on July 13, 2010 at 9:48 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Pamela Gilchrist

Gilchrist will be presenting “The 12-Step Program to Conquering Twitter On and Off the Platform.” Attendees will discover what all the tweet is about, and:

•Learn how to engage in the conversation without becoming birdshot;
•Learn specific ways to grow your personal brand through Twitter; and,
•Learn seven Twitter tips to extend the lifespan of your speech in the Twittersphere.

“Twitter has turned the online marketing paradigm upside down and now the little blue bird is winging his way into your presentations,” says Gilchrist. “In this fast-paced session, you will learn how to integrate Twitter into your personal branding and increase engagement online and on the platform.”

The Gilchrist Group® is a strategic business consulting firm. Founded in 1999, as PR~Link Public Relations, LLC, the firm serves clients in a wide-range of industries including: financial services, healthcare, technology, manufacturing, engineering, government and non-profit. Gilchrist’s professional team works with leaders on next level leadership, branding roadmaps, go-to-market-strategies, issues management and marketing/PR including social media integration.

I’m happy to share this with the readers of our blog because I think it’s important to provide visibility for fellow PR professionals who are paving the way for our profession.

Are you a speaker? If so, would you care to share any tips with the readers of the VMR blog for leveraging twitter as a tool to increase engagement online? What has worked for you to communicate more effectively with your respective audiences? Do you find using a hashtag during your talks helps to enliven the conversation during your speaking engagements or does it serve as more of a distraction? I’m really curious to know if Pamela is planning to encourage conference attendees to tweet during her presentation. If so, you can be sure we’ll be monitoring it! I love the story that Time Magazine shared about a conference in New York City that, thanks to Twitter, generated nationwide participation literally overnight.

Wouldn’t it be cool if important talks like Gilchrist’s generated a national conversation among PR professionals on account of the little bird called Twitter?

The post NSA taps PR Expert Pamela Gilchrist for Twitter Strategies Presentation appeared first on VMR .

NSA taps PR Expert Pamela Gilchrist for Twitter Strategies Presentation

VMR

Flowtown triples email opens & CTR, says CEO in Twitterview

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:29:00 GMT

Flowtown customers are achieving 300% higher open/click rates vs. industry averages according to a recent Twitterview with the company's CEO. The post Flowtown triples email opens & CTR, says CEO in Twitterview appeared first on VMR. Flowtown triples email opens & CTR, says CEO in Twitterview was first posted on June 22, 2010 at 4:29 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Some Flowtown customers are achieving a staggering 300% or higher open and click thru rates vs. industry averages.

What follows is a slightly edited version of our chat, the full version of which you can find by doing a twitter search for #mediachat or by clicking here .

Flowtown CEO Ethan Bloch to discuss engagement strategies in #mediachat Twitterview

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 23:21:00 GMT

Flowtown CEO Ethan Bloch to discuss engagement strategies in #mediachat Twitterview The post Flowtown CEO Ethan Bloch to discuss engagement strategies in #mediachat Twitterview appeared first on VMR. Flowtown CEO Ethan Bloch to discuss engagement strategies in #mediachat Twitterview was first posted on June 19, 2010 at 6:21 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Our first #mediachat twitterview (an interview using Twitter as the communications medium) will take place on Tuesday, June 22nd at 2pm EDT, with @hughmacken (that would be me;) “twitterviewing” Flowtown ‘s

co-founder and CEO, Ethan Bloch ( @ebloch ), an ambitious, pioneering and incredibly bright young entrepreneur out of Baltimore, and currently living in San Francisco. Ethan is passionate about marketing , finance, social technology and bold new ventures. And speaking of new ventures, he and Flowtown co-founder Dan Martell have been extremely supportive of my latest venture, the #mediachat twitterview series. Thanks guys!!!

One of the original marketers to use Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Ethan founded his first business, BlocHardware.com. at the age of 13. He was the host of WSYK, an internet TV show which was syndicated to Revision3 . In January of 2009, he and Dan Martell ( @danmartell ) co-founded Flowtown in order to help companies craft targeted marketing, engagement and retention campaigns that use rich customer intelligence mined from all over the social web.

The topic of our twitterview, which you can follow at #mediachat , will be the evolution of social media and how businesses can build customer loyalty through the use of social channels – online and off – using a synergistic combination of high touch and high tech. To his credit, Ethan insisted that we not spend too much time talking about Flowtown but instead focus more on the social space in general and the unbelievably exciting things that are just starting to take shape online.

That said, I would like to give my readers a primer in advance of our chat. In a nutshell, Flowtown turns email addresses into social connections allowing you to heighten engagement with customers, prospects and online influencers. With a few clicks of the mouse, the Flowtown platform allows you to funnel tons of demographic and socialgraphic information (like age group, gender, location, and social network memberships) into your email subscriber list. They currently have integrations in place with email marketing services Mail Chimp and Campaign Monitor as well as a Forms integration with WuFoo . In the last week or so, they’ve also added integrations with BatchBook , icontact and Plancast .

The beauty of the platform is that all you need is an email address to automatically generate a full social and geographic profile of all of your contacts.

In case you’re wondering, Flowtown has taken off like a rocket ship in recent months, and currently boasts 10,000 customers. You can be sure I’ll be asking Ethan how he managed to grow so quickly and what he has planned for the future.

Twitter 20 interviews

Jay’s blog

The Best of Twitter 20

http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf

Social Media Strategy: A 4-Point Matrix to Keep it Simple

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 21:55:00 GMT

Tom Webster provided a simple framework to help media professionals formulate an engagement strategy for social media. The post Social Media Strategy: A 4-Point Matrix to Keep it Simple appeared first on VMR. Social Media Strategy: A 4-Point Matrix to Keep it Simple was first posted on June 18, 2010 at 4:55 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

There’s so much confusion these days about social media strategy largely because foundational principles of presence management, listening and engagement get lost in the noise of continual hype about the latest and greatest technologies that are 1000% guaranteed to generate instant ROI.

Earlier this year, at a presentation for folks in broadcast media who were looking for some clarity mixed with a healthy dose of common sense on social media, Tom Webster , VP of Strategy and Marketing for Edison Research , (co-presenting at the time with Triton Digital’s Jim Kerr ) provided a simple, usable framework to help media professionals formulate an engagement strategy for social media.

I’m not a broadcast media professional, nor was I in attendance at the conference (though I wish I was!) but I read about the framework shortly after the conference on Tom’s blog , commented and made a mental note that this was definitely worth sharing with those of you who are kind enough to partipate in the dialogue that occurs here on the VMR blog. The salient point, in my view, was the following:

“You need to have a strategy for your own web properties, and a strategy for web properties you don’t control or own.”

Sounds straightforward enough but try explaining that to those who are not very familiar with social media and you might just get them to scratch their heads and look at you funny but not much more. If that’s their response, this matrix will help you to begin your social strategy conversations on a simple, straightforward note.

Without going into too much additional detail, I’m going to strongly suggest that you hop on over to Tom’s blog and read the entirety of his post explaining the simple but very useful matrix (which Tom has graciously given me permission to copy here) below.

It’s an oldie but a goodie. I call it the Webster Engagement Matrix and a classic worth referencing time and again.

What about you? Have you come across useful matrices like Tom’s? Do you think this will help you explain social media strategy to those with whom you work or to your clients? I’d love to know so please do share the love!

Edison Research

The post Social Media Strategy: A 4-Point Matrix to Keep it Simple appeared first on VMR .

Social Media Strategy: A 4-Point Matrix to Keep it Simple

VMR

Lithium Technologies expected to Acquire ScoutLabs for $20+ Million

Fri, 07 May 2010 00:58:00 GMT

Lithium Technologies expected to Acquire ScoutLabs for $20+ Million The post Lithium Technologies expected to Acquire ScoutLabs for $20+ Million appeared first on VMR. Lithium Technologies expected to Acquire ScoutLabs for $20+ Million was first posted on May 6, 2010 at 7:58 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington , one the world’s leading bloggers, reported today that social media monitoring technology provider ScoutLabs is expected to be acquired by social CRM provider Lithium Technologies for between $20 million and $25 million. The deal is expected to be announced shortly, according to Arrington.

Lithium is a leading provider of enterprise social CRM solutions. Lithium’s platform provides enterprise-class security, analytics, APIs , and multi-language support according to the company’s website.

ScoutLabs is a leading technology provider for social media monitoring and reputation management. According to Arrington:

VMR Communications is a ScoutLabs agency partner and will update this post as we learn more.

UPDATE (April 7, 2010):

Additional details are available at Louis Gray’s blog .

The post Lithium Technologies expected to Acquire ScoutLabs for $20+ Million appeared first on VMR .

Lithium Technologies expected to Acquire ScoutLabs for $20+ Million

VMR

8 Steps to Choosing and Using the Best Social Media Monitoring Tool for Small Business

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 21:03:00 GMT

Eight steps small businesses can take to beginning engaging online. The post 8 Steps to Choosing and Using the Best Social Media Monitoring Tool for Small Business appeared first on VMR. 8 Steps to Choosing and Using the Best Social Media Monitoring Tool for Small Business was first posted on April 29, 2010 at 4:03 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Earlier today, I received a comment on social media monitoring that I was not expecting, from “Barry”:

Rather than reply within that post, I think Barry’s question is a good one and merits a response more lengthy than a simple comment. Here, then, is my response:

First, thanks for your question, Barry. I really appreciate your comment.

My short answer to your question is: It depends.

The medium long answer:Start with Socialmention.com

The long answer: Think through your decision using a holistic, incremental approach.

The apple hasn’t fallen too far from the tree.

Thanks for the comment, Barry! I hope this has been helpful.

The post 8 Steps to Choosing and Using the Best Social Media Monitoring Tool for Small Business appeared first on VMR .

8 Steps to Choosing and Using the Best Social Media Monitoring Tool for Small Business

VMR

Sentiment Analysis: When Humans Are Not More Reliable

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 03:47:00 GMT

This post discusses a study that revealed surprising results about what happens when sentiment analysis instructions are unclear. The post Sentiment Analysis: When Humans Are Not More Reliable appeared first on VMR. Sentiment Analysis: When Humans Are Not More Reliable was first posted on April 28, 2010 at 10:47 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

But questions remain as to why it makes sense (which I believe it does, by the way) to hire humans to analyze sentiment as opposed to relying solely on computer algorithms which have been shown to be less reliable than humans.

One insider asking some very good questions – and providing intriguing answers too – is Zoe Siskos, who, in a comment on Jason’s blog , referenced a recent study she co-authored with five of her colleagues from Syncapse Corporation ‘s Measurement Science Team. I’m not going to go into all the details here (it was a brilliantly conceived, well-designed and highly scientific study) but here are the conclusions I came to (slightly different than what the authors came to):

1. Ambiguity in the instructions given from CMOs to human analysts need to be crystal clear to prevent tonality scores that are competely inaccurate.

2. Unambiguous instructions will be much easier to formulate if your enterprise has clear business goals that tie directly into what Jeremiah Owyang of Altimeter Group insightfully referred in a special report as the 5Ms and the 18 Social Uses Cases.

CMOs and Service Providers: What do you think: Are human analysts worth hiring for sentiment analytics or not? How is your company dealing what sentiment analytics? Are you using only auto sentiment analysis ? Only human? A combination? Not at all?

Photo Credit: Second Life Resident Torley Linden . Visit Ambleside .

Social Media Monitoring Live Q & A

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 17:41:00 GMT

On June 22, at 11AM (Eastern) I'll be chatting with the folks at Synthesio about social media monitoring on Blog Talk Radio. The post Social Media Monitoring Live Q & A appeared first on VMR. Social Media Monitoring Live Q & A was first posted on April 15, 2010 at 12:41 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

UPDATE: The Blog Talk Radio portion of this chat has been cancelled. The twitter chat will still take place at #monitoring. Our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/BTRPlayer.swf

Next week, on Thursday, June 22, at 11AM (New York) / 3pm (GMT) I’ll be chatting with the folks at Synthesio about social media monitoring. You are welcome to join us as we explore the following topics:

1. What are the differences between free and paid monitoring tools?

2. When is it time to make the jump free to paid tools?

3. What factors should companies consider when choosing a monitoring platform? Follow twitter hashtag #monitoring using www.tweetchat.com during this lively discussion!

International callers : If you’d like to join the live on air conversation, you can do so free if you have a skype account by clicking here . Look for the “Use Skype to Talk” button which will appear on the day the program airs.

Callers within the US : To call in and ask a question or make a comment on air, simply dial (347) 884-8912 during the program.

Radian6 vs. Google?

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:24:00 GMT

Are search engines like Google and Yahoo likely to offer services that directly compete with Radian6 and other analytics platforms? The post Radian6 vs. Google? appeared first on VMR. Radian6 vs. Google? was first posted on April 14, 2010 at 2:24 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Will Google offer services that upend the social media analytics market?

Earlier this year, renowned enterprise social technology experts and Altimeter Group Partners Jeremiah Owyang and Charline Li , held a webinar entitled “Developing A Social Strategy” that had over 495 participants. Regrettably, I was not present for the live webinar but I watched a recording which the Altimeter Group was nice enough to post to their website.

One observation in particular made by Mr Owyang has gotten me thinking about the effect of the slowly evolving semantic web on analytics platforms like Radian6 and ScoutLabs.

Here’s what Owyang had to say about Radian6, Scoutlabs, and the many other analytics platforms (the words after “produce” were hard for me to decipher):

I do not know what was meant by this comment but it has prompted me to consider the following:

1. Will search engines like google directly compete with the services offered by these very sophisticated analytics platforms which now include customizable, multi-user interfaces, such as the recently announced Radian6 Enagagement Conssole ?

2. If so, what role, if any, will the semantic web play in prompting the search engines to contend more aggressively in this space?

Comment away! I would really appreciate any insights the community would like to share.

Gist: A Power Networker’s Dream…Come True

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:38:00 GMT

On April 9th at 1pm EDT I‘ll be chatting it up with venture capitalist T.A. McCann and technology innovator Buzz Bruggeman (on Blog Talk Radio) about a useful and increasingly popular tool for networking and online business intelligence gathering: Gist.com. Gist is an online application that helps you to “know more about who you know.” […] The post Gist: A Power Networker’s Dream…Come True appeared first on VMR. Gist: A Power Networker’s Dream…Come True was first posted on March 30, 2010 at 10:38 am.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

On April 9th at 1pm EDT I ‘ll be chatting it up with venture capitalist T.A. McCann and technology innovator Buzz Bruggeman (on Blog Talk Radio) about a useful and increasingly popular tool for networking and online business intelligence gathering: Gist.com .

T.A. McCann

Long story short: This is one interview you will absolutely positively not want to miss. Both TA and Buzz are extremely sharp, well-rounded and experienced businessmen. So whether you decide to use the Gist service (which is currently in beta and free) or not, I suspect the insights we will collectively gain about how to improve our networking and relationship building skills will be well worth the 30 minutes of your time and mine.

T.A.’s past experience includes Vulcan Capital and Polaris Venture Partners where he was an entrepreneur-in-residence. Prior to Polaris, he held senior positions at Microsoft , leading product planning for the Exchange Server Group and developing the Service Delivery Platforms group focused on mobile applications. He currently serves on the board of Art with Heart and is an advisor to Wishpot, Asset Archives and Notary One. Did I mention, T.A. is a founder of Jump2Go – providing innovative solutions for the radio industry, HelpShare – a web Q&A company and Soft Labour, a web design and development consultancy. Somehow in the midst of accomplishing so much T.A. squeezed in sailing around the world and winning the oldest active trophy in international sport -the America’s Cup .

I’ve listened to T.A. a few times online and the one thing that really impresses me is his determination, confidence and focus. But along the way, T.A. has, evidently, not forgotten about the importance of building and cultivating relationships with people by knowing what is going on and matters most in their world.

Buzz Bruggeman

One of those people is technologist Buzz Bruggeman , who is a big enough fan of Gist to share his personal experiences using the application with us next Friday. Buzz is one of the co-founders of ActiveWords , e.g. http://www.activewords.com/ . He graduated with honors from Coe College and from Duke University Law School . He runs the outward facing aspects of ActiveWords, and as such is responsible for evangelizing ActiveWords to everyone he meets. Buzz has spoken at many tech industry events, has been on the advisory board of the Demo Conference, e.g. www.demo.com , won a Demo god award, and has been featured in books by Dan Gillmor and Robert Scoble . Buzz has been a long time participant in the blogging community, and routinely speaks on using new media tools to market and evangelize software.

One more important note: If you’d like to share your experience using Gist here or you have questions you’d like me to ask T.A. or Buzz, be sure to jott me a comment here. Rest assured, I will be listening!

If you’re curious as to how Gist works, this video provides a good overview:

http://www.viddler.com/player/30699531/

Social Media Monitoring Lesson #1: Time is Money

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 03:03:00 GMT

Seems some corporations have fallen into the trap of failing to budget for the “total cost” of social media listening. In September of last year, Forrester Vice President and Principal Analyst Suresh Vittal (along with with Carlton A. Doty, Zach Hofer-Shall, and Emily Murphy) wrote a research report in which they stated the following: “Marketers […] The post Social Media Monitoring Lesson #1: Time is Money appeared first on VMR. Social Media Monitoring Lesson #1: Time is Money was first posted on March 25, 2010 at 10:03 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

In a blog post published the next day concerning the research paper, Vittal pointed out that “Far too often, [marketers] focus purely on the software costs associated with such tools.”

Vittal makes an interesting point and one that marketers will ignore at their peril: When budgeting for listening, don’t forget the internal costs of human resource allocation.

How is your company or organization dealing with the human element of listening?

Have internal costs exceeded your expectations?

The post Social Media Monitoring Lesson #1: Time is Money appeared first on VMR .

Social Media Monitoring Lesson #1: Time is Money

VMR

“PR At a Crossroads” Executive & Author to discuss PR’s Expanding Role in the Realms of Marketing and Branding.

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:34:00 GMT

The co-author, with Brian Solis, of the highly acclaimed "Putting the Public Back in Public Relations" joins VMR's Hugh Macken on Blog Talk Radio. The post “PR At a Crossroads” Executive & Author to discuss PR’s Expanding Role in the Realms of Marketing and Branding. appeared first on VMR. “PR At a Crossroads” Executive & Author to discuss PR’s Expanding Role in the Realms of Marketing and Branding. was first posted on March 6, 2010 at 10:34 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

The co-author, with Brian Solis , of the highly acclaimed “ Putting the

Public Back in Public Relations “, Deirdre Breakenridge joins VMR ‘s Hugh Macken on Blog Talk Radio for an exclusive interview on how social media is re-inventing and renewing Public Relations. You may listen live here.

Also please anonymously suggest question you would like me to ask during the interview by submitting suggestions here: http://vmr.slinkset.com

The live listener call-in # is 347-884-8912.

Says Seth Godin , Author of Tribes ,: “There will be two kinds of PR professionals in the future: those who read this book and get with the program, and the unemployed. Your choice.”

Ms. Breakenridge is President, Director of Communications at Mango! Marketing . A veteran in the PR industry, Breakenridge leads a creative team of PR and marketing executives. She counsels senior level executives at companies including RCN Metro Optical Networks, JVC, Michael C. Fina and Kraft.

Breakenridge is an adjunct professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey and is the author of three Financial Times business books .

Breakenridge has spoken publicly on the topics of PR, online marketing and brand building for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), and other organizations.

The post “PR At a Crossroads” Executive & Author to discuss PR’s Expanding Role in the Realms of Marketing and Branding. appeared first on VMR .

“PR At a Crossroads” Executive & Author to discuss PR’s Expanding Role in the Realms of Marketing and Branding.

VMR

Sales Execs, CMOs Take Note: Former Salesforce CMO joins Radian6 Board to Advise on Strategy

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:32:00 GMT

Some may have missed an important event in the ongoing battle for social media monitoring and engagement platform leadership: Late last month, Radian6 announced that Tien Tzuo, chief executive officer of Zuora, and former Chief Strategy Officer and CMO for salesforce.com had joined the Radian6 board of directors. I’ve decided to comment on this news because […] The post Sales Execs, CMOs Take Note: Former Salesforce CMO joins Radian6 Board to Advise on Strategy appeared first on VMR. Sales Execs, CMOs Take Note: Former Salesforce CMO joins Radian6 Board to Advise on Strategy was first posted on March 3, 2010 at 1:32 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

I’ve decided to comment on this news because I believe it signals a strategic adjustment in focus for Radian6 and a harbinger of increased market demand by sales executives for social media engagement technology that measures results from lead to close and interfaces seamlessly with CRM plaforms like salesforce.com.

Mr. Tzuo knows from experience that sales executives care about measurable sales results (that means dollars, pesos, Euros, Yen, etc…) more so than anyone else in an organization aside from the C-Suite. And they want a way to measure results in dollar terms. Now they want a way to see how social media engagement is increasing their sales from the time that first tweet is sent to the time their new customer signs on the dotted line.

If anyone has a good sense as to how to successfully attack that problem strategically, and within a SaaS framework, it would appear to be Mr. Tzuo.

A Stanford University and Cornell University alumnus, Tzuo joined Salesforce.com as employee 11 in 1999 and was one of the “original forces.” He held a variety of executive roles during his nine years there, eventually serving as its chief marketing officer and chief strategy officer. He personally oversaw the vision, direction and design of Salesforce’s award winning product line, helping to grow the firm into a multi-billion dollar company and one of the most successful Software-as-a-Service ( SaaS ) companies to date.

Not surprisingly, Radian6 CEO Marcel LeBrun is on cloud nine (no pun intended):

Says Tzuo:

Seriously, though, think of the Iphone of the sales and customer service world and that’s what you have with salesforce.com. It is now the leading enterprise cloud-computing company in the world for customer relationship management (CRM). Companies like Dell, the Wall Street Journal, NBC Universal , SprintNextel and others have all jumped on the Salesforce bandwagon.

But check out this quote from Sprint Nextel which appears on Salesforce’s website :

I think that this signals an important evolution in the social media monitoring and engagement platform space. At least at the Enterprise level, Marketing, PR, Customer Service and the C-Suite are all on board with the fact that they can’t ignore the conversations that are occurring online. They need to AT LEAST listen using a platform like ScoutLabs or Radian6.

But sales execs have been relatively slow to pick up on the value of social media for lead generation and closing deals largely because of the difficulty in tracking ROI and lead to close ratios. I suspect, perhaps incorrectly, that LeBrun and co. recognize this fact and are expecting increased demand from sales-minded organizations that are now (1) demanding currency denominated ROI metrics across the board and (2) really want to bring their sales teams into the mix as well.

Again, I could be totally off the mark in my assessment regarding increased demand from sales executives in particular in 2010. I’d love some of my readers to tell me if they agree or disagree and why.

I just believe that bringing Mr. Tzuo “on board” (again, no pun intended) increases the odds that Radian6 will deliver the goods that will be most in demand by CMOs and sales executives: a Monitoring, ROI Measurement and Engagement platform that will integrate seamlessly with a company’s CRM platform and that will be palatable to sales teams. A platform not only suited for marketing and customer service but also for sales.

I think this marks the beginning of a new chapter for enterprise class sales team adoption of social technologies.

And you? What do you think? Are there monitoring solutions out there that already do a good job of measuring social media engagement ROI? Which platforms work best for sales executives? Am I overestimating the significance of this move by Radian6? Reading more into it than necessary? I’d love to hear your comments.

And as always, I will be listening!

The post Sales Execs, CMOs Take Note: Former Salesforce CMO joins Radian6 Board to Advise on Strategy appeared first on VMR .

Sales Execs, CMOs Take Note: Former Salesforce CMO joins Radian6 Board to Advise on Strategy

VMR

Is the White House REALLY listening on LinkedIn?

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:09:00 GMT

Valerie Jarrett has her work cut out for her. Early last week the Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement at The White House, did two things she should be applauded for doing: She (1) started a discussion topic on Linkedin in the official White House Group (which is […] The post Is the White House REALLY listening on LinkedIn? appeared first on VMR. Is the White House REALLY listening on LinkedIn? was first posted on February 28, 2010 at 9:09 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Breakfast with Barack

Valerie Jarrett has her work cut out for her.

Early last week the Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement at The White House, did two things she should be applauded for doing: She (1) started a discussion topic on Linkedin in the official White House Group (which is open to any of the 60+ million members of Linkedin) on behalf of President Obama and (2) promised to report back by week’s end with a reply to all of the responses.

She will rightly receive some flack for not making good on the latter promise if she does not do so by this evening. But I, for one, think we should give her a few days leeway, at least this time. After all, the number of responses – over 1,240 from a rapidly expanding White House group that numbers over 31,000 – is probably among the highest number of responses per hour for any post on linkedin. Only one hour had passed from the time Ms. Garrett posted the topic to when I decided to contribute my two cents. But in that hour, I was stunned to see over 200 responses had already been offered.

Linkedin, under the steady leadership of Co-Founder Reid Hoffman and the behind-the-scenes legwork by Director of Communications Kay Luo, seems to have finally arrived on the US political scene. Pols will no longer be able to ignore its importance. Indeed, the professional networking site will likely have a key place at the Gov 2.0 “table” first set by William (Bill) Eggers , made popular by Tim O’Reilly last year and now becoming increasingly popular elsewhere across the social web thanks to online business leaders like Luo and political figures like Garrett who have been hard at work behind the scenes.

So what exactly was the topic of discussion boldly begun by Ms. Garrett, you ask? Here it is, followed by a sampling of responses:

From the first post…

…to the last…

…from the short…

…to the sacrastic…

…Valerie Garrett and President Obama got an overwhelming number of responses as they ponder the vexing questions that are clearly not only top of mind for them, but also for professionals on linkedin who are now, finally, starting to get comfortable not just having a profile on linkedin, but really connecting with others for not only professional advancement but also the Common Good.

I don’t know about you, but I cannot wait to see how the White House responds to the deluge of responses. Doing so requires a new kind of diplomacy that demands nothing less than authentic engagement with everyday people like you and me.

Is the White House really listening?

(Photo Credit: Breakfast with Barack by jurvetson )

A Generous Response from VerticalResponse

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:15:00 GMT

Janine Popick is one of those people I love to root for. Why? Because she roots for so many others. The founder and CEO of email marketing powerhouse VerticalResponse, Popick, doesn’t just talk about supporting the small businesses her company serves; she does it. Case it point: Popick has recently announced a New Deal contest […] The post A Generous Response from VerticalResponse appeared first on VMR. A Generous Response from VerticalResponse was first posted on February 22, 2010 at 10:15 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Case it point: Popick has recently announced a New Deal contest for small businesses who can compete to win $10,000 worth of cash prizes. Not bad, if you ask me. I could use a few grand for my company. How about your small business? Could it use a little extra cash later this year?

Dumb question, I know. But it’s my lead in to tell you about an event I think you might just want to pencil in on your calendar.

Join Janine and me on Thursday, February 25 at 4pm EDT (that’s 1pm Pacific for those of you on the West Coast) as we learn more about the contest and (maybe, just maybe) Janine’s initial impressions of the submissions thus far.

You can listen live on Thursday by clicking here or you can listen in by phone at that time. Just dial (347) 884.8912 and select the option to listen in.

If you do have any questions in particular that you’d like me to ask Janine, please post them here on our blog.

Thanks and good luck to all those who enter the competition!

Social Media Expert Deirdre Breakenridge to appear LIVE on Blog Talk Radio!

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:55:00 GMT

Social media, public relations and marketing expert Deirdre Breakenridge will be Hugh Macken's guest on an exclusive live edition of Blog Talk Radio program Hugh Macken, Live! regarding a book she co-authored with Brian Solis: "Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media Is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR." The post Social Media Expert Deirdre Breakenridge to appear LIVE on Blog Talk Radio! appeared first on VMR. Social Media Expert Deirdre Breakenridge to appear LIVE on Blog Talk Radio! was first posted on February 16, 2010 at 10:55 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Deirdre Breakenridge

I am absolutely delighted to announce that social media expert, marketing veteran, scholar and author Deirdre Breakenridge has graciously accepted my request to be interviewed on March 8th at 2pm EDT on Hugh Macken, Live! We will discuss one of her latest books, which she co-authored with the iconic Brian Solis , Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media Is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR .

As anyone who has spoken with her for more than like two seconds will attest, Deirdre is one of the nicest people you will ever meet.

Listen to Hugh Macken, Live! on Blo But she is also, in fact, one of the most highly regarded experts in the United States in the field of social media, marketing and public relations .

She counsels senior level executives at companies including RCN Metro Optical Networks , Quality Technology Services , JVC , Michael C. Fina and Kraft . She is also an adjunct professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison , New Jersey where she teaches courses on Public Relations and Interactive Marketing for the Global Business Management program. She is the author of three (count ’em:) Financial Times business books : “PR 2.0, New Media, New Tools, New Audiences,” “The New PR Toolkit” and “Cyberbranding: Brand Building in the Digital Economy.”

She has spoken publicly on the topics of PR, online marketing and brand building for important organizations like the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), Strategic Research Institute (SRI), Women’s Presidents Organization (WPO), Tier1 Research and at a number of colleges and universities.

It’s just so cool to me that agreed to be interview on my little ‘ol Hugh Macken, Live! I figure the least I can do is tell as many people about the interview as I can to let the world know about a book that I honestly feel needs to be read by every marketing professional in the world.

But who cares what I think!!!

Check out these testamonials:

“There will be two kinds of PR professionals in the future: those who read this book and get with the program, and the unemployed. Your choice.”

Seth Godin , Author of Tribes

“I am thrilled that there is finally a book about the right way to approach PR in today’s world, where hyper-connected conversations trump the old school broadcast mentality. Everyone who wants to build a career in PR or marketing should read this book.”

Tony Hsieh , CEO, Zappos.com

“Putting the Public Back in Public Relations is a passionate and persuasive case for rewriting the rules of public relations. Authors Solis and Breakenridge expertly combine third-party perspective with case studies and examples to paint a picture of a profession on the brink of reinvention.”

Paul Gillin , Author, The New Influencers and Secrets of Social Media Marketing

So now that I’ve shared the good news, would you mind sharing with me what we topics you think we should address? What would you like to know about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to public relations in the world of the read/write web?

One smart company: Pandora plays to its strength by keeping it simple.

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:30:00 GMT

In evaluating technology and IT services (whether it's Radian6 vs. Sysomos or Salesforce.com vs. 37Signals Highrise CRM): Simpler is often better. Bells and whistles oftentimes are good for making noise and confusing what really matters and not much else. The post One smart company: Pandora plays to its strength by keeping it simple. appeared first on VMR. One smart company: Pandora plays to its strength by keeping it simple. was first posted on January 27, 2010 at 10:30 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Last is amazing. Last.fm I mean. For those not familiar, Last is a service that recommends and plays music, videos and concerts based on what you listen to. So you type in “ Huey Lewis and the News ” and it plays 80s music similar to Huey Lewis songs. In theory anyway. You can also scrobble (whatever that means :), add private tags, add public tags, add and remove friends, create a public profile, message other users publicly, send shout-outs, view user-uploaded videos related to the songs your listening to, etc. etc…

Pandora.com offers that same service minus all the bells and whistles. In fact the core service, playing songs related to the song or artist you’ve entered, is far more reliable than Last’s. There have been many times when listening to last.fm that I wanted to listen to a specific song genre (80s pop , for instance) and the Last recommendations that played were not nearly as consistent as the recommendations that pandora played.

My point? In evaluating technology and IT services (whether it’s Radian6 vs. Sysomos or Salesforce.com vs. 37Signals Highrise CRM ): Simpler is better. Bells and whistles oftentimes are good for making noise and not much else.

What’s your take? Do you find yourself keeping it simple when it comes to IT or do you prefer the most sophisticated option out there? Do you struggle with having to forgo the capabilities that go along with more sophisticated technology?

Oh by the way, while pondering this, I highly recommend that you check out 37Signals’ book, Getting Real .

Google Wave: Are the Listeners Listening?

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:56:00 GMT

Social Media expert Chris Broagn has written an interesting post today that I suggest you check out concerning google Wave which has really gotten me thinking: Should I maybe give Wave a second look? The post Google Wave: Are the Listeners Listening? appeared first on VMR. Google Wave: Are the Listeners Listening? was first posted on January 20, 2010 at 12:56 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Brown Bear having fun…

Originally uploaded by Beverly & Pack

Chris Brogan has written an interesting post today that I suggest you check out concerning google Wave which has really gotten me thinking: Should I maybe give Wave a second look? And a second, more important question: Have Radian6 , Sysomos , ScoutLabs , Jodange and other listening / monitoring platforms thought about how they will monitor the rapidly increasing number of public conversations taking place there?

I look forward to hearing how others, most especially the major Listening platforms are making sense of something I frankly have not figured out yet. Comment away!

And, yes, of course, feel free to wave me! I am hmackenjr -at- googlewave -dot- com.

By the way, if you have never seen Wave or don’t know much about it, there’s a good summary at Mark Smithers’ blog .

Radian6 is Best for Social Media Monitoring. No it’s Not.

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:59:00 GMT

When it comes to something as complex and sophisticated as social media monitoring / listening and engagement platforms, ScoutLabs, Radian6 and Sysomos each have their strengths but the best option for your enterprise really depends on the context of your situation. The post Radian6 is Best for Social Media Monitoring. No it’s Not. appeared first on VMR. Radian6 is Best for Social Media Monitoring. No it’s Not. was first posted on January 16, 2010 at 12:59 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Originally uploaded by HikingArtist.com

Over the last several months I’ve spent a considerable amount of my time evaluating and testing various social media monitoring platforms for medium-sized and enterprise-class organizations. I’ve narrowed down my focus to three with an outstanding reputation in the industry. There are certainly others who have an excellent reputation as well but among paid platform providers these have stood out from the pack from the research I have done:

Radian6 , ScoutLabs and Sysomos .

My conclusion: They are all winners in their own right. Numero uno truly is relative and depends on the context of your enterprise’s needs. But more on that in a sec.

So I’ve looked at lots of platforms but the three I am most impressed by and have looked at most closely thus far are Radian6 (which I’ve demo’d and tested), ScoutLabs (which I’ve also demo’d and tested) and Sysomos, which I’ve demo’d and plan to test early this coming week..

The question we at VMR and myself in particular have been asking continually is not so much which is the best platform, but which is the best platform (or combination of platforms) for us to service our clients and prospective clients and their specific needs.

When it comes to something as complex and sophisticated as social media monitoring / listening and engagement platforms, each of the three above have their strengths (more on that in a future post) but the bottom line is that the best option for your enterprise really depends on the context of your situation.

The answers to questions like the few (of many) that I have listed below, will hopefully help you engage in meaningful dialogue internally as well as externally with vendors and agency partners vis-à-vis your social media marketing , public relations , customer service , and sales efforts online:

1. Are you looking to compare your share of voice online versus that of your competitors and track that over time using easily comprehensible metrics that can be assigned a $ value?

2. Whose voice do you want to listen to? Key influeners? General consumer sentiment? Stakeholders? Traditional Media? Male? Female? In North America or worldwide?

3. Do you need a platform that can be used in focus group fashion to slice and dice general consumer sentiment, key influencer sentiment, and or journalist sentiment?

4. Do you need to know where the fish (your prospects and key influencers) are currently swimming (“conversing”) before you dive into or create an empty pond?

5. Would you like to track how well your PR campaigns have increased share of voice specifically among key influencers or among consumers at large?

6. What about your sales and customer services teams? Are they looking for the actionable
intelligence that a social media monitoring platform can provide? Will the monitoring platform you choose need to integrate well with a CRM like salesforce.com?

7. Which social media “venues” are you most interested in monitoring? Blogs? Traditional News Outlets? Forums? Linkedin? Facebook ? Youtube? Blogtalkradio? Podcasts? (Check out the conversation prism below to get a better sense for what’s out there)

8. If influencing the influencers is important to you, do you need a platform that helps you identify key influencers by showing you inbound links, comment count, level of engagement?

9. Is yours a global brand where you need to monitor not only key influencer sentiment but also the so-called “Long Tail” of your marketing sales curve?

10. Is your CMO demanding specific and meaningful metrics that can demonstrate a clear ROI from your social media engagement efforts?

11. If you are monitoring global brands, will you need a platform that translates content and sentiment in multiple languages?

12. Do you have the resources, expertise and social media savvy currently to fully leverage the capabilities of whatever platform is best for you?

13. How much historical data will you need? Some platforms have absolutely enormous amounts of historical data. Is that going to be helpful to your PR and marketing teams? Or not worth paying extra for?

14. What about ease of use? Do you need a platform that multiple users in your organization will learn quickly and easily, thus increasing their level of online engagement?

There are many options and just as many needs-analysis questions out there for medium-sized and enterpise-class organizations when it comes to monitoring platforms and social media agencies.

While content may indeed be king (is it still?), when it comes to evaluating your options in the world of social media and understanding how to engage after listening carefully, context i is queen.

That’s how we are approaching our needs analysis at VMR for ourselves and for our prospective clients. I’d love to hear from the three leaders above, their competitors, their current clients and those that are taking a look at them. Now’s your chance to speak your mind and voice your choice.

Do you agree that there is no number 1?
What questions would you add to a needs analysis?
Which questions concerning social media and social media monitoring are most important for your organization to consider?
Which ones have you had the most difficulty answering?

The post Radian6 is Best for Social Media Monitoring. No it’s Not. appeared first on VMR .

Radian6 is Best for Social Media Monitoring. No it’s Not.

VMR

#1 Graphical Illustration of Social Media on the Internet

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:43:00 GMT

Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas have designed a prism that graphically illustrates the various types of social media. It is a superb high level diagram for those wanting an overview of social media outlets online. The post #1 Graphical Illustration of Social Media on the Internet appeared first on VMR. #1 Graphical Illustration of Social Media on the Internet was first posted on January 12, 2010 at 8:43 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Putting the Public Back in Public Relations , co-authored by Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge is a must read for any social media professional. So it should come as no surprise that Solis along with Jesse Thomas (JESS3) have come out with one of the most artistic representations of the world of social media to date. That’s quite a feat, considering the immense scope and variety of social media outlets online. It’s definitely worth checking out if you need a high level view of what exactly comprises “Social Media”

http://theconversationprism.com/interactiveclick/EmbedVersion/conversationprism.swf

The Conversation Prism by Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas

Spreading the Wealth Around, Sports Media Content for the Digital Age

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:25:00 GMT

Well… News is important. We need good journalists with integrity to report the facts. Sports… we love sports… but do you really need a J-School degree to provide great sports media content for your viewers. What has the social media, web 2.0 movement taught us. If nothing else: people find themselves fascinating. Their own lives, […] The post Spreading the Wealth Around, Sports Media Content for the Digital Age appeared first on VMR. Spreading the Wealth Around, Sports Media Content for the Digital Age was first posted on January 8, 2010 at 8:25 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Well… News is important. We need good journalists with integrity to report the facts.

Sports… we love sports… but do you really need a J-School degree to provide great sports media content for your viewers.

What has the social media, web 2.0 movement taught us. If nothing else: people find themselves fascinating. Their own lives, their own friends, their own news. So why wouldn’t we expect the same from sports media?

The future of sports media is large, interactive, fan-based content sure to ultimately overwhelm the talking heads.

2pm EST, Alexander Memorial Coliseum, Atlanta, GA

1 lucky Super GT Fan will be given broadcast control at tip-off! Email BryanB1300@gmail.com for more details.

The post Spreading the Wealth Around, Sports Media Content for the Digital Age appeared first on VMR .

Spreading the Wealth Around, Sports Media Content for the Digital Age

VMR

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