My Digital Media Secret Sauce...or How Do I Keep Up?

Recently there has been a plethora (yep a bunch) of blog posts highlighting the "Top [insert no. here] People to Follow" on Twitter. Here's a few of them:

@PRsarahevans "Top 50 Tweeples to Follow"
@InkFoundry "20 Social Media Marketing Leaders on Twitter"
@iancapstick "20 Leading Women in Social Media" (this one is a response list to the InkFoundry list which had only TWO women in the list).
@jasonhiner "Techies: The Top 10 People You should Follow on Twitter"

And then, of course there are several lists by @kenthuffman:

Top Marketing Professors to Follow on Twitter (I'm currently #8 'cause I don't have 2,000 followers yet)
Top Marketing Authors on Twitter

In my Internet Marketing class in addition to the required reading for the course I include both blogs and twitter id's on a "must read for current events" list. All students in the class must have an RSS feed reader set up by tomorrow (Friday) and have subscribed to a certain list of blogs/twitter accounts. Many of my recommendations below are on the list for students.

So, not to be outdone by the above lists and warning of some overlap, here is Elaine's Recommended List of People to READ (both blogs AND tweets) for Students:

This list is based on overall VALUE to me as an educator. Where do I learn the most and who keeps me up to date the most so I can pass that information on to my students. So folks, these people make up my Digital Marketing Secret Sauce (for all the people out there wondering how I keep up on it all):

Oh, and this is in no particular order just a mashup of greatness if you will.

Beth Harte via Twitter and #pr20chat: She works at Marketing Profs, is an adjunct faculty and an all around smart, strategic thinker. Must follow for anyone in communication.

Marketing Profs (Ann Handley) via Twitter: All around good info - knows her stuff, great RT of others. Value, Value, Value!

Conversation Agent (Valeria Maltoni) via Blog AND Twitter: Excellent point of view about all things MarComm. Makes you think, makes me think.

Brian Solis via Blog and Twitter: Talk about critical thinker! Looks at PR and what makes it tick, rips it apart, builds it back up. Visuals describe it all.

Avinash Kaushik via Blog and Twitter: Web Analytics Evangelist at Google. If you are NOT following him you miss out on the keys to Data Driven Decision-Making.

Danny Brown via Blog and Twitter: The nicest Marketing person on the web hands down -- great point of view, relevant info and all about social media for good with his 12for12k Challenge.

Sarah Evans via Twitter and #journchat: Twitter stream of value and fun, great retweets, good links and runs Journchat. Always thinking about intersection of journalism, blogging and online communication tools.

Danny Sullivan via Twitter. Edits Search Engine Land. Been following Danny via his search work since before I was teaching. Solid gold info on all things Search. Must. Follow.

Andrew Keen via Blog and Twitter: The anti-social media person on my list (although he uses social media). Makes you think about all the social media hype and frenzy and questions the value. Cult of the Amatuer is a must read.

dana boyd via Blog: Academic. Researcher. All over online communication tools and environments. 'nuff said. Really.

Diedre Breckenridge via Blog and Twitter and the new #prstudchat: PR2.0 Strategist, writes books, connects PR/Marketing and Communication. Excellent info grounded in experience.

Rohit Bhargava via Blog and Facebook and Twitter: You want personality? Author of Personality Not Included (a required text in my MKT111 class), his book is great and his blog RAWKS. Really. Great insight, important point of view and experience beyond all reason.

Ambercadabra (Amber Nasland) via Twitter and Blog: She's with Radian6 (Community Manager) and her Tweets...well....they be good. Really, really, good. And then there's those e-Books. Just might end up as required readings in some classes of mine.

SkyDiver (Peter Shankman) via Twitter and Blog: Brains behind HARO (Help a Report Out) and all around interesting PR person. Lot's of energy and one of the few people I have Poken'd (now that's another story). Fun tweets and important social media perspective.

Barbara Nixon via Twitter: Aside from the occasional NASCAR tweet (grin), Barbara, a PR Prof from Georgia Southern University, provides great info on teaching PR, using different tools in the classroom and current issues.

Robert Scoble via FriendFeed. Yes, the world follows him and so do I. I friend feed because of him and I learn about all sorts of nifty things from his Tweets and FF. Follow, Listen, Learn.

and now...a special shout out to #BTV:

Joe Mescher via Twitter: The Social Media Commando is a prolific vlogger and provides great tips. Works at Dealer.com.

Nicole Ravlin via Twitter: Local PR Maven with emphasis on FOOD. Great clients, great energy, good info and retweets. Works at People Making Good, great PR firm in BTV and one of the founders of the Social Media Breakfast.

Ryan Mercer via Twitter: Part of our local news media at the BFP -- Photo Journalist. Pushing the edge. Always trying new things.

Rich Nadworny via Twitter: Owns local shop Digalicious, big part of the BTV social media scene and one of the founders of the Social Media Breakfast.

So there you have it. Another list.

Putting Burlington (BTV) on the (Social Media) Map

This morning I attended the second Burlington Vermont Social Media Breakfast (twitter hashtag #btvsmb) at the Sheraton Hotel. For info on the background of this event and a quick overview, read Rich Nadworny's account at his blog. The speakers for this one where Sarah Evans known as @prsarahevans on Twitter and Jason Kintzler of PitchEngine who is known as @pitchengine on Twitter.

I enjoyed both of their presentations -- Sarah's on general PR and social media, and Jason's on Pitch Engine and the evolution of the Press Release -- because they provided a strong case for why the social media space continues to grow and evolve and why it is NOT a fad.

My main take-aways from today's presentations and breakfast have a little to do with what the presenter's actually presented, but more to do with my impressions of our BTV community when it comes to this thing called Social Media.

> PR and Marketing and Advertising have to work together now in ways they never have before. Ok, so this didn't really come from the audience -- but is a key take away. No longer can it be advertising in one corner, PR in another and Marketing somewhere else. They must work together to craft an integrated communication strategy. Things are moving too fast and your brand is too important to segment these skill sets any longer. @pitchengine talked a bit about Advertising vs. PR as did @prsarahevans and it is clear that PR pros have to consider Adwords and SEO in their pitching strategy and Marketing/Advertising must consider not just the outgoing messages but the incoming messages as well.

> It's NOT ABOUT THE TOOLS! I believe both @prsarahevans and @pitchengine highlighted this fact and I couldn't agree more. The tools keep changing and evolving. It's how the PR pro uses the available tools to leverage their message and connect with their brand influencers that is key. That's the strategy. And each tool should be used differently.

> Burlington, VT is Rock'n the Social Media. Well...kind of.... What I saw today was a group of individuals in the room who are all over the map when it comes to social media -- some are swimming in the deep end and others are standing on the side wondering if they even want to dip a toe in the water. But, what the #btvsmb has done is provided an affordable way for all of these individuals to come together to meet and hear from thought-leaders in the field about how social media is evoloving and how a brand/business can benefit from the use of social media. Did this morning move anyone closer to getting their toes wet? I think it did. The ongoing conversation including the Wednesday evening #iBTV Twitter chat might help too. (Thanks @joemescher for jumping on that!)

> There's a vacuum at the top. So here we are in this room with these two innovators in the social media space and questions focused on moving people in the organization (in other words, the boss/ceo) to be willing to give social media a try. And this, my friends is the challenge. While there were a mix of individuals in the room, many got the fact that they had to at least know what is happening in the space. BUT when they go back to their 9to5 will the boss LISTEN to them? I get this question when I do presentations too -- how do you get the administration to LISTEN and allow you to try the social media, and I certainly experience it in my roll as a prof at Champlain -- and my answer is simple. Keep at it. Be patient. Provide information. But, CEO's if you value your brand and your company perhaps instead of sending your staff to these events you should come too.

Next week EpikOne is hosting another Seminar for Success that will include speakers from Google, Gannett Digital and Core Industries. Part of the event will be at Champlain College and the last day in downtown Burlington. It's another opportunity for our local businesses to learn about strategies and tactics -- and if I know the Epik crew it will be well worth it.

So in two weeks time we have @prsarahevans, @pitchengine, @avinashkaushik, @schutzsmith and Matt Jones all here in Burlington, VT.

How cool is that?

Here we go again....

In case you haven't noticed, I'm on blog hiatus. What that means is that I'm on summer break and I'm really taking a break.

However...I was moved to post an observation based on an article from THE TIMES entitled, "Twitter is for old people, work experience whiz-kid tells bankers". In short, a young man (around 15) has told his internship site (a bank) how "Teens Use Tech".

According to this young man, games consoles are for communicating with friends, computers are for listening to music and Twitter is for old people.

Hmmm...

In particular what I found interesting was this quote from the article, "His supervisors thought the report “one of the clearest and most thought-provoking insights we have seen” and published it. "

Um...back the truck up people.

While this young man may have one particular experience with technology communication tools -- his lifestyle does not mean that ALL TEENS have the same experience. It took him one day to write his "report" and he reached out to his circle of friends to do it. So here we have a group of business people who are now talking about how teens communicate based on this one individuals experience.

Getting caught up in things like "Twitter is for old people" and "All teens use Facebook" and "they don't listen to radio". Love this comment from the young man, "“Most teens would say the same things,” he said. “We talk about this kind of thing at school quite a lot. Though the way we talk about it you probably wouldn’t understand it.” "

So Wall Streeters and Business-types take a minute and before you decide that this young man's experience is TEEN GOSPEL, and you begin to make business decisions based on it, what facts do we know?

Facebook Use: A recent study on Facebook demographics from iStrategy Labs highlights the shifting user base of Facebook: more growth in FB use among 35 - 55+ than in younger users. Teens may be using FB, but so are a whole lot more -- and it is interesting to note that more females than males use FB.

Twitter Use: According to QuantCast, Twitter users skew female, with highest use amont 18 -39 (although there is use among 12 - 17).

Radio Use: Taking a look at arbitron ratings (only available through Sp07) we find that the group least likely to listen to radio are young men ages 12 - 17. That's been the case according to this listing since FA 98. The same goes for females in that age range. Overall radio listenership is declining.

Newspaper Use: According to the Newspaper Association of America, in a readership report with 2008 numbers, they don't even show teens as part of their research. The 18 - 24 age range reads the least and individuals within the 35-44 age bracket are the largest reading demographic.

What I see here is that what this young man has "revealed" is not a secret nor is it a surprise. The data from numerous sources show the overall trends with these different communication choices. So much depends on factors that include gender, background, socio-economic status, parental influences and education.

I hope that most business people keep that in mind when they read articles like this. My own daughter uses Twitter and she's 12. Does that mean that all tween girls use Twitter? Nope. It just means that a young girl whose Mom uses Twitter, uses Twitter as well.

Qualitative data that focuses in on individual experience is very helpful to gain insight into other data and facts, but when one person's experience is taken to be the "truth" and therefore applied to EVERYBODY...that is a big mistake.

Now...back to vacation.

See you in August!

Tried and Truism: When you hear that EVERYONE is doing it...

I had the pleasure of being part of the Leadership in a Connected Age conference yesterday here at Champlain College. Great information shared by speakers Steven Shepard and Elliott Masie. I learned a great deal as always and had some great take aways. If you want to see a "tweet-by-tweet" of the conference, search for #cxage at http://search.twitter.com.

What the speakers got me thinking about even more, however, is the power of perception. We often here that "perception is the reality" and in Marketing we often work to create a perception of success, want, need, etc. around a product or service.

When it comes to the use of social media tools and new communication technologies, however, the "perception is the reality" mantra is not only untrue, it is downright misleading. Some "truisms" I heard and felt yesterday from speakers as well as from attendees included: 1) Gen Y is all about teams, collaboration and technology. 2) If you aren't using social media tools you are behind. 3) Giving/empowering individuals to create content will elect a president. (therefore it will always be a success) 4) Social Media will save the world.

Ok, so that last one is a bit over the top (grin).

The reality with these points is that there is a thread of truth in all of them. But at the same time, there is much about them that may lead you down a primrose path.

Yesterday at #cxage I presented a workshop on Social Media Tools to expand your community, business and mind. And as with all of my workshops, sessions, etc, I started with a disclaimer. Believe it or not, NOT EVERYONE is using Twitter. Not EVERYONE is using social media.

Where did we get the idea that EVERYONE is using these tools? When did we get the idea that the old rules no longer apply to new tools?

As a professor it is my job to teach the foundation of marketing to my students. I weave in so-called "old school" stuff like, target market and competitive analysis and goal setting with all the possible tools in which the message can be delivered. We talk about RADIO, TV, PRINT and WEB. We talk about engaging with you customer via MAIL, PHONE, EMAIL, FORUMS, BLOGS, MICRO-BLOGS. In short we talk about how to utilize best-practices to reach and engage with your audience.

The tools themselves, while providing a host of opportunities, are less important than the message and the goals that are set.

Let's look at each "truism" from above in the context of REAL reality.

Gen Y is all about Teams, Collaboration and Technology

Um. No. This is not the case. While individuals who are younger (remember I teach them) do work in many group settings, not ALL want to be collaborative. Not ALL want to work in a group and certainly not ALL are good with technology. Time and time again, I see students who are a whiz with their cellphone and an iPod freeze up when it is time to use a content management system, or work with blog software and explore Second Life. We get ourselves into trouble if we base decisions in the workplace on the sense that Gen Y knows ALL of these things. Blanket statements like this mean we forget about individuals, their experiences, their strengths and their challenges. We set an unfair expectation on a "group" of people. It is just another way to stereotype a group of people. Rather, consider that often times there is strength in a group and safety in a group, especially when someone is learning. This issue is the same as we look at ANY age group.

If you aren't using Social Media Tools you are behind the times.

Um...no. Not at all. Yes, the media landscape is changing -- daily, actually. Yes, internet-based messaging and collaboration tools are cropping up all over that provide exciting and interesting opportunities. Yes, traditional advertising is expensive and it is hard to measure ROI. At the same time, one should never "jump" into a tool just because "EVERYONE" is doing it. If your target market is using social media tools then you should be there. If it works for your brand then you should be there. Does this mean you shouldn't pay attention and listen to the streams of information that are flowing out there? Nope. You may not need to use the platform to market your product or service yet, but you do need to be aware and listen. From a strategic perspective this is no different than monitoring the news media to see what letters to the editor are being placed, or what article has been written about your business. This "old school" process is the same -- there are just more places you need to listen.

A new study from HubSpot shows that not everyone who is on Twitter is even using Twitter that much. Well, how could this be since EVERYONE is on Twitter? Common sense. Twitter hasn't been around very long. People who are on Twitter right now are learning how to use it in a host of different ways but in reality, are making it up as they go. There are no rules, no best practices -- there are examples of businesses that have used it and gotten positive results and there are examples of those who have used it and failed miserably. By the way, according to Twellow there are 1,399 people on Twitter in Vermont. According to the 2008 Census, there are approx. 621,000 people in the state of Vermont. So it's clear that not EVERY Vermonter is on Twitter.

So, listen. Be aware of what is going on, but do not feel pressured to jump in just because "EVERYONE" is there.

Giving/empowering individuals to create content will elect a president. I'm sorry. I just can't buy this one. I have great respect for Mr. Masie, but while 69,498,215 people voted for Obama, 59,948,240 voted for McCain. Both candidates used a host of social media tools and let individuals create content, comment, and meet up. Remember that Ron Paul utilized social media most effectively and raised $6 million in one day! If the argument is that the YOUTH voted for Obama because he engaged them/empowered them with Social Media I would have to disagree. There were just too many OTHER factors. Take a look at this great breakdown from CivicYouth.org, the website of CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) which conducts research on the civic and political engagement of Americans between the ages of 15 and 25 and you'll get a sense for the complexity. Note not one mention of social media as a driver. Is it true that ALL the campaigns utilized new social media tools like never before? Yes. Do I believe that we will see more use of online communication and engagement tools in future elections? Yes I do. I just don't believe they are the reason why someone will be elected.

Finally -- Social Media will Save the World.

Yeah, I believe this one (smile). Seriously, I believe that what has changed is that individuals now have access to a myriad of tools in which to engage around issues they care about. The potential to use these tools to make positive change in the world is amazing -- but, let's all remember that these are just tools and much like any tool can be used for pretty much any purpose. Andrew Keen would argue that giving this much power to the people dooms us all to a world of frivolous, insipid content that is meaningless because, well, most of us are just amateurs (See Keen's book, The Cult of the Amateur) and we need some type of editing.

The real change with social media is the access to tools that empower the individual to reach a wide audience like never before. I agree that organizations have to adapt to this actual reality and learn how to manage information better since they can no longer control it all.

Just remember not to fall into the age old trap that "Everyone" is doing it. It's a bad reason for just about everything.

Social Media Breakfast: Small Town, Pot-Lucks, Beer and Giving Back

Yesterday I was lucky to be part of the first Social Media Breakfast held here in Burlington, VT. In my humble opinion I would say we hit it out of the park. The brainchild of Digalicious founder, Rich Nadworny, our Burlington event was based on the Social Media Breakfast concept that has hit major cities around the country. Not to be out done, we had to have one here, with a double twist of local connection and giving back to the community.

Rich brought in CC Chapman and Todd Defren, two Boston Marketing and PR businessmen who specialize in helping businesses integrate social media into their communication strategies. He also was able to bring in Mike Hayes with Magic Hat Brewery. Great presentations by all the speakers....presentations which were live blogged right here by a great marketing student, Amanda Jones. The posts about the presentations from CC Chapman, Todd Defren and Mike Hayes are below this post, or you can click on their names here to get to each separately.

What really made the event special was that Rich brought in a local non-profit that is having an amazing impact on the lives of women in developing countries and had the crowd of over 100 people brainstorm ways in which Grounds for Health could leverage social media tools to further their cause. This giving back segment gave the attendees a way to practice what they had just taken in during the earlier session and provided an amazing non-profit with great ideas. Marketing student Nichole Magoon captured some of the ideas via her live tweets:

Table 7--game with backing/$$ edge, green patch model, FB fan page, video blog, celebrities, training program #btvsmb

Table 8 witter #tag, coffee drinkers, companies donating money each time #tag used, landing page w/content, highlight co-op ea. mo. #btvsmb Table 8 (con't) donate and get S.M. badge, bracelet with Twitter name, email list #btvsmb

Table 10--blogs; coffee socials @churches--donations, and social media, volunteers; women bloggers + health, WebMD (&the like) #btvsmb

Table 4(?)-- cup campaigns, coffee companies aligning with cervical cancer groups, Twitter, videos, month dedicated to cause #btvsmb

Table 11--videos, targeted ads in FB, women + coffee lovers (go where the fish are!) #btvsmb

Table 12 --contacting hospitals to only use G4H coffee, offering med. profs. lessons in Spanish #btvsmbTable 12 (con't)--video journals (follow doctors through experience), FB Spanish medical comm. #btvsmb

Champlain Students--program "building from the Grounds up", gather content and use social media to connect, going green movement #btvsmb Champlain students--connecting with colleges and passionate students, coffee talks, street teams, etc... #btvsmb #campchamp

Great local coverage and a lot of twitter-chat made the event dynamic, fun and highlighted some of the amazing, innovative work that is being done right here in Burlington, VT.

I was glad that Rich invited me to be part of the planning for this event and that our Division of Communication and Creative Media, under the leadership of Dean Jeff Rutenbeck gets the importance of bringing the local community together around social media and communication technologies. Also great to have the Burlington Free Press as a sponsor, and to see so many from the BFP in the audience. We are very lucky here to have progressive, forward thinking print publications who are examining ways in which to utilize social media and online tools to keep all of us informed.

I have to say that students Amanda Jones (guest blogger), Nichole Magoon (live-tweeter), Kelly Diamond (live-tweeter), Melissa Tuburzio (support and live-tweeter) and Riva Dumont (support) were AWESOME. Not only did they help keep things running smoothly, they really captured the high points of the event through Twitter. You should follow them. They are going to do GREAT things...maybe even for YOUR business. (Yes, shameless plug for my students...sue me!)

Here's some of the media coverage that came from the event:

• Burlington Free Press (pre-event)
• Burlington Free Press (post-event)
• WCAX
• Cynthea's Spa Blog Post at the BFP site (post-event)
• Vlog from Joe Mescher

The hashtag for the event was #btvsmb. Check out the stream before it flows away!

Looking forward to the next one in the fall.

Guest Post at Danny Brown's Blog: Small Business and Social Media

As promised in my last post, I have written a guest post for Blogger and PR Professional Danny Brown. It came from a Twitter conversation I had with Danny (who I follow on Twitter @dannybrown) late last year. He felt that 2008 was THE year for Social Media -- and I politely disagreed (smile). Out of that conversation came his request that I provide a guest blog post at his site.

I finally got it done today and he posted it lightening quick! Here's the link: http://dannybrown.me/2009/02/01/small-business-not-ready-for-prime-time-yet/

Enjoy.

A stew of possibilities

Here it is. Finally. That promised blog post.

The pressure to write this has been overwhelming and yet, I seem to keep finding other things to do like grade and prep classes and sleep and play WoW and ... well you get the picture I think.

I've had a bunch of social media swirling around me lately. The discovery of Ping.FM, having multiple classes create blogs for different purposes, Twittering and realizing that there is a way to save your Tweets (I'll get to that in a few), and having people send me requests to "social media" pass their info on...and then there's that internal clearspace thing...and the new Champlain Portal workforce group...

It makes me think about all the possibilities that social media is bringing. Things that I couldn't do a few short years ago, I can do now. So let's get to it shall we?

Social Media for GOOD
It's the giving season and it would seem that some people don't get that. For whatever reason a local Non-Profit dedicated to collecting toys for children was vandalized a little while ago. Someone or someones got their jollies by bust'n up toys. Great. Makes you wonder what the heck is going on in the world today for real. Enter NEW BREED MARKETING. Devin and the gang over there clearly felt that it wasn't good enough to talk about this one, they have taken action. They've created a donation widget that you can use to give money to the cause. You can also share this widget on Facebook and with tons of others...in my case I'm putting it right HERE:



Now that is the way to use Social Media. By the way, you can follow Devin on Twitter by going here: http://twitter.com/devin1682. They've raised over $3,000 so far to help out our local Vermont children. Spread the word, will ya?

Why I need more time to read Twitter
So here are the things I've learned recently because of the people I follow at Twitter:

1. Twitter Grader: A site that helps track your "popularity" on Twitter. Note that you can also grade your website and your press release -- it's from HubSpot. Why is this important? Because this is a business that is trying to get your business so they've created a way to drive traffic and get more people talking about them. If they can do this for themselves...what could they do for your business? Great marketing!
2. Chris Brogan: @Lizschlegel Tweeted about this guy and a recent blog post he had about how to get started in Social Media -- his scenario approach is readable and interesting. I'll be saving this one for my class next semester!
3. FTW: Learned from @agahran with a link to the urban dictionary that FTW means "For the Win" which is often snarky and ends a post.
4. Gender Inequity in Africa: @DaveTaylor linked to a news article from the UN News Centre. This is getting forwarded to my students who are working on the UNFPA Project for sure!
5. Help a Reporter: I've known about this one...but it was because of Twitter. So PR People, you should be following @skydiver on Twitter and you should register at the HARO website for sure.
6. TwitterTake: Another from @agahran. A website that will back up your twitters and export them to an excel file. Why would I want this? Well so I can keep all of this great info of course!
7. OneTeam: I learned that folks from @OneTeam have ordered my recommended books! (Ok, I know, personal gratification listing!)
8. How Businesses can get Started with Twitter: This one is an ongoing gem from @gahlord at Union Street Media.
9. Branding of College Students: This article came to my attention from former student @gracekboyle. Not only is the article cool, but I'm watching a former student ROCK the social media.

This is but a sample. Yes, it's in between the personal stories of people that I may or may not know, but look at all the things I have learned because I've been on Twitter?

Another Cause...and How Students are Learning the Social Media
There's a prof on campus (not me, believe it or not) who is asking their students to get the most "views" of some cause-related vidoes over at YouTube. One entrepreneurial student has reached out and asked me to post her "Vid" so she can get "peeps". So...here it is! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfnGOiFJUoo. The cause is 1% for the Planet.

This bring me to the point that will be another post that is swirling around in my brain -- that students aren't coming to college with the knowledge of how to connect beyond their friends with social media -- and that our job at the college level is becoming even more complex so that we can help them sort out the best practices on a moving target that doesn't have clear best practices yet.

Social Media and the Presidency: Has social media changed our voting engagement?

As our country celebrates it's democracy today -- where we can vote without fear of taking our lives into our hands -- I thought it would be appropriate to consider how social media may be changing our voting engagement.

Not only have the politicians jumped on the social media bandwagon with social networking and twitters and blogs and community sites, but we've seen the conventions and the candidate debates turn into social media events through sites like Twitter and the mash-up of Twitter and CurrentTV.

Today, I Twittered while waiting in line to vote. I included #vtelxn so that my tweets would go into a "local" twitter meme for all Vermont voters.

Today, I'm seeing my Facebook friends "donate their status" to remind people to vote.

Throughout the day I'll probably watch http://election.twitter.com/ to get a flavor of what is happening around the country through people's tweets.

I'll check in at #votereport to see information about polling places -- is anyone having issues? What are the lines like?

Tonight, will I watch TV? Maybe. More likely I'll be online checking the different sites and streaming live commentary from various places.

There are a growing number of ways in which I can feel more plugged in to the election process. It's not about being fed information from the candidates, but rather seeing what others in my social media sphere are doing and thinking has allowed me to feel even more connected.

So as the media talks about unprecedented voter turnout. As we all get engaged this year because of so many issues, I'm left wondering if the social media so many are using is having an impact on the voter turnout. As you see your friends writing about voting and you follow others who write about the lines and what they are doing as they wait to vote, does that pressure you into going to vote? Does it make you feel like part of a bigger movement knowing that you also voted and you can actually see others engaged the way you are? Others all over the country?

It's a known fact in marketing that word of mouth and viral marketing has more power then direct messages from a brand. Social media is the biggest WoM out there right now and part of the voter turnout may, indeed, be because of this phenomenon.

So, get engaged and plug in. Be in the know. And above all exercise your right to Vote.

A timeline of a VP Announcement that was "supposed" to use social media

Updated as of 11:30 a.m. : I finally received my e-mail from the campaign at 10:19 a.m. while I was eating breakfast at Maxi's (a wonderful local restaurant in Waterbury, VT) and watching CNN Headline News talk about it. Local blogger and newsperson Cathy Resmer has also commented on the a.m. wake-up call from the Obama Campaign over at Blurt, as has my sister in the comments below.

If the goal of the Obama campaign was to whip people into a frenzy via social media, (and in the process get way more email addresses and txt contact to mine for money) they did that. If the goal of the Obama campaign was to actually reach out to people directly to inform them of the VP choice, well in "professorial talk", they failed. They failed big time.

As we all know the frenzy has been building. About two weeks ago, the campaign announced that they would alert people through email and txt messaging so they would be "the first to know" who the VP was. Yesterday speculation was rampant. Traditional media outlets, especially CNN, were conducting interviews and stalking potentials. Everything they reported was echoed in the Twitter-verse where individuals were tweeting all day about waiting for their cell phones to go off.

Anticipation was high.

And then...

Well, here is how it went for me, an individual who signed up for the email, the text and the twitter.

12:55 a.m.: Breaking alert from CNN: CNN confirms Sen. Barack Obama has chosen Delaware Sen. Joe Biden to be his vice-presidential running mate.

3:27 a.m.: Text Alert from Obama 62262: Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3 p.m. ET on http://www.barackobaman.com/. Spread the word!

5:25 a.m.: Twitter Alert from BarackObama: Announcing Senator Joe Biden as our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3 p.m. ET on http://barackobaman.com/

I never received an email.

So, after all the hype and all the hoopla, at the end of the day CNN was the winner. The campaign did not reach me first. Media did. The conversation over at the twitter-verse, is as always diverse, interesting, silly and downright um...whatever. Check that out here: http://tinyurl.com/5ucaot.

What was the point anyway? An Agence France-Presse article headline reads: Obama's VP alerts trumped by media leaks. Others are writing about the frenzy and how it captured many news cycles. Regardless I have to admit to being disappointed. While a realist I do still have pockets of idealism hidden away and this one got me. We all know I dig the social media. I really see it as a sea change for how we get our information. So when a presidential candidate "looks" like they are going to side step the mainstream and go directly to the people, I get very excited. Even though, in the back of my marketing mind, I know, deep down inside it's all about hype. It's about data mining. And well, it's politics and the Obama Campaign is clearly a political machine.

The campaign website is updated with a new big donate splash page -- very inspiring picture of Obama and Biden together (got to LOVE Photoshop):

Bypassing the splash screen we now see on the website this banner first (don't they know that red is subconsciously a "stop" color ... a warning...a don't go there. They should pick a different color for their buttons. Seriously ... like green which is go):

However, the Obama store isn't ready yet (smile). No Obama-Biden merchandise...as of the writing of this post.

My final question is with all the hype about change and doing things differently, the only different thing that was done here was the campaign expertly manipulated the media AND the people who "wanted to know first" so they got the maximum news coverage. How is that change? Seems like the same old thing to me.

A social media analysis of the DNC and RNC Conventions: Who would I vote for?

As the Olympics come to a close we are on the threshold of two vital events in the election of our next President -- the national conventions of the Democratic and Republican parties.

In just four days, the DNC Convention opens up with much pomp and circumstance in Colorado at the Pepsi Center in Denver. Here's their logo, which I was able to download from their website:

In 11 days, the RNC opens its convention doors in Minneapolis, St. Paul at the Xcel Energy Center in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota. Here's their banner which I was able to get the code for from their website:

In preparation for my convention watching I decided to take a pre-look at the two sites to find out how I can stay connected with social media.

One has a page that shows all the different ways you can connect (with links) including: Blogging, Ustream.tv, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn and Digg. I can get banners for my website, and wallpaper for my computer. On the site I can sign up to to be a "digital delegate" and get updates via email so I'm "in the know". I can subscribe to the blog, news releases, general news of note, videos and convention updates with RSS. It's easy to navigate and follow and quite usable overall.

The other site has a blog that I can subscribe to and is using YouTube (actually had a contest using YouTube), and FlickR. I can sign up for an email newsletter. And well...that's it. As far as I can tell with a quick visit -- the amount of time a normal person would take to nose around a site like this to find things. It's a little challenging to navigate, the type is really small (I know...I'm old) and I'm not sure I have found everything that is available.

So which do I think is the better social media site?

Well as of right now, the RNC gets my vote. They have all the links to the different sites. The site is easy to navigate and they are providing me with many different ways to connect. The RSS feeds from the media page are particularly nice as is the banner code which I can add to my site. I really like the "Digital Delegate" feature. I know it's not much more than an email alert system, but the name and the focus on being part of the convention even if you can't be there is sweet.

The DNC has the FlickR thing going on, but they aren't linking me out to much of anything and aren't using any social presence (like Twitter or Plurk) to keep me up to date. Odd coming from the party of the candidate who plans on alerting us to the VP nomination via email. Hmmm....however, the YouTube contest was very good and the winner was picked well -- betcha a lot of people will want HIS contact info (grin). (note, on the home page the contest is still going on...but on the blog they have announced the winner.)

Ok...I like this video so much I'm gonna embed it here:

Both the DNC and RNC have focused a great deal more on Bloggers -- what a difference four years make, eh? Now there are "Blogger Credentialing" processes and at the RNC there is even a distinction between Bloggers affiliated with Traditional Media Outlets and Independent Bloggers.

So what more could they all do?

Start by setting up a formal Twitter Stream such as #RNC08 or #DNC08 and get people to know it is there and to use it as they watch. Point them to Twitter search so they can follow the tweets as they come in. Make sure that there are some big names that are using twitter.

Point me to the bloggers. Who is blogging? Give me a synopsis so I can find them easily and tell me why you selected them. Make it easy for me to read and more importantly connect with them. Give me information on the main blog that I can't get on TV or anywhere else. Right now you are unveiling images of the locations and concentrating on videos from supporters. Give me some behind the scenes -- tell me whats coming up, who is talking to who, and post exclusive entries from the "stars" like our own Sen. Pat Leahy!

For video compress the speeches into highlight reels that get dumped to YouTube quickly, and then highlight them on your site and your RSS so I can see the synopsis and highlights. Remember I'm busy and I'm going to check things out throughout the day. I might not be able to watch the Prime Time. Give me some preview sneak peaks at the main candidate speeches as they practice -- that would be fun for sure.

Broadcast your twitter stream at the bottom of the big screen that everyone watches...now that would be fun!

Overall...take some risks. Remember you'll go off script a little (maybe a lot) with social media, but the rewards for engagement of voters who use a mix of traditional and non-traditional media may net big payoffs come November.

Blogging comes to the Olympics

I signed up to be part of a "social media experiment" kicked off by Marketing Guru Rohit Bhargava on August 6th with a post he wrote calling on volunteers to re-post, re-purpose and link to his Olympic postings.

The goal is not really to promote the games...really (smile). It's a sponsorship gig with Lenovo who has created a site called The Voices of the Olympic Games. It's an international blogging community that is writing about all the different events. Who are these bloggers? Well they are the athletes themselves!

I LOVE THIS. Really. It so changes the event which has for so long been tied to TV, quick interviews after the contest/competition and then odd sportscaster commentary (ick). Although thanks to NBC at their Olympics site I can still watch Bela Karolyi "go wild" for Liukin. Anyway to get the full voices and experiences of different athletes is really great and it's what social media has brought us. No longer do sponsors provide on-site shwag -- they can now create a full online community where the athletes themselves provide the content. Nice.

So I have been lax in my postings to Rohit's information as part of the social experiment. Today I make up for that. Here's a quick synopsis of the things you can read about if you want more depth and more diversity in your Olympic Coverage.

The two blogs to check out are Influential Marketing and the Catchup Lady where you can find a series of great posts that include:

1. Secret Things Only An Olympic Athlete In Beijing Would Know (Rohit)
2. Notes from inside the Olympic Village (Rohit) and
3. Kleenex premiering an Olympic Documentary -- this one is cool because it will be release as a trailer in theaters as Rohit wrote, "Check out the trailer for "Let It Out" below - its actually really good and will be premiering for a limited engagement in theaters in 25 cities starting August 13th across the US. It will also be available on www.letitout.com from August 14th. To read more real athlete's stories, visit Lenovo's Voices of the Olympic Games (link to http://summergames.lenovo.com)!"
4. What the Olympics are All About (Kaitlyn aka the Catchup Lady)
5. Super Fan on the Move -- great shots of fans in the stands from the Catchup lady.

Of course I would be remiss if I don't include links to our own local athlete blogs that are sponsored by local news organizations:

1. Carissa Gump (Vermont Born Weight-lifter) blogging for the Free Press
2. Jaime Brassard (WPTZ Photographer) is blogging for WPTZ

Don't know of any others.

Anyway, that it for another post on the Olympics and Social Media. Oh wait...one more thing...

If you are a facebook user, you should check out the "Bumper Sticker" application. Whole lots of people have created bumper stickers that include Olympic Athletes -- several nice ones of Michael Phelps. Now that's viral eh?

Politicians experimenting with online media

WCAX ran their story tonight about the local politicians including Gov. Jim Douglas and Gaye Symington using web ads in their campaigns.

It was a good piece (of course, I should remind you that I'm in it ... so of course it's good!) that showed several of the different attack ads that the campaigns are using. The focus of the story was really on the attach ads and I'm glad that reporter Kristin Carlson moved it to my point that they need to move beyond using attack ads online and focus on engaging with their constituents.

What it missed was not showing how other candidates like Anthony Pollina and Sam Young are using the web as well -- which is a shame because there is a lot of good work going on locally.

Overall though it's still a time of experimentation.

Take our national politicians for example.

Obama has announced that he'll be alerting the public to his Vice Presidential choice via email and his website provides you the place to do it. Hmmm...interesting that this gets such a news push. Not too long ago a gentleman by the name of Fred Thompson was running for the Presidential Nomination on the Republican side. Well, as we know, things didn't work out for him. How did I find out? Via my Twitter. He alerted his Twitter followers at the same time as the national media and I got my Twitter from him before I got my alert from CNN. Now that's using social media.

Why else would I sign up for Twitter or SMS to begin with? I want to know something before everyone else.

So they are trying something "new" -- going direct to voters through other means that don't include the mainstream media gatekeepers. Except for the fact that all the media have signed up for it by now too (grin). Although I just tried signing up for the Text Alert on my phone -- haven't gotten any notification. I wonder if they are including Twitter in their info...I'm already following him there.

Social Media Comes to the Olympics and Twitter might just win the Gold!

It's Friday morning here in Vermont. It's soggy and grey but there is an excitement in the air. It's anticipation, it's the knowledge that the one sporting mega event in history that I actually enjoy watching on TV is coming. Yep...it's the Olympics! In Beijing. Wow!

Would you like to know what the opening ceremonies are like? Right now? Live? Before we get them here locally (cause they don't happen until Friday NIGHT).

Just go to http://search.twitter.com/ and search for #080808 (get it? It's the date!).

Right now I know that the opening ceremony celebrates Chinese history, inventions (gunpowder, paper, compass and tea), that the commentators are terrible, the fireworks are amazing and that those of us who are NOT Chinese will have a hard time getting the story behind the full production. I also know,thanks to Blogger and Tweeter Rohit Bhargava that the first non-Chinese person to appear is Sarah Brightman who sings (according to the other tweets it's quite um...piercing). And I also know that the athletes will be marching in alpha order according to the local language which is Mandarin...so it's not what you'll expect.

It's a global Twitter with many languages BUT...they've got that covered too over at the Twitter Search -- there's a great little option to "translate" into English.

So we have this Twitter stream where people from all over the world are commenting on everything about the ceremony from the production itself to the commentators to the technical difficulties of being able to load the website of cctvolympics.com and cctvolympics.cn.

During the actual competition I can only imagine how this will work. I wonder how many news organizations are paying attention?

I wonder if NBC is paying attention?

I checked out their website at http://www.nbcolympics.com/index.html and they've got all sorts of things going on -- they've got mobile so I can get mobile alerts (hmmm...my twitter can come in on my phone and it's MUCH more interesting), and there seems to be a blog going on but the only way to find THAT is to watch the intro videos and look for the tiny print "blog" -- or do a search or look through the site to find SOMETHING. The one nice feature is the localization feature.

Why no social media links? Because they can't control it I bet. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Way to innovate there NBC! Thank goodness I have access to CBC out of Canada. They aren't rock'n the social media either, BUT at least I can find their blogs by clicking on the tab at the top!

If you look closely at the image below NBC is on top and CBC is on the bottom you can see that there is actually a "blog" link on the CBC banner. Not so for NBC.

Meanwhile our own Burlington Free Press is running a blog by Essex, Vt., native Carissa Gump who is a weightlifter. Those local ties to the games are always cool. I wonder if they'll set up a Twitter stream for during her competition?

So because of the preview, I'll watch tonight and see if I agree with the tweets in my commentary!

By the way, this is but one piece of some of the amazing social media that is going on. There's a whole different level from SPONSORS. Check out this blog post from ReadWriteWeb that shows examples of what McDonalds, Lenovo, Coke and Pepsi are doing with consumer generated content and social media to engage with athletes, customers and their brands. I'll be using this one in my classes for sure.

Finally, check out this "mashup" of the different social media from photos to tweets to blogs etc. at http://tag080808.appspot.com/. If you include tag080808 in any of YOUR posts, you'll be part of the timeline of connection during these games.

Social Media Analysis at the local level: The Vermont Race for Governor

I was interviewed today by Kristin Carlson of local CBS affiliate WCAX about the Vermont Gubernatorial Race and how the candidates are using social media, specifically YouTube, to post online videos about themselves and their opponents.

That got me thinking that perhaps I should do the same thing on the local level for our Governor's race that I've done for the presidency...so here goes!

As of this typing (smile) there are four candidates for Vermont Governor that I am aware of (have I missed anyone?):

1. Gov. Jim Douglas (R): The current governor running for re-election
   


2. Gaye Symington (D): Former speaker of the House of Representatives
   


3. Anthony Pollina (I or P, depending on how you lean): Perennial candidate for some office
   


4. Sam Young (I): Newly announced candidate probably most famous for getting his site shut down by facebook a week or so ago.

All of the candidates have a website. Let's take a look:

Gov. Jim Douglas

A quick Google search on "Jim Douglas for Governor" brought this site right up (no ad words campaigns being used by the other candidates, however the Vermont Captive Insurance Industry does have a sponsored listing...odd). Nothing really out of the ordinary here, frankly it's a bit boring. Ok. No it's not a bit boring...it's REALLY BORING. BUT...notice the little FACEBOOK Icon down at the bottom of the homepage? Also there's this really interesting link to a YouTube Video the campaign has posted about Gaye Symington and how she is anti-IBM. And, very cool, by the way, they have pulled in a Google Calendar...it's empty and shows no activity...but we'll give the campaign points for at least putting it there!

So it's clear that this campaign has a Facebook site and a YouTube site.

At the FB site there are 583 supporters, two photo albums, some posted video from YouTube, 1 fan video, 70 Wall posts, and a voice message. What's missing? Well no discussions. So the campaign is treating this as a place to post things but they are missing the main point -- engaging with the audience. Interesting that there are no discussion topics to find out what people might be interested in or concerned about.

The YouTube site is a bit trickier to find. It's clear they have one but doing a search on Jim Douglas doesn't get to a Gov. Jim Douglas YouTube site. It does, however reveal a GREAT adword from the Pollina campaign:

2 More Years of Douglas Think Vermont needs a change in leadership? Learn
about Pollina. http://www.anthonypollinaforgovernor.com/

Perhaps a search on "Governor Douglas" -- nope. So resort to double-clicking the YouTube video from the Governr's site and you get DouglasforGovernor at YouTube. Two videos posted. Two subscribers (ok, now three that I signed up) and two comments on the one Symington video. Ho Hum. What could they do? A direct link to the campaign YouTube site and get people to subscribe. Load more video. Get people to comment. Start a conversation.

Of course, as the incumbent, resting on your laurels, whether they be real or virtual isn't necessarily a bad thing either!

Gaye Symington (D)

Searching for Gaye Symington on Google doesn't quickly reveal a campaign site. There are lots of other sites that come up...but the campaign site doesn't hit until seventh on the list. No sponsored ads or adwords here from her competition. Her site looks more polished and very, dare I say it, "Obama-like" or Democracy for America-like:

Notice the support videos, the icons and blocky feel and the Facebook and YouTube links. Also the Google Calendar here is populated with events! (by the way if you didn't know this you can subscribe to that calendar in your own Google calendar...that way you ALWAYS know where Gaye is!) The supporter videos are a nice touch -- especially on the homepage!

Clicking the link to the FB group reveals a REALLY BIG PICTURE OF GAYE!!!! Wow! Um...note to the campaign, smaller picture = better. Big picture = scary. 184 supporters at this group, 3 videos, a Google calendar feed, 7 wall posts, and well...that's it. Pretty quiet in there.

Over at YouTube (direct link thank you!) there are 13 videos and 5 subscribers (one of which is me) and not too much commenting going on. Same advice here that I gave above for Gov. Douglas.

Some good things going on here -- the burning question, will it help?

Anthony Pollina (I) (P)

A Google search on "Anthony Pollina" brings up the campaign site right away. No Adwords or sponsored listings, though. The site, as you can see is very very very very long....and I still cut off the bottom part where it lets you "Digg" the site.

What they've got going on here is a video right up front, news items, links to FB and Myspace, as well as the ability to add code to your website that has "progressive" messaging on it -- I like this, but they aren't showing us what it would look like. Oops!

I took the direct link to FB and found that Pollina has no face -- just a logo. Um, campaign folks, while I don't advocate for the BIG FACE like Symington has, some kind of face would be good here. 139 supporters, the Google calendar application, video and notes. No discussion here either folks.

The MySpace page for Pollina at least has a face on it (smile), as well as a BIG MOOSE in the background --isn't that the progressive party symbol? I thought he was an independent? Anyway, he's got 24 friends and 1 "thanks for adding me as a friend" comment. Yawn.

So what about YouTube? No direct link from the website and all the video on the website is from BlipTV. I did a search and it was easy. So the candidate does have a YouTube site. It's just not linked to from the website. Perhaps they should try linking them together -- yeah...that's the ticket!

Sam Young (I)

Sam Young is new to this contest. We've already seen that he was busy using FB to friend people which got him in a bit of hot water with the FB spam patrol, so now he can't reach out to you...but you can still friend him (grin). A Google search on Sam Young reveals lot's of other Sam Youngs...so we'll narrow that one down to Sam Young, Vermont -- Bingo! We have a winner. First listing.

Another really long site but this one is really pushing the social media. Right up front there are links to Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn and Digg. There's even a donate button powered by Pay-pal. He's got a theme song and is rockin the many different apps that come when you use a content management system such as Joomla. He knows his stuff for sure. There's also a prominent RSS feed and even an email sign up. All of these are great features -- but my advice here is to be sure he doesn't spend all of his time online because he'll need to reach voters using all the media. He's using a great application from "IdeaSource" -- you MUST check this out. This is a very nice feature and a way to engage with people who are interested in the campaign. He's promoting it via FB and Twitter so far.

Over at FB he is running a global group AND his own personal site. The difference? Features mostly. Each one has different functionality. At the group, he's got 150 members. At the personal site (the one he got clipped for) he's got 1,118 friends.

His MySpace page has a lot of the same content and here he has 162 friends.

He is the FIRST local candidate I've seen so far to use TWITTER! Which I found on his Facebook page, not his website -- time to add that one in Sam! Oh...and add an image to your Twitter page please. I'm one of his three followers.

Now on to YouTube. Um...maybe not. The only video on his site is from Stuck in Vermont over at Seven Days. Perhaps that is coming.

Wrap-up and Analysis

So our four local candidates for Governor seem to be mirroring quite nicely the national campaigns attempts at using social media. Some are trying more than others but no one is hitting what I would call a home run. They all need to be more intentional about what tools they are using and they need to make sure that anyone can find any of the tools from whatever place they are at. If I'm at YouTube, I should be able to find Young's Twitter, or Symington's Facebook. If I'm at Facebook I should be able to see Pollina's MySpace and YouTube. If I'm at Douglas' website I should be able to see not just Facebook but his YouTube site and any others. That's the key.

Kristen asked me today how would the campaigns know what "worked". I told her it all has to do with metrics and deciding what you think is a success -- the number of subscribers or supporters or visits. However, in the end none of that will matter. It will be who got the most votes at the polls.

Summer Presentation Series: The American Cancer Society

I'll be presenting at a panel discussion this morning for the America Cancer Society New England Divisions Marketing and Communication leaders. The topic? Why social media of course! And using it for volunteers, fundraising, and PR.

I used Google Docs to create my agenda and then "published to my blog" and have now added this intro. Sweet! Here's what we'll be talking about today:

1. Intro Me:
• Currently Assoc. Prof of Marketing and e-Business Management
• Formerly the Regional Communication Director for ACS (1998-1999)
  
2. Goals:
• how local nonprofit offices might begin to establish a presence on social sites
• how new/social media are being used successfully in fund-raising, volunteer recruitment, and public relations
• and how marcomm efforts in new media can effectively compliment work in traditional media
  
3. How might a local nonprofit office establish a presence on social sites?
• Start with your audience and your goal and the appropriate social site will reveal itself.
• If you are trying to recruite college students to participate in Relay for Life, you would want to create a group on facebook with an event calendar.
• If you are trying to recruite prostate cancer survivors you would probably do better with a blog.
• Looking to get people to purchase daffodils for Daffodil Days? You might not use social media at all!
• Working on advocacy? A Twitter alert system could work well.
• Be intentional and thoughtful just as you would be with the branded Relay for Life campaign.
  
4. How is new/social meda being used successfully in fund-raising, volunteer recruitment and PR?
• Note that people are really still trying to figure it out. What follows are some good examples
• DonorsChoose.org
• SixDegrees.org
• American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
• Helpareporter.com
  
5. How can Marcomm Efforts in new media effectively compliment work in traditional media
• It's an overall strategy and they are NOT seperate!
• If you create a news release about an event for example:
• create a facebook group
• set up a twitter account for event updates
• add the facebook group link and the twitter updates to the event website
• list all of the ways to connect in the news release.
• send out your news release
• post your news release on your website
• ...on your blog
• ...link to it in your twitter
• ...put it in your facebook
• create a video and put it in your YouTube group
• post it on your website -- linking to your YouTube group
• ...in your blog and write about it
• ...on your FB
• ...alert people on your Twitter
• Your event will get covered, people will come and the media might cover your use of different media to get people to the event
• You can monitor different discussions about your event using Google Alerts and Twitter Search in addition to your other things.
• Provide up to the minute alerts via Twitter that the press can get as well.
  
6. Q&A

I'll be recommending some books as well:

1. Mobilizing Generation 2.0 by Ben Rigby
2. Groundswell by Charlene Li
3. The New Influencers by Paul Gillin
4. Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
5. The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott
6. Robin Hood Marketing by Katya Andresen

Social Media and the Presidency: Site evolution, playing games and contrasting messages

Sen. McCain's site has gone through another evolution. It's tighter, even easier to navigate, less cluttered and right to the point. A little "straight talk design" maybe? Notice the emphasis on energy policy?


My earlier post on this shows some of the evolution as the campaign moved from dark to light and made things easier to find. At the same time, they continue to focus on trying to maintain control -- there's the McCain Space (vs. MySpace) and that nifty push to get people to post on blogs and how to do it (I like this). Hard to find the social networks and as I wrote in the earlier post they are still focusing on YouTube, MySpace and Facebook.

I like the evolution. The site packs more power. They've done an excellent job using design, images and text to make their point without making people wade through so much information they don't know where to go.

But...what's really fun is the new game that has been posted on his site. It's called "Pork Invaders". To be honest I'm not sure if McCain is the first to do this (probably not) but what I like here is not just the fact that the game is on the site, but you can grab the code and put it on your site AND you can add it to your Facebook. So now they begin to see how to create synergy between the main site and the social media sites.

Wanna play? (notice how you can "join the team" with one click)






It's like the McCain Campaign has a sense of humor or something. Hmmm....

By the way it was a big fundraising deadline last night (June 30th) and you would certainly know it this morning (July 1) by looking at both candidates blogs:

Obama: Deadline Closing In
by Amanda Scott Monday, June 30, 2008 at 11:43 PM
Remember, the deadline for June fundraising is midnight local time. Help the campaign build our 50 State strategy and bring change to Washington. Every donation counts!

McCain: Posted at 9:43 AM on 6/30/2008 by matt_lira
Travel with John McCain Every person who makes a contribution, of any amount, by midnight tonight will be entered in a drawing to join John McCain on the Straight Talk Express for a day. Click here to participate.

Um...it is the July 1st now folks. Where's the update? Do I ask for too much? It's almost 9:00 a.m. EST Time. Both of these blogs should provide some info. Anyway, just by this much of a posting can you see the contrast in the two campaigns? McCain will let you win a ride with him on his straight talk bus if you contribut...Obama is earnest and wants us to help him bring change to Washington (think intrinsic reward).

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't provide equal time and one thing I don't think I've talked about at the Obama site yet is the Mobile Text with really cool ring tones -- in a mix of musical genres. Wish I had any sense of musical ability so I could list them, but I distinctly got hip-hop, techno, country and I think marching band (grin).

Not sure how I feel about the whole ring tone thing -- and yet, it is a great and subtle way to get people to spread the word for sure. I wonder how this one is doing for the campaign.

Next post will be a blog analysis. Why? Because I'm noticing that the blogs are becoming less and less about information and more and more about showing off a video or begging for money. What is the roll of a blog in a political campaign when you have a website to provide information on issues? Um...commentary maybe?

On a final note, some recent buzz on the social media series here at my blog:

1. Tracking Obama's, McCain's Use of Social Media at AppScout (from PCMagazine)
2. Aggregate blog Social GaGA links to the AppScout Story

How to use Social Media Marketing to Market your Product: The SPORE Way

I have seen the future and it is SPORE. Really.

What is SPORE you may ask? It's a new game under development by e-Game company EA (That's Electronic Arts). Think of it as SIMS only with creatures -- creatures you create.

Here's one that I've done called "Oscar" using the newly released SPORE Creature Creator:

Oscar is an Herbivore. He spits and likes to dance.

Big deal you might say. Well, actually it's quite addictive to build these creatures and see how to increase their attributes. But overall the new Creature Creator doesn't do much more than that. You build a creature. You check out its moves and then well...not much more to do.

Except for the fact that you can load your creature up to the Sporepedia (you can find all of mine under the username feline4you) and you can also "film" a move of your creature and post it on the YouTube SPORE site which is currently running a contest for best Spore Creature Dance Video (yep), and you can sign up for your Facebook Fan page and several applications and get some really cool gear.

All of this in lead up to the actual game launch in September 08.

So here's a game company that is creating a storm of buzz around a game that isn't out yet by doing the following:

1. Giving access to ONE aspect of the game as a free trial version or stand alone (The Creature Creator) for $10.
2. Create an online community where people can get news about the pre-production game, and load their creations.
3. Partner with YouTube to post videos about the game (pre-release trailers, how-tos, etc) while at the same time encouraging consumer generated content through a dance video competition -- the Creature Creator cand do video which you can easily upload to YouTube.
4. Get your fan-base excited through Facebook and MySpace through fan pages AND applications.
5. Offer traditional promotional gear for the faithful.
6. Offering pre-0rders and if you buy the Creature Creator, you can get $10 off the full game purchase.

See the mix of the traditional with the online viral? This is a GREAT example of doing it right. It's Integrated, Intentional and builds buzz and excitement.

Here's some recent press about SPORE:

1. Fortune: Spawning Spore's Creatures
2. The New Zealand Herald: Spore Looks to be an Epic Gaming Experience
3. Video Gamer.com: User Created Spore Creatures Top One Million

Of course the blogs are interesting as well. Debate about the fact that EA is using consumer generated content to populate the game world before it launches (personally I think it's cool, however, as a content creator it isn't like you get paid!), and how creative people get (yep, there is now SPORN!) (note that that link is explicit and not PG!) and everything in between.

It's called Buzz.

It's a marketers holy grail (second time I've used this statement in a few posts!)

And EA has it.

Here's one of my YouTube entries:

There's also a fan site called sporefan.com (of course) and they are even running an Adwords campaign!

So folks, what do you think you can learn from this marketing? EA is very intentionally giving up control (letting users create), taking the risks (responding to sporn) and managing the process through a mix of marketing tactics. Who is to say any brand couldn't do this?

Social Media and the 2008 Presidential Campaign: Obama vs. McCain (and a little bit of Hillary and those left behind)

What better way to kick off my blog after a wee bit of vacation then with coming back to the Social Media Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Campaign? Now that the primaries are officially over (thank goodness!), we are down to two candidates: Obama and McCain.

So let's see how their websites and social media approaches have changed...

McCain (http://www.johnmccain.com/) (note, don't just type in "mccain.com" as you'll get a food company)

BEFORE

TODAY

So Wow.

No more black and grey, stark and serious for Mr. mcCain. It's blue and stars and light blue and green (note that "make a contribution" button in green -- on the right hand side -- yep they want your money for sure! Prime realestate in the "GO" color). Much more cheery!

Also see that "Get Involved" section. Quite nice.

However what I really like is the first time you come to the site you are given an option. You get to choose your edition -- the "supporter", "undecided" or "unregistered voter". This is sweet.

The above screen shot is for the "undecided". So I expected a very different message for each...however...um...well. No. I guess not. A side-by-side comparison of the supporter vs. the undecided reveals no difference that I can see.

When you dig deeper there's another nice thing going on here. The web team is clearly pushing the focus of this campaign on spreading the word beyond the "conservative base". Once you click on "spread the word" from the home page you get the option to look at blogs from the conservative or the liberal side and they give you suggested talking points! Hmmm...wonder where they got that idea from (hint: initials RP -- see my earlier post of the grassroots winner himself!).

There's also a several blogs and the one that is the most interesting, of course is the "Blog you can Believe In" called The McCain Report. Seems similar to the Hillary site that was out there to provide the real facts -- HillaryHub it was called. So this one is to highlight the flaws in Obama's campaign, or news stories or almost anything I guess.

McCain is focusing now on three social networks: Myspace (54, 705 friends, up from 10/2007 when it was 39,159) Facebook (144,343 supporters up from 11,576 in October) and YouTube (5, 614 subscribers, up from 10/2007 when it was 1,644). You don't find these on his home page though. And it took some digging for me to find them. The links are at the bottom of the "Action" page.

So the site has changed, the social networks are more focused and growing, he's got two blogs, and there is a greater emphasis on the overall brand image and appeal to a wider voting public. Quite a change from October of last year (see my original post).

Overall, I'd say a much better improvement! Although I can't help being a bit snarky on this one (pictures say 1,000 words) -- check this one out from his Facebook page (oh, and did you notice the similar picture on the home page of his website?):

OBAMA (http://www.barackobama.com/)

BEFORE

TODAY

Not much difference at all in the Obama website. The main change is that there is no longer the primary states listed on the right side, all the states are now listed under the "state" tab.

Another interesting difference is in an an area that I've commented on before (see my original posting on this) on the focus of this campaign on specific demographic segments of the population. It's a "google-esque" type of play with the Obama Logo. Check it out and see if you can identify these "special interest groups" by the logo:
I'm torn with this approach, although I really like the use of the logo. WAY better than what they were doing before. This is major segmentation and I guess when reading the information that comes with it, it makes a great deal of sense -- each section is specific to that group and highlights information from Obama speeches and from supporters who identify with those specific groups. It's true inclusion which is very cool. However, the risk is that it misses other groups. Men for one. There isn't one for Native Americans either. I'm sure there are others. So by listing out all of these different groups, does it really help them? I wonder.

Obama is still appealing to "everyone" on the social media side.

So how do the numbers compare from before (October 2007)?

Facebook: 979, 253 supporters (153,998 in October)
Myspace: 396,729 friends (182,096 in October)
YouTube: 55,914 subscribers (11,507 in October)
FlickR: 4,940 contacts (n/a in October)
Digg: 18, 707 fans (n/a in October)
Twitter: 38,615 followers (5, 332 in October)
Eventful: 93,979 demands (36,858 in October)
LinkedIn: 500+ connections (can't really see how many others) (n/a in October)
BlackPlanet: 487,910 friends (188,872 in October)
Faithbase: 2,953 friends (145 in October -- note that at that time his profile stated he was "nondenominational". Today it says nothing about his religious affiliation at all. Interesting.
Eons: 295 friends (147 in October)
Glee: 2,053 friends (1,099 in October)
Migente: 49,612 friends (20,244 in October)
MyBatanga: 163 friends (5 friends in October)
AsiaAve: 2, 746 friends (1,209 in October)
DNCPartybuilder: 2,307 friends (754 in October)

So a good bit of growth since I checked back in October of 07. What I have noticed is that the campaign has also gotten better at posting some different information on the different sites -- still not truely segmented the way their website is, and by the way, how come the fancy segemented logos aren't on the different appropriate sites? Small detail, but surprising that it hasn't happened.

Obama now has a fact center -- similar to the Hillary Hub and the McCain Report. Seems the candidates now get the fact that they can actually control the message they put out on their website and provide point/counterpoint info. He'll need it I'm sure.

Ending with this update is this little oops that I'm really surprised the web folks have let slip -- it's on the action center page -- can you find it?