Facebook has typically relied on its users having strong one-to-one relationships, with connections developed between people based on existing relationships and shared experiences. The news feed has focused on showing updates that are deemed the most relevant to the user based on recent interactions with friends and pages or the popularity of updates with other friends. This social context has given Facebook a strong proposition for its users and advertisers however it has struggled to capitalize on the opportunity to engage users in topical events and discussions.

Facebook will roll out hashtags for events, people and topics, allowing users to view a feed of updates from all users who have included the hashtag in their post, regardless of their connection. Hashtags will be clickable within the platform to see what other users and Pages are saying about a particular event or topic. The visibility of the hashtagged content will depend on the privacy settings determined by the user for updates.

This will allow users to search for content and conversations that originate in Facebook and Instagram, a move that will help facilitate both discovery and community within the social network.

Hashtags will give people an opportunity to connect with users outside of their friendship network to discuss common interests however it is uncertain whether this will be embraced by users already concerned with personal privacy.

It is expected that an ad unit to leverage this new functionality will soon follow. The introduction of hashtags will give Facebook the opportunity to shift the context of their advertising products away from targeting based on profile data and implied interests to real-time conversations.

While this will give Twitter and Facebook a more even playing field in the adaptive marketing game, the platforms would still rely on their USPs for a competitive edge; Twitter users update more frequently than Facebook users which would increase volume of mentions whilst Facebook updates are “stickier” in news feeds and allow threaded conversations within comments. An advertising product would also give marketers an opportunity to see data around conversations and mentions, something that hasn’t been available since the demise of Lexicon.

This is also an indication that Twitter and Facebook have identified social networks as a complement to TV sponsorships and advertising, something evangelised by Twitter’s Melissa Barnes during her visit to Australia last week, calling for a “cross-channel, real-time, multi-channel effort” from brands.

Updates with hashtags will allow users to click through to other conversations around topics, events and people within Facebook, creating communities around conversations instead of personal connections. This shift gives Facebook an opportunity to become more relevant to users and advertisers who want to discover content or conversation about a particular topic or who want to participate in a discussion that extends further then their network of friends.

Photo Credit: misspixels via Compfight cc;

An example of a key opportunity surfaced today with Hyundai requiring unexpected reputation management in light of the release of a UK ad which depicts a failed suicide attempt to promote the IX35. The US Twitter account was quick to post condemnation of the ad with a tweet linking to a succinct press release regarding the ad.

Given the volume of discussion on Twitter, securing sponsored tweets targeting those searching for Hyundai or, thanks to Twitter’s new targeting options, those tweeting about Hyundai, you could ensure that any official statement is targeted directly at the people currently discussing your brand.

Here’s hoping we can all avoid circumstances that would require reputation management. If you need to react quickly to a growing volume of negative sentiment on Twitter, tactical ads will surely be best practice for future crisis comms.

Music is as emotive as a photo, with the ability to capture a moment, a friendship or even a decade. It can inspire communities around artists or genres and we look to it to both match and affect our mood. We are collectors; our personal libraries tell a story of the albums that shaped our lives, of the flings with one hit wonders, and the shameful little secrets that sneak their way into our musical history. iTunes may have introduced us to the digital age of music but we’re only just starting to see what social can do for it. Why could music be the next big thing in social content?

Social interactions

While iTunes Ping never really took off, music delivery services that host or stream music are now centered around social interactions. You can like, comment or share, much the same as you can for most online content, but what I love about music is the ability to pinpoint the specifics. Whether you’re addicted to a riff or want to share with the world your hilarious misheard music lyric, SoundCloud gives you the opportunity to comment on moments within a piece of music.

There seems to be no barrier in sharing our taste in music, despite a shaky start for Facebook and Spotify’s “frictionless sharing”, most are happy to broadcast their listening habits to their personal networks. So with this already forming a constant narrative within your digital footprint, will we see music taking on other elements of standard social interactions? Will Facebook allow you to tag a friend in a song? Will we want our location to be attached to our current playlist? Do we want to be able to comment on top tracks or the latest song thrown up by the radio function? Will we demand a profile soundtrack as part of our online identity? Can MySpace resurrect itself as the ultimate social music network?

Discovery

Data brokers social networks make excellent recommendation engines, with uploaded libraries and selected favourites guiding the platforms through our diverse tastes in music. MySpace sadly seem to be struggling with this as even though they’ve heroed Discover as a key focus of their site, their recommendations have not been influenced by any music connection I’ve made through their network. My preference for discovering new music (when I’m dragged out of my late 90′s comfort zone) is to check out the latest lists from 5 friends/acquaintances. While these might not be people I speak to regularly, I do know we have similar tastes in music but they’re much better at finding new tunes than I am. We Are Hunted offers this as a USP to those unfortunate enough to have less cool friends.

Music identification services like Shazam have dabbled in extending their remit from purely helping you figure out the name of that damn song to unlocking a world of content or exclusive deals. Expect to see more from Shazam in social marketing as audio becomes the new QR code, especially in conjunction with other media placements.

Creation

The assumption is that audio will never take off as a major player in content due to the barriers involved in creating your own music. I think this assumption misses the point in what people do create when it comes to music – playlists, mixes, sets and libraries. Even Obama has his own playlists, albeit as generic as they may be. Despite the threat of personalised “radio” based on streaming platforms, triple J has embraced the competition and has 58,250 subscribers to it’s triple J Hitlist due to the respect it has earned as a music director. Of course our national broadcaster doesn’t have to worry about the impact on advertising revenue but this seems to be the factor that keeps the ABC ahead of the pack when it comes to new technologies. We’ll connect with the music makers, whether they be artists, curators or DJs, and within these hubs communities should form, where people have a strong association with the central figure and weaker associations with each other.

Immediacy

Social content is in it’s element when it’s all a matter of time. We look for content that’s relevant right here, right now, and the rise of the citizen journalist can turn the most exclusive event public with an open invite to anyone willing to follow the content stream. IROCKE brings the concert to your lounge room, with endless live streams for your own home festival. Considering large crowds and struggling 3G networks can make it difficult to share your live music experience, the ability to connect with other fans from the comfort of your own couch should help spur on the social element of live gigs.

Ubiquity

Even Facebook has figured out that you need a strong presence on every device. The modern mobile made a camera and a music player as necessary as call functionality but social music networks won’t stop there. Volvo and Ericsson are looking to bring Spotify to your car and with music so intrinsically linked to driving, this will be the one place that music will certainly dominate over other content formats. The soundtrack to your life is dependent on location, mood and your social circles so Music Everywhere will be a natural progression.

So if music does become the new content trend, MySpace has placed itself in an interesting position. Even if the Justin Timberlake machine can’t tap into what makes us care and what makes us share, there are plenty of other social music networks ready to step up and take on the revolution. I predict the rise of a few key platforms that will do for music what Instagram and Pinterest did for images. Sounds sweet!

More reading:

The Return of the Social Music Network: 4 Sites and Services to Watch in 2013

Music social networks that work

Forget Twitter, SoundCloud is Social Music’s Rising Star

The passive voyeur has been shunned, demoted to an insignificant proportion of audience segmentation as we pander to the like-friendly, comment-happy “advocate”. There’s already a concern that in an attempt to maintain reach numbers for updates to existing fans, there will be an overwhelming sense of desperation in your Facebook news feed as brands beg for an interaction and we’ll begin to see engagement fatigue.

I was somewhat relieved to see this article - Facebook’s View Tags Show That Views Can Be More Valuable Than Clicks. Sales speak louder than actions. And surely if this is the case for the path to purchase, this should be reflected in our always-on communications.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not denouncing the power of engagement – encouraging a fan to talk favourably about your brand and product so that it shows up in the news feeds of their network can be an extremely useful tactic. But the false priority of engagement for the sake of engagement (or “winning” Edgerank) is going to weaken social marketing. The significance is supposed to be in the social context, not the ability to get a reaction from a witty update.

• profiling should ensure the fan is in the target market
• the fan has demonstrated interest in the brand by opting in to future messages
• the brand has the opportunity to continuing communicating with the fan at no additional cost

These are benefits a smart marketer can use to their advantage. They were strong enough propositions to convince businesses to invest money in Facebook despite concerns over ROI (particularly for those without an e-commerce solution). Facebook delivered the opportunity for brands to speak to their target audience on a daily basis for the cost of acquiring their registration of interest.

The times they are a-changing. Facebook is evolving (into a chair apparently) and marketers are now asked to reconsider the idea of Facebook as a social network and see the investors’ vision:  a mass reach impactful media platform.  So what does this mean?

Since September 20^th, data nerds in agency land began to notice a drop in the number of fans who saw an update. The statistic is displayed to admins at the bottom of each page post and more detail is given within Facebook’s native insight tool. The stats are checked regularly by any capable Facebook page manager as it drives content and conversation optimization. So when the organic reach for one of our pages dropped from an average of 25,000 fans to 7,000 fans within a week before continuing to flail on 3,000 fans, we were paying attention, especially as we continued to get a good percentage of fans interacting with the post – if they saw it. Ogilvy and We Are Social were quick to report it and in early October confirmation came that the Edgerank algorithm has changed and was impacting on reach.

Around the same time a new ad product was released that allowed brands to place their update in the news feeds of fans and friends of fans. Given there’s only so much news feed to go around, it’s an obvious replacement: updates which used to be published into fans’ news feeds are being replaced with promoted page stories from brands the Facebook user hasn’t liked (albeit with social context as a friend has liked the page). If as a brand you want your fans to see your own update instead, you have the ability to purchase it through the ad product Promote.

As a mass reach impactful media platform, Facebook now expects brands to pay to continue to reach their opt-in audience.

The direction to avoid the drop in reach was to create more engaging content. My issue with this takes me back to the trusty Forrester Groundswell social technographic tool. Years ago we learned that social participation is scaled based on the level of interaction required – only a fraction of your audience would ever feel motivated enough to vote, comment or create their own content while the majority of your audience would be content with being voyeurs. Facebook itself appealed to this with the introduction of the “Like” – considered a micro-commitment in comparison with a comment. Unfortunately those not compelled to like or comment on a status have always been penalized by Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm which determines what a user sees in their newsfeed based on their recent interactions. This audience has been halved with the recent changes. Personally I thought our right to publish to our audience was established during the fan acquisition stages – someone who Likes your page is saying yes! I want to hear from you whether I like or comment on your updates or not.

I understand Facebook needs to protect its audience which means maintaining a destination where users discover and share things that interest them with minimal commercial interruption. What I fear is that brands will continue to place a false importance on the need to “win” at Edgerank and instead of wiping out “like-baiting” and fluffy messages about cats and rainbows we’ll see these (ironically) irrelevant posts take over, and pay for the privilege of having fans see it. There’s a shift in the benefit of engagement – previously we’d be aiming to increase the number of people who like or comment on an update as we valued the impression it created. Literally.

A positive action from a fan would be viewed in the news feed of their friends and they’d see why their friend liked us, not why we thought they should like us. That benefit shaped the type of interaction we’d aim for as well – a testimonial or declaration of loyalty. Now we’re told to focus on engagement to maintain our reach stats. There’s a big difference between delivering on brand communications to an opt-in audience on a regular basis versus extracting a like or a comment from every update in the hopes of maintaining reach. I predict few brands will be able to justify the financial or human resource to produce like-worthy content on a weekly basis if they’re now only going to reach half the audience they used to and we’ll see a drop in the number of updates brands publish each week. Perhaps Facebook should have focused more on proving ROI before adding an additional layer of cost to their service?

So what does this mean for your 2013 marketing plans? The most significant impact on your budget is that you will now need to consider paid support for your page publishing strategy and extend your Facebook investment from solely fan acquisition. Should you choose to maintain an organic community management strategy it’s difficult to predict the results you’ll achieve in 2013 but I’ll say with some certainty that your results will be drastically lower than 2012.

It’s always difficult to write an “essentials” guide for a room full of marketers with varied levels of experience. I did my best to cover a little bit of everything, starting with the absolute basics of how to set up a Twitter account before moving on to some tips to make an impact rather than just contribute to the noise and, for those itching for the launch of Twitter advertising in Australia, I went through our experience with the sponsored product suite.

Check it out for yourself here:

Let’s be honest, there’s multiple ways to annoy a SMEG – link your Facebook, Tumblr and Foursquare accounts to Twitter; use too many hashtags on Instagram; confuse your and you’re. They’re all good. Have you noticed how touchy the humble SMEG is about time though? Here’s how you can use time to annoy them in three easy steps.

Retweet breaking news of a celebrity’s death 4 hours after it’s become a trending topic

I’ve noticed a timeframe develop around celebrity death announcements – it only takes about 15 minutes for the majority of your news feed to be inundated with RTs and RIPs as the collective discover the shocking news together. This quickly moves on to the reactions (and more than likely the jokes). By the time Mashable have already published their article on other celebrities reacting to the death you should be primed to announce the news yourself.

How you’ll know it’s worked: the SMEG has tweeted something about the stupidity in Twitter mourning a stranger, probably not long after your BREAKING NEWS retweet. Congratulations! You were the straw that broke the camel’s back!

Share something of interest with them days after it was published

If your SMEG is actually in social media marketing (not as common as you’d think) then it’s their job to figure out how to make people share interesting things with their personal networks to harness the almighty power of word of mouth. Please do not mistake this as an invitation to share something with them though as they have already seen everything the internet has to offer. Unless you’re looking to annoy them of course.

How you’ll know it’s worked: In their comment reply they’ll find a creative way to thank you but make it clear they’ve already seen it. Bonus points if they tell you by how many hours.

Announce something on Facebook after you’ve already told them offline

This one does reach beyond the SMEG to a more generally accepted social dynamic. While they may be slightly more subtle than posting FIRST! on your update, they’ll make it damn clear to everyone else that they knew the news before the “it’s not official til it’s Facebook official” announcement. Engagements, pregnancies and new jobs are the best bait for this.

How you’ll know it’s worked: The person will comment with something like “I’ve already celebrated with you but congratulations again!” to firmly stamp their inner circle badge of honour all over your update.

Got any more tips on how to rile up the not-so-humble SMEG?

My presentation went through a few subjects close to my heart; firstly that thanks to the wealth of information provided by data merchants Facebook and Google, we find ourselves with an overload of data. It’s up to us to be critical about how (and even if) we use that data and putting some context behind the numbers.

I also talked about using the data to fuel adaptive marketing instead of the “set and forget” mentality. With real-time analytics (and let’s face it, even with a 48-72 hour delay) we can use insights to run better creative, test calls to action and, as Jesse Desjardins shared in his talk on Tourism Australia’s approach to advocacy, can even hint at which imagery will provoke the best response from your audience.

I talked about looking outside of the product category when looking to benchmark success. Tactics vary from company to company and it may be worth comparing your activity to a brand with a similar social objective as well as the standard competitor analysis.

One of my big pain points at the moment is the confusion of tactical objectives and strategic objectives. A good performing Facebook page is important to achieve a good Edgerank, the algorithm that determines the priority and frequency of your updates to your fans in their news feed. This has given false importance to “like-baiting”; fluffy messages of “Happy Friday!” and discussions about the weekend are getting interactions that are being measured with equal importance as key brand or campaign messaging. If you feel you need to like-bait to maintain a good page, at least have the decency to report on the effectiveness of actual marketing messages separately.

You can view my presentation here or if you view it on Slideshare you can check out the notes that accompany each slide for some more context.

Let me know your thoughts!

 5 key takeaways

• Brand timelines will have messages between fans and the Page (one way only, fan to Page)
• Ads in news feed will be on mobile
• You can buy a distribution option and reach more of your fans by being “sticky”
• Community management, content seeding and ads will be more closely tied together
• Tests on new premium ads are getting 5-10 x the CTR

Reach generator

A paid distribution option. Currently each update reaches approx. 16% of fans (completely contradicts current impression stats but let’s forget about that for now). If you use the Reach Generator product you’ll be reaching 50-70% of your fans. Case study given was Ben & Jerry’s – reaching 98% of fans, doubled engagement, increased sales x3.

Premium on Facebook

Ads were good. Stories are better.

Premium on Facebook evolves Facebook advertising. Everything starts with the Page. You post an update on the Page (text, link, photo, video, offers) and you can then seed this story out to your followers and a wider audience. The ads can then be displayed in 5 areas:

• Page post
• Right hand side
• News feed
• Mobile news feed
• Logout screen

This will need to be the same creative (story) for all placements.

105m people log out of Facebook every day so they’re putting an ad module there.

 Facebook’s tips for best practice

Be clear in goals; committed to social long term; create engaging authentic content; enable sharing, drive distribution

Top news of the week

• Facebook IPO filing reveals a first look at the company’s finances.
• Twitter is set to roll out enhanced brand pages that will include additional interactivity previously impossible on the microblogging medium.
• YouTube hits 4 billion daily views- that’s a 25% increase over the last 8 months.
• Vimeo gets a redesign that places more emphasis on the video and makes it easier and faster to use.

New stuff of the week

For those of you who have been hesitant to try out Facebook’s Timeline, there is a new movie-maker app that creates a customized movie for every Facebook user in an effort to warm them up to Timeline. Timeline Movie Maker requires users to opt in to share personal data including their photos and videos. The app then generates a movie based on a user’s greatest hits, attempting to capture the highlights of a user’s Facebook experience through the years by surfacing pieces of content with high levels of engagement. Now that Timeline is being rolled out across all profiles, this will get people used to the idea in a simple way that taps into the exhibitionist within us all.

Infographic of the week

If any of you underestimated the power of bookmarking site Pinterest, check out this infographic. Pinterest is driving more traffic than Google+, and unique visitors to Pinterest increased 429% from September to December 2011.

Random stuff of the week

Schweppes has launched the Unexpected Future app that predicts how the year would pan out for the user through snippets of posts in the Facebook Timeline format. By analysing your Facebook data, the app reveals your potential achievements with grand predictions in categories such as wealth, career, adventure, romance and fame.

Heineken has launched another fun app in time for Valentine’s Day- The Serenade. The app is designed to help you ask that special someone out on a date this V Day by creating a personalised serenade- just choose who you want a date with, why you chose them, what the plan is and why they should choose you. The personalised serenade will then be posted to their wall, and they can say yes or no to your proposition.

WotWentWrong is a new app that helps you find out, well, what went wrong. Ever wondered why your date never called you back? WONDER NO MORE! WotWentWrong allows rejects to request feedback from their date about why they didn’t like them (seriously) so that they don’t repeat the mistake next time. Sound weird? The demo video is weirder…

Social clusterf#ck of the week

This week, there are two worthy contenders on the social clusterf#ck front. Firstly, a local screw up by Mortein. Mortein’s ‘Louie The Fly – Only you can decide Louie’s fate’ campaign has come under storm this week when Reckitt Benckiser announced that it would be closing its Sydney factory and move manufacturing offshore, cutting close to 200 jobs. People have been pointing the finger and naming the controversial “save or kill Louie” campaign as a PR stunt designed to distract from the company’s plans. Mortein has since axed the Louie campaign in the face of the backlash.

The second contender this week was when two UK tourists were refused entry and turned back from the US after their perfectly innocent tweets sparked suspicion. A week before leaving the UK,Leigh Bryan tweeted to his friend “Free this week for a quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America? X” and then “3 weeks today, we’re totally in LA pissing people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin’ Marilyn Monroe up!”. After detaining the duo and searching their luggage for shovels (seriously), officials told the pair that they were not allowed into the country due to the tweets. Read more about it here.

Photo credits: Regretsy;

Thanks to social mover and shaker Madi Arnold for compiling this update.

Top news of the week

• The social media smackdown between Google, Twitter and Facebook has taken another turn with Don’t Be Evil, a tool developed by engineers from Facebook, Twitter and Myspace (remember them?) that reduces the importance of G+ results.
• Google+ is finally allowing pseudonyms and nicknames in a 180 degree turn from their original and controversial “real-name only” policy. Read what Stilgherrian had to say about his experience in August last year [warning: C bombing imminent].
• US politicians have decided to postpone further action on the online piracy bills SOPA and PIPA in reaction to online protests. In the words of Jeff Jarvis, we are the lobbyists now.
• Obama is answering questions on a Google+ Hangout on Jan 30th. He also recently joined Tumblr and Instagram but appears to have no plans to release a collection of cover songs on Spotify.
• Monday was Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD). Yay for social (media) workers.
• Claims Anonymous were planning to take down Facebook on Jan 28 have been announced as fake. This follows recent hacks to CBS and Universal Music websites, the websites of the U.S. Justice Department, the U.S. Copyright Office, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The hacks were in response to the raid on Megaupload, the $42m earner for Kim Dotcom.

New stuff of the week

Bupa’s FoodSwitch app seems to have hit the sweet spot, reaching #1 in the app store, but more importantly appearing to make an impact outside of the tech blogs and marketing rags to real WOM testimonials. A must have for the “label readers” (you know who you are!) the app is perfectly timed to feed the New Year resolution craze, provides a service that is useful and beautifully simple, and has a thinly veiled education piece weaved through it. The only downside is that some people have had trouble finding products meaning there’s a possibility they will lose users before the database is more comprehensive.

Infographic of the week

Social login and social plugins increase page views- see how.

Random stuff of the week

Mini has impressed yet again with Fan the Flame- a campaign to drive “likes” of their Facebook page in Belgium and Luxembourg. Mini installed a live streaming social installation at the Brussels Motor Show where a Mini Countryman was held on a 15% slope by a thick rope. Underneath the rope was a Bunsen burner that was ignited for a second with each “like”. The person who’s “like” finally broke the Mini free got to keep the car. Watch the video here.

Windows Phone challenged techies at CES earlier this month with the #smokedbywindowsphone challenge. Basically, PC Guy went around challenging people to see whose smartphone could complete tasks faster- tasks such as uploading a photo to twitter- and Windows Phone won 88% of the time. The loser had to give the winner $100. Major ouch for iPhone. Watch the video to see PC Guy in action.

Social clusterf#ck of the week

Once again, we are shown that Twitter is an advertising platform that companies have yet to achieve control over. In a campaign that strongly echoes of #Qantasluxury, McDonald’s have stuck their foot in it this time with the #McDStories campaign. Maccas put a callout for people to share their experiences, but it soon turned into a #McFail when people started tweeting McDonald’s horror stories. Here are some highlights:

#McDStories Working drive-thru shift as a teenager. Arch Deluxe fell off the conveyor belt onto the floor. Re-wrapped it and sent it out.

— Curtis Townson (@ctownson) January 24, 2012

3 times I have purchased the Benedict Bagel, 3 times I have had egg shells right through. #mcfail #mcdstories

— Kimberley Hopkins (@Kim__dracula) January 24, 2012

While the hashtag generated some not so positive commentary, McDonald’s have said that the negativity accounted for merely 2% of the day’s mentions, potentially thanks to the quick thinking of the team that swapped the hashtag to #MeettheFarmers.

*HT Mike Watkins

Photo credits: Regretsy; Engadget

Thanks to social superstar Madi Arnold for contributions.

Facebook

Profile image: 540 x 180            Thumbnail: 200 wide (allow 12 for border)

Profile stream: 97 x 68 (5 images required)

Landing tab image: 800 x 500

UPDATE: The new Timeline cover photo specs have been released by Facebook. 

Cover images must be at least 399 pixels wide and may not contain:

• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
• Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section
• References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
• Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

Source

DreamGrow.com have put together a great cheat sheet for Timeline [pdf].

Updated: DreamGrow.com have made an even prettier version here

Twitter

Profile image: 128 x 128 (scaled down to 48 x 48 in stream)

Larger than 48k but no more than 700k

Background: 1280 width, 66 – 194 for the left hand side of the background [Twitter fixed width of 865px]

Smaller than 800k, left aligned

Hat tip to Banyan Branch for some of these details

NB: Twitter will be changing from the existing standard profile page layout to a new enhanced layout soon. Artwork will need to be changed then. Confirmed specs for this layout are:

Profile image: 835 x 90 header image

https://business.twitter.com/advertise/enhanced-profile/

Channel background: 1500px and 2000px wide, 1200px and 2500px tall

Smaller than 256k

http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=1735230

Profile image: 192 x 202

Scrapbook stream: 126 x 126 (5 images required)

Update:
So I’m alive.
I’m in hospital.
The police came to my house and found me.. well,
lets just say it wasn’t a pretty scene.
so yeah, I’m so sorry to the people I worried.
and thankyou to the people telling me to hurry up and kill myself already.
It’s really just what I needed right now.
I’ll keep you updated.

Also, thank you so much to everyone who sent me a message.
You have no idea how much it means to me.
I wish I could respond to all of them but there’s 1000+
and I wouldn’t know where to begin.
But seriously, from the bottom of my heart,
thank you. 

I’ve used Storify for the highlights but here’s a few links that might get you inspired to jump into the debate.

The points of view:

Social Media ROI Hypocrisy 

Social Media and Return on Investment: Some clarity

There’s no ROI in Social Media Marketing

Twitter accounts:

Olivier Blanchard

David Meerman Scott

Matt Ridings

So are you Team Blanchard or Team Scott? Is there ROI in social media? How do you explain it to your c-level execs?

I’m Team Blanchard. It’s all down to the type of activity, how it matches your objectives and what you actually do to trigger sales. If people are wondering why their Facey page is yet to earn a sale the first place to check is where and when you’ve told people to go and buy your stuff and how they can do it.  In the crush to become oh-so-social and avoid the hard sell too many companies are avoiding the actual sell. Doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

I love this presentation about storytelling. It takes you through quotes from cinematic storytellers, philosphers, branding experts and from the now 7 billion on every day life. Each quote tells its own story, with a carefully chosen visual to support the idea. And the sum of the quotes tells the story of storytelling – its power, relevance and impact.

My favourites?

“Great stories happen to those who can tell them.”

Ira Glass

and

“To be a person is to have a story to tell.”

Isak Dinesen

and

“Stories have power. They delight, enchant, touch, teach, recall, inspire,motivate, challenge. They help us understand. They imprint a picture onour minds. Consequently, stories often pack more punch than sermons. Want to make a point or raise an issue? Tell a story.”

Janet Litherland

photo credit nateOne on Flickr

I have an ongoing internal battle over the issue of influence. Whether it’s my hesitation about tools like Klout offering product sampling to influential audiences or my concern over customer service teams treating those with large social followings with preferential treatment, there seems to be something amiss with the use of influence in social strategies. So today I was happy to hear that we may be getting closer to linking customer service, social media and influence.

The technology isn’t new but the uptake is slow. Several software companies offer products that can not only provide a link between a customer ID and a social profile but can also assign workflow tasks to customer service staff to reply to the customer if they use a tracked keyword on an identified and linked social account.

Today’s speaker, Ted Bray from software provider Right Now, used the Peter Shankman/Morton’s story as an example of the difference between marketing influence and customer service influence. To further illustrate his point he told us that as a regular Marriott guest, he recently deviated his travel plans and stayed with another hotel chain in Singapore. He tweeted his appreciation of their service and left it as that. Ted’s point was that this was an opportunity for the Marriott team to jump on his disloyalty and show him some love.

If the Marriott had the right tools in place, they’d be notified that one of their platinum loyalty program members had tweeted about staying at another hotel. Ted said he would have been more than impressed if he’d received a tweet in reply asking for the chance to win back his loyalty.

The room agreed. This would be a powerful way to recognise opportunities to go above and beyond for loyal customers. And personally, I’m more comfortable with this definition of influence, using customer service on social media to influence the behaviour of a (high) revenue generating customer.

So do you think this would work in Australia? Do you think the telcos, the banks, the frequent flyer programs, the department stores, the retail outlets etc would be going above and beyond customer expectations to integrate this kind of technology?

I’m reminded of the Interflora campaign in the UK that monitored Twitter looking for users that needed cheering up. They contacted tweeps who had tweeted about feeling down and sent a bouquet of flowers as a surprise. Who doesn’t love a random act of kindness? Turns out – a hell of a lot of people who feel like they’re being watched or that brands are eavesdropping on their personal (yet public) conversations.

Today I posted a poll on Twitter asking the question “How would you feel if a company had your Twitter profile linked to your customer profile and used it to proactively contact you?”. I hold no illusions about the quality of data my poll will produce, but so far most respondents have said they would be impressed that a company was monitoring their online behaviour.

So which companies will be first to use this kind of technology to target their top 20% of customers? How will we react? What would you do if you were contacted? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Facebook has introduced a Subscribe button

You can now Subscribe to a user’s profile in Facebook without needing to send a friend request. This will only allow you to subscribe to public posts however yesterday Facebook announced improved friends lists as they encourage users to customise individual updates to different groups of people in your life, public no doubt being one of them.

Sponsored Stories will appear in a news feed ticker

As you browse through Facebook you may notice sponsored stories appearing in a news ticker on the right hand side of the page. This and the upcoming in stream advertising will no doubt increase Facebook’s estimated $1.6b ad revenue.

Vanity URLs are now easier to secure

You no longer need 25 fans to secure a vanity URL. Considering even some agencies need to beg and plead their friends to fan a page to get to the 25 mark this will make life a lot easier for most. I’m sure those wanting to squat on URLs of perceived value would have had 25 fake profiles set up to help them out in the first place anyway.

Know how your updates were shared

With an insight that will be making it’s way into social media page reports across the world, Facebook will now post details on how your updates were shared. Now maybe they could throw in some details of click through rates for links shared on Facebook. Please?

It’s a tried and tested marketing tactic to put your product in the hands of your audience. Whether it’s a Calippo sorbet handed out in beach car parks, sausage pieces dangling on the end of a toothpick at the butchers, Pantene passed on to commuters at Town Hall or a Napoleon lipgloss on the back of a magazine – samples make their way into our lives on a regular basis. It’s really no surprise that sampling has made an impact on social media. So how will it work?

Blog advertising community Nuffnang  has launched Product Talk, a product review program that puts samples in the hands of keen bloggers. A product is offered up for review and bloggers have the opportunity to participate with a set of instructions outlined for the campaign. Nuffnang wants to ensure transparency so has asked all bloggers to include a disclaimer on their blog with the review. So far there have been opportunities to try coconut water, body lotion and an iPhone app for directory assistance.

Mamamia has The Opinionator, a built in review program that allows the audience to sample a product and leave their thoughts within the Mamamia community (blog not required). The post about the product is shareable and comments are welcomed with specific questions directed at the audience with a final call to action – “so come and join the conversation”. There’s even a basic rating functionality for the smaller commitment – 1 – 5 stars. This would no doubt be used in conjunction with a recently launched advertising package which involves “a conversation based competition for readers to win your product or service”.

Analytics platform Klout has jumped into the game, combining the idea of sampling with the inherent need for SMEGs to define (and access) online influence. Klout Perks offers those with the right amount of “klout” the opportunity to register for a product all for the cost of a social update (tweet or Facebook post). I registered for a #redbullsim after seeing a tweet from Keith Don on Twitter and have been watching the hashtag madness grow since then. It may not be perfect but it certainly seems more effective than the pushy shopping centre promo staff who were accosting World Square passers-by with free SIM cards just last week. Can’t remember the name of the company and I, like many others, didn’t pick one up, mostly in fear for being signed up for something like most other centre promotions.

It seems that advertisers haven’t been jumping on board the social sample bandwagon just yet – can you see the benefits of getting a product in the hands of the vocal minorities? Or will sampling through social media just turn into spam?

Image credit: @nhoj

I was catching up on some reading and came across a case study about the social media success of US airline JetBlue. One particular section got me thinking:

I won’t name agencies, but we had a couple of agencies who talked about how adept they were on Facebook and how incredible they were on Twitter, and one of the agencies — it wasn’t probably a day after we met with them — I started getting follows from people in the agencies and they were all from accounts that were created in the last two or three days.

Marty St. George, Senior Vice President, Marketing, JetBlue (source: Mashable)

Do agencies need to tweet to prove they “get” social media?

As the head of digital at H&K Sydney it may surprise you that I don’t think every marketer should be on Twitter. I find people to be apologetic if they explain that they’re not into it. So what? It’s a personal preference to use a social network that is appropriate to your style and your needs. I love it, and I’d love for my interest in it to be contagious but I’m not fussed if someone else doesn’t get it. If Marty St. George had struggled to find on Twitter a representative of the agency in question  I’d be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt – maybe a few key people ran personal accounts and numerous accounts for clients. Of course that wasn’t the case.

From an agency point of view, it would be odd if a good digital agency didn’t have a good digital presence. However marketing is supposed to be about knowing your audience. If clients need help in digital because they don’t understand it themselves, they’re probably not the type to stumble across your blog or follow you on Twitter. There’s a difference between proving yourself to your target audience or advocates and grandstanding in an echo chamber.

So what’s my answer? Yes, to prove you get a social network it would most likely be necessary to be active in that social network. However there’s nothing wrong with having a damn good reason why it’s not appropriate or suitable, as long as you’re happy to admit that.

Would love to hear your thoughts – fire it up in the comments! Do agencies need to tweet to prove they “get” social media?”

We’ve seen artists and bands explore digital opportunities with varying degrees of success, from Arcade Fire’s The Wilderness Downtown to Radiohead’s In Rainbows promotion to Lady Gaga style fan engagement strategies to Lily Allen’s MySpace “breakthrough”. They’re testing ways to release their music, to get noticed, to motivate fans to buy their music. The latest effort to make headlines comes from a collaboration between English band Kaiser Chiefs and advertising wunderkind Wieden+Kennedy.

The concept is simple:

1. Make your own Kaiser Chiefs The Future is Medieval mixed tape using 10 out of 20 songs available
2. Design your own cover artwork and promote your awesome album to friends
3. ????
4. Profit (well, £1 for each album you sell)

Love it?