The XXI Olympic Winter Olympic Games are also being called the “Social Games.” Based on sponsors clever ways of gaining the spotlight, more consumers will have their eyes glued to their iPhone and computer screens, than the actual broadcast on TV. If major sponsors can motivate 500 million Internet transactions as a result of the Super Bowl (a one-day event), can you imagine what sponsors, apps, social networks and search engines can gain from sixteen days of sporting events in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics?
Reaching out via social media, this Olympics may rival China in attention, if not in spectacle. On the months leading up to the event, the marketing teams of a hundreds of brands have been strategizing as to the most effective means to advertise its product and services using social media distribution. Both social networks will be covering the events in Vancouver closely and may prove to be a more informative source than even TV.
With Twitter’s more than 23 million hits and 1.2 billion tweets per month, Twitter will no doubt have a direct effect on Olympic information and viewership in 2010. Another feature released by Twitter just in time for the Olympics, is a Verified Tweeting Olympians resource page where you can cross-reference what the athletes are tweeting about in real-time from one source. Presently this site is following 100 athletes from Apolo Ohno to Joannie Rochette.
On Facebook, the International Olympic Committee has created an Olympic Games Page, which already has more than 1.2 million followers. The page plans to feature updates, photos and videos submitted by the athletes. The International Olympic Committee is also using Facebook to conduct a fan photo contest, awarding free tickets to events to winners, and has created an Olympic Mini-Games on their social network.
So the Social Games are in full swing in the social media space and it will be interesting to see how Vancouver fares as a result. Eighteen months after the spectacular opening of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, the organizers of the Winter Games in Vancouver are challenged to top the Chinese. Stated as the first-ever “Social Games” the excitement created by social media might be the stepping stone to make the opening ceremonies and subsequent competitions stand out from previous Olympics.
As a result of all of us getting social, let’s hope the 2010 Games are one of the best organized and most enjoyable Olympics ever. So rev up those mobile phones/ laptops and let’s hit the slopes!
Yesterday I posted two videos on my Facebook wall and realized that they both are great examples of how Social Media is allowing even the smallest business or individual stand eye to eye with large organizations or celebrities. Both are a true David versus the Goliath story. Or is it?
Case 1: AARP posted this video:
What I love about this video is how viral it has become with a positive message attached to a brand. But the beauty is any one person could create a video like this and help build their own personal brand that rivals the likes of AARP. Dollars are no longer needed to market effectively.
Case 2: Ask for what you want & come across capable:
A former client of mine recently became a free agent. She is a bright lady that knows how to use Social Media to market not only a corporate community- but her own brand as well. Case in point above! What is beautiful is she can use this video as the spine of her job finding campaign. Point to it with external
links and use the keywords she wants to rank for in her job search. She also shared the video with her peers who..well….shared it again. Case in point here! I will share this post in all the usual DoFollow channels and she will receive the very same link juice and viral exposure that we will. My point? 10 years ago the brand of an individual had no chance of being seen in the very same channels as Google and Microsoft – for free no less. This is affecting the News Media- the many is reporting news better then the major new agencies. Read Craig Newmark’s article- “A Nerds Take On The Future Of News Media”. Today, the gap between the bigs and the smalls, the corporations and the individuals has shrunk. The playing field has been leveled. Corporate responsibility is prevalent (a plus in my eyes) while their weight is decreasing, while the individual has more opportunity to be seen and thrive! Another plus! Before long there will no longer be a goliath, just a whole lot of David’s – some with a greater commitment to their brand! Which begs the question, what are you doing to grow your personal brand or your companies brand? Opportunity is ripe for the taking! Have you thought about your brand when watching the AARP and Naomi Marr videos?
So here we go… the lawsuits have begun and the days of being a completely anonymous blogger are now over. So beware with what you say and how true or not true it is. You may fall victim to what you thought was a protected private cyber world.
All this stems from the shameless and anonymous ‘Skanks in NYC’ blogger, who was facing a potential defamation lawsuit by model Liksula Gentile Cohen. The blogger, who published photos and called Cohen shallow, demeaning names, completely disrespected and portrayed the model in negative fashion. Cohen took action and asked that the racy post of her be taken off immediately. However it didn’t end there, Cohen also demanded that Google release the name of the “anonymous” Blogger. Google did not comply with Cohen’s requests, unless ordered to do so by a court. Well, Cohen’s requests and persistence with the courts paid off and the Manhattan Supreme Court Judge ordered Google on August 24th to hand over the blogger’s e-mail and IP addresses. Google gave the information to Cohen’s lawyers, who plan to sue the blogger for defamation.
Now here’s the twist, that same blogger, who now has been identified as fashion student Rosemary Port, is filing a lawsuit of her own. She has decided to sue Google for revealing her identity to Cohen, and thus to the world. So now we know that if the correct actions are taken with the legal system, anyone’s identity can be given away with a simple court order.
This is only the grand introduction of what can potentially be lawsuit after lawsuit; back and forth with the plaintiff and defendant. Who are right and whose freedom of speech is actually being taken away? Now that Google has been ordered to give up the identity of a customer, this is surely a case that many will be watching closely. Is this only the beginning of the end for all anonymous blogs? If simply calling someone something online is considered to be defamation, it may open the door for more lawsuits against all social networking sites such as; Facebook, Twitter, myspace, etc…. Just make sure to be nice with your words and you won’t even have to sweat about a lawsuit. But then again, where’s our 1st amendment right?
A client recently asked me to put together a cheat sheet to show to Social Media naysayers. As I was doing the research I started asking myself, why would any brand NOT engage? Have a gander at these 10 data points:
- According to a global Nielsen survey of 26,486 Internet users in 47 markets, consumer recommendations are the most credible form of advertising
- There were nearly 116 million US user-generated content consumers in 2008, along with 82.5 million content creators. Both numbers are set to climb significantly by 2013 (eMarketer, February 2009)
- 86.9% of respondents said they would trust a friend’s recommendation over a review by a critic, while 83.8% said they would trust user reviews over a critic. (Marketing Sherpa, July 2007)
- 81% of online holiday shoppers read online customer reviews (Nielson Online, December 2008)
- 74% agree-including 14% who strongly agree-that they choose companies and brands based on what others say online about their customer service experiences, the survey shows. (Society for New Communications Research, May 2008)
- Mobile user-generated content will generate $5.7 billion worldwide in 2012, up from $576 million in 2007. (“Mobile Social Networking: Opportunities & Forecasts 2008-2013,” Juniper Research, October 2008)
- By 2020, 84% of marketers agree that building customer trust will become marketing’s primary objective, and 82% agree that collaboration with customers will prevail over marketing. (1to1 Media survey of the 1to1 Xchange panel, April 2008)
- Online businesses lose as many as 67% of consumers due to a lack of online product information. (Allurent, January 2008)
- In a study of online UK retailers, 59% reported that the consumer-generated activity leads to better search engine optimization. (eMarketer, 2008)
- 75% of people don’t believe that companies tell the truth in advertisements. (Yankelovich)
among 78% of the study’s respondents. (Nielsen, “Word-of-Mouth the Most Powerful Selling Tool”, October 2007)
With this compelling data in mind, think about Social Media in regards helping your business fill these business objectives:
1. Market research and business intelligence
2. Customer/partner education
3. User groups
4. Product innovation
5. Competitive analysis
6. Peer‐based support, education and innovation/evolution
7. Company‐wide collaboration/learning solution
8. Thought leadership/leads
9. Workplace alignment, communication & training
10. Organic/White Hat SEO Link Building
Now think about the data points above and these 10 business drivers above. Is there any business that is lacking in at least one of those areas? Is your business lacking? Now think about this:
“Social Networking & Social Media Ad Spending to Rise 13.2% in 2010 to 1.3 Billion!”
-eMarketer
I came away from my task yesterday convinced, now more than ever, that all companies should be utilizing Social Media to some degree. I am not saying go full bore if you haven’t engaged yet, but if anything it is time to dip the toes in to the Social Media waters to see how warm it is. The data is saying now is the time, especially with the Wall Street Journal and CNN claiming the recession is at an end.
Some of these videos are well done but most of them are hilarious failures. You have to wonder what some of these folks were thinking!
1. Paid Search 101 Rap
2. You Oughta Know Internet Marketing – Alanis Morrisette Parody
If you’ve been around the web you’ve probably seen these terms around: new media, social media, citizen journalism, social marketing…but what do they all mean?
These terms all describe certain aspects of a new type of interaction online: one that’s almost purely social. Read more
There are hundreds upon hundreds of social networking sites in the web.
Social Media Marketing is All About Choosing the Right Communities for You
You want to be involved with the ones that work best for your company – sites like Facebook, MySpace, MyBlogLog, Squidoo and Twitter are all great general sites for any company, but sites like ActiveRain, Trulia or CafeMom are for target niches that may be even more effective for you in the long run.
Its important to match your company with the niche you’re targeting. You are absolutely wasting time if you’re on a social site you shouldn’t be on, and that’s why you need to know that if you’re a finance company you should a site like Tip’d (think Digg for the finance industry) and bypass Digg itself altogether.
Digg and Newsvine do better with news stories, Propeller and Reddit do better with human and general interest stories, Stumbleupon does well with almost any topic. MySpace isn’t just for teens and Facebook Fan Pages are useful for any company, no matter the industry.
However, social sites are a waste of time if you set them up and never use them. You might as well have never set anything up at all. If you create an account and expect people to just find you and add you, you’re doing it wrong.
Further, you need to have specific strategies for each and every network you’re on. If you create a strategy but fail to execute it, your time was wasted. Mistakes like these are why many Social Media Campaigns don’t get anywhere.
Unlike other forms of marketing and advertising, SMM allows you to go super niche – you could literally target a social community of pink-yarn knitting grandmas if that was your desire.
Thus the social networks you choose are entirely dependent on your company, your goals and your ultimate strategy.
On the ThoughtGadgets Blog about Chris Brogan and Kmart, Brigit of http://hotmiddlescence.com/made a comment that got me thinking.
Companies DO take a risk when asking a blogger to do a review. Brigit had a good idea – pay the blogger to do whatever kind of review they want, but agree to publish the post only if its positive.
If its negative, the company could take a review that’s negative and use it to analyze what’s wrong with the way they’re currently doing things and lay out some better models that will ultimately be more profitable. Read more
As I was catching up on news in the social media sphere today, I got wind of the whole Chris Brogan Kmart Promotion controversy. IMHO, its just silly. Who begrudges someone for being totally transparent, following all the dictates they talk about and exploring new ways of advertising? Read more
Recently I’ve been working on a Social Media Marketing e-book and a friend who’s editing it sent it back with an important comment – not everyone will be able to understand it at its current level of readability, otherwise known as the level of education required for people to understand the text.
As soon as my friend made this comment, I realized I hadn’t thought about my audience’s reading level for years, since I first started writing professionally. While most of us take into consideration the audience for whom we’re writing, e.g. moms, teens, technopiles, etc, we forget that any writing we do geared towards the general public should be readable by everyone.
A couple sites like http://www.addedbytes.com/readability/ and http://www.criticsrant.com/bb/reading_level.aspx offer excellent tools for finding out the readability of your blog or web content.
Added Bytes uses these specific methods of scoring:
