Last post I proposed benchmarks for what percentage of a B2C marcom budget should be spent on social media. The next logical question is how to allocate that spend. Clearly every product, business goal, world market and end user target will impact that answer. Despite the recent gains in more seniors adopting digital habits, I still wouldn't use the Old Spice video strategy to reach 65 and over Americans. Context matters.

Two ways to spend

Looking at just traditional marcom efforts (leaving out functions like customer care), there are two ways to spend on social media marcom. The first is campaign spending. This is what we awere all trained to do. It is also the only thing any of the awards programs out there pay attention to. The second is the sustained, persistent support of always-on platforms Like facebook and Twitter. We call it everyday engagement. Call it whatever you want but it has a lot to do with successfully building a direct relationship with customers and followers.

They are not exclusive. They work well together. It's tempting to put all the money in the campaign spend - the big YouTube play, the cgm/ugc contest, the unique Facebook tab. This is what will get you noticed inside and outside the company. But without the foundation of the everyday engagement, you may never keep that hard-won fanbase.

Like any new venture, building a foundation in social media requires investment in the early years. To get the "center for excellence," and its primary programs, off the ground, you need to hire some staff, spend on some first-time expenses, and learn from experience. Most of the everyday engagement effort - creating and publishing content, monitoring cgm, responding to people and customer care triage - do not require a big one-time cost. They require a recurring cost in human time and some expense.

The First Three Years

Year one - in the first year of true commitment to social media marcom, you can expect splitting a budget with most going to campaigns

campaign 80%   everyday engagement 20%

Year two - now you can invest in some infrastructure. You have gained campaign success, earned points for social customer care Twitter handles, and generally proven to leadership that this is worth doing. Now is the time to get a Buddy Media or Vitrue license, trade-up on your Listening post, and float some more sophisticated campaigns

campaign 50%   everyday engagement 50%

 

Year three: - truth is you will never dial back on your everyday engagement. What you will likely do is ramp up your paid media integrations with your truly "earned" social media efforts. It may not be fair to lump those in the equation here but I have. That's what explains the flop back in favor of campaign spend.

campaign* 80%   everyday engagement 20%

How do you split your spending?

*includes some media spend. Take that out and your back to 50/50 or even 40/60

Last week I announced the launch of the 360 DI series on Gov 2.0 and our upcoming DI Ogilvy Exchange. There has been a phenomenal response to the upcoming panel. The following panelists are confirmed Ari Melber, The Nation and Politico; Mark Murray from NBC Universal; Lovisa Williams, Deputy Director from the State Department’s Office of Innovative Engagement; Alex Howard, O’Reilly’s Gov 2.0 correspondent; Micah Sifry, co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum. The date is set for Monday September 27th.

As we enter the second week of our series of posts on Gov 2.0, we wanted to highlight/introduce some of the other members of the DI team interested in this space and their musings on Gov 2.0.

Kelly Ferraro-

In 2008, how I connected to the world began to change during the presidential election. A graduate student, I was more than familiar with the word-of-mouth power of Facebook, and was an early adopter and avid user. But at that time, I had been using social media simply to communicate with my law school peers, and keep in touch with family and friends.

Enter the election of 2008.

Suddenly, a platform that I had used to stay connected with people became a news resource for campaigns, expressing political views, sharing articles, and making donations. Instead of reading the New York Times or the Washington Post online, I would log in to Facebook for my daily news. There, I would find the latest campaign development through a shared article, or a conversation thread about a candidate.

But more importantly, Facebook coupled with other social media tools  helped Barack Obama secure the presidency. With the use of various digital platforms, Barack Obama rejected public financing and raised a record-breaking $650 million, largely from private, individual on-line donations. And now, for the first time ever, we have a President who is accessible via Facebook, Twitter, and a blog.

To me, this shift means two things: ACCESSS and POWER.

In my view, Gov 2.0 is about the power and ability of citizens to gain access to government like never before. Gone are the days when writing a letter to Congress helped voice an issue. Today, you can send a 140-character message that’s publicly available to every follower of a Congressman.

Think about the bargaining power that holds! You can publish your message not just to the leader with whom you want to speak, but to every person paying attention to every move that leader makes. The pressure on the figure to respond is heightened when he or she is up for re-election, or is working on a contentious issue. In this sense, Gov 2.0 not only gives citizens greater access to their government, but also gives them greater power to leverage their voice and perhaps a greater change of  getting a response.

The hope is that this heightened access and power will lead to action, and ultimately, change. I believe that is what will define the next iteration: Gov 3.0

Jackie Titus-

My Georgetown colleague, Mike Rupert, a Communications Director for a major government agency in DC was the first to introduce me to Gov 2.0 communications. By watching his work I learned about the power behind social media and digital communications for Government agencies. Mike changed the way his agency communicated with college students through a new website www.thisshouldbeillegal.com – the goal of the page is simple, “Helping Keep College Students Safe and Healthy in DC”. What I love about this work is the core mission of the agency stayed the same but the new approach facilitated a more direct conversation with the target audience.

At its core Gov 2.0 is taking the information the public is entitled to and makes it more accessible. However we know that this new form of communication is not just about pushing out more information and providing more access, it is also about a dialogue. Government agencies can scale their approach use it to raise widespread awareness or communicate at the local level about public safety and neighborhood alerts.

Charlie Tansill-

Integrating social media into government agencies will be a mammoth challenge. Bureaucracy, special interest organizations, national security, and resistance to change all present incredible obstacles; however, it is crucial that these challenges are overcome and that government begin to incorporate social media for many reasons.

1. Transparency: Especially in a democracy where officials are elected, it is crucial that the government be as transparent as possible. Citizens are not comforted by a government that is trying to hide their operations; rather, when a government is open, it breeds trust and confidence. Social media does exactly that: facilitates a more open, translucent, corruption-free and accountable government. Obama is a huge proponent of transparency and its importance in holding officials and policies accountable for their actions. There are even international organizations that exist for this very purpose such as Transparency International!

2. Empowerment: For the most part, social media is inexpensive, simple and mobile and, because of this, it brings a voice to more people; it provides another outlet through which common citizens can share a voice and be empowered. It encourages the power of Collective Intelligence!

3. Collaboration: Social media tools allow for quick information-sharing between international organizations, agencies, politicians, and humanitarian agencies, which allows for more partnerships and collaboration. Especially at a time when special interest groups have so much influence, social media tools could be used to combat this trend so that organizations can cross boundaries and work together toward the collective good.

These are just a few of the reasons I believe social media is critical to the future of government.

More details, including the launch of the Eventbrite are forthcoming. Please stay tuned to our blog for further information. Thank you for all your interest and support. We are very excited about the upcoming event.

Last week I completed my TEDWomen application.  While no application questions specifically address gender, outlining my greatest achievements or imagining how a friend might describe me in the context of the conference has inspired me to do a substantial amount of personal navel gazing about my gender  and specifically women in the workplace.  As you might have guessed, this post won’t be about WOM so keep reading if you dare.

There was an active debate around having a separate TED conference on women – largely sparked by some awkward text that was used to introduce the notion of the event which is now resolved.  I was torn less by the existence of such a conference and more by whether or not I would actually enjoy attending.  God help me for admitting this, but I reacted very negatively to Eve Ensler’s performance at TED 2010.  The work felt like it was directly pandering to the guilt of the powerful and largely male audience (who gave her an instant standing ovation).  I sat and clapped politely.  It was similar to the cringey feeling I had when watching the I am Woman karaoke scene in Sex and the City 2 and wanted to yell at the screen “I am NOT like you”. Meanwhile, lots of woman at TED 2010 inspired me greatly – including games researcher Jane McGonigal , the unique perspectives of Temple Grandin, and grand dame ocean-pioneer Sylvia Earle.   Gender had nothing to do with their work or what they spoke about.  So, am I uncomfortable with women who use their femaleness as a “hook” for work, artistic expression, or popularity?  For whom it is their “shtick”?  Am I a self-hater who wants to be a man deep down?  No, indeed.

Being a woman in the workplace comes with its own unique set of opportunities and challenges.  I am now of the mind that not discussing it or attempting to ignore its differentness is fruitless and is not going to help me or anyone else excel.  From the trivialities of navigating the minefields of workplace dress to gracefully handling assumptions and double standards of others, it is just different.  Whenever I get the at-least-weekly well meaning comment “it must be hard to be away from your son so much”, it takes every ounce of decorum I have to maintain a normal tone of voice and reply that while it is, it is also difficult for my male colleagues who have similar schedules and families, but we love what we do and are lucky have strong support at home.

It is this minor epiphany that sparked me to apply.  Could I do a better job of understanding, coaching and growing those around me?  Could I do more to give back to other women in my community at large and in other cultures?  And could I do that more adeptly with more knowledge and ideas?  Without a doubt.  Regardless of whether or not I make the grade on attendance for this event, the process has certainly made me a bit more thoughtful about who I am as a woman in business and how I choose to handle myself and invest in those around me.  I firmly believe there is an authentic path that is neither Devil Wears Prada nor Mary Poppins and, while I am bound to stumble upon it innumerable times, it is a path worth travelling.

When marketing on behalf of regulated industries (such as the healthcare companies that I spend the majority of my time focusing on), working within strict guidelines is a large part of the process - both from an external perspective (FDA, FTC, HIPPA, etc) but often internally as well.  Legal and regulatory experts work to help companies stay within safe boundaries by providing review and oversight, which can often challenge marketers who want to be cutting edge as they draw attention and appeal to their target audiences.

Using new communications channels, such as social media, can provide new challenges for those working to keep their companies safe. But regulation and innovation don’t need to be at odds with one another. Below are just a few sample ways marketers can work with those providing regulatory and legal oversight to leverage the Social tools their customers are rapidly consuming.

• Partner early and often with regulators to develop guidelines: by developing guidelines together of what is acceptable use of social media, and the precautions the company will take, marketers and legal/regulatory specialists can both become invested in the rules of the road. The teams can and should work together to update the guidelines as new channels are used, leveraged in new ways, and new media emerge (as they frequently do these days…)

• Get regulatory specialists to weigh in and become a part of the development process - and not just be a “reviewer”: involve regulatory experts throughout the process - from concept development through to final review - to incorporate their feedback, guidance and best practices. Often other groups in the company have worked on similar concepts or ideas where best practices or even sample language can be shared by review groups.

• Provide real and relevant examples: showing what others in the industry - or related industries - have done before can help alleviate fears or help provide precedent to move forward. Things have been done before are inherently less scary - especially to those tasked with keeping their employers away from risk. When making a case to regulatory and legal teams, we often look for similar examples from those in the industry working in other specializations - or tap into colleagues who work in fields that are similarly regulated.

• Provide samples: Beyond showing examples, nothing helps sell-in a concept than providing samples of how a project will look and feel. Demonstrating a user experience with samples takes concepts out of others’ imagination (where you have no control) and brings them to life. Proposing a microsite? Develop wireframes to demonstrate. Integrating Twitter in your campaign? Mock up sample tweets that show the range and types of information you’ll communicate. Driving your target to YouTube? In addition to storyboarding out your video concepts, show regulators channels that are laid out and have similar controls (such as turning off comments) to what you are proposing so they can interact with a similar idea.

• Have an issues management review and response plan in place: As the boy scouts say, be prepared. Reviewing the risks - and having a plan in place to address them - from smallest issue to biggest crisis, can help alleviate some of the fear around the unknown. And working with legal/regulatory experts to develop the response plan can help bring them around to feeling a smart approach is in place.

What percentage of a B2C or B2B brand's budget should be spent in strategies and tactics that we would label "social media-related?" Within that percentage, how should the money really be applied with the big amorphous box we all call social media? Big questions. I find it hard to generalize while at the same time am driven to try and do just that. I want to establish some benchmarks based upon all of the brand work I have seen or touched in my job. Clearly what is right for a Unilever may be very different than what is right for a Siemens. Selling cars (Ford) is dramatically different than mobile phones (LG). Running your business in North America may be very different than China.

All these differences aside. I do see a common trajectory of 'spend' at least as applied to B2C and separately to B2B. That path has more to do with increased experience in social media tactics, the adoption of, what I will call, a social media business mindset and the integration path for social media going forward.

Experience in social media tactics - For simplicity's sake, lets look at what most marketers go through (including this one). Here are three stages of adoption:

• Social Media Experiments - usually the first year or two of unconnected social media programs involving bloggers, video content distribution, cgm/ugc contests and other tactics.
• Adoption and Integration - in the following years, the value or success of social media is felt within and there is a push to do more and integrate it with more people and disciplines.
• Go 'Big' - after some experience and success following integration, brands can't help but want to "go big" either with a substantial facebook campaign or a more impactful integration (e.g. committing to 20 people in social customer care via Twitter and Live chat). usually these brands have sketched out a measurement model that reassures them the effort is smart business.

Social media business mindset - Is using social media an obligation due to outside pressures (your CEO, board, competitors all told you to do it in one way or another)? Or do you see a way - perhaps murky now - but a way that all of the implied qualities of social media may actually change your business? I see plenty of CMOs and CCOs who fit into both camps. So, the choice is between social media as obligation or social media as quest.

Integration path - The future value of social media is integrated in every discipline. Just as all marketers hoped that "digital" would be the new normal in marketing (it pretty much has), we expect that social strategies and tactics will be integrated in many disciplines. Look at Coach's The Poppy Project. Anchored by a microsite and a "Stumble Upon-like" tour of great fashion blogs, how much of this is social media vs. what we consider digital marketing? How much was the whole project spend and what would you label it? You could probably do it if you had the numbers. Now think ahead into the future. As programs get more complex, Facebook Open Graph becomes ubiquitous, brands adopt Social IRM - what can be distinguished as social media and therefore "budgeted" becomes harder and harder.

In many cases, brands will likely embrace the most valuable output of social media - advocacy (or word of mouth) and engagement - as 'must haves' for every program and brand. Key activities will continue to be labeled social media while more and more social elements will get baked into PR, user experience, digital marketing and more. In this way social budgets will be dispersed in the organization.

Rilla Delorier, CMO of Suntrust Bank, mentioned via AdAge:

"The great thing is less than 5% of my total spend is in social media. We've reached over a million customers this year through that mechanism. It's a very efficient way to get feedback on what's working and what's not."

She said this in context of a program called Live Solid. This features a microsite with embedded YouTube videos, a Facebook page and a Twitter handle amongst may other online tactics (SEO? SEM? Display? CRM?) and likely some related offline programs as well.

I don't have an inside view of Suntrust's experience. As a customer, this is the first remotely social program I have experienced. I figure that they are in the Experiments/Quest or Adoption/Obligation quadrant. What I can't tell from her quote is whether Rilla is a believer on a quest or proud of the fact that she only spent >5% to be able to check the "social" box.

Spend Matrix

Here's my view of total spend in single market from a prototypical $10m B2C marcom budget (modest to some, inadequate for big brands)

 

Mindset

Obligation

Quest

Well-Integrated*

Stage

 

Experiments

1%

5%

na

Adoption

5%

10%

6% (12%)

“Go Big”

7%

12%

10% (17%)

 

Percentage of prototypical $10m marcom budget

 

*budgets get lower as money is integrated into other functions. Total percentage is in ()

If you haven’t yet seen the Emmy winning Old Spice commercials in action and haven’t quoted the Old Spice Guy at least once in conversation over the past few months, you must be sleeping under a rock (well, okay, maybe only a few fanatics are actually quoting the commercials…).

Never-the-less, the Old Spice phenomenon has created a surge of conversation around virality and brand engagement with the online audience. But let’s talk about the brand personality, because - to me - that’s one of the main things that really made this campaign go big.

So, what makes a great brand personality?

- Authenticity: Companies like Sharpie and VTech (an Ogilvy client) have recruited either internal brand fans (like @SharpieSusan) or external fans to actively get involved in social media conversation. These individuals are fully transparent with the audience, helping the audience to understand where they come from and how they can relate. Maria Pilar Clark, the VTech Mom, is a mom of two and loves helping her kids learn, so she has a great connection with other moms interested in VTech toys.

- Consistency: Talk about consistency - how does 205 Old Spice videos sound?? Whatever your brand personality is, make sure you keep it consistent. Don’t be the voice of the Old Spice Guy one day and Jimmy Fallon the next. Think about the conversations you plan to have through the eyes of your brand personality. Answer a few of the questions from Brian’s Solis’ new book, Engage:

If the brand was a person, how would it appear? How would it sound? How would it interact with others? How would others describe it?

Then keep that in mind whenever you create your content and conversation.

- Engagement: As John Bell mentioned in his CNN Commentary, the Old Spice campaign actively listened to the audience and engaged on a one-on-one basis with some of the audience members through direct video response.)

- Entertainment Factor:Whether you are creating a new drama skit every day/week like the Old Spice Guy, sharing new Sharpie art work or simply bantering back and forth with others, your audience will come back if they like what you’re giving them. This goes back to the ever-present value exchange — what is your audience looking for? What will make them come back to your brand time and again? Now add in your brand personality and ‘voila!’ you may just have entertainment!

- Versatility: Expand your brand personality’s horizons from commercials to direct response viral videos, from a Twitter handle to a personality column in the consumer e-newsletter. (*LIGHTBULB*) From an online presence to an offline presence! A great example: If your bored, or need some more Old Spice entertainment, go ahead and create your personalized Old Spice voicemail…

Of course all this goes back to your brand definition. Make sure you understand your brand’s core values, it’s history, it’s business and communication objectives as you look to define (or spice up) the brand personality in social media. To help with this understanding, check out Brian Solis’s Brand Reflection Style - a great way to map out your brand’s personality and persona.

According to Comscore, over 25 million users accessed Facebook via a mobile phone in Jan 2010, a 112% year-over-year increase.

With its initial US-based rollout of Places location functionality on the 30+ million iPhone installed base, Facebook joins Twitter and others in embracing the growing use of smartphones for social networking.

Importantly, this change allows Facebook to expand users’ social graphs beyond such items as friends, product/service affinities and demographics to now include location.

Here are three thoughts on implications for marketers, agencies and social location startups:

Location checkins should help drive impulse and, to some extent, planned purchases. It’s clear that coupons, discounts and other promotions will be important for increasing share of wallet — particularly for the impulse purchases estimated to account for 20+% of consumer spending. Companies like Shopkick are already implementing functionality to enable this, and it’s clearly going to be of value in driving revenue for a wide range of companies.

Checkins will provide new opportunities to build relationships and better understand customers. Less promotional location-driven engagement will be helpful in increasing preference and loyalty. If a user must check into a location manually, they’re either doing so for convenience (e.g. to locate friends or offers nearby) or as self-expression. The latter provides an interesting opportunity for a brand to engage — for example, by providing messaging or advice that’s related to the type of location visited.  This also provides an opportunity for B2B brand engagement.

Social network partners may well provide more unique experiences for brands. Much as well-designed social games from companies like Zynga and Playdom have created a powerful draw for Facebook users (consuming ~40% of Facebook user minutes), startups like SCVNGR, Gowalla, Foursquare and Booyah will likely use Facebook graph + location data to create interesting experiences. They’ll have the added opportunity to integrate data across Facebook, Twitter and other non-Facebook smartphone users.

One of the biggest potential issues to consider is user privacy — the current implementation has some issues that have been widely written about. However, in the past Facebook has eventually responded with changes to enable users to manage their privacy in an acceptable way.

Read more about key steps for brands to start taking.

Photo credit: Graph, by Librarian by Day

Next month, the Digital Influence team will be partnering with others at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide to bring you an Ogilvy Exchange on Government. The working title of the event: How Social Media Tools are Shaping Government, the 2010 Elections and Issue Campaigns.

In 2008, the Obama administration swept into the White House in large part transported on the wings of the Netroots – the fundraising and voter mobilization of his online supporters was unprecedented. With this administration came the ideals of the Open Gov Directive and Gov 2.0: transparent, participatory government. Two years later we can’t help but ask the following questions:

What happened to the momentum?

Does it still exist?

How has it evolved?

Are these ideals being fulfilled in government?

What are some of the best, innovative case studies of what is possible in this space?

What does the future hold?

What do the Administration, the media and the campaign stakeholders think is next for 2010 and 2012?

How is the next generation of political advocates going to bring together social media to create a movement, to raise money, to organize locally, to fight opposition campaigns and to get out the vote?

Will the Republicans be able to capitalize on this power as well as the Democrats?

We realize that this topic is vast and one that will take several conversations to cover. Consequently, we are hopeful that this Ogilvy Exchange will be the first of many where we begin to discuss these questions. In parallel, the 360Di team is launching a series of blog posts on government that we hope to publish on a weekly basis to continue to explore this topic in a more thorough manner.

We are very excited to share that the following speakers have expressed an interest in participating in our Exchange: Micah Sifry from Personal Democracy Forum; Ari Melber from the Nation and Politico; Mark Murray from NBC Universal; Lovisa Williams, Deputy Director from the State Department’s Office of Innovative Engagement. We will be providing more details as speakers are confirmed. We look forward to having you join us at this event!

For more details on the event and how to get involved you can reach me at Kety.Esquivel@OgilvyPR.com.

 

I just got back from a first time-trip to Edinburgh. The highlight as many of you likely know was the Edinburgh Fringe Festival which takes over the city for about 5 weeks in August and September and segues into the not-so-fringe Edinburgh Festival. The Fringe is hundreds, if not thousands, of performances - theater, comedy, dance, music, children's shows, opera and more. Shows are happening at a couple hundred venues across town from the morning until late into the night. It's an exciting (and trying) time to be in Edinburgh. 

My question is how do you navigate such long tail abundance? 

Many of the residents sample the shows. One refrain I heard often was that the prices of shows have gone up to the point where sampling with your feet (walking in and out of shows) was no longer realistic. Our cheapest ticket was about 7 pounds although I saw quite a few below that and even some free shows. Our priciest ticket was probably 16 pounds. 

I am no expert on the Fringe. But I shouldn't have to be to figure out where to place my bets, so to speak. I saw marketing break down in 4 basic categories:

Print and Out-of-Home  

This festival runs on paper. The wall posters were everywhere. Giant grids of posters showing a range of design and advertising skill. Pretty soon, it all became a pattern of colors, shapes and faces who I felt I should recognize but didn't. An official Fringe guide was a nice size book with entries for every show. It felt like a small phone book. Browsing it became a lifetime ambition. If you had the iPhone app as I did, there was no real reason to refer back to the book. I will say that the brand consistency between the program, Web site and the app was very strong and gave me confidence that I was looking in the right place. 

Human Experience

Performers and supporting staff were out on the streets handing out the other over-abundant print object - postcards. There were postcards everywhere. We all walked home with stacks of 5-10 from any given stroll. It seemed rude not to accept postcards from struggling performers. Sometimes the performers would try and coax you into a show about to start. One group of "Bagpipe Dads" followed us humming their human bagpipe sound until we took their postcards and made a gesture that suggested we would consider attending the show. 

This human experience is clearly part of the charm and helps make the sidewalks come alive. Most are in costume so you would be getting cards from zombies, warriors, kilt-wearing Scotsmen, fairies and punks. 

Digital Utility

The Web site is very strong and has one thing the truly great iPhone app didn't have - reviews. First the app. The darned thing was designed really well. It was synced to your clock so when it launched, it displayed the next shows by time. You could sort by category and make a time selection. This really pays off on one of the chief attendee behaviors - attending a show based upon time of day and serendipity. More importantly, it allows you to tag shows and create a favorites list. It is much easier to browse and track availabilities for a dozen shows then several hundred. 

But the app didn't have reviews. That is the one big thing the entire experience was missing. Then, of course, I realized when I got home that the Web site had reviews - both official critics and the crowd. Had I known, I would definitely have used the reviews to make some choices. Problem is that I was often out and about while making those choices. the reviews really needed to be baked into the app to be truly useful.

   

Social Web

The Twitter tag was #edfringe and I followed it prior to arrival. I am sure there were all sorts of other tags associated with particular venues or even shows. I just wouldn't have had any reason to use those unless I was more of an insider. Because I was traveling and ringing up a fair charge for data, I limited my FourSquare usage so I never figured out if the venues were really leveraging that platform. But again, it wouldn't help a newbie select a show more than reward a repeat user at a particular venue (again, there were hundreds of venues and no reason to stay at one). 

I was traveling with my family. Had I been on my own, I likely would have looked for tweet-ups and other social gatherings and memes to participate in. 

Two things for next year:

1. With such a flood of choices, we need credible, easy-to-navigate reviews on our mobile devices. That means reviews from folks we can trust and some assurance that the reviews are not being 'gamed' in any way. What a terrific sponsor opportunity though - drive reviews through a brand contest of some kind. 
2. We could try to establish a hashtag scheme that helps us all find quality. Perhaps a series of hashtags denoting quality - #edfringe_A for a great show, #edfringe_C for a so-so show. With my tweetdeck tuned to three channels, I could quickly see what is rising to the surface. 

A great experience. If you go, get the app. 

And last but not least, check out this Flickr gallery for some great shots of the people there. 

I came to Ogilvy 360 DI — and social media strategy — via a slightly different route than most of my colleagues. In short, I was a longtime blogger (and journo) who’d become frustrated at how poorly blog outreach was being handled by brands that, under any other circumstance, would’ve been impeccable with their approach. They’d finessed relationships with the press and customers, but when it came to bloggers, they ended up botching it completely (clunky outreach, poor planning, uneven execution) — and as a result, not capitalizing on all that blogs and social media could offer. Ogilvy was the first place I saw that truly got that blogger relationships were not a one-size-fits-all kind of endeavor. I signed on for the job.

Even though I’m now at Ogilvy, I’m still a blogger — my fashion blog, FashionisSpinach.com, has been tapped for a wide number of influencer campaigns for brands like Chanel and Gucci — and I’m still the target for many brands stepping into the social media sphere. Not a day goes by when I’m not completely amazed at how companies try to use clunky PR methods to reach out to bloggers like me.

Here are three of my most frequently seen pitfalls.

1. Think outside the (in)box.

Yesterday, I received 96 e-mails in my blog’s e-mail inbox (of course, not all were straight outreach — it’s also the spot where I sign up for store newsletters and other e-deals). Want to know how many I opened? Twelve. In this world of e-mail overload, your note needs to catch my eye to get a click. Too often, brands blanket bloggers with generic press releases — and not a photo in sight, a major oversight when dealing with blogs.

The new rule: If I’m going to open your pitch, it should at least contain the following: A personalized note that shows you’ve actually read my blog; a introduction to whatever you’re sharing that doesn’t sound like corporate-speak; and news that actually fits in with my readers (looking at you, baby sling PR woman).

2. “Ask” and you might not receive.

I’ve been asked to participate in a number of high-profile blog campaigns lately; for the most part, I’ve turned them down. Why? The “ask” was so great it transformed a cool campaign to a burden that seemed forced and unnatural with my blogging style. Case in point: One major fashion house is currently teamed up with a group of bloggers for a month-long event. They offered free clothes and other perks, but among the requirements was to tweet 10x per day about the brand/project on one particular day of the month. I only tweet 10x a day as is — to suddenly have to flood my friends and readers every hour promoting this brand felt like a major imposition. I turned down the offer.

The new rule: Your value exchange needs to be fair and balanced — simply asking me to promote your product (because, let’s face it, that’s what you’re doing, even if it’s something I like) for little in return doesn’t work in today’s blogosphere. But it’s also important to make sure the ask is reasonable and won’t damage the brand: I suspect if I’d signed on and tweeted 10x a day about a company, my followers would’ve viewed that with skepticism, not excitement — totally defeating the purpose of connecting with new customers.

3. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

My biggest gripe about blogger outreach? Most brands tend to heavily bombard with their pitch, hoping to generate a one-time spike in “buzz.” Instead, the priority ought to be on building relationships with bloggers over the long term. Yes, this one new perfume/shoe/spa and hotel is fabulous and attention-getting, but just because we successfully connect about it shouldn’t mean our relationship is over when the campaign is. Good social media pros develop relationship with bloggers — after all, you never know when a new campaign or a new product will pop back up. A friendly, professional relationship over time is so much more valuable than one visible blog post for one event.

The new rule: Get to know your bloggers. Follow their sites; read their blogs; reach out (with a quick hello, or a fun article that has nothing to do with the product you work on) from time to time. And for goodness sakes, if a blogger writes a great post about your product/company/amazing! new! doohickey!, send them a thank you note. It makes us feel good to know that you appreciate our support, and weren’t just schmoozing to squeeze a post out of us.

 

Facebook is going on a feature binge. The latest installment is, of course, the much anticipated Facebook Places. With 150 million of the 500 million Facebook users accessing the service via mobile device, this will be a big step for brands that have customer POS or PO I("points of interaction"). That means if you have retail stores, dealerships or even temporary events like conferences or sampling events you should take steps today to claim your actual "place" today.

Why You Should Care

Location-based marketing and communication is one of the next 4 big trends (stay tuned for the other three) and is not a simple passing fad. Combining social behaviors (communicating with friends, meeting up, broadcasting your lifestream) with geolocation information has proven itself valuable with the rapid growth of services like Gowalla, FourSquare and the geolocation-enhanced Yelp. I "check-in" to locations all the time via FourSquare and enjoy connecting with people I know as I travel. The social value of these services are outlined well in Facebook's video on the launch of Places (see below). 

Facebook has an advantage over FourSquare: As with other location-based services like FourSquare, people will 'check-in' at your location. If you are a car dealership, they will check-in. If you are a restaurant, they will check-in. If you are a B2B company at a trade show, they will check-in. The feature will attract those already using other geolocation services and, more importantly, it will attract Facebook users new to this feature/service. The sheer critical mass of friends on Facebook will drive many to use this feature within Facebook vs. another service that cannot access their Facebook friends. (e.g. I only see my FourSquare "friends" when I check-in via that service)

People will explore using this feature: As the Internet continues its migration beyond the desktop, people will explore new ways to leverage access wherever they are. They will (are) accessing relevant services which means relevant to their location and context. From social benefits (connecting with friends at the Grinderman show) to utility and value (earning loyalty premiums from local hotels), consumers will try new ways to derive value and brands should be all over that.

The price of entry is relatively low: Even if you are skeptical about mass-adoption of geolocation services or, gulp, doubtful of facebook's ability to steal the thunder from Loopt or FourSquare, the price of getting involved and claiming your POS and POI today is so low you should do it. Oh, and you shoudl establish and claim your own place today before someone else does. Just like on FourSquare, anyone can establish a place. Three reasons why that matters:

1. You want to put your best foot forward. When folks go to check-in at your location, you want them to see the best, most accurate information not some half-baked entry or worse from an unaffiliated user
2. You want to harness the content and social graph of users willing to check-in at your location and that will be most impactful if you have established one, comprehensive listing for your business. Even as a user, I hate when I check-in at a location only to find that there are 3-4 duplicate listings for a place with insignificant differences in the record for that place. As a brand, you want to have as many people as possible checking in to your official Facebook Places records. You want to consolidate the reach of their social graph around your best location(s). Remember when they check-in, they are broadcasting a message via their New Feed to all of their friends - "hey I just arrived at Pete's Apizza..."
3. You want to start accruing the benefit of consumer generated media which is what gets created when folks check-in at your location. Brand presence today is created by third parties. That's what is most credible and most scalable. 

Here's how Inside Facebook sums it up:

"In other words, any business or other organization with a physical presence should make sure to claim and manage their Place page. The most immediate reason is that lots of users will be generating content on the page, with or without an admin to moderate it. The more important reason, though, is that Places is a promising new way to connect with customers, clients and partners."

What You Should Do

Do three things today to prepare you for a fuller use of Facebook Places today. There is little risk inherent in these initial steps save for the effort involved in taking them. For brands with hundreds or thousands of POS/POI's the combined effort may be significant (e.g. getting 3000 stores to create their individual Facebook Place entries may add up. And currently Facebook functionality requires individual entries created from the actual geolocation. In other words, the store managers will need to do this). 

1. Claim or establish your business inside Facebook Places - Inside Facebook has the best DIY guide to setting up and/or claiming places for your brand. This site, in general, is a terrific resource to understand Facebook and it remains one of my daily feeds/reads. 
2. If you are brand with many locations, create a template of 'best-practice' information and circulate to POS/POI managers to implement
3. Make it someone's job to monitor your Places check-ins

More advanced steps - if you are farther along with location-based marketing and/or consumer reviews than you are likely all over this already. You will likely want to jump ahead and prepare to use the service more proactively:

1. Create a response plan much like you would for FourSquare or Twitter such that you can reach out to loyalists who check-in at your locations and/or triage customer service issues shodul they complain via that feature. 
2. Build a promotion around 'check-ins' to reward the behavior and build usage. Brands have quickly learned how to use the Facebook "Like" feature to promote social graph pass-alongs (have they over-used it? ). Now do it with check-ins by rewarding the behavior
3. Add a Facebook Places section to your social media "Activation Guidelines" that tells business managers within your company how to leverage the service feature. "Activation Guidelines" are part of the governance package that corporate social media 'Centers for Excellence' (see this post) can create for their organization. Unlike the typical 'social media guidelines' intended to communicate the do's and dont's of social media behavior to employees, activation guidelines are the accumulated best practices and social brand governance meant o guide the best, most impactful social media marketing practices throughout the enterprise. 

(image of Facebook Places dialogue box respectfully reproduced from Inside Facebook)

Facebook's video describing the service for your viewing pleasure (Facebook has done a good job communicating via video)

What is “Facebook Stories”?

This July, Facebook announced that it had passed the 500 million user milestone. Along with this announcement, Facebook also rolled out a new application, “Facebook Stories,” to celebrate its achievement.  As the largest social network in the world, stories of how people are interacting with others on Facebook happen every day. However, these stories usually end up only on Facebook Status Updates and News Feed, where limited users (i.e.friends) can access.

By launching Facebook Stories, users are able to share their unique stories in a collective environment, and all users can read these stories searchable by location or theme. Themes cover a variety of topics such as education, relationships, reunions, love etc. and after reading a couple stories, I would add some are quite inspiring and mind-opening. While various people use Facebook to keep in touch with old friends, others have clearly allowed Facebook to become a part of their lives.

How Brands use Facebook Stories Tab

In addition to the Facebook Stories site, Facebook is currently partnering with 31 fan pages, which associates a certain brand to many of the Facebook Stories tabs. LIVESTRONG, for instance, highlights health-related stories on its Facebook fan page; The Knot, a leading wedding service company, highlights Facebook users’ love stories. While these stories do not relate to the brand itself, they do represent a philosophy behind it, or the mission of its particular cause. Through these stories, content on fan pages become more engaging and fans are more likely to spend more time thinking about or visiting the brand. At the same time, these Facebook Stories allows the brand to see a glimpse of what stories people like to share. In turn, the brand may tailor its engagement plan to cross promote its page and Facebook Stories.

Since Facebook Stories is now available to any developer, I believe that more brand pages will link up with this new application to establish greater consumer engagement and brand awareness.

So, what is your story?

Of the sectors throwing caution to the wind and making social media integral to long-term communications plans, I perceive higher education as dragging its feet. Fresh off graduation, I can still smell the ink drying on hastily-minted digital plans for universities of all sizes and ilk. That’s why I was surprised after a recent finding from the Society for New Communications Research: higher education is outpacing the Fortune 500 in social media adoption by more than 2 to 1.

We must consider such inferences carefully. The deeper one digs into the study, the more context must be added. In one instance, researchers found 95% of schools use at least one platform to recruit. While the for-profit equivalent of recruiting is acquiring new customers, social media serve many more functions in both sectors. In education, uses include informing current students, communicating with alumni, and promoting curricula, courses, and extracurriculars internally, among countless others.

The study’s broad statements must be examined carefully and, while the rate of adoption may be high, it may not translate to effectiveness. Social media shouldn’t be drooled over solely for external promotion and recruiting, but also for opportunities to create an enriching stakeholder experience. For example, Harvard University has been an early adopter in its use of social platforms to welcome guests with campus tips on foursquare, serve diverse audiences on Twitter, and provide students resources to get involved via Facebook.

“Well, that’s freakin’ Harvard!” one might say. Sure, but it could be any university with the strategic insight to serve disparate audiences through social media. While not every institution can offer a custom foursquare badge to visitors, it can bring a campus, its students, and the community to life with a fuller interactive, multimedia presence. Obviously it’s no cakewalk and schools must address four fundamental uncertainties that inhibit effective use of social media in higher education:

1) Who socializes the media? Many of the shocking stats cited from the study (51% have a blog! 59% use Twitter! 95% are on at least one platform!) attribute internal ownership to the admissions department, an interesting handler. Though many organizations have difficulties determining what department has dominion over Facebook, blows, and the like, ownership within educational institutions could be particularly prickly. Do social media fall under admissions? Isn’t marketing the obvious answer? How about community outreach or business development? An organization that addresses this question early and definitively will avoid a lot of standoffs and answer the other questions with more ease.

2) What happens when students move on? A school’s primary social media audience may be comprised heavily of students, who are as permanent as a particle-board bookshelf. The effort to grow social network followings must be ongoing as students apply, come, go, and eventually graduate. Even though network size isn’t the all-important metric, many social media marketers will tell you that adding 1,000 followers or spurring 500 “Likes” is no small undertaking – especially when network-building activities happen every one, two, and four years.

3) Who are they talking to? While a corporation may have multiple stakeholders, social networks primarily serve two audiences: current customers and potential customers. However, universities serve several groups with a wide spectrum of needs – prospective students, prospective students’ parents, current students, alumni, and so on – all at different stages of engagement. The breadth, diversity, and influence of this audience are unparalleled when compared to most consumer products. Therefore, schools must introduce a structure that is either highly segmented or broadly appealing – both of which could work depending on the mission. If it helps, think of social media as augmented reality for a student, alumnus, parent, and so on.

4) Does Twitter wilt the ivy? Even beyond Harvard, most academic intuitions consider themselves hallowed and social media, at first glance, may feel contrary to that image. What could Northwestern University, an institution that filed 158 patent applications in 2008, possibly say in 140 characters? Wouldn’t a tweet tarnish the gilded glow of such activities? Well, not that’s how I found out about the school’s pioneering work in clean fuel development and nanotechnology. Maybe promotion on social networks would even attract a PhD prospect to enroll or an alumnus to up a contribution.

Though not the only obstacles along a university’s brick-paved walkway, they are crucial to consider when creating an engaging social media campus. What bumps in the road or challenges do you see? Let us know what universities are effectively serving you as a prospective student, current student, alum, or general fan. In the meantime, I’m off to the batting cages – I’m terrible at mini-golf.

Check out the full study referenced above: Social Media and College Admissions: Higher-Ed Beats Business in Adoption of New Tools for Third Year.

From our good friend Tom Fishburne: "In the rush to maintain momentum, there is huge pressure to "jump the shark." Jumping the shark attracts new attention and feels necessary in the game of competitive one-upmansship. But the volume of attention is far less important than the caliber of the attention. And more important than grabbing fresh attention is the maintaining... Jackie Huba

 

From our good friend Tom Fishburne: 

"In the rush to maintain momentum, there is huge pressure to "jump the shark." Jumping the shark attracts new attention and feels necessary in the game of competitive one-upmansship. But the volume of attention is far less important than the caliber of the attention. And more important than grabbing fresh attention is the maintaining of those already buying.

The risk of jumping the shark isn't getting eaten by the shark. It's leaving your loyalists behind."

More on Tom's take on jumping the shark here. 

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