Communicating Integrated Digital Media

Is Social Media Just for Kids?

I had an interesting meeting with a large group a client brought along to a strategy presentation yesterday. It was a scene I've witnessed too many times to count - everyone in the room was roughly 45+ years of age, and they were entirely convinced that social media was something for their kids, but it's not anything for them to be concerned about.

I've heard the same statements over and over. "This new social media thing is just for kids". "Social media is a time waster." "Social media doesn't make anyone any money."

The sentiment is hard to handle because there are stacks of evidence to contradict just about every negative remark. The truth is that it comes down to a personal preference about how you spend your time and what matters to you. It is also about the size of your existing network and location limitations.

Personally, I think if you’re doing something just because everyone else is doing it – then you’re living a very desperate existence. If you believe something just because a credentialed “expert” says its true – then you are doing your own intelligence a tremendous disservice.

I’m not a social media advocate. I really don’t mind if people don’t want to use it or know anything about it. But I wonder about a reaction that is defensive or causes someone to lash out with a negative judgment – doesn’t that sound like fear to you?

Realizing that consumers have the power should not be a new idea to anyone. No one is going to buy your product just because it exists. The world of advertising is changing dramatically because Ad Agency’s are finally realizing that people need to understand the value of things. Consumers ask themselves questions like: How does this product relate to my code of ethics? Is it organic? Is it made of renewable materials? Is it going to last me long enough that the cost is reasonable for my budget?

Maybe the problem for me is that I've never cared about the "experts" - that was something my Mom used to try and drill into me all the time, and still tries to convince me that the only opinion that matters is from a renowned specialist. What I enjoy the most about Social Media is that I can learn from people I can relate to and understand. I don't know about you, but most professional journalists seem to say the same things and report on the same things. I don’t want to know what someone is paid to say – I want to know what is real. Knowing what real people are saying is what matters – not what a spokesperson is paid to say or a politician wants you to believe for their own benefit.

Interestingly my mother also told me not to follow the crowd and do things based on my own code of ethics- the pearl of wisdom, "if you're friends thought it was cool to jump off a cliff, does that mean you have to?”

If you don’t think social media makes sense for you personally, then that’s ok. It's not about following what everyone else is doing - it's about finding the right resources so that you can steer your own ship. The idea that we all are expected to follow the same code and traditions is over. People move around these days - living in different countries and travelling more often. Not everyone goes to school, finds a job, gets married, has a couple of kids, lives in a house with a white picket fence out front, etc. What was once 'traditional' is now unpractical for most people or generally unrealistic. Today we are fractured from our network and we use social media to stay connected. It’s really that simple.

Here's a few statistics that might help shed light on the subject:

In June 2009, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported 8.4million active internet subscribers in Australia
79.1% of internet users in Australia view online video.
YouTube receives 6.17 million Australian visitors monthly.
A study on social networking usage in Australia, found more than 70 percent of Internet users in Australia visited a social networking site in June 2009, up from 29% the previous year.
Facebook could generate between $1 billion and $1.1 billion in revenue this year, a big increase over the $710 million estimate from The Wall Street Journal a few months ago. In fact, the world’s largest social network could have made between $600-$700 million in 2009.
Huffington Post Revenue and Valuation Estimated Value: $150 million
TechCrunch is now building a conference business and expanding its network of blogs. It probably fair to guess that it has grown to a revenue run rate of $5 million. To believe that the figure could double to $10 million in 2008 is not unreasonable.

Meet Coder Barbie

What do you think of the newest Barbie? My favourite barbie had a reversible outfit - by day she wore a pink swede power suit and by night she had a sequent bustier and disco skirt.

I'd expect a woman in tech to have a multi-use outfit and nerd tools that would make MacGyver jealous.

Over half a million votes were cast to decide Barbie’s newest career. But even though Computer Engineer Barbie was developed in consultation with the Society of Women Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering, the new doll’s appearance has sparked controversy.

Optimise All Content

If you had asked me a few years ago if I saw myself working in online marketing or SEO strategy I'd think you were bent - but here I am, in a role I never imagined for myself. I always thought I'd be working in some role that focused on the user experience. Coming from a forum and moderator background - being in the "trenches" is where I've always loved being. I think it's a great job to interact with people, find out what interests them and what they like and dislike about the platform or website content - and then working with the team that makes it the best user experience possible.

I assumed online marketing was just an old practice in a new media. Sometimes online marketing is a little like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. I'm not a huge fan of AdWords and banner advertising - I think it's lazy to be honest and generally ineffective.

I guess because of my background and personality I want to create an experience for people online. I want interactive, fun, and if possible- inspiring capabilities that result in people having a good experience. To me, my job is about making it easy for the right audience to find the right content. That doesn't always mean a website- hence, AdWords and Banner Ads aren't always the right fit. Video is a great tool for just about any brand.

A great example comes from a post by a brilliant guy named Ian Lurie.

One innocent Tweet and everyone went nuts. Sheesh.

The YouTube Video Optimization session at SMX West today kicked butt. Out of many cool tidbits, one really stood out: Matt Ballek pointed out a Forrester study showing that an optimized YouTube video is 50x more likely to get onto page 1 of Google than an optimized HTML page.

I tweeted it. It then got retweeted. And retweeted again. And then some more. And so on.

Since it got a lot of attention, I figured I'd better provide a proper citation. Matt was referencing a Forrester report that said:

Now that's a lot of math, but here's what it means: on the keywords for which Google offers video results, any given video in the index stands about a 50 times better chance of appearing on the first page of results than any given text page in the index.

Matt's presentation was dynamite. Learn more from him on his site, vidiSEO.

I think it's a great point to raise - SEO is about optimised content. As much as it's good practice to optimise a website it's just as important to optimise each piece of media you create.

Collaborate or Perish: An Introduction to Social Media

Yesterday was an incredibly long day for me. On top of my regular non-stop schedule I presented an introduction to social media seminar to a few of our existing clients. You can check out the presentation on Slideshare.

For those who have read some of my earlier posts, you’ll know that I moved from Toronto to Melbourne last year, and I had a really hard time figuring out how to market myself to potential employers. The job titles I had at home aren’t traditional and aren’t seen as roles within a corporate organization. Titles such as: Online Community Specialist and Online Community Moderator, are roles that fit into online gaming or user management on platforms, but not traditional company’s, right?

Wrong.

After 9 months I realize that the roles I had do fit into Australian businesses, but it’s a lack of connection between the marketing strategies and the business objectives. I believe there is a disconnect and the people who are meant to be initiating these activities are not receiving the right kind of guidance.

To me, the main reason company’s should engage in social media is to create a dialogue. And not a always a literal dialogue where you create a group and lamely ask random questions to a disinterested audience. A dialogue can be a lot of things. The narrative is in assembling all of the communication to create a message.

If you look at a platform, such as Twitter, you can assess the functionality and use it to create your communication strategy. Twitter is a great way to extend your customer service and find ideas for customer-centric solutions. Facebook is a great place to conduct surveys and solicit feedback based on opt-in offers. It also allows you to conduct research to a broader audience. LinkedIn helps you generate leads and find potential partners.

The point of these examples is that you can extract metrics of measurement to build business strategies that are future-proof. Your services can identify solve problems in a more timely manner then traditional reviews. All of this data and information needs to be disseminated by someone within your organization. It doesn’t need to be only one person’s job to manage and communicate, but there should be someone collecting and reporting on the information. Teams should have access to this information to form the basis for the day to day practices of your business.

Interestingly, at the end of the presentation a woman asked me about privacy. She said, “how are company’s supposed to control what their employees say to people online?” This is a classic response and something I expected to hear. My response to this is that employees should sign confidentiality agreements that clearly stipulate what they are permitted to share with others outside of the company. If you are a car manufacturer, you might not want your employees leaking information about a product soon to come to market, but it would be ok for your employees to solicit information about people’s favorite car or the story of how they bought their first car. Or even what types of software they’d love to have in a car if they were able to design their own. Alternatively, if a car designer wants to find out whether people like 2 door or 4 on a particular model – why not ask people? Isn’t it better to find out what people want before launching a product that may or may not satisfy the demand? No one is suggesting that employees give away the secret sauce, but the world is full of great ideas and specialists. If you turn your back on the crowd you will surely find yourself out of business sooner than you think.You need to relinquish control.

Live Interview with Elisa Camahort Page - COO and Co-Founder of BlogHer.com

SocialMediopolis Live! interviews Elisa Camahort Page on BlogTalkRadio.com, tomorrow, Monday, March 1st at 11am PST/ 1pm CST/ 2pm EST

Elisa Camahort Page - COO and Co-Founder of BlogHer.com
SocialMediopolis
Date / Time: 3/1/2010 12:00 PM

BlogHer began as a labor of love in February 2005, when founders Lisa Stone, Elisa Camahort Page and Jory Des Jardins launched a conference for women who blog. She is a co-founder of BlogHer and manages its events, marketing and corporate operations. After 13 years of marketing in Silicon Valley, she left high tech product management in 2003 to go online and join the social media world. She was one of the earliest professional and business bloggers and currently write or contribute to eight blogs. She blogs at various times about marketing, health issues, green and eco-conscious living, being a vegan, and reality TV talent shows like American Idol and Project Runway! She has a monthly column for the Silicon Valley Metro called Silicon Veggie. Today BlogHer is the leading participatory news, entertainment and information network for women online, reaching more than 15 million women each month via annual conferences, a Web hub ( http://www.blogher.com ), and an publishing network of more than 2,500 qualified, contextually targeted blog affiliates ( http://blogherads.com ). BlogHer Inc. is run by its three co-founders and has backing from Venrock, the Peacock Fund and Azure Capital Partners.

Listen to the live interview with Elisa Camahort Page, COO and Co-founder of the BlogHer Network, Monday, 3/1/2010 at 11am PST/ 2pm PST.

JOIN THE LIVE CONVERSATION! Call-in Number: (917) 889-8137 Don't worry if you're overseas- try out Skype (I'm surprised SocialMediopolis doesn't have a Skype account).

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