Twitter Has Hollywood Quaking in Its Jimmy Choos

August 20th, 2009 • Industry News, Social Networks, Tools & Resources
Tags: facebook, nielsen, social media marketing, twitter, Word of Mouth

The weekend is almost here, so you decide that you want to go to the movies this Saturday. Do you make your movie pick based on advertising or do you ask a friend for recommendations?

What’s Your Social Media Mojo?

August 14th, 2009 • Fun, Industry News, Tools & Resources
Tags: Lynn Eastep, twitter, Word of Mouth, Yahoo

To launch their new home page, Yahoo! has created a fun word of mouth promotion called “Know Your Mojo” that uses Yahoo uses an algorithm to analyze your tweeting behavior. Once you’ve received the result, you can tweet your result, update your FB status and also receive ideas for new content to add to your personalized Yahoo! homepage.

Ranging from “Name Dropper” to “Wallflower,” the app makes conclusions about your tweeting behavior. So, what about my (lynneastep) social mojo? According to the result, my social mojo is “BFF”: “Your volume of @replies makes you everybody’s best bud.” Accurate? Well, I am pretty friendly if I do say so myself.

Though the “secret algorithm” is facetious (it’s about as scientific as a Cosmo quiz), it’s a fun way to spark word of mouth about their new homepage.

Seven Words The Internet Should Live By

August 2nd, 2009 • Strategy, Tools & Resources
Tags: internet communications

At com.motion, we are developing a philosophy and framework that, we believe, the Internet and indeed all communications campaigns should evolve to encompass.

The seven words which best describe this are below, thanks to Internet pioneer and venture capitalist, Fred Wilson.

• Global
• Open
• Social
• Intelligent
• Playful
• Mobile
• Instant

Why these words? Why do we believe these are important, vital tenets of the new wave of communications?

Global – because the Internet is borderless but also because campaigns must break through the clutter and speak to everyone on a personal basis.

Open – because clients which are transparent will reap the benefits of consumer trust.

Social – because the new campaign must be good enough to get people talking about it. But social because we are seeing a new era of communications where people can, and do, talk about the brands/organizations they use. More importantly, these organizations and brands can now talk back!

Intelligent – because we must not talk down to consumers any more.

Playful – because we want to have fun!

Mobile – because consumers are no longer confined to the cinema, to the TV or to their computers. Mobiles and smart phones are the fourth screen and increasingly the method of choice for users to access the Internet.

Instant – because who wants to wait? The Internet has made us impatient consumers of information and those clients who make their customers wait will be penalised for it.

What do you think? Are there any words you’d add – and why?

CluetrainPlus10 Project: Most marketing programs are based on the fear that the market might see what’s really going on inside the company.

April 28th, 2009 • 3 comments Studies & Research, Tools & Resources
Tags: Cluetrain Manifesto, CluetrainPlus10, facebook

In 1999, Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger wrote a book that was so prophetic, it arguably shaped and reinvented the way that businesses approached communicating with their key markets using the Internet. At a time when there was only a minimal amount of social networking sites and message boards were one of the only ways people were interacting with eachother online, the book was eerily ahead of its time with its theories and predictions. The above title is number 28 out of 95 theses that the authors of the bestselling book, The Cluetrain Manifesto, stated.

Today, organizations are embracing the online and social media space in two distinct ways. Some organizations that have embraced the social Web to communicate their messages with their key markets using a number of different online communications channels. Some companies have thrived to be more open in terms of allowing the public to go behind the scenes. Elements that pull the curtain back on certain organizations are being added to corporate sites more and more frequently. Corporate blogs and liberal blogging policies implemented by other organizations allow employees to share what they do on a day-to-day basis with their stakeholders. This thesis is becoming less and less relevant as organizations begin to utilize social media and social media marketing.

Even a once staid and faceless corporation like Microsoft has opened itself up with internal videos and by actively encouraging employees at all levels to blog and to share their work with the outside world.

Ten years from now, more and more organizations will follow in Microsoft’s steps. They will be open to scrutiny and will continue to win the trust of their key stakeholders once they’ve stepped into the online space. People have a human need to want to connect with each other and we are seeing more people openly and willingly interact with the organizations and brands that they are most passionate about. Facebook, for example, is a social networking site that we see vast numbers of people engaging with each other and with brands on Facebook fan pages.

Although the above thesis may not stand as strong ten years from now, this book is a must-read for all marketers looking to effectively understand why they need to change their marketing strategy and to learn how to communicate with their key audience. As Michael Wolfe puts it, “Love it or hate it, no one with a stake in the online scene can afford to ignore what this book is saying.”

Social Media Dictionary: Tweet-Up

February 19th, 2009 • Tools & Resources
Tags: Social Media Dictionary, tweet-up, twitter

What is a Tweet-up?

Events organized and promoted through Twitter where users meet in person to network, discuss hot topics, fundraise or socialize. Tweet-ups have sometimes been compared to a flash mob because of the short time frame from the conception to execution of an event and the huge number of people who attend. Often attendees of tweet-ups have never met face-to-face, but may have developed strong relationships online.

An interesting example of a tweet-up on a much larger scale is Twestival, which took place in 180 cities including Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, New York, and Los Angeles. On February 12th 2009, Twitter users and their friends gathered to raise money for Charity Water, a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Twestival attendees met up with their local Twitter community to fundraise, network with other “tweeters” and participate in the live global “twestival” conversation happening online (and in some cases were able to see the Twitter conversation on large screens at the venue). The event promotion and conversations about the event were communicated primarily through Twitter.

We’ve seen other examples of successful Twitter meet-ups dedicated to coming together for a cause. In December, #HOHOTO, a sold out 600-person Toronto Twitter event, raised $25,000 for the Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank.

Key learning:
The Twitter community is very active online but also in person. The strength of twitter is in the large number of frequent, short updates from users. The public’s text based messages allows information about an event, a breaking news story, or a call-to-action to spring up quickly and generate buzz sometimes in a matter of minutes.

Watching TV while Online….

January 26th, 2009 • 1 comment Tools & Resources
Tags: media planning, social media marketing

The folks at Ipsos Reid have confirmed what all parents of teenagers already know - when you are online, you are probably watching TV and listening to the radio also.

In fact, 44% of Canadians (and presumably, a similar number of multi-tasking Americans) say they are consuming other traditional forms of media while scouring the latest that the Internet has to offer. Further, a lot of folks don’t bother with traditional media at all, especially quick-to-be-out-of-date categories such as magazine (40% don’t bother with them).

Multi-tasking is only part of this story – the other part is that media with interactive & real-time characteristics is where the audience is. The more one-way and out-of-date the message, the less an entire generation of consumers is interested.

Recently, a lot of bleeding-edge folks have been getting their news from emerging micro-blogging sites, such as Twitter. Over here at com.motion we follow one particular Twitter-er who seems to beat CNN regularly.

Hold on to your hats, folks, media is changing.