Pin It!

Guest post by Kathleen Hennessy.

I can’t get enough of Pinterest! This virtual bulletin board is literally replacing my computer’s “bookmark” feature. Find a great idea for organizing your home office? Pin it. An inspirational photo pops up on a web site I frequent? Pin it. That new recipe you want to try next weekend? Pin it!

According to the site’s About section, “Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.”

This social media site also allows you to browse your friend’s pinboards. Stranger’s pinboards are free game too.... making new ideas and inspiration virtually limitless.

According to SHAPE magazine, Pinterest may even be able to change your life! In this article (http://www.shape.com/lifestyle/mind-and-body/can-pinterest-change-your-life) Pinterest fans created “vision boards” to help them focus on loosing weight. Definitely life changing.

Rumor has it the site is doing a big capital push, so un-doubtably, more fun things are in store.

Now our challenge as marketers is to figure out how to make our product visual, inspirational and pin-able.

Wordless Wednesday: Women in Social Media

The Answers Social Media Infographics Provide (And The Questions They Raise)

Social media has obviously revolutionized the way brands connect with consumers. And with the hundreds of thousands of ways that marketers have planted themselves in our digital lives, sometimes it's nice to step back and admire the magnitude of social media marketing.

This infographic on Mashable examines some of the larger examples of effective campaigns based on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and location-based services like Foursquare. There are plenty of numbers on the infographic, but here's a quick sampling:

• 12 million YouTube views for the "Will It Blend?" iPad video over 4 months
• 86.5 million impressions for Coca-Cola's promoted trending topic in June 2010
• 11% consumers say they would buy something offered only to Facebook fans.
• 184,000 people participated in a 3-month Buffalo Wild Wings SCVNGR campaign

Of course, stats like this stir mixed emotions from people like me who work on the marketing/PR side of social media. On one hand, these numbers prove the impact social media marketing can have, as well as the sheer potential that exists online.

However, looking only at social media marketing's biggest successes (or failures for that matter) tend to skew the perception of brands looking to get into social media.

A company who only sees these grandiose examples of pages with thousands of fans or videos may come to expect that incredibly high level of success as normal. And when a campaign falls short of those lofty expectations, they may not see the value in social media even if the campaign was objectively successful.

The problem, however, can be solved by clearly defining the client's expectations before the campaign is agreed to. This should also include discussing the client's idea of success and, if need be, an honest assessment of what the client should expect from their social media efforts.

Facebook Friday: 750 million reasons why Google+ is still in Zuckerberg's rear view mirror

As many social media rush to christen Google+ the heir apparent to the social networking throne, let's pause a moment to examine the site that currently wears that crown.

Just yesterday I posted a video blog mentioning the small user base of Google+. And today, comScore published a report saying that Google+ has hit 20 million unique visitors. Granted, that doesn't mean there are 20 million Google+ users, but it's still a solid enough number to see how it stacks up against Facebook.

For the sake of argument, let's assume that Google+ does boast 20 million users. That's a mere 2.7% of Facebook's 750 million users.

More importantly, Facebook's user base is not limited to early adopters like Google+. This is an important distinction, because early adopter usage is not a good indicator of how the general public will embrace a product or service. And if the public doesn't adopt it, then the site will die off once the early adopters flock to their next big thing online.

I'm not saying Google+ can't one day challenge Facebook's supremacy, but it is way too early to tell and it's something that both social media pundits and brands need to bear in mind.

Coming Full Circle with Google+

Google+ has become the media darling after a string of positive reviews have led many to wonder if Google's social network can indeed challenge Facebook's social supremacy. Now that several of us here at the office have had some time to play around with Google+, Steve offers a quick rundown of its key features.

3 Reasons Social Gaming Is An Industry All Its Own

Just last week I wrote a post mentioning the growth of social gaming, and a new study strengthens the case that the growth will continue. Here are three key stats from that study.

1 out of 5 Americans over the age of six has played an online social game at least once.

Obviously, that number is just based on who was polled. But if you extrapolate that out, nearly 60 million Americans have or are playing social games. That's a huge number of users.

$2.2 billion worth of virtual goods were bought in 2009; expected to increase to $6 billion by 2013.

This is the major reason why social gaming isn't going away in the near future. The amount of money social gaming has already brought in is massive, and experts think that number is going to triple. As long as people are buying virtual goods, companies will continue to provide them.

35% of social gamers have no previous gaming experience whatsoever.

This was the most surprising stat to me, because ever since social games hit the market they've been compared to (and grouped with) traditional games. To me, this says that social gaming is becoming a completely different market, separate from the Nintendo/Playstation/Xbox-dominated industry of traditional gaming.

This is great news for social networks and bad news for the gaming industry. For social networks, social gaming provides monetization options other than just ads and banners. Unfortunately for the gaming industry, their struggles over the past couple of years are most likely to continue, because over a third of that social gaming demographic aren't playing traditional video games.

That being said, the gaming industry isn't beyond hope. However, it will take serious innovation and a continued push towards online gaming. The biggest takeaway is that social games like Farmville won't be put out to pasture anytime soon.

What Lois Whitman-Hess would really like to know about the New PR Landscape

Following a post I did about the aggravation of PR flacks belonging to social networks, I received an invite on the Axiom phone booth from Ms. Lois Whitman-Hess, telling me to call her and discuss what so many PR people are doing wrong.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but because all new media is so subjective in content, anything goes online really—especially if you hide behind “anonymous.” I call those people cowards, but still we are now very much into the world of transparency, mutual self-disclosure, and the “anything goes” mentality. If somebody can do a better job of explaining this, please hit me up here and we’ll give you some blog space.

And now for the new media reality unraveled…

Read, Comment, Repeat
You’re an old-school PR practitioner if you aren’t following this routine, as part of building a relationship using new media platforms, such as blogs, Twitter, FriendFeed (that one’s pretty obvious). But don’t overdo it; don’t flood their space with comments and then soon after pitch them a product or service. Offering valuable information every now and then will engage the reporter in what you’re saying.

For example, a reporter tweets about the upcoming Grammy Awards. You then @ reply them and provide them a link to the winning Grammy Poster artist. I’m not even kidding. Though they’re a tech reporter and write about consumer electronics, address their personal inquiries or interests and the rest will follow…

Reporters will let YOU know
Has it ever occurred to you that you can call a reporter and ask them where they’re at with their stories? I thought it was rather asinine to do this, but welcome to transparency, being candid, and vulnerable. Because reporters (especially tech) are wrapping themselves up in social networks and blogs ALL THE TIME, they now speak this language via phone. Call them. Ask them if they think your product is a fit—that is, after you mention their trend target and recent article. This couldn’t be more spelled out by several chapters on media in this book.

Less is Indeed More
At the beginning of the 21st century, you might’ve noticed reporters and editors giving more long-winded responses to your pitch, and now you’re seeing them less and less in your inbox, perhaps not at all. The new form of e-mail is now based entirely around “time”; meaning the medium helps get the message across fast. Reporters don’t have the time because they're always on deadline and worrying about their position being eliminated.

Reporters don’t want to see pitches in paragraph form. They want some bullets and a snappy note sent to them as to why readers would like to hear about X,Y,Z. That’s it—press releases don’t work—even if a reporter tells you to send one. This is their P.C. way of saying, “Hit the road.” (Even if you research them and tie a pretty bow on your pitch package by mentioning their article in the subject line, it will still be dismissed.) This was pointed out to me when I had the opportunity to sit down with a Time Magazine reporter in New York prior to attending next day’s Digital PR 2.0 Summit. Even the e-mails she gets from her PR friends that go past one page are deleted, regardless of effectively addressing her coverage area. Consider this: if you were full and wanted to fit in some dessert, would you go for the plate with the smallest, indulgent pie slice? You would if you don’t want an overwhelming stomach ache.

The Opportunity to “Explode” Your Client’s Brand
Though this is a very overused term part of the PR industry, “strategic” is a wise move. Thanks to social networks, you now have all-out access to understanding how influential a reporter’s blog is, i.e. through trackbacking, linkbuilding, retweets. Though reporters don’t have time, PR people need to have LOTS of time. If you can identify the reporter’s sphere of influence, you’re golden. If you can’t, you’re another cashew in the can. Be like pistachio.

For example, if you know that a reporter’s blog is highly trafficked and that they’re known to tweet their blog entries, you can garner the attention of not only the blogger’s visitors and subscribers, but the many Twitter followers as well. Don’t be surprised that these numbers can amount to more than that print newspaper you’re going after in Los Angeles.

Selling your pitch to a reporter will take time, but start learning their habits on the various social media platforms, and you can see where to position your discussion with them. You’ll be way ahead of the rest and you no longer have that “flack” label.

Apologies are accepted
As you may or may not know, Lois received a lot of flack for what she says was an inaccurate display of client representation. Apparently, she doesn’t even work for the company mentioned. Navigating the new media, people are bound to make mistakes, but a reporter welcomes an apology. I appreciated my conversation with Lois and commend her for stepping forward and saying she just doesn’t get it, why it’s not okay to send out product releases to the entire CES registered attendees list, and why people can step forward and blog without consulting the source of criticism.

Lois, welcome to social media.

Get the Most Amount of Exposure for Your Brand with the Least Amount of Money

Today's post is from our friend Jacob Morgan.

Jacob Morgan is a social media consultant and runs a team of Technical SEOs. Jacob has founded a start-up in the social media space and has worked with brands such as Adobe, Conde Nast, Sandisk and Salesforce on creating search strategies. He is an avid and passionate blogger on all things social media and marketing related. He also loves meeting and building relationships with people so say hello and let him know if he can help you. You can connect with Jacob on: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Exposure is something that every business wants. If you’re Intel or the mom and pop shop on the corner you want exposure. The difference between these two examples is that Intel can play around with a lot more money…a lot! However, if you’re a small business you can still get a lot of exposure (or if you’re a mid/large business) without spending thousands of dollars. I will preface this by saying, it does take time and effort, but it can be done. This is a high level post of three core principles that you need to follow to get the job done. Here is what you need to do:

Exist

Simple right? You have to make sure that you exist online. At the very least you need to make sure that you are showing up in search results for your brand/company name. If you need a few quick tips to do this then read my quick and easy SEO tips for creating a:

• Title tag
• Meta description
• URL structure

These 3 simple things should get you to rank for your brand/company name (provided it’s unique, and yes there is a lot more you can do for SEO). The whole point behind existing is to create a “hub” for your company, a main central site a.k.a your website.

Spread

Now that you have a central site where people can come to find information about your product and services it’s time to expand out across the social web. This means joining sites like twitter, delicious, facebook, linkedin etc. This means creating a blog (if it’s relevant) where you can post information and build trust/authority in your niche. Don’t just go out there and join every and any social network you can find. Make sure you search those networks for relevancy. Use tools such as twitter search or google alerts to identify possible communities that may exist (or perhaps people that you can just reach out to).

You also have to remember to take the same trust and authority that you are trying to build on your main site and apply it to your “spreading” sites. This means providing quality valuable content across all of your channels, no spam, no junk, and no B.S.

Here are a few ideas to help you spread:

• Offer to write guest posts for other people (blogger outreach)
• Find people on linkedin that might be able to help spread the word (PR, journalists, etc.)
• Attend offline events that are relevant to your industry
• Encourage your users to help spread the word for you
• Make your content easily shareable (do you have links on your homepage to your social media profiles?)

Aggregate

Now that you exist and you have spread across the web it’s time to bring everything together to home base. The key for all of your social media efforts isn’t to get more friends on facebook or followers on twitter, the key is to get yourself exposure. This means sharing yourself across your social media channels and driving all of that traffic and community to your site.

Here are a few ideas to aggregate:

• Cross-link your social media profiles and site. This means put a link to your website in your twitter profile, put a link to your twitter profile on your facebook page, create an email signature with your links
• If you write a blog post then tweet about it and put it up on facebook (etc.) get the word out
• Once people visit your site you should provide an easy way for them to become repeat visitors. Offer an RSS subscription service and an email subscription service.
• Create a newsletter that will offer users unique content that only you offer
• If your community grows create your own ning site (free)
• Give your users the opportunity to guest post on your site
• Hold promotions or contests on your site (that you let people know about through your other social media sites).

This is obviously a large topic with a lot of room for expansion and discussion, but do what you can to follow these three principles and you should notice a strong increase in your site exposure. Have any other tips you want to share? Was this valuable to you?

Thanks for reading!

#FollowFriday

Today, the number one trending topic on Twitter is "#followfriday." By including this tag in Tweets, users are sharing their recommendations for who to follow on Twitter. This is a great way to find new people to network with and really demonstrates the power of how people are using social networks to connect with more people.

You can follow us on Twitter at a few handles: @axiompr, @drewgneiser, and @timotis.

Join in and share your recommendations of who to follow.

The Fall of Twitter?

MySpace was fun, then the spam came.

Facebook was great, then the spam came.

Twitter is great, and now the spam is here.

In order for a community to flourish it must have members. With members comes momentum and with momentum come the stupid people. This is the tricky part about preventing spam in a user-generated content community; there is no way to keep out the trouble makers without limiting the community's potential for everyone. Charge for the service and some people are left out (I would have to reconsider using Facebook if they charged). Before you knew what Twitter was or how it worked, would you have paid to use it? I did not understand Twitter at first until I used it a while then realized the value. On top of everything else, even if a community charged its users, this still would not guarantee the safety of a spam-free environment.

I do not think there is an easy fix for spam on social networks. We should probably get used to a certain degree of it. While spammers will get smarter and smarter, the only defenses we have are better anti-spam education, better spam filters on the communities, and harsh punishment when possible. I personally think that Twitter has done a good job so far to let people know about DM spam. Hopefully the developers have taken a few lessons from MySpace and the others that have lost control of the problem.

Go Avatar: How To Avoid the Recession

The age of avatars has never been so prominent than now, so if you’re feeling the effects of the recession, leave yourself behind and become “virtual” in a 3D World.

It’s really easy to do this. Just go to Whirled or perhaps “simpsonize” yourself, but remember to never leave your computer so you never encounter "in the red" surroundings, such as unpaid bills, unemployment, or every single sullen news segment broadcast from the Capitol. Being an avatar only adds to the escape because even though it’s you, it’s not really you and you feel good about that.

Avatars are also good for adding personality to your many social network profiles. Rather than upload a very genuine mug, you can make your nose bigger, color yourself, and own some really nice pearly whites complete with a devil grin. Ugly? Now you can be handsome.

Americans aren’t just home for the holidays; they are at home online, shopping, Tweeting, building a better domain for themselves. But if you really want a cure for your bleak situation, you should “friend” only the people who smile, a recent CNN article suggests. It may not be an avatar, but every little bit helps.

Happy Birthdays are worth a lot on Facebook

You wouldn’t think it, but sending your friend a happy birthday message on Facebook foreshadows what is to come to really call social media social media. As social network developers become more attune to what is valuable or who is valuable in your circle of influence, you’re going to see less and less updates from your 500+ friends on Facebook. Chances are you have around 10 friends you actually want to hear from on a regular basis.

Peter Shankman, in an address to the Minnesota Public Relations Society of America, said “you only send a happy birthday message to the people you’d like to stay in contact with, or you care about.” The ability to say happy birthday—it’s on the your Facebook’s home page and it only takes 5 seconds.” Enter the new world of social media.

If you’re not saying happy birthday to the people you care about, do it and see if they get a warm fuzzy and have more likelihood to like you. The same goes for those brands you represent that people want to hear from. Go ahead, tell consumers you hear them and know what they need, so they can have a truly special day that goes beyond their birth.

What do you think? Are social networks going to become more focused like the "5" you see on T-Mobile?

Why is Seth Godin not on Twitter?

I've always wondered this. Twitter is a great site to be on for marketers to gather and share information, so I've wondered why one of the most notable marketers was missing from the site.. Well, Seth Godin answered this question in his blog today:

If you have a presence on twitter, squidoo, blogs, facebook, myspace, linkedin and 20 other sites, the chances of finding critical mass at any of them is close to zero. But if you dominate, if you're the goto person, the king of your hill, magical things happen. One follower in each of twenty places is worthless. Twenty connected followers in one place is a tribe. It's the foundation for building something that matters.

This is why I don't have a podcast, a video channel, any activity to speak of on Facebook. It's why I don't use Twitter or travel the country visiting bookstores. There are many places to be, and it's tempting to act like those non-profits and race after the next one. But it doesn't work.

Basically, since he can't devote enough time to be a heavy user on Twitter, he is staying off the site. His recommendation is: if you can't dominate a site, stay off it. Don't spread yourself thin with 20 different posts among 20 different sites. Only join networks where you can invest time into. What do you think?