credit: shirtoid.com

As marketers using new media, we are constantly told that social listening is of utmost importance.  We track the conversation, monitor tweets and gather comments from Facebook fan pages, but how many brands truly use these priceless tools for crowd-sourcing?  Utilizing the data collected from people who are conversing about your brand online is fantastic, but that is just the first step.  Being a brand innovator in the social space means stepping out of your comfort zone, being vulnerable and giving customers a little bit of control.  For so long, marketing messages have been blasted to the customer and as two-way conversation has become the primary way to interact with brands, we must realize that if we want campaigns and ideas to work, we must first find out what it is customers want - straight from the horse's mouth.

In a new report called "How Brands Co-Create Value with Customers," many B2B technology companies surveyed see the importance of starting at the top at the idea generation stage (which in my opinion is the most important stage).

While B2C brands tend to operate much differently than B2B, as they relate to marketing tactics, the customer collaboration approach can be a win-win for any type of business.  It is not to say that brands & businesses should let customers dictate 100% of their marketing strategy, but a 50/50 contribution in the long-term is seemingly the key to success.   Jeffrey Grau, an e-Marketer principal analyst (an author of the report) says:

“Companies tend to take an inside-out approach to co-creation, but those that take an outside-in approach, by listening to and observing customers, are in a position to discover ways to create mutual value.”

Each touch point of the product life cycle is an opportunity to cultivate online communities and strengthen brand loyalty.  Recently, Gilt Groupe not only asked their consumers what style they considered their own, but stated their intent on potentially building a sale around the feedback received.

A few months ago, Mercedes executed a print campaign with Swiss tennis star Roger Federer.   While they had already decided on the imagery that would be used for the ad, they were still choosing between three pieces of ad copy.  Instead of letting ad execs making the decision, they leveraged Roger Federer's Facebook page to gain feedback.  Seeing that Roger Federer's fans are likely in line with Mercedes' core demographic, it made sense to not only strengthen the partnership between Federer and Mercedes through social media, but ultimately deliver an ad that would resonate with its consumers.

These are only simple examples of how co-creation between brand and customer and can be used as a launchpad to bigger initiatives being pioneered by both parties.  To not utilize these tools for collaboration is simply a huge miss for all.

Question: Which brands do you see doing a great job of allowing customers to help shape their initiatives and/or products?

After reading Bill James' article entitled Why Brands Can Ignore ROI in Online & Social Media for Now, I felt compelled to blog about it.  This is the first social media article that really resonated with me in quite some time.  Having been involved in this new media industry since it began, I've attended conferences and been involved in discussions with people as they were trying to figure out what the meaning behind this new technology was and how it would change business as a whole.  As the article mentions, so much of the discussion behind its use began to lean towards the meaning of engagement between consumer and brand, as well as authentic and transparent conversation by the brands themselves.  While that is important, the seemingly incessant conversation around that topic has grown a bit old as the two-way conversation is now expected.  While working in corporate America and no longer as a consultant who must sell my services and self-brand constantly,  I've seen a bit of a change in the way I personally view the purpose of these social channels for brands and this article truly mirrors my current thoughts.  While the C-suite is constantly asking what the ROI of social media is, one must realize that it's not about trying to quantify every dollar spent within social or about desperately seeking the value of each and every consumer comment.  It truly is about customer retention and growing that loyalty.  For every brand or business that is not on social, another competitor is.  With more consumers shifting their time from traditional mediums (TV, newspaper etc.) to online mediums, brands must also shift their focus and efforts to be where their consumers are.  James really summed  it all up best by saying the following:

Spare us all the engagement and authenticity romanticism.  Spare us all the finger wagging and pious recrimination over brands being unable to demonstrate concrete ROI from social media.  It’s all either pseudo ethical or pseudo academic drivel.

The reason brands must market and engage in online and social media is that the customers they already serve are shifting their preferences as to how they will engage with all brands in future.  If a brand’s existing customers arrive in online and social media and find the brand they have been dealing with is absent, alternative brands with comparable offerings will take future market share.  End of story.  That’s why every media revolution is an opportunity for new brand start ups in mature consumer goods and services markets.

This ultimately means that social media is truly most useful as a social customer relationship management tool (Social CRM). I've heard this term before at conferences but it truly resonates more now than ever since social media has become so mainstream. What do you think should be the main focus for brands when they commit to being involved online?

Old Spice has found the recipe to viral success in their latest video campaign and I must say, "Damn, they're good."  The attractive Isaiah Mustafa - Old Spice's shirtless new phenomenon has been tweeting videos all day long to various people.

Kevin Rose of Digg has received not one video but two.  The second discusses "men-babies" and made me laugh hard at my desk:

He has been quickly producing videos to bloggers, YouTubers and random folks who have asked questions and this immediate, personalized and interactive approach has people loving and sharing which is a recipe for success.

Looking forward to seeing more of his videos.  Will other brands mimic this approach in the future?  Seems like quite an original idea that can be useful if not abused and overdone.

Every week there is a new article discussing Facebook's lack of respect for privacy. I personally have always known how to use the privacy settings to my benefit and how to truly control what was being seen and who was seeing it. That is... until now. The privacy settings are so complicated that even someone who has been on Facebook for 5 years (myself), cannot figure out what's what at times. I see a problem in that the average user would have even a harder time than I would.

My biggest gripe right now is the following:

I have 2 friends. Say one is Susie and the other is Jessica. Susie and Jessica have no idea who each other are and both of their profiles are private. Susie updates her status on an item that may be considered little inappropriately funny. I too, joke around on her page thinking the conversation is remaining on her page alone. Jessica signs onto Facebook and upon signing in, sees on her mini-feed Susie's entire status update, along with the thread of comments - including my own.

The question is: Why is this happening? How? And to what benefit does Facebook get from impeding on people's privacy this way?

Susie and Jessica do not know each other and as far as I knew, my conversation on her content was left on her page alone. When doing a video comment on a friend's wall one day, another friend of mine from overseas was able to comment on the video and the comment ended up on my other friend's page. This made her feel pretty uncomfortable considering comments from complete strangers on your wall is never a good sign in terms of privacy. I posted a question asking how many people have been able to see my comments on complete strangers' status updates and the amount of people who said they had seen it both baffled and angered me.

With that being said, if you are unaware of a certain setting or two, your updates, photos and more can be broadcasted for complete strangers to see. Additionally, even if you have already changed the setting on your end, you have to be concerned about whose pictures and updates you comment on. If the person posting the update/photo/video doesn't have their own settings changed, your comments will show up on your friends' mini-feeds as well. Something like this will likely prevent people from commenting on different items simply because they're not sure about whose mini-feed it'll show up in, thus defeating the interactive point of Facebook.

It is frustrating that the personalization options of our privacy has decreased week by week on Facebook. I used to prevent certain people (young family members in particular) from being able to see my status updates but wanted them to be able to see everything else. Now Facebook has made it so that if you do not want them seeing your status updates by default, they can never write on your wall in general or see anything you post. Grouping the settings together really gives you the Facebook user less control and ultimately, a less enjoyable experience.

(Here is an example of a photo I commented on of a friend's and how my brother was able to not only view the photo and its comment, but post a comment himself)

I present myself quite well on Facebook most of the time but of course when you think your comments are limited to your friends' profile and they haven't been, one can never feel good about that.   Even with the newest privacy control provisions, the "Everyone" feature is selected by default for profiles when it comes to the visibility of your content and the posts you put on your page.  For Facebook to do this, is shameful.   It is more or less an "opt-out" experience as opposed to the  "opt-in" experience Facebook once was. Now if only there was a true alternative to Facebook... many would probably flee happily. However, Mark Zuckerberg and the gang are aware that so many of us have made it a part of our every-day lives in terms of keeping in contact people from around the world, that we'd rather deal with the privacy issues than give it up altogether.

Now I know there are several rebuttals to all of this and I understand if you want things completely private you could just delete the site, email them personally and so on. However, when the site encourages engagement via status comments, video comments and thensome, you'd simply expect to be able to do exactly that without the world seeing every word you post. Each person has a different relationship and way of speaking to various people in their lives. You wouldn't talk the same way to your grandmother as you would your best friend but having to put a generic facade to appease each group of people in your life while personally interacting with everyone is just ridiculous. You shouldn't have to jump through hoops just to have a similar positive experience that you had on the site years ago.

To do a quick audit of your Facebook privacy settings, visit ReclaimPrivacy.org

Also to join a good Facebook page that discusses these issues, visit here.

To avoid having your status updates show up on strangers' mini-feeds, do the following: ACCOUNT -> PRIVACY SETTINGS, choose the Top setting and set POSTS BY ME to ONLY FRIENDS.

[polldaddy poll=3216562]

Cities around the world are participating in FourSquare Day and I am proud to say that my town of North Andover, Massachusetts is representing Massachusetts on FourSquare Day which takes place on Friday, April 16th. (Boston is listed as well but it's a mere meetup at one place in an attempt to gain the "Swarm" Badge) According to the official press release,

Each hour, a business will roll out the red carpet for Foursquare users that checkin. The day will start at 9:00 a.m. at Perfecto’s Caffe, and will wind its way around North Andover at various shops, salons and restaurants.

This day is not only for local businesses and residents alike, but also serves as a great example of how businesses can utilize this service to not only connect with their customers, but draw in new ones while providing incentive for all. FourSquare is making it easier for businesses to gain insight on the demographics of those who frequent their establishments as well as offer a fun way to interact with them. For those of you who are not sure what FourSquare is or just "don't get it", Paul Boulanger has created an "Intro to FourSquare".

Currently FourSquare is available on Blackberry, iPhone and Android devices. I personally am a bit addicted as it's always fun to gain more badges, become "Mayor" of your favorite businesses as well as see what your friends are up to. If more businesses can do what the ones in North Andover will be doing on FourSquare day, the world will certainly be a better place and customers will be happier people. Here are some of the examples of the kind of discounts local businesses are offering for FourSquare users.

If you and your business are not yet on FourSquare, you may want to reconsider. This mobile tool is growing by the minute and missing out is just downright silly. Foursquare's stats are impressive. The company claims the following since its launch: More than 725,000 users have checked-in over 22 million times to almost 2 million places. Only 1,400 are reportedly offering FourSquare specials but that number is rising by the day as owners become more aware of the value. Looking forward to seeing how this grows and hope to see many of you Massachusetts/New Hampshire folks out on FourSquare Day!

Brazen Careerist just developed a Social Resume feature which allows professionals to gather all of their notable social contributions in one place for employers to see. At first glance, it reminded me of VisualCV which serves as an online resume that can showcase not only a standard resume, but your multimedia contributions and overall portfolio as well. While a Social Resume may seem like a good idea at first, one could argue that your entire online presence is your social resume. While employers would have the option to see positive items with Brazen's new feature, why would they not want to see the good, the bad and the ugly of your social presence? One search in Google and you're all theirs. Focusing on building our "social resume" through blogs, tweets, Facebook etc. is more vital. Contributing notable content to the internet on a daily basis is enough to serve as a great social resume any day. I commend them for thinking of this idea but I wonder how much value employers would truly see in it. It can be rather easy to compile and boast of our best work but in a world where information about most can be found with a click of a button, perhaps the attention needs to be focused on the bigger picture.

Read an article today from one of my favorite blogs on the web - ReadWriteWeb.com.  They have decided to use Buzz a bit differently than the rest and it has finally brought that big ol' light bulb back into my head.  Now I sit here realizing what the potential of Buzz is as another social avenue.  While first using Buzz, I was a bit annoyed as I followed people only to see regurgitated info (tweets, blog posts etc.) that could be viewed on all the other sites I connect with them on. It just felt like one big redundant way to gather and broadcast content.   However, RWW wrote the following about their hopes in using the tool:

..."We won't be cluttering up our own Buzz stream with bot-like aggregations and self-promotion. As we've said, if you want to get RWW news, there are many other platforms well-suited to that.  We're really looking forward to getting to you know as individuals in a more casual online environment.

What if we were to cut out all of the self-promotion and all of the links and truly use it to ask questions of one another? Discuss Issues?  Ones that won't just be limited to a 140 @ reply.  These could be questions and discussions that can truly be talked about with a wide variety of people all at once?

One could argue that Facebook can service this need but again, Facebook also consists of the clutter of applications, multimedia, links and thensome.  Perhaps Buzz could be in between for what is defined as a chatroom/forum/blog. People will not feel compelled to write lengthy blog posts in order to evoke response.  Perhaps brands could use it to gather authentic information and input from their customers all in one place without having to ask on their Facebook fan pages where fan comments/company announcements and more are clustered together.

I had left Buzz up and running just in case I finally figured out a use.  If more people were to consider this approach, we may be onto something.  I would say an occasional link posted on an article/topic would be sufficient providing it was not something necessarily tweeted and blogged about on their other social accounts.  While it may be a pain to keep up with yet another site, it may be beneficial as we can lessen our interactions on other sites to gain the same insight/feedback we require as professionals, individuals and companies on a weekly basis.  What do you think?

Many of us know that today is Facebook's 6th birthday.  (Happy Birthday!)  Is there a new permanent layout? This time unannounced?  Perhaps I haven't been paying attention to the newest Facebook news but I certainly wasn't aware there'd be a reasonably drastic change anytime soon.  No wonder I couldn't login via Facebook Mobile all day long.  Last night Facebook prompted me to download the new Facebook uploading plugin which eventually made my Facebook uploading process a much more enjoyable one actually.  While I usually dislike their layout changes, I have to say I'm a bit open-minded about this one.  It's crisp and easy to navigate from the few minutes I've spent on it.  So far from what I see, it makes the user experience a bit easier and less cluttered.  Anyone else seeing it?  And if so, what are your thoughts?

Homepage:

Drop-Down Friend Requests (same goes for inbox messages as well):

Drop-Down Notifications:

]]> http://katedickman.com/facebooks-birthday-gift-to-themselves-a-new-layout/feed/ 6 http://katedickman.com/value-adding-people-to-follow-in-2010/ http://katedickman.com/value-adding-people-to-follow-in-2010/#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:30:38 +0000 Kate Dickman http://katedickman.com/?p=308

Anyone on Twitter knows that the abundance of information shared on a daily basis is not only beneficial on a personal level, but on a professional level as well.  It never ceases to amaze me that I can continuously learn through 140-character tweets from the brilliant people I follow.  Recently, a few people have contacted me asking how to become more involved in the social media world and mentioned how they have been interested in pursuing it on a professional level.

Naturally, I tell them to first read, read, read.  There are endless blogs that are available to keep up with the trends and learn more about what this emerging media is all about.   The AdAge Power 150 list is a great place to start looking for the media blogs that best interest you.

Equally important is connecting and following those who know what they're talking about. Additionally, with Twitter's new "List" function, one can find a group of fantastic people to follow in one place.  Here is a list of people (that I admire & learn from) that you would be absolutely silly not to follow:

		derekshowerman - Derek Showerman Former Director Of Social Media @ Authority Domains. Senior Mgr Of SEO at Sokolove Law's Digital team. Perfectionist, Mets fan & Analytical Sith Nerd.
		TheCR - The Community Roundtable A peer network for community managers and social media practitioners by @jimstorer and @rhappe
		DanSchawbel - Dan Schawbel The leading personal branding expert for Gen-Y. Author of Me 2.0, blogger, national speaker, magazine publisher & BusinessWeek columnist.
		AaronStrout - Aaron Strout CMO - Powered, Inc. and dedicated husband/dad.
		leslie - Leslie Poston Speaker. Social Media Enabler. ENTP. Author. Hockey+. Formerly @geechee_girl,  & ♫ ♬ lover, books, movies. @filmpop @scub3d @smbnh @pcnh @dummies plus more
		Britopian - Michael Brito VP of Social Media @ Edelman Digital. I believe that marketing is good; and if you love your customers they'll love you back and tell others.
		alejandroreyes - Alejandro Reyes I'm kind of a big deal. I help people & brands get internet famous w/ social media. ADDICTED 2 ppl & their passions. Speaker. Video Blogger. Storyteller
		whatsnext - BL Ochman Blogger, swing dancer, Labradoodle lover, orchid grower. And one of the few people actually born in New York City. New site: http://Pawfun.com
		AdamBroitman - Adam Broitman Partner/Ringleader, Circ.us
		stevegarfield - Steve Garfield Author: Get Seen, Online Video Secrets / Founder of Boston Media Makers / http://bit.ly/SG_Disclosure
		LindsayMAllen - Lindsay M. Allen Experienced communicator w/PR & journalism skills; laid off and seeking employment and/or freelance/contract work.
		JeffCutler - Jeff Cutler (Jeff Cutler™) Columnist, content creator, Twitter teacher, journalist
		SueOnTheWeb - Sue Online Community Manager for 10 years for a large expat community. I live and breath online communities and in between I consume large amounts of chocolate!
		gregverdino - Greg Verdino strategy vp at powered. micromarketing author. social media whatever. long islander. father. the lesser half of gremanda. not necessarily in that order.
		jquig99 - Jane Quigley Recently acquired by Powered. Dislikes many people - Not you. Never you. We're totally cool.
List Creator...
		KateDickman - Follow the list creator: KateDickman (Kate Dickman) Crayonista, Social Media Gal + Community Manager for Panasonic's new online community - LivinginHD.com

My New Year's resolution: to work more on my personal brand. The unceasing (but wonderful) demands of motherhood to a toddler as well as work load has me slacking in this area.  I've mentioned the topic before about how while maintaining a positive personal brand is important to me, it does not consume me.  My weekends are my weekends - Twitter is rarely a part of that nor is Twitter/blogging a part of other monumental moments in my life.  While I believe sharing parts of yourself both professionally and personally makes one transparent, I also believe we cannot lose touch with reality and lose every offline moment to a tweet.

However, that doesn't take away the fact that when it comes to updating this blog, I get an F.  My New Year's resolution is not only to write more on my blog, but read more and interact more.  My Google reader has also been neglected, as well as my Facebook (professional) and the horrendous design on this blog has not been changed in a couple years either (until now).  Changes will be made.

I genuinely want to know, are there tips, tricks, online utilities that you use to actively keep on top of maintaining your personal brand?  I admire those who manage to do it all - write endless articles on their blogs, others, tweet, go to networking events and then some; all while doing a damn good job at work.  I must say, I am not looking to tackle these by any means but to begin strengthening my personal brand organically.

Cheers to a New Year and keeping resolutions (including that one that is 23 days overdue - you know, that one about getting back in shape)