Tag >> social media
**Blog Post Update**Crowd sourced editorial staff for everyone.
JP Holecka Jul 21, 2010 - filed under: Social Media Comment (1)

In February of 2009 I blogged about the fact that Twitter was becoming more and more a crowdsourced news editoral application for me. In the post I reviewed how I was using Twitter more as a way to source content and less about conversation.

Let me break it down:

  1. I create a Twitter account.
  2. Then I start to search for, and follow people with similar interests either personally or professionally. Or if you are like me, both.
  3. Download an application like TweetDeck that allows you to group the people you are following into categories. using Twitter lists, not unlike sections of an newspaper; News, Sports and Entertainment, Technology etc.
  4. In each of these sections I follow people that are either experts in their field or have a passion for athe topic of interest. Either way the posts will be relevant.
  5. Now what do all of these people that you are following Twitter do all day? Well they post stuff. They post links to articles in newspapers and blogs, videos, music [http://blip.fm/all] and much, much more.
  6. Breaking stories are now hitting Twitter first and I no longer have to wait for the old world media publishing systems latency to get the stories quickly.
  7. The topics that are trending and are important globally can be easily viewed right in TweetDeck's trending cloud tag.
  8. Now because I have selected people based on similar interests and passions, the content that is posted, is for the most part ,very relevant  to me. The Twitter base becomes my very own editorial staff picking only the best of the best and then posting it to your Twitterstream.
  9. Now add the NYTimes, CBC, Fox News, NPR and CNN into your Twitterstream and you have it all the topics and news covered.
Since that post I believe that I have tweeted about 10,000 or so times. I guess I was a little off on the conversation part. Now for an update on how this has progressed over the last 1.5 years. There is no question that in recent weeks my outbound and conversational habits on Twitter have dropped substantially.

This is due in part for a few reasons. The first is that the agency has gotten very, very busy and there really is less time to converse with others in social networks. Second was the discovery of a very cool, but simplistic, Twitter app called Twittertim.es. Twitter Times is then linked to your Twitter account via  it's oath and then spiders all of the people that you are following. The application crawls your list and then pulls all of the great content, pictures and all, that is being posted in your stream. The page looks nothing like a Twitter stream and resembles an online news or magazine site. The app then weighs the importance of the tweeted links by the frequency that it is posted and re-tweeted by those that you follow. This is the crowdsourced editorial staff that I referred to in the past. Only this time around their commentary is diminished and the posted content is made more important. Sure the "postees" are listed at the bottom of each story but their conversational tweets are removed. As your day fills up with important activities it's nice to be able to get the hyper relevant content, from those you follow, without being sucked in to the conversation.

Now let's step that up even further with the announcement of the new iPad app called Flipboard. The application looks very much like a magazine but all of the content, like Twitter Times, is from your social networks. This time they have included all of the links in your Facebook, Flickr and other social feeds. In fact the crowdsourcing is upped in power but the fact that you can subscribe to user generated Twitter lists to create categories.

If you look at the preview video below you can get a pretty good sense of how it works and how gorgeous it really is. I must admit that I was holding out for the second generation iPad until I saw this app. I consume a ton of social contributed media from the people I follow and would love to be able to take it with me and to view it in a much better UI.

Flipboard is not the first iPad app that is based on this concept and I suspect won't be the last. The talented folks over at Teehan + Lax have a very cool looking iPad app called TweetMag that is soon to be released as well. There is now a race on and this is where I think social is really going in the next few years. I think this is bigger than geo-location apps to be honest. People really do want to know what your reading more than they want to know where you are reading.TweetMag







































tags:// twitter, social media, facebook, apps
In social media should you choose personal or corporate branding?
JP Holecka Apr 28, 2010 - filed under: Marketing Comment (0)
The question arose the other night on Twitter, about user @bradinator retiring his personal persona account and focusing more energy on his corporate wine brand's Twitter account @Blackcloudwine. The question put forward was: "Is he committing social capital suicide by doing so and if so why would he do such a thing?". I have been wrestling with the same issue with my agency's @powershifter account vs. my personal @jaypiddy account, so I thought I would wrestle it out here on the PS Blog. Is the personal brand more important than the corporate brand, is it the other way around or do they share equality in the equation? The answer may be clear to those that are born of the web and social media especially who are themselves "the brand". If you are by definition a primarily a blogger then for all intensive purposes that is your "product" That means you engage users at a very personal level in social media and one might say that they are equal to the brand. The personas are the brands and are so intwined with the writing of the blogs and the Twitter posts it's hard to separate the two.

That is not the case for such things as packaged goods and or large service oriented companies. Those that are born brand first as is the case for the vast majority of brands and companies in the social media space must keep the brand first in the minds of it's customers. As much as a personal touch or the collective voice maybe important elements behind the brand touching the consumer in thoughtful and memorable ways, it is important to place the brand 1st and foremost.

Look at the top brands in social media today. Jet Blue, Dell, Starbucks, Whole Foods and WestJet just to name a few. They are all very personable and have clearly communicated as a group of people behind the brand that actually do care, but they do not place themselves before the brand. When I think of Zappos I have no idea what the names of the great people that helped me with customer care issues, and if I was not an in the advertising industry I would not be able to name Tony Hsieh as the CEO. Most of the Zappos customers only know the brand by name.

So back to @bradinator vs @Blackcloudwine for a few minutes here. What are the risks of abandoning the personal brand? As @paulrickett points out that 60% of those who follow @bradinator do not follow @Blackcloudwine so at first glance one might say that is a bad choice to abandon the personal account considering how often @bradinator tweets about his Blackcloud Wine. But that would be a very simplified view of the situation. @bradinator's personal account is very irreverent and has collected a huge following for that very reason. What if those 2030 followers could care less about wine and follow him just for his personal commentary? Then even if he could transfer his social capital over to the @Blackcloudwine account then it would be worthless. If 909 followers of @Blackcloudwine have a higher propensity to love wine and buy more wine and were attracted to that account due to the winecentric tweets in the first place then the smaller more qualified numbers are much more valuable. I will admit that I did not take the time to attempt to measure the quality of the @Blackcloudwine wine followers but I will bet that most are more interested in wine that on his other account.

Social media is just like traditional advertising when it comes to influence. It's not the number of eyeballs that count but rather the quality and relevance of those that follow you and your posts, tweets and feeds. Just because you have a follow count of thousands upon thousands on Twitter, your blog or Facebook page does not mean that you can market just anything to your potentially unqualified followers. Hell if it was a shear numbers game then why not just head over to fiverr.com and pay the five bucks to the literally hundreds of people offering to place your message or ad in their Twitter streams of 10's of thousands of followers. I'll tell you why. Proof that the clickthrough rate on those unqualified posts are incredibly low. All you need to do is pay one of the social media influencers a "fiverr" and then hand them over a message with a bit.ly or ow.ly link and watch your clickthrough rate. I will bet you that you will get fewer then 10 clicks on your highly un-targeted campaign. I am not saying that big numbers of followers don't work but they need to be qualified. Sure we may lead tribes but if I started to push Tampex branded tampons to my Twitter followers I am sure my tribe would not buy what I was selling.

Here is another reason that the personal brand in social media may not be the right way to grow your brand...scaling with grace and authenticity. We have seen what happens when a personal brand does not scale well due to the fact that there is a finite amount of you [personal brand] to go around. Usually when a personal brand takes off there is the need to automate the posts and tweets etc. That is usually done by way of hiring assistants to do the work for the personal brand...that's not very transparent now is it and can blow up quickly. When you choose to support a branded account the ability to authentically scale the brand is much easier to do. Sure it's through the same process of distributing the communication through others like assistants or social brand managers. The difference is that each manager can be identified as an individual behind a brand.

On an account that our agency set up for a customer we have three different people that tweet on behalf of the brand and are demarked by the "^" charachter and their initials. This clearly identifies that there is more than one person managing the account and if need be others can be added with out the feeling that there is any misrepresentation of the branded tweets.

So I ask the question again. Is it social capital suicide or just the death of another Twitter ID? Or is it just the birth of another one that may suit the brand better and in the end move more product and connect with it's customers in a much more authentic way?

tags:// social media, Brands, Branding
Toyota seems to have a sticky Twitter foot too.
JP Holecka Feb 23, 2010 - filed under: Social Media Comment (3)

Over the last few days I have noticed a sudden and strange behavior on Toyota's Twitter account. There was a huge influx of uber positive re-tweets from other Toyota fans on Twitter. There is nothing wrong with re-tweets (RT's) per say but like most tools in your toolbox understanding how and when to use them is key and from what I could see Toyota did not understand the tool at all.

toyota-tweetsThe subject matter was regarding the quality of Toyota vehicles from point of view of Toyota owners. That in its self is not an issue but the shear volume of RT's on the subject was quite large and it made more of an impression of a "See we are ok and so and so even says we are..." kind of approach. Tweets like this from @Benne420 "@Toyota as a teen driver, I still get amazing gas mileage out of my 02 Camry LE. I love my car!", from @OmarHenry "@Toyota is still the best cars around! a guy at my gym still drives a 1980's toyota with the original engine! dont believe the hype...." and from @FireCat_7 "@Toyota my first car is a 1998 Toyota Camry LE. I LOVE IT and I love Toyota. Much love guys. Keep the good work up :)" were the norm in yesterday's tweets. That is really a very guttural and unsophisticated old fashioned PR approach. Like talking really loud with your hands over your ears "LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU".

Anyone that knows me knows that I simply can't stand over use of passive self flatulence on social media sites and this was clearly one of those instances. The tactic of re-tweeting praise from other users is really no different than making the statement yourself. Who are we trying to kid here? I don't care what any social media guru tells you or your company. Be careful on that tactic because as the public become acclimatized to the vernacular of social media marketing so will they see through the thin veneer of that type prolific of re-tweeting. It's lazy social media to flood your stream with.

The tweets felt somewhat desperate and like the usual person responsible for the Twitter account had suddenly been yanked from their duties and a desperate Sr. manager with orders in hand to "DO SOMETHING' was now at the helm. The strategy veered off coarse and felt like there was a sticky accelerator on the RT button.

What should Toyota be doing? They should stay the course of the original strategy by helping the thousands of Toyota drivers out of this mess, through helpful links on how to get there cars fixed quickly, and demonstrating what the company is doing to rectify the matter and to restore confidence in the brand.

When someone is stuck at the bottom of a well that you pushed them down, get a rope and help them out. Don't stand there and tell them that everyone else you pushed was able to avoide the well all together. The whole feed in recent days is nothing but bogus PR fluff. Between the massive recalls and the congressional hearings that begin today it would be better use of social media to take this head on as apposed to head in the sand as they are continuing to do today.

Photo credit emrank

tags:// twitter, toyota, social media, recall, Brands, Branding
Some recent Canadian Facebook statistics
JP Holecka Oct 18, 2009 - filed under: Social Media Comment (3)
Last month I had the pleasure of sitting on a "Social Media for Business" panel discussion with Louise Clements, the Director of Sales for Facebook Canada. She shared with me some of the latest data on Canadian Facebook users that I would like to pass on. The most staggering figure that I was presented with was that "16 million Canadians spend no less than 1 hour a day on Facebook". Wow Canada has a population 33,212,696~ [stats Canada July 2008]. That's an amazing 48.48% of Canadians in total. This is why they have been working on making fan pages more useful to business and brands. With that level of Canadians engaged daily on Facebook having a fanpage for your brand is more important than ever.
 
I am just going to post the statistics and will provide some analysis later this week.
13-17 year olds
  • 54% Female
  • 46% Male
  • Each has an average of 220 friends
  • They make up 12% of the Facebook population.
  • They represent 80% of all online 12 - 17 year olds†
How are they using Facebook?
  • 77% use it more than email
  • 44% use it more than cell phones
  • 40% use it more than any other communication tool
13-17 year old Facebook behavior (in the past week):
  • 57% add/use an application
  • 41% become a fan of a page
  • 62% upload/view/share a photo
  • 39% RSVP to an event
  • 47% share/post/watch a video
  • 58% read their news feed
  • 13% send a gift [that surprised me!]
18-24 year olds
  • 48% Female
  • 52% Male
  • Each has an average of 247 friends
  • They make up 29% of the Facebook population.
  • They represent 93.8% of all online 18 - 24 year olds†
How are they using Facebook?
  • 82% use it more than email
  • 43% use it more than cell phones
  • 45% use it more than any other communication tool
18-24 year old Facebook behavior (in the past week):
  • 52% add/use an application
  • 33% become a fan of a page
  • 63% upload/view/share a photo
  • 56% RSVP to an event
  • 47%share/post/watch a video
  • 67% read their news feed
  • 20% send a gift
25-34 year olds
  • 53% Female
  • 47% Male
  • Each has an average of 153 friends
  • They make up 32% of the Facebook population.
  • They represent 27% of all online 25 - 34 year olds†
How are they using Facebook?
  • 79% use it more than email
  • 49% use it more than cell phones
  • 44% use it more than any other communication tool
25-34 year old Facebook behavior (in the past week):
  • 50% add/use an application
  • 31% become a fan of a page
  • 59% upload/view/share a photo
  • 34% RSVP to an event
  • 44% share/post/watch a video
  • 63% read their news feed
  • 19% send a gift
35-44 year olds
  • 56% Female
  • 44% Male
  • Each has an average of 85 friends
  • 67% are parents
  • They make up 16% of the Facebook population.
  • They represent 78.2% of all online 35-44 year olds†
How are they using Facebook?
  • 58% use it more than email
  • 56% use it more than cell phones
  • 47% use it more than any other communication tool
35-44 year old Facebook behavior (in the past week):
  • 62% add/use an application
  • 30% become a fan of a page
  • 60% upload/view/share a photo
  • 37% RSVP to an event
  • 43% share/post/watch a video
  • 62% read their news feed
  • 26% send a gift
45-54 year olds
  • 62% Female
  • 38% Male
  • Each has an average of 49 friends
  • 75% are parents
  • They make up 9% of the Facebook population.
  • They represent 74.8% of all online 45-54 year olds†
How are they using Facebook?
  • 65% use it more than email
  • 60% use it more than cell phones
  • 49% use it more than any other communication tool
45-54 year old Facebook behavior (in the past week):
  • 55% add/use an application
  • 28% become a fan of a page
  • 64% upload/view/share a photo
  • 29% RSVP to an event
  • 50% share/post/watch a video
  • 58% read their news feed
  • 31% send a gift
55+ year olds
  • 59% Female
  • 41% Male
  • Each has an average of 51 friends
  • 81% are parents
  • They make up 6% of the Facebook population.
  • They represent 61% of all online 55+ year olds†
How are they using Facebook?
  • 60% use it more than email
  • 69% use it more than cell phones
  • 40% use it more than any other communication tool
55+ year old Facebook behavior (in the past week):
  • 51% add/use an application
  • 25% become a fan of a page
  • 51% upload/view/share a photo
  • 30% RSVP to an event
  • 46% share/post/watch a video
  • 51% read their news feed
  • 30% send a gift
†Statistics are  from Comscore July 2009

tags:// statistics, social media, marketing, facebook, Branding, advertising