While the monetary value of Twitter is up for debate, there’s no denying the social tool’s growing power and influence. Last month, Sean shined the spotlight on CNN, because they clearly understand the best practice use of Twitter for business is to use the service to connect with a widespread audience. Broadcasting brief headline-teasers on Twitter works for CNN, because providing news and information is their business. One-way, authoritative communication is a natural fit. For product or service based businesses, however, using Twitter in this way only serves as yet another news stream of information for the intended consumer. Service-based businesses need to consider harnessing Twitter’s ability to provide a new-age avenue of customer service.
Last week, AT&T put Twitter to work as more than just a promotional news service and used it to connect with Hawaii customers who were out of service. As reported by the Hawaii Blog, customers were the first to approach AT&T to request help and information about the situation. They wanted and expected the company to engage with them – to serve them through Twitter. AT&T adapted smartly to the situation by tweeting updates about the outage and requesting feedback from their customers.
As of November 24th, news tweets have returned to the AT&T Twitter account. Whether or not engaging customers through social media will become a standard practice for the company in the near future is unclear, but the power is definitely there.
Scottsdale-based digital marketing agency, Elixir Interactive, invites Arizona destination-marketers and interactive marketing experts to participate in an idea exchange about promoting Arizona as a travel destination of choice in tough economic times.
As a result of the recent economic downturn, the travel and hospitality industry faces stiff competition in reaching a market of travelers that continues to decline. To promote Arizona as a prime destination selection for online travel seekers, Elixir Interactive is hosting an interactive marketing workshop that explores the benefits of implementing social media strategies in digital marketing campaigns.
Elixir invites Arizona destination-marketers and interactive marketing experts to partake in the idea exchange and discuss the latest research about what factors influence online destination selection.
The event will provide best practice examples of the tactics and strategies for leveraging social computing and other interactive marketing techniques to reach and engage those online travel customers during these tough economic times. A panel of experts will facilitate discussions that include tips on using interactive marketing and social computing to advance common business goals. The workshop is an opportunity for Arizona tourism and marketing professionals to connect with peers.
The event will be held Wednesday, November 19, 2008 from 8 to 11 a.m., and will be located in the Scottsdale Plaza Resort. $25.00 minimum donation requested, benefiting the St. Mary’s Food Bank. For more information, visit http://www.elixir-st-marys.eventbrite.com/
The Internet has been the catalyst for voter engagement in the 2008 election. The following are the Top 8 reasons why Obama wins on the social web.
8. Obama found common ground with voters on the Internet. 40 percent of all Americans, especially Democrats, received news and information about the primary campaigns from the web, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project developed in June — a dramatic increase since the 2004 election.
7. Celebrities promoted the Obama platform, YouTube top candidate. “Yes We Can”, the star-clad Obama music video drew 10 million views on YouTube. Obama-related content exceeds McCain in the total number of views and subscribers on YouTube and its election channels.
6. SEO helped Obama sites receive 5 times more traffic than McCain. AdGooRoo recently found that Obama-related sites received 22 million visitors versus McCain’s 3.5 million.
5. Social networks reached the pulse of young, engaged voters. On Facebook, Obama has about 2,250,000 supporters; McCain has 579,000. On Twitter, Obama has over 100,000 followers; McCain has a little over 3,000.
4. Facebook founder Chris Hughes is on Obama’s campaign team. Hughes helped develop My.BarackObama.com — an attractive, user-friendly network with 850,000+ members that have already planned 50,000+ events for his campaign.
3. New media marketing spread Obama messages. The senator incorporated an iPhone application and video in-game ads. He text messaged voters when choosing Biden as his running mate.
2. Video attracted 1.3 million viewers to his official site. On the official Obama site, video streaming increased 155 percent from July to August, according to Nielsen Online. The site also saw a 173 percent increase in unique video viewers in the same time frame. The same metrics for the McCain site shows increases by merely 16 and 5 percent, respectively.
1. Obama fundraised $600 million, much from small donors over the Internet. ‘Nuff said.
Research reported by The Nielsen Company this month further reinforced expectations of a dismal holiday season by their indication that about one-third of consumers across the country are cutting their holiday spending this year. Highlights of the report include:
35 percent of U.S. consumers across all income levels expect to spend less this holiday season
32 percent of affluent shoppers plan to spend less this holiday season
29 percent of U.S. consumers plan to spend less entertaining at home
33 percent of U.S. consumers expect to spend less entertaining away from home
The most promising news is that online shopping, along with gas and convenience stores, has the most growth potential over last year as 12 percent of consumers said they expect to spend more in those venues. Nielsen suggests stressing value this holiday season to capture sales and encourage spending. What’s great about these suggestions is they can be easily implemented through interactive marketing. Here are a few examples:
“Reach out to your best customers in stores, through direct mail and/or via advertisements and make them feel special about your brands and your stores by providing customers with special coupons or sale prices.”
Reaching out to your customers in online stores is just as important as reaching out to them in the brick-and-mortar. Don’t forget to put coupons or special deals in direct e-mails and targeted search advertisements. Putting out a coupon online will spread like wildfire through the numerous deal-oriented communities.
Ensure that your online campaigns will be profitable by spending money only on targeting those in the demographic and geographic locations important to your industry to minimize advertising costs.
“This holiday season, retailers are likely to see a big upside in consumer packaged goods (CPG) sales. Leverage these CPG products to drive basic gifts and stocking stuffers, such as toiletries, pet care, household cleaners and special holiday packs for food and beverage items.”
Local retailers can vie for more of the CPG sales pie by spreading all the reasons why consumers should shop with them through social networks. Having a blue-light special on a value package of laundry detergent? Twitter it up and give your local shoppers the latest information on the CPG specials you’re running.
It’s exciting to think of the unlimited marketing possibilities social media makes available to retailers and merchandisers. It will be interesting to see what companies decide to do this holiday season.
Change: the political platform touted by both presidential candidates on the 2008 campaign trail. With differing objectives, Barack Obama and John McCain promise dramatic shifts in government policies upon entering office, but the transformation that has already materialized is the remarkable increase in voter engagement — a social movement brought about by the Internet. The social web has been utilized by the candidates for spreading political news and philosophy, tracking voter interest, generating awareness and organizing communities. Voters also use the media tool to their advantage, voicing their opinions and creating political content on a national stage. The Internet has fostered a vocal, involved citizenry in the current election. Change isn’t on the horizon; it’s already risen.
Democrats More Active in Search
From gathering election news to watching political videos, the proportion of Americans accessing the Internet for content and information has dramatically increased since the 2004 race. 40 percent of all Americans received news and information about the primary campaigns from the web, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project developed in June. The study also found that younger voters and Democrats make more use of online media for political consumption and sharing.
Both politicians are highly invested in SEO as a mechanism for growth in their online strategies. AdGooRoo released a recent study analyzing the high stakes search campaigns of both candidates, finding that Obama-related sites receive more than five times the amount of traffic than McCain-related – 22 million versus 3.5 million visitors. Pro-Obama websites are 57 percent more popular than pro-McCain, but the Republican nominee receives 11 percent more traffic from websites not affiliated with his campaign. In terms of search marketing, the candidates employ similar levels of sophistication. McCain has a slight advantage in keyword selection, but Obama wins in targeting topical keywords, such as “lipstick” and “Paulson”. The Obama site clearly wins in natural search rankings: McCain is seen on Google’s front page for 67 keywords, while Obama ranks for 117.
Social Sites Build Voter Communities
Especially influential during the election has been social networking sites. The Pew survey found that two-thirds of Internet users under 30 have a social networking profile, half of which use these sites to gather or share information about the election. Social networks have streamed politically-related entertainment, data and interactive content throughout the web in massive quantities.
“New media offers candidates with an alternative or complement to their traditional media spending,” says Gary Drenik, President of BIGresearch. “By actually listening to potential voters and using all media, not just traditional, candidates can build an ad strategy that is more likely to influence votes.” The White House hopefuls have accessed the benefits of using alternative media forms, like social networks, to reach an audience often neglected in the presidential race. Presently on Facebook, Obama has about 2,250,000 supporters and McCain has 579,000; On Twitter, Obama has over 100,000 followers (a social site for which he himself, apparently, actively participates) and McCain has a little over 3,000.
Expanding outside the established networks, both candidates have created their own social forums for addressing current issues and fostering supporter interaction. Channeling the popularity of social sites, Obama hired Facebook founder Chris Hughes for his campaign team and developed My.BarackObama.com — an attractive, user-friendly network created by the stealthy digital team Blue State. The site is an instrument of organization for Obama; its 850,000+ members have already planned 50,000+ events with the help of the site’s innovative tools (not campaign officials) and contributed to his record-breaking $600 million in fund-raising. My.BarakObama.com is an excellent example of the power of social media to incite participation on and off the web. An iPhone application and in-game ads are also part of Obama’s interactive media repertoire.
McCain’s approach to social networking hasn’t been as successful. McCainSpace.com is also aimed at young voters, but hasn’t reached the level of user participation as Obama’s site. To step things up, in June WhereIsTheRed.com was launched — a blog following three college students as they travel the red states and broadcast the widespread appeal of the Republican Party. But the lagging presence of McCain in the social media sphere sends the message that he’s out-of-touch with the demographic and out-dated when it comes to technology.
Online Videos See Record Viewers
Video streaming has been a massively popular toy in the election/social media playground. On the official Obama site, video streaming increased 155 percent from July to August, according to Nielsen Online, reaching 1.3 million views. The site also saw a 173 percent increase in unique video viewers in the same time frame. The same metrics for the McCain site shows increases by merely 16 and 5 percent, respectively. Although Obama is leading on the video front, McCain did make strides in August by attracting more women viewers to his site, clearly due to his choice for running mate.
YouTube has been a major platform for user-generated spoofs and memorable campaign moments. The celebritized Obama effort “Yes We Can” and the “Obama Girl” music videos each drew 10 million views. And, of course, there is the content phenomenon that is Sarah Palin (and all her various interpretations). The Republican Vice Presidential candidate’s network news interviews and SNL skits permeate the web. More than half who watched the recent SNL satires featuring Tina Fey viewed the skits on the web, according to a Solutions Research Group survey, with 11.7 million views on YouTube alone. Without a doubt, content sites and political videos have mobilized the campaign effort. Hosted by YouTube are YouChoose’08 and VideoYourVote – election channels that measure candidate support by user participation. Not surprisingly, Obama-related content exceeds in the total number of views and subscribers.
Online Presence at the Polls
The pervasiveness of social media has been leveraged by both candidates to reach a widespread audience. The obvious winner of the web is Barack Obama. He took voter outreach to another level, reshaping the landscape of election campaigns by investing in social media programs that heightened Obama activism in the real world. But the race isn’t over just yet. As noted by Jon Gibs, vice president of media analytics for Nielsen Online: “The question that remains for both candidates is whether web visitors and online video viewers will translate into votes in the general election.”
Whatever the final result may be, it is evident that social media has emerged as a principal transmitter of citizen opinion and a space for political participation — an aid in bridging the gap between disconnected policy-makers and the American public. On November 4th, in the moments before the next president is elected, the Blogosphere will echo with silent anticipation, and the ultimate test for ROI in search and social media campaigns will be revealed.
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Advising members to “use keywords that you want to be recognized for in Google and link those words to your Web site or blog” lends itself to abuse and could lead to Google nuking this as a link source.
In the Google Webmaster Guidelines it states:
# Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you’d feel comfortable explaining what you’ve done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, “Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?”
# Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.
As the coverage of the presidential election intensifies on CNN, I hear the social media microblog Twitter referenced as often as I hear Obama and McCain mention “Joe the plumber”. CNN is the most notable broadcast network that leverages and promotes the use of Twitter. CNN clearly grasps the utility of Twitter to connect with a widely distributed audience, virtually instantaneously, and for free. Social media guru, Chris Brogan, has recently published an article highlighting 50 ideas on using Twitter for business, where he highlights the effectiveness of Twitter for use in opinion polls, and its unparalleled speed at breaking news. So if you know of other effective uses of Twitter in business, please let me know.
In recent news, a “citizen journalist” was hounded for falsely reporting that Steve Jobs suffered a heart attack, which ultimately caused Apple’s stock to plummet 3 percent in a day. The blogger posted the fabrication on iReport, a social content site run by CNN, and within 10 minutes the web was abuzz and Apple’s stock dropped. After Apple issued a statement denying the incident, CNN quickly moved in to delete the report and disable the user’s account.
This scenario exemplifies the power of the social web and its position as an authoritative source within traditional media. Online users continue to trust bloggers for their daily dose of information; rather than fight the powers that be, news outlets have chosen to welcome citizen journalists into their domain. iReport is an example of user-generated content site hitting the mainstream.
Citizen journalism, in essence, is valuable because it adds a wide range of commentary and perspective to the traditional news scope. The debacle over the fluke Jobs report calls upon the idea of enforcing a blogger code of conduct, requiring citizen journalists like JoeSixPack99 to report truthfully and without exaggeration when under pretense.
To deem the perpetrator a “bad apple” in the Blogosphere, CNN is denying the reality of the social web – it’s propelled by the rumor mill. Fundamental to the appeal of social media is that it’s a space for open, uncensored, frequently offensive, highly emotional, often provocative conversations. Although the iReporter’s actions were careless, the proliferation of false information is nothing new.
One commentator wisely noted: “It’s a mistake to say this indicates some type of larger problem. People start rumors on Wall Street all the time. Anyone with any sanity would have said ‘I’m going to check that out’, not ‘I’m going to sell all my stock’.” Maybe the issue to be explored in this situation is not the irresponsibility of citizen journalists, but people who believe everything they read.
The social web has been utilized by the candidates for spreading political news and philosophy, tracking voter interest, generating awareness and organizing communities. Voters also use the media tool to their advantage, voicing their opinions and creating political content on a national stage. The Internet has fostered a vocal, involved citizenry in the current election. Change isn’t on the horizon; it’s already risen.
