iMediaWorksConnect by @iMediaMichelle

Episode 7: Mobile: The Next Digital Frontier

To date, this series has focused on understanding how consumers and brands are adopting and evolving their communications with one another through various digital channels.  So far, we’ve covered ones that would be considered primarily “social media” channels.  In parallel, mobile platforms and their capabilities have come a long way and are now the central communications point for most consumers.  I think we’re at an inflection point for both the social real-time web to explode via mobile, so on yesterday’s podcast, I asked Steen Anderson, from the mobile agency 5th Finger, to share some of his perspectives on how these two worlds are converging and steps brand marketers should be taking to plan their moves in this next digital frontier.

In our conversation, Steen and I discussed a number of growth stats about mobile usage, noting that utility still slightly edges out entertainment.  In the top usage categories were: accessing mobile “directories” ranks at the top with consumers, followed by movies, entertainment, social networking and news.  Interestingly, North America is leading much of the mobile web usage due to the introduction and quick adoption of the iPhone and other smartphones.  While their penetration remains only a small portion of the overall population, Steen predicts that more and more consumers will make the transition to these more powerful mobile devices, especially as carriers like Sprint improve communication speed with the dawn of 4G networks.

So, what do these coming changes offer brands who are seeking opportunities to tap into the real-time mobile web?  According to Pew Internet Life, Twitter users are considered highly mobile, with 82% owning a mobile phone an using to send text messages.  While Twitter is quickly becoming a fantastic way to engage with consumers, Steen cautions that the targeting capabilities have yet to fully mature.  Facebook is much more of a near-term opportunity for brand marketers to target and reach specific demographics via mobile ad solutions now being offered. 

Towards the end of our discussion, Steen brought up the concept of “mobile loyalty programs”, which I think will be heavily influenced by the culture of social networking (especially if you’re a frequent traveler).  Brands, should prepare their engines for warp speed – the journey begins now.

You can listen to the full podcast episode here. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/MichelleBatten_iMediaWorks

The first part of this series will wrap up next week with my guest, Reuben Steiger, CEO of Millions of Us, to discuss, “Virtual Worlds: Build It, But Will They Come?” – please join us live for the conversation at 2pm (EDT).

Episode 6: Twitter: One Big Social Block Party

I resumed our series about brands and consumers in the digital world this week with Howard Greenstein, a fellow Social Media Club organizer and Principal at the Harbrooke Group.  Howard and I met recently at the 140 Characters Conference hosted by Jeff Pulver in New York City, where we came to hear stories and learnings from Twitter Characters from all over the world.  In addition to being a participant, Howard was also one of the featured Characters and gave an excellent presentation on the “Wisdom of Twitter”. 

The first part of our discussion explored the culture of Twitter and it’s uniqueness from other social media computing platforms.  The sea of conversation threads, life streaming vignettes and advocacy discussions easily thrusts users into one of the biggest social block parties on the web.  It’s vital to mingle, seek out and find the right corner of the party where people are talking about the topics you care most about.  If you are trying to create and pull people into a specific dialog, then messages must be succinct and serve up the essence of your cause with the widest appeal.  Within the Twitter community, people with a huge desire to support causes and help others take action are rapidly connecting and engaging with others.

Turning the discussion towards marketing and communications, Howard and I examined a number of examples of popular brands using the tool to effectively engage with their customers. When I asked Howard what made these brands successful within the Twitter community, he emphasized the following:

• Being human (or true to character ala Ms Green M&M)
• Engaging in real dialog with their customers as much as they can
• Making their customers happy through the Twitter exchange (or directing them to the most appropriate channel to do so)

Our conversation also touched on the interchange between Facebook and Twitter and the tools brands can use to manage them more seamlessly.  The time flew by so quickly that we were unable to cover all of the questions, so there will be a Part 2 of this discussion on a future episode.

You can listen to the full podcast episode here. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/MichelleBatten_iMediaWorks

The series will continue next week with my guest, Steen Anderson from Fifth Finger to discuss, “Episode 6: Mobile: The Next Digital Frontier” – we’ll be on live at 4pm (EDT).

Are You Invested in Your Social Media?

Yesterday, I was on the phone with my financial manager to get an update on my retirement portfolio.  Surprisingly, he had some positive news to report – I actually had some cash generate from dividends being paid out on some of my assets.  Immediately he posed the question, “how do you want me to invest those funds so they keep working for you?”  My options were: invest the lump sum in a single, growing stock that currently was generating over 9% return; spread the investment over the rest of my existing mutual funds, or keep it in my reserves and do nothing.  Not being the “do nothing type”, I knew I had only 2 options to consider.  Either I wanted to be “all in” and really commit to the stock in hopes of a big payoff, or I wanted to help augment all of my existing efforts and reap a slow, steady growth down the road.

I think my investment dilemma above is very illustrative of the scenarios brand marketers are facing today.  Do they take the limited cash they have and put it all into social media, or augment their existing offline and online efforts?  “Do they invest in one particular social media channel, or in multiple ones?  The answers, of course, will always depend on the goals and objectives of the business.  Knowing why you need to do something should guide what you need to do.

At last night’s Social Media Club Atlanta meeting, our panelists, Jeannie Ericson, Director of Lens on Atlanta with PBA and Tony Conway, Development Director for the Atlanta Children’s Shelter and Kashi Atlanta led by moderator, Diane Deseta of White Knight, both discussed their approaches to developing “The Case for Investment” within their respective organizations.  They also shared their views on measuring success and the challenges they each faced in bringing their social media investment to life.

It was a fast-paced and highly engaging conversation between the panelists and standing-room only crowd.  Below are a few key excerpts I took away from the discussion:

Which brands did you look at when you were developing your Case for Investment?

Jeannie Ericson (Lens on Atlanta) – National Public Radio (NPR) because they have a dedicated social media strategist and they are not afraid to experiment.

Tony Conway (ATL Children’s Shelter) – New York Times because they really understand how to incorporate multiple voices through blogs and engage the community in conversation.

How did you present the investment to your internal stakeholders?  What worked, didn’t work?

Jeannie Ericson – we were fortunate because the vision and mandate was being led top-down by our CEO who says, “Tv and radio are not dying tomorrow, but they are evolving and changing with digital”.  It wasn’t a question; we were going to do it.  However, we focused initially on communicating that message externally and did not communicate it enough within our own organization so everyone would know what was going on.

Tony Conway – several of our decision makers were familiar with social media, so we were able to get them on board fairly quickly.  With the rest, we explained that our initial investment would be a controlled experiment around a specific set of communication goals.  We made sure we had a consensus in order to take that critical step.

What is your commitment level to social media?

Jeannie Ericson – we are never going to quit – we view ourselves not just in social media, but in a relationship where we engage our community.  Right now, we have an integrated plan for Lens on Atlanta that will focus on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn initially to help cultivate the base community.  Eventually, we’ll amplify that using our broadcasting assets in radio and television.

Tony Conway – for us, social media is not about a one-night stand.  We see it as a key method in being informational and cultivational with our audience.  We’ve exploded out our initial investment (which generated 2x the expected goal) and have architected an annual social media campaign.

What are some of the key elements of your investment plan that brand marketers need to account for?

Jeannie Ericson – having someone dedicated to coaching and cultivating your community base.  Although stakeholders say they will participate, you need to have someone come along side of them to encourage and partner with them to do it.

Sherry Heyl (Concept Hub) – focus on teaching the benefits of the social media platform and tools first, then the actual tools with your community ambassadors.

Tony Conway – having the RIGHT consultants to help shape your strategy and plan, help you find and tap into the influencers and tools, is essential.  Also, you need to find the right people who can help develop key relationships within the community to participate as well as operationalize your platform.  We were able to do that with Georgia State and Oglethorpe and now have a commitment for interns to handle the publishing for us across seven social media channels at 50 hours per week over the next year.

How are you defining success for your investment?  Internally as well as Externally?

Jeannie Ericson – Success externally is cultivating stories of users who get something accomplished using the Lens platform and permeating that out to their peers on the network.  Internally, we’ve defined it as being self-sustaining within four years.

Tony Conway – We see social media as the medium to reach people in an intimate way that is unpurchasable.  Externally, we define success as connecting with people and bringing them face to face with the physical experience of volunteering in our organization.

No matter who you are, making an investment decision is never simple; there are always complex factors across business, process, organizational and technical aspects.  Failing to invest, however, is a decision brands cannot afford to make.

For more highlights on this conversation, go to Social Media Club Atlanta or search for the conversation thread via #smcatl in Google and Twitter.

Is it the Experience or the Destination?

This week I’m on hiatus from the “Will They Stay or Will They Go?” series, taking a well-deserved extended weekend vacation to visit family in beautiful Minneapolis, Minnesota.  For some, vacations are all about the destination – getting there, unpacking, getting everything you want to do on your itinerary accomplished before you have to leave, etc.  But for others, the journey is the vacation itself – being on the road, stopping off at random places, getting to know the people you’re with and surviving the unexpected that comes your way.

Imagine if the Griswold Family had flown to Wally World, or the Hoover Family had flown to the Little Miss Sunshine finals in Rodondo Beach.  True, each family probably would have avoided some extremely aggravating hassles and achieved their objectives sooner, but they would have missed out on the very experiences that strengthened their relationships with one another and left an indelible set of memories that become part of a larger story.

Being on the road to digital can feel a lot like a vacation.  Most organizations anticipate arriving at a final destination point with our online initiatives, but I wonder how many brands take a step back and realize that the journey is as equally important.  We are now living in a world where brands and consumer’s collective journeys can cross and merge within multiple real-time data streams.  Experiences are no longer silod, but mashed and shared.  Think about that next time you’re embarking on your next online initiative.

Now if I could just get that darn theme song out of my head….Kenny Loggins, will always be the King of the Summer Vacation anthems.

Episode 4: YouTube: Everyone’s Doing It So Why Not Me?

Yesterday, I had a chance to speak with Dan Greenfield of Bernaise Source Media about the role of online video in the growing real-time data stream of social media and how brands should start to think about leveraging its power through digital distribution channels such as YouTube.  The stats were flying as Dan and I discussed the exponential growth of the online video medium both on the web and mobile channels.

During the show, Dan described a number of best practice examples, in particular BlendTec "Will It Blend?" series and the Dove Evolution campaign.

Each of these brands took advantage of the online video space to correctly show off the strengths of their brand and/or product as well as thought out of the box and took some risks.  When I asked him why it seemed that so many brands had yet to embrace YouTube and similar media sharing channels as part of their communication strategy, Dan suggested that the very nature and culture of the medium has yet to be fully understood.

Quality online video will continue to drive the currency of the data stream, thus brand marketers must look for ways to tap into their brand assets and culture and appropriately extrapolate it via video to be successfully distributed and consumed by the consumer community.  Below are some critical elements to keep in mind as you develop your digital video messaging and presence:

Strategy: Dan observed that much of the YouTube Channels published by brands seemed to be random containers of videos ranging from old tv ads and c-suite press conferences to user-generated one-off outtakes.  Brands appear to be throwing up videos to see what sticks.  Additionally, most of the channels lacked any consistent branding.  Consumers crave editorial purpose and your YouTube Channel and its videos shouldn’t be any different.  Set a clear objective and tone for the content that will be showcased and expectations on frequency and dialogue with viewers.  Be sure to integrate links to other places in your social media footprint so consumers can continue the conversation and /or debate in their preferred community environments (and take you with them) beyond your corporate initiated channel.

Culture:  Understand the medium and the interface.  It seems that the more popular videos have a combination of the bizarre or extreme to them or at least a common denominator of humor.  But don’t discount consumers’ fascination for good old fashioned acts of everyday nature.  National Geographic continues to draw legions of viewers with their wildlife videos.  Guess some people don’t get tired of giant anaconda feedings…go figure.

Format:  Video is about the art of rich storytelling.  You need to have a solid understanding on how to shoot the subject in order to reflect the story you want to be told.  It’s no wonder why professionally-produced online video grew 25% last year and garnered 41.6 billion views.  Also, just as important, you have to realize the end device that video will be distributed and consumed.  Don’t forget, there are big differences between web viewing and mobile viewing – know which one you are targeting from the very beginning.

Measurement:  Online video is not traditional broadcast tv – so don’t expect to measure it in the same way.  Views are great, but how many ratings, comments and embeds did each piece generate?  The ripple effect of your videos is the cash cow you should be tracking.

Dan’s final advice is a great mantra for anyone stepping into video:  “Unpolished does not mean authentic; it’s what you’re saying that is the measure of real authenticity”.

We covered a number of other topics, including segmented channels and mbile.  You can listen to the full podcast episode here. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/MichelleBatten_iMediaWorks

It’s been a month since I started this series and I am super grateful to Diane Deseta, Sherry Heyl, Peter Fasano and Dan Greenfield for spending the time and sharing their unique points of view on past podcast episodes.  No matter what you do in life, I’ve found that it’s better to row with others when you can.  It almost always improves the quality of the effort and makes the journey a lot more fun.

Next week, our series will be on hiatus as I journey north to the Twin Cities for a little vacay con mis primos (that’s Spanish for cousins).  Instead of hosting this podcast on Thursday at 4pm (edt), odds are I will have a margarita in hand, sitting comfortably somewhere lakeside (if Delta Airlines or the weather in MSP doesn’t delay my flight).  Stay tuned for details on the next episode, “PART 5: Virtual Worlds: Build It, But Will They Come?” – hope everyone enjoys a safe and relaxing 4th of July holiday.