Archive for October, 2009
Should Some Companies Not Use Social Media?
Ted Hunt, Comms Manager at Innocent (the smoothie company) raised an interesting question yesterday at Media140. He was pointing out that, even before social media marketing had emerged, Innocent was already actively engaging with customers in a quirky, fun kind of way. He put this down to the character of the founder, Richard Reed, who has a naturally humorous and laid-back way with people and, as a result, is exactly the kind of person who thrives engaging in cheeky banter and chat on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and the like. With a brand built in that image, Innocent were always going to have a popular blog and Twitter account.
Social Media in Business
SMIB on Friday offered some interesting pointers for companies making their first foray into the arena of social media for business. As always Neville Hobson was good value. He showed us an advert for a marketing role at Best Buy which stated “250 Twitter followers” as a desirable quality for the preferred candidate – giving evidence of the pervading influence of the medium. He also explained how the term “Social Business” is now emerging as a new media term, as opposed to something ethical or environmental.
Charity Buzz Monitoring: A “Live” Experiment
Now, here’s an experiment. We’ve started getting lots of charity signups for our conference – Monitoring Social Media 09 – taking place later this month in London. Obviously, reputation is rather important when you’re dealing with people’s generosity and trust and, as I reported last week, many charities monitor social media very actively. So, we figured we would put this to the test. Below we have published a random list of 70 UK charities. Once this post goes out – we’re going to wait and see how many notice our mention of them. I’m thinking we’ll get 4-5 responses – but let’s see :)
Visible Technologies Sponsors Monitoring Social Media 09
We are delighted to announce Visible Technologies as our Lead Sponsor for Monitoring Social Media 09. Recently identified by Inc. Magazine as of the fastest-growing companies in the US (#170 on the Inc. 500 List), Visible Technologies provides social media listening and engagement tools for some of the worlds biggest brands, including Microsoft and Xerox.
The Benefits of Social Media Monitoring for Charities
Ten years ago I was helping leading charities in the UK, including Christian Aid, YMCA, Woodland Trust, Epilepsy Action and Breast Cancer Care, to develop online communities. Since then the game has changed. It’s no longer about creating communities so much as finding your community in the social Web.
How to Use Social Media for Customer Services
Most of the buzz around employees using social media has been negative. News stories have focused on bored desk-workers wasting hours on Facebook, Domino’s pizza employees posting revolting videos on YouTube, or idiots bad-mouthing their bosses on Twitter, thus earning their P45 form. Now that we are seeing the officially sanctioned use of social media by employees – largely in the form of company Twitter accounts – these are being siloed into “Customer Services”, giving them the aura of that overly-transactional, inhuman user experience we all know and loathe.
Seven Business Objectives for Monitoring Social Media
Connie Benson, Community Strategist with Techrigy, shared a useful presentation this week called “Seven Business Objectives for Monitoring Social Media“. This set out seven excellent reasons why companies should be tracking and responding to what people say about them online, namely: Public relations / Crisis, Search Engine Optimisation, Corporate marketing / brand building, Industry / [...]
Monitoring Social Media 09 – Invitation to Media Partners
Are you working in the social media space? Do you have an audience that are keen to know more about social media monitoring? If so, we should talk. Our Social Times is inviting proposals for media partnerships for MSM09. We recently agreed joint promotional deals with with Media140, Social Media in Business and The Experiential Marketing Forum and we are now seeking additional partners to widen our network and share in the benefits of this high profile event.
A 5-Step Guide to Reputation Management Using Social Media
The case for buzz monitoring and reputation management has been demonstrated repeatedly in recent years. A study from the London School of Economics last year revealed that a 2% reduction in negative word of mouth boosts sales growth by 1% and Dell has attributed a monetary value to this: their average customer is worth $210; their average online detractor costs them $57 and their average online promoter earns them $32.
