Whether you’re using traditional marketing tools or social media, one of your key objectives should be to become the thought leader in your market or category.

As a B-to-B marketer, Thought Leadership is one of the most valuable assets of your brand. When reaching out to the professional tradesman, you have several audiences that you need to build relationships with – Distribution, Buying Groups, Associations and ultimately, the Contractor or End User. Messaging to each of these markets while sharing common traits can and will be different. The sooner you begin building relationships in the buying cycle, the better off you’re going to be. Thought leadership and brand building should be an ongoing process.

I believe social media affords you a better means of reaching your objectives. You don’t become a thought leader overnight. It’s a process that takes time. You need to gain trust of your audience and become the “go to” resource. What better way to accomplish this than through the likes of LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogs and Twitter? Think of it as a form of “opt in” places that people go on a regular basis to read and learn. People follow blogs because the subject matter is relevant to them. People follow you on Twitter for the same reason. LinkedIn has groups you can join based on interest levels in particular issues, causes or markets. You get the picture. There are numerous ways to stay connected and build your Brand.

Jon Miller in a recent post on Marketo, outlines 4 ways to build your brand:

1. Use your company’s blog to provide insights
2. Be a solution to a specific problem
3. Provide original research
4. Join a speaking circuit

Those are my thoughts on the subject and I’d like to hear what you’re doing to build your thought leadership.

Worth looking at xtra normal – a text to movie website and software download – for anyone interested in producing animated cartoon films to illustrate a topic in an engaging style. The site is at http://www.xtranormal.com/ and just requires a simple State download to work. The controls, writing the script and animating the characters, are pretty simple and within half-an-hour or so you can create something of a reasonable standard. One fellow comms professioal has created an introductory guide to social marketing using this approach – see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB_szszLjbA

Today we are going to deal with Social Media Marketing

As an introduction, I suggest you to read the definition of wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_marketing but there is not so much links so please let me give you some.

A french article defining the SMM

http://www.mediassociaux.com/2009/02/10/le-social-media-marketing-explique-en-3-min/

A tiny how to use social media for PR : http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/11/how-to-social-media-pr/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OnlineMarketingSEOBlog+%28Online+Marketing+Blog%29

And others approaches : http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/03/ses-ny-3-approaches-to-social-media/

Another link from toprankblog : http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/11/what-google-thinks-of-social-media/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OnlineMarketingSEOBlog+%28Online+Marketing+Blog%29

fun? YES! but besides it shows what matters from a living dictionnary like google, I means SEO is important but sometimes not relevant so the most important part of your job will be to keep your company / idea / product in customer’s mind ready to talk about it… think social !

So now you are ready to use and abuse of Social Media Marketing.

See you and don’t forget to leave a comment

For newcomers to internet marketing or people who are thinking about switching companies or even joining an extra MLM opportunity, the multi-level promoting review is an critical piece of info. The challenge is to be able to find a review that’s unprejudiced and objective, although some opinions and suggestions might also be beneficial. This article references one or two review sites that offer information.

MLM Review Kings run by Brian Garvin and Jeff West offers a good review of many MLM opportunities along with, naturally, their top suggestions. You can find the reviews divided up by categories or in alphabetical order on the right-hand side of the default page, in addition to a large amount of information that could aid you as a network marketer.
You can find them all at the left-hand side of the site in alphabetical order with another interesting subjects which are pertentant to social marketing and web marketing in general.
WAHonline offers tips on getting the right MLM company for you together with a multi level marketing review of several internet promotion firms. Another nice touch is that you are also welcome to send in a request of a company that you would like reviewed – this will be very helpful.

Simply this one post offers a plethora of information.
Ultimate MLM Reviews is one site which offers some decent reviews of social marketing firms although its end goal is to point you to one of the network marketing corporations that the author advises. Also, it’s worth pointing out the overall picture of the social marketing industry on this site is rather negative.
A different excellent place that you can find some reviews of internet marketing corporations are in the internet marketing forums. OnlineMLM Forum is one such forum as is MLM Forums.

Many people are very passionate about it, including top authors like Robert Allen and Robert Kiyosaki. And yet, it remains something that is scowled upon by the majority. It’s interesting to notice that the mention of franchises not too way back would have caused the same kinds of reactions.

And a multilevel marketing review is a neat place to begin if you need to learn more about the industry in general as well as be informed about specific firms.

Die Nachricht, dass Twitter im Oktober 2009 erstmals einen Einbruch, einen dramatischen Einbruch, hinnehmen musste war Wasser auf die Mühlen der Kritiker. Laut Nielsen musste Twitter einen dramatischen Einbruch bei den Unique Usern hinnehmen: minus 27,8 Prozent auf 18,9 Millionen Unique User im Vergleich zum Vormonat. Wie immer bedeutet aber eine laute mediale Verbreitung einer Meldung nicht notwendigerweise deren Richtigkeit. Genau das Gegenteil ist auch bei Twitter der Fall: auch im Oktober 2009 ist Twitter gewachsen, nur keiner weiß, wie man das messen soll. Nielsen, Comscore und Co messen eben nur die Unique User, die direkt auf die TwitterSite gehen.

Fakt ist aber: Während die Welt Twitter bereits einen Abgesang bereiten will, steigen die Zugriffsraten über Social Media Clients wie Tweetdeck und Seesmic weiter dramatisch an. Und diese Zugriffe fallen nicht in die Messalgorithmen von Nielsen & Co. Nur etwas mehr als 20% der Zugriffe auf Twitter erfolgen über deren spartanische Website. Der Rest kommt über APIs bzw. über Social Media Clients. Und der Anteil der Zugriffe über APIs und Social Media Clients wächst überproportional (siehe auch real-time Statistik von TwitStat). So berichtet Seesmic auch im Oktober 2009 über Zuwachsraten von 30%. Das auf Mobile Weblösungen spezialisierte Unternehmen Novarra berichtet lt. Macworld Mitte November 2009, dass die Anzahl der Zugriffe auf Twitter über mobile Web-Interfaces im ersten Halbjahr 2009 um 3500 % gewachsen sind.

Stefan Niggemeier von Bildblog.de ist ebenfalls der Meinung, dass das Twitter-Wachstum falsch dargestellt bzw. betrachtet wird und berichtet, dass  für 2010 von den Marktforschern 26 Millionen Twitterbenutzer erwartet werden nach 18 Millionen für 2008. Der Artikel “Flieg nicht so hoch, mein kleiner Freund” ist insgesamt erfrischend lesenswert.

Wahr ist also: Twitter wächst, nur anders als bisher. Und besser!

Interessiert an mehr? Dann folge mir auf Twitter: http://twitter.com/mexx_marketing

This is an easy to understand (phew) slide presentation on what social media is (by Marta Kagan, marketing director).

She stresses that in order to be a good communicator, you have to listen first – and that social marketing is about creating a DIALOGUE, and not just another method of delivering your message. There are so many people out there using social networks and media that you simply HAVE to talk to them. You can’t really ignore it anymore.

Very simply written and even I could understand it!

See the presentation here: http://www.slideshare.net/mzkagan/what-the-fk-social-media

One year later…..

One year later (because things are moving so damn fast in the world of social marketing and media, she’s put together another presentation, aptly called “What the f**k is social media – one year later. Bigger. Badder. More f**king than ever!”  Check out the statistics she puts over. Amazing!

I love the first line: “Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. Nobody knows how. When it’s finally done there is surprise it’s not better.”

The three rules of using social media:

• Rule 1: Listen
• Rule 2: Engage
• Rule 3: Measure

Do not reply

She makes a very valid point about two way communication. We’ve all had those emails from a ‘donotreply’ address, haven’t we? But aren’t we meant to be encouraging communication and dialogue? Don’t just ask me to contact you when you think there’s a chance of a sale … aren’t my opinions or suggestions valuable too? Good point!

Again, view the whole presentation here: http://www.slideshare.net/mzkagan/what-the-fk-is-social-media-one-year-later

Hope that’s helpful for people learning about this stuff. It was for me!

This interesting article from another WordPress blogger says that it’s not just about using social media to market yourself and get business in – it’s about making sure that your products and service match up.

Social marketing (for better or for worse) gives us all a voice and we can use it to enhance or trash your reputation.

If you use it to drive business, you’ll soon fall flat if you don’t deliver the goods. Dissatisfied customers won’t hesitate to post their opinions on forums and social networking pages – and these will be read by potential customers who won’t hesitate NOT to use your company. Most people will research online before they buy – and if they read negative comments posted by customers or users, then they’ll simply choose to go elsewhere.

Social media is extremely valuable because it gives you the chance to see what people think of you – and importantly, to react, respond and put things right. If you don’t, your business WILL suffer.

In a nutshell:

• It’s all about the product and / or the service
• Listen to the customer – they know what they want
• Let the customer market the product for you (but you have to deliver the goods)
• Use what you’ve learn by listening and making changes and adjustments
• Be transparent and honest
• The consumer says what the brand is.

Read the full article at: http://wadeeagar.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/social-media-customer-experience-online-reputation-and-future-employment/

Creation In Common's Nonprofit Branding Model

Six years ago, I wrote Building the Nonprofit Brand from the Inside Out and its time to revise it. Much has changed in the area of nonprofit marketing, communications, and branding.

Before I start my revision, I welcome any thoughts on the topic. Please read the article and send your comments. I will attribute any insights on this blog before relaunching the article.

Thanks,

Carlo
carlo@creationincommon.com

Today I had to get a few office supplies. I had to get my car, which thankfully I have, then drive 6 miles to a store to get a high lighter. As I was driving I was looking at the empty lots of died business, a torn down GM Plant, and nearly every business built on the main road with little behind it, and all one story buildings with lawns!

I thought of my 9 years living in Germany, that if I had to get something I would walk out of the apartment, and down the stairs the ground floor would be a store usually, and within a few blocks would be the post office, school, church, grocery store, and the list goes on. Things were built on top of each other, and there were no lawns because the stores were in a central location with apartments, and town houses above them.

I wonder what is the long term cost in America of this urban sprawl.
1. commute to work and to do your errands costing you the must of transporation, time and expenses.
2. The dependency on oil, and future production of green house gas emissions.
3. The city must pump, and line utilities out to the townships costing more expenses in taxes and infrastructure to allow this building out.
4. Business get to advertise and capitalize by being little pretty lawns with one story buildings right along the road that your paying to have build in your taxes to then drive on your expense on.

So why would looking at the long term image of building up and not building out not be thought of in the municipal planning? Yes business would spend more and would have more actions to conduct in the start but in the long run,
1. Taxes would be decreased
2. you might not have to drive to get a few items needed.
3. lower green house gas emissions
4. lower or eliminate commuting and congestion on the roads.
5. crazy thought but we talk about the urban centers become dead lets build up and see the jobs come back into the cities, and people able to shop, and invest locally

Mistake 1: Pretend you can do without it.

You may have already run into the Graying Skeptics, executives who can’t understand why they should devote employee time and company resources to social media, and who dismiss Facebook and Twitter as fads that amount to little more than a waste of time and money.

Well, social media is here to stay, and the rocketing growth of some outlets makes it foolish to ignore them. Facebook, the largest, recently reached 300 million users worldwide — roughly the population of the United States. And the largest demographic is the 35 to 49 set that most businesses are eager to reach. So listen to Sebastian Gard of social marketing firm Context Optional when he says bluntly: “You’re going to have a social-media strategy whether you do it or not. It’s not up to you.”

“You’re going to have a social-media strategy whether you do it or not. It’s not up to you,” says Sebastian Gard of social marketing firm Context Optional.

Mistake 8: Underestimate the power of seemingly small efforts

Embracing social media isn’t about achieving specific goals so much as it is establishing a real bond with your customers. Rick Karp, president and “keeper of the karma” for the San Francisco-based Cole Hardware chain, recently announced via Twitter (@colehardware) that the company would exchange a particular water bottle suspected of chemical contamination — no questions asked. Within two weeks, consumers returned about 1,000 of the bottles. “We lost money, but we gained so much [for our brand] by virtue of our doing it,” he says. “I will do a lot to build our brand, regardless of whether it pays off immediately economically or not.”

“We wanted to have conversations with our consumers, who were already having these conversations themselves,” says David Puner, a communications manager at Dunkin’ Donuts.

Making your plan – the 5 steps to success

1. Research

Free web-based listening tools are a good place to start if you’re just becoming acquainted with the social media world, but a more sophisticated approach to managing and reporting on the conversations will be needed once dialogue takes off and becomes more numerous.

There are reputable web-based applications that understand corporate communications, PR and marketing and will consolidate and present all the news coverage and consumer generated coverage data for you.

2. Strategize

With any outreach effort, understanding what moves, motivates and irks your target audience is critical. Listening helps do this.

Communications outreach planning – including social media engagement planning – also has to contribute to meeting a company’s bottom line objectives. If your company is not already using its website to engage stakeholders, the initial strategy can start small.

» Set up a Twitter account – follow individuals or companies with successful social media engagement to see what they are doing.

» Read the blogs of your thought leaders – figure out who is influential in your space and read what they’re saying. They will be a great resource for coming up with new content ideas for your own materials when you begin to engage.

3. Organize

Most of your company’s effort to move from a mass communication model to a social engagement model is cultural. The whole company has to get behind how social media contributions will be managed and organized.

Web strategist and social media guru, Jeremiah Owyang, advocates a hub and spoke model, where representatives from all areas of the business mobilize to manage social media interactions (the ‘hub’) together3. This cross-functional team shares resources and cross-functional communication (the ‘spokes’) with those at the edge of the organization (the ‘tire’).

Regardless of the social media engagement model you choose, anyone participating in social media activities – particularly those who will be posting responses – must be clear on their guidelines for interaction.

4. Prepare

If your company doesn’t already have employee guidelines for its online activities, it should be a priority. Good models of social media policies include IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines and the Red Cross’ Social Media Handbook.

5. Jump in

The key to getting started is with an understanding you don’t have to be everywhere at once. Here are five simple ways to ease into the vast social media setting:

1. Start tweeting. Set up filters for posts relevant to your company, products, or your competitors, and start engaging in the conversation. Consider re-tweeting any of the interesting articles and facts that you are finding from your thought leaders and influencers, and add in anything else that you think people might find of interest.

2. Read two or three relevant blogs on a regular basis, and leave your own comments on interesting posts. By commenting regularly, you will establish a profile for yourself with both influential bloggers, and their followers.

3. Make your company’s website more ‘social’. Ensure there are sharing options on the relevant pages of your site. Create a comments section below news releases or posted news items and make your media room more social and interactive.

4. Start your own blog. As you’re getting started, develop an editorial calendar and a list of ‘bloggable’ ideas. Planning is important when you are getting started and short for ideas, as a blog is only successful if it contains information that others find relevant and interesting. Successful blogging tips are easy to find online.

5. Listen every day and stay involved. All it takes is 15 minutes a day.

6. Measure

Measuring your communication activities is critical, yet challenging. Measuring ROI with social media engagement can also be a tricky proposition, with no set standard yet developed.

To get started, begin by identifying what’s important to your business:

» Qualitative metrics – Conversations, corporate reputation or customer satisfaction

» Quantitative metrics – Online buzz, web traffic, or search engine ranking

With the information in your hands, you can plan and develop or adjust strategies based on what ‘real people’ need and want.

Only then will you have harvested the true power of social media.

Social Media Marketing White Papoer

 http://www.visibletechnologies.com/lp-sm-best-practices-wp.html?gclid=CMiN7d6AqZ4CFShSagod4wrklw

Listening, Learning, Engaging and Integrating—The Four Keys to Successfully Leveraging the Social ChanneL

Four Keys to Leveraging the Social Channel

Now that more than 75 percent of all Americans are participating in some form of social media through blogs, forums and sites like Facebook and Twitter, companies need to understand what consumers are saying, why they’re saying it and how their dialogue has the potential to impact business. As part of its 2008 North American Technographics Survey, Forrester Research found that 37 percent of U.S. online adults are “critics” who contribute to online forums, post product reviews or comment on blogs. Twenty-one percent are “creators” who develop and uploadoriginal content, and 69 percent are “spectators” who read blogs, forums and review sites. Not only do these percentages represent remendous growth over 2007, but it’s highly anticipated that the 2009 report will reveal even further increases.

Witness the effects ofOprah, Ashton Kutcher, CNN, and the Iran protests on the volume of Twitter participation in recent months. As the chorus of conversations and the proliferation of social technologies that enable participation grow, companies must make sense of the new channel for consumer interaction. Organizations need to think less about social media as just “consumer chatter” and more about how to understand, digest and invest in the science behind what consumers are saying—and most importantly, participate with “their” consumers where they have congregated.

The Groundswell

Thanks to the explosion of the social channel, companies now have more insight into consumer perception of their brands than ever before. We know, for example, that social interactions are causing companies to try and navigate this new medium both reactively and proactively; we also know that companies are no longer in control of their brands – consumers are. Lastly, we know technology is simply an enabling tool to better understand the social channel and subsequently, the social revolution. And what a revolution it is.

More than 133 million blogs have been indexed since 2002•than 10 million users create 1,500 new “Tweets” every second Twitter has grown more than 1,300 percent in one year. More grown to 12 million users in the first quarter of 2009.Why is this such as new era and paradigm for organizations and marketers? Though social media is a collective action, in actuality it’s the result of millions of individual monologues and dialogues. Listening to, learning from, measuring and engaging in the millions of conversations, are the keys to success. If we grasp the context and mindset of these back-and-forth exchanges, as well as the irrelevance and sentiment, we’ll be able to gauge consumer passion in a new and multi-dimensional way. Facebook user growth for the 35-year-old-plus demographic has

Hearing the Voice of your Customer

One of the goals for companies should be to make sure they accurately hear what their customers are saying, whether they like or dislike products or services and ultimately whether they are advocates, evangelists or detractors. Business success in the coming years will require companies to harness the power of social conversations, as the youngest and oldest members of society increasingly embrace platforms like Facebook, Twitter, forums, and blogs to connect and collaborate in real-time communities. And it’s not just the volumes of conversations but the velocity that’s changed the equation. Today, these brand conversations can move with astonishing speed, around the world several times before companies are aware of it. In addition, not every Tweet or post is created equal and “hearing” what customers are saying is just the first step; context, which we’ll cover, is just as important, and that precedes engagement. Companies that engage with consumers will find that they have the ability to guide their brand; while those that don’t will find their brand disconnected from consumers and imperiled….

 Warren Raisch Post on Social Media Marketing and Social Media White Papers and Research: November 26, 2009

Making your case

Strategic planning that includes monitoring social media and traditional channels alike is an investment, but one that will ultimately drive your company’s costs down, while at the same time providing peace of mind that you are staying on top of all conversations surrounding your brand.

By demonstrating how you and your competitors’ brands are being discussed online, you’ll build your case for investing in a listening and engagement media strategy. You might discover no one is talking about you yet. That may not be a bad thing – it means that the power is in your hands to get a conversation started.

In a January 2009 AdMedia Partners survey of marketers worldwide, 77% expected to increase their social media marketing, with only 11% predicting a decrease. Social media marketing was the highest ranked increase of any marketing spending, including search and mobile marketing.

Make a plan and make it happen

Once you get buy-in for a social media strategy, the place to begin is the same place you begin for traditional communication strategies – planning.

We so need an IKEA in South Africa.

The furniture giant recently launched a Facebook marketing campaign that has be hailed as genius. Im so glad they recieved that suggestion i sent them.

IKEA recently open a store in Malmo Sweden and instead of the run-of-th-mill advertising they got the store manager to open a Facebook profile.

Not unusual.

But every week the store manager would upload images from the showroom to a photo album and the first people to “tag” any of the items with their name got to take it home.

Genius.

Can you say..” free advertising”.

The social marketing home business opportunity is one of the most promising ideas in the world of business today, particularly in the midst of the economic standing.

Still relatively new, internet marketing has suffered from being associated with pyramid/Ponzi schemes that aren’t lawful and non-related.

Let’s just clarify the likenesses and differences between network marketing, AKA MLM or multi level promoting, and pyramid and Ponzi schemes. They’re close in that members are paid a commission for inducting folk into the associations. They differ because network marketing firms have a product or service that they offer and members are also paid on the sales that they make of these items. Ponzi/pyramid schemes offer no service. It actually is as simple as that. The FTC is very quick to clamp down on pyramid/Ponzi schemes these days and their threat has been greatly diminished in the previous couple of years. But network marketing corporations ( particularly the new ones ) are still held to very strict control by the FTC and other governmental agencies, precisely for the phobia of them turing into an illegal operation.

The reason that the social marketing home-based business opportunity is such an appealing one is perhaps because it has the potential to become very profitable. As a member, you can naturally sell the organization’s products right to customers, but the genuine money is in inducting new members who use the products themselves and need to join you in selling them. Each time that an affiliate you have signed up purchases the product, you earn a commission. And for every member that your referral sign ups and purchases products, you make a commission off of them also.

It is important to realize that this type of business takes work and dedication as any other does. Some MLMers are successful and keep growing their own fortune step by step, bringing in the passive residual income that’s network marketing’s’s biggest appeal. But the odds of success in the bizz are definitely not in your favor. In reality, the success rate is only from 3 to 5 p.c. There is certainly legitimized cash to be made, but it does not appear overnight. Just like any legitimized business, it needs time, consistent effort and a lot of dedication. And the majority give up before giving the business a fair chance.

You should also take into account that due to internet promotion’s unjustly less than steller reputation, you may start your business with a bit of a uphill battle. You’ll undoubtedly find as you are inducting new members that you first have to deconstruct previous misapprehensions and misunderstandings.

A network marketing cottage business opportunity is unquestionably something to think about beginning as a part-time venture. While it’s not for everybody, the web has helped make this kind of business more attractive to folk who were opposed to the old-style traditional technique of approaching family, friends and any victim that happened to be standing within three feet of them at any point.

(Covering the social news from 11/14 through 11/24)

With 2010 just on the horizon, we’re beginningto hear social media predictions and the new strategies that advertisers will be rolling out next year. Here’s a quote I liked from Chris Bruzzo, VP of brand, content and online at Starbucks: ”People are saying this is going to be a big year for social media and we’re a microcosm of that. Whereas last year it was a curiosity, this year it’s a core part of the program.” Starbucks is planning to cut back on its TV spend and invest quite a bit more in social media. Read about their strategy in this story from Ag Age.

LinkedIn has been busy working on sweeping changes to its features and services. Earlier in the month Social Media News reported LinkedIn’s plans for a homepage redesign and the new ability to link Twitter with LinkedIn updates. On Monday, LinkedIn announced that it will open its API to third party developers, a strategy that has been critical to the rapid success of other social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Last week, LinkedIn announced a new program for advanced group pages, called Custom Groups. Currently, LinkedIn group pages are little more than discussion forums. With Custom Groups, organizations can transform their group page to a central, multimedia social hub that will allow groups to post videos, white papers and feeds. The program costs $50,000 a month, however LinkedIn will include advertising support to drive traffic to the custom groups. Lastly, LinkedIn and Microsoft are joining forces to sync Outlook contacts with LinkedIn information. In the 2010 release, Outlook users will be able to quickly view LinkedIn user activity and information of their contacts as a subpane of the email window. These are very smart updates to the LinkedIn product offering, and will ensure that LinkedIn becomes an even more powerful business social networking tool for individuals as well as businesses and organizations.

A couple small updates on the Twitter front:

The Twitter Geolocation API has been officially released, however we won’t see anything new on Twitter.com just yet. For now, the release is significant for several third party developers that have built applications that will utilize the Geolocation feature, like Foursquare and Seesmic.

Twitter has also made a small improvement to its new Twitter Lists feature, allowing users to add descriptions to their Lists. It’s a nice-to-have, but personally I can’t wait to see Twitter roll out the ability to search Lists. I believe the lack of a search feature is the single most crippling disadvantage for Twitter Lists.

HootSuite is a Twitter publishing and management tool preferred by many, including myself. New updates launched this week allows HootSuite users to connect their Facebook and LinkedIn accounts for the first time. In addition, HootSuite users can create new columns to pull in their Twitter Lists feeds.

YouTube also released new updates this week:

YouTube Direct is a new platform for professional news organizations to solicit and utilize video content from citizen journalists. It’s an API that news media can incorporate on their existing websites to allow individuals to submit video coverage around current events. The news organization’s moderate can preview submitted material on a backend interface, then choose whether to approve the material to be linked from their site. Get the details from MediaPost.

Google has matched its speech recognition technology with YouTube’s caption feature to unveil a new automated video captioning service. Laurie Sullivan from MediaPost explains how the new service will have a big impact on SEO.

Have a great Thanksgiving holiday!

Ad Age

Behind the Redesign: Virgin.com Mixes Social Activity and Lead Generation

Starbucks Rings in the Holidays With Big Social-Media Push

Bing: an America’s Hottest Brands Case Study

Brands on Twitter: 76% of Accounts Are Infrequent Users

Why Murdoch Can Afford to Leave Google for Bing

Ad Week

Is Facebook Getting Uncool for 18-24s?

Social Media Users Really Are More Social

Brand Sweepstakes Get Twitterized

Media Post

Facebook Targeting Fans’ “Connections”

100 Ways To Measure Social Media

Brightcove Unveils Latest Platform, Integrates Mobile and Social Functionality

Q+A: Razorfish’s Shiv Singh On ‘Social Media For Dummies’

YouTube Unveils Tool To Connect News Organizations With Citizen Journalists

LinkedIn Launches Custom Groups For Marketers

YouTube Automated Captioning Changes Game For SEO

LinkedIn Opens Up To Outside Developers

Mashable

Toys R Us Explodes on Facebook With Black Friday Preview

HootSuite Adds Support for Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter Lists

How Google Wave Is Changing The News

Twitter Lists: Now You Can Add Descriptions!

TechCrunch

Blogging Vs. Microblogging: Twitter’s Global Growth Flattens, While WordPress’ Picks Up

Salesforce Chatter: A Real-Time Social Network For The Enterprise

Microsoft Outlook To Become Even More LinkedIn

Foursquare Continues Its ground Assault With 50 More Cities

Twitter Turns On Location. Not For Twitter.com Just Yet.

Blogs and Other News Sources

Clearing up the Clutter (Smart Marketing)

Chrome Unveiled; Microsoft Cheers (PC World)

Google Unveils Chrome OS; Tech World Yawns (PC World)

When you listen, you learn:

» Your brand is out there and people are talking about it

» Your competitor is already in the game, or if not, people are talking about them too

» Some of your employees are already representing you online, and you didn’t know it » There is a whole new world of opportunity for engaging with and responding to your customers

Listening tools

Listening is something good communicators, PR experts and marketers always do before proposing a course of action. Traditionally, strategies start with interviews, focus groups, a review of customer-focused literature, a SWOT analysis or other research that gets a pulse on their company’s reputation.

Listening in on the social media universe is no different.

You can make a low-risk and low-investment start by using free web-based tools to tap into who’s discussing your brand and why. Using a combination of free and paid tools can become overwhelming due to the volume of data and the numerous locations in which it’s being stored. The end result (media monitoring data points spread across multiple platforms and Excel spreadsheets) should help provide justification as to why moving to a fully integrated listening platform is such a worthwhile investment in the longer term.

Why listen?

» There is always someone talking about you somewhere

» Online conversations happen in real-time, and so should your responses

» To get a pulse on your company’s current online reputation and presence

» To help you know how and how much you need to get involved in monitoring social media

» Not knowing is not an option

Webinars are a good way to mix up the way you deliver your message to tradesmen. They allow you  to set yourself apart as an expert, gives you visibility, credibility and  immediate feedback on your topic. They take a lot of work, but if done right will reap you benefits for a long time. You can also repurpose them as webcasts and put them on your web site so the contractors can view them at their leisure. Here are some tips on how to make sure your Webinar is successful:

• Pick a timely subject - You want to not only be topical but timely with what you pick as a topic. Remember, one of your objectives is to be a thought leader.
• Make sure you address “what’s in it for them.” How will your new tool or process help them do their job better.
• Promote it both pre- and post-event - Make the most out of it by using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and any groups you belong to, to generate interest and sign ups. Promote it to your customer and potential lists, as well as through any trade organization or association. After the event, convert it to a Webcast and put it on your web site.
• Keep it to no more than an hour. My rule of thumb is keep your presentation to ideally 30 minutes, but no more than 40, and leave the rest of the time for questions. Also, when appropriate, add some humor. Tell a joke or show a cartoon to help illustrate your point.
• Don’t try to put 10 lbs. into a 5 lb. bag - If you have that much info, break it up into 2 Webinars. Remember, people can only retain so much info, so make your point and then deliver on it.
• Keep audience engaged by taking little surveys throughout the presentation. This not only gives them a reason to stay engaged, it gives you a moment to get ready for the next point.
• Practice, Practice, Practice – This might be the most important point of all. Remember, you’re trying to come off as the “expert”  and you don’t want to stumble through the presentation. Prepare and give it to some co-workers or friends and listen to their critiques. You need to be upbeat and engaging in order to keep the audience from clicking off.

Webinars are not hard to do, but they do take time. Don’t be intimidated. You can do a simple Power Point presentation. Remember, content is the important factor here, not some slick graphics or flash presentation.

A brand is a name or trademark connected with a product or with the company that makes the product. Brands have become increasingly important components of culture and the economy and haven even been modified to encompass people and personalities. In Hollywood it’s no longer a culture of celebrity that drives ticket-goers, it’s the celebrity brands.

In my old ad agency life, brands were things or corporate entities, co-managed by the agency strategists, account managers and creatives. Pepsi was a brand. Hostess Frito-Lay was a brand. Chrysler was a brand. These brands didn’t talk. Didn’t have good hair days or bad hair days, and they certainly didn’t have complicated ryders in their contracts, specifiying that only organic foods could be served at photo shoots.

But brands are now personified by people. And working with celebrity brands to market entertainment has been both an eye-opening experience, and an educational one. In my agency world, the creative brief pretty much covered off all the do’s and don’ts for brands … but having grown up with many of the established brands, and being very familiar with them, you almost understood what the brand represented through osmosis. You inherently understood the difference between the Coke and Pepsi brands – you understood their brand personalities, the impact brand had on their respective marketing campaigns, and you understood the differences between Pepsi and Coke drinkers.

That said, think of the brand of Ashton Kutcher. Or Demi Moore. Or Robert Pattison. What are their brand personalities? What makes them different from other brands? Does their brand impact their publicity communication plans? Are their any differences between fans of Ashton, Demi and Robert … and what are those inherent differences? It’s a little more difficult because so much of it is in the mind of the talent, and their handlers.

Robert Pattinson's brand: Robert or Edward?

Whether you’re marketing a television show or a major motion picture, the brand is split equally between the talent and the vehicle they are starring in. Essentially, you are working with 2 distinct and usually different brands. Imagine in your agency world, having to wrangle Coke and Pepsi (plus their handlers) together into a Skittles candy storyline. Luckily for us in content land, the celebrity brands have to put their own brands on the shelf so to speak, and adopt the brand of the content they are appearing in. That’s all fine and dandy while their shooting and editing, but just wait until marketing time rolls around. All of a sudden, for example, your Robert Pattinson handlers are trying to sell the brand of Robert Pattinson, rather than the brand content. This can make for an interesting tug-of-war.

Celebrities hire publicists and agents to protect and serve their brands. It’s the publicist’s job to understand their brand demographics, and to ensure that their client is being exposed via the right media. For example, it’s not likely you will ever see The Pattz’s photo in a magazine for the over-50 set. Brands like Coke don’t need a publicist, they usually employ public relations to help them manage the branding frontline – the part of the brand that lives closest to the consumer. But some brands use publicists – with multiple content platforms the norm these days, it’s nice to employ someone to pitch stories and content on behalf of their brand. There is no hard and fast rule.

So how come you like a particular celebrity, and how does that relate to the brand?

People like brands because they like making decisions.

I find this part fascinating in a Psychology 101 kind of way. When considering how people make decisions, your mind employs two criteria to manoeuvre the complexities of life: moral and aesthetic choice. In almost every case, your conscience decision is based on the delicate balance of the rational and the irrational.

When choosing a bottle of wine, for example, the matter of expressing cultural refinement and personal pleasure is weighed against price and availability. Who you choose to root for in sports has as much to do with peer acceptance and social differentiation (or bonding) as it has with fitness and recreation. And the same analysis can be made with your choice of celebrity endorsement.

How does this relate to brand value?

Brands are increasingly becoming the currency of business. They link customers with enterprises. In this sense, smart business people now bestow virtual custody of brands upon consumers, while keeping management in the hands of companies. In other words, in the entertainment industry, it’s all about the packaging. In today’s world, entertainment brands define markets as much as they do products, services and organisations.

If branding is the sum total of all the parts, what brings brands to life?

This one is easy. For celebrities nothing gets attention like commercial success. Who was Robert Pattinson before Twilight? (In reality, Robert would probably be much happier without the downside of fame and fortune.) Robert IS the package. So all that is Robert … is the brand. But how much does “Edward” – the character Robert plays in Twilight, a part of the packaging is anyone’s guess. For Agency folks, and in the case of a packaged good brand for example, commercial success is also part of the brand ID. Design is used to package the brand, thus giving it a visual identity.
In the ad world, confidence is the brand’s promise to the consumer – it provides brand Integrity. The consumer who believes in the brand feels pride in being a customer, and carries a passion for the brand. It’s an emotional attachment. Celebrities have long tapped into this thinking because their fans expect and demand it. If you are a fan of George Clooney for example, you expect him to behave a certain way … to be a certain kind of person because his brand dictates that he really is the carefully-crafted persona that his handlers have put forth to the world.

The defining moment for Tom Cruise's brand ...

In short, be it packaged good or celebrity brand, when they don’t deliver the brand promise, it can be the kiss of death. Don’t believe the brand as celebrity angle? Visit a hotel review web site like TripAdvisor.com. Check out the travelers’ comments section and you’ll likely come across more than a few who cite poor customer service for their negative hotel reviews. On the other hand, employees who represent the brand flawlessly and consistently can propel a business to stardom. The brand is the sum of all its parts and brand consistency is vital. Without it, like Tom Cruise’s actions, you erode your brand equity and create misperceptions about your company in the market, that in turn could lead prospective customers, employees and even fans, to take a pass on your product.