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Twitter finds a seat on press row

Posted by John Scally on August 26, 2009 at 1:52 PM

As the traditional print media continues to shed reporters, a willing army of bloggers and micro-bloggers is eagerly filling the journalistic void. This week, a major landmark for social media sports reporting occurred when NCAA-member, St. John's University, in NYC, announced that it was credentialing Peter Robert Casey as its first Twitter reporter. As a result, Casey will be granted a spot on press row for the upcoming basketball season. You can follow Casey on Twitter @peter_r_casey. He is currently among the Top 10 most-followed basketball-related users on Twitter and most-followed basketball-related individual who is not a professional basketball player, team or coach.

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Ethics resources for your social media policy/guidelines

Posted by Bob Brin on August 21, 2009 at 9:53 AM

Lots of interest these days in developing social media guidelines or policies. (We prefer guidelines.) Here are some great resources on social media ethics:

• Examples! An online database of social media policies from a long list of organizations. Thanks to Jason Falls for a heads up on this one.

• Word of Mouth Marketing Association's Ethics Code

• Social Media Business Council's Disclosure Toolkit

Of course, putting a bunch of rules in place isn't enough. Your organization will need training and to go through the exercise of "what if" situations. You should also consider:

• an assessment of your social media landscape. Who is out there talking about you and your topics (competitors, pundits, reporters, bloggers and . . . employees!)? What are they doing/saying and where are the opportunities to tune in, join in and lead?

• a cultural and structural shift map. How you'll transform the organization and its culture to communicate in the new environment.

• a strategy with measures in place to replace the feet-first jump into social media tactics.

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Blogwell social net works - If you think Twitter is all chatter.

Posted by Bob Brin on August 14, 2009 at 9:24 AM

You'd be right. Chatter is what makes social circles go round, and that centrifugal force drives business. So, anyway, yesterday I'm sitting in the audience at Blogwell, the social media conference where big companies share their social experiences (held here in sunny Minneapolis at General Mills HQ). At one session, the two communications heavies* from McDonald's are chatting about the cool stuff they're doing. (Their gig was titled: McDonald's: "Social Media at Local, Regional, and Global Scales.") (Oooohh, big speech!)

Then they start talking about their Mindshare site for connecting their internal community.

From Blogwell notes: Mindshare has 10 neighborhoods within the community -- going everywhere from operations to open channels. We share all kinds of information. We get input from our owner-operators for other owner-operators, . . . "Here's how I'm solving that at my operation in Italy."

Up on the screen goes a picture of the site and there's the face of Joe Curry, who used to work at Padilla. Joe is a bit of a legend here. We have a piano in our atrium because this guy was almost as good on the piano keyboard as the computer keyboard.

So I send out this tweet:

And about 2 minutes later, Joe responds (he's not even at Blogwell):

Then the presentation ends and I rush the stage (professionally) and I'm first to chat with Steve Wilson, who turns out to be Joe's boss. I tell a Joe story or two and now the three of us are going fishing in Canada. DISCLOSURE: The fishing story's a lie. But it could happen. Anyway, the point is, even though I skipped the Blogwell happy hour (not without deep regret), I managed to connect with a colleague and flip a business card at his boss, who hopefully believes we produce Joes like McDonald's does hamburgers.

So it just goes to show you, chatter is a good thing. It leads to connections and re-connections. And that's good business-speak.

*Heather Oldani, Senior Director of Communications and Steve Wilson, Senior Director of Global Web Communications of McDonald's

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foursquare: Because Twitter Has No Stinking Badges

Posted by Rich Goldsmith on August 4, 2009 at 9:42 AM

Twitter has gotten the vast majority of social media wonk love in the past year, but another application has caught hold with the cool kids recently -- foursquare. By "cool kids," we of course refer to the same 18-34 year old tech-savvy group with a ridiculous amount of disposable income that jumpstarted the Twitter frenzy. And by "caught hold," we of course mean it has done for them what World of Warcraft has for obsessed shut-ins with social anxiety disorder and adult acne.

foursquare's premise is simple - where Twitter asks "What are you doing" and gives you 140 characters to answer, foursquare asks "where are you," using SMS, the web, and an iPhone specific application to allow users to check in at various places. Billed as an "urban mix-tape," the idea is to help people in the 21 metro areas it's available in find new places to go and things to do, similar foursquare's precursor, Dodgeball. Like Twitter, you follow a set of friends and are kept updated on their movements through the service. In practice, here's how it works:

1. You check in (as shown in the screenshot below)
2. The service uses Twitter and the foursquare web site to let those who follow you know where you are and any comments you made about what you're doing there
3. If there are any other foursquare users there, their usernames will be included in the update

So far, it's nothing you can't do with a little extra typing in Twitter, right? That's where the insidious nature of the service starts - the points and badges. Yes, the same tactics that keep Boy Scouts going back for just one more clove hitch or sheet knot have caught the attention of hipsters throughout the U.S. You don't just use foursquare, you play it. Every time you check in on foursquare, you get points. And you can compare your points against your friends' on a personalized leaderboard, showing who has scored the most that week. Even more addictive, by accomplishing different feats involving checking in, you can score badges such as:

- The Explorer Badge - 25 check ins to unique venues
- School Night - checking in after 3 a.m. on a "school night"
- Gym Rat - checking in to a gym 10 or more times in 30 days

While this is only a small sample, the potential for marketers is enormous. First, foursquare allows you to identify the "mayor" of a particular venue - the person who checks in there the most. Many venues are already offering special deals for their respective mayors - from free drinks to discounted tickets and other perks. Partnering with foursquare on special badges associated with events, such as movie premieres, block parties, and other elements is certainly within the realm of possibilities as well. Plus, Twitter has proven that humanizing executives, especially at consumer products companies (Zappos being a great example) ties consumers closer to the brand and enhances loyalty - foursquare can provide an even more intimate window into the lives of company figures, creating tighter associations between a brand and a consumer's identity.

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Managing Online Reputation - Some Simple Guidance

Posted by Matt Kucharski on August 2, 2009 at 4:02 PM

This article from the New York Times does a nice job of helping businesses understand that we're in a new era of online reputation management. You can't be scared of it, but you can't completely control it either. It's a little like trying to hold onto a squirming puppy. If you try too hard, it'll wiggle away.

We've been talking to a lot of companies these days about the cultural impact of social media -- not just the cool tools -- but getting a real understanding of what you as an organization need to consider -- and do -- in today's online world where the conversations are directed by your customers and not you.

Listen -- understand who is saying what to whom.
Participate -- join the conversations already taking place. Comment on blogs. Follow people on Twitter. Reply to questions and queries.
Initiate -- do this only after you've been doing the other two.

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