Social Business

February 9th, 2010

Peer trust plummets: Is marketing to blame?

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 1:57 pm

Categories: Brand Management and Monitoring, Branding, Corporate Social Networking, Marketing, Public Relations, Social Business, Social Media, Social Media Best Practices, Social Media Measurement

Tags: Brand, Twitter Inc., Seiple, Social Networking, Branding, Online Communications, Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, Jennifer Leggio

Global public relations firm Edelman last month published its annual Trust Barometer, in which it surveys near 5,000 “informed publics” about the state of business, buying behavior, and of course, trust. Within the study exists a well of data for marketers, but the most alarming is the significant drop in trust between peers.

As similarly called out yesterday by the good folks at HubSpot, the number of people who consider peers as credible referral resources dropped from 45 percent in 2008 to only 25 percent in 2009. Blog post author Pamela Seiple questions if there is either too much noise, or if perhaps the number of businesses taking to the social Web is creating a significant amount of skepticism.

Whether or not the stats are gospel, there is an issue of trust. Seiple is onto something that I haven’t seen others yet correlate to the Edelman study. When use of the more modern social networks (i.e. Twitter and Facebook) really started to skyrocket in 2007, consumers were wide-eyed and mesmerized by the idea that a friend of a friend of a friend might have a fantastic idea for getting that wine stain out of an expensive rug. Even though online communities were old hat by this point, peer connectivity beyond particular brands and unmonitored discussions about consumer buying decisions were a bit of a new and shiny object. As Twitter especially grew in 2008 and 2009, users flocked to sign on and follow their favorite brands and interact on feedback and support issues. We salivated over the opportunity to talk directly to CEOs (i.e. Tony Hsieh). Bloggers everywhere celebrated brands for doing the most mundane social networking activities (i.e. signing up for Twitter).

Then it all changed. Marketing became more opportunistic. Consumers got smarter. Here are two of the marketing-related elements potentially to blame for the loss of peer trust:

1. Everyone’s a Rock Star: People who used to be simply friends of ours are, in some circles, beginning to be considered “influencers.” Influencers are privy to embargoed information, sneak peeks on products, and develop relationships with the entrepreneurs, executives and developers who are at the core of most industries. Marketing people try very hard to get these influencers, even on a small scale, to talk about products and services and tend to be very persuasive. Whether or not the influencer in question falls prey to the marketing, those in their networks often wonder if their friend’s opinions were subjected to the hype.

2. Sponsored Conversations: This is a touchy area and I even spoke out about this on a panel at Blog World Expo last year. Sponsored conversations are when an organization purchases a blog post or a tweet about its service or product from an influencer. While it is now required that sponsored conversations be called out as such, and they are now being regulated to some degree, the fact that almost anyone can try to leverage a service like Izea to become a sponsored spokesperson is causing a bit of distrust. When celebrities do endorsements it isn’t as suspect because we expect topical tweeting from those individuals; when our peers are taking sponsorship dollars then we start to wonder how much of their nonsponsored content might be subject to the more persuasive influence of marketing as noted above.

Neither of these changes were imperceptible; they were quite obvious. Social networking used to be innocent, peer to peer conversation and now it’s turned into a marketing playground in which almost everything — blog space, tweets and, in some cases, opinion — is for sale.

Do you still have trust in your peers?

February 8th, 2010

The art of social redundancy

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 11:42 am

Categories: Aggregators, Corporate Social Networking, Search, Social Media, Social Networks

Tags: Network, Noise, FriendFeed, Social Networking, Online Communications, Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, Jennifer Leggio

Last night Mike Arrington published an editorial comparing the social noise of today to the search noise of 10 years ago. He talks about the inability to keep up with multiple content streams and the pain of missing out on content he really wants to take in, versus some of the noise that is thrown at him. He then suggests that there is some sort of savior on the horizon that is going to develop a solution to help quell the noise and make sense of the spammy streams. He writes:

Someone will eventually help us make sense of all these various types of services, and help us separate the noise and spam from the real signal. I don’t know who’s going to do it, and I certainly don’t know how (if I did, I’d be doing it, not writing about it). But at some point soon, one of the Internet giants, or some new startup we’ve never heard of, is going to fix this mess for us.

I don’t think he’s wrong about the noise factor and his comparison to the messy, counter-intuitive search mess of yesteryear. One of my largest complaints about the fire hose is missed quality information amidst an overwhelming amount of useless information. As much as I think fuzzy cat videos are cute, I don’t need to see them 14 times on my Facebook news or Twitter feeds, and I almost resent that such updates are inadvertently hiding information that might be more important.

While I agree with the noise complaint, I don’t know that there is a tool or aggregator that can diminish the noise in the way that Arrington wants. FriendFeed has some pretty cool usability in terms of managing content and hiding types of services, but nothing intuitive enough to measure a post in value. Facebook does something similar in the way that you can block or hide entire applications. FriendFeed is also good about recommending content based on the value put upon it by our networks. The idea of a service smart enough to determine how we personally value the information coming at us from multiple streams is almost too big to consider.

Next: No one can save us… –>

February 2nd, 2010

Foursquare as a dating companion?

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 11:21 am

Categories: Cool Tools, Foursquare, Reputation and Privacy, Social Media, Social Media and Security, Social Networks

Tags: Friend, Foursquare, Productivity, Business Structures, Finance, Jennifer Leggio

Foursquare has become quite the handy little tool for keeping up with friends and inspiring healthy competition. There are even businesses getting in on the Foursquare action by offering mayor promotions and incentives for checking in at their establishments. Last night, however, during a routine chat with a good friend we wondered, “Could Foursquare be a dating companion?”

It’s not such a far-fetched idea. If MySpace and Facebook and even Twitter can be used by people to find dates among their common social networks, then Foursquare (fondly known as a stalking tool) can be used as an anti-stalking tool. This could give a whole new meaning to the “Player Please” badge.

If you go on a date with someone you barely know — whether you meet him or her online or out and about is irrelevant — common safety practice tells you to let your friends know where you are going, who you are going to be with, and that you got home safely. With Foursquare, you already have a built-in network of friends who, creepy or not, are watching your every move. So, for instance, one could check in at Local Pub and send a shout that says, “Here with Bob Smith” or if you’re paranoid, “Here with a blind date. If I disappear, his name is Bob Smith.” This is slightly more private than posting to your Twitter or Facebook feeds, yet let’s enough people know where you are and what you are doing should something go awry. And if you’re super paranoid, you can even show your date and say, “SEE. People KNOW where I am at…” but if you do that, you likely should not be dating in the first place.

Of course, this is a passive approach. Not everyone pays attention to their Foursquare feeds or gets pinged with every check in. Not to mention, not everyone has created a location for his or her home, so that person would have to either shout that he or she were home safely, or make friends wonder if it was a *really* good date or if something bad happened.

It would be interesting to see if there is a way that dating sites such as Match.com, eHarmony and Chemistry.com could partner with Foursquare, even if it’s just a marketing partnership. “Tell your friends where you will be” and link to the Foursquare app, etc. It might sound a bit quirky, but it’s an opportunity for Foursquare to tap into a whole new user base of online folks looking to socialize — and find love.

February 1st, 2010

Xerox pushes social media from the inside out

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 8:03 am

Categories: Brand Management and Monitoring, Branding, Corporate Social Networking, Fast Track, Fortune 500 Series, Marketing, Social Business, Social Media

Tags: Xerox Corp., Employee, Social Media, Social Media World, Jennifer Leggio

In my Fortune 500 series I’ve profiled a lot of companies who have used social media for a bevy of programs - external communications, employee relations, support, marketing and even product development. Xerox Corporation, which has been slow but steady in it social media adoption, has found a formula in which to leverage social media from the inside out. Meaning, while branding and customer communications is an important objective of the company’s social media activities, Xerox is putting employees front and center by encouraging them to blog and use their own social networks to promote the brand. I did a quick Q&A with Christa Carone, vice president, marketing & communications for Xerox, about this approach.

Q. Why is educating users a motivator for Xerox’s social media program?

A. As with any initiative, education and information are critical for early adoption and ultimately, success. Motivating employees to embrace social media tools is by far one of the most unique initiatives Xerox has taken on in recent years because, in many cases, it links employees’ personal communications with professional. Finding and defining the balance has been critical. How do we want employees engaging for work? Joining corporate fan pages and participating in conversations that matter and help them work smarter are two great examples of how. In fact, our employees were our biggest champions and supporters when we launched our corporate Facebook page, “So, what DOES Xerox do?” in March 2009. We generated more than 800 fans and 125 glowing wall posts within 24 hours of our official launch - largely employees expressing their excitement for the future of the company and encouraging our continued use of social media.

We recently rolled out corporate social media guidelines to help employees feel empowered to use social media in an informed and responsible manner on behalf of the company. The guidelines are housed as a resource on our Web site: http:www.xerox.com/citizenship. We know that many companies are working to define how to roll out similar guidelines to their employees, and we want to share what we’ve learned.

Q. What are the company’s overall goals in this regard?

A. Ultimately, we want social media to bring awareness to the Xerox brand, products and services. As a global company, we also hope it will help bring employees together from different regions to share successes and best practices. In addition to various Facebook pages, Twitter handles, blogs and a YouTube channel that continue to gain popularity with external audiences, we also encourage employees to contact each other on a one-off basis via these tools.

In regards to the external tools, we’ve found that they’re most effective in reaching our corporate goals when linked in with existing initiatives. Whether it’s hosting a Tweetup at one of Xerox’s major tradeshows, or using a widget to encourage participation in Xerox’s Let’s Say Thanks program (an initiative that collects and prints messages of hope for U.S. troops overseas) we’ve found that engaging audiences with social media tools generates the authentic responses we’re looking for. Encouraging our employees to provide helpful responses to e-mails and posts from the public helps Xerox build its brand as an innovator and reflects our willingness to encourage open exchange and learning.

Next: Examples of success –>

January 29th, 2010

Modern communities - no longer exclusive clubs

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 1:16 pm

Categories: Government 2.0, Social Business, Social Media

Tags: Community, Government 2.0 Camp LA, Government, Vertical Industries, Jennifer Leggio

Guest editorial from Lovisa Williams

I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of community and how this applies to the digital world. It is something that a lot of people talk about, but I fear it is from learning the buzz words instead of from real understanding.

The concept of a community is not new. In fact, it is very old. Humans have always had the need to be part of a group. In modern life we have home owners associations, hobby groups, sports teams, church groups, civic organizations, fraternities/sororities and more. In high school it was very apparent what group you did or did not belong to.

What draws those people together is a common set of societal norms and over time a culture for the community develops. That culture can be reflected in their physical appearance, how they dress, their mannerisms, how they treat each other and the fact that each of them has something to gain from being a part of the group.

This is what a community is all about.

Over this past summer, I went to visit one of my good friends from Second Life. He lives in the Netherlands and invited me to attend one of the Netherlands famous cultural arts festivals called Oerol. It is held every year on the island of Terschelling, which is located off the north west coast of the Netherlands.

It is a wild and beautiful island. People from all over Europe come there to camp out, attend the art and cultural events and celebrate living. People of all ages and backgrounds come together as one community of equals. Everyone is welcome. The Dutch have an interesting culture that very much epitomized what community means to me.

The Dutch have an amazing tolerance level for all kinds of people from all walks of life and from all age groups. At Oerol everyone is welcome. By participating in Oreol I learned what it means to be part of a vibrant active community where everyone participates.

It is unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. I don’t think we have the same concepts of community or inclusiveness here in the United States.

Read the rest of this entry »

January 27th, 2010

Seriously, Apple, are you messing with me?

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 12:05 pm

Categories: Apple, Marketing, Social Business, Social Media, Tech Companies

Tags: Apple Inc., iPad, Tablets, Marketing Research, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Marketing, Jennifer Leggio

Today brought the long-awaited announcement of the new tablet. Weeks of speculation over Apple’s naming convention sparked considerations such as Apple Tablet or iTablet, but very few expected iPad. My first reaction to hearing the name wasn’t to immediately start reading the news and analysis (though $499 is a cool deal) but to sit with mouth agape over the name.

iPad, really?

This made me think about the naming convention and the marketing associated with it. I immediately launched myself into speculation of attending an iPad launch meeting that could’ve gone something like this:

“Hey, let’s call it the iPad!”

“Are you kidding? We got mocked so much when we launched the iPod! People did spoofs on iPad even then!”

“Oh, silly, we’re APPLE. We can call it whatever we want and people will still buy it.”

“iPad it is!”

(Note: This conversation likely never happened, or if it did, I wasn’t there)

The funny thing is, these imaginary marketing people are right. It doesn’t matter what Apple calls it’s products. People will buy them. People will spoof them, but people WILL buy them.

And now, for a little bit more about the iPad:

Updated: It appears that YouTube is removing the Mad TV iPad spoof videos that were posted three years ago due to today’s traction after Apple’s announcement. Apple copyright police, perhaps?

January 25th, 2010

Quick'n'Dirty podcast faces off with the NHL

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 3:02 pm

Categories: Quick'n'Dirty Podcast, Social Business, Social Media, Social Networks

Tags: Podcast, Social Media, NHL, Jennifer Leggio

The 29th episode of the Quick’n'Dirty podcast was the most enjoyable one yet, at least for me. Why? I got to talk about one of my top five life obsessions: hockey. Michael DiLorenzo, director of social media marketing & strategy / director of business communications for the NHL joined us to talk about the organization’s social media strategy - and how it’s going about using social media to increase the loyalty of hockey fans across the regions.

Needless to say, I hijacked most of the interview from my poor co-host Aaron Strout, and hammered DiLorenzo with all kinds of questions ranging from the change in his role from traditional corporate communications to social media, what the NHL is doing with social media to make hockey no longer a “secondary” sport in the U.S., as well as how they balance the naysayers of commissioner Gary Bettman while still allowing him to be open online.

Both Aaron and I have to give DiLorenzo credit for doing something that no previous guest had yet done: turned the tables on us. He asked how we thought the NHL was doing with it’s Twitter / social media presence. I suggested that an improvement would be having a quirky social media lady live tweeting from the San Jose Sharks locker room, but that got shot down pretty fast. I had a serious answer as well, but you’ll have to listen to hear it.

Hockey fans will really want to hear this interview, so listen to the replay.

Prior to our interview with the NHL we talked about our social network of the week, which really has expanded to include anything social network-related these days. Our choice? Twtvite. Twtvite is a pretty cool tool that simply allows tweet-up management. It started as a very basic service that used to force users to tweet out what they RSVPed to certain events. I whined about that often on Twitter and caught the attention of Felipe Coimbra, Twtvite developer, who urged me several times to give the service another try, claiming that several improvements had been made. I did and the results were good. Listen to learn more about why Aaron and I both like this service very much. It’s snazzy.

Since we were in the mood to provide compliments, we also highlighted our favorite Twitter user of the week, which was Brett Petersel / @brett. Petersel is all over the Web and has a pretty good reach in terms of networking and information. Aaron waxed that Petersel is consistently providing good information via retweet. I marveled at how much he actually looks like Christian Bale in person. Definitely worth a follow, for either reason.

Finally, it was time for a point / counterpoint that really wasn’t much of a debate at all, but still worth a listen. Aaron asked if brands should pay to be present at South By Southwest Interactive, which I couldn’t intelligently answer because I’ve never actually been to SXSWi. Give a listen to find out what Aaron thinks. Hint: Aaron works with a lot of big brands, so if you represent one it would be smart to heed his advice.

That’s all, folks. This week join us at 3PT/6ET on Thursday while we interview Sarah Molinari of Home Depot about the company’s social media and strategy. See you then.

January 20th, 2010

Niche social networks expand in 2010

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 10:32 am

Categories: Collaboration, Government 2.0, Niche Social Networks, Social Business, Social Media, Social Networks

Tags: Network, Social Media, U.S. Department Of Defense, Social Networking, Productivity, Online Communications, Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, Jennifer Leggio

Last night I participated in a panel called “Social Media Odyssey 2010″ hosted by Social Media Club. When the moderator, Jennifer Lindsay, asked us what we’d bet on for 2010, I talked about improved understanding of business to business and social media. One area I neglected to talk about is the growth of niche, special interest social networks, especially those with strict privacy guidelines especially for health and military outfits.

Today, the U.S. Army, announced that its private social network milBook is nearing 20K members. Touted as a secure, behind-the-firewall Facebook-type social network, has hundreds of user groups and is making a mark as the most widely adopted Web 2.0 tool by the Department of Defense.

“These technologies help those working on similar projects across ‘DoD’ to connect, share information, incubate new ideas, and help build the ‘DoD’s’ body of knowledge and expertise, MilBook, which reached 18,000 users since its inception in October 2009, is part of a suite of tools known as milSuite that also includes a blog and wiki. This is the first tool that the military has had for employees to share content and collaborate.

According to the announcement:

MilBook provides several options for users who wish to share information with specific individuals. By creating discussion threads, they can exchange ideas among specific, self-created groups on topics such as Army policies. The information can either be restricted to that user or shared with the entire milBook community, Filler said. Regardless, it will always remain behind the firewall.

“The purpose of the portal is to incorporate insights and lessons-learned from Soldiers and officers, based upon recent experiences in theater; but the goal is to ensure tactics, techniques and procedures remain relevant,” said Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, vice chief of staff of the Army, during his final remarks at the LandWarNet Conference held in August in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “A Soldier redeployed from Afghanistan, for example, could access the ATTP for site exploitation operations, make changes and add new material based on firsthand experiences in the country.”

January 19th, 2010

Twitter growth slows while usage expands globally, report says

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 4:30 am

Categories: Cool Tools, Microblogging, Social Business, Social Media, Social Networks, Twitter

Tags: Twitter Inc., Productivity, Marketing Research, Marketing, Jennifer Leggio

The most recent State of the Twittersphere Report, published today by inbound marketing firm Hubspot, shows that Twitter is experiencing a significant decline in the growth of new users. This report analyzes more than 5 million Twitter accounts and 6 million tweets, using data collected from the firm’s popular Twitter Grader tool.

According to the report, the Twitter new user growth rate dropped from 13 percent in March 2009 to just 3.5 percent as of October 2009. It also appears that site traffic has suffered a decline, however that could be attributed to the growing number of business-focused third-party Twitter clients currently available.

On the flipside, the report states that Twitter users are more engaged than ever before.

In the seven months since we last examined the State of the Twittersphere, the average Twitter
account holder has become less of a newbie. The average user is following more people,
followed by more people and has posted more updates.

The report showed that the average account is now following roughly 175 people versus 45 people in July 2009; those same accounts now have about 300 followers versus only about 15 percent of that in July; and these same accounts have an average of 400+ updates now versus just over 100 in July. The report surmises that this is due to more experienced users now making up more of the Twitter population. Interestingly, 82 percent of users have less than 100 followers and 81 percent of users are following less than 100 people.

One of the more compelling pieces of the report is the geographical analysis. In July 2009, 15 percent of the top 20 Twitter locations were within North America. Now, 40 percent of the top 20 Twitter locations are outside of North America. The top rated locations outside of North America now include London, Brazil, UK, Germany, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia and India.

Download the full January 2010 State of the Twittersphere report here. Older State of the Twittersphere reports from July 2009 and December 2008 are also available for download.

Connect with me on Twitter here.

January 12th, 2010

Facebook / McAfee deal provides security software but little education

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 10:36 pm

Categories: Facebook, Security, Social Business, Social Media, Social Media and Security, Social Networks, Spam

Tags: Software, McAfee Inc., Facebook, Security, Jennifer Leggio

Facebook tonight announced that it has partnered with McAfee to offer a six-month security software subscription to its 350 million users. In the announcement, said that it entered into its partnership to further demonstrate its commitment to securing its user base. After the six-month subscription runs out users will then be offered a discounted price on the security software, making it not a bad sales or marketing deal for McAfee, either.

According to the blog post written by Jake Brill, Facebook continues to hone its security policies to create a safer environment for its users. However, he states that in the “rare case” that a user’s computer is compromised due to visits to malicious third-party sites, having a security solution such as McAfee’s is important. Users interested in the offer are instructed to visit the McAfee fan page on Facebook.

Call it industry cynicism, but without further education beyond a few tips in a blog post, users will continue to click at random. The question, of course, becomes, “is that really the social network’s responsibility?” Perhaps not, but all mainstream social networks have a unique opportunity to take advantage of the captive audience and provide better security awareness training for even the most novice of users

My other concern is that this is going to have an enabling effect. If you can’t stop a user from believing that some stranger he or she hasn’t met before doesn’t have a funny video of them doing something embarrassing (aka Koobface), what’s to say that this same user will even have the skills to install the McAfee solution, or in a more complicated sense, understand how to deal with updates and alerts? Plus, this assumes that most users do not already have a desktop security solution; they just change their settings or ignore alerts.

Again, this is a good first step for Facebook, but throwing downloads around is only a small percentage of the solution. This offer creates a risk of a rampant false sense of security among the many otherwise uneducated users. Lest we not forget that Facebook has had issues securing its own site or stopping the scams, too. Nor does this come close to addressing data privacy issues.

I’m still waiting for that Social Network Security Consortium chock full of social network and security industry leaders who get together to develop better cross-service education methods. I hope I won’t be waiting too much longer.