November 9th, 2009

American Express OPEN keeps 'pulse' on small business with social media

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 9:44 am

Categories: Brand Management and Monitoring, Branding, Corporate Social Networking, Customer Loyalty, Fortune 500 Series, Marketing, Microblogging, Small Business, Social Business, Social Media

Tags: Social Media, American Express Co., Small Business, Small Business Owner, Business Owner, IQ, OPEN Forum, Jennifer Leggio

The Fortune 500 series has historically focused on how large companies are using social media to help to further their own businesses. One company, American Express, has a division called OPEN that is exclusively dedicated to the success of small business owners and their companies. The growth of these businesses in turn means that OPEN will succeed, and the company has realized that social media has become a priority for small business owners and is putting a great deal of focus there with its social media activities and its new Pulse offering.

I spoke with Jason Rudman, director of strategy and marketing for American Express OPEN, about the company’s social media strategy and delivery, as well as benefits to its small business customers.

Q. [Jennifer] How exactly is American Express OPEN is leveraging social media to grow the business of its customers?

A. [Jason] Business owners tell us every day that their business resiliency and growth depends in part on their ability to connect with others for advice, support and networking. At the same time, many business owners have what we call a “high relationship IQ” but a “low social media IQ.” Beginning in 2007, OPEN Forum established itself as a leading source of business insight and advice. We have evolved the experience to be both an online resource and networking site created to meet the needs of small business owners, to help them solve problems and to start to bring relationship IQ and social media IQ into equilibrium, thereby helping our customers through the social media learning curve.

Q. How did OPEN’s social program begin?

A. Originally launched in 2007, OPENForum.com initially served as the on-line companion to a live event-driven platform created with the goal of providing key networking opportunities for small business owners to grow their businesses.

Q. What are the most important objectives that American Express OPEN is trying to meet with social media?

A. Engage business owners in a new set of experiences that increase loyalty, value perception, and relevance of our brand and continue to lead in the online engagement space to attract partners, so as to ultimately create additional compelling benefits for Cardmembers and convert prospects.

Q. How are you measuring the success of these programs?

A. For OPEN Forum, we keep a pulse on how we are doing by measuring engagement and soliciting feedback. The level of engagement in both our content and the business interaction among our Cardmembers is the best indicator of our success.

There are a set of metrics that we focus on monthly, such as unique visitors (UVM), repeat visits, time spent on the site, enrollments in Connectodex^SM [our proprietary networking tool for OPEN Cardmembers], etc., that form the basis for how we are resonating with business owners.

We are also starting to measure the brand impact that OPEN Forum is having for OPEN – it has been extremely positive since we started measuring our impact in Q4 2008, as well as amplification effect of our content and the “buzz” quotient of all that we do. Finally, there are some emerging stats that are peaking our interest – for example, how many times and how frequently is OPEN Forum being retweeted; this again shows a level of engagement and interest in what we are providing business owners.

Q. Marcy Shinder of American Express OPEN said during her presentation at the Conversation Marketing Summit that social media was invented by business owners. Why do you think this is true?

A. Small business owners are successful by building individual relationships – for example, with customers, prospects, vendors – based on an innate ability to talk to everyone, to get to know people. You might say this is “social IQ” and that many entrepreneurs possess this in droves. You see it frequently when a small business owner engages their customers or reaches out to new ones through a very personal style of marketing. Social media as we know it today is just an extension of this in the digital universe.

Next: Introducing Pulse –>

October 27th, 2009

2010 Predictions: Will social media reach ubiquity?

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 9:19 am

Categories: Blogging Best Practices, Brand Management and Monitoring, Branding, Corporate Social Networking, Enterprise 2.0, Government 2.0, Marketing, Microblogging, Public Relations, Social Business, Social Media, Social Media and Security

Tags: Social Networking, Facebook, Marketing, Network, Twitter Inc., Social Media, Foursquare, Poken Pulse, PR People, Jennifer Leggio

The year 2009 has been a pivotal one in social media. We’ve seen the explosion of a previously misunderstood social network as well as the rampant adoption of social media by major brands. We’ve seen these companies take big chances, some ending in success and others ending with harsh lessons learned. It seems that almost everyone’s brother, sister, mother and grandfather are now on Facebook, and that social media itself is a bubble baby no more. At the same time, it’s important to note that both business users and consumers have barely scratched the surface of opportunity that the tools and strategies around social media can provide.

In order to achieve continued success many things have to happen. Cracks in the echo chamber, widespread communication of proven successes, best practices for return on investment (ROI) are just a few. And as companies embark on their 2010 planning, they are hoping for a glimpse of what is to come.

Rather than create a wish list, I followed Peter Kim’s model and turned to my network to find out what it believes social media will become in 2010. I asked about 40 people to participate and 31 responded with at least a few words on what might happen next year.

The predictions are meant to be thought-provokers more than gospel, and come from a mix of thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and folks who get their hands dirty every day dealing with social media for their companies. Predictions range from general social media to enterprise 2.0, government 2.0, security, public relations and even location-aware social networks. But the over-arching theme of most of the predictions say that 2010 is the year that social media will just be, rather than serving as a shiny new toy.

Without further ado, here are the 2010 social media predictions.

Next: David Armano, Karen Auby, Andrea Baker, Nenshad Bardoliwalla –>

September 2nd, 2009

Foursquare: New apps, new businesses, nixed rumors... why aren't you playing yet?

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 11:07 am

Categories: Foursquare, Geolocation, Microblogging, Social Business, Social Media, Social Networks

Tags: Twitter Inc., Venue, Foursquare, Dennis Crowley, Yelp, Games, Social Networking, Personal Technology, Online Communications, Marketing

One of my most shameful grade school moments occurred during a recess game of foursquare. There I stood, bright eyed and hopeful, when a mean girl on the playground called me “L’ego my Ego” — my most torturous childhood nickname. I snapped. I threw that foursquare ball directly at her. Target hit. I was never allowed to play foursquare at school again. I was a sad young Jennifer.

Fortunately, Dennis Crowley and his team changed my fate. I now play Foursquare all of the time. At home, at work, at a restaurant, while traveling. They’ve put Foursquare at my fingertips. Sure, it may not be the same as the playground antics, but even in Crowley’s version of Foursquare allows me to win every once in a while. Or at least, become mayor.

Launched during this year’s South By Southwest Interactive (SXSWi), Foursquare, according to co-creator Crowley, is part friend finder, part social city guide and part socializing game. It’s a location-based social network that some might describe it as “a cross between Brightkite and Twitter,” but I think that only touches what Foursquare can do. The social network allows you to check in your location via an iPhone application or mobile browser, create a “to do” list based on your friends’ completed activities and recommendation, find locations and things to do, and so on.

As for the mayorship I mentioned, that’s where the game part comes in. Each time you check into a location or add a new venue and check in you receive “points” and maybe even a badge if you reach a predefined milestone. Each week there’s a new leaderboard in which you compete with your friends as well as your city at large for the most points. Once you check into a location more than any other person you become mayor of that location — at least until someone out-visits you!

Next: How can this be used for business? –>

June 9th, 2009

Squarespace: Stop harshing my Twitter experience

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 1:01 pm

Categories: Brand Management and Monitoring, Marketing, Microblogging, Social Business, Social Media, Twitter

Tags: Apple iPhone, Twitter, Blogging, Search, Marketing Research, Internet, Marketing, Jennifer Leggio

So Squarespace, which does hosting and other webby stuff, is doing an iPhone giveaway via Twitter. Basically all a Twitter user needs to do is enter the #squarespace hashtag into a tweet and then he or she is eligible to win a $199 Apple gift certificate (which could be used for an iPhone). The catch? Said user must enter every day (i.e. #squarespace in the tweets) for a new chance to win.

Earlier today I saw a bunch of positive comments: “Cool for SEO!” “Great way to trend on Twitter!” Etc. Ok, sure, fine. But lately, more of the comments I’ve seen are along the line of this one, from my pal Mike Fratto:

It’s getting really, really annoying. I only follow about 850 people. That includes a mix of dear friends, security nerds, hockey fans and folks I read. My TweetDeck “All Friends” column today was swimming with #squarespace hashtags. It made me want to do one of two things:

1. Unfollow* my poor friends (if I didn’t already unfollow them for #spymaster)
2. Buy them all iPhones just to stop the madness

As I wrote about Turner Broadcasting this morning, this is a case of a decent idea that was taken too far and is starting to turn people off. What about a contest that encourages people to deliver some value? Yesterday Smashwords CEO Mark Coker did a Twitter contest — Tweet something about Smashwords and you could see your tweet in an ad in Writer’s Digest. Coker did two things right: 1) He asked for substance 2) He ran the contest in a short time. It was interactive — it wasn’t just pushing out noise. It allowed him to engage with his users.

How is Squarespace ever going to engage with these users? Honestly, the only reason I even looked to see what Squarespace does is due to responsible blogging. I otherwise wouldn’t have taken the time to look.

Contrary to recent beliefs, I do say nice things about social campaigns. But lately I’ve mostly heard noise. Where are all of the other good ideas at? Please share them.

*No friends were injured or unfollowed in the writing of this blog post

June 3rd, 2009

On Twitter: Difference between spam and noise

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 12:47 pm

Categories: 140 | The Twitter Conference, Microblogging, Security, Snake Oil, Social Business, Social Media, Social Media and Security, Twitter

Tags: Spamming, Twitter, Spam, Cyberthreats, Security, Spam And Phishing, Jennifer Leggio

Last week at 140 | Twitter Conference I attended a panel on Twitter strategies and real-world case studies. Overall it was a solid panel with some talented speakers (Jeff Pester, Bryan Rhoads, Warren Whitlock, etc). Unfortunately, amid the good stuff, there was one not-so-little thing that made me twitch: the overuse of the term “spam” on Twitter.

A lot of audience members were asking about “Twitter spam” and the panelists were supporting the very loose use of the word spam. I was sitting with a person who works in social media for a large security company and I leaned in and said, “Is it me or is that not spam?” He agreed. Just because someone or a company is chatty on Twitter doesn’t mean that he or she is a spammer… or spamming you. Sure, companies can often over-market and that’s a huge mistake, but they are not spamming you if you have opted in to follow them.

Let’s start with a visual demonstration. This is spam:

I don’t follow this company. I have no idea what I said to make this person think I wear hats with flowers on them (I look nothing like Mayim Bialuk) but they decided to send me two unsolicited @ messages suggesting ways I can make that happen (never going to happen). I was annoyed. I responded promptly and said “Please stop spamming me.” The message was unsolicited. I have no interest in this company’s business and I don’t follow it. And I am certainly not going to start. I have received similar messages when I have mentioned hotels, airlines, shampoo, make-up, etc. All unsolicited and rarely useful.

What to do? What is noise? –>

May 26th, 2009

Micro-presence: changing the 'status' quo

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 9:35 am

Categories: Corporate Social Networking, Facebook, Microblogging, Social Business, Social Media, Social Networks, Twitter

Tags: Micro-Presence, Social Business, Mobile, Network, Social Networking, Online Communications, Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, Jennifer Leggio

* Jennifer Leggio is on vacation

Guest editorial by Donald J. Patterson

There is no way that managers and their subordinates see eye to eye on social networking in the workplace.  Why should they?  To employers and employees alike, most social networking sites are about entertainment.  Tweeting about Gail’s birthday party decorations is only in the remotest sense “team-building.”  So, the question remains: at what point will consumer-oriented social networking get past the fun-factor and really become a force multiplier, driving value for business?

Most of today’s social networking sites only differ in attitude, not in deep technical ways.  Flickr, Facebook, LinkedIn, even David Hasselhoff’s fan site, all have networks of friends with whom you share digital media, status information, location and comments. So looking for innovation by comparing brands is not the place to start. The game changing transformations that businesses have to watch for now, will be found in how people begin to use these sites as tools in surprising new ways to manage and work.  Once these new uses crystallize only then will the technological support emerge that will accelerate these new usage models, dwarfing what is being done today.

Consider the simple status line made famous by Twitter.  Facebook’s recent redesign has elevated the status line to an even more central position in their user experience.  But there are subtle shifts that are beginning to appear in the way that status is being used.  The predominant use is as a personal headline that tells the world what quirky thing you are thinking about.  This is now widely known as microblogging.  But in parallel, though flying under the radar, is a shift to a less entertaining and more practical application of status updates, which is called “micro-presence.”  This type of status update got its start with IM status messages, predating micro-blogging and internet-based social networks.

More –>

May 6th, 2009

Is Twitter the new business card?

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 11:28 am

Categories: Microblogging, Personal Branding, Social Business, Social Media, Social Media and Security

Tags: Card, Twitter, Business Card, Smart Phones, Scanners, Cellular Phones, Recruitment & Selection, Handhelds, Telecom & Utilities, Consumer Electronics

I attended RSA Conference a couple weeks ago. I also attended a couple of tweet-ups in San Francisco last week around the Inbound Marketing Summit. I noticed one very distinct trend: While some people were handing out business cards (mostly Moo Cards), the majority of people were merely adding the new faces they met directly to their Twitter follow lists via their smart phones. Which led me to wonder, “Is Twitter the new business card?”

This is how it went down:

1. Person meets person
2. Pleasantries are exchanged
3. Small chit chat about common business interests
4. Potential plans are made
5. “Let me get your contact info”
6. “Do you have Twitter?” (Note: this is where a business card should be exchanged)
7. “Why, yes I do?”
8. Both parties whip out Smart Phones and open respective Twitter clients
9. Both parties type “follow newperson” into the Twitter client and submit
10. “Great, nice to meet you. I will be in touch!”

It’s a novel idea, really. I did it myself. I found it easy and I didn’t have to worry so much about sorting through a mess of business cards when I got home (no, I don’t use a scanner). But then I ran into a significant issue: “Who the heck was that guy? Why am I following this person? What was that lady’s name again?”

While doing such a thing is certainly convenient, is it realistic if you want to build a solid business relationship. There’s no way to enter details about this person, unless of course you immediately @ message them and say “Nice to meet you re: xyz.” But what if it’s for a business deal or a job opportunity? You certainly don’t want to announce that to the world.

I think there’s an interesting opportunity here for Twitter, in terms of monetizing. What if the company gave people an opportunity to save contact details about a person as they add others to their follow lists? Perhaps an add-on service that we can subscribe to in order to turn Twitter into a contact database of sorts. Or, some sort of LinkedIn integration would be swell, too.

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May 1st, 2009

The Twitter Conference: One great reason to go

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 8:50 am

Categories: 140 | The Twitter Conference, Brand Management and Monitoring, Corporate Social Networking, Microblogging, Snake Oil, Social Business, Social Media, Social Media and Security, Social Networks, Twitter

Tags: Twitter, Marketing Research, Marketing, Jennifer Leggio

What’s the one good reason? I am speaking!

Alright, there are more reasons and much more interesting speakers, but if you’ve ever wanted to say hi or hear me wax philosophical about Twitter or throw a tomato in my general direction, now would be the time. 140 | The Twitter Conference is hosted by Parnassus Group at the Computer History in Mountain View on May 26-27. Other speakers include Twitter’s own Alex Payne as well as Justine Ezariak, Jeremiah Owyang, Dan Zarrella, Robert Scoble, Warren Whitlock and Warren Sukernek. Great company, if i do say so myself.

I might be slightly biased,  but the topics at this particular Twitter conference seem to be centered and focused on real-world use scenarios, not just grandiose marketing ideas. If you’re serious about implementing Twitter as part of your strategic marketing practices, or want to use it to build a brand, this is the con to be at.

I will join Jonathan Matkowsky of Yahoo!’s legal team on “Twitter Goes Mainstream: What are the issues and how will they be resolved?” Here is the official description:

No technology or platform can go from zero to 12 million users in three years without experiencing a myriad of challenges, and Twitter is no exception. This session will examine some of the pressing concerns facing Twitter, their users, and the developer community. We’ll drill down on what aspects of these issues most affect those in the commercial arena, while debating potential solutions.

Security and authorization * Name squatting * Scaling concerns * Pay per tweet and spam * Buying followers * What happens if Twitter gets acquired? Oprah and Ashton: the beginning of the end?

I’m looking forward to syncing with Jonathan on this presentation. We’re at the end of the day — from 4:30-5:30 p.m. But you don’t want to leave before then because then you’ll miss the fun happy hours. I am not sure if there are any but I will bring a martini shaker if I have to. Well, if that’s legal. Likely not. But we can have cocktails later with the other speakers in tow.

To register visit the official site. And if you tweet about it, make sure you use the #140tc hash tag.

See you there?

(If you’re interested in inviting me to speak at your event, please email me via the form below.)

Update: Register for a 10% discount to the conference using the code “140tcmphyter”.

April 22nd, 2009

140-character assassination: Are disclaimers and disclosures needed, or even possible, on Twitter?

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 9:00 am

Categories: Legal, Microblogging, Social Networks, Twitter

Tags: Blog, Social Media, Twitter, Blogger, Chris Gatewood, Blogging, Internet, Jennifer Leggio

* Jennifer Leggio is at RSA Conference

Guest editorial by Chris Gatewood

Each of them being famous in part because of their lack of self-censorship, Courtney Love and Mark Cuban probably surprised no one when they (separately) got themselves in trouble for mouthing off via Twitter.  The reported 140-character assassination engaged in by these two famous folks raises a few questions for those of us who aim to be more judicious in our online tweeting, blogging, and other postings. Beyond the ethical considerations for online journalists, there are also regulations and laws forbidding misleading advertising and marketing practices.  Many employers would also appreciate some wall of separation between the tweets of their personnel and what might be a different company line.

Journalists and bloggers have become accustomed to leveling with their audiences and protecting their credibility by using disclosures (”CNET News and ZDNet are owned by CBS Interactive”) and disclaimers (”these
opinions are mine and not my employer’s”).  But how, exactly, can anyone make full disclosure in the 140 characters allowed by Twitter?  The answer, of course, is that you can’t.  The kinds of statements that have
become common in the bloggers’ world and elsewhere will not fit in a tweet.

For most tweets, the speaker’s profile information and linked site will provide a level of disclosure for those interested in the tweeter’s angle on the world and any potential biases.  This is how many bloggers currently manage disclosures and disclaimers already, even though blog posts are not bound by the tight length limits of Twitter.  For example, Jennifer’s disclosures are here and here. Because a Twitter profile containing the speaker’s profession and one or two affiliations, even when accompanied by a link to their blog or web site, will probably not cover all bases, short in-tweet disclosures such as “my client” (9 characters) or “my biz” (6 characters) will also help with transparency.

Read the rest of this entry »

April 15th, 2009

NHL kicks off playoffs with 20+ viewing 'tweet-ups' across U.S., Canada

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 12:36 pm

Categories: Microblogging, Public Relations, Social Media, Social Networks, Twitter

Tags: NHL, Games, Personal Technology, Jennifer Leggio

The National Hockey League is kicking off the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs in social media style. The league is promoting and has sanctioned dozens of NHL “Tweet-Up” viewing parties across the U.S. and Canada starting today and going through early next week.

The parties were planned in part to drive community excitement for the playoffs and part to create some buzz around thePORTAL, which is a redesign of sorts of the official NHL site to better showcase playoff content.

For those not familiar with the term “tweet-up,” it essentially means a party made up of Twitter users. There is an impressive amount of NHL hockey fans using Twitter (as indicated by Fred Faust’s official Hockey Twits database) so the NHL knew that it could capture a good amount of fans for the events. The “satellite” tweet-up strategy was ignited by Chris Lucas and community driven, and officially sanctioned by Michael DiLorenzo, the league’s director of corporate communications, who is also largely involved in the NHL’s social media strategy and execution. DiLorenzo said that one of the benefits of doing these events has been the opportunies for him and other members of the league to connect one-on-one with enthusiastic fans throughout the U.S. and Canada.

“The playoffs are the most exciting part of the year and these tweet-ups are a way for us to create a really special, real-world experience for people around the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs,” he said. “It has been amazing to connect with fans all over North America who are so passionate about the League and the game.”

DiLorenzo leveraged the Twitter service to reach out to contacts in team cities to find organizers for each of the parties. He himself is hosting the NYC party at the NHL Store tonight. Making an appearance? The Stanley Cup itself. Most events will also feature giveways — including autographed items from your favorite NHL players — from the NHL and individual event sponsors. The NHL has also provided free GameCenter Live access that evening to organizers so that attendees can easily watch other games during main game breaks.

NHL Tweet-Up cities include Anaheim (Side note: Go Sharks!), Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Denver, Detroit, Edmonton, Hartford, Nashville, Montreal, NYC, Orlando, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Jose, St. John, Regina, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington D.C.

“We are the digital League with the most tech-savvy fans,” DiLorenzo said. “What better way to help launch a new digital media property than through a tweet-up?”

Visit the official NHL Tweet-Up site to find a party near you! For questions on the overall event follow fan organizers @dani3boyz and @goaliegirl on Twitter.

Yours truly is co-hosting the San Jose NHL Tweet-Up on Sunday, April 19, at Firehouse Grill in San Jose! Come join us!