Archives for May 2010

The Social Media Retirement Home

I caught a conversation on Twitter today, between Lauren Fernandez, Mack Collier and Alison Heath that made me smile wryly.

Built around the Twitter hashtag #buzzwordbingo, it looked at some of the most overused phrases in social media. Things like, “It’s all about the conversation” and “Pain points and point of need” amongst other examples.

The funny thing is, these terms are used so often and yet even 12 months ago (or more) they were already being looked at as overkill. So is this a sign that social media still has a lot of growing up to do; there’s a dearth of originality in the medium; or just the sign of a growth industry, with a continuous stream of new players and existing terms?

Either way, it made me think of some of the most overused phrases today that could probably be put into the social media retirement home.

It’s not about me. The amount of times this little gem is used means that even if the user is sincere, they’re questioned as to the authenticity of the statement. Of course, it doesn’t help if the user then goes on to make it exactly all about them with self-promotional hits at every turn…
Fish where the fish are. Social media must be full of anglers if this phrase has anything to do with it. Either that, or I should start looking for a boat, stat.
Transparency is key. No shit, Sherlock. Unless it’s okay for us to lie about ourselves and make us sound more interesting than we are with tall tales and over-hyped statistics, then isn’t this a given in everything we do, and not just restricted to social media?
Your customers are in control. Sorry, they’re not. They do have a very huge impact on how you do business; but you control your business, full-stop. Get that right and you get your customers right. Period.
You can’t measure social media ROI. Come on guys, this is still doing the rounds? There are many ways you can analyze, measure, budget and report on social media campaigns. Anyone that says you can’t is possibly only doing so to keep your account with them on their terms. Next time someone tells you social media ROI can’t be measured, ask them why. Then change agencies or consultants.

These are just five terms that immediately spring to mind for me personally.

How about you – what phrases would you like to see sent to the social media retirement home? Comments are yours.

photo credit: only alice

Local Joints TV Merges Social Media and Local Community

Social media often works best when using it to involve your local community, and new web show Local Joints TV does this really well.

Hosted by my friend (and part of the 12for12k creative team) Darin Berntson, it’s a mix of entertainment, education and promotion. What’s cool about Local Joints TV is the way that it mixes offline businesses with the distribution of social media.

Not only is it helping local businesses be highlighted, it’s showing them (and others like them) how social media can benefit them when used properly.

What Is Local Joints TV?

In Darin’s own words, Local Joints TV is, “More of Infotainment than a review. It is similar to a show you may see on the Food Network? think Diners Drive-ins and Dives, add a dash of local flavor, social media, and promotion like crazy and you have the essence of Local Joints TV.”

By using video and a YouTube channel, Local Joints TV is bringing local businesses that provide fun, food and entertainment front and centre. Interviewing owners of fast food joints, restaurants, nightclubs and more, Darin gives you a real feel for the local businesses in his hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah.

From sit-down chats at a burger joint table, to going behind the scenes and seeing how a local specialty is made, Local Joints TV is the connector between traditional advertising and social media. Now, instead of wondering what a menu is like, or how a new restaurant’s ambiance fits in with your dinner needs, Darin’s show will give you that information and more.

This information is then shared via the YouTube channel, as well as Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare. Local Joints TV on Facebook in particular is pretty cool, with frequent giveaways, a Winners Wall and photo albums of the places featured and the people that make up their success.

But that’s just the start.

Local Business, Networked Customers

While Darin’s current focus with Local Joints TV is on the entertainment industry in his city, the idea can be scaled a lot further.

Franchises are one area that Darin’s looking at, and this opens up a wider picture for Local Joints TV and the concept of local advertising on a wider scale.

For example, say you’re traveling to a city and you need a review of some places to visit when there. While you could jump onto something like Yellow Pages or crowdsource your online network, what if you could jump onto a website that has video details of the venue?

Or, plan ahead and contact the Local Joints TV team that’s in the city you’re interested in. For a small fee you can get your own personalized review and recommendation – something that a local newspaper or radio ad can’t give you.

It’s this scope for expansion that makes something like Local Joints TV the ideal mix of physical interaction and online connections.

While it’s early days for Darin and Local Joints TV, it’s something that has a lot of potential. From the businesses it promotes at the minute to sponsorship opportunities (gas stations could be travel partners, electronic stores could provide the video equipment, etc), there’s a definite space for the approach Local Joints TV takes.

Mix in the opportunities that Foursquare could offer – follow Local Joints TV and check in while the show is being shot for special offers, for example – and you can start to see where the benefits for featured businesses would come.

What do you think of the Local Joints TV idea – could you see something like it used where you live?

Building Catapults

Catapults are a great piece of engineering.

They can be small and simple enough for a child to use. They can be intricate and building-sized for an army to use.

They can hit a target a few feet away. They can zone in on a target hundreds of feet way.

Catapults are built to hit whatever you’re aiming for with the least amount of fuss.

Couldn’t businesses benefit from more catapult builders?

Social Media Easter Eggs

How are you offering value to your customers? How is your business doing it differently from your competitors and peers?

Are you taking their service and adding a slight twist to it, or are you thinking of ways to separate you from the many other similar approaches that others are using?

“Customers” doesn’t necessarily need to refer to people paying for your services, either. Customers could be readers of your blog; or connections on Twitter; or watchers of your YouTube videos.

While they may not pay you hard cash for your “service” (blog, tweets, videos, etc), they are investing their time in you; time that could be spent elsewhere.

So how are you rewarding that? Are you? How about Easter Eggs as rewards (as in the virtual hidden message version)?

Some of the ideas I’ve been thinking of I’ll be putting into play very soon. For example, if you’re connected to me via my Facebook Page, you’ll receive something in the next 5-7 days that’s tied into Facebook and won’t be available elsewhere. Sure, someone may share it after it’s public, but until (or if) that happens, you’ll only get that something on Facebook.

Or Twitter. One of the ways that I want to use Twitter more is by time-stamping a tweet, where there’ll be a surprise for the first X amount of people to click through to a link and download area for a limited edition Twitter ebook, or similar.

Or this blog. I’m in the process of a “relaunch”, if you like, with a new design and a newsletter, just to kick things off. If you subscribe to the newsletter, occasionally I’ll pick a subscriber and send something really cool their way that’s tied into the topics we talk about in the newsletter.

The same goes with the SRM Group – we’ll be looking at ways to reward social responsibility, whether that’s on Facebook or any other social outpost.

These are just some simple, basic ways to use Easter Eggs in social media, to say thank you for your support. Hopefully each one will be beneficial, because it’ll be tied into the platform in question.

Now, imagine if you turned that over to your business to your most loyal customers? It could be offline or online – it depends where you have a bigger presence.

Instead of giving 10% off your latest product or a two-for-one offer, why not give something your customer really wants? After all, anyone can give a discount but only those that care give a benefit.

Accessories that you’d normally use as an add-on sale – can you take a hit and give them as part of the overall sale?
Guidebooks for cars – can your garage/service centre give them away to a customer for their first service?
A milestone order from a customer or supplier – can you give them a relevant partner product as well as the ordered one?

Every action you take to thank loyalty has a core reaction of extra loyalty. Get extra loyalty – well, the sky’s the limit then.

Yes?

photo credit: enough

Quick Question on Posterous

Hi guys. Since you helped me immensely when I asked your views on a blog redesign (which will be unveiled soon thanks to Lisa Kalandjian of SceneStealer), I’d like to ask your views again, if that’s okay?

Currently I have an account at Posterous, which I use for short and punchy thoughts. They’re mainly ideas and views that I always refer to as too little for blogging and too much for Twitter. They also helped provide the content for my free marketing ebook, Why Simple Works.

Thankfully, folks seem to appreciate the short posts as much as the long form that you find here, which is really nice.

I also enjoy the freedom that Posterous gives me, inasmuch I can just throw some thoughts out there that don’t necessarily need to be formulated into a longer post and discussion with definitive answers.

Now, though, I’m curious as to whether the format would work right here? While Posterous is fantastic for such short posts, I’m also trying to integrate my outposts better and make sure I’m giving you the very best of my time and resources. So having another third-party option for you to go to makes me wonder if it’s the right approach?

So, once again, I defer to your wisdom. Which would you prefer – a separate Posterous account as it currently is, or have it all under one roof here (perhaps even in a dedicated section of its own)?

Love to hear your thoughts. Cheers!