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Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category



Maura DeBartoli

03/25/2010

It’s OK To Talk Back
04:43 pm by Maura DeBartoli

“The most effective way to give support is to create a site that can match people, their skills and interests with the organizations who need them.” - Chris Hughes, Facebook co-founder

In a world that needs more “Good”
People are essentially all picking up pieces of the puzzle, shifting and sharing, but need that one little push to get to the end point of donating or taking an action. A viable solution? We can build an information channel for a community craving a space to build ongoing relationships with the causes or issues that matter the most.

Shape ideas
It has become more and more apparent that people are integrating their real world, with online worlds – especially with the introduction of things like Stickybits – “A fun way to add digital content to real world objects.” Also? Supporters are looking to engage in different ways, because not every good cause can foster advancement through word of mouth. Where are people meeting? Where are they sharing interests?

In related news, the Yes On 100 campaign – fighting for the passage of Proposition 100 in Arizona – looks to the best interest of educators, students, public safety employees, and more. A statewide population backing these great citizens, needed a place to congregate — to really share ideas, talk about events, and share ways to get involved offline. This place inevitably, came with a Facebook Fan Page.

Inspired by Social Media Examiner’s “What Is Engagement And How Do We Measure It?”
  • That can mean profits. You sold stuff = Successful engagement.
  • That can mean ideas. You got feedback on your product or service you can use = Successful engagement.
  • That can mean referrals. You got customers to tell other people you’re cool = Successful engagement.
  • That can mean digital merit badges. You got people to link to you, follow you, Re-Tweet you = Successful engagement.

Bottom line being, a high comment count can often count for higher engagement. However, are the comments you receive providing insight, or are fans playing ping-pong with ineffectual information?

You can develop meaningful efficiencies. Ask your fans for opinion, raise questions, and pop in your own comment once in a while. If a post is showing multiple signs of engagement, let the fans run with it for a while. When commenting starts to slow, give feedback, bring people back on topic, and you bring people together. This opens the door again for further brand engagement – and more “doing”.

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Sarah Trees

02/25/2010

Get the word out with CoveritLive
07:01 pm by Sarah Trees


In today’s world, users want the breaking news at their fingertips, and CoveritLive (CiL) is the latest software application that makes this possible. Whether you’re a political candidate hosting a Q&A session or a news station covering the President’s State of the Union, CoveritLive can get the word out to your audience. CiL was built to handle multiple users at once – and by multiple I mean in the hundreds of thousands. But that is not the only amazing feature; here are a few of others:

  • Stream live video
  • On the fly translations
  • Reader Comment API – client’s can setup their own chat application and reader can comment from mobile phones or external chat rooms
  • RSS feeds – provide readers with writer and event feeds
  • Moderators or Writers can cover their event from their iPhone, Blackberry or smartphone
  • Publish up to 12 Twitter Accounts
  • Invite up to 25 panelists to provide commentary
  • Integrate 3rd party software like YouTube, WordPress, Twitter
  • Branded templates – Viewer window templates allow you to add your logo
  • News Flash and Scoreboards
  • Manage readers comments
  • Create a Media Library
  • Embed Large photos
  • Deploy Quick Polls for your readers
  • Advertise

What would be the cost for such a cool tool? You’d be surprised at how inexpensive this software is. There are three different pricing structures: Basic, Ad Supported and Subscription. The basic package is free of charge  and there aren’t any ads and up to 5,000 unique readers a month are allowed to view your live event. Ad Supported is also free, but serves ads, and after 45 days revenue sharing is possible. The last package is a one-year subscription, which contains no advertising and costs $400 per month.

Here are a couple of examples of companies that utilize CoveritLive:

PhilliesNation
General Motors
NBA – The Boston Celtics
CBC National Post

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Jessica Carlson

02/09/2010

Social media lessons from Gordon Gekko
12:47 pm by Jessica Carlson

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Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. All seemingly innocent names, right? However, the aforementioned sites can all be directly linked to one of our generation’s ultimate fictional, yet realistically diabolical villains. So, in honor of the sequel of cult classic (especially of suits and MBA-wielders), Wall Street, recently being announced, I thought I’d take a look into how the many lessons GG taught Bud Fox can be applied to social media.

Information is the most valuable commodity. It should be no shock that people are on social media sites to connect with their friends and family, so when utilizing social media to spread your message, make sure it’s not viewed as an interruption, but as an asset. How exactly do you do that? Quite simply, post things that you know (or at least think) will add value to your viewer’s life, day or that particular moment in time. The best (and sometimes arguably the worst) thing about social media is that you’ll be able to get a pretty good sense of if what you’re posting is of value, based on the interaction with the post. It’s no secret that we’ve been in a message-laden culture for some time now, and as that increases, consumers will all start to value how they spend their time over how they spend their money. Providing relevant, useful or entertaining content will make your brand an asset, as opposed to a nuisance.

Always have a back-up plan. In the flick, Gekko reevaluates his plan with Bluestar Airlines and determines what he believes to be a better course of action – social media campaigns need to be met with the same sort of flexibility. Of course, your Plan B probably won’t involve turning an entire company into a garage sale – but, if you go in with one set plan, you can at least expect to modify, if not completely change, said plan. As stated above, fans and followers will offer their feedback, and some will even go as far to be brutally honest. When that honesty isn’t exactly in support of your organization’s initial strategy, you’ll need at least a solid idea of a back-up plan.

It’s never a one-man operation, and it always helps to have eyes in the field. Just like Gekko had employees in his office and hot on the trails of anyone who could potentially mean anything to his business, the same goes for social media. With any social media campaign, you need multiple sets of eyes and sources of brainpower. Regardless of whether your running a political campaign or launching a new product or service, there are going to be many employees and people in your organization that are all a part of the process. And, therefore, their voices and perspectives should be included in your social media campaign. As far as keeping your eyes in the field, we don’t necessarily think you need a spy, but it always helps to solicit feedback from your followers and fans about the content you’re sharing and the tone your outreach has.

Watch your competition closely, and look for opportunities to differentiate, not copy. As Gekko follows the every move of his arch nemesis, Sir Larry Wildman, your organization should be following your competition’s strategy and messaging, specifically in the social media space. And, just as he looks for opportunities to outsmart and differentiate himself from his competition, instead of following in their footsteps, it’s important for an organization to do the same on social media.

Lunch is for wimps. Don’t get me wrong, I avidly recommend three square meals a day, and even a snack or two, but the point is that while social media may seem fluffy and fun, it has a lot more in common with the cutthroatness of Wall Street. You see, social media is ever changing; your audience can shift and platforms can drastically rearrange and morph all within an instant. There’s also more risk involved than the traditional campaign since it’s success or failure can be much more visible, and in most cases, people can offer their feedback for all to see. Also – if you’re doing it right – it’s a fulltime job. It takes planning, analyzing, determining strategies, creating content and implementing it all. Thus, not always leaving much time for leisurely lunches.

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Jessica Carlson

01/12/2010

Raising #240tons of food during the holidays
01:18 pm by Jessica Carlson

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With unemployment and poverty at all time highs, IWS took to Twitter during the holidays to help raise awareness of the demand placed upon food banks during the past particularly trying year. The holiday campaign, dubbed “Tweets of Hope,” inspired Twitter users to retweet a simple message and $2 would be donated to the Association of Arizona Food Banks (AAFB) and Share Our Strength.

The campaign generated over 2,000 retweets, and has generated close to 200,000 impressions. Despite being slightly shy of reaching the goal of 2,500 tweets, IWS delivered a $5,000 check to both AAFB and Share Our Strength. The $10,000 donation to the two charities will help provide 240 tons of food, or 140,000 meals in Arizona and the Washington, D.C area.

At IWS, we’ve always strongly believed that we all have a responsibility to do more good. Max Fose, president, says he believes that, “…We all have a responsibility to give back. We’re fortunate enough to be in a position that we can, but even if we weren’t, we would do whatever we could.”

While social media is still somewhat in it’s infancy, is an excellent platform for charitable contribution campaigns. Social media, as a platform, is a lot more effective in generating widespread exposure and motivating the masses to participate, since activity is generally more visible. When people recognize that a large group is pushing an initiative forward, they become even more likely to participate. As opposed to ads and email marketing, it has the ability to showcase in a much more meaningful fashion just who is behind this cause and how many people are supporting it.

Want to be a part of future campaigns? Be sure to follow us on Twitter.

photo2Kelly Watson delivering another $5,000 check to Share Our Strength in Washington, D.C.

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Maura DeBartoli

01/05/2010

A minimalist approach: Social Entrepreneurs
06:05 pm by Maura DeBartoli

spaceball

Those owning and working for small to medium sized businesses are predisposed to have a lot on their plate. The focus tends to be on keeping up with client work, internal to-dos, etc. and it can be difficult to develop and manage an active social media strategy. Discussed here are a few low key & low maintenance things to think about, and hopefully will spark a few ideas that really make sense for social media.

Does what you do tap into people’s passions? Remember that social media is a vehicle for sharing special interests! Encourage your audience to comment on or contribute to blogs, share photos of events, products in use, etc. People will inevitably converse about their leisurely pursuits… Bonus.

What can you show off? It’s OK to sometimes! If you’ve got a product that you can demonstrate or talk about in a video, do it on YouTube. If your company has a great portfolio (or potential), show that off with a dynamic website or a Flickr account and sit on it. If you specialize in services, get the audience involved and encourage that they share their experiences on the social media sites. There’s a niche somewhere.

With that, are there identifiable niche communities that regular customers or clients tend to naturally congregate? What advice can you offer in your area of expertise?

Small business owners and entrepreneurs have an advantage in that you can establish yourselves online, while listening in. You don’t want to completely overlook traditional ways to expand your business. Meaning, promote social media efforts both online and off – even something so small as putting your twitter handle on your business card can have great impact.

While you’re in the trial and error phase, track and measure – minimally. No need to be nitty-gritty about metrics if you’re starting small. But, keep track of sales. Have they increased? Set-up a Google Alert. Who’s talking? Above all, ask for feedback and have fun!

Image: jjsala

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Jessica Carlson

12/21/2009

Blogger outreach: Literally make someone talk about your brand
02:05 pm by Jessica Carlson

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According to ComScore, blogs combined receive 77.7 million unique visitors each day in the United States. Furthermore, 77 percent of active Internet users read blogs, according to Universal McCann. That’s an audience the size of over 175 million people in just the United States alone.

Of course it’s great for your company or organization to have a blog, but what happens if it’s not reaching the right audience, or a sizeable one for that matter? That’s where blogger outreach comes in. Is there something your company just created or launched? Is there a really big event coming up? Is there something exciting you just have to share? It there an issue that’s a hot topic that concerns your organization? Those are all great opportunities to use bloggers to help disseminate your message. So, how do you get them talking?

#1: Provide an incentive. You may be thinking “What else does John from Oshkosh, Wisconsin have to do besides blog about my cool new product?” but the reality is that many of these people pour their heart, soul and free time into their blog’s content, and they often can be picky about what they choose to share. So, in order to ensure that your time is well spent, make sure you provide an incentive. Maybe it’s cold hard cash, an exclusive peek at the new product, an all expenses paid trip to the event or some free schwag – whatever it is, providing incentives shows bloggers that you respect them and value their time and efforts.

#2: Pitch when it really matters. An obvious example is with new technology. You don’t want to pitch a review of a cell phone after it’s already hit the market, you want to offer bloggers a free new phone, months before anyone else can get their hands on it. If there’s a new tech toy coming out, you better believe interested consumers will do their homework months in advance and often will have made their decision before the product even goes on sale. You want to make sure that your pitches are relevant and timely.

#3: Branch out to reach a wider audience. Let’s say your organization is dead set against the latest health insurance reform bill. Instead of speed dialing your go-to political blogger, think about who else you could be reaching. Think about who’s most concerned about health issues on a daily basis. Got your answer? If you guessed moms, give yourself a pat on the back. Looking for a mommy blogger who is on the conservative side would help spread your message and reach an entirely new audience. But remember to make your message relevant to them, not you, for example pitching scenarios of how the bill could potentially affect moms and families.

photo: Nele en Jan

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Kelly Watson

12/18/2009

Social Sharing is Caring
06:43 pm by Kelly Watson

As Integrated Web Strategy’s holiday campaign, “Tweets of Hope” continues to make a presence in the Twitter world, we once again sit back and tip our hats to the power of social networking.  IWS has been committed to inspiring $2 retweets for two great causes, the Association of Arizona Food Banks (AAFB) and Share our Strength, with the goal to raise $10,000 for each organization.  With one week until we break for the holidays, we wanted to tell you more about the outstanding efforts of the two organizations we chose to support this year.

The Association of Arizona Food Banks (AAFB)
Established in 1984, the AAFB  is a non-profit organization serving five regional food bank warehouses and a network of nearly 1,700 food pantries and agencies. As one of the first state food bank associations in the nation, AAFB was instrumental in the development of a statewide gleaning project, and their advocacy efforts have brought about beneficial state and federal legislation for their member food banks and the people they serve.

Share Our Strength
Also founded in 1984, Share Our Strength is a national organization committed to making sure, “no kid in America grows up hungry.”  With its beginnings in the basement of a row house on Capitol Hill, Bill and Debbie Shore began an organization with great influence on the global efforts to end hunger and poverty – and especially end childhood hunger in America.   Share Our Strength has raised over $265 million since its inception and has provided support to more than 1,000 nonprofits around the world who are working to end hunger. Its strong community of groups, partners, activists and national events such as, “The Great American Dine-Out” and “Taste of a Nation”, are all dedicated to helping the nearly 17 million children in America who face hunger today.

Please help support these two organizations by participating in our Tweets of Hope campaign [http://workwithiws.com]. For every retweet, we will donate $2 to these organizations, giving up to $10,000, or 140,000 meals this holiday season.

Thank you and Happy Holidays from IWS!

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Maura DeBartoli

12/08/2009

Tweets of Hope
05:06 pm by Maura DeBartoli

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Just yesterday, The Huffington Post reported on the hunger issue in America and the growing number of people participating in the food stamp program. Shockingly, the US Department of Agriculture documented that there are approximately 49 million Americans struggling to put food on the table, including 17 million children.

Share Our Strength released a survey of 740 K-8 public school teachers conducted by Lake Research Partners finding that 62 percent of teachers see kids who are hungry because they do not get enough to eat at home, and an equal percentage of teachers use personal funds from their own teacher salaries to regularly buy food for the kids to eat in class or take home for weekends.

Generally speaking, the holiday season is a time when we – citizens as a whole – recognize the hungry, and try to reach out to them. That’s precisely what we here at Integrated Web Strategy plan to do.  IWS will generously be donating 240 tons of food to the Association of Arizona Food Banks, and Share Our Strength in D.C. through our Tweets of Hope campaign.

We need YOUR help.

For every retweet sent with our message, we will donate $2, totaling up to $10,000 to both of the food banks! Share this message with your friends and family, for we know that in this economy and with everyone being on a tight budget, putting food on the table shouldn’t be a burden. Tweet a little hope this year. We promise it won’t take you more than 5 minutes.

So for anyone who is on Twitter, head over to the Tweets of Hope page and retweet the message. Not on Twitter? We’d appreciate a sign up! It’s easy:

Got to http://twitter.com/signup
Enter your information & pick a username and password
To set up your profile information and enter a bio, click the ‘Settings’ tab to the right
Upload a picture and don’t forget to save your settings!

Thank You to everyone who has already or plans to participate! Happy holidays and happy tweeting!

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Maura DeBartoli

11/23/2009

Not Sure Where You Fit Best? Try On A Few Platforms, Find Your Creative Spot
07:24 pm by Maura DeBartoli

getmommed

Want to thrive in social media? Look different than everyone else at the party.

Being on Twitter and Facebook is still relatively new to marketers and brands alike, but more and more companies, businesses and entrepreneurs will have a full-blown social media strategy (or attempt at) sooner than later.  There are other online influential communities, not to be forgotten – maybe your audience’s most prevalent discussions are in forums, or scribd or whatever it may be.

Solution? Learn to create.

You should spend a little over ¼ of your time developing creativity. Your efforts in content creation are just as important (if not more) than connectivity and communication. Creativity can build blogs, viral videos, compelling email newsletters, and promote attractive media or applications. Need some assistance? Think crowdsourcing and co-creating. Two brains are better than one, so make a few friends!

Since we are human, and people get sick of repetitiveness, we seek out new material. A recent post by adAge touches on the “Big Idea” and how sometimes it can come from the exploration of a new technology or method that enhances consumer connection. It says,

Creative ingenuity lies within the idea, the technology, the concept, the innovation and, perhaps most important, the Holy Grail: consumer connection. Word of mouth is more prevalent than ever and interactive communities have an increasingly louder and more influential voice and are stronger (and sometimes the only) sources of breaking news stories.

These webs we now co-exist in weren’t made for Branded Co. XYZ (It had something to do with Al Gore and a big hole in the ozone layer… I forget now). But anyhow, find yourself a developer buddy and get creative.

Kleenex: getmommed

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Maura DeBartoli

11/16/2009

They Know If You’ve Been Naughty or Nice
12:43 pm by Maura DeBartoli

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There was a recent post by eMarketer that discussed a growing number of web shoppers this holiday season, turning to social networks for advice, sales and information research.  A bit of news from the mobile sector:

Even more consumers – 19% – are planning on using the mobile channel for their holiday shopping… one-quarter plan to make a holiday purchase over mobile.

Does this information change your holiday marketing and sales plans?  It is an entirely new holiday shopping experience for consumers.  Since they’ll be seeking out brands they trust and interact with, it’s a good thing you’ve been ‘nice’ to them via social sites this past year, yes?

Image: miss karen

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