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In an attempt to predict social media ROI, too many companies are applying direct-marketing rationale and stunting their full potential for success.

Twitter advice for marketers: focus on press online to really ignite the buzz.

Prediction: social media will grow in 2010. Geez, thanks for the newsflash. Yes, it’s that time of year again when the experts tell us just what to expect next year.

ZD Net recently posted just such an article that’s worth a quick look. In general, these guys expect the economy to fuel the adoption and integration into corporate America. Also, social networks themselves will begin to help users better define themselves and their relationships between different groups of “friends”.

One thing they are missing, IMO: Twitter as a customer service tool.

Twitter is beginning to find a legitimate place in corporate marketing. In many ways, it’s is becoming the company-to-customer equivalent of IM: short bursts of information that keeps people posted up to the minute. These bursts are being used by companies like Best Buy’s TWELPFORCE to help make interactions between customer service and consumers open, fast and effective.

Before Twitter, a call with customer service was riddled with angering phone trees, insane wait times, transfers and, if we were lucky, searches on a self-help site.  Now with Twitter, companies can quickly see across thousands of conversations to identify issues and solve them en masse.  So instead of hundreds or thousands of customers feeling left one there own with electronics headaches, Best Buy can talk to them all faster and with better outcomes.

The result is happier customers…the very definition of CRM, as well as more efficient call centers, less abandon rates and the ability to spot problems before the blow on on the Web.  At CBC, we’re are seeing increasing requests to help set up similar systems from companies that range from automotive insurers to food distributors.  The key will be training and planning, as in most things.  But in the end, we predict a happier customer in 2010.

With all the hype around social media (yes, we’re part of the hype), marketers and PR pros are forgetting that a huge part of a successful social media campaign is engaging the press.  Our most successful campaigns…the ones that look “viral”…have various levels of good ol’fashion media relations baked in.

So why oh why are so few companies taking care of business with an online newsroom?  Bloggers and traditional media alike are constantly asking for access to complete files, and they don’t want to ask a publicist for help.

Part of the problem is that many companies think they have an online press room, but they really just have a listing of press releases.  According to a survey of journalists by the Tek Group, a company that specializes in online newsrooms, the following are the top elements needed in a newsroom.

Getting this completed isn’t a huge task.  Any good IT department should be able to do it, but make sure the process is driven by the PR pros so the all-important content is complete, up to snuff and no corners on the UI are taken.

The elements in order of importance, according to journalists: (more…)

A new study by Social Twist, the creators of the Tell a Friend sharing widget, analyzed the sharing trends of 10 million “shares” since September 2008.  The results show that more traditional forms of online communication, including email and instant messaging, are the most common forms of sharing information in the social media universe.  This debunks the theory of Twitter, which ranked quite low, and social media sites are the top.

Check out the numbers below, but keep in mind the sample may skew the numbers. Because TAF is used on an array of sites, we need to take the demo of this sites into consideration. If TAF sites skew over 30, it would make sense that email is the killer app. Forrester did a study that touched on this @ http://tinyurl.com/mncmtb. Millennials tend to share promos and swag offers more than simple “brand messages” and do it on FB and text.

Also, a big thing to keep in mind: sharing incidence and sharing reach are VERY different.  As is sharing authority, all issues that need to be weighed for you social media strategy.

Here’s the top line results: (more…)

Download  The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Social Media Marketing…And How to Avoid Them. This eBook gives practical how-to’s to CMOs and marketers in hopes to jumpstart their interactive efforts.  Unlike so much of what we see that’s heavy on theory and case studies, this eBook is designed to give action items you can use immediately.

As the social media marketing and PR agency for clients that have ranged from IBM, GMAC and Castrol to Quiksilver, Nalgene and K2, Cercone Brown & Co has covered a lot of road in online marketing.  Some smooth, and a lot bumpy.  And in the past few years of fielding requests, giving talks, discovery and even some awards, we’ve seen a lot of companies make some of the same mistakes over and over again.  With this book, we hope to help others get to real ROI that much faster…and start enjoying the rewards quicker, too.

Download it, share it and tell us how we can make it better.

To this end, CBC will be expanding on the content in this book with a weekly series, “How 2 Tuesdays.” Just like it sounds, we’ll publish a mini guide every Tuesday that will allow us to get deeper into the use of Twitter, You Tube, niche communities, SEO, online PR and a whole lot more.

Shoot a note to jmcclary@cerconebrown.com and we’ll add you to our list.

New FTC Guidelines which impose strict disclosure rules on social media are being challenged by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).  In an open letter to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, IAB President and CEO Randall Rothenberg makes a persuasive argument that the guidelines unfairly and unconstitutionally impose penalties on online media.  The letter contends that the FTC guidelines single out bloggers for the same actions that “offline media has engaged for years.”

As a long-time PR pro, I have to agree that this seems at least a bit sticky for the FTC.  I understand that many blogs can seem like harmless personal opinions, whereas offline media clearly has that “institutional” feel.  It seems that the FTC wants to make sure that if a blogger has been influenced to provide an opinion, it’s clear to the reader if they’ve received SWAG, free product, drinks, dinner, etc… in short, all the common interactions between PR pros and offline journalists.

Okay… but if the FTC really thinks that offline publications are truly pillars of journalistic integrity, then explain this… One of our publicists was recently told by a trade journal that until our client bought advertising space, there would be no coverage for the company or product.  And this not from a sales rep, but from the editor.  Though more gratuitous than most, I can’t tell you this is uncommon from smaller publications fighting to stay alive.  Even the big newsstand pubs aren’t immune…seems we can’t set up a line review with a product editor without a salesman or associate publisher coming along.

(more…)

Yesterday, the FTC announced new guidelines that could have a huge impact between PR pros and bloggers.

In short, there’s two parts to watch: First is disclosure regarding advertisements, endorsements, paid endorsements, paid-in-kind endorsements, etc. The second is about accuracy of bloggers’ claims.

While the social media universe is all abuzz today, from a PR professional’s perspective these guidelines fundamentally change nothing.  You may not realize it, but we’ve always been liable on these fronts.  It’s just that most have been oblivious to the laws.  (Remember, ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law.)

All along when pitching bloggers (or any press, really) AND providing free product or services for review, we have been required to tell them in writing to disclose that they, in fact, received freebies.  Also, if these folks may inaccurate claims based on a pitch (even if we didn’t give them the inaccurate info.), we are responsible.

So instead of complaining about it, here’s what you should consider.  BUT, like anything else, this is my opinion based on my knowledge of the law.  You must consult your own legal counsel before creating your own policies and actions regarding social media (hows that?):

1. Create a standard disclosure statement regarding free product and the like and make it part of all your email communications.  I’m not sure if the mouse print thing is considered enough here, but it seems it should suffice.  Again, I’ll talk to our legal folks and follow up…but the point is, make it part of your standard communication, and not some last minute awkward…”Oh, hey, don’t forget to tell everyone I gave you this for free.”

2. Get a REAL social media monitoring system. I’m not talking Google alerts, guys.  You need a system like Radian6 with a dedicated staffer to monitor ALL the chatter across blogs, forums and social networks (there’s MANY more than Facebook, BTW.)  Get this alerts in real-time, and set the record straight immediately.

There were about 250 great business reasons to do this before, but maybe this is the one that gets companies to take monitoring and reporting seriously. It’s not an intern job!  Social media marketing is moving faster than most even know, and now the legal system is catching up.  If you haven’t already, you should do the same.

It seems all the madness around social media marketing focuses on the usual suspects: Gen Y and Millennials. But lost in the shuffle is Generation X (30-43 yeas), the most often overlooked group in the eyes of social media marketers.

Last week, Forrester Research released a study that showed 59% of people in this age group are actively participating in social networks, most notably Facebook and Twitter. However, when it comes to sharing purchase recommendations digitally – the great accelerator of word-of-mouth – Gen X behaves quite differently than their younger counterparts.

The current assumption by marketers is that by providing engaging, social-media-enabled content on Facebook, Twitter and others, these networks will categorically spark viral transmission.

However, while these broadcast towers work fine for the under 30 crowd, GenXers find them too public for sharing purchase recommendations (the Holy Grail of word-of-mouth).  GenX shares their influence via more private networks, most notably via email.

Imagine that.  Email – not text, not Twitter – is the killer app for GenX.

This little revelation is important to marketers in three ways:

1. Chiclets Must Value Email: When using sharing applets (called Chiclets), it seems “more is better” rules the day.  The truth is that you should confine the choices to the top networks you target, and make sure “email to a friend” is prominently displayed.  And while you’re at it, populate that email with meta language someone will actually use and content rich with photos or video.

2. Rethink Your Email Marketing Approach: All this social media activity should result in a prospect opting into to your direct campaigns.  But don’t only send inbox-stuffers like “free shipping”, but add real content that engages your best customers and encourages them to share your brand with others, as well as offers.

3.  We Know Virtually Nothing About Social Media Marketing: This study shows that the same social network and combination of networks can be used very differently by different demographics.  We are still in the very early stages of development, and we are sure to see more patterns emerge.

As GenX moves into their 40s (some of us are there), they will become more and more the financial engine for many, many companies.  Already jaded and disinterested in most advertising, marketers will find the best success when they seamless fit into the private conversations of this age group.

A new study by TubeMogul may indicate that followers on Twitter may be more beneficial to an organization or person than friends on Facebook.  The study showed that on average, “audiences clicking on video links from Twitter watch a video 36.91% longer than viewers referred by Facebook and 49.98% longer than viewers referred by Digg.”

Now while the methodology was sound, we’re clearly making an inference on the Twitter vs. Facebook conclusion.  What’s more, any decent social media campaign will include both.  But it may suggest that because on Twitter we choose to follow interesting people, by definition we get more of the stuff we’re apt to want to see.

Consider this: on Twitter, people follow absolute strangers based on a mutual interest in subject matter. There’s no qualifications, little screening and not a big commitment on either side.  And by it’s very nature, Twitter isn’t bombarding you with Mafia Wars updates or “I Just Took the ‘What Breakfast Food Am I Quiz’ notifications.

In contrast, Facebook friends are just that: friends. It could be a business associate or high school buddy. Once you friend someone, you get it all: videos of the kids fishing, declarations that they’re off for a soy latte, and (hopefully) decent content you may want to see.

So what we may be witnessing on Twitter is the development of eco-systems of people who self-select to be part of a loose confederation of ideas on specific subjects.

Therefore, it is IMPERATIVE that companies tighten the focus of their content before they Tweet any and every little thing.  In short, don’t babble: speak clearly, intelligently and with purpose.  And of course, don’t forget to listen.

A word of caution before thinking Facebook isn’t for you: this study was for all Facebook users, and did not distinguish between Friends (individuals) and Fans (company). My guess (or at least hope!) is that if one studied the  video viewings for Fans separately, the rules of self-selection would yield more engaged results.

My shop is in the middle of launching Facebook pages for adidas, Sperry Top-Sider, Isis for Women and a few other brands that have the potential for enthusiastic followings.  As we get more and more data, we’ll post some results to see if the Fan hypothesis is playing out.