Posts tagged social media

Paid, Promoted, Owned, Shared, & Earned: The Brandsphere from Brian Solis & JESS3

In discussions about new media, you will often hear the division of media opportunities as Paid, Owned, and Earned media (P.O.E.M.)

Brian Solis believes that using Paid, Promoted, Owned, Shared, and Earned is a better way to categorise.

He has once again partnered with JESS3 to visualise this:

Introducing The Brandsphere

Social networks and channels present brands with a broad array of media opportunities to engage customers and those who influence them. Each channel offers a unique formula for engagement where brands become stories and people become storytellers. Using a transmedia approach, the brand story can connect with customers differently across each medium, creating a deeper, more enriching experience. Transmedia storytelling doesn’t follow the traditional rules of publishing; it caters to customers where they connect and folds them into the narrative. In any given network, brands can invest in digital assets that span five media landscapes:

1. Paid: Digital advertising, banners, adwords, overlays

2. Owned: Created assets, custom content

3. Earned: Brand-related conversations and user-generated content

4: Promoted: in-stream or social paid promotions vehicles (e.g. Twitter’s Promoted products and Facebook’s Sponsored Stories)

5. Shared: Open platforms or communities where customers co-create and collaborate with brands. (e.g. Dell’s IdeaStorm and Starbuck’s MyStarbucksIdea.)

Any combination of the five media strategies defines a new Brandsphere where organizations can capture attention, steer online experiences, spark conversations and word of mouth can help customers address challenges or create new opportunities. Each media channel connects differently with people and thus requires a dedicated approach integrating tangible and intangible value. Doing so ensures a critical path for social media content: relevance, reach and resonance.

Social Media Consultants - the end of the road?

@gordonmacmillan has posted a great article on The Wall blog (run by Brand Republic…Marketing Mag, Revolution etc.)

He draws on some insight from others about social media consultants being there to assist in the transition from social media being ’nowhere’ to ‘everywhere’. This is always the role of the consultant and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that now most freelance social media consultants are now looking for jobs in-house (or in agencies).

One thing I’m always passionate about it that social media isn’t something totally different. It’s just marketing in a different guise. All the same rules still apply. The best social media consultants (or ‘experts’) are great at marketing and have just learnt how to use social media in that context:

“I think the best ones always have and have come from a position where they know more about marketing than simply being able to explain Twitter and Facebook pages.”

Read more of the article at: http://wallblog.co.uk/2011/06/06/the-end-of-the-road-for-social-media-consultants-pretty-much/#ixzz1OaS9bGaY

Top tips for hiring a social media agency

Kirstal Ireland, who has worked both client-side and agency-side, gives her top tips for hiring a social media agency:

1. How did they contact you?
 
2. Check out their online profile – seriously!
 
3. Don’t buy the suits
 
4. Social Media Case Studies and Clients
 
5. Does the agency put marketing and your message before the technology?

Read more of the detail at:
http://kristalireland.com/2011/04/21/how-to-buy-a-social-media-agency/

Should social media specialists have a high Peer Index score?

Regular readers will know that I’ve been looking quite a lot at Peer Index lately. I like anything I can have a good play with and get competitive about!

My Peer Index ranked list of the Top Marketing Agencies has been creating some buzz and lots of healthy discussion.

Mark Kelly has also been having a play, creating some groups of his own and he’s put his thoughts into words on his blog - Should Digital / Social Media Practioners have a high Peer Index score?

Well worth a read. The owner of Peer Index, the lovely Azeem also comments.

Top Marketing Agencies ranked by social media influence

It’s certainly been interesting watching the movements of the Top UK Marketing Agencies in this list, which is ranked by social media influence (as defined by Peer Index):

Top Marketing Agencies ranked by Social Media Influence

10 tips for coping with social media

How we deal with social media and information overload in our busy lives has always been an interest of mine. I’ve blogged before about Soren Gordhamer’s excellent Wisdom 2.0 book and the Pomodoro Technique.

Over on Tricycle.com, Lori Deschene (founder of @TinyBuddha on Twitter and tinybuddha.com, a multi-author blog that features wisdom and stories from people all over the world) gave 10 great tips for ‘staying mindful in social media’. I’ve called them “coping with social media”  ;-)

Here they are (copied directly from Tricycle.com):

1. Know your intentions.

Doug Firebaugh of SocialMediaBlogster.com has identified seven psychological needs we may be looking to meet when we log on: acknowledgment, attention, approval, appreciation, acclaim, assurance, and inclusion. Before you post, ask yourself: Am I looking to be seen or validated? Is there something more constructive I could do to meet that need? 

2. Be your authentic self. 

In the age of personal branding, most of us have a persona we’d like to develop or maintain. Ego-driven tweets focus on an agenda; authenticity communicates from the heart. Talk about the things that really matter to you. If you need advice or support, ask for it. It’s easier to be present when you’re being true to yourself. 

3. If you propose to tweet, always ask yourself: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind? 

Sometimes we post thoughts without considering how they might impact our entire audience. It’s easy to forget how many friends are reading. Two hundred people make a crowd in person, but online that number can seem insignificant. Before you share, ask yourself: is there anyone this might harm?

4. Offer random tweets of kindness.

Every now and then I ask on Twitter, “Is there anything I can do to help or support you today?” It’s a simple way to use social media to give without expectations of anything in return. By reaching out to help a stranger, you create the possibility of connecting personally with followers you may have otherwise known only peripherally.

5. Experience now, share later.

It’s common to snap a picture with your phone and upload it to Facebook or email it to a friend. This overlaps the experience of being in a moment and sharing it. It also minimizes intimacy, since your entire audience joins your date or gathering in real time. Just as we aim to reduce our internal monologues to be present, we can do the same with our digital narration.

6. Be active, not reactive.

You may receive email updates whenever there is activity on one of your social media accounts, or you might have your cell phone set to give you these types of alerts. This forces you to decide many times throughout the day whether you want or need to respond. Another approach is to choose when to join the conversation, and to use your offline time to decide what value you have to offer.

7. Respond with your full attention.

People often share links without actually reading them, or comment on posts after only scanning them. If the greatest gift we can give someone is our attention, then social media allows us to be endlessly generous. We may not be able to reply to everyone, but responding thoughtfully when we can makes a difference.

8. Use mobile social media sparingly.

In 2009, Pew Research found that 43% of cell phone users access the Web on their devices several times a day. It’s what former Microsoft employee Linda Stone refers to as continuous partial attention—when you frequently sign on to be sure you don’t miss out anything. If you choose to limit your cell phone access, you may miss out online, but you won’t miss what’s in front of you.

9. Practice letting go.

It may feel unkind to disregard certain updates or tweets, but we need downtime to be kind to ourselves. Give yourself permission to let yesterday’s stream go. This way you won’t need to “catch up” on updates that have passed but instead can be part of today’s conversation.

10. Enjoy social media!

These are merely suggestions to feel present and purposeful when utilising social media, but they aren’t hard-and-fast rules. Follow your own instincts and have fun with it. If you’re mindful when you’re disconnected from technology, you have all the tools you need to be mindful when you go online.

5 hard truths about working in social media

(via alliwantiscakeandlove)

Text taken from 5 hard truths about working in social media:

Social media by itself doesn’t work!

I don’t work for a social media firm. I work for a PR consultancy, which has expanded into the digital sector. But the traditional stuff is still all there. It didn’t disappear and social is an addition to everything that’s been going on for years. My background isn’t in PR so you can imagine that it’s not always easy. I want and need to learn how PR works. From scratch. And that’s just it. Social media is never JUST social media. You’ll have to learn many things that you may not necessarily be interested to make it work for your company or clients.

The job will follow you home!

Social media is constant. And while you may know that, you really don’t until you work in social media. People don’t stop talking when you leave the office at 6. In fact, that’s usually when they start talking. You have to learn how to deal with time differences, constant monitoring and engaging. If you are anything like me you’ll have a tough time ignoring your beeping phone or the constant stream of Emails. You’ll keep thinking about strategies, updates, monitoring etc after you leave the office at night.

Social media equals a sh*t load of research!

Before you do anything remotely connected to social media, you’ll do a lot of reading. A lot of googling. A lot of combing through directories and statistics followed by a whole lot more reading. And once you are done with all the reading, you start to analyse what you just read which then, somewhere down the line, evolves into a strategy. Then eventually, you’ll put the strategy into practice which, again, is followed by a lot of research and analysis. Until you start over.

Working in social media isn’t just fun and games!

Social media is SOO much fun, you say? Well it is, until it isn’t. You have to think a lot. Especially about wording. The way you say things in your private life may not be right for your client/company. You’ll have to adapt your writing style. You way of thinking. And *actually* do some work. It’s not just about playing around on Facebook all day. It’s rather the complete opposite.

You need to stay on the ball!

Social media evolves. Constantly. You can’t afford to miss out on these developments because they may be good for your client. How do you do that? Through reading. As you can see, there’s a pattern.