Today I was interested in learning more about ning.com. Ning is a social network site. It can be compared with sites like Myspace and Facebook, but it works in a very different way. Instead of building a profile and create a social network around yourself, you create your network around a specific interest or passion. Each interest network has its own characteristics, rules and site design. I find the idea of ning rally appealing. Instead of getting meaningless information about people that you barely know, you get to exchange meaningful ideas and thoughts with people that you don't necessarily know but who have the same passion as yourself. I created a profile and dived in.
In a social media group I found an interesting video from a seminar with Eric Qualman the author of the blog and the book, Socialnomics. In his seminar he is talking about how companies can use social media to succeed in their business, or rather, simply how to use social media in a wise way. After having seen the video I was inspired. The four steps that Eric is talking about must be described as a basic approach to social media, for any business or organisation.
The first is to listen. (The importance for companies to listen to the present and potential customers is once again underlined!)
Secondly, the company has to decide how they want to interact in the dialog with the community. They have to create a social media strategy
The third step is to react, or at least decide how to react or not react. This must be one of the most important steps for a company! Any company with a social media strategy, or the wish to have one, has to ask itself how they will act, what they will do with the information and feedback they will receive. If you're in the game you have to play. I will come back to this because it is especially important for the performing arts sector.
The fourth step will come naturally, Eric Qualman means. If a company acts according to the prior steps, the costumer will either sell or not sell for the company.
How to react on peoples' feedback is an important question in the performing art sector. I have a gained my work experience in Sweden and France and have been working with big theaters from many Europe countries; I am well familiar with a performing art sector which is subsidized by public funding and where the theaters have been "privileged" to work without worrying about fundraising and private sponsors. These theaters do not necessarily have to maintain an active dialogue with the audience to survive. In simple words: the only dialogue that you really have to reinforce after a bad season is the dialogue with the politicians. However, in the countries where I have been working, audience development and outreach programs have advanced enormously the last ten years, and many theaters are excellent (German theaters...wow!). But there is still an ambiguity in the idea of letting the "market" in to the "artistic sphere", so the question is if the theaters (not just the marketing department, but the theater as a whole) are willing to really listen to their audience and react to what they are saying. Maybe it could be the way of creating theater for future audiences... Before entering social media marketing they have to be really clear on how they want to interact and react. If social media are used as one way communication, the networks risk to fade. I will be excited to see how theaters that are really using social media to interact with their audience are working! Is the whole theater engaged or just the marketing department?
Today's thought is definitely interact and react.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
United Breaks Guitars... and social media spread the word
My plan was to write about ning.com today and new social media knowledge that I have found there. I will do that later because I run in to a video on YouTube that I have to show NOW. As I wrote yesterday social media sites depends on the user community's input and activities. This gives a strong voice to costumers, buyers, audience etc. We can hear people talk about companies and products like never before. The challenge for companies and organizations today is to listen to what the costumers and potential costumers think about their brand. If they don't listen, social media can be used against them… The following video is excellent and has over 8.000.000 hits.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Social media stand for community and collaboration
The past weekend and I've been doing some more sophisticated reading about social media. A friend handed me a research report in the subject. It includes all the basics, and since the ultimate way of gaining new knowledge is to start from "go", I'm thrilled.
I found a very simple thing interesting: What social media are not.
Social media are not newsletters that people can subscribe to. Social media are not comment systems, where people can post comments but not go further in their exchange. Social media are therefore not one way communication systems where one person, company or association stands as the remitter. Social media are signified by community and collaboration. This might seem very basic, but considering the use of existing social media sites (and I am then in particular thinking about Facebook that is so widely spread) it is obvious that social media are not by far reaching its potential when it comes to marketing arts and small non-profit organizations. What I have seen so far, with only a few exceptions, is by definition not considered as social media. The positive aspect: there is a lot of potential, and according to the report advertisers are in the process of exploring campaign possibilities right now. So there is still time.
There is a built-in problem when it come social media and marketing for commercial purposes. A social media site is depending on the user community to create content and spread the site. This participation in a site generates a sense of ownership within the community. So, if the members of a community suddenly get the feeling that they are being used for commercial purposes, they can easily experience this as a betrayal and lose their engagement for the site. It is therefore important for the social media site's actual owner to be very careful when it comes to exploiting the community for commercial purposes. However, the marketing ads or campaigns on the sites are of course not only coming from the actual owners (google ads etc) but within the community itself. And that's where it is specifically interesting for local arts and small non-profit organizations, because here the marketing is free and the success is based on creativity, and the report also says that many users are willing to participate in and drive viral marketing campaigns if they are designed in an appropriate way and that the users feel that they can gain something themselves. So the door is open.
One very successful campaign from last year, which used the gain for the community as an important diffusion factor, was the IKEA facebook showroom campaign. Facebook members tagged happily their names on photos of IKEA products, created within a facebook account, with the intention of winning them. By tagging their name they also spread the IKEA campaign (and the IKEA products) to all their facebook friends. This is certainly a great way of using an existing social media function to spread a commercial product and still get goodwill for it. A big part of the success was however the worldwide buzz about the brilliance of the campaign itself. Smart social media marketing can of course be effectively used for arts or non-profit organisations working an a local market, but the worldwide wow-factor of the IKEA campaign is not necessary to get local audience in the seats of a theatre. It is enough with a local buzz. You just have to find the way to get it.
The thought for today: Respect the community and think collaboration.
I found a very simple thing interesting: What social media are not.
Social media are not newsletters that people can subscribe to. Social media are not comment systems, where people can post comments but not go further in their exchange. Social media are therefore not one way communication systems where one person, company or association stands as the remitter. Social media are signified by community and collaboration. This might seem very basic, but considering the use of existing social media sites (and I am then in particular thinking about Facebook that is so widely spread) it is obvious that social media are not by far reaching its potential when it comes to marketing arts and small non-profit organizations. What I have seen so far, with only a few exceptions, is by definition not considered as social media. The positive aspect: there is a lot of potential, and according to the report advertisers are in the process of exploring campaign possibilities right now. So there is still time.
There is a built-in problem when it come social media and marketing for commercial purposes. A social media site is depending on the user community to create content and spread the site. This participation in a site generates a sense of ownership within the community. So, if the members of a community suddenly get the feeling that they are being used for commercial purposes, they can easily experience this as a betrayal and lose their engagement for the site. It is therefore important for the social media site's actual owner to be very careful when it comes to exploiting the community for commercial purposes. However, the marketing ads or campaigns on the sites are of course not only coming from the actual owners (google ads etc) but within the community itself. And that's where it is specifically interesting for local arts and small non-profit organizations, because here the marketing is free and the success is based on creativity, and the report also says that many users are willing to participate in and drive viral marketing campaigns if they are designed in an appropriate way and that the users feel that they can gain something themselves. So the door is open.
One very successful campaign from last year, which used the gain for the community as an important diffusion factor, was the IKEA facebook showroom campaign. Facebook members tagged happily their names on photos of IKEA products, created within a facebook account, with the intention of winning them. By tagging their name they also spread the IKEA campaign (and the IKEA products) to all their facebook friends. This is certainly a great way of using an existing social media function to spread a commercial product and still get goodwill for it. A big part of the success was however the worldwide buzz about the brilliance of the campaign itself. Smart social media marketing can of course be effectively used for arts or non-profit organisations working an a local market, but the worldwide wow-factor of the IKEA campaign is not necessary to get local audience in the seats of a theatre. It is enough with a local buzz. You just have to find the way to get it.
The thought for today: Respect the community and think collaboration.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Social media for small organizations on local markets
Today I haven't had much time to do Social Media research, but there is one thing that I can't get out of my system. Thanks to yesterday's post, about listening instead of talking when using social media as marketing tools, I was recommended to check out Nielsen's website. Nielsen Buzzmetrics helps companies find information about what people say about their brand on blogs, social networks, discussion groups and other CGM platforms (Costumer-Generated Media). It is a company that asks its clients the question: "Millions of customers are talking, are you listening?" So again, listen!
Nielsen's activities are not new to me. I've known for years that there are companies using technology to search the web to sell information to other companies about what people say about them on the web. The question is however, how I as a marketing manager working in a sector that can't pay for this kind of information, can build my own strong social media strategy and listen to and learn something about my customers, in an intelligent way? I can't stop asking myself how effective social media as marketing tools actually is for a small or medium sized orgnisation working on a local market. Social Media have to be a great tool for arts and non profit orgnisations since it basically only building on a creative mind, but I can't think of any successful campaigns that have been used on local, limited markets, promoting for example one specific theater or event. Considering all the newsletters and communities I belong to in the arts sector, I am surprised that I can't think of one. I have to go digging!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Use social media to listen
I just found something interesting. I follow a blog called The Mission Paradox, with the modest under title "The Best Arts Marketing Resource in the World". But it is really very good… and the following just makes it better: The blogger, and head of the Mission Paradox Adam Thurman, is commenting on an article where the company Starbucks talks about how they view social media. The online magazine AdWeek has made an analysis of the hypothetical money value of Facebook fanbases (that is their group of "fan" or friends). Another site Mediabistro spoke to Starbucks about how they respond to that according to their big fanbase.
The answer:
"We don't view social media as a marketing play," said a company spokeswoman, "but rather as a customer engagement channel where we can have real connections with our customers, engage them in the brand and answer their questions. We are in constant dialogue with customers, participating in the communities of MyStarbucksIdea.com, Twitter and Facebook. Our engagement allows us to understand their needs, stay top-of-mind in an increasingly competitive retail environment and share interesting news about the company with a captive audience."
Thurman underlines "social media are tools for conversation, NOT SELLING…. If you're clogging up the airways with constant sales pitches then you're wasting the power of the medium."
That's really good. This is what I mean when I say that I think Facebook is just used as a sophisticated email system, all those mass emails asking you to take part in this and that event.
Social Media as in LISTENING, not TALKING. That's today's thought.
How to get many followers on Twitter
There is no rest in social media communities. Social Media comes with a high stress factor if you intend to stay updated, especially if you have a job, a family and other things to do in life… While I have been sleeping in Australia people have been tweeting all night around the world. I wake up to find that I have some followers on my twitter account (followers are people who will follow my tweets). This is of course not "real followers" since I only have two ridiculously bad test-tweeds so far that couldn't possibly interest anyone, and apart from that there is just my name that could attract followers. And it doesn't. So, the people who come up as followers are either spams or people who invite me so that I will check out their profile on Twitter, and be their followers. Judging by the popular tweets that I am now following I can tell that, you can't just be an active tweeter to be popular you also have to be an active follower. You have to have a very active account. To read or to be read is not a question. You have to do both.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
I sign up on Twitter and find Kjerstin
Wikipedia describes Twitter as "a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets". So far so good, I knew that. However, I have never seen how it could be interesting for me to have a personal Twitter account and I don't know how it is being used as a marketing tool. So now I have signed up for a Twitter account (and believe me, I am not the only marketing professional without a Twitter account). When I registered I was proposed a list with different interest groups, for example "art and design" and "charity", which are sectors that attract my interest. So I clicked. Here, I am being proposed a list of popular tweeters under each field. Under charity I find Bill Gates… I will follow him since I am interested in philanthropy. Click. I suddenly see a Swedish name, Kerstin Erickson. Like that, just a name and no organisation. Since I am Swedish I am of course interested in knowing who this person is. It shows that Kjerstin Erickson is not Swedish but American (of course with that Twitter ranking…) and the founder of Forge. Forge is an international non-profit organisation that "facilitates human-driven peacebuilding and reconstruction in war-torn African communities".
After having googled Kjerstin I now know that she is one of the people that you definitely should know (according to CNN). She is a young, intelligent and successful social entrepreneur (a word that she hates…) and described as a social media phenomenon. She is everywhere on the Internet. I find of course my way to the Forge website to check out some more about her and her organisation. And there she got me. So after approximately five minutes on Twitter I am on Forge's website. I doing some more digging about Kjerstin Erickson, and everywhere I come across her, I find that almost exactly the same words are being used: The description about Forge, and about herself, has been reproduced with very few variations or developments.
It is a strong core message that is being delivered by Kjerstin and her organisation. She is quite obviously using herself as a major part the message, probably not just monitored by herself but also by the reproductive force of internet. She is interesting, she is beautiful and her professional aims are admirable. We do want to know more about her. It must be more powerful to use Twitter as a marketing tool with a personal signature behind a strong message, rather than an organisation. It makes it more personal, more thrilling. How about following the tweeds of Bill Gates and Paolo Coelho? This celebrity marketing works fine in the Forge case, because when it comes to saving lives and making a better world it does not really matter for what reason people get attached to a certain cause, does it? The problem with this kind of celebrity marketing is however if the celebrity suddenly doesn't live up to the expectation that the mediated picture demands. A theater director that I know always says that "a theater has to be bigger than its director". He is running most successful theater in Sweden. I suppose that that the question that will hang over me today will be if an organisation really has to be bigger that its Twitter person?
After this first day on Twitter I have a lot of unknown faces in my head and I am not very interested in what they have to say in 140 characters. But then suddenly one person stands out, like Kjerstin. She and Forege are today's winners. They have gained most of my attention. I am not sure that I would go from there to action, but in the future if I saw Kjerstin-projects I would certainly rely on their credibility. Just like that. After a couple of hours on Twitter.
It started with a cup of tea
It all started with a cup of tea at the Sydney Opera House. Sort of.
I have been working in marketing and project management in the Performing Art and non-profit sector for over ten years. I finished my studies before internet was seen as an effective marketing tool and nobody had pronounced the words "social media marketing". And I haven't even turned 40 yet! I have changed country and professional networks twice. In 2005 I moved from Sweden to France, and in 2009 I moved to Sydney, Australia. So now, after some time of maternity leave I will have to start thinking about my professional life again. Can there anything interesting out there for me? In Sydney, Australia…
I had an interview for a position at the Sydney Opera House. The interview was quite bizarre. After a while we started talking about social media and that's when it got even more bizarre, but it was me being bizarre... They asked me if I knew anything about social media. I think that I am like many (European) people in my age when it comes to social media, so I said that yes, I know social media pretty well. Then they asked if I had a Facebook account and I said yes. They asked me if I could mention a campaign that I had found good and interesting on Facebook… Blank. I could just think about all of those “this and that person invites you to this and that group or event”. Then they asked me if I had a Twitter account and I answered “No, Twitter is not really my cup of tea”….
It is not easy to leave your professional networks behind and be like an unwritten page on the job market. There are, in fact, a lot of things that are difficult when you are looking for a job in a new country without your network. Especially in the performing arts sector! It is, however, relatively easy to avoid saying that Twitter is not “your cup of tea” in 2010 in a sector that is trying hard to position itself in social media.
In fact Twitter has to be your cup of tea in 2010 and this traumatic Opera House experience really made me think. The truth is that I don’t know social media “pretty well”. I haven’t been very interested in social media in terms of marketing, because I have never seen any campaigns that have inspired or impressed me and because of those last years as a project manager followed by maternity leave I haven't been forced to dig into it. The truth is that I don’t understand the excellence of Twitter and to me Facebook seems just like a sophisticated email system. I haven't seen social media used as intelligent marketing tools in my sector. And it ought to bloom in the arts and non profit sector! Art and non profit should be the peak sector for social media because it is cheap, creative and collaborative.
I have probably thought that I could surf beside the social media wave, by knowing it pretty well, not having to dive into it. Well, surfing on the side is not really my thing and pretty well is not good enough. I have decided to start The Social Media Project and give social media a fair chance. I will read, learn and analyze and I am going to be really, really good at it. From now on social media is my cup of tea.
I have been working in marketing and project management in the Performing Art and non-profit sector for over ten years. I finished my studies before internet was seen as an effective marketing tool and nobody had pronounced the words "social media marketing". And I haven't even turned 40 yet! I have changed country and professional networks twice. In 2005 I moved from Sweden to France, and in 2009 I moved to Sydney, Australia. So now, after some time of maternity leave I will have to start thinking about my professional life again. Can there anything interesting out there for me? In Sydney, Australia…
I had an interview for a position at the Sydney Opera House. The interview was quite bizarre. After a while we started talking about social media and that's when it got even more bizarre, but it was me being bizarre... They asked me if I knew anything about social media. I think that I am like many (European) people in my age when it comes to social media, so I said that yes, I know social media pretty well. Then they asked if I had a Facebook account and I said yes. They asked me if I could mention a campaign that I had found good and interesting on Facebook… Blank. I could just think about all of those “this and that person invites you to this and that group or event”. Then they asked me if I had a Twitter account and I answered “No, Twitter is not really my cup of tea”….
It is not easy to leave your professional networks behind and be like an unwritten page on the job market. There are, in fact, a lot of things that are difficult when you are looking for a job in a new country without your network. Especially in the performing arts sector! It is, however, relatively easy to avoid saying that Twitter is not “your cup of tea” in 2010 in a sector that is trying hard to position itself in social media.
In fact Twitter has to be your cup of tea in 2010 and this traumatic Opera House experience really made me think. The truth is that I don’t know social media “pretty well”. I haven’t been very interested in social media in terms of marketing, because I have never seen any campaigns that have inspired or impressed me and because of those last years as a project manager followed by maternity leave I haven't been forced to dig into it. The truth is that I don’t understand the excellence of Twitter and to me Facebook seems just like a sophisticated email system. I haven't seen social media used as intelligent marketing tools in my sector. And it ought to bloom in the arts and non profit sector! Art and non profit should be the peak sector for social media because it is cheap, creative and collaborative.
I have probably thought that I could surf beside the social media wave, by knowing it pretty well, not having to dive into it. Well, surfing on the side is not really my thing and pretty well is not good enough. I have decided to start The Social Media Project and give social media a fair chance. I will read, learn and analyze and I am going to be really, really good at it. From now on social media is my cup of tea.
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