The Out-Smarts Blog and Podcast

When considering an ad campaign whether on-line or in the real world, its very important to get it right. Proof read your work and have someone else do it too to make sure the message is right unlike these on Oddee.

Recent statistics from Nielsen and other forums suggest the Facebook use is declining. After its meteoric growth last year, the social network is beginning to show signs of slower growth. Is it a case that the masses are spending more time on other forums or is it simply that social media is evolving?

In April both Facebook and MySpace saw a decline in traffic in the US. I don’t know about you but any time I try to grow my friends on MySpace I discover that the vast majority of users haven’t updated their profile this year (or last in many cases!) - a sure sign that the networking site is less popular. For Facebook the decline is less apparent and in my opinion we are seeing a change in user profile (kids fleeing as grown ups and professionals with less time to play take over).

At the same time we see LinkedIn and Ning taking off as more and more professionals recognize the value of virtual networking to grow their business. Both are aimed specifically at business professionals and have little of the fluff associated with MySpace in particular. New social networkers are looking for tools to help them become more productive not tools that distract.

Micro blogs are also winning. The most popular by far is Twitter whose growth has more than doubled in the US since the start of 2008. Again people are recognizing that pared down applications can help spread the word rather than simply increase the noise.

Its interesting to note that Social networks are not declining across the board, its simply that the way people use them is evolving. The popularity of digital social networking is increasing as more and more people use their phones to network.

So what does all this mean for marketing? It shows that Internet marketers in particular and any companies active in these forums need to be listening and aware of trends ahead of the pack so that they can adapt and evolve in synch and not get left behind. They need to be versatile and ready to change and adapt to evolving tastes and habits. Lastly its important never to put your eggs in one basket - if you’re hanging your social media marketing hat on Facebook alone then think again - it may be time to look at Twitter or LinkedIn too.

May was so much fun it came and went without our regular new media reasons to be cheerful post. Better late than never, here it is:

Tweet Scan - real time Twitter search: who is saying what about you or your company.
BrightKite - location based social networking
Squidoo - create your own mashup site about something your interested in.
Friend Feed - all your friend feeds in one central place.
Flock - manage feeds from your favorites in a browser setting.

I came a across this great video from Common Craft on the Twist Image blog. The clip explains social media in an easy to understand way by putting it into a context the beginners can relate to: ice cream .

And if you like that you should also check out their podcasting, Twitter and wiki explanations too.

The latest Out-Smarts’ podcast tackles the relatively new concept of crowdsourcing with Monica Hamburg, social media evangelist, writer and comedian. Crowdsourcing is a way of tapping into the online masses and collaborating with them.

Here are some of the links Monica mentions in the interview.

Monica’s websites: www.monicahamburg.com, Me Like The Interweb

Crowdsourcing sites: Sellaband, istockphoto, Crowdsourcing

Neat Sites: My Name is Kate, Read Write Web, Problogger
My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-405455b2ebaa02e9550208025ef3f134}

I always encourage clients to consider Craigslist as a forum for free Internet advertising and also a good source of web site traffic but lately I am in two minds with the news that the site is being used to try to sell everything from sex to babies.

Yes babies - you read it right. Some unfortunate, mentally challenged parents in Vancouver were recently arrested for advertising their 7 day old baby on Craigslist for $10,000. When police popped in to investigate they claimed it was a hoax but that didn’t prevent their child from being taken into care.

Initially I considered this to be one of the problems of the “free” future of business much touted by Chris Anderson of Long Tail and Wired Magazine fame: if everything is free then there’s no money to pay anyone to monitor the service. Then I realized that Chris is right and that this is a perfect example of crowdsourcing - using the people and collective to get things done “free”. Craigslist doesn’t need to pay someone to monitor the ads that people are posting because the people will do it for them. The parents who thought it would be funny to advertise their child for sale got caught because of a conscientious granny who read it, thought rightly that that was wrong and reported it to the police.

When I recommend Craigslist to clients in future, I will be sure to set appropriate expectations and some will no doubt choose not to associate their products with the likes of those aforementioned which sometimes get advertised on Craigslist but it does remain a valuable “free” advertising forum that shouldn’t be ignored.

Watch out for more on crowdsourcing later in the week in the form of Out-Smarts podcast #5 with Monica Hamburg - coming soon!

I have it on good authority that the Twitter microblog site is this year’s web 2.0 tool of choice for Net savvy peeps to communicate with their networks (or minions as the case may be). I’ve been on Twitter for over a year now. At the start I was rather skeptical as to the value the medium brought especially from a business perspective: most of the “Tweets” (noun used to describe the statements people make on Twitter) were narcissistic comments made under the assumption that people were actually interested in hearing what others had for breakfast (for example).

I have watched Twitter usage evolve and today it’s much more sophisticated. Here’s a few tips for you to use to tweak your Tweets and get more out of your Twitter presence:

1. Add value - don’t just spout off about boring stuff. Nobody is interested in what color shoes you are wearing (maybe your underwear but definitely not your shoes!).

2. Share interesting stuff you’ve found on the web that relates to your business or area of interest.

3. Use TinyURL or a similar url abbreviation tool to shorten the length of url links in your Twitter posts so they fit in the 140 character limit.

4. Look at Twitter as a forum to let followers know what it is you do for a living - you never know who might read and say I need someone to do just that for me.

5. Don’t spam or sell.

6. If someone starts following you don’t automatically add them and follow (don’t be a sheeple) - take a look at the number of followers they have compared to their following. If they are following way more people than they have followers then it might be best to avoid them - chances are they are only looking to follow so that they can in turn spam you.

7. Don’t let Twitter suck up too much of your time - it can be very distracting.

8. Limit the number of people you follow to avoid Twitter overload.

9. Use Twitterfeed to feed your blog to Twitter.

10. Use Tweetscan to monitor whats being said about you or your company on Twitter.

Join me on Twitter to find out more and see for yourself how the medium is being used.

Darren Barefoot is a busy man these days, making the best of his return to Vancouver with numerous presentations sharing his and Capulet’s social media experiences. Last night’s Third Tuesday session was no exception. Similar to last week’s HTCE event (but not quite the same), the presentation took client ThoughtFarmer as a case study: Darren explained their approach to generating blogger buzz for that campaign.

I was going to blog about it in depth but Miss 604 did a fine job liveblogging and saved me the trouble, as did some others:

Hummingbird604
MapleLeaf 2.0

The latest Out-Smarts podcasts tackles the issue of Media Relations with Ruth Seeley, writer, photographer and former media maven. Ruth has an alternative approach to PR which she shares during our conversation.

The topic of discussion at the International Internet Marketing Association meeting last night was “Facebook Your Business”.  Three panelist brought their own perspective on Facebook from a business perspective.

The first speaker was Maureen McCartney from Citizens Bank of Canada.  She talked about how her organisation used Facebook to advertise during RRSP season.  Citizens Bank was one of the first banks to do so and they were able to generate buzz as a result.  Click through rates for their campaigns however were dismal - the highest being .13% - (which seems to be the norm with Facebook) but given the very small investment in comparison to traditional advertising, the campaign was deemed a success.

The second speaker was Michael Ferguson from Kinzin, the company that developed one of Facebook’s most succesful apps “Are you Normal” (incidentally I am 40% normal or slightly abnormal as the case maybe).  His off the wall presentation took a step back to look at how our culture is changing and embracing social media technologies.  He pointed out that to stand out in the crowd of Facebook applications you have to stand out from the rest of the wallpaper.  He coined the term Facebook jewellery to describe your profile or page picture and pointed out that it has to stand out if you want to attract attention or grow business on Facebook.

And finally, Phillip Jeffrey of UBC talked the crowd through the Facebook set up process, discussing the security capabilities and privacy issues. He pointed out that a Facebook page is to a business what a profile would be to an individual and provided an invaluable introduction to the medium aimed at new users.

Facebook is rapidly being adopted by all age groups and Canada has one of the fastest adoption rates for the social network.  Here at Out-Smarts we use Facebook extensively for business development:

1. To advertise to a very targeted niche at a very low cost.

2. To spread awareness of what Out-Smarts does via our Facebook page and application.

3. To build our business network with industry peers.

4. For branding - our logo appears on each fan and friend page.

5. To drive traffic to the website and blog.

6. To maintain awareness.

The concensus among the IIMA panelists: your company should get on Facebook as soon as possible.