Who is in control of your brand?

In this last 3 weeks I’ve given little love to my humble blog and it’s because I’ve been busy at a new exciting job. I’ve been working hard giving clients advice, reviewing campaigns, developing strategies and other work related things.

It’s no news to anyone that there is a difference between doing and talking, and a combination of the two is great. However, in the Australian social media arena talking out weighs the doing, see example #234 of 237 from yesterday.

Doing vs talking over time

Are you a blogger or a consultant, an entreprenuer or an academic? Or a combination of them all?

Social Media Marketing in Australia needs all of the above right now, but bring on some more doers. Being a blogger doesn’t make you a Social Media Marketer, using Social Media to spread a mesage for a brand makes you a Social Media Marketer – a doer.

Idea of graphing my thoughts inspired by Jye Smith.

UPDATE (13/04/09): This video is semi-relevant but moreso a nice example of doing, by Honda.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS8S_OJMzh0]

Leave comments here or on Twitter @simontsmall

Just found IBM’s guidelines for staff to use social media thanks to a friend on Twitter.

There are lots of words, and as you’d expect from an IT company, no pictures. So read it at your own will (all 2701 words).

Here are the highlights for me, not all new ideas, but a very good balance of all areas to consider when venturing into the scary world of social media.

Anything they’ve missed?

Whether or not an IBMer chooses to create or participate in a blog, wiki, online social network or any other form of online publishing or discussion is his or her own decision. However, emerging online collaboration platforms are fundamentally changing the way IBMers work and engage with each other, clients and partners.

IBM is increasingly exploring how online discourse through social computing can empower IBMers as global professionals, innovators and citizens. These individual interactions represent a new model: not mass communications, but masses of communicator

IBMers are personally responsible for the content they publish on blogs, wikis or any other form of user-generated media. Be mindful that what you publish will be public for a long time—protect your privacy.

Identify yourself—name and, when relevant, role at IBM—when you discuss IBM or IBM-related matters. And write in the first person. You must make it clear that you are speaking for yourself and not on behalf of IBM.

Respect your audience. Don’t use ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, or engage in any conduct that would not be acceptable in IBM’s workplace. You should also show proper consideration for others’ privacy and for topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory—such as politics and religion.

Find out who else is blogging or publishing on the topic, and cite them.

Try to add value. Provide worthwhile information and perspective. IBM’s brand is best represented by its people and what you publish may reflect on IBM’s brand.

Be who you are. Some bloggers work anonymously, using pseudonyms or false screen names. IBM discourages that in blogs, wikis or other forms of online participation that relate to IBM, our business or issues with which the company is engaged. We believe in transparency and honesty. If you are blogging about your work for IBM, we encourage you to use your real name, be clear who you are, and identify that you work for IBM. Nothing gains you more notice in the online social media environment than honesty—or dishonesty. If you have a vested interest in something you are discussing, be the first to point it out. But also be smart about protecting yourself and your privacy. What you publish will be around for a long time, so consider the content carefully and also be judicious in disclosing personal details.

Speak in the first person. Use your own voice; bring your own personality to the forefront; say what is on your mind.

Be the first to respond to your own mistakes. If you make an error, be up front about your mistake and correct it quickly. In a blog, if you choose to modify an earlier post, make it clear that you have done so.

Don’t forget your day job. You should make sure that your online activities do not interfere with your job or commitments to customers.

Related articles by Zemanta

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• Social Media Transparency and Real Transparency (yoono.com)

DEFINITION: Social Media is a place where two or more people are communicating about something publically.

(This means things like blogs, forums, facebook and other places where ‘the people’ are in control of the content.)

So as marketers, business owners and brand managers, we want to expose our message through this channe – and its EXCITING TIMES, as its new and very misunderstood.

Social media is exactly the same as traditional media in principle with some technical differences.

So if social media is just a delivery channel, like ‘traditional’ media, why are there social media specialists? Well, because its widely misunderstood.

Social media has the following communication benefits for marketers

- Market ressearch: Listen, read and watch what people think about you, your competitors or your category

- Public Relations: free exposure of your message by building relationships with the media

- Advertising: buying the opportunity to expose your message to your

There is no confusion around advertising on social media, and market research is being used by very few, however public relations is the gray area where people are becoming social media specialists, and its WRONG!

How Public Relations works in media relations (and I’m no expert)

Public Relations consultants have relationships with editors at media outlets. At one newspaper there will be 10′s if not 100′s of editors, from the business section to the social pages. PR people also create content that is relevant to individual editors. Through either good content or a strong relationship, the PR consultant can get their message to their audience. But at the end of the day, the editor has control of the message.

What is a media outlet?

This may seem silly, but media outlets historically have been newspapers, TV, radio. What most people seem to be missing the point on is that blogs, forums, Facebook and all social media is just another media outlet. Sure, there are a few technical differences, however the key fundamental is still there: the publisher is in control of the message.

What scares people, PR firms and marketers is that the person ‘in control’ of the message isn’t a ‘respected newspaper editor’ or some such thing, its some teenager in their bedroom blogging about random stuff. And we all know this isn’t true.

If you build a relationship with a blogger, community manager, online activist or whoever, and give them good content, you’re likely to get the same outcome as you would with a newspaper.

ITS NO DAMN DIFFERENT! PR PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DOING IT FOR DECADES!

So why then, are there all these ‘social media specialists’?

I believe its a mentally that wont shift, its a bunch of people (I’m looking at you PR industry) who have done what they’ve done for so long, and don’t like change, so a bunch of people have jumped into the gap that is continuing to widen.

So don’t call yourself a social media specialist, you’re a PR person, or if you’re a PR person, be a leader in your industry in the top 21% infact (based on a recent study) and start seeing ‘social media’ as another channel, like TV, radio or print. Start building relationships, reading their articles and giving them content, or whatever they want, product samples, event invitations, whatever.

And what I’m saying is in no way new, Public Relations has been around for many moons, and social media was identified as a PR exercise way back in 1993, when Brian Solis coined the phrase “PR 2.0″.

Footnote

Sorry about the strong language (in caps) I’ve been working with PR people for years, and trying to help them realise this with very little progress.

Please excuse the overhyped headline, however, its all true. Today will be a profile raising day for Twitter as a potential marketing tool.

David Armano raised over $9,000 $10,000 in under 8 hrs, by posting this Tweet at approximately 2pm (Australia time).

OK, here’s the favor. It’s a big one. For big hearts. Please help. http://is.gd/e Kbo Please retweet.

By roughly 10pm (Australia time) (right now) the cash was still rolling in, up to $10,108!

But here’s the bad news, David Armano is a very well followed Twitter and highly respected blogger – no 30 second money making scheme here

What is does show is that Twitter, if used correctly, can be an effective marketing tool. By no means is it the $1m+/day sales that major brands need, but it can deliver outcomes.

So why did it work? Well, again, sorry to say its not a magic pill, its an approach. David Armano has been creating a credible reputation & relationships by creating quality meaningful content for a long time.

So how do you create credible reputation & relationships?

It’s a pretty simple recipe:

1 cup of good quality & relevant content

1/2 cup a day of responding to individuals

40 cups of treat people as you’d like to be treated

5 cups of observation of your community

15 cups of be in it for the long term

Some of our politicians are doing very well Obama & Malcolm Turnbull in particular.

Have a read of what some other’s thought of this campaign

• Laureal Papworth, Social Fundraising
• Scott Drummond, How’s your relationship balance sheet
• Or the man himself, David Armano’s thankyou video

UPDATE: Some more links on this topic (thanks to Scott)

• David Armano makes Social Networks Count, AdFreak.com post by Brian Morrissey
• The Collective Power of Individuals, BusinessWeek article by Helen Walters
• Digital Neighbourhood Comes to the Aid of Abused Woman, a blog post by AdRants

Back in September I discovered this tool, by Technorati, that calculates your blog’s value… It’s based on AOL’s purchase of Blog Inc way back in 2005, so its very theoritical, but interesting non the less.

Back then my blog was theoretically worth around $500, I was curious to see if it had changed, and it has roughly tripled to now being worth nearly $1700! woot! time to move up the coast and retire.

You can chuck your blog in and see how it fares.

I’ve compared a few of my favourite blogs below, add yours to the list.

Seth Godin $4,473,414

Love Digital $4,516.32

Adspace Pioneers $65,486

The Zeitgeists $0.00

Marketing Charts $349,450

Laurel Papworth – Social Networks $92,584

Six Pixels of Seperation $401,952

Jim’s Marketing Blog $36,130

The White Agency $2,258

I’m a bit split at the moment, but in general I like both Kevin and Malcolm, they’re both smart and politically savvy dudes.

However, when it comes to social media & online, Malcolm clearly leads the race. What do you think, poll below.

To quickly compare what they’re doing

Malcolm Turnbull has:

Photo: Facebook

1. A Twitter feed, being genuinely updated

2. A flickr page, with non-polished genuine photos

3. A smart xmas greeting card, sent out in the last 7 days (and took over his website‘s homepage)

4. His dog’s have blogs, his website is smart and the list goes on…

Photo: Andrew Taylor

Kevin Rudd, on the other hand has:

1. A boring ‘corporate/campaign’ website (granted, this may be a Gov requirement)

2. Has a flat and boring ‘personal’ site

3. Has a Twitter feed, although very dry and impersonal (oh and you can’t direct message him)

4. A dry flickr page with all his publicity shots

5. A party message driven facebook page

6. And in a major fail, I received an email that got put into my spam folder on the 17th of December.

It’s a real shame that he’s continuing to miss the boat on this thing called social media and the internet…

[polldaddy poll=1206308]

Bloggers write about things they think are important, and maybe other people will care or not. To help build a stronger more considered ‘story’ some bloggers link to external content, images, blogs, videos etc. This process involves searching to find high quality reference materials, in an attempt to make that process easier ‘Zemanta‘ has been developed.

Zemanta automatically recommends related articles and images based on the content of your blog as you’re writing it.

Its a great idea, however, the quality of the recommendations is key, and as this is my first post using it, I’m going to include all the recommended links – so you can be the judge.

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• Tips for good blog content
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• Comment Form vs. Contact Form: Do You Mistake One for the Other?
• Important Blog Directories to Help Your Blog
• Three years? Really?!?
• The ABA Journal profiles me (among others).
• Why I blog – And it’s not to be on some stinking list
• Hear my question on CBC Spark

Right now it supports:

• WordPress.com
• Self-hosted WordPress.org 2.1+
• Blogger.com
• TypePad
• Ning
• MySpace
• LiveJournal
• MovableType
• Tumblr
• Drupal

Great idea, what do you think?

Although satisfying and distilling, Twitter’s 140 chars is no longer sustainable. More to the point I’m starting to realise that I should start dumping random thoughts somewhere.

I’ve also stumbled accross a couple of people’s ‘identity’ sites which basically link you off to everything thats relevant… Most notably Steven Noble’s http://snoble.net/, I love the simplicty.

So right now I’m setting up http://www.simontsmall.com/ - wish me luck.