Corporate Engagement

H&R Block (Kansas) on using social media (video)

• Focused on building brand.
• Social media spend is about 0.5% of overall brand promotion spending.
• ROI is largely about learning
• Made stuff relevant to each community rather than creating it over and over
• Be careful about pushing outer limits of technology
• Blogged on tax legislation as it went through
• Created forums for people to ask questions (about tax changes) and then respond one-to-many
• Keep looking for ways to drive engagement deeper (the more engaged, the more loyal the customer)
• Offered free tax advice on facebook - scaling up is a problem. Answering 20,000 questions is a lot bigger problem than 2,000
• Used a brand evangelist on Youtube
• Backlash against brands on Youtube - has to be funny and purposeful
• Brand evangelist also used on myspace
• Second Life a 'wonderful corporate challenge' - offer tax advice in avatar form using a dance scene - really good for customer engagement
• Used twitter, interaction with Robert Scoble. Twitter experiences have been great
• The biggest measurement is changing perceptions of brand - takes time

Who should blog for your company?

a shel of my former self: "A lot of choices have to be made when a company decides to launch an official blog. Among these choices: Who will represent the company on the blog?"

A nice discussion of the issues involved: - existing company person or hire an experienced blogger? - single or group blogs?

Some social media fakester tactics

Are SEO Ethics Different than Social Media Ethics?:

"...'Vanity Baiting'.  This tactic, used by SEO's, made me stop and question everything that was said to me in the past by SEO's who now seem to be 'overly gracious' with their comments.  Have I been 'baited' for months with this vanity baiting tactic?  How can I trust anyone who uses this tactic, that they are being truthful with their compliments going forward? Was any of that real, or was that to get me to stumble, read, sphinn, and link to them?  If it was, it worked in the past because I have done all of that, now though I will have to think twice, because the trust that was there, is now gone. What about gaming Twitter for backlinks?  Seems harmless?  Think again.  If you get found out as a spammer on Twitter (and now Plurk), the community bands together and not only reports you to the respective services, but the community shuns you.  Sure you may have your other spammer friends to follow you, but will anyone else?  Likely not, then what good is gaming Twitter? What about multiple accounts on social media news and bookmarking services?  Think it's all about the 'avatar'?  Think again.  It's about the human, and again, if you are found out to be building fake accounts - i.e. claiming to be a 43 year old mom of 3 who loves cooking, scrapbooking and knitting, when you are really a 30 something man, who's spamming the scrapbooking folks with your fake profile/avatar, all hell's going to break loose when those people you befriended through the bot you created, figure out your spamming them.  But hey! What's a few profiles to burn down, right?  Trouble is all that time spent 'faking it' could have been spent being real and making real connections that gain you much more than links."

It's amazing how many people spend so much time and energy looking for ways to create artificial success online - must be good money in it?

Social media: Some lessons from America

I spent most of April in the USA and apart from going to baseball games I caught up with some great bloggers. Here's some key points from those discussions:

• Although many bloggers are very successful esp in this presidential year there still isn't a sustainable business model. Many high profile bloggers are still operating in start-up mode which means working round the clock and burning people out
• At the same time, it is much harder for new bloggers to carve out a niche than it was a few years ago
• Big media has adapted very quickly to the new environment over the past year or two and organisations like Forbes have some big plans for building communities and marketing in that environment
• Most companies basically have a GMOOT (get me one of those) approach to social media; they don't really 'get it', they just want to do something cool.
• Many early adoptors are blogging less because of micro-blogging (twitter, facebook).
• Second Life has not been a winner for corporates and 'we were all guilty of rushing into it without thinking it through'.

Don't write Rudd off just yet

Unleashed.

A first term in government is never easy, writes Trevor Cook.

"Commentators are not only suggesting that the Kevin Rudd honeymoon over but that his government might have already started down a path to ruination. A quick look at history, especially John Howard's first term, might give them reason to be a little more circumspect.

More...

links for 2008-06-30

• Microsoft's Canberra PR jaunt
  (tags: politics internet Microsoft,)

Serena Williams won't vote on religious grounds

Serena Williams Supports Obama, But Won’t Vote.

Don’t expect to see Serena Williams lining up at a polling place November 4 because even though the tennis star has expressed support for Democrat Barack Obama, she says her religion prevents her from voting. “I’m a Jehovah’s Witness, so I don’t get involved in politics. We stay neutral. We don’t vote,” she commented recently when asked about the election. “So I’m not going to necessarily go out and vote for him (Obama). I would if it wasn’t for my religion.”

I don't get how it's not political to publicly support a candidate?

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Is Google Making Us Stupid?:

" Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle."

It's certainly true. Now that I'm doing some university research again I've noticed that I have to constantly resist the temptation to just hit the net and look around to see what's going on. It is deeply satisfying when you do sit down and read books and articles for hours on end and it gets easier each day. Personally, I think we can straddle both modes of thought but it does require a bit of effort. Probably too many people opt for the immediacy and excitement of the net and that's problematic long-term.

Obama ahead in race for electoral college votes

At dinner on Saturday night a Canberra political lobbyist told me that Obama can't win because he just won't win enough states to get there, a view I strongly disagreed with, so earlier this week I did up a state-of-play using the excellent pollster.com site. At about the same time, one of my other favourite sites, RealClearPolitics, put up its own analysis (presumably using the same poll reults).

That is Obama 238 (146 solid, 92 leaning), McCain 163 (93 solid, 70 leaning) and toss-up 137 (the magic number is 270). I had 3 less for Obama. The toss-up states are:

• Nevada (5 electoral college votes) - McCain +3 in latest poll, trend favours McCain
• Colorado (9) - Obama +2, trend favours McCain
• New Mexico (5) - Obama +8 (other recent polls are closer), trend favours Obama slightly
• Missouri (11) - McCain +7 (other recent polls are closer), trend favours Obama
  
• Minnesota (17) - Obama +1 (other recent polls are stronger for Obama), trend favours Obama
• Indiana (11) - Obama +1, trend is flatlining
• Ohio (20) - McCain +1, trend line favours Obama
• New Hampshire (4) - Obama +8, trend strongly favours Obama
  
• Virginia (13) - Obama +2, trend favours Obama
• North Carolina (15) - McCain +4, trend favours Obama slightly
• Florida (27) - McCain +8, trend favours Obama

Stand by folks, it's going to be an interesting time for election geeks, for people like us it's the biggest and best show on earth.

Update (Sat. 28/6) - here are two good articles on strategy and maths

• Mapping a win
• No, McCain isn't "Doomed'

The abuse of polls by the media

Pressuring politicians and populist terrorism - On Line Opinion - 26/6/2008.

links for 2008-06-25

• Mark Scott, Managing Director of ABC, at the Future of Media Summit: thoughts on the future of media
  (tags: media, ABC)

Are PR people really key organisational strategists

News - Public Relations Institute of Australia.

PRIA National President Tracy Jones said the title of the Conference was "The New Communicator". ..."PR professionals are increasingly becoming key strategists in organisations, driving business decisions at the highest level. At the same time, they have a broader range of tools available to them than ever before, and an audience that is consuming more media than ever before."

Really? We've been hearing about this elevated role for PR for a decade or two now and I'm not convinced that it is anything more than a plea to be taken more seriously. Most of the time, I'm thinking well over 90 percent, PR just gets told to 'sell' whatever the organisation decides to do. The main exception would be during a crisis when normally 'in control' managers suddenly start listening to other voices.

Twittering to escape

Why Do People Twitter?: Results of a Scientific Study: "Results revealed that Twitter users were more likely to communicate in order to Escape. This means they chose items in line with: I talk to put off something I should be doing; I talk to get away from what I am doing; I talk because I have nothing better to do; I talk to get away from pressures and responsibilities. My earlier research on Twitter had led to the assumption that it was a ‘water cooler’ of sorts for bloggers (as a group and occupation type) to convene, ask questions, get feedback, and spend time with colleagues. These findings make it clear that Twitter users do not view the social media site as an online water cooler. In fact, the Escape factor as a reason for communication puts Twitter more in line with ‘happy hour.’"

links for 2008-06-24

• Write Articles, Not Blog Postings (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)
  (tags: blogging)
• How we read online. - By Michael Agger - Slate Magazine
  (tags: blogging)

Better than email? Twitter as a campaigning tool

Eric Lee:

Those of us trying to use email as a campaigning tool are running into some serious problems these days. Getting heard over all the background noise is becoming more difficult. Inboxes are filling up rapidly. At best we skim, and don't read, the hundreds of messages we receive every week. And that's the messages that actually get through our spam filters.

Unions need to find a way to cut through that noise and reach their members. Members need an alternative to the spam-filled, overflowing inbox. Everyone needs messages to be brief and to the point.

Twitter may offer a solution.

It might, certainly an interesting experiment.