Mike’s Points

Transparency, authenticity, disclosure, etc., are common buzz words in social media marketing.

To me, those and similar terms are about good ol’ honesty and integrity. Yes, integrity in public relations (or whatever realm you put social media marketing in).

I see nothing wrong with being paid or having other commercial/financial vested interest in promoting a company or group via social media technologies and tools — as long as you disclose your relationship, motive, etc. Heck, I’ve been paid to do it for the better part of the past four years.

Social media marketing is an interesting work process compared to traditional, offline media relations. It has forced PR pros to “step out from behind the curtain” because social media can easily intertwine our personal and professional online personas.

While the content is important, the source is just as important because the source is one way to help me judge the quality of the content and if I want to follow any links (such as content that is tweeted). If it’s a corporate or association Twitter account, for example, I don’t care who’s behind it because it’s a safe bet that most of the content is designed to help the company or association.

But, if it’s a person behind the tweet, for example — whether I know him/her or not — I definitely want to know if the content he/she is tweeting is because of personal or professional interest, or both.

To me, there’s a very basic litmus test to determine when you should disclose the relationship:

If you are being paid, will otherwise financially or somehow professionally directly benefit from a blog post, tweet, etc., you should disclose — even if the topic also is of personal interest.

For me, I am involved in public relations, social media marketing, and other marketing communication activities. I also do freelance journalism work for a couple Toledo-based newspapers. One is the Toledo Free Press. Every so often, I’ll retweet a tweet by the TFP. I do that because I think an article is important and I think others should know about it (others meaning people who may follow me but not the TFP).

I don’t think RT’ing the the paper’s tweets will directly benefit me (and I’ve never RT’ed a TFP tweet that was one of my articles). I guess by helping spread the exposure of the paper, one could argue that I’ll indirectly benefit by the chance that more people will be exposed to its articles, and likely visit its site, which could reinforce to advertisers that the TFP is a sought-after paper. And, if the TFP does well, one could argue that I would benefit.

I haven’t disclosed that I’m a stringer for the TFP in my RTs. Should I? To me, it’s a bit of a stretch that I’ll benefit by RT’ing the paper’s tweets. I also have RT’d the Blade’s tweets. Are those RTs any different?

If you disagree with me and think I should disclose my relationship with the TFP when I RT, please leave a comment.

And what about you: Do you disclose your business relationships with your tweets, posts, etc.?
-Mike

I don’t know, maybe it’s the cynical former journalist in me, but I bet there were a lot of tire-kickers at the inaugural Social Media Breakfast-Toledo April 3. Many people just seeing what was going on, and may not be back.

But, it’ll be their loss.

There were definitely plenty of people interested in and eager to learn about, dip their toes into and expand on their own experience in social media marketing at SMB-Toledo #1. There was great excitement in the air from the crowd of 79 people — plus many others who viewed it via Ustream.tv, as well as seeing the #smbtol Twitter stream.

If you’re one of those tire-kickers, you need to know that social media is no fad. And, to fellow area marketing communication professionals, business owners and business execs: if you bury your head and ignore social media marketing — you will become like the dinosaurs.

If you liked SMB-Toledo #1 or didn’t attend, you won’t be disappointed in SMB-Toledo #2 — no matter if you are new to social media or a savvy veteran (if there is such a thing in social media? Everything is relative.).

The focus is about social media monitoring.

I’m a firm believer that not every company and organization should be active in social media outreach. BUT, every company and organization should be monitoring social media for their name, products and services, competitors and trends pertinent to them. Just like having a clipping service if you are active in media relations, you need to be monitoring social media — no matter what.

Rant over — now for the details

Techrigy is one of the leading providers of social media monitoring and analysis tools. I’ve used Techrigy’s SM2 since late 2007. During that time, I’ve gotten to know Techrigy’s founder and president Aaron Newman — who’ll be talking about social media monitoring and measurement on May 1.

I’ve never heard him present, so am very much looking forward to it. (If you’re worried that Aaron’s talk will be a sales pitch, have no fear. Expect to learn, not to be pitched.)

So, without further ado, here are the details:

• Friday, May 1, 2009, 7:30-9:30 a.m.
• Elks Lodge Toledo #53, 3520 Holland-Sylvania Road, Toledo, Ohio, 43615
• Program: Techrigy’s Aaron Newman talking about: Monitoring and Measuring Social Media. A Q&A will be included.

For more detail and to register, please see SMB-Toledo’s EventBrite page. Cost is only $15.*

Remember, if you can’t make it, you have two options to still participate:

• Watch & Listen (yes, we’ll have the audio on for the entire event ) at SMB-Toledo’s Ustream.tv channel
• Watch the #smbtol Twitter stream or follow @SMBToledo

But wait, there’s more!
On Thursday, April 30, (the evening before Social Media Breakfast-Toledo #2), we’ll have a combination Toledo Tweetup (a/k/a #toleetup) and just a plain ol’ social media social time at Nick & Jimmy’s on Monroe Street, 6-9 p.m. For details, see the Facebook event or, if you’re not on FB, see details at Toledo.com.

Of course, if you want to connect with others in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan interested in social media — in between the Social Media Breakfast-Toledo events — please join the SMB-Toledo social network.

-Mike

*Yes, the registration from Social Media Breakfast-Toledo events went from $10 to $15. For the first one, the organizing committee pretty much broke even. For that first event, the Elks Lodge #53 donated the room. It was very appreciated. However, the Elks logically cannot do that for every one (and they aren’t). While Galen Bennett of Website Optics is sponsoring the room for SMB-Toledo #2, we can’t guarantee any sponsors for future events.

So, the SMB-Toledo committee decided to raise the event charge to cover the cost of a future location (whether or not it’s at the Elks Lodge) and other costs (like if we have any speaker or program expenses) that likely will come up. We can’t guarantee a sponsor for future events and want to keep the event charge consistent. Note that Aaron has not asked us to pick up any of his expenses for coming to Toledo.

If you are interested in sponsoring a future Social Media Breakfast-Toledo, please contact me or any other member on the organizing committee:

• Patrick Giammarco, PWG Marketing
• Kevin Cesarz
• Janeile Cudjoe, McGowen Properties
• Julie Cantu, 360 Graphics
• Tim Langhorst, Lauerer Markin Group & Thread Information Design
• Steve Robison, West Printing Company
• Allen Mireles of Allen Mireles Social Media Marketing / PR
• Victoria Kamm of BizTube 24/7
• Damian Rintelmann, Hart Inc.
• Michael Temple of Temple Development Co.

NOTE: Images are of SMB-Toledo #1 and courtesy of Mike Brice Photography, and can be found at his blog. And, don’t ask me what I’m doing in the image talking with Larry Eiler. I have no clue.

(And, when I say non self-promotional, I mean for yourself, your company and/or your client.)

Think about it: In traditional, one-way marketing communications, companies showcase the features and benefits they offer. Tell you how great they are — or have others to do it via paid or unpaid testimonials. News releases are one-way showcasing company news, a new application or a new product.

No matter how subtly it’s done, traditional advertising, direct mail, media relations, and other marketing communications is chest-beating.

But in social media marketing (using social media as part of an organization’s marketing efforts), it’s not about you or your company or you client. Look at the negative out-cry over Matt Bacak’s self-promotional news release in December 2008.

In fact, “expert” is a dirty, four-letter word. A few weeks ago, Damian Rintelmann seemed a bit uncomfortable when he thought I called him an expert on Twitter. (I wasn’t clear that, that term didn’t come from me — it came from an ID of him as part of TV coverage from Social Media Breakfast-Toledo #1.)

Social media marketing is not about broadcasting your wares.

Social media marketing is about discreetly, subtly showing value to people who may be interested in your products and/or services. How do you show value? I blogged about it before, but let me summarize it here to save you a click:

• Connecting: Businesses and organizations need to seek out and find common ground with their marketplace. They need to find out how THEY CAN HELP THEM.
• Contributing: Connecting ultimately means businesses are contributing value to their audience members’ lives — personal and/or professional, online and/or offline. Once, and as contributing is done on a regular basis, then a sort of community forms.
• Communities: The more companies connect with their target audience, and provide valued contributions, communities will form around their social media tools and activities.

Social media marketing is about developing a connection with your marketplace so, when community members want to buy, you are top of mind and they will (hopefully) give you serious consideration — and your sales people a chance to sell.

Yes, there is some self-promotion in social media marketing, but if you disclose it and keep it to a very minimal, you’ll get some slack from your community for it.

Because, it isn’t about you.

-Mike

We know about the now infamous “Disgusting Dominos People” video. Finally, Domino’s responded publically about mid week. After reading some of the stories on the timing of and what Dominos did in response, I’d give the company a C. And, hopefully, as with my previous post, it’ll learn from its mistakes and do better next time — because there will be a next time.

Let’s look at what Domino’s did right, according to a New York Times article and from what I’ve found:

• The company took immediate action and fired the employees Tuesday after first learning about it Monday evening and finding the location of the store Tuesday morning.
• The company had one of the culprits send a company-wide email to apologize Tuesday morning. (I assume the email was “encouraged” by the company; not of her own doing.)
• It contacted the local health and other officials in the store’s community.
• It created and posted a video response on YouTube. The video included the necessary information: what you’ve done; what you’re going to do so it doesn’t happen again; guidelines already in place that make the situation an anomaly (Star Trek term slipping in there).
• It opened a Twitter account to respond in real time to questions, provide information.

But, where did Domino’s fail?

It starts with this line from the NYT article:

As the company learned about the video on Tuesday, Mr. McIntyre said, executives decided not to respond aggressively, hoping the controversy would quiet down.

Excuse me?!

That comment clearly shows that Domino’s has no clue about social media. And, for a consumer-focused company, with franchises nearly everywhere, that alone should give its performance an F. Where the hell have you been the past few years?!

Here’s where Domino’s failed and needs to improve:

• The public response was way, too slow. According to the NYT article, Domino’s was aware of the video Monday evening, knew the IDs of the people Tuesday morning. The YouTube didn’t come until Wednesday sometime. The Twitter account did not go live until 12:42 p.m. Wednesday.

  Lesson? Don’t wait to respond. Gauge situation to determine damage, decide what needs to be done and how/where to implement and REACT QUICKLY in the same venue — the public — where the original emergency occurred.

• The video response was too corporate. Scott Monty first alerted me, among others to the Domino’s video — and tweeted an example of a crisis response video done right. Both videos are clearly professionally done — but the JetBlue one is clearly more comforting and more sincere.

  Lesson? In social media, it doesn’t have to be perfect — but it does have to be human, sincere, from the heart (not a script).

That’s my take on Domino’s latest social media crisis. What’s your’s?

-Mike

When my kids try something new, I tell them ahead of time that you rarely do it right or perfectly the first time. But, do keep trying; it’ll be worth it.

It seems like there have been a lot of very public mistakes of late involving social media. And, that’s okay — as long as people learn from their mistakes. Take Jeremy Epstein/NSM for example (hat tip to Lara Kretler). He even blogged about it, and included what he learned:

What the social media era is about is not pretending to be perfect and impersonal. It’s about being real and authentic. It’s about recognizing that, although people are trying to do their bests, sometimes they make mistakes.

But, if they apologize, understand, and learn from those mistakes, then, as humans, it is our responsibility to just move on…and go ahead and make new ones.

While Jeremy clearly learned from his goof, I hope a few other people will as well. For example, please do not betray others’ trust nor their property (and if you do, don’t post it on the Internet!):

• Disgusting Domino’s People: Okay, so teen brains are still developing, and as the video shows, even young adult brains are not fully wired. Regardless, if you want your 15 minutes of fame or want to show you have power over people’s food, please do not video yourself or friends doing disgusting stuff to it. What? Did you think no one would see it? Hopefully, the two young people in the video have higher aspirations than making and delivering subs and pizza*, and have learned their lesson: whether or not you record it, do not betray others’ trust.
• Similar to the above, renting a place means it’s not yours to do with what you will: Again, the culprits are 20-somethings who posted party pictures on Facebook — and then the landlord saw it, and evicted them. Hopefully, they will get some negative exposure and learn that you respect others’ trust.

And, I am by no means exempt from social media mistakes. My biggest lesson learned came a couple years ago — don’t rush to comment or blog about something unless you really read (not scan) it all.

Remember, Life is beta: Try something. Seek feedback. Improve. Repeat.

-Mike
*Don’t get me wrong, working at Domino’s or other pizza place is an honorable job. I’ve done it, and the pay was pretty good for not needing any other training. However, unless you are looking to become a manager or higher level, there’s not much to it once you get the process down.