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Archive for November, 2007

Facebook Beacon – A Debate

07.11.30

I had a great email conversation with a couple of colleagues at work today about the furor over Facebook’s Beacon application. With their permission, I’m posting the conversation here (with their names removed) for your thoughts:

Subject: Facebook Beacon

ME: The latest in a loooong series of stories this week about Facebook’s Beacon system:
http://valleywag.com/tech/your-privacy-is-an-illusion/does-facebook-hate-christmas-327664.php

COLLEAGUE A: Yep had read that – amazing how old people haven’t realized young people don’t see it the same way anymore. The whole concept of privacy is changing, inevitably, due to technology.

ME: I think they’ve made a mistake not forcing companies to let people opt in rather than the reverse, though. The story about a guy who bought an engagement ring & whose girlfriend found out about it through that system is particularly compelling (although… seriously…. who buys an engagement ring on Overstock.com???)

COLLEAGUE A: They forced News updates about all our friends and everyone complained – now its become the core value of FB everyone loves…

ME: Very true & I agree that young people have a different view of things, but when it comes to things done outside Facebook I think that crosses the line if there’s no option to opt-out. If I bought [my girlfriend] a Christmas present from Company A, I’d be pretty pissed if it showed up in my news feed & she found out about it.

They should at least force companies to flash up a "We’re posting this to your Facebook profile – are you ok with that?" message.

(on a separate note, remember that most new users are over 35 on Facebook now…. they’re not just dealing with youngsters any more)

COLLEAGUE A: Is it up to Facebook or Company A?

COLLEAGUE B: I’d say Company A. (I give my personal & financial info for the sole purpose of making a purchase, and nothing else — and they do say something like this before you get to the "secure access" pages).

As for Facebook, they’ve got this bit of legalese on their privacy page:

"Facebook may also collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other users of the Facebook service through the operation of the service (e.g., photo tags) in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalized experience."

ME: Company A, for sure, but Facebook should have a terms of service for companies that mandates it.

—————

Interestingly, it appears Facebook has actually listened to user concerns this time. As reported late today (see here and here):

Stories about actions users take on external websites will continue to be presented to users at the top of their News Feed the next time they return to Facebook. These stories will now always be expanded on their home page so they can see and read them clearly.

Users must click on “OK” in a new initial notification on their Facebook home page before the first Beacon story is published to their friends from each participating site. We recognize that users need to clearly understand Beacon before they first have a story published, and we will continue to refine this approach to give users choice.

If a user does nothing with the initial notification on Facebook, it will hide after some duration without a story being published. When a user takes a future action on a Beacon site, it will reappear and display all the potential stories along with the opportunity to click “OK” to publish or click “remove” to not publish.

Users will have clear options in ongoing notifications to either delete or publish. No stories will be published if users navigate away from their home page. If they delay in making this decision, the notification will hide and they can make a decision at a later time.

Clicking the “Help” link next to the story will take users to a full tutorial that explains exactly how Beacon works, with screenshots showing each step in the process.

Thank goodness. I applaud this move by Facebook, despite how late in the game it came. I was beginning to think I’d have to ‘opt out’ of the whole site.

Technorati Tags: Facebook,Beacon,privacy

Posted in: facebook

2Comments

Hyperlocal Media Coverage Of California Malibu Fires

07.11.27

While researching my presentation for the recent Talk Is Cheap unconference, I came across a fantastic post by Mark Glazer. Alongside discussing the response of media outlets to the first set of fires, Glazer noted the lack of hyper-local coverage of the fires.

What many people who are evacuated really want is simple information on the condition of their home and neighborhood.

He also quoted Dan Gillmor, director of the Center for Citizen Media, who said:

I suspect it’ll be startups, not news organizations, that figure this out…But this is squarely in the sweet spot for traditional media if they understand their missions.”

Now comes news of more fires in western California, this time around Malibu. These fires were much smaller than the ones in October, but news organizations once again went to town with interactive maps and other new-media coverage.

Related to Glazer’s post, though, Fox News found Gillmor’s "sweet" spot and went hyper-local on its map, pinpointing individual houses that were damaged or destroyed.

View Larger Map

Very impressive, but again, where was the state government in this?

Ok, these fires weren’t so big so maybe didn’t warrant coverage on their homepage. Surely there’s something up on their Fire Season site though, right?

Wrong.

The only evidence of any fires on their homepage was a link to a news release in their long list of releases.

(Ok, that page does link (yet again…) to a video (not to a player – to the video file directly) and a ‘photo essay,’ but I’m not impressed.)

Another missed opportunity for the state and another home run by the ‘traditional’ media.

Technorati Tags: California wildfires,Calfires.com,web 2.0,crisis communications,Google,hyperlocal

Posted in: crisis communications, media, social media, web 2.0

0Comments

RichardatDell Visits Third Tuesday Toronto

07.11.26

richard-binhammer Richard Binhammer, aka RichardatDell, will speak at a Third Tuesday Toronto (which I’m quickly realizing is possibly the most arbitrary name ever) on December 4.

Richard is one of the key figures behind Dell’s emergence from Jeff Jarvis’s Dell Hell as a social media-savvy company, and his insights into Dell’s social media efforts should make for fascinating listening.

A small bit of trivia for you: Richard actually started his career in the Ontario government. As he told me, “Cabinet office folk always in way:-)” Thanks Richard

If you’re in the Ottawa area, Richard is also speaking at a Third Tuesday Ottawa meet-up on December 3.

To attend the events, sign up here:

Another big tip of my hat to Joseph Thornley for organizing yet another great event. Joe, I’ll buy you a drink tomorrow

Posted in: blogger relations

1Comments

ING Direct’s Tentative Social Media Effort

07.11.26

I received an email today from ING Direct. Normally their emails go straight into my trash folder, but this one caught my eye.

This one advertised a contest leveraging social media.

The Canadian Superstar Saver Search (try saying that three times quickly) is straightforward – create a video explaining the creative ways you save money, upload it to YouTube Canada, enter the competition and you’re in with a shot at winning $10,000.

I think there are several cool things about what ING is doing:

They’re getting involved in social media and user-generated content, however tentatively
They’re leveraging word of mouth – by using YouTube instead of their own video hosting system, they’re allowing people to embed the videos on their own sites and spread the word
They’re putting power in the hands of the community – the eventual winners will be chosen by the YouTube community, not by the suits in ING’s office
They’re aware enough of new media events to piggy-back on the launch of YouTube Canada.

However, I don’t think they thought the whole thing carefully before they launched.

I couldn’t find one link to YouTube Canada anywhere on their site. All of the links were to the international YouTube site. Bad ING. Bad. Go to your room.
For a contest about user-generated content, the prize isn’t exactly creative. Why not use that content somehow – in a TV ad perhaps? Their terms & conditions already allow for it, why not make it part of the prize? Or find an even more creative way to reward the winner
The competition uses social media; why not leverage it to spread the word? Their contest design shows they’re targeting a younger demographic that’s social media-savvy, so where are the social bookmarking links? Where’s their Facebook or MySpace page promoting the contest? So many missed opportunities.

This all smacks of a company that wants to capitalize on the popularity new media without really taking the time to look into it.

Kudos to ING Direct for dipping its toe into the waters of social media. Next time, though, maybe they should think it through more carefully first.

Technorati Tags: ING Direct,Canadian Superstar Saver Search,YouTube Canada,user generated content,social media

Posted in: marketing, social media, youtube

2Comments

Now Is Gone: Your Boss Needs This Book

07.11.25

If you (or your boss) find yourself confused, apprehensive or unsure about delving into the world of new media, then Now Is Gone is for you.

Communications professionals are in the middle of a tumultuous period. The Internet has done more than just change the way people buy goods or play games; it has changed the way many people communicate, form connections and build communities.

This new environment undermines one of the fundamentals of traditional ‘public relations’ – the tightly-controlled message. It forces organizations to listen as well as speak. It forces them to engage rather than preach.

These changes are daunting, for not only do they force us to re-examine the way we communicate, but they come wrapped in terms like "web 2.0" and "new media" rather than what it’s all about – people. Social media is all about conversation, engagement and communities.

That’s where Now Is Gone comes in.

In just under 190 short pages, Geoff Livingston and Brian Solis lead the reader on a whirlwind introduction to the world of social media.

Topics include:

An introduction to social media, its benefits and its increasing importance
Whether your organization is new media ready, and some of the challenges you may have to overcome
Some of the principles behind engaging communities through your social media effort
Some of the common social media tactics you can use
How social media may develop in the future
Some fantastic interviews with social media pioneers

For me, a particular strength of the book is that it doesn’t automatically assume that you should market your business using social media.

I’ve found that a lot of people fall into "shiny new object syndrome." Instead, Livingston challenges the reader, asking questions like whether they are ready to relinquish control of their message, whether their audience is ready and whether they can dedicate the necessary resources.

Of course, the hope is that the answer is "yes," and the rest of the book works on that assumption, but this is a critical piece to the puzzle and one that is often overlooked.

Livingston’s concluding chapter summarizes seven very powerful social media principles:

Relinquish message control
Honesty, ethics and transparencies are musts
Participation within the community is marketing
Communication to audiences is an outdated, 20th century concept
Build value for the community
Inspire your community with real, exciting information
Intelligently manage the media form to build a stronger, more loyal community.

Ironically, Now Is Gone‘s main weakness is also one of its biggest strengths – its length. The book’s brevity means that, while principles are frequently backed-up with case studies, they are not as detailed or convincing as some executives may like to see.

This is not a "how to" book. It’s about the "what," not the "how." Fear not; this is a strength. By focusing on what leaders need to know, Livingston avoids getting bogged down in techno-babble and jargon and steers readers through an break-neck primer that’s ideal for busy executives.

As Livingston writes, "Now Is Gone is not meant to teach business owners and marketing practitioners how to execute all of these tactics… Now Is Gone means to provide you the information necessary for intelligent leadership…"

Job well done, I say.

Now Is Gone is available through Amazon. Check it out.

Technorati Tags: Geoff Livingston,Now Is Gone,Brian Solis

Posted in: marketing, pr, public relations, social media

1Comments

The Shameful Strategies Behind Many Viral Videos

07.11.22

TechCrunch posted a very interesting guest post today by Dan Ackerman Greenberg, who talks about the tactics his company uses to drive people to view videos on YouTube.

Greenberg co-founded The Comotion Group, a “viral marketing” firm. He boasts that in the past three months he’s achieved 20 million views for his clients. However, I’m not linking through to their site, as quite frankly I don’t think they deserve the Google juice – the tactics he espouses are, quite frankly, disgusting.

First, though, the positives. The post does provide some very useful pointers for producers of YouTube videos:

Make it short: 15-30 seconds is ideal
Design for remixing
Don’t make an outright ad unless it’s really amazing
Make it shocking
Optimize the thumbnail image

However, Greenberg’s post also outlines a few “strategies” that I find disgusting:

Using fake headlines
Paying bloggers to post the videos
Spamming forums on websites
Spamming peoples’ comments on their MySpace pages
Spamming email lists
Fake comments by his company on videos to provoke controversy

Oh, and this classic:

Also, we aren’t afraid to delete comments – if someone is saying our video (or your startup) sucks, we just delete their comment. We can’t let one user’s negativity taint everyone else’s opinions.

Yes, you can. That’s called conversation. It’s a two-way thing.

This is exactly the kind of behaviour that I, along people like Todd, Brian, Geoff and many, many others, despair about. This is the kind of thing that gives marketers and PR practitioners a bad name.

Why am I going to town here? Because, even when confronted with the inherent problem with his tactics, ~~Ackerman~~ Greenberg continued to defend them.

In response to criticism about his fake comments:

What we do is grease the viral wheels. If that means commenting back and forth between fake users, who cares? It’s all about entertainment – we’re just making the whole experience entertaining, not just the video itself.

And again:

Beyond commenting back and forth to make the comment thread more interesting on each video, what exactly do you guys find so morally wrong here?

I’m not naive – I know this goes on all the time. The difference here is, ~~Ackerman~~ Greenberg has come out and admitted it, and I give him some credit for that. He also has some useful pointers, for which I also give him credit.

Still, the fact that this happens all the time isn’t an excuse for copying it. There are precedents for all sorts of unethical behaviour, but that doesn’t justify the continuation of those behaviours.

Deep down, I think ~~Ackerman~~ Greenberg knows this is wrong:

I can’t reveal our clients’ names and I can’t link to the videos we’ve worked on, because YouTube surely doesn’t like what we’re doing and our clients hate to admit that they need professional help with their “viral” videos.

How about: They’re afraid of being exposed?

Unfortunately for ~~Ackerman~~ Greenberg, as an enterprising commenter on the TechCrunch article found, his LinkedIn profile claimed:

Notable clients include: 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros Records, Fox Atomic, Walden Media, Yari Film Group, Nike, Oakley….

~~Ackerman~~ Greenberg quickly removed this from his information once the commenter flagged it, but Google’s cache (posted here for future prosperity) reveals he did in fact post those names.

If ~~Ackerman~~ Greenberg & co don’t see the error of their ways, hopefully their clients will. This kind of behaviour shouldn’t be encouraged.

Disgusting.

Update: Neville Hobson and Doug Walker have also posted good responses to this.

Technorati Tags: ethics,marketing,YouTube,TechCrunch,The Comotion Group,spam

Posted in: ethics, marketing

5Comments

CaseCamp Toronto 6 Write-Up

07.11.20

Case Camp Toronto 6, held tonight, featured a series of fascinating presentations.

I live-tweeted the event, along with Joseph Thornley (here), Connie Crosby (here) and Wayne MacPhail (here) – together we managed a pretty good summary of the event. I’ve stolen memories from all of the above to generate this post.

Mobile Marketing for Levis @ Virgin Fest Toronto

Brady Murphy, Managing Partner at Vortex Mobile, gave a great presentation about how they’ve used a viral mobile campaign during the Virgin Fest music festival in Toronto.

Murphy outlined the four main features of the campaign:

User-generated content
Mobile marketing
Strategic sponsorship
Social networking

The campaign was essentially a glorified model search – winners of the model search would be featured on a prominent advertisement for Levis.

The company brought a full photo-shoot crew of stylists, photographers and graphical artists to the event. Attendees received a consultation with the stylists, had a photo shoot, then received a customized lanyard with their photo on it, along with a unique user ID.

People could vote for their favourite model by texting that person’s ID number to the company. Vortex made the competition more interesting by:

Sending a return text message with a tally of votes to each voter
Providing ‘instant win’ prizes to people who voted at a certain ‘bulls-eye time’
Providing an option to download contestant photos to mobile phones via MMS, which people could then forward to their friends
Keeping voting open for two weeks after the event to allow people to stir up support

Interestingly, 57% of votes happened after the festival ended – the competition went truly viral. People started using Facebook and MySpace to campaign for votes. Over 1,000 people downloaded the photos onto their phones. Altogether, 22,000 people voted for their favourite model – a higher number than in 2006, and 800% higher than in 2005 (the campaign has run for several years now).

Truly a social media/new media success.

Growing a Global Online Community – Treehugger

Treehugger is one of the largest environmental communities on the web. Lloyd Alter presented on some of their experiences as they’ve grown.

Treehugger focuses on the message that, as Alter says, “you don’t have to be in a poncho to be green.”

Since launching the site they’ve gone from two writers to 40, and now post about 30 times every day, around the clock.

The main take-away from Treehugger’s presentation (apart from their cool site) was the importance of Digg to their success. 25% of visits to their site come from Digg. Considering that they receive (from memory) two million visits each month, that’s a significant number.

Alter says they spend a lot of time working on their Digg strategy. Treehugger actually launched its own version of Digg, aptly named ‘Hugg,’ although that seems to be winding down.

Engaging the Community – Globeandmail.com

Angus Frame, editor of Globeandmail.com, gave a great presentation on how the Globe & Mail engaged its readers by enabling comments on its articles back in 2005.

At the time, this was a pretty ballsy move for a conservative newspaper, but the engagement seems to have been worth it. The site received over 5,000 comments in the first month alone, and last month received over 100,000.

One example Frame gave was of when the government (he didn’t specify which) was talking about trying to entice expatriates back from overseas. The paper quoted a minister talking about how their policies would bring people back. Within half an hour the article had 50 posts from expatriates detailing why that wouldn’t happen.

To deal with the huge volume of comments (and users who were becoming frustrated with delays in posting their comments), the Globe introduced a tiered system of moderation – fully moderated, semi-moderated and closed. Some posts are completely open (although users must register on the site to post). The Globe now has 30 editors who spend part or all of their time moderating comments.

Frame says they’re not done yet – he’d like to see a better conversation between the different communities involved – reporters, newsroom staff and consumers. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. He also indicated they are playing around with some social networking-esque features.

Frame also dealt well with some pointed questions about the Globe & Mail’s continuing use of subscriber-only content. As he put it, the subscriber-only content underwrites the operation if there’s a downturn in advertising. He does see that evolving, although he gave no indication the Globe is considering following the NYT and WSJ in making all its content free.

Building Compelling Identity In Social Media Spaces – Will Pate

Will Pate gave the evening’s last talk – a very cool presentation talking about how he’s developed his own personal brand.

Pate is one of the pioneers of the ‘Social Media Evangelist’ position (at age 25!). In 2005 he co-founded Raincity Studios, a new media agency in the Vancouver area. He also worked as the ‘community ambassador’ for Flock (the social web browser). As he put it, he was ‘the voice of the company outside the organization, and the voice of the community inside the organization.’

Pate describes himself as “a small town guy with a few thousand friends.” He has a few tips for managing your online personal brand:

Be authentic
- People can spot a phony on the web faster than anywhere else
Be present
- The web is like a great party until the marketers turn up
- If you’re a marketer, show up with something of value
- Know the house rules or you may get kicked out (or beaten up!)
Be passionate
- Find what you’re passionate about, and connect with people based on your shared values
Be accessible
- Pate’s cell # has been on his blog since 2001 (he’s been blogging since 1999)
- Keep the conversation going
Be consistent or prolific
- If you put out crap, people will ignore you
Be an active listener
- Turnaround time is important – quick responses are much better than slow

Overall, a very good night – I learned a lot from these four sessions. Thanks to Eli Singer (website seems to be down right now… oops) and the rest of the organizers and sponsors for organizing the event. A job well done.

Technorati Tags: Will Pate,Vortex,Treehugger,Case Camp Toronto,Eli Singer,Joseph Thornley,Connie Crosby,Wayne MacPhail,Angus Frame,Globeandmail,Brady Murphy

Posted in: case studies, unconference

1Comments

Moving On – My New Role

07.11.19

After several great years in the Ontario government’s Cabinet Office, the time has come for me to move on.

I’ve mentioned the new job a few times recently, but I’ve waited to talk widely until my new colleagues were informed.

Well, that cat is now out of the bag so here goes…

Background

The last few years have been a complete roller-coaster. From upping and moving to Canada, to working 80-hour weeks in a sales job, to finding my feet in the Ontario government, it’s been one crazy experience after another.

For the last four years I’ve worked in communications in Cabinet Office. I’ve done everything from data analysis, to writing & editing, to (currently) re-vamping, re-launching then managing the government’s communications training program.

I don’t have a single bad word to say about the last few years. Sure, there have been frustrations, but it’s an amazingly dynamic workplace with endless variety in the work and I’ve benefited immensely from it.

My colleagues provided the icing on the cake – talented and hard working yet friendly, supportive and funny to boot. I wish I could take them with me.

Still, after four years in the same unit I’m ready for a change. Becoming a permanent Canadian resident recently lifted the shackles off my work permit and put me on the job-searching path.

After much soul-searching I’ve decided to stay in government, for now at least.

The Job

On December 10 I will join the communications branch at the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services as a Senior Communications Coordinator.

The Work

In my new role I’ll write & produce communications plans and products, alongside three other Senior Coordinators.

In addition, I will help my new colleagues to effectively use social media techniques, through both advice and education. This is the reason I’m still working in government. I was very impressed that my new Director had the fore-sight to see that these changes are coming and to reach out to embrace them.

So, the next few months will be exciting. I’m excited about the change, I’m excited about the possibilities and I’m excited by the challenge.

Wish me luck!

Posted in: personal

7Comments

Why I Worry About "Social Media Strategy"

07.11.18

I’m a little worried at how I’ve seen the term “social media strategy” thrown about recently.

I’m starting to overhear things like, “we’re also working on a social media strategy.”

I worry about this. A lot. I think I worried aloud about it four or five times during my 20-minute session at Talk Is Cheap recently.

Used this way, “social media strategy” could put a huge dent in the success of social media efforts within organizations.

Why?

Social Media Shouldn’t Stand On Its Own

‘Social media’ gives you a set of tools. You should add these to your existing toolkit and use them as appropriate.

Treating social media as a separate program will lead to disconnected and poorly coordinated efforts destined to fail.

Would you put a news release out on the wire on its own and expect it to have a significant impact?

Ok, once in a blue moon it might. The vast majority, though, will disappear into the abyss.

If you have any sense, you support your news release with other tactics – events, letters to stakeholders, speeches, matte articles, advertising, etc.

Social media gives you more tactics to add to this list. The difference is, you can’t just put them up at the time then forget about them. These aren’t one-day wonders like some other tactics. They need continued work, up front and afterwards.

Why, then, do people think it’s ok to throw up a Facebook page on its own? Or to put a video up on YouTube without anything to back it up? Sure it’s neat, but will it succeed? No. Just like anything else, social media needs to be integrated with other outreach or it will fail.