Leadership in social media campaigns: big vs. small operations

When Teddy from Blue State Digital came in to speak to us, I asked him briefly how important he thought it was for the Obama social media campaign that Obama himself was tech-savvy. The answer was that (a) despite perceptions, he actually isn't tech-savvy and (b) this did not matter. I didn't have time to push him on this further but I think it raises a more interesting general question about leadership behind - and support for - social media campaigns in different settings.

It might not have been important for Obama to be tech-savvy or be familiar with online social networks because he had a plethora of tools, support, funding and people working for him who were effectively able to run the campaign for him. I imagine that this is similarly the case for many larger operations, whether they are campaigns, businesses or specific brands. But what about the smaller operation? For example, my brother owns a travel company based in Austria, France and Switzerland that is now 5 years old. They are really lagging behind in terms of utilising the potential of social networking. Neither my brother nor his business partner are particualrly tech-savvy and they have minimal administrative/support staff, preferring to concentrate headcount funds on on-the-ground operations. None of the current sales/marketing staff are comfortable/able to design a social media strategy for the business.

My question is how should smaller operations that may be constrained in terms of either headcount, expertise or both begin to kick-start and maintain a social media campaign? Is it feasible both in the short or long term? I'd be interested in any thoughts on this particular case or on the issue more geenrally.

Is this our moment? (social media & advocacy)

The video below is part of NRDC's social media campaign in support of the clean energy bill, and I think it's pretty impressive.

The video itself is certainly one of the most powerful I have seen on behalf of a specific piece of legislation. It's clear, enticing, uses lots of sexy actors and famous people (Cornel West!), and is, unlike many similar efforts, easily actionable. They actually found a way to not only embed the video itself, but also links to send your senator an email, upload your own video, and share the video on any number of social media sites.

They even urge the viewer to "share this" before they describe what the video is about.

Of course all the glamour and technology leaves me asking the one important question, will it actually make a difference in terms of advocacy? (or in business speak, does it further the marketing strategy and lead to tangible results?)

The video is extremely candid about advocacy in some ways (favorite line: "they [senators] don't even know how to use email" -- true story). But then it goes on to suggest "they [senators] know they gotta do something." Really? Having worked in the U.S. Senate, I can tell you that thousands upon thousands of emails are ignored routinely everyday, or at best, given a terse response of the Senator's already established position on the bill. Maybe, there's one swing vote here or there, but how many emails is Olympia Snowe getting these days really, and could should she possibly care any less?

The video also suggests that "we" (presumably young hip voters who watch this video) are watching and will oppose politicians who vote the wrong way. That seems like a bold claim too. It would make more sense if the video asked for donations towards a PAC, but it doesn't.

So at the end of the day, the only real, tangible, effectual action one can take with this video, is to share it with someone else. (I think the video actually suggests spamming everyone you know). Perhaps spreading the message is the real goal. Or perhaps its just to make NRDC look hip and relevant to the younger generation of future activists/donors.

Will any of that help pass the clean energy bill? I'm not so sure.

But the video sure is cool.

Can Social Media be a problem?

Social Media has, in many ways, redefined the process of marketing products and keeping consumers involved. Apple has managed social media well, with a huge following and countless interactions among users. In the recent introduction of the ipad, the social media has again been on overdrive - analyzing the product and giving opinions, details, etc.

However, since there have been some disappointing features of the ipad, the social media has been quick with the negative as well. They have refered to the lack of a webcam, trouble in keeping two applications running at the same time and its similarity to the iphone in all blogs, forums and chatrooms. Similarly, Toyota's recall of cars due to a gas medal problem has resulted in many comments in online forums and evreything and anything thats goes wrong with the car has been blamed on the gas pedal. So Toyota has not only to fight a faulty medal, but also a whole wave of negative publicity, incorrect rumors and lost confidence.

So can social media also be a disadvantage? Maybe yes, because just like Social Media can help increase the positive impact of a product, it can expand the negative effect of a loss of quality or an issue in the product itself. The resulting situation therefore moves beyond the solution of the problem, it presents a marketing nightmare as well.

So are there any ways to ensure that social media can be used for 'positive' marketing and to 'control' negative feedback? How do you ensure that 'rumors' are not transmitted through the social media? And more importantly, is it possible ...?

So, it is Saturday afternoon. My kids are napping, and I am catching up on class administrative stuff. I take a quick look at the blog. Now, the last time I looked at the blog, there were 3 posts (2 by me, and 1 by the TA). I am expecting to see 1-2 more posts.

Holy smoke! The blog is a-buzzing with activity. People are talking about "what the F**K is social media," can you have social media without the web, the power of engagement, the power of losing control, etc.

Whohoo! Great stuff. Made my day. I am getting an RSS feed for this now for sure!

New tools, same rules.

Very good example of the viral nature and impact of social interaction via the web.

As a more traditional example, Stephen Colbert was able to win a contest to name a room on the newest Nasa Space Station. If you wield the ratings of a media icon like Colbert, you can organize masses of people. The lesson is that online social media hasn't changed the rules, it changed the tools.

Some good networks for entrepreneurs...

This has been going through the grapevine, but its both interesting and useful so if you haven't taken a look yet it might be useful...

http://mashable.com/2009/03/12/entrepreneur-networks/

Social Media - The old fahsioned way

So I have been sitting here thinking about what social media looks like if you pull out the web. If you consider the movie "Fight Club", there is a whole group of bored 20 - 40 guys who through word of mouth marketing are able to generate a whole social movement. That's old fashioned social media. Or if you look at the original Go Daddy ads or other over the top advertisements, that were supposed to foster talk around the water cooler, there's another example.

So I was hoping all of you could help me flush out my list (and let me know if you think any of them don't actually work).

The water cooler - A product / TV show / ad was entertaining enough to be talked about at work. (I guess this one also is called the basis for viral marketing)

Advocates / ambassadors - People who love your product so much that they plug it all the time to friends and acquaintances. (I guess this one's the premise for buzz marketing).

The informal friend ask. These are like the confessional style ads:

A: "You know your hair looks great."

B: "Oh. Well my secret is Clairol. You should try it."

Business cards - when you hand someone a stack of business cards to pass them along to people they know to refer them to your product (maybe with coupon attached)

Gear - Clothes that advocate the brand. Free SOM T-shirts to wear at Welcome weekend...

Product boycotts - when there are people standing outside picketing telling you not to go into the store.

Any others?

Looking at these options, it seems that web based social media has the advantages of being potentially both trackable and cheaper, though I am always a fan of a free t-shirt.

Social Media and the iPad Brouhaha

The last few days have been gripped by the iPad hysteria..as WSJ aptly put it "Last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on it". To me what was really fascinating was the way Social Media played a pivotal..no..an almost all-pervasive role in building and feeding the hysteria.

Harken back to the days of iPhone launch..people were beginning to see the potential of crowd sourcing..it was more of a consumption pattern..news was being published by few quarters and consumed by many..Product leaks even if present did not worm their way into main stream consciousness..ergo when the man in Levis and black turtleneck took center stage to say they were launching 3 new devices..rolled into one..and you could control it with your pinkie!! It was total mayhem..the market knew Apple would launch a phone but something of this revolutionary proportions!! Not a fat chance..Apple's love for secrets and Jobs's showmanship had one upped the market.

Fast forward to late 2009, the eReader market is heating up with B&N entering the fray with the Nook to compete with the Kindle. The market is agog with the expectations of Apple launching a tablet based eBook reader. Product leaks come in thick and fast, with spyshots, potential spec leakage and people scouring the patent filings for potential clues of what the fabled tablet can do. The information is not only flowing in from nondescript quarters but is also being furiously propagated by the foragers. Leechers became Providers!!

2 days before the launch, Engadget ran this article and Gizmodo ran this snippet and everyone new what the tablet was going to be..(There were some good and bad surprises though, Apples A4 processor, the smart pricing structure and no contract 3G..no multitasking, no camera and no option for note taking!!)

News networks like CNN, WSJ and NYTimes relied on crowd sourced non authenticated data to publish speculative articles about the iPad..Were they crazy to do so?? Is this good journalism?? Most importantly is this the future?? Yes, Yes and YES!! It is simple statistics..it is truth in numbers and democratization of information..old schoolers can choose align with it and evolve or debunk it and perish..

So what does this mean for Apple and companies who have similar strategies?? On the positive side, for Apple it was a lot of hype and marketing at no extra cost. They have struck the eBook market when its hot and delivered to market expectations. Most importantly, they have earned a 60 - 90 day respite when they will fall back on their SVP iPhone Software, Scott Forstall, to come up with iPhone OS 4.0. I am speculating here that it will have multitasking and other nice bits which will make the iPad suddenly a must buy..time will tell..

On the flip side, with Apple aligning with more than one vendor (product components, manufacturing, content partnership, software development, etc.) on products such as iPad, maintaining a leak free ship is becoming increasingly hard. Ergo, the flash and awe effect is harder to achieve in its product launch. Is it time for Apple to rethink its secrecy strategy?? Maybe..

One a final note, someone in class asked the question..what is social media??

One version of the answer : It is a medium for contributing to and querying the larger social intelligence. It is a mechanism/ protocol by which multiple singleton twines of intelligence collude to form a thick strand of knowledge/ consciousness. Sounds like a line from a self help book dosent it?? :) But think about it..it actually is that..As a stand alone person you are limited by the amount of information you can absorb and recover. You use appendages like books, dairies, computers to store your information but again recovery and comprehension is limited by individual potential. Now look at a collection of people..coalesce them as one single entity..now imagine possibilities..that is social media..to me..

Do we need to define social media?

We spent a lot of time in class yesterday trying to define exactly what social media means. I'm not convinced we need a better definition (besides media that is social) and think its the kind of thing that "we know it when we see it".

Rather than spend time defining, we should look the aspects that many successful media campaigns have in common:

• Authentic third-party conversation, which can be on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but can also occur through popular blogs. The blogs act as Gladwell's Mavens and Connectors for specialized topics
• Engagement in an activity which provides a benefit (typically entertainment or customized information) to the person interacting. Companies exist simply to set up generic engagement activities, like the countless "What _______ am I?" polls that end up in my Facebook news feed.
• A clear action that the person can take which draws more people to your content, such as Digging an article, sharing a funny video, or posting the latest song you downloaded from Free All Music.com into your Facebook news feed.

What the F**K is Social Media?

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

View more presentations from Marta Kagan.

Another perspective on the challenges of defining social media, and how users want to interact with your brand.

A Foursquare Strategy

Foursquare is taking off like gangbusters, and it's got me excited about combining social media with actual social interactions. I think location is the next big buzz word in social media, so I've been on the hunt for new ideas. We haven't yet talked much about this in class, but last week, Rafael Gallegos of New York Theatre Workshop asked me, "We have foursquare checkins, but I'd really like to run a deal for the mayors but don't know how to begin. any thoughts?" So here's what I would do.

The BACKGROUND:

NYTW "provokes, produces and cultivates the work of artists whose visions inspire and challenge all of us." They're about 30 years old, located in the East Village, and have roughly a $5 million annual budget. They've got 2,756 fans on Facebook (posting about twice a day), 992 followers on Twitter (also tweeting about twice a day), just under 5,000 views total from their 6 YouTube uploads, and have thus far had 29 check-ins on Foursquare from 15 users.

Top Secret is their next production; tickets go on sale to general public Jan 29, and first preview is Feb 24, closing March 28. A shortened description of the play: It's 1971 and the nation is at war. A federal court blocks The New York Times from publishing the top-secret history of US invovlement in Vietnam. Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham has a single day to decide whether to print the Pentagon Papers.

Foursquare is just under a year old location-based mobile social networking game. Last known user count was ~ 200,000 but the press loves them, and they've got wicked cool ideas on how businesses (and users) can use them. Most importantly, they're open to suggestions.

The MISSION:

• Introduce new people to New York Theatre Workshop
• Have some fun with current NYTW audience members
• Establish connections with other interesting local businesses (and their employees/customers!)
• Test a new model for marketing

The SET UP:

Think secret scavenger hunt + free ticket give-away + social media. Users unlock "Top Secret" badges by checking in at businesses far and wide all over NYC (maybe elsewhere too?). Unlock enough badges, and users win free tickets to the show. Easy to adjust this one: start the game with 5 pairs of free tix to the first 5 folks who get to the final badge. If there's tons of interest, enter everyone else into a contest and give away 5 more pairs. So...badges. What do they look like? Maybe something like

• Muckracker: for checking in at the new york times and the village voice
• Presidential Pardon: for checking into a police station after 8pm
• Watergate Watch: for checking in to 3 hotels in NYC
• Theatre Nerd: for checking in to 3 places tagged theatre in NYC
• Spook Alert: for checking into the UN and a kinkos in the same week
• Pulitzer Prize: for acquiring all 5 badges above

The GAMEPLAN:

• Contact Foursquare to help with the 'badge across businesses' idea. They've already done similar in Chicago and Las Vegas.
• Refine the Gameplan ideas above. I'm not a dramaturg (ok, sometimes I am) and I haven't read the play. There are most definitely better clues and names that involve users with the contents of the play. Anyways: these are all preserved for prosterity online, and thus not very "secret" anymore.
• Put a foursquare widget on the front page of NYTW.org.
• Establish a dedicated twitter hashtag (#topsecret is already being used. #topsecretnytw is too long/confusing. maybe #topsecret79?)
• Tweet clues to users once a day. Make it fun. When folks start unlocking badges, congratulate them via twitter. Host a Twitter widget on the Top Secret page of NYTW.org that consolidates all of the hashtags so users can see what's going on in real time.
• Post (google image) photo clues to your Facebook fans. Encourage them to plot together collectively.
• Encourage users to upload YouTube video about their search for the Pulitzer. Grab a flip cam yourself and make some clues video-based rather than just text based.
• Inspire some inter-city competition by inviting American Repertory Theatre and Portland Center Stage to copy the model and use it for Paradise Lost and 39 Steps (both conveniently opening the same weekend).

The tools to MEASURE:

• Every day count @nytw79, #topsecret79, FB engagements, YouTube videos. The every day part is important because you're constantly testing out which promotion strategies are working best (text v. video v. photo, and on which platform)
• At the end of the game, compare the total ticket sales of Top Secret, the "new ticket buyers" for Top Secret, and the number of press articles generated by the game.
• Post game, survey (you remembered to collect email addresses, right?) users about their experience with the game. Is there increased awareness of NYTW? Are they more likely to consider going to NYTW in the future, even if they didn't attend Top Secret itself? etc. More questions will arise as the game is played out.

Why I think this will work

• NYTW has a staff member who is passionate about and interested in Foursquare
• NYTW is located in an urban environment with a relatively high penetration of FS users
• NYTW has some degree of experience using other social media platforms
• NYTW has a product (Top Secret) with a name practically built for game play
  
• Foursquare is in search of interesting business/non-profit uses of the game

It's by no means clear that Foursquare will win the location-game. There's also Gowalla, Yelp, and Loopt all making waves, even Twitter's going local. I think there are significant questions about how much time to invest in a platform that may or may not be around a year from now. But at least geolocation social media segments your potential ticket buying audience by physical location, and gives you fairly reliable click-stream data about social-media driven purchases.

I have a phonecall scheduled with the Foursquare guys later this week, and have to pitch this idea to them. So it's got to make strategic sense not only for the nonprofit, but also for the platform. Any thoughts on refining these ideas?

Social Media Campaign for a Local Non-Profit

Since everyone in the class is savy with social media (or soon will be!), I am asking for a favor in the sweet, innocent form of an initial blog post ...

The Greater New Haven Literacy Coalition is a non-profit focused on increasing literacy in our community, through programs and services such as reading to children and tutoring adults. It is comprised of several organizations (all non-profits focused on literacy) that decided to come together to pool their resources and collectively attract more volunteer help and donations. (Synergies ... who can resist that?) I recently joined their board and am working on the communications strategy. Here are a few thoughts. If you have suggestions/advice -- and especially, if you know of any great website designers -- please comment or talk to me in person! THANK YOU.

Proposal:

1) Create a Facebook page. This is in progress. The strategy for the page will be to fill in the immediate needs (i.e. volunteer dates, training locations, contact info, pep talks) AND solicit important volunteer feedback (volunteers tell their own stories - will help identify parts of volunteer process that are/aren't working and help to motivate/engage volunteers for retention/recruitment purposes).

2) Rehaul the existing website. **Need someone who has this capability.** The design and content needs updated so the various audience segments can find what they're looking for and be motiviated to take appropriate action. (A tool like Google forms for volunteer applications would be a good addition.)

3) Fundraising. *Need a solution for accepting donations via the website and Facebook page.* Any suggestions on tools (Paypal?) that work well would be helpful.

4) Email list. *Need a mass email tool.* Constant Contact is one suggestion I've received. Has anyone worked with them or do you have other suggestions? Once the email list is captured (and segemented), we would use it (quarterly?) to tell some inspiring stories about progress being made and remind about opportunity to donate/volunteer.

5) Tracking. *Need vendor suggestions.* Am looking for someting like a Hubspot - don't need anything too robust.

6) Visuals. The messaging will need augmented by great video clips and photos along the way - if you know of great photographers or videographers, please send me their contact details.

Social Media Timelines

As the class progresses I have become interested in the question of how often companies can/and or should revamp their social media campaigns/overall strategy.

Our final project group (Tim, Igor, Erika, and Mark) is working on the social media strategy for a real live start-up resume review company that is launching next week (My Resume Shop). As we met today to discuss what would be an appropriate strategy, I could not help but wonder how flexible our decisions were. Is it appropriate for companies to continuously test new concepts on facebook, twitter, and other social media websites or should these decisions be more strategic and long term. In essence, how long should a campaign or strategy be tested before the decision is made for its future use and what metrics are appropriate to judge success or failure. Looking forward to hearing all of your comments.

Useful information on using the blog

Hi everyone,

I just sent all of the students in MGT 554 an invitation to become authors on the blog. Here is some useful information for you to become an author on the blog and start posting comments!

1) Getting Started

Follow the link that I sent you to the blog and log into Blogger. Note: in order to log in, you need to have either a Gmail or a Twitter account (although some others will work as well.) Blogger will ask you which account you’d like to use to sign in. If you do not yet have a Gmail account, please set one up so that you can start posting! When you pick a name under which you will be posting, please use either your first name or first name and last initial (if someone in the class shares your name.)

2) Purpose of the Blog

Posting on the blog is an important part of your participation grade in MGT 554. Please post at least one entry every week. Both the frequency of posting and quality of your comments will affect your participation grade. You can comment on anything that you find interesting in the class: you can post an observation that you had about an article assigned for homework, a question or insight about class lecture or discussion, or a comment about a guest lecture. Also, feel free to post links to news articles, ads, videos, etc. that pertain to our class discussion – this also counts as participation! Just tell us why you though the article or video was interesting and how it relates to our class discussion. Most important, have fun with the blog! This should be an outlet for all of you guys to share material that pertains to social media, to ask questions, and to learn from each other.

3) Making Accessing the Blog Easier

To make the blog easier to access, just add it to your favorites in your web browser.

Alternatively, if you read a lot of blogs and use a Blog Aggregator such as Bloglines http://bloglines.com/ or Sharp Reader, you can easily add the Social Media Management blog to your feeds. If using Bloglines, first set up an account. Then simply go to My Feeds, click on Add at the top, and then type in the URL of our blog http://mgt554-social-media.blogspot.com/ into the Blog or Feed URL: window, and the blog will be added to your feeds. That way, you can always access it from Bloglines along with your other blogs. To learn more about different blog aggregators and RSS readers you can use, go to http://blogspace.com/rss/readers.

If you have any additional questions or difficulties joining the blog, email me at margarita.gorlin@yale.edu.

Enjoy!

How Obama Really Did It

In preparation for the Thursday, Jan 14 class, I wanted to provide additional resources for those of you who wanted to read up on the Obama campaign:

1) A New York Times article that discusses the use of social media
2) Edelman's (a PR firm) analysis of the success of the Obama social media campaign
3) A nice list of the components of the campaign
4) A panel discussion of the presidential e-campaigns

Welcome to MGT 554

Hello! This is a blog dedicated to social media management. The blog is a supplement to MGT 554, an elective class at the Yale School of Management, "Social Media Management." This is a private blog - only the course participants are able to view the contents of the posts.

Reading and contributing to this blog (either in the form of posts or comments on others' posts) are part of the requirements of the course.