jump to navigation

Wow! What a Night! November 5, 2008

Posted by skmak in Uncategorized.
Tags: , , , ,
add a comment

Everyone mark their calendars – we witnessed something historic last night.  Congratulations to both President-Elect Obama and Senator McCain for a well-run race to the end.

So, will Obama continue to tap into the social networking phenomenon to communicate with his constituents?  Will we actually have a President that Twitters?  Will our Chief keep his Facebook page?  There are some great reasons for the Obama administration to continue utilizing social networks.  First, over 57% of people online have joined a social network – and that number jumps to over 90% for digital natives.  People tend to be more trusting of other people’s recommendations than they are of corporate advertising.  In other words, 78% of people trust other consumers versus the 14% that trust advertisements.  Why?  Because social media is a dialogue – a two-way conversation that involves LISTENING as much as it does talking. 

Want to keep your momentum, Barack?  Want to continue the revolution?  Keep having that dialogue with people.  Don’t be like administrations of the past and make promises to get into office, just to ignore public opinion once you learn your way around the White House.  Imagine, our public servants actually serving the public?!  Shocking!  

So, Obama keep your iPhone application.  Keep your Facebook and Twitter accounts.  I know you’re busy – I’ll allow you to assign it to a staffer – but keep those communication lines open.  That, sir, is how you will keep touch with the people that believe in change.

    Gustav Twitters?!? September 2, 2008

    Posted by skmak in Uncategorized.
    Tags: , , , , ,
    add a comment

    First, let me say, I am so thankful that we did not have a repeat of Hurricane Katrina yesterday.  Our thoughts and prayers are still with those in the southern Gulf states.

    I was shocked – and happily suprised – to see the role that social media played in the Hurricane Gustav disaster preparation.  Based on the wiki created after Hurricane Katrina, Andy Carvin, of NPR, established a social community on Ning that became The Hurricane Information Center.  It did a wonderful job with weather maps, evacuation centers and routes, and linking people and information. 

    There was also an official Gustav wiki which had live news feeds from CNN and MSNBC, and included ham radio communications for those who lost internet connections. 

    Several Twitter accounts were established, including GustavAlerts, GustavNews and GustavBlogs.  The Red Cross set up the Safe and Well list so family and friends could search those that had registered themselves as “safe and well.”  Cerado Ventana created a mobile resource guide for those to access on their mobile phones.

    Church 2.0 August 16, 2008

    Posted by skmak in Uncategorized.
    Tags: , , ,
    1 comment so far

    Two of my friends from high school, Brady Anderson and Dale Braswell, are packing up their families and heading West to begin a new church congregation in Seattle.  The Seattle area has the lowest church-attending population in the US, so needless to say, this is an uphill climb.  But, it occurred to me, Seattle is also a very tech-savvy community.  Could they use social media to help them reach more people?  

    Pete Wilson

    Pete Wilson

    I went to Pete Wilson, pastor of Cross Point Church in Tennessee.  Pete is an avid twitterer and blogger, so who better to ask about the benefits of deploying social media in a church?  

    Pete said that as his church started growing, he felt increasingly disconnected with people.  ”I felt as if the vast majority of people in our church had less access to my thoughts, vision and life.  Blogging was a great way to help them feel connected to me and also give me the opportunity to hear what’s going on in their life.”  And, it’s catching on.  Including Pete’s wife’s blog, there are eight other active bloggers at Cross Point.

    Pete has three primary objectives for his blog.  First, to cast vision.  ”Blogging is a great way for me to find creative ways to cast and recast the vision of Cross Point church.  I’ve found it’s very effective.”  

    Second, Pete wants to empower his congregation to do ministry.  In the past, he said his community had many opportunities to sign up to do missions, give to the poor and serve in the church, but apparently the word wasn’t getting out.  ”People often felt like we didn’t inform them about all the opportunities that were out there, and they were right.  We just couldn’t fit it all into the 60-minute service once a week.  Blogging now allows us to extend our communication time with them.”

    Pete also uses the blog to get feedback.  Since starting his blog, Without Wax, in January, he has received 6,782 comments.  And, his visitors aren’t just from Cross Point.  Looking at the cluster map on his site, he’s had visitors from all over the world.  ”Blogging and twittering have been a very effective and sometimes immediate way to get feedback on what’s working and what’s not.” 

    Social media tools aimed at churches are all over the web.  Sites like Sermon Cloud and Blogs4God act as content aggregators, similar to Digg.  You can submit content, tag it and vote on the content you like.  And don’t think that traditional social networking sites, like MySpace and Facebook are out of the question, either.  Since churches are a gathering of people with a common belief – think of social media as a way to extend your reach.  In fact, the possibilities are endless.  Post pictures of retreats using Flickr, record your sermons for podcasts…Believe it or not, in doing research for this post, I actually found a church that Twittered during the sermon.  

    “Start somewhere,” says Pete.  ”I know you won’t be able to do it all at first, but just start somewhere.  It’s an incredible way to connect with the people you are trying to establish relationships with and eventually lead into a life-changing relationship with Christ.”

    I couldn’t have said it better myself.

    How to Get Raving Fans August 3, 2008

    Posted by skmak in Uncategorized.
    Tags: , ,
    add a comment

    Somewhere between the Yugo, Exxon Valdez, cigarettes being addictive and JetBlue stranding hundreds of travels, people became (*gasp*) skeptical of the corporate message.  ”Best in class”, “experienced”, “satisfaction guaranteed”, “Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY!”…ok, maybe not that last one.  Consumers would rather make their own judgement about your products and services. The sterile corporate message isn’t working with today’s consumer.  

    Today, you need to bond with your client.  You need to build trust.

    People tend to believe their friends and trusted advisors more than corporate advertising.  Our friends aren’t airbrushed.  Our friends aren’t stick-figured models.  Our friends don’t have thousands of beautiful women chasing them down the street just because they used Axe bodywash.  

    Marketing originally began as word of mouth.  In the real world, your world of mouth sphere of influence was typically limited to those who you came in contact with, let’s say 30 people a day.  With social media, your sphere of influence has grown exponentially, to thousands, possibly millions.  You can tell your friends what you think about a movie, where you found the best price on a new TV, how a cleaning service performed, anything!  And, the companies that don’t think that people are talking about them, are just ignoring the revolution.

    Today, your customers are blogging about the service they received.  They are posting your company’s commercials on YouTube.  They are twittering about your new product.  They are comparing prices and features online.

    In the book, Groundswell, Forrester analysts, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, defined this phenomenon as “a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.”  But that doesn’t mean you can’t participate.  Social media can be used to bring you closer to your consumers – hear what they are saying, get their feedback, participate in the communication.  Just because you don’t completely control your corporate message, doesn’t mean you can’t influence it.

    In the end, it all comes down to trust.  If you choose to use social media – and you should – you have to be open.  Open to honest communication.  Open to criticism. Open to new ideas.  In order to be successful in this new game, you can’t bring the same tools or play by the old rules of traditional marketing.  The only way to get followers is to give them what they want – they want information they can believe in.

    If you are able to earn the trust of your followers, the message amplifies. You will have raving fans.  You will have product evangelists. One example I heard from our newly formed social marketing team at work – they had a call with Michael Pranikoff, Director of Emerging Media at PR Newswire, to find out about how we could leverage some of the new social media tools.  Michael, an active twitterer, told a story about receiving a notification that someone had posted a tweet about his troubles signing up for PR Newswire online.  Michael immediately sent an email to the user explaining the registration process.  The user was so shocked to receive a direct message from PR Newswire – in the middle of the night, no less – that he immediately posted it online.  He blogged about his great experience.  Michael earned his trust, and in turn got a PR Newswire evangelist.

    Whether you manage an university alumni group, are an aspiring photographer, work-from-home for a direct marketing company, the uses are endless.  Let’s get some raving fans!