On Solutions Are Power Dave Griffin, Social Media Coordinator of Griffin Technology, explained to Steve Fisher his role and responsibility with the company. Dave is responsible for using social media to, “boost awareness of the brand and its products, interact and build community and develop promotions with equally cool partners.” Read Steve’s post, and see Dave’s top five social media suggestions for established small businesses, and how Griffin Technology hopes to use social media to develop more personal relationships between the customer and the company.

Often less is more. Jared Goralnick of Technotheory wrote a noteworthy post on how Twitter forces users into good habits. Jared says that people will think more highly of you if you talk less and “work harder on your questions than your answers.” He suggests to, “Cut yourself back to 60 seconds and see if people like what you have to say a little more.”

On Class Conflict – A Graduate Student’s Blog, Brandon Mendelson offers some uplifting news for bloggers in the midst of a gloomy economy. Citing a Jacqui Cheng post in Ars Technica, Brandon says that with the small domain name investment you can be making good money in advertisement revenue in as little as three months. Check out Brandon’s post for more details on the mean advertisement revenues for bloggers, how much money top blogs receive, and how you can get started.

Some annual social media conferences like South by Southwest offer tremendous networking opportunities, and attendees have a chance to rub shoulders with social media “rockstars.” However, social media is “…not about putting ‘rockstars’ on stage, it’s about teaching people how to use these tools to grow their businesses,” says Mark Collier. On The Viral Garden, Mark expresses why he attends and speaks at conferences where teaching and learning are top priority. Visit The Viral Garden and share your thoughts on your favorite conferences, both as a speaker and an attendee.

Kat French wrote an interesting post on Social Media Explorer about how social media is and will continue to influence politics. The reason is that more people are getting their news online. In fact, the number of people who have watched online political videos has tripled since the 2004 election. Kat says that like the Nixon Kennedy debate where television had a dramatic impact on the two candidates perceived success, “after 2008 candidates can ill-afford to ignore ‘those crazy bloggers…’”

“Control of the message” has long been one of the most common potholes in the road to social media success. Tables might turn as those who have resisted now face widespread financial implosion caused by bail fail. Its time to say farewell to cloistered corporate mind sets, instead empowering your people to listen to and connect with other people. After all, employees are a company’s greatest asset.

Eyes and Ears: Ask Employees to Listen

Feedback is more valuable than ever, and it’s never too late to track conversations. Whether a direct comment or overheard, input from stakeholders should flow across silos and be addressed. [Image credit: "Listening Post" by Fenchurch!]

What mechanisms do you have in place to monitor references of your organization? Is there a point person (community manager) or team paying attention to your brand mentions? Who is responding to feedback and how?

Hands and Feet: Ask Employees to Engage

Your organization might have stellar strategy, tactics and metrics for social media engagement, but it has to give up the microphone. The voice belongs to your employees. It is time to give them leg room to do more leg work.  [Image by JosephGilbert.org.]

“What if someone says the wrong thing to the wrong person?” There are countless best practices to help guide the way. The troops don’t need to be serving as brand ambassadors on Second Life, per say. But they should be trusted to exude politeness and enthusiasm for your mission wherever they may roam.

Hint: Good Manners Are Free, Fast and Fruitful [Image by Lady_K]

• Please: Your network is bigger than you think. Whether asking for a favor or a donation, correspondence should not be limited to email and direct mail. “The ask” can be broadcast by one (or many) to one (or many).
• Thank you: Expressions of gratitude should be profuse. (”Nice to meet you” is an alternate form of the common “Gracias.”) Recognition and appreciation can lead to higher engagement.
• Congratulations: Kudos are as welcome as the sound of your own name. Everyone likes to be affirmed, for both the big and small things.

It’s one thing to ask, thank and congratulate through private messages social network. But the true power comes through public requests and public affirmation. Getting name-dropped by mutual friends and followers is more likely to drive a response your way. Who can make this happen quickly? Your employees.

An organic, bottom up networking mentality will be a competitive lever from this day forward. Let go and go learn.

Confederate: United in a league, alliance, or conspiracy (image by Geoff Livingston).

Creating social media strategies for large organizations can be unwieldy. Disparate divisions, brands, product launches, autonomous departments, budgets and line items can give corporate communicators a tough time as they bridge their companies into the social era.

Some organizations can manage their organizations well enough to federate their social media efforts under one roof. Now some very basic best practices are arising. According to the Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki, 62 of the country’s largest companies are already engaged. But others cannot, and they must look to create a different model, one we have started calling the confederate model.

There are many organizations that simply cannot get all of their parts to agree on a unified strategy. For example, consider national non-profits that have local autonomous chapters. Other corporate structures where this problem can arise include partnerships like large law firms, franchise models that feature local owners and undefined marketing structures, and automobile dealerships (Star Alliance image by Nergiz).

For all intents and purposes, these loosely organized bodies can do what they like. This creates enormous challenges online, in large part because of the disparate efforts can confuse customers, as well as fracture brand conversations. Indeed, a communicator needs to acknowledge that there will always be a healthy majority of internal stakeholders who will never engage in the larger social media stratey.

Building a Confederated Model

Instead of trying to control the social media effort under one roof, confederated models try to empower individual stakeholders in the larger organization. A confederated model for a company or non-profit assumes and includes the following:

In addition to building the actual framework, a great deal of the effort involves internal alliance building and communications. Local stakeholders need to be made aware of and convinced about the effectiveness of the social media tool sets.

Of course, what would a proposed stategic model be without a case study? One needs to go no further than the Obama campaign’s social media efforts. This is an ongoing effort.

Partisan politics aside, Obama’s campaign communications involves intense grassroots activities using social media tools. Tens of thousands of Obama campaigners, advocates and even casual voters are enabled to spread the message.

At the heart of the effort is activism on more than a dozen social networks, as well as the Obama campaign’s web site. Bloggers using the Obama platform have even posted negatively against policies or Obama actions.

Not your average political campaign, but one that does fit into the confederated model. The Obama campaign is less concerned about individual flare outs and control, and much more oriented towards word of mouth and viral grass roots activism. The results have been self-evident.

“Influencer relations” demands active networking beyond Twitter and Facebook.  Attention spans are thinning, so brand ambassadors (you) have to show up, shake hands and speak well.  Be present. Not just online, but out there in the real world.

Basic Networking: Media Events and Tours

Every quarter, one of our clients exhibits at a large media event for the tech industry. Attendance is limited to mostly high-profile reporters and bloggers in a specific tech vertical. The costs of participating are buried by the rich, in-person opportunity to look our media contacts in the eye and put a product and concept in their hands.

Media and blogger tours accomplish the same thing. We’ve taken several clients to “meet their makers.” Each time they come back trailing trophy leads and ultimately landing significant coverage. They took time to show up and shake hands.

Crashing the Blogger Party (or “Bring Them to Your Tent.”)

When BlogWorld brought the bloggers to Las Vegas last week, Cirque du Soleil took advantage. Chris Brogan’s story about the Cirque experience is worth the read. In a nutshell, Cirque’s head of social media Jessica Berlin attended the sessions (and afterglow gatherings), interacting with the influential folks on deck.

When one party grew too large, Jessica played an important card: She invited the group of 100 bloggers to a Cirque nightclub.

• The “red carpet” was rolled out in terms of service and experience.
• Some bloggers subsequently took in a Cirque show - something that might not have happened without Jessica’s involvement.
• Jessica followed through by thanking Chris on his blog.
• Cirque channels on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace were already in place to catch overflow.

Questionable Motives? Not So.

Cirque’s efforts were chalked up as “an appalling attempt at corporate blogger relations” by Brandon Carlos of PR Ninja. “. . .What Cirque has done here is give VIP status to a group of bloggers who otherwise would have had to wait at the back of the line. . . The term blogger relations is quickly becoming synonymous with bribery. It doesn’t take a genius to see right through Cirque motives.”

Meeting influencers half way is not cheap. It is smart. Through basic awareness raising and rewarding fans, you can cash in on good networking and word of mouth.

What about you? Do you think deliberate networking and favors are unethical? Where do you go to meet your influencers?

[Image credits: "Shaking Hands" by Aidan Jones and "Cirque du Soleil by Saltoricco]

Dave Barger, President and CEO of LunaWeb, Inc. (a website company), is an avid believer in social media for companies. Known as a local internet pioneer, Dave helped start Launch Memphis (an event Geoff spoke for), a local social media networking group and works on local events like BarCamp. He is also working with local Memphis companies to embrace the new social web, and is personally active on social networks like Twitter and Utterli.

BB: Memphis is enjoying the new rise of social media. How would you characterize your city’s use?

DB: Memphis business has a reputation of being more relationship oriented than most cities. In this, some of the foundation is already poured and Social Media may potentially find an accelerated adoption. We are also increasing our national presence in Social Media through high-profile, progressive events and programs like the upcoming Barcamp Memphis, LaunchMemphis’ TechFuel events, as well as fostering Social Media through the Small Business Chamber.

We’ve been accelerating adoption in the Memphis community through the Social Media Breakfast and Tweet-Ups, where we focus on helping newcomers get started in the social space. Of course, we also work closely with traditional media outlets to make sure these events get publicized to parts of the public who do not yet have a social media presence.

BB: You are one of the pioneers leading Memphis. What’s compelling you to give so much?

DB: I’m extremely enthusiastic about Social Media and believe in its ability to empower the “voice of the customer” and everyday citizens. I regard Social Media as the fulfillment of a promise the Web made everyday citizenry back in the mid 90’s.

That’s when I dove into this industry after experiencing first-hand a corporation’s compromise on ethics for the sake of profitability, and the poor job of stewardship to consumers by our government. Basically, my employer had a product catching fire in people’s homes and the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s recall procedure was pitifully weak. The corporation, compelled to be profitable to its owners, went no further than the CPSC’s mandates to correct the problem. So it’s been very easy for me to see the need for The People to take care of The People and to have a platform from which to share joys, commune, and voice injustice by any entity.

BB: Your company has transitioned from 1.0 to 2.0. How difficult was the transition?

DB: Because the services that we offer have traditionally been 1.0 based web services, the challenge has been realizing that there has been some erosion of the 1.0 technologies due to the market’s embrace of 2.0 services over their 1.0 counterparts. However many facets of 1.0 remain a viable service set today. So we really haven’t shifted so much as we’ve expanded. Today, we still service many 1.0 sites that continue to serve the clients well and as such are slow to evolve.

BB: Which companies in the Memphis area are using Social Media?

DB: We’re seeing an increasing number of Memphis businesses adopt Social Media as a component of their strategy and their company culture. Germantown Performing Arts Center and many Memphis arts organizations are putting themselves into the social space. Other local entities participating include St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, FedEx, Small Business Chamber, and several traditional media players (local television and newspapers). Through LaunchMemphis, we’ve also seen a lot entrepreneurial businesses use Social Media to their benefit.

BB: What’s your favorite social network and why?

DB: I don’t have one specific social network that I could consider a favorite. Consistently, when I’m working I have a FireFox tab open simultaneously to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and as of about two weeks ago, Yammer. In a more casual setting, shut down LI and replace it with browsing expression outlets like Flickr, YouTube, blogs, and Social Median. The last one of these I’d give up though would be Twitter because of it’s realtime connectedness with my network, breaking news, and links to information that I find interesting.

BB: Blog or Social Network, which is more important?

DB: I try not to be a purist on multiuse platforms. Some will say that a blog is not a blog if commenting is not enabled, etc… Given the choice of having one over the other and considering the rich media, conversations, and a platform for any individual, I’d go with blogs. Besides, multitudes of blogs create their own freely connected Social Network anyway.

BB: What’s next for Dave Barger?

DB: Ultimately, I want to help these tools a step further in acceptance and utility beyond mere consumerism and more into society to affect the greater good. If in the process I find an angle where we can fill the digital divide, I’ll step loudly down that path as it’s a huge concern that we all need to be mindful of, and continually look to fill.

The New York Times found a way for their online readers to engage with one another through TimesPeople. The new social network allows readers to share stories through article recommendations, bookmark articles and interact with fellow NYTimes.com readers.

TimesPeople features a toolbar where readers can view their recent activity, manage their profile settings, and view the number of friends on the network. The toolbar offers readers the opportunity to link TimesPeople to their Facebook accounts and import email contacts (Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail) to expand their network.

The TimesPeople page provides readers with their activity, the general activity of the whole network (Live Snapshot), a newsfeed, and a list of fellow readers who follow them and vice versa. The “Find & Add People” let readers add more people to their network (just like searching for friends on Facebook). Concerned about privacy? Readers can also change their privacy settings for sharing articles on and off.

Buzz Meter Ranking: 4 out of 4 Buzz Bees

Positive: This free social network is simple and easy for users to comprehend. I think it’s a good first step for people who want to engage with the online community, but don’t know how. TimesPeople may include a feature for readers to add notes to their recommendations – further engaging their readers to converse with one another.

Negative: TimesPeople is exclusive to news from NYTimes.com –limiting the articles/blog posts to share.

Conclusion: TimesPeople provides NYTimes.com an edge over all the other online media. In a time where newspapers experience the pressure to follow the online media trend, NYTimes.com brings a whole new level of competition with a social network. Businesses are allowing social network usage in the office, acknowledging the trend and growth of social networks. Kudos to The New York Times for being one of the four “traditional media titans.”

UPDATE: Last week, OtherInbox was featured in the Buzz Meter. The OtherInbox team sent us 25 invitations for their private beta to share with our readers. Please try the service and let us know your thoughts: http://beta.otherinbox.com/signup/cc948.

The much anticipated Microsoft ads (part two) earn a big FAIL from the general public and bloggers alike.

With hundreds of millions in their marketing and advertising budget, it’s amazing that their recent “I’m a PC” ads were not better.

The new ads may be a simple case of a company scrambling to REACT to the popularity and buzz of Apple’s ads, while responding to criticism of the Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld ads. But the problem here is not necessarily in their reaction, but in their lack of PROACTIVE advertising.

A major problem with Microsoft is the general perception of their products and the fact that they have not clearly established their brand persona. Sure, they have 90% of the market and everyone knows who Bill Gates is, but what does that really mean? Mac users may only hold about 10% of the market, but with that, they have an almost cult following and top influencers. From Dan Lyons (aka “fake Steve Jobs“):

Apple users tend to be the kind of people marketers refer to as “influencers” or “tech elites,” the in-the-know folks who adopt the coolest new technology and set trends. Apple’s highly effective “I’m a Mac” ads have done a great job of positioning Apple as the machine for hipsters, and Windows-based PCs as the choice for dorks. Remember how AOL used to be cool, but then became the service used only by people who didn’t know any better? Microsoft is heading down that path.

Why Apple Works

Apple’s ads work for two reasons that complement each other.

• They have an established persona and brand.
• The ads are clever and hip, but at the core address key issues and frustrations with PCs that consumers can relate to.

People identify with Apple products. iPods are commonplace, iPhones are coveted, and the products are easily recognizable. Users and prospective buyers can go to a store and test out products. (Although Microsoft is said to be contemplating a store of their own.) The iPod and iPhone  you already own are more compatible with a Mac than a PC. Your Mac can also work with Microsoft Office and is compatible with other devices (digital cameras, etc.), where varying operating systems on a PC may fail.

Microsoft is often simply uploaded to a PC and delivered to you. You may have multiple OS versions running on home or work computers. Vista at work and XP at home leads to quite a headache. Not only that, but there are multiple OS versions to choose from. Apple is simple. Apple is compatible. And hey, Apple is “cool”. Macbook Air anyone?

(Photo credit: The Mac Lawyer)

Why should people use PCs when they are not shiny and new, unreliable, incompatible, and difficult? Mac offers sleek designs, features that are compatible and the “cool” factor. It’s a product problem, easily addressed with Apple’s jabs at PCs being difficult to use.

We thought these ads were supposed to tell people why Window’s isn’t wack, but they don’t even mention Microsoft or Windows, let alone any of its features. WTF? Who cares if astronauts and animal trainers use it? You’re supposed to be telling the people who want to look cool with a Macbook why they should stick with Microsoft.

Microsoft’s New Ad Campaign

The main problem with Microsoft’s new ad campaign is that it only addresses the first part, a clever people pleaser, and ignores the critical second part addressing key problems users have with PCs.

Microsoft does attempt to mirror the snarky creativity (and even Mac tools) of Apple’s ads, but does not have the bite of Apple. In fact, it’s hard to figure out what the point is of “I’m a PC”. From the Inquisitr:

There’s no angle other than normal people use PCs, there’s no PCs work, PCs are reliable, Vista doesn’t suck, Microsoft is cool message….yet.

Another problem is that the new ads are clamoring for change while keeping the same formula. Saying that your product is “different” while piggybacking on past campaigns from Apple (and maybe Coke with a “we are the world” feel) doesn’t leave a fresh taste in your mouth. Maybe Microsoft does need to invest in something moist and chewy like cake.

One positive point for Microsoft, according to Sizlopedia, the ‘I am a PC’ campaign is much more interactive than other ad campaigns in the sense that it allows users to make their own ‘I am a PC’ video and upload to the official Lifewithoutwalls site. Even so, the videos are open for parody, which is both good and bad. People are definitely talking about the ads, even if the talk is overwhelmingly negative.

What Now?

Microsoft could have copied the vibe of Apple’s ads while still addressing the perceived product problems. For example, if Microsoft wanted to portray themselves as reliable, trustworthy and familiar, why not set up a “date”? Channel the good energy from this ad of the “advertiser vs. consumer“…

Picture this potential ad:

• Girl meets Guy #1 (”Apple”) for date. Guy is hipster. Cool. Talks a lot. Speaks in slang terms and unidentifiable jargon to be trendy. Has fancy technology, always talking or texting on iPhone. Not listening to her. Speeds off in flashy car. Lame “point and shoot” goodbye with a wink and “I’ll call you”.
• Girl meets Guy #2 (”PC”) for date. Guy picks up girl right on time. Opens the door for her. Pulls out her chair. Asks her questions. Shares a funny, personal story. Makes her laugh. Listens to her. Drives luxury but sensible car.
• Girl on phone with girlfriend saying “I really like “Guy #2″. He’s reliable. Smart. Just what I’ve been looking for. We’re just…compatible.”

From that example, what picture of Microsoft are you left with?

Microsoft needs to stop following and start leading. There’s great value in the brand already, it just needs a soul.

At almost every event or discussion on social media, there’s a naysayer that only millenials, those under 30 consume social media. They dismiss this conversational form as something that their target market doesn’t use. Ironically, they are missing the boat as older generations are using social media.

Perhaps the best example of this is who is creating content. Technorati released the first part of its State of the Blogosphere report yesterday. It’s so funny to see their statistics, which prominently feature the millenial stats. Yet, when you delve into the numbers you can see some interesting breakdowns favoring Gen X and Baby Boomers.

Consider that 50% of bloggers are 35 and older, and 42% are between the ages of 35-54. Those are some pretty strong statistics demonstrating that millenial bloggers are getting outpaced by older generations.

In the U.S., 34% of bloggers are 25-34, and 37% are 35-49. So the older trend is even more pervasive in the United States.

The Technorati report is just the harbinger of a growing trend that usage statistics and surveys will continue confirming. Generation X and increasingly Baby Boomers are online. Communicators who dismiss these powerful media consumers as traditional media only do so at their own peril.

Inspired by all the moving and shaking at Web 2.0 and BlogWorld conferences this past week? Take it home to roost. Positive energy is being funneled through local D.C. events, and we’re playing a part in both.

Tonight: NetSquared’s Net Tuesday Meet Up featuring Social Actions
Peter Deitz is in town from Canada to share more about Social Actions. The platform aggregates peer-to-peer social change campaigns so that individuals, organizations, and 3rd-party developers can find, support and mashup grassroots solutions to local and global problems.

Now they need your help. The service exists - what’s the best way to use it? What are some inspiring applications for it? How can organizations best use their newly released API? Livingston Communications is proudly sponsoring this event. We’ll be at Affinity Lab.

Tomorrow: Social Media Club-DC, Special Nonprofit and Association Meet Up

We’ll hear from Carie Lewis, Internet Marketing Manager, The Humane Society of the United States. and Peter Hutchins, Vice President of Knowledge Initiatives, ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership. I’ll kick things off with Jeff DeCagna of Principled Innovation. Jeff will be presenting the results of the Association Social Technologies Executive Summary.

The session will take place at Fleishman-Hillard, 1615 L Street, N.W. beginning at 6 pm. RSVP on the Facebook event page or e-mail Larissa Fair, SMC-DC coordinator, at larissa@livingstonbuzz.com.

In a great post on Search Engine Guide, Jennifer Laycock says, “social media is not about marketing, it’s about the conversations.” Laycock says that similarly to traditional business development, social media is about knowing customers and anticipating their needs. It’s also treating them with respect and doing the right thing. Check out Jennifer’s post to find out more about how your company can and should participate in social media.

At times there is a gap between those who theorize about social media, and those who practice it. On Shannon Paul’s Very Official Blog she discusses why there is this disconnect, and why both the consultants and the practitioners need each other. Though both disciplines are quite different, Shannon says, “I think there’s a place for both and that the venerated experts and savvy professionals are more dependent on one another than either would like to admit.”

Doug Caverly of WebProNews relays a message on how PR departments should interact with bloggers. The message from Jason Falls at the BlogWorldExpo is to create a relationship first and deliver the pitch second. Similarly, Chris Brogan suggests to keep pitches short, and to stay human. Check out Doug’s post, and share your thoughts.

Commenting on a presentation by Julien Smith, Daryl Tay puts blogging into prospective and reminds us why it’s so important to be socially engaged. The answer – it makes the world a better place for doing it. On Unique-Frequency Tay suggests to, “think back and remember why you got into this space to begin with, and [consider] if where you are now is a far cry from that beginning.”

Beth Kanter offers an excellent case study from WeAreMedia on how nonprofits are able to use social media to better share their stories. The LOL Seals campaign was a photo contest that got participants to write humorous captions about harp seals while taking time to learn about them. Gain insight into why this project was successful on Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media.

Florida, Louisiana and especially Texas are in dire need of aid. Yet, the fundraising efforts have been drastically below expectations, with only a total of approximately $25 million raised. These figures are dwarfed by efforts for Hurricane Katrina. As a result, last Friday the American Red Cross called on the social media savvy to spread the word and help those in need. Visit Amy Sample Ward’s post on Net Squared to find out how you can help.