It shouldn’t surprise anyone to see posts titled "The Role of Ethical Brands in a Down Economy," "The Four Social Media Questions You Must Answer During an Economic Downturn," "In A Down Economy, Tomorrow’s Leaders Are Born Today," "Will Social Media Help PR Weather the Storm," and "25 Ways Social Media Prepares You for a Social Media Downturn." All of these respected marketers have the recession in mind (image by collective nouns).

There were some great insights in these articles, most of which I liked Todd Defren’s statistical based analysis showing online marketing will be the bright spot in communications. I disagreed w/ some of Chris Brogan’s 25 ways (though I love Chris), but mostly because no one knows how social media functions and works in a recession. I think reliance on brass tacks, on hard core value building and ROI is what matters now.

What is clear: This new media world will see an even stronger focus from corporate as big ad spends get cut and marketers seek guerilla oriented tactics. But things will change, and online communicators are going to be forced to act differently.  

I’ve been through one of these before, in the telecom industry which suffered an industry specific depression from 2000-2. During that time I actually excelled and grew a book of business, keeping more than a dozen of my fellows employed. So while I will be deploying social media for the first time in a  recession, I’ve got a few experiences that are guiding my thoughts during this particular time:

Here are five ways I anticipate this recession will affect us:

1) ROI must become the song. If you can’t measure or you think page impressions represents an accurate measurement for marketing communications initiatives, mail it in. No company will engage in that anymore. Integration with calls to action must be used to produce tangible results.

2) Similarly, social media consultants will be forced to produce or they will bomb. Now more than ever it’s about ROI, not Facebook friends.  

3) Independent, positive thinkers will do better. They will not be susceptible to media driven BS and fear mongering. Consider this ridiculous CCN story that liberally uses poll terms to claim 60% of Americans say depression is likely. Talk about tabloid journalism. Yet, these stories can inspire panic and that is the great challenge.

Rich Becker makes a good point, "When economic times seem tough, you tend to want to work with those who seem largely unaffected." In his post, he was speaking about the newspaper industry, but it may as well be your company. Executives and individuals will need to wield a sober, pragmatic approach to the market, and provide actionable ways to grow their business. More than anything people and cultures that win will be the positive ones with real value to offer their employers, their clients and the world in general.

4) It’s time for millenials to grow up in the workplace. This is Gen Y’s first recession, and to date they have shown heavy demands for senior executive access and mentorship, lifestyle choices, collaboration, high salaries, plush bennies, transitory career paths, and steady, significant pay increases. More than anything it has been incumbent on employers to attract and retain them with these many cultural aspects. Well, the coin has flipped.  In tough times, it’s incumbent on the employee to prove value, not the employer. I sense that many over-privileged divas are heading for a rude awakening.

5) More noise.  As companies abandon traditional, costly tactics and crowd the marketplace with their new social media initiatives we will likely see a new nightmare of corporate crud. Social media initiatives must offer immediate, clear strong value to communities, or they will click and flee. Substance is paramount! Tolerance for BS gimmicks will evaporate. Last recession, a similar noise level occurred with email marketing, that time’s cheap marketing elixir.

A Time of Pain

Regardless of how social media fares as a sub sector, I believe from a societal perspective that this will be a widespread recession that will take a good long time to get better.  Poor fiduciary lending has affected our entire financial industry and in ways that we’ve not seen in modern times before under the Federal Reserve. This will impact all businesses and all sectors, from credit to actual sales. My prayers and thoughts are with those who will be affected.

Further, more than any economic downturn in my life, this will hurt the lower middle income and low income classes.  Consider the impact high heating costs, transportation costs, lost jobs from construction, cut state spending, etc., will make on blue collar America.

There will be great challenges ahead that supersede "making money," and I encourage readers to think about what we can do to help as individuals. It is a time for charity, a time for helping brothers and sisters regardless of race, creed, class, religion. Economic pain affects all, and no American should go hungry.

Related posts:

• Recession 2.0
• Using Social Media to Communicate in Tough Times (HR Perspective)
• Accelerating through the Recession

It doesn’t really matter where you are these days, the downturn in the economy is dominating conversations all over the place. And instead of everyone assessing the somber economic situation calmly, the talk among people often feeds upon itself, leading to even more panic.

While everyone understands that businesses need to remain viable in order to retain their employees, and that there are very capable people in all industry sectors who will lose their jobs, focusing too heavily on those facts can cripple existing staff to the point where their work productivity is negatively impacted.

Protecting and perhaps even boosting employee morale should therefore be one of a company’s main priorities, and must be initiated by strong and courageous leadership. After all, it is known that even is these challenging economic times, “individuals do not leave companies - they leave poor managers. Organizational mis-management contributes to negative morale.”

A myriad of suggestions about maintaining employee morale exist. Thoughts on Training Time suggests several tips, among them focusing on the positive since, “if all you’re talking about is how bad things are, that’s all your employees will be thinking about.”

Another interesting suggestion for protecting morale is prohibiting office gossip about salaries and terminations. Employees should have sufficient knowledge to be dealing with the facts themselves. And Entrepreneur.com cites an Employee Hold’em study that states that the vast majority of employees would happily remain at their current positions, even if it were for less income, if they felt they were receiving appropriate recognition and could achieve work-life balance.

Quite apropos given the current economic climate, meanwhile, is the article on “How To Boost Employee Morale On A Budget,” which lists such empowering suggestions as giving individuals the opportunity to determine how to best fulfill their work responsibilities. Offering a valuable prize, perhaps in the form of a sizable one-time bonus, to the best performer for achievement of a particular goal, is yet another effective way of both motivating and recognizing employees.

bloglovin’ is a new RSS feed for blog readers and the English version of the Swedish Blogkoll. The five member team created this site to notify readers when a new post is written by their favorite blogger. Readers have the choice to receive email updates once a day, every time a new post is published, or choose not to receive any emails at all.

Users get to search and add blogs immediately after signing up. Each blog listed shows how many members are following the blog. bloglovin’ lets users categorize their favorite blogs into different genres, upload your own blog to the list and save your favorite posts. The Muffin, a toolbar located at the bottom of the browser, allows users to read all the blogs they follow without having to open new windows or frames.

For the mechanics of bloglovin’, check out their video:

Buzz Meter Ranking: 3 out of 4 Buzz Bees

Positive: With a simple sign-up process, it’s no wonder bloglovin’ had over 1,000 people sign up after the first week of its release. Searching for blogs is simple. I like how bloglovin’ even shows a picture of the site next to the blog name. The Muffin is brilliant! I enjoy the easy navigation of jumping from blog to blog without having a new window or tab opened in my browser.

Negative: I found duplicates of popular blogs when I started subscribing to the feed. Make sure you select the correct blog you want to follow if there are multiples! The blog is currently more fashion-focused and might drive people from using the tool.

Conclusion: bloglovin’ sets itself apart from other blog RSS readers because of the Muffin. For example, Google Reader only provides the content of the blog. bloglovin’ takes the reader to the blog and the Muffin lets users navigate from the actual blog to another blog all in same the browser window. You have to try bloglovin’ for yourself!

Liveblogging is not a new phenomenon, but with the Presidential debates over the past few weeks, it’s come into the limelight. There are a few benefits to liveblogging, and a couple different methods of doing it.

(Photo Credit: MEGATONik)

Benefits of Liveblogging

Liveblogging is beneficial for a variety of reasons.

• It provides quick and easy content for your blog, Twitter stream, etc.
• It gives people who are not at the event an opportunity to view the content and respond, in real time or after the fact.
• It provides an interactive platform and generates conversation for attendees of the event (and those following remotely) to discuss what was said, or a place to reflect after the fact.
• It gives a point of reference to go back to and make commentary on key points after the event is over.

Ways to Liveblog

There are a few methods to approaching liveblogging. Some methods can be combined to give a more comprehensive view.

• Provide short “play-by-plays” with time-stamped updates. Consider using an embedded system designed specifically for this, such as CoveritLive.
• Provide a general overview of the event. Summarize what was said and provide your own commentary and insight. Paraphrase what the speaker is saying.
• Provide content from the event with as much verbatim as possible. For example, if you are attending a conference panel session, include all Powerpoint slide content (if applicable), and try to write as much detail and exact phrases as possible from the speaker.
• Provide alternative methods of getting information, other than through your blog. Mix it up by using Twitter, uStream, Utterli (formerly Utterz), or like services. Many people also bring their flipcams to events and simply upload the entire video to their blog and social networks.

When choosing a method, think about factors such as your organization’s (or personal) goals for liveblogging, your blog audience, attendees of the event, and content of the speaker. Think about whether or not you are liveblogging to increase traffic to your site, or to provide valuable information to the public. Consider your audience and how they absorb information. Liveblogging using short updates (think Twitter) may make more sense for a Web 2.0 audience, while more general overviews of content with commentary may work well for an IT crowd.

(Picture Credit: Flickr)

It’s also important to consider the content you are sharing. Make sure it’s valuable to your audience.

A good example of how to do a “play-by-play” comes from Mashable:

This doesn’t mean “Speaker X walks up to the podium, clears throat and opens with quip about your mom,” but more like, “Speaker X says trust is the most important factor in determining marketing success. Jack from Company Y challenges this.”

Keep in mind that your content is openly available to the public, and can be reused in a variety of ways that you may not be aware of. Take Doug Haslam’s experience for example.

Boy was I surprised to hear my snarky Tweets about this week’s Vice-Presidential debate ended up on Current TV’s broadcast of the debate.

What other reasons can you think of to liveblog? Are there other ways to approach liveblogging?

Looking for an application to help organize your Twitter-stream? Matt Dickman created an informative how-to video about TweetDeck – a “must have” application that will help you become more productive. Matt decided to check out TweetDeck after a recommendation from Guy Kawasaki at Blogworld Expo. Check out Matt’s video on his Techno/ /Marketer blog.

Making the point that the NHL could benefit from social media, Richard Becker of Copywrite, Ink says, “customer engagement — direct player to fan engagement in this case — is less talked about but easily the strongest counterpart to online communication.” In his post, Rich also says that part of social media’s attractiveness is that it allows people short on time to develop and better maintain relationships.

Rather than developing new product lines, many top companies implement line extension. It’s Laura Ries opinion that, “Like the losers in high school that studied and are now successful, rich and powerful; the losers that don’t line extend will be the ultimate winners in the marketplace.” Check out Laura’s “Twelve Steps of Line Extension Anonymous” on Ries’ Pieces.

Amber Naslund of The Brand Box makes several interesting points about what to look for when considering a social media consultant. Adding her thoughts to a Mashable post, Amber suggests picking a consultant that “swims” outside the “fishbowl.” She also suggests straying from those that preach social media as a singular strategy, and search for a consultant who “walks the walk.”

How do you calculate Social Media’s ROI? Valeria Maltoni says, “Just like taxes, it’s something you accrue every day and tally periodically.” Valeria’s post on Conversation Agent explains why engagement is an important component of any integrated program. According to Valeria, it’s important to focus on social media’s ROI in the long term.

Will social media provide a buffer for “forward-looking PR agencies” in a time of recession? Highlighting a study by Epsilon Todd Defren says that while marketing and communications budgets are being cut, “digital marketing” may be safe. Why? On Todd’s post in PR Squared blog he says, “It is not only helping brands spread the word; it also helps the brand to shore up support among its current customers.”

Yes, we all hate these ethical transgressions.  Social media is supposed to be a game changer, a creator of forthright relational discussions between two parties, not another communications tool set to manipulate people with.. Yet, unethical communicators from all sides of the aisle can’t seem to help themselves, as demonstrated by one Democratic state senatorial candidate in Nevada.

The story goes something like this… After Democratic Challenger Allison Copening failed at the first debate (both Democrats and Republicans called it a failure), the Nevada State Democratic Party dumped what rumored to be $1 million smear campaign against Sen. Bob Beers. As part of the effort, this "anonymous blog" appeared, dubbed  The Real Beers.  Dig into the blog and you will see:

1. While it does carry the Nevada State Democratic Party name, there is single person to hold accountable.

2. The comments are filtered to prohibit any pro Bob Beers messages.

3. The comments that have been allowed are written by the agency that produced it, with the exception of one.

4. The people in the video are staged (more coming later).

5. The stories, quotes, etc. are all half-truths, fabrications, spin, and lies. Most of these are addressed by the Beers campaign.

Funniest yet, the YouTube video includes people who are not residents. It is verifiable because, especially the testimony on the end. from a person identifies himself as a resident, but appears to be the same person on a hip hop forum maintained by the agency of record who built the site, the Drex Agency. Classy folks, there at Drex.   Drex busted itself when it accidently put up a template of the entire blog in their public work files. The work files were scanned and cached. Drex is sending mailers to local citizens to drive them to the web site, too. Gotta love an integrated campaign.

While the social media communications echo chamber hasn’t picked up on this nasty astroturfing incident, the local bloggers and media have.  The Las Vegas Sun goes so far as to say:

This kind of assault, no matter how little it is grounded in reality, can work.

Look, this company does not have a formal political agenda. But if I did force one upon my employees, it would be Democratic, as evidenced by my blatant support of Obama in recent weeks. I don’t care what party, company or organization you work for, astroturfing is a dirty nasty practice that should result in offending parties losing their jobs.  It’s flat out wrong. And it flies in the face of everything so many of us have tried to build out here, beginning with the timeless Cluetrain Manifesto,whose words, "There is no market for messages," still rings true to this day.

If we as a group of communications don’t call out transgressions like the Copening campaign’s smeer effort with its fake grassroots effort, who will?  Stop astroturfing now!

Related Posts:

We live in an online world filled with endless information. You can search and find anything online, and day by day that available information grows exponentially. There are even tools to search the web for you.

While at Web 2.0 Expo and Interop NY a couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to listen to Clay Shirky’s keynote on information overload. Several of his points made perfect sense to the audience since many (like me) were people who are constantly online.

Check out Clay’s keynote for yourself.

Clay discussed the idea that information overload is an institutional system design failure. But that’s not the real problem. What we’re suffering from now is “filter failure”. We need to filter for quality. Publishers of content (news media, corporations, the “average Joe” blogger) now have an easily accessible and free way to get information out. But how do you sort through all the “spam” in life and filter out unwanted and unnecessary information?

• If you are a social media, marketing, or PR consultant - you may filter information by only reading news that is important to your clients’ industry and business goals or your own business.
• If you are a student - you may filter information by only reading news that is relevant to your university (sports scores, announcements), your studies (research for a specific subject), or your friends (”Facebooking”).
• If you are an average adult going online - you may filter information by only reading news that is important to your career (industry news, announcements), family and friends (sports scores, movie reviews, politics, etc.) or hobbies (skiing, racecars, knitting, etc.).

No matter how you do it, maybe it all comes down to a simple point. You choose your own destiny, and you choose your own path in navigating the online world.

“Meanwhile, I’m not completely convinced information overload isn’t a problem, but filters are. For instance, no one is forcing you to have those 2,000 RSS feeds. No one is requiring you to Twitter non-stop. And really: How much of the information that swirls around you is all that important anyway? Take my inbox: I get a hundreds of emails a day. There may be 10 that are important. I could definitely manage my filters better, but that becomes a pain in the rear too. At some point you just have to say no and reckon that if something is super important it will get to you rather quickly anyway.” - Larry Dignan at ZDNet

Following yesterday’s post on the Behavioral Characteristics of the Digerati…

Yesterday I gave a presentation on Generations Y and Z, and by its very nature demographics came up. But is social media generational or just a result of the ubiquitous easy-to-use social technology on all of our many electronic devices? Yesterday, I concluded this demographic approach is not accurate.

The need to classify by generation, by sex, by sub-generation, age groups, etcetera, is corporate communications reality. All marketers want the demographics so they can intelligently target their stakeholders…

Soul demographics - or behavioral patterns as Gartner argues — will become an important measure of new studies. But no matter how you slice and dice people, the reality of socialized communications is that we are people. Social marketing begins with understanding how people interact, and the dynamics of relationship building online.

Often, companies want to know what they will get for $xxx,000 of social media engagement. What’s the ROI?!?!? And we play the game because we have to justify corporate expenditures in this era. But somewhere the soul of social media gets lost in these discussions.

Companies like Zappos get it, they understand the power of relationships, of people. People care about themselves, and how the company will sere them. “Give me what I want, Jobs!”

I just wonder if most companies will ever get it, that organizational social media really is about peering with their customers, partners and employees, rather than broadcasting a cleverly disguised ad or white paper in the form “user generated content” or a “blog post.”

Move over TinyURL, there’s a new player in town – Cligs! This free service shortens URLs (known as cligs) and offers statistics for the cligs and web destinations. You can receive for URLs through Cligs’s many offerings. Features include the total number of hits, referral statistics, recent mentions of the URL on Twitter, Delicious bookmarks of the destinations and recent blog links to the URL destination.

Mentions of the cligs are categorized by Search Engine Bot Sightings (Yahoo!, Googlebot hits, and Googlebot Mobile hits). Cligs are highlighted with hits per day within the last 30 days in a graph. The service also calculates the social media mentions by cligs and by destination (the number of incoming links to the URL destination). Cligs’s Bookmarklet lets you drag and drop URLs into your browser’s toolbar. A unique trait Cligs offers is users can create multiple cligs per URL.

In addition to Cligs’s many offerings, they’ve created a customer feedback forum called We Want. Users submit ideas, vote and discuss what they want the Clig developers to add or remove from the service.

Buzz Meter Ranking: 4 out of 4 Buzz Bees

Positive: Cligs has one uped from their competitors (i.e. TinyURL and Short URL) with their unique offering of multiple cligs per URL. The implementation of a feedback forum specifically built for users in order to better the service lets users know their voices matter. Customer service is always number one for service companies.

Negative: Users are waiting for an API. Cligs created a specific mailing list for API developers to ‘geek out and take code and APIs.’

Conclusion: I really enjoy this tool. Overall Cligs offers their users an excellent service with the features and customer service forum. The blog lists their updates and as well as their mistakes and solutions to their errors. Cligs is certainly upping the anty for URL shortening services!

In researching a new presentation on the next generation of digital media users — now dubbed Generation Z (Goodness Gracious!) — it became apparent that the generational discussion fails to hit the truth. The era should not be defined by generations, but more simply the ever-present factual reality of being online.

Forcing online behavior into a box — albeit the millenial or X or Z one — doesn’t seem to make sense. Go to any tweet-up and you will see members from multiple generations ignoring their fellows as they pour their brains into a ubiquitously present iPhone (Transparent screen image by Edan).

Gartner recognized this when it dubbed the generational phenomena Generation V. I have become a believer in this description, in particular the three main characteristics of Generation V, originally proposed by Adam Sarner, a principal analyst at Gartner (Forbes):

1) We don’t necessarily get the underpinnings of technology, it’s just what we use. I see this increasingly throughout my work and personal life. People don’t get technology or software coding, it’s just gotten easy enough that almost any person can use it.

2) Overwhelming desire to participate in online communities, more importantly, global communities. This occurs through user generated personae that so many of us have embraced. New media content creation enables interaction and avatars, but most importantly, true two-way interaction.

3) Meritocratic environment: Collaboration, “we” is more powerful and valuable than “me,” yet me seems to be pretty important to recognize.

This last phrase was added by me, as we continue to deal with the rise of Internet fame and parasocial behavior. The reality of this particular matter seems to be that while there’s a collaborative spirit to online conversational media, there’s also a pretty strong self centered part to it, too. Me is important, and if others aren’t recognized for their participation they seem to leave the conversation pretty quickly.

When your digital persona is so integrated into your life, online and “reality” blur. They form a common reality. Thus it seems to me that much of the persona we see in digital media demonstrates a truer glimpse into the fragile, beautiful and oft self-absorbed soul. That is why relationships have become paramount in social media marketing. People feel a need to be recognized.

Friday’s Buzz Bin post will discuss the impact of generational demographic studies on corporate social media.