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Updates from September, 2010

  • Influencers Aren’t Pay-to-Play

    Pat McCarthy 10:46 am on September 29, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
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    Finding influencers - ah, the task that is on everyone’s mind. Any brand would love to have an army of knowledgeable and respected voices advocating on their behalf. The real question isn’t how to find influencers, it’s how to get them talking about you that is authentic to the community seeking their expertise.

    The first step to get an influencer to advocate for you is too often sending your product to them. This isn’t always necessary. In the cited post, apparel retailer Free People simply used an email campaign to acknowledge their top two online reviewers. That week they saw a 93% increase in review volume.

    Key Takeaway: Publicly reward those who are behaving in your interest. It will generate enthusiasm that leads to authentic endorsements.

    Read more about activating influencers at Bazaarvoice’s blog.

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  • WOMMA Board Elections & Research Digest Call for Submissions

    Pat McCarthy 10:42 am on September 29, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
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    The election for the 2011 Board of Directors ends at 5:00 pm CT, Oct. 4. Please be sure you cast your company’s vote. Open to WOMMA members only.

    For questions, call our Executive Director, Kristen Smith at 312-853-4400.

    ——————

    Research Digest Call for Submissions

    We are publishing our second edition of the bi-monthly WOMMA Research Digest on Oct. 15. If you have great research that the community needs to see, please email it to me at Pat@WOMMA.org.

    Want to know what we’re looking for? Check out the first edition.

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  • #NewTwitter, Better than New Coke

    Pat McCarthy 10:40 am on September 29, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
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    A good old fashioned update to a simple accepted product can go either good or bad. But by many account, new Twitter is pretty clever. However, you might want to update your Twitter background. 1000heads, our pals across the pond, offered a few suggested edits:

    EDIT 1:

    If you want to create your own, then we recommend graphic that has a 20pixel gap at the top and a 48pixel width for the side. We’d also recommend, for now at least, that you create something that works on both #newtwitter and old.

    EDIT 2:

    If you’ve updated your background because of this post, then please do leave a comment with a link. We’d love to know who’s not only benefited from this blog but also - more importantly - exactly how creative our readers can get with such limited space!

    Read all of 1000heads’ suggestions here at their blog.

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  • Study: Influence isn’t in Follower Numbers

    Pat McCarthy 10:39 am on September 29, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
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    Celebrity twitter users with astronomical follower numbers are not that influential. This might come as surprise when you see that Justin Bieber alone accounts for 3% of Twitter’s servers.

    But scientists at Northwestern University used mathematical algorithms to rank the most influential people based on how individuals shaped trending topics. In the end, context was key. People with sway in certain categories drove those conversations.

    Key Takeaway: Influence is in expertise, not celebrity. Don’t be fooled by high follower numbers. Look closer at retweets and trend setters.

    Read more about where influence really sits at eConsultancy

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  • Members in the Spotlight

    Pat McCarthy 10:37 am on September 29, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
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    WOMMA is Proud to Welcome Our Newest Members:

    Grasshopper Group

    Biggs|Gilmore

    Spreadable

    Coleo Marketing Group

    Marketingworks (http://www.mwks.net), a leading social media-marketing agency, and Giant Media http://www.giantmediacorp.com, a leading viral content distribution firm, today announced a strategic alliance between their respective companies to provide branded video and viral digital content to online community influencers. The results provide greater reach and deeper engagement to targeted online and mobile audiences.

    Read the full press release here.

    HealthTalker’s Word of Mouth Program Featured in New Book Empowered

    HealthTalker, the leader in word of mouth (WOM) marketing campaigns for the healthcare industry, announces that the company and one of its WOM campaigns has been featured in the new book Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business (Harvard Business Review Press; September 2010), written by Forrester Research, Inc. analysts Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler.

    Read the full release here.

    Gigya has released a research whitepaper titled The Value of Social Sign-On and the Registered User.

    Survey findings include:

    • How publishers and retailers are addressing the tradeoff between rich profile information and streamlined registrations
    • The four key value dimensions of social registration
    • The benefits of social registration that publishers and retailers believe are important and achievable

    Download your copy here.

      Eloqua released a whitepaper titled the Grande Guide to Sales Enablement.
      Download it here.

      Ink Foundry published a press release highlighting why WordPress is perfect for wine websites. Read it here.

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    • Interview with Heather Hippsley of the FTC

      Pat McCarthy 9:35 am on September 27, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
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      heather-hippsley

      Heather Hippsley is the Assistant Director in the Division of Advertising Practices at the FTC. She will be participating in a Legal Rapid Fire panel discussion on marketing to children, corporate blogging and the FTC.

      What are the key legal items that a brand or brand marketers should consider when starting a blog?

      First and foremost is that the blog needs to be clearly identified as being owned by that brand. And, of course, one would think the brand would want to show through logos and graphics that match the brand, that this blog is the brand’s blog.

      Secondly, if you have bloggers coming onto the brands blog, you want to make sure those bloggers have been instructed to make disclosures about their connection to the brand when they post endorsements on their own personal blogs. So, as often happens, a blogger might post similar information on a brand’s blog and their blog. At that point, they should be disclosing the connection with the brand.

      Brand managers also need to pay attention to the comments that are being posted on the blog. They may or may not want to monitor it so that they can correct any false claims or misimpressions about the brand’s products that are in the comments. They might want to require commenters to make the necessary disclosures about their relationship. They should be paying close attention to the blog and have the comments being monitored.

      What do you want attendees of the Talkable Brands Exchange to take away from your Q&A with Tony DiResta, WOMMA’s General Counsel?

      We want to clarify any questions that the brands have about the use of their corporate blogs and also their relationship with their bloggers and commenters when they are acting as endorsers in their own personal space. And just to make sure that the brands are on the same page with the FTC in terms of their responsibilities for their bloggers and the appropriate monitoring that they need to do to ensure their bloggers are communicating effectively and fairly on their behalf.

      ———

      Come see Heather present at the WOMMA Talkable Brands Exchange in NYC, Oct. 7. More info and registration here: http://wommabrandexchange.eventbrite.com/

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    • 8 Blogger Outreach No-Nos

      Pat McCarthy 9:33 am on September 27, 2010 | 1 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
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      PR firms often miss the mark when pitching to bloggers. Creating a solid blogger outreach program requires a bit more than reaching out to traditional media organizations. In fact, they habit of working with traditional media may be the root of the problem. Bloggers are independent, out-of-the-box thinkers who are driven by passion, not deadlines.

      These are a few tips to build better, more effective blogger relationships:

      1. Don’t ask bloggers to write specific things about your brand - Their blog = Their opinions. Give them the facts and let them interpret.

      2. Don’t be totally ignorant of their work - Spend 15 minutes reading their blog and reference what you saw when you contact them. It is worth the time investment for both you and them.

      3. Don’t lead with who you are - You’re contacting them because their interests line up with your interests. Show them that you took the time (Step #2) to learn about their work by referencing relevant posts and how they relate to your project.

      Read the 5 other blogger outreach no-nos at Arik Hanson’s blog, Communications Conversations

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    • 6 Tips to a More Creative Company

      Pat McCarthy 9:32 am on September 27, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
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      The first weeks at a new company are often filled with the joy of making a difference. But eventually that enthusiasm fades as the reality of well rooted inertia pushes back on your creative ideas.

      Change is difficult, but the possibility for change is key to maintaining a creative staff. There are many ways to encourage creativity in an office. Here are a few tips:

      1. Recognize and Reward Creative Ideas - Stand behind creative ideas with staff time and budget inclusion. No one will come up with creative solutions if it means they have to do all the heavy lifting alone.

      2. Be Assumption Intolerant - Assumptions are rules that restrict possibilities. They aren’t always wrong, but leave them open for challenge.

      3. Chuck the Anointed Visionary - Offices with one idea person often also have a staff who wastes their time and creativity on executing unchallenged ideas. Empowering everyone to be creative not only brings the wisdom of crowds, but it also works within parameters of staff possibility.

      Read the 3 other tips to a creative company at Marketing Profs Daily Fix

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    • WOM Crash Course Workshop in Chicago, Oct. 14

      Pat McCarthy 9:29 am on September 27, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
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      WOMMA has teamed up with the AMA to conduct a one-day seminar about word of mouth marketing in Chicago on Oct. 14th.

      Click here to listen to a sneak peek podcast with one of the instructors, John Moore, : http://bit.ly/WOMWorkshop

      TOP TAKE-AWAYS

      1. Methods to integrate WOMM & social media into your overall marketing campaign
      2. Social media tools you can use to create and maximize profitable relationships
      3. Metrics, metrics, metrics: Effective measurement tools for WOMM and social media

        Info and Registration Here

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      • Interview with Jay Walsh, Wikimedia’s Head of Communication

        Pat McCarthy 8:53 am on September 24, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
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        jay-walsh

        What do brands need to know about how their communications with their communities have changed since the dawn of social media and Web 2.0 sites?

        Velocity is huge. Transparency is huge. These are parameters of how things happen now in the communication space. Things happen incredibly quickly.

        The public in general expects and requires a degree of transparency around issues, brands and organizations. And if you don’t provide that transparency, it will be found. So, it’s pretty crucial for communicators now to be absolutely prepared to share a whole story and to not necessarily protect aspects of the story.

        Wikipedia has become a place where consumers not only learn about a brand’s success but also their blunders. How have you seen brands successfully provide their end of the story to counter the dark spots on their Wikipedia page?

        Media companies tend to be well positioned to have good experiences online through their Wikipedia articles. Often because it’s media companies that have many different interests in the space. News media, for example, often wish to have their material used as trusted resources. So they get it a little bit more but not all the time.

        As a result, as media organizations, they tend to be aware of basic abilities for citizen-oriented media or distributed media to be honest, direct and neutral. There are some very large media organizations that understand that if the public is going to be involved, then there needs to be a degree of honesty to all the facts.

        What do you hope attendees of the Talkable Brands Exchange will take away from your presentation?

        I hope that attendees will understand that there is much deeper water when it comes to Wikipedia. It’s not just another web property or social media space. It’s a fundamentally different way that information is shared online and is indicative of much bigger a movement towards transparency and open information.

        So, it is not something you can spend 10 minutes a week thinking about. It’s something you should be prepared to understand the benefits of a project like Wikipedia and also the risks. In other words, I hope they appreciate there’s more going on than their typical web property.

        ———

        Come see Jay present at the WOMMA Talkable Brands Exchange in NYC, Oct. 7. More info and registration here: http://wommabrandexchange.eventbrite.com/

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