Who won the brand social Gold at the Olympics?

Article written and submitted to ADOTAS.COM, reviewing how brands did at the Olympics for their serious marketing sponsorship dollars. In the four years since the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Facebook has grown from 100 million users to close to a billion —what a difference four years makes. So, how have the Olympic sponsoring brands taken advantage of this immense new global audience? In 2008, there were two ‘levels’ of brand sponsors at the Olympics — the eleven TOP Partners (Acer, Atos, Coca-Cola, Dow, GE, McDonalds, Omega, Panasonic, P&G, Samsung and Visa) who are reported to have paid an average of $100 million each to buy the world-wide marketing rights over a four-year cycle, covering a Winter and a Summer games. And, about 40 other sponsors spending from around $15M to $60M each for more limited rights. (You can view a full list of those sponsors, and their contributions, here.) Read the whole article here.

Social media lessons for travel marketers

Article written and placed for Friend2Friend in iMediaConnection today, covering social media lessons for travel marketers. While websites catering to the “wisdom of the crowds” have shaped travel decisions online for well over a decade, social media sites such as Facebook represent much more powerful opportunities for marketers to reach and engage with new travelers. In fact, today it’s often trusted recommendations from our Facebook friends (via their Facebook news feed) that make us aware of a destination in the first place. And, when it comes to sharing stories about one’s favorite vacation spot, “like” often turns to “love” (i.e., purchasing airplane tickets and booking hotel rooms). Read the whole article on iMediaConnection here.

How do you create a social loyalty loop?

Opinion piece written and placed in MarketingProfs -- how do you create a social loyalty loop? The article covered:

• The definition of Social Loyalty Loop
• Four ways to fuel a social loyalty loop
• How to use social media to engage customers and keep them loyal

Read more at MarketingProfs.

Why engagement is the key to success on Facebook

Article written and placed discussing how brands must look to engagement as the key to success on Facebook. It’s been 17 years since the first online banner ads appeared on the Internet. 15 years since the Internet Advertising Bureau was founded. Between then and now, measurement and tracking of online advertising has become increasingly predictable. Brand marketers know what to expect. Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/175054/measuring-engagement-is-key-to-success-for-brand-m.html#ixzz27ouog1Ae Read the whole article on Mediapost here.

Social Super Tuesday -- how the candidates stacked up on Facebook

Another article written and placed this week. Very delighted with the result — on Techcrunch, as the first opinion piece of the day. "Every vote counted on Super Tuesday. The results coming down to the wire, with Mitt Romney narrowly beating Rick Santorum by only 0.8% in the Ohio primary. While some may argue that the issues elevated Mitt above the rest, as a social marketer I can’t help to wonder if social savvy determined the winners and losers..." Read the whole article here.

Friends don't share ads with friends

Opinion piece written and placed in Adotas today. Facebook challenges brands to market their message in an environment where people behave differently, communicate differently and find information differently. Facebook isn’t a microsite. It isn’t a brand website. It’s a social environment. So, brands have to step up and market in a way that’s contextually sensitive to that social environment, and to keep their fans engaged in that environment. You can read the entire article here.

Welcoming Facebook's redefinition of advertising

Blog post written and published about the latest updates to Facebook, announced February 2012. You can read the full post here.

How to monetize fans on Facebook

This is an excerpt from an article written and posted on iMedia Connection, February 27, 2012. For the full article, go here.

Within the last year, marketers have raced to grow their legions of Facebook fans. In fact, it has become a badge of honor, so to speak, among brands to reach the million-person-Facebook fan count. The reasoning goes, "Once I build up a sizeable fan base, I'll figure out if, and how, I can monetize them." Many see social commerce as poised to experience massive growth in the next few years. Booz & Company recently predicted that sales from social commerce will hit $30 billion worldwide and $14 billion in the U.S. by 2015. And with a majority (58 percent) of consumers now researching products online before purchasing, it's time to close the loyalty loop and try integrating true social elements into the online purchase. What does that mean? I buy something. I tell two friends. And they'll tell two friends, and so on, and so on (our nod to the 80s Faberge commercials).

Read more on iMedia Connection, about ways to jump start your social commerce campaigns on Facebook and other social platfoms.

What the Super Bowl and marketers can learn from socially savvy sports fans

This article written for, and accepted by, on VentureBeat. While sports fans eagerly await who will win the 2012 Super Bowl and look forward to diving into chips and a Frito Pie or two, marketers are eager to see who the winners (and losers) are on the social media front. Clearly big brands want to make sure their (estimated) $3.5 million investment for a 30-second spot pays off, but how do they go beyond the 100 million audience to cultivate new and engaged fans via social media after February 5th?

Here are a few suggestions on what marketers can learn from the success of sports engagement on social media.

Your fans have shifted to social…Refresh your playbook

Social media is changing how fans cheer on their teams. At the time of the 2006 World Cup, Facebook was still limited only to college and high school students. But then everything changed in 2010. At the South Africa World Cup, where viewing parties, mobile app badges, continual tweets from players, and live streams on social networks inspired a growing community of fans to share with socially-inspired sports fans around the world.

Games were watched worldwide in record numbers (19.4 million people watched the US vs. Ghana game). Twitter reported that the Women’s World Cup soccer final scored a new record with 7,196 “tweets per second,” the most tweeted moment in Twitter history. And number 2? Brazil’s elimination from Copa America! Social vuvuzelas were heard all over the world (and not only on those incredibly annoying vuvuzela mobile apps). Read the full article here on VentureBeat.

Creative ways to plug brands on Facebook

Article written and placed in Adotas article in Adotas this week. Discusses ways that brands need to get creative to engage fans on Facebook, and avoid the risk of "hit and run" fans. Engagement is key to a brand's success.

How to make the latest Facebook changes work for brands

Article written and placed in Social Media Today, titled "How to make the latest Facebook changes work for your brand." Check it out.

Google+ -- one week later

I was just writing an email to someone about what I thought about Google+ one week later. Here's what I said, unedited:

1. There's a thrill of the new thing going on. You can start over with your friend lists. Start afresh. And early adopters love new toys.

2. They do photos really well. Sharing with Picasa is really good fun. All my photos are in Picasa. Now Picasa one-click defaults sharing to Google+

3. Google does APIs and tech stuff really well. So I presume that the tools they will make available through Google Labs will be extensive, fun, and flexible.

4. They have a HUGE graph. Imagine the users of YouTube, Picasa, GMail bringing it all together? I spend more time in Google apps than I do in Facebook. Facebook feels like I'm in a separate state. Google+ feels like another little town in my conurbation.

5. Sharing by Circles makes sense. It's what Facebook Groups should have been. But the interface stunk. I like the little animation of dropping Guy's face into different circles. It's fun, and it's really obvious and easy.

6. Google+ seems to have cleverly hit upon a Twitter/stream idea with following etc., and Facebook private sharing. People are "following" me, but I don't have to share with them if I don't want to. They will just see what I make public for them. It's like Twitter is built in. That's powerful, and probably the most important point, so should have been #1.

Google+ -- the thrill of starting over

Your life got messy. You have friends you wish you could just slough off. You're bored with most of them, and others you feel you wish you could ignore without seeming rude. So isn't it fun to start over? There are millions of people joining Google+ and starting over. I've spent the whole morning poking around. I go to peer at Facebook from time to time. Same old, same old. Blech. I'm starting over with Google+. Bye bye Facebook. I'll visit from time to time. But I'm having fun with my new friends on Google+.

I started a Google+ hangout. Nobody joined me, but that's OK. I was in my pyjamas with my hair akimbo, so it's probably just as well. I built my circles of hell and enjoyed deciding who should be where. (Circles feels like Groups should have been on Facebook. Not too restrictive. Easy to drag and drop people in and out. Easy to share with who you want (though I have yet to figure out how to make a post Public). ) I found lots of new people to follow, with lots of energetic chat that felt lively and enthusiastic.

It's fun to start over. I have a whole new circle of friends to play with. I'll bet many others feel the same way. We get bored easily, and for that reason alone, Facebook should be worried.

How my iPad re-kindled my love affair with my Kindle

I apologize to my Kindle. The nice, light, easy to read Kindle that is now sitting comfortably in my handbag. Being a bit of a nerd, I buy all the new toys. And the Kindle was a must-have. But I soon fell out of love with the nasty keyboard, the lack of a touch interface, the flickery screen. But I did become addicted to the instant books I could get to deal with insomnia.

Then I got my iPad. With a Kindle app. Joy.

But about a year later, I have gone back to my Kindle. Why? It's true. It IS readable in sunlight. It It IS light. I CAN hold it in one hand. All the things Jeff Bezos tells me.

But he's getting it wrong. But I wouldn't market it that way. He's comparison marketing to the iPad. That's not the point. People will use both. It's inevitable, and it doesn't really matter. The real dream he should be weaving is about how the world of books is available, instantly; that you can take your entire library on vacation, in your handbag; that you can get your kids a schoolbook instantly for that chapter they had to read tonight, and left in the classroom; that you can get a free sample of anything, and if you like it, buy it. (How many times have I bought a book that I've dropped after the first chapter. Mr Bezos has solved that.)

There are so, so many ways that Kindle is an integral part of my life. Weave the dream, and welcome back Kindle to my bedside table.

Social Media ROI

Which social media monitoring tool should you use?

Read the article here from Fresh Networks. Lots of good stuff to share.

Vitamin Water crowd-sourced their latest flavor

A new Vitamin Water flavor launching in March 2011 -- lime and cherry "Connect" -- was designed by Vitamin Water's Facebook fans. Fans created the flavor, designed the package, and named the product. This is the new kind of focus group -- consulted in during the product development cycle, right from the beginning -- with real "ownership" of the end result. Excellent.

Making Data Relevant: The New Metrics for Social Marketing

Excellent article: Making Data Relevant: The New Metrics for Social Marketing

My first e-book vacation

I just returned from my first iPad vacation. For the very first time, I took not a single "physical" book. Just an iPad, pre-populated with some yummy literary treats. The outcome? Good, but mostly not so good.

Good because it was easy to pack and lightweight and convenient, and I could bring five books and know that if I didn't like one I could try another.

Not so good for more reasons: first, I felt compelled to continue to check my e-mail while I was away. Hard not to. It was just a click away. Second, my kids snuck off with my iPad at every opportunity, to indulge in some Angry Bird baiting or heavy duty Facebook action. And finally, I couldn't take it outside. The screen just doesn't work in bright sunlight. And the beach? Forget it. I have no problem leaving a tatty paperback and a beach towel behind while I have a quick dip. But not my precious iPad.

So I won't be doing that again. Unless it's a solo/grown ups only trip to Florence or similar for the weekend.

Having said that, I'm reading a ton more at home. I've gone from reading about two books a month to four or five. I'm loving loving loving downloading Kindle samples. I am astonished at just how much money I am sending Amazon, and how lovingly they take care of me. They are figuring it out.

So I'm now officially fully embracing the e-book world. Just not on the beach.

Is this really a reason not to crowd-source?

Interesting article here in Mashable about Pepsi's attempts to crowd-source their Superbowl commercial. Just because Pepsi chose to feature in some way (I don't know how prominently) the Doritos/Communion Wafer submission -- a submission that offended Catholic groups -- doesn't mean we should throw the crowd-sourcing baby out with the bathwater. The outcome should not be a judgement on the value of crowd-sourcing.

When a large, savvy, and well-funded brand such as Pepsi chooses to walk on the wild side, and undertake crowd-sourcing, or social media "stunts" of any sort -- they have to take responsibility for their actions. Perhaps "someone" should have thought this through. "Hmm, I love this commercial. It's fun. Irreverent. But, well, might offend some. Should we feature it?"

Crowd-sourcing is exciting. It helps brands think in a new way about their brand. They get to see how people out there in the real world think about them. It shakes things up. I say, bring it on! But be judicial. Know that there will be submissions and content that may not reflect your brand's values. In which case, it's "thanks, love it, but no thanks."