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July 28, 2010

Eight Lessons the Wu Tang Clan Can Teach Us About Social Media

By Charlie Kondek
Director, New Media Relations

I have a confession to make. I've been poking fun at the social media blogosphere for its numerous blog posts with this theme - X things Y can teach you about social media. I've derided them for their lack of creativity and repetitiveness. But I like them. I have a hard time keeping up with all the valuable insights and information in the blogosphere on our industry and I have to admit that Z things-themed articles make it easy for me to digest good ideas and give my own creativity a little jump. I can always pursue specific ideas that these articles bring to my attention through search and networking with my peers, or file something away for later.

So with tongue firmly in cheek and my apologies, I give you: Eight Lessons the Wu Tang Clan can teach you about social media. Please watch for my future BlogWorks articles: "11 Business Truths Revealed by the Talking Heads" and "James Brown's Five-Point Innovation Manifesto."

1) A Game of Chess is Like a Sword Fight; You Must Think Before You Move.



Obvious, really! Cull insights from relevant sources and develop a clear strategy before engaging in social media.



2) My Peoples Are You With Me Where You At? 



Identify the influencers, evangelists and advocates relevant to your attack. I mean, program.



3) Killa Bees, They On a Swarm



It's true. Social media participants often operate in large numbers that resemble a cloud of deadly insects.



4) Cash Moves Everything Around Me - CREAM! Get the Money, Dolla Dolla Bill, Yaw



Keeping client relations and a sustainable revenue stream foremost is of great benefit to one's business. Bottom line, really, keep your eye on it, Tical.



5) They Call Me The Ol' Dirty Bastard, Cuz There Ain't No Father to My Style



Social media demands true originality. In truth, push the envelope and do something unique, yet effective. Shame uh yuh, for anything less.



6) Protec' Ya Neck!

Define clear goals and ways to measure success. Seriously, you don't wanna get your head chopped off. That is, you don't want your KPIs aversely affected.



7) Everybody Wants to Talk About the Good Ol' Days, the Good Ol' Days



Nostalgia! A powerful force and reference point.



8) Where My Killer Tape At?

Once you earn an influencer's trust, don't abuse it. Seriously, how you gonna lose Meth's tape when he let you hold it?



Posted by staff at 06:09 PM
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July 27, 2010

Amazee: A Winning Alternative to Ning for Cause-based Communities

By Stacy Lukasavitz
Social Media Strategist

In April 2010, custom social network service Ning decided that it is going to start charging and do away with its free service. Beginning August 20, Ning will charge for usage of their custom social network platform:

As you can imagine, this decision by Ning caused (and is still causing) quite a stir among users and administrators of such networks. Even if it’s only $2.95, many administrators of smaller groups are unwilling to pay for it, and many are struggling to find effective Ning alternatives, especially nonprofits and “cause” networks.

Well, have no fear, activists -- Switzerland-based Amazee is stepping up the plate and offering FREE Ning migration service to its platform.

What is Amazee, you ask? Though it hasn’t caught on in the United States (yet), it’s a popular custom platform for projects and reaching goals, whether it’s fundraising or non-monetary aspirations. It’s very popular in Europe, South Africa, and elsewhere in the world.

Here’s a quick video Amazee made explaining the benefits of migrating to their platform:

Welcome, Ning refugees! from Amazee on Vimeo.

From Amazee’s blog:

First of all you’ll get a lot of the features on Amazee which you’ve been accustomed to on Ning: You’ll be able to post blog entries, upload pictures and embed videos, you’ll have your own forums for discussion, and have a good overview over who’s doing what in your group and on the platform.

Next to that we are taking your Ning experience to the max: There is no limit to the number of members a group can have (Ning only allows for 150), there are no limits on storage and bandwidth (Ning only allows you for 1GB and 10 GB respectively), you’ll be able to set up events and have people rsvp directly in your group (this is not possible at all at Ning) and you can add an unlimited number of RSS feeds and content boxes to your group (Ning has 1 and 3 respectively).

Furthermore we allow for maximum online collaboration and promotion by supporting a solid Facebook integration: You can easily recommend your group on Facebook, if you like you can even sign in to Amazee with your Facebook account. And the icing on the cake: You’ll get a reliable and competent community management on top of all that. For free, of course.

I’ve had an account at Amazee for over a year and have been (minimally) involved on this platform with a few projects in South Africa, and absolutely love the functionality of it. There are other Ning alternatives, like GroupSite and Mixxt, but personally, I don’t find the others very conducive to the needs of collaborative activism. Amazee, on the other hand, was designed for that very purpose.

So if you’ve got a cause-based community on Ning, don’t fret -- head on over to Amazee and they’ll make migration easy, painless, and free.

Posted by staff at 11:47 AM
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July 22, 2010

How NOT to Pitch Bloggers

By Bree Glenn
Account Executive, Social Media Outreach

As an active mommy-blogger, I get many pitches from PR reps, on a weekly basis.

As a PR practitioner, with over eight years experience, now working in digital PR, I often find myself evaluating these pitches from a different point-of-view than most other bloggers.

Here at MS&L, my main responsibility is to pitch our clients’ products and services to bloggers. I work hard to craft clear, concise and compelling pitches. That’s why I am so shocked by how many bad pitches I receive.

Because I’m in PR, I try to give each and every pitch I receive (even the bad ones), the benefit of the doubt; because, I know that most times the product or service is a good one. Unfortunately, most bloggers aren’t like me. They’re not in PR, so they probably don’t even read the pitch because, on the surface, it doesn’t seem to be a fit, for their blog.

If you or your company has a product or service that you feel would be of interest to bloggers, take note of the following.

When sending a pitch, DO NOT:

Send a form pitch letter - I cannot stress how important it is, for your pitch to be individually catered to each and every blogger and their blog’s content. I’m not saying that you have to craft a new pitch every time, but adding some specific intro copy, would be good. For example, just this past week, I received two pitches for products for little girls. If they would’ve just spent a few minutes, looking around my blog, they would’ve realized that I have a 4-year-old boy and known not to send me the pitch.

• Ask the blogger to go to your website for more details – Most bloggers you pitch get several pitches per week. Some also have “real” jobs, in addition to blogging. They don’t have time to search around for information on every product that’s pitched to them. Always try to include all pertinent information, in your pitch.
• Send a pitch, with no call to action – Recently, I was emailed a press release for a product that I was really interested in. But the email didn’t include a request for product review. When sending a pitch, be sure to ask yourself, “Why would the blogger be interested in this product?” Be sure to include the answer, in your pitch.

Follow this advice, and hopefully, you’ll have more success pitching in the blogosphere.

Happy pitching!

Posted by staff at 10:16 AM
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July 20, 2010

Warning: Possible Career Damage Ahead

By Lyndsay Kapurch
Assistant Account Manager

Checking Facebook at work is about to get a whole lot easier for users of Outlook, as Microsoft prepares to launch new social integration features of the email client. If you’re willing to link your company email address to your account (which many people must in order to join professional Facebook networks), your status updates and profile image will appear along with any e-mail correspondence.

The ability to glean Facebook-housed information about a media contact or client could potentially be a great tool for public relations professionals, but it will have to be used carefully. The more public your profile becomes, the more carefully it’s content must be crafted (or censored).
For more information, read the Mashable exclusive here.

Posted by staff at 12:22 PM
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July 19, 2010

Is There a Market for Your Book?

By Kai Blum
Director, Search Engine Optimization

Are you thinking about writing a nonfiction book? Possibly about a niche subject that nobody has written about yet? Are you wondering if there's demand for your book?

Whether you are thinking about self-publishing a book or trying to make a business case to a publisher, there's a quick way to evaluate the market for your book or e-book:

1) Go to Google's AdWords Keyword Tool

2) Type in the keyword phrase that best describes your topic

3) Google will tell you the approximate number of times that people search for your topic every month

For example, if you're considering to write a book about "growing bananas," you'll find that almost 2,000 people in the U.S. search for information on this topic every month, yet there's no book in print with this title.

Posted by staff at 10:02 AM
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July 15, 2010

Return of the Potluck!

Man, been a while since we've had a good poluck lunch here at MSL Digital. Bless you, Party Planning Committee, for bringing it back! This one's theme was Mexican food and as you can see there were many dishes to be had, all of them excellent.

Afterward, gorged on beans, rice, tamales, enchiladas, cookies, we had a go at busting a pinata on our back porch. With perhaps unexpected results. What must the neighbors think!

Part One:

Part Two:

Posted by staff at 02:14 PM
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July 14, 2010

The Outside-of-the-Box-Websites

By Eden Litt
Social Media Coordinator

In July of 2008, Google announced on its blog that it had indexed more than 1 trillion (yes, that's 1,000,000,000,000) unique URLs. Here we are two years later, and the number is sure to have climbed further.

So what does one have to do to stand out in a crowd of billions and billions? That’s a great question without a great answer. However, we did attempt to investigate it by scouring the Web high and low to pick out a handful of sites that have something on their site that really stuck out. Indeed our hypothesis was correct; there is, in fact, no magical formula to creating a killer website. But check out some of the ones that really stood out to us below. Are there any that you’d add to the list?

Cpbgroup.com
Why is this site so cool? It’s clean, it’s simple and yet packs a lot of cool and fun stuff into one location. Since most of the site is aggregated from various other sites, CP+B have very little control over it, calling it a “digital experiment.”

Almost.at
Why is this site so cool? Because it allows people to experience and “attend” events when they can’t physically be there. David, the site owner, picks random popular events/conferences/games/etc. and pulls in tweets, photos, videos and links related to the event. Cool part is, even if you miss the event live, you can relive the event at a later time using the timeline feature.

BooneOakley.com
Why is this site so cool? The site is a series of clickable YouTube videos. Not sure how that’s even possible, but try it out for yourself.

Prioritymail.com
Why is this site so cool? At first glance, you may be thinking...uh why? But, we put this on the list because it’s one of the first sites to integrate augmented reality, and for a good useful purpose too. Basically you use your webcam to pick out the right box size for the item(s) you’d like to ship. Genius.

DontClick.It
Why is this site so cool? Because it has no buttons! You literally use your mouse to navigate around the site, hovering is similar to clicking. Neat idea, but can you resist the click?

Pilothandwriting.com
Why is this site so cool? Ever wished you personally had your own font? You know, one that resembled your actual handwriting? Well, this site allows you to do just that. Using a print out that you write on, plus your camera you can type using your own handwriting as a font...and send handwritten notes as e-mails. The blend of traditional and digital is fantastic.

Posted by staff at 10:13 AM
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July 13, 2010

Empires of Transformation: Can a Naked Chef School the Trainer?

By Marian Short
Senior Account Executive, MediaQuotient

Last week during a cursory tour of “foodies online,” I began to wonder how two very different personalities are handling digital and social: Jamie Oliver and Jillian Michaels. What does a Naked Chef and British food crusader have in common with a Biggest Loser trainer and badass extraordinaire? They’re not apples-to-apples, but both are aiming for transformation and empowerment, either at the individual or community level. How are they leveraging social and how strong are their presences online?

At first glance, Jillian’s readership seems to dwarf Jamie Oliver’s, with Compete.com estimating unique monthly visitors for May at 646 K vs. 221K, respectively. Moreover, it’s likely that some readership cannibalization exists between Jillian’s home site and The Biggest Loser’s digital properties. Similarly the official Facebook pages show Jillian in the like-lead, with 418,375 likes to Oliver’s 326,296 – and Jillian fans have posted 884 photos (vs. 305). The branded Jillian page has also done a good job of cross-posting Tweets, which garner comments in the thousands.

But here’s a wrinkle: though the trainer and the chef, have generated roughly the same number of tweets Jamie has over three times more followers than Jillian (515K vs. 158K).

A key difference is the number of Twitter accounts they’re following: Jamie follows close to 4,000 feeds. Jillian follows 60. I’m not naïve. I don’t suppose Mr. Oliver is endlessly reading Tweets. But it speaks to reciprocity and to a more multi-faceted model of engagement that has thankfully replaced the one-to-many model.

And this is where I think Jamie excels online. Calls to be social on Jillian’s site consist largely of the usual badges to FB, Twitter, etc.; otherwise, calls to buy DVDs, branded products or watch the show dominate. While the website’s focus is on individual empowerment, it doesn’t carry that idea through to encouraging online community.

By contrast, the home page of Jamie’s less-traveled-though-successful site is highly interactive and social: readers can sign the petition promoting better nutrition in schools, become one of 300k+ forum members or 2K linked bloggers, share recipes, read the latest about Jamie’s cooking initiatives, follow him on Twitter etc. and yes, naturally buy any of his books, DVDs, etc. Across all platforms, Jamie (or the Oliver brand) encourages active participation—and I would argue this thorough use of social media is a reflection of the chef’s long-term focus on community development and empowerment. This is something Jillian (and her brand) would do well to embrace more fully.

But enough about what they’re doing. How much are people talking? Volume-wise, over the past 6 months, Jamie is the hands-down leader across blogs traditional, tweets and overall total web hits, while Jillian is mentioned much more frequently within message boards (see Sysomos for more data love; subscription required).

Additionally, out of approximately 321K Jamie-related tweets (with a reach of 389 M impressions), 26 percent were retweets, vs. a 10 percent retweet rate for Jillian’s 64K tweets (64.2 M impressions) -- showing a higher level of engagement. Eighty-three percent of blog posts portray Jamie favorably (includes 39 percent neutral), besting Jillian’s 72 percent favorable portrayal (includes 40 percent neutral); the higher percentage of negativity could certainly be attributed to people’s love-hate relationship with exercise.

But wait! There’s More! The thing is, there’s always more. An initial dip into site traffic tells one story, but there are always more layers to examine. Both personalities are successfully engaging millions offline and both clearly know the importance of engaging online. At this point however, Jillian could learn a few tips from Jamie Oliver’s more integrated use of social to grow his “Food Revolution” (and his empire).

Posted by staff at 03:58 PM
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July 08, 2010

If You Can't Take the Heat, Take it to Starbucks.

By Stacy Lukasavitz
Social Media Strategist

NEWSFLASH: It's hot lately. Like, sweltering, fry-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk hot. Like, your-M&Ms-would-indeed-melt-in-your-hand hot. Like, it's literally hotter in Ann Arbor than Orlando hot.

Okay, you get the idea.

Days like these are not days anyone wants to be without air conditioning. Unfortunately for our office's third floor (also the top floor), that very thing happened the other day -- it was so hot, our AC went on strike and broke.

Not to be deterred, the team on MS&L Digital's third floor took it like champs. Some had fans at their desks. Some cracked open cold beverages. Others, the ones with laptops, just moved downstairs to the second floor.

... and then there was Lyndsay Kapurch, who wins the prize for most innovative:

Lyndsay does not have a laptop, but that didn't discourage her from finding a creative solution. She picked up her entire 27" iMac, mouse, and keyboard, and just moved into Starbucks two doors down.

Now THAT'S dedication!

Posted by staff at 02:17 PM
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July 06, 2010

Blogoshpere all a-Twitter About King James' Tweets

By Kimberly Huston
MS&L Digital Media Analyst

Whether or not you’re an NBA fan, you have probably heard that league superstar, LeBron James, is a free agent. The sports blogosphere is abuzz with keeping tabs on the rumors, speculations, and high drama surrounding James’ decision to remain with the Cleveland Cavaliers or move to the New York Knicks, New Jersey Nets, or Chicago Bulls.

The current free agency frenzy has cast a spotlight on the NBA, with eleven other high profile players making decisions about where they will sign. Even though it is hard to escape news on James, the NBA decided to promote LeBron fever by sponsoring the trending topic “LeBron James” on Twitter. If you click on the trending topic, you will be forwarded to this sponsored tweet: “For all your LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and other NBA Free Agency updates check out Decision 2010 on NBA.com.” This is one of the newest examples of Promoted Trending Topics, the first being Disney/Pixar’s promotion of Toy Story 3 last month.

Several NBA stars are active on Twitter and maintain healthy social media presences. James has a limited presence in social media but that will change with the launch of LeBronJames.com. It’s speculated that James will announce his decision via the site—when you register, you are greeted with a screen that reads "Getting Closer" over James' eye and "You'll Be The First To Know."

James will assuredly keep basketball fans waiting with bated breath for his announcement, which is now speculated to be Wednesday, July 7. You can follow him on Twitter @kingjames.

Posted by staff at 02:42 PM
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July 02, 2010

Read This if No One Cares About Your Blog … Yet

By Lyndsay Kapurch
Assistant Account Executive

While researching outlets for a future outreach project, I came across a March 2010 piece by blogger and entrepreneur Joel Spolsky on Inc. I thought was especially relevant to the work we do at MS&L. In it, Spolsky shares insights on corporate blogging he gathered through developing his own personal following – most importantly, how to get people to connect with your business or product. I think it’s worth the read for anyone with a little writer’s block.

For the full column, click here.

Oh, and what was that future project? A corporate blog, of course.

Posted by staff at 11:47 AM
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July 01, 2010

Yahoo Launches New Style Guide for the Digital World

By Nicole Burguess
Interactive Account Manager

Mashable announced this week that Yahoo will release a comprehensive style guide full of tips and guidelines for producing digital content. Since both the PR and journalism industries have relied on the Associated Press Stylebook, almost exclusively, for decades, it’s unclear how the new guidelines will be received, and the “word nerd” community is abuzz with feedback. Even Mashable, staying true to AP style, fails to use Yahoo’s trademark “!” in any mentions of the company.

Recently, some have found fault with the trusty old AP stylebook, especially as new words and phrases enter the digital realm. Just this year, the AP changed “Web site” to “website” in an effort to accommodate modern usage. The Yahoo Style Guide promises to be “a must-have for anyone who writes or edits for the web,” once it becomes available on July 6, 2010.

Our culture has made a habit of adjusting language to meet new technology, but what does this mean for the many traditionally-trained journalists and PR pros who are now, because of changes in the media landscape, writing more for online audiences than offline ones?

Following the release of the Yahoo Style Guide, we’ll provide an in-depth review, so stay tuned for more.

Posted by staff at 04:09 PM
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