As I watched, it made me think about how great social media is for companies such as the ones that were high-lighted and for those that have not yet engaged. When you have all sorts of content rich information tools, you have  an opportunity to not only engage with the people that work for you (especially in large companies and corporations) but with the people that shop with you too. You can find out how and when you are exceeding expectations and when they, or your business, disappoint. Where there are disappointments, you have the opportunity as a business to say, “I am sorry” and take immediate steps to make it right. Today!

Imagine if you could highlight the great people that are dedicated to your business—who you want to reward—by letting them know that YOU know how great they are? By showing how much you appreciate what they do. And giving the customers they interact with an opportunity to share their favourites nation—or city—wide. It would certainly encourage me to be the best I can be and PASS it on—both as a customer and as an employee.

One-to-one engagement focusing on a human element that allows all of us to be heard, respected and acknowledged—is one of the easiest ways to bring a positive flow of give and take . To address the challenges and celebrate the successes that take your business from good to great. To create enthusiasm for your brand and enlist new customers—which helps create more sales and, yes, more money.

Who wouldn’t want to get started tomorrow? What are you waiting for?

Best Nicole

It made me relate that back to the story I tell our clients, both current and future, and the question I ask them: What is your story and is it being told? In her talk, Chimamanda’s cites that if we hear just a single story, we run the risk of critical misunderstanding. As a result, the perspective of that story can narrow and bias the view of the recipient—preventing them from experiencing the rainbow of ideas, offerings and opportunities that that may make up a product, place or thing.

I thought this to be facinating and interesting, especially in light of the debut of Sarah Palin’s book via her Oprah interview, and the media frenzy post interview. Sarah Palin is now out to define who she is by the story that is in her book and the story shared during her Vice Presidential run last year. I took time out today to watch the interview. From my perspective, she spent much of her time defending her story with the reasoning that her handlers and managers of the campaign kept her from her true self.

I think the wonderful thing about this perspective, and the parallel of technology, is that now we have the ability to engage and connect in a global sense—so that we experience a wide range of thoughts and ideas that relate to one story. You get to share your perspective of that story with another directly, as they read it, and they get to discuss and define that story with you as it relates to them. The dangers of the past, as described by Chimamanda’s recounting of her experiences growing up in Nigeria—reading foreign stories about snow, apples and ginger beer, while she lived in endless sun shine, eating mangos—point out how she thought that all stories had to be about the places she read of in those books. But now: they’ve become something that can be instantly shared and translated in a way that allows everyone the opportunity to see the varied perspectives that make the story viable to them—allowing them to connect with others who may read the same story but have another perspective that they can bring to life, in real time, on the global platform called “the internet”.

A magnificent historical adventure from the earliest days of man to the rapid fire movement of the information highway in the 21st century. Have you created your story? How is it being told?

Best Nicole

Twitter is quick, easy to use and a great way for people to keep up—not only with their social networking, but with the news and other information that is valuable and interesting to the user. Brand evangelism for many can start here. Who doesn’t want their customers following their daily feeds about their company, products and services? What better way to connect, engage and cultivate your customer relationships!

Best Nicole

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Twitter’s been the toast of TV news programs, daytime talk shows, magazine editors and newspaper reporters. But what’s all that chatter worth?

According to news-monitoring service VMS, a cool $48 million over the past 30 days. (That’s half of what Microsoft plans to spend marketing its biggest product launch of the year, Bing.)

Twitter received almost 3 billion impressions — 2.73 billion, to be exact — in the past month, a time period that doesn’t even include the frenzied weeks in April in which Oprah and Ellen weighed in on the micro-blogging service. TV contributed to 57% of the PR value, newspapers 37% and magazines 5%. Incidentally, Fox News bested CNN in terms of total PR value delivered by its Twitter mentions, although CNN dropped the name more often.

In reality, said VMS CEO Peter Wengryn, the number of impressions over the past 30 days could be as much as double that, considering the company doesn’t measure mentions in all the smaller newspapers around the country.

“This is huge. It’s very, very high,” said Gary Getto, VP-integrated media intelligence at VMS. “In fact, we looked at online coverage of Twitter vs. Google. Twitter is running significantly higher than Google and I didn’t think anything was more popular than Google.”

In contrast, the media value of the coverage given to Microsoft’s Bing was just $573,834, and the reach of its free media came in at just 63 million impressions.

Twitter’s unique visitors in June totaled almost 21 million as it grew 14% over May traffic. In May it grew 7%, a slowdown from the furious growth the site experienced in January through April, according to Nielsen Online.

Twitter does seem to have more sizzle in the press than it does in real life. Whether or not it can maintain the level of media buzz that helped turn it into a mainstream term is unclear. History portends that hot social-media properties, once the darlings of talking heads everywhere, tend to level off.

“As we source some of the other phrases like LinkedIn and Facebook, they were hot and the ‘in’ thing at the time and certainly they don’t have the same sizzle they did today as they did in the first two or three months,” said Mr. Wengryn. “Twitter seems to have a higher sizzle today than any of its peers. But for long term, we don’t know if this will be sustainable or whether there will be another that comes to displace it.”

I came across this article from Media Post’s Search Insider, written by Gord Hotchkiss, President of Search Marketing firm Enquiro. With the infinate options for measurement through the web, we now can track and measure our own fame. He provides some of the many ways that you can track how you’re doing in the quest to create and build your own 15 minutes. I am sure that many are quietly tracking their own status web based metrics as they watch their profile, and much anticipated celebrity, rise to the top!

Way before the internet, Michael Jackson learned as a child the skills of managing the growth of one of the largest celebrity profiles in the world. As they honor him and lay him to rest, his profile and celebrity is sure to continue to lead the way into the next century. May he rest in peace!

Best Nicole

The New Metrics of Fame
by Gord Hotchkiss , Thursday, July 2, 2009

 In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes” — Andy Warhol, 1968

When Warhol made his oft-quoted prediction, he was referring to the ability of media to push anyone into the bright glare of the spotlight for a fleeting brush with celebrity. What he couldn’t have anticipated was the strange twist the Web would throw on this issue. The Web democratized media and accelerated Warhol’s prediction. Viral fame doesn’t depend on tightly controlled channels like newspapers and TV networks; it seeps, oozes and sometimes gushes, propelled by users. All of us, including middle-aged guys from New Jersey lip-synching to pop songs, kung-fu-fighting bears and teen-aged “Star Wars”-obsessed wannabes, can now be famous.

But it’s not just the opportunities for fame that have undergone drastic Web modification. It’s also the ways we measure fame. Humans are obsessed with status. We are mesmerized by social rankings, and thanks to the infinitely measurable nature of the Web, we have a legion of new status metrics available to see how we stack up against the world at large. And I’m just as big a sucker for this as everyone else. It’s not something I’m proud of, but I regularly check my status on various Web-based metrics. Here are a few of them.

Googling One’s Self
I think everyone’s guilty of this one at one time or another. You check to see what ranks for your name, who else of the same name shows up (my doppelganger is a photographer and musician in Scotland), and how many mentions Google finds of you out in the Web wilderness (22,900).

As your digital fame grows, you broaden your search parameters. For example, do you break the top 10 for just your last name? This is admittedly dependent on how common your name is. Hotchkiss is not a household word, but I am competing with a prep school in Connecticut, a town in Colorado, a civil war cartographer, a precursor to the Jeep, the owner of the Calgary Flames and a ballroom dancing instructor. Or how about your first name? Gordon Lightfoot, a video game storeowner and a comic book about ultra bondage offer stiff competition for “Gord.”

Here’s a new variation: Search Suggestion Wheel of Fortune. With the search suggestions feature now available on all the major engines, see how many letters you have to type in for your name before you appear on the list of suggested searches. I come up in 5 letters (on Google.com — my home country is a little less kind. I need to go to 7 letters on Google.ca).

Techno-Rate-i
If you’ve joined the blogosphere, a number of destinations offer updated stats on how you stack up against the Seth Godins, Guy Kawasakis, Michael Arringtons and Arianna Huffingtons of the world. I have been tremendously delinquent here. I was once in the top 100,000 on Technorati, but have slipped back to the lowly 200,000s, due mainly to posting neglect. Still, with somewhere over 100 million blogs in existence (exact numbers seem hard to find) that still puts me in the top 0.2%, so my ego can live with that.

Twitterholics
The newest addiction for those seeking digital attention is Twitter. Now that the celebrities have glommed onto tweeting (come on, Kutcher, DeGeneres and Spears, can’t you share a little love?), it’s not as easy to gain top tweet status, but Twitterholics can get their fix of ranking reporting at Twitterholic. I do better here than on Technorati, once again breaking top 100,000 status. 1,649, 378 more followers and I beat Oprah (@outofmygord if you care).

Fame is Fleeting
In the new wired world, we are constantly reminded of our own notoriety, or lack of same, compared to everyone else in the world. In the pre-Web world, not only were we not famous, we were also blissfully ignorant of the fact. Today, it seems that everyone should strive to have some small sliver of fame. Keeping up with the neighbors isn’t about what’s parked in your driveway, it’s how many hits your blog gets. Social status is now measured in backlinks, hits and followers. My brother-in-law dealt my ego a devastating blow when he gave me a T-shirt that said “More people have read this T-shirt than my blog.” But I’ll get even. He won’t be getting any link love in this column.

There is another stat from the American Marketing Association, which “showed that 91% of women feel misunderstood and misrepresented by advertisers and marketers.” This indicates the huge business opportunity “getting it right” represents. Women are genetically programmed to compare rather than compete, preferring to see the good in both and picking the one that is the best “fit” for her, rather than being sold to based on a brand being No.1 in the market.

Econsultancy.com posted an article with which I have shared our post title, “Are Brands Ignoring Moms? How Should Marketers Use Twitter”. The answer to this question based on both of these stats is a resounding YES. Motrin can certainly vouch for the power of moms and the use of Twitter through the immediate reaction and their response one of their newly launched ads several months back (they pulled the spot). Mom’s spoke out about their outrage to one of Motrin’s ads and it was heard loud and clear!

The moral of this post is two-fold. Firstly, you need to be engaged and connecting with social media to be able to truly understand how to steer and integrate social media into the marketing campaigns you are partnering in with your customers and clients. The changes and the amount of information is so vast, that you can’t afford not to be involved. Secondly the most important target market—WOMEN—are using this format for so many different reasons. Sharing ideas, comparisons, research, opinions and purchases, to name a few.  All of them important—if you want your Share of their dollar. You can find us @bcadgroup. We are eager to see read your tweets and connect with you on Twitter. Follow us and we will follow you!

Best Nicole

According to M2Moms, a report from the Market to Moms Coalition, 60% of moms feel marketers are ignoring their needs, and 73% feel advertisers don’t really understand what it’s like to be a mom. The challenge, says the report, is sensing her distinct, timely needs and responding in a way that truly resonates.

If your company markets to moms you’d best pay attention to the groundswell of moms online.

“In trying to perfect the message, many have forgotten to listen to the very consumer they are trying to woo,” reports Brandweek.

Witness the Motrin Moms debacle that underscored the importance of not just reaching moms, but understanding their value systems. The original video, which was trying to lean on the light side resulted in a revolt capped by this backlash video.

Another example is this post about Mom’s using Twitter from the Silicon Valley Mom’s blog:

While reading my RSS Feeds today, I saw a blog post title coming from my TechCrunch feed – “Oprah’s First Tweet Will Be Tomorrow On Her Show. Soccer Moms To Take Over The Service?”. Anyone following twitter brand maerketing knows that moms use online social networking as a platform to extend their online social and business networking. I have nothing against soccer moms, I will be signing up my twins for another season of AYSO soccer in a few weeks. But generalizing moms into the term “soccer mom” misses out on the fact that social media savvy moms that are not only ALREADY using Twitter, but have huge followings.”

Power Mom would be closer to the mark:

- Moms control 85% of household spending
- Are worth more than $2 trillion to U.S. brands, as reported by the Marketing to Moms Coalition
- Over 78% of moms with children under 18 were employed in 2000 according to the U.S. Department of Labor
- Working out of the home, telecommuting, or running a business from home, media technology and the Internet have become true enablers.  econsultancy

Jennifer Openshaw writes an excellent article in the Wall Street Journal, that outlines how using social media tools such as blogs and twitter can lead you to success. There is no time for you as a business to put this key marketing strategy on hold. Dive in—success awaits!

Best Nicole

Twitter. Facebook. Blogs. Let’s face it: It’s nearly a full-time job just to keep up with these new media tools, never mind to learn them well. But how can you use them to strengthen your current career or, even better, to build yourself into a brand?

Think about online shoe retailer Zappos, which, thanks to its Internet-savvy CEO Tony Hsieh, has grown to $1 billion in revenue in about eight years. OK, the service is great everyone says, but that’s not the only thing going for it. Hsieh – and many others from Ellen DeGeneres to up-and-coming politicians, home-based business owners and concerned employees – have embraced online social media tools to take their names, companies and aspirations to the next level.

Though most experts agree there’s no substitute for face-to-face networking, using social media tools can help you become a thought leader in your space and even drive customers to your business.

“Let’s say you’re an insurance salesman and you’re really passionate about what you do,” says Jason Falls, vice president of interactive media at Doe-Anderson, a Louisville-based brand building firm, and author of the SocialMediaExplorer. “If you blog about it, then people searching the Web looking for third-party recommendations or information about insurance are apt to find your blog because you’re posting frequently and it’s relevant to those keywords.”

In essence, Google Inc. (GOOG), through its search engine, will crawl for information based on a person’s search terms and suggest this as a place you might go to learn about insurance, Falls notes.

“You start to develop a following not only as a thought leader or expert in the field but also as the preferred place to purchase that particular product or service,” he adds.

As an entrepreneur myself in the online world, I’ve been fascinated with how these tools are taking off. I’ve also been concerned about how ordinary people can increase their value on the job. Here’s a look at how you can use these tools to boost your career or maybe even save your job:

-First, pick your niche. Today, it’s all about niche specialties. What’s your forte? Whether it’s shoes [Zappos], humor [DeGeneres], or even topics you’d think not even your mother would care about like customer service or bowling, it’s all about knowing something that others will find valuable. And if you’re worried your expertise won’t attract others, think again. Did you ever think you’d see a cable show “At Home on the Range?”

-Know what you want. If you’re going to spend time using social media tools, then know why you’re doing it in advance. Do you want to become an expert to get into the media? Do you want to generate customers for your company? Do you want to help build your product’s brand? Are you looking for another job? Remember, companies – just like you – want to keep up with these tools. So why not turn yourself into a voice or knowledgeable expert for your company by taking what you know to the social media world? (Before going too far with this, check your company policies and with your management team to find the “win-win” for everyone.)

-Blog about it. Take your expertise to the Internet. While you could certainly write for other outlets – whether it’s your industry newsletter or magazine – the blog benefits you because you are building a relationship directly with your readers and can respond and manage content. You might even leverage others to join you as writers for your cause. And most blogging platforms today are free and easy to use, like wordpress, LiveJournal or Blogger, owned by Google. Others, such as TypePad, offer additional services for a nominal fee. Either way, be sure to take advantage of RSS feeds to allow others to get your blog postings automatically.

-Get linked. So you can’t keep up with all those social networking sites? Join the club. But probably the most important is Linked-In because of its high concentration of people searching for professional contacts or services. Falls recommends not only the basics of building a profile, but also joining groups. Remember that insurance expert? That expert can now jump into the “Answers section” and answer questions (check the directory organized by topics or search for key words), further positioning himself/herself as an expert. The more active you are, the more credibility you build.

-All the talk About “T.” Everyone, including Oprah, is now getting into the Twitter action. Sure, you can create your Twitter account and handle (mine is @jopenshaw) so others can follow you and your “tweets” of 140 characters or less (no kidding!). You can also send tweets out from your phone (just activate your mobile device from your Twitter profile) so that when you spill that Coke onto your jeans – as Hsieh did – you might send out a humorous tweet that you’ve just spilled it on the other leg to even-out your blue jeans!

If you really want to use Twitter to build your brand, check out search.twitter.com where our insurance expert once again can show what he knows: he can search for relevant terms like “car insurance” and start monitoring the conversation. When someone posts a question, he’ll be alerted and can respond to that person. Falls points out recent changes to Twitter that allow your answers to be seen by anyone monitoring the conversation, not just by those following you.

Are you guaranteed to build your brand, business or job with these social media moves? No, not at all. But you can avoid common mistakes and even use these new tools to land a better job in your organization.

Just remember: Face-to-face communication still has much more impact. As Falls notes: “That offline action of truly networking with people at events or conferences is very powerful in building your personal brand.” So don’t fall to the temptation of replacing your normal networking with new online tools. Remember, too, the tools are tools – you need to do the right things with them.

That said, it’s all about getting an edge, and the new social networking tools make that easier than ever.

Best Nicole

It’s rather breathtaking to contemplate how quickly Oprah Winfrey amassed 1 million followers on Twitter (she crossed the line just today). Wow, she really showed that Ashton punk, didn’t she?

Considering her ability to mobilize the masses — most recently, of course, inspiring The Great Grilled-Chicken Coupon Panic of 2009 at KFCs across the land — it’s a little scary to ponder how she might choose to deploy her rising social-media power.

Since I once worked with Oprah (I was the consulting executive editor on the launch of her magazine), I’ve been sort of nervously watching her foray into the Twitterverse. I just didn’t want to see this woman who, honestly, I love and respect turn into … a twit. (Twitter certainly seems to bring out the worst — the most trivial, the most self-indulgent — in a lot of media people.) Fortunately, though, Oprah being Oprah, she’s so far using Twitter in sage, Oprah-esque ways — mostly to subtly reinforce the lovable Oprah brand values she’s perfected over the years as an old-media mogul.

Anyway, on this historic day, let’s examine some basic truths about the TwOprah phenomenon so far:

Oprah is bigger than God.
Seriously, check out how many followers @God has right now. More to the point, check out @oprahwinfrey — yes, it appears that some Twittersquatter was impersonating, or intending to impersonate, Oprah, and at some point Twitter shut that nonsense down. (”Sorry, the account you were headed to has been suspended due to strange activity. Mosey along now, nothing to see here.”) That’s a courtesy that Twitter has not only failed to extend to God Himself but to celebrities like Tina Fey, who has publicly stated that that’s not her tweeting at @tinafey. Not to mention Kanye West, who earlier this week published a rather spectacular, all-caps, anti-Twitter rant on his blog, including the choice lines “I DON’T HAVE A FUCKING TWITTER … EVERYTHING THAT TWITTER OFFERS I NEED LESS OF” and accusations that Twitter is purposely turning a blind eye to Kanye Twimpersonators.

Sorry, Twitter, Oprah’s just not that into you.
She’s not obsessed with tweeting. Refreshingly, she disappears for days at time. Even as of this writing, she’s failed to even acknowledge hitting the 1 million mark — and her last tweet was four days ago. God bless you, Oprah.

When she does tweet, she shows us the Oprah we all know and love.
She’s generous (”Thanks tweeps for your good thoughts…” in response to fans who expressed concern that her Montecito mansion might be consumed in the recent Santa Barbara wildfires). She’s loving (”Got to hug Whoopi. Haven’t seen her since????! What a fun night.”). She’s thrilled to be alive (”Woke up smiling. Hugh Jackman is on Friday live with us!”). She’s compassionate (”Another Must watch…McCann interview on Monday. My heart broke for them.”). She sounds like herself (”Met Stella McCartney for the first time. Love her fashion. Loooved her even more!”). That said …

In a fundamental way, Oprah is sort of all wrong for Twitter.
Sure, she’s a broadcast legend, but she’s more about listening. She’s exactly like that in person, too. When I was working on the launch of O mag, Oprah was much more likely to call me (from Chicago; O mag was and is based in New York) or my fellow editors than to dash off cryptic, autocratic emails (like some media moguls I’ve worked with). She was always about making a personal connection.

In fact, after we shipped the first issue of O to the printer, she was perceptive enough to know just how frazzled and frustrated the staff was (as was widely reported at the time, there was a considerable gap between Oprah’s ideal for her magazine and the desires of her traditional-women’s-mag-minded publishing partner, Hearst). And so she decided to hold one big listening/gripe/bull session at a sprawling condo she then owned on Fisher Island, off the coast of Miami. She flew the entire staff of the magazine (even the intern) down for the weekend, put us up at a nice hotel (even the intern got his own room), served us ridiculously delicious meals at her home, and made sure we had plenty of time to talk as a group — at length — about what went wrong and what went right in the making of O mag.

Now, everybody who works for Oprah signs a nondisclosure agreement, so I should shut up already. Therefore, I can neither confirm nor deny that we ended up drinking and dancing into the night that Saturday. I can neither confirm nor deny that we all ended up in a conga line that at one point snaked out onto Oprah’s balcony, then back inside through her bedroom before re-emerging into her living room. I have no comment about whether or not I ever thought to myself, Oh my god, I’m sort of drunk right now, and I’m in a conga line that’s snaking through Oprah Winfrey’s bedroom. …

My point is: Oprah is all about making real, very human connections. There was nothing terse or quippily self-satisfied or abbreviated about Oprah. Ever.

The TwOprah Bump is overstated.
Yes, Oprah caused a massive spike in Twitter traffic and sign-ups, just as you’d expect. But given the recent Nielsen report about how Twitter’s retention rate isn’t exactly great, with 60% of Twitterers failing to return one month after sign-up, well, imagine the drop-off among Oprah’s core base of moms. Somehow, long-term, TwOprah Effect notwithstanding, I seriously doubt we’re going to be seeing a massive rise in tweets along the lines of “I’m changing Ashley’s diaper right now” or “Driving the twins to soccer practice.”

Still, in the end, it’s OK to tweet. Oprah says so.
Speaking of moms, here’s my personal TwOprah Effect story: On April 17, my mother called out of the blue. Now, when mom calls, it’s usually pretty urgent (she’s retired, and has had the same overpriced long-distance plan she’s had forever, so she tends to wait for me to call, because I have the miraculous and unfathomable advantage of “free” long-distance on my cellphone). “Yes, Simon,” she said, cutting to the chase. “What is Twitters?” Seriously, she pluralized it! Hmmm, where did I see the word pluralized before? Oh, right. Oprah Winfrey’s very first tweet: “HI TWITTERS . THANK YOU FOR A WARM WELCOME. FEELING REALLY 21st CENTURY .” Which, of course, happened earlier that same day. I did my best to explain the phenomenon to my mom, though I don’t think I did much good. And then my mom asked, point blank, “Do you Twitter?”

Honest to God, I think I actually might have blushed, because she said it like she was saying, “Do you masturbate?” (Of course, come to think of it, that’s basically what she was asking.) Reluctantly, I said yes.

I mean, geez, there’s no reason to be ashamed anymore. Oprah says it’s OK to Twitters!

Everyday people having a say.

Getting rid of the middleman.

The media no longer can dictate who someone is. Everyone now has a chance to show themselves in realtime.

No filter.

A chance to build your own community and use it for whatever you are passionate about. People have choice to follow you or not follow you and can be blocked if you feel they are not somebody who expouses the values of your community.

You can build your brand, product, service – raise awareness for a charity, like the mosquito nets that Oprah, Ashton and others have been purchasing to fight malaria.

Realtime conversation.

A venue for news in real time.

Social networking is an area that everyone must now enage. It is fun, it allows you to control each aspect of your content and build a following of like minded people who all want to share and engage in like minded interests, products, services, passions etc.

The business model now for everyone is collaborative content. As this new economy dictates change and the reduction of resources, the true area for growth is viral. Social networking is now the premier way to have a two-way relationship with your target audience.

Pushing your information is not longer going to garner you the relationships with your audience that it did in the past. @bcadgroup looks forward to engaging you! Are you listening?

Best Nicole