Facebook: Mandatory marketing? Apparently not ...

With all the buzz around social media, we found a refreshing blog by a marketing company that quit Facebook.  What?  Quit Facebook? A marketing firm? That’s right – they quit Facebook, despite all the pundits encouraging companies to use any and all social media platforms.

Sisarina is a marketing firm empowering small businesses and nonprofit organizations.  (Hmmm…sounds like Ideen…perhaps that’s why we like them so much…) 

Late last year, Sisarina made the decision to pull the plug on Facebook.  As they point out, and we agree, this medium works best for B2C (business to consumer) companies that have products they can give away for free.  If you’re in a services industry or B2B (business-to-business), it may not be wise for you to invest your precious marketing time on Facebook.  

First, establish clear goals for your social media marketing activities.  Second, decide where you’re going to invest your time and energy.  Your decisions may or may not include the latest, hottest social media platform...and that's okay.

At the end of Sisarina's blog explaining why they shut down their Facebook page, they published their social media plan for 2012. 

It is a total of 54 words.  That’s right – this marketing firm concisely states their approach to social media in less than 60 words.

We’re highlighting this decision and Sisarina’s ability to boil down a seemingly complex and complicated world of social media into a 54-word plan because it is a refreshing alternative to the hype we see from other marketing or PR firms.  Well done, Sisarina, well done! 

Social Media -- What's Hot Today -- 20 June 2012

Today, we’ve been tweeting with the academicians and private sector participants who were lucky enough to attend the 2012 Academic Summit on social media.  By following the #2012Academicsummit hash tag on Twitter, we were able to gather some of the gems from the conference, insert our opinions, and otherwise participate in the lively discussion.  And, we’re in Colorado.  Fantastic!

Day Two takes place tomorrow.  You can catch the live stream and enjoy the action at it unfolds.

And, you may ask, why is this important to you?  There’s an informative infographic published by the folks at socialmediatoday that shows how businesses are using social media to support their communications strategies.  Check it out, especially the six helpful hints at the end of the graphic.

Stay tuned ... Ideen is working on new research in the area of social media to help separate the myths from the facts.  

Twitter Personas: Should you mix personal and professional?

We’ve noticed that some folks are hesitant to jump into Twitter because they're not sure whether this medium is best for professional or personal sharing.  Is it okay to share that photo of your BFF at the martini bar with your professional contacts?  Does it make you more human or merely stupid?  Are your friends really interested in your latest research on small business use of LinkedIn compared to nonprofits?  (Trust me on this one – they’re not!)

If you find yourself paralyzed by the tension between personal and professional, you may want to consider setting up two Twitter accounts – one for professional tweets and one for personal tweets.  

From a personal perspective … lock down your personal account, so potential followers must request permission to follow you and read your tweets.  Sharing photos, providing a location, or sharing jokes stays in the right circles.

From a professional perspective … consider keeping your professional account open to all, so people can easily follow you.  Create professional insights, share fast breaking information in your field, complement colleagues.  Use your professional persona to build new relationships.  By keeping it all about your business, people know that your tweets won’t be wasting their time.  Your tweets will be read – your followers will grow.

Sounds like too much trouble?  Try using HootSuite or TweetDeck to manage your Twitter feeds.   They're cheap, simple, and help bring organization to the Twitter chaos.

While you're at it, follow us on Twitter -- @DrWitzig.

Ideen, LLC -- Westward Ho!

This week, Ideen moved its headquarters from historic Old Town Alexandria to the mountains of Colorado.  Located in the Cherry Creek North neighborhood of Denver, Ideen is bringing its mission-focused marketing techniques to the western states, while still serving our clients in the nation's capital. We're excited to be in this part of the country and know we'll be inspired by the glorious Rocky Mountains, the Colordo culture of pioneers, and the entrepreneurial spirits we see all around us.  Westward Ho!

Super Bowl 2012 Ad Smorgasbord Review

Ideen asked its talented Associate, Monica Witzig, to evaluate this year's Super Bowl ads from a twenty-something's perspective.  What follows are her critiques...Enjoy!

By Monica J. Witzig

The average cost of a 30-second ad during Super Bowl 2012 was $3.5 million. Are the impressions worth it?

The Catchy

Hyundai's employee sing-along to "Gonna Fly Now" (aka the Rocky theme): How do you resist running up and down your apartment complex's stairs? How do you not "DA DA DA, DA DA DA!" along with everyone?

Samsung Galaxy's "I Believe In A Thing Called Love": Darned if I can sing that high, either, but I know I'm among thousands who try — and enjoy doing so. JUST LISTEN TO THE RHYTHM OF MY HEART!

The Sexy and Sexist

David Beckham for H&M: I have to admit hitting the Web to figure out what exactly this was advertising; I was distracted. I was distracted by the skin, the muscles, the tattoos, the sex ... We finally had one that appealed to those of us who are not the stereotypical Super Bowl ad base — and I am grateful. I think it was for guys' skivvies. I guess. I am merely dubbing it a favorite and moving on.

Adriana Lima for ... everything else: OK, no, just two items — Teleflora and Kia. Back to the stereotypical Super Bowl ad base. Bye bye, equal time.

Justfab.com: Actually, let's assign the "maybe it's your first time and you're trying too hard" sub-bullet here. Orgasmic shoe shopping? I'm going out on a limb and asserting that few women who hear two other women heaving and oohing on the TV will enter the living room joyously to find out what's on. The shoes, by the way? Ugly.

GoDaddy: You knew what you'd see the second the logo appeared: The general sex and sexism that sells enough domain names to give us similar ads each year.

The Annoying

The Etrade baby: He must be stopped.

Dannon's Oikos yogurt: John Stamos, it was cute the first 472 times. Getting old. (Stamos or his "keep the yogurt playfully" ploy? Your call.)

Acura: Jerry Seinfeld's methods, although excessive for comedy, just made me wish he were given the 2015 car — and on top of that, Jay Leno swept in and made it even worse.

"Pepsi for all": Flashy and loud and all for a soft drink. I admit to getting a headache until the end, when Flavor Flav was in the dungeon. Worth our brain cells, though?

The Funny

Hyundai smokes a cheetah in a race: Man-screams and slapstick humor. I think we're done here.

VW's "two-fer" commercial: A dog working out is funny. Viewers almost even feel bad for the guy as he ignores morsels dropped to the kitchen floor. Felt a little hiccough as VW transitioned from its commercial-within-a-commercial to the cantina scene to remind everyone of last year's Vader kid. (He found your lack of faith disturbing.)

"Matthew's Day Off" for Honda's CR-V: This was among the most-anticipated ads this year — if not the most anticipated, sprinkling lines an entire generation has quoted for 25 years. "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

The Poignant

Clint Eastwood nails it with a message backed by the Dodge vehicle family: "How do we come from behind? ... This country can't be knocked out by one punch ... and our second half is about to begin."

The Obligatory Mentions

Audi's "daylight in a headlight": Over the vampire craze? Maybe Audi is, too: Kudos for killing 'em off. Too much glitter and too many fangs these days.

Coke: Coke and polar bears have had this relationship for decades. Is it cute, or do we think all that high-fructose corn syrup might end them?

Downy: The play on the nostalgic Mean Joe Green commercial ... didn't flop. In fact, it was very realistic in how rank I'm sure NFLers are after hustling, but I don't expect to talk about it on Monday.

Pinterest: Curation and Attribution

By Monica J. Witzig

In case you thought you had fully covered and traversed the Web with your profiles, your posts, your comments, your likes, your follows, your +1s, your thumbs-ups, your RTs, your friends, and your subscriptions, be prepared to take one more step.

Your community corkboard has reached the Internet: Pinterest. The invitation-only organization site launched in March 2010 and absolutely burst at the end of December 2011, according to analyses by Hitwise and Shareaholic. Pinterest boasts 260 million unique visitors each month and — put simply — owns YouTube, Reddit, Google+, and LinkedIn in referral traffic. (Does MySpace still exist? ... Do I hear laughter?)

At Ideen, we're hearing lots of buzz about Pininterest and here's why: Hitwise reports Pinterest appears to claim the clicks and pins of women (almost 60 percent of users) and those in the 25-44 years age group (again, almost 60 percent), but a quick search reveals "pinboards" are not limited to shoes, weddings, and DIY crafts for your toddlers. Web humor, social media, sports, gadgets, and Super Bowl cuisine all still have significant showings on Pinterest.

The Daily Dot runs down a list of ten of what it calls "superusers." Admittedly, lots of home design and weddings here, but users want those creative stairwells and sunflower champagne flutes.

One of the great things about Pinterest might be that posts are images (with some linked to further elaboration) — so you don't have to scroll through your Twitter and Facebook timelines to miss someone's rant. Don't want to see quiche? Don't have to.

But what — in an era of online piracy and the rush to yell "first!" for every instance, be it news organizations or your sister-in-law — should appeal most to creators and moderators alike is Pinterest's commitment to attribution. Even if you think the language is a little soft, Pinterest's etiquette listing cheers citing sources. (No. 1, by the way, is one your mother, your boss, your little brother, and the Rev. King all support, too: "Be nice.")

Worthy of the buzz from a marketing perspective?  Definitely...

Bad Government Writing? Try This Short Check List to Improve Your Content

At Ideen, we work with many government clients who deal with weighty, complicated issues. To borrow a phrase – these are “wicked problems” that require complex solutions. But, do they require complex writing?

While our clients understand that they must reach out to their stakeholders and communicate information about these issues as clearly as possible, they often fail because they obfuscate their message. Nothing kills buzz like unclear writing.

We find that many times, our clients don’t realize that their communications are opaque, wordy, or otherwise difficult to read. Our government clients tell us that formal language “sounds more authoritative.” Our government IT clients argue that “everyone understands cloud computing or enterprise architectures.” And our government policy clients claim that federal law and authorities will always win the day.

Our work with the public, however, indicates otherwise.

Check Your Content Quickly for Warning Signs

We've developed a short checklist of warning signs for government writers to use when drafting content for broader audiences:

• Check your white space. If the text looks dense, it probably is. Look for extra words that can be eliminated.

• Check for active voice. Show your audience that you’re taking action – use the active voice.

• Check for headers. Try breaking up your message into bite-size chunks with headers. These wonderful little phrases can serve as guideposts for your readers.

• Check for visuals. Where possible, use imagery and visual representations of your message. Do you use a lot of numbers? Put them in a chart. Do your discuss topics geographically? Include a map.

• Check for acronyms. Reduce your use of acronyms where possible. This requires a lot of creativity for government writers, but the payoff is clear, buzz-worthy writing.

Government Agencies: Why Aren't More Using Social Media?

The use of social media is growing exponentially, and it appears that this expansion isn't stopping anytime soon. We see hundreds of federal agencies and organizations jumping on the band wagon to use social media to build professional networks, engage in dialogues with stakeholders, spread information quickly, etc. There are many tools available, but this doesn't necessarily mean that government agencies are embracing all of them, even the most popular ones.

For example, we recently read at Federal News Radio that the National Archives has jumped on the social media bandwagon after trial pilots proved "very successful." Their discovery that a more direct and stronger connection with the public can be built using these media forms. And although some organizations, like the Archives, applaud the convenience and consistency of streaming media and other social media tools, others find it hazy whether or not these tools are advantageous.

Many agencies are hesitant and may see several detriments or risks. Arguments against social media usage include:

• The more relaxed constraints are for employees, the greater the risk that loose-lipped sharing may spill confidential information
• Employees are distracted at work by the constant binging from information feeds and consequently, are unproductive
• Privacy is compromised as hackers or viruses find new avenues into an organization

Consequently, some agencies, such as Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security, limit use of social media tools to a case-by-case basis or block streaming media, according to Alica Lipowicz. It will be interesting to see if these agencies loosen their restrictions over time, and jump on the social media bandwagon, as well. At Ideen, we'll keep assessing the trends ...

Government and Social Media -- Who Is Using It?

Ideen has been exploring the social networking phenomenon that closes gaps and opens doors when it comes to sharing information online. Recently, we've come across a website -- http://govsm.com/w/Federal_Agencies -- that provides a lengthy list of federal agencies that use popular social networking tools, such as Twitter, Facebook, RSS, and Flickr.

The list includes 142 organizations. Of these, we find that:

• 86 use Facebook
• 101 use Twitter
• 68 use YouTube
• 102 use RSS
• 34 use Flickr
• 25 use other social media, such as UStream

The 24 largest and perhpas best-known organizations -- e.g., The White House, the Commerce Department, the US Treasury -- appear to make the most use of the social networking tools. Lesser-known organizations -- e.g., the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Administration of the Aging -- appear to use them less. Is there a connection here? Is it resource deriven, or is something else at work?

We imagine that these descriptive statistics don't tell us the whole story. How do we know if the organizations that appear to use the tools most are actually the most savvy in their use of the tools? Social media tools are prized for being user friendly, simple to set up, and beneficial in their respective ways. So, why might different departments and agencies that are capable using social networking tools elect to use only certain ones? Ideen will be further researching this topic to identify trends in the government sector.

Government Agencies Embrace LinkedIn -- More So Than Twitter or Facebook...

In our last blog, we took a look at government agencies that are trying to promote transparency by using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. After that blog was published, we went back through the list of agencies and cross-checked all of them with groups and companies listed on the professional networking site, LinkedIn.

The results were staggering: nearly all of the agencies on the list, including the ones with low or no output on Twitter or Facebook, have active LinkedIn accounts. Some of these accounts have several hundred to several thousand connections. Given this revelation, we should no longer assume as we had previously that government agencies’ interactions with social networking sites are patently inhibited. Rather, they appear more focused on the human capital aspect of networking rather than actual reciprocal information sharing. The data seems to indicate that despite the agencies’ use of social networking sites, the intention is not to be social, but rather to network on a professional level.