By now, most the social web and even mainstream media have read the story about Southwest Airlines and filmmaker Kevin Smith, removing him from a flight because he was ‘too fat’ and a safety concern. Let me state this from the get go, I realize that SWA was in the wrong with their actions and don’t agree with what they did.
I was glad though to see that Southwest responded quickly and even more than once (whether to people’s liking or not) – but I want to tackle an even deeper issue than that: (more…)
Discounts! Coupons! X% off! We all love a sweet deal. I mean, who doesn’t want an incentive to purchase a product or service? It’s what persuades our behaviors as consumers to pick one brand over another – and unless we have a sacred affinity to a specific brand & their products {Apple Macs/iPods or Nike shoes} we’re typically swayed by these offerings.
What got me thinking is the social web and how we, as consumers, respond to brands that are utilizing these platforms to build a community but to also attract new customers. Razorfish recently conducted a study on this, stating that special offers drive engagement in social media. Some interesting takeaways: (more…)
This year’s Digital Marketing Mixer was once again filled with great panels and smart people who I learned from and got to know during this 2-day event. I wrote a recap a year ago from my first MarketingProfs event, with an emphasis on people and passion, but this year for me focused around two trends – affirmation and testing.
Affirmation
I say this from more of a development standpoint. From hearing numerous panels to having 1-on-1 sit-downs with industry leaders. I’ve seen the growth from both ends of the spectrum, as talks are far past the tools and the newness of social media and deeper into what we’re actually doing right now to help businesses achieve their goals with the help of the social web.
What has this affirmed for me exactly? That the work that I and the rest of the community have put in this past year, since my last smart-people meeting, is helping move needles and shift our thinking forward with ideas and case studies on what’s working for companies today.
Testing
This second takeaway directly relates to that next level of thinking and how organizations are approaching social media today. They’re continually testing & optimizing their strategies and aren’t afraid of failing during this process.
Jay Baer summed up this thought well with this quote: (more…)
If you didn’t hear, I was busy learning and meeting some awesome people at the MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Mixer in Chicago this past week. I had the opportunity to talk with tons of smart folks, while attending several great sessions on digital marketing, social media and communities.
As a strong advocate for communities, as well as being a co-founder of #CmtyChat, I was definitely intrigued by Thursday’s interactive session on building and nurturing your online community. The panel was led by Beth Harte and included Rachel Happe, Gretchen Harding and Mildred Center.
The super smart panel had a lot of great thoughts & ideas, but here are some of the main points taken from the session: (more…)
Facebook was pretty busy last week as they released their new Facebook Lite version of their platform and also announced a new feature that includes @mentions within your status updates. Though big releases, the main conversations I’ve seen revolved around Facebook’s mimicking of Twitter. (more…)
Many of us knew that today was the beginning of SXSW Interactive’s voting process for the conference’s panel submissions. The PanelPicker, as it’s called, shows all submitted panel ideas and allows you to vote and comment on your favorites and which ones you would like to see at the event next year. It’s a great way to crowdsource and choose which ideas you would find most beneficial – but with that comes a downside, as it was prevalent with Christopher Penn’s tweet this morning:
From what I’ve heard from Chris and several others today, the downfall has been panelists promoting their submissions through Tweets and DMs, asking for votes and trying to garner as much response as possible, while trying to beat out the other 2,215 submissions (keep in mind, voting accounts for 30% of the decision process.)
Have I received requests today? Yup. But mainly from people who I consider good friends and whose opinion and knowledge I respect and trust. Do I have a panel and have I promoted it? Yes – Bryan Person and I have a submission, but actually haven’t mentioned it until now. Regardless, in the end it’s ultimately up to us and which submissions we find relevant and most important.
PanelPicker or the highway?
Pimping out online voting systems is a reality within social media and the online world as a whole that we’ve unfortunately become accustomed to (remember the Shorty Awards?) I understand Chris’ feelings, especially when it comes from individuals you don’t have a relationship with. But are we making a bigger issue than there really is, or is there a better way SXSW and potential panelists could get the community involved instead of this voting system?
I’m always open to discussion and hearing how this process could be made more efficient. Have at it, I’m all ears.
Update: Ran across a great post by Len Kendall that promotes a handful of non-SM panels (with background info) but also his own, in a non-pimping sort of way. Kudos, Len.
This post is a collaboration with the super smart Lauren Fernandez. She pointed me towards this story and related issue, so it was only right to have her weigh in and get her point of view. You can connect with Lauren at her awesome PR blog or on Twitter.
We’re all aware of the hyper-connectivity that Social Media has created in today’s digital age – providing us with information and numerous forms of media at the tips of our fingers. The speed at which technology has changed our everyday lives and the opportunities it has created for businesses is amazing; but the SEC doesn’t see it that way. (more…)
I was reading Mack Collier’s post this morning on companies falling for social media’s ‘fear factor’ and a somewhat funny analogy came to mind as I thought about not only companies, but also people’s need to ‘do’ Social Media. This rush of individuals, Internet companies, traditional media, etc. is very much reminiscent of the yearly after-Thanksgiving Black Friday sales. (more…)
Today’s social media focused world is really cut up into two sides. One side is where much of the hard work, tough questions, and moving of needles reside. Those people who are looking to help further the industry, build strong communities, help innovate, and are genuine in their actions. While on the flip side, you have the people looking for shortcuts, the easy road to infamy and a legion of thousands that they probably don’t even know. The people who think it’s a numbers game. (more…)
Listening is a basic tenet in community building and communication. Ears open right? Not so much in Twitter’s case this evening. They made a ‘small change‘ to their reply settings by changing the replies tab from showing all @replies to only showing those from people that you’re following. Reading their explanation sounds very condescending as it is – who said the replies option (hence the word option) was ‘undesirable’ or ‘confusing’? Twitter obviously doesn’t listen to the community to know what we find beneficial & functional in our everyday use.
As discussed a lot already tonight (check the #FIXIT and #fixreplies hashtags), many of us found new conversations through this option, as we were able to connect with people that were talking about us who we weren’t already following. Now, they’ve taken that ‘undesirable’ option away and hindered a big part of how we were able to build connections.
(more…)
