Why Dell Continues to Use Social Media

Nicholas Kinports (follow him on Twitter @ADMAVEN) has worked in the interactive technology world for over 15 years. He is the Digital Strategy Lead and founder of Chicago-based digital marketing firm lonelybrand, where he directs the creation and execution of digital marketing programs that generate measurable signups, conversions and sales.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Video originally posted by Jeremiah Owyang.

Social Media In Plain English - Common Craft

Book Review: Groundswell - Published 2008 by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff

Nicholas Kinports (follow him on Twitter @ADMAVEN) has worked in the interactive technology world for over 15 years. He is the Digital Strategy Lead and founder of Chicago-based digital marketing firm lonelybrand, where he directs the creation and execution of digital marketing programs that generate measurable signups, conversions and sales.

Groundswell: A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.

Earlier this year the blog community was abuzz with the impending release of Groundswell - the "how to" book for all things social media. Promising a system of planning and executing social media campaigns and tying them to measurable results, expectations were high.

Fast forward six months - has the Groundswell lived up to its promise?

Fundamentally, I enjoyed the book because it helps solidify social media as a valid and usable marketing/advertising strategy. The most useful portions of the book are the case studies detailing the trials and tribulations of various large companies attempting to enter the social media space (or being run over by it). Don't expect formal case study material - references are lacking and the studies themselves read as narratives as opposed to true analysis, however you may find some similarities between your experiences in social media and the foibles of those put under the microscope.

Authors Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff are veterans of Forrester Research, Inc. and it shows. They consistently lace the text with drivers to their website and blog, which is nice the first time but gets very old very fast. Additionally, the entire Groundswell strategy hinges on research, which although important, is certainly not the best solution for social media execution in every scenario.

Functionally, Groundswell delivers a very basic understanding of what social media is and how to use it in some very specific situations. In terms of providing a framework for planning, measuring, and executing a social media campaign Li and Bernoff simply suggest that through proper research and understanding of the target audience your strategy will usually succeed; a simplistic view of a very complicated process in my opinion.

In addition, Groundswell does not provide a true tool or metric for comparing campaigns against competitor initiatives, nor does it provide a quantifiable method for execution. The reader is simply told that each client is so unqiue you must make a significant investment in research up front or risk missing the mark and getting steamrolled by masses of dissatisfied or unconvinced customers.

If you are completely new to social media or need a good understanding of what a properly executed social media campaign looks like, this book may assist you in that endeavor. Take care to not get lost in the process of research, research, and more research.

iPhone Wins the Handset Wars - Dethrones Motorola and Blackberry

DISCLAIMER:

Though I don't normally write about hardware, I believe the iPhone has certain implications for interactive advertising and social media that transcend traditional thought patterns in mobile marketing.

Today it has been reported that the iPhone has surpassed all other handsets to become the number one purchased in the third quarter of 2008, according to NPD. In it's wake, the Razr V3 falls to second place while RIM BlackBerry Curve falls to third; LG Rumor falls to fourth; and the LG enV2 winds up fifth.

Having used an iPhone 3G myself for the last couple of months, I can honestly say the device deserves to be in first place. Nothing else can come close to the ease of use, reliability, and overall functionality provided by the iPhone.

That being said, Apple continuously improves the software while tracking down and eliminating bugs. The App Store is a potent method of eliminating the need to engage the costly and bloated software distribution channels while keeping development time to a minimum through intelligent implementation of Cocoa.

Agencies need to begin thinking about how they can push iPhone applications on their clients. The task can be daunting, but a truly killer App can round out your social media or interactive strategy in a way you and your client have never before experienced. I would be interested to hear stories of anyone who has successfully convinced a client to take up the charge!

This holiday season go forth and buy the iPhone - make it a gift for someone you love or for yourself; you won't regret it.

Nicholas Kinports (follow him on Twitter @ADMAVEN) has worked in the interactive technology world for over 15 years. He is the Digital Strategy Lead and founder of Chicago-based digital marketing firm lonelybrand, where he directs the creation and execution of digital marketing programs that generate measurable signups, conversions and sales.

CMM&A Thanks Lewis Lazare and Chicago Advertising Professionals

On behalf of CMM&A, I would like to thank Lewis Lazare for spending the evening talking shop with over 50 Chicago advertising professionals.

We had outstanding representation from agencies, design firms, social media and digital consultants, and creative staffing agencies.

Our next official meeting will be in January, however we are working on a special event for December. Stay tuned!

AdAge DigitalNext Features Adam Cahill On Obama and Social Media

Every once in a while AdvertisingAge features a great guest writer with something meaningful to say. The Digital President by Adam Cahill, Senior VP-General Manager, Carat Boston, is an outstanding read about how President-Elect Obama can leverage social media to create an administration with more transparency and public communication than ever before.

Here are some of his key points:

MyWhiteHouse.com
MyBarackObama.com, the hub of your campaign, becomes MyWhiteHouse.com. Here the public will have direct and unfiltered access to your priorities and positions. But this hub won't be solely (or even largely) about information sharing. It will be the means by which you enable individuals to organize in their communities to bring your ideas (and ours) to life.

Reach Across the 'Digital' Aisle
Today there are hundreds of digital groups that are vehemently anti-Obama. Just as you'll need to work with Republican politicians, you'll need to bring these people into the fold. Have your team reach out to these groups, not with the immediate goal of changing their minds, but to demonstrate that their opinions are respected.

Multiple Points of Entry
While MyBarackObama.com was the hub of your campaign's digital universe, it was by no means the only point of entry. You had a meaningful presence in numerous social networks, from the mainstream to the niche. The same should be true of your presidency: Let the public access the government on their terms, in their preferred environments.

Legislative Co-creation
Just as the most progressive brands have begun to co-create products and services with their customers, you ought to use social media as a way to bring the public's voice to legislative creation and prioritization. Why should voting be restricted to Election Day? Let us "Digg" up the issues we want addressed, making every day an opportunity to "vote."

Listening, Feedback, and Guidance
Make it easy to submit suggestions and feedback, and make sure you have a staff to respond thoughtfully to these submissions. MyWhiteHouse.com can become a link from the public to the government. Whether people submit queries on an issue as large as global warming or as small as a pothole on their corner, make sure you respond with the information they need to act.

Enable Grassroots Community Service
Your campaign famously created a new model for fundraising: massive amounts of small donations as opposed to small amounts of massive donations. You can now use social media to bring a similar model to community service. Grand programs that require huge time commitments (like Teach for America) will remain important, but there is the opportunity to greatly increase the overall amount of community service if you can enable us to contribute our time in smaller, more frequent ways.

Nicholas Kinports (follow him on Twitter @ADMAVEN) has worked in the interactive technology world for over 15 years. He is the Digital Strategy Lead and founder of Chicago-based digital marketing firm lonelybrand, where he directs the creation and execution of digital marketing programs that generate measurable signups, conversions and sales.

Chicago Media Marketing & Advertising Group Presents Lewis Lazare

Please RSVP to this exciting event on the Facebook Event Page!

Nicholas Kinports (follow him on Twitter @ADMAVEN) has worked in the interactive technology world for over 15 years. He is the Digital Strategy Lead and founder of Chicago-based digital marketing firm lonelybrand, where he directs the creation and execution of digital marketing programs that generate measurable signups, conversions and sales.