Thursday, February 26, 2009

Defining Twitter - The Best User Tweets From #definetwitter

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.

What is Twitter? What is Twitter good for? How do you use Twitter? Why is Twitter so popular? How does a company use Twitter? How do you make money with Twitter?

Each day more people around the world are asking questions about Twitter. It's on the news, in local papers, and on business cards. Today, one of the top trending topics was #definetwitter. I have taken some of my favorite responses and posted them here to help you understand a little more about what makes Twitter so special.

You can find me on Twitter @ADMAVEN

richardpeacock : #definetwitter The only religion that answers back
Posted at 11:02 - View Tweet - Reply

wasatchwoman : a distraction from work...and a resource for my mag content. #definetwitter
Posted at 11:06 - View Tweet - Reply

JanetGomez : Twitter is about sharing with peeps you'll maybe never meet in person but with whom you feel a connection #definetwitter
Posted at 10:56 - View Tweet - Reply

Tom_Sweatman : Twitter is a perpetual regurgitation of mass perspective. #definetwitter
Posted at 10:51 - View Tweet - Reply

robert_brady : @unmarketing #definetwitter Twitter is whatever you can make it and whatever you want it to be. Why pigeonhole it?
Posted at 10:17 - View Tweet - Reply

LifeCoachMary : #definetwitter Twitter to me is like a virtual office cubicles by day. I can look over the virtual wall to get inspired, chat or learn.
Posted at 11:17 - View Tweet - Reply

eExecutives : Twitter is a place I can get and share ideas, insights, and fun just as they pop up... no lines, no waiting! #definetwitter
Posted at 11:27 - View Tweet - Reply

leximo : RT: @unmarketing: Twitter is where adults can type LOL and not be judged by their kids. #definetwitter
Posted at 10:54 - View Tweet - Reply

lachenmayer : Twitter is a great place to ask questions #definetwitter
Posted at 11:53 - View Tweet - Reply

AbbieF : Twitter is a buffet of information, take as much or as little as you want, as often as you want. #definetwitter

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Book Review: Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking - Revised Edition by Andy Sernovitz

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.

ADMAVEN RATES WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING: 4/5

It doesn't matter whether you're selling real estate, jelly, or jet engines. People will ask other people about you before they decide to buy from you. We turn to people we trust first - friends, family, coworkers, and other people like us - when starting to look for something to buy. Not ads, not brochures, not phone books. (Word of Mouth Marketing page xv).

I recently received an advance edition of Andy Sernovitz’s “Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking - Revised Edition”. Mr. Sernovitz is the CEO of Gaspedal, a Chicago based word of mouth marketing company, and editor of “Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That”, a marketing blog and newsletter. I agreed to review the book for several reasons. Mr. Sernovitz practices what he preaches, and included a special edition of the manuscript that encourages direct feedback – good or bad – on Amazon and other social media outlets.

"Word of Mouth Marketing" espouses a word of mouth ethos – a roadmap in which to operate a successful campaign for any sized company (although the primary focus seems to be small and medium sized businesses) and includes a foreword by Seth Godin and an afterword from Guy Kawasaki.

Mr. Sernovitz writing is, if nothing else, enthusiastic, and discussed an excellent mix of guiding principles as well as specific “what you can do today” tactics such as:

1. Look on the web for people talking about you.
2. Assign someone to join these conversations. Start today.
3. Create a blog.
4. Make a new rule: Ask "Is this buzzworthy?" in every meeting.
5. Come up with one buzzworthy topic. Keep it simple.
("Word of Mouth Marketing", page 197)

Of note – the revised edition includes two new sections (business to business and negative word of mouth) as well as other minor changes.

"Word of Mouth Marketing" is a quick read at 205 pages, yet provides a realistic look at the challenges facing modern marketers and advertising agencies. I enjoyed the fact that Mr. Sernovitz injects much of his own personality into the writing, and does not make sweeping, unsubstantiated generalizations about marketing.

Of note: though the content is generally relevant and interesting, don't expect to find revolutionary or unexpected ideas if you are a seasoned word of mouth/social media advocate. Case examples such as Southwest Airlines and Sony have been analyzed many times in the past; despite the repetitive elements "Word of Mouth Marketing" is a must read for anyone interested in entering the social media or word of mouth space.

PEOPLE WHO READ THIS ARTICLE ALSO READ:

> Book Review: The Nature of Marketing: Marketing to the Swarm as well as the Herd by Chuck Brymer

> Book Review: Buyology by Martin Lindstrom

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

Monday, February 23, 2009

The Printed Blog's Joshua Karp Calls Writers and Editors to Action

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.

I received a call to action via Facebook yesterday from The Printed Blog's founder Joshua Karp:

In three weeks, The Printed Blog is going to publish its first Special Issue. The First Special Issue will be 10 pages long... but:

2 pages will be in Spanish; 2 pages will be in French; 2 pages will be in Hebrew; 2 pages will be in Chinese; and 2 pages will be in English

We are going to distribute the paper in Beijing, Tel Aviv, Paris, Madrid, London, Mexico City, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

This is an experiment.

Each 2 page spread will be comprised of blogs, photographs, events, music, and profiles from each country, in their original language. Can we leverage the power of the social network to engage people to create a global newspaper?

I think so, but we need your help. If you would like to help promote the next new era of citizen journalism and, hopefully, global cultural awareness, let me know. Here's what we need:

1) editors in each language, in each city, who can also speak English
2) an editor in Chicago for each language (who can also speak English)
3) bloggers in each language, ideally with permission to use their posts
4) photographers from each city, also with permission to use their photographs
4) musicians from each city who would like to be promoted within the pages of The Printed Blog
5) events happening in late March for each city (in the original language)

Guest editors are paid $250.00 per issue... bloggers and photographers will receive a portion of the ad revenue from any ads run near their content; everyone else gets exposure in the paper. Maybe you fit into one of these categories, maybe you know someone else who does?

Please send your information to: specialissue@theprintedblo
g.com.

We need people from around the world to be aware of this project and to get involved in this project. That means inviting your friends: from Des Moines to China. We need ideas of how to find editors, bloggers, photographers, and musicians in each of the counties (Craigslist will only go so far). We need people to translate. If you are a blogger, if you felt like writing about this, that would be great, too.

If you have any questions, please reach out to me directly at jkarp@theprintedblog.com. Let me know what you think about this project. Feel free to "friend" me if we are not already. Please tell your friends, and invite them, too.

Thank you very much!
Josh

Web: http://www.theprintedblog.com
Blog: http://blog.theprintedblog.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/theprintedblog

PEOPLE WHO READ THIS ARTICLE ALSO READ:

> Interview: Joshua Karp, Founder and Publisher: The Printed Blog

> Social Media Privacy Outrage: Facebook Owns Your Profile Content

> Privacy, Advocacy, and Conversations: What Does It Mean For Advertising?

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Facebook Reverts to Previous Terms of Service (TOS), No Longer Owns You

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.

In a savvy move to quell the outrage over amended Facebook Terms of Service (TOS) that claim ownership over user generated content, Mark Zuckerberg announced in a blog post that the company will be revisiting the changes, and in the interim will revert to previous TOS.

Zuckerberg writes:

"Going forward, we've decided to take a new approach towards developing our terms. We concluded that returning to our previous terms was the right thing for now. As I said yesterday, we think that a lot of the language in our terms is overly formal and protective so we don't plan to leave it there for long."

In addition, he requests input from users in a move similar to recent efforts by the Obama administration:

"If you'd like to get involved in crafting our new terms, you can start posting your questions, comments and requests in the group we've created—Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. I'm looking forward to reading your input."

As of this posting, the Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities Group has almost 30,000 members and includes the following plain-language items:

1. You own your information. Facebook does not. This includes your photos and all other content.

2. Facebook doesn't claim rights to any of your photos or other content. We need a license in order to help you share information with your friends, but we don't claim to own your information.

3. We won't use the information you share on Facebook for anything you haven't asked us to. We realize our current terms are too broad here and they make it seem like we might share information in ways you don't want, but this isn't what we're doing.

4. We will not share your information with anyone if you deactivate your account. If you've already sent a friend a message, they'll still have that message. However, when you deactivate your account, all of your photos and other content are removed.

5. We apologize for the confusion around these issues. We never intended to claim ownership over people's content even though that's what it seems like to many people. This was a mistake and we apologize for the confusion.

From an advertising perspective, this means that Facebook has retrenched and will not be crossing the line of archiving and selling user data for segmentation and other purposes. In many ways this move preserves the long term value of Facebook as a trusted source of content for users, yet adds additional complications for future ad campaigns such as reaching the most relevant target audience and being able to understand the best ways to communicate messaging.

PEOPLE WHO READ THIS ARTICLE ALSO READ:

> Social Media Privacy Outrage: Facebook Owns Your Profile Content

> Privacy, Advocacy, and Conversations: What Does It Mean For Advertising?

> Google Latitude Has Great Advertising Potential

Monday, February 16, 2009

Social Media Privacy Outrage: Facebook Owns Your Profile Content

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.

It was recently revealed that Facebook has amended it's Terms Of Service (TOS) Agreement to include:

"You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof."

and the following:

"You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content."

Does Facebook own your content? Because Facebook provides a valuable and free service, does it have the right to own and archive user submitted information? Legally this is the case, but many users are outraged about the change, citing privacy concerns such as:

Does Facebook own my pictures?

Is Facebook archiving my content forever?

Will my Facebook content someday be indexed on Google despite privacy filters?

Are my private messages and conversations being recorded somewhere even after deletion?

Could law enforcement or court enforced discovery use archived information in future cases to prove or disprove legal matters?

Will advertisers be able to purchase my history regarding products and services for quantitative analysis?

Clearly, Facebook has some damage control issues to deal with; but the real question is do the core users of Facebook really care?

Is it important to you that your information has been claimed as property?


If you do not like what Facebook has done, I recommend deleting your content or entering bogus information, then keeping your profile active for at least 120 days to allow the blank or dummy information to be archived, then simply delete your Facebook profile altogether.

PEOPLE WHO READ THIS ARTICLE ALSO READ:

> Privacy, Advocacy, and Conversations: What Does It Mean For Advertising?

> Google Latitude Has Great Advertising Potential

> Google Friend Connect Active on ADMAVEN

Friday, February 13, 2009

Google Friend Connect Active on ADMAVEN

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.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The Federer Factor

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 February Meetup

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.

Thanks to everyone who attended the CMM&A February Meetup! Our speakers were outstanding and we had a lot of great (and sometimes heated) audience participation regarding publishing and the shift from print to digital.

Thanks to The Chicago Examiner and Gapers Block!

Details for the March CMM&A Meetup will be announced soon - stay tuned! If you have not already, I encourage you to register with the Meetup.com group here.

If you would like to participate in CMM&A as a guest speaker, please send me an email detailing your desired topic!

PEOPLE WHO READ THIS ARTICLE ALSO READ:

> Privacy, Advocacy, and Conversations: What Does It Mean For Advertising?

> Interview: Joshua Karp: Founder and Publisher of The Printed Blog

> Chicago Media Marketing & Advertising January Meetup Successful!

Monday, February 9, 2009

Privacy, Advocacy, and Conversations: What Does It Mean For Advertising?

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.

My recent article about Google Latitude was designed as an open ended, positive review of a service that presents many opportunities to advertisers. Similar to discussions I have had around Facebook Connect and Web 3.0 concepts, the conversation quickly turned to privacy.

@PositiveTakeOn responds:
"It is great to see that you are focusing on the things that are really great about Google Latitude, like the way it will connect the off/online words more closely and allow for deeper interaction between brands and their fans. It's great because everybody else seems to be focused on the negative side of this product like privacy issues, which granted, need to be take into consideration, however essentially Latitude is a brilliant concept and is a smart product to use."

Sandy Manisco Brillowski adds:
"Privacy concerns seem to go hand-in-hand with interactive technology and yet younger generations embrace it, to the surprise of their elders. Are the skeptics just getting old? Is it the generation gap, or is it that we don't want our spouses to know where we are?"

Stuart Newton says:
"Personally I have too many privacy issues with the software at the moment (even though I probably fall into the techno-generation Sandy mentioned), but guess we'll have to see if the public embrace it and any problems that arise from its use."

Kristin Maverick (@kmaverick) notes:
"Latitiude could have added an extra boost to the campaign had this service been around when they did it. You could have seen where the locations were right on your phone. Otherwise, I'm sticking to my thoughts on it being creepy for personal use."

The idea of privacy and what should or should not be communicated with the general public via social media is clearly a sensitive and emotionally charged topic.

As advertisers move into heavy use of Web 2.0 (and what Web 3.0 tech exists today) what will the response from consumers be? We saw several failures with Facebook Connect, but were those early attempts indicative of overall sentiment, or were they just bad executions?

In a not-too-distant future, advertisers will have a profile that outlines who your friends are (via social networks), what you are doing right now (via microblogs), what kind of products you like (via reviews posted on e-tailers) and what you had for dinner last night (via online reservations and reviews). The question is how knowledge of this will affect consumption, and whether or not the world is ready to share personal information in such an open and ubiquitous way.

PEOPLE WHO READ THIS ALSO READ:

> Google Latitude Has Great Advertising Potential

> Interview: Joshua Karp, Founder and Publisher: The Printed Blog

> Book Review: The Nature of Marketing: Marketing to the Swarm as well as the Herd by Chuck Brymer

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Google Latitude Has Great Advertising Potential

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.

GPS based location services are nothing new - Boost has been doing it for quite a while now, and to it's credit offers a fairly robust social networking platform Loopt.

As Google recently announced, Latitude now allows location tracking and broadcasting via a web or mobile interface. What makes Latitude unique - and potentially valuable to agencies and marketers - is the ability to manually set and broadcast location data to your network.



Integrating contests, promotions, and social media campaigns with a real-time persona or location could allow for a broad range of interactions with brands in the real world.

Think about how you might build a campaign based on special local store sales for Latitude followers of your brand, with a brand representative revealing set locations of distribution throughout the promotion window. Other 2.0 applications like Twitter and Facebook could be leveraged to work in conjunction.

This is all powerful for big brand integrated marketing campaigns and similar examples. It's not unheard of for brands to experiment in totally new platforms and create a campaign and PR blitz all at once.

PEOPLE WHO READ THIS ALSO READ:

> Interview: Joshua Karp, Founder and Publisher: The Printed Blog

> Toyota Why Not? Proves Unwieldy, Overly Complicated

> Book Review: The Nature of Marketing: Marketing to the Swarm as well as the Herd by Chuck Brymer

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Chicago Media Marketing & Advertising February Meetup

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.
The Chicago Media Marketing & Advertising Group invites you to attend our February meet up!

February details are online, and I look forward to seeing you all there.

"Join us along with a special panel of three (3) guest speakers. All experts in their field, who will be discussing the world of PUBLISHING.
There will be a brief Q & A."

Expect to hear discussions centered around blogging, print media, and new ways to reach consumers through both mediums.

Location Information:

Monday, February 9, 2009, 7:00PM
Lincoln Station
242 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL 60614
773.472.8100

PEOPLE WHO READ THIS ALSO READ:

> Interview: Joshua Karp, Founder and Publisher: The Printed Blog

> Toyota Why Not? Proves Unwieldy, Overly Complicated

> Book Review: The Nature of Marketing: Marketing to the Swarm as well as the Herd by Chuck Brymer

Monday, February 2, 2009

Superbowl Ads Strike Chord In Social Media Outlets, Yet Miss The Mark

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.

Watching the Superbowl was a very social experience this year - even if you were sitting at home on your couch. As Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets explode in popularity the potential for advertisers to leverage these tools increases exponentially. Unfortunately, many companies missed the boat completely.

Why, for example, did not one single Superbowl advertiser opt to plant a Twitter address or other social media seed in their advertisements? Watching Twitter trends in real time showed a huge spike in brand names like Teleflora, Hyundai, and Pepsi immediately following commercial airtime, yet just as quickly faded away.

I'm keeping this one short and sweet - and the point is simple: companies need to be leveraging social media outlets in combination with traditional advertising to create a multiplying effect; adding longevity and sustainability long after the big game has ended.

PEOPLE WHO READ THIS ALSO READ:

> Interview: Joshua Karp, Founder and Publisher: The Printed Blog

> Toyota Why Not? Proves Unwieldy, Overly Complicated

> Book Review: The Nature of Marketing: Marketing to the Swarm as well as the Herd by Chuck Brymer