General Mills Connects With Social Media Moms
Apr 29, 2009 Mashable
When you’re a major brand utilizing social media, you can sometimes hit a home run or strike out with a major blunder. Last year, Motrin utterly failed to connect with mothers with its controversial Motrin moms YouTube video. Today’s story, however, is a tale of what happens when you get social media right.
Not long ago, General Mills set up a blog network called MyBlogSpark. Bloggers in the program have access to some of the newest General Mills products around, so long as they review the items on their blogs. This is a unique way to access and discuss General Mills products (i.e. Cheerios, Yoplait Yogurt). One of the other cool things about the MyBlogSpark program is that about 80% of its bloggers are moms.
MyBlogSpark is a program to anyone with an interest in GM brands. According to AdWeek, so far about 900 people have signed up, meaning over 700 of the participants are blogging social media moms. There is no actual compensation for reviewing products, just insider access, some samples for review, and maybe a few freebies.
General Mills gets several things right about its MyBlogSpark campaign. First, it wants its bloggers to be up-front about being part of the program. We’re fans of transparency. Second, it asks its bloggers to contact them if they don’t feel as if they can write a positive review. This is good brand management on the part of GM. Finally, it understands how influential moms are not only in the marketplace, but in social media as well. The vitriol reaction of Motrin Moms is proof of how powerful and influential mothers can be online.
Social media moms are becoming more and more influential, and General Mills knows this, which is why the MyBlogSpark campaign will probably continue to grow in size and influence. Moms get access to products they and their kids will probably like, while General Mills gets some positive social media press. This is social media done right.
Tags: Moms, social media
Popularity: 8% [?]
The New FriendFeed: Keeping Pace With the Real-Time Web
Apr 29, 2009 Mashable
FriendFeed’s once optional beta, which we think looks a lot like Twitter, is no longer a choice.
Starting today, all users of the feed aggregation and comment-rich social network will by greeted by the completely overhauled, real-time content chasing, FriendFeed.
Keeping pace with the real-time Web, FriendFeed’s scraped their previous design, thrown in a bunch of useful new site features, and added FriendFeed by Email.
Besides the obvious constant stream of information (that you can pause), you’ll notice that the navigation is now on the right-hand side of the page. From there you can quickly access your settings, edit your profile (yes, you have one now), view your lists, visit your groups, and see your saved searches.
As we mentioned before, FriendFeed now includes smart direct messages that auto-fill names as you type. The same auto-fill behavior exists if you’d like to publicly share a new update with specific individuals. Just select the update box, and edit the “To:” field to include the groups, lists, and people of your choosing.
Also, should you find something that you really enjoy and want to re-share, FriendFeed has introduced a better, faster way to do just that. Now the share link on every item opens up a new window, where you can repost the item to your feed, select the full or tiny URL, grab embed code, or quick share with Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Reddit, and Delicious.
Plus, if you’re the type of person who lives and dies by email, the new FriendFeed by Email means you can send and receive FriendFeed updates without ever visiting the site. To post new updates, email share@friendfeed.com, groupname@friendfeed.com (posts directly to a group), or username@friendfeed.com (sends a direct message).
With the much easier to manage notification options, you can opt in to email, IM, and desktop notifications for a myriad of content and behaviors. Each of these alternative ways to receive content also supports FriendFeed updating, so you can update, comment, and like items right from your inbox, desktop, or IM client.
FriendFeed’s looking and behaving a lot differently these days, but will these changes result in new members, increased engagement, and better traffic? It’s too soon tell, but from the looks of it, 2009 could shape up to be a much better year for the site that tends to live in Facebook’s and Twitter’s shadow.
For more information on FriendFeed’s redesign and the new features, watch this video:
Reviews: Delicious, Digg, Facebook, FriendFeed, Twitter
Tags: friendfeed
Popularity: 4% [?]
YouTube Lets Video Publishers Export Their Stats
Apr 29, 2009 Mashable
YouTube has been offering an increasing number of options to publishers for measuring engagement around their videos. Now, the YouTube Insight platform is letting you take that data anywhere you want, by making it exportable.
In a blog post, the company notes that they’ve “added a link that allows you to export your Insight data into CSV files. CSV files are open format files that organize data so it can be moved and analyzed using common spreadsheet software such as Google Docs and Microsoft Excel.â€
That means all of your view counts, comment counts, demographic data, and other stats that YouTube tracks can all be exported to any platform that supports .CSV imports.
While that might not sound like a big deal if you’re already satisfied with the fairly detailed web-based analytics that YouTube now gives you, if you’re an Excel guru, it means there is a lot more you can do with your data on the desktop.
Ultimately, a savvy publisher will analyze the heck of this data to figure out what works and what doesn’t, and use it to help determine what type of content they publish going forward.
Additional YouTube Resources from Mashable
- 20+ Greasemonkey Scripts for Improving Your YouTube Experience
Reviews: YouTube
Tags: video, youtube, youtube insight
Popularity: 8% [?]
HOW TO: Plan and Promote Events With Social Media
Apr 29, 2009 Mashable
Events, whether they are a local tweetup, a championship game or the world’s largest conference, can be notoriously difficult to plan, promote, and execute. But the end result can be amazing, and that is why we plan them in the first place.
Whether you need to work with organizers, generate buzz, or share post-party photos, social media should be a primary weapon in your arsenal. With the power to share comes the ability to spread the word, increase awareness, and accomplish your goals.
Many conferences and event planners have come up with unique and powerful ways to promote and plan gatherings via online social tools. This guide will help you understand how social media can power and drive an event, step-by-step:
Step 1. Plan with social media tools
As with any event, the first step is to plan. This goes beyond the simple logistics – it’s about locations, agendas, and the people that will help you make it happen. Whether you’re inviting people over for a small BBQ or you’re planning a conference, here are some useful social media tools to get the planning started:
Skype: Use Skype for conference calls and chats about event planning. Bouncing ideas back and forth via video or audio can make the brainstorming process move much faster. Gchat and Tokbox are also fast and easy ways to engage audio and video conversations.
PBworks: The wiki is an ideal platform for planning events – it’s easy to add notes, edit information, and organize content. Both mediawiki (the software that runs Wikipedia) and PBworks (formerly PBwiki) are good choices, but PBworks has been a favorite of organizers because of its business features, better document-sharing features, and RSS notifications.
Google Calendar and Google Docs: Assign tasks and meetings using a collaborative calendar like Google Calendar and work together on your event information using a software like Google Docs.
If you need a more detailed file collaboration and calendar system, consider Basecamp, a business project management solution. CalendarHub is also a good calendar tool with event feeds and scheduling.
Step 2. Organizing and inviting
Once you have the basic plan in the pipeline, it’s time to get your ducks in a row and start inviting some people. This is different than promotion – you’re making sure to invite key guests, speakers, family, and whoever else is important to the success of your gathering, conference, or party.
PBworks is once again a great tool for keeping information on the event organized – you can publish guest lists, speaker lists, and more with PBworks. But if you’re going for a more professional feel, we suggest actually setting up a blog: Creating and posting updates to a WordPress or Drupal blog is generally worth your while.
For inviting and organizing guests lists, always be sure to set up a Facebook event – this will be one of the first places your guests will look for event information. You can go beyond a simple Facebook invite for added emphasis: Anyvite and Eventbrite are two solid solutions for inviting guests that include RSVPing and customization features.
Step 3. Promotion and distribution
Promotion is the key to any successful gathering. Without it, you will not attract the interesting people that you’re looking to bring in. There are several levels of promotion and dozens of social media tools available, enough to write another full article about, but we will only highlight some of the most important details.
First, be sure to have as many distribution channels available as possible. Your potential guests or attendees must be able to easily find you on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and for business events, LinkedIn.
Twitter and Facebook should be your primary promotional tools – they are built for spreading a message. On Facebook, be sure to set up a Facebook Page – they are better than groups because you can appear in News Feeds every time you update the Page’s status. Creating a Facebook Event is also key, as well as having guests and members update their own status with links to the shindig. Twitter’s key is retweeting and hashtags: be sure to have an event hashtag and promote it, and ask for retweets of the most important information.
If possible, all of these accounts need to link to one central blog, PBworks, or event page. If you’re using an Anyvite or Facebook event as your main distribution method, be sure that’s where every one of these social media websites links to.
Here are some more advanced promotional tools to consider:
Ning: Some organizers create their own social networks to build up hype and to keep connections even after the event has occurred.
Upcoming and Gary’s Guide: Add yourself to major event websites. If it’s a nightlife event, Going may be a good choice. For technology, Gary’s Guide is a smart place to be listed. Upcoming by Yahoo is a good listing of events all across the spectrum.
If your event is social media-related, don’t forget Mashable’s Social Media Events Guide as well.
Step 4. Optimize the event for social media sharing
When the day comes and everyone is arriving, be sure that you keep people happy and that you’ve optimized your event to create additional buzz. You didn’t do all of this work just to have people complain over Twitter, did you?
Have high-speed wireless available – this allows people to tweet and converse more easily. Promote following the event’s Twitter account for event updates. Don’t forget to have a unique hashtag for the event. Have a web page or even a giant whiteboard where people can share their social media contact information too.
For people who cannot attend the event, consider setting up a live stream. Live video services like Ustream and Mogulus make it possible to stream out key portions of events. You don’t have to stream everything – just the good stuff. If you can’t stream, upload videos to YouTube afterwards.
Finally, and most importantly, listen to your audience – do they complain about a specific speaker, the food, a lack of responsiveness? Address their needs by tracking the Twitter conversation for a large event. For small events, simply ask them for their feedback or have an online survey guests can fill out.
Step 5. Post-event social media communication
Contrary to popular belief, the event is not done when everyone leaves. There’s still more to do to make sure the event leaves a lasting impression, especially if you intend to have future events or even an annual one.
First, be sure to continue communication with all the attendees. The web page where users can add their social media contact information is vital towards this end, as are the emails you probably have access to. Send them thank yous, updates, and information. Be sure to promote friending or following your social media accounts.
Next, do not forget to share all the media generated by the event. Upload photos to the Flickr account and post videos on YouTube (Vimeo and Viddler are also good alternatives). Post recordings of your live video streams as well (you did have a live video stream or two, right?).
Keep communicating
Good communication is central to the success of any gathering. Even if it’s just a one-time event, keeping in contact with everyone who attended could result in invaluable contacts or lifelong friendships. Promote social media and good communication whenever you’re planning and executing an event and your extravaganza will turn out to be more engaging and more popular than you may have ever realized possible.
More event resources from Mashable:
- 5 Ways to Save Money on Conferences and Events
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mattjeacock
Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Mashable, Skype, Twitter, Vimeo, Wikipedia, WordPress, YouTube, ustream
Tags: Events, social media
Popularity: 9% [?]
Social Networking » Blog Archive » Social Networking: Social …
Apr 29, 2009 Social Media, Social Networking, Web
This communication is due, largely in part, to online social networking websites. If you are interested in joining the growing number of internet users who use social networking websites, you will have to find a network to join. …
Go here to read the rest:
Social Networking » Blog Archive » Social Networking: Social …
Popularity: 3% [?]
Tags: archives, free, General, recommendations, search-engine, Social Networking, time, Web, websites
