Posts filed under 'Blogs'
Posted October 19th, 2007 by Neha
I’m used to pink products piled on shelves for the month of October, but I was pleasantly surprised when I watched bloggers turn pink for this month. The face of many of my favorite blogs changed their look in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Though changing colors and placing a pink ribbon on your facebook page may not necessarily generate funds it does peak people’s curiosity, inspire people to learn more and prompt some to take action.
For the bloggers who are already pink, they have adopted their own means of supporting causes. Recently as I was scouring The Budget Fashionista for some fabulous fashion tips, I realized Kathryn and Angela were doing their part by contributing a $1 toward the Breast Cancer Awareness fund for every comment readers left on their posts.
Since breast cancer has touched the lives of many, it has garnered significant support. However, we all support causes that we feel passionately about, whether they are on a large or small scale. I’m an avid reader of Beth Kanter’s blog which documents how non profits can implement social media. Beth just launched a personal campaign for a Cambodian student she cultivated a relationship with. Her fundraising efforts have gotten the support of people Beth has never met, but have learned about the cause through twitter feeds, facebook and other bloggers. I learned about her fundraising efforts as I noticed that in place of her daily musings were thank you blog notes to contributors to her campaign. Each of these generous contributions are going to help make a difference in Leng Sopharth’s life.
Today, I posted a little note on TBF and made a contribution to Beth’s Sharing Foundation. Whether they are making a difference in one life or a million, these women and bloggers have my support.
Posted September 24th, 2007 by Neha
Rumors that 14 year old Disney star Miley Cyrus is pregnant circulated around radio waves bright and early this morning. The radio program, Matty in the Morning, had assistants frantically trying to confirm these rumors. Once upon a time, when a rumor needed to be verified, contacts at print publications like US Weekly were on speed dial. Yet, this morning the contact that was bombarded with phone calls and email was none other than the most notorious blogger.
Listeners were assured that all efforts were being made to contact Perez Hilton to solve the mystery of the alleged pregnancy. Kerry, a member of the Matty in the Morning team, proudly stated that she had Perez Hilton’s cell phone number and another team member was simultaneously flooding Perez’s inbox with inquiries.
A brief post on Perez’s blog quelled the rapid rumor and put it to rest. But one thing remains true - a shift became apparent this morning when traditional media turned to social media for news and content. The blogger used to generate content by scouring magazines and gossip columns in newspapers but now Perez Hilton, the king of gossip, has emerged the ultimate source of
Hollywood chatter.
Posted September 20th, 2007 by Char Lyn
I just read a great article in a paper I’ve never read before thanks to the Freakonomics blog. It was an inspirational story about a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who has pancreatic cancer and is unlikely to live more than a year. In the article, he quoted something the assistant football coach told him in high school when the head coach kept yelling at him for his mistakes:
“When you’re screwing up and nobody’s saying anything to you anymore, that means they’ve given up on you.”
While the article touched me, that one quote stuck. I started to think about the work we do at DIG and the number of companies afraid to engage with their customers through social media. Businesses are so often afraid of their customers “yelling at them,” but they forget that people only yell because they are engaged—they haven’t given up hope that the company will give them what they want. If they want something within your power to give, then you can gain loyal followers by giving it to them. If customers want something they aren’t getting from you, their lack of yelling means they are getting it somewhere else.
Freakonomics’ recent move to the New York Times blog is a perfect example of this idea. When they moved to the NYT, they lost the full-post RSS feed. The readers, 90% of whom were reading through RSS readers, revolted in the comments of every post for at least the first week. The authors were open in their communications about the reduced feed through three posts on the topic here, here, and here. They were not able to make everyone happy and lost some readers (customers), but the NYT readership should compensate for the loss.
So, where is your company at? Are you on the field getting yelled at, and getting the cheers when you make the touchdown? Or are you still sitting on the sidelines of the real game and only playing in the safety of the friendly flag football game at the company outing?
Posted August 8th, 2007 by Char Lyn
Today Freakonomics, one of my favorite blogs, “moved” to the New York Times. Though I will no longer be able to read the full posts in my feed, the move proves there is economic value to blogging. In addition to Dubner’s post announcing the move, Levitt posted a brief video clip on the value he finds in blogging, which is to see how people react to his ideas.
We all blog for different reasons, but a blog must have supporting economics to last. Whether the value to the reader supports ad revenue for the writer, or the thought leadership established by the blog brings a company new or more loyal customers, a blog has economic value. Even personal blogs in which every post is a venomous rant have economic value to the blogger, because blogging is a lot cheaper than therapy.
So, why read DIGtrends? Our hope is that you read it to get insight on what is happening in the world of social media and that you are able to occasionally apply that insight to improve your business. And if it happens to throw some business our way, we won’t complain.
Posted June 7th, 2007 by Kevin
Jackie Huba, author of Citizen Marketers and The Church of the Customer Blog recently posted on the recent education CompUSA received regarding the power of social media. It took a mere four days for one customer’s complaint to gain national attention on Foxnews.com. Four days!
Considering that several other situations like this have occurred with well known brands, it’s hard to fathom that a CEO would respond to a customer with essentially a “tough noogies,” but that is exactly what occurred here. Huba’s post is a hard lesson for many business leaders who feel that social media and customer evangelism issues can be tackled on an as needed basis. All too often, organizations find themselves behind the 8 ball when the fire storm of customer service issues spreads. Instead of being able to have a conversation, they are forced to run damage control.
Could this issue have been avoided? Absolutely! Organizations need to realize that any type of communication they have with customers today, whether it is on the phone, in person or in writing will find its way beyond that one customer and into the hands of multiple customers. Although the conversation appears one-to-one, business leaders need to begin seeing those conversations more like this 1-to-1-to-3,000.
The CompUSA issue is the perfect example of why it is important to enlist the assistance of people who understand the social media space and the industry. Although everyone may love your brand now, one person mistreated can cause a world of trouble in just four days. Take the initiative and start the conversation with your customers before they feel compelled to tarnish your reputation and forever leave a negative footprint online.
Posted June 6th, 2007 by Kelby
Twitter has been on the minds of many folk inside the walls of Digital Influence Group and outside. BusinessWeek’s Catherine Holahan (with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working a number of times) wrote a piece discussing how bloggers are increasingly adopting tools like Twitter that enable them to quickly post entries to their blogs using their cell phones. While these devices may limit the length of posts (even on my Treo I am not a big fan of typing long messages on the tiny keyboard), individuals no longer have to wait until they get in front of a computer to write about the conversation they had at lunch or kids can quickly update their parents on their current whereabouts.
What really got me thinking about Twitter (after my initial use of the service failed to capture my attention), was the two CNET colums, one taking a pro-Twitter stance the other an anti-Twitter. I thought both authors did a great job presenting their cases, and while I remain in the anti camp, I understood the arguments for the service and continue to think about how the service could be used as something as just an online journal of mundane activitites.
As my colleague Kevin noted, it is all about “how” one uses Twitter that demonstrates the service’s value. While I agree with this, other than a few specific instances (families staying in touch with each other), I can’t think of any particular compelling reasons to jot down little details about what I am doing, going to do or thinking about doing. Maybe my life just isn’t that interesting…
Anyone using Twitter in an interesting/offbeat way? I would love to hear about it.
Posted May 4th, 2007 by Kevin
The blogosphere is buzzing right now about the Nikon D80 Bloggers Outreach Campaign conducted by MWW Group. So far, everyone is very excited about receiving their D80 at no cost for 6 months…and why wouldn’t they be. If you’re interested in a sample of the coverage Nikon has received as a result of this campaign, look here, here and here.
Once you have had a chance to review each of the three posts, ask yourself if you are now compelled to go out and buy a Nikon D80? Did the coverage Nikon received focus on the benefits of the camera and why it is superior to other digital camera’s on the market? Although Jaffe, Lewis and Mack are popular bloggers, does their recommendation convince you to purchase the camera?
If the goal was to receive mentions of the Nikon D80 within the blogosphere, then this campaign is extremely successful. I, for one, sure know about the Nikon D80 now (it’s hard not to)! However, I’ve yet to see coverage that’s compelling enough for me to buy the camera. Would this campaign have been more successful if the outreach program was targeted at photography bloggers?
An excerpt from the comments on Mack Colliers, The Viral Garden: “One reason why I don’t want to blog about the D80 itself is because I’ve never blogged about cameras before, so if I did so for the D80, that would mean the content I was creating here would have changed, based on my getting to use a D80.”
So, is the coverage this outreach is receiving positive for the camera and Nikon or for the approach that MWW has taken to generate buzz?
Posted March 26th, 2007 by Kevin
Based on a recent article by Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy, it appears that some members of the traditional media are starting to let their envy of blogs and new media slip out from under the old guard façade. Boston Red Sox pitcher, Curt Schilling, recently launched his own blog, 38 Pitches, to which Shaughnessy recently felt the need to satire in the Globe here.
As you can imagine, Red Sox fans are not pleased with the representation Shaughnessy portrays. However, he clearly insults the blogosphere as well by implying that Schilling’s audience is still living in their parent’s basements and avid “Trekkies.”
Having read Schilling’s blog, Shaughnessy should apologize for his blatant disrespect of the community. Not because he insulted Red Sox Nation or Bloggers, but because Schilling is also using his blog to generate awareness around ALS. I applaud anyone who uses their celebrity to make a difference and Schilling adopted Social Media to aid in his quest for a cure.
For anyone who is looking to boycott Dan Shaughnessy, feel free to visit this site which “reads him so you don’t have to.” Maybe Dan should start blogging… that’s where the readers are.
Posted March 6th, 2007 by Char Lyn
Bill Marriott (yes, that Marriott) is new to corporate blogging, but he’s done his homework and listened to the right people. After reading just a few of his posts, it was obvious that the blog was a well planned initiative to provide his personal touch to as many customers as possible. The buzz his blog is getting proves he’s managed to accomplish that in just 2 months. Many of our clients ask how they can create the same kind of magic in a corporate blog. Here’s the short version of our response.
1. Have a plan and a purpose, and state it in your byline.
2. Stay focused and on topic, within a post and through the blog.
3. Set an editorial calendar, but stay flexible enough to address issues that pop-up.
4. Don’t be afraid to take a stand, as long as you mean it and will follow through.
5. Be honest—if you are tempted to bend the truth in a post, write about something else.
6. Proofread—your readers will appreciate it.
7. Don’t spill company secrets. Ask yourself if the content could get you or the company in trouble BEFORE you post it.
Bill is doing all of this beautifully. And he manages to be inspirational at the same time. (I see a book in Bill’s near future—probably full of blog posts). Bill, if you’re reading this, I only have one suggestion. Don’t end every post with the same “on the move” line. It’s okay for a customer you only see once in a while, but for those who read every post, it will start to get old fast.
Posted February 27th, 2007 by Kevin
Every business should have a damage control strategy. Of course, the tactics used only five years ago are no longer sufficient considering the rise of social media. Quickly distributing a press release and burying it in the Company News section of the website (like Yum Brands did as a result of this story involving rats at Taco Bell in NY) does not effectively reassure your customers that the organization is addressing the situation. In the case of the Taco Bell incident, one would think that the Damage Control strategy would have been updated as a result of last year’s E. coli scare, but a visit to both the Taco Bell site and the Yum Brands site failed to address either issue on the homepage.
However, in today’s social media world, individuals might want to start developing their own “Damage Control” strategy. Consider the recent American Idol news surrounding some lurid pictures of contestant Antonella Barba. After watching the show, one would think her focus would be on trying to improve her below average singing chops, but based on pictures that surfaced during the last week (which we won’t link to here), she might have more to worry about, like her entire reputation. Thankfully, social media even chips in to help out individual reputations. Popular American Idol site, Vote For The Worst, has done the research and at least helped Barba prove that she is not the girl in the extremely raunchy images (other images cannot be refuted). However, Vote for the Worst may only have protected her to fulfill its own agenda; keeping the least talented individual on the show, which Barba obviously is.
Clearly, having fans or brand advocates can help not only business, but individuals conduct damage control. What’s your plan?
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