101 Resources for Social Media Marketers - 10 Producing Resources (20-29)



Do you have killer producing skills?

No, well become the Kip Dynamite of Social Media Marketing with this awesome list of free Interweb Producing Resources.


21. Free Photoshop - GIMP (software)
Cant be bothered paying full price for Photoshop? Get the free version at GIMP.
22. Facebook Group/Page/Profile (website)
If you haven’t started a Facebook group how can you know how they work and how to get people to join?

23. Free Blogging (software)
If you are going to suggest a blog as a channel that a client should be using. You should of at least tried to create a blog yourself

24. How to set up a Blog (video)
Here is a tutorial from Blogger Help

25. Best Blogging Advice (blogs)
We are lucky enough to have Two Blogging Guru’s in Australia in Darren Rowse and Skelliewag. If you want to write content for a website or a blog these two are the men to see.

26. Propogating the Message Digg/StumpleUpon/Del.ici.ous (websites)
Once you have produced your content it is very important to get the message out there. Setting up an account on these sites and having friends will help your messages travel through the social media environment.

27. Free Video Editing Software (software)
You should be able to edit your own videos with the software that you have on your computer, if not download here. Microsoft Movie Maker or Applie iMovie

28. Tutorials on how to use Windows Media Maker (video)
Sorry Apple fanboys, you can go find your own tutorials!

29. Free Audio Editing Software (software)
If you are interested in Podcasting, Audio Editing software will be important to make a great quality casts.

30. Audacity Tutorial (video)
Here is a basic tutorial on how to use Audacity.


Also if you have not seen the movie Napoleon Dynamite, you must! I promise it will make you a 10% better Social Media Marketer.


Previous Posts
1-10 University of SMM
11-20 Convincing the Boss/Client of SMM

4 Dimensions of Social Media Marketing: A Framework in BETA.




The following is a frame work of the four dimensions of Social Media Marketing. It is in BETA and would really appreciate your feedback and constructive criticism on how you find the model to describe the work of a Social Media Marketer.

Four Dimensions
There are four dimensions to how a marketer uses social media to help communicate with their customers. Those four dimensions are ‘Marketing Intelligence, Response Unit, Idea Propagation and Platform Creation.’ As you will see with this model Social Media Marketing is not a new concept - we have been practising a lot of the actions of a SMM for a number of years; however the new environment has changed the dimensions of social media marketing. This model should account for all SMM activity.

In general, the amount of time needed also increases with each dimension. The following steps have been broken down with a definition, the antecedents (the action that have led to this situation), traditional fields of marketing that the dimension is grounded within and an example of how to apply it.


Why have I created this table?
It is primarily a way for me to organize the material that I talk about on this blog. There is a lot of advice about social media marketing and having a framework will allow you to categorise the information into folders. To me it is like having a bundle of papers on your desk which talk about social media - this framework will act as a filing cabinet for the information to be stored within.


1. Marketing Intelligence-

Definition
‘The process of marketers discovering information about their product, market or business by reading content published by users’


Antecedents
With the lower barriers to producing content online with Web 2.0 tools (oh god I hate using that term) there has been an increase in users being able to post their opinion about products/industries or companies in a public forum. Users’ motivation for producing this content is usually to inform other users about the products and services they are using.

Traditional field of Marketing – Marketing Research
The online field has opened up a new avenue for Marketing Research. However, there are a number of differences to traditional Marketing Research.

1. Public information
The information is publicly available; therefore every marketer has the potential to reach this information.
2. Easily Accessible
The internet is accessible to anyone with a computer. Therefore a Marketer who wants to do some quick research will be able to.
3. Cheap
This information is in a public forum where it is freely accessible by anyone. Therefore the marketer is only paying in their time to find the information.
4. Buyer to Buyer Information
Product reviews/opinions published online from consumers gives marketers a great opportunity to see how buyers communicate the benefits and disadvantages of a product to one another.
5. Free from bias
The initial dialogue that is published online is free from a researcher’s bias.


Example – I hate Connex Facebook Group
Connex have got a number of sites where the user publishes information about their service. This information can actually be useful in showing what it is about the service which annoys customers the most. Connex can gain vital marketing information from reading the reviews people have published on the Facebook Group ‘I hate Connex’
There was also a Twitter feed that was set up to congregate information published about Connex.


2. Response Unit

Definition
‘Is basic response by a marketer to content that was published online by a user.’

Antecedents
With the rise of social media it has turned the internet from a one way communication medium to a two way communication channel. This has been done by creating tools which enable conversation. Such technology as having a comments section within Blogs allows people to create a conversation rather than just consume the information.

Traditional Field of Marketing – Customer Feedback
Response Unit is very similar to Customer Feedback channels such as a hotline telephone number. However there is a major difference between this traditional medium and online Response Units.

With an online response unit you are not just responding and communicating with one person but you have an audience watching you respond to this problem. With online, conversations are published for others to read at a future time. Therefore there is now an audience watching as your respond to customer feedback. You now have the power to inform a larger audience through your Response Unit activity.

Example - 1 employee from Connex/Veolia vs. A group of angry Bloggers
The following is an example of how a worker for Veolia the holding company for Connex responded to negative feedback about their recent advertising campaign. Great example of how a Response Unit activity should be implemented.


Idea Propagation

‘Is actively creating a product of value that can be used by social media participants and travel through social media channels’

Antecedents
Social Media allowed for individuals to set up channels of communication that rivaled traditional channels. Bloggers were the first to realize this power with the ability to command large audience consuming their content per day.

Now, sites such as Facebook allowed people to get in touch with their complete network of friends and communicate with them all at once. Where someone used to be able to tell 10 friends about a new product, they can now jump on Facebook and communicate this in their Status bar and tell 500 of their friends about it.

Traditional Fields of Marketing – Public Relations/Word Of Mouth
Idea Propagation is similar to the role of Public Relations in creating relationships with media outlets which can help get their message out to large audiences. However the main difference between traditional PR and Idea Propagation is that there is a now a large number of niche Channel Owners (Bloggers, Podcasters, Youtubers) which usually do not look at their channel as a business venture.

The second Traditional Field of Marketing that Idea Propagation borrows a lot of theory from is Word of Mouth Marketing. Word of Mouth Marketing concentrates on how ideas spread through a community. The advantage of online is that it is now easier to track the spread of an idea.

Examples of Idea PropagationDove and Australian Bloggers
Dove’s Go Fresh Promotion used Idea Propogation to launch their ‘Go Fresh Campaign’ using the new media channels of Australian Bloggers including Karen Cheng.

4. Platform Creation

Definition
‘Is creating a communications platform, or a channel within an existing platform, that can deliver content to an audience.’

Antecedents
With the ability for users to create their own channels of communication, it also gave companies this opportunity to speak directly with their consumers. Technology now allows us to reach an audience more economically than ever before.

Traditional fields of Marketing – Mass Media
Although not directly within Marketing, Platform Creation is closely linked to the literature on Mass Media. It is now the job of the company to create content that is engaging for the user. Where companies could previously only buy a share of audience time through media sales, companies now need to be able to both produce content and integrate their brand message within this content.


Examples- Blendtec
Blendtec, the blender company created a communication platform with their product
engaging ‘Will it Blend’ videos on Youtube.




Stimulus
‘Is every piece of information about the company and its environment that reaches the user, either intentional or unintentional’

The stimulus is every interaction that a company has with a consumer. This includes its advertising, products, store personnel and website. In the case of Connex, the stimuli are the actual experience of riding the train, dealing with the Connex workers and the advertising campaigns that they have. It is these interactions that cause the consumer to decide to publish information on the company.

For example, people set up the Facebook group ‘We hate Connex’ in reaction to the stimulus of them receiving a bad service from the company. Stan Lee decided to write a blog post on the advertising of Connex/Veoilia after seeing the print advertising campaign.



One sentence diary



When I went on my trip to South America last year I kept a diary. It wasn’t like any other diary though. I restricted myself to writing one line a day. It got really addictive and when I got back I decided to keep writing it.

I really wanted to keep it because I feel one of the things I hate most about my memory is that a lot of the chapters in my life just seem to merge into one scene. My whole trip to Thailand is just one big meal of PadThai while dancing on the beach drinking a Tiger Beer. The beer may have had something to do with that!

The diary acts as a great memory trigger for stories that before I would have forgotten.

Marketing Intelligence: Social Media Marketing Framework

1. Marketing Intelligence-

Definition
‘The process of marketers discovering information about their product, market or business by reading content published by users’


Antecedents
With the lower barriers to producing content online with Web 2.0 tools (oh god I hate using that term) there has been an increase in users being able to post their opinion about products/industries or companies in a public forum. Users’ motivation for producing this content is usually to inform other users about the products and services they are using.

Traditional field of Marketing – Marketing Research
The online field has opened up a new avenue for Marketing Research. However, there are a number of differences to traditional Marketing Research.

1. Public information
The information is publicly available; therefore every marketer has the potential to reach this information.
2. Easily Accessible
The internet is accessible to anyone with a computer. Therefore a Marketer who wants to do some quick research will be able to.
3. Cheap
This information is in a public forum where it is freely accessible by anyone. Therefore the marketer is only paying in their time to find the information.
4. Buyer to Buyer Information
Product reviews/opinions published online from consumers gives marketers a great opportunity to see how buyers communicate the benefits and disadvantages of a product to one another.
5. Free from bias
The initial dialogue that is published online is free from a researcher’s bias.


Example – I hate Connex Facebook Group
Connex have got a number of sites where the user publishes information about their service. This information can actually be useful in showing what it is about the service which annoys customers the most. Connex can gain vital marketing information from reading the reviews people have published on the Facebook Group ‘I hate Connex’
There was also a Twitter feed that was set up to congregate information published about Connex.

Response Unit: Social Media Marketing Framework

2. Response Unit

Definition
‘Is basic response by a marketer to content that was published online by a user.’

Antecedents
With the rise of social media it has turned the internet from a one way communication medium to a two way communication channel. This has been done by creating tools which enable conversation. Such technology as having a comments section within Blogs allows people to create a conversation rather than just consume the information.

Traditional Field of Marketing – Customer Feedback
Response Unit is very similar to Customer Feedback channels such as a hotline telephone number. However there is a major difference between this traditional medium and online Response Units.

With an online response unit you are not just responding and communicating with one person but you have an audience watching you respond to this problem. With online, conversations are published for others to read at a future time. Therefore there is now an audience watching as your respond to customer feedback. You now have the power to inform a larger audience through your Response Unit activity.

Example - 1 employee from Connex/Veolia vs. A group of angry Bloggers
The following is an example of how a worker for Veolia the holding company for Connex responded to negative feedback about their recent advertising campaign. Great example of how a Response Unit activity should be implemented.

Idea Propagation: Social Media Marketing Framework

Idea Propagation

‘Is actively creating a product of value that can be used by social media participants and travel through social media channels’

Antecedents
Social Media allowed for individuals to set up channels of communication that rivaled traditional channels. Bloggers were the first to realize this power with the ability to command large audience consuming their content per day.

Now, sites such as Facebook allowed people to get in touch with their complete network of friends and communicate with them all at once. Where someone used to be able to tell 10 friends about a new product, they can now jump on Facebook and communicate this in their Status bar and tell 500 of their friends about it.

Traditional Fields of Marketing – Public Relations/Word Of Mouth
Idea Propagation is similar to the role of Public Relations in creating relationships with media outlets which can help get their message out to large audiences. However the main difference between traditional PR and Idea Propagation is that there is a now a large number of niche Channel Owners (Bloggers, Podcasters, Youtubers) which usually do not look at their channel as a business venture.

The second Traditional Field of Marketing that Idea Propagation borrows a lot of theory from is Word of Mouth Marketing. Word of Mouth Marketing concentrates on how ideas spread through a community. The advantage of online is that it is now easier to track the spread of an idea.

Examples of Idea PropagationDove and Australian Bloggers
Dove’s Go Fresh Promotion used Idea Propogation to launch their ‘Go Fresh Campaign’ using the new media channels of Australian Bloggers including Karen Cheng.

Platform Creation: Social Media Marketing Framework

4. Platform Creation

Definition
‘Is creating a communications platform, or a channel within an existing platform, that can deliver content to an audience.’

Antecedents
With the ability for users to create their own channels of communication, it also gave companies this opportunity to speak directly with their consumers. Technology now allows us to reach an audience more economically than ever before.

Traditional fields of Marketing – Mass Media
Although not directly within Marketing, Platform Creation is closely linked to the literature on Mass Media. It is now the job of the company to create content that is engaging for the user. Where companies could previously only buy a share of audience time through media sales, companies now need to be able to both produce content and integrate their brand message within this content.


Examples- Blendtec
Blendtec, the blender company created a communication platform with their product
engaging ‘Will it Blend’ videos on Youtube.

Stimulus: Social Media Marketing Framework


Stimulus
‘Is every piece of information about the company and its environment that reaches the user, either intentional or unintentional’

The stimulus is every interaction that a company has with a consumer. This includes its advertising, products, store personnel and website. In the case of Connex, the stimuli are the actual experience of riding the train, dealing with the Connex workers and the advertising campaigns that they have. It is these interactions that cause the consumer to decide to publish information on the company.

For example, people set up the Facebook group ‘We hate Connex’ in reaction to the stimulus of them receiving a bad service from the company. Stan Lee decided to write a blog post on the advertising of Connex/Veoilia after seeing the print advertising campaign.

What is Social Currency? Nike Air Max's and Paris Hilton

Social Currency is a really important term that all marketers should be aware of.
Image via Age
Social Currency are the objects that makes us valuable to our friends.
Here are two examples of how brands have created social currency for their consumers.

Intangible Source: Who Weekly

Brands can act as sources of information that people can then use as social currency with their friends.
E.g Sharon reads Who Weekly
Sharon: Did you hear about Paris Hiltons new video that she was in?
Diane: No, please fill me in!
The information about Paris acts as social currency. As it is a piece of information that is valued by Diane.

Tangible Source – Nike Shoes

Anyone that knows me probably knows that I love Nike Air Max's. If I see you also wearing Air Max’s I will probably hold you in high esteem because they are seen as valuable object in my world. The Nike Air Max’s are acting as social currency.

Next week, I will be showing how brands can create social currency in the social media space.

101 Resources for Social Media Marketers - Convincing the Boss/Client of SM



One of the biggest challenges of Social Media Marketing is convincing other people of the power of the medium. The following is 10 resources that will help you convince the boss or client that they need to be acting on social media.

11. Social Media in plain English (Video)
The lovely people from Commoncraft are onto something here, They also have other classics like Wiki, Podcasting and Twitter in plain English.

12. Examples of companies blogging (Blogs)
Give me examples of this working. Blogging is one of the main ways that companies can create their own channel of communication with consumers. Show them some other Australian companies that are doing it.
Telstra, Paqworks, True Local, D look, Drive,
NRMA, MerinoCompany, Powerhouse Museum,
Lifestyle brand Kahuna Bay

13. How it can go wrong, A list of Flogs (Site)
However it is important to show that there are rules in this community and you have to play by them. Show examples of what happens to brands when they break the rules.

14. JetBlue a company that successfully Twittered. (Site)
Twitter is a great way for a company to have a discourse with their consumers. Jet Blue is an airline that has successfully used it as part of their communication strategy.

15. 10 ways Digital can help you thrive during a recession (Slideshow)
With a good chance that Australia may go into a recession any day now, this presentation will become important in convincing the boss not to cut the digital budget.

16. Microsoft video describing the break up (Video above)
There is a good chance your boss will feel like you are holding a mirror up to him with this one. The sequel is here. Via Josh and Servant

17. What is next in Media (Slideshow)
Neil Perkin comments has pretty much condensed a lifetime of posts on social media into 60 slides.

18. The Search Test
If they don’t believe people are talking about your brands online, type the company/product name into Google, Technorati, Australian Blog Index to show that the company is being spoken about by people.

19. I am the Media (Slideshow)
Great presentation broken into three parts, While you were sleeping, Where do we go from here and Brands as storytellers

20. Presentation Zen (Blog)
There is no way that you are going to get anything past your boss if your powerpoints still suck. The King of Powerpoint

Resource 1 to 10: University of Social Media Marketing

Half Court Shots



This year I have noticed I have picked up doing this thing that I like to refer to as the half court shot technique. It is when you do something that you think is a bit of a risk and there is only a slim chance of pulling it off. However what I have noticed is that you overestimate how hard a lot of things are. You really have to give everything a go because you really never know the chances of pulling something off.

So far this year I have taken a number of half court shots.

Scores
1. Asked to write for Marketing Magazine
2. Put my name forward for speaking at the AMI conference
3. Writing the 'Don't Trust Social Media with your Advertising Agency' MarketingMag post
4. Speak on the Gen Y podcast

Misses
3. Got in contact with the person from Gruen Transfer to see if I can go on the panel
4. Submitted an article to Problogger for a guest spot
5. Asked if they wanted me to speak at the B&T Digital Bootcamp

Funnily enough all the misses have not been flat out NO, they have usually been that they will potentially get in contact with me in the future. You never know, now that I am on their radar, I may just be lucky enough to get a rebound shot!

Audience Equity: from Kyle Sandilands to You

Audience equity doesn’t just relate to mass media celebrities. Lately I have seen a lot of bloggers using their audience equity to increase traffic to their blog. Audience equity is getting an audience from one media channel which you are producing content in, to another channel. The following is three examples of Audience Equity being used by bloggers

1. Plurk/Twitter –to - Blog
Media Hunter, Servant of Chaos, Jeremiah from WebStrategy are three people who I see using it Twitter and Plurk well. A warning though, the people who are doing this well are not just promoting their blog but adding valuable discussion on these channels as well.

2. Facebook –to - Blog
Josh Strawczynski a friend of mine who has been using his Facebook to try and drive traffic to his site. Joseph Jaffe and Mitch Joel have also been known to use their Facebook Groups to promote their podcasts.

3. Podcast -to- Blog
I currently guest on the Marketing Today Podcast, I have had some success with this, getting emails from listeners that have contacted me through my blog.

What strategies are you using to optimize and harness your audience equity? Have you seen any other good examples of audience equity at use?

Read more on Audience Equity

10 things I want to do in Marketing before I die. 3. Speak at a TED conference


A mutual goal of Zac and I. TED is a conference with a vision of having 'ideas worth spreading', it lecturers cover a broad range of topics from technology, entertainment and design. The presentations are available online. I always watch these presentations and leave with my jaw on the ground. I cannot wait till I can have that effect on a crowd. Some of my favourite so far have been;

Josh Klein on the Intelligence of Crows
John Lee Hacks a Wii remote for the greater good
Seth Godin What presentations slides looked like in 1995


2 points of interest.

1. What a great property for BMW to sponsor. However the only problem I have see is it is not a inimitable fit with the brand BMW. You could pretty much insert (insert Microsoft, Google, Ford or PWC) and there would still seem like a perfect fit with the brand. Does it matter that the sponsorship property does not have a sole fit with the brand? However I must say it is one of BMW’s smarter choices unlike the recent collaboration between BMW with Presets (David sums it up nicely).

2. With the rise in Presentations going online, what can presenters do to validate a audience member spending money to hear that person live when they can pick it up on Youtube the next day?


10 things I want to do in Marketing before I die

1. Work for Nike
2. Win a Gold Cannes

101 Resources for Social Media Marketer – University of SMM (1-10)

I will be writing over the next 9 weeks about the resources, skills and tools to make you a killer Social Media Marketer. This is not a conclusive list so if you have any other great resources please share them!

The weeks will be broken up into chapters.

1. University of SMM
2. Convincing the Boss/Client of SM
3. Production Skills needed
4. Community Finding Tools
5. Personal Attributes of an SMM
6. Apprenticeships: Learning from the Masters
7. Measurement tools for SMM
8. Offline Skills for SMM
9. Social Media Tools





This week will take you through the full spectrum for your Social Media education. We will start out with the basic resources for Social Media Marketing 101 and will extend into some of the really interesting academic knowledge behind this phenomenon.


I. Wiki-Marketing (Article)
It is like an online version of your 1st University Marketing book. Great reference for the basics.

II. 5 pillars of Social Media Marketing (Article)
This is the closest things to a structure for the practice.

III. Seth Godin (Book/Video/Blog)
The Number 1# Marketing Blogger in the world. Reading his books will bring you right up to speed on the new marketing landscape.

IV. Tipping Point (Book)
21st Century WOM expert, Malcoml Gladwell's Tipping Point helps you to understand how ideas spread through communities.

V. Made to Stick (Book)
Sequel to Tipping Point on making ideas sticky with the consumer

VI. The Age of Conversation (Book)
100 voices, 1 idea. An amazing idea from Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton about a book which talk all about the new marketing landscape.

VII. Best reference of Academic papers on Social Networks (Reference List Page /Blog)
Danah Boyd is the queen of Social Networks in the US. She has the best hidden SMM resource in the world. A reference page of all academic articles on Social Networks (Even my Honours thesis makes a showing). For an Australian version of Danah Boyd check out Laurel Papworth.

VIII. Original article on WOM (Harvard Business Review Article)
The seminal article on Word of Mouth written by Ernest Dichter in 1960’s and still relevant today. If you email me I might know where you can stumble across a copy *wink, wink*.

IX. The Brand Communities King (Articles / Blog)
Robert Kozinets is the father of brand communities, he also was the first to perform the marketing research method of an online ethnography, 'netnography'.

X. Google Scholar (Tool)
The best free academic resource going around. Always click the ‘Cited By’ to see who else is speaking on the topic.

In Week 6 ‘Apprenticeship: Learning from the Masters’, I will be looking at the top 10 SMM bloggers. I am interested to know what bloggers are you reading for your SMM information?

Methodology for the Top 50 Australian Marketing Blogs

The Methodology was based on the AdAge Power 150


Pioneers – Is marked out of 10 on the following criteria.

1. How thought provoking is the content
2. How often is the site is updated
3. How much insight does the author provide into the field of Marketing


Google PageRank – is a link anlaysis algorithm that assigns a numerical weight to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents. They produce a score out of 10 that was then used in the Top 50 Australian



Technorati Authority
gives a list of the number of unique blogs that link into that website. That number is then taken and also given a relative score between 1 and 10.


Technorati Blog Reactions – gives a list of the number of posts that have cited that website in a post. That number is then taken and given a relative score between 1 and 10.


Alexa Traffic Rank - Gives a rank of a site based on visits from users of its Alexa Toolbar for Internet Explorer. We then take the rank and assign it proportional score between 1 and 10.


Bloglines Gives the number of people that are subscribed to the feed from that blog. This number is then taken and assigned a comparative number between 0-10.

If you would like my proportional score ranges please email me at: julian@nakedcomms.com.au

Nike and NB are the new Robin Hood

It appears that brands are replacing the role of fairytale heroes in imparting parent’s values on their children. Back in 1990 when I was 5, I remember I had a fascination with Robin Hood drawings. My parents used the story to impart values of equality on me. I remember after drawing this picture my parents would reward me with praise for these drawings.

These days it appears that brands are now becoming a tool to communicate values to children as well fairytales. I first noticed this with my mate’s child Benny who is the cutest 4 year old girl you will ever meet.

It appears that she is gaining a lot of her values in life through her parents, her father being a car fanatic has had an impact on her. She has heard all the fairytale stories but what she sees her Dad speak most passionately about is cars. Benny will tell you that Holden are the best cars because they are Australian made, strong, tough and reliable cars.

Being strong, tough and reliable would be a characteristic of a valued male friend. It is also demonstrating to Benny criteria that is important in purchasing decisions, is she not going to grow up and be a child who thinks buying Australian is important? Are brands now acting as the actors in imparting values on children?




The story behind the picture.
I received this from a family friend’s child Felix, 5. He finished this drawing just after his Dad had come back from the United States. He had bought back a number of New Balance and Nike shoes that he had told Felix were the best because they were the finest design, very reliable and rarest shoes. Is this not another example of imparting values on our children?

You faked it but it is still cool, Ford Balloons



It seems a lot of brands at the moment are trying to pass off branded content as User Generated Content viral videos. This is a fine line to dance as being found out as trying to be UGC and not really being will loose your brand a lot of credibility.
A lot of these clips have extreme things happening in them and if you have a quick view of the comment it look likes it has become the unofficial job of the viewers to work out which ones are fake/real, branded or not. It seems that this is what most people are concentrating on rather than the content.

However what if a brand came forward and told people it was fake straight out?

The answer; people enjoy the content for what it is.

That is exactly what Ford NZ have done with their latest video. This is a great example of why full disclosure works in the social media space.