If you happened to be on Twitter this weekend and follow the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (@LACMA) you may have thought their account was compromised – and you’d be correct. With tweets stating such things as, “My new sculpture is displayed in the 2nd floor men’s room. It’s made of feces & shaped like a big poo. #Rainn,” it’s hard to imagine that the institution’s director gave the thumbs up on a free-for-all of tweets. However, there was a method to the (sometimes disgusting) madness. It was actor, Rainn Wilson’s turn to take over the Museum’s Twitter account for the weekend as part of “Cell Phone Stories,” a summer-long “series of narratives and essays circulated exclusively via mobile phone technology.”

As a new initiative for LACMA, the series is overseen by artist, Steve Fagin.  Wilson is among the list of writers, fashion designers, artists and critics all scheduled through September 6 to mix things up on Twitter.  Though Wilson’s specific series was titled “I Hate LACMA” and his tweets offered a list of reasons to never go to LACMA, he happens to be a member of the Museum and has spoken highly of the institution.  He also happens to be a major player in the Twittersphere, with almost 2 million followers on his own account.  While I can respect an institution that doesn’t take itself too seriously, I’m still a bit baffled at how his tweets would lead to foot traffic. I suppose if anything, Fagin must have been optimistic about a new set of eyes and followers carrying over from Wilson’s to LACMA’s account.

If I were to plan a Twitter hijacking for one of my clients, here are the items I’d check before approving:

1)  Audience: who are my donors, supporters and greatest demographic? Will an initiative such as this lead to quality content my current followers will appreciate?

2)  Sample tweets from appointed “guest” tweeters: There needs to be some control over the content and the director should probably be aware of what to expect, both from the guest tweeting and the reaction of the brand’s current followers. Art writer for the popular blog Modern Art Notes, Tyler Green, put this stunt on the worst idea of the weekend, saying LACMA should have pulled the plug early on.

3)  Goals for an initiative such as a Twitter Hijacking: Is LACMA looking to stir things up and create controversy to gain publicity? Are they trying to drive foot traffic and sales? As noted in any other social media guides we’ve provided, always have a clear idea of your goals and objectives.

Do you think LACMA’s onto something allowing guest tweeters to take over their account? Or do you think, even with an increase in followers and interactions, that this may hurt the institution’s reputation over time?

In the past, we’ve given quite a few tutorials on how to best utilize Facebook or what to measure when reporting on Twitter, but we haven’t really broke down our recommendation for how to go about creating a fully-integrated, well-researched social media campaign.

While it may seem we’re going to back to basics, this list of to-dos can also be applied when you feel that your current social media strategy is getting stale.  I also believe that it should be integrated into your social media plan to reevaluate every six months to ensure that you’re best utilizing your social media budget.

1)  Right off the bat, when beginning a new campaign or revamping, you’re going to want to spend some time listening – where are people talking about your brand?  What platforms are they using?  What types of feedback are you getting – good or bad?  What confuses people and where can you implement customer service to streamline the process?

There are numerous tools to use to measure and evaluate your brand mentions.  Social Mention, Google Buzz and Vocus have all incorporated a tool where you can either log in or have an email sent listing all the platforms that are mentioning your brand (by keyword).  You may find right off the bat that the all-encompassing Facebook strategy you’ve been working on isn’t actually where all the chatter is about your brand.  Perhaps your customers are still using forums to talk about you.

2)  Now that you know where people are discussing your brand, what’s the chatter surrounding your competitors.  What’s interesting is organizations that you may consider your greatest competitors may have no social presence whatsoever – this makes for an even greater opportunity for your brand to capitalize on.    You also may find there are organizations that you had no idea were competitors.  If their campaign is successful, there’s no harm in incorporating some of their successes into your own campaign – just make sure to make it your own.

3)  Once you’ve done your research, it should be clear what platforms you should be using to speak to your current customer base and if it makes sense to join additional networks.  While numerous companies will only focus on Twitter and Facebook, think of what your brand offers.  If it’s a consumer product or service that you find customers don’t know how to use, perhaps YouTube is a platform you use for tutorials.  Are most of your mentions coming from FriendFeed or a particular blog or forum?  Perhaps start there and once you’ve established a presence there, let your customers know that you’re also on Facebook and Twitter and have your own blog.  If you’re looking for foot traffic, create a social loyalty program with FourSquare.

4)  While you may want to dive right in and begin making updates and tweeting to your loyal customers, you should first create a six-month plan and outline goals you have for social media: Do you wish to increase sales on-site?  Do you wish to increase website traffic?  Or are you hoping that you can give your customer service phone line a break?

Once these goals are outlined, the rest of your plan should be fairly simple to fill in.  I can’t stress enough how important it is to have quality content on your pages.  If you insist on having a presence, make it a strong one.  Before you begin interacting or creating your own Facebook tab with FBML, bullet out what initiatives you have monthly, and always check back to remind yourself of your overall goals.

5)  Measure, analyze and report your findings, both successes and failures, to learn what works and what doesn’t within the realm of your brand’s offerings.  Gather screen grabs from fans and followers raving about your social media campaign, or a conversation you had online convincing an individual to visit your venue.  When your client asks for the value of social media (which they will), these will be key in demonstrating the power and value in a successful social media campaign.

Do you think there are any other basics companies should remember when creating or revamping their social media plans?

A few weeks ago, my colleague, Callan Green, and I were tasked with the rather large project of researching, testing, and noting the good, bad, and ugly of social media measurement and reporting tools available to marketers.  While many of them are very helpful listening tools, for example showing you graphs and screen grabs of your brand mentions and what platform it came from, we are hoping to find more tools documenting reach, influence, sentiment, and really demonstrating the worth of being IN the social media sphere.  So far, we’ve found less than a handful of tools we anticipate using day-to-day, but one that’s caught our attention AND has our approval is TweetReach.

Introduced to us by the knowledgeable Jay Baer of Convince and Convert, TweetReach takes the obnoxious time suck out of Twitter reporting with the click of a button.  You simply type in the key words or phrases you wish to report on, then click “Go.”  Here is what your report will include:

I love how TweetReach creates a very clean, simple and direct view of who’s talking about your brand.  Also, I’ve found that they capture more mentions than both Twitter and Seesmic.

While I do find great value in TweetReach, there are a few changes I’d make to the tool to make it even better.  Currently here are my issues:

• Limited amount of tweets – TweetReach only offers the most recent 50 tweets (for free).  This means you have to be VERY specific with the keywords you’re searching.   You can purchase a downloadable PDF of up to 500 tweets for $20.  I’m currently considering trying this for a future opportunity.
• Can’t remove tweets that aren’t relevant to your brand.  For example my client, The San Diego Museum of Art recently appointed a new Executive Director, Roxana Velásquez.  Instead of searching the handle @SDMA, I wanted a more focused scope of mentions specifically to this news, making my search “Roxana Velásquez.”  Because the report I ran was timely (same day news broke), most of the tweets captured by TweetReach were relevant to the report.  However, there were a few strays that had nothing to with the Museum or the story I was working to report on.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t remove those mentions from the report compiled by TweetReach.
• Being a reporting system based on timeliness, you need use this tool weekly to acquire a relevant idea of who’s talking about your brand or keywords.  This is why I’d recommend this as a resource for gathering data on news vs. an overall look at a brand.

While this report may not be the focus point of your strategy, it does offer great insight and a reminder to your client as to why they are on and should stay involved in social media.

Are there any other social media reporting tools that you’d like to add to Callan’s and my research project?

Companies are finding more and more uses for social media, and while we’ve covered how to implement customer service strategies, and even how to use social media to find brand ambassadors, we haven’t written about companies that utilize social media tools as an added component to seek out the perfect employee…until now.

A couple of months ago, our client, gaytravel.com came to us looking to increase awareness of its newly launched website – with an idea already in mind – to integrate social media into a larger strategy to find America’s First Gay Travel Guru. Specializing in providing the LGBT community with expert recommendations on gay-friendly destinations, gaytravel.com is hoping to enlist the help of a Social media-savvy, culture-seeking Rock Star to travel the U.S. for six months sharing photos, videos, blogs and tweets.

So what does a job search through social media look like?

From April 30 – August 1, gaytravel.com will conduct a search for a travel enthusiast to city-hop, mingle, and report on the hottest gay destinations in North America.  Interested applicants will write travel reviews, post photos, videos, tweets, and use word-of-mouth to demonstrate why they are the perfect candidate for the job.  gaytravel.com will also use its own social community, Meet; public voting; and a questionnaire and job application to select its Gay Travel Guru.

What does this lucky Gay Travel Guru do once they get the job?

• Spend six months traveling across North America
• Share his/her experiences through blog posts, video, photos, tweets, and updates to Facebook and gaytravel.com

And what are the benefits aside from the job itself?

• $30,000 salary during 6-month employment period
• $200 stipend per trip
• Full compensation for hotel stay, transportation, and airfare

For full details on how to apply, check out gaytravel.com/guru.  And you can expect a full case study upon completion of the job search.

In the past few years we’ve seen more and more companies using social media contests to find brand ambassadors. Companies like Fiskars have had huge success using these brand ambassadors to influence public opinion in an authentic manner throughout the online space. Now BG is beginning to embark on a social media contest for one of our new clients, and to prepare I’ve been doing some research on what others have been doing and learning what has worked well, and not so well about each. Below I compiled three highly publicized social media contests and my thoughts on the positive and negative aspects of each.

1)  Murphy Goode’s “Really Goode Job”: The company posted job listings on all kinds of sites (everything from Craigslist to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Wine Blog,  The Cellarist) looking for a social media wine enthusiast capable of convincing the masses to sip, savor and tweet about the product.  To enter, contestants were tasked with creating and submitting a video explaining why they should be given the job.  Once submitted, the videos were uploaded to Murphy Goode’s YouTube and voted on by the public.

Positive: Excitement about the six-month job opportunity, and good PR,  led to over 2,000 entries and a ton of media buzz regarding the winery.

Negative: While the contest was described as social and social networks were used in judging, there was a grey area as to whether or not public/social voting really had anything to do with final selection.  Like many other contests, there was backlash because other contestants and voters felt the social voting aspect wasn’t weighted as high as it should have been.  Moral of the story: Brands should be extremely clear about how they’ll select their winners.

2) Coca Cola’s Happiness Ambassadors: Expedition 206 is currently underway as the top three “happiness ambassadors” chosen via social media travel the world (well, at least the 206 countries where Coca Cola is available).  As noted in Ad Age’s interview with Clyde Tuggle, senior VP-global public affairs and communications at Coca Cola, final candidates were not left up to chance.  After reaching out to multiple experienced marketing firms, Coca Cola acquired their top 60 candidates from around the world (based on social media experience and knowledge).  Of those 60, 18 were interviewed in the U.S. and the final nine individuals were then FINALLY presented to the public as three teams of three for social media voting.

Positive: Coca Cola knew the caliber of contestants they were seeking, and instead of hoping the public would find them on their own, they narrowed the playing field to keep the brand happy and allow the public to make their final selections.  Having done their research, it is expected that the content, along with public interest will both be a high success.

Negative: Now that the three ambassadors have been chosen, the public is also in charge of recommending sites and activities for the ambassadors to carry out.  However, I have to wonder if people will lose interest if the ambassadors don’t choose a recommended activity.  And, with most marketing plans, we like to have a decent idea of the outcome.  As for this campaign, Ad Age’s Natalie Zmuda said it best: “In the case of Expedition 206, there’s not yet any clear sense of how the program will deliver or what brand awareness it will generate.”

3) Groupon’s “Live Off Groupon for a Year” Contest: If you aren’t yet familiar with Groupon, they are an amazing organization offering city-specific hospitality coupons.  The increasingly popular company is going to pay $100,000 to an individual that can live off of Groupon deals for one full year.  (Think 50 percent off sushi, or $25 dollars off teeth cleaning).

Positive: While only brave apply, Groupon has done an excellent job at describing who should not apply.  Their rules and description of the contest are written so there really isn’t any confusion about how this may inconvenience the “winner.” With constant curiosity as to whether or not this Groupon lifestyle is really livable, I predict this social media campaign will continue to bring new and returning readers to check on our “chosen one.”

Negative: The selected individual will only win the $100,000 if she successfully survives with nothing but a laptop, cellphone, and an unlimited supply of Groupons.  What if the individual fails?  Does the campaign just end if and when he slips up and uses his own cash to buy McDonald’s without a Groupon?  I guess that’s the excitement of this whole campaign.  We’ll have to wait and watch…

What do you think are some other brand ambassador programs that have demonstrated the power of social media?  Are there any brands that you’d like to be the brand ambassador for?  Please share your opinions in the comments.

Yesterday, when Jay Baer stopped by our office to give us a full run down of the latest in SM, one particular discussion stuck out to me.  While we constantly remind our clients of this as we pass the SM torch over to them, it really is essential that companies utilize Facebook and Twitter accounts as an added component to a customer service team.

Jay noted that when  a woman calls a company to reach customer service, she almost expects to basically get no where.  When she emails, she may expect a response within a few days.  But, when an individual hops on Twitter and Facebook and posts to a brand that has so openly requested her to interact, she wants a response/solution to her issues RIGHT NOW.

Below are some simple strategies to implement customer service into your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Using Social Media for Customer Service

1)  Monitor your social media accounts daily.  Engaging posts are important, but know that you can’t always plan for what a fan/follower may post.

2)  When a fan complains about your product, don’t delete the post.  Let it be an open dialogue where you assure your fan that the problem is going to be addressed.

3)  Respond to questions, concerns, and even positive feedback immediately.  And by immediately, I mean within an hour!  If you don’t generate a response quickly enough, that may be a lost follower forever.

4)  If the issue requires tech support or help from a separate department within your company, respond within the hour to tell them that you are sorry for the frustration, the issue is being addressed and you will respond with an answer/solution within the next three hours.  (And follow up with that guarantee.)

It’s probably a good idea to have some simple responses to questions that tend to pop up regularly on your fan pages and Twitter feeds, but know that you can’t plan the day to day.  Just be confident in your brand and remember that these fans/followers trust your social media involvement as a part of your customer service initiatives.

What brands do you think utilize social media for customer service best?

The past few years, we’ve seen an increase in companies that haven’t necessarily been known for their eco-friendly ways jumping on the green bandwagon.  While some may call this greenwashing, is it really such a bad thing?

During the Super Bowl, Audi released their new “eco-themed” commercial featuring their latest car (and winner of Green Car Journal’s “Green Car of the Year”), A3 TDI.  The ad follows a squad of “Green Police” that obsessively seek out and arrest regular Joes for their environmental ignorance.  My personal fave is the scantily-clad gentleman running away from a SWAT team-sized crew of green police chasing him down for having the hot tub temperature too high.  The commercial is timely, humorous, and informative in its own way.  However, there are mixed feelings about the ad, as seen in the comments of this popular green blog, Ecorazzi.  So, what are the issues?

1)  Is it greenwashing?  While A3 TDI sets itself apart from other Audi vehicles by being more eco-friendly, Audi is not adjusting its branding to fit this one product.  It can be a step in the right direction for the luxury car industry, raising the bar when it comes to responsibility, and raising awareness about simple changes that can be made in daily life.

2)  Is it demeaning to green-enthusiasts?  While this is an extreme case of environmentalism and it may seem to poke fun at die-hard eco-savers, the ad also offers comic relief when a lot of other brands may take a more “shame-on-you” approach to environmental education.

3)  Is this A3 TDI REALLY green?  As consumers, we all want options.  Whether or not a Hybrid car is the greener alternative, Audi is opening the door to competitors, which means companies will begin working harder to decrease their carbon footprints.  And marketers will get a lesson in sustainable marketing.

So, do we applaud this large-name brand that’s spreading the eco-friendly message or do we disregard them because we would have chosen an alternative way to get the message across?  Please share your thoughts/feelings on greenwashing in the comments.

While companies around the country are learning how to engage in social media, we really appreciate the ones that can have fun with the fact that they may not know everything about it.  And Big Bear Mountain Resort’s new radio spot illustrates this perfectly.  Not to mention, this spot really is AWESOME-SAUCE!

(click the link below to hear radio spot)

BBMRRadioSpot

If you happened to log into Facebook last Thursday, January 7, you probably got a gander into all of your female friend’s lingerie drawers (via colorful status updates, we mean).  Women across the country were secretly sharing the day’s bra color as a means to show their support for breast cancer awareness.

Facebook updates tell bra color

The risque updates created a buzz as marketers took notice wondering the source of the campaign.  Perhaps the bigger point isn’t where it began, rather what it resulted in – a “viral” campaign that actually went viral.

Oddly while on the topic of breast-related health and social media campaigns, a PA nonprofit, Feel Your Boobies Foundation was named one of the top 100 charities on Facebook via Chase’s Facebook contest, Community Giving.  They were awarded an initial $25,000 and are waiting to hear if they will be the grand prize recipients of $1 million (to be decided late February).

While both of these viral campaigns show the power of social media to share a message, perhaps we’ve all missed a rather obvious means to raising money for our favorite nonprofits – well, not all of us have missed it, exactly.  San Diego’s Tariq Khamisa Foundation (TKF) is using social media for their recent Viral Donor Drive, and they’ve tapped into C.K. Prahalad’s message: “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.”

Our client, Aladdin Bail Bonds currently supports the local nonprofit, dedicated to breaking the cycle of youth violence by empowering kids.  TKF’s Viral Donor Drive uses their Facebook fan page, Twitter account, email database and a special “Stop Kids from Killing Kids” website to spread the word about the drive, with a goal of reaching $1 million.  The beauty of this campaign is that instead of asking a few significant donors for a large sum, TKF aims to reach their goal by asking for $1 from 1 million people – illustrating the power at the bottom of the pyramid and highlighting how well social media factors in, offering over 350 million eyes worldwide to TKF and other nonprofits.

Supporters of the nonprofit can make a donation or help fundraise by creating their own social networking campaign in which educational materials will be provided.  For more information or to donate, visit their website or Fan Page.

There’s been a lot of hype lately regarding the constant changes to Facebook fan pages.  One of the most upsetting changes for marketers was the newly added restrictions regarding contests held on Facebook..  As marketers, what we loved about Facebook contests were that it leveled the playing field for companies and brands of all sizes.  Brand recognition and money had nothing to do with whether or not you became visible on Facebook. But sometimes good things must come to an end…or in our case, come to a crossroad, where we’re forced to be more creative with our outreach.

While Facebook hasn’t entirely banned all contests, here are the most important new guidelines to keep in mind:

• You need written approval from Facebook before beginning a contest.  Sounds easy enough, right?  Not so much!  Facebook has companies “fill out” a contact form and in that form, they ask what your ad budget is.  From our own findings, we discovered that this form is somewhat useless if you don’t plan to spend at least $25,000 in advertising, as we were directed away from the contact form when not entering a high enough dollar amount.   Out of curiosity, we entered the $25,000 amount and sure enough, the contact form continues with its questionnaire.  Hey, I guess we finally know how Facebook makes their money.

• You’re limited in how you publicize your contest. If you’re lucky enough to gain permission to run a contest from  Facebook, this means you probably have a larger budget for ad spending than most and also that you need to be aware that you’re still limited with how you promote your contest.

1. You can only run contests on third party applications and may only share info regarding said contest on the canvas page of an application or an application box in a tab on your fan page.
2. You cannot condition that participants take any action on Facebook – that includes uploading photos or videos, updating status, or updating a profile or page.
3. You cannot notify winners of contests through Facebook – that includes private message, IM, status update, or wall post.

Whether or not Facebook took the wind out of your sails, we’d recommend that you re-think running a contest on the platform. Even if you think Facebook wouldn’t notice a tiny Mom & Pop Shop running a contest, iyou are risking having your page shut down and losing your already-established fan base.  Facebook is still a behemoth platform where the demographic is constantly changing and the public is more than eager to interact.  If your brand doesn’t qualify for running a contest, you may just have to find a new/creative way to market you Facebook Fan page.