New social networking communities seem to be on every virtual corner these days. Marketers understand that social media can be a powerful strategy that supports niche or segmentation marketing. However, when brands build out communities it's obviously a business decision that has incurred significant resources - including dollars.
I wondered how do they integrate marketing objectives, while ensuring that the "social" aspects, the heart and soul of the community, are authentically and transparently developed and nurtured? When Chris Kieff offered the opportunity to interview one of his Ripple6 client's from Meredith Corporation's recently launched Mixing Bowl, a food and recipe community - I said yes!
Editors touch every piece of content that exists on our branded sites. We post recipes after they’ve been triple-tested in our kitchens, write how-to articles, and so on. We don’t run Mixing Bowl that way because we want it to be a site created by home cooks for home cooks.
I’m (Heather Morgan Shott)very present on Mixing Bowl (my username is CoolCookie), and my profile page states that I’m a Mixing Bowl editor, but I’d never censor conversation or edit content. I’m there to answer questions as well as contribute to the community just like a typical member would by posting my own recipes, sharing my opinions, and joining groups. From a business point of view, Ripple6 offers advertisers access to a very sophisticated and extensive analytics system.
About Heather Morgan Shott
I'm the Senior Food Group Manager for the Better Homes and Gardens Network, which includes five websites. On Mixing Bowl, I mix it up like any member might--but if there’s a functionality problem I’ll address it.
For example, we had some members who were unhappy with the way in which our contest application worked when we first launched the site. Entries were randomized so members started having problems finding the recipes they wanted to vote for once lots of recipes were entered. They started posting their complaints on the site, and we responded very quickly by tweaking the system so that the entries were static.
Suddenly ‘thank you CoolCookie’ threads started to pop up. Of course lots of people worked to resolve that issue, but I’m the person that the community knows is listening to them, because I’ve established a very visible presence on the site. When I’m not working, I’m cooking, restaurant hopping, drinking wine, shopping, or hanging out with my husband. We live in New York City.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Mixing Bowl is not only a new social media community but a new brand for Meredith. That said, Meredith’s reach with women is wide and established. How did you use those assets to help build membership and promote the site?
We’ve been working with all of our magazines and websites to promote Mixing Bowl. American Baby, Fitness, Family Circle, and Better Homes and Gardens, for example, have all created groups that tie to specific departments in their magazines. Ladies Home Journal features questions and answers from Knowledge Bowl in each issue. We have another magazine that will be sponsoring a contest on Mixing Bowl this summer. Online, we’ve been promoting Mixing Bowl in newsletters. We’ve got lots more to come; this just marks our very early efforts.
Toby/Diva Marketing: There are other social networks that focus on food and recipes. What is Mixing Bowl’s point of difference? Why would I want to join and spend time on Mixing Bowl versus another community?
Heather Morgan Shott:By filling out your profile, Mixing Bowl can deliver a totally customized experience just for you. For example, if you check off quick and easy, desserts, and cooking for kids as your interests, we'll bubble up all the recipes and groups that mesh with those interests. So we’re offering a vastly different experience than you get on other sites where you log in and see everything that everyone else does, and you literally have to wade through hundreds of pages of information to find what’s relevant to your life.
Toby/Diva Marketing: The quality of online peer-to-peer relationships builds over time. How is Mixing Bowl encouraging and nurturing “community” among with its members?
Heather Morgan Shott:I’m dazzled by so many of the people in our community, and I meet new, amazing members every day. When we launched Mixing Bowl, we tried to start things on the right note by inviting some incredible content creators, such as past winners of cooking contests and bloggers, to get in the mix early on. None of them were professional cooks but they all had a certain level of expertise in cooking or baking, so we knew they’d be able to provide high-quality content. We also knew that they had the kind of passion and enthusiasm that we wanted to foster on Mixing Bowl.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Mixing Bowl is a very rich platform, built by Ripple6, that offers multiple ways for people to contribute their favorite recipes and as we love to say, “Join the conversation.” At this early stage in its development which areas or groups are getting the most activity?
Heather Morgan Shott: There’s no question about it, our community loves to bake. We have an extremely rich Ethnic category, with 16 groups covering a range of different cuisines (Chinese, Colombian, Mexican, French, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Parsi, Persian, Polynesian, Puertorrican, and so on); in this category many of the group leaders are actually based overseas, so they’re posting truly authentic recipes. We’re also seeing tremendous growth in areas that we’d expect—quick and easy, healthy recipes, desserts, and entertaining.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Has that surprised you?
Heather Morgan Shott: So far just what we hoped would happen has happened. Our goal was to engage home cooks who specialized in specific topics. What better way to learn how to cook Indian food than from someone based in Mumbai? Who better to get baking pointers from than an owner of a boutique bakery? Who knows picky eaters better than moms raising kids who are picky eaters? These are real people with real solutions and inspiring ideas.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Since this is part of Meredith’s business strategy can you tell us what constitutes success?
Heather Morgan Shott: Our goal is to continue to grow membership on MixingBowl.com. We’re extremely pleased with where we are right now, and we will continue to work to develop an even richer and more robust community.
Toby/Diva Marketing: How concerned is Meredith with, let’s call it “traditional website metrics?”
Heather Morgan Shott: Page views and unique visitors are extremely important, but our top goal is bringing in new members.
Toby/Diva Marketing: I was watching a video where Dan Hickey, Vice President, Digital Conten, discussed marketers (advertisers) participating within the community to add value. Can you give us some current examples and tell us how Mixing Bowl ensuring transparency?
Heather Morgan Shott: Toby, we’re still working on this. We haven’t really rolled anything out yet… We're cooking up some great stuff, and I can't wait to tell you about those efforts once we've rolled them out. Check back with me in a month or two.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Understanding that the site has been live only a few months, what are some of the lessons you’ve learned at the start-up of this venture?
Heather Morgan Shott: In a community, it’s extremely important to be involved, to mix it up with your members. It doesn’t work to just build a community and then abandon it. You need to listen to what they’re saying and you need to respond quickly. You need to show you care, or they’ll go somewhere else. It’s also critical to be flexible and be willing to change something that isn’t working.
Toby/Diva Marketing: At its heart, or in your heart, what is your vision for Mixing Bowl on a long-term basis?
Heather Morgan Shott: We want MixingBowl.com to become the largest community food site out there. We’d love for it to be the number one destination for everyone who loves to swap recipes and join cooking groups. And we’d love to continue to draw in more members from overseas so that we truly become a place for cooks from around the world to connect.
Heather Morgan Shott On Social Media It’s thrilling, and I can’t imagine life without it. Oftentimes content isn’t all that exciting until people actually start talking about it – and that’s why social media platforms like Mixing Bowl, Twitter, and Facebook have become so central to our lives. They enable us to take one thought or idea and connect about it with hundreds of others, regardless of where those people are in the world. We gain multiple perspectives, oftentimes from people whose views are vastly different from ours, and in turn our own thoughts and ideas become much richer.
More About Social Network Communities From Diva Marketing
One might say that my 22-year old niece Jessica Robyn has “grown-up
in social media.” She was actively involved in Live Journal when she
was in middle school. She joined Facebook when she began college in
2004. Her 491 friends are truly people that she knows and has allowed
into her virtual world.
Early this week Facebook changed the
rules of their game I was curious about Jessica’s reaction. Then when
Facebook changed the rules back I was even more curious. Jess graciously
agreed to an interview for Diva Marketing to share her views.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Why did you join Facebook?
Jessica Robyn:
I resisted at first once my college was first added to Facebook since I
saw everyone competing for friends, but December of 2004 I caved. Once
I joined I saw an outlet to connect with old friends and I could upload
photos so that all my friends could see what I was up to. It was a
great tool and I could adjust my privacy settings so I knew who was
seeing what sections of my profile.
Toby/Diva Marketing: What sort of things do you enjoy most about Facebook?
Jessica Robyn:
I highly enjoy being able to connect with old friends and see how they
are doing through recent pictures. I got to reconnect with a friend
whom I had not seen since I was in middle school courtesy of Facebook.
We were able to send messages through Facebook and got to know each
other again. She soon after came to visit me while in college, and we
still have maintained our friendship since.
Toby/Diva Marketing: What was your first reaction when you heard that Facebook had changed
its terms of service and now your content belonged to them?
Jessica Robyn:
I definitely felt betrayed. This tool I have been using as an outlet
and had control of my privacy settings went behind my back and decided
that they would be able to profit off of my picture? I think that is
absurd! It was not in the contract I signed up with and I was not
formerly informed by Facebook of this change, but rather through a
forwarded e-mail from a friend.
Toby/Diva Marketing: What did you think might happen to the hundreds of photos of you and your friends that you posted on your Facebook page?
Jessica Robyn:
I honestly hope nothing, but if Facebook can sell them, who knows. They
could get into the wrong hands that way and it could be dangerous.
Toby/Diva Marketing: How did that make you feel?
Jessica Robyn: I felt like one of my friends who I trusted changed their entire personality. I did not know what to think anymore.
Toby/Diva Marketing:
Now we learn that Facebook listened to their customers and will go back
to their original user agreement. Do you trust Facebook less or do you
trust Facebook more?
Jessica Robyn: I
trust them less now. They are still capable of changing something so
much on the website without giving users fair warning. I think going
back to the original was just a cop-out for now since they are planning
on re-writing the changes.
Toby/Diva Marketing: When it comes to posting content will you do anything differently on
your Facebook page now than you would have say last week?
Jessica Robyn: Absolutely, I feel like now I need to censor myself and the content of "my" page since it is no longer "mine"
anymore. I felt very comfortable posting almost anything, but knowing
that Facebook could do what they please with it completely disrespects
my privacy and trust in them
Toby/Diva Marketing:
A little off topic but for my marketer friends., do you ever go to Fan
Pages on Facebook that are about brands or products. For example
Victoria Secrets has a Facebook page do you ever pop in? Why or why not?
Jessica Robyn:
I personally don't since I see Facebook as simple what its name is,
face-book. I use it strictly for connecting with my friends. One friend
who I am doing some work for asked me to become a fan of their web site
and even that I declined since it is not what I use Facebook for.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Do you ever click on the ads? Why or why not?
Jessica Robyn: I honestly do not really notice the ads anymore. I just click through Facebook as I normally do.
Toby/Diva Marketing: One last question to wrap this one. If you could sit down with Mark Zuckerberg what would you tell him.
Jessica Robyn: I would explain to Mark that the reason I use Facebook is because it respects my privacy. I would not be using it if I thought he would use my image or some private messages I exchange for his own benefit.
Recently while doing some research for a presentation I stumbled on what almost 6 Million Facebook members have been doing .. planting virtual gardens. (Late to the party .. yeah I know!)
While I thought the little avatars were too cute and the game seemed fun what was intriguing was (Lil) Green Patch is a fund raiser for The Nature Conservancy.
Sue M. Citro, Senior Digital Membership Manager, of The Nature Conservancy graciously agreed to provide some of the back-story of how the organization came to be the recipient of a generous donation program that is one of the most popular games and one of the highest fund raisers on Facebook.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Where did the idea to create a Facebook application, (Lil) Green Patch, for fund raising come from? Did you approach the developer first or did the developer approach you?
Sue M. Citro:In regards to (Lil) Green Patch, two developers created it and chose our organization as the beneficiary.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Lucky The Nature Conservancy! Was it challenging to get buy-in from your Executive Director and/or board? What were their reactions?
Sue M. Citro: I wouldn't say challenging. Like anything that's new, we try to understand it and determine what the impact both positive and negative will be. Often we approach things as a pilot and I think that helps us get buy-in. I think the key to working online is just to be open to trying new things -- doing so yields invaluable learning that's often applicable to other channels too.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Did you establish goals or success measures? If so what were they?
Sue M. Citro: For (Lil) Green Patch or other Facebook applications, we personally did not. Although the developers may have. We did launch our own widget tied to our Plant a Billion Trees campaign at plantabillion.org. Through plantabillion.org, our goal was to raise enough to plant 1 million trees the first year.
We thought price point was important for the campaign we were promoting through social networks -- each tree costs just $1 -- and while that is something to think about, we learned it isn't the most important thing. I'd say our biggest learning is to think of the application like a video game -- there always needs to be another level. There needs to be a reason to keep it going and come back and that's what I think is so brilliant about (Lil) Green Patch, you get characters for Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day. It keeps on going and going.
Toby/Diva Marketing: How much money has been donated to date? Facebook indicates: $109,500 in donations. How many square-feet of rain forest have been persevered to date?
Sue M. Citro: The figure Facebook indicates for the amount donated by (Lil) Green Patch to The Nature Conservancy is accurate and correct. The money donated to The Nature Conservancy ties into our Adopt an Acre program (more can be found about this program at nature.org/adopt) and helps to protect the lush rainforest sanctuary of the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica (more info can be found at nature.org/adoptcostarica)
Toby/Diva Marketing: I noticed in addition to the Facebook app there are also cute (Lil) Green Patch widgets. How's that working for you?
Sue M. Citro: Yes, that's something else the (Lil) Green Patch developers recently created.
Toby/Diva Marketing: What has been the most surprising aspect of the program?
Sue M. Citro: I heard a stat that people now check their facebook page before checking their email accounts. When I heard that stat, I thought can that really be true. Only then did I realize, that's exactly what I do!
Toby/Diva Marketing: What has been the most challenging aspect of the program?
Sue M. Citro: I think it all comes back to staff time and resources.
I don't believe there's some new thing that's going to be born on Facebook that means we no longer need to fund raising on web sites, by email, through search -- rather social networks are another mini-channel within the web where we must also focus some of our time as they add to and complement all those other efforts.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Any plans for future social media initiatives.
Sue M. Citro: I think social media has to be a part of all future plans any organization has -- so yes, we plan to continue testing and trying new things in this space.
Sue M. Citro on Social Media
I think many view social media as some big, new, crazy thing. While it's newer, it's really just another form of communicaiton, another avenue to share your message. I think the biggest thing is trying to figure out the best way to share your story via this newer mechanism in a way that's truly tangible and compelling. Hopefully in the new year, we'll all get better at that.
A few days ago I received an eMail from Paul Levy describing a unique outreach to help educate people about an important life issue that is often incredibly difficult to discuss. End of Life Experience.
It may seem strange to some, but for me, on the day before Thanksgiving it seems right to join with the voices of many people in social media who are dedicating posts to this cause. Taking these words from Alexandra Drane's speech (video below) I invite you to .. Make a toast to those that you love and those that you miss and have this conversation with your family.
We make choices throughout our lives - where we want to live, what
types of activities will fill our days, with whom we spend our time.
These choices are often a balance between our desires and our means, but
at the end of the day, they are decisions made with intent. But when it
comes to how we want to be treated at the end our lives, often we don't
express our intent or tell our loved ones about it.
This has real consequences. 73% of Americans would prefer to die at
home, but up to 50% die in hospital. More than 80% of Californians say
their loved ones "know exactly" or have a "good idea" of what their
wishes would be if they were in a persistent coma, but only 50% say
they've talked to them about their preferences.But our end of life
experiences are about a lot more than statistics. They're about all of
us.
So the first thing we need to do is start talking. Engage With
Grace: The One Slide Project was designed with one simple goal:
to help get the conversation about end of life experience started. The
idea is
simple: Create a tool to help get people talking. One Slide, with just
five questions on it. Five questions designed to help get us talking
with each other, with our loved ones, about our preferences.
And we're asking people to share this One Slide - wherever and
whenever they can.at a presentation, at dinner, at their book club. Just
One Slide, just five questions. Lets start a global discussion that,
until now, most of us haven't had.Here is what we are asking you: Download The
One Slide and share it at any opportunity - with colleagues, family,
friends. Think of the slide as currency and donate just two minutes
whenever you can. Commit to being able to answer these five questions
about end of life experience for yourself, and for your loved ones. Then
commit to helping others do the same. Get this conversation started.
Let's start a viral movement driven by the change we as individuals
can effect...and the incredibly positive impact we could have
collectively. Help ensure that all of us - and the people we care for -
can end our lives in the same purposeful way we live them. Just One
Slide, just one goal. Think of the enormous difference we can make
together. - Written by Alexandra Drane and the Engage With Grace
team
The story of Za, that began this innovative journey is told by her sister in-law Alexandra Drane.
Social networks .. they're not just MySpace, Facebook or even Twitter. The long tail concept comes to life in the hundreds of thousands of niche communities that are exploding on to the social media scene.
A soon-to-be-talked about new venture sent me on quest to explore what was happening with women and social networks. I discovered that when it comes to dishn' with your virtual girlfriends the communities are as diverse as well .. women! In addition to communities for moms, the focus ranges from cars to sports to business to age and status to cultural niches.
1.Multi-Tasking Women - Kyle Young created a community that empowers women to embrace and celebrate ALL the facets of their lives as a unique whole.
2. WECAI.org - Heidi Richards Mooney's focus is helping women do business online.
3. Ask Patty - Jody DeVere created the first community to help women learn about cars.
4. Diva Tribe - Jennifer Thompson launched this community to encourage women to work together to better themselves and live to their full potentials through reading, writing, and creativity.
4.More.ca - Canadian community celebrating women over 40.
5.Wowowow - site for women founded by a team of celebrity friends Joni Evans, Liz Smith. Mary Wells,Peggy Noonan and Lesley Stahl.
7.iVillage - A division of NBC Universal iVillage was established in 1995 and is positioned as the #1 online destination for women.
9. Hitched!- Founded in May 2003, by Jacquelyn Corbett Cyr this community's focus is on the women of Canada.
10. Kirsty - social media "sharing/voting" platform.
11. Savvy Auntie - Auntie Melanie Notkin created the first community for Aunts to exchange ideas, get advice, find gifts and connect with other Savvy Aunties.
12. Alpha Women - The "coffee shop" of the internet is a blogging community launched by Freda Mooncotch.
13. Divapreneur - Supporting women who own small businesses to network and learn together.
14. Boudica - Lorna Harris had an idea of a social news site for women. Community members are encourged to submit news stories, information and web sites.
15. HerProBlog - Mona Weathers launched her community to help women bloggers from all walks of life, all levels of blog publishing understanding, and desired income earning goals to create and maintain professional blogs.
16. BlogHer - Founders Elisa Camahort, Lisa Stone and Jory Des Jardin focus is to create opportunities for women who blog to pursue exposure, education, community and economic empowerment.
17. Single Minded Women - A community devoted to the needs of single women of all ages; founded by Allison O’Connor.
18. Jane Out of The Box - Michele DeKinder-Smith has developed a community created exclusively for women entrepreneurs.
19. EmpowHER - Michelle King Robson is the founder of a community where women ask, share and connect to enhance each other's health.
20. WESeed - Jennifer Openshaw developed this social-networking site to help people get into the stock market.
21. Built On A Woman - A blogging community that positions as a source of practical information; posted by women, for women; founded by Shelle.
22. Solo Lady - Lea Lane launched this community for single women of all ages.
24, Divine Caroline - Women are encouraged to publish their posts and articles on this community founded by Kate Everett Thorp.
25. Damsels In Success - A blogging site for professional women founded by Harleen Kahlon.
26. Women in Bloom - Allison Allen created this community to inspire and support women to ‘bloom’ in mid-life.
27. Black Women Connect - Social community for professional Black women developed by Connect Platform.
29. Tango Diva - Teresa Rodriguez Williamson and Patti Mangan built this community for women to share solo travel experiences, ideas and questions.
30. Femme Fan - Ivette Ricco, decided the time was right to provide the female fan a place on the web that covered sports from the female's unique perspective.
31. First Wives World - Debbie Nigro, founder of First Wives World has created a support group for women in different phases of life who are moving "beyond divorce."
11-24 1:15p note: it is an error that this post will not accept comments.comments are open. sent typepad a help request and am waiting for their response. if you have additonal communities you'd like to add to comments please let me know or check back in a few. thanks!
11-24 1:56p note: have not heard frm typepad but comments are working. please ignore the message that says comments are closed and just post. thanks.
11-24 6:35p note: all should be fine. thanks for your patience.
Adding more as I find them.
The Sister Project - network of blogs about the many facets of the word sister, and the concept of sisterhood.
Hey Shel, I need to change the answer to your question:
4. How has it changed you? -
Answered: I think I’m still the same person I was before I began .. blah blah blah
In 2005, Shel Israel interviewed me for the book Naked Conversations. Most of my responses (a few were even a bit controversial) about blogging apply to social media marketing in 2008. But three years later question #4 would have a different response.
Last week driving back from speaking about social media to Jennifer Giffith's advertising class at the University of Georgia (UGA) I had a few extra minutes .. well several since I once again got lost getting on 316 back to Atlanta. (The students were amazing, our conversation was energize, I have a few new Facebook friends and Pamela Petersen even launched a blog - Advertising Media and Marketing Explored.)
I realized that the experiences from social media, including talking to terrific college students, influenced who I am from the "me" of pre social media days 2004 to the "me" of 2008. So my answer to Shel's question would be different today; because of the lessons learned I have changed ..
Trust - in myself
Trust - in the community that people will help you get it "right." Right may not be the
direction you began with but frequently results in is a stronger
outcome. People have different truths and that's okay.
Acceptance - accepting ideas from people when I didn't ask for feedback.
Patience - not everyone will "get" social the first time.
Passion - for an industry that I love and belief that ii will influence better marketing and better business.
Growth - personal and professional as a result of the people I've met.
Humility - the responses and feedback from the communities online and offline are energizing while humbling
It's not all about me. It's all about You .. and it's all about Us together.
In May 2006, I launched a special website and called it Blogger Stories. I was fascinated by the way social media was influencing and changing people's lives .. one by one. I wanted to create an environment to tell those stories .. your stories.
What makes Blogger Stories unique is that the stories are told by the people in their own words. People who have told their stories include: * Alex Genana * Allison Gower * Andy Hayler * Andy Howard * Ann Handley * Average Jane * Beth Kephart * BL Ochman * Bob Walsh * Carol Krishner * Chloe Spencer * Christelle Alexandre * Cooper Munroe * David Armano * Debbie Weil * Deborah Carraro * Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff * Des Walsh * Donna Lyons-Miller * Easton Ellsworth * Ed Garsten * Emily McKahann * Geoff Livingston * Gil C. Schmidt * Holly Buchanan * Ilise Benun * J. D. Matthews * Jack Yan * Jane Genova * Jayvee Fernandez * Jeremy Wright * Jody DeVere * John Cass * Jonathan Danylko * Kalyn Denny * Katie Delahaye Paine * Kim Klaver * Kristen Havens * Kristie T * Lewis Green * Lisa Nichols * Lois Kelly * Lynda Lippin * Mack Collier * Marianne Richmond * Mary Hunt * Melissa Fletcher * Meryl K. Evans * Michele Lessiard * Mike & Benjamin Yoskovitz * Mike Sansone * Mille, My Mom's Blog * Monica Ricci * Nadia Muna Gil * Nedra Weinreich * Nettie Hardstock * Nichelle Stephens * Nick Jacobs * Pamela Slim * Patricia Skinner * Peggy Payne * Peter Kim * Pinny Gniwisch * Richard Edelman * Rico Mossegeld * Rita Arens * Robert Bruce * Ruth Daniels * Shel Israel * Sherry Heyl * Stephan Spencer * Sybil F. Stershic * Tammy Powley * Tim Jackson * Tris Hussey * Valeria Maltoni * Wendy Maynard * Yvonne DiVita
So .. getting back to Shel's question #4. How has social media changed (or influenced) your life? What is your blogger story? Drop a comment if you want to tell your story. If you know people who have a great story to tell .. please pass along.
In his role as Director of Web, Film and Interactive Strategies for the American Cancer Society's High Plains Division David J. Neff has worked with ACS in some exciting social media intitiaves. One of the most successful has been Sharinghope.tv the non profit world's first total user generated content site.
The other side of David J. Neff is .. he is an author, speaker and social media maven. He's also a guy with a big heart. Skipping along Twitter a couple of weeks ago I caught tweets about a Tweet-up. Following the teeny bread crumb trail I learned that David was part of the Tweet-up team. Sounded like a Diva Interview to me and David agreed.
Toby/Diva Marketing: So David, what is a Tweet-up?
David J. Neff: A Tweet-up is the same thing as what used to be called a meet-up. From the meet-up.com days. It’s a bunch of people who know each other online meeting in real-life. Usually to enjoy some Tex-Mex and Adult Beverages if it’s an Austin tweet-up ; -)
Toby/Diva Marketing: What was the ACS Tweet-up about? How many people signed up?
David J. Neff: Well Toby we didn’t have a ACS Tweet Up. We had a Blood Drive Tweetup to benefit the Central Texas Blood and Tissue Center. The American Cancer Society was not involved at all. We had 45 to 50 people sign up and we had 45 people show up.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Let’s put a little traditional perspective around that number. In a typical Blood Drive out reach what would be your average response?
David J. Neff: We doubled their traffic for that day!
Toby/Diva Marketing: Did you have any expectations? What did you “hope” would happen?
David J. Neff: I hope I would get to meet a lot of the Central Texas/Austin commuity and talk to them about giving blood and even our newest Web Community www.sharinghope.tv. Luckily we did a lot more than that!
Toby/Diva Marketing: As with most social media initiatives the “oomph!” comes from relations build with a community .. with Twitter it's the “Followers.” This is sort of a chicken and egg question. Do you first have to build a base of Followers before you can have a successful Tweet-up? How do you do that?
David J. Neff: Good question. I don’t have a third of the followers you do Toby (add me at @daveiam) so that was not an option for us. But what did happen was people spread the word on twitter and email! Michelle Greer my awesome co-partner on this did the same thing and soon we had the whole Austin Twitter Community interested in the Blood Drive. It went viral since it was such a good cause.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Twitter has a unique challenge. As the tweets (or posts) continue to increase exponentially based on the number of people you follow you can easily miss a tweet. How did you compensate for that?
David J. Neff: Michelle Greer and I talked the heck out of it. We also partnered with two local groups to get the message out. The 501 Tech Club of Austin and the Austin Social Media Club. They were a big help!
Toby/Diva Marketing: From a marketing view .. congrats! on integrating other social tactics such as the YouTube video and @Twitter messages .. which is how I found out. Please talk a little about that part of your strategy.
David J. Neff: That was just the summary.
If you are going to have an event around your non-profit be sure to Blog about it, Video tape people and take photos. It’s all you can do to spread the word!
Toby/Diva Marketing: What are a few of the Lessons Learned? Would you do it again?
David J. Neff: Whew! We learned a lot. The most important thing is that people really do care nowdays. You just have to break through the clutter and get them to notice your event. In this case the community on twitter really helped us do that! We do plan to do it again very soon for another non-profit here in town. Toby/Diva Marketing: What would you tell non profits and profits who are exploring micro blogging/Twitter as part of their communication out reach?
David J. Neff:
Make it happen. You need to experiment. Watch this video and follow some of my tips.
Follow David on Twitter! FI Space - blog about innovation for non profits.
Last weekend I had the opportunity to talk about two of my passions .. social media marketing and Max! I was invited to speak to a group of small business owners attending the Luxury Pet Pavilion conference in Atlanta.
My Challenge: I knew that most of the people attending my session would walk in the door knowing about social networks like MySpace and Facebook. However, based on conversations with the conference manager, I knew that few people would have connected the virtual dots .. how to use social media as a credible business strategy.
My Goal: To help bring home the point that turning Flickr, YouTube, social networking communities, blogs, widgets and other fun online toys into online tools could help build their businesses through the most powerful strategy .. relationships. I wanted the people to walk out the door jazzed to explore the possibilities of including social media marketing.
I reached out to Adam & Wendy Leidhecker, owners of the eCommerce sitePaw Luxury, who I "found" in my Twitter Travels. In addition to tweeting, the Leidheckler are active in several other social networks.
Paw Luxury is a niche player (eco dog products) in a very fragmented and crowded space (pet products). I was curious to hear their story and some of their lessons learned that I could pass along. Adam and Wendy, with help from Lola, kindly answered a few questions and also gave me their point of view about how to best use Twitter. Thanks Adam, Wendy and Lola for agreeing to let me post our interview on Diva Marketing.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Please tell me a little about your online business at Paw Luxury and the people, and of
course Lola, behind it.
Paw Luxury: Paw Luxury specializes in selling earth friendly
products. We offer quality products that are stylish, durable, all natural,
organic, holistic, sustainable, biodegradable, fair trade, and Made in the
USA. Our motto is "healthy dog, healthy earth, and happier life".
We feature all of these eco-friendly in convenient easy to
shop destination on our website.
Paw Luxury: We did social networking first then our community of friends
wanted to stay in touch more and thats where blogging came in.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Why participate in so many social networks?
Paw Luxury:It allows you to connect with
people of the same interest, meet people with different interest, engage in
interesting conversation as well as being a great networking tool. People
love to feel like they're part of something, a community and family and that is
what social networks do. Our community and animal lovers are members of different networks
not just one or all.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Which one do you feel you are getting the most
bark for you time? (ouch! did I really say that?) Why?
Paw Luxury:Twitter has been a great tool. The connections we
made on Twitter are irreplaceable and people get to know us on an even
more personal level. Even Lola the eco dog has her Twitter account and she gets to bark with her pup pals.
Toby/Diva Marketing: If you would drop one which would it be and way?
Paw Luxury:At this point we have so
many unique friends at all of our social networks that we could not
discontinue using any of them. Because each social networking is unique and
has different feature and meets different needs.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Everyone always
wants to know about the time. How much time do you average in say a week
posting, reading, etc blogs, communities, tweets?
Paw Luxury:In the beginning while we
were in the building stages of setting up the communities we would sometimes
spend full days over weeks. Now that our networks are fairly established we
are on everyday, because when you join a social community people love
hearing from you and want to be a part of your lives. Now that's
amazing!
Toby/Diva Marketing: Let's talk Twitter. Why are you including micro blogging?
Paw Luxury:
Its fun to hear what people are doing at that very moment and we
enjoy getting updates from our followers and people we are following.
Also, we are able to get instant feedback and ask question and the
community is always their a second click of the mouse to help. As business
we wanted to always be transparent.
Twitter is great for getting
news briefing, friend sourcing when you are looking for
services, micro-attention sharing to let people know about your latest blog
post or something funny and entertaining you found on the web. But
also serves as a great way to spread the word about a good cause, for
us saving the planet.
Toby/Diva Marketing: I've noticed that there are quite a few
"pet tweeters." Is there a pet tweet community?
Paw Luxury: Yes, many pet lovers, owners
and even their pets have their own twitter account.
Toby/Diva Marketing: How do you
find new followers?
Paw Luxury:Now that we have a presence many find us. However, we do
search a website called tweetscan.com for people talking about their dog. We
like to find people that need pet advice from stinky dog to itchy dog or just
someone to talk to. Also many of the blogs that we read and get in our Google
reader those individuals have tweet accounts and we add them. Then it becomes
a ripple effect and people start spreading the word about you.
Toby/Diva Marketing: What advice would you give to a small business owner, be it in the pet
industry or not, for why she/he should embrace social media?
Paw Luxury:Its an excellent
way to connect personally and directly with your demographic. Especially if
you are internet business and your customers are online.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Where
would you suggest a newbie start?
Paw Luxury:We would suggest you start slow and get to
know the ends and outs of the social network you are working on. Whatever
social network you are using look for people you know first or share similar
interest and start genuine conversation.
When starting out using Twitter it
is not advisable to follower 10,000 people just because you want them to
follow you back. Because most likely they will think you are a spammer. If
you can connect on a real level with one to five people a day who will
follow, it may take a long time to build up your community, but in the
long run you will have longer lasting valuable friends.
Because we
believe that it is not about the quantity but about the quality
of relationships being built, this has paid off for us.
More About Eco Friendly Paw Luxury and Lola!
What was our
inspiration?Evolving from the overwhelming love of our beautiful, loyal,
carefree, lovable and cuddly boxer named Lola, Paw Luxury was born. As
proud parents we wanted to give Lola the best nature had to offer but
found it difficult to find eco-friendly products under one roof. So we
went sniffing with Lola, searched high and low and dug a few holes
along the way. Then we thought to ourselves why not create a one-stop
online destination that caters to the need for healthy alternatives.
Now these eco-friendly pet products are accessible and can be puchased
at www.pawlux.com.
We wanted to
remain true to the motto "healthy dog, healthy earth, happier life." This
idea, now a reality, was to sell products that both us and Lola have come to
love; products inspired by nature with the everyday dog in mind. But we
didn't want to stop there, we wanted to strive to offer products sourced and
manufactured primarily in the USA, while treading lightly and making a
contribution to better the world and the people in it.
What is in a
name? Our name, Paw Luxury, is inspired by the commonality that pets
and humans in a sense both have paws that need love to. We define
"luxury" as your dog living the good life, it's all about wellness with
some pampering thrown in. We believe you can fuse green living with
the cachet and comforts of luxury living-for a healthier life now and
for future generations.
Lego's with 15 billion pieces, paint sets with glitter, cell phones for 5-year olds, drinking 553 pots of pretend tea and hours of playing video games, eating ice cream before, during and after meals, trips to the zoo, Disneyland and the aquarium that morph into clothes and make-up shopping trips to the mall, helping write college applications, talks about boys and girl friends and too soon creating resumes and helping to furnish that first apartment. And all the while falling more in love ..
No girlfriend, I'm not talking about parenthood. I'm talking about a world-wide unique relationship with children and their aunts or aunties. Who else would buy a Lego set with 15 billion pieces or give a child a painting kit with glitter and then with a twinkle in her eye wave bye bye telling children and parents to "have fun." Certainly not a grandmama.
In most of life's roles .. one needs a model. My own aunties are/were beyond wonderful but it was my friend "Auntie Polli" who taught me Auntie Lessons 101. When my favorite niece Jessica Robyn (well okay my only niece Jessica Robyn) was born Auntie Polli had a 3-month head start with aunt-ing her nephew Michael. It was Auntie Polli who lifted all limitations off Auntie-hood for me.
Life's a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death. Hands down it was Auntie Mame, with her zest for life and her passion for her nephew Patrick, who we gave the Auntie Tiara. We knew we were loved, we knew we had an important role to play, we knew we made a difference in the lives of our nieces and nephews. But I'll let you in a on little secret .. sometimes even with all the joy - we felt something was missing in Auntieville.
Melanie Notkin knew that too. She saw more than a group of random women, young and old, married and not, with their own children or not, and understood that there was a fragmented community that could benefit from a social networking world. SavvyAuntie was conceived .. the first online community for aunts.
Being a savvy marketer, Melanie knew something else. She had identified an untapped niche. After months of research, careful planning, new media marketing on the Savvy Auntie blog and Twitter - SavvyAuntie opened it's virtual doors yesterday.
The site is built around four channels: Expertise, Activities, Gifts and Community.
Expertise includes dozens of content experts from children's health and nutrition to financial planning for Aunts who want to make their nieces and nephews their beneficiaries. Activities is where you can find zillions (well a lot!) of ideas for kids on a local level. In Gifts you can filter/sort in unique ways from your niece's favorite color to your nephew's must have pop culture character to your own auntie personality.
What's a social network without a Community? Auntie's can hang out here. Build a profile, write a blog post, participate in groups and forums and read other member's stories about being an aunt in Aunthology.
So now Polli and Chris and Mary and Beth and Diva K and Kaye and Auntie Barbara and whether you call your self Aunt or Auntie or Tante or ...
tante or tatie - French hindi - Aunty thea - Greek. tia i- Spanish 姑母 - Chinese nagynéni - Hungarian tetka - Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian teze - Albanian عمة , خالة - Arabic hala, teyze, yenge -Turkish makcik - Malay teta - Slovene, Czech, Slovak, Lithuanian тётя - Russian bibi - Indonesian zia - Italian tia - Portuguese леля - Bulgarian tante - Danish, Dutch, Latvian, Norwegian, German faster, tant - Swedish דּוֹדָה - Hebrew täti - Finnish ciotka - Polish mătuşă - Romanian น้า, ป้า, อาผู้หญิง - Thai amita - Latin خاله , عمه - Persian Modryb i- Welsh. khal'ti - Arabic obasan or oba - Japanese meemeh - Yiddish
.. we now have a community to call our own. In fact, I love what Melanie has done so much with Savvy Aunties that she asked me to be on the Advisory Board.
Want to know more about the back story? Eric Kuhn, The Huffington Post, has a great interview with Melanie.
In prep for my 400 word page in Age of Conversation book #2 - Why Don't People Get It? I asked a couple of corporate "non suit" types who do get it (Tony Hsieh, ceo - Zappos and Richard Binhammer, corporate group communications - Dell) for their insights into how social media is supporting marketing/business strategies at their companies.
Girlfriends, Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan are swell guys but they are really holding tight to a 400 word limit so I could only include a bit of Tony's and Richard's feedback. Too much good information in those interviews with Tony and Richard not to share with y'all. Catch Tony's post on Diva Marketing about how he is using Twitter to support Zappo's corporate culture.
Sidebar: Ryan Barrett has little teases from many of the author's pages. Quite fun .. check it out!
For your reading pleasure .. I give you ..
Mr.
Richard Binhammer Dell, Corporate Group Communications fondly know as Richardatdell
Toby/Diva Marketing: What influence has social media had on how you conduct business? How has participating in social media influenced Dell's internal processes and customer communications?
Richard Binhammer: I believe social media helps us:
1. Learn from conversations with customers every day. That has influenced internal processes as we have identified issues sooner than we might otherwise have, learned to respond faster and generally
2. Listen and be in touch…the fact that customers talking online are heard and their voices are now inside the halls and walls of Dell every day, even if we are not out there meeting face to face every day…it brings a customercentric focus inside the business
3. That also leads to connections and relationships…there is an intangible of connectedness and relationships with people online.
4. All of that adds up to being a better company by listening and being involved in conversation with our customers.”
Toby/Diva Marketing: Does Dell have a system or process in place to respond to the concerns/complements from consumer generated mentions about the company? And to respond back to the blogger, tweeter, etc?
Richard Binhammer: Absolutely, and since early 2006 we have been responding to concerns, complements and other peoples’ perceptions of us as they express it online.
The system is still evolving, and it’s not perfect. Its tough to get a perfect search every day and so we miss some. In addition, we don’t respond to everything being said about us. I'm sure people have seen I dropped by because of mybloglog photo or ip address.
We make some judgment calls about whether we need to respond, or simply digest the perspectives being expressed or go away and act on the information, or perhaps, in some cases, especially media and aggregator sites our customers may already be responding sort of on our behalf. And on those latter occasions I say WOW and thank you! ... our customers are standing up for us ... that’s better than me saying anything. So I shut up.
Just as social media tools and outlets are still evolving, so are we. For example, you cant search Facebook and contact people like you can with blogs on the web, so in Facebook we set up Dell Embassy, a place for customers to reach us if they have issues and want to connect.
On Twitter, we have a group of Dell employees there, all ready to reach out and work with folks, which may be a little confusing but Twitter is all about people conversing and connecting, so how do you have a conversation with an inanimate object?
I don’t know that any of this is the right or even final approach ... it’s the current approach
Toby/Diva Marketing: What advice would you give on how to incorporate social media and the feedback from social media into an organization?
Richard Binhammer:Roll up your sleeves ... search and get out there.
Don’t be afraid and be prepared to make mistakes, learn from them (that’s OK and will be accepted)
Listen hard, learn, act and keep go/growing.
Enjoy! Interacting with people who care enough about your business/company to write about you and say things about you is a great experience, offers valuable and important information/perceptions and are ultimately great connections and relationships.
Catch Richard blogging and tweeting! Yes,those are really Richard's fingers. Photo taken in Atlanta while we were chillin' drinking martinis after the AiMA meeting about social media.
