I Love Media

ablast’s one show entry

// Stimulant & their random cool section is a fan as well… TO illustrator and blogger Alice Blastorah laughs at inappropriate things and eats lots of pickles too! I need to meet her, I sometimes crave pickle juice & that makes people cringe. I really enjoyed her entry for the One Show college competition, above for Long’s Horseradish ad. This is a no-no, but I will include a side note, just this once. Don’t forget this years 88th annual Marketing Awards are being held Wed June 9th @ Cineplex Varsity Cinemas (55 Bloor Street West), you can grab tix here.

// Social Media strategist and developer Janice Diner is talking about what you should really do with your facebook page @ mesh today. She presented a ton of useful info on what brands are doing with fb. Four of facebook’s key principles are about Making It Social, Keeping It Simple (more adopters), Optimizing Your Speed and Integrating (keep it within the fb experience). Here’s a starting point, as in 9 important considerations like: Strategy, Integration, Engagement, Be Transparent, Use Metrics, Monitor, Use Resources, Activate/Launch and Be Relevant.

What not to do? Think of an idea like creating a miscrosite inside a tab, doesn’t make much sense. Best to provide utility and purpose with engagement, and discover what doesn’t work through audience reactions.

Noteworthy:

TSN facebook Live Stream – watch the broadcast and chat while on fb, unbranded and branded versions available

Starbucks experiential – You can now completely manage and reload your starbucks card using your CC in fb, WHAT’S NEXT? Soon, you’ll be able to give your friends a gift by reloading their card

Limited Posts > Fans can purchase the product directly from their news feed or brands wall (wall post e-comm))

Facebook Connect – The Huffington Post experienced massive growth with the help of this tool

Pantene/P&G – Is selling products directly to consumers inside facebook through a Shop Now button

Contest – Work. period.

Artscape – Is a non-profit org who is NOT directly selling, they’re revitalizing buildings, neighbourhoods, and cities through the arts and just managing fb pages and groups.

Brand Value Prop – You can sell your brand space inside your customized tab

// I got to know CBC’s social media producer this afternoon. mesh speaker, Kim Fox. Coming from the broadcast world, I could relate to her opening comment on social planning. “The process is similar to producing a television series using a crew involving a senior producer, producer, AP and interns.”

This team is responsible for daily editorial, community engagement, digital content distribution and more. CBC is involved in SM online through their P.O.V (Point Of View) section, taking the concept of putting specific questions out to the audience about stories of the day. Through polls, Citizen Bytes (empowering & collaborating with citizens to tell their stories), Your Interview (community engages with guests, facilitators of the dialogue), Cover It Live (community engages with CBC & guests), Your Community (blog conversing with the audience). CBC uses Interwoven Inc and UsableType software to support their social media efforts.

Kim was the first to admit that CBC’s facebook page needs a new design, layout and content work. They’re always evaluating their Twitter accounts (@cbcnews, @cbcreporters, @cbcyourvoice) to include less auto updates and more of a multi-contribution model. Kim notes that the CBC is “shamelessly looking to brands like Nike, Starbucks and borrowing ideas from The National Post” for direction.

Using tools for positive measure: Haiti was used in a case study as an example of + crowd-sourcing. SM was used to allow citizens to upload photos to find missing friends and family & received an overwhelming response.

Key lessons: Be Very Clear With Audience Assignments, Be thoughtful vs Reactionary, Create A Strong Design Workflow, Create Clear Community Guidelines, Leave Politics Out, and have a clear SM Strategy.

The most commonly echoed challenge was: “How do we capitalize and leverage UGC but let the pros use it effectively?”

Kim is on twitter @ www.twitter.com/kimfox

Mac Tonnies

// Today I’m @ the mesh workshop session called “death and digital legacy,” hosted by speaker Adele McAlear, one of the Top 10 Most Influential Women in Social Media in Canada. She’s feeling pretty morbid about touching on this subject at all but she’s enlightening a group of us on media history and how to hand over your digital inventory after you pass (yep, there’s premium services for this). For example, 574 years ago mass media was born, 110 years ago snapshot photography was born, and 78 years ago home videos became affordable, during the height of the depression (a quick fix to feel good), the JKF assisnation was actually home footage. The internet started being widely used by the public 15 years ago and today 2 billion emails are sent daily.

Coming to blogs – there’s an estimated 150 million blogs out there. In the past, to document, share and publish stories, was only possible if you you were wealthy. In today’s digital age, we now have to think about protecting all this emerging branded work. Like how do your social media accounts ‘memorialize’ you? which often doesn’t mean your digital assets are shut down, but rather your personal info might be frozen, although friends can still post. Some accounts just remain inactive…she recos appointing a ‘Digital Executor’ to take care of your wishes. One thing that was brought up that I can’t stand is the idea of an online memorial, really gross.

Adele touched on the Mac Tonnies story. His digital footprint was huge (audio podcasts, twitter, blogs ect.) At 34, he died of a sudden heart condition. His blog, twitter account and podcasts soon became a place to grieve for him, although his parents had no idea until much later on. His friend contacted his family to get a Creative Commons License to save his 6 1/2 year blog/work (pics, vids, links and even a manuscript). You can look at his work @ http://www.mactonnies.com.

Adele is on twitter @ http://twitter.com/AdeleMcAlear

// The Understanding Youth event on June 3rd @ the Ted Rogers Centre, looks interesting, if that’s your focus. Anyone working in the dig or social media space might want to delve into the workings of what tween, kids and tween marketers know in order to find out where the latest opportunities are. I saw the word SQ (social quotient) being used, which really applies to a combination of a brands IQ + EQ, no? I like that.

//A new summit has arrived, the first of its kind, called Branded Content Summit (BCS), held on June 4th. It was started by Arlene Dickinson’s co, Venture Communications. Branded content is on the rise, so bringing together people from the marketing, advertising, production and media space to share creative ideas and drive profit can only be positive.

// Good job on the Webby Awards, Toronto. Who won in the green category?  Love Letters to the Future, designed by Toronto-based Xenophile Media Inc. Top entries were voted by the site’s visitors & then placed in a time capsule and delivered to the climate-change conference in Copenhagen. Also, SWARM Entertainment took home a much-deserved Webby Newart Award for an outstanding and spellbinding interactive comic book called NAWLZ, check it out, really talented crew on this. AmoebaCorp won best use of animation or motion graphics for Pop Shoppe. All the 14th annual webby award nominees and winners can be seen here.

// NAWLZ //