I know I haven’t been blogging in a while (work has been keeping me too busy) but to make it up for it here is what I believe is an excellent example of how to use Social Media to develop your brand by reaching out to your market (customers/clients).

Avril Lavigne gives a great example of social media marketing in the music industry by connecting with her fans by allowing her them in her world. She makes a simple YouTube vlog, speaks to her audience directly and gives news to them, and show them around her studio. So Simple!

In the music industry where CD sales are going down, it is increasingly important to connect with fans if you want them to buy your CDs and buy tickets to your shows. Connecting with your fans makes them care more about you so they want to encourage you and see you more. With access to music so easily nowadays on the Internet, if music fans don’t care about you, they will download your music for free and won’t care to attend your shows because they are disconnected from you.

Picture from Avril Lavigne’s Facebook Page

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Very interesting news from Mashable: NBC Turns Television into a Social Media Game

If the program takes off, Fan It could possibly serve as a precursor for redefining metrics around television viewing audiences. The television ratings system has remained relevantly unchanged since 1950. One company, Nielsen Media Research, has always been responsible for audience measurement and those measurements play a significant role in determining network advertising rates. Data from social networks could become an important new element in measuring audience engagement.

Read the full article : NBC Turns Television into a Social Media Game

It will be very interesting so see how Nielsen will adapt and if Social Media will in fact become a better audience measurement. The proper Social Media Analytics can definitely calculate engagement, which can be much more interesting for advertisers. It is pretty exciting to think about a future where the value is more in terms of engagement rather than volume of audience.

Sorry no YouTube embed for this post because I couldn’t find a clip that I wanted that didn’t have embed disabled so here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z63y1ZmxzjI

Photo by: Edgar Zuniga Jr.

EAVB_LKLRKSTJPW

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Very interesting deep analysis of social networks as an entity or an organism by Nicholas Christakis. Not online social networks but any social networks and their importance in defining or predicting our behaviors. It is 20 minutes but very well worth your time.

My first thought is that influencers of social networks are the one who will be at the center of the organism rather than being on the edge. The type of person that Christakis mentionned who like to “wrap themselves” with people around them.

I like what Christakis said about how social networks are inherently good/positive (or at the very least needs positiveness to be sustained)  because we all cut ties with anybody who is not good to us. If everybody is bad to each other, no real social networks can be sustained.

Social networks are based on trust. Can you imagine a world with weak bonds? A world where we can’t trust anybody?

The reality is it’s the same online or offline.

Twitter, like any other social media, is simply a tool to develop, maintain and grow your own social network and in order to develop a large network, we need to give in order to receive. We have to give a reason for others to follow us on Twitter. It isn’t by always taking from others that we can build a strong social network. Hence the importance of tweeting relevant information and ReTweeting interesting information from others. It is also the reason why spammers can never develop any form of network because people will cut them off and block them out.

If social networks are inherently or intrinsically good, then I think it is important to dig deeper and find ways to propagate the positive rather than the negative.

At w.illi.am/ we have been doing mappings of influencers according to our client’s markets and objectives, we have talked about demonstrating the bond between the influencers or even between the influencers and the different social media platforms. This video definitely makes me want to take our mapping further. It took Christakis 5 years to create a social network mapping over 30 years… I have no idea how soon I can pull this off!

What do you think? Looking at it from a high level, knowing this information how would you look into influencing a social network now? How would you market your message, product or brand through this organism to create ripples?

The craziest thing in all of this is that Facebook and Google currently own this data.

photo by: vitroid

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Digg announced that they recently added nofollow to some of their links. This is a significant move because Digg is one of the only major/mainstream social media to strip the noffollow attributes to the links created by their users. In order to avoid spam, all major social media: YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Wikipedia, Delicious, LinkedIn etc. apply the rel=”nofollow” link attribute.

The most significant move is that Digg did not apply the nofollow link to all of their user generated links. Their popular content will still have “dofollow” links. Google is quite happy about this and is making a push so that Wikipedia remove some nofollow links, to quote Matt Cutts:

Google does something similar with Knol. Initially Knol authors received nofollow’ed links, but as we gain more trust in authors, we can remove those nofollows. As I recently said in another video, if a site like Wikipedia had good confidence in an editor, you could imagine links made by that editor not having the nofollow attribute. So if you have a way to determine which user-generated links are trustworthy, that could be a more nuanced measure of when to use the nofollow attribute. I discussed this subject a bit more in this video in case you’re interested. It’s about 1:24 into the video:

The reason nofollow links existed in the first place is because not all links can be trusted, especially with the rise of social media such as blogs and forums. However, Google’s algorythm is very dependant on links and accordingly, it is only to their advantage to trust links as much as possible.

In the example of Wikipedia, if a person is trusted by the community, Google can trust the links that person creates because it refers relevant content. Considering that Wikipedia have pages with a Page Rank as high as 7 (some times more), having a dofollow link to your client’s website is worth a lot!

In order to be trusted in these communities, you have to invest a lot of time and contribute a lot. Therefore, it is important for social media marketers to gain authority in communities because in the near future, I wouldn’t be surprised to see social media sites a la Wikipedia and YouTube to allow some dofollow links.

Trust is earned and is easy to lose.

I guess we will see a rise of white hat SMM and black hat SMM similar to the SEO community. Once an SMM gain trust of a community it will be very difficult for him to build links within that community if everybody knows that he is building links for a client or his company. The most succesful SMM will be the ones that are transparent enough and provide relevant content to their community, even if he is paid to do it.

It is important to note that link building is very complex and that there are more factors than the page rank of the page you built a link on. Moreover, nofollow links are not completely useless either because they have shown to help in link building. However, we can all agree that a dofollow link will always be better than a nofollow link on the same page and as social media marketers, if we have a chance to build an external dofollow link on the Wikipedia page of Search Engine Optimization or Social Media Marketing, we do it!

photo by: phauly

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Great example of Social Media Marketing done right by Yeh! Yogourt & Café.

• Twitter account: http://twitter.com/YehYogourt
• Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yeh-Yogourt-Cafe/76407342683?ref=nf
• Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yehyogourt/

It is important to note that one of the key reasons why it is done right is because they are active in their social media presence. They did not only put up a page and leave it there.

The Good

The Twitter account brings the visitor to their website’s homepage which has great branding. They also have a call to action front and center inviting people to join their Facebook Fan Page.

They communicate with their audience in the language of the media: “We will now be open on Saturday until midnight Yeh!“.

They reply to the feedback on their Facebook Page when a customer post on their wall

Please, please bring back strawberry.

I beg of you

Their Facebook page has customer/user engagement. People are posting photos of them enjoying their product on their wall. They are even uploading videos of their children!

The Bad

There aren’t much I would do differently. Just keep your communication strategy updated. The website states that it will be open in June (we are in August) and get your Facebook username. It is better for link building and SEO. You are allowed to get yours after you have more than 100 fans.

The Ugly

Nothing really to say `

2 social full-of-yogourt thumbs up!

Photo taken from Facebook Fan page.

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I stumbled through the best article about Social Media for businesses and its ROI via a tweet from Lee Odden.

The article is written by Ronn Torossian, the CEO of 5WPR, one of the 25 largest public relations agencies in the U.S. and I think his comments hit home on a lot of point. It is a great reality check for most social media marketers.

Reality: CEOs are busy enough as they are and it is unrealistic to expect them to be able to tweet and engage with their following.

Yes, Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos did it but there are always exceptions to the rule. Many social media gurus like to use exceptions and make them the rule.

Torossian says that Twitter is wrongfully percecived. Twitter is not instant messenging like Google Chat, AIM or MSN Messenger. It is a mix of social and broadcast media. Which is very true and it is a reality that many SM marketers forget or ignore.

I had a discussion with Julien Smith about how can you engage with so many people on Twitter and truth be told: you cannot. It is humanly impossible to engage with thousands, nevermind 10 of thousands, or 100 of thousands and more.

This is not to say that you cannot use Social Media to monetize nor that you cannot use Social Media to engage with your customers, target market and clients. Torossain discusses how there will be a business etiquette that will be different from user etiquette in social media and I agree. Social Media is still very young. In my opinion, it is in an embryonic phase – we will see a lot of stride in social media and social media marketing. Over time, people will be more comfortable and will learn to manage their expectations. Twitter and Facebook are still very new and are thus exciting. Let’s just give it time.

Meanwhile, brands and CEOs can still use Twitter to influence. As Torossian puts it perfectly:

When launched, Twitter was hailed as a microblogging site, a way in which individuals and/or thought leaders could share information with their followers, as opposed to the way in which it is mainly used today, as an instant-messaging service.

CEOs do not have time to reply on Twitter, but they can share information. If they read a great article they like, they can share with their following. They can take 5 minutes a day to peruse their twitterfeed and try to retweet once a day. Their level of engagement is just different. Retweeting is a form of engagement, sharing quality information is another form of engagement.

In an economy starved for lead generation, as long as they do not only push their own content, CEOs can definitely use Twitter to influence and demonstrate expertise. Expecting them to reply to every comments, however is ludicrous.

photo by: Antoine Lendrevie

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Dear large Canadian corporations,

How can you ignore social media as being a part of your marketing? It is obviously big enough (read popular enough) for Telus to go bananza with it’s advertising and splash social media logos everywhere in one of the biggest metro station in Montreal.

So you are tellng me that you recognize social media and use it as bait but where are you in social media? Where is your social media marketing?

You know that audience you were trying to get their attention by using a Facebook logo? Do you know you could of really gotten their attention in another way?

Yeah! You can! Through a really cool website called Facebook and by engaging with them, by listening and by conversing with them!

Please step up.

Yours truly,
The targetted audience that cares.

PS: The use of social media logos and other apps isn’t the problem, it is because you don’t combine it with effective and engaging social media marketing.

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Facebook made an announcement yesterday that they improved search for everyone:

You now will be able to search the last 30 days of your News Feed for status updates, photos, links, videos and notes being shared by your friends and the Facebook Pages of which you’re a fan. If people have chosen to make their content available to everyone, you also will be able to search for their status updates, links and notes, regardless of whether or not you are friends. Search results will continue to include people’s profiles as well as relevant Facebook Pages, groups and applications.

This is a big threat to Google because Facebook owns a lot of data. After acquiring FriendFeed, Facebook is also looking Twitter right in the eye because the talent acquisition will help Facebook position themselves in real time search and compete with Twitter. Like I have discussed previously, this is a huge step for search or, more specifically, social search because Facebook owns a lot more data than Twitter.

What does this mean for Social Media Marketing

Well, I couldn’t have said it better than Gary Vaynerchuk:

For the purpose of Social Media Marketing, Twitter allows brands to engage with new customers, fans, prospects. This was limited with Facebook because the only way to interact with them was through the fan page. Now that Facebook gives us access to 250 million active users, it is a lot easier to engage new clients, new customers, new prospects, new fans just like Gary showed in his video.

I guess this is how it feels to have the world in the palm of your hand? Thank you Facebook!

photo by: jaycameron

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Michael Jackson Flash Mob dance Tribute in Montreal at Champs-de-Mars on July 27 2009.

Hundreds of people gathered together to pay Tribute to the King of pop by dancing to Beat It in public in Mtl today. I learned about the event named MJMT through Facebook. I was disappointed that I couldn’t attend the meetings and participate because I was out of town. There were multiple Flash Mobs reported in Montreal that day, this was the final one. The Flashmobs appeared at 4 different places throughout the day in Montreal:

• Place des Arts at 12:10pm
• Victoria Square at 12:50pm
• Place Jacques Cartier at 1:30pm and
• Champ-de-Mars at 1:50pm

The presentation on the Champs-de-Mars was obviously leaked to the media. Rather than doing an organic one like the first Flash Mob MJ Tribute in Stockholm, this was done in front and facing the cameras. The original Michael Jackson Flash Mob Dance Tribute was originally planned for a later date (August 6) but due to the leak to the media, they decided to push the flash mob forward in a Facebook message. Hence the non organic feel and the amount of media of the last presentation.

This is the first MJ Flash Mob Tribute in North America and was inspired from the first Michael Jackson Tribute Flash Mob in Stockholm which was repeated all over the world for the King of Pop. The nice thing about this one is that they just kept the music playing afterward and let people dance outside as opposed to the other flash mobs where people break out of character and just return to their daily tasks.

Thanks to a Twitter Search for Flash Mob near:Montreal or Michael Jackson Tribute near:Montreal I was able to dig more information about the event. I had a hunch that it would be preformed at Place-des-Arts but since all the infos I gathered only pointed to the Champs-de-Mars Flash Mob, I did not want to risk my 1h lunch at work for nothing. I really wish I was at the Place-des-Arts! The MJMT (Michael Jackson Montreal Tribute) was originally organized by Danny Michael Thifault. Here is his Thank you Message on the Facebook Event:

EN MON NOM, MOI DANNY MICHEAL THIFAULT, JE VOUS REMERCIE DU PLUS PROFOND DE MON COEUR POUR AVOIR FAIT DE CETTE EXPÉRIENCE UNE RÉUSSITE INCROYABLE! JE SUIS VRAIMENT ÉMU. MERCI À ARTMISTICE, LA POLICE DE MONTRÉAL, À LA MINISTRE DE LA CULTURE ET L’IMMIGRATION, MON AVOCAT RICHARD OUELLETTE ,SOLOTECH, LES LOCATION JEAN LÉGARÉ, ACROMATIK ET BIEN SUR À VOUS TOUS! MILLE FOIS MERCI! LE VIDEO OFFICIEL SERA SUR YOUTUBE D’ICI À DEMAIN MATIN! NOUS VOULONS LE MEILLEUR MONTAGE POSSIBLE! FÉLÉCITATION!

—————————————

ME, DANNY MICHEAL THIFAULT, I THANK YOU FOR DEEPEST FOR MY HEART TO HAVE MADE THIS EXPERIMENT AN INCREDIBLE SUCCESS! I AM REALLY MOVED. THANK ARTMISTICE, THE MONTREAL COPS, CULTURE AND IMMIGRATION MINISTER, MY LAWYER RICHARD OUELLETTE, SOLOTECH FOR MUSIC, THE JEAN LÉGARÉ HIRING, ACROMATIK AND OF COURSE WITH YOU ALL! THOUSAND TIMES THANK YOU! THE OFFICIAL VIDEO ONE WILL BE ON YOUTUBE BY TOMORROW MORNING! WE WANT THE BEST ASSEMBLY POSSIBLE! GONGRADULATION!

I created a YouTube Playlist with the other recorded Flash Mobs across the city of Montreal:

Enjoy, and Long Live the King of Pop!

UPDATE July 28, 2009: Official video from the organisers:

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After reading about Yahoo’s new home page redesign… I was thinking. Why are web publishing companies taking so much time getting more social?

The most important rule I learned in video production is:

People are interested in people.

That is the reason why all this “social media” stuff is becoming popular don’t you think? Why do you think people spend hours on Facebook? With all these social networking tools out there and all the different ways to make the web more social (Google Friend Connect, Facebook connect) what is AOL, Yahoo, MSN waiting to work with MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn or even Digg to integrate at least one column on their homepage.

I am not talking about status updates. Make a section where everything your network is sharing comes up at one place. All the videos your friends has “favorite”, the google reader’s posts your friends has starred, all the web pages your friends has shared on Facebook etc.

There are great opportunities for this. Facebook “highlight” column is horrible, Friendfeed is too cluttered and doesn’t have the eyeballs of MSN or Yahoo. Newspaper companies are too focus on their own content. This platform would exponentially increase the virality nature of any content on the web. You own the platform, you monetize. I think there should be a website à la Digg but I don’t believe Digg has the web publishing experience to make it happen.

Having a category like this on a major portal or creating your own portal would give a lot of leverage to the social media underdog platforms such as Vimeo or Viddler. Having their videos go viral earlier or faster than Youtube will help them compete with the giant.

Whoever has the skills to program this will be a very rich man. Too bad I am not a programmer.

Picture by: Tracy O

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