Confused by Analytics? Want to know if your tweet really made a difference in your company’s bottom line? This month we are going to take a deeper dive into one of the easiest ways to measure online social media efforts – through Google analytics.

Come join Social Media Club – Los Angeles on Tuesday, Feb. 23rd from 7-9:30pm as we discuss the topic of Google Analytics!

Speakers include:

John Shiple, CTO, Ultralive
www.linkedin.com/in/johnshiple

Alex Becker, Co-Founder and President, Highly Relevant
www.linkedin.com/in/alexybecker

Andrew Hahn, Luxury Link and Familygetaway.com
www.linkedin.com/in/andrewhahn

Erica Forrette, Online Marketing / E-commerce with a stealth startup (moderator)
www.linkedin.com/in/ericaforrette

A huge thank you to our location host! Mahalo
Mahalo
902 Colorado Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90401

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way. With Google Analytics, you’re more prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites.

Techzulu will be streaming this event live for us! If you are unable to attend, please check www.techzulu.com and watch the show live!

A special thank you to our food sponsor for this event, Fresh Brothers Pizza!
Check out their website at http://wwwFreshBrothers.com
Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/freshbrothers
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/freshbrothers

Register now: http://ow.ly/1oIzdh

Thanks Fresh Brothers, TechZulu and Mahalo for making this event possible!

Confused by Analytics? Want to know if your tweet really made a difference in your company’s bottom line? This month we are going to take a deeper dive into one of the easiest ways to measure online social media efforts – through Google analytics.

Come join Social Media Club – Los Angeles on Tuesday, Feb. 23rd from 7-9:30pm as we discuss the topic of Google Analytics!

Speakers include:

John Shiple, CTO, Ultralive
www.linkedin.com/in/johnshiple

Alex Becker, Co-Founder and President, Highly Relevant
www.linkedin.com/in/alexybecker

Andrew Hahn, Luxury Link and Familygetaway.com
www.linkedin.com/in/andrewhahn

Erica Forrette, Online Marketing / E-commerce with a stealth startup (moderator)
www.linkedin.com/in/ericaforrette

A huge thank you to our location host! Mahalo
Mahalo
902 Colorado Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90401

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way. With Google Analytics, you’re more prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites.

A special thank you to our food sponsor for this event, Fresh Brothers Pizza!
Check out their website at http://wwwFreshBrothers.com
Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/freshbrothers
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/freshbrothers

Register now: http://ow.ly/1oIzdh

Thanks Fresh Brothers and Mahalo for making this event possible!

Flattened by last night's info-overload.

The ubiquity of pink cows: How Facebook and iPhone are changing the way we play.

Just as the Internet has transformed how we watch movies, read books, and listen to music, social media, led by Facebook and iPhone, are changing the way we play games. How has the gaming industry responded to our new recreational habits? To answer this question, SMC-LA invited Girl Gamer co-founder Mike Prasad to chair “Games go social” a panel discussion exploring the impact of social media on the development and marketing of PC and console games.

Some background about the gaming industry

• Market size: estimated between $46 and $65 billion in 2010.
• Demographics are changing, led by strong growth in casual gaming.
• Online and mobile sectors are developing and shaping business strategy.
• Distribution channels are moving away from brick-and-mortar operations to digital downloads.
• 50% of game players are on Facebook.

Building community: Facebook & traditional computer games

Prasad opened the discussion by asking how console and computer game developers are using social media to build and strengthen communities. Aaron Kaufman, community manager for Command and Conquer, said he uses Facebook to connect with loyal, if not hard-core, gamers.

“Message boards are scary,” he said, “and do not represent the actual user population.” In two months, Kaufman created a 20,000-person fan base on Facebook, and is now able to connect with more gamers, more reliably.

Quin Banks said that Tarver Games is using Facebook to help gamers of “Ghost Attack” play with friends and to prolong the experience. Since this game is intended as a television pilot, it also creates excitement and connection to characters.

What makes a game social?

The stereotypical social game is free, small, and everlasting, but, according to all the panelists, bragging rights are also strong motivators. (Think about how proud someone is to inform you that they have 12 pink cows while you are still trying to figure out how to play Farmville.)

Giving users the opportunity to create and share content, a key part of World of Warcraft’s success, also builds community. In addition, Josh Hartwell, CEO of GoSub60 Games, suggested allowing users to customize a game’s presentation thereby creating a personal experience. Again, this provides opportunities to showoff that can increase motivation to play and share.

Games go mainstream

When iPhone made Facebook mobile, games became portable. It set the stage for Farmville and other casual games (like solitaire and word games) to infiltrate the general public. These games replace crossword puzzle books and mad-libs.

“They are filler,” Banks added. “We play them on our phones while waiting in line at the grocery store. The games are secondary.”

Strategy

Hartwell echoed Banks’ statement when he said that gaming is a service. As a service, a game developer must think about the ongoing, long-term dialogue with a growing, and diverse, set of players. Strategically, the gamer and the developer are partners and that relationship needs to be nurtured.

Social media makes building this relationship easier, but requires forethought. Your users are your revenue base, and making money is necessary. Revenue models need to fair, non-exploitive, and successful. When Prasad asked if anyone was doing it right, the panel had a hard time citing any good examples.

Everyone is still climbing that learning curve.

The challenge for gaming companies in the age of social media: Make long-term commitments with gamers by sustaining (developing) interactive and collaborative communities that generate revenue.

* According to Business Week, PricewaterhouseCoopers predicted $46.5 billion in 2006 and Reportlinker estimated 8.9% growth annually, totaling $76 billion in 2013.

Congratulations, Serena!

The Social Media Club, Los Angeles is excited to announce that one of our founding members and current volunteer, Serena Ehrlich, has been asked to join the Advisory Board for the Marketing and Advertising programs. The Certificate in Marketing consists of four track concentrations focused on marketing management, sales and marketing account management, marketing communications, and a “roll your own” (*hint* *socialmedia* *hint*) track. We are very pleased to know that Serena will be aiding students to develop their analytical, critical, and creative thinking skills in the realm of Social Media knowledge.

Serena has always been involved with Social Media and integrated communications. Her 14 years of experience at the newswire service Business Wire enabled Serena to stay at the vanguard of industry trends and technologies. She now leads the communications team at the LA-based product and company accelerator Startup Army as the Senior Vice President of Social Media, Marketing, and PR.

Communications is a true passion for Serena. She is a founding member of the Social Media Club, serves on the Board of Directors for the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) Los Angeles, and is a long time member of YoungPRPros.

We are excited to see where this new relation takes Serena and the impact that it will have on Social Media, particularly in Los Angeles!

Watch the sparks fly and the tempers flare as @wmmarc and @jessicagottlieb take on our panel of experts in this video from TechZulu: Video Link: SMCLA panel on “Brand Building via Social Media” .

The event took place at the wonderful Sheraton Universal on March 31st.  Big thanks to TechZulu for grabbing this video from the event.

Photo Credit:  Marc Salsberry @wmmarc All rights reserved.

I reached out to our panelists to provide written answers to the questions we intended to cover at the event (there were 10, we got through about 4 or 5) and they were quite prolific in their responses.   Here’s what they had to offer in writing:

Panelists
Babette Pepaj – Founder, BakeSpace.com (@bakespace)
Rob Frankel – Frankelbiz (@brandingexpert)
Anne Plese – Cisco Systems,  Cisco Systems Data Center Networks Blog <–answers pending (therefore not represented in print below)

Moderated By
Geoff Brown , SMCLA (@geoffabrown)

What is a brand?  How do you define it?

Frankel – You’ll hear a lot of different definitions, which is why I wrote The Revenge of Brand X. In there, I make the case that “Branding is getting your prospects to perceive you as the only solution to their problem.” And it seems to work.   Too many people confuse branding with awareness and identity, which are executional elements of brand implementation. Brands begin with a brand strategy.

Pepaj - This is a loaded and very broad question – A brand is a promise of quality and a set of expectations that inspire an emotional response.

YouTube accounts for 10% of all internet traffic. 5 of the top 10 websites are social. There are about 20 new blog posts written every second. How important is social media as a platform for brands?

Frankel - Social media itself is a very important platform. But its power is second only to its susceptibility of misapplication. At its best, social media allows masses of individuals to take a personal ownership in a brand. At its worst, social media fosters a sense of entitlement to its participants. It’s the brand’s task to know which tactics are – and are not – appropriate and effective for its brand. It’s vital that a brand not lose control of its brand via social media.

Pepaj - We work with brands all the time that have not been involved previously with social media. Their goal is to listen to consumers, join the conversation and reach new customers. With so much noise on the Web, it’s important to understand that not all social media sites give brands an equal opportunity to achieve their goals. A doctor might do very well on Yelp, YouTube and Twitter, but may waste time and energy building a Facebook Fan Page. Why? Because the message needs to be useful and provide real value to the community.

Social media allows a brand to participate in conversations that would otherwise occur on a peer-to-peer level between trusted friends. This means that your brand message should be appropriate for conversation among peers, as well as easy to share. Otherwise, your social media campaign will have little impact.

What about employees using the social web? How much does each individual’s personal brand effect the brand as a whole?

Frankel - As we saw last night, you’re going to hear differing views on that. From my point of view, I believe that allowing employees to represent a brand on the web runs the same risks as whistleblowers publishing tell-all books. Not a healthy risk that any brand should take.

As for an individual’s personal brand, it gets subordinated to the corporate brand, unless the corporate brand is the personal brand. Lee Iacocca personified Chrysler and the brand rebounded. Bob Nardelli can’t fill those shoes, and Chrylser is about to become a ghost.

Pepaj – If your employees participate in social media, it’s inevitable that people will connect them with your organization. That’s why it’s important to bring everyone on the team up-to-speed about what they should and should not share online. An employee might innocently share personal thoughts that in turn expose proprietary information. In addition, you want everyone involved with the organization to communicate a consistent, accurate message… so you have to keep them informed. Your employees represent your organization, so everyone should be on the same page.

How can companies use social tools to build their brand?

Frankel – I strongly support the idea of Branded Community® and have been running one profitably since 1994. If managed properly, social media can pay out in real, trackable ROI – which is just what CEO’s and CMO’s are starving for. Social media like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are not the answer. The first two are placeholders until better solutions emerge. Twitter is a different animal, and applied properly, can do a lot – for now. Soon, I hope, Branded Community® solutions like http://www.i-legions.com will be accepted as the social medium that strengthens brands with real, tangible ROI. I devote a whole chapter to this in my book.

Pepaj - Here’s a simple check list:

1. Identify the right medium for your message
2. Spend some time using the target sites to understand how they work and how their members interact. If it’s a niche site like BakeSpace, you may also be able to speak directly with the publisher to better understand how your brand can fit within the community.
3. Add useful content specific to the community – members will take note if it’s useful and/or entertaining. For example, KitchenAid has a profile on BakeSpace that the company uses to answer questions about its products. There’s no heavy sell, but rather a genuine and transparent effort to provide useful information. The company also uploads photos from food-related events to give our members behind-the-scenes access. Another brand that’s active on BakeSpace is Reynolds, which added a chat application during its Thanksgiving promotion to answer our members’ questions about holiday cooking. ABC uses its BakeSpace profiles for Desperate Housewives and other shows to connect with fans and share sneak peak clips of each episode before it airs. Each of ABC’s TV series-branded profiles provide recipes inspired by recent episodes, which are shared with BakeSpace members on a peer-to-peer level.

The old model for online communications was about driving traffic to a destination site. Now it’s more about going to where people are and participating there. How important are metrics? What kind of metrics do you pay attention to? What do those metrics tell you about the effectiveness of brand building using social media?

Frankel - Yeah, the old model of “amassing eyeballs is a throwback to unemployed offline media reps. It’s never been effective on the web, but it has been the only sales pitch that marketers have been able to memorize and regurgitate consistently, so it continues to survive.

That’s why I hit at metrics and tangible ROI so hard: It’s the only argument that’s going to permanently dislodge “eyeball” theory, because metrics will prove it out.

Pepaj – It’s true. The old model involved building a platform and breaking it up into channels to create a circle of information and the never ending click. Then the Web moved towards niche and connecting one-on-one with the right consumer. Now, it’s about extending your reach through many networks. When we do a promotion for one of our brand partners, it takes place in a cohesive simultaneous conversation on BakeSpace, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other online communities, as well as on my personal blog and in our newsletters. By creating a cohesive campaign, you can tap into conversations happening across the Web.

What’s the key to gaining SOV on the social web?

Pepaj – Share of voice on the Web can be tricky. Here are some tips:

1. Less is more – Say something useful in as few words as possible.
2. Allow someone to easily share your content in many ways so the consumer can choose their method to spread the word.
3. Listen actively and be part of the conversation.
4. Team up with a publisher who can guide you through the process and make sure your message is presented in a way that’s consistent with your branding and the way the community shares.
5. Have patience – Rome wasn’t built overnight and neither will the deep connections you want to make with consumers.

What’s different about brand-building on the social web vs. more traditional mediums? Is it more effective? Less effective?

Frankel – Why choose? The web has experienced decades of huge growth and is still behind television and other media in terms of usage. Every brand has its own combination of effective media. It’s wrong – and wholly unfair to a brand — to shove its fate into a cookie cutter media plan.

Pepaj - Traditional media serves as a gatekeeper between you and your audience. While you have to deal with that gatekeeper, you’re able to present your brand’s message the way you want it through press releases and PR outreach.

Publishing news and content through social media takes time. You need to first set up the accounts, create a passionate following and a thoughtful campaign that will inspire “friends” or followers to listen and share. While it might seem less expensive, it’s very time consuming. Most brand campaigns have a set timeline so social media should be looked at as a continuous process.

The best combination is to have a social media account ready so when you have timely news to distribute, you have an avenue to do so. You’ve built a fan base that will listen and help push your content across to their networks for very little cost. I think a combination of the two is the most effective way. Use social media as a tool, not a solution in itself.

Word of caution – while it might appear that social media moves your content quickly and is more effective, your brand’s message might be changed or flipped on you and could send the opposite message.

Just remember that most of your consumers are still based offline. Not everyone knows what Twitter is or has a Facebook profile. So when you’re talking to consumers through social media, think of them as connectors for reaching the people they know offline. In addition to engaging with them online, you want to encourage them to have a conversation about your brand around the dinner table.

How can you make sure that your social media efforts are integrated into the larger communications strategy?

Frankel - Once again, most people look at social media sideways. It’s new. And new, to most corporate managers, equals risk. And corporate managers hate risk. In fact, most avoid anything new because to them, risk is code for “possible failure.” Especially now, during a recession, nobody wants to risk anything – unless you can remove the risk by showing tangible ROI.

Pepaj - When you’re creating a promotion or campaign, you figure out which social media avenues fits the campaign best. Once you figure out content distribution, build into your outreach ways for consumers to share the information with their peers. And don’t forget to think outside the box…

For example, Kodak came to us to help promote a new printer because they wanted to reach our specific demographic. The challenge was finding a way to connect Kodak and its printer with our members in an organic way. We gave it some thought and helped Kodak create a “recipe in a jar” campaign that encouraged our members to print and package recipes as gifts. We also hosted a giveaway to promote the product. This approach enabled Kodak to reach its target demographic while giving our members a nifty recipe and gift-giving idea.

Name some specific tactics that you’ve employed to build your brand online.

Frankel – I like to use cases of my own branded community, FrankelBiz.com, because it exhibits the leverage that the community can exert to make real changes. In my case, Amazon.com allowed a nut case to post a clearly fallacious review of my book. The guy was a nut case, but Amazon was not convinced. I appealed to the FrankelBiz community to contact Amazon on my behalf. The result was that the nutball’s review was removed.

I am currently using FrankelBiz, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in a similar case: Apple’s iTunes has stalled approval for our iPhone application, LittleWingman. We are using social media to get people to click the link at http://www.LittleWingman.com where they can watch our one minute video and automatically send a letter to iTunes expressing their support for us. Too early to know how effective that one will be.

Pepaj - From day-one, BakeSpace has helped brands transcend banner advertising and join the conversation with our members. Each new ad campaign is designed to preserve the site’s grassroots sensibility and help members connect with one another, as well as with brands, in new and exciting ways.

Over the past two years, BakeSpace has hosted a series of uniquely engaging promotions for food-related brands such as KitchenAid, Reynolds Parchment Paper, Sara Lee and McCormick, as well as consumer product and entertainment brands such as Kodak, ABC, Universal Pictures and FOX Searchlight. Our campaigns include:

• Custom Branded Profiles
• Unique Recipe Feed with Sponsored Recipes
• Branded Food Mentor Profiles to share useful tips
• Social Market Research/Conversational Marketing
• Branded Recipe Channel
• Interactive Recipe Pages that can include videos, branding, slide shows, chat and photos
• Custom Promotions and Giveaways

To read more about our Unique Recipe for Social Media Advertising: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/BakespaceCom-937739.html

Which companies are getting it right? Who can we look to for examples? (Zappos comes to mind, who else?)

Frankel - I’m going to avoid this one, because I still think the medium needs to evolve into Branded Community or at least something like it.

Pepaj – I think Ford is doing some interesting things with a program called “iroadtrip”. The company donated a vehicle to four bloggers who are very active on Twitter. They helped make a program possible by offering the vehicle for the road trip. However, the road trip didn’t focus on their brand, but interesting content. While waiting in line at a pizza truck at SXSW, I noticed a badge that said iroadtrip and the entire team was there. My first question was about the ford truck photo that was part of a practical joke. So I associated the trip with Ford.

Whole Foods – While I was at SXSW and I saw a tweet about @WholeFoods hosting a food tech event. I put out a message and within the hour I got a thoughtful reply, but unfortunately the event list was closed. An hour later I got a private message inviting me to the event which was held at their flagship store. They had no idea who I was or if I could be of value to them, but they knew I was a foodie. The Whole Foods twitter feed isn’t about what’s on sale or store info, it’s about useful content someone who’s passionate about food will appreciate.

There are a lot of companies participating in social media and benefiting from joining the conversation. What’s nice about social media is that you don’t have to be a large corporation to make an impact.

Connect With Our Panelists!

You will find Rob Frankel online at:
http://twitter.com/brandingexpert
http://frankelbiz.com

You can connect with Babette and the Bakespace.com community  at:
http://www.bakespace.com/?babs – Check out my Recipes!
http://www.twitter.com/bakespace
http://www.facebook.com/pages/BakeSpacecom/19188237540 – Our Fan Page

In anticipation of the March SMCLA gathering to discuss “Building a Brand Through Social Media”, we thought we’d offer up a brief primer, a series of quality links, and a few questions to stimulate thought. It’s always amazing to see what this group comes up with when we all put our minds to something, so let’s have at it, shall we?

Can you use social media to successfully build or manage a brand?  The sheer volume of Google results available to this query seem to suggest a resounding “YES We Can!”.  For those who don’t want to read all 8 million results, here’s a quick primer on what you can do to get started.  These are viewed as entry level tactics that are mostly free to use and easy to configure.  If you or your brand are already doing these tactics, go ahead and skip to the questions section to really sink your teeth in to what we hope to explore at our next meeting.

Quick Primer

Building a brand online requires a three tiered approach: generate content, monitor conversations about your brand/industry, directly engage with people in a meaningful and relevant way.

Generate Content
Be a good writer or hire one.  It all starts with well written content that provides value and encourages people to comment, borrow, re-post, and to come back for more.  You can gain trust, reputation, and respect based on the quality of your content.   Become trusted sources of information within their specific industries through blogging, document uploading, producing and publishing audio and video to fully blanket content channels with sources of information about you and your brand.  Adding professionally produced photos, videos and audio is an extra level of polish that you may wish to invest in as the quality of your content reflects directly upon the quality of your brand.

Tools Used:

WordPress		www.wordpress.org
Blogger		www.blogger.com
Blogsome		blogsome.com
Movable Type		www.movabletype.org
Textpattern		textpattern.com
B2evolution		b2evolution.net
LiveJournal		livejournal.com
MSN Spaces		spaces.msn.com
Squarespace		squarespace.com
TypePad		www.typepad.com
Yahoo 360		360.yahoo.com

Blog tools credit:  Forbes.com Best of the Web

Automated Dissemination (Makes Me Giggle Too)

Now that you’ve produced all this great content, you really want to get it in front of the people you’re targeting with your brand and your product.  Assuming that they will all take a minute to drop by the one place on the Internet where your content lives is a bit naive.  Taking that content and pushing it out into as many streams as possible is absolutely the way you’re going to engage with as many people as possible.    Thankfully, automation of posting and Social Media networks makes this part very effective.  One of our very own LA Tech stars, Sean Percival (@seanpercival), gave a very insightful presentation recently at “Startonomics” detailing out how he uses automation and aggregation to push his content out as far and wide as possible and how to follow and capitalize on trends.

Tools Used:
A full summary is available on PR 2.0: http://www.briansolis.com/2008/08/introducing-conversation-prism.html

Power Tools Used:
Friend Feed
Twitter Feed
Social Too

Monitor Conversations
Okay, now that you are a beacon for the world to tune into, it’s time to stick your nosy brand-building self right into the middle of all the chatter out there.  My boss was once misquoted on a conference panel as describing Twitter as a “large cocktail party”.   Ever since, whenever I read blog comments, I  picture these people leaning into a circle of conversation to add their two cents.  That visualization is actually a pretty good metaphor for what you should be doing when you monitor the conversations occurring all over the Internet.

Tools Used:
Google Alerts
BackType
Twitter Search
Technorati

Engage

Carrying the cocktail party metaphor right along, try to apply the same level of social engagement one would expect if you were to introduce yourself into that circle of people.  Barging in and announcing your product without really getting a feel for the conversation or the people engaging in it won’t get you the results you want.  In fact, you run the risk of turning people off due to your lack of finesse.  Ease yourself into the conversation by listening to what the people are talking.   Offer sage words of wisdom that are relevant to their post and actually help them or provide value to them in some way.  Perhaps your product is exactly what they need…wouldn’t that be magic?  At any rate, don’t be a poor conversationalist when you transition monitoring into engagement.

Food for Thought / Questions for the Next SMCLA

Good examples of Social Media Brand Building

• Zappos (@zappos)
• Whole Foods (@wholefoods)
• Wine Library (@garyvee)
• Planet Chiropractic (@chiropractic)

Bad examples

• Heavy Handed Comment Entries
• Spam-like outbound messages and auto-replies
• Large brands with non-existent social media presences

Questions
1. What are some more advanced ways to go beyond these basic tactics for social media brand management?   (What’s NEXT?)
2.  How does a larger brand use social media to manage their reputation?  deal with a crisis?  solicit product feedback?
3. Your questions and more via comments or tweets using the #smcla hash tag.  See you at the next meeting (details to be announced soon)

Helpful Resources

Sources used to research this post:
http://mashable.com/2008/07/18/building-your-online-brand/
http://www.briansolis.com/2008/08/introducing-conversation-prism.html
http://www.maxgladwell.com/2008/06/be-a-beacon-first-principle-social-media/
http://www.maxgladwell.com/2008/12/social-media-predictions-2009/#more-1109
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/3302506/The-Socialization-of-Your-Personal-Brand-by-Brian-Solis
http://www.seanpercival.com/blog/2009/02/12/video-of-my-startonomics-talk-social-media-is-dead/

Written by: @geoffabrown

Super Bowl XLIII is in the Books
The Cardinals and their loyal fans have licked their wounds and returned home with dignity, and The Steeler Nation prepares to celebrate their sixth Super Bowl championship in franchise history (a “six pack” a true football fan can appreciate), we can all head out to Denny’s eat a free Grand Slam and ponder the involvement of Social Media in and around this massive event.  The game came down to a fourth quarter rally involving a safety and a last minute drive.  Add to that the longest play in Super Bowl history: a 100 yard pick six with :00 left in the half, and you’ve got yourself a sporting gem worthy of the ages.  By contrast, aside from offering up the most expensive ad slots in the history of the game at $3 million per :30 second slot, the advertisements and the public reaction to those advertisements seemed to fall a bit flat. In fact, from a social media perspective, we saw very little “official” brand or broadcast incorporation of all of the tools we have come to embrace as social media fans and enthusiasts.

Brands Don’t Get Social Media…Yet
Calling out the use of Social Media references by major brands is a stretch…since there really weren’t any of any significance doing anything terribly engaging. It was fun watching @superbowl offer up a few tweets throughout the event “via web” and then “via twitterberry” (assuming they headed down to the field), and even more amusing to see the account of @nfl (completely blank), but nothing really materialized into a true 2-way conversation between @superbowl and anyone else. It was even more amusing to see @MCHammer’s account activity during the game and around the time of his Cash4Gold ad spot. People seemed to really reach out to him specifically because he is so engaging via Social Media. If only a brand could capture that magic… One brand did get a LOT of mileage out of their campaign: Denny’s. It’s two days later and as of the time of this posting, people are still posting about the free Grand Slam breakfast!

Social Media Adds a Layer to the Event
Some took matters into their own hands, providing a fascinating social outlet for reactions. Just let yourself be dazzled by this amusing graphical depiction (New York Times) of some Super Bowl related keywords on Twitter during the game to see what people thought about the game.  In addition to the organic chatter on Twitter (ex: #SuperBowl, #Steelers, #Cardinals), Facebook status updates and MySpace postings, there were multiple view & vote options to share feedback and thoughts about the advertisements. The most visible seemed to be YouTube, Hulu.   Even PR 2.0 maestro Brian Solis (@briansolis) and friends (Jeremiah Owyang – @jowyang, Chris Heuer – @chrisheuer, Louis Gray – @louisgray, Jesse Stay – @jesse, and Guy Kawasaki – @guykawasaki) offered up a “Twitter Bowl” option incorporating hashtag #SuperBowlAds complete with a SocialToo poll. The big takeaway here is that there were plenty of people engaged with the event who were aching to contribute to the experience with their thoughts and ideas. These people are using Social Media to great effect to collectively share a worldwide experience with one another and to add a new and engaging layer to the broadcast experience. Think of it as “viewing in 3-D”, but without the red and blue glasses.

Room for Improvement Across the Board
We understand that not everyone will be as compelled to fire up a laptop or a mobile device in the middle of a crowded Super Bowl party, but it seems clear that there is much more that can and should be done to incorporate Social Media into Nationally broadcast events with extremely high ratings. There was not one @ reference as far as we could see throughout the pregame, in-game, or even post-game official broadcast. Most web URLs flashed by so quickly at the end of an ad, that they were easily missed and didn’t really encourage user participation. Here are just a few ideas for how the broadcasters, the brands, and even the viewing audience can improve upon this year’s toe-dip into the Social Media broadcast experience:

• Use the 30-second spots to draw users into web sites/wap sites where they spend more than :30 seconds interacting with the brand. For example, Anheuser-Busch’s newly launched http://ab-extras.com could have been mentioned, but wasn’t.

• Encourage user participation.  Some of the biggest laughs were had by those reading the constant stream of tweets from those watching the game. Incorporating this level of user-generated content (via filters…for family friendly outcomes: see NYT link for example) and feedback can absolutely enhance the broadcast. Think MTV’s TRL, then go a few steps further.

• What would Obama Do? Borrow a page from the most successful social media engagement of recent note: Obama’s campaign.  Collect people who are interested into email databases, phone databases for opted-in sms updates, deploy a FREE Super Bowl mobile app for extended commerical footage, enhanced statistics, player bios and historical information. The peak of interest in the game seemed to be during the two weeks prior to kickoff when people anticipated the game. This is the key window of opportunity to convert anticipation into participation.

• It’s been done before, but technology enables us to go further now with the cliffhanger ads that require user participation to achieve resolution. Now that mobile devices can handle video clips, brands should take advantage of new companies like Mogreet who offer the ability to deliver up to :15 second clips to opted-in users who want to further their participation in the advertisement.

We look forward to your feedback and views on the Super Bowl as it relates to Social Media. Please feel free to link to this article, borrow ideas, and share back. We’re all in this together! Perhaps next year, we’ll even experience the Super Bowl that much more collectively!

Written by: @geoffabrown

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On 9/11/08, Social Media Club (LA) invited 4 panelists from the music industry to discuss the effects of social media and digital distribution in the Music Industry. 

Jackie Peters, co-founder of Heavybag Media and Andy Sternberg, Director of Interactive at Live Earth moderated the panel. A big thank-you goes out to the four panelists: 

• Scott Perry of New Music Tip Sheet
• Lucas Gonze, founder of Webjay (acquired by Yahoo in 2006)
• Nic Adler of The Roxy in Los Angeles. 
• Anthony Batt, founder and president of BuzzNet. 

The following is a summary of the topics discussed at the meeting.

[[ Thoughts on Social Discovery + Music: 

With social discovery tools such as StumbleUpon, Last.Fm, Pandora and music/mp3 blogs and aggregators such as HypeMachine and Elbo.ws, social media and music now go hand in hand. For fans, music is now social and to socialize is to explore, discover and listen to the same types of music with like-minded fans. The limelight has shifted from the band to the fans, as music is now a platform for social networking. Lucas explained,  “Media is becoming more fluid. Different mashups are rising because of the effectiveness of social media.”

It used to be that indie bands once had to be very committed- driving cross country to peddle their CDs at any music store that would give them the time of day. Now, through social media and social discovery tools,  good bands, with the help of their fans, have a chance to rise to the top with a simple click of a “thumbs up” or “heart” icon. Scott noted,  “Bands don’t have to worry about being on the local radio station, their existence can be validated elsewhere through other platforms.” Nick added, “Fans are creating a new promotional marketing strategy.” Social media has also effected music, bands and their fans by deconstructing niches of music. The lines separating niches continue to blur, as fans discover more genres of music. Venues such as The Roxy have also seen the effects of social media. Now, fans have a platform for discussing the band, the upcoming show and even their thoughts after the show. By utilizing social networking sites such as Myspace, bands can join the conversation with their fans and venues are able to gauge the audience and use the feedback for future marketing tactics. 

[[Thoughts on the effects of social media, sponsorships and sales: 

The panelists offered differing views on sponsorships of small bands and sales. 

On one hand, small bands are able to leverage their fans and gain exposure through social media, according to Scott, “big companies still want to work with big names.” Small niche bands just won’t cut it when it comes to sponsorships and endorsements. On the other hand, Nick believes big companies are able to target the niches which represent their brand as bands smaller indie bands are able to distribute themselves.

It has become obvious that more and more people are not buying music but rather, access to bands. Fans are attending more live shows and giving away their music.  Due to the shift in digital distribution, a band’s biggest launch will no longer be their CD release. According to Anthony of Buzznet,  “true fans know where to find the music and download it.”

Siobhan O’Neil (@angelcityblues) tweeted  to the SMCLA twitter stream, “#smcla all that free music means is that I get to listen to more new stuff; if I like it, I’ll support the band I’ll go see them play.”  Dedicated fans such as Siobhan are the fans who want constant and exclusive access to the bands- from reading their blogs to “friend-ing’ them on Myspace and following them on Twitter. It is social media that helps bring longevity to the relationship between bands and their fans. Bands now need to keep their fan base engaged and come up with new clever tactics to boost sales. However, it seems that the major labels are not run by those who understand social media. 

Similarly, within the realm of social media are mp3 blogs such as HypeMachine which allow free downloads and samples of music. These blogs seem to be a touchy subject for everyone. The general consensus of the panel seems to be that they are doing more harm than good. Lucas stated that mp3 blogs don’t help bands develop, but rather they perpetuate the system. As it has become more acceptable to download music from the blogs, Anthony believes that the work behind the music is under appreciated and under valued.

Oppositely, @jeff419 tweeted, ” #smcla Trent reznor made $750k in 2 days just off the ltd edition box set for his ghosts album while the download was free” 

[[Advice for niche indie bands in the age of social media: 

Scott advises indie labels to have a “tech-savvy publicist” who understands the blogosphere, and empower fans to spread the word about the band. Similarly, Lucas advises bands to have their own URL to promote themselves as they shouldn’t rely on social networking sites alone. “Audiences will change over time, and sites such as Bebo and Myspace will come and go.” By having their own website, not only can bands monetize themselves and their music but also understand the demographics of their fans.

[[Closing thoughts:

As we can see from the discussion, social media has a huge impact on all aspects of the music industry. Everybody on both sides of the industry (producers vs consumers) now play a huge part in the digital distribution of music. Whether or not a medium as large as the internet helps or hurts the music industry is still a gray area to be further discussed. Whether or not social media will trump traditional media, in relation to the music industry is also unclear. Afterall, @hondagrrl tweeted, “#smcla: i discovered ingrid michaelson thanks to that dumb gap sweater commercial.”  The only concept that is clear is that social media is gaining huge momentum and cannot be ignored.