Social Media Posts That Are Igniting 5-9
May 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment
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I’ve been a bit busy over the past couple weeks, so today’s post is an assortment of the best social media articles from this week and the ones I’ve missed. Sorry if you’ve been sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for them 
Enjoy!
An Exercise in Social Media Optimization: The Obama Gun Mailer
As if this post needs more attention, but I can resist giving one more link to Andy’s post. Andy shows how a social media techie can get national attention by using a subject that is newsworthy, such as the Hilary Clinton/Barrack Obama runoff. The post says pretty much says it all and gives all of the case-study necessary details.
$500 Contest Post: Online Profiles That Offer Back Links
This site is offering $500 in cash for the person who lists the most social media sites that offer backlinks other than the ones they already have listed on the post. Good Luck!!! 
Social Media Mafia- Get Involved
This post by Colin Walker promotes another social networking site for social media peeps such as ourselves, called the Social Media Mafia. (Oh metaphors. We use cocktail party, others use mafia.) There are so many social networking sites out there, but this one wins my award for the week due to Colin’s eerily true comments about the resemblance in social media marketing to the mafia. Too great. You gotta wonder if Colin had to promote this as part of his debt to “the family”….
Five New Twitter Tools You Should Know
This is probably an old post to some of you, but I just saw it this week. In my own opinion, Twitter in and of itself is really only an okay program. It’s really the tools like these five that make it useful to people.
Tools for Engaging in Social Media
Brent Csutoras gives some good reviews of the major social media “must-haves”. What I enjoyed more is that Brent listed great plug-ins, because we all know that knowing which plug-in to use is oh-so-important to our sanity and management of our days.
From Mining the Web to Inventing the New Sciences Underlying the Internet
This is a video lecture by Usama Fayyad of Yahoo! on data mining and how it’s beneficial to social media. Kinda long, but you can skip the 10 minute intro and then scroll and listen for what you want to know more about (Minute 10 to 20 is kind of background info. Brian’s opinion is that you can fast forward to minute 28 for the meat.)
Gaining Subscribers Through Social Media: Is It Possible?
Steven Snell gives some great tips on how to convince people to subscribe to your blog. (And by the way, it did convince me to subscribe to his :))
20 Take-Aways from SMX Social Media
Scott Clark gives a list of 20 points of interest from the SMX Social Media conference. Most of these are points to live by when dealing with clients. I especially like the “Advertising Agencies don’t get it, for the most part.”
Yeah, We’re Back…
May 6, 2008 | 1 Comment
The Ignite Crew is back from our mystery trip. Much fun was had by all. Lots of sightseeing, shopping, eating, clubbing. I personally swam with dolphins. That was my favorite part.
Pictures to come, but after two days closed, we’re racing on client work, and getting ready for Thursday’s big social media marketing seminar and Friday’s Blog Carolinas. Hope to see you there. Busy week!
~Jim
Mystery Solved! The Ignite Crew is in South Beach, Miami
May 2, 2008 | 1 Comment
Well, almost. Technically at this point, I’m in the Miami airport waiting for a crew of another 35 people flying to join us from Detroit.
So, this year’s mystery trip involves us hanging at the Palm in South Beach for a four day weekend. If you want to read more, check out: http://shortn.it/Yyt7
Congratulations to Tena Moore who, somehow, guessed where we were going, even though I had no idea. Tena, I’ll be shopping for souvenirs for you. Look for some cheap, tacky chacki coming your way shortly after we get back.
The rest of y’all, have a good weekend. We will!
2nd Annual Idaho Potato Video Contest
April 29, 2008 | 2 Comments
For those of you who don’t know, I’m going to Tetonia Idaho this summer for my honeymoon. Whenever I tell people that, they look at me quizically as if, “Out of all the places in the world, why Idaho?”.
Don’t worry, I understand. After all, it is hard not to think of Potatoes when you hear Idaho, and that’s why when I saw the following video on B.L. Ochman’s blog, I just had to share.
While the video is pretty corny, it is a cute example of how a commission for potatoes can use social media to capture younger audiences and begin creating a brand identity for themselves in the process.
In my opinion,while I think this is a good step for the Potato industry of Idaho, I’m afraid that it will only hurt the tourism of Idaho even more :-).
Help Wanted: Ignite Social Media Account Manager
April 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Looking for a chance to join America’s fastest-growing social media agency? Well, truthfully, we’re not sure 100% positive that’s us, but it just might be! (We’ve hired several people in the last month or two, so we’re not just making this stuff up.)
We have an immediate opening for an account manager. If you’re really, really (I mean, like freakishly) organized, and you worry incessantly about deadlines and keeping your promises, we need you. We’re hoping that you balance that particular character trait, however, so you don’t cross over into that whole wildly-annoying thing… that would be bad.
But we digress… (See, we need you to keep us focused…)
Read the job opening here and then send me your best cover letter and resume. Spelling counts, but you’re so organized that you knew that already…
Ignite’s Travels are a Mystery… Can You Figure It Out?
April 28, 2008 | 5 Comments
As many of you know, Brogan & Partners is incubating Ignite Social Media, which has been tremendously helpful. Now, the Ignite team has been invited to participate in Brogan’s long-standing “Mystery Trip” tradition and, heck yeah, we’re going.
On Friday, May 2 and Monday, May 5, we’ll be closed. Here’s how it works. Really, really early on Friday, the whole team (7 of us now at Ignite) and the whole Brogan team (around 50 people) will be heading to the airport. Only then will we learn where we’re going from the one person who set it all up. (Seriously, I have no idea… None.) We’ll return late on May 5th and be back at work on the 6th bright and early.
It’s a wonderful employee benefit, but it’s not frivolous. Brogan has less than 5% employee turnover and we want Ignite to do the same (so far, so good… 0%!). Past trips have included: London, a Caribbean cruise, San Antonio, Amsterdam, Reykjavik (yes, in Iceland), and Washington (DC), among others.
So, wanna help us guess where we’re going? Let’s use the wisdom of crowds! Here are the clues we’ve gotten so far:
- Mystery Trip clue # 1: There is nothing like sleeping under the trees.
- Mystery Trip clue # 2: This is no lie, you’re going to love it, hands down!
- Mystery Trip clue # 3: Bring your hip.
Here’s what else I can tell you: A) We know it’s in the United States. B) The clues are designed to throw you off. They’ll be technically correct, but likely nearly impossible to figure out… So play along. I’ll Twitter where we’re heading on Friday morning, so follow me at twitter.com/jtobin.
Leave YOUR guess in the Comments. First one to get it right (if anyone does), I’ll mail you a cheap souvenir of some kind from our destination.
April Social Media Club: Web 2.0 Content Promotion
April 25, 2008 | 7 Comments
This month’s Social media club will be led by yours truly. I am going to be discussing the different forms of promoting content on the web today, and the inherent impact that has on the search engines, as well your site. 
This is a very vast field so I will try and focus on the impact promoting content through different sources has on your site, what sort of traffic should you see, what happens in the search engines when you do so, where you should be promoting it, where you should not be promoting it and so on.
Typically when traditional SEO’s tell you they will engage your site in social media marketing, this is exactly what they are talking about (although I will admit there is so much more to it the simply promoting content). I aim to dispel a few things with regards to what sites you should be promoting your content on and what sort of effect each avenue might have.
Here are the crucial details:
Location: Edge office
400 Glenwood Avenue
Raleigh, NC 27603
( Click Here to View a Map)
(Click here to view a tour of Edge offices)
When: April 30th, Wednesday @ 6:30pm
What if your competitor blogs about you?
April 24, 2008 | 1 Comment
Great story in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. Turns out that Anheuser-Busch was planning to release a new beer, Budweiser American Ale. Of course, they wanted to make a big announcement about their new product.
Problem is, Brew Blog, which is owned and run by rival Miller Brewing Company learned of the story first, and ran with it. The St. Louis Post Dispatch then ran with the story, as did industry trades.
I bet that someone at Anheuser-Busch was waiting to get approval for the press release from the legal department when they got scooped.
Remember when PR teams thought CNN changed everything? Now we’ve got not just blogs, but competitor blogs, controlling the message. Hmm….
Honey Bunches of Oats and Pandora: A “Soundful of Joy”
April 23, 2008 | 2 Comments
Today I was listening to Pandora, once again rocking out to some John Mayer radio, and I noticed one brand trying to get close to “social media”, through somewhat a unique form of traditional advertising mixed with social media. .
The picture of the banner ad to the right screams traditional advertising. I think that I count 16 Honey Bunches of Oats logos in this picture: from the construction hats, to the T-shirts, and even to the box itself.
Now the social part of it (although somewhat hidden in the branding) was a Honey Bunches of Oats radio station, called “A Soundful of Joy”. What I found by adding it to my radio station was that this station would play:
- Sarah McLachlan
- KC and the Sunshine Band
- Train
- The Jimmy Castor Bunch
(and several other bands that were before my time..)
In short, I think this is a unique way to get a big brand into social media. Why? Because it shows that one of the best social media strategies is to provide value back to the customer. Even though I still am on my John Mayer station, the “Soundful of Joy” station is right there when I feel like something completely random.
Think Before You Ning
April 21, 2008 | 11 Comments
I just finished the rather fawning Fast Company cover story on Ning, and I must agree their business model is impressive to say the least. In fact, I envy it.
If you’re not familiar with Ning, it’s an easy way to set up your own social network, and more than 230,000 of them exist right now. It’s very easy. And therein lies the problem–not for Ning, but for anyone trying to gain traction for their particular network.
Here’s the specific problem:
Nobody wants to join a social network–and they never have.
If that’s true, you say, then why have they been so wildly successful? More on that later, but it’s similar to this age-old marketing truism: “Nobody ever wanted to buy an 1/8th-inch drill bit. All they wanted to do was drill an 1/8th-inch hole.”
One Facebook, Lots of Niche Sites
Facebook serves its purpose by being the mass site, the one that everyone joins, but it’s really not good for other things. Niche social networks, on the other hand, are smaller, but can be more powerful, more active and more fun. (CafeMom, FitSugar and many more have much better conversations than most Facebook groups I’ve ever seen.) But 230,000 of them? What’s the differentiator?
Recently, I was invited by Chris Patterson to join InSocialMedia.com. I did, of course–it is, after all, what I do for a living. But other than that, I’m not sure why I joined or what I’ll get out of it. The site is built on Ning. When I was asked my “relationship status” when I joined the group, it got me to wonder how that was relevant to working in social media.
Form Must Follow Function
If nobody ever wanted to join a social network, why have they proliferated? Simple. What people have wanted to do is this:
- Communicate with their circle of friends easily (and they got Facebook)
- Use their business networks for professional gain (and they got LinkedIn)
- Keep up with their ever changing address book (and they got Plaxo)
- Share tips with other moms (and they got CafeMom)
- and the list goes on…
Yes, these ARE social networks, but that’s because that was the best answer for the function that was desired. Social networking is just a tool, and out-of-the-box solutions must be tailored to match the purpose that they are meant to serve.
Now let’s go back to InSocialMedia.com (and I’m not picking on it, it’s just a perfect example of my point). Here are the questions I have for Chris and the rest of the group on there:
- What is the basic point of InSocialMedia.com?
- How is my relationship status relevant to that point? (I’m married. It’s no secret, and I’m not offended by the question, but it’s an example that the site hasn’t been tailored for its purpose.)
- Are we meant to be sharing the best articles and insights on the profession of social media (and if, so, don’t we have that in Social Media Today and Sphinn)?
- How are the tools you’ve chosen for your social network (and how you’ve arranged those tools) aligned with the goals of the site? Why would people “in social media” be looking for a place to upload pictures and videos, for example? We have dozens.
These are the types of questions social networks going forward must ask. Do people want to join a community around this topic and, if so, what is the minimal amount of effort they should be required to take to begin to benefit from it and what will they get back?
If you want to bang out a quick social network with all the basics, by all means use Ning. But if you’re trying to build a social network that will rise above the other 230,000+ floating around there today, it’s no longer likely to be based on your topic. You’re going to have to do a bit more work, and success is more likely to be based on how you execute.
For that, I’d look at a more robust application, something like KickApps. Because the social networks that will thrive will be those that think it out before they launch. If you really customize your site with KickApps, and choose only those elements that support the goals of the site, then maybe you’ve got a chance to beat the social network fatigue that is starting to set in.