Here’s a really good overview about how using social media as part of your customer service programs can benefit other departments within your company. It’s not just a resource to deal with unhappy customers, but it is an avenue to receive insightful R&D feedback, hold focus groups and to track your competitor’s frailties. Social media has become an indispensable business tool.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines have announced that starting in the new year passengers will be given the opportunity to choose who they are seated with on flights by using Facebook and Linkedin profiles. While the video by the Taiwanese group Next Media Animation ridicules the concept as a way to join the Mile High Club the program does pose some pretty interesting considerations for business.

Can it be used for targeted marketing? While the thought of being stuck on a flight alongside a salesmen hocking their wares is one right out of a Hollywood nightmare, a more diplomatic use of deliberately targeting high value prospects using subtle marketing techniques could have merit. Popular CRMs are already integrating social networks into their engines to provide sales and marketing additional research tools.

Seatmates could become a valuable sales tool in the near future especially as other airlines (Malaysia Airlines launched its MHbuddy service in February) roll out similar systems. If it did become widely available can you see your business using this for your marketing?

Just like you’d double and triple check your business correspondence for errors, you must also ensure that your videos aren’t full of problems. In the video above, the sound level is way too low and so it’s almost impossible to hear what the narrator is saying. It doesn’t matter how good your video: how informative, witty, or topical; if you make it difficult to view then you’re wasting your time.

Social Media still has a dubious reputation in parts of the business world. Many people believe that its claims are bogus and that its evangelists, people like me, are charlatans. They essentially believe that the whole thing is a scam. Especially those that advocate the use of social media for marketing.

Well, let me tell you not only is social media marketing a scam the very best social media marketing incorporates all the elements of SCAM. To do otherwise is just being unnecessarily risky with your money:

Of course by SCAM I mean: Specific, Complementary, Achievable, and Measurable. They are important factors to consider when you are preparing any social media marketing campaign.

Specific

Let me ask you this, when you embark upon a traditional advertising campaign do you just hop on the bandwagon because everyone else is doing it? ^† Do you say, ‘Let’s do a television commercial. Everyone is doing them!’?^† Or do you carefully research every facet and then prepare a targeted campaign so that you can get the best return on your investment? It’s no different when you’re using social media.

You need to be specific with your social media marketing, just as you would with your traditional media campaigns. Not only with regard to whom you are targeting but also specific in the goals you are trying to obtain. Just because every Fortune 500 company has a fan page on Facebook doesn’t mean that you should run out and create one too. You need to know why you need one and what you hope to use it for. Otherwise you’re more than likely missing valuable opportunities and possibly wasting your efforts altogether.

For instance, do you know the difference between Facebook’s fan pages and their groups? They’re similar but they do have defined differences. Do you need one or the other or both? Before you begin you must be specific about what you are trying to achieve and only then should you adopt the strategy and choose the tools to achieve those goals.

Complementary

Recently Singapore Post as part of a viralesque marketing campaign decided to dress up some of their post boxes with graffiti. Unfortunately, graffiti is a major issue in Singapore and the police got involved. The media soon latched onto the story as well. Singpost got a lot of media buzz as a result, but was it the right sort of attention? Why would a company whose main clientèle is the business community with a reputation for being reliable and dependable suddenly choose to go gangsta?

Unless you’re trying to actively undermine your corporate image – and thereby appeal to a different demographic – your social media marketing campaigns should complement your traditional efforts. Conflicting messages only risk damaging your brand. Doing something because it is trendy or cool isn’t always the best way to generate a return on your investment. Singpost eventually saw that discretion was the better part of valour and turned their graffiti campaign into works of public art (like the one shown here). It’s baffling trying to determine the logic behind the graffiti campaign and it’s hard to imagine what possible returns they were expecting. However It certainly caused a stir in the media and amongst the general populace but much of it was negative.

Achievable

One of the first questions you need to ask when you’re developing a strategy is what is the minimum result required from the campaign to be considered a success? Then you need to ask can you achieve that minimum and, if the answer is yes, how? If your Singapore-based startup chooses to use an online ‘viral’ video to promote themselves and they need 1 million click-thrus just from Singapore for it to be a success then the odds are they aren’t going to achieve that. They may be better off trying an alternative approach that better targets their selected demographic.

You need to work through your strategy and ensure that your aims are achievable. By all means shoot for the moon but make sure you can achieve some sort of successful result even if you miss.

Measurable

If you can’t measure it then you can’t determine its success. Even if you just use basic metrics like those I mentioned in The Importance of Metrics you need to find a way to measure how successful your social media marketing campaign has been.

Sure, you may have a lot of views on your online video, but how many click-thrus are you getting? Is it the right sort of demographic that your advertising is appealing to? You need to know these, because at the end of the day it’s not enough to know how many people saw your campaign, it’s how much the campaign benefited your company and in what way. Unless you can measure that in a logical and objective way there’s a good chance you’re wasting your money.

By applying the SCAM test to your social media marketing endeavours you’re placing a greater emphasis upon achieving a result for the company and not catering to the hype that currently surrounds social media. Utilising this method lessens the chance of making mistakes and increases the opportunity to correct them if they do happen. Don’t scam yourself. Use SCAM!

† If the answer is yes, then please send me all your money =).

Slider Image Attribution: chooyutshing

The traditional view of how to advertise on television (and subsequently through online video ) is the mini-story. Usually these are short pieces dealing with one subject in a superficial but psychologically attractive way. Sure, the story may have a dominating, but catchy, jingle and the narrative may be non-existent – but essentially that is what a commercial is to most people. However, online video offers some interesting alternatives that not only move away from this traditional mini-story concept but also allow you to build a dynamic and engaging community.

Showing Not Telling

Everyone wants to see how a product works before they lay down their hard-earned cash. By providing a video demonstration of your products you can satisfy that need. There’s nothing really new in that idea, however by turning the demonstration into a form of entertainment you can make the demo far more appealing not only to your existing customer base, but also to people that have never heard of you – potential customers that don’t have a need now but may in the future. Here is a world class example of turning a demonstration into an appealing, form of entertainment advertising:

The Will It Blend series of online videos has been running since 2006 and has generated over 100 million views. As a result Blendtec has seen a dramatic increase in retail sales for their products. By demonstrating their product in such an unusual way they’re not only providing a wonderfully entertaining strange attractor – blending up items that aren’t supposed to be blended – but also demonstrate just how good their products are – if it blends an iPad it must be awesome at making a banana smoothie.

Also by allowing its audience to write-in and request items to blend, Blendtec are encouraging user participation and laying the foundation for other forms of two-way communication. They are forming a goodwill bond between themselves and the users. Forming the beginnings of a community.

Making It Personal

The old saying that your people are your best asset still rings true. You can use your staff to advertise your company and all they have to do is be themselves.

All business is based around the idea of trust. We’re at best hesitant about entering a deal with people that we don’t trust. By providing an online video of your people, showing them as personable humans rather than faceless drones you are setting the basis for a trust to be formed.

One idea for the format of these videos is a series of interviews in which your staff tell us a little about themselves – nothing overtly personal but enough so we can a feel of what this person is like. They can reveal what they do and maybe relate a story of an event that happened at the company. It is important to let them be themselves and to not try to force them to advertise the company. Let them be real.

Google has a range of these staff videos and after watching a few you get a real feel of the vibe that Google must have. There’s an undertone that the people of Google feel they are doing massively important work. Their passion is unmistakable.

While Google is undoubtedly a great place to work, and chooses the best people to work there, your company must also have exciting, passionate people that you can use as well. By using your staff in this way you make your company more friendly to clients and begin to form a foundation of trust, thereby opening up the lines of communication.

Beginner’s Guide or Master Class

Many products and services could benefit from a video or series of video tutorials explaining in detail just how to use them. Text instructions – even with diagrams – can be ambiguous. By providing a video tutorial for your products you lessen the problems associated with learning how to use the product.

Alternatively, you can construct master classes that provide professional-level knowledge on how to use a product. It doesn’t even have to be a tutorial about using your own product. If you are selling something that is ancillary to another product then a video tutorial about how to use that product offers you an opportunity to tap into that their established market.

One of the best examples of this technique is Andrew Kramer’s Video Copilot (unfortunately the videos are unavailable to be embedded). The site caters to users of the motion artistry and video compositing software After Effects. Andrew is one of the leading video artists in Hollywood and provides a range of tutorials catering to both the beginner right up to seasoned professionals looking for new techniques and tricks. Not only do the tutorials show off his expertise – advertising to prospective clients – but he also offers a range of add-ons for sale that improve the After Effects experience. The site has generated a strong community attracting 2.5 million hits per month.

Using these techniques to create video sites (or sub-sites) allows you to foster a community. It offers your consumers a chance to talk directly to you and allows you an opportunity to test new ideas, offer incentives and to receive feedback. In many ways it becomes your own personalised market research group the only costs involving the upkeep of the site and the production of the videos themselves. That’s got to be a great return on your investment.

Since the open beta period for Blue Mars began I’ve noticed that some Second Life content creators have been dismissing it out-of-hand. Mostly they claimed that the tools for creating content in Blue Mars were too hard to learn. Many also said that they were not interested in providing content for Blue Mars, and some even inferred that without them to provide the content Blue Mars would wither and die. As I stated in my earlier article, Blue Mars – Being Different, Blue Mars will ultimately be able to draw on a wealth of content, possibly more than Second Life currently does. So if I were generating real world income by providing content in Second Life I would seriously consider taking the time to evaluate Blue Mars as a prospective new market. It makes good business sense, and I can tell you that there are hundreds, perhaps thousands out there, who are eagerly waiting for you to let this opportunity pass you by.

Let me state up front that Blue Mars may fail. It’s an uncomfortable truth that all the developers may be wasting their time, that Blue Mars may never reach the critical mass necessary for it to generate a return. But then again, at the other extreme Blue Mars may be the Microsoft or Google of virtual worlds and just as Microsoft and Google have, Blue Mars may have such a strategic advantage that it sweeps all its competitors – including Second Life – into insignificance.

What should you be looking for?

It’s too early to tell whether Blue Mars will mature into a viable market. It’s too new. There’s still so much important work to be completed. However, there are some elements that may be appealing to an SL entrepreneur wishing to expand. I don’t have any insider information but I expect in an attempt to woo both developers and residents into this new environment land prices are going to be very competitive. Maybe only a fraction of what the equivalent would be in Second Life. This means lower startup costs.

Also, being an early adopter means that the lines of communication to the developers of Blue Mars are likely to be more open. At this stage the community is small and if you have an issue you are more likely to be heard and have that issue enacted upon. This is especially important with regard to governance issues.

What difficulties may you face?

If you’ve only ever used the Second Life tools to develop with then you’ll need to learn a set of new skills. However, much of what you have learnt will still be relevant, only the application and name may be different. You also have a choice of tools – from the free like Google’s Sketchup to the professionally priced Maya. Now is the time to learn how to use those tools – when most of your competitors are on an equally footing and everyone is learning the system. Your consumers are more likely to forgive your mistakes in such an environment. If you are already using these multi-industry standard tools then you may have existing content that you can import directly into Blue Mars. This will save you time and perhaps money. Your upstart time could be slashed.

Unlike Second Life, most development happens outworld. If you’re used to having a social aspect when building then you may miss this. However, it is possible to supplement this need by using social networking tools like Twitter, Facebook or IM. Developing offline does have a distinct advantage in that you can always back your work up.

Probably the biggest difficulty you will face is that Blue Mars is not Second Life. Your expectations about what is possible and how things should be done are going to be skewed in favour of how you do them in Second Life. The best remedy for this is to keep an open mind. Blue Mars is a rapidly evolving platform and you’ll see improvements over the course of time.

What can you bring to Blue Mars?

Your brand is the most obvious. If you have an established brand that is beloved in Second Life then you have an opportunity to bring it into Blue Mars and expand its influence. You’ll already have an advantage over new developers because you’ll have an existing client base: your fellow SLers.

The other thing you can bring to Blue Mars is your knowledge about how to run a successful small business. Running a small business is hard. It doesn’t matter whether that business is in the real world or the virtual world. Workflow, marketing, customer service. Those hard-learnt lessons are just as applicable in Blue Mars as they are in Second Life.

You may believe that you can ignore Blue Mars until it evolves into an economically viable platform. This wait-and-see approach is giving a free-kick to your competitors. They’ll be able to learn the system, guide the development and develop a reputation that will make it harder to compete with when you do finally decide to make the transition. Now is the time for evaluation and even if you choose not to make the leap immediately it is important that you learn the skills that will help you compete in this new environment should you eventually utilise it.

Blue Mars is an exciting opportunity, but every business is different. Whether it is the right thing for your business will depend upon you and your desires. It is vitally important that you spend enough time to carefully evaluate it. Blue Mars will not be a viable option for every SL entrepreneur, but you should make that decision for yourself based on a solid analysis. Otherwise you may discover that not only have you missed a valuable opportunity but that your competitor has snapped it up.

As some of you may know I’ve been spending a great deal of time in Blue Mars. I’ve been mainly providing video tutorials but I’ve also been keeping a close eye on forums and blogs that reference the new virtual world by Avatar Reality. One thing that keeps cropping up is the idea that Blue Mars will fail – or at least struggle – because it doesn’t cater to the Second Life demographic. This is a short-sighted view and fails to take into consideration what attracts people to virtual worlds. In fact, the way in which Blue Mars differentiates itself from Second Life may have a greater bearing on its success than any similarities.

From the figures released by Linden Lab, Second Life retains about 10% of the people that sign up. That’s a 90 day figure. What that means essentially is that of the people that sign-up for Second Life about 10% are still logging in 90 days later. Ten percent is not actually a bad figure as long as the numbers that are attracted and sign up remain high. However that still means that Second Life fails to meet the needs of nine people in every ten that sign up. That’s a sizable chunk. Those sorts of numbers are more than big enough to sustain an alternate virtual world if that world can offer something that Second Life doesn’t. There are lots of ways they can do that.

Many of the Second Lifers that complain about Blue Mars deride the lack of freely available content creation. Firstly, anyone can sign up to be a content developer. It’s simple and fully automated. I had my access and links to the SDK download within seconds. Having to sign up to develop also alieviates some of the security issues that Second Life faces with intellectual property theft. Secondly, content creation in Second Life is a kludge. You must be inworld to create many of the items which means that if you crash you can loose that content easily. The tools are also non-standard and difficult to master. Importing content from other applications is also difficult to impossible. I’ve seen some amazing work in Second Life and I’ve worked with and befriended many great artisans, but the Second Life content creation scheme is a major barrier to entry. Everything must be created from scratch specifically for Second Life. Blue Mars, and I must say as do several other 3d immersive virtual environments, offers a way to import your existing 3ds Max, Maya, Blender, etc content. That’s another sizable demographic that Second Life doesn’t cater to.

There are also other demographics that Second Life fails to provide for: anyone wishing to run a virtual event that caters to more than 100 avatars (Second Life’s upper limit) in a region/sim. People that are deterred by the red-light district reputation. Businesses that are put-off by the lack of security or by the uncertainty resulting from Linden Lab’s governance. There are lots of niches that a new or existing virtual world can tap into without being forced to attract users from Second Life.

That’s not to say that Blue Mars will cater to all or even any of these demographics. As I keep saying, it’s very early days. There’s a whole lot of potential there but there’s also an awful amount of work yet to be done. But by daring to be different Blue Mars can attract users without having to mirror Second Life.

This is a seminar I did in Second Life on using video advertising on the web.

There’s been a recent influx of new people using Twitter especially from the marketing sector. That’s great! It’s a wonderful social media tool and has many advantages that can be exploited for marketing. Unfortunately using it as a pure broadcasting medium isn’t one of them.

Look up the word conversation in the dictionary and you really should see a mention of Twitter. In fact you should see the entire gamut of social media tools listed because that’s what social media is all about: conversation. And as with all conversations you have to give a little to get a little. It’s a two-way street. Not one way.

If you’re using Twitter to merely broadcast details about your products, or banally telling us what you’re doing today – like it’s a schedule diary – and never responding to other Twitter users comments then not only are you using it wrong, you’re missing out on some of the key advantages. Where else can you get real time updates about what people are saying about your brand? Where else can you immediately and directly respond to problems and miscommunications? For a CEO that wants to know what’s happening out amongst the Barbarians then Twitter provides the answers. All you need do is ask. And be asked in return, just as Ford’s CEO, Alan Mulally, was today.

One of the other key benefits is that it allows you to mix with people you normally don’t have access to. It’s a great means of networking. In fact there are actually quite a few celebrities using Twitter (from the political, business and entertainment worlds). However many of their tweets resemble theses:

Off to Azerbaijan today to feed the homeless monkeys.

or

Appeared on morning television show to talk about my new book *wink* wink* – -subliminal message – BUY IT!

Now, you maybe very interested in the plight of the homeless monkeys or even the new book, but wouldn’t you rather talk to the celebrity about that rather than just being told? Twitter is not for the passive. You need to be active. Involved.

One celebrity that seriously understands Twitter is actor Stephen Fry. He has a lot of followers – most celebs do – but notice that he’s almost following as many people himself. Some celebs are following nobody. It’s like they don’t want to hear what others are saying. But in all truth it’s not the numbers that are important. What sets Mr Fry out from most of the others is that he responds. He muses, asks questions, chats, answers questions. Wil Wheaton, who only follows a handful (remember numbers aren’t important), does too. They’re both having conversations with people and that’s what it’s all about. As a marketer who is new to Twitter, you need to learn to have conversations too. Go on, it’s not hard =). Start by talking about philosophers <--- Monty Python reference.

Celebrities will naturally attract oodles of followers, but in all likelihood, you don’t have the advantage of being famous world wide. You need to woo your audience. Romance them. Ask questions. Be asked in return. Joke around. But most of all have fun. Just don’t have too much fun. Twitter is a public -and searchable – medium after all. You don’t want your tweets to come back to haunt you.

Twitter is not a tool for the didactic. Blogs are better social media tools for that. Just look at how didiactic I’m being here =). Like video, Twitter is a show not a tell medium. It allows you the opportunity to meet new people and socialise with them. To join a massive network of friends and associates from all walks of life. And as we all know, the best marketing opportunities come from the people you know.

1. Learn to lie to the camera. You may be the best live presenter in the world but unless you can look down the barrel of the camera and say what you need to say – faultlessly – you’re toast. The film director George Stevens once said, Talk softly and think loud. He was talking about acting in films but the same could be applied to video presentations as well. The camera picks up every nuance and even a quick glance away can betray doubt, fear or untruths. Umms, ahhs and errs are right out. The easiest way to avoid them is by writing and memorising a script. Practise in the mirror until you’re word perfect. Then film it and watch how many times your eyes flick away as you try to remember. Watch how the pros do it, how they cover up the ‘thinking time’ and emulate them.
2. Sounding Great. While it would be awesome if every CEO vlogger knew the basics about video (had an idea of composition, the rule of thirds, editing etc) probably the best thing you can do is make sure you have the best sound you can. Radio microphones are relatively cheap or even a carefully hidden cable mic can be used. Basically you want to get rid of that hollow echo you get when you use the on-camera mic. Remember even if you want to appear relaxed and comfortable you want to sound professional.
3. Don’t make me squint. If your vlog involves some sort of visual presentation then make sure the audience can see what you’re talking about. Don’t do something like drawing on a white board as you make your speech points. Your content may be fantastic but if I can’t see it you’re wasting your time.
   
   At the very least mock up your presentation in Powerpoint or something similar and export it as a video and drop that into your vlog. If you want to get fancy, you can time it out and edit the videos so you can cut between the vlog and the presentation as you make each point.

Looking professional in a vlog isn’t hard. As with any pursuit, once you’ve taken the time to learn the basics, and hone your skills vlogging can be a powerful social media marketing tool.