HOW TO: Avoid a Social Media Disaster

Here's some good tips on maintaining a good image in the social media platform. This is really dependent on which industry you are in since some industries need more damage control compared to others. If you provide a service (especially technology) then I suggest you really need to plan things out. When I handled Ayala Malls, one of the biggest malls in the country, I told them not to be scared of social media since I didn't expect there to be too many complaints or negative stuff that will be posted. Ayala is one of the most reputable companies here in the Philippines anyway.

One of the suggestions in the article I'll be linking is to learn from great examples. I think it's easy to find case studies on the internet but it's also good to observe what other companies are doing. You can look at your competitors and other companies who are considered first movers to the social media space. I always suggest to observe the following corporations and see how they handle their social media accounts:

1. Smart
2. Globe
3. Sun

You'll learn a great deal on how they handle complaints.

4. Starbucks Philippines
5. San Marino

They have a lot of online Facebook promos. San Marino is surprisingly active unlike their counterpart Century Tuna (I may not have visited their FB recently though).

Off course I'll have to include Ayala Malls in the mix being an account which I handled.

Anyway here's the quick list from the article on how to avoid a social media disaster:

1. Create a social media policy / A community management plan
2. Have an escalation plan
3. Plan for the worst - expect the best
4. Respond quickly, personally and directly
5. Don't play the blame game
6. Observe and learn from other companies including your competition (I added this)

Here's the link to the complete article.
 

What is Crowdsourcing?

The social media map of the world – how it changed: 2007 -2010

2007

2010

See full article from The Wall Blog here.

Quote of the Day: How the Wealthy Got That Way

"Generally speaking creating enormous fortunes is a simply a side effect of what people really want to do, which is create enormous organizations. Most of these [wealthy] individuals had a vision about the way some activity ought to be done. In order, to make that vision a reality they created an organization to do it."

--Economics blogger Karl Smith on the decision of 40 billionaires to pledge half (or more) of their fortunes to charity. (Via The Browser.)

Today is the day, right now is the time!

If you're not inspired to do something why do it at all? As mentioned in all the talks I've posted, you have to be passionate about what you do. I think the problem is people don't really listen. "The Secret" is a secret not because people don't know about it's but because they don't listen or they don't believe in it.

I'm not exactly in the best situation right now but I believe that I AM in the BEST situation right NOW. It's just a simple mindset. Here's a short inspiring video on having the proper mindset an living a full life despite having seemingly less. I've posted this twice on my Facebook but I feel the need to post it constantly because people have the tendency to forget that everything is in their hands...

Here's 2 articles from Mashable.com which can help in you online strategy

1. 6 Online Tools for Expanding Your Video Strategy
2. Top 20 Sites to Improve Your Twitter Experience

Advertisers should really start utilizing web videos as a strategy whether just placing their commercials on the web or actually creating materials for the web. Nestle has actually started doing this by implementing youtube campaigns. You don't need to pay to place on the web and videos are a really good selling tool. One of the most successful online video campaign was implemented by 'Will it blend?'. Internet was the only medium they utilized and they generated a huge amount of sales from this campaign.

Utilizing Twitter is still a little tricky for me. Since it easy to set-up and link to Facebook it usually a standard when implementing a social networking campaign. The real hard part is actually using your Twitter as a marketing tool to push sales. It's not that easy to build a following on Twitter - this is why that article above would be a good resource.

Kobe Doin Work Trailer

I'd like to get a DVD of this...

The Changing Relationship Between the Advertiser and the Consumer

Non-Traditional Awareness Campaigns by Volkswagen

Here's a cool below-the-line campaign by Volkswagen. It's their fast lane campaign. It's an offline execution where they expanded to online to generate more awareness. Enjoy the 3 videos.

10 Brands That May Disappear in 2011

I came across this article in Yahoo Finance predicting brands that may disappear next year. Some of the brands I expected to be on the list but the other were quite surprising. I am not an economist and I really don't follow the global economy that much but I guess the world hasn't fully recovered from it.

Brands and Social Network Marketing

I've been seeing local brands trying to get their feet wet in social network marketing some are really good. I think San Marino is one of the better one locally but some brands are just joining for the sake of joining. As I've said in one of my talks (there's been only 3 anyway) that social network marketing is simple but not really that simple. There is really some strategy and some thought behind social network marketing. It's not simply posting status messages like it was your own profile. Heck, sometimes people don't really care about what you put on your own  status message - so what more for a brand.

You must have a feel of why consumers follow you in the first place. Status messages must be relevant to your brand and to the people who follow you. If your brand just keeps posting irrelevant messages then sometime along the way people will just lose interest and even get turned off. People must remember a key thing with social media - engagement. If people do not engage with what you post then you are simply being ineffective and at worse an irritant to your followers.

Here's what some experts say are challenges to managing a brand on the social media.

Getting Business Advice from the Internet

As I'v always told my clients you can get anything on the internet, personal advice, digital marketing advice (just look at this blog) and small business tips. My blog is slowly evolving from digital marketing to small business advice. I guess this simply reflects the situation I am in right now. Yes, I am starting my business obviously it's related to online marketing simply because I've been doing this for a year and a half already. It's both fun and scary at the same time. If you're not doing anything you suddenly feel your not being productive. But I think that is the life of a start-up.

Anyway, join me in looking at these YouTube Channels for some business advice. 5 YouTube Channels for Small Business Advice.

The Carbon Economy

"The argument that the dangers of climate change is great and that the world should act strongly and urgently, is or should be, over.

We should now be working on policy and strategic response" - Lord Nicolas Stern, London Business School