Social Media: Who’s getting it?

April 2, 2009

Earlier this week, our editorial board mulled the question of who in the wild west of social media really got it. Before we give you the results of our Social Media Buyers Guide survey (to be unveiled in full at Friday’s Web 2.0 event), we wanted to share with you tips from our readers on how to tell a social media vendor fully understood the form:
  • GlobeHop: Vendors that get social media are the ones who can break out of the lingo and use plain speak to tie it into client’s business goals.
  • hifivelounge: Important to be able to talk simply and clearly about SM without resorting to buzz words. Also value in humility and perspective.
  • hifivelounge: @Kimber_Regator that can happen with “experts”. We like to listen first & learn from a client as we roll up the sleeves….
  • GraemeThickins: “How do you know your vendor understands social media?” I say if they don’t ask, “Why would you share your knowledge on Twitter?”
  • Francine Hardaway offered up some other tips on vetting your vendor to see if they truly understanding social media: “Do you see your vendor on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, other social sites? That’s the bare minimum. Read your vendor’s blog or his Tumblr, or his comments on the blogs of others. Is s/he a valuable member of his/her community? Engaged? Respected? Thoughtful? Social media is a very quickly evolving space, and new tools come out every day. Does your vendor evaluate them? Write about them? Understand what they do? Only after you’re sure your vendor is actually a user of social media do you ask the questions you would ask of any marketing consultant.”
  • And finally, SMC Board Member Kimberly Turner found a wealth of posts on the topic, as well as offering up her view: “What I do know for sure is that too many corporations tend to forget the “social” aspect of social media and treat it like just another way to broadcast their rigid message into the universe. I also know that you should not only look at a vendor’s previous results but also make sure that their approach will work well with your company’s individual goals.”
What do you think? Help us keep the conversation going and send us your thoughts AND your questions.
#SMCQ3
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Filed Under Question of the Week, Uncategorized, Weekly Question Archive · 7 Comments  

Social Media Buyers Guide Ver 1.0 Sneak Peak

March 25, 2009

The results are coming in from the Social Media Buyers Guide Survey and there are definitely some valuable nuggets of gold we are finding.  We are keeping the survey open to get your responses, so if you haven’t contributed yet, the survey is still waiting for you to weigh in and share your own insights.

As a little sample of some of the stuff we are preparing to go into the presentation next week at Web 2.0 Expo, we wanted to share a bit of the more helpful information we are collecting.  For starters, we thought that since this is a buyer’s guide, we would share some of the key questions people reccomend asking of any service provider, media company or techynology vendor.

We asked respondents to recommend the top three questions buyers should ask any social media technology or services providers before closing the deal and here is what they shared with us:

  • What does the technology accomplish that can’t be accomplished without it?
  • How secure will our info be?
  • How will you help me achieve my business objectives?
  • How will you measure the results you have promised?
  • Can you explain why you are on each of these platforms and what is your strategy for engaging with others on each platform?
  • Can I see your case studies? Have you performed these services for more than yourself and one other client?
  • Can you provide references?
  • Is it robust?
  • Will it deliver my requirements?
  • Do we own the data?
  • How accurate is the reporting?
  • Will it let me have two way conversations?
  • Our goal for this project is X. How does your service/technology help us achieve that goal?
  • How sophisticated is your analytics package and what makes it unique?
  • What do you like about our current infrastructure?
  • What do we need to improve in order to be better positioned?
  • What technology is relevant to our situation and what do we need to do in order to leverage it?
  • How are you going to manage my brand’s good name?
  • How popular is the site?
  • How easy is it for people to respond to posts?
  • How easy is it to manage?
  • When would you NOT recommend this?
  • What is your SLA?
  • How stable is your operation?
  • What needs does your tool/service specifically meet?
  • What training will my users require to be able to use this effectively?
  • Do you have business consulting experience?
  • Have you established alliances with market leaders in the social media arena?
  • How long have you, as a company, been involved in social media?
  • What have been your biggest hurdles/what have you learned from them?
  • What is your niche/specialty?
  • What do you know about MY audience in terms of tech savvy, resources and current trends?
  • What can they do to bring value to your customers?
  • What will we do if this doesn’t work?
  • How do you use social media in your everyday personal or professional life?
  • How are you different than the free alternatives to your service, and why should I pay for your service?
  • Is your product or service’s use case or value proposition clear enough that I can explain it to others in my organization and they will immediately see the same value that I do?

If you would like to contribute to help other people benefit from your experience, please fill out the survey!

Also stay tuned for updates on the Buyers Guide presentation at Web 2.0 on Friday, April 3!

Finally, big thanks to William Gaultier and E-Storm for helping make this happen.  They have been excellent partners and friends throughout this process.

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SxSW Party Planning Starts Now: Join us for Pool 2.0

December 3, 2008

We had so much fun at SxSWi, we were wondering if we could make it any better. While we don’t have the cure for the flu bug that went around last year, we do think we have a pretty good party idea for the next one….

Pool 2.0 is the ultimate tournament for Web 2.0, Social Media and Interactive startups. Originally inspired by the boys from Meetro (now LeFora) and their Bowling 2.0 league and our deep love of billiards and beer, we thought it was time for a gentlemanly competition to see who can really lay some heat on the table. We hope you will join us for a great night of partying and some serious playing.

Introducing: Pool 2.0

Sunday March 15th, 8pm-midnight
Buffalo Billiards, 6th Avenue, Austin, TX
Brought to you by Social Media Club and ????

We have the entire 2nd floor to ourselves (it’s pretty big).  We are bringing in some live music, providing free beer all night (looking for a beer sponsor too, and it has to be good beer) and there will even be some video game tournaments on the side. This is going to be the party of the week. We are even bringing in a special guest emcee and will be live streaming the finals to the world.

Here is the run down.  Web 2.0 or Social Media companies (hoping TechCrunch and RWW compete, but just seeing Facebook against MySpace may be enough fun) can apply for one of the 16 spots by filling out this application form.  The entry fee is $500 per company, with the competing companies essentially being sponsors of the event (though we still need a title sponsor to offset the cost of booze etc…).  It’s a double elimination bracket tournament with two person teams, but that may change if needed.

Companies will be playing for their favorite charity with $2,000 going to the winner’s favorite charity and $1,000 going to the runner up’s charity.

If you are interested in more details on how your company can participate, please complete this application and we will get back to you.

As with all SxSWi parties, space is limited.  Tickets will be given out starting in Janaury, so do keep a close eye on the Social Media Club site and our Twitter account.  If you are interested in other sponsorship opportunities, contact us through our web site.

We are really looking forward to seeing everyone back in Austin and finding out who the real sharks of the industry are. More details coming soon….

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Social Media Club Forms Interim Board To Chart Strategic Direction and Advance Its Goals

July 9, 2008

Charting a new direction!The Social Media Club (SMC), a new media and advocacy organization focused on social media, today announced that 42 well-regarded industry leaders have volunteered to form an interim Board of Directors.

The new interim board has been charted to address several key organizational and strategic deliverables, including development of membership goals, acceleration of local chapter development, increase in adoption of industry standards and implementation of a new legal structure to enhance future growth.

New interim Board Member and Adjunct Professor of Social Media at University of Miami Alex de Carvalho said “Social Media Club is an important industry organization that has been working to establish social media standards and ethics. The voluntary participation of such noted industry leaders to further its mission is a clear indication of the Social Media Club’s value and contributions. I look forward to collaborating with the new interim board to progress the Social Media Club from being a ‘big idea’ to serving the community as a prominent agent of change.”

According to Chris Heuer, founder of Social Media Club and Partner at The Conversation Group, “The Social Media Club is honored to have so many accomplished and well-regarded industry evangelists come forward to lead the organization. While the interim board will focus on charting the organization’s future direction, our core mission will remain the same: promotion of media literacy; support of industry standards efforts such as Creative Commons licensing, Microformats, Data Portability and OpenID; discussion and promotion of ethical behavior; and sharing our knowledge among our members and the industry community at large.”

Co-Founder and Social Media Club President Kristie Wells added, “We are grateful to have received so much support from around the world over the past two years. With nearly 200 paying members and over 500 open members – we are deeply appreciative of the volunteer efforts to make the Social Media Club a success. With leading corporate members, such as Business Wire and SHIFT Communications, as well as dedicated individual professionals, the Social Media Club will continue to gain momentum and serve the greater needs of the industry while sharing our lessons learned along the way.”

The board will also focus on increasing its research efforts and strengthening relationships with other organizations such as the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) and the International Association for Business Communicators (IABC). The interim board’s work will be completed once the club reorganizes as a new entity, and holds an election amongst its members for a formal Board of Directors.

The newly named/appointed members of the interim board are leading social media analysts, bloggers and business leaders, and are as follows:

About the Social Media Club

The Social Media Club centers on the sharing of best practices, establishing ethics and standards, and promoting media literacy with a focus on the emerging discipline of Social Media. The Social Media Club brings together journalists, publishers, communication professionals, artists, amateur media creators, citizen journalists, teachers, students, tool makers, and other interested collaborators who create and consume media and have an interest in seeing the industry improve and evolve. The Social Media Club provides a forum for diverse groups and individuals to discover, connect, share and learn about social media and to play a role in its future evolution.

To find out more about the opportunities in social media and connect with other practitioners, visit: http://www.socialmediaclub.org

* Photo by Fabrizio Sciami, Creative Commons  Attribution-Share Alike License

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Under the Radar Social Media & Entertainment

May 24, 2008

Our good friend Debbie Landa from Dealmaker Media is offering Social Media Club members $100 off their upcoming Social Media and Entertainment event in Moutain View, CA on June 3 at the Microsoft Campus. I am hoping to be there myself as this looks like a great event. You can read more about it on their blog or simply go register following this link for the $100 discount.

The Fireside Chat… Breaking Down the Door to Madison Avenue – Hear from R/GA, JWT, AKQA and GLAM MEDIA

PRESENTING COMPANIES:
33Across – Identifies influential online users
Animoto – Create personalized, professional-quality videos from images and music, offering a new alternative to traditional online photo slideshows
AudioMicro – Stock music and sound effects licensing platform
Aviary -Suite of web-based applications for people who create and a marketplace to sell that content
BigStage – Animate yourself with cutting-edge virtualization technology
Comedy.com – aggregated comedy entertainment site
CrowdSPRING – crowdsourcing of creative talent.
Curse – MMO gamer community.
Dizzywood – A virtual world that allows kids to dress up 3D avatars, play games, explore worlds and meet new friends in a safe environment
ffwd – Organized, multi-platform, video content delivered via a browser, with social network awareness, and predictive recommendations.
GumGum – A licensing and distribution platform for online content
Hollywood Interactive Group – A mass casual mmo based on reality TV concepts and Hollywood stardom.
Jacked – Browser-based “second screen” for TV viewers, which provides synchronized content and a real-time interactive experience that complements what they’re watching on TV
Jygy – Mobile social networking with SMS
Keibi – Moderation and classification of user generated content (UGC)
Kontagent – Next gen social analytics
Kosmix – Categorization engine that crawls billions of Web pages in a unique manner to create algo-generated home pages
Lil’Grams – Tracking your babies memories in real time.
Loomia – Social recommendations bridging established social networking sites with media websites
Loud3r – Aggregating and publishing semantically searched content
MediaForge – We’ve got widgets comin’ out our ads
Mochi Media – Provides independent game developers with analytics, distribution, tools and monetization while providing advertisers with turnkey opportunities to reach the one in three Internet users who play online games.
MovieSet – Platform that brings behind-the-scenes filmmaking online, giving fans authentic access through its proprietary toolkit for Producers.
Mytopia -Social gaming community for Web, Mobile, Smartphone and TV
Nesting – Organizing family activities; scheduling, networking and more
Overlay.tv – video commerce platform that overlays contextual information directly onto online video content
Pikum – A new kind of betting game
PluggedIn – Enjoy stunning, broadcast-quality music videos from your browser
PutPlace – Media storage all the way from Ireland
SocialMedia Networks – enables developers of social media applications to monetize their traffic
Sometrics – Social Analytics and Social Ad Platform
Verismo Networks – High quality video over broadband without a pc.
Vivaty – Brings together your friends, photos and videos into a personal virtual scene, in your browser
Vusion – HD Quality Video over the internet
Wetpaint – Wiki powered websites
Xumii – Take all your contacts from your social networks with you — on your phone!

JUDGES:
Jack Kennedy, EVP Strategy & Corporate Development, Fox Interactive
Bradley Horowitz, VP Product Management, Google
Dan Schiappa, GM – Strategy & Business Development – Entertainment & Devices, Microsoft Marty O’Keefe, Director – Business Strategy & Development – Entertainment & Devices, Microsoft Joshua Newman, Director – Digital Media, Twentieth Century Fox
Kara Swisher, Co-Executive Editor, Wall Street Journal/All things D
Charlene Li, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research
Dave McClure, Startup Advisor & Angel Investor, 500 Hats
Lewis Henderson, SVP, William Morris Agency
Peter Chane, Group Business Product Manager – Open Social, Google
Scott Sangster, Director of Strategic Planning and Development, Walt Disney Internet Group
Jason Oberfest, VP of Business Development, MySpace
Rob Hayes, Partner, First Round Capital
Robert Scoble, Editor, Scobleizer
Chad Kinzelberg, Partner, Scale Venture Partners
Rick Bolander, Partner, Gabriel Venture Partners
Vineet Buch, Partner, BlueRun Venures

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