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With all the discussion on what social media is, what it’s future will be like, who will control it, I often feel we fail to see the forest for the trees.

I see it as too diverse of a phenomenon to pin down with one easy definition. Its applications go far beyond the neat capsules that can be used to pick a particular department or function that should “own” it. Social media is creating, empowering, and accompanying a paradigm shift in the way we use all media.

Are we fully there yet? Of course not. These are only the early stages, part of an evolutionary process that often comes step by step. But those steps are happening and happening and soon we’ll look back and be amazed how far we’ve traveled. Then before we know it again, we’ll be stepping again and look back again and we’ll be amazed how much we’ve come from that first time we looked back.

Yes, organizations are going to have to harness social media in ways that they can benefit from, to reach ROI. This means trying to create some sort of structure for it without “siloizing” it. Very difficult indeed.

I’ve tried to lay out what I see social media as. Not from a specific definitional standpoint, but from a several miles up point of view.

Interested in your feedback… Read more…

No Comments » Posted on July 30th, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

Filed under: Abraham Harrison LLC, Conversation, Conversation Marketing, Corporate Blog, Corporate Blogging, Corporate Partnering, Corporate Responsibility, Hearts and Minds, Online Brand Promotion, Online Brand Protection, Online Brand Reputation, Online Branding, Online Collaboration, Online Communications, Online Communities, Online Community Outreach, Online Conversation, Online Engagement, Online Evangelism, Online Facilitation, Online Messaging, Online Monitoring, Online Participation, Online Portal, Online Public Relations, Online Reputation, Online Reputation Management, Online Strategy, Online Virtual Communities

Deloitte, along with Beeline Labs and the Society of New Communications Research, has come out with a study showing the current challenges and rewards of today’s online corporate created “communities”. It’s created a decent amount of chatter, which is not surprising considering that this industry is in its nascent stages and everyone is trying to figure it out.

The survey, entitled “2008 Tribalization Survey” gathered information from more than 140 responding organizations in the business to business, business to consumer, and non-profit sectors. Some of the corporate communities have more than 10,000 members; others have less than 100. Those numbers weren’t put into context from what I can see.

I’ve looked around at the commentary on this and have been able to glean a decent amount of info. Much of what I’ve found confirms conventional thought (or at least my thoughts) with the smattering of a few surprises. Read more…

No Comments » Posted on July 22nd, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

Filed under: 2008 Elections, Abraham Harrison LLC, Ad Budgets, Ad Buys, Ad Sales, Election Strategy, Facebook, Google, Google AdSense, Google AdWords, Online Strategy, Political Blogs, Political Strategy, Yahoo!

I’ve blogged about this before.

The internet can be, in my strongly held opinion, a very effective marketing vehicle for persuasive outreach. Most political media consultants don’t believe this or understand this or want to believe or understand this. Many of them get their consulting fees by putting together television and/or radio commercials and buying media time. They view the internet as a fundraising and grassroots organizing medium.

WebGuild has come up with some telling numbers. So far, in 2008:

Barack Obama has spent $1,000,000 on Google ads.
Hillary Clinton has spent $67,000.

Obama spent $99,341 on Yahoo Web Ads.
Clinton has spent $9,186.

Obama spent $58,000 on Yahoo search ads.
Clinton $0.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zippo.

Obama spent $4,900 on Facebook advertising.
Clinton $0.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zippo.Oh, and on Twitter (this one’s on me):

Barack Obama has 24,188 followers. Barack Obama is following 24, 258 people.
Hillary Clinton has 3078 followers. Hillary Clinton is following 0 people.

WebGuild then goes on to point out that the Clinton didn’t pay internet related firms a penny for February ‘08.  Don’t know if that’s because they didn’t have any scheduled payments or they just didn’t fork over any payments period.  IN that same time , the Obama campaign paid internet consultants $93, 162.

But wait!  Her campaign ended up paying her ad consultants $997,000 and her media consultants $2,540,000.

Joe Trippi is right.  Hillary Clinton’s campaign is the last campaign of the 20th century.  Hopefully.

No Comments » Posted on April 20th, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

Filed under: 2008 Elections, A-List Bloggers, Abraham Harrison LLC, Activating Bloggers, Blog Messaging, Blog Strategy, Blogads Advertising, Blogger Activation, Blogger Effect, Blogger Influence, Blogger Outreach, Blogosphere, Blowback, Election Strategy, Online Polling, Online Strategy, Political Blogs, Political Strategy, Polling Data, Popular Culture

I don’t understand how certain story submissions pass the smell test.

In a release yesterday, Reuters reports, in an article written by Ellen Wulfhorst, that “Most Americans Don’t Read Political Blogs”. No shit. There is so much wrong with this article that I barely know where to start.

The story was based on a poll by Harris Interactive that found “Only 22 percent of people responding to the poll said they read blogs regularly, meaning several times a month or more, according to the survey conducted by Harris Interactive.”

First of all, it attempts to frame the story right in headline. I think most people, or perhaps more importantly, most online political types would not be surprised of the fact that most adults don’t read political blogs. I don’t know of one legitimate consultant who has said otherwise.

It then says “only” 22 percent of American adults regularly political blogs - meaning several times per month. I don’t know why the word “only” is used. It creates bias, making the number appear to be paltry.

You then have to go the second page of the article to find that this was strictly an online poll. That means the whole spin of the poll is skewed. It’s not about “most adult Americans”, it’s “most online adult Americans”…making that 22% actually SMALLER. And an online poll is self-selected, which skews it even further. In what direction is anybody’s guess.

But if we stick with what we’ve got - that 22% of online adults who responded to this poll regularly read political blogs, we’re looking at an impressive figure. More than 1 in 5 of these Americans get at least part of their political information from blogs. Blogs that are conversational. Blogs that are opinionated. Nothing to sneeze at.

No Comments » Posted on March 12th, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

Filed under: Blog Messaging, Blog Policies, Brand Protection, Brand Reputation, Crisis Management, Industry Reputation, Online PR, Online Reputation, Online Reputation Management, Online Strategy, Propaganda, Propaganda Warfare, Reputation Management, Reputation Rehabilitation, Search Engine Reputation Management, Search Reputation Management

I think Southwest is missing an opportunity to effectively come clean on this recent story that they let 46 of the planes fly beyond the FAA mandated amount of per plane flights to have an inspection. They’re using “spinspeak” when they don’t have to.

The issue is muddled. The level of responsiblity is unclear. The nexus of blame looks to be dispersed. Southwest needs to open up a bit more. Instead, they obfuscate.

“The FAA has issued what is called a “letter of penalty” to Southwest Airlines regarding one of many routine, redundant, and overlapping inspections of our fleet. The specific inspection in question involves an extremely small area in one of many overlapping inspections designed to detect early signs of skin cracking on our aircraft.”

“Many, routine, redundant, and overlapping inspections”…”extremely small area in one of manyh ovrlapping inspections”. Please.

Meanitme, one can simply read any news coverge of this and find out that the airline went well past the alloted amount of flights. By trying to sound “reasonable”, they cause people to look elsewhere. And the term “overlapping inspections”…what they hell does that mean?

Most of the rest of what they say if fine. But in the interest of transparency, simply explain the concept of inspections based upon amount of flights. THEN you add how you found the problem and quickly notified the authorities. Keep the bulk of the story on the blog itself. Off an apology for the confusion. Thank people for their loyalty. Let them know that you’ll keep them informed via the blog. Have CEO Gary Kelly post an entry a week until the situation resolves itself.

Right now there’s a bunch of responsed showing doubt towards Southwest. And there’s a significant amount of supportive responses. Some very elaborate. Allmost seems organized, but they’re not cookie cutter. And y0u’ve got some who are defending the company by attacking the media. Saying that the media doesn’t know what they’re talking about…that the media is blowing things out of proportion. On what they’re basing this I don’t know.

Southwest has 30 days to respond to the FAA’s letter of inquiry. Let’s see how it turns out.

No Comments » Posted on March 10th, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

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