This week I participated in a Social Media Week New York panel “Putting the Social in CSR” along with Bonin Bough from Pepsico, Deb Berman from Just Means, and Chrysi Philalithes from (RED).  Its an extremely timely topic and one we have been thinking a lot about  from a number of different angles.  The great news?  Social media provides the media for corporations to leverage their Corporate Social Responsibility investments to yield greater fruit for both the customer and the beneficiary.

The time-worn model of CSR of “Purchase X and we’ll contribute to Y up to $Z amount” can leave all parties feeling a little empty.  Consumers know the company has already earmarked the money for the cause and is now trying to blackmail us into unlocking it by picking their brand over the equivalent.  That similarly does little for the cause beyond the actual money donated - there’s little room on a package to tell the charity’s story and there’s no way for the consumer to choose to become more involved.  To paraphrase John & Yoko, “EMPTY CSR IS OVER if you want it”.

Social media allows for the type of participation that can provide better return on CSR investments to all.  Just a few:

• Connecting Customer and Cause - Activating around a CSR commitment in social spaces allows the customer to choose to go a step beyond just the purchase for token donation to donating themselves, connecting to the cause’s social space or promoting the cause to there social nets.
• Inspiring Meaningful Involvement - Social media allows companies to set up infrastructure for their customers to be the connection that makes the biggest difference.  For example, Time Warner Cable (Disclosure: Ogilvy client, but we are not responsible for CSR), who has made a 5-year $100MM commitment to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math through their Connect a Million Minds initiative. They are measuring success not with number of $$ donated, but number of minds connected – a function not of their donation, but the number of people they have inspired & empowered to take advantage of the infrastructure they have created.
• Platform for Awareness & Promotion The much publicized Pepsi Refresh Project is taking a huge step in CSR - providing $20 million in grants to individuals and small organizations with good ideas to improve their local communities.  Pepsi provides a platform to tell your story, promote your idea, and is doling out 32 grants per month to the democratically selected winners.  The impact for these causes will go far beyond a microscopic logo on a box.

To reference Ann Charles’ Mashable piece on CSR 2.0, the new way to look at CSR is the “triple bottom line of people, planet and profit”.  Maybe social media adds a fourth P – participation - that could be a goal in itself.  Participation benefits the brand, beneficiary, and consumer alike and will fuel the type of CSR that will hopefully increase the efforts and investments of corporations in some of society’s most serious challenges.

Social media continues to evolve, shaping not just our thoughts on connectivity and information consumption online, but how it applies to our everyday lives.

This is not breaking news. Still, there are many people, brands and companies that are still dipping their toes in the social media pool, trying to gauge the value of social media platforms and leveraging these sites to connect with their key audiences. As a digital strategist with a traditional public relations background, I can see the value in both online and offline media, but note the increased convergence between the two mediums. Yet many companies still grapple with social media and are tasked with demonstrating “the value” more than ever. What if these same organizations knew that mainstream media reporters were conducting a good deal of their research on social media websites, such as blogs, Twitter or Wikipedia?

Last week, our team came across a recent study by George Washington University and Cision titled “2009 Social Media & Online Usage Study” on how mainstream media and web-based journalists use social media sites in their daily work. The subhead of the press release announcing the study states, “Poll Finds 89% Use Blogs, 65% Use Social Networking Sites, and 52% Use Microblogging Sites — but Reliability is a Major Concern,” which piqued our interest. As a result, my colleague Rachel Polish and I decided to conduct our own mini-study of both mainstream media and bloggers to see if our results corroborated with the Cision study. Additionally, we wanted to know if there were major differences in how mainstream media and bloggers leveraged social media tools.

Here are some of the questions we posed and responses we received from our friends in the media:

What social media tools are you using to publish, promote and distribute what you write?

From a high-circulation, mainstream magazine reporter:

• Blogs: Wish I had better connections here, would love to do better cross-syndication of information.
• Twitter: Lots of promotion throughout official channel, not very much through my personal one.
• LinkedIn: I’d very much like to increase my reach here. Seems like a nice way to be personal and professional.
• Facebook: Facebook is my private place. No public promotion here, save a “fan” group with like 20 people.
• Flickr: None.
• YouTube: We’re starting to post videos here, though unofficially.
• Review sites: None.
• Other: Email!

From Eliane Fiolet, Publisher and Editor of the blog Ubergizmo (www.ubergizmo.com):

We use LinkedIn, Facebook, Friendfeed, Twitter, and YouTube to re-publish the content (mostly article title + link to the blog post) that we post on Ubergizmo.com, sometimes Flickr, but not too much. Other blogs re-publish our content; some do a total copy/paste with a link to our original article, and some use the information and write their own post and link to our original article. When we have access to exclusive events, like the Apple press conference, we authorize other blogs who do not have this access to use our live blogging pictures (three or more updates per minute) in exchange for a mention and a link, and our logo is watermarked in the pictures.

How do you measure the impact and/or traction of your stories published on the Internet/Social Media sites?

From Brian Stelter, the New York Times (www.nytimes.com):

I sometimes notice when a story is retweeted especially often. I sometimes view the comments on articles, especially when I’m writing other stories about the subject.

From Cheri Loughlin, the blog, The Intoxicologist (www.intoxicologist.net):

I don’t worry so much whether an individual post or cocktail receives comments, or what reader views happen to be on any given day.  My focus revolves around what readers are interested in over the long haul.  I look for trends in what my readers search for in key words that brings them to specific articles.  Readers will also tell you what they want if you build respect and trust.  Rather than use The Intoxicologist Facebook fan page as a tool for just placing article links, I try to engage my readers in conversation for feedback so I can bring them more of what they want.  I also learn a great deal from my readers, which is a great experience for me.

From Jane Maynard, the blog, This Week for Dinner (www.thisweekfordinner.com):

I consider the number of website visitors, number of comments or views, number of Twitter followers, and number of inbound links, although I feel like traffic to my blog and number of comments are my most accurate gauge.

Which search engines/sites/sources do you use most when doing online research or distribute what you write?

From Robert Selna, Reporter, San Francisco Chronicle (www.sfgate.com):

I use Google in nearly every instance in which I need quick contact information for a company, non-profit group or government agency. I rely on Lexis-Nexis for harder to find contact information and for news stories related to the topics I’m covering.

With the changing media landscape, it is clear that both mainstream as well as web media are increasing leveraging social platforms to conduct research and locate sources for their stories. Additionally, it is evident that there is a growing value placed on engagement and what topics trend to have the most traction.

What social tools do you find you use the most to communicate your messages? How do you measure the impact of your work or posts on the social web? While it’s clear both public relations practitioners and the media are leveraging more social tools and platforms, there is still an evolution taking place in terms of how these tools are perceived and how trustworthy the content is. We’d be interested in learning what resources and tools are most effective for you.

This week, Facebook Friday will look at six of Facebook’s top news stories and how they affect brands. As a bonus- a link to a bit of Facebook psychology.

1. Facebook recently introduced per-post analytics for Facebook pages- these show up only for authenticated pages (see below). For each link, video, wall post, or other content a page administrator posts you’ll be able to see the number of impressions it has gotten along with a feedback percentage (formula: comments or likes/impressions). Facebook provides some good explanation of each number means on their blog.
2. Does anyone have more information on authenticated pages? I’ve made it my personal message to figure out what it actually means since it could affect brands and brand representatives (like PR firms) who are brand page administrators. All I’ve tracked down so far is a message board of people being confused and a mention of authentication in the blog post above where it says, “Once a Page reaches 10,000 fans, the administrator is provided instructions on how to authenticate the Page.” But I am the administrator of a page that large and haven’t heard anything…
3. Doppelganger week? Huh? No one knows. Just go with it.
4. Facebook requires third party advertisers on applications (those banner ads you see on application pages) to agree to new terms. Pretty standard, just make sure if you use one of these providers that they are certified.
5. Facebook introduced new home page navigation and it looks pretty awesome. The only issue I’ve ID-ed is that the new photo upload plug-in I installed is broken so I can’t upload any new pictures yet. This doesn’t alter brand pages but it does raise the profile of applications and games from brands and developers, something discussed here last week.
6. Happy 6th Birthday Facebook!

Briefly noted: Facebook profiles capture our true personality, according to new psychology research.

National Wear Red Day at Ogilvy PR

If you haven’t realized it by now - RED is one of our favorite colors here at Ogilvy. Not only does it represent our brand and our company mentality, but it also stands for a cause close to our hearts (no pun intended).

Heart disease is the #1 Killer of Women - It is the goal of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s (NHLBI) Heart Truth campaign and Ogilvy to build awareness and provide resources for individuals, especially women who are less aware of their top health risk, to help reduce their risk of heart disease. (disclosure:  The Heart Truth® is an Ogilvy PR client).

While this is a year long issue, we make it a point to call out the importance of heart disease awareness every February, during American Heart Month (think of it as the friendly reminder you need to keep your healthy habits going after the hype of New Year’s resolutions dies down…), starting with National Wear Red Day®.

So for Friday, February 5th (yes, that’s tomorrow) we have a call out to the digital nation - show up in  red tomorrow & show your support of heart disease awareness.

And as Virginia Miracle puts it,  we’re “not just talking to the ladies”.  Men, women, children and even pets - wear red.

Publicize your participation digitally. Post videos/pictures of your fashionable attire, your company’s BIG RED photo opp, Tweet about it, and join in the online conversation around heart disease awareness on National Wear Red Day.

And if you’re free tomorrow afternoon, join us in NHLBI’s first ever National Wear Red Day Twitter Party from 3-4 PM EST.  RSVP here.

Here are a few key things to remember:

Universal campaign hashtag is #hearttruth - please use this in all your Tweets/posts/image and video tags

Tag for Flickr photos is  “NationalWearRedDay.”

Handle for Twitter is @thehearttruth, follow for heart healthy tips and resources, new research and statistics, and live coverage of the The Heart Truth’s Red Dress Collection Fashion Show.

Lastly, don’t forget to join the campaign Facebook Fan Page to learn about new events in your area, get first hand updates on the 2010 Red Dress Fashion Show and share how you are taking action to reduce your risk of heart disease. (You can post your National Wear Red Day pictures here, too).

Social media can be used in a variety of capacities; so instead of your standard Top Ten list, I’ll look at campaigns based on their strategic approach. Some of these initiatives could fit into multiple buckets, but for the sake of this blog post, I’ll only focus on specific components of an overall program.

Empowering Brand Advocates Through Social Media

One could argue the easiest method to earn digital relevance and recognition is to take advantage of a brand’s advocates that are already active in social media and give these people a more influential voice.  As Nielsen  reports that consumers trust their friends’ opinions over corporate marketing messages, countless brands are attempting to corral their top fans and focus their enthusiasm towards potential consumers.  One component of this strategy is to leverage the strong connection these fans share with the brand’s personality and the community on whole. In 2009, two companies did this particularly well in completely different ways.

Boxee, 2009 International CES Team Member Contest
…or how to excite your fans in 72 hours or less.

Background

All the way back in October 2008, Boxee was a small start-up that just won a free entry to the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) for producing the world’s first “social” media center. Without getting into too much detail, Boxee is a cross-platform software application (and now hardware component) that allows you to link media hubs, such as your computer, Hulu, and NetFlix account to your television; you can then share those viewing experiences across a social network.

Similar to other innovative start-ups, Boxee has a very passionate and cult-like fan base. The company blog receives over 50,000 unique monthly visitors and blog posts can easily generate 100, if not 200 comments. Boxee advocates are very vocal and love sharing their opinions with others.

But, again, similar to most start-ups, the company only employs a handful of people and certainly not enough to man two booths at one of the largest electronics trade shows in the world. Boxee needed a quick way to increase their presence at CES and generate excitement within their community.

Strategy and Execution

On a Thursday afternoon just one week before the start of the conference, Boxee CEO, Avner Ronen, posted on the company blog that Boxee is only able to send a few of their employees to CES and they’ll need some help from fans. Mr. Ronen asked people to take some time during the weekend to shoot and submit a one-minute video of themselves explaining the software as if they were at CES. After a vote, the winners would be flown out to Las Vegas and join the Boxee crew.

Over the course of Friday and Saturday, fans from across the country presented their best Boxee pitches to both the company and community in hopes of securing a spot on the team.

On Sunday morning at 8am, Boxee posted 20 finalists, and by the afternoon, Boxee fans tallied over 750 votes. The next day, Boxee announced four winners and on Wednesday, the four were on their way to the conference.

In less than seven days, a campaign critical to the brand’s reputation was launched, executed, wrapped-up, and its results implemented.

Impact

At the conference, the Boxee booth was one of the most popular of the entire show. Visitors appreciated hearing directly from the knowledgeable Boxee fans, which freed up time for the developers to speak with their many media engagements.   The team took home plenty of awards including CEA iStage Winner, G4’s Best of the Best, and CNet’s Editor’s Pick.

On their own, the four contest winners actively shared their experience in Las Vegas with the Boxee community through Twitter, videos, and photos.  One advocate is now even featured in the main video on the Boxee homepage.

Why It Worked

Through this advocate activation campaign, Boxee connected their last-minute need for additional help on the conference floor to the desires of a highly engaged community. It didn’t hurt that the top prize was any Boxee fan’s ultimate dream: share a product they love at a key industry event, as part of a team they admire. Boxee’s community loves engaging directly with the brand, and the entire process kept not just the winners, but everyone involved from the start, whether it was creating content, judging other members, or hearing directly from the Boxee fans at CES. This campaign built on the link between the advocates’ personal interests and the brand, which in turn generated excitement within their base community in addition to creating positive exposure to potential consumers.

Now as simple as the Boxee example seems, it only will work for certain styles of brands. Sometimes a brand’s personality requires a more exclusive and intimate experience.

Enter Marmite.

Marmite, The First Circle of the Marmarati
…or how to use preferential treatment and exclusivity to target advocates.

Background

Since the late 19th century, this sticky, dark brown vegan spread has been known to stir up heated passions. People seem to either love this product or completely hate it. There are multiple Facebook groups representing both sides, the largest of which claims nearly 250,000 fans. In 2009, Marmite invited their biggest advocates to decide the newest flavor. This campaign certainly isn’t the first to crowd-source a new product, but this social media strategy uniquely activates Marmite advocates by intimately connecting them with the brand’s English/Victorian personality.

Strategy and Execution

Marmite asked people to describe why they love the spread in 12 words or less. Roughly 700 entries were uploaded in the form of Facebook status updates, Tweets, and audio and video clips. 40 fans received a phone call from “William Fotherington-Smythe,” a fictional character with a distinct elitist accent and he invited them to join the First Circle of the Marmarati. The new members were then brought to the secret society’s inaugural event at a posh restaurant in downtown London.

Upon arrival, the 40 Marmarati were provided champagne and briefly allowed to mingle with the “elders” including Marmite’s CEO who portrayed “Lord Marmarati,” in full costume. Soon enough, a master of ceremonies swept back a curtain to reveal an elegant banquet table. After a brief history of Marmite, he made each of the Marmarati recite a secret oath and blindfolded them before they could taste the three different flavors.

After the tasting, the fans sipped Marmite-flavored cocktails while the master of ceremonies told them about a “secret” Facebook page and instructed them all to wait for further instructions.

Impact

The Marmarati returned to their everyday lives, blogging about their mysterious experience and shortly, food blogs and pop-culture sites in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States picked up the story and shared this clever campaign with their readers.

Within a few weeks, the Marmarati members were contacted to recruit others for the Second Circle of the Marmarati, which is now scaled up to include 160 new members. As of this writing, the Second Circle members were just announced and the new Marmite flavor, “XO” is said to hit shelves in March 2010.

Why It Worked

Compared to Boxee’s advocate activation campaign, the Marmarati campaign required a great deal of planning and execution. However, this strategy of a secret society and luxurious experience fits perfectly with the brand’s image, passionate following, and English/Victorian history.

What Does This Mean?

Both these campaigns highlight a key point that is essential to advocate outreach: strategy must fit brand personality.

Whether you are marketing a cutting edge technology or a delicatessen spread, your tactics may be different, but your initial approach to advocate activation should be the same. Your brand’s biggest fans identify with your brand’s image; they relate their interests to the brand’s personality. Our job as social media marketers is to leverage and expand on this existing link between the advocate and the brand. The stronger you build the bond, the more likely your advocates will share their brand experiences with potential consumers.

[This is the first post in a series revisiting some of the more unique social media campaigns by consumer brands in 2009 and how these programs can guide our 2010 engagement strategies. Click here to read the full series.]

Facebook has undoubtedly become one of the most influential social media platforms a brand can leverage. It can be a powerful tool when used effectively and with corporations, non-profits, celebrities joining in on the fun, it is paramount that you find a way to stand out and be noticed. Setting up a Facebook page is a given, what matters now is your commitment to the value-exchange between you and your target audience. Taking the time to figure out how you can raise the bar and deliver a unique experience will set you apart from the rest. This post will tell you how to do it…

Once a brand has established a Facebook Fan Page or Group (for a refresh on the difference read here) the next step is to recruit/invite people to join you. There are a couple ways to do this: some brands have used contests and giveaways to drive traffic (more detail below) while another option is to purchase Facebook Ads to raise awareness about your page. Most importantly it’s necessary to give Facebook members a compelling reason to go and then keep them coming back. 

Let’s review some best practices for engaging your fans. The following examples come from brands featured on The Big Money Facebook 50[i]  as the most popular brands in 2009.

Functionality: Providing useful information that will enhance the experience of the product is a great way to keep fans coming back. The  Apple iTunes fan page( 2.5+ million fans), provides a Featured tab where fans can access exclusive iTunes tutorials, iTunes top hits and use the search and share function to find favorite songs, movies and shows. Best Buy  (1+ million fans) provides a shop and share tab where members can browse and discuss products without leaving Facebook.

Time Bound Contest/Challenges: Engaging members through friendly contests that have a simple call-to-action can drive traffic to a page and increase buzz about the brand. TGI Fridays ran a promotion (including broadcast TV) inviting you to become a friend of super fan, Woody and in return receive a free Jack Daniels Burger. Participants would receive a free burger if the fan page reached half a million fans by October. The goal was reached by September 13 and the fan page currently has 943,542 fans. YouTube (3+ million fans) posted a celebrity challenge to its readers with the mission to outrank Will Smith, Megan Fox, Lady Gaga, Adam Sandler and Vin Diesel by surpassing the number of fans each of the celebrities had on their individual fan pages. YouTube simply asked readers to become a fan on Facebook, YouTube did not reach its goal but it did gain an additional 600,000 fans during the challenge. If you plan to run a contest on Facebook be sure to review the Facebook Promotion Guidelines, these new rules will certainly impact your strategy.

Recognition: Acknowledging fans on the page is an opportunity to reward the individual for participation and publicly thank them for being a fan. The official Dunkin Donuts fan page (1+ million fans) runs a weekly Facebook Fan of the Week contest. To enter, fans simply post their photo to the wall and each week Dunkin Donuts will select one fan’s photo and post it as the profile picture.

Sophisticated Apps: Brands can take engagement to the next level by using Facebook apps that allow members to participate in online games or create online content and share in the experience with other members. Red Bull (2+ million fans) launched a Red Bull Stash App that allowed participants to engage in a city scavenger hunt to find Red Bulls hidden all over the country. Fans could download the app and enter their local zip code to begin receiving clues for their local scavenger hunt.

These are just a few examples of how brands connected with their fans - gave them a great experience by serving a purpose or providing some entertainment and no doubt they created some loyal customers along the way.

The work that goes into having a successful Facebook program takes thoughtful planning, for this a conversation calendar is a valuable tool that can organize and streamline the planned initiatives. Although timing isn’t everything a conversation calendar will let you analyze when page members are receptive to updates and information. Additionally, a conversation calendar allows you to:

·         List media and frequency of all your social media activity

·         Budget time and assign tasks to team members

·         Schedule social media events/promotions to leverage brand initiatives

·         Facilitate and plan a consistent conversation with fan page members

Creating a conversation calendar requires collaboration among all marketing/communication teams.  Simply put, if another brand team within your organization is announcing a challenge or sweepstakes it is important take that into consideration rather than compete for the share of voice.  Depending on the purpose behind a brands page there a couple ways to set-up a calendar, the following are different categories a brand can use to schedule fan page activity:

·         Page publishing and CRM

·         Promotions and special events

·         App launches

·         Brand announcements

·         Weekly updates

Consistent activity and engagement on a page is crucial – but measurement is equally vital to the success of a page. If people don’t find the content appealing or useful, how often a brand provides new content is irrelevant.  A brand can measure the impact of a program by listening to the conversation among fan page members and evaluating if there was an increase in participation. For example if a brand launches a new Facebook app it will want to monitor if the launch resulted in new fan page members, comments on the fan page, Twitter mentions, blog posts etc. If it did, the brand knows that piece of the Facebook strategy works. If your page members dislike or just don’t care about the new app, it is time reevaluate and alter the strategy in a way that will increase engagement and get page members excited.

The trick to a successful Facebook page is to find a balance that satisfies the brand and the consumer.  We help our clients along the way by implementing a conversation calendar so the strategy is clear, the tools and promotions come into play at a time that makes sense to the overall campaign and most importantly our client can focus on providing a memorable and valuable experience to its consumer. 

You should consider attending - especially as I have a neat code that gets you in at “friends of Ogilvy” pricing: WM-OGV.

• WeMedia 2010 - register here or find out more (don’t forget our code)
• When: March 9-11
• Where: Miami
• What: We Media Miami is an innovation conference, focused equally on “We”  and “Media” - and how to innovate in business and society through innovative uses of media and communication technology. We Media has a strong interest in the future of news and journalism. But we explore innovation through media more broadly, with participants and ideas from many fields, including entertainment, healthcare, politics, marketing and social activism. We have an overall focus on Game Changers: People, projects, ideas and organizations leading change and inspiring a better world through media. We explore media not simply as an instrument of business or an outcome of technology but as a means of sweeping social impact and human improvement.

The BBC will conduct a live global broadcast of the program World Have Your Say originating from/during our conference.

The conference includes senior executives and thought leaders from media and other companies;  journalists; social activists and NGOs; public broadcasters; investors and tech companies; independent media creators; healthcare; government; and a number of early-stage entrepreneurs, including finalists for a seed investment challenge we organize called PitchIt! That effort is supported by the Ethics & Excellence in Journalism Foundation, and for the past two years we’ve conducted it in collaboration with Ashoka’s Changemakers community.

Here are some of the participants for this year:

- Tom Curley, CEO, The Associated Press
- Michael Wolf, Vanity Fair columnist and founder of Newser
- Byron Reese, Chief Innovation Officer, Demand Media
- Francois Ragnet, Global Director of Innovation, Xerox
- Richard Sambrook, Director, BBC World Service
- Alberto Ibarguen, CEO, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
- Bob Ross, President, Ethics & Excellence in Journalism Foundation
- Jim Kennedy, VP Strategy, The Associated Press
- Oren Michels, CEO, Mashery
- Jeff Belk, Founder, ICT168 Capital; former SVP, Qualcomm
- Ben Ilfeld, Co-Founder, Sacramento Press
- C. Renzi Stone, CEO, SaxumPR
- John McKinley, Founder, LaunchBox Digital and CEO, OurParents
- Ben Berkowitz, Founder, SeeClickFix
- Jacob Colker, Founder, The Extraordinaries
- David Mathison, Author, Be The Media
- Juliette Powell, Author, 33 Million People in a Room

If I’m reading the signs correctly Facebook is preparing an major applications push, trying to make them more attractive to developers with monetization and promotion: will it work?

Facts:

• Facebook is preparing to push applications more social, showing you which applications your friends are using to try and increase the uptake of new applications. This will not be opt in.
• The Applications menu now hastabs: On Facebook, External Websites, Desktop, Mobile, Protoypes
• Facebook will now let applications email you, that is a huge opportunity for brands for a new generation of newsletters or a new step in converting fans to customers.
• In the applications can email you announcement, Facebook specifically mentioned receipts for purchases you make as an example of what applications would be emailing you.

Last time we mentioned monetization it was all about virtual gifts but the Facebook team hasn’t talked about monetization since they released their Terms of Payment last March although they did quietly re-launch the Marketplace as an application late last year. I checked out my Marketplace today and not one of my friends or network members has posted anything for sale, even in all of Washington DC (+35 mile radius) there were less than 800 items for sale but there were almost 20,000 apartment or roommate listings.

What are some possibilities here? Facebook Marketplace is attractive: it’s like Craigslist but there is a less of a likelihood I will get scammed or kidnapped if the transaction is with a friend or a friends’ friend or even a friends’ friends’ friend. I can also see how a brand application could be an attractive online retail experience: scan your photos for style or body type, suggest a personal shopping list for you, click to purchase your winter wardrobe.

I am less sure that people would start paying for actual applications on Facebook, but with the options to see mobile, desktop, and external website applications suddenly available that could change.

Please share experiences or predictions here- see you next Friday!

Briefly noted: The Oatmeal posted a hilarious comic strip poking fun at some common Facebook offenders- check it out here.

Thanks to Sam Ilic (flickr: Stage 88) for the awesome photo- I think it embodies the TGIF dream.

Recently covered in GigaOM, CNN, Ad Age and The New York Times, Foursquare is currently one of the most buzzed about location-based mobile social networks. Intel and Ogilvy recently used Foursquare to drive traffic to and create buzz around Intel’s offline events and activities at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month.

For CES, Intel created a branded Foursquare page, featuring locations where Intel had activity and tips for Las Vegas visitors. Intel also rewarded check-in’s to key events with branded badges, paired with the chance to win an Intel-powered netbook for all badge recipients.

This exclusive collaboration allowed Intel to track and build relationships with online influencers active on Foursquare at CES. With more than 400 cumulative check-in’s to Intel-affiliated locations and events, the collaboration was a breakout success and proved to be an interesting event-based model for brands looking to work with Foursquare.

We interviewed Tristan Walker, head of business development at Foursquare, to learn more about their vision for what’s to come for brands, businesses and Foursquare.

How do you foresee Foursquare interacting with brands in the future?

We see brands using Foursquare to help guide experiences. Twitter and Facebook have shown that brands can engage with consumers online in a meaningful way. Foursquare wants to take that engagement offline and give brands tools that are necessary to lead consumers to do really interesting things rather than just suggest.

Right now, we’re very much in the experimentation stage. This is a model that is resonating with brands we’ve worked with, so we will continue doing what works for them. Of course, we will continue to gather feedback from the brands we’re currently working with to see how we can improve our product.

What are some cool ways that brands and businesses have used Foursquare?

BART, Harvard, the Brooklyn Museum—all of these brands have leveraged Foursquare for consumers and fans as curators of interesting experiences for them  in their respective locations. BART serves as an expert for San Francisco, and Harvard offers tips on interesting things to do around campus. The Brooklyn Museum encourages people to check out the museum, but also gives tips on locations to visit around Brooklyn. They’ve also offered cool promotions at the venue itself. Intel has also used Foursquare in an interesting and engaging way at CES.

How will Foursquare continue working with brands to ensure that the user experience isn’t disrupted?

What we don’t want to do is make our platform seem overly “ad”-like and promotional. We aim to allow fans of brands to discover that brands are doing cool things on Foursquare, which is why we don’t have a true push model.

How has opening up Foursquare’s API enabled brands to interact with consumers on Foursquare?

Retailers like Tasti D-Lite leveraged Foursquare’s API to add a social layer on top of loyalty. They paired Foursquare check-in’s with loyalty card swipes. Every time you swipe your loyalty card, it shoots to Facebook and Twitter, alerting your followers that you redeemed “Free Tasti Points.” The more you share, the faster you can redeem rewards they offer. Going social at the point of sale is powerful.

The great thing about opening our API is that we continue to see interesting use cases on top of our platform surface. With time, we will see more interesting things pop up.

In his famous visit to the Galapagos Islands, Charles Darwin developed a theory suggesting a link between the environment and evolution. He cataloged the incredible biodiversity of plant and animal life and the unique evolutionary quirks that allows these creatures to thrive.

B2B Marketers are sometimes considered to be behind the evolutionary curve of most digital trends when compared to their B2C brethren.  But like Darwin’s turtles in the Galapagos, the B2B Marcom species is evolving in this space because the social web environment happens to be extraordinarily well suited for their needs as they work to build trust, generate and convert leads, and provide a mechanism for sustained engagement.

Here’s how…

Trust and the Long Sale

Most B2B companies interact with leads in what can only be described as a “long sale.”  That is, months or sometimes years of nurturing a prospect down the marketing funnel from general awareness toward conversion.

Think of your most recent purchase (a sandwich, cup of coffee) and that compare that to B2B Marcom pros trying to court a buyer considering the purchase of, say, three million dollars worth of semiconductors and the buyer/seller dynamic quickly changes.  There’s so much risk inherent in making a B2B purchasing decisions.  Prospective buyers can stick around for months kicking the tires before they decide to buy.

Imagine camping out in a grocery store for six months before heading to the check out lane.  You’d have time to learn about every ingredient in your shopping chart.  You’d have weeks to walk around and ask other shoppers about their purchases and what sorts of meals they made using those ingredients.  By the time you checked out, you’d probably even know every employee by name.

See how the long sale is all about building trust?

Dive a bit deeper and you’d learn that “word of mouth from a colleague” is the most trusted information source among B2B purchasers (according to eMarketer: Key Factors in Purchase Decisions Among B2B Professionals subscription required), and it then becomes clear why social media is playing such as a critical for B2B Marketers.

Content Strategy and Thought Leadership

All of this courting and nurturing leads us to the next reason why B2B brands are quietly leading the industry – thought leadership content. Most B2C thought leadership programs in social media are really only designed to drive awareness and consideration.  The B2B space has evolved quite a bit differently.  Here, thought leadership programs are tasked with hitting all phases of the Marcom funnel.  Sure, B2B brands are using their arsenal (whitepapers, research, in-house experts) to build visibility in search and generally increase awareness among their prospects; this content - often existing marketing collateral repurposed for the social web - hits a prospect right at the top of the funnel as they consider their options among similar product or service providers.

But here’s where B2B has evolved into a different beast.  Thought leadership content that builds trust among prospective buyers can convert leads to sales, not just raise awareness.  In fact, according to Brian Carroll in his book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, B2B salespeople that had reached the status of “trusted adviser” were 70% more likely to come away with a sale.

Smart B2B marketers have become expert in developing a content-focused thought leadership strategy in an effort to nurture and convert these leads.

Here’s a just sample of what works in social media:

Benchmarking Surveys – nothing gets business decision makers more excited than the chance to compare themselves to one another.  B2B brands are often in the great position of having access to several customers in the same vertical.  A semiconductor widget manufacture sends out a quick survey to its customers, hires a researcher to make sense of the data, and an industry wide semiconductor widget report is born.  Put that sucker behind a lead gen form and suddenly that thought leadership strategy is doing a lot more than awareness building – it’s hard a core lead gen tool.

Product Applications – products in the B2B space can be amazingly complex. Imagine buying tennis shoes and being asked for your Qualified Sneaker Technician ID before you could make the purchase. B2B brands are finding new ways to give users and prospective users of their product useful, shareable information.  Often this includes user generated content - from real life applications to “off label” use – which helps to build positive word of mouth from colleagues.

Experts - brands in the B2B world have become proficient at indentify and making available their in-house experts to their customers and leads.  Often times, the expert is only proficient in one small sliver of the business.  Connect the relevant expert with the right lead, though, and that could make all the difference in a major sale.  Social media identifies, segments, and facilitates these connections via live chat on a product page, expert blogs, or Q&A session on professional networks.

Measurement

B2B companies have traditionally been leaders in measurement, especially when analyzing their CRM efforts, for a variety of reasons: Each lead in B2B is critically important (and valuable) so measuring and tracking prospective buyers has always been a unique skill set.  Also, unlike most B2C sales, one single B2B sale could have dozens of layers of decision makers all related to one purchase.  Multiply that by just a few different sales and the importance of a solid tracking system becomes clear.

In their book, One-to-One B2B, Roger and Peppers describe the differences of B2B and B2C, even referencing a wild, crazy time before computers:

“The truth is, B2B CRM is probably older and more established than consumer or B2C CRM, primarily because even before computers made it possible, sales reps would keep records of individual contacts, because it was worth it to do so.”

Beyond that, B2B marketers have always adopted a rigorous approach to measurement as everything can be traced back to the number of leads generated and converted. This religious commitment to measurement has translated to social media as well.  Salesforce.com – a favorite CRM tool among B2B sales teams – has launched an application called Service Cloud 2 that combines its traditional sales tracking tool with social media sites.  So now, a commenter on a product blog can be tracked and nurtured just as regular face-to-face encounter.  All this data allows for B2B brands to quickly assess what lead gen programs are working (live chat versus Facebook page versus product blog) and adapt the programs as needed.

This model – traditional Marcom metrics blended with social media data – is leading the way as B2B brands are demonstrating the effectiveness of a social media program in the mathematical language that CMOs have been seeing for years – increases in awareness, share of positive voice, sales, and the associated cost per point increase. (Our Digital Influence team developed a model for measuring social media in this way, it’s called Conversation Impact)

The bottom line is this: if carrier pigeons could do all this then there we’d have a shortage of bird cages.  The tool is irrelevant; B2B Marketers aren’t adopting social media at such a fast pace because they’re all giddy over FourSquare.  Nope.  B2B marketers will flock to whatever converts leads to sales and the fact that we’ve seen a recent quadrupling of B2B social media usage (according to BtoB Magazine and the Association of National Advertisers) suggests the extraordinarily potential of the social web to impact their business.  We will continue to watch as B2B brands evolve and shape the Word of Mouth industry as a result.

Here are a few great resources to do just that:

Social Media B2B Blog

B2B Lead Gen Blog

B2B Online - Resources

B2B Social Media Marketing