360DigitalInfluence

Something I’ve been mulling over for a while was solidified over the course of several recent conversations with my colleague, Alan Kercinik.

It has to do with the way brands traditionally launch a product/service versus a more optimal approach that can take better advantage of earned conversations.  At the heart of the discussion is what we call the Conversation Chasm.

And while not new thinking - I’ve seen people write about the topic and a Google search reveals several mentions of the term, including a rough version of a post on my personal blog about a month ago - I do think it’s worth revisiting the topic.

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With the new year upon us and 2011 in the rear view mirror, it’s time to pay attention to where social media will go this year. In December, the Ogilvy Digital Influence New York City team hosted its year end 2011 Social Trends Lab. The team predicted 12 trends we think will shape and influence 2012. Is there a prediction you don’t see on this list? Let us know!

And now without further ado, here is the Ogilvy Digital Influence crowdsourced Top 12 in ‘12 list of predictions in social media trends (in no particular order). continue reading

The Google+ Hangout is one of the most notable differences between Google+ and Facebook. Hangouts offer brands an entirely new communication tool and make brands more accessible than ever before. Finding what works best for brands and their audiences is an important part of designing a Hangout session and a handful of brands have already started experimenting with this feature. With a concrete strategy and direction, Hangouts can be leveraged in a variety of fun, interactive and informative ways.

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Remember the excitement you felt when your website finally went live? All the design, development, revisions, and debugging were finally completed. And with a click of a button, you launched your brand presence.

Getting a brand.com or corporate.com website off the ground can require a massive team effort. It can be so challenging that the mantra becomes, “Let’s just get through Phase 1.” For the moment, that makes sense.

However, content (and keeping it up to date) is as critical to the life of your website as the launch that excited you so much.

But when was the last time you reviewed and updated the content on your website? If you haven’t touched your site since the “let’s get through Phase 1” launch, you’re not alone. And if it has been more than six months, you may want to surf to the dot.com featured in your email signature and check things out.
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Show of hands time. Have you been asked in the past month  “So what are we doing with Google+?”

And did you know how to answer?

Fear not, there is a Strategy For That. And one that is already in market that you can easily adapt. This is the Five Platform Social Media Strategy.

Today many brands are executing across multiple social platforms because they understand their consumers are also engaging across multiple platforms. They also know that the nature of how these consumers engage with each other in social spaces continues to evolve. They know they need to fish where the fish are, and this might mean casting a line into multiple ponds.

So What Has This To Do With Google+?

Well, the June 28th launch of Google+ meant there is another platform we will soon need to include in this framework. So consider this a guide to being ready to integrate G+ into your Five Platform Strategy framework when the time is right.

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Looking back on last week’s Social Media Week 2011,  one thing is clear.  The event that was born in New York in 2009 has certainly secured the title of “Best Newcomer” on the conference circuit. And Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence jumped at the chance to host events in several hub cities including London, San Francisco and New York.

Since February marks Facebook’s seventh birthday, what better way to celebrate in NYC than to host an interactive workshop with partner and Facebook powerhouse Buddy Media? Entitled “It’s 2011…How’s Your Facebook Strategy Doing?” this session brought together the industry’s top experts in branding and platform development to share their experiences.

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For many of us, the holidays bring more than decorations, parties and presents - they bring stories – everything from the classics like: The Christmas Story, and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas to the stories our families pass down through the years. About this time every year, my niece and nephews start asking us to tell them stories about holiday traditions and their parents, grandparents and others when they were their age. And the stories that are replayed or continue to be passed down from generation to generation are usually the ones that are told in a way that is compelling and entertaining.  It’s not just the story, or the ‘what’, it’s the way in which that story is told, the ‘how’ that makes it memorable and interesting.

As the year closes out many communicators find themselves planning engagement and even conversation strategies for the new year. This season is a great time to reflect on your brand story or the story you want to tell. The ‘what’ or the content is just as important as the ‘how’ or the way in which the story is told. Does your story resonate with the audience you are trying to reach? Is it more than a laundry list of features and benefits? Is your story or message easy to tell both online and offline?

In the digital world, a good story is not enough anymore to bring engagement and the plethora of likes we all desire; the ‘how’ a story is unveiled and the details are what breed engagement. So as you begin to think about your communication plans for 2011:

1. Stop and consider all the mediums that are available to you and use them to build wider reach.
2. Engage your advocates and invite them to participate in your programs - embrace their content.
3. Remind and invite your audience to spread your message both online and offline.
4. Participate in discussions about your brand generated by the community - not just the conversations you start.

So, whether you are planning for 2011, the next quarter or the next month, take a minute to reflect on your engagement strategies. Are you telling a story that is worth telling?

When considering a foray into social media with your organization, you might find yourself asking some pretty tough questions. What the heck do we have to say? How are we going to keep generating content? How do we keep our audience coming back for more?

These can be daunting questions that can paralyze any organization, and make you decide to “forget it.” The truth is that there are a number of ways that you can keep your content fresh and relevant.

3 Simple Ways to Keep Content Coming

• Establish Ongoing Series: Like an ongoing column in a newspaper, identifying key areas that you can regularly focus on can help hone your thinking (we do it here with Medical Mondays and Facebook Fridays). Identify any ongoing initiatives and plan posts focused on those efforts at regular intervals so your readers know when “the doctor is in.”
• Focus on Timely Health Issues: Think about the topics that are at the top of your audience’s mind at certain points throughout the year. If you are creating content for a hospital, you may want to consider seasonal health issues such as staying healthy during flu season, or avoiding injuries during the active summer months. The more you can connect with what your audience is thinking about at that time, the more compelling your content will be.
• Mix up Your Media: Don’t limit yourself to text and images. Video content can provide your content with a fresh delivery, and help your audience connect with your staff. Identify topic experts on important issues – how to prepare yourself for surgery, how to stay safe from hospital-acquired infections, or a nurse’s perspective on gaining patient trust - and interview them on-camera. This can easily become a staple of your content schedule, like it has for Asia Digital Map’s Red Chair Interviews.

Whether you’ve been managing your organization’s social presence for a while, or you’re just trying to get started, these types of exercise can help you get your content fresh in a flash.

These are just a handful of ways to keep your content creation manageable. What strategies do you use to keep putting out great content?

Image courtesy gregisenblog.com

We are very excited to announce that we are a proud sponsor and participant of an upcoming virtual conference brought to you by our friends at PRWeek next week. With new applications and social media tools emerging every day, staying up to date on the latest trends in social media innovation is critical to our business as PR professionals.

The PRWeek Lab will take place Wednesday, June 2 and Thursday, June 3, 2010 and will provide an online resource for PR professionals on the most recent social media trends, tools, and strategies, thought leadership, and case studies- all without leaving one’s office. The online platform includes live webcast sessions, keynote speakers (such as Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO of Kodak and Ben Edwards, VP of Digital Strategy and Development, IBM), as well as exhibitor booth environments for follow-up questions, live chats, and material downloads. PRWeek Lab will be a fully interactive experience, with Q&A throughout, as well as polling of all participants on the quality of the content and the future of social media. No other PR event will bring you closer to the action that is driving today’s social media innovation.  Please visit here for additional details.

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This is the final post in a five-part series exploring the trends laid out in our webinar, Facebook Bootcamp for PR. Look out in the coming weeks for some interesting updates to the original presentation!

One of the oft sited benefits of Facebook is its ability to keep us connected to friends and family who may be thousands of miles away, but there is a missed opportunity to better connect with the friends and fans in our own backyard. That’s why we’ve identified geolocation and mapping as a Facebook trend we’d love to see blossom in the near future. A hat tip to Trendwatching.com is due here- they’re January piece on Mapmania was an inspiration to notice all of the ways that virtual maps make daily life easier and with maps and social networks both growing in use on mobile phones, the two trends must eventually intersect. continue reading