It's Open - Social Media Strategy Consultancy

Have you heard of Yammer? If not, with over one million users in 135 counties, it probably won’t be long before you’ve heard of it and used it.

The business social network, similar to a corporate Twitter, has been around since September 2008. Its , recently told Mashable that they’ve got a client base that more than 80% of the Fortune 500.

Yammer lets you create a social network for your business where users can share links and information with each other in bite-size form. There’s a free version and a paid version with a few more bells and whistles.

So how could using Yammer could help your business?

Xero, the online accounting software company specialising in simple accounting solutions has found Yammer invaluable for keeping the channels of communication open and friendly during a quick business growth. Yammer allows them to share and discuss information in the same way they did as a small team, despite being based all over the world.

For more insight into what Yammer has brought to Xero, check out this video.

The exposure of military documents on Wikileaks and the coverage through the media has once again put openness at the centre of the debate.

To what extent should Governments keep information secret? What should they keep from public view and what should they make available? On what basis is that understanding/agreement made?

Governments need to understand that the world is becoming more open and people are able to access information far more easily than they could previously.

The amount of data which is now available is unsettling. The default position of most organisations is that they only make certain information available in response to regulators or recognised third parties ie when they are obliged to do so. Still people continue to have unprecedented access to information on products and services which can help to de-stablilise excessively repressive regimes. Look at how the youth of Iran have previously responded using mobile technologies to express themselves.

Some companies though are realising that being open is a precondition to building trust and having more productive relationships with their customers, partners and stakeholders. Opening up data and inviting contributions can in certain contexts create a more healthy and productive result, paving the way for innovation and collaboration.

This debate hasn’t really started yet…but the trend of openness/transparency will be a key theme going forward and one that organisations need to continue to factor into their thinking and strategies.

have created a brand new Facebook initiative with one ambitious aim: To become the “” on Facebook.

The beer brand has dedicated their advertising methods to increase their Facebook fans. Their campaign involves adverts on Break.com and NFL.com, along with a huge social media and page span display ad campaign.

The campaign hopes to tempt fans to the page with the opportunity to have their photo projected on the Time Square digital billboard, if they upload them on to their page. It’s not just limited to New Yorkers either. Images of the projection will be added to the Facebook page, so the featured fans can share them with their friends.

At the moment, Corona Light ranks eighth among light beers. Considering our recent post on Facebook fans who recommend a product to their friends, it makes sense for Corona Light to concentrate their promotional efforts on the social network. In fact, Corona Light has seen sales increase by 1% in early August, since the campaign started, when competitors are seeing falling sales.

In the meantime, Corona Light have further plans for the campaign, branching out to other media channels. Could we be in for a video campaign, similar to those from Old Spice and Tippex?

What do you think about Corona Light’s campaign? Bold or dangerous?

Source: MediaPost

Related articles

• Times Square billboard competition drives consumer engagement with Corona Light (wave.wavemetrix.com)
• Corona Light Launches Facebook Campaign (webpronews.com)
• (allfacebook.com)

We recently wrote about the benefits of attracting and retaining social media “super-fans”. However, a new survey suggests that anyone who ‘likes’ your Facebook page may already be a “superfan”.

The survey from DDB states that 49% of page fans on Facebook are “certainly” like to recommend the brand to their friends, while 43% were slightly less sure, saying they “probably” would. Overall, that’s a total of 92% fans who would recommend the brand.

When asked why they joined a Facebook page, 75% of respondents said brand invitations or advertising encouraged them, while 59% followed a friend’s suggestion and 49% found it from their own research. Recommendation appears to be the key to growing a community, whether it’s by friends or the brand.

But a brand page must be constantly updated with interesting, relevant information for the fans in order to retain them. In fact, 36% of those polled have unsubscribed from a fan page, giving reasons like a loss of interest, statuses that appears too often and dull content. If the content is uninspiring, your fans won’t remain ‘super’ for long.

How do you keep your fans interested in your Facebook page?

Source: AdWeek

Related articles

• Facebook ‘Likes’ Driven Most by Brand Outreach (marketingpilgrim.com)

If you’re using Hootsuite or another form of social media analytics, you’re probably aware of how many people are clicking through to your links. But how does Twitter compare to Facebook for click-throughs?

A new report by marketing firm SocialTwist suggests that overall, Twitter is the most effective social media tool for click-throughs, despite being only the third most popular site for sharing.

The study looked at a million referral messages sent using the company’s Tell-a-Friend tool. Their tool allows visitors to your blog or site to share the content with their friends, either over email or social media sites. Of those messages, 55% are sent through email. 24% came from social sites, 18% through IM, 3% through bookmarks, and only 0.1% through blogs.

While email is still the most popular medium for sharing links, its popularity seems to be on the wane: it was down 15% on the previous year. Further, it produces just 31% of all click-throughs, while social media channels are responsible for 60% of all click-throughs (CTRs).

The Social Network vs Twitter

So which social media network is the most popular site for link-sharing? You guessed it, Facebook. It makes up 78% of those sharing to a social network, with MySpace coming in a surprise second at 14.5% and Twitter at just 5%.

But while it may be sitting in a rather lowly third place, Twitter does a lot more with its tiny market share. On average, a link shared on Twitter gets 19.04 clicks, compared to 2.87 for those shared on Facebook.

Twitter seems to be leading with a quality over quantity approach. Clearly the target market for Twitter is more suited to click-throughs. Twitter is about sharing information and spreading the word, while Facebook is more about personal rather than professional relationships. Plus, Facebook is something of a “walled garden”, designed to keep people entertained on-site rather than encouraging people to go elsewhere.

How often do you click links on Facebook? And when was the last time you logged into your MySpace?!

Source: FastCompany

Image: [Davichi]

Related article

• More Content Shared on Facebook but Twitter Click-through Rate Much Higher (adamsherk.com)

Neal Rodriguez has a lot to say on the matter of social media, and it’s highly valuable considering he’s currently received more than 36 million pageviews to his work.

Rodriguez’s has outlined his ‘social trinity’, which looks at all the possible areas of exposure, the various points of private contact, and the popular sections of the social network, and how to bring them all together.

It’s a fast paced video, so you might want to take notes and prepare to hit the pause button.

You can read a few more of his blog posts on Rodriguez’s website.

What do you think about Rodriquez’s ‘social trinity’?

Facebook Places is starting to pick up speed now with popular brands stepping forward to offer promotions and activities. The latest company to use the location-based social media tool is Red Bull, who created a new promotion in San Francisco for the San Francisco Giants player Tim Lincecum.

The promotion focused on a scavenger hunt with autographed Red Bull baseballs, which are dropped off in 11 locations across the city. A photo of each ball, which represents each of the 11 strikeouts Tim has pitched, is uploaded at a specific location, and fans are then encouraged to check in to the location. The first fan to do so with Facebook Places and the password “San Francisco’s Got Wings” wins that particular baseball.

Other Facebook Places campaigns include one by the , where they’ve planted life sized wooden signposts, like those seen on the app, to remind students to check in and out. This is hoped to increase recruitment figures of students.

has taken to using it during his latest album launch, where those who checked in to his launch party won the chance to download three free songs from his album.

Three interesting examples of how to use Facebook Places. How would you use it

Related articles

• (allfacebook.com)
• [TNW Location] Nearly Two Months In, Foursquare Appears to be Holding Its Own against Facebook Places (thenextweb.com)
• James Blunt’s Facebook Places promotion start of something big? (thenextweb.com)

New Twitter users, and even regular Twitter users, can often make a number of mistakes that result in a loss of followers and a bad online reputation. Here’s the top 10 mistakes to avoid.

• Broadcasting without interacting: If your news feed only contains links to your site, without a single interaction with other Twitter users, what would be the benefit in following you? Twitter is for conversation not broadcasting.
• Not following others: By not following anyone else, you’re giving the impression that you have no interest in what anyone else is talking about.
• Following hundreds, but only having a small number of followers yourself: If you’re following 100 people, and only 3 are following you back, it can look spammy.
• Failing to use a URL shortener: URL shortening systems have a number of benefits, including tracking and affiliate advantages. It also stops you filling an entire tweet with one link. Choose from a variety of URL shortening services.
• Having a long username: When you’re thinking about creating your account, consider the length of your username. A long username will limit how long other people’s tweets to you can be, and how easily others can retweet you.
• Not leaving space for a retweet: Similar to the above, if your tweet uses all 140 characters and others want to retweet you, they’ll have to remove some of the content. Make it easier for them and you’ll get more retweets!
• Comping: A popular Twitter trend is to enter competitions through retweeting. Great for winning prizes, but you’re unlikely to garner many followers.
• Not tweeting enough: Twitter is a fast moving community, so one tweet a month will get lost in the noise and will struggle to engage followers.
• Tweeting far too much!: Constant tweeting, particularly about controversial subjects, is likely to irritate followers.
• Automatic DM: Automatic Direct Messages are a huge bugbear for many Twitter users.ReadyDesignswrote a good post on it recently outlining the three main reasons why automatic DMs are bad.

What puts you off following someone on Twitter?

Related articles

• Subtle but Very Important Twitter Tips and Techniques You Should Know (cause no one will tell you) (hanselman.com)
• Survey: 71 percent of tweets are ignored (cnn.com)

We have confirmed the panel for the forthcoming Social Media Leadership Forum event exploring  ‘The Future of News and the Impact of Social Media’, which is being held on October 19, hosted by Aviva.

This follows our members-only event last month with Facebook’s strategy and planning team.

The panellists are:

Madhav Chinnapa, Strategic Partner Development Manager, Google News and Books

Andrew Hill, Associate Editor of the Financial times. Andrew has been City Editor of the FT and editor of the daily Lombard column since September 2006.

Tim Web, business editor, BBC News website

Tom Glover, Deputy Director of Communications and Head of Digital Communications for The Financial Times

Following short presentations from the panellists, the issues will be openly discussed with the members of  The Social Media Leadership Forum and there will be refreshments afterwards with further opportunities to mix with your peers and the panellists.

If you wish to become a member of The Social Media Leadership Forum and participate in this event which is shaping thinking about the future of news and the impact of social media, then please contact Simon Welsh for more information (). Spaces are restricted due to high demand so please contact Simon as early as possible if you wish to get involved. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you are interested and feel that your organisation might benefit from participating in the session.

The Social Media Leadership Forum is designed to provide a platform for leading organisations who wish to share insights with each other into the future of social media and would like to collaborate with one another to develop best practice approaches and thinking.

The Social Media Leadership Forum is now in its second year and is run by ItsOpen a specialist social web insight consultancy.

Here at ItsOpen we are really looking forward to the forthcoming Social Media Leadership Forum event about the future of news and the impact of social media.

This follows last month’s members-only session with Facebook’s strategy and planning team which was hosted by Shell.

Google, the BBC and The Financial Times are all going to be participating in the forthcoming panel discussion on October 19 (names and more details to follow) which is being kindly hosted by Aviva, who are founder members of the Social Media Leadership Forum. The members-only session looks set to provide lots of interesting insights.

Everyone with a laptop can function as a journalist today but without an editor. How will quality news prosper in a digital data environment? Who will hold the powerful to account? How do businesses get their messages across in a participatory cluttered news culture? How do you reach people who get their news not from newspapers but maybe from an embedded hyperlink in someone’s Twitter feed? Will people still pay for unique value? As newspapers decline where’s the social glue holding society together? These and other questions are going to be addressed.

The Social Media Leadership Forum is run by ItsOpen and is designed to help leading organisations gain insights into today’s fast changing landscape and contemporary challenges. Throughout the year, member companies and industry thought leaders provide briefings which can help to diffuse insights through your enterprise.

If you would like to join the Social Media Leadership Forum to gain exposure to the forthcoming interactive session and other events during the year, please contact Simon Welsh (). This is your opportunity to learn about what works today and what will work tomorrow.