One of the questions I get all the time is: “What should we blog/tweet/video/facebook about?”  My response: Don’t talk about shoes.

When starting any campaign, don’t think about what products you can promote.  Think about your target audiences.  That may be business-decision makers or developers or shoe shoppers.  Who geeks out about your product? And what are they geeking out about?

My number one example lately for effective use of social media to connect with your target audience has been Zappos.  For those not familiar with Zappos, they are an online shoe retailer.  A dime a dozen, you say? Not so with Zappos.  They know the number one thing about sales: It’s all about a personal connection with your buyer.

How Zappos Uses Blogging To Reach Buyers

Zappos has tweleve blogs.  One CEO and COO blog.  Ten Consumer Interest Blogs. Check it:

Looks like Zappos has broken their audience down into Parents, Health Enthusiasts, Fashion Divas, Runners, Outdoorsy Types and Extreme Sporters (Surfers, Skaters, Snowboarders, etc.).  Each audience has a team of content creators writing about topics that pique the interests of these folks.  This army of mini-lifestyle bloggers are writing about things like:

And yes, they do occasionally blog about shoes–but more like the history of shoes, choosing comfortable shoes–not product-focused posts like “We have XXX now in stock” or “70 % Off Running Shoes.”

So how can you apply this to routers, processors, endpoint security or enterprise solutions and still stay glamorous? You don’t.  To be sexy, you have to stay true to your customers.

How to Create Compelling Content That Appeals to Your Audience:

• Listen
  • See what your target audience is saying: Where they are hanging out? What are they talking about? How are they saying it?
  • Bonus points if you actually survey your customers and audiences
• Check out your resources.  You may need to do some hiring.
  • Is there anyone on staff that can blog about certain topics? Are there developers already blogging? Any that might be interested?  Maybe it would be effective to hire a couple of content creators.  Juggle the budgets–steal from advertising
• Get ready to rock
  • What’d you learn during the listening phase? Incorporate that.
  • What stories can you tell? What conversations can you have? GEEK IT UP!!
  • Run out of ideas? What do *you* love about the product?
• Write compelling content. Just Effing Do it!
• Get involved.
  • Yup, you have to get these content creators to comment on other blogs with similar topics.
  • Not sure where to go? Check out alltop.com for a directory of ALL the TOP blogs. (Zappos gets dinged for this one!)

Results:

• Increased connection with your customer base
• Increase awareness of your product
• You increase your SEO and help customers follow the *ahem* tracks back to you

So what’s stopping you? Ask yourself: How can we sell shoes without talking about shoes? Create compelling content and conversations to pique the curiosity of your key customers!

What do you do to better reach your target audiences? Let us know in the comments!

Like what you read? Add our RSS feed! [what’s that?]. Or start your morning with socialTNT in your InBox! Or read Chris 24-7 on Twitter!

[The above photo, "I heart my red shoes even tho I never wear them" by lis rock on Flickr, used under Creative Commons] by  on flickr

Related posts:

1. “Breadcrumbs: Using Curiosity to Strategically Reach Audiences”
2. “And…Cut! How Not To Pitch Video Content”
3. “Getting Smart With Facebook, Part 1: Theory and Proof Points”

This is Part 1 of a 2-part series on socialTNT in which we review a recent study of Facebook by Fleishman-Hillard’s Matt Dickman, evaluating the platform from a marketer’s perspective. In today’s installment, we’ll discuss the overall findings of the study, rationales for engaging on Facebook, important trends to consider, and a shortlist of what avenues can be used to interface with users.

Facebook is a hot topic among social media gurus, newbies, and wannabes, but often companies jump on the bandwagon for the sake of doing so without much thought to strategy. As social media’s buzz factor wears off, it will become increasingly more important to reference marketing-related studies like the one Matt Dickman, a  VP of digital communications in Fleishman-Hillard’s digital practice, has compiled and made publicly available for free on his blog, Technomarketer. The full study is available here.

Matt has repackaged Facebook statistics and other data into an eBook that is helpful for both PR and marketing folk when evaluating Facebook as a social media tool for engagement. Hat tip to the For Immediate Release podcast and Luke Armour for the heads up.

Why should you use Facebook?

Based on Matt’s interpretation of Facebook’s user data, it is a valuable social media tool for companies that want to reach the following audiences:

• Consumers under the age of 30
  • It’s no surprise that Facebook’s largest population is the 18-21 demo at more than 10 million users. Following that are the 22-25 post-college crowd at around 7 million, followed by the 13-17 pre-college set at around 5 million. If you’re looking to reach a younger, more tech-savvy demographic, Facebook is a valuable tool in engaging with that audience.
• Females from any age group
  • According to the study, women outranked men across all age categories in the US.
• A specific subset of the population
  • Facebook’s demographic targeting allows marketers to reach consumers according to sex, age, keywords, education, workplace, relationship status, and romantic interest (men or women). You can also target all US users, or more narrowly target by state/province and city.

Related posts:

1. “Please Standby: Rethinking Online Video Strategy”
2. “Zuckerberg Plays Jetman While Facebook Burns”
3. “Don’t Talk About Shoes: How Zappos Creates Compelling Content to Reach Audiences Effectively”

Last week a reporter asked my opinion on the state of brands on Twitter after the Exxon Twitter-jacking debacle.

“As more companies move on to Twitter, how are we to know who is real and who is a fake?” she asked.  “How can a reporter or a consumer know that this person can be a trusted source?”

With Exxon, someone named Janet had claimed to be the Exxon Mobil community manager.  Forrester Research’s Jeremiah Owyang got excited that Exxon was getting involved with Twitter–3 days later, it turned out Janet was a fake.  She hadn’t said anything negative about Exxon, and actually did a great job of addressing people’s questions…but she’d hijacked the brand.  Other big companies might not be so lucky.

Back in the old 1.0 days of the Internet, you could be pretty much anyone–a 40 year old man pretending to be a 13 year old girl–and no one would know otherwise.  In the Web 2.0 world, however, our identities are built on and confirmed by our relationships.

Using Facebook as an example, my identity is more-or-less confirmed by my friends.  Not that it can’t be forged, but by checking my profile, my friends, my work network, etc., you’d be able to make a fairly good guess as to whether I was real or not.

Nope, Twitter doesn’t confirm your identity–but you can still use the network to validate someone.  Jeremiah could have easily searched on Twellow for other Exxon employees on Twitter.  Had their been any Exxon employees (there aren’t), he would have been able to ask them about Janet.  Did they know her? Exxon is a big company, so maybe not…but I bet they have a directory in Outlook.

Companies like Dell, IBM, Sun Microsystems and Microsoft all have tons o’ employees on Twitter, making it easy to find a spokesperson. (Click links for Twellow searches).

A couple of steps any company can take to ensure their brand is protected:

• Don’t just create a XYZCo generic Twitter account, get as many employees on Twitter as possible
• Add any official Twitter names to the company’s main contact page
• Encourage employees to mention company name in Twitter profile
• Create a directory of employees in the company on Twitter and distribute internally
• Encourage employees to add each other.  Even if they may not work together, Twitter can help strengthen the camaraderie within a company
• Encourage employees to respond to any Tweets about the company they see — bonus if they search for the company’s name or industry keywords

There you go. Now whenever a reporter, blogger or consumer is looking for a company rep, they can find many to whom they can turn!  Oh, and it might not hurt to claim your company’s name–if it isn’t already taken!

What systems does your company have in place to validate Twitter screen names?  Do you have just a generic name? Do you let employees actively Tweet?

Like what you read? Add our RSS feed! [what’s that?]. Or start your morning with socialTNT in your InBox! Or read Chris 24-7 on Twitter!

[The above photo, "Kids at zebra crossing" by fiskfisk on Flickr, used under Creative Commons]

Related posts:

1. “Brand of Brothers: A Social Media Chorus”
2. “Twitterpated: A Twitter How-To”
3. “Reporters on Twitter? Say Twellow to My Leetle Friend”

Someone wrote a scathing review of your company’s product on their blog–now what?

Well, you can either ignore it or you can respond. In traditional PR, you’d be shirking your duties if you didn’t follow-up with the reporter. Same goes with social media, except the world can see your response. Whether the post is positive or negative, you have to comment.

Here are a few tips to ensure you comment with success:

• Take a deep breath!
  • Sometimes the excitement (or hate) can cloud a clear head. Remember, it’s the Internet and everything will be a part of your permanent record. Don’t write anything you wouldn’t want your mother/future boss/customer/client to read
• Acknowledge and thank the blogger for their feedback/comments/insight/linklove
  • Remember, we are listening now. Whether you agree with it or not, they put effort into their post and their feedback can provide a snapshot of what your customers or other reporters/bloggers are thinking
• You’re building a relationship, which means accountability and honest discussion.
  • Try to address the concerns and tell them what you are doing or plan on doing to fix any problems. If it was a positive piece, write something that can help build the discussion or add deeper insight into the topic
  • Cut the marketing speak and messaging. Read what the blogger is saying and respond as a human, not a PR-bot
• Transparency and full disclosure
  • Let readers know you are with the company or represent the company. It’s about ethics.
• DO NOT try to pad the comments with anonymous or fictitious posts
  • You may not see it when you read the post, but bloggers can see the IP address of every comment. Several comments from the same IP addy looks suspicious and a simple search can rat you out

Some stellar examples from comments in socialTNT’s past:

Related posts:

1. “You Are Doing Your Clients a Horrible Disservice”
2. “Yahoo’s Jerry Yang Doesn’t Understand Blogging”
3. “Blogboarding: A Blog is Not an Ad”

“Embrace nothing:
If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.
If you meet your father, kill your father.
Only live your life as it is,
Not bound to anything.”

–Buddha Shakyamuni

Blogs. Twitter. Facebook. Tumblr. What do they have in common? They’re all amazing tools for increasing communications and strengthening connections. Nothing more.

Sometimes communities get so distracted by the messenger that they forget the message. Yes even we purveyors of messaging in the PR and marketing trades are fallible to shiny things. Taking some queues from the Buddhist philosophy, let’s take a step back and make sure we are all on the same page.

As Brian Solis discusses in this post, PR 2.0 is the evolution of public relations. At its fundamental root, public relations and marketing in the new media era is about building relationships. The tools and technology come secondary.

According to my “Effective Public Relations” text book, “Public relations is the management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whoms its success or failure depends.”

Let’s compare that with Brian’s definition of PR 2.0:

PR 2.0 is the understanding and practice that communications is a two-way process and incorporates the tools, principles, strategies, and philosophies for reaching, engaging, guiding, influencing, and helping people directly in addition to the traditional cycle of PR influence.

Public relations has always been about building relationships. At one point, the press release was an effective way to reach target audiences. Then it moved to broadcast and print, both one-sided forms of communication. Now, the public has the tools to write the news and create the content.

The once silent masses now have a voice, and that voice is found on social networks, blogs, and forums. That voice is in the form of audio, video and text. That voice has the potential to spread ideas rapidly and more effectively than ever before. Instead of talking at an audience, public relations and marketing now have to engage and build a relationship with that voice and all its praise or critcism.

PR 2.0 is about listening, knowing your audience, what they talk about, how they communicate and meeting them on their court. It’s not about using Twitter cause company XYZ is, it’s about finding the best way to interact with and engage your audience and those talking about your brand. It’s about figuring out the best way to ignite those communities into rapid discussion about your brand. That’s the philosophy; the tools come secondary.

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[The above photo, “Thailand - Ayuthaya 5 - Buddha head” by mckaysavage on flickr, is used under Creative Commons]

Related posts:

1. “MacBook Error: Six Tips To Apple On Social Media Marketing”
2. “Let’s Get Physical: 10 Lessons Abt Social Media I Learned at the Gym”
3. “Apple’s Social Media Efforts Need to Ripen”

A little secret about me: I’ve been involved with sports since I was a kid. I can give a rocking sports massage or plan a kick-a workout. At one point in my life, I’d even studied to become a Physical Trainer. Today, I’m here to pump you up with ten lessons about social media I learned at the gym.

• When first starting out, get to know the gym, the exercises and proper use of the equipment.
  • Same goes for a social media campaign. Check out your surroundings. Listen to the community and see how they interact before diving in. It also doesn’t hurt if you know the tools inside and out.
• Flexibility can prevent injuries.
  • Communities are built from people. People don’t always react how we want them to. Go with the flow. If you are flexible to their needs, listen and respond to their comments accordingly, then you can prevent a PR disaster.
• Have patience. Quality results require a long term commitment.
  • Rarely do you see results in a short period of time. Lasting relationships are built with time and interaction.
• Eat healthy. You have to feed your body to grow muscles.
  • Same goes with a blog: consume relevant media content to help develop your ideas and grow your community.
• Healthy living requires a complete lifestyle change. If you want lasting results, you have to let go of old habits.
  • Social media isn’t just about looking pretty, it’s about opening up. You have to let go of corporate messaging and the tired notion of brand. It may be scary at first, but I guarantee once you get the hang of it, it will feel great!

• When in doubt, get a trainer.
  • Sometimes we need someone to give us that extra push to help get us in shape. A community manager can help shape community relations.
• A workout partner or a team can keep you motivated and increase results.
  • If your company has a hard time maintaining the corporate blog, bring some more writers on board. This will make it easier to keep producing content.

• Different bodies need different routines.
  • Not all workouts and diets work on every body. Same can be said about social media strategy. Play around until you find a plan that works with your marketing objectives and fits your community’s needs.
• Don’t wait too long between exercises.
  • In order to keep that target heart rate, you have to keep moving. If you slack on a blog, your readership will drop.

• Make it fun!
  • It doesn’t have to always be serious. Fun posts make it enjoyable for the reader and easier for the blogger.

Happy Friday, Everybody! Thanks for your continued support!

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[The above photo, "getting-huge.jpg" by ericmcgregor on flickr, used under Creative Commons license.]

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Recommended Reading:

“It’s a Conversation, Stupid! Part 1″

“How Media Relations Got Its Groove Back”

“3sday’s 3Q’s in 3 Min: Mario Sundar, LinkedIn”

“I’m a Binge and Purge Blogger, What About You?”

Related posts:

1. “MacBook Error: Six Tips To Apple On Social Media Marketing”
2. “Killing the Buddha: PR 2.0 and Social Media Marketing Nirvana”
3. “Small Biz Social Media Spotlight: Trula Breckenridge”

It’s Thursday. I’m up in the sky on a trip to Austin, and you’re reading “3sday’s 3Q’s in 3 Min.”Every Thursday, socialTNT channels the spirit of citizen journalism by putting bloggers, reporters, PR pro’s or anyone with something to say about social media in front of the camera for a short, three minute interview. In addition to helping PR peeps pitch these individuals more effectively, the videos are meant to encourage dialog between reporters, PR/communications practitioners and marketers on the future of media.

This week is part two of our discussion with Kara Swisher from All Things D. Last week, Kara told us why she LOVES blogging. In this week’s “3Q’s in 3Min,” Kara tells TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington how to “Just Say No” to PR pitches, gives her tips on good PR, and explains the art of good video interviews.

A few days ago, PR pros everywhere sighed with relief; a study came out showing that reporters truly need the relationships they have with their public relations contacts. Although she knows a thousand and one ways to say No, Kara does value a good PR professional. For Kara, PR is more than just a one-night stand. It’s a relationship.

Here are Kara’s tips to becoming a good PR pro:

• Know what the reporter writes about
• Create and build an ongoing relationship
• Bring interesting stuff
• Be loyal to your client, but address issues and problems in an honest way

Wanna know more? Watch the video. She’ll even throw in a description of her beat.

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.481733&w=425&h=350&fv=]

What are other traits you think a good PR pro should posses?

On All Things D, Kara obsesses on companies/stories as much as she wants. How does blogging change the traditional media flow of information? Do news bloggers convey stronger opinions through their pieces than a traditional outlet? If so, do you consider that a good thing? Love to hear your thoughts.

Don’t miss out: Add us to your RSS reader, or sign up for our email.

Recommended reading

“3Q’s in 3Min with John Markoff, New York Times, Part 1”

“3Q’s in 3Min with John Markoff, New York Times, Part 2”

“How Media Relations Got Its Groove Back”

[The above photo, "Kara Swisher is looking at YOU, yes YOU. You know who you are." by Mark Montiero on flickr, used under Creative Commons.]

Related posts:

1. “3sday’s 3Q’s in 3 Min: Kara Swisher, All Things D, Part 1”
2. “3sday’s 3Q’s in 3 Min: John Markoff, New York Times Part 2″
3. “3sday’s 3Q’s in 3 Min: John Markoff, New York Times Part 1″

With presidential primary season picking up steam, we bloggers have started contemplating the effects of social media on the primaries. Some candidates are using ustream.tv to have live videochats with voters. Other candidates have put up flickr streams or delved into Twitter. The forerunner among younger voters even sends mobile alerts and provides mobile wallpaper and ringtone downloads. Exciting times, but what if this social media frenzy went past the elections and carried over into the presidency.

Imagine if you will, a world where government is fully transparent. The president videocasts his life live, turning off the cam only when discussing matters of national security. He polls the populous Twitter-style to get feedback on upcoming proposals. Cut the weekly radio address–Radio? What’s that?–the president of the Social Age does a weekly Seesmic post.

New Media President meet your new staff member: Director of Community Relations. The Director and his underlings are responsible for all outreach and relations with the populous. Just like any good community manager, he follows all online dialog and responds thoughtfully. This doesn’t mean spitting out spin at negative postings. Instead, he actually listens to and addresses the concerns of the populous-at-large.

The Director of Community Relations is also responsible for maintaining and tracking feedback. Like Dell’s Ideastorm, the web community can post ideas to the appropriate department and also vote digg-style on submitted ideas. All ideas get tracked through completion. A idea/policy development wiki will also be set-up, allowing interaction between thought leaders, academics and government agencies.

As long as it’s not top-secret, all government employees will be encouraged to blog. As much as the Social Age president would like to blog daily, he simply can’t. His style is more micro-blogging through Twitter or Utterz. Instead, his full cabinet will blog, each member responsible for content every two weeks. Supreme Court justices and Senators will blog in the style of TechCrunch’s CrunchNotes, allowing the world to see the back story behind or reasons for decisions and opinions.

What’s the public thinking? Instant polling and voting through SocNets get immediate response on hot topics. Voting in elections may also be done through cell phones. OpenID coupled with YouService-like security prevents voter fraud.

Finally, forget having to go to DC to see the National Archive. The New Media National Archive (lovingly dubbed Archive 2.0) stores the Prez’s videocast and flickr stream. All government documents will be able to be searched and accessed from anyone’s home computer.

Because more people can get involved, disenchantment is low and voter turn out is high. Yes, the government of the Social Age will create a more true, transparent democracy where politicians and citizens interact.

How do you think social media could be used in government? Would it create a government for the people, by the people? Or would it create a 1984 nightmare?

[All you Sci-Fi Buffs should check out Vengeance on Varos, a Doctor Who episode where citizen vote instantly by touching the TV!]

Related posts:

1. “2.0 Politik: Do Democratic Candidates Make the Grade?”
2. “2.0 Politik: Do Republican Candidates Make the Grade?”
3. “Hi Mom! I’m on TV: A Seesmic First Look”

[UPDATED INFORMATION BELOW]

On Tuesday, Facebook took the hardest bashing of its short history, with FORTUNE’s Josh Quittner echoing the rest of the blogosphere in a post ruefully titled “RIP Facebook?” This follows Monday’s news that Facebook confirmed a finding by security firm Computer Associates that Beacon still sends information back to Facebook even when you are not logged in. (For a complete history of the last few weeks, check this New York Times article by Louise Story.) Subtract a few key advertisers, add a lawsuit questioning the allegedly shady history of Facebook’s founding and an attempt by Facebook to block First Ammendment rights, and Facebook seems to be embroiled in a PR quagmire.

The question on everyone’s mind is: Where is Mark Zuckerberg?

He’s playing Jetman, of course. Take a look at the below screen cap I grabbed from his Facebook profile (click to enlarge):

WOW! A score of 1942! Congrats, Mark!

Was he working off a little stress while in between Crisis Control sessions with his PR team? The blogosphere doesn’t think so. Just look at this post by Robert Scoble advising Zuckerberg to say something (this is just the nice stuff):

Facebook’s PR machinery is hiding its head in the sand and hoping this story goes away.

Hint: it’s not.

Do the press conference. Admit you screwed up. Take your shots. Look into the camera and say you’re sorry.

Crisis PR hint: don’t answer company bashing with text messages. Do it in video and with live events. Have the CEO do it.

Henry Blodgett, Todd Defren (satirically blogging as Fake Mark Zuckerberg), Brian Solis, and several other key PR bloggers all offered similar advice: Fess Up.

So what exactly can Facebook do to pull themselves out of the muck:

1. Zuckerberg–not a PR spokesperson–needs to admit to the community and advertisers he made a mistake.

• Explain that FB learned the hard way that privacy is important.
• As a result, FB wil allow a members to Opt-In (as opposed to currently being forced to Opt-Out) to Beacon.
• FB apologizes profusely and promises to make the selling and use of member data a transparent process.

2. Utilize the social media upon which FB is built.

• Eat the loss of prime Ad real estate and post the video apology in a banner over the newsfeed, not in the New Features” group.
• No blog posts since mid-November. Fix that.
• If you are feeling a little more hip: Create a live videocast (to be archived) with live questions being submitted through the community and Twitter.

3. Send an open letter to blogs and top-tier publications. Reach out to the reporters and bloggers who feel used and lied to.

• Better yet, do a video blog tour with top bloggers (ala Don Imus, et al.)

4. Appoint a User Privacy Guru to launch an educational program on how member data is handled and what members can do to protect their privacy.

• Create a Privacy Rights/User Data partnership with other social networks.
• This transparency and education will regain user trust.

5. Community Managers address bloggers concerns as they come up.

• Don’t hide behind your PR spokesperson. Get involved!

Don’t forget your community (and your financial success) is based on the users. You have to listen to them and respect them. If they aren’t happy, they’ll easily move on to the next big thing. Part of me hopes that FB really thought users would see the value in Beacon. The other part thinks that FB only saw the dollar value it could gain from Beacon.

Social networks are trusted spaces. Facebook differentiated itself as the social network where members could control privacy settings, thereby allowing only some friends to see certain things. We felt like Facebook was a safe place where we could share our lives with our friends. Beacon violated that trust. It’s sad and I feel completely used.

A quick Twitter poll asking what Facebook could do to regain trust yielded several responses, all easily summed up by Kyle Flaherty‘s Tweet:

What can Facebook do to regain your trust? Or do you feel Facebook has done nothing wrong?

[UPDATE: This morning, Mark Zuckerberg posted an apology on Facebook's Blog. Is that enough? Do you trust them again?]

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Related posts:

1. “Getting Smart With Facebook, Part 1: Theory and Proof Points”
2. “What is the Social Graph? It’s PEEEEOPLE!”
3. “Swollen Tonsils Full of Facebook Fatigue”

Ahhh, what a difference a year makes. Last year, “You” won Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, user-generated content was king, and everyone wanted to create a viral video.

This week, there has been a lot of discussion of online video. The magicians are telling their secrets. And as the magic wears off, it seems many times the Emperor is actually wearing no clothes. Today, we’ll take a look at what the last year has taught us about online video and try to find ways we can make it a conversation.

Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

This week, two articles came out, both promising to provide readers with tips on viral video making. Let’s take a look at some of the tips and see if they are fully utilizing social media to engage the consumer

The first, a post on TechCrunch by Dan Ackerman Greenberg, felt like I was reading something dirty. He does outline several good specs on the video itself, but it’s the more outreach oriented tips that pose dangerous:

• “We reach out to individuals who run relevant blogs and actually pay them to post our embedded videos.”
• “…kickstarting the conversations by setting up multiple accounts on each forum and posting back and forth between a few different users.”
• “We get a few people in our office to log in throughout the day and post heated comments back and forth (you can definitely have a lot of fun with this).”
• “Also, we aren’t afraid to delete comments…We can’t let one user’s negativity taint everyone else’s opinions.”

Sounds like old-school, one-sided, totally opaque marketing to me. This is truly pushing content at the consumer without caring what they have to say. In fact, it reminds me of a modern day laugh track; the consumer is fooled into believing that others have thought about, commented, and enjoyed the video.

The second article comes from Kevin Nalts in a guest piece for Advertising Age. He offers several of the same specs (keep it short, quality doesn’t matter, proper tags, etc.) but gives brands suggestions that seem more community-focused.

• “We’ll watch your advertising and even spread it for you — unless you promote gratuitously, insult us or, worse yet, bore us.”
• “The smarter play is to sponsor popular video creators to create entertainment with product placement. This requires brands to let go of overt marketing messages and trust the instincts of creators to please their audiences.”
• “Some brands fear running a contest because they don’t want to be ridiculed. But brands will be bashed by disgruntled consumers via online video whether or not their companies dabble in the space. Quietly watching from the sidelines is no insurance policy and certainly won’t grow revenue.”

I think Kevin’s piece gets closer to the idea that social media should engage a community. Considering the user-base and realizing the conversation is already in progress are great suggestions, but can we take it deeper? How can we better engage our audiences?

Turn That Pumpkin into a Carriage

In a NewTeeVee post yesterday from Craig Rubens, the question is asked: “Online Video: Is It Really Interactive?” Although specifically about online entertainment series, what he says can be applied to marketing and PR video campaigns:

Although the online video experience would appear to be this mythical, multilateral, interactive video utopia, the reality is, in fact, quite different. Because while it’s certainly possible for a network of collaborative video artists to work together, online, to piece together a long-term video mosaic of participatory brilliance, the reality has often been more of an ad hoc, trivial mess of mediocrity.

As we awaken from the spell of online video, we have to take it to the next level. I know online videos are entertaining ways to convey messages, but can we use the medium more effectively? It may be a Utopian dream, but we have to incorporate all the features and beauty of social media into our online video campaigns. What can we do?

Contests seem to be the most common approach to getting the consumer involved. Most companies simply have users generate commercial content for the company. But is this really two-sided?

In order to converse with users in their community, we have to learn how those communities work. On YouTube, most people post videos which are then replied to in either video or text form through comments. Full threads sprout and conversations go back and forth.

With that in mind, here are some tips:

• You’ve got a blog, great! What about a weekly video series?
  • You can create a company channel on YouTube and then embed into your blog.
  • It’s Really easy to set-up. Just buy a digital point-and-shoot camera. I recommend the Canon SD-series.
• Don’t spam. Offer tips or tricks. Or Industry trend commentary.
  • Make the content valuable, not just forgettable. Give people a reason to share the video and return to your channel.
  • Check out this great channel from California Cosmetics, an enterprising make-up artist.
• Post casual conversations and interviews.
  • Mini press conferences, these can inform your community or be re-purposed by vertical blogs.
• Live videocasts of press conferences, company events or trade shows.
  • Set-up a Ustream.tv account and do
  • A spokesperson can be a newscaster interviewing other top execs.

Hopefully this infuse some creativity into the use of online videos. What other ways can we jumpstart our video campaigns to engage our audiences and actually communicate with them instead of just pushing content? Or is everything cool in YouTube-land?

Oh, and if you think consumers aren’t creating their own dialog with your “viral video” campaigns, check out this mash-up created by a guy who realized that Dove and Axe are both owned by the same company. Both have viral videos with conflicting messages. Take a look:

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=SwDEF-w4rJk]

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Related posts:

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