Social Mediarology

So, is social media just a fad?

There are plenty of people who still dismiss social media as useless. In fact, there are studies that show that 40% of all ‘tweets’ are pointless babble. Even though that may be true, that doesn’t diminish the power and usefulness of social media in marketing and PR today. There will always be people who don’t understand new technologies and how they can be useful, and social media is no exception. The video below has been circulating online in the past couple of weeks and it does a fantastic job of highlighting how much a part of our lives social media has become. No longer can you ignore social media, in fact, in a recent survey of Indiana Tourism entities, nearly 30% of respondents use Twitter on to promote their destination and more than 90% use Facebook.

My favorite quote in the entire presentation is:

Social Media isn’t a fad – it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.

That’s such a true statement. Social Media isn’t just a way to waste time and talk with friends about useless bits of trivia, it’s truly a new way to communicate directly with consumers, with your customers.

Some other encouraging news for the use of social media is that more 80% of US adults use social media on a monthly basis. For more information about the different types of social media use check out these posts on Groundswell):

The video below is the precursor to the other video in this post. While this one doesn’t focus on social media exclusively, there is still some pretty amazing information in here.

Yesterday, Google unveiled a new feature on Google Image Search. Until then, Google Images had been a great utility when looking for specific images on the web. Whether you wanted to find pictures of different Indiana License Plates or the Indiana State House, you’d probably be able to find just what you were looking for. But what if you specifically wanted to find a picture of Indiana License Plates that were red, or blue, or even green? Your only hope was to type in “red indiana license plates” and hope that someone had tagged the photo as such.

Purple Flowers on Google Images

That all changed yesterday. Google unveiled the ability to filter images by color. Let’s say you want to find a picture of flowers for a blog post you were writing. the image on the left shows what you’d find if you just typed “flowers” into Google Image Search. If you only want pictures of purple flowers, simply click on “All Colors” just below the search box then click on the purple box and…voila, you have purple flowers!

Red Flowers on Google Images

If you want to find red flowers, simply click on the red box and you’ll be given a great selection of red flowers. Not only does this new functionality give you the ability to better refine your search, but the fact that Google can scan the images for specific colors opens up the door to some amazing technological advances in the future.

How will you use Google Images’ new color selection feature?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmykFKjNpdY]

You really should watch this Motrin ad before reading the post, but here’s a brief synopsis if you choose not to.

The ad targets moms, especially moms who use baby carriers to hold their young ones. It mentions that all different types of baby carriers seem to be in style now, and although they’re supposed to be good for the baby, they’re hard on mom’s back, neck and shoulders. In the end, the mom in the ad says that the pain is alright, because “it’s a good kind of pain – it’s for my kid.” Plus, she states “it totally makes me feel like an official mom.”

Motrin launched the ad above at the end of September, but a little over a week ago (on Nov. 15th) the ad was picked up by some bloggers and all hell broke loose. The very next day (Nov. 16th) Motrin yanked the ad and responded with an apology on their website. (see this timeline for the details of how the story broke)

The comments about the story ranged from support and understanding of Motrin’s goals to anger and frustration at the tone of the ad. Some felt Motrin connected with them about a deeply personal issue – their infants. Others were insensed that Motrin would insinuate that baby carriers were simply a style statement. Others commented that if you properly wear a baby carrier, it won’t hurt your back, neck or shoulders. Here are some examples of comments that surfaced on Twitter on the 16th. Pay attention to the last comment, it sums up how social media can be used to your benefit:

Just think about that last comment for a minute. There were thousands of people contributing comments about one ad campaign. Think about the possibilities if you could harness the knowledge and opinions of that vocal minority. Social media allows you to do just that. While this campaign turned out to be a bit of a PR mess for Motrin, they’ve been able to identify thousands of people who they could use as they begin working on a new campaign. They can leverage this groundswell of consumers to float slogans or ad concepts by and get feedback BEFORE causing another Motrin-gate ‘scandal’. (more…)

Technology doesn’t come naturally to me, but I realize that the Internet offers one of the most effective, most targeted and most cost-efficient ways to reach visitors. For about six months, I’ve been buying keywords through Google Adwords for the Columbus Visitors Center.

Google Adwords is an online advertising product that allows you to identify keywords that visitors might be using to find your products when they search on Google.  When a user “googles” your keyword, your short text ad appears on the page with search results. Users can click through to your website.  At this point, your account is charged.

The click-thru rate depends on the popularity of the keyword.  I find that I am paying an average of 0.84 per click.  You can put limits on how much you are willing to spend.  For just a few hundred dollars a month, our ads are getting tens of thousands of impressions.

You can also refine your campaign to a geographic area to keep a more regional focus. I have focused on the Midwest where most of our traffic originates.

I am currently running two campaigns on Google Adwords.  In the first campaign, I have purchased words that are related to modern architecture. Architecture is a niche market so I was excited about the possibilities of reaching out to fans of modern architecture using the internet.  I selected the names of the architects who have buildings in Columbus.  I also picked some generic terms like “modern architecture” and “mid-century modern.”

In the second campaign, I have purchased terms that someone looking for Edinburgh Premium Outlets might use.  The outlet mall is one of our biggest attractions.  Since it’s on the outer edge of our county, many visitors don’t know about all the great things they can do when they are in the community. My campaign featuring Edinburgh Premium Outlets has outperformed my starter campaign.  Here I selected “discount shopping,”  “outlet shopping,” and “Edinburgh.”

There is no limit on the number of keywords you select.  You can always delete and ad words as you wish to make changes.

I have a few tips for folks who want to give this program a try.

1. Think like a visitor. Pretend you know nothing about your destination.  I decided that most visitors probably can’t spell Edinburgh.  Why would it end in an “h”?  So, I signed up for keywords that include “Edinburg.”  Four of my top five best-performing keywords have a variation of Edinburgh that is incorrectly spelled.
2. Fish where the fish are. Remember the competition.  We offer a popular architecture tour.  So, does the Chicago Architecture Foundation.  I added ”Chicago Architecture Foundation” as one of my keywords.
3. Edit, edit, edit. Your ad can only be two lines long with a short headline and your URL. Say what you need to say with small number of potent words.  This requires tremendous discipline and creativity.
4. Be flexible. You can change your ad or your keywords as often as you wish, unlike those print ads that have a long shelf life.   So, mix it up.  Test different messages.  Find out what works.  If you set it and forget it, you’ll be missing out on one of the great advantages Google Adwords offers.

Here’s a video that shows you exactly what Google Friend Connect is and how to use it, but I’ll give you a quick run-down. Google Friend Connect provides website owners with the quick and easy ability to implement social networking ‘widgets’ to their website using a quick copy and paste. No coding needed!

Google Friend Connect can help turn your website into more of a community space where users can comment and rate stories, add their own pictures and even see who else is participating on your website. When you come across a website with Friend Connect installed, you can sign in using your existing Google, Yahoo or AOL account information, and you can invite friends from your Facebook, GoogleTalk, LinkedIn accounts and more. Every time you come across a site with Google Friend Connect, you can sign in to that website’s Friend Connect and all your information is right there waiting for you.

Google is looking to the next phase of social networking and the next phase of where I believe the internet is headed. Call it Web 2.5 or Web 3.0 if you wish. I think the internet is heading in the direction where every website you visit can be a part of your community. Rather than having to join proprietary networks like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn to be a part of a community, it will more like being members of a big public university. You’re all connected, in that you’re all a part of the same University system, but you have different classes with different people, and you spend your free time differently too. But if you meet a new friend in class, you can invite them to be a part of one of your extra-curricular activities.

Maybe I went a bit overboard with my college analogy, but I think it works. Right now Google Friend Connect is only being rolled out to a select group of users, but before long, I expect this will be opened up to anyone interested.

If you read this blog for long enough, you’ll find out that I’m impressed with just about everything Google does. Google Alerts are no exception. Cindy left a comment for me on my last post that mentioned Google Alerts, so I thought I’d post about it.

So, what is a Google Alert? Quite simply, you enter a search term and Google sends you an email every time they find a mention on the internet. You can also set up your Alerts to be sent in a daily “digest” so you aren’t inundated by emails. For example, I have three daily Google Alerts sent to me. One is for Indiana Tourism, one for Indiana Travel and one for Tourism Tech Corner. Each day, I receive a digest containing the top articles, blogs and other mentions on the web for each of my search terms.

Here are a couple of examples:

In my What are Blogs? post, I mentioned the Holiday World blog, the Holiblog. Sure enough, within an hour of that post going live, I had a comment from Holiday World, thanking me for mentioning them on the blog. Similarly, in my Get The Most Out Of Flickr post, I referenced and linked to a great article about how nonprofits can get the most out of Flickr. Again, within about an hour, the author of the blog posted a comment thanking me for referencing her work.

It’s very likely that each of them is using Google Alerts to see when and where people are talking about them online. This works very well for attractions, especially if you have a fairly uncommon name like Holiday World (or Indiana Beach for that matter, who has their own blog: View From the Crow’s Nest). This can also work well for CVBs or other Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs).

The key is how you respond when you get that Google Alert in your inbox. If you just read it and delete it, it’s probably not going to be all that helpful for your business. But if you become engaged with the people who are talking about you, you’ll do nothing but help out your business.

Let’s say that I get an alert tomorrow that someone has mentioned Indiana Tourism on their blog. The best thing for me do to is become engaged in the conversation. I’ll head to the blog that talked about us and thank them for the mention. I might also talk about some of the things we’re working on here at Indiana Tourism to further engage others who read the blog.

Similarly, if I run across a blog entry where someone mentions a bad experience they had in Indiana, I have the opportunity to try to make things right. I can offer information about other trips to take in Indiana or find out what their interests are and suggest that they give Indiana another try. DMOs, attractions and hoteliers can even offer freebies as an apology to a dissatisfied customer.

I think that the use of Google Alerts, and how you respond to them, should be considered part of your customer service plan. If I had a bad experience at an attraction or hotel and they personally responded to me with an apology, I’d be much more likely to either visit again or recommend a friend to do the same. At the very least, I’d respect them for a great customer service effort.

What do you think about using Google Alerts as a part of customer service? Do you think that word-of-mouth (both positive and negative) is the most effective form of ‘advertising’? I’d love your comments.