Unconventional Wisdom - The Tuvel Communications Blog – Engaging Your Customers in Unconventional Ways

What We’re Reading, August 12th

August 12, 2011 by Kari Rippetoe

How the London riots showed us two sides of social networking from Ars Technica: The London riots are the latest in a series of uprisings in recent years where social media sites like Twitter have been the main hubs of activity – from organization and mobilization to as-it-happens news. Those of us who use these tools as part of our jobs are so used to our own one-sided viewpoints of social media and how Twitter and Facebook can be used; but the riots reveal the much darker side. To the point that the British PM David Cameron is considering blocking Twitter and Facebook in the UK.

Before I continue with this week’s reading list, I want to ask you to post your thoughts in the comments below on social media’s role in the London riots – do you think blocking Twitter and Facebook is the answer?

Now, back to our regularly-scheduled reading list:

Klout Shares 6 Secrets Of Twitter Hashtag Chats from AllTwitter: Thinking of hosting your own Twitter chat? Klout offers some useful tips to help you get started.
64% of Small Businesses Think Social Media is Unnecessary [STUDY] from Mashable: This is an interesting report, but I’m baffled how it distinguishes word of mouth marketing (which 50% say they can’t do without) from social media (which apparently small businesses don’t have so much of a need for). Things that make you go…”Really?”
StumbleUpon Launches Program to Help Nonprofits from AdAge: Is it me, or have we not heard much about StumbleUpon lately? They seem to have gotten lost in the social networking jungle. But having used their Paid Discovery platform in the past, I definitely like what they’re doing for nonprofits with a new Stumbling for Good program.

We’ve also been reading about privacy issues in social networks (when aren’t there privacy issues?) – here are a couple of articles to help you:

Facebook stole every contact and phone number in your phone – here’s how to undo the damage from BGR
A Box You Want to Uncheck on LinkedIn from Connection Agent

Have a great weekend!

What We’re Reading, July 29th: The Too Damn Hot Edition

July 29, 2011 by Kari Rippetoe

It’s hot…damn hot. And while you may not be able to avoid going outside, at least we can provide you with some insightful posts to keep you inside and in the A/C a little longer. Hey, if you keep reading you might even get some free JELL-O Pudding out of it!

Research: 2/3 of CMOs Prefer Working With Smaller Firms from PRNewser: If you’re shopping for a marketing firm, take note of this research – it illustrates the value that smaller shops can bring in the form of client service and intimate partnerships.
The 9 Creative Uses for Google+ Hangouts You Didn’t Think Of from Business Insider: We haven’t tried Hangouts yet, but thanks to this article we can definitely see the potential!
Google+ Tips: Where to Begin and How to Share Content Quickly While Mobile from HuffPost Tech: For those just getting started with Google+, our friend Chris Rauschnot shares his tips for success – both at your desk and on the go.
How to Incorporate Influencers Into Content Marketing from Content Marketing Institute: Outreach is just one part of influencer marketing. This post from Amanda Maksymiw of Openview Venture Partners provides some tips for integrating influencer and content marketing to build your content program.
What Klout is Really Good For… from Never Stop Marketing: Speaking of influencers, the takeaway here is that community trumps influence.
HOW TO: Utilize Social Data More Effectively from Mashable: If you’re only using the data mined from social media to measure the success of your efforts, you’re not leveraging it in the best way. This post from Nate Elliot of Forrester Research talks about why.

And now, some fun stuff (as if social media wasn’t enough fun):

JELL-O Offers Free Pudding to World’s Saddest Tweeters from SocialTimes: With all the economic woe in the world right now, it’s easy to get a little depressed. But JELL-O wants to help turn those frowns upside-down by giving free pudding to people tweeting with frowny emoticons ( 🙁 ). Now if only the U.S. government could pay its debt in pudding…
Alex Trebek Chases Suspected Burglar, Inspiring Awful ‘Jeopardy!’ Jokes from NYTimes.com: IBM’s Watson may have beat the Jeopardy Grand Champion, but let’s see it do this.

And remember how hot we said it was? Here in DC, it was actually hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk:

Search Drives Word of Mouth, But Don’t Discount Social Media

July 26, 2011 by Kari Rippetoe

Today I came across a resource site called Think with Google, containing digital marketing information, trends and insights and recently launched by (one guess)…Google. I excitedly dove into the wealth of information it provided, starting with Word of Mouth under its Think Insights section, thinking of the treasure trove of research, articles and posts about WOM, social media, digital marcomm. What I got was a treasure trove of Google-centric research about how search (Google) is the #1 spark of WOM conversations, how search (Google) is more likely to result in a purchase, and how search (yes, you guessed it) far outpaces social media sites as a resource driving WOM conversations.

No, I’m not surprised about this, for 2 reasons:

It makes sense that search drives most WOM conversations, since that is the one place people will go to find information about a company or product. No, they don’t go to Twitter or Facebook, they go to search. Search has been around for ages in Internet years, far longer than social media, and it’s ingrained into our brains to go straight to Google (or your search engine of choice) to research a potential purchase.
Why should I be surprised that a digital publication called “Think with Google” wouldn’t be Google-centric? It’s like Oprah’s O Magazine – she’s on the cover of every issue.

So the takeaway here is that companies should be focused on search marketing when it comes to generating WOM conversations, right? Well, yes – but the reason why I’m writing this is because I don’t want people to discount social media and its role in the WOM landscape. Search is, always has been and always will be an extremely important (if not THE most important) part of any online marketing strategy; but everything else you do online feeds into that.

Information shared through social media sites is included in search results (take a look at the Discussions tab the next time you search on Google).
The Twitter-to-Google firehose may be off, but retweets still impact how content is indexed on Google.
Sharing through Google+ will most certainly have a greater impact on search over time.
Social sharing impacts the creation of content that is then indexed in search results.
Building a strong social media network increases the likelihood that your content will be shared, therefore impacting how it’s indexed in search.
Relationships built through social media can lead to outside content-creation or linkbuilding opportunities.

So don’t think about how search is more likely to impact WOM conversations than social media, think about how your social media efforts impact your search marketing efforts to drive WOM conversations.