Summer Class Has Begun!

What a great kick-off to the summer with my new class full of students last week at UC San Diego. We had a lively discussion around businesses using social media, what works and what doesn't, as well as a preview of this coming week's guest speaker Tim Jackson from Masi Bicycles. 

Tonight we will discuss blogs - what they are, why use them for business, and look at examples of blogs that work. We will also talk about how to market them and the best content to include.

Of course, our first step for blogging is - listening! :)

(Image credit: franckito)

Groundswell links

We are using Groundswell as our text book, and it is a great one as it focuses on social media for relationship-building, not just as a set of technologies. While you were reading it, did you see a great idea that you would like to dig into further? Did you read about a really cool blog that you would like to subscribe to (in a reader, of course)?

Here is a great resource for you which supplements the book. There are links to all of the blogs, posts, and websites from each chapter. The authors, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, also each have their own blogs where you can get more information and hear their thoughts directly about Groundswell as well as other topics.

Let me know if you find these additional sites helpful!

Learning about Facebook

We had a great guest speaker last week talk to us about the pros and cons of marketing via Facebook on the same day that Facebook turned 5 years old! Rodney Rumford went through a very detailed presentation, discussing with students various methods of advertising as well as the differences between Facebook profiles, pages, and groups. If you need help remembering the difference, here is a good, short post about putting your business on Facebook.

We also talked about why a company would want to be involved with Facebook, and we looked at the example of Ernst and Young (from the Groundswell book, our class textbook). Ernst and Young uses this social network as a way to recruit as well as a way to communicate with college students, interns, and E&Y employees. They have nearly 26,000 fans (people who have raised their hand to say they want to be connected to E&Y this way), and employees actively encourage and respond to questions from potential employees.

The question I left with my students last week was this: should companies use Facebook for marketing? I am looking forward to seeing their answers tonight. There are certainly many companies that do! Just this week, I joined the fan page for Barbie and for In-n-Out Burgers.

(Photo credit: junaed)

Welcome to Blogging!

The topic for our second week of class tonight is blogging. I ask my students to start and maintain a blog throughout the remaining 8 weeks of class because it is a great way to learn about what it takes to keep up with a social media property. A common misconception about social media is that it is inexpensive. This is often true from a technology perspective, as many of the tools (like Blogger) are free. However, the real cost involves much more than just the technology.

For example, a blog requires time and personnel to write regularly, to research other blogs and news items on the topic desired, as well as to craft responses to comments. It is very similar to the effort it takes to maintain a community - or any relationship, for that matter. When we blog, we build a relationship with our readers, who often become a community focused around and within that blog. This is actually the fun part of blogging! For some tips on getting started with a blog, see my post from last term on things to keep in mind for blogging success.

Interestingly, my students are not the only ones starting up a blog. With the new presidential administration, there is now a White House blog. The blog will be written under the direction of Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House. He has written his first post about the blog, stating that it will be part of an ongoing conversation. He even invites us all to give our feedback via a form on the website.

Ideally, a blog allows a conversation to take place right at the spot where there is engagement - on the blog itself. That is not happening yet on the White House blog, and the critics are definitely discussing this. At the moment, the blog looks more like just a web page than a conversation. Things are still new, so I am sure they will work to talk with the readers of the blog, rather than talk at the readers, in the near future. Stay tuned!

Now back to San Diego. Tonight, we will talk about the why and how of blogging. I am also bringing in a guest speaker, Tim Jackson of Masi Bicycles, to discuss how using a blog, and other social media, has helped improve their business. Tim has been great about creating a real community following via not only his blog but also his Tweets on Twitter.

I am looking forward to hearing Tim speak and to seeing the new blogs from my students later this week!

(Photo credit: rusak)

Marketing via New Media - New Term!

I am looking forward to meeting my new students this week as our Winter quarter starts up. This is a nine week class focused on teaching businesses how to market using new media/social media. It includes a lot of hands-on activity, guest speakers, as well as valuable projects (the final project is creating a social media marketing plan for a non-profit organization).

This term should be a great class with new student blogs coming on board in the next week or so (usually their assignment in Week 2) and lots of great discussion early on about what IS social media? As you can see from the blogs on the right, many of my former students are still keeping their blogs updated and are creating conversation with them. Way to go!

As usual, our textbook is Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.

I will be sure to share the student insights with you, so keep coming back for more info.

Onward to the new quarter!

(Photo credit: ArTG)

Putting Customers First

Whether we are focused on social or traditional media, one of the most important things I tell my students (and which I shared last week at the San Diego Social Media Breakfast) is to listen to customers before doing anything. Sometimes, we all need to take a step back and hear what our customers are telling us, and each other, before proceeding.

I will help you, my readers, do that over this next week. I am blogging at the NACCM Customers 1st Conference, being held at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA. You can follow me via Twitter, my blog Customers Rock!, or on the Customers 1st blog. I will be attending both the conference as well as the "outside the walls" sessions which take place in the Disney theme parks. One of the sessions focuses on creating the "next generation customer experience" for consumers who are spending a lot of time on social networks and with social media. Stay tuned!

I will also be spending time with some of the guest speakers in one-on-one interviews, so let me know if you have any questions for any of them. You can find the list of speakers here.

Come follow me around the Magic Kingdom this week and learn about putting customers first!

Social Media Metrics - The Final Frontier

Well, as we wind down class for this quarter (to start up again in January!), we turn to a very important topic: measuring social media. Much of what should be measured will depend greatly on our goals and objectives for social media in our business. (Note - objectives below are based on Groundswell, our textbook.)

Do we want to listen? We can measure how much of the conversation we are listening to (and hopefully acting on if needed).

Do we want to talk with customers? We can measure how much they talk back.

Do we want to energize our customers? We can measure the viral spread of our brand message.

Do we want to support customers? We can measure the number of customer service issues answered through social media/number of calls averted.

Do we want to embrace customers? We can measure the product/service ideas we are getting from customers and how many we implement.

Suggestion: Only choose two or three metrics, at the most, to track for social media. Incorporate them into your marketing dashboard (you are looking at social media as another set of marketing tools, aren't you?) Follow the trends over time, rather than obsessing on daily changes.

There is also a great post today over at MarketingProfs on social media metrics.

(Photo credit: shaja)