Summer in San Diego - and Blogging!

Here we are for another summer quarter of Marketing via New Media at UCSD Extension. I am so excited to have this group of students. Each session brings new faces, new questions, and new case studies to review. So much has changed since I first started teaching this class.

My very first quarter teaching this class, 3 summers ago, I asked the class how many were on Twitter. No hands went up. How many on Facebook? About 50% of the hands went up. How many blogging? One. How many on MySpace. A handful.  How about last week, the first class of the new quarter?

How many students were on Twitter - about 60%
How many on Facebook? I think just about all hands went up (one or two may not have)
How many blogging? A handful
How many on MySpace? No one was willing to admit this!

Times certainly have changed - from a technology perspective. However, this class does not focus on just technology. We look at the strategy of building customer relationships via social media. That strategy does not change! This is one of the main reasons that I use Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff as my course textbook. It has a solid footing in the strategy of social media - not just the cool, new technologies.

I am also using Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk as a course textbook. Gary has a definite passion for customer relationships, and I want my students to experience that passion. Gary will be a guest lecturer via Skype our last week of class; get ready for some thunder!

Passion, @GaryVee, Students, and Blogging

One of the textbooks we are using this quarter is Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk. It is chock-full of Gary's thoughts and gives people the encouragement to go out and do what they love. We were fortunate to have Gary as our guest lecturer this past Wednesday, and he was incredibly inspiring. Students lined up to ask him a question via our video Skype link, and conversation, laughter, and ideas were flowing. We all had an absolute blast, and I received many comments from students afterwards about how much they enjoyed it. Thank you so much, Gary!!

At the end of the lecture, Gary indicated that he really loved our class (gee, thanks!), and I told him he could keep in touch with them via their class blogs. Yes, each student gets to create their own blog, and the subject can be whatever they are passionate about. In fact, some of the students used their question for @garyvee (his Twitter username) as a chance to ask him about how to optimize what they are doing with their new blog. I love seeing this enthusiasm for blogging!

This is a special class this time around. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's that the classroom is full to overflowing with people who are truly interested in learning how to use social media to build strong relationships. Maybe it is the general acceptance of social media in the business world these days. Maybe I am just fortunate enough to have a classroom full of students that want to Crush It!

Whatever it is, I am loving their blogs. Check them out in the right sidebar under Winter 2010 Student Blogs, leave a comment to encourage the students, and enjoy!

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)

Are Blogs Good for Business?

One of my students sent me an email with this opinion:

"I'm not a fan of blogs. I receive the Google alerts for news and blogs related to my field, and virtually 100% of the blogs are essentially a waste of space. I feel compelled to read them in the event something interesting is written (which I cannot afford to miss), but my ROI on reading blogs is truly negative. Indeed, I spend 15 minutes of my day reading blogs that add no value. That is 62 1/2 hours of wasted time a year.

Most of the useful stuff people accomplish through blogs seem perfectly capable of being accomplished via Facebook or related tools. I therefore only see personal reasons for having blogs, versus business reasons. Granted, some Fortune 500 companies have blogs, but that isn't exactly an endorsement."

A blog is not appropriate for every business. It makes sense when companies want to create a two-way dialogue with their customers/clients/donors. For some, it has created a lot of discussion. For example, the Southwest Airlines Nuts About Southwest blog requests customer feedback, and Southwest employees definitely respond. The most comments seem to come on posts where the airline is discussing something controversial, such as this one announcing their winter schedule.

It is great to have varying viewpoints, as they create a healthy discussion. So, let's open this up for conversation!

- Can Facebook or other social media tools accomplish what blogs can accomplish for a business?

- There are many reasons for a business to have a blog (listen to customers, talk with them, be seen as an expert, create a community). Which reasons have you seen work, and for which company?
- Has your company tried a blog that didn't work out? (I showed the example of Moosetopia, from Denali Ice Cream, to my students last week; it was cute, but didn't get much interaction from customers.)

Let's hear about it!
(Photo credit: head-off)

Social Media and Conversation

Now that the students are blogging (see My Blog List on the right to view their blogs - and you should!), they are beginning to have a different understanding of what it means to converse with customers. We spent quite a bit of time discussing what works and what doesn't in a blog, using Denali Ice Cream and their blogs Moosetopia and FreeMoneyFinance (a non-ice cream blog, but "sponsored" by Moosetracks). We also learned about linking in order to help further conversation.

I would like us to discuss here what "conversation" could mean from a social media and corporate perspective. The conversation actually started with Jeremiah Owyang's blog post on why some don't need to "join the conversation" because not everyone is part of online dialogue exchange. It continued on Peter Kim's blog on whether or not a brand can blog. I left the following comments on Peter's post.

- The "conversation" doesn't always have to take place between company and customer in order to be effective. When customers use voting, tagging, and sharing, the conversation is between customers - and it truly beneficial.

- We can't force customers to converse with us any more than we could "manage" their relationships (when the buzz was all about CRM). I think one of the key benefits of using social media is helping to make a company seem a bit more approachable, genuine, and real. B2B or B2C, it is all about people.

- Social media should probably be a part of a marketing toolkit, but the tool used is most likely different for different companies. Some may use quite a few of the tools, as their customers want to engage with them that way, and others may use only one (and that just to listen to customers). Either way, it should not be ignored but should be explored.

Now to you

What do you think? Can a "brand" blog? Who should blog from a company? Does the entire company need to embrace social media in order to create successful conversations with customers?

(Photo credit: redbaron)

Learning in Plain English

Where can you find the simplest explanations of some of the most difficult social media concepts? The CommonCraft Show, of course! I show a CommonCraft video at the beginning of my class each week; so far, we have seen the videos on Social Media and Blogging. They explain these concepts in "plain English", which is very handy for a class mixed with American and International students! I think our only request might be for Lee to speak just a little more slowly. :)

These videos provide us entertainment as well as basic information to get us started with our social media lessons. I like the way they take out all the "techno-babble" and use every-day language, along with simple images, to help the un-initiated understand the new world. I also like the fact that they can be found translated through dotsub!

We plan to watch RSS in Plain English this upcoming class period. Now that the students have been blogging (for one week!), it will make more sense.

Student blogs

The best way to learn something is to do it yourself. Hence, I have asked my students to each start their own blog. Here was the assignment:

Homework Assignment Number 2: Start Your Own Blog!
1. Decide on a topic (it should be something you would enjoy writing about; please keep it appropriate)
2. Choose which blogging platform you want to use: www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com (both are free) (I use wordpress)
3. Pick a name for your blog (you will need it when signing up)
4. Set up the blog, including the theme and color (how you want it to look)
5. Write at least three posts (at least one paragraph long each) before the next class
6. Send me the link!

I am posting the student blogs in my "blog list". They are very diverse, as these students are coming from all over the world! The perspectives are great.

In our next class, we will be taking this learning experience further and talk together more as a class about blogging strategy and how you can engage your readers via comments, polls, and questions.