Tendenci – The Open Source AMS Blog
Community Blog for Open Source AMS Makers
Ed gave a great presentation on Storytelling through Social Media (The Modern Narrative Defined) at SchipulCon. Great points on using traditional Storytelling elements for modern day online branding and Storytelling.
Paula Berg of Southwest Airlines shared some really great stories of online outreach through Social Media and community building.
Several years back SWA A&E gave Southwest their own show – Airline – about their employees and culture . Airline (‘we all have our baggage’) was great, but nerve wracking – they had no control over the content and had to trust their employees to do the right thing. Aired on Monday nights and on Tuesdays job applications skyrocketed – AND revenue rose on 9% on Tuesdays too! After show went off air, they wanted to keep the momentum going and looked to the Blogosphere.
There are 30 employee Bloggers with only 3 rules to guide them: 1. Write what you’re passionate about 2. Write when you feel like it 3. Be passionate
The focus of the blog has shifted from culture oriented to very news-focused. In 2008 launched a new Social Media-focused blog site — great user generated Flickr feed, podcasts, photo galleries, blog posts and lots of personalization and sharing options. A great investment – visits up 25%, page view up 40% and visits last way longer.
Southwest Air believe in going where their customers are – not just on the Blog but in ALL places possible that they can connect with customers. There are dedicated team members that spend time on just a single network to understand the rhythms and nuances of these channels. There are TONS of aviation travel Blogs and forums (ie: Cranky Flier, Sky Talk, Today in the Sky, etc.).
Bloggers are credible and intelligent people – they are treated as friends, customers and traditional media all at once.
Some great case studies
Open Season on Assigned Seating
Their CEO wrote a Blog post on ‘Open Season on Assigned Seating’ and received 700 comments – most defending the policy. These comments influenced executives and sparked internal debate — it was a virtual focus group that helped greatly change the internal debate. Immediate and passionate feedback at no cost – Blogs were now
A Story with Legs
A customer was asked to alter her attire after receiving customer complaints on some things that were showing — appeared in San Diego Tribune and the customer then appeared on the Today Show. It blew up! With the Blog post, they received a flood of negative comments that were all posted (which added credibility). The conversation kept going and going and Southwest was too slow to respond and missed opportunities
Too Pretty to Fly
Two girls were acting out on a Southwest flight, customers were livid and the attendants called the police upon landing and refused them boarding for threatening behavior. The girls claimed it was because they were ‘too pretty fly’ and mainstream media covered only their version of the story.
Southwest took these steps:
There are many ‘white knuckle’ moments, especially when a company puts themselves out in the Blogosphere. But Paula finds that those moments – as terrifying as they were – have been the most rewarding by far. Beware of timing to launch Social Media tools – NEVER do it during a time of crisis. Build your community base first and get credibility beforehand.
SWA gets crazy innovative with as many mediums as possible – their YouTube channel is well trafficked, but has no real strategy. They are just trying things out, having a good time and watching what people like and don’t like. They focus the majority of their energy on the positive by engaging and building relationships with customers, but they also monitor negative conversations and engage when appropriate.
Paula says to avoid the ‘faux personal’, make it ACTUALLY personal – be friendly and fun. Tomorrow is too late – work on your problems immediately. Don’t focus on the numbers alone, a lot of Social Media projects are slow growth. Keep an eye on trends and move from there. Live and breathe Social Media – you have to be gutsy or find someone internally that can be. Social Media is not a burden, rather it’s a gift.
We are so grateful for a fantastic group of SchipulCon speakers this year! You can check out our official SchipulCon speakers page here, but be sure to follow our SchipulCon speakers on Twitter:
Keep an eye on the Schipul Twitter account and the #schipulcon Tweets for up-to-the-second information on SchipulCon today and tomorrow!
Our team has been getting crazy-excited for this week's SchipulCon event at the Houston Zoo. Check out the SchipulCon agenda for information, learn about our great speakersand brush up on your Zoo animal trivia!
If you weren't able to make it this year, we'll miss you but will also have some great content going up during the SchipulCon event, with special follow up videos, interviews and articles after the fact as well.
Want to keep an eye on SchipulCon's progress? Here are some good places to start:
Huge thanks to our wonderful sponsors – you rock our socks off!
For all of you lucky attendees (although, let's be honest here… we feel like WE'RE the lucky ones getting to bump elbows with you!), be sure to print out this handy FAQ sheet and a map to the Houston Zoo. We'll see you soon!
How time flies – one day we’re ringing in the new year, sweating out summer heat and now we are looking right into the face of Fall with a great year under our belts!
But even more exciting than that is the quick arrival of SchipulCon this week – October 15th and 16th at the Houston Zoo! We have some wonderful speakers headed in to town to share their knowledge, tips and strategies with eager Web-enthused attendees and Schipulites. Still not signed up yet? NO PROBLEM!
In addition to our brilliant speakers from both near and far, here are some of the goodies we have in store for you (drumroll please…):
Houston Zoo adventures with a photo walking tour and some surprises!
As a SchipulCon attendee, you’ll also have a free pass to the lovely Houston Zoo – so grab your camera and walking shoes to visit some of your favorite animals after our conference sessions. The Schipul team will be leading some Zoo tours on Friday afternoon as well, so you’ll have lots of time to play.
A super conference closing cocktail party with musical guest Runaway Sun and a screening of Electric Purgatory!
A gaggle of coolness from our great SchipulCon sponsors!
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We can’t wait to see you at the Houston Zoo for one heck of a great SchipulCon! There’s still time to get in on the action, so register today! We’ll be sending out a jam-packed email full of all sorts of great details to attendees today, so be on the lookout!
In the meantime, you can find parking and directions to the Houston Zoo here, make last minute hotel reservations through this page and figure out where to eat in the nearby area here (we will be providing lunch both days!) if you need a place for a cozy dinner afterwards.
UPDATE: WE HAVE A WINRAR!
Whoooo! Happy Monday, kids! After much work using our random integer counter thingy, we have an official winner of our contest that we never named!
The winner of three Dunny’s from the 2009 series is Erica Brotz! And I also promised the winner a sweet dinosaur drawing and a mix CD! So congrats, and enjoy your winnings, Erica. Be sure to send me your shipping address via Twitter or by emailing me: brandi (at) schipul (dot) com
And to everyone else, thanks for playing along! You all have killer toy collections.
***
If you were to walk around the Schipul office, you would spot a lot of toys and a lot of books. Personally, I have a ton of toys, which is why I’m excited about the new 2009 Dunny series that dropped. The new designs are so rad that I broke down and bought–well, I bought a lot of them.
But hey, don’t judge me! My bad spending habits are your gain! I am giving away 3 unopened blind boxes from the 2009 series. That’s right, I am back with a new Schipul contest!
THE RULES:
HOW TO WIN:
Tell me how pretty you think I am! Ok, just kidding. We will run our magical random integer counter thing and it will pick a commenter at random. We want to make sure everything is fair and integers are fun to play with.
PRIZE(S):
Three unopened blind box Dunnys from the recently released 2009 series. If you’re nice, maybe a few extra items from our Schipul junk drawer.
And no need to take professional photos. Here are a few photos from around the office that I snapped using my iPhone:
Also, if you are interested in vinyl’s, be sure to check out these places:
We Houstonians are lucky to have oh, about a million different options for ways to spend an evening – world class theater, sports, museums, live music, and our amazing zoo. Wait, you may be saying – the zoo??
Heck ya the zoo! If you’re in doubt than you obviously are not familiar with Flock, the Houston Zoo’s Young Supporters. This group of young professionals, 21-40, are committed to the growth and stewardship of the Houston Zoo and promote the mission with several awesome events throughout the year. The next, Pick Your Poison, is coming up on October 1 and features food from Pesce and beer from Saint Arnold. Ticket prices are just $25 for pre-sale and $40 at the door – a steal for the excellent food and unique zoo experience you’ll have!
Pick Your Poison will take place at the Zoo’s Reflection Pool and Reptile Amphibian House; but no worries – I can assure you that while you’ll have plenty of opportunities to mingle with fellow Flock guests there will be no required mingling with the Amphibian House residents. I’ll be there for sure, as the lovely MagsMac and I are honored to be on the Host Committee for the event! You’ll likely find me dragging my best friend Michael (aka UrbanHoustonian) to see Toby for yet another millionth time and Maggie and I laughing over silly jokes like twelve-year-olds.
And thus, why Ed keeps us very very very busy.
Last month Schipul welcomed three new interns to the fold. Each has a varying background, and all are excited to be gaining new skills and experience. We have Angie – the marketing gal. And Brian – the Wild Turkey lover. And also Vanessa – the Aussie. Please read on to discover more about them and how they are slowly being indoctrinated into the Schipulite world.
Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chitrasudar/ / CC BY 2.0
Over lunch, I went to this month’s AAF Houston luncheon with speaker Tom Martin of Zehnder on the topic “The 411 on Social Media.”
I have to admit, as I was settling into my chair someone glanced at my name tag and said “You work for Schipul? Don’t you already know all of this stuff?” To which I replied, “I’m hoping to get something new out of this!” … Frankly, it’s difficult to make overview presentations on social media both big picture enough to not lose anyone who isn’t knee deep in it everyday and still relevant to those of us who are. Tom did a fantastic job pulling off that seemingly impossible task!
Tom mentioned a few specific trends going on in the world of Social Media – and I think they’re all really relevant. I’ll distill them down a little here – and the full presentation can be found on Slideshare.net/tommartin.
1. People are getting off the bench
You’ve heard us talk about Groundswell – one of my favorite books on Social Media. Tom goes as far to say that if you read one book on social media, read Groundswell. Groundswell advocates breaking audiences down not by their demographics – but by their social technographics – how they act online.
The smallest group on the technographics ladder is called “Creators” – those creating most of the content online. Your standard Pareto principle is in place here – 20% of users create 80% of the content. This varies by what type of content we’re talking about (Twitter is more like 5% creating 90% of the content), but the amazing thing is that for the most part – these people are doing it for free.
At the bottom of the ladder are the “inactives” – the most prevalent example of this is the recent statistic that over half of Twitter users quit posting completely after 30 days. Forrester does research each year and in 2007 40% of people online fell into this category. The same study done this year shows that number down to 18%.
>> More and more people are participating each year. And by people, I mean your customers and clients.
2. Facebook is winning, MySpace is losing
I’ll let you debate this one amongst yourself, but I think we can all agree that Facebook is working hard, staying relevant, and making money doing it. With recent releases like Facebook 3.0 for iPhone and Facebook Lite, Facebook is still making innovation a priority. And according to Tom, that’s why they’re still on top (and MySpace’s lack of such innovation is why they are backsliding).
Another big win for Facebook is that it is the first to cross virtually every generation. In fact, 90% of people 65+ who are online use Facebook as their preferred social network.
A big note to marketers on Facebook – across all generations, people cite the reason they use Facebook is to keep in touch with friends. Keep this in mind as you build your presence on Facebook. Be wary of only sharing content about yourself or sending too many messages to your fans.
>> If you’re not helping people connect to their friends, you’re in danger of being clutter.
3. People are discerning – it’s more than tuning you out
Unlike traditional media that is in your face all the time (even if you tune it out, you will still inevitably pass that billboard on I-10 or catch parts of that commercial as you fast forward through it), in social media people can completely opt out. On Twitter, people can unfollow (or block) anyone they choose. On Facebook, people can unfan your page – but most likely if they don’t like the content you’re posting (frequency or subject), they will hide your updates.
This means that the number of fans doesn’t necessarily indicate activity around your brand. In Facebook Insights, pay closer attention to peaks and valleys in the actual activity going on, not the total number of fans over time.
>> Tom’s advice: “Concern yourself with active profile data, not total profile data.”
There is a lot of content out there. If you watched every single video on YouTube, it would take over 400 yrs (412 years as of March 2008)!
>> How do you get noticed? The key is relevant content and respecting your audience.
4. Listen first
This is the essential first step. Tom equated each social media platform as its own country with “its own cultural norms and rules.” Listening is the best way to figure these nuances out for yourself. My typical recommendation to clients is to dive into Facebook, Twitter, etc. by starting a personal account first to get aquainted with the technology before going full force and representing a brand.
Another piece of listening is conversation monitoring. What are people saying about you and where are they talking? This up front research helps you craft your social media strategy, and helps you communicate more effectively in the places (and using the language) that relates to your customers.
>> For more on how to get started monitoring your brand online – check out Fayza’s webinar “Finding & Monitoring Online Conversations” on Vimeo. It’s a good one.
5. Augmented Reality – The next big thing
The “What’s next?” question is one of my favorites. Tom showed off some cool stuff his company is doing with Augmented Reality. He demoed a Best Buy circular that uses augmented reality to show the 3D specs of a laptop – and a fantastic phone application called layar augmented reality that essentially brings Google maps to life by overlaying points of interest and other information over your view.
Tom’s complete Houston AAF Presentation is on Slideshare and embedded below. It’s a good one – I really enjoyed it and loved hearing his perspective on where things are now and where they are going. Thanks for the great presentation, Tom!
View more documents from Tom Martin.
>> Quick shameless plug – Schipul is sponsoring October’s AAF Houston luncheon with speaker Shel Israel (coauthor of Naked Conversations and author of the new book Twitterville). We hope you’ll join us there!
Ah, the Blog Contest. Who doesn’t love a good blog contest. You may be think from the title and first words (and perhaps the by line) that this will be a bit of biting criticism calling out the blog industry for selling it self short. Or perhaps you think it is ridiculous self promotion for our current blog contest. Well, this is neither. It is the perspective of those two people who can agree on one thing: Blog Contests work!
One of the values at Schipul is Win/Win. This means that in an interaction or agreement or business-dealing, both sides walk away feeling like they have gained something. When we do work for our clients, we earn their business, and in turn they are provided with a service they need. The Blog Contest is, on most scales, a true example of Win/Win.
The Blog owner can be seeking PR, attention, an urge for traffic, or perhaps they just have extra stuff. To accomplish their goal, they can utilize traditional advertising, but this does not always help them reach their audience in a fun and interesting way. Even online advertising can be a poor fit for the audience or the budget. The flexibility of the Blog Contest allows you to give away pretty much anything, from a Wii Fit to netbooks to cat T’s.
From the reader perspective, generally very little is asked of you. Leave a funny comment, become a fan on facebook, mention something on twitter, etc. Much of the time your odds of winning are quite good compared to a business card fishbowl or a clearing house sweepstakes. And generally there is a high amount of transparency in seeing who wins. Unless a contest gets out of hand (see Wii Fit above), then the contest is contained to the community of people who read the blog, with maybe a few outsiders who are just around for the contest.
Even after a winner is announced, many great things have happened. Either a new reader has won something, which may keep them coming back as a reader, or an old reader has won something, which rewards them for being a part of the conversation. Attention is gained at a cost (like all advertising), but in this case the readers profit, not an Ad agency. Aside from some twitter contests which can be quite annoying (i.e. planet-orbiting-berry), the old-fashioned blog contest is a Win/Win event.
In all seriousness, these contests are really good for everyone and are turning into a great advancement in online economics. The scale of costs and attention help to create a happy event for all involved. A small giveaway creates a small burst of traffic, and giving away something large can create bigger waves on the internets. As a blog creator, you control the size and expense. As a blog contestant, you can control what contests you enter, and what is worth your time/attention/info. Everyone remains in control, traffic goes up, and someone is a winner.
In the words of Michael Scott, this is Win/Win/Win. One Win for the blogger, one Win for the contestants, and a Win for me for explaining it here and encouraging you to create a blog contest. There’s another Win too if you follow me on twitter, because all of my followers are winners.
