#SMWFASTCOMPANY: Shareable Content and Tweaking Should Guide Your Social Media Strategy

Image courtesy of lifesoundsgreat

Fast Company’s Anjali Mullany moderated the Most Innovative Social Media Companies of 2013 panel at NYC’s Social Media Week. Included in the discussion were Lee Brown of Tumblr, Jared Cluff of Fab, BuzzFeed’s Jonathan Perelman, and Josh Miller of Branch.  Panelists represented an eclectic mix of relative veterans and new-schoolers who shared their observations about the strategy of connection. Though all reiterated the popular refrain that content is king, what differed was their approach to creating next level media experiences through shareable content and experimentation.

When pushing content, what matters is how it is shared and analyzed – both offer invaluable strategic insights for social media marketers.  The panel reinforced the construct that connections expand and are fortified by pushing more authentic, transparent, engaging, and graphic content in order to enhance the client experience and build stronger relationships.  Give the client what they want or serves their interests and not only will they return but they'll utilize their own networks to influence others with your message.  The most effective social media creates overlapping ripples of shareable content and conversations among influencers and networks. 

How to do that?  Read on.  Below are several other share-worthy discussion points from the panel:

• Create content with the format and end user in mind.  Do not uniformly push repurposed content across formats and devices.  Tailor messages with varying content, tone, media, etc.  Do not overlook email as a viable format for more targeted audience interests. Take a fresh look at your brand to push out additional layers of relevant content.
• Invest in storytelling. Get amazing content from strong creators and be sure to give attribution credit.  Stories should tell of a lifestyle and engage to bring consumers into your story.  Share customer stories.
• Create interesting, shareable content. Be thoughtful as to how you present your product, who will see it, the demographics of fans/followers/friends, etc.
• Make the experience of your brand and business fun and/or interesting.
• Iterate on the idea until it works or can be abandoned for better. Experiment, analyze, and assess strategy to determine success.
• Consider tweaking an official part of your strategy.  Unsure what to do? Test, assess, learn, tweak, retest, repeat.  Social media is dynamic, so should your strategy be.
• Monitor metrics to analyze initiative impact and determine additional strategy needs.
• Deepen consumer relationships.  Consumers provide invaluable information, as do non-consumers.  Mine both for significance of the data and to determine additional strategic objectives or revisions.
• Non-users offer growth opportunities.  Introduce people to what they didn’t know they wanted.  Survey to determine what non-users appreciate about competitive or don’t appreciate about your product.   Consider potential tweaks.  While there may be a disconnect, research to discover potential connection points. Test.
• Adopt and adapt.  Look outside your industry for additional strategy insights from other industries that are doing differently or better. 
• Multi-screening makes it increasingly important to monitor media and delivery innovations regarding TV, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Google Fiber, device capabilities, etc.  Innovatively and uniquely layer content to push across various platforms.
• Integrate branded content across platforms.  Consider alternate distribution methods of your content i.e. House of Cards.

So, what does your content and strategy say about your business?   

Music Industry Makes a Comeback with Women in Pole Position

Music is hitting a high note. Despite other economic downturns, the record industry is making a comeback based on two music industry reports released on Tuesday.  According to the Hollywood Reporter, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry asserts a 0.3% increase in global music industry revenue to $16.5 billion since last year -- that may seem like a modest bump but it’s the first music industry uptick since 1999.

"For the music industry, which has been battling digital piracy for over a decade, last year was a year of progress,” concurs Russ Crupnick, SVP of the NPD Group.

Adding bounce to the ball is digital.  Download, subscription and advertising-supported venture revenues increased 9% to $5.6 billion in 2012, while the number of people subscribing to a service has increased by 44% to represent 20 million worldwide, NPD reports.

Consumer habits are also changing. Though illegal downloads still represent a threat, there has been a significant decline in the estimated volume: -44% for ripped and burned files; -28% for downloads from file-sharing sites; -26% in illegally downloaded music; and -9% for P2P devices since its high in 2006.

As Queen Beyonce self-queries, “Who run the world?  Girls.”  Leading the music industry’s rebound are women like Adele, Taylor Swift, and Carly Rae Jepsen.  Carly Rae leads in 2012 single sales with 12.5 million units moved.  Adele’s 21 was 2012’s biggest seller responsible for more than 8.3 million in unit sales ahead of the 5.2 million units sold of Taylor's Red album.   

According to Forbes, other top-earning female artists in 2012 include Britney Spears ($58m), Taylor ($57), Rihanna ($54m), Lady Gaga ($52m), Katy Perry ($45m), Beyonce ($40m), Adele ($35m), Sade ($33m), Madonna ($30m), and Shakira ($20m).

#SMWBLOGINC: Build Your Brand by Blogging

         Blogads sponsored several excellent forums during Social Media Week NYC including Expanding Your Blog Across Multiple Platforms at Manhattan's Helen Mills Theatre. Blogads' Paige Wilcox (far right) moderated the discussion with panelists (l-to-r) David “Rev” Ciancia of Burger Conquest, Ladygunn’s Koko Ntuen, Jenni Radosevich of I Spy DIY, and Gala Darling who offered great insights about how they developed and diversified their blogs into brands to bridge platforms and media. 

          Each panelist has expanded their brand in several very cool ways: Rev has a restaurant, bar and is readying to hip the world to Creature Butcher; Ladygunn is reinvented as an internationally distributed magazine; Gala Darling is responsible for the international Blogcademy; and Jenni’s prepping her next book and hinted at more big plans for TV. 

          So how can you grow your blog possibly translating it into bigger things for your brand?  Here are several sage highlights from the panel:

• As you build your blog, decide what makes your blog different. What does your brand communicate? What makes your blog unique?  What content can you provide to keep your readers intrigued and interested?
• Clarify your voice.  Though you may be interested in Christian Louboutins and goats, not everyone else will be.  Separate your blog interests to find your ideal, most passionate and distinct audiences per focus.  If the passions are related i.e., designer shoes and footwear designers, a unified site could work.  
• Focus on a tangible skill or service that you can provide and build around it in complement of your blog.
• Tweak your tone and concept until you find the right balance of what you want to talk about and what your followers are hungry to consume.  Decide what your persona is. Make sure that voice and personality is evident throughout your opinions, ideas, services, expertise, merch, etc.
• Once you commit to a blog, grab the corresponding name on Twitter, Instagram, etc., to maintain brand consistency across platforms.
• Announce your blog.  If a blog falls in the e-forest and no one knows it’s there… zip.
• Write regularly about your passion, but not excessively.  Write about what you love and keep at it as your audience finds and connects with you in their search for the shared passion.  
• Be positive.  No one wants to read a weekly whine-fest from a biased complainer.  Friends and strangers generally follow what they like and skip what they don’t.
• Experiment with media in your posts.  Include photo, video and audio to uniquely communicate your message to followers across the various available platforms.
• Check out your blog across in various devices.  Does it flow well regardless of whether it’s opened on a desktop, tablet, or mobile?  Ease of access and interactivity is key.
• Tweak, do not merely reformat and repost, your message across social media sites. What works for Facebook is not guaranteed to work for Twitter in the same way, likewise for YouTube, Vimeo, Vine, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.  Iterate different aspects, details and visuals of your stories across your various sites.  Cultivate demand across your sites?
• Include YouTube, Wikipedia, etc., as an official part of your media strategy and presence. 
• Create an editorial schedule for blog posts to avoid rushed and last-minute ideas, and more easily facilitate layout, themes, media needs, etc.
• Grow your brand in ways consistent with your core.  If you’re more couture than trailer park, your own line of trucker hats might not be the ideal joint venture.  Know what makes you unique and makes sense for your brand.  Establish different threads as it makes sense.  Consumer confusion is costly.
•  When you're ready, reach out to other brands for sponsorship and growth opps by pitching the ways you can assist in the promotion of a subject or POV, but don't jump prematurely.  Once outside brands take a look, you’ve got one chance to make an amazeballs first impression.  Get ready.  Be ready.
• Have fun!

Clayton Christensen Channels Dylan: The Times They Are a-Disruptin’

Innovative Disruption is that pivot when an emerging technology and entity permanently revamps or replaces tradition.  In a lecture for entrepreneurs and investors at Wednesday’s Startup Grind conference, Clayton Christensen, the construct originator, proposed that Apple, Tesla Motors, venture capitalism and the university educational system could be similarly challenged and bested by other entities and strategies that provide comparable quality at a lower cost.   Rather than a discussion about finding one’s niche, the spotlight is on survival, reports BizJournals.com.  

Image courtesy of Money.CNN

Will people maintain brand loyalty and continue to pay top dollar for Apple’s impeccable products, or opt for less expensive models with comparable bells and whistles?  With open source and less expensive knockoffs, is it more impressive to have an iSomething than to have similar functionality with money to spare?  As with Apple, Tesla automakers also produce a product that exceeds consumer expectation.  In this instance, one’s excellence and premium pricing may lead less to obsolescence or relegation to an upper echelon of client incapable of supporting current organizational infrastructure.

Recounting a story related to a missed investment opportunity for Bain Capital, Christensen cautions against venture capitalists solely focused on mammoth investments in exchange for similarly huge returns.  According to Christensen, the flow for such opportunities is but a trickle.  One must also consider the direct-to-source option now offered by crowdsourcing.  Though online opportunities do not routinely reflect the 7-figure range, that is perhaps but a function of time.

The exclusive education offered by top universities is also creating dangerous market conditions.  In a race to be the biggest and best, they have become the most expensive which, ultimately, may be defeatist. When compared to the ease and lesser expense of online access or hybrid university structures that combine real world application with on-campus seminars, Christensen maintains the ability to differentiate must be about more than tradition and reputation as a means of establishing value to consumers.

In all instances, implementation of deft, new strategy and adaptability is at the center of survival.  Organizations must be responsive, market-driven and forward thinking.  While it may be uncomfortable to discuss new technology and consider ways to incorporate or replace existing models, it is a requirement of all organizations aimed at longevity.

As singer-songwriter Bob Dylan wisely cautioned, “Accept it that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone/ If your time, to you, is worth saving/ Then you’d better start swimming or you’ll start sink like a stone/ 'Cause the times they are a-changing.’”  Note to organizations and entrepreneurs: innovate or die.

Lip Service: Beyoncé-gate… really?

Image courtesy of 123rf

All the commotion about Beyoncé’s lip-synching of the “Star Spangled Banner,” at the 2013 inauguration begs the question: what’s the big deal?  Is it that some felt snookered in the assumption that she was singing live and unassisted for such a historic moment?  Or, that her performance was one part diva perfection and another part pantomime?  Or, the belief that Beyoncé can do no wrong and this blurred that line?  But, with such an amazing rendition, do we really care? 

Though I initially questioned the vocals as sounding mixed and not from a raw feed, I’m past my initial surprise and remain enthralled and enamored by her overall performance.  Edited or not, Baddie Bey delivered a beautiful version that will ever be emulated.  As other singers have attested, performing to track is something that is done sometimes.  Is it the end of the world?  Much like the Mayan prophecies, no.  And, in the world of audio techniques and options, any Lance Armstrong parallels are off base. 

Image courtesy of gizmodo.com.au

Truth is, singers depend on guide tracks for any number of reasons -- whether due to inclement weather or mental doubts or physical issues, etc.  -- why they might decide not to sing live for a particular performance.  Exempting certain straight-to-tape recordings, very seldom is "live" live.  Whether Bey was lip-synching, singing live or along to the track, the reality is that singing in such a cold environment on top of any possible nerves at such a mega event can be incredibly tough on human and man-made instruments – even for sheroes. True, the voice is tempermental but is live singing done and possible to do?  Yes, just ask Aretha Franklin, Kelly Clarkson, James Taylor, and countless others. 

However, one might also want to consider the potential downside of going for it and missing in such a moment.  Gasp. What if this historic moment had become the lingering topic of discussion or a viral video sensation because of a flub?  Can you imagine?  Hedging the bet on your performance is a personal decision.  As for how Beyoncé feels about hers, perhaps her “Can I live?” Instagram photo says it all.  

Image courtesy of Beyonce via Instagram

Here’s what we know for sure about Beyoncé: 1) she can sing the back of a cereal box and almost everybody will love it; 2) she’s a consummate, already proven entertainer whether singing live or along with a pre-recorded track or lip-synching; and 3) almost everyone loves her version of the “Star Spangled Banner.”   History will surely reiterate such accolades.

Along with Beyoncé and in addition to Whitney Houston’s pre-recorded and classic rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner,” there’s another version of the National Anthem I love and which was performed 100% live on a cold day.  Thank you, Jackie Michaels.

Making Lemonade Out of Lessons

Each item on our to do lists leads us toward our purpose and best self.  If such tasks remain incomplete, we never achieve our greatest potential or impact the lives of others with our unique gifts.  Every journey of greatness or faith-walk begins with our commitment to a task.

“Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step,” encouraged Martin Luther King, Jr.  Such were the wise words echoed to me through a friend when I had to make one of the biggest decisions of my life to close one chapter and start a whole new book.  Unfamiliar and shaky, that first step is daunting but required for any new journey. 

Like most miracles, what appears untenable and bleak transforms into better tomorrows.  My own survival taught me of the direct correlation between taking chances and making change.  It reminds me of the importance to make sweet lemonade with every seemingly sour opportunity.  Not only because we should but because we can.  

Now I strive to take more first steps, to say ‘yes’ to new opportunities, to the unfamiliar and what previously I might have considered impossible.  Everything is possible when we seek and say yes to the new and follow through. Conversely, I also learned to say ‘no’ to talking and never doing, backward motion, comparing my art or its impact to that of others and staying stuck on self-flagellation.  How curious that mistakes so often obscure blessings.

As proof, I offer: Ecce Mono a/k/a Behold the Monkey.  Ecce Mono is the shockingly inaccurate restoration of an iconographic rendition of Jesus Christ – generally referred to as Ecce Homo or Behold the Man.  The simian work was an attempted restoration of a valued fresco in Zaragoza, Spain by “artist” Cecilia Giménez.  With somewhat misguided earnestness, 80-year-old Giménez took on the project now widely assessed to have exceeded her skill levels and, by all accounts, ruined a beautiful work of art. 

While the efforts of Giménez may preclude future painting commissions, on a more positive note she is now the patron saint of marginal painters. Giménez’s mistakes spawned a slew of parodies and ironic followers, reproductions and merchandise opps from which she stands to monetarily benefit.  Each reminds of the potential to dulcify lemons even when ruin looms.

Maybe it’s an issue of perspective or just confidence.  Still, when we change our mindset, the situation  and our response to it similarly shift.  All that is required is the courage to take that first step and discover the fabulous places to which it leads.

Using Film to Inspire Music; RIP Sound Editor Mike Hopkins

As a producer, I listen to music of all genres, of course, and voraciously watch movies.  Movies allow me to hear how the sound traverses the screen and paints a scene with sonic colors.  Darks and lights, treble and bass, ominous and angelic are all created with sound profiles and choices, and mix placement.  This all relates to how sound without visual should be handled, if not even more so.  Music and film intertwine not only because of their hand-in-hand soundtrack connection but also because movie sound is educative for producers, musicians and anyone in the business of creating and mixing sound for affect and emotion.

Ever watch a movie with the sound off?  It’s not nearly as thrilling as when you see those visuals with their accompanying soundtrack. You may watch the killer creep, but his/her intentions are confirmed and the emotional connection is heightened with sound.  Artists would be wise to purposefully study filmic sound to better mix, master and heighten their own unique works for even greater connection between lyric, melody, mix and emotion.

Here are some of my favorite movies for sound design and editing:

1.     Transformers (franchise)

2.     The Matrix

3.     Star Wars

4.     Close Encounters of the Third Kind

5.     Inception

6.     Lord of the Rings (trilogy)

7.     Aliens (franchise)

8.     Bram Stoker’s Dracula

9.     Titanic

10.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

11.  Drive

12.  WALL-E

Not coincidentally, several of the above movies reflect the work of Oscar winning sound editor Mike Hopkins who died in a flash flood rafting accident in New Zealand on Dec. 30.  As a sound editor, Mike, along with partner Ethan Van der Ryn, was responsible for the mind-blowing sound of various blockbusters including the Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong, Transformers, etc. Mike’s death leaves a void in the craft of sound design.  Whether you are a music or film aficionado, we have lost one of the industry’s best.

13 Social Media Strategies for 2013

The dynamic nature of social media and site management requires an active approach.  What works, keep.  What hasn’t earned high marks or remains on your to do list requires attention and strategic vision.  Anytime is the right time to review social media strategies and outline updated implementation plans especially as a new year begins.

Several considerations for your social media strategy include: 

#1:  Leadership.  All employees should have a confirmed understanding of your organization’s social strategies and expectations.  With one person leading the charge, vision can be managed, disseminated and overseen.  Each employee should have a clear understanding of how social media is to be used.  Train to enhance skill sets for those tentative or unfamiliar.

#2: Analytics. Assessment is critical to determine which social media sites and formats are most relevant and effective to your unique audiences.  Doing so provides insight into how one can utilize and monetize data to hone future tweets, posts, infographics, length of messages, and tweak direction for greater influence.  Tap into social media management assistance with vendors like HootSuite, Radian6, VerticalResponse, Sprout Social, Postling, etc.

Conduct a routine review of analytics to determine your most successful social media programs.  Monitor metrics and trends for greater awareness of triggers among employees, consumers, vendors, competitors, etc.  Who are your primary and ancillary demographics and how are they being courted?  Whether communications are B2B or B2C, it’s all about 1-on-1.  Social chatter is valuable.  Past buzz topics guide future areas of interest and follow up forums.  Listen carefully to what is and is not said.

#3: Content. Which of your creative assets can be mined for additional use?  Review creative content to determine 1) what can be additionally exploited, 2) through which media platforms and 3) prioritize storytelling based on ratings leaders and greatest gainers.  Further, what subjects do you wish to introduce in 2013?  How will you create and share content to additionally support your brand and increase engagement?

Industry issues should be researched and monitored to clarify position and build marketplace influence in accordance with your strategic vision.  Do not be bound by what exists or how things have been done.  Tomorrow belongs to the creative.  Be proactive and responsive with your social media campaigns.  Encourage dialogue to build relationships.  The goal is to shift mindset with message.

Power-browsing demands engaging content to increase CTR and CVR.  With decreased attention spans, branding happens at hyper-speed, or not.  Unique content hedges your odds and offers exclusive options to build an inclusive community.   Stories engage.  What is the story your content tells?  What feeling does it convey?  How are you curating content and tweaking stories for glocal consumption? Are messages across various formats i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Blogger or Wordpress, Pinterest or Tumblr, Reddit, Google+, YouTube, Vevo, etc. appropriately tailored?

Add an emotional connection to storytelling. What happened to who and how did the brand contribute to quality of life?  Highlight stories of good corporate citizenship and sustainability. Include photos, video, and other stylistic variations for freshness.

#4: Goals. Actions should consistently facilitate goal realization and positively correlate to consumer engagement, follows, RTs, site traffic, sales, etc.  Enhanced communications and more personalized interactions with consumers allow for: excellent client service; increased branding and consumer awareness, positive value assessment, successful viral promotions, and firm establishment of thought leadership.

Do not be timid as you tailor communications.  As you determine your audience, build outward.  Speak to the known quantity first as you increasingly incorporate overlapping and concentric rings of influencers and consumers.

#5: Digital Personality. Have one. Actually, have different DPs for various platforms while maintaining thematic consistency.  Don't be scattered in your approach or brand representations. Do tailor messages across platforms.  Branding is strengthened with recognizable consistencies whether offline or online.  Post PR messages on press release sites while tailoring for Facebook, Twitter, etc., for site appropriate messaging.  

Social media is about communication and interaction. Create relationships in this space to inspire loyalty, build business, encourage repeat business/referrals and build brands.

#6: Protocol. Consider the ripples triggered by the C-level executives of Papa John’s, Chil-fil-A, and elsewhere, who opined about matters political and personal.  Once filtered to mass media, their statements hit a bevy of targets, intended and not. 

It’s important to discuss a range of issues and have the appropriate protocols in place to facilitate corporate growth and communications with minimal potential for negative impact. Such messages require careful communiqués. What is your process?  Be prudent but it is OK to have a position.  Timidity is for prey, not thought leaders.  As we see from Chick-fil-A, overall, there was a positive bottom line benefit despite the initial controversy.

#7: Assess SEO. How are you maximizing SEO programs and search results? As social media cheerleading chant goes, “Be effective!  B-E effective!”

#8: Apps. Consumers are increasingly utilizing mobile platforms. Are you fully compatible to enhance consumer experience and facilitate engagement across tasks, locations, carriers, devices, etc.?  What apps are you launching to make access to and navigating your business easier?  If apps are not already a bullet on your social strategy agenda, they should be.  Apps should be smart, fun, useful, effective, engaging, feel essential, and compliment the vibe of your digital personality.

#9: Dual-Screening. Maximize dual screened multi-tasking with messages reinforcement and expansion of the discussion.  Review platforms to ensure your content is consistent with timely updates across devices.  From tablet to smartphone to laptop to desktop, your message should be consistently accessible with unique talk points per format.  Don’t just rehash media across formats.

#10: Community is king.  Just as “Beliebers” and “Monsters” are faithfully committed to Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga, respectively, so should brand loyalty be actively, unabashedly cultivated.  Keep giving followers a/k/a consumers a reason to like your content and promote brand with contests, trivia, photos, feedback, etc.  Your social platforms should facilitate obtaining and keeping friends and followers and rippling.  Implicit understanding of your client is critical to keeping and attracting your clients. 

Take a look at your demographics.  Is there any aspect of your consumer base which has changed?  Are your demographics consistent across genres, formats, technology access points, etc.?  Are messages suitably tailored?  Tweak as needed.  Know your audience, their needs and close gaps to meet those needs.

#11: Interconnect networks.  Cross-pollinate social networks through mentions, posts, comments, RT, etc. Use hashtags to start an ongoing conversation about #youramazingbrand. Be clever in how you interject brand into current events and the social media stream. This is an excellent forum where you can engage consumers and transition their status from ambivalent to advocate. Ideally, you want to actively transition consumers into fans and followers.

Another network to consider is fundraising sites.  Monitor crowd-sourcing sites for more innovational ideas and philanthropic opportunities.  Be legal.  If you’re coming to snatch and grab, you will lose goodwill and generate legal entanglements.  Based on project support, such sites provide an open window through which to gain insight and get a sense for what others consider important or could represent an emerging bubble.

#12: Feedback. Defriending is a distinct communication type as compared to negative posts, and speaks volumes in terms of a directional shift or situational response. This is a clear consumer statement that should be investigated. Today's communication is direct. Fans can tweet about celebrities and get a responding tweet, RT, maybe even a DM without going through any gatekeepers. Consumers are increasingly expect the same brand access and responsiveness.

When feedback goes beyond negative to vitriolic and viral, trolls must be managed. Personalized interactions and promotion of the positive sets the tone for online communities and may prohibit naysayers.  Be proactive when addressing issues that cause individuals to lash out online to avoid being to blasted in perpetuity in cyberspace, an unfortunate reality of social media.

Of course, you can’t please everyone and some specifically seek the anonymity of the online world to really lash out.  Proactively respond to potential contentions.  The goal is to please the majority with a personalized interaction style and promote the positive to set the tone for your online community. 

#13: Innovate. Always look for ways to examine and expand the boundaries of communication, messages and methods.  Social media is constantly evolving. Tap in and tweak as needed to benefit your strategic vision and short and long-term implementation plans.