Social Media Strategy and Internet Marketing

Welcome to the digital age, a place where magazines and newspapers no longer can stand on their own. We’ve entered an era where printing is too expensive, and print ads are ineffective. It’s a time where the paper we used to buy at the shop, is online for free.

Newspapers have become a digital media, and with that transition have embraced new media and new marketing tools. Understanding that newspapers are using social media is just the first step, recognizing how they do it is the next.

Social Media Sharing

Traditional media is doing a great job recognizing the viral nature of their work. With so much content, and most of it being breaking news, the chances of it making the front page of sites like digg is very high. Every time the New York Times goes hot, they reinforce their brand as the first with breaking news and highlight that the community prefers their articles.

Telegraph.co.uk highlights all their other posts on digg, using the digg widget. Sometimes the news is breaking news, or odd and funny. You can bet that they’re getting a lot of traffic, and introducing new people to their content because of the widget.

Although I haven’t found another traditional publisher using the digg widget, I noticed a lot were using sharing tools, similar to the image below. They’ve recognized that the first step to viral content is making it easy to share.

Highlighting Blogs

In the blogosphere is where a true convergence is seen. Traditional media no longer acts like an island, separated from new media. They’ve embraced the idea of the “amateur journalist” and are recognizing the conversation that occurs.

Many news sites are tracking blogs that are referencing their articles, and then ranking the content similar to how technorati ranks blogs based on inbound links.

Recently, there’s been a jump in the number of blogs, twitter accounts, and podcasts done by journalist. It’s a great way for them to publish on their own, and old media took notice. Now, it’s rare to find a traditional media site without a blog or blog section. It’s being used to highlight editorials, and journalists’ opinions.

Promoting Widgets

Similar to social media sharing, traditional media is exploring viral marketing. Widgets are being used to get articles on blogs and desktops, as well as making it easy to share content. Telgraph.co.uk has done a great job with their widgets (as well as other social media strategies) and I’d be surprised if other sites don’t follow in their footsteps.

What It Means for Marketers and Bloggers

So why does all this matter? Well first and foremost, as traditional media pulls new media into the fold, the line that separates “reputable” news and “amateur” news is blurring. In the haste to be first, many stories are leaking through the cracks without an editorial process.

It also means that what might just be important to you (something you quickly wrote on your blog) might get picked up by a news site. Journalists are reading blogs, they’re looking at blogs for new stories, and trying to get the pulse of the community. Don’t be surprised to find your blog or an article your wrote in the Wall Street Journal. You never know when someone might call you for an interview.

I’d love to hear what you think about this topic. The idea of traditional media and new media is one with many facets, and recognizing how they’re melding is important to know what’s going to happen next. If you have an example of new uses, or an idea on how traditional media could use bloggers more, leave a comment. We want to know.

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We talk about global reach and how the Internet has made us all closer. One thing many of us keep forgetting is that this applies to marketing too.

A Japanese ad might be translated and put on the web, an ad that might be funny in Germany may end up offending everyone else. We have to move away from the hopes of targeting specific geographical areas.

To create a truly compelling ad most publishers appeal to an emotion or feeling. They try to put together two ideas (beautiful women and liquor) or they try to be funny and shocking. But with each ad being tailored to a specific geography, culturally differences have to be taken into consideration.

With the Internet we see ads meant for one demographic being shared online to everyone. As social media grows and more sharing occurs, we see more and more cultures around the world being drawn into the fold. So what was once a German ad that would only be seen in German magazines or on German websites, is not being shared on UK, USA, African websites.

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The amalgamation makes the cultural quips in the ad (used to create a “we’re one of you” feel) lose their effectiveness, and in some extremes the ad backfires. Ad makers are now, more so than ever, being forced to remember that they’re no longer creating content for one market, but instead has to be effective across multiple demographics.

Although geographic ads are losing their potency for large brands, local ads are still doing great. The reason being is because local ads are marketing for small business. These companies lack global brand recognition, and as such most people are willing to understand cultural differences in advertising.

Since I’m recommending a move away from a geographical ad campaign for large brands, what do you put in its place? I think that more companies need to focus on demographic branding. Gender, family income, and language should be much more important than simple geography.

What do you think? Have you considered a large geographic branding campaign for your company? Would you suggest something different? Have another example of how a cultural difference in an ad caused controversy? Leave a comment and let us know.

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Sounds like Google has potentially made a pretty big public relations mistake, by pissing off some bloggers. It’s not what Google did but instead the reason for doing it, that’s creating the backlash.

For those that don’t know, every year Google sends schwag to adwords users based on how much they spent. Some people get fridges, others get mugs. This year, most people got nothing. Google said that the presents are “not the most appropriate gesture this year given the current global economic climate”.

Obviously, some people are upset, but you might be surprised why. Barry (@rustybrick) is pretty pissed because of the message.

He’s all around annoyed because Google considers a Thank You note, or small present inappropriate, and I agree with him. It’s not that Google didn’t send a gift, we understand that the economy is hurting, but why not say that? “We aren’t sending gifts because we’d like to use that money to offer you better features for Adwords in 2009″.

It’s clear that the reason we aren’t getting fun schwag is because of the economy. Everyone is hurting, and you just have to look at the Google stock to see they are too.

So for a company that supposed to be “with it” and “in touch with bloggers”, why are you sugar coating your messages to us?

For marketers entering the Internet domain, consider this, blogger expect straight answers. Most web users and writers hate canned “public relations” text, we want to talk to you like we would our friend.

Act like a company and be prepared to weather the wrath of bloggers that feel a disconnect.

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See if you can match these avatars with the brand they correspond to

• Left the Box [Samir Balwani]
• Shoemoney [Jeremy Schoemaker]
• theGypsy [David Harry]
• DoshDosh [Maki]
• SocialDesire [Shana Albert]
• Matt McGee
• Martin Bowling
• Chris Winfield

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For some, these avatars should be easily recognized. If you follow Sphinn or Twitter, you might remember who these people are. It’s because of their personal brand, you know them. You remember their image, remember their name, and remember what they do.

I use three tools to brand MY image.

The first is this blog. I make sure my image is very visible on my blog.

Having my image on the blog, lets me target the exact demographic I want. People who are interested in social media and internet marketing will begin to relate my image with a blog that gives advice on those topics.

The second tool I use is Twitter. How many Tweets have you sent today? Each time you write something, it shows your avatar. This, in turn, reinforces your image with your followers.

Although, it’s true that many of these people probably already know me and what I write about, it doesn’t hurt to make my image popular for free.

Finally, I really like MyBlogLog for image branding. It’s free, it’s easy to use, and it allows you to tap into other people’s blogs.

Every time you visit a site (while you’re logged into MyBlogLog) you’re image shows up on their widget. This means that as you read through your RSS Reader and read new blogs, you leave a trail of your image.

The advantage of MyBlogLog doesn’t stop there though, you can also join site communities (join ours here). The community page allows you to find others interested in your topics, and gives you one more place to show off your avatar for free.

I use my avatar to brand my own image. My goal is to make my readers be able to recognize me as I walk down the street. Do you use your avatar to brand a logo? Which do you think is better?

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