If A Tweet Falls In The Forest… | BrandSavant

• If A Tweet Falls In The Forest… | BrandSavant - Annotated

  In traditional media we measure the audience. We have OTS estimates, exposure estimates, and we track attitudes toward the content and behavioral response related to the exposures. Social media are media too but our assessments of audience and audience reactions are severely lacking. It's time for media research to include social media.

  tags: smm research BrandSavant media OTS

  • Sysomos today released
    a study of over a billion tweets that detailed the following:

    
    

    
    

    71% of twitter messages fail to produce a reaction (reply or retweet)

    
    

    85% of Twitter “conversations” are only one level deep

    
    

    92% of retweets happen within an hour of the initial tweet – in other words,
    if it isn’t retweeted within the first hour, a tweet will likely go unretweeted
    (I feel a burning shame at even writing this non-word word).

  • Judging the platform, however, by how few (or many) individuals
    respond/react to tweets would be like “measuring” the engagement of the New York
    Times by how many people write letters to the Editor – or worse, judging the
    circulation of the Times by this measure.

  • This study gives you some new things to know, and I believe them. Here is
    what you don’t know about Twitter:

    
    

    
    

    How many people had the “opportunity to see” a given tweet?

    
    

    How many people actually saw a given tweet?

    
    

    How many people saw a given tweet and could recall its message?

    
    

    How many people recalled a message, and told a friend offline about it?

    
    

    How many people saw a message and took some kind of offline action in
    response?

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Let There Be Advertising Week - 'WADV interview'

• Let There Be Advertising Week - 'WADV interview'

  Are you ready for Advertising Week? The festivities begin in just a few days. Can't be there? No worries. Our friends at Ad Week will be podcasting the interviews and sessions right here.

  tags: advertising ECUAdvertising 2010 AdWeek podcasts

   

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Six Words to Define a Life?

What six words can define you? your day? your career? your challenges? your experience? your story?

Smith Magazine's Six Word Stories do that and more. Some are themed (six words on motherhood, love, teenage experience, food, America), some are random. They all illustrate six is enough.

Some of my favorites from Six Words on a Digital Life:

• Need GPS for Road Less Traveled
• Logged off to start my life
• Worry my kids will google me
• Wish my kids would google me

Will you share your six words? Post them in the comments or link back to this post.

5 Tips for Aspiring Digital Copywriters

• 5 Tips for Aspiring Digital Copywriters - Annotated

  My students who want jobs in creative are usually asking - what should I be doing?  Some great answers are offered in this article from Mashable. Don't just read it! Start doing! 

  tags: smm sme ECUSocialMedia ECUAdvertising copywriting creative howto

  • 1. Write!
  • “Being is a matter of doing. Runners run. Fighters fight. If you want to be a copywriter, do what a copywriter does,” advises Dylan Klymenko, junior copywriter at Mullen. “Concept ideas for this space you’re interested in. Write up scripts for video content and then shoot it, edit it and put it on YouTube (who knows? Maybe you can make being a viral celebrity your back-up career).”
  • “When you go for jobs, people are going to want to see your work and you’d better have work to show. No one hires a junior or even a mid-level writer on the basis of ideas, chat and banter. You’ve got to show you know how to write, and ideally show that you can do this across different tones and purposes. Write your own briefs if you have to, but for God’s sake, write,” says Williams.
  • Not sure how to improve your digital presence? Williams advises, “Comment on blogs, join conversations on Twitter (), submit your work wherever you can. The web democratizes communication like nothing else. Want to be heard? Speak. Comment. Tweet. Be funny, be wise, be out there, be heard, be hired.”
  • 2. Get Knowledge

  • It’s a cliche, but knowledge is power. Or in the case of a digital copywriter — fuel. In order to be successful, you need to know the product, your audience and the space which you’re writing for, intimately.

    The only way you can do that as far as audience goes, says Trisha Brandon, a content strategist at iCrossing UK is to “get in there and be social to be relevant,” after all as she puts it “you’ll need more than the basics (age, gender, demographic) to really get it right.”

  • “Good writers know things. They find out interesting things out about products or services. Things that may be hidden on page 32 of a long brochure. Be curious about everything. Learn all you can about the product you’re working on. Go to the supermarket and talk to people who buy the product. Read the buff books. Use the product. Learn the language of the product,” says Tannenbaum.
  • 3. Deal with Rejection

  • “Writing is an awesome job that will take you a million brilliant places,” says Williams. “Sure, lots of people want to be writers, but if you’re talented and dedicated to crafting your skills and developing your online brand, there’s no reason you can’t be one of them.”

    Be prepared for the rejection theme to continue. Once you find your feet on the first rung of the copywriting career ladder, then the next round of rejection starts when your ideas, or copy — or both — will be rejected, either by colleagues, or clients, or both.

    Knowing when to ditch an idea and when to push it further is something that will come with experience, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take on board advice on the topic.

  • 4. Less is More

  • Crucial advice as far as your copy goes is the old adage “less is more,” especially in the online world where attention spans are ever-decreasing.

    “‘Less is always more’ is good advice for pretty much any writing, but I think it’s particularly apposite when talking about digital copy,” says Lewis Raven, associate creative director at glue Isobar, an advertising agency specialising in digital creative work.

  • 5. Write Well
  • “The principles of good writing remain the same, whatever sort of copywriter you are. Cliched metaphors, misplaced apostrophes and unnecessary jargon are just as depressing online as offline. Writing in a way your audience relates to is key to any good writing. If that means writing in a familiar, conversational manner and using the word ‘awesome’ a lot, so be it. Ultimately, to be a successful digital copywriter, you need to be a good copywriter in the first place,” concludes Smith.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Sarah Rowe's First Blog Post

• Sarah Rowe's First Blog Post

  Social media student, Sarah Rowe, is blogging. This is her first blog post, and IMHO, she is off to an amazing start! Take a read. 

  tags: SarahRowe ECUSocialMedia blogging student

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Have you blown a pitch?

• Have you blown a pitch?

  What can go wrong when an agency makes a pitch? Lots! In this article from Sean Cummings, we see five things to prepare for BEFORE pitching. 

  tags: ECUAdvertising pitch agency campaign business development

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

A New High (or Low?) in the Innovation-Disruption Model

• A New High (or Low?) in the Innovation-Disruption Model - Annotated

  Historically, advertising has worked by interrupting consumer activity and then introducing a message to continue to disrupt. The approach captures consumer attention (when it works) and aids in recall later. With social media, marketing has been more inbound than outbound with a move away from the interruption-disruption model, but a new form of out-of-home signage wants to use technology to improve on the old way of doing things. The innovation? Video mirrors from the Mirrus company. The mirrors have been installed in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on East Carolina University's campus - one of three universities to test the technology.  The promise is that the mirror is a mirror if someone approaches the mirror - but the potential is clearly there to interrupt activity to show an ad. Is this a high or a low in advertising advances? Leave a comment to share your opinion. 

  tags: ECU smm ECUAdvertising outofhome mirrors Mirrus

  • A mirror hanging in the entryway of the ISP Sports office is more than just a mirror. It’s an animated billboard.

    
    

    The Geico gecko strolls across the top of the reflective panel touting their insurance brand. Then an ad for Pledge cleaning supplies pops up.

  • Were someone to step forward in order to lather and rinse or check their makeup, those ads would disappear offering the person a clear view of themselves and the room — just like a normal mirror.
  • It’s a bit of new technology that East Carolina University Pirate football fans will soon be accustomed to seeing. ISP, which handles the corporate sponsorships and broadcast rights for ECU athletics, partnered with a company called Mirrus this year to try out the new advertising medium, Vice President and General Manager Meghan Heinchon said.
  • The corporate messages run on 15-second loops of video or a still image, displaying four advertisers per minute. Those can be changed by inserting a different memory card — like the type used in digital cameras and other media — into the mirror, Heinchon said.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Practical Ways to Manage Social Anxiety

• Practical Ways to Manage Social Anxiety - Annotated

  Do you get nervous in a crowd? Freeze before making a presentation? Stumble over words in a conversation with someone new? How do you handle it?In this piece from Psychology Today, we learn that social anxiety if simply fear - fear of being around others. Author Srini Pillay says the fear is fear of embarrassment. I'm no psychologist, but I don't buy that. I suffer from anxiety - and if you see me someplace and then suddenly notice I'm gone, you've probably witnessed my common reaction! to run away! From my personal experience, I can tell you for me at least, it isn't fear of embarrassment. In any case, Pillay offers some good tips here.  Consider medication and therapy if your anxiety is severe. Reflect on your identity, the role of others in your life, and the real risks you face in social situations. Accept that fear is okay. And, there's more in the article. My thanks to Holy Kaw on Alltop for the original link. 

  tags: anxiety PsychologyToday students tips

  • The issue with social anxiety, as with most forms of anxiety, is that the anxieties and fears are not just conscious.  “Dealing” with them through avoidance may get rid of the conscious fears but the unconscious fears still wreak havoc on the human brain
  • Beneath the surface, the brain is still “running the circuit” of fear, except that you cannot hear or feel it.

  • So what can you do to deal with this?

    1.  Stop isolating.  Instead, consult with a psychiatrist or your primary care physician to see if medication may help take the edge off.

    2.  If you are opposed to medication, know that there are many therapies out there that can be very effective.  Ask your psychiatrist about CBT and metacognitive therapy as a start.  A longer-term psychodynamic therapy is usually also helpful.

    3.  Once you’ve addressed extreme anxiety with one of the above, reconfigure your self-concept and reflect on the points above.  This will help you direct your attention away from yourself toward other people.

    4.  Do not expect that the fears will go away immediately.  Recognize that many of them are unconscious and will take time to “find”.

    5.  Overcoming your fears is definitely possible and has been achieved by many people.  But this is not an overnight process. Many other ancillary techniques such as meditation and exercise can be helpful.  In my book “Life Unlocked: 7 Revolutionary Lessons To Overcome Fear”, you will learn about how these fears may be keeping you from your own success.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

A Peeve: Talking about Social Media

If you are reading about and working with social media, you've probably seen the many charts, graphs, and images reflecting what people and businesses are using in the social space. Just this morning I read a report which included a graph of the social media tools commonly used by businesses. The list includes Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, YouTube, social bookmarking sites, Digg or similar sites, Ning, MySpace, and forums.

Can you guess my peeve? It's the scattered and inconsistent references to the media and vehicles that are available to us in social media. Social media are a group of interactive media with web connectivity within communities. Media = plural. Just like broadcast media includes the medium of television and the medium of radio, social media includes the medium of social networks, the medium of blogs, the medium of forums, the medium of media sharing sites and so on. The specific channels within each medium are vehicles. Twitter is a vehicle in the medium of microsharing. Facebook is a vehicle in the medium of social networks.

As social media develops and becomes increasingly integrated in our business practices, it will become valuable to use its component terms appropriately.

App Shopper: Spin The Coke (Entertainment)

App Shopper: Spin The Coke (Entertainment)

I love the way Coke has used the emotion of nostalgia in this mobile app - Spin the Coke. What other apps have used emotion (over utility) as a point of value?