Creative Concepts

These (quite good) Five Organizing Principles for Social Media by Judy Shapiro have us thinking… how did social media ever get so complicated in the first place?

Part of it is the vast number of tools we have at our disposal.  Since most of them (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr, etc.) are free, it’s easy to start using each of them… but that makes maintaining your ever-growing web of communications more difficult.

Part of it is the conflict between personal (customers, individuals, community) and business (corporations, marketing, sales).  Social media tools are designed to facilitate the exchange of information between consenting parties, but the limitless kinds of information being exchanged further complicate our conversations.

And then there’s the ongoing debate about which social media metrics matter most.  Is it the size of your audience, or the quality of your engagement?  Is it inciting action or increasing awareness?

Our advice?

Shrink your focus.

First, re-examine your goals and your needs.  (Maybe you need a new social media strategy?)

Then, instead of aiming too wide, narrow your attention to a handful of channels — maybe even one — and maximize the impact you can create there (or the feedback you can obtain).  Then, once you have a true understanding of how your brand is perceived within that channel, start applying those lessons to other channels, if it makes sense for you.

There’s a presumption that companies have to be involved in social media.  And while we here at Creative Concepts are sure that social media can benefit almost any company, charity or brand, we’d never advise anyone to bite off more than they can chew.

So don’t waste an opportunity to connect with your customers by spreading yourself too thin, or your valuable feedback will be reduced to a stream of white noise.

Need some help simplifying your social media efforts?  Check out these tips from Mashable.

(Photo by tjstein.)

Want to learn more? Follow us on Twitter or Facebook!

Welcome to the first work week of 2011!

Before you dive headfirst into your lengthy list of New Year’s resolutions, we here at Creative Concepts would like to offer a word of advice about setting goals for this (or any) new year:

Focus on results, not on numbers.

With 52 weeks ahead of you, it can be tempting to set goals for yourself that involve all kinds of numerical feats, like…

• Improving your web traffic
• Boosting your search results
• Increasing your inbound links, or your number of media mentions
• Doubling your number of Facebook friends or Twitter followers

… and so on.

And while each of these occurrences would be a boost to both your business and your brand’s reputation, they’re also merely the measurable by-product of a more important goal: doing your job well.

If you create compelling content, your traffic will increase.

If people are talking about you, your search results will improve and your media mentions will grow.

If you become vital in the lives of others, they’ll want to friend and follow you.

So yes, by all means, set big goals for 2011.  Aim for the stars.

Just make sure you’re judging your success in terms of quality, not quantity.

Image by Ross Websdale.

Think we’re vital? Join us on Twitter or Facebook!

As 2011 approaches, you already have some personal and business goals in mind that you’d like to work toward.  But what about your social media goals?  (You do have social media goals, right?)

First, identify the obvious problems that are hampering your social media efforts:

• Do you need to make social media easier?
• Do you need to find new ways to save time?
• Are you having trouble measuring the effects of social media?
• Do you need to convince someone that social media is worth it?

Maybe your goals are more specific, such as…

• Finding the right social media voice for your brand.
• Finding the right people to represent your brand online.
• Outsourcing or self-creating your social media work?
• Aligning your expectations with your customers’ expectations.

Or, maybe you’re trying to optimize a specific tool in your social media toolbox, like…

• Using Twitter to improve your customer service.
• Creating cool YouTube marketing videos to get people’s attention.
• Managing a useful LinkedIn group.

Be honest with yourself: if your social media efforts are falling short, admit it.

Then take the necessary steps to improve.

2011 is a whole new year.  Anything is possible.  So get cracking.

Need help? Come follow us on Twitter or Facebook!

Image by Finding Josephine.

December is the month of year-end and best-of lists, and this year there’s no shortage of social media-related countdowns, including:

• The best social media books of 2010.
• The top Twitter trends of 2010.
• The top Facebook status update trends of 2010.
• The top viral video ads of 2010.
• The top marketing blog posts of 2010.
• The best blogs of 2010.

While recounting the top stories around the web can be instructive, inspirational or (oops) cautionary, don’t forget to look back through your own year of social media ups and downs.  Ask yourself:

• Where did we succeed at the individual and the campaign level?
• Where did we exceed (or fall short of) expectations?  Do we know why?
• What did we learn?
• Who did we meet?
• What lessons can we apply to future endeavors?

Identifying the year’s high and low points, understanding what worked and what didn’t, and taking a wide view of your successes and failures can be critical in improving your results in the coming year.  (Plus, in this era of nonstop media input, if you don’t occasionally take a moment to reflect on what just happened, you may not have another chance anytime soon!)

Here at Creative Concepts, 2010 has been an exciting and surprising year!  In this year, we began working with the US division of Ecover, which has blossomed in ways the original RFP never foresaw.  We continued our fruitful partnerships with longtime clients like Bigelow Tea and Ouidad, delved into the world of HD video, found several new and talented employees, and rebuilt our website — all while navigating new services like FourSquare and the ever-changing Facebook.

Thanks to our clients, our employees, our friends and families, and everyone who helped to make Creative Concepts successful in 2010.  We couldn’t have done it without you!  Here’s to a deep appreciation of everything we learned and had the pleasure of sharing during this past year, and an even more spectacular 2011.

You should follow us on Twitter or Facebook!

Photo by Jeff Meade.

As we’ve mentioned before, social media won’t save you from a PR crisis — and that’s okay.

For better or worse, the public has a short memory, and yesterday’s furious anger is tomorrow’s footnote.  This means companies large and small can survive bad PR as long as they can ride the occasional wave up and down.

For example, considering how much negative publicity was generated in the mainstream media when NPR fired Juan Williams, you might have thought NPR would be destined for funding crises and possible financial collapse.  Instead, as recent pledge drive numbers have shown, NPR’s donation numbers remained remarkably consistent despite all the media rhetoric.

So, if negative PR can’t sink a company… what can it do?

Ironically, bad PR’s biggest boon just might be providing useful feedback for the companies in question.

In the case of NPR, one of the lessons they learned was that the bulk of their angry commentary was coming from people who weren’t regular donors in the first place.  As Paul Farhi in The Washington Post reports:

Several station managers say the angriest responses have been from people who appeared not to be regular contributors, based on their cross-referencing caller and e-mailers’ names with databases of donors.

If that’s the case, NPR might downplay similar criticisms in the future since such commentary is most likely to come from far outside their core supportive audience.  Or, they could further investigate the issues at hand (freedom of speech, racial profiling, discriminatory practices) with the intention of appealing to that very same outsider audience.  Or, they might even fan the same flames that caused such an uproar in the first place, as a way to differentiate the actions of their brand from their competitors.

However NPR or any other company chooses to react to a sudden swirl of negative publicity, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: although social media may help messages spread faster than ever, its continual flood of information also helps good and bad PR disappear from the public’s memory faster than ever.

Want to learn more? Connect with us on Twitter or Facebook!

Image by Jared Dunn.

When you’re the top specialty tea company in the United States, you reach a lot of tea lovers.  Our client Bigelow Tea is using social media — from Bigelow Tea’s Facebook (and, yes, MySpace) pages to their YouTube channel, Bigelow loves to share their tea knowledge with the world.  (After 65 years in busiess, they know a thing or two about tea.)

But how often do their customers have a chance to share what they know with each other?  Normally, it’s not easy.  Fortunately, we at Creative Concepts are helping Bigelow Tea bridge that gap.

Last month, the Bigelow Tea Twitter account asked its followers if they had any tea tips worth sharing.  The results were instructive, and they formed the basis of a helpful blog post that allowed Bigelow’s fans to learn from one another.

This isn’t Bigelow’s first foray into customer connectivity.  Earlier this year, they hosted their first Bigelow Tea Social in New York City, where bloggers and foodies alike came together to talk tea (and get their fill of free samples).  How was that live event conceived of and managed?  Why, on Bigelow’s blog and Twitter account, of course!

And while tea is obviously a communal drink to begin with, Bigelow Tea isn’t the only company finding new ways to bring their customers together.  Our client Ecover celebrated their 30th anniversary of creating ecological cleaning products with a live event that united green bloggers, media-makers and innovators, all of whom swapped stories and tips until the party ended.  How did we at Creative Concepts help Ecover organize this event?  With a Facebook contest hosted on Ecover’s blog!

Social media: bringing companies and customers together — with the emphasis on together.

Have you checked out these lists of YouTube’s most-watched videos of 2010 or YouTube’s 10 favorite videos of 2010 (according to fan voting)?

As usual, the top videos are a mixture of humor, spectacle and quality (OK Go, Antoine Dodson, “Double Rainbow”).  But perhaps most surprising among the Top 10 is the inclusion of the original Old Spice Super Bowl ad that spawned the company’s ongoing TV and web campaign.

Why is that surprising?

Because, simply put, there’s no reason that anyone online ever needs to watch an ad.

Yes, you may have to watch an ad in order to get to the video you actually want or need to watch, but when you have complete control of your online time, there aren’t many cases when you’ll consciously choose to spend it being marketed to.

At best, a good web video ad is one that doesn’t aggravate us while we’re waiting for our chosen video to load.

So how did Old Spice make a commercial that became one of the year’s most-watched videos?

Three answers:

• It was funny
• It was absurd
• It was incredibly well-made

Humor, spectacle and quality.  Those traits were commonly seen in this year’s (and, really, every year‘s) most-watched videos.  Old Spice happened to combine them all into one video, and did so in a way that surprised the media at large — which, as a result, couldn’t stop sharing these videos.

Because no one expected Old Spice to reinvent themselves in this manner, doing so created a series of talking points that pushed these videos to the forefront of everyone’s infostream.

Can your brand do that?  Doubtful.  Catching lightning in a bottle is an annual rarity.  Not every ad campaign will be “the new Old Spice.”  In fact, almost all of them won’t.

And that’s actually good news.

Trying to be the most popular video on the web is going to be an exercise in frustration that distracts from your company’s actual goal: to be profitable.  Is Old Spice happy that they greenlit a popular ad?  Sure.  Are they happier that Old Spice sales skyrocketed as a result?  Undoubtedly.

So instead of trying to produce the most-watched video of 2011, focus on producing videos that increase your brand’s audience awareness and drive sales.  (Or, if you’re a non-profit, create videos that drive awareness and donations, as these popular videos for Toronto-based charities have done.)

And if you have a sense of humor about it, so much the better.

(Have we mentioned we produce web videos for our clients?)

To learn more, follow with us on Twitter or Facebook!

While the world debates the meaning and the merits of Julian Assange, Wikileaks and our expected right to privacy, we at Creative Concepts can’t help but wonder… how interested would Assange be in sifting through your emails?

One of the basic tenets of social media is the call for transparency.  As the theory goes, the more openly you engage with your customers, the less ambiguity there is in your actions and the less “dirt” there is for others to dig up, should they choose to do so.  (For a deeper examination of the business approach to transparency, check out the book Tactical Transparency by our friends Shel Holtz and John C. Havens.)

But despite the public push toward openness, that doesn’t mean companies and brands don’t still have their secrets.  Tactical transparency doesn’t preclude tactical advantages. And, as Christopher Penn reminds us, some companies are built on secrets.

The question, therefore, is this:

Are your public actions drastically different from your private motives?

People tend to be most vocally concerned about privacy when they’re worried that the image they’ve publicly projected would be somehow damaged or destroyed “if certain information got out.”  In the case of military positions or diplomatic strategy, that concern can be understandable.  But in the case of brand management?

Perhaps the Assange affair is a timely opportunity for you to reconsider your brand’s public image and its private intentions, and to make sure that they’re harmoniously reconciled.

The world has enough secrets.  Does your company have too many to hide?

This is about more than lulling potential customers into a false state of security so you can take financial advantage of them later (although that’s obviously reprehensible).  This is about making sure that what you want and how you’re getting there isn’t in conflict with who you are.

And just who are we? Connect with us on Twitter or Facebook to learn more!

Photo by Lost Vegas.

Ecover’s 30th Anniversary party in NYC. Photo by Kate Eisemann

Despite the impressive track record that comes with being a 30 year-old international brand, our client Ecover is still facing one big hurdle when it comes to increasing audience awareness in the United States:

They weren’t here first.

While Ecover was establishing their brand of ecological cleaning products in Europe before they ever crossed the pond, competitors like Method and Seventh Generation were becoming the common names that people in the US tend to think of as “clean and green.”  And although Ecover has effective partnerships with retailers like Whole Foods, they’re still seeking new ways to connect with potential customers who might not even know that they exist (yet).

So, yes, Ecover is on Twitter. And yes, Ecover is on Facebook. And yes, Ecover has a blog.

But when Ecover celebrated their 30th Anniversary in November, they saw an opportunity to connect with those bloggers, tweeters and Facebook fans in a whole new way: in person.

We at Creative Concepts helped Ecover create a “30 Under 30″ contest to celebrate the contributions of America’s young eco-innovators. The contest’s winner, Ryan Arnold, was announced live in New York City on November 10th at Ecover’s 30th Anniversary party, held live in the Environment showroom in Manhattan. Ecover also partnered with EcoStilletto, who organized a green blogger panel during the event which focused on the future of sustainability.

The result?

Increased brand awareness, compelling conversation and positive post-event coverage on blogs and Twitter alike. Plus, Ecover CEO Mick Bremans got to meet dozens of young eco-minded entrepreneurs and media makers who are passionate about the future of sustainability which was a great opportunity for him and the finalists!

This kind of personal connection can be started online, and we certainly expect it to continue online long after the event is over.  But no matter how electrified your Facebook community is, nothing replaces the power of face-to-face communications to build tangible relationships.

Are you building relationships that bridge the gap between the online and offline worlds?

Need help building those bridges? Join us on Twitter or Facebook!

Picture the audience that you think is currently reading your tweets, streaming your videos and liking you on Facebook.

According to the 2010 US Census, your picture might need some tweaking.

As the census indicates, Hispanic and African-American audiences are the fastest-growing segments of the online population  In fact, based on these statistics, eMarketer predicts that more than 60% of the US’s Hispanic population will be online by 2012.  And that means the potential audience for every online brand is becoming more diverse by the day.

Since the dawn of the 2000s, social media has been trumpeted as “a conversation.”  And as that conversation becomes more diverse, more multicultural, more nuanced and more open to interpretation, it creates a whole new set of opportunities and challenges.

Take a look at the way you’re currently using your social media channels.  Now, ask yourself…

• How broad is your existing customer base?
• How diverse is your messaging?
• Are your products and services appealing to multiple demographics?
• Are you focusing (whether consciously or unconsciously) on too narrow of an audience segment?
• Are you equipped to address concerns and answer questions from potential customers who fall outside your expected demographic?

This isn’t just a question of ethnicity or cultural diversity.  This is a consideration of gender, age, region, income and education.  It’s also a welcome reminder that the Internet allows you to connect with everyone… if you’re prepared to do so.

Yes, the people you expect to be in your audience are probably there… but so are lots of other people you might not expect to be there, and might not be prepared to engage and support.  (Yet.)

So why not find ways to diversify your conversations now, before your competition does?

Image by D Sharon Pruitt.

Need some messaging tips? Connect with us on Twitter or Facebook!