It's Carnival Time!

I spent some time the last few days visiting your blogs as well and was impressed. Great work y’all!!

Visual Appeal. My biggest take-away was about presentation and first impressions. Most of my classmate’s blogs were visually clean and crisp. We’re inviting people to read blog and engage with us, so clean & crisp visual presentation is a must. Generally speaking, the blogs with white (or light) backgrounds were easier to read. Kimberly Paulk and Jamie Richards’ blogs are good examples of clean presentation.  

Branding. In addition to clean visuals, a blog allows you to present your personality or brand. The one that jumped out at me as the most memorable was Matt Schroeder’s. It was clean and readable, but not so stripped down that it lacked character. His artwork reflected his personality & brand. He achieved clean visuals and engaging artwork without diminishing either goal.

Content. There was A LOT of good content our blogs this quarter, so much so that it’s hard to highlight just one! I learned something from everyone I read. I select Jason Hanselman’s blog to highlight because he did something a little different…and effective. Like the rest of my classmates Jason covered good social media content, but he did so in a coach-y way through questions like:

“Who do you want to influence?  Why are you trying to influence them?  Have you even thought about it?  Even if you don’t want to influence people – you are.  When you avoid, condemn or criticize – you are influencing others. If you could start one thing that would influence others, what would it be?”

Jason provided quality content and did so with a tone that effectively reflected his brand - “New View Coach.”

It's a Community, so "Do Unto Others...."

There are many, many issues to contemplate and discuss with regard to intellectual property and social media. Though several years old, this post from the Legalzoom blog captures many of the key legal considerations.  

One of the most important considerations -- to me at least – isn’t legal. Rather, it’s the issue of what happens to one’s reputation, or that of the brand we represent, if we fail to respect another’s work by using it without permission or attribution.

Social media sometimes has a wild west feel to it, like you can get away with nearly anything. Indeed, we’ve all seen posts on Facebook or other social media that fail to give credit where credit is due. But for me it all comes down to this: when we engage in social media, we are participating in a community. As members of a community, each of us has a responsibility to respect others and to respect the work they produce.

However, it's awfully difficult to monitor this in the social world. I see content every day that’s posted or shared without attribution. Even though many content producers now want their material spread as far and wide as possible, we shouldn’t make assumptions. Rather, we should follow the age-old "Do Unto Others...." rule.

Evaluating American Airlines' Business App

I love American Airlines' (AA) free app for the Iphone! It's an exceptional example of a business social app that both improves customer experience and engages customers in new and exciting ways.

It’s sophisticated, visually appealing, uncluttered, and – importantly – it’s intuitive to use. When booking a flight, checking a reservation, or changing seats, I want to handle those transactions smoothly. AA’s beautifully designed app allows customers to handle virtually any function quickly and easily.

Not only can you book a flight, but you can also:

·       Check flight status

·       Change seats

·       Check frequent flyer mileage

·       Email your itinerary to a colleague or loved one

·       Review flight schedules

·       Purchase an Admiral’s Club Day Pass

·       Check in for a flight

The feature I value the most? AA’s revolutionary boarding pass feature! With AA’s app, you no longer need to print and carry a paper boarding pass. The board pass bar code is scanned directly from your smartphone when you pass through security. The security agent simply directs you to hold the phone under the scanner, and the barcode is read automatically. This is a small, but revolutionary step, in making security easier for passengers. As a customer, I’m delighted that AA offers this feature via the app.

Several bonus features are worth noting:

·       Sudoku. When I’m sitting on the runway on a delayed flight, I like to find things to occupy my mind. A book usually does the trick. But for those times when I realize, too late, that the book I was reading is stowed in the overhead in my carry on bag, American’s Smartphone app comes to the rescue. The app is embedded with a Sudoku game feature to keep me occupied. Sudoku occupies me for hours.

·       Parking reminder. The AA app’s parking feature not only allows you to jot down a quick reminder note about your car’s location, but it also allows you to store a photo of your car’s position.

AA’s Smartphone app has it all: functional features that allow flight check in and changing seat assignments plus helpful add-ons such as the parking reminder feature. It’s everything a good app should be in the interactive, social age.

Working in Adobe Connect

Last night was a first for me. I delivered a PowerPoint presentation on the Vine smartphone app to my colleagues. Wow, Adobe Connect is a cinch to master!

Adobe Connect is a godsend for groups that work or live at a distance from one another but need to present complex information in a meeting setting. Here’s out it works:

·        The participants and presenter access the meeting via a link provided by the meeting host.

·        There are two presentation option and either works brilliantly:

o   Upload his/her presentation document to Adobe

o   Share his/her desktop to allow participants to see exactly what the presenter sees.

(For my presentation, I opted to share my screen as I had videos to show participants and discovered that accessing videos is smoother via desktop sharing that an uploaded document. Were I not sharing videos, I would upload my presentation directly.)

·        Adobe Connect allows the audience to interact with the presenter verbally and via text. The audience asks questions in real time and receives the answers immediately.

·        Of some note, the presenter may either address the audience using webcam feature, or he/she may upload a photograph. (I uploaded a photo as there can be a ‘jumpiness’ to webcams that I personally find distracting.)

Adobe connect really is as simple as the above four steps indicate; it couldn’t be more user friendly!

I've presented via Cisco's Webex tool on prior occasions and found it acceptable. However, Adobe Connect is visually more attractive than Webex, and its interface with users can't be beat. The audio is clear and crisp with only a few hiccups that may be more attributable to the individual's wireless than Adobe Connect itself.

Overall, this is an exceptional tool for creating a social interaction when a group cannot meet in person. It’s a necessity for any business today that wishes to communicate in real time with business associates in more than one location. Adobe Connect is cost effective and is a great example of how the internet has changed commerce.

How Vine is Democratizing Marketing

The social media tool I studied for this class is the new Vine app for smart phones which was introduced just one year ago. Like most social media, Vine "is a great equalizer and it's leveling the playing field for those who can adapt and lead" (Solis 2011, xv). With only a smartphone and one’s imagination, one can create video content anywhere and anytime. Vine places video production in the hands of the grassroots.

Best of all? Vine is free!

At first glance there is at least one drawback -- videos can only be up to 6 seconds in length. However, individuals and brands are learning how to tell stories and market products within this constraint and in doing so are revolutionizing marketing. Dunkin Donuts was the first brand to broadcast a Vine-created video, on September 8, 2013, during ESPN’s Monday Night football. View Dunkin’s video here.

Ford Motor Company has now taken up Vining with ads like this one. With this simple, 6 second video, Ford engaged emotionally with potential customers by reminding them of playing with trucks as children. For the male customer, in particular, this ad drives home the fun of owning a truck.

Vine could not be simpler to use. To create a video:

1.     Point your phone in the desired direction.

2.     Place your finger on the screen.

3.     The camera records until you lift your finger.

If you want to include several shots in a video, simply press and lift your finger at intervals until you capture all the desired shots. Remember though, you only have 6 seconds!

Vine is so simple to use that even my technology-challenged father can figure it out! And with a free social tool that’s this user-friendly, the door is now wide open for individuals and brands of all sizes to take advantage of the power of Vining.

The advent of Vine is yet another example of social media leveling the playing field by creating opportunities for inexpensive outreach to audiences. While Ford and Dunkin Donuts can use Vine as a creative extensive of larger marketing campaigns, with Vine even small mom-and-pop operations with limited budgets can play.

Best Practices for Bloggers

We all visit blogs. Many of us post and comment on blogs. You might even post a comment on this blog.

If you're like me, you can probably name your favorite blogs, the ones that keep you coming back again and again. You learn from them, they make you laugh, they engage you and they create value for you. In short, they create connected-ness between you and a brand.

Then there are the blogs that make you cringe. You know the ones I mean; you stumble upon them when you're researching a question or just killing time. And you stumble away as quickly as you can, never to return. They read like a marketing campaign. They have stale content. The comment feature is turned off so there is no two-way communication. Yawn.

But what are the best practices for a blog? What makes a good blog good? Here are my own best practice recommendations, followed by a link to an article about blogging best practices that covers areas I don't - such as legal considerations.

1. Fresh Content. To keep content fresh and ensure your audience sees value in reading your blog, post regularly - I recommend posting daily. Stale content is snooze-inducing.
2. It's All About Them. Your blog content shouldn't read like a marketing campaign. An audience visits a blog because they want to gather information about a brand, answer a question, or solve a problem. They want a human experience and do not want to feel like a marketing target. The purpose of a good business blog, in my opinion, is to establish and grow a relationship. Sales will follow.
3. Monitor & Answer Comments. When a customer or potential customer uses a comment to ask a question or file a complaint, they deserve an answer. There's no greater turnoff than believing a brand isn't listening. If a question or complaint goes unanswered, the customer is likely to feel the brand's interest is insincere. A blog gives a brand great opportunity to create loyalty through sincere and transparent interactions with customers.

In doing research for this blog post, I found this article "Corporate Blogging: 7 Best Practices." While there is some overlap with my own best practices, this article provides valuable pointers on legal and policy considerations. Best practice recommendation 6, "Reinforce the company’s core values," is of particular value.

Ok, I get it: This explanation of social media is simplistic. VERY simplistic. But sometimes a silly approach is the best approach. What I like about this video is that anyone can understand it, anyone will grasp the point.

We all can think of friends, relatives or coworkers we know who don't fully grasp the power of social media -- how it can improve our lives and our businesses. My father is a good example of someone who just doesn't get it. He looks at me in awe, for example, when I locate a restaurant on UrbanSpoon or Facebook in a matter of minutes and decide it would be a good choice for us based on customer reviews or the recommendations of friends who've eaten there.

Even my father would understand this video explanation of social media.

I can also think of small business owners I know who are slow adapters. When I share this video with them, they will finally 'get it.'

Greetings!

Welcome to my blog on social media, ecommerce and internet communications!

In this space I will explore topics related to social media, new media communications platforms, and ecommerce strategies.  The opportunity to write regularly and share my thoughts with a wide audience intrigues me. This is not my first blog, however.

For several years I posted regularly on my blog “Leading from the Left.”  I was one of the first elected officials in NC to utilize blogs (and other social media, for that matter!) to connect with constituents. The experience was extraordinary for me personally and professionally.

At the time blogging as an elected official was relatively new – older mentors warned me against it. Its power quickly became apparent, however, and I used the blog to go ‘over the heads’ of the traditional media to communicate directly with my audience. “Leading from the Left” provided an avenue to explore topical subjects, share thoughts on complex ideas, communicate with a wide audience, and extend my influence as a subject matter expert. I explored topics on my own terms and in greater detail than I had been able to previously in newspaper articles and opinion pieces.

When I decided not to run for reelection to the Orange County (NC) Board of Commissioners, I stopped blogging. Though I now post regularly on Facebook and have learned to power of that platform, I still miss blogging.

In addition to this blog, I’m creating a blog for my house. Yes, that’s right my house! I will shortly be placing my house on the market and will be selling it myself. I’ll market it via Craigslist, Facebook, Twitter and via a blog. Link to follow!