LB's Rambles

Harsh Realities

Let's face it. Marketing through social media isn't easy. You can't just hire an agency and tell them to make a viral video, because that's not the way it works (no matter what the agency tells you). And your enthusiasm for the product or service you are marketing most likely isn't matched among the consumers out there.

That doesn't mean social media marketing isn't necessary - it is - or worthwile - it is. It means, as Sonia Simone writes at Copyblogger, that there are some harsh realities about marketing through social media. And the sonner you understand them, the sonner you'll be able to use social media more effectively.

Hat tip: Ragan's PR Daily.

100 Ways to Measure Social Media

I suspect that most of us have been involved in conversations with clients, agencies, reps, friends and colleagues about how to measure the impact of social media. What numbers are meaningful? Where do you start measuring? For that matter, where you you begin the discussion about which ones are meaningful?

Writing at MediaPost's Social Media Insider blog, David Berkowitz, the Senior Director of Emerging Media and Innovation at 360i has come up with an excellent list of 100 possible ways to measure the impact of social media. It's not meant to be all-inclusive, by any means. But it makes a terrific starting point for those conversations.

Say the Secret Word

Let's face it: passwords are important. If you bank on line, or shop on line, or register for secure sites, or log on at work, or sign in to your office computer from home, you need a decent password. If you don't think there are people out there trying to steal your secret words, take a quick look at a lot of the spam caught in your spam filter folder. Identity theft matters, and sometimes a decent password can be your only protection against it. Using your dog's name can be a lot less secure than you may think.

So how do you come up with a decent password? One that will be virtually impossible for others to guess - but easy for you to create and remember? Writing at Slate, Farhad Manjoo has a surprisingly easy two-step solution which could solve your problem. Highly recommended before you start your online shopping for the holidays.

Hat tip: Steve Rubel

Impressing the Boss via Social Media

What should be the role of social media inside most companies? Is there room for employees to use sites such as Twitter and Facebook to benefit the company and themselves? Scot Herrrick thinks so, and, at his CubeRules site, he offers five suggestions for becoming a star employee in social media.

Hat tip: IAB SmartBrief

Dash It All

Privacy advocates have long been engaged in a battle against what they perceive to be invasion of user privacy by websites. They object to the collection of data by sites - particularly the big sites, such as Google - which could allow advertisers to target users with what could be relevant ads. It's a topic and a complaint which has flared repeatedly over the years.

So it's worth noting that Google is now making a kind of privacy dashboard available to users, to let them know what different Google apps may be collecting about individual users (or groups, for that matter). According to Mashable, it's a good way to create in one convenient place a one-stop report on everything the communications giant may know about you. You'll find instructions at the link that will take you to your own Dashboad page, where you may also choose to alter some of the settings to limit the amount of shared information.

I've Got a Little List...

...or several people have a lot of large lists of the people they're following on Twitter. The mini-blogging service now has a built-in feature which lets you group the people you follow into lists, so that if, say, there are several people you find reliable talking about your brand, you can easily group them and stay current with their contributions.

David Berkowitz of 360i writes at the Social Media Insider blog that this is going to be a very useful feature, even though, as he says, there will undoubtedly be some users who try to game the system to improve their own standings (or followers). Whatever. He has some very practical suggestions about ways that Twitter lists can be useful to businesses - well, to be honest, can be useful to anyone.

One of his best suggestions, by the way, is to monitor the lists that you yourself are on. Follow the link above for instructions.

What a Wonderful World

On my way home now from Blogworld Expo in Las Vegas - three non-stop days of learning, renewing old friendships, and meeting new ones among the thousands of bloggers and podcasters gathered here. I'm leaving with a fair number of new ideas on ways to improve this blog and the Classic Mysteries blog, not to mention the podcast, and - I hope - you'll be seeing changes in the weeks ahead.

For those of you who blog or podcast and didn't get here - put next year's conference on your schedule. Now. October 14-16, 2010. Las Vegas. Hope to see you then.

The New Paradigm for News

We had a terrific session at BlogWorld Expo this afternoon on "Shifting the Paradigm: Traditional Media Adoption is Changing the World." An English translation of that might help: the discussion, really, centered on the still-uncomfortable relationship between traditional and new forms of media. There were some surprising conclusions from the panel, moderated by Andrew Lih, a professor for ten years at Columbia University and Hong Kong University. He was joined by Eric Olsen of BlogCritics and Jon DeNunzio of the Washington Post.

Among the surprising turns taken during this discussion was this comment, agreed to by the panel: if you look at Wired Magazine and wired.com and wonder which would survive ten years from now, it would probably be the magazine, rather than the online version. As one of the panelists observed, the magazine is so unique, and obviously created with so much passion, that it overshadows the website, which doesn't seem quite as inspired. It's not what I would expect to hear at a new media conference.

While there was general agreement on the precarious state of newspapers, there also seemed to be a feeling of some guarded optimism - and I must say I share that perspective. Old media must adapt and change - but I don't share the viewpoint held by many at this conference that newspapers in particular are on their way to extinction. I was delighted to hear the other point of view at the conference today.

Beat Cancer

In an attempt to raise money for the fight against cancer, and to get  BlogWorld into the Guinness Book of World Records, attendees at BlogWorld Expo will be including the #beatcancer hashtag and keyword on all of our posts on our blogs, our status updates on Facebook, our tweets on Twitter, etc., through the end of the conference tomorrow evening. If you blog or take part in social media, please join us!

BlogWorld Expo Notes

Getting ready now for the second day of this year's BlogWorld Expo. Some random notes on the first day:

It's an interesting mix of people. Lots of social media folks, to be sure (including many friends), but also a fair-sized sprinkling of people who say they're new to blogging, podcasting and social media and hope to learn more about it. They are, I both hope and think, getting a lot of encouragement from the rest of us.

There are so many "tracks" going on here simultaneously that it's virtually impossible to see every presentation you want to see. There was one serious technical hitch yesterday with the sound system at a luncheon "conversation" between journalist Kara Swisher and Ford's Scott Monty, but that appears to have been cleared up.

I spent more time than planned yesterday at the sessions on milblogging, as I have a milblogger in the family - my daughter ( http://iraq.notspecial.org ). Great people and serious milbloggers there - Blackfive, Greyhawk of Mudville Gazette, and many others. Good conversations about these blogs kept by military personnel and/or their spouses and family members, and how they have become an excellent (and often more reliable) source of news while still operating within security guidelines. Some discussion too about what the military's official attitude is and should be towards these unofficial outlets.

Good session in the afternoon on the new FTC regulations (see my last post). Surprising split - about 60/40 between those in favor of "paid conversation" and those opposed. I think it's because the amount of ground covered is huge and the rules are so broad - I mean, how do you lump together a book review or video game review with someone who accepts a flat-screen TV or cash to write about a product? The latter certainly requires full disclosure, but the former?

Las Vegas, as always, provides entertainment and distraction. After-party last night at the Bellagio in their upscale Bank nightclub was, as usual, loud and liquid.

All in all, a good day. Today: sessions on blogging's impact on traditional journalism. And lots more.