Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

Over on ZDNet, there’s a new story about the Nine Worst Social Media Fails of 2009… so far. Illustrating everything from companies trying to capitalize on current events (sorry FOX television) to trying to make a “viral” video (that’s just wrong, Quizno’s), the brand damage from each campaign is likely fairly short-lived. But the lessons are lasting.

Author Jennifer Leggio opined:

What is to be learned here? Well, don’t lead with tools. Don’t think that your brand is above the risks and backlash of social media. When plotting a social media campaign, truly think about what you want your end result to be, and fully examine everything that could possibly go wrong. Word-of-mouth marketing is a fantastic thing when you know how to leverage it. But if you lose control of your brand, the disasters are almost endless. Let these brands’ failures be a lesson.

I agree that you never, ever, ever lead with tools. Nor should you ever think your brand above risks in social media. I don’t agree with the “lose control” statement, only because if you’re “plotting a social media campaign” you must engage in your brand’s authentic manner. Any marketer letting an agency (or internal resources) stray away from the brand’s values and promise (I suppose the “lose control” statement applies here) is just begging for trouble, as illustrated by Quizno’s.

The bottom line is this: social media is a channel that requires more diligence than most, simply because of the reach. If you screw up, you can’t hide. So keep that in mind as you’re looking to get into social media.

No one loves the power of word of mouth more than I. But it can absolutely leave a bad taste if poorly contrived or executed.

People are starting to wonder how they might get the word out about the social media surrounding events these days. For example, attendees who Tweet would surely want to learn what the hashtag for an event might be.

I was privy to an email from the folks running the recent SOCAP conference last month that I think did a wonderful job of socializing the event before hand, and thought I’d share it here…

It came the “old fashioned” (yet incredibly effective) way - via email. Use this as a template:

Are you planning to attend the 2009 Symposium and are interested in sharing ideas from the conference? Or are you unable to attend the Symposium but still want to be a part of the great conference discussions and networking opportunities?

Whether or not you plan to attend the conference, SOCAP International is pleased to bring the 2009 Symposium to your desktop via social media! We are offering SOCAP members the opportunity to share and discuss ideas and topics from the conference using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and/or our NEW SOCAP blog. The SOCAP home page will also host a feed from our blog so you can read posted comments about the Symposium.

Using the SOCAP Communities blog, Symposium attendees can share their best takeaways and networking with the entire SOCAP membership.  And since blogging is not just a one way conversation, comments are encouraged from everybody—whether you are onsite at the Symposium or sitting at your desk at work.  Blogging at the Symposium is a great way to keep the discussions going about SOCAP’s new industry benchmarking survey, our relevant sessions and our great industry speakers.

Using SOCAP’s social media tools for the Symposium is simple and convenient:

• You can become one of SOCAP’s official Symposium bloggers. Check our blog information page to learn more, and contact us for specific details on how to get started with the SOCAP blog.
• You can subscribe to the RSS Feed, read the blog feed on SOCAP’s home page or keep checking the blog during the Symposium and participate in the conversation. Subscribing to the feed will enable you to read blog posts from the convenience of Microsoft Outlook or a Web reader of your choosing. See our RSS instruction page to learn more.
• Using SOCAP’s Twitter identifier for the Symposium, #symp09, any attendee or offsite participant can share brief comments about the conference in real time. The #symp09 identifier makes it easy for other participants to find what people are saying about the Symposium. Check our Twitter instruction page to learn how you can follow or participate in this conversation.
• SOCAP’s Facebook fans and LinkedIn group members will receive frequent updates. Check our Facebook and LinkedIn instruction pages to learn how to join these communities.

No matter where you feel most at home in the Web 2.0 world—on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or reading a feed—SOCAP has a place where you can follow and discuss the Symposium as it happens.

SOCAP is here to help you with any questions you may have. Contact us for assistance or for more information on how you can participate, whether you can make it to the Symposium or not.

You can follow their lead - and check out their blog for some great information on customer service via social media means. (BTW, I never recommend following an event on a mobile phone, as SOCAP does on their Twitter instruction page… Especially one that I live-Tweet… it’d drive you nuts!)

I’ve not really done any links posts before, but I thought I’d give one a try this morning. Hey, it’s Monday, I’m being active on Twitter, and I’m not quite ready to get serious on my blog for the week. I’ll give this a shot and see whether people like it or not.

• Most inspirational: Photos from the Hubble Spacecraft of our galaxy (via Daily Beast)
• Most useful: A tie between a primer on hashtags (via Mashable) and a list of Rachel Levy’s top favorite Twitter tools.

…And, in support of “throwing sheep,” (thank you @missrogue and your HorsePigCow blog!):

• Most fun: WolframAlpha says I was born on a Friday, 19057 days ago. On Saturday, Dec. 11, 2011 I will be 20,000 days old.

I’m speaking at The Link for Women’s May meeting this evening, bringing attendees gently into the world of social media as a marketing channel. I’m very excited about the presentation, as speaking is one of my favorite things, followed closely by bringing newcomers into awareness of new opportunities.

I guess I’ve found a new love: teaching. Somehow I always dreamed of teaching when I was young. And here I am today, regularly offered that opportunity. That’s bliss.

But I digress… I dutifully sent off my presentation to The Link for Women last night. And this morning find myself trumped by a beautifully articulated and illustrated presentation on social media by Seth Goldstein, CEO of SocialMedia.com. I want to share it here for its sage advice, simplicity, elegance and wonder.

I’ll post my own presentation on SlideShare tomorrow, but in the meanwhile, wow.

From a brilliant post by Gwen Bell comparing yoga to social media:

“Just like you don’t get fit drinking diet cola, eating energy bars and snacking on “low-fat” cookies, you don’t get social media results doing as little as possible and hoping for a big payout at the end of the week.”

Gwen compares the kind of effort and mindset you need to be successful in both yoga and social media; and the quote above is my favorite from this delicious post.

I have a little bitty issue with this paragraph (emphasis is hers) but love the warning about “social media experts” crawling out of the woodwork:

“What you can do with social media is going to come from your gut, not from someone claiming to be a social media expert. Mind you, it doesn’t bother me that some do claim expertise. In the yoga world, the equivalent would be Bikram Choudhury who famously said, “I have balls like atom bombs, two of them, 100 megatons each. Nobody fucks with me.” Then he proceeded to sue yoga studios that he felt infringed on his special brand of yoga. It takes all types.”

I appreciate that we all need to find our own way in our social media practices, but just as in yoga, one needs to learn the basics in order to practice safely and effectively. That’s where training and understanding the rules of the road comes in, and maybe some atomic balls.

Like standing on your head, it takes a fundamental understanding of what can go wrong to give you the confidence to attempt the pose. I think Gwen might agree with me there…