Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

I have a Twitter watch list set up for one of my clients, Aventa Learning. They provide online classes (from Advanced Placement to Credit Recovery and everything in between) to to schools and districts around the country, and help thousands of students graduate every year.

I have to say, some of my best moments come from watching the Aventa Tweets roll by - written by students who are faced with deadlines. Often, they’re hilarious - few of which I would print in a public forum.

Once in awhile, I just have to respond.

Maybe they’ll think I’m just an old fuddy duddy who can’t mind her own business. (Accurate. I plead guilty to that.)

But maybe…  just maybe, they’ll think twice about publicly announcing they are willing to cheat on their school work.

What do you think? Did I do this student a HUGE favor? Or am I hopelessly optimistic and publicly delusional myself?

Update: I couldn’t let this one pass…

If you want to see a great chronicle of the power of a post or a Tweet, check out how quickly this little mention from @amberkarnes - in defense of artist Stevie on the etsy site tru.che, vs. Urban Outfitters - played out.

Amber has about 1900 followers on Twitter, and blogs over at “my aim is true.”

Her post called “Anatomy of a trending topic: how Twitter and the crafting community put the smackdown on Urban Outfitters” today walks everyone through the incredibly rapid response to her Tweet, visually.

Every marketer should have a look at Amber’s Anatomy post. It should give you both a speedy chronology of a mini-revolt, and some sage advice… I love her attitude as she starts the post:

“Today has been a fun ride. Behold the power of social media muscle.

This morning, online buddy Gayla Trail (also known as You Grow Girl) posted a link to her Facebook page. It was to atumblr post by Chicago independent jewelry artist Stevie of tru.che….”

BTW, Urban Outfitters got hammered on its Facebook page… this is a tame one:

…and has posted a single Tweet in response so far. Urban Outfitters is probably really happy we’re into a three-day weekend.

I’m pretty sure we’ll hear more about this, in spite of that.

Janus, according to wikipedia, is the Roman god of beginnings and “transitions.”

“thence also of gates, doors, doorways, endings and time. Most often he is depicted as having two heads, facing opposite directions: one head looks eastward and the other westward. Symbolically they look simultaneously into the future and the past, back at the last year and forward at the new.”

I thought of Janus when I reviewed this infographic from onlineeducation.net about the effects of social media on students.

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The “inconclusive” nature of this beast is frustrating to me. However gloriously depicted. And I have always enjoyed seeing both sides of an argument… Hence, my affinity to Janus in this case.

The door is certainly open. The journey is up to the person.

I thought it might be interesting to share a graphic showing how much investment “advanced” companies (as measured by answers to a questionnaire about their efforts) spend on social media efforts. This is from a very reliable source, Jeremiah Owyang, of the Altimeter Group. (Subscribe to his blog.)

In his post (linked above) Jeremiah defined the characteristics of an advanced approach, and also noted even the advanced companies are underfunding training.

“Companies like Dell, Comcast, Wal-Mart, Adobe, HP, Microsoft, Wells Fargo, Ford, have characteristics of advanced corporations. What makes them advanced? They have formalized programs and charter, dedicated teams, line item budgets, and have likely been deploying for over 2.5 years.”

Fascinating stuff. How does your social channel work measure up?

Edelman has posted their annual report on public trust, the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer. As a marketer, I rely on it as an important benchmark that captures the specifics of undercurrents we mostly ‘feel’ during any given year.

As such, it’s a great tool to use to understand where, how many times, and what kind of information people long for, in order to trust a brand or organization.

From the executive summary:

“The data portray a savvy consumer who turns first to search engines to see what is available on the topic of interest, and who then seeks out traditional media to confirm or expand on what he or she has learned. Information ubiquity has changed the playbook for corporate communications, the data suggest, signaling to companies that they cannot simply be present with their messages, but rather must be omnipresent through an approach that encompasses mainstream, new, social, and owned media.”

In other words, brands need to be at the top of the search page; in the news (online is good); and elsewhere in social media. And frankly, people don’t need to be bombarded, even a few of authentic touches can engender trust.

There are more fantastic infographics, video presentations, etc. on the Edelman Trust Barometer page.

Mine it for your own organization’s nuggets. The information is, indeed, gold.