Spring Creek Blog

Join Our Growing Team: Engagement Leads Needed

recruitment Join Our Growing Team: Engagement Leads Needed Social Media photo

Spring Creek Group is looking to add a few Social Media Engagement Leads to our team.

Ideal candidates will have 1-3 years experience, with some functional experience in online marketing.  More importantly, you love Blogs, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and some social networks that most people have not heard of.  You are also fascinated by the business side of Social Media, quickly evaluate opportunities, converse fluently in the online world, and understand how this channel fits into a larger marketing campaign.

This job is perfect for people who have built large or small blogs and/or web sites and tried to get them a larger audience. You see potential in this industry, and want to get in early.  And, you are looking for a new job where you get to work with a team of like-minded, hungry, entrepreneurial types, to build large and small social media campaigns for major corporations and underfunded start-ups.

Salary Range: $32,000 – $36,000/year

Please send your resume, but also send along links where we can see your skills.  Please reply to jobs@springcreekgroup.com.

What Channel is Your Phone Turned To?

There was a time when you used your remote to change the channel.  Now more and more often, the remote and channel are the same device.

Pew Research released a report that claims 33 percent of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.  So we’ve finally figured out what the people who aren’t Facebooking or texting are doing with their phones – they’re reading the New York Times or Perez Hilton.

The Pew report discusses, “two significant technological trends that have influenced news consumption behavior: First, the advent of social media like social networking sites and blogs has helped the news become a social experience in fresh ways for consumers. People use their social networks and social networking technology to filter, assess and react to news. Second, the ascent of mobile connectivity via smart phones has turned news gathering and news awareness into an anytime, anywhere affair for a segment of avid news watchers.”

pew1 What Channel is Your Phone Turned To? Social Media photo

Younger cell phone owners are more likely to look for news on their phones than from Katie Couric. In fact, according to the report, about 43 percent of those under 50 said they are mobile news consumers.  And social media plays a big part, as more than 80 percent of respondents get or receive news via e-mailed links.  But as Breitbart points out in their analysis of the report, the more things change, the more they stay the same.  People’s #1 one concern is still the weather (72 percent), followed by current events (68 percent).

John Cook from Seattle’s own TechFlash found it worthwhile to mention that, “The authors of the study write that news has become omnipresent and people’s relationship to news is becoming portable, personalized and participatory.”

I think John is right when he focuses on the fact that news (and other information) is omnipresent.  The “news cycle,” so to speak, is no longer valid.  The classic product launch is a thing of the past.  Making a big splash with a marketing or ad campaign is not effective unless there is credibility in the claim, and you can prove that the message is sustainable over time.  There’s an effect in which every marketing action has an equal and opposite reaction.  The more you promise, the more upset the crowd will be if you don’t deliver.

So how is this affecting the way news is being delivered?

“In one way it’s uplifting that over 60 percent of people using their phones for news are logging on to check current events. That goes against the passive news consumer we’ve heard about in TV for years,” says Cale Ramaker, an anchor at WOFL-TV in Orlando.  “On the other hand it means all news outlets, in any median, need to refocus on not only delivering the news in multi-formats – but do it with an emphasis for the right now consumer.”

Cale’s point is valid.  We now have more sources of information, more editors of the information, but also more opportunities to make critical decisions on whether the information is tainted.  And seventy two percent of the survey’s respondents said that “most news sources today are biased in their coverage.” If the “objective” sources are biased, then the marketing sources are unbelievably easy to see through.

So at the end of the day, information continues to flow, and people can find it whenever and wherever they are.  In fact, even if a marketing team lands an article with Kara Swisher, we may not read it there.  We may get it via a friend’s Facebook post or Tweet while waiting for the bus.

We’re Getting in Shape Tomorrow at PR+Mktg Boot Camp

You don’t often hear the terms “Boot Camp” and “Library” in the same sentence.  For that reason alone, we would have decided to take part and be a panel moderator at tomorrow’s big PR and Marketing Event.  But when we found out some of our favorite people, including Betsy Aoki (@bing), Elliot Pesut (@alaskaair), Shauna Causey (@ShaunaCausey), Rod Brooks (@NW_Mktg_Guy), Ben Straley (@meteorsolutions), Scott Porad (@scottporad), not to mention too many others to list (about 40 overall) will be there as well, we had to sign up.

So come see Clay talk about Measurement and Analytics tools, and come say hi to Grant and I as we walk around soaking up knowledge.  Hope to see you all there tomorrow.

Twitter Gives Seattle-area Tool CrowdEye the Firehose

CPW 039 edited small Twitter Gives Seattle area Tool CrowdEye the Firehose Social Media photo

When Twitter announced they’d be giving basically unfettered access to their data stream to a select number of companies, you can bet that local player CrowdEye got a bit giddy.

When we first checked in on CrowdEye back in June, they were just getting started, but already were showing value in the realm of real-time Twitter search. Now, over half a year later, CrowdEye is about to get more data thrown at them than they probably could have imagined – and they join an elite group in doing so.

To clarify, Twitter puts the number of applications accessing their rate-limited, freely available offerings at more than 50,000. Today, CrowdEye joins Ellerdale, Collecta, Kosmix, Scoopler, twazzup and Chainn Search (not launched) as the newest batch of partners to gain access to the holy grail of Twitterdom – the Firehose.

We’ll be watching these inventive partners in the near future and can’t wait to see what they do with the data.

Learn more about the image used in this story here.

Windows 7 Launch Rides the Wave of Social Engagement

Win7cs 231x300 Windows 7 Launch Rides the Wave of Social Engagement Social Media photo

When you’re Microsoft drumming up buzz about your biggest product launch in recent history isn’t all that hard. The challenge, even to one of the largest, most-known brands in the world comes when you look at that buzz and decide what to do with it. In this latest case, the Windows 7 OS launch, Microsoft and the Windows team linked their goals of creating awareness with new consumers, engaging existing consumers, and building advocacy and empowering champions by monitoring and engaging in the online communities where today’s consumers live out their lives: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, and forums specifically.

Laying the Groundwork

While the excitement around the campaign drove large quantities of engagements, the Windows Team was out for months before launch, building support and creating lines of communication in the communities. The study lends weight to the practice by noting that the Windows Outreach Team was able to scale to fit needs during the natural product lifecycle.

Through the LookingGlass

With the addition of Microsoft’s own tool, LookingGlass, the group was able to not only monitor volume and sentiment around the launch, but also create an information loop as the chunks of info from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, blogs, and forums were streamed to their tool for all to see on their Social Media Hub. For the first time during a major product launch, Microsoft fans and critics alike had a near real-time look at the information their fellow Web colleagues were discussing and were able to jump into the conversation themselves.

The Case Study

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Windows7 Social Media Case Study

View more documents from martyc.

Wrapping Up

For more information, visit Marty Collins’ blog – Marketing Today.

*Full Disclosure: Microsoft Corporation is a client of Spring Creek Group

I Didn’t Write This, My Personabot Did

Image of sims party with text overlay - personabot party

Last night’s SMC Seattle event at Swedish was one for the history books, or one for the future books, depending on how you look at things. The social media Twitterati were out in force, yet again, to sell out another SMC Seattle event which featured Gartner analyst Adam Sarner. Sarner’s talk focused on how the Web will look in the future as it relates to CRM – definitely an intriguing topic given the crowd on hand.

Basing the majority of his talk on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Sarner wove a tale of a Web-filled future where Personabots (automated, personality infused, self-learning, self-replicating, virtual representatives that will be used as a tool for facilitating life events) do our bidding in the virtual world, thus enhancing our actual lives in the meat space. Sound a little like the Matrix? My favorite example was a person sending out 10,000 Personabots on 10,000 speed dates to find women that the man would be compatible with.  Sign me up— that’ll cut my bar tabs significantly.

If you can get past the actual thought of thousands of Rons running around the virtual world, the leap to a future where online personas become testing and learning grounds for not only how we as humans live, but how businesses and brands interact in that future environment the possibilities open right up. Sarner spoke a bit about how brands would interact with Personabots in these virtual environments and take on characteristics of those Personabots they come in contact with by using the example of someone noticing a tennis racket in the back of someone’s car and using that as a conversation starter. Much in the same way, Sarner sees these virtual brand ambassadors taking stock of traits, likes, and dislikes in Personabots and using those characteristics to communicate in the virtual world. When you think about it, it’s basically what Facebook is doing when serving you ads already except it’s you, not your Personabot who sees the ads.

We try not to make wide-sweeping generalizations about what we think the future of computing and the Web will look like (we’ll leave that to Gartner), but you can bet we’re pretty excited to send our Personabots out into the wild virtual world to go skydiving.

Also, for those of you born in at Swedish (or have had a child there), you can join the Swedish Facebook page just for you: http://www.facebook.com/swedishbabies. Our very own Aaron Graham is a Swedish baby, so you’ll soon see him sporting his t-shirt.

Again, and we can’t say it enough, a big thanks to the SMC Board and Swedish for making this happen.  After getting a chance to try out the Da Vinci robot, we’re trying to write a business case for buying one for the SCG offices. We’ll let you know how that goes.

For a snark-free look at the talk, check out Veronica Sopher’s post Jeramy Rich’s post on the SMC Seattle site.

AG vogues

Local company PM Photobooth was on hand to take wacky pictures – Aaron obliged.

100 Million People Taking Facebook on the Road

texting sign 100 Million People Taking Facebook on the Road Social Media photo

We’ve all seen the stats that texting while driving has similar effects to your vehicular dexterity as downing a case of Kokanee (a nod to our Canadian friends up the road).   But maybe we’re not actually texting.  Is it possible we’re all Facebooking?

A few weeks ago, Facebook announced the following:

“Today, we hit another milestone…with more than 100 million people actively using Facebook from their mobile devices every month. This usage happens on almost every carrier in the world and comes less than six months after we announced 65 million people on Facebook Mobile.”

Some marketing teams still have giant whiteboards with doodles, where they are “strategizing” a Facebook road map for the next 12 months.  But, isn’t it high time marketers stop thinking about Facebook as a Web site, and instead focus on how it will follow you around everywhere you go?  I agree with Mediapost’s David Berkowitz, who says the following:

“The safe bet is in time that the mobile user base will nearly mirror the overall user base, and that most of its usage will derive from mobile users. Facebook is in an especially strong position to benefit from the mobile boom, as mobile measurement firm Ground Truth noted this month that 61% of mobile Web pageviews are served by social networking sites.”

So here’s the question for the marketer who still has a 2008 Social Media Strategy in 2010:  Do I need to catch up, or can I just jump ahead to mobile?  Starbucks and their 5 gabillion Facebook fans may be an inspiration to Fortune 500’s across the nation, but maybe the smarter move for large laggards is to skip the whole catch-up game and join the mobile party.  Meanwhile, SMBs may want to investigate hyper-local, location-based mobile social media strategies.

It won’t be about ads popping up on your mobile Facebook page, but a tighter integration with PayPal and potentially some partnerships with folks like Whrrl, Foursquare, and Gowalla, could allow you to buy a beer for your friend at a bar, while you sit in a movie theater across town.  Or, you could order a Sounders jersey while your friend is at the game, and have him pick it up at the souvenir stand.

So, fear not brave marketer.  If you missed the original social media wave in 2007, look at the 100 Million Facebook users on mobile devices, and realize you get a second shot at the growth curve.

An Open Letter to Mr. Ochocinco

Chad Ochocinco's Tweets

Dear Mr. Ochocinco,

Recently you asked your followers to come up with a Twitter contest idea for your road trip from Miami to Vegas to see some of the current shows. Well rather than one, I’m giving you seven.  All I want in return is a seat on that bus.

Bengal Tiger Look Alike Contest – Dress yourself up as a Bengal tiger and send a Twitpic of yourself to @ogochocinco.

OCNN Sign Challenge – During sports game, fans create anagrams of the TV stations that are televising the games to get shown on TV (e.g. ABC – Always Bet on Chad). Make your OCNN sign and send it to @ogochocinco, include #PutMeOnOCNN.

Chad’s Next Fine Challenge – We all know that Mr. Ochocinco gets fined during almost every game. Come up with an idea for his next finable stunt and send it to @ogochocinco, include #DearMrGoodell.

I Can Run Faster Than an Animal Too Challenge – Mr. Ochocinco ran faster than a horse on national television, can you out do him? Send us a link to a video of you winning a feat of strength or speed against an animal and send it to @ogochocinco.

Vegas Idol – Send @ogochocinco a link to a video of your best Vegas show audition. The prize is a trip to Vegas after all.

Dream Road Trip Contest – If you could do anything on a road trip from Miami to Vegas what would it be? Send your itinerary to @ogochocinco.

Ochocinco Me – Chad Johnson changed his last name to something that embodies him – Ochocinco. If you changed your name, what would it be? Send responses to @ogochocinco and include #85ME in your tweet.

Sincerely,

Andy Wentz

@frenchtron300

Outreach and Engagement Lead

Join Our Team: Social Media Analytics Program Manager

hyenalabs web analytics Join Our Team: Social Media Analytics Program Manager Social Media photo

The Analytics Group at Spring Creek is looking for the right person to join our team as Social Media Analytics Program Manager.

The ideal candidate for this role will have experience managing a team of Analysts to provide cutting edge Online Brand Equity tracking, Online Social Media Campaign Reporting and Online Social Media Audience Research Programs for fortune 1000 clients. It is expected that all candidates for this position possess a high level of skill in using online research tools such as; Visible Technologies, Radian6, Nielsen Buzz Metrics Google Analytics, Atlas, Omniture, Webtrends, Comscore, Quantcast, @plan, Forrester, Jupiter, etc to quickly turn unorganized online and social media data into a clear, cohesive and logical insights.

A good fit within our team will be a high energy individual with a laser-like focus for measuring, manipulating, qualifying and quantifying client and industry brand, product and campaign user generated content and industry specific data “out there in the social web.”  This includes content such as online video, mobile advertising, tweets, forum posts, mobile apps, facebook apps, widgets, blogs, social networks, and content from other social media sites.

Key responsibilities include:

  • Client facing role for the Analytics Group: The Analytics Program manager is the primary client contact and relationship manager for a given client, industry vertical or domain. He/She develops analytics program strategy based on knowledge of digital media, client goals and expectations, the client’s position in the market, and what levers will drive success. He/she works with the Analytics Practice Head to assist in the production of new business pitches, presentations, POV’s and SOW’s as needed.
  • Domain Specific Program Manager . The Program Manager will manage a team of Analysts to extract maximum value from our licensed technology online research tools and partnerships with companies such as; Visible Technologies, Radian6, Nielsen Buzz Metrics , Meteor Systems, Scoutlabs, Twitter etc.. This role will oversee and manage the “packaging” of client specific reporting and analysis, providing guidance to Analytics Leads (AL’s) on the interpretation and analysis of client brand, audience and campaign level data, and then working with the AL’s on packaging and provisioning that analysis into a narrative that illuminates the insights for clients.
  • Lead Qualitative Analyst. This role is also in charge of client specific or industry specific qualitative research and analysis and will manage the use of independent contractors to deliver value added ad hoc or client specific online customer and audience research, on topics such as; customer feedback, visitor opinions; influencer identification, meme identification, etc. to help deduce “why” people feel, say or do something on, in or around the social web.

This is a full time position and reports directly to the Analytics Practice Head.

Social Media by the Numbers

 Scrabble1 Social Media by the Numbers Social Media photo

Blogs, the long-suffering workhorses of the Internet, are often thought of as an excellent way to communicate with others online.  However, a “blog post,” when used to convey one’s opinion, comes with one inherent flaw: it requires the use of words, and words alone can simply not be trusted.

Fortunately, in the entire history of the world, numbers have never been used to lie or deceive any one in any way.  That is why, periodically, we like to take a look at “Social Media by the Numbers” in order to cut through the empty rhetoric often present in the busy world of social media and get down to some serious and objective truth. 

  • Percentage of journalists in a recent study who say social media is an important tool for producing and reporting the stories they write:  56%
  • Number of unique visits to Twitter.com in January:  73.5 million
  • Minimum number of Olympic athletes who dislike NBC’s Olympic coverage, according to NBC.com’s own “Olympic Pulse” Twitter feed:  1
  • Dollar amount of voucher offered to filmmaker Kevin Smith following his removal from a Southwest Airlines plane for being “too fat” to travel, which prompted a backlash via Twitter:  $100
  • Percentage of people, according to a CNN.com poll, who agree with Southwest Airlines’ decision: 58%
  • Minimum number of photos of 9/11 hijackers that have been appropriated for Facebook advertisements regarding changes in Michigan’s auto insurance policy:  1
  • Number of incarcerated individuals’ Facebook profiles that British Justice Secretary Jack Straw has requested be shut down, due to the fact that these profiles are being used to harass the individuals’ former victims:  More than 30
  • Altitude, in feet, which Toshiba UK launched an “ordinary living room chair” for an ad campaign:    98,268
  • Number of class action lawsuits filed against Google due to privacy concerns over their new Google Buzz application: 1
  • Percentage of social sharing on the web driven by Facebook: 44%
  • Number of Facebook’s new environmentally-friendly “green data centers” that will be partially powered by coal:  1
  • Breakdown of our emotional reaction to the “new social statement site” pleaserobme.com:  70% amused, 30% terrified
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