Archive for March, 2009
Everybody’s Heard About the Word (of Mouth)
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009Word-of-mouth has been one of the strongest driving forces in the marketing world since- well, since there has been a marketing world. Create a happy customer or user experience and that person tells someone who tells someone else who tells their hairdresser and before you know it, your widget factory is in need of new space to keep up with the demand.
In today’s world where word-of-mouth is more often word-of-keyboard, how do we track and analyze these messages that are passed on, built up and broadcast?
Sure, you can use readily-available tools like search engines to comb the interwebs looking for mentions, tracking the story and seeing where it originated, but that takes time and time, my friends is money. That’s why, at Spring Creek Group, we work with, associate with, and generally pay attention to leading-edge companies that are solving those problems of tracking and analyzing the word of keyboard side to your online presence.
One of those groups of folks we always pay attention to are our old friends over at Meteor Solutions. Ben Straley, CEO of Meteor Solutions, was recently profiled in the Seattle Times. Here’s the nugget:
“Word-of-mouth is an organic activity. You can’t purchase it, for any price. When it occurs it can produce a fantastic boost for your brand.”
While you can’t buy word-of-mouth activity, you certainly can keep your finger on the pulse, and that’s what we do here. By keeping an eye on how a client’s messages are living on the social Web once they’ve cleared the press rooms, Spring Creek Group provides statistics and qualitative feedback that helps create and refine future marketing – ultimately, it’s money (and time) well spent.
RE: We Paid Someone to Ghostwrite This
Friday, March 27th, 2009Case in point: This was most certainly not a good idea.
We Paid Someone to Ghostwrite This
Friday, March 27th, 2009
Everywhere we look this morning, a similar conversation seems to be taking place, as there’s a big hullabaloo going down about the presence of these so-called “ghost-tweeters” on celebrity or otherwise well-known Twitter accounts.
Some folks seem genuinely surprised by this news, and others are taking it in stride. We find ourselves leaning more towards the latter camp, as we can’t really discern a logical difference between someone “ghost-tweeting” for a celebrity and the general activities that Public Relations professionals do all the time. As far as those “fake celebrities” go, as long as they aren’t doing any harm to anyone or breaking any laws, we really have no problem with them either.
Ghostwriting (authorized or not) happens all the time, and the fact that it’s now occurring on Twitter should be seen as something neither shocking nor unexpected. If anything, it simply shows that while basic celebrity name recognition may get people’s initial attention and may attract followers (yawn, Faith Hill) it’s really the quality and freshness of your content (howdy, Shaq) that will keep users entertained and coming back for more.
Exciting News Over at Visible Technologies
Thursday, March 26th, 2009Congratulations to our friends and partners over at Visible Technologies! Last night, at the Washington Technology Industry Association’s annual awards ceremony, Visible’s TruCast solution won in the “Best Commercial Product or Service of the Year” category.
We’ve known for a long time that Trucast is a great product and service that allows companies to measure, listen to, and engage with their customers in the social media sphere, and it’s good to know that others are starting to not only take notice, but are also beginning to officially commend the Visible gang on the great work they’re doing.
For more information, make sure you check out Visible’s take on the announcement.
This is What Formal Thursday Looks Like
Thursday, March 26th, 2009Question: Have you ever seen any other Candid Workplace Portrait featuring social media marketing professionals that practically oozes the confidence, class, and efficiency portrayed in the following image?
The answer, of course, is no- no, you have not.
It’s a Love/Hate Relationship
Thursday, March 26th, 2009For as much heat and complaining that Facebook has been receiving lately from its users, they are still as dedicated and committed to their precious social networking site as ever. With the number of users nearing 200 million, Facebook is taking all necessary steps to keep its people happy – though they tend to be what caused the upset in the first place.
A few weeks ago it was the Terms of Service Policy scandal upsetting the Facebook public, this week the new homepage updates have caused some uproar. And in both cases, Facebook has not only given in to the pressure, but opened the doors (or online forum) for users to express their opinions and give feedback.
Apparently users were especially unhappy regarding the lack of filtering tools the new homepage offers. Recently, Facebook announced that they plan to change the current design to give users greater control over what updates appear in the main stream as well as make improvements to the Highlights section and overall design.
So what do you think about the new homepage? Better yet, what do you think about Facebook’s reaction to its users’ disapproval?
Is this a thoughtful, democratic approach to managing a social networking site? Or do Facebook’s users have its designers and decision-makers a bit whipped?
Non-Profits We Like: Technology Access Foundation
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009Yesterday morning, the SCG team attended the 8th annual fundraising breakfast for one of our favorite non-profits, the Technology Access Foundation. TAF is an organization that was founded with a mission “to give children of color the tools to be inventors and creators of technology.” TAF exists side by side with educational resources that are already in place, and work to connect technological resources and education to those that need it most.
Aside from this breakfast serving as a way for donors to get to better understand the services that TAF provides, it also gave us a chance to listen to and meet some former TAF students and hear their success stories firsthand. There were several great speeches, including one memorable enough to serve as the introduction to a TAF-focused editorial in The Seattle Times.
The Technology Access Foundation is a wonderful organization, one that we couldn’t be prouder to be associated with. With educational budgets being slashed left and right, it’s good to know that there are groups like this dedicated to provide those resources to students, resources that otherwise might not be available. That’s also why it’s so important for the community to help them out.
Make sure you check out the Technology Access Foundation’s website to learn more about how you can help.
Good to SMC You Last Night
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009Another Social Media Club Seattle event, another great evening of networking and hanging out with like-minded, interesting people. Last night, a few of the SCG crew team rubbed elbows with Seattle’s social media movers and shakers at Capitol Hill’s Sole Repair Shop as H&R Block hosted the latest SMC Seattle event.
I know it was promised that @ronschott and @jeffdaviscourt would be working the door, but our services weren’t needed. A shame really, as we had already taken our SECURITY shirts out of their boxes and watched a security training video in preparation.
For full-bodied rundown of the event, click over to SMC Seattle’s blog. Thanks for the good times, great people and cold drinks. Hope to see you all at the next event.
SCG Co-Founder Clay McDaniel on Facebook Advertising
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009One of Spring Creek Group’s intrepid leaders, Clay McDaniel, has recently written a great article for MediaPost’s “Online Media Daily” section. For any of you out there looking to get your feet wet in the world of brand management and advertising on Facebook, this article serves as a great primer (and continuing resource) for you to rely on while you attempt to make the most out of the various resources and benefits that Facebook can provide you and your company.
Hey, we’d still recommend that you read the post even if we didn’t know Clay, so make sure you check it out.
Valuable PR Insights from Communique PR
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009We want to congratulate our friends Colleen Moffitt and Jennifer Gehrt at Communique PR for the launch of their practical and entertaining book, Strategic Public Relations: 10 Principles to Harness the Power of PR.
As Social Media Professionals will attest, simply taking a tactical approach to public relations is a waste of time and money, and effective PR is much more than just the development and distribution of a press release. Colleen and Jennifer provide 10 guiding principles to enhancing PR programs, and include stories and examples from Nike, Starbucks, Linden Lab (developer of Second Life) Alaska Airlines, Clearwire, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Cranium and Big Fish Games.
We hope you will check it out. We’re already waiting for the sequel.
