Usable Clicks

Corporate Social Responsibility & Social Media (Social Media Week Panel Discussion Recap)

Panelists: Deb Berman [JustMeans], Bonin Bough [PepsiCo & Pepsi Refresh Project], Virginia Miracle [Ogilvy PR], Chrysi Philalithes [(RED)]

As part of Social Media Week in New York City I attended a panel discussion on “Putting the Social in Corporate Social Responsibility”. The most significant take-away for me was that Corporate Social Responsibility needs to be more than a marketing tactic; rather consumers expect CSR to be fundamental in the culture of modern brands:
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The Importance of Social Media in Search Engine Optimization

If there was any question before, last week’s Google announcement that content from your social graph would now be included in your search results is another big proof point that brands need to be thinking about social media as a major contributing factor in their search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.   Over the last few months Google has increasingly handed coveted “first page result” spots to social content.  It started with their real-time integration of Twitter results, and now it’s with the open beta of their social search experiment.

Why is this critical for companies to recognize and incorporate in their SEO? Because your corporate website, no matter how well it’s ranked, is being quickly overshadowed by all of the social content g your brand.  Now results are filled with a slew if blog posts, tweets as they happen, and the links a person’s friend shared about the brand on Facebook.

Don’t worry, though- brands don’t have to be left in the cold.  They do need to start engaging consumers in social spaces, producing content of value, and making their content sharable.  That way the valuable information is getting shared and enforced by advocates and being included by Google in the spaces reserved for the user’s social graph.

This, by the way, is why SEO was on my list of 9 Reasons Why Social Media is important for the bottom line.

Comments | Posted in » Strategy

Just jump in and try it

(image courtesy of Cibergaita on flickr)

Over at the DraftFCBlog I have a new post up all about how to be a savvy marketer you need stop simply reading about new products & services like Twitter and Foursquare and you need to jump in and experience them for true insights:

It’s clear to everyone that old world disruption advertising models have a smaller role in the future of marketing.  As advertisers we need to be able to know how to engage with our audiences in meaningful and valuable ways.  The only way we can do this is if we invest real time in experiencing and learning the new media landscape.  We need to stop asking what tweets are or why someone just became “mayor of the 33rd & 5th street Starbucks.” We need to sign up for these new and unusual (or possibly scary or stupid) products and services, or we’ll be left behind.

Read the post and let us know what you think.  Are you jumping in?

Comments | Posted in » Strategy, Trends

McDonalds Early Risers Campaign Made Me Smile

From k.b.skobac.com

When I jumped over to Digg this morning a new McDonalds campaign was being displayed displayed:

Check out this morning’s early risers:
Stories so fresh they’re not on the homepage yet

It’s nothing flashy, but it’s clever enough that it made me smile, and even made me consider going downstairs to get an Egg McMuffin.  And really, that’s all it needed to do.

post-script: I do seem to have an infatuation with advertising on Digg lately- they just seem to be making real progress with campaigns that fit for their audience

Comments | Posted in » Executions

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-03

• Currently Reading: Apple's iPod Touch Banners – Results from CNET: Results of control vs expo.. http://tinyurl.com/y9b9dur #
• RT @TechCrunch: Microsoft And OpenX Team Up Against Google AdSense In Web Ad Partnership http://bit.ly/1GbyVl by @robinwauters #
• New at UC: UPS Gets it Right With Valuable Content Marketing http://bit.ly/2bfkVq #
• RT @TechCrunch: Google Says Chrome Browser Now Has 30 Million Active Users http://bit.ly/c2izD by @erickschonfeld #
• Free Pays Off- RT @bigyankeefan: Greetings from 30,000 ft. AA flight from NY-Chicago offering complimentary wifi access courtesy of #Lexus. #

Comments | Posted in » Twitter Digest

UPS Gets it Right With Valuable Content Marketing

Recently Mashable started running a series of “Seizing Opportunities” videos with their sponsor UPS.  The ads are done in white-board style, feature the usual UPS music, and focus on a social media topics that Mashable editors can speak to in a useful way in just a few minutes.  As an execution I was already impressed, but it turns out the Mashable program is just one piece of UPS’s overall content strategy.  The bigger picture can be seen on the UPS “Popurls brown edition:  The Dashboard for Business News” page.  Here UPS has created a valuable content hub designed to help their customers with everything they need to know about business – curated news on specific topics, “seizing opportunities” videos from a variety of content partners that can speak with expertise on specific topics, and their own commercials.

All together it seems like UPS has come up with a killer strategy.  They’re utilizing key strategic partners like Mashable to create custom content that’s tailor suited for Mashable’s audience and also manages to be synergistic with the ideal UPS customer – a business person looking for business solutions.  This same custom solution is being built out with TechDirt, VentureBeat, and other niche blogs.  Then it’s all being aggregated to provided a very valuable, well rounded solution center for their consumers- all while ingraining the catchy UPS soundtrack & logo into the customer’s head for quick reminder when their packaging & shipping needs arise.  Proving once and again that producing valuable content is the best strategy.

Comments | Posted in » Executions, Strategy