Everyone loves best practices, including me. After all, we love being told what works and what steps we should take to find success. But one of the things that really resonated at this year’s South by Southwest is the idea that businesses of all sizes need to think more about what’s “right for them,” not just what’s “right” by industry standards.
This, of course, is not breaking news. But it is really important. In the last few years, the world of technology has evolved rapidly, but the world of social media is actually stabilizing. There are tons of case studies. The things that work are being enhanced with innovations, and the ones that don’t are fading away. However, there really are no rules that everyone needs to live by, for better or worse.
For example, during the session “Food Trucks Share Social Media Tips,” the panel was asked whether it’s OK to outsource your social media voice — a topic that is often debated. (read more…)
With the rise of major brands and organizations employing dedicated community managers to run their social media presences, there’s an unsettled gray area regarding how much personal detail these managers reveal about themselves to their followers. In many cases, community managers work for products and causes they have personal affinity for — which muddles the line as to how these employees treat their personal social presences. Or does such a concept no longer exist?
At the South by Southwest Interactive panel “Social Media Boundaries: Personal/Personnel Policy,” a group of nonprofit and technology professionals in the social media space discussed how they toe this line to an audience largely comprising community managers.
Major themes that developed from the discussion:
- Establish your stance on this situation early. As panelist Jess Main of the National Center for Media Engagement put it, “Do we tweet what we had for breakfast as an organization?” Decide upfront who will be the face of your organization’s community presence and how much personal information they will communicate to the audience.
At the South by Southwest Interactive session “I May ‘Like’ You, But I’m Not In ‘Like’ With You,” R/GA’s Chloe Gottlieb explained that getting an audience to engage with your business isn’t just about collecting “likes” or followers or offering prizes — its about creating engaging, interactive experiences that meet your audience’s needs.
So how do you spearhead long-term and valuable relationships with your audience that pay off more than just collecting virtual fans? Here are some of Gottlieb’s tips.
- Market to a community of communities. People don’t always care about brands. It’s easier to get them to care about other community members and the interests that bind them together. Each community of customers is made up of small groups, and the most important people are the connectors in each group — the ones that sing your praises, interact on all levels and will cause others to support what you do.
Food trucks are an ideal match for social media. Both social media and food trucks are hot-ticket items, both are in their “startup” phase, and they bring youth, culture and energy wherever they go.
At the 2012 South by Southwest Interactive, a panel of food-truck owners and experts came together to discuss the intersection of social media and food trucks. The panel left the audience with some great insights on how food-truck operators utilize social tools and how other kinds of brands might relate to their efforts.
Here are several ways food trucks use social media to reach, connect and engage their audience.
1. Transparency: This is important for most brands. You want people to trust you, and in this day and age, they have to pretty much see your every move in order to do so; especially if you’re serving them a meal from a moving vehicle.
Owner and founder of the Southern California Seabirds food truck, Stephanie Morgan, explained that she uses social media platforms to show off photos of her staff, the truck and the sources of the food itself. (read more…)
At a recent South by Southwest Interactive Festival panel, intellectual property experts Chip Stewart, a Texas Christian University professor; Kathleen Olson, a Lehigh University professor; Victoria Ekstrand, a professor at Bowling Green State University; and Riyad Omar, general counsel of NewsRight, delved into the intersection of IP law and social media. They explained three pitfalls that social media professionals should be careful of and offered some tips to avoid them.
1. Pictures posted on Twitter are still subject to copyright. The AFP v. Morel case involved pictures taken by Daniel Morel the day of the devastating Haitian earthquakes. Given the chaotic conditions, Morel devised an ingenious solution to limits on communicating with the outside world: He tweeted that he had pictures available for the media, and then posted the pictures to Twitpic, clearly marking them as copyrighted. While several media outlets purchased the photos from him, others used them without payment, authorization or attribution. (read more…)
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