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…)
Video is one of the most powerful tools that brands have to tell their story and build a connection with their audience. But there is a common misconception that all a brand needs to do is make a video and put it online for it to go “viral.” At the South by Southwest panel “Viral is a Dirty Word,” Ogilvy’s Robert John Davis and Jeremy Sanchez explained a four-step plan for crafting videos that can draw a crowd and advance a cause or sell a product.
- Have a plan. No one is going to magically stumble across a video that no one put any effort into planning and producing — much less watch and share it. Start by pulling trending words from Google and look for “trigger” terms that will help craft a message your audience will find valuable. When coming up with your concept, look to target specific groups of people, rather than try to pull off a concept you think appeals to everyone.
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