Jay Goldman

Mathew counts something while Amber listens

Mathew Ingram, Communities Editor at the Globe and Mail, and Amber MacArthur, New Media specialist, host of CommandN, Butterscotch.com video blogger, and soon to be Mom, hosted a Social Media breakfast for CNW at 1 King West this morning. They covered a wide variety of questions asked by the in-house and online audiences, so read below for a sampling of the expert opinion.

Note: I arrived about five minutes after they had started and missed a question while taking photos, so apologies for the gaps

• How do I publicize my company or product?
  • Mathew (M): Press release is a good start
  • Amber (A): Don’t underestimate the value of YouTube. As a journalist, it’s a huge advantage to be able to use a clip in my report.
  • M: Depends on the company and how into social media you are already. Consumer facing companies particularly.
  • A: Top 3: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. Do it for 6 months – 1 year and see what sticks. You could be on 12 social media sites.
  • M: In many cases you don’t know what’s going to be the best until you try.
• If engaging with new media is best done informally and inpersonally, how do you do a mass media release timing-wise?
  • A: You can still do the mass release but you need to pull out the main nuggets of info and do the social media route too.
  • M: Press releases still have a function, whether it’s disclosure or something else. There’s still a whole system around press releases, but you still need to do more now. Personal contact is going to get you that extra bit further.
• In terms of the 55+ demographic online, any nuggets or ideas on how to target?
  • M: Twitter is probably not a good idea. I mentioned it to my Mom and she had no idea what I was talking about. That demo is getting online in a big way. Websites are good, blogs are probably still a stretch. Retired people have a lot of time and getting online is easier than it used to be.
  • A: A lot of them are getting on Facebook to keep in touch with their kids. They’re starting to read blogs. They’ll get more prominent over time. I finally convinced my Dad to put his company on Twitter and now he’s starting to get it.
• How is the policing of information going to change in those mediums over time? We’re a food company and we’re worried about health information getting out.
  • A: Simple. You need to do a better job than everyone else online. You need to have a stronger voice about yourselves. Do you have a blog? Twitter? Be where the conversation is.
  • M: Policing is the wrong metaphor. Governments have tried to police the internet and it doesn’t work. The only cure for misinformation is correct information. For the most part, people do care that the info is wrong and they want the right stuff so you need to get there and give it to them.
  • A: Very simplistic example: for people who want to join Facebook but find someone else has their name, they start the ‘Official Mathew Ingram Page’ to have a presence.
• How often, in your view, should an authentic authoritative blog for a company be updated?
  • M: As often as necessary. It’s going to depend on what your company is doing. It’s good to keep a little bit now and then even if it’s small. Sometimes when I don’t have time for a long post, I just link to something.
  • A: One of the most successful blogs out there is Boing Boing, which is all short posts.
  • M: It’s important to establish the blog as a source of information so that it’s there when something inevitably goes wrong and people need one. Otherwise it’s like getting a fire extinguisher when you have a fire.
• Is it okay for PR people to blog on behalf of CEO?
  • M: This is known as ghost writing and I think it’s inauthentic. Blog in your voice.
• How do sites like Boing Boing feel about being approached by communications people?
  • A: It’s because of the sheer volume of requests coming in to them. They don’t need to rely on press releases anymore as the community keeps them informed.
  • M: They have a million readers so they get flooded with a deluge of information already. I don’t know many sites with that problem. A personal note for most places will get a better response than the traditional press release.
  • A: If you’re trying really hard to reach out to a blogger, start to form a relationship with that person by sending a personalized note rather than long paragraphs of text in a form letter.
  • M: Some of you may have tried a social media press release or a similar venture. If you don’t have links of some kind, I’m going to lose attention pretty quickly. Make it easier for the people you’re sending it to, like links to video or sites with more information or where I can get a sense of why this is worth writing about. Linking is one of the great things about the Internet. I still see lots of press releases and info on websites without links and that’s broken. You’re missing a huge opportunity. Link early and link often.
• You said it takes about 6 months to a year to see if there’s any results from using social media? How do you measure that to tell your company what you’re producing?
  • A: You can measure it by basic traffic. You won’t get a response right away, but after 6 months you need to prove it’s growing and stick with the ones where it is. Companies ask me all the time how to defend being on the sites for so long? You need buy-in from someone higher up.
  • M: That’s a really tough question and I get asked it a lot too. There basically aren’t any measurements or standards that people have developed and we’re still in early days. You need to talk about the people or things you’re achieving more. Reaching one or two highly influential people in the markets you’re trying to reach may be more valuable than growing traffic. Measuring their impact can be very helpful. You’re dropping rocks into a pond and the ripples are going to spread, but it’s a very early time in the measurement of them.
  • A: Don’t be discouraged if you only have 25 or 50 people following you on Twitter after a few months. They could be very influential in your target demographic.
• Could you speak to the impact of social media on non-profits and social organizations and how they can use it to build community and fund raise?
  • A: One of the best is Ning that offers a white-label community solution you can easily brand with your own brand.
  • M: Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Youtube, Ning are all great tools for building communities or taking advantage of existing communities. The Internet is gold for helping people form connections faster and more easily than they used to. Barak Obama and Change.gov are great examples. They used every tool they could think of and created an incredibly strong community in much less time than it used to take. You can’t create a passionate community just by flicking a switch but it can be tremendously successful.
  • A: You need to have a few people seeding those communities. Try to find six people or a dozen people to get in there and post and build content. It can really help you to grow those communities.
• What would you say with regard to how content is presented? Is it the same as the 5ws in a traditional release or do you want the content addressed differently?
  • M: If they’re the main point, say it right up front. Maybe I’m too used to reading news stories, but I wish more press releases would get to the point much faster. I’m happy to find the CEO’s quote later on. Tell me why is this in my inbox or why I’m reading it.
  • A: I’m a huge fan of bullets. Put them right at the top so I can pull them out for my story. The nuggets of information you want to put into every story. I once covered a company because their release had a bunch of facts as bullets at the top and it made it easy.
• What makes a good story for reporting online?
  • A: If people are already talking about it online, it gives me backup.
  • M: If I’ve already heard about it or seen a mention, it helps. A lot of people see Twitter as a time wasting chat thing, but I get a lot of story ideas on there.
• M: Some of you may have followed the Pepsi Max one calorie campaign. A single calorie trying to commit suicide because it was so lonely. Big reaction on Twitter that it was in poor taste and Pepsi responded on Twitter and shut it down.
• A: It’s like the Motrin campaign that got a really bad response from Moms online and so they pulled it.
• M: I think that was the wrong response. There were people saying they overreacted or it was funny and does sometimes hurt to carry your baby around in a sling.

Likely-related posts:

• WSS09: Jeremiah Oywang on the Future of the Social Web Notes from Jeremiah Oywang on the Future of Social Media...