Branding in a Web 2.0 world

Branding in a Web 2.0 world

Web 2.0 is a perceived second generation of Web-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies—that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users (Source: Wikipedia)
AKA social web, user-generated media, read/write web, social media, Myspace marketing

Topics to cover

• Fueling the brand
  
  
  
• Guiding the brand
  
  
  
• Tracking the buzz
  
  
  

Fueling the Brand

• RSS    (click for video)
  
  
  • Powerful - easier to get out the word
    • RSS - really simple syndication
    • Most social media tools have RSS
    • Feedburner (stats / feed management)
• Consuming the fuel
  • Feed readers (Bloglines, Google reader, Net News Wire, etc.)
• Mashup
  • Mixing the ways info is integrated (Geotagging pics in flickr)
• A good Web 2.0 site is only as good as the people who contribute to it
• Users are in control
• Start speaking and showing your face (face to face, then connect on social networking sites)

Demo time

On to the good stuff...demo

 

 

Guiding the brand

 

• Rethink our customer touchpoints and communication channels with TiVos, iPods, RSS (yes, RSS) and other pull channels in mind

• Find where you are comfortable
  
  • Facebook / Myspace / Wikipedia / YouTube
    Flickr / Blogs / Upcoming.org / Twitter
• Build the buzz
  • Digg / Reedit / del.icio.us / Newsvine / StumbleUpon
• Pay for buzz
  • Paid search programs (Adwords, Text Link Ads)
• Learn from others
  • http://mays.tamu.edu/social
  • Search these sites for "competitors"
• Stake your claim, at least reserve a name for your business or organization. You might not use it, but someone else might try to represent you

Control the brand

• People are suspect of "corporate voice", especially young people
  
  • Talk to them in their "lingo"
  • Brand as lightly as possible
• Positive PR
• Don't be fake, be real!!!
  • Flogs - Walmart example - Edelman dropped
  • lonelygirl15
• Flip side / "Let go of control"
  • Excited customers talking about or blogging about your Product is the best marketing you can get, MySpace profiles, Blogs about your products (Ikea Hacker)

Demo time

It's that time again ...demo

 

 

Tracking the buzz

• What tools do I use?
  • Technorati / Google Alerts / Digg / Del.icio.us
    Flickr / Youtube / Feed reader / Industry sites
    Local sites - TexAgs.com / Social networks
• Where do I start?
  • “Brand Monitor” or “Blogosphere Watcher”
    • watch what people say about you, receive product feedback
    • Good PR / bad PR
  • Alerts / search
    • track the mentions of your organization

Demo time

It's our last...

 

Web 2.0 video

Problems - Not as many as you might think

• I'm always asked, "Can't someone post something that makes us look bad?"
  • NO, NO, NO - moderation

• Cyber bullies, cyber stalking, etc
  • We don't create or perpetuate this problem
  • This exists but our presence doesn't add to it or make us look bad
• Privacy
  • People are not as dumb as people treat them
  • They know their info is out there and they are ok with it

Benefits

• New marketing touch points
  
  • Access to bigger audience
    • Video on YouTube vs your homepage
    • Viral Viral Viral
• Early knowledge of building problems
  • You will be aware the minute a person has a problem or praise
• Syndication
  • RSS
• Low cost of entry
  • Usually free

Have fun with it

• Try new things
• Be adventurous
• Have a teenager (student intern) help you out if needed, they have great experience with the tools.

Have a goal

 

 

Questions

 

 

 

Resources

Glosssary

RSS – really simple syndication - a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts
  
AKA news feeds, feed, web feed, xml feed

 

Podcast - a podcast is a media file which that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media players and personal computers.

 

Blog - an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page
AKA Weblog, Web log

 

Wiki- a collaborative Web site whose content can be edited by anyone who has access to it. An example of a wiki is Wikipedia.

 

Web 2.0 - a perceived second generation of Web-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies—that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users

 

Tags - a (relevant) keyword or term associated with or assigned to a piece of information (like picture, article, or video clip), thus describing the item and enabling keyword-based classification of information it is applied to.
AKA tagging

 

Links

Myspace.com – social network
Facebook – social network
Wikipedia – a wiki
Del.icio.us – social bookmarking

Feedburner - feed management / stats
Flickr – photo sharing
Youtube – video sharing
LinkedIn – business network
Upcoming.org – social events calendar
Mays Business School Social- Mays social listings
College Web Editor – blog about college web marketing, lots of social media info

 

Tracking Sites

Bloglines

Google Blog Alerts

Blogpulse

Serph

Google Alerts

Technorati

Articles

User Generation - Web 2.0 signals a communications shift that can’t be ignored
by Karine Joly - CASE Current March 2007
Facebook, MySpace, and Co. - IHEs ponder whether or not to embrace social networking websites.
By Karine Joly - University Business April 2007
10 things you should be monitoring
23 things every company should be monitoring... (expansion of article above)
Track your buzz, manage it and create evangelists
Are you tracking your company buzz?
Marketing 2.0: An Introduction
MySpace Marketing - Ask A Ninja
Marketing 2.0: A Basic Framework
A non-technical explanation of RSS
How to subscribe to and read RSS feeds with web-based feed readers
RSS. Made Really Simple
Feed me, but don't forget my email

Videos

RSS in Plain English
The Machine is Us/ing Us