MattDickman.com

Inside//Out: Yammer

What do you get when you take Twitter, make it private and add some security/privacy restrictions? You get Yammer. Yammer is a private micromedia community where businesses or organizations can sign up for their own "private" network. This is not the same as installing something behind your firewall, the information is on shared servers and could be a liability depending on your industry. If you need it protected and super private then check out identi.ca.

Use is the same as on Twitter and Yammer has released decktop, BlackBerry and iPhone apps. It does not, much to my dismay, integrate with Twitter or any other existing network. For me, this is a killer as I cannot keep more than a few accounts active and still add value.

Yammer burst on to the scene on September 10 when it won the top prize at the TechCruch50 competition. The opinions were split at that time as well. Some people thought they just copied Twitter and put a spin on it, others thought the spin they put was a large enough point of differentiation to give it top prize. I'll let you decide.

Here is a quick video tour of Yammer:

[Feed readers please click through to the post if you cannot see the video.]

My key takeaways:

• The potential for knowledge management is tremendous; aggregating links, identifying trends and business development identification are just a few of the major points
  
• If your company is new to this space, this is an easy, low-cost entry point that allows some control
  
• Lack of tie-in with other services is a hinderance to the super-connected who would most likely have championed Yammer (it's not too late guys)
  
• Portability and device support is on par with anyone
  

I asked about Yammer on Twitter yesterday and here is what people had to say:

What are your thoughts on this? Are you using it? Did you try it and abandon? What would it take to succeed with your business?

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Technorati Tags:
Identi.ca, marketing, Matt Dickman, micromedia, social media, social networks, Techno//Marketer, trends, Twitter, Yammer

Age of Conversation 2.0, now available

The wait is over. The second version of the Age of Conversation is finally here. 237 authors from 15 countries tackle the question "Why don't they get it?".

Masterminds (and cat herders) Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton have done it once again, and it's all for a great cause. Proceeds from the project go to Variety the Children's Charity, you can purchase it here.

There are a number of ways you can follow/get involved.

• Buy the book, tell a friend or 10
  
• Follow us on Twitter
  
• Get the podcast feed
  
• Get the author bio feed
  
• Join our Facebook group
  

Here is the list of everyone who is participating:

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Technorati Tags:
marketing, Matt Dickman, Techno//Marketer, ageofconversation, AOC2

The IM, SMS, email shootout

I came across this chart in today's eMarketer email and wanted to flag it for you to weigh in on. The chart looks at the preferred channel for receiving messages from marketers across various age groups. The channels they looked at are instant messenger (IM), text messaging (SMS) and email.

The chart (below) gives an interesting view of the choice of interaction. Note the IM numbers are actually shrinking as SMS is replacing that functionality especially as mobile devices improve. SMS is booming in the younger (high school) generation and holds strong through the 18-24 college group. The recent grad group drops off on SMS toward email and once you pass 35, nearly 80% goes toward email.

Here is the eMarketer data:

Email importance grows as age does while SMS importance grows as ages gets younger. Take a look at this in graph form to see the trends more clearly.

Basically, if you're looking for the preferred (read most effective) way to reach certain age population groups, make sure you keep this in mind. There are a lot of tools in the digital arsenal that need to be formed into one cohesive strategy.

It's also very important to recognize that the next generation of consumers are engaging in drastically different ways. We have got to have a good grasp on these platforms, what makes them effective, what makes them fail and grow our planning to include test cases NOW. Next quarter could be too late if your competition is already engaging. It's crucial to sustain future growth.

This goes toward explaining my post yesterday looking at the ROI from a digital marketing point of view and why email is still delivering results. Are you using SMS/IM in your marketing mix? We've seen studies about how people want to be communicated with in social media. How do you see them balancing?

Technorati Tags:
digital, marketing, Matt Dickman, strategy, Techno//Marketer, trends, email marketing, SMS, IM

Best ROI from digital marketing

A few weeks ago I launched a new poll in the right column on this blog asking you where you were seeing the best ROI from digital marketing. I wanted to share the results as I think they're telling of what I am seeing in this space. If you're curious, this is where those votes came from geographically.

As you may expect, search engine marketing leads the pack. Social media marketing, however, came in second with 27% of the responses followed by email marketing. This was a little surprising to me in that social media marketing is showing proven ROI when up against email and search. Those were two of the early leaders in getting dollars from marketers and have solid track records where ROI is proven (versus traditional ad spending).

I also think it's how you're quantifying the return. Is it new connections, sales driven from social media outlets email acquisitions or conversations? I a new world of marketing, there needs to be new measures of ROI. What are you using?

Websites were surprisingly low on the list of ROI at only 12%, less than half of social media marketing. I think more people count a website as a cost of doing business and are looking for other ways to extend their brands. What do you think? Does this surprise you?

If you're curious, this is where those votes came from geographically.

Does this echo what you are seeing in your business? Dare to share?

Technorati Tags:
advertising, Community, marketing, Matt Dickman, social media, strategy, Techno//Marketer

Solutions stars video conference by Network Solutions

One of the hightlights of my trip to the Blog World Expo was sitting down with Geoff Livingston for a short video on behalf of Network Solutions. The video is now part of a new virtual conference by Network Solutions called the Solution Stars Video Conference. It will take place on October 29th from 1 p.m. ET until about 3:30 p.m. ET, users can log in and watch videos and live discussions featuring 32 people Network Solutions calls, “the world’s leading business and marketing experts.”

There are nine areas that will be discussed including:

• Building Web Presence
• The Social Opportunity
• Start with Listening
• Strategy Drives Outreach
• You Need Social Networks
• To Blog or Not to Blog
• Visibility Through Search
• Rising Above the Noise
• Time Demands

Participants include:

• Tim Ferriss, Best Selling Author of Four Hour Work Week
  
• Guy Kawasaki, Co-Founder, All-Top
  
• Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
  
• Darren Rowse, Author, ProBlogger
  
• Chris Brogan, Vice President of Strategy, CrossTech Media
  
• Rohit Bhargava, Author of Personality Not Included
  
• Wendy Piersall, CEO of Sparkplugging.com
  
• Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger, Dell
  
• Brian Solis, Author of PR 2.0, CEO of FutureWorks (FutureWorks)
  
• Steve Hall, Publisher and Editor of Ad Rants
  
• Scott Monty, Global Digital and Multimedia Communications Manager, Ford Motor Company
  
• Liz Strauss, Social Web Strategist, Successful Blog
  
• Toby Bloomberg, CEO, Bloomberg Marketing
  
• Lee Odden, CEO of TopRankMarketing.com
  
• Jason Billingsly, Co-Founder ElasticPath
  
• Robyn Tippins, Community Manager, Yahoo! Developer Network
  
• Brett Tabke, CEO of WebMaster World
  
• David Alston, Vice President of Marketing, Radian6
  
• Jason Falls, Blogger, Social Media Explorer
  
• Mari Smith, Relationship Marketing Specialist
  
• Jennifer Openshaw, president of WeSeed.com
  
• Matt Dickman, Vice President, Digital Marketing, Fleishman-Hillard
  
• David Berkowitz, Director of Emerging Media and Client Strategy, 360i
  
• Ryan Anderson, Community Relations, Overlay.TV
  
• Becky McCray, Author, SmallBizSurvival.com
  
• Warren Whitlock, Book Marketing Strategist, BestSellerAuthors.com
  
• Chris Baggott, CEO of Compendium Software
  
• Lorelle VanFossen, Author, Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging
  
• Dave Taylor, Head Strategic Marketing Director, Intuitive Systems
  
• Paul Chaney, President of International Blogging and New Media Association
  
• Linda Bustos, Blogger, ElasticPath
  
• Jay Berkowitz, Author , Podcaster, and Keynote Speaker, Ten Golden Rules
  

You can also visit the “Solutions Stars Video Conference” event pages on Facebook and Upcoming:

• www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=33854706886
  
• upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1200021
  

Technorati Tags:
marketing, Matt Dickman, social media, Techno//Marketer, network solutions

The pop-up community phenomenon

While the goal of most marketers in social media is to build long-term communities, the enabling technologies have made pop-up communities a powerful force. Pop-up communities happen spontaneously in most cases and grow through the viral nature of social media hooks. They use social nets, blogs, tagging, video, IM, etc. to grow organically until they reach critical mass to catapult forward.

The Obama sign watch: An individual in Portland, Oregon had their Obama sign stolen from their yard twice. They decided to live stream the sign and invited people to come and watch the feed (you can see it below). At any given moment you can find hundreds of people watching and chatting on the UStream channel.

Social objects: Pop-up communities happen on a small scale around social objects. This can be seen most clearly in You Tube videos that get a large viewership, drive comments, start conversations and grow through social media outlets.

Obama girl has over 10 million views and nearly 53,000 comments. It his the mainstream media and became the topic of many conversations.

Even Charlie had his day with 55+ million views and nearly 85,000 text comments and 180 video comments. The clip has been embedded, shared and otherwise passed along millions of times.

Presidential candidate sites: Before this election cycle, the current presidential candidates had little of their expansive social media platforms in place. It makes you wonder what will happen when the election is over. What I have seen before is that they become a ghost town. I am hopeful that each candidate, regardless of the outcome, will continue to engage their supporters for the long haul.

Sporting events: Major sporting events like the Olympics and the World Cup are examples of pop-up communities. They appear a few months before and disappear once the events are complete. The next time an event happens, they start from scratch.

If you visit the Olympics site today (located here) you will notice that is seems abandoned, and it is. That is the nature of the pop-up community. The other end of the timeline can be seen on the 2010 World Cup site that is ramping up for their time in the sun.

Long term transformation
The question for marketers is how to transform a pop-up community into a long-term community. The answer to the question comes down to the intent of the individual. If there is a long-term interest and passion from the person or people at the center of these communities they can survive. The topic will have to evolve to maintain relevance and keep adding value, but it is entirely possible.

The question for marketers is how to transform a pop-up community into a long-term community.

Marketers need to be aware of this phenomenon and learn that, like all new marketing, they are not in control. Smart marketers are learning how to cultivate these communities, add value in a smart way and maintain relationships over the long term.

What pop-up communities have you seen or been involved in? How did it start and what happened to it?

Technorati Tags:
Matt Dickman, reputation management, social media, Techno//Marketer, trends, Community, Pop-up community

What would you tell the next generation of communicators?

I am at Ohio University (my Alma Mater) tonight speaking about the evolution of communications with the PRSSA chapter. My presentation hinges around the convergence of digital, traditional PR/advertising and the need to look at communications with a broad view.

What specific advice would you give to students in one of the top journalism schools in the country? What advice would you have given yourself if you could go back in time?

Leave a comment or send me a message to @mattdickman on Twitter.

[UPDATE:] Here are the responses I've received to date. Feel free to add a comment with your advice.

Technorati Tags:
communications, marketing, Matt Dickman, PR, social media, Techno//Marketer, Ohio University

Brand engagement in social media

I just saw this new report from eMarketer about the presence of brands in social media and what consumers expect from them. Of note is that 34% of people think brands should engage and interact regularly, 51% think brands should engage, but only intereract when requested. Only 7% thought brands had no place in the social media landscape.

I think this does not take a number of things into account including the value-add to the community, the quality of the offering and the level of participation (being a member of the community vs. just being there).

What do you think about these numbers? Are they low/high in your opinion?

[UPDATE:] See a similar study conducted by Cone (disclaimer: Cone is also part of Omnicom Group).

Technorati Tags:
conversations, marketing, Matt Dickman, social media, social networks, Techno//Marketer

The key is ROI

I've said this for years, and I think every digital evangelist wakes up in cold sweats every night thinking about it. ROI in the digital space (SEM, social media, e-commerce, campaign sites, email marketing, etc.) is measurable, accurate and accountable. You know your digital ROI for every dollar spent, but if you're spending offline, you really have no idea what you're getting. I've seen the equations that publications use to guess their reach and it's total BS. I've also heard radio DJs exclaim that they really have no idea how many people are listening.

I can say this all day long, but I think Gary Vaynerchuk (who I met at Blog World Expo and is even more fantastic in person) does it with his unique passion, so here you go. Enjoy, and if you don't follow Gary's blog and watch his videos please make it a point to do so.

Are you moving more dollars online? Are you seeing more pressure put on magazines, newspapers, radio and TV to deliver? What are you having success in measuring for clients?

I'd love to know what you think.

Technorati Tags:
advertising, conversations, marketing, Matt Dickman, social media, Techno//Marketer, Gary Vaynerchuk

Why do you tweet?

It seems as though everywhere I go, marketers look at me and ask about Twitter. They bring up the fact that they don't want to know "what everyone is having for breakfast" each day. So they usually ask me why I use Twitter. I've found the best answer is to ask my Twitter community in real-time while I am sitting with them.

This happened the other day when a person at another agency asked me the same question. I turned the conversation over to Twitter and received some really great responses. I'm not sure if she'll join, but she was impressed by the quality and sincerity of the replies.

I wanted to collect the responses I received and post them here. I had to jump right back into meetings so I didn't get a chance to thank everyone who replies, so let me say thanks to CC Chapman, David Brazeal, Tim Brunelle, George Nemeth, Rob Boles, Jeff Lowe, Trisha Jackson, Bo Jacobson, Dan Perry, CK, Steve Woodruff, Brendan Cooper, Megan Maguire, Kevin Huff, Joel Libava, Joe Pulizzi, Jeff Beeler, Alison Edward, the good folks over at Thundertech, Leslie Caruthers, "Cleveland" Mark Goren and Sean Scott for responding.

They even crossed over into Facebook because I have my last message on Twitter update my Facebook status.

Here are some new reasons from my message today:

So why do you use it? Let me know in 140 characters (or more if you like).

Technorati Tags:
conversations, Matt Dickman, social media, Techno//Marketer, Twitter, why do you tweet

Inside//Out: TweetDeck

Today's video takes a look at an application for managing your Twitter-stream more productively, TweetDeck. One of the biggest challenges that I have in using Twitter is keeping up with the sheer volume of messages. I've tried a number of solutions to make sure I don't miss any messages/conversations, but TweetDeck is the best I've tried to date.

Have a look for yourself:

As more and more content is created, it's crucial to identify ways to keep up with it and keep ourselves sane. Google Reader is my other "must have" info management solution.

What applications/services do you employ to manage all of the content?

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To help you stay on top of what is happening in social media, mobile and new marketing you can subscribe to the Techno//Marketer podcast on iTunes. Stay informed and get access to new videos first.

If you use another podcatcher you can grab my podcast RSS feed here.

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You can watch this and other Techno//Marketer videos on your preferred video channel:

   
   

Technorati Tags:
conversations, Inside//Out, marketing, Matt Dickman, micromedia, RSS, Techno//Marketer, Twitter, TweetDeck

The age of Facebook vs. MySpace

[Update: New November stats available here] This is a continuation of my look at social networks and their populations from a marketing perspective. When it comes to this arena Facebook has most of the buzz, but MySpace still has the volume. As strategic counselors to our clients, it is important to make qualified decisions about the vehicles we use as part of a campaign.

MySpace has become the red headed step child of the social media world as Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn have continued to gain popularity and support. But, what does MySpace really look like and how does it compare?

I was able to pull comparison numbers for the age of both networks and some interesting patterns emerged. Take a look at the following graph that shows MySpace in blue and Facebook in red.

The age of MySpace vs. Facebook (US)

Click to enlarge image.

MySpace has more people in every segment (nearly double across the board), but a couple points stand out:

• The 13-17 age group on MySpace is four and a half times larger than that of Facebook.
  
• Every age range between 18 and 50 is close to double on MySpace what it is on Facebook.
  
• The 50+ group on MySpace is 10 times larger than on Facebook, that is a 1000% difference.
  
• The 50+ age group on MySpace is nearly one quarter the size of the entire Facebook community.
  

Here are the actual numbers:

age range	Facebook	MySpace	variance
13-17	4,943,960	22,618,106	457%
18-21	9,957,600	20,326,180	204%
22-25	6,833,380	13,029,345	191%
26-30	4,282,200	10,528,581	246%
31-35	2,402,720	4,958,016	206%
36-40	1,503,640	2,843,813	189%
41-45	727,880	1,577,310	217%
46-50	473,240	981,911	207%
65+	703,020	7,030,912	1000%

Takeaways and questions:

• These numbers represent all total users, not active users so take it with a grain of salt.
  
• I don't have growth numbers on MySpace so it's tough to gauge its vitality at this point.
  
• MySpace has a huge number of Boomers in their community. I will watch this demographic in coming months.
  
• MySpace skews younger than Facebook, engaging more of the highschool population.
  
• Populations between MySpace and Facebook (18-50) mirror each other in terms of population trends.
  
• Both sites offer ad targeting
  

What do you think? Are you still considering MySpace for campaigns? The demographics and targeting options let you reach people in tailored ways. I do think that the marketing options on MySpace are very limited and that's one hesitation that I have personally. 

 

Technorati Tags:
advertising, Facebook, LinkedIn, marketing, Matt Dickman, social media, strategy, Techno//Marketer, Twitter