Entries Tagged 'General' ↓
2.24.10 by Blake Cahill {General}
As member of the WOMMA Membership Ethics Committee for the past year I have had the privilege of working with and shaping some of recommendations and best practices for marketers, brands, and agencies who are active in Word-of-Mouth Marketing.
Recently, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued some guidelines concerning “The Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising” and WOMMA responded to member demand for additional meaningful disclosures recommendation and best practice guidelines for social marketing. This has always been a critical platform for WOMMA and its members that was started in 2008. This platform has included:
- Launching the inaugural Living Ethics process in November 2008 at the WOMMA Summit, leading to meaningful changes to the WOMMA Code in 2009;
- Convening an expert panel in September 2009 to address transparency and disclosure in social media;
- Creating the Living Ethics Blog to allow comments/questions concerning transparency and disclosure in social media;
- Incorporating feedback from the Living Ethics Blog to create the first draft of this WOMMA Guide to Disclosure;
- Presenting the preliminary Disclosure Guide at the 2009 WOMMA Summit (myself, Paul Rand and David Bindowski) and re-opening the Living Ethics Blog from November 18 thru January 4, 2010 to obtain public comments and:
- And then formalizing the final recommendations for industry use which are included below.
Here are the recommendations that we propose to marketers/brands:
Social Media and the Responsibilities of Advertisers, Marketers and Bloggers
With the rising popularity of social media websites from blogs to Twitter to Facebook, the issue of ethical word of mouth marketing has taken on new prominence. Many brands and agencies are designing word of mouth marketing programs to foster relationships with social media participants. (Those participants or speakers are referred to in this document as “bloggers.”) Consumers have a right to know the sponsor behind advertising messages that could influence their purchasing decisions, but key information is not always adequately disclosed in a social media context. Thus, for testimonials and endorsements delivered to consumers through social media - - whether by consumers, experts, celebrities, or organizations - - the FTC requires advertisers and bloggers to disclose all “material connections.” Such “material connections” may be defined as any connection between a blogger and an advertiser that could affect the credibility consumers give to that blogger’s statements. Important examples of “material connections” include (a) consideration (benefits or incentives such as monetary compensation, loaner products, free services, in-kind gifts, special access privileges) provided by an advertiser to a blogger, or (b) a relationship between an advertiser and a blogger (such as an employment relationship).
Scope and Purpose of the WOMMA Guide to Disclosure in Social Media Marketing
This document provides best practices in light of the FTC Guide that was released last year. It is not WOMMA’s intent for this document to replace your company’s legal advice or practices but rather to enhance it. As social media is ever-changing, the WOMMA Disclosure Guide will be a living document – continuing to be refined to reflect evolving industry best practices.
Key online platforms covered in this Guide include, but are not limited to blogs, microblogs (e.g., Twitter), online comments, social networks, video sharing websites, photo sharing websites, and podcasts.
Clear and Prominent Disclosure
No matter which platform is used, adequate disclosures must be clear and prominent. Language should be easily understood and unambiguous. Placement of the disclosure must be easily viewed and not hidden deep in the text or deep on the page. All disclosures should appear in a reasonable font size and color that is both readable and noticeable to consumers.
Disclosure Best Practices
As stated above, bloggers are required to disclose “material connections” to advertisers. Listed below is sample disclosure language, organized by the platform used. Alternative, but substantively comparable, language may also be used where appropriate.
Personal and Editorial Blogs
• I received _____________________ from _____________________
___________________ sent me ___________________
Product Review Blogs
• I received _____________________ from _____________________ to review
• I was paid by _____________________ to review
Additionally for product review blogs, WOMMA strongly recommends creating and prominently posting a “Disclosure and Relationships Statement” section on the blog fully disclosing how a review blogger works with companies in accepting and reviewing products, and listing any conflicts of interest that may affect the credibility of their reviews.
Providing Comments in Online Discussions
• I received _____________________ from _____________________
• I was paid by _____________________
• I am an employee [or representative]of _____________________
Microblogs
Include a hash tag notation, either:
• #spon (sponsored)
• #paid (paid)
• #samp (sample)
Additionally, WOMMA strongly recommends posting a link on your profile page directing people to a full “Disclosure and Relationships Statement.” This statement, much like the one WOMMA recommends for review blogs, should state how you work with companies in accepting and reviewing products, and listing any conflicts of interest that may affect the credibility of your sponsored or paid reviews.
Status Updates on Social Networks
• I received _____________________ from _____________________
• I was paid by _____________________
If status updates are limited by character restrictions, the best practice disclosure requirement is to include a hash tag notation of either #spon, #paid or #samp. Additionally, WOMMA strongly recommends posting a full description or a link on your social network profile page directing people to a “Disclosure and Relationships Statement.” Note that if an employee blogs about his or her company’s products, citing the identity of the employer in the profile may not be a sufficient disclosure. Bloggers’ disclosures should appear close to the endorsement or testimonial statement they are posting.
Video and Photo Sharing Websites
Include as part of the video/photo content and part of the written description:
• I received _____________________ from _____________________
• I was paid by _____________________
Additionally, WOMMA strongly recommends posting a full description or a link on your video and/or photo sharing profile page directing people to a “Disclosure and Relationships Statement.”
Podcasts
Include, as part of the audio content and part of the written description:
• I received _____________________ from _____________________
• I was paid by _____________________
Additionally, WOMMA strongly recommends posting a full description or a link directing people to a “Disclosure and Relationships Statement.”
I am privileged to be a part of this process and to have worked with the amazing team of WOMMA folks, brands and agencies that make up the Ethics sub-committee. I look forward to further feedback and collaboration with both WOMMA members and the industry at large.
To hear more details there will be an interactive webinar on this topic on Monday March 1st at 9AM Pacific/12PM Eastern. Register here.
Blake Cahill
Visible Technologies
1.19.10 by Blake Cahill {General}
I’m excited to announce that Visible Technologies is helping this year’s 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards (airing live on CBS January 31from 8 – 11:30PM ET/PT) go social in a big way through our amazing partnership with TBWA\Chiat\Day.
At the heart of the GRAMMY’s advertising campaign is the Web site www.wereallfans.com launched today by TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles to highlight music fans’ unprecedented impact in the current digital age. The site pulls fan tweets, YouTube, and Flickr posts to create images of GRAMMY nominated artists. The Web site also houses the “FanBuzz Visualizer” powered by Visible Technologies. The ‘Visualizer’ is a real-time, data visualization that will act as a barometer of fan passion from social sites around the web.
We are also specifically tracking fan passion for GRAMMY nominated artists on Twitter such as:
The FanBuzzVisualizer is also shareable as a widget, allowing fans the ability to showcase the current standings on their personal social media pages.
It’s been an amazing opportunity to be a part of such an innovative and groundbreaking campaign - one that enables direct interaction between fans and celebrities as an integral part of the GRAMMY Awards and showcases that social media is now a mainstay of the entertainment business. Connecting with your fan base, whether you’re marketing a music performer or a consumer brand, is no longer just about concerts, press tours or even listening on Twitter. More than ever before, it’s about engaging directly with your audience to raise visibility and create opportunities for meaningful, direct interaction.
The entire GRAMMY ad campaign has social media at its heart and Visible Technologies is proud to be a part of it.
Blake Cahill
Visible Technologies
1.13.10 by Blake Cahill {General}
Today, Visible Technologies is pleased to announce that we have secured $22 Million in funding led Investor Growth Capital. IGC is the growth-stage venture capital arm of Investor AB, a Nordic-based publicly traded investment holding company with investment activities in North America, Europe and Asia. Existing investors Centurion Holdings, Ignition Partners, In-Q-Tel and WPP also participated in the round. The new funding will be used to accelerate our technology development and establish international operations.
Our new funding builds upon our previous achievements and this strategic investment demonstrates the strong confidence in the company’s market leadership and overall trend of social media integration into the lifeblood of Global 2000 firms. Our plan is to continue expanding the unique and comprehensive solutions we offer for online reputation management and social media engagement via SaaS products and service to serve companies as they determine best practices and discover new ways of using social media.
Our new investor commented that “Global brands continue to increase their social media budgets as they realize the need to tap into valuable customer feedback as well as holistically manage their online brand reputation,” said Matt Krna, vice president at Investor Growth Capital. “Many solution sets give the ability to listen but fail to provide what’s really needed—the power to transform social data into strategic programs and tactical plans. Visible Technologies has defined itself as a clear category leader through its strong technology solution set, best-in-class customer service and proven success delivering actionable social media intelligence.”
As validated by today’s funding announcement, the market for social media monitoring and engagement platforms is growing exponentially. Savvy brands are listening and engaging with their customers online. To learn more, watch Visible Technologies’ video, “Starting the Social Media Conversation” here: http://bit.ly/6AW0n0
Exciting news toady for @visible_tech and please check out the video above.
Blake Cahill
Visible Technologies
1.8.10 by Blake Cahill {General}
We often speak with clients and prospects about the impacts that social conversations are having on their search engine results and how nowadays consumer perceptions of their reputation are increasingly influenced by online postings. As these worlds are becoming more and more intertwined the fear that negative comments are shaping consumer impressions is making brands wake up and drive the need to engage directly with their customers and prospects.
A recent report from Econsultancy and bigmouthmedia explored ways marketers can tackle brand bashing and turn negatives into positives. The survey asked what companies had done to minimize negative comments in the past and nearly one-half reported having executed a direct engagement with the consumer. I was pleased to see that so many companies were listening and engaging, but pitied that other 50% that saw their complaint or piece of feedback go unanswered. Imagine if firms had rolling black-outs on the 800 numbers 50% of the time. Now that would get some CEO’s attention.
The next point that I found compelling and encouraging from the study was that firms are taking the feedback and actually trying to improve products and services. In many cases negative feedback is due to poor product, service quality or design and negative feedback may not have been there in the 1st place if fixes had been in place. Leveraging that consumer feedback is a huge positive and giant leap for many firms. The public nature of social conversations is likely driving the speed at which issues are being resolved; this is due to a fear that the issues or concerns will spread into a full blown crisis (i.e. United Breaks Guitars, comes to mind).
The table below from the study highlights the various methods companies are using to manage negative online conversations:
One of the more interesting tactics on this chart is companies that have tried to get offending content removed. While sounding like a good idea, this tactic can backfire and cause further negative remarks against the brand. Econsultancy noted that only 12% of companies tried to create their own content to offset negative consumer opinions in search results which I think highlights the lack of brands fully understanding and leveraging how both the search and social world are increasing coming together.
So where does one get started? The practice of “Brand Monitoring” is one the most important places to start and the rise and growth of Twitter usage has certainly aided with companies adopting some basic forms of listening and engagement practices. The study revealed that publicizing new content was the top activity verses using the microblogging site for customer service or gathering customer feedback.
Nearly two-thirds (63%) of companies reported responding to tweets, and 34% responded “systematically.” I am not sure what “systematically” means but social engagement is not a templated process. At minimum brands should continue to build on a basic framework of listening via free or paid tools/technologies and in parallel build engagement teams and best practices within their organizations to deal with consumer feedback - both good and bad - just like they do in the contact centers, product feedback groups or executive complaints departments.
Blake Cahill
Visible Technologies
12.28.09 by Blake Cahill {General}
As 2009 comes to a close we have seen that brands and marketers have become more than willing to start conversations in social media, but that’s only the beginning of truly leveraging the social channel for customer and marketing interactions.
A MarketingSherpa survey of social media marketers revealed how brands are leveraging social media and the effectiveness of their practices today. The study revealed that a large majority rated social media marketing effective at influencing brand reputation, increasing awareness and improving search rankings and site traffic.
My question is where is customer service in this study. I think one of the most effective use cases for leveraging the social channel is responding and acknowledging customer issues - both good and bad to improve customer experience. A happy and loyal customer is cheaper than acquiring a new one - right? But, since this study was conducted with social media marketers perhaps the customer service topic was overlooked.
Some of the specific tactics that marketers favored for achieving results in the social channel were user reviews, relationships with bloggers and discussion groups. But many continued to be challenged with best practices for measuring effectiveness of the investments —only around 10% of respondents thought they were “very accurately measured.”
Can you measure the effectiveness though when many companies still don’t have a formal or even informal strategy in place for leveraging and interacting with consumers in the social channel? Many of the best ways to measure social success is to ensure that it is connected with other programs, existing initiatives and is simply an extension of what marketers, customer service, research teams, or public relations are already doing. While one-third of larger businesses had a written policy to manage brand communications, only 13% of smaller business did. Having a “formal policy” is great but more important is setting up cross-functional groups, collaboration, and resources across an organization (big or small) to be fully invested in interacting and learning from your customers.
Developing “policies” or a best practices for your company can be particularly valuable when it comes to responding to consumer feedback. Social media marketing is a conversation, and brands must be ready to respond to consumers whether its for promotion or service related issues. Interestingly enough, around one-quarter of businesses of all sizes reported that participated in the study are still not monitoring social media commentary at all. While, nearly one-half of large businesses are keeping an eye on discussions without responding publicly. The amount of brands that are engaging when a negative comment is made is around 25%.
Business should at a minimum be investing in:
- Listening to what their customers or potential customers are saying
- Developing best practices across support, marketing and public relations for monitoring and interacting with customers that are having favorable or unfavorable interactions
- Integrating the social channel into the mix of existing channels that are being used for marketing and customer interaction
As we head into 2010, brands and marketers must take the next steps to fully exploit the social channel and the power of positive and negative feedback about their brands.
Blake Cahill
Visible Technologies
