Jason Douglas

Spyder Trap Online Marketing

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to attend Reupations with keynote speaker Chris Brogan, and panelists Beth LaBreche from LaBreche;  Gabby Nelson from Select Comfort , Paula Prahl from Best Buy, and Brian Vanderah from Quality Bike Products.

Brogan kicked off the event with a Zulu greeting ‘Sawubona’, which translates to ‘I see you’, which means ‘I know that you’re there and I acknowledge you are another person’. His presentation was a nice mix of random thoughts, dry humor (even a Star Wars reference), and serious points.

The main takeaways from Brogan’s presentation and the panel discusion:

-There are three main parts of social media: Listening. Connecting. Publishing.

-Brogan said that we should ‘connect with the verticals that aren’t yours’. He was critical of the Minneapolis and St. Paul social media community. He cited Pittsburgh as leaders in social media everything. What the MSP group needs to do is not be so exclusive, but learn how to work together. He added ‘it’s a lot easier to go to battle with a large army.’

-Brogan called Vanilla Ice a social media prophet, citing the line ‘Stop. Collaborate, and listen!’ That gained a fair amount of laughter, but was an interesting take.

-Beth LaBreche discussed how she invited her clients to the Reputations event and even sent out copies of Brogan’s Trust Agents to out-of-state clients. One client responded very negatively to the book and said ‘they’re not ready’ for this. This was very apparent in the attendance of this event. One of my first tweets from the Spyder Trap account: ‘good crowd forming for #reputations #broganmpls. A lot of familiar faces.’ Events such as this one wasn’t necessarily for social media professionals like myself and companies like Spyder Trap. It’s the businesses who have a fear, a hesitation, or a lack of knowledge about what social media can do for a business that need to be at these events. The question: how do we get them there?

Overall, this was a very fun event. I ran into some familiar faces, and was lucky enough to talk with him for a while, and even snap a picture with him. Look for more with Brogan and Spyder Trap in the near future.

For those who  attended, following the hashtags, or watching on UStream, what were your thoughts on Brogan’s presentation and the panel discussion?

Greetings to everyone! Due to a high demand, I am posting my presentation for everyone to view.

Thanks to all who showed up to the event, and to those who were unable to show, enjoy the slides. If there are any questions about this presentation, please contact me at jdouglas@spydertrap.com.

Jason Douglas

Spyder Trap Online Marketing

Yesterday, Ric Bucher of ESPN sent a tweet from his personal account stating: ‘The hammer just came down, tweeps: ESPN memo prohibiting tweeting info unless it serves ESPN. Kinda figured this was coming. Not sure what this means but’. On Monday, the Marines issued an order banning social media sites including Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace within its network. Each is an example of censorship, but for two very different reasons.

ESPN, like many companies, have employees that are visible not only on television, but in the social media world. These employees are an extension of the brand that ESPN has built over the last 30 years. With that comes a large responsibility to represent your company as best as possible. There is a fear that within this ‘new’ method of communicating called social media and with information available instantly, if something improper is said, it will spread like wildfire and may have a negative impact on the individual and the company they represent.

There are two approaches to take here: you an either set guidelines for how to approach social media (in this case: Twitter); or you can choose to trust your employees, and allow them to interact with fans, readers, and other athletes who are using Twitter or social media as their platform to announce newsworthy happenings about themselves. We know which approach ESPN went with.

ESPN

Within ESPN’s memo full of guidelines, included were the following points:
• The first and only priority is to serve ESPN sanctioned efforts, including sports news, information and content
• Assume at all times you are representing ESPN

Maybe I am about to react because the above statements are hitting me differently than others. When you are hired by a company, does that mean you are, in a sense, owned by that company? Are you always on call for that company? Are you ever ‘off the clock’?

If this is the way that ESPN wants to treat social media, they are about to miss the point of social media: two-way communication. One thing about us here at Spyder Trap is that we tell clients that social media is all about communication, engaging with fans, followers, etc. Anyone that just pumps out their own content and does not try to engage with people will not be successful or respected in the social media world.

Giving fans of ESPN the opportunity to communicate and converse with their favorite personality increases the brand perception of ESPN. You are humanizing the personalities, and at the same time, gaining more fans of ESPN. This is now no longer possible due to ESPN’s restrictions.

Marines:

Their restriction of social media sites boils down to one simple word: security. This is an easy out for them. Within their memo, the following is stated:

“THESE INTERNET SITES IN GENERAL ARE A PROVEN HAVEN FOR MALICIOUS ACTORS AND CONTENT AND ARE PARTICULARLY HIGH RISK DUE TO INFORMATION EXPOSURE, USER GENERATED CONTENT AND TARGETING BY ADVERSARIES. THE VERY NATURE OF SNS CREATES A LARGER ATTACK AND EXPLOITATION WINDOW, EXPOSES UNNECESSARY INFORMATION TO ADVERSARIES AND PROVIDES AN EASY CONDUIT FOR INFORMATION LEAKAGE THAT PUTS OPSEC, COMSEC, PERSONNEL AND THE MCEN AT AN ELEVATED RISK OF COMPROMISE. EXAMPLES OF INTERNET SNS SITES INCLUDE FACEBOOK, MYSPACE, AND TWITTER.”

Really? In all caps?

This is an example how having certain restrictions can help solve security fears. Instead of banning social networking sites (SNS), implementing some form of privacy requirements, having an approval process for who’s following you, who’s your friend, what groups you are a part of, etc; would be a better solution.

I have a close friend who is in Iraq with the U.S. Army. Usually, we converse by writing letters and sending care packages, etc. Instead, I know he will be on Facebook at the same time nearly every day, which is how we are able to connect, via Facebook chat. I know that since he is able to communicate with myself and his family most every day in real time, his time over in Iraq has been easier to deal with. If that was taken away from him and the rest of the Army, it could be a demoralizing blow to each member.

Does your workplace have any rules regarding social media? If so, I would like to hear about your company’s policy. If your company instituted a policy restricting your use and presence in social media, would that change your perception of your workplace? Would you look elsewhere for employment?

Jason Douglas

Spyder Trap Online Marketing

Last night, I got home around 10:30pm and logged on to Twitter. I immediately noticed there was a fair amount of conversation about how everyone had lost followers, with many not knowing why. I looked at my followers list, and it had decreased from 786 to 724. To lose 62 people in one day is pretty significant for someone that has the number of followers I have. However, I was very happy about this, as I knew instantly that Twitter was cracking down on spam and deleting any accounts they deem as spam.

This was not the first time Twitter has done this. I thought they did this on a daily basis, as I get between 5-10 new followers every day. Of those, maybe one is a real person that I am interested in following back. The rest are bots, or other types of spam that do not interest me at all.

I’m not too concerned with the number of followers I have. I suppose the more I have, the larger my reach is, which can be a good thing. I am more focused with engaging with as many people, whether they are following or not, as possible. That is why Twitter is great: it’s another medium that encourages communication.

Knowing that Twitter is taking a proactive stance against spam, does this make you feel more strongly about Twitter? It should. Just think if MySpace was better at finding spam accounts a year or two ago; would so many people have jumped off the MySpace bandwagon and deleted their accounts while making sites like Facebook and Twitter their main social media sites to use?

How many followers did you lose last night?

Brad Wellman
Spyder Trap Online Marketing

In our third video installment of our Online Marketing Quick Tips, I discuss the use of Third Party Twitter Applications, such as Twhirl, TweetDeck and TweetLater, and their ability to make managing your Twitter accounts easier than ever. You can also download a copy of the PowerPoint using the link below.

Thanks for watching, and stay tuned to the Spyder Trap Blog as we will have our weekly Online Marketing Quick Tip posted every Monday. Also, we would love to hear from you, so feel free to post a comment, make a suggestion or ask a question!

Download the Third-Party Twitter Apps Presentation here