To date, nearly 15,000 of you have downloaded the Playbook. Whether you came across the Playbook from our blog, from Twitter — or perhaps in an email [...]]]> We published the Social Marketing Playbook with the hope that it would be widely read and shared among people with a genuine interest in and passion for social marketing.

To date, nearly 15,000 of you have downloaded the Playbook. Whether you came across the Playbook from our blog, from Twitter — or perhaps in an email from a friend or colleague, we’re grateful for the broad readership and positive feedback we’ve received thus far.

That said, the Playbook was not intended to be a one-and-done document (why not continue with the sports metaphor). Instead, we hope you will download a copy of the Playbook and revisit it as needed. It’s yours to keep, and we invite you to treat it as such. If you have not downloaded the Playbook already, you can do so here: http://360i.com/playbook.

The brief quiz below will test your knowledge of some of the key points outlined in the Social Marketing Playbook. You can also download a PDF version of the quiz — complete with answers — here. At the end of both versions of the quiz you can review the correct answers and explanations.

CONTEST: 360i is giving away 10 hard-bound copies of the Social Marketing Playbook during the month of July. To enter the drawing, take the quiz below and enter your email into the “Your Name” field at the beginning of the quiz (your email will only be used to contact you if you win). Good luck!

No one on [...]]]> At Digital Media Conference 2009 in Washington, DC, I moderated a panel called “What’s Next in Social Media?” The discussion invariably turned to ‘the next big thing.’ At least, it did because as the moderator I could ask it, and as a bonus I didn’t have to answer.

No one on the panel was willing to draw a line in the sand and say, “This is it.” I tried asking the question I get all the time: “What’s the next Twitter or Facebook?” Still nothing. And this was a smart bunch, including Ben Ilfeld, Co-Founder & Operations, The Sacramento Press; Chris McGill, Founder, Mixx; Haroon Mokhtarzada, CEO & Founder, Webs.com; and Bev Yehuda, VP, MultiVu, a PRNewswire Company.

Some of the speculation turned to Google Wave, but expectations were all over the map. The panelists seemed to agree that it would be something – but will it be something that early adopters would love, or will it cross that proverbial chasm?

There’s also this sense that we’re still learning how to use what we have. Twitter and Facebook Connect are two platforms in their infancy. Many sites and platforms are becoming more useful as they adapt to work well from various devices. New tools keep emerging to make it easier to make your information and identity portable, while aggregating whatever you want where you want it. It’s tough to say what this will like.

The panel closed with a discussion around changes in communication. As @sophieci tweeted while quoting the panel, “Twitter=protocol which furthers asynchronous behavior. Easier to multitask with this kind of solution.” Haroon also noted Yammer became an effective tool to communicate internally and keep track of conversations. Despite all the talk of what’s next though, Ben Ilfeld asked the room how many checked their corporate email while at the conference, and everyone raised their hands. He just wanted email to work better. if that’s what’s next, and Google Wave may even play a part in it. Okay, it’s not all that Jetson-esque, but we’re still waiting for our flying cars, so Outlook and the BlackBerry may still be a big part of the future of social media.

Having a social media blueprint can help mitigate a crisis should one arise — and ensure you make the most of future opportunities (Image via Flickr).

One of the best lessons you can learn while engaging with [...]]]>

Having a social media blueprint can help mitigate a crisis should one arise — and ensure you make the most of future opportunities (Image via Flickr).

One of the best lessons you can learn while engaging with social media is that you can never plan too early, as it’s hard to tell when you’ll really reap the fruits of your labor. If you’re actively building a brand through social media and you’re doing it right, you will be incredibly grateful down the road.

I’ll share an example of this from a company I rarely talk about here directly - my agency, 360i. It’s where I’ve worked as Director of Emerging Media (or related roles) for over three years, so I’ve been able to witness the agency’s evolution firsthand. Earlier this month we released our first Social Marketing Playbook, a freely available 56-page guide for marketers on developing and executing social marketing programs.

I wasn’t the lead on managing this project, nor the lead on marketing it; this was a collaborative effort by a dedicated group in our social media and creative practices. Admittedly, the interest in it was greater than expected, as it reached 10,000 downloads within a few days of its launch, and it continues to be a draw.

As a marketer, it’s easy to look at the end result and say there was a great marketing push for it, while others might chalk it up to luck; there are countless other ways to interpret what happened. The most important work we did, though, was in the months and even years before it came out. Self-serving as the story may be, I hope it’s at least a good reminder for the value of planning ahead with social channels.

Distributing the Playbook relied on two efforts where agencies are notoriously weak: marketing themselves, and using the tools they’re promoting to their clients. For 360i, this meant building out a blog and a Facebook presence in 2008, and joining Twitter in early 2009. With Twitter, we weren’t the first agency to join, and there are many others using it well. By the time we did it, though, we had evaluated it through our own strategic lens (a concept explained in detail in the Playbook) and answered these four critical questions:

• Could we use it to meet our objectives?
• Could it leverage our arsenal of assets?
• Could we use it to abide by the social media rules of the road?
• Could it provide a significant value exchange?

Twitter, the blog, Facebook, and other channels like Slideshare, Scribd, Flickr, and LinkedIn all met those criteria. There was a fifth criterion that also had to be answered for all of them: Did we have the resources to use them effectively?

I’ll spare an impossibly objective or unbearably vainglorious analysis of how we did, but all of this was working at least well enough before the Playbook was written. There was also a clear architecture for it, with the blog as a hub, and all of the spokes, including our corporate site, relating coherently to the hub and to each other.

Twitter proved to be especially important for the Playbook’s release, with the blog as the hub for much of the linking. We had our own version of brand ambassadors, myself included, who helped get the word out. Scribd, the document-sharing site, was a useful tool, one that Guy Kawasaki chose to tweet. A digital word-of-mouth program helped inform some influential bloggers, tweeters and executives, though almost all of those relationships were established well before the Playbook was planned.

At Jeff Pulver’s 140 Characters Conference last week, someone in the audience asked the panel I was on what we’d advise a brand like Domino’s Pizza, which endured a brief but viral brand hijack by a couple of its own employees. I responded that brands need to establish open communication channels as early as possible so that they’re ready to use when a major event happens, whether it’s a promotion or a crisis. While relatively few brands will go through crises that make headline news, almost all brands - even agencies’ brands, as I’ve learned - can benefit from building up a presence well in advance of when it’s needed.

This article was originally published in MediaPost’s Social Media Insider.

1. @360i was at @jeffpulver’s 140 Characters Conference last week, represented by @dberkowitz (me) #140conf
2. It wasn’t so much about [...]]]>

1. @360i was at @jeffpulver’s 140 Characters Conference last week, represented by @dberkowitz (me) #140conf
2. It wasn’t so much about much about marketing, though that was part of it, with some legends like @zappos around
3. It was more about how Twitter is changing the world, industry by industry
4. There was also a big focus on how it changes how people communicate - professionally, romantically, etc.
5. Best panel: @ricksanchezcnn and @anncurry (loved Ann!) on Twitter as News Gathering Tool (see clip http://bit.ly/L68wM )
6. @anncurry embodied everything a tweeter should be: authentic, smart, passionate, funny, incisive and honest
7. I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel with @bmorrissey, @hadleystern, and @pfasano, moderated by @AaronStrout
8. I talked (surprise) about @360i’s Playbook (http://bit.ly/mREdN), focusing on the 4 ?s marketers should answer when devising their strategy
9. Someone asked about how to handle crises, like Dominos had. I noted having open communications channels can mitigate the damage.
10. I gave my closing remarks in haiku: Twitter GPS / once you turn on the tweet stream / you can’t part with it

Integrating Facebook with Xbox 360 would let gamers leverage the power of community to seek out more compatible opponents (Image via Flickr).

Last week, my colleague Josh touched on the new social features [...]]]>

Integrating Facebook with Xbox 360 would let gamers leverage the power of community to seek out more compatible opponents (Image via Flickr).

Last week, my colleague Josh touched on the new social features Microsoft is adding to the Xbox 360 - Facebook Connect and Twitter functionality that will allow users to broadcast their gaming activities to their friends.

As one of Josh’s commenters noted, bringing Facebook onto Xbox is of limited utility. Without an easy-to-use keyboard, at least as easy as a mobile phone keyboard, for example, the main use for access to your Facebook account on Xbox Live will be to ping friends to come join you in-game, or to show off your gamer score.

But the addition of social networking functionality could well solve a significant problem facing console multiplayer gaming - the current matchmaking system. While usually effective at setting up games quickly and easily, it makes it very difficult to be discerning in one’s choice of gaming partners. Anybody who’s played Halo 3 with a group of people who use ethnic slurs like punctuation marks has had this experience.

Currently, Xbox Live is well set up to support playing with friends or playing with strangers, but there isn’t a lot of gray area between those two groups.

There’s no way, for example, for someone at a company to play with all his or her co-workers unless he’s friends with all of them, or for a student to play with other people from his or her university. Xbox Live is good at helping you set up 1- or 2-degree social nets, but its support for groups or larger networks is practically nonexistent.

This is something that connecting with Facebok could shore up. The real value for Xbox Live to hook up with Facebook isn’t in broadcasting activity. The value is this: It pulls social connections into the Xbox Live system to help people find fellow gamers they can get along with.

This article was also published in MediaPost’s Gaming Insider. You can view the original article at MediaPost.com.

Facebook has done so well blowing out its core social features - the News Feed, Mini Feed, brand Pages, virtual gifts, applications, and Facebook Connect, [...]]]>

Facebook has done so well blowing out its core social features - the News Feed, Mini Feed, brand Pages, virtual gifts, applications, and Facebook Connect, to name a few - that it’s amazing how frustrating it is to use some of the basic functionality like search and email. Part of that’s finally about to change, now that Facebook is rolling out trials of an upgraded on-site search engine.

Here’s a snippet of the preview from Facebook’s blog:

With the test, you will be able to search your News Feed for the most recent status updates, photos, links, videos and notes being shared by your friends and the Facebook Pages of which you’re a fan. You will also be able to search for status updates, posted links and notes in Search from people who have chosen to make their profile and content available to everyone.

This is a start. As Read/Write Web notes, this inches closer to the real-time search features that make Twitter so useful, but Facebook’s focus seems to be helping users search their friends’ content, rather than content across all of Facebook. It’s also unclear right now if they’re fixing other fundamental problems - for instance, when you search for groups or Pages, you can’t sort them in any way, such as by the number of members or fans. [Update: TechCrunch reports Facebook will soon make it possible to search content from everyone, and will update privacy options accordingly.]

There’s also a lot Facebook could do to build on this. It’s not as far reaching as Twitter Search, and it’s not as captivating as Google Hot Trends, from what’s been released so far. Really though, it would be a relief if their search engine just worked.

One dream scenario: Microsoft has alerady invested in Facebook, and Bing powers the basic Web search function on Facebook. Now that Microsoft has shown how it can at least deliver a competitive search offering on its own (in some ways, it’s even innovative), it would be fun to see what it could do with Facebook.

Regardless of what the final product looks like when it’s open to all users (it’s live for a small number right now), the big relief is that Facebook is finally getting back to basics. With any luck, upgrades to email will follow in turn.

Nathan Bonilla-Warford has an eye for social media, calling it this generation’s “Chamber of Commerce.” (Image by JoanKatherine via Flickr)

If you think you’ve read everything you need [...]]]>

Nathan Bonilla-Warford has an eye for social media, calling it this generation’s “Chamber of Commerce.” (Image by JoanKatherine via Flickr)

If you think you’ve read everything you need to know about social media, maybe you should get your eyes checked. When you go, with any luck your optometrist will be Nathan Bonilla-Warford, O.D. in Tampa, Florida, as he can teach you a few things.

Nathan reached out following last week’s column about my optometrist uncle,  who said my article was posted on an optometrists’ forum. His email signature included links to his Web site, Yelp listing, Facebook page, and Twitter account, and he later revealed he’s a blogger too. I thought his practical experience as a business owner grappling with social media should be shared with others. Here’s an exclusive interview with Dr. Bonilla-Warford.

Social Media Insider: How did you decide to tweet? What’s it doing for you?

Dr. Nathan Bonilla-Warford: Another optometrist turned me on to it. Because I blog, it was a no-brainer. It gets my message out about news and events. Twitter has led to new patients and new sales. Now that I have been tweeting for a while, I truly see Twitter (social media more generally) as “The Chamber of Commerce for our generation.”

With Twitter you get to see the people behind the business a bit more and, in this day where we are all fed a steady diet of overhyped, irony-dripping marketing, it is nice to see real people. Add local tweetups to the mix and it is awesome, especially for a small business like mine that likes to work in barter when possible.

So I love it. And being the ONLY eye doc in Tampa Bay who tweets, I’ve got that self-selected demographic all to myself — for now. And I am taking advantage of it while I can.

SMI: How much time does it take you to manage your social media presence?

NBW: Well, my wife thinks it takes me a lot of time. Really, though, social media is so integrated with other tasks such as administrative and leisure time that it is hard to quantify the time put in. Perhaps 30 minutes a day total, apart from stand-alone marketing time. I don’t think of it as taking a lot of time, because it is fun and rewarding. An important note is that this really only applies to maintenance of social networks. Setting up a new presence DOES take time and effort at first, deciding on what image to present, literally and figuratively, and what the written and unwritten rules are of the new network.

SMI: Are any social media channels more important than others?

NBW: I’m not a guru on this subject, but I think it all depends on your goals and perspective. I pretty much see my blog as the central hub of the Web presence and then other systems/networks making use of that content. However, this is changing as I am becoming more active on Twitter. I am starting to dislike Facebook due to all the quizzes and applications, but I know that it is still popular.

SMI: Is it just you managing it? Do you have anyone in your office helping you?

NBW: I have talked about this with other optometrists. Historically, optometrists are not great at delegating. I’m not sure why. I have introduced social media to my office staff and asked them to participate by writing blog posts. I would like to get them more involved and tweet about office events and allow me to focus more on clinical topics, but we are not there — yet.

SMI: Who’s your target audience? Is there a certain demographic?

NBW: The target audience is tricky. Initially and ideally, the target audience is people (specifically mothers) who live in the area and who are patients or potential patients of Bright Eyes. However, we also provide specialty services of infant & pediatric care, vision therapy and orthokeratology, and there is not a large number of these specialists using social media nationwide. So I am simultaneously creating a national and international audience of people who are interested in this niche care.

This has caused me to realize that I have to create different entities to address these audiences, and I am now working toward this, in conjunction with national professional organizations within these specialties. To some degree, I am leading them to it, because they are thinking about the message spreading from more conventional channels.

SMI: What’s your advice to other business owners about using social media?

I think that virtually any business could benefit from social media. There is a small, local house cleaning company that I think is doing a great job (@serranocleaning ). I plan on using their services in the future. Ikea opened a new store in Tampa, and they have been the example of “doing it right” with @IKEATampaFans. They listen to tweets and encourage exchange without spam.

So to any business, especially one that deals heavily with human interaction such as sales or consulting, I would say, “Come on in, the water is fine.” But do spend a little time dabbling with a personal account to think about what style and approach works for you, before you commit.

I also feel very strongly that businesses should separate their personal and business social media identities. I know others disagree with me on this point, saying, “You are your brand.” But I just think it is confusing if you are using your office/business name and then sending a bunch of tweets that have no relation to your core concept. I’m not saying to refuse to show some personal side because that is a good and important aspect, but to keep it relevant to your brand.

In the social and mobile space, utility is a magic word. Figuring out how to make your customers’ lives easier – and still remain on brand – is like the holy grail. Zipcar, it seems, may have done just [...]]]>

In the social and mobile space, utility is a magic word. Figuring out how to make your customers’ lives easier – and still remain on brand – is like the holy grail. Zipcar, it seems, may have done just that with their new iPhone application, planned for release later this summer.

The app, developed in conjunction with Apple, lets users choose and reserve a car, then uses GPS and Google Maps to locate it. According to Wired blog Autopia, the app will also sound the car’s alarm if you find yourself stranded in a parking lot full of lookalikes. If, as Wired reports, fully one quarter of Zipcar’s customers are iPhone owners, this application is certainly a tool that will add value to their zipping experience.

In social marketing, it’s easy to get caught up with the “hot new thing” – and although the iPhone is certainly hot, Zipcar has obviously done its research. Though they’re not a 360i client, it looks like they’re sticking to our “social marketing strategic lens.”

Does it meet their objectives?
We’re not entirely sure what Zipcar’s objectives were here, but if it was to “create a solid user experience for our customers so they come back again and again,” they definitely hit the nail on the head.

Does it provide value?
Hell yes!

Does it follow the rules of the road?
The application definitely makes use of some of the iPhone’s best features, namely GPS and Google Maps. Beyond that, without actually using the app, it’s hard to say if it adheres to iPhone best practices, but we’ll soon be able to test that out.

Does it leverage the Zipcar arsenal?
The best thing that Zipcar has to offer is the fact that you can pick up their cars in convenient locations. This app certainly leverages that value prop and gives it even more exposure.

All in, the new Zipcar iPhone application sounds like a home run. We’re looking forward to giving it a whirl when it becomes available.