Matt Haupt

While driving home the other day I was listening to NPR and came across a story on teens and texting. There wasn’t anything too special about this particular story – teens text throughout the school day, they text an extraordinary amount of times, yadda yadda yadda. (To read or listen to the story click here).

Although this story has some great research on how texting and technology is becoming second-nature to younger generations, there was one quote from a Los Angeles teacher that made me think a little bit about texting and social interactions.

Nini Halkett has taught history there for two decades and laments the bad spelling and writing that seems to worsen as texting becomes more widespread. As her students are increasingly immersed in texting, Halkett also finds them increasingly shy and awkward in person.

“They can get up the courage to ask you for [a deadline] extension on the computer,” she says. “But they won’t come and speak to you face-to-face about it. And that worries me, in terms of their ability — particularly once they get out in the workplace — to interact with people.”

There are a few theories I want to address, and suggest that texting and other technology that deals with communication, may be unjustly getting a bad wrap.

Texting, E-mail, Blogging promotes spelling and grammatical errors

Now, this has been going on for a long time, and even as a younger individual, I have seen a few different communication “devices” blamed for poor grammar. First it was e-mail, then instant message, and now texting. They blame these communication tools for promoting bad spelling and grammatical errors mainly due to the users writing quickly and not taking the time to revise their text. They believe that the more these teenagers write in this fashion, the more that they get in the habit of writing this way, and this can now be seen in their school work.

I mean, I get why they would think that, but there could be numerous reasons for this trend. First, the educational system may not be promoting grammar the way it used to. Second, grammar as we know it may be changing and adapting as time moves on. Also, even though writing emails and texts may be informal, teenagers are probably “writing” more than they have in the past, which means they could actually be improving the way they communicate through the written word (just in a new and “adapted” writing structure).

As teenagers increase their use of technology to communicate, the ability to interact with people in person is hindered

This is probably the worst assumption I have ever seen. To say that a means of communications actually hinders communicating in another form is just outlandish to me. Let’s take the example in the article, a student asking for an extension through the computer and not in person. How do we know that these students would ask for an extension in person if there was no other form to do so? Could the students just attempt to complete the assignment even though they are having trouble and risk a lower grade?  Teenagers who are more “introverted” may be afraid or uncomfortable asking permission for things in person, regardless of their options to do so.

I believe that students’ voices are actually increasingly being heard by the world when in some past cases they wouldn’t be, especially students who are a little more introverted. Giving students a way to communicate other than in person, gives them the ability to think over their thoughts without being expected to make quick and snappy responses. Texting, e-mails and blogging are actually increasing communication, not hindering it.

Technology has always been the scapegoat for problems in the world. When the world changes, individuals seem to look towards what technological devices are out there that could have caused the change/”problem”. Because technology doesn’t help anyone, ever, apparently.

Down with evil texting.

Photo by  Mike “Dakinewavamon” Kline

I mean, I get it. Clients want to know that if they are putting in the resources (aka money) into trying this whole “social media” thing they better see some kind of results. Some companies are even better than others, saying they’d rather see an increase in positive sentiment of their brand than actual sales numbers increasing.

But sometimes I think companies want to do too much with their social media experience at once, and they don’t get that they can actually get a lot out of doing small things that makes a big impact in an individual’s life than trying to reach everyone with their new viral video.

My suggestion? Realize that your brand/service is not perfect and try to find the people who are expressing that online. Maybe it’s a guy who blogged about how his cable company was 5 hrs late to a scheduled appointment. Maybe it’s the fact that someone had difficulty using your website to buy a product and now is tweeting that they are pissed off.

Once you find those people, find the appropriate response to help them with their problem and let them know you are sorry. Yes, you are only effecting one person, but if a person is willing to bad mouth your service they are probably more likely to say good things about you for helping them out. And if not, oh well. You haven’t made anything worse (which is more than I can say for some social campaigns).

Make small but important impacts online and you’ll be rewarded in the end. It’s like bringing back the old mom and pop type attitude.

Photo courtesy of  polandeze

Brand loyalty is the “holy grail” to many companies. What is better than a consumer who likes your product and your service enough to be a repeat buyer, over and over again? And isn’t that really one of the goals of your business’ advertising? To keep your consumers loyal to you?

Each day companies pour more and more money into keeping their customers as happy as possible. Making sure they do not slip up, even slightly, in the process.

But, are those customers who jumped ship so quickly, after a “mistake”, really brand loyal? A recent study suggests not.

New York University psychologists Heather Barry and Tom Tyler (you can read about their study here at We’re Only Human, a blog by Wray Herbert) performed a study with college students and their loyalty to their school based on policies they read that were both fair and unfair to students.

The study concludes that even though the students may have disagreed with the school’s policies, they were still loyal to the school overall, and were even more likely to be cooperative and helpful.

What does this say for your customers? Well, the ones that are truly “brand loyal” will not jump ship as quickly as you may think. Not only will they not jump ship, they will try to communicate to you on why they are upset, and may give you some answers on how you can help fix this consumer-company relationship.

What does this mean for your business? Social Media is more important than ever. (Well really any way that consumers can communicate is more important than ever). Consumers may not give you a call or email you on why they think your company is causing problems, but they might just blog about it. There may be a few tweets. They may even join a group about you on Facebook.

The point is, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. What you should be afraid of, once you make a mistake (which you will, trust me), is not attempting to listen to what your customers think about your mistake.

The Brand Loyalists love who you are and what you do. And when times turn sour they will be one of the groups of people giving you advice on how to improve. Listen to them.

Sometimes I go days without talking to someone (in person) about the cool things that are happening in the social media and digital space.

My roommate, Cameron, is probably one of the main people I talk to about technology in general, but he is also the one that makes fun of my Twitter obsession.

For example an email this morning:

It never gets old sending this crap to you.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8089508.stm

Or last week:

Subject line: “I F****** hate Twitter”

http://gawker.com/5274705/jogger-hits-tree-while-tweeting-hurtles-toward-global-infamy

Ah well, some people just have personal issues with awesome things like Twitter. (Even though he HAS a Twitter account)

Back to my point though. The reason I bring this up, is that today, during my Public Relations Strategy class, I had the privilege of hearing two individuals speak about social media and it’s practical uses.

John Hill was the first speaker. Hill is the Director of Alumni Career Service for the MSU Alumni Association. He spoke mostly on the wonderful professional networking site that is LinkedIn.

What I thought was great about his presentation was the fact that he not only showed what you could do on the site, but also how we (as PR and Marketing professionals) can use LinkedIn to connect with other businesses. I feel like a lot of presentations miss out on that connection.

From searching specifically for individuals in certain industries, at a specific company, and who has a specific title, to being involved in multiple groups.

He also talked about the “Questions and Answers” section (my new favorite spot on LinkedIn) and how you can answer questions and become an industry expert in a certain field. This could possibly lead to people contacting you directly for help. Wouldn’t that be nice?

The second speaker was Julielyn Gibbons the President (and I believe founder) of i3Strategies, a social media and internet strategy company in East Lansing.

Julielyn showed the class the wonderful “Social Networking in Plain English” and “Twitter in Plain English” videos. (Check them out if you haven’t seen them already). She went through some great stats on who is on sites like Twitter and Facebook, and mentioned how the sites’ users are beginning to skew older.

She also mentioned her personal uses of Facebook, which included documenting a vacation she had planned with pictures and notes.

The best thing about these two individuals was their excitement for the industry in general. You could see it in the way they spoke and in the way they explained the networks they talked about.

It was exciting, and their passion was contagious.

We need more people like John and Julielyn talking to companies and organizations about social media and its uses. They have a lot to share, not because they have been in the space forever, but because they have the passion and drive to take advantage of this growing and ever-changing space.

Photo by carrotcreative on Flickr

I am definitely an introvert.

You know how I know I am? Because I re-wrote this blog entry probably 15 different times because it just didn’t seem “right”.  You might think that is being a perfectionist, I think that is just because I never truly put my thoughts together before I started typing away.

But you know what? That’s okay, because in the online world, you get to think about what you want to say before you say (type) it.

It is funny how our online and offline personalities seem to match a lot more than some people say. I know there is this whole tendency to think that just because you have more conversations online than in real life, that you become more extroverted, but if you take a closer look that isn’t always the case.

Yesterday I asked my sister, who just received her masters degree and is going to be one hell of a academic counselor someday, how she compared her online personality to her offline, and if she sees her introversion in both. I remembered her saying that she didn’t comment too much on blogs, she just liked to read them, and I thought that might be due to her being introverted.  She answered me, even past her bedtime (she has 3 young ones, so she really needs the shut eye)…

“…when I stopped and thought about it, I realized that my lack of participation is still a bit due to my introvertism, just not quite in the way that you thought. See, one of the things that seems to be typical of introverts on the internet … is that they love the internet because it allows them the time to stop and think things through — to process their own thoughts before being forced to comment. I read somewhere that introverts tend to think, then write, then think some more, then re-write….even doing this for simple things like emails and blog comments! I definitely think this is true for me. Whereas an extroverted person might be comfortable whipping up a random blog comment or email in seconds and sending it into cyberspace without a second thought.”

After reading her email, it all started making a lot more sense to me. (Thanks Sis!)

The online world isn’t making people more extroverted. It is just a place that is a little more tailored to the way introverts behave!

Think about it.

You receive a tweet from a friend on Twitter asking you more of a in-depth question. You know you know the answer, but you need some time to think about it, form the right words, and then you can send something back to them. You think about it for a few minutes (maybe hours if you really want to make sure you are saying the right thing) and then you send it away.

And what does your friend think? Well, they definitely are not feeling awkward that you are not answering right away. I mean you could be busy doing something else that is more important at the moment. All they know is that you did end up sending something to them.

In the real world, that might not work out so great. Say you are at a party and somebody asks you an in-depth question. Are you allowed to say ”Excuse me, let me go think about this for a second and then I’ll come back to you with my answer”.

I mean you could, but you might get a lot of weird looks.

And you can definitely pick the introverts out in a crowded room, but what about online? The line between extroverts and introverts begins to get a little fuzzy. All human beings want interaction at some point. Extroverts are energized by a lot of interaction, and introverts can get drained. So is an introvert with thousands of followers on Twitter and friends on Facebook an oxymoron? I don’t think so…

Introverts just have the opportunity to gain friendships and connections in a way that fits their personality. And what is great about social media is that just because introverts can think about what they want to say to others doesn’t mean extroverts need to. They can type away their thoughts quickly and send to whoever is willing to listen. Social media works with everyone!

“But aren’t introverts less open about their feelings?”

Actually introversion has nothing to do with openness. I’m an introvert and I wear my heart on my sleeve half the time. It’s just, if I want to tell you how I feel, I have to think about how I feel first.

If you want to learn a little more on the true definition of introversion and extraversion according to the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, check out their website.

Photo by Ruth L on Flickr

It is interesting how marketers are trying to get into the Social Media game. We have all seem some really bad campaigns come through Facebook and MySpace, with some ”good” campaigns being few and far in between.

Via Twitter last night I came across something very interesting regarding a social media marketing attempt on Facebook gone terribly wrong.

All of this information you can find on SquaredPeg.com written by Brad J. Ward. Make sure if you have any questions or comments to contact him. Apparently you’ll see this story in the popular news media sometime next week.

Basically what was uncovered was that a company named College Prowler started creating or obtaining admin rights to groups on Facebook that were for incoming freshman to colleges across the country. From my understanding, most of these groups seemed to be “official” groups for incoming freshman, however were created by a person not affiliate with the school and not a incoming freshman.

The company has, since this amazing discovery, left these groups (read the company’s comment here).

Now, I am for interesting ways to gain exposure of your company and product through the use of Social Networking sites such as Facebook; don’t get me wrong. But this company broke one of the cardinal rules when it comes to social marketing: transparency.

Even if these individuals were not trying to pose like incoming freshman or an affiliate of a university, by not disclosing who they were from the beginning they have undermined the social media platform and the individuals who participate in that platform.

I know everyone keeps saying the same thing, but apparently it’s not clear. If you are a company looking to reach people using social media, you need to be honest from the start on who you are and you have to provide something of value that people KNOWINGLY seek out for themselves. You can’t use any form of trickery…or it will result in something similar to this.

I applaud Brad and the other 15(ish) people who helped him look through Facebook to find these “fraud” groups.

This is what I love about social media…if there is something fishy going on, the group members will find out (usually pretty quickly) and will spread the news about any and all forms of dishonesty from a company.

I know that College Prowler is now in the process of leaving these groups they have created, however, I hope they keep these groups around and hand them over to the proper university affiliate, so these incoming students can still have a place to legitimately talke to other students going to their school.

What do you think? Is this as big of a deal as I think it is, or is this the only way to reach people through social media?

We have all seen it in the news and throughout any career-related site; with the entrance of social networks, people need to be careful about how they are portrayed online.

You all know what I’m talking about. We have heard the horror stories of people who were not hired because of some kind of “incriminating” evidence  that was found through the  internet. Whether or not these stories are actually true or not, is another story.

It does seem though, however, that online identity is getting a lot of attention nowadays. So much so, that I actually received a message from CollegeGrad.com today saying they can keep watch over my “Online Reputation” by keeping embarrassing things hidden (for only $14.95/month none-the-less!!) when employers search for my name.

Whether or not these employers are actually finding pictures of you at your last ugly-Christmas sweater party in college (see right) really isn’t the point of this post however.

How do you think privacy is going to change as more and more people move to social networking, exposing more of their lives to the world? Will there be a movement to keep your picture, videos, and personal blogs private to only you, your family and friends?

Or will there be an opposite movement, where privacy is a thing of the past, where transparency is king?

There is a huge divide in how privacy, and transparency, are going to be effected as the years go on.

(Some great quotes on the subject can be seen in the research from the PEW Internet and American Life Project (page 63).)

Some seem to think privacy will be the name of the game in a few years with more and more companies popping up, preaching that they can “save” your online identity just like CollegeGrad.com. (I’m sure there are already 10-20 companies already advertising these services).

And, you can see this even now, more and more people are becoming skeptical on what they should display online, since they are worried about who will see what. This can be seen mostly in the recent graduate market, who are trying to manipulate their social networking profiles from “woo hoo college!” to “I’m looking for a job” format.

But here is a thought.

Is there ever going to be a time where we can still display those inappropriate pictures, video and links? Where we don’t have to hid really anything from potential employers because…

They really don’t care?

One of the PEW Internet and American Life Project quotes makes a good point. Years ago, tattoos that could be seen during the work hours were seen as inappropriate and looked down upon. However, nowadays, tattoos are more commonplace. Same with body piercings. Same with weird colored hair.

Couldn’t inappropriate things on your personal website or social network profile be looked over eventually as well?

What do you guys think? Is privacy going to change at all? Are there going to be strict rules, or are they going to loosen? Are employers going to be more tolerant of the personal lives of their potential employees?

It is funny how much things have changed over time. In the last 5 seconds, 10 new blogs were created from ordinary, everyday people. In that same time, 18.6 blog posts were published, ready for the wandering eyes of the online world to gaze upon them.

But, how many eyes actually see that particular post? In my case, and many others, the number can be as close to zero as you can get.

That doesn’t change the fact though, that these blog posts can be JUST as important as other information you can gather online. Sure, these bloggers do not have journalism degrees and maybe some do not write “well”..

What they do have, more importantly, is their emotion and heart in their writing.

And that’s more than I can say for a lot of professional journalists out there; even if you are one of the lucky journalists who have the privilege of writing in an opinion column.

This is why it is important for you as a company to realize that there are far more people to impress than the professional journalists from your national newspapers or magazines. Although these “professionals” have access to a publication with mass appeal, there are a bloggers throughout the online world who are talking about you and your products/services.

And let me tell you large fortune 500 company…it’s not all good. It’s not all bad, but DEFINITELY not all good.

If the short history of blogs have told us anything it is this…people are attracted to the opinion and thoughts of the general public, and not necessarily the big shot from the New York Times. And definitely not a company’s PR agency.

With everything that has happened over the past decade, from the controversial war in Iraq, to Enron (remember those guys), to the Wall Street meltdown and bailout, to the Big Three and their request for government loans (noticed I said LOAN and not BAILOUT), people are beginning to see corporations and their products as opaque as opaque can be.

They see deception, not straight-talk.

They see power, not humility.

In an age where the masses demand transparency in how the inside of a company and brand work, when people are looking for answers, they will soon turn to the only people (as for now) that they know are harder to manipulate than the general media…

Themselves

Their family

Their friends

Their next door neighbors

Their favorite blogger

Because if one of them says your product or service is terrible, guess what? They are not going to buy anything you throw at them. Not with funny ads. Not with integrated “advertorials”. Not with anything.

That is why each company should treat their own customers the same, if not better, than the journalists they’re afraid of doing anything in wrong in front of. We should be treated better than stockholders, because we are the ones that are keeping your company around.

Reach us, and we might have something good to write about you. And trust me, our opinion matters.

But until then…

Being an interactive media planner I am in a daily conversation with co-workers, clients and even friends about the measurement of interactive media and social media. Of course, nowadays, living in a state and economy that isn’t exactly letting companies and clients spend money on new advertising/marketing mediums (even if they are more cost efficient), I do not see many social media proposals crossing my path.

It’s funny that living in this day and age where there is so much information and research on how using interactive media can be the most cost effective and targeted medium out there, that clients still seem to shy away from the medium when budgets get a little tight.

But, that is besides the point of this particular blog post.

Social Media is the “new” thing for many clients and companies. Everyone is talking about “joining the conversation” and creating those company MySpace and Facebook profiles. However, as budgets do get a little tighter, I believe we are all going to hear even more questions from these companies on what social media “is doing for me”.

This is where the dreaded ROI acronym comes into play. Don’t get me wrong, advertising is all about what kind of returns the company receives. It is not a bad thing. What IS a bad thing is how companies and clients are using their definition of ROI for traditional marketing tactics, and trying to transfer it to social media.

Big mistake.

Jason Falls writes a nice post and actually has a video with well respected Katie Delhaye Paine, explaining why transfering this “old” definition is a waste of time.

In the more traditional marketing tactics, especially TV, clients and companies are buying programs based on the amount of people watching. After years of buying television media, these companies can start equating the number of “eyeballs” reached and the number of products they sell.

The thing is, that Katie and Jason also point out, is that reaching a certain amount of “eyeballs” online through social media, does not have a direct connection to a certain amount of sales. Just because you have 2,000 followers on Twitter, doesn’t mean you will be selling 50 of your products.

Companies who use social media should be using it as a way to engage consumers in a more personal and intimate way, and it should not be considered a way to “sell product” or “increase revenue”. It is true, that selling more of your product or service may come out of a great social media campaign, but it should not be the focus.

I believe one of the best ways to measure social media is through web analytic software for your website. By seeing how much your traffic has increased on your site in general or certain pages and also by seeing how many comments were posted and/or how many people registered as a user of your site, you can see how well your social media campaign is working.

Trying to promote a message or a “personality” for your brand? There are a few ways to monitor what people are saying about you and your brand, either through Google Alert or even Technorati.

The point is, there are ways to “research” what is being said about your brand or company online, and whether it is something you can go along with, or something you might want to try to change. However, getting into the trap of trying to tie social media marketing with online/offline sales will not only lead to disappointment but will most likely turn you, your boss, your ad agency, off of social media for all of the wrong reasons.

What do you think? Do you think there are ways to link sales and social media? How do you think companies should measure social media marketing?