TIME Magazine or AmeriCares ...Who Is Better At Twitter?

Which of these two brands (@TIME Magazine or @AmeriCares Non-Profit) is making better use of their Twitter account?


TIME is a big, well-established brand with a huge pre-existing fanbase. They had little trouble leveraging their name into an enormous number of Twitter followers.

AmeriCares is more like most smaller businesses (they are probably a lot like your business.) They don't have the mass appeal of a Time magazine. It will take them longer to establish in this space.

TIME has 614,143 followers. AmeriCares has 2,434. At first glance, it might appear that TIME is benefiting more from this tool.

LOOK CLOSER!

AmeriCares is following 2,428 people! They are taking a much more interactive approach and building two-way relationships with their users. They are engaging and bonding with their existing fans. They are introducing themselves to people who may have never heard of them before. AmeriCares' overall Twitter numbers aren't as impressive as TIME's, but is it possible that they are actually getting more benefit from this powerful tool?

TIME found only 54 of it's 600,000+ users to be interesting enough to follow back.

This is a HUGE MISS!

One could take this as a sign that TIME thinks what they have to say to their customer is far more important than what their customer has to say to them. This thinking might work for them (for now) because their brand is well-established. It won't work for you!

TIME may see their Twitter campaign as a marketing success based on their follow numbers, but you have to ask several questions:

• How many of these Twitter followers are already "following" them in other spaces?
• How many of these followers are building tighter bonds with the brand as a result of this one-way messaging?
  
• Is TIME actually gaining anything new from their Twitter campaign that they can't get elsewhere?

Ultimately, isn't the quality of the relationships you build in Social Media far more important than the quantity?

Now it's your turn:

Which of these two brands (@RollingStone Magazine or @WorldCircuit Record Label) is making better use of their Twitter account?

De La Soul-cial Networking

Do you remember these guys:

De La Soul. They've been making music since the 1980s. Recently, they teamed up with Nike Sport Music to release "ARE YOU IN?: Nike+ Original Run", a record that is now available through iTunes for $9.99.

To promote this new project, De La Soul took to technology in true De La-fashion. Check out what one of them (Posdnous - twittername: @PlugWonDeLaSoul) is doing on Twitter:


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What stands out in all of Posdnous's posts?


The "@RESPONSE"!

Posdnous is responding...conversing...interacting...having one-on-one, personal exchanges with his fans. Aside from his time, the cost is nothing. The impact on building a dedicated fanbase is HUGE! This is such easy stuff, you have to wonder why every business in the world isn't doing it.

Questions:

How many of the fans that Posdnous has connected with on this personal level will go on to buy the album?

How many of those fans will remember these connections years from now when De La Soul releases another CD?

How is a musician interacting with his fans similar to your company interacting with your customers?

What can you learn from De La Soul-cial Networking?

What Else Does A Guy Have To Do To Get A JOB?

My main goal at WHY? Media (the blog) is to showcase easy-to-use, low cost ways to leverage technology in order to spread the word about your brand. Today I offer a story about a guy who is using every high-tech-tool in the book to spread the word about his job search.

Meet Mike:

These days, most job seekers build some sort of website to feature a resume, portfolio and such. Mike is going way beyond that. He's turned his job search into a major social media marketing campaign. He calls it "Get Mike a Job (and Win Prizes!)"

Mike has built a "Get Mike a Job (and Win Prizes!)" website & blog:


Mike has built a "Get Mike a Job (and Win Prizes!)" LinkedIn Page:


Mike has built a "Get Mike a Job (and Win Prizes!)" FaceBook Page:


Mike has built a "Get Mike a Job (and Win Prizes!)" Twitter Account:


Mike has built a "Get Mike a Job (and Win Prizes!)" YouTube Channel:


(Editors Note: I didn't find "Get Mike a Job" on Blip.Fm, a popular music-streaming site. Hey Mike, maybe you should create a "Get Mike a Job (and Win Prizes!)" Blip channel and play nothing but work-themed songs. Stuff like "Works Hard For The Money" by Donna Summer or "Working Man" by Rush. You could set your Blip account to update your Twitter account so you'll be reaching more eyeballs every time you spin a tune!)


What Mike is demonstrating in his job search is what every company, big or small, should be doing with their brand. This is an ultra-modern, well-planned, well-executed, multi-channeled attack. If your company isn't doing this stuff, maybe you should give Mike a call.

Questions:
What is Mike doing that your company isn't?
What other tech-tools can Mike use in his campaign?
What can your company learn about viral marketing from "Get Mike a Job (and Win Prizes!)"?

(Editors Note: By spreading the word about this blog post, you could be helping Mike find his next employer. Tweet this article, post it on Facebook, Digg It, Stumble It, RSS Feed it...do whatever it is you do with blog posts that you like. I'm sure Mike will thank you.")

Is Hate-Tweeting Oprah Basically The Same As Loving Her?

Oprah Winfrey (twittername: @Oprah) caught tons of media (and social media) attention last week by opening a Twitter account live on her TV show. If a recent Twitter Search is any indication, the tweet community appears to be less than tweet-ceptive. Check out all the hate-tweeting going on:

Questions:

Don't you think all these less-than-positive mentions of the @Oprah name are actually a good thing for her brand overall?

Wouldn't you consider it a huge win if your brand got this much attention it's first week on Twitter?

I'm just sayin'...

The Web Beats Traditional Media (Yet Again)

Have you heard about the recent star-powered popularity contest that came in the form of a contest to be the first Tweeter to gather 1 million followers on Twitter.

In one corner, Media giant CNN (twittername: @CNN) sporting it's millions of television viewers and fire-fueled promotional machine. In the other corner, underdog everyman-actor Aston Kutcher (twittername: @aplusk), equipped only with a laptop and a small web-based videocast (oh yeah...and his hugely popular brand and black book of A list friends.)

CNN was largely considered the favorite...after all, they have Larry King. But Kutcher leveraged his fan base (and a large offering of man-boy prizes) and pulled off the upset victory.

Yet another example of the web out-media-ing the media.

Live Videos by Ustream

Cool Content + Social Media = BUZZZZ!!!

Savannah College Of Art And Design is doing something really cool with social media right now. The school is hosting the Game Developers eXchange (game developers, educators and students sharing their behind-the-scenes knowledge of the game industry.) The cool part is that they have built an online videocast channel called SCADTV into their website. They are using this great tool to provide live coverage of the event. They are also live microblogging about the event (and their SCADTV coverage of it) on Twitter (twittername: @scaddotedu). Users can interact by tweeting questions and thoughts live by using "#gdx" in their message.

I love this stuff! Combining multi-media assets and social media tools is a super-strong play. Are you using your website to engage your audience in this way?