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?

Is Britney Spears Socially Stupid?

Last week was an interesting one in the world of New Media. Two new high profile jobs were in the headlines. Anyone interested in Viral Marketing should be watching these very closely.

In Washington DC, President Obama unveiled his new DIRECTOR OF NEW MEDIA FOR THE WHITE HOUSE. Meanwhile, Britney Spears began her search for a 2.0 MEDIA MANAGER.

High profile positions like these can do nothing but legitimize the need for solid Social Media planning. The question is...can Britney Spears keep from screwing this up?

DIRECTOR OF NEW MEDIA FOR THE WHITE HOUSE

Early last week, within minutes after the inauguration, a brand new blog was introduced at http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/. As a result, we were more formally introduced to Obama's New Media mastermind...Macon Phillips:

As the week (and even the weekend) progressed, it became apparent that we are dealing with a different White House. So far, The White House Blog has been a pretty readable combination of press-release/policy information and some slightly more candid quotes from our latest President. There has also been an occasional (and refreshing) behind-the-scenes editorial:

"For incoming White House staff, the past few days have been a singularly thrilling -- and learning -- experience. Wide-eyed staffers roam the halls of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building with thick stacks of HR paperwork in hand, new phone numbers are being memorized -- and the line for coffee and club sandwiches is starting to grow as word spreads about the White House Mess. It's safe to say that working at the White House isn't something anyone can prepare for, but the career staff continue to work tirelessly to make the first few days as smooth as possible."

It will be very interesting as time goes on the see how much of this editorial aspect remains. Day-in-the-life, behind-the-curtain, insider glimpses of what it's like to be in the White House everyday...that's pretty engaging stuff. The amount of personalization and transparency used in future posts will surely determine whether this becomes a blog for the common man...or merely an unused tool for the press. I cheer for the common man. This type of "open" communication will go a long way in times like these.

BRITNEY SPEARS 2.0 MEDIA MANAGER

Also in the news last week, as if stealing directly from the Prez playbook, pop-tart Britney Spears posted a new job listing:

If anyone needs an online makeover right now, it's Ms. Spears. Building a better Britney through Social Media is a logical plan. The problem is that the above job posting only appeared (as far as I can tell) on a Harvard job board. Apparently Britney's people think there is a pedigree in Social Media. Bad move!

Consider the new DIRECTOR OF NEW MEDIA FOR THE WHITE HOUSE, Macon Phillips. It can be argued that this guy holds the top New Media job in the country right now. Currently, Phillips is the poster boy for Word-Of-Mouth Marketing. Interesting to note...Macon Phillips went to a university with a watchable basketball team:

HARVARD NEW MEDIA SPECIALIST

Oh, by the way. It looks like Harvard is also looking for a New Media Specialist. This posting is showing up on job boards all across the nation:

Funny...looks like Harvard isn't limiting their search for a New Media pro to just the Boston area.

That would be social stupidity.

"There Is Really Nothing New About Social Media..."

My good friend Todd Feldman just wrote a great blog post that I wanted to share. It's called Getting Real About Integrating Your Brand with Social Media.

First, a little about Todd. He and I worked together on the Emerging Channels team at circuitcity.com. More than just about anyone I know, Todd gets social media and how it can be used for e-commerce and marketing. He likes to say "Social Media should be viewed as a powerful ingredient that enables the connection of every department within your company with each other and then directly to your customer."

That would look a little like this:


...or perhaps we can think about it like this:

Social Media is a lot like Manhattan. It's an island. Not the lonely, inaccessible island the 48 survivors of Lost call home. On the contrary, Manhattan is booming with traffic and connected to land on all sides by a complex system of bridges. The folks in your company who are struggling to accept Social Media because they see it as an island...show 'em this map.

In his blog post, Todd wrote "Word-of Mouth Marketing is the oldest form of marketing, right?" He then came to a very insightful conclusion..."There really is nothing new about Social Media, except that now we have technology on our side." I couldn't agree more. The "new" part, I would argue, is the new importance in excepting the need for transparency.

Let's face it, big-business is borrowing social technologies from the general population. If we are going to have any real success in this field, we're going to have to spend some effort discovering what makes Social Networking work in the real world. Consider this, the most influential bloggers, tweeters, facebook friends, ect...they are the ones that allow themselves to be exposed online. They share with us their real experiences...and they are rewarded with our loyalty and trust.

How can you be more transparent in your viral branding? What can you share about your business that will create a bond of trust between you and your online followers? Discuss those questions in the comment section below. Maybe your answers will help us all.

How To Package Blog Content In A Widget.

Now that we have a few posts under our belt, let's unleash "WHY? Media: the Blog" virally. This is where the widget comes in.

Observe...

Get this widget!

A widget is a small, sharable, sticky website that packages the content of your blog into a format that users can embed into their blogs, forums, websites, facebook & myspace pages, igoogle pages and more. Once your users put it on their pages, it's then available to their users to grab and share. It's like the old shampoo commercial...

"you tell 2 friends...and they'll tell two friends...and so on..and so on..."

There are several ways to make widgets from the content on your blog.
>You can make one on your own if you know html and flash.
>You can pay a professional like WHY? Media to build one for you.
>You can use one of the many free online services to make one.

Since this blog advocates the concept of DIY, we are going to use the last option because it's cheap and easy.

Here's the basic steps...
1. Burn your feed. We recommend you do this at www.feedburner.com. It's free and easy. There are advanced options to maxamize your feed and analytic tools to help you track your widgets traffic. I'm not going to go into the step-by-step. It's pretty cut-and-dry. I would recommend on the first page that you check the box that says "I am a podcaster!". If you are not currently podcasting on your blog, i hope to talk you into it in a later post.
2. Once you've burned your feed, copy the XML code from feedburner and use it to build a widget. There are several services that do this...
www.widgetbox.com
www.yourminis.com
www.springwidgets.com
there are more...do a google search on "build a widget". I like the springwidget because it will allow you to play a podcast directly from the widget, but they are all equally good. We recommend that you take the time to build a widget using several of the services. Each has it's own gallery that is often searched by it's own users. It gives you just one more way to spread your message.
3. Once you build your widgets, post them on your blog and invite your users to "Grab It" and "Share It".

(Oh, by the way...your welcome to "Grab" and "Share" the "WHY? Media: the Blog" widget from above. Just click "Get This Widget".)

Building and sharing a widget this way is simple, cheap and very effective and promoting your brand. If you run into any problems or have any questions, leave a comment below. We'll walk you through it.