A few weeks ago, I was asked to share some of my favorite social media tools with iMedia Connection.  Here is a re-post of that article and a few of my favorite applications - some free and some paid - that are worth their weight in marketing gold.

Article Highlights:

• Social Mention gives a great snapshot of blog, forum, and microblog buzz, sentiment, and keywords
• Radian6 and Alterian’s SM2 offer solid analytical tools, easy-to-use interfaces, powerful data retrieval, and more
• Quantcast and Compete are both free resources for basic metrics such as site/blog traffic, user demographics, page views, and unique visitors

In many ways, 2009 was the year of the “a-ha!” moment for social media marketing. While many people long-involved with social media and word-of-mouth marketing knew it was only a matter of time for the masses to embrace this type of marketing, others were just starting to get their arms around the importance of establishing and leveraging their social footprint to build engagement, dialogue, and awareness.

As more companies, brands, and individuals are building their social media presences, the universe of online tools — which used to be somewhat more limited — continues to expand on a daily basis. Not only do we have more choices in how we place content and measure social media, but the tools available to us also change and improve just as frequently.

To provide a little background on me: I run a social media marketing agency (KARMA Media Labs) that helps organizations and individuals connect with their target audiences and build word of mouth in the communities where they live. In order to find these audiences and strike a chord, it’s important to be armed with the right tools to listen to what is being said, find the right influencers, communicate with your audience in a way that is relevant, and provide content that is likely to be shared.

The following is a list of some my favorite tools and sites — some free, some paid — that have been worth their weight in gold in not only finding that desired audience and key influencers, but also putting the right content in front of them to build conversation and word of mouth.

Read the rest of this entry at iMedia Connection

A few weeks ago, I was asked by Lisa Lacy on behalf of ClickZ why MTV’s Jersey Shore has become so popular through social media and conditions for the “perfect storm”.

‘Jersey Shore’ Builds Momentum with Social Apps

By Lisa Lacy, ClickZ, Jan 20, 2010

When actor Michael Cera got his hair blown out by Jersey Shore’s DJ Pauly D in a cross-promotional effort for Cera’s new film, Youth in Revolt, it was a new high for MTV’s hit reality show.

The show’s basic premise is similar to over 20 preceding seasons in MTV’s Real World franchise, yet Snooki, Vinny and the rest of the gang have reached an unprecedented level of cultural saturation. According to Nielsen, 1.4 million viewers tuned in to the premiere on December 4. And numbers have steadily risen since then, culminating in 3.6 million viewers tuning in on January 14.

That’s thanks in part to MTV’s efforts to harness organic buzz and create branded content. The company has launched a Twitter integration, exclusive online videos, and is preparing new features such as a character generator and an iPhone app.

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How we interact with our customers has changed a great deal over the last century and a half and is morphing even more rapidly than ever before.

Once upon a time, if your customers had an issue with your products or services, they would hop on their horse and gallop to the local store and speak to someone face to face. This very personal interaction would encourage the business to work closely with the customer to resolve the issue or face the possibility of that person telling the whole town how bad the store is.

Then along came the telephone and businesses had to establish call centers to stay connected to their patrons. The customers now had a choice - visit a physical location for help or just pick up the phone from the comfort of their own home. While this new era of options was a positive development overall, it gave some companies the option to hide from their customers behind a menu system and switchboard. They no longer had to look a customer in the eye and tell them that they couldn’t help them with their issue. However, the customer still had the option to tell their friends about their bad experience so the risk to the business of not assisting their customers was still relatively high. The only difference is that those conversations would happen one-to-one in person or during a phone chat so the risk of a lot of people finding out about poor service was relatively low.

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Most people who follow me on Facebook and Twitter have come to realize that I’m not shy about expressing my opinion about AT&T Wireless’ lack of coverage and poor service in my city and neighborhood—which just so happens to be Los Angeles, California.

For the last two years, I have had little to no coverage in my home and other areas of Los Angeles, often getting the “Searching” or “No Signal” notice on my phone. Last time I checked, LA is the second largest city in the US, which makes me wonder why one of the biggest wireless providers isn’t delivering in one of our nation’s biggest cities.

My neighbors and friends, equally frustrated with the lack of service, have also tried everything to voice their opinions—ranging from calling AT&T, to going to their stores, which ironically, had no signal inside the store (aka the store on Beverly and La Cienega).  One of my friends even carries a newspaper ad in his back pocket showing AT&T’s claims for excellent coverage in LA.  None of these efforts proved to be worthwhile.

Making matters worse are the endless Luke Wilson commercials touting AT&T’s fantastic coverage. Don’t mock me Luke Wilson. I doubt you’ve spent endless hours on the phone with AT&T trying to get the service that you paid for.

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Pitching journalists and bloggers for placements in a social media world requires keeping up with the ever-changing rules of engagement.

I’ve collected nuggets of wisdom along my PR career and put together a set of tips and guidelines to help you avoid a deleted press release and score that coveted placement.

TWITTER/FACEBOOK
While I believe the ideal way to build a relationship with a journalist is through a meet and greet, it can be tough given busy schedules.  Twitter and Facebook are great platforms to learn a writer’s beat, personality, channel/contact preference, subjects they’re interested in covering, and their deadline dates.   Most of the journalists I’ve worked with prefer email pitches.  I use Twitter and Facebook as a way to get to know a reporter so that when a client comes along that might be relevant to the journalist, I can help make a meaningful and authentic connection.

BLOGGERS
Pitching bloggers is different than pitching journalists.  They aren’t paid to write about something specific at a certain time and aren’t under any obligation to cover your brand.  They care more about what is of interest to their readers.   Giveaways, contests, photos, and exclusive content all provide incentive for bloggers to feature your product or brand because it in turn engages their audience.

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Last week Roger Avary, Oscar winner and co-scribe of Pulp Fiction, was removed from a work furlough program and transferred to a California jail just days after using his Twitter account to share private information about his cellmate.

The Ventura County’s sheriff’s department said he was transferred due to security reasons and not for his Twitter updates.

An interesting insight into the inner sanctums of America’s prison system or yet another incident demonstrating the freedoms celebrities are allowed that others are not?

Losing the ability to communicate with others is one of the fundamental liberties one is denied once they’ve been put behind bars. We’ve all heard it – “one phone call.”

When will it become – one email, last text message, or final tweet? What will inmates be allowed in this changing digital landscape? With blackberries and mobile Internet, what’s stopping someone from emailing the “rat” in a crime scandal just before he or she gets thrown behind bars?

I’ll be curious to see what rules the law will enforce or whom they’ll make an example out of. I have a sneaky suspicion that person is not going to be an Academy Award winner.

In August, Avary pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated following a fatal crash last year.

Last Fall, Mass Animation’s Yair Landau, former president of Sony Pictures Digital, partnered with Intel on a Facebook-hosted competition to create an animated film.

The result of that competition is the 5-minute short film Live Music, which will premiere on November 20th as a short before TriStar Pictures’ film Planet 51.

Artists were invited to install a Facebook application which would allow them to download creative materials and assets, including music from guitarist Steve Vai and violinist Ann Marie Calhoun, use Maya to animate shots, and then submit them back for post production.  Three separate deadlines were used to keep content contributions coming.

The Facebook application contained a sequence viewer and classified material as Easy, Medium and Hard.

The prizing included $500 per shot used in the final cut, as well as Dell computers.  Users were invited to vote on their favorites and the Facebook community determined the winners.

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As a marketer wishing to create a presence on Facebook, one is often faced with the decision of whether to create a Group or a Fan Page.

Before the design revamp earlier this year, Facebook Groups and Fan pages both had similar functionality and one big problem: they didn’t give people a reason to come back.

Once someone joined a group or became a fan, there wasn’t much to remind them to return for a visit.  This made the decision pretty much 50/50 for a marketer as one option had about the same pros and cons as the other.

Point: Team “Fan Page”
The Group vs. Fan Page game changed a few months ago when Facebook updated Fan page functionality to act more like a personal page.

Rather than having static content, fan page news updates and wall posts would be pushed out to fans’ newsfeeds and foster more organic word of mouth and engagement (see our previous entry on the benefits of a Fan Page). During this time, Groups stayed the same– stuck with limited functionality and passalong factor. The marketing choice became a lot easier: create a Fan Page to maximize participation.

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In the era of internet marketing, in order for a social media campaign to be successful, it’s a given that it must move beyond traditional media (print, broadcast, radio) channels to include a consumer driven online PR and social strategy.

The question now isn’t whether the social media component is necessary for a campaign, but rather:

How can online and offline entities work together to effectively promote a campaign and build word of mouth marketing?

From my experience, having worked on both sides, one of the most important factors in ensuring the success of an integrated campaign is the need for traditional and interactive campaigns to be launched simultaneously.

It’s important for managers on both sides to coordinate a launch date for the campaign and make sure both traditional and digital media fronts are mobilized by this date in order to maximize exposure and build on momentum.

Case and point, the integrated publicity campaign for the premiere of the third installment of the New Moon trailer on the MTV Video Music Awards this week:

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Last Sunday night, I noticed multiple posts on Facebook about Kanye West’s inappropriate actions at the MTV Video Music Awards, where he interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech.

Since the program was delayed on the West Coast where I live, I naturally went to social media to see what the fuss was about.

To my surprise, every video I tried to play was interrupted by a message saying the content was removed by Viacom.

Much has been discussed the past few days about Viacom’s decision to make VMA-related content available only on MTV or MTV.com. Viacom has been actively removing clips and content where they see it posted. Forums, message boards, UGC sites and blogs all had clips that had to be removed or wouldn’t play.

While Viacom is still engaged in a lawsuit with Youtube, my guess is their actions are as much about controlling content as driving traffic to their site and advertising supported video player.

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