Tag Archives: mike germano

Tech Valley’s first Social Media Breakfast

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New York’s Tech Valley (Albany, Schenectady, Troy, Saratoga Springs) became the 25th location to host a Social Media Breakfast last Friday. It’s an event that I’ve been working for the last eight weeks to plan, and I was excited to see how it would go over in this area.

With more than 60 attendees (we had to cut of registration  after just three days due to the limitations of the room size) and two hours worth of engaging conversation and discussion, I’d definitely call it a success. As with any “real life” event, it was also great to connect with folks I’d previously only known through Twitter.

I moderated a panel featuring Mike Germano from Carrot Creative, Rhea Drysdale from Outspoken Media and Stuart Foster of TheLostJacket.com.

You can catch all of the Twitter chat (#smbtv) that happened during the breakfast here, but here are a few of the highlights:

  • No social network is “better” than another. Find what platform works for your audience. Don’t necessarily jump in with Facebook and/or Twitter if that’s not where your target audience is engaging. But, it’s important to protect your organization’s reputation across the Web by securing usernames. Use sites like Knowem.com to register a name across dozens of social sites so that trolls can’t appropriate your brand.
  • People become fans of brands on Facebook because they want to “tattoo” their profiles and associate themselves with that brand. People like associating themselves with cool or hip things. That’s why there are tons of Facebook fans for The Onion, Stephen Colbert, Coca Cola… but no one says, “Hey, I think I’ll become a fan of plumbing fixtures or sleep aids.”
  • People expect “stuff” to talk to/interact with them now. The GPS-enabled Oscar Meyer Wienermobile has a Twitter account. Interaction and being useful is key – not merely broadcasting. Products and brands talk to the network. The people behind the brands may leave the company, but if the brand is strong, its voice/image will remain consistent.
  • Mobile apps are emerging as the “next big thing” in social networking. The key is making apps easy for users to interact with and share with their networks. Apps are really only effective when their use is widespread. Use a related app not necessarily to sell a product, but to provide a useful service that helps improve your organization’s branding/reputation (“This app provided/built by…”).

Thanks so much to Rhea, Mike and Stuart for being such engaging speakers and getting Social Media Breakfast – Tech Valley off to a great start. Also a huge thanks to the event sponsors, All Over Albany and SUNY Cobleskill (who also provided cool schwag for everyone in the form of coffee mugs).

A few pics from the event:

Pic from panel table, taken by Mike Germano

panelview

Photo from back of room, courtesy of Jim Stagnitti

backroom

Panelists rockin’ the mugs from SUNY Cobleskill (photo via C. Abunga):

mugs

If you’re interested in attending the next SMB-TV (hopefully mid-August), follow @smbtv on Twitter or join the Facebook group.

Communications transparency: Seeing through the Brown

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It’s not exactly lying if you generally tell the truth but leave out some details, right? Well, my Irish Catholic upbringing would probably argue that’s a sin of omission. It happens all too often in marketing and when it’s inevitably revealed that a company wasn’t being entirely truthful, the reputational damage that ensues can be severe. “Leaving out” important details can be just as bad as outright lying about a product. With the social media mantra of being transparent (can we put that word to bed yet?) people are expecting, perhaps now more than ever, to get straight-up and honest communication from companies and brands.

Which brings me to FedEx. Yesterday I noticed tweets from Mike Germano and Lisa Hoffmann about a new Web site: BrownBailout.com. Check it out. It’s a site that chastises UPS for trying to insert wording in legislation that would somehow change the way FedEx is regulated. I’m not going to go into details about the actual argument presented on the site (something about whether delivering packages predominantly through the air or by ground impacts what type of regulatory act a company falls under). But in general, the goal of the site is to get average Americans to contact their legislators and let them know that they oppose the “Brown Bailout.”

In certain ways, the site/campaign is very well done. It features a video on the home page that spoofs the UPS “white board” ads. The campaign plays up the animosity that many Americans are feeling right now toward bank and auto bailouts (even though I don’t think the issue at hand actually involves any direct infusion of cash from the government to UPS). The site enables sharing across social platforms with ample “share this” links for content. It mixes media such as video, blogs and charts. Visitors can register to get more info sent to them via e-mail. There’s an online petition, a newsroom and voluminous facts and counterpoints presented that are actually quite informative about the differences in the FedEx and UPS business models.

It’s a public awareness campaign, but one of the things the site seems to try very hard NOT to make people aware of is that the site is run by FedEx. In teensy-tiny print on the home page, at the bottom, is a small notice that says “Copyright 2009, FedEx.” I had to dig around on the site to finally get to a press release within the site newsroom that acknowledges that the Brown Bailout campaign is run by FedEx. But I doubt most “average Americans” who aren’t that interested in transparency or marketing would take the time to do that. Many people could very easily visit the site and not realize that Brown Bailout is not an independent organization of concerned citizens but a public relations campaign from UPS’ biggest competitor.

blurredFedEx isn’t exactly being opaque here – you can figure out that the site is run by the company if you hunt around. But I certainly wouldn’t call it transparent, either. Part of me understands – if the site was overtly branded and labeled as a FedEx site, perhaps people would be less interested in or trusting of the information, and probably less likely to take action on behalf of one big corporation in its schoolyard rumble with another. But most of me just feels extremely skeptical about this tactic – my red flags are raised.

What do you think? How should FedEx have handled this campaign? Are you comfortable with the level of disclosure on the site? Are they putting themselves at risk of being labeled as fake or manipulative? Is it a sin of omission?

Image via Flickr user b0r0da

Join me June 19 at Social Media Breakfast Tech Valley

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Well, I had planned to do a “soft launch” of all the content for the inuagural Social Media Breakfast Tech Valley this week while Patrick Boegel and I scrambled to find a second sponsor. I set up the Facebook group, Twitter account, event registration page and a page on this site (see the SMB-TV link above) and figured I’d publish everything to test it out and then let it sit dormant until I nailed down a co-sponsor and was ready to start promoting.

Hah! Not so much. The registration site was quickly found out and within the first 24 hours of the registration site going live, almost half the seats are gone! Apparently there’s a lot of interest in the Capital Region in learning more about social media.

I’m truly excited to bring this event to Tech Valley. We have a trio of outstanding panelists lined up for the first event: Stuart Foster, Mike Germano and Rhea Drysdale are all extremely knowledgeable in the social media space and I’m sure they’ll give us lots to think about. It will also be great to meet and network with other social media enthusiasts in the area. I hope you’ll join us Friday, June 19, from 8-10 am at the BluStone Bistro in Colonie.

If you’re interested in attending, grab a seat now! They’re free, thanks to our sponsorship from All Over Albany, but seats are limited. Guess we’ll have to get a bigger room for SMB-TV #2!

*We’re still in need of a co-sponsor for this event! Please contact me if your organization is interested in partnering with us and co-sponsoring SMB-TV #1 with All Over Albany.

UPDATE: SUNY Cobleskill has agreed to not only sign-on as co-sponsor for SMB-TV#1, but they are also committing to being involved as a sponsor for SMB-TV#2. Thanks, SUNY Cobleskill!

Here’s my “I’d like to thank the Academy” speech: I’m very grateful to Arik Hanson for putting the bug in my ear and encouraging me to take this on. Thanks to Bryan Person, SMB founder, for offering his thoughts and advice on how to get this started in Tech Valley. Many thanks to Patrick Boegel for being a great sounding board and helping with the planning. I’m so appreciative of Greg & Mary at All Over Albany for their sponsorship and to our three panelists for agreeing to be SMB-TV guinea pigs. And I’m thankful to everyone who’s attending the event! Looking forward to the first of what I hope will be many great breakfasts!