Few events in the sporting calendar command as much media coverage or social chatter as the US Super Bowl. Last year, French data intelligence company, Semiocast, reported that the American football championship was the focus of 4.5 million tweets, driving a 25% increase in global tweets during Super Bowl Sunday, while The Huffington Post reports that some 162.9 million people tuned into to watch the big event on TV.

While powerful advertising secured Doritos the most branded Twitter mentions surrounding the game in 2011, a number of brands have chosen to tackle social media head-on by putting real-time at the heart of this year’s campaigns. We’re kicking off with the best three.

1. Coca-Cola

With Pepsi reaching the top three most mentioned brands during last year’s Super Bowl, it’s no surprise that Coca-Cola has hit back. The drinks giant has developed a Facebook app, which enables viewers to watch videos of the brand’s iconic polar bears reacting in real-time to the game.

2. Pepsi

Keen not to be sidelined after last year’s success, the brand is using its social TV platform, Pepsi Sound Off, to show a real-time, celebrity-laden viewing party during the game. The web application enables viewers to engage with and shape the viewing party conversations by sharing comments using core hashtags via Twitter and Facebook.

3. National Football League

The NFL has kicked up controversy by announcing that players will be allowed to tweet from the sidelines during this year’s Pro Bowl, the first match of Super Bowl Sunday. While supporters have applauded the move for delivering entertainment to the fans, skeptics have criticised the NFL for taking players’ eyes off the game.

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For years, content strategists have been hiding in the wings, quietly coordinating the show, while the social media rock stars take centre stage.

Not anymore. A media frenzy surrounding the information overload debate, combined with the growing impact of social search, mean that the need for sophisticated content planning is no longer a nice-to-have.

With that in mind, we have pulled together a list of five useful content tools to help you plan, optimise and curate your way through 2012.

1. InBound Writer

A tool designed to help you discover the keywords and phrases your audience is searching for in real-time. By inputting a few terms that tie in to your content’s theme, the tool analyses conversations across the web as well as social media platforms to deliver the best phrases to optimise your content with.

Verdict: It won’t replace a solid SEO strategy, but it should certainly give your content a useful optimisation boost.

2. InfiniGraph

This tool promises to optimise social profiles by giving brands “Hypercuration™”, the power to identify content that is currently trending on your own as well as competitor brands’ social estates, based on the social behaviours and actions of influencers.

Verdict: It’s based on real-time social analytics, so could be a great aid for swiftly A/B testing content.

3. Scoop.it

Curation is the current buzzword and Scoop.it provides curators with a platform for creating topics and ‘scooping’ relevant content to add to the topic at the click of a button.

Verdict: Really straightforward to use and easy to adjust your keyword searches until you find the content you are looking for.

4. DivyHQ

Markets itself as a spreadsheet-free editorial calendar application. The tool can be assigned to multiple team members for multiple campaigns and the calendars can be created from scratch within DivyHQ itself, or simply imported directly from Excel.

Verdict: It’s currently only in beta format and largely looks to offer the same functionality as tools such as Outlook – though it may yet prove a valuable tool.

5. 37Signals’ BasecampHQ

A project collaboration tool, which enables all project files to be stored in one place, centralise discussions, keep track of events and view all upcoming activities and milestones.

Verdict: It has a smart user-interface and the upcoming activities and milestones functionality is handy for keeping deadlines.

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You may have seen the other day that GPS navigation system Waze hit 10m users. It’s a social tool that aggregates user reports on traffic, accidents and the like. I’m a recent convert and signed up a few months ago, since then it’s become a part of my daily commute. If any of you have experienced the vagaries of rush hour traffic on the A3 you’ll understand that drivers need all the help they can get.

Waze: Useful and free, what's not to like?

As a consumer my prerequisites for downloading a geolocation app have to fulfil at least 3 of the following. Here’s how Waze hits those targets:

• Collaborative – Waze uses thousands of users’ traffic reports to create a map of road congestion and allows them to send messages in real time to update each other. Its success rests on the community spirit of its users
• Timely – this all happens in real time, a boon for an audience where seconds count
• Useful – I’ve avoided innumerable traffic jams with this tool and anything that can make the daily commute less painful and for free gets my thumbs up
• Fully integrates with my existing social profiles without superseding them – this is not a Foursquare, inundating friends with useless and annoying updates. It fulfils a purpose and doesn’t pretend to be a Facebook replacement. Should the jam be particularly bad you can send your update to Twitter or Facebook to alert your wider following, but that’s it. Waze knows its limits

Download it for your iPhone, Android or Blackberry here. My username is rupinjapan, so if you see a Transit wrapped round a traffic light on the Cobham bypass let me know ahead of time.

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There is a perception in the industry that B2B “doesn’t do social”. I have often been asked if B2Bs “should use Social Media?” as part of their marketing mix and if “B2Bs can utilise Facebook?”

GlobalWebIndex – B2B Social Media Strategy – Research Report – 2011

However the results from our recent analysis of GlobalWebIndex data that was published as “Social Strategy for B2B Marketing” could not be more different from this perception. B2B decision makers are the most socially active consumers for all markets and demographics. If anything B2B marketing is a more obvious fit with social media than consumer marketing.

In addition GlobalWebIndex trend data shows that activities such as profile updating and microblogging are expanding quicker among business users than your average consumer. This underlines how B2B decision makers have used social media to develop personal brand and drive their influence.

Interestingly this difference is most marked in developed internet markets where B2B decision makers stand out most from consumer behaviour and usage of social media platforms. In growth markets such as China they are still more active than the norm, but the gap is significantly smaller. This means businesses that operate and sell in the US, UK, Germany or any other high penetration internet market need to focus marketing and sales through social media.

Crucially it’s not just B2B decision makers’ behaviour that leads the way in social media; marketing communications via social channels are also perceived as having an impact on purchasing decisions for products and services they buy for business.

At a global level, social media communications outranked even face-to-face meetings, conferences, client entertaining or traditional trade advertising in most markets, as an influential communication channel. Based on data fielded in June 2011, global decision makers said “Conversations with people from a company/organisation on a social network” was their leading influence scoring 15%; the second ranked motivation was “direct mail”, scoring 13%. Among senior decision makers – those at senior manager level and above – conversations were level with “sales presentations”, both scoring 16%.

The fact that a virtual conversation is seen as more influential than a real life one shows how social media has permeated their lives and importantly for our industry, underlines the importance of empowering all employees (not just sales people) to be active, visible and representing the business online. This fact alone would highlight the need for a radical shift of budget from traditional B2B marketing activities into proactive social media engagement.

In addition “branded communities created by a company or organisation” are seen as more influential than corporate events and entertainment. This prompts the question, is social media changing the way business operates?

One note of caution, company blogs and branded Twitter profiles rank last. This we believe is not necessarily bad news, but very telling in terms of how social media works in B2B. Buyers want to interact online with people and companies need to create structures that enable this. This shows that the true value of social media lies in people, not the platform.

To succeed in this new era of socially enabled B2B communication, firms will have to empower staff to act on a company’s behalf and give them the platform to build a profile, content and relationships in this space.

Tom Smith is MD of Trendstream, a consultancy dedicated to understanding trends in technology adoption and what they mean for consumer behaviour, marketing communications, media and content

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Creating a branded Facebook page can be daunting for any business; doing so without a robust moderation policy in place can be disastrous.

A branded Facebook page can be an open-invitation for foul-mouthed detractors to fill the page with expletives and abuse.

Perhaps less obvious are the implications of a well-meaning, but misguided employee jumping in and publicly defending the company against said detractor. Or worse, a recently redundant employee joining in and publicly attacking the company out of frustration.

Before creating a branded presence on Facebook, it is therefore important to consider the Three R’s – Resourcing, Redundancies and Restrictions.

Resourcing

Consider who will moderate the page and the hours the moderator(s) will be active for. Weekdays and work hours moderation is commonplace, but clearly state this on the page. For larger branded community pages, automated moderation packages, such as Crisp Certified, can be purchased, to automatically remove negative or abusive posts; while software such as the Digital Recognition Moderation Engine (DRME) can be used to moderate user generated images and video.

Do ensure all employees, from the boardroom to the shop floor, have been fully briefed on the page and its rules of engagement; a solid social media policy will provide employees with the confidence to know when and how to respond to customers as well as outlining the necessity for employees to transparently state their relationship with a brand when engaging online.

Redundancies

During sensitive times, such as mass redundancies, a branded Facebook page – or indeed the social web in general – can present itself as the perfect place to vent feelings of injustice. Employ a monitoring system, such as Radian 6 or Sysomos, to proactively search for any online conversations surrounding this. Ensure an escalation process is in place should the online conversation spread and fully brief the page moderator to watch for potential negativity on the page. Page guidelines should state that profanity and abuse can be removed and blocked, to enable the moderator to quickly deal with abusive or aggressive Wall posts and comments.

Restrictions

Consider sensitivities surrounding data protection. While automated moderation services can be employed to block specific words and profanities, moderation becomes more difficult when it isn’t a specific word that needs to be blocked, but a reference to something or someone. Ensure the page guidelines clearly state what can and cannot be referenced on the page, this ensures the moderator can remove or block users who ignore these guidelines. The General Medical Council is a good example of an organisation finding a balance between protecting data and driving discussion.

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Twitter has launched new brand pages with a new look and some useful functionality.

Coca Cola getting in early on Twitter

For those companies already on Twitter, this news is worth your attention.  Twitter’s new brand pages will better promote your brand in 4 ways:

1. A large header image gives greater prominence to your logo and/or tagline.  The Coke brand page is a great example.  Formerly, companies had to put up with an odd design which meant that brand images were concealed as wallpapers, hidden behind the Twitter timeline.  That has changed now.
2. Brands can highlight their best content.  Above the timeline is now a “promoted tweet”, which shows off a company’s best content.
3. Photos and video content can be expanded.  An example is Heineken’s promoted tweet, which shows off a photo of its newly-designed bottles.  Alternatively a video advertisement can be embedded there, simply by inserting a link to YouTube.  Disney Pixar makes great use of this and posts a trailer of its latest film there.
4. Replies and mentions may be separated.  Brands articulated a desire to see replies –i.e. customer interaction – in a separate list to mentions – i.e. tweets that have expressed an opinion on your product.  This will make it easier to do two separate things: engage with your consumers and see what people are saying about your brand.

Twitter liaised with chief marketing officers and found that what companies wanted was brand pages.  So that is what they have given them.  If you are one of the 5% of companies still not on Twitter, now might be a good time to start.

The bad news is that UK brands will have to wait until 2012 before the new pages are available. Something for the New Year then!

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Are you, like us, constantly astounded by what people say in their Twitter biography?

You know what I mean – they range from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the disingenuous to the hilarious.

Well, as Twitter continues to grow we can only expect more of these bizarre and shameless 160 character profiles. So let’s celebrate them and have some fun!

We need your nominations for the most amazingly bad Twitter biography of 2011.

There are three categories

1. Worst spambot Twitter bio (the bio you know is so obviously the work of spammers)
2. Most laughable Twitter bio (the bio that makes you LOL)
3. Most cringeworthy self-promoting bio (is this person serious?)

Send in your entries to @iftweeter or as a comment at the end of this blog.

There will be a short-list and then a vote for the winners before Christmas.

Please screen-grab the entries or just copy them out and send to us.  We will black-out the Twitter profile name before publishing for privacy.

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In 2004 social networks were a groundbreaking channel for brands to self-publicise and broadcast their news. Today, the dynamic between brands and their customers has shifted. Customers want brands to talk with and not just at them. According to Heather Taylor, founder of online community, RiotRemedy, today’s brands need to talk with and not at their customers. We asked Heather for the inside scoop on considerations to take before creating an online community; along with her top tips for making that community thrive.

1) What are the top 3 things organisations should consider before setting up an online community?

Firstly, know the purpose behind the community; it might seem that everybody else is already on Twitter or Facebook, but it’s important to remember that what’s right for one brand might be completely wrong for another. Also, make sure you have the resource to manage a community; do you have more than one person who can take the reins? A good online community manager is enthusiastic and completely immersed in their job. They need to be a part of that community all the time and that can get exhausting so do make sure they can have down time or they will burn out. When I worked for PayPal we had three people on shifts managing the @AskPaypal Twitter community and that worked really well. Finally, be clear on who your audience is and decide from the beginning whether you want that audience to be niche or broad. It will define your tone of voice and the way you engage.

2) Which online communities have you taken your inspiration from?

The first community I ever joined was Lonely Planet’s forum, Thorn Tree, and that was 11 years ago. At the time I wanted to move to the UK so I was asking lots of questions about travel. Thorn Tree was so well managed and had a real community spirit. I felt welcome from the beginning, it wasn’t cliquey or closed off, and I never felt overly criticised by my questions or that I was being spammed. The best online communities don’t actually work on a One-To-Many principal; they work on a One-To-One-To-Many. When you have a community of people who are really involved and care for that community, they become moderators themselves, they become super users.

3) What are your top tips for boosting engagement in an online community?

It may sound odd, but don’t be too involved once your community gets going. Allow members to engage and ask questions and don’t always ‘jump’ in to answer, let them be a community and help each other. And if you find pick up is slow, send a direct message to your more engaged community members and ask them if they could respond to it. If it’s a direct question on a platform such as Twitter, then naturally you respond, but if it’s an open question on a forum or Facebook, you’ll find the community wants to do the talking and engage with each other. Ask the right questions at the right time and don’t resort to cheap tactics like ‘retweet to win prizes’. By all means encourage people to use hashtags in their tweets, but give them a good reason; ask them an engaging question and you’ll get engaging answers. And then, most of all, act on those answers.

4) What advice do you have for online community managers?

Be interactive and be helpful. But also – and this important – allow downtime, time to disengage and switch off from the community. You’ll find community managers are checking their smart phones from the moment they wake up until the second they go to sleep and as I said, it can get exhausting. And be smart, you need to build your super users inside your company as much as outside; your brand managers, product developers, customer service teams are the ones who will have the answers to your community’s questions and you’ll need to coordinate a workflow system for getting those answers responded to quickly. You may be met with resistance, especially if your co-workers are busy and unengaged with social media, so incentivise them, explain how their involvement will benefit them, help them get feedback and ideas for product development; you need their buy in.

5) What do you think are the measures for success in terms of online communities?

To measure your community’s success, you really need to know why it’s being set up in the first place – are you trying to get feedback, improve customer service? Yes look at numbers i.e. how many people have joined the community, but ultimately the number of people isn’t as important as the number of engaged people; using dirty tactics like ‘retweets for prizes’ or ‘Likes for prizes’ might see a dramatic upturn in fan and follower numbers, but if they don’t stay and interact, what was the point? If it’s a forum or a blog, then look at traffic and bounce rates, if people are coming, staying, reading and finding their questions well answered by the community, then it’s a success.

6) What do you think is the future of online communities?

More integration and customer ownership of the brand. Mozilla works hand in hand with its customers and it’s a great example for other communities. Ultimately an online community should be a space for conversations and not just broadcasting news at people, which means there always needs to be somewhere within that community where people can engage.

About RiotRemedy

RiotRemedy channels charity donations through a partnership with JustGiving.com, while promoting and coordinating volunteering for cleanup projects across the country through Twitter and Facebook. For more information, see www.riotremedy.org

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Gotta catch 'em all

Netflix have learnt the hard way that social media can’t be a last minute consideration when it comes to a rebrand. Marketing has to be fully integrated with social media planning. On demand video service Netflix struck upon the name Qwikster for its DVD side of the business, you can find its official web holding page here. While the company may have managed to secure that prime piece of web real estate, it appears it was a little tardy in bagging relevant branded social media estates. Twitter was where it all came unstuck.

I urge you to visit the Twitter profile of Jason Castillo or @Qwikster as he is better known; Jason has an enviable way with words, a love of weed and an aversion to wasps. And he’s not beyond talking about the offers he has begun receiving from Netflix’s rapidly mobilising marketing dept to try and secure his Twitter handle (however, these references to money have been deleted from his account in the last 24 hours, it appears he doesn’t want to kill the goose that could lay some golden eggs.)

Dayum $1,000!

Jason has seen his follower count increase from the tens to more than 11k in just two days. This is high profile embarrassment for Netflix, more media attention is now on this social media faux pas and the expletives being pumped out from the @Qwikster profile than in the new service. The company’s online reputation had taken a knock on Sunday about the way it communicated its service update to customers, as seen in this apology from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.

The reality is that the Jason Castillo incident could have been avoided.

If you’re a brand manager you simply have to remember that old Pokémon adage – ‘Gotta catch ‘em all.’

It’s a fine art, coming up with an original name and idea, but the proliferation of social media and the fact that anyone can own potentially valuable online real estate without out-laying cash means that brands are ever more likely to run into these clashes between the general public and their brand aspirations. Google +’s Huddle feature is another example of a big company (that really should know better) not researching new branding sufficiently.

The key learning?

Bag your brand handle and do your research. You can social media estate sense-check campaign and brand names via sites like Name Chk BEFORE an announcement or making your web site live. Prevention is better than cure, after all your online reputation is at stake.

Finally, you can’t Pikachus your social media estates after the fact, sorry, I had to put that in there.

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This week, in a move that Brian Solis entitled the ‘Mad Men Moment’, Twitter introduced the latest addition to the Promoted products family.

So what prompted the dramatic headline?

Well the latest version of the promoted tweet will appear in the timeline of users that are not already following your brand.

And why is this groundbreaking?

Twitter has entered the advertising arena cautiously. It’s been sensitive to the anticipated resistance of the Twitter community, only serving up advertisements to people that are already engaged with the brand or specifically searching for a related term . Now it’s going one step further. The new promoted tweet will be targeted to users that Twitter identifies as being interested in your brand.

So what does this mean?

There’s an opportunity for brands

Research into the first promoted tweets has demonstrated their value to brands. Nearly 25% of users reported seeing a promoted tweet that was of relevance to them. 14% reported re-tweeting a promoted tweet.

With the new promoted tweet, brands will now be able to extend these benefits by reaching a wider audience and an audience that includes people not already affiliated to their brand – but possibly affiliated to their competition.

The competition is hotting up

Twitter is identifying users on the basis of their existing interests and profiles. There’s a high chance that your promoted tweet will be featured in the timeline of a tweeter who is following a similar brand. This means that brands will have to work harder to retain the loyalty and engagement of their existing followers. It also means that tweets from your competitors might appear in your followers’ timeline.

Twitter is becoming more commercial

The extension of promoted tweets marks a new step in the evolution of Twitter. Although this is yet to roll out in the UK, the trend is towards more opportunities for brands to proactively engage with consumers rather than wait for consumers to demonstrate an interest in an area or brand.

It’s a great opportunity for brands, but not without its challenges. Barely distinguishable from regular tweets and restricted to the same format criteria, the content will have to be compelling to get cut through. And, whilst the anticipated backlash against Twitter advertising is yet to materialise, we’ll be watching how the Twitter community responds as advertisements increasingly feature in their Twitter streams.

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