A Guide to Blogger Outreach [guest post by Nicola Balkind @robotnic]

Guest Blog

A Guide to Blogger Outreach [guest post by Nicola Balkind @robotnic]

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

Yomego sheltered a lively group of social media dilettantes from the torrential downpour today in their cosy basement-level presentation space. The Glasgow and London-based social media agency’s Annie and Mark talked us through some of the finer points of social media marketing with their talk: A Practical Guide to Effective Blogger Outreach.

To summarise their introduction, blogger outreach has become an appealing strategy for brands as prominent bloggers and individuals with online followings command a great deal of trust from their readers and fans. The statistic cited was that 70% of internet users expressed that they trust friends in their fellow internet community to give good recommendations. With the popularity of sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp, this fact has become all but inescapable for the hospitality industry. Capturing that trust can be key to marketing for films, events, and products across a number of industries.

Annie and Mark explained Yomego’s holistic approach to blogger outreach, and here they recommend a direct mode of communication with niche bloggers. Detailing some key components in finding the right kinds of bloggers, some important factors include demographic, audience size, thinking about the kind of value their client can add to the blog, and looking for bloggers with an established interest in the relevant brand. Influence can be measured through Klout scores, Twitter followers, Facebook presence, and the interaction on their blog, like subscribers and comments.

It’s evident that there are no shortcuts in this approach, and as Annie pertinently pointed out, the best way to reach 100 bloggers and communicate to them that you’ve spent time and read their blog; you’re going to have to find relevant bloggers, take time to familiarise yourself with their sites, and personally contact 100 blog owners.

Connecting with bloggers on a personal level and working to a mutual advantage is key to the success of blogger outreach. When working with bloggers, Annie and Mark also recommend patience, timely and positive responses, and anticipating the blogger’s needs. Though one risk of inviting bloggers to write on your product is that they have ultimate control over the editorial content, the potential rewards certainly seem to outweigh the risks.

Although the potential power of the blogger is well documented, poor practice like mass mailings and unsolicited inbox press release dumps can turn bloggers off in an instant. As companies begin to adopt more active social marketing principles, peer recommendations is becoming a key component in driving more transparent and mutually beneficial campaigns.

If you want to learn more, the slides from today’s presentation are available online: http://www.slideshare.net/Yomego/practical-guide-to-effective-blogger-outreach

Tags: blogger, blogs, outreach, smw11, smwgla, smwglasgow, socialmediaweek, yomego
Posted in Events, Guest Blog

Don Tapscott at Social Media Week Glasgow – 23/9 at 4 pm

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

We are thrilled to announce that Don Tapscott has agreed to deliver a closing keynote address to Social Media Week Glasgow, via video conference. Don will present some key insights from his most recent book Macrowikinomics – Rebooting Business and the World and will take questions from the audience and submitted across social media channels.

Don Tapscott is one of the world’s leading authorities on innovation, marketing and the impact of technology and new media on business and society. He is CEO of the Tapscott Group and Chairman of the think tank Moxie Software and was founder and chairman of the international think tank New Paradigm before its acquisition by Moxie. He is Vice Chair of Spencer Trask Collaborative Innovations, a new company building a portfolio of companies in the collaboration and social media space.

Don is the author of fourteen widely read books about information technology in business and society. His most recent book Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World, co-authored by Anthony D. Williams, was released in September 2010 to tremendous acclaim from business executives and the media. Macrowikinomics is the follow up to Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (2006) also co-authored by Anthony D. Williams. Wikinomics was an international bestseller, #1 on the 2007 management book charts, and on The New York Times and BusinessWeek bestseller lists. Translated into 20 languages, Wikinomics was a finalist for the prestigious Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Best Business Book Award and was chosen as one of the best books of the year by a number of publications, including The Economist.

We cannot express just how thrilled we are that Don has agreed to join us and round off a thrilling week. Its not often that you get the chance to listen to one of the worlds most important management thinkers and have the opportunity to put a question to him.

We hope that you will join us at Skypark for Don’s keynote and for a networking drink to close out Social Media Week Glasgow.

Tags: don tapscott, dtapscott, macrowikinomics, smw11, smwgla, smwglasgow, socialmediaweek, wikinomics
Posted in Announcement, Events, Featured

FilmCamp meets Social Media Week [guest post by Nicola Balkind @robotnic]

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

Nicola Balkind is a freelance film journalist and web editor.

Modelled after BarCamp’s ‘un-conferences’, FilmCamp is the third event of its kind organised by the staff at Glasgow Film Theatre. Designed to facilitate the sharing of ideas in an open environment, today’s FilmCamp celebrated Social Media Week with three talks.

Kicking off at 2pm, the first event invited Netribution’s Nic Wistreich to speak about the ongoing revolution in film distribution. Citing exciting film distribution projects and events like Age of Stupid’s indie screenings and Secret Cinema, which take films out of the cinema and into new event spaces to create new filmgoing experiences. Despite the economic downturn, distribution is on the rise and, as he sagely noted, you can’t pirate a social experience. The media revolution has already happened, and film distributors must find new and creative ways to distribute their films before tech companies create monopolies on the market. This raises the question of how to stand out online, which Ben Kampas from the Scottish Documentary Institute went on to discuss.

Since the draw of documentaries is in good subject matter rather than names and reputations, it’s a challenge for documentarians to stand out online. Using a model employed by Virtuous Circle – a Creative Scotland initiative that specialises in audience engagement and retention – documentary filmmakers are beginning to employ campaigning software like NationBuilder to promote their films and ongoing projects. Rather than waiting until the distribution stage to woo audiences, Kempas says, “the film community can really learn from [SNP campaigns using NationBuilder] and we can all build our own nations”. Combining the crowdfunding power of Kickstarter with the campaign tracking capabilities of NationBuilder, filmmakers are now able to identify their biggest supporters and encourage their involvement. While this encourages growth for turned-on filmmakers to build communities and returning audiences, it does not necessarily allow entry into mainstream cinematic distribution. Whether or not the crowdfunding model is sustainable remains to be seen, and while there is potential for local distributors like Distrify to increase the availability of film on demand and direct-to-DVD, it’s a niche market whose potential is still being discovered.

Another project with great and growing potential is local start-up blipfoto. Founded by Joe Tree as a picture-a-day project, it has become his full-time hop. Now operated by a team of six in a small local office, the website boasts 201,000 uniques per month, 1.3million images (each representing a day in a user’s life), and each photo has an average of 6 comments. Tree describes the site as, “social networking for people who don’t like social networking,” and testimonials from a dozen of his users exemplify this. Blipfoto has become a safe haven on the net for creative individuals with the desire to record their lives, one picture at a time.

Blip’s user retention rate is something of a marvel, with 48% of users who upload one picture returning; a number which grows exponentially with the number of photos uploaded. Tree describes this user experience as an emotional transaction, and by charging a small annual fee for extra features on the site, Blip sees its users payments as a way of forging a greater sense of ownership over their online profile. The CEO also expressed a feeling that Facebook doesn’t add value to people’s lives in a way that Blip can and, in a similar fashion to FourSquare badges, Blip takes the appeal of the added reward and crystalises it with ambition. As users take more pictures, receive comments, and begin to interact with other users, the commitment to taking daily pictures and becoming a part of the community becomes its own reward. By building interest and reward over time, encouraging interaction, and creating lasting value, Blip has become a unique social network with a real community at its heart.

Another community that has grown exponentially in its 6 years (though I’m sure you thought it was longer) is YouTube. Google UK’s Industry Manager Danny Gray made his way up to Glasgow to present Press Play for Social. Now that, allegedly, the number of hours we spend watching online video have exceeded that of porn, YouTube is the UK’s 2nd largest search engine. A whopping 48 hours of footage is uploaded to YouTube every minute, while 3 billion videos are watched daily. Gray went on to demonstrate more ways in which online video exceeds its conversational counterparts on other major social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. In fact, the two social media gains are YouTube’s two biggest traffic referrers. Interestingly, Facebook’s biggest referrers are Twitter and YouTube, and Twitter’s are YouTube and Facebook. This trifecta of link-sharing has interesting effects on the ways in which we share and consume online video, and measuring KPIs (Key Performance Indicators-all 35 of them) is a big concern for YouTube. The company continues to innovate the ways in which advertising content is viewed online, allowing users to take control with features like TrueView, which gives users the option to skip pre-rolling ads. Promoted videos are also taking over in a similar model to AdWords, allowing paid content to sit at the top of the page as you watch your favourite videos. As Gray puts it, the better you run your paid and owned media, the more you will earn.

The ongoing commercialisation of a social network that began as a hub for user-driven content became very clear during this talk. Rather than promoting user-generated content on the homepage, large companies are now invited to buy advertising space amongst banners for film trailers, Channel 4, and Five TV content. If you don’t have money, or a following along with a desire to partner on advertising, it is very hard to get noticed on YouTube, let alone have YouTube notice you. While the company finds new and innovative ways to sell you top shelf advertising content, its social media-driven community has fallen into the background. For me, that’s what YouTube is all about – but in the commercial world of social media, KPI is King.

Tags: filmcamp, smw, smw11, smwgla, socialmediaweek
Posted in Events, Featured, Guest Blog

Equator through the week: many events, a SMW game, and a lot of fun!

Saturday, September 17th, 2011

Our city headline sponsors have been rather quiet on this blog so far and reading this post you will understand why! They have been busy putting together a set of innovative, funny and informative events you can see below. The choice of which to attend is getting harder and harder, eh? Martin and Lydia have been working closely with us in the past three months of preparation for Social Media Week Glasgow, providing excellent support and advice. Now we’re looking forward to meeting the rest of the Equator team and you can meet them too. Equator will hold more than one event everyday across multiple locations and varied subjects, you can’t really miss them! For a summary of everything Equator has going on, visit their brand new Social Media Week webpage.

Equator, together with New Media Corp and twintangibles, will be introducing the wonders of Social Media Week Glasgow at the Official Launch event, taking place at 9am on Monday at Skypark.

Martin Jordan, Marketing Director, will then kick off Equator week with a lunchtime talk about how to use social media to enhance the effectiveness of other marketing channels.

Everyday’s a school day! When it’s important not to just share information about your Brand but to develop a deep understanding, social media is the wide-reaching tool that you want to have in your pocket. Joe Hughes, Digital Marketing Manager at Morrison Bowmore Distillers, will chat about ways Bowmore have used social media for brand education. After this chat, Joe will educate the audience on whisky with a lovely guided whisky tasting session. Cheers!

Later in the afternoon, Sarah and Michelle from equator will be joining Jonathan Pryce of Le Garcon de Glasgow at SocietyM for a bit of Fashion blogging advice.

For the first SMW evening, Equator invited no less than Craig Hepburn, Global Director of Digital and Social Media at Nokia, and Lauren Wagner, an MSc Candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute to join Creative Director James Jefferson to look into how social media affects individuals and how the individual affects social media, the psychology of Social Media.

And we’ll find again James the day after, speaking on how you should go about successfully creating and promoting a brand in 2011/2012, followed by Garry Hamilton, Business development director, challenging us with an interesting look at the risks and rewards of automation.

Blogging can be good fun, but if you want your blog to have maximum impact, you might want a few tips. Join Equator’s Social Media Marketing Manager, Ian McCartney, as he takes you through a few of the steps to a more successful blog.

With the increasing integration of social media tools into the rankings plus the much heralded use of Social Signals in the Google algorithm, it’s important to discover just how much of a role social media has to play in Search Engine Optimisation and where your effort is best placed. Join Martin Jordan talking on this very current topic on Wednesday!

On Wednesday evening, an Equator talks will be kicking off the European Start-ups challenge, which will see Garry Hamilton, Equator’s BDD, as one of the two Scottish jurors in this international competition. Before the competition starts, there will be a talk exploring the creative brief in the digital age.Is there a difference between briefing creatives when developing social media concepts compared with working on traditional advertising projects? Where do good ideas come from?

And this was only half way through the week!
On Thursday it will be H&R time. Social media is all about conversations and communities. What better conversation to be having than one that revolves around getting a new and better job? Discover how to engage social media in recruitment of new staff and also how to best implement a social media strategy within your HR function with Martin Jordan and Hays, world leading specialist recruitment company.

And how could Measuring Social Media ROI miss? It’s what everyone wants to know: how do you measure it? Investing your time in social media might be laughs and fun on a personal level, but on a business level it should be an investment too. You can bank on Emma Ramsay, Equator’s Marketing Manager, giving you valuable insights about the value of social.

We all know the old adage “people buy from people” and the same is true in social media. We firmly believe that if you want to engage with others in social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, then you need to have a personality. Managing Your Digital Personality is your Thursday morning event, with Nick Wassink, account director at digital marketing at Equator.

As mobile and tablet marketing becomes more popular, it’s important to develop websites that respond to the different formats – without duplicating your efforts. The key to success is designing one website that can flow from a computer, to a tablet, to a mobile. Join equator in their studio as they discuss and present the steps needed to achieve a truly Responsive Design.

And Friday it’s also time for another friend of Equator: the Scottish Premier League, who will share their fancy social media footwork and a bit of insight into how SPL play the social media game.

All this and throughout the week, Equator invites everyone to play Socialite– a SMW game involving Twitter, Instogram and winning one of five Nokia E7 phones!

To register for these and more events go here: www.socialmediaweek.org/schedule-glasgow

Posted in Events, Featured, Guest Blog

Join us on twitter for a social media surgery [Guest blog post by Ross McCulloch, @ThirdSectorLab]

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

As well as the face-to-face social media surgery for Scottish third sector organisations happening on Wed 21st Sept, the Be Good Be Social team are hosting a one-off surgery on Twitter the same day. The discussion, facilitated by their surgeons, kicks off at 12.30pm and covers a wide range of crowdsourced topics (below). Simply follow @BeGoodBeSocial and keep your eyes peeled for the #begoodbesocial hashtag to take part. The chat is open to everyone, you don’t have to work for a charity or social enterprise to take part. We’re keen to involve social media newbies as well as experienced users, so don’t be afraid to jump in and ask questions!

12.30pm Do we really need a social media strategy?

12.45pm Do we need a social media policy for staff/volunteers?

1.00pm What’s your biggest social media turn off?

1.15pm How do you measure social media success?

1.30pm Should we have a Facebook group or a Facebook page?

5.30pm What makes a successful blog?

5.45pm How can our organisation use LinkedIn?

6.10pm What’s your favourite twitter campaign and why?

6.15pm If you could give one piece of social media advice what would it be?

Posted in Events, Guest Blog

Small businesses and social media — be there or be … poor [guest blog post by Maria Barr - BIG]

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

When I read statistics like only 12% of small businesses see social media as necessary, and 40% of Scottish small businesses see no returns from their Facebook presence, I scratch my head. Here at The Business Incentives Group, we’re relatively new to social media, having started a blog and joined Twitter earlier this year, but we’re big converts to its merits. We’re even hosting a Twitter-based t-shirt design competition for Social Media Week later in the month, alongside events hosted by businesses across 10 different countries. Not bad for a wee firm from Dalmarnock, Glasgow.

For small businesses, budgets are often leaner, and I can understand why some managers may be wary of having their staff waste precious time tweeting and skiving off on Facebook when there are sales calls to be made and order books to fill. But social media is especially great if you have a tight marketing budget. Posting a blog and tweeting doesn’t cost a penny, only a little bit of time. So financially, there is little risk.

Whether you’re Apple or a market trader selling apples, you can have a presence and voice. Having a blog is meant to increase website traffic by 60%: something you could only otherwise achieve by spending a lot of money on paid search, which is unrealistic and too risky a strategy for many smaller businesses. You may not get thousands of Facebook friends, but the people who do find and enjoy your blog or tweets are likely to be genuinely interested in what you are selling, and could very easily be converted into customers.

And that is the area where SMEs think social media is failing them. Having lots of followers on Twitter may make you feel a little like a leader of a small cult, and you may get a kick out of counting the Facebook likes you get for a comment, but it’s not going to pay your suppliers, is it? To that, I would say there are two things to consider: conversion and measurement.

You can’t give people the hard sell in social media, but you do have to look for opportunities to convert fans into paying customers. Posting the occasional offer alongside genuinely interesting and helpful content wouldn’t hurt. HubSpot talk about a sales funnel, where potential customers are enticed further down the funnel through effective landing pages and with better, more tailored content and offers until the leads get converted into sales.

Only 35% of those polled in the Glasgow Caledonian University/NS Design study said they measured the success of their social media efforts, so I do wonder about how the other 65% came to their conclusions. Did they look at how traffic on their website changed, and whether people moved from the blog page to the product information page? How did they know if the new enquiries they were getting weren’t down to somebody coming across them on LinkedIn? And what about brand awareness, were they measuring that? They may not have taken orders from people who found them online immediately, but having a social media presence is a great opportunity to give your business a voice and personality, which may pay off financially at a later date.

I also wonder if these businesses chose the right social media platforms for their industry. We sell promotional products and clothing to other businesses, and it’s mostly people who work in marketing or procurement who buy from us. It’s a tough crowd. We looked at where these people go, and decided that Facebook, for example, wasn’t something that would be appropriate for us. It may be tempting to jump in head first and give them all a go, but it is important to discriminate between the various options.

If you sell to consumers rather than other businesses, you may be disheartened to know that only about 5% of the population follow a brand on Twitter. But those 5% of followers aren’t shrinking violets when it comes to expressing their opinions online. If you send them a sample and they like it, they will tweet it, blog it, share photos and get the word out. The social media world is full of what Malcolm Gladwell termed ‘Connectors’, who have the social links necessary for word to spread, and ‘Mavens’ who love to collate and share information. This can work both ways, though, so tread carefully.

It will probably be a learning curve, as it is for us, but I do think social media is worth giving a go — for small businesses more than anyone.

Maria Barr is sales and marketing manager for The Business Incentives Group.

The T-shirt Factor takes place online on Twitter on 22 September at 12pm, using the event hashtag #SMWTShirtFactor.

Posted in Events, Guest Blog

Google+ identity [guest blog post by Martin Jordan @Equatoragency]

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Google+ identity

You only have to look at a Twitter feed, a comments thread, or a forum: pseudonyms abound on the internet. However, by discouraging people from using a ‘handle’ and instead ensuring that the site shows real names and – mainly – real faces, Facebook has created a world where satirical accounts, flamewars, and drive-by insults are all but nonexistent. You could, of course, sign up for Facebook under a false name, but these accounts are a very small minority as it’s not the ‘done’ thing.

So it was surprising, then, that Google were recently criticised for insisting on real names being used by all who sign up to the network. There are, of course, always exceptions – some people have names that are near-impossible to spell so they simplify them, while others (mainly rock stars) are better known by their nickname and so choose to use it.

Our opinion? Facebook have successfully grown an open, real-name, ‘true ID’ culture simply by encouraging people to use their real names – and their towering success undoubtedly gives a clue as to how people feel about the Facebook ID policy.

Either way, Google+ has made an impressive start, albeit with a long way to go before it catches Facebook. It will be interesting to see how the numbers (and names) stack up over time!

Learn more about your online identity at our talk “Managing Your Digital Personality” – Thursday at 12 in Skypark – part of Equator’s big commitment to Social Media Week Glasgow!

Posted in Events, Featured, Guest Blog, Uncategorized

KILTR: Where Scotland goes Global [guest blog post by Brian Hughes @kiltr]

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

KILTR.com is a new online professional network for Scots, ex-pat Scots or anyone with an affinity for Scotland and Scottish culture. Currently at the beta stage of its development, KILTR has already attracted in excess of 12,000 test users since our launch a few short months ago and we hope to attract many more during Social Media Week 2011.
The idea behind KILTR is simple. While Scotland is a relatively small country, with a population of roughly 5.2 million, there are an estimated 35 million people throughout the world who can claim Scottish ancestry and many millions more who have a love or affinity for Scotland. KILTR is strengthening
Scotland’s position in the digital age by providing a global business and social networking platform where Scots and “affinity Scots” scattered throughout the world can unite to share news, views and business opportunities.

As CEO of KILTR, I was excited when I heard that Glasgow was to be one of the 12 host cities for this year’s Social Media Week and delighted to be asked to be an advisory board member for the event. KILTR’s HQ is based in the West End of the city, so it was a no-brainer for us to get involved. It’s an exciting time for KILTR and we aim to play our part in making Glasgow’s Social Media Week one to remember.

KILTR is hosting a special drop-in zone in Glasgow’s city centre throughout Social Media Week. Located at the Old Hairdresser’s, next to Stereo Bar on Renfield Lane, the ‘KILTR Hub’ is designed to be an informal space where you can work, have a meeting or just chill out and have a bite to eat or even a drink or two. In addition, there’ll be music provided by Inner Ear and you can tune in to some of the events taking place via Livestream. The KILTR team will be based at the Hub throughout Social Media Week, so please drop by to say hello and find out more about KILTR – the online network that’s doing the business for Scotland.

www.KILTR.com

Posted in Guest Blog

Creative Clyde and SDI at SMW Glasgow [guest blog post by Arlene Crawford]

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

The team at Creative Clyde is getting really excited about Social Media Week. For us it’s a great opportunity to put this brand new project in front of Glasgow’s digital community. For those who haven’t yet come across Creative Clyde, check us out at www.creativeclyde.com

Together with our partners at Scottish Development International, (www.sdi.co.uk/creative) we decided to sponsor SMW because it’s an excellent fit with our overall vision to nurture and grow the already thriving creative community in the city. We believe that media, technology and creatively minded businesses have the potential to deliver lots of new jobs and economic growth for the city.

We hope to meet many of these companies at the events we’ve sponsored on 20th September;

‘Google and YouTube – Making video social’ – register at http://socialmediaweek.org/event/?event_id=227

Also in conjunction with Google, there’s ‘Bringing Social to Life’ – register at http://socialmediaweek.org/event/?event_id=228

And, if you’re keen to do, learn and use social media more, then don’t forget the event we’re organising with Interactive Scotland at Film City Glasgow on 21st September – http://www.creativeclyde.com/news/how-to-do,-learn-and-use-social-media

Alternatively, if you’d like to be part of our growing Scottish creative community and are interested in how we can help you grow your business in Scotland email us at investment@scotent.co.uk

Hope to see you at one of these events.

Posted in Events, Guest Blog

Social Media Week Glasgow: Guest blog post by Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs

Monday, September 12th, 2011

We are honoured to announce that Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, will be formally launching Social Media Week Glasgow on Monday, September 19, 6pm. In her words:

Scotland has a global reputation as a nation of innovation and creativity. Over the years, we have made many great contributions to the world.

Our remarkable achievements include communication technologies which are the forerunners of social media – the television, telegraph, fax machine and telephone.

We are embracing the many opportunities offered by the digital age, with Scotland continuing to lead and develop advances in the creative industries, renewable energy, life sciences and other key sectors.

The Scottish Government is committed to doing all we can to take advantage of emerging technologies for the benefit of the whole country. We are taking action to increase digital participation and widen access to government services online. Through social media, we are reaching out to the people we serve and engaging with our communities in new ways to inform policy making.

Social media is transforming how we connect with the world. During Social Media Week Glasgow, I look forward to joining the conversation about how the public sector, businesses and individuals throughout Scotland can realise the potential of these platforms.

Fiona Hyslop
Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs

Posted in Announcement, Guest Blog

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Glasgow

SEPTEMBER 24-28, 2012

JUNE 1

Glasgow

Guest Blog