Unsummit – Interactive Marketing Un-conference

My first unsummit was very insightful. Though extensive audience participation is not typical, this type of events poses more questions than answers. The topic is perfect – nobody is an expert – we are all learning in real time and trying to catch up with interactive marketing universe. 

Interesting points:

Social media: it is important to have a strategy. What are you trying to communicate? Facebook is a tool, not a strategy. The decision “we should be involved into Facebook” can not be considered strategic.

The army experiment (not so good): One group decided to set up a Facebook page. However, the page did not have a following of fans (was not sufficiently promoted to fans) and attracted people who did not support the army. The Facebook page was used as an online “protest;” soon after the Facebook page went live the protest was organized outside of the unit’s building. The protesters most likely used the Facebook page to find each other and organize.  

Another army experiment (good): prospective recruits could ask questions through the website, and soldiers from different parts of the world answered these questions on the video. The video was posted on the site unedited. This approach increased the credibility of the organization.

Internal communication:

Companies are using private Facebook pages and Yammer. Medtronic encourages all new hires to sign up on Yammer during the orientation. Price Waterhouse discovered that Yammer helped people who work in different locations to communicate better and extended the practice to the whole company.

The “intranet” becomes more collaborative… the move is inevitable.

New tools

Drop Box  – a tool that allows saving large files on the cloud to be accessible from different computers.

  Setster – a free tool for adding appointment setting functionality to web sites and blogs. The consultant that recommended the tool noted that his clients are using the tool quite willingly.

  Todoist  – a free tool for creating… to do lists in a quite sophisticated form.

  XMind – a free team brainstorming and mind-mapping tool.

Social media reality check session tried to return the unsummit attendees back “to the real world,” where average person may not be as comfortable with the new tools and ideas as everybody in the room…

We should not try to set trends; we should utilize trends that already exist.

 The most popular tools of the future will be most likely “low friction” tools – the applications that are simple and easy to use.

One of the presenters was working on the real estate iPhone app that allows the person to enter his preferences for a house. When the person would be half a mile from any matching house on sale, the phone would ring and inform about the house on sale.

Personal information right now: the user goes to places (sites) that have his personal information. In the future, the personal information might be stored in the browser, and the sites would “react” to this personal information.

Minnov8  - a podcast done by a local group highlighting innovations of local companies in the interactive space.

The minnov8 group brought up an interesting point: in the past the definition of “genius” was an exceptionally gifted scientist making discoveries by himself. In the future, the definition of “genius” will change to the person who is able to synthesize ideas of many gifted scientists…

 “In the future, it is not what you know, it is what you share.”

Recommendation to review publications of Danah Boyd - Social Media Researcher at Microsoft Research New England and a Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Mobile

Development trends: attempts to transpose to mobile what already exist online. This approach does not make sense and can be compared to early paining of children in adult clothes (during the time when children were perceived just small adults).

Mobile is different – “it is not your website squished down.”

But, the question is: How can I get all that content to the mobile?  This question is similar to a more prosaic task: How do I feed a toddler nutritious food if he is not going to sit through a meal?  The answer: Snacks!!   

We need to “snakefy” mobile information for the user. Typical user is not viewing mobile content longer than 5 minutes.

Good example or mobile applications is Ralph Lauren

Mobile resource: Fierce wireless.  The site has a free newsletter subscription and can be searched for verticals topic (health care, etc.) specifically. 

• Prediction: Android devices are expected to outstrip the rest.
• Most people do not read “long form” on a mobile devise; they bookmark something interesting to read later.
• Completion of tasks on mobile devices now is less than 50% (usability issues across devices).
• New term: m-commerce -  mobile commerce. 

Important: to fail fast and cheaply and learn from it (last session).

Unsuccessful examples:

A beer brand created a contest for schools which offered students to send a picture where they were “interacting with the brand.” The brand had a ranking of “party schools” and offered an ultimate prize – a trip to Cancun for a spring break. The problem: colleges and parents did not like it and the campaign had to be stopped.

  Slerpee  created its own branded social network for enthusiasts. The probability that the people would join one more social network is less comparing to adding a possibility of interaction with the brand to the social networks that already exist. Definitely an expensive effort. Better approach would be a Facebook app or a simple Ning site. “Go where the people are…”

 More successful example:

 Kreg tool company created a simple Ning community for people who use their tools. The community is active and can help its members to solve problems in the area of tools (what is important for the brand). This is definitely successful (and inexpensive) effort.

AMA – Social Media (now I love HootSuite…)

The event was quite interesting and at the end I was determined to invest more energy into understanding HootSuite used by the presenter. Now I am a fan! Goodbye good old TweetDeck…  

Highlights from the event:

• 85% of consumers believe that a company should not only have a presence in the social media universe, but also interact with the consumers
• 78% of those who are 45 – 60 years old are computer users… their top activity online is… dating.
• Generation “net” – people born to the social networking world – is the first “global” generation; they can communicate as easily with pears anywhere in the networked world and consider it natural.
• 90% of purchasing decisions are started on search engines
• Social media: one engage follower worth 100 unengaged followers

The presenter uses HootSuite  because it allows managing multiple accounts and provides analytics. It also allows following others without leaving HootSuite (unlike TweetDeck).

HootSuite also has a built-in scheduling mechanism and “hootlet” allowing to tweet easier by clicking a browser button and modifying almost ready “tweet” with already shortened URL.

Interesting: if originated by Twitter, bit.ly looks like traffic from Twitter in reports, but ow.ly (HootSuite shortening) is a separate traffic source…

Mobile SaaS and Promotion of Social Media – Social Media Breakfast 19

Social Media Breakfast #19  was as useful as usually. I noticed over last eight events that the audience is changing – it becomes more mainstream and corporate. Acceptance of social media is growing, so is the number of professionally dressed people in the audience…. This is good.

Lisa Foote  started her presentation with the reminder of growing use of mobile. Significant growth of Facebook, Pandora, and Twitter is now coming from Mobile. Socialnomics09  gives more impressive numbers on mobile use and social media in general (video below).

 

80% of mobile phones are not smart phones – this needs to be considered in marketing programs. “Smart” phone is the opposite of “feature phone” – an appropriate definition for “not smart enough” phone  To make applications useful for mobile devices, applications became “light,” most concentrated on content.  

Lisa introduced a new company MixMobi that provides mobile marketing opportunities (and instant analytics!!) on SaaS basis. Social Media Breakfast attendees could see creation of a mobile ad and posting it through Twitter. Attendees could access the ad from their mobile devices and instantly see the metrics on the MixMobi interface. The interface is easy to use, and when available, the service  should start from $19.95 per month…  There were conversations about a totally free version, but it does not seem to be available at this point.

MixMobi created the platform to answer most common requests from customers and provides a very extensive feature set.  The company also emphasized instant and correct analytics (yes, mobile analytics is a problem   ) and ability to promote campaigns quickly in different media. Anybody interested in private beta testing should send Lisa a note.

One of the customers was a company specializing in promotion of private colleges to prospective students – The Lawlor Group who used MixMobi’s technology very successfully. 

In the intermission, Zappos’ culture books were presented to two forward-looking people who run Social Media Breakfast.

Yes, Zappos culture is legendary, but I have not realized that it would be analyzed in a sizable volume…

 

The second part of the event was devoted to promotion of social media in the enterprise. At that point corporate presence in the audience was felt very strongly – in problems that social media enthusiasts had and in their solutions.

Some of the most interesting points:

Internal promotion: focus on a particular task, a business problem that needs to be solved, not the tool. Sometimes, the tool may not even need to be named. Instead of suggesting employees to use Yammer, what could be faced with “oh, one more ‘thing’ I need to learn…” we should tell the user what he/she can do and give username and password. Social media tools are just “new tools to solve business problems.”

Interesting problem solving: Albert  mentioned a situation when two groups worked together in different time and it was not easy to encourage them to communicate. People did not want to go to the same work portal during their time off. However, giving them opportunity to communicate through mobile interface was successful  – it was not considered “work” in the eyes of the employees.

Albert also mentioned Running a Hospital – a blog he believes important for anybody in the health care industry.

Importance of the organizational culture: companies need to have a receptive culture for the social media to be successful. “Culture first” – social media should not be considered as “other” – its use should start from a business gap and how to fill it…

Titles and generations:
The executives are often people who understand the benefits of new approaches to reach business objectives, but middle management can be a problem. Middle managers see employees’ involvement into social media as a distraction from the task of their individual departments. The problem is not to “find executive support,” but to “find us” – the enthusiasts in different parts of the organization.

Boomers – many eager to adopt the tools, but concentrate of the tools rather than their application.
Generation X – “Hooray – we found the tools that allow us to do [something] more efficiently!” X wants to be relevant and (many) happy to embrace the tools.
Generation Y – familiar with the tools, but has no idea how to use them for business, lacks work experience; can not get the content for the tools.

Generations need to cooperate… but the enthusiasts are found in each generation.

Security concern: Yammer has file-sharing capability… it is dangerous… Security concern is a “people” issue, not the technology issues… the same risk existed with typewriters, e-mail, phone, Facebook, Twitter, etc. However, the security needs to be addressed through rules of use and basic education of employees.

Popularity of social media: “internet trends” free class at the library changed to “intro to social media;” Science Museum classes on social media were overbooked since conception.

New tool to investigate: staction a project management (variation on a basecamp) tool that excited one of the attendees of Social Media Breakfast.

New Mobile Marketing group in town: Mobile MSP – seem to have a Twitter account only, but the first meeting is scheduled on September 28 – we will see what happens next…

Twitter Guesses: Why Few Young People Use Twitter

Twitter is somehow more attractive to older people. Twittering public is more likely to be 45-54 years old rather than 18-24 years old. Based on respectful research, this news was quickly recognized as a fact rather than a speculation: Teens Don’t Tweet; Twitter’s Growth Not Fueled By Youth,  Who’s Driving Twitter’s Popularity? Not Teens .

Right after the data became known, we started guessing why Twitter is not patronized by young people: Why Teens Don’t Tweet, Why Adults Have Fed Twitter’s Growth.

One of the explanations was the timing of Twitter  – when Twitter became popular, teenagers already had other communication options. I tend to agree with Mahable’s suggestion  that Twitter is not serving main desire of an average teenager – to connect with friends. Twitter is more useful for following news topics, what has never been a focus of teenage life.

However, the most interesting question, I think, is our surprise that young people are not mesmerized by Twitter, and a need to explain this unexpected fact. Most likely, we are surprised because of our stereotypes, or previous experiences, or success formula lock-ins.

We seem to assume that young people are more likely to be using all new technologies. There is another assumption that young people are more knowledgeable about new technologies than older people. I believe this assumption is incorrect, even if I caught myself more than once thinking exactly the same.

My own “Twitter error” was quite embarrassing. A few months ago I heard about a new group in town – Social Media Breakfast .  I could not attend the meetings because of work, but when I finally had a chance… I felt uncomfortable… I was afraid to walk in the room of 20 year olds and feel as a lost grandmother… It was Social Media after all – a field for teenagers… However, my curiosity and interest for the field easily won over expected discomfort, and I showed up on the next event. To my surprise (and great relief!) the audience was full of people about my age. Yes, I saw young people, and I saw also older people; I saw some people I knew, I saw social media experts who were 10 years older than I, and I felt quite comfortable… Yes, I have not missed a single Social Media Breakfast since that first visit.

Why do we think that young people are more likely to adopt new technologies? 

Oh, yes, there is truth in this fact, but it is probably true very briefly, until the technology becomes known enough to attract its true users. These real users can benefit from the technology, rather then enjoy its brief novelty.

Examples:
Henry Ford was fascinated by his mother’s sewing machine. My 22 year old male coworker in my native country was proudly using his family’s brand-new washing machine, fascinated by its sophistication. Do we really know many young men enjoying sewing or doing laundry?  Probably not…

More specific examples:
Thinking about any corporation – young people are not necessarily those who are PowerPoint experts or Excel experts. Young people do not know this software any better than the rest of us; however, those people who use this software for their work do, disregarding of age. Most of us probably come to that middle-age gentleman in finance with occasional Excel questions.

Twitter is just a tool; Twitter allows people to do certain thing and it will be the most appealing for people who like doing that “certain thing,” rather than just young people fascinated by novelty.

New social media platforms and technologies are spectacularly easy to use – we will probably see more tools adopted by a group of people with certain interests rather than age. I think it is wonderful; it is great for users, and very useful for marketers.

Twitter Job Search – Will Slow Economy Speed up Adoption of Social Media?

Are you using Twitter to search for the next job?  Oh, yes!  Or maybe you are inviting everybody you remotely remember to join you on LikedIn and Facebook?  Sure! Just in case – nobody knows when the next layoff is coming. Would some of us be so engaged in social media if the economy was better?  Unlikely.

My guess: the fact that we are searching for jobs on Twitter and trying to build networks on LinkedIn, Facebook (and other niche communities) will speed up adoption of social media. The economy is encouraging us to use all available tools to handle the challenges of rising unemployment. Conveniently, social media offers quite a few opportunities and all of them are free.

How slow economy stimulates adoption of social media: 

1. Almost 10% of the population is actively looking for work. Twitter has a range of job related hash tags and job search specific applications appear (for example Twitter Job Search ). They may not be perfect at this point, but looking for work on Twitter is routinely discussed by outplacement companies. LinkedIn is growing; those who have not heard about the site are being introduced to it through outplacement organizations and encouraged to create a profile.
2. Those who still have jobs (and worry about possible layoffs) are also expanding their networks just in case, to assure that former co-workers and clients can be reached if needed. Plus, they receive invites from currently unemployed friends who now have time to devote to their LinkedIn profile, Facebook contacts, and post status update everywhere, including Twitter.
3. Those who could not find suitable jobs for some time are attempting consulting or trying to start small businesses. Social media presents the most cost-effective opportunities to promote these services. LinkedIn Answers, blogging, twittering, or posting presentations on SlideShare  do take time, but because of the economy, time is easily available resource.

Would all these twittering public forget about social media when the economy recovers?

I believe people who were introduced to social media during economic downturn would not abandon their LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other networks. Yes, we all forget about our Monster.com accounts as soon as we are happily employed, but social media is different. Social media is much more than just a job search; this new form of communication won’t be abandoned. Social media seem to reflect dynamic of the society rather than perform a narrow utilitarian function.  

Job search activity is urgent and involuntary, but it is just a first step. Interesting: some HR departments leading their company’s foray into social media, because Twitter and Facebook help HR to fill jobs…  and it is measureable… and it is cheaper than previously known methods.

The only part of emerging media that might be hurt by the recession is mobile. Though Home Broadband is a Must in Downturn  mobile internet and smart phones are not considered that important.

A better day will come for mobile too… What would happen when everybody who fell in love with social media during their job search would be busy again?  This would be a perfect time to turn to a smart phone…

Social Media Breakfast – Online Reputation Management

Enlightening event with the presentation that could be considered a treasure of facts and numbers (Wow! 65 slides!)  I wish Greg Swan and Christopher Lower had the rest of the day to continue

The most curious points and links from the presentation:

Free reputation monitoring services:
http://www.google.com/alerts
http://technorati.com/
http://w.moreover.com/
http://alp-uckan.net/free/monitorthis/
http://www.blogpulse.com/
http://www.twittermeter.com/  (try Firefox; issues in IE)
http://www.tweetvolume.com/  (love it!)
http://backtweets.com/
http://monitter.com/
http://tweetbeep.com/ (free Tweeter alerts by e-mail)
http://blogsearch.google.com/ (Google Blog search)
http://www.backtype.com/ ( Comments monitoring)

Paid reputation monitoring services:
          Small business
http://www.trackur.com/ (starts from $18 a months, free trial)
          Enterprise
http://www.buzzlogic.com/
http://www.radian6.com/
http://www.factiva.com/ (seems to have free trial)

How to respond to online reputation issues:

• investigate complains
• respond at the same site / same platform
• respond as quickly as possible (after the comment was investigated)
• you may need legal assistance (make sure legal team has a specialist in the area)
• host the conversation (complaints on your own site are easier to control – make them possible)
• make sure your brand is reserved at various sites http://www.usernamecheck.com/

Why all of it is necessary?

60% of Americans use social media
85% of Americans say social media presence for a company is not enough; the company should interact with its customers

Social media can amplify poor service very quickly  – FTD’s Mother’s Day Mishap (by TechCrunch)  

70% of global executives fear for their corporate reputations as online risks grow

66% of global executives are either unaware or do not want to admit that employees are badmouthing their companies online

Domino’s case study
The infamous video taken a tall on Domino’s perception – it changed from 81% positive to 64% negative. Cost to Domino is estimated over $50,000,000. Interesting: Domino’s PR agency suggested initially ignoring the video (now Domino has a different PR agency   ).

Domino’s video response

Shevron case study

What did Chevron do when it learned that “60 Minutes” was preparing a potentially damaging report about oil company contamination of the Amazon rain forest in Ecuador?

It hired a former journalist to produce a mirror image of the report, from the corporation’s point of view.

The number of views was much smaller, but – it was an attempt by the company to create its own media.

There are many industry–specific sites featuring reviews

SEO can be a temporary fix to promote positive online reports and push back negative results. But…as soon as the complainer refreshes his or her post – it will move straight to the top. The problem needs to be addressed.

Bacon was sponsored by Concordia University MBA program.  :-)

Social Media Breakfast – Personal Branding

Mykl Roventine  gave a wonderful overview of personal branding.  Oh, yes, I will be busy after this presentation… defining and correcting my personal brand online. Now I have an excellent ever-changing “instruction,” but – what is more important – an understanding of the “big picture…” Social Media Breakfast is “must attend” event from my perspective.

Personal brand is important:

• You want to stand out of the crowd
• Is your digital footprint exactly what you want to portray?
• Now is the window of opportunity
• Yes, you are a brand!

Examples to check:

• Chris Brogan
• Rick Mahn

So, what should you do to build your personal brand?

1. Identify your personal brand

“You are not defined by your job title, and you are not confined by your job description.”  Brand is authentic – what makes you different

• Goals?
• Audience?
• Value of you to others? (if not clear – ask others)

Create a brand statement.

2. How are you branded?  Chose the name (better real name; be consistent)

3. Change all your accounts to the name

4. Change your photos  to one consistent image (that hopefully recognizable)  – get Gravatar

5. Create your brand story

Create a story, which would be easy to add to different accounts and social networks

• super short
• short
• long (a few paragraphs)

Might make sense to ask for proofreading help. Then go back to social media sites and fill out all information (it should be consistent).

6. Create a destination

• Decide on a destination. Most logical “About” page on your blog.
• Point everything to this page.
• Long version of your story should include links to your other networks
• Make sure that you have simple contact information
• Fill out your Google profile 

7. Tie is all together – link everything to your destination. Be consistent.

8. Share.

Comment using you first and last name, link to your destination. Thank commenters on your blog.

9. Monitor your brand

• Google alerts 
• Social too

Your personal brand is always evolving.

The video from the event was posted on ning.

MIMA – Inbox Insanity: The Future of Email Marketing

I was fortunate to attend another MIMA event  that attracted enough interested marketers to pack a rather spacious Depot room…  despite less than ideal Minnesota weather.

The speaker, Jeff Rohrs,  was as engaging as always. I remembered him from The New eMarketing Essentials conference  – a very insightful event brought to Minneapolis by ExactTarget   last spring.

Jeff Rohrs started from the definition of Social Media and to my delight described it throughout the history of humanity starting from the stone age… 

All social media is trying to replicate personal conversation.

Ha! It was a pleasure to hear this definition after all my arguments in MBA classes about e-business. I categorically refuse to recognize “e-business” as something separate from a “regular business using the Internet as channel.”

Jeff Rohrs recommended a book Victorian Internet  that sheds light on another revolutionary communication channel and it growing pains.

Ideas from the presentation:

• We are experiencing “inbox explosion,” where we have to monitor too many inboxes that exist for different purposes, including mail, phone, IM, Facebook, LinkedIn, financial services inboxes (for security purposes), WordPress, Twitter, Yammer, UouTube, Flikr…
• However, all social networks use e-mail to set accounts and to communicate with members…
• There is a need to create a “universal” inbox… Yahoo is attempting it with Yahoo Social Inbox 
• However…  the e-mail is still #1 inbox….  The other networks are “inside” the e-mail box.

What it all means for marketers?

• We are not in control
• Marketing communications increasingly exist by invitation (particularly with millenials)
• Invitations are easily revoked

Marketers should resist the pressure to send more e-mails…  “You want them to follow, but only if it is relevant for them…”

Agnostic Philosophy

• serve individuals
• honor their uniquespreferences with regard to
  • communication
  • contact
  • frequency
  • channel
• Deliver them timely relevant content that improves their lives

Other interesting points:

• Direct mail is considered more appropriate for unsolicited messages than any other form of communication….  But it might be because the cost of direct mail prevents too much “spam….”
• Twitter search is superior to Google search for current events (yes, I noticed…)
• Considering inbox explosion, a “subscriber” could be a prospect, a friend, a follower, a connection, etc.

As usually, thank you ExactTarget     I am hoping we can see another conference in Minneapolis this year…

I also loved the food…

MIMA – Your Brand Is Not My Friend

Another exciting event for the interactive Community. I must admit that Alan Wolk challenged some of my assumptions, destroyed a couple of myths, and actually supported one view that I held for some time already.

Supported view: an agency’s role in social media is helping the client with establishing content strategy, training the client how to use the tool, setting the tool, and explaining best practices. No blog or Twitter ghost-writing or any other “imposter” activities on behalf of the client.

Great points from the presentation:

• Our world changed from Ad > Purchase…  to Ad > Google > Purchase. Implications: Advertising has to be honest. Advertising now need to get people to Google.
• Some brands are “prom kings” and everybody want to be their friend, but 99% of brands are not in this category. 99% of “non-prom king” brands need to behave differently.

How to use social media correctly for one of 99% of “non-prom king” brands:

1. Identify a need of your customers with which you can help
2. Give something to the customers (a coupon – something useful)
3. Approach the process as a sales person (not to pretend to be something different)
4. Use Twitter for customer service or to share news. Don’t use it to sell.
5. Don’t push it. In social media the more unobtrusive you can be the better

Whole Foods “does Facebook right.” The company connects each channel to the web site and also connects the web site to each channel. It provides useful information without attempting to sell on social media channels. You can place the same information (promote a coupon or contest) on every channel – repetition is totally accepted.

More points:

• Thought leadership in a specific area – setup Delicious link collection and connect it to Facebook page
• LinkedIn is a place to be for b-to-b

Agency hints

• Most agencies are not setup to handle social media
• Digital part of the agencies can be treated as a stepchild – traditional media is “converted” into something to be used within social media – what does not fit
• Clients are ahead of the agencies
• PR is ahead of the game
• Recommendation for an agency to have a PR function, combine user experience with strategy, have people who are on the top of changing technology
• Marketers should become interdisciplinary proficient
• Start small: don’t do anything: look, listen…
• Social media is a huge opportunity for advertisers, but they should not take a “usual” approach.

As usually, it was a pleasure to meet a great group of people… who even helped me to verify an iPhone question I answered at work a couple of hours earlier…

MIMA – Digital Information Management – Tips, Tricks, and Industry Frustrations

Great event on a very important topic! 

Ha!  The event about imact of social media on reputation came with the most magnificent list of Delicious bookmarks, some of them I gratefully bookmarked in my own Delicious account… what was automatically fed into by blog… which can be referenced on Twitter or Facebook in two clicks via AdThis tool… and I can see the free reports of anybody bookmaking my blog in real time… Social media came to life in its best naturally fluid form –  integrated into everything,  inalienable from the interactive landscape, undeniable and omnipresent.  

I know what I am going to do next Sunday afternoon…  another brush-up on social media and reputation management  tools…

Interesting notes from the event:

• What is digital reputation management? It could be trust…  or it could be defense… but it is there to exist…
• Why reputation is so volatile?  We looked at the reputation chart of major corporations – it is very volatile…  Because modern business environment allows everybody to become a journalist and broadcast their opinions.
• What should be done to combat (or attempt to minimize) the volatility? 
  1. Understanding that companies do not have control anymore
  2. If not engage, at least listen
• How to listen?  As usually, favorite tools were: Google alerts, Spy (love it!), Twitter search, Technorati, but there are a few more to check on the delicious link
• How to respond to negative comments? Hopefully, quickly. Incorrect negative information can spread with surprising speed. :-)  Delta engages agencies in listening and retains staff who’s job to respond to the comments. 
• Use of blogs is growing; now 26%  – the power of blogging community rises exponentially. Delta/NothWest merger was communicated simultaneously to media and to leading industry influencers in blogosphere…  “Congressmen read blogs… “
• You need to influence the conversation earlier… be involved… blogs are great opportunity to spread good rumors when useful for business also.
• What to do if a mishap happened? BestBuy: apologize quickly; be human. BestBuy accidentally sent a promotion to much more people than it could afford. The mistake was noted on Twitter immediately. CMO admitted a screw-up. Person who managed the promotion was videotaped explaining the situation, what was immediately posted on YouTube. Reaction was good (and immediately visible in social media) – the matter went away quickly
• Be more proactive to get positive reviews
• 52 of Fortune 500 are blogging… Blogging issues: too formal is often difficult to organize – failed for BestBuy. However, employees are already blogging, Twittering, etc. BestBuy aggregate the activity and encourages it with a very simple guideline – don’t do anything stupid
• How to approach social media? First – decide what relationship would you like to have…
• What if bad publicity happen? Don’t necessarily rush to sue (hm… it is written even in my MBA Business Law textbook :-)  ). Don’t take bad publicity too personally. Acknowledge the problem (if true) and communicate what you are doing to fix it. MarketingSherpa had an excellent article on the subject 
• Reputation of the company is defined by its employees
• Actionable takeaways: listen…  set up your channels/urls…
• How to convince management in value of at least being aware about online reputation…  Oh, there was no answer to this question pondered by the panel and the audience… only hope “there will be a tipping point…”  This is my hope also… a very sincere hope