In our continuous effort to share good ideas, this video was shared within our agency as a good use of social media for industrial marketers. It is not our client but we felt it was worth sharing.

With this “Watch It Shred” series, SSI has a strong opportunity to leverage social media and online channels to bring their brand forward while they educate. They have created a positive message about their company and industry that will gain positive exposure. While it is true that they will get much of this exposure outside their core audience of influencers and purchasers of industrial recycling and shredding equipment, there will be high value sharing of this content within that target market. They have several videos in the series and if their strategy carries through, they will include this in email, blog sites, on their website, in forums, twitter posts and in many other places around the web. Nice Work SSI!

Geolocation-based services are slowly gaining exposure with platforms like FourSquare and Gowalla, but the trend hasn’t completely caught on – yet.  That may soon change if Facebook makes good on the recently speculated launch of a new application that will allow users to share their location via status updates.  The launch may take place as early as this month, though Facebook has yet to confirm.

Though at launch the application will probably only include consumers, marketers will likely be allowed in on the action shortly after.  According to Ad Age, fast food giant McDonalds is already busy creating an app that will allow users to “check-in” at restaurants.  Once “checked-in” to the restaurant, user’s location will then be shared with friends via their Facebook status.  Users may receive some kind of incentive for posting their location, but details of the application are yet to be released.

With the use of social media in marketing on the rise, geolocation technology seems to be a logical addition to the wide repertoire of available marketing strategies.  It brings even more personalization to advertising, allowing marketers to target users based on physical location at any given moment, when they are “checked-in” to the location.  This will give marketers an improved ability to connect with end users at a very personalized level.

The big question that remains is how will users react to this application?  That is yet to be seen, but with today’s obsession with connectedness, it is not a stretch to assume that many users will feel comfortable sharing their location.  And while current geolocation services are seemingly slow to take off, adoption by a trusted social media giant like Facebook may be just the push they need to get off the ground.

Ok, so maybe not the world, but Facebook is taking steps to gain a larger presence on the web.  Facebook announced multiple new initiatives Wednesday at the F8 conference all aimed at one goal: to expand Facebook’s already massive reach even further across the web.

One of the biggest initiatives is to take the “Like” button, which Facebook users are already familiar with, to outside websites.  Facebook has entered into deals with third-party websites (Yelp, Pandora, and Microsoft Docs are the first three to get a test run) that allow the sites to connect users with Facebook even when they aren’t on the Facebook page.  This will let users “Like” a site and share that with their friends even if they aren’t physically on Facebook’s website.  According to their blog Facebook says they are taking these steps to help create a more personalized and user-centered web experience.  Yelp, for example, can be personalized for new users if they have a Facebook account.  Yelp users will be able to see what businesses friends have liked and a feed of their friend’s activities on Yelp (adding pictures, writing reviews, and liking businesses).

Facebook’s co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg notes, “The web is at a really important turning point right now.  We’re building toward a web where the default is social. Every application and product will be redesigned from the ground up to use a person’s real identity and friends.”

Although it is a concern for many, Facebook says these changes won’t affect user’s privacy.   Zuckerberg points out that these new features will show no new information to anyone than was previously visible online.  Only your friends will be able to see what you like, unless of course you have your profile set as public – in which case, it’s all fair game.

So what does all this really mean?  Zuckerberg sums it all up in a blog post by saying, “Today…we are making it so all websites can work together to build a more comprehensive map of connections and create better, more social experiences for everyone.”

Well, when you put it like that, it doesn’t sound so bad…

Why are corporations having such a hard time breaking into the social media scene?  Ask any CEO or other top executive of a corporation if they want to be bombarded with advertisements every time they check their phones or log on to their computers – I can guarantee you the answer would be a resounding “No!”  Yet they fill their Facebook pages and Twitter feeds with pushy advertising and in-your-face self-promotion anyway and wonder why they can’t get on the social media radar.

So how can corporations use social media to their advantage while at the same time gaining friends or followers for their pages?  The answer is simple and goes back to the root of what people look for in a friendship – a mutually beneficial relationship.  Corporations need to make users feel like they are valued and that their opinions are what matter, not just the money they may potentially spend.  Users want to see information that is interesting and will benefit them, not just involving the company’s product, but also things like what’s going on in the industry and ways users can interact with the company and with other users in the online community.  If companies want advertising all they have to do is give users content they will want to share – not many people will want to send a blatant advertisement to their friends, but an interesting article posted on the company blog or Facebook page is something that users will pass along.

The bottom line here:  Let pushy ads and self-promotion fall to the way-side and give users what they really want – interesting content they can learn something from and pass along to others.  That kind of customer-promoted publicity can’t be bought and will be much more valuable than any form of self-promotion could ever be.

Twitter made the long-awaited announcement Tuesday that the company will finally be getting into the money-making business.  Twitter launched an advertising campaign that will put contextually relevant “promoted tweets” [read: paid] at the top of its search results pages.  Twitter says these tweets are a lot like a regular tweet and users are able to interact with them in the same ways: replying to them, favoring them, or retweeting them.

So what’s the big difference between promoted tweets and regular tweets?  According to Twitter’s blog, promoted tweets “must resonate with users.”  Unlike normal tweets, users must interact with the promoted tweets in order for them to stick around on the site.

So is Twitter selling out?  No, just trying to make a living.  Twitter points out that all of the promoted tweets are already an organic part of Twitter before becoming a paid advertisement, meaning that the ads start off as normal tweets in the company’s Twitter stream before users ever see them as a promoted tweet at the top of their search results page.

“The idea behind promoted tweets is that we want to enhance the communications that companies are already having with customers on Twitter,” said Dick Costolo, Twitter’s chief operating officer.

Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America are some of the first companies to get on the promoted tweeting action.

Domino’s Pizza puts negative customer commentary front and center in its new “Pizza Turnaround” marketing campaign. The TV commercials feature clips of focus group participant commentary on the pizza’s quality: “bland,” “boring,” “bad,” “the worst imitation of wheat crust,” and the list goes on. The CEO of Domino’s and a variety of Domino’s “employees” address the harsh feedback, turning the product’s negative perception into a challenge, and The Pizza Turnaround campaign is born. It’s an honest and bold marketing approach that may just help the 50-year-old brand defend its status as leading pizza delivery company in the U.S.

Pizza Turnaround promises customers an improved dining and delivery experience, with a reinvented sauce recipe, better dough quality, and fresher ingredients. It also promise a full refund if you’re not satisfied. Add that to the $5.99 promotional price for 2 medium, 2-topping pizzas, and Domino’s makes it easier to give the product a second chance. The TV commercial spot contains some hokey lines like, “We’ve put 40% more herbs and seasoning in our sauce,” but overall, Pizza Turnaround was an intrepid step.

The campaign is fully integrated into the brand’s Facebook page and Twitter account, and the Pizza Turnaround landing page features the full-length campaign documentary. Video links to Stephen Colbert Report’s “rip” on the campaign and #newpizza Twitter trending topic (he named Domino’s his Alpha Dog of the Week) and to the CBS Morning Show “Pizza for Breakfast” review.

Domino’s encourages customers to engage in the conversation, and the feedback ranges from cheers: “Tried the new Domino’s Pizza yesterday…Remarkable Improvement” to jeers: “We tried the new pizza last night. Grade: C-.” The company plays an active role in the social media campaign by engaging in the negative and positive commentary. Whether or not the product is truly improved is a matter of personal preference, but Pizza Turnaround succeeded in placing the company into the social media stratosphere.

Chain Reaction

As a social media marketer, the recent spat between behemoth HP and struggling Kodak underscores how a small player can leverage this space to draw attention and possibly even draw larger competitors into a place that benefits the little guy.

Basically, HP is claiming that Kodak cannot stand behind its marketing claims – this complaint doesn’t draw a lot of ire from consumers, we are well-trained skeptics. Other than the iPod and The Clapper – there are precious few technology products that are truly as advertised.

So now the two companies are trading swipes on Twitter and getting covered on the newswire and the head of HPs social media effort is being quoted with comments such as “You have a fight you can’t possibly win. I am HP.”

The irony of all of this is that this from is the head of social media strategy for HP. This is sure to draw a lot of social media coverage, but not the kind she wants. In a fight like this, the underdog holds the advantage in public perception. To me it looks like Goliath has taken David’s bait and leaned down with one eye open.

On the marketing front this seems to have gone badly as well, it appears that the two have allowed things to spin into a price war. HP can surely weather this more easily than Kodak, but in the long run, it is not good news for either.

It is hard to know what sort of ill will sticks to a brand when it behaves like this, but one thing is for certain, it is better to stand up for your brand and speak proudly of what you do well. If you have to address a competitor directly, do it with challenges that play to your strengths and attack their weaknesses with benefits, not insults – you just look like a bitter, old bully – and bullies don’t do well in the social space.

Augmented Reality (AR) is gaining more recognition in the industry and will revolutionize the way marketers reach consumers. If you’re not familiar with the term, you may have heard of AR-based projects like Xbox’s 360 Project Natal and Yelp’s Monocle iPhone app.

AR technology is defined as a “live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery, creating a mixed reality.” This intuitive technology can apply to both AR and Mobile AR applications.

So what does this mean for marketers? Let’s get to know AR better.

The latest interactive technology will change online media, shopping and entertainment as we know it. The December 2009 issue of Esquire magazine cover features Robert Downey Jr. But beyond this 2-D realm, it offers an “Augmented Reality issue” experience for readers—downloadable software makes Robert Downey Jr. pop into 3-D life onscreen, interactive with the physical magazine and webcam, while other elements start talking and moving. Watch the video for the full experience:

Retail-based applications like Zugara’s Webcam Social Shopper allow customers to try on clothing virtually and shop online, take pictures of their new looks, and share with friends on Facebook. If they like what they see, they can make the purchase virtually using both AR and Motion Capture technologies—all with the wave of their hand.

And in mobile games like the zombie shooter ARhrrrr, players interactively shoot zombies with their phone, using a real-life map as the battle grounds. Products like Skittles candy can be physically placed on the map and simultaneously used as bombs in the game—an entirely new realm of interactive game playing and product placement.

Mobile location-based AR marketing in applications like Yelp’s Monocle allow users to find area businesses via GPS navigation by simply holding their phone in any particular direction. Nearby Yelp business listings will pop up on-screen, complete with ratings.

AR continually evolves each day, and these examples are merely the beginning of what it may become. The technology looks to bring an entirely new experience to interactive shopping, games, social media marketing, and the consumer buying process.

More and more brands are jumping onto social media sites without asking themselves one simple question: Why? Most have walked blindly into the social media arena because it’s free or because everyone else is doing it, without an actual social media strategy. Many have failed to realize that having accounts on Twitter, Facebook or MySpace, posting videos on YouTube, or creating a blog does not mean that you have a social media strategy. All of these efforts are merely marketing tactics and are not effective in engaging customers when not backed by a cohesive plan.  A social media strategy needs to be drafted in order to connect all of your online efforts to an overall purpose.

Search Engine Watch recently posted an article that takes a close look at the difference between marketing tactics and social media strategy.  If you have jumped on the social media bandwagon without creating a solid social media strategy, take some time to consider these important points:

Answering the “Why?”: Why are you using this particular social media tactic? It is important to choose the tools that will work best to implement your strategy. You should be focused on ways to authentically connect to followers and making sure every tactic has a purpose. Start by going to sites where your audience is already interacting.

How to Deploy: Are you going to utilize social media as a place to ask your audience questions, offer advice or keep followers up to date on what is going on with your brand? All too often brands use social media tactics as a way to throw information about their brand at their audience.  Instead, they should be asking themselves how to best engage their target audience.

Defining Your Goals and Measuring: How do you know that your social media strategy is successful? Establish a method for measuring ROI for your social media efforts. There is no universal way to measure a brand’s success in social media, so create a method that is right for your brand. A good place to begin is by benchmarking against competitors. You can also compare your traffic at different stages of the social media campaign. Remember, social media success is not about how many Facebook fans or Twitter followers you have- it’s about engaging your audience and facilitating conversation!

When to Re-evaluate: Although most companies forget to, it is crucial to set points in your strategy for re-evaluation.  This makes it easier to fix something that isn’t working well or better yet, take advantage of something that is working really well.  Here at LoSasso, we launched Brunswick Bowling’s presence in social media with its Win a Wii-a-Day Sweepstakes. Due to the high level of interaction on Facebook and Twitter, our interactive division created a YouTube video contest on the fly. By re-evaluating our efforts during the campaign, we were able to leverage the excitement being generated around the sweepstakes and generate even more social interaction.

If you haven’t already, it’s time to switch gears with your approach to PR. Due to the rapid growth of social media and multiple new outlets, PR is changing lanes. It’s time to shift from a traditional approach (think develop-for-print-placement) to a more centralized web-based compilation of information.

It may seem challenging at first, so the best way to get started is by pulling together all past presentations, articles, case studies, thought perspectives, etc. Once this is compiled, you’ll notice a reoccurrence of certain key topics.

Make these the foundation of your Content Engine, and start developing each topic in different formats. A tech article that was once written, for example, can be demonstrated in a short video, taught in a webinar, delivered in a presentation, etc. Executing the message through multiple channels will strengthen your credibility and expertise on the subject matter.

Thanks to the evolution of the web, it’s easier than ever to share and exchange information. Repackage the high-value content that you’ve already developed to rev up PR exposure via the Content Engine.