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I don’t normally like to write about the same topic two posts in a row. But then the Facebook IPO valuation started sinking well below the IPO pricing shortly after Monday’s Nasdaq trading started. That took the backlash against Mark Zuckerberg’s company that started with Friday’s less-than-stellar first day of trading to a higher level. And, it seems to me, is now including doubts about social media marketing in general.

I find those doubts in the comments of blog posts such as the one from Business Insider dated last Thursday, which includes an incredibly cluttered infographic taken from a recent Buddy Media conference. The post’s title, “This INSANE Graphic Shows How Complicated Social Media Marketing Is Now” is very effective clickbait; it’s been making the rounds on my Twitter feed since its publication. And the graphic itself is extraordinarily deceptive and obviously intended to help Buddy Media sell its products – many of the company logos crowding the graphic wouldn’t be relevant to any businesses’ use of social media marketing. They’re included simply because they’re social media-related.

A few of the post’s commenters shared my skepticism, but others saw it as their cue to pile on: social media marketing is a scam, those practicing it will be “flipping burgers” in a few years (in the words of one commenter), yada yada yada.

It was the same reaction to B.L. Ochman’s DigitalNext post on AdAge.com. Ochman took GM to task for its decision to stop spending money on Facebook ads, which we covered last Friday here on the Splash Media blog. Ochman argues that GM is unhappy with its results on Facebook because it’s putting up the wrong kind of content. Again, the commenter floodgates opened up; social media won’t get the same results as TV ads, companies don’t need to outsource their social media marketing, etc.

It doesn’t take much to get social media marketing’s critics screeching. The lackluster Facebook stock debut is fresh blood in the water for them. Just a few points to keep in mind:

• Social media is here to stay because it’s powered by the customers/users/consumers. Are social media’s critics expecting them to go away anytime soon? And some businesses will need outsourced services because they can’t come up with the content they need by themselves to generate leads. They’re a tad busy.
• Yes, Facebook needs to get its ads initiative together. No, people aren’t doing a whole lot of clicking right now on any kind of advertising on social media networks. But it’s only Round One in this fight, folks. Facebook’s geniuses still have time to crack this, and a third-party type may come up with a winning idea that stresses some kind of unique audience participation, probably on the mobile side of things.
• Social media marketers get to sell their products to prospective clients like anyone else (You seriously think we’re going to gripe about that?) Buddy Media has every right to use whatever content it can to push its products, just like Splash Media does. But we as marketing professionals also have to manage expectations well and not promise the moon. When we don’t, we shoot ourselves in both feet and give our critics plenty of ammunition to do the same.

Businesses get to ask all the questions they can about whether social media marketing is right for them. But they shouldn’t use the hype surrounding Facebook’s IPO pricing- and the accompanying Greek choruses of doom from social media’s critics – as the basis for their decisions.

Renay San Miguel is the Chief Content Officer at Splash Media and On-Air Talent and Host with Spark360.tv. You can find him on Twitter @PrimoMedia. Click here to see all of Renay’s blog posts.

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As of this writing (mid-morning Central Time on Facebook IPO Day), Mark Zuckerberg’s newly-minted Nasdaq stock is trading around $40 a share, only slightly above its initial offering price of $38. If the day ends with a lackluster premiere for Facebook as a public company, expect the critiques of the company’s business model outlook – especially its ads program – to continue.

Friday morning’s activities are obviously important for Facebook, since it’s now valued at more than $100 billion – the first time that a U.S.-based company started public trading at those stratospheric heights. So yes, there’s history in the making here. But the real clues for Facebook’s long-term success lay in what happened Thursday night at the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.

There, Facebook programmers engaged in an all-night “hackathon,” memorably depicted in the Oscar-winning movie about the company, “The Social Network.” These energy drink-fueled sessions have the company’s coding geniuses and business development strategists working on ideas that might end up as popular new FB products, services and features. It’s a good bet that some of the late-night projects are focusing on mobile marketing initiatives, something that Facebook itself has admitted it needs to work on, since more people are now logging on to the network, and uploading content, from their smartphones.

But the ads offerings drew significant attention earlier in the week because of General Motors’ curiously-timed announcement that it was not impressed with the results of its current round of Facebook ads, so it will stop spending money on them immediately. The tech blogosphere pounced on this news, as did the mainstream media which quickly added the development to its Facebook IPO hype agenda.

The best item I’ve read yet that helps explain why GM’s decision may not be that big of a deal is from Matt Wilson writing at Ragan.com. The story brings up how competitor Ford is happier with its results because it’s integrating more interactive ads into its overall marketing mix. This highlights another potential winner for Facebook ads, besides the targeted data that can help brands zero in on customers and their friends – getting millions of people to actually engage with ad content within the platform.

Another good story, this one on Ad Age, lists other successes involving Facebook ads. But the big question it poses remains: should businesses who are making good use of the free side of Facebook need to spend money to advertise there too?

Wherever FB ends up trading on its first day on the Nasdaq, it’s still going to raise an awful lot of cash. That money will be invested in solving the ads problem and in building out a mobile initiative. At this point, my money is on Facebook – not as an actual financial investment on my part, but as a figurative bet on my belief in social media marketing in general, since all this talk puts a big exclamation point on the idea that social networks are a good place to do business.

Now it’s your turn: What do you think of the Facebook IPO? How can Facebook get a handle on the advertising question? Please share your thoughts in our Comments section below.

 

 

 

 

 

Social media consultant/author Gary Vaynerchuk has been busy since Splash Media spoke with him in Dallas in June 2011. His New York-based company VaynerMedia is now opening an office in San Francisco, he was named to Fortune’s list of Social Media Influencers earlier this year, and he has appeared on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Live” and other news outlets to talk about the latest developments involving Facebook, Twitter and the like.

At the time Splash spoke with Vaynerchuk, he had just published “The Thank You Economy,” his latest book on how businesses are using social media to generate leads and narrow the gap between brands and customers.

If you run a healthcare-related business, you might have questioned if social media offered any kind of prescription for success. After all, compliance issues and questions about the transparency required to take advantage of the potential in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube might have scared off some businesses faster than an immunization needle can spook a toddler.

But a recent study (registration required) from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC shows that more consumers and hospitals are using Facebook and other social media to shorten the distance between patients and doctors.

Perhaps more importantly for health-related companies; patients are talking to each other about the quality of care they receive.

The survey’s highlights:

• A third of the more than 1,000 consumers surveyed said they were willing to share their health information with other patients.
• 47 percent were sharing health information via doctors on social media.
• 38 percent were using social media to talk to insurance companies.
• 16 percent posted social media reviews of doctors, treatments and drugs.
• 28 percent supported health-related causes via social media.

The PwC survey also included some 124 healthcare executives, and that research determined that there were now about 1,200 hospitals taking part in 4,200 social networking sites.

“Early adopters in the health industry tell PwC that despite concerns about integrating social media into data analytics and measuring its effectiveness, they are incorporating social media into their business strategy,” said the report. “Not long ago, terms such as liking, following, tagging, and stumbling all had very different meanings. But in the era of social media, they provide the clues that could lead to higher quality care, more loyal customers, efficiency, and even revenue growth.”

Obviously, we concur with that diagnosis. Hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices should know by now that they are already being discussed, rated and reviewed online. But small/midsize businesses involved in the healthcare field – either business-to-consumer or business-to-business – are getting more research data available to them showing business advantages to using social media. These play right in to government-sponsored mandates for more usage of electronic health records, which also can help with office efficiencies. But the real-time aspects of social media help businesses deal with vendors and others in the supply chain, and they can ease patient concerns, answer questions and solve customer service issues.

All of that can make the medicine go down a lot smoother for healthcare-related businesses – and those they serve.

Can you share any instances of hospitals, clinics or doctors’ offices using social media in creative/innovative ways? Please write them down in our Comments section.

Renay San Miguel is the Chief Content Officer at Splash Media and On-Air Talent and Host with Spark360.tv. You can find him on Twitter @PrimoMedia. Click here to see all of Renay’s blog posts.

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We always knew search engines would eventually incorporate more social network buzz in their results – an evolution in search that businesses need to know about and leverage.

We just thought it would be Google, not Bing, leading the way.

But late this week, Microsoft’s latecomer to the search market announced that it would soon be launching a new, improved version of Bing that sticks a social “sidebar” on the right-hand side of search results. “Whether it’s making a purchase, deciding on a vacation destination, choosing a great restaurant, or figuring out which movie to see this weekend, the new Bing focuses on bringing friends, experts and enthusiasts into your search experience,” says a post on the Bing blog. (BTW, saying “Bing blog” three times real fast gets our vote for the Tongue-Twister of the Week).

The Sidebar does that by including relevant information to your search queries from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Quora – and in what has to be a direct dig at the current search engine leader, Google+. You know what Google search results turn up right now when you click on its “social” tab? Google+. And that’s it. That clanging sound you hear is Microsoft throwing down a big search engine optimization-friendly gauntlet in Google’s direction.

Yes, Bing is making other changes, boosting its algorithms to provide more relevant web results and introducing Snapshot, the center third of its results page that puts related information like maps, reviews and e-commerce links out front. Bing says this will make it easy for users to take the next step after searching, such as booking flights, buying products, etc.  But let’s be clear; integrating social network results into regular Bing results is a giant step for Microsoft and the search industry. It also should be obvious now to businesses that they have to monitor their online reputations, put their best social content out there, and start optimizing that content if they’re not doing so already.

The new Bing may not make a widely-used verb out of its product name a la Google. But it should still push businesses to take some positive action regarding their social media profiles. We can expect Google to fire back with its own improved version of social search, but businesses shouldn’t wait until the Google-Bing cold war reaches that level.

Renay San Miguel is the Chief Content Officer at Splash Media and On-Air Talent and Host with Spark360.tv. You can find him on Twitter @PrimoMedia. Click here to see all of Renay’s blog posts.

Stay up-to-date on the latest in social media marketing; subscribe to our award-winning blog!

Small business owners who have taken the social media marketing plunge may run into challenges or questions every now and then, and they may wonder, “Gee, if there were only a rulebook for a situation like this.”

Now there is: “Social Rules! For Entrepreneurs and Small Business – A Common Sense Guide To Social Media Marketing” is the first book published by Paul Slack, Splash Media co-founder, chief learning officer and president of Splash Media U. “Social Rules!” is now available to order online at Amazon.com and at Barnes and Noble bookstores.

In this SplashCast, Slack tells host Renay San Miguel about the book’s foundation: his experience as a web marketing veteran combined with the 65,000-plus hours of real-world social media marketing strategies used by Splash Media’s specialists.

Stay up-to-date on the latest in social media marketing; subscribe to our award-winning blog!

Maybe it’s the fact that Splash Media co-founder Paul Slack is getting ready to publish his first book  – “Social Rules! For Entrepreneurs and Small Business” and we’ll have more on that development this week in our SplashCast – but it got me to thinking about books in general, technology’s disruptive impact on publishing and what role social media is playing in the business.

Here’s one thing you can read into all this: publishing in particular helps highlight the power of the recommendation engine that is social media.

My Kindle helps illustrate this point. Like a lot of other people, Amazon’s wildly successful e-reader has boosted my consumption of books. A lot of it has to do with convenience; my latest download, the next volume in Robert Caro’s biography of Lyndon Johnson, weighs in at 736 pages. But my Kindle sure didn’t feel any heavier after the book wirelessly arrived on its hard drive last week, so it and other books-slash-doorstops on my reading list all fit neatly into my backpack.

Yet Amazon also knows only too well that reading is now a solitary and social activity. When you finish a book on a Kindle, its software gives you a chance to tweet/share your thoughts on it. And a lot has already been written about Amazon.com’s user-generated reviews, which can be interesting reading on their own. (The comments on Caro’s new book, as of this writing, are split: half love the book, the other half are giving it one star because they believe LBJ was behind John F. Kennedy’s assassination and Caro apparently refuses to address that in the book. As I said, interesting.)

Goodreads.com is the latest example of real-world book clubs morphing into powerful online communities. Goodreads, which launched in 2006 and bills itself as the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations, has received a lot of publicity in recent weeks for its part in discovering “Fifty Shades of Grey,” E.L. James’ soft-core S&M fantasy that is the latest bookselling sensation.

According to Goodreads features editor Jessica Donaghy, that ability to influence the overall discussion on books is due to the online discussions happening between bookworms. “One of the top pieces of feedback that we hear from our members is how much they trust the book reviews on Goodreads,” Donaghy told Splash Media in an email. ” Because they are written by fellow book lovers, there is this sense that the reviews are written by people you can relate to.”

Indeed, Goodreads (with 8 million members who have added 280 million books on the site) was founded on the belief that some of the best book recommendations come from friends: when you check out a book on the site, reviews from your friends are shown first. When you first sign up at Goodreads, rating books on a five-star scale gets you recommendations from the site’s algorithms. Adding friends puts the human touch into the mix.

The social touch comes with the ability to follow those whose reviews are trusted.  This has expanded the Goodreads universe Donaghy said. “Members have connected all over the US and also internationally as a result. All of this was not possible before the existence of Goodreads, which offers the chance to find book recommendations from readers outside your immediate social circle.”

And of course, you can sign in to Goodreads with your Facebook, Twitter or Google+ accounts. “We designed Goodreads to be social from the start.  You can share your reviews (and reading status updates, books you are adding to read and book ratings) with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.  We were also one of the companies invited to create an app for the launch of Facebook Timeline.  All of this increases the conversation about books.”

Donaghy says she and her editorial staff always see an increase in those conversations at this time of the year, as the buzz starts to build for the summer reading season. Generating early interest on Goodreads’ communities: Tana French’s “Broken Harbor,” Chris Cleave’s “Gold” and Robert Goolrick’s “Heading Out To Wonderful.”

All of this, of course, actually plays into a key theme in Slack’s “Social Rules!” – people buy from people they trust. Whether it’s books or your business’ products/services, social media is writing a new chapter in the Big Book of Recommendations.

Renay San Miguel is the Chief Content Officer at Splash Media and On-Air Talent and Host with Spark360.tv. You can find him on Twitter @PrimoMedia. Click here to see all of Renay’s blog posts.

Stay up-to-date on the latest in social media marketing; subscribe to our award-winning blog!

I am excited to share with you the 3rd installment in our series on online friendships and the effects of the Internet – and social media – on interpersonal relationships.  

If you are just joining us, be sure to get caught up by reading the backstory of the group of women this series is highlighting, as well as the first half of Operation Rescue Rudy.

Our story so far: Rudy, my friend’s former family dog, had been successfully rescued from a shelter in Wisconsin and taken to a Chicago veterinarian. He only needed a vet there to sign off on a clean bill of health, then he could fly home to his original family.

Now I’ll hand the narration back to Erika for the conclusion of this touching story. 

The phone rang. It was the vet that my online mom friend had found for Rudy. He told me that he couldn’t sign off on Rudy’s health certificate because the dog had a high fever, a very enlarged lymph node and an unknown infection. We discussed treatment options and a plan of action, but the bottom line was that Rudy couldn’t be put on a plane until the health certificate was signed.

My online friend, who had already gone above and beyond to help us out, generously offered to keep Rudy while he received treatment. But a huge snow storm was scheduled to hit Chicago soon; if Rudy couldn’t make his flight, there was a possibility that the weather conditions could strand him there for a while.

While all this was going on, I was posting regular status updates about Rudy’s health to my Facebook profile and Rudy’s FB page. I was still hoping for suggestions. One of the other moms from the online group offered to ask a “friend of a friend,” a truck driver, if she would be able to help us transport Rudy home. This scenario felt like such a stretch, but as luck would have it, the trucker was en route to Chicago on her way back to Washington state and was scheduled to be in the Windy City the very next day – the day Rudy was supposed to be getting on his flight.

I gave the trucker a call. As it turns out, she is a huge dog person and even travels with her two Dachshunds in her truck. She agreed to help us out right away. This situation seemed unbelievable to me. I was thanking my lucky stars for having so many amazing friends scattered in all the right places! After some logistical details were worked out, a plan was in place for my friend to meet up with the trucker and get Rudy on his way home.

The big day arrived. I got a text with a picture from my friend showing Rudy not only on the truck, but in the driver’s seat! He was smiling from ear to ear; he was always such a happy dog. I cried with relief knowing Rudy was finally on his way home to us and would be here in a few short days.

OK, they turned out to be really longdays.  I didn’t sleep much during this ordeal.

On the morning he was to arrive, I received a phone call from the trucker; she was just a couple of hours away. We arranged a place and time to meet and take Rudy.

The entire family – my kids, husband and my mother – got ready quickly and piled into our van. Washington was about to have a snow storm; if any of you know Washingtonians, then you know we don’t drive well in snow. We hightailed it out and got to the delivery address as fast as we could. A drive that normally takes an hour took us 45 minutes.

We arrived, parked and got out just in time to see Rudy RUNNING at full Dalmatian speed to us from a location that was about a football field away. Everyone who has had a senior dog knows they don’t run well. But you definitely couldn’t tell that Rudy is 10-11 years old. He raced to us and covered us with kisses.

“He remembers us!” we all cheered. His reunion with us was over in a hurry, however, since his mission seemed to be to get into our van, which he also remembered. He jumped in and sat down in the spot that was his when he was ours all those years ago.

What a sweet, sweet reunion it was.

None of this would have happened if I hadn’t met my amazing friends online eight years ago.  We stick together via social media and go to great lengths to help each other out. I am very thankful for them. Going through this was also a good lesson for me. I am used to having so much control over everything in my life, and I felt out of my comfort zone during these Rudy rescue days. I learned that it is good to trust and it is okay to rely on people who want to help you.

As I type this Rudy is snoring in his plush dog bed, enjoying the familiar smells of his people – and his forever home.

Here is a (bit shaky) video we took of the reunion:

Melissa Ruggles is a Splash Media Social Media Manager and On-Air Talent & Live Social Media Show Co-Host for Splash Media U.  You can find her on Twitter @AspenRayne.  Click here to see all of Melissa’s blog posts.

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The Denver-based mobile marketing company SpyderLynk has spun quite a web of activity since Splash Media interviewed CEO Nicole Skogg in August 2011.

The company’s chief products – SnapTags and Social SnapTags – are QR codes on steroids: they allow marketers to embed barcodes into logos and social media icons, thereby taking interactive marketing to another level. That technology has proved attractive in terms of new projects and partnerships for SpyderLynk, according to an update email Skogg sent Splash Media:

• In perhaps the most important development for SpyderLynk, the U.S. Patent Office has approved a patent for SpyderLynk’s SnapTag technology. “Our solution is now officially recognized for its unique value and as a key differentiator in the marketplace,” Skogg told Splash Media. “We’re delighted to reach this next step in our business evolution.”
• SpyderLynk’s new Snap-To-Buy technology – shoot a SnapTag to instantly buy a product – is such an attractive option for mobile e-commerce that Glamour Magazine partnered with Skogg’s company for a couple of special projects. Glamour has also used Social SnapTags.
• Bestselling author Jeffrey Hazlett used SnapTags at the beginning of each chapter of his new book “Running The Gauntlet” as a way to expand content offerings for readers.
• Just a sampling of SnapTags’ major brand partnerships: Wrigley, Office Depot, Casa Noble Tequila, Bud Light, Coke Zero, Toyota.
• Skogg and SpyderLynk continue to rack up major speaking engagements and awards. Skogg will be presenting at the Mobile Marketing Association Forum NYC event in June and just spoke at the Ad: Tech conference in San Francisco in April. She was also named to the Producers Guild of America’s 2011 “Digital 25″ list, joining the like of Lady Gaga and Alicia Keys.

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George Harrison’s guitar may have gently wept, but it was Dave Carroll’s $3500 Taylor six-string that wailed the loudest.

The result was one of the best-know instances of a consumer using social media to level the playing field with a large company. But that broken guitar also changed Dave’s life, and his forthcoming book about his experiences, “United Breaks Guitars”  has a subtitle that provides a musical lesson of sorts for companies of all sizes: “The Power Of One Voice In The Age Of Social Media.”

The story has been told many times in the social media marketing blogosphere, and there are great details in David Meerman Scott’s latest book, “Real-Time Marketing and PR.” The short version: back in 2008, Dave and his band were flying United Airlines from Nova Scotia to Omaha. They had checked their guitars in baggage. When they changed planes at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, they noticed the ground crew carelessly tossing their guitars around. His Taylor was badly damaged. When he complained, United not only took its time responding, but ultimately refused to pay for the damage.

So Dave wrote a humorous protest song, “United Breaks Guitars” and shot a YouTube for it. In less than a week, the video registered millions of views with the help of bloggers. It hit another level of publicity as Dave’s story hit the mainstream media. Dave not only got a new guitar from Taylor Guitars, he got a model of guitar named after him, and United ultimately apologized – but not before learning a harsh lesson on what YouTube can accomplish in the hands of an irate, albeit musically-gifted, customer.

United now uses “United Breaks Guitars” in its customer service training. Dave now uses “United Breaks Guitars” as the basis for an additional career as a consumer advocate. He is a co-founder of Gripevine.com, a website that aims to make it easier for customers to vent their complaints, and also attempts to help companies become more transparent and respond faster to those gripes. And his first book comes out in mid-May, featuring a forward from noted Forrester Research social media analyst Josh Bernoff.

“United Breaks Guitars” happened three years ago. What grade would Dave give corporate America in 2012 on its use of social media to resolve customer service issues?

“I think that embracing social media is a process just underway,” he told me in an email, “but as more companies accept that social media is here to stay, that consumers have the ability to expose poor products or services, and that brands are co-created more than ever, their grades will rise. The companies that hold onto old paradigms and don’t change will become irrelevant and disappear, I believe.

“Opening up a Facebook page and Twitter account is the tip of the iceberg. There are still many large corporations holding onto the antiquated notion that they can still control the conversation about their brand when in actuality, social media dictates that leading the conversation is the new reality in brand management.”

Gripevine is helping moderate that conversation. Carroll said the site is exceeding his expectations, given that it’s only two months old; more than 25,000 visitors a month stay for more than 7 minutes at a time, and more than 500 consumers have opened accounts. But perhaps more importantly, more than 100 companies, including some Fortune 1000 brands like Coca-Cola and Verizon, are participating in Gripevine’s Resolution Platform which monitors social media conversations.

“What makes us unique for businesses is the ability to engage offline with customers as opposed to having to engage on a message board, and companies like that,” Carroll writes. “What I’m most proud about Gripevine is our goal of solving problems between consumers and companies, as opposed to helping people bash companies, or aid companies in avoiding taking responsibility for bad service.  We don’t choose sides in a confrontation.  We choose to see conflict as something negative and resolving conflict as a win-win for both consumers and companies.”

Small and large companies would do well to reacquaint themselves with “United Breaks Guitars.” It might help them from singing their own version of the customer service blues.

Are you familiar with “United Breaks Guitars?” How well do you think major brands are doing in their use of social media to right customer service mistakes? Let us know in our Comments section.

Renay San Miguel is the Chief Content Officer at Splash Media and On-Air Talent and Host with Spark360.tv. You can find him on Twitter @PrimoMedia. Click here to see all of Renay’s blog posts

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