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Where To Find Information About New Social Media Trends

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Kevin Curley, Social Media Specialist Christian Science Monitor

Kevin Curley, Social Media Specialist Christian Science Monitor

This week’s social media news comes to us from Kevin Curley, Social Media Specialist at The Christian Science Monitor. He directs the social online engagement strategy for CSMonitor.com, the web version of The Christian Science Monitor. Kevin’s main focus at the Monitor has been to build a loyal audience utilizing email newsletter campaigns and traditional social media platforms.  We asked Kevin where he looks to find the latest social media news.

Q: What sites, books, twitter handles, etc do you read and follow to stay current on the most recent social media trends?

It’s funny to hear people talk about social media trends when I go to conferences or meetings that focus on online marketing. The speakers seem to focus on talking about the cool social campaigns they ran for some big name company with a $500K budget. Then I say I’m from a newspaper and that I was wondering what they can recommend to help me drive more fans. I hear, “buy Facebook ads for a targeted audience,” reach out to “digital influencers,” “have a contest and raffle off something big.” I sit back and get a good chuckle. They never ask, “What type of community do you have?” or “tell me more about what you’re trying to achieve.” It’s always these cookie-cutter approaches. If you’re outside the retail/consumer-based world, social media gets tricky – mainly because we’re not selling a specific product.

But there are a few people who get it. Here in Boston, I like to keep up on what the Hacks/Hackers Meetup group is talking about. A lot of the thinking is big picture, but the best part is the networking – it can always lead to collaborative thinking opportunities. Doug Haslem (@DougH) seems to have a good grip on what’s happening in the social media marketing world. As everyone knows Mashable.com is a great resource for any business trying to do social media without a dedicated staff or budget. I subscribe to a ton of newsletters, but I really like the content sent out by MediaPost. With anything, you have to be aware of your surroundings. At the Monitor, I try to think less like a marketer and more like a reader- go figure. I try to think about the tools I would like to see when visiting CSMonitor.com, and then come up with strategies to meet those needs.

Staying up on trends is great, but what’s trending doesn’t always work for our audience. The web readers that flock to Mashable.com are not the same readers that visit CSMonitor.com every day. I would say the most important thing to remember is always keep your audience in mind. Often, simply by showing the personal side of your organization can go a long way with your fan base, and that doesn’t take a big budget or creative messaging – just a genuine interest in their needs.

If you have suggestions for future Social Media News posts, want to ask questions or share thoughts, please feel free to email me. Thanks! – Laura

Want To Stand Out In The Social Media Crowd? Build A Community Of Loyal Readers

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Kevin Curley, Social Media Specialist Christian Science Monitor

Kevin Curley Social Media Specialist Christian Science Monitor

This week’s social media news comes to us from Kevin Curley, Social Media Specialist at The Christian Science Monitor. He directs the social online engagement strategy for CSMonitor.com, the web version of The Christian Science Monitor. Kevin’s main focus at the Monitor has been to build a loyal audience utilizing email newsletter campaigns and traditional social media platforms.  We asked Kevin a few questions about online newspapers and the social media platforms he manages.

Q: How do you think online newspapers will function and fit in, in the future?

I wish I had the answers. From our standpoint, readers’ access to mobile technology has dramatically revolutionized the way we think about news consumption. No longer can we brag about the number of foreign bureaus or correspondents we have on-the-ground. These days, anyone with a smart phone can break news when and where it is happening. But covering newsworthy events goes way beyond just snapping a photo, uploading it to Twitter, and writing what you saw. That is where newspapers fit in the mix. Both have a role in media, but different roles nonetheless.

Journalists offer depth, context and hopefully, an unbiased perspective – at least that’s what we strive for at the Monitor. I don’t see this changing much in the future. What will change is how we consume news; print vs. online, tablet vs. phone, audio vs. video, etc. I think everyone is trying to figure out what works best, but I would put my money (like so many others) on a multimedia mobile approach; way beyond the iPad.

How will online newspapers function in the future? Anyone can follow trends, write a blog post and ride the wave. But, in my opinion, you have to build a community of  loyal readers to stand out in the crowd. Take Slate.com for example. There you have a site with a relatively small number of unique visitors/month (7.5 million) compared to the enormous number of page views/month (80 million). They follow trends, create great content that readers want, and according to Quantcast, average more than 10 pages per unique visit; i.e. extreme reader loyalty.

I would bet that in every board room of every major news organization, whether television, radio or online, big people with big titles are coming up with big ideas that will  transform their traditional old-school news site into some attractive multimedia landing page for a younger, hipper audience.

My role, is to help this new audience connect deeper to the Monitor community through our social media activity.  By creating a community of engaged readers, we’re hoping they will become CSMonitor.com brand advocates; distributing our content to a larger audience – specifically their friends and family.

Q: How do you manage a Facebook page with over 25K fans and a Twitter account with 9,500+ followers?

Christian Science Monitor Facebook PageManaging Facebook is easy if you set the agenda or tone right away. Fan pages that let the fans dictate the tone can get out of control; its like having your pets sleep on the bed with you. At first, it may be cute, but after awhile, they run the show and you end up not getting any sleep.

When I started the Monitor’s FB page in 2008, I set community rules that stated “no ranting, no name calling” and that the page reflected the mission of the newspaper, “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” Even as the number of fans increased, and with only one full-time staff member monitoring the fan page, the community has continued to be free of ranting – most of the time.

We engage with our readers, uphold the community rules, and most of all – try to create an environment where people feel comfortable offering their opinion. We feel its necessary to show a personal connection with the fans. We’re not perfect, some people get upset when their comment disappears, but overall I’m happy with the community we’ve built. The last time I looked at our Insights, out of the 25K, 85% were active, and we’re averaging about 4,000 interactions a month.

On Twitter, I would say I only invest about 5% of my time managing the account. With an organization trying to do more with less, we realized we can’t invest the time needed to make Twitter a big player for us. We do highlight our ‘Top RT’ers’ and ‘Top Influencers,’ but we don’t seek out influencers – it’s just not our style. In fact, we know that by being a trusted news source on Twitter, we’re the influencer.

Like most news organizations, the bulk of our referring traffic from Twitter comes from readers utilizing the share tools on our website. Looking ahead, we’ll try to expand those opportunities and really try to improve the user experience on CSMonitor.com. There’s probably more we can do with Twitter; Huffington Post, CNN, Mashable.com, and the Daily Beast are always leading the charge – but they’ve got the resources to pull that fancy stuff off with ease. I need to get a couple 100K more page views from Twitter before we start considering it a big player for traffic.

Next week Kevin will tell us where to look online to find the most recent social media news so stay tuned!

If you have suggestions for future Social Media News posts, want to ask questions or share thoughts, please feel free to email me. Thanks! – Laura

FieldEddy and GCAI Bring QR Codes To Local Print Advertisement

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QR Code From FieldEddy AdQR Codes have landed in Springfield thanks to a new ad campaign launched by Garvey Communication Associates Inc. (GCAI) for longtime client, the FieldEddy Insurance Network. While some are still trying to decide whether QR Codes, otherwise known as Quick Response Codes, are the latest fad or in fact a game changer, GCAI has begun to adopt the new technology for virtually all the projects it undertakes. With close to half of the US population using smart phones, QR Code use is expected to expand rapidly.  Essentially, anyone with a smart phone can download a simple to use, free app that will allow them to scan a QR Code and be immediately linked to Internet based content.  Already, most major retailers are using them to link to videos, special offers, and additional product information that would not fit in conventional printed space.  FieldEddy Print Advertisement Featuring QR Code

According to John Garvey, president of GCAI, “The FieldEddy Insurance Network ‘Shopping’ ad was the perfect way to leverage other Internet-based media that was available. Last year, the boys at viz-bang! produced a terrific commercial for us. It built upon the popular ‘Shopping with Wendy’ campaign we launched in 2009. By employing QR Code technology, we were able to leverage that popular video and essentially add Internet capacity to a print ad.”  GCAI already has several other QR Code projects on the design table and will launch several additional ads employing the technology this spring.

The future in social media is sharing experiences-Brian Solis Video Interview

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Brian Solis is described on his website as being “globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media.” He is Founder and President of Future Works, an award-winning digital and social media agency in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. We at Garvey Communication love to hear what he has to say about social media and where the industry is headed so we wanted to share the wealth and post this video interview.

If you liked what you saw and want more watch this video of Brian talking about “social currency.”

If you have suggestions for future Social Media News posts, want to ask questions or share thoughts, please feel free to email me. Thanks! – Laura

This Week’s Social Media Bark: Summer Heat, Facebook’s New Traffic Record, and Microsoft Adds Facebook To Your Outlook

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Summer Heat: Okay, so Al Gore told us to expect global warming…but he didn’t say we’d live in HELL all summer long! I hope you are finding ways to stay cool.

Mary says the results are in on Gregg and John’s “Potty Mouth Over Strategy” video in last week’s update (camera woman Steph Jackman was in on this too): 10 views as of yesterday! Since they feel it was a HUGE success, apparently they are at work on another one. Steph, for our neighbors’ sake, please stop them from filming in the men’s room!

And in other news, here’s my Social Media “Bark” for this week…

– Amanda G

P.S. – If any of you have any questions, or something specific you’d like me to discuss in these updates, please let me know! I can be reached by email at agauthier@askmydog.com, on Twitter at @GarveyComm, or on Facebook on the @Garvey Communication Associates Inc. Page!

Facebook’s New Traffic Record: According to comScore, Facebook had over 141 million unique visitors last month. In June of 2009, there were 77 million. Facebook just keeps growing! If you have any thoughts on if/when the growth may end, we’d love to hear it.

Microsoft Adds Facebook To Your Outlook: You can now read status updates, look at photos, and review wall posts in real time right in Microsoft Outlook. At this time, you are not able to comment or “Like” anything but you can sync your Outlook contacts with your Friends on Facebook. (Note: this is only in Outlook 2010 – so please let John know that GCAI needs to upgrade!).

YouTube Requires Linking Username With Google Account: If you created your YouTube channel before May of 2009, you now need to link your YouTube username with a Google account. Some of you may have already noticed this if you logged into YouTube recently. More information can be found here.