But I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For...

This week in MT8425 we're discussing web metrics or the ways that we can determine whether our web campaigns are successful. For me lately, a big related question has been how are people finding the information they need when they go online.

The web is a giant sea of information. Social media has expanded the resources available to everyone because as it turns consumers of media into producers, information grows exponentially via blogs, tweets, wikis, and image and video uploading sites.

This is a great step forward for democratic communication, however it presents the public with a serious problem. How do we sift through the barrage of information in order to find exactly what we are looking for? And once we think we've found what we are looking for, how do we know the information we've found is reliable and trustworthy.

Of course if business leaders and social media experts could figure this one out, it would allow us to really reach our target audience more efficiently, but as the situation stands right now, one of the biggest challenges of online or social media PR is getting your message out amidst a sea of competing messages.

Here's what we do know:

1. Google is still the most popular search engine, and has been for years.
2. People who use Google seldom make it past the first page of search results.
3. You can't beat Google - they always update and refine their algorithm, so SEO or search engine optimization cannot trick the search engine into moving your website higher up in the list.

But in addition I also suspect the following:

1. People tend to use Google to find websites that they already trust when they are looking for information. In other words, they'll go to a traditional media outlet first, because they know they can trust names like The Globe and Mail, or The New York Times.
2. People will also click through to information provided by their social network (on or offline) but they tend to do this more often when presented with an interesting link, not when they are looking for specific information.
3. People probably have a relatively small number of sites which they consult on a regular basis, therefore when they find something they can count on, they will regularly return to it.

I am in the process of researching the final three points. All data we gain will give us clues that can help us better reach people with the message we want to send. If we know what sites people actively seek, then we can leverage that information in order to get the public to come to us, so that we do not have to work as hard to go to them.

Social Media and Loss of Control

One of the challenges posed by social media is its inherent opening up of who is able to speak on any given topic or issue.

This is great if you happen to be one of the few people who posts a funny video that happens to go viral, but not so great if you are a company who is desperate to control everything about your online image. However, if you can maintain a bit of a sense of humor, and keep a few key principals in mind, you will be in a better position to withstand the slings and arrows of outrageous participation.

One of the great truisms of PR is that "you never get a second chance to make a first impression." While this is certainly true for any person or product, it's also true to say that for most products "any news is good news" or in other words, as long as people are talking about you and your product, it doesn't matter what they're saying because at least they're talking about you.

However, in most cases, companies and organizations still focus on the first truism outlined above, and they forget about the second. In this case, when the conversation about a product or company turns negative (as it almost invariably does, because you can't please every person all the time) companies tend to run screaming away from social media, considering it a failed experiment. But what are other options to deal with bad word of mouth while maintaining an open social media campaign?

First of all, you must recognize that social media is always going to take more time than you think. Especially when word of mouth is not on your side, you need to take extra time to carefully consider and respond to the concerns of your detractors.

Secondly, recognize that not every criticism carries equal weight. Some people are going to be forever difficult to please, others just want to stir the pot and create drama. The fact is, that if most reasonable people see that you are considering critique and making an honest effort to do best by your customer, they will recognize when other people are being unreasonable or trying to stir up trouble.

Finally be transparent in your dealings with other people and be as authentic as possible. Secrets do not hide well on the Internet. People appreciate truth and accountability, and if you do not provide these things you will be called out. It's only a matter of time.

MT8425 2011 Syllabus

For those of you who want to show your friends all the cool stuff we're doing ;)

Digital Media in Practice/ Special Topics in Marketing


Course Description
The first half of this course provides a review of current and emerging digital media, with particular emphasis on social media enabled by web 2.0 and their impacts on a variety of industry sectors such as marketing and advertising, government and health care. In the second half of the course, students will analyse needs and develop strategies for effective use of new digital media in particular organizational contexts. Topics will include: a review of digital media, consumption of digital media, assessing user needs and feasibility and applications of digital media and measurement. Teams will present on a particular application and students will write independent papers. (1 credit)

Objectives
This course will provide
• An overview of the basic elements of social media technology and its applications: including active use of/familiarity with Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Analytics, Wikis and Blogging
• An exploration of consumer media consumption and behaviours and the implications of demographic factors – age, gender and culture, in particular.
• An examination of the key elements in designing an effective social media strategy
• An examination of the practical challenges involved in social media use
• An exploration of its impacts on key sectors – eg. Public relations, infotainment, government/knowledge management and not-for-profit enterprises
• Application of these principles to a real live problem
• Review, critique and reflection.


Texts and Readings
From Amazon:
Philip Kotler, et. al., Marketing 3.0. Wiley, 2010
Liana Evans “Social Media Marketing: Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter and Other Social Media”Que Publishing, 2010
Avinash Kaushik, Web Analytics 2.0. Wiley, 2010
Readings as assigned

Evaluation
Weekly blog entry related to question of the week: 20%
Class Participation: 10% (note this will include appropriate use of the course wiki, LinkedIn and Twitter to communicate with the class)
Wiki Participation 10%
Class Presentation: 25%
Final Paper: 35%

Topics and Schedule
JANUARY 11 - Week 1: Introduction to digital media technology and applications
Objectives: Students will be provided with an overview of current social media technologies including Blogs, Facebook, Linked-In, Microblogging applications such as Twitter, Image and Video sharing applications such as YouTube and Flickr, and online collaboration applications such as Google Docs. Students will be expected to set up accounts on Linked-In, as well as a Blog and a Twitter page for the duration of this course.

Lecture: Introduction to the Course and Social Media: Separating the Hype from the Reality

Weekly Assignment: This week, students are to set up their blog and Twitter page and provide a link to it on the course wiki. Each week, students will update their Twitter page and keep a journal of course-related reflections on their blog.

Readings:
Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 210-230.
Brabham, D. (2008). Crowdsourcing as a model for problem solving: An introduction and cases.Convergence, 14(1), 75.
Constantinides, E., and Fountain, S. J. (2008). Web 2.0: Conceptual foundations and marketing issues. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice 9, 231–244.
Hallerman, D. (2010). What Marketers Can Learn From the Old Spice 'Your Man' Campaign: Stick to P&G's Well-Stirred Mix of the Three Media: Paid, Owned and Earned. Advertising Age Retrieved January 4, 2010 from http://adage.com/digitalnext/post?article_id=145603
Kotler, Chapters 1, 2
Evans, Chapters 1 - 4

Suggested Additional Reading:
‘Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything ’ by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams

Questions of the Week: There is no question for this week. Instead students are asked to set up their blog and link it to the wiki, and make sure they have written their blog entry for week two before our January 18, 2011 class.

JANUARY 18 Week 2: Social Media Technology and Consumer Behaviour
Objectives: This session will review the literature on consumer behavior and the segmentation of media users in general and digital media user in particular. Specific attention will be focused on generational, gender and cultural differences that affect media creation and consumption.

Lecture: What do we know about (pro)sumption of Social Media? The digital divide. Internet use in Canada. Understanding consumers and conversation.

CONFIRM STUDENT PRESENTATION SCHEDULE.

Readings:
Parise, S., Guinan, P.J. (2008). Marketing using web 2.0. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Proceedings of the 41st Annual. Retrieved January 4, 2011 from IEEE Wiley eBooks Library
Zickhur, K. (2010). Generations 2010. Pew Internet and American Life Project. Retrieved January 4, 2011 from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Generations 2010.aspx
Evans, Chapters 5 – 15
Rohle, T. (2007). Desperately seeking the consumer: Personalized search engines and the commercial exploitation of user data. First Monday, 12(9).
‘Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers’ by Shel Israel and Robert Scoble Introduction and Chapter 11
The People Formerly Known as the Audience’ by Jay Rosen

Questions of the Week: (To be answered on the blog): What does the Pew Internet and American life project tell us about trends in social media use? How can we use these findings to target a marketing campaign? Identify one of your favorite social media campaigns? How did this campaign work to target a certain demographic of Internet users?

JANUARY 25 Week 3: Challenges of Social Media technologies
Objectives: To discuss the “dark side” of social media from identity theft to cyber crime, This session will explore challenges of privacy and information security as they relate to social media applications. To determine how these two challenges may affect organizations looking to use social media applications, and their clients/stakeholders

Lecture: The Dark Side of Social Media. Privacy, Security and Unintended Consequences.

Student Presentations x 2:Unintended consequences

Readings:
Joost, H. Schulman, A. (2010). Catfish [motion picture]. Jarecki A. and Joost H. (Producers).Distributed by Rogue Pictures
Buchanan, T., Paine, C., Joinson, A. N., Reips, U. (2007). Development of measures of online privacy concern and protection for use on the Internet. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 58(2). Pp. 157-165.
Young, A. L., and Quan-Haase, A. (2009). Information Revelation and Internet Privacy Concerns on Social Network Sites: A Case Study of Facebook C&T’09. Retrieved Jan 4, 2011 from http://www.iisi.de/fileadmin/IISI/upload/2009/p265.pdf

Questions of the Week: How are the views about social media expressed in the Young and Quan-Haase article different from those expressed in Joost and Schulman documentary? Which do you think is more accurate? How should we as social media experts be thinking about identity theft and privacy in the context of using social media for our businesses and client outreach?

FEBRUARY 1 Week 4: Social Media Planning and Measurement
Objectives: Students will learn about strategies to measure the effectiveness of social media campaigns. They will also learn the challenges that exist in this relatively new field. They will be introduced to web measurement applications such as Google Analytics and discover the benefits and drawbacks of using these applications.

Lecture: How do we measure success? What tools are available?

Student Presentations x2 – Approaches to social media measurement.
Bughin, J., Shenkan, A., & Singer, M. (2009). How poor metrics undermine digital marketing [Electronic Version]. McKinsey Quarterly. Retrieved July 15, 2009 from Business Source Premier database.
Kaushik, A. (2007). Successful Web Analytics Approaches [video]. Retrieved January 6, 2011 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpDxGrSqA-E
Kaushik, A. (2008). Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity. Chapters TBD.

Question of the Week: How can we measure the success of a social media campaign? What factors do Kaushik and others tell us must be considered when looking at the raw numbers?

FEBRUARY 8 Week 5. Social Media Strategic Planning
Objectives: To discuss strategic planning for social media adoption. To determine the appropriate steps for initiating a successful social media plan. To discuss the strengths and weaknesses of proposed strategic plans for commercial enterprises, governments, and not-for-profit enterprises that are looking to adopt web 2.0 social media technologies.

Lecture: Planning when you cannot predict

Readings:
Kotler, Chapters 3-6
Evans, Chapters 16-33
Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2007). Creating a coherent social strategy for business. Retrieved July 30, 2009, 2009, from http://www.slideshare.net/scweir/creating-a-coherent-social-strategy-for-business
Evans, J. (2008). Developing a social media framework. Retrieved July 30, 2009, from http://glengarrynet.com/Clients/seq/CreatingaSocialMediaStrategy.pdf
Katsioloudes, M. I., & Tymon, W. G. (2003). Strategic planning practices: Are they what they should be? Human Systems Management, 22, 177-183.
McDonald, D. (2007). How to develop a business-aligned social media and social networking strategy [Electronic Version]. Dennis McDonald's Web Site. Retrieved July 30, 2009 from http://www.ddmcd.com/managing-technology/how-to-develop-a-business-aligned-social-media-social-networ.html.

Questions of the Week: What does a social media strategic plan look like? Should social media strategic plans be different for different types of organizations? What are best practices when developing a strategic plan for social media adoption?

FEBRUARY 15 Week 6: Social Media Trends
The session will explore emerging trends. What is the next “big thing”?

Lecture: What is leading edge in the social media space?

Readings:
Kozinets, R.V. (1999). E-Tribalized Marketing?: The Strategic Implications of Virtual Communities of Consumption. European Management Journal Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 252 264,
Hsu, C., Lu, H. (2007). Consumer behavior in online game communities: A motivational factorperspective. Computers in Human Behavior 23 pp. 1642-1650
Williams, E. (2009). Listening to Twitter users [video]. TED talks. Retrieved January 6. 2011 from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/evan_williams_on_listening_to_twitter_users.html

Questions of the Week: How can we design our social media marketing plans to ensure the engagement of our target audience? What tips can we gain from the readings to help us understand how to engage people from both a social and an entertainment perspective?

FEBRUARY 21 – 28 NO CLASSSES READING WEEK

FEBRUARY 28 – MARCH 4 NO CLASSES INTEGRATIVE WEEK

WEEKS 7/8 MARCH 8/15: Social Media in Business
Objectives: These two weeks will explore cases for using social media in business and PR efforts. It will draw upon the readings to present both opportunities and challenges of social media in a business context. It will show why people form communities and pass on information online, and how these behaviors can be utilized in a professional context

Student Presentations x 2 (each week):Social Media in Business

Question of the Week: What are the potential benefits of web 2.0 social media applications in a business context? How is communicating with customers using social media technologies different from previous customer-oriented communication?

Readings:
Kotler, Chapters 7-10

MARCH 22: Social Media Technology and Government

Objectives: This week will examine the democratic potential of web 2.0 technologies and their use in the public sector. It will show how social media technologies can be a useful way for people to influence government processes, but this is not without challenges to information security and privacy

Student Presentations x 2:Social Media in Government

Readings:
Bevarly, Dan, & Ulma, Jeffery G. (2008). Citizen Involvement in The Digital Age. The Public Manager. December 22, 2007, Volume 36, Issue 4. Source:http://thepublicmanager.org/cs/blogs/featured/archive/2008/06/13/citizen-involvement in-the-digital-age.aspx
Carpenter, S. (2009). Q&A with Rory Sutherland: An advertarian's take on the world. TED.com.Retrieved January 6. 2011 from: http://blog.ted.com/2009/10/15/qa_with_rory_su/
DiGiammarino, F., & Trudeau, L. (2008). Virtual Networks: An Opportunity for Government.The Public Manager, Spring 2008, Volume 37, Issue 1, ABI/INFORM Global, Pg. 5-11.
Noveck, Beth Simone (2009). Wiki-Government. How open-source technology can make government decision-making more expert and more democratic. Source: http://www.democracyjournal.org

Questions of the Week: Are social technologies creating a shift towards a better functioning model of democratic involvement? Or is this just an illusion? According to the articles, how can governments best leverage web 2.0 technologies to meet the needs of their communities?

MARCH 29 Week 8: Social Media and Nonprofit Organizations
Objectives: To examine the ways that not-for-profit organizations can use social media technology to achieve their goals. To discover how online tools can help not-for-profit organizations build brand communities, and to show how the specific strength of not-for-profit organizations can be beneficial to online involvement.

Student Presentations x 2:Social media in nonprofits

Readings:
Godin, S. (2009). The tribes we lead [video]. TEDtalks. Retrieved January 6, 2011 from: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html
Hassay, D. N., & Peloza, J. (2009). Building the charity brand community. Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing, 21(1), 24-55.
Spencer, T. (2002). The potential of the Internet for non-profit organizations. First Monday, 7(8).
Shirky, C. (2009). How social media can make history [video]. TEDtalks. Retrieved January 6, 2011 from: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/clay_shirky_how_cellphones_twitter_facebook_can_make_history.html
Yang, G. (2006). Activists beyond virtual borders: Internet-mediated networks and informational politics in China. First Monday, Special Issue 7.

Questions of the Week: What is a brand community? What are tribes? How can not-for-profit organizations use web 2.0 social media tools to build brand communities? According to the assigned readings and short videos, what other benefits are there to not-for-profit organizations that choose to use social media?

APRIL 5: Web 2.0 and Internal Communications
Objectives: Increasingly organizations are looking at ways in which social media can be used to leverage knowledge within the organizations. This session will focus on ways in which social media can be integrated into internal information systems and intranets to support knowledge management.

Lecture: A look inside organizations: social media, collaboration and innovation

Student Presentations x 2:Social media within organizations

Readings:
Graeme Harvey,"Innovation and Idea Exchange" -Social media and its role in internal communications, July 2010 http://www.huzutech.com/insight/articles/social-media-and-its-role-in-internal-communications
TBD

Questions of the Week: How can social media support internal communications? Define the ways. Why is knowledge management important? How can web 2.0 social media technologies facilitate knowledge management?


ASSIGNMENTS
Presentations
In these weeks, students will have an opportunity to present a case study of an organization with a social media challenge. They will introduce their organization, and discuss what the social media goals of that organization is – then they will present a proposal of how to meet those social media goals using the technologies and strategies discussed in class. There will be an opportunity for feedback from the rest of the class – and incorporating the feedback, students will take their case study, and use it to write a paper relating to social media in their organization.

Reflections
For these weeks, students will be asked to reflect on their blogs about the presentations, and what they have learned from them that they can apply to their own case studies and final papers.

Final Paper: The final paper will be an individually written research paper on a topic approved by the instructor. This paper is expected to be 20-25 double spaced pages with a consistent referencing style and make use of academic and peer-reviewed sources in the research

MT8425 2011

And so we begin another term of MT8425. I am very excited to be coming back for a third round of this course, and I am so thrilled that Marion MacKenzie from GCI Canada has joined me this year. I am eager to learn from her years of business experience. It's going to be a great term, I can feel it.