The last thing you want to do is spend countless hours rallying colleagues to use Twitter, launch a blog, or create a Facebook page, [>>]]]> Like many companies, yours may not be a “first mover” when it comes to social media. And that’s OK, really. How you embrace social media is more important than when you embrace it.

The last thing you want to do is spend countless hours rallying colleagues to use Twitter, launch a blog, or create a Facebook page, then proceed to break the golden rules of social media. But it’s surprising to see how often this happens. Companies put tremendous effort into launching social media programs, only to sabotage their own efforts with careless mistakes or by slipping back into bad habits.

If your company is new to social media, or you just got your first program off the ground, keep these three golden rules in mind.

Rule #1: It (still) isn’t about you

Don’t use social media simply as a new channel for the same message. Promoting your own products or services won’t engage your customers, generate an audience, or allow you to take advantage of social media’s two-way interactivity.

Put yourself in the shoes of your customers. Explore issues that matter to them. Provide insight only you can offer. Help them solve a problem. Take a stand on an industry issue. Be authentic. I hate to use the cocktail party analogy, but it works: Is the guy that won’t stop talking about himself any more interesting if he’s the host?

Rule #2: Be authentic

This could be considered an extension of Rule #1. The point is, be yourself. Every successful blog has its own unique, personable voice. That is, its own tone and style of communication.  It’s painfully obvious when bloggers tow the company line. Plus, the whole point of a blog is to have authentic, direct, and unfettered dialogue with your audience. It’s a powerful opportunity. Don’t waste it!

Rule #3: Don’t be a flake

The only thing worse than a narcissistic cocktail-party host rambling on about himself is this: Enduring his monologue and offering a polite response, only to see that he’s not paying attention. It’s the same with a blog. First and foremost, counsel your bloggers to not blather on about your company’s latest whiz-bang widget. And when they do post something thought provoking, make sure they respond to comments and stay engaged with the conversation. The easiest way to fail at building an audience is to ignore one.

Of course, there are many other challenges to running an effective social media program, but following these three rules will help keep you in the game.

As [>>]]]> The birth of Google Buzz into the grand cacophony of social updates that is the modern-day Web is nothing special—not unless you want it to be. And you should want it to be.  There’s a special place in Internet Hell reserved for those who connect their social networks together in one almighty amalgam of real-time updates.

As a marketer, I respect and appreciate the need to stay on message and deliver viewpoints across all the places an audience lurks. And as a Tendo editor (and Web site admin), I realize that we do this very thing on our own platform—anything that gets posted to the Tendo View gets automatically updated to our respective Twitter feed. So am I just as guilty of feeding the flames of social media as my online friends, who have managed to port everything they do across every Web platform they subscribe to?

Not really.

The difference here is that I’ve recognized the value of Twitter as its own communications platform—essentially, its own entity. Think of the service as a little lemonade stand and Tendo’s updates as the fresh, yellow ingredients. Increasing the amount of available lemons doesn’t hurt the stand. In fact, it might even help the fledgling business attract some new customers.  That’s the business of social media—a network of portals that receive content that others can use to connect and form relationships, both with you and amongst themselves.

Would I want my lemonade stand to suddenly partner up with the lemonade stand on the other side of the street? No. I wouldn’t call them the enemy per se, nor even the competition. Even though we have the same ingredients, it’s apples and oranges. Perhaps I’m fueling up the schoolchildren who exit the nearby elementary school, whereas the other lemonade stand is offering double-sized portions for the firefighters who wash their trucks every day at 4 p.m. I could get into this huge capitalistic description of why it would be excellent for one lemonade stand to rethink its business strategy to attract new customers and such, but this is a metaphor and these are lemonade stands: They are independent, period.

Lemonade, the Social Web, and You

It’s long-winded, but my little simulated scenario (likely brought on from playing too much Lemonade Tycoon on my iPhone) is an accurate description of the Web’s  current social offerings. For simplicity’s sake, let’s consider the Big Three: Facebook, Twitter, and the upstart Google Buzz. Post whatever you want to each source—that’s not the issue here. The problem arises for users who blindly post the exact same content on each platform or, worse, link the three such that anything posted to one gets automatically duplicated to all.

Here’s why. Each platform caters to a different audience—one that subscribes to a particular interest based on a given need. My Facebook friends are just that: my friends. I list enough personal details to make me a bit loathe to allow random strangers into this personal hub of my life. By the same token, I extend these friends the same courtesy of not having to read through all the different articles I’ve written and subsequently promoted on other social platforms. I don’t post very frequently on Facebook to avoid burdening my friends with inane details that they probably don’t want to hear about; Twitter, however, obviously gets these updates, and I’ll friend anyone with a pulse in a vain attempt to increase my own social standing on the Internet.

Buzz, the ugly duckling, is a strange beast. Ignoring for a moment the launch-day privacy issues that allowed anyone under the sun to follow what I said (hello, work contacts!), there’s nothing that irritates me more than having a Buzz feed that’s been overpopulated with the exact same information that’s already available on other platforms. No, I do not need Buzz Tweets; no, I do not want Buzz Facebook updates. It’s a different medium, a different playing field, and those running around on it should realize the value it brings rather than trying to mindlessly transform it into yet-another-[social network of your choice]-clone.

This is the real gist of conversational marketing: Identifying when and where the very act of conversation can and should take place. Marketing can’t be a carpet-bomb that relies on the copied content to blast an audience into submission. Though they might appear similar at first glance, each online platform embodies real strengths in its setup and the psychographic profiles of its users. If you fail to recognize this, you risk annoying your audience with improper messaging for their online lifestyles. Or, in layman’s terms, don’t turn your conversations into a total buzz-kill.

When I’m not creating content for one [>>]]]> You’re regularly (read: frequently) monitoring blogs, social networks, and websites for coverage of your industry and mentions of your company’s brand. And you’ve even created a database of influencers for your industry based on this regular trolling. But how well do you know your audience? Probably not well enough.

When I’m not creating content for one of Tendo’s clients by day, I pen a food blog. Just before Valentine’s Day, I received an email from Duncan Hines. I assumed the email was pitching some promotion for the holiday. Having been in the food business for a number of years and a food enthusiast for even longer than that, I get a lot of food-related newsletters and promotions—most of which I delete without reading because I can’t keep up with the glut. Uncharacteristically, I opened the Duncan Hines email.

It wasn’t what I expected.  Duncan Hines (or rather the agency the company hired for this effort) had identified me as an influencer—or at least someone who writes a food blog. And, I mean the very least.

“We know that some of the most interesting baking content and discussions are happening online, in blogs just like yours. We came across your site and think that we have some fun baking recipes and ideas that your readers might like.”

“To start, we thought you might like a simple and fun baking idea for Valentine’s Day—Duncan Hines® Conversation Heart Brownies. All you need is Duncan Hines® brownie mix …”

No offense

It’s not that I have anything against using box mixes as a base for grander baked goods. In fact, a couple of my favorite cakes from childhood are souped-up versions of packaged mixes (semi-homemade, a la Sandra Lee, so to speak). However, I have never made brownies from a package.

How could Duncan Hines possibly know that, you ask? By reading my blog, which this person clearly had not. Had she dug into my blog, she would have likely looked at baking recipes and stumbled across my Kahlua Fudge Brownies post, where I say, “… I have NEVER made brownies from a box mix.”

I wasn’t at all offended by the email, but some food bloggers, depending on their focus, would have been insulted at best and outraged at worse. However, it was painfully obvious that Duncan Hines’s agency hadn’t done its homework before launching this marketing effort. Compiling a list of food blogs is the easy part and only the first step in creating a successful campaign of this nature. Unfortunately, Duncan Hines stopped at this point.

Do your homework

If you’re going to try to engage influencers in your industry, you better get to know them—and know them well. At a minimum, you should know:

Who they are. Spend some time researching them and reading their bios to understand their background, training, and experience.

What they cover. Get to know their areas of interest and understand what topics they cover.

What category they fall into. You should segment influencers into categories based on your industry. For example, I consider myself a casual foodie who focuses primarily on recipes but also writes the occasional review and offers some educational information. I wouldn’t fall into the expert, celebrity, or natural food categories.

The bottom line is this: Know who you’re talking to and only engage those influencers when it makes sense. Targeting me for a recipe based on boxed brownie mix was a miss. However, Duncan Hines could—and should—email me with cake mix-based recipes, because I have, in fact, posted such a recipe.

Just remember, if you’re selective in what you pitch to whom, you’ll likely get the outcome you desire and create a fruitful new relationship.

Do you track influencers? If so, how?

Sara Lee Deli’s new campaign—Mama Sagas—is a great example of how combining the power of knowing your audience with social media (such as Facebook and Twitter and other media outlets like YouTube and YahooVideo) can [>>]]]> The first order of business for any marketing communications plan is this: Know your audience. Self-evident, sure; however, not always well executed.

Sara Lee Deli’s new campaign—Mama Sagas—is a great example of how combining the power of knowing your audience with social media (such as Facebook and Twitter and other media outlets like YouTube and YahooVideo) can create the perfect storm for capturing and engaging customers.

Sara Lee Deli’s Mama Sagas campaign “gets” today’s moms. Confessional videos such as Dealing with Disaster, What to Tell the Children, and A Working Vacation illustrate the dramas mothers deal with on a daily basis.

“The social media creative focuses on the everyday struggles of moms running a family and features actors who are also real-life mothers.”

It’s refreshing to see a company like Sara Lee, which is known for its wholesome image and products, put an edgier spin on its efforts to connect with its customers. And, I bet, this campaign will win over moms who hadn’t previously been Sara Lee customers, which is the point after all—to build awareness of the company’s prepackaged products, acquire new customers, and boost relationships with existing customers.

Today’s moms aren’t the sugar-coated doyennes of domesticity of yesteryear. My friends who are moms are snarky, self-possessed women who do their level best to juggle the demands of motherhood and, in many cases, a career. They’d never pay attention to someone trying to sell the perfect you-can-do-it-all picture painted by the likes of Martha. Also, my mom friends are all on Facebook and involved in social media to varying degrees. They are a ripe, captive audience.

Few things provide the kind of powerful connection as seeing someone like you dealing with the same problems and issues.

Sara Lee makes great use of social media in this campaign, in particular Facebook, offering not only the Mama Saga videos but also coupons and blog posts on such topics as how to make lunchtime fun. In addition, the company makes good use of the medium for engaging with its customers by interacting with them via Facebook’s Wall and inviting them to participate in polls .

All in all, Sara Lee Deli’s Mama Sagas campaign is clever and timely in both content and execution. Most importantly, though, it hits the audience mark.

Let’s [>>]]]> In the early days of the Internet, businesses with a physical location were referred to as “brick-and-mortar,” while those on the Internet had a “Web presence.” Obviously, that distinction doesn’t hold up anymore, but a recent Google campaign and a new iPhone app got me thinking about the convergence of the online and offline worlds.

Let’s start with Google. The company took its online world offline this summer with its “Favorite Places” marketing campaign. Think Yelp meets Google Maps meets celebrity endorsements for the mobile age. For the campaign, Google asked local experts/celebrities in more than a dozen cities (in the Bay Area, folks like Gavin Newsom and Alice Waters are featured) for their favorite hotspots.

Go online and you can search by personality—what cultural events do Yo-Yo Ma and Maya Lin like?—or by city to find out the celebrity dish on shops, restaurants, culture, and nightlife. And in San Francisco, Google took the campaign a step further with a physical presence: Celebrity-endorsed businesses got a life-size version of the signature teardrop-shaped marker from Google, complete with a plaque telling you who had endorsed the business.

In the spirit of “there’s an app for that,” the offline world jumps back online with a new iPhone app from Acrossair, which has developed an augmented reality browser with 3D navigation. With this app, your iPhone becomes a portal to an “augmented” reality; now you can view the names of businesses, events, and so on that are near your physical location; hold the phone flat and it turns into a Google map view that also moves with you so you know exactly where things are in relation to you. Check out the video—it’s pretty cool.

Convergence and convenience
What’s old is new, what’s online is offline, and what’s stuck in a silo isn’t going to fly. It’s really about convergence and convenience—about making things as easy and “full-service” as possible for your customers, your audience, or whoever you’re talking to. Of course, none of this should be a revelation, as companies like Microsoft realized this a decade ago.

In the late ‘90s I worked for Microsoft’s Sidewalk.com, online city guides that provided editorial-based information on restaurants and arts and entertainment. The sites were great, but they were doomed almost from the start because of Ticketmaster. Microsoft wanted to make a deal with them to sell tickets through Sidewalk—users would read an editorial review of “Wicked,” for example, and the page would include a link to purchase tickets—but negotiations broke down and Ticketmaster made a deal with rival Citysearch instead. Sidewalk trudged along for a while, but Microsoft knew it had lost its best opportunity to monetize the websites (perhaps a fee from each ticket sale made via Sidewalk), and also to provide a one-stop shop for users who could read about an event and then buy tickets, all in the same place. They knew early on that convergence was key, but they couldn’t convert the idea to reality.

Now it’s a new reality, and companies need to promise an even bigger and better bang, not only for your buck, but also for your time and your convenience. Is there an app for that?

Tendo was founded 10 years ago on the [>>]]]> In an excerpt of a recent interview with Josh Tyrangiel, the managing editor of Time.com explains how “long-form” journalism just does not work on the Web. Well, doh! I’m glad the lead editor of Time.com has realized this, but it’s sad that he’s making this statement in 2009.

Tendo was founded 10 years ago on the idea that the Web was changing how media was consumed, and that media executives and journalists like us, who built Web media properties early on, could help marketers use their websites to connect directly to customers by applying the best practices we had learned.

And rule No. 1 when creating content to attract and engage an audience on the Web—proven over and over again by metrics since the early days of Web media—is to remember the media you’re working in.  That means writing in short bursts and using pull-quotes and sidebars; it means creating new scannable content types that allow the reader to get to the point without the work of reading dense, text-heavy pages—or, in print magazine parlance, “long-form journalism.”

I find it both sad and fascinating that a lead editor at one of the oldest and most venerable media brands in our country is coming to this conclusion only now. Perhaps that’s why this same institution is no longer as relevant as it once was?