Magnet Media Films, Inc.

Crowdfunding for Filmmakers: Success Stories at NYWIFT Panel

Ryan Swearingen, Managing Editor — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 03:06:43 +0000

Monday night, New York Women in Film & Television held a panel discussion at Facebook’s New York offices on the subject of independent filmmakers using Internet crowdfunding platforms to finance their projects.

The NYWIFT, a “nonprofit membership organization for professional women in film, television and digital media,” assembled an impressive lineup of filmmakers and representatives from the crowdfunding community.

Magnet Media CEO Megan Cunningham moderated the discussion, which included Matt Jacobson, head of market development for Facebook, Brian Meece, CEO of crowdfunding platform RocketHub, filmmaker Sara Nodjoumi, Zara Serabian-Arthur, documentary filmmaker/educator/co-founder of Meerkat Media Collective, published poet/DYI filmmaker/freelance professor John T. Trigonis, and Kat Popiel, who leads content creation and community building at crowdfunding platform, Indiegogo. Each panelist brought a unique perspective to the table, with experience on projects and campaigns of all sizes and varieties.

In her opening remarks, Cunningham, who herself has a background in documentary filmmaking, described the “empowering era” in which we are living and the variety of tools now at creators’ disposal. She kicked off the discussion by asking the panelists to run down their personal experience with and perspective on crowdfunding.

Brian Meece of RocketHub described the recent explosion of crowdfunding as “a return to patronage.” Much as Beethoven and his contemporaries relied on patrons to support their work, modern-day creatives fund their projects with the help of their communities. The model is essentially the same, it’s only the tools that have changed, initially through fundraising a la PBS pledge drives, and now through online platforms such as his own RocketHub.

In Meece’s view, there are three factors that lead to a successful crowdfunding campaign: “awesome projects by awesome people,” a core network of supporters, and solid rewards or perks to motivate giving.

Sara Nodjoumi, whose successful Kickstarter campaign for her documentary, The Iran Job, more than doubled its goal and raised over $100K, shared her decision to use Kickstarter for its “all or nothing” model, which allows campaigners to set a specific goal. If the goal is not reached, the project’s supporters (or “backers” in Kickstarter parlance) pay nothing.

Kat Popiel from Indiegogo shared some of the platform’s differentiators, including its position as part of a larger global community (in over 200 countries), availability to anyone to easily launch a campaign, and a choice of the all or nothing/fixed model or a flexible option, which, as Popiel described, gets projects further along than where they started, regardless of the amount raised.

Zara Serabian-Arthur, whose film Brasslands exceeded its Kickstarter goal of $10K, used multiple platforms for its fundraising. The first campaign on Kickstarter focused on funding travel for the film’s production and targeted the filmmakers’ personal networks for smaller donations. The second campaign was mounted on RocketHub and focused on funding the editing and post-production of the film. This campaign used a more targeted approach with a more specific message and trailer to reach what Serabian-Arthur believed was a built-in audience for the film’s subject matter, Balkan brass music.

Facebook’s Matt Jacobson shared his own perspective on using social networks to build a community around a project and gave some insight into his own crowdsourced project, Mass Animation’s Live Music, an animated film created in six weeks by 10 animators, chosen from a pool of 50,000. Facebook’s eighth original employee, Jacobson sees the network as “just a good platform for sharing passions,” where one can capitalize on “social currency in funding a project you’re passionate about.”

(Live Music trailer)

He described Facebook’s first crowdsourcing efforts, which opened up to the community the task of translating the site into various languages. The first was Portuguese, which the community managed in only three days, followed by two for Spanish, moving on to France and beyond.

At this point, each of the filmmakers on the panel shared a snippet of their “pitch reel” used to rally donations on the various crowdfunding platforms.

John T. Trigonis was the first to share his reel, which contributed to beating his Indiegogo goal of $5000 by $1300 for his film, Cerise. He described overcoming his initial fear of asking for handouts, saying, “You don’t normally want to ask anyone for money for lunch, let alone $5,000 for a film.”

In his low-tech reel, Trigonis’ told his story and highlighted the available funding perks in a clever and fun style that served as a showcase for his upbeat personality and skills. (Video below).

Serabian-Arthur’s RocketHub trailer highlighted the Balkan brass music featured in her film rather than focusing on the creative team. Much of the footage for the project had been filmed, but very little had been edited at that point, so it made sense to go with a more straightforward documentary-style trailer. (Video below).

When approaching their pitch reel for The Iran Job, Nodjoumi and her team researched other campaigns and their messaging, and while many—including Kickstarter—urged them to put themselves into the pitch, they felt their content was more powerful. (Video below).

RocketHub’s Meece shared some helpful insights for fundraisers on the platform, including the common question, “How much should I be raising?” His answer was to ask oneself how many are in your network, and how many of them you are in regular communication with. “There’s nothing worse than getting email out of the blue asking for money,” he shared.

According to Meece, the average contribution on RocketHub is $70, which is a good rule of thumb. “If you’re looking to raise $7000, then you’ll need about 100 people to donate. If that’s reaching, then perhaps it’s more like 40 or 50 people, depending on your case.”

He shared that $20 is the site’s most popular price point, and suggested having a “really cool” award at that level that is cheap to produce, scalable, and packed with “fun/emotional goodness.”

Trigonis, who is writing a book on crowdfunding for filmmakers, noted that many campaigns offer a good personal perk at the $100 mark. He suggested bringing it down to the $20 level, because that’s where the majority of people will go.

Popiel, who said $25 is the most popular amount on Indiegogo, encourages fundraisers to think about downloadable perks such as the film soundtrack or other digital items. This saves on labor and shipping costs, and can be particularly helpful when reaching out to a global audience.

Nearly all of the panelists highlighted the importance of social media in crowdfunding. Nodjoumi had never promoted projects online prior to Facebook, despite suggestions to share the filmmaking process with the public through blogging or other documentation.

“We weren’t engaging audiences, because we didn’t know how to,” she shared. “Once we had a Kickstarter campaign to promote, it was an opportunity to engage and build an audience.”

And engage they did, targeting specific groups relevant to the project, including Iranian-Americans, sports fans, and hip hop music fans, as well as identifying influential and well-known Iranians, asking all to share the campaign link with their networks. The press ultimately took notice when a young Iranian journalist at CNN wrote a small article on the film that landed on CNN.com homepage, which led to an enormous boost in donations.

Serabian-Arthur pointed out the importance of personalized outreach, noting that personal emails can be more effective than Facebook invitations and messages, especially if one hasn’t been in touch with the recipient in a while.

Nodjoumi observed that all of the promotional work done for a crowdfunding campaign would normally be done anyway once a film has wrapped, so “nothing goes to waste.”

Popiel suggested using Indiegogo as a resource for finding talent among the other campaigns and projects, saying, “Other people trying to get their projects out in the world could also be someone with whom you could collaborate.”

Cunningham turned the discussion to the future of crowdfunding.

RocketHub’s Meece shared that laws are changing in the area regarding the perks model. The President recently signed the JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act, which will allow people to offer shares of their project online.

At this point, the discussion was opened to questions from the audience. Some of the great advice from the panel for fundraisers included Nodjoumi’s suggestion to be humble. “You can’t expect anyone to know anything about you or your campaign.”

One question from a filmmaker was about how to include one’s many donors in a film’s credits, especially if some are anonymous, which prompted Popiel to advise that fundraisers get away from the idea of donations, saying, “You’re not a charity, it’s a collaboration and a team.” She suggested enlisting project supports in creative decisions if possible to bring them into the process.

Community was the overarching theme of the evening, and its power was in full evidence in the many projects represented.

As Meece observed, “Every awesome thing that’s come to me has been from somebody saying yes.“

Titilayo Tinubu, a law student at UC Berkeley in attendance at the panel, has written a paper on “fan funding,” of which Facebook’s Jacobson spoke highly. [ Download it here with her permission. ]

Any thoughts on Crowdfunding? Have you found it to be a successful way of funding creative projects? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more!

To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do

Ryan Swearingen is Managing Editor of the Blog Network at Magnet Media and co-founder/editor of Stated Magazine.

Twitter Ads for Small Businesses and What They Mean for You

Ron Mwangaguhunga — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:47:21 +0000

How can Twitter strengthen the bottom line of your small business? Twitter, which now has 140 million active users, 70% of them international, is a conversation in which all small businesses will want to participate. Last month, Twitter announced that they were partnering with American Express to offer US-based customers and small businesses an opportunity to advertise on the microblogging site. Through American Express, the first 10,000 eligible Card Members and small businesses to accept the card will automatically receive $100 in free Twitter advertising just for registering.

Further, their informative new 20-page guide offers many solutions for small businesses to fully engage their audience, making their Twitter accounts more effective. The guide falls into three categories: 1) Getting Started, 2) Engage Your Audience, 3) Amplify Your Impact.

In the first category, Getting Started, the guide goes through the preliminaries—hashtags, retweets, and link love—defining its principal functions with brisk tips on effective use. Even the veteran Tweeter can come away with something through the definitions of basic terms. For example, on a small business Twitter profile, the guide suggests that owners always write a clear and informative bio that includes a link to their site and an image that reflects the best side of their organization. Another helpful suggestion, “It’s very likely that your employees are tweeting from their own personal accounts. As a business owner, you can retweet or mention them when what they are tweeting about meshes nicely with your business’ interests and goals.”

In the second category, Engage Your Audience, the discussion advances to advice for listening on Twitter. One of the best tips given is to follow reporters and news outlets that cover your particular vertical, retweeting and responding to Tweets that directly affect your business. Further, on Search.Twitter.com, using keywords associated with your vertical, a small business owner can listen to relevant social media conversations.

Beyond simply listening to Twitter, there is the tricky matter of voice, of conveying information without being a magnum of chloroform or, worse, a press release. There is a thin line between not sounding overly formal on Twitter—which no one wants to do—and being perceived as flaky.

The guide suggests that merchants share behind-the-scenes action of your workplace via Twit Pics. There is the suggestion to launch special Twitter-only promotions to your followers. “Some conversations need to be taken offline,” is another great piece of advice. “If there is too much back and forth between you and your customer, or the exchanges become too specific for your timeline, ask the follower to send you a direct message (DM) with contact information so you can communicate further by email or phone.”

In the third and final category, Amplify Your Impact, are a lot of practical pieces of advice to grow your audience, extend your reach, and measure impact. Some ways, for example, of promoting your Twitter handle include placing your @username on a blog, on business cards, in emails, and affixed on product packaging. In short, promote your Twitter handle and any relevant hashtags as if they were the company logo (which, in a Web 2.0 cosmos, a Twitter username sort of is). “Anywhere your customers interact with your brand is an opportunity to encourage them to follow you on Twitter.”

The guide also encourages small businesses to create tweets that reward retweets. There is an art to this. Providing value to a tweeter’s followers is the best way for a small business to get retweeted. “One simple method is to announce that you’ll offer a discount to everyone who retweets your offer, but only if you get a total number of retweets (like 10 or 25). Offer your customers a reward if they mention your business—a discount, free trial, or extra service—whatever makes sense for your company.” Another suggestion for the brick-and-mortar small business owner would be to ask customers to show you the tweet via mobile device at the checkout counter.

Promoted Accounts are suggested as a great method to amplify your most engaging tweets. They scale a follower-base of advocates and influencers for your vertical. Small businesses can also, using twitter, target the whole world, specific countries, or target their reach to specific areas in the US. Promoted Accounts are also featured in search results and within the “Who to Follow” section, extending the reach of small businesses. Finally, In February, Twitter announced Promoted Accounts for iPhone and Android as well as Tweets in the timeline on these mobile apps.

Any thoughts on Twitter’s new ads option for SMBs? Will you give it a shot? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more!

To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do

Ron Mwangaguhunga is a former editor-in-chief at FishbowlNY.com and contributor at Silicon Alley Reporter. He was named one of “25 Media Insiders to Follow” by TheWrap.com and one of “140 (Social Media) Characters” by Paper Magazine. Ron’s writings have appeared on CBSNews.com and in New York magazine.

This Week’s Events in Video, Social Media Marketing, and Tech: April 16-20, 2012

Stephen Fotiu — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:13:38 +0000

Here are some of this week’s events in video, social media marketing, and tech worth checking out (via GarysGuide). What have been some of your favorite events so far in 2012?

Fashion 2.0: Social Commerce
Mon, Apr 16, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM @ GreenHouse
150 Varick Street
New York, NY
$30 per person

Media Research: Where the Jobs Are
Mon, Apr 16, 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM @ The New School – Theresa Lang Center
55 West 13th Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY, United States

How To Make The Web More Cinematic
Tue, Apr 17, 7:00 PM @ Huge BK
45 Main St. Brooklyn, NY, St. 220
Brooklyn, New York
FREE

Indiegogo presents HOW TO BUILD FROM AN IDEA / A Creative Forum
Wed, Apr 18, 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM @ Projective Space L.E.S.
72 Allen Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY
FREE

Social Media Marketing for Entrepreneurs
Wed, Apr 18, 6:30 PM @ Much Shelist
191 North Wacker Drive, Suite 1800
Chicago, IL
$15 per person

The Social Customer Services Leadership Forum
Thu, Apr 19, 8:30 AM @ New York University Midtown Campus
11 West 42nd Street, Room 421
New York, NY
$195.00

NY Video 2.0 Meetup
Thu, Apr 19, 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM @ Aol HQ
770 Broadway, 6th Floor
New York, NY
$10 per person

New York Tech Day
Thu, Apr 19, 10:00 AM @ Lexington Armory
68 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY
FREE

Any other events this week? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more!

To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do

Stephen Fotiu is a Marist College graduate with a B.S. in Business/Marketing. Prior to working in Magnet Media’s marketing department, he interned with Conde Nast’s Brides Magazine and served as Relix Magazine’s Marketing Coordinator.

Week in Review: Facestagram, Google+ Numbers & Skippable Ads

Ryan Swearingen, Managing Editor — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 22:09:47 +0000

Plenty of news this week in the digital space…

Facebook Buys Instagram for a 1 Billion Dollars

On Monday, Facebook and Instagram announced that the former was acquiring the latter for a cool one billion dollars. No biggie.

The move smartly pulls Instagram’s now 40 million photo-snapping users (a number which has jumped by 10 million in just 10 days) into the Facebook fold and positions the world’s largest social network to dominate in mobile photo sharing.

Instagram, which saw its active user base grow substantially in recent weeks thanks to the long-awaited release of an Android version of its mobile app, has cornered the market on social sharing of photos. Its popularity is largely due to its ease of use and variety of filters, which give users the power to make their photos look “all old-timey and hip” [author’s term]. Facebook, which has always made sharing pictures a core component of its user experience, will surely be rolling the Instagram functionality into its platform.

[ Check out our list of 10 OTHER things on which Facebook could have spent $1 billion. ]

And naturally, FunnyOrDie has offered up their own take…

Google+ Boasts Impressive Numbers, But Some Demand a Recount

Last Thursday, Google CEO Larry Page issued a statement to investors that its fledgling social network had grown to 100 million active users, up from 90 million in January, according to VentureBeat. Other reports put its total registered users at 170 million.

Speculation continues about how many active users are engaging with Google+ on a daily basis, and it’s a tough answer to divine, as its seems Google may be including “Google+-enhanced” products in those figures. That means YouTube, the Android Marketplace, and Google.com itself.

Outspoken Google+ champions such as Guy Kawasaki (see video below) have been quick to point out that regardless, if another social network hit the scene less than a year ago, no one would call it anything but an unqualified success, but because it’s Google, we expect overnight success.

What do you think?

(Guy Kawasaki sings the praises of Google+ in a recent episode of The Social Hour podcast)

Google Rolls Out New Social Analytics

Something would be wrong if Google didn’t make the news at least a few times each week. The search engine giant has rolled out new features in its popular web analytics package that make it easier to track social media engagement across web properties. Now, in addition to easily tracking web visitors, page views, and referrals (and a slew of other granular options), users can click on a new “Social Analytics” tab for a quick snapshot of how many visitors to their site are coming from social sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and how much of their content is being shared there.

Oddly enough, in my own experimentation, I found plenty of results from Google+, while traffic was suspiciously all but non-existent from the two leading social sites. (And Google+ is not where the majority of our social traffic comes from, although it is growing consistently). That said, I only spent a few minutes with the new feature, so the discrepancy is more likely due to user error than a nefarious plot by Google.

Worth checking out if you get a chance.

IAB Offers Tech Support for New ‘Skippable’ Ads

According to AdAge, the Interactive Advertising Bureau is introducing technical support for skippable video ads on the web. Users are becoming familiar with the concept now that both Hulu and YouTube are offering the option to skip ads altogether or in favor of more relevant options. The IAB has also introduced an official protocol to give publishers insight into how and where ad breaks should appear in a video when it it’s video offsite.

The move supports the growing trend to serve more relevant ads to users by placing more control in their hands, which ultimately provides advertisers with more qualified viewers and deeper insight into their habits and preferences.

Any thoughts on any of the above? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more!

To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do

Ryan Swearingen is Managing Editor of the Blog Network at Magnet Media and co-founder/editor of Stated Magazine.

Second Screen Roundup: New Girl & FanCake Mobile Apps

Ryan Swearingen, Managing Editor — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:35:04 +0000

"New Girl" fans can interact with the show in real time (Image via LostRemote)

“Second Screen,” the practice of television viewers using a mobile device (the second screen) while watching TV (the first screen), continues to increase in adoption. According to TechRadar, while second screen viewing, or “co-viewing,” continues to increase globally, the US is in first place, with the UK coming in at a close second.

Networks and advertisers are taking note, and a slew of new apps and experiences continue to pop up every day to try to keep viewers’ attention. “Social TV,’” as it’s also often called, is fast becoming a key indicator of programming success, with viewers sharing their thoughts about what they’re watching on social media in real-time.

Last week’s season premiere of Game of Thrones on HBO managed to crash GetGlue, one of the most popular Social TV platforms, with 50,000 viewer check-ins, according to Mashable. The event eclipsed even the long-awaited season premiere of Mad Men on AMC, which racked up 22,000 check-ins, and The Walking Dead’s 43,000 check-in season opener. The activity was echoed on Twitter, where about half of all tweets mentioning “watching Game of Thrones” were from GetGlue.

Those are numbers that simply can’t be ignored, and even the movie industry is taking notes, with pre-show companion apps for movie theatres in the works.

In the world of apps, we have two new second screen experiences we’ve tracked in weeks 14 and 15 of 2012:

1. New Girl Companion App
iTunes App Store
www.actv8.me

Platforms: iPhone (iPad and Android versions planned)
Price: Free
Best Features:

Free
Lets viewers interact with broadcast of Fox’s New Girl in real time
Earn badges for answering trivia questions
Real-time polls
Integrates with social networks

Limitations:

Only available for iPhone at launch, but iPad and Android versions planned
According to iTunes Store reviews (which are not always reliable), users are required to post to social networks in order to earn badges and points

2. FanCake – Live Social Game for Sports Fans
iTunes App Store
www.kwarter.com
Forbes article

Platforms: iOS
Price: Free
Best Features:

Free
Lets users take part in a social competition based on sports broadcasts
In-game predictions for game outcomes
“Medal Grabs” let users respond to limited time medals based on the game being broadcast

Limitations:

iOS only

FanCake allows sports fans to make predictions and earn medals

Are you a second screen aficionado? Have you seen any other new apps we missed? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more!

To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do

Ryan Swearingen is Managing Editor of the Blog Network at Magnet Media and co-founder/editor of Stated Magazine.

Shazam Music Identification App Moves Into Advertising (Magnet Minute Video)

Amy Schmittauer — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:20:02 +0000

Today on the Magnet Minute, Amy looks at popular song identifying application, Shazam. The app is a free service (with ads) that makes it easy to find out the name, artist, and download information for basically any song just by “listening” to the DNA of the recording. Recently, advertisers have smartly leveraged the app’s technology and already active user base to enhance TV ads and programs. The potential uses are clearly just beginning to be explored, but it’s certainly worth taking a look.

In the music-tagging side of things, Shazam includes a “My Tags” tab where all of the songs you’ve “Shazamed” are listed so you can go back and find their information after the fact. Helpful when you’re trying to think of some good songs you’ve heard lately and can’t remember any of their names. But the app doesn’t just help you with music you’ve heard. It also wants to help you find new music to listen to. So under the “Discover” tab, you’ll find a listing of the Top 20 Pop Charts and a Search bar for any songs you might be specifically looking for. On the “Friends” tab, you can see what your friends from other social networks have been tagging in their Shazam lists to help you find new music and see what’s popular with your network.

You may have seen the Shazam logo at the bottom of the screen for TV commercials. This is because the app doesn’t just work for songs, but audio recordings altogether. So Shazam has been a great, immediate call-to-action for traditional media by having the potential customer “Shazam” their commercial in order to give them a list of ways in which they can interact with their brand.

Turbo Tax is a really good example of this. Because they’ve given you the ability to do your taxes on your phone, it made sense for them to do a big Shazam push to get that information right onto their customers’ phones to take it a step beyond simply hearing someone in a commercial tell them about it. That little reminder in their “My Tags” list will make it more likely that they will participate in what you’ve prompted them to do.

What do you think about this kind of mobile marketing? Leave a comment below!

[ View all of Amy's Magnet Minute videos on YouTube ]

Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more!

To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do

Amy Schmittauer is the Founder & Face of Savvy Sexy Social. She is a social media frenzy working as a freelance video blogger, writer, and social relations consultant. Connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

Tip Sheet: Using Listening Software to Monitor Your Brand’s Social Media Conversation

Anwar Warner, Sr. Producer, Social & Interactive — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 19:58:59 +0000

Are you listening to your audience?

After reading about using listening software, take it to the next level with our FREE Tip Sheet, “5 Tips for Social Listening.”

So your company is using Radian6 or some other tool to monitor conversations related to your brand or its products. Well, good. I mean that sincerely.

A recent study found that a mere 6% of companies found listening valuable to their organization’s business. SIX percent?! That’s appalling when you consider that in 2010, almost 80% of Fortune 100 companies were using at least one social media platform. That 6% subscribe to an antiquated school of thought that believes that reliance on this sort of broadcast communication (an approach typically reserved for traditional media outlets) will be effective in today’s social media-oriented world. In this era of the “Social Web,” that approach is extremely flawed, particularly for most B2C companies.*

Your company, however, realizes the importance of real-time listening. So now what?

The answer to that is two-fold.

The first step happens outside of the listening platform. It is imperative to work with your social media team to determine what you are listening for as it affects your business objectives. Because your social media team may be comprised of multi-disciplinary individuals from varying departments, it is likely you will have diverging listening priorities.

For instance, let’s say you are a multi-national toothpaste manufacturer and you have recently launched a new product. If you are in a customer care function, you may want to know what consumers are saying about taste, price, or locations selling the product. If you are in sales or marketing, you might be interested in those points, as well as what consumers are saying about a competitive or similar product to your own.

Sure, focus groups still work, but social listening provides a far more effective strategy as it gives you both up-to-the-minute and historical access to conversations from a vastly larger sample audience. Moreover, focus groups are artificial environments where others, including the moderator, could potentially influence fellow participants.

[ Download the FREE 5 Tips for Social Listening Tip Sheet for actionable advice you can put to work today. ]

Once your business objectives have been identified, you’ll need to figure out what key features within the platform are most important to focus on, as they will the basis of your post-listening strategy. The three main areas to focus on are Share of Voice, Influencer Profiling, and Ranking & Sentiment Analysis.

If you represent Research & Development for Brand X and your company has introduced a product extension that has been distributed in a few carefully selected test markets with a full-scale deployment scheduled later this year, you are inclined to be interested in all of these features. However, a Customer Care Manager will likely be less interested in your company’s Share of Voice than in the volume of brand/product mentions and the Influencers weighing-in on your new test product.

You run some queries and customize the tool so the configuration filters out unnecessary or unrelated chatter. The results are ready and you discover that hundreds of consumers are complaining that your whitening gel is not providing the advertised results. Holy PR Nightmare, right? Don’t hit the panic button just yet, Chicken Little. Gather your Marketing team, develop a consistent response and reach out to these influencers—whether they be bloggers, Twitter users, or Facebookers—to provide them with potential remedies and clarify any areas of misinterpretation.

Be sure to respond to feedback on social.

Responses should be quick and direct as they have the potential to be mutually beneficial to both your consumer and your brand image. Consumers will benefit from knowing that you are listening and it provides them with answers, and in this case, your brand benefits from possibly converting disgruntled consumers into advocates. The folks in marketing now have some data that will allow them to alter marketing language to ensure the messaging is clear and not misleading for that pending national rollout. Threat level decreased.

Essentially, every department of your company stands to benefit from engaging in social listening and developing an outreach strategy based on the defined business objectives. Yet, 70% of brands say they do not respond to consumers’ issues or complaints received via Twitter. Now, with the value of a fan on Facebook being worth almost $140, can you really afford to continue to yell into the megaphone while wearing your earplugs?

*Luxury brands assume a push communication strategy with their social communities.

Download our FREE Tip Sheet, “5 Tips for Social Listening,” from the Magnet Media Resource Center for practical, actionable advice you can put to work for using Listening Software.

Anwar Warner is Magnet Media’s Senior Producer for Social and Interactive. Prior to joining the Magnet team, Anwar spent the past four years at Catapult Marketing where he worked on digital initiatives including websites, games, online ads, and social media. Anwar has worked on recognizable brands such as Subway, Mars Confections, Mars Petcare, and Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. He has a strong analytical and creative eye for digital and we are glad to have him on board. Anwar spends his free time honing his culinary skills, watching football and enjoying all that NYC has to offer.

Infographic: Why Content for SEO?

Ryan Swearingen, Managing Editor — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:06:37 +0000

Online news and content agency, Brafton, has created a compelling infographic that argues the case for driving SEO with quality content. As they point out in their accompanying blog post, both Google and Bing have confirmed that they’re placing ever-more focus on serving up quality content in their respective engines’ search results, with the goal to present users what they’re actually looking for when they search: content. Not link farms or sales pitches. But content. Go figure.

There’s no harm in using great content to drive interest in your brand that will hopefully lead to sales, as long as that content is, in fact, great.

Some great insights below, including:

For the business case study provided, quality content marketing across landing pages, blog posts, and Tweets, led to an increase with every update to Google’s Panda algorithm, and an increase in referring keywords of over 150%
60% of business decision makers say branded content helps them make better product decisions
52% of consumers say blogs have impacted their purchasing decisions

Are you using content marketing to improve your search rankings? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

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Instagram, Schminstagram. 10 OTHER Things Facebook Could Do with 1 Billion Dollars

Megan Cunningham, CEO — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 12:36:45 +0000

A billion dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? Instagram!

(video via Social Fresh CEO Jason Keath on Twitter)

Here are 10 other things Facebook might have done with the 1 billion dollars in cash that were burning a hole in Zuck’s pocket…

1. Funded 500 startups at 2 million dollars each.

2. Hired 100,000 computer science majors, developers, and designers for a month at $120,000 a year.

3. AOL (..,ok, maybe an equally lame idea!)

4. Bought 10 startups for a $100 million each that were 75% as successful as Instagram.

5. Hired all 13 of the Instagram staff for $76 million each.

6. Bought Hipstamatic to get their hipster filter groove on.

7. Created a competitor to Instagram (surely the Facebook’s dev team could do over it the weekend…) where each of the first billion customers gets a dollar for joining.

8. Bought a mobile app that’s also available for the iPad.

9. Paid Google $1 billion to not buy Instagram.

10. Bought a company that has an app and a website.

—

Megan Cunningham is Founder and CEO of Magnet Media, an award-winning digital production company and interactive marketing agency based in New York City,

This Week’s Events in Video, Social Media Marketing, and Tech: April 9-13, 2012

Stephen Fotiu — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 17:44:31 +0000

It’s another week filled with great events in video, social media marketing, and tech. Here are a few worth checking out (via GarysGuide), and as always, share your experiences at these events or let us know of other events taking place in the comments.

NJ Tech Meetup 23
Tue, Apr 10, 6:30 PM to09:00 PM @ Babbio Center at Stevens Institute Of Technology
513 River St
Hoboken, NJ
$8 per person

Women in Design & Technology Series: The Future of Fashion: Trendsetting in the High-Tech Age
Tue, Apr 10, 7:00 PM @ General Assembly
902 Broadway, 4th Floor
New York, NY
$20 (includes complimentary beer & wine + open networking)

Design + Tech: Stories of Collaboration from the Past, Present and Future
Wed, Apr 11, 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM @ General Assembly
902 Broadway, 4th Floor
New York, NY
$20 per person

CloudCamp LA
Wed, Apr 11, 6:00 PM @ CoreSite Data Center
900 North Alameda Street
Los Angeles, CA
FREE

Social Media Dos and Donts: Legal Compliance You Will Like
Thu, Apr 12, 6:00 PM @ EisnerAmper
750 Third Avenue
New York, NY
Free for NYTECH members and sponsors. $20.00 for non-members.

Appsumo presents #Techdrinkup – Open Bar @ Inc Lounge – The Anniversary Party
Thu, Apr 12, 8:00 PM to 11:30 PM @ Inc Lounge
224 W 49th St
New York, NY
$20 per person

Any other great events this week? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more!

To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do