Captico » Social Media

Lessons Learned through Big Name Social Media Mistakes

Nick Burnett — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:00:24 +0000

Twitter has brought a new phenomenon to the social media/micro blogging world. Companies, large and small, have been using Twitter and Facebook as marketing channels to run their campaigns. Some have greatly benefited from the use of these tools and others have destroyed the public’s opinion of their company. Loads of companies have made highly publicized mistakes, and here we will address three of them:

1. Chrysler’s F-Bomb

In March of this year, a tweet emerged from the Twitter account held by Chrysler, that read as follows:

“I find it ironic that Detroit is know as the #motorcity, and yet no one here knows how to (expletive) drive.” (Image taken from Forbes)

The Story: An employee of the marketing firm that managed the Chrysler account had posted content to the account earlier in the day from his phone. Later, having forgotten to log out, he unknowingly posted to the company’s account thinking it was his own.

The Repercussions: The backlash was intense. The marketing firm fired the employee responsible and Chrysler firing the marketing firm the next day.

Lesson Learned: The world is watching your every move when you market through social media. These new social media tools are out there to connect people, and to allow everyone to post things that are important to them. When you post something on Twitter it is ‘out there,’ so be mindful of what you are writing. Don’t post things that you wouldn’t want your boss or employers to see because those types of things have a way of coming back around. With a few clicks or retweets your content can be seen by millions of people.

2. Kenneth Cole Offends the World

The Story: In an effort to create a clever advertising campaign Kenneth Cole capitalized on globally trending topics (often around tragic situations) with tweets like this, sent out to his nearly 13,000 followers:

“Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available” (Image taken from Mashable)

The Repercussions: Facing an overwhelmingly negative response, Cole later apologized for making light of a bad situation.

Lesson Learned: It is never okay to base your advertising schemes off of unstable current events, they will blow up in your face and you will end up making a public apology like Mr. Cole. If something like this does happen the best way to handle it is to face the facts immediately. You were wrong and you must apologize as quickly as possible. Many times the press generated by a big mistake, coupled with a quick turn around, and truly remorseful apology will help build your company’s image back to what it was before the comment. History has shown that sometimes this technique even leads to a boost in public opinion of your brand. The worst thing that could happen is if you try to hide something from the public, or to act as though you were right. In these situations types of situations you can never be ‘too quick’ to apologize.

3. Honda’s Secret Agent

The Story: Honda took to advertising through social media in late 2009 with the release of their Crosstour CUV (crossover utility vehicle). They created a Facebook fan page for the vehicle and then released several photos in an attempt to introduce this new car into their fleet. What they received in return was a slew of negative feedback from less-than-impressed fans. In response to all of this feedback, Eddie Okubo decided to write a comment stating his positive view of the car – how he found it novel and useful. (See image to left – taken from CNN Money) The only problem was he did not disclose the fact that he was the manager of ‘Product Planning’ for Honda, and more importantly, participated in the development of this vehicle. Needless to say his opinion was skewed.

The Repercussions: Within two minutes of his posting, Okubo was being outed in comments on the page. People even linked to his LinkedIn profile and called him out on his purposeful lack of disclosing who he was. Honda ended up deleting his comment and releasing a press statement diverting attention from his comment stating there would be better pictures of the vehicle out soon.

Lesson Learned:

Never let the success of a product be overshadowed or influenced by your own personal ego. Okubo thought it was about him and forgot that he represented a brand. As marketers, it is not our job to try to boost our own self-image and ego through our jobs; we are supposed to boost the image of our product and brand, always. The moment this is forgotten is the moment a mistake of huge proportion can be made. Okubo could have simply disclosed his position at Honda and stated his positive comment and it would have been taken for what it was worth, but instead he tried to deceive to create positive feedback about something he was invested in and it didn’t work.
Do not delete comments. Face the music and accept criticism – it can be very helpful. When you make a mistake as a marketer don’t try to hide it – use the negative feedback and respond to it. Most of the time there is some good that you can take away from the feedback. The minute you start deleting comments or try to hide the negative is when your brand and/or product looses all credibility.

Social Media Lessons Learned: Summary

Do not forget that the world is watching you as a marketer, with every ad or promotion you run be sure it represents the company in a positive way.
If a mistake is made in a marketing promotion you can never be too quick to admit it and apologize. The faster you do this the faster you can go back to marketing the actual product instead of doing damage control.
Never let the success of a product be about your own personal ego. When that happens you are unable to see clearly what is usable criticism, it becomes all about you and not your product.
Finally do not delete, or try to hide from the public eye, mistakes that you make. Simply admit them and move on, deceitfulness will never take you far.

Guidelines and helpful tips for running a contest on Twitter

Corrie Davidson — Mon, 09 May 2011 19:33:49 +0000

Twitter is a great social channel to interact with your customers and followers. It empowers you to reach out to individuals directly as well as facilitates real-time customer service conversations. Your marketing team loves it because, like Facebook, its also an easy way for your followers to share your messages with their friends. Hosting a contest is a fun way to get your followers to do this, as well as reward them for their loyalty and attention.

There are a lot of different contests you can run on Twitter – giveaways being the most popular – you can offer prizes for tweeting a particular update (like a product launch), for following a particular user (to build your company’s following), or for posting updates with a specific hashtag (to advertise an upcoming event). (See Twitter Promoted Trends and Keurig’s Coffee and a Cruise Campaign for an example of a Twitter Contest) But before you jump in and arbitrarily start tossing ideas and prizes out, you’ll want to take a look at some of my and Twitter’s recommendations:

Have your rules, deadlines, and information ready – You will get questions from your contest entrants and whoever is handling your account needs to be prepared to answer them. When is the deadline? How many times can I enter? How are winners chosen? If its a prize, will it be mailed or does the winner have to pick it up? Make sure you think through how the contest will be run, how the winner(s) will be chosen, and how prizes will be awarded.

Ask users to include an @reply to you in their update so you can see all the entries – Trust me, you don’t want to have to dig through search results and mentions of your company/brand name to determine entrants to your contest. Make sure that including your Twitter @username is part of the requirements so that you can track the entries. This will also be better for your advertising reach as every tweet will link back to you directly.

Consider establishing a hashtag specific for your contest – A hashtag will make sure contest entries stand out from normal @replies and @mentions to your account as well as raise awareness around your target goal. The hashtag should be relevant to your content, and you should encourage entrants to keep their messaging related as well.

Discourage the creation of multiple accounts – If you’re giving away something really awesome, users may be tempted to set up duplicate or dummy accounts in order to enter your contest multiple times. You’ll want to make sure you address this in your rules and contest announcement.

Discourage posting the same tweet Repeatedly – This is straight from Twitter: “Posting duplicate, or near duplicate, updates or links is a violation of the Twitter Rules and jeopardizes search quality. Please don’t set rules to encourage lots of duplicate updates (like saying, “whoever retweets this the most wins”). Your contest could cause users to be automatically filtered out of Twitter search. Plus, instead of their followers seeing your cool contest, their followers might start getting annoyed by your contest. You might want to set a clear contest rule stating that multiple entries in a single day will not be accepted.”

Twitter: All your mobile are belong to us

Corrie Davidson — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:00:54 +0000

Has everyone seen the new “You’ve Signed Out of Twitter” Page that greets you when you log out of your Twitter account on Twitter.com? I saw it for the first time today and it definitely got my attention. At first glance I thought it was an ad; I thought Twitter was selling space on their “Logged Out” landing page. But I quickly realized it is a bid to get users who access the service through Twitter.com to use an official Twitter portal when accessing the site from a mobile device (as opposed to a third party app like Tweetdeck). The url I got was: https://twitter.com/#!/download?logged_out=1 and the image that greeted me was:

If any of you are following the Tweetdeck-Twitter-Ubermedia battle then you may recognize this as a bid to get current Twitter.com users to go with an “official” mobile Twitter app when accessing the service on the go – rather than a Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Cotweet or other third-party application. As the need to monetize grows, these other companies- like Twitter itself – are recognizing that advertising dollars will go to whoever controls user eyeballs. And with so many people accessing Twitter’s services through third-party applications – whether mobile or desktop – Twitter is realizing that unless it grabs the reigns, they may not be able to cash in on their own members.

A Study of Fan Engagement on Facebook Pages by Visibli

Corrie Davidson — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:16:28 +0000

Toronto-based “Engagement Bar” company Visibli recently analyzed over 200 million Facebook Fans to determine their engagement habits across different Fan Page types. By tracking the number of Likes and Comments that each post received over time, they found some interesting statistics about how long before content goes stale and who gets the most attention on Facebook.

Visibli calculated that Facebook posts receive 50% of their likes in the first 1 hour and 20 minutes, 80% in the first 7 hours, and 95% within 22 hours. Compare that to Twitter where 95% of ReTweets occur within the first hour!

In a review of Pages with over 100,000 Likes, Visibli gives car manufacturer Audi the crown for most engaged fans. Each Audi post received over 225 Likes per 100k fans, surpassing even the most popular Artists – like Justin Bieber (2nd) and Lady Gaga (4th). This is particularly interesting because Pages for Artists scored notably higher than Pages for Media or Brands. On average, artists’ posts receive 92 Likes per post, which is almost twice the number of Likes for media organizations and brands – who receive an average of 57 and 54, respectively. “Surprisingly, the same is not true for Comments. Media organizations receive significantly more Comments per post (43 per post) than artists (17) or brands (only 9). While people are more likely to comment on current news, they will simply Like an artist’s post and then move on.”

Jack Daniel’s hopes to garner buzz on Twitter and Facebook with new Honey Liqueur

Corrie Davidson — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:25:02 +0000

How do you generate buzz around your new line of booze from bees? Turn to social media. Famous Tennessee whiskey makers Jack Daniel’s have launched a new Honey Liqueur blended with their well known whiskey. To get the word out, they’ve turned to Twitter and Facebook. Let’s look at their campaign…

Jack Daniel’s on Twitter

By purchasing a Promoted Trending Topic for the day, Jack Daniel’s is guaranteed eyeballs on the new product launch and are generating enough responses to be trending worldwide. Promoted Tweets are an excellent way to get people aware of your product/brand/service and get people talking about it – if only to ask “what is _____??” The #JackDanielsHoney hashtag from their promoted tweet is being used pretty aggressively and shows up in my local (Washington DC) trending topics as well as for the United States and Worldwide. (For another example of a company using Promoted Tweets recently, check out Keurig’s Coffee and a Cruise Campaign.) [UPDATE: Three Promoted Trends were actually purchased in a seven day span and appeared on April 16th, 21st and 22nd.]

Clicking the hashtag in the Trending Topics section takes you to a search results page with all of the tweets utilizing the hashtag appearing in chronological order (newest first) but witht he most ReTweeted and sponsored Tweet appearing at the top. Here you can see what people are saying about the topic, what they think, and how they are interacting with the brand and each other. Though the whiskey maker does not appear to have an official “Jack Daniel’s” twitter account, they did set up an official @JackHoney account to specifically advertise the product. (There is an unofficial @JackDanielsFans account though with over 16,400 fans. Do you think JD is a little late to the party here?)

If you visit the @JackHoney twitter account you will notice that where you normally link to your website in your profile, they are linking to the Jack Daniels Honey facebook page instead of the official Jack Daniel’s website. In fact, a visit to their website showed zero sign of the new honey liqueur. I even did a search for “honey” which if I hit the Enter/Return key on my keyboard after typing in my query, simply booted me back to the default page – showing no results whatsoever- not even a message saying “No Results Found”. If I click their “Search” button after entering my query, I am taken to a results page only showing a link to cocktail recipes (which after clicking I am taken to a list I have to scroll way down for to even find a recipe calling for honey – which hasn’t even been branded with the Jack Honey yet) and a link for grilling, where I again have to scroll all the way down to find a tiny mention on the last article about using honey teriyaki in a BBQ recipe (again – unbranded). If there is ANY official Honey presence on their website, I cannot find it nor do they link to it anywhere I can see. Branding Fail? I think so.

*A special last thought on Twitter. I think its very interesting how in EVERY tweet that @JackHoney sends out, they include “(Msg 4 21+ only. JD Distillery, Wsky Spec)”. I’m not sure if this was a requirement imposed by twitter, a mandate by JD’s legal team, or just part of their “Responsible Drinking” philosophy, but it’s a nice (albeit useless) thought. [UPDATE: ClickZ reports that "Alcohol brands had previously been restricted from buying ads on Twitter as its audience consisted of too many users below drinking age. Over 70 percent of the network's audience is now over 21 years of age, according to Nielsen and comScore, satisfying self regulatory requirements put in place by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS.) ...In line with DISCUS regulations, all promoted tweets for the product also had to include a disclaimer, which stated, "Msg 4 21+ only. JD Distillery, Wsky Spec.]

Jack Daniel’s on Facebook

If you want more information on the Honey liqueur, your only recourse is to follow the trail to their Facebook Page where you are greeted with what we are calling a “Like Wall”. A Like Wall is like a paywall, but instead of having to shell out your credit card to gain access to the content you have to “Like” the page. I’m not sure who in their design department thought it would be a good idea to make the graphic so ridiculously vertical that you have to scroll twice the length of the page just to see the branded product bottle, but its a good looking image regardless. (I had to blow up my browser window on my second monitor and then zoom way out to capture it all one screen!)

After “Liking” the page you have to click one of the tabs in the left hand navigation or you will be stuck staring at the oversized image forever. I clicked on the “Info” tab first which has some odd content itself… In the product section (among other items) they say: “If you would like to contact us directly, please email us at: jackdaniels_facebook@lynchburg.jackdaniels.com” but in the Email section they say: “@jackhoney on twitter: reply to our DM within one hour to continue receiving tweets.” First of all, I have no idea what THAT means, and second… why not put the email in the email section as well? Just some odd stuff going on with JD here…

As far as content, they have some photos and videos. Their Wall is pretty standard – they allow their fans to comment on their wall publicly which is great, but unlike on Twitter, they don’t seem to be replying to any questions or comments from some very enthusiastic fans which is a shame. They have a Recipe tab which has the branded honey-including recipes missing from their official site. (I may have to try some of these actually – they look good!)

Jack Daniel’s does have an official Facebook Page – boasting over 1 million fans – which is integrated with their website (if you are logged in to Facebook and visit their website it shows who of your friends already “Like” Jack Daniel’s). (With so many fans on Facebook it makes me again wonder why they don’t have an offical presence on twitter.)

Conclusion

Overall I think Jack Daniel’s has the right idea and will most likely get a great return on their Promoted Tweet investment. They seem to be struggling slightly in some areas, but as long as they continue to adapt and embrace these new marketing channels, I think they will see successful results. My advice to them on this campaign would be: Revisit your Facebook profile; Start engaging with your Facebook fans more; Create a presence for the product on your website to complete the circle; and, Its time to add Twitter to your website and marketing channels.

What do you think of the Jack Daniel’s approach? Do you have comments or advice for them? Does the Honey liqueur sound like a smart, forward thinking move? Or are they betraying their roots? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

5/3/11 UPDATE on Jack Daniel’s Campaign

ClickZ just published an article about last month’s Jack Honey Twitter campaign and had some new information that readers may find useful. They quote Marjorie Dufek, interactive marketing director at Brown-Forman (who owns Jack Daniel’s) as saying ”Twitter reported ‘significantly higher than average’ engagement rates for the campaign, as well as greater use of the brand name within tweets than its advertisers usually experience… The advantage for us is that people see Jack Daniel’s as a friend, it’s a very social brand by nature. We have an unprecedented opportunity to have real conversations with our consumers via social media.” Though Brown-Forman works with agencies for some of its marketing functions, Dufek said the majority of its social media activity is handled by in-house teams, which it views as an extension of its 50-year old consumer relationship program. (Thanks for the interview ClickZ!)

8% of online Americans Use Twitter. Are Your Customers There?

Corrie Davidson — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:07:38 +0000

Eight percent of internet-using American adults are using Twitter, according to a November 2010 study from PewResearch Center. Twitter is an increasingly popular social networking activity among young adults, minorities, and those who live in cities especially. Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, a project of the PewResearch Center, usually focuses on general surveys and reports on internet usage and activities (as opposed to narrowing questions to a single brand or company) but based on the large increase in Twitter usage and its ever-growing popularity, Pew decided it warranted its own study. In eight surveys between August 2008 and September 2010 PewResearch asked: “‘Do you ever use the internet to use Twitter or another service to share updates about yourself or to see updates about others?’ In August 2008, 6% of internet users said ‘yes’ to that question. In September 2010, 24% of internet users said ‘yes.’”

The micro-blogging service Twitter launched on July 15, 2006. Just five years later it is an international phenomenon connecting companies to customers and some might even say enabling revolutions. “It is one of the most popular online activities among tech enthusiasts and has become a widely used tool among analysts to study the conversations and interests of users, buzz about news, products or services, and announcements by commercial, non-profit, and government organizations.” – PewResearch Center

In November 2010 PewResearch asked online adults: “Do you use Twitter?” In this survey, 8% of online adults said they do use Twitter—with 2% doing so on a typical day. This survey also showed that 74% of American adults are internet users, meaning that the Twitter cohort amounts to 6% of the entire adult population.

Young adults – Internet users ages 18-29 are significantly more likely to use Twitter than older adults.
African-Americans and Latinos – Minority internet users are more than twice as likely to use Twitter as are white internet users.
Urbanites – Urban residents are roughly twice as likely to use Twitter as rural dwellers.
Women and the college-educated are also slightly more likely than average to use the service.
One-quarter of Twitter users check in multiple times per day for tweets from others.
One in five Twitter users never check for new material on the site itself

According to deeper Omnibus surveys on Twitter usage conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, “Twitter users are nearly equally divided between those who check the site on a daily basis (or multiple times per day) and those who check the site infrequently or never. Just over one-third of Twitter users (36%) check for material posted by others on a daily basis or multiple times per day—this is roughly comparable to the two in five (41%) who say they check the site less than every few weeks, or never do so at all. The remaining one-quarter of users say they check the site for updates a few days each week or every few weeks.”

In addition to frequency, users were also asked what they shared on Twitter. Personal and professional observations were the most popular types of updates, while location-based tweets and links to videos are the LEAST commonly mentioned.

72% of Twitter users say that they post updates related to their personal life, activities or interests. 1 in 5 (19%) say they post personal updates once a day or more.
62% say they post updates related to their work life, activities or interests, with 12% doing so on a daily basis.
55% share links to news stories. One in ten (12%) do this at least once a day.
54% of these Twitter users say they post humorous or philosophical observations about life in general, with 16% doing so on a daily basis.
53% use Twitter to retweet material posted by others, with 18% doing so on a daily basis.
52% send direct messages to other users, with 11% doing so on a daily basis.
40% use Twitter to share photos with others, with 12% going so at least once a day.
28% use Twitter to share videos with others. Fewer than one in ten Twitter users (8%) do this once a day or more.
24% use the service to tweet their location (through services like foursquare), with 7% of users doing so on a daily basis.

Twitter Promoted Trends and Keurig’s Coffee and a Cruise Campaign

Corrie Davidson — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:47:04 +0000

The latest marketer to embrace Twitter’s Promoted “Trending Topic” ad space (at the estimated/rumored cost of $200k a pop) is single-cup-of-coffee brewing magnate Keurig (or more precisely Green Mountain Coffee Roasters who owns Keurig and many other popular coffee brands).

What Are Twitter Promoted Trends?

As we mentioned at their first launch (Twitter: Promoted Tweets and Trends… They’re Heeeerrreee), Twitter’s Promoted Trends gives advertisers a highly visible and coveted space on users’ Twitter home pages in the “Trending” category. Topics that appear here normally, do so because a lot of people in that city, country, or the world (depending on your settings) are talking about a particular topic. If a celebrity dies, for example, they are almost always a trending topic for a day or two as people tweet and share news and remembrances.

Hashtags and memes are also often dominant Trends as people jump on board participating in game-like posts or live-tweeting from a large event. In the image above actor Jackie Chan is listed as a rumor went around that he had died and then the correction that he was in fact very much alive followed. The AMC show “Mad Men” is trending as a lot of people are discussing the delay in the next season’s production due to contract negotiations. At the top of the list we see the “Love Keurig?” Trend next to a “PROMOTED” graphic – letting everyone know that this trend was started by and paid for by a company. The image above is from Captico’s homepage which has its Trending City set for Washington, DC (this is changeable). Here are other Trend Lists from other cities… you can see that some Trends are the same, some are different, but all of them have the Promoted Trend “Love Keurig?” at the top.

What is the “Love Keurig?” Campaign?

Clicking on the “Love Keurig? Trend will take you to a Search Results page (as if you had typed the phrase into the search box) listing everyone using the phrase “Love Keurig” in their tweets.

As you can see the top tweet is from icedkcups whose account is primarily being promoted with this campaign. Brew Over Ice K-Cups is the newest Keurig product and so to launch it, Keurig and Green Mountain turned to Twitter, trusting their rabid fans would be eager to spread the coffee love. And for non-keurig users, theres always the cruise. Yup. They are giving away an Alaskan cruise to one lucky winner. See the landing page they link to below:

So in what turns out to be a huge social media campaign, the promoted trend leads you to the product’s special twitter account, which takes you to the giveaway landing page. The first 2000 people who enter get a free “Brew Over Ice” tumbler. 1000 of those people win a 2nd place prize of a sampler pack of Brew-Over-Ice K-cups (only useful if you have a Keurig). 100 people win a 1st prize os a new Keurig brewer. 1 grand prize winner receives an Alaskan trip for two with roundtrip airfare. Sounds pretty awesome, but they make you follow all 7 of their Twitter or Facebook accounts to enter. I actually had a lot of trouble with the iframes on their site, so I didn’t enter, but its a straightforward enough approach. Sure you could go back and unfollow all of the accounts after the contest ends, but I imagine they are hoping most people are too lazy to go back and do so, meaning an immediate and big audience for all of their news and product releases in the future.

Conclusion

This is a great use of Twitter’s Promoted Trend feature. By choosing something simple and inviting to add onto like “Love Keurig?” it encourages people familiar with the brand to engage it, sharing the tweet and thus promoting the topic, as well as hooks in curious users who have no idea what Keurig is. They are immediately drawn into the conversation, reading reviews, and seeing people who love the product. On top of all of it they offer a lot of great giveaways that people will want to try to win. Would you follow (perhaps temporarily) 7 accounts with one click for the 1/2000 chance of winning a cruise? Keurig is betting you will.

How Do I: Moderate Comments on My Facebook Page

Corrie Davidson — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:58:26 +0000

On the heels of our last post, How Do I: Make a Facebook Page for My Business?, we wanted to immediately address a very common question and concern that our clients have when it comes to Facebook: How do you control what people post on a Page’s Wall?

The thought of complete strangers posting negative comments or inappropriate material on a Page’s public Wall seems to be the first thing to pop into many business owners’ minds. So let me first say, that yes, you can delete any comment and even block individuals from ever posting to your Page again. But that should be a last resort action and not the first button you push.

Why do people post mean things on my Facebook Page?

1. You screwed up. Lets distinguish “mean” from “negative”. If someone takes the time to find your Page and comment on it – even in a fit of rage – it is because they care enough to be irritated. Be honest, chances are you messed up an order or your service technician was having a bad day or maybe they just couldn’t assemble your product and are frustrated. Regardless, most negative comments come from customers who are having a bad experience.

How To Handle It: Respond quickly, calmly, and publicly in order to rectify the situation. An unhappy customer is not a lost customer. You would be amazed at how angry people can quickly turn into people more loyal to your brand than before. Its all about how you handle the situation. Did you mess up? Own up to it and make it right. Are they just frustrated? Put them in touch directly with the person best suited to handle their issue – and follow up to make sure it was resolved. Do not use boilerplate responses. Treat each person as an individual. Respect them.

How you handle negative feedback will matter more to people than how you respond to positive feedback (though be sure to always thank those people to!). By allowing people to post negative things on your Page, you are keeping them posting in a place that you have control of – where you can respond to their comments PUBLICLY. If they don’t do it there, on your page, they will do it elsewhere.

2. They are obnoxious trolls. A common internet phenomenon, these people “troll” internet forums and discussions leaving mean and often vulgar comments just to stir up controversy. Check out almost any YouTube video and you will see a ridiculous amount of irrelevant comments made by annoying people with nothing better to do.

How To Handle It: If the comment is intelligible, respond to it publicly. Even if its just a warning or question like “Are you having an issue with our products or is there another issue we can help you with?” If it is garbled and off-topic nonsense, delete the comment – but be absolutely sure. You don’t want to get in the habit of (or develop a reputation for) arbitrarily deleting comments – it will irritate your fans and make people suspicious of what you may be trying to hide.

How Do I Control Who Can Post to my Facebook Page?

While I advocate letting your Page’s fans post to your Page at will, you can control these settings. Go to your Page and click the “Edit Page” button in the far right corner. This takes you to your settings where you can edit and control many aspects of your Page. Click on “Manage Permissions” in the left-hand navigation.

As you can see in the image above, you have options to control not only who can access your Page, but also what they see. The above settings are for the Captico Facebook page. We have our Wall set as our default Landing Tab – meaning that when you visit our Page, you come to the Wall. This can be changed to any other Tab (such as Info, or Photos, or Blog) or even a custom Tab. Our Wall shows “All Posts” meaning, all posts by us and by our fans. This can be changed to only show posts by us, if you don’t want comments from your fans made public on your page. We have our Posting Ability set very open – any of our fans can post on our wall, add photos or add videos. Unchecking any of these boxes removes that ability.

If you are having an issue with profanity or SPAM, you can utilize Facebook’s built in moderation filters. Typing words into the Moderation Blocklist means any comment posted by a user that contains a word on your Blocklist will automatically be marked as spam. Or you can just set the Profanity Blocklist Filter at Medium or Strong and Facebook will block the most commonly reported words and phrases marked as offensive by the broader community.

How Do I Remove Comments from my Facebook Page?

Removing a comment is incredible simple. Below is a comment left on the Captico Facebook page by a great guy named Mike (contact him if you ever need fencing) Simply mouse over the right hand corner of the individual comment and click on the gear image that appears. You can now choose from 4 options:

Remove Post - If this were an accidental duplicate post or irrelevant or vulgar, I might click this option which would simply remove the post from my Wall.
Remove Post and Ban User – Selecting this would remove the post from my Wall and block them from ever posting anything on my Wall again.
Hide Post – Would simply “hide” the post from the public but would not delete it. Hidden posts are accessible under your Page’s profile picture in the navigation links. You might use this option if you had multiple Page Admins and a lower ranking Admin wasn’t sure whether to delete it or not and so “hid it” until it could be reviewed.
Report as Abuse… - This is a very serious option and should only be used in terms of serial spammers or severe harassment. Clicking this will bring up several reasons which you must choose from as it will report the user to Facebook Authorities. Select your reason (from the options listed below) for reporting them and then check the box if you want to permanently ban the person from your Facebook Page and remove all content they have posted.

Spam or scam.
Contains hate speech or attacks an individual
Violence or harmful behavior
Sexually explicit content

With social media you will get out what you put into it. Be real. Be transparent. Be authentic. Treat people the way you want to be treated and you will be successful!

How Do I: Make a Facebook Page for My Business?

Corrie Davidson — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:26:48 +0000

With Facebook’s New Pages Overhaul now fully implemented, we decided it was time to update our old article about Creating Your Facebook Fan Page (and the subsequent Managing Your Facebook Fan Page – Basics) to better reflect the features and visual changes that you will now encounter.

Based on feedback from our recent Social Media Training Workshops for Small Businesses, we will also be releasing a series of blog posts on how to get started in social media featuring fresh new information geared toward the small business owner. As always, we love to hear your questions and help out wherever we can so feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts or inquiries!

Facebook Fan Pages / Company Pages

Pages (formerly called Fan Pages) are a way for companies, brands, products, bands, organizations, etc to have an official presence on Facebook. While you “can” create a profile page for your company, Facebook frowns upon it and will shut it down if they come across it. Profiles are for people, Pages are for everything else. Like Profiles though, Pages can be enhanced with applications, “Like” other pages, post pictures and updates, receive comments, and comment on other Pages. Pages cannot send messages to individual users though. If you send a message to a user, it will appear to come from your personal account.

Creating a Facebook “Fan” Page

1. Go to the Create A Page Landing Page. This is accessible several ways, but the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php will work easiest for now.

2. Select your Page type. Are you a brick and mortar store that people can visit, like a boutique or restaurant? Choose “Local Business or Place”. Are you a business that operates out of your home or on the road? Choose “Company, Organization, or Institution”. Each of the 6 types will give you different options and fields for information, so make sure you pick the best one for you. After clicking on a Type, fill in the information that type requires. (Feel free to click around and see what each type asks for initially to get you started.)

In this example I have selected “Company, Organization, or Institution” as my type, “the vague “Small Business” as my Category, and named it “Test Company”. Check the “I agree to Facebook Pages Terms” box after reading it, and click “Get Started”!

3. You have now arrived at your Page. Start building it up! Add a photo or logo to be used as your avatar (profile picture). Suggest to your friends (friends of your personal Facebook profile) to “Like” of Fan your new page. Import your existing contacts from a file or from your email client in order to reach customers you arent connected with on Facebook. Post your first update! Add a Facebook Like Box to your website to encourage visitors on your website to join your Facebook Page (You will need to be able to embed HTML code on your website).

4. Edit Page. Click the “Edit Page” button in the top right hand corner to customize your page’s settings, including who can post to your wall or upload photos, where you want notifications sent, and additional details about your company.

5. Congratulations! You just created your very own Facebook Page for your company or business! See, it was easy! Now create some photo albums and share pictures from events or your products or your staff. Write “notes” with longer-form information – like recipes or advice. Having an annual blow-out sale or hosting a booth at a tradeshow? Create an Event and invite your fans to it! If you’re a B2B, connect with other business’ pages by “Liking” them as your Page – comment on there walls, RSVP to their events. Be active, and be social!

Privacy and Admins for Facebook Pages

By creating a Page you are automatically its sole Admin. Pages can have as many admins as you would like, and I recommend having at least two as a safeguard for your Page. To give administrative control to another person, click “Edit Page” in the top right hand corner of the Page, and select “manage Admins” in the left hand navigation. Here you can remove Admin access and add additional Admins. Simply type their name (if they are connected with you on Facebook) or the email address they use to access Facebook. Be careful who you give control to though as they can access all of your Pages settings (though not your personal ones) and all posts they make to the page will appear to come directly from the page itself. They cannot, however, remove admin power from the creator of the page.

Admins are NOT made public. You can be an Admin of a page and not have anyone know you are associated with that page. You don’t even have to “Like” the page. If you do wish to be visibly associated with the Page, click “Edit Page” in the top right hand corner of the Page, and select “Featured” in the left hand navigation. Here you can set which Pages that your Page “Likes” as Featured Pages on the left of your Page and you can also set Featured Page Owners – which will also appear highlighted on the left of your Page – visible to all who visit your Page.

For information on how and when to moderate comments on your Facebook Page, check out our next blog.

With social media you will get out what you put into it. Be real. Be transparent. Be authentic. Treat people the way you want to be treated and you will be successful!

Social Media Training Workshops for Small Businesses

Corrie Davidson — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:42:56 +0000

We are regularly asked for assistance and advice on social media related topics, so when the opportunity presented itself to give back to our local business community, we jumped at the chance. In cooperation with the Severna Park Chamber of Commerce, we will be hosting several short, intense, small-class size seminars on Social Media geared toward small business owners and their employees.

Our first workshop will be an intermediate (201) level session dedicated to three of the social networking platforms including: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. It will be held on March 17, 23, and 30th at 8am-9:30am with the same material presented at each session.

This seminar, developed with small businesses in mind, will empower you with the knowledge and resources to manage a Facebook Page and Twitter account for your business and introduce you to LinkedIn as a professional networking tool.

Sample Social Media Training Workshop Agenda:

Facebook

Difference between a Profile, a Page, and a Community Page
Setting up a Page
Admins (Creating them, managing the account, privacy concerns)
Managing the Page (Tabs, Photos, Videos, Posts, Filters, Settings)
Moderating Comments by Users
Insights

Twitter

Anatomy of Twitter (Language, Terms, Symbols)
How to Send Public and Private Messages
The differences between Tweets, Replies, Tags, and Direct Messages
Twitter Etiquette
Setting up an Account and Customizing Your Design

An Introduction to LinkedIn

Your LinkedIn Profile
Customizing Your Profile with Widgets
Groups
Company Pages

Q&A Review of Material Presented

If time permits, those with access to computers may also receive individual instruction and guidance in setting up and managing their accounts.

Interested in Attending?

If you are interested in attending, you can register through the Severna Park Chamber of Commerce website or call 410-647-3900.

Cost is: $30 for members, $40 for non-members

We HIGHLY recommend you bring a laptop.

Class size will be limited to 8 participants in each session.

We have also set up Facebook Events for each session.

_____________________________

P.S. If you want to nerd out your home or office, those fun pillows in the featured image are available for sale on Etsy from Craftsquatch for $19.99.

How Do I: Link My Facebook Page to My Twitter Account?

Corrie Davidson — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:29:21 +0000

With the recent launch of Facebook’s New Pages Layout for Businesses, hopefully you have found it easier to take advantage of the benefits Facebook offers both small companies and major brands alike. Previously in this blog, we covered How to Connect Your Twitter Account with Your Facebook Page, so I wanted to show you how to do the reverse. With the new Pages layout, this process has gotten incredibly simple…

1. Go to your Page. – In this case, I’ve gone to the Captico page.

2. Change User - On the far right side, Under “Edit Page” and “Admins” is a link called “Use Facebook as Captico” (or your company’s name). Clicking this brings up a dialog box (as shown on the right) which will allow me to navigate as use Facebook as my page (giving me the ability to comment on other pages as my page instead of as my personal profile). You can see that the link has now changed to “Use Facebook as Corrie” which I will click back to when I am done playing admin here. [If this is your first time with the new Layout, you may want to follow the Tour to see the new functions here].

3. Click the link.

Seriously. Facebook is now automatically prompting you on how to do this. It used to be a laborious and tricky process to link a Facebook PAGE to a Twitter account, but no more! make sure you are logged into the Twitter account you want your Page posts to go to, and click the “Click Here” text. You will be taken to http://www.facebook.com/twitter/ where you can select which of the Pages that you are an admin of that you wish to link to a twitter account.

4. Click “Link to Twitter” – Click the button to the right of your page and you will be taken to an authorization page like the one below. Click “Allow” and you will be redirected back to Facebook where you can customize what from your Facebook page will be automatically posted to your Twitter account.

5. Edit Settings – You can always go back and change these later, but here you can customize which of your posts to Facebook will automatically go out to your Twitter account.

If you need help with your social media accounts or campaign, contact us today. We will meet with you and co-create a custom strategy to best market you and your business.

Whats Quora? And Should I Care About Another Social Media Tool?

Corrie Davidson — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 20:47:31 +0000

You may have heard the rumors, the buzz, the adulation, and now the complaints. There’s a new social media tool in town and it calls itself Quora. Quora describes itself as “A continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it.” While I’ve been following the Quora surface buzz for awhile, it never struck me as anything more than an interactive wiki. In fact, I secretly thought its real appeal was its non-mass adoption and use by “high-ranking” social media folks in the know, and honestly, I didn’t want to take the time to play with a hip new toy that wasn’t useful to me. As it begins to fall from grace however, I find myself drawn to delve deeper into this seemingly web-retro tool and see what it offers the digital sphere.

Signing Up for Quora

To create my account, I chose to Sign in with Captico’s Twitter account - thinking it would work as many other Twitter log-ins or Facebook log-ins do and put me straight into the Quora world. Nope. I still had to give my REAL name (they emphasize this – even if you are acting as a company representative), my email address and create a password. (You can also sign in with your Facebook account or through a regular email address.)

I am then prompted to upload a picture (as it doesn’t pull my Twitter avatar either) and then select from some pre-cropped versions of that picture to display as my avatar.

Next Quora wants to connect me to my Facebook friends and Twitter friends (but since I “signed-in” with Twitter, I assume its already doing that for me).

Finally, like a page from Twitter, it prompts me to “Follow” Interesting Topics which will be what I see questions about. I notice that it must have pulled all kinds of info from my Twitter account as it is surfacing content very specific to the people I follow… Each time I “Follow” a Topic, a new one appears.

I now arrive at a page that looks like a Facebook newsfeed (complete with avatars) and a Trending Topics and People module that has me thinking of early Twitter.

I immediately recognize that I (Captico) follow all of these people on Twitter. (I wonder what this feed would look like if I hadn’t connected to a social media account?) So apparently a LOT of people that I’m interested in are interested in Quora. Interesting. So lets jump in.

Questions on Quora

I pick the question: Why is Dropbox more popular than other tools with similar functionality? I see that my friend Nakeva Corothers is following this question and I use Dropbox. (also, is it just me or is Quora really slow?)

The question page is similar to the layout of the primary newsfeed page and gives you a variety of options to interact with the Question and share it with Twitter and FB. The “best” answer – or the one voted up the most times – is at the top of the thread with the rest of the answers (71 in this case) listed down in order of popularity.

So far, Quora is meeting my expectations. Its similar to Answers.com or Yahoo Answers or Maholo or Stack Exchange or any other of these Community Q&A sites. Quora is more tech focused for sure and has some of the biggest players in the industry participating, but its basic functionality is like that of a retro web discussion board.

Like a wiki, it gives everyone power though. I can edit anything – title, summary, tags. I can redirect a question or even “collapse it”. Obviously if a user abuses such privileges the community will kick you out – and this has led to some of the gripes amongst Quora users. Former Quora advocate Robert Scoble says he’s “getting dozens of emails from people pissed that their questions have been changed, their answers marked ‘not helpful,’ or that they got kicked off the service altogether.” And in a case of a double-edge sword, in an attempt to banish spam, Mashable, who has the most followers on Quora, has been banned because brands aren’t allowed to use the service (their employees can though).

My feelings on Quora haven’t changed. I might go there if I had a specific question for the tech community that I didn’t get answered on twitter or through a blog on my own site, but I don’t see myself spending time there.

If you need help with your social media accounts or campaign, contact us today. We will meet with you and co-create a custom strategy to best market you and your business.

What’s Next DC Conference 2011 – Wrap Up: Marketing Best Practices and Social Media Takeaways

Corrie Davidson — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:27:54 +0000

Monday marked the inaugural “What’s Next DC – Your Marketing Communications Roadmap” Conference. Marketers, PR Specialists, Web Development Companies, Technology Experts, Associations, Government Organizations, Social Media Addicts, and more converged on George Washington University in Washington, DC to listen, learn, share, and network. Whats Next, the brainchild of Tod Plotkin of Green Buzz Agency in Arlington, VA, was born of Plotkin’s frustration with the fluff and sales pitch-iness of typical events, and so he set out to create something different. His goal was to keep people engaged constantly with good information and make sure they got any questions answered that day. While not quite an “unconference” like Nonprofit 2.0, it was a veritable assault of information lined up with no breaks (except for a quick lunch) in short bursts with scheduled “niche conversations” and “floating experts” on the side. Captico sent 3 emissaries: our Lead Developer, Todd Fisher; a Project Manager, Bob Wolfe; and New Media Coordinator, Corrie Davidson (me). (Photo to left and all presenter photos by Nakeva Corothers)

Whats Next DC 2011 – The Good:

Quality information
Great speakers
Excellent incorporation of Twitter – Attendees knew and utilized the hashtag #whatsnextdc
Live Twitter feed displayed up front was fun
Fast paced – the day flew by
Beautiful signage and program (designed by Citizen Creative)
Fantastic book given to attendees “The Big Book of Social Media” by @bobfine
Good niche discussion groups
Wi-fi
Good location

What’s Next DC – The Bad:

We were asked to tweet feedback after each presentation, but there wasn’t time to do that before the next speaker came up.
Lunch needed to be about 20 minutes longer, and expedited somehow – the line was so scary, some people went out for lunch despite the free boxed one provided.
A couple presentations were more sales pitches than beneficial presentations.
It was frustrating to know one-on-one Q&As with the previous speaker were going on in the room next door – along with niche discussions – and not wanting to miss the primary speakers to go to them… Tough choice.
With the tight time frame, there wasn’t any time between speakers to finish up notes or collect your impressions before the next subject began.
No breaks in the afternoon meant many in the audience had to skip presentations just to get a break or stand up.

What’s Next DC – The Presenters:

Paul Williams of Idea Sandbox served as the day’s energetic emcee and kept things moving, despite the tight (sometimes uncomfortably so) schedule. His coat even spawned its own hashtag at one point: #paulsjacket, much to the entertainment of the audience who was following the live Twitter stream which was projected on a screen in the front of the room (as shown in the picture above). With free wi-fi, I spent most of the day live tweeting as I listened. The day proceeded with the following presentations:

Brian Halligan, CEO & Founder of Hubspot, opened in one of the two long time slots of the day (45 minutes) with ”Inbound Marketing to Grow Your Business”. It was a fantastic presentation on actionable steps businesses can use to take advantage of modern inbound marketing techniques by optimizing their websites to get found by more prospects and convert a higher percentage of those prospects into paying customers. Read our takeaways here: Actionable Steps to Better Inbound Marketing Success by Brian Halligan, Hubspot Or you can View his slidedeck here.

Bryan Eisenberg, Managing Partner at Eisenberg Holding, held the other 45 minute time slot with “The Future Shopper, How Offline is the New Online”. It was a great presentation on how the convergence of communications, logistics, and financial technology continues to evolve to reduce the friction in the customers’ buying process. Read our takeaways here: The Future Shopper, How Offline is the New Online from Bryan Eisenberg. View a video with Bryan here.

Darell Hammond, CEO & Co-Founder of KaBOOM!, was up next sharing thoughts on “Play as the Best Natural Resource in a Creative Economy”. He tried to show that creativity, wonder, joy, and partnerships that change lives and communities. Some takeaways include:

“We need to re-introduce the concept of play.”
Could an increasing lack of imagination skills caused by technology overdose among young people be a key contributor to bullying & obesity? Darell says, yes.
“When better is expected, good is not enough.” Play is intrinsic motivation rather than external rewards.
Ice cream gods Ben & Jerry’s love Kaboom, but couldn’t afford to give them $75k to build a playground. So Kaboom became the first nonprofit org to get an ice cream flavor named after them: KaBerry KaBOOM!
“If you want to be remarkable, do remarkable things!”

Paul Williams, Founder of Idea Sandbox, took a break from his emcee-ing to speak on “Remarkability, Standing Out From the Crowd”. He wants you to discover (or create) what sets you apart from your competition and differentiates your products, company, or brand in the minds of your customers. View a video with Paul here. You can view his slidedeck here. Some takeaways were:

Take risks. Embrace change. Be remarkable. Start asking why not? Stop trying to change people. Find champions.
Stop trying to change people. People aren’t opposed to change, they’re opposed to BEING changed.

Ogi Kavazovic, the VP Marketing & Strategy at OPOWER, served up a disappointing presentation entitled “Marketing can Save the Environment”. It was shilled as a talk about how marketing can be leveraged to motivate the masses and preserve the planet, but was really a thinly veiled sales pitch about OPOWER and its mission. Good mission? Yes, of course, but not the right venue. A real shame as OPOWER is a great company and I was really looking forward to hearing from Ogi.

Debbie Weil, Founder & President of Wordbiz, presented “Finding Your Social Media Sweet Spot”. The theme was stealing from those who’ve come before you. Debbie definitely knows her stuff, but had too much information and activities to pack into her tiny time slot (15 minutes). You can view her slidedeck here. Some takeaways were:

To really get the most of social media, you have to get in the right mindset – “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” – Steve Jobs
“I am a pioneer. I am awesome. I will steal great ideas.” Debbie wants you to make it your mantra.
Debbie says the “Live Strong” yellow band from Nike was a perfect congruence of emotional connection with an ad and a brand.
The Pepsi Refresh Project has gotten more votes than a presidential election. “Pepsi has found a social media sweet spot of buzz & validation.”

Matt Goddard, CEO & Co-Founder of R2Integrated, shared “Activating Communities of Interest on the Real Time Social Web”. According to Matt, the web is a decision engine (Bing anyone?) and communities of interest are where its at for brands looking to influence customers and build advocacy. Some takeaways were:

Will Twitter be the next Borg hive mind? “They were actually human beings once” – referring to the Borg. They overdeveloped communication tools. Too much shared info. They forget how to make decisions and rely on the collective mind.
80% of buying decisions are made on “communities of interest” like CNET, not on your facebook or twitter stream. If YOU’re researching a product to buy are you going to the manufacturers facebook or twitter? No. You go to review sites, etc.
Content exists in the digital world forever. Make sure it’s good, optimized, & integrated.
Campaigns have a lifespan – a beginning & an end. Not what we should be doing in a networked world. Think evergreen engagement.

Rand Fishkin, the CEO & Founder of SEOmoz.org, managed to stuff an inspiring presentation on “Advanced Tactics to Maximize SEO Opportunity” into 25 minutes. With organic search results becoming increasingly competitive, Rand’s specific tactics supplemented with examples and case studies had me raring to go and pimp out our website. You can view his slidedeck here. Read our takeaways here: Advanced Tactics to Maximize Your SEO Opportunities from Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz. View a video with Rand here.

Reggie Bradford, CEO & Founder of Vitrue Inc., gave the other company-profile-disguised-as-a-presentation talk. His “Getting Your Facebook Message Into the End Zone” sounded good on a paper, but rather than the promised actionable guide to social media best practices and innovations, it quickly derailed into “these are all the things Vitrue does”. He did share an interesting statistic: “Global time spent on social media increased 82% between 2008 & 2009.”

Shonali Burke, Principal at Shonali Burke Consulting, got up to applause and much anticipation for “Redefining PR in the 21st Century”. With only a 15 minute time slot, Shonali hit the ground running. And she didn’t disappoint. True PR is about building relationships with stakeholders to benefit your business. Her main point was that the customer is the medium. View a video with Shonali here. You can view her slidedeck here.

Social Media is changing business and PR: From “Selling” to Connecting with your audience; From large campaigns to small acts; From controlling the message to transparency; From hard to reach to available everywhere.
Because of our “networked world”, Social Media is changing how we look at and how we practice PR. We’re not just focusing on one way messages, we are trying to go to where our audience is, trying to make sure there is conversation, and to make sure we are accessible.
“Public relations is still about relationships… We now have better ways to reach individuals.”
Lesson of sales experience with @eidialush: Her order was delayed constantly, despite her communication through emails. Offers of additional coupons before she ever saw the shoes were not helpful. So she reached out through twitter, CEO got in touch with her immediately, was honest, and they worked it out. Moral of the story? Consumers are forgiving if you respond well and care about their concerns and needs.
Go to where your customers are. Build up relationships. Take advantage of the social channel we have access to.
Your customers are asking “What’s in it for me?” If you can’t answer that, you’re done.
Where is PR going? You have to use social channels to tell your story.
Integration! We can’t afford to work in silos anymore.
Measurement – not just monitoring.
Everyone is in customer service – regardless of what your job title may be.
The customer is your media. Let them tell your stories for you. At the end of the day, the customer us who you want to reach.

AJ Gerritson, a Founding Partner of 451 Marketing, provided several case studies of B2B/B2C companies and their digital public relations campaigns in “Building a PR Campaign for the Digital World”. You can view his slidedeck here. View a video with AJ here.

75% of US web users get news online, but TV is still the most trusted source of news and information (newspapers and radio tied for second; internet comes in third).
In June 2009 in Europe time spent on the internet overtook Time spent watching TV.
There are 4.6 billion cell phones in world.
AJ doesn’t think the press release is dead because of how it plays into search and SEO.
Essential Digital PR Tools: Social Media Channels/Platforms; Search marketing; Profnet, HARO; SEO/PR, Social Media Release; Web 2.0 Monitoring; Online surveys; Email; Electronic Newswire Services; TRAACKR.
Overall, Americans consume info: 31% TV, 22% Radio, 22% Newspaper, 14% online. Must have well-rounded marketing effort.

Bill Lake, EVP & Co-Founder of ClicFlic, cranked out a great piece on “Intelligent Media/Video Marketing” in 15 minutes. You can view his slidedeck here.

Intelligent media adapts to each viewer.
Adding videos to product pages = more sales. Period. Even if they don’t watch it!!
(not from Bill) Video Marketing Niche group is shocked that no one is talking about qr codes, also, Among Latinos, after Google, YouTube is the most visited site. Consumption of online video is huge in the Latino community.

Goldy Kamali, Founder & CEO of Fedscoop, presented “Strategic Government Marketing, Targeting Decision Makers” which had some really great insights for those working (or hoping to work) in the government space. You can view her slidedeck here.

Steve Ressler, President & Founder of Govloop, had 15 minutes to share “Online Community Building and Why My Sociology Degree Wasn’t A Waste of Money”. You can view his slidedeck here.

Tammy Gordon, Senior Advisor at AARP, had 15 minutes to educate everyone on the Boomer Generation with “Woodstock to Facebook: How to Engage the 50+ Online”.

Kevin Alansky, Senior Director Marketing at Blackboard Inc., closed out the day with “How to Keep Prospects Engaged Throughout the B2B Lead Lifecycle”. You can view his slidedeck here.

Whats Next DC – Statistics:

301 registered attendees including 37 from way outside the DC/MD/VA area and 6 from the West Coast.
115 attendees from companies with revenue over a million
64 attendees from companies with revenue north of 50 million, including members of Coca-Cola, Geico and Sears Holdings.
Top five industries represented – 1) Agencies 2) Software & Internet 3) Media & Entertainment 4) Business Services and 5) Government.
Attendees were most interested in learning more about 1) Facebook Marketing 2) Mobile Marketing.
Attendees were most knowledgeable in 1) PR 2) Advertising 3) Web Design 4) Word of Mouth Marketing.

Stay Engaged:

Follow the #whatsnextdc hashtag conversation on Twitter
Follow the Twitter list of attendees/speakers/sponsors/etc
Follow Captico’s Twitter Account
Connect with Captico’s Facebook Page

A Project Manager at What’s Next DC: The Good, The Bad and My Hopes for Next Year

Bob Wolfe — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:29:47 +0000

Yesterday I joined my fellow Captico mates on a trip down to DC to attend the What’s Next DC? Conference. Overall the event was a good one – my applause to Green Buzz Agency and others who helped put the event together.

Overall I had my likes and my dislikes for this year’s events as well as my hopes for What’s Next 2012:

Liked:

Niche discussions – it was good to share thoughts, questions and solutions with other attendees.
Speakers hung around after their presentations for Q&A and from what I saw the presenters appeared to be very personable.

Dislikes:

Q&A was separate from the presentation. I don’t know about you but I learn as much from Q&A as I do from the presentation itself.
Too many presentations in too little time. There were some presentations that could have gone deeper not to mention the tight schedule made it hard to discuss any of the presentations with a neighbor.

Hopes for What’s Next DC 2012:

It would be really cool to have the niche discussions follow the presentations a bit more closely. For example Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz fame could give his presentations and answer questions (for the entire audience). Then after his session, he could have led a discussion on SEO. This flow could be scheduled in groups of three – three short presentations with time for Q&A for an hour followed by 30 minutes of networking or one of three niche discussions based on the earlier presentations.

Overall, a good experience and congrats to all who played a hand in What’s Next DC and be sure to look out for the Captico team at other DMV events. (If you know of any events worth attending, share them below and maybe we’ll see you there.)

Bob Wolfe is a Project Manager at Captico working on web development and SEO projects. Photo by Nakeva Corothers.

How Does Twitter See Itself and What Are Its Plans and Priorities?

Corrie Davidson — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 13:36:04 +0000

Several days ago, Peter Kafka over at All Things Digital, covered an onstage-interview at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) by Kara Swisher of Twitter CEO Dick Costolo. Its a great read to get a look at where Twitter sees itself going and what it’s priorities are. Plus Dick is a pretty funny character. Below are some highlights that I found noteworthy, but I suggest reading the original article for a better picture and for Peter’s great coverage…

Twitter and TV

“More and more, [viewers] have a device in their hand when they’re watching TV. Like on “Glee.” The characters tweet while the show is on. When “Glee” starts, tweets per second for “Glee” shoot up, and stay up 100 times that level until the show ends, and then they drop. That has interesting implications. Like, it takes the DVR out of the mix, because you have to watch in real time to make it worthwhile.”

“I was having a conversation with Conan O’Brien, as one does, and he was talking about the importance of Twitter to him, and how the 140 character limit is the right length for a joke. It’s definitely the case that network TV people like Twitter, because it gives them feedback, like they’re in the theater, watching how the shows play out.”

Celebrities on Twitter

“A third of all the players in the NFL playoffs are using Twitter actively. And many players have more followers than their teams.”

“The interesting thing about the top 200 to 300 tweeters–a lot of them are musicians, actors, etc. LeBron James, etc. I think Lady Gaga is number one. But! They’re not all celebrities. There’s CNN Breaking News. And the New York Times. And other brands like Gary Vaynerchuk, who aren’t really that known outside that world.”

Twitter on Mobile Devices

“Mobile is a more and more and more common use of Twitter–40 percent of all tweets created on mobile devices. That might seem low, but it was 25 percent a year ago. 50 percent of active users are also active on mobile.”

“The important thing for us is consistency across device to device to device.”

Twitter Fixes and Problems

“…We raised a bunch of money. We’re hiring “tons of engineers and operations engineers” in the last year. We hired 100 people in Q4, out of about 350 total. And we’re working very hard on erasing our ‘technical debt’. [read: mistakes and failures] We’ve got a guy assigned to this pretty much exclusively. And there used to be a tolerance for this, and now there isn’t. If someone fires a pistol next to your ear every hour, after a while you stop flinching when you hear it. It’s crucial that we do this, both for our users and our engineers, who shouldn’t have to get up at 3 am all the time.”

Twitter’s Future Plans

“We want to instantly connect people everywhere to what’s most important to them. See, that’s a good statement. We’re not just a social network that’s connecting people. It’s connecting for a purpose. So some people meet girlfriends on Twitter. And other people get tickets to shows they like on Twitter. Etc. And you don’t have to tweet to get a lot of value out of it…. we have to make that easier to do. We’re going to spend a lot of time making that consumption experience much better.”

Twitter’s Business Model

“We’re a technology company that’s in the media business. Our business model is an advertising model, so we’re selling ads, and we’re letting people promote their accounts, etc. And we really don’t have to do anything else. Our engagement rates on these ads are ridiculously high. When we saw our stats this last spring when we launched, the numbers were so big we thought we were measuring it incorrectly… We want to be a standalone company. It’s my sincere hope. We’ve accomplished 1 percent of what we want to do.”

Are our websites getting too crowded with social media apps?

Corrie Davidson — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:20:00 +0000

As a social media junkie, I am constantly reading articles, lists, advice, and news on the subject. I want our visual design team to place Twitter, Facebook and Youtube buttons at the top header of our website – and I want our clients to do the same. I want links in every email blast, printed on business cards, and on signage in brick-and-mortar retailers. I comment on blogs, I write blogs, I advocate and create videos – I love social media.

But how much is too much? At what point do we overwhelm our websites with links to, lets be honest, 3rd party sites? Are we driving users away from the very place we purport to use social media to drive them to?

In previous articles we have shown you how to add Facebook Like and Share buttons to your site and how to embed a Tweet button on your site – you can even see our Twitter feed on the right of this blog and retweet or share on Facebook this article from links below (we hope you do)! We are obviously big fans of engagement through social media, and while perhaps we need to take it a step further on our own site (stay tuned for our forthcoming redesign), I think some people might be taking it too far.

Today while browsing the Social Media News Group on LinkedIn which I recently joined, I saw a link shared by the groups leader Chris Voss to an article he had written entitled “Facebook Fan Page Marketing – You Need to Have a Welcome Page Design“. I clicked it and was taken to his website, and the inspiration for this article. Up until this very moment in writing this article, I had not read what I thought to be his blog entry (turns out its a video). I was so visually overwhelmed by calls to action on his site that I left – not to be bothered with digging through it all to find the content in question. Behold:

Now, looking at it here does not give the same effect as this image is static and I’ve drawn red arrows over everything. So just imagine that all of the things the arrows point at are popping up or sliding around.

As this link was shared on a LinkedIn Group, there is an iFrame header that pops up first, over top of whatever (and wherever) the link takes you.
A pop-up appears over the Drawer that slid up (double whammy) enabling me to “update my status on multiple social networks at once!” Yay.
Another window pops up asking me to subscribe immediately to the blog/website… which I haven’t even seen yet… No thanks.
Something popped up and then disappeared over here that I completely missed by the time I had the wherewithal to take a screen shot.

From what I understand, Chris Voss “is President of Strategix One Consulting, Sharing 20+ yrs Experience as a Serial Entrepreneur of Successful Companies in Business and Marketing”. He has a “show” (video blog) where he shares his advice and knowledge with everyone, and comes across as a nice guy. I watched his welcome video. So lets look at the content on his page.

iframes and Pop-Up Windows

Since I came here via LinkedIn, if I try to navigate through Chris’ website on my own, I am stuck with that iFrame at the top (Arrow #1) which will be a pain if I want to bookmark or link to anything directly. Its easy enough to close by clicking the “X” in the top right hand corner – which I always do on iFrames, as I find them annoying. While I’m at it, I close any pop-up window that hasn’t disappeared on its own, and I begin to feel more comfortable on the site already. I still have the Drawer at the bottom but I can handle that for now – though it is the busiest Drawer I have ever seen in my life.

Self-Promotion

I get it. You’re a marketer. But the first thing I see (once I actually get to the article) is you asking me to hire you to design my Facebook page? I have NO problem AT ALL with a call to action like this, but put it below the content. Show me why I would want to hire you first. Show you me you know what you are talking about before hitting me with a pitch. This is like the pop-up asking me to subscribe the first second, the first time I visit your page (Arrow #3). Don’t make me scroll down to see the content I came to your site to see.

The article is actually a video blog entry, which is fine, but the first 30 seconds are – you guessed it – a pitch to subscribe and watch more content. The next 7 minutes or so basically tell the viewer that you should have a Welcome page on your Facebook Fan Page by showing other brands that have them. Do I think you should have a Facebook Welcome page? Yes. You can do a lot with them. They are really great for promotions. Do I think you should watch this video? No. Not really informative – unless you have no idea what a Welcome Page is and then yes, give it a watch! Otherwise its basically a fluffy ad.

Besides the pop-ups, the most prominent thing you see on the site is the number “84″ in white, which is Chris’ Klout score. Klout is a firm that attempts to measure social influence, and while 84 is a good score (better than mine), does it really need to be so prominent on every page? Well, I guess if you’re selling yourself as a social media expert, its a good thing to share as it IS relevant. But still.

Also, the second link in navigation – after “Home” – is a list of tweets saying nice things about Chris Voss, labeled as “endorsements“. And while being messaged/mentioned over 1000 times is pretty awesome, I have to say… really? A copied and pasted list? At least embed a saved search from twitter with your name as the query – you’re Mister Engagement!

There are a number of ads on the page and while I understand the need for monetization, many seem to be ads for business practices that are shady in the social media world – like automated twitter “managers” and “get famous on youtube” banners. There is no unified size to ads and they seem to be slapped down the side of the page…

But Does It Work?

Despite my personal opinion on many of the elements to Chris Voss’s site (and please note, I am not commenting on his knowledge, products, services or abilities in ANY WAY – only my impression of the physical site), it seems to be working for him. I posted a comment for him on LinkedIn and hope he sends me some of his stats and analytics on how his site is performing so that I can share them here, but he currently has over 68,000 followers on Twitter, over 2,400 fans on his Facebook page, and over 900 subscribers to his YouTube Channel.

I would love to hear/read your thoughts and comments on this and similar sites. And for all of Chris’ many fans out there, my opinions are my own and not Captico, LLC’s. But I would love to know what drew you to Chris Voss, what you like about his site and methods, and what you would improve if you could.

As always, thanks for reading!

Social Networking – Who’s Participating?

Corrie Davidson — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 15:00:52 +0000

Following our recent articles on Generations Online in 2010 – Statistics, Who’s Online? A look at Who Is, and How People Are, Accessing the Internet, and Twitter Statistics and Info on Usage, we now present part of the findings of a survey by Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project on social networking site usage across the generations.

83% of adults 33 and younger currently use social network sites such as Facebook, MySpace, or LinkedIn
Social network site use by Younger Boomers (ages 46-55) increased 30 percentage points over the past two years, from 20% in December 2008 to 50% in May 2010
Older Boomers (ages 56-64) jumped 34 percentage points, from 9% in 2008 to 43% in 2010.
The percentage of adults age 74 and older who use social network sites quadrupled from 4% in December 2008 to 16% in May 2010.

Source: Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, April 29-May 30, 2010 Tracking Survey. N=2,252 adults 18 and older.

Generations Online in 2010 – Statistics

Corrie Davidson — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 14:55:13 +0000

The fine researchers at Pew Internet and American Life have released their findings on what differently-aged internet users are doing online. “There are still notable differences by generation in online activities, but the dominance of the Millennial generation that we documented in our first “Generations” report in 2009 has slipped in many activities.” This is good news for marketers trying to reach older customers online who are quickly embracing (and even surpassing their younger cohorts) online life.

While the numeric descriptions of the different generations (Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, Millenials, etc) varies among consultants and researches slightly, it is important to know that Pew breaks down their demographic labels as such (apparently leaving out the Gen Y distinguisher all together, but breaking the Boomers into sub groups):

Millienials – Born 1977-1992 – Ages 18-33
Generation X – Born 1965-1976 – Ages 34-45
Boomers – Born 1955-1964 (Younger) 1946-1954 (Older) – Ages 46-64
Silent – Born 1937-1945 – Ages 65-73
G.I. - Born 1936 or before – Ages 74+

Source: Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, April 29-May 30 2010 Tracking Survey. N=2,252 adults aged 18 and older

Milliennials

Millennials, or those aged 18-33 as Pew defines them, remain more likely to access the internet wirelessly with a laptop or mobile phone. In addition, they still clearly surpass their elders online when it comes to:

Use of social networking sites
Use of instant messaging
Using online classifieds
Listening to music
Playing online games
Reading blogs
Participating in virtual worlds

Only half as many online teens work on their own blog as did in 2006, and Millennial generation adults ages 18-33 have also seen a modest decline—a development that may be related to the quickly-growing popularity of social network sites.

Gen X

Gen X, or those aged 34-45, and older cohorts are more likely than Millennials to engage in several online activities, including visiting government websites and getting financial information online.

Even in areas that are still dominated by Millennials, older generations are making notable gains. Some of the areas that have seen the fastest rate of growth in recent years include older adults’ participation in communication and entertainment activities online, especially in using social network sites such as Facebook. Among the major trends in online activities:

While the youngest generations are still significantly more likely to use social network sites, the fastest growth has come from internet users 74 and older: social network site usage for this oldest cohort has quadrupled since 2008, from 4% to 16%.
The percentage of all adult internet users who watch video online jumped 14 points in the past two years, from 52% in May 2008 to 66% in May 2010.
51% of all online adults listen to music online, compared with 34% the last time this question was asked, in June 2004. While Millennials used to be by far the most avid listeners, Gen Xers and Younger Boomers are catching up.
As of May 2010, 53% of online adults have used a classified ads website such as Craigstlist, up from 32% in September 2007.

Blogging’s popularity increased among most older generations, and as a result the rate of blogging for all online adults rose slightly overall from 11% in late 2008 to 14% in 2010. Yet while the act formally known as blogging seems to have peaked, internet users are doing blog-like things in other online spaces as they post updates about their lives, musings about the world, jokes, and links on social networking sites and micro-blogging sites such as Twitter.

All Ages

While the youngest and oldest cohorts may differ, certain key internet activities are becoming more uniformly popular across all age groups. These include:

Email
Search engine use
Seeking health information
Getting news
Buying products
Making travel reservations or purchases
Doing online banking
Looking for religious information
Rating products, services, or people
Making online charitable donations
Downloading podcasts

Generations Online 2010: Summary. The above chart shows the popularity of internet activities among internet users in each generation.

Twitter Statistics and Info on Usage

Corrie Davidson — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 18:19:22 +0000

“Eight percent of the American adults who use the internet are Twitter users. It is an online activity that is particularly popular with young adults, minorities, and those who live in cities.” - Pew Research Center, December 2010

In less than 4 years, micro-blogging/social networking site Twitter has grown to tens of millions of users. With that, we have seen its demographics change as people adopted the tool, brands embraced the medium, and celebrities popularized it. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project recently released a new report on who is using Twitter. We will take a look at that data in this article.

“One-quarter of Twitter users check in multiple times per day for tweets from others, while one in five never check for new material on the site.” - Pew Research Center, December 2010

Twitter Use by Demographic Group

Highlights:

Young adults, aged 18-29 are more likely to use Twitter than older adults.
Minority internet users (African-Americans and Latinos) are more than twice as likely to use Twitter as are white internet users.
Urban residents are roughly twice as likely to use Twitter as rural dwellers.
Women are slightly more likely than men to use the service.
College-educated users are also slightly more likely than average to engage on Twitter.

Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, November 3-24, 2010 Post-Election Tracking Survey. n=2,257 adult internet users ages 18 and older, including 755 cell phone interviews. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.

How often do users check Twitter for updates?

Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, questions on omnibus surveys October 7-October 10 and October 28-November 1, 2010. N=1,561 adult internet users ages 18 and older, including 663 cell-phone interviews; n=102 for Twitter users.

What and How Often are People Tweeting?

When it comes to the kind of content people are sharing on Twitter, Pew’s survey found that observations related to users’ personal or professional lives are the most popular types of updates, while location-based tweets and links to videos are the least commonly mentioned.

72% post updates related to their personal life, activities or interests. One in five (19%) say they post personal updates once a day or more.
62% post updates related to their work life, activities or interests, with 12% doing so on a daily basis.
55% share links to news stories. One in ten (12%) do this at least once a day.
54% of these Twitter users say they post humorous or philosophical observations about life in general, with 16% doing so on a daily basis.
53% retweet material posted by others, with 18% doing so on a daily basis.
52% send direct messages to other users, with 11% doing so on a daily basis.
40% share photos with others, with 12% doing so at least once a day.
28% share videos with others, with 8% doing so once a day or more.
24% tweet their location, with 7% of users doing so on a daily basis.

Takeaways from the Government Video Expo 2010 in DC

Corrie Davidson — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:57:55 +0000

This week Washington, DC played host to the annual Government Video Expo. In addition to an exhibit hall full of equipment and technology (and more displays playing Avatar than I ever care to see again) there were certification classes, paid conference sessions, free presentations, and community meetings. The Expo runs Nov 30-Dec 2 2010, but I attended yesterday to scope out the scene, walk the tradeshow floor, and see what the manufacturing industry had to offer. In this article I will talk about the presence (and lack) of social media among attendees, and advice on how to get work as a freelancer for government agencies, in addition to mentioning some of the sessions I attended.

Social Media and Creating Meaningful Connections at a Tradeshow Event

Having attended conferences and seminars of this nature in the past, I have grown used to live tweeting and connecting with people online through the event’s hashtag and then meeting up in real life or continuing the connection post-event on Twitter. I was surprised by the lack of attendees participating in social media during the event – despite the Expo being populated with such technically savvy people. Granted, the wifi was bad and there was no free internet (the convention center charges $24.95 per day for access – OUCH), but even I with my simple cell phone was tracking hashtag use and tweeting. Based on my observations and experience, I would recommend the following for Government Video Expo (@gvexpo) and its vendors to better engage attendees next year:

Have an official hashtag for your specific event. In this case, there was an official hashtag – #gve10. But not everyone got the memo. #gvexpo is the most used, and even #govvid10 made some appearances. The problem here is by not unifying the conversation, you lose a lot of notification and connecting opportunities. A more prominent (and pre-event) release of the official hashtag would have helped here.
Encourage vendors to display their twitter handles prominently on their booths. I for one actually had some difficulty tracking down some Twitter users/companies as their booth signage did not match their usernames – and i wanted to win that iPad!
Get someone to sponsor free internet! Surely one of the major brands and technology companies in attendance would have stepped up – I (and I know most of the other attendees) would have rather had internet access than any of the raffle prizes yesterday. Live tweeting means links, photos, and content blasted out to the world in real time! It creates buzz and free advertising for your event.
Include attendees twitter handles on their badges – it makes it easier when looking for people you planned to meet up with and allows you to connect with people offline who you have seen around online.
Vendors should have whoever is tweeting for them be at their booth! When you are talking to someone online, go to the booth as asked, and then no one their knows what you are talking about (or what Twitter is in some cases) then you feel stupid and leave with a bad taste in your mouth. (Also, always have someone at your booth – nothing worse than an unattended booth especially if you have questions! Looking at you Petrol!)
Offer a Twitter Raffle prize. Next year, give prizes to a random tweeter each day (they have to see it and claim it on twitter!) or give one to the most prolific tweeter of the conference (who tweeted about the event). Its a good way to make sure everyone is using the right hashtag too.

(Several manufacturers, Panasonic shown here, had sample sets complete with actors so visitors could test out cameras and displays.)

Meet the Government Producer’s Panel

The Television, Internet, and Video Association (TIVA) hosted an interesting panel really focused on how freelancers could best work for government agencies. Responses from the panel members below include how they want to hear from you, what they want to see, and who they need. Tanya Spann Roche of Think Speak Act Media moderated the panel and lead off with some general advice. To work with most government agencies:

Must have a TIN (Tax ID Number) (free to acquire)
Must have a DUNS number (free to acquire, though they will try to sell you their services)
Must Sign up in the CCR database (free, but must renew this annually – and they may not notify you!)
Its good to have the ability to take credit cards/bank cards with a genuine Merchant Services Account as it is illegal for many agencies to use paypal.
For larger contracts (in excess of $100k), you are required to use the E-Verify System to guarantee employees are legal citizens.
For “micropurchases” (or those under $3k, no competition or posting by a government agency is necessary. Purchasing is completed by micropurchase cardholders.
Purchases by a government agency over $3k require competition and small business set aside. Purchasing is completed by contracting officers.
For purchases over $25k, government agencies are required to post the need on FedBizOpps.

Matthew Zappile, a Producer for the United States Postal Service was the first on the panel to speak. He began with a sizzle reel of the work they do at the USPS which is geared toward employee training needs, lobby digital signage, USPS-TV on demand (check out their youtube channel), event production, press materials, and information workers can access on Blackberries or on the mobile devices they carry with them. There is a lot of fear of the internet and social media at the USPS, Zappile said, but they are trying to move forward with it. For production, Zappile is on a 4 person in-house team with everyone wearing several talent hats, and if you want to work with them:

For freelancers they often hire editors (must know Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, and more – they are an FCP studio) and other crew members – with multi-talented people being the requirement.
They DON’T need writers, producers, or single-skilled people.
Don’t send them DVDs – they want to see your work online – and their email can only handle 5MB or smaller sizes.

Bob Martindale, the Director of Post production at AARP-TV was careful to specify that he only works in the broadcast department for AARP – they have multiple media departments that produce their own video. While not a government agency, with 30-40 million members, AARP is the world’s largest lobbying organization. A lot of work is done by freelancers in Martindale’s department, if you want to work with them you should know:

They are an AVID shop and are always looking for freelance editors who can utilize After Effects as well.
They do take on other crew members as well – especially local contractors for remote work.
He is NOT interested in resumes! He is interested in resume reels.
Prima donnas need not apply. “We are selecting, not settling.”
If you do a lot of work for them, you will eventually be asked to move to a payroll company.
You can send him DVDs, but he’s impressed by a good website with videos online.

Ron Meininger, the Chief of AV Communications at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (under the US Department of Commerce) is responsible for producing all general marketing media and most technical and training videos. Speed is a major factor for Meininger and so most of their processes and hiring is based on decreasing the length of time it takes to produce a project. As a result, they create most of their projects with multiple vendors. If you are a writer, videographer, editor or anyone else and want to work for them, you should know:

Captions (and 508 Compliance) are a federal government requirement.
You can find their purchase needs (especially for larger projects) on FedBizOpps.
Speed is crucial. they often use services like yousendit to shorten the review process.
If you are a Voice Over Artist: “I don’t want to get post cards! Call or email me.”
If you are a videographer or an editor: “I don’t want to see demo reels or a clip here and a clip there. I want to see a COMPLETED program.”
“I want to hear from people first before they send me stuff.”
Don’t send DVDs – send an email with a link to view your work online.

Panasonic: Your First Look at AG-AF100 4/3rd HD Camera

Jan Crittenden Livingston, Product Line Manager at Panasonic, gave attendees a first look at Panasonic’s new AG-AF100 4/3rd HD Cinema Camera (shown in photo on the left). While some claim this tiny wonder could be a DSLR killer, Livingston says with a $5ooo price point, its really the next step up from DSLRS. The AF100 is not meant to replace ENG cameras (does not have motorized servo zoom), but is geared toward indie filmmakers and production companies. Virtually any lens can be mounted to it, and it writes to SD media. The AF100 is Panasonic’s first camera to do both undercrank and overcrank in 1080. It offers uncompressed audio and utilizes AVCCAM recording.

DC Metro Final Cut Pro User Group

The full day was capped off by the monthly meeting of the DCFCPUG which boasted food (provided by sponsor AJA Events), a massive attendance, and the most informative talk of the day: Intro to Stereoscopic Aquisition by Gary Adcock. Adcock is a HUGE believer in 3D and has worked on many major projects in the industry. He’s done 52 3D projects in 2010 alone. He stated that 3D is not a fad and its not going away and then launched into an increasingly technical definition of terms and specifications involved in 3D equipment, media management, and production.

(DC Film Community Corner at Government Video Expo 2010)

VBRICK: The New Government Communications Strategy: Video as a Vital Resource

John Bowman, Director of Federal Sales at VBRICK, shared some data from an interesting Gartner User Survey Analysis: Video Content Management and Delivery: Streaming Goes Mainstream (August 2010). While his brief talk quickly skewed to the benefits of VBRICK as a video streaming solution, some points were:

Training is currently the #1 use of IP Video
Most companies are buying hardware or software to host/deliver video.
Most companies use corporate WAN to deliver video – though over the internet is growing.

(Tedd Tramaloni, a Production Specialist at Snell Group, works on a multi-screen display.)

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