The LEC is a national center for research and education that focuses on the timely and relevant economic analysis of legal and public policy issues.  This new Web site will be part of a new, modern communications strategy for the center, designed to reach academics, policymakers and key media.

We’re excited to be a part of this new chapter at the LEC!

I make it a habit to subscribe to as many various email distribution lists as possible — not because I like having my inbox full, but because I like to see what type of new, interesting, groundbreaking content people are using in their email programs.

Unfortunately, I’m rarely impressed.

One of the most solid email programs (this has been well-documented) over the past few years has been that of the Obama political organization (now called Organizing for America.)

I’m not an OFA supporter (I’m a Republican and do not endorse the actual material being sent out by OFA) — but one of the reasons they are so successful is the simple, succinct emails they deploy.  Please click on the graphic to the right to see what I mean.

All too often, political campaigns send out emails with large headers that fill up my preview screen with a goofy picture of the candidate.  Many times, pol

itical campaigns fill up their emails with too much content and too many pictures.

As you’ll notice from the OFA email I received last night, their email template is simple.  Light on graphics. Light on content.  Clear call to action.

That’s the way it should be done.  In the case of email marketing, less is more.

Well, the Pew Internet & American Life Project released a new study today that backs me up.

In summary, this report, Older Adults and Social Media, finds:

• Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older has nearly doubled—from 22% to 42% over the past year.
• Half (47%) of internet users ages 50-64 and one in four (26%) users age 65 and older now use social networking sites.
• One in ten (11%) online adults ages 50-64 and one in twenty (5%) online adults ages 65 and older now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves or see updates about others.
• Email and online news are still more appealing to older users, but social media sites attract many repeat visitors.

The important thing to realize is that email remains king with this older demographic.  Overall, 92% of those ages 50-64 and 89% of those ages 65 and older send or read email and more than half of each group exchanges email messages on a typical day.

What this means is that a balanced communications program is vital to reaching older Americans — one that relies on email as a foundation, but doesn’t ignore social networking sites.

The amount of older adults on these sites has absolutely exploded during the past 12 months — and will no doubt continue to do so in the months and weeks to come.  Are you tailoring your communications plan to reach this demographic?

Just take a look at comScore’s latest online video viewership report for July:

• Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube, ranked as the top online video content property with 143.2 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 55.1 million viewers.
• Facebook jumped one position to capture the #3 spot with 46.6 million viewers.
• Of the 178 million U.S. Internet users who watched online video content during the month, also viewed nearly 3.6 billion video ads in July.
• Leading the pack with 783 million ad impressions was Hulu.
• Hulu was followed closely behind by the Tremor Media Video Network at 451.8 million, and the Brightroll Video Network at 248.4 million ad impressions.
• Online video ads reached 27 percent of the total U.S. population an average of 44.5 times during the month.

Online video is single-handedly changing how we get our news, weather, favorite shows, and entertainment. The advertising potential is enormous, and the impact is bigger still.

With 89% of Internet users consuming online video, it is essential to incorporate this valuable tool in your modern communications arsenal.

Similarly, an online marketing strategy cannot be built on Twitter or Facebook alone because they — like a hammer — are just tools. Without a content strategy, those tools don’t mean much.

For many, whether a small start up or a big brand their first venture into social media is the decision to create a Facebook page. They upload the company logo, post a few office photos, and write a status update from time to time.

Most of these same companies would not undertake any other marketing on a whim, but carefully craft their campaigns to target specific markets and plan their marketing strategies to the smallest detail. No company would want their marketing activities to be based on luck alone.

Creating and managing a page in such a cavalier manner, in hopes of becoming a hit on Facebook, is as likely to be effective as say standing at the side of the freeway and yelling to rush hour traffic about your products over the drone of passing cars. No one wants to listen, and if they did, they couldn’t hear you anyway.

In creating and managing an effective social media campaign you should identify your target audience and the platforms they already use. Demographic information is available for most of the major social networks, so there is really no reason not to target your social media activities to your audience.

If you plan how your grow your online following steadily by engaging with the right people, on the right platform, with the right content, you are more likely to get predictable results. Your social media strategy must detail your marketing aims and objectives. If you don’t have a social media strategy, how will you know when you have achieved your goals?

The first step of creating an effective social media strategy is to take an inventory of your organization’s content. It’s as simple as what you produce, or could be producing, on a regular basis. Things like:

• The obvious: Company announcements, press releases, marketing materials, company information.
• Events: Any special events that either your organization is putting on or that is related to your organization, that you can “live tweet”.
• News of the day: Comment on news of the day that is relevant to your organization or your mission.
• Your experts: Who are your organization’s experts and what they have to say about your mission, recent events, or news and world events.
• Human interest: Don’t overlook content about employees weddings, birth announcements, anniversaries, and other accomplishments. Your employees stories puts a human face on your company or organization.

Once you have considered and decided upon your content the next step is to decide what platform would be most effective for your company or organization. Click here to read our previous post in which we provide specific examples of how some companies and individuals are doing just that.

As your organization looks to delve into the world of social media take a good look at your overall content strategy. Without a solid message, the medium doesn’t really matter.

What’s a marketer to do?  Go online, of course.

This week’s Chicago Tribune features several case studies of local businesses who are using a variety of online tools to boost their sales.  Local businesses can tailor their specials, coupons, and offerings to the public in their area quickly and effectively with the touch of a few buttons

For example, the Chicago Tribune highlights the Marion Street Cheese Market in Oak Park. It was featured on Groupon with an explosion of interest that started on Wednesday morning.

“It’s been a little overwhelming. Well, wonderfully overwhelming,” said Assistant General Manager Michelle Dirks

She thought it would be a good chance to offer existing customers discounts while trying to get a few new customers — but she didn’t expect the explosion of interest.

The Cheese Market was featured as a daily deal on Groupon.  You pay $20.00 and get a $40.00 gift certificate.  In order to qualify, at least 200 people needed to sign on.  They hit that mark at 7:05 am and surpassed 2,600 by 2:00 pm.

2,600 customers — talk about direct response!

Stores and retailers aren’t the only ones cashing in with social media.  The Unity Temple Restoration Foundation was featured on the site to try to get more people in for tours.  The foundation offered 50 percent off admission July 14th  and like the market the organizers were surprised with the results.  Hoping to surpass 200 tickets — they sold more than 1,300.

Kudos to the Tribune for featuring these success stories.  The economic downturn doesn’t have to mean the end of your marketing efforts.  Online tools offer a variety of low- or no-cost ways to boost your sales quickly.

It appears, according to this MediaPost piece, that this political ad rule of thumb is set to rise:

This year’s political ad spending could be up between 5% and 10% from 2008 levels, spurred by the Supreme Court’s recent favorable ruling on corporate political spending. Although as much as 75% of political ad dollars are spent on local TV, more of it in the future will be diffused to online, mobile and other new media.

The slow, secular shift away from measured media to marketing services, TV’s gradual disintermediation by Internet-connected media, and the movement toward more a la carte, on-demand video are among the wild cards. All will play havoc with once predictable advertiser spending, even in election years, analysts say.

This shift tracks with the poll results we’re seeing that show media consumption among voters is increasingly fragmented.

While broadcast is still king — its rein is much more tenuous than it was even a year or two ago.  Voters are increasingly getting their news online, and our ability to hyper-target these voters makes online advertising an increasingly wise and effective investment.

A new report from 360i shows that most brands are coming up short in their attempts to utilize Twitter as a marketing tool.  But let’s be clear — it’s the brand’s use (or abuse) of the medium, rather than the medium itself, that is holding them back.

According to 360i, after a six month study, Twitter users barely know or care about brand presence on Twitter.  When brands tweet and try to communicate with their followers, it’s mostly a one-way conversation.  The study finds that only 1% of consumers who mention a brand in a tweet are in a conversation with that brand. The large majority of users’ tweets are on a personal level.  They tweet about seemingly mundane details of their lives, such as meals, plans, and get-togethers.  360i reports that 94% of tweets are personal, with 85% being original content that is not re-tweeted.  Instead of truly engaging and trying to become of this personal conversation, most brands have resorted using Twitter as a type of press release service.

“There is still a misperception that if brands show up, people will listen to them, kind of like Facebook a few years ago,” 360i Senior-VP Sarah Hofstetter told Advertising Age. “Twitter can be used as a promotional RSS feed, but that’s not going to establish a relationship with anybody.”

Modern communications isn’t simply about “eyeballs” anymore — it’s about engagement.  And those brands that choose to use Twitter as a press release service are simply living in the past.

On the other hands, those brands that are engaging best are seeing the true benefits of this communications tool.

What’s the best way for them to engage?  We’re fond of comparing Twitter to an “online cocktail reception.”

Why?  Have you ever walked into a cocktail party where you don’t know anybody and everybody seems to be already be engaged in familiar conversation?

What do you do?  Do you walk up to a stranger and start reciting your company’s latest press release?  Of course not.  You usually break into a conversation by making some small talk. Maybe you mention the weather, or the type of drink you’re consuming, or something about the drapes in the restaurant — let’s face it, small talk can be mundane.

But my point is that there are all these conversations going on, and you use some mundane, sometimes personal, detail to strike up conversation. Then that personal conversation may lead to a discussion of business, then an exchange of business cards, then perhaps a business deal.

So it goes with Twitter. Most “tweets” are people talking about what they’re watching on TV, or the kind of work day they had, or what food they’re cooking for dinner, or what they’re doing on their vacation. Those tweets can lead to conversations with other people who have the same interests. Sometimes — just like the cocktail party — that can lead to business.

So is Twitter merely a networking tool? Yes, but it’s much more.

• Frank Eliason was a customer service manager at Comcast who, in 2008, started Comcast’s first Twitter account: @comcastcares. A few years later, Frank was managing a full team of customer service “tweeters” and he tells us that (as of January 21, 2010) his team serviced a total of 160,000 people via social networking sites — more than 50,000 of them on Twitter. That’s just since February 2008. Frank’s team monitors Twitter to find out who is talking (or complaining) about Comcast and reaches out to them to help solve their problems. They also receive a good number of service requests by people who now know they will receive quick replies from Frank’s team via Twitter.

• Similar to Comcast, major brands monitor Twitter to find out who is a) Tweeting about their brands, b) Saying good things about their brands, and c) Who is complaining or “trashing” their brands. For example, according to a recent Forbes article (Daniel Adler, “Twenty-One Twitter Tips,” Forbes, July 31, 2009), there were 3.37 million mentions of “Starbucks” through May 2009. Starbucks follows those mentions like a hawk — using it as a real-time focus group.

• In Illinois, we have a fast food chain called “Culver’s” that has great burgers and custard. The local Culver’s franchise in my town has its own Twitter account (@culvers177) and provides daily tweets of their “flavor of the day.” Many times, these tweets are tempting enough to lure me and my family for dinner (or dessert.)

• In Los Angeles, the nightclub crowd is familiar with the “Kogi BBQ” mobile trucks that park outside the clubs late at night and sell Mexican tacos stuffed with Korean-style meat. The company has 52,000 Twitter followers and uses Twitter to send out alerts on the locations of its four mobile trucks. How successful is this marketing effort? The trucks regularly draw crowds in the hundreds — and they have been featured in publications ranging from the Los Angeles Times to the Wall Street Journal.

• K9Cuisine.com is an online purveyor of premium and organic dog food. They have a Twitter account managed by the company founder and president, Anthony Holloway (@k9cuisine). Anthony uses Twitter as a customer service tool — but also as a way to help answer questions and provide tips and advice to pet owners. Although they don’t overtly use it as a sales tool, Anthony tells us that Twitter is the third-largest source of traffic to the company Web site — very warm leads that could lead to hot sales.

So, you see, different organizations are using Twitter in different ways to communicate with their unique audiences.

The new report from 360i report may seem negative on Twitter on the surface.  But further reading shows that it’s the message, not the medium, that makes the difference between success and failure.

Most small businesses return to traditional advertising, such as the newspaper, Yellow Pages, and radio. But some businesses have forsaken these advertising staples all together, and created successful marketing campaigns online — for far less money.

Facebook and Twitter present a unique opportunity for small business owners. There are currently more than 1 million small business profiles on Facebook which reach out to millions of customers everyday.

Businesses with fewer than five employees “see Facebook and others as a way to reach targeted consumers” while saving marketing expenditures during a rough economy, says Darren Waddell, vice president of marketing at MerchantCircle.

According to the MerchantCircle report, “More than half of the nearly 10,000 respondents to the survey say they plan to create or maintain a social-networking presence in the next three months.”

Some businesses have found a degree of success with their online exposure.

John Swartz writes in USA Today, “Online sales at Southern Jewlz have doubled in six months since recent college grad Randa Yezak, 23, started using Twitter and e-commerce software. Her 2-year-old business also has 8,000 fans on Facebook.”

As with any success stories, we must add the tag “results are not typical.” HipChat, a group chat and messaging service for companies, reports that more than 90% of the 2,000 small businesses it works with use social media, but few have seen a business benefit.

Fact is, Facebook and Twitter offer a way to effectively communicate with consumers interested specifically in your product or services. Small businesses are the only way to steer our economy back on track, and a majority of them are now using social networking to do so.

Will you join them?

As epolitics.com reports:

Call it innovation, call it self-preservation, call it a traffic scheme, but the Baltimore Sun, one of the leading papers covering Maryland politics, has made the decision to offer a blog to every legally registered candidate running for office in the state of Maryland. The offer is bipartisan and covers both federal and state candidates.

Why do I love it? First, because I just like seeing traditional media try new things. If they fail, it’s entertaining (yes, I know it’s mean). If they succeed, we all benefit.

Second, I am going to watch to see which candidates take advantage of this opportunity and produce compelling content that actually moves their campaigns forward.

So there — you know what I think.

What do you think of this move by the Sun?

Foursquare is a social networking platform that allows its users to “check-in” to virtually everything from restaurants to airports via their smart phone and 3G connection. Users can add tips and reviews, or even caution their friends away from an undesirable experience. When you check in, it is linked to Facebook and Twitter, so your friends can see where you are and possibly join you if in the area.

The ability to see your friends recent check-ins opens up a whole new realm of social networking. This new wave of “exploration networking” is allowing businesses to get valuable exposure to consumers who are on the go. Companies are even able to promote specials, coupons, or other marketing strategies directly to Foursquare users.

Click here to see how Foursquare worked for the Charleston Fine Art Dealers Association’s Palette and Palate Stroll, and how it helped create a successful PR campaign.

Should Foursquare join Facebook and Twitter as part of your companies social media communications strategy? We think so.

As more and more users depend on this style of social network to virtually interact with businesses around their area, the potential for promotion and exposure is priceless. So put your business on the map and reap the rewards of the Foursquare revolution.

As this new survey from eMarketer shows, companies are getting the picture (or, um, video) and starting to “throw their weight” behind online video.

How are they using it?

For one thing, heeding our call that it’s more about “engagement than eyeballs,” they’re moving beyond video advertising and into the realm of two-way dialog with consumers.

They’re also utilizing video for product demo’s, video podcasts, and comedic shorts to push their products. It seems this new strategy is producing results.

According to the new eMarketer survey, “46% of US multichannel retailers picked video” as the most important feature of their site.  Additionally, “42.3% of respondents said they planned to add video capability in the next year.”

Online video has become a staple of companies marketing budgets — and for good reason.

“Creating an online video presence helps marketers facilitate an ongoing dialogue with consumers, boost brand equity, lure prospective customers and solidify support among brand loyalists,” eMarketer’s Tobi Elkin noted in the report “Consumer Packaged Goods Sector Taps into Online Video.”

With today’s internet speeds and the ever expanding 3G wireless market, consumers expect to see interactive features like online video.

In order to stay at the forefront of the marketplace, companies must include online video for future success.

But, as Mashable reports, the company’s CEO is crediting its use of social media — specifically Foursquare — for its resurgence:

CEO Chris Moore points to the rise in online orders — which now account for 32.7% of all orders — as proof that their web and social media efforts are paying off.

Moore reports that when it comes to the web, “Our main Facebook site now has in excess of 36,000 fans … In addition, we have led the way with social media initiatives such as affiliate marketing, our superfans programme and the development of a link up with Foursquare.”

Moore concludes that, “all of these web-based activities offer a dual benefit of driving pizza sales online and building customer loyalty.”

You may recall that the Foursquare promotion rewards mayors of UK stores with free pizza; other patrons who check-in receive a free side dish. The promotion was initially piloted in select locations but later rolled out nationwide after the program proved to successful.

Are you a retailer who is still resisting social media as a “fad”?  Still criticizing those who use Foursquare?

Get in the game.  As you can see from the Domino’s example, you can’t afford not to.

So, is it necessary — or just a case of “shiny new object” syndrome?

Well, it depends.

If you’re a national campaign with a robust online program — then an iPhone app may be right for you.

If you’re a state and local campaign, however, you really need to do a cost-benefit analysis and determine how it would fit into your overall communications strategy.

First, according to this survey, an estimated 42% of Americans use smartphones, with only 3% using iPhones.  That survey is from January, and with the new release of the iPhone 4, that number may have grown a bit — but Android-based phones have actually been growing at a faster rate than iPhones.

So, in other words:  if you’re a local campaign, and only 3% of your total potential universe is using iPhones, minus those who are politically active, minus those who are your actual targeted base — the costs may outweigh the benefits of building an app that nobody will use.

Yes, you can build apps for both the Android and iPhone — but if you are a state or local campaign, your total universe (out of the 42% of smartphone users) is still relatively small.

There are a number of political organizations here in Illinois who have iPhone apps.  A few of them are quite good.  But the amount of users they will attract pale in comparison to if those same organizations actually had a strong online campaign (which they do not.)

If you do have a robust online program with a good, core group of online activists who you would like to further empower with a mobile app — by all means go ahead.

But remember — being able to brag about your nice, shiny app is not nearly as important as having an online program that actually engages a network of voters who will make the difference on Election Day.

Are all of your Facebook status updates products of rigorous review processes by your communications, legal and policy departments?

Does the above result in social networks in which you’re only posting one or two times per week?

Then maybe social media isn’t for you (or your company.)  Or, more to the point, maybe your organization needs a communications climate change.

If you think the above examples are overly-exagerrated, think again.  Unfortunately, we’ve run across several organizations in recent weeks where those examples held true.  And yet these organizations were left scratching their heads as to why their online communications programs weren’t bearing fruit.

In their minds, they needed to invest more money in bells and whistles.  New apps.  Fresh widgets.

Wrong.

It’s not about the widgets.  It’s about the content.

We’re living in the age of real-time, folks.  While that may sound scary, it’s reality.  Are you ready to adapt?

It may only have been a few years ago that you had the luxury of spending an entire afternoon running your press releases through a groupthink approval process before hitting the send button on your fax machine.

But times have changed.  We have to be able to react within seconds, not hours.

And different communications platforms require different discussions.  People on Twitter and Facebook don’t simply want focus group-tested talking points.  They want a discussion.  They want a conversation.

So, what we normally tell organizations is this: either change your communications climate, or stop embarrassing yourself with a failed social media experiment.

Otherwise, you’re throwing good money after bad, and tarnishing your brand in the process.

Are you read for the climate change?

“Email is probably dying.”

Forgive us if we’re skeptical.

While nobody can fully predict what new technology will take hold over the next few years, email is still the fabric that holds together online communications.

For example, Ms. Sandberg should look at her own company.  In fact, Facebook would be a whole lot different without email.  Where do friend requests, event invites and messages end up?  In both your regular email and Facebook inboxes.

Whether or not Facebook launches its own version of email — it’s still email.

Facebook also recently launched a new partnership with Yahoo! in which those with Yahoo! accounts can fully integrate the Facebook experience into their email.

Other newer social networking tools (and, yes, email is a social networking tool) also heavily rely on email.  Twitter, for example, relies on email to deliver you direct messages and new follower alerts.

Further, take a look at this recent study that finds the great majority (58%) of Americans start their day with email — as opposed to 11% starting it with Facebook.  Those numbers could change in the coming years, but those current numbers don’t make it seem as if email is going anywhere anytime soon.

Will email change?  Yes.  Will it adapt?  Yes.

We already see how Gmail users’ experience is changing — with the integration of Google Buzz, Google Voice and evolution of Google Chat.

Yahoo! is changing, as well, with its Facebook integration.

So, yes, email will change.  Email five years from now may look much different than it does today.  But that doesn’t mean it’s dying.

It’s adapting.  And it’s a bit too early to predict its demise.

– From Betty White’s recent Saturday Night Live Monologue

Betty White’s line (above) got a lot of laughs during her recent SNL monologue.  Of course, she owed her very appearance to a Facebook campaign that garnered thousands of supporters pushing for her to host the Saturday night sketch comedy show.

That’s not to say we don’t think she really believed what she said.  There certainly are a lot of people out there who don’t “get” Facebook.

But just because Betty doesn’t get it — doesn’t mean that all senior citizens feel the same way.

In fact, new survey results from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) shed some light on the social media habits of American seniors.

Mashable reports:

The AARP spent some time last month interviewing 1,360 adults over the phone. They found that more than a quarter (27%) of Americans age 50 and older use social networks. Facebook is the most popular — in fact, 23% of all survey respondents said they preferred it to sites such as MySpace,  LinkedIn and Twitter.

When it comes to general web surfing, 49% of respondents between the ages of 50 and 64 and 40% of all adults age 50 and older, said they consider themselves extremely or very comfortable using the Internet. In other words, we’re very close to seeing the majority of senior citizens embracing the web as a content medium and communication tool.

As for discovery of social services, however, it seems the young folks are to blame for spreading word of Facebook to more venerable generations. Around 47% of AARP’s respondents had heard of social networking from a family member other than their spouse, and of those, 70% were tipped off by a child or grandchild.

The overwhelming majority of these boomers are using the social web — at least to some degree — to keep in touch with family members. Almost three quarters of AARP’s survey group said they’re connected online to relatives other than children and grandchildren, 62% are connected to their children, and 36% are connected to grandchildren, as well.

So, in short, don’t believe the social media naysayers who claim that it’s “just for kids.”  Because it just isn’t true.

These online tools are becoming part of our modern communications fabric.  Actually, they are fast becoming THE modern communications fabric.

Does your company, organization, or campaign have a content strategy to engage with these diverse audiences?

Instead of trying to push you to the store to buy LEGO’s and risk turning people off with a sharply commercial edge — they used a creative social media campaign that has successfully strengthened their brand.

LEGO’s brand relations director states in this online article that after their successful LEGO Click campaign using social media — they plan to fully integrate social media into their marketing mix.

The campaign was mostly digital and social in nature with viewers helping to spread their brand.  Click here to read the full article and check out some of the key performance metrics achieved by this campaign.

In this post over on my personal blog, I provide my take — that it’s a good communications move.

What are your thoughts?