Google+ is still officially in “beta” right now, but they’ve started opening up the invite process. According to this Wall Street Journal report, the service has garnered 18 million users in its first three weeks.

I was fortunate enough to get an invite early on and be one of the first wave of users to join Google+.  It’s growth has been terrific.  When people ask me “what it is,” I tell them it’s a service that combines the best aspects of Twitter and Facebook to create a social media service that truly values conversation.

That being said — social media tools are what you make of them.  If you’re a politician or political organization that has been fortunate enough to snag an invite to Google+, please read on. While the service is still in its infancy, we try to provide some pointers on how to get started and make the most of Google+.  (And, for the record, the two most high profile politicians to join the service in its early days were Newt Gingrich and Gary Johnson.)

• First, set up a personal profile and fill out as much detail as possible. Unlike Twitter, catchy acronyms or nicknames aren’t appreciated.  Use your (or your candidate’s) real name.  The profile is key, as it allows people to find you via keyword search. As you can see from this recent Google search of my name, your profile is the first thing people will see from now on when they do a general Google search of your name.  Search engine gold!

• You’re probably wondering: “Can I set up a page for my campaign organization, such as ‘Republicans for Fair Elections’ or “Citizens for Smith’?”  The answer is no — not yet.  Google is set to role out pages for campaigns/organizations/businesses later this year. Some organizations have jumped the gun and set up profiles already — and there are some early indications that Google may “clean out” these pages (i.e., eliminate them).  They really want to create a clear delineation between individuals and organizations, which is smart.  They want to do it right.  So, for now, hold off on creating an organizational page.

• Once your profile is set up, use the Search box to search for people who reside in your district.  Look at their profiles to find their interests.  Then start putting them into “circles.”  What are circles?  Basically, it’s a tool that allows you to segment the people you follow into groups, and then, if you wish, deliver customized messages to each circle.  For example, you may want to create circles for people based on the cities in which they reside. This would allow you to deliver messages only pertaining to those cities to the people in those respective circles.  Of course, you can always make your posts “public” so everyone can see them.  But the circles can be a useful tool.

• Start posting.  Not just news releases, but actual conversational content designed to engage fellow Google Plussers. As with other social networking sites, Google+ allows you to humanize your content and provide a personal connection that no other media have ever allowed us to provide.  Just like we tell our clients regarding Twitter and Facebook: 30-second ads can provide a snapshot, but not nearly as effectively as a humorous tweet from the road, or a Facebook picture of you visiting the World’s Largest Ball of Wax en route to an actual campaign event.  Like those sites, Google Plus allows your campaign to provide a real-time scrapbook — showing constant activity.  You can show your supporters and network how hard you’re working simply by posting from the road with anecdotes and pictures of where you’ve been.

• As social media guru Chris Brogan warns: “don’t just post and run.”  In other words — the strength of Google+ (and any social network) isn’t just broadcasting your message, it’s reading the feedback and commenting back and forth.  Throw out questions to see what kind of feedback you get.  It could be anything — from asking whether or not your followers support higher taxes … to asking if any of them have any good summer reading suggestions.  Just get the conversation started.

• The Google+ interface makes it a great photo sharing tool. But, please, don’t just share photos from campaign events.  Share photos of “Americana” as you travel your district, throw on some family photos … make it interesting.

• Sharing is appreciated. People always appreciate having their content shared.  If you see something you like, share it. The social media karma gods will repay you.

• Feel free to +1 the posts you like.  +1 is basically similar to a “like” on Facebook.  It shows you find a post interesting or simply like it.

• You can also +1 content on the Web.  Similar to how Facebook allows you to “like” content around the Web, whether it’s a story in your favorite newspaper, or a post on your favorite blog, +1 buttons are starting to pop up all over the Web.  In addition, if you do a Google search, you’ll also notice that you can +1 various search results.  Theoretically, this may help boost search rankings for piece of content — but these +1′s also are catalogued in people’s Google Profiles and can help lead to more viral traffic to your site. Encourage your supporters to +1 your Web content in the Google search results.

• Think of creative ways you can use “Google Hangouts.” In short, Google Hangouts is a group video chat tool.  You can have video “hangouts” of up to 10 people.  Yes, it’s limited, but it can be powerful.  Newt Gingrich got some buzz for being the first politician to hold a Google Hangout.  Imagine holding hangouts with 10 volunteers or voters in each town in your district.  Or perhaps holding hangouts with your regional campaign directors.  Conference calls are so early 2011.  It’s time to start hanging out.

• Remember that Google+ is going to keep evolving, so be ready to adapt.

Most importantly — always be testing.  See what works.  Learn what doesn’t.  Measure the feedback you get on certain kinds of posts — and watch closely the analytics on your Web site (which posts drive most people to your site, keep them there longer, etc.)

As with any social networking effort, have fun, be conversational, and act like a human.  The days of one-way broadcast communication are coming to a close.

It’s all about engagement.  See you on Google+!

Please also check out these additional resources:

• Google+: The Complete Guide (Mashable)
• 10 Things You Never Knew Were Possible on Google+ (Business Insider)
• Google Plus Best Practices: Trey Ratcliff, Artist (ReadWriteWeb)

We prefer the latter, and believe this long-term relationship building is the true strength of online communications.

Anybody can press a button and blast out a message.  And there are a lot of consultants out there making a pretty penny off broadcast-model-tactics-based programs that have their clients pay for formulaic, short-term bursts of activity that do little more than blast out impressions and messages.

We choose a different path and believe in the strength of integrated, outcomes-focused campaigns that allow you to build long-term relationships with hundreds/thousands/millions of people in the areas that matter most to you.

To do this requires five steps that are fully intertwined and occurring simultaneously:

• Develop Online Messaging
• Take Message Public: Creating the Narrative
• Engaging Voters
• Creating/Identifying Advocates
• Mobilizing Activists

To simply explain how this works, I’ll share the metaphor of a restaurant owner:

• A restaurant owner opens up shop and then develops and runs ads to tell the story of his restaurant and build awareness.
• A customer becomes engaged when he or she comes in and eats at the restaurant.
• If the customer likes the food, the ambiance and the friendly wait staff, he or she will come back again and again — allowing the restaurant to identify that person as a potential “advocate” of the operation.
• The restaurant then can use a variety of tactics (maybe its Yelp or Foursquare or Facebook) to provide that person with the incentive and tools (mobilizes) to advocate for the restaurant — by spreading the word to his/her network and recommending the restaurant.

Too many consultants focus on the last step — mobilizing current advocates — without the continuous outreach and education for which we strive. It is, in fact, this continuous outreach and education that makes effective advocacy campaigns unique and powerful.  The key is not only finding those already passionate and asking them to advocate — it is reaching the undecideds and converting them into advocates.

Online tools allow you to build programs that work like an ongoing machine to constantly find interested audiences, educate them via your point of view, get believers to become advocates, and constantly generate supporters between the campaign’s launch and the end date.

Don’t just broadcast.  Don’t just deliver messages.  Start building relationships.

“Back in the day, political currents could shift thanks to, say, a bad headline in the morning paper or a revealing story on the evening news. Nowadays, videos posted online have proven just as powerful in upending the political world.”

— Politico’s Patrick Gavin in a great story today about the power of online video in politics.  (H/T U.S. Chamber of Commerce Facebook page)

Good job.

But how, exactly, are you delivering these videos?  Where are you sharing them?

A new report from Brightcove and Tubemogul can provide some valuable insights on where you can get the most “bang for your post” with your online video:

• When it comes to getting people to watch online videos from media sites, Google is still the largest source of outside traffic (with more than 50% of all traffic).
• Facebook passed Yahoo in the third quarter to become the No. 2 source of traffic to online videos at media sites.
• When it comes to actual engagement in terms of minutes watched, however, viewers coming from Twitter watch longer on average than people coming from either Facebook or search.

There are additional interesting data points in the study study, so we invite you to check it out.

And, of course, we remind you to track all of your analytics to find out not only which sites are most effective — but also the types of video content that are getting the best response.  This process of evaluation should be a constant in your communications program, as it will lead you to tweak, cajole, revise and maximize your effectiveness.

Of course, that’s been true throughout history.  Any communications tool — be it Twitter, Facebook, a typewriter, a phone — is only as effective as the content being delivered.

So it should come as no surprise that the fast-growing online “coupon” company Groupon is staffing up with … writers.

That’s right, Gigaom has this great story today (we love it because it exemplifies our core philosophy):

“…while the popularity of group-powered buying accounts for a large part of the company’s growth, many supporters say that a key strength is the writing talent Groupon displays in its email offers. A piece in The Atlantic entitled “Forget Journalism School and Enroll in Groupon Academy” notes that the company has more than 100 writers, editors and fact-checkers on staff — more than a lot of medium-sized newspapers — and adds that “journalism majors should rejoice” because the company is hiring and training writers.”

I hope all the businesses, non-profits and political campaigns who are currently suffering from “shiny new object syndrome” read that article.  Groupon is focusing on content first — and growing as a result.

The content is what matters.  Start with hiring great writers.

Boy, have we heard that line before.  I’m willing to bet you have, too.

Believe it or not, there is still a misconception that online communication is only effective if you’re targeting young voters or consumers.  There’s only one problem with that assertion:  it’s wrong.

There is a growing body of evidence that shows older segments of the population are the fastest-growing group of online users.  Just this past week, the Pew Internet and American Life Project released a new report that shows that older users are outpacing Millenials in social networking growth:

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%.

Millenials are also getting beat by the older Generation X in terms of diversity of online use, as Gen X’ers (age 34-45) are more likely to engage in several online activities, “including visiting government websites and getting financial information online.”  That may be of particular interest to financial services companies and political campaigns.

So, the Web isn’t just for kids anymore — and if you want to target Americans of all ages, your best, most cost-effective bet is doing it online.

My wife and I spent last Friday car-shopping — an effort that ultimately resulted in us purchasing a new Toyota Sienna minivan.

We love the van (it’s basically a computer and sound system on wheels) and had a very pleasant experience with the great team at Thomas Toyota in Joliet.

As the days passed, however, I began thinking about some simple ways the dealership and Toyota corporate could implement some basic online tactics as part of their sales and ongoing customer relationship program.

• Get All Foot Traffic ‘Hooked’. Earlier in the day, we had visited a Honda dealership, spent time with a salesperson, and even test drove a car.  They didn’t capture any of our contact information (big fail).  Toyota, however, captured my basic information (name, phone and email) as soon as we entered the building (kudos).  They should go further by capturing cell phone, Twitter and Facebook information from everyone who enters their dealership.

• Immediate Follow Up. Let me once again reiterate that the team at Thomas Toyota was very helpful and pleasant.  But imagine if I had received an email, tweet and/or Facebook message the morning after purchasing my car, asking me if I enjoyed the ride home and had any further questions?  Or, if I hadn’t purchased a car, if I had received a message later in the day highlighting great features of a car I had test-driven?

• Ongoing Follow Up. Having all of my online contact information would allow them to link me to their Facebook page, where I could learn about future specials, and even read “human interest” posts about their personnel, etc.  I could receive tweets and emails about special new features on my new car.  They could solicit testimonials from me (more below) and allow fellow customers to share tips.  And, of course, they could communicate with me to remind of of things like oil changes, or upsell me on things like satellite radio or their “SOS” communications system.

• Get Testimonials. By communicating with me on an ongoing basis, they would be able to proactively deal with my concerns or issues — and learn about if and why I am a happy customer.  Then, they could reach out to me to solicit a testimonial.  Perhaps it’s a quick, written testimonial — or maybe it’s even a video testimonial that they can share across all their communications media.  That would be gold.

• LinkedIn. They should get every member of their team on LinkedIn.  Their customer relations manager, or even salesperson, could add me as a connection a few weeks after I purchased the car.  It would be yet another way to keep an ongoing discussion with existing clients (which, hopefully, would translate to repeat sales from me and my family.)

• Monitor and Respond to my Twitter Comments.  Since I purchased the car on Friday, I tweeted about my Toyota Sienna several times.  They were positive comments.  At the very least, the Toyota corporate communications team should have been monitoring this and thanked me for my purchase.  But the local dealership could do this, too.  Again, I’m not upset that they didn’t respond — but it would be a great, simple way for Toyota to add to their customer relations program.

• Monitor Social Networks for Potential Customers. During the week before I went car-shopping, I tweeted the fact that we would be shopping for a minivan.  I even mentioned that we were focused on the Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Sienna.  There are countless people sharing the same type of information on a daily basis.  All you have to do is go to http://search.twitter.com to type in the word “minivan shopping” or “Toyota Sienna” to find out who is sharing this info.  And, local car dealers, can search by location to mine for new customers and reach out proactively.  It’s that simple.

These are just a few of the quick ideas I’ve had since purchasing my car.  They could be applied to any storefront business.  The first step is capturing the opt-in information of anyone who enters your doors (and especially those who becoming paying customers).  Then determine your content strategy to help build a relationship with those people and keep them coming back through your doors.

P.S.  Please also read our prior post to show how car dealers can use Facebook ads to more cost-effectively target new customers and increase sales.

In Dickinson’s opinion, social media marketers:

(1) are undercutting the professionalism that should go hand in hand with practicing law, and (2) are useless because lawyers either do not need them, or can do this stuff themselves.

I have a few reactions to this post.

First, many small law firms and lawyers are not doing the “professionalism” of their practices any services with much of the advertising and marketing that currently exists. In fact, some of the most cheesy, outdated marketing I’ve seen has been by law firms on billboards, late night television ads, and the back of the phone book.

Second, I agree that lawyers could at least attempt to “do this stuff” themselves.

Well, I could probably learn how to rebuild my car engine, but I choose not to. That’s why I pay a mechanic.

Actually, I could choose myself to represent myself pro se in court, but instead I choose to engage a trained lawyer to represent me.

I suspect that the same “I can do it myself” mentality is behind much of the cheesy marketing I reference above.

Having said that — I will agree that choosing the right online communications professional is key.

It’s the same with choosing any consultant (or lawyer, for that matter).

There are social media “gurus” out there who pocket a lot of money to build useless apps, or charge high retainers simply to make a few, random, daily posts on your Twitter account.

The fact is, lawyers, like any company or organization, can benefit from a strategic communications program that uses a variety of tools (online and offline) to harnesses your content to build a community of potential clients (read: leads) — and turn those leads into paying clients.

Hiring any consultant, lawyer, or service provider will be a waste of time if you hire one who is unproven, sketchy and just plain bad.

So, yes, all companies and organizations (small law firms included) should heed the warning of “caveat emptor.”

But to make a broad generalization of an entire industry simply because of some bad eggs is simply wrong.

Certainly those in the legal profession should understand that.

Republican Senatorial candidates for the 37 seats in play this year have 1.43 million fans on Facebook pages linked to their campaigns, while Democrats have less than 300,000. On Twitter, Republican Senatorial candidates have close to 520,000 followers and Democrats have less than 90,000, according to the report.

That’s an average of more than 38,700 fans for each Republican candidate and more than 8,200 for each Democrat on Facebook. On Twitter, each Republican averages about 14,000 followers to each Democrat’s roughly 2,500.

I know that those who don’t understand Facebook and Twitter still pooh-pooh it in favor of more “traditional” means of voter education.

But think of it this way:  if you were a politician, wouldn’t you be excited at the possibility of reaching an audience of more than 38,000 every time you click a button?

Heck, even the Democrats are reaching an average of 8,000 Facebook fans.

Next time your candidate drives four hours to give a speech to a “chicken dinner” audience of 50 people, remember how easy it would be to reach that same audience (times ten or more) by sitting at your computer and clicking a button.

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.

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?

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.

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?

– 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.

Last week, my wife and I had the pleasure of spending the weekend in New Orleans to celebrate our anniversary.  On Saturday, we were fortunate enough to happen upon the Preservation Hall jazz club, which is, in my honest opinion, a national treasure.

As the Hall’s Web site explains, the venue was founded in 1961, “created as a sanctuary, to protect and honor New Orleans Jazz which had lost much of its popularity to modern jazz and rock n roll.”

First, allow me to paint a quick picture of the venue:  it was a small room, cramped, and without air conditioning (in 95 degree heat/heavy humidity).

A six person band appeared, wearing white dress shirts, black pants and black ties.  There was a tuba, trombone, trumpet, clarinet, saxophone, drummer and piano.

It was an amazing experience.  For forty-five minutes, we were treated not only to incredible music — we were treated to an American history lesson.

Totally unplugged.  No microphone.  No sound system.  It was all about the music.

I got to thinking about modern communications.  All too often, organizations, campaigns and corporations focus more on the equivalent of their “sound systems” — you know … the tech, the apps, the widgets, the shiny new objects.

They should be focusing more on their music.  As we’ve said here before, message should come first — tech second.

Too many folks worry about what they’re Facebook strategy, or Twitter strategy, or LinkedIn strategy should be — and don’t spend enough time plotting out their content strategy.

Your content is your music.  Unplug.  Focus on your music first.

That’s the key to a great performance.

There are some organizations that “walk the walk” with their social media programs.  And then there are those that merely go through the motions.

It’s easy to tell them apart.

Take Southwest Airlines, for example.  They clearly have taken the social media plunge in a big way.

They don’t just treat their Twitter account as if it’s a glorified news feed.  Yes, they promote their company.  But they also engage.  They serve.  They respond.

Their social media program isn’t a social media program at all.  It’s an extension of their company.

I began flying Southwest last year — partly as a protest against the other, larger airlines that tack on extra fees and have employees who treat their customers like, well, dirty.   In short, I was sick of being nickeled-and-dimed, scolded and talked down to by the other airlines.  I chose Southwest for the friendly service, the clean planes, the easy system of earning free flights … among other reasons.

This past weekend, my wife and I took a trip to New Orleans for a weekend getaway.  Our flight out of Chicago was delayed — by three hours.  As we sat on the tarmac, I grew impatient.  And so I posted to my Twitter account a complaint about the lack of drink service after a two hour delay.  I received a prompt reply from @southwestair apologizing, with the promise to see what they could do about the drink service.

A few minutes later, the crew came around with water (granted, not the Rum and Coke I wanted….but drinks nonetheless.)  Was the drink service a result of my tweet?  Perhaps.  But I was made to feel like my complaint was being listened (and responded) to.

Today, I received an email from Southwest apologizing for the delay, explaining that it was due to weather, but offering me a free voucher for a future flight:

Thank you for your patience while you waited for your May 21 flight from Chicago Midway to be “cleared” for departure.  Though we may not be able to control springtime weather or the rate in which Air Traffic Control releases flights, we do have some say in the way we show our appreciation of your valued patronage.  In this regard, I am sending a LUV Voucher that we invite you to apply toward your next Southwest reservation—I hope this gesture will be accepted as our acknowledgement of the overall frustrations created by this situation.

Wow.

They didn’t pass the buck.  They turned a challenge into an opportunity.  And now here I am writing this post and telling you (potential Southwest customers) my story.

That’s the social web at work.

That’s how you walk the walk.

That’s how it’s supposed to be done.

Well done, Southwest.  You’ve strengthened my customer loyalty.

I’m quoted in this article from today’s edition of PrairieStater.com about the lack of successful online programs among Illinois campaigns and candidates.

“The amount of political campaigns that are ‘doing it right’ online are actually very few and far between,” said Curt Mercadante, principal of Merc Strategy Group, LLC. “It’s mostly just a lack of committment on the part of candidates and campaign manager to spend the time and resources needed to be effective online. For the most part, they are stuck in the traditional mold of broadcast communications and don’t see the value in building relationships online.”

Just calling it how I see it.  I hope candidates start taking it to heart and realizing the importance of spending engaging online.  Their campaigns — and the electorate — will be better off for it.