Her Media - Online Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing

A recently released study by Cone suggests that 93% of Americans believe a company should have a social media presence.

Interestingly Americans felt companies should use Social Media to;

- solve my problems (43%)

- solicit feedback (41%)

- develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand (37%)

- market to consumers (25%)

Social media is a welcome and non intrusive form of ‘discussion’. The study supports my feeling that as companies we need to use social media as a two way vehicle to promote building relationships and rapport with our customers rather then “marketing TO them” .

You can learn more about and see the Cone results by clicking here.

Om Malik of Gigaom posted some interesting stats released by HitWise . The HitWise study of 56  leading Social Networking sites shows that just over 67%  of US Visits were received by MySpace with Facebook  receiving only 20.56 %.

Stop by Gigaom for more details and a chart.

I created a new Twitter side image for my Twitter profile this evening. To learn how to create your own visit our previous post Twitter - Create a unique Twitter Profile.

I am still in awe over how someone from 3M could NOT have understood the ramifications of their decision regarding their 3M post it note scandal regardless of their knowledge of social media.

Its equatable to taking the idea from a novel and spinning it into a marketing campaign and expecting to NOT compensate or acknowledge the originating idea and author.

Maybe 3M should focus less on hiring people with degrees and more on hiring those with common sense

If you haven’t heard yet, Scott Ableman was contacted by 3M after he and some colleagues placed over 1000 post its on a car and their photos went viral. 3M wanted to use the photos but offered a ridiculous amount for the royalty fees to use the photos in their back to school promotions. They then took the idea and ‘created’ their own knock off images piggy backing on the already established viral photos.

I can’t believe 3M doesn’t understand the value of the image they attempted to ‘buy’ for pennies. However, maybe they don’t since they obviously underestimated the viral nature of the resulting PR issues.

Social Media is used by the ‘ next generation’ of entrepreneurs. Wouldn’t that be one of 3m’s audiences ? The same audience they have just hugely offended ?

I have been doing quite a bit of reading about the 3M issue, this morning David Scott’s comments on Web Inked got me thinking about Social Media Guidelines for corporations. He suggests 5 on the Web Inked Blog. You may want to check them out.

Have you noticed as you browse some of your favourite blogs that often the point that really hits home isn’t in the post itself but rather in the great comment posted as a result of the original blog.  Have you wondered when your service, product or name is mentioned in a comment ?

I learned about Back Type this week and thought this is great. Christoper Golda and Michael Montano have created a searchable stream of blog comments.

By ensuring that I list my Her-media.com url in my blog comments every comment I make will now be listed on BlackType. By setting my comments to moderated I can ensure no one using my url without my permission is listed under my profile.

I have already begun following a few BlackType users. Chris Broden and TechCrunch are the top two followed ‘commentators’. It is great to see what posts they are reading.

BlackType is Her Media’s official best new Social Media tool of the 2008 summer. I can’t wait to see how it grows and evolves. Be sure to head over to BlackType and register.

It seems we didn’t post the winner for the free Omni theme wordpress theme . The winner is Erin Ely from Ely Organics .

Congrats Ely ! Let us know when you have it up and launched and I will be sure to tell everyone.

I follow Wendy Piersall on Twitter. I also read her blog posts and some of her side kick’s blogs on Spark Plugging. This week Wendy wrote a post listing the twitter trends that most annoyed her and I was so in agreement with some of her comments I asked if I could share some excerpts from her post with you.

She mentions, “Really - some people just don’t get it.” Although I may be using her comment out of the context she refers to ( you will have to ask her). I agree that many Tweeters don’t get it.

If you choose to follow someone on twitter you will receive tweets of interest to that person. You can not and should not expect to control what or when someone tweets. You can however easily choose to not receive their tweets by simply unfollowing. This leads me to another of Wendy’s annoying trends;

“People who Get Pissy When You do ANY Self-Promotion at All”

For some people Twitter really is just a tool to keep in touch with family and friends. They want to keep up to date with their friends and learn about their day. Other’s are looking for industry specific knowledge. A good example of this is that I choose to follow the Canadian Political leaders to stay up to date on their happenings, conversations, and views during the federal election. I also may choose to follow gurus in a specific field (such as Wendy) to learn about their industry. In the case of Wendy I am looking for her blog posts, ideas, and knowledge. Why not JUST follow her blog ? Twitter allows me to correspond real time in a quick and efficient manner.  Its a two way stream.

Read the full article

I journalist request helped me stumble onto WeBook this morning and I couldn’t help but sign up. Just this morning I was speaking with a friend from Scotland about some writing projects so WeBook sparked my interest.

Is it possible that bloggers might benefit from WeBook’s creative writing tools ? I signed up under ‘Karrine’ to look at the tools offered by WeBook.  At first glance it appears that Webook is not just an opportunity to be published but also a social networking site for writers. I was invited to create a profile, home page and invite my friends. The layout reminds me of Club Mom with the groups and forums.

The concept of group writing can be seen in fruition by checking their store.  Pandora is a collective work of 34 community writers and it can be purchased onsite.

According to their description WeBook is an online book publishing company, to writers what American Idol is to singers. They hope to provide a means for talented writers who may be ignored by the publishing world.

Check out their Tech Crunch Pitch: