With froth about Twitter recently, many “behind scenes” stories i’m tempted to riff from an owl-themed-social-media-corp, especially about open/closed APIs, translation/localization, advent of “promoted tweets”, scrapyard acquisitions etc, but I’m gonna hold off, for now anyhow.
Dave Olson (me :)) holds section of Vancouver Sun newspaper with article by Gillian Shaw which he wrangled / interviewed about an erstwhile online movie promotion which community – Photo by Quinn Bender
The article ran as a full page on the Entertainment section and you can explore two versions online in both the Technology and Entertainment sections. The print edition includes a screenshot of the Behind the Scenes vidcast show with Shaun and Eric, while the online version features a video with Director of Fan Communities Dave Olson giving a tour of MovieSet.com (including Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus).
The article kicks off by asking: Care to wander onto the set of a movie shoot, chat with the actors, see the inside story on the stunts?
Well, do you?
{snip}
The article quotes the erstwhile leader of the “social media renegades,” Dave Olson, who relates the focus on fan participation as the key to traffic growth and enthusiasm for the site, using our recent Death Warrior campaign as an example (links/snippets added):
“It empowers fans to go out and evangelize and start the conversation,” said Olson, who became director of fan communities for Movieset in January, after successful stints at a number of Vancouver digital companies including Raincity Studios where he curated an award-winning blog and helped launch Phones for Fearless, a campaign to support eastside artists and residents.
“The movie business has been slow to come to this style of marketing,” said Olson. “It is bubbling up from the grass roots.”
Movieset.com is a boon for indie films and it’s attracting attention from larger studios.
For small very specialized films, such as Death Warrior, a mixed martial arts film that included livestream video among its offerings for fans, Movieset allowed it to find a core audience that shared a passion for the action film.
“We found out where fans of that genre hang out, we communicated with them in their language and we invited them to take part,” said Olson. “We even gave away the bloody sweatshirt that Georges St-Pierre was killed in to a fan at the end of it.”
Finally, Ms. Shaw’s article outlines some of the other tactics we’ve used to bring movie fans behind the scenes and a call to action for movie makers of all kinds ~ from indies to majors ~ to hop aboard the MovieSet cluetrain:
While it still goes against the grain to loosen their grip on content, traditional studios are stepping aboard.
“Studios one by one are starting to realize there is some value here,” said Olson. “They see it is a conversation that is going on and it will go on without them.
“They are saying ‘we should start to participate whether we want to or not.’”
Indeed, there are now excellent examples which demonstrate the power of MovieSet’s two-headed monster. Cast and Crew members are employing our tools to streamline their daily workflow, they deliver content directly to their movies page including still photos, videos, news, or blog posts.
Once uploaded, the rich content gives the social media conversationalists an opportunity to reach out to an engaged community of fans interested in the film. Fans then become active contributors by following, supporting and commenting throughout each phase of production. And so on, and so on …
Read the full article: Online and on the set [archived link] by Gillian Shaw (@gillianshaw on Twitter) in the Vancouver Sun, June 9, 2009 –
Tom Sawyer famously talked his gang into paying him for the privilege of whitewashinga fence while he sat by and supervised. In this talk by Dave Olson at SxSW Interactive on March 10th 2012, he shares how companies might inspire their community to crowd source projects by engaging passionate users with a mutually beneficial relationship.
This video – made from appropriately crowd-sourced photos, social posts, and other snippets + music – includes Mark Twain-period costuming, pipes, smoking jackets, board games, old-timey suitcase, mysterious envelopes, audience participation and plenty of laughs while focusing on practical tactics to rally communities with clear expectations, boundaries, rewards, and objectives and importantly – without manipulating.
3 very different project examples provide tangible advice for various campaign timelines, outcomes and audiences, and include:
* True North Media House: a long-planned (and fantastically successful), renegade self-accreditation citizen documentation project at Vancouver 2010 Olympics / Paralympics
* Phones for Fearless: a rapidly planned and deployed initiative to gather dis-used mobile phone/cameras for use by marginalized communities to tell their stories
* Hootsuite Translation: activating global cultures to speedily and accurately translate and localize a social media dashboard using a web tool… with unexpected outcomes
Includes cameos of dozens of bright faces in Austin at the noteworthy event, plus more recent voice over to bring the projects up to date and share more resources to explore further including screenshots from various media appearances, reviews, tweets, and whatnot of the talk and aftermath for extra colour. Continue reading Crowd Sourcing Community Projects like Tom Sawyer at SxSWi 2012: video→
Loading up my calendar with goodness including: Hockey, Level 1 at Ice Sports (starting Wed.) Sing it Forward at the Vogue (Jan 10) DOA at the Rickshaw (Jan 18) Portage and Main at the Biltmore (Jan 25) Do Less yoga session (Jan 20) Firework Factory retreat in June plus a load of Chiropractor and Massage appointments.
I just got home from an inspiring three week trip to the Olympics and capped it off with a private meeting in NYC with some great online marketers at Inc Magazine HQ that Stu McLaren from Wishlist hosted.
The social media inspiration keept on coming as the first thing I saw in my inbox was an email from HootSuite saying I received $100 free credit from them for Twitter advertising.
Score!
I’ll be honest. I’m a big fan of HootSuite and the work Ryan Holmes does there and I’ve been using them since shortly after they launched. To see that Twitter and HootSuite look like they are teaming up to increase the usage of Twitter Advertising is very interesting.
HootSuite is one of the main sites I use on a daily basis and I almost never go directly to Twitter.com just because HootSuite is easier to manage multiple social networks and connect with all of my social accounts in one place.
I asked a few other HootSuite users if they received their advertising credits and they hadn’t receive it yet so I’m assuming they are rolling this out to limited users for testing right now.
Here’s the play by play:
First, check for the Preferred Twitter Customer Notification that should pop up when you login to HootSuite.
Then, feel free to watch the welcome video and info about advertising on Twitter for small businesses. For me, I’ve been using Facebook and LinkedIn ads primarily to get more leads for our social media training courses, but I’ve yet to tap into Twitter so this should be an interesting test to see how much traffic this will drive.
It took about 60 seconds to walk through their simple sign up process to claim the free $100 worth of Twitter advertising credits.
There is now an advertising tab in the HootSuite dashboard which makes it very easy to edit and check your stats once you are all set up. Here’s a shot from the navigation screen on your dashboard.
Right now, this looks like it is just a test but this could be a sign that a deeper partnership around Twitter Advertising Products is in the works.I’ll be testing this for awhile to see how much it helps my companies grow and I’ll be using it all from within HootSuite.What are your thoughts?
Do you currently use Facebook ads to get more “likes” and leads for your business? Can you see yourself using Twitter ads to get more followers and promote specific tweets? Let me know in the comments section below.
Tom Sawyer famously talked his gang into paying him for the privilege of white-washing a fence white while he sat by and supervised.
In this talk, Dave Olson shared how companies can use their community to crowd source projects, by inspiring passionate users to participate in mutually beneficial projects.
In this storytelling-style talk, challenges, strategies, and successful examples were shared by Dave Olson at SXSW, March 10th 2012.
My favorite panel of the fest thus far…It was the presentation style that was brilliant. Dressed in character. Tying every aspect back to that Mark Twain reference. Great physical visuals that you could pass around. It was a showcase example of a solo talk.
In Dave’s trademark fashion, he walked us through each story, using audience motivation and end benefit as pillars to ground us in the “why” audiences participated, and continue to participate in these efforts. He was able to talk about what we usually call “process” as a storyteller, imparting wisdom based on actual experience.
I keep coming back to the talk thatDave Olson from Hootsuitegave…we’ve followed a number of the rules that Dave Olson touted in his session: Thank people, make it fun for them, give them an incentive (not monetary), make it easy for them to participate.
Social media is a key marketing tool for any business hoping to expand their customer base and increase brand awareness. For small businesses in particular, learning how to master this medium is essential in order to make the most of your time and resources.
As social media becomes increasingly mobile, the importance of geo-search and geo-location will continue to grow. Potential customers with geo-capable phones are quick to search out venues nearby. Tap into an interested audience and make sure they find you!
Start With Search
The ability to filter search results by proximity is truly one of the most valuable features of geo-location technologies. Let’s look at an example of how narrowing in on nearby messages can benefit you.
Imagine you’re a dentist in Seattle offering a new teeth-whitening service and you want to find an interested audience. There’s no use reaching out to someone who wants teeth whitening in Toronto if you’re on the West coast, and your time is too valuable to spend searching endless tweets and messages in hopes of finding someone nearby. So how do you narrow down the content?
Using HootSuite, it’s easy to search for terms like “dentist” and set the geo-location filter to an appropriate distance. Soon you’ll discover all messages (using this term) that are tagged in your area.
Be sure to try out different search terms. Use your business name and different industry-related words to paint a picture of the conversation around you. Save the search as a stream in HootSuite to effectively monitor and engage in the discussions within your community.
Get to Know the Locals
Once you’ve seen relevant messages from potential customers in your area, it’s simple to reach out and offer advice, promotions or just say “hello.” The real-time nature of geo-located tweets is perfect for making a good impression by answering questions or contributing to the conversation as it’s happening.
Geo is especially useful if you have promotions on. So someone looking for a dentist will be pleased to learn that you might also be offering a 2-for-1 cleaning package to new customers. You can also offer special perks to people playing geo-location games like Foursquare or Gowalla.
And be sure to append your own messages with your geo-location so potential customers can find you too.
Where to Find Geo
More and more businesses are becoming geo-aware. In order to expand, keep an eye out for anyone mentioning your brand, tagging your location, and reviewing your services so you can reach out to others who want to evangelize your business.
Here are just some of the popular options where you’ll find your friends and neighbors hanging out:
Twitter Locations allows you to add neighborhood or venue data to your Tweets using Twitter’s native geo. This is helpful to those searching for businesses in the area.
Foursquare is a fast-growing location-based game in which friends follow one another and check in to venues. Businesses can reward players for checking in with incentives and promotions.
Facebook Places updates your Facebook Wall, your News Feed, and the Place Page; plus there’s a “here now” option so you can see who else is at the same venue, too.
Gowalla allows you to share highlights from your day-to-day life with pictures, status updates, and more.
Yelp is a geo-aware consumer-review tool where customers can write recommendations for their favorite venues, and search for everything from hairdressers to grocery stores.
And Whrrl is another game that goes beyond checking in to incorporate photos, status updates and will track check-in patterns to reveal new hot spots that users might enjoy.
Remember, check-ins are highly visible, so friends and followers will see when someone has checked in at your location. Encourage your customers and clients to check in when they stop by.
Geo on the Go
Get to know geo while you’re on the go. As a consumer yourself, start engaging with the different geo-technologies available to learn how it all works, and see how others reach out and engage with you. This insider insight will help you to make the most out of geo for your growing business.