TOP 100 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING BLOGGERS

1. Mashable

2. ignite social media

3. Problogger

4. ReadWriteWeb

5. MediaShift

6. Danny Brown

7. aimClear Blog

8. Seth Godin’s Blog

9. Social Media Today

10. Social Business

11. Ogilvy PR 360 Digital Influence Blog

12. HubSpot Internet Marketing Blog

13. Inside Facebook

14. ChrisBrogan.com

15. Small Business Search Marketing

16. digiday:DAILY

17. Dealer Refresh

18. Threeminds

19. MackCollier.com

20. Daily Blog Tips

21. Josh’s Unconventional Marketing Blog

22. Journalistics

23. MattFlies

24. Winning the Web

25. PR 2.0

26. Social Media Explorer

27. Convince & Convert

28. Marketing Pilgrim

29. Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang

30. CisionBlog

31. Conversation Marketing

32. Max Gladwell

33. PRBreakfastClub

34. The Social

35. The Profitable Podcast

36. Marketing Profs Daily Fix

37. Six Pixels of Seperation

38. A Shel of My Former Self

39. The Marketing Technology Blog

40. Personal Branding Blog

41. How to Change the World

42. .edu Guru

43. Peter Shankman

44. Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits can use Social Media

45. Sociable Blog

46. Being Peter Kim

47. The Altimeter by Charlene Li

48. SocialMouths

49. Conversation Agent

50. Old Media, New Tricks

51. davefleet.com

52. Altitude Branding

53. PR Squared

54. Scobleizer

55. Regular Geek

56. Creativity_Unbound

57. Logic + Emotion

58. FreshNetworks Blog

59. Lip-Sticking

60. SheGeeks

61. Internet Marketing with Matt Bacak

62. Buzz Marketing for Technology

63. PRSarahEvans

64. The Buzz Bin

65. The Marketing Eggspert

66. PR Communications

67. Successful Blog

68. Anil Dash’s Blog

69. Jacob Morgan

70. ChaseSagum.com

71. Twitterati

72. Global Neighbourhoods

73. bub.blicio.us

74. SearchFuel

75. Find and Convert

76. Social Media Optimization

77. Inside the Marketers Studio

78. The Social Path

79. The Social Media Marketing Blog

80. brentcsutoras

81. PR 2.0 Strategies

82. A. Fine Blog

83. Twittercism

84. Valley PR Blog

85. What’s Next Blog

86. MediaFuturist

87. The Proactive Report

88. Culture Buzz

89. Groundswell

90. Spark Minute

91. Marketing Nirvana

92. Capture the Conversation

93. One Degree

94. A Relationship Economy

95. Fast Wonder

96. Social Media Vision

97. ConverStations

98. Open Forum Blog

99. TwiTip

100. DygiScape

This list is from Cision Blog but quite comprehensive.

Nestle weighs in on Greenpeace Controversy - Facebook

By Erik Sass

Let this be a lesson for every big company that uses social media: it's better not to behave like a petulant teenager when things don't go your way. That said, we can sympathize with Nestle's hissy fit.

Like any company with a marketing organization worthy of the name, Nestle's has a social media presence including, of course, a Facebook page. Meanwhile, like any global corporation, Nestle's also does things that attract criticism from environmental activists. Taken together, these two facts virtually guarantee a collision resulting in negative publicity somewhere down the line.

That's what happened when Greenpeace took Nestle to task for allegedly contributing to the plight of Indonesian orangutans -- an endangered species whose rain forest habitat is threatened by the encroachment of farmland used to produce palm oil for Nestle's, among other buyers. Greenpeace has a Web site devoted to this cause, hosting a mini-documentary and a fairly gross video ad in which an office worker opens a Kit Kat only to find an orangutan finger (Greenpeace is not known for subtlety). Naturally, Greenpeace also posted the ad on YouTube.

Nestle's first -- and possibly worst -- social media mistake was going after the YouTube ad. The same day that the video was posted -- March 17 -- the company forced YouTube to remove the ad, for reasons that still aren't clear (as mentioned it's kind of gross, but nowhere near as gross as some other stuff on the video-sharing site). Regardless of the reason, the attempt to censor the video was not a smart move, as it generated way more negative publicity than if they'd just left it alone, while the video was still available at other locations like Vimeo and the Greenpeace site itself.

This bullying in turn precipitated a flood of negative comments targeting Nestle's on Twitter and Facebook, including the company's own Facebook page. Some of the critics were "strangers," but some of them were people who were actually Nestle's Facebook "fans" -- whom the company had presumably worked hard to recruit and lovingly cultivated with so much social media savvy.

When its Facebook fans became critical of the brand, however, Nestle turned into an angry adolescent, exchanging insults with critics and "de-friending" them, as if this would somehow stem the tide of negative PR. This ludicrous, petty behavior was the worst possible response, failing to insulate the company from criticism while stoking the negative PR storm: I mean, social networks thrive on this kind of stuff (OMG, drama! Tell everyone!).

Eventually cooler heads prevailed and Nestle's reversed itself, issuing an apology and agreeing to stop using the offending palm oil, but it was too late: its behavior on Facebook was touted as uncool, and Nestle's will be lucky if those de-friended peeps, like, ever talk to it again? But it's an interesting case study in how a social media presence -- which many big companies treat as a humdrum necessity, almost an afterthought -- can suddenly take center stage (and not in a good way).

Understanding Twitter's Promoted Tweets

Twitter ranks as one of the most popular tools on the Internet.  Over the years, they've resisted introducing a traditional Web advertising model because they wanted to optimize for value before profit.  The resulting open exchange of information created opportunities for individuals, organizations, and businesses alike. Twitter saw value in this exchange and wanted to “amplify it in a meaningful and relevant manner”.

Those altruistic days are apparently over.  Twitter recently unveiled a service called “Promoted Tweets”.  To paraphrase, “the point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Twitter, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA”.   We digress.  So, Twitter finally has an approach to monetization that amplifies existing value, while also generating profit.   

Promoted Tweets

According to Biz Stone, it's “non-traditional, it's easy, and it makes a ton of sense for Twitter”.   So what are Promoted Tweets?  Promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets those businesses and organizations want to “highlight” to a wider group of users.

What will users see? Much like Google, you will start to see Tweets promoted by partner advertisers called out at the top of Twitter search results pages.   Twitter strongly believes that Promoted Tweets should be useful to you (and promises to measure whether the Tweets resonate with users - and stop showing Promoted Tweets that don't resonate.) 

 Promoted Tweets will also be clearly labeled as “promoted" when an advertiser is paying, but in every other respect it’s intended that they will first exist as regular Tweet and thus will be organically sent to the timelines of those who follow them. Promoted Tweets will also retain all the functionality of a regular Tweet including replying, Retweeting, and ‘favoriting’.  However, only one Promoted Tweet will be displayed on the search results page.

Since all Promoted Tweets are organic Tweets, there is apparently not a single “ad" in Promoted Tweets platform that isn't already an organic part of Twitter. This is distinct from both traditional search advertising and more recent social advertising.  Like any other Tweet, the connection between you and a Promoted Tweet in real-time provides a powerful means of delivering information relevant to you at the moment.

There is one big difference between a Promoted Tweet and a regular Tweet. Promoted Tweets must meet a higher bar—they must resonate with users. That means if users don't interact with a Promoted Tweet to allow us to know that the Promoted Tweet is resonating with them, such as replying to it, favoriting it, or Retweeting it, the Promoted Tweet will disappear.

One small step for Tweet’s.  One Giant leap for Twitter. ;)

SOCIAL MEDIA IN 2012 - TRENDS + PREDICTIONS

Note:  These predictions are by Freddie Laker, Director of Digital Strategy at SapientNitro.


SOCIAL MEDIA IN 2012 - Ultimately, share of voice, point of view and community influence will be more important than brand ownership — and marketers will need to get over it if they want to stay relevant in 2012.

1. Privacy expectations will (have to) change

There will be a cultural shift, whereby people will begin to find it increasingly more acceptable to expose more and more of their personal details on different forms of social media. Sharing your likes, dislikes, opinions, photos, videos and other forms of personal information will be the norm and people will become more accepting of personalized experiences, both corporate and personal, that are reacting to this dearth of personal information.

2. Complete decentralization of social networks

The concept of a friend network will be a portable experience. You’ll find most digital experiences will be able to leverage the power of your social networks in a way that leverages your readily available personal information and the relationships you’ve established. We’re already seeing the beginnings of this with Facebook Connect and Google’s FriendConnect.

3. Our interaction with search engines will be different

Real-time information in Google search, e.g. from Twitter, blog results and user reviews, will be more prominent. Google’s Social Search will change the way we interact with search engines by pushing relevant content from our personal networks to the front of search results, making them more personalized. The importance of digital-influencer marketing will increase significantly.

4. Rise of the content aggregators

The amount of content online is growing at an exponential rate, and most online users have at least three online profiles from social networks to micro-blogging to social news sites. Our ability to manage this influx is challenging, and content aggregators will be the new demi-gods, bringing method to madness (and make a killing). Filtering and managing content will be big business for those who can get it right and provide easy-to-use services.

5. Social media augmented reality

Openly accessible information from the social-media space will be used to enhance everyday experiences. For example: the contacts book in your phone links to Facebook and Twitter to show real-time updates on what the contact is doing before you put in the call, real-time reviews from friends and associates will appear in GPS-based mapping services as a standard feature, and socially enabled CRM will change the way companies manage business relationships forever.

6. Influencer marketing will be redefined

As social media continues to permeate more and more aspects of not only the way we interact with digital media but also other channels such as digital outdoor, commerce or online TV, we will see the significance of influencer marketing grow dramatically. As a basic example, the inclusion of Twitter in Google search results or Google’s soon-to-be-released Social Search will permeate search results with content that will not be managed by Google’s infamous PageRank but by social influence and relevance to your social network. Discovering people that can help you to reach your desired consumer will become exponentially more effective and important.

7. Ratings everywhere

In today’s world, having a commerce site that doesn’t have user ratings could actually prove to be a detriment to sales. In the near future, brands and businesses will more frequently place user ratings and accept open feedback on their actual websites. User ratings will become so common that marketers should expect to find them woven into most digital experiences.

- - - 

Note: There is also a complete Slideshare narrated presentation available.

See the full article at AdvertisingAge

Additional source: http://takemetoyourleader.com/2010/04/01/social-media-2012-presentation/

The Cult of “ME” - Narcissism and Social Media

Freud and others believed a reasonable amount of healthy narcissism allowed an individual's perception of his needs to be balanced in relation to others.  Marked by the rise of celebrity culture, the destruction of tradition, the devaluation of ordinary skills and families in our modern society - advertisers today know that consumers (i.e. “YOU”) obsessively focus on “the realization of the self".  

This cult of “me” is ironically fueled by "personalization." Web 2.0 personalizes culture so that it reflects ourselves rather than the world around us. Blogs personalize media content so that all we read are our own thoughts. Online stores personalize our preferences, thus feeding back to us our own taste.  Google personalizes searches so that all we see are advertisements for products and services we already use.  Whether Yahoo’s "It's y!ou", to “mySAP” to the “iPad” to T-Mobile’s “myTouch’s - 100% you," --it seems like you’re getting "you-ed" everywhere today. 

The shear irony therefore in multiple advertisers attempting to target millions of people with messages about their individuality, makes you realize just how uninspired we all must be.   Society itself seems to have used up its store of constructive ideas.  Moreover, we seem to have lost both the capacity and the will to
confront the difficulties that threaten to overwhelm us.  Today we are commentators and pedestrians in a state of somnambulism – seemingly oblivious to the fact that we have become both politically and intellectually bankrupt.

Isn’t it time we rediscovered our sense of civic obligation?  

SOCIAL MEDIA ADOPTION - YOU CAN’T GET A LITTLE BIT PREGNANT

We get the same question over and over again from clients and prospects alike.  "What if we get involved in Social Media and people say bad things about us?"  For those brands or companies not yet engaging with customers using social media tools, this is a worst-case scenario.

Your customers are already talking about you. So why not get involved in the conversation? People are increasingly using social media websites and tools to vent their anger about products or receiving poor service, according to a survey.  Anyone upset enough to go to your Facebook page for example and tell you what they don't like is upset enough to tell their friends and followers in your absence.   Staying off social media doesn't stop the problem; it merely removes the discomfort of having to deal with it. Being on social media at least gives you the chance to respond. Social Media will therefore impact your business and decision making whether you like it or not.

As to how about engaging with your constituents and building credibility – we offer the following.  Always act with integrity and don’t try and be something you’re not. Integrity is about being consistent and living up to the brand promise.  Where companies typically get in trouble is when they pretend to be something they're not.   Also, admit your mistakes - you’re only human like the rest of us, so if you make a mistake, admit it quickly and take any/all steps necessary to correct the situation.  Then move on. 

Still not sold?  Find out more about how Social Media Affects Buying Behavior.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR BRAND ON TWITTER

Digital Agency Razorfish has developed recommendation’s to help marketers take control of their brands on Twitter and establish a successful social presence:

1. Become familiar with Twitter by reviewing, or following, the activities of successful brands such as Dell (dell.com/twitter), Zappos (twitter.com/zappos) and Comcast (twitter.com/comcastcares).
2. Listen to what is already being said on Twitter about your brand.
3. Identify initial objectives for using Twitter, including what would qualify as a Twitter success story for your brand.
4. Look into competitive activities and potential legal considerations, especially if there is already a Twitter account that uses your brand’s name or other intellectual property associated with it.
5. Use the findings to decide on the appropriate opportunity — such as offers or community building, tone of voice and method of engagement — that may be right for your brand.
6. Since Twitter is an ongoing activity — even if your company is only listening in — dedicate a resource to monitor the conversations and competitors.
7. Map out a plan for the content you will share, including valuable initial content to pique user interest.
8. Integrate your Twitter account throughout your marketing experience, by embedding it as a feed on the company Web site, including its URL in communications and so forth.
9. Maintain momentum by following everyone who follows you, responding to queries and joining in conversations without being too marketing oriented.
10. Provide ongoing direct value through your tweets by continuing to listen, learn and fine- tune your Twitter activities.

The importance of points five, six and seven cannot be stressed enough. Brands that create an account but do not respond to followers’ posts have found their reputation tarnished for not using Twitter in the 
best way.  On the flip side, brands that have entered into Twitter with the right attitude are reaping the
rewards. For example, Dell used one of its Twitter feeds to promote discounts and generated more than 
$2 million from Twitter followers.

Facebook versus the United States: A study in Demographics

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Nestle’s “Jesus” Kit-Kat: Viral Magic

Multiple “Jesus” sightings (in inanimate objects) had occurred in rapid succession in the Netherlands with growing coverage in the news.  

To capitalize on this buzz, on the Friday before Easter, Nestle’s agency in Amsterdam (UbachsWisbrun/JWT) seeded fake news content (with pictures) to the country’s largest news websites. 

The story identified that a Dutchman had found the image of none other then Jesus Christ in his Kit-Kat bar.  Kit Kat wanted to play on its 'Have a break, have a Kit Kat' tagline within this context. Have a break in the Netherlands means "give me a break" or "enough is enough". Instead of creating an ad, they created a sighting of Jesus in a Kit Kat. 

A credible fake email was created and sent from a person who had apparently just taken a bite out a Kit Kat and found, to his utter disbelief, an image of Jesus.   Within four days the Jesus Kit-Kat was on more then 100,000 websites around the world.  

Watch the Case Study

Greenpeace stages planned attack on Nestle's Facebook Page

Another brand crisis is making headlines. First Tiger Woods, then Seaworld, and now a favorite snack-food maker, Nestle.


This time, the assault on the brand was an organized effort started by Greenpeace on their website, blog and through Facebook and Twitter. The protest was not centered on one new story in the news but instead stems from a long-standing criticism of Nestle's use of palm oil and the effects on rainforests and the habitat of orangutans. 



Through a concerted effort, protesters began to flood the Nestle Facebook Fan page with negative comments and to send tweets about the company and its practices.

What has helped this story gain traction is the extremely poor response from Nestle itself. When "fans" started using altered Nestle logos as their profile pictures, Nestle posted a reply which added fuel to the fire. "To repeat: we welcome your comments, but please don't post using an altered version of any of our logos as your profile pic--they will be deleted." This led to comments about Big Brother and stifling of dissent. The wording of Nestle's reaction was childish, rude and unprofessional.

More than the actual reason for the protest, Nestle's repsonse is evidently what hurt them most.  A later comment from a protestor said it best: "Hey PR moron. Thanks you are doing a far better job than we could ever achieve in destroying your brand." 

But what is a company to do when faced with such an organized attack via social media?

• Have a clear social media plan in place before jumping into the water. A good plan includes more than how often to send out messages, what those messages will be, and how to measure the public's response. A good, complete plan also involves setting and publishing clear policies for both the corporate representative and consumers in expected behavior (such as the rights to use logos, and a ban of inflammatory or offensive language) and having the right resources in place to deal with social media issues.

• Have a social media staff of experienced managers. Because social media is such a new practice, most companies make the mistake of assigning the work to interns or Gen Y staff fresh out of college. The idea is that people of that age are more in-tune with how social media works. That is a dangerous practice, as shown by the Nestle staffer's response. A manager with several years' experience dealing with marketing and PR issues, crisis management, or branding should always be involved in the company's response to any criticism online.

• Understand that your social media pages are not truly owned by you. Yes, with the capacity to shut off comments or even take down an entire page, you can somewhat control the content. But that will only push your criticizers to another site that is completely out of your control. Just as your brand identity is a combination of how you would like the public to see you and how they really do, your social media persona is also a mixture of what you present and the words of the community.

• Plan for the worst, even if you never have a crisis. Clearly, Nestle and its social media employee was not prepared for the onslaught of negative comments. After the childish responses, the company followed with more than 60 hours of silence before putting a more appropriately worded response on their corporate site. 

• Remember: The first rule of business should be to never insult the public. The second should be to always have a calm response to criticism, even if it is something as simple as "Thank you for your comments. We are looking into X and will release a statement by Y." And the third rule would be to then deliver on that promise. Respond when you say you will and be sure the response addresses the actual complaint and is not just a PR or marketing spin.

If Nestle had listened to consumer complaints years ago, they could have potentially avoided this entire brew-ha-ha (and had true fans leaving positive feedback on their Fan page today.) 

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