This was my profile picture. Can you guess the cartoon? There are at least three correct answers.

Whether you participated or not, you probably saw the backlash. “Slacktivism” said the naysayers who warned “changing your profile picture does nothing to prevent child abuse.” They probably posted a link to this Snopes.com article.

They’re right, of course. But most people who participated knew they weren’t doing anything significant. It’s simply fun to broadcast your affection for Rainbow Brite or Huckleberry Hound.

But is that really all you did?

There is this thing called the social labeling technique. Basically, it means that if a person is labeled with a certain characteristic, he or she is more likely to live up to that label. According to the textbook, Social Psychology and Human Nature, children who are told they understand “how important it is to write correctly” will practice their penmanship. If you suggest that an adult is an “above average citizen” and he or she will be more likely to vote.

What is Facebook if not a giant collection of self labeling behavior? Whether goodwill  toward the cause was intentional or not, advocates for children might try capitalizing on it.

So to those of you who participated in the Facebook cartoon meme:

Would you keep advocating for kids? Would you make a small donation to UNICEF? Could you pledge money or time at the local Rape and Abuse Crisis Center?

I’m just asking, because you look like someone who wants to fight child abuse.

I remember rating friends as a kid. Best friend, worst friend, friend of a friend, ex-friend, crazy friend. If you had only one ‘best’ friend, you dissed your other plain friends. In my world I’m not sure if best friends really exist. The only testament was when I had to choose the one friend that deserved to be best ‘man’ at my wedding… ouch, that hurt some feelings. But at that point, I met my new best friend (wife) so it didn’t matter. Technically, I could lose all my friends at that point. How does Facebook make your friend network become so important again?

You were there for me, Facebook, when it seemed us millions needed the measurement of friend success. But now I’ve been there. I’ve little else to share with you other than every personal moment from here forward. But for me, telling stories in person is much more fun. It is disappointing telling a story about when you were on vacation or out with your friend and we… oh wait you already saw that on Facebook. But it’s not just friends that make it hard to quit, it’s the syncing of all your other social online outlets. Your Twitter, blogs, YouTube, iPhone apps, and product groups all link together with Facebook. This is powerful stuff.

So, two months later I’m asking myself how to make it more inspiring, not tiring. And maybe not just using Facebook for what it thinks it is. I’m quite sure my friends would rather enjoy a glass of lemonade than to see something die before them. Stay tuned.

Deputy Chris Dewey, injured during the line of duty, is rallying thousands of Facebook fans.

This morning, there are more than 65,800 fans on the Facebook page, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition for Chris Dewey. The purpose of the group is to show support for Dewey, in hope that the popular television show will choose Chris Dewey’s nomination from its pool of deserving families and build a properly-equipped home for this Minnesota law officer who suffered a serious injury in the line of duty.

When I joined the group on Sunday, March 7th, more than 22,000 fans had already shown their support, and the site was only days old.  Many of us have also logged on to another networking site, Caring Bridge, this past year to read the journal updates from his wife, Emily. It was a Caring Bridge post by Emily asking for advice that started the push – through Facebook – for the ABC network to choose this worthy family for a makeover build.

Flint has been part of several Extreme Makeover Projects, including the 2005 North Dakota Build for the Bliven family in Minot. Three million visits to the builder’s website were logged during the week of the build. We achieved that level of engagement and support through public relations efforts with radio, television and print media across North Dakota.  Imagine if we would have had the depth of engagement tools that social media adds to the traditional public relations tactics of news advisories and press releases we used in 2005.

Social media is now part of the traditional media story.  The Forum’s front page, above the fold, top story yesterday was entitled “Community rallies behind Deweys” and was all about the social media effort. Through the “friend to friend” connections possible with Facebook, fans have demonstrated support, posted notes of encouragement, and emailed the ABC network asking for them to choose Chris Dewey’s family for a makeover build. Though only days old, the group boasted 22,000 fans when I joined on a Sunday night, 35,000 the following Tuesday, and just passed 65,80o this morning.

The group added 15 more fans in the time it took to post this blog.

Check out the fans on the page for Chris Dewey. You’ll find grandmas, members of law enforcement, Midwesterners, teens. It demonstrates the potential of social media to strengthen our connections, reach out to a community with shared interests or values, and create or sustain relationships.

I’m a believer, and a fan. Are you?

LiveCity Yaletown

When the cauldron was lit and the games of the 2010 Olympics were declared open, HatlingFlint was there at the Opening Ceremony, tweeting live. And we weren’t alone. Turns out there were lots of tweeters inside BC Place, around Vancouver, and all over the world who were sharing their Olympic experiences from where they were at that moment. This may not seem that unusual, but looking back only four years ago to the last winter Olympics, social media was virtually unknown. Today, social media is playing a very big role in connecting fans with athletes, teams, countries, and the overall Olympic experience.

It is for this reason that the US Speedskating team has added two members of the HatlingFlint team to their Olympic delegation, for the sole purpose of managing their social media campaign. Many of the athletes such as Apolo Ohno, Allison Baver, Jordan Malone, and Katherine Reutter, just to name a few, were already veterans of social media, but for the team as a whole, it was new.

Members of the US Speedskating team skating in Vancouver

The purpose of this new social media campaign that is still in its infancy, is to bring the Olympic experience of the team to fans of Speedskating, and continue with a sustaining program after the Olympics are over. Despite the well-publicized sponsorship of Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert of the US Speedskating team, after the Olympics are over, his involvement will be complete, so the team continues to seek a new gold-level sponsor who will take the torch from Colbert. Having a sophisticated social media campaign in place will be attractive to any future sponsor, and can serve as an additional means by which to get this message out.

The primary components of the campaign include:
Facebook fan page – updated several times per day with photos, race updates, and of course, daily medal counts. Fans have also engaged by adding their own photos of them wearing their Colbert Nation caps, historic photos of Olympics from the past, and posting questions about where  to get tickets to events.
Twitter – most popular are the live tweets from the venues as the races unfold. Even though some of the events are not broadcast or delayed, fans can choose to follow the action immediately. Two times per week, a trivia quiz keeps fans coming back to answer a question and go into a drawing for a cool prize.
YouTube – new videos are uploaded showing many different sides of athletes from competitions, practices, goofing around, and their opinion on brussel sprouts.
Blogs – daily monitoring allows us to comment on every blog that mentions Speedskating in some way; so far there have been over 100 blog posts to date and growing. Featured bloggers are added to the facebook page which helps give them even more exposure.

So take advantage of this new phenomenon and join in the fun. Engage with the US Speedskating team online and we’ll keep you up to date on every possible moment we can, now through the Olympics, and well into the future.

1) Facebook’s dollar value   2)  Your level of activity   3)  The number of, and activity of your friends

Proving the meaning of his book, the author Adam L. Penenberg wanted to place a dollar value on social-network activity. The more active you are within the application, the more you are worth to Facebook. It’s like picking up quarters on your way to a party. It drives the user to accrue social worth while increasing brand awareness. For every user that clicked on the ad within in the app, 13% purchased the book.

Compare yourself to Michael Jackson and Ashton Kircher by viewing the real-time feed of social elites at Fast Company.

For more information:
How much are you worth to Facebook? by Adam L. Penenberg

In partnership with UND Fighting Sioux Athletics, SimmonsFlint and Flint Interactive developed and implemented a social media campaign to promote “Meltdown at The Ralph,” one night of UND basketball in key games at the majestic Ralph Engelstad Arena, usually reserved for UND hockey.

We created an online landing page, where we aimed all other platforms, including:

• YouTube videos featuring players and coaches from the UND hoops teams, playing a little basketball on the hockey rink and checking out the arena (UND men’s hockey players were good sports in making cameo appearances)
• Twitter updates
• Facebook status updates and advertisements
• Emails to UND alumni, students and other sports’ ticketholders
• In-Arena Video Promos shown on the big screen during UND home hockey and basketball games
• Traditional media, including print, radio and TV commercials, promos in game broadcasts, billboards and public relations

Winning numbers

Even though the UND teams didn’t win, the games attracted 4,354 fans, the largest crowd the two teams have ever played for in Grand Forks.

Other game stats:

To discuss how social media fits your game plan, contact us.

Friend and Follow the Fighting Sioux
Twitter
Facebook

Conan invited viewers to vote on his next move on The Tonight Show blog, and Y-94 activated their fans to campaign on their behalf. I want to highlight what happened over the course of the next week as a great example of how a movement can spread organically through social media. I asked The Morning Playhouse co-host Zero a few questions about what happened next, and how the Fargo-Moorhead community jumped into action.

Flint: You posted a job offer to Conan on your website. How did he find out about it?
Zero: We assume he Googled himself, or someone from his show Googled “Conan O’Brien job offers” since they knew he wanted to do that bit. The next day we started getting phone calls saying, “You were on The Tonight Show, did you see it?” Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that he would mention it on the air.

F: The next thing I saw was the Facebook group, Conan O’Brien to Y94 and Fargo!!! Go Vote. Did you make that on behalf of the station, or was that organic?
Z: That was an NDSU student who has no affiliation to the station. He was a listener who made the group and sent us a bunch of emails that first night to tell us about it. It was really fun to watch that group grow before our eyes. It went up to over 5,000 members in just a few days. [ed. note: currently the group has over 7,900 members]

F: What other social media content did you create, or did you see fans create?
Z: There were a few smaller Facebook groups, but the first one was by far the biggest one. We posted a few YouTube videos and we also saw some Fargo high school kids had made their own video, which we posted on our Morning Show Facebook page.

F: Why do you think the listening community got so passionate about this cause?
Z: When Conan mentioned it on the show, he didn’t just say “become a morning show sidekick on Y-94,” he said “become a morning show sidekick on Y-94 in Fargo, North Dakota.” It struck a chord with people in Fargo because it’s not too often that Fargo gets a national shout-out. Especially for something positive. Usually it’s when we’re flooded. Also, Y-94, Conan O’Brien, and Facebook all have a younger audience, so it was kind of the perfect storm. It made sense that it would spread over Facebook.

F: Did you win the voting on the blog?
Z: We did win, we ended up with 44% of the votes.

F: I thought the “adult film” option was going to win, to be honest.
Z: Yeah, it is hard to beat that!

F: Did Conan mention Y-94 in his last episode of The Tonight Show?
Z: No, he didn’t. But we’re still hoping something else might come out of it. We’ve made a lot of phone calls so we’re not giving up yet…

Zero is right on when he says that this is an example of a “perfect storm” for social media. Conan O’Brien fans across the country have been creating Team Coco Facebook groups; Conan-related graphics have been created, remixed, re-tweeted, and posted on blogs. When Fargo was mentioned on the air, the cause became especially relevant to Y-94 listeners. Add that enthusiasm to a specific action that people can take, such as voting, and you have all the ingredients for a successful Facebook campaign.

What other Facebook movements have you seen that developed organically?

Special thanks to Zero of Y94 for making this post possible.

photo by tanakawho on Flickr

But the world went and changed. Communication technologies evolved and altered how we consume media. The next thing I knew, the marketing practices I fell in love with back in college had grown unsightly and questionably obsolete. But have no fear, marketers! Our old friend just needs a little nip-tuck, and she’ll be generating leads and building your brand just like the good ol’ days.

Here are five makeover trends meant to upgrade your marketing strategy.

1. Interruption to Engagement

“Psst. Hey you!  Stop what you are doing. Look over here, and listen to what we have to say!”  If our marketing efforts could talk, this is what they would be saying.

Our tactics and messages are typically about interrupting our audience in hope of gaining mind share. However, technology allows us to imbed our messages into our consumers’ lives without nearly as much disruption: emails read on smart phones, online pre-roll advertisements before watching your favorite sitcom on Hulu, and rich media banner ads that practically bring your website to your consumer without yanking them away from their current web page.  Be where your target audience consumes media. Make it seamless and easy for them to participate with your brand.

2. Awareness to Participation

Did someone say participate?  Previous marketing intellect prescribed a healthy dose of “attention grabbing,” taken with a full glass of “awareness building.” While both are still imperative, the latest studies show we need to take our marketing beyond simple awareness. Consumers don’t want to be talked to; they want to engage in a conversation.

Social media is about having a personal voice and sharing it with the world (or connections, friends and followers, depending on the social tool of choice).  Successful companies have found ways to transform customers into vocal consumer advocates via Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, YouTube and community blogs. Craft your message, provide a platform for discussion, and engage in a dialogue with your audience—they are dying to be heard.

3.    Marketer-Centric to Customer-Centric

Bad news. We’re marketers and we have two things going against us: time and subjectivity. First, most of us are strapped and burning the candle at both ends—so we send communications out to consumers when we find the time, or when it’s scheduled on the promotion calendar.

Secondly, we forget to be objective. We force-feed our customers the value prop we’ve defined for our product or service. The reality is, customers don’t care about how smothered your inbox is, and they don’t care about your functionality spec sheet. Customers are looking for relevant information when it’s convenient for them, not you.

Marketing automation technology allows for triggered direct mail, email, and mobile responses which deliver that instant gratification your customers demand. Optimization features in these tools will soon allow us to automatically test and improve results of marketing campaigns for each individual—including collection of time and behavior-based data that will forecast when your customers are most likely to view your marketing communications.

4.    Segments to Individuals

Did someone say individual? (I’m getting good at this transition thing).  A number of years back, we thought we got smart. We started communicating to our consumer base differently by segmenting them into groups using demographics, firmographics, and purchase history.

We just can’t seem to catch a break.  Today, by tracking web-based behavior (website activity, email click-throughs, web form submissions, and social media interaction), we harness the power to completely customize creative and copy for each communication, ensuring the right message is used to resonate with your customer.

Personalized direct mail, email, banner ads, mobile messages are all feasible or on the horizon.  It’s not just cool (and a little freaky I’ll admit), it will soon be an imperative in order to break through the “one size fits all” clutter.

5.    Business Gets Personal

Business used to be personal.  I’m talking small-town bakery personal.  Then, mass communication exploded.   Service had to scale, and the goal was to reach as many people as possible with a single message.

However, marketing is in a throwback trend.  Corporation executives are having interpersonal two-way conversations with their consumers while the world observes. Studies show people trust other people more than any other marketing medium.

Subsequently, organizations are starting to share stories of people impacted by their brand. People listen, people respond with their own story, more people listen and respond.  Soon everything becomes marketing. Organic, consumer-driven discussion trumps the carefully crafted corporate message.