User meets Marketer perspective on branding, social media, and everything communications.
Posts tagged Cisco
Oh no you didn’t…
Aug 14th
There are few things I come across in the blogosphere that literally make my stomach turn, but today was a special exception.
If the tweet isn’t enough to make you (and all of the young professionals you know, fighting for a chance to prove themselves) roll your eyes, then the blog post will be. Rich Meyer sympathizes with an equally out of touch author, Liana “Li” Evans, who gives the following reasons for why your company should not include interns in the development and execution of your social media strategy:
- Interns don’t really know your brand
- Interns don’t know your ethics of brand philosophies
- The have no real vested interest in your brand
- They might know Facebook but do they really understand and know marketing ?
- Can they relate to your target market ?
If any of these things hold true for your company’s interns, then you are simply doing it wrong. Recruiting and hiring interns should mirror the process your company follows for hiring full time employees. They should exhibit an intimate understanding of your brand in the interview process and show they are a culture fit for your company in both their online and offline presences, especially if you plan on using them for your social media efforts. If there is something about your brand that they don’t understand, then as their mentors it is your responsibility to teach them so you both get the best possible outcome from your time together. Interns should be the revitalizing life blood of your organization, the people who make you realize the timeless power and influence of your brand.
Sure there are plenty of examples of interns making a mess of big corporations’ social media presences, but there are also lots of great examples of empowered interns using social media to put a human face to companies who badly need it (see Cisco’s rapping intern).
No one is saying that interns should be the sole engine for your social media policies, strategies, and tactics, but they certainly shouldn’t be excluded from the table. After all, today’s interns are some of the first digital natives and inherently understand how people interact and connect with brands online because they do it everyday. Their first person experience shouldn’t be ignored or stifled with ageist chapter titles and tweets.
Update: Rich Meyer has since posted a new blog with a more balanced view of the role of interns, both within a company and in regards to social media. You can read it here.
Jess Gone Viral
Feb 22nd
I buzzed by BarCamp Miami yesterday to soak in some more local expertise on everything from Gables Home Page’s struggle to bridge the gray divide online for the Coral Gables community to an impromptu discussion on why Twitter facilitates more meaningful business connections than LinkedIn.
While I was there I ran into some familiar faces from WordCamp Miami and some unfamiliar faces who wanted to hear more about myWordCamp presentation on “Finding Your Voice” when writing a blog. As more people began to approach me about it I realized that many of these people hadn’t attended WordCamp at all. So how did they find me? My new friend Cesar Abueg quickly enlightened me saying, “Oh yeah Jess, you’ve gone viral.”
Courtesy of alexdesigns
Now obviously this was somewhat of a joke, but it made me think about that term in a different light. What does it mean to truly go viral and how do you do it?
With the advent of YouTube, MySpace, and now even Twitter super stars, both individuals and brands are seeking new ways to reach more people through viral content. Cisco recently launched a campaign leveraging user-created videos from both celebrities and everyday people to help the Flip Cam become a tech tool you just can’t live without. Cisco used 68 percent of their budget to launch the spots through traditional channels like television and only 18 percent of their budget to faciliate distribution through the social media channels that made going viral relevant in the first place. Seems a little lopsided, right?
Viral content is valuable, and in fact viral, because of its ability to create a meaningful experience for the viewer that then makes them want to share that experience with others. While the number of viewers certainly matters it seems like cheating when you spend millions of dollars to guarantee those hits. Instead, both brands and people should focus on creating content that serves a purpose and making that content easy to access through social media channels. That purpose might be a bit of comedic relief during a long work day or an educational experience that gets your creative juices flowing. If you provide your viewer with a service they can appreciate on a platform that makes it easy to share that experience they will be inspired to pass it on, leaving you with the benefits and impact of an organic viral spread.
I may not be the next YouTube phenomenon, but I feel honored to have been a SlideShare favorite for bloggers trying to tap into their voice to enhance their content even if it was only for a weekend. And all it took was a SlideShare account and a couple of tweets.