The Manchester Evening News reports that players for Manchester United and City have been advised against using Twitter, on the basis that 1) content posted by players could be taken out of context by the media and 2) since there are so many fake twitter profiles around, if none of the players are allowed to tweet, fans be certain that any player they come across on twitter is bogus.

The risk of staff twittering off brand is obviously an issue for employers, whatever their business may be.  If you happen to earn your living as an actor in a high profile film franchise for example, there isn’t much in your working life you’ll be allowed to tweet about.  Tom Felton, who plays Malfoy in the Harry Potter franchise is limited to tweeting the Potter related news that he’s getting his hair dyed blonde (again) and talking about crisps and the weather in case he gives away a Top Secret plot development.

If you’re not sure what your own company’s approach to staff members disclosing information on social networking sites, tweeting or blogging should be, then the BBC’s own editorial guidelines on personal use of Social Networking and other third party websites  and IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines are good places to start. (both links via Roo Reynolds)

posted by gemmaT

Marketing Sherpa’s Popular Media Study, reporting on their study of social media use by US consumers, looks at a group they’re calling Max Connectors - people with more than 500 social connections.

Max Connectors are especially valuable targets for online marketing activity because they can spread a positive brand or product experience so widely.  A great example of a Max Connector is blogger and technical evangelist Robert Scoble, who has over 111,000 followers on twitter.  Not bad for a self proclaimed geek.

Persuading these Connectors to engage with brands and companies through social media channels means giving them something for their trouble, something that they can in turn share with their own connections.  This might mean exclusive access, perhaps in terms of online content, sneak peaks at new features or products or the opportunity to contribute to product or service development.

A while ago I contributed to Neil Perkin’s excellent ‘a presentation about the community, by the community’ crowdsourced presentation.  Neil suggests that every online community has Super Users; high authority, highly active people (Max Connectors by another name).  But my point was that community has layers – and you should respect them all:

Although Super Users or Max Connectors are undoubtedly valuable targets for social media activity, the Sidekicks, who might write niche blogs with limited reach or have a smaller circle of connections can be really important if you want to access their particular specialist niche target audience (like, say, anesthetists).  So size isn’t everything!

posted by gemmaT

A return by popular demand is always a good one to get the word of mouth going and Cadbury did just that with the return of Wispa in 2007. Now with a Wispa website revamp for 2010, the focus is to give Wispa fans a sense of ownership of the site, as it was them afterall who brought the product back from the sweet shop grave yard.

They’ve put interaction with the brand at the heart of the site. Focusing on people’s love for the chocolate bar, you can make little tunes about how much you love Wispa and upload your snaps of you and your Wispa, as well as putting your own name on the wrapper instead of Cadbury (or Kraft if you’re reading this in a few months!)

It’s a bit of shame though about the Wispa Twitter feed – one lonely tweet to start the New Year. Better make a belated New Year resolution Cadbury if you’re wanting to keep up your consumer interaction and keep the Wispa love flowing.

Posted by Sally Barr

I read a really interesting post last week in SmartBlog on Lego’s transformation from a company to consumer centric culture.

Lego now embraces its adult enthusiasts.  Pic courtesy of MasterChief1.

It makes a great case study for a number of reasons:

1.  It demonstrates that shifting the way you view your products can positively affect sales

2. It shows that truly understanding your customers can open up new possibilities for business growth

3. It acknowledges that embracing social media in an organisation can often take time and patience

Jake McKee,  Global Community Relations Specialist at the Lego Group explains the steps they had to take:

• There was not much boardroom activity.
• The company Jake and his team learned slowly, achieving “success by 1000 papercuts.” They did the smallest things they could get away with, then turned those results into a case study, and those case studies grew over time.
• Tenacity was essential.

Which goes to show even an organisation as celebrated in social media circles as Lego had to take it’s time.  I constantly see companies being criticised for not ‘doing’ social media right and there seems to be nothing more the Twitterati and social media experts (there are over 15,000 on Twitter) love to do than hunt down social media ‘FAILS’.  All well and good but sometimes I get a sense that there is little appreciation for how large organisations operate.  The fact is embracing social media doesn’t (and shouldn’t) happen overnight.  Everything has to be tested and clearly thought through, business cases have to be developed and compliance has to be considered.  Social media is a journey, not a race.  Like Lego, take your time to get it right.

Posted by Deborah Copeland.

@DeborahCopeland

It looks like 2010 is going to be the year when ‘digital’ stops being seen as an optional channel for communications activity and starts becoming an integrated, inescapable part of any communications campaign.

Because the internet is not simply about websites, facebook campaigns or emails, it’s about the framework within which we are increasingly living our lives.  When was the last time you called Directory Enquiries?  Popped a photo in the post to a friend?  Looked something up in an encyclopaedia? 

But I bet you use the internet for the majority of your news and weather, arranging nights out, keeping in touch with friends and family, planning and booking travel…the list goes on.  The internet is now such a fundamental part of our everyday lives that to ignore digital channels (and by digital I mean to include gaming, mobile services and so on) in any communications campaign would be negligent – because they have simply become part of how we live our lives.

In the Digital Natives, entering adulthood right now, we are seeing the first generation to grow up with the internet and global communication as a fundamental part of their everyday lives.  They’re used to being on control and doing things across multiple platforms and expect brands to participate in two-way communication with them on their own terms.

It seems inevitable that as older Digital Immigrants continue to embrace connected communication, anyone who sees The Internet as merely a communications channel like radio or TV will be left behind.  The world has changed – so must we.

posted by gemmaT