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Archive for January, 2009

Five in the Morning

By Ken Burbary ⋅ January 15, 2009 ⋅ 10 comments

For those who aren’t regular readers of StickyFigure (if you’re not, you should be. Check it out), Steve Woodruff has been consistently churning out great discoveies with his Five in the Morning series. Five in the Morning is basically a blog post that highlights 5 of the most interesting and well written posts throughout the blogosphere.

Lately Steve has been inviting guests to add some new perspective and fresh content to the mix. When he approached me about being a guest author, I immediately said yes! So without any further ado, here is your daily dose of Five in the Morning:

Digital media continues to blur our online and offline lives. Spruce up your presentations and educate your colleagues with this fantastic list of 49 Amazing Social Media, Web 2.0 and Internet Stats, compiled by Adam Singer on the FutureBuzz blog.

Learn how to use a often overlooked feature of Twitter, “favorites”. Darren Rowse and Ari Herzog put together an excellent post on the Twitip blog that reveals how to use favorites, why you should use favorites, and illustrates how other people are using them.

It’s early, but one of the themes of 2009 seems to be “stop talking. start doing”. Shiv Singh, of Avenue A Razorfish, reminds brands of this and says Brands Must Do! Start doing by listening to consumers. It’s not done enough.

The ultimate do-it-yourselfer Marshall Kirkpatrick has outlined how to Build the Ultimate Social Media Cheat Sheet. Use it to get you up to speed on the social media activity in your market.

And finally, take these tips from The Difficult Art of Cold Pitching by Jon Burg, and apply them to avoid any mistakes when reaching out with a request to a community of people you have a weak relationship with. Chris Brogan even chimes in with his take.

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Social Media’s Mount Everest, Helping Toxic Brands

By Ken Burbary ⋅ January 13, 2009 ⋅ 13 comments

During the past 6 months, I’ve talked and written a lot about how engaging in Social Media can help your brand. There can be numerous benefits. In fact, Social Media Maven Chris Brogan has already written what Social Media does best. And expert Mack Collier wrote a thoughtful article some time ago, describing how Dell has successfully integrated social media into its marketing communications and culture. Both are worth your time to read.

We’re delirious with Social Media mania right now. For good reason, in most cases. However, there is one important question that a brand needs to ask before jumping into Social Media. Is it right for my brand? How and where can it be useful for us? Translation: Does it make sense to engage in Social Media.

Sure, for many brands the answers may come easily. A strategy will emerge, tactics will follow. The excitement and energy that comes with entering a new channel will also.

However, what if you’re a toxic brand? What is your current brand perception is in the dumps? What if your current customers are your most bitter and harshest critics? What if your product is far inferior to the competition? How can Social Media help you under these circumstances (and I believe it can)?

What brand could I possibly be describing? Sadly, I’m using my favorite, and home town, NFL Franchise as my test subject. The Detroit Lions brand is at an all time low. They set an NFL record for the 2008-2009 season by losing every regular season game, finishing 0-16. Ticket sales are down. Home games are blacked out on local television because of it. The Lions franchise is the laughing stock of the league. And I, like many other thousands of fans, DO NOT LIKE IT. I’m a life long fan (I know, I know, spare the glutton for punishment jokes) and want to see them succeed, so much so that I’m devoting this time & energy to blogging about it.

I have my own ideas but am looking for your perspectives. I’m hoping to tap into the collective wisdom of the Social Media crowd, and answer these 3 questions:

How can the Detroit Lions effectively engage in Social Media to help improve their brand image?
How can the Detroit Lions effectively engage in Social Media to increase sales of tickets and merchandise?
How can the Detroit Lions effectively engage in Social Media to improve the relationship with their customers and fans?

Couldn’t this become the perfect case study? If Social Media can help save a brand like the Lions, lifting them out of the brand perception toilet, then one could argue the right Social Media strategy, integrated into an overall marketing strategy, could be a difference maker for any brand? And collectively, we have an opportunity to help make that happen.

I am VERY interested in hearing your input. Please share your ideas and opinions in the comments. With any luck, maybe…..just maybe…the Lions will be listening. And if they aren’t, I’ll do what is necessary to take the answers to their doorstep. Viva La Lions!

Practical Guide to Avoid Twitter Phishing Scams

By Ken Burbary ⋅ January 4, 2009 ⋅ 34 comments

As an online network grows, it eventually attracts enough eyeballs to warrant the attention and efforts of spammers and scammers. Twitter has both. Over the last several days, Twitter has been hit hard by a Phishing scam. The only surprise is that it took this long to occur.

The Wikipedia definition for phishing is:

“the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”

While Twitter Phishing seems to make less sense than email Phishing to harvest bank account info, or some other confidential information, it can certainly still cause headache for the Twitter account owner. So, it’s an appropriate time for some practical advice on how to protect yourself from falling prey to such scams.

Do not click on any links contained within Direct Messages – This is difficult because we use DMs to share so much information, particularly links. Send an @ reply to the sender of the DM asking for confirmation if you’re not certain the link is legitimate
Do not follow any of the instructions contained in a suspicious Direct Message – Don’t follow the link (see above). Don’t reply back with any information that may have been requested by someone if you’re not sure. Sending a reply with details via email is a safer alternative.
Notify Twitter – Report the hijacked Twitter account so the it can be properly restored to the rightful owner. Also, Techcrunch has written a post with details on how to report Twitter spammers/abusers
Delete the Direct Message
Alert your network - Send a public Tweet notifying others about the hijacked account
Rotate your Twitter password – You may want to think about incorporating this practice into your normal routine. With so many Twitter tools and services online, you’re taking on elevated risks every time you authenticate to Twitter Karma, Tweetree, Twitterfone, etc… (I am a big fan and trust these sites, but the risk exists regardless). Anyone can create a “Twitter tool” that requires passing your username and password to the Twitter API. Trusting that everyone who does will protect you and not capture/keep your password is asking too much. Proactively protect yourself by changing your Twitter password regularly (You decide how often, but monthly isn’t a bad idea). In addition, make sure your Twitter password is unique. Never use the same password that you use for email, network access, bank account access, etc… Good identify security is about having strong layered defenses. Don’t put all your accounts at risk by using the same password universally.