By Lance Concannon, UK social media lead at Text 100

Speak to any senior corporate comms exec about the barriers that prevent them from using social media more in their organisation, and I guarantee that the issue of ‘risk’ will usually come close to the top of the list. This raises a couple of questions; what exactly are the risks posed by social media, and how can we negate, or at least mitigate, them?

What if people say bad things about our brand?

People often think that creating social media channels for the brand will add fuel to the fire of criticism, but that really doesn’t make any sense. Almost all brands have detractors, and social media makes it easier than ever for those detractors to share their opinions online and there’s not a lot you can do to stop that.

By participating in social media itself, your brand can at least provide those detractors with the opportunity to come to you with their grievances so that they can be dealt with in a constructive manner. If people are going to say bad things about your company, wouldn’t it be better for them to say those things in a place which you can easily monitor and manage, rather than some other website where you have absolutely no control?
So in this instance, social media does not introduce risk, but enables businesses to manage risk which already exists.

What if our own people run out of control?

In most large organisations there’s a very good chance that employees are already talking about the company in social media in either a semi-official or completely unsanctioned manner. Maybe they’ve set up social media profiles for the brand under their own steam with the best of intentions but haven’t coordinated this activity with the comms department and are not following best practice.

Or maybe disgruntled are employees complaining about the company in channels like Twitter, blogs, Facebook and discussion forums. Perhaps others are trying to be helpful by responding to consumer comments online, but they’re sharing incorrect information or using the wrong messaging.

You manage all of this through robust policies and training.

First of all ensure that you have clear policies in place for how staff are allowed to discuss the company and their jobs in social media; publish guidelines that enable and encourage staff to participate in these channels, but make the boundaries clear and explain why those boundaries have to exist. It should go without saying but you need to make sure that all staff are aware of the guidelines, from the interns all the way up to the directors.

Within any organisation there are going to be social champions – the kind of people who have a natural urge to go online and talk about the business and their work. Find out who these people are, because they are a powerful asset, and give them the training and encouragement they need to act as online brand ambassadors.

What if we get it wrong and end up with egg on our faces?

This fear is not completely without foundation. For all the talk of businesses needing to ‘take risks and experiment’ in social media, the industry loves to trumpet stories about big brands getting social media wrong. If experimentation and risk taking is to be encouraged, then perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to be a little more supportive when brands make mistakes in these channels.

The simple truth is that even with the best intentions, sometime marketing campaigns and comms activities in social media can go awry in ways you hadn’t anticipated. This risk can be mitigated by careful planning and research; read case studies and learn from the experience of others to find out what’s worked well and what’s gone wrong in the past.

When you’ve planned out your activity, spend some time trying to pull it apart and pick holes in it. What could go wrong, how could people derail or hijack it, why might it fail? Obviously you can’t predict all potential outcomes, but at least if you’ve already thought about possibilities, no matter how improbable, you can be better prepared in case things don’t go as planned.

If possible, work with an agency which has plenty of experience in social media activity – but before you sign a contract, make sure you check their credentials to see if they’re really up to the task.

While there are certainly some risks involved in using social media as a communications platform for your business, they are far outweighed by the potential benefits. The biggest risk of social media is being left behind by your competitors if you fail to take advantage of the opportunities it offers.

About the Author
Lance is the social media lead for Text 100 UK, where he focuses on helping clients to build better relationships with their audiences through digital and social media channels.

He has worked in digital PR since 2005, developing and executing social media communications activities for world leading brands such as IBM, AMD, Sony Electronics, and Oracle. Prior to this he worked as a technology journalist for over a decade, most recently contributing to Internet Magazine at EMAP as the title’s technical editor for four years.

Lance contributes to the Text 100 UK blog and Text 100 Hypertext blog  discussing emerging and mainstream communications trends and how they are being embraced, challenged and championed. You can also follow Lance on Twitter here.

Following a landmark year for location based services, mobile marketers are looking towards 2012 as the year when location based technology will pervade many of the services available on users’ handsets.

Last year Foursquare reported that over 15 million users and 600,000 businesses had joined the platform, resulting in over a billion check-ins. Location technology is firmly on the radar for many leading brands, and makes up a key part of the agenda at SMWF Europe in London in March.

Last month Facebook confirmed it was stepping up its assault on the lucrative location-sharing market with the acquisition of Gowalla in early December, expected to close as a stand-alone service later this month.

The increasing spread of ever more sophisticated smartphone handsets, combined with the continuing development of apps powered by geolocation technology, like that from companies like Navteq, is crucial to this developing trend, providing a whole new angle of relevance for marketers and brands.

Navteq, one of the leading providers of location data for developers, said:

“Hyper-local mobile advertising can target consumers in a non-intrusive way when they are near a merchant’s location and then guide them to the front door. This effectively transforms mobile into a direct response channel for retail, restaurants, cinemas, petrol stations, and any business that benefits from getting consumers in the door.”

Savvy marketers are now using location-based technology to reach potential customers in the immediate vicinity. Business listings on services like Foursquare, Loopt, Brightkite, and Google Places have become crucial weapons in the marketing arsenal as the industry waits for this trend to explode across the world.

The rise of social check-in apps has added a new dimension to the trend, using reward, word of mouth recommendation and viral to directly influence peoples’ purchasing behaviour. They allow businesses to interact directly with customers, creating communities with an added level of engagement based in real-world behaviours.

This year’s Social Media World Forum Europe will be looking in-depth at location based marketing, covering topics including:

• Harnessing the power of mobile data through location based apps – how to turn location information into consumer engagement?

• Location triggered mobile couponing / deals opportunities for large brands and local businesses

• Analyse of consumer behaviour – who are the consumers of location based services (who, how many, how old), what do they respond to well and how can you most effectively manage your communication / relationship with them?

• Are these social tools going to bring about a mobile commerce revolution?

• Using the mobile presence of facebook to promote deals, sales and encourage on the move purchases

For more information on this year’s event please visit the Social Media World Forum website.

A big thank you to those that attended the Social Media World Forum in New York.

Also a special thank you to all the speakers, sponsors, exhibitors & media partners we enjoyed working with you and look forward to meeting you all again next year!

Greg Cargill kicks off the Social Media Hub with the Fundamentals of Social Media.

Panel Discussion: Examining strategies for using social media for business to business marketing

Chairman/Moderator: Joshua March, Co-Founder,  Conversocial 

 Linette Gomez, Senior Director, Internet Marketing – Social Media,CA Technologies
Jeannine D’Allegro, Marketing Director, Social & Digital Engagement Strategy, Dun & Bradstreet
Price B. Floyd, Vice President of External Engagement and Digital Strategy, BAE Systems

Keynote Panel Discussion: What is Social Reputation and why this should matter for your business

Chairman/Moderator: Joshua March, Co-Founder,  Conversocial 

 Garth Holsinger, VP of Sales and Business Development,Klout 
Ted Rubin, Social Marketing Strategist & Brand Evangelist & Chief Social Marketing Officer,Collective Bias
Paul Papadimitriou, VP + Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Jason Wellcome,  Head of Digital Group, Weber Shandwick

Networking bar

Social Media Hub chair Greg Cargill introduces Adam Singer from Lewis PR

Exhibition

Some great discussion this morning at SMWF in New York, Ted Rubin, social marketing specialist and social media entrepreneur Pete Shankman hosted an engaging discussion about how the meaning of the word ‘friend’ is being warped by peoples’ use of social media.

Clicking on a box does not make us friends, was the gist, and the way the immediacy and ease of connection is ameliorating the term friend had the panellists concerned. “I want 2012 to be the year of taking back the word friend,” said Ted Rubin.

Pete Shankman shared his prediction for the future of the friend-trend. It can’t go on like it is, he said; people he hardly knows are inviting him to birthday parties on the other side of the world, where’s the relevance, where’s the friendship?

In the next 24 months, he continued, the trend will develop to the point where our levels of online friendship are determined not by clicking a button, but by a measure of two peoples’ relevance to each other. The more you interact, both online and in the real world, the more relevant you are.

Whatever platform we use by then, Facebook, Google (Shanklin suggested it could be called FaGoogle), would do well to be able to measure and correlate two peoples’ relevance via online interaction, checkins, emails, messages etc…

Brands need to understand the meaning of relevance, said the panel. Businesses who either deliver irrelevant interaction with their social media connections, or simply strive to generate as many fans or followers as possible are missing the point of the channel, and could be harming their relationship with the very people they’re attempting to engage.

“You’ve got to work your connections,” said Pete Shankman. “A connection is only as strong as the last time you used it.

“It’s easy and quite cheap. What people want to know is that they’re not speaking into the ether. It doesn’t take a lot to interact with people; just the odd comment now and again.”

Follow #SMWF for constant show updates as Social Media World Forum 2011 North America continues today and tomorrow at the Javits Center, NYC.

Social Media World Forum N. America is almost upon us. The event is designed specifically to help delegates build valuable connections in New York and the rest of the digital world. We have compiled a few of suggestions suggestions for how you can get the most out of getting connected at the show.

Social shindig – come join the party at the Social Shindig, this year hosted by I AM DIGITAL at Studio Twenty Onein Chelsea kicking off from 7.30pm, an excellent opportunity to catch up over a few beverages in a chilled atmosphere.

Social Media Passport  - We’ve  partnered with Social Media Passport to enable you to connect with our show exhibitors more easily online. Simply visit, www.socialpassport.net and download your Social Passport onto your smartphone, tablet or mobile; you can even print it out. Have it handy to be scanned when you’re touring the SMWF/AppsWorld exhibition to get access to exclusive prize draws and special offers. Social Passport is also available as an Android or iOS app.

Tweet our speakers – twitter will of course be the order of the day, below you can find a list of many of our speaker’s and special guests twitter handles so you can get the conversation started ahead of the show. If you have a question for one of the speakers don’t forget to use the #SMWFQ and #AppsWorldQ hashtags.

You can view all of this year’s speakers here.  

Abell, Jon, New York Bureau Chief, Wired, @johncabell

Britton, Matt, Founder & CEO, Mr Youth, @Mattyb123

Cann, Jeff Manager of Accounts, Marketwire @JeffCann

Cargill, Greg VP Client Services, Social & Media,BLITZ , 4As / Blitz Agency, @GregCargill

Carter, Sarah Vice President of Marketing, Actiance @SarahActiance

Choy, RogelioChief Operating Officer,Formspring, @rochoy

Coatney, MarkMedia Director,Tumblr, @markcoatney

Contreras, EstebanSocial Media Manager,Samsung @samsungesteban

Davar, Sara, Head of Business Development – Sales and Growth, Meltwater, @sdavar

Díaz Ortiz, Claire, Corporate Social Innovation & Philanthropy, Twitter, Inc. @claireD

Donnelly, Michael, Director, Worldwide Interactive Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company @MichaelDonnelly

Donnelly, Margaret, Director of Marketing, Meltwater @mwdonnelly

Espersen, Peter, Online Community Lead (Global), Lego @VirtualPeter

Floyd, Price B. Vice President of External Engagement and Digital Strategy, BAE Systems, @pricefloyd

Fraietta, Mike, Enterprise Community Manager, News Corp. @MikeFraietta

Janin, Keeran, Creative Director, Infindo Technology,  @keeranj

Gold, Kate,  Social Media Director, Scripps Networks, @katefgold

Gomez, Linette , Senior Director – Internet Marketing – Social  Media, CA Technologies, @LinGos

Guest, Phil, Chief Commercial Officer, Peer Index, @philguesty

Heindl, Matt, Head of Social Media, Razorfish, @matt_heindl

Hempstead, Sebastian, VP – North America , Brandwatch, @sebhempstead

Heron, Liz, Social Media Editor, New York Times, @lheron

Heuer, Chris, Social Media Club, @chrisheuer

Holsinger, Garth, Head of Communications, Klout, @garthsklout

King, Lila, Participation Director, CNN, @lilacina

Lagier, Eric, CEO & Co-founder, Memolane, @elagier

Liebling, Rick, Director of Digital Strategy, Coyne PR, @Rick_Now

Marsh, Josh, Founder and CEO, Conversocia, @joshuamarch

Napolitano, Anthony, Director of Sales and Business Development, Stumble Upon, @stumbleupon

Neale, Nicole, Social Media Director, Four Seasons, @Nicole_Neal

Papademitriou, Paul, VP and Principle Analysyt, Constellation Research, @papadimitriou

Peters, Meghan, Community Manager, Mashable, @petersmeg

Ramers, Justin, Active Network Events, Director of Social Media, @JustinRamers

Rezab, Jan, CEO, Social Baker, @janrezab

Rosenthal, Jason, CEO, Ning, @jasonprosenthal

Sain-dieguez , Vanessa, Director, Social Media – Planning and Integration, Hilton, @VSDieguez

Schafer, Ian, CEO & Founder, Deep Focu, @ischafer

Schactel, Jane, Director of Social Media Bing,@seejanesays

Schierholz, Stephanie, Head of Social Media, NASA, @schierholz

Sharma, Tom, P Emerging Products, NBC, @TomSharma

St. Amand, Wayne, VP of Marketing, Crimson Hexagan, @WayneSaint

Weiswasser, Gayle, VP of Social Media Communications, Discovery Channel @gweiswasser

On Nov 1 -2 at the Javits Center, Robert Harles, Global Head of Social Media for Bloomberg will be discussing how to integrate social media into a traditional organisation. We caught up with Robert to ask him a few social media based questions:

1. How did you get your start in the industry?

A road less traveled…I started in consulting with McKinsey & Co. I did two start ups including comScore where I learned how to build customer communities, from there I was asked tojoin Sears Holdings to build and run their social media program five years ago. We created the mysears.com community which now has over 1M registered members and drives Millions of $ in direct revenue. That gave me a lot of solid experience: dos/don’ts, building capabilities, moderation and measurement, developing and executing social strategy, integrating these activities within a business.

2. What is the biggest challenge facing your industry?

Seeing social media as a separate activity with limited or no real ROI. If social media is going to have value, it has to have a direct connection to driving real business objectives. (see my recent comments here)

3. What is the method to your blogging success?

What inspires your blogs? Be honest, think about what would interest your audience. If you wouldn’t read it, why would others? Understand that we are moving from a publication/broadcast model to one where successful stories live on beyond their publications dates. One needs to keep the story going and involve readers in the process of developing that story.

4. What’s your view on how social media will evolve?

It’s not just a conversation. As social media becomes more widely adopted in business, it should simply become part of the business communication toolkit. The real value comes from building digital relationships that can be ultimately monetized

5. What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out?

Don’t think of social media as just twitter and Facebook…an activity or thing; think of social media instead as the digital representation of making friends and building relationships in the real world – the essentials of business 101. In this sense, your personal brand and the brand of an institution you may represent merge. If you are not honest, engaging, responsive…that is what will color customers’ image of the company also. On the flip side, social media enables the individual to have a real impact on the company and its customers: shaping the brand, breaking down barriers (internally and externally) and driving insight, innovation, and loyalty

6. Where can we find you on the web/on Twitter/Facebook/etc.?

You can find on twitter at @robharles

Hear more from Robert at this year’s Social Media World Forum N. America, to find out more about this year’s speakers and book your place at this year’s event please click here.

Image via Wikipedia

Back in 2010 NASA rolled out a new branded partnership with Foursquare, straight off the heels of announcing the space agency was teaming up with another geo-location based social platform, Gowalla. The partnership features a customised section on the Foursquare website, where NASA provides official information about the space program in locations throughout the US and encourages users to “explore the universe”.

To launch the Foursquare campaign, NASA left tips at visitor centres across the US to encourage visits and create awareness about the facilities. By following NASA on Foursquare and checking in at the visitor centre locations, science museums and planetariums users could unlock the new NASA ‘Explorer’ badge and receive a free scoop of Astronaut Ice-Cream.

It wasn’t just those on planet Earth using the location platform, in October 2010 Col Doug ‘Wheels’ Wheelock became the first person to make an extra-terrestrial ‘check-in’. In a stunt designed to mark the launch of the partnership Cmdr Wheelock checked in at the International Space Station as well as tweeting photos and mission updates from his @Astro_Wheels account.

Dennis Crowley, Chief Executive and Co-founder of Foursquare was reported to say ‘Check-ins from around the world has been cool, but this blew my mind. We’re psyched to partner with NASA to help users explore the space program and the universe’.

Managing your business across the social space is a little more complex than simply having a facebook page or twitter account. Much of social reputation comes down to educating internally and ensuring that those within the business are aware of the core values and key messages that should be portrayed.

How to manage your social reputation:

1. Empower:

In a typical office when the phone rings it is simply a case of whoever is first to take the call but this process wouldn’t work on social media sites. Like a receptionist, somebody needs to begiven the job to handle the social media sites and be the ‘face’ of the company online. Having one person taking control will save the risk of mixed messages and will keep a standard tone to the communications.

2. Educate:

Once someone has been given the role of handling the social media account they should be in educated in what they can and can’t say. It is important that everyone in the business is informed of the dangers of saying the wrong thing online & how quickly that information can spread.

3. Integrate:

There was a time, when marketing and PR professionals could take their time, having hours until daily newspaper deadlines. Today, however, it is a completely different story and minutes can make the difference between being part of the buzz of the latest headline or being yesterday’s fish and chip paper. This development caused PR professionals to adopt a new method of communication – social media.

The power of social media has given public relations specialists and journalists a myriad of choice when deciding how to connect with their target audience. As a result they’ve been seen to be some of the first people to embrace social media and have become leaders in the field.

1.It Takes Two
For PR professionals it is no longer a case of blasting out PR releases or information about their brand and expecting them to be successful. Today two-way communication has become the norm with listening, engagement and thought leadership expected from all PR professionals.

2.A Wealth of Information
Social platforms provide PR professionals with masses of information on target markets, customer service and the media outlets they may be interested in, creating many more opportunities and insight into the target consumer.

3.Move Faster, Think Quicker
In our 24/7 customer-centric world social media has increased the potential for our complaints and gripes to become more visible to the wider world. The fast paced nature of social media means a crisis can develop quickly and the response needs to be made equally quickly to extinguish the flames. It is important for brands to create an online personality and be ready for the negative as well as the positive.

4.Measurable Success

For the first time in the history or PR Social Media has provided professionals with the ability to track their investment and calculate the return through measures such as website traffic and sources as well as staff time spent on tools. This means PR campaigns are becoming more specifically targeted and strategic in their approach.

5.The News is Changing
Traditional media is no longer the go to source when a big news story breaks. Twitter is increasingly being described as a personal news source with many news agencies updating news events in real time. News spreads across the site within minutes with a concentrated amount of activity views and comments from across the global. For example news about the Japanese tsunami disaster and more recent London riots was spread around the world in minutes via Twitter…

The Future of PR?
PR will continue to expand it’s capabilities for highly personalised creation, recommendation and sharing of content across all personal screen-based devices and social media is the ultimate content sharing tool.

The changing role of social media in PR is one of the hot topics on this year’s #SMWF agenda and will be held on day 2 at 1500. Hear from brands such as Hershey’s, Lewis PR, mBLAST and Four Seasons and how the role of PR is changing in the social environment.   To view the rest of this year’s exciting agenda please click here.

To secure your pass to SMWF N. America, please click here.

Playfish’s Andrew Mo is the latest addition to the growing number of speakers at this year’s #SMWF Asia.   Mo, the general manager of the China Studio, is a leading creator of award winning social games and will be chatting about his experience in the area at this year’s conference.

Recent years have seen a shift in video game users to an older and more predominantly female demographic than first envisioned. This new gamer demographic seeks games that are easier to learn, less time consuming, and that allow them to interact with friends and strangers online. This perhaps explains the recent success in social media gaming….

Playfish is a creator of social games for friends to play with each other over social media networks such as Facebook, Bebo, Myspace as well as mobile devices.  The company has enjoyed huge success in the social gaming arena with all seven of the company’s games being a top 10 hit on Facebook, including Pet Society, which see’s an impressive 11 million users each month.

Andrew and many others social media experts will be speaking at the Suntec Centre, Singapore on the 1-2 September, for more information and details on how to register your place at the event please visit www.socialmedia-forum.com/asia/.