Social Media | KevRichard

Posts Tagged: Social Media

Building Organizational Buy In- University of Waterloo Logogate

As part of the University’s 6^th decade plan the University of Waterloo is looking to revitalize itself, demonstrating its strengths as a technology oriented university and better position itself with the various programs and initiatives coming in the near future. Part of this positioning included a marketing logo to be used in their promotional and external pieces. Much to the chagrin of the university this logo was leaked and is now the end of many jokes for the university’s students.

The even larger issue to this story is the internet footprint that this student criticism has left. Discussion (or destruction) of this logo can be found on blogs, facebook, twitter ( #uwlogo, #pewpew, #uwlogogate) ,and even a mashup on youtube. Resulting from this there was also some negative news coverage . With all of this ridicule and critism its hard to say if this logo is really usable anymore, it was supposed to have all of this meaning for the university but now its just well….

Image from Steve Sauve

Picture from Brad Bushell

This article from the Imprint (Waterloo’s student newspaper) hits the issue right on the head. While there was a lot of concern over making the university more visible for external audiences, they had completely left the students out of the process and as a result of seeing this logo all at once instead of over time the logo came as a big shock. By not being consulted, students felt little connection to the logo and immediately felt negatively towards it. As a result of this negative sentiment Waterloo has had to work hard to do damage control.

I feel there are two lessons to be learned from this whole situation. Firstly stakeholders (customers, employees, shareholders etc) through social media are gaining a lot of power when it comes to public perception of an organization. Their complaints and criticisms are now becoming much more public and can often drown out the organization itself.

But also by not involving your stakeholders in organizational change, you will create a large reaction when it does get released whether planned or unplanned in this case. My alma mater Ryerson University is going through drastic changes as well but with a different approach. By involving the whole community in what it calls ‘The Master Plan’ stakeholders are buying in and while there may be detractors to some parts of the planning , overall members have been very open to discussion and working towards improvement.

Applying this to a business or another organization, it’s much more manageable and probably a more positive experience to keep your stakeholders involved in the process of major organizational change rather than keeping them in the dark. As much as organizations would like to control the message its impossible without having all those involved on side and to have that it can’t be forced it has to be earned.

My Experience at Social Mastermind//Social Media for Social Change

A story not so often heard about social media is how it can be a tool used by those who don’t wish to make a profit but rather by those who want to make a change in today’s society. This past week I was lucky enough to get myself out to see how some great people are looking to use social media tools for the better good and was able to lend my albeit limited knowledge to help out one organization in effectively using social media tools to reach their goals.

What was this? It was Net Change week described on their website as a week to connect Toronto’s digital natives with the city’s social change organizations. Held at MaRs discovery district with the backing of both for and non profit organizations the week looked like it was a great success. Now where did I come in? I had the pleasure of volunteering my time as one of the social media ‘experts’ in a one day session with a charity to analyze their current operations and develop strategies to implement social media in their work.

I had the opportunity to work with a good friend of mine Dan Hocking a partner in a digital agency. We were paired with Pencils for Kids a small charity based out of Markham who’s goal is to see all children with the tools needed to have an education. Currently they have projects in a community in Niger where they have worked to help provide the school supplies and facilities needed for an education. Overall an organization that despite only having one full time (unpaid) staff person has been doing great things to create social change.

While Pencils for Kids is doing some great things offline, Dan and I felt that building a stronger social media presence would work well in expanding their fund-raising efforts. Here’s a bit of what we were able to discuss in our meeting:

Telling their story: The founder of this organization , Robin Mednic who is in the thick of things when it comes to this organization’s projects has an uncanny ability to just grab you into the cause. By telling her experience with the organization and the changes Pencils for Kids has made she almost immediately sold me on the charity. We felt this strong message needed to be found on their website as well. By better integrating the photos they already had on flickr and placing the content amassed in her travels on the site in either blog or in web page form we felt Pencils for Kids could represent themselves as the amazing change creating organization that they are.

Fund-raising: We also got into the development of a fund-raising campaign with a strong on line component. Focused around the idea of providing every child in the community they support with text books Pencils for Kids would actively engage supporters in this campaign . Relying heavily on visual imagery ( X amount of money = X% of a child’s text books) Pencils for kids through its offline work could drive on line donations to its site. Through this campaign they would be able to directly demonstrate the effect an individual ‘s donation would have to the cause and they would appeal to literacy groups, schools and the general public in reaching their goal.

Awareness: Pencils are a strong source of imagery for the organization and Pencils for Kids uses it as a initial topic for discussion about their organization. To build stronger feelings for this organization it was felt that Pencils for Kids could engage the public by encouraging them to create content around this key item. Some suggested mediums were photos, drawings, and videos and these would be posted on the Pencils for Kids website where viewers could vote and comment on these pieces of work potentially with prizing to follow for the most votes.

Overall this was a great experience and I was happy to have been brought aboard. I think I took away something from this experience as well. In the social media realm a lot of people with knowledge feel that organizations should be on all the major tools and they will then seem to have this major success. I’ve learned that certain tools aren’t for every organization. Really I think that goes back to basic marketing. What tools will meet the organizations needs and goals? We didn’t go very heavy on a social media tool set in our ideas during the session because we knew that the volunteers of Pencils for Kids would be overwhelmed or not put in the large amount of effort needed to see what would probably be limited success. Instead we stuck to basics and worked on Pencils for Kids strengths.

PS: Remember how I said I was sold on this organization, after the session Dan and I put our names down for working with Pencils for Kids in the future.

Have any questions/comments? Contact me at kevin.richard@ryerson.ca or send me a twitter message .

Advertising / Communications / Marketing — 7 Comments
4
May 09

New Products and Social Media: Nissan Hypercube

As I’ve learned through reading cases and witnessing first hand, word of mouth is HUGE when you’re looking to get a message across or a product sold. If you can get people talking positively about your company your message carries much further than any ad or commercial would. Interestingly enough, marketing agency Capital C has decided to do a full product launch using this idea but by primarily using social networks and social media tools.

The Campaign:

Coming in Spring of this year Nissan Canada is looking to release the Nissan Cube, an entry level vehicle positioned to compete with the likes of the Scion xB and the Kia Soul among others. These cars are targeted towards a younger audience but follow along the same shape,size and price so a large portion of how these cars will be competing is on personality and emotional connection with the car( personalization options, community etc).

Rather than go for the traditional route of placing advertisements which have little interaction and communication with the customer, Nissan through agency Capital C has opted to release the Cube differently and has decided to rely entirely on Social media to get its message out. The campaign called Hypercube which started in March relies on users of social media sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter to get people talking about Nissan’s new product before it launches and build connection and strong interest among a potential customer base.

The Hypercube portal

How did they do this?

By setting up landing pages on Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace a competition was started where Canada’s creative population (considered influencers in this car’s segment) compete for the opportunity of owning one of 50 Nissan Cubes. Starting as a free for all ‘audition’ people would register through a main portal (hypercube.ca) where they are then whittled down through the use of audition profiles to 500 users who then must vie not only for the daily votes of their peers through whichever creative means possible, but impress a panel of judges who will in turn give away 50 of the little Cubes. Each of the 500 participants are provided with a ‘canvas’ where they may direct votes and be as creative as possible with. After the cars have been awarded winners are then obligated to post online about how they use and customize their newly won cars to demonstrate the usability and personality of this product.

Canvas of Hypercube contestan Michelle Savoie

Canvas of Hypercube contestant Michel Savoie

Outside of this contest Hypercube’s fans are not forgotten. People still interested in this contest/car still remain engaged in this campaign. Not only are the encouraged to check out each participants canvas and vote but through the social network Twitter they are interacted with and encouraged to build community. With posts in French and English @thehypercube interacts and gives mention to people who create content or ask questions about the Hypercube and the campaign, and more recently has even directly interacted with fans through the formation of Hypercube meetups.

Hypercubist Rannie Turingan :

Having consistently received Twitter messages, group requests and hearing about it in my interactions with him I figured by mentioning him in this blog post he might leave me alone! I kid! I feel he’s done a very good job in interacting with and building upon his social networks and with his success deserves the mention.

Using his Twitter nickname @photojunkie Rannie posses the question: ” Where should PhotoJunkie go in his Nissan Hyper Cube in Toronto?” Within his canvas Rannie uses his talents as a freelance photographer and takes panorama photographs at many known and unknown locales in Toronto demonstrating to people a new side of where they live ( many of his followers reside in Toronto).

Rannie's HyperCube Canvas

But I think this is only half of why he is currently at #18 of 500 participants. A very important part of his run for the car is the fact that he engages his network and makes them feel that they play a direct role in his success. Yes there is the constant posts and messages received by him asking “have you voted for me today” but its also like he’s bringing fans with him on these Panorama’s (in some cases actually doing so). Including a counter of photos’ distance traveled and total campaign stats he lets people know of his progress.

Roy Thompson Hall Panorama

Another important aspect of his Hypercube campaign is that he also directly involves his fans in the creation of these pictures, on a consistent basis he asks for suggestions of new photo locations as well as encourages people to tag along and be part of the locale itself. In this regard Rannie has harnessed what social media and word of mouth marketing aims to do and that is having people feel like they are part of the story and an active participant rather than having a message blasted in their face. By voting for him participants feel like they are part of his winning, almost like they are winning themselves.

Communications / Marketing / Personal — 4 Comments
12
Mar 09

Since I've been gone…..

Wow so its been almost a month since I last posted, slightly embarrassing but its been for good reason! Over the past 4 weeks I’ve been spending a lot of time with people in the Social media/technology fields and attending events to expand my overall knowledge, I’ll have an post coming up soon but I thought I’d lay down a summary of the events I’ve been to:

Podcamp Toronto : Ryerson needs to hold more of this type of event! I think the school really demonstrated what it was about and showed how they can excel above the rest. This ‘unconference’ while initially rooted in the realm of podcasting expanded into blogging, social media, and overall just business/interaction on the net. Some of the sessions I attended included :

-Building Relationships with Word of Mouth and PR Practitioners While Maintaining Credibility with Your Audience .Panel Discussion included : Anita Clarke,David Jones, Eden Spodek andMatthew Stradiotto, moderated by Keith McArthur.
-I Got the Job because of Social Media by Daniel Patricio
– Web Metrics Suck, (Or: How to Use Metrics to Get Sh*t Done) by Jeremy Wright of B5 Media

PodCamp Toronto

Overall A+ conference! Really enjoyed it! I haven’t had time to check things out yet but as a bonus all sessions were posted to the web : http://podcamptoronto.pbwiki.com/MediaArchive2009

Facebook Camp at MaRs: Held only for a night, and quite a different set up but still was a very useful and informative event! Just to share some interesting Facebook insights did you know that 70% of toronto residents are on Facebook? Or on average that Canadians use this site 29.6 minutes a day and 2.7 times! Canada is a major Facebook nation.

Some key highlights from this event included:

Facebook Connect: Looking at the Facebook platform that allows companies to connect Facebook profiles and import that information directly to their website allowing users to bring their friends and login with them. Not only does this create an easier process for the user but through interconnectiveness at facebook it can encourage users to add more content and drive more traffic to a person’s website.

Whopper Sacrifice: I’ve personally experienced the site when it was up and running but it was great to see the marketing statistics and effectiveness of this campaign. Done by Refresh Partners ( located in Toronto!) this campaign was amazing! A user of the site was given the ability to sacrifice 10 friends for a free whopper, where the friend would be sent up in a flame and burned to ash digitally. This program achieved amazing results!

-233,906 friends sacrificed
-high virolocity: for every one user of the site, they sent 2 more.
-After 10 days the coupons ran out and Burger king happy with the results shut down the site!

Democamp19: Another great event, but again very different from the other 2 I attended. In comparison this event was about web entreprenuers demonstrating their latest projects to the net community. So many great projects to discuss, rather than blather on I’ll post all of the sites:

-Akoha
-Backtype
-Dex
-foodea
-Imagespark
-Kontaigent
-Hackerspaces.org
-N8R text : text your location to N8R text at 416-662-3408 and get a haiku of the location
-Communitie

Something I found interesting at this event was the idea of Ignites presentations which means 20 slides at an auto setting of 15 seconds per slide. It forces the presenter to be on task, well practiced and succinct I think I’d like to try doing it in the near future.

US Now

Us Now Movie Screening: This was at Bloor Cinema, the movie was about the idea of a colabortive world using web tools and how government and organizations can use this to bi-pass barriers and have a more involved organization. Most of the people I were with were there to see Don Tapscott ( which I was too, his book “Grown Up Digital” is a must read!) but I was really excited by the ideas presented in the movie. One interesting segment included a British football team owned and run by the fans. By collaboration they decided which players to purchase, the starting positions of the players and other tasks that a regular owner would do and I was amazed that such a system was sustainable. Unfortunately Don Tapscott didn’t have much time to speak, but he did share some insights in the end and overall yet another good learning experience.

Premier of "Toronto in 6 Words" Care of MSovie via Flickr

GenYto/Canlit at CSI: Not a direct learning experience but still an interesting event to attend.Involving many of the people I’ve been speaking with over the last while I thought it was really interesting to see how this group is made up ( from marketers/ photographers/ PR People/Webdesigners and the list goes on….) despite everyone coming from different backgrounds/experience levels everyone was still able to come together have a good time and share experiences. Following the theme of all of the events it was about collaborating , sharing and bettering each other as a group. While this was more of a winding down and having fun event its not something one would normally see happening very often in my opinion.

Closer to end of the night at Canlit.... I think we're all entitled to a few bad pictures :S Care of Rannie Turingan Photography

Whats on tap for the weeks to come, well in the near term its going to be “Passion” on March 23rd by Refresh Events and then FAILcamp coming up in July….. but I sense there will be many more in between as well. Stay tuned!

Have any Questions/Comments? Contact me at kevin.richard@ryerson.ca or send me a twitter message.

Communications / General Business — No Comments
17
Dec 08

Monster Cable’s Ugly Fight

In an interesting he said,she(?) said sort of battle Monster Cable has filed suit (since dropped) with Monster MiniGolf over the use of Monster in its name arguing that it holds the legal trademark of “Monster” and only they have the right to liscence and sell it .Monster MiniGolf feeling pushed into a corner has smartly brought this fight to the public via an Ebay posting appealing to the general public to buy a $1 Monster Mini Golf coupon to defray their legal costs. Since then this name battle has been picked up in local news media ( ABC News 10 of California) prominent blogs ( Consumerist, Engadget) and social news sites ( Reddit,Digg) and has recieved a large negative reaction.

Noticing that the company is recieving a lot of negative press coverage and feedback, Monster Cable has since dropped the suit and laid out its side of the story on a page of its website . In a video statement from CEO Noel Lee the company claims that they too are the little guy and they simply don’t want to see a franchiser make profit off their trademark ( video after post) . In an act to make the company seem less cold and uncaring they have also asked Monster Mini Golf to donate a monthly $100 fee to a chosen charity for use of its name .*

I think in the end of it all Monster Cable has wasted time and resources just to come out looking like a bad guy and will loose sales as a result . If they had a redo I would suggest to them that they do one of two things: either calling Monster MiniGolf out publicily stating that hey, you’re using our trademark , stop or pay up and follow it through to the end ( rather than look like a company that waivers or is just out to get people) or that they just not bother with the whole mess to begin with.

This is a case of dragging your ( already tarnished?) name in the mud over an issue that most people don’t care about…. and hey if you want to protect your name so much what about Monster Energy Drink? I would understand if it were a more obscure name like Twitter or Microsoft, but with such a generic name the company shouldn’t be dependant on just the name but what product and brand attributes they stand for.

*Monster MiniGolf has since made a public statement

KevRichardTechnology and Digital Communications

Posts Tagged: Social Media

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