Visa Card creates a Facebook Community for Small Business clients via a dedicated application. They have created a 'one-stop' business service online community.

Check out their page and their introduction video. Interesting to see Facebook themselves appear on the video to explain how businesses can use Facebook to create 'fans', advertise and promote business.

Shel Israel interviews the guys behind the Coke-Mentosviral.

Notice in the interview how they used video to show a larger audience what they were doing and intergrated that to 'word-of-mouth' marketing. They told someone the video was available and they told someone else etc. Also notice later that they say that the video has been copied and spread multiple places and now has been seen by maybe 40 million people.

Great example of the power of YouTube to help disseminate information to a global audience through word-of-mouth and viral marketing.

Johnny Lee is a researcher in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in the USA. In this TedTalk he shows his work at applying innovative ideas using low cost objects.

What is equally impressive is how fast news of his work has spread globally, the level of interest and the speed of a commercial application of one of his inventions.

Interesting article in AdAge about how women use blogs...

Some highlight statistics:

• 35% of all women in US aged 18 - 75 that go online participate in blogs weekly (read, write or comment)

If a 'heavy' user of the internet this increases to 53%.

Why do they participate in the blogosphere?

• 46% for fun
• 41% to get info
• 40% to socialise with friends and family
• 34% to keep updated on specific topics
• 28% to connect with others

That is a lot of online conversations. What is being said about your products and service? How well is your online brand reputation holding up? Unsure? Certainlt worth checking out!

Social Media explained in less than 4 minutes by those clever people at CommonCraft

How Levis are using YouTube for a viral campaign. Check at the stats - loaded 5th May and 3.5 million views in less than a month. 

Looks like they had fun doing it too!

A great example of the use of video podcasts from Usher. The video will show show the behind-the-scenes work on making and releasing his new album.

How could a corporate use the same technique? Imagine a series of videos showing the design and development of the product to help create and maintain the online buzz.

How would that work? Let's take an example from my past.

When at Tektronix we launched solid ink colour printing as a new technology to the world. Now that was standout event in itself but even more amazing was its ability to print on a wide range of materials - tissue, fabric, flexible plastic. It was - and still is - amazing technology. That was near on 17 years ago and the company is now a division of Xerox who still market the Tektonix Phaser colour printer line.

We launched the product to a big PR and marketing push and did CeBit and other trade shows with a lot of 'smoke and mirrors'. It was a great roll out and we did make a product demo video and supply tapes to resellers as part of their product training programme but we did not have the internet platform to help distribution nor the fact that desktop (and mobile phone and PDA) content delivery was possible to EVERYONE who is online.

We also produced information packs and technical documentsexplaining the technology. There are still many around today.

What could I do now using video?

• Go into the labs and interview the R&D team
• Interview the project leader about innovation - from concept, to working model to scaled production
• Show the print head design and testing process
• Show the R&D - success and failures - of printing on multiple types of materials
• Have a completely perspex cover made of the printer so all the internal print head and paper feed mechanism was viewable (I bet I could have charged people an extra fee at trade shows to go behind the curtain and see it - a real peep show for people!
• Talk to the beta testers - what they think about the product
• Interview customers and get their feedback from the 'coal face'
• Look at some of the more unusual applications - artists selling works of art on various materials, proofing designs on fabrics, an artist using the waste wax to craft designs etc

I would not create a single 'corporate video' of senior managers 'suited and booted' but a mini series - 3 - 5 minute podcasts showing the story of the products development.

In the case of the Phaser solid ink printer and print technology I would still be making video updates today as the product and technology is part of the Xerox product line.

The great news for marketing is that the cost of such a communication programme today is a fraction of what it cost then. To record and edit the video would be about the same price but back then we had to duplicate and ship over 5k videos across Europe. That cost us over £35k. Today that cost would be a small hosting charge of £20 a month if that. We never did duplicate any more than that initial batch as it was such a large and expensive logistics exercise.

Today we host clients audio and video podcasts for them (or they do on their own site) and month and month they are accessed by people online at virtually no cost to the client. Great for the marketing and PR budget!

What is even more interesting is the 'echo chamber' effect of the internet. I have no idea where those tapes are now. Just as years later old materials turn-up somewhere in a box or an attic or back cupboard in an office one of those videos exits. If it had been delivered online everyone could still be accessing it today. Now think of that in terms of corporate branding value?

It is interesting to see what sort of skills publishers are looking for when hiring a journalist. Nature, the magazine has a current vacancy. What are they looking for apart for experience in scientific matters?

'..Working primarily online, she or he will be able to report on and analyse news developments under tight deadlines, but will also have many opportunities for other forms of journalism, from feature writing to podcasting......

......Experience in and/or aptitude for editing, audio journalism and the development of interactive web projects will be an advantage....'

Spotted on Twitter a post by a journalist on how journalists can use Twitter. Now follow that if you can!

Research has just been published into the cascade or 'echo chamber' effect having an action orientated impactwithin a social media community (Source: Washington Post via WOMMA).

The researchers were looking at group behaviours relating to people stopping smoking. It seems that group behaviour spreads within the group very quickly causing many in the group to stop smoking. As they say:

'...the influence of a single person quitting nevertheless appeared to cascade through three degrees of separation, boosting the chance of quitting by nearly a third for people two degrees removed from one another.

"It could be your co-worker's spouse's friend or your brother's spouse's co-worker or a friend of a friend of a friend. The point is, your behavior depends on people you don't even know.....Your actions are partially affected by the actions of people who are beyond your social horizon but in the broader network...'

What does this mean for corporates?

Imagine creating a group or community around your products or services and communicating to them. Influence some of the group and as a result they recommend or comment positively about you to their friends. In turn those people tell their friends. In effect your message has reached three levels. Not everyone will contact all their friends. Nor will their friends mention it to their friends too. But as this research shows a lot will. Enough to cascade down the community.

Let's take a practical example and do the maths. Poundland has a blog where it posts details of its special offers and product availability. They have over 200 Facebook friends and blog subscribers. From research it is known that the average number of 'friends' these people have is 100 each. that gives an 'Opportunity to Influence' (OTI) of 20,000 (200 friends with an average of 100 friends each). If we extend the OTI one level more we end up with 2 million (20,000 x 100). The actual numbers will vary depending on the nature and popularity of the recommendation. But even with a lowish number it is easy to see how a viral campaign take off or why social networking campaigns should be of interest to companies.

Post by Ogilvy PR on the value of having a company video strategy.

Couldn't agree more...

Technology has moved faster than video production in many ways or at least how companies think about using it. When a corporate video is mentioned most people usually think mass distribution DVDs with extra postage and packing costs.

Internet or mobile phone/PDA delivery is now feasible so it is opening up a whole new world of communications.

Where would I use video in corporate communications?

• Training and education (must make every list list but how about refresher courses or updates and not just the 'set-piece' one off course? With so much health and safety regulations why not create a resource library so people can watch 'on demand'))
• Virtual Open Days for potential employees and graduate recruitment (costs enough to organise so why not make it available 365/24)
• Employee communication (video senior management teams messages to staff to ensure the message cascades through. This is especially true at product launch events. Sales team goes off to get trained but sales admin, customer service and others miss it. Why not capture it and use it for further communication.)
• Customer communication - marketing and technical support (use it as a pre-sales and post-sales tool. Why produce a white paper without a video introduction or presentation. If a picture is worth a 1000 words how much is a 3 - 5 minute video worth?)
• Channel communications (if selling indirect why leave your distribution partners out of it?)

According to Scientific American researchers are to explore the health benefits of blogging. It has long been known that self expression is a useful therapy in helping people communicate and deal with stress and other other emotional issues. Scientists want to explore other benefits of blogging. 

To quote '...expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery. A study in the February issue of the Oncologist reports that cancer patients who engaged in expressive writing just before treatment felt markedly better, mentally and physically, as compared with patients who did not....'

Corporates should take note: What a double win! Blogging helps CRM and employee health! 5-a-day fruit in the company cafe and a blog post a day to a healthy, motivated and efficient work force.

Next step: A Government campaign.

Interesting news about the NY Times(thanks to JD Lasica) planning to open its web site to 3rd parties.

As JD points out this opens up a whole range of possibilites for people to access and manipulate data to provide a variety of applications. Many of these will be free but some I am sure could provide such a valuable service that there could be a charge for them. Newspapers could levy a small licensing charge so helping their declining revenue streams. A win-win?

Brodeur and Newswire in the US have just completed a survey of journalists in the US into how journalists view social media.

Almost 500 journalists responded from the 5 subject areas ('beats') focussed on - technology, lifestyle, health care, travel and politics.

What were the top line results? From the Brodeur web site....

"....According to the study over half of all reporters from all beats said social media and blogs are having a positive influence on the editorial direction of reporting.  Reporters were also overwhelmingly positive on the influence of social media and blogs on the diversity of reporting with approximately 4 in 5 reporters indicating a positive influence.  However, views on tone, quality and accuracy varied by beat...."

Last year Brands2Life did a similar survey in the UK and again found that journalists were using social media as a 'story source' and a way of keeping an eye out for breaking trends and news. With the recent use of Twitter by 'citizen journalists' to break news before even the traditional news sources like Reuters and AP have got the news out it is interesting to see how many journalists now use Twitter.

For those wondering what is happening with social media globally Universal McCann have just completed their 3rd global survey(Thanks to Taly Weiss of Trendspotting for the heads up). It is interesting to see the trends over the last 3 years and the rapid expansion on digital images and video.

Report on UM site

Some highlights summarise by Taly

1. Social media is a global phenomenon happening in all markets regardless of wider economic, social and cultural development.

2. Asian markets (not including Japan) are leading in terms of participation, creating more content than any other region

3. All social media platforms have grown significantly over the three Waves: Video Clips are the quickest growing platform, up from 31% penetration in Wave 1 to 83% in Wave 3

4. Social Networks: 57% have joined a Social Network, making it the number one platform for creating and sharing content: 55% of users have uploaded photos, 22% of users have uploaded videos

5. The widget economy – 23% of social network users have installed an application – 18% of bloggers have installed applications in their blog templates

6. Blogs are a mainstream media world-wide and a collective rival to traditional media (184m bloggers world-wide, China has the largest blogging community in the world with 42m bloggers) – 73% have read a blog, 45% have started a blog

7. Social media has strong impacts over brand’s reputation – 34% post opinions about products and brands on their blog – 36% think more positively about companies that have blogs

If you are wondering what Twitter is and what it can do then it is worth checking out this post that details 140+ Twitter tools. Each extends the functionality and use of Twitter.

Business Week article on how IBM is using Social Networking tools to improve employee internal communication and knowledge sharing.

Many companies are banning employees use of social networking software such as Facebook. When you look at what companies such as IBM and others are doing you can see the longer term strategic advantage they will have.

Yet more research (via Podcasting News) indicating that traditional TV is now showing the same decline as traditional press as more and more people move online to consume news and entertainment.

For companies using press and broadcast media to advertise to the market they will need to start to seriously look at online content delivery. The global brands have already started to look at creating platforms targeting 'communities of interest' where people can interact with the brand and each other. This investment in 'customised communities' is bound to increase as traditional media continues to lose its audience. The loss of ad revenue can only speed this shift.

Great interview by Shel Israel of KD Paineon Online Brand measurement. As KD explains the software tools used (she mentions Radian6 and BuzzLogic) do a great job but cannot always track sentiment (how would software rate a phrases like 'cool',  'well wicked' or real bad'?). This is where her team of consultants comes in. Adding the human element of analysing and judging tone and sentiment from the blogs and online social media world. She also gives some great examples of companies using knowledge of the online buzz about the company to judge if stating a company blog would have value or not and which parts of social media should be targeted.

An interesting article about the Barack Obama campaign and its use of social networkingtools to engage with and motivate a community to action. In this case it is supporting and helping to fund his campaign. Whilst UK political parties could take note it also has lessons for business in terms of an outreach programme for both employees and customers.

Gordon Brown is sure to get more 'brick-bats' that plaudits for using YouTube to ask for video questions. Shame. To my mindthis is a great initiative. I feel it works on multiple levels. I have never met him personally but relatives of mine (not labour supporters and members of the public) have said he is a very nice person to meet and talk to. YouTube maybe less adversorial and suit his communication style better. Equally it gives him a direct contact with his 'customers'. What a great way to get feedback on some of the issues the electorate feels unsettled about. Opinion polls and research by others can never replace hard-wired feedback. Policians do hold regular clinics for constituents but being in the Westminister Village does cut you off from reality. YouTube sould help reconnect.

So what lessons can business learn?

• Too many senior executives live in the 'boardroom bubble' where they become detached from the daily issues facing their customers. they see and hear 'massaged' and presented data from their management team. In some cases the boards attitude means that the 'messangers' present the data in the most favourable way possible. YouTube feedback could help the management team engage better with customers. What are the hot issues? What are management doing to address them?
• It is a great 'dip-stick' research tool. Instead of the annual satisfaction surveys that are virtually out of date before being presented why not use YouTube as a form on ongoing 'sentiment' checking?
• Why not extend the principal to employees? Look at research. How many times does it say management is 'out of touch' with employees? Employees do not understand senior managements strategy or their personal role in it? That they are de-motivated as they feel disengaged?Could a YouTube type initiative but behind the 'firewall' help? 

Great use of online video. Fans of the Indiana Jones series posted questions on Seesmic and had members of the cast and crew - including Harrison Ford and Steven Spielsberg reply. One of the fans happened to be a journalist who never even went to Cannes. As she says, the video interchange has a dynamic to it that makes it feel more intimate and direct. Not like the stage managed interviews that many stars undertake. The journalist (Jemima Kiss of the Guardian) was in her PJ's when she recorded the question!

Now imagine senior management of a company using Seesmic or similar products to engage with customers around the launch of a new product or service or respond to feedback following an 'open beta' programme. What sort buzz would that create amongst their customer base? How would that enhance customer relations? Imagine you could get some of the design team to also answer questions? Such a 'corporate outreach programme' would have a positive effect especially when senior management is usually so inaccessible to the customer base (and many employees too!)