Spiral16

We’re launching a new weekly video series on our blog. The idea is to give you a look at people who work with social media every day, but don’t work for strategy or analysis agencies. We’ll share their struggles, successes, and ideas as they learn how to make social media work for their company, clients, and customers.

So why not start big? For our first interview, we talk with Shane Adams. Shane works for Cerner Corporation, a billion-dollar supplier of healthcare IT solutions, based in Kansas City, Mo. Shane is leading Cerner’s latest social media project called uCern – in the short term a social network for clients, but down the road it will be opened up to the public. You’ll get to see exclusive pictures and hear about its features in the interview.

Also, we addressed the obstacles that Shane faces when it comes to rules and red tape in working in social media for a large company with a global brand.

The interview is 16 minutes, but it’s all great stuff. We’re trying out a program that records Skype phone conversations, which explains the ugly watermark on the video.

Leave us (and Shane) your questions and comments!

If you’re interested in being interviewed for this series, email us at marcom@spiral16.com

In early June we attended the CM Summit hosted by Federated Media in New York City.

One of the best panels at the summit was on the idea of publishing. Neil Chase from FM moderated a panel featuring Ree Drummond (Pioneer Woman), Bonnie Fuller (Bonnie Fuller Media), Richard Kang (MTV Networks), and Betsy Morgan (Huffington Post).

How do YOU define a “publisher” in social media? Watch the panel and leave your thoughts in the comments.

According to a new AdWeek article, Twitter has grown over 1,400% in the last year. That’s an amazing statistic.

Twitter is now a necessary part of social media strategy, but you shouldn’t forget about other channels – especially the power of blogs.

We’re running research for a case study on the iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre launches. Aside from the semantic analysis videos we’ve already posted, there is another emerging trend: Blogs are the most influential web pages in both ecosystems.

What does “influential” mean in this context? It means these are the web pages that grab users’ attention. It’s a list of key influencers – the places and people you should go to and engage with if you want to spread your message.

Here are the top three most influential pages for both products:

Instead of looking for information on manufacturer or carrier websites, users are going to these respected tech blogs for (what they feel is) accurate information about function, price, and availability.

This isn’t exclusive to these two products, either. In a previous research done on the Blackberry Storm, Engadget also beat the Blackberry corporate website when it came to influence. When AMC opened their new Fork & Screen theater, Kansas City-based movie blog Scene-Stealers.com held more influence over users than the AMC website.

When it comes to experience-based reviews (products, events, places) evidence shows blogs tend to overtake social networks as the place to share thoughts, and Twitter functions as the vehicle that draws users to posts (via shortened URLs).

It’s easy to forget about them, because Twitter is so easy to use and track. But conversations are happening everywhere, and in more than 140 characters.

For more proof, look at the Site Type Breakdown chart for each product (Palm Pre on left, iPhone 3GS on right).

In each case, blogs and videos contribute a large portion of the overall conversation (click the images for a larger view). Knowing where your audience is getting information is a major value to monitoring a product launch.

Thanks to some friends who are professors, we came across an article in the June 2009 National Education Association newsletter on social networking in the classroom. The article is a discussion-style piece. Two professors provide both sides of an argument.

Merging social technology and education is a heated debate. Where do educators draw the line? How can they keep their curriculum solid, but include the technology habits of their students?

Since the article isn’t available online, the text is transcribed below. We would love to hear your thoughts on the issue.

Question: Is requiring students’ participation in social networking an invasion of privacy?

Response from John Damon, a professor of medieval literature and linguistics and the University of Nebraska-Kearney, received his PhD and MA from the University of Arizona after serving as a high school English teacher in Washington and Arizona:

Yes, social networking is a private activity separate from teaching and learning.

I strongly oppose the use of social networks such as Facebook or MySpace for classroom assignments. It isn’t that I’m a technophobe; I use Facebook regularly, often to communicate with and stay connected to many of my current and former students. That’s why such networks were created.

If a student discovers that I have a site and asks to join my “Friends” list, I would be rude to refuse. Such contacts between students and teachers seem to me a normal part of human interaction. Requiring such use as a part of course requirements is an entirely different matter.

I use Blackboard in all my classes, and in the past I have taught online courses. Even education is a wired world these days, so I have altered my teaching style a great deal to accommodate new forms of communication. I use Powerpoint regularly in the classroom, and I have sites listed on each course’s page for Web-links. But using cyberspace to deliver information differs fundamentally from using social networks as part of the structure of my courses.

I have seen the problems that can arise when teachers intrude into the private lives of their students, and it isn’t a pretty picture. Harm can be done both to the students, who must cautiously balance their need to work well with their instructors with their desire to avoid unwanted entanglements, and to the teachers, who may leave themselves open to unwarranted claims of harassment.

Schools and educators’ organizations should strongly resist the tendency to blur the lines that separate the formal and responsibility-laden role of being , in an increasingly old-fashioned term, in loco parentis and the personal role teachers often fill in their students’ lives.

Response from Patrick Bishop. Bishop is a professor of public relations and marketing at Ferris State University, pursuiting a phD in higher educational leadership. He spent nearly 20 years in the field and held positions as a retail apparel buyer, communications officer, and vice president of sales & marketing.

No, the baby has arrived. Social networking is here to stay.

The question isn’t whether to use the new technology, but how. Consider: Facebook has more than 175 million users who spend more than 30 billion minutes online each day. Twitter, the micro blog, attracts nearly 1.9 million unique visitors per month, up tenfold from last year. YouTube recently surpassed 100 million viewers, and MySpace attracts more than 30 million users representing 150 industries.

As educators, we are called to lead change, not just keep pace. To do this, we must meet students where they are and connect them to real-world expectations. Navigating the world of social networks is a necessary skill in the current marketplace, particularly in fields such as marketing, advertising, and public relations.

My advanced public relations students are required to create a Twitter account and join HARO (Help a Reporter Out). Portions of the course are covered via Wetpaint, a wiki-blog hybrid. And, although it’s not a requirement, all of my PR students have befriended me on Facebook. In fact, Facebook has become a primary form of communication.

Social networking is here to stay. As leaders, we must embrace the new technologies as we continue to reinforce the core values of empowerment, excellence, and learning. Educator Karl Fisch said it best on the thefischbowl.blogspot.com, “We are living in exponential times… preparing students for jobs that dont exist yet, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know about.” Let’s welcome this new addition to our world, because, either way, it’s too late to send it back.

On Friday we released a short video highlighting the near-realtime sentiment surrounding the iPhone 3G S launch. Today, we’re comparing iPhone 3G S sentiment to sentiment about the Palm Pre.

There are two takeaways from this video. First, you can use the Sentiment Breakdown gadget to monitor overall sentiment or filter conversations by date (useful for product launches and campaigns). Second, it’s possible to do sentiment analysis on your competitors and their products.

You can find this video on YouTube and our Facebook page. Please leave questions and thoughts in the comments!

The iPhone 3G S launched on Friday, so we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to highlight parts of our sentiment gadget.

You can also find this video on our Facebook page, Flickr account, and YouTube channel.

We stumbled across an article from TechJournal South on Tuesday that highlights six must-have social networking profiles for business owners, marketers and advertisers.

Author Heather Lutze writes that each platform serves a specific purpose and has a “touch of optimization” for every campaign you launch.

Here’s her list (copy/pasted, NOT THE WORK OF S16!):

Social Advertising Element #1: Linked In

A popular business profile site, LinkedIn ranks very well in search engines and is a great platform for sending event updates out to business associates.

Directions: When optimizing your LinkedIn profile, select one core keyword (or search term you would like to be found under), use it frequently without sacrificing consumer experience, and watch your profile skyrocket in the search engines.

Social Advertising Element #2: Facebook

As a closed community, Facebook does not rank in the search engines and makes the best choice if you want to have a personal profile online. However, optimizing your Facebook profile with your business keyword can make it an invaluable marketing effort.

Directions: Optimize your Facebook profile for one keyword and become the “go-to” expert in your industry for the more than 22 million Facebook users. Also, include some personal touches, but beware of putting too much personal information online.

Social Advertising Element #3: MySpace

As an open community, MySpace ranks great in the search engines, and more importantly, allows businesses to have fully-developed profiles, including personally designed backgrounds.

Directions: In addition to optimizing your profile with a keyword, you can also search for your target audience in MySpace friends and create an amazing outreach network.

Social Advertising Element #4:YouTube

The main video sharing platform, YouTube is one of the best forums available to create a viral marketing campaign. From publishing client video testimonials to creating social proof of your abilities, YouTube videos are a great way to get other site owners to link to your website.

Directions: Each new video is a new opportunity to optimize for a different keyword. For each video, be sure to include your keyword in the title and at least once in the description section.

Social Advertising Element #5: Blog

If you only have the time or desire to create one social media platform, a blog should be at the top of your list. Blogs give users a few distinctive advantages over the other platforms that make them absolutely invaluable in the world of Internet Marketing. First, search engines love blogs. They have plenty of content and are easy for the spiders to crawl and categorize online. Second, consumers love blogs. They aren’t hard-sales, but instead are a mix of marketing and education that online shoppers trust. Third, every blog is a new opportunity for you to go after a new keyword. Whether you want to dominate a search page with one particular keyword or just have a presence under a different keyword, a blog is a free and easy way to get you there.

Directions: As with a YouTube video, every blog is a new keyword opportunity. Use a keyword tool, and select your keyword before writing. Then, include your keyword in the title and throughout the content- but remember never sacrifice consumer experience. Also, be advised that repeating a keyword too many times will show up as spam in the search engines.

Social Advertising Element #6: Twitter

The newest, hottest rage, Twitter is a micro blog that limits posts to 140 characters. Although you’ll typically hear the most skepticism about Twitter, it can be an amazing tool for your business. Twitter plugins allow you to update Twitter and literally push it out to your other platforms, such as Facebook. Additionally, Twitter posts rank in the search engines.

Directions: Select one keyword and include that in all your Twitter posts. Also, don’t forget to personalize your Twitter background for a totally unique and branded look and feel.

What do you think? Are there any that have been left out? Should one or two be removed? Leave us your thoughts.

After the positive response to last week’s “how to” video with the drag-and-drop dashboard, I made a shorter, more in-depth video with one of our new gadgets.

You can also find this video on Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and Vimeo.

Watch to learn about the Top Engagement Targets gadget, and make sure you leave us questions and comments!

We recently rolled out some big changes to Spark. Rather than creating a giant chunk of text to tell you how they work, I decided to show you.

Take a look, and leave us questions or observations in the comments!

Places you can find this video: Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook, and Flickr

Spiral16 employee Eric Melin has always been a rock star. After playing drums for Ultimate Fakebook, he is now part of The Dead Girls. But on Tuesday night, he went solo.

Eric competed in the regionals for the U.S. Air Guitar Championships here in Kansas City at the Record Bar… and he WON!

After many hours of practice (i.e. jumping around his house to Megadeth), Eric will be traveling to Washington, D.C. to take part in the national competition at the 9:30 Club.

Video of his stellar performance is coming soon, but until then we have photos taken by Eric’s friend Andrew Tomb. Congratulations, Eric!