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The Buzz Bin

Musings and analysis on marketing, buzz, PR and Washington, DC.

Social Means More than OneNovember 30

“Enough about me, what do you think about me?”

“You? You? I called about me, myself and I!”

Sounds like a pretty bad conversation. Yet, that’s often what you see when corporate types start promoting their wares in social channels or when “personal brands” deliver their cultivated messages to us (Sheep Meadow Image by Joe Schlabotnnik).

In its own right these types of chats limit the conversation to a very contrived one-dimensional activity. Or worse, just the same old marketing BS delivered to you in a new form. Heck, these efforts can be just flat-out anti-social.

Let’s look at some of the etymology at play here. The much overused word social has many definitions, including, “pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations.” Inevitably the words companionship and relations are involved in defining social. Going way back, social is derived from the Latin word socius, which means sharing, associated, or allied.

This should tell you truly social media — something that at LComm we simply define as the wide variety of two-way conversational media forms — involves more than one person or entity. Great social media from organizations and marketers engages the larger whole on topics that are more diverse than simple product discussions or contrived messaging.

By addressing the larger whole, good social media serves the community. Intelligent marketers understand that their stakeholders’ interests represent the heart of the conversation, thus their needs supersede a desire to talk about self, product, services or solutions. Even Star Trek’s Spock knew this when after sacrificing his life to save the Enterprise, he said, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few… or the one.”

In Troubled Times Social Causes Humanize Your CompanyNovember 23

Very public, socially-catalyzed non-profit activity can humanize a company in a much more meaningful way than just highlighting “a personal voice” on the blog. Showing a human heart across the company touches people in a genuine way, especially in a time when people throughout the country really need the help!

In fact from a corporate marketing standpoint, this is exactly when a company should be seen contributing to society and encouraging its people to very publicly pitch in and help causes. The key is that the activity needs to be genuine, truly representing the company’s views.

“Our collective reality is borne of our interactions. We can and must create a different pattern than that we are facing with the economic slowdown,” said Conversation Agent Valeria Maltoni in an email interview.

“I was talking with some friends the other day about how this Christmas will be about love,” said Maltoni. “There is nothing more energizing, nothing more powerful than the conscious decision to be there for one another. We don’t use the “L” word inside organizations often. Demonstrating resiliency is also about looking to help those who are facing less fortunate circumstances.

Social Governance Won’t Come EasyNovember 19

Fellow Georgetown University adjunct and SEC social media wonk Mark Story aptly dubbed the current post election government 2.0 craze a meme. And in doing so, he tagged me. It’s been a while since we’ve updated our ongoing coverage of the federal government’s adoption of social media, and the current excitement does prompt a new post. Why? Because, 15 years of DC-based experience tells me what a great challenge Obama faces bringing open online conversation to the world of federal government — in spite of his social media savoir faire.

To answer Mark’s question, I think the great social media promise for the Obama administration lies in freeing data. Tons of taxpayer data from poverty figures to wea

Goodness Gracious, Great Blogs of Fire!November 18

Jothy Rosenberg predicts that “millenials will abandon Facebook.” On Rocketvox Jothy provides a detailed history of Facebook, and he offers insight into why it has developed gracefully. But, according to Jothy, things are changing. He asks rhetorically, “what is turning the Millennials — Facebook’s original and core constituency — away in droves? Creepiness, complexity, and lack of privacy.” Check out Rocketvox, for an in-depth look into Facebook’s rise, and predicted fall.

Technosailor’s Aaron Brazell reveals the latest news on the upcoming WordPress release. Aaron has includes three screenshots in his post. He also says to be on the lookout on Technosailor for “the big release cheat sheet as soon as it comes out.”

Check out Amber Naslund’s post on Attitude about how social networks and new media tools are able to bolster business development. Large quantities of money are spent on generating leads and nurturing relationships, an

Ducati Streetfighter: The Social Media Campaign That Never WasNovember 17

Ducati recently launched its new Streetfighter motorcycle with a reveal video and at the EICMA conference. Both events have been captured on YouTube, but for several reasons this online launch marks another corporate social media failure.