Control

The main argument for creating your own community is the increased control you will enjoy over the environment. Relying on third party tools that are constantly updating elements of their service can be a tricky business. Facebook is notorious for moving the goalposts without providing a great deal of notice. Just ask those brands who spent considerable time and money in developing Facebook apps when they were first launched only for Facebook to gradually phase out the prominence of these apps both in terms of profile page real estate and the ability to get into the newsfeed. Then there are all the various tweaks, adjustments and relaunches of the developer platforms, which usually happen as we are just about to launch a client Facebook project (paranoid, moi?). Most recently Facebook changed the width of the tabs used to deliver custom content and functionality. If you’re lucky, you can still see the odd brand page that has fallen foul of this change and has a chunk taken out of the right hand side of the tab content.

With your own branded social community you can work without the shackles and build whatever functionality you like. Here are a few key areas that this can be advantageous over, for example, a facebook page.

Moderation

Although it is possible to remove comments from a Facebook page wall, moderation certainly isn’t made easy. Our pals over at Tempero understand this only too well as they manage moderation for large brands on a daily basis.

Imagine that each time you publish a wall comment, within one hour, 600 people post a response and 10 to 15% of those are inappropriate, offensive, spam or downright rude.  Then imagine people are doing the same on your discussion area, your photos, videos — or any other area you’ve allowed them to interact. Clearing the latest content is your best plan of attack, but what happens when an older posts picks up attention for some reason?  You then have the issue of having to hunt around your now frenetic Facebook page for new posts, any one of which could be a reputation or legal nightmare waiting to happen.

There are many tools that aid community moderation by providing functionality such as moderation tools, swearing and spam filters, the option of pre/post/reactive moderation… none of which is possible in facebook.

*Update*

Facebook now provides a simple spam filter on company pages. The filter also picks up on certain swear words although this seems to be only American meaning English slang does not get flagged.

Content Promotion

Who decides which of the content added to your Facebook page gets priority? Certainly not the page owner. Facebook cares not a jot if you would rather push images or video, there is no concept of content tagging or “sticky” posts.

Messages

When on your facebook page, what other messages are your users seeing? You don’t know and never will. It’s quite possible that a competitor is advertising to your community via Facebook ads. On your own platform, you control the real estate giving you more opportunity to offer related services or promote the messages you want to promote.

User Journeys

Facebook and Twitter user journeys are designed around the news feed. Most page visits are prompted by the owner of the page publishing content then that content being shared or commented on by followers and their friends. With a limitation on design there is also a limitation on how well you can guide the user through a journey. There might be a link that leads the user offsite and into a different journey but then you’re taking them away from the community.

Useable Content

Content such as photos and videos uploaded to a Facebook page belongs to the users. As the owner of that page you are no more able to use that content than if you were to have found it on another site – unless you expressly ask the user who uploaded it of course. In your own environment it is possible to get users to agree that you can use uploaded content in a marketing capacity as part of your terms an conditions. You need to be transparent about this and be sensitive to the wishes of your community but if you are running a community with a heavy emphasis on photos, this can be a rich source of images for you.

Containment

One topic that constantly rears its head in regards to social media is metrics. How do you quantify success and track your return on investment and engagement? Most third party tools will have some form of analytics but if everything is in one place it’s much easier to keep track of what’s going on, define your performance indicators and set your targets. All this makes it easier to define and calculate your ROI.

Some considerations

The “build it and they will come” theory does not apply to social media. Building your own community is not easy and there are some things you should consider when doing so.

Freedom of Voice

Don’t stifle your users. If they can’t say it on your official environment, they will go elsewhere to do so. If you have moderation, be clear what the rules are. Don’t delete or ignore posts that you see as negative.

Your business goals

Make sure you’re undertaking this activity for the right reasons. You should only go to the trouble of creating a community if you are going to benefit from it. Does the strategy line up with your overall business goals? It shouldn’t need to be said but you’d be surprised how many brands want to do “something cool and social” for the sake of the zeitgeist without thinking things though.

Ownership and privacy issues

Who owns the content, you or your users? It’s understandable you want to use the content uploaded to your site but be sensitive to your users’ wishes. Are users aware of your T&Cs? Are you aware of their wishes?

Make things easy

Integrate with the APIs of established networks as much as possible. Don’t make your users upload content twice. Allow two way publication of photos, video to existing social tools. If you force users to choose whether to place their efforts in creating and publishing content on your site or on their existing social networks, guess which they will choose (hint: not yours).

Use open authentication to allow users to sign up with existing profiles, no one likes remembering umpteen different usernames and passwords. Likewise, if they create a profile using their Facebook or twitter accounts, pull in profile information from their existing profiles.

A case in point – Trek America Live

KMP Digitata created Trek America Live for TrekAmerica, part of the TUI Travel group. The brief was to provide a platform for past, present and future trekkers to discuss their trips, allow them to make contact with travellers before embarking on their trips and let them share blogs, pictures and videos with friends and family as they travelled. The full case study is available and the community is off to a great start. TrekAmerica are delighted with the platform – especially with the flexibility of content display that allows them to group content around destinations.

Not wanting to build an isolated site, we allow users to publish photos they upload to Trek America live to Facebook and also pull in photos they already have in Facebook. More integration with sites such as Flickr is in the pipeline and TrekAmerica Live will continue to be developed to match the needs of both the community and the brand.

Read more about KMP Digitata and TrekAmerica Live

Download the case study

A new Twitter user appeared this month that raised a few eyebrows. Following the creation of their YouTube channel last month, North Korea has now also moved to Twitter to share their news and have already reached over 10,000 followers in just over a week. The site was immediately blocked by South Korea and from what we can understand the majority of what they are talking about is pure propaganda, but none the less it’s an interesting move by the extremely secretive country

North Korea joins Twitter

On the 18th Facebook called people to their headquarters in Palo Alto to announce the launch of their Geolocation service called “Facebook Place”. The option is only available in the USA at the moment but with notifications on the iPhone saying “coming soon” but we are interested in playing with the new feature when it launches in the UK.

Facebook launches “Facebook Places”

We’ve known about the Facebook movie for a while now and how it follows Mark Zuckberg’s first year at Harvard when he created the Social Media website. Now it seems a movie is going to be created following Google creators Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

Google to move onto the silver screen

With the launch of the iPad, tablet PCs and e-readers, consumers are now able to read books and other publications in a variety of ways. There is now another way that you might be able to read your favourite books thanks to Twitter. One man, @biblesummary, has decided to Tweet the Bible over the next 3 years. Could this trend catch on with other people choosing to Tweet their favourite books?

The Bible to be Tweeted over the next 3 years

Not since the battle between Ashton Kutcher and CNN to be the first Twitter Account to reach 1 million users back in April 2009 has there been much publicity about who has the highest number of followers because Britney Spears held that title for quite a while. If there was anyone to knock Britney off her Twitter Throne it had to be Lady GaGa.

Lady GaGa over takes Britney Spears on Twitter

How-Do Awards 2010. Drinks reception sponsored by KMP Digitata from KMP Digitata on Vimeo.

KMP Twitterfall Awards

In addition to this we have had some requests to expand upon some of the Tweets we featured in our previous post. I’ve had chance to read through the 600+ tweets featured on our KMP Digitata Twitterfall and have selected my favourite tweets for an additional mention.

Best Dressed Award

Purely from the Tweet he sent, the reward for the best dressed goes to Jamie Lyons

@whatjamiedid: Slightly regretting the deckchair shirt look now, looked fun at home

First to get drunk Award

This tweet was sent relatively early on and after re-reading it many times, I still struggle to understand what it is meant to say. The first to get drunk award goes to Joe Bowler

@ItsJoeBowler: apparently I everything these things but I’m glad to be here on behalf of Refinery

What Happened Next? Award

There is always someone you see or hear that make you wander “What happened to them later on?”. In this case a tweet was sent and makes me think about how his night might of gone. Winner of the What Happened Next Award is Michael Pettyt

@speedia: look out, 2 pints and an empty stomach can’t be good

Awkward Office in the morning Award

It’s a clique at office parties that there is always one event during the night that causes an awkward moment the next morning. This also goes for Award Ceremonies and the winner of this award goes to Jon Clements for tweeting;

@JonClements: boss admiring shirt says “matching collar and cuffs”. And it’s still early….

Best way around the Profanity Filter Award

Throughout the night the ever entertaining Gordo came out with some classic Tweets, some that were banned and even one asking if I could fight after putting him in the Sin Bin for the 3rd time. One of his tweets got past my filters and due to his politeness I believe this tweet wins the award

@GordoManchester: Nina, my darling, just been sin binned again for saying what a tight derriere you have m’dear…

Nina Webb later returned the complement

Fail of the night Award

This Award is actually being awarded to the same person for two separate occasions. The first is for an attempt at trash talk towards us of all people, but ultimately failed by getting our name wrong

@ajevans85: who are @kmpdigital?

Yes Adam….who are KMP Digital? His second tweet was picked up by a couple of people who noticed his error. CTI rightfully received a highly recommended accolade but Adam jumped the gun slightly and sent the tweet;

@ajevans85: well done @ctisn for digital agency of the year

Andrew Binns was quick on the case to point out his error

@keeperbinns: @aajevans85 erm, they didnt win it

The Twitterfall would not have been such a great success if it was not for all the people who got involved, so from everyone here at KMP Digitata, we thank you.

The How-Do Awards bring together the cream of the North West’s media , from Digital Agencies, PR, Press, Radio and Television for a bit of a shin dig, a few awards, a pat on the back, a dig in the ribs, you know the score. This makes for an interesting mix of ideas and contrasting fortunes on the future of the Media within the North West.

The event was kicked off by Robert Shrimsley, the managing editor of the FT.com, delivering a stirring speech on the challenges UK journalism is facing as content and classified are finding more effective platforms online. Likening the landscape to that of the Wild West, where after the many battles for land peace was finally achieved and people found their place and their living within the new order. It was an interesting speech and for the gathered digital practitioners such as ourselves it offered a stark reminder of the realities faced by traditional medias within the North West as our digital world blossoms.

And so after being suitably fed and watered the collective back slapping began. Congratulations are extended to all the winners, KMP Digitata were up for best Digital Agency, an award won by Code ComputerLove, with CTI Digital highly commended, both richly deserved. Other notable winners included Brazen for PR agency and Made in Manchester delivering the best Radio Program for Gay Life After Saddam. Perhaps juxtaposition of the night was delivered through the best Newspaper category as Crains Manchester Business shared the stage with The Westmoorland Gazette as joint winners.

That’s not to say we didn’t make it on the stage in some sort of presence. Throughout the evening’s events, our Twitterfall was showing on the big screen providing much entertainment. Having learnt from ITV the perils of allowing unmoderated comments on screen, we tasked our placement student Graham with building an app that would allow us some control over the wall, should people get a bit giddy.

Graham was more than up to the challenge and throughout the night the KMP team were happily moderating whilst trying not to let the power go to our heads. Although we were fairly permissive (we’re all adults after all), a few choice comments caused the guilty tweeters to be sin-binned for a cool-off period. By the end of the night the leader of the Naughty League was, perhaps predictably, Gordo from Manchester Confidential. He stormed in front mainly thanks to his overly-enthusiastic and potty mouthed appreciation of the female form. He’s not known for his tact or enlightened gender politics, our Gordo! The Sin Bin feature quickly became a challenge to some Tweeters to see who could get to the top of the list and a special mention must be given to @jameskay83 for his effort and appalling language he almost got through our moderating, but we were wise to him.

Our Twitterfall was used to discuss more than Awards. Tweets relating to other subjects appeared thoughout the night. One example was that it was used to keep people informed of the latest scores for Liverpool’s Europa League Semi-Final tie. There was a notable cheer when the news of Diego Forlan’s goalflash appeared on the big screen thanks to Paul Fabretti, the relationship between Manchester and Liverpool seems as strong as ever.

@paulfabretti: Hang on Liverpool fans…Forlan has just scored. Liverpool need one more now. 20 mins of ET left. #howdoawards

The awards was attended by some of the brightest technical minds in the North West who would of loved nothing more than to crash our system but we learnt from the Tories Twitter mistake and was able to build a system that was able to hold up to their attacks. @ajevans85 attempted to get some Java Script in there with the Tweet on behalf of @ctisn:

@ajevans85: while(true){print “@ctisn for the win!”} // #howdoawards

For @danielashcroft, behind the scenes of the Twitter Fall, it was an enjoyable night of watching discussions happen and observing the jousting to get into the Sin Bin, unfortunately these tweets prove too rude to publish but gave us a good giggle at the KMP Digitata table.

So thank you again everyone who attended and helped out with #howdoawards.

Photos from the event can be found on our Facebook page and Flickr.

For too long now events like this have been the property of London, dragging the digital world to capital and delivering a thoroughly mediocre affair. It’s about time the North had a platform to attract an international audience, and show our selves off a bit.

SAScon is a truly international event, with celebrated practitioners from the US, Spain, Holland, Belgium and Iceland sharing the stage with some of Manchester’s own, Paul Fabretti from Gabba and Neil Hardy from the Co-operative group to name but two. Personally I can’t wait to hear some more on the darker arts of SEO from Ralph Tegtmeier, who, according to Aaron Wall, is “one of the most insightful minds and original voices in the search game”.

A great deal of credit needs to go to SEMPO and Manchester Digital for delivering SAScon at a time when the digital landscape in the North demands it. We have some of the most innovative minds and cutting edge ideas, not just with the digital agencies, but with the digital departments of our regions forward thinking companies.

Up here in’t North have always been willing to take a punt, always keen support and embrace new initiatives, happenings and events, as the success of Manc Twestival proved. SAScon has the potential to be a permanent fixture on the digital calendar for digital marketeers from around the country. If you can make it, please go, it will be great to see you there.

www.sascon.co.uk

@sasconference

#sascon

In an attempt to attack Gordon Brown and his links to the Unite union (currently involved with the BA strikes) the Tories launched the Cash-Gordon website with a scoring system to encourage people to spread the word and the Twitter hashtag #CashGordon. The site featured a counter, a leader-board and most importantly a live Twitter feed of the #CashGordon tag.

The live Twitter feed was where the Tories fell afoul of the dark side of social media. Their first mistake was that they didn’t monitor or filter the tweets that appeared on the stream as soon as this became known the feed was filled with tweets that I’m sure the Tories wouldn’t want to appear;

@OllyBeat: All tweets with #cashgordon appear on Tory campaign website. The sh*t door is open and the nutters are pouring in. See you there…

Mistake number 2 came when Twitter users discovered that the feed didn’t strip out HTML and Java script resulting in people being able to write HTML styling into their tweets and the site creating it, such as;

@steviemarshall: <span style=”font-size: 100px; color: red;”>Made a **** of that eh! </span>#cashgordon

This produced some interesting tweets appearing in the feed.

Tweeters who put Javascript into their tweets were able to set up redirects causing the Cash-Gordon site to briefly load before redirecting to another site. At one point people would be redirected to the Labour website. Another smarty pants Rick-rolled everyone by inserting a redirect to the “Never Gonna Give You Up” video on YouTube.

Whoever was in charge of managing the site picked up on what was happening relatively quickly and attempted to place a 301 redirect on the site taking people to the Conservative Party’s website, but in their haste another mistake was made and the URL on the 301 was spelt incorrectly and only sent people to a “Server not Found”.

In the short time that this mistake became public knowledge the tag #CashGordon became the 3rd most trended topic on Twitter for the United Kingdom and has got people talking about The Conservatives, but in a negative manor.

This has been a tough lesson on how Social Media is not just a medium that can spread the word and create positive results with minimal effort. It requires strategy, especially in anticipating and handling the inevitable mudslinging that will accompany activities such as this.

It is often cited in Darwinian theory that significant events bear witness to big leaps in evolution, and so seems the case with Manchester Airports Social Media experiment on Twitter. What had started in the summer as a fantastic service for their customers, giving them the ability to track their arrival and departure times as well as the power to communicate directly with the Airport, quite literally overnight, grew wings and flew at a time their planes could not.

When their customers needed communication, the Airport had the tools and their staff the skills to be able to talk constantly, and the importance of this will not be lost on either party from now on. The Manchester Airport Twitter Team became both voice of authority and the reassuring arm around the shoulder to their stranded passengers. They sent instructions to their followers both general and responding to the concerns of an individual. Travellers were comforted by the knowledge that information would be freely shared as and when it became available, and took further solace in the fact they were watching all airports, not just their own. If a passenger was flying to Paris, they could easily find out the conditions they were to land in though the Twitter team.

It was this constant communication that made the difference to the travellers stuck in the terminals, or the relatives waiting for loved ones to arrive. Everyone was aware that the conditions were beyond the control of the Airport and its staff, however, the one thing they could control, the information, they did so with aplomb. While other airports could be accused of hiding behind the conditions, leading to frustration in the departure lounge, Manchester Airport’s Twitter followers were calmed by the fact that the Airport was engaging with them, there was sense everyone was in this together, jokes were even sent to @ManAirport by travellers trying to lighten the mood. I guess it’s a lot harder to blame someone or something when they are constantly chatting with you and keeping you informed of any developments.

A great deal of credit for the way the Manchester Airport Twitter Team handled the situation, and here at KMP we are extremely proud of them. It was only last July that our very own Gez Daring stepped back from the training sessions, took the stabilisers off and watched them peddle Twitter forwards on their own.

Since then they have been engaging with their followers on a commercial level, by offering updated flight information and details on discount vouchers for the Terminal outlets. However, more importantly they have been communicating on a conversational level, gossiping about which famous person has been spotted in which terminal and what they could be doing in Manchester? It is this mix of professionalism and banter that served them and their followers so well when it was needed most.

Jon was selected thanks to Digital Mission, organized by Chinwag and UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), which enables digital companies to expand into overseas markets and attract investment outside the UK.

This is an exciting opportunity for the company and will also help promote the British digital industry over in America.

This is not KMP Digitata’s first trip over to America. Gez Daring went over to NYC at the end of last year to attend the Web 2.0 Expo and got to meet some of the leading figures in the American Social Media sector.

These trips are great for agencies to make contacts in international cities that can benefit the business, either directly though project wins or though learning how other businesses work and grow. Chinwag do a great job of organizing useful events in addition to the conference and it’s great getting to know the other delegates through the extracurricular activities! – Gez Daring

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/8078297[/vimeo]

The workshop will be hosted by KMP’s Content Strategist, Dave Kinsella along with Andrew Lloyd Gordon, a digital marketing trainer who often hosts courses on behalf of e-consultancy. 

The aim of the workshop is to show you how you can manage your brand reputation and engage consumers with your brand online.  Dave and Andrew will guide you through this half-day workshop with a combination of practical training sessions and educational tips and advice.

We will be providing an introduction to blogging and online PR, explaining what it is, how it differs to traditional PR and an overview of the changing media landscape.

Tickets are available at an early-bird discount of £125 + VAT. Book now!

This is one seminar not to be missed… With an impressive line up of speakers, including Rob Brown from Staniforth, Simon Rogers from Market Sentinel and the MD of KMP, Jon Keefe.

Jon will be discussing “Are you ready to manage your reputation,” where he will be finding out how social media ready your business really is.  Jon will talk about the resources, skills and time required to manage your company’s reputation compared to the resources that are currently available.

Rob Brown from Staniforth will be discussing the “PR Challenges of the Social Web,” including how reputations can be affected, how reputations are built and lost and how you can manage your brand’s reputation through the use of PR and social media.

Simon Rogers from Market Sentinel will be presenting “Managing your reputation and Measuring the ROI,” where he will discuss how you can manage your reputation online through finding and monitoring the conversations that are taking place about your brand on the web.

This seminar will be held at the MDDA, 117-119 Portland Street, Manchester and tickets are available at the early-bird price of £95 + VAT (available until April 24th). Book Now!