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We can’t deny that Social Marketing has exploded but I often wonder how many people are using social marketing and social media tools for business vs personal use.

The answer to this question is the Great New Zealand Social Marketing Survey! I’ve created this survey to get a feel for how businesses and individuals are harnessing social media tools to to build online communities around their company or personal brands.

I would really appreciate you taking the time to answer this short (10 question) survey.

I will share the results of the survey here on this blog so please pass this link on to your friends and colleagues. The more people who complete the survey the more valuable data I can share with you all.

Click Here to take the survey

Thanks for participating!

I love this Blackberry ad from RIM:

If you’re interested in Social Media and what will come in 2009 then Peter Kim has compiled thoughts from several well respected marketers into a great document you can read here.

If you don’t have the time to read the whole doc, here are my top 10 from the list that I hope will hold true in the coming year:

1. Dwindling budgets will suddenly make low cost social media look like the pretty girl at the ball. - Ann Handley.
2. In 2009 marketers will find their accidental spokespeople (employees & customers) and give them ways to amplify their voices. - Rohit Bhargava
   
3. Live conversations with consumers, empathetically executed, can have far bigger payout and viral word of mouth impact than most social media tools. - Pete Blackshaw.
4. We’ll need to do more dot-connecting between existing processes and social media output.  We’ll see a flatlining of references to “my Twitter programme” and more references to my offline/online “conversational ecosystem”. - Pete Blackshaw.
5. Organisations will allow the most passionate individual within an organisation from any division to lead social media efforts. - Rohit Bhargava.
   A great example of this that I recently found was the Mars Phoenix Lander Twitter case.
6. Twitter will continue to achieve legitimacy. Brands will adopt Twitter for everything from media/influencer outreach to customer service to crisis communications. But more than any push-channel, Twitter will give customers, advocates and critics unprecedented access to corporate personnel and vice versa. - Scott Monty.
7. One at a time, big companies will have their “Dell Moment” and wake up to the power of investing in earning great word of mouth with one-on-one attention to the community. - Andy Sernovitz.
8. Location awareness will be the mobile utility of the year as more and more  consumers use their GPS-enabled phones & mobile social software to find great stuff to see, do and buy wherever they may be at any given time. - Greg Verdino.
9. Just when you thought search was saturating or mainstreaming, we think there’s going to be an explosive new functionality which make search even more valuable. - Joseph Jaffe.
10. Shopping goes social. Using Facebook Connect & Open Social Platform, shoppers will be able to see what friends are recommending, buying and rating integrated into the shopping experience. - Charlene LI.

Another common theme throughout the document is the rise of mobile social software (mososo) and geo location based tools/applications.  This is where I think things will get really interesting.

Looks like another exciting year ahead for digital marketers!  I’m keen to hear your thoughts on the above predictions and whether you think they’ll ring true in 2009.  Also any other predictions you have to add to the list?

Thanks to the hard work of my former colleagues at 6S Marketing in Vancouver my favourite Canadian charity Imagine1day have been awarded a Google Grant which gives them up to $1,000 a month to spend on their Google Adwords campaigns.

Earlier this year we met with Imagine1day in Vancouver to discuss the opportunity of applying for the grant. 6S are kindly donating their expert SEO & Adwords management services so that Imagine1day get the most out of the opportunity.

Imagine1day are a non profit charity who help to provide quality primary school education to children in Ethiopia. Having met the people behind the scenes at the charity I’ve seen first hand how passionate they are about their cause and am in awe of the effort they put in day to day to help disadvantaged children.

Read the full 6S Marketing release.

Google Grants offer free advertising to select charitable organisations. If you’re involved with a registered charity then I highly recommend you look into how to apply.  Unfortunately Google Grants aren’t available in New Zealand (yet!) but they are available in the US, UK, Australia & a number of other countries.

To see some of the children that have been lucky enough to receive help from Imagine1day watch this amazing video:

Air New Zealand have launched another great online execution.  This time they’ve used social media marketing to connect and interact with Kiwi travelers at getamongstit.co.nz.

The site encourages users to join and upload travel videos and photos in order to enter a competition.  Key to this idea is the combination of several key social marketing concepts including user generated content, member profiles, a comment system and voting for your favourites .  Of course they’re also encouraging users to share their videos and status in the competition on MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites.

They’re also trying to tap into New Zealander’s regional pride by encouraging members to support their nearest town.

Apart from collecting a member database they also seem to be promoting their Grabaseat site as a sort of secondary message. Displaying current flight deals on the home page and using Grabaseat logo lock ups and material throughout the site.

Getamongstit.co.nz

Overall I think it’s a pretty good execution.  The site looks a little cluttered but it fits in with the user generated content look and feel and sets the scene for the participation message.   They’ve also hidden away the social networking site widgets under a ‘badges‘ label in the site footer which I think is a bit of a missed opportunity as I doubt the average person is going to realise where that click is going to take them.

Air NZ have really taken it to the next level with changingthewayyoufly.co.nz, this interactive site promotes their new easy check in systems, online booking processes and revamped terminals.

They’ve managed to convey several key messages in an engaging and fun way.  The graphics are awesome, the sound works well and really it’s the best site I’ve seen in a long time!

Cool that they’ve also included social media links. It encouraged me to Digg it…

Who knew being educated on how to book airfares and check-in using your mobile could be so sexy!?

Air New Zealand, changing the way you fly website.

HotMedia an Auckland based company have recently launched a new online magazine format at Clickmag.co.nz.

It’s really interactive, you flick between pages like a conventional magazine and the articles have embedded music and video.  If you aren’t interested in an article you just click through to the new page.  Every few pages or so you get an ad, but they don’t seem very invasive and you can just click through to the next page.

ClickMag.co.nz

This is so much cooler than the usual online magazine sites!   At the moment they seem to have just the two mag titles - Click Tech and Click Me.

What an awesome New Zealand innovation.

Almost a year ago I set off from New Zealand to embark on a journey to live and work in Canada. The year has flown by and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the snowboarding, mountain air and finally city life here in Vancouver.

Snowboarding in Whistler

Vancouver

Now it’s time to return to New Zealand. I say farewell to Vancouver in two weeks and am heading on a whirlwind trip through the States. If you have any suggestions on things I should see in San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas or LA let me know!

Kermit the frog and friends could return in the first new Muppet Show TV series for 27 years.

read more | digg story

Following on from my last post A Guide to Advertising on Facebook, I wanted to delve a little further into using Facebook to promote charities and causes.

Last week I heard from some experienced cause marketers who have tried it out for themselves.

Let’s hear it from the experts!

Tim Fullerton the Online Communications Manager at Oxfam America admitted that Facebook is becoming more important in promoting Oxfam.  They particularly see it as a vehicle to help them reach out & interact with a younger and wider audience than traditional media allows.

Oxfam know that their supporters generally have like minded friends and family, so once they
add their fan page on Facebook, it advertises Oxfam to anyone they’re connected to.

Oxfam's Facebook Page

I also spoke to Joe Thomas at Kiva.org.  Their business model is solely based online so I was interested to find out how their Facebook presence meshed into their overall communications plan.

Joe shared his experience and said that he has found Facebook extremely useful for promoting Kiva.  While setting up each group , page and cause profile took a lot of effort, he continuously invited users to the group and eventually it went viral and began to grow on its own.

Kiva's Facebook Page

Content is key

Tim says that they are seeing a steady growth to their fan base which he believes is attributed to the fact that they update their content several times a week.  His team generally spend an hour or two each week on updating Facebook. This includes posting all of their action alerts, interesting articles about their work, and opportunities for people to volunteer.

Kiva staff typically spend 5-15 hours per week updating their content.

A cost effective channel

“It’s a great way to get in front of new people without spending a lot of
time or money” Tim Fullerton, Oxfam.

There’s no doubt that it has been effective for Kiva, they have now raised $12,988 through Facebook viral marketing!

It looks like Social Networks are a great place for Causes and Charities to promote themselves.  This makes sense as people are usually very passionate about the causes that they support and are therefore more than happy to promote them to their friends.

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