Still think you don’t need to be using social media? There’s a new research study from Chadwick Martin Bailey that could change your mind.

“In a recent study of social media usage it is clear that consumers who are Facebook fans and Twitter followers of a brand are more likely to not only recommend, but they are also more likely to buy from those brands than they were before becoming fans/followers. The study of over 1500 consumers by market research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies found that 60% of Facebook fans and 79% of Twitter followers are more likely to recommend those brands since becoming a fan or follower. And an impressive 51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers are more likely to buy the brands they follow or are a fan of.  Considering Facebook’s over 400 million users, the opportunity is great for social media marketers.”

Possibly the most interesting part of the study was that it found a growing perception of brand being considered “out of touch” if they were not on social media platforms.

At the very least, your brand needs to have an engaging presence on different social media platforms. Even if you aren’t using it strategically, the fact that someone can identify themselves as a fan of yours helps them tell the world who they are. Reap the benefit of that.

Read the entire article here.

For even more analysis, click here.

White space is typically a term used in graphic design that means the space between elements in a composition. It’s often the mark of simple, clean, and clear design.

The past month we’ve looked at white space in new ways.

In “White Space (Part 1)” we note, as did Da Vinci, that “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Often complex ideas can be best explained by using metaphors or examples. By utilizing these techniques, we can all bring a greater understanding to what we do.

“White Space (Part 2)” looks at how the internet is creating another sort of white space. By having multitudes of information always available when we search for it, we can relax, clear our brains, and be ok with decentralized knowledge.

All of these approaches to white space lead to a hopeful reality for our emerging world:

Great ideas will win.

This is largely due to the technological changes happening right now, in real time. The internet is redefining “authority”.

Culturally, the playing field is leveling. It’s less about how much influence you can buy and more about how much influence you can earn. It’s about how good your ideas are and, of course, how well you communicate them.

Here’s why:

1. We’re in an opt-in world. Increasingly, we only consume the information and media that we want to. We self-select the influences we want to have and so we care more about what those people and brands say. Time-shifiting products like TiVo, DVRs, podcasts, other on-demand services, and even Google itself, mean that we get what we want when we want it. The role of interruption-based messages (like traditional advertising) is changing drastically.
2. Communities are evolving, and they’re going online. Instead of turning to big media outlets to tell us what’s happening and what’s cool, we are looking more and more to our hand-picked communities (or, as Seth Godin calls them, “tribes”). These tribes are developing online where we can create and digest tons of content, stay in touch with more people than ever, and essentially leverage our time, our expertise, and the value bring to the table.
3. All media is becoming “social media”. This means that we can engage with and/or contribute to the messages we consume like never before. Walls are down. Gatekeepers are dead. Ideas can spread with the click of a mouse or cell phone button. For example, if one of your Twitter messages is “retweeted” by a few folks and again retweeted by some of their friends, you’ve reached an audience of thousands within seconds. We have more potential for influence and power than ever before.

The real question is, what are we going to do with it?
Brody

P.S. A great example of this whole concept is that in a matter of days, over 1,000 people signed to participate 40 Days of Water, a Blood:Water Mission campaign to bring clean water to our neighbors in Africa. In the 2 days after launch, about 10,000 people had visited the special website dedicated to the campaign. All of this happened almost exclusively through social media and word of mouth. It’s incredible.

Wordswell had the privilege of building the website and software application that is supporting this campaign. You can sign up to participate by making water your only beverage for 40 days. Otherwise, if you’d like to donate to the cause, visit my profile page at http://40Days.bloodwatermission.com/brodybond.

In the past year, here are the words that the Wordswell execs have used the most in their tweets (most frequent listed first). To find out your own tweeting trends, visit http://tweetcloud.icodeforlove.com/

Brody:

thanks baltimore love time people help iphone cool check funny follow phone idea whats wordswell yeah doing dude email bloodwater lisa voice saved awesome night tell video tonight call sweet week life free church please google name amazing stuff tweet congrats wedding looking mails getting read nice real game apple thank party coming look music record start guys media blog

Greg:

cont time night love elise caleb life people morning watching looking seth beach home week help ready check kids little riley dinner world wedding friday follow iphone gerkins forward gary getting days house game tonight wordswell baltimore school lake weekend read harbor stone stafford thanks bono mission client finished josh times office hours tomorrow hamel heading party sunday africa hard

We’ve been learning and experimenting (ok, playing) with Foursquare recently.

What’s Foursquare?

Basically, every time you go somewhere – your favorite restaurant, coffee shop, office, gym, appointment (anywhere that’s a destination) – you “check in” as being there. Typically, this works best with a GPS-enabled mobile device like an iPhone.

For instance, last night a friend, my wife, and I go out to dinner at Holy Frijoles, a Mexican restaurant in Hampden, Baltimore. When we get there, I launch Foursquare on my iPhone, it locates my position, and gives some probable options for where I am. I check in at Holy Frijoles, and voilà, the world knows where I am:

“I’m at Holy Frijoles (908 W 36th St, @ Elm Ave, Baltimore). http://bit.ly/3QuNYy“

Of course, my friends on Foursquare get notified about this (often through a text message, if they have that feature turned on). But my Foursquare updates are linked to my Twitter account. My Twitter updates are linked to my Facebook account. Soon, and through a one-click process, I’ve told my entire circle of influence where I am.

Great… another tool for over-sharing, right? Not so fast…

What happens if I went to Holy Frijoles every week? What happens if I went there so often that Foursquare claimed that I was the “Mayor” of Holy Frijoles? What happens if someone else wanted to chase that crown and started eating there more? What happens if I was proud of my position and started eating there even more to keep my title?

What happens if there was an incentive for the Mayor of Holy Frijoles? You’d be surprized what I’d do for a free margarita.

Meanwhile, everytime we’re “checking in” at Holy Frijoles, we’re personally vouching for that brand visibly through our entire networks on Foursqure, Twitter, and Facebook. Talk about word-of-mouth advertising (the free kind). Wow!

But what’s this whole business about being a “Mayor”? Basically, Foursquare keeps track of what you do, when you do it, etc. There are different point values you earn by doing certain tasks. For instance, if you go to a gym enough times in a month, you earn the badge “Gym Rat”. If you go to you gym enough, you’ll soon be the Mayor of the gym. For more information on this points system, Mayors, and badges, check out Foursquare’s web site.

Foursquare is a developing platform. The number of titles and badges available to earn is certain to grow. It’s a game. But it can be played (and won) by anyone – including your customers.

Now the question is, how is your organization going to become a prize?

Wordswell can help you coordinate a plan Foursquare for your business as part of a larger social media strategy. Drop us a line any time.

Microsoft is making a foolish decision to let Microsoft Word render HTML emails in the soon-to-be-released Microsoft Outlook 2010. The short version is that this screws with email standards, and anyone who wants to send out consistent-looking, well-designed email campaigns will be hindered by these restrictions.

But that’s not the point of this post.

The point is what’s happening in response to this: http://www.fixoutlook.org.

This site simply explains the Outlook problem, and then provides a link so that Twitter users can tweet: “Help tell @msofficeus that using Word to render HTML emails in Outlook is a dumb idea. See http://fixoutlook.org and RT”

Within 24 hours of starting the campaign, there have already been over 17,000 folks who have tweeted this message. And because “@msofficeus” is part of the message, Microsoft’s Twitter admin will see all of them.

This is the first best crowdsourced petition – and it’s prone to change the way a behemoth company makes decisions. You think Microsoft isn’t listening to this? I bet they are – and if they’re not, then they certainly should be.

But there’s another interesting thing. When you go to fixoutlook.org, it shows the avatar icons of the Twitter users who have sent that specific tweet. You’ll notice that a lot of them are shaded green. What’s up with that? It’s a simple idea that started here: http://helpiranelection.com/. It caught on like wildfire.

Folks, word-of-mouth, mutual influence, the sharing of ideas – these are winning. If you don’t have a voice in the ever-expanding conversation, you’re missing out.

Don’t pay for great media space. Pay for great ideas. Pay to figure out how to get ideas out to the people that matter.

The “people that matter” these days? Everyone.

UPDATE: if you can find the Brody Bond or the Wordswell avatar in the mosaic at fixoutlook.org, please send me a screenshot, and you’ll win a prize (prize = any drink you want at Starbucks)!

UPDATE (6/24/09 5:07 pm): Microsoft has already offered a reply in direct response from the fixoutlook.org campaign. As of now, they aren’t budging. But, good for them for the reply! Moreover – wow! – Microsoft just responded to a day-old, viral, grassroots campaign that happened through Twitter.

I don’t often use Twitter’s official site. Most of my activity is done through Twittelator Pro on my iPhone.

I do, however, use the Twitter website every time someone follows me. I like to check out who they are a little bit, look at their website in their bio, and then decide whether to follow them.

Until today, if you clicked on a user’s website in their bio, it would open that page in the current browser windon/tab, taking you out of Twitter. But now when you click on that website, it will open a new browser window/tab.

Sweet!

And it also seems smart on Twitter’s part. Once I finish being destracted by checking out someone’s website, I won’t forget to go back to Twitter to possibly return the follow.

Doesn’t that seem like something fairly obvious? It’s odd that Twitter just made that change now. Let me know what I’m missing as to why that change was only made now. Usually, as a general guide, it’s better for a site’s links to external sites to open those external sites in new windows or tabs.

The article: “No Contest: Twitter And Facebook Can Both Play A Role In Branding”

What it said

•Twitter and Facebook are useful in corporate branding. But they are different platforms. Users and marketers need to understand each separately.

•Twitter and Facebook “enable organizations to learn about what people are thinking and saying and doing about their brands, and about life in general.” Listening is the first step in engaging social media. Better understanding of need means better understanding of how to meet that need.

•Through these social media platforms, brands are able to get close to customers. This enhances customers’ experiences with brands.

•Companies have been able to offer customer service and put out fires because of information gleaned through social media.

•Virgin Atlantic “uses Twitter to alert passengers of flight delays and other negative events. It also tweets about positive goings on, such as special travel promotions.”

•There is a “power of Twitter to get people to self assemble and become impromptu, impassioned marketing machines.”

Our take

Social media empowers conversations between companies and the people they serve. You should figure out how to take advantage of this. Wordswell can help.

Mr. Tweet, a site for helping you network on Twitter, recently published a story in their blog about a coffee shop in Houston, TX that used Twitter to almost double their business:

Twitter To Go: How one local coffee shop used Twitter to double their clientele. What’s YOUR story?

It’s short, so read it if you like learning about this sort of thing.

Here’s the point of the article: building your brand is about caring for your customer. Using Twitter and other social media allows you to identify yourself by way of communication with clients and prospects (two-way communication, that is). Talk about branding!

Social media is emerging. A lot can be said for its success, its confusion, its vastness, and, most certainly, its potential. (Did you know that Facebook may soon become more popular than Google?) If you have any stories of success or failure using social media, please leave them in the comments section. If you want more insight into this world, drop us a line at Wordswell.