From The Clubhouse

Submitted by Vickie Bates on Thu, 12/20/2012 - 11:01am

As parents, schoolchildren and concerned citizens across the nation poured out their sympathy for families and friends of the young students and teachers who lost their lives at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, one normally vocal corner remained silent.

The National Rifle Association, the nation’s largest gun lobby, left news media with little more than “no comment” during wall-to-wall coverage of the tragedy in Newtown, Conn.

And, while brands and companies around the world took to social media to convey condolences to the people of Newtown, the NRA went dark on Twitter and Facebook (except for its Comments section, noted below). The organization ignored entirely the incident of Dec. 14 on its website, leaving up its regular content, including a scrolling account of successful pro-gun legislation in various states.

Submitted by Social Media Club Reporter on Mon, 12/17/2012 - 9:58am

Just a few years ago, the idea of hiring someone whose primary job description was to handle social media for a company raised plenty of eyebrows. "You get paid to play on Facebook?" people would ask.

Not exactly. Although it's certainly enjoyable to spend the day blogging, chatting, and promoting your business on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+ (the list goes on...), it's also (obviously) a lot of work.

Part of the attraction of social media marketing is that it can be done from anywhere. The tools used to update your various accounts are almost all available on mobile devices -- in fact, these days, they're being designed with mobile as the first priority.

Submitted by Grant Crowell on Wed, 12/12/2012 - 9:42am

Google and YouTube have been pushing their users harder for full identity disclosure, but is that really in your best interest? Before you commit to giving out your real identity across your YouTube and Google+ accounts, weigh the pros and cons with this list I’ve put together, and then decide for yourself if it’s really in your best interest and not just Google’s.

Submitted by Christine Cube on Thu, 12/06/2012 - 12:49pm

I was at a hurricane party when the high winds of Superstorm Sandy finally shut down our power outside Washington, DC.

A bunch of neighbors figured this was a suitable way to welcome the inevitable power outage. By 8 p.m., an outside transformer lit up like a greenish July 4th fireworks display and the block went dark.

The only way I could get word out about my status was, well, my Facebook status. So family and friends looked there to make sure I was OK.

By this time, Instagramers had begun posting to Facebook and CNN. I got a full picture of the suffering that was happening all around, particularly in the northeast.

And just as quickly, government officials took to social media to keep residents informed.

Submitted by Caitlin Muir on Tue, 12/04/2012 - 11:16am

It was a great year to be in Hollywood. Thanks in part to social media, the buzz around movies have never been higher. This year, everyone was talking about movies, and not just those of the wizard and vampire variety.

Here’s a look at three of the top movies that caused a buzz online.

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games may be one of the best social media campaigns of all time. It was cleverly executed over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest…let’s face it, if the social media site was available, The Hunger Games was on it. The movie was a juggernaut of success. Their social media manager is brilliant.

The Hunger Games has over 8 million fans on Facebook. That doesn’t sound like a huge number until you realize that it is roughly the same size as the nation of Israel.

Here’s how they make it work:

Submitted by Vickie Bates on Tue, 11/27/2012 - 12:34am

Mom blogs are as diverse as the mothers who write them and the parents who read them. With 3.9 million moms blogging in the United States alone, women have been some of the savviest early adopters of the platform. And they’ve taken to social media channels, like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, to further engage audiences and promote their blogs.

A sure sign of success, mom blogs have been courted by Madison Avenue (even though, “moms don’t put themselves into little demographic boxes the way that marketers do,” notes Elisa Camahort Page, COO at BlogHer. “They come from all walks of life.”) and they’ve even endured a short-lived backlash.

SMC wanted to explore the diversity of mom blogging and the experience of mom bloggers, so we talked with Camahort Page and two bloggers with very different approaches:

Submitted by Mike McClure on Mon, 11/26/2012 - 11:23am

The hottest new trend in social marketing is really based on a human trait that is as old as time. It’s just accelerated now due to better technology and the rapid pace that data is being thrown at us these days. It’s our deep-seeded need and want for visual cues and shortcuts to understanding. Humans have always found visual representations of ideas, actions or things far more able to transcend language than the written word. Because visuals are more quickly interpreted and comprehended – dating back to caveman days.

If you go all the way back to social media’s beginnings, it was largely a text-based medium.

Message boards, Twitter, texting, LinkedIn, Foursquare, even Facebook was originally dominated by text-based status updates.

Submitted by Janice Arnoldi on Tue, 11/20/2012 - 11:07am

Facebook changes been fast and furious in 2012, making it tough for small, mom and pop businesses to stay current. Many entrepreneurs are on their own when it comes to building engagement and communities on Facebook and they generally don't have money to promote "likes", or buy Facebook ads, or even hire a social media professional.

Start by getting a tablet or a smart phone today if you don't already have one. The majority of social media users are posting from mobile devices. To truly understand the social mentality you need to be a mobile social user.

Here are a couple of simple changes this businesses can use to up the profile of their page in 2013.

Submitted by Jeannie Walters on Sun, 11/18/2012 - 6:13pm

Fast food chains and Starbucks rule the social media space in the restaurant category, according to data shared by New Media Expo (via an Infographic, no less.)

The top spots are dominated, in fact, by the large chains serving up lattes and quick bites. As word was shared of this culinary triumph, commenters recognized how the term “restaurant” seemed to only include “casual dining” chains. It begs the question – why is it only fast food restaurants having so much success in social media?

The experience is typically a grander affair when we are spending a paycheck for an evening out. We might spend several hours at a restaurant with family or friends. The food, while important, is just one part of the recipe. The experience is what earns praise from Yelp reviewers.

“Another great thing about this particular dining experience is that it was fun.”

Submitted by Mireille Massue on Fri, 11/16/2012 - 8:58am

It seems everyone is taking to heart that a picture is worth a thousand words. For every link you click, there seems to be an Infographic to greet you.