Twitter, a micro-blogging site mainly used by early adopters and some large brands, has never clicked for me. Jeff Jarvis posted an article on Twitter blogging this week that really helped me see why I don't get Twitter. It's just too much information for me. I need a level up on the filter, I don't want to know what Hillary Clinton is eating for lunch, or when my favorite blogger is driving in his car. I just don't have the level of desire for information.

The Internet allows for several different filtered layers of information and a user gets to decide what layer they want to go to. I've made up my own general segmentation below;

1. General user - Steve; Steve's homepage is a major portal (MSN, Yahoo). He likes to get his news filtered through major media sources. He visits CNN.com, WSJ.com, and does shopping on Amazon. He is still consuming the same type of media content he used to read offline but has just moved to viewing it online.  For whatever reason he doesn't read blogs of people he doesn't know because what the hell does their opinion matter anyway. He likes major media companies to do the filtering for him so he can get the general details without having to do any work.

2. New media consumer - Barbara; Barbara's homepage is a search engine (Google, Live, Yahoo). She sees the internet as a wealth of information from different sources allowing her to chose. She consumes major media but also reads blogs, forums, newsgroups and social book-marking sites like Digg. Barbara likes to get other people's opinions when deciding what news is relevant to her. She invests a bit more time searching for her news.

3. New media creator - Bill; Bill's homepage is a online media site like Technorati or Mashable. He is a blogger. Being a blogger means Bill reads blogs, gets inspired by other peoples ideas and probably consumes somewhere around 70% of his news and information from non-traditional media. He wants to know what people think about the people doing the talking, goes through a daily blog roll and consumes RSS feeds.

4. Uber media user - Flip; Flip's homepage is his Twitter feed. Flip spends insane amounts of time online and between a cell phone, PDA and laptop he is probably connected 98% of his day. He consumes all of his news through feeds, blogs, and non traditional media. Flip and his friends text and twitter their plans. Flip disregards traditional media sources as too fluffy. He has a high need for details and control.

What's really important to understand is where is the majority of your audience? That will have distinct affect on your marketing mix.

Blogging was deemed a "legitimate form of personal expression" by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) this week, meaning bloggers will be allowed to cover the Olympic games for the first time this summer. Cool. But - not so fast. The list of restrictions is pretty long. The main concern by the IOC is copyright infringement. Bloggers can't take pictures of events, athletes doing events, training for events or warming up for events. Expect a lot of shots of athletes in line at Starbucks I guess. They also can't be affiliated with any organizations. Geez, who's paying for the bloggers Starbucks?

The bigger question is how any of the content will make it out of China at all. Remember China sensors all Internet content. Hard to believe considering the images those of us in the US see everyday on YouTube and the like. I, myself, have been to China. It was an eye opening experience. People walking the streets are literally heads down living their lives not missing YouTube and VH1 because it's not a part of their reality. I don't think they are ready or maybe even care about blogs that will cover the athletes dating habits, late night adventures or misquotes by the thousands of media personalities that will be there. I'm an old fashion girl in that regard. I most likely will watch gymnastics and track and field like everyone else, on NBC.

I'm just happy to know my blogging is officially a "legitimate form or personal expression!"

It is today, but I would offer than it is more and more becoming a way people use the web rather than a specific category. eMarketer reports that by 2011 50% of all internet users will be using social networking, and they also report that 79% of online social networking users are over 18 years old. Those two data points put together tell you lots of people are doing it and they are the right age group to be marketed to. So let's spin up a social networking marketing campaign! Not so fast....

Coming from someone who works on a social networking product (Windows Live) it is very unclear to me what is meant by Social Networking. Does that mean when people talk to people then know, like Linked In and Facebook? Yes. Does it mean when people read reviews from other people they don't know like Yelp? Probably. Does it mean watching videos on YouTube? Don't know. Reading blogs? Writing blogs? Hard to say. My point is it's a very gray area to say some particular activity is participating in Social Networking. So forget the category and just recognize as a marketer that people are doing different things than they used to. They are getting information from new sources, UGC. They are more connected than ever, which keeps every brand honest (Walmart). So don't focus on entering a category, think about changing the way you participate and share your brand with your customers. That means evaluating where you talk to them, and where they get to talk to you.

I don't believe in Social Networking campaigns. It's not a campaign, it's a new way of marketing. By 2011 I would guess it's not a category, but rather just the way folks use the web. The "social" web.

In case you haven't seen it yet (this is for my female friends) my favorite blog right now is Youlookfab.com. I'm a self proclaimed fashion nut so I love to hear what other people have to say about this topic. Angie is a local Seattle blogger so there are good local tips as well as tips for anyone interested in styling up their average look. They even did a shout out to my semi new hair cut - bangs!

Another thing I love about this blog is what a great marketing opportunity it is for brands. This is a logical place for targeted advertising from online companies like Zappo.com as well as bricks and mortar shops like Nordstrom. She has a nice small business set up here with ads being surfaced from Google and merchandising from Amazon. I'm open to the ads because I've already chosen to go to a fashion site. If I was on a sports nut blog it would make sense I would want to see athletic/sports related ads. I'm a big fan of targeted ads, you just don't see it much yet. Targeting advertising should get much improved in the coming year.

Think about two very different and well known mantras (also known as tag lines); 'Do No Evil' and 'Yes We Can'. Which one would you rather have for your company? They convey very different emotions. But more importantly they set the company up to it's competitors in different positions.

Take 'Yes We Can' which is Obama's mantra. It empowers and brings people together. It evokes passion and being a part of something bigger than any one person. It uses the pronoun 'we' which is inclusive and 'can' which is positive. But the true beauty of it is it's nearly impossible for competitors to attack. Think about it, what candidates wants to be the one to say oh no you can't. The positive and passionate nature of it makes anyone who attacks it look pessimistic and quite frankly a party pooper.

Then take 'Do No Evil' which is Google's mantra. I think Google has done a lot of things right but this isn't one of them. Why would you start your conversation to your customers off with a negative statement. Using the words 'no' and 'evil' are both negative statements. They do not inspire or create passion. In fact it begs the question, were you planning on doing evil and changed your minds? What ARE you going to do for your customers? Then let's take Google's competitors, they set themselves up to have criticism thrown at them with this mantra. What is evil to someone maybe isn't evil to someone else. The minute they step into gray area of what could be construed as evil they will be under fire from competitors who will hold them to this statement. This of course, has already happened. Also consider that 'Do No Evil' has an 'always' or 'never' connotation to it. Since we all know it's impossible to be 'always' or 'never' about anything it's best not to put yourselves up on a pedestal anywhere near it.

What a great experience. I really felt part of the process in our country and did in a school library with my neighbors just like the founding fathers did 200 years ago. Good conversation and a bake sale filled the waiting moments. I saw this icon on someone's blog and had to steal it. Feel free to do the same.

I've done the research for you. If you live in Washington state and are a democrat this Saturday at 1 pm it is your chance to make a difference. If you are a Republican then your vote on the Washington ballot will be counted. But if you want to vote as a democrat then you must participate in a caucus. Here is everything you need to know:

FAQ's

Where do you go?

And here is everything you need to know. If you live on Queen Anne I'll see you at McClure Middle School.

This week I am giving a session at THE Conference on Marketing. The title of my session is Beyond the Banner; How Social Media will innovate your marketing campaigns. The focus of the session is how to use the social media tools available to brand marketers. There are several other sessions at this conference that highlight campaigns using Second Life and MySpace (virtual worlds and viral videos) so I'm not going to cover those, but I definitely agree those are Social Media tools to be considered for the right brand. Also, blogging is a social media tool. But that's a whole topic in and of itself.

The tools I am highlighting are ones we've used in Windows Live before, and a few we haven't. I'm focusing on using communication tools found in people's everyday life to communicate your brand message. The tools are:

1. Social networking sites - Facebook
2. Gadgets
3. Sponsored Spaces
4. Messenger Expressions
5. Micro-blogging

Facebook; Lot's of brands are trying stuff here so there is no shortage of test cases to study. Music and movies are being marketed by distributors and production companies. The amount of reach a marketer can get on Facebook for the cost is mind boggling. These activities mainly build brand awareness and affinity. Not a bad thing but the real power of Facebook is in the gadgets... leading to the next tool.

Gadgets: Light-weight applications that are hosted on many different platforms depending on where you want to post your message. Facebook, MySpace, Spaces all support gadget. More about those here.

Sponsored Spaces: Custom pages that brands can build on one of the social media platforms; Spaces, MySpace, Ning. They are microsites usually dedicated to a specific campaign or audience. We created a microsite on Spaces for the Spiderman 3 DVD release this fall.  Easy and free to set up and can be linked to any existing brand website.

Messenger Expressions: 27 million people talking every month with an average contact list of 45 people. Creating custom emoticons and backgrounds gives your brand loyalists a way to express themselves with your brand to their family and friends. If I could get one of these with an UGG on it I would use it for sure!

Micro-blogging: communication tool that allows users to send quick updates to public or private networks. JetBlue and Carnival are using Twitter to send timely updates on schedule changes and last minute bargains to their most loyal customers.

My final thoughts slide;

•People don’t pay as much attention when brands are doing the talking. People listen to influencers.

•Social media builds long term relationship and dialog with your most devoted customers – quality over quantity.

•Engagement is the most important indicator of social media branding success.

•Measure engagement interaction including; 3rd party sites, brand favorability, purchase intent, send to a friend

•Explore how Social Media best fits into the Marketing mix for your brand over time – Remember the tortoise beat the hare!

If you still want more, or you attended the session and would like a copy of the deck it's here. Please remember all content is owned and copy write protected by Microsoft.