I happened to fall on Hellmann’s Real Food Movement Web site this morning. Hellmann is using social media (blog, Twitter and Facebook Connect) to raise awareness about the need of eating local food. Using a higher social motive to raise the profile of a brand is nothing new. What is new is how brands tap into our social networks to achieve their goal.

I wish to talk about is the execution of the campaign. It is an opportunity to learn the good and the bad.  There are lessons that any brand or blogger can learn from.

What They Did Right

The #RealFood hashtag campaign linked to a $25,000 donation to Evergreen is a good start. They are raising the bar today (July 29, 2009) by quadrupling all day how much they donate per tweet showing the #realfood hashtag. But it is not enough to raise a movement.

On their blog what I assumed to be their blog section (Real Food Conversations), they are not only talking about themselves. They are linking to other blogs. This is one thing that I always tried to emphasis with brands that try to build a community. You have to talk your movement in a larger spectrum. It cannot be just about what you do. Update: the principle that I wish to convey is what you have to remember here.

The same is true for the Twitter account of a blogger; you have to promote stories and content done by others on the topic you cover. As the blogger and promoter of the movement, you must act as an inspiring figure, be a leader.

Where There is Room for Improvements

It is ironic that their blog section is called Real Food Conversations but that we cannot comment on their posts. Many brands made this mistake. It is Blogging 101: you MUST allow comments.

All their posts are written by Admin. Ideally, you should put the name of the spokesperson. A first name can be sufficient but the full name is better. At least, display a username more engaging than Admin. Naming a person humanizes the process; it increases your chances to connect with them. Remember that we are more comfortable talking to a person than an organization.

Finally, the tweets are not engaging. It seems that all actions stopped at “I am supporting Eat Real, Eat Local”. It is missing passion, commitment on both sides. It is up to the brand to seed the passion. I suggest them to expand more about their movement on the Bio message. The same as with the blog, naming the person who is writing the tweets will enable you to build stronger relationships with your customers.

On a marketing side, I see too many angles. The URL site and twitter account are EatRealEatLocal but the movement is call the Real Food Movement. And then, they is a Choose Canadian ad campaign. I am not a marketer but it seems confusing.

MORE:
+ Eat Real, Eat Local on Twitter
+ Real Food Movement’s Web site

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Newspapers are endangered species. Like many industries, it must adapt to its time. Although it is easier to read a print media, the hyperlinks, the velocity of the news and the multimedia power of the Internet clearly highlighted the weakness of the print media. Look at how this article I read on the San Francisco magazine is enriched by simply putting the hyperlinks.

Journalism is not dead but to survive these professionals must adapt. San Francisco is known for being a bed of fresh ideas. San Francisco magazine produced two excellent articles this July on how journalism could adapt to better serve their communities.

IDEO explores how we might someday experience the news

I particularly like the conclusions from an IDEO retreat on the future of journalism. If you do know them, IDEO is a consulting firm renowned for its creative problem solving. They take a design approach to create human-centered innovation and how to experience products and services.

The Power of Being Hyperlocal

People care about what happen in their communities. Readers said over and over that they want hyperlocal information and coverage on niche topics. They care about what affects their daily life. The Web enables anyone, including news media, to deliver specific choices to people. But the local newspapers cannot afford anymore to properly cover the news by neighborhoods. Many blogs have filled that gap and gained the trust of their readers.

Blogs are an affordable way to cater to a specific crowd. By establishing partnerships with residents, passionate bloggers and citizen journalists who concentrate on niches, local newspapers could aggregate these local stories. Then, the local newspapers could concentrate on more global stories. This is one way they can modernize their process.

Social media offers great ways to deliver the news. Anyone in the community could report and comments on facts and events. Non-profit news agency could provide fact-checking services that even citizen journalists could afford.

Multimedia Storytelling

Some journalism schools are starting to recognize the current challenge and the need to prepare their students for the new reality of journalism.

Berkeley provides a Digital News Project where 60 students participated so far. Thanks to a $500,000 grant from Ford Foundation, they produced 7 hyperlocal news Websites where they put in practice multimedia storytelling.

The content is excellent and well researched. In fact, Mission Local, on the most popular site, repeatedly scooped the San Francisco Chronicle on breaking news stories in 2008. There is a bright future for journalism.  And I wish that citizens and bloggers could collaborate in this adventure.

MORE:
+ Ignore the clutter by Caroline Lea
+ Newspapers are dead. Long live journalism! by Nina Martin
+ News Flash from the Future produced by IDEO
+ Credits: Shown Illustrations by Tom Manning for IDEO

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Social media is not only for people. It provides great opportunities for businesses, when done right. Social media allows any business to engage, listen, share and exchange ideas with consumers like you never been able to do it before. Plus, I feel that you can discover way more than with traditional communications and running controlled focus groups. You will discover the truth about what people feels and thinks.

One friend who shares my passion for social media in the business is Lara McCulloch, Marketing Director at Regal Tent Productions Ltd. I met her last year while blogging. We had dinner together last winter after the IDS 09 in Toronto.

Lara produced a blog called Ready 2 Spark but she is also a change agent in her industry. Lara organizes Twitter chat events twice a week where event professionals discuss matters affecting their industry. Her #eventprofs Twitter chat have been noticed by Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media and will be included as a good practice in the The Twitter Book.

I am telling you all this because Lara wrote an article for Special Events Magazine last month about the need for change in business marketing and communications. She made a good argument on why business must adapt and take advantage of the possibility that social media offers to them. She addressed some of the most common fear by management.

MORE:
+ The World is Changing … Why Aren’t You? in Special Events Magazine

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San Francisco is known as a city with a diverse pool of Web 2.0 professionals. So maybe it is not surprising that the City of San Francisco launched a Twitter application where anyone can send direct messages (DM) to report a problem or send a request to the city’s customer service hotline.

Twitter became one more point of contact with the 311 Customer Service Center. View “Sample Tweets” of their most requested services to help ensure you provide the information needed to properly service your request. 311 can help with:

• Street Cleaning
• Graffiti Removal
• Pothole and Sidewalk Defects
• Abandoned Vehicles
• City Garbage Can Maintenance
• Department Information (office hours, location, phone numbers)
• … and much more!

Added Value of Attaching Pictures to Your Requests

Like any direct message that you send on Twitter, you can attach a picture. This is an added value of the Twitter reporting.  Seeing the pictures help the City gives a round estimate of the problem. With that added information, the City could better and faster prioritize every request.

If you are not on twitter, know that San Francisco residents, businesses or tourists wishing to get non-emergency information or request services pertaining to San Francisco government may call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year by dialing 311 and talk to a real person.

+ Via RT @jeromeparadis : RT @mathewi : @craignewmark

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Let’s look at what I see as the key elements of the latest Webcom, which happened May 13, 2009 in Montreal. Several subjects were covered. Privacy, identity, authenticity and transparency in social media have occupied a part of the debate. Except for one session that I left in the middle, all presenters did an excellent job talking about their topic. Analyzing and capitalizing on the influence you have on the different social networks is what captures my interest.

I particularly enjoyed the session given by Caroline Allard on how Exvisu measures and analyzes what it is said about a brand, a concept or a person on the Web. They create portraits of digital conversations from what it is said on blogs and Twitter. We will see more and more tools and services like that appearing on the market.

If you are a big participant in social media, it is important to know how well you do. So far, I took baby steps by visiting Twitlyzer and joining the newcomer Viralogy in hope to get some feedback on my social media influence. It is also great to see how you perform over time. I am looking to try more sophisticated solutions in the coming months.

Clara Shih‘s session was also a treat. I chatted with her the night before. Clara is the author of the Facebook Era, a book about tapping online social networks to build better products, reach new audiences, and sell more stuff. I bought it. I believe in the power of its social graph of Facebook. I received my copy of her book Tuesday and I did not have the time to start reading it. I also bought the Tribes, the book of Seth Godin.

For many, Facebook is the place where many people talk about their private life versus Twitter, where they communicate on a public forum. Facebook changed the definition of a friend. For many bloggers like me, a Facebook friend may be a reader that never commented on your blog or all the persons you meet in conference. Clara Shih mentioned that we often do business with people that we vaguely know. Keeping a link with them on Facebook extends your connections.

It is to address the privacy issue for family that Cyrille de Lasteyrie alias Vinvin launched Hellotipi, a secret garden Facebook where you connect only your close friends and family members. For the moment, Hellotipi is launched only in France. If things go well, expect Hellotipi to expand their reach in other countries.

Sylvain Grand’maison praised the power of the niches. I cannot agree more. To succeed in a crowded market, you need to differentiate your product or your blog, concentrate on R&D and communication and more importantly be agile. For that kept team small; small is beautiful. Brands should use social media to communicate, interact, and add value by giving time, content and advices. Plus take the time to evaluate who follow you and who stop following you. Again, we are talking about analyzing your social media influence.

Finally, Jessica Lipnack of Net Age showed us an impressive dynamic organizational chart of the chain of commands at the White House.

The Webcom was well-organized. Except for one session that I left in the middle, all presenters did an excellent job talking about their topic. Congratulations to the team and the speakers!

My husband, who sits next to me on the top picture, posted the pictures he took during the day on Picasa.

MORE:
+ List of official bloggers for the 6th edition of Webcom
+ Photo courtesy of Adele McAlear – see Adele’s photo album of Webcom on Flickr

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BeFunky was founded by engineers and cartoonists with a unique desire to integrate art and technology. It is fun and pretty easy to use. The selection process of the Uvatar works well. They do not tell you but you can move the selected dots to get a smoother shape for your face.

There are 9 effects to create an art picture with Cartoonizer. I went modern with the Warholizer effect on a relax pose.

The results look cool. I received good comments when I posted it on Facebook. I like that you are not obligated to sign in to download the results of the art print. You have to sign in to create an avatar since you have to add items to complete the tasks. For which of your avatar face, you can select your outfits, the background decor, add accessories and even be seen with celebrities.

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The nominations is now closed. From Monday, January 12, 2009 to Friday, January 16 at 11 p.m. ET, the public will vote for their favorite song online from a shortlist of 100 songs.

The final 49 songs to make the cut will be unveiled on Inauguration Day, Tuesday, January 20.  Selected tunes will play throughout the day on CBC Radio 2′s daytime programs. Let’s hope that President Obama will find some time from his busy schedule to listen to the playlist.

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Pixman takes advantage of the momentum created by this historic event to get the words out about their technology. After all, Pixman provides nomadic media solutions to advertisers and help brands established virtual communities. The chairman of Pixman is Daniel Langlois, a man that is well-known for bringing multimedia innovative ideas.  Pixman hired VDL2 three weeks ago to make their Web 2.0 idea a reality.  I have friends that work at VDL2. It is impressive what you can accomplish in three weeks these days.

What is in it for you?

The World is ecstatic to the prospect of having Obama as the American President. On their site, you can read that Pixman let people from around the world connect to the first iconic figure of the 21st century: Barack Obama. On January 20th, 2009 United States will enter in a new era with the inauguration of Barack Obama as President. To celebrate your happiness, excitement, hopes and simply to congratulate the man, join the wave and post your home video.

If you are lucky, you can meet a Pixman cameraman in one of the 30 Worldwide cities. They will capture your 5-second video and link it to a globe map. If you deliver a great performance, you may be the lucky ones  with extracts featured in a special medley delivered to Obama. Be part of the Worldwide Wave for Obama.

+ Join The Wave

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