How Paper Magazine Used Kim Kardashian and Social Media To Promote Its Printed Issue

Paper Magazine used a clever strategy to promote its printed magazine - social media!

Founded and launched in 1984, Paper magazine is a New York City-based independent magazine focusing on fashion, pop-culture, nightlife, music, art and film. Its readership is around 155,000 with 70% of its readers located in New York and Los Angeles. The Paper Magazine’s website has around 500,000 unique visitors per month.

To attract more readers, it came up with a clever strategy – use archenemy the Internet to make a splash. The mag hired Jean-Paul Goude, the French photographer famous for his iconic shots of Grace Jones for a provocative photo shoot. It also enlisted the services of KKW for two reasons: (1) her online presence includes 25 million twitter followers and roughly the same number on Instagram, (2) she has no problem at all baring it all for the camera.

Goude shot Kardashian in several stages of undress – starting with her being fully-dressed in exactly the same pose as Grace Jones in her famous champagne glass photo, and ending with a full frontal nude pic.

Paper Magazine published the shots as part of its “Break the Internet” campaign, stating: "For our winter issue, we gave ourselves one assignment: Break The Internet. There is no other person that we can think of who is up to the task than one Kim Kardashian West. A pop culture fascination able to generate headlines just by leaving her house, Kim is what makes the web tick."

The strategy worked, resulting in hundreds of thousands of tweets, global online coverage, and discussed on various morning shows on TV.

Paper Magazine knows its stuff. In order not to oversell, the mag limits its racy version of the issue (including all KKW"s pics) to just 10,000 copies. Retailers and subscribers who want to get their hands on it, must purchase it online (oh, the irony) via the Paper Magazine website.

The magazine also announced that it will be producing more "event" covers, so stay tuned! Ironically enough, online exposure has done wonders for Paper Magazine.

As Drew Elliott stated: "We wanted to use this [cover] to help establish ourselves digitally. We never could have imagined that it would be this successful."

The main question remains – will Paper Magazine be able to create more provoking campaigns? Now that they have built a worldwide audience, the powers at Paper Magazine need to remain creative to maintain its loyal audience and customer base. If not, it will remain an amusing footnote in online marketing history.

(Image courtesy of Kelkulus)

The Brilliant Way the CIA joined Twitter

US governmental agencies routinely secure social media account to prevent unauthorized users tweeting and

The CIA filed an impersonation complaint with Twitter against such a user, the Langley-based agency decided to open its own (and verified) account on Twitter and Facebook.

In an official statement the agency announced: "This week, the CIA moved deeper into the world of social media with the launch of official social media accounts on Twitter and Facebook."

The CIA describes itself as: “We are the Nation's first line of defense. We accomplish what others cannot accomplish and go where others cannot go”.

On the CIA website, CIA Director John O. Brennan posted on June 6, 2014:

“This week, the CIA expanded its social media presence with the launch of official social media accounts on Twitter and Facebook.

Follow us on Twitter @CIA and on Facebook for the latest CIA updates, #tbt (Throwback Thursday) photos, reflections on intelligence history, and fun facts from the CIA World Factbook. You’ll also receive updates on CIA career postings and get the latest glimpse into CIA’s Museum - the best museum most people never get to see. Our social media expansion will put CIA.gov content right at your fingertips.

The launch expands CIA’s online presence, which already includes the Agency’s public website, CIA.gov and CIA.gov mobile, and official Flickr and YouTube accounts.

In the coming weeks, look out for other CIA.gov enhancements, including live streaming capabilities via Ustream.”

The CIA also showed a wicked sense of humor with an epic first tweet:




Epic branding!

(Image:The CIA logo at the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Va. (Saul Loeb, AFP/Getty Images)

posting under their name.

Tweet Genie - A New Tweet Analysis Tool for Marketers

Tweets are supposed to reveal your age – at least that’s the assumption of the latest Twitter tool Tweetgenie.nl.

This Dutch app invites you to enter your Twitter-name on Tweetgenie.nl. Computers at the Meertens Institute (a research center for language and culture) and the University of Twente will start calculating. Your last 200 tweets are benchmarked against a database with keywords related to youngsters, the elderly, men and women.

Tweetgenie.nl is part of his research at the University of Twente. On its website, the university explains: “We tried to identify the average Dutch Twitter users.  Of 3,000 users, we manually indicate age and sex. This way, the program can estimate the sex and age of each Twitter user."

The brain behind the software is linguistic scientist Nguyen. According to him, identifying the sex of a twitterer is between 80 and 85 percent accurate. Estimating age is trickier – it’s normally 4 years off.  

He explained:  "Above 30 - 35 years, it’s even more difficult. The difference between language of a 12-year old and an 18-year old is much greater than that between a 40 and 50-year old."

According to the Meertens Institute, the results should provide insight into patterns of how stories and rumors are spreading via social media. This could be digital gold for marketers.

Want to try it out? Just fill in your twitter name and press the check button. I tried it myself and was identified as a 39-year old man. Trust me, I am very much female and at least a decade older……

SEC Accepts Social Media for Disclosing Material Information

The SEC has officially announced that posting corporate information on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are equal to releasing information via a news release and on the corporate website. In general, the SEC stipulates that companies must make material information available to all investors simultaneously via SEC filing or press release.

The SEC made the move following an investigation into the Facebook posting of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. He bragged that his company's monthly viewing had exceeded one billion hours for the first time. As a result of posting this information on Facebook, Netflix stock promptly closed higher during that trading day.

The SEC decided to loosen its rules for disclosing information and decided not to start any proceedings against Hastings.

Although this is in itself good news, it is not as straightforward as it looks. The catch is that a company must tell its investors which outlets it is intending to use. Ironically enough, the best way to do this is via a press release!

The SEC announcement gives companies more channels to disseminate news. As I see it, a publicly-traded company cannot replace press releases with postings on Facebook and Twitter. Furthermore, the legal department of the company needs to review any posts concerning the company before posting them.

My advice? Be wise! Use official news distribution channels such as PRNewswire to inform your investors, customers and the public at large. Before distributing a press release, the legal department of PRN reviews it and will therefore ensure that your press release complies with the SEC’s rules and regulations. This also means that a CEO cannot “brag” anymore, but needs to state the (dry) facts. 

Companies also need to learn how their investors want to receive news. Not everybody uses Facebook and Twitter, and even if they do, they normally use it for informal purposes. Especially institutional investors will find news the old-fashioned way (using EDGAR, checking press releases and corporate websites), since that’s the way they research and keep up. Private investors (especially those interested in penny stocks) are more likely to embrace Facebook and Twitter for updates and news.

The SEC did not specify what steps a company needs to take for using Facebook, Twitter, et al. It is also unclear what is material information and what not.

Until the SEC formulates strict guidelines, my advice for companies:

1) Write an official press release

2) Have it approved by the legal department

3) Distribute it via PRN et al + post it on the corporate website

4) Post the press release on the company’s Facebook page, Twitter account, LinkedIn page, Pinterest account.

5) Put it on your corporate blog

(Image courtesy of dailyfinance)

Target’s Manatee Marketing Lesson

When Susan Clemons was searching Target.com, she found a grey, plus-sized dress. The grey color was described as “Manatee Grey." A manatee is a big, rather large and shapeless sea animal also known as a sea cow.

Ms. Clemons took offense and tweeted Target "What the Plus sized women get "Manatee Grey" while standard sizes are "Dark Heather Grey." @Target #notbuyingit

Target promptly issued an apology and tweeted that it was looking into fixing the misunderstanding.

Target employees posted on the store's Twitter page: "We apologize for this unintentional oversight and never intend to offend our guests. We've heard you, and we're working to fix it ASAP,"

In the end, Target decided to remove the offensive description. The garment in both regular and plus size versions is now labeled as "Dark Heather Grey."

What does this case teach marketing professionals?

Be careful with your product descriptions
When describing a feature or a color, keep it positive. Try to use words that are neutral but still appeal to (potential) customers. In this case, a physical description such as “dove grey” or “anthracite grey” could have worked. If not, you can always use poetic ones such as “magical grey” or “kissing stone gray”.

If I would have been the copywriter for Target, I would have gone for “Dolphin Grey”. It’s not only the same shade of grey as manatee, but playful dolphins are universally loved (thanks to Flipper et al). My other option would have been “pearl grey”, since  associations with (semi)precious stones are always appealing to buyers – just think of jet black, jade green, turquoise blue!

React quickly in case of crisis

Target did a great job by immediately tweeting back and apologizing. Instead of hiding behind excuses, Target apologized and fixed the problem. They followed the golden rule of crisis management: apologize (mea culpa), quickly fix, and communicate.

Use the correct social media to communicate

Target obviously uses and monitors social media to communicate with its (potential) customers. Once the complaint was tweeted, it also used Twitter to respond.

In this social media age, it’s essential to monitor what is written about you as a company in (near) real time and react accordingly. For B2B enterprises, other social media than Twitter would be more appropriate.

All in all, Target got a lot of free publicity and handled the incident in a elegant way. All in all, the media put Target in a positive light. Some even pointed out that the customer was suffering from hypersensitivity.

Personally, as a marketing professional and lawyer, I am puzzled. I don’t understand how a company such as Target (which should be mucho PC) allowed its copywriters to hammer out product descriptions like this. Furthermore, it is also very strange that its legal department did not object to the description (sua culpa!). They are lucky that the customer did not sue for mental distress!

All in all, being PC in marketing is a grey area, isn’t it

7 Tips for Using Twitter for Business

Using Twitter for business has become one of the main social media activities. But effective tweeting for commercial purposes is easier said than done.

It boils down to the following 7 tips:

1. Getting more followers on Twitter

It is important to understand that the number of followers is not that relevant. What is far more important is the quality (or suitability) of followers. Once you get a notification that someone is following you, check who they are before following them back.

The same applies to the reverse: only follow contacts that are relevant for you, your business, and industry.

2. When to tweet and how much

If possible, find out when your target group is on Twitter. Research shows that the ideal number of tweets in the US is 10-20 a day; for Europe, this is a lot less.

3. Relevant Tweeters

Who are relevant tweeters to follow and invite?

• Users of your (or a similar) products or services
• People from your area and industry
• People that inspire (gurus, industry leaders)
• Your LinkedIn and Facebook contacts
• Subscribers to your newsletter
• Participants of your webinars or events
• Prospects you want to engage/land

4. Ideal Subjects for tweets

People like to see tweets about tips, highlights, hot items and news. Topics of tweets could therefore encompass:

• Trends and developments in your region/industry
• New products/services
• Discussion items
• Tips and advise
• Trends
• Hot industry and product news
• Webinar, promotions, news items
• FAQ
• Blog posts

5. Time to Tweet

It takes around 15 to 30 minutes daily to tweet. Research of finding relevant trends, articles and news items to tweet takes longer. It might pay off to enlist a subcontractor to tweet on behalf of your company. It is in many cases more cost effective and ensures quality and consistency!

6. Follow Up

People react in various ways. If the tweet contains useful tips or (news) articles, you need to retweet. Asking for advice is also a good way to get more exposure. Do not forget to put the hash tag in front of your question!

7. Monitoring

There are several tools to monitor your Twitter presence and progress. They include: Klout, PeerIndex, TweetRank en Twitalyzer.

Do you have more tips or tricks for tweeting for business? Please leave a message!

Ten Tips for Freelancers and SMEs/SMBs

1. Avoid being on the Road (too much)

As we all know, we spent too much time on the road. All these hours cannot be billed. Try to communicate as much as possible by email, phone and Skype. Try to schedule meetings in the same region on the same day. Check out the best way to travel: car, public transport or (my favorite) a combination. It’s best to schedule meetings outside of rush hour. It saves both of you time.

2. Cold Calls are Tricky

Cold calls as a tool for drumming up business is tricky. It is time-consuming and should therefore well-prepared. For many SMEs/SMBs, cold calling is not the way to go. WOM (word-of mouth) is far more effective and cost-effective.

3. Keep Communicating

Keeping in touch with your customers is the key to your success as a freelancer of SME/SMB. There are many ways to keep in touch: newsletters, emails with special offers, and social media. Make sure to call them once in a while to ask if everything is fine. Make sure to send out season’s greetings and personal congratulations (e.g., birth of a child). Use your business page on Pinterest, Facebook, and LinkedIn, as well as your Twitter account to inform update, and spread positive messages. Don’t underestimate the power of your corporate blog – you can position your business perfectly that way.

4. Presentations Should Rock

Presentations are still expected. But (potential) customers are sharp, so make sure your presentation is short and to the point. Keep your power point presentations short and avoid cutesy graphics/animation. Make sure there is a call to action on the last slide. It is a good strategy to send them the presentation in PDF later on by email.

5. Respect the Uniqueness of Your Prospect

Each prospect is unique and wants to be recognizes as such. You need to know what makes your potential (and existing!) customer tick. What are the pain points they are facing? What is their history with similar companies/offerings like yours? Doing successful and long-term business is based on trust. You will never be able to make all your customers happy all of the time. Be gracious, and when it does not work out, make sure your prospect or customer never looses face.

6. Make Sure You Both Have the Same Agenda

A lot of bad feelings between supplier and customer results from the simple fact that they are not “on the same page”. The prospect or customer believes that it will get A, while the supplier is convinced that the prospect or customer wants B. The best way to avoid this kind of Mexican stand-off is to send points of understanding combined with action items after each meeting.

7. References and Recommendations

References and recommendations are important. However, it is not always possible to supply them, especially if you provided services for the military, homeland security or other companies that required the freelancer or supplier to sign an NDA or confidentiality agreement. LinkedIn offers a great way to circumvent this issue as long as there are enough recommendations on the freelancer’s/supplier’s profile. A blog is also a good way to position yourself as a though leader without infringing on any agreements.

8. You Cannot Win Them All

Rejection is part of our professional lives. Job seekers are rejected for jobs they really want, and freelancers and suppliers sometimes loose out on juicy contracts. Proposals can be rejected for many reasons: the price is too high, they got a better offer, they had to hire a freelancer/company due to internal politics, the job/work is canceled or frozen, or there just is not any personal chemistry. The best way to handle this kind of rejection is to be gracious, leave communication channels open, and realize that you cannot win them all.

9. Know Your Target Market

Your product or service might be great, but it would not fit all customers. It is important to know your market. Who needs our products/services? What pain points do you address and how much are your (potential) customers willing to pay for it? Communicate with your (potential) customer to identify their existing as well as future needs.

10. Build a Relationship

Your attitude, skills, and aptitude determine if a customer wants to do business with you. Be generous with (free) advice and think with (and not for) your customer. Once you are seen as a partner, and not a mere supplier, you will have a mutual beneficial relationship that could span years. Nothing is forever, especially in this economy, so nurture good relationships. Even is a customer has to drop you, his or her recommendation and goodwill is worth its weight in gold.

Nicolas Sarkozy turns to Twitter to boost his Presidential Race

Nicolas Sarkozy did something clever: he is boosting his online presence on Twitter, the popular microblogging. The official account of M. Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic, is being fed in part by M. Nicolas Sarkozy himself as a private citizen.

During an interview on Europe 1, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the French Minister of Ecology, stated that she is all in favor. Not surprisingly, she is slated as becoming the official spokesperson of the future candidate. "This offers direct means of communication. I find it fun. I understand that it is based on the concept that NS (=Nicolas Sarkozy) will write and tweet the message himself."

The first tweet appeared on February 15, 2012 was signed NS. The message said: "I accepted the invitation of TF1 to appear in the news segment at 8pm tonight and I'll meet you all there." All that was missing: XOXO!

Two hours after the tweet hit cyberspace, the NS Twitter account already boasted 15,593 followers. To compare: main rival François Hollande has 147,186 followers.

Even in traditional France, politicians are harnessing the power of social media!

How to Tweet Wisely

Is Twitter just for people who can’t shut up? Many tweets are irrelevant, and it takes some digging to get to the good stuff. That way, it’s not any different from looking for a good book. Between shelves of Dan Brown fluff, there are literary gems such as “The Perfume”, “Madame Bovary” and “To Kill A Mockingbird”.

Companies (and individuals) can of course choose never to send a tweet into cyberspace. But the problem is that companies will be left behind and their competitors will have the competitive edge.

Tweets are short (140 characters) and resemble sms-speak (not surprising, considering the original twitter concept) and have huge marketing potential.

Following is a short guide to tweeting (courtesy of www.ReputationManagementFor.com with some of my own additions).

1/ Tweeting
When you tweet, you’re sending a message to all of your followers (see 2/) and displaying the message on your Twitter Feed (a list of your tweets). Now, it’s extremely important that you bear a few things in mind when tweeting, as you can end up wasting a lot of time for zero productivity. Don’t over-tweet, but don’t tweet sparingly either. A Tweet a week does not an interest garner. These are some important things you’ll need to keep in mind while tweeting:

• Don’t treat Twitter like an SEO exercise. Nobody cares for unexplained, uninteresting links, and if all you’re doing is linking back to your website, people will generally ignore you.
• Don’t make ridiculous spelling mistakes. Tweets are only 140 characters long, and typos and other errors will reflect badly on your company. Spell it right; sell it right.
• Try not to be too personal, or emotional. You’re marketing your brand, and while that doesn’t mean you should be robotic, attention-seeking will ultimately reflect badly.
• Develop your own style, but unless you’re a professional comedian don’t make every post into a joke.
• Make sure to hashtag important keywords in your tweet (see 4/).

Ideally, every time you tweet you want your followers to re-tweet (RT) your posts. That way, you are reaching the followers of your followers.

2/ Following
When you follow somebody on Twitter, it means that you’re going to automatically get updated with every tweet of that user. You can opt to get as many people to follow you as possible, or to expand your brand awareness and market influence to targeted users (journalists, institutes, bloggers, magazines, etc.).

The easiest and simplest way getting followers is to include obvious links to your Twitter account on your website, and any email correspondence you send out. If you don’t tell people to look for your Twitter account, you’re relying on people looking for you speculatively, and that can be a slow process. Also, you can enter your contact list from GMail, AOL, MSN, Hotmail and Yahoo! accounts to see if the people you already speak to use Twitter. Following people you know on Twitter will encourage them to follow you.

3/ @Mentions
If you have a look at your “homepage” on Twitter, you can see a few tabs below the Tweet box. One of these tabs says ‘@Mentions’. A @Mention is when somebody puts a ‘@’ sign, followed immediately by a username. When somebody @Mentions you in a Tweet, it’ll show up both on their Tweet Feed and on your @Mentions page (which your followers can’t see. A @Mention is useful:

• to engage other users who are not in contact with yet. They’re then more likely to return the favor.
• if you’re Tweeting their material. Their details do show up on a RT, but a @Mention will show gratitude and let the person know you’re passing on their content/posts.
• when tweeting original content. Start the post with “RT” and end it with @yourtwittername. .It makes it easier for people to find you and associate your Twitter account with the content being (re)tweeted.

4/ The #Hashtag
While we have already mentioned that this shouldn’t be an SEO exercise, that doesn’t mean that none of the same principles apply. The #hashtag is the king of Social Media Optimization – an opportunity to make use of ‘keywords’. People searching Twitter for posts on specific subjects will generally find #tagged posts first. Tips to use #hashtags:

• If you want to talk about a #subject, #location or #person (without linking to their Twitter account), use the #hashtag.
• A #hashtag can be used to emphasize a specific part of your tweet, and generally adds context to any content or comments you might be posting.

Twitter posts show up in Google search results. Although it is unlikely that a Twitter post will outperform a highly contested keyword by normal SEO standards, a clever campaign on a specific subject will get attention.

5/ Trending
Twitter keeps track of when a term (or #term) is being used a lot on Twitter. It records Trends that appear by geographical demographic, and a general worldwide tracker. Thus, if a #term (with or without the #hashtag) is popular in e.g., the US; users who’ve set up their “Trend Feed” to the US will automatically see a list of the “Trending Topics” for that country. Users can also click on a topic that is trending (e.g. budget cuts).

There are many innovative ways to turn social networking and social media profitable for business. On your Twitter homepage, you can link to your own website. You can also add Twitter to your website homepage. Your tweets will now automatically be displayed.

6/ Shortened Links
As mentioned before, tweets are limited to 140 characters. Most website links (e.g., to articles you RT) take up a lot of character space. To solve this problem, there are several free services around that automatically shorten your links. The most popular are tinyURL and bit.ly.

Wishing you Happy Tweeting!

(Cartoon courtesy of Johnny Ancich of Past Expiry)

Tweeting in the courtroom? Yes we can!

The Lord Chief Justice in the UK allows journalists to report some court proceedings by using Twitter, texting and email. He made it clear though that it would not happen if it could influence witnesses.

Media organizations and journalists can now apply for permission to use social media on a case-by-case basis. Non-journalists could still be barred in order to ensure the "proper administration of justice". This would prevent distractions in court and limit the potential for interference with courts' own recording equipment. The guidance applies only to courts in England and Wales.
For now, anyone who wants to tweet in court needs to get the judge’s permission. In criminal trials tweeting will quite likely be forbidden when there is a risk that witnesses who are out of court would be able to find out what is happening inside.

The Lord Chief Justice explained: "The judge has an overriding responsibility to ensure that proceedings are conducted consistently with the proper administration of justice, and so as to avoid any improper interference with its processes. There is no statutory prohibition on the use of live text-based communications in open court. But before such use is permitted, the court must be satisfied that its use does not pose a danger of interference to the proper administration of justice in the individual case. Subject to this consideration, the use of an unobtrusive, handheld, virtually silent piece of modern equipment for the purposes of simultaneous reporting of proceedings to the outside world as they unfold in court is generally unlikely to interfere with the proper administration of justice."

Interesting enough, the Twitter guidance comes days after WikiLeaks Assange's court hearing. Mr Justice Ouseley ruled during that hearing that supporters and journalists should tweet about was happening in real time. At an earlier bail hearing, district judge Howard Riddle did allow tweeting from Westminster Magistrates Court, saying journalists could send messages if they were discreet and did not interfere with the judicial process.

If the same policy would apply to let video cameras in court, justice would be seen on TV, online and on mobiles. Is this the way to go?

On the other side of the Pond, U.S. District Judge Thomas J. Marten allowed in 2009 a reporter to Twitter court proceedings in a trial of six Crips gang defendants taking place in his Wichita, Kansas courtroom.

"The more we can do to open the process to the public, the greater the public understanding," the judge said when asked about lawyers' concerns that jurors might be influenced by the tweets.

So where will it end? Does tweeting serve a purpose in court room?

To quote Andrew Cohen: “The difference between a reporter tweeting in the courtroom and a reporter doing the same during the breaks and phoning it in is not that great."

Ita Est

(Image courtesy of Courtoons & David E. Mills)

New social networks for enterprises: move over Yammer, Podio is coming!

A friend of mine in the Netherlands told me about Yammer, a new social network for enterprises. She was checking it out for her organization (Visio). On behalf of several companies I worked and freelanced for, I have been looking for a secure “in-company” social media platform. It seems that I finally found some.

Yammer is sort of a hybrid version of Facebook and Twitter that helps members of an organization to let their workers interact and collaborate. Yammer works according to the freemium-model: to start a Yammer network is free; but in order to own, control, and administer the data and content, it will cost between $3 to $5 per user/per month.

Yammer claims that it is being used by more than one million users and 80,000 companies worldwide for their internal communications. It offers access in three ways – through web login, a desktop application, and mobile apps.

According to an excellent article on TechCrunch, Yammer (aka Twitter for business or as an enterprise microblogging platform) is facing stiff competition from Podio. Podio describes itself as a ʻsocial work platformʼ similar to Facebook for companies. It claims to be a full work platform with messaging, calendars, tasks and contact management. It gives users the ability to build their own ‘apps’ without any technical knowledge, and allows for almost endless customization. According to Podio, over 2,000 apps have already been built by users, which include CRM systems, meeting planners, process facilitation, recruiting, contract drafting, and employee feedback.
To quote TechCrunch, Podio “is a full work platform with messaging, calendars, tasks and contact management, – not just another project management space.”

But Yammer is not giving up, and announced the launch of Yammer 2.0. Yammer’s CEO and founder David Sacks believes that the ability to create a go-to corporate social network is a Facebook sized opportunity.

Another new social network to watch is ZYB. It describes itself as a mobile phone utility and social networking site. It started in 2005 as a European service to provide easy back-up services for mobile phones. ZYB leveraged the data set into building a social networking platform with Twitter-like location-based functions.

For now, the race between Yammer and Podio to acquire enterprise customers is on. Depending how it will pan out, both Yammer and Podio could be targeted for acquisition by companies such as SalesForce or Google.

Tweeting all the way to be bank

Celebrities used to tweet about their day-to-day life. “I must have pinched a nerve in my neck, I can hardly look to my left. I will pass on my workout today. I need a massage.”

But now, celebs have found out that tweeting-for-money is worth while. Top earner is socialite Kim Kardashian, who commands $10,000 per tweet. Her tweets include a Nestle commercial, and the background on her Twitter page features the fast-food chain Carl’s Jr. The number of followers (KK boasts a formidable 2.7 million), is the key to profitability.

Dr. Drew Pinsky (more than 1.8 million followers) promo-tweets include endorsements for Sonos music systems and Gogo’s in-flight Wi-Fi. Greg Grunberg (of Heroes fame, nearly 1.5 million followers) tweets about the Yowza iPhone application multiple times a day – for an estimated $ 7,000 and $ 10,000 per tweet. (In all fairness, he donates his twitter bounty to charity).

The deal broker between celebs and companies is ad.ly. According to Sean Rad, CEO of Ad.ly, the likes of Britney Spears or P. Diddy could earn up to $20,000 per tweet, should they ever go for Ad.ly’s pay-per-tweet model.

By law, celebs have to disclose if they are tweeting for money or just for fun/adoration/kicks. The FTC regulation applies to all bloggers, so cave bloggerati!

An FTC-compliant tweet looks like this:
U guys have to watch [http://bit.ly/] Dancing w Stars champ @ShawneyJ backflips over speeding bobsled! Pretty cool! (Ad) 10:59 AM Dec 29th, 2009 from Ad.ly Network

Violation comes with a steep price tag: up to $ 11,000 in fines. The FTC is on the lookout, stating: "celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media”. As it looks now, we might see a juicy Twittergate scandal in 2010….

Marketing to the Twitterati - companies that tweet

It seems that global warming doesn’t endanger a new breed of animals: the Twitterati.

These are frequent Twitter users, whose life seems to consist of sending as much tweets and retweets as possible. When running out of tweet content (“still stuck in traffic”, “cannot find my left contact lens”), they retweet other people’s tweets. The “me” factor is so high on Twitter, that Sprint Nextel included a flock of blue twitter birds in one of its cell phone commercials (see illustration).

For those of you, who are not familiar with Twitter, think of a micro-blog. Instead of ample space to write your story (peppered with links and images) you have on Twitter.com a limited character length of 140. As one of my friends puts it: “it’s like writing text messages on your phone, only this time online in a blog."

Companies have also fallen in love with Twitter – big time. Just check out some corporate websites, and you will find “follow us on Twitter” at the bottom of the webpage. Companies embrace Web 2.0 with a passion, also since it makes them look good. But what exactly is Web 2.0?

Web 1.0 was a one-way communication from a company to the www-surfers using a static website. Web 2.0 is bi-directional; website visitors can send info to the company. At first mainly Web 2.0 websites were mainly online shopping sites. The next 2.0 wave consisted of web forms and blogs, followed by social networking communities. LinkedIn is one of the oldest, followed by MySpace and Facebook.

Enter Twitter, where you can express your feelings (or frustrations) in 140 characters or less. Is it a Good Thing for companies, or should Twitterati stick to “who-murdered-Michael-Jackson?”
Individuals can "Me!"-tweet about “going on vacation” or “don’t like my new sweater”. Companies however need to provide value. That’s the crux of the matter - any serious company must tweet about a product proposition. Many are too lazy and just put shortened URLs to their press releases in their tweets. If you are too much “Me!” as a company, you will be ignored by the Twitterati and not be retweeted.

What excites Twitterati and makes them to read a corporate tweet?

1. Lead for new jobs


2. Cool (free!) downloads


3. Hot news about the company linked to a current event


4. Great articles about an industry or area of interest (target your Twitterati!)


5. Links to interesting newsletters or magazine articles


6. Information about network/media events


7. Links to funny cartoons or clips


8. Links to great blog postings

To leverage Twitter, companies must be smart. They need to define their target group, offer tailored tweet content with a value proposition, and keep up the effort to maintain a Twitter presence.

Corporate website 3.0 – Skittles brave jump into the marketing future

Skittles went where no candy maker has gone before – and launched a corporate 3.0 website.

Skittles are candy products, produced by Mars, Inc., and part of the Wrigley product line.

Mars spokesman Ryan Bowling told the Wall Street Journal, that the site was redesigned to better connect with its core teenage audience, which spends a lot of time using social media.

"The teen audience relies heavily on their peers for advice on products. This is a unique, unexpected way to engage and to be a part of the conversation."

How does this site work? The “homepage” of Skittles is a small banner that fixes itself on the top left of your screen. No matter which tab you click, the URLs remain www.skittles.com/xxx,
The tabs link to customer-generated content (Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter)

1. “Home” and “Products” link to the Wikipedia page with the product description

2. “Media” has two components: “Videos” that links to YouTube and “Pics” that links to Flickr

3. “Chatter” brings you to the Twitter page

4. “Friends” links you to a Facebook page

5. “Contact” is the only tab that connects to a standard corporate website – the contact form on the Wrigley website

6. “Other Gobbledygook” will take you to the copyright notice and legal disclaimer

7. The middle part is a dynamic banner. Once you click for more information, a new window opens with a dedicated website ( e.g., http://www.havemorefunds.com/)

It is the first time that I came across such a website 3.0 of a reigning consumer brand. Instead of Skittles reaching out to its customers, it allows them to communicate directly and in a highly visible way. There are some possible pitfalls and dangers though......

Does the website reach the target demographics?
To enter the site, you must first confirm that you are over 18. (Before able to login, you get the message: “Hold your horses. Before you can check out Skittles.com, you’ve gotta tell us your age. So spill it”. Aren’t most Skittles-consumers younger?

Is Twitter a good choice?
According to Peter Corbett, CEO of iStrategyLabs, there are no children on Twitter - the majority of application-users are between the ages of 18-49 years of age. Is Mars aiming for the parents of their child consumers or for a whole new demographic?

How are negative comments handled?
Is there a staff that monitors content and communications and that can handle damage control?

How does Skittles/Mars protect themselves and their customers from malware and Web 2.0 threats?
It is quite easy for cybercrooks to inject malicious code in any of the pages. (Michael Gray provides some great advise on his SEO blog)

What about SEO?
The site consists of an iframe with almost no independent content. Technically, Facebook, Twitter or Wikipedia are not visited, but the Skittles’ website pulls the content for you into an iframe.

How will it affect the overall Mars brand?
Did the the flood of obscene, racist, and otherwise tasteless tweets have an impact?

The website was launched in March 2009 and designed by agency.com.
According to agency’s executive director Chad Stoller: “It is a very bold campaign in the sense that they are letting consumers speak on behalf of the brand."

My personal take: I love the fact that Skittles embraced Web 3.0 and is brave enough to relinquish control. But it might too much unchartered territory with unpredictable and even uncontrollable results. I hope that Skittles will tell us how they fared – up till now, there have been no announcements or reactions from Mars or the agency. No matter what, I predict that this one will make it many MBA course materials and marketing handbooks.

In the mean time, all I can say is: chapeau!