I’ve been on twitter since sometime in 2008 (I assume, this is as far back as twitter is showing me).

In that time, I’ve added a ton of followers, and constantly sorting through the requests I’ve received. I don’t follow everyone. Particularly “Gurus” with thousands of following/followers. I don’t follow people who primarily use Twitterfeed so it’s just a stream of RSS posts. I don’t follow spammers (naturally) or people that do nothing except hock their site, their product(s) or their friend(s) similar products, and I especially do not follow self-claimed gurus, be it social media, seo, sem, etc.

The people I follow on twitter fall into a few categories:

• I know them personally.
• I know them professionally.
• They are an understood expert in their field(s) like:
  • Web Development (Particularly Javascript Framework Developers)
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Analytics
  • Social Media

Particular niches I subscribe to, and I have developed a small list of experts that I’d trust what they say (and occasionally toss questions to them). I consider this list to be “obvious” experts – they’ve proven themselves professionally, or have written at length in blogs about the topic.

My Obvious SEO Experts on Twitter

1. Matt Cutts (from Google)
2. Rand Fishkin (from SEO Moz)
3. Aaron Wall (from SEOBook)
4. SearchEngineLand (from itself)
5. Jennifer Laycock (from Search Engine Guide)
6. Mark Scholl (from EnginePoint Marketing)

I’ve limited the list to six – because I feel they cover a breadth of knowledge that you could gain, mainly from their blog postings – sometimes, 140 characters isn’t enough (some times it is).

I’ll work out additional “Obvious Twitter People to follow” in the future.

So a big hub-bub ’round these parts of Columbus was Nationwide hiring Shawn Morton to do social media strategy.

(Disclaimer: I used to work at Nationwide, I still have friends there, and I’m writing this because I want to!)

Social Media for an Insurance/Finances company?

Damn straight. I loved the idea. It’s forcing a big company to become more involved with its people. It’s bringing the corporate in touch with the civilians. It means instead of commercials of cheesy actors saying how “I got a great rate from Nationwide” it’s the twittersphere all-a-twittering about “I got some great info from Nationwide.com” or maybe “check out Nationwide’s hilarious new commercial.”

But all these little things aren’t what I want to focus on.

Corporate Responsibility and Transparency

Certainly you always stumble on advertising articles talking about the new campaigns – but usually it seems that’s where it stops. Company A has started a microsite, check it out at… or Company B is giving away X if you do Y, pass it on.

But sometimes, just sometimes, the company wants people to talk about it. And as David Griner points out, sometimes companies fuck up so utterly and completely what could’ve been a good review of their product.

David writes:

Over on the J-Walk Blog, John Walkenbach seemed plenty happy to have received a free bottle of a liquor called VeeV — “the world’s first Acai spirit.” Before even trying it, John wrote about the product, ran a picture of the bottle and promised to do some “live VeeV blogging” (ie, blogging under the influence).

Home run for the VeeV marketing folks, right?

Hey VeeV, I’m available for test marketing! Send free shit my way!

How’d they screw up? How COULD you screw up? I mean, maybe they’re worried they’ll be portrayed as the drink of alcoholics if someone “live blogs” drunk.

Apparently, John blogging drunk about VeeV, but the marketing agency of VeeV – Maverick Digital – put a little comment (as Bob no less) talking about about how awesome it is in pure marketing speak – which rather pissed John off.

Right, that’s what Griner said.

Right – people hate it when you try to act like you’re some random schmo (in this case, Bob) with a genuine opinion. Which brings me back to Nationwide…

Sanjaya-ize yo’self, fool!

That’s right. Sanjaya-ize Yourself – in the spirit of Elf Yourself you can upload a shot of yourself and make yourself like Sanjaya of American Idol fame. Haven’t you heard of it yet? It’s being shown in targeted markets – smart move! They identified a certain niche and targeted them with a celebrity that appeals to them.

And my point is?

Vader Sanjaya-ized. I totally stole this from Shawn.

This simple entry on the fan board for Sanjaya:

Just wanted to let everyone know that Sanjaya will be premiering his new TV commercial for Nationwide Insurance at Branch (226 E 54th St) in Manhattan on Wednesday, August 20th at 6PM.

The event is closed to the public; however, you still may be able to catch a glimpse of Sanjaya.

If you’re outside the NYC area, you can check out the new commercial on Nationwide.com (http://nationwide.com/about-us/featured-ads.jsp) and on our YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/NWInsurance) starting on Wednesday evening.

And for those who want to try on Sanjaya’s own unique style, you can check out our Sanjaya-ize Yourself widget starting Wednesday evening as well.

http://www.sanjaya-ize.com

BTW, I am part of the team at Nationwide that is putting together the event and the Sanjaya-ize Yourself widget, so please let me know if you have any questions or comments. We look forward to hearing what you all think.

See that last part? Here, in case you missed it, I added some bold to it for you:

BTW, I am part of the team at Nationwide that is putting together the event and the Sanjaya-ize Yourself widget, so please let me know if you have any questions or comments. We look forward to hearing what you all think.

See what Shawn aka sMoRTy71 did differently? FULL DISCLOSURE OF HIS INVOLVEMENT. No bullshit, no clever white lies. He appealed to their fans, made sure they knew who he was and that he was totally pimping out his product.

That , my friends, is how you do social media right.

Just my piece in politics. I’ve talked to him, and he’s very genuine – a rare trait I’ve ever gotten from talking to anyone involved in politics.

Robert Owens on youTube?

That is correct, friend!

I’m really digging how politicians are starting to utilize new media methods to get their message out. Most recently, we’ve heard of Ron Paul’s online money raising that really helped point out the power of the people online. Then we see Obama has emulated the online presence – and they use their staff at hand to help tailor the experience to the potential voter. The undecided voters get one message, the supported get a different set – maybe facebook reminders, tweets, IMs, etc.

Very cool – I’m looking forward to the 2012 elections just to see how much the Internet is involved – maybe they’ll have mobile voting figured out by then, or maybe even electronic voting machines secured!

No, I don’t mean the fashion statement – I mean the company! (har har, I know, bad keif)

The thing is – they did a tour, “Plaid Nation 2008″ and trekked across state lines from Washington to Nevada,  and for little over a week, they twittered, they blogged, they filmed (they had a live van feed!). An ecstasy of social media and tech geek-ness. This is the first modern road trip I’ve heard of doing this approach, a kind of modern day Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters albeit perhaps minus the psychdelics. It just reeked of an awesome, modern day traveling social media party. Geeks on wheels. Nerds on boad. The kind of thing that makes me constantly ask “why haven’t I moved to the west coast yet?”

Ken Kesey and The Merry Prankster

In their venture, they managed to interview Robert Scoble (you know who he is, right?), Cathy Brooks from Seesmic and Biz Stone (of his many involvements -  Twitter, Xanga, Blogger, Odeo, and Obvious) – a little wet dream of the kind of people that brand makers and shakers would love to be involved with (or pick their brain for a moment – which Plaid did, and shared).

Is this the first event of its kind? Well, not exactly. We’ve had these kind of “live road shows” (*cough*merrypranksters*cough*) but also a lot of faux reality shows try to mimic this kind of unscripted approach to topics and interviews, but this is a pure, online approach that I really want to catch from the beginning next year (they have a countdown timer on the home page! Keep your eye on next year’s tour).

One thing I definitely dig – they have online freebies – wallpapers, buddy icons and even the 2008 theme song up for download! It’s this little cool features that most campaigns miss out on (I don’t know why, maybe because they’re simple, quick and easy?).

So do yourself a favor – grab a cup of coffee and scan through the video interviews for a slew of cool ideas and information – and keep your eye open for Plaid Nation ‘09 – maybe I’ll be lucky enough to head out to the coast and catch one of the tweetups!

Imagine this scenario – a client walks in, and they rave about something they talk an article on times online about the top ten viral ad campaigns – and they want to be on that list! They want to be a video passed from iphone to mobile to laptop – to have their campaign uploaded on youtube, vimeo and the like.

We want to be seen no matter what!

As Jennifer Laycock laid the smackdown on the Not In Columbus campaign she pointed out that when you make a campaign (and embrace social media) you still need to have a marketing strategy – they had a print campaign, a collection of youtube videos (in a self-depreciating manner), and cool shirts! (but a cool shirt concept does not make a campaign!) Advergirl also points out the obvious (well, I thought it was bleeping obvious) – we get the joke, but where’s the punch-line? Why do we have youtube videos about “not in columbus” but not following it up with “but we have Cosi, The Jazz and Ribs Festival, Sport Teams, etc. etc. etc.” Not all in one video mind you… It’s a  clever concept that just was poorly executed.

The one thing they did right – they have more than one video.

Viral means multiple outlets.

I can make a video viral – so can you. It’s a matter of creating something funny, humorous, and *most likely* racy and against the society’s norms. Just as you wouldn’t create a single ad for a campaign, you wouldn’t create one “viral” aspect for a campaign – if you notice, the political campaigns for Obama/McCain are constantly evolving and changing – like your campaign should.

Unfortunately – you need to make your viral media stick out. Poking fun helps, as does self-depreciation. But when you create your one youtube video or your one online application/widget and it fails, it merely reinforces that you can’t “will” something viral.

How does being racy help?

This video for the Volkswagon Polo featuring a sucide bomber got passed around in 2005 – causing a little stir because of its insensitivity towards Muslims – culturally, a no-no, but on the internet it created a lot of attention (on both sides of the fence – people screaming for heads, and people laughing at the “mock” campaign that wasn’t ever endorsed by VW).

The Rathergood Kittens

Rathergood is another example of something that got passed around because of its bizarreness – and it even lead to commercials – and we have simple flash videos like The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny that got passed around (and who can forget – or did you miss – All Your Base Are Belong to Us?).

The point is – these are all small “campaigns” – cheaply done, and simple in nature. They weren’t products of million-dollar campaigns – but just something quirky dreamed up.
Which leads me to another item that went viral – Cahan & Associates created corporate reports in new formats – doy scouts guides, children books – because they felt “Annual reports need to evolve: They need to become more interesting and more entertaining. Otherwise, they won’t be able to compete for people’s attention.” (This is another topic altogether)

Racy, Quirky, Entertaining… I can do that!

A scene from The Ultimate Showdown

Now that you are willing to throw your corporate dignity out the window (and hand the reigns to someone else) – you can have a viral campaign. When you start interjecting your own ideas (and shooting down things as being “too much”) you risk losing out the focus – lots of discussion of you, your brand, your message – like Starbucks saw (alas, the link evades me) when they started letting people put quotes on their cups (and Starbucks refused to censor them).

What this did was create a lot of discussion from both sides of religious groups – atheists upset over religious quotes, and followers of religion upset over atheistic-themed/interpreted quotes on their cups (just check out the google link!). Lots of discussion – and starbuck willing to step to the side and say “it’s not our place to tell you what to believe” – instead they let their customers say what they want.

I’m afraid of what they may say!

No doubt a business is hesitant to go viral. They could end up looking like the joker from Batman: The Dark Knight’s awesomely successful campaign – there worried they could be the butt of a joke and out of control. This is where you start thinking about why you’re wanting to go viral – for sales, for discussion, or for attention.

Where’s the beef?

Where’s that elusive dollar $$$ bling-bling for your campaign? How does this pay off? I’m still looking into this one, as we see the Writer’s Guild of America went on strike (with concern for future digital media like the internet/video streaming/etc.) and South Park responded in kind – viral videos can theoreticall make you rich – and you know who’s gained the most from those videos we pass around? Star Wars kid sued. Numa Numa has a fan club. A number of e-celebs have been in music videos for Barenaked Ladies and/or Weezer.

The point here – you’re wanting discussion. I don’t think you’ll get ROI in terms of dollars and cents – at least not immediately. If it’s truly successful, you could end up with a hit film (I’m willing to admit – the viral campaigns for Cloverfield and The Dark Knight were cool – but didn’t make or break the films. Blair Witch? The campaign MADE the movie – “Dude, is this real? It’s not real. It couldn’t be real.” Five minutes later “Dude, is this real?” True story.)

The Elf Yourself is another quirky fun one – it doesn’t really relate to the brand, it was just something fun to do around the holidays (which helps drive traffic).

Viral campaigns are fun for the users – but it’s important to recognize that they can drive traffic and discussion and not necessarilly make you rich – but they can get you talked about.

I’ve got to be honest – I’ve been really hard on anyone that introduces themselves as a “Social Media Expert.” I’m a little prejudiced, because I’m very familiar with Social Media and the social networking movement – I signed up for sixdegrees.com back in the day, I sought out the old school “party-lines” thanks to a phreak I knew.

That, to me, was the beginning of social networking. BBS were the original message boards. Hackers and computer nerds pioneered these ideas of getting people together across the country (and even the world) for the pursuit of knowledge.

Today we have Social Media Experts.

What are Social Media Experts?

Why, they’re experts in social media! To me, I always related Social Media as a skillset – they are part of a bigger role – much like how we don’t have HTML experts – they are part of a bigger role. They have the knowledge of the tool sets. They have a proven track record of showing how they apply their knowledge to various business functions, which creates value.

To be an expert – you must have experience, a track record! Now take a minute and visit that link. Read through The Personal Branding Blog – and if you have twitter I suggest you add @danschawbel as well (and add me too!). You can start to see his understanding the Social Media Experts of today will not exist in the short future.

What Social Media Is

Social Media is an extension of Public Relations, communications, customer service, business development… it’s a tool to be used, to be taught. You use your expertise to assist your clients – not to milk them for eyars, but to show them how to be capable themselves. You need to be an expert so you can teach them your skill set (and if you’re truly indispensable, they know you’ve got an eye for “the next big thing” so I’m sure you can inherit a new Web 3.0 title when those start coming around).

What Social Media Isn’t

Social Media isn’t all about networking – but it is one aspect. It’s about OPENness. It’s about communication. It’s not about hording information, or acting like you hold some secret. You don’t – and the more you horde your information, try and make yourself “indispensable” by creating vague propositions hiding behind a mask of “social media.” You’ll be out of a job if you don’t start expanding your knowledge and understanding, and become a teacher.

The secret is OUT!

Social Media Experts are all ready on their way out – we know it’s a matter of time as the “skill set” propagates out – but the true value you have to add right now – appying your knowledge and experience with social toolsets and networking – proving that you have more to add than just one area of “expertise” – that will show your true colors – your mixing of your expertise in multiple aspects will outshine this “web 2.0 title” and propogate to show that you’re on top of what’s buzzing in Web 2.0 and you’ll be buzzing when Web 3.0 rolls around.

So – all you Social Media Experts – shine on and show the world your not just a buzz word!