K Street Cafe

How to Discuss Social Media With Peers Unfamiliar With the Topic (The Blog Council)
Many organizations face the problem of executives who don’t understand social media – here are a few tips for helping them understand its value.

Creating Online Community Guidelines (Word of Mouth Marketing)
Interaction is key in the online world, but every organization should still think carefully when creating their online community rules.

10 Things To Think About In Social Media (People Like to Share)
As marketing and advertising budgets begin to dry up amidst the struggling economy, organizations will turn to free social media tools as a way to continue to stay in the game

Why Big Companies Are So Scared of Social Media (Advertising Age)
B.L. Ochman offers her insight on how big organizations can get into social media and avoid the types of big blunders Motrin made recently.

Want to Figure Out Your Social Media ROI? Consider a Plan. (MarketingProfs Daily Fix)
Beth Harte suggests that marketing and PR professionals come up with a plan for measuring ROI in advance to show the value of social media tools and tactics.

President 2.0 (Newsweek)
Daniel Lyons and Daniel Stone weigh in on the future of President-Elect Obama’s grassroots network, predicting that any of the options will come with complicated legal difficulties and political ramifications.

Could a “Craigslist for Service” Actually Work? (Tech President)
Nancy Scola takes a look at one type of online forum that might be used to harvest volunteerism under the new Obama administration.

The Real Shaq Twitters With Friends (Word of Mouth Marketing)
NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal, better known as Shaq, is an excellent example of taking control of your name in the social media world.

Social Media Politics: How Fast Things Change (123 Social Media)
Barry Hurd takes the position that businesses and organizations will finally take a cue from the use of social media in the Presidential election as a reason to get involved in it.

Measuring ROI in the Blogosphere: Harnessing an Unregulated Space (PR News)
PR News offers some interesting statistics and tactics to help guide organizations in using the blogosphere productively.

10 of the Best Social Media Tools for PR Professionals and Journalists (Masable)
Sarah Evans examines ten new social media tools that are useful for creating collaboration and networking between PR professionals and journalists.

Twitter Voter Report
A volunteer group of Web developers and designers came together to create Voter Report as a way for voters to share their experiences on Election Day.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about the change in online communication habits from email to Social Media, suggesting that communicating via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter could some day replace more traditional email communication as the method of choice for activists.

Many of the follow up comments I received after the post went something along this line: Excellent – I agree, but how can I convince the ‘higher-ups’ in my organization that we need to use these new tools?

At the most recent Innovative Advocacy conference, two attendees asked one of the panelists similar questions:

How can I convince my Executive Director that we should include Facebook in our advocacy strategy when he or she thinks it’s simply a fad for their high school kids? And, how can I get approval for a policy blog when the general counsel’s office is nervous about not having control over what the public can write in the comments section? READ MORE »

Exploring Television as the Next Social Frontier (Word of Mouth Marketing)
Could TV become the next development in social media? This piece takes a look at the future of TV as a vehicle for two-way communication.

Twitter Goes Mainstream (Wall Street Journal)
Jessica E. Vascellaro takes a brief look at the rising popularity of Twitter, both in personal and professional uses.

Obama Dominates Content Sharing as Election Approaches (Mashable)
Mashable examines the top content sharing trends seen on social media and bookmarking Web sites associated with the Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates.

Dell Social Media (Facebook)
Dell has created a new Fan page on Facebook to launch its social media guides that will help small businesses get into the game.

Biggest Mistakes Made by Social Media Gurus (Mashable)
Davids Spark examines a few of the most common mistakes made by social media users.

Microsoft U Rank: Personalize Your Search Results (ReadWriteWeb)
Collaboration and sharing have spread to yet another part of the Internet, this time in the form of personalized search results. A beta version of Microsoft’s new search engine allows for users to rearrange content, add notes and share search findings.

Most CMOs Have Never Heard of Twitter (PR Newser)
Regardless of the fact that consumers have stated their preference for companies and organizations to be engaging with them via social media, a majority of Chief Managing Officers still don’t know the names of even the most popular social media sites like Facebook and YouTube.