Last week a Digital Trenches discussion noted the rising trend in interest surrounding daddy bloggers. But in face of this week’s eMarketer published report, mommies still have that edge with marketers.  And for good reason. According to the report, 68% of new mothers began using “mom-centric social media” after having children, and 33% increased their use of social media in general. Couple that with the current estimate that mothers control 80% of household spending, then it becomes clear why marketers prefer Moms. Senior eMarketer analyst Jeffrey Grau commented that moms come together to “share information about product deals” – a valuable bonus to marketers.

Is the value of mommy bloggers in their buying power? Or is it more about their networking power? The evidence is in what marketers approach mommy bloggers for: endorsements. If their value is really buying power, then simply advertising on a “mom-centric” social network like BabyCenter or Circle of Moms would likely get the job done. While that may be happening, the activity getting the most attention in 2009 by, not only the media, but the FTC, was product reviews.

One can easily conclude then that the value of mommy bloggers is their ability to influence other moms and to leverage their buying power. If that is true, then a mommy blogging is something akin to consumer journalism and marketers would be wise to take note.

Here are five ways marketers can earn a mommy journalist’s respect for a highly valued third party endorsement:

1. Construct meaningful, personalized and targeted pitches about products that clearly appeal to the blogger.
2. Don’t expect a positive review, but an honest one, and do not try to tell the mommy journalist what to write.
3. When following up, be respectful of time and do not spam with email or voicemail messages.
4. Read the blog before pitching so that there is a thorough understanding of what they do or do not write about.
5. Thanking a mommy blogger for writing about the product can build a long-term professional relationship down the road.

Mommy bloggers have an invested interest in their readers and approaching them with a journalistic respect will show that marketers truly understand the value of a mom.

We introduce our first video of our new monthly video series on the 25th of every month, in celebration of our 25th anniversary. This video addresses the role of social media in customer service.

We introduce our second guest blogger of our new monthly series on the 25th of every month, in celebration of our 25th anniversary, who encourages, in the below blog, those who are still hesitating to engage in social media to do so.

Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible and The Little Red Book of Selling and president of Charlotte-based BuyGitomer, gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings and conducts Internet training programs on selling and customer service at www.trainone.com. He can be reached at salesman@gitomer.com.

It started like a small bunch of burning leaves. A little MySpace, here and there  –  a blog or two. And then the wind picked up. Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Growing from a windstorm to a firestorm, social media is a tornado running wild over the Internet plains.

How social are you?

How serious are you about social media?

REALITY: You can’t ignore it. Hundreds of millions of people are involved so far, and it’s just a few years old.

I tried to ignore it for a while, but it soon became apparent that this was the new, new wave – about a year ago I became a player.

I admit I have an edge. I have a lot of readers and followers who are interested in what I have to say and want to know what my immediate thinking is. That’s two of the values in social media – it’s immediate and it’s informative. It’s also fun – that’s why Facebook and YouTube are worth BILLIONS

The major networks in social media are growing by the second…

• For photos, it’s Flickr – worth billions

• For videos, it’s YouTube – worth billions

• Social networking for the younger set starts with MySpace – an original

• Social networking for the growing and grown set, it’s Facebook – worth billions

• To get connected and network with the business set, it’s LinkedIn.

And for that private message, there’s texting – it’s easy for me – I have an iPhone.

And that is just a partial picture. There’s more…

• For individual expressions, there are weblogs, or blogs.

• If you want to say a few words, there’s micro-blogging and interconnecting – also known as Twitter – worth billions.

• For chronologging, it’s Wikipedia – worth billions.

• And, of course, there are your personal website and business website. Priceless.

All of these medias are, or try to be, socially engaging – sticky if you will. All of them are, or try to be, passed on – viral if you will. Or, better stated, if you tweet, are you good enough or bad enough to be re-tweeted?

I have made a serious commitment to “socialize,” in other words, to expose more of my personal self and my business self through social media. I will still maintain my value-based philosophy, but I will personalize it, and humanize it to a point that others are attracted to it, benefit from it, and want to pass it on to others.

I will be social and viral at the same time.

So, what does this mean to you?

What’s the opportunity to you and for you?

Why should you get involved?

Social media is an opportunity, a new frontier, a space in cyberspace that gives you an individual place to play, build awareness of you and for you, brand yourself, and potentially profit.

You have to ask yourself …

Where’s the beef?

Where’s the fun?

What’s the value, both to you and others?

And how – if desired – do you monetize it?

Well, unless you’re one of the few people in an ownership or founding position of these social medias, your monetizing opportunities are at the moment limited – in spite of various claims by “experts.”

Here’s what I recommend to get going and get positioned, so that your value – either in social, business, fun, or money — can be realized:

• Sign on.

• Establish an account on each of the major medias.

• Post something.

• Tweet something.

• Connect with someone.

• Do it yourself.

• Do it every day.

And learn by updating as much as you can on your own.

Social media is fluid – it moves and changes daily. It’s text, audio, photo, and video. It’s every media and it’s every second. It’s current and it’s constant. Ever see a section of a website labeled “latest news” and when you click it, the last update is from 2004? Not good.

The Internet is instant. Social media is instant. And you have to be ready to participate consistently, and in a meaningful way, if you want to win.

Please don’t wait.

© 2009 All Rights Reserved

You do not want to be Chase Bank these days.

It has just suffered a public humiliation by a single customer whose several requests for negotiating overdraft fees went unanswered by Chase and who, despairing at the lack of response, resorted to waging a YouTube war against Chase’s customer service — or better yet, lack thereof.  In a You Tube video (watch below) Chase was called – evil.

It’s the classic tale of David winning over Goliath, a real vindication for all of us who have, at some point, been rendered completely helpless in trying to solve a need or problem whether banking, retail, warranty or other, via an 800 number, that then asks us to punch in number after number only to get more and more recorded messages that finally leads us to a “thank you for calling, goodbye,” message, without ever solving the problem in the first place.  Or, if lucky, you can leave a message for a supervisor knowing full well that chances of a return call are about the same as becoming famous overnight.

Chase can take an example from companies on the edge of consumer trends that have begun to equate social media with customer service. Those companies ‘get’ that today’s customers view social media as a communication tool for dealing directly with a company’s customer service and have created a platform for dealing with each, in real time.

But it’s not only about Chase.  Southwest got hit recently when film director Kevin Smith tweeted that the airline kicked him off a plane because he was too fat, a photo of which subsequently landed in the mainstream print and broadcast media.  Happily for Southwest, its blog, Nuts for Southwest, addressed the news story giving it a social media bullhorn in which to respond.  But the company did have to publicly apologize.

Clearly, a well-oiled company’s social media effort like Ford’s, does not wait for ignored customers to vent, offering a platform for interaction where the customer can get heard.  In other words, they have “invested” in online conversations with their customers.  Ford also understands that social media is threading its way through not only marketing and sales, but also through research and development and, most importantly in this case, customer service departments.

And then there is Comcast that “invested” in online live chats with a Comcast service representative allowing for an open forum, as well as its online community forum, where customers can get answers from fellow Comcast customers and moderators.

Another company that understands this is Best Buy.  In my blog of July 8, 2009 titled, “Sales, Service And Twitter, An Ideal Threesome” I wrote about Best Buy’s Twelpforce, which was launched on July 19, 2009 with a 500 person sales team that was to engage with consumers by Twittering away, entering into 140-character conversations with those who are both consumed with consumer electronics as well as those who needed answers to product uses or other questions. Best Buy had basically made a “pay forward” move, which now, eight months later, has the service humming away with happy customers.

The Chase video is yet another example of how social media has put the power to undo companies’ reputations in the hands of customers. Not bothering about customer care today is akin to loosing loyal customers tomorrow.  It takes people to react to people…

Recorded messages and 800 numbers are so yesterday.

Mommy bloggers certainly captured a lot of attention in 2009. This often elusive, yet highly influential network of moms that took to social media with flagpoles, megaphones, and important insights on parenting, was all the rage in the media. Headline after headline we saw that these parental bloggers were so influential, they began accomplishing the “Holy Grail” of social media: churning a profit. If advertising was not enough, companies began buying reviews from mommy influencers to the point where the FTC had to step in and wag a finger, a story we weighed in on in our Strategy and Musings blog last June.

But if 2009 was the mommy blogger year, 2010 is already being penned as the “year of the daddy blogger” by an expert, a daddy blogger, a social media marketer, and a poll (currently resulting in 65% favorable to the idea). We even discussed the rising trend in Strategy and Musings last August in response to Sony’s DigiDad project.

Certainly daddy bloggers are on the rise and so are networks that are supporting them. They have taken to Twitter with their stories on parenthood and are already involving brands in their publications. Like the moms, each of them target a particular interest, but with a focus on parenthood, as a theme.

Here are a few:

The Dad List: http://www.thedadlist.com/

Natural Papa: http://naturalpapa.com/

Daddy Is Tired: http://www.daddyistired.com/

Mocha Dad: http://www.mochadad.com

DaddyGotCustody: http://daddygotcustody.com/

Playground Dad: http://playgrounddad.com/

LookyDaddy:  http://www.lookydaddy.com/

DadGoneMad: http://www.dadgonemad.com/

CynicalDad: http://www.cynicaldad.com/

LaidOffDad: http://laidoffdad.typepad.com/

DadCentric: http://www.dadcentric.com/

DadLogic:  http://dadlogic.net

This new trend of blogging begs the question, is this actually a new trend? And if so, is there a discernable difference between mommy and daddy bloggers apart from gender? Certainly topics will vary between the two types of blogs, but ultimately they are parenthood blogs and so, therefore, will appeal to the same demographics with the same marketing tactics. Parents read these blogs to participate in conversations about parenthood and to seek peer-oriented advice on products parents need. From a marketing perspective, the objectives and tactics will remain the same, whether or not the parent is a mommy or daddy.

The media is already making noises about  the next big trend and companies are not far behind in trying to tap this rising market. There is even talk of a daddy blogger convention. Regardless of whether that will happen, marketers will be trying to get a piece of the pie. Just follow any of the new daddy bloggers, and it will be obvious that an influencer can come out of anywhere — dads or moms, and that what matters most is the transparency in these types of consumer engagements.

Maybe 2011 will be the year of the Kiddy Blogger.

The story of why a now ex-New York Times business reporter succumbed to plagiarism goes beyond “accidental plagiarism,” as Zachery Kouwe, a 31-year-old business reporter that writes The Times’ Deal Book called it. The public counts on a professional journalist to know better than to lift somebody else’s words and use them as his/her own, more so when it comes from a reporter of the venerable and trusted New York Times.

Anyway, as we all know from the media’s outrage, Kouwe read the signs really well and “resigned” just before he got shown the “door.”

Kouwe’s quite public exit from the Times, certainly rang a warning bell, not only to journalists but to casual bloggers as well, to take note that the driving need to fill uncountable blogs with millions of words, has created a culture of acceptable re-purposing, re-hashing and re-telling of the news from every which angle, in other words, a culture where ‘accidental plagiarism’ can easily happen.

The incident has certainly caused a moment of reflection, forcing a re-evaluation of what is being said, and in whose words it is being said, and for what purpose. I bet every blogger will go back and do some checking…

But what is not acceptable is Kouwe’s comment in an interview with The Observer in reference to the accusation that he had plagiarized in which he said, “I was in complete shock,” and “I was as surprised as anyone that this was occurring.” His lame excuse — that he writes approximately 7,000 words every week for the blog and for the paper and that given the mounds of reporting he does, something is bound to fall through the cracks as he peruses press releases, earnings reports and court documents for his reporting. Which goes directly to my point of the desperate need to fill blogs with whatever…

Here is the funniest mea culpa I have ever heard. A professional journalist that can actually say, “I thought it was my own stuff,” and “it somehow slipped in there.”

Somehow? I think that most journalists know better than Mr. Kouwe that a cut and paste job is never acceptable. But I would advise bloggers who are not held to the same high standards of journalists, that they better slow down, think more as to what to write and maybe choose to write less — and stick to their own words.

Photo by Getty Images.

In light of Google’s decision to shut down six music blogs on Google’s properties Blogger and Blogspot for copyright infringement, there are perhaps many in the webiverse that are second guessing what they have on their sites. The fact is, it is extremely easy to violate copyright on the web and, increasingly, it is very difficult to know what the rules are.

To save brand managers and marketing and PR professionals the hassle of getting a law degree, following are three places where content can be found that is not bogged down with the threat of copyright litigation:

1. Flickr.

Flickr is arguably the leader of hosted web images on the web, although certainly sites like Picasa and SmugMug are certainly worth noting. Flickr’s unique feature of isolating “Creative Commons” licensed images, separates it from the pack. Creative Commons is a “copyleft” movement that attempts to put better controls on copyright law by allowing publishers to license their content however they choose. Some licenses are stricter than others, but each license makes very clear how the image, or work, can be used.

To use a photo or an image from Flickr on your blog or website, simply go to flickr.com and search for your picture. Click on “advanced search” and scroll down to the Creative Commons section. You can choose to look for pictures that you can use non-commercially, commercially, or with adaptation privileges. Then the resulting search will provide photos that you can, rest assured, use with the artist’s permission.

Note that even with Creative Commons there are limitations so be sure to read and understand the license. Most of the licenses under Creative Commons require that you attribute the source of the photo.  Often a link back to the Flickr photo with the Flickr user’s name is sufficient. When in doubt, Flickr makes it easy for you to contact the source and ask how he, or she, would like to be attributed.

2. Google

If you can’t find what you need on Flickr, Google has a photo search by Creative Commons as well. When you click on “advanced search” on the Google page you’ll see a selection about “usage rights” and you can easily choose your criteria from there before searching. This will pull up not only images, but also texts and blogs.

The search will return many Creative Commons licensed media, but also can include other more software-oriented licenses like the GFDL(GNU Free Document License) and things that are simply in the public domain. However, always check the source and make sure it explicitly releases those rights to you and, when in doubt, pass for something you are sure about.

3. Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is perhaps the largest online collection of public domain and freely licensed content on the web. One can read, download and email all the works of Shakespeare and Plato and listen to CD’s before downloading sheet music. There is so much content here, in fact, that it may difficult to sift through.

Gutenberg can be a resource for text, commentary, books and music, and each article explicitly details what is appropriate use of the content. Gutenberg boasts that its content can be used for “nearly all uses,” but there may be limitations that are detailed by entry.

The bottom line to copyright infringement is to use common sense.  Resting on with the idea that you are safe under “fair use” rules is not stable ground. Fair use is often ambiguous, vague, and easy to argue. Free licensing and public domain are safe avenues because the usage is clear. There are many tools in place to determine if what you are using is okay or not.

If you don’t know the source and can’t determine the copyright than don’t use it, because it isn’t yours.

The first time that Pepsi elects to forgo its past 26 years of advertising on the Super Bowl and selects to spend $20 million for a massive multi-channel interactive social media campaign, it collides with the Annual Trust Barometer from Edelman PR, which reports that peer to peer trust has surprisingly waned in favor of more credible sources.  Not that, at first glance, one has anything to do with the other, except that just when viral marketing seems like a smart strategy, smarter than even Super Bowl advertising, the Trust Barometer’s survey results show that trust in friends and peers as credible sources has dropped by almost half, from 45% to 25%, in the last two years.

And the parameters of the Pepsi Refresh campaign is all about the populous votes of “friends and peers” who will decide as to which ideas or projects Pepsi should fund in grant money in six categories: health, arts and culture, food and shelter, the planet, the neighborhoods and education. It will be the people’s choice as to which of the 1000 ideas submitted are to receive grants that range from $5,000 to $250,000, figures not to be taken lightly.  And the criteria for voting is exactly — what?

How does that work?  “Oh this is cool, I think I will vote for this.” Click. Or, “My boyfriend is really into bands, so I think I will vote for that.” Click.  How about, “I’ll feel good if I vote for the local health clinic.” Click.  Some ideas submitted are more political as in “Help free healthcare clinic expand services to uninsured in rural Tennessee (TN).”  Click.  (I live in rural TN.)  Or I live in Kansas so I vote for, “Build a fitness center for all students in Hays, Kansas community.”

Click. Click. Click.  “And the check goes to…” Every month, Pepsi will award up to 32 grants to projects voted on by the most clicks.

By all accounts the “ Pepsi Refresh” initiative is everything that an ideal interactive campaign can be – creative, innovative, highly engaging and very popular, while building on the brand in a fun and social way.  But I venture to say that the challenge that Pepsi faces, and that other companies are bound to also face, as they delve deeper into social media’s ever-expanding communication opportunities is that at some point, critical thinking will matter.

Look, the “Pepsi Refresh” program should be nothing like an American Idol segment where voters root for the next star just because they “like.”  Nor should it be like clicking on “like” on a photo or comment on Facebook.  In creating a program that allows a populous vote to decide on grants, votes that can make a difference as to whether a school’s music program gets funded or whether an elder care facility expands its programs, Pepsi’s challenge is to go against the very fiber of social media’s whims, set a criteria upon which they can deliberate, and turn the populous vote into a credible one.

Failing that, it is but a game — one that is being played out with a lot of money, with no sense of fairness and with little trust in the voters’ selection.

Any serious and worthy projects submitted should not mistake it for anything else.

As if Toyota does not have enough troubles, along comes Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood…

Apparently, during testimony before a Congressional panel Secretary LaHood was asked as to what guidance he would give to Toyota owners affected by a series of recalls.  Not one to ever mince words, reminiscent of President Harry Truman’s folksy style, LaHood said, “If anybody owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it. And take it to a Toyota dealer.”

Feels like sound advice to me.  You better believe it that if my car had the possibility of brake troubles the only driving I would do is to the dealer.  Toyota itself has urged drivers of recalled cars to do so.

But unfortunately the media heard only three words –“stop driving it” and a PR storm erupted as those words, now out of context, ricocheted over the airwaves, print publications, news wires and Internet, unfurling an all around  “hissy fit.” Toyota expressed “dismay,” and the Chief of Staff at the White House, Rahm Emanuel, felt obliged to come to Mr. LaHood’s defense, saying that “the President thinks Ray’s been a great secretary,” and adding that “when the Secretary misspoke, he immediately realized he’d said it.”

Misspoke.  LaHood did try to modify his words, saying “What I said in there was obviously a misstatement,” adding that he meant to say, “If you own one of these cars, or if you’re in doubt, take it to the dealer.”

Sounds like semantics to me.  Same message, softer edges…

In any case, this has once again made the case for being scripted in the first place – and sticking to it.

Look, as communication professionals, we agonize about the possibility of a client breaking with carefully crafted messaging that is painstakingly dissected for any potential risks. In the case of LaHood, being in the position of transportation authority, the risk of going “off message” is that his words can further damage the already tarnished Toyota image with consumers and be “officially” seen, per his position, as escalating fears of safety causing even the White House to issue a statement of confidence in the Secretary.  But, damage done.  Backtracking rarely works.

Here’s my advice: change the old adage of “Think before you speak” to “Read before you speak.” Helps to stay on message…

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Today, the agency introduces a new channel on the corporate blog called “Digital Trenches,” which will feature tactical suggestions and guidance on trending digital communications and marketing topics including search optimization, social media, mobile marketing, online media and the blogosphere.

Today, the agency introduces a new channel on the corporate blog called “Digital Trenches,” which will feature tactical suggestions and guidance on trending digital communications and marketing topics including search optimization, social media, mobile marketing, online media and the blogosphere.

Consumers are in the driver’s seat now. They expect companies to take care of their problems and to do so on their own terms. Consumers will not tolerate anything less than service in real time, without phones and web forms, and without hassle. Like the phones and websites of the days of yore, social media is currently the consumer-demanded touch point of today.

So why is ROI in the mix? Do you measure ROI on phones and websites? Sales firms will use phone call metrics to determine employee efficiency. Widget manufacturers will track traffic and determine the ratio of conversions. These metrics would be around things like productivity, efficiency, and sales. But are they measuring the ROI of these channels of communication?

The purpose of ROI is so that decision-makers can justify an investment because that investment is directly connected to a monetary return. So as companies brave the social media landscape they enter it with ROI glasses on and wonder how they can justify the time and cost to enter this channel in the first place.

I believe that this approach is way off. Time and resources put into social media is not an investment. It’s an expense. Like a website. Or a phone. Using social media is not a competitive option that will yield dollars to one’s bottom line, it is a cost of doing business.

Therefore, you should monitor and develop metrics that make the expense as inexpensive as possible: develop efficiencies, improve productivity, escalate reach, increase conversions, etc. None of these things have a direct monetary value and neither does your phone or website. They are business tools to fulfill a consumer demand of adequate channels of communication.

So a “return” on social media has more to do with operational considerations: website traffic, the size of one’s presence and influence, the number of impressions one creates to reach the largest number of eyes, changes in sentiment, and resolution of customer issues. Even taking on new prospects and converting them to customers or selling a widget is a function of operational costs, not investments.

The context around social media’s ROI needs to change. We can no longer afford to sit back and decide whether or not social media is “worth it” based upon the amount of time spent, but instead focus on how to make social media efficient, productive and essential for company’s operations given that it is now a necessary channel of communication.