April 26th GRSM – Monitoring and Responding.

The third event in GRSM’s 4 part series on Social Media Content continues with Monitoring your brand and how to respond. Justin Godley will discuss how Meijer monitors the brand and how they respond. This next lunchtime meeting will be held at the Grand Rapids Community Foundation’s Building at 12pm on Thursday, April 26th. GRCF is located at 185 Oakes Street SW Grand Rapids, MI. (map). Come a little early to network or stay a while after.

Justin Godley (GodleyJu), He leads the Social Media Marketing and Community Management efforts at Meijer. He manages their presence, execution, and strategies for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and FourSquare. He also works with a network of over 50 shopping bloggers in the Midwest. Justin has worked in Marketing for over 8 years with experience in retail, pharmaceuticals, and non-profit organizations. In addition, he was a founding member of the Michigan Film Festival committee and has also assisted the AMA group here in West Michigan with Social Media.

This is a lunch event, but we are not providing lunch, so please visit local eateries and bring your food on in. Founders and Ritz Koney are both local places, but if these dont whet your appetite there are many restaurants nearby. Come on out and invite a friend or co-worker that may have some interest. Spread the word.

Again we will be live streaming the event for those that cannot attend, the stream can be found in the Tools tab up above. Also see the sidebar to follow us on Twitter.

In the coming months we’ll be discussing Network and Interactions. More info to come.

GRSM March 22nd – Content Curation (information that speaks to your audience)

The second event in GRSM’s 4 part series on Social Media Content covers Content Curation. Two speakers will discuss how they choose and use content to speak to their audience and target their goals. This next lunchtime meeting will be held at the Grand Rapids Community Foundation’s Building at 12pm on Thursday, March 22nd. GRCF is located at 185 Oakes Street SW Grand Rapids, MI. (map). Come a little early to network or stay a while after.

George Aquino (@myhotellife) and Ryan Slusarzyk (@SmileRy) will be speaking about their interests and strategies of social media in their personal lives and how we relate them to the hotels and city.  They both treat their social media “life” as an extension of their brands.  It’s every day, whether it’s food, drink, entertainment, they like to talk about it.  What essentially this does is make them “experts” in what interests them.  For George, he is obviously well traveled, a huge foodie and wants to shares those experiences.  Coupled with his enthusiasm of the city, it creates a perfect brand for someone in the hospitality industry, which can utilizes what he learns in other West Michigan locations or anywhere around the world to make his hotel or our city better.

With Ryan, he has a love for anything Grand Rapids.  He focuses on what he is passionate about; dining, Grand Rapids, unique events, fashion, LOCAL, non-profits, etc… Ultimately people seek him out as because he is a “brand ambassador” to the city and those things going on here.  His passion is to give others the insight, tools and opportunity to experience new and different things. If it attracts people downtown Grand Rapids, then he feels he is doing his job.

Working for the Amway Hotel Corporation, George and Ryan, are truly meant to be ambassadors of the city.  If they attract people downtown, it will inadvertently help their hotels in occupancy, food and beverage revenue and exposure.

This is a lunch event, but we are not providing lunch, so please visit local eateries and bring your food on in. Founders and Ritz Koney are both local places, but if these dont whet your appetite there are many restaurants nearby. Come on out and invite a friend or co-worker that may have some interest. Spread the word.

Again we will be live streaming the event for those that cannot attend, the stream can be found in the Tools tab up above. Also see the sidebar to follow us on Twitter.

In the coming months we’ll be discussing  Repurposing, Monitoring, as well as Network and Interactions. More info to come.

February’s GRSM Starts a New Series on Social Media Content

The first event in GRSM’s 4 part series on Social Media Content starts with Audience Demographics. Two speakers will discuss how companies mine and utilize that data as they generate content. This next lunchtime meeting will be held at the Grand Rapids Community Foundation’s Building at 12pm on Thursday, February 23rd. GRCF is located at 185 Oakes Street SW Grand Rapids, MI. (map). Come a little early to network or stay a while after.

Christopher Jasinski (analyticswonk), of Amway, Senior Digital Marketing Specialist at Amway, is the Senior Specialist leading Amway’s Social Media Platform Strategy. Christopher is responsible for coordinating Amway’s Social Media efforts and platform initiatives across the globe. Christopher has worn many hats during his tenure at Amway. Previously, he led the global Web Analytics initiative, and currently serves on the Amway Social Media Business Council. Christopher is a native of the Grand Rapids area and was educated at the University of Michigan. He resided in Chicago Illinois and the Bay Area of California prior to returning to Michigan.

Michael Yoder (mdyoder), owns and manages LinkedUp Grand Rapids, a business networking group of nearly 9,000 members based in the Greater Grand Rapids, West Michigan region. He also works with several business partners as a social media adviser and consultant. He has a broad background in many areas of Social Media specializing in Social Media Consulting, Social Media Strategy, Social Media Implementation, Social Media Monitoring, Communications Consulting, Business Development and HR. Michael’s experience includes nearly 4 years of Social Media Consulting and Social Media Strategy development for companies in West Michigan and the upper Midwest.

This is a lunch event, but we are not providing lunch, so please visit local eateries and bring your food on in. Founders and Ritz Koney are both local places, but if these dont whet your appetite there are many restaurants nearby. Come on out and invite a friend or co-worker that may have some interest. Spread the word.

Again we will be live streaming the event for those that cannot attend, the stream can be found in the Tools tab up above. Also see the sidebar to follow us on Twitter.

In the coming months we’ll be discussing Content Creation through Curation and Repurposing, Monitoring, as well as Network and Interactions. More info to come.

Oct/Nov GRSM, Nov 5th Panel at the GRCF

We’ve combined October and November’s meetings into one. We are doing a panel talk and Q&A about ArtPrize and how social media was used. Panelists will be showing the wide scope and where each element fits in, and how this can relate to any event.

Ian Maclurg = ArtPrize
GRAM = Venue
Beth Heinen Bell = Artist
Rachael Recker = Press
Casey Stratton = Fringe
Audience = Visitors

Hold 12:00pm, November 5th, in your calender to join us at the Grand Rapids Community Foundation (GRCF is located at 185 Oakes Street SW Grand Rapids, MI). As always, bring a lunch – and learn.

Update: Video of the event

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Nestlé: Hashed & Rehashed

Many of us working in the social media/community management industry saw the train wreck that was Nestle on Facebook unfold in realtime last month. The subject has been hashed out so much since then that many of us are wondering when the references to ’kick the horse orangoutang to death’ will stop. However, much of the online noise about Nestlé has been about their poor online community management, excerpt from that infamous day:

But a recent blog post by Cristina Aced, passed on to me by a friend, shed new light on the debacle that I hadn’t thought of previously. Given that the post is in Spanish let me summarize. Cristina’s post highlights three basic mistakes made by Nestlé:

And We’re Back

As you may have noticed our last “meeting” was back in Nov.  We have been watching at the growing social media community in Grand Rapids with enthusiasm as well as the multiple events that have popped up.  We have seen new users come in and create new events and other outlets for learning have helped create a community that is energized and continually trying new things.  GRSM is almost a year old and with that we are going to be trying a few new things.

GRSM will be focusing on smaller topics, more focused content and niche solutions.  We want to listen to the community and bring in people and minds that can answer the questions that will move individuals and companies further.  To do that we are going to be focusing our meetings toward a specific platform or strategy.  While most of these topics will be for a larger audience we understand that some will benefit more than others.  With that being said, we are announcing our next meeting.

The next GRSM lunchtime meeting will be held at the Grand Rapids Community Foundation’s Building at 12pm on Jan. 27th. GRCF is located at 185 Oakes Street SW Grand Rapids, MI. (map). The topic for this meeting is “Tracking: Monitor Engagement.”  We will have a few speakers going through what they do to help monitor the impact of their efforts.  We will show methods for tracking Twitter and Facebook.  We will be working through how to integrate this into your current tracking programs along with how to take this information and adapt it to be explained and referenced.

This is a lunch event, but we are not providing lunch, so please visit local eateries and bring your food on in. Founder’s and Ritz Koney are both local places, along with many others. Come on out and invite a friend or co-worker that may have some interest. Spread the word and lets make this our largest event so far.

Again we will be live streaming the event for those that cannot attend, the stream can be found in the Tools tab up above. Also see the sidebar to follow us on Twitter.

Establishing Brand Presence with Facebook [Jonathan Seely]

Establishing Brand Presence on Facebook

Facebook, initially created as a personal social network, has in recent incarnations become popular among marketing professionals for its potential for brand exposure.  With a growth rate of 600,000+ users per day the potential audience for brand exposure is staggering, to say the least.

Facebook has two primary outlets for creating a presence for your brand: “Groups” and “Public Profile” (formerly “Fan Pages”).

Facebook Groups

The first and oldest method, Groups, have almost existed from Facebook’s 2004 inception.  Groups work exactly as their name would imply.  They serve as a medium for a community of people to express a common interest.
Groups have received little change in functionality or appearance since their initial deployment.  Features are limited to a basic discussion thread for users, and a “wall” for users to write on.  While these features are important, they do not provide much value to users outside of the ability to communicate on a rudimentary, primitive level.

In addition to the limited (and limiting) features of Groups, the landing page a user is greeted with is relatively sparse and stagnant.  Activity within the group from administrators and other users is not accurately reflected, as discussion threads are somewhat hidden and users must scroll down to view wall postings.

What this amounts to is that users are not actively invited to engage with the group.  There is no call to action, and no invitation to share information—both of which are vital to the existence and growth of any online community.  Users must be invited to connect with your brand, and must be actively invited to participate.

Facebook Public Profiles (aka, Fan Pages)

The newest outlet for brand presence is Facebook’s Public Profiles.  Originally called Fan Pages, Public Profiles have evolved drastically and dramatically from their inception several years ago.  Originally, Fan Pages copied much of the functionality of Groups, with little differentiation or added value.  Since then, Public Profiles have undergone at least two major functionality changes,. The latest change giving Public Profiles most of the same features and appearance of a personal Facebook profile.

The key differentiation between Fan Pages and Groups can be summed up as dynamic vs. static content, which comes largely from the ease of information sharing.  Fan Pages immediately greet users with a call to action. Users land on the Fan Page wall, greeted with a text box, link-sharing features and a call to action that simply reads: “What’s on your mind?”  This actively encourages users to share links, thoughts and comments.

One of the other key features of Public Profiles is content and activity showing up in user news feeds.  This keeps the user actively engaged and encourages return visits to the Fan Page.  Groups do not have the ability to publish “status updates”, which limits communication from administrators to messaging, which is far less engaging.  Through status updates, administrators and fans can share links, videos, notes and just about any other online medium.

Public Profiles also allow for the integration of Facebook Applications, as with any other user profile.  This opens a realm of possibilities for user engagement, as there are applications for games, quizzes, photo sharing and tons of others.  At this time, there is still some kinks to be worked out as applications often do not fully work with Public Profiles, but given the potential I believe it will not be long before the issues are fixed and a whole host of applications become available for use with Public Profiles.

Administrators also have the ability to import RSS feeds from a blog, which is then published as a note, which in turn shows in user news feeds and once again engages users and actively reminds the user of both the brand and the blog.  Let’s face it: not everyone subscribes to blogs, so importing your blog through a Public Profile is a great way to notify users of new blog posts.  Users also then have the ability to copy and post the note to their profile through the “share” feature if they want to share it with their friends.

Profile administrators will also appreciate the “Insights” feature.  Insights works much like Google Analytics to track Public Profile traffic, but also provides valuable demographic information.  Administrators can view the male/female make up of their fans, as well as age ranges.  Administrators can also track video views, picture views and other media views.  This, in turn, provides excellent data on what most attracts and engages users thus allowing administrators to optimize content for maximum traction.

Public Profiles are Good, but not Great

As much potential as Public Profiles possess, they are not without their drawbacks.  Administrators and fans alike are still not notified of “comments” left on wall postings, requiring administrators to check pages frequently for new activity and comments.   The inclusion of Public Profiles in user news feeds is a major step in the right direction, and indication activity notifications may be forthcoming to user news feeds.

Groups are Dead

Given the direction Public Profiles have been heading through the past few updates, it is safe to say that Facebook Groups are dead.  The lack of updates in functionality leads me to believe that Groups will either no longer be supported or may be relegated to “maintenance mode”—a concept akin to life-support in the online world.

Brands looking to create a presence would be wise to create a Public Profile as it provides far more user engagement and more potential for viral growth with every upgrade to functionality and features.  With a potential audience of over 300,000,000 users, and growing exponentially daily, brands would be wise to establish a presence, given the low barrier of entry and high potential for return.

GRSML: Establishing a Brand Presence on Facebook

View more presentations from seelowitz.

March Wrap-Up

First off, we want to thank the GRAM for graciously allowing all of us social media types to meet in their conference room, to Paul Kortman (@namtrok) for presenting, and to all of you who made it out yesterday. Even though this was just our second meeting we are humbled and pleased with the reception that you all have shown; however, we are aware of some aspects that could use improvement. So if you have any suggestions please tell us! We will continue to work to make this time as relevant as possible and would appreciate your input on appropriate topics for discussion.  You can comment on this story, direct message us on Twitter @GRSM, leave a comment on the Facebook Fanpage (yes we have one!), or simply email us at grandsocial [at] gmail.com.

GRSM Event 3/26 12PM

Are you interested in Social Marketing? Trying to introduce your marketing department to Twitter and Facebook? Trying to find a way to get new eyes on your company’s website? The Grand Rapids Social Marketing Lunch is a good place to learn from those in the area who are answering these questions. Our next event will be held on Thursday, March 26th at 12pm in the “Garden Room” at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. It is open to all those who are interested in Social Marketing, so bring a friend.

At this month’s event we will be in the lower level of the Grand Rapids Art Museum. The room is easily accessible from the Louis St. Unfortunately the GRAM does not allow outside food in the museum, however they will be providing us with the ability to pre-order lunch from their cafe. If you chose to pre-order, your meal will be available for pickup when you arrive that’s also when you pay.  We encourage you to either pre-order from the cafe using the instructions below, order when you get there but expect a wait, or eat your lunch before you arrive.

Our topic for the event will be announced in the next few days. Thank you for attending and we hope to grow this group and make it better each month.

Lunch Instructions:
Please email/call with your order, please provide what time you would like to pick up the food and your name. Please email your selection to markw@tiggs.biz or call at 831-2922 prior to the event. The menu is below.

GRAM Lunch Menu (pdf)

Thank you & a call for suggestions…

First, on behalf of Ian, Joel (who was unable to be with us today) and myself, I want to thank all 45 of you who joined us at Founder’s!  Ian and I were completely blown away by the attendance, the conversation and enthusiasm that each of you brought.  This confirms what we’ve suspected all along:  Grand Rapids is a thriving, active community with a lot of forward-thinking bright individuals.

Second, as great as Founder’s is, we decided it is not ideal for conversation, especially with a group of our size.  We would love to hear suggestions for future meeting spaces.  The ideal location would be somewhere relatively quiet with at least a somewhat-private seating area, with the ability to hold 60+ comfortably.

And last, if you haven’t already, check out our spot on Google Moderator.  Be sure to submit or vote on a topic you’d like to hear addressed and discussed at the next meeting.

Great meeting you all, and can’t wait to see everyone on 3/26 (details to follow). Look for a summary and recap of this week’s discussion here soon!