twitter – don’t believe the hype but do secure your name

Should your business embrace Twitter and start tweeting? Not always!

Yes, it can have big upsides, but to be effective, you’ll need to set clear guidelines for how and why you’re using it. If you’re a small business and don’t have the time or resources for it, give it a miss, no big deal. Find out why here.

But having said that even if you do not intend to use Twitter, you should definitely register Twitter accounts for your brands to stop other people taking your names and using them for their own purposes. This is becoming a major problem on the Twitter service because anyone can register any name on Twitter.  Registering names on Twitter is free and easy to do — so get in quick and grab your important brand names before some one else does.

nz tourism social media campaign finds success

In December, we told you about a marketing drive from Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) to get personal video messages from visitors to New Zealand recorded for them and then posted to social media sites to be played by the tourists’ friends and family back home.

It’s been a successful campaign – the 100,000th viewing on YouTube of the videos was recorded recently. TNZ says more than 1300 videos have been made and uploaded by travellers since its travelling recording studio began touring the country in December.

The campaign, which ends this month, was also chosen by Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper as one of “10 most ingenious travel offers” that the travel industry has devised to get bookings.

Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton is happy. He says the initiative has proven its worth as a cost-effective way to capture the value of personal recommendations.

The videos can be seen here.

nz’s ‘first ever’ international social media conference

In April, Wellington hosts a training and education event on social media and online marketing. Leading international experts will take workshops on topics including social media, SEO, online communities and content marketing.

The two-day event is to be held at Te Papa on April 15 – 16. Attendees will leave with “actionable strategies” to implement to their businesses, says the blurb for the event. Find out more at Marketing Now.

Watch out for Chris Brogan and David Meerman-Scott in Wellington next month.

social media will be ‘hot during the recession’

Social media will be hot during the recession. Why? Because it’s all free, argues Canadian public sector social media evangelist Mike Kujawski in this post.

Free research, free advertising, free applications, free presentation ideas. And tons more free stuff.

And the good part about Mike’s post is that he shows you where to find all the free stuff. So, now you’ve got no excuse not to sit down and work out how to use social media tools!

how to – the social media guide

Here’s a great set of ‘how to’ guides for all things social media.

How to do almost anything Web 2.0; plus some useful but decidely non-social media others: including how to raise money in  a recession; and how to simplify your business.

A good information resource for businesses to browse through. Thanks Mashable!

video killed the radio star

The growth of online video is huge and New Zealand is starting to see its own online video stars appear. Their success gives good pointers to the way online video should work in a social media setting.

Find out more here about how people have made their mark on YouTube and see if there any tips you can use to boost your social media presence.

organic vs inorganic website growth – go green!

Organic website growth basically means your growth in visitor numbers has been achieved largely for free, and largely through word-of-mouth (one of the key aims of social media marketing). Inorganic growth refers mainly to advertising to pull customers to your website.

It’s not hard to see which one might be preferable.

Having people come to your site because they feel compelled to rather than because they have been persuaded to by (often expensive) advertising can only be a good thing.

Not knocking advertising, though, and it should be considered at least, especially when you are starting a business and looking to alert people to your presence. It’s just that if people tell other people who tell other people that your website is a goodie and worthwhile visiting, the brand value is immense.

Here’s a good real life comparison of two New Zealand online businesses – one of which (online bike store Torpedo7) has become hugely successful largely through organic means and one (Ferrit – owned by Telecom) which puts heavy resources into inorganic growth.

UPDATE: Telecom announced today (12/01/09) that the three-year-old Ferrit site is to close. I hope it was not this post that caused its demise!

it’s not about the products, it’s about the lifestyle

Some good blog thoughts here on building successful online communities (read the comments, too).  A focused community theme and a passion for it from community members  seem to be key take-outs of the discussions:

Would you join a toothpaste community?

How to “bring the unique”.

social media mistakes – a superlist

Yesterday,  we brought you a superlist of social media initiatives and ideas;  today we bring you a superlist of social media no-nos! (As with yesterday’s list, this list is from the knowledgeable folk at US social media consultancy Interactive Insights.)

social media case studies by the truckload!

Looking for social media ideas and inspiration — here’s a super-useful superlist  of 18 other lists containing  tons of examples of social media initiatives.