Here’s a quick look at what the team at 435 Digital is reading this morning:

Our Social Media department is always on top of things and wants to share this 7 Hot Trends in Social Media Marketing nicely presented by Mashable:

As marketers’ understanding of online social networking evolves, their use of various platforms has become more sophisticated. Many brands and public figures, after ascertaining that consumers respond well to images and humor, for instance, have begun to use both. Others have found that new channels, like Pinterest and Reddit’s “Ask Me Anything” section, are effective promotional tools. We’ve rounded up these and other emerging trends in the social media marketing space. . . .

Our favorite? Brands gain a sense of humor.

Here’s an infographic in case you have not enjoyed one yet today. From Ada Lovelace to Marissa Mayer: The Rise of Women in Tech

Did you know that Ada Lovelace, a computer scientist from England, is considered to be the first computer programmer? With her code-like language, she created a model for Charles Babbage’s analytical engine in the mid-1800s.

Nearly two centuries later, there are some very impressive women working in technology, such as Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. However, women still only make up just 25% of the workforce in STEM — that is, science, technology, engineering and mathematics — careers

This infographic takes a look at some of the brilliant ladies whose contributions to the STEM fields are an inspiration to all women — and men.

This inspiring infographic was created by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

And if you somehow missed the excitement that Felix Baumgartner provided the past couple of days, here’s some further analysis of what happened and what it means:

Here, in the midst of our safety-obsessed, earthbound, jaded culture, was a moment that took us out of ourselves, reminding at least eight million viewers who watched live (and millions more who caught it later) what it feels like to push the boundaries of the possible.

Go out there and push boundaries today!

Enjoy!

The post What We’re Reading: Social Media Marketing, Women in Tech, and Pushing Boundaries appeared first on 435 Digital.

Me? I love it. Why? It’s a great example of good advertising enabled by the interactivity of  social media — it engages. The Museum of Me brings you, Facebook and Intel together as co-creators of a multi-room archive of your friends, photos, words and movies. The effects are striking and the music is stirring.

In the Museum of Me, the whole is greater than the parts. Our viewing animates the rooms and embeds them with meaning. As we move through the galleries constructed from our “content,” the experience moves us.

Some find the Museum of Me creepy. I didn’t. I found it moving, much in the same way that Facebook can be moving when you connect with a photo of a friend’s new baby or see the anniversary pictures of dear friends living far away. Some find it narcissistic. Maybe a bit, but not in a pathological way. It’s about as self centered as any photo album, home movie, or article that we post on the semi-public places of the Internet.  Why do we do it? Because in many ways our life is our art, and the Museum of Me reflects back to each of us the self-curated collection that is our story line.

The Museum of Me showcases Intel’s Core processor, the flagship of the brand.  Core bundles computing capability and the graphics capability on one chip. It provides rich high definition visual effects that let you connect content from your laptop wirelessly with your TV through a technology dubbed WiDi.

I spoke with Jayant Murty, Director for Brand Strategy and Integrated Marketing, Intel Asia Pacific, who oversees marketing for a 2 billion person market that includes Australia, Korea and Japan.  He worked with Stephanie Gan, the Asia Pacific Regional Manager of Advertising and Digital Programs to create the Museum of Me, with support from a digital agency called Projector in Japan.

What kind of reach has the Museum of Me had?

We have had more then 3 million visits to the site so far. We are still scratching the surface.  I think many more people will experience it in the next few weeks. Through Twitter and other social media, it has a life of its own.

My experience of the Museum of Me was surprising and alarming and then ultimately satisfying. Are you still fine-tuning it?

The user experience is a lot richer for people who use Facebook frequently. This is a social archive. The friends wall has room for only 58 pictures. The initial gallery is the 7 people you interact with most.

There was a lot of risk-taking in this.  You can’t share your video. We thought about this aspect and discussed it a lot.

The Museum of Me has memories that are uniquely yours. These are very personal things. It means a lot you as an individual.

We decided, “Let’s make this the first really private experience in the a public environment.”  Almost 80% of the people come back and say, “We love the fact that it is private.” The other 20% say, “Come on! You should have made this shareable!”

We are listening all the time.

How do you listen to feedback from 2 billion people?

It is more gratifying when people have different levels of joy and satisfaction. Brands are conversations.  The more the conversation is two way, the richer the brand and also the stronger the brand becomes over time. We are constantly listening to people who comment and post stuff.  There is this constant dialogue.

Intel posted its social media guidelines publicly in 2008. You have been active in the social media space for years. You‘ve had your share of controversy and adjustment.  What lessons can you offer other corporate brand managers who are not as experienced?

All our best practices are public. It is a fairly transparent system.

The only learning we can offer is to be able to start off with the belief that no guideline is accurate from day one. As long as you have a guideline within your company that says you are always thinking in the best interests of our customers and you will be maintaining that as you go along, you’ll be OK. If you  understand that nothing is set in stone, then generally you are in good shape.

How does the Museum of  Me further your Visually Smart brand?

In the Museum of Me, the branding is very quiet. You see the Core branding at the very end.

What we are finding in these noisy environments is that if you keep the brand noise low and you keep the consumer engagement high, no matter how muted the brand, consumers catch it. They like the fact that we keep the brand low.  We’ve learned that understatement helps.

This is even more important in social networks, where consumers really reject brands when they are seen as being manipulative. The Museum of Me does not take you down the path of intrusion. It is a rich experience that they have not had before.

The social Web can be a powerful for changing the culture of businesses themselves. What has Intel learned?

First, fundamentally, product cycles and business cycles have changed in the tech industry. Now we are launching products every 6 months. Second, how do you get there? The answer is extraordinary listening. We have an extraordinary number of ethnographers who work with us.

Social media has added another layer to listening.

The important question is, “What do you do after you listen?” There is a cycle time involved in responding to listening.

Some companies are extraordinarily intuitive and gifted. They can  just guess where the planet is headed and that’s fine. But for most companies, listening makes a huge difference and will help a company come out with products that matter.

There is a cycle time involved in responding to your listening. As long as you can get some agility between the time you get feedback and revise and return to consumers then you have a virtuous circle.

How is marketing on the social Web evolving?

Things are getting more and more intuitive.

You assume when you see an arrow up or an arrow down, that sets the volume up and the other sets the volume down. You can look at the world and say it is hugely complicated or you can look at the universe and say that there is something that holds people together.

What you will see is that the more intuitive the social Web gets, the easier it is to deal with the complexities of language and culture.

We in the technology industry have a better chance for making things more universal.

Intel was early out of the gate using social media and is practiced at working with its community. The company currently has 75 Intel-related accounts with nearly 180,000 followers. The company has 19 different topical or regional blogs. The company has 11 communities in several different languages plus software community for developers. Intel’s Facebook presence comprises 50 Facebook Fan Pages in different countries, led by Facebook.com/Intel, which has 1.5 million fans, plus a YouTube Intel Channel. You can view some gorgeous promotional films on the Visibly Smart theme on the company’s website.

The post How Intel engages us, spreads brand through social media appeared first on 435 Digital.

“How do you define Social Media or the social web?” asked Steve Neil Kaplan, Neubauer Family Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance.

“We define it as the people’s network,” said Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer of Vivaki, which oversees such firms as Razorfish. “To a great extent, we define the Internet as a connection engine where people connect to transact, share, express and discover. We believe that people have always wanted to connect and create and now technology allows them to connect and create without the technology getting in the way.”

[Social media is] led from the slime and not from the heavens,” Tobaccowala said later in a statement that sounded slightly rude. In explanation, he said that means the trend has not been dictated or marketed by the likes of a Microsoft or IBM.

“The reality of it is people are analog. Organizations are analog. It takes time for organizations to change. If you don’t have a sense of urgency now, you won’t ever catch up — ever,” Tobaccowala said.  “It is consumer led and not business led. It is rapid iteration, amazing that it continuously improves. Business is almost forced to react. “

The interactive nature of social media is what sets it apart from any marketing that has come before, said Jean-Pierre Dubé, Sigmund E. Edelstone Professor of Marketing.

“From a marketing perspective, there’s two keys for [social media] marketing —  interactivity  —  the opportunity to interact with customers, to not simply deliver messages to them but to get something back.  And in some of the most successful applications  we’ve seen so far [there is also the ability] to co-create. You are jointly creating the media that’s going to be feeding back into your brand and what your brand will represent.”

Dubé also suggested that instead of looking at metrics, business should understand that social media is different, that it is a conversation. “It’s more than sending a message. It’s a dialogue,” Dubé said. ”We should ask instead, ‘What are we trying to do with this dialogue?’ Sometimes a dialogue is about avoiding a cost.”

It’s the power of the platform that fuels social media, said Eric Lefkofsky, co-founder and chairman of Groupon, currently president of Blue Media LLC, a Chicago-based private equity and consulting firm, and founder of several successful digital companies..

“An easy way to think about this is to understand that there are these tremendous platforms that were built:  Facebook being one; Twitter being another… Business today can monetize those platforms in a highly connected social context. Those companies that take advantage of that are monetizing the social web and that comes together as social media. “

“Everybody wants to be playing in that space,” Lefkofsky said, “Facebook’s Zuckerberg would say everything’s social. … It has no beginning and no end.”

Perhaps because of the 140 character nature of his business, Brent Hill, director for the central region of Twitter, broke social media down into two parts.

“I like to separate the two words —  the social side and the media side,” he said. “Not everything designed to be social — social being easy to share, easy to connect, easy to follow — has a media component to it.  Not everything has a media side — meaning videos, photos.”

To be in social media is to be coveted, said Matthew Gentzkow, Professor of Economics with a specific focus on media.

“The definition has been expanding over time [to include] sites where people build explicit social networks and interact. Other than that it has become something that everyone wants to be. It moved quickly to be a term that gets applied very widely.”

Closing up a great conversation about return on investment, which I will be fleshing out in a later post, Kaplan said social media ROI is just like regular ROI: “We know half of what works. We just don’t know which half.”

Obviously I can’t  do justice to the discussion here. Tune in to view the full panel,  The Economics of Social Media, at the website for the Booth School at the University of Chicago.

The post Chicago Booth panel talks social media appeared first on 435 Digital.

Izard stays connected with her fans locally and nationally through her personal blog, Twitter handle, @StephandtheGoat and  Facebook page. We spoke with her recently about why she hopped online and what she’s learned so far.

After Top Chef, you started your own blog. Why?

To try to improve my vocabulary; since I don’t read much, I thought it was my best option.

Cynics will say bloggers are people who write what they ate for breakfast. Have you ever blogged about what you ate for breakfast?

No, I don’t think so. Did I? I don’t actually read my blogs – I just write them (see above).

Before Girl and the Goat opened, you created a series of documentary-style short videos in 2009 called The Tasty Life. What were those about?

We were out checking out farms for the restaurant and enjoying life, so I thought other people might find our adventures humorous.

You also joined Twitter. What was that learning curve like?

I am still trying to figure it out. It seems like a good mix of humor and reality.

Interestingly, you ended up using Twitter to promote The Wandering Goat. Tell us about that experience.

We finally understood the true power of tweeting when we sold out one of the dinners in under a minute. The response was incredible.

Flash forward to today. Is anything off limits on Twitter? In the last day, for example, you’ve tweeted about bison balls and being single on Valentine’s Day.

Not really, once in a while I edit myself, but mainly I tweet without thinking about it. Life has gone from drunk dialing to drunk tweeting.

Do you read your guests’ tweets? What’s the funniest tweet you’ve read? The most touching?

Yes, I read them. There have been a lot of funny ones, but the one that stands out to me right now is “Whoa, @stephandthegoat is standing right behind me.”  Funny, touching & kinda strange.

We get a lot of compliments about dinner on twitter, which is always nice.

How do you respond to a negative tweet? What about a negative review on a site like Yelp?

To be honest, I do not really read the Yelp reviews. My managers do and bring them to me, and then we all address them together. I think a negative review is like a stranger walking up to you on the street, punching you in the face and walking away.

What do you say to chefs who are skeptical of using social media?

It definitely takes time. If you are not going to do it full force, it is not worth it. If done right, it can be a very useful tool for connecting with guests.

Who on Twitter—a chef or otherwise—inspires you the most and why?

Umm, never really thought about it. maybe @shitmydadsays? He got a tv show out of his funny tweets.

Liked this interview? Let us know who we should interview next via Twitter at @435Digital or in the comments below.

The post Social Media Icon: @StephAndTheGoat, aka Stephanie Izard appeared first on 435 Digital.

Our current offerings are:

The Very Basics of Social Media: You are finally ready to jump in and see what everyone is talking about. In this introductory class, we’ll walk you through the three leading social networks—Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Social Media for Business: You understand how social networks work. Now make social networks work for your business. In this advanced seminar, we will show you how to drive results through the three leading social networks: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

SEO for Small Business: Designed for both beginners and those with some SEO experience, this seminar is divided into two parts. First, we will teach you the basic principles of SEO. Then, we will go step-by-step through the key factors that search engines look at.

To learn more about our seminars and to register, please visit www.435digital.com/go/seminars.

Also, 435 Digital now offers private seminars for companies or organizations that want to hold trainings on a variety of topics, including social media, SEO and web development. To learn more, please email us directly at seminars@435digital.com.

The post Sign up for 435′s SEO & social media training seminars appeared first on 435 Digital.

Showing up on in the news feed on Facebook is not just random luck. It is a well-planned and often tweaked algorithm housed within the corporate walls of Facebook. Similar to how Google first used PageRank to determine the relevancy, authority and popularity of web pages on the Internet, Facebook uses what it calls EdgeRank to determine which content should appear at the top of a particular user’s news feed when  he or she logins to Facebook.

The EdgeRank algorithm was discussed at length during the f8 developer conference last year. More or less, Facebook’s engineers told us that every piece of content put on Facebook is an Object and every interaction with that Object is an Edge.

There are three main parts to EdgeRank.

Relevancy is one component. For example, users will turns up on each other’s news feeds more often if users interact more frequently (by posting on walls or commenting on photos) or more intimately (perhaps through private Facebook messages or Facebook chat).  Unfortunately, this is also why you have to see the Facebook updates of your ex EVERYWHERE for a few weeks after the breakup.

The next is how many EdgeRank points did the object get? While we don’t know the fine details here, we can assume that the more “likes,” comments or posts  an Object gets the better.

We were also told that different interactions are weighted differently. No further details were given, but we can reasonably assume that a ‘comment’ is worth more than a ‘like’ and a wall ‘post’ is worth more than either. It’d probably be safe to say that a wall post by a user that has lots of fans versus a user with little fans would also be more powerful.

The next factor is timeliness. Facebook is aware that people care more about what someone recently said than something mentioned a week ago. Thus, it’s important to weight more heavily anything that is more recent.

Now, what can you do to make sure that you are properly Facebook News Feed Optimizing?

First, setup a content strategy for Facebook. Plan what updates you definitely want to have posted to Facebook over the next two to three days. Make sure to leave room for other interesting things as well. In essence, you are planning for only two-thirds of what you plan to eventually post to Facebook. Leave another one-third open for spontaneity. After all it is the spice of life. J

Second, encourage others to interact with your updates. Post questions. Ask them to do something interactive. There is a huge difference in the level of interaction from stating a fact versus asking an opinion (even if it is an opinion about a fact).

Third, promote it. That doesn’t mean sending an email blast with every Facebook update. It means putting social media tools on your website. Linking to your Facebook wall from Twitter to ‘have a discussion’ may also drive more interactions. Get the word out.

Fourth, keep the conversation going on Facebook. Comment back. Like comments on the Object from your friends. It’s tempting to answer all the comments at one time or in one big comment. Don’t do that. Try to answer them as they come in. It will increase the number of Edges on the Object and will actually be more engaging to your audience as well.

Fifth, keep the content fresh. You need to keep people engaged in your content. If you can’t do that, then you’ll need to post new content. Really, you want to have interactions happening every 30 minutes to an hour (at the least) if you plan to stay ‘fresh’.

The post Facebook EdgeRank: How Facebook Ranks Updates appeared first on 435 Digital.

Yet the storm also created a new kind of opportunity. Thanks to the rising popularity of social media, local hotels were able to identify, reach out to and ultimately help stranded travelers.  By Tuesday’s evening rush hour, several Chicago hotels announced special blizzard rates targeted at commuters. A handful of hotels stayed online with travelers throughout the storm, alerting them of special rates and pointing them to other resources.

With the storm now behind them, we checked in with social media strategists at three Chicago hotels.  Here’s their advice for hotels that need to plan for major storms, be them blizzards or hurricanes.

Create a plan in advance.

“It could be compared to a crisis PR plan,” says Molly Lynch of the Lynch Communications Group. “Crisis happens right in that second and it’s the same way with storms. You cannot predict a snowstorm and have to act very quickly.”

Lynch and her team manage social media for Hotel Felix, a boutique hotel located in downtown Chicago.  By Monday afternoon—a full 24 hours before the storm hit—Hotel Felix decided to create a special blizzard rate of $79.

“We realized early on there was going to be a lot of canceled flights and a lot of people who at the last minute decided they would rather stay at a nice hotel if the rate was right rather than venture the treacherous route home,” Lynch said.

By Tuesday afternoon, Lynch’s team was promoting the blizzard rate in full force across Twitter, Facebook and Hotel Felix’s blog, HappyNaturally.com. One tweet read, “Snowy, Special Rate! We’re here to help during this blizzard! Just $79 per night! Go to www.hotelfelixchicago.com,… http://fb.me/PW7bijFm”

George Jordan, area general manager of Hotel Felix, was pleased with the results. “The special rate got picked up by a number of other agencies and then spread out; it had a ripple effect through the community,” he says.

Set up a social media monitoring system.

To get the word out and see what people are saying about the storm, social media monitoring software is essential. Lynch personally swears by Hootsuite, a browser-based software that lets her monitor several Twitter streams.

Revinate is a new software specifically designed for hotels. Launched last March, Revinate lets hotels manage multiple social media streams, as well as read all reviews and online mentions of the hotel.

“There’s a great opportunity for hotels to start to form relationships with customers that are stranded,” says Michelle Wohl, Revinate’s vice-president of marketing. “Hotels can be a source of information about what’s going on in the storm.”

Jump into conversations where they’re happening.

“We knew that conversations about the storm were going on and we wanted to get into this conversation,” Lynch says. “The whole point of social media is to be in the discussion. It’s not a one-way street, it’s a two-way street.”

So by Tuesday evening, Lynch’s team jumped into conversations happening on local sites like Chicagoist, Yelp and CBS-Chicago. They left comments like, “Hope you’re staying warm during the snowstorm. If you’re stranded or not wanting to commute home, Hotel Felix has a great rate of $79.”

Lynch says such comments weren’t spam. “They were related to topics people were already talking about,” she says. “And people had fun with our comments. One person said, ‘I’m allowed to work from home and don’t think I can justify that expense.’”

Be available around the clock.

Jennifer Kedinger is the social media manager for Hyatt Regency Chicago, which is also located in downtown Chicago. She stresses the importance of having somebody support a hotel’s social media 24/7—especially during a storm. “By supporting our guests through social media, it also helps us keep a good pulse on the guests’ experience,” Kedinger says.”They’re actually ecstatic to see that we have this level of social support.”

During the blizzard, she saw that a guest checked into the Hyatt Regency Chicago on FourSquare. She tweeted back, “@djphiction noticed ur check in on #4sq – welcome to your safe haven from #snowmageddon. Tweet us if we can assist you w/ anything.”

For Kedinger, social media is also a great way for hotels to stay aware of what’s happening across their facilities and to fix any problems that may occur.

“One time a meeting planner contacted me via Twitter for a screwdriver they needed in one of the meeting rooms,” Kedinger said. “Now instead of picking up the phone, our guests can pick up a cell and send us a tweet.”

Extend your customer service online.

The Peninsula Chicago, a five-star hotel on Michigan Avenue, also used social media during the storm. Like Hotel Felix and Hyatt Regency Chicago, the Peninsula promoted its own special rate of $275. When Chicagoans tweeted that they were looking for open restaurants, the Peninsula at-replied that its restaurants remained open Tuesday and Wednesday.

Interestingly, booking more rooms and filling more seats was not the Peninsula’s overall goal.

“People don’t want to be sold on social media—they are already inundated with ads throughout the day,” says Marc Anderson, director of marketing for the Peninsula Chicago. “Our tactic is to provide another customer service tool for our guests. We want to customize and personalize every one of our guest’s stay. Social media helps us to do that.”

That’s not to say social media can’t drive revenue. Both Lynch and Kedinger’s efforts during the storm paid off. Their online promotion of the special blizzard rates brought in $3,600 and $13,350 for Hotel Felix and Hyatt Regency Chicago, respectively. Of course, that doesn’t include room service.

The post How hotels can use social media to help stranded travelers appeared first on 435 Digital.

We recently spoke with Scott about how he’s created a community around @RedEyeChicago and how businesses can use Twitter effectively.

Tell us how you originally started the RedEye twitter account. It’s a great story.

It is a great story, isn’t it? It makes me happy. I noticed Twitter really starting to take off in 2008 and I knew RedEye had to be a part of that conversation. I wasn’t officially doing social media then – no one really knew what social media was – but I knew RedEye needed a voice. RedEye has always done such an amazing job talking to readers and this just seemed like a natural extension.

When I pitched the idea of creating a RedEye Twitter account, one of my bosses responded “no, thanks. I don’t think we’re interested in that.” As someone who always respects authority but has a tough time taking no for an answer, I went home and created @redeyechicago – and I made a deal with myself. Self, I said, we’re not going to tell anyone about this until we reach 1,000 followers. That happened two weeks later. The rest as they say is history.

This whole thing reinforced a very valuable lesson: There is no such thing as a terrible idea, so don’t be afraid to try. Certain things in social media will be a slam dunk and others will flop, but you can’t succeed without the occasional mistake.

Today @RedEyeChicago has more than 28,000 followers. How did you grow its following?

29,000! Remember those mistakes I just mentioned? It was a lot of trial and error. It certainly helps that so many people in Chicago know what RedEye is, but one of the things I did early on was buck the trend. Many media outlets choose not to identify the person behind the tweets. I started along that route thanks to advice I got from friends and colleagues – including a certain gentleman in this building that I’d never name (he wears a paper hat).

But it was a @redeyechicago Twitter follower that changed my entire philosophy. I’ll never forget the exchange. He tweeted me and then direct messaged me to thank me for the great content. And then he asked my name. Following what I had learned about Twitter and social media and brands to date, I told him he could call me Red because I was RedEye. He said it wasn’t good enough and I replied that I had to follow “the rules.”

But I didn’t know what the rules were, and, as you saw earlier, I’m not afraid of breaking them. He thanked me again but said he could no longer follow me because it’s like talking to someone without a face. He then went on to say that he thought RedEye was so personal and what I was doing didn’t feel personal. It took me 10 seconds to send my next DM, which started with my name. I think I even told him my favorite cereal – it felt so good to be me. He was so right, and I’ve never forgotten the exchange.

To this day, people say they can’t believe I “outted myself.” I didn’t out myself – I made what we’re doing a personal experience. It is social media, right? Piece of advice? If you use social media or plan to use it, you have to be social. It sounds like a no-brainer, but so many people approach it the wrong way.

How do you decide what to tweet about? You are representing an entire newspaper after all.

I’m like a chef creating something without a cookbook. First and foremost, I think about the ingredients and how to mix them. What I never want to be is a link machine that only talks about what’s in RedEye. That makes me feel like a used car salesman (and I apologize to every used car salesman that I just offended).

So normally, I tweet once every 30 minutes. I tweet a RedEye link no more than once an hour. On the half hours, I tweet the things happening in the world that I think will interest our readers based on what we know about our print readership and online readership. In many cases I’m guessing, but the amount of retweets I get tells me when I’m doing something right.

Oh, and at 8:30 every weekday morning, I do the Tweather – which is pretty well known in Chicago. It always starts off “Good morning, Chicago … Tweather in a word is XXXXX.” Sometimes, I include little weather icons – my favorite is the little snowman. The rules are simple: The tweather in a word always has to be one word and it has to be something fun. So when it snows, you might see “snowballs.” And when it’s 100 degrees you might see “crispy.”

And here’s something you might not realize even if you follow @redeyechicago – the 10 am spot is always reserved for a video. I think a viral or fun video is needed every morning to put a smile on people’s faces. You might have to convince your bosses that it’s beneficial to talk about things other than what’s in your paper or on your site, but trust me when I say it’s worth it. I think of @redeyechicago as a destination. You read RedEye on the bus or train in the morning, but what happens when you’re done with what’s in the paper?

And then there are tweets, like this one from @amazemeack, that make it all worth while: “@redeyechicago You are the reason I come on to Twitter. Thanks for being my favorite thing I follow.” I felt my eyes getting a little moist after reading that

At the same time, you’re also @ScottKleinberg and many people know you’re tweeting for RedEye. How do you separate @ScottKleinberg from @RedEyeChicago?

First off, I make sure I’m transparent in both profiles. People who follow @redeyechicago know I’m @scottkleinberg and people who follow @scottkleinberg know I’m “the voice of @redeyechicago.” My personal account also includes links that I think are interesting, but maybe not the same kind that would be interesting to RedEye readers. So there’s more of a social media/80s music/Chick-fil-A/iPhone vibe. Plus, @scottkleinberg holds more conversations with other Twitter users – more so than on @redeyechicago.

You’ll see some @ replies on @redeyechicago, but I subscribe to the philosophy that if it requires 2 or more tweets to talk to a follower, the conversation should be moved to a direct message. Holding a private conversation in public with 29,000 followers is like screaming from the upper deck to the club boxes at Wrigley. You might see more than two tweets on @scottkleinberg, but I try my best to ensure you won’t be bored.

You manage several Twitter accounts. Have you ever tweeted with the wrong account? Or worse, sent a public DM?

I’m afraid to answer this question because I know it will happen. Yes and no. I’ve never personally done it by hitting the wrong button. But once, while testing out SCVNGR, I guess I logged in as @redeyechicago instead of @scottkleinberg. And when I checked into an Italian restaurant in Evanston, it tweeted on @redeyechicago that I was “having a great anniversary dinner with Kelly.” A few people tweeted “who’s Kelly?” (my wife) and “don’t forget the garlic bread” (oh, I didn’t!) but nothing horrible. And no, all of my deep dark secrets are still deep and dark – I’ve never sent a public DM. Honestly, my DMs aren’t all that exciting anyway.

What’s the funniest tweet you’ve ever seen? The saddest? The strangest?

Funniest? There are lots, but this is one I love: “This is the way Facebook ends. Not with a bang, but with a friend request from your own mother.” Thinking about that, my mom isn’t on Facebook and I’m still undecided as to whether or not I’d follow her. Have you given that some thought?

I remember the saddest one to this day. It was last year and it was from someone who just got back from his father’s funeral. He said something to the effect of being more alone than usual now that his dad was gone and all he could think of doing was mourning via Twitter. It brought a tear to my eye, but sometimes your followers can actually be a great support system so maybe he was onto something.

As for strangest, for me that’s still the day the plane crash-landed in the Hudson River. Like such offline gems as “I cannot tell a lie” and “that’s one small step, …” I think the tweet from @jkrums “There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.” is going to go down in history as incredibly awesome yet strange.

What’s your typical day like? Are you always tweeting? How do you disconnect?

I tweet a lot, but I wouldn’t say I’m always tweeting. Sometimes, I actually am mad that I don’t tweet enough on @scottkleinberg and on my iPhone blog account at @iptib. Luckily, my wife is the official tweeter for our Puggle. Seriously. @MacThePuggle is on Twitter. You should follow her – she’s the cutest dog in the world (talk about your shameless plugs, right?)

As far as disconnecting? I have a few ways. First off, when the weather isn’t brutal, I really like walking home from work. It takes me about 25 minutes. Then, I enjoy having dinner with my wife and dog and watching all the shows I missed on the DVR. Oh, and then there’s Angry Birds – I think I get a lot of frustration out through those birds.

Where do you see the revenue in Twitter? Can businesses expect to make money from Twitter?

Even after all this time, Twitter is still an experiment when it comes to making money. To me, the best part of Twitter is being able to know who is following you and why. And while there isn’t much in the way of analytics from Twitter, you can usually tell who your “regulars” are. Knowing your community is really important.

I think businesses need to resist the urge to think that paid or sponsored tweets are going to go over well with audiences. My takeaway is you use Twitter and other social media tools to figure out who the audience is and then you go after the audience to make money. It would be nice, though, if you could push a magic button and make Twitter translate into profit.

Speaking of businesses, what advice do you have for businesses that want to start tweeting?

I’m so glad you asked me that question. First things first: Engage. I can’t stress how important engagement is. It drives me crazy when I see people “interact” by posing questions but never getting back in the conversation. I see businesses on Twitter that have so much potential just because of who/what they are, but they don’t take the time to talk to their followers.You might think you don’t have time, but you do. You’ll get out of Twitter what you put into it.

Besides engagement, know your audience. If you see one or ten people that are constantly retweeting your message, follow back and reach out and thank them. You’d be amazed at how a quick thank you – either as an @reply or as a direct message – resonates with your audience.

And, on that note, NEVER set up automated direct messages. They make me mad. Automated direct messages like “we’re like two peas in a pod – let’s talk soon!” is a slap in the face and goes against everything social media is supposed to be – and that’s social. My last piece of advice? If you aren’t sure, ask. Ask me, even. I’m happy to help.

As we speak, Chicago is hunkering down for a blizzard. How are you using social media to gather news and reaction about the storm?

Where to start? Our social media fans and followers are amazing. First, we launched a callout to give the blizzard an official name – you know, like President Obama called the December storm that hit the East Coast “Snowpocalypse.” We got 116 entries – everything from #Snowprah to #Blizznasty. The idea was to create a name we could append as a hashtag to all storm-related tweets.

The winning hashtag boosted us to the top of the Twitter trending topics for Chicago for an entire day! After 1,188 votes, #SNOMG! won by 2 votes over #SnowtoriousBIG. Today, everyone is using it – in Chicago and beyond. FEMA even picked up on it. We also put out a call asking people to guess how much snow will fall in 3 key Chicago spots: O’Hare, Midway and the lakefront at North Avenue Beach. That and we’re putting out the call for the mother of all photo galleries – everything from features to traffic to dibs.

All told, in 24 hours leading up to the storm (the snow is just starting), we’ve received more than 150 comments on Facebook, almost 100 likes, more RTs than I can count, more than 7,000 page views, a piece on WGN-TV evening news, countless mentions on tumblr and hundreds of new Twitter followers. I can’t wait to see what happens during the rest of the storm!

If you could have one person follow you personally on Twitter, who would it be?

Great question! Well, let’s see … I already have my wife, my dog and Rick Bayless following. So I’m happy in general. But my ultimate Twitter follower – on @redeyechicago, @scottkleinberg or both – is Conan O’Brien. I’ve tweeted him with ideas but he never responds. I know, I know … He’s busy doing that show and stuff. But I’ve had my share of celebrity love.

Alyssa Milano tweeted me about my baseball wedding, Greg Grunberg has tweeted and retweeted me on several of my accounts and Mc Hammer tweeted me a Twitter movie review that we actually printed in RedEye. But I’m still holding out for Coco. Or Steve Jobs.

Every Wednesday, we’ll post an interview with a leading social media icon. Recent interviews include @JayRosen_NYU and the Huffington Post’s @Ckanal. Have someone to suggest? Let us know via twitter @435digital.

The post Social Media Icon: @ScottKleinberg on @RedEyeChicago appeared first on 435 Digital.

That’s why family-owned businesses are poised for success when they join social networks. They don’t need crash courses in customer service and brand management. They’ve been doing that for decades.

Of course, it’s necessary to first understand the technical logistics and unwritten rules of social media. For a few pointers, we talked with two family-owned businesses that have been particularly successful: Garrett Popcorn and Abt Electronics. Here’s what their social media strategists had to say.

Customers love sharing their memories

Garrett Popcorn opened for business in downtown Chicago in 1949. Its caramel corn quickly became the stuff of legend and a Chicago tradition. Today, Garrett Popcorn ships its tins nationwide and celebrities openly gush about it. In December, Halle Berry went as far as to fake an orgasm over Garrett Popcorn on The Tonight Show.

“So many people have a history, a story with Garrett,” says Michelle Molise, who manages Garrett’s social media strategy. “They might remember how their parents made them stand in line for Garrett popcorn when they came downtown for holiday shopping in the 1950s. Everyone asks what our secret is after all these years. The secret is that we still create it the same way we did decades ago. It’s all still made in hand batches so it’s always as fresh as possible. People have come to find comfort knowing that the consistence is there for 60-plus years.”

Molise uses that multi-generational love of Garrett to extend its  brand online.  Social media strategist Alecia Dantico launched both Garrett’s Twitter and Facebook profiles in 2009. Today, Molise and her colleague, Elizabeth Hammel, manage Garrett’s profiles. Luckily for them, much of the content they share has already been created.

“A lot of our fans are already sharing their stories about Garrett with each other on Twitter, on their Facebook profiles and in their blogs,” Molise says.  “People are sharing little anecdotes about how they’ve tagged-teamed waiting in line or how they might drop off someone at a store while somebody else circles the block. These stories are being told and we’re able to find them through general searches.”

Once Molise and her team find a post about Garrett, they reach out to the customer directly. “We’ll write something like, ‘We love your post and we’re going to put in our Facebook page.’ Or it might be  ‘We’re so glad you had a wonderful time, these are wonderful photos,’” Molise says. “If we can, we’ll try to raise that little echo chamber of sharing about how much people love Garrett.”

Of course, fans new and old will naturally share their love for Garrett on Facebook and Twitter. Wrote one fan on Garrett’s Facebook page, “My aunt told me about this popcorn over New Years vacation when she was here. I’ve never tired it but I am ordering a tin for myself for Valentine’s Day…ALL MINE : P Goin to enjoy it.”

Tweeted another follower, “Bring on the blizzard! My Big Game Bundle from @garrettpopcorn arrived earlier today!”

Reputations are everything

David Abt opened Abt Radio with three employees in 1936 in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. Now called Abt Electronics, the store has more than 1,000 employees and occupies 17 acres of land in suburban Glenview. Its website, Abt.com, ships electronics and appliances nationwide, often with free delivery.

Yet some things don’t change. Abt is still family-owned and known for both outstanding customer service and sales reps that aren’t aggressive. Jennifer Arocena’s job is to extend that reputation through social media, particularly on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Arocena dedicates one of her two computers to Facebook and Tweetdeck, a desktop application for Twitter.  This way she can monitor what customers are saying about Abt in real-time and respond where needed.

“If it’s a customer service question, I’ll look up their information in our system and see if I can quickly help them out,” Arocena says. “If it’s a sales-related question, I’ll connect them with someone who can best answer their question.”

She’s usually able to resolve the issue or answer the question the same day. If the issue or question is in-depth, Arocena asks the customer to email her directly so they can talk offline.   “I certainly don’t want them putting their own email or phone number out there for everyone else to see,” she says.

At the same time, Arocena says that she strives to be transparent online. That way the other people following Abt’s Twitter handle or Facebook page can see its commitment to customer service.

“Last month, a customer was having some issues with our installation and posted about it on our Facebook wall,” she says. “I tried to help the customer out by letting him know the status of his install. Later, another customer said he loved the transparency of seeing how we interacted with our customers.”

The old rules of customer service still apply

Lately, Arocena has focused on growing Abt’s Facebook fan page. A sweepstakes during the holidays attracted many new fans, and now Arocena is experimenting with other ideas.

“A couple of weeks ago, I asked our Facebook fans if they wanted us to create an Abt storefront on Facebook,” Arocena says. “Most fans said they wouldn’t be interested in a storefront because of security and privacy. They would rather see the promotions on Facebook, then go to Abt.com and shop there.”

Her goal is to build a real–albeit online–relationship with both Abt’s current and potential customers. “When you come into the Abt store, you don’t have a pushy sales rep coming at you,” Arocena says. “Our advertising and marketing campaigns are not in your face. We are here for service, here to educate the customers and give them the best prices we can. We want to do the same online through social media.”

Garrett also focuses on using social media to talk directly with customers—not to make a sale. “We want to learn from our customers,” says Jack Aiello, vice-president of marketing for Garrett. “We don’t measure ROI in dollars. We measure it in customer service.”

Every week, we feature businesses who “get” the web. Recent profiles include Threadless, Metropolis Coffee, Wow Bao and Bright Pink. Know of a business we should profile? Let us know via Twitter at 435Digital.

The post Why social media was made for family-owned businesses appeared first on 435 Digital.

Eleven years later,  Chicago-based Threadless is the darling of hipsters and entrepreneurs alike.  Artists have submitted tens of thousands of designs to the site. In  2009 alone, Threadless made $30 million in revenue, according to Forbes.

2009 was also the year Threadless experienced rapid growth on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Thanks to a successful lunch-and-learn at Twitter’s offices, Threadless was added to Twitter’s user-to-follow list. Today Threadless has 1.5 million followers on Twitter and 237,000 fans on Facebook.

We recently discussed Threadless’ own social media strategy with founder Jake Nickell and Cam Balzer, vice-president of marketing. Here are ten of their own ideas that you can apply to your own company.

Let everyone tweet. And Facebook. And Digg. And Stumble.

“Everyone at Threadless is really encouraged to use all social networks to talk about what they’re working on,” says Balzer. “The exception would be that we ask people not to tweet about internal business matters and partnerships, that kind of thing. Every now and then somebody will leak a t-shirt, whether intentionally or not.”

Use a calendar to organize your company’s official social media profiles.

“When it comes to our company accounts, we manage that a bit more closely,” Balzer says. “Two people on our marketing team are responsible for managing our Twitter account and our Facebook page.
“They work from a calendar that includes all of the stuff going on at Threadless, new products we’re releasing, things going on at our office, contests that we’re planning to run and so on.  The goal is to be creating as much engaging content as possible so that people understand who we really are.”

Stop trying to control the conversation.

“You can control the messaging that you’re sending, but you can’t control how people are responding to it,” Balzer says. “So the right approach there is to act as if you are starting a conversation.  Again, you want to share content that people are going to respond to. It should be good content and engaging—the kind of things people want to talk about.”

Post content more than once to make sure it’s seen.

“It’s definitely a big challenge to make sure people see what we’re posting,” Balzer says. “If you tweet something at 9 a.m. and half of your people are asleep at that point, there’s a real good chance they won’t see it all. It’s all about the timing of tweets. We’ll repeat a few things on Twitter throughout the day to make sure we’ve reached enough people.

“A similar thing holds true for Facebook. Conversations spread quickly on Facebook, so we make sure to put content up there that people want to comment back on. We’re trying to use Facebook so that we have more of those mass conversations happening.”

Integrate customer service into your social media profiles.

“We’ve collaborated with our customer service team to address customers’ questions wherever they are,” says Balzer. “@ThreadHelp is how our customer service team manages tweets about some kind of Threadless issue. They will proactively reach out through @ThreadHelp’s account and let people know how to handle an issue, as well as respond to questions via Twitter.

It’s similar on Facebook as well. We have an application right on our Facebook page that lets users look up common customer service questions. They can also submit tickets for our customer service team right from our Facebook fan page.”

Negative feedback is a good thing.

“It’s good for companies to look at negative feedback as the best feedback,” Nickell says. “That’s where you find the most passionate customers.”

Always keep customers in the loop.

“Both Twitter and Facebook can act as support channels,” Balzer says. “This year on Black Friday, we announced that we would have a holiday sale that launched at midnight. So many people logged on then that it slowed our whole site down.

“We were proactively tweeting during the first two hours of the sale—in the middle of the night–that we were working on the issue. Naturally people were frustrated that the site wasn’t working, but because we were tweeting about it, they understood. Many people tweeted back, “No problem. I’ll log on when you get back online.”

Don’t put all your eggs in the established social media baskets.

“Our fastest growth opportunities are coming through brand-new social channels—not through Facebook and Twitter,” Nickell says. “It’s really important to stay aware of which sites and tools are getting rapid adoption. If you can get in on the ground level, that’s key.  Stumble Upon has been driving tremendous traffic for us , for example.”

To stay on top of the next trends, support your digital natives.
“Find some of your digital natives and let them really express either the personality of the company or their own personalities as representatives of your company,” says Nickell. “The things they find engaging or want to share with their friends are going to be the things that will engage your followers the most.”

The post What Threadless can teach you about social media marketing appeared first on 435 Digital.