jones huyett Partners

One of these up-and-coming sites might become the “next big thing”.

Remain effective in the social media arena by keeping up with current fads and trends that appeal to your audience. Here are five promising social media networks we’re keeping an eye on for future impact.

1.  Scribd is a document-sharing site where users share documents, presentations and PDFs. Scribd recently revamped its site to make it more social-media friendly. The changes include a news feed, the ability to follow other users, an interactive profile page and a “scribble box” where users can update their subscribers in real time.
Average American visits per month: 6 million.  

2. Bebo is a social network similar to MySpace, but with a cleaner layout. It offers many of the same capabilities as Facebook, but has a generally younger audience. Around 40 percent of the users are 13-17 years old, and 18-34 year olds represent 31 percent. It’s useful to note that African Americans make up 43 percent of users, while Caucasians represent 44 percent.
Average American visits per month: 5 million.

3. Tumblr is a blogging site where users can post text, photos, music and videos from their browser, phone, desktop, or email. The site wants users to demonstrate their personality by allowing customization of colors and blog themes using HTML.
Average American visits per month: 2 million.

4. Plurk is a microblogging site comparable to Twitter, but it allows people to post emoticons and comment on one another’s posts. The posts are laid out on an hourly timeline that scrolls from right to left. Plurk also uses “karma” to build user loyalty. The more you use the site, the more options you earn for emoticons, layouts, etc.
Average American visits per month: 10,000

5. Jaiku is also a microblogging site. Like Plurk, users can comment on other posts, but on Jaiku, users can also post icons. The layout is similar to Twitter, but with more vibrant color schemes. Google took over development of the site in January 2009. Currently, the percentages of users 18-34, 35-49, and 50+ are extremely close, ranging from 24 to 27 percent each. Sixty-two percent of the users do not have children, and 75 percent are Caucasian.
Average American visits per month: 6,000

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Filed by the Partners at 9:48 am under Social Media, Trends
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Companies and organizations need to realize they no longer control the conversation about their brand. Instead, that power resides with the consumer. When consumers talk about your brand online, you need to listen and respond – and do so in a polite, timely fashion. Or you can end up like one of these:

Brand: United Airlines

Situation:

Dave Carroll and his folk-rock band, Sons Of Maxwell, were touring and flew United Airlines from Halifax to Nebraska for a concert. During a layover in Chicago, another passenger exclaimed, “My God, they’re throwing guitars out there.” Then Carroll and band members looked out the window and witnessed baggage handlers throwing luggage, including Carroll’s $3,500 Taylor guitar. Once they landed in Omaha later that evening, Carroll discovered his guitar had been broken.

Response:

Carroll was in contact with various representatives from United Airlines for nine months trying to get them to help compensate for the guitar repairs which totaled $1,200. Once United Airlines rejected his final offer to settle the matter, he vowed to write & create music videos for three songs in response. Carroll posted the first of those videos, “United Breaks Guitars,” on YouTube. You can see it here.

Outcome:

- The first video was posted on July 6. To-date it has been viewed more than 4.7 million times on YouTube and has generated more than 20,000 comments and three response videos (none coming from United).
- United became a trending topic on Twitter after the video was released.
- United donated $3,000 to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Carroll’s name, but it was too little, too late.
- More than a month later, a Google search for “United Airlines” still shows two results for “United Breaks Guitars,” including a screenshot of the video.

Brand: Horizon Group Management LLC

Situation:

Amanda Bonnen, an unhappy tenant from a Horizon Group property in Chicago sent out a Tweet to her 20 Followers, “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon really thinks it’s okay.”

Response:

Horizon went straight to their lawyers and filed a $50,000 lawsuit saying their reputation as a landlord in Chicago was greatly injured. At no point in time did they attempt to contact Bonnen to ask her to remove the Tweet, or attempt to improve the situation. When asked for comment, Horizon owner, Jeffrey Michael said, “We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of organization.”

Outcome:

- To-date the story has had coverage from more than 150 media outlets, including: USA Today, Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press and BBC News.
- In a Google search for “Horizon Realty,” four of the 11 results on the first page refer to the lawsuit.
- Three days after the story broke, Twitter was still seeing an average of six Tweets per hour expressing outrage about Horizon’s response.

How would you have handled this situation if either of these happened to your brand?

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Filed by the Partners at 4:55 pm under Public Relations, Social Media
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