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In recent years, the elusive search for online ‘Viral Marketing’ has become the Holy Grail of marketeers everywhere. Seminars, presentations, conferences and e-books on the topic abound: some of them adding great value - those of the celebrated world wide ravist David Meerman Scott’s come to mind – while others manifestly below par.

With this state of afairs, it is refreshing to come across examples of ‘genuine’ social media viral marketing that epitomize the best Web 2.0 practices, philosophies and attitudes. If as Anthony Robbins is fond of saying ‘success leaves clues’, we have much to learn from the case of Spanish (don’t be fooled by his English-sounding name) up-and-coming pop-star Graham Newey. Graham’s results are so remarkable that he may be rightfully regarded as a textbook case of how to go viral with a very limited budget but tons of creativity and a passion for what you do.

In a recent interview published in Spanish in this Tweetblog, Graham told me how he went from absolute scratch to becoming a budding pop-star in less than two years by creating quality home-made multimedia content with virtually no sponsoring and subsequently uploading it in three key high visibility social web sites: Myspace, Facebook and YouTube.

There is no question about Graham’s talent, a talent that underlies all of his artistic endeavours. If this twenty-something Barcelona-based composer, arranger and live performer has become a sensation is due in great part to his catchy electro-pop lyrics and the stylized ‘camp’ aesthetics of all his multimedia creations.

The figures speak for themselves: hitherto there have been more than 17,000 downloads of his videos and 60,000 views of his home-made Myspace profile. As I mentioned earlier Graham is also very active on Facebook, where his fans exceed 1,100. Surprisingly Graham hasn’t got a webpage yet – one is in the works he tells us – and it is only recently that with a little prodding from me he signed up for Twitter and started what I hope will be a very promising Twitterland adventure. His online philosohy so far can be summed up as follows: quality content first and foremost, free distribution via selected social networks, not to worry about ROI or statistics and enjoy what he does with the support of his loyal followers - who through sheer word of mouth take care of promoting his quality content all over the social web.

Having performed a string of live gigs all over Spain and on the verge of recording his first album, Graham is ready to sign up a lucrative contract and become the greatest example of zero-budget viral marketing Spain has yet to witness.

Oscar Del Santo is an online strategist, publicist and trailblazing reputation manager. He helps individuals and organizations achieve their online goals through the implementation of tailor-made online strategies with strong social web and ORM components. He is a sought-after ‘de-mistifying’ trainer, key speaker and trusted & confidential advisor in online reputation crises scenarios .

GRAHAM NEWEY: HA NACIDO UNA ESTRELLA 

Pocas personas en nuestro país han alcanzado un impacto y éxito tan grandes en las redes sociales y el mundo online casi sin presupuesto ni sponsors como el ‘multimediático’ Graham Newey.

Derrochando talento y creatividad, este intérprete veinteañero, que además es compositor y creador de un electro pop pegadizo y de una estética visual única, ha logrado en menos de dos años unas cotas de popularidad envidiables que casi alcanzan la categoría de marketing viral.

Pregunté a Graham hace unos días sobre su repercusión en las redes sociales, a lo que él amablemente me contestó:

Estoy en varias redes sociales… Empecé con Myspace, en verano de 2007.

Había grabado algunas canciones, con una producción muy simple (mis conocimientos de entonces eran bastante limitados, aunque no por ello dejé de hacer cosas). Mis amigos y mi pareja me animaron a colgarlas, para ver cómo reaccionaba la gente, y fue bastante bien!

Además de colgar las canciones, colgué también un videoclip en YouTube de mi canción “Peter Pan”, que grabé en el garaje de casa (fue divertidísimo, y muy muy muy casero) y colgué varias fotografías promocionales en mi Myspace. Siempre he sido bastante multimediático… Creo que en estos tiempos hay que serlo, y además es mi terreno (he estudiado comunicación audiovisual).

Tras esto, la cosa fue evolucionando: progresivamente, empecé a sacar más canciones, más fotografías y más videoclips, siempre intentando superarme y explorando distintos terrenos…

Hará menos de un año, abrí mi cuenta de Facebook. Esta red social ha tenido un éxito enorme en poco tiempo (yo creo que debido a su simplicidad… sin esos complicados códigos HTML de Myspace). Casi todo el mundo tiene una cuenta: y gente de todas las edades! Y luego, a nivel promocional es fantástico, con esto de crear “grupos de fans”, eventos, etc. etc.

Respecto a mí, la repercusión que ha tenido mi participación en este tipo de plataformas y redes es difícil de cuantificar. Están por un lado los números: ahora mismo tengo unas 60.300 visitas en Myspace, 17.000 reproducciones de mi primer video en Youtube o 1.160 amigos en Facebook. Pero eso son sólo números y no es fiable, ya que la gente publica cosas en blogs, también me han hecho alguna entrevista en prensa y también te ven en conciertos… Y luego está el boca a boca…

En fin, realmente no se puede cuantificar el número de seguidores o las cosas que cuentan sobre ti, pero tampoco es algo que me preocupe. De hecho, yo simplemente hago lo que me gusta y intento hacerlo lo mejor posible, sin obsesionarme por las visitas que pueda tener en YouTube o si aparezco o no en blogs. Acabaría volviéndome medio loco!

Pieza clave del éxito de Graham han sido unos contenidos multimedia que a muchos se nos antojan de primerísima calidad.

Para mí, los contenidos multimedia son vitales: las fotos, el diseño, los videoclips… Todo forma parte de un mismo proyecto, y ninguno de estos aspectos puede dejarse de lado.

Buscar los conceptos en cada “lanzamiento” es algo que me encanta y de lo que suelo encargarme yo, excepto de las fotos. De ello se suele encargar últimamente el fotógrafo barcelonés Mista Louis, que además es un buen amigo mío.

Los videoclips también los he dirigido yo (excepto uno), aunque sí que es verdad que poco a poco he ido profesionalizando el asunto…

Mis últimos vídeos ya han sido con equipo, focos, storyboard y todas esas cosas… De hecho, mi vídeo de María Antonieta está mecenado por Qualid, una empresa de Nokia que se dedica a dar apoyo a nuevos artistas. También me ayuda mucho la empresa de focos Zeferino, a la que le estoy enormemente agradecido.

Y bueno, si antes tardaba unos días en hacer los videoclips, ahora es un trabajo de meses, pero obviamente, el resultado es mejor y además es algo que me encanta!

De hecho, los videoclips son tan importantes como las canciones… y a veces, incluso llegan a ser más exitosos. Por ejemplo, ¿Qué éxito hubiera tenido “Thriller” de Michael Jackson con un videoclip sencillo y típico?  Evidentemente, la canción es muy buena, pero aún así yo creo que el vídeo fue algo más que la guinda.

¿Y con respecto a los planes de futuro?

Ahora mismo estoy preparando mi primer disco (por fin!!!), que saldrá en 2010. Pero a la vez quiero lanzar mi primera página web… Con ello tienes mucha más libertad creativa y dejas de depender tanto de Myspace y demás para hacer llegar tu música. Eso sí, por mucha web que tengas, tampoco puedes dejar de lado las redes sociales… En cuantos más sitios estés, mejor.

No me cabe ninguna duda de que a Graham Newey le espera un futuro prometedor en su incipiente carrera musical. Ha conseguido a base de esfuerzo y dedicación unos resultados francamente espectaculares, en los que el uso estratégico del medio online y los contenidos multimedia de calidad han jugado un papel esencial.

No me queda más que agradecerle a Graham su atención y desearle todo tipo de éxitos con su nuevo disco y su nueva página.

Oscar Del Santo es un estratega, publicista y gestor de la reputación online especializado en la creación e implantación de estrategias individualizadas que integran las redes sociales con las mejores prácticas de gestión de la reputación en internet. Destaca tanto por sus conferencias y programas de formación como por su labor de consultoría en la gestión de crisis de comunicación online.

This is a short post to express my support for Blog Action Day 2009 and my concern for climate change and the health of our planet.

Best regards,

Oscar

Online Strategy 101 (for small businesses)

Creating an online strategy worthy of that name can be an arduous proccess for many small businesses. Thanks to the creative genius of Vancouver social media entrepreneur and blogger Mark Smiciklas, we now have an attractive visual guide that covers the essentials of building an online presence from scratch that will allow any and every small business to become an active participant in the social web and market their products or services effectively.

I have converted this presentation to Scribd and would like to share it here with you all. It is worth reading even if you consider yourself an online or social media marketing pro.

Oscar Del Santo is an online strategist, publicist and trailblazing reputation manager. He helps individuals and organizations achieve their online goals through the implementation of tailor-made online strategies with strong social web and ORM components. He is a sought-after ‘de-mistifying’ trainer, key speaker and trusted & confidential advisor in online reputation crises scenarios .

The true ROI of the Social Media

A fierce debate has been taking place in the blogosphere for quite some time regarding the ROI (return on investment) value of the social media and how to measure it and present it in credible ways to ‘Generation X’ (and older) hard-nosed marketing directors. In the heat of the argument, all kinds of ingenious proposals have been put forward, ranging from the dismissal of ROI as a valid concept when applied to the social media to its substitution by more appropriate acronyms like ROA (return on attention), ROE (return on engagement) and the like.

Luckily for us – embattled client-facing online strategists and account managers of all guises – the visual genius of Mark Smiciklas from Intersection Consulting has come to the rescue with a simple yet brilliant graphic (based on Shane Gibson’s Social ROI model) that encapsulates the multifacted nature of Social Media ROI.

As we can see, the ROI of the Social Media goes well beyond hard and fast sales and affects intangibles such as reputation, client retention, client education or the building of trust that are simply crucial to the long-term success of any business.

Just as the old-fashioned accounting conventions were not taking into account environmental impact and/or the losses that the environment was incurring as a result of business operations, ROI as traditionally understood and applied in marketing fails to do justice to the social media boon businesses of all kinds can enjoy if they implement sensible and strategically sound social media marketing plans.

I very much hope that this revealing graphic will help to present social media ROI in all its depth and breadth to organizations willing to invest into the social web.

Oscar Del Santo is an online strategist, publicist and trailblazing reputation manager. He helps individuals and organizations achieve their online goals through the implementation of tailor-made online strategies with strong social web and ORM components. He is a sought-after ‘de-mistifying’ trainer, key speaker and trusted & confidential advisor in online reputation crises scenarios .

SEO y PPC: La Unión hace la Fuerza

La integración del SEO (optimización de páginas web en buscadores) y del PPC (‘pay per click’, los anuncios patrocinados en Google) puede conseguir resultados excepcionales a corto y medio plazo para todo tipo de empresas – y muy en especial las PYMES más avezadas – cuando es realizada por agencias especializadas que siguen las mejores pautas profesionales.

Como botón de muestra me gustaría tratar hoy del caso de los dentistas ingleses de Liverpool Ollie & Darsh, que tuvieron el acierto de ponerse en las manos de la agencia Web Marketing Advisor, dirigida por Guy Levine y ubicada en la vecina ciudad de Manchester.

Tras una inversión de 3.500 libras en una campaña perfectamente orquestada e integrada de SEO y PPC para promocionar y optimizar su página web, Ollie & Darsh consiguió 63 nuevos pacientes e ingresos superiores a 45.000 libras en un plazo record de tres meses – o lo que es lo mismo, casi un 1300% de retorno de la inversión realizada (el famoso ROI) en la campaña ejecutada con tanta maestría por el equipo de consultores de Guy.

Hace un par de días le pregunté a Guy Levine – que por cierto habla un poco de español – cuál había sido el secreto del éxito tan fulgurante de esta campaña. Esta fue su respuesta: “Creo que el éxito fue consecuencia de establecer previamente los resultados deseados y asegurarnos de que la página cumplía con los requisitos técnicos necesarios para incrementar y maximizar el tráfico a corto, medio y largo plazo. El hecho de que el cliente confiara plenamente en nosotros y nos diera vía libre para ‘salsear’ con su página también fue determinante”.

No cabe duda de que el SEO y el PPC (junto con el e-mail marketing y otras herramientas) son elementos imprescindibles para la promoción de una empresa en Internet. Pero hay que apresurarse e intentar en lo posible sacar la delantera a nuestra competencia más directa. Según subraya Guy, estos resultados sólo pueden conseguirse para una única empresa en un área geográfica determinada antes de que exista una mayor competencia por las palabras clave – una afirmación que parece hacer justicia a aquel refrán tan famoso de que ‘quien golpea primero, golpea dos veces’.

Oscar Del Santo es un estratega, publicista y gestor de la reputación online especializado en la creación e implantación de estrategias individualizadas que integran las redes sociales con las mejores prácticas de gestión de la reputación en internet. Destaca tanto por sus conferencias y programas de formación como por su labor de consultoría en la gestión de crisis de comunicación online.

SEO 101: What every online PR should know about SEO

I recently wrote about the SEO vs PR controversy and the need for both SEO and PR consultants to work together in synch in all sorts of web 2.0 projects under the supervision of a competent and suitably qualified online strategist.

This great presentation by Lee Odden brings together the absolute minimum that any exisiting or aspiring online PR consultant should know in order to function effectively in the online medium. No excuses!

Oscar Del Santo is an online strategist, publicist and trailblazing reputation manager. He helps individuals and organizations achieve their online goals through the implementation of tailor-made online strategies with strong social web and ORM components. He is a sought-after ‘de-mistifying’ trainer, key speaker and trusted & confidential advisor in online reputation crises scenarios .

The Big Idea (have you got one?)

As I argued in a recent post, search engine and social media projects are becoming increasingly complex, and in the more forward-looking digital agencies it is not uncommon for multifarious departments – SEO, SEM, analytics, web design and development and online reputation management amongst others – to work closely together under the guidance of the online strategist to ensure a harmonic, coherent and compelling end result that matches the expectations of our clients.

And yet, no matter how many human and technical resources are engaged in the effort or how competent and experienced the agency, time and again projects that truly take off have one deceptively simple and yet often overlooked success quotient in common: a big idea. So much so that I want to advocate here that the first question we should ever pose ourselves before embarking onto any sizeable online initiative ought to be as straightforward as: ‘what is the big idea?’

Which of course could be rephrased in various ways such as: ‘What are you about?’ ‘What is the one message that you are trying to convey in the online medium?’ or ‘What is the unifying theme behind this effort?’

I can think of no better example to prove the validity of this philosophy than the successful London bid for the Olympic Games of 2012. Obviously there were all kinds of political arm-twisting and influence wielding going on behind the curtains, but London’s success was attributed in great part to the recurrent theme ‘London is a happily multicultural and diverse city’ that informed the bid and as such was echoed in the official website, communications, online/offline promotional efforts and even the London 2012 employment policies up to this day. This grand theme acted as a catalyst for the enthusiasm of Londoners and thanks to its consistency and underlying honesty it became I believe instrumental in swaying the initially reticent members of the Olympic Committee.

Any organization that is serious about creating and managing a successful online presence should think hard before committing time and resources and not stop until a satisfactory answer has been reached to the questions posed above. Your business may be about uncompromising quality, cutting-edge innovation, superior tailor-made customer service, upholding traditional values or just cool, hip and trendy. But whichever the case, your commitment to that single big idea that reveals either who you are or who you aspire to be, coupled to your day-to-day demonstration to your clients that you intend to live up to its challenges, should constitute not only your trademark but also your best guarantee of online success.

Oscar Del Santo is an online strategist, publicist and trailblazing reputation manager. He helps individuals and organizations achieve their online goals through the implementation of tailor-made online strategies with strong social web and ORM components. He is a sought-after ‘de-mistifying’ trainer, key speaker and trusted & confidential advisor in online reputation crises scenarios .

 

ORM and the Dark Side: Astroturfing, Flogging and the Viral Marketing Campaign that never was 

There are those in every profession who will be tempted to give in to ’the dark side’ and let the worst of their natures rule over them. My trade - that of online reputation managers (ORMs for short) - is no exception. In fact, and due to the sensitive nature of our work, I would argue that when we do give in, we do so at a greater risk to ourselves and the general public than say your average web developer, receptionist or window cleaner. The ‘dark knights’ and ‘dark ladies’ of ORM are quickly building a reputation for themselves as sinister New Labour-style spin doctors too ready to make empty promises, manipulate people and information and overcharge their customers. 

To assist everyone in separating the wheat from the chaff, I would like to deal here with some of the ’sins’ that those lost souls engage in and which are anathema to the hard-working, ethically-bound ORMs who constitute the vast majority of the profession. Please feel free to add a few suggestions of your own in the comments section. 

1. Astroturfing

The Social Media have brought with them a change from the old broadcasting model to peer-to-peer reviews, consumer involvement and an emphasis on authenticity and credibility. In the new model, we are encouraged to be more honest, to add value without screaming or over-promoting, to socialise and to share. Astroturfing represents a betrayal of all these cherished principles, since it denotes an attempt to cloak an orchestrated PR, political or advertising campaign as spontaneous grassroots behaviour.

We ORM pros can take some comfort from the fact that astroturfing was ‘invented’ by political advisors well before the advent of the internet era. Nowadays, and in the highly connected world in which we live, almost every serious attempt at astroturfing is a media timebomb waiting to explode. Unless the campaign truly catches on and it does paradoxically end up become grassroots, that is…                                                  

2. Sock Puppetry

Closely related to Astroturfing, sock puppetry refers to the attempt by an online individual to adopt a fake persona with the purpose of misleading and deceiving for his benefit or that of his cause - in the case of ORMs logically for the benefit of their clients.

I get the distinct impression that this is more extended a practice that we care to admit. It is next to impossible to tell if a participant in a forum or review site is genuine, even in the case of the ‘strawmen sockpuppets’ who want to covertly discredit the point of view they seem to be defending. Luckily technology is coming to the rescue, since participation in the social media is becoming an increasingly integrated experience where our multarious accounts are linked and synched in a way that this type of behaviour can be more easily detected. Still, one to watch out for.

3. Flogging

Contrary to popular opinion, flogging – fake blogs ghostwritten in this case by ORMs – are not often the result of a concerted attempt to manipulate but the outcome of the lack of time, focus and talent on behalf of some of our clients. Cogent, clear and compelling writing is not a skill that abounds in some quarters, and we ORMs are regularly under pressure ‘to contribute’ following a previously established editorial line, usually (though by no means always) with a promotional or advertorial tone.

Once more, the clumsiest cases of flogging are well documented, and many an unsuspecting reader has ended up nonplussed after discovering that big business was behind some of the more seemingly credible blogs out there. And yet, how many flogs or half-flogs populate the web? I dare not speculate about it. London ORM Nancy Williams from Tiger Two Ltd has advocated a disclaimer/disclosure policy in all blogs not personally or wholly written by their authors to disambiguate them from truly personal blogs, an approach I find very difficult to disagree with. VIP bloggers take heed!

4. Viral Marketing (broken promises thereof)

Even in the integrated digital agencies I have argued for elsewhere, it is usually online strategists and ORMs who end up bearing the bulk of so-called viral marketing campaigns. Viral marketing has quickly become the ‘Holy Grail’ of marketeers, sellers and resellers. And below-the-par agencies have been quick to capitalize on this trend and showcase themselves as experts in the scurrilous art of ‘word of mouth on steroids’.

Neither them nor their unsuspecting clients are obviously familiar with the best literature in the business. For as online marketing and PR guru David Meerman Scott affirms in his essential e-book on the topic: ’It is virtually impossible to create a Web marketing program that is guaranteed to go viral; it requires a huge amount of luck and timing’. And as we guileless, tested pros both sides of the Atlantic know from painful experience, this axiom is simply true.

This does emphatically NOT mean that one cannot in principle set in motion a sensible, well-thought-out online social media/marketing strategy that could potentially go viral  (been there, done that) but rather than noone – no matter how convincingly they may claim it -can guarantee for a campaign to go viral in the first place. In plain English: purchasing an off-the-shelf viral marketing/social media campaign combo is not the smartest of moves. Look around and it will take you no time to find many a sad marketeer full of melancholy out of the broken promises that shoud-know-better ORMs and digital strategist made in very rash, disingenious and downright foolish moments.

Just as there are dark practitioners out there, we are lucky to have in our midst Master Jedis of online strategy who achieve remarkable successes by disciplining their claims, fine-tuning their abilities and constantly upgrading their skills without compromising their principles or selling their souls to Mammon. There is always a fine line between honesty and deception, and we ORMs are challenged on the ethical front more than we care to admit. What a relief it is to know that, more sooner than later, those colleagues who truly have their clients’ best interest at heart succeed in the online medium by upholding the best practices and principles.

Oscar Del Santo is an online strategist, publicist and trailblazing reputation manager. He helps individuals and organizations achieve their online goals through the implementation of tailor-made online strategies with strong social web and ORM components. He is a sought-after ‘de-mistifying’ trainer, key speaker and trusted & confidential advisor in online reputation crises scenarios .