Content Strategy for the Masses

Any good social media plan starts with strategizing potential reach, branding voice and user goals on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, right?  But does your team have a social media policy?

In the States, the FTC implemented a Social Media Policy to thwart unsavoury attempts by some companies that chose to not be transparent in their social strategies (I tried to find a similar policy from the CRTC in Canada, but no luck – let me know if one exists). Working with your legal team, creating a Social Media Policy for your company could prevent a lot of issues down the road.

WOMMA, the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association  was featured in the latest issue of Chief Content Officer and its article interviewing Gary Spangler, marketing manager at Dupont. Spangler advises people to start any social media campaign with WOMMA as they offer essential elements to build an effective policy. Here is a screengrab from an article with some good tips (and be sure to click on the image to read more from the Chief Content Officer magazine – it’s a good read):

Click on the image to read Chief Content Officer magazine, July 2011

A recent article in Mashable pointed me to a new website that promises to help you stay on track of your resolutions: Dorthy. The site promises to give the user a living page that focusses on their specific goals, provides information on said goal, and connect the user to other like-minded goal searchers.  It’s a focussed Google with a bare-bones community attached.

On first visit, I’m left wondering what to do after I input my dream: to find more time to update this website (lame dream, yeah). I’m taken to an overview page (called a dreampage – very Oprah-esque) that looks similar to what I would find if I typed “I want to find time to update my website” into a Google search: I see online articles, videos pulled from You Tube and Vimeo, photos and links to blogs that I think have the “update website” phrase within their copy. Since it seems to work by automatically pulling keywords (even though the site says “We’ve abandoned key words and moves beyond traditional semantics to develop an implicit understanding of what you’re interested in,”) I wonder if this blog entry you’re reading now will eventually show up in this Dorthy feed about updating websites? Vouldn’t that be Veird?

When I click on the community tab, it takes me to other members who have entered similar goals and I can subscribe to their dreams so my own page is updated with their updates. From what I can see, there’s no way to contact the person, which the introvert in me likes but may have helped create a virtual “cheerleader” squadron to the user’s goal achievements. The site uses Facebook Connect, which could translate that community support from Dorthy onto a Facebook page, I suppose.

Snooping around, I see someone entered a dream to run a marathon in Maui. This opens a dreampage that’s a little more focussed than my vague goal but again, I don’t see anything I wouldn’t have seen without entering the same dream into a search engine.

This isn’t to say the site doesn’t have potential… As more people subscribe and enter data, perhaps the algorithms will improve and my Dreampage will be more relevant and less vague.

Maybe I’ll set a goal on this site to review Dorthy in 6 months to see what’s changed on the site.

Let me know what you think and what sites you use to keep on track of your goals.

I never said this blog would be pun-free.

Google launched its answer to Wikipedia on Wednesday, Knol. “Authoritative” sources write articles and names are included. But it’s not passive, as comments and feedback are encouraged. 

It’s still very much in a beta stage, as most searches come up empty handed… unless you’re looking for medical advice. At the moment, Knol is chock full of details to instill horror for any hypochondriac.

Want more information? Here’s the Wikipedia entry on Knol. Heh.

Google to hand over private user data to Viacom happened while I was away. Does it have serious privacy issues, or is this any different than Google having my name, email address and other personally identifiable information?

If YouTube were to immediately shut down all videos that infringed copyright, would it still remain a success? More importantly, will Viacom just launch its Comedy Central channel on YouTube already so that I can enjoy delightful Daily Show clips after this lawsuit is over?

While Google is busy working on its appeal, the internet blogs are a-buzz with speculation on what this will all mean if the data does go to Viacom. Most internet-folk believe the lawsuit has everything to do with old media not wanting to accept the digital media model. Some think Viacom will use this information to individually sue users like the music industry did a few years ago (a claim the company has denied). 

Not sure what to make of it? ZDNet has created a great Q and A.

Got more questions? Ask me and I’ll try to find an answer.

At the end of each week, I’ll show you some fun links that illustrate creativity on the web

Want to search for something in Google but you’re tired of using the English language? Man, I hear ya! Then why not try your Google search in the language of the Muppets’ Swedish Chef. Bork bork bork!

Don’t care for the Swedish Chef? There’s also Elmer Fudd if you’re feewing wucky.

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If you want to write music but don’t know how, you can now sing into a microphone and My Song will create accompanying chords to make a song. I like the cheesy video that explains how to make it work for you.