The conference is a mecca for all things digital and I am thrilled at the opportunity to attend. I will be conducting interviews, writing about different panels, and live tweeting some events for The Ocean Agency. Here is my full schedule:

SXSWi Coverage

I will write about 1 panel per day, my tentative editorial calendar:

Friday, March 12th:

“Content Strategy: What’s in it for you?”. This panel will discuss the future of content on the web. I’m very excited to learn how to best use content strategy to drive a marketing initiative.

Saturday, March 13th:

“The Future of Influence” Influence is a term that gets thrown around a lot on the web these days. This will definitely be an a fascinating discussion pertaining to “influencer marketing”.

Sunday, March 14th:

“The Facebook Developer Garage, Austin” With its 400 million users, Facebook has the power to eat the entire web. I’m excited to see the latest innovations from Facebook developers, and understand how we can utilize Facebook more effectively for our clients.

Monday March 15th:

“Social Search, A Little Help From My Friends” Social search profoundly impacts SEO. Excited to hear about the future of social search, and expert opinions on the matter.

Tuesday March 16th :

“Can Web 2.0 Kill the Real Estate Industry”. As an agency that completes digital strategy for large real estate clients, this panel will be very interesting.

And of course, there are multiple parties, meetups, tweetups etc that I am very excited about. If you want to meet up or connect to learn more about The Ocean Agency, let me know on Twitter: @pragerd or @theOceanAgency.

If you can’t attend the event and are looking for coverage of a certain panel, let me know, either in the comments or on Twitter. The first SXSW interactive event for the Ocean Agency, and for me, should be an amazing experience. Can’t wait to report back!

Tips and Tricks for SXSW:

I’m bringing an extra-phone battery, laptop battery, water bottle and comfortable shoes (even though I did contemplate wearing cowboy boots). Suggestions of other essentials are welcome.

Cool SXSW applications:

1) Sitby.us — Developed right here in Chicago, Sitby.us takes checking in to a whole new level. You can check in at your seat at panels so you can find your friends in the immense Austin Conference center.

2) Mashable’s Austin Real Time Directory powered by Citrix. Upload you itinerary, google calendar, and whatever else you have going on in Austin all in one place. Pretty neat.

Social Networking Site to Watch at SXSW:

Plancast allows you to subscribe to your friends upcoming plans and network before events occur. It’s a great tool for conferences and for folks who go to a lot of networking events.

Looking forward to a great SXSW 2010! Hope I’ll see you there, or around the interwebs.

With the emergence and mass-adoption of social media, marketing buzz words are now on steroids. So, here at the Ocean Agency, we thought we would help out business owners by translating marketing buzz words and break down how they can improve your business, minus the marketing speak.

1) Augmented Reality

Definition: Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery – creating a mixed reality.” (Wikipedia)

Our Definition: Mixing technology into physical real-world experiences

Example:

Does augmented reality make sense for you business? Possibly.

Here is one example:

If you’re a restaurant, you could have the food items on the menu reveal themselves in all 3-D glory.

Obviously, augmented reality is expensive to produce, but the future lies in digital experiences mixed in with consumers physical spaces that tell a compelling story, or, more importantly, offer some kind of value.

Biggest take away for your businesses: Incorporate technologies that improve the experience of your customers.

2) Geo-Location

Definition:” Geo-location is the identification of the real-world geographic location of an Internet-connected computer, mobile device, website visitor or other.” (Wikipedia)

Our Definition: Identifying and targeting  customers based on their location.

Examples: Foursquare location targeted specials and advertisements:

Does geo-location make sense for your business? Probably.

This one is definitely living up to the hype thus far. With the expansion of social networking on mobile devices, people are sharing their location data at an increasing rate. Businesses can create relevant ads on these platforms that aren’t intrusive.

With this data businesses can help consumers make decisions, save money, and build brand loyalty. A win-win for both brands and consumers.

Something to keep in mind:

Recently, Foursquare has partnered with a variety of major media outlets like BravoTV and the New York Times. The only incentive for users from these partnerships?

A Bravo TV or New York Times Olympic Badge.

These are great incentives for Foursquare addicted PR, communication and markerting types, but in order to encourage mainstream adoption the incentives will have to increase.

Biggest take-away for your business: Make your place of businesses a true destination. People share their location to gain incentives and because it says something about them. Ask yourself this question: Would people want to tell the world that they are at your place of business? Why? Why not?

3) Brand Utility:

Definition: “The brand utility method is concerned less with feature sets and more with functionality. How can your products make the lives of consumers better? That is the question that a brand utility advertising campaign seeks to answer.”  (Printing and Advertising)

Our Definition: Improving the lives of your customers to inspire loyalty in your customer base.

Example:

ING Direct.

If ING Direct is a bank, why does it have cafes in major cities in the US?

Brand Utility.

The ING Direct cafe offers free wifi, $1 coffee/tea and $1 pastries, in addition to employees who know all about ING Direct products.

They improve the lives of their customers by offering discounted coffee and food and even give those with an ING direct account free coffe or tea on Fridays. The ING direct cafe concept is a perfect example of brand utility, and it makes incentives offered by other banks look lame/miniscule in comparison.

Biggest take away for your business: If you improve the lives of your customers, they will thank you publicly and keep coming back.

What can you do to improve the lives of your customers in a way that fits with your overall brand message?

Alright, now it’s your turn. Business owners:

Would you use these tools in your marketing plan? Why or why not?

What makes this even more interesting is that 93% of teens are online:

These figures illustrate something really important about teenagers: They care about their friends and their actual physical network. Moreover, psychology has taught us that many teenagers) are terrible at planning ahead and thinking about the future. They live in the moment and with the consequences. The prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain that is most involved in future planning and decision making, does not fully develop until your early 20s.

What does this have to do with “public” information sharing, like Twitter or blogging?

1) In order to blog or tweet, you inherently have to believe that you have something remotely valuable to say. This requires both a sense of personal identity and self-esteem, both of which are developing during the teen years.

2) Tweeting and blogging are linked to “personal branding” more than anything else. Personal branding requires foresight, introspection and networking with people who aren’t your “real” friends. If teens are deeply focused on physical friendship and developing a personal identity, the link between Twitter, blogs and personal branding might be seen as “lame” or inauthentic.

If teens don’t tweet or blog, how do you target teens with an interactive marketing campaign?

1) Target teens through their social graph, and create content that will give them social capital within their real life circle of friends:

A deal, discount or contest may not be enough. For teens to pay attention, creates something innovative that will make them look good within their group of friends.

2) SMS campaigns work:

We have seen SMS campaigns take off. Texting is something that is natural to teenagers, and because its ubiquitous and easy it’s accepted by teens everywhere.

So these tactics are working now, but what about the near future?

1) Video:

Check your social networks. Are you starting to see more Skype and Google video chats going on? Video-chatting is big among teens because it reinforces the bonds with their physical friend network, and it’s easier than a phone call or text if you really want to talk to someone. It’s the most rewarding virtual hang out.

Businesses and brands can do much more with video chatting. Whether it be in the customer service, branding or public relations realm.

2) Mobile application tie-ins

This year, the Dockers Super Bowl commercial will feature a tie in with “Shazzam,” one of the most popular smart phone applications out there. Shazzam tells you the artist and album of any song that is playing where you are — just hold up your phone. For the Dockers ad, if you utilize Shazzam during the commercial, it will take you to a site where you can download the jingle from the commercial.

It is innovative thoughts like these — taking services that teens already use and creating new uses — that have a big impact.

Businesses should aim to find tie-ins with well-known and well-used mobile applications.

3) Geo-location (that makes sense)

I’m not talking Foursquare. I’m talking geo-location tools that are relevant to teens — location tools that quickly and easily show them where there friends are. Think Facebook with check-ins that are broadcasted to who you want, when you want.

Alright youth-obsessed society, let’s talk about how to target teens with interactive marketing!

Interns can talk directly with the principals, a link building specialist can work directly with a coder. As someone who focuses on social media, I can work directly with our design team to make sure that social applications are built into the initial design.

We are always looking to improve our internal as well as external communication, and here some new(ish) social media tools that will help:

1) Evernote

Evernote is a great way to keep track of inspiration, everywhere you go. At work, we are constantly interrupted and lose our train of thought easily, never forget that website you meant to blog about or that snipet of code ever again.

2) Group Posterous/Tumblr

People respond to humor and creativity. Setting up group Posterous and Tumblr accounts are great ways to encourage creative interaction among employees, and  show some personality. Showing  personality is one of the first steps to building online engagement with potential customers.

3) Teambox

Like Google Wave, Teambox has set out to improve the way we collaborate. Unlike Google Wave it isn’t creepy. Teambox is great for assigning tasks, organizing information, and for group collaboration without any of the clutter. Also, all of your information is stored securely in the “cloud” so you don’t have to worry about jump drives etc.

What online tools do you use to improve your internal communcation?

Today, Cisco has released findings from its latest study about how business use social media to colloberate and interact with customers.

What is so special about this study?

1) The process:

The study utilized qualitative and not just quantitative methods. By using in depth interviews by graduate students and professors from universities all over the world, the data is espcially robust and reliable.

2) The findings:

Companies need to integrate their new media efforts with internal IT professionals, and that internal social media use needs to be more effectively organized and regulated.

IT professionals? Regulation of social media efforts? What does this mean for your business?

1) You need to integrate social media into all aspects of your business.

No longer is social media merely a marketing, communications, or public relations tool it is an essential element in the structure and design of your business.

IT pepole, or at the very least, an employee who is comfortable with all the technological aspects of your business needs to put these social technologies in place.

Just as your IT person may have set up your wireless network, printer, or microsoft outlook, they need to install and regulate social media applications into your technological infrastructure.

2) You need social media guidelines and policies for you business:

Having a social strategy is more than having a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube or micro-blogging sites. It’s about having a vision and the infrastructure to encourage employee collaboration both internally and externally on social channels. Take time to craft a social business manifesto, that includes an overall strategy, but also includes social media guidelines for employees and management.

As a business owner, how do you control what employees post on social networks? Well, you can’t. However, you can have clear guidelines that dictate what is effective, what is acceptable, and what is unacceptable.

While the importance of these concepts have absolutely been written about before, the qualitative design, validity, and caliber of the Cisco study illustrates the importance of social business in a profound way.

Here is another great write up of the study.

It’s time. Social media is no longer an add on, it is an integral part of your future business design.

How have you integrated social into your business infrastructure?

But what about smaller companies? What about small and medium sized businesses that don’t have the brand awareness of a large corporation? Does it work for them?

I spend a lot of time convincing businesses that social media marketing is real and here to stay. But I’m pretty sure you all wouldn’t appreciate a sales pitch in a blog post, so instead I’m going to give 21 examples of small to medium sized Chicago businesses that are using social media effectively. In no particular order:

1) Half Acre Brewery : Beer and social media are a natural fit ( I worte about social media marketing for breweries a little earlier this year) . It is great to see a small craft brewery with an active Twitter account, Facebook fan page, and pretty high quality blog. It probably helps that the owner is a former ad man.

2) Chicago Architecture Foundation — Great at using social media to build a community around Chicago’s famed architecture tours and tourism industry.

3) Rockit Bar and Grill — Looking past the flash page of their website, they have successfully realized that people follow brands/ stores/ restaurants on Twitter for contests and specials. They offer a new one every Tuesday.

4) Imagination Publishing– A content marketing and custom publishing agency that really gets social media. Positioned at the confluence of online marketing and publishing.

5) Threadless — Threadless is a well known T-shirt company that makes some pretty hilarious shirts, and also knows how to leverage contest marketing. Want to see what a small business can do with a facebook page? Check out theirs, great mix of community building and marketing.

6) Douglas Allergy Relief — Full disclosure, they are a client, but it is a lot of fun to see a family owned store compete with some of the big boys in the allergy relief industry. We are helping them get started with social media, look out for them in the future.

7) Foiled cupcakes — Many of you may have read the extensive coverage of Sprinkles cupcakes in LA, and their social marketing efforts. Foiled rivals them in terms of their customer engagement and overall social presence. Everyone loves cupcakes!

8 ) Green City Market — Know your farmer. Know your food. Green City Market is your parent’s farmers market evolved. They network with local chefs (mostly through social media) and turn the farmers market into an event that is larger than a shopping trip and make it a destination for all Chicago foodies.

9) The Local Beet — Great advice and resources for those who are passionate about the local and slow food movements.

10) Berry Chill — They have capitalized on the trendiness of frozen yogurt and have really taken it to the next level with great branding and community building around their product. Part of the reason why people go to Berry Chill is to feel cool. This translates to their website and social presence very well.

11) Homemade Pizza Co. – Homemade Pizza Co. is using their Twitter to announce and promote new locations. That’s one great way for a small, local business to expand into a nationwide chain! They also serve their fans and employees better with Facebook groups for each.

12) “NUTS ON CLARK” – This Chicago icon and favorite airport terminal destination has taken itself online and is providing Chicagoans with interesting facts about our city and the seasons via Twitter. They offer useful and interesting information, making their social media presence more robust!

13) Total Attorneys – Total Attorneys helps lawyers become interactive online, primarily by being interactive themselves. They do everyone a favor by promoting their charitable endeavors through social media, too!

14) Tru – This “temple of haute cuisine” is using just about every review site online and leveraging the comments of its fans to attract new diners. What better way to promote a restaurant and its delicious menu? Check out the massive amounts of 5-stars on their Yelp page.

15)  Homescout Realty – This Chicago realty agency networks with the social media heavy hitters on Twitter, giving us a peek into Chicago news and events, their office life, their properties and charitable efforts.

16) Grub Hub – Grub Hub’s social presence features their vendors, benefiting their restaurant clientele and themselves! And with their successful multi-city expansion, we think they’re doing something right.

17) Cheeky Chicago – Proving that targeting a smaller demographic can be highly successful through social media, Cheeky provides deals, reviews and a community to “fun, fabulous and fierce…chic, intelligent and in-the-know” ladies in Chicago.

18) NCSA – The National Collegiate Scouting Association pledges to make college recruiting simple, and it’s connecting with young athletes in the way that is most familiar to them– social media. With over 1,000 Twitter followers, we’d say they’re simply creating a success.

19) IEG – IEG  is on the cutting edge of social media and is nearly flawless in their execution and integration. Right on the homepage of their website, they invite you to join the conversation with the extensive IEG social media presence, but they also have Twitter accounts to foster interaction around their marketing efforts and the conference the company hosts. Plus, they spotlight their individuals with IEG-branded Twitter profiles and provide employees with their own IEG blogs to sound off. We’d say they’ve got a strong handle on social media.

20) Featherproof Books – A Chicago indie press taking literature to the masses through highly-integrated social media, mobile apps, and online networking with other Chicago companies. You can connect with them on Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter or “even Friendster, because somewhere in the universe, it’s still 2001.” A un-stuffy publishing company, with social media and a sense of humor? Going places.

21) Free Spirit Yacht Cruises – Free Spirit combines face-to-face networking with their excellent social media presence, connecting with various demographics. They’re also taking full advantage of the functionality of Facebook, blogging through the Notes feature and posting pictures and links.

These are a just a few examples of how small to medium sized businesses in Chicago are utilizing social media. We would love to hear your thoughts on the list. Are there any companies we left out?

Do you see opportunites for small businesses in industries not mentioned on this list to get involved with social media marketing?

WRONG.

Every social media marketer has heard this:  Anyone can be a social media marketer, all you need is a blog, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn account.

WRONG AS WELL.

Interestingly, the keys to being a successful DJ and social media marketer are surprisingly similar:

1) Initial Research

Both marketers and DJs need to know their audience. Who’s coming to your party? What kind of music do they listen to? What special personal touches are you going to throw in to go with the theme of the party?

2) In Depth Research:

If you’re a DJ you gotta stay on top of what people are listening to. That means checking top 10 lists, taking notes of songs that kill at bars and parties etc.  You are a constant sponge, soaking up whatever music is successful and trying to understand why.

As a social media marketer you stay on top of the latest trends, you follow successful campaigns, you study metrics. You begin to understand what works and what does not. Much of the way that a DJ knows not to play Jay-Z at a Nascar themed party, you know that a brand who only uses Twitter to talk about the weather and promote its own blog will not gain much traction.

3) A Plan

Ultimately, a playlist is a marketing plan. You have picked out songs that you think will elicit a certain reaction out of people– dancing. In the same way, a marketing plan is meant to coerce a certain behavior out of people- whether it be to buy a product or visit a website.

The best playlists have music that is adaptable, prepared for any party situation. What if only 10 people show up, would you know what music to play? What about 400?

It is the same with a marketing plan. The plan needs to be carefully created while still remaining adaptable to a myriad of situations.

4) Monitoring/Listening

No one is perfect. Even the most carefully crafted playlist or marketing plan will have something that may not go over so well; You know, like that time you decided to play “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” expecting girls to start dancing, but all you got was blank stares. How about the Twitter contest you started for a client that did not gain a lot of traction?

Once you put the plan or playlist into effect you need to monitor the results and react in real time. What songs are making people dance? What’s the mood of the crowd like? Are people asking for requests, if so, do they differ from the type of music you are playing?

As a marketer you are also gauging reactions. Who is interacting with the campaigns? Are people reacting negatively, or failing to react altogether?

5) Adaptability

Once the plan is in place, and you have monitored reactions, you need to adapt. If no one is dancing, throw on a request, or play a song that you know always kills on the dance floor.

If your marketing campaign is failing to gain traction, switch it up! In today’s world of marketing adaptability and listening are paramount. Be engaged, be smart, and be genuine.

The best social media marketers and DJs both know how to research, plan, listen and adapt.

Do you agree? Is social media marketing like DJ-ing a party?

Quizzes: Tools for Building a Community Around Your Website

I am a bit of a procrastinator. I also really like answering questions about myself. (Yea, I’m honest!) And, guess what, I’m not the only sometimes-distracted narcissist on the web. When used properly, online quizzes are rewarding marketing tools that will increase your site’s interactivity and traffic.

Anybody that spends any amount of time on Facebook knows that the personality quiz is a trend that is here to stay. They just don’t get old. As much fun as graphing-calculator-required exams were in college, with a few mouse clicks, I’d rather determine “How many kids will [I] have?”, and finally find out “What type of Vitamin Water [I am]” during my down-time.

The world wide web can seem like an ever-expanding assembly of strangers—quizzes, silly or serious, tell me who I am, and then let me post a link telling everyone else who I am, too. An article from the Search Engine Journal explains that well-designed quizzes, suited to your brand and your consumer are “a great way to engage your visitors (most people will take the quiz, thus [spending] more time on your site and will be more willing to browse it further).” And, because they are “eagerly shared” (people like sharing their personality with online friends they have never meant in real life), a user will link his quiz results to each of his social media outlets, drawing more even people to your site.

Companies like Avon have already discovered how to “generate quizzes that are tied to their web site’s topic.” Thanks to their “What Skin Type are you?” questionnaire, I realized that I am, apparently, not taking proper care of my sensitive eye area, and Avon has just the cream to correct my negligence. Thank goodness! A quiz may be purely entertainment, informative, or both; its fun-factor is not diminished by it’s interactive marketing possibilities.

While many agencies are great at telling their clients how to succeed in a world of social and interactive media, their own presence is lacking.

At the Ocean Agency, we’ve had a lot of success building interactive web campaigns for clients, but now it’s time to practice what we preach.

We have a lot of fun in this office, and have characters with a lot of personality. We have strong opinions, and are just pretty interesting people overall. Over the next few months, you are going to get to know us. We are successful at what we do precisely because of the personalities of our employees matched with an office atmosphere that encourages both productivity and personal growth.

Great ready to hear more about what goes on here, on a personal level.

One of the things we love here at the Ocean Agency is the AMC television show “Mad Men”. In fact, Jacqueline Zenn (@jazspin, @seogroup), our Interactive Marketing Manager, seems to think that The Ocean Agency is the Sterling Cooper of 2009. Now, I won’t go that far, but it is amazing to work in marketing and think about how far we’ve come and what actually remains the same in marketing from Don Draper’s day.

So, if you’re a friend of Mad Men be sure to join us for our Liveblog of the Mad Men season premier on Sunday the 16th at 9 PM central.

Now, if you’re not familiar with what a Liveblog is, well, it’s essentially a real time conversation, but on the computer. Imagine if you were sitting chatting with your friends while you watched a TV show. Ok, now add laptops and you’ve got a liveblog!   You can even include all kinds of real time comments from Twitter and readers from all over the globe.  You can even include pictures, videos, and links in the platform.

All you have to do is come back on Sunday night and the Liveblog will be up and running. If you’re anything like us, you tend to be at your computer while you watch TV anyway– why not follow along with some entertaining and smart commentary as you watch?

Are you a big Mad Men fan? Would you like to be involved in the liveblog? Send a direct message to The Ocean Agency on twitter. Be sure to tell your Mad Men watching friends too! Can’t wait to see you (well at least virtually) on Sunday!

“Right now, your customers are writing about your products on blogs and recutting your commercials on YouTube. They’re defining you on Wikipedia and ganging up on you in social networking sites like Facebook. These are all elements of a social phenomenon — the groundswell — that has created a permanent, long-lasting shift in the way the world works. Most companies see it as a threat.

You can see it as an opportunity.”

Written by Forrester analysts Charlene Li and and Josh Bernhoff, Groundswell is divided into three sections – understanding the groundswell, tapping the groundswell, and the groundswell transforms.  It has a nice balance of case studies and theory (we’ve all read books that fall too far on one side of the line or the other) and is a quality selection for any business owner who wants an overview of the social web.

One of the key things I took away from Groundswell was the importance of defining what you and/or your company want to accomplish with social media before you just start doing it.  Furthermore, you need to listen to the conversation and figure out how best to reach your audience online – and the best way to do that is by listening and lurking for a while before you just jump right in and start communicating.

While there was nothing in Groundswell that would surprise anyone with social media experience, it is full of valuable statistics and case studies – perfect for agencies or individuals to show how their work is relevant and adds value for various brands and industries.  In fact, we often give out copies to new clients – it is a great primer for those new to the social web.