5 ways to Use Social Media to Reach People who Don't Use Social Media!

by Marshall Kirkpatrick

Are you the only person at work who likes to read blogs? Is it your job to sell things to people who would probably throw you out of their offices if you said the word "twitter?" Are you trying to reach audiences who’ve never visited a social networking website because they’ve heard those sites are used by no one but virus peddlers, sex fiends and 14 year old losers?
Sometimes it feels like social media is just not relevant to the people you’re trying to reach. That’s a common dilemma, but we believe it doesn’t have to be that way. In this post we discuss five strategies for using social media to reach people who don’t use social media, and we’ve listed specific tools you can use to do it.

• Develop Relationships with People Who Bridge The Gap inside Other Organizations

You may want to target senior executives, older people or others who just aren’t very likely to read your blog posts, Twitter messages, etc. but chances are - those people have co-workers, family and others in their lives who would. By adding value to the lives of less senior people inside organizations, you can gain mind-share with the people in whose interest it is to make good recommendations to their superiors at work.
Similarly, many mainstream journalists now participate in social media conversations for their research. Making yourself known as a topical expert to them online can help increase your visibility when it’s time to write a story off-line.
Here’s a recommendation we offered to one non-profit organization that we often use as an example now for others.
Let’s say you work locally on a particular issue and you’re interested in getting traditional press coverage. One way to pursue this is to subscribe to a feed for national media outlets, filter that feed for keywords related to your topic of interest and keep your eye out for breaking news or important topics on the national level. You might even set up an RSS to SMS alert.
Then, when a story comes out in the New York Times about water quality, food transport costs, or whatever your issue of interest is, you can contact local press about it and say "I don’t know if you’ve seen this national coverage on this topic [they probably haven't because you've automated watching for it] but if you’re interested in a local angle, our Executive Director/CEO/[or insert more down to earth person] is a good expert source for a local perspective."
You don’t want to do that too often, but occasional and appropriate use of this tactic should be appreciated by the press you reach out to. It’s mutually beneficial for both parties and could help you get that coverage in traditional media that’s more likely to be read by your off-line target market. Even the smallest organization could grow its mind-share in mainstream markets quickly using tactics like this.
Tools to use for these tactics: For general participation and visibility among the social media users that do exist in your area of interest, check out Twellow.com for a directory of Twitter users by industry, do some searches on FriendFeed.com and find out what the top blogs in your area of interest are using the methods described in our post "Six Ways to Find Top Blogs in Any Niche." Just participating with like minded people in this space will move you up on their list for biz dev and marketing.
If you’re not familiar with RSS feeds, start with this introduction: RSS in Plain English. FeedRinse.com is one of the easiest to use feed filtering services. Feed filtering is also available inside Zaptxt.com, one of our favorite RSS to IM/Email alert systems. See also Pingie, a new alert service we’ve been using and Alerts.com, an even newer one we wrote about this week.

• Use Web 2.0 Tools to Learn About Real Life Public Events

There may or may not be relevant events in your field that are attended by non-social media users and are listed on sites like Upcoming.org and Eventful.com. It’s worth a look and worth subscribing to the RSS feeds for those searches.
More likely, perhaps, is that your local newspaper’s website has those kinds of events listings. Trade associations, nonprofit groups and other kinds of sites often have events listings as well. What has this got to do with social media tools? You can subscribe in the same RSS feed reader that you read blogs in to those event listings. All too often there aren’t feeds available, but there are tools you can use to create them (see below).
Tools to use for this tactic: An RSS reader, be it Google Reader, iGoogle, MyYahoo or another - there are lots of options. If events listings aren’t being published by RSS, here’s what you can do. Find pages where they are listed, scrape a feed using Dapper.net (see how to do this) then filter the feed for keywords related to your industry if need be using a tool like FeedRinse.com or Pipes.Yahoo.com if you feel brave. (Want a 5 minute screencast intro to the basics of using Yahoo Pipes? Well there you go.)
For example, I just scraped a feed from my local paper’s news site event listings, then ran that feed through Yahoo Pipes to filter for tech or startup related events. The end result? A feed that’s empty today but could deliver just what I’m looking for later - mainstream events that I can attend after having learned about them using new tools on the web.

• Make Your Blog an Email Newsletter and Promote it Elsewhere

Feedburner, Google’s RSS publishing service, makes it easy to offer any RSS feed, including the one your blog should publish automatically, as an email newsletter. There are lots of companies that buy AdSense links on Google for links to their websites and blogs for key search terms. Your marketing department may write guest editorials in traditional press already and any other traditional marketing campaign can lead people to an "email newsletter" page - really your blog with email subscription.
If your target audience doesn’t read blogs or participate in social networks, they probably do like email. This is an easy thing to do and can prove quite effective for non-technical audiences if framed in a non-threatening way.

• Look Harder, Your Audience Probably is Using Social Media That You Aren’t Aware Of

There were 5 billion videos watched on YouTube just by people in the US in July. There are people in your industry using LinkedIn, we guarantee it. Where are people talking about you or your industry online? Check out Kingsley Joseph’s Social Media Firehose to find examples (click the "list" button to see a list view of links).
A couple of other places to look include Ask.com’s blogsearch, sort by popularity, and the social bookmarking site Delicious, where you can search for and subscribe to the most popular or most recent bookmarked links by keyword. You’ll want to use the site in different ways depending on your field. http://delicious.com/popular/chiropractic may not unearth a lot of resources, but http://delicious.com/tag/chiropractic+blog looks pretty interesting, for example.

It is not surprising to find an equine dental assistant on LinkedIn.

• Use the Internet to Make Yourself Smarter In Real Life

The best way to use social media to reach people who don’t use social media is probably just to use social media to kick more ass. You may be the only person in a meeting that reads blogs (unlikely, really) but that doesn’t have to be what people notice; the fact that you know more, sooner, about your shared interests (as a result of reading blogs) well will be a big help.
Easier said than done? Check out our recommended tools in this regard:
Check out our article about how to find the top blogs in any niche and then combine those sources with the methodology describe in our post How to Find the Weirdest Stuff on the Internet (or the best content on any topic).
We also recommend taking those top sources you identify and turning them into a Google Custom Search Engine, which is remarkably easy for even the least technical people to do. Search against those top sources as reference and you’ll unearth all kinds of useful knowledge from the archives of your industries online experts.
Build your reading list with the tools described in those posts above and you’ll be using social media to advance your career and connect more effectively with more non-users of social media.

Quote Of The Day

From a recent interview in ClikZ with Mitch Joel, author of "Six Pixels of Separation"  On  Human Interconnectedness in the new marketing landscape....

"We Are All One Click (or pixel) Away From One Another"

Famous Past Quotes:

In 2000 we were developing a marketing Campaign for a computer software company. If you recall, this was the time of the Big Scare of what would happen when all the computers had to switch over to the year 2000. This was known as Y2K.

We had the opportunity to ask Yogi Berra his thoughts on what Y2K would mean. 

Yogi gave this some thought and responded:

"Y2K???....What's that???...Some Kinda Lubricatin Jelly"  !!!!!

You gotta love a guy like that!

Rules Surrounding TV Ads Could Be Scrapped... Ofcom/London

This just in from our Linked-In Producers Network:

LONDON - Ofcom (The independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries) has today launched a consultation on the rules governing the way TV broadcasters sell advertising, and has admitted current restrictions 'may no longer be appropriate' due to fragmenting audiences.

Ofcom has proposed scrapping the rules that force the commercial public service broadcasters to sell all their ad minutes and restrict the way broadcasters sell bundles of advertising airtime. It could pave the way for broadcasters being able to generate tens of millions of pounds in additional advertising revenue each year.

The regulator has also proposed that the industry-wide ban on conditional selling should be removed, and that any anti-competitive effects be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Such a change would prove significant as broadcasters look to boost their digital channels.

In January, Ofcom said it was committed to "removing unnecessary burdens" from TV, and suggested that ITV, Channel 4 and Five could be allowed to limit the number of ad slots available.

Under rules devised in 2003, ITV, Channel 4 and Five are forced to sell all their advertising minutes, which prevents them from withholding ad airtime to drive up prices.

Today (29 March), Ofcom said the PSB broadcasters no longer had any incentive to withhold ad minutes as it would be unlikely to deliver more ad revenue and profits, and so the rule should be relaxed.

Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, said: "In the last few years, the TV sector has moved on, with substantial increases in the take-up of digital services and in the number of available channels.

"We are proposing that these rules be removed in light of broader developments in the sector. Underpinning all of our work this year on advertising is a commitment to reduce and simplify regulation whenever there is no clear evidence of a public interest which requires regulation."

The 10-week consultation closes on 7 June. Ofcom has said it hopes to publish this autumn, in time for the TV ad trading season.

Any new rules will come into effect from 1 January 2011.

Ofcom also said it will publish proposals on whether to amend the rules that set the maximum amount of ad minutes and determine break patterns for commercial TV channels, in the spring.

Such changes could mean broadcasters including ITV could offer more ad slots during high-value shows, such as Saturday night primetime, or spread their ad minutes across a week rather than a day.

Broadcasters are also waiting on Ofcom's decision on whether Sky should be forced to wholesale its premium pay-TV content, such as sports and film, to its competitors.

A spokesman for Ofcom said the decision on pay TV should be announced "before the end of the month".

U.S. TV market..anyone?

How Turbo Tax is using Social Media

In her BlogWell San Diego case study presentation, “TurboTax and Social Media,” TurboTax’s Social Media Marketing Manager, Christine Morrison, covered how they’re applying the fundamentals of word of mouth marketing to social media.

Christine shared how social media is helping them build a persuasion engine, how they’re making user reviews more relevant, and how they’re using Twitter for customer support.

Google and SEO China? Wassup?

China thwarts Google's detour around censorship

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE
AP Technology Writer 

 

Google's attempted detour around China's Internet censorship rules was met with countermeasures Tuesday by the communist government, which blocked people on the mainland from seeing search results dealing with such forbidden topics as the pro-democracy movement.

China's maneuver, as well as its public rebuke of Google's decision to stop censoring searches for the government, rattled some of the company's investors, advertisers and users.

The chief concern is whether Google poisoned its business in one of the world's most promising Internet markets. One analyst critical of Google's move predicted the maneuver will cause the company's stock to fall by as much as $50 — or about 10 percent — in the coming weeks.

The stock fell $8.50, or 1.5 percent, to $549 Tuesday.

Last month, Google said it no longer felt comfortable complying with the country's demands that it censor Web content deemed objectionable by the communist rulers. On Monday, Google began sending Web searchers in mainland China from the China-based Google.cn to Google.com.hk, based in Hong Kong. The former British colony has an open Internet, and Google is not legally required to censor results there.

But that end-run doesn't prevent China's government from using its Internet filters — known as the Great Firewall — to block some search results and Web sites from being seen in the mainland.

On Tuesday, a search request from within mainland China about the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests returned a notice that the "page cannot be displayed." It also caused the Web browser to disconnect for several seconds. Under the old google.cn, a similar query usually returned a list of sanitized sites about Tiananmen Square.

If the Chinese leaders really want to foil Google, they could block all mainland access to the Hong Kong service. Or they could exert their control of Chinese telecommunications companies to slow the speed of queries and responses, to help drive traffic to homegrown rivals.

"It really comes down to the extent of their vindictiveness," said Duncan Clark, managing director of BDA China Ltd., a technology market research firm.

The tensions between Google and China's government already appear to be denting the company's business.

TOM Online, a provider of online and mobile services in China that is owned by a Hong Kong tycoon, said it would not renew an alliance with Google to avoid violating any Chinese laws. Owners of Chinese businesses also may be more reluctant to advertise on Google for fear of reprisals.

If that happens, Google may reduce its sales force in China. For now, the company is maintaining both its engineering and sales staffs in the country, reflecting its hope that the Chinese government's anger will cool off. Google also believes it will be able to revive plans, delayed for now, to have its Android software support more mobile phones and applications in China.

Other foreign companies that have angered the Chinese government have been stymied in the country. American defense contractor Raytheon Co. closed its Beijing offices last year in frustration over its inability to win contracts for commercial aviation and consulting services. American executives believed Raytheon was being penalized for selling its Patriot missiles to Taiwan.

Although Google discussed various options in talks with the Chinese government over the past two months, the company made its decision to shift mainland traffic to Hong Kong without the ruling party's approval.

Google makes relatively little of its money in China now. Analysts have estimated the country accounts for $250 million to $600 million of its $24 billion in annual revenue.

But the pie is expected to get substantially bigger as China's economy expands and the country's Web audience increases beyond the roughly 350 million people online now.

Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Marianne Wolk expects China's Internet ad market to grow from about $3 billion last year to as much as $20 billion in 2014. Google appeared to be well positioned to pick up about $5 billion to $6 billion of that projected 2014 revenue, Wolk said, because its Chinese search engine has a roughly one-third share — a distant second to the homegrown Baidu Inc.

But Google's share is likely to shrink if the Great Firewall blocks or slows traffic.

BGC financial analyst Colin Gillis said he expects Google's dustup with the Chinese government to reduce the company's market value by $10 billion to $15 billion, or $30 to $50 a share.

"What Google has done is a slick trick, but it's also a direct slap in the face to the government," Gillis said. "The repercussions from this will be going on for several years."

In China some Internet users mourned Google's exit, placing flowers and chocolates at the large Google sign in front of the company's offices in Beijing. But others noted that the situation could raise awareness about China's strict online censorship.

Zhang Shihe, a freelance Chinese journalist and well-known blogger, said coverage of Google's departure could spur Chinese to demand more free speech online and offline.

"The incident has angered and saddened a lot of netizens, and now they will understand what type of country we live in," said Zhang, who blogs under the name "Tiger Temple." "This is another win for freedom of expression."

TV Everywhere!

By Edgar Villapando - SVP Marketing/Active Video Networks

Perhaps it’s just my post-holiday pre-CES mood, but something has me thinking that somewhere along the line we’ve lost the true message of TV Everywhere.

It’s not as strange as it seems — or maybe it is, who am I to judge? — but the combination of a holiday filled with home electronics and big screen TVs and an upcoming trade show that is founded on the concept of highlighting what’s coming next in the wide world of consumer electronics lead me down the path that TV is the center of the universe.

At least when it comes to home electronics.

Yeah, there are computers, computer games, computer games on TV, PDAs and what used to be PDAs now called MP3 players, or, to breach the dreaded brand name space, iPods and iPhones. And there are DVRs and TiVos (again, breaching into the brand name space) and video-on-demand and pay-per-view. There are smartphones and hardly any dumb phones other than the ones that are still tethered to your walls. And there are home entertainment centers into which any and all of the aforementioned devices and applications can be plugged but which ultimately have one centerpiece: that’s right, the television.

So while the idea of taking television and putting it on any of those new devices is fun and something you definitely want to do when you leave the home entertainment cocoon, the reality is that when you’re in that cocoon you want TV that provides you with the same functionality as those outside devices. Why only have the latest TV applications on devices that aren’t TVs? Why only have access to Web video on your cell phone or computer when the best screen in your house is your TV?

The reason this freight train of thought is driving through my mind these days is that a collision, of sorts, is on the horizon. The CE manufacturers and cable TV service providers, seemingly forever at odds, are moving closer to each other in a friendly manner. TVs are becoming acclimated to cable and cable is becoming less hostile to TV. TV has the screen and the capabilities to deliver a variety of what cable does best: programming. Cable has that programming and the delivery method to get it to the TV.

What once seemed like an inevitable derailment caused by the collision between two forces moving purposefully and speedily on the same tracks in different directions now looks to be an opportunity to couple two powerful trains and move in the same direction. Again, it’s the holidays so toy trains are on my mind.

The coupler that puts this all together is ActiveVideo. We bring the Internet content — and the myriad media types that exist there — from the Internet via the network cloud to any set-top box allowing subscribers to have TV Everywhere on the screen where it matters the most: the TV.

But it’s not just about bringing Web video to the TV. Just as important as a piece of media is the ability to infuse TV with the same constantly evolving innovation that happens on the Web. ActiveVideo not only brings you online media, but by supporting Web functionality it brings the infinite possibilities of connecting and integrating that media into your digital lifestyle.

As I say, TV Everywhere, while seemingly a concept that drags consumers off the television and into the realm of other Web-enabled devices, is actually the magnet that can draw them back to the place where they are most comfortable; the home entertainment center. Sure, take as much content as you can and spread it to as many devices as you like, but don’t forget the centerpiece. It is, after all is said and done, TV Everywhere; let’s keep the TV at the forefront of the experience.

3D TV- What's On?

Ok, we ran a little behind this week due to a corporate project so we're catching up this weekend! Here's something of interest for you gadget freek types. From the 3D TV Blog:

If you’re the early-adopter type who doesn’t mind paying top dollar for the latest tech gear, 3D TV may tickle your buying bone. But once you’ve shelled out thousands of dollars for 3D-enabled hardware, such as a Panasonic, Sony, or Samsung 3D TV, a 3D-capable Blu-ray player, and two or more pairs of 3D glasse, well, what’s on 3D TV anyway? Here’s your 3D programming guide for 2010.

ESPN
ESPN in June will launch a 3D TV network that will show at least 85 sporting events this year. Its inaugural 3D show: the first 2010 FIFA World Cup match between Mexico and South Africa on June 11. The network says it has tested ESPN 3D for more than two years, and is optimistic that sports fans will cheer the new technology.

One question: Will soccer players be encouraged to gratuitously kick the ball at 3D cameras? The ten people watching in 3D will be thrilled!

ESPN will beef up its 3D programming schedule next year, adding the 2011 BCS National Championship Game, other college football and basketball contests, the Summer X Games, and up to 25 World Cup matches.

Discovery
It’s a shame that “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin had an unfortunate run-in with a stingray back in 2006, because his high-energy outdoor antics would’ve been a natural for 3D. Then again, plenty of nature shows are a good match for the in-your-face realism of 3D, which is why Discovery Communications is teaming up with Sony and IMAX to launch a 24/7 3D television network.

The new channel will offer programming best suited to 3D, covering such topics as engineering, natural history, space, science, technology, and so on. Sony and IMAX will obtain television rights to 3D movies, which will air on Discovery’s 3D network.

DirecTV
Starting in June, DirecTV HD subscribers will get a free software upgrade that allows them to watch three 3D channels. One pay-per-view channel will show movies, documentaries and other fare. The second, 3D DIRECTV on Demand, will have sports, music, and other content. A third channel will have free 3D sampler demos. DirecTV is working with a number of big-name content providers, including CBS, Fox Sports, MTV, NBC Universal, and Turner Broadcasting, to develop shows in 3D.

Blu-ray
Three-dimensional Hollywood blockbusters such as “Avatar,” “Up,” and “Alice in Wonderland” are a natural for 3D home theater–or so Hollywood hopes. We’ll find out later this year when the first 3D Blu-ray discs begin to ship. Better get your earplugs ready, because the marketing hype for “Avatar” in particular is bound to be deafening.

More:
HDTV 2010: The 3D Revolution Is Coming. Not surprisingly, 3D TV programming pickings will be slim this year, but your 3D-viewing choices should increase considerably in 2011, particularly if 3D TV sets gain favor with consumers–a development that’s far from certain right now.