The word of last week was definitely Tummler (definition: an entertainer, or master of ceremonies, especially one who encourages audience interaction – from Yiddish Tummler). Before the week started, I had no idea what a Tummler was and by the end of the week I felt I knew him well. I attended two events this week as part of Social Media Week and the word Hummler and to Hummel were mentioned three times. The first was by Kevin Marks of Ribbit who gave a great presentation at social media camp on The Art of Tummeling. It was also mentioned by Deborah Schultz of the Altimeter Group at the event organized by Sprout about building brands on social networks.

Tummler – from Yiddish origins

The idea of the Tummler isn’t new. It is the person who – aids, facilitates, enables, brings together, joins, encourages –people to have a conversation. The question I keep finding myself asking is where should this person hang out? The obvious answer is: go to where the people are. However that isn’t always that easy to determine. If you are a consumer brand then Facebook is probably as good a place as any but it isn’t as easy as that in the B2B world.

If you remember the big reveal of the Skittles site a while ago, the company thought that the Tummler could use Skittles.com as his playground by making the site entirely social. However, I noticed recently in an article  that Skittles has changed its mind because the conversation got out of hand. The site has now been totally changed.

For a B2B brand, I have certainly seen companies use blogs as an effective place for the Tummler to work his/her magic. But equally it is important for the Tummler to be out there in third party earned media channels driving the conversation forward.

In many senses the Chief Tummler, or Chief Conversation Officer, needs to set a strategy that enables all the Tummlers in the organization to be as effective as possbile. This probably means combining the roles of the Chief Communications Officer and Chief Marketing Officer into one. The successful Chief Tummler is the one that ensures that strategies are in place to facilitate conversations across earned media, branded channels such as Facebook and LinkedIn and on the brand website itself. Tummling is a delicate art but there is a fair amount of science to it as well.

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What Is A Tummler And Where Should He Live?

Last Tuesday, I hopped a cab from work down to Thor bar at the Hotel Rivington on the Lower East Side. I was headed down there to attend a panel about Fashion “going digital,” as part of the events of Social Media Week here in New York City.

Panelists hailed from Ideeli.com and MyItThings, among others, and sat down in close quarters to talk about their take on the role of social media in the fashion industry and vice versa.

In light of Fashion Week beginning this week, I will briefly discuss a topic that arose regarding the streaming of runway shows. Will designers start streaming their runway shows instead of showing live? Marc Jacobs is already livestreaming his show this year in conjunction with the live event.

Perhaps they will, but I do not see this having the potential to debunk Fashion Week. There is a thrill that passes through the air during a live runway show that cannot be experienced digitally. To hear the music live, see the clothes parade before you as the physical manifestation of each designer’s vision is a visceral experience.

However, let’s not forget that Fashion Week is in fact a trade event. This is for members of the industry, despite the consumer, social and celebrity interest it garners. For most worshippers, respectful admirers and even students of fashion, a ticket to the tents at Bryant Park is unattainable – but with an accompanying live, streaming video, the shows can receive a greater audience. As someone who religiously follows the fashion industry, I have to say I would love to see the shows streamed live. It is not the authentic experience of course, but I do think that should be left to the actual industry professionals.

Another interesting subject that becomes an issue when these shows pop up on the internet live, is the instant and rapid spread of trends. The trends reach mainstream audiences so quickly that shoppers want to get these looks before they’ve even hit the storeroom floors. Trends have been viewed 80 plus times, passed between the hands of countless blogs and feel old and tired before they’ve even been unveiled. I wonder how the fashion industry will tackle this issue.

All in all, it was an interesting forum and the fashion industry certainly stands at an interesting crossroads, as it cannot seem to avoid the influence of social media, whether it likes it or not. Sentiments seemed mixed, and I myself am, I confess, ambivalent.

-Kristin

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Fashion Goes Digital?

What is the real cost of attending industry events?

 The recent economic weather storms have made us all do some wallet-gazing and think twice before making any large purchasing decisions. For our clients, and indeed for every vendor, a cautious approach had to be adopted.  Return on investment (ROI) has been the mantra, everything we do should equal to value and tangible results. So as we draw nearer to the heady days of MWC 2010, I pause once again to reflect on what the ROI is on industry events and how can we really prove the value in financial terms? 

 Every year, vendors set aside enormous marketing budgets to exhibit at key industry events.  Huge investment on time, money and resources are required, indeed planning alone generally can start as far back as five to six months prior to the event itself.  Coupled with that you have to take into account your team and who will represent your company at the event . Now you’re adding to the pot, sales, marketing, senior level execs, product specialists, analyst relations and PR representatives. By now, that’s a lot of hidden financial investment.

 If we had the time, it would be a great exercise to take all these factors into account and do a complete audit on what these events cost in real financial terms. What would be even more interesting is to do a comparison to gauge if the ROI and more importantly, sales generated purely from the event actually align versus costs of investment in the first place. Unfortunately, it’s generally the case that its usually something that is briefly pondered on post event, a perceived judgment is made on whether there was any real ROI or not, before we have to stop, change gear and move swiftly on to start planning for the next industry event. Easier said than done, but wouldn’t it be great, if there was a simple but effective model that could make a real judgment in financial terms.

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Industry events – an expensive schmooze or a real return on investment?

With New York in the throes of Social Media Week, a few of us stopped by one of the more unique events last night, The SUXORZ. The premise is simple: people do dumb things. Some of those people even represent brands and do so in the embarrassingly public realm of social media. The SUXORZ gave us the worst social media campaigns of 2009 – a refreshing deviation from conversations of emerging platforms and social media ROI. More than anything, this was a crash course in common sense.

The distinguished finalists – as chosen by the panel of Caroline McCarthy, BL Ochman, Steve Hall and Ian Schafer – included the following (click on each for full story):

Charmin: Times Square + Portable bathrooms + $10,000 to capture “family friendly video from the restroom space” = social media TMI. While exciting, for round one, they came in No. 2.

Old Spice: No one likes deodorant residue – no one likes a close-up even more. Old Spice gets a no-no for grossing out consumers worldwide with viral videos and songs that left people feeling dirty.

Queensland Australia: Paying someone to live on an island and blog about their experience certainly sounds like the “best job ever,” until you get stung by a jellyfish…

Toyota: Crisis communications at its finest. In the face of serious product recalls that are concerning consumers, Toyota has promptly said… nothing.

Ryanair: An airline employee thought it wise to cut down a blogger via email simply because they were pointing out a flaw they found on their website. That’s a quick way to get your 15 minutes of fame.

Gawker/Bloodcopy: Gawker blurred the lines between advertising and editorial when it “acquired” a vampire blog called Bloodcopy. Problem is, this was just a stunt for HBO’s True Blood, and some fell for it.

InsidetheBCS: Anyone who follows college football knows the BCS system is flawed. The BCS organization took this flawed argument and made it even more visible on twitter! Angry fans unleashed.

Time Warner: While competing companies like Comcast have made a name for themselves with their helpful social media customer service, Time Warner has gone another route: squatting on the username TimeWarnerCares. Fail.

Agent Provocateur: This lingerie brand embraced social media full force, received wide acclaim for it, and then stopped all together weeks later. As they say, social media is a commitment, not a campaign

HabitatUK: Use hashtags wisely, my friends. This furniture brand blamed an intern for using the Iran election as a way to get more “brand awareness” on twitter.

Twitter Billboard: An Alabama news station decided to connect with its audience by airing tweets on a highway billboard. Problem is, some tweets caught drivers’ attention because of their rather graphic nature.

Needless to say, these “memorable” campaigns certainly got people talking. The winner (or is it loser?), you ask? Well, the honorable mentions went to Old Spice, Ryanair and Time Warner while ultimate victory was claimed by the Twitter Billboard. Large brands misusing social channels got people riled up, but nothing could trump the naivety of running an unmoderated live twitter feed on a 40 ft billboard. As your mother always told you – think before you speak. The executives that thought this was a good idea missed an important step: they didn’t think.

One thing that panelists and moderator Henry Copeland agreed on is that social media is starting to grow up. The ’09 finalists were nowhere near as catastrophic as the 2008 field. It looks like brands, for the most part, are beginning to realize what works and what doesn’t in the social media space.

Look forward to another year full of social media blunders to make the SUXORZ 2011 even more entertaining. Just try and stay off this list.

Read the original here:
The Best of the Worst in Social Media

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What digital services do PR agencies need to offer?

NYC Celeb Chefs Serve Up Free Street Food:

…if you check out NBCNewYork.com and answer some trivia questions for their  Around Town Contest.  According to Luxist, 500 lucky trivia winners will be given a cart location and a secret password to present at the cart, speakeasy-style, in exchange for their free lunch (cool!).

The campaign is to promote NBC New York’s new food site, Feast, which is set to launch this winter.  Mmm, can’t wait.

- Rebecca

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NYC Celeb Chefs Serve Up Free Street Food

Katie Hallen — “Show me the jobs” may be the most repeated phrase in Washington.