Social Media

Alleigh Marré

Candidates & Social Media: Deval Patrick

Alleigh Marré | July 22nd, 2010
Governor Deval Patrick

Governor Patrick's team has been getting SM help from supporters

The third of four gubernatorial candidates we’re profiling for BostInnovation’s “Candidates & Social Media” series is Massachusetts’ sitting Governor, Deval Patrick. After much coordination – we were able to catch up with staff from Patrick’s team to get their responses to our Social Media Q&A.

These responses were provided by Joshua Gee, Patrick’s Social Media Director. To learn more about Deval Patrick’s campaign for reelection and his stance on the issues, visit the campaign website, Facebook, or Twitter.

In case you’ve missed it, we’ve already profiled Republican Candidate, Charlie Baker, and Independent Candidate, Tim Cahill. Check out the past interviews to see how the candidate’s Social Media strategies stack up.

BostInnovation: How has social and new media changed the campaign landscape?

Joshua Gee: Social media continues to change the campaign landscape. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook rely on immediacy and intimacy, which has placed new demands and challenges on us to create compelling content and respond quickly to breaking issues. Social media allows endless ways to engage with supporters and potential voters and increases their interactivity with the campaign. While it can be a lot of work, the fact that anyone can post a question on our Facebook wall or tweet at us and expect a response quickly is pretty cool.

It has also empowered our supporters to run their own campaigns. For example, any of our supporters can use their social media accounts to act as a combination advocate/pundit to their own network and discuss the choices in this election. Obviously our opponents can do the same thing, but citizen empowerment is something the Governor believes in very strongly. More voices in the public debate is a good thing for the Commonwealth. (more…)

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Kyle Psaty

UserMojo Hoping to Change the Way Visitors Share Website Feedback

Kyle Psaty | July 19th, 2010
UserMojo logo

This company is dedicated to a more vibrant, more communicative Internet

UserMojo, currently incubating in Cambridge’s Dogpatch Labs, is a product developed by a new company, Progress Innovation, which is cutting into the heart of Internet user experience. The product is a feedback portal any website’s creators will soon be able to use to learn what visitors like and dislike about their sites.

According to Progress Innovation CEO Stephen Sprinkle, UserMojo are working on a sort of visual overlay webmasters can deploy to get feedback on actual page elements within a site — things like copy, videos, buttons, and website explanations and descriptions.

Think of it like a transparent slide users can open over the top of a website and make notes on. When they’re done, they simply click to submit that feedback to the site’s creator.

However, after almost two years of development and testing, UserMojo are shifting away from what was originally emoticon-based feedback and simplifying the process for users and website-operating clients at once.

“What we were is emotion analytics,” stresses Sprinkle, sitting across from me in the wide open space at Dogpatch Labs. “We went through a lot of customer development cycles around emotion analytics, and really learned two things from that: On the company side, they didn’t understand how emotion directly applied to conversion. We had to do a lot of education to get them to understand how emotion related to users converting. And with users going through the feedback process, they don’t know yet how to relate their emotions about a web page. So we’ve shifted the way we garner feedback. It’s now a simple ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ — something everybody’s accustomed to.”

Prior to being accepted at Dogpatch, UserMojo was one of 10 companies to go through the TechStars Boston program earlier this year.

(more…)

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Ali Powell

Media Branding 2.0: Steps in Attracting Personalized Press

Ali Powell | July 14th, 2010

What is Media Branding 2.0? Essentially, it’s the new way to get noticed by the press and news media. What exactly does it mean for you as an entrepreneur or as someone doing PR, branding, or marketing for a company?

The newest way to get your brand under the spotlight.

Media Branding 2.0 encompasses all social media spheres including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, blogging and others.

Last night, BostInnovation found itself at a non-traditional tech venue, Ryles Jazz Club in Inman Square, listening to a panel of gurus talk about the phenomenon behind Media Branding 2.0, how one can be successful at it and why it is important.

What was the message? Media Branding 2.0 can be a great way to get found and advance your career.

Ted McEnroe, the Director of Digital Media for NERN; Lylah Alphonse, a Writer and an Editor for the Boston Globe; Mel Robbins, Host of her own radio show and CNBC Columnist, and Lisa Van Der Pool, Staff Reporter of the Boston Business Journal answered the audience’s questions with the help of moderator, Barbara Quiroga, Owner of a boutique PR firm, BQ+A.

These were four well-known voices in the media world here in Boston. They suggested putting yourself in the situation that every entrepreneur dreams of: Flip the tables on the media and put them in the spotlight. Rather than waiting for the press to ask questions, instead you should be asking the questions: “How can I show up on your radar? What can I do to build my personal or company brand to gain credibility to be featured in your news source?”

Here’s what the panel suggests: (more…)

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Kyle Psaty

ZoomAtlas: Why Your Dad’s Favorite Social Networking Site Could Soon Be Your Favorite Too

Kyle Psaty | July 13th, 2010

ZoomAtlasCambridge-based ZoomAtlas, like many emerging social networking sites, is focused intensely on one thing: Its users.

When you’re trying to grow a social networking site, frustrated or confused users is a big problem. A negative experience not only means they’ll be less likely to peruse the site, it also means that users are creating less content for other users to consume — supply and demand are both corrupted by a bad experience.

So, like every other social networking site with a chance at hitting the mainstream, ZoomAtlas is watching the way users engage with their site intently.

A few months ago, the team at ZoomAtlas was watching their users when they realized something: Most of them were older than the average social network user. The majority of ZoomAtlas users are over the age of 50.

Here’s why:

ZoomAtlas is what Founder and serial entrepreneur Mark Sherman calls, “a location-based reconciliation website.” In other words, it allows users to re-connect with old friends based on geography. Unlike other, less tangible social networks, ZoomAtlas is a single visual entity — a map of the United States. But unlike Google Maps, ZoomAtlas allows you to zoom way into the map — beyond the point where satellite imagery becomes fuzzy. When you zoom way in on ZoomAtlas, the site reveals an artificial, illustrated overlay that looks like a game layer on Sim City. The name pretty much says it all. (more…)

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Alleigh Marré

Candidates & Social Media: Tim Cahill

Alleigh Marré | July 9th, 2010
Tim Cahill

Gubernatorial candidate Tim Cahill

We’re into week two of BostInno’s Candidates & Social Media series, where we’re talking to reps from every Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate in the 2010 election. In case you missed it, last week we spoke with Republican candidate Charlie Baker’s Communications Director, Amy Goodrich.

Today we’re featuring Independent candidate, Tim Cahill. I had the pleasure of talking to Juli Sweeney (@JuliSweeney), Cahill’s Press Secretary, for this week’s Q&A.

Cahill’s Facebook page, Timothy P. Cahill, has over 4,000 fans, and the campaign’s Twitter account, @TimForGovernor, is watched by almost 800 followers, ranking Cahill number two of our four gubernatorial candidates on the popular microblogging platform.

Without further ado, here’s our Q&A with this week’s campaign representative:

BostInnovation: How has social and new media changed the campaign landscape?

Juli Sweeney: Both are providing a new opportunity to make politics more personal for people at home. Outside the traditional press release and media coverage, the campaign is now able to bring Tim’s message directly to the voters on our own terms. That message is sticking, and we have amazing supporters who are starting and participating in great conversations about the future of the Commonwealth via Facebook and Twitter. We believe that by engaging with heavy social media users, we’re also tapping into a valuable network of influencers who will carry our message beyond the internet and out into their communities. (more…)

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Kyle Psaty

Boston is Home to the Top Social Software Providers by Revenue

Kyle Psaty | July 6th, 2010
IBM Logo

IBM sold the most social software globally in 2009

The world of marketing and communications is being thrust into the new realm of social media at a rate that would have been almost unimaginable five years ago. With sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare becoming the new vehicles for communication around consumer brands, there aren’t many companies out there who are still ignoring the benefits of social media campaigns and interactions.

But did you know Boston is home to the two biggest social software providers by revenue?

Communispace Logo

Communispace sold the second-most social software

According to a study released a few days ago by the International Data Corporation (IDC), IBM and Communispace are the top two social software providers catering to the companies looking to make real-time communications a priority worth investing in.

“IBM’s leadership in social software should come as no surprise as over 35% of Fortune 100 companies have adopted IBM’s social software offerings,” wrote IBM Global Communications rep Karen Lilla in an Email to BostInnovation. “IBM Lotus Connections clients include Berlitz International Inc., Sogeti, Digital China Holdings Limited, and Rheinmetall AG., and others have adopted IBM social software to work smarter, become more agile, and foster innovation through communities, blogs, wikis and more.” (more…)

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Alleigh Marré

Candidates & Social Media: Charlie Baker

Alleigh Marré | July 2nd, 2010
Massachusetts Gubernatorial Candidate Charlie Baker

Mass. Gubernatorial Candidate Charlie Baker

This week marks the beginning of our Candidates & Social Media series. As promised in last week’s post, BostInno is sitting down with each of the Massachusetts gubernatorial campaigns to discuss how they are using social media to supplement their campaigns.

If online popularity had a direct correlation to Election Day outcomes, Charlie Baker (R) and Deval Patrick (D) would be in a dogfight to the finish. With over 10,000 Facebook Fans, Baker’s Facebook presence is second only to Patrick’s. The incumbent has over 14,000 Facebook Fans.

Baker however, takes the cake (haha), for overall social media presence, because he’s the only candidate with over 2,000 followers on Twitter. The next-most Twitter followers in this year’s gubernatorial election is Tim Cahill (I), with just over 700.

Amy Goodrich, Communications Director for the Baker campaign, was kind enough to carve out a few minutes to answer our questions. Here’s what she had to say:

BostInnovation: How has social and new media changed the campaign landscape? (more…)

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Marissa Lowman

I AM HUNGRY: Your Geolocated Ticket to Cheap Eats in Boston

Marissa Lowman | July 2nd, 2010

I Am Hungry app logoYou’re walking around Boston and you’re hungry. You want to get some food right away, but have no idea where to go or what restaurants in the neighborhood have the best deals. That’s where I AM HUNGRY comes in.

This iPhone and Facebook application tells you what deals you can access at nearby restaurants, based on your location. The Facebook application allows you to print the deals or send them via text message to any phone, so you have them on the go. The interface also tells you when deals are expiring and when you can access them in case you want to plan your day around getting good deals.

Right now, I AM HUNGRY is only in Boston, so you get to be the first to try an application that will likely spread across the U.S. a la Groupon quite quickly. The founders’ goal is to dominate Boston, and they said “[Boston] is a lynchpin to our success, and that’s first and foremost before going to any other cities.” Living in Boston does have its techno-perks, occasionally, and this is one of them.

While there is a lot of competition in the deal space — everything from Boston Bargains to CoupMe (both Boston-based) is making Boston cheaper — I AM HUNGRY seeks to differentiate themselves by focusing on restaurants and everyday value instead of steep discounts a customer can’t always access right away. Think of it as including “discounts on demand.” (more…)

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Max Silver

Social Media Day Boston Brought Out Local Pros

Max Silver | July 1st, 2010

California-based social media blog Mashable somewhat arbitrarily picked June 30th to be Social Media Day worldwide, but Bostonians couldn’t help but get involved!

In honor of this impromptu, first-time holiday, cities including Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Barcelona, New York, and many others joined in with events to celebrate. In all, 93 countries held celebratory events.

the #SMdayBos panel

The #SMDayBos Panel

Joselin Mane, also known as @BostonTweetup took charge and decided to organize Boston’s Social Media Day tweetup, which was held at Boston’s Seaport Hotel last night. As a result of Mane’s efforts, Boston’s tweetup ended up being one of the top ten biggest Social Media Day gatherings from among 619 in the world, according to organizers.

To celebrate this momentous first-annual day, which Mashable describes as, “a day to celebrate the revolution of media becoming social,” Mane organized a panel of local social media experts in different fields. These fields included higher ed, music, government, data, traditional media, non-profit, entrepreneurship, and dating. (more…)

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Kyle Psaty

EXCLUSIVE: Mzinga Ups the Ante, Deploys More Powerful Tool Set

Kyle Psaty | June 29th, 2010

Mzinga LogoLocally-based Mzinga, founded in 2007, is a leader in providing enterprise solutions for internal and external social media solutions to medium and large companies. Today, they’re announcing a whole slew of updates to their flagship social software suite, OmniSocial

In case you’re unfamiliar, OmniSocial is a massively powerful platform for companies to not only communicate better internally in realtime, but also better engage their online communities as well. If corporate communications were all performed with tin cans connected by taught strings, Mzinga’s OmniSocial would essentially be the equivalent of speaker phones — allowing employees to communicate faster to whole groups as well as to entire user bases through a number of community-facing softwares.

OmniSocial has been the company’s staple software as a service (SaaS) product for years, and it’s currently being deployed by top retailers, massive media outlets like ABC News and even brands frantically trying to re-create lines of communication with customers like Ford Motor Company, but with today’s updates, the company will have much more to offer customers.

“This is a significantly enhanced version,” said Dan Bruns, Senior VP of Advanced Technology at Mzinga in an interview yesterday. “For all intents and purposes, it’s a new version of the platform. It will provide a lot of additional functionality for our customers as well as, we think, help us grow our customer base significantly.”

Alright, so a lot of companies out there are iterating, and many of them release new versions of their products daily. We know this. But Mzinga is essentially catapulting their software into the future with this massive update, and we couldn’t wait to share it with you.

So what’s all the fuss about?

According to Bruns, the answer is four-fold.

(more…)

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Ali Powell

#140Conf Galvanizing the Twitter Revolution in Boston: September 14th

Ali Powell | June 28th, 2010
140conf Logo

This event is a ways out, but it's close to our hearts!

Each day, hundreds of readers flood into BostInnovation every time we post an article to Twitter and Facebook. Of course there are readers who simply know that the blog will have fresh content daily, but the realtime channels for BostInnovaton is critical to the way people consume our content. This is why the 140 Characters Conference has a special place in BostInno’s collective heart.

#140conf has had events in New York, London, Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, and now they are coming to Boston! The #140conf emphasizes a localized way of connecting the Twitter community. Twitterers come together to connect, listen and share content with one another at these conferences. The momentum behind 140 Character Conferences comes from the power of the realtime web. How is the realtime web affecting business across the world?

We think it’s forever changing the face of communication.

Jeff Pulver’s mission behind creating the #140conf is to help people discover other people locally who are doing great things — another idea we always try to promote here at BostInno. People who should attend are those with a passion for affecting change. (more…)

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Kyle Psaty

Alphabet Arm on: 5 Smokin’ Hot Brands in Boston

Kyle Psaty | June 28th, 2010

Alphabet Arm LogoThey’re the undisputed kings of underground graphic design in Boston. The cats over at Alphabet Arm Design, founded in 2001 and located on Harrison Avenue in Boston’s South End, have developed design elements and whole brand campaigns for top music acts like The Fray and Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles, as well as some rockin’ local startups. (More on that at the end of this post.)

You might recognize their brand, because fans of the agency have pasted stickers featuring their logos on every bus stop and street corner in Boston.

Since Alphabet Arm are arguably the coolest brand creators in Boston, we thought we asked Founder Aaron Belyea and Designer Ryan Frease to sit down with us and pinpoint five of their favorite brands from in and around the city. They only stipulation? They couldn’t talk about anything they created. What Belyea and Frease came back with were five of the most smokin’ hot logo and brand strategies we could have imagined.

They’re not all startups, but the stuff Alphabet Arm mentions in this post and the reasons they like them are well worth the read. And for all you startupers out there, head to the bottom of the post for three additional brand strategies BostInnovation likes that Alphabet Arm designed — there’s plenty of startup-ey goodness in this article!

Without further ado, here’s what Alphabet Arm came up with: (more…)

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Alleigh Marré

Follow the Massachusetts Governor’s Race on Social Media

Alleigh Marré | June 27th, 2010
Mass State House

Who's headed for the gold dome? Social Media may determine the answer.

It’s a gubernatorial election year! Massachusetts’ highest statewide office is up for grabs. And BostInnovation is curious — how has social and new media changed the campaign landscape?

Politics, like social media, is about conversation. No one wants to be talked at. Voter concerns and comments must be taken into consideration in every campaign statement, policy, and action. For this reason, social media seems like an easy place to engage the voting community. Campaign blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube become places for politicians to reinforce their political messaging directly to their constituents, free of media bias, at essentially only the cost of staff.

Here’s a quick look at all the candidates for governor in Massachusetts, including their websites, Twitter handles and Facebook Fan Pages: (more…)

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Ali Powell

Justin Levy’s New Book Simplifies and Amplifies Facebook Marketing

Ali Powell | June 26th, 2010
Justin Levy

Justin Levy hooked us up with a copy of his new book: Facebook Marketing

Facebook marketing should be part of a holistic overall approach to your inbound marketing efforts whether you are part of a startup or working for a Fortune 500 company. Local social media theorist Justin Levy, the Director of Business Development, Marketing and Client Relations at New Marketing Labs just released his latest book, Facebook Marketing: Designing Your Next Marketing Campaign. Thanks to MITX, a tweetup able to celebrate the awesomeness that is Facebook with free drinks and appetizers at his Book Launch Bash on Thursday night at Red Sky.

Thanks, Justin!

Justin’s book is ranked in Amazon’s Top 50 in E-Commerce books right now for a reason. This book is for anyone and everyone who wants to learn more about how Facebook can amplify their business and grow their lead volume. The basics are covered; he goes step-by-step on how to build an effective marketing campaign and how to analyze this data to increase revenue.

There is no doubt that Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare are not going anywhere anytime soon. Businesses must take yield to these kinds of marketing channesl, embrace the madness and stop fighting the tide. The answer to your marketing woes is simple and starts with information in Justin’s book. Facebook allows companies to humanize their brands. Justin is a huge fan of bringing information to people in plain English.

“Facebook is the third largest country. You want to fish where the fish are to be successful,” he said Thursday (more…)

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Ali Powell

How to Build Buzz around your Brand as an Entrepreneur

Ali Powell | June 24th, 2010

Jay Wilder of Brainshark, Michael Troiano of Holland-Mark, Kipp Bodnar of HubSpot and David Hauser of Grasshopper all have something in common. Even though their companies deal in B2B video, advertising, Inbound Marketing and startup software tools, respectively, there’s something tying them all together.

Each of these Boston-area companies have had a hand in creating remarkable brand strategy from the ground up through realtime web movement in a world focused on virality.

How do you use social media, utilize inbound marketing tactics, and promote your personal or company brand to get people talking about you and wanting to learn more about your product?

Last night, MassChallenge and Grasshopper teamed up to give dozens of entrepreneurs the chance to hear from a group of panelists who have done just this — created brand buzz to build their customer base. The event, dubbed How to Build Buzz around your Brand, was held at Microsoft N.E.R.D. (more…)

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