A Mark Left

I live in an urban environment with a bus stop near the front of my house. One morning, my neighbors and I were dismayed to awake to graffiti. Our bus stop had symbols painted on it, store front windows were etched, a residential fence defaced, and the light post marked.

“The value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose.”

-Richard R. Grant

While I don’t think anyone in the neighborhood was surprised that it happened, we were grossly disappointed. We all work hard to maintain our beautiful space, but someone with a different connection to our space worked hard to mark it as their own. How hard they worked is debatable but they made their mark.

Leaving a Mark

Our identity is hugely important to our success, whether we’re a small business, an individual or a gang. We all create an identity, intentional or not. Some of us leave a mark and some of us don’t. I learned something from the “un-identified” (in my world) gang. They have an identity that means something to their audience, probably their enemies. It means something to me too – there is never an appropriate time to push an identity on someone, or a community, if they don’t want it.

Likewise, how your identity is imposed upon and received in today’s social media communities is a critical component of any brand design and marketing strategy.

Consider yours carefully, seek good counsel and identify yourself properly.

Image: Robyn Gallagher

Savoir faire:
A polished sureness in social settings

Indelible or invisible?

You know the adage about first impressions. People are always making quick assessments of you or your brand based on how you look, what you say, and what you do. Eyebrows may raise, ears may perk up, or you may be completely ignored. Even a non-reaction is a reaction. Unless you’re surveying your audience on a regular basis, you may not even realize the impressions you’re making, or consider their impact, good or bad.

An impressive following

Think about how this applies on Twitter—how you form impressions and make snap judgments about who you do or don’t follow. It usually starts with them following you, or recommendations from those you trust. How often do you check out the Tweeter before you follow them—their content, name, URL, bio, and, yes, their background image?

Care enough to do a background check

A small online poll provided these nuggets of information about who checks out backgrounds:

• 50% of respondents said they view background pages often, 28% said sometimes, for a total of 78% who view background pages.

• 73% of respondents use a Twitter app such as TweetDeck, Seesmic, or HooteSuite that normally precludes them from viewing an individual’s Twitter background image.

• Based on the total number of respondents who said they view background pages often or sometimes, 75% leave an app to do so.

• The remainder, slightly more than 24%, view Tweets—and backgrounds—in web view mode.

One respondent’s comment underscores the numbers:

“I use Seesmic Desktop and occasionally Seesmic Web. Still prefer to look at Twitter Web when evaluating followers and potential follows.”

Although the sample size was small and the poll was simple, it underscores the importance of a web background as the first step to a strong online brand in Twitter. That brand is the first and sometimes only impression potential followers get. That split second impression could impact the next rung of your success, no matter how you personally define it.

Image: alainelorza

Scott Monty is a complete pro.
Huge respect for others, thoughtful words, solid information, and the wardrobe
you need to do battle.

Meg Fowler
Award-winning writer and social media/marketing maven

Adroit in Detroit

Comic Steven Wright once told the story of two kittens looking on as a cat leapt from atop a multi-story building. The cat back-flipped and turned, somersaulting over and over before landing perfectly on all fours. One kitten turned to the other and said, “See, that’s how you do it.”

When corporate communicators and would-be social media experts watch Scott Monty’s agile representation of Ford Motor Company it’s not difficult to imagine them remarking, “See, that’s how you do it.”

Ready for Action

As the social ‘face’ of a major brand, Scott Monty is doing what many social media practitioners can only aspire to. And he’s teaching everyone how it’s done. He’s the corporate online (and, often offline) face of Ford Motor Company, their social network hub, legal liaison and lay interpreter, public relations mouthpiece, arbiter, friend, dad—in short, the Fortune 500 social media field agent archetype.

“For anyone asking about the Ford fan sites and legal action: I’m in active discussions with our legal dept. about resolving it.
Please re-tweet.”

Scott Monty
Twitter, 10 Dec 2008

A Man on a Mission

Several degrees from Boston University and a pharmaceutical and biotech background serve Monty well in the critical thinking department. And he’s had ample opportunity to think on his feet during critical moments over the past several months.

Monty’s offset a mainstream media harangue-fest of Ford’s CEO in front of Congress while quashing an internal firestorm over legal action against a Ford fan site. He captains executive-level initiatives, meting out messaging and sustaining, repairing and enhancing Ford’s brand on a daily basis.

Well-versed, well-equipped

And the man is everywhere, talking about everything to everyone and changing the way Ford is viewed in the public arena. Scott Monty knows the value of scaling numbers—leveraging every major social network tool, gadget and most importantly, relationship it takes to forge and sustain an organic social connection with Ford’s brand online.

Several select episodes from Monty’s tool of choice, Twitter:

Unafraid of refuting fellow Social Media elites

“‘Luddite-filled?’ That’s pretty strong language. What ’s your evidence?” -Scott Monty | 30 Nov 08

A self-effacing humorist

“Jesse Stay did you buy one of our corporate jets? ;-)” - Scott Monty | 10 Dec 08

Rallying community support

“For anyone asking about the Ford fan sites and legal action: I’m in active discussions with our legal dept. about resolving it. Please re-tweet.” - Scott Monty | 10 Dec 08

Swinging back

“Just wondering: with an approval rating of about 10%, why hasn’t Congress called itself for questioning?” - Scott Monty | 10 Dec 08

Instigating community connection

“At AquaVox in the Venetian with Ford CEO Alan Mulally. Stop by!” [from CES] -Scott Monty | 7 Jan 09

Promoting new ideas

“How about crowdsourced suggestions for the next iteration of Ford’s in-car SYNC system?” -Scott Monty | 19 Jan 09

Key Skill Set; Social, Very Social

Acting as both a representative and ambassador of Ford, Monty employs his easy humor, genuineness and intelligence to the greatest good, treating dissenters and supporters alike with respect and self-effacing self-control. In lending his formidable personal equity to Ford’s cause, Scott Monty has indeed become the social face of Ford.

Related links

Ron Ploof’s Ford fan site public relations case study:
The Ranger Station Fire | 488 KB .pdf

The Arguments

Journalists, bloggers and public relation professionals sometimes view the future of information mediums, standards and distribution very differently. As the conventions of traditional journalism continue to clash with the unorthodox voice of the individual, everyone involved needs a place to explore answers and visions in a civil manner.

Sarah Evans founded #journchat, a live streaming conversation held each Monday night from 7 to 10 p.m. CST on Twitter, as a public forum between these diverse, and often at odds, professionals.

“The mission of #journchat is to keep an ongoing, open dialogue between journalists, bloggers and public relations professionals.”

Sarah Evans
Director of Communications, Elgin Community College

A Scheduled Debate

Evan’s idea thrives on the embrace of the community. In ever-increasing numbers people are flocking to #journchat each Monday evening to sort out the future of their collective professions in a spontaneous convergence of disparate—as well as like-thinking—individuals with myriad ideas about the state of information.

Every 30 minutes or so moderators introduce a new topic for the community to discuss and explore.

The published time frame for #journchat provides a reliable structure for the discussion—a notion counter to Twitter’s drop-in oriented format.

A Larger Vision

Evans told Brainstorm that she envisions #journchat evolving into a larger network—perhaps driven one day by a web application. It’s not difficult to imagine her concept as an extensible vehicle adopted to different topics and industries.

Join the Fray

Watch the discussions by going to Twitter’s search page and typing in #journchat. Or add your opinion to the discussion by getting a free Twitter account and including the #journchat tag in your posted “tweets.”

For discussion recaps, topics and more on #journchat visit the journchat.info website or follow the @journchat Twitter profile or @PRsarahevans herself.

Street Advertising Services: A greener, cleaner approach to guerrilla branding

“We wanted to apply a technique that was not just eye-catching and effective but also friendly to the environment. What could be more natural than water?”

—Kristian Jeffrey, SAS Founder

Profit from Filth

Street Advertising Services (SAS) of Britain offers a greener, cleaner approach to guerrilla branding. Using water, stencils and pressure washers, SAS cleans pavement in the dead of night, creating street art advertisements for companies like British Petroleum and K2r (see above).

Simple, direct and probably a great deal of fun on the installation side, it’s word-of-mouth (WOM) via foot. Remarkable.

[ via: dgirlp | Organic ]