I like this Facebook ad by Maier Advertising. The message is simple, and they smartly included in their phone number in the ad. Since they’re paying most likely on a cost per click basis, including the number in the ad is one way of saving money.

Consider TJMaxx’s fast response to a fan question on their Facebook fan page. The response is significant because it demonstrates that the brand’s behavior inside the fan page is associated with the brand. In this case, good customer service on the fan page is associated with the brand’s good customer service in the store. What of brands that allow their pages to go without moderation? What message does this send to fans asking questions?

A brand’s personality now has an opportunity to be articulated by a real, human voice. We can now, through our behaviors, live the values of the brand. And in so doing, we deepen the relationship between brand and consumer.

Classic Gary V. on the dangers of not caring about your customers in a “thank you” economy – and the power of the highly connected consumer.

My favorite quote (about 3 minutes in):

“Everyone of you clowns, including me, are in one business now–the customer service business because word of mouth builds business and right now we’re living through the word of mouth on steroids era. Every customer has a much bigger voice because they are connected to so many more people through technology. So we are now in 1 business: customer service. Word of mouth converts 89% in the “real world.”

It’s been an exciting few weeks for social media in Boston. It’s not just the events, of which there have been many—but it’s the people that have made it exceptional.

The Megatweetup on December 3rd demonstrated the power of the social media community we’ve built in Boston. @joselinmane, and those who helped him, created an event with more than 400 participants at Microsoft’s NERD. People socialized, new friends were made, food devoured, and awards for the best Tweetup were given. It was like the Oscars for tweetups.

The entire social media community in Boston (and beyond) supported the event. I was thrilled to watch social media superstars @ChrisBrogan, @CC_Chapman and @SteveGarfield interact with students and new friends warmly.

These gentleman, hot shots in our world, were as down to earth in person as they are in writing. Case in point, @ChrisBrogan spent 15 minutes socializing with my students taking a real interest who they are. In what other industry would this happen?

The next day I moderated a panel at Emerson College with three major contributors to our social media community: @Cmajor, @joselinmane and @vanhoosear. We reflected on the history of social media in Boston—how Thursday’s at Berkman, Social Media Club, Boston Media Makers, Tweetups, Open Coffee, Mass Innovation Nights, Web Innovators Group and more gave rise to community. On the panel we discussed our predications for the future. I shared my thoughts through an analogy of a tagging a tree, which I’ll write about shortly.

I’d love to know your great memories of Boston Social Media. We should gather them and create a book….

Picture credit: Todd Van Hoosear. Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanhoosear/4158687673/

Sponsored Tweets is a new ad platform enabling advertisers to sponsor influential twitter users. The platform tries to use language familiar to ad buyers such as “cost per thousand followers.” They offer several campaigns as examples of its power. Apparently there campaign for Armani was so successful it actually brought their website down (anecdotal / peer source). I’ve run a few promotions on their platform, primarily as a test for clients. I can see its usefulness especially helping brands get scale for a compelling offer.

An unintended result of Sponsored Tweets is creating new benchmarks for social media and pr specialists using Twitter for their clients. Once a monetary value for a tweet is established through Sponsored Tweets that same value can be applied to determining the value of those participating in campaigns on Twitter without a monetary incentive.

On Tuesday I invited Loren Feldman of 1938Media to speak to my social media class. Loren argued that Twitter is filled with self-promotion: “No where else do people walk up to you & say “look what I wrote and how good it is’” [loosely paraphrased]. In response to those who take issue with advertising on Twitter, Loren has created a new hashtag “#myad.”

Advertising on Twitter is worth testing, especially if your client has a good creative message.  It’s up to the individual Twitter user to know the tolerance of their audience to advertising and to respect their audience accordingly. Those who advertise too frequently to their audience will lose them—and their ads will be less effective. Ideally, they will strike a good balance between monetizing content without interfering with the meaningful relationships they are creating.

I’ve seen many influential Twitter users, who run social an pr firms, do this for their client. They’re getting paid. How is this different?

One thing does surprise me….that Twitter isn’t getting a big piece of the ad marketplace their service is creating.