Red Magnet Media

This Weekend: Red Magnet Media at midem

Mayka Mei — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:22:42 +0000

Continuing Red Magnet Media’s unofficial Euro tour (Kristen just wrapped up at DLD in Zurich), I will be speaking this weekend at midem in Cannes. midem is an annual international music conference, and this year’s focus is on the independent music world.

I’m really excited, not just for the French riviera, but also for my discussion topic. Taking place on Sunday, “How to Find, Manage and Motivate Your Superfans” is all about mobilizing your most devoted fans. In my opinion, it’s the most authentic form of word of mouth marketing available, and also one of the best ways to cultivate a culture around your own brand.

At Red Magnet Media, we have a number of opinions on working with superfans, all based on a lot of experiences in our community management. This presentation is a culmination of those stories and learnings.

How to Find, Manage and Motivate Your Superfans

midem academy, Level 01

Sunday January 29, 2012

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

If you’re planning on attending midem, please send me a note! I’m happy to start collecting questions on superfans now, and since this is my first midem, I’m also happy to hear your tips on the conference: @mayka or mayka@redmagnetmedia.com.

Au revoir!

This Weekend: Duran Duran and Red Magnet Media do DLD

Mayka Mei — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:51:24 +0000

This Sunday through Tuesday, the DLD (Digital – Life – Design) conference takes over Munich with a full roster of technology-minded speakers and attendees. Kristen will be there with John Taylor of Duran Duran, excitedly unveiling a new project on Tuesday (stay tuned!), and also taking in talks from the likes of Arianna Huffington, Jack Dorsey, and Sean Parker.The conference focuses on innovation and connects “global thinkers, industry leaders, futurists, entrepreneurs, investors, scientists, opinion formers and creative talents” from around the world — creating the perfect opportunity to spotlight Duran Duran’s strong history of innovation and a great platform to reveal what’s next.Follow @RedMagnetMedia on Twitter for live highlights from DLD, and send Kristen an email at kristen@redmagnetmedia.com if you’re heading to Munich — She’d love to connect.

Meet Kristen Hawley, Our Digital Strategy Consultant

Rachel Masters & Athena von Oech — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:46:25 +0000

Our team is growing, and growing exponentially greater with every addition! We’re very proud to announce that Kristen Hawley, a New York editorial veteran-turned-San Francisco social media professional, has joined Red Magnet Media as a digital strategy consultant. Kristen’s past work at Twitter and Hearst have made her a natural at advising our clients in creating effective digital campaigns. She also worked at The Knot, which will undoubtedly make planning her future wedding particularly smooth.Kristen will be headed to DLD in a couple of weeks to assist Duran Duran and GAFFTA in unveiling an amazing project to the world. Send us a Tweet so we can connect you in Munich!

What did you do before arriving at Red Magnet Media?
I started as an editorial assistant at a glossy magazine in New York when print was still king and switched to digital editorial a few years later. After nine years in New York City, I flew west to California for the food, sun and opportunities in the tech industry. After a stint on the PR team at Twitter, I decided to return to my creative roots in a new capacity. My stock answer to the question, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” is: “I want to be doing something that doesn’t exist today.” I love the adventure!

What led you to working in social media?
I have a background and training in traditional journalism, but learned very quickly that adapting to a changing industry was the key to success. Facebook wasn’t around when I was in college, but it’s indispensable now. I’ll always love magazines and traditional practices, and I love applying those values to a new challenge. And I’ll always be a grammar nerd wielding an AP Stylebook, but I love watching brands adapt creatively to a changing climate.

What do you love most about social media?
Everyone has a voice — celebrity or not. Quality content will get you noticed. And I love that social media has a way of surfacing quality content on its own. It’s a nod to my editorial roots — content will always be king.

What’s the best part about being surrounded by the tech industry in San Francisco?
Before moving to the Bay Area and working in tech, I didn’t understand the industry’s creativity. From product conception to design and even engineering, it’s a creative process. Being surrounded by even the most analytical tech-minded friends and colleagues is inspiring on a creative level.

What’s the best part about San Francisco?
I live in a walkable city, but can drive to the best wine-growing region on the continent, amazing skiing and some of the best ocean views in the world. Plus, my fiance lives here. He’s alright.

Tweet Kristen a hello at @kh.

Pinterest: Boards for the Masses

Mayka Mei — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 01:49:23 +0000

Happy new year! The first week of a brand-new year inspires change. And when it’s the nature of your business to innovate at the speed of idea creation, change is always on the menu. Recent case in point: Pinterest.

What started as a site catered toward lifestyle has turned into something more mainstream. News outlets and other publications are using the site as yet another channel to disseminate information to the masses. The use cases are as different as they are hilarious to useful.

Second place finisher at this week’s Iowa caucus, Rick Santorum is the topic of a lot of political and Internet debate. And now, thanks to Pinterest, he’s already his own fashion meme, legitimized by Newsweek. It’s chronicling the best of Santorum’s Sweater Vests in a Pinterest board with tongue-in-cheek descriptions like “Oval Office Olive” and “Iowa State Red.” Savvy move by Newsweek to be so entrenched in social networks, and to not be afraid to inject a lot of voice into its captions!

This is part of a larger trend we’ve seen: Brands have embraced Pinterest as yet another social network, posting articles, images, and other pins of note to share with their followers. And some, like Forbes writer Victoria Barrett, see the space growing. In fact, she posits that Pinterest is going to trump the allegedly insignificant Facebook Like button in 2012. If Newsweek uses it and Forbes says it’s so, is Pinterest going to break out of the design network mold and be a part of the daily network repertoire?

Say Hello to Brit

Mayka Mei — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:21:37 +0000

Meet Brit Morin, the brains and DIY brawn behind the new creative living channel, Brit. The press calls her the Martha Stewart of Silicon Valley, but in her words, the concept of Brit is more like Real Simple meets Wired. No matter how you mash it up, Brit had a great launch last month, with press hits from TechCrunch and the LA Times.

In her piece for The Huffington Post, “The Curated Web,” Brit defined the dawning age of Curation that is taking over social products and media consumption. Her own journey to becoming an influencer without a traditional editorial background is testimony to the democratization of the Web, and how the Facebook generation has already carved new routes toward entrepreneurial success. With her daily content of how-tos, innovative product highlights, and fresh ideas, Brit is simply leveraging what she’s been doing for the masses – curating, only this time she’s curating her way into a lifestyle brand.

In between experiencing her venture taking off and gearing up for her own holiday plans, Brit carved out some time to talk with us about her progression from thinker to blogger to influencer to maker.

How did you arrive at the idea behind Brit?

When I was 18 I had a blog and I just posted interesting products or interesting ideas and creative thinking. I organically started accumulating tens of thousands of followers and I didn’t really ever look at the data. I left Google earlier this year and I knew I wanted to start a company, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to start. I had like ten different ideas.

I also knew I wanted to learn a whole bunch of new things, so I enrolled in all kinds of classes around [San Francisco]. I joined TechShop in SoMa, so I learned woodworking, laser cutting, screen printing, sewing, vinyl cutting – every kind of making. It was amazing. I just became really passionate about the art of craftsmanship and started making everything for my wedding. I just became fascinated with this whole new world of making stuff, because when you work in the Internet you’re creating stuff, but it’s all virtual. To create things that were physical was just a new experience for me.

That knowledge combined with my blog data – That I already had an audience that’s interested in my ideas – combined with this popularity of Pinterest and Etsy, clearly proves that people are interested and inspired in being creative and crafty.

So I just put those three things together and decided to launch a company devoted to just that: creative living.

Tapping into a niche market is exciting, but it can be challenging, too. What has prepared you for entering into a young market that seems to be defining itself?

I remember I had a conversation with [Marissa Mayer] early on in my career at Google and I asked her, “I see so many gaps, so many niches that could be filled by startups, but then there are all these bigger problems and bigger ideas, but they’ll take five to ten years longer. What’s your perspective on which ones to go after?”

She told me, “Why hit a bunt when you could hit a home run?” And I think that piece of advice will always stick with me. I feel like what I’m doing now is actually very ambitious, a lifelong business that I can grow into all kinds of different brands.

It seems like if you expand, you’re going to need five more Brits. Right now, you run your personal Twitter and @hellobrit’s – And you actively engage. How do you plan to scale and keep the voice authentic?

I think it’s really important to be an authentic voice. I think that’s something a lot of brands do wrong. Granted, sometimes it’s just not scalable, but for as long as I can stand it, I would love to be the voice of the brand on social media channels.

If you’re a self-named brand, it’s just so much more authentic when people are talking to you rather than talking to a community manager.

We’ve all seen the Pixel Cowboy wedding photos. Your Texas roots remains a core part of your identity, but your route to California seemed to have started in college. How did you transition into the digital frontier of the West?

I guess Austin was the only thing that prepped me. I totally gravitate towards free thinking, creative thinking – You know, Austin’s phrase was ‘Keep Austin weird.’ People that want to dress differently, do things differently, any type of living that’s different, I’m a big fan of. Also I think the intelligent culture of a place like Austin combined with the creative culture prepped me for California.

Clearly a woman who likes to create solutions out of unmet or stressful situations, Brit already has more in store for her brand. While she was deeply involved in her own wedding, she saw a need for a revamp in the planning process. One of her first upcoming products will be Weduary, a wedding site creator for the Facebook generation. A regular Bikram yogi, she’s also designing a smarter yoga mat that’s easier to keep clean. With all these ideas and all this opportunity, we’re looking forward to witnessing how Brit, a self-made online influencer, utilizes her knack for curating toward expanding her personal brand — all while staying authentic to her own self along the way.

Putting Up a Great Contest

Mayka Mei — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:00:37 +0000

When we plan contests and campaigns for our clients, we always think: How can we make the fans look awesome? What’s true to the brand? There’s no moving forward without having satisfied these two questions. Sweepstakes and giveaways may be quick and easy to run, but you know your contest idea’s really a winner when your fans get the chance to look as great as the rock stars themselves.

Red Magnet Media’s philosophy on contests is simple: Make the fans look awesome.

We social creatures are online and on mobile, and no matter what the platform, we are constantly bombarded by messages from friends, brands, and causes. Hyperactive home feeds have replaced many of our inboxes, so if you want to get a click, you better be thought-provoking or fun.

With all the fashion overflowing in the music video, pairing up Duran Duran with Polyvore to celebrate the video launch of “Girl Panic!” was pretty much a no-brainer. Even so, in conceptualizing a contest, it was important that we adhere to our values of what makes a contest worthwhile.

It’s so easy to get lost in the sea of inspiration that flows from Polyvore’s highly engaged users that the “fun” part is easy to understand. Getting the chance to immerse yourself in Duran Duran and design your definition of “rock chic,” all while knowing Naomi will be judging your vision? That’s the major icing on the cake, and in social, every contest cake is going to require extra icing. With crowdsourced and social contests, the fans know their names are being attached to their entry, so they’re going to be selective about the contests they enter and they’re going to put their best foot forward to win.

Think: Awesome for the fans, authentic for the client.

The collaboration with Polyvore was a big win for Duran Duran, too. Firstly, they were at the helms of a fun engagement campaign with one of the Web’s most influential fashion sources. Second, do you know what it takes to make a great Polyvore set? A great eye, an editor’s knowledge of fashion, and the time and patience required for any artistic pursuit. From Duran Duran’s perspective, this means that for hours on end, Polyvore users were creating, researching, clipping, and pasting – all in the name of Duran Duran. That’s some really deep engagement. You can’t even buy that kind of focus anymore.

And it shows.

Congrats to Polyvore set master houseofhauteness for winning Duran Duran’s Girl Panic! contest. Just one quick sweep of houseofhauteness’ past Polyvore sets, and it’s obvious she’s got a refined eye for color and edge. In between jetsetting through Paris and beyond, Naomi Campbell (AKA: Simon Le Bon in Duran’s “Girl Panic!” video) selected the winner herself!

Red Alert: Influencers, the Underground, and Dr. Rhodes. 11.22.11

Mayka Mei — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:36:21 +0000

There’s a lot to be thankful for with each and every one of our clients, but for now, we’ll focus on the way they embrace change in their industries, the way they treat their fans, and the way they…wear their cap and gown.

Bravo to SHN and our special guests for Fela!’s fantastic opening week! Fela! is a musical that sings the story of Fela Kuti’s adult life, and while Fela Kuti may not be a household name, his story is so rich and fascinating it’s bigger than the stage. It’s no wonder Jay-Z, Will Smith, and Jada Pinkett-Smith felt compelled to join the production as producers. Kuti was known as the James Brown of Africa, but his political activism was as much of a defining part of his identity as his influence on Nigerian music. Though the music is upbeat and infectiously danceable, the story of his life was far from smooth. The show is intense, and every member of the audience walked away having learned a great deal about African history.

A show with so much back story is inherently more of a challenge to a marketing team: It’s not as happy-go-lucky as the musicals that get medleyed into Glee. It’s deeper than any billboard ad can communicate. By no means does that make it unenjoyable, it’s just not the first name you think of when you hear the word “musical.”

In teaming with SHN to think of how to get Fela!’s message out to the Bay Area, we decided the best form of outreach was to go straight to the source: the influencers. We spent days brainstorming where new and casual theater fans might be: listening to music, taking part in San Francisco’s diverse nightlife, watching self-made YouTube stars. We researched even more, and through our network of music fans, startup thought leaders, and community advocates, we discovered we had a lot of contacts who already loved Fela Kuti’s music and were anxiously awaiting Fela!’s arrival in the Bay Area.

The results were even greater than we expected. Thanks to our authentic outreach to folks who we knew would enjoy great entertainment, “Fela” was trending on Twitter in San Francisco by the end of opening night! Friday night’s attendees got an extra treat when the real-life Sandra Isadore, the American woman who opened Kuti’s eyes to civil rights, appeared and headlined our post-show Q&A. (More pics here!)

Not every concept is going to be an “easy” thing to market, but that’s actually where social and digital outreach has given us a great advantage. Self-made authorities on myriad topics are far more trusted by – and accessible to – the masses these days. With profound, high-quality shows like Fela!, a complete outreach plan requires not just traditional press and PR, but digital strategy as well. Here’s to working in the increasingly democratized world of media.

Announcing Linkin Park Underground

Linkin Park has fully relaunched its fan club, Linkin Park Underground, with the release of LPU11. It was always all about the fans before, but now fan club members get even more access to Linkin Park with exclusive downloads to unreleased material. Linkin Park fans often revel in the band’s rough sounds, so LPU11′s digital downloads are going to be the butter to their bread.

“The music we release to the LP Underground are always special,” Mike Shinoda said to Artist Direct. “They’re the rawest form of our songs, including finished and unfinished tracks from nearly all our albums. We take a lot of time crafting any of our studio albums, and these songs are a great insight into the process.”

Nick Rhodes is Rockin’ the Ph.D.

It’s debatable whether Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran’s keyboardist) is the world’s first metrosexual, but one thing’s for certain: He is the world’s first rock star metrosexual with a Ph.D. On November 19th, Rhodes received an Honorary Doctor of Arts from the University of Bedfordshire. Smashing.

Red Alert: GetGlue’s Adherence to Community Gets Them a Vanguard 11.16.11

Mayka Mei — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:12:35 +0000

AdAge just released its Media Vanguard Awards, and while the full list absolutely deserves a look, we’re most proud of a company who’s setting the tone for a perfectly executed path from Offline to Social: GetGlue.

The key to successful social applications is that they reverberate your actions. Folks who attended Incubus HQ Live scanned a GetGlue QR code on the wall using their mobile phones, and sent resulting waves of excitement (and a tad bit of jealousy) throughout the crowds of Twitter and Facebook friends and family back home.

We also worked with GetGlue to make visiting Duran Duran’s merch table an action that resonated online, and the collaboration earned Duran Duran nearly 4 million impressions.

Of GetGlue’s Digital Native/Best Second-Screen Platform award, AdAge writes:

GetGlue has nearly 2 million registered users who check in more than 16 million times a month (via GetGlue.com and its mobile apps) as a way of sharing their pop-cultural passions. As check-ins ricochet across Twitter and Facebook, the result is the formation of real-time communities of fans who are all loving the same thing at the same time — a marvel in our time-shifted, disintermediated age, and the reason why GetGlue now has partnerships with 35 TV networks, 10 movie studios and five major record labels.

Why Does It Work?

Do you remember watching the Oscars before Twitter? Maybe you made ranch dip and used Evite to gather your friends for viewing parties. Despite the prep, it was fun, but the person who couldn’t make it to your party was destined to never fully understand the in-crowd reactions to So-and-So’s red carpet dress. Nowadays, even if you’re sitting in the passenger seat of the car while the Academy Awards reveals its top picks of the year, you can still partake in the general nostalgia for the days of Billy Crystal. Through the Twitter and Facebook apps on your phone, large communal experiences are changing from solely offline discussions and moving online, in front of even more eyes than would have seen them before. I didn’t watch MTV’s VMAs this year, but I sure knew about Beyoncé’s baby bump.

The term “sticky” has been a part of Web interaction design’s vocabulary for years, but with GetGlue you do more than get a person’s eyes and ears focused on your brand. With GetGlue, you make them a part of your community, too.

Congratulations, GetGlue! Your accomplishment is well deserved.

Just the Beginning: FashTech Part I

Mayka Mei — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:34:52 +0000

Last Thursday was a great gathering of style-minded folk in not-so-notoriously stylish San Francisco, and just as the talk was getting good, attendees of SF Fashion + Tech‘s first-ever FashTech were evacuated! A nearby gas line break spilled entrepreneurs, fashionistas, and chefs of neighboring Town Hall (still in their whites) onto the street, but not after some great introductory discussion by SneakPeeq and FashTech’s panel.

SneakPeeq

The night opened with an overview of social shopping app, SneakPeeq, which rather perfectly marries shopping with social and gamification. Co-Founder and President Henry Kim, formerly of the VC world, cited the huge barrier to entry for emerging brands as one of the key inspirations for SneakPeeq. That, and the fact that if you’re going to get someone’s attention, you’ve got to go to Facebook:

"One of every four page views today is a Facebook Page." -@sneakpeeq #fashtech

November 11, 2011 2:45 am via Twitter for iPhone ReplyRetweetFavorite

@redmagnetmedia

Red Magnet Media

Kim claims SneakPeeq has indeed created exposure and opportunity for new brands, including one of their first brands to host a SneakPeeq boutique, jewelry line CC Skye:

90% of visitors to @sneakpeeq's @CCSkye boutique never heard of @CCSkye. 83% said they'd consider buying @CCSkye in the future. #fashtech

November 11, 2011 2:51 am via Twitter for iPhone ReplyRetweetFavorite

@redmagnetmedia

Red Magnet Media

As new variations on online shopping keep the ecommerce industry on its toes, we’re interested to see what SneakPeeq can do for young brands in the future. Maybe all fashionistas have a little bit of Facebook gamer in them.

The Panel

FashTech had a fantastic lineup for its panel, representing multiple angles of ecommerce:

Moderator: Lorraine Sanders, San Francisco Chronicle columnist and Founder of SF Indie Fashion
Susan Gregg Koger, Founder of ModCloth
Vineet Buch, Group Product Manager of Google Shopping
Sinead Norenius, Co-Founder of iFabbo
Chris Lindland, Founder of Betabrand

We were only able to barely scratch the surface of how social media has changed branding practices at large and how bloggers and online influencers are absolutely to be taken seriously – before leaving RocketSpace. Here are a couple of gems.

Sinead Norenius, founder of international fashion and beauty blogger organization iFabbo, jumped right into why bloggers are increasingly as influential as editors:

"Brands are finally realizing that it's okay to have a personality." -@iFabbo #fashtech Hear, hear!

November 11, 2011 3:04 am via Twitter for iPhone ReplyRetweetFavorite

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Red Magnet Media

Susan Gregg Koger’s company, ModCloth, opened its San Francisco offices just last year, and is held up as a young brand that gets today’s new marketing methods. Big brands, though? She says they’re not all quick to social media successes themselves:

"A lot of the traditional [fashion] players are not going to be making the right moves." -Susan of @modcloth #fashtech

November 11, 2011 2:58 am via Twitter for iPhone ReplyRetweetFavorite

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Red Magnet Media

But when it comes to the right moves, Betabrand has it on lock – Largely because they shifted their marketing methods to match and celebrate their consumers’ behavior. Their Model Citizen app makes its very citizens into its product models:

We like how @betabrand's Model Citizen opp engages fans because it makes the fans look awesome. #fashtech

November 11, 2011 3:00 am via Twitter for iPhone ReplyRetweetFavorite

@redmagnetmedia

Red Magnet Media

The SF Fashion + Tech team is already under way to restage FashTech, and we’re looking forward to getting deeper into the conversations of the tech-infused future of fashion.

Red Alert: @aplusk says #TTFN 11.11.11

Mayka Mei — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:34:02 +0000

I'm just trying to be a good person.

November 11, 2011 3:35 am via Twitter for iPhone ReplyRetweetFavorite

@aplusk

ashton kutcher

Hark! A tree has fallen in a wood, and all the birds have Tweeted aboout it. Yesterday big news broke for the celeb-obsessed, would-be male modelizers, and social media digerati (In this context, that word works.) alike: Ashton Kutcher is taking a break from Twitter.

After years of managing his own Twitter, @aplusk is handing it off because it's getting overwhelming. http://t.co/ewjOHrIB

November 10, 2011 6:29 pm via Crowdbooster ReplyRetweetFavorite

@Crowdbooster

Crowdbooster

With over 8 million followers, this is a big statement. Kutcher was the poster child for a non-tech personality using Twitter for what it was made for, public in-the-moment communication. In so many words, a quickly formed Tweet about Joe Paterno’s termination from college football served Kutcher with a classic hard lesson in speaking without knowing the full details. (See: Kenneth Cole’s Twitter fail) His public quickly berated him for not knowing Paterno’s dismissal was related to sexual bause, pushing Kutcher to the point of declaring it’s all too much:

I feel responsible to deliver informed opinions and not spread gossip or rumors through my twitter feed. While I feel that running this feed myself gives me a closer relationship to my friends and fans I’ve come to realize that it has grown into more than a fun tool to communicate with people.

Kutcher is handing the “secondary editorial measure” reigns off to ”ensure the quality of its content.” Though his initial fans no doubt feel somewhat betrayed, this is a wise move made with good intentions. Sometimes rock stars need extra eyes to keep facts like campaign partners, venues’ Twitter handles, and important background stories in line. By definition of being high-profile personalities, their lives are exponentially busier than the average person’s, which could mean a lot of opportunities for simple gaffes alongside all those well-meaning behind-the-scenes red carpet pics. Fact is, some folks and some specific Tweets warrant an advisory once-over before being published. (See: Kim Kardashian outs the air marshal.)

We stand by a lot of celebrities who need social media assistance on that one. Better to have someone else Tweet than to not Tweet at all – But for Kutcher, it’s a major switch in social strategy. Can Kutcher smoothly go from highly personal to outsourced content? Do we lose authenticity knowing that his feed is more or less “ghostwritten?” Is that such a bad word, after all? One comment to his blog illustrates a cool-headed reaction that his followers feel:

Ashton, so you’re [sic] someone else will be tweeting for you??? I don’t think people follow you to hear from someone else beside you… not something that’s manicured…. #JustSaying -AllenForrest

Moving your social media channel’s ownership from yourself to a team member works best provided there are a number of factors in place:

You really trust that team member. They have decent grammar. They know their news, they double check the news, and they triple check their news sources.
Your team member knows where you are and what you are doing: all. the. time.
Your team member sounds like you, or sounds like the brand you portray.
You have final say on all public Tweets before they are published.

Any way you look at it, this announcement would have been awkward for Kutcher to make. He’s been known to be buddy-buddy with Twitter and now he’s changed his entire MO. We’re all human. Kutcher has been smart, even admirable, for his use of social media, and this was a simple mistake on his part.