At Lava Row, much of our work with clients takes place behind-the-scenes: helping companies build an internal social media team, providing employees with best practices training for social platforms, brainstorming online integration with existing marketing and communication projects. But every so often, we have the opportunity to work with our clients on end-to-end digital media strategy, bringing an idea to life and helping that idea become viral through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and more.

We have worked with Veridian Credit Union, Iowa’s largest credit union, for about a year now. When we first met their team, they were in a place many other companies are in today: comfortable with their presence on social platforms, but eager to find unique, innovative ways to expand their use of social media companywide. One of their goals was to integrate social media more cohesively into marketing campaigns, a goal we began to tackle this fall with the grand opening of their new branch in Coralville, Iowa.

In anticipation of their grand opening, the Veridian Credit Union team wanted to get to know the Coralville community in a creative way and give back during the holiday season. The Veridian team formed a group they called the Surprise Squad, made up of Coralville branch employees (but didn’t reveal this to the community). They wanted to put the focus on the power of good deeds and random acts of kindness; their identity, they announced, would be revealed later. In the months leading up to the Coralville branch opening (and even now), the Surprise Squad brought anonymous good deeds each day to members of their community. They delivered rolls of quarters to people at the local laundromat, treated community members to free lunch at local restaurants, even paid the deductible to repair one family’s damaged vehicle. And along the way, the Surprise Squad distributed cards encouraging the people they surprised to visit their blog, like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

The campaign received a tremendous amount of support online and offline, as community members, inspired to see good deeds happening around them, began to pay it forward. The Surprise Squad page on Facebook now has almost 3,000 fans, and was frequently visited by local community members sharing their Surprise Squad experiences with the rest of the Facebook community. Coralville residents could follow the Surprise Squad’s activities by visiting their blog, which was updated each day with a recap of that day’s surprises; looking through photos from the surprises uploaded to Facebook and flickr; and watching live reactions to the surprises through the Surprise Squad’s YouTube channel. The Surprise Squad also used Twitter to tweet out clues about their next surprises.

The final piece of the puzzle was a donation contest run through the Surprise Squad’s Facebook page. For the first two weeks of the campaign, local community members could nominate local nonprofit organizations for a chance to win a $2,500 donation. Following the nomination period, the Coralville community rallied their family, friends and neighbors to vote for their favorite organizations, and many organizations were neck and neck in the days before the competition ended. In the end, the $2,500 donation was delivered to the Preemie Project, an organization that makes blankets and onesies for premature babies born at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital.

We’re incredibly proud of Veridian Credit Union’s success with this campaign, and with the support they received from the community and from local media. The most effective campaigns aren’t just shared through social media; social media is integrated into their very core, from concept to execution. The Veridian Credit Union team did a terrific job seeking ways to incorporate social platforms at every step of the process, and we’re excited to share their success as a model of a well-planned, well-executed campaign.

Photo via birgerking

On Tuesday, December 6th, we’re hosting a day-long 2012 Social Media Readiness workshop, designed to give businesses small and large an in-depth, advanced outlook on the social media landscape over the next 12 months.

Tickets are $129 per person – this includes five hours of content, a catered lunch and beverages. We cap the session at 20 participants to make sure everyone has time to have their questions and concerns addressed. To reserve your seat via Eventbrite, you may use the order form below or click here.

The session is structured around six common “paint points” that organizations are currently facing when integrating social media into their business, and how to overcome these obstacles:

• Catching up to the speed of information. How to develop custom radars to stay tuned to relevant topics and issues and manage a crisis online.
• Organizational silos. How to build a cross-department, multi-discipline social media team.
• Lack of structure. How to develop policies and process for engaging on behalf of the company and stay efficient.
• No commitment to education. How to structure and implement internal certification programs to educate as many team members as possible.
• Not enough human beings. With limited manpower, how to determine who gets charged with social.
• Lots of platforms. How to select which networks are best for your needs and audience. We’ll also take a look at tools you’ll need to have in your quiver for 2012.

Social networks are great for amplifying your company’s voice and reach – but they’ve also given a powerful megaphone to your customers, your audience, and the general public. Are you prepared for the inevitable “social media age” crisis that will demand the full attention of your communications team and push them way outside their comfort zone?

In our next Lava Lunch series workshop on Thursday, September 29th, we’ll share examples of how various organizations of all sizes have handled (and mishandled) unexpected crises. We’ll explore different tactics to get your team prepared to tackle everything from disgruntled individuals to full-on doomsday scenarios.

Refreshments and catered lunches will be provided. We’ll get started at noon, but feel free to stop by between 11:30 and 12:00 for some good, old-fashioned networking.

Tickets can be purchased at the bottom of this post for $30.00 per person, plus a nominal Eventbrite fee. Or, skip the fee and pay with Dwolla. Full event details and directions can be found on the Lava Lunch page.

Photo: underbiteman via flickr.

Our Lava Lunch series continues on Thursday, August 25th with a discussion about the newest player in the social networking space: Google Plus.

Drop by for a full download on the basic functionality and how it differs from other major networks. We’ll also unpack some of the future business uses for Google Plus, and what you need to prepare your organization for. (This isn’t a social network you can afford to ignore.)

Refreshments and catered lunches will be provided. We’ll get started at noon, but feel free to stop by between 11:30 and 12:00 for some good, old-fashioned networking.

Tickets can be purchased at the bottom of this post for $30.00 per person, plus a nominal Eventbrite fee. Or, skip the fee and pay with Dwolla. Full event details and directions can be found on the Lava Lunch page.

On Wednesday, we talked about foursquare’s newly launched brand pages, which allow companies to leave their own tips at other foursquare venues. Today, we’ll discuss a few ways to make your tips stand out — whether you’re posting on behalf of your business or sharing your own personal favorites through an individual account.

If you use foursquare, you’re already familiar with using your smartphone to check in to the venues you visit in real life. You’ve earned a few badges (maybe even the elusive Swarm badge) and taken over a few mayorships. But when was the last time you left a tip?

Tips are notes you leave on a venue for friends and other foursquare users to find. Think of tips as the types of recommendations you’d share with a friend before they visited somewhere for the first time — things to try, things to avoid, best places to park, anything that will make their experience better. When your friend (or someone “following” your brand page) checks into a venue where you’ve left a tip, your tip just might pop up on their phone, where they can add it to their To Do list or say “I’ve done this!”

The best tips have a few things in common:

• They’re actionable. Use action words like “Do this,” “Try this,” or “Order this.” The ultimate goal of leaving tips is to have the largest number of people choose “I’ve done this!” That moves your tip up to the top of the list, making it more likely your tip will be shared with others. If you can’t say “I’ve done this!” to a tip (like this El Bait Shop tip that just says, “Crazy selection of beers on tap”), find a different way to say it.
• They’re specific. Use one tip per recommendation. If that means you have to leave three tips, then leave three tips! Users are much more likely to choose “I’ve done this!” on a tip recommending one menu item, for example, than one recommending half the menu.
• They’re exclusive. Foursquare specials are all about the exclusivity of rewarding people “in the know,” so think of tips the same way. Do you know of a secret menu item or a hidden parking lot that always has a few spots open? Now’s your chance to share it.
• They’re real. Don’t spam foursquare venues with “tips” about your company, your products, your services, your events, or anything else unrelated to the venue itself. The foursquare community will flag these as spam and your tips will be removed. This is not about selling — it’s about sharing your expertise.

Ready to leave a tip? In the foursquare app on your smartphone, simply search for the venue, then click the Tip button in the bottom left corner of the venue page. Or visit foursquare.com from your computer, navigate to the venue’s web page and leave your tip in the text box.

Our challenge for you? Leave tips at three venues you checked in to in the last week. Want a bigger challenge? Scope out other users’ tips when you check in to a venue and see if anything strikes your fancy. Foursquare isn’t just about checking in anymore — it’s time to leave your mark.

Foursquare has long been a fantastic resource for consumers, offering exclusive discounts, recommendations and of course, bragging rights for venue mayors. On Tuesday, foursquare made a leap forward to become an equally strong resource for brands, from bloggers to small businesses to large corporations, with their new self-serve brand pages.

First, a bit of history: foursquare launched its first brand page for Intel in January 2010, offering the company a platform for recommending local Philadelphia favorites to out-of-towners during their annual ISTE conference. As other companies expressed interest in custom-branded pages, foursquare began to build pages for them, too — all built manually by the foursquare team, behind the scenes. The launch of these new self-serve pages gives companies the opportunity to build their own pages, without needing to await approval from the foursquare team.

So what is a brand page, and what value does it offer to a company? A brand page is a custom-branded page on foursquare that allows a company to recommend venues through check-ins and tips left on foursquare. Brands lend their influence and expertise to foursquare users, who “follow” the brands to see their tips; for example, Walgreen’s leaves tips at public transportation stations reminding passengers to wash their hands after train rides to avoid catching the flu. In return for sharing tips with foursquare users, brands gain their followers’ trust by infusing their expert knowledge into their followers’ daily lives. Brand pages can also be connected to your company’s page on Facebook, so your tips can be extended beyond foursquare to reach all of your fans.

It’s important to note that brand pages function differently from typical individual foursquare accounts in a few important ways. Remember that these pages are meant to be used by brands, not as a substitute for a personal foursquare account. Brand pages can’t earn badges, and if your brand has used an individual account in the past to leave tips, all of your friends will be converted to “followers” when you create your page. That means that your company won’t be able to see where its fans check in, but everyone on foursquare will be able to see where your company checks in. It’s like following someone on Twitter — a one-way connection.

Ready to create a brand page for your company? Here’s what you’ll need:

• A header image of 860 x 130 pixels (check out the Walgreen’s brand page for inspiration)
• A small profile image of 185 x 185 pixels
• A description of your brand
• Links to share with your followers (website, Facebook page, Twitter handle, blog, etc.)

Now, just visit https://foursquare.com/create_page and click “Create a Page” to get started!

Once you’ve created your page, you’ll have everything you need to start leaving tips at other foursquare venues you endorse or recommend. Visit our blog later this week for a guide to crafting great tips through your brand page!

During the past six months, the female contingent of Lava Row has become obsessed with Pinterest, a web application that allows users to “pin” and share items they find online through themed collections called pinboards. Think of Pinterest as a sort of tumblr for beautiful images, where users share everything from decadent desserts to ingenius organizational ideas.

As a novice interior decorator on a tight budget, I love Pinterest because it gives me access to the thousands of DIY decorating ideas and whimsical products pinned by users more creative than I am. The Pinterest community is incredibly diverse, so I never fail to find something unique to “repin” or to share with my friends as I browse through public pinboards. And in recent months, tastemakers such as Real Simple, Better Homes & Gardens and local Des Moines boutique Domestica have embraced Pinterest as a way to endorse products, share breathtaking home décor from around the web, and infuse their finds into fans’ pinboards.

We see tremendous opportunities for brands to interact with their fans on Pinterest in new and truly engaging ways, but as with other social platforms, a brand’s success on Pinterest depends on its sharing more than just its own web content or products. To be a trusted influencer on Pinterest, a brand must spark authentic conversations about things the people behind the brand actually care about — not in an effort to boost sales or page views, but to establish itself as an authority in its market. My favorite brands on Pinterest are doing a fabulous job because I feel like I’m truly getting to know the people pinning the content, and because they’re sharing meaningful pins, I’ll keep coming back for more.

To get started with Pinterest, visit pinterest.com to request an invite (and follow Norah and Hillary if you’d like). Happy pinning!

Yesterday Twitter announced that they’ll be rolling out Promoted Tweets in your main Twitter timeline. By definition, Promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets paid for by advertisers in order to reach a wide group of users or spark engagement from their existing followers. Per the post on Twitter’s blog, the promoted ads are a new way to ensure that users can easily access the most important Tweets from the organizations they follow directly.

The Promoted Tweets will only appear in your timeline if you’re already following the account that has paid for the placement. According to Twitter, the Promoted Tweets will scroll through the timeline like any other Tweet and will appear in your timeline just once. The ads will clearly be marked as “Promoted” with an orange arrow icon below the tweet (the same way Promoted Trends and Promoted Tweets are currently displayed on the sidebar or in search). You can also easily dismiss or remove Promoted Tweets from your timeline with a single click.

Where will Promoted Tweets be displayed?
At the top of relevant search results pages on twitter.com.

In your main timeline if you follow the Advertiser.

In Related Tweets shown on the Details pane.

In the search results for a Promoted Trend.

In third-party apps like HootSuite and TweetDeck.
Twitter is also currently testing syndication of Promoted Products within HootSuite and TweetDeck. Promoted Tweets could appear in searches and user timelines in both of these third party applications.

Twitter will be testing and rolling out Promoted Tweets over the next several weeks with a select group of partners, including Best Western, Dell, Gatorade, Groupon, HBO,JetBlue, LivingSocial, Microsoft Xbox, Red Bull, Sephora, Starbucks, Summit Entertainment’s “50/50”, TNT and Virgin America and a handful of non-profit organizations, including charity: water, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Room to Read, The American Red Cross and Water.org.

So, how are Promoted Tweets different from other online ads? Twitter’s take is that since all Promoted Tweets start out as regular Tweets, they are an organic part of Twitter, which is distinct from both traditional search advertising and more recent social advertising. What are your thoughts on Promoted Tweets? Leave us a comment below!

Yesterday Google launched their much-rumored push into the social networking space: The Google+ Project. I was interviewed by ABC5‘s Katie Eastman (video embed below) about the new network and how it stacks up to the main competition – Facebook.

Here are a couple of quick takeaways and initial reactions to Google+:

No friend requests. Unlike Facebook, Google+ doesn’t require mutual friendship acceptance. Users can subscribe to each other’s updates without defining one another as a friend (similar to Twitter), thereby removing some of the initial social navigation barriers, drama and decision-making. Note: Google+ users still have complete control over how their profiles appear, down to specific individuals.

Small groups. Google+ has baked a feature called Huddle into the network, which lets you create small groups of colleagues or friends to interact with. We’re seeing an explosion of group messaging apps right now, and Facebook’s recent acquisition of Beluga proves that the major players want to have a presence in that space. Beluga is something we find quite useful here at Lava Row (we have a Beluga “pod” for our work group and one with a client team). Facebook has not yet integrated Beluga into it’s standard messaging system, so it appears that Google has beat them to it with Huddle – at least in terms of layering it on top of existing products.

Where will the users come from? The biggest challenge is 750 million+ active Facebook users that “live” in that ecosystem every day. Google will need to focus on user overlap (similar to the symbiotic relationship between Twitter and Facebook) because there’s no way to shift that many people overnight. Integrating Google+ with popular, existing products such as Gmail will also be key.

So what are your thoughts on Google+? The company has been stumbled of late with their Buzz and Wave products, but they’ve been quietly succeeding outside of North America with Orkut. Please leave your comments below.

The Launch of Google+ from Katie Eastman on Vimeo.

ABOVE: Video of the ABC5 interview with Nathan T. Wright. Watch for the Shane Reiser man-hug at the end!