Delia: Welcome to the Leadstream Podcast! To listen to the podcast, simply click on the “arrow” button.

Today, we’re talking with Giovanni (Gio) Galluci, Search and Social Media Evangelist. Gio writes strategy for new developments in social media, search and technology, and functions as top level contact to assist clients, staff and partners in determining technology and media requirements and solutions for DexterityMedia. You can follow the link to view the website. Gio created DexterityMedia, social media website directory, socialtrackr.com, and posts almost daily on his blog, TheAgencyBlog.com.

Galluci is on the faculty of xTrain providing training on podcasting and social media, and is a speaker at various industry events including ad:tech, FlashForward, Got Social Media?, Search Engine Watch Live! eMarketing Summit, and macworld.

Good morning, Gio.

Gio: Good morning.

Delia: Do you feel that social media will still be the hot topic of 2008?

Gio: Absolutely! In fact, I think that 2008 is going to be somewhat of a honeymoon for social media the same way that search enjoyed its day in the sunshine a couple of years ago. So, there’s so much stuff that encompasses the phrase or the term, social media. In particular though, I think, we’re looking at a very, very hot year for video. And that just comes from consumer-generated content and how marketers can use it, and technologists can use it as well as social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Bebo and places like that.

Delia: Do you think that the video will go outside of just the social media realm? I mean will it be used in advertising, or how will it be used extensively?

Gio: Yes, into the great extent that it already is being used, I’m seeing companies that are popping up that are new media companies by themselves. And there are a couple, I mean, if you want to call them ‘grand daddies’, I mean, there’s PodTech network out there in PodShow that have been, you know, their sole function is ‘New Media’ and essentially they’re using advertising to sell the product, but their primary focus is video online.

Delia: OK. Do you see consumers using that video to help sell products as well? Or is it going to just help them make their lives more social and more visible to the people out there?

Gio: Both. I mean, you’re going to see and you see the technology around today when you see things like live streaming when you look it like Justin.tv and nustream, people have the capability with no installation to be able to go to a website, click a button, and have a flash applet open up the existing webcam on their machine. And when you think of websites where people put reviews and comments on say hotels or for progs, things like that, you’re going to see that converted over to video. And you see that again in some cases on the websites now where you can go up and actually put in video responses and YouTube’s got that right now where you can go up and put a video response to a video that’s online.

It’s only going to be a match progression that’s going to move over to consumer, e-commerce websites, travel websites, places like that where reviews are very important right now anyway.

Delia: That’s true. That’s been building a long time too, I mean, I think we’ve been working on that. I remember a company started coming out with that like 10 years, I guess, or something. So, it’s just now building to where it needs to be.

Gio: I think the big key on that is that we’ve found a way to be able to launch those application inside of a browser without an additional installation of any tools.

Delia: Good.

Gio: So, you’re looking at the Macintosh taking over 10% of the market share. Every one of those has a webcam built into it. You would be, you know, I don’t know what the market share is, but most folks do have webcams in some form of fashion. The Sony laptops have webcams built into them and all other desktops too, so the webcam itself is going to become the standard part of pretty much any desktop or laptop out there, and with the ability to be sitting on the website and simply, literally one click away from being able to a video response set about something. It’s going to be a natural progression where people are going to do that because that’s even easier than sitting down, thinking how to write something out and put in your thoughts on paper, as long as you’re not flaming something.

Delia: Right, right, right. Which, actually, goes into our next question: What are the some of the pitfalls that brands need to be aware of when they’re trying to build a social network?

Gio: Don’t have enough time to talk about them all. [Laughter] Um, I can talk about some of the pitfalls I’ve seen, I mean, I think number one that I’ve seen, we’ve been dabbling around in social media for a few years now and been working with clients as contractors or vendors for about a year now. And the biggest issue that I see with social media and vendors is people coming to the table with products or services that just have no place in social media.

I mean, if you’re going to try to sell bathroom floss is, I’m sorry. No one on Facebook is going to be excited about that. And it’s not to discourage the bathroom accessory industry, but there’s a time and a place just like you’re going to pick what drive time advertisers that you’re on AM radio. Those are specific type of advertisers and you’re going to have different advertisers that are going to advertise on, say on Nickelodeon or FoxNews or something like that.

So, the biggest challenge that we’ve seen is, you know, I don’t like to turn business away but it’s hard to sit down with somebody and say, “Look! I can’t sell roofing materials on Facebook for you.” I mean no one on MySpace cares about that. So, it’s going to be setting expectations as it’s going to be number one and knowing your place. It’s not to say that you can’t, if you sell bathroom pictures, find a place in social media. You can easily go and produce preroll or postroll ads, and put those on existing popular do-it-yourself type of videos and things like that. So, maybe it’s not the case where you’re going to be able to get one sell fixtures because it’s the next greatest thing. But you certainly can get it on board with, you know, maybe you can co-sponsor something with a Home Depot do-it-yourself video or something like that.

And there are a few DIY websites, one that stands out is a website called “Five Minutes” where they have do-it-yourself articles on there. We see that transition go into audio and video podcasting, that’s a fantastic way for a company to get in at very low cost compared to traditional media.

So, another one, another issue that I come across is companies going in and setting up an anonymous accounts, setting up fake users and running rampant through the web, pretending like you got these average, anonymous people on the web that are ‘rah-rah’ about the product without building up any kind of foundation for why that user would be up and talking about the products. So, there are definitely marketing companies that do set up anonymous accounts and they use them very effectively, but you’ve got to be transparent.

You’ve got to make sure people know that they’re representatives of the company, and people in social networks will listen to you. But they won’t be tricked and they won’t be lied to, so whenever companies do that kind of stuff and they get found out, the pain is enormous. So, you need to stay away from trying to trick people into looking at your product. If you’ve got a product that has legs, people will pick up on it. Be transparent, tell them who you are and then talk about their product in a way that brings value to them which, kind of, sounds odd but it’s not so much about the products about what the value is that the product brings to the user or the listener or the viewer.

Delia: Right, which is, of course, is a Marketing 101, kind of thing for us that…

Gio: Yes, but you’d be surprised.

Delia: No, I know! I mean, there’s a lot of companies out there that you’re wondering why are they out there and what are they trying to accomplish by being out there, and I remember when the ‘What’s Up’ campaign came in and as a marketer back then, we had so many clients coming to us saying, “I want that next one! I want whatever it is that’s going to be the next hot one. ”

Gio: Exactly!

Delia: Well, you know, there’s got to be a reason. You can’t just come up with it, but to your point, what can a brand do to create something authentic that people will respond to in a social media world that they won’t get flamed.

Gio: This is difficult to say because my impression when I first got into social media was you don’t need humans anymore. This can all be done through computers. You can do this anonymously through the web, you can set up accounts, you can build these huge accounts, but the fact of the matter is that this comes in full circle in the most positive response we’ve got and the best results we’ve gotten out of campaigns, is when we are heavily involved in campaigns from a human perspective.

And what I mean by that is we’ve got a situation where a software company came to us, they’re one of the top 10 software companies in the world, and they had a challenge with getting street cred for their brand. People knew their product but did not necessarily know their brand. And so we launched a campaign for them but the reason why the campaign, and this was a blogging campaign, was successful was because we made sure we picked people out of the company that were already well-known and well-liked within the industry and well-respected. Now, if we had gone and picked out either anonymous people that didn’t have an existing reputation that was positive in the community or created some fictional characters, there’s no way that thing would’ve picked up legs.

To prove the point on the other side, we had a company that was actually starting a social network that is based on health and wellness, and they had very a bad reputation in the industry. And we could not get people to save our lives, to look at their product and to take them seriously because everybody was focused on the bad feelings that they generated within the local community because various reasons, I don’t want to go in details.

But because of that human element that can make or break you, and so what we’ve applied to all of our campaign since then is whenever clients come to us and they want to do something, there has to be a way for us to physically reach out and touch people. So, if it say, if it’s a computer manufacturer and we’re trying to push a new laptop for them, we’ve got to make sure that when somebody reaches out that we can within two hours of getting a notice from a comment on a blog, have a human being contact them back either through their comment, or even, you know, give them a phone number to call, something like that. There has to be a human element involved for the success to be there.

And just like within traditional media, we’re thinking about commercials which was the reason why people go and hire celebrity spokespeople because they have name and face recognition. We find that that’s huge also, that whenever we can get a hold of Internet celebrities that can go and help us, talk to people about a brand, I mean, it’s a lightened day - the difference with the response we get through social media because these people have already established themselves within the community, they’re respected, and we have to make sure that the proper service they’re pushing make sense with what the reputation is that they have in the industry.

But as long as those things are in sync, we find fantastic success with that with going out there and showing product and services to people. We got one situation where we have social media as the number one register ringer for a client that we have, it’s an online trading line. And so we have an amazing success there within.

Delia: Yes, we have too. Actually, we’ve got really high success rates in our social media.

Gio: It makes me feel real. [Laughter] They have to go and improve mine, I mean, it’s funny because a year ago, it’s like you have to walk in orange to show value and just generating raw traffic. You can do that for some clients and they’re happy with that, but they wise up really quickly and they say all the traffic’s were good and all but I need to sell widgets, I need to sell product. And we can’t sell product with this stuff, they could care less if they have a hundred thousand heads on something if no one’s buying. All that adds as soon as they’re running up their ISP bill.

So, it’s good to be here today because we’re figuring out how to make this stuff actually benefit advertisers and marketers.

Delia: I think as, I know when this kind of media first came out, a lot of clients wanted to jump in but there was a lot of risks that they had to be willing to prepare themselves for, I mean, when its social media people have the right and the choice and the chance to say something. So, what kind of mindset your brands need to be and to be successful, and what kind of risks do they need to be willing to take?

Gio: You know, from the risk standpoint, you’re going to have to take the risk that people are going to say what’s on their mind. I, kind of, look at companies in this day and age where there’s someone’s involved in social media or not. They’re a part of the conversation if they’re product is on the marketplace. And that’s one thing that, kind of, tickles me is that companies will come to me and talk about how they want to get involved in social media and all for what, you know Google. And I’ll do a blog search on Google or Technorati and say, “Honey, you’re already there.”

You’re making the decision to participate now. But you’re already out there, and so it’s a situation where, you know, that’s a risk they have to take, but don’t taken it by being out the marketplace. And companies have to be, I don’t know that it’s the risk, I think it’s more being prepared and start acting like almost like political entities.

I think about this as I watch the campaigns that they’re going on right now - the US Presidential campaigns, and it just, kind of, struck me a couple of days ago that companies have to behave like candidates now. I mean the way Apple had to respond to people being furious about that price drop 90 days after they released it.

Without social media in the picture, Apple was famous for funning their nose after the consumers that were the evangelists for their brand. Just bluntly would say, “Hmm, too bad!” And I’m a Mac fan, I mean, we were like laptops, we took it, we put our televisions, our legs and apologized, and OK, but we’re still pleased we still have our Macs. And today, because of the outrage and because it’s spread so quickly, it’s phenomenal how companies now have to be able to turn on a dime like that and respond our risk the wrath of consumers that maybe a very, very small portion of their overall user base, but because they’re so loud they have no choice to respond.

I mean, AT&T that I found deal with Justinas Erich. She puts up this silly, 60 second video, and within seven days she’s all over the major news networks, not over US, but all over the world. It’s really a neat case that you need to watch AT&T’s initial response, and then watch very quietly. Eight days later, they changed the policy. And I have no idea who at AT&T would have the power to make a decision and make an actual change in AT&T within eight days anywhere within that organization. Much less at 23 of web designer from Pittsburgh.

Delia: Right.

Gio: So, the risk is, getting back to your question, I think, the risk is not responding, not participating, and not being aware of the fact that you’re in this whether you like it or not. And if you were going to be able to weather the storm and, not only put up with potentially bad stuff then benefit from the sunshine, the social meeting can shine on you, you better get active. And so the risk is sitting back on the sidelines and be in complacent, and watching everybody else pass by you because I can see companies making or breaking themselves through social media alone, in positive or negative manner.

Delia: Right. It almost sounds like companies need to make sure that social media’s part of their PR strategy as well, you know, bad or good.

Gio: Without a doubt! And that can be! I mean that can be a PR from a positive standpoint or reputation management. You got to be and those are two different disciplines. Getting out there and spreading the love and saying the good stuff about the product, and developing evangelist in the community is one thing. And from our past, I mean, some of you and I both worked with Tony Wright. He managed AT&T PR account during 9/11. One of the things that really sticks with me that he said to me was, “That’s the kind of experience that I hope nobody ever gets.”

Delia: Oh, yes, right.

Gio: You know, having to live through that stuff and for him that was a tragedy but was still a former brand reputation management, and that is, I learned from him through the years, is a completely different discipline than being the shoe leader for a brand or company.

Delia: Right. That’s a good point. Do you feel that green marketing will have to be significant this year or is it just a flash? Is it going to go away?

Gio: You know, I hate to say this because my wife and I are very,I don’ t know, I mean we don’t beat people over the head about it but we’re, kind of, ‘eco sensitive’ I guess, to do the phrase. We recycle like crazy. Our neighbors think we’re nerds because we have twice as many recycling bins as much as they do. But our daughters are getting a great experience with learning how to reduce waste and be more eco-friendly, but I can’t help but think that it’s a fact.

And the reason why is that, it’s like the train is too hot, I mean, it heated up, it came up out of nowhere, and then all of the sudden you’ve got, literally, seemed like out of nowhere Walmart is this greeny eco-friendly company. And you got the car companies out there, there must be five or six top video podcast on nothing but greening up the environment and eco-design and stuff like that. And I would love to see it stick around, but I don’t know. Touch base with me about a year from now, I would be surprised if we were still still so heavily invested in green technologies and design. So that’d be great if it were, but I just don’t think that there’s a whole lot of foundation to what’s going on there.

Delia: Unless something globally happens. I could see that as result of something.

Gio: If you have some kind of disaster, you know, something like that, but…

Delia: Which is a shame.

Gio: Yes, it’s a shame. I think you would have to be more than just, say, like a nuclear meltdown or something like that. I mean it would have to be something that was like, you know, freak everybody out worldwide.

Delia: Right.

Gio: But right now, I guess my take-on is there’s so much marketing glitz and polish on all the messages that just seems really disingenuous to me. And that is why, if you like, you probably didn’t have a lot on this thing. Now there’s obviously people within ecology and the green industry and stuff like that I really believe and we’ll keep pushing forward. And within that, I don’t mean this in a negative way, but within that bubble of an industry, those people are warriors for that cause, they always will be, but when you step out and you see large corporations and all these companies, MSNBC, filming one day with their studio lights off in order to be eco-friendly.

Delia: Right.

Gio: To me, that’s just a slack, I mean, that’s insulting to the people that get out there and do it on a regular basis. And to me, those kinds of actions bring attention to the issue but I don’t remember who it was, but there was somebody who took a full page ad out in the New York Times. It was CNN, I think. CNN had a show about greening or eco-terrorism or something. It was something that had to do with the ecology, and the first thing that struck me and all were all the people that saw that was so you wouldn’t spend all that money and all that paper to advertise the fact that you’re going to talk to us about being more earth friendly.

It would have been smarter to do something smaller, and I wouldn’t gotten as much attention but do something some other way than using paper for heaven’s sakes to advertise this. And so, it’s like the people that are running the big campaigns for this stuff, you can’t help but think that they’re not really deeply invested in the environment, deeply invested in the green industry.

Delia: Right. I can see that. What do you feel is going to be more successful in 2008? Widgets, narrowcasting, mobile marketing, advergaming, or is there something else out there that is not even on the radar?

Gio: Not talk about it a lot, but advergaming is already are gargantuan in industry, and there’s not a whole lot of lights shown on it. It’s funny because I did an ad:tech last year, I had to a deal with the Vista launch, and part of it was the tie in to XBox Live through Vista and the advertising stuff. And it took me forever to find information about it. But it’s a huge industry, much bigger than search right now with the capabilities and pricewise.

So, I would have to say that that just from a revenue generation standpoint, advergaming is going to be, but I don’t think we’re going to see a whole lot of information about it. I think that you’re going to see marketing companies and advertising companies step over the bounds of what’s acceptable in social networking and you’re going to see we’re built there. In the midst steps by, surprisingly, Facebook, it really blows me away but then you’d think through giving beacon, launching beacon without giving proper notification to people. So, other year, you’re going to see, kind of, a grassroots revolt on marketing advertising through social networks.

You already, I mean, marketers and advertisers are already hated in social networks, but I think you’re going to see something on this that’s really going to push the boundaries there. But video, I think you’re going to see the year of video especially with the writers’ strike going on right now. There are some very well known actors right now that are putting together their own production companies because they’re sick of the large production companies, and NBC and CBS-ABC controlling what’s going on and they’re putting together companies with writers to produce their own content for the web.

And I think what you’re going to see is the beginning of the entertainment industry that takes the bull by the horns and says, “OK, corporate fat cats! We’re tired of you! We can do this on our own for next to no cost “. It’s funny because that’s how, I was reading up on something, that’s how United Artists got started. It was actors going and getting tired of the big movie suits, controlling everything, and they got together with a bunch of the set of people, and with the writers and stuff, and created United Artists. And, ironically, United Artist is the first company that signed the deal, a compromised deal with the writers yesterday.

So, I think you’re going to see, in this year, you’re going to see much more than you’ve seen in the past. I think big media is, kind of, hit itself in the chin with the writers’ strike here. And you’re going to see a lot of content coming out on the web, only on the web, and being distributed through online services where it’s not available on TV and they’re going to give a large portion of the attention of the market.

Delia: More FunnyorDie (www.funnyordie.com).

Gio: Yes.

Delia: I mean, classic, red hair

Gio: Yes, absolutely.

Delia: And I remember came out on YouTube first and then right away, as soon as you start getting the hits it took it’s own site. And, I would say David Letterman, he received so much friends from having some production company. Did you watch Stephen Colbert last night?

Gio: Yes.

Delia: It was good, it was good. And so I agree, and I think advergaming definitely is out there. We’re excited about that. So, that’s all we have today. Thank you, Gio.

Gio: Thank you.