photo credit: Global Index Wave 2 Trendstream.net

It’s common practice in almost all forms of business to take notice of your active target audience and concentrate on this already established, better known consumer group. This logic may hold true in many cases, but research shows that when it comes to social media networking, it’s the passive audience that also deserves focus.

Best selling author, Founder of Altimeter Group and leading voice in the field of business technology, Charlene Li discussed the importance of focusing on passive social media users at a recent event held by SmartBrief and SocialFish. She discovered that while active users are more likely to produce their own content as well as comment and curate already existing content, they are not nearly as sizable as the passive users of social media. Passive users account for 63% of all on-line social media sharing as well as 78% of all social media watching, making them (although discreet) very active users – see photo.

Focusing on an audience that seems to not actively participate in your brand might seem backwards, but it’s these passive users that are still actively watching and sharing your content. It is for these reasons that I too believe it is important to establish one’s brand with the “passive user” group, as they are a more prominent user than more active users, which are harder to come by, even though they do produce their own content.

—Etienne is an intern with Wicked PR in Atlanta. She recently graduated from The University of Georgia with a degree in fashion mercandising. Follow her on Twitter @Etienne_Wicked

Wicked was tasked with developing and executing an online branding and communications strategy for TV personality and one of America’s leading DIY design experts Kristan Cunningham, including designing and developing a website that brings to life Kristan’s unique identity and personality while also serving as the communication hub for all her projects. Wicked also designed a social media plan that extended Kristan’s reach and influence with her audience.

More than just a personality site, KristanCunningham.com was designed to be a daily resource for interior design and home decorating enthusiasts. The site offers stories, videos and photos that educate visitors on how to turn any decorating dilemma into an achievable reality.

Highlighted sections:

:: Do It Lovelier – Simple ideas to elevate your lifestyle. Do what’s practical. Do what’s affordable, just do it lovelier.

:: Adorable & Affordable – You don’t have to spend a million bucks to make your home look like it.

:: Resource Library - Let Kristan Cunningham help you find the right items for every room in your house.

:: Design Report - Kristan spotlights the newest products in the marketplace with links to where you can buy and for how much.

:: Flea Market Finds – Kristan shares the amazing treasures that she finds — and you can find– at flea markets, thrift stores and garage sales.

:: Favorite Things – Items they simply can’t live without – at least right now.

:: Auction Alert – Kristan finds treasures everyday online that won’t break your bank at sites like ebay and shopgoodwill.com and passes along those finds to you.

:: The Man Room and Floyd & Beans – Not just for women, the new site makes room for Kristan’s fiance Scott who shares his recommendations on everything from razors to shoes. And even their two dogs, Floyd and Bean, get in on the action with a section dedicated to items every dog — and dog owner — should own.

Finally, KristanCunningham.com gives fans of Kristan a glimpse of her life and travels, from how she spends her time when she’s home in Venice Beach to her adventures across America on design projects and in search of great products, music and food.

Anything but #traditional, the invite has been posted online, inviting one and all to celebrate with the happy couple, #Paul&Sara.

Wedding season is officially here. The flowers are out, the sun is shining, and love is in the air… and all over Twitter. That’s right, Twitter.

Mark your calendars for June 19 4:00 pm CST, because this Saturday you’re invited to the first ever Twitter Wedding (#Paul&Sara) between @SubrbanOblivion and @PaulOFlaherty as they romantically “merge their lifestreams and the contents of their hard drives forever.”

The nuptials will take place in Mobile, Ala., but will be streamed live on both http://www.SuburbanOblivion.com and http://www.pauloflaherty.com. The following reception/tweet-up is twitter themed and will also be streamed live, so you can witness all the action, from the “I Do’s” to the cutting of the cake.

Make sure to stay tuned for the bouquet toss (which is anything but a traditional bouquet), the purple wedding dress and many other surprises along the way.

For more information, read Sara’s blog.

Alex Reed is an intern with Wicked PR in Atlanta. She is currently enrolled at the University of Missouri Journalism School and is majoring in Strategic Communications with a minor in Marketing. Follow her on Twitter @Reedyriv.

Photo Credit: www.fifa.com

You may not be in South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but with these five Apps you won’t miss one minute, goal or penalty kick that takes place over the next two weeks. Enjoy.

1. ESPN 2010 World Cup FIFA

This free app is the most well rounded App for the 2010 World Cup and is simply essential for following the football frenzy. It includes a Fantasy Bracket Predictor, descriptive profiles of each of the 32 teams, World Cup history since 1930, a full schedule of all the the games, a Soccer Power Index and a live news ticker at the bottom of the screen. You can select your favorite countries and receive their match schedules conveniently on the homepage. The premium upgrade is available for $7.99 and features live audio, live commentary, live scoring alerts, live play-by-plays, breaking news alerts and the option to share your favorite FIFA 2010 news and team tidbits via Twitter, Facebook, etc. ESPN’s App is easily the best available World Cup 2010 App available for all types of fans.

2. 2010 World Cup South Africa by Infindo

This App is second to ESPN’s app only because it is almost too full of information. Infindo’s App takes all of the basic features of ESPN’ app and adds quotes from the top players, summaries of all prior World Cup tournaments, goal alerts and an archive of the Soccer Hall of Fame, along with many, many other things. Do you need all this information? Maybe not. Do you want it? Absolutely you do, and the $1.99 price tag is a small price to pay for the true soccer fanatic.

3. World Cup Schedule by Mahango

With this nifty $.99 App, you can sift through the World Cup schedule by individual day without any annoying ads distracting you from your quest for soccer knowledge. Users can receive score updates by groups, and navigate this app with ease, however without the news and video updates it won’t keep you quite as up-to-date as some others.

4. 2010-The World Cup

This homescreen of this free app lists details of all of the 32 teams participating in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, their international appearances, players and club teams. You can have a live countdown to your favorite team’s first game just to make sure you don’t miss a minute, and the App can even run in English, Portuguese, German, French and Spanish.

5. TOTAL FOOTBALL 2010

At $2.99 this App stands out from the crowd with its massive list of detailed match statistics like diagrams of shots, quantitative analysis of the most influential player in a match, passes completed, location of fouls, etc., with real-time statistics from Opta Sports that live update throughout the games. If you want intense amounts of information, this World Cup App is for you. However don’t look for the basics; while it does have the full match schedule for the 2010 tournament, this app does not have the standard history of player profiles. In other words: experts only, please.

Let one of these social media monitoring tools help you filter out the noise and listen to what people are saying about your brand online.

“It’s about conversations, and the best communicators start as the best listeners.”-Brian Solis, The Social  Media Manifesto. Social media monitoring tools are quickly becoming a lot less of an option and more of an essential tool for both individuals and companies. Conversations are being held in the vast world of media web with little regulation of what is being said, and no longer can we choose to be ignorant of these conversations. On the contrary, we must join them.

Of course, not everyone has the same monitoring needs and as a result there are a variety of different tools available with prices that range from absolutely free of charge to thousands of dollars. A beginner blogger might just want to know who’s sharing his/her blog posts with friends on social networking sites, where on the other hand, a large corporation might need a more extensive service that monitors mainstream news, blogs, forums, social media and more across multiple keywords and filters with analytics and reporting features.

Bottom line, it’s okay that you can’t be everywhere at once because your social monitoring service can be. So take the plunge and sign up for the tool that’s right for you and your business. To help you get started, here are a few different options that Wicked recommends, which are perfect for any budget.

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Wicked designed and developed a new website for professional poker player Justin Bonomo at JustinBonomo.com. Justin and his management team were looking to completely revamp their existing site in order to better reflect who Justin is as person and poker player. Everything from video blogs, interviews, press releases, blog posts, photos, podcasts, Twitter and even musical tastes needed to be incorporated into the build.

On top of that, we always keep an eye on making the content management as simple as possible so the client is not required to contact us to keep their site up to date. From posting photos and videos to blog posts, it needed to be done in a way that was not time-consuming and made maintaining the site easier instead of frustrating. To that end, we used WordPress as the CMS and managed to find simple, yet elegant, solutions for this multimedia website.

Here are some notes on key parts of the site and how we implemented some of the features you will see at JustinBonomo.com.

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Updates About Social Media Week 2010

Today marked the last day of Social Media Week 2010. Conferences took place in Toronto, Sao Paulo, San Francisco, New York City, London and Berlin. And if like us you weren’t able to attend, we’ve provided a couple links to help you catch up on all the news and ideas shared at the program’s various presentations, panel discussions, interactive workshops, seminars and more.

1. Social Media Week Website, Take a look at the blog

2. Social Media Website (SMW) Blog Post About Start of Event

3. The SMW Twitter page

4. Blog Post From NY Conference

5. SmartBlog Updates throughout the week

6. Flickr Albums From All Conferences

Be sure to run down the complete social media campaign checklist before starting a new project in 2010

While 2009 was the year to get your feet wet with social networking sites, 2010 is the year to perfect your social media campaigns so that they yield the best results possible. So for everyone out there who is already participating, contributing and is part of the community, here are a few items to help plan out your social media campaigns for twenty ten.

Social Media Campaign Checklist:

• Determine your goals/objectives now: Many brands got on social media in the past year solely because they thought they had to but without any real idea of what they were going to do once there and, more importantly, without knowing what they wanted to get out of it.  With consumers looking to engage with brands and brands finding real results on social media, that’s no longer acceptable. Before engaging in social media establish a clear mission. Do you want to generate more online traffic and brand engagement, create buzz around new product/service, gain more newsletter/email sign-ups, increase sales, etc.? Now is the time to decide.
• Determine the media mix and customers/influencers to reach: Research and find out which social media platforms will be the most effective for each specific campaign (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.) and determine if these channels will reach your target group/demographic. While it’s easy to have a presence on all social media sites, it makes no sense to be there if you don’t plan on being engaged.
• Set a Budget: Assign a budget front to support your campaign for such things as coupons, gift card giveaways and Facebook ad buys.
• Produce engaging content: As you may have heard many times before, content is king! This holds true for two reasons, one being that good content keeps customers and audiences engaged and the second being that the foundation of SEO relies on having a continuous flow of quality content. In turn, generating such content will increase the likelihood that your campaign will connect with its target audience and be a success.
• Determine a measurement strategy: Decide how you want to monitor/track the campaign and how you plan to measure the campaign’s success. For a great read on social media ROI, check out Brian Solis’ article “Maturation of Social Media ROI.” – http://mashable.com/2010/01/26/maturation-social-media-roi/

Brizzly just came out of closed beta and is already one of our favorite Twitter apps.

As one of the most widely used social media networks worldwide and one of Wicked’s personal favorite communication tools, Twitter is a daily part of our lives and can, at times, be difficult to manage without the help of some business friendly twitter clients. So to share some of the key learnings we gained in 2009 from our many trials with various Twitter apps, here are Wicked PR’s Top Five Favorite Twitter Apps.

1. Brizzly – If you are a Twitter and Facebook user, Brizzly is a social media reader that gives you access to both by logging into one simple website. Brizzly can display up to five different twitter accounts at the same time in clear, separate viewing pages. It is easy to use and allows you to do everything that each individual website has to offer but without so many confusing windows and tabs. With in-line photo and video (both load directly into the timeline), the Twitter experience becomes much more streamlined as users can follow conversations without having to click away to view pics or videos. Also aiding the user experience is the “Why?” feature for Twitter’s top trends that load into the Brizzly sidebar. Other Brizzly users supply explanations (at times detailed and humorous) as to why a particular phrase, word, or hashtag is trending at any given moment. On top of that, if you decide someone you are following has a little too much to say about those trending topics, you can quickly “mute” them so their updates do not appear in your stream.
2. Tweetie 2 for iPhone – Tweetie allows you to check your Twitter account directly from your iPhone. Though there are many other applications with essentially the same functions, Tweetie is widely known to be the most efficient one and of course, a Wicked favorite. The newest version of the app – appropriately named Tweetie 2 – has added a lot more functionality to the already popular app, giving image previews on individual tweet screens as well the ability to upload video, geolocate and much more. Wrap it all in a slick, shiny new user interface and you have an iPhone Twitter app that is well worth the $3 price tag.
3. TwitPic – TwitPic is an application that gives users the ability to post and share pictures via Twitter. TwitPic is integrated with most mobile, desktop, and web apps., giving users the ability to send out short URLs to hosted images as part of their Tweets.
4. Seesmic Desktop – Seesmic Desktop, like Brizzly, displays multiple Twitter accounts as well as your facebook account in the same place, but unlike Brizzly they are all layed out in columns across the same viewing page. The number of columns are unlimited and their content is up to your imagination. The Seesmic Desktop is for the multi-taskers who frequently monitor multiple status updates and manage multiple Twitter searches and accounts, making it ideal for an agency like ours to keep their finger on the pulse of conversations happening about clients, new products and trends
5. Boxcar Application for iPhone – The Boxcar application sends a push notification to your iPhone whenever you receive an @ reply or a direct message on Twitter so that you can view and reply in a timely manner. We all know that you can receive emails, text messages and possibly a singing telegram when someone DMs you on Twitter, but that range of notifications has been noticeably absent from the world of @ replies – especially given that most power users will @ reply another user and fully expect an answer as if it were a DM – that’s where Boxcar steps in. Whenever your account receives an @ reply, it pushes a notification to the iPhone which appears as if it were a text message, making it easier and much more efficient to keep track of conversations and participate in them directly.

Yasmine Abdallah is an intern with Wicked PR in Atlanta. She is currently enrolled at Georgia State University majoring in Journalism with a concentration in Public Relations.