I’ll expand on Matt’s list with some examples and a closer look into a few restaurant Youtube channels that have gained traction through videos.

Cooking Demonstration.

Del Posto does a great job of this in several of their videos, including the video below that walks the viewers through the making of their gnocchi.

The restaurant currently has over 200 subscribers and this video alone has over 9,000 views.

Farm to Table. 

This type of video highlights where specific ingredients come from. This emphasizes the freshness of the food and the fact that it is locally sourced.

In the following video, the Chefs from Zama personally place their order from a fresh seafood vendor:

Tour of Kitchen.

Taking the customer behind the scenes for an inside look at the restaurant that they wouldn’t normally see rewards them for following the restaurant on social media channels.

This video highlights the intense job of an Expediter in the kitchen at Alinea:

Restaurant Tour.

This is especially useful for restaurant venues that seek to book private parties. Clients can have a dynamic view of the space and can easily visualize holding their even there.

Do you have any more ideas for how restaurants can use video to successfully market their business?

Joanne Chang, pastry chef and owner of Flour Bakery, is the master of providing her followers with an inside account into her business. Her point of view is hilarious and there is no questioning that she is an expert. She’s open to sharing the intimate and sometimes compromising moments of day-to-day restaurant life, which is what makes her twitter stream so compelling.

Here are some great outtakes from her:

Rendezvous, Cambridge

What I wouldn’t do to work with a chef who values social media and takes an active role in content creation. Since the food is the cornerstone of a dining venue, it only makes sense for the chef to be the chief content creator. I realize that not every chef has the time to craft a blog as well thought out as Steve Johnson’s but any element contributed by the chef brings credibility to social media and reveals the personality of the chef, and the reasoning or story behind many dishes.

Boloco, Boston

This chain in Boston is really freaking smart. There’s a few things that make them awesome.

1.They sponsor events that influences are at, like the MegaTweetup.

2. It looks like they respond to most of the feedback they get on twitter and Facebook, good or bad.

3. Their Boloco card allows them to measure loyalty and issue free menu items to people who have caught their attention via social media, either through a positive comment or a complaint.

Here are a couple of examples from their twitter stream, from today alone:

Since Boston is such a foursquare-happy city, (not to mention the #5 most social city in the US according to this article in the Huffington Post & a study by NetProspex) we decided to throw a party just for all the mayors out there.

Hopefully all of this checking in at venues has paid off for you Mayors our there. And if it hasn’t, we’ll have some prizes in store for the person with the most foursquare mayorships as well as the person with the most interesting mayorship (this one is my discretion, so best of luck!)

We figured this party would be a great way to unite all of you Boston LBS users in one place so you can mingle, meet & exchange mayorship tips over a couple cold ones. What do you think? RSVP here.

– Seth Godin,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

The following points are intended show a fictional CEO of an international company why it would be worthwhile to invest 10% of the company’s budget in social media in 2010.

1. Social media can allow the company to serve customers where they are. If consumers are asking questions or requesting assistance online, they will receive an immediate response, creating a positive feeling about a brand that truly seems to care. Furthermore, a customer service initiative on social media may end up saving the company money that is currently invested in customer service call centers.

@ComcastCares has used twitter solely as a customer service vehicle. Review the case study here.

2. Social media allows brands to respond more promptly in an emergency, due to pre-established access to consumers. The key to this is to already have an established and credible social media presence before the crisis hits. Then, journalists and interested members of the public will be able to immediately turn to the brand for verification and rectification in social media.

A case study that is important to review when it comes to social media and crisis communications is “Motrin Moms.” Motrin’s response is important to be familiar with, although it could have been enacted with more speed and proper acknowledgment of mistakes. Access the case study here.

Here is a presentation from Shel Holtz on Social Media and Crisis Communications:

3. Americans spend an increasing amount of time on social media. Companies and brands will soon begin loosing credibility and mind share if they are not present in the same spaces as the consumer.

According to a study published by the Neilson company, Americans are spending more time on social networks than ever before.

4. Social media can provide immediate feedback from consumers who care. This feedback can be used effectively for short term research initiatives or to crowdsource new or improved ideas for your company. The results come unfiltered, directly from the consumer, with no official survey or focus groups necessary.

One example of a company using social media to crowdsource ideas useful for reference is Starbucks, which generated over 70,000 ideas from customers in its first year with the My Starbucks Idea campaign. Read the case study here.

5. Even a worldwide brand can benefit to accessing niche markets in a new and meaningful way. By joining the members of a niche market where they communicate with one another and share their thoughts, a brand can become relevant to their lives. Accessing a niche market via social media costs a lot less money than a highly targeted media buy and ends up meaning more to that market in the long run.

For example, Nike is becoming part of the conversation within the niche markets of runners and basketball players, where shoes are vital to the activities that take place. Nike+, which tracks the data of every run, has built a huge fan base of runners on its website. Nike also has a Facebook, “Ballers Network,” which allows basketball players to organize pickup games in their communities. Learn more about Nike’s interaction with niche markets here.

Some more resources to review include this case study on the ROI of using social media for Dell Computers and this article from emarketer on social media best practices.

I have chosen to highlight the following blog posts to serve as a sample of my work:

Emerson College’s Social Media Presence: Success or Failure?

“For such a social, communications-oriented college, one would expect Emerson to embrace new technology and communicate effectively though social media, yet Emerson’s presence in social media networks is confusing, at best.”

The Brand that Got Away

“This means that as much as a brand can establish and communicate who they are, as soon as the brand has customers (which is hopefully right away) the essence of a company is expressed loud and clear by  its patrons, satisfied or not.”

And Duct Tape Marketing Review

“Jantsch often mentions brands as examples, but rarely as personal recommendations. The key to being mentioned as an example may be considered by some as luck, but most of the brands mentioned in examples on the Duct Tape Marketing Blog are remarkable and worthy, and have an strong social media presence, like Slide Share (mentioned here) or CrowdSPRING (mentioned here).”

This is why social media matters to me:

My professional goals include learning more about social media campaigns and how to incorporate them into everyday social media presence in order to gain meaningful interactions. My ideal position in social media is at an agency, working with brands to teach them and assist them with launching social media plans.

Please refer to my LinkedIn Account to learn more about my professional experience.

With Ben and Charlie at my side, I was soon thrown into the world of social media networking events. Here is what I learned:

1. Not having an iPhone is a little embarrassing. I have yet to think of an appropriate answer this question: “Wanna Bump it?”, so I just meekly present my sad little slider phone and bump it against my new acquaintance’s iPhone to see what happens. Nothing. Shame and embarrassment. Santa, I hope you are listening.

2. People that attend tweet ups are from every industry, but the thing that unites them is their openness to meeting and working with others. Those that I talked to were friendly and knowledgeable. (Especially @BostonTweet and @BrettPohlman and the rest of the @SchneiderPR team we spoke to.)

3. TweetUps are big business. But it isn’t hard to tell who is there for business networking purposes and who is there because of genuine interest. The networking people are mostly laid off, and have that look of desperation on their faces as they circulate around the room, canvassing for job opportunities without actually talking to anyone. To me, they are the equivalent to traditional advertising, hoping that the more people they get their message to, the higher chances for employment are. I prefer the people who were there because they truly love meeting people, online and off, and wanted to talk about their passions and interests, not just their careers.

A personal resolution for 2010: Never become that crazy business networker. Have genuine conversations, online and off.

One thing that I noticed as I reviewed Edward’s blog is that he is a huge fan of crowdsourcing. He will mention it whenever it applies to what he is discussing. From the idea of a crowdsourced advertising agency to crowdfunding donations (Project Bread), to crowdsourced website content for Timberland Pro.

I would recommend adding Creativity_Unbound to your RSS reader if you want to follow the discussion on groundbreaking ideas about brands in a world that is becoming increasingly driven by the consumer. This would especially be important if you work in advertising and public relations or if you represent a brand whose communications strategies need to be updated.

Similarly, Chris Brogan’s blog, approaches social media and marketing from the agency point of view. However, Chris comes into the social media space from a background of technology and software. Rather than focusing on creativity, Chris Brogan takes a more factual and practical approach to social media.

My personal favorite recent post from Chris Brogan, is entitled “Work When They Slack.” In this post, Chris Brogan encourages his readers to take the advantage of the time between Thanksgiving and New Years to get an edge on the competition. This is a great thing to keep in mind as we we are coming to the end of the semester at Emerson.

I would encourage anyone who is interested in social media measurement and a more personal approach to one person’s use of social media to succeed.

But really, if you are interested in the social media and maketing scene in the Boston area at all, you should probably subscribe to both of these blogs.

PS. This blog post is written as an assignment for the Emerson College Social Media and Marketing class, instructed by Zach Braiker. We look forward to speaking with both Edward Boches and Chris Brogan during next week’s class. For more information about our class, check out our fan page on Facebook.

Vimeo, like YouTube, is a video sharing website that allows users to upload their own content. The things that set Vimeo apart from YouTube are:

• Content must be created by the person who uploads it
• Support of high-quality HD films
• A cleaner, more simple layout
• Not for commercial use (although there seems to be some ways around this- see Honda Insight video below)

This allows Vimeo to cater to a more artistic video-creating crowd that is focused on the quality and content of their films. Here’s an example of a film that was released to promote the Honda Insight on Vimeo that gained notoriety and exemplifies the style of many videos uploaded to the site:

(To get the full effect of this video, you must view it from the Vimeo site.

Vimeo allows comments below the videos, similarly to what YouTube does, and discussions amongst users about the videos take place here. The pictures, or avatars, that users choose to identify themselves are displayed prominently along with their comments.

Vimeo is a great example of a niche community of like-minded filmakers and appreciators of aesthecially pleasing films. The site fostors the communication and collaboration amongst this community. YouTube could definitely benefit by allowing users to create their own niche communities for those that upload similar films. This would allow users to socialize with like-minded individuals within their site and would allow users to self-categorize themselves, their uses of YouTube and their uploads.

Emerson College is a private Communication and Arts School, located in the heart of Boston, that describes its curriculum and student activities as being innovative, creative and cutting edge. And this statement is mostly correct. Emerson has an innovative course catalog that allowed me to take the Social Media and Marketing course, for which I write this blog, in the first place. I have been lucky to have the opportunity to be a part of Emerson’s Student-run Marketing Agency, Emcomm. Other students in different disciplines are able to produce their own radio shows, help publish a magazine or weekly newspaper or be a part of an on-stage production. For such a social, communications-oriented college, one would expect Emerson to embrace new technology and communicate effectively though social media, yet Emerson’s presence in social media networks is confusing, at best.

Here is a Tweet discovered when doing a Twitter search for Emerson College, that seems to sum up this opinion:

The following three things are social media actions that Emerson College is doing poorly at this time:

1. The College has nor created and/or updated an overarching Emerson College account on Twitter, that should unite the individual accounts under the Emerson College umbrella.

2. The College has a Fan Page on Facebook, the the page only boasts 1,731 fans, which is less than half of Emerson’s current student body. By using the Fan Page to broadcast events on Campus and inciting conversation amongst current students and Alumni, there is definitely an opportunity to increase fans and interest in the page.

3. Emerson College has a huge film program, but does not have a YouTube Channel. This would be a great opportunity to feature student work that best represents the program.

Doing well:

1. Individually run accounts: EmersonMarcom, EmersonLibrary, Emerson Alumni, EmersonMafia

These accounts do well in connecting with a specific audience of those of a certain major, or EmersonAlumni. The EmersonMafia is actually run by student and not the college itself, but keeps current and former students informed of one another’s accomplishments and whereabouts.

2. Supporting the adoption of social media in the student body. Emerson offers classes in Social Media and Marketing and is commended yearly as early adopters of social media in the AAF National Student Advertising Competition. Twitter is huge at Emerson, and according to @BostonTweet, Emerson has the highest percentage of students on Twitter in the Boston area: http://www.bostontweet.com/pages/permaLink.php?id=30162. This is a great opportunity to leverage the potential followers that already exist on the micro blogging site.

3.Students who run the orientation program gained internet stardom earlier this year for a video posted on YouTube to incoming freshman. This type of communication, coming from present students and going diectly to incoming students is a great launching point, especially for the orientation program.

http://media.www.berkeleybeacon.com/media/storage/paper169/news/2009/09/17/News/Emerson.Orientation.Leader.Reaches.Internet.Stardom-3806842.shtml

A few suggestions Emerson can use to improve its social media presence are as follows

-Host a live chat with prospective freshmen via Facebook at several points throughout the admission process

-Integrate Emerson’s social media presence by linking to the college’s official Facebook and Twitter accounts, and possibly streaming Tweets tagged with Emerson college. By creating a central location for each aspect of social media, the message will be united and clear.

-Look into innovative ways other colleges and universities are using social media to keep students connected and to inform and assist potential students. One of my favorite approaches comes from Wittenberg University, who ran a summer road trip intended to connect students, alumni, and faculty nationwide. Learn more about their approach here.