At Folk Media, we believe in connections and partnerships.  We try to connect with others in order to share ideas, produce content, and gain exposure.  Since the inception of Folk Media, we’ve connected with quite a few people and would like to give them props for their hard work, commitment, and great ideas.  Some of the individuals listed below have contributed blog posts and time for Folk Media.  Others have simply listened to our ideas, given honest feedback, and provided support.  In the end, we appreciate everyone who has connected with us.  If you’re interested in contributing to Folk Media, visit our “Write For Folk Media” page to learn more.

Guest Bloggers

Erin Blakemore

Erin Blakemore is co-founder and Executive Director of VOCO Creative, a straightforward, savvy, and sustainable social media, marketing, and brand strategy firm in Boulder, Colorado. When she’s not helping companies grow their brands, she’s biting her fingernails over the October release of The Heroine’s Bookshelf, her debut book from HarperCollins. Connect with Erin on Twitter at @vococreative or @heroinebook.

View Erin’s Folk Media content and contributions

Baltimore Chop

The Baltimore Chop is an anonymous blogger based in North Baltimore. The Baltimore Chop Blog is updated daily and covers Baltimore’s indie scene, cultural events, and the people and places that make Baltimore the Greatest City in America.

View Chop’s Folk Media content and contributions

Nichole Kelly

Nichole is the Director of Social Media for CareOne Debt Relief Services and Vice President of Communications for the Baltimore Chapter of the American Marketing Association. She also blogs about social media and marketing innovation at nicholekelly.com.

View Nichole’s Folk Media content and contributions

Chris Tompkins

Chris is the CEO of Go! Media International, LLC – an integrated marketing firm specializing in cutting edge social media strategy and online marketing campaigns. Chris is a supporter of education in the online marketing technology sector (for companies and individuals) and speaks at national and international conferences alike. If you’d like to find out more, visit his blog or follow him on Twitter.

View Chris’ Folk Media content and contributions

Stephanie Wonderlin

Stephanie Wonderlin is a social media enthusiast and Regional Sales Manager for a chain of hotels in Illinois. In her spare time, Stephanie blogs, teaches Pilates, and studies to earn her Advanced Social Media certificate from the University of San Francisco. Find out more about Stephanie on Twitter.

View Stephanie’s Folk Media content and contributions

Samantha Casey

Samantha Casey is the founder and operator of Relentless Consulting Group, a firm that helps businesses and individuals market to the world. She is a blogger, reader, and networker with a passion for helping others and building strong brands. Follow Samantha on Twitter to find out more about her.

View Samantha’s Folk Media content and contributions

Contributors

John Lucchetti

John Lucchetti is a social media and internet marketing expert, and frequent contributor to FolkMedia.org. He concurrently serves as media director for Ad2action.com as well as marketing director for LoveTheTruthClothing.com and eFamilyCounselor.com. Mr. Lucchetti is a self proclaimed “music junkie” who served as a past member of the Southwest Symphony Marketing Committee and past director of “Thursday Nights at the Opera House” concert series. Mr. Lucchetti earned a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Utah and speaks conversationally fluent Russian.

*Photo by Blary54

Dharmesh Shah talks about social media measurement and monitoring (Part 2)

Watch part one here

Our SXSW correspondent, Nichole Kelly caught up with Dharmesh Shah, CTO & Founder of Hubspot at South By Southwest Interactive 2010 to ask about social media measurement.

After you watch the video leave a comment below and let us know which category Dharmesh fits in and why…

1) Houdini – all smoke and mirrors

2) Miami Vice – definitely trendsetting

3) CSI – Crime Scene Investigator – so smart with social media measurement that NOTHING gets by.

Leave a comment below.

Dharmesh Shah talks about social media measurement and monitoring (part 1)

Watch part two here

Our SXSW correspondent, Nichole Kelly caught up with Dharmesh Shah, CTO & Founder of Hubspot at South By Southwest Interactive 2010 to ask about social media measurement.

After you watch the video leave a comment below and let us know which category Dharmesh fits in and why…

1) Houdini – all smoke and mirrors

2) Miami Vice – definitely trendsetting

3) CSI – Crime Scene Investigator – so smart with social media measurement that NOTHING gets by.

Leave a comment below.

Ryan Holmes talks about social media measurement and monitoring

Our SXSW correspondent, Nichole Kelly caught up with Ryan Holmes, CEO of Hootsuite at South By Southwest Interactive 2010 to ask about social media measurement.

It’s no secret that we here at Folk Media are huge fans of Hootsuite – so it was exciting to get to hear from Ryan.

After you watch the video leave a comment below and let us know which category Ryan fits in and why…

1) Houdini – all smoke and mirrors

2) Miami Vice – definitely trendsetting

3) CSI – Crime Scene Investigator – so smart with social media measurement that NOTHING gets by.

Leave a comment below.

Maria Ogneva talks about social media measurement and monitoring

Our SXSW correspondent, Nichole Kelly caught up with Maria Ogneva, Social Media Director for Biz360, at South By Southwest Interactive 2010 to ask about social media measurement.

After you watch the video leave a comment below and let us know which category Maria fits in and why…

1) Houdini – all smoke and mirrors

2) Miami Vice – definitely trendsetting

3) CSI – Crime Scene Investigator – so smart with social media measurement that NOTHING gets by.

Leave a comment below.

Amber Naslund talks about social media measurement and monitoring

Our SXSW correspondent, Nichole Kelly caught up with Amber Naslund, Director of Community for Radian6, at South By Southwest Interactive 2010 to ask about social media measurement.

After you watch the video leave a comment below and let us know which category Amber fits in and why…

1) Houdini – all smoke and mirrors

2) Miami Vice – definitely trendsetting

3) CSI – Crime Scene Investigator – so smart with social media measurement that NOTHING gets by.

Leave a comment below.

Will (@willdavis) and Steve (@1stmarinerbank)

On February 23, 2010 several communications professionals gathered at the Austin Gill in Canton for Baltimore Social Media. It was an informal meetup (sometimes called tweetups) to connect people.

We had a great eclectic mix of people from all kinds of industries and businesses in and around Baltimore. Here’s a partial list of who was there…

@1stmarinerbank
@willdavis
@ecogordo
@ericalpin
@ericjzink
@joelmarkwitt
@jtsnapkoski
@justinkownacki
@LyriqueTragedy
@marioarmstrong
@natphotolab
@nichole_kelly
@will_burns
@dankeebler
@eangel427
@pettagcreations
@theoccasional
@ritualia
@jacksonlewis

We got to as many people as we could on this list and took some snapshots of the evening. But we’re sure we missed many people who came and went during the evening. If you were there and aren’t on the list – let us know through Twitter @folkmedia. Also be sure to tag photos on Facebook.

Jason (@MDLottery) Will (@mdchamber) Dan (@dankeebler)

Eric (@ericalpin) Nichole (@nichole_kelly)

A great big thanks to the Austin Grill in Canton. Despite the fire alarm issue, we all had a great time.

Baltimore Social Media is an informal exercise in meeting and talking with people you may or may not know in the Baltimore communications field.

If you are in the communications field (marketing, PR, journalism, writing, blogging, Twittering, video, podcasting etc) then you would fit right in.

Gordon (@ecogordo)

Robyn (@pettagcreations) and Justin (@justinkownacki)

Jackson (@jacksonlewis) Dawn (@LyriqueTragedy)Andrew (@theoccasional)

There’s another one coming in March. If you live in the Baltimore region, we’d love to have you join us.

Official Hashtag: #baltimoresocialmedia

Written By: Nichole Kelly

The big question: “how Do I measure social media?”

There have been many, many discussions around social media measurement especially over the last year. For some reason, nailing down the best way to measure has evaded us all. Most of the challenge is a result of having metrics that can be compared from one company to the next.

Without that, it is hard to say if what you are doing is good, bad, or ugly. This is exacerbated with a certain level of fear of measuring social because it can be difficult to correlate something like Twitter followers to new business.

This is certainly an understandable fear. Just remember that social media is just a tool in your marketing tool kit. If you measure social media using some of the same measurements you’ve always used, it will start to make sense and be easier to justify your efforts.

There are 5 categories in the social media funnel.

Exposure

This is just like the exposure you’ve been measuring for years. Essentially, you are choosing metrics which measure your reach. How many people are listening to you or talking about your brand? To actually measure this it is a combination of your normal web analytics, your Twitter followers, your Facebook fans, and running a search for your brand mentions. I use Radian 6 for this, but you could also do a Google search and look at growth in the number of returned results but this isn’t as accurate.

Influence

This is prefaced by saying that this category of measurement is a little harder if you don’t have Radian 6. By measuring the number of mentions for industry key words against the number of times your brand is mentioned with those key words you can get a measurement of your share of voice in the industry. You can also get a report on the top influencers from your industry. Finally, sentiment, while still imprecise, gives you a general measurement of whether people say you suck or you rock.

Engagement

This is fairly easily measured by tracking the number of clicks you get on the links you post, the number of times your messages are shared or retweeted, how many direct messages you get, and how many comments you receive.

Action/Convert

Is any of this contributing to the pipeline? Measure the pieces of content that tie to your sales process whether it be a white paper, webinar, lead generation form, pitch or proposal.

Sales

Oh, the elusive white horse. How much money are these efforts generating? If you’ve measured this far, you can measure what translate into dough.

Retain

The step many forget. Don’t forget to follow these customers and look at their repeat business and retention rates.

Remember, social media is like the almighty assist. It can help add more opportunities to convert business, but at the end of the day it is just putting leads in the funnel. Your normal sales process is responsible for converting those leads.

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Nichole is the Director of Social Media for CareOne Debt Relief Services and Vice President of Communications for the Baltimore Chapter of the American Marketing Association. She also blogs about social media and marketing innovation at nicholekelly.com

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