In this landscape, where everyone talks about the need to “get” social media, a basic social media audit can help you save a great deal of time before rolling out a larger strategy.

Carrot Creative’s audit takes into account your current social media presence but also looks at what assets you have that can be leveraged across online channels. For example, while some people go down a checklist — Do I have a blog? Do we have a Twitter account? How about a Facebook page? — we look first at what you already have and then how you can push it out to the community.

Here are a few points to think about when auditing your brand before starting a social media strategy.

What if you don’t have a big brand name?
Big brands have it easier. We get that. They can use it to their advantage when engaging with the online community. If you’re not a big brand, let your community members know they’re on a ride to make your brand big that and you want them to join you. If you’re not a big player, you can learn from what they’ve already done and use social media as a direct channel to communicate with your fans, enhance customer service and build up an audience for your product. By engaging with social media communities early on, you’ll build a loyal fan base that will help you in the end.

What if you don’t have content?
Make some. It’s easy. If you don’t have a lot of content, get in the conversation. Start chatting up your brand on Twitter or on blog comments. Still, your CEO and executives probably have some smart thoughts that can be turned into a simple blog post. Images of products and events are a click away from Flickr, and videos are easy to make.

What if you’re not ready?
While some companies “say” they’re ready for social media, some aren’t. Yes, you’re already behind brands that are currently making strides, but don’t rush into it if you’re not ready. We’ve seen a lot of companies make mistakes by jumping into this space too early and fail. You may not be ready but we encourage one strategy: Brand defense. Claim every vanity URL site on the popular social networks and post a link directing them to your main site. When you are ready, you already have the outlet and your consumers will be ready to start the conversation.

This article is copyright © 2010 

Here at Carrot Creative, we obviously like social media.We live and breathe it. We also like charity and getting involved in the community. So when our nice friends who organized the successful Social Media For Social Change (SM4SC)last year in Boston asked us to participate in the New York version this year—we obviously said yes.We also loaned some of our skillful Carrot Crew members to help with some redesign work as well. (Don’t worry, we have them back and they look well-fed)

So, here’s the deal:

In its second event in New York City, SM4SC hopes to gather 200 to 300 technology, social media, geeks, you name it! together for a night of fundraising, networking, entertainment and other fun—all for a good cause

LOCATION: Roger Smith Hotel, 501 Lexington Ave, New York, NY
DATE: Friday, April 3, 2009
TIME: 7:00 – 10:00 PM

Tickets can be bought here: http://sm4scnyc.eventbrite.com/

Admission includes Open Bar From 7-8:30, a silent auction full of prizes that we’d all want to win, live performances and more. More details can be found here.

All proceeds benefit City Harvest, a non-profit organization founded in 1982, is the world’s first and New York City’s only food rescue program.Learn more by visiting http://www.cityharvest.org.

Look for some of the Carrot Crew at the event and we’ll see you there!

This article is copyright © 2010 

Photo courtesy of Kelly Samardak and Just an Online Minute.

Last night Carrot Creative co-hosted the second drinks gathering for Digital DUMBO. This was another hugely successful event with not only local DUMBO companies represented by HUGE, The Jar Group and Free Association but our friends from across the bridge. Tim Nolan, an extremely talented flash artist displayed his work on the flat screens kicking off a new trend of featuring an artist or display from the DUMBO scene.

As I said last night and in a previous post, this is the Digital District of New York. DUMBO is the place where the magic happens from the digital minds. These are events are the perfect place for us to come together once a month.

We also announced the next phase of Digital DUMBO as this is not just a place for us to come together for cocktails. Don’t get me wrong—we’ve been having a good time but there’s an opportunity for more. The new site, digitaldistrictnyc.com will be the hub for all things Digital DUMBO. From brown bag lunches for us to discuss the latest and greatest to news announcements that keep each other informed about what’s going on in our community. This will be the place to host everything.

Kelly Samardak from Just an Online Minute posted a great recap of the event here along with a set of photos.

We’re encouraging others to get involved in Digital DUMBO and look forward to hearing as much feedback as possible. Feel free to leave comments below and we look forward to seeing you at the next one!

Digital DUMBO Facebook

Digital DUMBO on Twitter

This article is copyright © 2010 

Photo Courtesy of Style Coalition. More photos from the event here.

Last night I had the privilege of attending the Style Coalition’s Digital Moda event organized by Inside the Tents bringing together the fashion, media and technology elite. How was it? Well, besides AWESOME I don’t know how else I could describe it.

What was really cool was the fact that while I expected most of the conversations to revolve around the runway and designers I don’t know about (come on—it’s true), I was surprised to hear that the fashion industry has a HUGE interest in technology and social media. Score! In some ways, a well made web site is just like a well made dress to them—you can pick out the imperfections, pick out what you need, pick out why it does and doesn’t work for your customer. It didn’t hurt that I was surrounded by gorgeous people while having these conversations as well. (Bonus of the fashion industry folks!)

I met a lot of great people last night including:

• My Twitter friends from Smashing Darling Maureen Puia & Trisha Ginter
• Someone I have been following for a while on Twitter and met for the first time Anna Sabino
• Damien Basile – He was the best dressed and very funny.
• Karelle Levy from Krelwear.com “She is kinda a big deal”

Special thanks to Mike Pratt and Jean Pratt from GiftGirl.com as well as the team at Inside the Tents. Lots of great stuff coming from that team and the fashion world coming together with social media.

Additional photos from the event can be found over on Guest of a Guest here.

This article is copyright © 2010 

Photo Credit: Kelly Samardak, Just An Online Minute

Yesterday I attended the “When Social Media Becomes Unsociable” panel part of this week’s “Social Media Week” in New York. The panel, held at Fleishman Hillard’s New York office was full of people who engage/work in the new media space including:

• Constantine Basturea, Converseon
• Steve Coulson, The Advance Guard
• Peter Himler, Flatiron Communications
• Brad Mays, FH Digital Dallas
• Amber Naslund, Radian6
• David Bradfield (Moderator from FH Digital)

A full recap of what was discussed (Social Media- Don’t be an idiot) can be found on Kelly Samardak’s “Just an Online Minute” post with some fun photos as well, but we wanted to address the theme of what was discussed further.

It’s nothing new. When engaging with social media – Don’t. Be. An. Idiot.

The panel covered on the Michael Phelps fiasco (end conclusion: Mixed- Who’s the bigger idiot? Him for doing the drugs? (YES) or Kellogg’s who now has a backlash against them for dropping him?) as well as other examples from the panelists about crisis situations where members of the community put in their 2 cents to negatively comment on a brand or product. Scott Monty, Head of Social Media at Ford was a favorite of someone who does it well. Why? He does it smart and isn’t an idiot.

At times, people want to rush in a fix a situation happening on the comments section of a blog that gets 50 readers a month. The rush to jump in causes a wave of bad responses and then an even bigger dilemma than what you started with. Just take a step back and think of how you can best have a conversation with the person being negative. Are they wrong? They could be and you could be the one to help answer them. Are they right? Well, admit it if you have to and provide resources for them to help. Just take a few minutes and figure out why you need to be involved. If it’s not THAT important, move on and worry about the bigger dilemmas.

Result: Less idiots. More happy campers (read: clients and customers)

This article is copyright © 2010 

We hope you’re as excited as we are for today’s inaugural.

To make the most out of today’s historic celebrations we’ve compiled a list of social media websites dedicated to the inauguration.

Share My Inauguration

Follow 24 students from an inner-city Chicago school as they travel to Washington to experience national treasures and our election process firsthand. The site is enhanced with student created video and has a section where you too can share your inauguration experience.

Baratunde.com

Our good friend Baratunde Thurston will be live tweeting and blogging the inauguration. If mainstream TV is more your thing, he’ll also be on CNN.

Hulu.com

View the inauguration in its entirety on Hulu.com along with special video clips from the election.

RefreshEverything.com

“What would you say to the new president?” Upload your videos to this exciting new YouTube channel.

If there’s any site we missed please let us know via the comments section.

Have a great inauguration day, don’t forget to check out our Facebook Fanpage, Yes We Did and have a spectacular day celebrating the beginning of a new era of optimism.

This article is copyright © 2010 

My fellow Interwebians. In a little over four days our country will finally experience the change we’ve all been working so hard to initiate. The members of the >carrot crew have been staunch supporters of the Obama administration since day one and can’t wait to experience the most important inauguration in modern memory.

But let’s face it, after next Tuesday we’re going to be looking for our next big cause to rally behind. Luckily that day is already here.

The Twitter community is looking for the best of the best. Superhuman Twitterers who embody the spirit of the social web. Enter the Shorty Awards: aka the Internet People’s Choice Awards.

We are pleased to announce that yours truly is nominated for a Shorty Award in the field of politics. Why Politics you ask? Really? You have to ask us that? Check out my bio on our site for a complete rundown of my political career.

Vote for me, then make a plan to attend the Shorty Awards Ceremony on  February 11th right here in DUMBO. Also, follow me on Twitter for my take on social media, politics, and my really cool iPhone apps.

Disclaimer: Snarky tone added on purpose. We are absolutely thrilled to be nominated. Carrot is dedicated to using social media to stir up conversation and the Shorty Awards has done just that. We’re truly excited about being nominated. Thanks to all who voted and can’t wait for the big party.

This article is copyright © 2010 

So why is all of this important?

For starters, it’s always important to thank those who are willing to plug your efforts. As cool as we think our site is, it takes more than our mouths to spread something via word of mouth (or “Word of Mouse,” as we call it) and we really owe a lot of our recognition and increased inquiries to those willing to feature us. So, thank you again If I missed you in the list (due to my own scattered records) please tweet me or email (chris [at] carrot creative (dot) com).

We’re thrilled that our novel use of jQuery navigation (the sliding across the desk effect, for those that don’t speak nerd) was recognized in particular. Part of the fun in designing with the “blue sky” of our own website is that we get to test out emerging techniques on the development side. By showcasing new ideas, we can help push the limitations of expectations. It allows us to “wow” clients with some subtle flair, while at the same time expanding our capabilities. Our team is always researching and learning, and we hope to update and expand our site as we find new & fitting ways to integrate.

Our website has to serve as a showcase of us in all aspects, to all audiences. As important as first impressions are to clients and business opportunities, they are also to our colleagues in the design and development sides of our industry. Much of Carrot’s success has come from recommendation through people already within our space. Even more important than that, however, is new talent. I can honestly say that our staff at Carrot Creative is a superbly talented and capable bunch, and they’ve exceeded expectations again and again. We want to attract more people like them- people who think differently, want to try things out and are willing to improve themselves in our ever-evolving space. It’s very likely that some of the folks seeing us featured on these sites are the ones we want to hire.

Whether or not you believe in Karma, there does seem to be something to expressing gratitude, particularly when it is amply due. So, thank you again.

This article is copyright © 2010 

As communications and public relations campaigns continue to mix and social media becomes a more common focus of the overall communications strategy, it’s important for growing agencies to take this into consideration and work together across all of these areas.

So, here I am. I will be the new Director of Communications here at Carrot spearheading the external communications for the company as well as providing insight to communications strategy on all of the amazing campaigns Carrot is currently working on with their clients and partners. If you’re interested, more information about my professional experience can be found on my LinkedIn page, but in the spirit of communicating, feel free to leave a comment and say hi. Or, follow me on Twitter.

Make sure to come back and visit the blog as we’ll be expanding it and continuing to share what the team has been up to.

This article is copyright © 2010