Going Truly Digital This Holiday Season
I don't know if you've heard, but Queen Elizabeth II is going digital, as she releases her annual Christmas message on YouTube. What's more, the Royal Family has even established its own channel on YouTube. Not bad for an institution that 10 years ago was being thought of as potentially irrelevant and extinct.I addressed my share of holiday cards this year (well, truthfully, I used mail merge and address labels, but there was manual labor involved), but I thought what a great time to start integrating some digital messaging as well. Here's one for you:
While I recognize that not everyone on my list is able to send/receive electronic messages, odds are the percentage will grow higher each year. Which is why it's cool that I can record a message like this with ooVoo, Seesmic, or any number of applications. If I really get my act together, I can do the ultimate cool thing: connect with up to 5 people at a time on a video chat via ooVoo, which could make for some fun holiday interaction.
Whatever you're doing for the holidays, be safe and enjoy. And I look forward to hearing from you in whatever manner you choose to communicate.
Disclosure: ooVoo is a client of my company, crayon, LLC.
Labels: crayon, fun, ooVoo, social media, Video
Posted by Scott Monty at 10:56 AM
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Scott, Happy Holidays.
John
Firstly, happy holidays.
A couple quick notes:
1) the fact that the Queen of England beat the White House to a YouTube Channel is sad.
2) Holiday cards are still meaningful if the address labels are printed rather ran handwritten. Nobody hangs onto an envelope unless it is remarkable. Most people will discard the envelope without a second's thought while still treasuring the message inside. There has to be a BIG lesson for marketers here (I'll be posting about this tomorrow).
3) At least you didn't send a pre-fab e-card. I don't mind receiving endless piles of holiday cards from reps, but ecards are nothing more than spam. They aren't cute, they aren't fun and they certainly aren't effective. The only ecards I open are from family and close friends. The key takeaway here is this: if you don't know how the marital status and names of someone's kids, you're better off taking an afternoon and learning this key information by SPEAKING with me than you ever would be by adding me to your impersonal spam list. Sorry for the rant there, I just can't stand mass mailed e-cards.
Scott, your the expert here. What should be the social media holiday etiquette?
John - to you as well. Looking forward to seeing you soon.
Jon - thanks for the smiles on a variety of levels. You're quite right - for holiday cards, at least, the labels don't necessarily make the meaning special. But I can't tell you how many photo cards we received that were seemingly untouched by human hands: the envelopes were imprinted with a return address, labels were affixed, and the card was embossed with "Happy Holidays from the ___ Family." And that was it - no personal note, no bad penmanship to squint at, nothing.
I agree with you about the e-cards. Unless they're completely relevant to me, I'm not a fan either.
It's funny you should mention etiquette - I think we're entering a brave new world that requires us to adhere to some social norms as well as to adapt ourselves to the new technology. In this case, I would argue that we apply the same etiquette as we do in everyday social media.
The ultimate challenge with social media is that it's not scalable. Everything must be done on an individualized basis. And marketing departments, while they can engage in good conversations with clients, it becomes difficult to leverage on the traditional mass marketing scale they've been used to with direct mail, advertising, and the like.
For an example of how to do it and how to do it well, check out my recent post The Best Pitch I've Received. While it's not holiday-specific, it does speak volumes about the proper tactics.
I tend to agree with Jon about the cards (it is a type of junk mail), but this year a friend of mine sent me a card with a picture of her and her hubby in Bali. After not seeing them for a while, I actually felt their absence. Maybe the picture made the difference? scouti
I feel like etiquette is of increasing importance when it is possible to interact with people on such an impersonal level. I can't tell someones tone of voice in an email, so they need to communicate more effectively to get past that hurdle - are they mad, or joking, etc. The medium is different than what people are used to, and you cannot simply extend personal etiquette into electronic media.
Its kind of funny that since the medium allows increasingly impersonal interaction, it inherently promotes it as well; just as the television is not a medium for debate and discussion, as Neil Postman so clearly observed. Similarly, I would say that email and digital communication is not truly a medium that allows for personal contact (though it can be done, and is done by many.)
It is like trying to televise an analytic psychological discussion; watching an analyst on TV might work to some extent, albeit in a significantly less effective way than actually having a discussion with an analyst. Similarly, holiday cards can be sent in electronic format (e-cards,) but they will be incredibly less personal, even if they do have personal details, than even the simplest handwritten note.