The Social Media Marketing Blog

Foursquare in Context

2012-01-29T23:11:00.003-05:00

If you're a regular user of services like Twitter or Foursquare, you've undoubtedly been met with skeptics and naysayers who wonder aloud, "Why would I want to tell anyone what I'm having for lunch?" or "Why would I care if someone is having a ham sandwich?"

Fair enough, but the inquisitors fail to take into account the all-important factor in any conversation, whether it's in person or online: context.

Context is what allows us to make sense of much of the world around us. "He's so bad!" could have two very different meanings, depending on the the rest of the conversation surrounding it. With that in mind, a ham sandwich may be more than just a ham sandwich. What if it's the best ham sandwich you've ever had? Or if it's at a restaurant that's offering a discount of 50% off all sandwich orders?

This new video helps to put Foursquare's services into perspective for people who wonder "What's the value of 'checking in'?" As if 15 million of them didn't already know...

As you can see, specials, discounts and a potential connection with those around us all converge within Foursquare to give a much more contextual purpose - one that over time, will be customized to your tastes and interests.

Now that's something worth sharing.

Social Media and Travel

2012-01-27T00:37:00.002-05:00

If you're like me, you spend a good deal of time on the road. Whether it's at an airport, on a train or in a car, you're mobile and your digital life is mobile too.

The pervasiveness of tablets and smartphones (in addition to the already ubiquitous laptop) is growing daily. Just this week, Apple announced that it sold 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads in the fourth quarter of 2011 alone. It means that more of us are doing things on the web (or mobile web, as the case may be) while we're on the go, and there are certain things those of us in the digital world look for when we travel - at least with regard to infrastructure.

The Airlines
To my knowledge, Southwest was the first airline (or at least the most prominent early on) to get involved with social media. Their blog, Nuts About Southwest, has been a perennial leader in the corporate blogging space. They've made great use of Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and more and have always led with a very human and very customer-centric approach.

JetBlue made a name for itself in the social media space after a difficult travel situation thanks to severe winter weather in 2007. Their CEO David Neeleman was direct and honest in his approach, the video of him was sincere and emotional, and JetBlue made it clear that it put customers first. And to think that my colleague Morgan Johnston at JetBlue had started his job on that very day...

Delta got a late start in social media (and was the subject of its fair share of complaints, including a dramatic rant ), but now has @Delta and @DeltaAssist looking after its customers on Twitter. Not to mention some personal interaction from a certain member of the crew from their famous safety video.

That finger wag gets me every time.

The other airline that's going above and beyond in social media is Virgin America. Based out of Silicon Valley, they're in the thick of the action from a technology standpoint. And their use of Groupon, Loopt, Foursquare and more prove it. But their always-on monitoring is essential when it comes to catching consumer complaints, especially after their switch to a new reservation system last year.

Overall, customers want interaction - they want to be heard, certainly, but they also want action - when they take to Twitter to voice a concern. According to an eMarketer article, the expectation that a company will respond increases by age cohort from 38% of 18-24 year-olds all the way up to 65% of those in the 55+ age category. And it clearly matters in terms of satisfaction:

If you'd like to see a comprehensive roster of airlines on Twitter, check out @Kayak's list of some 160 or so.

Staying Powered - and Connected
I've been in the unfortunate circumstance of leaving for a trip without power cord for a device. There are two points of good news: many times, you can charge your phone directly from your laptop using a USB port; and quite often, the hotel will have a power cord for your phone that you can borrow from their lost and found collection (I was once told by a concierge that phone cords are like currency at most hotels).

There are a few gadgets that I'd recommend as well. If you're travelling internationally, it's essential to have an all-in-one adapter that has attachments for every major country's electrical sockets. And because the hotel where you're staying or the airport may not have many readily available sockets to charge your laptop, phone, tablet, etc., it's handy to have a cord with 4 outlets, an all-in-one charging station, or even a PowerSquid that will allow up to 5 others to connect. You'll be the most popular person at the airport! (Note on all of the links in this paragraph: http://cmp.ly/5).

Then again, a number of airports have recognized that passengers travel with gadgets and need places to charge.

Thanks, Delta!

If you happen to have a non-3G iPad or a laptop without an air card, you depend on local wi-fi networks for connectivity. I've been in my share of airports that have had plenty of network access, but I didn't want to spring for a Boingo account to get connected. For that reason, it's helpful to know which airports have free wi-fi. Here's a quick list for your reference:

Airports with free wi-fi:
Boston (BOS)
Charlotte (CLT)
Cincinnati (CVG)
Denver (DEN)
Fort Myers (RSW)
Honolulu (HNL)
Indianapolis (IND)
Kansas City (MCI)
Las Vegas (LAS)
Oakland (OAK)
Orange County (SNA)
Orlando (MCO)
Palm Beach (PBI)
Phoenix (PHX)
Pittsburgh (PIT)
Portland (PDX)
Sacramento (SMF)
San Antonio (SAT)
San Diego (SAN)
San José (SJC)
Tampa (TPA)
Washington Dulles (IAD)
Washington Reagan (DCA)

But it goes farther than wi-fi and charging stations. FareCompare has developed a list of the top 12 airports for social media power users, with a list of the top airports that are also known to take good care of their customers. I've reproduced the table here.

City	Airport Code	Twitter Hits	Outlets per Gate	Other Amenities
Atlanta	ATL	14.7 million	8.1	Charging stations, work desks
Baltimore	BWI	7.92 million	7.3	Charging stations
Dallas	DFW	2.7 million	7.2	Charging stations, work desks
Detroit	DTW	3.4 million	6.7	Charging stations, Boingo data ports
Fort Lauderdale*	FLL	120,000	2.65	Fast, free Wi-Fi
Los Angeles	LAX	153 million	5.3	Charging stations, internet kiosks
Minneapolis	MSP	2.11 million	Varies by terminal	Charging stations, iPad kiosks coming 2012-13
New York City	JFK	8.45 million	Varies; Terminals 2, 3, and 5 have the most	Charging stations, work desks, iPad kiosks
New York LaGuardia	LGA	1.05 million	7.2	Charging stations, iPad kiosks
Salt Lake City*	SLC	8.97 million	5.4	Charging stations, work desks
San Francisco*	SFO	110 million	13.6	Charging Stations, lounge areas, work desks
Seattle	SEA	6.68 million	2.7	Charging Stations, fast Wi-Fi

* Airport has free Wi-Fi

The Airports
I've had experience with some airports that are downright personal. For example, I traveled to Kansas City last year and was pleasantly surprised at the greeting and send-off that I got from the Kansas City International Airport (@KCIAirport) on Twitter:

Followed by a warm greeting waiting for me at home (@DTWeetin):

When you're travel-worn and checking in on Foursquare or commenting on a queue, sometimes it's heartening to realize that there are teams of people looking out for you. For example, Logan International Airport (BOS) in Boston has a team of five people handling their social media; @LAX_Official gives travelers in Los Angeles tips, newsletter and other helpful information. For a roster of over 130 airports on Twitter, see @Kayak's list.

What's your experience with regard to social media and travel? Do you have any other examples of airlines, airports or other entities who get it right, campaigns that resonated with you, or personal touches that made the difference in an otherwise difficult circumstance? Please leave a comment with your input.

Image credit: ~Oryctes~ (Flickr)

Revealing a New Ford in a New Way

2011-12-13T21:00:00.000-05:00

Ford Motor Company has been at the forefront of social media for some time. The Fiesta Movement, the Explorer reveal on Facebook, Doug the Spokespuppet, Ford Social (formerly known as The Ford Story) and being the first brand on Google+ all stand as examples of Ford's success that spans from clever campaigns to a daily commitment to engage.

Ford played a significant part in how the automotive industry thinks about social media (and in some cases how large companies think about social media) and now, as we near the 2012 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), at Ford we have an opportunity to again reinvent how we give our fans a chance to engage in shared experiences around our brand.

The all-new Ford Fusion will be making its debut at NAIAS in January, but starting today, consumers have an opportunity to go behind the scenes at Ford to hear about how we've remade this mid-size car and see the car revealed gradually over the course of the next few weeks - including a chance to drive the car in slot-like environment. If you go to FordFusionApp.com, you can download an iOS or Android version of the app to experience it for yourself.

Each weekday between now and January 9, you’ll be able to launch the experience by finding and capturing a Ford logo using the mobile device’s camera. It works on any Ford logo - the one on your car, online, in print - this is one of the coolest features. The Ford logo will then appear on the screen as a button that starts the program. Operating like a video game, the app then allows consumers to drive a digitally camouflaged new Fusion on a track toward video clips that feature insights on technology and design from key Fusion team members.

You'll have a chance to unlock more vehicles and more worlds as the days progress, but it's only through completing the driving experience that you'll be rewarded with more content. Original music, the ability to change the view around the car and sharing functionality via Facebook and Twitter are all part of the experience. Over the course of the 19 weekdays from now until the reveal of the vehicle, more of the digital camouflage will be removed and additional videos will cover the design, technology, engineering, safety features and more of the 2013 Ford Fusion.

The video below will help you get a sense as to how it works. Be sure to pop over to FordFusionApp.com to get a copy for your iPad2, iPhone or Android device. And let us know what you think!

--

Infographic: 5 Companies That Are Rocking Social Media

2011-11-29T11:47:00.001-05:00

This infographic was created by Voltier Digital, a content marketing agency based in Florida, specializing on the creation and promotion of impactful content marketing campaigns for businesses of all sizes.

We all know the usual names of companies that are doing well in social media. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the lesser-knowns and why they've had success, either on an ongoing basis or with some one-off efforts that stood out.

And since infographics are all the rage, what better way to look at them? Of course, for SEO purposes, I've listed them here as well.

Dell is presented as a master in the art and science of listening.
Morton's made headlines with its surprise-and-delight effort with influencer Peter Shankman recently, but goes beyond that with helpful information regularly.
Unisys uses social media internally for effective collaboration and a boost to company productivity.
KLM is using Twitter and Facebook for real-time customer service and encouraging customers to submit ideas.
ABC is having fun with the way viewers can engage with their new show Pan Am by providing some goodies on Facebook.

Are there other companies that are doing some interesting things with social media that are worth talking about? Drop a comment in below.

Please feel free to share this post or embed the image on your own site. The code is provided below.

Copy and paste the code below to embed this graphic

Twitter Business Guide

2011-10-07T23:53:00.003-04:00

I was recently introduced to a compact guidebook for businesses trying to get a sense of Twitter. The microblogging site that allows you to update in no more than 140 characters at at time is deceptively complex and nuanced - especially for a newcomer.

This short guide, entitled Twitter Business Guide: Communication and Marketing was written by Jean-Christophe Barré and Dr. Andreas Schroeter and in just 32 pages covers some of the things that may be keeping you and your business away from this platform.

For someone who is new to Twitter, this e-book will prove a helpful compass as you begin to explore Twitter. Everything from setting up an account to understanding the vernacular, the difference between communications and marketing with Twitter, and some of the tools you'll need to use to make it effective.

Please feel free to download and share this e-book, and by all means, if you have additional suggestions, please leave a comment.Twitter Business Guide

As with any tool or platform, this should be seen as just that. Twitter itself is not a strategy. You should be thinking in terms of how it integrates with the rest of your communications and marketing strategies and how it will help you attain your business goals.

Image credit: clevercupcakes (Flickr)
--

iLife

2011-10-05T20:04:00.002-04:00

Steve Jobs has died at the age of 56. His life's work at Apple literally changed the face of the earth. Undoubtedly, he'll go down in history alongside the likes of Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.

Let's remember Steve in his own words, "How to live before you die," in his Stanford Commencement speech of 2005:

R.I.P. Steve Jobs. We thank you for the innovation you brought to this world. May we all live such a life.

(Disclosure: http://cmp.ly/5)

When Humor Isn't Funny

2011-10-01T14:02:00.003-04:00

Often times, we use humor to find common ground. An observational comic can take the everyday mundane things and makes make them seem funny with a unique spin. Or slapstick teams use physical gaffes to go for the primeval notion that when someone else gets hurt, we laugh. Comedy on the heels of tragedy helps forge a bond for those who have suffered together, in an effort to pull them through.

But in attempting to use humor, it's important to realize that it's all based on perspective. When a brand or a cause attempts to use humor - especially in the age of social media, where information, rumors and outrage fly fast and furious - it has to be used carefully.

Now that's funny
There are plenty of positive examples out there. One of the most prominent examples in the past year or so has been the Old Spice Man efforts. By using video and going almost for the absurd, "the man your man could smell like" leaves us wondering "I wonder what they'll do next?"

Super Bowl ads tend to be laced with humor, and this year was no exception. But the one that stood out for most, especially with its early airing on YouTube was the Volkswagen commercial The Force. The familiar "Imperial March" from The Empire Strikes Back, combined with the ridiculously large Darth Vader helmet on the boy's tiny frame, along with the universal frustration we've all felt at trying to bring to life our make-believe dreams all come together to create one of the most memorable and funny ads in recent memory.

Ford (my employer) has attempted something this year that has been successful in its own right as well: the Focus Doug campaign, featuring a wise-cracking orange spokespuppet that is anything but politically correct. Directed by Paul Fieg from The Office, Freaks and Geeks and Arrested Development (disclosure: http://cmp.ly/5) and starring John Ross Bowie and Paul F. Thompkins, the videos were aimed at a particular audience that appreciates the improv style and straight-man vs. envelope pusher. The series was designed to showcase product features using humor and situations, rather than simply highlighting product features. As an example, here's how Ford demonstrated the text-to-voice functionality in the 2012 Ford Focus:

Even the recent Roast of Charlie Sheen, hosted on Comedy Central, was successful in its use of humor. You might ask "Why? All people did was cut each other down with their remarks." Well, the point of a roast is that you're supposed to say funny and insulting things about the people there, but everyone is in on it; they understand that being roasted is partly about being able to be the butt of a joke for the sake of entertainment.

Roast of Charlie Sheen

This? Not so much.
When a brand or a cause tries to use humor at the expense of others - especially when the others aren't part of the creative process - it can be harmful. Here are a few cases in point:

Ragu
Earlier this week, Unilever brand Ragu reached out to a number of dads and moms online to get their opinions on cooking. C.C. Chapman saw the video and wondered if Ragu Hates Dads, following it up with some free advice and finally recounting his interaction with the brand manager. There was lots of discussion about Ragu's approach, with some not seeing any harm in it. The thing is, C.C. is a dad who cooks for his kids and he didn't take the stereotyping lightly. Opinions fell on both sides, but it was clear that brands need to consider how they're using humor if they're concerned about their reputation.

The Onion
When is it okay to joke about matters of national security? Never, apparently. Even if you're a news satire site like The Onion. This week, the parody outfit tweeted that there was an emergency in Washington, DC:

Needless to say, this wasn't taken lightly. From news organizations to the Capitol police themselves, people were upset - probably not only at their level of gullibility but of the insensitivity of The Onion to stoop to using humor around a scary topic in this post-9/11 world.

The Next Web
Today, as I was on my treadmill, I shared a link with Mark Horvath, an advocate for bringing attention to the problem of homelessness. The link was to a story on The Next Web about a homeless man who is using Square to accept credit card payments. At first, it sounded like someone in Mark's circles, who like Mark, was innovating in this age of advanced technology. Then I actually took a closer look at the article and watched the video, and it was clearly a fake.

Whether the fake video was designed to bring more awareness to homelessness or simply exploited the homeless issue to be funny, it clearly did more harm than good, as noted in a tweet by a follower:

If you're responsible for a brand or a campaign, the next time you think about humor and its spread online, it may be helpful to think about the subject of the joke. Humor should not be done at the expense of others or in a way that can be misinterpreted. It may turn out to be something that isn't so funny for your brand after all.

Do you have any similar examples? Please consider sharing them.

Image credit: jwalsh (Flickr)
--

How the New Delicious Stacks Up

2011-09-27T19:31:00.001-04:00

In the last week, we've seen major changes from Google+ and Facebook. You can now add Delicious to that mix.You'll recall that last December, Yahoo! decided to sell Delicious, and then in April, Delicious announced it had been acquired by AVOS.

And for the following five months, everything seemed to be moving ahead steadily, with no visible change in the interface or service of Delicious.

Until today, that is.

If you head over to Delicious.com, you'll find that rather than being greeted by a wall of links, tags and descriptions, you'll be met with a much more visual interface - completely driven by images, as a matter of fact. It's very reminiscent of Flipboard or other similar iPad apps that rely on a thumbnail and a headline to encourage further exploration.

The images are taken from a new feature on the site called Stacks. Everyone can group their tagged items together in a broader category called "Stacks." This is akin to what used to be called "bundles" on Delicious. Now, you can share a set of links in a visual way to tell a story, provide context or help walk colleagues or customers through concepts in a step-by-step way. This video from their help page helps to explain it:

When you make your way through the Stacks, you'll find that you can view the images in a way that makes sense to you, as there are four different views: media, grid, list and full. Each is shown here:

New Delicious Layout

View more documents from Scott Monty

Aiding the Age of Discovery

Since there's so much content on the web (and so little time!), we're really past the Age of Information and fully into the Age of Discovery. Not discovery in terms of being the first to unearth a new idea, concept or artifact, but rather the realization of common knowledge, interests and expertise to bring us closer together.

This is the powerful notion that's being Spotify, the music-sharing service that's so popular thanks to Facebook's recent changes. On Delicious, the ability to search by category and interest (rather than being bombarded by random sharing of music that may or may not interest you) means that you're more likely to find what you're looking for or at least that you'll be able to narrow a search without too much trouble.

The changes are likely to seem a little jarring to long-time users of the service, but for tablet owners, this kind of visual presentation of information that makes sense. Since users can toggle back and forth between views, it's even more appealing; in these times, we never know what our users are going to prefer, and we can't simply rely on the one size fits all approach any more.

What do you think of the changes at Delicious? Are there any creative uses of the new Stacks feature that you can think of?

Image credit: Nrbelex (Flickr)

Facebook Timeline: There's Plenty That's New

2011-09-22T23:17:00.002-04:00

At the f8 developer conference today, Facebook unveiled some major platform changes that will profoundly affect how we use and interact with the site. In his keynote, Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook's job is to "make it the best way to express who you are." And with a company whose vision is to make the world more open and connected, it's absolutely essential to make it feel like a place you prefer to spend time.

In doing so, Facebook has introduced the Timeline - something of an online scrapbook - that better categorizes and highlights your actions, rather than the current Wall of everything. The new system will summarize your events and actions over time, so that only the significant things remain. New Reports apps will group things together in a sensible way and the entire experience will be more visual.

There are three major concepts that make up the new Timeline: all of your stories, all of your apps and a new way to express who you are. Here's the video that Facebook released to help you see how Timeline will transform the thing that you share:

While the more significant things will be grouped into these apps, your less interesting updates and actions - Zuckerberg called them "lightweight actions" - will be visible through the Ticker on the sidebar. But what's even more interesting (to me, at least) is that there will be a social aspect to the apps: if you visit a friend's Timeline and see an app that interests you, you'll be able to instantly put it on your own.

There's a New App in Town
The significant advance on the app front is that the Open Graph will allow for "a new class of apps," according to Facebook. These apps will all have three things in common:

Frictionless experiences: no longer will an app interrupt your activity to ask you if you'd like to share it. If you authorize an app, your actions will automatically be posted. For example, if you authorize Netflix or Spotify, the movies you watch or songs you listen to will be automatically posted.
Realtime serendipity: the good news is that we're already doing these things; the Open Graph is simply going to allow people to see more of what we do and allow people to connect on common interests.
Finding patterns: over time, the graph will recognize the things you do and begin grouping them together, making the Timeline a much more organized structure.

As you can imagine the "frictionless experiences" will range in their nature. Currently, you can only "like" something on Facebook. But the new Open Graph apps will essentially function like verbs. Anything you can do can become an app. For example, your timeline will show that you "Read" a book, "Watched" a movie, "Listened" to a song, "Ate" at a restaurant, etc. The possibilities are endless. As Robert Scoble said to some venture capitalists last week, "you are now funding verb companies."

The New Timeline

So, let's take a look at how the Timeline works and what comprises it. First, if you haven't already, please take a look at the Introducing Timeline page on Facebook. It beings with your Cover - a large image that acts as something of a digital welcome mat for your visitors. It's meant to be the first impression that you make. Next up is Stories - the photos, posts and events that are important in your life. You can control which are shown and highlighted by starring or hiding content. And finally, Apps tell the world about the things that you regularly do - those verbs that I mentioned above.

There are already a number of pundits who are analyzing, summarizing and hypothesizing about the changes. My role here isn't to do any of that, but rather to share with you what the changes are and why you need to be aware of them. Here are some good backgrounders to look at for more detail:

Mashable's Facebook Changes Again: Everything You Need to Know
Francine Hardaway on Fast Company looks at What the New Facebook Changes Mean for Businesses
And if you're interested in getting the new Timeline now - rather than waiting for Facebook to relese it over the next couple of weeks, take a look at CNET's How to turn on your Facebook Timeline right now for a step-by-step tutorial.

Here's what my new Timeline looks like:

Based on what I've observed so far, here's a major concern I have for any Facebook Pages (i.e., businesses or brands): the casual behavior of fans around your Page and your content (liking something or commenting on something) will now become relegated to the sidebar Ticker. For the average user (who has between 130-170 friends), it may not be a big deal; but for anyone over that number, you'll see a constantly updating stream of actions that are less meaningful now because of the lack of context of each. And there have already been lots of conversations about how to kill the Ticker.

At this time, it seems that Facebook is focusing more on relationships between individuals (rightfully so, as that's the main reason the platform exists). But even as AllFacebook.com wondered "Does Facebook's News Feed Punish Advertisers (Yet)?" you have to wonder how Pages will fare. So much of the activity there fed into individuals' news feeds; now that will be relegated to the Ticker. It sounds like it's a win for Facebook in terms of getting brands to step up to the table with some advertising budgets.

In my opinion, the more forward-thinking brands must do one or more of these three things:

Advertise. Begin thinking about Facebook's offerings and determine how you want to fit into the ecosystem.
Create engaging content. There's no question that if you create good content - both on and off of Facebook (let's not forget that Facebook should be only part of your overall social media strategy) - people will naturally want to share it, which means it will end up in the newsfeed eventually.
yourself. Along with that content, you need to think like an action verb. What is it your brand does? Make a verb out of that and hook it up to the Open Graph so people can announce on Facebook that they're engaged in activity with your brand outside of Facebook.

Whew!

That's a lot of information in one post (and let's not forget the Google+ update two days ago). The new interface is probably overwhelming for the average user. In fact, one of my friends saw the video above and said, "OMG I am going to have to take a 300 level course in Facebook..."

What do you think of the new changes afoot at Facebook? Likely to keep you more engaged, or something a little to extreme for you? How do you think businesses will fare in all of this?
--

Everything You Need to Know About Google+

2011-09-21T01:46:00.000-04:00

In case you're coming out from the rock you've been living under for the summer, Google+ arrived on our digital doorsteps in early July - but only for limited field testing. Yesterday, it was announced that Google+ had finally been released as a public beta, meaning that you no longer require an invitation to join the network. The announcement was certainly strategically timed, with Facebook's f8 developers conference scheduled for Thursday - so strategic that Facebook itself made a few announcements early.

Before I get into some of the specifics about the new platform, I'd like to share with you why I think it's different from Facebook and why I think it makes sense to pay attention to Google+ rather than dismissing it out of hand as others have done (even prior to the public release, may I remind you).

Not Just a Social Network but Glue
When Facebook was created, it began as a private network only available to individuals with .edu email addresses. As it slowly and deliberately expanded, it kept growing from the inside out. It was truly a big deal when Facebook Connect was introduced, as it became the most significant way that Facebook was making an attempt to integrate with the rest of the Web. And Facebook's own mission statement, "Giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected," is consistent with this inside-out approach to growing its platform.

Google, on the other hand, has gone about things in a different way. There are dozens of Google or Google-owned products and services that span across the web. And while Google+ has begun as a social platform that acts a bit like Twitter and a bit like Facebook, it has the ultimate potential: to be able to bring these disparate parts together in a much more integrated fashion.

Some of the Google products that you may know and use include:

Email (Gmail)
Video (YouTube)
Photos (Picasa, Panaramio, Picnik)
Links (Reader, Bookmarks)
Files (Docs)
Location based services (Places, Latitude, Maps)
Blogging platform (Blogger, Feedburner)
Events (Calendar)
Mobile solutions (Mobile, Voice)
IM (Chat, Messenger)
Video chat (Hangouts)
Groups (Groups, Circles)
Browser & OS (Chrome)
Metrics (Analytics, Trends)
Revenue (Affiliate Network, Adsense, Checkout)
Integration services (App Engine)
Forums (Moderator)
Connecting the world (Translate)

Not to mention everything related to search - News, Blog, Book, Realtime, Images, Videos, Patent, Product, Finance and more...

When you think about the power of all of those being woven into a single social platform, the possibilities are endless. The analytics alone would be enough to catch my attention. Although, as a regular user of a number of those services above - including Blogger, Gmail, Reader, Docs and more - I will admit that I'm predisposed to liking it.

Back when I first started thinking about the potential integration of services, began to see articles like this one from TechCrunch ('Gmail+: Google Already At Work On "Several" Gmail/Google+ Integrations'), which is why I continue to be excited about it.

For a really nice visual exploration of what G+ is - as well as a creative use of the platform for storytelling, take a look at this photo set from Vincent Wong:

An early watcher developed a blog called PlusHeadlines.com and developed a point of view titled "How I See Google+ as Unique" which is worth looking at as well.

What has been fascinating to me is how the Google+ team has fanned out across the platform not only to observe how people are using the site, but to interact and engage with them. The Hangout group video chat feature has been particularly helpful as they've had some interactions with me and my team, for example. And in doing so, Google+ is changing right before our very eyes, making near-realtime tweaks based on customer feedback. The product has been live for 90 days and they've made 91 documented changes.

Just yesterday, along with the announcement that the platform would be public, Google+ also announced eight other improvements to the service, including:

Hangouts on your phone
Hangouts On Air - group video chat had been limited to 9 people; now you can broadcast your conferences so others can watch and follow along.
Extras for Hangouts:

Document sharing
Screensharing
The ability to sketch/doodle
Named Hangouts for public events

Availability of the Hangouts API
Search

The last one was a particularly sensitive improvement, as Google was taken to task for being a search engine company (even though it's much more) that didn't integrate search into its platform. That has been amended.

How Does it Work?
Rather than me trying to explain what it is, I'll leave it to the Google+ team to explain it directly via video. I've created a playlist that includes a quick look at the overall system, Circles, Hangouts, Instant Uploads and Messenger:

Circles really are a nice feature of the platform. They're intuitive, you can name them whatever you want, put people in more than one, move them around easily and are visually appealing to play with. They do take a little while to get used to and can be overwhelming, but my advice is to pay attention to them and create your Circles early, to help you think about who you're listening to and posting to. It will save you a lot of trouble down the line.

When you begin posting on Google+, one of the major benefits it offers is that you can target your updates to certain Circles, individuals or the public - and your post can be of any length. I've seen examples of short, Twitter-like updates both with and without media attached (such as photos, videos or links). And I've also seen extraordinarily long updates that are more blog-like in nature. The beauty of Google+ is that the platform is completely flexible depending on what you need.

Other features that make it user friendly include the ability to block a person who may not be welcome in your Circles (you don't have to follow everyone to see their updates - they can post on your site; blocking prevents that). Also, there are a number of rather "noisy" individuals who not only post frequently, but whose posts are commented on to a high degree; if you've commented, you'll be repeatedly notified of the updates. A way to prevent that is to "Mute" the post. A rather handy trick.

Resources & Getting Started
So by now you've either left the page out of sheer boredom or you've gone off and started an account. Either way, I can't blame you. But if you'd like some help as to how to go about getting things set up and looking for some pointers, you've come to the right place. I've developed a list of resources to at least get you grounded in what's in store for you and some best practices.

Google+ Resources

Your Google+ Guide: 15 Tips for Newbies (HuffingtonPost)
Google+: The Complete Guide (Mashable)
The Google Plus 50 (Chris Brogan)
Your Complete Guide to Google+ (CNET)

I highly recommend using a Chrome browser if you plan on using Google+, primarily because of the extensions you can add onto your browser for additional functionality, such as toolbar notifications, collapsible posts, integration with Facebook and Twitter, and more.

For your convenience, I have compiled all of these resources, as well as a number of others with a Google+ tag on my Delicious page. This will continue to update as I find relevant information.

Sounds Great! I Need One for my Business
Not so fast! At this time, Google+ is only open to individuals. For just about every business and website that joined when it first went live, Google asked the owners of those accounts to revert to using their names rather than their businesses. The sole exception was Ford Motor Company (ahem). We have a strong working relationship with Google and together we determined that Ford could act as something of a test account to help discern what features would be helpful versus awkward for a business account.

Google+ has publicly stated that they are working on a version for businesses; the timing hasn't been announced at this point. But they have said that the reason they're waiting is because they'll be able to better understand and serve the business population with a product that is specifically built for business purposes rather than trying to force fit brands into personal profiles.

One other outcropping was a debate that raged (and perhaps is still raging) about Google's insistence that individuals use their real names as part of the service. There were many people who were upset about it, but Bradley Horowitz from the G+ team outlined a number of consideration points in a post on his account.

Your Thoughts
So there you have it. This is a post that I had been meaning to write - at least the introduction of Google+ and its implications - for the last two months. Now that it's public, we'll have a lot more to discuss and to watch, I'm sure.

In the meantime, if you would like to add me to your Circles, I would be honored.

So, what do you think? Are you ready to jump into Google+ with both feet? Or are you just fine where you are?
--

Speakin' Like Them

2011-09-19T18:13:00.003-04:00

"If you wish to persuade me, you must think my thoughts, feel my feelings and speak my words."

- Cicero

I've previously cited this quote by Cicero as one that demonstrates the timelessness and universality of human nature. First uttered some 2,000 years ago, it is a quote that today is even more important for marketers and communicators to keep in mind as we think about what we're trying to accomplish.

And so today, as it is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, seems to be an appropriate time to reflect on the need of thinking, feeling, and yes, talking like those you're trying to influence.

Founded in 1995, the holiday was the brainchild of John Baur (Ol' Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap'n Slappy), two friends who were playing racquetball one day, when for reasons that aren't clear to either of them, they started insulting each other in pirate jargon. The website blossomed, followed by a more recent foray into Facebook, and here we are today.

And today there are a number of individuals and sites who like to play along. The first - one that's been happening since 2008 - is Facebook's ability to allow users to change their preferred language to English (Pirate).

If you haven't tried it, you can go to the Account dropdown and click on Account Settings. There you can make the change:

And what used to look like this:

Click to enlarge

Will now look like this:

Click to enlarge

Getting into the spirit
Aside from the functional changes on Facebook, I noticed some other brands enjoying the fun of the day and even leveraging some natural connections with their own brands.

The first one that struck me was this Promoted Tweet I saw when I clicked on the trending topic "International Talk Like a Pirate Day":

The link takes you to a little YouTube video from Arby's:

Okay, so it was perhaps a clumsy play on words - but it was cute and in the tongue-in-cheek style of humor that struck so many of our collective coworkers and online friends today.

With a more natural connection than most, the Disney Parks Blog had a field day with its entries today. In fact, there were no fewer than nine posts with the "Pirate Day" tag on the site. My favorite is a video tour by Cap'n Walt himself, giving a tour behind the scenes of a miniature model and early concepts of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride:

These are but a few examples of companies that have understood the importance of memes and adapted their own communications or even products to reflect those sensibilities. By thinking and speaking like our intended audience, we can connect with them on a deeper level.

Oh, and if you have the courage to do so, you can always translate this post into Pirate. Here be t' link.

Are there any other standout examples from Talk Like a Pirate Day that you can cite?

Image credit: Dots Treats Cupcakes (Flickr)
--

Social Media & Real Estate

2011-09-05T23:38:00.000-04:00

Editor's note: the following is a guest post by Herman Chan.

Social media is where people immediately go to for recommendations for anything and everything, from eateries to vacation spots to even real estate. As a service-oriented business predicated on spheres of influences, social media is more relevant than ever for this industry. Real estate is all about referrals and who you know...which, if you think about it, is what social media is all about.

Information overload is what most people feel when researching real estate. It's overwhelming the amount of data available on the internet. Some of it is junk, some of it is advertising, and a lot of it is just wrong. People are starved to get quality reliable information they can trust. So consumers gravitate to sites and communities that shared their interests and points of views. Sites like Yelp, Facebook, Branch Out, Twitter exploded because they satisfied this need. Knowing what their peers think and find interesting helps shape a consumer's opinion. People are not looking for just info anymore, they are looking for recommendations. It's the power of feedback. The testament of a testimonial. It helps them edit down their choices.

Real estate used to be a private transaction between a Realtor and client. However, it is increasingly now a shared social experience for a community. Open house visitors upload photos of what they saw, buyers blog about their inspection, sellers search Twitter streams for mentions of their house, agents get rated online. Today's buyers and sellers rely heavily on social media. Yet this is lost on many of my colleagues who cling to an era when agents were the gatekeepers of info. Tsk tsk.

So, next time you interview a real estate agent, ask them:

1. What are your strategies for marketing my property?
If they just mention fliers, open houses and website, tell them this ain’t the 1990’s! If they cite social media as part of their plan, ensure they really possess the social media savoir faire to meet your needs. (ie, Posting once a month on their facebook business page doesn't cut it. They obviously have a facebook page for the sake of having a facebook page, which is useless to you as a client).

2. How big is your social following?
If an agent has 10,000 twitter followers who hang on to their every word about real estate, that is 20,000 eyeballs on your listing. That’s more exposure than any flyer or open house will get you. One tweet to plug your home and it is on the radar of thousands of people.

3. Who follows you and how engaged are they?
Perhaps your agent's online tribe isn't the largest, but it may be an active targeted demographic. It’s a good sign when local businesses, past clients and even other real estate professionals are fans of a Realtor. (You can tell a lot about how engaged an agent is by reading their online chatter with other followers.) These people who have “liked” the agent’s page actively chose to read what that agent posts. They clearly expressed an interest in your agents business and want to keep tabs on their local market. With any luck, they will share/viralize your property to their sphere as well!

Bottom line: The traditionally stodgy real estate industry is finally catching on that social media can't be ignored. An agent with strong social media savvy can command a lot of attention towards your house for sale. The more people who are aware of your listing, the more likely someone will write an offer. In this market, a seller can not afford to lose out on any marketing edge, especially when Gen X/Y and Millenials are driving the market now. And guess what, they live on social media. Select your agent representation accordingly.

Real Estate Expert Herman Chan is a videoblogger, speaker, and writer whose social media savvy has made him an authority on branding and cementing one’s online presence. Check him out on www.habitatforhermanity.com or follow him on Twitter at @hermanity.

YouTube Comments

2011-09-04T01:07:00.001-04:00

How many sensible and well-reasoned comment threads have you seen on YouTube?

Go ahead and think about it. I'll wait.

Have your answer? Me too. The number you're looking for is ZERO. All too often the threads devolve into inane commentary, not to mention hateful or offensive language. There's a definite lack of civility going on there.

I wonder how many individuals, brands or companies are spending efforts on keeping up with YouTube comments, and if they do, how worthwhile those conversations are? To me, the currency and dialog of YouTube has always been other videos made in response to an original video.

I could be wrong, though. What has your experience told you?

Image courtesy of Indexed.

The Magic Number

2011-07-23T14:21:00.000-04:00

The term has multiple meanings, depending on the context in which you find it use. For example, in programming, sports, chemistry, physics, or even The Price is Right.

But in the world of social networks, to me it means how many platforms and sites can you keep up with before it's simply too much? I've always referred to "the big 3" of my social networking experience as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, and I even developed a shorthand description for them:

LinkedIn is the business meeting, Facebook is the hallway conversation and Twitter is the cocktail party.

Now, with the advent of Google+ coming online, we potentially have four major social networks to track and interact on. Personally, I've hit the breaking point. I can't keep with with all of them (although admittedly, LinkedIn is the one that I keep dormant most of the time) and remain active on all three. There's got to be a breaking point somewhere. For average people, one social network may do; for others, two is likely the limit.

What's your magic number?

Here's my favorite take on it, from Schoolhouse Rock:

If you'd care to add me to your circles on Google+, I can be found by clicking here.

Image credit: bitzi ☂ ion-bogdan dumitrescu (Flickr)
--

The Gamification of News

2011-07-16T07:38:00.000-04:00

"Gamification" seems to be the up and coming buzz word. You may recall that in April, I covered Empire Avenue in a post about the gamification of social media. Now, Google is in the news (literally) with a gamification project of their own, and I think it has some potential.

Let's explore why.

This week Google announced the launch of their Google News Badges. Google heralded the launch with the following description:

The U.S. Edition of Google News now lets you collect private, sharable badges for your favorite topics. The more articles you read on Google News, the more your badges level up: you can reach Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and finally Ultimate. Keep your badges to yourself, or show them off to your friends.

You'll probably feel like the badge adoption seems familiar; after all, Foursquare made this a central part of their service. The first time you unlock a badge on Foursquare, whether it's an achievement you can expect (like the "Superstar" badge for 50 check-ins) or one that surprises and delights ("Crunked" for making 4 or more check-ins on one night), the service gives a positive feedback loop that makes members want to use the system even more.

Similarly, Google has created a way to make some fun and competition out of what you already do - that is, read the news. They've created categories with badges that allow you to level up and share your achievements if you wish. But, being acutely aware of many peoples' need for privacy, they've also given you the option to turn the feature off. To me, this still makes it a viable system because there's an element of self-competition here as well. We all like to see our own achievements, whether or not we want to share them with the world.

Google plans further developments to this project as they get feedback and observe the usage. In addition, it's highly likely that they're determining news reading habits from the data they're receiving, which in turn will lead to better optimization or customization of news stories. While you're already to get customized news categories via RSS readers, custom modules on sites like Netvibes or Google's own iGoogle home page, Google's news badge system could usher in the era of truly customized news stories for readers everywhere.

Image credit: Austin Bryan (Flickr)

The New Wave of Online Brand Management

2011-07-14T01:12:00.001-04:00

Guest post by Matt Polsky.

Prior to the rise of social networks, online brand management solely focused on common SEO techniques such as keywords, content, and proper HTML code. These techniques were used to secure and maintain the top positions on the search engines, and to ensure that only content a company wanted to remain visible regarding its product, services, or mission did so.

However, those days are over. A company can no longer rely only on SEO to provide proper online brand management if they wish to survive in the online world. Company’s now must integrate SEO techniques with the use of social media sites if they wish to protect and promote their brand.

Social media sites have become increasingly important for companies wishing to outperform their competition. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn have opened up completely new audiences to companies, which would have otherwise not been able to be reached. For many companies’ marketing teams these social networking sites have been a marketing dream.

After Ford’s monumental success of using social media to build hype for the 2011 Ford Fiesta, companies have been scrambling to adequately market themselves online. Now consumers cannot even watch a commercial or listen to a radio announcement without a Facebook or Twitter logo being given.

However, this increased visibility does come at a price. Companies have access to multiple platforms in which they can strengthen and expand their brands, but these sites can also be detrimental to a company if the accounts are not properly maintained. The 2010 Pew Internet & American Life study found that 58 percent of all consumers with access to the internet research a company’s product or service online before giving them their patronage, and most of those consumers are not going directly to a company’s primary website either. Third party sites, such as Facebook, Viewpoints.com, and Angie’s List have become popular stopping points for company reviews and information.

If a company’s Facebook page is covered in negative press, odds are, the potential customer will immediately move on and check out competitors. For businesses to get the most out of their social media accounts, they need to properly manage each account with frequent posts, updates, and positive press. Companies should also be actively engaging their customers. Not only negative comments need a response, comments and tweets complimenting the business are great openings to build strong brand advocates.

Companies wishing to succeed in the ever-growing online world need to increase their connectivity by incorporating both social media and the latest SEO techniques. Visibility can quickly determine a company’s success or failure, and without social media sites, businesses are giving up inexpensive resources that build brand awareness and hype. As social media sites continue to rise, online brand management will become increasingly more important, and companies should become proactive in managing their social media sites.

Image credit: slagheap (Flickr)

Matt Polsky is the Senior Content Manager for VA Mortgage Center, providing insights learned from the nation’s leading provider of VA home loans.

The Social Media ProBook

2011-06-29T09:00:00.002-04:00

#ProBook is the brainchild of Joe Chernov and the team at Eloqua and JESS3 - a team I've had the privilege of working with previously on this site. They were responsible for The Social Media Playbook, the Blog Tree, and a little cartoon about hashtags. And yes, it can now be revealed that the avatar I've been using on Facebook was in fact tied to this project.

While the first ebook was focused on tools to help you master social media, this one is more personality-based. To be clear, I'm not saying that it's one of those insular, narcissistic, same-old-recycled-list-of-webutants kind of a book. But it uses people to convey broader messages - people with great experience actually doing the very kind of work they're writing about. Not just those providing thought leadership, but "do leadership," as the epilogue points out.

One of those people is Steve Rubel, the EVP of Global Strategy and Insights at Edelman Digital (and someone I've been following since my earliest days in this industry), who writes:

A few years ago at a 2007 Paley Center confab, Cisco executive Daniel Scheinman predicted that, in the future, content would find us through our social networks, rather than requiring us to seek it out.
Flash forward four years later and there’s no doubt he was right. Increasingly relevant information - whether it be from brands, the media or individuals - is finding us through our
social networks. However, with everyone and their mother creating content, standing out is becoming only more challenging.
Enter this guide. Eloqua and JESS3 have once again pulled together an allstar team to share their best practices in social media. However, talk is one thing. Action is another.
Thankfully, the the team proved it had the know-how to stand out in an age of too much content and not enough time...With this resource, it’s clear that you’re in good hands to navigate the challenges.

Some of the hands that Steve alludes to include:

Jesse Thomas of JESS3 looks at some of those famous social networks of yore in "Whatever Happened To...?"
Joe Chernov of Eloqua helps us understand "How to Organize Internally"
Brad Cohen of JESS3 takes us to the next level when he expounds upon "New Entrants"
Jeremiah Owyang of Altimeter brings his snappy visuals to the table with "Operational Models"
Ekaterina Walter and Bryan Rhoads of Intel team up to outline "8 Critical Elements of Scaling Your Social Media Strategy Globally"
Leslie Bradshaw of JESS3 gives us "Usage Guidelines"
Jeff Widman, founder of PageLever has all sorts of tips on "Writing for Facebook"
Chris Thompson of About Foursquare locates some "Practical Uses for Geo"
Joe and Leslie team up to talk about "Influencers"
Robin Richards of JESS3 sketches out some thoughts on "Infographics"
Sarah Evans of Sevans Strategy tells us "How PR People Should Approach Social Media"
David Armano of Edelman Digital asks "Do You Believe in Life After Likes? Measuring Social Business"
William Beutler of The Wikipedian gets down to the basics of "Wikipedia Fundamentals"
Leslie Poston of Magnitude Media lists "10 'Rules' of Social Advertising"

Just for fun, the book is interspersed with more personal interviews as you're invited to go on "A Day in the Life Of..."

Adam Singer of Lewis PR
Liz Phillips of Hewlett-Packard
Jamie Grenney of Salesforce.com
Frank Eliason of Citi
And yours truly :-)

Leslie Bradshaw wraps everything up nicely with an Epilogue that describes the inspiration for the project and those involved behind the scenes, before heading into a very comprehensive index that gives readers websites and Twitter handles of every entity mentioned in the book. Even better, you can follow all of those with this handy Twitter list. There's also a Flickr set with everyone's avatar, in case you'd like to see them a little more closely.

The book in layout form

As usual, Eloqua and JESS3 have published The Social Media ProBook under a Creative Commons license which allows you to redistribute, share or host it, provided that you don't change it in any way. They've made it available as a downloadable PDF; I've embedded it here as a Scribd document:

Social Media #ProBook

Please share this post and this book with anyone you think could use it. What was the most helpful part of the book to you?

Related link: Eloqua's Social ProBook

Global Map of Social Networking [INFOGRAPHIC]

2011-06-21T12:42:00.000-04:00

Last July, I covered the work of Global Web Index, which offered a quick glimpse of data for global social network usage, which they called Global Web Index LITE.

Today, they shared their latest work with me - an infographic. The Global Map of Social Networking 2011 shows the size of active social networkers for each regional market and then segments them into three behavior types: messagers and mailers, joiners and creators of groups, and content sharers.

Here's the entire graphic as a Slidehshare embed:

Global Map of Social Networking - GlobalWebIndex - June 2011

You can also download the PDF directly from Global Web Index's website.

The legend that outlines social network penetration by country, enlarged for more clarity:

Are there any surprises for you in here? From the planning that I see many companies doing - not only in their marketing and communications efforts, but in their actual product planning and manufacturing - the BRIC markets (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are essential. That's borne out here as well - although it should be noted that Facebook has very little penetration into Russia and China currently.

To me, it's interesting to look at markets like Mexico, Italy, India, Russia, Malaysia and the Phillipines, where there is a greater percentage of people sharing content rather than those simply sending messages. This means that you need to have a content plan that enables active sharing of content - photos, videos, embeddable documents and slides, etc.

If you're in a global business, how does this infographic make you think about your plans? If you're based in a single market, how do the numbers reflect what you've seen?
--

There's Hearing, Then There's Listening

2011-06-02T00:13:00.001-04:00

We were all probably taught the difference between listening and hearing when we were children. "I hear you," you say. No doubt you've uttered that or had it uttered to you. But is it enough?

We all have a fundamental need to be heard; that implies that we're acknowledged, certainly. Technically, hearing is simply the process of sound being transmitted and received. Telling someone that you've heard them is a good first step, and while that's an easy way to make a customer feel appreciated by a major brand, there are times when it needs to go beyond hearing and to truly listen: to take to heart what they've said and take a harder look at a business practice or service.

It's a cinch
Case in point: Cinch.

This service launched in 2009 and is basically an audio blogging platform. Think of it as a Twitter for podcasting. It allows people to record and upload thoughts via a voice platform and then to share online. It's a great service and admittedly one that I haven't utilized enough. Yet.

On May 31, Cinch announced to its customers via email that it would be changing the service's URL from http://www.cinchcast.com to the shorter http://icin.ch. Easier to remember, right? And since they have an iPhone app, iCinch seemed logical.

Evidently not.

Customers didn't take it that way, at least. And while I didn't see any violent backlash online, the team at Cinch must have gotten an earful, for on June 1 - the very next day - they issued the following email to their customer base:

Yesterday, when we sent out the message regarding our upcoming website transition from http://cinchcast.com/ to http://icin.ch/, we heard back from several of our community members that they did not like the new domain choice. While it was short, they thought it was hard to remember and share with others, and did not clearly represent the Cinch brand.

Well, we took your feedback to heart. We still need to transition domains on June 7, 2011. However, we have decided to transition the Cinch website to http://cinch.fm instead. Again, other than the URL change this transition will be seamless to our users.

Please let us know if you have any questions. We apologize for any confusion.

Best Regards,
The Cinch Team

What did they do that was so remarkable? First, they let their audience know what they were trying to do, namely simplify the domain name to make it easier for the customer. Second, they acknowledged that they heard their customers' feedback. Lastly, they took it a step further and made it clear that they listened to their customers and provided a solution that not only met the business need but the customers' need as well.

As you think about your business and your daily interaction with fans, followers, customers and all kinds of stakeholders, consider how often you hear what it is they're trying to convey versus how you're listening to what it is they're saying. Are you acknowledging them simply for the sake of making them feel good, or are you truly building their daily drumbeat of feedback into your business model?

Last year, Nestle found out the hard way that Greenpeace meant business when the latter staged a Facebook attack on the confectioner. Greenpeace objected to the process of harvesting palm oil for the manufacture of Kit Kats and barraged Nestle with plenty of negative wall posts as well as one horrific, if memorable, video. But in the end, Nestle listened to their detractors and changed their business policy to a "zero deforestation policy" to reflect a more responsible and acceptable practice.

So the next time you're faced with feedback - from fans or detractors - you should ask yourself, "Are we listening?" The benefits could be tangible.

After all, it's a cinch.

Photo credit: x-ray delta one (Flickr)

QR Codes 101

2011-05-13T16:05:00.001-04:00

The following is a guest post from Nick Jerome.

QR codes, a.k.a. Quick Response codes, are a useful way to encourage individuals to interact with a product or service. They can be used for a variety of engagement tactics including driving consumers to an ecommerce landing page, providing a coupon or giving in-depth product information.

Marketing firm MGH conducted very helpful QR code user research in February 2011:

As you can see, getting a coupon or accessing additional information are the two main uses for QR codes. The study also showed one-third of all smartphone users have scanned a QR code and two-thirds have seen one. Users who were aware of QR codes tended to be more educated and affluent and the largest majority of users were ages 35-54. As QR codes become more common, awareness is certain to grow in most demographics.

Before employing a QR code in any campaign, make sure you have covered all the basics:

Not all users already have a code reader downloaded on their phone. Any time you place a QR code, provide a website URL like www.FSQR.org so they can download a reader to scan the code.
This may seem obvious, but many companies have gotten it wrong: make sure the QR code goes to a site designed specifically for mobile.
Think through the placement of the code in the real world. Putting a QR code anywhere with bad cell reception such as a subway makes it useless.
As with any marketing initiative, measurement is key. Follow the success of a QR code with a trackable URL, which will provide stats on the number of QR code scans per hour as well as the devices used.

About the Author
Nick Jerome is a marketing services manager at FASTSIGNS®, a visual communications services provider with more than 550 locations around the world.
--

Some Tasty News on Bookmarking

2011-04-28T12:15:00.001-04:00

Great news for Delicious users: the service has been acquired from Yahoo! by none other than the founders of YouTube. Announced today via email and on their blog.

As you may recall, in December I reported that Yahoo! was sunsetting Delicious, the social bookmarking service, surprising many people and leaving them in a tenuous position. Many jumped ship, proclaiming Delicious dead and looking at alternative services like EverNote, Diigo and Pinboard, but others (like me) held fast, waiting for what would come next. That patience paid off with today's announcement that AVOS will take charge and will focus on being "the best information discovery service." Sounds like they'll be mining the tons of great information that Delicious users have been sharing.

For a little more behind the deal and situation that led to it, Mashable and Read Write Web have some good coverage that you may want to check out.

What's next for users?
There's an FAQ on Delicious that answers questions about the transition. I've reproduced some of it here for your convenience.

Why has Yahoo! chosen to transition Delicious to AVOS?

While we love Delicious (and our users love Delicious), we wanted to find a home for the product where it can receive more love and attention. We think AVOS is that place.

When will AVOS officially start running Delicious?

We anticipate Delicious in its current form will be available until approximately July 2011. By agreeing to AVOS's terms of service upfront, you will allow us to move your data when the time comes to transfer control to AVOS.

What does AVOS plan to do with Delicious?

AVOS plans to continue the service that users have come to know and love and by working with the community, make the site even easier and more fun to save, share and discover the web's "tastiest" content.

Will AVOS maintain the Delicious service with all of its functionality?

Yes, that's the plan. There may be a time of adjustment as AVOS re-launches Delicious, but the company's intention is to add new features and grow the service overall.

How do I transfer my bookmarks?

To transfer your bookmarks, you need to "opt-in" to allow your account and all associated data to be moved. You can do this from the opt-in page.

What will happen to my public and private bookmarks?

By agreeing to the AVOS terms of service, you will allow us to send your account information, bookmarks, and all the data associated with your Delicious account to AVOS when they re-launch Delicious. Your public and private bookmarks will be maintained as they are today. The information transferred would include:

Delicious username
Delicious password
Email address
First Name
Last Name
Bookmarks, Tags and Notes
Inbox items
Tag Bundles
Tag Descriptions
Network Members
Subscriptions
Blogpost jobs
Twitter Auth credentials (if supplied)

What if I don't opt-in to migrate my bookmarks to AVOS?

You will no longer be able to use Delicious or access your bookmarks after the transition is complete.

Can I export my data from Delicious?

Yes. Please use our export tool.

What are your thoughts on this transition? If you're a user, will you continue with AVOS? And if you left, would you consider coming back? Why?

Image credit: Pink Sherbet Photography (Flickr)

The Gamification of Social Media

2011-04-23T02:15:00.004-04:00

Empire Avenue is the new game in town. It sits squarely in the social networking space, but it has a different twist - one from which I think businesses may be able to gain valuable insights, all while allowing people to enjoy themselves.

What is it?
Essentially, it is a rewards system that makes what we already do on the web - create and share content - fun by making it a stock market-like atmosphere. You can earn money (their currency is "Eaves") by buying other people and you can see your own worth rise by getting other people to invest in you. When tied to other accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn and blogs, your net worth rises based on the content you either create or share. But like the other sites, it's also a social network itself. It's a chance to connect and brainstorm with others by finding affinity groups ("Communities") within Empire Avenue.

How to "win" at Empire Avenue
According to the team at Empire Avenue, there are two ways to win: by being an Investor or by being an Influencer:

While the world may be defined in these two separate buckets - creators and consumers - for most of us in the social space, it's not an either/or proposition; we're most likely creating and consuming. But if you're looking for a hot tip on who's a mover and shaker and is worthy of your investment, I'd recommend these two points:

Think of the people in your networks who are the most active content producers (tweets, videos uploaded or commented on, blog posts written, etc.) and invest in them, regardless of price;
Search the "Recent Arrivals" for people you know who fit the description in #1 and heavily invest in them before their price rises. You'll be in on the ground level and well positioned for a long-term gain.

One point of interest: you can keep your activity to Empire Avenue if you like (investing, giving "Shout Outs," buying items), but the developers have created a way to make it more than just that: the rewards that you get for EA activity are limited in nature (dividends, currency for taking certain actions, etc.). By linking your social activity from other sites, you see your net worth rise more quickly. The main way the system does this is by using what's known as gamification. Yes, that's an actual term. By rewarding people with positive reinforcement for actions taken - much like Foursquare has become synonymous with - Empire Avenue uses a system of Achievements to recognize your progress. Below are some examples.

For a recent and in-depth look at how game theory is affecting the social and mobile space, take a look at what Brian Solis had to say about it ("The Games Businesses Play with Customers").

Is there more than just fun and games?
But let's get beyond the surface and look at the practical nature of what Empire Avenue has to offer. Robert Scoble, after interviewing the CEO Duleepa Wijayawardhana (DUPS), determined that one side feature he discovered was that it creates a way to better determine who's actually providing value in our networks.

Empire Avenue themselves have been pretty smart about their ecosystem, as they've already built in a revenue stream: there's The Shop, where people can purchase Luxury items such as airplanes, homes, boats, etc. For those who really want to rise to the top quickly, they can purchase Eaves with real cash. And I definitely see the potential for brands to enter the fray and sponsor items that they can offer for purchase.

Why I think Empire Avenue is onto something
Other sites such as Friendfeed, Quora or Klout all give us some information or let us interact with each other in some way, but they're each limited. To me, Empire Avenue is a much more holistic, three-dimensional system that is comprised of all of the digital grunts we get on Facebook and Twitter, as well as deeper forum-related discussions via the Communities, an aggregated stream of their activity, and - most importantly - peers' ratings of influence and effectiveness (via buys and sells). To see a really interesting conversation that Caleb Storkey had with a few influentials about this topic, check out his post.

That's a much more realistic and informative way to gauge influence, rather than a simple one-dimensional score such as Klout. I could see companies like Radian6 (recently acquired by SalesForce.com) acquiring Empire Avenue as an adjunct to their business. Think of the value they could add by giving clients a dashboard in which they could actively participate rather than simply consume information about the influencers they're trying to reach.

How do brands get involved?
While this may seem limited to individuals at this point, Empire Avenue does allow brands to get involved and has a separate business signup process. For well known brands, they lock down the stock symbol or brand name in order to preserve some semblance of order. We started accounts for Ford (FORD) and Lincoln (LINCOLN), linking our Facebook pages, YouTube channels and Twitter and Flickr accounts. We expect to add more content channels as we continue to explore the system. In the meantime, we've been lucky enough to see individuals investing in us, but we've also taken the important step of interacting with them (just as we do on every other social network) and we're investing in them as well.

"Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly.

It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service."

-Henry Ford

Other brands that have cropped up so far include Oreo, Sears, Audi and Applebees. Stay tuned as the gold rush begins. For a comprehensive roundup of other posts about this topic, as well as a set of recommendations and caveats for what it means for brands, please read - and then re-read - Jeremiah Owyang's post. And then take a look at Adriel Hampton's Game Mechanics blog.

I've just scratched the surface here; this is a very rich subject and I'll be interested to see how it plays out. We've seen other efforts fizzle out, but to me, this seems to have more potential. What do you think? Have you started an account yet?

Oh, and if you'd care to buy a few shares of me, I'm SMONTY and I think I'm still a value stock. :-)

Image credit: unlovablesteve (Flickr)

B2B Social Media Gets Intimate

2011-04-13T23:02:00.000-04:00

The following is a guest post by @ericschwartzman.

Up to now, one the biggest challenges that social media posed was forcing organizations to decide just how open they should be. The belief was that information that could be public should be transitioned to social media, but proprietary information should remain under wraps in email, on the phone and in meetings.

Those that did a good job socializing their external communications, like Dell and Comcast, saw productivity gains, since conversations that occur on social media are automatically recorded, discoverable through search and shareable. But those parts of the organization which were not customer facing, or which did not interact with outside entities, were pretty much sheltered from realizing similar gains.

It is now popular wisdom that Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin are good places for businesses to market their products and services. Migrating external communications to the social web turns customer service into public relations, and minimizes call center demand. But what if you want to use a social network to collaborate internally?

Until recently, no one dared share corporate secrets on social networks. When it comes to B2B social media uses like privileged discussions between manufacturers and resellers or internal discussions between sales and marketing personnel, you'd need a more intimate social network. Strategic planning, competitive analysis and product development are just a few activities most companies prefer to keep confidential.

In episode #594 of For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report, Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz discussed Steve Rubel's Ad Age column about what he calls the 'Validation Era' of online marketing. In our rush to amass friends and followers, Rubel argues, we've assembled online social communities that are so loud and so constant, that it's become difficult to use them for more than mundane conversations.

The early stage of most sales cycles is equally mundane. You start the process by searching Google and asking your online social network for recommendations. But the final decision for a considered purchase, like a car or computer, or a high-ticket B2B purchase, like selecting a raw materials supplier, has to withstand greater scrutiny. Search and social help us build the short list, but the discussion that leads to a final purchasing decision has been offline. But with the rise of private social networks, internal business conversations are likely to go social as well. And that will limit the marketer's ability to steer the purchasing decision.

B2C marketers may have some luck. But if B2B brands try to secure access to these exclusive, customer-only conversations, by encouraging their employees to engage through their personal profiles, or by dispatching their subject matter experts, they're unlikely to succeed. These B2B conversations will only be open to small stakeholder committees, no matter how trusted or influential those outside the circle may be. Private means private. After the vendors pitch, the buyers clears the conference room to discuss who they want to hire. Marketers must leave the room.

Rubel cites the rise of services like Path, Beluga and GroupMe as examples of intimate social networks gaining prominence. And indeed they are rising in popularity. But already, one high-flyer has come and gone. Google Wave, a private activity streaming service launched before its time failed to catch on, Google lost patience and pulled the plug. On the B2B social media side, Salesforce.com made its Chatter service free in February, giving up to five users the chance to establish their own, little private Facebook. Others are leveraging platforms like Jive to create their own, password protected social networks, as SAP has so famously done already.

The private social network as a B2B social media tool has numerous useful applications. But I wouldn't count on it replacing Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin any time soon. These services provide private messaging features which are already trusted enough to swap email addresses. Instead, we are seeing the dawn of an era where sensitive business conversations, which could never reap the benefits of social media, are beginning to be socialized as well.

External communications will stay on Facebook. Sensitive, business conversations will move to services like Chatter. And private social networking services will expose organizations to the benefits of leveraging social media to accelerate the pace of proprietary, confidential business processes like product development, workforce management, strategic planning, business process management, vendor sourcing, research & development and logistics. We will learn to pick the social media channel, based on the public or proprietary nature of the message.

What do you think? Have you seen interesting examples of B2B social media? Please share as a comment below.

About the Author
Eric Schwartzman (@ericschwartzman) provides social marketing research, social marketing services and social marketing training to businesses, government agencies and nonprofits. His book Social Marketing to the Business Customer with Paul Gillin is the first book devoted exclusively to B2B social media marketing.

A Brief History of the Evolution of Social Technology

2011-04-08T11:36:00.001-04:00

The following is a guest post from David Murton.

To truly appreciate social media and the ubiquitous nature of the Internet, the consumer must first remember the wireless networks' distant and humble beginnings. In the year 1888, Heinrich Rudolf Herz generated the world's first radio wave. A short six years later, it translated into telegraph signals that made long-distance communication possible.

Piggybacking on Herz' radio wave, Marchese Guglielmo Marconi translated the wave into a wireless signal that would make short-distance radio transmissions possible. Perfecting his technology, he was able to gradually increase the reach of his radio waves to 31 miles. Online communication schools credit his tenacity for truly realizing the potential of future radio wave technology.

During World War II, the use of radio wave transmissions as main means of communication hastened the further honing of the technology. Fast forwarding to 1970, Norman Abramson designed and tested the first wireless local area network, also known as the WLAN. From there, the race was on to make wireless technology smaller, better, faster and further reaching.

When the courts released the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio bands for unlicensed usage in 1985, 802.11 technology created the industry standards for wireless product manufacture. It is from within this technology group that Vic Hayes tweaked the wireless Internet and would become known as the "father of Wi-Fi."

From there it was merely a hop, skip and jump to the fourth generation of cellular wireless (4G) standards that social media and wireless communication users enjoy today. Facebook aficionados in particular are known to congregate in hot spots that feature free access to the social network for laptops and cell phones.

The Impact on Communication Habits and Business
Harvard Business School proclaims social media and networking to be the "the most significant business development of 2010." Use of emails and phones has become a mobile endeavor that is no longer tied to the home- or office landline and stationary computer. Instead, it takes place while on the go, in transit, at the moment of opting to make a buying decision and also when actively pursuing business opportunities.

Entrepreneurs may have initially seen social media - most notably MySpace, Twitter and Facebook - as a playground for the younger generations. Yet as the true power of Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook creation began to shape business visibility in the online marketplace, companies had to scramble to make an appearance. Not surprisingly, less tech-savvy businesses were not as adept at presenting themselves to the consumer.

As a result, a good many businesses are now built around primarily the aspect of promoting other businesses through social media (and especially mobile social media) applications. Freelance writers, website builders and online marketers have grown a cottage industry around the function of introducing the world to small, midsized and larger businesses alike.

Case Study: Egypt and Tunisia
Mobile devices in conjunction with social media are also credited with influencing national politics. Cases in point are the recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Used to rally demonstrators, Facebook postings, mobile phone images and SMS messaging played a huge role in organizing a thus-far loose-knit regime opposition.

Using YouTube to transfer up-to-the minute information about events, protests and government responses to the entire world, 'sanctioned' local media outlets had no possibility to distort what was going on. Not only did social media shift the world's sympathies to be with the protesters, but when sharing pictures of what was happening, it was possible to motivate even the people within the countries to keep going and get even more people involved in the demonstrations.

Dispelling various incorrect claims made by the media, it became quickly apparent that the regimes of Tunisia and Egypt had failed, even as official liaisons denied any changes in power.

The Dark Side of Social Media
For all its benefits and the commercial advantages of social media applications, there is a decided downside to the mobility of the experience. For example, teenagers and even adults are spending a large portion of their days engaged in the virtual reality created by social media, which in turn affects school and work results. Who does not know someone who "just had to check their crops" before they wilted on Facebook's widely popular game Farmville?

Even more sinister is the peer pressure on teenagers to do "cool" things to show off, sometimes resulting in accidents, ill-advised meet-ups with predators and of course cyber-bullying by peers. There is a also an emerging culture that leads to a constant self-comparison with other social media users, especially by teenagers, resulting in possible psychological trauma and even depression. After all, it is difficult to not feel rejected if a friend or classmate fails to "like" a comment or suggestion.

What Awaits Us in the Near Future?
Trailblazers are busy making mobile devices faster, smaller and more powerful than ever. With the latest announcement of "brainwave to iPhone interface" from PLX XWave, wireless social media could soon become one with its users. These devices have the power to interpret brainwave activity and help shape the social media experience accordingly.

The already more commonplace text-to-speech and speech-to-text software -- along with the above mentioned mind-controlling device and simple headphones -- could even make hand held devices and laptops obsolete. Social media users may just opt to hear tweets/messages via a headphone and then post messages via speech-to-text technology.

Of course, this does precious little when it comes time for harvesting the crops on Farmville.

David Murton has been helping companies build and maintain their online relationships with customers since 2006. He is also a professional writer and blogger, with a particular interest in the open source Drupal platform. On a more personal note, David is an avid piano and accordion player, drawn especially to music of the classical and romantic periods.

Photo credit: Kaptain Kobold (Flickr)

Blogging Is Dead

2011-03-08T23:05:00.001-05:00

It's almost like a rite of spring. Every year, pundits proclaim the death of blogging.

As far back as 2007 ReadWriteWeb was asking the question. In 2008, it was Wired, wondering if the rise of Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and the like would be more en vogue for individuals, who were getting pushed aside as the conglomerate professional blogs were beginning to take prominence. In 2009, Copyblogger declared blogging dead (again) but noted that it would continue to live on. Just last year, Problogger debated the role that email played in all of this, and concluded that it's not an either/or decision.

And now that we're into the third month of 2011, it's time to start the prognosticating once again, led by none other than the New York Times. Of course, it's not the platform that's under scrutiny as much as the users, the younger contingent of which are simply too unfocused and undisciplined to be able to focus on long-form content. We recently covered something of this when we discussed the changes in Facebook's messaging system and its lack of subject line.

Another way to look at this is to separate the message from the medium, as Om Malik does on GigaOm. His contention is that it's the content that matters, and the platforms are simply the ways we connect with each other. But Malik won't have us count blogging out - there's still plenty of room left for long-form content.

Julie Roehm parses out the numbers from the Pew Internet and American Life study that were mentioned in the New York Times article, finding that there's a great disparity in how different generations consume content and that the older we get, the more likely we are to spend time on longer form content.

Where will this lead us? Are we doomed to sound bites, tweets and trite self-absorbed updates for the foreseeable future? Do we need to force-fit blogs to become more snack-sized as we Tumblrize the world?

For the marketers among us, we need to be prepared for all eventualities in this scenario. Which means the need to cater to the attention-starved while still supporting more in-depth content that conveys a deeper meaning with more context. For example, this would mean creating catchy headlines and could entice views of blog posts or videos. It would also mean creating shareable and embeddable pieces of content within those other formats - content that can live on its own and effectively convey your message.

The bottom line is that as content creators, we face more choices than ever in how we need to convey our stories. Consumers' preferences are more fickle than ever, so we need to prepare for their changing tastes while unraveling the Gordian Knot of how to engage them more fully.

What's your plan?
--

What Would @CharlieSheen Tweet?

2011-03-03T13:13:00.000-05:00

[Editor's note: I originally prepared this post before Charlie Sheen got on Twitter. I guess we don't have to wait any more - the real stuff is heads and shoulders above anything I could have come up with on my own.]

Almost four years ago (!) when Twitter began to hit a fever pitch coming out of SXSW Interactive, I found a post called What Would Jesus Twitter? Leaving aside that we now know the verb is "tweet," I attempted to jump-start a meme by creating my own (What Would Sherlock Holmes Twitter?) and tagged some other people to develop their own.

In the spirit of that, I jotted down a few thoughts on the plane back from Europe yesterday, blissfully unaware of the goings-on at the time.

What would @CharlieSheen tweet?

10. I need more roles like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRbzZG_JxYY
9. My publicist must like Apocalypse Now too. I just heard him say "The horror! The horror!"
8. Chuck Norris is such a wuss. #tigerblood
7. You know that virulent bacteria strain at the Playboy Mansion? Guilty.
6. @Gaddafi, you need to more #winning. Follow me for lessons in public image.
5. The only drug I'm on is ~~cocaine~~ ~~porn stars~~ Charlie Sheen.
4. Those aren't porn stars. They're libido management specialists.
3. Hey Dior, I'm available as a spokesperson.
2. @EmilioEstevez You don't have any Mighty Ducks sequels I could appear in, do you?
1. I've been sober since noon.

Sheen's ascent on Twitter has been getting some headlines lately, including a Guinness World Record for "Fastest Time to Reach 1 Million Followers." With his recent barrage of surprise press appearances - which caused his publicist to resign - he is clearly taking the tactic of bringing his message directly to the public.

Is this a dangerous practice for someone whose stability is questionable? What role does or should a public relations effort play with such a volatile client who is annexing social media platforms to get his message out? Are there wider lessons for clients in crisis mode?

And just for fun: what other outrageous statements do you think we'll see from @CharlieSheen? Please leave a comment below.

Must-See Twitter

2011-02-23T00:36:00.001-05:00

Once upon a time, we used to watch TV by appointment. Families gathered together around a tiny screens - screens that were even smaller than our current laptop screens - and share the experience of watching a program together. Even earlier than that, families used to sit around their radios and "watch" their favorite comedies, dramas and adventures.

Whether it was the Jack Benny Show on radio or the amazing Thursday night lineup on NBC in the 1990s, for the better part of half a century, we enjoyed entertainment when the broadcasters decided we should. What's that, you say? You work on Thursday nights? Sorry, but that's when our show airs.

To a certain extent, the VCR solved that dilemma, but it was cumbersome and required a commitment from the user. With the advent of the DVR, the process is much cleaner - no piles of tapes, no flashing 12:00 - and viewers can skip over the commercials quickly. Now, with streaming video from the likes of Netflix and today's announcement from Amazon, the option of play-on-demand is more diversified and available than ever. We can watch programming when, how and on which devices we choose.

Such a variety of choice - being able to view programs on devices such as phones, netbooks, laptops and tablets - fractures our communal viewing habits. Whether we're commuting, passing time while waiting to meet someone, or simply curled up on the couch, we have own own screens - and many of them. Long gone are the days of a single screen around which we could gather to watch our favorite program.

What's Old is New Again
But there's something interesting happening at the same time. While one might expect these fractured viewing habits to lead to more isolated experiences, new communications platforms and technologies are making it possible for us to recapture this collective experience. In a comment on a Facebook post regarding a Freep article ("TV watchers look to Web for instant analysis, laughs"), I called this the "digital living room," in which we have the ability to have a shared experience once again.

One recent Fast Company articles point out how appointment TV has returned, because of none other than Twitter. If one watches the flow of commentary and topics that trend up during popular shows, it's easy to see how viewers are sharing their experience with each other and offering their own stream of commentary. Fans who have TiVo'd their programs had better steer clear of Twitter while their favorite programs are on, lest they have a barrage of spoilers come their way. Indeed, American Idol and Dancing With the Stars winners are usually blurted out on microblogging sites first. In another article, Fast Company called Twitter TV's killer app.

I actually had this experience first hand a few months ago. PBS contcted me and asked that I host a live Twitter chat (promoted through my other blog) during the premiere of a much-hyped new show. The statistics were impressive, showing a very healthy interaction in a limited time period around a very specific subject. Viewers were able to have questions answered by an expert, and they collectively shared their enthusiasm and surprise throughout the course of the show and afterward.

Okay...so?
What does it mean for brands?

The fear of skipped ads has been palpable over the last few years. Advertisers are spending more and more of their budget trying to be creative and break through the clutter. What's to bring a brand back into the conversation?

One way would be to capture the moment through a chat on Twitter. By selecting some high-profile Twitter user in your brand's niche, you'd have a credible authority who is able to hold a convincing and intriguing set of conversations around your product.

For additional technology resources, platforms like GetGlue, Miso and IntoNow provide alternatives for a variety of devices and for a variety of entertainment content. Each give viewers a chance to connect and share - but more importantly, services like this give brands a chance to connect as well. I can just imagine a brand that integrates a creative and interactive element around a television program that involves one of its products - either as product placement or as an ad - and requires some action of the viewers. Ideally, this interaction would take place beyond the 30 or 60 minutes of the program and continue into some other meaningful engagement.

Technologically, these are exciting times. When the technology allows us to reclaim some of the round-the-fire element of our humanity, it's encouraging that we're not simply living separate yet connected lives.

What do you think?

Image credit: brizzle born and bred (Flickr)
--

InKConsiderate

2011-02-03T14:09:00.007-05:00

Earlier today, we witnessed something that was bound to happen: a brand used a controversial Twitter trending item to draw attention to itself. While Twitter's Promoted Trends allow brands to do this on a paid basis, today marks a turning point in what I would call predatory - if not tasteless - marketing tactics.

The bio on the @KennethCole Twitter account says "Thoughts that end in -KC are from me personally; others are behind the seams insights from my inspiring associates." Imagine my surprise then, when 'KC' himself posted the following:

The #Cairo hashtag has been used to document the news coming out of Egypt, amid unrest surrounding the continued dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak. The city has been in an uproar, with internet service being completely shut down. Twitter has been a valuable tool (via mobile device) in communicating during this crisis.

So imagine the surprise when Mr. Cole himself not only hijacked a hashtag, but trivialized the situation AND had enough foresight to create a custom bit.ly URL that included Cairo and his initials. Insensitive is an understatement. This was his follow-up:

While it's encouraging to hear that KC understands the sensitivity of the historic moment, his actions demonstrate anything but that. To me, it says that he understands the publicity around this historic moment and he wanted to capitalize on it. Expect to see some PR fallout from this.

If he'd like his brand to be part of a trending topic in the future, I'd suggest either picking a hashtag that aligns with his industry, or purchasing a Promoted Trend. I wonder if this was a glaring exception or if we'll see other marketers starting to take this leap?

What do you think?

Update (3:10 p.m.): Some enterprising individual created a new spoof Twitter account in the last hour: @KennethColePR.

Update (4:05 p.m.): Looks like he saw the light and is posting a mea culpa

Too little, too late?

Another postscript: David Polinchock shared this image with me from one of the Kenneth Cole stores. As it turns out, it was a prank played on the retailer.

Facebook - at the Center of Your Messaging Life

2011-01-16T09:37:00.003-05:00

Well, it's finally here. After Facebook announced that they'd have an email solution that's not email, they've rolled it out to the public.

This morning, on my Facebook news feed, I saw the following message regarding Facebook's new Messages:

The new system combines your messages, texts and chats in one place so you don't have to try to remember how you communicated with your contacts in order to find what you're looking for. But it also does one other important thing - something that's a salvo at Google's Gmail: users are given the opportunity to get a Facebook email account.

Why would you want a Facebook email? According to Facebook:

There are many benefits to claiming your Facebook email address:
It’s free and easy to set up.
Having your email integrated with your messages, chats and texts makes it easier to check them all at once. And if you’re looking for a message later, you don’t have to worry about how it was sent since all your different types of messages are in one place.
Your Facebook messages are compatible with traditional email systems (e.g., Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail). When people send you emails from these external systems, they’re delivered directly to your Facebook Messages. And when you send messages to external email addresses, they’re formatted to look like your messages on Facebook, including your name and profile picture along with your message.
Owning your @facebook.com address makes it easier for friends and family who are not on Facebook yet to connect with you.
Your other email addresses may change over time, but your Facebook email never does.

Personally, I"m a committed Gmail user, since my Google account integrates with many other platforms (such as Blogger, which this blog is written on), among others. I don't know if I'll give this a try or not.

But a little bit behind what's driving Facebook's decision to expand in this area. The New York Times discusses the decline of email in Gen Y, citing that the younger generation simply doesn't use email as much as they use IM and texting.

In November, Facebook announced the evolution of its messaging system and in a Fast Company article, Zuckerberg noted his inspiration for deciding on the software that would shape the communications style of whole generations:

"Whenever I get a chance to talk to high schoolers, I always want to ask them what kind of software they're using... So I asked them: What do you use for email? [And they answered,] 'Some of us use Gmail. Some of us use Yahoo. But we don’t really use email.' And I said, 'What do you mean you don’t use email? Everyone uses email.’ And they said, 'No. It’s too slow.'"

Using high schoolers as a focus group for the future of a multi-billion dollar company? While I understand that they're on the cutting edge of what's next and that they'll be the users of the future, my traditional self cringes a little about the notion of basing your success on the tastes and proclivities of such a young generation. Particularly when they have yet to fully grasp the habit of good writing, functional grammar, and the ability to fully express their thoughts.

My concern arises from this kicker from the Fast Company article:

The teens told Zuckerberg it was too much trouble to think of a subject and to compose a formal message.

Too much trouble to think of even a subject line? I weep for the future.

--

Too. Many. Channels.

2011-01-14T09:26:00.000-05:00

A little Friday fun. You'd think it would be easier to keep in touch with your contacts these days thanks to the many ways we have to communicate. Phone, email, texting , IM, Twitter @replies and DMs, Facebook messages - and let's not forget about good old fashioned written notes.

But somehow, we've made it more complicated. Everyone has his or her own preference of how they're predisposed to communicate and be contacted, and it's a challenge, to say the least, to manage all of these channels and keep a mental Rolodex of preferences. Is there a solution? I don't know. But Allen Mezquida shared his latest Smigly animation with me, and it captures it well.

Warning: there may be some offensive language in the video

Do you have a solution? Or do you just muddle along like Smigly above?
--

The Importance of Logos

2011-01-07T10:59:00.003-05:00

The guys at I Design Your Logo (@idesignyourlogo) contacted me with an idea. They decided they'd like to highlight my site as part of their ongoing work - where they create a number of logos for sites and then let the community decide which they prefer.

I've never really had a logo for my site before, so I gave them some feedback and they came up with designs. And today, they're running two logos over on their website. Click through to vote for your favorite.

I would be honored if you would take a moment to participate in this process. After all, as a reader, this decision impacts you.

This is a great example of a way a business is doing crowdsourcing in an intelligent way. It's easy to just turn over the creative reins to your community, but experience shows that doing so in an unstructured way or with little guidance or input, the results can be anything but successful. An example that comes to mind is the car that "everyman" Homer Simpson designed in Season 2 of The Simpsons:

Crowdsourcing gone wrong

Of course, the opposite is true as well: Gap suffered last year when they unilaterally redesigned their logo. The response was swift and brutal. Customers did not like it one bit and vehemently objected to it. The result is that Gap rescinded their decision. Currently, there's a question out there about Starbucks' decision to rebrand its logo and whether it will follow in Gap's footsteps.

Ultimately, a logo speaks volumes ("a picture is worth a thousand words") about a brand, but it's only one factor. How important do you think a logo is an the overall branding process, and how can a much-loved brand take steps to update its logo when the times call for it?

Not So Delicious

2010-12-18T13:32:00.000-05:00

Well, it was bound to happen. Yahoo has decided to sunset some of its services, and that includes social bookmarking site Delicious.

And here we see one of the inherent dangers of relying on (free) third-party sites for business and personal purposes. If you don't have control over your data, you're exposing yourself to a potential house of cards that can come tumbling down at any time. It's always a good idea to have your data backed up, even in the cloud-based environment. For bookmarks in particular, Xmarks actually allows you to sync and back up your bookmarks across a number of browsers.

But before you panic about Delicious, it looks like there may be a future for them after all - just not at Yahoo. In their own blog, Delicious states that they will in fact remain open for business - just not with Yahoo.

Delicious offered the following statement to users:

Is Delicious being shut down? And should I be worried about my data?
- No, we are not shutting down Delicious. While we have determined that there is not a strategic fit at Yahoo!, we believe there is a ideal home for Delicious outside of the company where it can be resourced to the level where it can be competitive.

What if I want to get my bookmarks out of Delicious right away?
- As noted above, there’s no reason to panic. We are maintaining Delicious and encourage you to keep using it. That said, we have export options if you so choose. Additionally, many services provide the ability to import Delicious links and tags.
We can only imagine how upsetting the news coverage over the past 24 hours has been to many of you. Speaking for our team, we were very disappointed by the way that this appeared in the press. We’ll let you know more as things develop.

Now, if you'd still like to take the leap and migrate your bookmarks to other sites, here are some alternatives to using Delicious (courtesy of Read Write Web) and others from TheNextWeb. I've been trying out Diigo and Evernote, and now Microsoft's OneNote with my new Windows 7 / Office 2010 system, but at the moment, I'm comfortable staying with Delicious myself.

How about you? Are there other clipping or bookmarking services that you use or prefer? Educate us all in the comments section.

Photo credit: Kymberly Janisch (Flickr)

Facebook's Need for Better Communication

2010-12-17T04:00:00.001-05:00

It seems that every time Facebook makes a change, it's a major gaffe. With Mark Zuckerberg being named the Time Person of the Year for 2010, you would think that there would be a little more thought that goes into the company's approach to privacy, major UI changes, and how those are communicated to the very people those changes affect.

Just two months ago, Facebook made news with its rollout of new Groups, which Zuckerberg claimed would be "giving you more control." A press conference at Facebook's HQ was livestreamed, people seemed to be intrigued and Facebook got high praise for a smarter approach to filtering out the noise and paying more attention to privacy.

However, as it goes with some celebrations, the revelers awoke the next day with a bit of a hangover. It was discovered that Facebook members could add each other to groups without their consent. Hence, Mark Zuckerberg joining the North American Man-Boy Love Association was meant to prove that even the CEO of the world's largest social network wasn't immune from privacy violations under the new system. He managed to leave the group, but not before the damage was done. People quickly realized that the new Groups settings gave them less control, not more.

But more importantly than the privacy violations was how the company communicated it. As pointed out on the BlogWorld & New Media Expo blog, there was no documentation on how to use the new Groups feature; the notifications features were turned on by default - meaning that many people were hit with a wave of email notifications about being added to groups; and that groups seemed to be governed by the many rather than by the individual who created them.

That's a lot to chew on with little to no warning that such a fundamental addition is taking place. It seems that Facebook wants to act like that other darling of Silicon Valley and social media geeks everywhere, Apple. When Steve Jobs calls a press conference, it's shrouded in secrecy, with rampant speculation about what new gadget (one that I want but don't need), upgrade or pricing strategy will be announced. But the difference is that Apple's announcements mainly deal in hardware. Facebook is a communications platform (web-based software) and the changes that are made to the interface immediately and drastically affect millions of people - people that don't have a choice in these changes.

As a communications professional, I would argue that it requires complete and deliberate transparency when communicating with your user base. This is not the time to be playing guess-what-we-just-did with your customers. Time and again, Zuckerberg & Co. have been taken to task for poor communications with Facebook users, yet the same mistakes seem to be happening.

The Great Page Debacle
And then yesterday around 4:00 p.m. EST, there were some strange changes to Facebook. Suddenly, without notice, many administrators of Facebook pages realized that the tabs we're all used to seeing simply disappeared - without notice. After the panic subsided, the links were visible in the left column, but the filter function was nowhere to be found and it was noted that you couldn't have tab as the default landing site. I began to wonder if Facebook was doing the same thing all over again.

A quick check of Mashable showed the accident being chronicled throughout the afternoon and the changes that were apparent, before this update became available from Facebook itself:

While it reassured me to know that Facebook hadn't fallen into the same lackadaisical communications pattern as it previously had, it left me with two major concerns:
1) Will the prototyped Pages and their functionality change at all, and will that involve feedback from the very community that will use those pages? And when it does roll out, will it be communicated to members in a clear way, with plenty of advance notice?

And more importantly:
2) If such an update can go live to 500 million people at once, is there a "publish" button near the lobby door at Facebook's headquarters that gets accidentally pushed?

Image credit: inF! (Flickr)

Or, as John Wayne once said:

Do you share any similar experiences or concerns with Facebook?

Disclosure: My employer (Ford Motor Company) has a relationship with Facebook. The above opinions are my own and do not reflect those of Ford.

Image credit (top): Gordonblixt (Flickr)

I Think That I Shall Never See...

2010-12-15T08:30:00.010-05:00

A blog as lovely as a tree? I hope Joyce Kilmer can forgive me for that.

The fine folks at Eloqua and JESS3 have seen some lovely blogs, and have created a unique infographic called The Blog Tree that categorizes some of the essential sites into roots, branches and leaves sorted by categories and relative site traffic. It's a fascinating look at some of the key blogs (which I've linked to below) and how they fit together.

Before we get to the full list, I've collected some great quotes about trees that seem to apply to the world of social media and digital marketing from authors, poets and leaders. See if any of these inspire you.

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a
green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and
deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the
man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.
- William Blake, 1799, The Letters

Evolution did not intend trees to grow singly. Far more than ourselves they
are social creatures, and no more natural as isolated specimens than man
is as a marooned sailor or hermit.
- John Fowles

O chestnut tree, great rooted blossomer,
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance.
- William Butler Yeats, Among School Children

Good timber does not grow with ease;
the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees.
- J. Willard Marriott

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow.
The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
- Abraham Lincoln

The following is the complete list of blogs in The Blog Tree. Feel free to lift this list and put it on your blog - but also feel free to add to it. There's also a taggable version available on Facebook. If there are other blogs you think are worthy of our orchard, please consider leaving suggestions in the comments section below or expand the list on your site, linking back here.

And lest you think that it's unattainable to reach the level of any of the prolific and thought-provoking authors above, I refer you to Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn."

Water Table
Ars Technica
GigaOm
Mashable
ReadWriteWeb
TechCrunch
The Next Web
AllFacebook

Venture Capital / Entrepreneurship
Cracking the Code
Seeing Both Sides
A VC
Paul Graham, YCombinator, Essays
Feld Thoughts
Both Sides of the Table
Above The Crowd
Master of 500 Hats
OnStartups
Blog of David Skok
Venture Hacks

News
B2B Bloggers
The Big Fat Marketing Blog
Center Networks
blog.clickz.com
Customer Think
DestinationCRMblog.com
Marketing Sherpa
Marketing Pilgrim
blogs.Zdnet.com
The Wisdom of Clouds/James Urquhart
MarketingProfs Blog

How-To
HubSpot Blog
Chief Marketing Technologist
Forrester Blogs
Copy Blogger
Customer Experience Matrix
Ducttape Marketing
Blogs.bnet Sales Machine
B2B Lead Generation Blog / InTouch
Content Marketing Today
Marketing Conversation
How To Change The World
It's All About Revenue
Smashmouth Marketing Blog
Scobleizer
Marketing Experiments
Ann Handley
Fearless Competitor

Personal Branding
Dan Schawbel
Guy Kawasaki
Being Peter Kim
CC-Chapman.com
Chris Koch’s B2B Marketing Blog
Conversation Agent
Dianna Huff's B2B MarCom Writing Blog
Inside the Marketer's Studio
Marketing Interactions
The Funnelholic
Seth Godin
Six Pixels of Separation
Awaken Your Superhero
Digital Body Language
ChrisBrogan.com

PR
PR Squared
SteveRubel.com
A Shel of My Former Self
BrianSolis.com
Logic + Emotion
WebinkNow
Gillin.com
PR Communications
Buzz Marketing For Technology
JaffeJuice.com
Junta42 Blog
Influential Marketing Blog

Social Media
Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang
Convince and Convert
Social Media B2B
Conversation Marketing
Social Media Marketing Blog
Social Media Examiner
Smart Brief on Social Media
Jess3 Blog
SocialTimes

Brand Haiku: Ford

2010-11-15T08:00:00.013-05:00

When genuinely pleased or angered, customers express their feelings in a variety of ways. As someone who works for a large company, I'm accustomed to seeing tweets, blog posts, videos, photos and even entire sites built to convey a strong reaction.

But how many use poetry to make their points? Last week, Aaron Strout (@AaronStrout) approached a group of bloggers with the notion that we should create haikus of brand experiences we've had. And while we debated whether these should or would take the form of positive or negative brand experiences, it quickly became clear that most of us would likely be writing on positive experiences.

One of the reasons for this would seem to be that it takes quite an effort to compose poetry, therefore it's more likely that a brand loyalist would take the time to go to that length. It's probably summed up a little more eloquently by William Butler Yeats who wrote, "Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry."

Since I'm associated with a fairly well-known brand, I've decided to create my haiku for Ford:

Customers love tech.
Ford's solution? Hands-free SYNC.
A great mobile app.

In the multiple blogger batting order, my post was preceded by Tamsen McMahon (@tamadear) and will be followed by Sydney Owen.

Do you have a haiku of your own? Feel free to share it below.

Image credit: funkandjazz (Flickr)

Want to Lead Corporate Social Strategy? Read This.

2010-11-10T13:00:00.002-05:00

Few people understand the constant pressure that the corporate social strategist is faced with. On any given day, the pressure can include internal challenges such as culture change, demands on proving the worth of programs, program development and execution, vague understanding of the role by some colleagues, the necessity of integrating the function throughout the enterprise, as well as external demands such as interview requests and a constant barrage of questions via email, Facebook and Twitter.

The role is clearly evolving and is one that many companies, small and large, are currently filling. I was lucky enough to be selected to fill the role of global digital & multimedia communications manager (aka head of social media) for Ford Motor Company in July of 2008, and I've witnessed much of the above - and more - in my role. We're definitely at a crossroads in terms of the maturity and evolution of the function, particularly in integrating this nascent field into more business processes and making it live beyond the realm of just a handful of people within the organization.

Now, Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) of Altimeter, along with Charlene Li (@charleneli), Christine Tran (@christineptran) and Andrew Jones (@andrewjns), has undertaken what I consider to be the definitive report on the challenges, opportunities and future of the corporate social media strategist. After surveying some 140 social strategists, interviewing 50 corporate practitioners of social media and looking through some online resources, they outlined some major findings, including:

Corporations have anointed an Open Leader, the Social Strategist.
They are overwhelmed with six major challenges - with little relief in sight.
Be proactive - or be relegated to being a Social Media Help Desk.
Senior management must be selective in hiring this role - then give full support as they evolved the corporation.

Report: Career Path of the Corporate Social Strategist: Be Proactive or Become Social Media Help Desk

View more documents from Jeremiah Owyang.

Take a look at the report to see what the six challenges of the corporate social strategist are. In addition, Altimeter has 10 executive recommendations for hiring and managing a corporate social strategist that make up a solid checklist for both those new to or seasoned in social media.

Are there other challenges that you've seen that should also be noted? What's your view on the future of this role and the industry?

Also, if you're interested, I regularly bookmark some of Jeremiah's writings. You can find those at http://delicious.com/scottmonty/jeremiahowyang.

Disclosure: I was among those interviewed for this report
,

We'll Always Have Blogging

2010-10-21T07:26:00.000-04:00

Image credit: Express Monorail (Flickr)

"Round up the usual suspects."
With all of the Facebook and Twitter commentary, out there, you'd think there's nothing else of significance worth doing on the Web any more. But of course, you know that's just crazy talk.

Corporate blogging has been with us for quite some time, with some major companies having forayed into the space in the early to mid 2000s. Yet there's surprisingly little attention paid to it today. Why is that? Is it that the shiny object / GMOOT ("get me one of those!") syndrome has worn off? Or is it that there's a purpose that isn't served by blogs?

"I was misinformed."
If you look at the recent statistics shared by eMarketer ("Corporate Blogging Goes Mainstream"), you'll see that only about a third of companies use blogs. But if you look at the growth over the last three years, the use of blogs has actually doubled (!).

The focus on Twitter and Facebook is understandable: they're nearly universal, they're easily accessible via mobile devices, and there's the ability to instantly connect users' thoughts, actions, and comings and goings via those platforms. But blogging is more than that - or at least has the ability to be more than that.

"Can I tell you a story, Rick?"
The first thing is, it's long form content. It gives companies the ability to have a greater narrative and develop more nuance around the message. Stories can be told in serial format so that a predictable cadence is established, with regular posts on known topics. Over time, this builds a relationship and perhaps even loyalty from readers. And fundamentally, marketing is about storytelling.

"In Casablanca, I'm master of my fate!"
While blogs are typically identified by having comments enabled for a two-way dialog, in reality the site owner is really in the driver's seat and has more control over it. This is a reassuring fact for many marketers, who can decide which comments to publish and what major topics they'd like to cover in their next post. Many marketers still prefer the stability and perceived brand control this gives them - even though we all know that you brand is what your customers say it is. But the other benefit is that when you run a blog, you have the ability to own the platform and content, which isn't necessarily the case when you're using Facebook, Twitter or the like. When a crisis is brewing, this means that your blog can become a central hub of all activity - one that you control - that can still be engaging and two-way in nature, should that be required.

"Take it anyway." [sic]
One thing I've always found about blogs is their infinite variety. They can be based in text, photos, videos, or a combination of any of them. They can be written by a team or by an executive. The topic can be singularly focused or can be an aggregate of other blogs. They can bring enthusiasts behind the scenes or collect ideas from fans. The point is that it's a flexible platform that will function any way you need it to. For a great set of examples, check out Mashable's 15 Excellent Corporate Blogs.

"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

There's no reason your marketing efforts have to be an either/or mentality. If done well, blogging can incorporate the benefits of traditional marketing as well as the new. For example, integrating blog content or headlines into the corporate website in order to keep it fresh. Doing so not only gives customers a reason to return to your site frequently, but also helps with SEO (search engine optimization). In addition, the shorter form platforms (Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, etc.) can easily be integrated into your blog, either through buttons on each post or by making it a part of the commenting platform. I use Disqus, which allows readers to log in with other accounts and share the content out on those other platforms as well. The point is, when you integrate your content plan, it allows your content to spread to wherever customers happen to be searching for it.

"Welcome back to the fight. This time I know our side will win."
Blogging was something of a curiosity in its first wave. Now that it's been around for a while and proven its worth as a communications and marketing tool - not to mention the new platforms, content types and technology advances - it's beginning to mature and defend its rightful place in the pantheon of marketing channels. Now the challenge is for us to determine how best to supply a stream of story-like content and integrate that into everything we do so that the blog is not another site that's competing for attention, but one that is strategically integrated into many other efforts.

#HashThis

2010-10-12T22:45:00.001-04:00

If you're even remotely familiar with Twitter, you know what a hashtag is. Or at least you'll know what is meant when a # is placed in front of a word.

On any given day, if you take a look at the trending topics on Twitter, ( a good service for tracking that is tweetstats.com/trends) you'll be treated with a barrage of those mini tic tac toe symbols, resulting in words, phrases and acronyms that ostensibly stand for something. And they come in a variety of topics.

Political: #tcot, #iranelection
Memes: #waystoaskforsex, #omgfacts
Events: #SxSW, #bwe10
Campaigns: #fiestamovement
Temporal: #musicmonday, #marketermonday (also #MM)
Twitter-specific: #followfriday (aka #FF)

If you're ever in doubt about the definition of a certain hashtag as it flits by your screen, simply pay a visit to wthashtag.com (as in "What the Hashtag?"). There's a directory there. And if you're inventing one, it's a great place to document what it means so that others can discover it.

Hashtags can be a very helpful way of discovering content that you wouldn't normally see. Typically, you're most likely to see the tweets of the people whom you follow. But by using the search function within Twitter - available on twitter.com as well as search.twitter.com and within a number of third party apps - you'll begin to be opened up to wider and more varied conversations.

It's especially handy when you're hosting or participating in a Twitter chat. I've actually been asked by PBS / MASTERPIECE Mystery! to host a Twitter chat on October 24, with the hashtag #sherlock_pbs. Feel free to read about it here. I'll have a TweetGrid set up so that I'll be able to search for specific terms.

That's essentially what hashtags allow you to do - it's a saved search of sorts. So even though one of the largest trending topics of all time is Justin Bieber (according to TweetStats, above), typically #justinbieber is also tied to that search. So if you clicked on that dreaded hashtag, you'd see tweets from millions upon millions of people you wouldn't otherwise follow.

And if you're actually trying to get work done and you follow a Justin Bieber fan (why??), you might run into a problem something like this:

So whether you're getting #followfriday'd to death or you're trying to decipher the near-hieroglyphics in your sidebar, remember that there's actually value in hashtags.

Oh, and I'll see you at #bwe10.

Major kudos to Joe Chernov and the guys at Eloqua for suggesting that I feature a cartoon here. While the concept was mine, it was Joe and his posse who actually brought it to life.

The Blogosphere in 2010

2010-10-08T07:07:00.003-04:00

I just found the State of the Blogosphere in 2010 report over at BlogHerald. It's chock full of lots of data about blogs and the bloggers who blog them, taken from the BlogPulse survey that includes over 150,000,000 blogs.

In the infographic below, you'll discover the following:

Top 10 blogs by traffic
The spread of pro, part-time, hobbyist and self-employed bloggers
Breakdown of their age and demographic data
How often they post
What languages are most prominent (hint: English is now ranked #2 as the most prominent language of blogs. See if you can guess what #1 is.)
Revenue earned by bloggers
Geographic distribution of blogs within the U.S.

Typically, this is a function that was handled by Technorati. It would seem that their report is still a few weeks away. You can check out the archived posts for the State of the Blogsophere in 2009, 2008, 2007 and earlier. But it leads to the question: whatever happened to the prominence of Technorati? It's a question that's been asked before.

In the meantime, enjoy the eye candy. Other great infographics are available from BlogHerald here. If you have any observations or insights, I'd be glad to hear about them below.

Image credit: InfoGraphicsLab.com

What's #NewTwitter?

2010-09-14T22:50:00.003-04:00

Plenty.

Twitter just launched a fresh new interface. I'm still getting used to it, but my initial reaction is that it's a strong improvement for users of the Twitter.com interface (which is about 70% of the users currently).

Take a look at the video from Twitter:

Here's the inside scoop on the background and making of the video from Forbes.

What's different:

The first thing you'll notice is that there is now a header bar that contains a streamlined dashboard: a search box, a link Home, a link to your Profile, and Messages (DMs). This is already different, in that messages have been separated from @ replies.
Then, the "what's happening" (not "what are you doing?") section is footed with tabbed browsing options: Tweets, @Mentions (not Replies), Retweets, Searches and Lists. Note that the last three have dropdown menus that give the user options.
For Retweets, it's Retweets by others, Retweets by you, and Your Tweets, retweeted. This is a handy way of discerning these various levels of retweets, making it easier to find what's meaningful.
The Searches that used to inhabit the sidebar are now available in the dropdown.
Similarly, Lists offer you a chance to see the aggregated lists you've created. My complaint is that it only allows you to see about 8 or 9 lists; for power users like me that have 20 lists, you have to click through to the list page, which is in the old interface.

Probably the coolest part though, is the ability to preview content directly from the link, without having to leave your page. You can view photos, videos and more by clicking on the little arrow in the tweet box:

In addition, you can see mini-previews of profiles - number of followers, tweets, bio, etc. - directly from this page by hovering over any user.

The full details are available directly from Twitter. Overall, this is vast improvement that puts Twitter.com on a more level playing field with some of the more sophisticated desktop and mobile apps.

What do you think?

UPDATE: Here's a handy guide on how to customize your background in the New Twitter

This Just In

2010-09-09T00:32:00.000-04:00

From the Not Necessarily the News department: "Teens text more than adults" - or so went a headline from an e-newsletter from MarketingCharts that hit my inbox recently.

Okayyyyy....

The actual article stated that overall, teens text five times more than adults according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Again, not all that surprising, but at least we're getting somewhere. It seems that most adults text between 1-10 times a day, both groups are pretty similar in the 11-20 times a day and 21-50 times a day categories. But teens are twice as likely to text 51-100 times a day and more than three times as likely to text over 100 times a day.

Check out the graph of the number of texts per day, adults vs. teens:

One other bit of information about texting: 57% noted that they received unwanted or spammy text messages.

What conclusions can marketers draw from this for the future?
First, this is the next generation of consumers, so we need to be prepared for them. While email may become more important to them in the workforce, they're still going to be tied to texting. The challenge is that texting is necessarily a one-to-one (or in some cases one-to-few) experience. There's very little room for interruptive ads.

Second, as you can see from that 57% figure, opting in is going to be extremely important; but even so, I believe that if we're taking up their valuable texting time by shooting them an SMS message, then it should be something that is worth their attention. Some categories or ideas to consider:

Funny
Entertaining
Breaking news about your brand or company
Exclusive content
Discounts or coupons
Contest or sweeps
For local businesses: a digital version of "leave your business card"
Get them off mobile-only interaction - cross-pollinate to your other properties

Probably one of my most favorite examples of this last category is the Facebook Sign Maker (and its Twitter counterpart) from the good folks at Blue Sky Factory. Text a simple phrase to a number and - voila! - you're a fan of a Facebook page.

They've brought users from text messaging to Facebook fans via an outdoor/experiential sign. Remarkably effective and stunningly simple. Companies that begin to adopt this thinking understand how different marketing practices can leverage each other and that this is how life works - it's not about how we interact with the world around us, not how we simply focus on a single channel.

Here's one final nugget found in the Pew report: breaking some long-held stereotypes, men actually use the phone slightly more than women. Of the women surveyed, 53% make or receive five or fewer calls a day, while only 43% of men could say the same.

Maybe there are still a few surprises around after all.

Image credit: SarahDeer (Flickr)

Picture This

2010-08-29T09:23:00.002-04:00

One of the oft-overlooked elements in the routine of blogging is image selection. Now, not every blogger uses images, charts, graphs, or other visuals as part of their storytelling approach (Seth Godin, most notably, is almost always a text-only blogger). But for those of us who do, our photos can be just as important and compelling as our written copy.

The art of communications and marketing is largely one of storytelling. As someone with small children, I can appreciate the necessity of images to help tell stories. Images can help to set expectations, evoke emotional responses, draw attention, provoke laughter, or symbolize irony, among hundreds of other things.

So you see, the cavalier approach to image selection simply won't do for blogging. Or shouldn't. Similarly, the sources and the rights of images needs to be taken just as seriously as choosing an image. This post is designed to help you think about where and how you choose images for your blog (or site, or brochure, or whatever), with some bonus content thrown in.

Finding Images
Let's start with the basics. You need an image for a blog post. Where should you look? There are a number of great resources that are either low-cost or free:

Flickr The grand-daddy of all image sites. Flickr is a very powerful community with millions of photos at your disposal. There's an advanced search capability that makes it easy to pinpoint what you're looking for. Check out their Outstanding Shots,
everystockphoto.com Is just that. A full range of free images with various levels of licensing.
StockVault, according to its site, is a stock photo sharing site where photographers, designers and students can share their photographs and images with each other. Its sole purpose is to collect and archive medium and high resolution photos that designers and students can share and use for personal and non-commercial designs.
OpenPhoto A little more barebones than the other sites, but with a variety of content that is sourced in a wiki-like way.

Two great tools to help refine the image searching process:

Compfight will help you find images by text or by tag and will allow you to change the settings on licensing, original photos and safe search. The visual layout of the images is impressive and will help you more quickly assess what works and what doesn't.
FlickrStorm is a brainstorming tool that lays out the images based on a search term that you enter and that also lets you change the settings on image rights. You can add images to your tray as you're browsing, so you can compare them later.

A note about using Flickr photos: if you plan to embed a Flickr photo in your site, there are guidelines that you need to follow. Namely, you need to use the HTML code available from the "Share this" link and provide a link back to the original photo. Please be sure to abide by Flickr's community guidelines.

If you'd like to use your own photographs but you don't feel quite comfortable with your ability, you can check Darren Rowse's Digital Photography Tips, or grab a copy of Scott Kelby's The Digital Photography Book (as well as Volume 2 and Volume 3). And a camera like a Canon EOS Rebel T1i or a Nikon D90 DX wouldn't hurt, either.

What's all this talk about rights?
Just because an image appears on the Internet doesn't mean it's yours for the taking. Many images have copyrights associated with them. In fact, there have even been examples of companies that have gotten into trouble, as they didn't seek permission to use Flickr-hosted images before they used them in official advertising.

I'm not a lawyer (I don't even play one on TV), but I can tell you that many online images are covered by a Creative Commons license. What's Creative Commons? It's a nonprofit organization that offers free tools that help to increase collaboration and sharing. You can find out more about them here.

If you learn anything about Creative Commons, it's that they have a number of levels of licenses that authors, designers, bloggers, photographers and others can assign to their work. The categories basically come down to Attribution (giving credit), Share Alike (distribution), Non-Commercial, Derivatives (original vs. changed material). There are symbols that signify each category, and taken as a whole, you can tell what they mean. In my case, this site is governed by an Attribution-Non-Commerical-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.

Attribution
cc by
This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered, in terms of what others can do with your works licensed under Attribution.

Attribution Share-Alike
cc by-sa
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use.

Attribution No Derivatives
cc by-nd
This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.

Attribution Non-Commerical
cc by-nc
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike
cc by-nc-sa
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. Others can download and redistribute your work just like the by-nc-nd license, but they can also translate, make remixes, and produce new stories based on your work. All new work based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also be non-commercial in nature.

Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives
cc by-nc-nd
This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, allowing redistribution. This license is often called the “free advertising” license because it allows others to download your works and share them with others as long as they mention you and link back to you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.

It's important to understand how CC works and how it applies to your own content as well as to others'.

Editing tools
If you want a few quick suggestions for editing and other useful tools, check these out.

Picnik Use this tool for quick editing of your Flickr photos, directly online.
Splashup An online alternative to Photoshop or the GIMP
FotoFlexer Self-branded as "the world's most advanced online photo editor." And highly recommedned by me.
ResizR Powerful and easy to use tool that will resize your .jpg images online.
And if that's not enough, this Mashable article lists 20 Great Online Image Editors

I hope these resources are helpful. If you have other suggestions or favorite sites, please leave a comment so we can all benefit from each other's collective knowledge.

Image credit: alpha du centaure (Flickr)

Who Do You Trust?

2010-08-15T08:23:00.000-04:00

It's been well documented that people don't trust corporations as much as they used to. But who do they trust? It's largely people from two categories: third party experts (academics, some media sources, analysts, etc.) and "people like me."

But when it comes to social media, we've also heard that people don't trust bloggers (from Forrester, no less). I've often doubted that assertion, particularly because it seems rather misleading. While the category of bloggers as a whole may be untrusted, people develop relationships with the blogs they follow and read most closely, and therefore develop a sense of trust with them.

This is demonstrated rather well by a recent study highlighted over on eMarketer: "What Makes Social Media Trustworthy?" in which they look at which sources of information are trusted by users of social media:

Take great notice of the percentages above: 30% or less feel they trust a brand, product or company based on a Twitter feed or participation in an online community; less than 40% trust a brand's Facebook updates or blog posts. However over 60% trust blog posts and Facebook updates from someone they know.

What does this mean for marketers? It means you need to get out from behind that logo and letting your employees represent the company in a real and human way. Make it apparent that real people (dare I say, people just like your customers?) work for you and that they can represent your brand or product in an authentic manner in places where it matters to your target audience..

The platform and even the personality are one thing. But what about the way interaction is conducted over social networks? To me, it's more about what you do than where you participate; that is, it's about the value that you bring to your customers or users rather than how many platforms you're on. The respondents to the study would also seem to concur:

Take a look at these numbers closely: people are saying that they want an opportunity for two-way dialog - not one-way messaging from your brand and not a place where they can simply vent. They want conversation - and an honest one that's open to negatives as well as positives. After all, that's how real people speak, isn't it?

Your staff should actively prepare for this frenetic and fast-paced environment, too: 60% say that responsiveness is important to them. This not only means that the author of a post, tweet or comment responds, but does so in a timely manner. Interestingly, the volume of content seems less important, as only 42% care about that. But they don't fault the marketer for not having a lot of fans or for not participating for very long. To the customer, it's important that you are participating first and foremost.

These are just a few instances of ways to measure trust. It's an important concept to consider. As an additional resource, I highly recommend Chris Brogan & Julien Smith's Trust Agents, as you can learn a great deal about this area in much more depth.

Who do you trust? And more importantly: why?

Oh, and if you were wondering about the image above, that's Bo, the boyfriend who jumped out of the way and let his girlfriend take a foul ball to the arm. They're not together any more. Trust issues.

Social Network: The Movie

2010-07-19T06:30:00.008-04:00

As Facebook prepares to celebrate hitting 500 million members this week, we're seeing more news of the controversial film The Social Network.** With the tagline "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies," the trailer for the film has been running on thesocialnetwork-movie.com or 500millionfriends.com. You can watch it below now:

Sony is advertising the movie on Twitter - but not on Facebook (go figure!). The founders of Facebook have already reacted to the trailer. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is going to be played by Jesse Eisenberg, probably most well known for his part in Adventureland. Pretty good casting, in my opinion.

Now, here comes the fun part.

If they were holding open casting calls for extras and you were going to be featured, what famous person, dead or alive, would play you in the movie? Leave a comment below or reply with a post on your own blog with a link back to this post.

To get you started, here are ten individuals in the social media space and their Hollywood doppelgängers. Fair warning: these aren't meant to insult anyone - I'm going for humor - and I purposefully didn't use any women as subjects - I really didn't want to get into trouble. ;-)

Author & NML President Chris Brogan / Jeff Bridges

Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore / Orlando Bloom

Boston media maven C.C. Chapman / Simon Cowell

Video savant Steve Garfield / Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe

Prolific author & speaker Seth Godin / Larry David

Ragan Communications CEO Mark Ragan / Bruce Davison

Web strategist & Altimeter Partner Jeremiah Owyang / Wayne Newton

Author & PR expert Brian Solis / Johnny Depp

Powered CMO Aaron Strout / Guy Fieri

WineLibrary.tv's Gary Vaynerchuck / Joe Pesci

Me? Oh, I almost forgot. Johnny Carson.

** No, this isn't the a remake of the 1976 movie Network, famous for the line "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" But the results might be similar...

Bonus content:

Now That's Viral, Man

2010-07-17T13:30:00.002-04:00

If you haven't followed the Old Spice phenomenon from this week, you've missed out. It's a great example of a really strong performing viral campaign that harkens back to some of the classics like Subservient Chicken, Shave Everywhere, and Tea Partay.

It started on on television earlier this year with the following Old Spice commercial, "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" (link for those of you in RSS readers):

(If you'd like to see how this was accomplished, Leo Laporte has a great interview with the agency.)

That commercial, first aired during the Super Bowl in early February, as of this week has garnered over 14 million views. And then the next commercial, "Old Spice: Questions", went up on YouTube:

Those ads are pretty funny to begin with and were passed around a good deal. But this week, Wieden + Kennedy, creators of the campaign for Procter & Gamble, took it to the next level. First, they began by promoting the latest video with a number of tweets, to ensure it was seen by many:

And then they fired a warning shot across the bow via the @OldSpice Twitter account, lest anyone question what they were up to:

And what happened next made all the difference between the past and the future of viral campaigns. They could have easily engaged people on Twitter all day long and continued to push for views of their existing videos. But what Old Spice did was head and shoulders (if I can use another P&G product reference in a bad pun) above anything I've personally seen before.

The marketers targeted a handful of influencers to kick off the process - Kevin Rose (founder of Digg), Ellen Degeneres, Ashton Kutcher, The Huffington Post and others. Questions were requested and collected on a number of platforms: Twitter, the Old Spice Facebook page, YouTube, Reddit, 4Chan, blogs and Yahoo, to name a few. And then, during the course of the day, the questions were answered in near-real time via custom-made YouTube videos like this one:

At the end of the day, there were over 80 video responses made. W+K's creative director Iain Tait describes how they did it in an amazing behind-the-scenes look at the process on Read Write Web via an interview by Marshall Kirkpatrick called How the Old Spice Videos Are Being Made. Suffice it to say there was a high degree of coordination between the social media team and the creative/production team. Tait also discusses his view of influence in a Fast Company interview: The Team Who Made Old Spice Smell Good Again Reveals What's Behind Mustafa's Towel.

From what I can tell, the reasons it worked so well are summed up as follows:

Go where the people are
Choose your influencers wisely
Use a personalized response
Respond on a universally understood & sharable platform (like YouTube)
Use a real-time platform to reply and promote replies (like Twitter)
Have fun, engaging content

So, this sets the bar high for the next major viral hit. Do you have any idea what's going to make the next one work well?

Bonus content:

Get your voicemail customized by the Old Spice Man.
Take a look at one of the parodies inspired by the Old Spice Campaign, from the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University:

Global Web Index

2010-07-13T01:07:00.004-04:00

Around the world, social media has taken off. While this is an exciting time for companies, for the global social media executive that means a lot of headaches as we try make sense of it all.

The gradual adoption, platforms that differ by region and the difference in penetration of mobile and broadband connections all mean that there are bound to be disparities in how and where people around the world connect via the social web.

Once upon a time, Universal McCann did a series called Tracking the Impact of Social Media that consisted of four "waves" of the study. You can grab them here:

I found these very useful reference tools as the web was evolving. In fact, I used to use some of the growth charts from Waves 2 & 3 in my presentations. But Wave 4 wasn't quite as impactful as the previous two, and we had to wait a lot longer for it to appear.

As I was wondering about this fact, I happened to get an email from Tom Smith, who was the lead market researcher at Universal McCann who led these efforts. It turns out he left UM after Wave 3 (which explains the gap and the different feel). Tom has continued with his fine research and has his own company, Trendstream, which is doing some stellar work on the global implications of social media. In addition, they consult with global corporate social media teams to feed research into their local market and agency briefings, conference presentations or internal presentations.

Tom just let me know that his firm has recently developed the Global Web Index - as tool that, as Trendstream puts it, "provides anyone with the free of charge chance to view and play with the GlobalWebIndex data, and more importantly to start developing unique insights on social media." You may need to click through to the site, depending on how the embed below renders on your monitor.

These are real data, available from January 2010. Of course, this is only the "lite" version; if you want to know more, please click through to the link for info on how to get the full set of data.

Is this useful to you? Do you see any trends or surprises in the data that are particularly relevant to how you do business? Please leave a comment below.

Photo credit: Bill Gracey (Flickr)

Social Media Playbook

2010-07-09T23:11:00.000-04:00

Last month, Joe Chernov, the director of content for marketing automation company Eloqua, contacted me with some material to share with you. And while I don't always accept unsolicited material for this site, the content was just that good. Not to mention that Eloqua actually challenged us to steal it.

What they shared were two things: the Content Grid, which they created with the design firm JESS3. The Content Grid is a content marketing framework that plots type and channel across two dimensions: who should create it (a single owner or the entire staff) and how it should be distributed for maximum impact on the sales funnel. And here it is:

In addition to the graphic, there was also a document included. Let me just say that if I had this available to me some four years ago when I started this site, I would have been much smarter much more quickly. Eloqua's Social Media Playbook is filled with exactly the kind of material that will bring you and your employees up to speed on social media. As Eloqua describes it:

The 10-platform, 42-page Eloqua Social Media Playbook was created as a veritable “how-to” guide for our staff to follow on the social Web. It’s frankly everything we know about social media, distilled into one awesomely designed document. Now you can have it. For free.

You'll find uses and best practices for using blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia, Delicious, Google Buzz, Foursquare and Gowalla for marketing purposes.

Steal it. Download it. Share it with everyone you know. Use it as a best practices document for your team. Because this is the single best playbook of its sort I've seen yet. Well done, Eloqua.

The 1.0 Homage

2010-06-14T09:56:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, it's helpful to return to a time when the world's information didn't move quite to fast, when we had more time to think without the need to check more than a handful of email accounts & social networks, and before we were drinking from a firehose of information. That's one reason I carry 3x5 index cards and a jotter and keep fountain pens on my desk.

It's somewhat of an homage to my 1.0 self that requires me to put away the laptop and focus on what's in front of me without pop-ups, notifications or other interruptions. Plus, it's undeniably useful and accessible. It's always with me, it never crashes, and the flight attendants don't make me put it away when the plane is taking off lr landing. ;-)

Imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered this USB typewriter that can connect to your iPad (via Mashable):

If you're using an RSS reader, you may need to click through for the video.

You can check out more about the USB Typewriter here.

I'm reminded of Leroy Anderson's famous tune "The Typewriter," written for the Boston Pops:

Try performing that with an iPad!

Sometimes, 1.0 can bring added benefits. Try slowing down from time to time, in whatever manner suits you. And if you're in the market for a jotter, you can get your own here:

I See England, I See France...

2010-06-09T20:06:00.000-04:00

I see Facebook's demographics for the top 15 country markets. Okay, so that may not rhyme, but at least you know what this post is about, right?

As always, the source Inside Facebook has an in-depth look at some Facebook demographics that matter. In this case, a look at some international statistics in the 15 largest countries represented on Facebook. I only have information on four of the markets - you have to be a member of Inside Facebook Gold to get the full report. Let's see what we've got for now.

U.S. Statstics
The U.S. market has been widely documented, with slightly more female than male users (57.5%), and a healthy population of users over the age of 25. But as Facebook approaches 500 million users, approximately 70% of them are from countries outside of the United States.

We know the U.S. members are continuing to grow: 4.4 million were added in April, and another 7.8 million joined in May, bringing the U.S. total past 125 million.

And while women 18-25 make up the largest single demographic in the U.S., it's instructive to note that a full 61% of Facebook's American user base is over the age of 25.

So much for long-held assumptions.

United Kingdom
Let's hop over to the U.K. where, thankfully, we don't need to bring a translator (although George Bernard Shaw once said that we are "Two nations separated by a common language."). The female/male split is more of an even match, with women taking the lead at 51.1%.

But where we really see a difference is in the percentage of individuals in the 18-25 and 26-34 range - clearly this is the core market for the U.K. And with 43.5% of their users under the age of 25 (compared to the U.S.'s 39%), it's a slightly younger crowd.

But overall across age and gender, our two nations are fairly similar in Facebook demographics. Perhaps we are just separated by a common language.

Indonesia
Would it surprise you to learn that Indonesia is currently Facebook's third largest country? It shouldn't, as it's the world's fourth most populous country. It also shouldn't surprise you that the country with the largest Muslim population also has a larger male presence on Facebook: 59.2% male vs. 40.8% female.

Another huge difference: a vastly younger population. Users under 25 years of age make up 72.5% of Facebook's Indonesian population. Users over 35 only account for 8.9% of the total userbase.

Thinking of marketing something that's more applicable to an older population in Indonesia on Facebook? You might want to think again.

Turkey
We've got a similar makeup in Turkey: more male than female - only even more so. Men comprise 64.4% of Turkish Facebook users. And they're fairly young, too: 56.5% of male users are under 25 and 63.7% of women are under 25. However, there's a healthy chunk remaining across both sexes in the 26-34 and 35-44 age range as well.

France
Not too surprisingly, when we get to France, we return to data that are more reminiscent of what we saw in the U.S. & U.K. A fairly even split of male and female users, but with just about 50% of users under 25 years of age. The over-35 crowd stands at about 25.7%, which still has a ways to go to equal the U.S.'s 38.2%.

Additional facts
Overall, Facebook's youngest country by demographics is Indonesia, which is also its third largest. It may be a while before we see a leveling out of the age of Indonesian users, but it bears following. Largest userbase over 35, in descending order: United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Spain.

What this all means is that you should check your facts and the most up to date information on whatever platform you choose to participate on in the social media space, because it's dangerous to assume that a U.S.-centric approach will work around the globe.

Image credit: chicks57 (Flickr)

On Perception

2010-06-09T00:38:00.001-04:00

Advertising man Rory Sutherland raises some great points worth pondering in this TED Talk from October 2009. He notes that most problems are problems of perception. How many problems in life can be solved by tinkering with perception rather than the hard work of trying to change reality?

From the Eurostar train to placebos, the origin of the potato as a staple of our diet to iron jewelry, denim, breakfast cereal, Coca-Cola and even social networking, Sutherland takes a different look at how problems have been solved or brands have been built based on embracing perception as the central element to be improved. He even offers an adman's humorous definition of savings ("Consumerism needlessly postponed."). But through it all, he makes insightful commentary on the value we create and where it might be most effective.

Spend 16 minutes to watch this very informative and entertaining video - I guarantee it'll be worth your time. I'll give you a full refund if you don't agree. ;-)

Main points / takeaways:

All value is subjective
Persuasion is better than compulsion
Create intangible value to replace material value - particularly when we can place a far higher value on things that already exist rather than creating new things
Change the interface to change the behavior

"We are perishing for want of wonder, not want of wonders" -- G.K. Chesterton

If you're not familiar with TED Talks, I suggest paying a visit to the site. There are scores of these short lectures available from the TED Global conferences as well as many of the regional TEDx conferences around the world. It's a treasure trove of great information and, as TED says, "Ideas worth spreading."

Related reading:
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein

Follow @rorysutherland on Twitter

Taking a Moment

2010-05-31T00:04:00.000-04:00

Marketing campaigns march on - day in, day out, week after week, every year. Yet for all of the effort that goes into each, they have a finite existence. Sometimes it's a few weeks, other times, it's a few months. But the reality is, campaigns die. Sometimes we remember them; many times they're eminently forgettable.

This is neither good nor bad; it's just the way it is. It's how the business world has functioned and what we've been driven to expect, based on product lifecycles and necessarily limited marketing budgets.

But today, on Memorial Day, let's take a moment to pause in the midst of our media planning, site analytics and lead generation to remember that our time here is limited, and if we're lucky, we'll be able to improve our industry and the lives of others while we're here. Our work may be fleeting, but our greater purpose can be more than that.

In that spirit, I give you the famous World War I poem "In Flanders Fields," by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872 - 1918) of the Canadian Army to reflect upon.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

For those who have come before and served well - in the armed forces as well as in our respective industries, let us always remember.

Image credit: Fr Antunes (Flickr)

Online Ad Targeting Is Pretty Much Like Dating

2010-05-17T02:05:00.001-04:00

It turns out that it's pretty simple to understand what women want. All you have to do is ask them. Of course, you have to be listening and willing to put it into practice. Having been married for nearly 9 years, I'm no genius at dating; but there are some parallels here that even my feeble brain can pull out.

In March of this year, behavioral targeting company Q Interactive did just that when they surveyed 1,800 female Internet users about the practice of targeted advertising. It turns out that women are actually okay with it - to the extent that they view it positively and actually want more of it.

When faced with an online ad that was closely aligned with their interests or activities, only 11% thought it was "weird," while nearly 66% thought it was "cool." Admittedly, this is when faced with ads from trusted brands. There's no indication how the respondents felt when such targeted happened from untrusted or unknown brands, however.

With the recent uproar about Facebook's privacy policy - or rather their public handling of their privacy policy changes - the trust factor becomes even more important. And that's borne out in the survey, which states that over half of the respondents indicated that trust was a prerequisite to targeted ads.

This really isn't too different from the dating scene, where you want to get to know your partner before you give more information or get more deeply involved.

So once women have been effectively targeted online by their trusted brands, what kind of information do they want? According to the survey, they want more than just your latest bargain or special offer; they want you to get to know them, to share more valuable information, and to have regular and consistent communication with them. Again, pretty much like in real life. :-)

This kind of stuff isn't rocket science (or brain surgery, for that matter) - it's really just a matter of common sense.

It's time to step away from the algorithm-driven, data collecting, automated approach and to start integrating a little humanity into the process. Through a strong CRM system that hits a number of touchpoints - email, social networks, purchase history, customer service interaction - we can begin to paint a better picture of each customer that allows us to give them a deeper sense of trust and more relevant information.

At the risk of oversimplification, if we can remember how people like to be courted and spoken with in the real world, and apply that formula to how we treat our customers, we might surprise ourselves with some response rates, pass-alongs, recommendations and loyalty numbers that are higher than we've seen in the past. That means more second (and third) dates.

Unless, of course, you're so nice that you end up being the brand that gets the "you're like a brother to me" line.

Are there some other salient points that I may have missed (due to my lack of dating skilz or the hour of this posting)? Or am I completely off base here? Add your two cents in below.

UPDATE (5/19/2010): Just in case you need a few "sweet nothings":

New Google Phone Service Whispers Targeted Ads Directly Into Users' Ears

Photo credits: ATIS547 & Steven Vance
Images courtesy of eMarketer

Are You Measuring What's Important?

2010-05-07T12:09:00.000-04:00

We often talk about social media ROI being measured differently. These are different behaviors and we should be applying new and different measurement standards, right? One of my favorite demonstrations of this is K.D. Paine's legendary acronymn HITS = How Idiots Track Success.

A recent eMarketer article asked Is the Click Still King? To the average user, there are so many ways to engage with a site. So you would think that there would be more relevant and prevalent ways of measuring success. But take a look at the top methods that both the CMO Council and Chief Marketer respondents indicated were important:

Click-throughs and website views. How very 1999.

Although, I will give the CMO Council the edge on this one, with looking at registrations, which tells you a little bit about actions taken and level of commitment to engage. That's a positive thing. But it seems like we're still treating the Web like a version of television, where "eyeballs" are what's important.

Take a look farther down those charts and see some of the interesting ways of measuring success: content download, transactions, engagement (which is a little vague), and increased knowledge. Those are all methods of demonstrating effectiveness that can determine your content strategy and marketing channels moving forward. But ultimately, each time a campaign is launched, the methodology for measurement needs to be customized to the goal at hand. Click-throughs and hits are not a universal metric for every campaign.

Some metrics that might appeal to me as a marketer include:

Likelihood of a customer to become an advocate for my brand
The spread of information across the Web - especially via social tools
Sentiment of comments generated by a post or campaign
Effective integration of offline calls to action and online actions

These are just a handful of suggestions for different types of measurement. As I said, it depends on what you're trying to accomplish. What are some unique and different measurement standards that you've seen evolving?

Photo credit: raneko (Flickr)