The Social Media Marketing Blog

What's in a Name?

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:34:00 +0000

The iPad. Unless you were in a coma, you probably heard about the launch of Apple's new tablet. A larger version of the iPhone, at 0.5 inches thick, 1.5 pounds, $499 (base model) + a $29.99 unlimited data plan, it's pretty impressive. You can read all about the reveal and product specs over on Engadget, who covered it live.

There's an interesting subplot going on here, though. The hype around the event was palpable - even the Wall Street Journal noted "Last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on it." Indeed, everyone was speculating about the name of the new netbook from Apple - from the iTablet to iSlate. When it was revealed, it looked like nothing more than an oversize iPhone, but as the presentation went on, the functionality became more apparent.

Without a doubt, the tech community - which always gets in a tizzy whenever Apple releases a new product (or if Steve Jobs sneezes) - was so prolific in its buzz that it locked up Twitter for a bit. There's really something to be said about the power of the geeky masses, as words related to the presentation (including Amazon's Kindle, which was mentioned in Job's announcement) accounted for 8 of the 10 trending topics on Twitter at one point.

You've got to wonder about the naming decision on this product. It's certainly in line with the "iP" naming convention of the other two wildly successful product lines, the iPod and iPhone. So from a brand extension, it makes sense. But my first inclination was that "iPad" was too close to "iPod." Surely iTablet or iSlate would have worked from a descriptive standpoint. It led me to wonder if there was something more going on here...

Look carefully at the trending topics for a clue - in addition to phrases like Apple, iBooks, Steve Jobs, Kindle, iPhone, iWork and iSlate, there was as single outlier: iTampon. Check that again - iPad doesn't even show up on the trending topics!

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet."

Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

Did Apple anticipate such a viral phenomenon that they intentionally named the product as they did? Or were they completely naive about the implications? Either way, it's lighting up the web as we speak. And it didn't take long for someone to photoshop it, either:

What do you think? Marketing savvy, stunt or stupidity?

UPDATE: @brennanMKE sent me this video - an old iPad commercial:

Photo credits: Engadget, @Katmanalac

2010 Digital Marketing Outlook

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:22:00 +0000

The Society of Digital Agencies - a group that serves as a worldwide voice of digital marketing professionals with a mission to advance the industry through best practices, education, and advocacy - recently sent me the results of a large survey they conducted. SoDA solicited feedback from over 1,000 digital marketing executives from agency and client-side worldwide and captured some solid insights worth sharing here.

There is no question that digital marketing continues its upward trend. Certainly, when a company like Ford - from the historically lethargic automotive industry - spends 25% of our marketing budget on digital and social media, you know there's a significant movement afoot. And across all industries in 2009, budgets were impacted by the economy, forcing marketers to be more ruthless about seeking efficient results. It should be no surprise to anyone that the rise of digital is a sure thing.

The 2010 Digital Marketing Outlook contains some 70 pages of particularly poignant facts for the U.S. and abroad (Russia, South America and Mexico), emerging trends, changing platforms, social media and more. Here are some key takeaways worth calling out:

Online Marketing Spending

In 2010, two-thirds expect to spend the same or more than in 2009.
Approximately 70% plan to increase (1-30%) or significantly increase (30%+) their unpaid/earned/proprietary media.
The top priorities in 2010 will be social networks/applications and digital infrastructure.

Emerging Trends

Customer experience will be more important than ever.
Storytelling will evolve - location will become a key component; the speed at which stories are developed is crucial; and above all, emotional connections matter.
The beginning of the end of the banner ad.
Branded content syndication will replace some paid media.
40% of opportunity is mobile

Social Media

Social is becoming increasingly mobile.
Measurement will be more important than ever.
Real-time search is inextricably linked to the "statusphere."
Forms of content consumption will continue to be fractured; the nimble marketer will need to be in as many places as possible.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, I think you'll recognize a number of the themes mentioned in the report. But there's also much more - not to mention really smart - stuff in the entire report. Take a look for yourself.

Two Thousand and Ten Digital Marketing Outlook

Photo credit: Will Lion

Have You Got an App for That?

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 05:21:00 +0000

It seems that app development is where it's at in social. According to a recent eMarketer article, mobile apps for social networks - in addition to phones - are under consideration by more marketers than ever before. As you can see in the graphic below, the leading platform for an app (unsurprisingly) was Facebook, followed by the iPhone.

Fewer than half invested in mobile or social apps last year, but most plan to create one this year. Lest you think that this is simply marketers chasing the latest shiny object, or the boss claiming G.M.O.O.T. ("get me one of those!"), there's some solid reasoning behind the choice to move more resources to mobile.

The strategy: create more opportunity for engagement with customers. On social networks, we'll see a greater opportunity for reach, targeting and sharing, but with mobile there's more creative control and the ability to have a message stick with the recipient longer.

And let's face it: we are increasingly moving to a mobile society. As smartphones - the iPhone, Android, Nexus One and others - become more affordable and widely available, we'll see an explosion in mobile access of the web. And with that, customers will require more custom interaction with the sites and brands they're passionate about - in many cases having news and product information come to them directly.

Enter the app. Or, more appropriately, the hundreds of thousands of additional apps we're about to see.

Social Media Predictions for 2010

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 22:35:00 +0000

I'm sure you've seen your fair share of social media predictions for 2010 by now. And while my posting is a little late, I hope I'm note treading too fine a line by waiting until 2010 hits before I make my predictions.

Before I get into what I think will be worth watching this year, let's see how well I fared with the results from the predictions I made for 2009. Those included:

Twitter will continue to achieve legitimacy. Check. There's no question that Twitter became mainstream in 2009. I won't rehash all of the examples, but suffice it to say that when your local news outlets are suggesting you follow them on Twitter, it's mainstream.
Online video will come into its own. Check. YouTube has started to show some signs of revenue generation, and Hulu was advertised during the Super Bowl. Video became more and more important in 2009.
Customers insist on custoMEr service. Check. More interaction on Facebook pages, Twitter, Get Satisfaction and similar sites has customers looking for solutions wherever they can find it, not just via 800 numbers.

Okay, so where does that leave us for 2010? What new trends or changes from last year can we expect?

There's Power in (Smaller) Numbers

Although this new technology has allowed us to connect more quickly and more transparently across the globe, the collective cacophony is simply too much. It's impossible to actively see what all of your followers are saying on Twitter after you've topped 300 or so.

In 2010, I believe we'll begin to see a contraction of networked relationships. We saw a forced version of this last year with Burger King's Whopper Sacrifice, but the proliferation of "friends" on various platforms will have people rethinking the true reason they're involved in these places to begin with. So as users reassess who and why they're connecting, what will hold the most interest for them?

People still trust people like themselves; but the ones they know best are the ones they're most likely to trust. Therefore, it will be the people in their close networks - particularly from a geographic perspective - that will remain the closest. Brands will also realize that they can't be all things to all people, and will focus on those influencers who are the best fit for them.

Note I didn't say "those influencers with the most followers or the highest readership." Long ago, I noted the difference between the theories of Malcolm Gladwell and Duncan Watts, the latter of whom notes that it's the network, not the individual influencer, that makes a difference in how ideas are spread. Expect to see a focus on fewer and stronger relationships in our own networks and in influencer/media relations.

All Social Media is Local
This next trend is one that is relative to the above. The former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill once famously said "All politics is local," meaning that ultimately, people care most about what's going on in communities around them. Social media is no different.

When you follow the recent rise of location-based services like Foursquare or Tripit, it's clear that people want to connect with others by location, as well as share experiences and seek recommendations by those who are well informed. And whether that means connecting in the communities in which they live or those to which they travel, people will begin to use more of these kinds of services. As an adjunct to location-based social networks, expect location-based search to blossom as well.

Related: see Matt Singley's post on Why Foursquare is the next Social Network.

Silent E
If you're of a certain generation in America, you may recall The Adventures of Letterman, a varsity-sweater wearing superhero who rescued victims of alphabet assault-and-battery by the Spellbinder. As Letterman appeared, the voice-over noted that he was "Stronger that a silent E..."

In this case, the E is for email. Yes, email, that seemingly forgotten poor stepchild of social media, that gateway to the online space, that workhorse of digital media. Email is alive and well and living in everyone's inbox. According to ShareThis, 46% of people share content by email - larger than any other social platform. And StrongMail's Social Influence Benchmark Report shows nearly 37% share by email, with 21% sharing by embedded badges.

When you add to this the fact that many in the mainstream still don't know what an RSS feed is or how to use an RSS reader (or that they simply don't use one), it's clear that email subscriptions still rule the roost. Not to mention that email is ubiquitous. It's just generally accepted that everyone has an email address. Despite the hype of social media and social networks as the latest way to connect, every single platform has a common denominator: you need an email address to register.

Expect to see a renewed effort on email marketing, with a nod toward integrating with social media applications and campaigns. With a good content strategy, email is simply the vehicle best suited to share the content.

Related: Users Still Sharing by E-Mail (eMarketer)

Other Trends
While I won't go into as much detail in these, keep your eyes on the mobile space, on fuller integration of PR and marketing, and more focus on quality content in 2010. Overall, the space will begin to show some signs of maturation, and will begin a future trend of being integrated as a part of day-to-day business in many organizations.

Oh, last year I also predicted that social media gurus would continue to self-promote. I see no need to change that this year. ;-)

How about you - any predictions or trends that you'd care to share? Drop a comment in below.

You might want to check out these related posts as well:
Brian Solis says that Mobile is the Next Frontier for Brand Engagement.
Pete Cashmore predicts 10 Web trends to watch in 2010.

eMarketer Weighs in on 2010 Trends and compiles a 2010 Roundup of Predictions
Chris Brogan looks notes that 2010 Will See Consolidations and Fold-ups
Forrester predicts 2010: The Year Marketing Dies
Read Write Web tell us about 10 Ways Social Media Will Change in 2010
MediaPost says that 2010 Is the Year Social Media Gets Serious

Photo credit: Stefan

Global Social Network Figures

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:43:00 +0000

When any global company undertakes a social media strategy, there is an expectation that even company-wide initiatives will need to be customized for each region. Whether it's local customs, language or even the device on which the networks are accessed, it's vastly different all over the world. Facebook does not rule the world.

Not yet at least. ;-)

The growth of social networks globally is a sure thing. The question is, where are they growing and which networks are dominant in which markets? Last year, I shared some statistics. Naturally, things have changed.

Here are some interesting graphics, courtesy of Vinco's Blog, that tell the story on social networks around the world.

Here's a breakdown of top three social networks in the top 10 markets:

Is there anything you'd add? Are there social networks in your region that seem to be springing up? What's the next big thing that will spread beyond borders? Drop a comment below and let us know what you're thinking.

Ford's Got a Reason to Fiesta

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:05:00 +0000

Last week, I wrote about how Ford was so thankful to the Fiesta Agents who were in 100 of our vehicles as part of the Fiesta Movement, and how some of them began to show their thanks as they wrapped up their experience.

This week, it got even better.

On Tuesday evening, Ford hosted a tweetup in Hollywood at the famed Palladium, where we brought together more than 90% of the Fiesta Agents in person, their friends, and fans of the Fiesta Movement to celebrate the conclusion of 6 months of activity by these social influencers. It was a remarkable event - check it out on Current - featuring the band Parachute, a short awards ceremony hosted by Jake & Amir, mobile tweeting food vehicles (including the famed KogiBBQ and Coolhaus), and the first reveal of the 2011 Fiesta.

We even managed to score the World's Largest Tweetup according to Guinness World Records, which is now getting into the social media record-keeping business.

And when we were done with that, we brought all of the nearly 100 agents out on the floor of the Los Angeles Auto Show to help us unveil the new cars. You can check the video out on The Ford Story.

And Now, For Something Completely Different

We've completed the first phase of the Fiesta Movement. The numbers were great. But lost in a lot of that was the fact that the pool of 100+ drivers acted as something of a focus group for six months. The agents gave feedback to our design & engineering team so the North American version could be made with drivers like them in mind.

Not only that, but here's the cool part: they've been creating content nonstop for 6 months. And really good content too. So here we have the making for consumer generated media as the cornerstone for some of our early advertising for the 2011 Fiesta:

Now What?

Since the Fiesta won't be delivered until the spring of 2010, there are still a few months to go to continue the online buzz. But how will that happen now that the program is over? The good news is there's a Chapter 2 to this evolving story.

If you liked what you saw over the last six months, now you'll have the opportunity to get involved yourself and apply to be one of the 20 teams of two that will be part of the Fiesta Movement Chapter 2. Just head over to FiestaMovement.com and check out the rules.

And in the meantime, Ford will be continuing to nurture the relationships with the 100 or so agents who had to give their cars back. They'll be part of @FordFiestaAsk, which is being set up to answer questions from people who want to know about the car or the reservation process. You can see the "Real Answers" interface here or follow the hashtag #FiestaAsk.

And on the shopping site, we're giving people a chance to totally customize their car and get some pretty sweet features and a customer experience that are unmatched in this segment. Once your reservation is complete, you'll be able to share it on Twitter and Facebook to tell your friends about it - and show them the design you've chosen.

So that's where we are at this point. Lots of information, I know. But it's exciting stuff. And there's more to come.

Ford is Fiesta Movement's Big Winner

Crushing Doubts About Social Media Marketing

Ford Update: Automaker Launches Chapter 2 of 'Fiesta Movement'

On Giving Thanks

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:30:00 +0000

For those of us in the U.S., we have just celebrated Thanksgiving. It's a time of year when we gather with friends and loved ones to celebrate and give thanks for all that we have and all that we are.

I thought it was entirely appropriate then, to mention that the first segments of Ford's famed Fiesta Movement is coming to a close. And Ford has a lot to be thankful for. A bit of background, just in case you're not familiar with the program.

The Beginning of a Movement

First of all, why the term "movement"? The Brand & Content Alliance team that put this program together likened it to a social movement - which as defined by dictionary.com is a diffusely organized or heterogeneous group of people or organizations tending toward or favoring a generalized common goal. The collective awareness of and excitement around this new vehicle would be the goal.

In late 2008, Ford re-launched the Fiesta as an all-new vehicle in Europe. The name had been around for some 30 years, but the new Fiesta was to be something special indeed. This would Ford's first truly global platform car, which means that it will be nearly identical in any country you find it. Since the car was already available in Europe and would not launch in the U.S. until the spring of 2010, there was a unique opportunity at hand.

So, earlier this year, Ford announced that we would be making 100 Euro-spec Fiestas available to individuals or teams who proved they were socially vibrant and could take part in a 6-month long experiment, during which we would loan them a vehicle. The only requirement was that they would have to produce one video a month based on a theme (Travel, Technology, Style/Design, Social Activism, Adventure, Entertainment). Other than that, the Fiesta Agents (they received assignments, or "missions," from Mission Control) could say whatever they wanted about the vehicle. And we aggregated all of their content on fiestamovement.com - unedited, uncensored, in real time.

In addition to building buzz, we solicited feedback from the agents as to what they liked and didn't like about the vehicle. We shared that input directly with our engineering team and they were able to make a few tweaks to the North American version of the Fiesta before production was locked down.

Results
The program is just winding to a close, but the output has been impressive.

Of the 700 or so videos that the agents have produced, we've seen 6.5 million views on YouTube.
Their Flickr photos have been viewed more than 670,000 times
There have been over 3.4 million impressions of Fiesta Movement on Twitter.
Over 50,000 hand-raisers have indicated that they want more information about the vehicle as it goes on sale
97% of those 50,000 do not own Ford vehicles.
There is a 58% level of awareness of the Fiesta - for a vehicle that's not even available in this country yet, which is the equivalent of the awareness of some of our vehicles that have been in market for 2-3 years.
All with $0 in traditional advertising.

More information on the vehicle and the program can be found on Ford's Media site.

It's a Celebration

To help celebrate the success of our agents, Ford is throwing a little party - a fiesta of sorts, you might say - in Hollywood on Tuesday, December 1. We're hoping to make it the world's largest tweetup - and you're invited. Not only that, but as a community, we can work together to make the record a possibility. More on that in a moment.

The event will salute the agents - some 90% of whom will be in attendance - with awards. The band Parachute will perform and music will be spun by DJ Pesce, all while Current TV roams around, giving you a chance to be seen on television. Not to mention that the North American Ford Fiesta will be revealed for the first time. Add to that some celebrities, weblebrities and lots of interaction, and you've got a rockin' party.

Here's Where You Come In

We'd love to see you at the party. Here are the details:

Date: Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Time: 8:00 p.m.

Location: Hollywood Palladium, 6215 W. Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, CA (map)

You can RSVP on Eventbrite if you think you'll be in California next week. If not, please share the link with anyone in your network who might be in the area and encourage them to attend. There are a number of social networks built into Eventbrite, or you can tweet out something like this:

Ford Invites You To a Hollywood Fiesta! http://bit.ly/FiestaParty

We'd like to make sure we've got lots of people there who are connected to the program, the agents, or to our extended networks in some way. This is a great way to show the power of social media.

Giving Thanks

As I intoned in the opening paragraph, this time of year is about giving thanks and also about reflecting on what's happened in the past year. I'm reminded of Thornton Wilder's play "Our Town," in which the characters were reminded that it's important to stop and consider the little things in life. One of them lamented:

"It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another."

You can imagine that the Fiesta Agents, with their frenetic schedules over the last six months, have had little time to reflect. But already, even before the program is over, I've already seen a few of them stop to acknowledge how lucky they've been to be part of the program. Notably Hilary McHone (aka @BrooklynHilary) and Natasha Wescoat (@natasha). There may be others; these are the ones I recall seeing in a blur last week.

We have a lot to be thankful for at Ford this year. But that will be another post. Until then, I hope I'll be able to see you in Hollywood. If you can't be there, follow the #fiestamovement hashtag on Twitter on Tuesday night. It'll be a real fiesta.

Related article: Ford's Got a Reason to Fiesta

Enough Is Enough

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:07:00 +0000

The spam and other unsolicited DMs I've been getting on Twitter have finally gotten to me. And I'm going to be taking action.

A Bit of Background

You know the kind of direct messages I'm talking about, all with spammy links in them:

"Is this you on here?"

"I just gave you a High Five! Check it out"

"Hey, I got some free ringtones from here"

"Hey, can you take this quiz thingy?"

"I found out my IQ. You should too."

"I lost a bunch of weight doing this."

And many, many more.

Lots of the direct messages I get are of the automated sort when people first start following me. Having been someone who used to do that - mainly to let people know how I preferred to communicate - I can understand the need to do that. But what I've been seeing lately is out of control. It's gotten to the point where these disruptive DMs have crippled my ability to monitor and respond to legitimate direct messages. I'm spending more time deleting or ignoring messages, at the risk of missing messages from people I want to hear from.

Reciprocity

For a long time, I've believed that when someone follows me on Twitter, it's common courtesy to follow them back. What I have to say shouldn't be any more important than what anyone else has to say - that's one of the great features of social networks: true democracy at work. I realize that this isn't everyone's style, but it's been something I consciously chose to do.

A tool I've used pretty successfully to manage this (rather than eat up my time manually following people back) has been SocialOomph, which was previously known as TweetLater. It allows you to automatically follow (and unfollow) people back, among other nifty features.

But lately, my Twitter stream as well as my direct message inbox has been polluted with spammy posts. The recent addition of Twitter lists, which have allowed me to begin to categorize some of the people I follow, has been helpful - you can check mine out here - but I'm finding it's not enough.

No More

I've decided that from now on, I can no longer afford to follow people back automatically, so I'm suspending that feature from my SocialOomph account. If you wish to be followed by me, you'll have to request it and I'll have to ensure that what you're saying provides value to me.

In addition, I'm going to be unfollowing anyone who spams me with these Facebook-like apps that send automated direct messages or anyone who DMs or @s me their latest money-making schemes.

I haven't gotten to the point where I'm purging and rebuilding my Twitter followers, nor do I feel like I need to go that extreme thanks to the addition of lists, but if this level of spammy behavior keeps up, I may have to revisit that decision.

I suppose this is a natural extension of a service or platform going mainstream. But for those who use Twitter for more meaningful connections and communications, it's frustrating. I hope that Twitter management has a plan to try to minimize this.

Update: reader Andy Michaels notes that SocialOomph has an opt-out service that takes care of automated DMs.

Image credit: Chris Pirillo (Flickr)

When Worlds Collide

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:04:00 +0000

Well, it's finally here. Twitter and LinkedIn have decided to combine forces. This is pretty significant, and I know that it'll make it easier to share job opportunities and other more networking opportunities that are more professional in nature.

I won't bore you with all of the details, but you can now update your LinkedIn status via Twitter, and your Twitter status from LinkedIn. If you'd like to see how to go about it, check out the post on the LinkedIn blog.

One of the features I like best is how you can select which updates you want posted to LinkedIn - everything or just those posts tagged with #in.

In December of 2008, I predicted that Twitter would attain legitimacy in 2009. Aside from it being used by pretty much every major media outlet, not to mention a good number of celebrities, I think we're there. The fact that a site as grounded in the business world as LinkedIn would choose to align with Twitter is a huge nod to the 140 character service.

Of course, two things need to be considered as these seemingly different worlds come together:

1. If LinkedIn is the business meeting and Twitter is the cocktail party, we need to be very careful with the alcohol intake at work, so to speak. ;-)

2. Twitter has its own language - some of which can be very confusing to outsiders. As our updates cross into new territory, we need to be mindful of how our networks understand us. This tweet from Mandi Engram says it all:

So there you have it. Twitter. LinkedIn. Two great tastes that taste great together. Or something like that.

What do you think? Will you use this service?

Image credit: K e v i n (Flickr)

What's a Brand to Do?

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:03:00 +0000

Say you work for a brand. Customers have more access to you than ever - and you've got a wealth of choices as far as channels go: traditional marketing, online & interactive, gaming, mobile, social media, etc.

But for your customers that are interested in interacting online, what do you think they want from you? And what should you do when you connect with them? Look no further! eMarketer Daily has very helpfully published a piece on Lightspeed Research's "Global Web Index."

What do customer want from the brands they love? Information, mostly (well, after a good discount, anyway). Ultimately, they want value. They're not there to be "friends," or to get your time-wasting app - they want something that's relevant to them that helps push the relationship forward.

Something to think about when thinking about your online strategy.

Chart courtesy of eMarketer.

Posted via web from The Full Monty

Recent Twitter Statistics

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:50:00 +0000

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released some statistics about Twitter and other similar services that Americans use to post updates about themselves. The bottom line? About one in five Americans uses such a service.

Click here for a larger image.

Another interesting phenomenon is that we're seeing more young people using Twitter now. There have been anecdotal reports that young people were shying away from Twitter, but we can see the hard numbers here:

The median age for Twitter is now 31, while MySpace is down 26 from its previous 27 in May of 2008; and Facebook has risen significantly from 27 in May 2008 to 33 now.

There's a lot to digest in the study, but these are a few highlights that stood out. Anything interesting catch your eye? Please consider leaving a comment below.

Chart courtesy of MarketingCharts.

No Kidding

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:21:00 +0000

I originally wrote this over a year ago, but I think it deserves another go around, as there seem to be even more social media "experts" out there. Please add your suggestion to the comments section or on Twitter with the hashtag #smbulb and let's see how many responses we can get.

Stop me if you've heard this.

Yesterday, I asked a question on Twitter - one that Joseph Jaffe rhetorically asked on his blog - I posed it as a joke and asked for responses.

The question was: How many social media experts does it take to change a lightbulb? My original answer on Joe's blog was: "309. One to come up with the idea, three to turn it into a strategy, five to execute it, and 300 to influence someone else to do it."

Naturally, responses to my question were far better than my lame punchline. Here are some examples of what I received:

@mncahill: 14,465 to twitter about the need for "LightBulbCamp" and one to hire a developer to change it.

@scottaparks: None, it never gets changed. They are too busy looking for a better bulb!

@cohnjoyne: before I tell you how many soc media experts it takes to screw in a light bulb, full disclosure, GE is a client of mine

@adam_rosenberg: at least 10. that way you have 1 to change it and at least 9 to tweet about it.

@scottstead: A: 500, Chris Brogan to ask the question, 495 to respond, 3 to organize #changealightbulbweek08, 1 to change the lightbulb

@ScottWitsToo: 3. One to change bulb. Two to discuss how we could change light bulbs better if only we could talk ad nauseum about the process

@LewisG: At least two, so an argument over the ethics of monetization can occur.

@jtobin: A team of 6 will happily consult, but nobody actually wants to execute the light bulb change for you. :-)

And this one from @jeffglasson: 4, Mitch Joel to give 6 steps to open the package, Brogan to write a 100 blog post series on the process, L. Feldman to score the puppet adaptation, and CC Chapman to actually screw the lightbulb in and get the job done!

My favorite was from @dmscott: What's your budget?

Got a retort humorous? Let me know by leaving a comment, or share the joke with some friends.

Photo credit: zetson (Flickr)

Posted via web from The Full Monty

Why Apple & Google Win - and Your Company Doesn't

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:03:00 +0000

It's all about usability.

Common sense dictates that the easier something is to accomplish, the more readily it will be passed along. What information do you ask your customers to submit? And of that, which is really necessary? Less is more.

Courtesy of Stuff That Happens.

Posted via web from The Full Monty

Don't Waste My Time

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:19:00 +0000

I'm perfectly capable of wasting it myself.

According to a recent poll by Ruder Finn, 100% of the people on the Internet go online to pass the time. But what other activities do they say they primarily use it for?

For those of you interested in the social space, 92% want to connect with others, 76% wish to discuss, 72% aspire to be part of a community, and 56% desire to influence others, and 52% hope to activate support. Those are pretty strong numbers.

Especially when you compare them to the percentage of people who wish to manage finances, comparison shop or join a cause (all 30% or less). Hmm. I wonder if that means we'll have a generation of people who are too busy yapping with each other to pay attention to how they spend their money?

Unless they connect and discuss personal finances with others in an influential community. :-)

Chart source: eMarketer

Posted via web from The Full Monty

Recent Facebook Demographics

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:56:00 +0000

If you get a chance, check out the latest statistics from InsideFacebook.com. Please keep in mind that these are only number for the United States. But there are some things that stand out:

Looking at percentages, the highest growth rate is coming from the over-45 demographic:

While the absolute number of members is smaller in that group, the growth rate is fascinating to watch. I would imagine this will eventually slow, as we've seen with the younger demographic, until it normalizes. In anecdotal conversations, I'm finding that many people from this demographic are using Facebook to connect with high school and college friends (especially as we move into reunion time), stay in touch with children and grandchildren, and even begin to use it for some business networking purposes.

Another worthwhile graph from the post breaks down current U.S. users by age:

If you bundle up the groups, you'll find that the 35 and older crowd makes up 38% of Facebook's population here in the U.S. Pretty cool when you consider that Facebook started about five years ago as a college-based tool.

And finally, looking at gender, we find that - in every single segment - there are more female users than male users of Facebook:

While we know that overall women use social networks more than men, I wonder how many of us are using that knowledge to effectively feed our marketing and communications programs? Seems like there's a good opportunity there.

Do any of these data strike you differently? Can you draw any conclusions or make inferences that I've missed? Let me know.

Chart credit: InsideFacebook.com

Posted via web from The Full Monty

Fear and Loathing in Social Media

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 06:14:00 +0000

You would think at this point that we'd be up to curiosity or even playful experimentation.

But it seems that, according to the e-tailing group and PowerReviews' survey earlier this month that brands are still hesitant to entirely give over to the power of social media for fear of (what else?) loss of control of their brand and concerns about their competence. A secondary fear is that consumers might find social sites more engaging than the brands' sites, and therefore stop visiting the brands'

sites.

I may be oversimplifying this a bit, but if I were at a brand that was concerned customers might leave my site for a better site I might, oh, I don't know...maybe BUILD A MORE ENGAGING SITE?!?!?!

That's only a start. Another course is to engage with consumers where they want to be reached. When the surveyed companies state that their goals of using social media are: to increase engagement, build brand loyalty, and spur word of mouth. If that's the case, you don't get there by (a) ignoring where the rest of the world is going; or (b) burying your head in the sand in terms of these sites.

The good news is that half of the suggested activities/sites mentioned in the survey (Facebook page, Twitter, customer reviews, blogs and viral [sic] videos) are already accepted or used by more than half of the respondents. That's a great start, but there's more potential.

Before I make a recommendation, I'd like to review a crude approximation that I've been working on - it's how some brands and agencies approach social media with trepidation. Because it's not unlike how humans deal with grief, I've developed a similar model for marketers:

The 5 Stages of Social Media Grief

(With apologies to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.)

Denial - first stage of social media grief in which the marketer refuses to acknowledge the existence of social media. This was the case early on in the industry's development. Luckily, I don't think there are many companies left that think like this.
Common phrases: "It's just a kid's thing," or "It's just a fad."
Common behaviors: avoiding the Internet, putting hands over ears and singing "I can't heeeeeaaaarr yoooouuuuu. La la laaaaa."

Anger - In the second stage, jealousy and rage are misplaced and rage ensues.
Common phrases: "This is stupid," "I've got better things to do with my time."
Common behaviors: full-fledged slave to work email; increase in print or television media buy to show effectiveness and superiority.

Bargaining -Anger gives way to hope that incremental adoption of social media will be enough to make a difference.
Common phrases: "If we have a Facebook page, we should be covered," "Let's just create a blog," or "Let the agency figure it out."
Common behaviors: the use of social media only in time-limited campaigns; half-hearted efforts on a limited number of social sites.

Depression -The fourth stage manifests itself in an understanding that the inevitable cannot be delayed and the marketer becomes doleful.
Common phrases: "Twitter/Google/Facebook is taking over the world," or "We're overwhelmed with choices."
Common behaviors: moping; pacing; complaining to friends on Facebook.

Acceptance -With the final stage, the marketer finally realizes that social media is here to stay and begins to determine ways to integrate activities and craft strategies that are truly integrated.
Common phrases: "Let's craft a comprehensive social media strategy," or "Let's spend some time listening to what consumers are saying about us."
Common behaviors: integration of marketing and communications functions, determination of measurement goals, online and offline alignment from the beginning of projects.

As we know in dealing with emotional grief, you can't skip steps - you have to go through them. Some folks may be stubborn and may take a while, while others may be ahead of the curve and breeze through them quickly. [Aside: in 2004, when I heard Elisabeth Kubler-Ross died, my grieving went as follows: "No that can't be true. Curse you, Lord, no just God would take her from us. I wish she was back. Geez, life stinks. Oh, well, that's the circle of life."].

Now, in order to address those fears and to get on with the acceptance, why not start by aligning your social media activities with your business plan and your overall marketing and communications objectives? A second step would be to listen, listen and listen - get a sense as to what's being said about your brand and how people engage on these social platforms.

And then if you'd like to make a more engaging site for customers, consider integrating or aggregating content from third party social sites or services right there on your own web page. Give people a chance to find contextually relevant material from other sources on your site. We've done it on the Fiesta Movement site and we continue to do it in a variety of ways on The Ford Story.

The thinking there is that people will go out and search for other peoples' opinions on your products anyway. Why not give them something contextually relevant while they're on your site and provide value? It's an acknowledgment - dare I say acceptance? - that the world around us is changing.

Photo credit: tavopp on Flickr

Chart credit: eMarketer

Are You Really Satisfying Your Customers?

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:27:00 +0000

We all know that social media plays a part in customer service.

As business becomes more fierce, margins shrink and barriers to entry are almost nonexistent in some areas, the competitive advantage that many companies can leverage exists in an often-overlooked but absolutely essential part of the marketing team: customer service.

And for every new company that springs up to supply solutions to problems we didn't know we had, there are many companies that already exist and are competing in a commoditized market. "There is nothing new under the sun," the quote goes. And for those organizations, one of the accepted methods of differentiation is customer service. This itself isn't (or shouldn't be) news. Brian Solis and Valeria Maltoni both wrote that customer service is the new marketing a while back.

Examples abound

Because this is not a new concept, there are countless instances of companies stepping up their customer service efforts, particularly in the social media space. Here are a few to note:

Comcast is the shining example of customer service on Twitter, led primarily through the efforts of the head of their digital team, Frank Eliason (aka @comcastcares on Twitter).
Recently, Best Buy ran national TV spots promoting their Twelpforce - a legion of their "blue shirts" available to help people who submit questions for Best Buy via Twitter.
And Zappos bills themselves as "a customer service company" as they train every single employee on customer service and even have Twitter baked into their corporate site.
Get Satisfaction has become a place where consumers and industry alike monitor and comment on, in an effort for more transparent dialog.

Customers now expect an immediate answer online - something I see every day through the @Ford and @FordCustService accounts on Twitter.

Speed isn't everything

But a recent survey written up by Dave Dougherty and Ajay Murthy in the Harvard Business Review called What Service Customers Really Want demonstrates that speed isn't necessarily the answer. According to the survey,

Evidence shows that customers will no longer tolerate the rushed and inconvenient service that has become all too common. Instead, they are looking for a satisfying experience. Companies that provide it will win their loyalty.

The question is no longer how quickly can you provide customer service, but how effectively?

When people are crunched for time (as nearly all of us are these days), the experience you give them on their first effort to reach you had better be the way you want them to remember you. Because, like the old cliche "you never get a second chance to make a first impression," their primary expectations are (1) that your front line representatives to have answers, and (2) that their needs are addressed on the first call. And as the article indicates, those two categories aren't even on the measurement dashboard for most customer service entities - they're still measuring time on hold and minutes per call.

If anything, your customer service operation needs to be aligned not only with your marketing and communications organizations, but more importantly, with your customers. For customer service areas that simply field complaints and don't impact customer loyalty really aren't doing your organization any favors.

Photo credit: libraryman on Flickr

Social Media Books & Experts

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:48:00 +0000

One thing that has always puzzled me is the sheer number of books about social media. When your industry changes almost daily - not to mention that it's one rooted in the digital space - is it helpful to read (or write) books about it?

At the same time we've seen the rise of the social media "expert," we've seen a proliferation of books on the topic. From a business perspective, it's not surprising: it's a hot topic; everyone is trying to make sense of it; and people will cash in while they have the chance. But someone new to this space needs to be aware of who's the true leader and who is the charlatan.

Calling oneself an expert does not an expert make;

that label is usually granted by peers who recognize talent.

A good place to start as you try to figure this stuff out is to see who's following whom. While the social media space tends to be filled with a lot of people who are reciprocal in their follows, you can easily see who some of the stand-outs are. Check the blogrolls (links to other blogs) that are recommended by your favorite bloggers. See who pops as a thought leader. See who resonates with you.

Another way is to see how many of them have written a book. There's a great list of the Top 100 Best Social Media Books Ever (well at least as of the writing of that particular blog post) that I can recommend. But again, that's quite a list. And some of the newer books don't appear on it.

Here are six of the latest titles by people whom I respect, with links to their blogs:

Chris Brogan, Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust. Chris is a prolific writer, cranking out multiple posts a day, all while running New Media Labs and tweeting until his fingers are raw. There's a lot of common sense in his work. And his book is all about trust. I trust Chris and can recommend his work highly.

Shel Israel, Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods. Shel has been in the communications field for a long time. But his insights are as fresh as ever. He co-authored Naked Conversations with Robert Scoble and his latest book is all about Twitter. Fair warning: it's longer than 140 characters.

Mitch Joel, Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone. Mitch is a super smart guy who has been chronicling the development of the online vs. offline world for quite some time. His blog and podcast are always thoughtful and inspirational. And he's one of the four bald guys who seem to haunt the new marketing world, yet whom we never see all in one place at one time. Weird, I know.

David Meerman Scott, World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories. David is probably one of the best public speakers I know. But his talents don't stop at the spoken word. He clearly demonstrates his ideas with case studies - and ones that aren't expected. After reading his stuff, you'll rave too.

Seth Godin, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. If you don't know Seth Godin, you should. Or perhaps I should say, you will. He has rocketed every one of his books to the top of the charts in creative and innovative ways. His blog is filled with observations about Marketing and marketing - by that I mean the craft as well as daily thoughts about how companies and individuals can differentiate themselves. And yes, he's one of those bald guys.

Gary Vaynerchuk, Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion. Say it with me: VAY-ner-chuk! Gary is a force of nature. Host of the amazing Wine Library TV, Gary has amassed a mini empire on his way to eventually owning the New York Jets. His keynotes and speeches are filled with the fire that comes straight from his belly, and his book will no doubt inspire the same level of commitment that his appearances do.

If anything, the takeaway from these authors is: if you want

a successful book, make sure you've got a colon in the title. ;-)

Feel free to click around and check out their writing in whichever format appeals to you. And pass along those that resonate with you. Share them with you coworkers, your boss, your friends. Have you got other reading recommendations? I'd love to hear from you in the comment section below.

Amazon.com Widgets

Photo credit: Patrick Gage (Flickr)

Panel Picker Pentathlon

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:31:00 +0000

One of the great features of the South by Southwest Interactive conference (that's SXSWi to you) is the plethora of panels and speakers there are to hear from. In many cases, you have to make hard choices because of an embarrassment of riches, so to speak.

If you've never gone to SXSW, I strongly recommend it, whether you're learning about social media or you're a representative for your company in the field. You'll meet plenty of other talented and like-minded individuals, you'll see new technology debuted (it's where Twitter first made a big splash), and you'll be able to hear some industry thought leaders. Not to mention you'll have a chance to keep Austin weird. If you can only attend one social media conference a year, make it this one.

Each year, the organizers of SXSW open it up to us plebs to select which panels we'd most like to see. Never one to say no, I've been asked by five different individuals to be part of their panels. Here they are. Feel free to vote for (or against) as many as you like.

#youFAIL: Respond or Die in Social Media - featuring Planet Hollywood and Miramax Films, moderated by Kirk Skodis
Social Networking for Dealers: Cultivate Relationships First - moderated by Mary Butler from Razorfish
Virtual Experience vs. Advertising to Change Brand Perception - with ABC and Qik, moderated by Tom Martin
Building Social Strategies at Fortune 100 Companies - a who's-who of brands, from SAP to Microsoft, Nationwide Insurance to IBM and Dell and moderated by Jim Storer
Can You Tame the Twitter Beast? These Brands Think So - Jesse Engle, CEO of CoTweet moderates this panel that inclues Whole Foods, Sports Illustrated and Starbucks.

But be kind. I'd like a chance to see some panels as well. ;-) And while you're at it, take a look around the Interactive Panel Picker and select some others. There are plenty to choose from.

Photo credit: The Laughing Squid (Flickr)

Posted via web from The Full Monty

Are We There Yet?

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:49:00 +0000

Not quite, it would seem.

While we in business are seeing some advances from companies that are learning how to become more transparent, it's clear that the scientific community is stuck in the relative Dark Ages. Case in point: check out this guide on How To Publish a Scientific Comment in 1 2 3 Easy Steps (embedded below).

It would be funny if it weren't tragic.

I suppose it's a chance for those of us who understand and operate in the realm of online communications and social media to be thankful that we embrace instantaneous commenting and direct access to authors. That we co-create instead of hoard. That we can request assistance and get dozens of replies from people willing to collaborate for the sake of solving a problem or helping a colleague. That's precisely how open source software has allowed us to advance farther faster. iPhone app, anyone?

What if the scientific community were more collaborative (and I'm speaking about the publications here, not institutions themselves)? Or at the very least, collegial? What if journals and scientific publications held their authors to such high standards that they required more open disclosure of data, processes, and errors? Wouldn't that be something that we could all benefit from? The process below stands to illustrate the old thinking of self-promotion, fiefdoms, and jealously guarded secrets.

There must be a better way.

How to Publish a Scientific Comment in 1 2 3 Easy Steps

Posted via web from The Full Monty

Photo credit: Wolfgang Staudt

You Want Me to WHAT?

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:18:00 +0000

If you were asked to give up your social networking activity, what would you rather give up?

It's an interesting scenario. Given a choice between social media activity and something else - and don't think that time isn't coming - what do you think you would give up before you left your favorite social network?

That's the very question that was put to 711 female internet users in the U.S. and Canada by ShesConnected Multimedia. What do you think they said? Have you selected your priorities yet? I'll give you a moment before launching into the survey results.

Ready? Good. Here's what the online cohort said:

More than one-third (36%, to be exact) would sooner give up chocolate, their Pradas, or their mothers-in-law before they gave up social networking.
But only half would be willing to pay a subscription fee for those site.

It's amazing to think the limits we'll go to for social networking. Pradas are expensive, I

get that. Mothers-in-law are...well, that's personal, isn't it? But giving up chocolate? C'mon, people!

As to the fee, it seems that most women - 92%, in fact - would be comfortable with an ad-supported model on the socnets. But only 22% would be approve of their data being sold to advertisers, and just 28% are okay with a subscription-based model.

Chart courtesy of MarketingCharts.com

The post popular activities in which they partake online are:

Viewing video
Reading blogs
Posting photos
Writing in blogs
Posting comments

And some interesting additional data points about the respondents:

More than two-thirds (67%) of survey respondents belong to three social networks, while 48% belong to four or more.
The adoption of social networks by older women is especially strong. Women ages 50+ comprised the largest age group in the core user survey.
More than one-third report they are in business for themselves
Respondents spend a significant amount of time online each day, with 49% reporting they spend 1 - 2 hours per day for personal use and 48% reporting they spend five or more hours per day online for work.
83% of respondents have 50 or more connections or friends.
56% have started at least one group and have joined an average of two to five groups. Nearly one in three (29%) belong to 10 or more groups.

Pay attention to these ladies. There's clearly a lot of potential here.

That is, unless you take away their chocolate.

BTW, at Ford we recently asked women what they wanted in their cars. You'd be surprised at their reactions, which you can see by clicking here.

Photo credit: Wiedmaier

Say It Like You Mean It

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:54:00 +0000

I get a lot of unsolicited email. People looking for information, people with interview requests, people who are selling things. I try to be generous with my time, but it's the last group I don't have patience for.

Let me tell you why.

If I'm trying to make a good impression and I only have a limited amount of space or time to do so, I would think it's important to have my act together. While I certainly understand and can forgive nervousness or lack of polish, when I come across sloppy errors or blatant incompetence, it's the delete file for you. I have a very limited amount of time and I need to focus meeting goals. I'll give you an example of something that put me over the edge.

An email arrived in my inbox with the subject: Targeted Emailing List

I thought: "Okay, I'm not directly responsible for email marketing, but this might be interesting for some related reason."

I was quickly disavowed of that notion when I read the body of the email, which began:

Dear Customer: [emphasis not even added - they were dumb enough to make it bold]

We are a list compiler and a dominant player in the List Business Industry with over 40 Million B2B contacts and 200 Million B2C contacts. We have all varieties of business records that come with complete contact details including working business email addresses.

Aside from the annoyance of being called "Customer," (which I'm not), the very service they're selling is "complete contact details" of 200 million contacts. I guess I didn't make it into the database.

If you're going to convince someone of your ability, please be sure you've demonstrated it effectively. Physician, heal thyself.

Have you had any similar experiences?

Photo credit: detritus

A Year @Ford - Part 1

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:09:00 +0000

Today marks exactly one year since I joined Ford Motor Company to head up social media efforts. You'd be surprised at how much has happened in such a short period of time.

The last year has marked some of the most turbulent not only in our economy overall, but in the entire history of the global automotive market. Since last December alone, we've witnessed bankruptcies filed, quarterly and annual losses not seen in decades (if ever), and emergency government support of some of our most iconic brands.

And I decided to move my family to Michigan just before it all began. Exciting times, huh?

I've written occasionally here about my Ford experiences, wanting to keep this blog as wide-ranging as possible for my readers. But more than a few people have asked to hear a little more about some of our activities. I thought my one year anniversary was the appropriate time to reflect on what's happened during that time.

This is the first part of a multi-part series - and it's rather long. I beg your indulgence.

The Beginning
I announced my intention to join Ford a little over a year ago. In re-reading that post, I notice that I spent time thinking about what I was leaving behind rather than what was in front of me, which in retrospect (do you sense the irony?) didn't really give much of an impression of what lay before me. The job opportunity with Ford was pretty exciting - running social media for a Fortune 10 company and an American and global icon. Enough to get any social media strategist excited, right? Well, the notion of moving to Detroit didn't really sit well with me (chalk it up to an East coast elitism) and I wasn't totally convinced.

It wasn't until I started doing my research and understanding where the company was headed that I started seriously considering it. After all, the company turned a profit in April 2008 - a year ahead of Alan Mulally's plan to turn the company profitable, and based on the product lineup I saw, this wasn't the Ford that I assumed I knew. Cool designs, interiors that rivaled foreign brands, hybrid technology, and an engine in the works that would boost fuel efficiency across almost the whole fleet - not to mention a commitment to being leaders in digital communications - this is the Ford I discovered. And when I paid a visit to the company, every person I met - every person - was intelligent, dedicated and passionate about Ford.

In short, my perceptions were the only thing holding me back - something that Detroit and Ford experience on a daily basis. And - now that I've lived here for a year - I can say my long-held perceptions were incorrect.

Early Progress
Typically when a leader assumes a new role, he or she is judged based on how much they accomplish in the first 30, 60, or 90 days. And I knew that our lofty goal at Ford - to be become a leader in digital communications in four years and to become the world's leading social automotive brand - was one that would require a lot of teamwork. So, I quickly set out to meet as many people as I could, understand the processes in place, and start to work on our social media strategy.

I should mention that in addition to my social media responsibilities (my title is officially Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager), I also manage a team of people who are responsible for our TV & radio broadcast coverage, as well as our digital publishing team that maintains our Media site, among others. These teams really do a great job in keeping Ford in the spotlight. [I should note that I lost the only social media person on my team last August and still haven't replaced her - that's about to be rectified.]

Some of the assets that we had at our disposal early on included:

Ford's Social Media Press Releases (SMPR) - our social media agency - aptly named the Social Media Group - created 15 separate SMPRs dedicated to corporate and product issues, updated regularly, built on WordPress with RSS feeds, fed by Flickr photos and YouTube videos.
A Flickr channel - one in which we used a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution 2.0 Generic license, meaning that our photos are free to be used as long as we're attributed and they're not used for a profit-making venture.
A YouTube channel, mostly used for b-roll, but creating content that generally wasn't available elsewhere.

The early results were impressive: SMPR material used in over 5,000 posts and articles, Flickr photos viewed over 120,000 times, and over 500 subscribers on the YouTube channel with over 1.2 million views of 140 videos.

Expanding the Activity / Strategy Development
While we were fine-tuning the strategy (and I had a pretty good instinct as to what it was going to look like), we expanded our presence: we developed a number of Twitter feeds (@Ford, @FordDriveGreen, @FordMustang, @FordCustService, to name a few), we got more active on Facebook, and we interacted on blogs. These activities were intentional, for I knew as an outsider to the industry that Ford didn't have a face to the general public and we needed to begin humanizing the company by getting faces out from behind the Blue Oval. I went so far as to leverage my own personal brand - not because it was convenient, but because I believed so firmly in the direction of the company, and because that's the network I had build up before I came to Ford. It seemed natural to extend it.

Twitter made a lot of sense for Ford because it did a number of things for the company: it showed that we were listening; we were able to have 1:1 communication with consumers - but also in the very public setting that Twitter provides (i.e., everyone else is watching it happen); and it showed that Ford understood social media and was hip & cool.

As we developed the strategy, we spoke to people around the company, from managers to senior executives, in offices from all over the world. In the end, we realized we had to have a strategy that was flexible enough to:

Allow us to speak to customers, employees, retirees, dealers, enthusiasts, shareholders;
Apply to whatever department within the organization would like to use social media (HR, communications, IT, marketing, product development, customer service, etc.);
Change according to the regional differences in social media adoption and technology saturation.

Ultimately, Ford's social media strategy looked something like this:

Humanizing the company by connecting Ford employees with our stakeholders, allowing them to connect with each other when appropriate, and providing value in the process.

At about the same time that we created the strategy, the company was engaged in the hearings in Washington - not to ask for funding ourselves (Ford had wisely borrowed against its own assets some two years earlier) but to support the industry. We quickly found out that we were lumped in with our crosstown rivals, despite our intentions. I spent day and night defending our position on blogs, forums and on Twitter, until I finally created a post of my own to help the cause. We realized that a scattershot and one-off approach wasn't sustainable; a better solution had to be created.

The Ford Story
So, in a massive flurry of activity and cross-departmental coordination, in the five days over Thanksgiving weekend, we created The Ford Story. It was a huge win for us, as it demonstrated the One Ford mission that drives the company, and it got a lot of coverage and attention for its design and good content. We wanted to ensure that we were true to our strategy, so we led with faces on every page - our executives speaking unscripted and plainly (albeit staged) about what Ford stood for. And because we had a number of documents to share - our comprehensive plan, a number of fact sheets - we decided to use an innovative site called Scribd for document sharing. And because we built it on WordPress, it resulted in an easy to understand and robust site that can be easily changed over time.

Since we seemed to be enjoying more media attention than before, I decided to have a little fun at an event I was attending with Alan Mulally. On a whim, I got a few moments of his time and took live questions via Twitter. However, just to show you that it's important to stay focused on what matters and to not get overly optimistic, during that time there was a little digital crisis communications effort that we had to deal with. I've covered that before - you can check it out here.

One bright spot, though: at the end of 2008, according to Vitrue's ranking of the 100 Most Social Brands, Ford managed to snag the #12 spot - the highest rank of any automaker on the list. It was safe to say that we were on our way.

Stay tuned for Part 2, in which I'll talk about some pitfalls along the way, our 2009 progress to date, as well as plans for the future.

Is there anything so far that I didn't cover you'd like to know?

Special thanks to: Maggie Fox, John Bell, Leona Hobbs, Kaitlyn Wilkins, the entire Communications and Marketing teams at Ford, Aaron Strout (for spurring this post on), Phil Johnson for his cheerleading and for setting me free, Joseph Jaffe for his inspiration, and C.C. Chapman for his friendship, as well as the following people who were kind enough to acknowledge my anniversary today:
@prblog, @nadhiyamali, @cloudspark, @elliotschimel, @eileen53, @clairecelsi, @PingTweets, @ChrisCree, @AdeleMcAlear, @nmalin, @DougMeacham, @HotLabRescue, @Gvision1, @bschestnutt, @KelByrd, vcspenn, @BiOH4ALLjk, @woodlandalyssa, @SandyspringFord, @KellyeCrane, @LionelAtDell, @LindaJacobson, vpfanderson, @tamaratam, @bigguyd, @MikeDriehorst, @Girlfriendology, @tvdeegan, @paullyoung, @jlicciardi, @sgetgood, @TdRamsey, @Jen_Harvey, @Military_Mom, @theartofimpact, @billgilliam, @Tiggr, @BryanPerson, @russu, @DanaSingleton, @JulieeSmith, @robgt2, @ayat, @chatterboxapp, @KyleRohde, @jak2rocks, @FordThunder, @DIRTFORGE, @MustangMatters, @Jericles, @CMajor, @gradontripp, @BethHarte, @Armano, @tomob, @eperry, @defcon_5, @DutchieDude, @ischafer, @stlfordguy, @kbuczko, @GeekMommy, @rhappe, @Stealx, @JonBurg, @acowboyswife, @DJLitten

You - and many others like you - make a difference every day. Thank you for being part of what inspires me.

Photo credit: Ford Motor Company (Flickr)

Facebook Age Demographics

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:49:00 +0000

"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety"

- Antony & Cleopatra, Act II, Scene 2.

It's pretty easy to fall into the trap of assuming that Facebook is a young person's game; after all, it was created by a college student and was only available to individuals with .edu email addresses originally. But ever since it opened to the general public in late 2006, the age demographic has been expanding.

According to a report in March of 2009, Inside Facebook noted that there were more Facebook users 26-44 than 18-25 today. And in a separate report, they also noted that Facebook is seeing massive increases in adoption among users 35-65. In fact, the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is still women over 55.

Fast forward to today - looking at the 70 million-plus users from the U.S. on Facebook - and you've got a remarkable statistic: over one-third of Facebook's users are over the age of 35. And about half of that group is in the 45+ age range.

Personally, I can attest to the number of people who are using it for reconnecting with old high school and college friends. I've heard from my fair share of people from times long past. [Side note: it's kind of ironic that Facebook is somewhat returning to its college roots.]

I would imagine that the older demographic is also using it somewhat for work purposes; I'd be interested in seeing a breakdown of data on how each age group uses the tool - what percent for work, what percent for personal, and which use it for both. I have a strong suspicion that there'd be a spike in the third category.

Of the recent growth, some of it is attributable to more activity from parents, relatively speaking, since the kids are home from college. It will be interesting to see if that level of activity is just a summer anamoly or if it continues.

What do you think of these numbers? Any surprises here for you?

Talk About Transparency!

wsmonty@gmail.com (Scott Monty) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:02:00 +0000

When you've flown, how many times have you ignored the safety instructions? We've all heard the same boring routine over and over, and let's face it - if you don't know how to fasten a seatbelt, you probably shouldn't be flying alone.

Air New Zealand has done something to ensure they'll have your attention: they've made a safety video where the flight attendants are wearing nothing but body paint. See if you pay attention to the entire announcement now.

That's what Seth Godin would call remarkable. How is your company being remarkable - and most importantly - making it easy for people to remark about it? Air New Zealand could have kept their video locked up on their planes, but they put it on YouTube. Why? It's not like people need to watch an airline safety video at their desk. But people do have the power to tell everyone they know about this cool airline and what it's doing.

And that's how great content is spread.

Posted via web from The Full Monty