Social Media Success Takes Forever

Typical marketing campaigns can last from days to years. My shortest campaign was 5 days. A Super Bowl commercial may only run once.

Social Media is a different animal. Social Media should not be treated as a campaign but as a relationship. To make a relationship successful requires constant work (ask my wife). Social Media is an ongoing relationship between people, brands, etc. Engaging in short term campaigns typical of traditional and online marketing is like a sandwich board promoter, standing on the street shouting out tag lines and sales prices. An attention getter for sure but will you buy what they sell? Will you remember the brand?

Engaging in a long term Social Media strategy has obvious perks. For a decade I’ve been building micro-sites, splash pages, ad banners for companies.  They spend fortunes on these short bursts of marketing. Imagine if they didn’t have to build a new channel from scratch? A few years ago I was talking to a small PC gaming company whose products targeted women. Their games followed a continuous set of characters. I recommended setting each character and the group in general up each with their own Social Media presence. The idea was to keep communication going between characters and with fans. This would allow a small community to build up around the franchise, a robust and loyal channel for marketing. Rather than building new promotions for each new game, the company could spend months seeding game info through characters, even kicking off the game with a pre-story or augmenting it with side-stories. Between games the channel could be a little less active then ramping up as it got closer to product launch time.

Needless to say, they didn’t follow the strategy and still only dabble in Social Media, but at least they’re trying now. The idea of achieving success through short campaigns in Social Media is the opposite of what SoMe is all about. Take your time and commit to building your community and keep the conversation going because with Social Media, commitment and conversation is what it’s all about.

Image by antydiluvian

Why Best Practices Are Not

I hear the terms “best practices” and “think-outside-the-box” quite a bit, from colleagues, to vendors, to clients. The problem is, even thought I hear them in the same sentence, they are exact opposites. “Best practices” is a set of standard to be applied to any scenario, in other words: a cookie cutter solution, or an off-the-rack suit. Outside-the-box thinking is a new solution not based on existing standards, a custom suit. While I often find that clients and vendors say “outside-the-box”, they don’t really mean it, they mean something clever that is still very much in-the-box. I get it. I don’t blame them, an economy like the current one isn’t exactly a fertile place for people to take risks.

“Best practices” is a bit more disturbing. The term is being used as a value proposition or a differentiator more and more. The problem is that the world has changed. Social media has changed it. I’m not talking about Twitter and Facebook, or any of the technological aspects of social media, I’m talking about users. How a consumer interacts with a brand or vendor has changed, not just online, but in every facet of their lives. Consumers want communications on their terms. Users won’t just watch your commercial and go to your stored to make their purchase. They’ll Google for reviews, they compare prices, they’ll tweet for feedback, they jump to another brand because they had a better mobile site or switch stores because they got a coupon in the mail that day. People understand the power of the Internet and understand that they can get personalized attention. That understanding has led them to be more critical of customer service not just online or by phone but in brick and mortar stores.

How do you stand by “best practices” when there is so much diversity in the abilities, needs, and desires of your audience? How do you do it when your brand is not like other brands? I read a recent blog on “best practices” that claimed the optimal screen size for a web site’s design should be 1024×768. Well, my mother’s computer would only support 800×600, my go to web browser is 320×356. So, which is  the standard? The fact is, none are. Lazy developers, designers, and marketers like to fall back on “best practices” so they don’t have to do the work of getting to know their audience, or to avoid developing multiple options for different audiences. This blog is set up for 1024×768 as well as 320×356. That’s because I know my audience has a fairly new computer (2-3 years old) or a mobile device.

This is just an example of the problem with “best practices” from a technical web design standpoint, now think about social media. Twitter has alot of trouble telling us how many active users they have. Some access Twitter via www.twitter.com, others through any number of third party sites, desktop and mobile apps, and some through SMS. If this creates a nightmare of technical issues, think about the millions that use Twitter, their interests, their lifestyle, their content, their intentions, their networks. Think about the idea of transparency. That’s a big buzz word among social media experts. It is claimed to be one of the tenants of social media best practices. I just had a lengthy discussion (lengthy for Twitter anyway) with another Boston social media strategist about content of social media. He claimed that venting publicly about your insecurities was a sure way to lose business. In that respect, transparency is not a best practice, clearly you should not be transparent about your insecurities. But as another user commented, this is hypocritical. The originator of the comment claimed that it was fine for Twitter but not for a corporate blog (though Senator McCain would probably disagree with transparency on Twitter being okay). Even just in this one opinion there are significant differences in what is considered best practices on Twitter and best practices on a blog. However, if you’ve found that being honest and open is actually goof for business, how does best practices apply? It doesn’t.

The fact is that everyone is becoming a marketer, if not for their business, then for themselves. And everyone is a consumer, even businesses. Each has to define it’s own strategy according to it’s audience, goals, mission statement, desires, etc. What works for some on Twitter doesn’t work for others on Twitter. Your Facebook widget isn’t going to work on QZone. What feels comfortable for some individuals and brands in social media, doesn’t sit well with others. A soft-sell marketing strategy works for some industries but not others.

So, take your “best practices” and put them back “in-the-box” where they belong because some times you DO have to reinvent the wheel.

Update: Internet Users Update 100% More

The recent study released by Pew Internet & Family Life project shows that Internet users that use Twitter, Facebook status and other status services is up 100% since April. 19% of Internet users are telling us what they’re doing, constantly. Approximately 87% of Americans are Internet users (I say approximately as 3 different studies gave me 3 different percentages).

It’s obvious that status updates are becoming increasingly pervasive. Facebook recently revamped their home page design to accommodate more immediate feeds and Twitter continues to grow. Status broadcast news has seen an explosion on Twitter, from consumers posting hot news items like the January Hudson River plane landing to live updates from Fox, CNN, etc. This last bit is important. The most immediate news has always been via radio and TV. As celestial radio station listener numbers shrink, it’s value as a news source has as well. Television continues to dominate news, except for those Americans that still have jobs. No one brings their 52″ LCD to work, yet. This means that the American workforce can receive the latest news via Twitter or Facebook through their work computer, even their phones.

Introducing this value to users, as well as major pushes from Oprah and Ellen has increased Twitter usage dramatically. A recent estimate by eMarketer expects there to be 26 million Twitter users by 2010.

Download the Pew Internet & Life Project study here.

Tweetdeck Goes Mobile

I‘ve been a big fan of the Tweetdeck desktop application for Mac for awhile now. It’s a RAM hog, but what power tool isn’t. It has become my default Twitter tool for personal and client accounts, for engagement, monitoring, and research. On iPhone I’ve been favoring Tweetie. I’ve long argued that a marriage if their functionality would be perfect. The key feature being multiple accounts. I’m currently managing a half dozen personal and client accounts.

The release of Tweetdeck for iPhone last night may change all that. From what I can see so far the app has all if the functionality if the desktop version, with a few proprietary iPhone features such as shake to change columns.

The app is free in the iTunes store at the moment. Here are some screenshots of the UI:

Brand Permanence

Brand Permanence is an important strategy that many companies tend to forget, especially when changes in the advertising industry, consumer behavior and world economy are on all of their minds. Companies may change their identity, not just what their logo looks like (Pepsi), but what their company is all about (Dunkin’ Donuts’ paninis). Many companies are adopting new business models and communications tactics in the wake of the socialization of the web (web2.0). Many are significantly pulling back on their marketing efforts during the economic crisis. Not all of this is good.

What is Brand Permanence? It is a simple matter of staying true to who you are as a brand and staying relevant and present in consumers’ lives.

Obviously, pulling back on marketing may seem smart from a purely numbers perspective, but once your brand leaves the collective conscience, your competitors fill the space. The precedent for this couldn’t be anymore clear. Not to say that brands shouldn’t be looking at ways to reduce costs, just that they shouldn’t axe their marketing, stick their head inthe sand, and hope that things will go back to the way they are.

Customer loyalty is hard enough to come by without muddling your brand. Both Pepsi and Tropicana (owned by Pepsico) have recently changed their logos, the later of which was recently rturned to the original once it was found that it confused customers in stores. When a consumer thinks of your brand, they think about your logo, your product history, your customer service. If they aren’t consistant, neither will your customer loyalty be. Coke’s logo was created in 1885, Pepsi’s was created in 1898. Since the late 1800’s the Pepsi logo has changed 11 times. Coke’s logo has never changed. Guess which is considered the #1 carbonated beverage?

It would seem strange that a product with a logo designed by a bookkeeper in 1885 would still appeal to the youth of today, but that was the original intent of the Coke logo and it’s simpe red and white scheme. Apple computers has had, essentially, the same logo since 1976, the bitten apple. While the color scheme and stylized treatment has changed slightly, the essential, simple, bitten apple has remained the logo for the company for over 30 years. But it isn’t just Apple’s logo which has remained consistent. Apple’s commitment to building better digital products to enhance users lives. From the first bulky desktop to the latest version of the iPhone, this committment to enhancing customers’ lives through electronic devices has remained intact as has their committment to customer service.

These last two points are the most important: staying true to your core product or service values and customer service. BMW and Mercedes Benz have long been considered consumer favorites and maintain Top 10 slots as European brands. BMWs 1917 logo design remains, as does Mercedes Benz’ 1909 logo design. But their consitency as quality engineered luxury vehicles is what helps them dominate mindhsare.

New England born Dunkin’ Donuts has been a favorite of coffee drinkers since I’ve been alive. They have remain loyal to their original logo, but recently havee been trying to compete with Starbucks and Panera. From all accounts (I don’t drink coffee), adding paninis to their menu and fireplaces to their stores, has only made their coffee worse, and their donuts stale. So, despite arguements to the contrary, Dunkin’ Donuts has muddled their brand permanence by changing their core values.

In 30 years Microsoft has made one change to their logo, but at times has been confused by it’s core values and faltered in customer service. That has helped Apple, take a bit out of Microsoft’s mindshare. Google, who, in just over 10 years has only removed an exclamation from their logo, but has consistently improved their product and brought more services under the auspice of providing users with easy to use access to outside data. We’ll see how they and Microsoft stat true to their core values, honor their brand, maintain customer service, and stay visible over the coming decades.

While most of the brands mentioned will weather these debacles, if only because they’ve been around so long, they offer lessons to new businesses. Your branding, at least the part you control (the perception of your brand belongs to the user), isn’t something to slap together. Really focus on your values as a company, create a mark that will represent your goals and identity, be consistent with how you interact with your audience, and always maintain good customer service.

Give Your Customers What They Want

While work continues on Gathr.me, I spend alot of time thinking about what users, my customers, will want out of the product. I often blatantly ask, sometimes I just listen. My goal is to develop a product that my users will love. There has been alot of talk among the partners about the need for a desktop version of Gathr.me. Sure, beyond the web and mobile versions, a desktop version seems less important, but it will be important to the users who want a desktop version. That is why we are building Gathr.me in such a way as to accommodate any current platform and device, as well as trying to imagine future ways in which people will want to interface with us.

To make my life easier (or to keep me working everywhere), I’ve been looking at netbooks. Since I’m unemployed, pricing is a huge consideration or I’d just buy a MacBook Pro. Instead, these $2-400 netbooks will fill the gap and allow me to work without being chained to my desk. Of course, I’ve already researched which I can hack and load the Mac OS onto the easiest. Sounds extreme huh? To buy a perfectly good computer, whipe out the Windows OS and replace it with the Mac one? Not if you’ve used the Mac OS, or all your other devices are Mac. But this isn’t the point. The point is, that because Mac doesn’t make a netbook, and I can’t afford their laptops, I’m going to put in the extra work to create a Macenstein of my own. From my research I’ve found this to be a VERY large community. Which begs the question, why isn’t Mac making a netbook? Mac has said they don’t want to play in this space, because it is immature and the current product offerings suck. Odd, I don’t remember their being alot of great mp3 players before the iPod. Sure there were some, but they all kinda sucked. So why isn’t Apple giving their customers what they want? Maybe they just don’t know them well enough?

Speaking of which: I’ve thought for a long time that brands need to get to know their customers better. Social Media provides a great opportunity for this. My car manufacturer, sends me a notice every time I need to check something on my car. But retailers I use, like Target, iTunes, Home Depot, Borders, have ramped up their emails to sell me stuff. Don’t they know I’m unemployed? Facebook, MySpace and other social networks I belong to beat me over the head with singles ads, despite the fact that I’ve been with the same woman for 10 years. Do they know something I don’t, or do they just not know anything?

Even smaller groups targeting me don’t know me well. Today I got my ubiquitous email from Chris Brogan. He is one of a handful of blogs I am subscribed to. Oddly, this email was a subscription drive. If I’m already subscribed, after all, h has my email, why would he need to push me to subscribe? I’m assuming this is some kind of technical glitch, after all, he’s a pretty savvy web2.0 kinda guy.

All of these cases represent the same issue: not giving customers what they want, or giving them what they don’t want or need. This is usually caused by demographics, shallow research, or basing your business model on the “average customer”, not all of your customers. It’s obvious that brands, large or small, need to look at their customers, get to know them better, and deliver products, solutions and communications that they’re asking for.

90 Minutes to #BostonBeamUp, Twitter Why Are You Down

With one of the biggest events in geekdom about to take place, it’s odd that Twitter would choose now to do maintenance. I’d expect that the smart folks at Twitter would know enough to not schedule downtime on a Friday night, never mind the night of the premier of Star Trek. Of course the outage may not be planned, but a glitch. That would of course mean a FAIL WHALE. this time we get the planned outage Ice Cream telling us to chill out.

Focus Groups Are a Waste of Time

I’m sure I’ll get some old-school marketers to vehemantly deny the truth of this fact, but focus groups are a waste of time. To be more specific, if you’re looking for honest feedback, or real world testing, don’t waste your time and sandwiches on focus groups. If you’re looking to cover your ass with your client, water down your campaign, turn your product into a toy, make deli runs, play with a video camera, by all means: assemble your group.

There are reasons why focus groups are a waste of time:

Real World It’s Not – unless your product is meant to be used in a conference room by overly critical office workers who probably have no interest in it, a focus group is far from a real world consumer/product interaction.

Group Dynamics – anyone who has taken a sociology or psychology class knows that when you put someone in a strange environment with strangers, they will not be themselves. Some will clam up, play stupid, some will try to dominate the group, even say the opposite of what they think. You will see hyper-critical feedback, even negative solely based on the fact that they’ve been asked to judge.

Inappropriate Audience – if Steve Jobs had sat down a group of people to steer development of the iPod, we’d still be using a discman. Chances are that most focus groups do not represent your target audience. Even if they do, they may dislike your product simply because they’ve never seen it or their cool friends don’t gave one. Focus groups don’t take into account influencers.

Education – if you are good at what you do; experienced, talented, skilled, educated: why do you need a roomful of people that have nothing to do for lunch telling you how to redesign your product or reshoot your commercial?

Crowdsourcing – the Internet will give you much more honest feedback, in quantity. Launch your campaign or product, see what people are saying about it and how they are using it, then build that into version 2.

Examples of focus group decisions:
New Tropicana packaging
New Pepsi logo

Examples of not using focus groups:
Twitter
iPod

Thoughts?

Nielson: Shift in User Behavior on the Web

According to a recent article, Nielson say the number of U.S. consumers who frequent online video destinations has climbed 339% since 2003, while time spent on video sites has shot up almost 2,000% over the same period. In the last year alone, unique viewers of online video grew 10%, while the number of streams grew 41%, the streams per user grew 27%, and the total minutes engaged with online video grew 71%.

Meanwhile, there are 87% more online social media users now than in 2003, with 883% more time devoted to those sites. In the last year alone, time spent on social networking sites has surged 73%, while in February, social network usage exceeded Web-based e-mail usage for the first time.

On How Many Sites Do You Upload or Download Media Files?

A recent study shows that images are the most often shared digital files and podcasts are the least shared. It got me thinking, how many different sites do people interact with to upload or download media files. These files can include but are not limited to images, videos, audio, blogs, documents (such as Google Docs,  SlideShare, resumes), etc.

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