Filed under: Abraham Harrison LLC, Business 2.0, Business Intelligence, Cluetrain Manifesto, Collaborative Intelligence, Corporate Blog, Corporate Partnering, Customer Ratings, Customer Reviews, Customer Service, Information Technology, Internet Applications, Internet Culture, Internet Strategy, Jonathan Trenn, Managing Conversation, Market Research, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Markets are Conversations, Messaging Online, Metrics, New Media Strategy, Social Meda, Web 2.0

Most of think of social media through our marketing lens eyes. As we should. That’s likely its greatest use. But the reality is that social media encompasses so much. Or more importantly, it will soon touch on most internal business operations.

That’s why I wrote that latest post. We seem, in our attempts to define it, to be actually inadvertently limiting it. Much of our call-to-change, if implemented, could result in ineffective disjointed efforts that lead to disappointment and even failure.

I just read a great report from Aberdeen Research, Customer 2.0: The Business Implications of Social Media. Aberdeen determined from its research that there were three levels of adoption, Best in Class (20%) are those organizations whose practices are significantly superior to the industry standard, resulting in more successful implementation. Industry Average (50%) are exactly that. Average adaptation, average performance. Laggards (30%) suffer from poor performance because of lower than average adaptation of social media. Both Industry Average and Laggards are divided between companies that are looking to improve their standing and those that are apparently satisfied with their status quo or lack the vision to improve.

From the report I’m garnering several trends that are impacting levels of success… Read more…

No Comments » Posted on August 2nd, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

Filed under: Abraham Harrison LLC, Authenticity, Brand, Brand Advocacy, Brand Promotion, Branded Entertainment, Branding, Branding Online, Conversation Marketing, Internet Strategy, New Media Marketing, Online Brand Promotion, Online Branding, Social Meda, Social Media Marketing, Social Media PR, Viral Advertising, Viral Marketing, YouTube, YouTube Marketing

I’m going to go against the orthodoxy of my fellow social media practitioners. I’m going to commit heresy. I’m going upset the apple cart of the proverbial echo chamber.

The new 2008 version of Where the Hell is Matt YouTube video isn’t going to live up to it’s intended purpose. It will be something that many of us will talk about, blog about, pontificate about. Then it will go away.

Here’s the video if you haven’t watched it:

The reason this campaign will not live up to hype is because it is a direct example as to how social media fails to act as a promotional vehicle. Viral, yes. Promotional, not so much. Sure, some aspects of it may make us feel good…but so what? The object of marketing is to enhance a brand, sustain longterm sales growth, and create profit. I doubt this will really do a great deal for much of the above.Sure, it may result in sales increases for the sponsoring company, Stride Gum. But that’s only if sales right now are very low. They’ll get some good press. But unless they piggyback on it in a couple of months, it will be a social media version of a one hint wonder.We’ll all love the concept. We’ll be inspired by it. The sense of this one guy dancing away throughout the world with citizens of all these countries. We’ll be amazed.

But that’s it.

Read more…

10 Comments » Posted on July 14th, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

Filed under: Aggregation, Blowback, Brand Promotion, Brand Protection, Case Studies, Citizen Generated Media, Content Filtering, Content Management Solution, Content Management System, Controversial Marketing, Copyright Issue, Copywriting, Corporate Responsibility, Crisis Management, Google, Google YouTube, Honesty, Information Technology, Integrity, Intellectual Property, Internet Culture, Internet Strategy, Legal Issues, New Media Strategy, New Technology, Online Brand Protection, Peer-to-Peer, Technology, Television, Video Over IP, Viral Advertising, Viral Marketing, Viral Media, Viral Propagation, Viral Videos, Web Strategy, YouTube, YouTube Marketing

The current legal battle between Viacom and Google/YouTube is going to have significant ramifications beyond today’s headlines.  It’s getting surprisingly little play amongst much of the social media digerati, but it’s something we all need to be aware of.

The lawsuit and the proceedings around it are truly a sign of the times.  It’s a direct outgrowth of what we’ve been emerging via the internet over the past several years.  Sites such as YouTube have essentially become free communicative vehicles to not only view, but  share and alter video productions of all types.  The concept of “share” is important because most of us use it.  But in reality, it is a nice way of saying “distribute”.  And from distribute comes distribution - a fundamental with tremendous legal ramifications.

Alter is a tough one too.  The “mash-ups” that many in social media and digital marketing talk of enthusiastically can be as problematic.  As, I guess, it should be.  At least in some cases.  An artist creates an original piece of work.  Then distributes it, usually netting some sort of financial gain.  Others take it, and now because of new tools can alter it and redistribute it.  Many times this new process leads to lost potential revenue for the original artist. Read more…

2 Comments » Posted on July 11th, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

Filed under: Abraham Harrison, Abraham Harrison LLC, Abraham Harrison Staff, Activating Bloggers, Ad Budgets, Advertising, Andy Sernovitz, Asset Distribution, Blog Messaging, Blog Strategy, Blogger Engagement, Blogger Influence, Blogger Outreach, Blogger Relations, Blogger Response, Brand Advocacy, Brand Ambassador, Brand Promotion, Branding, Branding Online, Consumer Generated Media, Conversation Marketing, Crisis Management, Direct Marketing, I Will Not Be Broken, Influencer Identification, Influencers, Influencial Bloggers, Internet Strategy, Jerry White, Marketing Conversation, New Marketing, Online Advertising, Online Advocacy, Online Avertising, Online Brand Promotion, Online Branding, Online Communications, Online Conversation, Online Influence, Online Marketing, Online Messaging, Online Outreach, Online Public Relations, Promotional Strategy, Public Relations

Andy Sernovitz’s blog’s name says it all, and definitely reflects my response to reading this: Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That!, especially in his post Instant Word of Mouth for Restaurants. From our experience doing blogger outreach and blogger gift-giving, this is on-the-money advice you should all consider (Via Chris Abraham — Because the Medium is the Message):

Read more…

No Comments » Posted on June 3rd, 2008 by Chris Abraham

Filed under: Blog Counter-Messaging, Blog Messaging, Blog Policies, Blog Strategy, Blogger Ethics, Blogger Influence, Blogger Outreach, Blogger Relations, Blogging, Blogging Policies, Blowback, Brand Protection, Brand Reputation, Controversial Marketing, Corporate Blog, Corporate Blogging, Corporate Responsibility, Defensive SEO, Honesty, Internet Strategy, Legal Issues, Online Attack, Online Brand Intelligence, Online Brand Protection, Online Brand Reputation, Online Communications, Online Outreach, Online Reputation, Online Reputation Management, Online Strategy, PR Blogging, PR Industry, PR Pitching, Public Relations, Public Relations Blogs, Public Relations Industry

I’ll be taking a look at Southwest’s overall response to the report that they had been flying “unairworthy” planes. This controversy relates to missed or overlooked inspections, small or tiny cracks, a thumbs up by a FAA inspector, and a short period of continued flying violations after the problem was identified.

As usual, in cases like this, the story is hard to follow. That always seems to create initial hysteria and then allows to potential offending party to spin the story to their benefit, often leaving out key concepts.

It seems that in 2004, the FAA issued a ruling that all 737 airplanes must be inspected every 4,500 flights. These inspections were primarily concerned about cracking, a condition which that can lead to very dangerous situations.

On March 15, 2007, Southwest let the FAA that it may have allowed 46 planes to exceed that number of flights as decided by the FAA. Southwest then did and internal investigation and found that, yes, those 46 planes did indeed exceed that limit by a total of 59.791 flights. They reported back this information to the FAA on March 19. However, after disclosing this information to the FAA, they continued to fly those planes for four more days to March 23 for an additional 1,451 flights.

At some point within that March 15-23 time period, an FAA official gave Southwest the thumbs up to continue to fly the planes as long as they were quickly inspected. That official, now being disciplined, is supposedly based out of Dallas, which coincidentally, is where Southwest Airlines is headquartered.

For this transgression, the FAA is proposing a $10.2 million fine.

That’s the story as I see it so far. I’ll be examinging their response as time goes on.

Next, I’ll be taking a look at the way they’re corresponding through their blog.

That’s the story as I see it so far.

No Comments » Posted on March 8th, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

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