Twitter is like a cocktail party. Everyone is wearing badges stating their opinions. You can interact with whoever you please. You can stand in a giant circle of similar interests. You can branch off and start your own conversation. You can look smart on Twitter, you can look stupid on Twitter. You just have to take advantage of Twitter.

“Relationships are the non-measurable event,” says Chris Brogan in his latest post about how measuring success using social media isn’t always as straightforward as we would hope. Right you are Mr. Brogan and here are my biggest takeaways from your article. The piece in its entirety, is definitely worth a gander. Especially if you’re a fan of salty, dried sausage…

The best salespeople keep relationships “warm” or relevant. Keeping up with influencers and networking on social media is EASIER, so you should do it MORE. You should know exactly what your colleagues and peers are up to, what they promote, what their interests are. Then you can be the guiding light to up-and-coming businesses and professionals as you know exactly who’s who and what they’re doing with their lives. This is the biggest inspiration for co-op advertising and marketing– finding relationships that make sense. Know the local purveyor of the best wine you’ve ever tried in your life? Surely he or she would love to be put in contact with chocolate companies, with pasta companies, with olive companies, with travel companies. Symbiotic relationships that reach the right people. Brogan makes the excellent point that he frequently doesn’t need anything from the who’s-who of social media. It’s the difference between having a relationship, and valuing it.

Yes, in business, metrics are important. If you try and introduce a social media heavy marketing scheme to a client, he or she will wonder how Twitter will impact revenue. So don’t forget about it. Weigh equally the hard numbers and the “soft value” which will ultimately open more avenues.

Related articles

• Measuring Social Media ROI: 3 Things to Consider (socialmaximizer.com)
• How should law firms measure the ROI on social media? Relationships (kevin.lexblog.com)
• How to Create a Jaw Dropping Social Media Strategy in 5 Steps (quicksprout.com)
• Law firm social media success is being measured like a video game (kevin.lexblog.com)
• What is social media marketing? (marketing.yell.com)

Lisa Gerber and the folks at SpinSucks have uncovered the secret to our obsession with social media. It was an epic journey and there may have been some casualties, but I think its worth the risk to share their finding with you–

competition.

Example: Foursquare, what’s its appeal? I mean sure we relish the idea of building online communities and discovering new locations in our cities, but really it’s all about the badges. Who gets to a place first. A technological race. Gerber was able to enjoy the insights of the folks at BlogWorldEast where they tackled the theory behind “Gamification.”

Gamification is the act of applying the things that make games interesting to non-game activities.

Game mechanics can both increase loyalty and influence customers. I’ve taken Seth Preibatsch’s (gaming ninja extraordinaire) four categories of these dynamics and tweaked them slightly:

1) Competition: Just like other users in an online gaming world, your competition is what drives you to do better.
2) Incentive: Foursquare offers the best example of a “physical” incentive with its badges, but more and more social media and marketing sites are ready to reward you for going the extra distance whether this means advancing your html code on your site or improving your profile on Linkedin. (Hey, that percentage gauge on the right side of the screen can push you to achieve that extra 5%!)
3) Progression: If you’re able to track your progress with followers or increased sales/loyalty, you’re improving your ROI– the ultimate goal of any marketing firm.
4) Prize: I like to think of the prize as that dangling donut in front of a stairmaster. It will always be there. You will never be done finessing your marketing technique, but assume that that donut will keep growing with every milestone that you achieve. Either that or the stairmaster gets a lot slower…

Seth does a great Ted talk video that’s WELL worth the length if you have the time:

You have to think about the behavior you are trying to drive. Decide what the story is that you want to tell. Think about the game mechanics you want to employ to accomplish both of these things.

Gerber reiterates that it’s not enough to make a game. It’s not an be-all, end-all to create a game to increase loyalty. If you want brand loyalty, create a quality product. Remember the speed that digital media continues to improve with. Implement a gamification method with the ability to expand it, tapping into even bigger and better things.

As digital engagement spreads from the web (Facebook, Twitter, websites) to smart phones and tablets, apps have become a critical factor to gain user attention by providing a function, service or information. It’s more than the icing on these devices that we buy and use. With the smartphone/tablet dimension, apps are embedded into the user experience landscape as serious, useful and fun additions to their device. Often the availability of the apps to improve the function of the devices from phones to tablets and the variety of apps available make the choice of host product purchase a real effort in research prior to purchase.
(Article first published in abbreviated presentation as Tech Talk: Create Your Own App in About 60 Minutes with Appsbar.com – for Free!! on Blogcritics.org)

There are a few key few issues concerning the app marketplace. First is the exclusivity of an app to a particular platform. Often your favorite iPhone app is not available on Android or Windows or tablet platforms. Cost is an issue. While there are a number of apps in the free to three dollar range, there are apps with premium prices ranging from five to twenty dollars. The third issue is that perhaps the app or function you want or need is not currently available or doesn’t function in the way you need. I heard of a woman who wanted a “mirror” app so that she could see what she looked like on the fly– but she couldn’t figure out where to find that app.

Should you be so entrepreneurial as to want to create an app, you have a few choices. If you were smart enough to get into IT when in college or are taking classes for that, you know where you can make extra bucks — creating apps on the side. If you are a “geek freak”, you could dig into this as a DIY project and buy the books to create an app yourself. Or if you are like the rest of us (especially moi), you could hire a programmer and find out what it will cost. The price tag– even on the bargain end can be about $3000. Most of the pro apps cost about $10,000 and can cost up to $100,000 or more depending on the sophistication of the app. The time frame for app development can range from six weeks to three months. Until now, these were the only options you had.

The apps paradigm has shifted courtesy of Appsbar.com, an open-to-all-ages website that offers members the ability to quickly and easily build an app for a specific platform with lots of bells and whistles in about 30-60 minutes– and it’s free! Plus once you create the app, it’s funneled to the Apple, Android or Windows markets for others to download. It’s a win-win proposition. In a little more than 2 weeks since the site launched, eleven thousand apps have been created.

Appsbar.com is a new website that allows anyone of almost any age to build their own app on a variety of platforms including iPhone, Android and Windows and also get them into their respective markets. The “digital engagement” that appsbar.com provides allows you — as the user– to create the app for anything or everything you want– depending on how much time and creativity you bring to the table. Generally speaking, if you are thinking about a relatively simple app to build, it could be done in about 30 minutes. The more complex you want to make it, the longer it will take– 60 minutes is about the baseline. However if you get really creative and want the veritable kitchen sink, it could take longer.

Here’s what the site (and their press release) says you can create on an appsbar app
•Event Notifier – which delivers real-time or scheduled notifications to app users.
•Menu – allows creating of catalog of products or services.
•Form Builder – which can be used for customer service surveys, a restaurant to-go order, or answers to questions asked through the app.
•Social Interaction – adds the ability to share content within an app across social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
•Soundboard – lets users create a unique “app ringtone” by uploading any sound which can play when a user shakes or taps their mobile device.
In addition, appsbar can also handle RSS, photos and videos like other similar services

This isn’t just for play boys and girls. This is serious business masquerading behind a fun game-like wizard that will be blowing away the competition in a very short time. As the community grows, watch what happens as the members connect, communicate and collaborate. It’s bound to create something exponentially better than anything out there. This isn’t just for consumers only– bloggers. brands, companies can create their own apps for micro-consumer engagement. There are a wealth of uses for this application wizard.

I was able to snag an interview with CEO/founder Scott Hirsch to talk about this new site and honestly- to ask a lot of questions because appsbar.com is as big a shift in paradigm in the app world as iPhone was to cell phones. Flat out truth, appsbar is on its’ way to changing the perspective of the marketplace and how apps are created and how much the public wants to be involved in the creation. So far there has been little public involvement until now because the public had no way to get involved in the interface of building an app. Hirsch and company have remedied that situation.

How?
1) it’s free
2) they created a very simple wizard to walk you through the building process so that anyone from 18 to 70+ can create their own app.
3) the collective imagination of the appsbar user community is creating new processes for and ways to create apps and the appsbar team is learning from that collective imagination just how to integrate or improve upon what the users have created or asked for to facilitate the building of the most customized app around at the phenomenal price of free plus your own time.

I had the opportunity to interview CEO Scott Hirsch about Appsbar.com and ask a slew of questions about the site– and app development; questions about funding, advertising and how long the site will remain free. The podcast provides answers to all these questions.

I tried the Appsbar.com wizard to create an Android app for my blog. The app creation wizard is easy to use and it’s a lot more fun than a Zynga game. Pick your platform and get started. Do realize that after you complete the first version of your app, you will want to upgrade it as you figure out all the options that you can add to the app and how to make sure that it integrates with your goal.

The community of members can share information and also ask for additional features (coupons, discounting capacity) and the Appsbar.com team will start working on it. While it’s taken me a little longer than the hour, it’s because I kept changing the visuals, the essential app is easily done in 60 minutes or less and I took longer because as I saw the options come up, I was playing with the integration of those options into the app. In other words, I was throwing the kitchen sink into the app and it was definitely fun. Check out the site www.appsbar.com

Thank you to Scott Hirsch of Appsbar.com and Joe McGurk/ Rubenstein PR for facilitating this interview which literally was done in 3 days.

Thanks to Chris Abraham & MarketingConversation.com too.

Stevie Wilson,
LA-Story.com

Marketers consider a lot of things in their battlefield. They also need to make use of weapons and tools that can give them the upper hand or at least follow the trends. Hard work, the right materials, and tools will spell success for every one. One of the most used tools of modern marketing is social media. Yes, SOCIAL MEDIA.

What do marketers need? S.O.C.I.A.L. M.E.D.I.A.

S-Share

Marketers should share the news that their product, service or organization exists. They also need to share the good things consumers or customers can achieve once they do business with them.

O-Offer

You, as a marketer should not offer everything to the consumers, but offer them the best of what you have and offer them.

C-Create a Community

Utilize social media in building a community that will pay attention to your brand. A community that will be your advocate, a community that will carry you around.

I-Interact

Once you build a community, you should maintain interaction inside it. No one will stay in a ghost town in real life, so no one will stick to anything if they cannot get anything out of it or there is nothing happening in it.

A-Analyze

Analysis is so crucial to the plan. A good analysis will tell you what you should do, how much, who will you target, just about every question can be answered by analyzed data.

L-Listen

You should listen to the community you built because you want to hear them, to know them more and understand them, to know what they need and what they want.

M-Manage

Everything needs to be managed. You don’t want your brand get lost into the wilds.

E-Execute

You should execute your plans very carefully, but stay active. Maintain activities and keep your business going.

D-Dedicate

Dedicate your time, effort and yourself. Success is never an overnight affair. You should be ready for the hardest and meanest things possible, and overcome them.

I-Indulge

You should make sure that you indulge your community and bring them into your brand deeper, so they won’t have second thoughts and look for another brand that can give them more satisfaction.

A-Advertise

Advertise once in a while. Let them know that you mean business and not only friendship. But be moderate at advertising.

SOCIAL MEDIA, if implemented wisely, will contribute to your success BIG time.

In marketing your customers should be your treasures. Without them why on earth do you exist? They will be the determining factor of whether you are doing right in your marketing plan or you’re driving the wrong way.

Giving the best to the customers is the first law in doing business with them. Building a relationship with them is another. Lastly, the purchase doesn’t end the connection between the business and the consumers, continue to give support to the customers.

Jeanne Hopkins lists “The 10 Commandments of Customer Support” :

1. Listen – Listening is the first step to understanding. Everyone calling support has a problem to report. If you don’t listen, you’ll never find out the customer’s problem. Some customers can be frustrated and want to know that their pain is being heard. Allow them to vent, understand their frustration and let them know you heard what they said. After the emotions subside they’ll be in a more receptive mood for advice.

2. Teach – Knowledge is power. Teaching our customers how to solve their own problem empowers them, and gives them a sense of control. Our goal is to help people transform their own marketing. We help even the smallest businesses take control of their website and their marketing efforts. Teach them how to edit their own website, and instead of a frustrated customer, you put them on the path to control of their own marketing destiny.

3. Pay Attention – Multitasking is great for productivity, but never forget that the customer you’re dealing with is your top priority. If you miss the details of a problem, and the customer needs to repeat themselves, they will feel ignored. Listening (see Commandment #1) isn’t just about hearing what they say, it’s hearing all of what they have to say.

4. Ask the Right Questions – Getting to the bottom of the problem requires some digging. Sometimes a customer will work themselves down a difficult path and only call about a solution for the immediate problem they see. Find out what their larger goal is, and you can often make their life easier. They may say they’re trying to add a single line to a table today, but what they really need is a format to display their content in an easy to edit layout. Get a big picture view of the issue and a more comprehensive solution can present itself.

5. Don’t Interrupt – We’re here to help customers on their timetable, don’t rush a customer.

6. Apologize – Even if it’s not your fault, apologizing and taking ownership of a problem is one of the fastest ways to defuse an emotional situation. You don’t have to assume responsibility to truly apologize. Saying you’re sorry the screw-up occurred doesn’t mean it’s your fault, it says how you feel about what happened.

7. Focus On Solutions, Not On Blame – HubSpot lives and dies as one team. Never blame another department, instead focus on finding a solution that will work.

8. Put Yourself In Their Shoes – Get to know the customer’s business. Sometimes looking at the problem from a different angle will reveal a solution. Find out how the customer uses our products and their process might reveal a solution or new idea. Think about how visitors to their site flow through the pages and how that process can be streamlined. Get to know the customer’s business. Our customers are all different. Finding the right solution to their problem starts with knowing their business processes, and how they can work best with our systems.

9. Treat Free Product Users As Customers – They’ve already found our product, their first phone call could be our only chance to show them how good the support is that comes with our software.

10. Laugh, Smile and Have Fun – When appropriate, have fun with the customer. If they’re smiling when they hang up, you’ve done a good job.

We each enter social media marketing with a goal. The goals may be different in nature or in definition, but they all share the same points, why? We are all marketers and we all share the same point of view. In a post in 1 Good Reason – Social Marketing entitled “The Goal of Social Marketing” :

The Goal of all social marketing is simple:

To identify advocates in social media, engage and build relationships with them, and enable them to spread your message virally.

This principle is in my mind immutable for any social marketing effort. It’s the reason we are involved in social media for business. And it doesn’t matter if your business is personal branding, small business branding or corporate messaging for the largest companies in the world. All of us who are marketing in social media have this same simple goal.

All too often we forget about engaging and building relationships and we get caught up in the finding new people to follow race. As many pointed out two weeks ago when I wrote 9 Point Social Social Media Expert, it’s not about the numbers. It’s about whether we have real relationships with people. Do they find our content, our information, and our connections with them valuable? Or do we simply feed them uninteresting, lines that are all about me, me, me?

So just for today, why don’t you concentrate on building the relationships you have in your network. Strengthen them, by reaching out to people who you’ve not connected with recently and reconnect. Find some people in your network who you aren’t familiar with and strive to learn more about them. Go read their blogs, or Facebook pages and learn more about what they do and what they are interested in. This will lead you to a stronger network which will be much more valuable for you.

I do agree that it is not important how many millions see your advertisements, but what matters is how many of those people pay attention to you and follow you. It is how many people will value you and your product because you have a connection and a relationship with them.

In doing business, and in marketing you should build a beautiful relationship with your customers as you would want to build a wonderful one with a partner in life. There are a lot of factors to consider when trying to be committed to your consumers. According to “3 Tips to Help Customers Fall in Love With You” by Paul Williams :

1. Be patient. You can’t rush or force yourself on your customer.
2. Be understanding. Make sure you understand their needs, what she is looking for. Then meet those needs … Better yet—exceed them!
3. Be accepting. If you’re getting the signal that she’s not interested, accept it, and move on.

These are the tips he gave to ensure a long lasting relationship with your customers.

“You cannot please anybody”, so it’s true that you can’t really possibly make your customers fall in love with you, but these are some guidelines so that they wouldn’t hate you. Just be true to your product and to the customer, because there is loyalty and trust are the most important thing than making them love you.

In marketing you should make a stand for your product, services, strategy and principles. You should not just try to please everyone which is impossible in the first place. Just be honest and true to who you are and let the consumers choose, you may get a lot of haters but you will also know who really liked you because they really need you and share the same point of view, these are your loyal customers. According to Ray Edwards in his post “Stand for Something” he states:

You need to stand for something that matters. In today’s cluttered marketing environment, standing for something is the only way you’re ever going to stand out.

Most people (and companies) are afraid to say what they stand for-because they don’t want to upset anyone. Forget about that. When you stand for something, you can count on someone being upset with you. That’s good-it means they were able to figure out what you stand for.

Now let me be clear: I’m not saying you should purposefully anger people. I’m just saying that if you’re being authentic to who you really are, you will inevitably have a polarizing effect on people. Don’t be afraid of that; embrace it. It’s what will bond you to your best customers. And those are the people you serve, so it’s good for you to let them know you’re standing there, right alongside them.

Nobody wants fake entities. So make yourself heard and be clear to what you wanted the consumers to know–the real you.

I love playing and watching basketball and as I watch I observe the key points and factors affecting the outcome of the game. As I was analyzing the points of a particular game, I realized that some of it can be applied to marketing and business. It’s not that it’s like a game but the values needed are applicable to both.

Here are the marketing strategies that I have learned in a basketball game:

1. Have a game plan. You don’t want to go to a game without realizing your goals and strategies. Same with marketing, you don’t want to be lost or confused when you begin and in the middle of the industry. Having a game plan gives you something to focus on come game time and helps you feel somehow relax. Now you have something to work on and the next thing you need is…
2. Follow your game plan. What is the essence of the plan if you will not stick to it? By following the plan you drew you will be able to dictate the pace of the game itself.
3. Read the defense. You should learn how to read your opponents’ strategy too. You should have different “plays” prepared in your plan suitable for different defense formation.
   You have competitors in marketing as well. You should be paying attention to what they are doing and how they execute, legally of course, because you need to…

4. Avoid unnecessary fouls. Fouls can ruin your momentum and can give your opponents an upper hand in the game. Same as with marketing you seek to play by the rules and stay in the game, after all fouls can get you out of the game so be careful.
5. It’s a team game.You should always remember that you have your teammates to back you up or carry you through the game, so be a good support or know when to pass the ball.
   When the economy begin to be so demanding and you feel the pressure pressing on you, you have your coworkers and the whole company to help you through the adversities, so return the favor, be a good team player.
6. Go ahead and make the shot. If you know and you feel that you can shoot and make the ball go in, do not hesitate, go for it! It’s always safe to pick the high percentage shots. If there is a decision you have to make when it comes to marketing, go for it if you feel that it has a high rate of success, if you miss, it can always bounce back in or be ready for the rebound so get back and play again, don’t be afraid to take the risks, they may pay off.

These are some basketball lessons that can somehow be applied to marketing. If these are executed well together with passion and other components, they can surely help you win the game.

I believe that the most important thing in basketball should be placed in mind when you enter the marketing business. That is, HAVE A GOOD GAME. Whether you win or lose, if you had a superb game you won already in a way. You never know, a lot of fans and consumers often seek for quality.

Social media is a new platform for communication, marketing, and advertisement. But the world of social media is much larger than most marketers are aware of. The growth and the power of online communities is changing the consumer market to be user-generated, with new ways for companies to actively engage their customer. When implemented correctly, social media marketing can be extremely beneficial.

Liana “Li” Evans is an expert in social media and search marketing and author of Social Media Marketing- Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media. In this brand new, ultimate how-to guide to social media, Li looks deeper into the social media realm and provides everything you need to know to develop (or improve) a successful social media strategy.

Li introduces the book with her insight on social media: “I believe that social media is changing the way that companies need to interact with both their audiences and customers by listening and directly engaging with them.”

Li has created an informative framework for social media marketing, including examples of notorious cases of social media success and failure, which made it a fun and interesting read. Below are some words of advice that I have summarized from Li’s book that are important when crafting a social media-marketing plan.

Understand Your Market
All companies are different; so keep in mind that your audience could be different from the audience of your competitors. A common mistake made when crafting a social media strategy for your company is not knowing your audience. It is so important to understand your market, because all of the effort put into crafting a plan and engaging in conversation will go to waste if you’re not reaching the right people. So often will companies attempt to reach out to customers via Twitter or Facebook because they are popular uses of social media. Li presented an example on page 153 about Pizza Hut’s announcement that they were hiring a “Twittern” to reach college students through Twitter. Their clever attempt to enter the social media world was not a successful one because they did not thoroughly research their market. Evidently, the majority of Pizza Hut customers (and college students) are more active on Facebook, not Twitter. So their “Twittern” would have been engaging with the wrong people. It is so important to know your target market and understand how they consume data. How do you learn about your target market? Research. Explore the social media world. Read the conversations that people are having. Guaranteed you will find your proper audience. There are so many online communities with people communicating and sharing information with one another. Join them!

Be Real
Bloggers and others that belong to these online communities are very passionate about whatever they are talking about. Of course they are talking about it during their free time and it is their hobby! They are willing to talk to just about anybody who joins. Mind you, it is very easy to join a conversation but also very easy to get kicked out. Don’t make it obvious that you are trying to market your product, expand your business, gain more Facebook friends, etc. Don’t jump right in and ask them to “like” you business page or follow you on Twitter. Approaching it this way is offensive and will easily get you shunned from the community. Instead, be real. Join the conversation and don’t say right away that you are working for a PR agency and here is a press release that you think everyone should post on his or her blog. This will take you nowhere.

Participate
The more active you are in online communities, the more they will trust you and not mistake you for some marketing robot. Be patient and build relationships to gain their trust. Because once they do, word-of-mouth marketing is a very powerful thing. Especially in a world where TV advertisements are ignored by fast-forwarding commercials, and people are now going on blogs and searches for ratings and customer reviews. People don’t like to be marketed to. They want the honest truth.

But be careful not to get carried away with disguising your marketing strategy. In chapter 23 called Be Transparent: Trust and Readership Must Be Earned, Li talks about the notorious case of Walmart fooling the public with its social media campaign. “Walmart and its PR company, Edelman, launched a blog called “Wal-Marting Across America,” which was suppose to tell the story of a couple who traveled across America in their RV staying in Walmart parking lots” (Li, 185). In reality, the two people were the sister of an Edelman employee and her boyfriend. Everyone found out about their attempt to trick the public as a part of their social media strategy.

Embrace the Negative
Companies are often reluctant to get involved in social media marketing because of the fear of negative talk and the inability to control what people are saying. Thinking that you can prevent negative things being said about your company by avoiding them is a huge mistake. Li states that “In today’s world of online reviews, blog posts, and picture sharing, the conversation about your company is still going on, whether or not you are actively involved” (Li, 67). People will talk about you with or without you there, so instead or avoiding, try participating and handling it with style. Here is an example of a conversation on Twitter that demonstrates how a company turned negative feedback into positive buzz (Li, 36).

Your company, like BrasseriePavil, can use instances like this for constructive criticism. Monitoring and engaging in the conversation gives you a chance to mend the situation and change someone’s negative opinion to a positive one! And if you still haven’t satisfied your customer, don’t be discouraged. Keep listening to them! By monitoring conversations you can gain a deeper understanding of your customers dissatisfaction and use it to brainstorm and create new ideas!

Embrace the Positive
Bloggers can be very helpful by promoting your brand and reinstating your bottom line. There exists social media “star” bloggers in every community with huge followings. If they were to write a positive post regarding your company, it would go a long way and will be seen by many others. Therefore, it is not a bad idea to come bearing gifts. Freebies, samples, coupons, you name it. It doesn’t hurt and it is a kind gesture, as long as you don’t expect something in return…immediately. To get the most appreciation and attention of a community, give when least expected. A simple gesture of kindness can go a long way. Li tells a sweet story about the company Freshbooks and one of its followers on Twitter. Rayonne Langdon, the marketing director, noticed that one of the company’s followers tweeted about being stood up on a first date. Rayanne tweeted back, “At Freshbooks, we’d never stand you up!” And there’s more. She proceeded to the follower’s blog, found her office address, and sent her a bouquet of flowers the next day. This created a long-lasting buzz for the company, and reminded customers that Freshbooks and Rayanne are sincere and good.

It is important to be liked in the social media world, because everyone now has a voice and their opinion can be heard. Each and every one of your consumers can potentially affect the bottom line of your company. But don’t let that discourage you. Any kind of engagement in social media is better than no engagement at all. In Social Media Marketing, Li describes the different types of social media (social news sites, social networking, social bookmarking, social sharing, social events, blogs, microblogging, wikis, or forums and message boards) and explains further how social media fits into the online marketing picture. Definitely a must read for anyone interested or already involved in social media marketing.

USA Networks is about to launch next season premieres for 3 different series in January: Burn Notice, Psych and White Collar (OMG.. set those DVR‘s now!). What and how will this change the online environment and the digital environment of the sites that comprise USA Networks which include Character Arcade and The Clik Blog ratchets up the visibility of the network and their shows.

The USA Network site features full-length episodes of each show and also provides lots of background information on characters, actors and more. Also they have create aa great collection of show-oriented games and mind-bender sites tnat will immerse you more into the world of the various shows.

Want to explore more games ? Check out Character Arcade . This Holiday Hiatus Blues post is filled with suggestions of various games including mobile applicatiions.

Luckily to explain what the digital division has done for 2009 and where it’s going in 2010, is Vice President, Digital Strategy & Development, NBC Universal, USA Network Jesse Redniss. spent some time talking to us about this very subject and a lot more — almost 30 minutes of chat time.

Redniss understands the power of the web and how it interfaces with the USA network and how to leverage it to best make use of the consumer interface. He provided a great deal of insight regarding the direction of USA’s network dramas as well as the online experience of forums, games and other initiatives like Characters Unite-which is a partnership with charitable organizations along with Tom Brokaw’s town hall meeting and others to work on fostering a change and congruence on a variety of issues in the world today. The Characters Unite initiative started in 2009 and will be a huge focal point in 2010. Surf this site and take the Pledge!

Other things to note about USA Networks is GreenUSA. Check out the Eco-ist Corner for tips, tricks and the entire site for more ways to go green and help the environment.

Other places mentioned within the podcast to check out include
Burn Notice Game with Fiona
Ask a Spy

Thank you to Jesse Redniss for his time and tons of information. Also thank you to USA Network and Electric Artists for making this podcast happen!

Stevie Wilson, LA-Story.com
Stevie Wilson writes the www.LA-Story.com blog and is Chief Marketing Officer & Partner, KBP Inc, a privately held corporation dealing in multi-media, real estate developments, internet start-ups and new media marketing strategy.

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There’s really nothing that sells quite like humor. Funny moments tend to live on in the minds of the people who experience them, and a funny advertisement can live on just as well. When your advertisement sticks, your brand sticks with it.

Reebok has it down when it comes to making sexy, funny, and attention grabbing ads, while keeping it simple:

While it won’t make me go out and buy a print newspaper, because it’s the age of digital media, it’s still a really great bit of dry humor. Kudos to you Sun newspaper. Maybe I’ll pick up a digital subscription someday:

Don’t be afraid to joke around with the people you’re reaching out to, because it’ll pay off more times than not.

I am the newest blogger over at the AdAge Global Idea Network, a gig that only started a couple weeks ago. I love it. My editor is Matt Creamer. Matt and I rushed this post last night. I received the email three hours ago, IMed Matt, and we got it out now. I love blogging for this. I hope you enjoy this new post, Pepsi Apologized to Me For Its Suicide Ads:

Pepsi Apologized to Me For Its Suicide Ads
A close-up look at how the marketer is handling fallout from its controversial German ads

This week, PepsiCo got into hot water with more than a few folks after some suicide-themed ads many found offensive were brought to light. Here’s how they’re using social media to apologize to consumers—including me.

I received an email from B. Bonin Bough of PepsiCo, @boughb on Twitter, responding to my tweet about the recent post that Matt Creamer wrote a couple days ago, “Pepsi Opens a Vein of Controversy With New Suicide-Themed Ads”, about some ads that were run here in Germany in a lifestyle mag—ads Pepsi says it won’t run again after they received heavy criticism all over the web.

I’ll excerpt the first part of the email from Mr. Bough, who holds the title of director-social and emerging media and is based at Pepsi’s Purchase, N.Y. campus:

I saw your tweet and I just wanted to make sure I responded personally. We agree this creative is totally inappropriate; we apologize and please know it won’t run again. Also, thanks for the feedback and the Digg, it is important to discuss these types of issues.

My best friend committed suicide and this is a topic very close to my heart. So again I offer my deepest apologies.

Feel free to follow-up via twitter to me – @boughb or Huw – @huwgilbert or respond to this email.

Thanks, Bonin

I know you all think I am going to mock Bonin, but I won’t. I think this was a very bold and risky maneuver and worthy of praise rather than a tarring and feathering. And his outreach to me, a nobody, was accomplished within two days. When I replied to Bonin, asking if I might be allowed to post his email, he replied back that I could post his email but to try to “treat it kindly.” I hope I am.

I don’t think that Bonin knew that I blog for AdAge or that I know a bit about how the marketer is surprised about how well-traveled the ads have been. The old we-didn’t-think-anyone-here-would-see-it approach. Well, that’s the Internet for you. Someone passed along the scans of the PepsiMax ad, “One is a Very Very Lonely Calorie,” to the alert gang here at AdAge.

Within two days of tweeting, I received a note from @tweetmeme, a sure sign that my tweet had gone memetic (and that I had played at least a bit part in the mad traffic to the AdAge post as well as the resulting 40 comments.)

Here’s how fast and furious social media works. The article was posted on AdAge at 4:36 PM EST on December 2nd. I read it and Tweeted at 6:16 PM EST the same day. And then I received said email from Mr. Bough at 5:21 PM on December 4. The lesson here is that social media has eyes everywhere and the network to make sure that advertisers can no longer hide stuff in niche markets. There is a word in intelligence about just this thing, and it relates to messaging and propaganda: backwash. Social media makes backwash inevitable. Here’s another one from Intelligence: blowback. Backwash leads to blowback.

There’s no way to isolate this kind of advertisement. And there is an inverse proportion between how badly you want your ad to remain niche and the sensationalism surrounding its discovery. It’s a really obvious point, but one still clearly worth stating: The internet makes it impossible for any marketer to control which geographies and demographics see any particular communication. You can’t even really control what media it appears in. Think you’re creating an edgy print ad that will only be seen in a German magazine? Think again. In the blink of an eye, your ad is on the web. You know, the world wide one. And all kinds of people are pissed off.

What I like about what “Bough, Bonin {PEP}” did here is that he responded almost immediately, rather personally, and opened himself up to us social media mavens. Bravo! Full marks. Another thing I like about his apology is that there is a very good chance that I am being played, that Mr. Bough is playing reverse psychology on me. Yes, he readily approved my posting of this message when I asked, which leads me to believe that the very act of clicking on the post right now is just going to help PepsiCo with an amazingly-savvy viral marketing campaign for PepsiMax.

(Cross-posted from over at Chris Abraham — Because the Medium is the Message)

Here is a warning to all of us who are doing conversation marketing, buzz marketing, viral marketing, social media marketing, etc. We have all been there and we have seen it many times before. Some of us have done it! Well, this must have stung quite a lot. I can’t wait to find out which agency did this. If anyone knows, please let me know!

I was just farting around Boing Boing Gadgets, enjoying the fine work over there, post amusement over seeing my business partner become immortal in a Boing Boing post and referred to as “a globe-trotting alpha male who spends winters rubbing elbows with bikini models down in Mauretius and summers either indulging in sport in Berlin or piloting yachts around Cape Horn.” Well, I started reading comments and there were some funny ones, and then an obvious comment spam about the Motorola Krave. Then, the wolves circled and the entire comment thread started mocking the shiller. Ultimately, Joel Johnson wrote the following awesome blog post, entitled, Motorola, could you please tell your viral marketer to get out of our comments?

Motorola, could you please tell your viral marketer to get out of our comments?

In John’s post about Steve Jobs’ purported tantrum, a commenter “MGOODE08″ made this remark:

I’m so glad my boss isn’t like that! I’m working with Motorola right now, and became a huge fan of the Krave (motorola.com/krave). I especially like the full touch screen display and html web browser. It’s awesome!

On the 14th, he made this comment:

Oh man this looks awesome! I hope they release a version for the Krave by Motorola. Ever since I started working with Motorola I have became a huge fan of the phone (motorola.com/krave). With a full list of features, like a full touch screen, I can’t stop obsessing over it.

“M Goode” loves this phone so much that he posted this at GigaOm:

This is a very good idea. I think it could be applied to any phones with a similar format. Ever since I started working with Motorola I have become a huge fan of the Krave. It has some of the same features, and I think a built in micropayment system would be great. It’s a fairly new phone, so if you haven’t seen it yet it’s online at motorola.com/krave. I wonder if they will jump on the bandwagon when/if a micropayment system is implemented.

When he’s not on tech sites, though, “M Goode” loves to relax with a good game:

I wish this game would get released for a mobile gaming platform, especially the Krave. I have been a fan of this franchise since it’s first release, and would love to have it on a cell phone, especially the krave. Ever since I started working with Motorola, I have become a huge fan of the krave. Has anyone else seen it?(motorola.com/krave) It’s so loaded with features, most important of which is the full touch screen layout. It’s DEFINITELY worth checking out.

He’s also really into the indie gaming scene:

I can’t wait to see this on a mobile phone platform! it would be so cool to see ti on a Krave! Has anyone else seen it? (motorola.com/krave) It’s a flip phone with a touch screen, 2 MP camera, full html browser and bluetooth functionality. Definitely worth checking out.

But uh oh! He might be considering switching from a Krave to the new Nokia:

My favorite phone right now is the Krave by Motorola. I became a huge fan of the Krave once I started working with Motorola. You can check out the full spec list online at motorola.com/krave. It’s definitely strong competition with it’s full touch screen

(He is also apparently working for Cirque Du Soleil, but we’ll let them pass for the moment because I love acrobats.)

“Follow the money,” they say, but in this case we don’t have to, because all we have to do is follow the link. Motorola, if you could be so kind as to tell your viral marketer to fuck right off we’d sure appreciate it. Perhaps you could spend the money instead on making your phones something that people actually want to buy.

P.S., I love our readers. Check out the replies they immediately started making:

I’m so glad my boss isn’t like that! I’m working for Burger King right now, and became a huge fan of the Mushroom and Swiss Steakhouse Burger. I especially like the cheese and mushrooms. It’s awesome!

I’m so glad my boss isn’t like that! I’m working for a pimp on the corner of wellwood and barrington and became a huge fan of Allie and her turrid backstroke technique. I especially like the pop and rock. It’s awesome!

I’m so glad my boss isn’t like that! I’m working with Cryptozoologia right now, and became a huge fan of the Trepanasaurus (Cryptozoologia.com/ Trepanasaurus). I especially like the way that, after the dinosaur-anteater hybrid rips off the top of a person’s head with its sharp teeth, it can suck out its victim’s brain with its nose. It’s awesome!

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…

Need for executive buy in should extend to culture change when needed

Usually the need for executive buy in is something we take for granted. If upper management is resistant to something, it’s not likely to happen. In the study, that’s reaffirmed, but I noticed something more.

The buy in must extend to action. Social media adoption can mean wholesale change. It can affect several departments. Executive buy-in in the form of lip service is useless.

Case in point. While almost two thirds of laggards (65%) say that Web 2.0 applications are a top two or of the highest priority, only 37% of them report that they’ve received full support from senior level management, and that only 13% of them have developed internal processes to implement, manage, and analyze the applications. These are the companies that will soon be in the Industry Average category. The other 87% aren’t so lucky.

The 65-37-13 discrepancy is telling. It shows a significant detachment between what could be a stated vision and the will to carry it out. It shows me that a large percentage of the Laggards are going to stay where they are. One of the key factors that Aberdeen found, in the successful implementation of Web 2.0 applications is having established coordinated internal processes. If only 13% of respondents say their organization has some sort of program in place, but yet 65% say that Web 2.0 is a priority, then a lot of the 37% of those leaders who are said to be supportive of Web 2.0 either aren’t, or they simply arent’ doing their jobs.

Social media via Web 2.o applications is too cross-functional to be implemented department by department. Sure, an organization can have a praised social media marketing effort, but will that really change a corporate culture?

Process implementation problems mean Steve Rubel’s prediction won’t come anytime soon. But still take heed.

A couple of months ago, Steve Rubel surmised that the job title/descripiton of Social Media consultant will be going away in a few years. He reasoned that as organizations become more Web 2.0 ready and adopt soicla media throughout the entity, the duties and responsibilities of the consultant will disperse as well…in fact they’ll disperse so much that they’ll dissipate when it comes to the defined role of a social media consultant.

I actually think he’s onto something in that today’s worker will be soon enough equipped with social media skills for fulfilling social media duties and responsibilities that today’s consultant will be quite different from tomorrow’s. Setting up blog, wikis, and podcasts could easily be handled in house.

But if only 87% of Laggards,76% of Industry Average, and 63% of Best in Class at this point DO NOT have a process in place, then we a a long ways away from the death of the social media consultant. But wait…

Social media agencies will have to become more full service. They’ll have to adopt larger corporate practices that go beyond setting up Facebook accounts and reaching out to bloggers. They’ll need to fully understand how a social media marketing effort effects sales and then how customer services must respond, by using social media by this (hopeful) increase in sales. So social media strategist may be less hip, but in the end, more useful.

Dedicated cross-functional teams are needed, meaning the nexus of controlling responsibility must be fluid.

If you’re in one of the company considered by a Laggard, you’ve got company. Aberdeen found that 86% of the Laggards don’t have dedicated personnel to work on social media initiatives. A few people working a few hours here and there. That’s not going to work. Social media will be changing corporate and organizations culture.

In most organizations, social media will be implemented across several department that interact with customers or clients, vendors, investors, the media, and employees. The level of implementation of Web 2.0 applications will vary according to the size of the organization, the industry it is in, the specific needs of each department within the organization and with the organization as a whole. The implementation of social media on a strategic level, with its technological components and human interaction focus means that it can’t be done on a cookie cutter basis. Teams must be created knowing that their success depends on a large scale collaborative effort.

Collaboration means cooperation. Each division will have its own needs, its own level of adoption and adaption. Some of that adoption will be reliant on adoption as a whole.

Here again, is where I part with Jason Falls’ belief that social media come under the control of public relations. Internal leaders must develop and they must see across the entire enterprise. But then again, I already wrote about that.

More importantly, at this stage of the game, management must cultivate internal resources in creating great teams to lead the way into the age of social media.

With all the discussion on what social media is, what it’s future will be like, who will control it, I often feel we fail to see the forest for the trees.

I see it as too diverse of a phenomenon to pin down with one easy definition. Its applications go far beyond the neat capsules that can be used to pick a particular department or function that should “own” it. Social media is creating, empowering, and accompanying a paradigm shift in the way we use all media.

Are we fully there yet? Of course not. These are only the early stages, part of an evolutionary process that often comes step by step. But those steps are happening and happening and soon we’ll look back and be amazed how far we’ve traveled. Then before we know it again, we’ll be stepping again and look back again and we’ll be amazed how much we’ve come from that first time we looked back.

Yes, organizations are going to have to harness social media in ways that they can benefit from, to reach ROI. This means trying to create some sort of structure for it without “siloizing” it. Very difficult indeed.

I’ve tried to lay out what I see social media as. Not from a specific definitional standpoint, but from a several miles up point of view.

Interested in your feedback…

Social media can be a practice within itself

Social media’s possibilities extend beyond any traditional established practice (advertising, PR, sales, etc.) to the point that it can be a practice within itself. It can be spread across many departments and, thus, will often need practitioners who can implement coordinated efforts within an organization. The strategic methods used will often have enough attributes on a stand alone basis that it shouldn’t come underneath the heading of another specific department. I’d put social media on the same par as advertising and PR. Full service social media firms have sprouted up such as Abraham Harrison to meet today’s needs.

Social media can be a service

Because social media is still in its nascent stages, clients and potential clients don’t always need comprehensive solution packages. They may need to know how to set up a blog and how to get traffic for it. Simple as that. Helping a company to start a blog is a service. So is creating a podcast. Many clients look to cherry pick services to satisfy their needs. For some in social media, providing a non-coordinated menu of services is where it’s at. While social media agencies are an emerging industry, there’s not widespread demand quite yet, leaving many practitioners as service providers.

Social media is strategy based

A company decides to let go of some (but not all) control of its marketing communications message. It views its customers and users on a somewhat equal level and not as blocks of ears to be shouted at and throats to have messages shoved down.

Another company uses blogs to work with customers to improve products or come up with new ones.

These are strategic changes that are being implemented. Social media can change the nature of an organization because it changes the way an organization looks at itself and its relationships with its stakeholders.

Therefore the strategy behind social media empowers change like nothing else can.

Social media is tactically based

The many tools of social media can be designed to manage a problem or a series of problems. That’s not something that necessarily changes an organization. It’s can implemented based strictly upon need.

This can cause a lot of frustration amongst social media strategists as we see a lot of potential opportunities for business not being fulfilled. For others, applying tactics itself is an opportunity. A foot in the door.

Social media is technology based

Social media can involve a host of technologies that are often complicated to learn and understand. Setting up RSS feeds, monitoring online conversations, designing a blog for better SEM, putting together a widget. It takes technical know how to implement much of these. And that’s a reason why so many ad agencies and especially PR firms have been resistant in adopting social media.

But the technology is constantly changing, adapting, growing, as is the myriad of ways they can be used for clients. It often takes someone who is comfortable with technology to succeed.

Social Media is theory based

Authenticity. Transparency. Community. Engagement. Listening. Give up some of your control. All constantly espoused by social media strategists. These are theories that often go against the grain of traditional thought. More on engagement and less on contrived messaged, push on people. This blog post is theoretical. The theories formulate the methodologies that are behind the practices and the services.

These theories are why so many of us blog and offer our opinions and commentaries. It’s why we read one another’s blogs, friend one another on Facebook and follow one another on Twitter.

Social media is rule based

Aren’t authentic or transparent? Watch out! You’re gonna get nailed by someone in the blogosphere and it will cost you. An instant case study as to how NOT do something. The rules of the game were collectively created and enforced.

We’ve seen traditional agencies, large and small, ignore these rules and push ahead with fake blogs and such. Ask the folks at Edelman and Zipatoni.

Social media is anti-bureaucratic

This may be one of the most important points of all. Because its capabilities go beyond the silos of the current corporate communications, because the public arena can embrace it as their own, because it is always changing, and because it involves giving up a serious amount of self control, social media bucks the bureaucratic structure within organizations while it fundamentally changes the relationship between the organization and its stakeholders.

Online as a whole can shift between advertising and PR, causing disruption. Social media adds to this by bringing in customers, users, and in some cases, communities into the mix. It resists authority when the authority becomes too controlling. And authority usually wants control.

Organizational bureaucracies will be changing soon enough because of social media.

Social media can be vertical – part 1

Again, I see social media as being often a separate animal from traditional PR and advertising. For that matter, online advertising itself first created that difference. Social media extends that difference. It has its own methodologies that are totally separate from offline advertising. The divisions here may not be silo based; but often the pool of knowledge for success in the social media arena can’t be found in traditional types.

Simply sticking it under a particular division within an organization can cause stifled growth as it will be badly nurtured by people with a particular preconceived mindset.

Social media can be vertical – part 2

It’s vertical in another manner as well. And this is more of a prediction than a statement of the current conditions, but we will soon see more and more specialized firms pop up that will be geared toward certain segments of the population. Just as there are agencies that are geared toward the Latino market and PR firms that are geared toward the GLBT communities, we’ll see social media agencies that have developed the expertise in reaching out to certain segments of the population. All you have to do is listen to the many mommy bloggers that complain about their constantly getting hit by pitches from agencies that have no clue on what it’s like being a mom.

Social media can be horizontal – part 1

From what we all hear, social media will have implications in advertising, public relations, sales, customer service, human resources, investor relations etc. It will take an enterprise wide strategy to implement all of that. And it will take an actual social media strategist who understands all of those departments and who understands the technologies behind social media to devise a plan for that enterprise. He or she will have to be strong enough to lead the way and manage a lot of personalities, but gentle enough to let each department blossom.

Social media can be horizontal – part 2

Outside organizations, agencies such as Abraham Harrison and others will continue to emerge and become successful because they will stay on the forefront of all that is happening and how it should be applied. Companies won’t have the internal expertise nor will they have the time nor the personnel to implement cross functional social media strategies.

So, just as we see ad agencies and PR firms today, we’ll continue to see social media agencies. There will definitely be a need for them.

Social media is push

Yes, social media still allows you to deliver marketing messages. It can be the conversation starter. A blog can be push as can a podcast. Maybe this is obvious but I’ve heard so much talk about sitting back an listening I wanted to add this. Yes, social media can be overtly promotional. It just has to be done right.

Social media is pull

Yes, listening is important. Then engaging is important. Done right it creates trust. Trust is pull. Pull is good. Social media is good.

Social Media can be web presence centric and dispersed at the same time

No need to dis the hub of a website. Core elements of an organization’s social media efforts can emanate from but then be dispersed throughout blogs, Flickr, YouTube, etc.

Social media can be created from within

This is obvious.

Social media can be created and enhanced by others

The greatest threat. The biggest fear. The challenging factor that causes many an enterprise to resist, to delay implementations. But those on the outside aren’t waiting.

So to me, social media is so multi-dimensional that it can’t be easily defined in one definition, explained in a singular context, bottled up in a particular department.

I’m in the process of pitching a potential client. From what I see, if this works out, it will be an excellent opportunity. They’re a marketing service provider that offers the traditional services to their client base. The methods they use are still very much needed, they aren’t out of date, and they won’t be out of date any time soon. But in this era of digital marketing, those methodologies clearly aren’t enough. Not when the users of their clients products are more likely to look online for those very products.

That being said, there were several aspects of conversations I’ve had with potential clients that have showed me why online marketing has yet to receive the respect that it deserves. Budget allotments, questions about handling things internally, executive level buy-in, a determined need to find specific, immediate ROI.   While I realize that the whole concept of online is still emerging, I nevertheless find this somewhat amazing. Most people today have integrated the internet into their lives, and have done so for many years. In fact, most of us use it for communication, or entertainment for research. But, still, there’s that initial resistance in many people in business.  It’s not only a reluctance to not only endeavor into this no longer new arena, but to also to take the very steps to learn about it.

So I’ve put together a few reasons why I think this is the case. Each may serve as an “objection” that will need to be overcome. Whether on a one-to-one level upon pitching a potential client. Or on an industry-wide basis.

Lack of Vision

When companies can’t see beyond their basic core services, when they don’t understand – or worse, when they don’t take the time to understand industry trends, they show an alarming lack of vision. And it’s a lack of vision that could kill their business. It goes back to that “where should we be in five years?” question. They don’t understand that they have to answer it constantly.

I’ve seen decision makers in some fields effectively make choices to not learn anything new. And it’s not just because they lack an understanding that they need to change, but they never display the curiosity to learn. The very curiosity that acts as the impetus in creating a vision that will create change.

I’ve noticed this in the political arena. In between elections, I’d be attending conferences that would discuss the use of the internet in political campaigns. They’d be attended by mostly relatively young people, all of whom were politically sharp and internet savvy. Come election time, they wouldn’t get a seat at the table.  The more seasoned members would praise them as being “upcomers” and they’d describe themselves to being “out of the loop” when it comes to “all this technology stuff”, but they’d always make sure that these young people they’re supposedly impressed with be kept in the back room with a microscopic budget and no say in any formulation of strategy.

The Disconnect 

The mentality seems to be, at best, that the upcoming changes (if they’re aware of them) don’t apply to them. Somehow they feel as if they’re separate from the rest of the business world.

The mentality is “Sure I do the majority of my business correspondence via email, and I just bought a book on Amazon for my brother-in-law, and my co-worker’s now engaged to a guy she met on Match.com, and I’m planning a vacation by looking at Hotels.com, and I have to check my bank account status today online, and I’m gonna read that story in the Post that my friend forwarded to me, and I should donate online today to Obama/McCain, and ooh, here’s an Evite to go to thank event by the river, and I’ve got to update and add some photos to my Facebook page, and I should read that restaurant review online, and I’ll just go to the client website to get information, and that was an inspirations quote I was emailed today, and then there was that hilarious video on YouTube, and here at work, I need to place an order through that online catalog, and I want to check out the site for that vet that I need to take Scruffy to, and I should order a film from Netflix.”

Then they think, “But I don’t see how the internet affects my business.  It’s not tangible to what I do.”
Lack of Priority

If one thinks in terms of traditional methods, then one is going to make traditional decisions.  If online is the constant afterthought, the add-on at the end, the low priority, then it’s never going to move up.  Again, if decision makers don’t take a step back to learn and see the entire picture, then it will never happen.  Or when it finally does happen, we get…

We Can Do It Ourselves

There’s a trend in business to day to bring in every aspect of markeing communications in house. That’s quite common here in the DC area with all of the associations and tech companies. Many of these organizations turn to the “folks in IT” to create the new site that to replace the old one sorely needs an update. This is the extension of the trend of having one’s nephew create something on his spare time and then put it up on the web. The result is often marginal improvements that add nothing to the brand or user experience. And by not examining beyond the confines of the offiice walls, they never see “what’s out there”.

An extra degree of separation

I don’t know if that’s the right term for all of what I’ll explain, but I see a lot of the traditional ad agencies and PR firms – the ones that are the first ones many potential clients go to – know so little about the fundamentals of online marketing – let alone the specialty of social media – that they muck up many marketing efforts.  Flash on homepages of websites, making them slow to download and invisible to search engines.  Things like that.  Blogs that post puff pieces and reworked press releases.

The problem is that those ad agencies and PR firms have the ear of the client, first and foremost. The marketing company hasn’t taken the time to learn new strategies, technologies, and methodologie while the client doesn’t know enough about to tell the difference.  The marketing company blocks new concepts from being brought up out of their own ignorance and territorialism.  The client says, fine, you guys are the experts.

The online folks are often then one degree of separation beyond this.  All too often the ear we have is that of the marketing company who may see us as a threat.

Soon, I’ll talk about what many in the online arena do wrong.

Guess, I’m just frustrated.  In a bad mood.

Ian Lurie always has brilliant insight over at our brother site, Conversation Marketing. Now, Ian Lurie panned down into the pre-Internet world of advertising and PR and came back with nuggets of gold. I stole his quotes below but if you check out his blog entry yourself, All I Need to Know About Internet Marketing I Learned from David Ogilvy, you’ll read Ian’s sage advice as an added bonus for visiting his post.

“In the advertising industry to be successful you must, of necessity, accumulate a group of creative people. This probably means a fairly high percentage of high strung, brilliant, eccentric nonconformists.” — Confessions of an Advertising Man, p. 39

“I have never wanted to get an account so big I could not afford to lose it.” — p. 73

“It is important to admit your mistakes, and to do so before you are charged with them.” — p. 91

“Emancipate your agency from fear.” — p. 101

“What you say is more important than how you say it.” — p. 121″Committees can criticize advertisements, but they cannot write them.” — p. 126

“The headline is the most important element in most advertisements.” — p. 133

“Don’t beat about the bush – go straight to the point.” — p. 136

“People do not buy from bad-mannered liars.” — p. 195

If you’ve ever been involved in a political campaign or you’ve contributed to a candidate – and they’ve gotten your email – then you will realize that your are now in a database that’s very hard to get out of. And you’ll be contacted by like-minded politicians running for office. All asking for money.

So when I read Matt Asay’s article in Cnet, Pining for an open-source political campaign, I began to laugh. He contributed to Mitt Romney’s campaign – he know one of Romney’s sons – and is getting up to four emails per day. Very little understanding of email marketing and relationship building on the part of Romney’s team.

But Matt comes up with some suggestions. Here they are:

• All of the politician’s information – voting record, positions on the issues, etc. – would be available online in one place. The candidate’s source code, as it were. I wouldn’t need someone to call me to tell me to vote for him or her – I could choose for myself after reviewing “the source.”
• Because of the first point, there would be no need for campaign staffers to pepper me with emails or phone calls. The source code would either attract my interest or it wouldn’t. Open source encourages a passive sales model. The sales team only bothers with those that show an affirmative, proactive interest in the “source.”
• Candidates would win on the basis of who they really are, not who they can pretend to be. Romney takes heat for flip-flopping, but let’s be honest: how many politicians have you seen that won’t flip-flop on an issue to pull in votes? Very few. Open source the candidates and perhaps we’d have less of this buffoonery.

I like all three.

I keep on trying to legitimize the reasons that Facebook is using to justify their new marketing program, “Facebook Beacon”. But it’s just not happening. It keeps on coming back to user relationships, user privacy, and user benefit. You know, the USER.

If you’re not sure what Beacon is, it’s basically this. Facebook is setting up agreements with online retailers that aren’t part of Facebook to have the retailer directly send information of what people buy on the retailer site to their “friends” on Facebook. The user is first supposed to see a notice on the retail site for which they need to give the thumbs down if they object. So the system is supposed to be opt out. But there’s been some circumstances where the information is just automatically sent without approval or even notification of the buyer. That means the next time you buy a book from Amazon or an item from Overstock.com, the retailer could end up letting your friends know what you bought unless you explicitly stop it.

Facebook is positioning this as the way of advertising because it essentially involves word of mouth as a strengthening agent to traditional display. I see it as an overreaching policy designed to push the envelope that much further to see how they can monetize user experience.

This whole thing rubs me the wrong way. It is part of the continual losing of control of our privacy, done with a smile, assuring us of the neat new opportunities it will bring. Not all agree with me here. I’m reading plenty of comments of people saying that they don’t mind the idea of letting their friends know what they buy. But when I hear that, I say, fine. Then keep it opt in. Not opt out. I’m thinking those that have no objections to this sort of thing are thinking strictly of their own personal preferences in buying and the relationships that they have with their Facebook friends. And they might be of the mindset that what they do off Facebook is free game. Since I read marketing blogs, I’m also reading the comments of marketing types…not necessarily someone outside of the industry. My hunch is that most that feel that Beacon is no big deal are relatively young. As people age, they often get more private. And the demographics of Facebook is getting older as it grows.

Matthew Ingram feels as if the opposition to this is being overblown. I can’t agree. Take the case of Charlene Li. Charlene is none other than an internet analyst with Forrester. Not exactly a newbie. She recently recounted an experience she had when she bought a coffee table from Overstock.com. She hopped online, went to the site, and ordered the table, using her personal email as opposed to her one from Forrester. It should be pointed out that she has two profiles on Facebook. One for professional reasons that’s tied to her Forrester email and one a personal profile that’s tied into her personal email. The next time she logged into Facebook, she did so onto her Facebook profile. Maybe because it was the first she logged onto, she received this:

She points out that Overstock.com never let her opt out of this. Or that she didn’t see anything that would allow her to opt out. Either way, Overstock sent it without her permission. The second part is that they sent it to her professional profile, not her personal one. Even thought she had used her personal email. That’s because Beacon is cookie/browser based.

This brings us to my first objection of user relationships. While I’m buying a particular item on a particular online retail site, I do so because of my desire for that product and for my trust of or relationship with that store. I’m not thinking of my friends and colleagues on Facebook when I press the buy button. But now Facebook and the retailer have decided that Facebook is now going to play a role.

When I’m on Facebook, I know I’m within a somewhat closed off setting…a social network. My relationship is with Facebook and with what is within Facebook. That’s fine. That’s cool. But when I head to, say, Amazon, my relationship there is with Amazon. Not Facebook. But apparently, Facebook and Amazon have decided together that I now have a relationship with Facebook when I buy that book that I want.When I buy a product from a local retailer (an actual store, you know, a physical one), I’m a customer of that retailer and not the local newspaper. I don’t expect the store to then send a press release to the local newspaper about what I just bought and then get a phone call from a reporter asking me to approve of them putting the news in the paper. Screw that.

Beacon potentially violates the relationships that we form online. Ones that we in social media marketer so often say are built on trust and respect. Oddly, this happens with the retailer’s involvement. Facebook could easily come off as intruding into that relationship. This shouldn’t be underestimated. In a time that we’re talking about “listening” we’re talking respect.

Justin Smith of Inside Facebook sees this as a rehash of an earlier bump in the road that Facebook had to deal with. That particular bump involved the debut of Facebook’s news feed, which informs our friends what we do on within Facebook. Justin also points out that opposition to that was 10 times larger in sheer numbers.

Justin, if you read this, I’d answer you on those two points the following way. First, I’d say that that initial opposition, while maybe justified was probably mollified by the understanding many would have that they’re receiving many benefits within the site and that the news feed application is a legitimate price to pay…because the feed is about what’s happenig within the site and not outside. And your point on numbers it correct and may be legit, but I’d say part of the reason could be that most people probably found out about within a couple of weeks of in being installed. All they had to do was log onto Facebook and they’d see a newsfeed. The quick, collective discovery of this probably fueled the flame.

But what we have here will be much more drawn out. People will be finding out over time. Perhaps thousands each day. Enough to build steam but not enough to have every one know about it over a couple of weeks. But then again, the holiday season is upon us…

This brings me my second point, which is probably the underlying one of all. User privacy. It’s not anyone’s business as to whether or not Charlene bought a coffee table, regardless of how we know her. That’s, of course, unless Charlene want us to know. This new system shouldn’t force her to take an extra step to make sure that her buying habits are private. She didn’t invite Facebook to be that part of her personal or professional life.

Think about it. Say a closeted gay man who lives in a relatively conservative area goes to Amazon and buys a couple of books on coming out of the closet. Amazon doesn’t notify him that they’re sending this info to his Facebook friends because of the same glitch that happened to Charlene. Now, KABOOM!, he’s out of the closet. Everyone know. Probably before he has any clue as to what happens. Now his life sucks. Screw that.

Or you may have a woman who recently found she has a sexually transmitted disease. She’s horrified, terrified. Doesn’t want anyone to know. She buys a book about it on Amazon. She’s so scared, she doesn’t see the notice on Amazon that this info is being sent to Facebook. After all, the notice was never there before. Now her ‘friends’ know…from her actual friends to her business colleagues. Screw that.

Follow up:  I had read on TechCrunch that Amazon is part of Beacon.  Alas, it isn’t.  Wanted to strike the above two paragraphs as a result.  My bad.

Maybe you got a buy who happily just ordered an engagement ring for his wonderful girlfriend. Kinda nervous when he does. Doesn’t notice that small notice on the retail site. Now he’s planning a big surprise for her. This is a once in a lifetime event. Being a romantic at heart, he’s gonna make it special. He’s going to take her to the best restaurnat in town. And while he’s there, he’s going to take her out on the balcony overlooking the sun setting over the river and OOPS! The whole world now knows, including his sweetheart. Great way for a girl to find out he’s popping the question. Screw that.

The possibilities are endless. And they’re waiting to happen.

But Facebook and the retailer are now benefiting from this. They’re making money from this new ad system. But what about us? What is the user benefit?

I don’t see any. I really don’t. We will become marketing agents for retailers and products without sharing a piece of the pie. We won’t be getting a commission. We won’t be getting discounts from the retailer. We won’t be having a more robust experience on Facebook because of this. No, we’re being monetized at the loss of our privacy and convenience. Our newfeeds will be filled up with nonsensical news that people bought coffee tables or bird cages or books on how to leave an abusive husband. No user benefit in that.

This brings me to a fourth objection. What happens to the data? What happens to the info that Facebook receives? Retailers house the info from the data to strengthen the relationships they have with their customers. Now Facebook has it. They are looking to monetize its users. Will the data be shared with fourth parties? Remember, Facebook is the third party here. Will the gay guy suddenly start getting ads that appeal to the gay community? Will this happen when he’s at work? Will someone else get the same ads if he quickly checks his profile on a shared computer and someone else logs on to Facebook ten minutes later?

In other words, will the results of all of this info end up being public? Screw that.

As if there were not enough media saturation already in the Big Apple, after 2 driver walkouts, the long awaited touch screens in the back of NYC cabs, mandated by the city of New York, are finally flying around the streets. I have personally asked many drivers what their gripe was to the machine, and I have heard a myriad of responses-from noise control to financial reasons.

While I am typically offput by overt/annoying marketing tactics, this one is actually great for the user, great for the advertiser. Advertisers can place their messages on the screens for passengers to view as they browse information about local weather and events. The screen also has a digital map so you can follow your route.

At the bottom of each ad there is a “touch for more info” button that links to special offers or actual store locations on the digital map of NYC. The format can be full-motion audio and video, a TV commercial, full-motion flash banner or a static image. The ads are fantastic because they have the option to really hook some people and give them great information, while others have to option of just shutting off the screen.

The best part, in my opinion, for advertisers is the ability to rotate the appearance of ads by day of the week, time of day, and even according to the weather. That means Campbells can advertise on rainy days, haagen daaz on hot days, cruise ships on snowy days…you get the idea.

Ad options include flash banners, full-motion 15-second video or audio commercials, tower ads, leaderboard ads and micro sites. The screens also give users the new option to pay with credit card, and yup, you guessed it, on the pay screen is another space to place an ad. Sounds like a pretty cool system. For more information check out the full article at Media Life Magazine

Apparently we digital marketing types have a good future. At least that’s what Accenture tells us via their recent survey of 70 advertising, technology, and media industry leaders. But more telling is their view of who is the most likely to suffer because of the evolution and integration of digital technologies into our lives: traditional ad agencies. Via Adverganza, ClickZ, Five Blogs Before Lunch, Pushing Envelope, Think Multicultural.

That’s right. Traditional ad agencies. Forty three percent of the respondents said that these entities would suffer as opposed to 33 for broadcasters.

This shouldn’t be, but it easily could end up being the case. I’ve seen many a mid-size agency here in the DC area treat anything related to the internet – besides building an occasional website – as something from another planet. It may be radioactive so we don’t want to touch it. If we ignore it, it will probably go away.

It isn’t.

You’d figure these agencies would get the drift and evolve. You’d figure that they’d be learning new media inside and out. But apparently, many of them aren’t.

The number one reason that traditioanl agencies are set to struggle is related to media usage. We’re no longer a mass audience. We use media differently. More personal. So the marketing is more personal. And sometimes creating it ourselves.

The two industries most likely to gain? Search marketers and digital ad specialists. Half of the respondents say this will happen within 5 years, 80 percent within ten.

The November 8^th edition of The Economist has an article that asks us “Will Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites transform advertising?”

In truth, the article is poorly written. It asks the wrong question, it’s lazily researched, and it provides little actual theory or empirical evidence to justify the premise they are trying to suppose. Perhaps the reason for this is that The Economist is a general news publication – one that I respect – and that the article was intended for a mainstream readership that’s likely mostly interested in reading about general trends and not deeper analysis. But nevertheless…

The question as to whether Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites will transform advertising is off. It I was asked this, I’d have to say no. Not really. (First of all, it’s more marketing than the subset of advertising.) To be sure, they’ll play a major role. But it isn’t the setting so much as it is the relationships that individuals will have with these very sites, with brands, and with one another. Facebook and MySpace may be great places to launch a brand or product page in an attempt to develop what many call a ‘community’. But then again, it may not. Perhaps a product oriented website equipped with social media tools will do.

The article rightfully calls this the fourth in a line of three proven online marketing categories. The first was banner and ad unit advertising. The second was online classifieds, and the third was search.

Yes, the advantage social networks have is that they’ve got millions of registered users, all of whom can tap into the social tools that the sites make available. And those tools include notification systems and the viral capabilities that are so essential to the expansion of a marketing message.

But the essence of all of this will be the interaction of the brand with individuals and the individuals with others of what the brand is hoping that it is creating…a burgeoning community. And that’s where it gets tough. That’s because many, if not most brands, don’t lend themselves to be naturally community building entities on social media sites.

It’s going to take real talent for brand managers, ad agencies, and social media strategist to create successful online marketing campaigns using the strategies we all talk and blog about. Too often I read the typical “you must engage your community’ talk, talk that presupposes that a community already exists. And no – a customer base, by itself, is not a community.

Take for instance a group on Facebook that I joined this morning as a result of reading the article. SpriteSips. Truth be told, I’m a Sprite lover. Always have been. But I joined not because of a lifelong affinity for the soft drink, but because I wanted to see how this online experiment will go. Seems I’m not alone…about half of the hundred or so ‘friends’ of SpriteSips were either from the Coca-Cola company, or from the interactive industry, or worked for Facebook. To be fair, SpriteSips has been up for only a little over a week (thus showing some laziness in research for the article – a more in-depth analysis of the MySpace effort for the movie “300”) and it’s too soon to make any judgments as to the effectiveness of the campaign. But Sprite really isn’t a lifestyle brand like Gatorade or Red Bull or Snapple. It’s going to be a challenge to get people to be continually pumped to come back to and “engage” with a soft drink that tastes good, but one that’s common enough that you can get at McDonalds, Burger King, and Subway. My guess is that it will be moderately successful and cost effective, but it isn’t something that will show how social media shines.

Tangerine Toad has a great series on this. He calls it “Your Brand is Not My Friend”, with the hypothesis being that I may like or even love your product, but don’t assume my affinity with it goes beyond simply using it for purpose that it’s made for.

To me, the article likely will make some social media marketing types all the more enthusiastic while making skeptics all the more skeptic.

I say all of this out of respect for all of us in the social media marketing field. As I mentioned, it’s going to take real talent to harness this new type of market and make it work. It’s going to take keen minds that know what makes different types of individuals out there want to be part of and then how to properly engage with them. It’s going to be a challenge – one that I love and I’m sure you do too.

Here’s a series of figures that blew me away. It showed me how immature the online ad industry really is. And how far it has to grow. It’s a breakdown of how many visitors went to Style.com in September.

421,000 as measured by ComScore
497,000 as measured by Neilsen/Net Ratings
1,800,000 as measured by publisher Conde Nast’s internal measurements

They’re miles apart and that’s a big problem. When I first saw the 76,000 visit discrepancy between the two metering services I thought that was bad. But the 1.8 million figure that Conde Nast holds is more that 3.5 times that of Neilsen/Net Ratings and around 4.5 times that of ComScore.

For a long time publishers and rating companies have bickered over the different sets of stats they have for site visits and other web based traffic measurements. But differences such as these will only serve to slow down ad dollars going to the web. And that hurts us all.

Einer der bekanntesten deutschen Unternehmen, der Otto Versand, expandiert nach erfolgter Umstrukturierung weiter und schickt sich an, Deutschlands groesster Online Versand zu werden und in der Gruppe der Major – Player, wie ebay oder Amazon mitzuspielen.

Das im Vergleich jedoch beschauliche Hamburger Familienunternehmen hat im Online Sektor jedoch noch viel nachzuholen, wenn es sich mit den Großen messen will.

Dies wird besonders deutlich, wenn es um die Praesenz eben jenes Unternehmens in der Netzwelt geht. Auf deutschen Bloggs sind sie zum Beispiel kaum anzutreffen: hier dominiert im Besonderen das beliebte Affiliate Programm von Amazon – die Wishlist.

Dabei bieten sich hier für Otto ungeahnte Moeglichkeiten; Als Versandhaendler für nahezu jedes Konsumgut, kann der Markt eigentlich optimal bedient und Produkte beworben werden. Für jeden Blogger waere etwas dabei.

Auch die verwendeten URL erinnern noch an Zeiten bevor das Zauberwort SEO Einzug in die Marketing Abteilung jedes Unternehmens hielt. Mit den richtigen URLs würde Otto bei nahezu jeder Googlesuche nach einem bestimmten Produkt unter den ersten Ergebnissen auftauchen – ein riesiges Werbepotential!

Großes Potential hätte auch ein Feature, mit dem man Produktinformationen per Email versenden könnten; Ich erinnere mich an online Einkaufstouren, die man mit Freunden oder Familie abstimmen wollte. Wie einfach waere es, wenn man betreffenden Leuten einfach eine Email mit einem Permalink schicken könnte anstatt sie „zu Fuss“ bis zum jeweiligen Produkt begleiten zu muessen.

Nun ja, innerhalb Deutschlands muss sich Otto noch kaum um Konkurrenz sorgen, wenn sie jedoch Ihren Anspruch halten wollen, ein modernes, internationales Unternehmen zu sein, sollten sie sich sputen!

Wir werden sehen, was die Zukunft bringt

Kelly Mooney has a great piece in AdAge, For Relevance, Think Three Way, in which she talks about the concept of ‘triangulation’ involving the brand, the customer, and the community and that all three need to embrace one another. She also blogs at MooneyThinks.

She’s quite right in that, for many of us, we’ve moved much of our media gathering experience online. Websites, blogs, social networks, forums are the areas that we discuss brands or experiences with brands or our impressions of brands.

Kelly calls on companies to shift from “B to C” over to “B to We”. An excellent example she gives is the “Pink” campaign from Victoria’s Secret that targeted young women. She writes

The recent star-studded PJ Party, promoted through Facebook, street teams and in-store, included flash-mob experiences via SMS announcements about free merchandise and a mobile photo application that enabled partygoers to see themselves on the stage’s LED screen, and it culminated in a free Fergie concert. The destination site featured a real-time mobile photo blog from the party and a dance-video-upload contest set to Fergie’s latest hit, where Pink fans voted on who should win a shopping spree and have her video featured on VSPink.com. Through triangulated communications, the brand is extended from offline to online, viral and mobile, and to an increasingly “qualified” audience.

I can’t disagree with this concept but, I’m often left wondering…how many brands can actually engage their customers? How many brands are able to cause that much passion? How many brands can develop or, for that matter, find an actual online community?

That’s a question that most of us haven’t asked yet.

Check out the article in last Thursday’s Times, Dealing With the Damage From Online Critics, that addresses how to handle consumers who develop a personal vendetta against your company. Well, you could send lawyers but legal cease-and-desists generally just make the customer madder than hell and it isn’t hard to just start yet another attack site.

I hate to say it, sucking less always helps. Start with treating your customers better. Also, be sure to register lots of domain names and work on your online reputation aggressively before it becomes a problem.

Online, the best defense is a good offense and an ounce of online promotion is worth a pound of cure. Here are some great commented-by-me excerpts from the article, Dealing With the Damage From Online Critics, so you can get a gist:

As the power of the Internet grows, businesses small and large find themselves confounded by disenchanted employees, suppliers and competitors who seek fertile ground to air grievances online.

Armed with little more than a Web connection and a keyboard, these detractors can do everything from irritate, via a scathing review, to causing serious business problems by using message boards to reveal company secrets or spread rumors of unethical behavior. They may also start a gripe site or register a Web address in their target’s name.

There is not a lot you can do here so the best way to make sure you’re safe online is by making sure there is a whole lot of conversation about you, your brand, and your company well before anyone says anything, and they will, eventually.

It’s from Stat 101: the more data points there are the less any particular one point will effect the total. If you’re nowhere online, then one attack can demolish you. If, however, you’re ubiquitous, then any negative ad will probably not even cross your first few pages on Google anyway.

And, if it does, an appeasement policy does work: this person is not Hitler, this person just feels like he’s not being heard. I mean, I have done this sort of thing myself with Media Temple.

Their Director of Customer Support called me but his appeasement sucked because his gift wasn’t what I wanted, it is what he was authorized to give. Not enough. I just wanted to be appeased and so he never got the posts off of my blog and never will. I ended up leaving MT and will never recommend them ever again.

In fact, I am adamant that people stay away from Media Temple because I think Media Temple sucks (see what I just did there?)

Remedies vary by case and by state, but lawyers, Internet specialists and others counsel that the best course with may be to ignore irritating posts because trying to squelch a malcontent can have unintended consequences.

Beware of the unintended consequence, something we call blowback in DC. Reacting, responding, or arguing in a comment thread is basically engaging with a Tar Baby. There is no way you’re ever going to come out alive unless you come in very open, very sorry, and have a legitimate solution. Otherwise, if you’re ornery, you’ll have your ass handed to you.

“Your reaction often, if you’re a small business, is to get angry and to fire off a letter,” said Barry Werbin, an intellectual property lawyer at Herrick, Feinstein in New York. “Some big companies do it. More often than not, the person who posts the gripe site can’t wait to get that letter and post it.”

Sometimes, Mr. Werbin added, “it can worsen the damage because it just fuels the fire.”

This is super important — the best reason to hire a company like Abraham Harrison is because we know when not to react. As I always say, don’t respond, reply, react: message and counter-message!However, it is always smart to ask web hosts, web companies, the blogger, etc, very nicely to remove the content, especially after the issue has been resolved by you. Don’t get angry, don’t get even, get your “the customer is always right” hat on and start solving problems.

That the the owner of the gym in the article wouldn’t refund the $100 to the lady-in-question was just a seriously self-destructive rule. Katie Lambert is a moron. Now, she is known as a moron in the New York Times as well because this article makes her seam petty and cheap, surely prissy and pretty bad at customer service, that’s for sure.

Shit, if you own the company, “the rules” can always be ignored — rules are for dumb employees who have no authority so that spineless customers who don’t know their rights can tell their spouses that they tried and there was “nothing I could do.”

“New consumer opinion gets posted about every five seconds,” said Rob Crumpler, chief executive of Buzz Logic, which helps businesses identify influential bloggers.

Samantha DiGennaro, who runs her own strategic communications consulting firm in New York, says many companies either run scared from electronic media or fail to realize how quickly negative comments can jet around the Internet.

“People think, ‘It’s only on the Web. It’s not that important.’ But it’s almost more important than a newspaper or something in print,” she said. “Things live in perpetuity on the Web.”

Spoken words and even IM is “ephemeral,” meaning it is said and dissipates. When you post a blog entry or write a review, it goes on a permanent record. Since most companies have have websites that are essential “brochure-ware,” if there are enough negative reviews, these reviews can even place higher on Google than the company itself!

And, this “blog effect” even works for people who don’t have the Super Ninja SEO skills that I have just because Google favors deep sites, sites with lots of inbound and outbound links, sites with keyword-rich textual links, sites that are easy to “recognize” because they use predictable architecture, and also sites that are updated frequently. Google favors frequently-updated content above any other because Google is always afraid of missing something. Google wants to be first so Google will always index something fast and often if it is a site that is being constantly-updated — like a blog, a message board, or a review site! Ha!

Some large marketers may blog or respond anonymously. Ms. DiGennaro said appropriate responses were not one size fits all and must be tailored to the particular case. If something merits being addressed, she said, it can better be done in the name of the company rather than hiding behind anonymous postings.

Good lord, do not astroturf — it might seem like a great idea but it will give you nothing but pain!

Finally, Defensive Search Engine Optimization (Defensive SEO) works! It works! And here’s how, in a nutshell:

On the technical front, a search engine optimization expert can tweak a site so that it moves a positive posting higher in an Internet search, tending to bury the negative one. Shailen Lodhia, vice president for sales at Submit Express, an optimization firm in Burbank, Calif., estimated results could take three months to a year, and monthly retainers could exceed $3,000.

The best defense is a good offense. Useful practices include registering personalized e-mail addresses as well as gripe domain names — not with the intention of using them but to prevent others doing so. Registering common misspellings as well as derogatory domain names is a good precaution and so is covering extensions like .biz and .org. Costs are minimal, some lower than $50 a year.

And here is the money-shot of the entire article: you will not only be judge on the dumb or good things you do, but people know that you can really judge a company during a fit of rage, so you will also be judged by how you respond!

“Some people, for whatever reason, aren’t going to like or appreciate what you’re selling,” she said. “Accept this as normal, and you won’t stay awake at night letting a disgruntled client or a negative person who decided not to use your services bring you down with what will be transparently obvious to most people as sour grapes feedback.”

Angie Hicks, founder of Angie’s List, a member-generated ratings service where users report their positive or negative experiences with local contractors, said every company gets complaints at some time, but the way it responds can be more telling than the complaint itself.

“You can really see how that company is going to stand by their work based on how they handle problems that come up,” she said.

Don’t even try to attack, to counter-attack, to start making excuses, or by insulting or defaming your attacker. Remember what I told you about the tar-baby? Well, waging war with online conversation is an insurgency and requires asynchronous warfare techniques… I like to call them asynchronous marketing and asynchronous PR — forget about it, I already locked down the domain names!

McKinsey posted a report on the results of a survey they recently took of marketing executives. It’s called How Companies are Marketing Online. The report may not have earth shattering findings, but it does offer some key insights into the future if you read between the lines.Three things stood out in my opinion.

One is that current levels of spending and implementation are quite low as compared to how marketers and other decision makers perceive the overall effectiveness of online marketing.  This will mean that future investment in online marketing is bright as the level of investment will catch up with this perception.

The second was the lack of understanding of various facets of online marketing and how these facets should be integrated, implemented, and measured.

Many marketers also felt that, while they themselves and their internal folks weren’t up to speed quite yet when it came to online marketing, the marketing agencies that they used weren’t as well.

And this was a contributing factor in the delay of implementing strategies.The third was that the majority of respondents felt that online marketing was more efficient than traditional marketing. This underscores the expectation of the growth in online spend.

And fortifying this was that marketing online was roughly equally as good for brand building and direct response.Early in the report, it mentions that respondents expect that the majority of their customers will discover new products or services while they are online. A full one third of them will purchase them there.

Also, 10 percent of sales will come from online channels, an increase of 100% of what it is today. These expectations are going to be the impetus behind the increased spending that we’ll see.I can’t help but see this as a continued strategy of seeking to get immediate ROI, a factor that may have limited growth at this point.

And I’ve always viewed that as a mistake. The reason I see it as a mistake is that companies need to invest in knowledge and experience to develop and implement the right strategies as opposed to wait a while and finally invest money in what they may view as only tactics. Indeed, the report mentions that 42% of the respondents felt a greater investment in the overall capabilities would have made their initial investments more effective.

That’s because the online arena is not going to be a place where you toss out a conglomeration of tactics and hope they stick. Together they formulate a strategy and a very important one at that.Significantly, many of the companies that advertise online see it as both a brand building and direct response vehicle.

And that includes search advertising. I see this making sense for several reasons. People, as a whole, whether they are acting as a consumer or a business purchaser, have taken in the internet deeper into their lives. It is no longer relatively new.

It is a necessary part of one’s life. With this, online experiences become richer. So people go online to learn and to get information. Ergo, effective online advertising helps build brands and increases direct sales.Finally, companies that have been making significant online investments are including collaborative tools for customer retention and brand building.

This is important because we in the so-called echo chamber have been saying that companies must ‘engage’ their customers online. Get in conversations. You know, a Marketing Conversation.

ZenithOptimedia is predicting that the percentage share of online advertising to advertising on a whole will increase from 7.5% in 2007 to 9.5% in 2009. I’m betting it’s going to be higher. And in part for the similar reasons they do.

Online video is improving and it’s becoming more and more common as a marketing communications vehicle. Broadband expansion is slowing down, but expansion, while important, isn’t the only factor. It’s also how we use and will use video that will cause a continued increase. Broadcast and cable will increase their understanding as to how to make online video more profitable with hopefully, little sacrifice in popularity.

Zenith also says that local search will fuel this increase. Once again, I agree. But I’d expand this. As more and more mid-size and larger companies realize the important of search – and search optimization – they’ll invest more in better sites, further increasing the importance of search. And, yes, those local companies will realize that their customer base is going online for local info. They can’t rely on tradtional methods they once did.

But I’d also add that the growth of social network sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube will fuel even greater online ad share growth. Right now, they’re in the process of figuring it all out. Once they do, more dollars will be transfered online.

To me, the increase will come from the greater use of improving online applications. My guess is that it will push it up closer to 12%.

	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Newspapers	29.7	29.0	27.8	26.9	26.2
Magazines	13.2	12.8	12.5	12.2	12.1
Television	37.8	37.9	37.9	38.2	38.1
Radio	8.6	8.3	8.1	7.9	7.8
Cinema	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.5
Outdoor	5.5	5.6	5.7	5.8	5.9
Internet	4.8	6.1	7.5	8.7	9.5

Source: ZenithOptimedia

I asked Kevin to write a blog post (which rocked) based on my assumption that the US is headed towards a recession based on the devaluation of the dollar, the housing market slump, and the war in Iraq. I believe that marketing and advertising online is recession-proof, especially as attention profiling and behavioral targeting strategies improve and ads become customized to each the unique hopes, dreams, needs, wants, and context of users online.

My premise, in short, is that folks will hunker down during this recession with only the “Internet” to keep them company, in the form of VOIP, IPTV, social media, MMORPGs, and networked video games.

Essentially, folks will spend all of their attention online so there will be more ad and marketing dollars spent online in order to reach them. During the upcoming recession, search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), new marketing, online outreach, online engagement, online advocacy, viral and word-of-mouth marketing, targeted direct marketing, and laser-targets online ad buys will thrive because they’re relatively cheap, focused, and where the people are, while print ads, commercials, and radio spots will plummet: too much buck for the bang.

We’re going to have a recession. let’s just make that assumption.

Usually, during a recession, ad revenues drop. My argument is that during a recession, people stay home more. Web surfing is cheap, amusing, plentiful, and also most amusing with broadband. While people may cut down cable, they will keep their Internet connection — and will hunker-down on the Internet while they’re low on personal spending money, on discretionary income.

My dad was an photographer and ad man in Hawaii during a recession in Japan that totally gutted the the Hawaiian economy. Traditionally, the first thing companies do when the shit hits the fan is pull ad dollars.

In that scenario, my dad’s company almost shuttered. What this shakedown did, however, was created stock photography and video, killing the bespoke day-rate on-site corporate photographer. Something always comes out in the end.

Downturns result in a need to make systems more efficient and more effective. It just wasn’t affordable for agencies to hire shooters to do shoots, bespoke. There were too many variables and all the risk was on the shoulders of the client. Stock photography changed all of that: cheaper and oftentimes better, since the shooter incurs the risk and the stock is “all the best of all time” and not the best that a particular day, week, or season had to offer.

How effective is plastering walls with bills or standing on a soap box when people are at home and online? How effective are commercials on cable channels people drop as a “luxury?” How worthwhile are those magazine ads when people drop their subscriptions to GQ and O?

The Internet is a commodity. Broadband is no longer a luxury — people are not willing to either go back to “rabbit ears” or to dial up. Folks will keep their basic cable, I am sure — it is a commodity — and they will keep their Internet, another commodity.

Is it very interesting time. I guess this is sort of a prediction. We’ll see if it all comes true. Check out that Canadian Loonie, eh?

Well, at the end of the day, I will always quote Kevin Donlan quoting someone else:

“When times are good, you should advertise. When times are bad, you must advertise.”