Category Archives: Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing, Social Media

Focus on the Locus

Locus Curve
Locus Curve

Location services, good or bad? Well that depends on how it is used. If you you it to stalk other people, then it could be bad. It could also be a better way to stay engaged. Locus, defined as:
1. a place; locality.
2. a center or source, as of activities or power: locus of control.
3. Mathematics. the set of all points, lines, or surfaces that satisfy a given requirement.

In each of those definitions, it can apply to how individuals and companies react in the social sphere. Even extending the Math definition could help. Starting on the first definition, a place or locality, we can look at recent events to see how this plays out. Protests in the Middle East have been widely reported. Some countries shut down Facebook and Twitter and other sites because they do not want information getting out. By Tweeting or posting an update on Facebook, the people add locations and the world is able to see the events. The storms that swept the south of the United States and wiped out community after community. And location services played a role in re-uniting people, and being able to let others know outside of that area status updates. In the aftermath of the Japan quake, Google provided location services so people could be found and updated. Information flowing, connecting people is just one part of location services.

But it is not just about extreme conditions, or emergency services, it can be used for businesses. We can examine the hotel chains as a prime example. Their business model is to allow people to stay in a place away from home, and be comfortable (hopefully). Hotels needs to have rooms filled in order to make money. If rooms go empty, then it is hard for a hotel to make money. Hotels in larger cities are plentiful and more competition exists to fill those rooms. A new app available on the Apple line of mobile products, HotelsTonight provides a great service that some hotels have taken great advantage. This provides a way for people to get last minute deals on hotels in the city they are currently in. Imagine being in a city and having to stay over night because of a meeting that ran long, flight canceled, out for a night on the town, etc, and you need a place to stay. By using this app, it will provide different hotels with deals on empty rooms. If you ran a hotel in one of these cities, why not use this type of service?

And it extends more. At first, Twitter and Foursquare seemed like the perfect apps for college age friends to meet up, find out what is going on. I have friends in different cities across the United States, and it is funny to see them check in to different places and become “mayor”s of certain places. It is almost like a game of “King of the mountain” that we can play being in different cities, to see who can become mayor of most places. Foursquare provides more information as well. While traveling, we stopped in a restaurant. I checked in to to restaurant and found special deals for this place, and suggestions made by others who had been there before. Some places even offer discounts on the food when you check in at their location. We got a free appetizer for checking in at a local Greek restaurant. All we had to do was show them our iPhone with the check in.

lighthouse
Lighthouse

So why should this matter to anyone? It will not if you do not care about technology. Like it or not, we are becoming an increasingly connected global society. Location services, whether by a mobile application, or by web app, can help. It can help in times of needs, in times of trouble, in times for fun, in times for business. it your place, your locality. Use it for a center or source of activities, provide knowledge of your product. It can be used to help promote your product/service as the solution for the potential customers’ set of requirements at that location. When we start to look at the location services as more than a mere annoyance, and another method to engage and build customer relationships, it can become a powerful tool.

Digital Marketing, Ideas and Sorts, Social Media

At the Dance

When I was a younger kid, I would watch different shows with my parents. A couple of these shows had a similar gag. The Muppet Show had a segment called “At the Dance”, which was similar (a homage maybe?) to Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In cocktail party segments. These segments were great for the one liners, quick jokes, and rapid sequence of conversations. This was great for a viewer and for a kid, well at least for me as a kid, it was funny and interesting.

Muppets: At the Dance
Image from Muppet Wiki

As all young children do, I grew a little taller and started to age through the elementary years until I got to the junior high stage in life. It was the first real time I would be able to participate in a “At the Ball” segment in real life. My friends and I thought this was going to be so much fun. Then we arrived at the dance. The horror set in that we would have to dance with a girl, which up until recently in my life at that stage, had been “icky”. We saw one of our friends dancing with another young lady and when the dance was over, he came back to “our side of the wall” and then got it. Everyone over in our area started to tease him, recite the silly childhood chants of “kissing” and ending in baby carriages. This just made me more unlikely to dance with anyone else. And soon, I found myself in the reality of being smack dab in the middle of a Muppet like segment where I watched others have conversations. I would occasionally say something if I was close by, but it was awkward and usually ignored. At times it did feel like I was left out, and the fear of being ridiculed was too much for me to break free.

Luckily I was able to play football to help me ignore those moments. But junior high soon ended, and high school began. It did not get any better. During the freshman years, many of my friends soon had “others” they would rather hang out with. Their conversations revolved around these type of activities. Ones which I was rarely involved in. Dances were no longer the only times that seemed like the Muppet segment. Now it was in regular times in-between classes, before school, and after school. I would say something. Some times, it seemed like the “parrot” of the group, saying the same things over and over, or repeating what others had said. Sometimes it was witty, and the group would laugh, maybe focus on that for a few minutes, then go on discussing the different events of the past weekend and the upcoming weekend. I knew I could no longer be the social leper of the group.

Punch Out
Do your comments result in this?

It was not just being able to say odd things, or random thoughts in the social circles I traveled with. That usually resulted in a not too pleasant backlash. OK, maybe not as harsh as the picture indicates, but simply saying anything was not enough. Being witty was not enough. Being a joker was not enough. This did not sustain meaningful conversations, and my ultimate goal: being able to take a girl out on a date, maybe even to a dance. High school brought many opportunities for that. Some people may have thought it a waste of time, or remained scared of what others would say. That was not my fear. My fear was being shot down. I no longer wanted to be on the peripheral of the conversation, I wanted to be able to participate and drive it. This led to many other things, as I saw my friends who did this, they always seemed to have dates (and bum money off me). I wanted that.

I had to break out of my shell. I needed to understand that sometimes, I will strike out. Some girls may say no to me (and they did often). I was tired of watching “At the Dance”, I wanted to be part of it. I hung around my friends, I knew the different things they did, I wanted to be a part of that. Too many of my friends got a head start on me, and I had to play catch up. It was possible, all I had to do was understand that I would not always be the center of attention. But I could contribute to this. If I offered something of interest and was able to interact with others, it did not matter if I brought up the topic, or just participated. I was no longer just throwing out random thoughts in a crowded room, I was getting involved with others. Soon my social circle grew, and more people knew who I was. I was no longer the “odd shy one over against the wall”, I was a human being human with other humans. I learned from them, got to understand them, and they understood me. This led to more dates, and more dances.

I was finally not just watching “At the Dance”, I was part of it. I was able to interact. Instead of talking to other people, I talked with them. Instead of just spewing out random items, or saying the same thing all the time, I was able to interact and understand others. Sure I made mistakes along the way, I am sure everyone does. But in my social circle, people knew and understood me, as I did them. When I did stumble, I did not cry over it, and let despair sink in. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back in the game. it was more enjoyable when I actively engaged others, rather than just watch their conversations go by.

Sometimes, companies experience the same thing when approaching social media. Is just being “At the Dance” enough, conversations whizzing by, maybe mentions of the company or its products, and the occasional shout out to the noise in the room?

Digital Marketing, Social Media

Online Identity

3 Comments

I got to this link from my Twitter feed, following @AdamSinger: 4chan founder: Mark Zuckerberg is “totally wrong” about online identity. Before I get into the meat of the article, for those who do not know what 4Chan is (and I am assuming that everyone knows Facebook): 4Chan is an image based bulletin board. Users do not need to register and can comment and participate anonymously in any topic. There are global rules that are enforced, and following those rules, you can participate while keeping a relatively anonymous profile. Some topics can get quickly out of the NSFW arena and has led to 4Chan being very controversial.

The article examines comments made by 4Chan founder Christopher Poole at SXSW. He gave his vision for an online community. This is in stark contrast to Zuckerberg’s (Facebook) vision of online communities. Zuckerberg believes in one identity everywhere online to encourage honest and authentic interaction. Poole’s idea is completely the opposite, he believes in more of a anonymous format that allows for a more raw, untarnished interaction. When people do not know your entire history, you are more likely to experiment and not worried about failing and having that follow you around on the web.

Both parties have an interesting point. So what is the middle on this? I am not sure. On one hand, I am very much for accountability online, and having that sense of online citizenship. When people are anonymous, they tend to be more quick to anger, and quicker to lose values and morals when discussing anything. It is like everyone becomes the Incredible Hulk online when someone disagrees with them. If they had to display their true identity, would they continue to act that way?

But anonymity does allow others to start over. if they screwed up in the past, no history follows them around. They are free to start over. It also allows them to take a few chances. It helps heal old wounds they may have sustained from other internet spots. Content, uploads, images, etc all can be redone in a different fashion.

So what is the best way to do this? I am not sure, but I am sure it is somewhere in-between what Zuckerberg believes and what Poole believes. In social marketing, it is key to not let a “human” moment cause a ton of problem. When creating new social content, be courageous, experiment and take calculated risks. If you mess up, take it lightly, and do not get too upset. Do not immediately turn into a raging green monster, but instead take a turn to laugh at yourself. Remember the Red Cross Twitter flap? They handled a “human” moment well, laughed at themselves, and moved on.

What do you think is the better approach, anonymity or exposed identity?

Digital Marketing, Social Media

Facebook and Personal Data

As I was perusing the web, one of my favorites spots is Mashable. They had an article titled “Facebook Will Continue To Share User Addresses & Numbers“. The article covers the announcement on January 14th, and the follow up on January 18, by Facebook that they will now allow 3rd party applications to access contact information like cell numbers, addresses, etc. Following an uproar by certain groups, and some Congressional leaders, Facebook has put this enhancement on hold, but not killed it. As part of the response, Facebook has even made their own privacy policy more user friendly and understandable by the non lawyer people. This has not stopped certain groups from decrying this and claiming that Facebook is not protecting privacy of its users.

I beg to differ. Facebook is providing a free service to half a billion people. This service has provided a valuable avenue for businesses, entertainment and non profits, among others. But nowhere in any part of this did I ever read that people are forced to share their information. It is about some common sense when going about browsing on the web, whether it is on a social network or not. If you do not want to have applications know your address or cell phone, then do not put it out there for them to grab. When a 3rd party application is asking to use your Facebook account to connect, you do not need to share your data. Never rely on other applications to protect your data.

And on the flip side of this, the 3rd parties building a Facebook engaged site/application, be open and upfront about what information they are wanting to collect and why. Establishing a good bond and trust with the consumer base is huge. And if you want to access their Facebook data, then let them know what you are going to collect and why you are going to collect it. Usually it is not a huge deal, and many people will allow it. Obviously if you are phishing their data to sell the contact information to telemarketers and other mail marketing streams, then you will not be allowed to have your Facebook application for long. 3rd party application builders have to live by certain standards established by Facebook. So if you want to build one of these applications, then follow the rules, and remember the customer.

After reading this article on Mashable, I can see why people may be concerned, but I think it is a hollow concern. Be aware of what you are doing, do not enter your contact information if you do not want to share it, and just use common sense. If someone really wants to get your address and cell phone number, it is really not that hard to get it.

Applications, Digital Marketing, Social Media

Why should you use social media

This is a simple question. I am shocked when I hear business units tell me they do not need to use social media in order to help out their campaigns. It is really quite frustrating. Part of the reason to have a campaign is to get the word out on a product or service, to increase business, brand and market share. Right now, there is a great medium for that, and it is social media.

Mashable posted a great article titled 10 Fascinating YouTube Facts That May Surprise You. On number seven, the article give a very eye opening stat on YouTube:

As of February 2011, YouTube has 490 million unique users worldwide per month, who rack up an estimated 92 billion page views each month. We spend around 2.9 billion hours on YouTube in a month — over 325,000 years. And those stats are just for the main YouTube website — they don’t incorporate embedded videos or video watched on mobile devices.

490M unique users per month?! And that is going to the YouTube site alone, this does not count any type of embedded videos on other sites, or mobile! How could you not take advantage of a medium like YouTube? However, that is not all. Look at a couple other social media avenues, Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook boasts over 500 million users. Facebook Statistics gives us some good insights:

  • More than 500 million active users
  • 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
  • Average user has 130 friends
  • People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
  • Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
  • Average user creates 90 pieces of content each month
  • Every month, more than 250 million people engage with Facebook on external websites
  • There are more than 200 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
  • People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.

TechCrunch’s article on Facebook stats states that “149 million Americans now actively use the social network (as of 2009, the network had 100 million active users in the U.S.). And 70 percent of these active users in the U.S. log on to the social network daily”. According to the numbers for just the US, 149M * .70 = 104M active daily users.

Compare that to the recent Super Bowl in the United States. The last Super Bowl drew a viewership average of 111M viewers. The average cost for a 30 second ad during the Super Bowl is $3M, to reach 111M viewers for 30 seconds one time a year. CNN-Money did an article explaining how the ads are worth the money, and they are, as people do watch for the ads, and then talk about them. Now where do they go to talk about these ads? They are not picking up the phone and just random dialing the phone book. They are going to Facebook and Twitter.

Twitter is no slouch on the social media front. As mentioned above, it helps to perpetuate the talk. The Next Web posted an article on the stats. Some of the highlights:

How many people visited Twitter.com in January worldwide? According to comScore it was nearly 75,000,000 . . . According to Compete Twitter.com received some 23,500,000 visitors. This puts the US market at around one-third of the Twitter user base . . . According to Twitter today some 50 million tweets are sent a day

I took a quick look around two Twitter accounts for stores (the Gap and Old Navy). They use the Twitter account for announcing discounts, new products, new designs, new blogs, mags, etc. That is going to 56k people for the Gap and 33k people for Old Navy to the people who directly follow the accounts. This does not include the millions who watch the public timeline. Just for a few words to type, that may take 30 seconds. A lot cheaper than a Super Bowl ad.

While these are good, I am not advocating abandoning the other avenues, like TV spots, newspapers/magazines ads, billboards, etc. They all have their role as well. But to ignore social media because you may not understand it, or it is not the traditional marketing methods, can really stifle the growth, and could even leave you way behind. The Super Bowl reaches 111 million people one day a year. The ads cost $3M per 30 seconds. It is a great avenue if you can afford it. Twitter reaches 75 million visitors a month. Facebook has an average of 104 million active users per day. It costs less to use the social media avenues, it reaches more people per day. Why should you use social media? Because that is where your customers are.