SocialSmack gives "props" and "drops" to brands

Thanks to the ad:tech blog for publishing this first.

Good news! Social media give you windows through which to see how your consumers are feeling about your product. Bad news: that’s potentially 200 million windows!

OK, that is a bit of an exaggeration. Because not every person online uses your product or talks about their product experiences. But we all know that it is very easy to get caught up in the enormous amounts of social data that may be available for your brand. Monitoring tools can find the commentary for you, but that still leaves you with the challenge of sifting through it and addressing problems and opportunities.

An Austin-based start-up called SocialSmack is trying to change the paradigm for brands and consumers by creating a community expressly to share brand experiences. The idea of SocialSmack is that consumers can describe their experiences using a product, have those distributed to their social circle, and potentially get feedback and a response from the responsible company, all in a dedicated brand feedback community.

Imagine you want to tell the world about a great experience you had with your new Chevy Volt.

You make the comment on SocialSmack (on site or through a mobile app.)
It is distributed to your social network of friends (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
Other members of the SocialSmack community can give Chevy a thumbs up or a thumbs down based upon your comment. They can also thumbs up/down the value of your comment. (Thumbs ups are called Props on the platform, thumbs downs, Drops in SocialSmack.)

It might stop there. Or it might not. Because if Chevy was part of the SocialSmack community, they would see your comment immediately, and be able to contact you with thanks ore a deal or a reward of some kind, or with a remedy if your experience wasn’t positive.

Here’s their pitch presentation from last year’s Demo competition:



We all know that companies can turn fans into superfans and naysayers into supporters through proactive listening and responding. This sort of thing is happening with increasing frequency via Twitter and on Facebook pages. What SocialSmack does is create a more engaged consumer community that gives and is rewarded for providing more feedback to brands, which creates a more focused environment for brands to understand and respond to consumer experiences.

In order to create an active SocialSmack community, the site uses simple game mechanics to drive more site participation and reward more and more valuable commentary and criticism. Users garner points and badges by:

Making comments
Providing ratings
Commenting on others’ comments
Voting brands up or down
Voting other users up and down
And more.
Part of the premise is that participants in a dedicated community are likely to:

Participate more
Make more comments
Be more responsible in their critiques of brands, products and services
Viral the community to friends and family to earn points and enliven discussions

Will people be more likely to offer comments if they are part of a community that expressly encourages and rewards such behavior? Time will tell, but it would certainly seem to offer benefits to brands if a community like this “makes it.”

COD: Waze means getting there without the road hassles

Thanks to the ad:tech blog for publishing this first.

OK, $5 will get you $10 you have heard of this one already.

Waze is a social mobile application providing free turn-by-turn navigation empowered through the live conditions of the road. This Israel-based start-up combines great turn by turn directions with real-time crowd sourced reports about driving conditions and congestion.

Based upon the idea that the 101 is only the best way from Palo Alto to San Francisco as long as the traffic is moving, Waze automatically detects the car speed of members, identifying congestion zones before Sky Chopper 10 makes it to the scene. You download Waze onto your smartphone, then take that phone with you (you were planning to anyway, right?) as you drive. GPS tells Waze where you are and how fast you are moving. When traffic slows or stops, Waze colors the roadway behind that user red on its real time traffic maps.

That's the passive foundation of the platform, but Waze also allows people to describe road conditions at fixed points, and even photograph the causes of traffic issues and problems. Special local driving clubs help add more depth to the reporting, as well as a bit of fun and connection to others.

Before you even ask, please be assured that Waze actually won't allow a driver to send updates and photos when the car is in motion. So don't think that this is a safety hazard. Rather, the platform is out to save the enormous amounts of time and energy spent in traffic slowdowns and jams. Here's a guided tour.



They have all the maps -- the key with Waze is to get a critical mass of drivers signed up in a given market, so that they can offer genuine value in the driving conditions "essence" of the offering. To drive greater usage, the company is planning to incorporate some social gaming elements that reward people for desirable actions. That's a nice twist and may add a little fun to the drudgery of commuting.

Waze works with the following smartphone platforms:

-Android
-iPhone
-Symbian
-Windows Mobile
-J2ME (RIM)

They plan to monetize in part through geo-loco-based ads and offers. That's how brands and agencies can fit into all this. The added information that Waze can provide about a consumer may be valuable in a geo-loco context.

COD: Needium helps SMBs strike while the iron is hot

Don’t you just hate it when marketing gets mock professionalized with terms like “acute need state?”

No chance of that pomposity from the people who bring us Needium, a social media lead gen solution for SMBs that is really intriguing. The Needium people call a spade a spade, meaning that they say that the ideal time for small business to contact people is when those people really really want something.

Have you ever posted looking for a dentist recommendation? Or a restaurant suggestion for that business trip to Paramus, NJ? The data record for those searches and queries is right out there in the public domain, and through these messages people have expressed an interest in getting ideas and suggestions from the larger community.

Using Needium, the small business sets up an account, defines the needs that are relevant to its businesses, and periodically reviews a dashboard of the status updates and tweets from people in their areas that are seeking their type of services.

They can then follow up on any needs that make sense for their business. In addition, the service also scoops up specific mentions of individual businesses so they can manage their own reputation.

To respond to a need or a comment about their business they simply click the respond button. They can also join public discussions and offer their expertise and solutions directly to a broader audience.

Cost of the service is $100 a month, and the focus on identifying stated needs and life stage changes makes the information extremely actionable for small businesses.

The Montreal-based start-up is active in a number of Canadian and US cities, and is expanding that list. Service is available in English and en Francais. Something for small businesses to explore — helping SMBs to drive ROI from social media discussions in a simple and easy to manage way.

Brand Belief Starts with You

Do consumers believe in your brand? Do you?

I’ve talking to my Father a lot over the past few days, and one of his favorite topics is the Dodgers.

The Brooklyn Dodgers. He was a proud Brooklynite. And a major Dodgers fan. Until they moved. For him, the move was a betrayal. A realization that the team owners cared not one whit for Brooklyn or its people.

Which was, in his view, a violation of the brand though he wouldn’t use those words. But the nature of Brooklyn and its people was a big part of the Dodgers brand. They weren’t just a group of players brought together by paychecks – they were an embodiment of the spirit of the Borough – always in the shadow of Manhattan, and determined to scrap and scrape to be on top.

In my 25 or so years in marketing, I have been struck by the number of people I’ve met who were charged with building brands they disdained. People who had contempt for their targets if they were downscale or religious or extremely pedestrian in their aspirations and dreams.

Enter social media. The powerful thing about a TV ad you produce once a year or a print ad you spend thousands on is that it gives the savvy the opportunity to pretend – to pretend to share the values of the users that drive the brand. To pretend that a product is far better than it is. Car photographers and food stylists and supermodels can also be used to obfuscate product issues instead of focusing resources on fixing them.

What I love about social is that there’s no place to hide anymore. No way to paper over fundamental product issues or elitism. In this new environment, truth will out. If we don’t believe in what we are selling, we’ll surely be found out.

We have instincts about which brands care about their products – and us. Is there any doubt in your head that Steve Jobs is a believer? Jeff Bezos? Tony Hsieh?

Even when we don’t know who is behind brands, we love it when brands and the people behind them demonstrate genuine belief in their offerings. Take Cadillac. There are lots of reasons why Cadillac is back, but I think a big part of it is that Cadillac got its groove back – the brash, in your face, look at me sense of this aspirational brand returned as the design team started designing actual Cadillacs again, and everyone else – from the dealer to the men and women on the line – felt good about what they were making and doing. You could feel it. You can feel it.

What other brands feel like they believe in what they are doing?
• Tide
• Hyundai
• Contadina
• Ford
• Flip
• Tyler Perry Studios
• JC Penney
• Tourism Australia

Those are some on my list, anyway.

The popularity of cause related marketing is an interesting side to this belief thing. Many brands are using borrowed interest to give their brands a sense of purpose. I think that’s great – but it doesn’t replace the need for everyone involved in a brand to actually care about their product. Because cause related marketing makes me feel good about this purchase, whereas brand pride and brand belief make me feel good about being loyal to the brand. Now, causes can make me feel better about buying a brand, but they can only supplement – not replace – genuine belief in the things were are making and doing.

Let’s head back to Ebbets Field for the closer. There were a lot of reasons why the Dodgers moved, not least a big fight with the city over a new stadium. Sound familiar?

Anyway, whatever the reasons, there’s no doubt that most Brooklyners felt betrayed. For the Dodgers it didn’t matter much – after all, baseball was a local business and LA was a long ways away from Coney Island. But when we fail to believe in the people that buy our products -- and in those products themselves, the consumer can sense that betrayal.

Think about that the next time those consumers you disdain aren’t signing up in droves for your FaceBook page.

Thanks to iMedia Connection for publishing this first.

How to Choose a Social Media Management Tool

Thank Heaven that there are lots of companies trying to make the process of managing and analyzing social media presences better. As more and more brands recognize the importance of social, most have also concluded that they cannot effectively deliver positive social experiences manually. They need automated tools to make the process easier, more dynamic, and easier to track.

The need for powerful and efficient management tools is there whether you have one presence or hundreds, whether you’re only on Facebook or have outposts on 50 different platforms. Since we’ve helped a number of companies with social media program management, I thought it might be useful to share some of what we have learned with a larger audience. So here’s a summary of some of the most important features to look for as you choose a social media management platform to deploy across your clients or company.

1) Content Management System Features

We often think of a “CMS” in the context of a major corporate site, but it’s just as important in a social media management platform. Perhaps even more important. Because the need for constant updating is so acute in social. Here are some features to look for as you weigh alternatives.

• Ability to deliver content to lots of social platforms. As with anything else, you are going to want to work with a versatile platform. Because social is so dominated by FaceBook/Twitter, it may be OK to work with a Facebook/Twitter only tool now, but make sure they are planning to cover more platforms in the future. Because if there is one certainty in social network history, it’s that market hegemony isn’t forever. Ask Compuserve, AOL, Napster, Friendster, and MySpace. Further, you should be able to choose social media destinations for each piece of content. Because what you send to Digg should be very different than what you send to FaceBook. The easier it is to decide where a particular piece of content goes, the happier you’ll be in the end.

• Ease of Content Creation: Some platforms allow you to create content right in the platform. Is the process easy, or is it complex? Intuitive, or convoluted? Easy is going to be important to any social manager, but for people managing multiple brands, or multiple presences for a single brand, it’s going to be critical. The number of steps required for content creation is important because social managers are going to spend only a small portion of their time creating content. Most of their time should be spent on listening and responding.

• Page Aesthetics Tools or Helpers: Some social media presences open themselves to more custom tailoring of page appearance. Having ways to quickly and easily alter the aesthetics of a page can help brands reinforce messaging with their proprietary look and feel. Some services offer very easy to use tools, others don’t. If you don’t have designers on staff, easy to use tools can be a blessing and a curse. A blessing in that you won’t have to involve a designer every time you make a small change. A curse because most nondesigners have a knack for shocking colors and turning on the wet floor, shadow, outline, and ripple effect simultaneously. Ask our team what it’s like to deal with two color blind partners. LOL.

• Post Aesthetics and Content Helpers: There’s probably a cooler name for this. But what I am talking about is the ability to post content and ensure that a screen shot or key image are posted, not just a link. And the ability to change the text of a post is also useful. Similarly, an automatic URL shortening tool helps immeasurably. Instead of making trip after trip to Bit.ly, you can just have the platform do it. Some solutions also let you customize the shortened urls to give you an additional level of brand impact.

• Collaboration: Two things to look for here. The first is the ability to create, edit and manage content across people within an organization. Ideally, a platform lets content developers input their work, and then manages the flow of edits, updates, and approvals across an organization. Permissions capabilities are going to be important here for many companies, especially those to the left of the “risk-o-meter”. Obviously, the need for failsafe procedures and processes varies somewhat depending on the size and type of organization. For example, a large company in a highly regulated category like pharma would probably want features that prevented posting of content without prior approval from legal, etc.

• Multimedia capabilities: You’ll want to be able to post a variety of file types. Text is so cheestastik. Actually that’s not true. But brands cannot build by text alone.

• Prefab applications: Every social program I have worked on benefitted from interactivities that tackled the challenge of making passive likers into brand participants. A platform can make that much easier by offering built in applications that work on at least some social media sites. A drag and drop poll. Virtual gifts. Ecards. People are far more likely to respond to “apptivities” than to make freehand comments or take it upon themselves to spread your message virally. Most of the current social service offerings provide these features primarily for Facebook.

• Provisions for scheduling of posts: I’ve seen a lot of data on the relative effectiveness of pre-scheduled posts. By which I mean the use of a platform that allows you to specify the date and time of future posts. From the anecdotal info I have seen, it appears that for many brands advanced scheduling can be just as effective as managing everything in real time. Of course there are exceptions. If you are BP trying to message during the worst ecological disaster in North America, you aren’t going to want to “set it and forget it.” But if you are in a fairly sleepy category and realistically don’t have a plethora of posts to make every day, scheduling tools can reduce the time commitment necessary to operate an effective social media program.

2) Listening, Response, and Analytics Tools

Listening to fans, followers, and likers – really really listening – should be the primary task brands assign to social manager. We all talk about the 20/80 rule – the principle that a small number of users purchase the lion’s share of your product is well known. So, if you accept that your social media “fans” are in the 20%, then shouldn’t you take loads of time to listen and understand what folks are saying in the aggregate? In my view, there are two kinds of listening that are critical.

Identification and escalation of “acute” response needs: For this challenge, you are going to want a service that makes it easy and fast to review site posts and comments. From policing profanity and personal attacks, to responding to questions and requests for information, to quickly identifying and escalating complaints or other acute problem posts.

Aggregated insights into all of the commentary: Simply responding to issues and problems only scratches the surface of the value you can glean from social media fans. By pairing the richness of being able to see real commentary with the ability to use quantitative analysis to assess the overall tenor of discussion and topics, brands can get ideas and feedback that can fuel a host of marketing initiatives.

As you evaluate platforms, consider whether or not the alternatives offer the following:

• Automatic escalation of posts and comments containing profanity, or posts and commentary that have been flagged for review. Keeping a “clean” group generally helps grow brand connection and group participation.

• Console showing all recent commentary from users so the social manager can scan posts for items needing immediate follow up. Obviously a service that includes these follow up needs within its CMS would make things easier for all parties.

• Platforms that flag competitor names and keywords to make it easier for the social manager to spot and address the comments, or escalate them to appropriate team members.

• Ways to respond to the comments from the CMS rather than having to manually find the comments within the social media presences.

• Tools that provide insights into ALL of the commentary on a group. Measures like sentiment, KW analysis, themes, etc. can help a brand gain insight into what consumers are really saying and needing.

Many of you may find this last point a bit of overkill, especially if you are already monitoring social through a listening or analytics platform. But remember that some of the most popular social platforms, including FaceBook, are very challenging for social listening tools to monitor.

3) Metrics Considerations

While most brands still find it difficult to track social media activity back to sales, we can do better at using surrogate indicators and other admittedly “softer” metrics to assess impact. Many of the platforms available today are quite effective at providing this sort of information. I suggest you look to insure that the platform you select be able to track the following:

• Clicks on Posts
• “Likes”
• Clicks on Links
• Plays of Multimedia Content
• Responses to Interactivities
• Shares/Retweets
• Time Spent

Further, the ability to get reporting on these measures in real time or near real time will help you make timely decisions on how to alter or augment your social activity with regard to a piece of content. For example, you may post a video to one Facebook presence, and see that it gathers significant views and shares quickly. This could help you decide whether to expand the reach of that content across more sites/presences.

4) Price/Value Concerns

Social media management tools can have wildly different pricing, from free to quite dear. Cost of services broadly relates to the extent to which they make tasks, easier and more intuitive, as well as the availability of “drag n drop” apps. In working with clients on this challenge, I have found it helpful to do some simple calculations to identify money versus time tradeoffs. Social media management has both direct and opportunity costs, and it’s relatively simple to compare the cost per year of one service versus another if you have taken both for a test drive.

Final Thoughts

The number of social media management tools out there is mushrooming. One rule of thumb I suggest people use is a simple annoyance test. Take the platforms you are considering for a test drive. If you find some aspect of it unintuitive, talk to the seller about how you can address it. But do talk to them. Because something that is annoying to do once is rage-inducing when performed 192 times a day.

There are certainly very good platforms that don’t do every single thing I have mentioned above. I suggest you work closely with your marketing and social media teams to identify the features that are going to be most important to your business. This is definitely NOT a decision to make in an afternoon because the effectiveness and efficiency of what may well become your most frequent consumer connection is at stake. What’s also at stake is the sanity of your social media manager. Choose wisely.

Special thanks to iMediaConnection for publishing this first.

Finding Your Social Mojo

Thanks to MediaBizBloggers for publishing this first!

I’ve been working on a presentation to give at iMedia Sydney Australia, built around the idea that we need to think about creating relationships with consumers as akin to courtship, nuptials, and married life. In it I am using examples from about 20 countries to show how a variety of brands are courting their customers socially.

And the most salient observation I can make is that the idea of a one-size-fits-all approach to brand participation is patently absurd. Our collective rush to identify and exploit digital magic beans sometimes makes us forget that our brand campaigns have to be as unique as our brands.

For indeed social is simply participatory marketing, not a medium. Social is permeating every media channel, reflecting the truth that consumers prefer personalized experiences across the board, not just on sites where we friend one another.

Preparing the presentation has been a great experience because it has forced me to seek out examples and industry news from across the globe – which is not something I want to do during a typical week. I’ll leave to you to interpret whether that is marketing xenophobia or simply focusing on what matters most in my job today.

In my quest for examples, I’ve learned about Walls, a UK food company that has a multimedia effort showcasing the unique eccentricities of Britons. The campaign asks ordinary Britons to compete to appear in ads where they can showcase their peculiar passions. Mind you, this in a country with a high standard for eccentricity. Where an obscure aristocrat collected thousands of wigs that stuffed every room in his manor house from floor to ceiling. A country where Chelmondeley is pronounced “Chum-Lee”. A place where yeast extract is a delicacy. There is a unique, delightful form of crazy that Britain has a lock on. Tender Britons', please note that I point to your obscure behaviors with loving support. Long live the Belisha Beacon!

But back to the contest. Entries range from “Extreme Ironers” who press clothes while balanced on speeding cigarette boats, to a knitting circle that has created a blanket the size of a soccer field. Where seniors have organized a club in which they compete at pole dancing. Where other people delight in making ginormous versions of snack foods because…well just because. And the whole kit and caboodle of this effort goes far at reinforcing the uniquely British “Proper Food” Walls excels at producing.

The campaign is superb.

And so is the wonderful Australian Tourism effort in which Aussies were asked to submit photos of their favorite hideaways across the country. More than 29,000 people participated, providing what has to be the only travel site that didn’t use (or for that matter, need to use) pro photographers to capture azure ocean vistas and the Opera House at sunset.

Personally, I’d much rather see a snapshot of someone’s favorite billabong.

Another: the fascinating Raymond Weil campaign that asked consumers to describe in their own words what the brand should be in the future. To read these entries is to vicariously experience sincere love.

Which is not to say that good old Yankee ingenuity is dead. Not by a long shot. Pepsi’s Refresh Everything effort and its remarkable charitable overlay are growing that brand as it cures social ills that for whatever reason our government is unwilling or unable to address.

My point is each of these campaigns is wildly different. Each took the essence of its brand and its customers and shaped a participatory initiative around that message. They all recognized that social isn’t a channel. It’s people. People who are anxious to be part of the brands they love.

I for one am delighted to participate in a marketing era where a major national brand is delighted to associate itself with extreme ironing.

Brands that made consumers love them forever

Special thanks to iMediaConnection for publishing this piece first!

Building a brand romance

In Italy, there's a principle called la bella figura. It essentially boils down to the idea that you ensure that your public persona always "looks" good -- that you consciously work to control other people's impressions of you. La bella figura has been the driving principle behind brand marketing for decades. We put gorgeous people in ads using hero packages in gorgeous settings, telling our stories in the most flattering ways.

But today we have nuova figuras -- consumers anxious to be a part of brands but also unwilling to simply accept an impression we package and deliver to them. They want to help, but they want their brands to be real. They want to know about the experiences of other real people, and they want to participate in defining and portraying the brand.

As a boomer, I find all this pretty remarkable. When I was little, brand identification was rarer and more subtle. You were proud to wear Levi's or whatever, but buying a T-shirt emblazoned with a gigantic Levi's logo -- that would have been a bit over the top.

Sometime in my formative years -- I think it began when Brooke Shields started talking seductively about her Calvins -- all that changed. Today, kids will engrave logos in their crew cuts. Brands can sell logo shirts for $20-plus, rather than having to give away the shirts to get people to wear them. And Flickr is chock full of photos of people proudly sharing the limelight with their favorite products -- from Marmite to Tide.

This all poses a remarkable opportunity -- but one that requires careful "strategery."

How do we cultivate relationships with consumers that create lifelong loyalty? I think there are lessons in human relationship building -- in dating and marriage. The way we attract, impress, and partner with consumers have strong parallels to the ways in which we find mates. It's a progression, from dating, to marriage, to having babies, to starting to look, sound, and act alike. People don't marry us just because it's what we want. Relationships are joint decisions, and brand relationships are no different.

With this piece I want to take you through four stages of relationship building:

• How brands get consumers to "date" them
• How they get that marital level of commitment
• How we work with consumers to develop new products (our babies)
• And how ultimately we enable our brands to define us, and, to some extent, vice versa

Around the world brands are tackling this concept of brand marriage in unique and intriguing ways. Remarkable brands are jumping headfirst into the relationship pool, finding themselves at different stages on this four-stage continuum. Just as with human relationships, there's no cookie-cutter formula for making a relationship work. The paths to sharing a life together are as different as the brands themselves. Let's take a look at some of these brand romances and see what we can learn.

Dating: Brand meets user

When we're out to meet someone, we try to look the way that they will find appealing. Some brands manage that on their own, albeit with real consumer insights. The Dove campaign is a powerful example from a brand that used substantive consumer analysis to land on an idea with universal female appeal.

But many brands -- and people -- are presentation challenged. In dating, a new book pointing out the fashion and appearance mistakes of men is selling well. Entitled "Undateable," it also has an important metaphorical lesson for many brands. If you want her to be truly happy with your appearance, it's best to just let her dress you.

Hundreds of brands are using digital to do just that. In its simplest incarnation, car banners that allow viewers to try different colors are built around this concept.

More complex examples can be found across the globe. DHTML banners and ads powered by technologies like Linkstorm enable users to drill down and customize their ad experiences. Still more extensive examples of user-customized marketing experiences come in many forms. An Australian supplement company called Blackmores http://www.blackmores.com.au/ has transformed its website into a peer-to-peer community revolving around users' goals and questions.

Rather than hawking jars of supplements, the brand allows users to discuss needs and benefits on their own. Products arise organically in conversations. Perhaps most remarkable is that this community has more than 300,000 members, in a country with about 22 million inhabitants. To give American readers an idea of what that means, if Australia's population matched that of the U.S., the site would have 4.3 million members.If it were in the UK, we're talking about more than a million members. RE-MARKABLE!

Retailers are getting in on the game with virtual mirrors that allow users to customize brands entirely on their terms. Meanwhile, websites like Ray-Ban's have long made it possible for users to try on eyewear virtually, another incarnation of this same concept.

In another example from Down Under, the Australian Defence Force uses multiplayer games -- as does the U.S. Army -- to enable users to virtually sample military experiences of their own choosing.

Since they began using the games as recruiting tools, more than 1.5 million people have registered and played, and thousands have made inquiries from the games.

In short, different brands can find unique ways of enabling consumer customization -- and a program can be devised for virtually any budget.

Getting hitched: Sharing the stage with the consumer

This stage is about becoming a "we" -- about collaborating with consumers to develop marketing messages. The best U.S. example I can think of is the Pepsi Refresh Everything campaign. As we all know, Pepsi spent decades winning sales by juxtaposing stars of the instant with young messaging and a flavor profile best suited to under 18s.

Pepsi entered the new millennium doing what it had for years -- pairing the white-hot celeb with a youthful message. This 2002 ad, starring Britney, pretty much encapsulates the entire campaign -- a bajillion dollar ad with everything that always worked until we entered the social age: celebs, singin' and dancin', massive casts, beautiful settings, and catchy tunes.



The social era made the brand head in a decidedly different direction. The Refresh Everything charity overlay lets consumers determine how Pepsi marketing dollars get spent. Pepsi sales are up, and the web traffic to the Refresh Everything website eclipses that garnered by Pepsi.com.

That's only natural seeing as how there's a decidedly real reason to want to visit.

An English meat brand has launched a multimedia campaign starring its users, who demonstrate that special brand of crazy at which Brits excel. The "Proper Food" rebranding effort for Walls began with ads that show people with deep passions -- for hobbies and Walls products.



The next phase of the effort was a social media program pitting Briton against Briton in a contest to win £5,000 and a role in a Walls ad that showcases their eccentricity. And what sorts of response are they getting? Some examples:

• Chess boxers (a simultaneous fight and chess game)
• Extreme ironers (who iron in unusual venues like on the hood of moving cigarette boats)
• OAPoleDancers (OAP is the abbreviation for old age pensioners)
• Snack pimpers (makers of enormous versions of U.K. junk food)

(Check out these and others here. http://bringitonbrits.wordpress.com/)

Unmistakably British flavors of nuts, from a quirky proud British food company.

Bun in the oven: Making products together

The next logical step is co-creation, the co-defining and sometimes the co-designing of new products. Obviously this takes a higher level of commitment from both the brand and the consumer.

Pizza Hut is using social media globally to devise new flavors to meet local tastes. A recent effort in Brazil unearthed 80 different distinct recipes, thousands of votes, and a hot-selling new item.

In Korea, Pizza Hut did the same on the Korean social net Cyworld.

A mindboggling U.K. start-up called Ucodo http://www.ucodo.com/ actually enables consumers to co-design consumer products online, which are then produced. Within broad parameters the consumer can push, pull, stretch, and twist the virtual design and have their co-designed item delivered to them.

I have never said "Will wonders never cease?" with greater sincerity.

Starting to look alike: Becoming the consumer (and vice versa)

There's a centuries-old meme about couples converging on similar appearance over the years. This is perhaps the strongest evidence of a symbiotic relationship, and a number of brave brands are taking the plunge with great results.

Back Down Under for the first example. Tourism Australia created an amazing effort that asked Australians to upload photos and descriptions of their favorite places across the country to give tourists ideas on things to do. More than 29,000 responded, and the happy would-be traveler can explore this user-generated content in a wonderful visual interface.

This is just one of Australia's social tourism efforts -- a participatory strategy that has garnered it more than half a million likes on Facebook. Compare that to the number of likes for the U.S. on Facebook.

Although spouses might grow to look alike, one of the best things about having a partner is that often one person finds it easier to say things that the other can't. One can speak up while the other might simply endure to avoid a scene.

Consider this effort by U.K.'s Labour Party during the last election. While Labour lost, it's easy to see the power of its social effort that asked Labourites to make parody ads for the super-slick "I am a just a bloke too" efforts of conservative David Cameron. Lefties delighted in mocking Cameron's protestations of folksiness. First, everyman David as Ali G.



And a biting attack on the Tory's defense of fox hunting:


Now, the party couldn't officially print things like this. But its consumer spouse? Why not?

Conclusion: Are you ready for a consumer LTR?

You sort of have to be. With the latest figures from Forrester showing tens of millions of consumers anxious to connect and create content for brands, it's incumbent on you to harness this enthusiasm in light of declining marketing effectiveness for traditional media. These five points offer a starting point for brands hoping to tie the knot with consumers:

1. Just like dating, it's important not to get ahead of yourself. Pick a level of commitment that works for both of you now. Not every brand or every consumer is ready for serious commitment yet.

2. Don't say things you don't mean. Don't promise things you won't go through with. Remember that Chevy Tahoe campaign? Think your program through.

3. In a relationship, the idea is to share decisions -- not be a doormat. It's your responsibility to enhance the brand through participation, not abdicate your role.

4. Marriage is work, and not everything turns out as you expect. Some programs will succeed, and some will fail. You need to be ready for that.

5. Dating the young has a special challenge. Young people expect more of a role. If your target is under 25, be prepared to give consumers a pretty big role.

Finally, whatever stage you are ready for, make sure your campaign reflects your brand as vividly as a TV ad might.

What's NEW in Social

Much love for iMedia Connection for printin' this puppy first.

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If you said "social media" to a marketer 18 months ago, chances are they'd have thought exclusively of social networks. No more. We're seeing social capabilities incorporated into virtually every digital experience. This has brought opportunities and dilemmas for marketers. I say dilemmas because lots of brands got online by pounding to fit a broadcast-shaped peg into an interactive-shaped hole. They developed one-way websites, banners, and search programs. Social media analytics tools are showing us that this model had many flaws.

But as more and more brands embrace social for the two-way offering it is, it's important that we keep abreast of major news in the segment.

This post is designed to give marketers some highlights of what new initiatives, offerings, and companies appear to have traction. It's not for the social "expert." Rather it's geared to the generalist who wants a survey of some of the more important and interesting developments.

Without further ado, check out this summary of social developments divided into four "buckets":

Facebook Open Graph and the socializing of content sites

Facebook's new Open Graph (OG) initiative is a means of adding value for its members across the web while simultaneously enabling content publishers to offer social features. In OG's launch week, more than 50,000 sites incorporated OG components. Many of those implementations were small, such as adding a "like" button embedded in content. But here are some of the ways it's being used on a grander scale:

Pandora is leveraging Open Graph to facilitate the sharing of music and discoveries between friends. Capabilities include:

•See a list of friends who use Pandora
•See which artists and songs are "liked" by friends
•Import Facebook pic into your Pandora profile
•Listen to friends' stations
•Get music suggestions based upon music you "liked"
The Huffington Post has socialized its content by offering a "Hot on Facebook" module, a "what your friends are reading" module, and a "like" button on most stories.

Newspaper sites are incorporating a sort of "your news" box that lists the latest "news" you have received on Facebook. Yes, Facebook's hit some roadblocks and hurdles over privacy. Assuming it gets past those, Open Graph will make profound changes in how we consume content.

Promoted Tweets debut

The big news on Twitter is Promoted Tweets. These are sponsored tweets that appear in the Twitter Search results.

Twitter announced Sponsored Tweets and its charter sponsor list (Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America) in April. More recently, Twitter altered its terms of service to ban the Twitter platforms and third parties from embedding sponsored tweets into users' tweet streams. Twitter shared this rationale:

First, third party ad networks are not necessarily looking to preserve the unique user experience Twitter has created. They may optimize for either market share or short-term revenue at the expense of the long-term health of the Twitter platform. For example, a third party ad network may seek to maximize ad impressions and click through rates even if it leads to a net decrease in Twitter use due to user dissatisfaction. Secondly, the basis for building a lasting advertising network that benefits users should be innovation, not near-term monetization.
UnFacebooks and user control

Partly as a response to concerns about Facebook's privacy missteps, a number of alternative social networks are attracting attention. From tech blogs to Elle.com, the UnFacebooks are a popular story. Of course Orkut, MySpace, and Friendster are also trying to capitalize on Facebook's stumbles. But here are some new sites getting play:

Diaspora: Billing itself as "an open source personal web service that will put individuals in control of their data," Diaspora is the brainchild of four NYU students and has raised more than 20 times its initial funding goal. The idea behind Diaspora is essentially opt-in, versus the major social sites' opt-out approach. It is working feverishly to get everything going this summer.

Pip.io lets users define different "rooms" of people that they want to share information with. Users can also define if they want one- or two-way communications with their rooms.

A self-described "social operating system," Pip.io is clearly trying to be more than a social net. When you visit, make sure you are using Firefox or Chrome, not MSIE.

Story of My Life is a new platform enabling members to tell stories in a variety of media and make them private or public. I love the idea of letting more people tell the stories of their lives. And not just in words.

Does it sound like a blog platform to you? Yes, but the community features make it more than that. And it's really more about defined stories than a stream of consciousness.

Social search

The biggest proportion of online dollars goes to search, so let's take a look at some of the "new" social search offerings:

Mahalo bills itself as a human-powered search engine that combines machine results with expert and consumer recommendations. From its beginnings as a search-focused entity, it has now added a lively Mahalo Answers section and Mahalo How To, where experts help users accomplish tasks.

Wowd (disclosure: a Catalyst:SF client) helps users understand what content is popular now and what content users like best. Users download the application, and conduct searches that reveal:

•The most popular pages related to the search query
•The freshest content available on a topic, whether just created or just viewed by other Wowd users
•Real-time content from most sites, not just a select few
•Pages that other users have rated as most valuable
Wowd is for people who are interested in the latest information on a topic -- in the things that are happening now and the content that has just been created or updated.

By combining a sophisticated search algorithm with consumer behavior and ratings, it provides a unique perspective.

Delver is a social shopping community that helps people find the best products and make the best buying choices with the help of friends, family, and the community at large. The idea behind this offering is to create a community around shopping and help people learn from each other about interesting products and the best places to buy them.

The bigness of this concept is that the site is out to make online shopping fun, rather than a utilitarian experience.

The portals (and Meebo)

The social strategies of the major portals are very different from one another. At one end of the spectrum, Yahoo is leveraging social content from its own sources as well as third parties like Facebook. Apparently, Yahoo has concluded that trying to create a new social media entity won't work. Instead it blends the information available from existing platforms to enrich Yahoo channels.

On the other end of the spectrum, Google is still trying to create a homegrown social platform to help it become a leader in providing social content. One of the more interesting integrations is its flavor of social search. By linking your Google profile to social platforms, you get search results that include comments and content from connections.

Google Buzz is a social sharing service integrated into Gmail that lets you share statuses, text, photos, and videos easily. Public and private sharing are offered.

Google Wave is a collaboration platform that creates a shared space for teams. Participants can add text, photos, and videos in real time. The vision for Wave is to replace a variety of other applications with a single environment.

Microsoft's strategy sits between these two poles, though it's closer to Yahoo's. Bing is leveraging existing third-party communities to socialize search results. Now tweets, blog posts, and shared links are incorporated in results.

But Bing is also striving to create unique social-centered experiences. One example is how it integrated social into Bing Shopping. According to its blog, "With a single click you can ask for advice from your friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter for their take on a product you saw on Bing Shopping."

Meebo's strategy is to focus on its strength in instantaneous sharing to carve out social territory. Its new "Meebo Bar" offers publishers an easy way to socialize content and promote virality. This ad-supported bar appears when a Meebo user visits a bar-enabled site. Users can send pages and content via IM of course, but also through email, Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, and Yahoo.

Conclusion

Sharing content and opinions is something consumers seem to want in many of their web experiences, not just on specific social sites. How some of these companies and platforms will work with marketers, or indeed if they will work with marketers, remains to be seen. But consumers show a marked unwillingness to pay for content, so my guess is that many of these companies will be a-knockin' on our doors before long. That doesn't mean that they will work with us using the classic advertising model, though.

I would be remiss not to mention blogs as the "sleeper" of social. It seems that these high-quality, high-passion, high-depth environments often get overlooked by marketers. While social nets and Twitter can offer us enormous reach, so can blogs, many of which offer the added benefit of expert perspective and depth of content. They may not be the shiniest of the social objects, but in my view brands would do well to spend more time and attention on them.

An article like this omits other good companies and developments. If you are working on something that is more real than vapor and want me to talk about it as a follow-up, send me an email. If I like it, I will be happy to follow up with a brief piece about you.

White Paper Wednesdays: Future Of Media In the Social Era

You can always count on a good deck from Forrester's Jeremiah Owyang and this little gem is no exception.

The Future of Media in the Social Era

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: socialmedia social)

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

White Paper Wednesdays: Marketing Beyond Social Media

An excellent preso given at Ad Club this year. Check dis awt.

Beyond Social Media: Ad Club 11/08

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: socialmedia trust)

White Paper Wednesdays: Social Media Marketing

Well, it's Mark Silva Wednesday, apparently. Here's another of Mark's decks, this one a comprehensive intro and "skate key" to the world of social media.

Real Branding Social Media 20080513 Final

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: web2.0 realbranding)

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

White Paper Wednesdays: Facebook Marketing 101

Vidar Brekke, formerly of Linkstorm and now CEO of Social Intent, put together a short 'n sweet preso on Facebook Marketing 101 that is definitely worth a read.

Facebook Pages 101

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: socialnetwork viralmarketing)

Their company is interesting in that it is focused on integrating brands into the social media environment organically.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Predictify: Make Predictions, Earn Reputation, Connect With The Like Interested

Are you good at predicting the future? If you are than you may find Predictify totally fun. And if you suck at predicting, you may find Predictify fun as well.

Because Predictify is VERY fun.

Think of a social site built around current events. Then ask members to make predictions about what will happen next. Then build a back end that tabulates individuals' accuracy and gives everyone a score. Then let members connect with one another based upon common interests. Built it all and you have a cool business.

Actually, you wouldn't because Predictify does all that very well, and has a humongous head start. So just join Predictify and have some fun instead, until you think of a new idea.

Here's their 1 minute pitch from Tech Crunch:



Here's a sample voting box, which is conveniently embeddable most anywhere on line. Oh, yes, virality:



The marketing and monetization angle on this is the opportunity to pose sponsored questions. That's a cool way to drive consumer involvement in a brand.

I predict a bright future for Predictify...

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Digital Marketing Factoid Of The Day: Interest In Social Media Among Leading CMOs

From MediaPost Marketing Daily:

More than one-quarter (27%) of consumer and B-to-B chief marketing executives surveyed online in late October by GfK Roper Public Relations and Media for marketing services firm Epsilon identified social networking and word-of-mouth as the tools they would most like to introduce to their marketing mix to compensate for anticipated budget cuts--ahead of all other traditional or digital marketing channels.

However, more than half (55%) of the 180 responding chief marketers--representing brands with revenues ranging from $250 million to more than $10 billion--indicated low current interest in actually incorporating the networking sites into their plans.

One-third said they're "not interested at all" in getting Facebook and MySpace into their plans, and 22% said they're "not too interested," while 35% are very or somewhat interested.

Other, more "traditional" social media scored far higher on the very/somewhat interested in integrating question. More than half (52%) ranked both Internet forums and Webinars in this category, followed by Webcasts and podcasts (47%), email (also 47%) and blogs (37%).

Just 10% reported that they are already using Facebook and MySpace in their marketing plans.

imeem Goes Android! Encore Encore!

Regular readers of this blog know that I like imeem, which is why I am excited to tell you about their new mobile ad platform, which is paired with their Android-based imeem application.. I really like this concept because it combines so many youth-centric things – giving it a great opportunity to attract and hold viewers and advertisers.

Imeem originally launched its Android app about a month ago, and it has already climbed to the top 10 Android apps, and is the number one streaming music app for that fast growing mobile platform.

This is not one of those announcements wherein vaporware is heralded. In fact, imeem already has a major advertiser lined up to market its newest product. Here’s an excerpt from their press release:

Kia Motors America (KMA) is the first brand advertiser to leverage imeem's new platform, using it to promote the Kia Soul, an all-new compact SUV launching next spring in the U.S.

As part of a cross-platform advertising campaign, Kia Soul will have a branded display presence across the imeem for Android user interface, as well as a featured Kia Soul-branded Internet radio station on the application. In addition to its mobile advertising program, Kia Motors will have a presence on the imeem.com service through a profile and display advertising on media streaming pages throughout the site.

“Kia Motors wants to reach its target audience through creative campaigns that complement their style and fast-paced way of life,” said David Schoonover, Customer Relationship Marketing Manager for Kia Motors America. “imeem helps us achieve that goal by connecting our brand with a youthful community and an engaging social music experience that fits the Kia Soul lifestyle.”

“imeem has created a way for advertisers to live at the center of consumers' social music experience,” said Jason Meil, executive vice president and director of Innovations at Initiative, Kia Motors' media, marketing and digital company. “Working with imeem will enable Kia Motors to meaningfully tap into an engaged community where millions of people express themselves with music and media on a daily basis.”

By offering ads in this integrated application, imeem can provide real cross media opps with that highly desirable social media component that more advertisers are seeking out.

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to write.

White Paper Wednesdays: "Email Marketing Goes Social"

A thought provoking white paper on combining email with social media is available here from SilverPop. I found it rather valuable and interesting -- a compelling take on getting more accountability in social and more reach from email.

They describe it as follows:

Now you can combine the targeting and metrics of email with the viral nature of social networking to create powerful, far-reaching campaigns.
Registration is required, but SilverPop is most definitely an outfit that does NOT SPAM.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Classtell Brings Easy to Build and Use WebSites To Teachers

I was somewhat shocked to hear that my 13 year old nephew was required - REQUIRED - to build a social media page for class. It was on a special site, not FaceBook or MySpace, but it still surprised me. And then I began to see the sense of it -- a way to keep in touch with class activities, homework, and the like.

It still bugged me a little because of the potential predator aspect, but the site is password protected, and I guess I just have to face the reality that he is out in the real cyberworld now. Naturally that will be very good for him given the way the world is going, and he's a sensible lad, so the danger is remote. But I definitely feel for the fears of parents today.

So I wanted to tell you about a special web service that a Canadian company has developed for teachers called Classtell. The idea is to make it easy for teachers to develop a web presence that could organize information and communicate to students and parents.

The need is real. Presumably it means no more notes pinned to jackets, and greater communication with parents and kids alike.

Here's how they pitch themselves to educators:

Classtell was created because the options available to teachers for making websites weren't good enough.

Find out how Classtell is better:

EASY TO USE
Your time is precious. So every aspect of Classtell has been designed to be intuitive and efficient. This means you get to do everything, from setting up your site to updating it, as quickly as possible.

EASY TO ACCESS
Your Classtell site can be accessed via an easy-to-remember address (e.g. jsmith.classtell.com). Or, your students can find your site by searching for your name. And once they've found it, they can subscribe to your site to be notified of any changes via RSS.

USEFUL FEATURES
You can create an unlimited number of pages on your Classtell website. These pages can used for assignments, calendars, blogs, and more.

You also have one gigabyte (1GB) of storage space on your Classtell account to upload and share files, handouts and photos with your class.

BEAUTIFUL THEMES
You can use one of the beautiful, professionally-designed themes to change the appearance of your site.

GREAT SUPPORT
If you ever run into any problems with your Classtell site, or need help with a feature, send us an email and we'll get back to you in about 24 hours. We're happy to help.

TRY IT!
Don't just take our word for it — give Classtell a free 90-day test drive and see for yourself.

I am impressed that they have developed such an easy to use set of site builder tools. Teaching is no 9 to 5, and making it easy to use is absolutely critical for both adoption and continued use.

Here are a few screens of what a site can look like:

Presumably they have a number of other templates as well, but I like it that they focused FIRST on usability. Better design can come later as well.

The tool for building and populating a site with content is also very easy and efficient:





Pricing is very reasonable as well, which is a good thing because for American teachers at least, I'm guessing they will be forking over themselves. Districts that can't afford books won't be buying websites.

Anyway. The cost is $20 Canadian per year, which buys the tools, the url, and 1 gig of storage. I'm guessing that space limit will be going up in future so teachers don't have to constantly be deleting old docs to make room for new.

Sorry, marketers, this is an ad free environment. Which I am sure will make teachers and parents feel even better about it.

It's a nice platform, and I am guessing it will become quite popular.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Kidzui: What Parents Need to Keep Kids Safe Online

I have been intrigued by the world of kid’s social media since it debuted. In my view, a number of companies have done a good job of it, particularly in the virtual world’s space. I speak in particular of the Barbie site, Cartoon Doll Emporium, and Disney’s Club Penguin.
But beyond that segment, real innovators are harder to find. I liked the “ecircles” model of Jitterfingers and others, though one would have to be prepared for a somewhat slower traffic build when by design a site only lets so many people connect.

But when I saw Kidzui, I have to say that I was quite impressed. Kidzui is essentially a kid safe browser that gives kids a broad range of content and the liberty to pursue lots of types and sources of content, but without taking serious risk online.

Here’s how they describe themselves to parents on their site:

KidZui is a kid’s browser with access to over a million websites, pictures and videos reviewed by teachers and parents like you.

KidZui has all the sites and games kids love and tons more. It’s a fun, safe and engaging environment that rewards curiosity and builds independence.

KidZui does not create content. It comes from all over the Internet – over a million kid-friendly websites, videos and pictures and it’s growing every day. KidZui is built by real people who care about kids. Over 200 trained teachers and parents have reviewed and approved sites, videos and pictures using a rigorous content selection process. And our reviewers don’t just approve content, they categorize it for age-appropriateness and by topic.

As a parent, you will receive weekly e-mails that will keep you up-to-date with what your kids are searching for and looking at on KidZui.

Use the Parent Account on KidZui.com, accessed from any browser to tune in to what your kids think is cool and to plan family activities around their evolving interests.
KidZui is free for all kids to use. We do, however, offer a membership option which provides kids and parents with many additional features.

KidZui is a customizable Internet for Kids built from the ground up. We have trained teachers and parents on staff reviewing content around the clock so the Internet for Kids never stops growing. And KidZui is ad-free.

Within its prescreened world are over 1 million pieces of content – games, web pages, YouTube videos, and more.

How do they pre-screen? Well, I was very impressed by their multistep process, including both technological and human culling:

STEP 1
Content, including websites, pictures, games, and videos, is brought in for editorial review because computer algorithms have determined it is likely to be appropriate for kids. The algorithms immediately eliminate any items that include content KidZui would never allow—profanity, for example.

STEP 2
A reviewer thoroughly investigates the content to be sure no unsatisfactory elements exist, and essentially catches anything an algorithm cannot. This ensures that reviewed content is consistent with our content guidelines.

STEP 3
The content is labeled if it includes any of the topics that KidZui has identified as sensitive. The labels are used because KidZui wants to let parents choose whether or not this type of content is ok for their kids. Every topic has been defined for each age group, and parents can see what those definitions are when deciding whether the content will be available to their children.

STEP 4
The content is now assigned to the proper age range. Editors work from developmental checklists when assigning age. They always select a minimum, but they do not necessarily have to enter a maximum. For example, content might be marked as appropriate for kids 8 years and older, or it could be marked as best for children ages 5-7. The goal is to provide “just right” content that will never frustrate a child for being too hard or too "babyish".

STEP 5
The content is given a name. Key words that match the content are entered, so that a child searching for the topic of the content will see it on demand. The content is also added to a “category”, and placed with other content that is similar, thus ensuring that a child searching for something particular can see all pictures, videos, and web sites in his or her age range on that topic.

THE RESULTS
The content is now available in the KidZui browser. We know it is appropriate. We know what age child will see it. We have even categorized it so that kids can find it easily.

The topic of kid safety is a very big deal. Here’s a vid of a Today Show segment that discusses the topic and Kidzui:



Because of the many safety features of this environment, I can see some parents availing themselves of the option to “set it and forget it.” But Kidzui also offers some excellent features for involved parents to keep track of everything their kids are doing. Kidzui can see weekly emails outlining the activities in which their kids participate, and they can also access a dashboard that provides real time info on the things their kids are doing online.

A basic level of service is free, while $8 a month premium membership enables the user a broader set of features and levels of customization. Additionally, parents can add individual sites that the Kidzui site hasn’t reviewed yet – for example, the site of the local school or church.

As you can tell I really like Kidzui. It definitely meets a need without giving kids the sense that they are being shut off from the world. Check it out yourself!

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to write.

FriendBinder: Keeping Tabs With Your World

I am not the first person to point out the inherent complexity of keeping track of your connections across multiple social networks. Heck, I am not the million and first. But the need is there.

Imagine it's a Friday and you want to find something to do with your peeps. Where do you start? FaceBook? MySpace? Bebo? Any of a thousand of other sites?

Well, the people at FriendBinder want you to start with them. The premise behind this site is simple: aggregate the news from multiple social venues in a single place where you can peruse it en masse.

Here's their elevator pitch from Tech Crunch:



Additional tools essentially allow you to rank your friends or put them in circle and by doing so enable filters on FriendBinder to help you quickly focus on what you are interested in from what could very well be a veritable mountain of updates.

Currently in private beta, FriendBinder is just getting its start. It's not the only site that is working to help people make sense of the complexity of social media, but it is very clean and easy to use. Definitely worth a click to check it out, both as a personal service and as a potential future venue for highly targeted advertising efforts.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

White Paper WEDNESDAYS: The Social Web Unboxed

Wayne MacPhail made this excellent survey of web 2.0 available at Slideshare. Through the miracle of embeds, you can enjoy this great deck right here!

Social Media Unboxed

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: media social)

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.