Social Media Marketing Makes You Care

Earlier today I mentioned a Hoover’s promotion on Twitter. A person I know through Twitter and LinkedIn responded, tried the product, and may purchase.

Here’s the interesting thing: in my career in traditional marketing, a campaign may drive thousands of leads. In that context I care about the customer experience as an abstraction: will a bad experience hamper the campaign performance?

I’ve never met this person face to face. We had a nice conversation via LinkedIn Answers and we interact on Twitter occasionally - not a deep relationship, just the ongoing stream of ideas that Twitter represents. Even so, I feel differently today. I’m concerned that Sales, Customer Support and other team members treat this person right.

Traditional marketing (online or offline) forces you to care about customer experience. Social media marketing goes deeper. It forces you to care about customers.

Is social media changing how marketing is done? Wrong question. The right one is this: is social media changing marketers?

Doing more with less…

…is a good idea only if what you were doing before was poorly conceived, half-heartedly executed, or both.

Therefore, managers who exhort you to ‘do more with less’ may think you’re stupid. Or they may think you’re incompetent. Most likely they themselves are completely out of ideas and are hoping you’ll pull a marketing rabbit out of a hat and make them look good.

If you want huge improvement don’t focus on doing more with less. Focus on doing different with other. Figure out which programs are break-even, which programs are still on the books because they’re an executive favorite even though results can’t be demonstrated. Throw those away.

Then take those resources (time, budget, focus) and do something different. Instead of looking for more resources, look for other approaches that aren’t being employed.

In their glory days, Southwest Airlines didn’t beat the established players by doing more of what American and Delta did with fewer resources. They did something different - no hub’n’spoke, no unprofitable routes, no reserved seats. That did that with other resources than the established players used - lower-skilled labor, only one type of plane, the airports less traveled. Netflix didn’t challenge Blockbuster with marginal gains in efficiency, and Amazon didn’t take on Barnes & Noble by shaving points off opex. They did different with other.

Google Streetview Freakshow

As the picture shows Google is moving faster than the speed limit in their effort to index our planet. Several sites feature Google Streetview catching folks at amusing moments. JimmyR has one, and the Google Street View Gallery is here.

Chris G and I spent time this afternoon looking at Steve Jobs’ Mercedes (snazzy) and our friend Jasen getting out of his minivan (not so snazzy, and spelled right). The Google Streetview picture of a dog doing his business makes my inner Beavis snicker but gets old quickly. One can play ‘Where’s Kevin Bankston‘ for fun, but move fast since he always has his pictures (smoking or not) removed. In short, Google has indexed our daily life and Google has yawned.

I propose that we mix it up. We can call this project ‘Google Streetview Freakshow’. Here’s how it works:

• Some smart folks figure out when Google will be mapping a given area. We’ll need some inside help on this - Jon W, are you in?
• Plant bizarre or unusual things on the route and organize flash mobs. A few ideas:
  • Wear jester hats, Kevin Bankston masks, anything you can think of
  • Recreate the cover photo from ‘Strange Days‘ by The Doors
  • Glue captions to neighborhood cats and create real-life LOLcats in ur streetvu
  • THE ULTIMATE: create a Google Streetview Freakshow Rickroll. Doing this will get you into geek heaven no matter what you’ve done
    
• Find the photos and link to them in the comments on this blog. Or just submit the concept. Conceptual artists shouldn’t be burdened with execution

Google thinks we’re boring. Let’s strike back with a Google Streetview Freakshow!

Thanks to Google Streetview (of course) for the image and for permitting me to live on the planet that they clearly own

Even Superman had the Fortress of Solitude

Heard another manager - a high-level one who I respect greatly - measuring ‘engagement’ among employees by counting cars in the parking lot the other day. Sigh.

I am sure that on his annual review Superman gets dinged for the time he spends in the Fortress of Solitude. “Supe, you could do just a little more world-saving if you were F2F more.”

No point here, just venting. I rarely telecommute in my current role but, when I do, I’m productive. It enhances rather than diminishes my leadership. People who are present physically and absent mentally, in contrast, are a drain on any business. It’s the very definition of wasted opex.

There are times I crave working in a ROWE (Results-Only Work Environment). To borrow the first commandment of ROWE, “Work isn’t a place you go, it’s something you do.” When you’re counting cars you’re managing appearances instead of measuring results. Appearances are only worth managing where they matter (where employee and customer interact, for example).

A car-counting manager openly admits “I have no way of measuring what you do.” A motivated employee takes that as a punch to the solar plexus - however hard I work, it’s not noticed. A demotivated employee hears the expectation clearly. To keep my job I show up, drink coffee, polish the resume, surf the web, and take solitaire lessons from Scott2k. (An obsession with managing where employees go on the web is a slightly less dated but equally misguided version of car-counting).

Managers get what they measure. Maybe I missed something. When, exactly, did the shareholders ask for lots of cars?

Terse Reply Syndrome = Best Marketing Campaign of 2008

OK, it’s early to call a winner. But take a look at the Terse Reply Syndrome site from Jott. Bst campgn of 08 if u ask me.

Several things have come together. First, they’ve identified a pain that many live with and don’t even think of as solvable. Second, they’ve targeted a product very specifically to that pain (I haven’t used it so I can’t vouch for it’s effectiveness). Third, they’ve specifically targeted those who feel the pain. Sure, winning a corporate IT department would be a big win for them. But those IT departments don’t feel the pain in the way that the users of those IT assets do. Generate enough end-user demand and trial and the IT folks will move to accommodate it.

This has great viral potential. Watch one of the videos and try to keep yourself from forwarding it to at least one person. A simple but highly focused Website, a couple of short videos…this can’t have cost very much. Their ROI is going to be huge. Thanks to Rohit for pointing it out.

Long Meetings, Large Teams and the Powerful Pro-Crack Lobby

Back in the 1980’s when I played music with Jeff Graham, we passed the highway time by making fun of anything we could think of. One of his favorite targets was a Missouri politician who took a strong anti-drug stance. “Mighty courageous,” Jeff would say, “takin’ on that powerful pro-crack lobby.”

Jeff’s words come to mind as I evaluate recent discussion from Matt at Signal vs Noise on ideal team size and ongoing conversations with colleagues on how many meetings are too many. Matt’s post drives home that there is broad historical agreement on nine to twelve as an ideal size for a team if getting something done is the intent. My only geek-obsessed contribution to his thoughtful analysis is to observe that this principle will continue to be relevant far into the future. Jeri Ryan’s Borg character on ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ was Seven of Nine, not Seventy-Three of Nine Hundred and Eighteen. And the Borg had collaboration tools that even 37Signals can’t match (yet).

Thing is, in many years on several Corporate American starships I’ve yet to be on a project team larger than that. So if the answer is obvious, why do we keep asking the question as though it were a controversial one? Not sure about crack, but on the other two I think it’s because ’small teams, short meetings’ is the right answer to the wrong question about what makes us unproductive.

Even ten can be unwieldy for a project team. I prefer four or five when possible; there is no place to hide and it is crystal clear that the work won’t get done unless each person does their part. It never seems to be the project team that slows things down anyway. It is the endless flow of Borg drone ’stakeholders’ who emerge from Giger-inspired corridors saying flatly “your project will be assimilated into our roadmap.”

The idealistic approach to fending them off is to authorize the project team to set phasers on kill. Nice for ‘Star Trek’ to get past that Prime Directive hokum, but impractical in the Collective that is Corporate America for many of us. If you work in a company of any size, one of the non-idealistic approaches I’ve seen work is use of a RACI chart.

There are variations and the chart is less important than the mental discipline in acting based on who is:

• Responsible (does the work)
• Accountable (one single owner of success or failure)
• Consulted (has knowledge needed or is a stakeholder impacted enough by the project that their opinion must be considered)
• Informed (needs to know what’s going on but is not consulted)

Confusion on the last two - not team size - is what most commonly bogs projects down in my experience.  People overestimate the degree to which any given project affects them and place themselves in the Consulted quadrant. Suddenly teams that you’ve never heard of are setting up meetings and requesting deliverables. The stakeholder creep begins. Without a clear definition of whose opinion can (and, more importantly, can’t) alter the project direction, Borg drones overwhelm the away team every time. When that happens you’re best off being beamed outta there.

Matt’s right that a small, effective team doesn’t need documents like a RACI chart. What he misses is this: the chart isn’t for them. It’s unimportant to identify who’s on the team. The key thing is to identify who isn’t.

Social Network Fatigue

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at Computerworld says he doesn’t want to friend me. With an ever-increasing number of social media options, who can blame him? He has a long track record as an online social networker, with roots going back to managing listservs and Compuserve groups.

Zude is a promising option for those of us facing social networking site fatigue. As Brian Solis observes, it allows the user to incorporate elements from other social networking sites into a personal Zude page. Almost anything can be dragged, dropped, remixed and mashed up.

I’ve often discussed the need to be able to keep all one’s social capital in one place. Zude is a first step towards what that place might look like. Right now it looks more like MySpace than LinkedIn, but there’s no reason it can’t be used for professional purposes. And a professional Zude-type tool would have the added value proposition, if done right, of saving busy professionals time by updating everything at once and doing away with the need for multiple passwords and online identities.

Baby steps. But steps in the right direction.

Thanks to mattkeefe for the image

Inertia Marketing vs Loyalty Marketing

Once a customer is acquired, subscription businesses make a choice between inertia marketing and loyalty marketing.

Inertia marketers make it easy to forget you even have the product. They don’t remind you that you have the high-end cable package; their billing is designed to avoid calling attention to that fact. They reach out when they think they can upsell you, but beyond that they’re silent as much as possible. If you talk about not messaging to your customers because you don’t want to ‘wake the dead’, if your strategies are designed to communicate only when necessary…you’re an inertia marketer. Inertia marketing is driven by fear that you are not worthy. If customers thought about their subscription, they’d cancel.

Loyalty marketers remind you that you’ve purchased their product. They remind you of the value. They communicate to you that they’re grateful for your choice, and they find ways to pass on extra value in their marketing communications. Those extra-value tips also drive usage of the product, making the value clear. Loyalty marketing is driven by confidence and hope. If you think about the subscription, you’ll feel good about the value and tell others about it.

When everything’s stable retention rates can be about the same with both strategies. There’s extra goodness from loyalty marketing, but it doesn’t show up in retention - it’s in new customer acquisition driven by word of mouth.

For any given customer the difference becomes apparent in times of stress. The Netflix account that you never use, the paper that you rarely read…gone. The insurance guy (thank you, David Hearn) who always delivers extra value by making things easy for you stays, even though Geico would be cheaper. That’s only one household, though…when times are stable it doesn’t make a difference and marketers rely on inertia because it’s cheaper.

In an economic downturn, every customer is under economic stress. That’s when inertia marketers ask “How can we promote loyalty?” Without a wayback machine they may be out of luck.

The Silicon Irony of Shutdown Day

‘Can you survive for 24 hours without your computer?’ asks the Shutdown Day website.

Jack Bauer couldn’t. Here’s the script I’m writing for a season of ‘24′ that takes place during Shutdown Day:

“Chloe! We’re running out of time! Have you hacked into the satellite grid to get the coordinates?”

“I can’t, Jack! It’s shutdown day! We’re saving energy and having a flash mob! Do you have a map?”

“Dammit Chloe, there’s no TIME for a map!”

“Jack, this conversation can’t be happening! This is a VOIP phone! Hello? Hello?!!!”

I’m a fan of movements, of flash mobs, of almost anything that gets people to try thinking and acting differently. Despite being a marketer I’m a fan of Adbusters’ Buy Nothing Day, for example. Getting away from the computer and interacting in person is good. Shutting down to save power is good. No arguments with any of that.

But there is a rich cultural irony in Shutdown Day. My first PC in the dinosaur days was not connected to anything. I did word processing, spreadsheets and games on it. Movements in those days were a mainstream affair. They had to be - unless a lot of people felt the same way you did, it was far too expensive to build a network of like-minded people. So movements occurred where like-minded people happened to be clustered. Proximity spawned both the KKK and the Watts riots.

That changed the day I plugged a 14.4K modem into my PC and launched an application called Trumpet Winsock that let me find information with Gopher, download it with FTP, and engage in what the kids these days call ’social networking’ via BBSs. And I soon found an application called Mosaic that let me view all this information I was exploring in a graphical form. Mosaic led to Netscape, then IE, then Firefox. Email connected me with people around the world, then IRC, then blogging, then Twitter.

A lot of things changed, but here’s the important one: proximity doesn’t matter anymore. Whatever I’m into - LOLcats, collecting Beanie Babies or Fiestaware, railing against consumerism, coprophagia (don’t look it up), or anything else - connecting to people who share those interests is easy.

Every aspect of Shutdown Day is not only computer-enabled, it’s impossible to execute without computer aid. Looking at their list of actions, here are some examples:

• ‘Register Online’ - How would one get the word out and build community without the Web site? Potential participants aren’t clustered in any one location or around any one set of interests to make reaching them easy. Mass mailing and advertising would be ineffective

• ‘Make video and photos and take a chance to win one of our amazing prizes’ - by submitting that content online, of course
• ‘Communicate’ - they do advocate talking to friends but quickly add a recommendation to discuss it in online forums, blog about it, use del.icio.us, Facebook and Digg
• ‘Organize Shutdown Day Flash Mob’ - via the Web, of course. They’ll post your information on the site so other organizers can coordinate with you, and please submit the video of your event online
• ‘Advertise’ - on your blog, forum or Web page
• ‘Purchase a T-Shirt’ - using our convenient and secure e-commerce platform

I’m pretty sure that Andy Kaufman is dead. But if he’s not, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the mastermind behind Shutdown Day. It’s meta-satire worthy of Andy.

photo by spiritokko

BBspot Reports Firefox Plugin Offers Rickroll Protection

BBspot reports that Mozilla has released a Firefox plugin that protects users from being rickrolled. It’s satire…I think. They offer this link to download. Go ahead, click on it.