Best Buy's Social Technology Strategy
This short video is worth watching on how Best Buy is adopting social technology to change their business strategy.
Future of Social Networking Relationships
Photo by Wolf 359
In social networking one of the first things we think about with LinkedIn and Facebook are the relationships we have and make. We have Connections and Friends. Through our contacts we acknowledge through a virtual “handshake” that we can have a symetrical relationship. We grow our “friends” or “connections” sometimes through widgets of “Who you may know” or through referrals.
With Twitter, we “follow” other Twitterers. You don’t have to acknowledge, agree, or allow someone to follow you. They just can. You can follow more people than follow you, and vice versa. This asymetrical relationship with your followers introduces a different type of relationship than Facebook or LinkedIn. The only exception is if you have a closed Twitter account, you have to allow certain people to follow you, which in essence is a form of a symetrical relationship.
After reading Relationship Symmetry in Social Networks: Why Facebook will go Fully Asymmetric by Joshua Porter, it got me thinking about his theory of these two types of relationships. While Porter states that Facebook will take on a Twitter model because of the different style of relationship it allows you to have, asymetrical and thus a larger “network” than a mutual agreed upon one, I believe social networks, like Facebook and LinkedIn should adopt a hybrid approach.
While Porter articulates the four types of relationships that Twitter allows highlighted by a post by Andrew Chen, there is something that is truly to be said about having a formal knowledge of who is attempting to claim a relationship with you.
The four relationships of Twitter are:
- People who follow you, but you don’t follow back
- People who don’t follow you, but you follow them
- You both follow each other (Friends!)
- Neither of you follow each other
“Following” not that different than RSS Subscribers if you think about it. A blogger writes posts, and one or many people subscribe to an RSS feed, or read that blogger on a regular basis. Twitter takes the writing to a micro-level, but the “relationship” is the same.
Why Advertising in Print is Still Smart
This isn’t a researched post. It isn’t one that has a lot of stats or basis to stand on. It is a pure observation that may or may not spark a conversation. I read headlines and hear from colleagues that all the advertising spending in print continues to decrease. It’s moving to online advertising or being cut out completely. This is accelerated even more with the economy saying hello to the ground floor when it has been on an express ride to the skydeck the last few years. However, I think companies and advertisers are missing a point, an opportunity. Better, I don’t think companies “get it” when it comes to marketing their products and services.
I heard on the morning news today that despite the economy, companies are still willing to spend $3M for 30 seconds on NBC for the Super Bowl. 30 seconds in one of the most popularized, entertainment sporting events of the year. Sure, your exposure is to millions of viewers (and a few football fans while you’re at it). Some companies will spend about that much money to nail that 30 seconds for your attention. To resonate with you to take some action. What will be the return? How can it be measured? Sure there are ways, but the measurement is a conversion from one medium to another. TV to Brick and Mortar or TV to Online. Let’s repeat this, the measurement of success will most likely be a measurement of a conversion from one medium to another. That’s where advertisers are missing the point in print.
Traditional uses of print advertising has been mostly around awareness. It’s about branding. But the problem is many companies haven’t adjusted their print strategies to consumer behavior. They see that print isn’t returning results like it used to, and it’s too hard to “measure” a return. The reality is that the C-level management want faster results, and print isn’t one for “timely” analytics compared to online advertising. Additionally, circulation is still a “best guess” number, not as hard-core as actual pageviews/impressions that can be given in online advertising. I get it, make sure you receive value for what you are paying for. However, it’s reality.
Arguments for why online advertising is better than print are completely valid.
- Better tracking
- Instant measurement
- Smaller buys can render bigger results
- Target, segment, target, segment
- Test, tweak, test, tweak
Yes, the are all good. But let’s not forget that people still read magazines and journals. They still like flipping through pages at stuff they can’t buy, or may want to buy, or are interested in. Online advertising, while instantly measurable, still has banner blindness. The fear that a click on an ad will mean they will get more ads, or spam, or more pop-ups. Seeing a full page ad in your favorite magazine means you can read it, flip past it, come back to it, read it again, and then make a decision to do more. No fear. They are in control.
Advertisers need to continue to understand consumer behavior. Understand that your opportunity to grab one’s attention is still valuable in print publications. Understand how you can create an effective campaign to go from offline to online and still measure success. They need to accept the fact that the return on that media buy for an ad in a magazine isn’t going to show results for weeks after delivery. But the incentive has to change. You have to get the consumer to change mediums. Print to online is possible. The messaging has to be right, valuable, yet still enticing enough for somone to go online to do more.
Go back to my Super Bowl example. How long of a lead time do you think companies are taking to get a campaign together for that $3M investment. Weeks? Months? Now how long do you think it could take to put together a campaign and media buy for a print pub? Yes, publishers still need weeks of lead-time, printing, and delivery. So it may be on par with a TV advertisement, but not as expensive. Not a one-time 30 second shot.
Integrate your marketing campaigns into multiple channels. Print shouldn’t be ignored. It still holds value, especially when it is being adapted to new mediums. For instance, Digital publications. Migrating to the Kindle and other digital readers. When evaluating your marketing dollars, don’t forget the print publication. It’s not dead. It’s still valuable. While patience is a virtue, management needs to know print can still return results.
How I Plan to Use Twitter in 2009
Twitter is one of those social media tools that is hard to ignore, but a lot of people are not sure how to use it. Personally, I use Twitter as a resource, a pulse of the industries I follow, and for business. I
try not to use Twitter to update what my kid did today or other mindless
comments. That being said, of course the occasional tweet like that and local news will filter into the stream.
I’ve tried a few strategies on how to use Twitter in 2008 from only following my friends and people I’ve met, to being very selective, to following a ton of people in industries and following almost everyone who follows me (which sometimes I really wonder how they find me). I tried the Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki) approach of getting the fire hose and then paying attention to replies and direct messages. I’ve tried to use it as a sounding board with little success. But that may be attributed to how little I tweet in the first
place. I’ve seen Twitter used very successfully as a networking tool from the sorts of Kevin O’Keefe (@kevinokeefe) and Peter Flashner (@flashlight). However, as we enter 2009 I will use a new strategy. This is important to note because it will help you determine if you want to follow me or not as well as if I will follow you in reciprocation.
If you follow me @FredFaulknerIV you will find useful information. Follow me if you like what I tweet/retweet. Follow me if you are into social media, marketing, business, and associations. Don’t follow me solely for where I work. I will occasionally tweet about work I do for my employer. This will be for good reasons, but not a regular occurrence.
I will also use this Twitter account to also network with others (virtually at first, and hopefully in person at some point in the future). I believe the power of tweets can start conversations, first publicly, then privately over direct messages, and then to email.
The concept of Twitter isn’t going away. MovableType is releasing Motion as part of their platform in early 2009, which can make that platform a major player in the social platform market. Businesses are jumping on Twitter and using successfully. See what Shell Israel is doing with Twitterville. But with all things social media, 2009 will be all about moderation.
So look out for the concept of a Tweet, or a short 140 character message. It is changing the way we think about communicating, what we communicate, and can we be effective in what we say.
Change: Obama and Use of Technology, Marketing, and Social Media
I don’t think anyone can argue
that Barak Obama made history this week.
While the popular vote was no landslide, unlike the electoral college,
Obama had several strategic game changers during election campaign that
separated him from his opponent. So it should come as no surprise that everyone
is now writing about how organizations can use the same tactics and strategies
and apply them to their own organization.
Here are just a few articles and blog posts worth reading over.
Obama’s Seven Lessons for Radical Innovators – Harvard
Business Publishing
What Newsrooms Can Learn From Obama – Recovering Journalist
Blog
How Better Marketing Elected Barack Obama – Harvard Business
Publishing
BNET: Obama’s Communications Moving at Warp Speed
While the use of technology will was not the only game
changer in the Obama campaign, it played a significant role in my opinion. His campaign strategically found ways to
connect with his constituents by allowing them to campaign on his behalf
through myBarakObama blogs, using text messaging for
updates, using YouTube to let video messages go viral, and use of his ever
growing email database.
While I certainly can’t dissect his entire campaign
strategy, he also brilliantly executed an integrated marketing strategy. He took the concept of “small is the new big”
by asking for small donations from individuals, not the maximum from them at
once. Additionally, he asked his
database of volunteers and advocates to do small things such as calling friends
and strangers about his campaign, which resulted in a huge workforce.
I think Obama executed two strategies extremely well during
his campaign. First, he brilliantly used
social media to empower his followers. Jermiah Owyang, a Forrester analyst on
Social Media, researched and found stats on how Obama and McCain used social
media. While Owyang won’t draw any correlations to
the use of social media to his win, Obama commanded the use of the Internet. I
believe it was that use of technology that helped, if for nothing else, give
him exposure to a larger population of voters. McCain followed suit by
participating in the same space, but I believe the generation gap of a 70+ year
old using MySpace and Facebook wasn’t as authentic as a 40+ year old. In fact to compete with Obama’s “MyBarakObama”,
McCain launched McCainSpace using social network took Kick-Apps.
Obama’s second strategic win was how he treated his
volunteers, and that was with respect and authenticity. He would send a message (or tried on several
occasions to mixed results) to his volunteers and donors informing them of what
he was going to do next before he would do it to the media. He understood that by informing this audience
first he not only respected that they want information, but knew that they
would spread that message beyond what the media could accomplish. However, by informing his volunteers and
donors first he also put transparency on his campaign and that, in my opinion,
is a level of authenticity that builds trust.
And Obama’s not done either.
Change.gov launched yesterday getting not only himself ready for the
next four years, but informing the American people as well. As technology evolves, going back to the U.S.
Mail distributing pamphlets to
back in the beginning of our country to TV bringing a face and live debate to
every home to the Internet, our public officials and government will change as
well. If Obama uses the Internet as much
during his presidency as he did during his campaign, change won’t be just that
an African American is at 1600
it will be how he has enabled the entire country to speak to him to make changes
the American people want.
What's Next? 5 Things You Need to Be Thinking About
Ah, and you thought you were going to see a post of genius did you? Well, not yet. That’s the topic of a presenation I’m giving on Thursday to a group of State Bar communications staff. I have a few things in mind, but what are your thoughts? Still room to tweak my presentation. Add your top 5 in the comments. After the presentation I’ll be posting the slides and notes.
Why OpenID Makes Sense
Today’s Wall Street Journal called One Key Fits All tells a tale of something that has been on my mind a lot lately. In the world where websites are requiring users to create accounts to participate from commenting on blogs to reading archives of a newspaper website, user accounts are inevitable. However, from a usability perspective, it is a pain in the rear to remember all the different variations of user names, passwords, email addresses, etc. for all of these websites you may participate in. The concept of OpenID enters the picture as a potential solution to this problem. Ideally it would be the one-stop-shop of user account management.
For those not familiar with OpenID, it is:
…a shared identity service, which allows Internet users to log on to many different web sites using a single digital identity, single sign-on,
eliminating the need for a different user name and password for each
site. OpenID is a decentralized, free and open standard that lets users
control the amount of personal information they provide. (Source: WikiPedia)
Where OpenID gets interesting is when you think about taking it beyond social websites and think of it with larger corporations. It is one thing for Yahoo!, Microsoft, or Google to accept an OpenID protocol, but entirely another with your bank, utilities, and investment websites start to accept it. Think about all the different online accounts you manage, how many of them can you manage with the same login and password. I “try” to use the same information for most of my sites, however, it doesn’t work that way always. Can it be more convenient? Yes.
However, it has several impacts beyond just logging in. Security, fraud issues, and framework maturity are still outstanding for other major corporations ot adopt it. But think about a level of websites beyond blogs, but not quite your financial institutions. Can associations adopt this and make it work? Of course! Can media websites adopt this an make it work? Of course! Currently over 22,000 websites accept OpenID (including this blog) as a form of identification. It is projected that this number of sites will reach close to 50,000 by the end of this year. So if you have a login/register process for your website, why aren’t you looking at something that will make it easier for users to manage their account with your site? Take a look at offering OpenID as an alternative to your current login procedures.
The People Have Spoken – We Won a Webby!
The ABA Journal has won the People’s Voice Webby Award for the category of Law today. Thanks to all that voted.
Webby Award's Finalists Announced: Vote Now for People's Voice in Law Category
Last year you may remember me writing about a project I worked on redesigning and launching a new website for our flagship periodical, ABA Journal. It was just announced that the ABA Journal website has become a finalist in the Law category of the People’s Voice section of the Webby Awards (an online award for websites). So spend a little time, vote for the ABA Journal and help us win a Webby! Winners are announced on May 6th.
LIVE! Day 2 at Forrester Consumer Forum 2007
Day one had a great line up of speakers and content. Day two looks like it will be no different.
Here is my Twitter Stream which I will be updating during the day. I’ll then recap later.
LIVE! From Forrester Consumer Forum
Full Twitter String
RSS Feed
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Online Community Sites of Note:
Dell Community
IdeaExchange by Salesforce
Real World New Cast Member by MTV
IdeaStorm by Dell
About 21st Floor
It was a basic offering with two sections to the site. Over time it has grown to encompass a great deal more. However due to the organic way in which the website evolved and the old structure of the business, with dozens of small design teams working independently of each other, the site had a fairly schizophrenic nature once you delved into its depths.
