Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 289

The Small Wins From Social Media

Big brands are trying to make big moves in social media.

There is an arm's race - of sorts - for brands to reach a million fans (or more) on Facebook. Brands will look to see how many people are connected to their number one competitor (or the industry leader), and that acts as some kind of key performance indicator as to where they should be in fan accumulation. Whether that pinnacle is hit or not is not enough. They're constantly chasing more fans along with an ongoing strategy to maximize the amount of likes that each individual posting gets. It becomes a strange form of content churning as they continually post content to get as many of these likes per post as possible. Some of the more advanced brands are ditching the like in favor of sharing. The lesson is obvious, hitting a like button does not have the same impact and engagement as when a consumer proactively shares the content. It's not just Facebook. This type of scenario is being played out across the social media channels in getting followers and retweets on Twitter, views, subscribers and positive reviews on YouTube, receiving comments and sharing of blog posts and beyond.

It's not just about social media marketing, either.

Beyond the marketing, communications, advertising and customer service that is being done at large scale in social media channels (look no further than the mass media advertising of today, where brands are frequently ending their ad creative with a Facebook or Twitter call to action), many brands are also purchasing enterprise software and tools to help them manage their social media offerings. It's bigger than simply monitoring who is saying what about these brands. Some of these software as service providers offer up a full suite of tools to help generate, curate, mine, analyze, and optimize the mass production of social media content and engagement. While social media was originally seen as a platform for brands to have real human interactions between real human beings, we have quickly arrived at the moment in time, where all of this interaction is becoming not only automated, but as homogenous as a brain-dead laundry detergent TV spot.

With all of this scale comes the desire to do bigger things.

Once the bigger numbers and results start pouring in, the c-suite always has the same reaction: they want to crank it up even more. They want it to be bigger and do more. The caution with social media is that these connected channels are highly personal. While billions of people are connected, the vast majority of these individuals keep their social graphs to a manageable number of connections (recently, Facebook reveled that the average user has about 200 connections). While brands love reveling in the case studies of their peers who turned an idea into something that moved millions of people in social media (look to see what brands like Old Spice, Nike, Oreo and Red Bull have done), there is another opportunity.

It's the small things.

Following are three small and simple ways to win at social media that will deliver a long-term connection and plant the seeds for much deeper loyalty and engagement:

Blogging. Whether it is for search engine optimization, link generation or for the sheer rush of getting a piece of content shared, liked or retweeted, few brands understand the powerful opportunity that still exists with blogging in relation to the direct relationship it generates with an audience. Say your brand is doing everything it can to establish certain bloggers as industry thought leaders, a successful blog will enable those people to act as guest writers on other industry blogs, online publications, etc... These submissions are time consuming and are often at the mercy of an editor. If the content doesn't strike a chord, it could be rejected. With a strong blog, none of that hard work is wasted. It can either be posted to the corporate blog as an original piece or if the submission is accepted, it can also be re-posted (for posterity). A strong blog enables a brand to always ensure that the content being created is being published and made available. Small win: blogging as a repository for all of your critical thinking.

Twitter. There are these awkward moments when brands try to engage in the discourse and it either backfires or comes off as self-serving. One way to retain a sense of humanity and humility is to ask for insights. Most brands ask for help (i.e. "help us achieve our goal by following us, retweeting us, etc..."). Asking for insights is a much more powerful driver (i.e. "what are some of the best apps you use to keep yourself organized?" or "who are the people you follow on Twitter that deliver the most value?"). These types of insight requests (over asking for something) allow people to share the things that are relevant to them, it makes them feel important and should you - as a brand - respond, thank them and even add to the engagement, it will make your fans and followers that much more appreciative, acknowledged and warmer about sharing the brand's messaging. Small win: use Twitter as a platform to get your consumers talking about themselves.

Podcast. Between smartphones getting much better at being able to handle streaming media, Apple's latest developments in their podcasting app and major media and entertainment people starting their own audio and video podcast series (Alec Baldwin, Joan Rivers, Adam Carolla, Joe Rogan and others), podcasting is experiencing a growth spurt. A good swath of the business and brand-based podcasts still come off as infomercials (or worse). A credible podcast is a powerful tool in social proofing. Asking recognized authorities and industry thought leaders for a twenty-minute interview not only provides value to an audience, but it can be used in other ways. A show of this nature is a great internal communications tool to help your peers learn more about the industry you serve. It also acts as a great way to corner one your industry's stars and get them to talk about themselves (which these people love to do) and - in a more subtle way - be introduced to you. So, imagine you're attending your industry's annual convention and this celebrity was a guest on your show a few months back, If you did a good job, you could reach out to them, connect and network in a way that your peers could never do. Small win: use podcasting as a way to network with your industry's key thought leaders.

There are hundreds of other small wins in social media.

This is just the beginning. You could look at other individual channels (like Facebook, Google +, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, etc...) and you could look to specific media like text, audio, images and video to establish some of these softer (but powerful) metrics. Cumulatively, many of these smaller and softer tactics could, potentially, give your brand profoundly different outcomes than simply falling prey to these elusive run-ups on capturing as many friends, fans and followers as your competitors are. Now, it your turn...

What are some of the smaller wins from social media that your activities have generated that have surprised you and your teams? 

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Are We Truly Prepared For The Present That We Have Created?

Episode #354 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

His latest book is called, Present Shock, and he has ten-plus other best-selling books on new media and pop culture (including: Program Or Be Programmed, Life Inc., Cyberia, Media Virus, Playing the Future, Nothing Sacred: The Truth about Judaism, Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside Out and Coercion, winner of the Marshall Mcluhan Award for best media book). He does tons of teaching and public speaking but also makes time to produce and write documentaries (The Merchants of Cool,  The Persuaders, Digital_Nation). If that weren't enough, Douglas Rushkoff has written two series of graphic novels for Vertigo called, Testament and A.D.D. When it comes to the top thinkers that inspire me, Rushkoff, holds one of the few coveted spots. He's a deep, deep thinker and drops insights on media and marketing that will keep you thinking and spinning for days. Enjoy the conversation...

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #354.

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pop culture

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #148

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist's Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".

Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:

My 90 year old grandmother tries the Oculus Rift - YouTube . "A few months ago, I backed a nascent Kickstarter to make a workable, low-latency 3D VR headset. That project bloomed into the Oculus Rift , and thanks to being an early backer, my developer kit showed up this week. It comes in a black plastic gun case that feels like Q just delivered it to Bond, and it's light, and fast. Fast. That's the real key to immersiveness: making it work smoothly. This video of a 90-year-old grandmother trying the Rift demo -- a walk around Tuscany -- is beautiful. My dystopian side says it's also the future of geriatric care." (Alistair for Hugh).

How to become internet famous for $68 - Quartz . "Possibly the single best article ever written on Twitter, our habit of substituting popularity for value, and just how little you can trust the Internet. Also, I think Quartz may have figured out how to do Internet publishing." (Alistair for Mitch).

Hawking: Mankind has 1,000 years to escape Earth - RT . "Yikes!" (Hugh for Alistair).

Kidney grown in lab successfully transplanted into rat - The Guardian . "On the other hand, soon we'll be able to grow our own organs." (Hugh for Mitch).

Wired Still Connected After Two Decades - AdWeek . "I love Wired Magazine . Not just the stuff you see online or the iPad app (both are great), but the physical magazine. I still love going into magazine stores and book stores, and nothing makes me happier than seeing a new issue of Wired Magazine. Even with our instant-on, real-time Web-infested Twitter feed world, they still manage to publish in-depth and interesting articles that simply make me feel smarter and more 'in the loop.'" (Mitch for Alistair).

The National Digital Public Library Is Launched! - The New York Review Of Books . "The National Digital Public Library launched on April 18th of this week. There are so many fascinating layers to this, it's hard to figure out where to begin. First, it's the Internet, so it will be interesting to see how this rolls out beyond America (which they claim they will be doing). Second, copyrighted books and publications that can be used in libraries was complex enough in their paper form... just imagine what this means for digital. Digital isn't one copy/edition loaned out... every copy in digital is an original version. I'm so curious to see how all of this unfolds, especially after having just read an article in the latest issue of Fast Company titled, Second Life, all about ReDigi and their desire to enable people to sell their used digital media. It's going to get a whole lot more interesting." (Mitch for Hugh).

Now it's your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.

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bitcurrent

book a futurists manifesto

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Why We Work... And Why We Should Work

Loving what you do. Loving the work that you do.

Fully recognizing that there is a vast majority of the population that isn't all too thrilled about the work that they do, I count myself as somewhat lucky when it comes to my vocation of choice. In short, I love what I do. When individuals struggle with their work or can't seem to make things click, I often wonder what paths they could have explored or what they could be doing outside of the misery of their work to enhance their lives and personal development. I owe a good chunk of my happiness to having met Dan Ariely, the famed behavioral economist and author of the bestselling business books, Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality and The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty. Many people don't know this, but Dan was kind enough to introduce me to his literary agent (who then became my literary agent). Beyond my personal affection for the man, he gives some of the most fascinating presentations on our behavior and the decisions we make in our lives. He recently spoke at a TEDx event (TEDxRiodelaPlata) on the topic of work and what makes us feel good about the work that we do. As always, Dan's research and insights may surprise and (hopefully) inspire you.

Watch Dan Ariely talk about work and how money doesn't rule all...

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The Failure Of Social Media

Social Media doesn't work for the vast majority of small businesses.

That was the main message in the USA Today article titled, Study: Social media a bust for small businesses, published on April 17th, 2013. From the news item: "About 61% of small businesses don't see any return on investment on their social-media activities, according to a survey released Tuesday from Manta, a social network for small businesses. Yet, almost 50% say they've increased their time spent on social media, and only 7% have decreased their time. What businesses are trying to get out of social media: 36% said their goal was to acquire and engage new customers, 19% said to gain leads and referrals, and 17% said to boost awareness. Facebook was most cited as the hardest to maintain social-media platform, according to the survey." There is a big lesson in this data...

What you want from social media may be very different from what it is.

There are a lot of things that I would like advertising to do. I'd like it to result in more sales, a better quality of customer, more brand loyalty and - if at all possible - I'd like it to cure cancer. There needs to be a much stronger education and alignment when it comes to media (social media, traditional media or whatever) and expectations. The education phase will help businesses (of all kind) better understand what the channels can actually do to augment their sales, marketing and communications. Once the business understands the capabilities, they can best define how these media properties can help them achieve their business goals (or how to best align marketing with the overall business strategy). Once that hard work is done, a plan needs to be hatched about measurement, metrics and results. Typically this will include work like:

Fix a budget. How much money are you willing to spend against your marketing and communications. Too many small businesses (and medium and large businesses) will often come back with, "I don't know what will it cost?" this is not an acceptable answer. It may not be easy to define a budget (work is never easy), but as the business owner, only you can decide how much you are willing to venture in the marketing realm.

Commit to time served. This used to be a simpler process. Brands could run a small campaign or do something around the holiday season. Social media is much more about opening a line of communication (like having a phone number or physical address). This is basic and elementary, but too many brands expect immediate results and don't commit to it in the same way that they have committed to things like their overall vision and goals for the business. When people ask me how much time they should commit to social media, I often ask them about how much time they are willing to commit to the overall success of their business? Why? Social media shouldn't be another activity in business, it should be a part of how the business flows.

Defining the target market. This is way less about demographics and psychographics and much more about where your best customers gather. Where do they learn, read, grow and share. What excited them, how do they connect with brands and why do they connect with brands? When you can understand where the consumer "lives" online, you can better how understand how to best serve them.

Understand the media channels. Once you have defined where they live, what are these environments and how can you best use them to better connect? "They're on Facebook , so how do I sell to them on Facebook?," is the worst strategic place to start. Instead, ask yourself this: "if they're on Facebook and, on average, they are connected to about 200 people, how can I create value or connections there that would engender my brand to be a part of their very close knit group?"

Identifying the lifetime value of a customer. What is a customer worth? Not an impression, not if they buy once, but the full lifetime value. It's somewhat disheartening to see how few brand professionals actually know the true value of a lifetime customer. One question: if you don't know how much they're worth, how can you figure out what is worth it to acquire them? Complaining that social media doesn't work is a simple cop out.

Lock in a cost per acquisition. Once you have defined a lifetime value dollar to that customer, what are you willing to pay to acquire a customer? Again, marketing goals may be best achieved by using something like Google AdWords over Twitter, but until you have done the hard work of figuring out the math, saying that social media doesn't work is like saying that radio doesn't work or that TV doesn't work. It may, simply, not be working because you're not working to make it truly work.

Create a balanced diet. paid earned and owned. Social media is not unlike other, more traditional, channels in that when it is done well, the paid media can also leverage channels where earned and owned media happens. Paid, earned and owned media are not one-in-the-same. A brochure is not the same as a coupon or promoting that discount on Facebook. Both of the media channels may work in terms of being able to accept the same marketing message, but they don't work the same in terms of how consumers engage, connect and build trust within them.

Execute plans against the diet. Opening up a Facebook page and then being disappointed because nobody is buying from you is not the fault of social media (or Facebook). Once you have defined what you're looking to do in terms of paid, earned and owned media, build a holistic marketing strategy around how you are going to execute against it. Being in social media because a competitor is in social media may be the right impetus to get you motivated, but it's not going to do anything to the economic value of the company unless you get extremely strategic and vigilant in planning what you're going to do, how you're going to do it, what type of voice you're going to use and how you're going to measure it all. 

Start the creative process. Creative isn't just a splashy ad campaign. Creative is the heart and soul of how you various messages come to life. It is the tone, look, feel, voice and consistency of how you execute against the strategy. Great creative concepts can certainly make or break a campaign, so too can great creativity in how you use social media. Quick stunts or a long-term commitment to blogging are creative acts. Just setting up an account and hoping something happens isn't creative at all. Most brands fail in social media because they are homogenous and boring. Understanding what your creative platform is will be critical to finding any modicum of success.

Build a network. Don't hunt for customers... try to build a tribe (hat tip to Seth Godin). The attitude of "I built a page and no one is following," can easily be rebuked by asking these brands: how many people do you follow, how active are you in their platforms and how much value are you adding to them? As with any community, you get out what you put in. And, in the early days, you have to give a lot before you get to receive. Social media plays on the community side of the equation.

Test and iterate. Analytics, measurement, testing little things, learning and optimizing from them are the bane of most marketers. We live in a new world, and it's a constant surprise to see some of the world's biggest brands (and some of the smarter, nimbler ones too) think that the social media model is the same as traditional media (set it and forget it). This is live, it is real-time, it is not (just) push and it involves nuances and dynamics that businesses have yet to understand and effectively flex.

Don't kid yourself, social media works. In fact, all media works... you just have to do the hard work of figuring out how to make it work for you. There are no silver bullets.

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Die, Thought Leaders, Die, Die, Die...

So, what do you think of my thought leadership?

Ugh. Really? When you speak or write in a forum that has audience and attention, the people who are giving you the platform have to sell you. In that, you have to be able to sell yourself to those people as well (so that they feel like you are worthy of their platform). It's a strange balancing act between being humble about what you - as an individual - can bring to the table and your ability to self promote. Have you ever given a presentation? Have you ever sat in the audience (or to the side of the stage) and had everybody look at you while the host reads out an extended and self-promotional bio on you to hype up the audience? It has to be - without question - one of the hardest things I have to do. I just find the whole experience... embarrassing (or awkward). In those instances, I have been called everything from a guru, innovator, futurist, genius and yes, even a thought leader.

What is the point and value of thought leadership?

Candidly, if you ask me what I do, I say that I am President of Twist Image - a digital marketing agency. If pushed for more, I will say that I am a writer and a public speaker. No, that's not my elevator pitch, it is the professional titles that I am most comfortable with. I can't imagine ever calling myself a thought leader. On April 15th, 2013, DigiDay ran an interesting news item titled, Do Agencies Really Need 'Thought Leaders'?. The article states: "'Thought leadership' means different things to different people, of course, and the expectations of those in such positions vary from agency to agency. But ultimately, their responsibilities tend to boil down to a mix of research, education, and PR and marketing for the agency itself. Many see their roles as formulating and filtering information and ideas, and packaging them in a way that's of value to the organization and its clients, or at least makes it appear like it's up to speed... While agency staffers might not see specific value in it, the fact of the matter is that it's always been there in one form or another. And based on that fact it looks like its here to stay.."

Well, I guess we're thought leaders after all.

This DigiDay piece came at an interesting time. I had just finished reading Steve Woodruff's blog post titled, We Do Everything...Just Like Everybody Else!, where Woodruff chastises digital marketing agencies for rattling off a similar list of services in an attempt to be everything to everyone. His concern is valid because if everyone offers similar services, then it all becomes highly commoditized. The truth is this: unless you are a specialty shop - focused on one thin slice of the marketing pie - digital marketing does become (somewhat) commoditized. It's hard not to look at a list of services or agency websites and not feel like you could toss these lists and all of the agency logos into the air and wherever they fell on the ground, it would still sound about right. We work in a highly technical space, but that technology is driven by three things: strategy, creativity and innovation. In fairness, without the thought leadership component, every agency is a commodity. What clients are buying when they engage a digital marketing agency is piece of mind. They are buying a new way of thinking and doing their digital marketing and, if the thinkers at the agency aren't doing this from a position of industry leadership, then all is lost. In essence, there is no strategy, creativity and innovation without a deep layer of thought leadership.

Are you a thought leader?

The biggest reason why thought leadership has now become so serious (in terms of it being desperately needed by clients) and such a joke (in terms of people self-identifying themselves as thought leaders) is because of social media. Sure, we always had thought leaders in the marketing industry, but these people were, typically, the secret sauce/secret weapons. They were only trotted out to interface with clients and give them the confidence that the work that the agency was doing was their best work and that no other competitor had access to this type of brainpower. Occasionally, these individuals would appear in the industry trades or at events, but - for the most part - they were client-facing only. Now, with social media, these thinkers are blogging, podcasting, tweeting, on Facebook and more. They are public. They are sharing how they think (look no further than the work of Avinash Kaushik, Bryan Eisenberg, Nilofer Merchant, Charlene Li and many more). They are now "giving away the goods", as it were. And, by doing so, are building not only their practices but their personas and platforms. They are becoming celebrities within their industry. They are commanding significant speaking fees and still attracting impressive advances to write books, while helping their clients get results. In a sense, the uncoupling of these people may come off as bravado or chest thumping when, in reality, all of this publicness has led to a much steeper growth curve for their respective agencies and businesses. 

There's nothing wrong with thought leadership. 

Finding comfort in these strange and awkward titles is never easy. If, as an individual, you are truly helping your business, your clients and the industry think, learn, grow and become more, then the title may just be applicable. My experience has been this: I could never call myself a thought leader, but if someone else feels like that's what I am, I am flattered by it because it means that part of the work that I do (the work that is published and broadcasted) is finding an audience and connecting to it. The challenge comes when self-anointed thought leaders arrive, because it's hard to be a leader if you are truly not leading anybody except a small group into believing that your resume is more impressive than it truly is.

What do you make of thought leadership as a professional designation in marketing?

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The Perfect Tweet

When is the right time to tweet?

I have a very special place in my heart for the city of Boston. One of my best childhood memories is when my parents would pack up my three brothers and I, throw us in the back trunk of our pale blue station wagon (wood paneling too, I think!) for the five-hour drive from Montreal to Boston, to visit our cousins there. The road trip seemed to last forever, and the four of us would tumble around in the trunk like a bunch of apples that got loose from the grocery shopping bag (imagine that... no seatbelts!). Thinking back, it felt like the trip took so long because of the anticipation of what was to come: spending time with our cousins, roaming shopping malls, going to the beach and the amusement parks... you know, being kids. Those road trips, sadly, stopped as we got older, but Boston came back into my life. The person who I was with at the time, got into Harvard University just as our relationship was getting serious. So, nearly every weekend, I would leave work a little bit early and drive to Boston to spend time with her. I would drive back at some point on Sunday. Driving from Montreal to Boston became like my daily commute to work and I fell in love with the city (all over again). That girl became my wife. Over the years, I've been to Boston countless times for speaking events and get-togethers. To this day, one of the most pivotal events in my digital life was taking part in the first-ever PodCamp (which was held in Boston). The people I met there are, to this day, some of my closest and most trusted friends. Not the kind of friends you collect on Facebook, but the kind that you can't wait to see in their protein forms.

Shocked.

It was late at night and I was just crawling into bed in Cannes. I was over in Europe speaking at a corporate event for Cisco and the jet-lag was kicking in. I turned on CNN right before shut-eye and could not believe that two bombs had gone off at the Boston Marathon. My original plan was to play around on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and my blog. I was going to share some of the information that I had been collecting over the past few days. Because of all the travel, I felt like I was slacking (just a little bit). My Twitter stream and Facebook newsfeed was filled - literally - with only two types of tweets:

Those sending positive wishes and thoughts to everyone in Boston (I sent a few of those myself).

Those telling everyone else to please shut-off, mute or turn down all of the typical self-promotional tweets (both to brands and individuals).

It's number two that got to me.

Had I not turned on CNN late at night in France or looked first to the Twitter stream of Facebook feeds, I could have easily been an insensitive wonk. So, instead of tweeting anything, I just closed the lid of my MacBook Air and continued to watch CNN. When I woke up the next morning, it was still night time in North America. CNN (and the other news outlets) were regurgitating the same news. There was nothing new to report and - as with 24 hour news cycles - they were scouring the bottom of the barrels to speak to anyone who might have an opinion (no matter how misguided) on the subject. At this point, I turned to Fast Company and began reading a fascinating article on innovation. I was about to tweet it out and all I could say to myself is, "too soon?" I didn't know. I wasn't sure what the answer was.

What is the right protocol?

Yesterday, Steve Crescenzo wrote an op-ed piece for Ragan Communications titled, Guy Kawasaki is too 'popular' to stop autotweets during Boston bombings. In short the blog post chastises Kawasaki for not turning off his auto-tweets. Crescenzo blogs: "While the news about the tragic bombings at the Boston Marathon was just being broken, and for several hours afterwards, most companies shut down their promotional efforts on Twitter and other social media. Most people and organizations rightly came to the conclusion that to continue to hawk their wares while a national tragedy was unfolding (and people were using Twitter to get and exchange news) was a little insensitive, to say the least." Adding fuel to this Twitter controversy, Kawasaki (who has over 1.2 million followers) tweeted: "Loving how people with less than 1,500 followers are telling me how to tweet..." There's no doubt that going silent after offering up a thought of hope to the people in Boston is the simple and easy thing to do. But, when is it ok to start back up? It's a touchy subject because of how sensitive the issue is, but was Guy Kawasaki really doing anything all that wrong? Individuals who are duly insulted can simply unfollow him. Individuals who are saddened by the event but want to take their mind off of it may have found solace and comfort in following some of Guy's links (that were clearly not being created at the time of the tragedy). Was Kawasaki really doing anything wrong (perhaps, with the exception, of that tweet about how to use Twitter)?

Here's what I saw...

When I opened my window to let some cool Cannes fresh air into my room after hearing about the bombings, people were still laughing, drinking, celebrating and chatting down by the pool. The other TV channels were showing movies, comedies, dramas and more. People were still engaged in social conversation and connectivity. Yes, we were rattled and we were thinking about it, but life went on... and it seemed to go on fairly quickly.

This isn't about Crescenzo and it isn't about Kawasaki. It's about how Twitter has become mass media.

Kawasaki has a large following and this makes him a target. Brands are the same. Everybody is watching in a moment like this to see who gets it "right" and who is "messing it up." I am not defending Kawasaki, but simply pointing out that when I read Crescendo's blog post, I hopped over to CNN and saw that dozens of people were killed and over 850 people were injured in an earthquake in Iran, at least 35 people dead in an earthquake in Pakistan, a teenager kills herself after alleged rape and bullying, a bomb in Bangalore injures at least 16 and many more global tragedies (think about Somalia, children dying because they don't have a simple mosquito net in Africa, child slavery and the sex trade in the Philippines... and much more). Isn't that blog post criticizing others just a little bit insensitive considering how many more people have died because of a tragedy at that, exact, moment in time? Shouldn't all of our attention and tweets be directed at that and how to help humanity instead of being hurtful to our fellow human beings? Of course, Crescenzo did nothing wrong (and, for the record, he's someone I have longed admired and I'm merely using his blog post as an example to tell a story). This is what it feels like: we are now treating individuals like brands and brands like individuals because of social media. The only difference is this: we're treating social media like mass media, and that's the truly depressing component. See, if Guy wants to tweet (or auto-tweet), the beauty of social media is this: I can choose to ignore, unfollow and never see brands and/or individuals (or their wares) in my feed. If someone retweets these entities, I can unfollow them too. I can keep my social media... social... and personal. I do not have to follow or engage with anyone that goes against my values. What I do hate is the fact that I wanted to share that Fast Company article on innovation, but I didn't because I was worried what others might think. "Did Mitch just share a link after NOT saying something about Boston? How insensitive!" or it could have been, "Mitch, thanks for sharing that article, I needed something interesting to keep my mind off of the tragedies in Boston!"  Still, I'm not sure when is the right time to tweet or when I am offending someone. The truth is this: the fact that I have to worry about offending others and being the subject of an "so and so simply doesn't get it" type of piece makes me want to delete all of my social media accounts. I'm human. I have emotions. I want to share. I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm not trying to be insensitive. I'm also not trying to capitalize on a tragedy for my own financial gain. If you follow those rules... and follow your heart when it comes to what feels right to you - as an individual or a brand - isn't that the best social media strategy? Otherwise, aren't we just turning Twitter and Facebook and everything else into this strange, homogenous and sanitized mass media channel that we all revolted against in the first place?

What do you think?

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The Problem With Allowing Consumers To Opt Out

You have a right to opt out of anything and everything.

As a marketing professional, there is nothing I hate more than receiving any form of communication (email, Web experience, social media, mobile, whatever) and not see an obvious place where I can either opt out of the communication or protect how much information is being captured. As a consumer, I probably hate it more. There is plenty of psychology in that statement. As a marketer, I (think) I understand the business. I'm hopeful that the vast majority of marketing organizations are using my personal information to create a more personalized experience for me. From that perspective, I have no issue with behavioral targeting so long as the social contract is fair and equitable. Namely: I get a great experience as a consumer and you, the marketer, make a lot more money because you're able to charge advertisers a premium for having such a keen understanding of your consumer. As a consumer, I simply don't trust marketers. They have crossed the line too many times (now, the government must be involved in terms of privacy and governance). There are spammers, dialers and nefarious online "marketers" doing some none-to-nice things that give consumers little choice but to trust marketers less than used car salesmen and ambulance chasing attorneys. There are advertisers making claims on products that simply don't live up to the hype and, ultimately, the entire industry suffers.

Let's not mess this up any more.

If you look to a brand like Amazon, you will see something very different. All of their data capturing is used to create a more personalized user experience. There are few online revolts about Amazon's data capturing and, their consumer satisfaction levels are staggeringly high. In fact, one could argue that Amazon knows more about most of us than we would care to admit (they know where you live, where you ship to, what you have bought, looked at, reviewed, wishlisted, oh... and all of your credit card information too). Now, they are getting that much more aggressive on the media side. What was once a quiet and growing giant is about to be ready for their close-up. After six years of building the advertising platform - which includes powerful retargeting technology (see the Advertising Age article, Amazon: The Quietest Big Ad Business In Tech Would Like Your Brand Ads, Too, from last week) - it is becoming abundantly clear that for brands to win the new media game, they have to understand their consumer like never before.

It's hard to understand anyone if they opt out.

On April 11th, 2013, MediaPost ran a news item titled, New App Lets Mobile Users Opt Out Of Behavioral Targeting, that featured a free iTunes app by Evidon (a privacy compliance company), which enables consumers to opt out of behavioral targeting by mobile advertising networks. From the article: "Evidon isn't the only company that is offering ways for people to opt out of mobile targeting. TRUSTe - which also is powering some icons - has a privacy tool that allows people to avoid receiving ads targeted based on their mobile activity." This is where things get even more complicated. From the consumer's perspective, we need to allow them to control (or, at least, understand) who has their information and what they are doing with it. From a marketer's perspective, this is very worrisome. Over the history of time, consumers will always say that they hate advertising. If you dig beneath the surface, what they truly hate is useless, bad and non-relevant advertising. Digital media, social media and mobile marketing is finally able to deliver relevant, targeted and useful advertising to consumers, but in the worry about privacy (which is valid if you look at many of the recent hacking issues that big brands have faced), we're confusing privacy with personalization.

A Target on our backs.

Whenever the issue of behavioral targeting (or retargeting or remarketing) is brought up, everyone points to the story about the pregnant girl whose online usage led Target to send her messaging about being pregnant (and her father was none to happy about finding out this way). It's an extreme case, but it points to the lines that can be crossed when companies try to mix big data and behavioral targeted advertising without truly understanding their power. The marketing concern should always be sensitive to issues like this, but we must also be vigilant in better educating the mass population about what all of this opt out truly means. In the end, it spells the decline or homogenization of advertising. Without knowing what consumers are doing, it means that we have to practice the old "spray and pray" model. It means that none of the ads that consumers see will be all that interesting. It means that the deepest targeting that can be accomplished is to place ads on specific sites (Web or mobile) that are relevant to the brand's target audience. We have seen how non-effective this can be by simply looking at the advertising we get on network and specialty television. The point is this: unless marketers become more transparent about how tracking is being down (and what, exactly, is being tracked), consumers are not going to trust us. They are going to opt out because they are confusing privacy with personalization, and they are going to have a less than stellar advertising experience. This is going to hurt the ad business. It is going to drive relevancy and revenue down. This is a very unique moment in time, where marketers can (if they have the intestinal fortitude) create a movement around ethics to better educate and demonstrate just how relevant, personalized and powerful a great advertising campaign can be to compliment the content it surrounds, without breaching anyone's privacy. In the end, if marketers can't demonstrate the chasm between privacy and personalization, all could be lost.

I'm hopeful consumers will ultimately understand the difference and opt out of opting out. What's your take?

The above posting is my twice-monthly column for The Huffington Post . I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original version online here:

Huffington Post - The Problem With Allowing Consumers to Opt Out .

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Is There A Science And Repeatability To Things That Go Viral?

Episode #353 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

His formal title is the James G. Campbell Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. The truth is that Jonah Berger is making all kinds of a ruckus with the recent launch of his business book, Contagious - Why Things Catch On. If you haven't see the latest edition of Fast Company magazine (the print edition), it features an extended feature all about how Berger is teaching students (and, because of his latest book, us) how to make something go viral. What used to be an unknown is something that Jonah claims can be formulated and repeated. He's a fascinating individual and I think you will truly enjoy this conversation...

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #353.

Tags:

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blogging

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jonah berger

university of pennsylvania

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #147

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist's Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".

Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:

Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About - Mil Millington . "Following the breakout success this week of the Tumblr blog ' reasons my son is crying ' I remembered the genius of Mil Millington . Reminders both that the Internet can be equal parts cathartic outlet and mean-spirited shaming." (Alistair for Hugh).

Teton Gravity Research Aerial Reel - The Bay Area in 4K - Teton Gravity Research . "My sister was on a movie set a few weeks ago that used a drone instead of a skycrane to get a shot. Far cheaper, and more flexible, than the alternative. These guys take it to a whole new level. Teton Gravity Research takes some of the best shots of this sort of thing. If I miss the Bay Area I'll just watch this." (Alistair for Mitch).

What Your Profile Picture Says About You (Hint: You're A Douchebag) - Jesus Christ, Silicon Valley . "If you don't like salty language, don't read this. Otherwise, a very funny overview of profile images from the wild. I checked Alistair's, Mitch's and my profile pics... and Mitch and Alistair have done well. I think I failed." (Hugh for Alistair).

One on One: Jason Merkoski and the View of E-Books From the Inside - The New York Times . "An insider view of Amazon's ebook empire. Fascinating. To read." (Hugh for Mitch).

Does BuzzFeed Know the Secret? - New York Magazine . "When humans face machines in any arena that has a dollop of creativity, you can rest assured that some feathers are going to be ruffled. I love Buzzfeed . It's a great place to go if you just want to escape into random forms of content with varying levels of quality in journalism. When founder, Jonah Peretti , announced that he was going to deep-dive into more serious forms of journalism (like politics), people scoffed. I don't think they're laughing anymore. It's not so much that Peretti found the best writers or nailed the perfect headline, it's that he uses data (big data, small data, web analytics, etc...) to better understand what works and what doesn't. As his audience scales and he's granted access to more data, he can build algorithms to keep those people engaged. In the end, it would appear that great writers are important... just not as important as a better alogrithm on top of it." (Mitch for Alistair).

Why David Mamet Wants to Direct Ads Again - AdWeek . "There was a time (not too long ago) when I could recite lines from the David Mamet films, Glengarry Glen Ross, House Of Games, Homicide and The Spanish Prisoner. As someone who loves the written words, I am in love with the cadence and prose of David Mamet. The way his characters deliver dialogue and sentiment can typically, stop me dead in my tracks. Well, it looks like Mamet is going to direct some television ads (again). I often make the case that people don't hate advertising... they hate bad advertising. I'm sitting here - hoping and praying - that Mamet delivers the goods, because here's the thing: whenever someone known as a creative artist turns to advertising, eyebrows rise and people wonder if they're desperate for cash because the art of advertising hasn't done that good of a job convincing the rest of the world that it is worthy of being called 'art.' The irony isn't lost on me: the branding industry has a branding issue." (Mitch for Hugh).

Now it's your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.

Tags:

adweek

alistair croll

amazon

bitcurrent

book a futurists manifesto

buzzfeed

complete web monitoring

david mamet

gigaom

glengarry glen ross

homicide

house of games

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambik

jason merkoski

jesus christ silicon valley

jonah peretti

librivox

link bait

link exchange

link sharing

managing bandwidth

media hacks

mil millington

new york magazine

pressbooks

reasons my son is crying

social media

solve for interesting

teton gravity research

the new york times

the spanish prisoner

tumblr

year one labs