Harmonic Aftershock

Generating Insights with Twitter Lists

With Twitter Lists officially rolled out to the public late last week, microblogging now feels like a flashback to high school albeit fraught with rich consumer insights.

The concept of Twitter Lists is straightforward yet powerful. Anyone can create a list about anything. If the list creator thinks you or your brand belongs in that list, you are now officially labeled.  A link to the lists you’ve been put in appears prominently on your Twitter profile.

Why is this important?
While on the surface, this may seem like one big game of popularity and labels, Twitter lists are just beginning to give early insights as to how people think about things. What this gives you is insights into:

• Brand Perception:  A quick scan of how my company been listed shows labels including social media, ad agency, studio, pr-media, and online marketing.


• Competitive Intelligence:  Check out your competition in the various lists and see on their Twitter profile how many times they’ve been listed and in what labels.


• Key Influencers:  Use services like Listorious to find lists by category and those that are most popular. Then scan individuals within those lists as an indicator of influence.

Spend some time mining the lists you’re in as well as those of your competitors. You might be a bit surprised at what you learn.

I originally wrote and posted this on the Hill Holliday blog.

Project Natal: One step closer to Star Trek’s “holodeck”

It doesn’t feel all that long ago when I was playing Frogger (on a cassette tape) on my Commodore 64,Ms. Pac-Man at Louisa’s’ Pizza, or Pitfall on Atari at my best friend Sunny’s house.

Gaming has certainly come a long way over the last 20 years and I had the pleasure last week of meeting with folks from Microsoft about what’s to come with Xbox Live in 2010 -- Enter Project Natal:

My colleague Jamie Scheu previously blogged about the integration that Xbox Live enables by converging TV, Movies, Social Media, Gaming, and Radio.  Project Natal will literally converge aspects of your real life with an augmented virtual reality – the communication, interaction, and marketing implications of this are insanely inspiring. And we don’t even have to wait until the 24th century. Not convinced? Meet Milo.

Online Video: It’s about the content

With YouTube now getting “well over 1 billion views per day”, there’s no question that online video has become a de facto part of our overall media consumption – and all signs indicate that it’ll only continue to increase and with it, the attempts of marketers to create videos that sweep the nation.

Those that know me also know that I cannot stand the term “viral video” especially when used to describe an online video concept before it’s even been produced.

 [Our goal as marketers should always be to create content that resonates with our audience and inspires pass-along.]

And, while I believe whole heartedly in the research that shows how using paid media to both kickstart and sustain a video campaign can substantially increase views, it HAS to start first with truly stand out content.

So what’s the kind of content that’s prone to spreading? Visible Measures does a terrific job with their leaderboards of online video campaigns.  Between this, YouTube stats, and being on the recipient end of a number of shared videos, I’ve taken a somewhat subjective stab at categorizing into four core groups:

Category 1: Unplanned/unexpected yet captured remarkable behavior

Other Examples:

• Sneezing Panda
• Battle at Kruger
• Miss Teen South Carolina

Category 2: Planned but surprising or inspiring acts

Other Examples:

• Susan Boyle
• T-Mobile Dance
• Danny MacAskill

Category 3: Extraordinary stunts, hoaxes, or pranks

Other Examples:

• Cell phone popcorn
• OfficeMax Pennies
• Kobe Bryant car jump
• Tiger Woods water walk

Category 4: So ridiculous you can’t help but watch/share

Other Examples:

• Evian Baby
• Etrade Baby
• Numa Numa

In the end, is there a formula that works? It’s tough to say but with 20 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute, those videos that do, indeed, get lots of attention and, dare I say, “go viral” are far and few in between. Marketers need to color outside of the lines if they’re to break through the video clutter.

2010: The Year of the eReader.

The written word seems poised to rapidly take on a new form and trees could never be happier. Forrester Research just increased its eReader holiday sales outlook by 50% and expects that in 2010 that number to be doubled.

At the moment we have the newly (and cheaper) priced Amazon Kindle which is now available outside the U.S.  But, if rumors are true, it’s looking like 2010 will wow us with a splash of disruptive options.

1. Plastic Logic which I blogged about last February leverages E Ink technology and is aimed at the business user (newspapers, periodicals, magazines, etc.) as an alternative to printing business documents while you’re on-the-go. It was recently announced that Barnes and Noble will power the device’s eBookstore. Plastic Logic’s eReader is set to go to market in “early 2010”. 
   
   
   Photo Credit: HK Gadget Man
   
   
2. Apple's rumored tablet device might launch in Q1, 2010 and if it does, the speculation that Foxconn Electronics (manufacturer of the iPhone) is behind it coupled with the patent Apple recently filed, could make this devices a category killer. (Apple’s marketing budgets certainly don’t hurt its chances, either).
   
   
   Photo Credit: Gizmodo
   
   
3. Microsoft’s not-that-secret anymore Courier project aims to launch in “mid-2010” and takes a bit of a different approach with its dual folding screen design. There was a supposed leaked video of the Courier’s user interface that admittedly made my jaw drop but it has since been removed from the web.
   
   Photo Credit: Gizmodo

And of course there are others in the works including a Barnes & Noble branded color eReader set to launch in a month and U.K.-based Interead is leveraging QVC to debut its Cool-er device in the U.S. just in time for the holidays.

As a result of rapid advances in eReader technology, the real question is what effect with this have on what we’ve traditionally called the “print industry”? A few humble thoughts:

• Print is simply a medium to deliver content. This is a great opportunity for publishers to aggressively redefine how they’re delivering their content as technology continues to advance how we consume media.
  
  
• The potential differences in capabilities between the Kindle and rumored Apple tablet are astounding and begin to open possibilities for how publishers and advertisers produce content from flat magazines and newspapers to portable rich interactive experiences.
  
  
• As the world continues to become more “green conscious”, eReader adoption may speed up while reaching eco-friendly consumers looking to reduce paper-waste.

In the end, I think we’ll see a whole lot more trees as our reliance on paper for publishing will start to taper as eReaders help give new life and definition to publishing industry. 

The case to tag every TV spot with a URL

The next time you’re watching live TV, pay attention to the ending of commercials. What you’ll find are an increasing number of them tagged with a URL, or even better, a URL with voice-over to go online.

There’s a reason for this as smart marketers understand the natural human behavior to go online for more info in response to an offline ad. They also embrace the fact that many people are sitting on their couches watching TV with their laptops in front of them.

One of the most common reasons I’ve heard that brands do not include URLs on their TV spots is:

["We want to drive people in-store. We don’t want to confuse the message by driving them to the web." ]

But how will making it easy for someone with piqued interest to learn more about and engage with your message/brand confuse them? I don’t know of many people upon seeing a TV ad who’ll stop what they’re doing , get right up from their couch, and head into a store/restaurant/business to make a purchase on the spot.

[Instead, why not harness the momentum of their interest, reinforce and build upon your message online to help tip their consideration to act/purchase?]

If that’s not enough, then consider the fact that:

• You can only do so much within the constraints of a 30-second TV spot
• Neilsen recently reported that 28% of the time people are online at home they’re watching TV
• According to Forrester, initiating an online search is the most common response to an offline ad
• 64% of the 2008 Super Bowl spots had a URL; in 2009, 95% had some kind of online component
• There are hundreds of thousands of TV commercials on YouTube that are watched and shared

Driving to the web from TV can only help to reinforce your message and, if done well, marry TV and web in a way that’s greater than the sum of their individual parts. It’s the 1+1=3 effect in action. This is only the beginning as TV and web continue to converge. Just ask TiVo, Verizon Fios, IBM, and Cablevision.

As for the future? If the Vitamin Water TV spot featuring Kobe Bryant vs. Lebron James is any indication, brands will start to favor directing TV viewers to their social media properties over their corporate websites.

Cyberstalking made easy: Datecheck by Intelius

Several years ago, I became quite familiar with Intelius after taking matters into my own hands upon having my debit card stolen and used. I was floored at how much information I could get through this aggregation service of billions of public records by just entering a phone number or name.

What I love about Intelius' Datecheck which was just launced at DEMOfall 09 is that the iPhone app simply packages the data Intelius already aggregates into a very “consumer friendly” brand and user experience – and one that clearly targets women. 

Key features include:

• Sleaze Dectector: Searches criminal records (DUI, theft, drug possession, etc.)
• Networth: Reviews asset information (property ownership, sq footage, and assessed value)
• Living situation: Assesses who and in what capacity you live with
• Interests: Pulls in public profile information from social network sites
• Compatibility: Uses date-of-birth to serve up astrological records (horoscopes)

While still a bit freaky (and somewhat shallow), this is phenomenally smart marketing as I suspect it was based on consumer insights as to how people have been using the Intelius service for years – let’s face it, we’ve all been known to look people up - Intelius attracts over 1 million visotors per day. And by leveraging the iPhone app craze, the company has managed to make themselves “portable”.

So when you’re out tonight and think you’ve met that special someone, you now have on-the-spot guidance in determining your next move.

Using crowds to achieve 1+1=3

Every time I’m at the gym, without fail, I can’t help but ponder, “what if there was a way to capture, store, and then use the energy created by the output of everyone’s running, rowing, biking, pumping, etc.?” This would be an example of what I often cite (usually referring to media strategy) as the “1+1=3 effect”, where the right combination is much greater than its individual pieces. So in this case:  I’m still getting my work out + the gym is still getting membership fees = but now the gym’s electricity is partly self-powered for the greater good of the environment.

Google’s rationale in acquiring reCAPTCHA as reported by Mashable reminded me of this same concept. Since the challenge words used in “captchas” come from scans from old books or printed newspapers, the crowds actually end up helping to teach computers how to read this degraded type which then improves scanning technology. So to apply the concept to this example: I’m still authenticating/logging into a given website + the website still benefits from my visit = but now in the process I’ve also helped to improve scanning technology.

And in both cases, I didn’t have to do anything differently than I did before – only now my same actions are part of a greater good.

Six Pixels of Separation: Mitch Joel’s book…finally

It was October 27th 2007 when I became a Mitch Joel fan after hearing him speak at PodCamp Boston 2. I remember writing the guy’s name down on my event program so that I could appropriately “permission-based stalk” him to learn more about this particular digital marketing thought leader who really struck a chord with me. In addition to subscribing to his blog, I downloaded as many back episodes as I could of his podcast through iTunes – And for a couple of months, Mitch and Six Pixels of Separation were a daily part of my life during gym workouts and office/client commutes until I finally caught up to his weekly production schedule.

I relate to Mitch not only for the fact that he’s a fellow Canuck but because of his passion for digital marketing, contagious work ethic, entrepreneurial mind, and that he’s a constant student of leadership. It’s been a joy over the past two years following and being inspired by Mitch’s career growth as he expanded his business to Toronto, secured a column in the Montreal Gazette, and now (finally) released his first book, appropriately named after his blog and podcast: “Six Pixels of Separation”.

I anxiously picked up my copy last week at Boston’s Barnes & Nobel in the Pru and it was the last one on the shelf (see photo above). And I can understand why as the book is filled with rich (and timely) case studies and is positioned as the “prequel” to Mitch’s blog. The book is ripe for those who are just getting started understanding how social media has fundamentally impacted business, marketing, and personal branding as well as those of us within the industry that are always looking for more fodder for our clients and projects.

A few select sound bites from Six Pixels of Separation that jumped out at me – the book is filled with many more great one-liners as well as contextual and thought provoking anecdotes:

• Embrace your community as the new currency.
• Trust is earned by an overall great experience with a foundation of authenticity.
• Digital marketing is not a one night stand…tangible results take time.
• Instead of asking “what” [the channels/tactics], please ask “Why” [the strategy].
• Ripples grow wider and bigger until they become waves. Waves never stop.
• The new business game is not about control. It’s about the volume of voices.
• Google is like an elephant: it never forgets.
• Branding is not the logo… Branding is the heart and soul of a business.
• You can’t fake passion.
• Great content = great word of mouth.
• Transparency is easy. Credibility is hard…credibility is everything.
• We’re seeing a new era in which everyone has become a citizen journalist.
• Take time to develop your own niche. Be the Cirque du Soleil of your industry.
• Remember, I’m Googling you just like you’re Googling me.
• Your business life just became a high-speed game of virtual paintball.
• Content is media…all content will become more and more portable.
• Mobile goes where other media cannot.
• Think in terms of tribes, not mass.
• A new business model does not have to be complex.

I had recommended Six Pixels of Separation to clients when it was on pre-order and will continue to help evangelize Mitch Joel’s debut into book publishing – I not only believe in him and his credibility but have personally benefitted by Mitch openly sharing his experiences and thought leadership over the years. I already can’t wait for his next book. 
 

Live from Gravity Summit (Part 2)

I posted a summary (Part 1) of my thoughts and experiences at Today’s Gravity Summit on Hill Holliday’s blog. Here, I wanted to share somemore photos/videos and “sound bites” from many of the speakers -- each of whom leverage social media through a different vantage point but harmonically speak similar themes.

Troy Kelly (Arnold Worldwide)

• Advertising  1.0 – all about “The Big Idea” (Don Draper)
• Advertising 2.0 – Technology and the internet  enabled us to move beyond a mass audience into a much more targeted base  and with measurement
• Advertising 3.0 – Evolve a brand message to a “brand experience” and talk about it in real-time where brands are speaking to customers, customers are speaking to other customers, customers are speaking to the brands
• “While the .com boom had Silicon Valley -- Social Media revolution has its Boston”

Wendy Harman (American Red Cross)

• “Help people prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies with social media”
• “Find your business purpose and unique value within the social web”
• “Always know what the conversation is and always ready to respond”
• “If you are providing value, people will come”

Todd Defren (SHIFT Communications)

•  “PR, today, is about frequently distributing relevant content via the right channels, to boost credibility and findability”
• “It doesn’t have to be about creating something new but leveraging old content and putting it a format that can be distributable”
• “Social Media is a lot like fishing -- swim with them not against them and don’t over feed the fish”

Josh Levine (Rebel Industries)

•  “Being on Twitter doesn’t make you Zappos”
• “If you’re looking for social media to fix your brand, that’s not going to happen”
• “The companies that are doing it right, their employees are empowered.”

Eric Forst (Visible Technlogies)

• “Facebook is now the #1 photosharing site”
• “Not user generated content but more like user generated programming”
• “Social media is a fundamental shift in the way we communicate”
• 25% of the search results that show up for brands are consumer generated

MC Hammer

• “If you’re worried about how social networks will monetize, I’d like to have Facebook’s problem: 250,000,000 people. I guarantee I can sell them something!”
•  “If you’re allowing someone else to control the perception of what your brand is, you’re in trouble”
• “As an artist, I want to get in front of the conversation and make adjustments based upon the feedback that I’m hearing and how I market to you”
• “In my house they are screens everywhere and they aren’t there for decoration…I am totally wired”
• “I need to be at the center of the flow of the information”
• “Artists today will make a living when they not only embrace social media but embrace all of the ways that people consume music.”
• “I need to hear the voice of the people. I like analytics but I don’t need the data analyzed for me.”
•  “Human interaction is actually increased through social media – our DNA is built for us to communicate”
• “the old term citizen journalism is more of a reality today than ever before”
• “ It’s not a question of whether or not social media works – it’s about how you implement, how you execute, and how you apply  -- there’s no question of whether or not it works”

Scott Gulbransen (Quicken Online)

•  “When you look at social media it’s not just about siloed approaches…we knocked down those walls and completely integrated across channels”
• “It’s not a matter of whether PR or Marketing should drive but that everyone should have a part”
• “We weren’t going to make it about territory, we were going to all move it along”

Christi Day (SouthWest Airlines)

• “At southwest our flight crew is given the freedom to express themselves as employees.”
•  “Our employees are our best spokespeople…the more we can enable them to be themselves the better we are as a company.”
• “Our leaders don’t make us go through a chain of redtape to give out answers to customers”

Dave Puner (Dunkin’ Donuts)

• “We knew there are a lot of conversations happening about Dunkin’ Donuts out there and we simply wanted to be a part of the conversation”
•  “[our tweets] are not going to go through layers [of approval]. You need to trust the person who tweets”
• “Dunkin’ is a fun brand and when I look at the commercials I see an irreverence and that’s how I try and write my tweets.”
•  “A billboard doesn’t talk to you.”

Ramon deLeon (Domino’s Pizza)

•  “AOL Instant Messager (status updates) was kinda my Twitter before Twitter”
• “If you can’t be a part of the conversation, you know what? You start one”
• “If this is a bit of a social media storm…a social media fire, I need to put it out with a little social media water”

Polly Pearson (EMC)

• “A brand is a relationship…like one you have with a friend, trusting…genuine”

Gary Vaynerchuk

• “We get it, [people] don’t want to be sold to”
• “I think [social media] is massively underrated – it blows my mind that we’re having debates if this is real”
• “The concept [of social media] is going nowhere and debating it is silliness”
• “Big businesses are going to go out of business if they don’t adjust”
• “The a la cart concept that we now have doesn’t seem to apply to cable -- We’re all paying for bundled content and that is not something that people are going to tolerate”
• “Every business, every one of us, no matter what you do is in the eyeballs business”
• “What these platforms allow us to do is one thing: Scale our customer service”
• “How are billboards the cost they are now when we all have our eyeballs on our mobile devices?”
• “It’s about rolling up your sleeves and getting dirty – there are no shortcuts”
• “The butcher and your grandma’s shoe store didn’t happen in a week”
• “Love the process more than the results and you’ll always win”
• “There is no excuse, if you care about yourself, to not come home and produce content for the things you love – you can sell eyeballs period.”
• “I think people underestimate other people -- People know when you try”
• “The truth is always undefeated – and the truth is being brought to the forefront because of the internet…bad is going to lose and good is going to win and yay!”

No more toasters…a sign of the times

I remember when Banks used to give out toasters when one opened a new checking account. This caught my eye as I was randomly roaming the streets of San Francisco while out west for a wedding this past weekend.

It looks like the modern toaster is now an iPod shuffle -- at least the Redwood Credit Union thinks so.