Social Media CRM and ROI #DigATL

Event:  Social Media CRM and ROI

Speaker:  Alex Avendano      Company:  Arke Labs

Venue:  Hudson Grille

Notes:  Day 4 of Digital Atlanta, Social Track.

Social CRM and ROI is something I am really interested in (checkout my Marketing 2.0 Thesis in box.net section on right) so this event was one of my highlights of the conference!  My notes from this session were pretty rough, so I borrowed heavily from the powerpoint he used while presenting.  I must cite this fact because I don’t want to be accused of plagiarizing!

“Don’t be scared of social media, embrace it as a tremendous opportunity.”

What is Social CRM?

According to Alex it is “an implementation strategy that provides additional, relevant, and social data to sellers, marketers, and decision makers in an effort to improve ROI of multiple aspects of the business.”  The basic principles of SCRM are people, platform, product, and process.

• People – your community of users and your internal decision makers
• Platform – Social media outlets tied to your SCRM system
• Product – Combination of tools you utilize
• Process – Standards and protocol implemented to manage social

Traditional CRM was a process controlled and initiated by the business – information was clouded because it had to be updated manually by the seller, and the information was basic, simple, and static.  As can be expected Social CRM is a dynamic process that is influenced by the customer – it does not require manual inputs, the information is robust, and there are multiple company touch points.  Social data has given companies the opportunity to gather individual consumer insights, and to respond to that information quickly and on an individual basis.  This information can be used to drive PR & Marketing communications, to grow sales, to develop products and to improve customer service.

Planning: Preparing for SCRM

There is no one size fits all approach.  When preparing to implement SCRM – as with any strategic planning – it is critical to understand the core value drivers of your organization and how SCRM fits within them.  In the planning phase Alex recommended a list of questions to ask:

1. Who are all the different people that need to be involved?
2. What are our priorities and goals?
3. What does your platform stack need to look like?
4. What does your product stack need to look like?
5. What are the right processes that need to be put in place?
6. How are you going to measure return and constantly improve?

To properly answer these questions it is important to “involve the right people” – form committees and teams and have an open planning process.  Additionally determine the most important goals by department for your SCRM plan.  Knowing the answers to these questions, and the goals of the organization as well as departments will help you to determine the most suitable platform, product, and processes for your strategic objectives.  Process and structure are keys for social CRM success.

SCRM services to check out are – Sitecore CEP, Broadlook, and Click Dimensions.

Campaigns – Focus on your goals, focus on iterations.

• Campaigns should boost results towards goals, in-line with social lifecycle
• Iterative approach (iteration feedback loop pictured)
  • Discovery Driven Planning
  • Consider A/B testing

Measuring Results

Every organization has its own understanding of ROI and its own ROI goals.  It is important to track multiple different metrics that will lead to conversion.

• Value of cost savings – gains in productivity, testing, development
• Valuing social assets – CPM model vs. book value
• Valuing conversion activities – measure each step toward the bottom line
• Valuing bottom line effects – sales

Alex also offered up an alternative viewpoint from Avinash Kaushik in which he values converstion, amplification, applause, and economic value (reminds me of Klout or Peer Index).

• Conversation = Audience comments per post
• Amplification = Shares per post
• Applause = likes per post
• Economic Value = Sum of Short and Long-term revenue and cost savings

Basically ROI is a multifactor equation, that depends on you.  Some tips he offers:

• If you have the appropriate data use IRR, CLV, and NPV
• Don’t let ROI dominate your strategy, it’s not all tangible
• Measuring impression value is easy, what about engagement value? Or the value of an integrated system that automates engagement?
• Measuring returns in the face of change and uncertainty
• Get started now, figure it out along the way, don’t play catch up.
• Start with a plan
• Get everyone involved
• Find outside support.

Really looking forward to hearing Alex speak again, hopefully in Athens!

#DigATL Computing in the Post-PC Era

Event:  Computing in the Post-PC Era

Company:  Moxie Interactive

Venue:  Georgia Tech’s Klaus Advanced Computing Building

Notes:  Day 2 of Digital Atlanta, Mobile Track.

 

Computing in the Post PC Era

11% of Americans own a tablet.

20% of Americans own connected TVs.

 

Statistics to Guide Your Marketing in the Post PC Era:

76% prefer using tablet at home – Tablets are not exclusively mobile.  Implications: 

• Focus on correct devices
• On the correct behaviors
• On the correct media

75% prefer using smartphones and tablets – Leapfrogging to Post-PC

• Precursor to the future
• “Mobile” first – where are people going to be discovering your brand and turning to for more information.
• Devices as creation tools – spontaneous and mobile nature of these devices lends them well to the creative process, as they are ready and available whenever the idea hits you.

85% Prefer reading on smartphones and tablets – Post-PC Trumps Print

• “Post-PC” is practically “Post Print/TV/Radio” as well
• The nature of print itself is changing

93% prefer LBS Ads – Context is important

Ad supported hardware: New Opportunity?

75% are receptive to hardware that is discounted because it is ad supported. 

62% said that they did enjoy viewing ads on a tablet.

Ad and marketing experience on devices is very static right now, marketers need to try harder.  Think about new approaches to advertising – apply your digital thinking and expertise to traditional media and vice versa.

Questions to ask in 2012

How will people access entertainment by the end of the year?

How will people access social media by the end of 2012?

 

 

 

#DigATL The Evolving Multi-channel Experience and Mobile Ecosystem

Event:  The Evolving Multi-channel Experience and Mobile Ecosystem

Speaker:  Dan Israel      Company:  SapientNitro

Venue:  Georgia Tech’s Klaus Advanced Computing Building

Notes:  Day 2 of Digital Atlanta, Mobile Track. 

Check out the slide deck from the presentation for a visual representation.

Evolving Multi-channel Experience and Mobile Ecosystem

Three rules for creating engaging experiences for customers (Forrester Research)

• Immediacy – getting the right content at the right time
• Simplicity – use the right processes, and UI for the mobile channel
• Context – relevant information for the stage of the buying experience

 

5 Mobile Retail Trends: 

 Trend 1: Internet Access Anytime, Anywhere, and Beyond the PC!

Trend 2: Smartphones are for Research, Tablets are for Buying

Trend 3: Retailers No Longer Have Home Field Advantage!

The buying experience used to be linear but with digital technology has come a change in customer experience.  Because consumers are always plugged-in, new enablers have emerged for brands to engage with customers.  As a result, product companies have an opportunity to sell how they want, and what they want without the retailer getting in the way.

• 50% of Americans will have smartphones by the end of this year (that’s in 6 weeks).
• 60% of all internet usage on a mobile device is at the home.
• More than 50% of purchase decisions begin online.
• 11% of all people with smartphones are using QR codes.

Clearly the mobile phone is a key point of interaction with brands, but multiple interaction points with other steakholders can effect buying decisions (recommendation from a friend, online reviews, apps that can locate the item at the lowest price).  This puts retailers are in a tough spot, because not only are consumers armed with product research and advice from friends, brands are in the position to create individual interactions with consumers and circumvent retailers.

CASE STUDIES: Increasing Basket Size

Hope is not lost for retailers as they too can embrace emerging technologies to increase basket size. 

Walgreens is an example of a retailer who is effectively using SMS messaging.  When a customer drops off a prescription they will text you when prescription is ready.  This allows customers to focus on their shopping as they wait, rather than having to run back and forth to check if the order is ready.  An additional service they provide it the ability to re-order prescriptions by scanning a barcode on the pill bottle.

Some innovative restaurateurs are using tablets to present the menu and to place orders.  Global Mundo Tapas is one such restaurant however once an item is clicked a recommended wine or other complementary item will pop up alongside.  This has allowed them to significantly up-sell items to increase sales.

Augmented reality (overlay of digital content on a mobile view of the real world) is a huge opportunity for retailers.  Ikea is utilizing this technology to show a consumer what their furniture will look like in the consumer’s living space.  Sainsbury’s is using this technology to allow consumers to filter the content of their store.

Trend 4: Social is now Part of the Customer Journey

In the old days if someone hated you, it didn’t matter, no one would ever find out about it.  Today this is not the case, it is important for marketers to engage in this channel to get a pulse of the actual brand perceptions.  Additionally brands can use this channel to identify brand advocates.

Trend 5: Mobile Wallets and Mobile Purchasing

Mobile Wallet – personal information, identification, offer and promotion cards, payments.  (Google Wallet, Isis).

Future of the Retail Experience

Leverage the product in your store as a loaner, while you are shopping.

Retailers could leverage check-in services to tailor the way they approach customers who have entered their store.

#DigATL 5 Strategies for Integrating Mobile

Event:  5 Strategies for Integrating Mobile

Speaker:  Brandon Eley      Company:  Kelsey Advertising & Design

Venue:  Georgia Tech’s Klaus Advanced Computing Building

Notes:  Day 2 of Digital Atlanta, Mobile Track. 

Mobile to this point was primarily used for convenience services and to fill the boredom gap.  However, mobile devices are more powerful than computers were in recent years, and users are turning to their mobile devices more often than their PCs.  In fact, mobile usage is expected to overtake PC usage by late 2013.  Mobile is mainstream now, and because of this you likely need a mobile strategy for your business.  The following are 5 strategies for integrating Mobile into your marketing mix.

1)  Look at both sides of the AIDA sales funnel

Your relationship with customer goes far beyond the purchase decision, therefore think of the sales process more as an hourglass than a funnel.  Every stage of this 2 sided funnel is an opportunity to engage with customer.

Marketing Tip: Customer relationship does not end at purchase

When figuring out your mobile strategy, and at what points in the selling process you should engage ask – what are your overall marketing goals?  Brand awareness, increased revenue, enhanced customer service, product loyalty?

Mobile strategy should not just be utilized as a means for attracting customers; it should also be used as a means for providing additional value to your product or service.  If used properly mobile could add switching costs that will help you to retain customers longer.

A key factor in this strategy is knowing your customer.  It is critical to know your customer’s behaviors, before building a strategy to reaching out to them.  Different technologies reach different demographics, with different efficacy rates – SMS, Mobile web, Mobile email, display ad, search ad, QR code, app, location based, augmented reality are just some of the mobile technologies available today.

2)  Utilize Media You Already Buy

Note:  The best news I heard the entire conference – people with traditional media experience are STILL relevant because traditional media can be used as the carrot stick to drive people to your website, or to take another action via their mobile devices. 

Use mobile with your traditional forms of advertising to make it traceable.  Engage through traditional, and add a mobile component to drive additional engagement, and more brand touch points.  Adding a mobile call to action will allow you to to test how different types of messaging and ad placements effect people; how they make people jump into action.

Text message marketing is the best way to engage with customers.  Text message promotions are most likely to be read within 5 minutes of receipt.

3)  Mobile Web and Email

Web is the hub of the hub and spoke ad model.  Despite the influx of people using their mobile devices to engage with brands online, 79% of large online advertisers do not have a mobile optimized website (March 2011).

Jakob Nielson commented on this staggering statistic saying (paraphrased since I can’t remember the exact quote), “Improving performance (decreasing bounce rate) by just 20% is more than enough reason to build a dedicated mobile optimized website.”

Keys to a Mobile Optimized UI:  images fill the frame, large clickable buttons, simple messaging.  Remember – think mobile first.

Mobile Search and Display  – Create mobile banners, and mobile optimized campaigns that link directly to your mobile optimized website, not the full online version of your site.

Display Best Practice:

• Utilize targeting
• Send to a mobile optimized landing page
• What is the call to action?  Engagement?
• Track visits, conversions, and connections

Mobile email – Mobile email adoption has gone from 4% to 20% in just two years.  Be sure you know what your e-mail will look like on multiple devices and platforms.  The Litmus app is a mobile application that will show you what your email will look like across a number of platforms.

Email Best Practices:

• Utilize @media queries
• Turn off font resizing
• Hide unnecessary content
• Use one column layout
• Adjust size of images

4)  Location Based Services

McDonald’s tested their ability to drive engagement on Four Square Day with a special offer for free gift cards with every check-in.  There was a 30% increase of check-ins in participating restaurants.

The second year they tried again, this time giving out limited edition Mayor McCheese t-shirts for the first check-ins.  Not only did the gametization of the promo increase check-ins, but the shouts on 4sq, and twitter and other buzz skyrocketed.

LBS Best Practices

• Great for LOCAL businesses
• Go where your customers are
• Give incentives for check-ins
• Look at your demographics
• Make it fun

5)  Create Engagement Opportunities

SMS Marketing – most effective form of marketing at this time.  It is only opt in, and 95% of the time is read within 30 minutes, and 90% read within 5 minutes.  Engagement is higher with SMS than with any other form of mobile marketing.  Two keys to SMS success are:

• Be sure to use a reputable company (try Gigabark) because there are huge fines if you send SMS messaging to someone who did not sign up for your list.
• Utilize a short code – can use for coupons, time sensitive messaging, contests, alerts, events.

Case Studies: 

UAS Property Management was able to use SMS to reduce dead leads.  Before SMS they would call through their list of thousands to find interested renters, often time wasting time and money calling dead leads – people who had found apartments, or stopped looking for some other reason.  When they switched to SMS these dead leads could easily opt out therefore reducing their number of contacts but most importantly, they reduced the number of dead leads.  Because they were only getting response from those that were actually interested they saved a lot of time that would have been spent calling dead leads.  They gained efficiencies and could spend more time focused on interested consumers rather than wasting time contacting those who are not interested and their sales increased by 400%.

SMS Best Practices

• Get permission
• Use urgency & scarcity
• Cross-promote with other media
• Great for radio, television, and OOH

QR Codes:

Mobile barcode scanning grew 1600% in 2010.

Can be used to engage potential customers or to deliver customer service, rather than just a mechanism to attract customers.

Custom QR codes have a three-to-one ratio of scans over traditional codes.

QR Best Practices

• Simple short URLs
• Educate consumers – attscan.mobi
• Size matters….& TEST scanability!
• Utilize tracking URLs
• Don’t post codes online – unless it is a link to DL the mobile app.
• What is the CTA?

#DigATL Anthropology of Mobile Apps

Event:  The Anthropology of Mobile Apps: What you need to know to build an effective Mobile Strategy. 

Speaker:  David Reeves      Company:  Romp Interactive

Venue:  Georgia Tech’s Klaus Advanced Computing Building

Day 2 of Digital Atlanta hosted the Mobile Track.  Some very interesting speakers, below are my notes/learnings/dialogue.

#1 Key Take-Away:  Before you begin any sort of development and implementation you need to know your strategy.  Know your strategy for the company, and for digital integration.  Keeping your objectives in mind will assure that your Mobile strategy and goals are aligned with those of the company, and the brand.  This is a key point that has been coming up in a lot of the discussions this week.

#2 Key Take-Away: There is a common misconception that all mobile users are the same, they use their phones the same, and they want them to work the same.  Or maybe it is not so much a misconception but it is definitely the way a majority of companies are approaching mobile – trying to build one app that will work across multiple devices and operating systems.  Avoid the trap of trying to make one app that is everything to everyone and instead think of the various Mobile user groups as cultures.  A culture is a combination of the population, customs, governance, style of dress and belief system of the group.

1) Population  Demographics & Market Share.

• 82% of US adults have a cell phone, about 40% of those are Smart Phones.
• Market Share of the Smartphone segment breaks down at about 16% Blackberry, ~40% Apple, and ~40% Android.

Looking at these statistics you may be tempted maximize your reach choosing to develop an app for Android and /or Apple devices and omit Blackberry.  However, as with most business decisions, before making a move you need more information so you reach YOUR audience, rather than an audience.

What if you were a B2B firm trying to reach company managers and executives?  Would you be interested to know that Blackberry still owns 30% of the enterprise market?  Of course!

If you were Nike trying to enter the market in Latin & South America, before you invest 100’s of 1000’s into a whiz-bang Apple app you would probably like to know that Blackberry owns 36% of that market, and is the #1 cell phone for young adults in Brazil.

These examples point out the importance of knowing who your target is, and then finding out where they are.  The Population tells you who is using specific mobile devices and why.  Below is a look at the populations for iPhone, Android.

iPhone (culture: active users)

Users account for 58.5% of all mobile browsing.

Users account for 4% of all Yelp users, but 27% of Yelp searches.

Users are older, wealthier, and better educated.

Brand seeks to build emotional connection and attachment with users through their commercial messaging – how can the device connect people.

Android (culture: technology)

Users skew younger, more techy and high-end, like high customization.  More text usage, less game and app downloads.

Customization is a key differentiator, but it also lends to rougher edges, and users need to tinker a bit more to get the device operating to their liking.  Customization is a challenge for Google because of security issues, UI variations, and developers opting for Apples more rigid but clear development standards.  However, the advantage is of course that the users as well as the carriers can make the devices their own.

Mobile App adoption:

37% American adults have mobile apps on their phone.

27% of that group use the apps.

11% of that group don’t even know that they have apps or what they do.

Therefore it is important to consider the offline culture of your app.  On the otherhand 4.8BN text messages are sent daily.  Sometimes the simple solution such as SMS/Text apps is a better fit with YOUR mobile culture.

2) Governance

Who controls your mobile strategy, they will define it.

Apple:  (culture: Philosopher King).

Objectives for Apple are design, style, polish, consistency.  Apple is not about features, they give developers and users less freedom.  Apple is calling the shots, and at times inconsistently.

Android: (Culture: Open, sharing)

Google’s primary goal is search.  Who is in control of the OS on the devices?  The carriers, they code the app and they decide which apps will run, what is available in the app store, and can install bloatware on your phone.

Fragmentation

The current market is only going to become more fragmented with as many as 10 Mobile operating systems (OS) being available in the near future.  Can web applications and services help standardize the process?  There are some tools out there that may help – Webkit was mentioned as a great mobile development tool that will work across platforms.

Implementation

#3 Key Take-Away:  Need to focus your strategy on the user.  What experiences do they bring with them?  This is another statement that has come up a lot this week.

3) Style of Dress

Adopt the cultures style of dress – an iPhone app should look like an iPhone app and an Android app should look like an Android app. 

Build a flagship app.  Choose 1 or 2 OS that best fit with your users and build an app that is great – focused and native feeling.  Build once, but don’t build one app thinking it will fit everyone.

Mobile Mindsets

1. I’m bored
2. I’m local
3. I’m microtasking

When people are using their phones, and likely your app, they are at a stop-light, they are waiting in line, they are bored because a TV commercial is on, they are many things but they are definitely NOT 100% focused on your app.  You have the users attention for approximately 60 to 90 seconds.  For this reason style of dress (native UI) is essential so your app is easy for the user to operate.

#4 Key Take-Away:  Think mobile first.  I thought this was a really interesting approach.  The idea is that if you design within the constraints of mobile you will cutout all of the bloat that can be found on your typical website and you will be left with the primary actions, and meassages for the user.

Stay tuned for notes from the rest of the events!  This may take a while!

 

 

Digital Atlanta Kicks-off with Discussion of Oldest Form of Marketing – WOM

Got my official badge for the week

Tonight I rushed through traffic from Athens to the Newell Rubbermaid HQ to hear Digital Atlanta’s opening night keynote speaker Ted Wright from Fizz (@Fizz_Womm).

The following are my notes from the event beginning with a ton of great stats:

76% of people do not trust corporate commercial advertising

68% of people trust people who are like themselves.  A drastic increase from 22% reporting this in 2003.

76% of Americans talk about 1 or more brands per day.  The average American mentions 10 per day.

71% of WOM conversations take place face to face!  (2% over IM, 3% over e-mail, 1% online chat/blog, 2% other).  This surprised me.

15% of every conversation taking place in the USA includes some mention, or discussion of a brand or product.

40% of brand conversations are regarding the brand’s marketing or media.

What does all this add up to?  A “conversation revolution” and it is happening now!  Broadcasting your message is no longer effective.  Brands need to have stories, and those stories need to be shared.

Influencers are defined as those who:

1. Like new products because they are new.
2. Have a strong urge to share information with friends.
3. Are intrinsically motivated.

Influencers are having twice as many brand conversations, but less conversations overall – meaning when they are talking people are listening.

So how can you make these tidbits work for your brand?!

• Identify a leadership group within your organization who will advocate mobile projects
• Find the talkers, the influencers will find you
• Give them something to talk about – something that is interesting, relevant and authentic
• Create tools to get movement started
• Allow people to join
• Measure results

Key take-aways for WOMM success:

• Sample, sample, sample.  Great products are expert samplers.
• Invest in PR, it validates WOMM and adds velocity to the message.
• Work with influencers.  Teach them your brand story, they will share it and you will contain messaging.
• Stories are shared if they are interesting, relevant and authentic.
• If someone say no to your sales pitch, that is great – you have the info you need to move onto the next party rather than wasting time on a dead lead.

 

Checkout this interview and event coverage from http://www.myurbanreport.com/

ABOUT FIZZ:  “Fizz is a word of mouth marketing agency based in Atlanta, Georgia. Our goal at Fizz is to help you build your brand. Our focus is simple to identify the customers and potential customers most likely to talk about your brand (we call these people influencers) and then use creative tactics to encourage communication. We call this “Influencer Marketing” and it is the most effective technique available to you for growing your brand.”   JOIN FIZZ CORP HERE

Tips to make the most of your Digital Atlanta Experience

This week I am attending Digital Atlanta.  Check back throughout the week for my key learnings and thoughts on the Digital Atlanta events!

Are you attending?  Take action:

1)  Visit digitalatlanta.org to view event schedule and register for events.

2)  Read about the speakers, and their companies in advance.

3)  Bring Business Cards and write your Twitter Handle and/or blog address on them.

4)  Join the LinkedIn Group

5)  Official Digital Atlanta hashtag is #DigATL.

6)  Increase your Klout– create a DigATL list on twitter and add people you meet, sponsors, volunteers and speakers to that list.  Not only will you increase your influence rating listing people is a great way to filter conversations!

7)  Give sponsors, speakers, and volunteers free press – Digital Atlanta is only in its second year and completely run by volunteers. Be sure to thank everyone involved for making this week-long conference possible AND FREE!  Some of the people I plan to list, follow and give a shout out, +1, and +K to are:

• @gigabark, their sponsorship has made it possible to host all of these events FREE to the public!
• @FifthGrouper, thanks for the awesome $25 door prize
• Sponsors – @Vitrue, AT&T Ad words, @MailChimp, @OgilvyAtlanta, @engauge
• Venues – @HudsonGrille, @GeorgiaTech, @RoamAtlanta, @theWorkSpot, @Rubbermaid
• The Leadership of this conference – @BWDumars, @SWFrost

Create your own list, and/or you can follow my growing list here.

8) Share articles from Digital Atlanta’s Media partners, bloggers, re-tweet.  Like this article from @11AliveNews.

9)  Share your notes, and take-aways – Its unfortunately not possible to attend every Digital Atlanta event so share information from the events you attend with those who could not attend.  This blog of course is an example of how I’m sharing.  This will also give the speakers a little more press, and they deserve it for their time.

10)  Make notes of any ideas for how you think Digital Atlanta can improve next year.  Then sign up to volunteer next year and make those changes a reality!  If we join forces and promote the heck out of the event and give credit to those who made this event possible then we can leverage this to build a bigger and better event next year!

Thank you Mokabla Inc.

Just a quick post before I get back to studying for my operations exam!

Thank you Mokabla Inc.

HUGE shoutout to Mokabla Inc. (@mokablainc) for donating these awesome Hosni Mubarak vs. Social Media shirts to our Terry MBA Leadership team.  We presented our research on the leadership style of Mark Zuckerberg and how it (his choices in running Facebook) enabled the start of the Social Revolution.  Of course said revolution wouldn’t have gone far without the courage of Wael Ghonim and countless others who organized and took to the streets.

The shirts were a huge hit we tossed them out to the class to encourage participation.

Also shoutout to @Christuff for getting me started in the right direction with some pretty impressive Facebook statistics.  Check out this infographic video (Love the song:  Ghostwriter by RJD2).

OK back to studying for Operations.

Everyone Thinks They’re a Social Media Expert!

A couple of years ago I was at a networking event and identified myself as a “new-media expert”.  I felt confident in this assessment as I had recently completed my web design certification and acted as Project Manager for the development and build-out of a couple of websites for a client at the agency where I was working.  However, the woman whom I had just exclaimed this to, clearly more enmeshed in the digital world than I, responded, “Oh, we don’t use that word.  Too many people claim to be experts in this field simply because they have a Facebook page.”  Well her response was something like that; I’m paraphrasing from a failing memory.  Anyway, feeling naive and embarrassed I shuffled away to go network and discuss print advertising with the traditional media ‘experts’.

In my pursuit to gain a deeper understanding of digital media, it has become ever more clear that this mystery lady was right; everyone does think they’re a digital/interactive/new/social media expert these days.  In fact, many believe themselves to be more than ‘experts’, under the current vernacular these experts claim to be ‘gurus,’ ‘ninjas,’ ‘rockstars,’ or even ‘Jedi.’  Geoff Livingston discusses these titles in his blog post, “Can We Give the Jedi/Ninja Thing a Rest?” noting that the original idea behind these hip titles was to make work more fun!  He states, “[The titles have] reached the point of ridicule, and really hurt the sector more than anything.”  By hurt he means clients have a hard time taking people seriously with these ridiculous titles, clients don’t want fun, they want someone with “the latest information on measurement and integration so they can demonstrate ROI to their internal management.”

Unfortunately ridiculous job titles are not the only difficulty firms are facing when seeking qualified digital media consultants.  I’ve discussed in an earlier post that the web has made it possible for anyone and everyone to start a webpage, or a blog (ehm, yes myself included) to affordably sell or promote their services.  The web, and the market, is saturated with agencies, consultants, and contractors claiming to be elite know-it-alls of the digital space ready assist unsuspecting clients who are attempting to integrate digital media into their business plan.  Milo Yiannopoulos put it best in his Telegraph article, Time to Ditch the Blood-sucking Social Media Gurus, “One of the conditions that has allowed the faux-academic colloquy of the social media industry to grow so fast is a lack of checks and balances online, especially within social networks.”

So how do you find someone who can truly help you?  With everything changing so fast do years of experience or past projects even help?  Well for starters, Steve Lubetkin makes some great suggestions in his article, 5 Signs Your Social Media Guru is a Quack:  

• Look for consultants whose experience in communications and online technology extends well beyond the last business cycle (I love this one!  Yes, you mean someone who actually has a foundation in marketing or communications?  Understands the theories behind the applications?  Knows as much or more about strategy than how to build a Facebook Page?)
• Pay more attention to the level of engagement the consultant has with followers and friends (more on this below)
• Ask your consultant about how much of their expertise they share freely with their social networks (more on this below)
• You want a consultant to be a devil’s advocate and challenge assumptions about social media (see video)

“One commonly quoted rule is that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert- that’s 2 months short of 5 years.  Which means there are very few true social media experts around.” Chris Kieff writes in his Nine Point Social Media Expert Evaluation. The qualitative and quantitative points in his evaluation and my comments are (yes there are only 7 bullets, I combined a couple):

• Google Search Results – I can agree with that, if someone cannot gain optimized search results for themselves, then can you expect them to obtain them for your firm?
• Twitter – Must have more than 2010 followers and be listed on over 100 lists.  Followers show that you post interesting content, lists show that your content is interesting enough for people to want to easily access your posts and read them on the regular.  But why 2010 followers?  Kieff explains in his article, “2000 is the Twitter imposed limit where the user must have a following of 90%.  To get more than 2000 followers you must have more than 1800 followers of your own (90%).  In other words, any idiot (or spammer) can follow 2000 people, but you have to work hard to get to 2010.”
• Klout Score of 30+ – This is a social media ranking network that Kieff admits, “is far from perfect but the best that is around today.”
• Facebook – 1000+ Friends While I know many friends who have over 1000 friends on Facebook the average Facebook user has ~140 friends.  Facebook Page with 250+ Fans/Likes
• LinkiedIn – 500+ Connections, 10+ Recommendations, and 5 – 10 Best Answers.  Again the recommendations and best answers metrics are good additions.  Shows that the network of connections is actually responsive and values the content.
• An active blog with active comments – So please feel free to comment on my posts!
• Active on other Social Networks – “Foursquare, Shopkick, GoWalla, Digg, Flickr, YouTube and a few dozen more”

He closes his list with a tenth point, “Use your brain, if they have some of these attributes in areas where you are interested but none in the areas you are uninterested in, they may be just fine.”  A valid point, I must agree because if I have learned anything in school I have definitely learned that understanding your specific goals and needs is critical when starting a new project; there is no formula to these things.  Using your brain will also be essential in deciding if the above numbers are being met because of valuable content or incessant spamming to increase followers.  So on that note I include this (slightly annoying but humorous) video on said ‘numbers game’:

Livingston, Geoff, Can We Give the Jedi/Ninja Thing a Rest?, March 30, 2011

Yiannopoulos, Milo, Time to Ditch the Blood-sucking Social Media Gurus, The Telegraph, November 2010

Lubetkin, Steve, 5 Signs Your Social Media Guru is a Quack, September 17th, 2010

Kieff, Chris, Nine Point Social Media Expert Evaluation, November 19, 2010 

VIDEO:  Elise’s Review, 20 Reasons Why You Are Not a Social Media Expert, January 21, 2010

Now Playing: Google Doodles

If you logged onto Google today you may have noticed the logo not only looks a little different, it looks like a YouTube video.  Well upon further investigation (ie. a mouse click) you will find that it is a YouTube video…as well as a search filter that will bring up results for Charlie Chaplin.  Google has been changing up their logo on their search pages for quite some time; these are called “Google Doodles.”  As stated on the Google Doodles history, “Doodles are known as the decorative changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists and scientists.”

History of Google Doodles:  see all of the doodles here: http://www.google.com/logos/

Google founders let the world know they were attending the "Burning Man Festival" with this first ever Google Doodle.

Google Doodles started in 1998, as pictured to the left, with a very simple addition of the Burning Man Festival graphic to the usual Google logo.  As the history tells it, “The revised logo was intended as a comical message to Google users that the founders were ‘out of office.’”  The second Doodle was a product of Dennis Hwang, at the time an intern for the company, who designed a doodle tribute to Bastille Day in 2000.  “Pleased with the results, Dennis was then appointed Google’s chief doodler and doodles became a regular occurrence on the Google homepage.”

This statement, “Pleased with the results,” intrigued me.  As an aspiring Brand Manager and someone who has consulted with numerous brands, I have been conditioned to dutifully uphold and even enforce brand standards.  A task that held me accountable for ensuring the integrity of the logo in every bit of promotional material, whether produced by my agency or a third-party.  However, Google Doodle has built a secondary brand, out of going off point.  I had to wonder, what results were they “pleased with,” so pleased that they built a brand around tossing out the brand standards a couple of times a month.

In Doug Gross’s CNNTech article, Charlie Chaplin gets birthday ‘doodle’ from Google, Ryan Germick, Doodle team creative leader is quoted,  “The drawings started out as a way to humanize the search page, but became more elaborate as time went on.”  Not only has the team been able to strengthen the brand, a counter culture of sorts has formed around the intrigue of these Doodles.  Ben Johnson writes in his post, Unveiling yet another Unimpeachable Strategy of Google, “Every time the logo is changed or some new and significant elements are being introduced into it, a wave of curiosity is being generated into millions of Google Visitors to find out what these changes actually refer to.”

As we’ve been discussing in our Marketing courses at Terry College of Business, sometimes you need to educate or remind your consumers of the extent of your services to drive trial and usage.  For Google users, Doodles add an element of surprise to daily search but clicking the doodle returns interesting search results for topics that may capture user’s attention for longer on a topic they may otherwise never have searched.  Is Google educating users of their services by educating users on random global topics?

Sometimes the purpose behind the doodle of the day is a mystery, generating much interest.  The power of this inspector gadget gametization is seen in Ian Paul’s PCWorld article, What’s Up With Google’s Bouncy Ball Logo?, which begins, “Google launched another Google Doodle guessing game Tuesday, with a new interactive Google logo that you can manipulate with your mouse.”  He goes on to say, “It’s not clear what prompted Google to launch the playful design, but many are guessing…”  In his article, Paul makes an interesting guess at the strategy behind these doodles, that with the addition of interactive features to these doodles Google is able to showcase the capabilities for modern web technologies.  With Google making billions of dollars of revenue from advertising dollars could all this really be a creative way of showing advertisers the power of online advertising (ehm, capturing users attention, and having them click on hand picked search results) as well as the capabilities (video enabled logos).

Now back to this YouTube enabled doodle, it is the first ever video enabled Doodle.  The occasion for this display, well, Charlie Chaplin’s 122nd Birthday!  Ryan Germick says of Google Doodle, “Our hope is you come to the Google homepage, and we’re really thankful for that.  We want to give back and try something fun.”  While I don’t doubt that is the hope one cannot deny that click rates, and time spent on your website are important metrics advertisers evaluate when choosing where to invest their online budgets.

Having seen this logo and done a bit of researching I wonder two things:

• How long until YouTube (which is of course owned by Google) enabled logos enter into the mainstream?
• Will we soon be seeing, or are we already seeing; Google Doodles sponsored by major corporations (stealthily of course, perhaps a Google Doodle for Delta’s recent 75^th anniversary, linking to their homepage, promotional sites).

I’m seeing a lot of legs on this thing!  Nicely done Google Doodle, you sneaky devil!

SOURCES:  Ben Johnson:  http://www.logoinn.org/famous-logos/unveiling-yet-another-unimpeachable-strategy-of-google   

CNNTech:  http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-15/tech/charlie.chaplin.google_1_google-doodle-google-s-doodle-google-homepage?_s=PM:TECH

Doodle History:  http://www.google.com/doodle4google/history.html

PCWorld: http://www.pcworld.com/article/204923/whats_up_with_googles_bouncy_ball_logo.html