Buzz Canuck

Bring Your Luck

Buzz Canuck — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:12:42 -0400

I maligned the creative industry's use of advertising the other day in The Absolute Waste of Outdoor Advertising, so I thought I would at least heap praise when I noticed a good one that turned my head.

This Fallsview Casino ad taken from the Gardiner Expressway In Toronto (always challenging to take pictures with one hand on the steering wheel).

Smart, eye catching...and how much does it cost really to make 4 large pieces of 3D underwear?

The Evolution of Brands & The Sixth Phase - Wiki Brands

Buzz Canuck — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:49:05 -0400

Marketing and culture at large, has a pretty short memory. They know what is in front of their face and they know what happened yesterday, not so great at placing things in context. Blogging 2004, YouTube 2005, My Space/ 2006, Facebook 2007, Twitter 2008 (strange we haven't heard about the new on the scene 2009 thing yet). We are a flavour of the day, ADD-driven, low mental storage capacity industry, which makes us tough to see the forest from the trees.

Let's unveil the curtain of history for a moment. When you consider this wondrous art of marketing and communications that has flourished into this $350 billion economic juggernaut, we really have only been practising it for 150 years. People are sounding off about the end of this sometimes poisoned practice with the onset of new technology, the new social "shiny things" and new business models, when really it's still in its early adolescence (and like most adolescents is going through an awkward phase).

My postulation is we've seen 6 distinct phases of marketing and brand development. Each phase marked by a different driver of brand value, a different brand-customer relationship, a different focus of management and a different force at work within society and the marketplace that brings about change.

This would probably make for a really good Ken Burns 24 part documentary, but I'll give the abridged version here. A

In the beginning, there was a trademark - with the advancement of business law, brands became signatures for "hands off, my property". A good brand owner back in the 1860s wanted a distinct mark that made it their own and would display it prominently. Company marks ceded way to brand marks, in fact, the world's first legally registered brand trademark was Bass Ale's red triangle in 1875 and having once managed the brand in Canada, I can testify it is still in existence today.

As markets expanded, distribution networks became more efficient and the industrial revolution rolled into high gear, brands started to have a bigger geographic reach. Your customer base wasn't just the 8 general stores in your vicinity - but customers that spanned states, regions and countries. Brands became icons of trust and good value for customers. Companies started to produce brandmarks extensions to a portfolio of company products. In the late 1800s, P&G's brand Ivory became the soap everybody wanted because it was so pure 99.44%, mild on children and that it would float. Mass produced products started to push away locally produced versions based on good product quality at a better price - good branding helped aid the spread of these products.

In the golden age of mass market brands starting in the 1920s, increasing wealth and aspirations, caused corporate innovation to flourish - automobiles, appliances, exotic travel, radios then TVs - all became attainable by the middle class. A brand became a badge - a set of associations that satisfied our real and perceived wants and fulfilled our dreams and communicated that to others as well, from simple household items to big purchases. Think Marlboro. Think Ford. Think Tiffany's. Think Coca-Cola. Brands became embued with values, frequently promoted by celebrity spokespeople that embodied those values and efficiently communicated through 3 TV channels, your local 8 radio stations or 3 local newspapers- no further questions asked.

Fast forward to the 80s and 90s, and we started to have a surplus of stuff. Grocery stores saw an eight-fold rise in the number of products that carried. From expanding retail big box stores to global competition to corporate love of line extensions and the rise of generics, there was an explosion of choice for customers in every industry. In this post mass market brand era, brands had to stand for something and as Ries & Trout outlined in their book Positioning, the need to be first in something in the customer's mind was key. Brand managers focused on building brand equity and strengthening their credentials on some attribute or another. Well owned positions were able to charge a premium and withstand the increasing power of retail demonstrated by Walmart's rise to power. Volvo for safety. BMW for experience. Mercedes for luxury. Cadillac for prestige. You get the picture - owning something important and maniacallyt adhering to the script was the plan.

But what happens when there is just too much stuff and not enough attention to go around. Good positioning is no longer enough to overcome a customer's increasing lack of attention, time and trust. Even if you can claim superiority, do I believe you? do I care enough to listen? or do you get past my attention span inundated by media and product proliferation?

In a Lovemark world, popularized by Kevin Robert's book of the same name, brands in this recent era are applying cause marketing, story telling and design leadership to overcome customer hurdles and force them to love us. Apple. Virgin. Stella Artois. Starbucks. Dyson. Southwest Airlines. Moleskine. Target. RED products. RED Bull. All brands succeeding based on remarkable brand affinity that goes past simple brand features or equity and focuses on creating an extraordinary, well-loved experience. Lovemarks are able to get past the mass media glut, the pressure of getting on shelf, the commodification of categories and short product life cycles because people simply adore them.

My belief is we are just at the beginning at a very different phase of brand life that requires a complete 180 degree turn on what we have learned and what might have worked over the last 5 phases. I've outlined this as the Wiki Brand era and have written a critically acclaimed paper of the same title talking about what brands now need to do in a customer controlled marketplace.

We're talking new ways of positioning, new ways of targeting, new ways of innovating, new ways of communicating, new ways of measuring, new media usage, new levels of openness and transparency and an overhauled marketing organization, skill set and structure. The ascendancy of broadcast media, mass marketing and command-and-control brand development is seriously threatened, if not made already irrelevant.

Marketing has become a function of what you actually do as a company not what you say you do. Going to market has become less about who you are targeting and more about who is involved. Brand success is less measured by how satisfied your users are and more about how excited and engaged they get. Gone are the days of brokering eyeballs, and a keen focus is being now directed to how companies build positive word of mouth.

Why? and why now? There are so many factors coming to play at once - I've tried to bucket the key 5 reasons -

Shifts in media - close to 70% of what's on the web now is not produced by companies or professionals but from people - users, customers, hobbyists are creating the stuff we hear of, know of and believe in- this is having profound effects on where and from whom customers are learning about their next purchased products, brands and services

Shifts in customer needs - as mentioned in my previous post "Mindnumbing Brand Sameness" - quality and leadership are tablestakes for product attributes, Wiki Brands deliver a lot, are unique in how they do it and involve their users along the way - they are delivering freedom, authenticity, experiences, innovation, personalization - this is what the new customer wants

Shifts in technology - the tools for life skills are in the hands of users - you can buy anything, produce anything, create your own media, evaluate anything via the web - there are few monopolies left as technology has created a level, much quicker-playing field

Shifts in business models - the most successful brands of the wiki brand era either have started online or migrated online, they are not saddled with legacy costs, the slowness of conventional thinking, the inefficiency of traditional business processes

Shifts in demographics - call them Generation Y, the Millenials, the Net Generation - but a demographically powerful group of people under 30 are flexing their teeth - they are tech savvy, they are collaborative, they are inquisitive, perhaps somewhat too entitled but crave particpation - they are also an increasing part of your customer base and employee roll call

Put together, these shifts are creating a sixth phase in marketing that demands collaboration, cooperation, co-development, crowdsourcing and in some cases, co-ownership of brands. Great brands are now the host of conversations. They are creating forums for their users to play, learn, experience, create, mashup, socialize and improve what they have. Think Zappos. Think Facebook. Think Mozilla. Think Threadless. Think Wikpedia. Think eBay. Think Lego. Think Wold of Warcraft. Think Wii. Think Nike Plus. Think Obama. Think Intuit. All engaging brands that are opening their worlds up for their users and creating and promoting the sparks for real two-way dialogue with their stakeholders.

This is the world Wiki Brands. So you just gotta ask yourself the question, "do you want to want to practice marketing in the 6th phase or something less than 5th? Well do you...traditional world punk.

History class dismissed.

Mind Numbing Brand Sameness

Buzz Canuck — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:12:12 -0400

"One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

Did you guess which thing was not like the others?
Did you guess which thing just doesn't belong?
If you guessed this one is not like the others,
Then you're absolutely...right! "

As marketers, were we having a "timeout" when other kids were learning this Sesame Street song and life principle? I think yes.

Whether it's the world of automobiles, airlines or retailers, we have so achingly little differentiation in our brands. What happened to the excitement people?

This weekend, I walked into no less than 13 shoe stores in one of local malls. Let me ask you - how many of them had - women's one side, men's the other, a central bank of chairs for sitting, rows of shoes on the side wall - 4-8 rows high, 2-4 awkwardly smiling sales clerks hovering, a clumsy sizing tool and angled stool for fitting and a fenced off register area toward back of store. Check. check. check. check. check. check. check. It was an ode to podiatric conformity.

No digital displays, no innovative store setup, no foot models, no coffee bar, no his & her couches, no running ticker on how many shoes were sold there today, no employee faves wall.

Yawn...if shoes are this boring, how do we make other more staid categories sing....and more importantly why is this happening?

Young & Rubicam may have the answer. They evaluated that 40 out of 44 categories have seen less differentiation than a decade ago with consequently less brand affinity and loyalty. With the recent economic downturn, this has almost reached crisis proportions with some major brands losing as high as 59% of their highly loyal users.

So after testing a battery of 50 attributes linked to brand value, here's Y&R's scoop.

The top 8 attributes linked to brand value are:
#1 High Quality
#2 -Trustworthy
#3 - Good Value
#4 - Reliable
#5 - Original
#6 - Simple
#7 - Fun
#8 - Leader

A wonderful and noble set of attributes to be sure, however if you put these attributes on a scale of differentiation, these attributes average rank sits at #36 on attributes that make your brand appear different.

Here's the problem - the attributes above are table stakes, the price of admission for getting in the game. Years ago, they may have actually meant something. Nowadays, everybody can claim some title to these attributes and even if you could uniquely, it can be quite tough to prove or raise to the level of consciousness in the customer mind and perception game.

No, here's what your "best practice" consultants aren't telling you. In order to truly drive brand value in a distracted, underwhelmed and over-sensated marketplace (and in my world, to get your brand noticed and talked about), you need to be maxing out on Y&R's top 8 differentiating attributes:
#1 Unique
#2 Dynamic
#3 Different
#4 Distinctive
#5 Innovative
#6 Visionary
#7 Daring
#8 Progressive

Dyson. Virgin. Westjet. Vespa. Zappos. Calvin Klein. Apple. This is the very DNA of their brand's existence.

So brand owners, please stop playing a game of "me too" and start singing the song we want to hear "one of these things is not like the others..."

The Absolute Waste of Outdoor Advertising

Buzz Canuck — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:42:31 -0400

Now before you accuse me of being a "head in the sand" digital addict that hates all forms of traditional media, let me state my case.

Used well, I believe outdoor ads can be one of the most effective traditional mediums.

With commuting times double what they were a generation ago and consumers' ability to filter nearly every other medium, outdoor has some unique built-in advantages - locally contextual-relevance, captive audience, ability to create beyond the medium itself (through digital display and 3D buildouts).

So I really want to be a fan Clear Channel, CBS, Pattison and Astral, you have a good thing going. I love your canvas, it's what gets painted on them that makes my eyes roll with the wasted marketing dollars at play.

- Is there not a school for good outdoor creative that you can send clients to?

- Is there not some price incentive that you can give discounts for really great creative?

- Can you not help these marketers invent or reinvent the medium?

- Will you please not build a blog to profile the best of the best, as opposed to letting us rely on the good work from adrants, Beyond Madison Avenue and others that profile where the best is happening in New York, Amsterdam or somewhere else but here.

Case in point, I was driving to my parents for Father's Day across two of our fair city's major arteries. Here's my summary of outdoor creative:

18 of the ads were decent - they created awareness for something new or interesting - whether it was the Tim Horton's $2.99 special or Bud Light's new Lime launch - not breakthrough but enough to wend their way into my sub-consciousness - most I would pass over but post enough of them and the message might sink in.

33 of the ads were a complete waste of money - they were an annoyance on the landscape - BMO in particular was bad, they asked questions that left people wondering, where the heck are the answers and does BMO even have them?

5 of the ads were downright incomprehensible transgressing the rules of nearly every good outdoor execution. Thankfully, most of the offenders were the small, one-off executions.

Just 3 of the ads were interesting, I repeat 3 out of 59. That is a bad batting average in any field of play, never mind advertising. These were the few that caused me to act, to at least take the extra step of going online to hear what the story was all about.

Casinoramavotes.com was the most interesting, with a series of ads asking people to vote "yes" or "no" to excitement. Although the web destination, was a big marketing disappointment, at least the outdoor execution caused me to act along with about 2,000 others according to the microsite's stats.

For God's sakes marketers, be interesting, will you. Let me provide some inspiration.

- Claritin used to have a pollen count meter board on the Gardiner that would tell people how allergic they might be that day - imagine that, outdoor that actually helps and perhaps sells more product

- James Ready asked people to get involved with their campaign, encouraging people to make an offer

- What can you not say about Ikea helping reinvent the medium and getting people's head's to turn and chins to wag

- BBC has helped reinvent the canvas that gets used, increasing its noticability and likely helping the outdoor guys make more money

- Mini - the best practitioners of hero outdoor - 90% of their outdoor's benefit is the PR it generates

- Lego - brilliant - that's all I have to say

- The Economist - guess what people, outdoor can interact and likely for no more than a couple of extra grand

- 3M - the torture test

- Fido - outdoor that entertains and truly understands the nature of its locations

- The Weather Network used to have such smart ads that played with your mind, invest in outdoor again, please!

- BC Hydro - outdoor that practices what it preaches

And this is only a small sampling:

Note to Rogers - if you're going to brag about Canada's best coverage - show me how many bars you're getting at your outdoor locale vs. your competitors

Note to Telus - love the animals campaign - but it's like wallpaper - can they not do something, interact with me, let me find 101 hidden meerkats around the city

I honestly was going to write more notes to advertisers for improving their stuff, but I couldn't remember any of the others. Please marketers, if you're going to waste money so lazily and carelessly, send it to me and I guarantee I'll put your budget largesse to much hungrier and better use.

Online Community - 25 Motivations and Incentives For Getting Involved

Buzz Canuck — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:51:55 -0400

The reasons that online communities fail can be chalked up to a number of factors, but by and large, it's not sub-par technology, lack of resources, bad creative or lack of client will.

No, the key factor concerns an inability to assess correctly or execute exactly what members want out of their community participation.

And people do want something. Trust me, it's not all peace, love, brand addiction and likability. Although that might keep them happy to participate for a few weeks, maybe a month without it appearing in front of them, they do see community participation as a reciprocal relationship.

And having too few incentives for participation is a recipe for building a ghost town of community. Tapping too many motivations in one platform and you get a bouillabaisse of confusion.

We've listed the 25 core motivations for rallying around a community in the above chart and an example of an incentive or online piece of functionality that addresses each motivation.

They end up being grouped into three very different camps of motivation:

Intrinsic - this motivation is based on the feeling that you've joined something you identify or affiliate with and can get behind - by and large, brands and companies, in and of themselves, are not big enough or attractive enough to create this level of engagement - a chronic mistake companies make is overstating their importance in people's lives - investing in ideas bigger than the brand itself is a tenet of healthy sponsored, brand communities

Extrinsic - this motivation addresses the quality of your standing and public profile in front of your peers improving by participating actively - highlighting contributions, featuring profiles and establishing VIP tiering or leaderboards are all powerful incentives for building personal reputation as part of community participation, and although we don't like to admit it - upper case Ego ("I'm the best") and lower case ego ("I'm recognized for my worth") are basic human instincts that can and should be harnessed

Explicit - this type of motivation is tangible and explicit and answers the "what's in it for me" question - perhaps it's merely access to information or maybe there needs to be a physical reward but community builders often under-estimate the amount of "dollars and cents or special access content" involved in creating community participation beyond the call of duty, and very occasionally they over-invest in this area (at the expense of others) leading to a dependence on "stuff" that can't be maintained as community grows

So the next time, a boutique technology company tries to sell you a 2.0 platform or a communications agency sells you on a sexy looking flash-based site for 6 digits - ask yourself the fundamental question - "why the hell would I sign up for this community in the first place?". The answer could be the most important driver to your community's success or failure.

The Launch of "You Twit Face"

Buzz Canuck — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:43:32 -0400

In the year 3000, Conan has still got it, even in L.A....

Vespa Parking Infraction Notice

Buzz Canuck — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:06:34 -0400

Liked this one a lot.

Makes the point clearly and provocatively.

For every person irate about getting this faux ticket, you'll get 5 who might think about Vespa in a different light.

I know I do given the evils of Toronto traffic, parking cops and gas prices (on top of that whole environment thing) .

The New Brand Arsenal - A Skillset for Marketing Peacetime

Buzz Canuck — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:35:13 -0400

It's interesting how the traditional brand economy uses such militaristic words to convey action - think words like "exploit", "dominate", "conquer", "attack" or to describe the marketplace as "the next battlefield", "stuck in the trenches", "our sales artillery" or "hand to hand combat".

Traditional media and marketing is a very "command and control" game played out by people who excel at this approach.

Given marketing's rise during the first two world wars, it's perhaps not surprising that this war mongering language has become part of popular brand vernacular. The challenge now is that this type of battle requires a peacetime commander (or at least a more guerrilla approach) with a much different set of management skills than the brand Pattons, MacArthurs or Montgomerys of the world. A little less control and more action and empowerment. A little more connected to the ground troops and less aloof, a little more collaborative and less combative, a little more likable than feared and a little more charming and intelligent and less authoritarian and competent.

The new brand arsenal (if you'd like to call it that) requires not just a paint job but a full renovation of the marketing department. It's a mindset shift not easily achieved by the management people that thrived during wartime command. Some are able to manage that balance of skills - they are likely the pragmatists that were able to modulate their behaviours based on what was in front of them. Many are still living by the rules of high alert, brand wargames and cannot or will not change their behaviors despite evidence to the contrary route of action.

We've pulled together our top 13 things that have changed to make marketeers become effective executives today vs. even a decade ago. Each one, likely deserves its own book chapter or at minimum, blog post. From the strategy and culture, to the execution and tactics - a person that thrived as a CMO in 1990 is less likely to succeed in 2010 based on the inability or lack of inclination to get closer to a much more activist, participative customer.

So why do old tired ways of wartime marketing continue, perhaps it was famed Greek playwright, Aeschylus, who said it best "in war, truth is the first casualty."

The Un-Agency - A Cure for What Ails You, Brands?

Buzz Canuck — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:59:52 -0400

Having played the roles of brand owner, agency guy and marketing services provider in my life, there is a chasm, a veritable Grand Canyon of envy, inefficiency and ineffectiveness that exists between the agency and the brand. Much like many war torn countries, I'm not too sure if any side is more noble than the other, but they are dragging each other down in the eyes of important others, to their own peril.

Consider that 2/3rds of brands have rebranded themselves in the last 3 years (at considerable expense), that only 10% of financial executives believe marketers can estimate their effort's business impact, that CMO's average lifespan is 27 months and only 32% of them even get a vote at the executive table and that the average agency lifespan on any one client is 4 years (previously a standard measured by decades); we have a problem that requires serious solutions.

Let's be honest - both these parties think differently, they chase different objectives, they are especially nice to each other in person and play the blame game when the other party isn't in the room and they spend time on trying to one-up each other - wasting time, money and credibility in the process. One is so distant from their customer, the other so aloof from the company it is intended to support. In many scenarios, it is a sick dance played out by unwilling parties.

Something has to budge in this new market landscape of tightened budgets, activist customers and justifying the value of the middleman. In our soon-to-be-released Buzz Report, we see that the top belief among marketers and agencies alike is the statement "Agencies will need to radically reinvent themselves in order to stay competitive with new world of marketing/social media strategies and tactics" - 83% strongly agree/agree with the statement. Essentially marketers are telling us - "we know this car is broken, it's just the only one we drive and we know we'll need to scrapyard it soon."

It's well acknowledged that clients are guilty of not providing actionable creative feedback, taking enough risk, tackling enough innovation, leveraging agency know-how and allowing agencies to more fully integrate themselves within a company's initiatives. They frequently play the role of police officer, scoreboard watcher and strategic quarterback and eschew the roles of change agent, innovation spark, culture changer and close confidante.

The worst sin committed on the agency front is how siloed these entities are. As indicated by the diagram above, there are 18 key roles a marketing services role/agency can play. In most agencies, you'll find at most 3-4 things they are really good at, 2-3 things they can do capably and 11-13 things they shouldn't be touching.

This would be fine if these agencies surrounded themselves with the best talent external to their company to tackle these other roles required. Frequently though, they will create the veneer of being competent in any subject to squirrel more agency fees away, much to their client's detriment.

Here's the blow by blow:

Ad agencies - the "lead dog" in most client businesses -their forte is creative, content development, program execution and brand positioning but are often viewed as a services vendor of a few wise old men with a lot of young arms and legs and not as a true company partner. The best are massively "creative and insightful" - the other majority make pretty pictures on paper or film. In large part, they are outsourced organizational pinchitters because they can provide resources more efficiently than the company themselves but can't appreciate or choose to ignore the inner strategic and operational workings of a client and what makes them tick. Other slights - they frequently let their broadcast creative drive the creative engine, leaving plenty of alternative media to fight for the scraps left over and too much of their client conversations involve agency fees. In the worst scenarios, they treat the client with outright contempt in the name of self-promotion and creative purity.

Brand/design agency - usually the best-dressed partner at the agency dance, in this generation of iPod, they have claimed a right to fair chunk of the marketing spending chalice. They can generate significant product/package design breakthroughs but fall short of the true "knock it out of the ballpark" solutions delivered by innovation consultancies. Unquestionable artistic merits get delivered on signature projects but these groups suffer from lack of accountability, frequently design arbitrary rules that act as poor handcuffs for practitioners and can be seen as way out of step with the new age of open collaboration and crowdsourcing.

Strategy consultancies - quite adept at getting executive level of impact - they are capable of providing strong guidance on strategic direction, business models, operational changes and customer experience solutions, CEOs love this. They are without question the deepest thinkers of the agency gang and can effectively distill direction from chaos. They make for great offsites and afternoon thinktanks but unfortunately, they are nowhere to be found when implementation happens with oftentimes little practical guidance on how to apply learnings (consider SAP implementation debacles as one of their worst offences). They promote the same recommendations across the industry creating a "vanilla-ness of best practices" and they are also frequently unaware of the players/firms to get this work done or how to make their recommendations stick past organizational culture. On top of this, they charge such an exorbitant amount and their staff turnover so quickly that keeping them around over the long term becomes impractical.

Innovation & research shops - they are the dreamers and change agents, if you look at companies like Ideo, you can make the argument that these product-centric firms can have the most valuable role to play in bottom line company impact, whereas their strength is turning insight into game-changing innovation, they are usually not adept at handing their "baby" off to the market implementation team, leading to a game of "innovation broken telephone" with the agencies required to execute in market. For this reason, poorly integrated innovation shops can suck massive organizational resources for little return.

Social media hothouses - they are the "engagement people" on the leading edge of digital culture and have embraced the merits of open source, conversation marketing and social networks as a source of value to a firm, making their benefits go beyond the mere marketing realm. However they are so narrow and jingoistic in their viewpoints that they suffer from inflated self-importance, low operational discipline and little understanding of the strategic and brand implications of their work or being able to justify their efforts by performance standards.

Digital agency - they are the "online kingpins" , if you're looking for sexy or interesting digital work, there is nobody better than the web specialists, they are the creators of new engagement tools, mashups and technologies that can get noticed and impress (even entertain), they understand the Xs and Os of building great web stuff, but because they are over-romanced by technology they appreciate less the Jimmy & Joes on how this stuff gets used by real people (how many slow loading agency flash websites have I seen when I was trying to find their phone number). They are not particularly adept at mining for true customer wants or how their work can all integrate with traditional media. In most agency situations, they are not leading the brand idea, so undetermined on whether their stuff has as much stratgic savvy as it needs to build company value.

Public relations/media firms - they are the connectors and have enhanced their importance over the last few years by providing stakeholder relations and activities that breakthrough and have the real or perceived view of being authentic. See Al Ries' The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR. Leading PR firms are getting the social media stakeholder game, but the majority are still stuck on wining and dining and spinmastering the 75 journalists that matter to their world. Conversely, their media planning/buying cousins are playing the role of the "establishment" - although they make things predictably run and have the occasional breakthrough, they are playing by rules that are at least 40 years old and are almost singlehandedly the reason for propping up traditional media well past their stale date and why media hasn't shifted as quickly as it needs to into the digital realm (the stark truth - they can't easily make money in this media). They can also sometimes be fairly accused of partnering with media companies at the expense of their client interests (note the ridiculousness of upfront buys). Although both PR and media people can play along at the strategic table, oftentimes they decide to play on the periphery, tactically executing and bullhorn-ing other agency's work and being the "quiet mice" at the idea table.

Promotions/sponsorship firms - they are the just get it done "solution chasers" and have risen in importance given the need to partner with dominant retailers and activate their environments. They have also seen their role grow given a bigger emphasis by companies creating brand experiences that affiliate with brand values (i.e. concerts or sponsored events) . They are the most pragmatic group of the agency bunch and can be seen as a no-nonsense sales driver for clients (vs. the "head in the clouds" other agencies) but frequently suffer at the marketing and executive table by being overly-gimmicky, very short term in focus without any real brand or strategic value-add, leading them to be one of the last groups to contribute after the direction has been established.

Companies deserve more, they need service providers that get this multi-variate game. They need partners that can work as equals with other partners. They need firms who can sometimes lead and sometimes comfortably follow. They need services that provide real value and credibility at the executive table. They need people and staff who engage with the world at large and not hide in their marble-floored headquarters. They need agencies vested in their success. They need an agency network equally balanced on the next 6 months as they are the next 3 years. They need ideas, strategy and action in one bundle. They need the leaders of their service firms that have at least, a passing knowledge and recognition of the value played by these 18 roles and not the stifling arrogance and pride in their own. What they need is the Un-Agency.

What is the Un-Agency? It's a co-op of equal partners managed by a key client person - a zen master generalist who can pull the appropriate agency levers. The Un-Agency is a marriage of partners that play well together and stay out of each others shorts. It's a hothouse of many ideas that get dreamed up and actually executed. It's a spider web of leading marketing services specialist talent that embeds itself deeply in a company's operations. It is low on bureaucracy and "handlers" and high on "smarts" and "action". Less powerpoint, more insight. More collaboration, less arrogance. More customer/influencer outreach, less boardroom navel gazing. More sustaining value, less flavour of the day. Perhaps paradoxically, more brilliant agency partners not less generic ones.

The Un-Agency is the Detroit Red Wings (not Washington Capitals), The New England Patriots (not Dallas Cowboys) or Boston Celtics (not LA Lakers) of agency people - few stars, many role players and few problem childs, that know their roles and play them well. It is the refreshing 7UP of service providers vs. the over caffeinated and ubiquitous Cokes of the agency world. It is a brand-producing "whole" that is greater than the sum of its parts.

While we're at it, perhaps we should come up with a new term for agency as it has so much baggage and connotations. Even the name "agency" conjures up "guns for hire", a network of mercenaries and a level of remoteness. How about "concierges"? Perhaps "bespokers"? Maybe "engagement partners"?

Make no mistake though, there is plenty of very smart talent in all of these types of service partners that could deliver considerable brand performance. It's unfortunate that they are all trying to play "centre-forward" every shift and feel contempt for their other teammates...and their coach (the client) is letting it all happen. They have only a few years to figure it out before they become the traditional brand-agency network horse-and-buggy whips of the communication game and cede way to other, hungrier more promising configurations. We have got the change the smell of this place called the agency...and soon.

Twitter Essentials - The 70 Things to Know

Buzz Canuck — Mon, 25 May 2009 11:28:57 -0400

In our continuing pursuit to mine Twitter for all of its pulp, we've identified 70 terms, web and desktop applications, we find particularly useful or interesting at Agent Wildfire. Thanks to full team at Agent Wildfire, our Twitter maven Karin Abramova in particular and various people online who provided their Twisdom.

The Basics

- Replies & DMs

- Follows

- Retweets

- DMs

- Tweetups

- Hashtags

- FollowFridays

Shortening Urls

- tinyurl

- ow.ly

- tr.im

- is.gd

Searching Posts

- search.twitter.com

- Tweetscan

- Tweefind

Finding Influencers

- WhoShouldIFollow

- Twannabe

- Twitterholic

- Mr. Tweet

Breaking News

- Twitscoop

- Retweetist

- Twitturly

- Summize

Mapping Trends

- Twist

Dashboard/Client

- Tweetdeck

- Spaz

- Tweetie

- Seesmic

Local

- twitterlocal

- twitterwhere

- Twinkle

Fielding Polls

- twitdaddy

- twtpoll

Tracking Tweets

- tr.im

- Hootsuite

- Monitter

- Tweetstats

Multiple Accounts

- Twhirl

- Mattinator

- TwitterFox

- Hootsuite

Groups

- Tweetworks

- Twibes

Linking Media

- twitpic

- Twiddeo

- Seesmic

Using Mobile Twitter

- Twitterberry

- Ubertwitter

Linking Blogs

- twitterfeed

Plugins

- twitter Tools

- Twitter Counter

- Twitterfountain

- Tweet This

Specific Information

- Tweetbrain

- TwitDir

- Twittergrader

User Management

- Twitter.Grader

- TwittFriends

- Twitter-Friends

- FriendOrFollow

Fun

- FollowCost

- Twistori

- Whoot

- Overheard It

Mobile Applications

- UberTwitter

- TwitterBerry

- Tweetie

- Twitterific

The Community Manager Role Unplugged - 15 Essential Roles

Buzz Canuck — Tue, 19 May 2009 09:02:41 -0400

Community managers are the future host of your organization conversations - part corporate journalist, part PR person, part customer service, part likable, part sociable and enthusiastic face, part technologist, part Renaissance person and part brand fanatic, they are roles not easily configured inside companies currently.

We've literally found hundreds of them with various titles (i.e. social media architect, community manager, web manager, product evangelist) and they've been nice enough to join us on Twitter @communitygurus. Jeremiah Owyang, Connie Bensen and Sascha Carlin have also built a Facebook headquarters as well. We've been able to interview 30+ of them over the last few months and have gleaned "what is it they actually do?"

Having just left a conference last week, a number of top marketing executives approached me and were interested in how to bring a community-based strategy to execution and what laid in-between in pulling it off, I thought I would lay out the 15 essential roles that community managers perform in successful wiki-companies (from internal-focus to external and from the basics to the very tough-to-achieve). Each role is pictured above.

Internal roles

Product Educator - being the guru, expert, historian and "details" person on the portfolio of brands/products the community supports

Brand Evangelist - exuding passion for the brand and being a walking role model for the type of people that company wants to attract, likely an active participant in the community of interest

Research Filter - being able to synthesize community feedback information and analytics and make actionable insight that company executive can react to

Internal Trainer - becoming the missionary inside a company and prevoking employee involvement, demonstrating success, communicating value and demystifying the world of tech and social media that supports the community

Client Stir Stick - becoming the internal rally cry and the conscience of the community/customer inside the company, frequently at executive levels - practising change management and changing processes that hinder community success

Bridge Roles (between company and community)

Program Manager/Administrator - managing the day to day details or running the community - staff, investment, activity tracking, communication, providing feedback...etc.

Content Developer - whether it be video, pitcures, forums, updates or blogging - creating a fresh supply of interesting news from the company and about the community

On the Ground Responder/Liaison - playing the intermediary role between company and community, whether it be planned or crisis communication and highlighting emerging issues

Events Host - existing as the face of both online and offline events, creating a sense of presence and leadership at all communal occasions

The Strategist - developing new applications, platforms and course corrections for community engagement that also benefit the sponsoring company

External, Community-Minded Role

Problem Solver - answering directly or providing a forum and process to solve member/customer break-fix problems or more ingrained issues with company, product or community

Moderation - playing the role of ombudsman, rulemaker, conversation starter and referee in user generated forums and community debate inside and outside the community

Social Networkers - recruiting new members into the community wherever they exist

Expert Listener - tracking to what's being said and where about the company inside the community and in the external world and reacting to it

Personal Concierge - incubating top performing community members, highlighting key member contributions and giving the kid gloves/VIP treatment to key industry and community stakeholders

That's the Way we Became The Twitter Bunch...

Buzz Canuck — Mon, 18 May 2009 11:46:01 -0400

I took a tour through the top 100 Twitterers based on number of followers and it was an eclectic trip to say the least. How does Kim Kardashian at #18 mesh with Barack Obama at #5 fit with venture investor Chris Sacca at #79 mix with skateboard dude Tony Hawk at #27 , I have no idea, but there they are - a melting pot of the who's who and instantly famous that thave risen the ranks of the Twitter leaderboard.

I created the Twitter Bunch graphic above to show 12 intriguing examples of who has risen above the morass of the general public to grab one of the top 100 spots.

I'll explain their position on the grid:

From left to right - the clear celebrity to the psueo-celebrities jumping the Twitter shark to the weirdly popular B, C and D-listers to the newly web famous, came out of nowhere

From bottom to top - the shallow in depth, content or Twitter history climbing upwards to a smart, savvy grasp of the medium with always interesting content.

The Celebrity Icons

Oprah (rank #8) - with 45 posts, hardly justifies the followership but she is the Queen of daytime and likely the only person on this list that only needs a first name to be known

Most insightful post recently: "John Legend is everything Q wrote about and more in TIME. great performance. But hard to get INFLUENTIALS to dance in public."

Lance Armstrong (rank #15) - even after the messy Sheryl Crow breakup, I still wear my Livestrong bracelet - frequent poster, rarely provides deep insights but can provide some nuggets from behind the scenes that stokes the bike hardcore

Most insightful post recently: "St 9 done. Unfortunately not the best day for the fans OR the riders. We (the peloton) collectively took the decision to neutralize most..."

Tim O'Reilly (rank #92) - in danger of falling out of top 100, too bad - good, relevant and just breaking information from the CEO of O'Reilly media and lead Web 2.0 Alpha geek - good retweet frequency of other content too

Most insightful post recently: "Computational geometry, from Algorithms in a Nutshell: http://bit.ly/PtPtH #tech"

The Pseudo-Celebrities capitalizing on Twitter early adoption

Brooke Burke (ranked #42) - the athletic and amply-asseted queen of sports turned mom is trying to blanket her interest groups with a running stream of consciousness

Most insightful post recently: "Cutting pasting (literally) editorial beauty tips w Shaya on my lap-he just said mama!!! Yeah!!!"

Ashton Kutcher (ranked #1 ) - probably says something about our collective culture when the lead actor from "Dude, Where's My car?" rules the roost with 1.7 million followers but one incredibly savvy campaign pitting himself against the CNN colossus has mainstreamed Twitter by itself - his posts are chewing gum for the idle mind

Most insightful post recently: "I think what makes me most angry about P 90 X is when Tony acts like a bad ass and cranks out 50 reps after skipping 3 exercises"

Jimmy Fallon (ranked #11) - you truly get the feeling that this guy is reading and responding to his posts online - the late night guy gone Truman show like Stewart, but more personal and much more humble, best example of crowdsourcing content online as he always is posing challngfes/asking questions of his viewers/followers

Most insightful post recently: "about to make a video... I have on Spock ears and a do rag. I'll explain on Friday. http://yfrog.com/6q9wbj"

The weirdly famous, perhaps in a 15 minute way

MC Hammer (ranked #25) - scatteringsof posts from the 80s pop star with the big silk pants to 2009 reclaimed business success, what of what though is he teaching at Stanford?

Most insightful post recently: "Mon (CA)..Tues (Dtroit)...Wed (DET/NY)..Thur(NY) ..Fri(DET) Sat (Vegas) Sun (Vegas)..Mon (CA) Stanford.. I work !! - http://is.gd/BgDd"

Rainn Wilson (ranked# 24) - the bent "Stevn Wright"-like musings of The Office's ma man, like show, like real life, very funny stuff

Most insightful post: Sitting next to the incredibly lovely Melanie Griffith! She's watching me twitter. Perv. (dustin hoffman aka DHoff is in front of me!)

Levar Burton (ranked #74) - former Trekkie into a pileload of other stuff, perhaps trying to leave his Trek life behind, can't avoid it (file under George Takei and Walter Koenig) - interesting RT and ME: response format gives fans a shot at getting on his Twitstream

Most insightful post recently: "RT @gllopc: I've known you were a geek for years: a book geek; a Trek geek; and a drama geek. You're a geek's geek! )Me: Absofrickinlutely!"

The instant web fame, Lonely Girl club

Adventure Girl (Stephanie Michaels) (ranked # 91) - I don't get it, as this globe trotting word traveller has an informative tweet once every fifty posts - the rest is just puff pastry, grammatically challenged tweeting

Most interesting post recently: "@alicarene "can u plan me a 25th bday trip...somewhere nice&warm?" Awww- Well, am not a trvl agnt- but can give u some ideas?"

iJustine (Justine Ezarik) (ranked #43) - Valley girl who is obsessed about blogging and Apple, if you paired Paris Hilton with Obama girl with Amber Macarthur - you'd get close - redeeming grace, posts fresh content, whether I like it or not

Most interesting post recently : "Just posted my new video. It makes me look like a crazy person but it is a true story!!! What do you think? http://bit.ly/CDYmw"

Brandon Mendolson (BJ Mendolson) (ranked #70) - a man with a cuase if a powerful thing, raising the profile on detecting cancer early scores points on nobility, his recent posts suggests that he is an unsuspecting Twitter success just as surpirsed as we are and now aksing for help, wisdom and altruism

Most interesting post recently: "Looking for folks in Massachusetts for tomorrow's #CharityTuesday micro-campaign. If you're over there, send me a tweet:-)"

So who are your 12 Twitter Bunch?

Brands can fill the Void of Social Capital

Buzz Canuck — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:23:20 -0400

I just wrapped up a piece of research I did for nGenera's Insights program and shaped what I believe to be a well-reasoned argument for the place of brands within communities.

Conclusion: many brands that we truly rave about in 2009 are filling the "void of social capital".

Ponder these stats from Robert Putnam's book Bowling Alone and other sources:

- - the average person lives in 14 homes – we have become disconnected to our neighborhood/city

- - we spend a third less time on family dinners – we have become disconnected from family

- The average person will have 10-14 jobs before they are 38 years old – we have become disconnected from work

- we spend 45% less time having friends over – we have lost touch with our social circles

As a consequence, we have a decided drop in the number of close friends and social outlets that we engage in.

Consider the results - a study by Duke University found the number of people who have no one with whom they can discuss important matters nearly doubled in 20 years, to one-quarter of the population and the mean number of friends with whom people said they could have a heart-to-heart dropped by over 30% to 2.08 from 2.94 in 1985.

Despite our average of 70 Twitter followers and 120 Facebook friends and the web's powerful connections, we are building a generation of strangers.

Much as brands recognized that in previous generations, brands could become surrogates for identity (i.e. I drive a Cadillac, I'm a Jif mom, I drink Coke, I wear Red Tabs/Levis) given a decline in central sources of identity (i.e. religion, ethnicity), now brands that fill the social gap are being credited (i.e. I'm an Apple fanatic, are You? , I see you're a Blackberry addict, I love Firefox - down with other browsers)

- The Running Room improves lives of joggers by providing them a forum to get together and share their interests

- Camp Jeep & Jeep Jamborees brings together Jeep enthusiasts of every stripe for a weekend of education and bonding

- Home Depot Girls Night Out brings together women with a curiosity for tool belts and new decks for DIY evenings

What do you think - can brands effectively bridge communities and create social glue that improves its customer's lot and creates real value for them too?

7 Questions with Emanuel Rosen - Author of The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited

Buzz Canuck — Wed, 06 May 2009 08:05:44 -0400

As I've mentioned to many people over the years, even if you're not steeped in this world as I am, there are 3 essential books on the subject of word of mouth everybody should have on their bookshelves.

From a broad perspective, Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" was especially formative for me in how I saw the business world and marketing work at a time when I was just starting out my entrepreneurial life with Agent Wildfire. It is a sociological treat and he gets brownie points for being Canadian.

From a "meat and potatoes" standpoint, Gaspedal's and WOMMA's founder Andy Sernovitz provides a handy reference guide "Word of Mouth Marketing" on how to do word of mouth well and avoid the executional potholes people run into.

Wedged right in the middle of Gladwell and Sernovitz is Emanuel Rosen. Guy Kawasaki calls him the "Peter Drucker" of buzz marketing. I managed to catch up with Emanuel just after he had wrapped up his book tour of "The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited" which he had conducted from the confines of a NOLS bus, powered by vegetable oil.

The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited is a sequel to his book from his 2000 writeup "The Anatomy of Buzz". 9 years later, the content is still as prescient as it was back then with many new examples and two-thirds new content. His chapter 24 "Buzz Workshop" is worth the price of the book alone filled with smart and savvy considerations , plus his 10 principles in chapter 9 and 6 characteristics of "hubs" and why we talk is potent stuff. Disclosure: I feel almost guilty given my love of Emanuel's content and the fact I received the book for FREE as part of Emanuel's personal outreach of various WOM VIPs.

Here are the outtakes from our hour on the phone together:

Buzz Canuck (Sean Moffitt): Emanuel, welcome from your tour across the country, congrats on the new book - 9 years is a long time between book editions particularly one that deals with the fast-changing world of buzz, what's changed and why the new edition?

Emanuel Rosen: Thank you Sean. I agree 9 years is quite a long time. I find one of the biggest changes is that I don't have to convince a lot of people why this topic is important anymore but more the need is to convey how these strategies and tools are being used. From my perspective, the top 3 things that have changed since my first edition (and let's remember, my first draft was in 1993!):

- most important, the availability of research simply didn't exist back in the late 90s on how and why buzz worked - we have a tonne of hard data to lean on now

- there are more case studies and practitioners and many great examples of buzz building - they are littered throughout this new edition

- it may be obvious but the technology has changed - Facebook, blogs, video and picture-based social sharing has transformed the landscape of buzz, although I would go onto mention, the majority of word of mouth (WOM) is still offline and a lot of the basic principles remain the same but the tools have obviously changed

BC: "Social media" has been the common language used in recent years to describe word of mouth and buzz building, has the world of buzz and WOM been eclipsed in popularity by the tools used to build it?

ER: Social media deserves its place in the spotlight. It is one of the ways to garner attention in this networked world. Very powerful. It's also new and as mentioned in my book - "new" gives people something to talk about. Not to minimize it but I believe social media is part of word of mouth/buzz marketing not the other way around. I think you have seen and will continue to see "word of mouth" as a term and concept have staying power and social media will subside. People have quickly learned how to deal with the tools of social media - in time, the idea of using social media will be so common, obvious and natural, it will become a component of everything we do and the term may fade over time.

BC: You've seen the debate on whether Influencers are important, Duncan Watts has produced a lot new research that suggests The Tipping Point and the Law of the Few is dead? where do you chime in?

ER: Duncan Watts ends up showing up in my book. I don't think the idea of influencers and passionate everyday people spreading buzz exist as opposite or different arguments. I'm not too sure if Watts was arguing it either. Watts mentioned that everyday people are involved in creating word of mouth and there are some people that are more influential than others, and I agree. The concern applying Watts research to marketing is applying value to what he calls the global cascade vs. building many little local cascades. I think many marketers should find value in these small cascades vs. the large yet infrequent viral effects. Also, it's a simple economic argument - is their more value in recruiting and tapping influencers weighed against the cost of finding them. In the examples of Powerbar, Purpose Driven Life and Tremor - the effects of using infleuncer hubs made sense, in other company examples, buzz spread without the use of influencer hubs.

BC: Measurement seems to be a big topic nowadays, does word of mouth work and can it realistically be measured?

ER: I'm amazed at the tools at play to measure buzz today. I deal with the idea of measurement in chapter 5 of the book but there are 4 chapter's of WOMMA's guide dedicated to it with an number of very specific examples on buzz that was effectively measured and that showed proactive word of mouth success. Buzz certainly doesn't suffer from lack of measurement and I would argue has just as much if not more rigour than its much larger cousin - advertising.

BC- I've always loved your 6 characteristics of network hubs - active, connected, travel a lot, info curious, vocal and exposed to interests, there recalled..by memory, I have also added to your list over time with two others "passion for the category" and "sway over other people" -do they make worthy contenders to expand your attribute list?

ER: These are interesting ones. On the passion for the category, I agree that there is quite a bit of fluidity of network hubs based on their interests or passions. Category knowledge and enthusiasm is a big factor in who will get behind something. Sometimes hubs are in the right place at the right time. On the sway over other people, "hubs" by definition talk to more people. So there is an element of frequency. Their credibility perhaps as well is based on some of the other characteristics. I think how we have dealt with sway is to view it not as a characteristic but as an outcome, did their buzz actually spread.

BC: In your chapter 9 "It's a Small World, So What?" You have 10 principles outlined that drive buzz - any ones particularly interesting for today's economy?

ER - Two areas of study that I would love to look at more. The first is what I call implicit vs. explicit buzz. The social web allows me to support and implicitly recommend a brand without making a lot of effort. So what is the value of being on a My Space page for Adidas vs. having that conversation in real life. Does never ending friending online in social networks take away from buzz or make it easier to travel through weak ties? The other area I'm interested in is when the web allows the "wrong people" to take control of your buzz, perhaps it jumps across a category and they start wearing your stuff and not project the brand values and the whole idea of how to avoid it or work with that.

BC: The social web has produced a practitioner set that tends to sing from the same song sheet - be open and transparent vs. some buzz adherents who suggest keeping stuff somewhat secretive and creating social currency by seeding people - which bandwagon are you on?

EC: A lot of our beliefs about the world of buzz have been handed down from the world of entertainment or software, which likes the secrets (Easter Eggs) and seed strategy (sneak previews) and have people get pent up excited about a launch. Xbox, the iPod - these are hot and have high expectations. I think the rules are different for these brands vs. an average product like a CPG good. An average product and average companies don't create excitement for themselves easily. I believe for these goods, involving people openly and early is a better idea. One perfect example of not keeping things close to your chest, is the strategy used by Doritos, Nationwide and Chevrolet to promote their products aggressively before the Super Bowl, which according to Jim Nail turned into the best approach for stimulating post-game discussion.

BC: What's the biggest sin in practice by buzz marketers?

ER: Trying to apply this stuff without anything interesting to talk about. Marketers need to find an interesting or useful angle to talk about their stuff that actually helps people. Otherwise it doesn't matter what your approach is.

BC: Congrats on the book launch again, look forward to seeing more buzz about your buzz.

ER: Thank you for your time, I will be up in Toronto for a Search Engine Strategies conference in June. Hope to see you then. Don't worry about that noise, my dog is barking at my pool guy, I must go. See you soon and let's stay connected.

The 27, maybe 31 Community Twitter Conversations

Buzz Canuck — Sun, 03 May 2009 14:07:44 -0400

We've set up our own universe of community managers, architects and evangelists at aptly enough @communitygurus on Twitter.

In scanning the tweets today, I've married up measurement icon KD Paine's great rundown of 27 different types of social media conversations with what community pages are currently tweeting about on Twitter.

We've listed our quick examples and skunkworks analyses on what corporations and communities are good and bad at on Twitter below:

1) Acknowledge receipt of information @oraclecommunity Rajesh left a comment for 'Sujatha Rao' http://ff.im/-2xJTx

2) Advertise something @JohnatDell Dell Design Studio adds >120 options. Think of it as personalizing your laptop w/ a work-of-art tatoo. http://bitly.com/lHnLt

3) Answer a question @forumnokia How to put video on iPod/iPhone/PSP/Zune/Zen/Sansa Fuze……: This guide is shared to help people put any video on .. http://tinyurl.com/cds7wr

4) Ask a question @splendiahotels thank you! Last question before liberating you: What's good to know before traveling to the UAE? And what do you think of it? #splendia

5) Augment a previous post @sega @AxlSurette no rule against someone winning 2x but statistically unlikely. Trying to keep rules light so legal dept doesn't get involved. :)

6) Call for action @underarmour Find Your Ideal Under Armour Running Shoe: http://run.underarmour.com/...

7) Disclose personal information @shipyardbrewing Just added myself to the http://wefollow.com twitter directory under: #beer #Maine #brewery

8) Distribute media @Four_Seasons "Our product was not a commodity; it was a unique prestige-value buy." Issy Sharp #quote http://cli.gs/PTU8vE

9) Express agreement @sprintusers @phwelo Let's just hope it's sometime in May and doesn't slip. Will be a lot of peeved #sprint customers.

10) Express criticism @innocentdrinks @phill_dolby Hello Phill. No change in how we make our rinks since the Coke deal. None whatsoever. I sense paranoid minds at work.

11) Express support @LLBeanPR Thanks Jason :) RT @jaycrimes: LL Bean is my new rage. Who knew that backpack, gadget and water bottle shopping could be so ridiculous.

12) Express surprise @etsy @ekkstephenson Wow, great find. I love this one in the same shop http://bit.ly/AptWy

13) Give a heads-up @PGATOUR It's early, but Anthony Kim, who shot 42 on the front yesterday, is having a much better start. He's 3 under through 5 holes.

14) Respond to criticism @Zappos_Service @mchl It usually takes 72 hrs to process, but I've updated and refunded your account. If you check, you should see the new status :]

15) Give a shout-out @ZagatBuzz RT @BabsiS: Awesome pieces of food art! Cute and creative :) http://tinyurl.com/d4bo3x (expand) #art #food #oddity

16) Make a joke @wienermobile @stina5000 We always relish the warm San Diego weather! Bunderful photo -- if you're on Flickr please add it to our group: http://is.gd/oTff

17) Make a suggestion @lovemyphilly Whatever party you might throw, your guests will snatch these up - http://ow.ly/4z7m

18) Make an observation @fijiwater One of the best FIJI Water pics I've seen! RT @tabbitapse: http://twitpic.com/3wlqd

19) Offer a greeting @lithiumtech RT @Manjeera Welcome to the 'new' Lithosphere! - Lithosphere Community - http://tinyurl.com/cnx8bh.

20) Offer an opinion - @crowdspring Fantastic post - I highly recommend for all startups - "10 lessons from a failed startup" - http://is.gd/vw78 (via @rosskimbarovsky)

21) Putting out a wanted ad @lululemon We're hiring a PR Manager @lululemon Check the link out if this sounds like your dream job! http://ow.ly/4LHz

22) Rally support @mazdaforums POST A PIC OF YOUR MAZDA5 - Ongoing Thread :D http://www.mazdas247.com/fo...

23) Recruit people @fairmonthotels Remember this? http://bit.ly/53P3I Have a wicked reward (hotel trifecta) lined up for 1 lucky Tweeter once we hit 3K followers. Want a hint?

24) Show dismay @tripadvisor @brianyerkes In absolute violation of rules to solicit like this; steep penalties would follow. Not recommended! http://tinyurl.com/czf7fv

25) Solicit comments @EA Feedback time: Now that we've done a couple, what do you think about giveaways? Too much feed spam? Lot's of fun for the whole family?

26) Solicit help @aetelevision What kind of exclusive content would you like to see in the #A&E Insider?

27) Start a poll greenegoddess VOTE PLEASE ~ PieceMakers Mosaic Challenge http://piecemakersmosaics.b... Thanks for your Support!!!

Some analysis of the above:

i) What businesses/communities like to do the most on Twitter- I would say about half the communities and a much higher amount of media pages are using Twitter as strictly a broadcast tool, extending their content into a new space - consequently they are really good and prolific at #2,#6, #8, #13 and #23 above. Very broadcasty, not likely fully optimizing their presence on Twitter but for the effort, likely providing some level of utility.

ii) What businesses and communities are surprisingly good at on Twitter are #3, #11, #15 and #17. They are more than happy to shine a light on some of their fans or be responsive to how people are using their products or services. It's heartening to see such engaged brands, however admittedly - the content usually revolves around their particular brand issues/features not customer issues/topics of conversations at large.

iii) What businesses and communities are particularly bad at on Twitter : are #4, #7, #10, #16, #25 and #27. Group this into a bucket of communities that are very "business-like" on Twitter and don't let their personality show. They don't show their fun side, their vulnerable side, their inquisitive side or their engaging side, making themselves decidedly less human and not creating sufficient intimacy with oftentimes thousands of their most passionate fans.

KD Paine once challenged me (and anybody else) to find conversations that existed in social media outside of the 27 that her firm tracks for people. Although I could see how they may fall into different camps, the following 4 don't do so neatly:

28) Making a referral - perhaps a subset of #11 and #15, communities oftentimes make an explicit recommendation in favor of complementary brands or people on twitter that go beyond mere expressions of support or giving a shout out

29) Providing customer service - although part of #3 and #17, this is sometimes less focused on answering a customer's question or going out of their way to make a helpful suggestion but actually getting involved and solving a customer's problem

30) Education - although related #5 and #8 - brands on Twitter are doing a good job of linking out to content that provides helpful step by step interaction on how to use their stuff and less focused on providing answers to specific questions

31) Providing Top of Mind for What's Happening - related to #7 and 13 and #19, this type of corporate tweet provides a stream of consciousness for what's going on inside the community or company whether it's of interest to the audience or not (i.e. myself and CEO stuck on a tarmac) that provides 20% info and 80% context and make's it feel like there is "living pulse" to the author of the community conversation

So what do think KD, should we add these to the list (strangely, I think you'll say no because your company has been tabbing and tracking conversations for the 27 types of conversation for what, the last 10 years and a change like this would start to ruin your history *smile ).

One final thing on the number 31, congrats to Baskin Robbins last week for conducting 31¢ Scoop Night in support the fire service community & fallen firefighters, I was happy to wait in line for 10 minutes, grab a double scoop chocolate chip (I know, not that exotic) and support the cause. As a well-engaged brand, they are also on on Twitter (@baskinrobbins) and Facebook.

The Gartner Hype Cycle - The Psychology of Adoption Explained

Buzz Canuck — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:26:09 -0400

Finished reading a McKinsey report on Cloud Computing - conclusion - benefits are exaggerated, some great application for SMEs but not quite ready for the big tasks and expectations of large enterprises.

More importantly, I love the Gartner Hype cycle paradigm -1) technology trigger 2) inflated expectations 3) trough of disillusionment, 4) slope of enlightenment and 5) plateau of productivity.

Eseentially, industries, companies and people go through the 5 stages of: 1) heh, this is cool, 2) yeah, we all think this cool, 3) woh, we were sold down the river, 4) no, come to think of it, used in the right way, this can be good and finally 5) this has become part of what we do.

The psychology of tech. adoption follows the same type of curve as financial markets (where are we on regaulting markets I wonder?) , politics (where is Obama's change you can believe in? standing) and marketing tactic adoption (where is the age of mobile marketing?).

Conclusion: it is more important to know what people are thinking, believing and accepting as truth as opposed to just being right.

You Know You're a Twitter Addict When... The 32 Telltale Signs

Buzz Canuck — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:13:46 -0400

The idea of lifestreaming has taken on new form with the advance of Twitter. Whether it has been fueled by ego-filled narcissism, extreme sociality, little digital self-filtering or vice-like addiction to the chirping bird, people are becoming very co-dependent on Twitter.

Like a bad relationship - when the "fail whale" comes up people, Twitter addicts, feel almost morally let down - but as opposed to having a fling on the side with Jaiku, Plurk or another microblogging platform - they always come back for more.

Face it. It's a Twitter addiction. So I've pulled together the top 32 ways to know when you're afflicted (and like any vice that has you under its spell, the best first step is admitting it!).

Please feel free to add more - by no means is this a small or proprietary list:

1) You Tweet more than 25 episodes/day

2) You Tweet while in/on the washroom stall

3) You Tweet at a live event/concert - perhaps increasing your Twitter authority at the expense of enjoying the event which you've paid $125/ticket for

4) You actually believe @the_real_shaq or @aplusk or @oprah care what you think

5) You Tweet after the airplane warning tells you not to

6) Most of your tweets end with 'just saying, IMO or LOL or :) or bff

7) Your keyboard buttons shift 2, shift 3 and shift 7 are barely readable given the wear and tear

8) You simply do not hang out with people that don't have a Twitter account

9) Insert major life happening (grad, birth of baby, marriage, funeral) - yes, you guessed it - live tweeting

10) You actually think people will scroll through your thoughts about Lost and your predictions where the plotline is going

11) You can't visit an event unless it's been hashtagged, "camp"ed or "up"ed

12) You make people aware that you were on Twitter more than 2 years ago and hate the fact the mainstream hordes are starting to hear about it now and ruining it for you and your 3 coding friends

13) Drunk twittering - any tweet replies after 4 drinks are usually bad news, you do them, you do them frequently and not just confined to Friday nights

14) The front page of your company's website is your Twitter profile

15) You communicate with your cubicle mate right beside you by tweeting

16) You snicker uncontrollably at work feigning that you stumbled by some funny random fact about the project you're working on...do you think us managers really fall for that?

17) Your feedback to people when negative typically has the word "FAIL" in it - said like capital letters too

18) Your very attractive girlfriend/boyfriend has dumped you over Twitter

19) You use Twitter apps. that show you how addicted you are to Twitter

20) You wear a gold chain with a big @ symbol and you don't even like rap

21) Business Card - no phone, no email, no web - just a big bad embossed @sellharder @savetheword @thereal(insert name here)

22) You've done a model shoot to get your Twitter profile shot and background - just perfect - so when people meet you they go - wow, i thought he/she was "taller, more hygienic, less goofy looking"

23) You tweet liberally about how much you hate Twitter and/or the weather

24) You check back every 10 minutes to your DMs to see if @guykawasaki @barackobama @coldplay @simoncowell @real_lebron or @scobleizer has actually got back to you (actually it's possible in the latter's case, he will)

25) Your bedroom wall has a loveable blue bird painted on it - next of course to cheesy Herb Ritts portraits and American Pie movie posters

26) You live tweet the action of a 14-inning baseball game

27) You've never kissed a girl (and no, facebook poking or following friday a women doesn't count)

28) You look down at Facebookers as the downtrodden unwashed majority, My Spacers as the stylistically challenged neanderthals, Live Journal users as digital relics, Tweetdeckers as a curious likable in-the-know sort, Bloggers as the boring social media academia and Branded pages on Twitter as Cerberus - the 3-headed guardian dog of hell

29) You not only write, but think in 140 character increments

30) In front of a screen or not, you always feel like you're being followed, or worse, auto-followed

31) You cannot come up with an original idea but you can aggressively retweet

32) You take an otherwise promising Sunday afternoon and blog and Tweet about Twitter....errr scratch that...that's me today @seanmoffitt

So forget about 5 neatly segmented poll result levels, you have ADD, you wouldn't have read the full poll legend anyway - simply, if you have performed or exhibit qualities of 5 or more of these above, it pains me to say this but you are a Twitter addict - a Nick Nolte of social media, a Pacman Jones of microblogging , the Johnny Rotten of SMS, the Richard Hatch of 140 character life drippings.

"Seek help now, don't wait, you are leading a false life, before it's too late, the antidote to getting out of your twitter funk can be found at http://tinyurl: " (oops, sorry ran out of characters) just say hi, anyways, Sincerely, Dr. @seanmoffitt ,Twitter MD

Beat The Streak - 56 Days of Buzz

Buzz Canuck — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:17:04 -0400

Combine a love of social media, major league baseball and one of the longest standing professional records - Joe DiMagggio's hitting streak...oh, and the chance for $1,000,000, and you get a pretty interesting user-generated contest called "Beat the Streak"

I like this one. It has it's own dedicated portal but also linked out on Facebook (with 25,000 followers currently). Simple, straightforward and motivating. Wish me luck.

The Community Richter Scale - The Nine Levels of Energy People Have for Your Community and Five Strategies for Building Community Tremors

Buzz Canuck — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:10:59 -0400

If you live in Silicon Valley, you probably know what the numbers of a Richter scale mean, like allergy sufferers know what the pollen counts indicate or outdoor event organizers fixate about with the 7 day forecast.

It's interesting how the seismic energy released as factor of the Richter scale parallels the commitment energy released by various online community members.

Quick explanation for those not in quake territory- each whole number increase in a Richter scale represents a tenfold number increase in quake amplitude/strength. Obviously, the more intense the earthquake, the higher the Richter score and the rarer they occur (thankfully). Here is a chart on Richter intensity and frequency below (source: Wikipedia)

So it is the same with online communities. Communities are based on the premise that a small group of rare, committed people drive value (and deep noticeable tremors) for the larger, greater good. Too bad we don't have a Richter scale for communities that could measure the differing levels of a community member commitment, but let's make a first try here.

The Community Richter Scale (courtesy Agent Wildfire)

Crowds               Label                       Trait/Identity cue                          % of Community Members
Less than 2.0    Lurkers         People who merely visit and consume content           Every visitor
2.0 - 2.9           Registrants   People who have provided some level of pers. info.        100%
3.0 - 3.9           Participants People who perform some min. level of activity (i.e. rate)    80%

Contributors      Label                       Trait/Identity cue                             % of Community Visitors
4.0-4.9            Socializers      People who connect/engage (i.e.post full profile, message) 40%
5.0-5.9            Cooperators    People who work independently on group effort (i.e.poll) 20%

Creators           Label                   Trait/Identity Cue    % of Community Visitors
6.0-6.9            Creators People who originate/produce new content                10%
7.0-7.9           Collaborators   People who work together with others to achieve goal    5%

Evangelists         Label                Trait/Identity Cue    % of Community Visitors
8.0-8.9            Committed People who engage, rally, meetup and visit daily           2.5%
9.0-9.9           Ambassadors People who are immersed, pseudo-employees             0.5%

Many marketeers look at community-building as a way to exploit a new very scalable channel, without understanding the community Richter scale. Don't get me wrong, very large communities and panels of people can be built using the social media and community tools at their disposal (IBM has 5 million, Dell has 1.5 million forum users, SAP has 1.3 million users, Starbucks has 152,000 twitter followers), but to achieve scale you have to be committed to one or hopefully more than one of the following directions:

1) Invest significantly to drive the top of the traffic funnel and identify and recognize the passionate among them quickly (i.e. communicate your community's presence in mainstream ads and incentivise participation i.e. iCoke)

2) Be in it for the long term and expect growth to build over time as you expand functionality, content and integration of your community with other activities (i.e. Lego)

3) Have laser scalpel precision in who you invite in, with a high percentage of people being targeted that perform at a community richter of 4.0 or above (i.e. Tremor/Vocalpoint)

4) Segment your community on different paltforms (i.e. Direct2Dell, Ideastorm, discussion forums, media gallery, student union) to increase the chances of appealing to their specific member's motivation

5) Make the community so inspiring (common purpose), so creative (great content), so vibrant (frequency of new content), so exclusive (special access), so educational (product support/advice), so economical (ability to make a return), so empowering (allowing users flexibility/customization), so usable (easy to search/register), so likable (authentic, well-managed moderation), so immersive (online and offline), so motivating (intrinsic, extrinsic and explicit needs met) or so essential (intrinsically linked to your product) that people will be compelled to move up the community richter scale.

Just thinking about the ability to segment your members by participation, commitment and influence gives me the shakes (pun intended).

Addendum: if you steer, plan or manage online or brand communities, we would appreciate you taking our 2009 Brand Communities Survey and entrench some of out thinking in good quantifiable fact. Click here.

What Does a Community Manager Do? And Other Big Questions - The 2009 Brand Communities Survey

Buzz Canuck — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:57:16 -0400

In conjunction with nGenera and my company Agent Wildfire, we have been asking online community sponsors, gurus, marketing heads, developers, planners, managers and evangelists from around the world to answer our key "need to knows" about community building and business.

It's our inaugural 2009 Brand Communities survey. Why make this a study of work?

Communities are becoming commonplace, Gartner says 60% of them will be in place in Fortune 100 companies by 2010

Communities are failing just as often as they are succeeding - it's estimated 50% of them will fail to establish a common purpose with their members

Communities, at least those sponsored by companies, have been so recently been embraced that the whole territory lacks a history of rigorous analysis and insight

Experiences and learnings can be translated across platforms and communities

Selfishly, we've made a habit out of providing thought leadership on and building of communities

We've broken down the survey into 9 separate sections and hope to generate an aggregate of responses from the pros leading these community building efforts in the real world.

The sections of analysis are: the basics, focus and objectives, audience and outreach, incentives, rules, tools and platforms, staffing, metrics and ROI and overall advice and include the 55 key questions, we always wanted to ask but never had the time. Now we do...

Here's one of them, "What are the top 3 tasks of a community manager's life?":

· Ongoing Facilitation

· Content Creation

· Community Evolution/Feature Development

· Enforce Rules/Moderate Disputes

· Technical Decisions

· Metrics Reporting

· Internal Rallying Cry

· Community Administration

· Member Recruitment/Crowdsourcing

· Event Host

· Company/brand evangelism

· Communication

So if interested and currently involved in planning, building and executing communities, three asks:

1) Take our survey (it should take 10-15 minutes)

2) Join us at @communitygurus on Twitter

3) Give us a shout and we'd love to hear your insights firsthand too 416-255-4500

Any respondent who fills out our survey has a chance to win a small token of our affection and a topline version of the results in May when we get all our responses back.