My topics for this week cover a lot of the same ground Jen, Ike Pigott, and I went over on last Friday’s Roundtable show (Old Spice’s YouTube gamble, social media egos run amok), with a few new topics thrown in (are you ready for the Facebook movie?).

I’m not normally one to beat a dead horse, as the “Old Spice Guy” campaign has been done for over a week, but its repercussions continue to result in some good posts well into this week. What were the repercussions, besides some good publicity? Did sales improve? Was that even the goal? I think this campaign will have a lasting impact, particularly on those looking to bring more creativity to their social media marketing efforts.

Not everyone was so enamored, however, as we learn in this week’s Jots, which I will get to…right now:

Something Stinks – BL Ochman – While admitting that the campaign itself was both hilarious and creative, BL Ochman questions Old Spice’s strategy. Arguing that simply conducting a well done social media campaign is not enough, BL points out that brand awareness can only get you so far. After that, you need to show measureable financial results to make the campaign a real success. “The bottom line: there is no such thing as a social media strategy. There is business strategy incorporating social media. But if that strategy doesn’t include sales, it’s nothing more than a tactic. Tactics don’t move markets. (Bonus problem: if your target audience thinks your product sucks, nothing else matters.)”

The Apple Press Conference – Shel Holtz – In another story making waves from last week, many in the PR blogosphere are still buzzing about Apple’s attempt to handle the public perception of the iPhone 4’s battery issues. Shel Holtz argues that Apple’s presser last week was smug, dismissive and the absolute wrong way to handle crisis communications (I can’t say I disagree). Shel’s post encapsulates every problem I had with Jobs’ tactics: when faced with disappointed customers, don’t point fingers, just fix it. “Sound crisis principles require companies to (among other things) acknowledge the aggrieved party without dismissing their complaints. When Jobs shrugged off the problem as typical of smartphones in general, he did exactly that. And while the millions of iPhone 4 users who have not experienced the problem may have smugly nodded in agreement, I’m sure those who had suffered dropped calls on their iPhone 4s—but not on their 3Gs or 3GSs—felt belittled.”

ZOMG The Facebook Movie – Scott Monty – I think I saw this excellent trailer for “The Social Network,” aka “the Facebook movie” among my friends and geeks, about 100 different times before actually seeing it in the theater the other night. It was all over Facebook, Twitter, and my email inbox from the moment it dropped.  Scott Monty took the film as an excuse to have some fun, casting his own social media movie (with Johnny Carson playing himself, of course). This leaves the question, who would play you? (For me, obviously Drew Barrymore.) (If Angelina is busy, of course.) “If they were holding open casting calls for extras and you were going to be featured, what famous person, dead or alive, would play you in the movie? Leave a comment below or reply with a post on your own blog with a link back to this post.”

500 Million – Mitch Joel – Speaking of Facebook, did you hear it hit 500 million users this week? Of course you did, who didn’t? Mitch Joel wrote one of the better reactions to this milestone, with a thoughtful reflection on what Facebook really is, and how we use it. 500 million sounds like a lot, but in reality, it’s small: “Marketers are focusing on the 500 million number and wondering how they can get their brands, products and services in front of them. They’re not focusing on how complex and tangled the social graph actually is. They’re also not focusing on why people connect on Facebook (hint: it is – for the most part – a place to share information with those who aren’t overly close with you). These are not people who are idly sitting by and waiting to consume content. They are on Facebook to create, edit, share and tag information (mostly personal information).”

Wah, Wah, Wah – Geoff Livingston – There isn’t much more annoying than publicly complaining about the pitfalls of success.  Case in point, social media “stars” who complain about all the requests they get for their time.  I don’t think anyone should work for free, and I can imagine that getting flooded with emails and not having time to even respond to them all, much less fulfill everyone’s requests would be a somewhat annoying side effect of success. I still can’t muster up much sympathy, and agree wholeheartedly with Geoff: get over it, and figure out how to say no. Because complaining about it on Twitter kind of makes you look like a jerk. Or to quote that 20^th century philosopher Chandler Bing, “Oh no! My wallets too small for all my twenties, and my diamond shoes are too tight!” Or, as Geoff puts it: “Allowing oneself to feel victimized by success is not really an accurate way to look at things. There are no victims in this, only volunteers. We have blogged, checked-in, and tweeted ourselves into this position, one we wanted from the outset. Really, these are opportunities, great choices on how to spend our time. Building intelligent systems to scale our work, or to better select the opportunities we really want and say no to the rest is the great entrepreneurial challenge here.”

That mobile device growth rate should be a wakeup call to every company without a mobile strategy that meets their user’s evolving needs.

Thirst is Nothing; Mobility is Everything

I beg to differ with the old ad campaign that Thirst is everything. If you thirst for sales, today you need to be where your customers are. JC Penney, according to a DM News article, is ramping up their mobile and social efforts for the “back to school” sales this fall.

JCPenney PR brand manager Kate Coultas is quoted in the article explaining that “Our mobile marketing initiatives allow us to reach teens where they are, and provide them an opportunity to opt in and experience an array of exciting, media-rich, interactive content that allows them to explore and discover the JCPenney brand.”

Kohl’s, Sears, and others are joining them, but to different extents.

A recent study from the non-profit Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that 40 percent of adults now access the Internet using a cell phone – up 32 percent from April, 2009. To put this into perspective, a 2006 study shows that 40 percent of Americans now read a newspaper. You can’t ignore either group of potential customers.

Reaching People Where They Sleep

In a time where 41 percent of all adults have a profile on a social media site and more than half of all Americans sleep with their cell phone (Pew Social Trends), reaching people where they sleep takes on a whole new meaning.

Social media, while growing most rapidly among the under 35 year-olds, is no means just being used in that age group. There are however people who will always prefer to talk to a nice warm human voice before handing over their money. There are also those who will first arm themselves with personal reviews of friends, acquaintances and total strangers and know their potential purchases better than most salespeople could. To ignore either group (or make age-based stereotypes) would be a mistake.

Facebook, if a country, would now rank third: larger than the United States and just behind China and India. Why would you even think of ignoring this type of population? Yet many are.

Like Twitter and other social networks, people value on Facebook what used to be valued in print: content that is fresh, updated, and pertinent. (Please re-read the last sentence until you have memorized it.) The new values gained from social sites are responses directly from companies and people who are seeking similar content. Those people are called a community.

The Opportunity to Leverage Influence

More than two-thirds of all users have some contact with a company on social sites. That puts a heavy burden on companies to listen to what is being asked of them and what is being said about them. More important, they now have a responsibility to respond with accurate information. Simply, those companies who are not willing to listen and react quickly to the comments and questions asked will drive customers away.

To put it another way, because top management won’t buy and invest into the value of crowds of online people and the ability to be where they are – the company will miss great opportunities.

Each one of your community members has the influence of many of their friends, virtual friends and other communities, online and in person.

Ask me sometime why I haven’t shopped in a particular store for a year or why I spend more for the same product elsewhere.

Click here to listen to the 32-minute program.

• First, Jen and Doug discuss the Old Spice social media advertising initiative, and how the implementation of the initiative seems to have further blurred the lines between advertising and PR, as discussed in a piece by Dave Fleet. Aside from blurring lines, though, there is a question as to how advertising will be measured in a situation like this, which looks an awful lot like a PR campaign, not an advertising campaign, as articulated in this piece by Chris Thilk. Both agree that we’ll have to see what the numbers look like when they come out (oh, look they have–thank you to Beth Harte for pointing to this).

• Then, the two discuss an exchange on Twitter between MSU’s Scott Westerman and Ford’s Scott Monty on giving interns the reins in social media. Ford has  Both agree with Scott (Monty) that for a global brand, turning a Twitter account over to an intern doesn’t make sense. Yes, interns should be given work that matters–but turning over a brand’s social media channel to an intern, making them essentially responsible for the brand’s presence on Twitter, is ill-advised. Jen points out that even if they are the smartest and most adept intern out there, it’s unfair to put them on a global stage to make their mistakes.

• Finally, the two cover a dust-up between Jack O’Dwyer and Katie Paine about Ad Value Equivalency. Both Jen and Doug agree AVE numbers are useless–but both really wonder what O’Dwyer was getting at when he suggested that PR’s role should be focused on “rescuing the remaining media,” instead of being so focused on measurement. Doug doesn’t think we should be rescuing remaining media, we should be focused on working with the media as it currently exists–regardless of the platform.

Seventy-five billion text messages are sent each month² (yes – that’s billion!).  Yet most companies are inept at lead generation and reaching out via this medium.  So – how should organizations address this growing trend?

First–and this is obvious–start to capture cell phone numbers in your lead generation campaigns.  Whether that means adding a field to your online “contact us” form, or asking for them at trade shows.  Regardless of how this is done, make sure that before you start to market to these people you have made it very clear they are opting-in to your mobile program.

Second, before you begin an actual mobile lead generation campaign, decide on the intent of that campaign.  For instance, are you trying to drive in-store sales, build brand awareness, or increase followers on your other social media outposts?  Regardless of which it ends up being, it is important to decide and then align that campaign towards the specific objective.

For instance, depending on the intent of you campaign you can run a mobile coupon offering a percentage off, or have participants text in a pre-defined code to enter a contest or promotion – and from there select a winner.  There are infinite possibilities, it’s up to you and your imagination and the objectives you set.

I believe the next step should be contacting a mobile texting provider who can provide you with the technology to carry out this campaign, such as GossRSVP.  This will give you access to a short code to use for your campaign, and the technology to send out to the mobile numbers you captured in step 1 above.

In addition to texting, we should mention QR Codes.  More and more phones today come equipped with camera’s that are capable of reading these codes:

(For instance, if you scan the above QR code you will go to MediaBullseye.com)

You can place these on marketing materials, packaging, signage, or even just in an article like I have done here.  These codes provide the user an easy way to simply scan the code, and go to a predefined website.

With Facebook and Google both taking notice of QR Codes it’s a matter of time, in my opinion, before they become mainstream.  Whether for location based service as Google is using them, or mobile marketing, there is an unlimited set of options for today’s marketing department looking to get into the mobile space.

“Reports of ChunkMail’s demise have been greatly exaggerated, we’ll continue to send out flavorful email to our US fans. The UK’s dropping it.” (Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 6:01 PM).

One day later, they found another way to clear it up on Twitter:

“All marketing communication will be delivered by our cloned cowcarrierpigeon. No more facebook, twitter OR email http://twitpic.com/25l4dz .”

The link is to a drawing of their cowcarrierpigeon, in case you have never seen one.

The lesson is they have developed a base of people who follow them in social media. More than 1.3 million people who like them on Facebook. It’s a two-way flow of communications that has an intrinsic value.

Ben and Jerry’s has developed a perception of paying attention to what their customers think. Pepsi, perhaps not having as strong a perception, has had great success in new Mountain Dew flavors that were “crowdsourced.” While they may do it differently the takeaway is that both companies are listening, but for myriad reasons, in different ways.

Many companies really do not know what to do with honest customer feedback. Systems and processes need to be in place to reinforce what is good, and also help correct what is bad. Customers are sharing this information with you because they have some attachment to you. The value in that must be recognized or they will leave you.

Social media and the emerging buzzword, social customer relationship management (SOCcrm or sometime sCRM) are quickly evolving to add a social-search dimension to their relationship management system. The ultimate goal is to gain a better insight into what would make their customers happier. Happy customers influence their friends and neighbors. If Facebook has taught us anything is that word travels quickly online and that YOU are an influencer of your friends.

Influence, arguably, was something a solid ad campaign was once able to borrow. Today, person-to-person influence is the new end-game.

Back in the old days, store owners tried to keep a good relationship with their customers. Their customers in turn would speak well of them because they were treated in a way that made them feel important. Today stores, including huge supermarkets, need to find a way to do this through social media on a one-on-one basis. Engaging users in areas they care about is the way larger and smaller companies are doing this are extending their reach.

The Pepsi Refresh Project and Ben & Jerry’s Foundation are doing this, as are the businesses around your town that support the music departments and extracurricular activities.

Social media and word of mouth outreach is not new – even in small towns. It happens with great speed, and like the old days, influence cannot be ignored.

Click here to listen to the 33-minute program.

• First, the team tackles issues surrounding a recent online flare-up in social media. Jen asks Ike to discuss some of the very important points raised in a piece he wrote, especially the role of “Chesters” in making online discussions spin out of control. Sarah notes that participation in social media–putting yourself out there and drawing attention to your ideas–requires a bit of ego (in a positive way) in the first place, which makes it more likely feelings can get bruised. Jen wraps up the discussion by asking what we can take away from the recent dust-up; both Ike and Sarah agree that these sorts of things will pop up from time to time–it’s the nature of the Internet.
• Next, the group discusses this week’s runaway social media success: The Old Spice Guy. Sarah is impressed with the actor, stating that the series of commercials and YouTube videos should lead to considerable fame, and perhaps a TV show. Ike warns that this didn’t work out so well for the Cavemen, but acknowledges the actor’s charisma and the success of the campaign. Jen points out that the work behind the scenes must have been significant, and was executed brilliantly; she then asks if the bar has been set quite high for advertisers. Ike feels that the success of the campaign could lead to further rifts between PR and advertising as those groups struggle for ownership of–and the dollars that fund–social media campaigns.

Fun.

For those who have missed the rapidly degenerating exchange, Peter Shankman, the founder and brains behind the deservedly popular “Help A Reporter Out” (HARO) site that matches up PR pros and reporters, posted a brief and I think exasperated tweet about constant demands on his time. It said, quite simply, “New Rule: If your email starts off with ‘I want to pick your brain,’ my reply starts off with ‘at $400 per hour.’”

This struck a nerve with Kami, who clearly was already thinking about popularity, money, and incivility on the Internet, as she used this example as a lead off to a blog post about arrogance that mentioned among other things people with business cards that say “Google me,” (seriously? – Gag.) and the Lebron James me-fest that was on TV.

You can predict what happens next. Peter posts an “Open Letter to Kami” response, and it turns into a Peter’s fans vs. Kami’s fans, all played out in the comments sections on both posts, and oh, look, we’re all back in middle school.

What struck me though, was a series of Tweets by Susan Getgood, pointing out that this (being asked to donate time, constant requests to “pick your brain,”) is a problem, and that “many are feeling this pain.” I know and respect Susan, she’s a very smart lady and strategist and it doesn’t surprise me at all that people are seeking her counsel. If she says it’s a problem, it is.

My mom always said:

If you have a problem, it’s because you haven’t made a decision.

To give credit where I believe it’s due, I think she got this from Dr. Leo Buscaglia. Over and over in my personal life, this has proven to be true. So, if we are to look first at the response that Shankman got from his original tweet–a number of people retweeted it, with a “right on” type of addition to the tweet–and then at Susan’s contribution, clearly there are a lot of people who feel taken advantage of. So what are their options?

Option 1

Say no. It’s that simple and yet so hard. How can one little word be so difficult? It’s because these are good people, who want to help. It’s hard to say no. So if you’re feeling taken advantage of, channel your inner J.D. Salinger, hunker down and say no.

The problem with this option is that if you’ve built a business around being social, constantly saying no will eventually have some ramifications for you business-wise. This was one of Kami’s points that managed to get completely lost in the resulting hue and cry.

Option 2

Change your attitude. In reading all of this “stuff” surrounding this kerfuffle, I immediately thought of Chip Griffin’s recent post, “Go Ahead: Pick My Brain.” Chip is one of the busiest people I know. He travels pretty much constantly, demands on his time are myriad, and yet he still manages to be cheerful and upbeat. It didn’t surprise me at all that his response to “pick my brain” is “go ahead.” But the big takeaway from his post is the way he chooses to view these exchanges:

The truth is that I usually get as much out of these sessions as I give.

Wow. Instead of conveying a feeling of being taken advantage of, he states he gets something out of them. You get what you give.

Option 3

Keep doing what you are doing. Unsatisfying, exhausting, and will likely lead to burnout. Perhaps. If this is the path you choose, do so consciously and don’t complain about being a victim.

Looking at all that is happening right now might make it feel like these demands on time will be never-ending, but this–the social media learning phase bubble–will eventually pop. When people start to get their own footing in this space, and as it becomes more ubiquitous, there will be less of a need to seek counsel. As Geoff Livingston aptly put it in the comments section of Kami’s post “success can be fleeting.”

So, another thing my mom always said comes into play: “this too, shall pass.”

Augmented Reality, or “AR” leverages your phone’s GPS and enables you to point your mobile phone’s camera at something and see relevant information on your screen. In our case, surrounded on all sides by trees, regular reality was sadly lacking. I clicked on the monocle feature of Yelp and a small radar-like screen appeared in the upper right of my phone’s screen to show me the direction of restaurants. Holding my phone pointed east (I was looking at trees on the screen), I was also able to virtually see through those trees as blocks “floated” on the screen, indicating where the restaurants were, their ratings, number of reviews and their distance. We chose one and selected the map feature. We were seated 3 minutes later.

If you’ve ever been somewhere and were trying to find where you should eat, sleep or go, this makes it easy. Pointing it down a Boston street lined with restaurants also worked well.

Layar, who describes themselves as an augmented reality browser for Android and iPhone has been getting the big buzz recently as they were featured in a recent Verizon/Motorola Android commercial. Yelp may have implemented AR functionality to make it easier for the user. Layar has a wide variety of “layars” available that allows you to do everything from find a new place to live, eat, determine which Twitter people are near you or layer history – or just a ton of information about your surroundings on your mobile phone. (I will continue to use both applications).

In fairness to both – AR is in its infancy and ABI projects it to be a $350-million industry by 2014. I am truly excited about the real-time learning possibilities [more reading].

Yelp has also added new quick tips, the ability to “check in” to a location and let others know you are there. You can also attain “badges” to show your status. (Hey guys, do you have a “wrote a story” badge?). These features are a direct competition to the geolocation king Foursquare. Yelp is clearly leveraging their 9-million monthly views versus FourSquare’s 1.4 million. The question will be, did all the people who love to check in already go to FourSquare? (No, not likely).

The real question is what will happen when Facebook does this? (If I had a beard, I would stroke it in deep thought).

And at least for now, Yelp has appointed me the Duke of the restaurant. You have my permission to be impressed.

… Post script to the story…

While writing this story, I tweeted that “Writing my MediaBullseye piece this week on how Yelp got me out of the woods and to lunch. Decided: I like the AR feature.” Before I finished the story @YelpBoston answered “I’d love to read about your @yelp experience when you’re finished! Where did you go for lunch?”

If you’ve read my column before, I always appreciate when a company – especially one trying to build a good community reaches out.

Of course, now I feel compelled to write a lengthier review for a great little family restaurant. Oh heck, they deserve it.

Click here to listen to the 45-minute program.

• First, Jen asks Mitch about his role in Chris Brogan’s new Man On The Go project, aimed at those who travel extensively for business–it has tips and tricks for traveling, hotel reviews, and reviews of travel-critical gear, like backpacks and laptop bags. As someone who travels quite a bit for business himself, Mitch is contributing videos for the blog. The blog is another interesting move in the online space for Chris Brogan, as the site is predominantly video. Bryan Person has also launched a new blog, which the group discussed, called Exploring the iPad.
• Next up for discussion was Fast Company’s Influence project (at 11:42)–and more specifically, Amber Naslund’s pointed blog post about the project. Mitch points out that influence can be defined as compelling someone to click a link–or, fill in the “other” blank in a contest, as Howard Stern did with Hank The Angry Drunken Dwarf in 1998. The question of “who versus how many” was raised, as was the issue of “slacktivism”–the very low barrier presented by clicking a “like” button still indicates that there is engagement.
• The group concluded the show by discussing Neville Hobson’s post about The Guardian’s new WordPress plugin (at 29:20), which is yet another way print media is trying to grapple with sharing content. While some publications are moving their content behind paid firewalls, The Guardian is trying something different–but Mitch asks:  “what’s stopping a blogger from copying the relevant paragraph and reposting?” Jen asks if this initiative has to do with advertising revenue–is this a method to generate money? Mitch points out that a blog that simply reposts articles from elsewhere would turn him off, as there’s little point–that’s not why you read a blog. If the objective is advertising, Mitch asserts, it’s already a failure–and he asks if we can move beyond the advertising model to a marketing model–what adds value to the experience?

Thank you to Mitch Joel for a lively and interesting discussion on all three topics. He is the President of Twist Image, a digital marketing and communications agency. You can find him at Six Pixels Of Separation: the blog, his book of the same title, and the Media Hacks podcast.

When online tech news giant Mashable decided that there should be a Social Media Day, there was one. Their Facebook page explained it: “As far as we know, there is no official Social Media Day. But we do think there should be one. So we invite you to celebrate the revolution of media becoming a social dialogue by attending or organizing a Social Media Day meetup in your area on June 30. What better way to celebrate social media than connecting with other enthusiasts in your area?”

The glass is either half full of lemmings or business people networking. At the two Social Media Day events I attended, there was a lot of learning and business happening: Learning about social media, tools, ideas and best practices. The sharing of questions, answers and ideas by new and long-time social media practitioners from different industries alike kept conversations lively and interesting.

This was the first Tweetup for Emily, also known as @eberg910, who attended a Social Media Day event at a Manchester, New Hampshire restaurant. “I’m starting to love interacting through social media. This was something new for me and I’m trying to get involved in different social media communities and I thought the tweetup would be a great start.” Her friend Maddy (@Mastaub ) found “It’s surprisingly easy to talk to people if you’ve been following their tweets, because you already know a lot about what they do and who they are.”

Organizer of one of the largest Social Media Day events on the planet in Boston, Massachusetts, Joselin Mane (@BostonTweetup) understands what Maddy is talking about. The biggest advantage to a social media event or tweetup, according to Mane, is that you can start building relationships before the event. “In these types of meetups, you know going into the event who will be there [as the registration is listed online]. You can check their credentials, blog and Facebook page so you can connect with them before the event. It facilitates better relationship building because you can leverage the time before the event. What’s cool is that if you know one person and they know several people, it enhances the experience and you don’t feel like an outsider.” This also secures longer lasting friendships and business relationships.

Mane, and the other organizers had just over a week to pull a venue and agenda together. Since @BostonTweetup has helped organize these events before, their connections helped it secure the venue and grow quickly “because that’s what we do.”

The night was successful for Emily. “I was able to meet local people who are doing the same things I’m learning about and trying to do myself. Being more active on Twitter is something I’m trying to figure out so it was really beneficial for me to meet people who are already pros at it.”

Maddy found the same: “I’ve found that people who are using Twitter for social meeting marketing purposes tend to be interesting and involved people. I wanted to hear about what some of the most innovative people in my community were up to. It was a success on all counts!”