If I realized earlier in life how important negotiation skills were going to be, I would have concentrated my studies on the ‘Art of Negotiating’.  I spend my life negotiating; from the morning battle with myself to work out, the daily cries of want from my children, to the television show my husband and I agree to at the end of the day.  But the real negotiations happen all day, every day in my role as a Business Analyst.

Since project decisions are never black and white, and everything included in a project is negotiable, being an effective negotiator is crucial in the success of a project.

From defining the scope, determining the requirements, to the functional design that fulfill the requirements, a business analyst has to negotiate at every turn.    Some were lucky enough to be born great negotiators, but most of us need a lot of work.
So, if you are planning to become a spouse, parent or business analyst…..be sure to add negotiation skills to your repertoire!

Fast forward to Summer 2010, Twitter is a household name, and everyone has heard about it, whether they use it or not.  I have to admit I use Twitter frequently; in fact, I have met a lot of people and found local businesses through it.  I even meet one of my good friends on Twitter before we connected in person.

Twitter + GPS Technology = Foursquare?

Now the newest technology trend is location-based applications, described by Inc. Magazine as “a particularly hot area for new companies”. One of the most popular location-based service today is Foursquare (although, Facebook launched a similar service today).   Foursquare allows you to check-in to places, meet up with friends and discover new places, using the GPS on your mobile device.

How does it work? Users “check-in” to locations throughout the day (“check-in” is equivalent to “like” on Facebook) and chances are, if my friends are frequently checking into a location, I would want to check it out as well. For instance, I see my Foursquare friends are at a great new restaurant raving about the atmosphere and giving tips on what to order, and this intrigues me so I “check-in” and check it out for myself.

I have a few friends and family members that use it now and it’s interesting to see what they are doing.  My friend Adam had a few suggestions on uses for Foursquare, one of them being an “automatic time capsule.” I’m still at the stage where I’m not sure what it will be or what the best use of the tool is, but I am testing it out. 

Using Foursquare as a Marketing Tool

One thing that jumps out at me is that I think Foursquare has great potential for businesses to market to their clientele.  Foursquare enables businesses to target potential customers in their area based on interests.  Using Foursquare your establishment could offer discounts to people checking in and also alert nearby users of current specials.  In addition, Foursquare provides real time analytics such as recent visitors, frequent visitors, time of day people check in, total number of unique visitors, gender breakdown of customers, and more.

What do you think? Is now the time to try Foursquare and get a jumpstart on location based marketing?

My Experience with Structured Writing

As an experienced technical writer, I am comfortable using whatever techniques and style guides are used by the organization I’m supporting. These tools ensure that everyone in the organization produces writing that is consistent in style and format.About 10 years ago, I was introduced to the Information Mapping Method™, which is a structured writing system taught by a company called Information Mapping Inc. This method encourages careful analysis of the information to be presented and the use of seven principles to write and organize information in a way that enhances its readability and usability. You can learn more about Information Mapping at www.infomap.com.

Structured Writing Principles YOU Can Use

Information Mapping is overkill for the average businessperson, but I think three of this method’s principles can be easily implemented by anyone:

1. Chunking – Communicate using short blocks of information. Short blocks of text are easier to read and remember than long ones. Replace long paragraphs with smaller paragraphs, lists, and tables. Simplify run-on sentences. Remember that less is more when it comes to business writing! People are busy at work, and you can help them by keeping your communications as short as possible.
2. Relevance – Focus on your reader’s needs, and analyze your text line-by-line. Have you talked about the same topic in three different places? Gather related information together, and look for opportunities to delete repeated information. Communicating about one topic at a time aids comprehension. Is there information that your reader will not use? Delete it!
3. Labeling – Once you’ve broken your information into short “chunks,” label each chunk of text with a title or heading. Avoid generic headings like “Part 1” and “Summary,” and use headings that really tell your readers what is contained in the chunk. Headings prepare your readers for the upcoming content, which enhances their ability to understand it. If the document is scanned instead of read (we all do this!), the headings provide an outline of the information.

Give it a try!

You can use these techniques to write new documents, or to revise existing documents. You can even use these techniques to deconstruct complicated material you’re reading so that you can understand it better. These principles can be applied to all types of communications, including documents, email messages, verbal presentations, web sites, and more. At DefinedLogic, I use these principles when I write functional requirements for web sites.

These are simple techniques that you probably weren’t taught in high school. Some people do them intuitively, but if you don’t, try applying them the next time you write an email, draft a document, or prepare a presentation.

So am I part of the Facebook generation?

I am a part of Gen X, but can you be part of another generation if it is classified by the use of something.  Even if I smoked pot every day, I would never be classified as a baby boomer.  But technology changes that.  It extends the sense of inclusion and allows any one, of any age to participate.

Facebook’s success is based on connecting people with similar ‘likes’.  Facebook must leverage a users profile to identify ‘likes’.  This is where the concern amongst generations begins to arise.  Each generation has tolerance for how much information is used.  It seems that the older you are the less likely you are to be open to sharing your information within an online social environment.

The Lost Generation, Greatest Generation and Silent Generation are not even age groups that appear in Facebook user metrics.  Based on the age of these generations the youngest of which would be 70 years old, this does not come as a surprise.  That is not to say that there are no 70+ participants in this social medium, but these groups will not be effecting change.

Baby Boomers
The majority of this generation (not all) is skeptical of Facebook.  My mom worries about every pop-up and is convinced people are trying to invade her computer to get personal information.  These concerns are not completely unfounded, but the reaction from the members of this generation is more apprehensive than it is of the generations that succeed them.  The social aspect of connecting to long lost friends is appealing, but being “out on the internet” limits these users acceptance of this form of social media.

Generation X
My generation has been an adopter.  Gen Xers grew up being the early adopters to technology, but have suffered with the growing pains of slow internet speeds, computer viruses, eCommerce security, etc.  We tend to hold our personal information closer to the vest and have learned to adapt to ever changing tides of what a new technology has to offer.  Some have been passersby, some use it casually and others have adopted it as a way of life (and means to improve business).  We are a loud voice in the world of Facebook, but it is not ingrained in our soul.  I did not need it to get into college, get my first job, facilitate a meeting, negotiate a deal, build a business…

Generation Y, Generation Next, Millennials, The Facebook Generation
To thrive in this generation social computing is a must.  This generation continues to be the largest audience within Facebook and it is being taught at an early age (usually by peers) that this is simply part of being.  There is less apprehension about privacy.  They know there are creeps and cheats that want their information, but they are also well aware of the power of sharing the right information.  It is this knowledge that will facilitate the Millennial’s Facebook use to change the world.

 
Social platforms will be used to connect and educate students around the world.  Imagine a collaborative science project with students from Spain, the Ukraine and the United States.  The learning opportunities will explode.  Barriers will be eliminated and social communication will be at the heart of this global communication uprising.  The Millenials will lead this charge.

So, as many before me have wondered or hoped, “am I part of the next great generation?” it is with regret to say that I am not.  The Millennials will change the way we learn, work, love and live by expanding the power of their social lives through the use of Facebook.

Attribution: theDQT

As DefinedLogic’s Social Media and Marketing intern, I am learning to think like a true marketer.  In a recent survey I conducted, my goal was to find out what young cell phone consumers (millenials) want, need, and buy.  I also wanted to figure out what role social media will play in how we communicate with the companies with whom we do business.  The survey was completed by 16 people, the majority of who were between the ages of 18 and 24.  The results were interesting.  Some results were exactly what I expected.  Some were not.

Top providers are still AT&T and Verizon

Being the daughter of a retired AT&T employee, I have always been a loyal AT&T customer by default. (I will try to check my biases at the door in the following analysis!)

Here is what the young adults I surveyed thought about cell phone providers:

• AT&T stood out as being the leader in customer service, reliability, and overall quality to survey participants currently with  AT&T or Verizon plans.
• Verizon has the strongest and most reliable network in the minds of cell phone users.
• The iPhone was inextricably linked with AT&T in the minds of consumers, (it will be interesting to see what happens if Verizon users are capable of using the device on their plan as well).

Other carriers were less prominent in participants’ minds. People thought of 4G networks in regards to Sprint, but were indifferent to the brand.  T-Mobile was to a large extent associated with Catherine Zeta-Jones, but that was about it;  the company enjoyed no strong product or service identity.

18-24 year-olds are a significant market

The young adults I surveyed were typically part of a family plan and did not pay their own bill.  Their choice of provider was dictated by their parents. (Sorry advertisers, you cannot easily convert this customer segment without winning over the parents as well).  But even so, these “kids” are still generating additional revenue for the providers.  The vast majority of respondents had upgraded their plan to include more texting or minutes at least once since they got their first cell phone.  (This sounded strikingly familiar:  My father had to upgrade my plan more than three times since I received my first phone at age 12.  As 100 texts per month turned into 250, then to 500, and finally when I exceeded 1,000, my father gave up and bought the unlimited plan. The month I exceeded 10,000 he almost fell over…woops!)

Accessories generate additional revenue

It is no secret that it’s hard to convince consumers to upgrade to whatever the latest phone model is. Typical cell phone contracts last two years and most people will not buy a new phone unless it is available at the discounted upgrade price.  What consumers will spend money on is accessories. Survey respondents admitted to spending on average between ten and fifty dollars per month. Phone covers were among the most commonly purchased accessories, with the primary use for protection (which is imperative for users like me who are a hazard to their device) rather than style.  None of the respondents had gone online to buy accessories. They would pick something up at their service provider’s retail location, or more typically, at a third-party electronics store like Best Buy or Radio Shack.

Can customers make the leap…

Ironically, when needing technical assistance or answers to questions about their plan, survey respondents preferred solving their issues online rather than visiting a retail location.  They have not yet made the leap to social networking sites for customer service or information gathering.

It will be interesting to see if customers in general will make the leap and crossover to Facebook rather than the wireless service provider’s web site.  Reportedly, AT&T alone has 15 people on their staff whose job is to respond all wall posts by customers on their Facebook or Twitter pages.  In my experience, the time it takes for an AT&T staff member to respond to a post on Facebook or Twitter is drastically shorter than the time it takes to reach an operator if a customer were to call the 800 number.  This forum could become the new site for instant gratification customer service.

Wrapping it up

So where does this leave me?  I certainly understand more about how my peers perceive wireless service providers.  AT&T and Verizon remain at the top of the totem pole and unlimited texting plans as well as accessories have certainly appealed to the demographic I represent.  Where social media plays a role within this is still unclear. The jury (marketing pundits) is still out on the efficacy of AT&T’s social media as customer care push. Only time will truly tell if social media platforms will be the new wave of customer service and sales in the future.

Facebook is like a shark that never stops moving , and marketers can barely keep up. A few months ago, Facebook announced their plans for world domination (I might be editorializing a little), and two new technologies in support of this goal.

Facebook’s Open Graph and Social Plugins

Central to this effort is the Open Graph Protocol, a new way to index web pages that require participating web publishers to add additional descriptive metadata to their pages. Facebook, in turn, uses the pages’ metadata to better categorize their subject matter (e.g. does it represent a product, a person, an article, etc.?) as well as determine editorial ownership to the page.

With these metadata in place, Facebook may categorize external sites with the same level of detail as business pages on Facebook itself. This can come in handy when users are searching for content, products, or brands while on Facebook. (Read: Ultimately visitors won’t have to jump off to Google…). In the meantime, you can search-optimize yourself on Facebook instead.

That said, Facebook’s ambitions go far beyond indexing web pages. What has made Facebook such a powerful marketing platform is their knowledge of how individuals are connected to others (a.k.a. the “Social Graph”) and their connections/affinity to Facebook Pages (which represent brands, products, causes, etc.).

The second part of Facebook’s world domination scheme is a system that indexes Facebook users’ affinity with external web pages. This goal is realized by means of Facebook’s new Social Plugins.

There’s nothing like the “Like” button

The most important of these plugins is Facebook’s (in)famous “Like” button, which publishers may now place on their own (external) pages. The Like button is personalized to the visitor with content from Facebook, offering a view into which friends have liked or commented on the page. New visitors may also click the Like button to show their affinity to, or approval of, the page’s subject matter, and in the process share content with their friends on Facebook and with new visitors to the web page. This in turn will drive traffic back to your website (which has proven to be the case for many sites).

Your new Facebook Fan page is your website

What you might not realize is that by adding Open Graph metadata to a web page and associating a Like button with it, you have, in fact, created a new Facebook “Fan” page on your own site. Just like with business pages on Facebook, you can query Facebook for aggregate demographic data on page Fans along with the opportunity to push messages to Fans’ newsfeeds.

Consumer acceptance

I bet most visitors who “Liked” a piece of web content did not realize they also implicitly granted the publisher permission to publish to their Facebook newsfeeds. Smart publishers will treat this permission like gold, and be careful to not spam the user with irrelevant content, but rather see this as an opportunity to further grow Fans’ affinity and their propensity to share the brand with their friends.

Uniquely addressable audiences

In fact, there is no reason at all to send visitors irrelevant updates. If you have put a Like button on 1,000 products in your web store (which you now can), you’re cultivating 1,000 uniquely addressable audiences. Now you are able to send promotions to users who like organic meats separately from visitors who like energy efficient kitchen appliances. The ability to cultivate and communicate Fans at a very granular level is extremely powerful (and the most revolutionary marketing technology since Google Adwords)!

It’s what Zuckerberg wants, so let him have it

This move to bring Facebook functionality to external sites is where Facebook is putting its focus now, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

And they are succeeding: As of June 2010, more 300,000 sites have already implemented the plugins since they were released on April, 21 with more than 150 million people engage with Facebook on external websites every month.

If you can only get over the fact that Facebook just took over the web and revolutionized permission based marketing overnight (granted, in order to boost their own traffic and ad revenue), prepare yourself to take advantage of the tools that Facebook has given you.

Start by making your own web page the next Facebook Fan page. In fact, make a 1,000 Fan pages. Why wouldn’t you?

Ps. I’ve started a Group on LinkedIn for people interested in discussing Facebook Open Graph Strategies. Feel free to join.

Should your company put up a (or yet, another) Facebook page? No! That’s so yesterday.

You don’t need a Facebook page in order to grow a Facebook following. I suggest you focus your resources on acquiring and cultivating Facebook fans on your own sites instead. Actually, Facebook encourages you to go off-deck and do just that.

Confused?

Let me explain. First of all, companies can still put up a page on Facebook, a.k.a. “Fan Page” and there are at least a couple great reasons to do so:

• Once a visitor “Likes” your page, their action is broadcasted to their friends, who consequently may end up “Liking” (become Fans of) your page as well.
• Fans, by virtue of their affinity to your page, are now addressable by the page owner. Updates you post to your page’s wall will also be pushed to your Fans newsfeeds.

This is a direct marketer’s dream: not only do Facebook users typically check their Facebook page more often than their email, but once a message appears in their newsfeed – it becomes easily sharable with friends.

The problem with Facebook Pages

As any experienced Facebook marketer knows, optimizing Facebook Pages is not straightforward. In fact, it’s more like a straight jacket.

• Pages offer little real estate for brands to showcase their diversity of products and services and truly represent the entire brand.
• While tabs can be populated with custom content, functionality and designs, only a few tabs are visible at any time.
• Updates sent to the page’s Fans must be one-size-fits all. You can’t target based on customer type or interests. Imagine a retailer that sells both dishwashers and organic meat, among other things. If the retailer publishes an update targeting organic food lovers, they risk getting “unliked” by a large group of Fans (such as non-foodies) who might feel spammed. What’s a marketer to do?

3rd party solutions to the rescue?

Numerous 3rd party solutions exist to help marketers overcome some of these challenges. Typically these solutions involve employing some kind of specialized content management tool that allow for the creation and management of multiple, unique Facebook pages for every sub-brand, product, promotion and even local-markets. The benefit of these solutions is that many pages can be centrally managed, allowing content and design to be updated across multiple pages with one ‘click’.

But are multiple pages on Facebook really the right solution? Facebook users who search for a brand might end up with too many options, making it confusing to know where they are “supposed” to go. So to combat confusion, many of these ‘managed’ pages contain replicated content so that the user will feel at ‘home’ wherever they end up.

If you think this sounds less than perfect, it is. But it’s how marketers have created lemonade out of lemons.

A better solution

However, as I stated in the beginning of this post, there is a better solution: Acquire and cultivate Facebook fans on your own web sites instead. Believe it or not, that’s now what Zuckerberg is urging companies to do.

And that will be the topic of my next post called Companies don’t need Facebook Pages anymore (Part 2)

As someone who doesn’t type nearly as fast as my brain works, I love being able to abbreviate.   Give me the chance to take a short cut and be a little lazy – and I’m there!  Using these words on a casual basis is fantastic.  It’s not only quicker to type, but it also makes me feel like I’m not stuck in the Stone-Age.

Casual use is one thing, but what about in business?  At this point, as of June 2010, I believe it is inappropriate to use these terms 95% of the time in the professional arena.  These “words” are still in their infancy and could easily change meaning with time.  Professional emails and documents should make sense when read today and in five years from now.

The 5% of the time where it may be deemed appropriate is with the use of IM, although it should still be used sparingly.  You run the risk that the person you are corresponding with may not understand your abbreviation(s), causing your point to be lost or misunderstood.  Is this worth the seconds gained from taking a shortcut?

As someone who loves language, the choice of words selected and the order they are placed to create songs, poetry, and prose, I hate to see language changed so drastically.  On the other hand, it’s always nice to simplify things.

Before selecting to shorten a thought, just question the context surrounding its use.  For instance, the words “I love you” don’t look as sweet when delivered or received as “ILU”.  Should we really abbreviate everything?  WDYT?

Comparing apples to airplanes

I also think that vendors feel it necessary to proclaim they’ve cracked the equation because clients everywhere demand “a number” that will help them compare the ROI of various marketing channels.

The problem is that apples to apples comparisons don’t make sense when a Facebook program is pitted against some tactical program like an ad buy, which often is the case.

Here’s how Facebook marketing is different: Engaging prospects and customers on Facebook isn’t a one-time connection like traditional advertising. Done right, you can “earn” a Fan. “Fanning” establishes a communications channel between the marketer and these self-selected individuals.

They way I see it, earning Fans on Facebook is more like buying an email list of prospects. Except, in this case, the list consists of individuals who’s already bought into your brand’s value proposition and who, as an added bonus, are happy to broadcast their brand affinity to their friends.

What’s the value of a Facebook Fan?

In a wall-to-wall Facebook exchange I recently had with an executive of a multinational CPG company on the value of a Facebook Fan, I had to confess that my best guess would have to be 42.

Let’s get rhetorical

What do you think will have a greater conversion rate? Marketing to an anonymous list of names in an email-marketing list or to self-proclaimed Fans on Facebook? I can’t tell you exactly. It could be 42. However, I’m pretty confident that you’ll see better ROI by preaching to the converted on Facebook – and I’m happy to entertain any marketers who want to figure out what their magic number is.

Yes, I get junk mail in my mailbox – the one on the street and the one on my desk, but they don’t leverage the power of the personalized experience.  They are using a simple formula of 1-2% of a zillion mails that go out will generate business – not very personal.  Why don’t companies use my information effectively, the likely reason is companies have not invested in the appropriate infrastructure to use the personal information they have.  What do they (you) need to start to leverage the power of personalization?

Developing a customer (1) profile is the first foundational element required to successfully launch an online personalized experience.  Every business knows something about their customer – at a minimum you have gathered a street address to send your product or an invoice.  Addresses provide great geographical information and are a great starting point for a profile.  But addresses are only a starting point (remember we can send a zillion mails) – here is a short list of other elements that can be used to help expand your customer profile:

Once your profile is created it will grow rapidly.  Start with 10 – 15 elements and then leverage feedback from your merchandising team to add elements incrementally.

The level of personalization will also be dictated by the (2) frequency of customer visits.  If a customer visits your site daily to read email versus monthly to pay a bill versus once a year to purchase holiday gifts the experience should recognize this frequency and maximize messaging and promotions based on this frequency.  Visit frequency is an oft overlooked element that can be placed in the profile which can greatly improve results.

Just because I bought a children’s movie from Amazon once does not mean every time I go to Amazon I want other children’s movie…especially if I visit it frequently and I have not purchased another children’s movie in over two years.

You must put the power in the hands of the people who can make your site sell.  This is not IT.  IT implements the infrastructure (the how) and the business uses that infrastructure to effectively sell.  The business must control what, where and when content is displayed to the customer (who sees it).  Utilizing the profile I discussed earlier the business would then leverage a (3) content management system, a (4) personalization engine and a (5) catalog to provide personalized content each time a customer visits the site.  These three infrastructure items work hand-in-hand to ensure the customer is seeing the best price you can offer, for the product they need, with the messaging and imagery you know is best for that particular customer.

The content management system (CMS) allows the business team to manage the content and image assets that would be displayed.  This eliminates the need to have IT resources change a word on the page or the wording within a promotion.  CMSs can perform many other functions…more on that in another blog.

The catalog provides all product information and pricing.  This should be limited to product details, specifications, pricing, discounts, images, categorizations etc.  The promotional content and promotional imagery should be stored within the CMS, because it will change more frequently then the image of the product or the description of the product.

The personalization engine is the brain of the infrastructure.  It allows the business to define what content is displayed based on the information contained in the customer’s profile.   So, if a customer spent $250 (profile element) on their last visit and they live in the northeast (profile element) and they bought a snow blower from you last year (profile element) then you may want to offer them a discount on snow blower attachments and not offer them shovels at all…get it!  If they bought that snow blower 5 years ago, then the offer would be different…it may be time for a new snow blower.

Personalized content drives sales.  Use what you know about your customer to build a personal relationship.