CrapHammer

Meet My Social Network In Action

As you may know, I am going to cover Ad:Tech San Francisco.

They are asking all the bloggers attending to answer some questions and I think many of my readers will find both the questions and even my answers of interest.  I'm going to summarize some of the questions as they were a bit long.

1. New Tech Tools: New tech tools like Twitter and Seesmic are making major changes in how people communicate on a personal level and are expected to do so like so many other next gen technologies that make it easy to shoot short text messages or videos in easily digestible forms. Have you joined the Twitter brigade?  If so what's been the main benefit? If not, what do you need to know to make a decision whether to join the club

2. Business Faces Facebook:  Are platforms like Facebook good as internal applications to help run a company?  Once you strip the platform of silly apps, some top execs are coming around to the idea that it's better than sales force or outlook-based tools given the friendlier interface for as it relates to events, identifying groups, business content and ways to chat with their customers. Do you agree?

3. SEO & Blogging:  A majority of purchasers use the internet for research before a purchase is made. Blogging gives a company a lot of content containing a lot of keywords, and, with a lot of incoming and outbound links, that's SEO gold. Will this trend continue in an evolutionary process or do you think it will be leapfrogged by another format which will increase a shopper's research patterns?

Image Source: See-ming Lee 李思明 SML

The ultimate answer to most of the above is nothing I need ponder or write.  Paul Isakson and David Armano have done that for us this very morning.

I stayed home today because I was still under the weather from being sick this weekend.  At around 11, I managed to make my way to my computer with a cup of some steaming foul "flu" tea.  I was working through a never ending backlog of email when a tweet appeared, hovering in the air for 30 seconds before disappearing.  A tweet is a message from someone I have chosen to follow on the twitter service.

I've highlighted the tweet from David in the screenshot below.  Click to enlarge.

David is telling all of the people that follow him on twitter of something amazing he had just seen on Slideshare from Paul Isakson.  Slideshare is a tool for sharing presentations digitally.  You can upload powerpoints and then embed them on blogs or other social media spaces.  Paul had done just that.  He had uploaded his latest presentation on "What's Next in Marketing and Advertising."

So I clicked through and watched his presentation.  I've embedded the presentation below.  For those of you who enjoyed "The Brand Gap", you are in for a treat. 

| View | Upload your own

Let's review those questions, just to pound the message home.

1. Twitter is overrated, sure. I'm on record calling it "instant messaging for 40 year olds" as it lacks granularity of control over segmenting your "followers".  But like any service in this space, it's value is in three thigns: the scale of the network using the service (how many people in the world), who is in your personal network, and how these "friends" in your personal network use the tool.  To not participate is to ensure you are even further out of touch in 2-3 years when there is a more complex series of tools that allow you to control and manage your social connections to a finer degree.

2. Facebook as an internal tool for companies.  No, I don't agree.  It's not about using any technology.  It's about creating value for our customers.  It's about content and services that provide utility in their lives.  "The conversation age" is more than just communicating with people - it is a metaphor for two parties each taking value from a situation, each providing input and currency back to the other in different forms.  If using facebook by your company brings value to both parties, then go for it.

3. Search Engine Optimization and blogging.  There are a number of convoluted questions embedded in this one and I'm unsure how familiar everyone is with all the issues involved.  Search Engine Optimization is generally a hoax.  There are a few firms that do a reputable job, but most just charge outrageous sums of money and build fake pages with lots of links back to your site.  This answer also comes back to utility and value.  If we create something of value to our audiences, there will be links aplenty.  Not from jus blogs, but from everything our audience has access to: journals, chat rooms, bulletin boards, blogs, twitters, SMS messages, etc.

The Unbrand is connected to the ...

A wonderful "un-brand" campaign.  Enjoy.

[link to embedded video]

Going to AdTech San Francisco!

Tim and Wendy from Madison Avenue Journal have extended a Press Pass to yours truly.  So I will be attending Ad:Tech San Francisco April 15'th to 17'th, 2008.

I'll be twittering live from the event and also posting about the sessions for those of you who can't attend.  For those of you who will be attending, be sure to drop me a line so we can connect on-site!

More posts to come, but here are some of the things I'm looking forward to seeing based on my first perusal of the lineup.

Keynote: George Kliavkoff, Chief Digital Officer, NBC Universal
It's gonna take one hell of a hangover for me to miss this session.  With all the activity in the online video space (YouTube announces an open API, Hulu.com, Seesmic), I'm excited to hear his talk on "Consumers, Content and Control:  Big Media in the Digital Age".  It seems firms like NBC are starting to "get it" and are moving fast and furious to embrace this shift in entertainment and to leverage properties across channels and technologies.

Power Panel: Beyond the Pre-Roll - The State of Online Video
This one has my eye.  Video has become a mix of broadcast and social media, a battle between professional and amateur and a fuel for increased fragmentation AND opportunities for leverage.  And I'm very interested to see how these heavyweights view the state of video online and how/if they plan to investigate non-interruptive forms of advertising.  Greg Baumann from Television Week, Rebecca Paoletti, the Director of Video Strategy for Yahoo!, Chris Allen from Starcom USA, Eric Hadley from Heavy.com, Mark Kapczynski from EyeWonder

Keynote: Jeffrey W. Hayzlett from Eastman Kodak
Okay.  I've saved this one for last. I have to say I was quite surprised to see Kodak listed as a keynote.  Frankly, I think of them as a dead consumer firm living out their final days as a provider of legacy products.  I'm sure they disagree.  ;)  It will be neat to see what they are doing and where they are heading.

Someone is taking white culture seriously!

This one is just for Charles and Piers. So if you're not Charles or Piers, you'll have to stop reading.  I mean it.  Damn.  So much for control.  Stupid Internet.

Stuff White People Like is a blog devoted to the ethnography (er, study) of white people and what they like.  Trend hunters bow down and prepare to be amazed!

My favorite articles are:

• Bad Memories of Highschool
• Graduate School

So much to learn and now I have to replace half of my t-shirts. Shit.

OneDegree

I wanted to share a resource devoted to delivering the "inside scoop on digital media and social media for Canadian marketers."  It is OneDegree.ca and was recently re-launched by the vivacious and intelligent Kate Trgovac and her partner in crime Rosemary Rowe.  It's a hefty and insightful resource for marketers up here in the great white north (and I'd suggest even around the globe.)
 

Here are some articles that you may have missed and are worth a review:

• Using video to promote B2B marketing (and optimizing video for search engines)
• A brilliant review of Jaffe's book (loved his defense of "communication")
• Monica's comprehensive 3 part series on crowdsourcing (finally, something with real-world examples notated throughout!)
  

Disclaimer:  I am a contributor to OneDegree and I even invested in it.  Just like the spray-painted hair guy on TV who is "also a client!"

Crowd Enabling, the Obama way

I am continually asked to present on "What is Social Media", "Web 2.0" or even "Crowd sourcing."  Quite often I am met with some level of incredulous skepticism.  Surely, this doesn't apply to insurance, manufacturing, publishing or any other industry you can name. 

I can't help but recall the early days of the web.  My firm was called in to many a boardroom and it was always the same question, "So, this web thing, is it just a fad?"  And sure enough, every example we showed was questioned.  I was a geek caught up in my techno-futuristic dreams and this web thing would surely not apply nor impact the company in question or their industry.

And here we are full circle.  Sure, blogs might become something else.  Wiki's will evolve into new toolsets and even YouTube will transform and be usurped by something else.

But personal expression will not disappear.  The desire of people to have a voice and to participate will only increase in the days to come.  This is what technology is enabling on a scale never before seen on this planet.

The organizations that embrace this shift will accomplish things never before thought possible.  They will learn things that will amaze both them and their competitors.  If this isn't worth the risk of "letting go of control" then I don't know what is.

Barack Obama is just one such example.  I want to be very clear here.   Even if Obama fails to achieve his goal of becoming President of the United States, I predict he will have a deeper and more powerful understanding of the American people than anyone in the history of politics.  He will have engaged at a level yet to be fully grasped or understood.

A Historical Campaign

The Washington Post reported on 02-29-2008 that Ms. Hillary Clinton had raised $35 million in February of this year.  Obama is expected to announce a number that is "considerably more" than that number.  What makes this exceptional is that, unlike Hillary, Obama's donations have come entirely from a source untapped by other politicians: the average citizen.

According to the Los Angeles Times on 02-07-2008, "Clinton has relied heavily on large donors, at least half of whom have already given the maximum allowed by law.  By contrast, Obama has built an extensive network of small givers who are free to keep donating until they hit the $2,300 federal contribution ceiling."

I remember the first time I donated $50 to the Obama campaign.  Within minutes, I received a message from a previous donor who had agreed to match a donation from a first time donor.  The email was written by a gentleman from down south who wanted to share with me his reasons for supporting the campaign, in his words.

Social Media

Obama has been leading on the use of digital technologies since early in his campaign.  Information Week reported on 07-23-2007 that no Republicans are reaching out with mobile technology" and spoke of Barack's use of a special short SMS code as well as downloadable ringtones and more.

At the beginning of his campaign, as members of the movement, we were invited to log in to my.barackobama.com and help to organize block parties in our neighborhoods, start a blog or participate in conversations.  The site has grown to provide opportunities to match first time donors, watch videos and actively participate in the campaign by a variety of means.

Obama has continued to use every channel to spread his message.  If you haven't watched or read the "Yes we can" speech, then I recommend you do so.

And the YouTube videos of his speech put to music are emotional beyond words.  The fact that Obama has engaged and allowed for others to carry and manipulate his voice and message points to this being more than a "channel" approach.  Unlike his rivals, his campaign is about enabling voices to unite together under a cause of hope.  Something not seen in quite some time (at this scale) in the American political system.

Enabling Our Participation

Yesterday I was surprised.  The weekly Obama emails pleading with me to donate or match the donation of a first time donor had suddenly been replaced by a call to action much like at the beginning of Obama's campaign.  I was being asked to participate in an online drive to reach out to Texans for the upcoming primary.  Over a million calls had already been placed by people just like me. 

This morning I could only sit in amazement as they had already achieved over a million and a half calls.

I clicked on the link in the email and was brought to my personal area of the Obama network.  What greeted me?  A personal message and a list of the top callers in a battle for the top slot.  I may not know Ms. Gold, but I admire her.  I admire any citizen that motivated to making a change.  And my body tingles in the knowledge she is anything but alone.

Mr. Obama and his crew didn't start with this knowledge of how to embrace technology.  Nor did they begin with such a clear understanding on how to motivate members of their growing "community" of engaged citizens.  But they certainly understand it now.  And the passion of artists, mothers, activists and citizens is palpable.

There is an embracing of "voice". The campaign as much enables the voice of its supporters as it does the voice of Barack Obama.  It is co-creation in one of its finest forms.

Here is Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Turnley's documentation of a recent rally in Houston. Shared as an embeddable flickr stream.

Crowd Sourcing Versus Crowd Enabling

"Crowd sourcing" as a term drives me insane.  I picture rows of people herded like cattle and prodded into providing input by a system that views them as fodder for its machinations. 

"Crowd enabling", by comparison, is both the potential and the benefit of any engagement strategy.  It speaks of value provided by the experience, brand, organization, or what have you.  It embraces and leverages the concept of co-creation which I believe Alan Moore would stand behind (one of the founders of engagement marketing.)

Barack Obama is an amazing case study of how engagement can enable citizens on a scale and breadth never before dreamed possible.  It's important that we see this campaign as a concerted effort across mediums, channels and communities.  And it's critical we see the lifting up of the individual, their actions and their individual voices as a cornerstone of the campaign's efforts.

Organizations and brands that are paying attention will not ask "does this apply", but rather "how this applies."