Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

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6 Ways Employee Social Media Freedom Benefits An Employer

The Social Media Revolution is seeping into the workplace and employers are nervous. According to social web blogger David Armano, approximately 70% of organizations ban social networks devices. USA Today reports a lower amount but still: an October 22nd, 2009 survey shows 54% of businesses are banning social media from the workplace. Fears and worry about decreased productivity and/or risk exposure seem to be resulting in microcosms of censorship within workplaces.  We all know how well that turned out for East Germany.  

Unless companies are trying to create a Dilbert-like workplace environment of mistrust and oppression, banning social media is simply not a good idea. In fact, allowing employees to access social media could actually result in many benefits for the employer.  Here's how:

Team Building and Camaraderie
US employers spend billions on employee team building activities like picnics, holiday parties and team building exercises. Allowing employees to participate in the virtual water-cooler dialogue of social media - gives them a chance to bond and find subjects they can relate to - free of cost to the employer. Studies show the main reason employees stay in jobs (or leave jobs) is due to their level of satisfaction with co-worker relationships. Social media allows employees to find a common bond and enhance the relationships with those they work.

Productivity Benefits from Brain Breaks
A Discovery magazine article reports that neuroscientists at MIT have confirmed: taking breaks helps us learn and be more productive. A 2006 study observed rats pausing after exploring an unfamiliar maze. The neuroscientists theorize the rats are using the break to re-trace their steps in the maze for memory purposes - thus leading to better productivity during the next maze run. Another example: educators can confirm first-hand the benefits of sending students to recess - and the chaotic results if kids don't get their downtime.

Social media is the equivalent of workplace recess. Mind breaks lead to employee satisfaction and better productivity. This results in increased morale, reduced employee stress, low absenteeism and more engaged, healthier employees.  All of these employee traits help the company bottom line.

On-the-Job Training
Social media can serve as a virtual think tank.  If an employee is embarking upon a new project and needs advice from her peers, it's as easy as posting a question to their social networks. Many professional groups are established on LinkedIn or Facebook and offer a venue for discussion and the opportunity to post specific questions. Polls and surveys enable virtual focus groups. Employees can easily follow subject matter experts on a site like Twitter for a RSS-like feed of relevant content. While many companies offer organized mentoring programs, with social media, employees can choose their own on-line advisor for guidance and knowledge share.

Trust and Transparency
If Facebook were a country, it would be the 4th largest. In September 2009, Facebook reached over 300 million active users. Gen Yer's continue to rely less on email and more on social media to communicate. Banning employees from this widespread communication tool is akin to telling your employees they can't use the phone for personal calls or e-mail friends and family.  It's a signal your company is oppressive and in the dark ages. With the sale of smart-phones on the rise, it's likely that employees would access their social media sites on their mobile anyway - creating an environment of concealment and mistrust.  

Allowing employees to access social media communicates: "We trust you're mature and know when enough is enough."  For employees that do abuse their time on social media, managers and HR departments should address the issue on an individual level - similar to any other performance problem like absenteeism, low productivity or work quality.

Listening / Monitoring
Much like many brands are monitoring customers to address satisfaction issues, employers can apply the same model.  If employees are complaining about their employer on social media, it might hurt a corporate brand - but it at least allows the employer a chance to address complaints or dissatisfaction.  

Many companies conduct internal employee surveys to evaluate morale and employee satisfaction. As an alternative, HR or Marketing staff could consider following and creating user lists / groups of employees on social sites to easily monitor conversation. Or, using a monitoring tool like Seesmic or Tweetdeck on Twitter allows an employer to continuously monitor keywords - like your company name - and immediately address unfavorable messaging. Caution: if your workplace doesn't offer a culture of transparency and openness, employees could misconstrue this as employer stalking.  

Brand Evangelists
Just like unhappy employees complain about their jobs, happy employees love to share their positive workplace experience. And, 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations over a brand's marketing efforts. That holds true for the workplace as well: happy, well-performing employees will attract similar employees - a huge recruiting benefit.

The key for happy tweeps and happy tweets is creating a culture and environment that an employee feels like they can contribute and express themselves. A satisfied employee will be an advocate for your company, might share job openings with their friends and boast about the latest accomplishments. You can't buy that kind of press. Employers that embrace social media and provide employees with a simple policy, best practices, legal no-no's and basic usage / etiquette training will create an environment of openness with lower risk to the employer.  

The fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago is a poignant analogy of how closing off people to outside connection ultimately fails.  And it's begging the question: How permanent are your social media firewalls?

Traci Armstrong, Director, Talent Acquisition
@tannarmstrong

Editor's Note: A version of this post originally appeared in Advertising Age November 16, 2009.

Successful social media is a big call to action. It's finding the cleverest way to say, "Click here" and to get as many people as possible to echo that. This means writers have a real chance to make a mark on social media campaigns. Obviously, what your content says and how it says it have a significant influence on whether people pass it on or not. And in one particular case in my experience, it made the difference between rousing success and ho-hum response for two very similar applications. Two years ago I helped create a holiday letter generator on Facebook for a client. It was one of few occasions on which I was told my writing wasn't "out there" enough and I really got to let loose. The app was also branded up and down. Not only did it include a "Brought to you by" message, users also got the chance to add more content if they included a reference to the featured product. And most noteworthy: the app's description focused more on the product than the app itself. To a user, the spirit of the campaign seemed to be "this product/brand is so cool that it's going to let you write a letter, so tell your friends how cool this product is." The app went live a few weeks before the holidays and spread more like molasses than wildfire. This holiday season, I came across Plaid's Merry Newsinator, an app enjoying seemingly impressive success in the social sphere. (It can still be found on my Facebook wall, along with the newsletters created by many of my friends using the same site.) The funny thing is that the means and the end are very similar to those of the campaign I worked on 24 months earlier. So what was different? The advantage for the Merry Newsinator is that it's presented as a fun app that was created by Plaid just for fun. The fact that Plaid exists is acknowledged, but secondary. Lesson for writers? Focus on the benefit to the user as you call them to action. As a friend, I'd rather share fun than a product...and as a writer, I'd rather whisper the name of a product in your ear while you're having fun. -Nate Rogers

Despite the fact that Facebook and Twitter have become household names, social media measurement continues to elude marketers. While most marketers point to low-hanging fruit such as the number of Twitter followers or the number of times a video was viewed on YouTube as key social metrics, these numbers don't really mean anything without context. Number of Facebook fans - or any other simplistic metric out there - is not relevant to every brand's social media goals. That's the dirty little social media secret: the magic metric doesn't exist.

Don't Get Stuck
Do 1,000,000 Facebook fans make your brand a social media success? How about 100,000? Even if this number is in line with a brand's expectations, it doesn't give marketers any information on how they can adjust or optimize their program or how their social presence stacks up against their competitors. Too often, marketers become stuck in one of two ways:
 
1. They focus too much on influencing their community's day-to-day activities without a bigger-picture objective.
2. They steer their communities toward singular goals or behaviors.

Social media is not a one-off campaign or a one-way channel. It is a living, breathing communications platform that requires daily maintenance, strategic vision and benchmarked metrics to cultivate long-term success.

Put Those Business Objectives To Work
Rather than searching endlessly for a silver metrics bullet, brands need to first find a way to tie specific business objectives to the daily health of their social media campaigns. Tying business objectives to metrics also allows brands to know what tools they need to deploy to measure their social media success. If marketers' business objective is to influence brand perception, then conversation sentiment - rather than conversation volume - is what should be monitored and measured. The size of the online community is only as useful as the effect they have on overall online chatter about your brand. In this case, a listening platform with sentiment analysis would be an important tool in a marketer's social media tool belt.

In another example, if a brand's objective is to foster and empower brand advocates then the number of fans is important but only when coupled with the measurable influence of those advocates. Content tracking tools and techniques are critical for this objective because they will allow marketers to tell the story of where and how their content travels throughout the Internet.

Tailor Your Plans
Connecting the dots from number of fans to daily engagement to the spread of viral content is not impossible, it just takes work, which is why most people aren't measuring ROI. Avoid cultivating a mob of fans simply because that's what marketers are "supposed" to do and instead tailor your social media plans with business objectives. Start with the metrics that are easiest to connect back to your objectives and then work slowly out from there, testing and optimizing along the way.

Marta Strickland

Editor's note: This article originally appeared in DMNews. 

(Photo: "Digital Mask" by Fabrizio Laurenti)



It's not news that people can adopt online personas that differ from their offline selves, both in appearance and behavior. But on Facebook or other platforms where there is no username or avatar to hide your identity this seems to be less common.

So now, using judgment based on personal moral and social values starts to come in to play. Sometimes the level of honesty on Facebook is a bit brutal for my taste, but at least it's honest. But is it enough to qualify as a cry for help? Is there a correlation between inappropriate or high-risk behavior on social networking sites and the same pattern of behavior offline? And does it truly depend on the anonymity factor?

I was recently in a bar in northern Michigan, sitting next to a woman named Debbie. At the beginning of the evening, she told me a story about being embarrassed that someone had tagged her in a rather compromising photo, posing with a pool cue, on Facebook. I said that it was simple enough to remove the tag, although she didn't seem to believe me - "I tried it," she said, "you can't do it!" It didn't matter that I told her that I basically do Facebook for a living.

As the night wore on and she was on her tenth or eleventh glass of straight tequila, it seemed that this "pool cue" photo was actually more a point of pride than an embarrassment. She brought it up constantly; "I'm on Facebook with a pool cue between my legs!" she told every stranger she happened to stumble into.

"I'm low down nasty on MySpace, but on Facebook I'm legit," she told me. Apparently - I must have missed this part - she told my boyfriend that her MySpace user name is Dirty Debbie Deepthroat (I already tried to find her and failed, so don't go rushing to Google, especially if you're at work right now).

Did I mention that this woman was in her late forties? And married with a grown son? I initially found her description of her online behavior foolish. I couldn't believe that a grown woman would be okay advertising herself as Dirty anything. But her offline behavior was no different. At one point I had to point out to her that she was, ahem, falling out of her shirt - I think it was the one with the Led Zeppelin tattoo - as I watched her remove her stockings at the bar.

I searched around for research on whether a predilection toward high-risk behaviors (binge drinking, drug use, unsafe sex, etc.) offline correlated to similar behaviors online (posting drunk pictures, advertising sexuality - the kind of things that might get one fired if seen by the wrong person). I was unable to find any research about adults. However, I do know from my time working with nonprofits, that a study was published within the last year that confirmed that teenagers who engage in high-risk behaviors offline tend to be more likely to do risky things online, while young people who tend to take the straight and narrow in real life usually do the same when given access to the Internet.

In an interesting twist, some of the teens who use social media to portray themselves as engaging in high-risk activities in their real lives may actually just be posturing, according to a study published in the January 2009 issue of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. Which makes sense, considering that teen culture often applauds and respects behaviors that most adults consider inappropriate or downright stupid.

What I want to know is this: Do you know anyone who seems relatively well-behaved offline but behaves badly on Facebook? Or, conversely, do you know anyone who behaves badly on Facebook but not in real life?

--Jordan Miller

A new campaign by LG hopes to get the message out to teens -- particularly females -- to think before they text. The PSAs are pretty humorous and the site is simple, direct. The iPhone app grows a beard as you text. The message even boils over to Twitter and Facebook.

Great Twitter advice:
Some folks say that you are what you text. Well, I don't know about you, but I don't want to be a picture of a giraffe scrotum.

Taking back mean texts is very difficult. Like trying to get a 4th wish out of a chintzy genie.

Forwarding mean texts is kind of crazy. Like accusing a cloud of being racist.

Their message is smart and flavorfully spot on. But I'm not sure they are reaching the teens as well as they could. How many of PonderBeards's Twitter followers are really in high school or college? Doesn't appear to be many, if any. The videos are hilarious, but the print -- what I suspect most of the teens will see first (if positioned in schools strategically) -- leaves me...pondering what the heck is that supposed to mean? But I'm not a teen, so what do I know?

It's good to be social, but I'm not sure Give It A Ponder is socializing in the right crowd. Do you think LG hit their target?

Note: Thanks to Teresa Nord for the link.

Sarah Jo Sautter

A couple weekends ago, while my newborn daughter was sleeping, I had ample time to sit in front of the TV. I cycled through the channels on Time Warner Cable  -- all 2,000 of them -- and thought to myself how absolutely ridiculous it was that despite the vast offering, my family watched about 20 of them, max. I know that many of the channels repeat or are HD versions of standard broadcast and cable channels, but it is still mindblowing and mindboggling. Wasn't it just a decade ago that Bruce Springsteen sang "57 channels and nothing on"?  In the words of a famous TV theme song, those were the days.

Evolving TV
Consumers should have the right to NOT receive 2,000 channels, when they only watch less than 5% of them and increasingly watch programs on demand, some free and some paid. We should be able to cherry pick which channels we want to watch. Isn't that the spirit of the Internet? Isn't that the promise of content on demand? Isn't that what digital is all about?

Consumers Might Choose The Web Over Cable
It's quite possible that consumers will increasingly choose an option that will give them the content they want at a more reasonable price. Many consumers are forgoing cable altogether and just watching content that streams or has been downloaded for the web, much to the dismay of cable companies hoping to bundle "triple plays." In the past few days, I've noticed numerous Facebook friends (shout out to Matt Rosenberg) talk about how great the Roku box is.

Give Consumers What They Want
If wireless providers can figure out a way to increase the bandwidth capacity of their networks (far beyond 3G), they might be great new entrants into the space. Their limited capacity might force them to offer a menu of content options as opposed to loading the network with content few people are watching.

There needs to be a compromise solution between the content providers, the delivery systems and consumers. Like my friend Andy Pimentel, I agree that TV isn't going away anytime soon, but it will definitely evolve, hopefully to something that makes sense for all parties...and is not built on outmoded, legacy monetization models.

How else can cable companies compete with the options of watching programs online?

Jonathan Cohen

Last Friday I had the pleasure of catwalking through the Avedon Fashion Photographs at the DIA. Instead of the clunky handheld audio guides the museum usually supplies, it encouraged you to use your mobile phone (ringer off, of course) at specific pieces in the exhibit.

I saw this on the DIA site before I visited, so I came prepared with my headphones and an expectation to be guided through many extraordinary pieces.

Yet I left wanting more. Not by the photographs -- those alone were gorgeous -- but by the mobile guide.

Okay, so I know in my post on evolving audio guides last October I stated how I'd like to see more mobile guides. And maybe I would if they project more compelling content. Museum Director Graham Beal commentates on eight pieces in the collection. He did tell me some interesting things about the pieces, but I wanted to hear more about the models, the locations, the celebrities through interviews with the people Avedon worked with.

At "stop number five" (as the mobile guide references the featured pieces), Beal poses questions about what Avedon is trying to convey with his shot. "Is this a straightforward comparison?...Does it poke fun at the fashion industry? The interpretation is left to you [the viewer]." I really like how Beal encouraged me to draw my own conclusion about the photographers vision. But do I really need an an audioguide to prompt me?

I'm not saying that this mobile guide was bad. I admire that museums -- the DIA included -- are experimenting with educating visitors in interactive, familiar (to younger audiences) ways.

Museums, keep it up. You may not get it right every time, but I like that you're trying to keep up with technology while preserving amazing history.

Sarah Jo Sautter

Is Community Management for You?
The digital era is creating new jobs that recruiters are having difficulty finding talent for. One such area of job growth is social media and the evolving role of a "community manager". This role may be an ideal career succession for out-of-work copywriters or journalists because many already possess the key components of being a community manager: excellent writing skills, an understanding of marketing, and strong research experience. But, where most traditional copywriters fall short are having a solid understanding of on-line cultures and trends.

Considering a job as a community manager not only requires writing skills and social media know-how, but it also requires a passion for the brand you'll be representing.

Can You Play The Role?
Recruiters approach community manager hiring as part job interview + part casting audition. Finding the right fit of person based on the brand persona can be just as important as writing skills and social media knowledge.

Here is a checklist a recruiter might use to consider you as a candidate:

__ Do you have a presence on social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn,
      Twitter, FlickR, or You Tube?  Does the content on your profiles reflect that
      you have a good understanding of etiquette in the social media space?  

__ Do you have a blog?  For how long?  

__ Do you use a book-marking site? Which one?

__ Do you have writing samples - including headlines?

__ Do you have examples of generating story ideas and editorial strategy?   

__ Do you subscribe to RSS feeds? Which ones? What are your favorite blogs?

__ Have you done community management for any other organizations? What was your approach?

__ What email service to you use? Does it reflect your brand? Are you using a cutesy email handle? Are you using an outdated email provider?

__ Is your personal brand a good fit for the brand you will be representing? Will you be able to relate to the demographic of the community served? Are you passionate about the cause?

What would you add to the list?

Check out tomorrow's post for ways to help you build your expertise.

Traci Armstrong
@tannarmstrong

image credit: geek & poke

NOTE: This is a continuation of yesterday's post on re-thinking your position in advertising and considering a Community Management role.

How To Become a Qualified Community Manager
If you're considering a role as a Community Manager, here are three things you can do to build your expertise.

1.  Engage. Create your profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp, FlickR, YouTube and participate. Immerse yourself in the communities and talk about your passions. Learn about proper online etiquette and language so you don't unknowingly publicly embarrass yourself. Many local chambers of commerce or community colleges are offering workshops about basic social media usage.

2.  Volunteer. Combine your thirst for social media knowledge with the opportunity to help a local non profit organization build an online community.  Cristina Lorenzetti, a Detroit-based freelance copywriter and social media neophyte, volunteered her services to be the community manager for "The Bottomless Toy Chest" a non-profit devoted to pediatric cancer patients. This allowed her to practice community manager skills while benefitting the organization. Prospective employers will now be able to view her writing and community manager skills in real-time on these social channels.

3.  Network. There are many resources for community manager wanna-bes to network with others." Web strategist, Jeremiah Owyang hosts a list of community managers on his blog. Peer groups such as Community Manager, Advocate, and Evangelists on Facebook or Online Community Managers on LinkedIn are available to join and learn from those doing the job today.

Likewise, companies should consider these types of experiences as must-haves when seeking out candidates.

Traci Armstrong
@tannarmstrong

NPR ran a story yesterday about the ability to donate money to Haiti relief efforts via your mobile phone. You can text "HAITI" to 90999 and a donation of $10 will be automatically charged to your phone bill and given to the Red Cross. Wyclef Jean, the musician from Haiti, is promoting another text effort for the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund. Texting "Yele" to 501501 automatically adds $5 to the fund via your phone bill.

Reaching a Bigger Audience
This is a fantastic way to attract busy, younger want-to-be philanthropists. It's fast, easy.

I think it's a much more efficient way for non-profits to reach younger audiences. Think out-of-home advertising with the text call-to-action. I'm riding the subway to work and see a poster to donate. Or I'm hanging out in the University commons with friends and there's signage with a message. I can do it right there. No cash or credit card needed. And I'll still have a record of it. These are people with revolving addresses that may have never donated before. Hence, organizations might not ever reach them with their direct mailers or other traditional fund-raising campaigns.

How It Works
Mobile Giving Foundation (MGF) is the company that collects donations paid by mobile users from their cell phone companies and turns 100% of the donation over to the designated organization. To keep it simple, MGF uses set donations such as $5 or $10.

Downsides
The only problem I see right now is that even though the donation is immediate in the eyes of the donor, it can take up to 3 months for non-profits like Red Cross to actually receive your money. Hopefully the process will get speedier as this new philanthropic trend catches on.

In addition, colleague Jason Law mentioned that AT&T is charging fees for the text messages while verizon is not. MGF explains (via their site) that some charities have allowed them to keep 5-10% in order to cover administrative costs. I understand they have to pay their bills. But mobile carriers should be doing their good deed as a free middle man between givers and receivers -- if not matching donations.

What U.S. Carriers Need
Though now emerging in North America, this is something that has been common in Europe for more than a decade. In 2004, Karri Ojanen was the lead designer on a team that created Village Life, a game-like fundraising effort that lets people help build virtual villages (with real-life counterparts) by making donations to development aid by SMS, credit card, and online banking. Players see the donation go through immediately on the screen. (There's an English language version available as well.)

Karri says setting up SMS billing in Europe was easy, since SMS and MMS gateway services were readily available through a number of partners. However, now in Canada, he quickly learned that it's difficult. Each carrier has wanted to hold on to their own gateway, not opening it for development. Therefore setting up SMS services across carriers has been virtually impossible.

That's started to change in Canada, too. John Breton let on that Canadian carrier Rogers Wireless and Fido are running a similar campaign, allowing subscribers to text '"HELP" to 1291 to donate $5.
 
What do you think of this emerging way to donate? Will your fingers become philanthropic?

Sarah Jo Sautter

Could it be that it's good to NOT always get what you want - that the Internet's delivery of on demand content might actually be a less pleasing experience?

On a recent trip I was listening to Soul Town (Channel 53 on Satellite Radio). For every couple of songs I really liked and was familiar with, there were a couple that I liked less or was unfamiliar with. Additionally, there were songs I was so familiar with that I was just plain sick of them; after all, how many times can you hear Aretha Franklin sing "Respect"?

The problem was, I couldn't skip the songs I didn't like just as I'm accustomed to doing on Pandora and Slacker. Nevertheless, the thought occurred to me that having to sit through songs I wasn't thrilled about hearing, for whatever reason, was making me appreciate the songs I did want to hear even more. It was as if "traditional radio format", where you listen to what they play and not what you want at that moment, made for a better music experience.

I then started to think about another phenomenon that I've noticed in myself. I can listen to virtually any song by any artist at any time - R. Kelly, Frank Sinatra, etc. -- and I do. If for instance I want to listen to "Pretty Wings" and "Number One" in a playlist of my favorite songs, I can...and can listen to them incessantly, immediately. I suppose that in the 60s, I could have purchased "Rubber Soul" and worn the grooves out, but the fact that I can access all of this music virtually and instantly...and play it to my heart's content has resulted in my getting sick of music more quickly. I'm suffering from music burnout.

Whether listening my classic favorites ("When Doves Cry") or new songs ("Bad Romance"), on demand enables me to function like a Top 40 radio station, but without the filler and commercials to give me room to breathe, to listen to things I don't really want to hear.

Is delayed media gratification ultimately a better experience -- where the mind has time to gestate its appreciation of songs, where we don't tire of music so quickly?

Jonathan Cohen

With its continued Cluetrain-driven brand strategy, Lego continues to expand its product offering. Potentially its most audacious offering yet, Lego Universe looks like... it looks like... well, just look. They're building something big.

Lego Click is an engaging space that allows inventors, fans, anyone to share ideas -- specifically intended for new products. To facilitate creative LEGO-like thinking, the company also created a free iPhone app called LEGO Photo that turns your photos into LEGO works of art. Fans can also connect via Facebook and Twitter, where a Tweets using #legoclick are displayed on the community site. @legoclick currently only has just under 400 followers, but the hashtag is getting more use with rave reviews of the new site. LEGO might see more fans and followers if it uses its Facebook and Twitter accounts to post the most interesting Lego Click submissions daily as well as give users creative assignments.

Casey Riggleman agrees with LEGO's latest offering. "Once again LEGO is genius! My son (who is 6) and I (who is 36) find great delight in building Lego creations. It has always amazed me that this simple block can inspire people across a wide age group so much. 

LEGO has done really well with it's Star Wars and Indiana Jones games (we own all of them). So it's great to see LEGO actually creating an MMOG. Makes sense to me considering that the majority of the past games under the LEGO umbrella have a World feel to begin with. Plus I have always felt LEGO's are social (look what I built!). They already have LOTS of buckets (Atlantis, City, Power Miners, etc.) to pull from to make it interesting too."

The key will be seeing if and when LEGO actually uses any ideas from the community in future products. But for now, LEGO's already giving fans and creators what they desire -- the tools to build their imagination. Are you inspired?

Craig Ritchie
@craigritchie
Sarah Jo Sautter
@pedalprincess

Editor's Note: For those in the biz, a tweet like this likely inspires a few immediate thoughts...here's two from us. Add yours in the comments and let's look at the good and bad of asking obvious questions.

From: Elliott Smith
Subject: If you have to ask...

...then you're already too late.I thought it was worth sharing.

Not to dump on CTV, but surely they must know millions of people already are following "an account dedicated to all the news about your fave sport." No? Or am I the only one who follows hockey and football on Twitter?

Who would ask this? And why? It has "terrified brand manager transferred from another department" written all over it. Otherwise, I'm sincerely mystified.

---------------

From: Craig Ritchie
Subject: RE: If you have to ask...
 
If we knew the person behind this account, and if they were actually listening to suggestions, and they could actually implement them, and they actually did, then, well, you'd have a great use of social media and a humanized brand.

"Turn left at the house with the green shutters then right at CVS..." This is how I find my way around when driving.

Google has integrated human-like directions into Google Maps India. From Google's blog:

"Have you ever been lost? Perhaps you missed a turn because a street sign was poorly labeled, hard to see in the dark, or just not where it should have been? These are problems we've all faced, but they're especially complicated in India, where street names are not commonly known and the typical wayfinding strategy is to ask someone on the street. Without road names, it's difficult to produce a set of directions that makes sense."

The visual landmarks to confirm you're on the right track definitely feel more human than just "go right" and "go left." Most of us are visual by nature and have a hard time remembering names, but not faces, and the landmark approach works in the same manner.

What Else We'd Like To See
• It integrated with your in-car navigation
• The ability to set your iPhone to speak the landmarks to you while showing you a street view pic at the same time
• Applied to sight-seeing landmarks as well. It could be a mash up of navigation and the headsets you get in museums on tours.
• Added crowdsourced directions
• The ability to share your map/landmark view while you are driving or walking so you can get audio confirmation from a friend. This would be especially helpful if you're looking for a tiny detail that would otherwise not show up or be obvious on a map - like a specific area in a park or a section in a department store.

Google Isn't Alone
The New Zealand-based company Navman has been trying to introduce this idea to the masses with their NavPix concept for quite a while, bringing not only the names of landmarks into the directions, but with visuals. Check out the geotagged photos of landmarks from the users.

Also, Garmin, together with Google Panoramio, is trying to do the same.

How soon before Google rolls out the U.S. version? What would you like to see?

Sandy Marsh
Casey Riggleman
Craig Ritchie
Karri Ojanen

I can only assume that every new mom is as curious as I am about the ratio of waking to sleeping hours their little newborn gets... Or how about the amount their baby feeds versus the amount that passes into those 10-15 daily diapers!! That we all have a gut feeling something is amiss but no way to prove it.

Enter Total Baby, an iPhone app to help you keep running tabs on just about everything you'd ever want to related to your new child. From the month to month stuff like doctor appointments, vaccinations, and growth... to the day to day in extreme detail.

Almost every feature is accompanied by a running timer. So, for instance, I use it to time my newborn's feeding sessions, baths, tummy time and what short sleeps he does get. I am able to document which breast, how long (or let the timer run), when, which breastfeeding hold and any custom notes. It can also keep track of 'one time events' like diapers changed, burps, medicine given, etc.

The main screen makes it easy to see the last time you changed, bathed and fed your little one or when he last slept. This helps my husband know whether he can let me sleep if it doesn't happen to be feeding time. Daily totals on diapers and feedings help put perspective on the whole input/output question. That's peace of mind knowing my son is healthy and a big help in knowing how many diapers to buy.

I love how customizable everything is. I was able to easily add 'bouncer', 'mommy's arms', and 'daddy's arms' to sleeping locations. But mostly I love this app because it makes me feel a little more in control of my time and able to slowly (very slowly) move my son Simon towards a more regular eating and sleeping schedule.

Totally worth the $5 if it can get to a 4 hour stretch of sleep some time in the next week!!

What's your favorite "mom" app? I'd love to hear of any others that are helpful.

Marta Strickland

A couple weeks ago a bunch of my female friends began posting colors -- and only a color -- in their Facebook status updates. "Nude and turquoise." "Black." "Pink." I didn't really think much of it until about the fifth unrelated friend did it. Was this supposed to describe some sort of emotion or mood they were in at the time? I had to know, but wasn't about to look like the clueless idiot by asking them.

So I Googled "why are people posting colors on facebook?" Here's what I found out. Women around the world are posting their bra color on Facebook in order to raise awareness for breast cancer. Nology noted that it took place over the course of January 8, 2010. Though women were still posting a week later.

No one really knows how it started. I've heard it started in Michigan. One news source states it could have been overseas. I asked my girlfriends how they heard about it and they told me fellow Facebookers. Organic colleague Leah Salt thought it stemmed from the UK because she saw it from her friends there first. "It's funny because all my British friends started posting their bra colours and it took a whole 24 hours before my Canadian & American friends caught on."

One thing is for sure, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer foundation didn't start it, but it's surely caused a spike in their followers.

Last week my colleague Craig Ritchie started a thread talking about the success of the campaign. The Dallas News reported that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer foundation had 134,000 fans on their Facebook page before this trend started. Today they have 164,481 fans.

Komen is happy that the viral message has prompted women to schedule mammograms. One woman posted "My revealing my bra color made me remember to schedule my Mammogram for this yr....Nude!"

Men have even joined. One male posted this on the Susan G. Komen's wall:
"fresh & white [MEN for breast cancer awareness]" and another "green [MEN for breast cancer awareness]."

The trend not only prompted individuals to speak out, it spurred community on all fronts. The creator of the Facebook group "breast cancer awareness ♥ I updated my Status with my Bra colour ♥" started on January 7, 2010 claims she didn't start the bra color campaign. Though she definitely helped to keep it going. The Group is now up to 93,652 fans.

The awareness "campaign" -- if you can really label it a campaign since there's no known root or long-term strategy behind it -- has both supporters and critics (though seemingly much fewer of the latter).

I think it's a pretty creative way to get people thinking, talking and acting on something that affects so many people. I wonder if because it began so obscurely that it really took off. I feel that when a brand ties itself too closely to convincing people to take action that fans are more often turned off. So if the Foundation actually did start it and just gave credit to the people, that's one heck of a smart strategy. And if they didn't, they definitely did the right thing by supporting it.

Sarah Jo Sautter

Top Five Things I Wish Of My Kindle

When I got my first iPod six years ago, it completely changed the way I purchased and listened to music. So, naturally, I had the same hopes for my recently acquired Kindle reader and how I would soon be consuming books. Unfortunately, the Kindle has fallen short of my expectations. Here's a list of the things I find myself wishing for:

1.  A back light. Seems absurd I have to use an attached itty, bitty book light to read from my "electronic wireless reading device". I probably spend half of my time reading in the dark - on the plane or before dozing off to sleep. Which means, half the time I use my Kindle, I have a book light appendage hanging off it. So much for sleek design.

2.  Color.  I hate the fact that many books I order on Kindle don't show the original hard-copy version of the cover art. And those that do, show it in shades of gray. I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but - well, I do. I miss seeing the cover art of a book and its back cover or inside sleeve reviews. Couldn't Kindle follow iPod's lead? At least they display CD cover art.

3.  A touch screen.  After using an iPhone, it took me weeks to stop myself from touching the screen of my Kindle to order a book or select something new to read. Keying in words on the tiny, tiny keyboard and using the microscopic joy stick feel so 2006.

4.  The ability to do a crossword puzzle.  One of my favorite print-medium past times is doing The New Yorker crossword puzzles. Too bad there wasn't a way to do this on my Kindle. (If there is, please tell me how.) This is another place where that touch screen -- with interfacing keyboard -- would come in handy.

5.  The social part of reading.  Sure, reading probably seems like a solitary hobby. But, when I finish a good book, the first thing I want to do is tell my friends. It would be great if, upon reading the last sentence of a book, Kindle offered the option to write a review and the ability to post it to my Facebook wall. This seems like a lost opportunity for both Kindle and Amazon to create viral advocacy not only for the Kindle -- but the books people are buying on it. I did find a Kindle fan page on Facebook -- but it only had 14 fans! And, at this writing, there are no Kindle apps available on Facebook. However, just yesterday, Amazon announced a SDK (Software Development Kit) which will allow software developers to build and upload applications. Plans are to have an app store up and running by end of year. But could it be too little too late? Until Kindle introduces new social apps, I'll tell my friends about favorite books the old fashioned way: from my iPhone Facebook app.

On the eve of Apple's rumored announcement of their new tablet (iPad? Or islate? They haven't named it yet.) coupled with a possible Barnes & Noble partnership and access to 1 million books (in comparison to Kindle's 400k titles), Kindle's limitations have me worrying about major buyer's remorse. However, the rumored price-point of Apple's tablet at $7-1000 may make me feel a little better.

Are you a satisfied Kindle user? Or are you holding out for Apple's tablet or another e-reader technology?
 
Traci Armstrong
@tannarmstrong

Reading Traci's post on the Kindle, a gadget that I have never even thought about buying, despite being an avid reader and a total tech geek, made me ponder: Why have I never considered the Kindle?

The real answer is much for in the vein of... well... vanity.

Shelf Envy
I have already switched to storing most of my music on my computer instead of on a shelf (with the exception of my small record collection). If I stop reading, and therefore collecting, actual books, I will have no way to quickly show my varied interests to my houseguests.
How will they know that I have read a wide array of both classic and contemporary fiction? That I am interested in vintage interior design and National Geographic books? That my book collection shows what an urbane, interesting and well-informed person I am? HOW? HOW WILL THEY KNOW THAT I AM WORTHY?

Likewise, it terrifies me that I won't be able to judgmentally peruse the book collections of others. I have a friend who is often at the same parties as me, and we inevitably end up standing together as we silently stare at the bookshelves of the party host, too socially awkward to be talking to other people. Please, don't force us to talk to people.

Spinal Tap
The closest solution that I've seen was a distinctively analog one: A friend of mine made color copies of the spines of all of the library books he read for several years, artfully arranged them on paper, and framed them. It was like the flat-screen version of the home library.

In terms of social networking, there have been some soft attempts addressing the desire to broadcast one's tastes in hope of favorable judgment. There are online book clubs, and there are apps that let you share what you're reading or your favorite books on Facebook. But I hate Facebook apps; they clutter the page and rarely look good.

But none of these can be displayed in my home. So it comes to this: The majority of my social networking, thank goodness, still takes place in the offline world. I need to hang on to something so I can update my real-life profile.

Jordan Miller

image credit: newbirth

How Businesses and Marketers Can Use Mobile For Better Results

Advertising is not what it was ten years ago. The past decade has seen the advent of social computing and mobile technology, two forces that changed the game forever. What will the future hold? From point-of-sale to out-of-home, here are the top five ways we see the device formerly known as a phone changing the game this year and beyond.

1. Mobile will completely revolutionize the way local advertisers can connect with potential customers.
While online display advertising has been incredibly effective for many companies, it hasn't offered all that much value to small, independently owned businesses. For one, the web is good at scale, not so good at precision. It's difficult for mom-and-pops to reach the relatively small audiences that might reasonably be expected to patronize their stores.

A number of new location-based services are beginning to provide attractive alternatives for such small-scale advertisers. Foursquare, for one, allows small business to target offers based on a user's actual proximity to their location. These offers can deliver heightened relevance by appealing to a player's status, nearby friends, or demonstrated preferences. A similar service, Gowalla, has experimented with branded badges and actual prizes that users can win if they check in at a location. Google is also catering more to local businesses by making their Place pages more mobile-friendly. Advertisers can now create Place pages that are accessible through Google Maps, attach mobile coupons, and even include QR code stickers in their window that lead you to these pages.

These examples are really only scratching the surface of what's possible for local businesses through mobile. Expect to see more mom-and-pops jump on these platforms in 2010.

2. Growth in adoption of mobile shopping applications will continue to alter in-store consumer behavior, increasing the significance of mobile in point of sale decisions making.
There are a number of mobile applications and tools emerging that consumers can use to make their shopping trips more efficient, productive, and fun. First, there are mobile price comparison apps such as Shop Savvy, Red Laser, Amazon Mobile. These allow shoppers to compare prices at a given location against nearby competitors and online properties -- an incredibly powerful proposition. There are also crowdsourcing tools like Fashism and BazaarVoice's MobileVoice that help shoppers get outside opinions and feedback before purchasing. These types of apps are prime territory for marketers looking to inject a brand into a target audience's psyche at a critical juncture in their decision making process.
Then there are, of course, mobile coupons, which are finally getting some traction. Zavers, Yowza, mobiQpons and Cellfire are actively signing up small businesses, and it's only a matter of time before big box stores get on board. Add increased consumer adoption, POS redemption infrastructure and a social dynamic and the appeal to marketers will be greater than ever.

All of the above will provide inroads for more effective CRM, specifically, loyalty programs. Consumers checking their phone just before they buy something will create opportunity to deliver more effective personalized messaging derived from prior purchase decisions.

3. Brands and agencies will continue to build branded apps, but will also have more attractive display media options, thanks to Google.
In 2009, we saw a number of brands scramble to check mobile off their lists by creating apps. But now that the marketplace is crowded, many will take a step back and look at media-buying options instead. Google recognizes this; it's why they recently acquired AdMob, i.e., to get a corner on all that in-app content. Google will also build up their network of native app content by making development and deployment of ad-supported apps on their Android platform much easier than it currently is on the iPhone. This is all with the aim of more effectively extending it's AdSense platform to mobile.

Yes, you may say that consumers are obviously keen on micropayments for mobile content. They did, after all, spend $6.2 billion on apps this year, according to Gartner. But consumers are even more fond of free, and in 2010 one way Google will challenge the iPhone is by creating a competitive alternative business model for developers. And where good apps are, consumers go and dollars follow.

Most major carriers and handset manufacturers have multiple Android devices slated for 2010 launch dates, so expect Android's user-base to catch up to the iPhone's by the end of 2010. The web-based Android app store is a hurdle to the experience and doesn't come close to the experience of the iTunes' desktop app. If Google can fix this, then developers may start putting Android first on their product roadmaps.

4. Advertising's outdoor real estate is fast becoming another connected channel capable of delivering high-fidelity digital experiences as unique, varied and measurable as more well-established mediums.
Outdoor advertising has traditionally been very difficult to measure. People move past signs through various modes of conveyance at varying rates of speed making it difficult to know who actually notices a given media unit. Add line of sight and dwell time, and the problem is further compounded.

Digital out-of-home (DOOH) signage is changing all this, and mobile is becoming the key to true measurement and engagement. Using their handsets, once-passive viewers can actually interact with an ad now. For example, Toyota released an iPhone app that let users to draw on the Thompson-Reuters screen in Times Square. Nike's "Chalkbot" allowed cycling fans to have a robot stencil messages of support for Tour de France riders on the pavement via SMS or Twitter. Vans' "Be Here" allowed its users to submit video, photo, or text messages from any of the brand's online properties to be displayed on a digital billboard in Times Square.
In all of the previous examples, mobile served as the glue or connective tissue between outdoor and the web. Indeed, the real potential of DOOH is to blend the digital with the physical world in public spaces. It will also eventually allow advertisers to customize once-mass ads to specific individuals based on data that their phone can reveal about them.

5. Consumers have new power to express their opinions through social technologies from anywhere, anytime. Smart marketers will do all they can to encourage and act on this real-time feedback.
While the crowds may not always be wise, they sure are vocal, and mobile devices are their microphones. In unprecedented numbers, consumers are using mobile-enabled publishing platforms, mainly Twitter, to instantly share their thoughts about products, services and brands.

The best companies have started closing this loop by listening to and acting on consumer's feedback. Some are even creating dedicated apps and services to collect it. Taxihack is a service for commenting live on NYC taxi drivers. SeeClickFix and CitySourced both give users mobile applications for reporting things like potholes and graffiti while out on the town. AT&T recently used a similar tactic with an iPhone app, Mark the Spot, which crowdsources areas of weak reception.

Much of the power seen in these mobile applications is through context attached to consumer feedback. Universal Theatres relies on a SMS response system to test out trailers and gauge audience response during screenings. This in the moment feedback makes for a much more accurate representation of viewers true opinions.

Whether brands carve out a dedicated mobile channel or simply rely on Twitter customer service, we'll see more embracing the feedback loop. The challenge going forward will be an internal one, setting up efficient systems to make sure consumer feedback can be acted on and implemented once it's heard.

How will you use mobile this year?



Allison Mooney and Caleb Kramer from MobileBehavior
Dan Neumann, @dneumann

A version of this post originally appeared on Advertising Age's Digital Next Blog.

Organic Detroit is hosting a panel discussion on User Experience in an Agile Environment tonight on behalf of the Usability Professionals' Association.

What We'll Discuss
• Best practices on providing a consistent user experience across the entire product when the development is broken up into short iterations
• Best practices for performing typical user experience design tasks like user research, persona development, user testing, or UI design in an agile environment

When
Thursday, January 28, 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Where
Organic
2600 S. Telegraph
Suite 100
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303
(Enter off Franklin Road)

Cost
$5 for Full-time Students (ID must be presented)
$10 for MIUPA and MOCHI members
$20 All others

RSVP
Seating is limited, so please RSVP at Upcoming.org to ensure entrance to this event. You can also send an RSVP to events@miupa.org

Schedule
6:00 PM Registration, networking, and pizza
6:45 PM Announcements
7:00 PM Program

Panelists
Helene Gidley
Owner of Agile PM consulting firm HSG Consulting LLC and founder of Agile Groupies, A2 based Agile User Group

Carissa Demetris
Owner, Circle D Design

Josie Scott
Senior User Researcher, TechSmith

Serena Rosenhan
User Experience Specialist, ProQuest

John Rivard
Information Architect, Assistant Vice President, Comerica Bank

Anthony Viviano
, Senior Experience Architect at Organic Detroit, is moderating. Come join the discussion!

With the Grammys this weekend in Los Angeles, we thought we'd take a look at the marketing effort. An immediate opinion blossomed around the "We Are All Fans" social aspect, which offers a dynamic assortment of aggregated content and connections to major social platforms. Here's the cross-office response: two very different opinions.

From: Kai Wright (NY)
Subject: The Grammys go social.

Calling all music lovers - checkout the new Grammys site. It's a seamless integration with social media, also. I think they did a nice job.

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From: Craig Ritchie (TOR)
Subject: RE: The Grammys go social.

It's really difficult to keep up with what's going on here. I'm not sure anyone would spend much time here. Yes, you can aggregate this stuff. but you have to answer, "Why?"

It reminds me as well of the CP/B site - and the Threeminds post Marta and I wrote last year.

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Where do you stand on things that appear 'social-for-social-sake'?