Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

The President of the United States responded to questions from the public in a live YouTube interview at the White House on Monday, February 1st, at 1:45 p.m EST.
 
When all was said and done, it brought in almost 800,000 votes on 14,464 questions from 64,968 questions. Not bad, but I would have expected much more from somebody running the country.

I suspect because it was so poorly advertised. I heard about it from colleague Craig Ritchie the morning of the broadcast. Russ Hopkinson mentioned he saw it on Google's home page "in the same way they are advertising the results now... in a one liner below the search bar."

Citizen Tube reports that people "submitted over 11,000 questions and cast over 667,000 votes after the President's State of the Union address last week." When I viewed the live stream around 2 p.m. it had only received a handful more than 47,000 votes.

Bridget McKinley agrees about the lack of publicity. "I didn't hear about it until people were tweeting about the answers. And I'm a political and media junkie. Not well publicized/marketed at all..."

I'm perturbed at the reason for this. What makes Jason Derulo's "Whatcha Say" video more popular (at 31,970,491 views) than getting your own question asked by the President?

Has President Obama outdone his digital presence?

Sarah Jo Sautter

"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

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.

image credit:
I love the thought of saving money of landing a huge bargain. And I was about to brave the crowds on Black Friday to grab some of those advertised deals for myself and those on my holiday gift list. But I was stuck at my in-laws without a car.

Then I remembered Cyber Monday, an online trend that started five years ago when retailers began wooing shoppers with special online deals the Monday after Thanksgiving. Shopping online is easier anyway.

I started getting emails on Saturday and saving them in my "coupons" folder especially for Monday night. I would camp out on my sofa with my laptop and snacks for some prime time deal surfing.

With my mental list, I began opening windows to dozens of online stores. About half had the expected sales -- free shipping, percentages off, Christmas items on sale. The rest, it was business as usual, with maybe a small promotion like free shipping when you spend $75 or more.

I looked. And looked. None of the gifts I set out to buy for others were to be found for a bargain. Where are all these sales the media was touting?

Wait. I found one. Yes, ONE. I was bad. I bought only one item. And it was for me. Well, I can pawn it off as a gift for the house. (It was an organic cotton blanket that I'd been eying since the cold weather blew away my warmth.) But, I'm sure I'm the only one who'll use it hog it.

According to the National Retail Federation, Cyber Monday sales were "softer-than-expected" during lunch, but quickly beat projections after the evening tally. Seems there's been a shift from consumers shopping during their lunch hour at the office to browsing at home at night.

Shop.org reported that "nearly nine in ten (87.1%) retailers offered a special promotion for Cyber Monday," up from last year. I must have been shopping on the wrong sites.

Looks like Verizon went all out to push the new Motorola Droid. As this article points out, the company must have spent a pretty penny on Facebook ads to attract a huge amount of fans. The reward? Fans got a deal on Verizon's FiOS broadband/TV/phone package and exclusive Green Day concert footage.

So I put the question to Organics. Another colleague said she couldn't find anything she wanted or needed for that can't miss price either. She bought, but not because of the price.

Another colleague made his Black Friday trip a success by NOT buying an item his wife was eying in the store. He used his ebay app on his  iPhone to find it for $100 cheaper! Now that's what I call cyber success.

How have your Holiday shopping habits changed with technology? How are you finding your bargains this season?

Sarah Jo Sautter

image credit: wynlok

RFID chip payment systems -- such as poll passes, subway cards, key chain tags you swipe at certain gas stations -- aren't anything new. Though Bling Nation hopes to market its branded chip sticker so that consumers can pay at checkouts with their cell phones.

 How It's Different
1. You can leave your wallet at home. There's no integration with the mobile device at all, so really, you could attach the sticker to your hat as one colleague suggests.

2. Cheaper to use. Bling charges retailers a fraction of what banks charge them to process credit card transactions.

Don't cancel your credit card just yet. Though Bling Nation's program is underway is a couple small communities. There are some crucial elements that it still lacks.

What It Needs to Stick
1. Infastructure. According to Netbanker, "There are about 110,000 PayPass merchants worldwide, less than 1% of the 25 million locations that accept regular MasterCard cards. "

2. Customized branding. Lending companies should make it a point to design eye-catching stickers. Or let consumers customize their own.

3. Security reassurance. Consumers are used to using a credit card with their name on it and some stores ask for I.D.s to combat fraud. Of course there are always early adopters, but it would take better education around theft-identity to assure consumers that this is indeed safe. Sure, my credit card could get stolen, but I would think a retailer would recognize a consumer using a stolen credit easier than someone trying to pay with a stolen phone.

I'm all for technology, but I must say that I'm one of those old school credit card lovers. At least for now. What would make you make the jump?

Thanks to Stephen Murray for the link and Fang-Yu Lin, Dan Neumann, Karri Ojanen and Stephen for their thoughts on this topic.

Sarah Jo Sautter
 

Is Twitter a social network or blog? That's how the conversation started here at Organic...and it blew up from there.

A Social Network
If you consider the definition of a blog from Wikipedia, most of us would agree that a blog it is not. Look at their social network definition. It connects individuals by "one or more specific types of interdependency." Think friends, family, colleagues, beliefs, interests...

Neither a Blog Nor A Social Network
While some of us at Organic argured that Twitter is a social network, David Lewis pointed out that it lacks one crucial element of what most of them offer: the ability to see the whole conversation. I can't count how many times I've seen someone use an obscure hashtag. If the tweet is intriguing enough I may search the hashtag and try to sift through the conversation to figure out what they're really talking about. The majority of the time this doesn't work. I leave the page just as confused as when I entered. Just like in the real world it's not always easy to edge your way into conversations.

To add to the social confusion, it's tough to follow complete conversations. I haven't found one place that displays the complete thread of a conversation between two or more people on Twitter. You see @so&so respond to @her and you wonder what it is that @her asked in the first place. Because of all of this Lori Laurent Smith feels the company should coin a completely "new phrase to define itself."

Marta Strickland thinks "platform" best categorizes it. And that might be the closest as it's the tool people are using in three distinct ways. It's the people who use it most often who are really defining it.

For One-Way Blasts
Clearly everyone has a different view of what twitter is [to them]. It is what you make it. It's no more than an entertainment channel to some. They might be simply reading for enjoyment or posting into the abyss. Others are onboard to stay informed or absorb learnings from experts in their industry. In both cases, it acts as a distribution channel.

For Two-Way Dialogues
Direct Messages allow two people to carry on a completely closed conversation. I've seen a couple brands use this as a way to send their RSS feeds. Okay, so I see the blast more readily, but why wouldn't you want to include the rest of the Twitter Universe in on the news? Not the most effect use of two-way conversation.

For Multi-Way Conversations
Twitter is also good at facilitating the exchange of ideas. More people are accessing Twitter via various channels (think Seesmic, TweetDeck and TweekGrid, just to name a few) in order to do this more effectively. Organized Twitter Parties use the platform as a kind of live chat, so even if you're not following someone, you can join in the conversation using a predetermined hashtag. Usually a moderator presents questions or thought-starters in an attempt to keep the conversation on track. Still, it can be tough to keep up. Read a transcript and you'll see what I mean.

Twitter Now
Twitter is evolving. It's not the same today as it was when it was started back in 2006. So, it's not surprising that we have so much trouble defining it. Craig Ritchie claims, "Twitter owns the now." For some, true. If you're interested in the conversation right now, then it has you.

But I can bet that your definition of twitter has even changed now that you've read this. What was Twitter to you one year ago? What is Twitter to you now?

Thanks to David, Lori, Marta and Craig for their viewpoints on this subject.

Sarah Jo Sautter

"On September 26, 2009, Typhoon Ondoy brought a month's worth of rainfall to Metro Manila and nearby areas in just a few hours, causing severe flooding which resulted in the loss of many lives and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. 8 days later, Typhoon Pepeng struck the northern regions causing more damage. This site compiles relevant information about the disaster, including a volunteer-maintained map of persons needing rescue and a list of relief organizations accepting donations, so that more help can be provided where it is needed."

There is no denying that Google's efforts are admirable and for a great cause. So it's hard to suggest that the site they developed to rally people around the Typhoon Ondoy cause could benefit majorly from improved design and usability. Normally, as marketers, we get the benefit of a specific demographic we are trying to address and for a defined product. In the case of large scale disasters, the demographic really is everyone, and the emotions you are trying to illicit is everything from awareness to action.

Knowing the need for action is great and the design challenge is real, I sent the site around to some colleagues. Together, we tried to come up with a few of best practices for making cause-based sites more effective...

1. Provide clear direction on needs, goals, and progress. Help users understand where the need is the greatest.

"I often feel a little helpless when massive events like this happen, if for no other reason than I don't even know where to begin helping. Is sending cash the right thing, do rescue workers need provisions that can't be locally sourced, etc?" James Vreeland

The current page leaves the user with too many questions. What's already been donated? What are the areas of need? What could my money be going towards? Is there something that needs to be donated besides money? Giving user a list of numbers to call only makes them feel overwhelmed, not motivated.

2. Use stories, not numbers. Stories make the user feel closer to the cause, while numbers often do the opposite.

The current Ondoy page isn't organized to elicit a reaction... not emotional or actionable. With so many charity stories and good causes out there competing for attention, incorporating a story of an actual person affected does more good than stats and charts. People need to be moved and then lead to action.

3. Harness the power and reach of social media to generate interconnectivity and spring users into action.
Google has seem to forgotten the "share this" button. No tweet this, no Facebook that. While links are simple and becoming ubiquitous, that simple addition could have made all the difference. Google could have also considered something like http://micro.ilist.com/ for quickly bringing folks together, especially now that Twitter is rolling in geolocation data.

#ihave a spare bedroom for up to 3 nights
+
#ineed a place to sleep, my house burnt down

It works best for big events, not one-off needs, but it is still an interesting way to connect at a personal level, those who have with those who need.

Thanks to James Vreeland, Douglas Diaz, and Dean McRobie for the link and sharing their thoughts on this topic.

Marta Strickland

Twitter and the web at large is up in jubilation over the release of Google Wave today. So much so that the beta invitations have run out and the opportunity to take a "test drive" is selling on eBay for $70 a pop. If you don't already know what Google Wave is Mashable offers a really nice "Complete Guide to Google Wave", which after using can only be experienced not described.

Google Wave is a real-time communication platform with some huge UI bugs to overcome. In order to test out the platform, I started a wave with some of the best minds at Organic and threw them a series of questions to answer, debate, and co-edit. Extracts of which are below:

QUESTION #1: Do you think the "revolutionize e-mail" hype is justified or even accurate for Google Wave?

Kai Wright: I'm expecting a revolution. It's definitely a cool way to send AIM and have group chat. It's hard to learn though - where's the simple Apple-like tutorial?

Dan Neumann: You can't quote me on this, but Wave is waay to complicated for older people. if this is going to replace email my parents will need to be willing to use it

Marta Strickland: My parents are confused by the different functionality within Facebook... what's a comment, what's a wall post, what's a private message. I don't know how they would handle something like this. Even I am a bit confused.

Craig Ritchie: but I remember when email was difficult to understand for people too... it's all about your previous experiencse and how to apply them to new ones. And what's a "poke" for anyway? we'll never know.

QUESTION #2: Is Google Wave going to be relevant and in use by the "mainstream" or at least early adopter mainstream in 2010?

Dan Neumann: relevant yes. useful? maybe not

James Vreeland: i think that it will hit a point where people stop thinking about using it and its just "how you post photos and comments on the site". This UI is way too much for day to day use for most folks, but the underlying engine is way to potent to fade away quickly.

QUESTION #3: Is Google Wave a wiki? an e-mail platform? a chat window? a whiteboard tool? Which one does it have the most opportunity to replace in our daily lives?

James Vreeland: 1 part subethaedit, 1 part basecamp, 3 parts campfire

Craig Ritchie: worst thing you can do is try to bucket new concepts into old buckets. that's why we have such trouble selling these things to clients.

Derek Scott: I'm looking forward to seeing what new collaborative tools are created using the API.

FINAL ASSESSMENT: Lots of quirks and lots of potential. Potential to confuse, potential to revolutionize... if not e-mail or chat or whiteboarding, than at least the ability to get a few co-workers across offices riffing on an idea for half an hour.

Thanks to Craig Ritchie, Kai Wright, James Vreeland, Derek Scott and Dan Neumann for participating in today's experiment. A snapshot of the full dialog can be seen below.

Marta Strickland

It's a huge debate around the Organic circle and it doesn't appear many CEOs are. Out of the 2009's Fortune-100, only 19 (gasp) have a personal Facebook page. But don't go shaking fingers just yet. What I found even more shocking was that only two had Twitter accounts -- one of which has ZERO tweets.[1] Wait. I'm not done. None had blogs.

Some of the Organic pool seemed to think that was okay. But the rest of us think they're missing a huge opportunity. The bigger question is, does your CEO need to be participating in social media? According to Organic's CFO and COO, Marita Scarfi, the answer is absolutely.

Her reasoning? "Being engaged with your customers allows you to produce better products/services which, in turn, leads to improved customer loyalty. Ultimately this helps increase sales and fosters stronger company financial performance (e.g. increased shareholder value)."

Customers usually know what they want today, yet they don't always know what they want in the future. This engagement can help companies lead the innovation and development of future products -- a critical part of the CEO's role. It's really not about the tool. It's about communication with your customers.

What Does This Have to Do with Facebook?
There's a rampage in the social media world driving companies to get on the next big social network. First it was MySpace. Then Facebook. Now Twitter. Sure, customers are there. But before you go pushing your unsocial-savy CEO to Tweet, ask him (or her) how he likes to talk to customers.

Part of the company's social media strategy should take into account the CEO's personality and what tool is best at helping them feel comfortable in their dialogue. They can start by simply talking to customers face-to-face, unstructured. Then maybe they try posting some short thoughts on Twitter (Marita's pick). If they like that, it's a good fit. If 140 characters just isn't enough to express themselves and they're finding it tough to inject their personality into anything coherent, they should try another means of conversing with their customer.

This is different than the brand presence. While the brand can sustain a Facebook page, it doesn't seem plausible that most CEOs can. It takes a lot of work to attract a following and keep them engaged. Work that a CEO just doesn't have time for.

Yeah, Like I Have Time To Be Updating My Facebook Status
Realistically, you can't expect a CEO to be logging on to Facebook a few times a day, or even every day, for that matter. They first have to figure out what to focus on. If you're interested in driving shareholder value, then you do that through knowing what your customers want or trying to predict what your customers want. That insight comes via dialogue.

Isn't That What I Have a Customer Service Department For?
This is different than traditional reactive customer service. It's more than answering questions or addressing complaints and feedback. Still your customer service department, or better yet, your social media specialist can help. Enlist them to help you listen. Then get someone to summarize the chatter, pull out the themes and put together a plan of action. That will tell you what your customers need to hear from you.

Only the CEO can communicate that transparency, because their job is to see the company holistically. Other positions are simply too specialized and focused. When it comes from the top dog, it's much more believable.

Help! I Have Writer's Block
If a CEO doesn't feel comfortable posting him- (or her)self, he might consider a ghostwriter (a la community manager) to do it for him. The point is that they should be responding to their community (read: customers and potential customers).

It's also important that they be authentic. Forget marketing-speak. Customers can get that from your ads. If you were having lunch with me, what would you say? Forget lawyers. Forget PR. I'll read right through that. Put yourself out there. I want to know what's really going on. Consumers these days want to be part of the process. Hence why when done correctly, crowd-sourcing projects are so successful (think Dell Idea Storm, My Starbucks Idea, etc.). 

Another reason this is important: according to the 2009 Edelman Trust Barometer, faith in companies is at a 10-year low. And "The Most Respected Companies" in the Global Pulse 2009 Study from the Reputation Institute all have one thing in common. Brands such as Johnson & Johnson, Costco, Whirlpool, Google and FedEx are open and honest about what they're doing. That resonates more with customers, who tell their friends -- on- and off-line. You can't do that through advertising alone.

The study further reinforces the benefits of transparency:
"54 percent of consumers would give the most reputable U.S. companies the benefit of the doubt in a time of crisis and that perception of a company's ethical behavior and transparency in business dealings holds the most weight..."

The Institute goes on to recommend that by communicating to customers, companies "will create a connection with the U.S. consumers that with garner them resiliency and support in any situation."

A Few Are Doing it Well
• Marita likes how Costco's CEO Jim Sinegal gets out in the stores and talks to his employees and his customers. She believes you can do the same through social media.
• Fred Smith, FedEx Chairman, President and CEO, frequently contributes to the Company's "Citizenship Blog."
• Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com Tweets, blogs and interacts with employees face-to-face. His social media astuteness has become the company's mantra.
• Sun Microsystems' CEO Jonathan Schwartz writes a well-read blog for industry insiders. His open dialogue philosophy has become core to Dell's business strategy.
• Most of the CEOs on Twitter are from tech companies and the like. And while that appears a natural fit, I'd like to see more CEOs from the CPG industry -- the products I use (or could use) every day.


CEO's, the worst thing you can do is be silent. Consumers want information. If nobody is giving that to them, people will come to their own conclusions or write you off altogether.

Sarah Jo Sautter

1 Source: CEOs and Social Media from UberCEO

I opened up the add-ons tab of Firefox 3.5 the other day and discovered the recommended 5-star add-on Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-out (TACO). It works by permanently setting tracking cookies that are nonsense, and making them persistent across cookie cache clears. With Ad Blockers already popular, is this the next salvo in the marketing versus the world war?

How will this kind of thing change the landscape of what we [as marketers] are doing?

I don't believe this will be a game-changer. The key thing to remember is that, as digital marketers, we are not normal and neither are our friends. 
 
Outside our world:

• People still use dial-up.
• People still don't know the difference between a browser and a search engine. (But really, why should they care? Craig Ritchie talked about this in an earlier threeminds' post.)
• People wouldn't know how to find what a Firefox or an add-on was with a map and Sherpa.

 
People who use alternative browsers and are aware of and install plug-ins are still the small minority of people we reach with our advertising. It's very likely they've already installed plug-ins such as Ad-Block Plus, which hide our banners, and paid-search results in Google.  So TACO would be redundant.

But as this trend increases, and more of these safeguards are built into browsers by default, we'll probably see shifts in three directions.
 

1.      First-Party ad serving. Partnerships with content providers, where ads will be pushed by the host site and data becomes more fragmented as a result.

2.      Rise of Akamai and similar data pipes. They already have access to all of the web traffic out there (more or less). They just need to find a way to make it easily used and they'll start selling ads. No need for "bad" cookies here, Akamai is already everywhere

3.      Opt-in viewing. Increased usage of panel-based, opt-in marketing groups who explicitly give permission to us to market to them.

So not only are the tools changing the landscape, the way we use those tools are changing too. Even if most users aren't using filtering or blocking add-ons, we should be forecasting they might. Our job as marketers is to get into the minds of our targets and ask, "What would ______ do today? Next week?" What else is vying for their attention? And how do we make our stuff more relevant and interesting? Pick up where the post about content over location left off. Tricky? Maybe. But more interesting than the straight and narrow path.
 
Dean McRobie
Stephen Murray
Sarah Jo Sautter