Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

San Francisco residents now have an easier way to complain. Mayor Gavin Newsom, a big Twitter user (he first announced his bid for governor of California via Twitter), is looking to kick the city's customer service up a notch. Residents (or really anybody that's on Twitter) can send Tweets to @SF311 reporting potholes, city de-beautification adbandoned vehicles and more.

Based on the Tweet signatures, it looks like the city has a couple people devoted to reading and responding to these Tweets. They say they want to reciprocate the follow, but they are currently only following about half of their followers. But I guess I should give them some slack. It's only their first day at this. (And they already have 28 Tweets!)

They also encourage you to direct message (DM) your complaints.

"Hi, we're processing your Tweet. For faster service, please us a DM as only DM's are monitored real time"

Initially it sounds like an efficient means for resolving problems. If this works, it'll be interesting to see if other cities follow. But I see a few things that may cause some hang-ups.

1. How do you detail your complaint in 140 characters or less? Some problems just require more explanation.
2. How do they keep it positive? Why would I want to follow them? Will they ever start the conversation instead of just responding to it?
3. Can't you only DM someone if they're following you? So how will that service request response work if there's no follow?

Would you like to see your city do this? And do you think it makes for faster resolution of city problems?

NOTE: Thanks to David Feldt for the news.
Sarah Jo Sautter

Three. Wolf. Moon. If you recognize the three words, then you probably know at least part of the story. If you don't, it is the digital equivalent of a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon and six months later that action directly resulting in a category-five hurricane striking New York City. Well, in this case, tiny Marlborough, New Hampshire.

On November 10, 2008, Rutgers University law student Brian Govern posted a satirical review on Amazon.com. It was for a product that he hadn't been shopping for, but found its way to him by way of the site's proclivity to recommend somewhat random products. In this case the recommendation was for a t-shirt. A t-shirt emblazoned with an image that was destined for an irony-driven star turn in the national spotlight. One that appears torn from the side of a disco van from 1977. In Anchorage, Alaska. Three airbrushed wolves. Howling at an oversized moon.

Unable to resist, Brian wrote an impassioned endorsement that ended with the following words. About a product he had no intention of purchasing.

"Pros: Fits my girthy frame, has wolves on it, attracts women
Cons: Only 3 wolves (could probably use a few more on the 'guns'), cannot see wolves when sitting with arms crossed, wolves would have been better if they glowed in the dark."

Today, 859 other people have added reviews of their own. And a product which last year was trickling into the hands of consumers at a rate of one or two per day is now selling at a rate of more than 300 units per hour. Michael Krinsky and Jeff Grosner, owners of the company that produces the shirt, are now the unlikely manufacturers on the top-selling item of clothing on Amazon.com, a position that they secured on May 19th and have held since.

The story made it into the newspaper of record--the New York Times--last Sunday. It got to ABC News--and TV--on Wednesday. The Associated Press released their syndicated print version of the tale 23 hours ago. But what none have so far chosen to mention is the cult that spawned the phenomenon. Following the breadcrumbs to other "related" products for sale on Amazon.com quickly demonstrates the cult's power. As well as the talents that they wield.

I am speaking of the cult of the satirical reviewer.

They have written poetry about milk. Cracked wise about overpriced diamonds. Gotten snarky about exercise pants. And now they've got their first number-one hit. Three Wolf Moon. Remember the name. Because it may well symbolize a spiritual shift in the very fabric of hipster irony. Mock Three Wolf Moon if you must, but why? Instead, recognize the cultural moment that produced it. Celebrate the unlikely response by a student and the ensuing dogpile that now has 300 shirts an hour flying across the Internet. As an oft-sarcastic and sometimes public-facing consumer, personally, I'm finding the moment strangely empowering. A new twist on the American dream. With wolves. Which makes it inherently more awesome.

Daniel Turman

PS. Of course there's a YouTube parody that's racking up the views too.

image credit: Bonnaf

News sources reported earlier this week that the TV networks just might be developing a series based on Twitter.

It sounds like it would be unscripted, competitive and non-professional talent. The description is vague, but it leaves me wondering how it'd really work.

The Cast
Would just anyone be able to participate or would it be only pre-selected Twitters? I'm thinking about MTV's The Hills. Before the series, the actors were simply Hollywood wannabees. It was the success of the show that turned them into full on celebrities.

Frequency
In order for it to be interesting and meaningful, it'd have to be real-time. Otherwise it'd just seem fake. Would you be able to watch the show and them Twittering at the same time?

Content
What would a televised show give viewers that Twitter couldn't? I'm already on Twitter. Even if I decide to follow some seemingly interesting "cast" of "friends," why would I devote time in front of the tube to them?

Medium
Is TV the right medium for this? It seems more fitting for the interactive sphere. More pointedly, Twitter is engaging. Unless you're on Twitter interacting in dialogue, why would you want to read static posts?

So, I'm a cynic. What do you think of the idea? What would make you watch the show?

Sarah Jo Sautter

If your favorite restaurant was on Twitter -- or maybe they already are -- would you follow them? First, what could a local restaurant have to say in 140 characters or less to whoever might be listening? Second, is Twitter really the place for them?

Some restaurants seem to think so. They have realized pretty quickly that there is a world of foodies on Twitter. It's a great fit for smaller, local single shops or chains. And some are getting it right.

How does a restaurant stand out from the growing list?

1. Reward people for brand engagement. Make it fun.
A Detroit-area proprietor does this. If you follow @MattPrenticeRG and retweet some of their posts, they'll direct message you with a coupon code. The "code" is what you say at the counter when you place you your order. The last one gave me 50% off carry out!

Likewise, a casual California Mexican food chain, California Tortilla (@caltort), has given away 800 free tacos to customers who said the "secret" word the restaurant tweeted. It not only caused a spike in online chatter, but in store traffic as well.

2. Be conversational. Provide daily value. Got any new menu items up your sleeve? What did you buy at the market today? I want to know what's fresh or what to order.
 
As the name lends itself, the Tidbit Bistro (@tidbitbistro) offers daily "tidbits" or facts about Spain and Italy -- the countries of food they serve. I'll have to remember this one the next time I'm in Italy: "tidbit of the day: Don't use the classic but incorrect phrase 'al fresco'; for outdoor dining use 'all'aperto'. Al fresco means 'in prison'!"

One of the owner's of Soup & Scoop (@soupscoop), Michigan's top soup shop dishes details about their company, what soups are on or sold out and even personal happenings.

The Common Man (@thecmannh), a family of restaurants in New Hampshire, tweet about what's they're up to. Like: "Donated $22,000 to NH Food Bank today & dedicated 100's more from the sale of our bottled water using sustainable water filtration system!"

3. Make people feel part of something exclusive.
Café Metro (@cafemetro) is one of many marginal deli/café/salad bar restaurants that blanket the Garment Center in NYC. They have a program that rewards people with gift cards for finding their MetroMan on the street. They use Twitter reveal MetroMan's location as well as announce daily specials.

Kogi BBQ (@kogibbq) in LA, a mélange of Korean BBQ, tacos and burritos, uses Twitter to notify people where their trucks are going to be. That way their fans can get their hands on the food pronto. 

4. Do something good.
Maggiano's Little Italy (@Maggianos) has used small give-aways to attract more than 3,000 followers since mid-February. And just recently they asked for follows for a good cause. They'll donate $1 per follow to Make-A-Wish Foundation up to 7500 new followers. Sort of a sly way to get followers, but it's for a good cause. They'd just better do one of the items from my list to keep their attention once they've got them there.

5. Get your fans to speak for you.
Shake Shack (@shakeshack), Madison Square Park "modern day roadside burger stand" uses tweets from fans to report wait time via line lengths as well as custard flavors. They also connect solo diners who want to share a table and conversation.

6. Make it part of your business.
Because her menu changes depending on what she's got cooking, Chef at The Sugar Mommy (@thesugarmommy), a local New Hampshire source for homemade baked goods and confections, lets followers know what she's making. I'd go a step further and recommend she take requests, suggestions or special orders.

Big chains could learn a thing or two from these little guys. Give folks a reason to check you out and follow you and they will.

Thanks to Chad Stoller (for the photo, too), David Feldt, Marta Strickland, Traci Armstrong and fellow twitter followers for sharing their favorites.

Who is your favorite restaurant Twitter?

Sarah Jo Sautter
 

Idea collection tools with some required fields are pretty standard and decently implemented collectors see a lot of contributions (think: Starbucks). But when these tools ask for a login, they need to offer something that makes signing up worth the effort.

"You dream it. Asus builds it" with "Intel inside" is the promise on the other side of the forum inputs at WEPC.com. Enticing to engadget-reading netbook hot-rodders like myself who literally DO dream of having a set of top engineers build a custom machine dialed in to my exact needs.

Here's how it works:
1. The site collects ideas, designs and feedback from users.
2. Asus evaluates the posts.
3. Innovators use the top posts as inspiration for a new notebook that uses Intel inside.

The site does a great job asking customers two questions:
1. What do you want regardless of limitations (the Share track with a looser format)?
2. What do you want given what can be checkboxes and sliders?

Both let you illustrate your idea with a flash drawing application. This makes it a bit more engaging than typing out a bulleted feature list or paragraphs of circuit-bent daydreaming.

Also, both questions collect some mutually beneficial user-generated content. Intel and Asus get free marketing research and brainstorming from the customers who buy their products. Machine tweakers get to browse and vote up ideas they like.

I was gung-ho to contribute until I realized voting on designs required setting up an account. In my contemplation of taking the dive, I saw plenty of room for improvement in the WEPC site. 

Here are a few pieces of feedback I have for the site's developers:
1. Give the user a single track. Don't split Share/Create, just reveal details as necessary.

2. Show examples of what other people have said on certain topics and allow you to load their data instead of re-writing something similar. It would help users know what kind of things to post and provide Asus/Intel with less duplicate data.

3. Allow more user input (voting) without logging on. If the site didn't require login for voting, Asus/Intel would get numbers closer to what the masses were interested in. Right now they are only getting numbers about what interests people who are dedicated enough to go through the login process.

4. Put some faces and names in the About Us section. The contributors/community members are listed in the authors section, but we're never introduced to the editors of the site.

5. Give me a sitemap. The number of different pages buried in the site without any clear navigation to them makes the site seem a casualty of feature creep where pages were just tacked on without IA thought. A sitemap would help and would sit nicely next to the search box.

Despite all that, I'm still interested to see if Asus builds a machine incorporating any of the ideas collected on the site and if it's a step closer to consumers seeing custom or to-order netbooks anytime soon.

And as a creator of exceptional experiences I wonder: As a consumer, would you contribute?

Jordan Gray

image credit: stonebird

I just came across an interesting digital out-of-home (DOOH) media and mobile story. Through a partnership with Impact Mobile, Adcentricity, an aggregator for over 80 DOOH networks, has just added a mobile component to its offerings.

Just when the Outdoor Advertising Research Group is claiming digital signs aren't distracting, the convergence of DOOH media and mobile now seems to be a developing trend.

Rob Gorrie, CEO of Adcentricity, agrees. According to the article, Gorrie thinks it may even contribute to ROI because it allows customers to "interact with brand messages in a relevant way." Still, there's an active push to ban digital billboards in Los Angeles because some Los Angeleans consider them too distracting.

Personally, there is only one digital billboard I have ever seen that I considered distracting. It's along the highway on the way to Tahoe and is so bright that it gives me "sunspots" on my eyes and, when passing it, I find it hard to see the highway. The funny thing is that it's so distracting that I can't even remember what was advertised - Was it a casino? Alcohol?

Well, there's an important point. No matter what a digital sign is advertising, if it's too bright alongside a dark road and can endanger drivers, it is probably better placed elsewhere or toned down! If an ad is not engaging consumers in a way that leaves them with a positive impression of your brand, then maybe it's better to not waste your marketing investment in that location.

On the other hand, I've seen a cool billboard in West Hollywood where the screen flips every few seconds. The plethora of traffic crossing West Hollywood all hours of every day surely must enable that billboard owner to easily sell multiple ads and guarantee that each driver will see at least 5 or 6 of them -- or possibly 10 or 12 -- during cruising hours! That billboard hosted all sorts of consumer packaged goods ads (like shaving cream and shampoo).

Keep an eye on digital billboards as a tool that allows brands to engage consumers where it's convenient for them, like while sitting in traffic. Using these signs, marketers can tap into their offline work using many of their online tactics, using call-to-action techniques like SMS, polls, votes, contests, promos, and sweepstakes. Typical online content delivery, retail and redemption and mobile application techniques can also be extended by marketers into the digital billboard realm.

Have you seen any digital billboards or other digital ads that you'd like to see adapted for such mobile integration?

Stephanie Jorgl 

Editor's Note: Be sure to check out Anthony Viviano's post "The Neuro Science Behind What Makes Us Want" for more information on the principle of social validation.

I need validation! Do these make my butt look big? Do you like this color?

As we all know, many purchases, from cars and homes to clothing and paint color, are collaborative shopping experiences. So If Facebook can comfortably integrated chat in page, why not on an ecommerce page too?

More digital experiences are offering users the ability to elicit someone's opinion at the point of purchase decision. Vans just launched a site that enables users to build custom shoes and invite friends to design with you via AIM and Email and it's catching on. This offers obvious value to both the consumer and brand.

As an avid ecommerce consumer I rely on the wisdom and reviews of crowds in many of my online purchases, but I can think of many times In the past in which I would have liked to have quickly reached out to someone I actually know for advice and opinions before hitting the purchase button. But what do you think? What types of experiences would you or your friends and family find this type of integration useful for?

Sound off! Check out the Vans link and Ad Age article.

Brian Hull

Edward Vielmetti, one of the more interesting presenters at this year's Internet User Experience conference, brought up a profound question that every business... and every consumer should ask themselves...

Am I seen as an expense or an opportunity? Or in the case of a business, do you see your customers as an expense or do you see potential to sell product?

We are turned off by the idea of sales people. We are turned off by the idea of advertising.  Many of us like to think of an imaginary world where people just do good things to be good, without another agenda.  But doing things just to "be good" doesn't always equal the best user experience.

In his talk regarding the public transit system of Ann Arbor, Ed brought up a good point that the actions of public organizations don't live up to the needs of the people who ride the bus, because they are viewed as an expense.  So "good enough" will do.  But for the small business on the bus route, they'd be willing to pay to ensure that the customer experience is better, because they see these same people as an opportunity, a potential customer.

So should private organizations be allowed to enhance public works?

Well, this is something that KFC is already trying to do in Louisville, the city where they are based, by fixing the pothole problem in exchange for the opportunity to place a temporary chalk advertisement on the new asphalt.

"KFC-refreshed potholes will be branded via a large stencil that reads 'Re-Freshed by KFC' in eye-catching, but non-permanent street chalk."

It's advertising disguised as a good deed, but it still is a good deed, right?  Well, the act set PETA and some consumers off into a reactive tizzy.  Should companies be allowed to use public works to advertise themselves?  Where should the line be drawn?  Or are we seeing this in the wrong light? 

Maybe the small business is the one who is going to work just a little bit harder to fill those potholes or to make bus maps better, because for they see an opportunity, not an expense.

Marta Strickland

photo credit: dramafreezone

Last month we told you about a local restaurant who asked patrons to Yelp about them. 

There has been quite backlash around restaurants "paying" to have positive reviews displayed more prevalent than the negative ones. In Chicago it has altered how the restaurant community views Yelp.

So when a local Detroit area restaurant asked customers to give them reviews, customers instinctively thought they were asking for POSITIVE reviews. Appears they really weren't asking for positive reviews after all. The owner came clean in an email mid March.

No ill-intentions or "shady yelping" as someone put it were the motivation here. Just good, honest guest feedback to help me as a business owner and, in today's current economy, I will take all of the feedback I can get to help grow my business and serve everyone walking in our doors.

Thanks again to all of you who took this the way it was meant. I did get some great feedback and suggestions. I should have elaborated a little more on my Email. It was not a cry for "Yelp." But, I did get ALL the "Yelp" I will ever need.

Sincerely,

Tim,
Zumba Mexican Grille

This is an example of a small business owner who gets customer service. He's embracing social media as a means to help him better his products, or in this case, his salsa bar.

Then, he took the action even further when he truly altered his product and service based on customer feedback. In an email he sent out at the end of March, he tells subscribers that he's listened and made three significant changes. Hence, he brought back an old favorite, made improvements on freshness and dropped prices.

Now that's the way to do business!

Sarah Jo Sautter

image credit: Psycho Crow [Flickr]

Online privacy is a personal issue for people. Every inch we move into a more open and thus exposed web creates dozens of angry blog entries and Facebook protest groups. But ultimately, there are a lot of people out there that have come to accept the reality of their digital footprint. And far more out there that don't even know how to do anything in order to protect their privacy better.

So the question is: If awareness comes to more than the technically savvy few, is there a threat to data accuracy? And as data becomes more inaccurate, so does the relevance of contextual advertising, creating a new generation of people who rather just "shut it off", because it means nothing to them.

Should we be giving users more options to turn off ads, to turn off tracking? Or should we just be giving them better ads? And are those two things becoming mutually exclusive?