Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

With the South by Southwest® Conference (SXSW) underway (and the Interactive portion already complete), a few Organics have been following the happenings on the web. Here are a few that have made an impression:

Agencies
Nora Cocan shares, "Rethink has an omnipresent but not intrusive expandable tab at the top with live coverage by their gang." Yet she's still waiting for something worthwhile to read.

Craig Ritchie is "really liking this simple homepage for Made By Many to introduce you to their people -- certainly the best way to sell any modern agency."

Friends and Colleagues on Twitter
Dan Sicko is following @jm3 as well as @takeitez of @140proofads

SXSW Speakers
We were also listening to the presenters. Host of Wine Library TV, @garyvee, was a keynote.

Brands
And of course there's the return of PepsiCo. They have 12 employees down in Austin dedicated to the social portal they call PepsiCo Zeitgeist.

Who are you tracking?


Thanks to Nora Cocan, Craig Ritchie and Dan Sicko for sharing their sources.
Sarah Jo Sautter

When I decided to bite the bullet and jump into the Twitter fray in earnest, I must admit it was for very self-centered reasons. It started out as an effort to gain knowledge. Frankly, I wanted to look learn more about this social media phenomenon that was exciting my coworkers and clients. With some time and experience, I got very excited about building my personal brand, gaining followers, being interesting to others. What I never really expected was the vast amount of information that is available to me in the home of little blue bird.  

I only started to realize the true power (and probably the future) of twitter on Saturday during the surreal anticipation of a tsunami hitting the shores of Hawaii.  Like many other folks on Saturday, I interrupted my day to check in on Hawaii. I did a quick check with CNN, MSNBC, and FOX NEWS to see how those folks in Waikiki were doing in anticipation of the 4:05pm (Eastern) arrival of a tsunami triggered by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile earlier in the day. I found myself sickly fascinated with the whole affair. Waiting, watching, hoping that it would come and hoping that it would not. The voyeur in me became very frustrated with the television news coverage and like any good attention deficit multitasking gal, I picked up my laptop and found myself on Twitter. In other words, I struck tsunami gold.

One glance at trending topics showed me that #hitsunami was the place to be. A quick search later and I was off to the races. There were 1000's of tweets per minute with real people sharing real stories about what they were experiencing in that moment. I found accurate and up to the minute reports of what was really happening, pictures of a nearly empty Hilo Bay, links to local news, and people in Hawaii connecting with each other. I also discovered Hawaiians sharing news of how to navigate a city whose main highways were closed, information on evacuation routes, and tweets from loved ones on the mainland. My favorite moment was when the entire #hitsunami twitter community realized that their tweets were powering CNN's television coverage. The validation that real people were not only reporting but also living and creating the news, in a whole new way energized everyone participating.

I have daily arguments with myself and others about the long-term value and future of Twitter. Why bother? It's a great resource! Do I care what this random selection of 'friends' say? What I've now realized is that my relationship with Twitter is a lot like the Hawaiian tsunami of 2010.  Sometimes my enthusiasm is as empty as Hilo Bay was on Saturday, and sometimes it pours back in a slight three-foot wave. Twitter has not met my expectations. There, I said it.

However, I'm finding value that I personally never considered. Frankly, I never even imagined that a real time search engine powered by millions of real live people could even be possible, and now it is a reality. I am sure that reality will continue to shape us in ways that we cannot even imagine. Before Saturday, I couldn't imagine tuning into television news to watch a natural disaster in real time. But I did, just like millions of others, and was horrified by my disappointment that the tsunami of 2010 was a non-event.

In the meantime, you can find me on Twitter: @teenord.

Teresa Nord

Since the recall of 12 vehicles beginning January 26, the volume of discussion in social media around Toyota has grown significantly and sentiment is trending extremely negative. This drop in sentiment was a leading indicator of sales which fell 8.7% YOY in February.

So far they have taken the appropriate steps with traditional PR and have web page addressing the recall, but I have not seen as much engagement in social media as I would have expected. There have been few tweets or facebook posts in response to the numerous comments. Toyota shut down their corporate blog "Open Road" several months ago. Although it was not getting much traffic, it would have been a great forum for discussion with customers right now.


AdAge recently reported that Toyota has established a social media response team consisting of "six to eight people monitoring the online conversation and responding at all times." Toyota is reaching out to advocates by retweeting and reposting their positive content.

In addition Toyota is partnering with Federated Media to host a branded channel called "Toyota Conversations" on TweetMeme. As TechCrunch noted, the feed looks mostly positive signaling that they might be pulling in the more "friendlier ones."

But is that enough to help flip the negative sentiment? Turning that negativity isn't something Toyota can do overnight. It's going to take time to regain that trust and loyalty. They are headed in the right direction by dedicating a full-time staff to respond. And Doug Frisbie, Toyota Motor Sales USA's national social media and marketing integration manager, seems to be the right guy heading it all up. He understands that listening to customers is key. In time, however, you need to take your engagement beyond listening. Here are some more ideas that could help regain that trust and bring back loyalty:

1. Take Customer Service to Twitter. Set up a Twitter customer service channel specifically to answer customer's questions about their vehicles

2. Utilize Your Dealers. Set up a Twitter channel where dealers can also join in and help promote the company's good faith in trying to repair the problems. Best Buy has done something similar with their Geek Squad Twelpforce.

3. Open the Dialogue. Allow customers to post feedback, questions or concerns on Toyota's Recall site. Toyota could engage in meaningful dialogue right on its own site.

We can see how all three could be seemingly scary for the brand. But engaging -- carefully and honestly -- is the only way to help shift that negative sentiment. How do you think Toyota should be engaging with customers right now?

Russ Hopinkson
Sarah Jo Sautter

UK-based clothing brand FCUK is offering $250 worth of clothing to anyone who can successfully seduce a woman on ChatRoulette.

While many will look at this and see a distasteful stunt, the brand is doing a good job of connecting with its hard to influence target demographic. It's difficult to overstate the importance of a brand being social in an unobtrusive, relevant way. People are talking about the contest online and offline and that's precisely the type of conversation that moves merchandise.

There's a tendency today to simply push out a Facebook fan page and call it a day. This approach can be harmful for brands that don't have the content or creative tactics to support their presence. It may also be harmful for Facebook as it moves from a closed money losing startup to an open money making advertising platform.  

If you want people to use their personal networks to promote your brand, you need to find a way to be relevant to the conversation. Social media strategy is not a formulae -- two parts Facebook one part Twitter -- it needs to be different for every brand.

Whether ChatRoulette will grow into something more than a meme is beside the point. It's hot now and FCUK is bringing something to the party.

Dan Neumann

Just 18 months ago, I celebrated my 20th high school reunion. It was very well attended relative to past classes. I attributed the good attendance to Facebook, which I argued made it easier for everyone one to, a priori, know what fellow classmates were doing and what they looked like.

Subsequently, I have maintained contact, through Facebook, a number of classmates. One whom I was friendly if not 'friends' with in high school, Michael Miller, began chronicling his bout with a brain tumor on Facebook. I must admit that I was swept up in his status updates and felt that I had grown closer to him over the past year by writing a wall posting and personal note or two. It particularly hit home with me for two reasons - one, that a person my age whom I knew was ill; second, because my stepmother, Judy Palnick, had suffered from a brain tumor and had undergone a similar treatment. Judy recovered and is doing well.

Though as I checked my Facebook account last evening, I found out that Michael had passed away through another classmate's status update. This, less than a week after his last status update. I went to Michael's profile and read the wall of condolence notes -- addressed as much to Mike as to his family and other mourners. It was as if he still lived on through his account; at least, that's what I and other well wishers had seemingly dreamt and hoped. If only it were true.

It makes me wonder: is social media making it easier for friends and family to grieve, pay their respect and keep the memory of a loved one alive?

Jonathan Cohen

image adapted from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackol/

There's long been a war in the cola arena between Coca-Cola and Pepsi and the battle to win the heartiest social fan base will be the next interesting milestone to unfold between the two.

A UK blog reported that Coke is devoting more to their social marketing efforts this year. Specifically it's focusing on community platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. And Pepsi said no to Super Bowl ads this year in favor of a $20 million social media budget.

Pepsi's money is going towards a grassroots program they're calling Pepsi Refresh. It not only hopes to build a community online, the company plans to sponsor thousands of local efforts. Pepsi has six professional ambassadors that have already accomplished something significant in their category (health, arts & culture, food & shelter, the planet, neighborhoods, education). They write posts for the site to inspire readers to submit ideas and discuss. Pepsi's capping the idea submissions at 1000 each month -- maybe to encourage fair voting, maybe to help them manage the submissions?

Though this isn't PepsiCo's first attempt at social. They launched the DEWmocracy campaign in 2007 as a crowdsourcing effort to develop a new product. Now they're doing it again using 12seconds.tv, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Nike is moving more towards social media as well. To play off the current "Deny Destiny" TV spot,  Organic filmed exclusive interviews with players and redesigned the Canadian site to include Facebook, Twitter and YouTube components. Nike also enlisted Steve "Dangle" Glynn, a popular hockey blogger and YouTube personality, to blog and tweet about the World Juniors.

For the Olympics, NikeTraining rolled-out the Nike TwitterStream for each athlete for each event. On each athlete page -- while they compete -- there's relevant tweets for fans to follow while they watch the games. You can participate by using designated hashtags.   

Creative Director Elliott Smith says their redesigned Canadian site "is meant to be just one part of visitors' online experience, rather than the hub. Comments for the videos are duplicated on Facebook, because that's where the target market 'lives and breathes every day,'"

Colleague Karri Ojanen doesn't think brands should rely singly on social media to connect with their customers. "The clients and agencies who can think of their decisions in terms of not just the individual tools, but the whole toolkit, and put it together with their own unique situation are the ones who will win. Coke's Prinz Pinakatt and Unilever's Cheryl Calverley seem to both understand that. They're not completely doing away with sites, but recognize the need to emphasize connections instead of a fairly static campaign property."

Sandy Marsh struggles "with there being any division anymore. The whole of the internet is social. What would be revolutionary is a brand that obliterates the divide rather than chooses one side or the other. I'm not saying I know quite how that can be done, but..."

Craig Ritchie agrees that brands will "benefit from moving away from the old model of buying traffic for short-term experiences," but thinks these examples still seem "like channel-based thinking." Brands that continue to adapt to consumer behavior rather than trying to interrupt it with messaging will be the ones to attract and sustain the fans. Starbucks, LEGO, Toyota and Dell (just to name a few) are already looking at the digital experience holistically. And these -- so far -- are the strongest in social media.
 
So who will win the social cola war? It might not be a clear cut champion. One might reign on Facebook, while the other might top Twitter. But really, it's how they use those tools and what (besides fans) that they hope to gain. As Forrester puts it, Pepsi "is putting Social Media to work for a higher goal--making the world a better place and associating the brand with that vision." They are taking social media seriously and thinking about the bigger picture.

Do you think companies are smart to devote more dollars to social?

Sarah Jo Sautter
 

image credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/lemonhead1632

The Olympics have yet to officially begin, but the first real "event" has certainly occurred. Georgian Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili has suffered a horrific crash in a training run, and the news, including video is being passed through the social web with exceptional virulence.
 
The IOC, notorious for brand control, is attempting to pull down video of the event, but many videos are slipping through, as YouTubers furiously click the Yellow upload button to spread the content.
 
The video... it may be tough to watch, for some... was here.

Update - 1 minute later... that video is down ["This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by International Olympic Committee."]... and seemingly there are now no videos for "luge crash" from today on YouTube. Then moments later, colleague Tyler King found this one, which came down within mintues, too.

Unfortunately the outcome is tragic for the athlete and his family, as he reportedly died from the incident. But it's also tragic for the IOC's control strategy. In this age, really no organization can expect to win this battle. This is proof that [brand content] control is long gone for brands and organizations.
 
Craig Ritchie

Brand advocacy is a term that is thrown around a lot within the social media spectrum. Conversations usually center on finding brand advocates who will serve as a social media lightning rod and generate an avalanche of user-generated content from a community based on their actions. Marketers are just as likely to find these mythical advocates as they are to track down Big Foot riding a unicorn.

Igniting a social media avalanche does benefit greatly by finding exceptional advocates; however, marketers can't simply rely on finding the right catalysts to spark success. Here are five myths brands need to free themselves from before they can deploy a successful brand advocacy program:
   
1.  They aren't out there looking for you.

Guess what? People have been sharing tips and advice on products brands they use and love long before advertisers realized the power of word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing. Consumers will continue to do so regardless of a brand's interaction, to help their friends, being acknowledged for their expertise, and sharing something they have found. It's the brands that need these people to help them authenticate and speak to potential customers they can't reach with ad dollars. However, marketers cannot expect these advocates to fall into their lap. If marketers don't have a CRM program, a strategy to reach out to bloggers and loyalists in niche forums, or any other venue for consumers to raise their voice, then you don't have a brand advocacy strategy.
   
2.  Some of your best advocates might not be your current customers.

What many brands fail to realize is that sometimes advocacy has nothing to do with a particular product and everything to do with a lifestyle. People who love Jeep, for example, may be fans of the brand in spirit as they associate with the car maker's branded outdoor adventure lifestyle long before, and even long after, they are owners of the vehicle. Some of your brand's biggest loyalists might not be talking about the company at all but talking about other products or activities that fit in with this lifestyle, including GPS devices, off-road trails and quality tires. While a truly great advocate will be able to speak about a product passionately and authentically, marketers shouldn't limit their search to current customers.
   
3.  It's not the size of your pool of fans, it's how you use them.

Coca-cola has 4 million fans. FAGE Greek Yogurt has 36K fans. Does that mean that Coca-cola is over 100 times more successful than FAGE in terms of brand advocacy? Well, that depends. What is the value of an advocate for Coca-cola versus FAGE or any other brand for that matter? I find myself asking, what does Coca-cola even need a Facebook fan page for? Coca-cola does not lack in awareness, but the purchase decision is largely made in the last steps at the grocery store as the result of a sale or coupon or is tied to beverage brand loyalty. But for FAGE, a small-time yogurt brand without much awareness, each one of their 36K fans could represent an opportunity for a new customer, coupon-pusher or a new voice piece to spread awareness to their circle of friends.
   
4.  A Facebook fan does not directly equate to a brand advocate.

For many people, becoming a "fan" of a brand on Facebook is as meaningful as acquiring a new bumper sticker or a patch on a heavily collaged backpack. It's a symbol of a lifestyle, it's a funny statement to their friends and is as temporarily interesting as the flow of the newsfeed that day. Ninety percent of the time a user spends on Facebook is in the newsfeed, so after they hit that "fan" button they likely will never return to your fan page. So while your fan page might say 10,000 "fans," that doesn't mean you have 10,000 "advocates." What it does mean, however, is that you have as many as 10,000 opportunities - but realistically probably much fewer - to create advocacy.
   
5.  Recognition, while always important, is not one-size-fits-all
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Some advocates are altruistic, so in love with your brand and what it means to them that they aren't particularly looking for a reward. Others need to be motivated by the allure of something a little extra to come out of their shell. In either case, recognition can't hurt as it lets people know their participation is appreciated as they further the brand's awareness goals. However, approaches to recognition are not one-size-fits-all, as they have to be evaluated closely by audience and by industry. In other words, what does your audience want? The prize of "front page of YouTube" exposure that might appeal to the 18-year-old girl posting a video of herself singing about a new energy drink is likely going to terrify the middle-aged man or woman opening up about their use of incontinence products. Both should be rewarded, but not in the same way.

With the right mixture of targeting, motivation and recognition marketers can create the wave of user-generated content and goodwill that they crave from their social media strategies. There are many ways to do this but developing a stable of knowledgeable evangelists is a boon to marketers. Rather than simply locating brand advocates, marketers must also inspire evangelists within their community by delivering fun, engaging social media experiences to create a thriving online community. Once a community is effectively promoting members from within to carry the brand torch, marketers can claim victory in the social media space.

Marta Strickland

Editor's Note: This piece originally appeared in DM News.

Check this out: Nutella's top three Facebook fan pages gather more than 5 million Nutella spooners or spreaders and the numbers are growing exponentially. The main page is No. 3 on Facebook, on the heels of Barack Obama (No. 1) and Coca Cola (No. 2), and boasts 3.5 million fans. How's that for social media success and what are they doing right?
 
To be perfectly honest, nobody really knows.

People Are Talking
In 2008 Jennifer Laycock reported about Nutella's popularity at a blogging convention and not even a year later, Nutella was already No. 4 in the Facebooksphere. Today, Nutella's FB page is the talk of the town with the  Los Angeles Times, Brandweek and Creative Match. It's even become a case study in social media workshops (see slide 33 of this slideshow). So ... what's the fuss about?

Possible Reasons
Social media buzz experts credit Nutella's Facebook popularity to these characteristics:
1. It's European and people think Nutella is cool.
2. It reminds people of memories/trips to Europe.
3. It has such a unique taste. And oh yeah, it's too good to be true.
 
The Fans Take the Reins
The unbelievable part? The Nutella FB page was started by a fan. Not Nutella. Nutella only spent $300,000 on marketing (not even social marketing) in 2008 so clearly, they're just happy when sales go up. Some see this as a shocking example of a brand ignoring its online community.

Sounds like the only online marketing effort of Nutella USA has been an online sweepstakes (that I shamelessly entered) to win a case of Nutella. All you need to do is answer 5 basic questions about your Nutella consumer habits. The survey has been online for 2 years. What are they getting out of it? I, for one, hope to get a case of Nutella.
 
Yes a case, and I'll eat it. I'm a die-hard Nutella lover. When I buy Nutella, it's actually by the case. I have the official Nutella cookbook on my bookshelves. I use an empty 10-lb jar of Nutella to store my sugar. My 4-year-old will only eat Nutella on toast for breakfast. And if I needed an excuse to spread the word, the Nutella World Day is today. Now, I should probably become a fan of Nutella's FB page too and do my share to contribute to Nutella's fan-fueled online popularity.

Are you a fan? Tell us why.

Laure Latham Guyot

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