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July 2009 Archive
The following posts were made in July 2009. You may subscribe to the RSS feed for this archive if you would like to take your time reading through our posts.
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Posted on July 30, 2009
Keeping Perspective
BY BRANDON WHALEN
I tend to let vanity get the best of me when it comes to my social networks. This has earned me a respectable amount of Facebook friends (about 550 or so).
What do I get in return for clicking accept on those friend requests? A Facebook feed full of pure un-adulterated garbage. Every day I get annoyed with the rubbish that continues to appear in my Facebook feed. I may even venture to say I get upset.
Why? Because I have to spend 10 minutes a day blocking ridiculous quizes, un-tagging myself in chain letters, or declining invites to apps that I don't want spamming up my feed.
So today, out of frustration, I asked myself, "what are these people doing?"
Why do they not find all of this irritating? Why must I constantly be blocking "Which Sex in the City character are you" quizes?
Then I came upon the answer: They are bored. Purely and simply, they have nothing better to do with their time. They come to Facebook because they are bored and they want to be entertained. I, therefore, should not be getting worked up about my Facebook feed.
While working in social media it is easy to get too serious. At least twice a day I see a link to a blog post about "The 7 Deadly Sins in Social Media," or "57 No-No's on Twitter." In our world, it is important to come off as professional and ahead of the curve.
However, we need to keep our audience in mind. While Facebook is a great place to network and re-connect, most people go there everyday because they are bored and Facebook is entertaining.
Before you get completely caught up in following all the rules, keep in mind that most people use social sites to be entertained. If you are not engaging or entertaining, most people won't pay much attention.
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Posted on July 20, 2009
Bing's Real-Time Web Search
BY BRANDON WHALEN
Microsoft is making a lot of moves lately with the launch of Bing, their new "decision engine." Personally, I was not overly impressed or excited about Bing. It was visually aethstetic, and the results seemed about the same as Google. There was not enough of a difference to make me stop "Googling" and start "Binging."
End of discussion. Continue with normal life using Google maps, search, and documents etc.
But today, I saw this: http://www.BingTweets.com and I realized the possibilities.
Your web searches are more powerful because you are able to cross reference them with real time results from Twitter. Your Twitter searches become more powerful because you have a web search that allows you to dive deeper into the topic. Things like deciding where to eat, or finding the latest news on a Twitter topic are incredibly simplified using Bing Tweets.
Average search process to find mexican restaurant in Boulder using Google:
- Search "Mexican Food in Boulder" - (Here are the results: http://snurl.com/nljyx)
- See list of 10 Restaurants.
- Let out a big hungry sigh, and sift through reviews for each restaurant.
- Weigh the good reviews vs. the bad reviews. Ponder meaning of life.
- Possibly click on link to Yelp or City Search and continue researching there.
- Narrow the list down to 2 or 3 locations.
- Ask friends/coworkers/Twitter friends where to eat.
- Follow friend's advice and finally pick a place to eat, hopefully before dying of starvation.
Average search process to find mexican restaurant in Boulder using Bing Tweets:
- Search "Mexican Food in Boulder" - (Here are the results: http://bit.ly/293g8r)
- See list of 10 Restaurants, and a scrolling list of Tweets about "Mexican Food in Boulder."
- Read this tweet: "Efrain's tonight - the BEST Mexican food in Boulder, by far, esp. the chile verde."
- Get directions from the web-search
- Go to Efrain's. Stuff face with delicious mexican food that was recommended by someone on Twitter.
By my very scientific process, Bing Tweets gets you there in three fewer steps.
All joking aside, real-time search has the power to revolutionize the way web search works. As Twitter becomes more popular, search engines will have to take its activity into account in results. Why? There is simply no better way to find out what people are talking about at this very moment than to look at Twitter topics.
As Facebook makes it's user's updates more public and open (and hopefully searchable) those results will also be a valuable source of up-to-the-second information.
Bing Tweets is one of the slickest real-time search engines I have seen to date. It is something that I can be excited about, and it will certainly move a few of my searches away from Google.
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Posted on July 14, 2009
Free-conomics and the Attention Economy
BY BRANDON WHALEN
Free is the way of the internet.
Google, Pandora, Digg, and Facebook to offer their products to hundreds of millions of people without charging anything. The marginal costs of adding your millionth user and your twenty millionth user are roughly zero. That is because bandwidth, storage, and processing power are cheap, and they get cheaper every year.
Free is no longer a marketing gimmick, but a necessity for most online businesses.
When you get into the mindset of a consumer, cheap and free are completely different from one another. If Google had decided long ago to charge a single dollar for their services, consumers would have found somewhere else to search the web, manage their email, or read the news.
Free-conomics:
The old way to look at a market was to examine how supply of a product and demand for a product would change as the price shifted. Today, free has become an economy of its own as the marginal cost of doing business online has nearly reached zero.
When you charge the online consumer anything at all you move into an entirely different market with far fewer customers.
In the free economy, attention and reputation are what matters.
The goal is to build your reputation in hopes of earning more attention. Consumers have millions of choices to make when they decide where to spend their attention online. A company's reputation dictates how consumers choose whether to spend time on Site A or Site B.
"There is, presumably, a limited supply of reputation and attention in the world at any point in time. These are the new scarcities — and the world of free exists mostly to acquire these valuable assets... Free shifts the economy from a focus on only that which can be quantified in dollars and cents to a more realistic accounting of all the things we truly value today." - Chris Anderson - Wired.com
The good news: your reputation is not beyond your control.
A huge part of your business should be focused on social media campaigns and word of mouth strategies that maintain and build upon your reputation. The idea is to first create the buzz then sell the crazy fans your $100 vinyl album or your exclusive product features. Let 10% of your fanatical fans support your business and use the other 90% to spread your message.
You may have a great product, but it doesn't mean anything until you build the kind of reputation that will make consumers want to try it.
"Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY. As an artist you want as many people as possible to hear your work. Word of mouth is the only true marketing that matters." - Trent Reznor in a post on a NIN forum
For more information, read Chris Anderson's article: "Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business," on Wired.com.
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Posted on July 10, 2009
The PPLE Social Media Framework
BY JASON CORMIER
How do you make social media systematic? One way is by utilizing a comprehensive framework as part of your planning and execution. At Room 214, we are often asked about our methodology for social media, so the following post is dedicated to just that.
First, I would like to state that we are big fans of Forrester's POST (People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology) approach to social strategy. The components represent a linear model that I'd argue holds true for any online marketing efforts. You can dig deeper into this by reading Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.
The Figure below illustrates Forrester's POST approach.
How the POST approach is actually integrated from a social media planning and execution perspective is where our own PPLE (Plan, Pilot, Launch, Extend - pronounced "people") framework becomes relevant (see figure below).
The practices behind PPLE are outlined as follows:
Plan: Addresses six core program elements (Workflow, Marketing Strategy, Content, People, Technology and Data) in the context of research and Forrester's POST methodology. This typically includes technology evaluations, social media monitoring, creative ideation, and development of strategies and tactics.
Pilot: Leverages a limited number of platforms with which to engage the market. Reduces risk, uncovers problems and provides data and feedback - flying "under the radar" to validate efforts prior to launch. This typically includes technology integration and development.
Launch: Uses additional marketing tactics to extend awareness and participation within chosen social networks. Re-aligns with business objectives and earns multidisciplinary team and public support.
Extend: Extends efficiencies and insights to other social networking models, technologies, and customer-specific initiatives.
The PPLE framework offers a proven structure to follow while providing a unique and holistic client preview for social media campaign development and strategy. It is complimentary to Forrester's approach, and helps to facilitate the communications and execution of work, ultimately enabling the value of our company.
Have you seen similar frameworks or methodologies? What does your experience tell you about this kind of asset?
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