Category Archives: Marketing

Social media has helped give rise to the voice of the people. It’s the consumer’s weapon. So it’s no surprise that businesses and brands are eager to try and break through an invisible barrier to find a way to have their messages be a part of the global conversation. Right now, the social media promise that brands need to make to consumers is that they’re listening. They have a presence and can feed information and answer customer service questions without being too pushy. But being a community manager probably only appeases the marketing and sales people for so long. Now they’re eager to try and find a way to get into actually selling products to new customers. So how exactly can marketers be creative and innovative enough to actually get customers to convert from thinking about your product to actually buying it? Well that’s going to be a bit problematic because in a recent poll by Harris Interactive for Digitas, 55% of social media users are not comfortable with giving out their credit card over the social network.

The phenomenon known as social commerce is estimated to reach $30 billion globally in the next five years, according to Booz & Company.   But in the Harris Interactive poll, more than half of those social media users polled said that they wouldn’t want to give their credit card information to a known brand through a secure payment process on networks like Twitter or Facebook. But this statistic shouldn’t scare brands away from at least trying to sell their products using social means. The same Harris poll indicates that 34% of social media users would be more likely to share information about a purchase they made on a social media site with friends than one made on a traditional e-commerce site–so if someone bought a cell phone from T-Mobile on Facebook, they would be more inclined to spread that news versus if they bought it off of eBay or T-Mobile’s website directly. I’m sure that the social features already built into Facebook and Twitter factors into that. And if you don’t think that friends can’t influence social commerce, the Harris poll says that 75% of users indicate that they’d be more inclined to purchase a product or service that a friend openly endorses–defined as a blog post about their purchase or endorsement compared to a simple “like” or “follow”. Getting the customer’s friends involved and voicing their opinions can sway the buying behavior.

So how can businesses get their customers’ friends to write about their product without being unduly influenced? Well this is something Microsoft is going to try and tackle head on with their new People Powered Stories (PPS) service. First reported by ReadWriteWeb’s Dave Copeland, the software giant announced during Social Media Week, that they would be releasing a new advertising (?) platform that will “incorporate user reviews and comments into social media sites.” In their plug for this new service, Microsoft testified that their People Powered Stories service really works–they tested it with a targeted Windows 7 advertising campaign to back-to-school shoppers and claimed it increased “purchase intent” by 6.3% and boosted “believability” and brand awareness.

By using PPS, you, as the advertiser, can import user ratings and reviews about your product right into a rich brand ad. The hope is that PPS will give marketers the ability to create ads that will share powerful stories and create brand relevancy beyond a “like” or “follow” — and with it, the authenticity and believability of real people’s stories. Through a partnership with customer-brand conversation platform Bazaarvoice, PPS will give advertisers the ability to use Microsoft’s social and engaged audiences across multiple screens and serve contextual and relevant ads that will be both targeted and measurable, more than what is available by any other service provider.

Is Microsoft’s People Powered Stories going to succeed? It might, but it will depend on how many publishers and social networks will use their display ads (note it’s not the text ads that you’ll see on search results). Microsoft has surely been making a push for the past few years about helping to declutter search by saying Bing will provide much more relevant results than with Google, so this contextual advertising platform has some promise to it. But, as ReadWriteWeb comments, this Microsoft announcement does not specify how exactly PPS will be different from other services. What will companies like Argyle Social and Wildfire Interactive have to say in response to this initiative? And Facebook already has a sponsored stories section out there that advertisers could take advantage of and Twitter currently offers promoted tweets that will allow people to specify who should see the tweet by interest and geographic region. It will be interesting to see this adoption by brands, but it is noted that Microsoft would probably be the first large company to offer a social media advertising program, beating out Google and even Yahoo (although their search is taken from Microsoft).

Jennifer Creegan, Microsoft’s General Manager for Display Advertising Experiences at Microsoft Advertising (phew! That’s a long title…), believes that PPS will help inch the advertising industry closer to unlocking the potential of social commerce and advertising. I agree with her that the impact of social advertising is beyond a simple “like” or a “follow” and needs to be in an area that the social ad can offer some measurable impact. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft studies the impact of these new ads and whether people will find them helpful and valuable, or annoying, a nuisance, and creepy.

But Microsoft is listening…let them know what you think either in the comments below or on their post.

Image Credit: Imille

Have you ever tried to set up a press page for your company? Do you even know what belongs on one? Well look no further because Totem, an independent provider of press page solutions just launched their flagship product into public beta. The goal from creating your own totem is to help set up location where people can find information about your group. In customs that subscribe to the totem, these symbols are a representations of a group of people, such as a family, clan, group, lineage, or tribe. So what it seems that the service Totem is providing is to offer a symbol of the company/group that marketers and interested people can find – a totem, if you will.

Just who would be benefit from Totem? Most likely not established companies like Proctor & Gamble or any other enterprise company since chances are that they’ll be too big or have the resources necessary to bring on big agencies like Edelman or Burston-Marstellar. So we need to think a bit smaller and that points to only one logical choice: small businesses/startups. Startups are usually very small that they wouldn’t have enough resources to handle developing a press page — this is probably the last thing on their list, way behind actually creating the project and raising funds. So that’s where Totem will benefit them. And it seems like a perfect fit because of who created the service: Jones-Dilworth.

Wait, that name doesn’t sound familiar to you? Jones-Dilworth is a power public relations agency based in Austin, Texas and focused on helping early stage startups in technology to market. They’ve been doing so with folks like Siri, Wolfram Alpha, Twine, 80legs and more. Maybe this is a way for them to get more clients, but the ulterior motives are far outweighed by the fact that they’ve created something that caters to startups – it’s almost like a freebie to start off with. It might seem like linkbait to you, but when you see what options you have with Totem, it might make you think about it.

First of all, it’s super simple to sign up for your very own Totem. Just fill out your basic login credentials and then you’re off. Over the next four screens, you’ll be asked to name your press page, create a custom URL for it (e.g., domain.totemapp.com) and then provide the standard contact information for people to reach out to you for press questions or information. In the last step, you’re going to add resources to your totem and this can be recent articles, press releases and blog posts. Documents, screenshots, infographics, product sheets, headshots, and other relevant information can also be dumped into your totem to make it appealing to the media.

So what’s it look like? Well see below…

As you can see, the above example is Totem’s own totem and it looks like a pretty solid template. That’s probably what you’re going to get when you have a “do-it-yourself” simple press page. But what’s good is that you’re going to be able to provide all sorts of contact information for people to reach you, and it’s not just limited to traditional methods. You can include your blog RSS feed, links to you on social networks and even stream your tweets right on your totem. A bookmarklet can be added to your browser to allow you to easily capture coverage and publish it to your press page — Totem makes it much easier to share your good fortune.

Josh Jones-Dilworth, co-founder and CEO of Totem (and also the agency that bears his name), says about Totem: “Totem is a best-of-breed solution that provides incredible agility to organizations that are struggling with mission-critical press page updates. Look at most press pages out there — they’re ugly, incomplete, full of jargon and almost never get granular enough to properly serve anyone. We’re revolutionizing the press page, at long last.” And I agree — they are providing an incredibly agile service to fledgling companies and also aesthetically appealing to users and viewers.

But with this template press page, there’s got to be limitations as well, right? Yes, since it’s a free plan, what you’re going to get are unlimited press pages with all the features the press is looking for. The ability for collaboration with your co-workers and clients, free hosting, a press widget to embed on your site/blog, and a scrolling “as featured in” widget for your homepage are also part of the free package. But, if you pay the one-time $99 upgrade fee, you’re going to be able to customize your domain so that instead of linking to yourstartup.totemapp.com, you’ll point the press to press.yourstartup.com. Oh, and separate yourself from all the other Totem users too since your upgrade will allow you to customize your page and white label your page as well.

According to Jones-Dilworth, press pages have long been the “low-hanging fruit of PR and marketing programs”, but they rarely get the attention they deserve because they require a tremendous amount collaboration between webmasters, designers, community managers and outside consultants. Totem is going to eliminate those business barriers and puts the marketing team in control of the press page, a vital marketing asset. In an almost meta-fashion, Totem is disrupting the press room world by creating a new press room. It’s press room 2.0!

Go ahead and check out Totem yourself and see what you think about it.

Are you on Facebook? What about Google+? Twitter? MySpace? Have you ever thought what happens to all the data that you put in there? Take your Facebook account, for example…you have so much useful information that you’d like to export and place into another place, but unfortunately you can’t. Robert Scoble tried that once and Facebook booted him off their network. The data that you enter into these social networks, while it’s your information, is being treated as if it was proprietary for the network. There’s no sharing allowed. And no matter how much you might think that the adage ”sharing means caring” might apply here, think again…the web is the wild wild West and its every social network for themselves.

Just read this latest post from Mr. Scoble as he comments that the common web is dead (or at least it’s too late to save). In 2008, he tried to export his Facebook information so he could apply it elsewhere, but Facebook wants to protect it and boots him off.  It seems that what you put into making your profile relevant is what you can’t get back. This was further reinforced, according to Scoble, on Friday’s episode of the Gillmore Gang where he once again rehashed his Facebook exile:

Facebook should be allowed to be a data roach motel: data can come in, but damn you Scoble if you want to take that data back out.

At this point, the open web is dead – Scoble has given up and feels that the struggle for data rights (my terminology), akin to basic human rights, is over  – the social networks have won. But is it? The data portability world still has its heroes, like Dave Winer, John Battelle, and Chris Saad. These three are not giving up on promoting the open web and fighting the good fight, but do most of us honestly care what happens to our data? Four years ago, John Battelle predicted the data constrictions we’re seeing now: “The web as we know it is rather like our polar ice caps: under severe, long-term attack by forces of our own creation.” We created this technology and now it’s evolved into a point that, over time, has slowly eroded away our feelings about data portability.

In today’s New York Times, Lori Andrews wrote an opinion article about how Facebook is making their money off of  our backs. In this article, Ms. Andrews states that unlike other big-ticket corporations, Facebook (estimated to be worth at least $75 billion), doesn’t have an inventory of widgets or gadgets, cars or phones.  Rather, the inventory consists of personal data. If you look at Facebook’s S-1 filing and also what I wrote about this when news first came that they would go public, most of Facebook’s revenue will come from advertising. And it’s no surprise that in order for advertisers to get more bang for their buck, Facebook allows them to target to us by key words or details that are associated with your profile or social graph (almost like a Klout perk, except being advertised to isn’t a perk). Whether it’s your relationship status, location, activities, favorite books, employment, etc., advertisers can have their pick of the litter of the entire 845 million users. This tactic has been especially beneficial for Facebook having made over $3.2 billion in advertising revenue last year and making up 85% of the total revenue. So it makes perfect sense for Facebook to want to protect the data that you put into it. No network wants to allow you to share your data you willingly give it because they want to protect its cash cow! Sure you get some minimal benefit by connecting with your friends and family, but for social networks, your data is virtual gold and worth more than anything else.

And while Ms. Andrews states her arguments about Facebook, the same can be said for Google+, MySpace (they’re still around), Twitter, and startups too…your data is invaluable to them and the only way they’ll probably give it up is if their service gets shuttered.

So is there any point in trying to resurrect the Open Web? Technically it’s not dead (yet), but there are certain steps that may be applicable to stem the damage and make things accessible. Echo’s Chris Saad penned a post in response to Mr. Scoble’s in which he agrees that the Open Web is in real danger, but also points to a bigger problem: we’ve lost sight of the things that matter. You can read his entire post here, but I wanted to highlight a few things that Mr. Saad says in his post that he believes would revitalize the open web:

Add to the web’s DNA
According to Chris, almost every startup he sees is focusing on building an “app” and calling it a “platform”, but they wind up being nothing more than “proprietary, incremental and niche attempts at making a quick buck.” The thought is that companies should think deeper and more long-term. He asks companies what are they doing to change the fabric of the web’s DNA forever? Are you being a true game-changer by contributing to the “essence of the Internet” like other technologies like TCP/IP, HTTP, HTML, JS, etc have done?

Don’t just iterate, innovate
Of course, someone has to build Apps. We can’t all be working at the infrastructure layer. But too many of the Apps we chose to build (or champion) are incremental. As startup founders, investors, and influencers, it’s so easy to understand something that can be described as the ‘Flipboard of Monkeys’ instead of thinking really hard about how a completely new idea might fit into the future. Sure there are plenty of good business and marketing reasons why you shouldn’t stray too far from the beaten path, broadening it one incremental feature at a time, but the core essence of what you’re working on can’t be yet another turn of a very tired wheel. If you’re shouting ‘Me too’ then you’re probably not thinking big enough.

B2C, not Ego2C
Silicon valley is clearly a B2C town. We all love the sexy new app that our mother might eventually understand. Something we can get millions of users to use so we can show them lots of ads. Besides the fact that I think we should focus a little more on B2B, the problem is we’re not really a B2C town at all. We’re actually more focused on what I will call Ego2c. That is, we pick our favorite apps based on how famous the founding team is OR how easily we can use the app to build yet another niche audience for ourselves (and brands/marketers). It would be a tragedy if the social web revolution boils down to new methods of PR and marketing. But that’s what we seem to be obsessed with. As soon as any app from a famous founder gets released we give it tones of buzz while plenty of more deserving projects get barley a squeak. If the app gets a little traction (typically the ones that have Ego mechanics baked in) you see a million posts about how marketers can exploit it. Inevitably the app developers start to focus on how to ‘increase social coefficients’ instead of how to help human beings make a connection or find utility in their lives.

“Users don’t care”
Speaking more specifically about the Open vs. Closed debate, too often we hear the criticism ”Users don’t care about open”. This is absolutely true and the reason why most open efforts fail. Users don’t care about open. They care about utility and choice. This is why the only way to continue propagating the open web is to work with BUSINESS. B2C. Startups, Media Brands, The bigco Tech companies. They care about open because the proprietary winners are becoming more prominent and successful and that usually means there are at least one or more other startup/company out there who needs a competitive advantage. They need to team up and build, deploy and popularize the open alternative.  This is why Chris believes that open will win.

There are more interesting points that Mr. Saad makes in his post and you can read it all here.

But suffice it to say, there is a small war being waged on the Internet over proprietary sites and the Open Web. The average consumer probably doesn’t consider this in their factor as much, but whether or not it’s a consideration, the lesson here is that the data you put in, while it’s your personal information, no longer belongs to you. Be careful with it.

Photo Credit: Burns Library / Flickr

It’s an interesting morning here in Silicon Valley as we wake up to discover some updates in the startup world. Sure, people coming and going are nothing new or surprising, but within the influence metric space, there’s a lot of discussion going on about whether it’s good or bad or even relevant for companies to figure out and use. At the forefront of these conversations are the evangelists — these are the people who will go out into the world and praise the name of these startups and help show you the light as to why you want to use them. Today, there are two influence metric giants out in the world: Klout and Kred. And while they are both great, they each have different news to share.

Porter Gale joins Kred as Chief Evangelist and Advisor

One of the best marketers in Silicon Valley has just joined up with Kred as their Chief Evangelist. Porter Gale, probably best known recently for being the Chief Marketing Officer of tech-friendly Virgin America airlines, will be the startup’s lead advisor on their new Kred Stars and Kred Leaders program. Basically, she’s going to be their evangelist who will help educate and help marketing executives while also developing advocacy programs with the community. It’s a very smart hire and something that I think plays well to Mrs. Gale’s strengths.

When asked about her thoughts about Kred, Mrs. Gale responded:

Kred is an essential marketing metric for brands that want to build and tend to close, trusting relationships with their audience.  Kred’s community-based approach creates unprecedented opportunities to identify influencers and reach the small close networks of people that share their interests.

Kred is an off-shoot product created by PeopleBrowsr, a social analytics startup with offices here in San Francisco. Kred measures influence in online communities within specific interests. A competitor to Klout, rather than ranking influence based on scores from 1-100, they offer it from 1-1,000 and claim to be the only influence measurement based on 1,000 days of social data.

Congratulations Porter!

Klout lacks a bit of influence with the departure of Megan Berry

Also announced today, Klout’s Senior Marketing Manager (and perhaps the main person people receive responses from online), Megan Berry, announced that she was giving up her post and moving on to found her very own startup, LiftFive in New York City. In her blog post, Ms. Berry states that with her startup, she’ll be helping other companies grow communities and to get the amazing products from these startups into the hands of the right people. LiftFive seems to be gearing up to help startups gain traction. And for Ms. Berry to use her skills from Mobclix and Klout, two well-known and successful startups, it seems that LiftFive will be something worth checking out.

Of course, Ms. Berry’s departure from Klout leaves a hole in the startup for someone to come in and take her place. For the past several years, she’s been one of the main personalities that people who had questions, comments or complaints about the service turned to. It was under her watch that the Klout Perks program started off and eventually hit its stride – with partnerships with large brands like Nike, FOX,  Disney and even Virgin America (probably even working with Porter Gale! What a twist!). And one of her lasting legacies will certainly be the Klout Squad program, which the service established last year to help gather more feedback to better adapt their offerings.

But all is not lost, as the Klout marketing team has grown over the years and there are going to be some great people to take over these programs and help move Klout forward. But it’s probably safe to say that the service lost one of their biggest evangelists.

Good luck to you Megan!

Photo credit: Porter Gale by Kred. Megan Berry by Ken Yeung

There is that classic saying that we have heard countless times, “Content is King”, and it truly IS on the Internet. Content on the Internet informs, entertains, and gains users for us. But how is one to do all that with Twitter when one only has up to 140 characters or less  to get one’s message across the vast web? Well lucky for us, there are tools available that allow you to share photos, videos and even polls with your Twitter audience and beyond. Below are a few tools to consider.

TwitPic allows you to simply post your photos and video in real-time directly to Twitter via their website, email or through your iPhone, Blackberry or Android. You will be provided a unique address to email your photos directly into your TwitPic account from your mobile phone. Location Data stored on your camera or video can also be included.

A photo emailed from my iPhone shows up in real-time on Twitter. TwitPic user names and passwords are the same as the ones you use in Twitter. Comments about photographs are sent as reply tweets. TwitPic URLs are already short, making it unnecessary to use URL shortening.

TwitPic stores your photos on their site and you can easily see who and what they are posting on the TwitPic Timeline. Your profile is automatically created from the information found on your Twitter profile. A users Twitter handle on their TwitPic profile allows you to follow them directly on Twitter from their profile, making it easy to build a greater Twitter audience.

TwitVid is focused on uploading fast Video up to 2 GB. You can actually post both Videos and Photos and choose whether you want to post to Twitter or Facebook when you upload your content. Upload and post from a number of options including your computer, Phone or Webcam and also from your iPhone, Blackbery and iPhone. Keep in mind that messages can only be 117 characters or less to make room for your video URL link.

Similar to TwitPic, you can log into TwitVid via your Twitter user name and password. You can even view your videos before the upload process is complete. Share with all your friends and followers via your Twitter stream and Auto Share video to Facebook. TwitVid can also be used with popular twitter clients such as Echofon, Twittelator, UberTwitter, Twitterrific, or UberSocial for Android.

Twittpoll.com allows you to create polls for your twitter audience who can then vote within a 24 hr. period on your poll. After your 24 hours is up, you will receive the overall results of the poll directly into your twitter account. As the author, you will also see any updates in your Home Timeline.

It is so easy and quick to create a poll, I can’t imagine why you would not create one to add instant content and engagement with your Twitter audience. To get started, all you need to do is authorize use of your Twitter account by Twittpoll.com, fill in the fields to create your poll and there you have it, your very own poll. Below is how your poll is shared on Twitter.