On Tuesday, May 12, the first annual Marketing and Advertising Thought Leaders Summit will be held in NYC. I have the pleasure of joining Rosetta‘s CEO Chris Kuenne to attend what is looking to be a very compelling gathering of industry leaders. From the MATLS website:
“This one-day summit will present a series of dialogue-driven forums on the changing trends in innovation, technology and consumer behavior and their impact on the marketing and advertising industries. Join us and our line-up of more than 25 industry leaders for a compelling day of insights, information and networking.”
I’ll be there both on Twitter and posting here with thoughts and commentary – it looks to be a valuable gathering of CEOs, CMOs and private equity leadership. The attendees have a heavy hand in shaping the future of our industry, it should be intriguing.
Will you be there? Please reach out, I’d love to connect.
Celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, Shaquille O’Neal and Britney Spears are not taking over Twitter. A well publicized event like Oprah tweeting on her show won’t help. Ashton vs. Larry King, in a contest to see which account, @aplusk (“a plus k”) or @cnnbrk can reach a million followers first is a publicity event that had lots of benefits for both in terms of building large networks, but they are not taking over. Any way you slice it, their efforts are futile. They can’t take over Twitter because of one simple fact: people choose who they follow.
Twitter is a social network that allows a member to choose who to follow, and followers choose whether they follow back. Follow who you are interested in. Ignore spammers or folks who don’t interest you. It’s that simple.
The major benefit of all the celebrity activity around Twitter is that more people will be drawn to use the service. For a concept that is so simple, Twitter is not the most intuitive network to navigate. Understanding how to start and join in a conversation online is a little outside of the comfort zone of many people. I’ve seen many people join Twitter and 6 months later they are following 10 people, no one is following back and the only post on their account is “Joined twitter, trying to figure this out.” Take a look for yourself.
I will still contend that Twitter is not for everybody, but as more people figure out how to build their own communities on the platform, the more valuable content and discussion will be aggregated. I like to think of the volume of content on Twitter as an unstructured Wikipedia – it’s not precisely accurate but directionally correct, and the more sources that contribute the better it gets.
Here’s an example. I had a conversation last night with someone who had just joined twitter and had trouble convincing a friend why it is valuable. I asked what that friend did for a living – the friend was a user experience designer, and very skeptical about Twitter. I pulled up search.twitter.com and searched for “UX” – and immediately found UX job listings, informative blogs of well known people in the industry and a lot of people talking about user experience design. I clicked through to a couple of twitter profiles and quickly identified the lead of user experience of AutoTrader.com. Within a few minutes I could identify a dozen valuable resources that would help that friend in his career.
I’ve been using Twitter for nearly two years, and the community has changed and evolved. I still keep to the core of interacting with folks who share common interests, whether it’s the Red Sox, social media or the fun of a lazy Saturday morning with the kids at home. I’ve come to heavily rely on Tweetdeck to manage groups of friends and contacts that I don’t want to lose in the sea of “tweets,” but I am also continuing to find value by identifying interesting people who have something valuable to share. With valuable contributors, searching Twitter has become an increasingly relevant way to get to content. Celebrities joining twitter can only bring more interesting people to follow right along with them.
Are you using Twitter? Do you think celebrities joining is positive or negative, and has it changed how you use Twitter? Feel free to reach out to me @adamcohen on Twitter to discuss, I’d love to hear from you.
Few marketers dispute PPC as an effective and measurable online channel. Social media, in contrast, is currently subject to dispute.
One of the more compelling arguments for pay-per-click search marketing is the ability to attribute web sales directly to clicks from search advertising. ROI can be measured to multiple decimal points tying the amount of spend invested in bidding on keywords to the direct revenue and conversion. When the conversation changes to social media, there are debates about ROI, a lack of proven approaches and many marketers still viewing social media as experimental. [“Conversion” for those not familiar with web analytics is defined as a visitor to a web property who completes a targeted action, including signing up for an email newsletter, adding a product to a shopping cart, or completing checkout.]
Skepticism Abounds
A way to address the skepticism marketers have about social media is to draw the same correlation to the purchase path as search marketing. Notice I did not suggest “the” way to address the skepticism — providing better metrics won’t give the complete picture of social media benefits, but it will start to quantify the role social media can play in a marketing strategy in terms that internet marketers deal with already. For example, today Webtrends and Radian6 made a joint product announcement tying traditional web analytics to social media monitoring, through Webtrends’ Open Exchange platform. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Establishing Credit
Traditional analytics tools give credit for conversion to the tracked marketing activity before the conversion takes place – a “last click” methodology. This could be a search query prior to a site visit, an ad clicked through on a search results page or a banner ad. Those in the SEM and Display Advertising industries would tell you that while these metrics are precisely measured, a major challenge is to quantify all the “other” touchpoints a consumer has prior to conversion. (Rosetta, my agency, has a differentiated approach to marketing analytics that does capture “view-thru” – tracking that a user saw a display ad days or even weeks prior to a conversion event).
Here is what I would like to see analytics vendors or social media monitoring platforms do to start to quantify the measurement:
Track participation in social technologies in similar fashion to traditional ecommerce sites (defined conversion events, page views, length of visit). A potential limitation is that brands may only be able to track measurements based on assets they control (hosted communities, hosted blogs, custom widgets, etc).
Tie search engine queries, organic search site visits and PPC ad clicks – and ultimately, conversion – back to whether the user had participated in a social technology, and measure typical length of visit/level of engagement both before and after conversion.
Provide in one dashboard the ability to identify the direct correlation between social marketing initiatives to conversion and revenue.
This level of data would help marketers more directly measure the success of social marketing initiaitves and make at least part of the intangible, tangible. Is that a lot to ask?
South by Southwest is an annual interactive, film and music festival in Austin, TX. The interactive portion of the event (aka SXSWi) is the vertiable motherlode of social media. Twitter was launched here two years ago, and last year’s infamous horrible interview of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg (and the Twitter backlash) was stuff of legends. This is my first trip to Austin and in the first day I have already made a conclusion that is clear to folks who have been to the conference before. Not sure if this is just a first timer’s phenomenon, but here is my grand insight: SXSW is about connecting with people.
There are tons of great sessions and content scheduled throughout the many days, and of course the parties networking events in the evenings are great ways to connect. While the sessions have great content, I’ve found the informal time in between events and in the evenings is much more valuable. By a huge margin. In my first 24 hours here I’ve connected with more than fifty people who I previously only knew through Twitter or some other online channel (blog, Facebook, etc). It’s refreshing to “convert” those relationships from virtual to physical, and in many instances there have been shared experiences and potential business opportunities discussed. Who knows where things will lead, but I am very grateful for meeting folks and getting the opportunity to build relationships further. Just some quick examples:
An impromptu late night dinner with Bill Johnston, Chad Crowell and Mike Lewis. Before dinner we realized that Bill, Mike and I shared in common that we had been part of Aaron Strout‘s 45in45 Experts in the Industry interview series.
Running into fellow Red Sox fan and BigPapelbon.com contributor Kyle Flaherty in the hall and hanging out in the Techset Blogger Lounge.
Connecting with Steph Agresta in the Techset lounger and realizing some folks from my agency had recently contacted her about affiliate marketing.
There are many more – too many to capture, but these are the highlights and a primary reason for coming to Austin for me. Of course I do need to make sure I don’t miss the good panels and content, but there is a lot to choose from. Are you at SXSWi? Want to meet? You can find me on Twitter most easily to arrange to connect. I’d love to hear what you get out of conferences too.
Photo credit: adrants via Flickr (I also happened to share a plane and cab with him on thr trip down)
Twitter is all the rage. CNN talks about it at every opportunity. Famous people from Shaquille O’Neal to MCHammer to Demi Moore are using it to share snippets of their daily lives. Legions of new joiners are popping up each day. Books are being published left and right about Twitter for business and monetizing Twitter accounts (some questionable, others focusing on the community in microsharing – the most anticipated one I’m looking forward to is Laura Fitton‘s (aka Pistachio) Twitter for Dummies). Blog posts about Twitter are profilic. Yep, I’m full of irony by adding to the mix – and there are some that would probably say what is happening now is a third or even fourth coming of Twitter.
Observations
I’ve been on Twitter for a year and a half and here are some observations about what has changed, for better or worse:
Spammers have become more advanced, using bots, auto-follow/un-follows, and other nefarious ways to collect followers.
Gone are the days of “Twitter Karma” where we all try to maintain equilibrium of follower to following ratios. Now it’s more focused on how we can be useful or interesting to each other.
People are very caught up in numbers – of followers, of retweets, of conversations. New tools continue to crop up to grade your twitter participation, experience and influence.
The more followers you have, the more reliant you become on solid third party tools like Tweetdeck and Tweetworks to manage groups and connections that are most important. Tags and search capability are key functions in day to day use.
Twitter is no longer solely for the early adopter tech crowd or the social media consulting/services crowd. It’s clearly a useful platform for lawyers, real estate agents able to sell my house fast Denver, graphic artists, moms, dads, sports fans, you name it.
The coverage of Twitter use in traditional media, like the evening news on TV, to me seems like hunting and pecking for needles in a haystack. It can be devoid of metrics or real analysis, using it more like finding a funny tweet and showing it to the audience. It reminds me of the Chris Farley show on SNL. (“Do you remember that?…That was AWESOME.”)
The echo chamber of people on Twitter talking about Twitter has grown louder, stronger and more frequent, which can be good and bad. It’s good for educating folks on what tweetups are, how to use hashtags to help track conversations, which 3rd party apps are great for desktop and iPhone use. It’s also good when businesses are leveraging the platform to connect with customers and resolve or acknowledge challenges. It’s bad when people presume to know about someone’s intentions or preach too strongly about how to use Twitter.
Back to the Basics
With all of the hype, there are many who forget or neglect what I would describe as some basic guidelines on Twitter. I am by no means an authority but am sharing my thoughts as a long time (in technology terms, anyway) user, and I would welcome your suggestions and input.
Twitter is for conversations. Find people who like to talk about topics you’re interested in, connect and participate.
It’s a great tool for sharing useful or fun information.
Sure, Twitter can be a promotion vehicle, but spend less than 10% of your time on Twitter promoting your own wares (hat tip to Chris Brogan who mentions this approach often). Would you go into a large networking event and start shouting? How successful would it be?
I try to look at all of the numbers and measurements of grading one’s Twitter use with a grain of salt – they can be indicators of intent, suggestions and guides on what to do differently, and in some cases show influence, but in the same regard do you keep measure of offline conversations with friends, families and coworkers? I don’t, especially not to decimal points. I like to check out the tools but I don’t get too caught up in them.
Twitter enables meaningful connections, but they are not a given. Building relationships, just like meeting new people at a conference, party or event, takes time, patience and sincere interest in connecting with other people.
Twitter represents a way to build relationships, find useful information, gain access to expertise and connect. Here is a representation (definitely a subset) of many folks who I have met through Twitter and others who I hope to meet but follow because they share something useful and meaningful – they are real people. (Twitter Mosaic courtesy of sxoop.com, get your own here).
Have you been on Twitter for a long time? If so, how have you seen the community and use evolve? If you’re new to Twitter, what brought you to the platform and what do you think so far?
New joiners to Facebook go through phases – understanding privacy, etiquette and addiction. But what happens when they settle down? The functionality of Facebook is a “lite” version of many other social technologies many have come to know.
Facebook is growing strong, recently passing the 175 million members mark. I’ve seen many folks go from skeptic to addict in recent months. My parents are on Facebook. My neighbors are on Facebook. My high school class is now mostly on Facebook when 6 months ago it was the exception. My CEO, clients and colleagues are on Facebook. Campers from summers in the late 80s and early 90s when I was a camp counselor are on Facebook. Facebook dominates dinner conversation with friends, and Facebook regularly freaks out my wife when people she talks to know what I am up to.
Take a look at what people are doing in Facebook after they get through the initial connection streak:
The “25 things about me” meme is one of a dozen different types of viral “notes” going around. Isn’t this a form of blogging? I doubt many would claim the “Blogger” title though.
Over time, more people seem to use status updates more. I don’t have any scientific data to back this up, but I’ve noticed people slowly adopting using the status update for a funny anecdote, what’s for dinner, a victory potty training moment. The status update has many similarities to Twitter.
More people are posting and sharing links, photos, and other content. Enter (arguably) easy to use versions of Delicious.com, Flickr and Friendfeed.
For these reasons I think Facebook is an easy “gateway” for those who don’t use those other tools day to day and are building their communities – and it may even encourage more adoption of Twitter, Friendfeed and other tools down the road (especially with their integration to your News feed). All of these features add up to introducing core social media technology functions to the average Joe – who also happens to own a scanner and is sharing pictures of me from my senior prom. (The mullet was all business in front, party in the back, I swear).
Did Facebook introduce you or people you know to social media? How’s it going so far?
Caroline Stitcher is home. Details of her disappearance from Friday afternoon until Saturday evening are still being determined, but she is with her family which is all that counts.
Given that outcome, I thought it would be helpful to highlight the power of social media. I am both amazed and humbled by the outpouring of support on Twitter and other channels, and wanted to capture it here. If anyone is still doubting the compelling viral nature of the technology, this should help convince them that it’s here to stay.
Starting on Facebook
On Saturday morning, Doug, a colleague from work, posted the following note in Facebook:
My god daughter has been missing now since yesterday afternoon. She went running by herself after school. Her friends saw her leave and she has not returned. We are all very frightened, as you can imagine. Please pray for her and her family. If you have friends at church who pray for people in trouble, please let them know about Caroline.
Several folks from work commented, and later in the day Doug posted that he was leaving Cleveland for Chicago with two of his sons to help with the search. He also shared a link to the Chicago Sun Times article with the story (which has continued to be updated with the latest information). What transpired after that is nothing short of remarkable.
Outpouring of Twitter Support
Angela Moore, Jon Anhold, Chris Boggs (all folks who have worked with Doug) and I all started to share an article from the Chicago Sun Times on Twitter and Facebook, outlining Caroline’s disappearance and information to reach the Deerfield, IL police department. I reached out to several Chicago based contacts on Twitter, and the retweeting began. David Armano [blog] added a hashtag #Caroline to be able to track on search.twitter.com, and was kind enough to respond to his network asking for people to retweet as much as possible. Some other notes:
The Sun Times article showed up on Digg and started to get some momentum.
A Facebook group named, “Help Find Caroline Stitcher” approached 3000 members by late evening.
All in all I’m sure thousands were reached – I’m working on digging up a report on number of mentions and the likely reach of the viral effect and will share it when it’s ready.
At the end of the day on Saturday, the good news broke that Caroline had returned home via a text message Doug sent me. A few minutes later Chicago Breaking News confirmed the details, and another round of “good news” retweets went out.
The Power of Social Media and Thank You
Take a look at search.twitter.com for #Caroline and drop back a few pages to what transpired during the wave of the evening spike. The support really speaks for itself. Here’s to a speedy recovery, Caroline – there’s no harm in that happening as fast as the news spread.
A very sincere thank you to the broad Twitter community for helping out and responding with your thoughts and retweets. Not this time, but I will not be surprised if community through social media tools one day is directly responsible for solving another situation like this one. In terms of my involvement, I’d like to think friends at work would take a moment to do the same if the situation were reversed.
Update:
Doug has shared another note on Facebook at 1:30am Sunday morning which I figured I would post here too:
Caroline is alive and we have her now
We are all unbelievably relieved and happy. Caroline is alive and with her loved ones now. No details have been sorted out, yet. As you can imagine, there are lots of people caring for her and it will be a while before the complete their work.
I also wanted to recognize several other Twitter MVPs who helped spread the word with fervor last night. Liz Strauss [blog] was already aware of Caroline’s situation and had engaged her network before I had contacted her. Dave Kerpen [blog] made several appeals to parents – as a father of three boys perhaps that was part of my motivation to help Doug. Senia Maymin [blog] also did a terrific job of asking celebrities and others with large networks to retweet the information. Thanks again everyone.
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Celebrities like 
South by Southwest is an annual interactive, film and music festival in 
Twitter is all the rage. 
New joiners to 
For these reasons I think Facebook is an easy “gateway” for those who don’t use those other tools day to day and are building their communities – and it may even encourage more adoption of Twitter, Friendfeed and other tools down the road (especially with their integration to your News feed). All of these features add up to introducing core social media technology functions to the average Joe – who also happens to own a scanner and is sharing pictures of me from my senior prom. (The mullet was all business in front, party in the back, I swear).
Caroline Stitcher is home. Details of her disappearance from Friday afternoon until Saturday evening are still being determined, but she is with her family which is all that counts.