Skittles: Sustaining Innovation

Published March 15, 2009 Operations , Strategy 1 Comment
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In March of 2008, ad agency modernista went siteless, allowing the Web to speak for the company. A review by Allison Mooney on PSFK.com said it well:

What better way to show clients you “get” Web 2.0 than disappearing into it?

A year later, Skittles takes the same approach. The darling of social media – Twitter – is the focus of the siteless brand. David Armano’s review of the effort is noted here. I’m not interested in replicating any reviews completed thus far (let’s be real, Armano’s review is great). What interests me is the sustainability of the effort. I’ve used reports from two analytic resources: compete.com and twist. Here are the results:

The total time spent on a domain as a percentage of the total time spent online by all U.S. Internet users.

Velocity reports the relative change in daily Attention. Velocity is used to determine the relative growth of a domain over a particular timeframe or compared to other sites.

Twitter Analysis

This report, courtesy of Twist (http://twist.flaptor.com/), indicated the jump in traffic on twitter.

The results: Skittles succeeded in causing a buzz in twitter and Web traffic, but this appears to be short lived. Innovation is a powerful tool, but without sustainability and a change in behavior, the energy (and money) invested does not provide the greatest returns.

Pro Twitter Tip: Avoid TMI

Published March 2, 2009 twitter Leave a Comment

Even if the phrase escapes some members of the older generation, there’s no mistaking what IT is: Too Much Information. Wikipedia sums it up quite well:

Too much information, an expression indicating that someone has divulged too much personal information and made the listener uncomfortable.

Without adding too many colorful stories to this post (I’ve overheard too much while out and about, oddly enough, in Chipotle), you never want to be that person that shares way too much. With the rise of social media, users are faced with a glut of information. There are times where this level of noise becomes just too much.

Take a look at the following tweet (the name of the offender has been  blurred out to avoid further humiliation):

TMILet’s setup a few simple rules for social media:

  1. Yes, we live in an age of transparency, but please keep certain things under wraps.
  2. Adding a TMI Alert to a public comment is like telling people in line the plot of a movie… in a loud voice. Avoid it.
  3. Unless you want something rebroadcast, don’t post it on-line.

Follow those simple rules and you can keep your social media use free of embarrassing problems.

Explaning How Social Media is Transforming Brands

Published January 25, 2009 Marketing , Operations Leave a Comment
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Having blogged for a while, I know it’s important to post regularly. My posts have dropped off as time is split between my MBA coursework and my time at the Touchbase blog. This is an intense period of reading, learning and debate. Sure, sleep is limited, but it is great fun.

Back to business! I had a great realization this week – how I can explain the power of social media to non-Web executives. The following was written during my morning commute.

Brands – before social media and “web 2.0″ were like pine cones. Easy to identify, cohesive and (most importantly) subject to control.

Think of social media like a fire: the pine cones loose their integrity and drop seeds. Each of those seeds carry some of the brands “DNA” to the social Web. This may on a company site, one driven by customers or a hybrid of the two.

The key thing to recognize here is this loss of control isn’t a bad thing. This process of defining ACC’s strategy, including defining the rules of engagement, helps to ensure the those “brand” seeds represent our interests and align to our strategic goals.

Twitter Lists: Thoughts

Published January 3, 2009 Operations , Strategy 1 Comment
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I started the Brand Index many months ago as preparation for my value analysis. (Note: This project is on-going, but it seems that valuation of intangibles is a pretty difficult matter to work through. I hope to have an update in the next few months).

Since the inception of the Index, there have been a number of other lists covering government, newsppers and media and even Cape Cod!

I am grappling with a number of questions:

  1. Do these lists provide any value? I could see twitter improving profile information to make these lists moot.
  2. There are many lists but few attempts to validate identity. Does anyone see this important in why they choose to follow?
  3. Will 2009 be the Year of the Business Model for Twitter?

Any thoughts? Please, post up!

Ads By Google: Racist?

Published December 28, 2008 Operations Leave a Comment

We’re all familiar with the Google philosophy “Don’t be evil.”

After checking @therules for some chuckles, I checked to see who else followed this account. One of the users I found was @bigced, who has a great bio:

If you don’t know, you REALLY need to find out….

I needed to find out and clicked on the listed URL, theindustrycosign.com. I discovered two things — bigced has a Hip-hop news and information community and; Google powered ads offer up something I would consider in poor taste. Take a look:

picture-41

So… does it make any sense to offer ads for criminal record checks on hip-hop sites? As if we needed any excuse to believe your corporate philosophy has become window dressing for a typical half-baked, profit driven enterprise. Maybe it’s time to adjust the algorithm a bit?

Twitter: Is Regulation Required?

Published December 7, 2008 Technology , twitter Leave a Comment
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Time to break radio silence! OK, just kidding. I started up school recently and have been adjusting to my new schedule. On to the post… how should brands participate when content, hosted in other Web properties, is age restricted? Check out the following thread:

Any Alcohol-Related Brands?Response

Alcohol and TwitterExperimentation

I followed up with Tonia (@toniahammer), “New media, PR and marketing enthusiast” at Molson (Yes, that Molson) regarding this subject. Her comment is noteworthy:

It’s just like marketing on tv, radio, print… impossible to know exactly who’s watching/listening.

@BobTroia’s motivation was examining corporate activities in the context of compliance and regulation. However, how do you regulate conversations? If I was an exec of Pernod-Ricard, should I be wary of making a statement in public? How about on a sidewalk? Like Tonia wrote, it’s impossible to know who’s watching or listening. That being said, do conversations on Twitter – or any other social property for that matter – fall under the pervue of regulatory requirements? Any thoughts?

Personality: Is it needed?

Published November 12, 2008 Marketing , Strategy 1 Comment
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What is needed to succeed on Twitter? Let’s cut through the posts concerning tools and case studies and distill the essential elements. First off: Let’s get in the right mindset. Twitter – or any microblogging platform – is a channel for your organization. It’s not about technology, it’s about engagement.

I see four measurable elements in microblog use:

  1. Frequency of posts — How active is the account?
  2. Level of Interaction — Does the account holder interact with followers?
  3. Type of Content — What is the general nature of the account? Promotional, news, et al?
  4. Personality — The vibe and tone of the tweets… what would grab a stranger and make them follow?

All of these factors influence people to follow the account and form the basis for long term engagement. One factor that is perhaps the most difficult to describe and measure is personality (I’ve referred to this as the p-factor; yes, I like those types of monikers;-) Microblogging limits you to 140 characters, so you need to connect with the community. Take a look at the following tweet from @MarkDykeman:

Came across a field, from one of our legacy systems, named ISCRAP. Who says IT isn’t transparent? :)

If you read this Tweet, would you be motivated to click on his username and possibly follow the account? Now look at this version that I rewrote for comparison – talk about a wet blanket:

Came across a field, from one of our legacy systems, named ISCRAP. Need to examine ERD for further detail.

Is personality needed? Yes, for most uses. What are the exceptions? Recognized brands, political leaders and media channels to name a few. Does @BarackObama need to inject personality in tweets? With over 107,000 followers, the answer would be a resounding no. For those of us without an established offline image, personality contributes to the value proposition we offer followers. Is it possible to take personality too far? Look around on Twitter… I won’t start any flame wars by listing them here;-)

Twitter: One step closer to a business model?

Published November 12, 2008 Strategy Leave a Comment
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Top story in today’s Section 2 from OnlineMediaDaily:

Twitter Eyes Charging Firms As Startup Valuations Drop

Yes, the darling application of the microblogging world comes one step closer to a real (e.g. sustainable) business model. Don’t get me wrong, I love Twitter; it’s been the jumping point for a lot of my recent work, including my posts at the Touchbase blog. However, the dependency on VC dollars is something that wouldn’t last, especially in this economy. In particular:

Twitter, the wildly popular microblogging service with no business model, may be forced to charge companies for access to its users, founder Evan Williams told Bloomberg News. Williams, who recently replaced Jack Dorsey as CEO, said he wanted to start weaning the company off venture capital, especially as the economic climate sours.

Adopting a sustainable model may become a priority for other start-up firms:

According to Michael Patrick, a partner at the law firm Fenwick & West, startup valuations have fallen at least 20% in the past year. Bloomberg noted that the fall in valuations comes at a time when many young Silicon Valley firms need to raise more capital just to survive.

The lessons here:

  • Sustainability is more than a good idea, it’s a business necessity.
  • Twitter established microblogging, but Yammer and Qikcom are perfecting the model for private networks.

When life gives you lemons… make orange juice?

Published November 6, 2008 Marketing Leave a Comment
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I found this sign in the grocery store this evening:

Lemons

Whoa… lemons are perfect for orange juice?

What are you telling your customers?

ROI and Social Media

Published November 3, 2008 Strategy , Uncategorized 2 Comments
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Name one of the most overused words in business today. If you said “Web 2.0,” you’re right, but there’s one even more insidious: ROI. Many have posted about it, but when asked “show me,” most remain silent. So is there any tangible return on investment, or is it as much or a mystery as our friend here.

When does ROI work for social media? The type of use must be easily measurable within a quantified framework — in plain English: use must correspond to numbers, such as views or sales. Take a promotion or sales presence, such as http://twitter.com/delloutlet. The manager of the account would be able to link site sales directly through user activity. A telesales center would be another good candidate for such financial measures.

So what about other forms of use?

Measurement is indirect and based on “human capital;” if you’re looking for a definition, check out the work by Drs Kaplan and Norton at The Palladium Group. Social media is based on engagement — a measure that doesn’t lend itself well to measurement for either the employee or the audience. Engagement is also asynchronous – activity doesn’t always immediately result in a sale or greater satisfaction. This difficulty isn’t limited to social media: public relations is another profession that isn’t well suited for ROI. I don’t believe engagement can be measured adequately (why: take a look at chaos or complexity theories).

My suggestion: create a new class of measurements called strategic return on activities (SROA). Following the work of Kaplan and Norton, activity of staff would be measured in terms of alignment to strategic goals of the organization. Following the work in Strategy Maps, social media would be folded under the appropriate internal, customer and financial perspectives. The greater an employee (e.g. Web or community manager) is prepared and motivated to perform the job, the strong the impact on the organization and it’s customers.

Now I’m interested in numbers as well. Unless social media can directly impact revenue or costs, it’s a financial liability. To counter this, activity would be quantified in terms of time (as a percent of salary plus overhead), along with any investment in information technology. This is measured against the internal and customer perspectives: is better intel going to product development, or are customers indicating a greater satisfaction with social resources. Most importantly, does this change over time and correspond to investment in social media operations? 

Coming up next: what activities will yield the greatest results.

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