Strategic Public Relations

The Impact of Color & Font on Messages

Living in a battleground state, I've been subject to a long and noisy 2012 election season that started in May. Attack ads saturating every media channel are seemingly in concert with an incessant rhythm of autobot phone calls and other campaign techniques. The din is bringing people to tears. But only two different yard signs, for a single candidate, have stood out for me this election season.**

And it’s all due to the impact of font and color choice - and perhaps my profession.

One Candidate, Two Signs
The only race discussed locally as frequently as the Presidential election is the race for an Ohio U.S. Senate seat. The Republican candidate, while 35 years old, looks very young. And I initially assumed the red yard sign on the right was a shift in his campaign strategy. It's actually from a special interest group and the white yard sign on the left is from the campaign team. The white yard sign is consistent with the candidate's overall branding and communication efforts.

Less Really is More
The sign on the right has tighter copy. As a result, it doesn't mention his more youthful first name. Less copy also allows for a bigger font size, which pops as white on a dark red background. The color choice is a reminder of the candidate's party and even the font looks more credible. The white yard sign on the left's italicized font has an almost Comic Sans look to it. It conveys youth more than it conveys credibility.

It's in the Details
Can a single yard sign make or break a candidate's election campaign? At the end of the day, getting elected requires the most votes. But the above example would have definitely helped address a specific issue for this candidate. And it's a reminder of how the subtle details behind our content work together to achieve a larger goal.


**This is a post about how font and color choice can make a big impact on communication devices. This is NOT a political post

The Power of Unassuming Brands (a lesson from Signal P&G)

The Signal P&G event brought together brands we see in the news almost daily -- from Twitter and Facebook to Coca-Cola and more. But the brands on Procter & Gamble's dais getting less media attention, or perhaps less positive media attention, were more interesting that day. Presentations from Amazon, AOL and Nokia taught me to reconsider the power of unassuming brands.

These companies are not startups or unknowns. But news coverage can suggest that new brands may "kill" more established brands. Stories with only one clear winner, atop a pile of competitors, make for shareable content. It's Mashable pr0n -- a syndrome of oversimplification I've ranted about before. But as these stories distract our attention, several unassuming brands have quietly become pervasive and have a much bigger story to tell. 

The Mighty Amazon
After Amazon launched in 1995, a then client suggested the site was a ponzi scheme. Not only was he wrong, he was one of the first of many Amazon naysayers. But for most of us, we've come to know Amazon as one of the only Internet mall concepts from the dot com era that came to fruition. Signal P&G reminded of some interesting Amazon facts and I've since seen more in the news.

• 80% better Amazon app store monetization for developers compared to iOS (TechCrunch)
• 54% of tablets run Amazon's version of Android to Google's 46% (All Things D)
• 10% of Amazon’s 2011 sales were Kindle readers, Kindle books; Kindle book sales outnumber hardback book sales (All Things D/NYTimes)
• 1% of ALL Internet traffic taps into Amazon’s Cloud (WIRED)

With more than 170 million active customers, keep in mind that's users actually spending money, Amzaon has the scale and ability to personalize the shopping experience. The end result gets users to spend and brands to advertise. Amazon taps into more than its fair share of the daily deals phenomenon that's estimated to generate $7 million every day. In addition to AmazonLocal, it owns LivingSocial. Amazon also leverages its personalization technology to create MyHabit.com. This “private sale” site and mobile app offers brand-specific promotions – tailored to each user.

Amazon Drives Offline Sales for Crest
It's not surprising P&G has experienced great success selling its consumer packaged goods (CPG) through Amazon. CPG is Amazon's fastest growing category -- making up four percent of Amazon’s 2011 sales. A Crest White Strips campaign gave the brand a 26 percent lift in its Amazon sales and even had an impact on offline sales. P&G's Amazon-based campaign increased offline sales an additional eight percent, or $1 million according to Lisa Utzschneider, Amazon's Global VP of Ad Sales .

And if the above all seem like random facts, consider this quote from Forrester Research's Sucharita Mulpuru "Amazon is beating Walmart in price." That six-word metric is reason enough why this brand should not be underestimated.

UPDATE: The New York Times has an article since this was published about how Amazon's moving into Fashion as well. And I forgot that Amazon also owns Zappos. Wow.

AOL’s Content Marketing Play
As the internet expands, consumers are actually using fewer brands, according to AOL CEO Tim Armstrong. This gives brands a new significance as AOL builds out what it feels will be the premier information brand.

"It’s unlikely a consumer will make a purchase decision, large or small, that is not influenced somehow by content," said Armstrong. "Consider the impact of always-on, mobile sites like Yelp. AOL’s ability to be a constant like Yelp gives it significant influence in helping consumers and brands through content."

Several of its recent aquisitions have made for dramatic news  between Huffington Post, Techcrunch and Endgadget alone. But these acquisitions are helping them build out their offering and fuels their mission to help more brands publish.

AOL gets local and personal
Successful or not, Patch and About.me are two other AOL projects that may be more telling of its future. Patch has been lambasted by old and new media. But Armstrong notes it is established in more than 850 towns nationwide. And each location costs about $150,ooo to run annually -- a cost unheard of for traditional news outlets. This local play could prove successful in the long term.

About.Me is elegant in its simplicity. This free splash page serves up your most relevant content, with free analytics. It's become a big people-watching site. And its new mobile app will allow you to be notified when your About.me friends are nearby offline. This might sound like stalking. But the bigger point to be made is AOL's wading into geo-location.

Armstrong is oft-mentioned in the media for all of the above AOL business moves. He is very focused, noting that AOL is focused on building things that help people live better lives. He warns others of the danger behind simply chasing the shiny new. "Cool is a disease. Utility is the antidote."

This focus is one reason I think AOL's story has yet to be written. As it completes its transition from access to content, there are a lot of interesting opportunities across paid, owned and earned media.

Nokia Life & Emerging Markets
While some are noting that "mobile is the most pervasive technology ever invented," there are 3.2 billion people on Earth without a mobile phone. Nokia's senior vp of mobile services, Dieter May, discussed how the brand is connecting and engaging "the next billion."

You'd never confuse Nokia for TOMS Shoes, but as Nokia enters emerging markets in China, India and Indonesia, it's partnering with Unicef to extend access to healthcare and other basic life needs through its $20-$100 handsets. Through Nokia Life the brand is bringing these customers a platform to address the gaps in critical, hyperlocal information.

Think Ecosystem
CNET's Brian Cooley kicked the day off discussing "the next big thing." When looking at various gadgets out there, CNET is always asked to predict the next big thing, but also who will win the race for gadget supremacy. CNET looks first for a product's digital ecosystem to determine how successful it might be in the future.

A digital ecosystem includes the device, a service, apps, as well as an operating system. Google has one. Apple has one. Verizon and Samsung have them. Amazon and Nokia do too.

All of these companies can provide its consumer with media that is in sync no matter where they use it, when they use it or even which device they use to access it. A digital ecosystem can make or break a gadget's success in the future. All that said, Cooley notes that even in a post-pc era, the PC will not go away. It simply won't be the center of attention. Cooley points to the connected car as the next frontier for the next big thing as we look to our cars' digital technology to communiicate, navigate, inform and entertain. 

"That's no moon."
Star Wars indirectly provides two examples of how we can make assumptions and by revisting these assumptions we can learn much more. When Yoda was first introduced, no one thought he could possibly be a Jedi warrior. As the story progresses, Yoda makes it clear that size doesn't matter. Even earlier in the saga, what was first assumed to be a small moon was actually the Death Star.

Sci-Fi aside, we should always remember t0 "shake the disease" and look for the bigger story.

 

 

TidyCat's Social Media Team Stops a Stink Over Its #lifestinks Campaign

TidyCats latest ad campaign spans online and offline to get consumers sharing about what stinks in their lives. But one of their ads created its own stink. To the brands' credit, they were listening and responded in less than 24 hours to stop a possible catfight with consumers.

Billboards localize the campaign by referencing what stinks in each market. I'm imagining traffic in Los Angeles, rain in Seattle and there are plenty of opportunities for the NYC subway. These examples are all harmless, even humorous, locally relevant and make TidyCats' point that #lifestinks.

Don't Trash the the Nati
If you were cooking up the ads for each market, would you make a joke about a city's neighborhood? In this case, a Cincinnati neighborhood that Wikipedia will tell you:

• has a rich history
• serious art community
• the most Italianate architecture in the United States
• and has been compared to Greenwich Village, NYC; Savannah, Georgia; Charlseton, South Carolina and New Orleans French Quarter?

As a proud resident of Cincinnati, I'm one of more than a few locals that aren't happy about the billboard. Tony Blankemeyer tipped me off to this bad ad on Friday night. And while the ad clearly sucks, I'm pleased to note TidyCats is taking steps to rectify the situation. After more than a few comments across Facebook, Twitter and the TidyCats campaign site, the brand replied less than 19 hours after I first saw the billboard.

"We appreciate your comments, Kevin. Our billboard mentioning OTR was meant to be humorous. We understand that to many of you, it wasn't. We will be taking fast action to correct our error. Please accept our apologies. - TidyCats Team "

Listen, Learn and Build Loyal Fans
This is a reminder of the importance of social listening and having a response plan in place to engage with consumers and address any unforseen concerns. It doesn't matter if social media is part of a brand campaign. In this case, it was an offline billboard that drew well-deserved ire. Social media is simply where the complaints took place.

TidyCats showed they were listening and taking action against a campaign that was raising a serious stink with Cincinnatians. And in in doing so, they stand to create more friends than foes. Full Disclosure: I'm a dog person. But I'm a fan of TidyCats now based on how this misstep was handled -- and over a holiday weekend no less.

Consumers will still vent their frustrations. But by acting quickly, TidyCats avoided consumers getting organized and the resulting brand pile on that can take place. It makes it much tougher for a brand to change the tone of the conversation.

Separating Noise from Signal (at) P&G

P&G is hosting an event to "showcase ideas from some of the most well-known and respected digital thought leaders and share a few ideas of (their) own at Signal P&G on March 8 at P&G's Cincinnati HQ."

Digital's Connecting Brands with Consumers
There will be a mix of case studies and interviews from an impressive lineup of brands including Amazon, American Express, Best Buy, Buddy Media, Coke, Facebook, Flipboard, Google, Twitter and of course P&G. As an attendee, I'll be taking copious notes and hopefully blogging my observations. This is a taller order than usual based on the agenda and the speakers that will be on the dais. 

The event is being produced by Federated Media and is modeled after their Signal conference series. I'm hoping they continue their habit of supplying the event with an amazing soundtrack. It sounds odd, but the right music in between  speakers inspires faster blogging.

Follow the Content Feeds
There's some more background on the event here. Look for the #SignalPG hashtag on Twitter to follow short form content during the event. I've created a Twitter list of Signal P&G speakers as well. And for a great post on signal, noise, discovery and curation, be sure to read this post from John Battelle's Search Blog.

Cross-posted to my work blog
Image via ProcterGamble on Instagram 

 

 

#NOCincyBananaSplit & #bananasforCLT -- a tale of two hashtags

Can Twitter sway an international brand and its potential relocation plans?

That remains to be seen. But I’ll argue it can’t hurt.

#NOCincyBananaSplit
A few weeks ago, Twitter’s J.B. Kropp contacted me and expressed his desire to get organized around what is now known as #NOCincyBananaSplit. It’s our Twitter-based campaign to make sure Chiquita knows that Cincinnatians want them to stay in town.

It was inspired by the news that Charlotte, the other Queen City, was being considered along with a third city as possible spots for Chiquita to relocate. And it’s great to see how quickly we were able to tap into Twitter and show our support.

Here’s how a phone call turned into an online dialogue with Chiquita’s CEO in less than 36 hours.

On September 16, 2011 at 9am J.B. Kropp contacted me about the Chiquita news. As a Cincinnati native, he saw the opportunity to tap into Twitter to make a difference.

Within an hour, a colleague and I came up with #NOCincyBananaSplit and an initial email from J.B. went out to a small handful of local influencers. From there it snowballed into 140 character calls to action. This initial burst of activity got Ad Age’s attention. This in turn got the local media’s attention.

And by the end of the work day, the news had taken place, it was covered by the media and we all moved along with our lives.

Twitter a CEO Tool
That next day @FdoAquirreCEO responded to Cincinnati's show of support, via Twitter of course. And it’s important to note that, while Chiquita’s CEO’s use of Twitter is not unique, Fernando Aguirre is definitely more evolved than the average Twitter user. He understands more than the basics and uses it to engage with other users and not to simply broadcast messages. It’s a potentially humanizing tool and he’s using it to put a face with a large company.

Tweets continued off and on. And a week later, on September 24^th, @BrianDFrancis turned the Cincinnati campaign into a friendly competition by getting Charlotte organized for its own Twitter campaign.

CLT or CVG TBD
#BananasForCLT did as much to underscore the importance of these efforts as it did to make their own side of the story heard. In addition to giving #NOCincyBananaSplit a second wind, this whole exercise has reinforced a few things.

1) Offline & Online: While the vast majority of this, including media coverage, took place online, it all started with a phone call and an email. The need for more direct and personal contact should never be overlooked. And making sure online and offline complement each other is the easiest way to make this happen.

2) Less Can Be More: We talked about supporting the Twitter campaign with everything from a Facebook page and a microsite to larger, offline expressions of our love for bananas. But it didn’t make sense. @FdoAguirreCEO’s use of Twitter was proven and doing anything more would simply diffuse our efforts.

3) Professional vs. Personal: If this was more than a friendly-competition, I’d take several steps to generate a bigger impact. Creating a Twitter landing page to make avatar swaps and creating tweets of support dead simple for people to join the cause would be my first step. Paid ads, most likely on Facebook, would help drive folks to the page. And an offline way to express your support would also be made available.

4) Don’t Be a Jerk: With most any online effort, there will be trolls trying to take over your bridge so to speak. But it was great to see how friendly competition helped both sides out in the long run. It would be easy to get into trash talk with 400 jobs on the line. But there were even cases of members from each side policing their own supporters.

Twitter’s ability to sway the relocation of 400 jobs is still up for debate…even after Chiquita announces its selection. But it’s a humanizing platform and it’s helped @FdoAguirreCEO connect with consumers nationwide in this example. And its helped two cities make sure Chiquita knows exactly how much their presence is appreciated. Mission accomplished.

The NOW Revolution: Seven Social Imperatives for Business

"The NOW Revolution" written by Jay Baer and Amber Naslund has received reviews from the likes of DuctTape Marketing’s John Jantsch, Chris Brogan and Seth Godin. It outlines how you can retool your organization to make real-time business work for you rather than against you.

"You Say You Want a Revolution..."
I got a copy of the book at SXSW earlier this year and really enjoyed it. It covers seven shifts that will help you make your company faster, smarter, and more social. The book includes a lot of bonus material (videos, pdfs, podcasts and links) accessible through Microsoft Tags located throughout the book.

Full case studies in each of the shifts, chronicle success stories from Moosejaw, ThinkGeek,Autodesk, Sweet Leaf Tea, Taylor Guitars, Boingo and Martell Homebuilders. The book also contains examples from 50 additional companies, most of them small and medium-sized businesses.

That's a lot of content.

Shift Happens
As their web site notes, "the book presents seven shifts that businesses need to make to adapt to the speed, expectations, and immediacy of the social web. It’s the operational guide to building and organizing a socially-equipped business, from people to process."

The shifts discussed in the book include:

1. Engineer a New Bedrock: Without a consistent, powerful corporate culture you can’t win in real-time. -- I'll add that regardless of how we start working with clients on social media, we usually wind up focusing on internal operations before the launch.
2. Find Talent You Can Trust: Moving fast requires empowering employees to make quick, smart decisions. That impacts HR and hiring. A lot. -- This also gets back to culture. If departments like IT, HR, Customer Service, Legal and Marketing can't talk to each other readily and easily, it's going to be a tough road to journey down.
3. Organize Your Armies: How social media and social participation are organized and managed internally. -- Process is critical to ease any issues folks might have in getting started.
4. Answer the New Telephone: The art, methods, and pay-offs of meaningful social listening. -- When passionate customers interact directly with brands for the first time, it has a big impact.
5. Emphasize Response-Ability: Responding to customer inquiries on the social Web, but also moving beyond that to creating your own stories and conversations. -- If a business has identified its Social Brand, it ensures content created will resonate with customers and start conversation.
6. Build a Fire Extinguisher: How to find, judge, and solve a social media crisis. -- As much as things change, they seem to stay the same. Companies still do not prepare proactively for communication crisis...online or offline.
7. Make a Calculator: The many ways you can measure social media, and how to select and utilize the most appropriate metrics for your company. -- This usually starts with the initial planning process. Instead of focusing on what (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or another social platform), focus on why. Why are you engaging in social media? Is it connected to business goals? Success metrics up front make it much easier to measure success once the program is launched.

Jay Baer on "The NOW Revolution"
On August 24th, Jay Baer will be in Cincinnati to discuss "The NOW Revolution" at Cincinnati Social Media's monthly meeting. It'll be great to learn more about his perspective behind the book and what he's learned since it was published. Fifth Third Bank is the event sponsor. If you're interested in attending the event, registration is online at Eventbrite.

5 Things You Can Learn On A Photowalk

Over the weekend, Cincinnati Social Media held a photowalk within downtown Cincinnati. We had amazing weather for it and, in two hours, I took 120 pics and walked a little over a mile with more than a dozen #cincysm members and Instagram fans.

While I've planned a ton of events over the years, every one is different and you can still learn something new each time. So here are five things I learned on the #cincysm #instameet.

1) Cameras Are Not Required: While I was inspired to organize this event by Instagram, it didn't matter if you had the app, or an iPhone -- all forms of capture were welcome. Others had Androids or their SLRs in hand. But a high point of the day was when I realized two children were using their Nintendo DS' to take pictures. The kids were accompanying their parents on the walk. 

2) Back Stories Make Big Stories: It was great to meet some folks for the first time that day as well as others I'd known online, but had not met in person. One attendee had not been downtown for about five years. So it was great to get his perspective on how much the city has changed and improved. Everyone seemed to contribute a lesser known fact about buildings as we walked. This gave a great back story to the pictures we took and we got to know each other better in the process.

3) New Perspectives Will Find You: I've spent a lot of time downtown over the years and knew the path we took has plenty of photo opportunities. But there were still certain spaces, perspectives and details I saw for the first time. Photowalks are great when you're out of town, but they can also reconnect you with a space so familiar that you don't pay attention to it.

4) Promotion Before Makes For Difficult Follow-Up After: Events are shared  and overshared via social media. This one made it to LinkedIn (which serves as CincySM's web page), Facebook (not everyone targeted were CincySM members), on Instagram and all of these pushed to a MeetUp site to keep it organized. This is fine -- even without the context. But it makes it tough to track everyone down post-event. All 12 attendees have different online preferences and a different point of reference for the event online. In addition to Flickr and Instagram, we're using DropEvent for a spot to aggregate images (h/t Christiaan). But even if everyone agrees to a single hashtag and rallying point post-event, you still find yourself repopulating the same sites you used to promote the event with this update.

5)  Organizing For Flexibility Is Critical: With a lot of events -- from weddings to conferences -- your attendance can change at the last minute. So I had multiple routes in mind in case we needed to split up into smaller groups. And as we walked our route, we tried to tweet/instagram a few pics so folks could catch up to us. This worked out well. But for the next photowalk, I'll also designate a single way for late comers to communicate with us so they can catch up more easily during the event.


The event was great and it was a blast taking a ton of pictures with Cawood, FranToh, Stuku56, Castlepoint, JustThinkChris, TorenCastle, GlennaVonHenna, Kathy Jo love blue, Tattooprincess and Pezhunter. Stay tuned for the next one. We'll definitely be doing more.

10 Instagram Hacks

In December 2010, I installed Instagram on my phone.

Six months and more than 215 photos later, I now enjoy using my mobile phone to take pictures as much as I enjoy using my digital camera. And in doing so I join more than five million users of a photo app less than eight months old.

What’s the big deal? Some suggest it’s Polaroid nostalgia. But the app’s power is in its utility, simplicity and community. Instagram is an easy to use, but powerful, social camera. It allows you to point, click, edit using one of 11 filters and share all within a single app. It’s essentially a microblogging platform focused solely on pictures.

Regardless of what you call it, Instagram introduces you to its community and their stories one photo at a time. Here are 10 things I’ve learned using Instagram that will make your experience with this app even better.

1)  Community: Check out Instagramers.com to meet new, passionate fans. Created by Phil Gonzalez, the site features users and includes tips, tutorials and a photo of the day contest. It’s a great way to connect with people and to see how creative users are getting within the apps constraints. Or if Facebook is more your style, check out the Instagram Community fan page.

2)  Ambient Awareness: From fashion, music and luxury brands to news outlets, non-profits, startups and some of your favorite beverages, there are a lot of brands on Instagram. And with any new platform; it’s interesting to see how brands use it to interact with fans. We’re already seeing examples of news releases, activism and extreme branding.

3)  Stats & Back (that pic) Up Hacks: Instagram’s open API has inspired a flurry of sites that create a richer web-based experience for this app. There are more than I can list in a single post without losing your attention. But if you only check out one, make it Statigram. It provides you with analytics around your Instagram account.

For those of us that want to back up our photos for archival purposes or just to make it easier to share with others, we have a couple of options. Facebook fans can use Instasync to create a Facebook Photo Album. Dropbox users can tap into Instadrop to automatically make a copy of your Instagram pics as they’re posted. Or use Copygram (currently in beta) for a more universal back up option. These are great when you find yourself with too many pictures on your phone.

4) Flickr: Yep, for me, Instagram and Flickr provide two different things. In this case, head over to Flickr and check out the Instagram group. If you’d like to mash up the two sites, Gramjunction is worth checking out. Juan Sanchez tapped the Insta-API to create a site that takes your Flickr pics tagged with Instagram and serves them up in a stream. Clicking through takes you to the Flickr page/account for that photo. This allows Flickr Fans to continue to focus on their site of choice and still parse out their instagram pics.

5) Instaview Sites: By far the web-based sites allowing users to interact with and view Instagram pics are the most popular choice for developers tapping into the API. There are a ton of these “Instaview sites,” but most require you to be a member of Instagram to access them.

Regardless, I enjoy using Inkstagram for its interface (it doesn’t work on IE, fwiw). But there is something for everyone in this category from sites including Extragram, Gramfeed, Webstagram, Instagrid, Listagram and a viewer that lets you view popular photos by filter used. You can even create a screensaver (web-based or Mac-based) with your Instagram pics. Or create a widget to bring your pics to your blog.

6)  Novelty View Sites: Novelty view sites are like Instaview sites but they come with a twist. Are you a cat person or a dog person? Anecdotal evidence tells us there are more cat people using Instagram but maybe it’s better to compare kittens and puppies?

Or view pics based on geography (map-based), color or geo-location (near you). Hot or Not fans will appreciate Instawar and Pic A Fight. Or if you just want to gaze at the popular crowd, visit Rrrewind to do so across a variety of social content.

7)  InstaMake Sites: If you thought the novelty view sites were cool, a host of sites take it offline to create Instagram souvenirs. Teeny Tile and Stickygram offer magnetic attraction. Instatees and IGTees let you wear your Instagrams. Hatchcraft and Keepsy allow you to frame your pics or make them into a scrapbook.

And while Instaprint was one of the first options for printing your Instagrams (using a pre-identified hashtag), it has been joined by Postagram, stickers, Instamaker and other Instagoodies as well as posters and contact sheets from Printstagram, Social Print Studio and Printo.

8)  Challenges: I can frame this section up with a single name: Josh Johnson. @JoshJohnson is a photographer with daily tips and a rotating set of photo challenges that get the Instagram community congregating from around the world. Challenges are one of the best ways to engage with Instagram (participation = social media satisfaction, hmmm, sounds like a meme) But while Josh is the most active and prolific Instgramer I know, Spenser Kaufman @deceivexxdeny, also provides some interesting opportunities amongst others.

9)  Tag It: Much like Twitter, hashtags are a critical device with this app. They’re used very creatively on Instagram to tell stories. All of the challenges rely on tags and tagging your location is a great way to meet folks in your community using Instagram. That can come in handy for photowalks.

10) Photowalks: Photowalks take the Instagram community offline and in person -- where it's most important and powerful. They're an amazing way to get inspired, meet other photographers and take a ton of pics. There was a global Instameet earlier this year. But you don’t have to wait until next year to have one. Just head to Instameet and create your own. Or find one to participate in. Psst, the Cincinnati Instameet is on Saturday, June 25th. Join us!

Instagram is APPtastic
Phew! In an earlier post, I focused on mobile photo apps and left out Instagram. And now it’s probably obvious why. It’s inspired an ecosystem of sites Now it might make more sense if I tell you that, on average, 10 photos are posted to Instagram every second.

To check out the above link storm, uh, hacks in a curated page, check out my Scoop.It on Instagram sites.

It’s a far from exhaustive list, believe it or not. So if you have a site to add, do it there or share it in the comments below. Or post about it on Instagram and copy @prblog.


Cross-Posted at My Work Blog

Social Media: More than Twitter and Facebook? Uh, yeah.

The following post is based on a discussion at the Cincinnati Social Media LinkedIn Group.

In what seems to be a race to oversimplify EVERYTHING, we're creating misdefinitions. In many cases there's simply (a lot) more to the story.

Social media provides the latest example. Do you know anyone with "T&F Tunnel Vision?" This unfortunate condition involves the assumption that the social media landscape starts and ends with Twitter and Facebook.

I've ranted about this before -- more than a few times. And I'm taking this well-worn soapbox with me down to SXSW for a panel discussion I'm on with David Binkowski and Krista Neher about influencers. Simple math shows the folly in T&F Tunnel Vision and Geoff Livingston deconstructs Twitter in a recent post.

Recently I was reminded about an uber-important site for any local strategy -- Yelp.  

Think Local, Act Social (with Yelp)
Alex Shebar and I connected recently so I could get up to speed on his role as Yelp's Cincinnati community manager as well as some functionality to the site of which I was unaware. I've used Yelp before. But until recently I had not visited frequently/regularly.

It's safe to say I'm a minority in Cincinnati. Ohio has community managers in three cities: Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland. That's rare and speaks to our level of activity on the site. States larger than ours have only one manager in one city.

Yelp became a bigger focus for me when looking at how small businesses are using social media. In a recent presentation, I spent more time discussing Yelp than I did Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. It's because small businesses stand to benefit by focusing their time and effort on Yelp.

Word of Mouth "is the primary factor behind 20 to 50 percent of all purchasing decisions" per NM Incite. And Yelp's community is just that. It's tagline is "real people. real reviews." Search is the place to start to determine where your customers are talking about your brand. And these reviews can impact search results in a big way. So even if your customers aren't hitting Yelp, they might be reading the reviews via search results.

Yelp 101
So what can businesses do to step up their Yelp presence? Alex gave me two links as the perfect examples.

** Business Owner's Guide to Yelp: This section of the site shows you how to claim your page, respond to reviews and even buy ads. It lays it out step by step. 

** Check-In Offers: This is similar to checking in on Foursquare, but focused more on easily-customized customer incentives. "It provides a measurable way to reward your most loyal customers while attracting new ones."

Based on the type of business, Yelp can be a valuable tool for building word of mouth. You should check and see where your company/your clients shake out. And if you have a great experience retail, food, drink or otherwise? Spread the word on Yelp.

As Alex noted in our conversation, "if you find yourself sitting at home complaining that there's nothing to do, you have no excuse. There's plenty to do. You just need a site to help you find it." 

Driving Miss Social Media
Everyone wants a dependable car that gives them no problems, performs well and gets the job done. But everyone wants to be seen in the sports car that's getting a tune up as much as it's parking a mile from the building so no one scratches the paint job. 

Did I just call Twitter a Ferrari and Yelp a Honda Accord? I'm being dramatic to make a point. But, yeah, there are popular sites and their are relevant sites. Relevant sites are different for every brand and for every customer segment. Relevance wins. 

I think I just named a new line of cars. Make check payable to...

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Full disclosure: I decided to create this post after the discussion with Alex and due to my recent focus on the site. I did not "unlock any offers" by doing so. In fact, I had to bug Alex to send me the links.

Pic for Strange Facts post - Yelp Fingerless Glove uploaded by Terre

 

 

Four Hairy Weeks & Avatars Saving the World

Geoff Livingston, Richard Laermer and I were in a friendly discussion awhile ago about the Cartoon Avatar campaign on Facebook.

You may recall the campaign wherein everyone was encouraged to swap out their profile picture with their favorite cartoon character* to increase the awareness of the issue of child abuse.

We all agreed to post on the topic. Instead of posting my take on the Bad Pitch blog (in a timely manner), I’m responding here to leave some space for my co-author to do the same.

Geoff makes some great points, including the dark side of lightweight user actions – slacktivism. The first wave of this debate brought the movement’s leader, a volunteer named Jay, under intense scrutiny -- the likes of which is usually quickly (and anonymously) organized online.

As I’m late to the game I’ll make some broader observations as cause awareness raising efforts are fueling a backlash.

Ideas Iterate Online: In March of 2009, P&G brought in a fleet of uber nerds (including myself) to help them sell some t-shirts for a good cause while teaching some of their marketers that social media can move SKUs.

P&G went to great lengths to ensure complete disclosure was made throughout the four hour, Apprentice-like event. Not only was the money going to charity, the person donating got a nostalgic t-shirt in return. It seemed like the perfect scenario to avoid criticism.

Wrong. People complained we didn’t raise enough ($50,000 in 240 minutes which P&G then matched). People complained about a lot of things.To compare the flack P&G received to the attacks made on Jay is more than a bit of a reach. And to be clear, I do feel that there was a wildly unsuitable amount of scrutiny placed on Jay. But some of the more pragmatic voices obviously helped him improve his approach with the addition of a URL to his efforts. Ideas can iterate quickly online.

As Geoff notes: “The great promise of the Fifth Estate [is] the ability to discuss matters when the conventional press and establishment — isn’t doing it well.”

The takeaway is a well-worn phrase I use for internal communications: “give everyone a bar of gold and someone will complain it’s too heavy.” Expect criticism – especially when it can be given from the comfort of an anonymous keyboard. Jay’s critique unfortunately devolved into a mob mentality. But the smaller, quieter and more constructive piece of that critique helped him. Healthy debate can make a healthy impact.

Fewer Silos, More Mustaches: Jay brought a lot of attention to the cause of child abuse. That was his goal and he reached it. Comparing his effort to Movember may seem unfair. But if anyone wants to learn from Jay’s experience, remember when more than awareness is the goal, more than a single effort in a single media silo is required.

Since the concept was dreamed up over beers in 2003, Movember has raised more than $100 million to help find a cure for prostate cancer. That’s a lot of mustache growth in the month of November. Movember’s succeeding because it did not place all of its chips on a single, mass avatar flip. It started offline, it spread and it built out over time.

It Takes an iVillage: Malcom Gladwell noted in the New Yorker "weak ties seldom lead to high-risk activism.” Daniel Lally is quick to point out, as Geoff does, that weak ties are a start. These ties just usually shouldn’t be the finish too.

So perhaps before throwing our echo into the chamber next time, we consider the bigger picture and we ask if our “barbaric yawp” adds to the discussion or simply takes away by increasing the noise. It won't stop the real issue, but it can help the healthy debate stand out more easily.

*Is it cheating to list the Super Friends as my favorite cartoon character? In my defense I’ll note that one reason is the Cincinnati connection to their hangout.