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Three Words Marketers Must Sing in 2010: Serve, Shrink & Simplify

In one of my last Ad Age columns for the year, I focus my attention on three critical words marketers need to embrace, repeat, and perhaps even "retweet" in 2010:  Serve, Shrink, and Simplify.  It's worth a full read, but here are a few excerpts:

Serve:  You've heard this from me before, but I'll say it again. Service is the new marketing. Serving trumps selling. If consumers are in control, we can't just sell or wrap ads around them. We need to serve their needs, solve their problems and dial up talk-worthy "brand experiences." And we must do so 24/7, as Twitter-influenced consumers increasingly expect the "service desk" to be on all the time, from the 800-number and brand "chat" line to the Facebook fan page. Serve and you'll touch the nerve.  The other good news is that more brands are getting this -- almost intuitively. That's why we're seeing a fire hydrant of service innovation taking place across brand blogs, Twitter and even iPhone apps.  Consider the implicit assumption in mega-brand Tide's new iPhone app -- the "Tide Stain Brain" -- which acts as a de facto washing consultant.

Shrink: Our screens are shrinking -- big time. With billions of "app" downloads -- certain to explode further in 2010 -- much of our attention is now fixed (often frenetically) on screens half the size of a playing card. That has big implications. We need to adapt to a smaller interface. We need to rethink design. We need to cut the clutter. We need to obsess on the power of "icons" with the compulsiveness of a Steve Jobs or an airline safety card designer. We need to translate "everything-but-the-kitchen-sink" brand websites into two-inch screens. Oh, and this "shrinking" principle also applies to how we tighten and simplify copy. Twitter's 140-character limitation may seem like a climbing Everest to the "diarrhea of the mouth" crowd, but get used to it. Brevity is the soul of wit, my friends. We need to do more with less. Indeed, small is the new big.

Simplify:  Of course, we'll never win on either the "serve" or "shrink" principles unless we really simplify things for consumers. Admit it, we love complexity. We hide essential information in illegible fine-print. We're rather give consumers a 200-page "how to" manual than a simple video demo. If you want your iPhone app to sing, you darn well better build it on "add water and stir" simplicity principles. If you want your small-screen ad unit to engage, or your sponsored content to drive participation, you better think hard about stripping out the gobblygook. Just think about the upside. Consider all the micro-charges on our bank or Amex statements because Apple computers made it ridiculously simple to pay for content. Then project that to e-commerce sales, or perhaps even the riddle of how to save online content from Jack-the-"Free"-Ripper." Let there be no doubt -- simplicity sells.

Again, three words:  Serve, Shrink and Simplify.  (Full article here.) 

200 Tweet Summary of WOMMA Annual Conference

Outstanding recap of the most important tweets from the 2009 WOMMA Summit, held last week in Las Vegas.  The tweets follow the conference in chronological order.  I especially encourgage folks to pay attention to FTC keynote tweets.  The panel I moderated with Comcast, Best Buy, Levis, and Bunn is at the very end.  Kudos to @brandautopsy's John Moore (also WOMMA's evangelist) for this outstanding recap.  

Talkable Tweets from WOMMA's 2009 Summit

View more presentations from Word of Mouth Marketing Association.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association Summit Notebook

The WOMMA ethics code.  Here at the WOMMA annual conference.  Outstanding event -- easily one of the best. (Disclosure: I'm a co-founder.) The industry has really grown up, and it remains committed as ever to helping brands navigate through all the relevant issues around word-of-mouth marketing, including ethics.  Here's a snapshot from a couple current and former WOMMA board members about the state of the industry and key trends. The Twitter tweets around the conference reflect record-breaking conversation, and I encourage folks to tune in.  The WOMMA.org website will also post transcripts and video feeds from the various presentations and keynotes, especially this morning's FTC keynote. I also urge brands exploring word-of-mouth and/or social media for the first time to spend quality time reviewing (even debating) the WOMMA ethics code. As for me, I'll be hosting a general session conversation with Comcast, Best Buy, Toyota, and Levis on the relationship between customer service and word-of-mouth.  Stay tuned for a recap on that front. 

Revisiting Paid versus Earned Media: Now Enter "Blended" Media

Yesterday, during a spirited panel discussion I moderated at Cincinnati's Digital Hub Conference featuring P&G's Dave Knox, Empower's Kevin Dugan, and former P&G digital leader Suzanne Tosolini, we talked a fair amount about how to balance "Paid" versus "Earned" media, a question I've been thinking about constantly at Nielsen and beyond. It's a mission critical question -- one with massive implications for both marketing and operational investment -- and it was no coincidence that I used this as a foundational slide to prod and catalyze the conversation on the topic of using social media and digital to build great brands.  

We're finally at a true crossroads in marketing.  There is so much evidence across the web that "earned media" -- consumer-generated media, social media, conversation, variants of PR -- is creating meaningful lift and value for brands that we now need to think more critically about resource and spending allocations.  Empirical evidence makes clear, for example, that customer service is a major driver of "earned media," but fixing or improving customer service takes real investment. Where does it come from?  Do we slice it off the "paid media" side of the equation.  And who makes that decision?  The CMO as currently defined, or some new hybid role that combines marketing, PR, and service?  Alas, the big questions.

Then again, it's not that simple, which is one reason the latest iteration of my paid/earned grid (which draws its initial inspiration from Dachis's David Armano's very early industry prodding on this framework) includes a third wheel called "blended media."  Here is an attempt to acknowledge that paid media often serves as a critical stimulus or even vitamin for "earned media."  Moreover, in a world of crowdsourcing and co-creation, "earned media" is increasingly becoming a core input into the paid equation.  Yes, we must always accomodate that fuzzy middle.  

Needless to say, our discussion on the matter was lively and spirited, and I hope it continues to drive and advance the conversation during the second day of this event which features keynotes from Peter Kim and Bob Gilbreath and presentations from many others, from Jason Falls and Jack Graydon.  BTW, if you want to follow this excellent conference, the Twitter hashtag is #dhi09 or just click this link.  

Thanks again to Dave, Kevin, and Suzanne for a most excellent panel.  And congratulations to all the event organizers, especially Jack Streitmarter or ScreamingBob Media and the Cincinnati Ad Club.  Outstanding!!!

- Pete (twitter.com/pblackshaw)

Advertising Week Diarist: Priming the Conversation

Within a half-hour of Mad Men winning a coveted Emmy (yet again) for best television drama, New York's "Advertising Week," a five day celebration of the advertising industry, officially kicked off.  In surveying the program content, one can quickly detect the significant changes and groundshifts in this industry, from digital transformation to social media strategy to the proliferation (and necessity) of service-grounded iPhone Apps.   Even the website for the event reflects a new world order in communication -- what with "sharing" utilities, digital media kits, mobile "utility" downloads, and the like.  It's a far cry from what my father, Bill Blackshaw -- one of the the orginal Mad Men -- experienced.  

Still, the ad community remains challenged (if not overwhelmed) by the new rules and dynamics of consumer control.  Of course social media is an "opportunity," but it's also a cross-current that threatens to dilute messaging and desired impact, or even put distrust on viral steroids.  Indeed, consumers have greater leverage to "advertise" their attitudes toward brands, and a significant percentage of them remain highly guarded and skeptical.  Marketers need to focus -- nay, obsess -- with how to renew, re-invigorate, or perhaps even redefine the trust covenant between consumer and brand. 

Importantly, we need to keep asking: are we just selling or are we serving the needs of consumers? Are we branding or bonding?  Are we embarking upon what Bob Gilbreath, CMO of BridgeWorldwide and a fellow P&G alum, refers to in his forthcoming book as "Meaningful Marketing?"  (He defines meaningful marketing as the 'marketing itself add[ing] value to peoples’ lives.' ) Or are we all, as Bob Garfield implies (not so subtly) in his provocative, arguably must-read book, The Chaos Scenario, just toast.  I'm actually convinced there's a world of potential for marketing and advertising, but we need to reset many of our core assumptions and operating principles. I'm equally convinced that this unprecedented bubbling of consumer conversation (from online communities to Twitter) is a well-spring of free and thoughtful advice to marketers about which roads and direction to take to secure the long term loyalty and advocacy of consumers.  But we first need to check or respective agenda at the door, and tune in to what the conversation is telling us. Listen first, then engage!  

Toward that end, I thought I'd "prime the pump" a wee bit.  A little over a year ago, around the time I published my book "Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3000", I started writing a column for Advertising Age magazine (mostly online) on a range of topics related to future trends in advertising, the relationship between service and marketing, and the broader impact of social media.  I just skimmed my content archive and pulled ten columns that might serve as a useful "primer" going into Advertising Week. These are themes and topics that are especially meaningful to me, but I suspect they might resonate with others. As always, I welcome feedback.

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Earned Media May Be Efficient But It's Far from Free: Getting the full divident of "earned media" requires much more that setting up Twitter and Facebook accounts.  Meaningful product and operational investment (e.g. customer service) pay the biggest dividends.

'Social Media Dad' Sees an iPhone-Powered New World Order:  It took a birthday party for my twins to help me appreciate the power and impact of the "all in one" service device.

Is Customer Service a Media Channel: Ask Zappos:  Zappos built a model Amazon ultimately acquired on an almost fanatical belief in the power of word-of-mouth, employee advocacy, and "no questions asked" service (all all kinds). 

It's Time for a Slow Marketing Movement:  Is social media pushing us into the "exuberance" zone? Maybe we need to slow down and revisit some of the fundamentals before we lunge forward.

Marketers Love a Conversation Unless the Consumer Starts It:  Why are brand feedback interfaces (e.g. Contact Us) so ugly, uninviting, and at complete odds with all marketing exhuberance over the "conversational" aspects of social media. 

In Time of Crisis, Sexy and Flashy Don't Count:  When Swine Flu broke, government agencies, especially the CDC, got it right.  Speed, functionality, and answers converged quickly.  We can learn from this.  

Is the Future of Marketing About Marketing to Marketers?  We need to sift marketer from consumer conversation, and many of the biggest brand brohaha's of the year have been triggered by tens of thousands of "marketers" who use social media.  New influencer channel?

When Calculating Twitter's ROI, Don't Ignore Its Change on Organizations:  Remember, social media is as much about business process innovation (especially driving internal cultural change) as marketing outreach.

Underwriting Your Super Bowl Spot:  You just can't think about TV the same anymore.  Much of the value in TV advertising comes through the "multiplier effect" across digital expression venues, and the digital trail.  How do we think holistically about TV?

The "Contribution Revolution" is More Important Than You Think:  Social media isn't just about messaging and advocacy; it's also about the tangible economic impact (potentially cost savings) of "user-contribution systems," whereby the most loyal customers become a de facto work-force.

Spanish Language Content Surprisingly Lacking on the Web: Marketers talk up a storm about the importance of Hispanic/Latino marketing (lots of it on the agenda for Ad Week) but it's hardly reflected on websites or social media strategies. 

- Pete (Twitter)

The Curious Juxtaposition of Advertising & Media Content

2009 Memorial Day Project: Three WW II Video Narratives from Dad

The Consumer-Generated Media (CGM) that most inspires and motivates me is personal. At the end of the day, social media is all about cementing connections, nurturing narrative, and redefining relationships. Yes,I have a day job at Nielsen promoting CGM and social media as a business vitamin and stimulus, but much of what helps me intuitively understand how and why CGM matters redounds to what I explore, test, and experiment with in my free time ... usually at a personal and even family level. DosBebes (blog dedicated to our twins) and Cucina.com (family recipes, inspired by my Sicilian mother and six siblings) are good examples of personal CGM.  

And so I spent this Memorial Day attempting, once again, to stitch together what seems to be an almost endless narrative from an archive of video interviews I conducted with my father before he passed away in 2007.  World War II was one of our favorite and engaging conversation topics. What follows are three short video clips, drawn from several hours of interviews and conversation, that capture slices of his experience as a young 18 year old cadet in World War II.  In so many respects the War changed everything for my father.  It served as a ticket out of Trenton, NJ.  It both tempered and expanded his view of a world undergoing dramatic change. It exposed him to personal tragedy (11 of his Trenton Catholic classmates were killed).  It opened up a gateway to higher education through the GI bill.

 

There's nothing particularly heroic and "movie-worthy" in my dad's experience -- he talks about a light German air attack on his massive convoy and a precarious encounter with a concussion grenade while training in Africa -- but, hey, a window in time is a window worth time for reflection, learning, and maybe even a wee bit of wisdom. Plus, these exercises always give me an excuse to spend time with someone who I deeply miss, and who I hope to reintroduce to my kids as they grow older. (The twins actually hung around my Mac while I pieced these together.) This clip

Is the Consumer Affairs Dept an Endangered Species? (An Open Letter to SOCAP Attendees)

 Is the consumer affairs department an endangered species?   I know, this sounds harsh – but the question is quite honest, and certainly timely.   I’m also tossing this out there as a provocative “call to action” at a time when consumer affairs professionals – contact center heads, customer service suppliers -- are assembling from all over the country to the Society of Consumer Affairs Professional’s (SOCAP)  annual symposium n Chicago.  Normally I’d be there – this is one conference I never want to miss – but I just so happen to be moderating the keynote panel at Ad-Tech San Francisco tomorrow on the topic of “Innovate or Die: Building Great Brands in the Era of Disruption.”  (Yes, in light of my opening sentence, there’s irony in the title, and I certainly hope to include a representative of SOCAP -- perhaps President Matt D’Uva or Chairman Pete Edghill -- on the panel next year.)

Here’s the rub.  Right now, in 2009, the consumer affairs (or consumer relations) industry has two strikes against it.  One, marketers generally treat this group as as “the neglected stepchild,” a term drawn directly from the most important chapter of my recent book “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3000” (Doubleday Business).  This is reflected in budget, staffing, and, in many cases, a typically marginalized role at the strategy table. Second, the explosion of social media tactics and strategies – typically led by marketers, ad agencies, PR firms, and the mushrooming legions of Twitter-schooled “social media experts" – has started to eclipse if not cannibalize consumer affairs' role in bread and butter consumer engagement activity: listening, responding, solving, managing feedback loops, and more.  It’s not that consumer affairs is doing less that they were, say, a year ago, but their total “share of conversation” relative to other groups is heading south.  Relevancy matters!

All of this has led to what I’ve often referred to as a massive “conversational divide.”  Marketing stakeholders are jumping into the social media space aggressively, and with no shortage of hype and exuberance (not necessarily a good thing) – from Twitter "service" accounts and corporate blogs to Facebook fan sites and user-generated ideation contests – while the consumer affairs department is barely keeping up.  The “divide” is most pronounced in the consumer experience.  Direct feedback channels (800 numbers, email feedback forms, online FAQs) are innovating at a fraction of the pace of the external social media “engagement” efforts.   Don’t believe me.  Just randomly pick ten major brands and ask whether their “feedback interfaces” match the pace of innovation with their social media efforts.     Yes, there are pockets of innovation where corporate accounts on Twitter act as de facto “consumer relations” outposts, but with the exception of perhaps Frank Eliason of Comcast (disclosure: a client) it is unusual to find a person with customer service or consumer affairs “credentials” staffing such efforts.  Even on the phone front, brands simply are not keeping up with consumer expectations, a point Emily Yellin hits hard (and persuasively) in her excellent new book, "Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us"   Again, we have a “conversational divide.

So what does this have to do with SOCAP?   Now more than ever, the consumer affairs community needs to step up to the plate and grab a real seat at the social media table. The conversation and table-talk at this year’s SOCAP confab should center around the tactics and strategies to realign management thinking about their potential to lead this promising area of innovation, and why they consumer affairs is positioned to do this better than anyone else.  That was precisely the theme of my keynote speech to SOCAP at their annual conference in October 2008, and I repeat the point for emphasis here.  In fact, the need is more urgent than ever.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not blindly taking a position or throwing darts at the corporate org chart.  The folks closest to the pulse of the consumers who reach out to companies should naturally have a hand in the “expansion” (e.g. social media) efforts.  Brands will slip, trip, or outright fail if they don’t enroll the very same folks have invested years and years of experience in empathetic listening to consumers; in solving problems to retain consumer loyalty, and perhaps even nurturing advocacy.  The social media movement needs that discipline.  It might even need a wee bit of consumer affairs caution and conservatism.    Again, the consumer is in control; we -- all of us -- can't screw this up!

Consumer affairs is well-positioned to make headway, but they can’t take the space – or their birthright in consumer “listening & engagement” – for granted.  As I note in my book, “one of the most important imperatives for management seeking top-line growth is to rethinking, and in many cases, reengineer, the entire consumer affairs operation. In fact, this revamping may prove to be a far more efficient, high-return investment than pouring more money into paid media.”

“After all, the consumers most likely to fill out an online feedback form or call the customer service number are the same folks who create online word-of-mouth.  In every study I’ve conducted on online consumer behavior, a strong correlation exists between consumers who exercise feedback channels and those who create media.”

Here's a big advantage.  The consumer affairs/relations department technically owns what we referred to at the recent Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) listening leadership summit as the “brand backyard.”  This is a critical zone of control, leverage, and “sense and respond,” and also one that’s expanding via online chat, brand communities, and vastly smarter CRM tools. This “brand backyard” is where keynote speaker Kim Dedeker of P&G drew inspiration to ultimately become one of the industry’s leading marketing research executives.  Turns out her first job at P&G was answering often-challenging consumer calls on products like Downy, an experience that was so revealing of brand insight and value that she used it to open up her speech.  

Which leads me to a few final thoughts on “Listening.”  Even if the consumer affairs department makes meaningful headway on the “listening front” – and by that I mean better translating the value of it collects from consumer for marketers – we can hoist a partial victory flag.  Reinventing “listening” is nothing short of an industry obsession these days, and for good reason.  Just ask the Advertising Research Foundation’s Joel Rubinson, who along with CEO Bob Barocci are challenging the entire research industry to rethink the entire listening equation.   As the Nielsen chart I presented at the ARF event suggests, listening now feeds many mouths and needs in the organization.  That's a huge opportunity for consumer affairs.

So, again, now is the time for the consumer affairs department to step up.  I frankly think the marketing folks will meet consumer affairs half-way.   Last month I spent half a day with room full of CMOs and VPs of Marketing on this very topic as part of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) "Senior Marketer Think Tank."  We asked hard questions about whether "service is the new marketing," and we obsessed over the topic of  the "conversational divide."  They are ready to engage (pun intended) consumer affairs or anyone for that matter dedicated to forging meaningful relationships between brands and consumers.

So the timing is perfect, and the conditions are ripe.  In the end, the consumer will benefit much more from a bridge…not a divide.   - PE

Consumer Affairs Reform “Reader” (Select Articles I’ve Published in the Pas

Marketers Love Conversation, Unless the Consumer Starts It! (Ad Age Column)

Word of Mouth Begins with Consumer Affairs

“Attention, I don’t want your freakin’ Attention!”

Customer Service Meets “Lord of the Twitters”

Word of Mouth Marketing 101: a la Zappos

Consumer Affairs is Knocking on Marketing’s Door

The “Third Moment of Truth” (Feedback, Expression)

The Latest Domino to Fall: The YouTube Video Itself

This morning I decided it was my duty as a digial consultant and author of a book about the viral power of complaints (Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3000, Doubleday Business), to take yet another look at that disgusting, now legendary video posted to YouTube by two former (and now being sued) Dominos employees.  Aside from the video itself, the comments are a rich source of insights, ever revealing of brand credibiliy and reputation, and I wanted to give them a good look as well.  Alas, much to my surprise, this infamous video -- this "when bad things happen to brands" case study of the year -- was nowhere to be found.  Instead, YouTube, posted the following curious comment:

This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Kristy Hammonds.

Kristy Hammonds is one of the former employees in question.  The specific nature of her "copyright claim" is yet to be seen, although it could be related to her prior record. What I do know is that there are going to be a ton of surprised folks over the curious removal of this video.  I also predict a viral rush to any TV news clip (see example here) or non YouTube versions of the clip on the web.  Once the viral Domino-effect starts on the web, it's really tough to remove.  The good news for Dominos is that YouTube version generated the lion's share of exposure, generating so much link-love that the video now ranks #3 against general "Dominos" queries on Google.  Now the highly incriminating video hits a dead-end...for now at least.

Irrespective of the damage control tactics employed by the brand or others, this incident represents yet another sobering wake-up call for brands about the power (and potential ugliness) of consumer expression. My Ad Age column this week focuses on the power and potential of "earned media" versus paid media (Earned Media May Be More Efficient, But Its Far From Free), but it also seeks to temper our social media exubberance by introducing a new term into our vernacular: spurned media (earned media that goes negative).  Indeed, expression cuts both ways.

This incident also underscores, once again, the importance of understanding the relationship between business processes -- product quality, customer service, employee training -- and word-of-mouth.  Much as we bear-hug viral "campaigns," the most viral word-of-mouth emanates from more foundational business processes.  Just think about the Taco Bell "Rats" incident.  Hygiene and cleanliness in particular is one of the most viral issues in the fast food industry, an issue I've come to appreciate in monitoring buzz for Nielsen and earlier in my founding of PlanetFeedback.com. 

Put another way, know thy talk drivers.

Embracing & Reinvigorating Trust at the BBB International Torch Awards

Much of what's propelled my fascination with CGM and social media has been the topic of trust.  Trust is the currency of productive business relationships as well as the cornerstone of effective advertising and marketing.  Since October I've had the unique opportunity to shape the agenda of marketplace trust in my capacity as Chairman of the Board of the National Council of Better Business Bureaus.  Below are remarks I delivered last night to kick off the BBB International Torch Award ceremony at the Reagan Center in Washington DC. It was an amazing evening, keynoted by Chris Matthews and hosted by ABC Good Morning America consumer corresponded Elisabeth Leamy, and I was honored to be a participant.  A list of award recipients, including Target, American, Honda, and Cincinnat-based Messer Construction company, can be found here.

 

It is such a privilege and a delight to welcome you to the BBB International Torch Awards.

 

This is a difficult time for our nation and for our world. To be honest with you, we thought about cancelling tonight’s event, as so many organizations have done in recent months. But we felt that would be sending the wrong message.

 

In fact, we came to the conclusion that this particular event is needed more than ever. BBB is all about marketplace trust, and our market is experiencing an unmistakable crisis in trust. Restoring, rebuilding, and celebrating trust must be at the top of everyone’s agenda.

 

The loss of trust in the business community has been growing since Enron’s collapse and scandal in 2001, followed by revelations from the World Com audit in 2003, and most recently with the ongoing subprime crisis which kicked into high gear in 2007. All of this has made marketplace trust issues exponentially worse.

 

And our current economic mess is directly traceable to the loss of confidence – read that as “loss of trust” — that we have in the banking system and Wall Street — in business generally, and in government — and frankly, to some extent, in each other.

 

Every day, in my capacity as a market research executive, I see telling, if not sobering signs, of the erosion of confidence and trust in our marketplace – from shopper behavior to the tone and tenor of what consumers tweet on Twitter.

 

So it is crucial that those of us who work so hard to advance trust in the marketplace – who understand the relationship of ethical and trustworthy behavior to economic success – gather to celebrate the “best of the best” in business and consumer leadership.

 

We are here to honor those who conduct their business and their career with the utmost integrity, compassion and dependability.

 

So it’s fitting that we have gathered here tonight to remind ourselves – and the public – that most businesses are honest, dependable, reliable and trustworthy.  These companies and individuals we honor tonight are doing a remarkable job of advancing trust in the marketplace

 

And by recognizing exemplary performance, we hope to encourage all businesses to follow the examples set by this evening’s honorees. 

 

The BBB International Torch Awards program is an integral part of our mission to advance marketplace trust. Last year, we expanded the categories and changed the program to increase visibility for our award recipients, and for the issue of marketplace trust.  We are delighted that you are here to share this special night with us.

 

Is Prime Time Really Prime Time in the Age of Twitter?

Alas, we have another dimension of changing consumer behavior throwing a wrench at yet another (time-tested) dimension of consumer behavior.  Lately I've taken fancy in watching certain TV shows in conjunction with my Twitter and Facebook activity.  Ups the entertainment value.  If a plot twist grabs you, you put your thoughts out there -- however risky!   And others, of course, do likewise...often in huge quantities.  My colleague and CEO, John Burbank, wrote about this in a recent post entitled "Could Social Networking Bolster the 30-Second spot", the logic being that so called "telecommunities" (powered of late by microblogging) are heightening consumer attention around real-time TV programming and advertising. Writes Burbank:

While there is still a lot to learn about the interaction of social networking and TV, it’s clear that there is opportunity for programmers and advertisers to leverage telecommunities to drive audience participation with both the programs and the advertising.  And it doesn’t have to be just live programming such as awards shows and sporting events.  Any show with a deeply loyal fan base could drive live viewing and deeper engagement through these telecommunities

Big idea -- and much needed conversation -- but with every opportunity comes new complexity.  Late last night, after Tweeting a key takeaway about key lessons from Dennis Rodman's failure to deliver on even basic customer service principles on the Apprentice (a comment that immediately got sucked into my Facebook page), I noticed a Facebook comment from my Nielsen colleague, Charlie Buchwalter, who piled on to my comment  "Hey...I'm on the west coast.  Don't give it away!"  

Are you serious?  Are you asking half the world to contain its "impulse to engage" to save the West Coast time slot?  I'm just not sure that's going to work.  Half the fun with TV these days might just be posting Tweets and status updates in real time. We're all going to have to take a step back and figure this one out.  This is especially problematic for programming targeted to increasingly "wired" and "conversational" younger segments.  Will we need to move "Prime time" to an early starting point on the west coast to keep up with what we might dub "Talk Time." 

CGM Around the Globe! Must-See TV with Matt!

Every once and a while I'll stumble into an amazing piece of CGM that took me months to discover.  Earlier today I received an email from my sister Julie passing on this amazing video entitled "Where the Hell is Matt."  Apparently, it's sponsored by Stride Gum.  Just a wonderful example of the creative power of human expression. 
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Is the Future of Marketing About Marketing to Marketers?

Such is the title of my recent column in Advertising Age, and boy has this topic been on my mind for quite some time.  If you take a close look under the hood on so many of these word-of-mouth, viral, buzz building, and social media campaigns, the folks with marketing pedigree and credentials are everywhere. 

In the blogosphere, there are thousands of bloggers who source directly from the marketing and public relations ranks. Double that for Twitter, which seem to matriculate another hundred "social-media experts" every couple hours. Conduct even the most basic Twitter search on user profiles and you'll find nearly 30,000 Twitter users self-identified as marketers. Nearly 8,500 use the term "PR," and another 8,000 use the term "social media."

Look no further than last week's Skittles brouhaha. Or the Super Bowl advertising buzz that I tracked for Nielsen. Or the Motrin Moms controversy many months earlier. Upward of half of the overall buzz came from the folks with marketing industry pedigree or credentials -- and the percentage conspicuously peaked even higher in the early waves of buzz. Put another way, marketers are complicit in pushing the snowball into a "buzzball."

Is this a bad thing?  Well, I hold off a bit on that particular question, but at minimum we at least need to recognize and acknowledge the disproportionate voice of marketers in the conversational stream. Even I'm a bit guilty of over-romanticizing the "consumer voice" when in fact the earliest buzz-building megaphones are being sounded by the folks I regularly rub shoulder to shoulder with at industry conferences.  Not to suggest we don't wear both consumer and marketer hats; I'm 100% aligned on what Dan Schwabel's suggesting about Personal Branding or Rohit Bhargava is putting out there about "authenticity" in Personality Not Included and I'm a proud participant in that tango.

That all this moves the needle is beyond question. Just consider the impact of search. In the pre-search world, marketers could critique one another into submission and no one outside our hermetically sealed silo would have a clue what we are saying. In the post-search world, all the marketer talk, fortified by heavy doses of link love, pushes straight to the top of organic Google-search results, meaning consumers are as likely to see our informed, often critical spin before they see the first billboard, display ad or TV spot. That's big.

At minimum, we also need to acknowledge that this curious trend blurs lines, and muddies the water.  I call this out not to be righteous but only because I truly believe we marketers need to consistently go the extra distance to keep things transparent, clear, well-disclosed, and of course "open."  When the commentators and analysts are becoming de facto media channels (which is clearly happening), we need to dial up the "clarity" levers.

Then again, maybe that's the bargain we've all struck in this Byzantine conversational bazaar we've buzzed up. Social media both softens silos and mucks up the lines. Web 2.0 marketing is de facto research, and feedback-powered research is the highest form of loyalty marketing, right? Lines naturally get blurry, even confusing, when we're both observer and participant. Inevitably, we end up interpreting the very buzz we created or fueled ourselves.

If you buy into this theory, you really have to think hardder about how to build the likes of David Armano, Steve Rubel, Jeremiah Owyang, BL Ochman, Peter Kim, Charlene Li, Chris Brogan and Susan Bratton into your buzz building or launch strategies, or at least have a strategy for "viral sandbagging" their potential negatives or venom.

This is no cake walk. While there's shortage of easy high-fives from the social-media set on anything that smacks of progressive marketing, let's not forget that these folks know all the tricks of the trade, and can smell an imposter, fraud or half-baked campaign a mile away. Indeed, if you look at the digital trail of road kill (especially in search results) from stupid or unethical marketing practice, the marketing experts -- not Joe Consumer -- were the first to throw the fatal daggers. "Et tu, Brute?" indeed!

I toss in a few final tips on the outreach side, but let me close with this observation.  However this nets out -- even if the net percentage of marketer-initiated buzz increases -- we must keep the space credible and trusted.  Social media is a wonderful thing -- enabling, empowering, rule-breaking -- but at times it blinds us to certain realities. We're a much bigger part of the conversation than we readily concede.  As long as we're open and transparent (and maybe even a bit self-critica) about this point, the odds of preserving trust will go up. 

Some additional comments/observations about this piece.

• Ad Age Column Comments 
• Forrester Blog: Who's Really Watching the Watchmen (David Card)
   

What's the bigger social media idea: marketing stimulus or business process innnovation?

Lately I've been so busy that I haven't even had time to recap in this blog important, conversation-triggering articles I've penned in my Advertising Age column.  I'm hoping to change that, even if I have to backtrack a bit.  Below are excerpts from perhaps my most read and "shared" (according to Ad Age metrics) article to date, and my core premise is this: the bigger idea in social media might be as much about business process innovation than next-gen communication.  Here's excerpts, and I also encourage folks to skim the comments and blog posts that either build upon or challenge the argument.

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What's the bigger idea: social media as marketing stimulus or social media as a way to innovate business processes?

Every brand manager or CMO should recognize that it's both -- and in a disruptive economy, you need to take advantage of both outcomes. And when the potential dividends of a marketing effort include changes to a company's process, we need to rethink the entire notion of ROI.

This isn't an easy task, as marketers typically leave things such as organizational strategy and technology implementation to other stakeholders -- keeping lines cleaner and allowing marketers to focus on, well, their areas of focus. You let technology folks do technology, quality folks do quality and service folks do service.

But social media softens the silos. It's hard to turn over a rock in social media, dip your toe into Twitter or comment on someone's blog without rethinking the fundamentals of a firm's organization, product development and even listening infrastructure. Such firsthand experience begets inspiration. Inspiration powers change. And change is needed more than ever before as we're asked to contract our resources.

Social media and communication
Social media, at the end of the day, is about reinventing communication. Executed wisely, it's a new covenant of interaction between consumer and consumers, and, more recently, consumers and business. You could even argue that it's the long-overdue realization of one-to-one marketing that we over-romanticized back in the 1990s and inexcusably put on the "direct marketing" shelf.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Pete Blackshaw is exec VP of Nielsen Online Digital Strategic Services and author of 'Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000' (DoubleDay). His biweekly column looks at the relationship between marketing and customer service in the age of consumer control.

But "organizational" communication, across thousands of companies and brands, is an area so bankrupt with inefficiency and scared of change that it's hard not to wonder whether your latest Twitter "aha moment" is better shared with the chief information officer or human resources than with the marketing team

Driving innovation
Then there's innovation -- the engine of value creation and company growth. Social media is one massive feedback loop. It's chaotic on the surface, but unmistakably efficient if you consider the life cycle of vetting a good idea or absorbing the ideas of others. If you really peel the onion on what's happening across blogs, Twitter and other online communities, brands are setting up de facto listening labs that rewrite the rules of gathering and managing feedback. We're getting more ideas faster. The funnel is broadening. The filters are sharper, more immediate and grounded in deeper levels of intimacy with the product or proposition.

The end outcome, whether intentional or incidental, is a disintermediation of existing, and potentially more expensive, processes. That alone should be reason enough for the CEO to personally initiate "Social Media Day" or "CGM [consumer-generated media] Day."

Procter & Gamble's Kim Dedeker, speaking to the Advertising Research Foundation's recent Listening Summit, suggested that brands need to reinvent "how to listen" not merely to figure out how to turn on online strategy or social media, but far more importantly, to reinvent and "inspire" the entire market research department. Put another way, listening is about reinvention.

The irony here is that a free tool known as Twitter was being used in real time by many of the attendees, the resulting data streams inspiring new ideas and playback throughout the conference.

Joel Rubinson, chief research officer of the ARF, called it "an amazing record of our research transformation conference, definitely more insightful than my old-school note taking. The big idea was that listening creates a fast-learning organization, which is the only way marketing can catch up to the consumer."

Driving margins, saving money
Let's end by hitting the sweet spot of practicality. At the end of the day, our foray into social media is teaching us how to save money. Consumer-generated media and social-media-enabling tools allow us to create websites and blogs for extremely low prices -- a far cry from the multimillion-dollar websites we built when I was co-leading interactive marketing at P&G back in the 1990s. Brands including Ford, Comcast, Toyota, Southwest, Sony, Denny's and others are testing new models of customer service on platforms such as Twitter that, under the old "enterprise" rules, would have cost millions to launch or even test. It's not that everything's cheap, but the barriers to low-cost earning have plummeted.

Whether we as marketers admit it or not, our dips into the collective social-media learning lab are making it really hard to justify $5,000-a-pop conference trips where we listen, learn, interact and collect leads. One could easily argue that the collective, real-time wisdom of social media, thoughtfully absorbed, easily substitutes for attending a "live" conference. And online video makes the substitution all the more tolerable. Video is a process innovation that is rewriting all the rules of efficiency.

Across the social-media airways there's no shortage of inspired thinking about what's possible. At a time when organizations are under intense pressure to reinvent themselves -- to take lemons and make lemonade -- it might be the right time to focus our efforts, even for a moment, on the overall "business process" equation. That's probably the easiest and most obvious way to demonstrate ROI around all of these efforts.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Posted using ShareThis

The Consumer Revolution Starts in Cincinnati

Not sure why, but it seems like a good time to resurrect this old photo.  This is from the launch of PlanetFeedback.com, the start-up I started in 2000 following my stint in digital marketing at P&G.  Lots of passion and energy around this consumer-centered business model. Our motto back then was "The Voice of One, The Power of Many."

An Open Apology to My Blog for Lavishing Excessive Attention on Twitter

Dear Blog,

I owe you an apology.  I've been blowing you off.  I've barely paid attention to you this year, and I've allowed you to be stood up by this new, sexier, and arguably more addictive kid on the block known as Twitter.

Yes, I've been sucked in.  I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing -- no, to be clear, I'm pretty much clueless -- but I've somehow found myself following the Twittering herds of 140-character tipsters and mundane-glorifying prognosticators of anything that, well, beats others to the punch.  I'm twittering in idle moments, retweeting (er, backscratching) other folks tweets, and now starting to think in 140 characters. 

With Twitter I find myself twitting anything that might, if I'm lucky (or if someone feels charitable or sorry for me), hook a follower or two.  And what a random lot at that I'm lured to follow-me.  Who are these guys?

With you, things we're simpler.  Folks would just RSS the content, often under the radar. Now's the popularity contest is so blatant.  Every time I see @jowyang, @armano, @cbrogan, or even @prsarahevans add another 1000 followers, I start to sweat! It's harder than pushing the Rock of Sisyphus.

Bad habits have only intensified.  My vanity ritual has now shifted from Technorati and BlogPulse to Twitter Search.  It's like I no longer care about what people say about you.  What's up with that?  What's up with me?

Well, that's not entirely fair.   Twitter is cool, and there's real utility, and I'm pretty darn hooked on it.  I'm so obsessed with it I started a new site to analyze its behavior called TwitterbyMachiavelli.com. 

And let's not forget, I do tweet about you here and there, especially if I think it might boost my follower list.  So you are not exactly irrelevant!  And many of the folks I'm trying to catch up with Chris Brogan also do a very nice job cross promoting blog and twitter commentary.

So maybe we can all tango together?  Yes?

But seriously, here's the rub.  Dude, I miss you.  I miss the long form.  I miss the planning process, and the drafts, and the periodic pre-publishing send-offs to friends for feedback. I miss fine-tuning the categories, and tagging the content.  I miss looking a you and seeing a comprehensive, logical, well-tagged body of work around a common theme. 

You make me feel whole, and certainly a more substantive.  

You held me to a higher standard of writing.  You served as a seeding ground for my articles in ClickZ and Ad Age, and I pretty much wrote my first book, Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3000, on the basis of what we cultivated together here in these pages.

I'm a bit embarrassed that it's come to this.

So here I pledge to you, two months into this new year, that I won't give up on you.  No way, Jose!   I'm going to do everything I can to claw back in; to trade a few extra tweets for more thoughtful time in your beautiful blog backyard. 

I'm not promising to be another Steve Rubel, but I do pledge to emulate more of his blog (not Twitter) behavior. 

I'm serious.  Don't give up on me. We all go through phases. 

Keep the door open. 

My First Ad Age "Twitterview": Government in Social Media

As a follow-up to my previous post about how the government can leverage social media to address the Salmonella issue -- as well as my follow-up post documenting the progress on this front at the Health and Human Services (HHS) department -- I ended up interviewing Andrew P Wilson for Ad Age's first ever TwitterView.  This was actually a fun, and relatively easy, format for conducting an interview, and I appreciate Andrew's willingness to give it a go. In fact, his flexibility, as a key "conversationalist" for HHS, reflects the very point I tried to underscore in the story.  What immediately struck me over the course of the interview is his sincerity, passion, and commitment to what he's doing.  His "brand" helps the HHS brand by breaking down  "faceless bureaucracy" perception barriers of government.  Can that "scale."  That's the big question for everyone in social media.  I love this particular snippet of the interview

Pblackshaw: Is it easier to advance your social-media agenda in this administration? After all, didn't President Obama have tons of followers on Twitter?

AndrewPWilson: My impression is that President Obama understands the value of social media. Not as a tool but as a way to engage with the public.

Pblackshaw: You used to be web editor at the USDA? Learn anything experience that's coming in handy with HHS? Farmers are a tough crowd, I'm told.

AndrewPWilson: Interesting you mention farmers. Was in Peace Corps, and my experiences with farmers helped me understand value of creating personal connections. 

At that last conversational sequence, it really hit me that he was the real deal, not just some "flavor of the month" social media convert.  Long before Twitter cranked out its first 140 character message, Wilson's been thinking hard about what it means to nurture "meaningful relationships."  Very well grounded and authentic.  Recall the "Six Drivers of Credibility" from my book, Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3000."  Against this backdrop, I'd give HHS solid marks across a number of key driver areas, and my guess is that he's also meet the full or partial "torture test" of other authors who have thought deeply about the unique intersection of personal and professional branding like Dan Schwabel (Me 2.0) and Rohit Bhargava (Personality Not Included) 

In fairness, Andrew and his team have only been at this only been at this for a few weeks (the Twitter and Widget efforts at least), so I'll exercise a wee bit of restrain in my enthusiasm for now. But this is clearly a good one to watch. Again here's the article.

Salmonella Meets Social Media: Health & Human Services (HHS) Dept Starts a Social Media Team

The world moves fast in this new age of consumer control and social-media powered agility and responsiveness, even for government.  Earlier this week ConsumerGeneratedMedia.com took a deep dive on the FDA.gov's web and social media strategy in the context of the Peanut Butter & Salmonella issue.  The upshot, reinforced by in technicolor by the comment feed: the FDA is missing key opportunities to reach out to concerned consumers, or to "prime" its site for consumers "seeking" information.  

But again, things move really fast.  Yesterday, I noticed a Twitter message from Andrew P Wilson of the Health and Human Services (HHS) department -- the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is part of HHS -- who wanted to give me a courtesy heads up that HHS was already making progress against many of the issues outlined in my blog post.  More to the point, as of Friday his department just started a social media team, and he personally is now active on Twitter. Is this the government equivalent of Comcast's Frank Eliason twittering with me, or Scott Monty reaching out on behalf of Ford. (Full disclosure: Comcast is a client in my Nielsen job.)  Time will tell, but a cursory review of his Mr. Wilson's twitter messages suggests that he and his department is making a concerted effort to keep folks in the know across all dimensions of the recall.  One can also glean from his follower list that he's looking to stay wired to folks who have consistently offering commentary on the peanut butter recall. Yes, there's always understandable apprehension -- sometimes paranoia -- about goverment entering any type of conversation, but in this context, it feels like a win-win for all, especially concerned and information-hungry consumers. (Follow AndrewPWilson.)

Reading the Signals and Priming for Action:  How timely is "participation" on this issue? There's no shortage of commentary, and there plenty of fear around this recall issue, and the news just keeps intensifying the apprehension.  If you look at this recent post-recall Nielsen Brand Association Map (BAM), you'll note that once innocent conversation related to a once innocent term like "peanut butter" has taken an alarming turn for the worse.  BAMs reflect the density with which consumers consumers associate certain issues with the core topic. In this particular map, metered across tens of thousands of online messages across multiple expression platforms, you'll note that it's quite difficult to talk about "peanut butter" independent of the term "salmonella."   Whether through BAM maps, free blog search, or other social media tools, the big question is how can businesses and folks like Andrew P Wilson of the Health and Human Services sufficently tuned in so they can serve the unmet needs of concerned consumers and other stakeholders.  Might it impact the nature and tone of messaging, or even the level of empathy one might show toward an issue?  The other day I saw a Google keyword ad purchased by a major food company against the term "Salmonella," and in reviewing the choice of words in the headline, I kept asking myself...how well did they tune into the tenor and tone of the conversation before placing that ad.  Aperture matters!

More Comments from the Field:  It's worth recapping some of the feedback to the original post about what governmental agencies like FDA and HHS should consider in address this recall issue.

Friend and published social media author Dave Evans notes, among other things, that "there is a particularly compelling case for social media around food (and family!) issues given the role of the "Advocate Mom" in her specific online social setting."  He also calls out Wegman's for its use of Twitter to push recall notices. (Follow Dave Evans.) Fred Wilson notes that "open government is coming and it's going to be transformative.) (Follow: Fred Wilson)

Former colleague and first-rate thinker Kate Niederhoffer calls out the FDA.gov site's lack of "social graph credibility."  She notes: "You walk away from the site with the sense that the government thinks this is important, but do your personal friends and trusted advisors? This is where something like Facebook Connect could be an interesting build...anything that socializes the content and lets you know how your social graph is consuming the info, responding to the info, would be helpful." (Follow Kate Niederhoffer.)

Respected social media commentator Peter Kim insists the "FDA needs to transform itself from being a faceless 'administration' and show its composition of passionate and educated public health professionals. Then they'll be able to activate social media and benefit from its expediency, among other things."  He also suggests that the selection of Dr. Sanjay Gupta as Surgeon General may well be a positive development. "Most people probably trust WebMD, Wikipedia, or Google search results more than an official government spokesperson these days."  (Follow Peter Kim)

Sam Decker, a WOMMA board colleague, and long-time social media expert who hails from Bazaar Voice and formerly Dell recommends, among other things, that the FDA "enable consumers to share stories of what actions they took and what they learned. Make that accessible to SEO, and share that across other sites on this topic via javascript widgets. Make FDA be the hub, but allow spokes to be distributed throughout blogs and other sites (even ecommerce sites that sell related products)." (Follow Peter Kim)

Social media expert (with lots of corporate experience) Nick Huhn points to the need for "alternative intersections with social media channels might be demonstrated in this case. Why not partner with Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google, and other daily points of departure to spread the messages a la the Emergency Broadcast System via television? Moreover, dynamically updated information displays should present these notifications to consumers at point of purchase or via email if a retailer knows someone has purchased an affected item from the database of loyalty card transactions."  (Follow Peter Kim)

Lastly, a voice from the younger generation. Chandler Koglmeier, my former brilliant intern (hailing from Middlebury College) who I credit with successfully matriculating me to Facebook three years ago, echoes my point about video but add the following. "Why not post messages from all parts of the supply chain (especially the producer) explaining what is wrong and what is being done to rememdy this situation?  If there is anything to be learned from the Obama team, it's that more information on things which interest the public will be well received and passed around."

Let's keep this conversation going.  Very important!  Very timely!  Relevant to all of us, including our kids. 

From Six Sigma to "Six Signals" of Unprompted Listening

I just helped kick start the ARF's "Listening" leadership summit here in San Francisco.  The presentation revolved around the chart below.  You can follow the "live" conversation via real-time Twitter Feeds. 

10 Ways Social Media Can Improve FDA Communication & Education on the Salmonella Issue

Here's a critically important  "case study" question?  If you were in charge of digital or social media strategy for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) amidst this Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak, what extra steps would you take to address consumer concerns and curiosity around the issue?  This is certainly a timely question, as we have a new administration that's already set a high bar on creative, if not breakthrough, use of the web as a communications channel, loyalty builder, and rapid-response tool --  a development the New York Times nicely captured this morning ("Melding Obama's Web to a YouTube Presidency").  Indeed, scarcely a minute after Obama took the oath last week, a new WhiteHouse.gov was up and running for business, receiving no shortage of blog and Twitter mentions and accolades.

Now we have an urgently pressing issue on the citizen-needs plate, and one that seems to share a close relationship with news headlines:  a legitimate public scare about Salmonella Typhimurium (that's already led to a growing number of product recalls).   Close analysis of web traffic trends suggest that consumers, media and other "influencers" are already linking to FDA site content.  But is that enough?  After watching my wife Erika remove a few peanut-butter laced food items and snack bars implicated by the scare from our food cabinets, I found myself wondering whether any business or government agency associated with such an issue could do more to service consumers in this time of anxiety and fear.

Current FDA Site Assessment:  This curioosity inevitably led me to a much closer look and critique of the FDA.gov website.  Overall, it's pretty good.  Relative to other government sites, the FDA.org site seems quite timely and relatively easy to use.  Real estate dedicated to the Salmonella issue is front and center of the website, and the site search engine sits prominently above it to the right (a place usability research frequently cites as ideal placement).  There's a separate, information rich-page dedicated to the crisis, and that page includes both email lists for recall alerts as well limited (albeit not prominently advertised) RSS feeds.  There's a recall-specific search engine dedicated exclusively to the products in question, and blog links suggests its getting decent traction from consumers, media, and other influencers.   I also really liked the fact that the FDA provides simple, rapid turn-around press release templates for food manufacturers to communicate specific recall related news to consumers.  Lastly, all the links on the site add value, including a link to a Salmonella specific page from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  Both FDA.org and CDC include content in Spanish, but such content is a bit more readily accessible and visible via the CDC site.

Ten Strategies to Address the Issue

Still, it just seems -- amidst this unprecedented wave of digital innovation we're witnessing (and experienced ourselves) these days -- like there's more than can be done to make it easier for consumers to educate themselves (or others) about the Salmonella issue...and perhaps even take action.  With social media and Web 2.0 top of mind, here's a short list of potential strategies and tactics.  I invite/encourage others to fill the gaps or add additional perspective. 

-- Leverage Video to Address Concerns With Empathy:  There's nothing like the power of "sight, sound, and motion" to reassure consumers in times of anxiety or fear, and this is something the Obama campaign did extremely well with their campaign web strategy, and even during the transition period with the YouTube "weekly addresses."  We also saw this with the Mattel CEO's video response on one of the toy recalls.  Video connects emotionally better than text, and for millions of consumers, it might just be a better, more effective way to walk them through a difficult situation. But then again, let's not make this too complex. The web is now like a TV set, and video is getting easier and easier to produce. In addition to prominent "explain the situation" video content, the FDA or CDC could also leverage shorter-form videos in standard Frequently-Answered-Question (FAQ) formats.

 -- Enable Sharing of FDA Site Content Related to the Scare:  There's something about safety that triggers our desire to help or share things with others.  Put another way, safety and word-of-mouth share a symbiotic relationship.  There's no shortage of ways the FDA can enable more sharing and distribution of its content: Digg This, ShareThis, Discuss on FriendFeed, Save to Del.icio.us, Technorati links, etc.  This is all pretty serious stuff; it deserves to be shared.  We all do this in our blogs almost intuitively, but it's more important than ever in a safety crisis where there huge upside in getting relevant information to the right people at the right time. 

-- Create "Safety Satellites" on Social Networking Site:  With the massive migrations of consumer attention to social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace, government agencies might consider setting up what we might term "safety satellites" on these platforms.  Good old fashioned advertising is an obvious way to get started, but I'm talking about a "co-created" (FDA + concerned consumer "fans") content. There's plenty of non-sanctioned FDA related content on these sites, but the specific and current Salmonella issue is terribly easy to find (and I'm still not sure if its there at all).  Just think about it, tens of thousands of folks became "fans" of the pilot, Captain CB Sully Sullenberger, of the US Airways flight; there's no question lots of concerned parents would join a site dedicated to this Salmonella issue.  The name of the game in these situations is to educate everybody, and not just the folks who visit brand or government websites.  

--  Create Embeddable "Issue Widgets":  In addition to providing "sharing" functionality on site content, the FDA might also consider syndicating widgets that can sit on top of other websites.  Again, when there's crisis, consumers go the distance to share and educate others.  So imagine making the "search engine" focused on finding certain products sitting on "moms" blogs or other sites. Such widgets could be especially impactful with wireless devices.No shortage of possibilities here.

-- Overlay "No Shopping List" Functionality on Top of the Product Search Engine: Second, not unlike an eCommerce site, make it really easy to bookmark, tag, or transfer to a "list" all the products that relate to the consumer. That way the consumer can easily inventory the products they need to clear from the shelf, or avoid while shopping. This too could be enabled through mobile.

-- Build a Simple "Event" Blog on the FDA.org Website:  While I'm a bit hesitant to over-hype the value of blogs -- there are plenty of "bad" examples out there -- I do think can be especially valuable in "event" situations, and a recall event -- where consumers are constantly looking to "reflesh" information is a perfect time to set up a blog to provide a constant stream of readily accessible and easily to subscribe to content. In all the recalls I've studied over the years, I've always been impressed at how well activist groups have leveraged blog publishing to efficiently and constantly share information. Blog content also indexes well in search engines, and much of the government content still feels sub-optimizes in the context of search.

-- Video Shopping Guides:  With the proliferation of iPhones and iPods, there's enormous potential to provide downloadable "video shopper guides" focused on helping consumers navigate the complexity of peanut butter products.  Mobile devices in general dramatically open up the possibilities to provide consumers with critical information at the very shopping experience.

-- Leverage WhiteHouse.gov:  Right now there's an extraordinary amount of "influencer" attention focused on the current and planned social media innovations on WhiteHouse.gov. Right now the site fires back blanks when you type Salmonella, but building type of bridge to the FDA.gov site would not only show administrative coordination, but further expand the "funnel of awareness" around the issue.

-- Help Refresh Wikipedia:  Editing or contributing to Wikipedia is no simple task, but given that wikipedia is such a dominant force in shaping consumer attitudes -- last week's Edelman Trust baromenter found Wikipedia to be #2 as a trusted resource among younger consumers - the FDA has a vested interest in ensuring it's most recent information is "refleshed" in the Wikipedia definition.  The current definition, which is #4 in Google search results against the term "Salmonella," lacks much of the update and essential content on the FDA.org or CDS.org websites, and while I may well be naive here, I can't imagine the Wikipedia a-list editors pushing back on such essential background.

-- Leverage Visual Search in Product Database:  While the "product search" tool on the FDA site is certainly adequate, it could be improved in two big ways.  One (an idea I stole from my wife and sister Gina) is to include photos of the products impacted to help consumers "jog their visual memory" when they are trying to find the product.  Said my sister Gina, mother of two, when I asked her for thoughts,"Photos of affected products is a great link in to layers. Photos, videos, almost always have higher appeal over text.

Again, in times of crisis, how can we make it easier to get consumers the information they need to make informed choices, and do so quickly.  Equally, how do we as communicators (whether on brand or government site) serve those needs?

So that's a start. What do you think?  What's missing? (More opportunities for feedback on FDA site?)

- Pete (www.twitter.com/pblackshaw)

Social Media Confessions & Choices (First Official Post of 2009)

And so this blog enters year five of its existence - hard to believe!  CGM has evolved from peripheral curiosity for companies and brands to major focus. True, the term "CGM" plays a big second fiddle to the all-encompassing term "social media," which includes media and brand initiated content (and beyond). That said, I still think the "consumer" side of the equation sets the pace in this new "age of participation." It's also what excites and energizes me!

In terms of 2008 recaps, I humbly (and introspectively) teed up both reflections and predictions.  In my latest Ad Age column, for instance, entitled "Consumers to Suffer from Social Media Indigestion in 2009," I offer a handful of predictions for the new year, many of them deeply grounded on my own personal experiences...and painpoints.  I write:

Many of us are going to wake up in 2009 wondering "what did we eat?" and "why did we devour it all so fast?" We impulsively adopted everything from hastily assembled Facebook friends and Twitter followers to groups, apps and widgets (usually while shadowing others, such as uber-early adopter Robert Scoble), yet rarely revisited them. Many of us will feel compelled to join the social media equivalent of Weight Watchers, eager to trim the excess and rediscover a modicum of don't-follow-everything discipline. Meanwhile, a new wave of "diet" apps and services from the still-revenue-hungry social media entrepreneurs will flood the market: "For $10 a month, we'll promise you a downsized, manageable, and authentic Friends list." In 2009, less may well become the new more.

On this point, I do worry we've all jumped into much of the "new" social media stuff too aggressively, often leading to an almost-compulsive need to post, twit, friend, link, and share every mundane detail of my life.  In many respects, it's hard to resist.  As an early leader and adopter -- even a published author on the topic of CGM & social media -- I almost feel an obligation and duty to "keep up with the crowd" and "walk my talk."  Despite all the Twitter banter about convenience, efficiency, empowerment, lower feedback barriers, at times it all feels a bit frenzied -- a perception perhaps biased by the fact that I now have three kids under four years.

Looking into 2009, I need to weigh in on a number of key choices:  

• Popularity versus Intimacy:  A huge friends list begets marketing opportunities (not unlike a good mailing list), and can obviously contribute to building a "personal brand," but is it really a "friends" list? It's hard to do both. Often, when I send a "Dude...let's catch up soon" blurb on Facebook I wonder whether I've cheapened or trivialized the relationship. (It feels that way on the receiving end.) Then again, I did send a wee small sign of life, right? 


• Short Form Versus Long Form:  My blog posts on ConsumerGeneratedMedia.com actually plummeted in 2008...mainly because I found myself perfecting short form messaging on Twitter, Facebook "what are you doing" forms, and Blackberry email.  I'm inclined to return to the longer format lest my Twitter-induced glorification of the "mundane" (e.g. "Hey, watched a movie tonight!") gets the better of me.  My blog played a huge role in laying foundation for my Tell 3000 book, and that's because it afforded me the opportunity to test hypotheses, write "pilot" chapters, take a big step back here and there, and the like.  I don't want to lose that discipline. Of course, like others, I can aim for that perfect symbiotic relationship between long and short form, but that also carries risks.

• Big Tent or Narrow Tent:  Social media now encompasses just about everything -- it's as much of an "organizing principle" as marketing strategy -- and that makes it more difficult to focus content choices.  I also hate the thought of simply reinterating what hundreds of others are already saying, a reality that hits me everytime I inventory the fire-hydrant of self-described "social media consultants" on my Twitter follower list.  Even on this blog, I've noticed no shortage of "topic creep." (Just look at all my categories.)  I'll need to think a bit harder about where I'd like to focus my best thinking. Since taking on my new role as Chair of the Better Busines Bureau, my obsession with the issue of marketplace Trust has jumped to the next level, and I'll likely focus attention in that area.  

Despite all this, I enter 2009 with a great sense of optimism about what's possible.  In a recent post for Nielsen's Newswire entitled "Social Media Comes of Age," I outlined a number of key developments from which I drew inspiration and motivation in 2008, from all aspects of the Obama campaign's web and voter-participation strategy and MyStarbuckIdea.com  to Intel Chairman Scott Cook's Harvard Business Review cover story on "User Contribution Systems."   I welcome any and all feedback.

Experts Offer 2009 Social Media Predictions: What Do You Think?

What's in store for 2009 on the CGM & social media front?  Social media expert and thought-leader Peter Kim assembled of group social media passionistas to tee up key predictions for the coming year.  You can read his full post here. Somehow I managed to sneak onto this esteemed list, which includes David Armano, Rohit Bhargava, Chris Brogan, Todd Defren, Jason Falls, Ann Handley, Joe Jaffe, Charlene Li, Ben McConnell, Scott Monty, Andy Sernotitz, and Greg Verdino.  (All great folks to follow on Twitter, I might add.) A few highlights include:

• "Doors are going to close all over the social web. Why? Because the money didn't come the way people thought it would." - Chris Brogan
• "The tipping point has not only *not* been reached, but could still tilt *away* from Social Media." - Todd Defren
• "Dwindling budgets suddenly make low-cost social media look like the pretty girl at the ball." - Ann Handley
• "We're going to develop a set of better metrics to help guide, direct and validate 'commitment'." - Joseph Jaffe
• "The movement is rooted in a desire to have quality, not quantity, as people cocoon in the face of the economic crisis." - Charlene Li
• "These will be cumulative events and interactions that will build brand loyalty for the companies that pay attention to them." - Scott Monty
• "The recession will force revenue results out of social technologies." - Jeremiah Owyang
• "Companies that focus on earning love will thrive during hard times, and kick ass when good times return." - Andy Sernovitz

As for my specific thoughts, I focused on three key areas.

• Social Media Indigestion:  2009 will see a "correction" in our appetite for friends, followers, and other ostensible perks of social media membership
• Service Gets Personal:  Real intimacy among friends, or in the marketing process, will dial up in importance.  Don't write off the 800 number yet. Emotion powers conversation.
• Back to Fundamentals:  2009 will be the year we resdiscover timeless truths: friendship must be earned, fame is fleeting, excess begets backlash, and it always pays to listen, and credibility is our most enduring marketing asset. (The last point is the foundation of "Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3000.") 
  

My upcoming list of predictions in Ad Age echoes a few of these themes and expands a bit in other areas.  That article should drop sometime tomorrow.  Here's a embedded presentation of Peter Kim's list.  Thanks for pulling this together, Peter (Kim).

Social Media 2009

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Management Business social media 2009

Brands Beware: The Speed of Negative Word-of-Mouth

Important read in USA Today this morning (Laura Petrecca) about the speed with which negative PR travels in this word-of-mouth (Twitter, YouTube, Blog, etc) world. I'm quoted suggesting that businesses in this environment need to think much more like "political advance people" -- always anticipating what can go wrong. Every large and small business, and certainly the advertising community, needs to internalize these realities.  From an "actionability" perspective, brands need to be a really disciplined around two of the key credibility drivers I articulate in my book, Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3000: listening and responsiveness.  Listening is what provides the early radar to determine when things are headed in the right or wrong direction and "responsiveness" is all about how we address those early signals. Brands with strong feedback loops, social media experiments (e.g. Twitter accounts), and "sense and respond" websites tend to be in a much better position to respond to and remedy difficult issues.   Follow On Twitter

The Official Social Media Guide to Thanksgiving

Somehow amidst diaper changes, bedtime stories, and wrapping up final client work before the break, I managed to assemble what I’m generously dubbing “The Official Social Media Guide to Thanksgiving.”   Nothing scientific here – just a fun, insight-rich skim across search and conversational venues.  Interestingly, much of what I discovered amounted to “good ol’ fashioned” traditional media content – e.g. a TV clip on YouTube, or a NY Times Thanksgiving review – fortified by comments, ratings, and even the occasional “video response.”  Put another way, the power of “conversation” took ordinary content and made it (in most cases, at least) extraordinary. Will update this list via Twitter.

Wikipedia on Thanksgiving Dinner

How can we not start here?  This is the ultimate “cheat sheet” for every well-meaning parent or Thanksgiving aficionado.  Did you know Alexander Hamilton proclaimed that no "Citizen of the United States should refrain from turkey on Thanksgiving Day"?

Thanksgiving Fun With Numbers

A few fun stats and charts courtesy of the never-quiet blogosphere.  Most of these charts are sourced from Nielsen’s BlogPulse, which tracks 90 million blogs daily.

• Strawberry versus Cranberry
• Pumpkin Pie Versus Apple Pie
• Plymouth Rock versus the Mayflower
• Turkey vs Chicken vs Pork
• Black Friday versus Holiday Deals

Plymouth Rock by FlickR

Who needs to visit Plymouth Rock when thousands of FlickR users are capturing every possible angle, perspective, or wee-small indentation in the famous (albeit somewhat underwhelming) landmark. Saves a wee bit on the travel budget in these tough times!

A Very Twitter Thanksgiving

Of course, if you are bored or lonely or need some form of conversational stimulus, there’s no shortage of Thanksgiving talk on Twitter.  I counted 490 references in a ten-minute period last night.  From the instructional to the mundane to the outright insane. Why do we do this?

Thanksgiving Travel Tips by Blogger Ken Levine

An Emmy winning writer, producer, Levin produces a terrific list of Thanksgiving travel holiday tips.  Practical, spot-on, and humor-laced advice – I’m sure millions can relate.

Turkey Carving and Prep 101

• By the Washington Post This two year old video on YouTube, originally sourced by WashingtonPost.com,  has the highest “view count” and it’s quite good.  The comments affirm its popularity.  
• By Bill Cosby (Impersonating Julia Child): Fun interplay between father and son in the subtle nuances of cutting a cabbage substituting as a Turkey.   Cosby also does a mean impersonation of the late foodie Julie Child.
• Deep Fried Turkey Video Cooking Demo: OK, I’m biased here because Jim Lites, the content contributor, is one of my best friends, but if you are serious about pushing the limits of how you cook your bird, this is worth a review.   Warning: this does take a bit of extra time and prep, and no shortage of oil.
• Organic Turkeys and Green Thanksgiving Prep (at a Price?) – NY Times: For the “aspirationally-green,” this is worth a skim, and the comments are also rich with insight (or economic warning).   Another good example of how the traditional media “fortifies” content with conversation.

Guide to Black Friday Shopper Pain - by PlanetFeedback

Here’s a link to over 13,000 easy-to-organize letters consumers have written to large companies and brands about all dimensions of “shopper pain.”  If you don’t want to be surprised or ticked off leading into Black Friday, skim a few of these.   (PlanetFeedback is a site I started back in 2000)

BBB Offers Consumer Video Shopping Tips (and more) on Facebook

My friends at the BBB recently launched a section on Facebook (and other places) offering consumers and small business a host of "video tips" (aka "Scam Grams') on a host of shopping issues.  Some of this could also come in handy with Black Friday coming around.

Thanksgiving My Way by the Accidental Hedonist (Blog Entry)

This is a well-written, personal reflection on Thanksgiving dinner – representative, one presumes, of millions of personal “dinner table” narratives that will likely spill onto blogs and personal paged in the hours and days following the big meal.  

New York Times Blog Post on Sarah Palin YouTube Thanksgiving Video

I would have linked directly to YouTube but the nearly 300 comments on the NY Times reacting to this blog enty add critical context to this disturbing video.  While I suppose one might challenge the inclusion of this video on the list, the likelyhood that it will creep into dinner-table conversation compels me to “include the obvious.”   (Not for children.)

The Story of Thanksgiving by School House Rock: A quick, oversimplified – yet hum-worthy – three minute history of the Pilgrims coming ashore!  Who can’t get excited about School House rock!  The comments are fun too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

- Pete Blackshaw 

Twitter   http://twitter.com/pblackshaw