Monday, March 30, 2009

Retailer Twitter Aggregation

Here is a terrific list of how Twitter is being used in the retail sector, both online and offline:

Brick & Mortar Retailers:

Twitter / americanapparel

» Read this feed

Twitter / booksamillion

  • Deal of the Day: Join Miss Bindergarten and friends in 3 storybooks for less than $6! http://tinyurl.com/dh5d3b
  • Deal of the Day: Jan Karon's Mitford Cookbook and Kitchen Reader http://is.gd/jBBf over 150 recipes and under $6!
  • Deal of the Day: Great choice for book clubs...Friday Night Knitting Club, hardcover, under $6! http://is.gd/ppQd
  • What We're Reading Now: If I Stay.....the new book from Gayle Forman. http://is.gd/pj06 check it out!
  • @mawbooks enjoyed your Wintergirls review! LH Anderson is awesome
» Read this feed

Twitter / buildabear

  • March 16 - April 14 Submit your video audition for a chance to win the Let?s Talk About Love Singing Contest. http://tinyurl.com/d8e54z
  • Hope you have a pawsome weekend!
  • @FrugalCarol Thanks!
  • @pipsytip Denim Donation Weekend is just in the U.S. http://tinyurl.com/cp5eyt
  • Denim Donation Weekend Today-Sun Donate your old jeans at our stores to help create the world's largest collection of clothes to recycle.
» Read this feed

Twitter / DunkinDonuts

» Read this feed

Twitter / HomeDepot

  • Flood Tip: Waters receeding? wait for OK from local officials, then enter w/caution & sturdy shoes. Cuts on feet are a common injury
  • Reading about the nice people of Akron OH, who have stepped up to help a local 911 tech in her own time of need http://tinyurl.com/d78jey
  • #followfriday #floods09 #flood09 other good resources for flood info @readydotgov, @redcross, @femainfocus
  • Flood Tip: Choose a friend outside the storm zone as 'check in contact' for everyone to call with updates and to stay connected
  • @JSpoonemore Saw your tweet, mind sending details to information@homedepot.com? your feedback helps us improve
Twitter / askJCP
  • You could win a dream destination wedding in Cancun, Mexico compliments of JCP Wedding Registry http://snipurl.com/e54ev
  • Save 50-80% off select window treatments at JCP outlet http://snipurl.com/ev0b6
  • JCP makes things easy by allowing any gifts purchased off your wedding registry to be returned to our stores - even gifts purchased online.
  • JCP Gift Cards are an easy gift everyone loves. In a hurry? Get same-day e-gift cards for every occasion http://snipurl.com/ej7i1
  • Get the tips and tools you need to register from JCP Wedding Registry http://snipurl.com/euzph
» Read this feed

Twitter / LandsEndChat

» Read this feed
E-Commerce Retailers:

Twitter / beautydotcom

» Read this feed

Twitter / CheapesTees

  • Hanging by a thread in the NCAA tourney. I need some good karma!
  • Stealth project about 45 days away from launching. Looking good.
  • March is trending up for a very nice increase over LY. Feeling fortunate that we are holding strong..we have great customers and employees
  • March Madness anyone? The next two days are the most exciting in sports hands down. I'm feeling good about my chances this year.
  • Thanks to all that responded to our FreeT-Shirt offer. Your tees will be delivered within 3 days.
» Read this feed

Twitter / drugstoredotcom

» Read this feed

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Thursday, March 26, 2009

Godiva Uses Social Media - Following the Luxury Chocolate Lover

Business Week By Stephen Baker

http://images.businessweek.com/story/09/370/0326_godiva.jpg

When the economy swooned last fall, executives at Godiva Chocolatier faced a vital concern: How would financial jitters and shrinking stock portfolios affect the market for their luxury chocolates?

For answers, the New York company turned to 400 bona fide chocoholics in its online social network. It's a Web site with an online forum. But attendance is by invitation only, and the discussion revolves around things chocolate.

Through autumn and winter, as Lehman Brothers collapsed and the government scrambled to save the automakers, Godiva was busy pumping the participants in its social network for intelligence. Specifically, it wanted to know what types of products and promotions would help protect a place for premium bonbons in consumer budgets.

The feedback: Advertise bargains, especially baskets of chocolate that cost less than $25. "People are budgeting, and they want to budget chocolate," says Rich Keller, the company's director for marketing and innovation.

Little Luxuries Mean a Lot

The Godiva community also called for luxury in small doses—goodies they could pick up for not much more than the price of a cappuccino. One winner during the all-important Valentine's Day season was a heart-shaped chocolate lollipop that sold for $5.50. "It was a key winner for us," says Keller. Godiva sales have slowed, he adds, but they're still growing.

Companies are increasingly looking to social networks for a 24/7 read on shifting consumer sentiments. The advantage over traditional market research? Unlike focus groups, which disband after an hour or two, Web communities stay engaged for months, or even years on end, letting companies track attitudes over time. Godiva's network is administered by Communispace, a Boston outfit that operates online communities for more than 90 companies, including Charles Schwab (SCHW) and Wal-Mart (WMT).

Another plus: Participants, often devotees of a company, product, or service, work nearly for free. Godiva rewards its active community members with $10 gift certificates every month—not even enough for a couple of chocolate lollipops. "People are passionate," says Communispace Chief Executive Diane Hessan. In some financial communities, users even submit spreadsheets bearing their personal budgets. "It's unbelievable what they'll do," she says.

Algorithms Track Consumer Tastes

The online world offers plenty of other options to gauge customer response to promotions and brands. An entire industry of algorithm-powered companies, including Umbria Communication, a division of J.D. Power, which like BusinessWeek is a division of McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP), and Nielsen Online, have computers that read millions of blog posts automatically to cull shifting consumer sentiments.

But Godiva counts largely on its networked chocolate lovers—all women. Many of them log onto the site daily. Women tend to be more passionate than men about chocolate, and they express themselves more freely in the communities, Godiva's Keller says. (The company uses surveys to reach out to men, who tend to buy chocolate mainly for the women in their lives on Valentine's Day.)

The female forum members chat frequently among themselves, swapping insights about chocolate, the economy, and whatever themes moderators raise. The 400-member group has been going for nearly a year and will soon be shutting down. In its place, Godiva plans to launch two new 300-person communities, one for Godiva customers, the other for fans of other premium chocolates.

By Invitation Only

To populate the new communities, Godiva works with Communispace, which sends out 30-question surveys to people on its customer lists. After studying the responses, they issue invitations to a select group.

The payoff for the chosen? In addition to receiving their monthly coupons, participants get to chat with others about a food they love—and to help steer the market for premium chocolate. When they speak, Godiva listens.

Baker is a senior writer for BusinessWeek in New York.

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The Importance of Ethics in Social Media in Marketing and Advertising

Karl Kasca and I will be teaching Social Media Marketing for the UCLA Extension starting May 12, 2009. Karl's presentation below is incredibly important in the ongoing transition into the Social Web. Thanks, Karl!

Last night I spoke to Mark Stern's Ethics in Marketing & Advertising class at UCLA extension on "The Importance of Ethics in Social Media in Marketing and Advertising" and I just wanted to share the slides with you in Slideshare:

The Importance Of Ethics In Social Media In Marketing&Advertising 03 10 09
View more presentations from Karl Kasca.
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Saturday, March 21, 2009

Social Media and the NBA

Thanks to Warren Sukernek, Radian6 (and a Gravity Summit alumni) for this great post. Really good example of how Twitter is literally CHANGING THE GAME. Warren asks a great question about a company and it's employees - who has the power of the Tweet? What do you think?

There was some great Twitter discussion in response to yesterday's post about Charlie Villanueva tweeting from the locker room during a game. Many fans thought it was cool and the traditionalists among us were somewhat annoyed by another spoiled player tweeting in the middle of a game. However, I had a very interesting conversation with Glenn White, a former co-worker. who had a different perspective.

Much of the conversation was regarding the difference between the NBA's controlled messages and sponsored dialogue such as mandated halftime player network interviews contrasted to a player's freeform opinion. In other words, a traditional command and control marketing organization (the Milwaukee Bucks and the NBA) trying to control/ mandate the brand content over consumer generated (player) media. The player was not allowed to share his content and tweet from the locker room, but instead players must make themselves available to the TV network for quick interviews during that same time. Now I am certain that Bucks coach Scott Skiles was not reprimanding his player, Charlie Villanueva, over brand control guidelines. But does the player have the right to share his content/interpretation of the brand on his own terms or does the benefit/ value to the company supercede that? An interesting parallel to social media, don't you think?

cv31

Isn't the NBA being close-minded about technology?


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Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Listen Up, Marketers: The Focus Group Is Dead

I'll start this column with a few quotes:

"What we didn't get was the passion this very loyal small group of consumers have. That wasn't something that came out in the research." -Neil Campbell, president, Tropicana, North America to The New York Times upon pulling its revamped packaging in February after consumer complaints.

"We have heard your concerns about the ad that was featured on our website. We are parents ourselves and we take feedback from moms very seriously." -Kathy Widmer, vice president of marketing, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, upon pulling a Motrin ad after mothers expressed outrage about it in November.

"Over the past couple of days, we received a lot of questions and comments about the changes and what they mean for people and their information. Based on this feedback, we have decided to return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised." -Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook, responding to user outrage over changes made, without user input, to its terms of service in February.

"The testing we've done has been incredibly positive." -David Howe, president of the Sci Fi Channel to The New York Times on Monday about its proposed new name, Syfy. So far, a post on Sci Fi's own blog about the new name contains more than 900 mostly negative comments, and has more than 1500 Diggs.

I assume most Social Media Insider readers would agree with the statement that corporate America needs to do a little work on this listening thing. What I love about all of these examples is that, even if many of you have preached this gospel for some time, there's an increasing body of evidence to support why this is so important. This week's Syfy example (and yes, I did post about this over at the BNET Media blog to which I also contribute), marks at least the fourth time since November in which a major corporation has gotten itself in hot water through the act, or in-act, of not listening. If I were you, I'd clip and save those four quotes and trot them out to all of my clients.

But this column isn't just about not listening. It's about the fact that so often, if companies do, they commit a significant sin of omission, listening to customers who were either not invested in their brand very much or not invested in it at all. Worse, they do this listening in the contrived environment of the focus group. The president of Tropicana admitted that it didn't listen to its loyal customers, in his interview with the Times, for example.

Then there's the whole question of what compels a corporation to engage in big change initiatives in the first place. More often it's from within, rather than from without, where the consumers live. This quote from designer Peter Arnell, from the press conference about the new Tropicana packaging, particularly stands out: "There was a strong drive to bring a big messaging onto the carton where the biggest single billboarding was." On whose part? Why do I doubt it was the consumer's?

The people at Sci Fi, or SyFy, or whatever you care to call it, pounded their chests over the testing they did with consumers over the new name, but as Jim Nail, chief strategy and marketing officer for TNS Cymfony, speculated yesterday, in all likelihood those focus groups were not the media property's core audience, but the people they were looking to attract. It's highly ironic that in the Times interview, Howe actually says that he wanted to avoid a "Tropicana debacle," only to immediately find himself in one. He thought he was listening, but was he listening to the right people? Doesn't look like it.

I'm certainly sympathetic to the challenge companies face in trying to expand beyond their core, but, courting new lovers at the expense of the old is a recipe for disaster, and it's only compounded when focus groups are held up as the last word in what consumers want. "You need a little safe, quiet laboratory to test these things in -- and focus groups are not it," Nail said to me yesterday. "Because there's always the dynamic that people are showing up for their $50 and M&Ms."

Exactly. While that's always been the case, as use of social media channels becomes more ubiquitous, the very idea that a focus group is valuable is ridiculous -- when compared with the real conversation taking place among the people who really care about your brand. The focus group is dead. But when will marketers notice?


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Mid-Career Personal Branding is Critical!

Here's is a re-post of my guest post on Dan Schawbel's Personal Branding Blog:

I recently spoke to a group of mid-career executives about personal branding….and they looked at me with puzzlement – personal branding – at this stage of my career? What they’re thinking is “I’ve never used personal branding, and I’ve gotten this far without it…” They nodded their heads during my talk, but I think most of them were dismissing the concept.

News flash to the 50+ crowd- studies say that you’re retirement is farther off than you may think and in fact, you may be one of many who are suddenly on the job market after years in the same company and/or industry. If this is you – or someone you know – you’ll be pleased to know that personal branding is a career management tool.

So, who needs personal branding? You do!

These days job candidates – from the boardroom to the mail room - need to articulate a promise of value that will convince the prospective employer you can add to the growth of the company. Your personal brand promise needs to be apparent in your resume, your cover letter, your “look”, your approach, your conversation –and especially your online presence. Just because you’re getting older doesn’t mean that you can not and should not keep up to date with technology.

Most “recession era” job seekers are learning that personal branding helps you be more in control of the direction of your career by increasing your visibility and ability to attract and land target jobs.

Mid-Career Personal Branding Tips:2256400301_cd701f04d9

  1. Use more than one channel to promote your personal brand. Create a personal, blog, or online resume that prominently features your Personal Branding Statement
  2. Tell readers what they will gain by hiring or working with you
  3. A picture is worth 1000 words. Use photos and graphic designs that reinforce your verbal message to create memorable.
  4. Reinforce your personal brand in all your interactions with others. Mention your key attributes and special qualities in voice mail messages, your email signature, and whenever you speak with current or potential clients face to face.

What happens when your brand is tarnished?

Many mid-career professionals are more than a little “afraid” to put themselves out in public so prominently. It is counter-intuitive to those who came up in a corporate culture or team work. Times have changed. And have no fear – if Donald Trump can survive a brand “hit”, anyone can.

It was recently reported in the Vancouver Sun: Donald Trump, the real estate mogul who has splashed his name on everything from skyscrapers to neckties to bottled water, has suffered a string of recent reversals that threaten to dilute his cachet, say branding experts. His name, which he often licenses to real estate projects in which he has no direct control, has earned him millions.

“His brand is associated with success and making money. And every time the word bankruptcy appears next to Trump, that’s not good,” said Allen Adamson, managing director of Landor, a brand consultancy. “He can take a few chinks in the armor, but I think he’s probably at the limit.”

On the other hand, failure might not tarnish Trump’s image as much as it might seem, said Scott Davis, a partner at Prophet, a branding firm. Trump has some wiggle room because his story exalts the comeback, not just uninterrupted success. Davis said.

“He’s the guy who bounces back,” Davis said. “He epitomizes a part of the American dream that people latch onto. He’s somebody that has come through contentious times and he ends up back on top.”

If The Donald can do it – why not you?

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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

UCLA Extension’s Spring Open House

If you're in Westwood on March 18th, 5:30 to 8 pm, come by the the Lindbrook Center in Westwood Village for the Spring Open House. The theme of the Open House is careers and opportunities in this tough economic environment. We have planned a combination of workshops and open advisement activities to draw and keep attendees engaged for the entire evening.


Open House Workshop Schedule

5:00 Speakers meet in the Green Room, Lindbrook Center, TBA

5:30 to 8 pm All Department Exhibit Tables, Rm 204 ABCD

6-7 Workshop HR Panel

6:30-7:30 pm Workshop - Blackboard Demo, Lindbrook Lab, Rm 206

Ryan Minihan, Course Manager, Distance Learning

7-8 pm Workshop - Successful Professional Networking Online, Lindbrook 214

Beverly Macy, UCLA Extension Instructor


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Friday, March 13, 2009

Social Media In The News Week Ending 3-13-09

Social Media Marketing Tips From Los Angeles Media Event
Entrepreneur - USA
But first–this past week, I’ve been collecting my thoughts from the first-ever social media marketing event at UCLA, put on by the awesome team at Gravity ...
Time Management in the Age of Social Media
BusinessWeek - USA
By David Allen These days I'm asked frequently about the role of social media in personal and organizational productivity. The question is timely, ...
Social Media Expert Presents "Social Media and Selling" at Coffman ...
SYS-CON Media - Montvale,NJ,USA
According to a study presented by Netpop Research, more than 105 million Americans contribute to social media. Valerie Jennings, president and CEO of ...
Apple's Wozniak Turns to Social Media for Dancing with Stars Support
WebProNews - Lexington,KY,USA
Naturally he's turned to social media. There's a Tweet stream set up: There are other sites dedicated solely to voting for Wozniak on Dancing with the Stars ...
Cision Integrates Social Media Data and Metrics Into CisionPoint ...
PR Newswire (press release) - New York,NY,USA
The integrated social media metrics and intelligence enable users to search all media types, identify key industry influencers, build superior distribution ...
Corey McPherson Nash Hosts Social Media Presentation
PR Newswire (press release) - New York,NY,USA
The event will focus on defining social media and assessing its impact both personally and professionally. Klaehn and Evans will review the good, ...
Social Media and Search
Multichannel Merchant - Stamford,CT,USA
You say that SEM and social media marketing have become one. What exactly does this mean for merchants? It’s time to embrace social media. ...

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Inside P&G's social media war room

Very interesting article on how "mainstream" brands are strategizing about social media:

When Procter & Gamble wanted to train its marketers in social media, it didn't put their teams on a plane and send them somewhere sunny for a few days of conference sessions. Instead, it invited some digital marketing gurus from around the country for a "Digital Hack Night" for charity and let its marketers learn from the best as they competed with each other for bragging rights. David Armano, who blogs at Critical Mass, talks about what it was like inside the P&G war room. Logic+Emotion (03/12) Advertising Age (03/12)
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Sunday, March 8, 2009

Twitter Demographics

I recently lectured at Karl's New Media Marketing class at UCLA and Twitter is what everyone's talking about. Interestingly, the demographics for this and other social media tools are often misunderstood. Thanks to Jacob Morgan, Social Media Consultant, for this post:

by Jacob Morgan on 03/05/2009 18:50
Categories: Twitter, Marketing, Social Networking
Tags: socialmediatoday, pew+twitter demographics

PEW released an interesting document on the demographics of twitter users along with some other interesting information. For example, did you know that 11% of online adults use twitter or a service like twitter to update their status online?

Here are the key stats from the PEW study regarding the demographic of twitter users:

  • 19% of online adults age 18-24 have used twitter or something like it
  • 20% of online adults age 25-34 have used twitter or something like it
  • 10% of online adults age 35-44 “ “ “ “
  • 5% of online adults age 45-54 “ “ “ “
  • 4% of online adults age 55-64 “ “ “ “
  • 2% of online adults 65+ “ “ “ “

Other interesting twitter stats:

  • 35% of twitter users live in urban areas
  • 9% live in rural areas
  • online american who live in lower income housing are more likely to use twitter
  • 17% of internet users in households earning less than $30,000 tweet
  • 10% of internet users in households earning more than $75,000 tweet
  • 76% of twitter users use the internet wirelessly

Twitter users are also more mobile in news consumption:

twitter users mobile news consumption

Here are some other interesting stats from PEW:

  • median age of a twitter user is 31
  • median age of a myspace user is 27
  • media age of a facebook user is 26
  • media age of a linkedin user is 40

Here is some quantcast data on twitter:

quantcast twitter users

The data from Quantcast actually fits in pretty well with the PEW data, don’t you think?

So there you have it folks, the twitter demographic.

What do you think? Was this surprising or right on target with your expectations?


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Saturday, March 7, 2009

Tracking Brands on Twitter to Improve How You Listen and Engage

This is a great post by Brian Solis, PR 2.0. Clearly, Twitter is THE place to be and new tools are coming out to track and help both with listening and eventually ROI.

Recently, I reviewed Twibs, a directory that lists all brands and businesses currently using Twitter.

Electric Artists released a new app that is a real-time listing of the top brands, media, television, entertainment, and celebrities that the team is currently following on Twitter.

While this service offers appeal as a directory for consumers seeking their favorite brands and personalities on Twitter, it's much more promising as a real-time monitor of how businesses, media properties, and celebrities are using Twitter - for better or for worse.



The directory includes notes next to each account, although I'd suggest that it's far more effective to simply click through and view their update history on Twitter to get an idea of how they're interacting with the public and also identify promising patterns. Also open up an additional window and run each account through TwitterFriends to get an overview of how they score according to their tweeting behavior. more here
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Monday, March 2, 2009

Twitter and Personal Branding

Most of you know I guest blog on Dan Schawbel's Personal Branding Blog. Twitter is a great tool for personal branding - here's an example of Jimmy Fallon using it right now to try to beat the competition. Will it work?

Can Fallon Twitter His Way to Late-Night Stardom?

(Newser) – Jimmy Fallon has a daunting task before him tonight: He’s got to forge a Late NightChicago Tribune reports, and yes, it’s actually the SNL alum typing them out. “It's almost like therapy, Twitter,” he says. “You can't go past a certain amount of characters, so no one really gets boring.” And Twitter’s only one prong of his digital assault. Fallon’s posted video blogs, let online voters pick the show’s new logo, and asked the masses for jokes. Viewers may even be able to talk to him during the show via Skype.
Source: Chicago Tribune


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Social Media Zeitgeist Takes Over Skittles.com

Is this a good use of Social Media or a gigantic blunder? Everyone's talking about it, which might be good. But any campaign without a focus and clear outcomes is headed for disaster. What do you think?

From Marketing Vox

Late last week Skittles announced the relaunch of Skittles.com, which isn't so much a website as an app pointing visitors elsewhere online where Skittles material — official or not — is hosted.

Visits to Skittles.com drive users to a search for "skittles" on Summize, a real-time search engine for Twitter.com. Floating above this material is a Skittles navigation bar: product links drive users to Wikipedia, and media links send them to either YouTube or flickr, for example.

Spokesman Ryan Bowling of parent firm MARS called the Agency.com-created site "very different from anything else consumers are seeing," adding that the format is inspired by "consumer chatter and beliefs about our brand."

And while it may be true that consumers haven't seen the unusual format before, advertisers and client brands may have. In March 2008 Boston-based agency Modernista dismantled its own site, driving curious users to flickr, Facebook, Wikipedia, and elsewhere.

At the time, armchair speculators oscillated between dubbing the "siteless site" inspired, gimmicky and even dangerous. In early February, for example, Modernista's "n3wz" link — which drives users to Google News and Google Blogs — "promoted" the agency's own layoffs.

But according to Bowling, the Skittles site differs "substantially" from Modernista's because it drives users to social media sites. "It serves as your remote control," he insisted.

Users that wish to engage Skittles.com must enter their birth dates, as it is company policy not to actively advertise to users less than 12 years old. MARS said the landing page will regularly change "depending on what is currently in market."

In the handful of days it's been live, it's already changed once. Upon launch, Skittles.com pointed to its page on Wikipedia; now it points to the Twitter search site.

But this may have less to do with its landing page flexibility than it does with Wikipedia's potentially fickle nature; when Modernista launched its siteless site last year, it also pointed to its page on Wikipedia — which was pulled off the online encyclopedia hours later.

Visits to Modernista.com now point users to its Facebook page.


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Sunday, March 1, 2009

Social Media News Roundup

Courtesy of Mark Van Baale, Social Media Marketing, Deere & Co

Anti-stimulus tea parties light up Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and ...
Los Angeles Times - CA,USA
... Jackson read the definition of "socialism"). If social media is a good barometer, it looks like the spending bill is stimulating the citizenry already.
Can you advise about social media if you don't use it?
ZDNet Blogs - USA
I recently met a senior PR person who says she advises clients about social media, yet she doesn’t blog, she isn’t on Facebook, or on Twitter. ...
Preview: Boxee social media center for Windows
Afterdawn.com - USA
Boxee is billed as a social media center. What that means is that you establish friends through their website and then they can recommend video to you. ...
Retailers Better Buy In to Social Media
Destination CRM - New York,NY,USA
There's no avoiding the topic of social networking and social media in the retail industry -- after all, with more than 175 million active users on Facebook ...
Reality Digital Tries to 'Harmonize' Social Media
Contentinople - New York,NY,USA
Reality Digital Inc. has announced a new platform called Harmony that is designed to enable small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to launch social media ...
Social-media strategies for weathering the economic storm
SmartBrief - Washington,DC,USA
Social media is a great way to get a leg up on your competition during the down market, but as David Finch notes, "approaching social media without any ...
The Obama Effect On Social Media
NPR - USA
News & Notes , February 27, 2009 · The Obama administration forever changed the way campaigns think about online social networking. ...

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