Facebook’s Mobile Crisis

Great piece on CNET from Molly Wood that calls attention to Facebook’s great weakness on mobile.  Interesting and growing identification of Zuckerberg and Facebook as the last of the great web/desktop plays. Very tough to transition to that next great thing.

Microsoft never got it right with Internet

Google never got it right with Social Networks  (setting aside of course the strength of YouTube)

From here on out it’s mobile or bust.

Will they get there through acquisition? If history is any indication the answer is no.  The public pressure to deliver will force the company to pay too much attention to the existing business and not develop aggressively enough against mobile.

On the other hand, they did say no to GM and all the other marketers who’ve asked them to expand what’s possible on the platform so perhaps they have a shot.  A long shot for sure but a shot nonetheless.

The Web is Dead (Zuck told me so)

Great post from Dan Lyons on The Daily Beast / Newsweek about the Facebook Instagram purchase.

In the piece Lyons makes the rather obvious point that these mobile devices are turning out to be pretty popular.  So much so that Zuckerberg realized his Desktop Internet system will die if it doesn’t get mobile tout de suite.

We may not like Facebook as a company as much anymore but  this was a smart acquisition in the Andy Grove, “Only The Paranoid Survive” kind of way.  He may turn out to be more Jobs-like than the rest of the desktop-CEOs.

The Social Mouse-Story That Squeaked

The recent news that Facebook hired Burson-Marsteller to smear Google shocked me about  as much as Bin Laden turning up in Pakistan. I mean isn’t this Google deal kind of the same thing that led to the founding of Facebook?

Then:  Zuckerberg got mad at his ex-girlfriend and slammed her online.

Now: Zuckerberg gets mad at Google and decides to slam her online.

I just found it to be kind of a yawn of a story.  I think we’re supposed to be outraged that the leader of social media seems to be violating at least the spirit of the new world order in social marketing but come on.

Zuckerberg isn’t the little brother of Sergey and Larry, the “do no evil” crew.  He’s much more like Gates (pre-Melinda) and Ballmer, or Larry Ellison.  I can understand a variety of reactions to this story but surprised or shocked or outraged just feels naive.

Gluten-Free Social Marketing

My wife came home with $300 bucks worth of Gluten-Free food from Whole Foods last week. All basically identical to the $250 of regularly over-priced food we get from Whole Foods every week. She also bought a cookbook called gluten-free girl and the chef.

I had heard about gluten-free of course but mostly because of a couple friends who have kids with Celiac Disease. Lately though it’s everywhere. I don’t know whether it’s a fad or something sustainable but I love the way it’s been marketed. Both in general and by the woman who wrote the book about gluten-free cooking, Shauna James Ahem. There’s a nice article about how she marketed the book by Dianne Jacob

She seems to have done four things right:

1) She spent her time in the community. Shauna has 42,000 Twitter followers and 15,000 Facebook fans. She talks to them every day. Pros and cons, recipes, Q & A’s, curation, it’s all there. And she did this community engagement first.

2) She writes a blog, called of course, gluten-free girl. Producing longer form content is critical in the social space for becoming an influencer and leader on a topic. It can’t all be curation. Even if your long form is point of view. Ahem’s is recipes and the stories, all of which then flow through other bloggers through Twitter, and to her community through Facebook. It’s perfect.

3) She wrote a book. This is wonderful not just because she sells a book, but because for the social community the book is now big news. Bloggers are dying for news, and content, and interviews etc. Ahem has just created a trifecta of new content for the entire social system. From big foodie bloggers to the regular joes and janes like us trying to figure out how we’re going to eat healthier.

4) She went out to the community and engaged in an interesting and newsworthy way. Instead of a traditional book tour Ahem went to NYC and had a picnic in Central Park with her social community. Ditto in San Francisco at Dolores Park. Guess what, this isn’t just engagement with her fans, it’s also NEWS for the blogging community to report on.

All four of these components put together is the perfect model for every marketer. Engage with the community, create and curate content, do things that are newsworthy and cycle it all back through the system over and over again.

Twitter: From Stupid to Brilliant in 12 Easy Months

In the last year or so we’ve seen Twitter go from feeling like the silliest, most irrational element of our social marketing efforts to being the most thoughtful and rational.

To a large degree this is due to the way in which the blogging and journalist community at large is using the system as a content feed. But it’s not just the pros using it more rationally it’s also the truly socially active and influential who are using the “What’s Happening Now” effect to help them stay on top of things in the world they care about. Very different than the origins of Twitter usage.

Simon Dumenco from adage covers this transition nicely in

Who’s Got Next?

In the beginning there was America Online and there were chatrooms and websites and it was good. Everyone was sending “electronic mail” which was nice and then they were sending “e-mail” which was even better but then we started sending “email”, and well, that was the absolute BEST.

 

Napster had a decent run there for a while there, didn’t it? But Napster of course ruined everything, by convincing people that they could have something they love, something they need, for free. And now anytime we have to pay a red cent for ANYTHING digital we are up in arms. But alas it was too good to last and Napster never really figured out a way to make it as a legit business.

 

 

Which brings us to The Book Face. Originally conceived as a way to digitally remove people’s faces and preserve them in book form, it was soon re-strategized as the world’s largest storehouse of 80s haircut photos.

 

In digital terms Facebook actually grew pretty slowly. Unlike Napster you heard about Facebook before you were allowed to have it. And this forbidden fruit vibe made it irresistible. Pretty soon you were using it for everything you used to use electronic mail/e-mail/email for — pictures of your kids, long-lost videos of that cool band you used to like, your cat’s super-cute fall wardrobe, you name it — you aint e’ing it you’re F’ing it.

 

But lately doesn’t it maybe kinda feel like we’re at a “what’s next?” phase? Maybe it’s the privacy stuff, maybe it’s Diaspora, maybe it’s natural/digital selection, maybe it’s all (or none) of the above.

 

Speaking of Diaspora, the open-source for the Facebook alternative is now available. Is this the FB-killer? Could be. The screenshots look awfully familiar but sometimes that’s the way it is with digital innovation. Zuckerberg even called Diaspora a “cool idea”.

 

I could end way wrong on this but Diaspora feels like a band-aid. It’s an open-source patched-up version of something everyone already has, which is possibly something everyone will flock to. But not for long.  I feel like the next move will be something with mobile at its core. Like some sort of Facebook/Foursquare/Twitter/Pandora mashup, built FOR mobile (rather than a mobile version of an existing dealie).

 

Marketers like to tell their clients to spend $ on Facebook in large part because that’s where their audience is. This is also true with individuals. Sure we all have outlier holdout friends but they’ll buy the Farmville soon enough.

 

But by the time they do will the party be over? Clearly there’s been a sea change at Facebook, and that Zuckerberg fella has decided that it’s as fun and challenging to figure out how to monetize the thing as it was to create and nurture it. Fine. It’s his baby. And hey, he had a pretty good run.

 

I’m your #1 fan

Imagine being able to claim, with proof, that you were first in the door. You saw THAT BAND back when they were playing small clubs, etc., etc.

There is obviously an appetite for trumpeting. Checking in on Foursquare, posting on The Facebook, Twitter, et. al. And this seems to be the horse that many brands have ignored, in favor of the cart.

“Wait … what cart?” Ok fine. The cart being the creation of a Social Media presence simply for the sake of a Social Media presence (as well as the subsequent obsession with the raw NUMBER of fans). Point being, make your presence about the CUSTOMER. Or to quote our old pal Bob Lefsetz, “the best way to get people to spend is to make it about them”*.

Lefsetz also mentions Farmville. How much $$$$ they’re making as a company, and how people love to share their FV accomplishments. Farmville has figured out how to both get people to spend their dough, and how to still make the experience about THEM.

“Under the cap” rewards programs were a pre-internet version of this. I remember collecting 7-Up bottle caps with letters underneath, in hopes of spelling out some or other message. I never got anywhere with this but even if I had, other than standing on the porch and hollering there was no convenient way to brag.

It seems natural to expect more and more brands to leverage this type of participation, and to marry this participation with some form of trumpeting. Foursquare badges, fan bragging rights, virtual rewards, etc. All tied, of course, to the spending of actual money.

Construct a program that’s free to join, and that has some inherent value in and of itself. A concert calendar app, links to behind the scenes footage, somesuch. And then offer exclusive goods, discounted tickets, othersuch. Plus of course, make it cool or fun enough that people can’t help but tell their friends.

I recently flew cross-country, wife and three kids in tow. On the way east we flew Delta, who impose a fee for all checked bags. On the way back we flew Southwest who let us check 47 steamer trunks without so much as batting an eye or charging a red cent (I’m exaggerating here. I think we only had 34.).

However my point isn’t simply about the fee itself. It’s more about the way it was done vs. the way it COULD be done. Here’s the breakdown, from the Delta website: “First checked bag: $23 if checked in online, or $25 at the airport. Second checked bag: $32 online or $35 at the airport.”

That’s a lot of bread. And not a lot of savings if you check in online. This WILL make me think twice before booking another Delta flight. But if you tell me I can get deeper discounts if I check in via Foursquare at a Delta kiosk? I might change my tune.

Maybe not the best example of the “cool factor” alluded to earlier, but you get the picture. With some stuff (music being the example that springs to mind) the internet has pretty much ruined it. Once people sniff that they can get it for free you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. But if there’s stuff people need or want, and that they’re gonna pay for anyway?

Grease the skids. Offer rewards. Make it about them.

*Inspiration for this post came from the following by Mr. Lefsetz: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2010/09/03/quote-of-the-day-9/

Where the Frak is my Social Media Unobtonium?

Recently saw Avatar with my sons. Lots of cool Signourney cussing and crazy-eyed Colonel Quaritch violence.

I couldn’t shake the feeling though that I was watching an object lesson about what could happen to big chunks of the social media world.

Don’t mean to get all Pandora mystical on you but the planet of social media is an amazing place. People run around on trees, doing within reason pretty much whatever they’d like and without interference. Whenever they want to mind-meld with the entire world both past and present, they simply ponytail-jack their way into the system and do the whole Na’vi social-network thing. They can feel the love, exchange communal knowledge, decide where the best burrito can be had, or whether to get a Prius or Volt, all of it. The straight dope from those who know from all over the world. What could be better?

But then of course the people from the planet of stupid show up. Instead of appropriately listening and learning from these gentle Na’vis, as Sigourney suggests, we bring in Colonel crazy-eyes. This goon and his boss ignore the real power; the connectedness of the populace and the planet, the amazing ability of the people to plug in and share thoughts, knowledge, memories etc.. They instead go for the unobtonium underneath the big tree. Which as far as the stupids are concerned has real ROI. And the pursuit of which will destroy what makes the place magical and valuable in the first place.

I was talking to someone recently from a large financial services company who runs their social marketing practice. He has set up a social monitoring system through which he can hear everything everyone in the world, online, has to say about his company, his competitors, and the whole category in which they compete.
This gives him and every part of his company incredible insight into what the market cares about regarding products, and service and the future. He’s also dipped his toe into having a voice in the space. Built a small but growing community in the social network and blog space where he can publish content to those who care. In spite of this very cool and valuable system of direct and relatively unfiltered communication with customers and prospects, he’s under pressure from his boss, the crazy-eyed Colonel of his company, to deliver ROI. Which in their terms means sales, directly measured. The same way they measure sales through direct or sales through clicks off of a banner.

And so they’re going to strap themselves into those giant metal robot things and start trampling the social planet in order to extract the unobtanium. Now, I’m no ROI snob. We’ve all got to earn a living, but for Eywa’s sake can we please not demo the planet or that big tree thing, and blow this insanely wonderful listening and communication system in order to turn social marketing into the same crappy ROI piece of shite digital advertising has become?

Let’s not be skxawang’s please!

Instrinsic vs. Instrumental Value In The Social World

Something is said to have intrinsic value if it is good “in and of itself,” i.e., not merely as a means for acquiring something else.

Happiness has intrinsic value, because being happy is good just because it’s good to be happy, not because being happy has to lead to anything else. (definition borrowed from Kent Holsinger)

Something is said to have instrumental value if it is good because it provides the means for acquiring something else of value.

Having a billion dollars in Gold Doubloons is an Instrumental value. Having this booty is good only to the extent that you can use them to get something else – like happiness.

One of my great fears about social marketing (a discipline I love and which pays the mortgage by the way) is that it constantly tries to find Instrumental value in social activity that at times might be closer to something with Intrinsic value. The purchasing of fandom on facebook (i think our sense of “fans” on FB will need to change as a result of marketers getting fans of their marketing rather than their products) and the constant manipulation or purchase of dialogue among bloggers and social participants is going to impact them in ways they can’t imagine.

One of the best elements of the social world has been its ability to give us a relatively authentic view of how we’re doing. And ideally give us some “learning” moments. And when we behave well in this world it continues to do so. Now I’m no idealist, as evidenced by our active marketing in the social world but this Manifest Destiny point of view in which every element of the social world gets drawn and quartered for marketing manipulation is going to give us a crapload of false positives and other such oddities. It will also likely take real fans, who enjoyed their position of uniqueness in celebrating a brand online and make them feel marginalized or part of a brand culture they didn’t bargain for when they originally joined (see Jack Daniel’s recent more shrill participation in FB).

If you’re a brand that’s doing a Wolfgang Puck and crossing over from LA fashionista’s to Vending Machines and the masses then by all means set fire to the joint.

At the end of the day though it’s worth double-checking that you’re not trampling over the real fans who in the marketing sense have “Intrinsic” value to try and pull in every Tom, Dick and Harry with some kind of short term, social-marketing manufactured, Instrumental-value metric and objective.

And by the way, I get that all marketing lives in the world of Instrumental value and that we’re playing with the language in this post but you get the idea here right?

SoulWow.com: the catholic church takes a chance

I noticed a link to soulwow.com on a friends facebook page. If you haven’t seen it take a look. I had to watch it several times in order to figure out if it was by the church or simply making fun of the church. In the end I have to conclude it’s from the church. If it’s not then it’s the best marketing the church has done since that big book was written and they should take credit regardless.

why? well crap it doesn’t take a marketing genius to tell you that the church has had some tough moments over the last decade or two. and since people have been getting approximately the same pitch for a couple milleniums a fresh approach couldn’t hurt. i mean they adhere to the best principles of content for social distribution: funny, short, topical, parody of ad form, in your face etc.

And they do it every bit as well as a Crispin or Saturday NIght Live or any other hotshop would do it. now i may get burned at some point and learn that this was a parody and some knucklehead at Michigan State created it but damn that would be a shame.