Obsessed with Conformity

On Loyalty

Why do you order Coke instead of Pepsi? Does Coke pay you? No, you pay Coke. You pay Coke for their product. It's a good product. You like the taste. You gladly pay them for it. As a result, you're a brand ambassador for Coke every time you order one in a restaurant, walk around with one in the office or open up your favorite beach umbrella emblazoned with the Coke logo. 

Coke wins because it has you as a lifetime customer unless they really screw up, or you give up high fructose corn syrup. You win because you've found a brand experience that you value enough to consistently pay for, be a walking billboard for and trust for UV protection. Seems weird doesn't it? 

It's the same with loyalty in sports. While most of us have never worn a jock strap in a Yankees uniform (yes, those of you in The Nation may substitute Red Sox), we gladly pay the Steinbrenners big money for the experience we have with their brand. They're damn sure not giving it away. We do it for the shared experience the moment Rivera closes out a game six and we feel a euphoric connectedness with other fans around the globe. The strange thing is - you're purchasing your own loyalty. To Coke. To the Yankees. To any brand. 

In fact, the only way a brand purchases loyalty is in the workplace. If you go to work every day for a company, and you're not C-level, you're selling your time. Sure, you're selling it for a price and hopefully you consider it a fair price, but really - can it ever be? I mean, not only are you selling your time, you're selling your loyalty. No? Really? Ok then, let's say that you're a copywriter for a big ad agency in NYC. You have a great salary, bust your ass 10 hours a day (ok, so writing copy isn't exactly something I'd put in the 'busting ass' bucket, but you know what I mean) and you have a sweet apartment a block from the 4 train. You're happy. And you're totally loyal to your employer. Then one day, as fate would have it, an agency in San Francisco comes calling. It's a better offer with a more money, better accounts, more perks, etc. 

Where's your loyalty? I'll tell you where it is - it's in SF. Yes, I could write a ton of contingencies that make it so the copywriter stays in NYC, but for this argument, my guy moved to SF, ok? However, in every other business application, loyalty cannot be purchased. Only earned. If you want lifetime customers, you make a great product and back it up with great service. Show people you care. Prove it. Again and again. In business, the only way to develop loyalty is to fulfill promises. And that takes time. 

Except, now that we have social media, it takes a lot *less* time. In the old days, if you wanted to sell product, you'd pay an ad agency to create a kick-ass campaign and flood the market with your call-to-action. Only, the best that this kind of communication can ever do is give commands. Sure, the ads would probably be clever, and the media well-placed, but it's still just a call-to-action. You put it out there - and hope. 

Social offers the opportunity to engage people directly. Directly! It's such a different idea that people struggle to wrap their minds around it and instead drive over to the gadget store to focus on tools that help brands monitor when people say things about them. This is the opposite of active. Yet, when you take a look around a Twitter stream filled with thought-leaders, gurus and experts - you notice that most of them talk about the tools, and how to manage, track and concatenate data flow. Yes, many of these tools are necessary to augment a social communications strategy, and a lot of them *are* pretty cool, no one talks about the actual dialogue between a brand and its prospects. What happened to the part where brands nurture loyalty? 

Dear brands, this isn't brain surgery. If you're going to be in social, do more than tell us how great you are, and intercept people when they have a questionable brand experience. Why not follow your customers? This is the chance you've been waiting for! Dump your upcoming direct mail campaign, and employ a direct engagement campaign here instead (no one reads your junk mail anyway). Put your resources into people who work for you and who are already (paid to be) loyal to you and who can can seek out and interact with people who will become so loyal to you that they will tell other people about their own positive experience with your brand. 

Loyalty. It's a conundrum. So how do you define loyalty? What brands are you loyal to, and why? Would you like it if one of your favorite brands sent you an @reply regarding a mundane tweet you made about how you found your lost keys? Or would that just freak you out too much?

_____________________

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and parter at smashcommunications - a communications consultancy that's shifting with the rest of the world to social media as a primary means of audience interaction. You can follow him on Twitter @smashadv

Spreading the Love. Maximizing the Media.

Last week we launched a social media program for the upcoming Boxman Studios restaurant. The cool thing about this brand is that other than developing an identity and building a basic website that explains the concept, we're not doing anything 'traditional.' Sure, the website is SEO compliant, but we're not bidding on key phrases. Yes, we made a brochure/flier for a special event, but we're not producing high-profile 3D collateral. We're utilizing social media as the main vehicle to develop awareness for the brand, and to promote the restaurant. For more information on the campaign, click here. Also, as part of the awareness campaign, we created a naming contest for the restaurant. For information on the contest, click here.

After about a week, I think we've done pretty well. We've doubled our Twitter followers, have a few fans of the restaurant's Facebook page (we could use more, please), have received about 50 name submissions for the contest and are developing a very cool blog that will become the primary social media vehicle for both the brand and the restaurant going forward. But because we're bypassing traditional media, we have to get creative to ensure that when the restaurant launches in April, we have as much momentum as we can handle. Eventually, the food will be the thing that makes the restaurant successful or not, but we need people to try it out first - and that's where creativity comes in. 

The thing about traditional media is that it costs money. You want a radio spot - money. TV - money, Print - money. Social media - ? So I had the idea to pay a few people in Charlotte to tweet about the naming contest (JUST the naming contest), since that's the thing that will attract followers. And those followers will eventually see where the restaurant is located (as it will move daily) so that they can try the food for themselves and ultimately decide whether the restaurant succeeds by talking about it in their social circles. 

Three things about the controversial idea of paying people to promote the contest - 

1) We wouldn't just pay anyone. We'd only ask people who have been to Boxman Studios and have experienced the brand first-hand for themselves. They could always decline being paid, or decline to endorse it altogether. We'd not ask for people to be dishonest in any way. 

2) We'd not pay a lot. In fact, if the these people could take someone to dinner on what we'd pay for sponsored tweets about the contest - that would be a victory. We just want to show our appreciation for taking the time to visit the brand firsthand, and (if they wanted) pay them a little something in return. 

3) We'd not ask people to spam their followers. In fact, we'd only be looking only for a few tweets about the contest between now and March 18th to help get the word out to people in Charlotte. 

The point of this post is to be as transparent as possible. No, I would not make a public list of the people we'd ask to help out, and no, we'd not ask anyone who agrees to help out to publicly state that they're being paid to promote the contest. If these people decided to say they're being paid - that's their decision. And it would be perfectly ok with us. We'd not ask them to lie about anything - there really *is* a contest where we're giving someone $500 to name the restaurant. Look at it this way, if when the restaurant launches and someone isn't happy with the food or prices or service and they tweet their dissatisfaction, we don't control that either. Eventually, momentum for the restaurant (and the Boxman brand, for that matter) will take care of itself via social media. This is an organic space. People make up their own minds to say what they feel. The pay thing would just be a little boost for the contest. 

Anyway, this is a tricky situation, but one that I feel pretty strongly about. If Tide came to me tomorrow because I said something nice about their laundry detergent last week, and they offered to pay me $1,000 to tweet how clean my jeans were after using Tide, guess what - I'm taking it. Within reason, of course. 

So what do you think, will this work? Do people deserve to be compensated for promoting a brand or an idea within the networks they've worked so hard to build? Is this a bad idea that will backfire on the brand because *everyone* will want to be paid to say *anything* about it - or else not say anything at all? Any feedback you can offer is appreciated. Thanks for your time. 

Transparently yours, Jim

NOTE: As of Saturday, March 6th, we have decided NOT pay for sponsored tweets about the naming contest. This doesn't mean we don't appreciate people talking about the contest in this space. We do. A lot. But the idea of sponsored tweets in general is such a radical concept (to some people) that we feel that this tactic might overshadow all of the other (less controversial) tactics we're employing to promote the restaurant. I personally feel that one day we (as owners of our own networks here) may capitalize on our influence in ways that help put food on our tables or clothes on our kids' backs. Because big media companies and big brands should NOT be the only ones who capitalize from our word-of-mouth experiences.  

Jim Mitchem is a father, husband, writer and partner at smashcommunications. You can follow him on Twitter at@smashadv and @boxmanstudios.

The Ultimate Driving Experience

Remember those guys in middle school who wore T-shirts with big Chevy muscle cars eating little Fords, or the ones with giant Ford trucks crushing little Chevys until their headlights popped out? Remember those guys? The ones with permanent grease stains under their finger nails? Well, I wasn't one of those guys. I'm not a car guy. So when Kamran Popkin, @swagclub, invited me down to the BMW Performance Driving School (PDS) for a day, I was at once honored, and skeptical. 

But I got into my wife's Pacifica and drove to Greenville (Greer) from Charlotte, anyway. What the hell, I could drive fancy cars for a few hours. It would be kind of cool. In his infinite wisdom, Popkin invited several people from social media to attend this event - which no doubt garnered some buzz about the school, while also developing some loyalty to Kamran (and his company). Don't get me wrong, Kamran's not the type of guy to ask you to do or say anything on his company's behalf. In fact, if you check out his Twitter page, it's clear that just the opposite is true. Kamran was offering us a one-of-a-kind experience with nothing expected in return. Because that's just the kind of guy he is. 

But enough about Kamran. This was about the BMW experience. Not being a car guy, I've always just assumed that people who drove Mercedes or BMW were doing it for the status of the hood ornament - only. And while that might be true for many owners, the PDS makes you think differently about the brand. These cars flat out bust it. It's almost a crime to call them cars at all. More like land-jets. Land F-15s. I drove several of these machines at very high speeds. They fly. The video below is taken with the iPhone as I sat shotgun while an instructor drove (I forget the model - I'm not a car guy).

Everything about the BMW PDS is solid. The brand's clean lines and attention to detail resonate in every corner of this place. From the briefing room to the instructors to the sign above our fleet that stated, "Don't forget to breathe" - the PDS is more than just the ultimate driving school, it's the ultimate ad for BMW. Imagine all brands giving their prospects a chance to experience the very best that the brand offers, in a controlled environment that reinforces the promise of value - and charge them for it! Sure, the PDS might set you back a few bucks (a lot actually), but if you're looking to purchase one of these machines - the cost is insignificant. 

Which is to say, I will likely never own a BMW. A love for cars just wasn't passed down to me. So I'll continue to drive my old jalopy (a 1993 Range Rover with 85K miles that I bought to accommodate dogs and kids) and my wife's fancy car, when necessary. All I care about is getting to where I'm going. But, if you have the means, and you're in the market for a car that can outrun James Bond villains, I can't recommend BMW highly enough. 

At the end of the day, we were asked to fill out a form about the experience. On the form it asked which brands we associated closest with BMW. I could only think of two - Apple and Disney. 

One last thing, I was able to meet a couple of people on Twitter at this event, and at one point was a passenger in a vehicle driven by @sydneywilliams. She tried to kill me. I (somehow) survived. And don't believe her if she tells you she beat my time around the track. Ok, believe her. I'm not a car guy. 

Jim Mitchem is a father, husband, writer and partner at smashcommunications. You can follow him on Twitter @smashadv. 

Name The Restaurant, Win $500

  

Ok, here's the deal, Boxman Studios is opening a mobile restaurant and if you live in Charlotte, we want you to name it. And we'll pay you $500 for your genius. Why Charlotte? Because we're not opening this restaurant in Milwaukee, Phoenix or Boston. Not yet, anyway. So for this contest, we're sticking local. For a little more background on what we're trying to do, click here. 

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The Brief

Brand - Visit the Boxman website and get to know the brand a little. Then, make sure the name fits the brand. Remember, you're not naming a software company. It's a mobile restaurant that's not on wheels. 

Audience - For now, the restaurant will cater to an urban, business, lunchtime crowd around Uptown Charlotte. 

Primary Offering - Casual, walk-up dining from an organic menu featuring gourmet paninis, wraps, salads and more. 

Secondary Offering - Mobile. It's a restaurant that comes to its customers (and it's not a truck).

Snapshot - It's a mobile restaurant that moves from place to place each day of the week and features a menu created by a Cordon Bleu (Paris) trained chef using locally grown organic produce. And while it will focus on lunchtime business crowds, the restaurant is not limited to lunches or business crowds (important to consider when naming). 

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The Rules

1) You may only enter one name at a time, but may submit up to three names.*

2) Include the restaurant name and one sentence as to why the name works, plus your name. And please, no manifestos. We understand this naming stuff already, if your name needs more than a sentence to explain, it's probably not going to work anyway.

3) Follow @boxmanstudios on Twitter and become a fan of the soon-to-be-named restaurant on Facebook. 

4) Email your submission to contest@boxmanstudios.com by midnight on Thursday, March 18, 2010. 

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The Really Important Stuff

The person who submits the selected name receives $500.**

Winning entry announced Wednesday, March 24, 2010. 

If you try to cheat, you'll be caught. If you don't live in Charlotte, don't bother. In fact, let's say if you live more than 30 miles away from Trade and Tryon, you don't qualify (though if you're really close to that, just email us and beg). 

Don't just blurt out your proposed (legit) name on Twitter or Facebook. You won't win that way even if it's great. Email only. 

Yes, we could have made a donation to a charity instead of paying someone, but if you win, and you want to donate to charity - you're more than welcome. The reason we're doing this is simple - we're launching a pretty cool restaurant concept, and are banking on the community we develop in social media to help us.Thank you so much for your help. Good luck, and may the best name win. 

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*All submissions will be read and judged by Boxman associates. Should the winning name be submitted more than once, we will  rely on date/time stamps on email to determine the winner.

**Payment to occur within 10 days of the name selection. Winner agrees to be featured in a post on the upcoming Boxman blog. 

Jim Mitchem is a father, husband, writer and founder of smashcommunications. He's currently manning @boxmanstudios and you can also find him on Twitter @smashadv

A (real) Social Experiment

This April, Boxman Studios is launching a mobile restaurant. Yes, the same cool concept of bringing the party to the people will now...bring food. The idea is for the restaurant to move each day to designated areas around Charlotte (which have been approved by the city) and offer fresh, organic fare to the hungry daytime business crowd. Organic makes sense for a brand that's built on 'green' technology, as well as how we'll grow the customer base. In fact, our entire marketing strategy is based exclusively on social media. Organic, word-of-mouth. It's a perfect fit for a mobile feast. 

So from Facebook to Twitter and the forthcoming Boxman Blog, we'll be leveraging the core foundations of social media to help get the word out, let people know where the restaurant will be and when, and to foster community around the brand.  

Our first social media initiative is to facilitate a contest to name the restaurant. Basically we're asking folks in Charlotte to take some ownership in the idea for the restaurant. Because just like with the stray dog you find, if you name it - you own it. Only, we're going to pay you. We'll post details about the naming contest later this week, but I can tell you it's pretty cool. And did I mention we're paying? 

I personally look forward to the challenge of helping David Campbell get this restaurant off the ground without the use of traditional advertising media. It's a brave new world. And in case you're wondering, no, we're not out to 'crowdsource' ideas. Rather, this is part of a new marketing strategy to generate buzz for the restaurant, and the brand as a whole. And we're not stopping at the name, either. 

Jim Mitchem is a father, husband, writer and started smashcommunications, llc. He's currently manning @boxmanstudios and you can also find him on Twitter @smashadv 

The Formula for (Social Media) Success

If you've landed here expecting a bullet list on how to make a fortune in social media, go ahead and click the back button on your browser now. If anything, this post is written to reinforce a very traditional idea that worked for generations before the first billboard ever blocked out a tree, let alone in social media. 

Question: If you want a girl to like you (or a boy, for you sticklers), what is the best course of action

A) Lie your ass off and hope they don't care when they find out?

B) Be yourself? 

We watch a lot of movies, so I'm going with B. And you can replace 'girl' with any number of other things. You want that new watch? Steal it? You want to fly to Europe? Stow away? You want to be successful in social media? Lie and be whatever you think your audience wants you to be in order for you to reach some unrealistic goal? Or be yourself? 

One of the best bits of advice I have ever received is: 'Always tell the truth - there's less to remember.' As someone who didn't always follow this rule in life, I've found it to be as helpful today as when I first heard it 20 years ago. It's a helluva lot easier to be authentic than false. It just is. 

As an advertising copywriter, I've been asked to write a lot of stuff. And despite a general view that advertising is manipulative and evil, I've never once lied in an appeal - ever. Sure, I get people to think about TRUE ideas differently, but I've never lied (though I've been asked to.) Also, I've sold a lot of stuff. Truth always wins. 

Which brings us social media. Today I had a meeting with a client to talk about their social media strategy and was having a parallel discussion with a partner on how best to use Twitter (specifically.) After thinking about these things for a bit, I posted this tweet: 

 

This may be the truest thing I've written in this space. After all, influence is the number one factor as to why people do *anything* (next to getting paid for it, of course.) After I posted this tweet, a bunch of people agreed with the idea (Thanks for the RT,) and, of course, some people questioned it. There's *no way* that something as simple as authenticity can be a core foundation for brands to move around in this space. 

Don't get me wrong, I completely understand that there are people who think that authenticity is not a very good idea for brands - period. After all, there's a whole school of thought in traditional marketing that the point of any advertising is to be in front of as many 'eyeballs' as possible. Why? So that one day, subconsciously I guess, the minions act favorably. Brilliant! 

Wow. Ok, assuming this isn't so brilliant, what's left for brands to do? How about making the best product possible and letting that stand on its own merit for people to decide for themselves? You know, like giving this 'word-of-mouth' advertising thing a shot. Especially since every single person in business recognizes 'word-of-mouth' as the best advertising available. 

Ok, but how do you get people to notice? Obviously, as we all know, social media is a great place to develop an audience who may or may not help you spread the word about your stuff - but not because you ask them to, rather because you sell good stuff. So the trick is to sell good stuff, have people in place who don't lie (and who treat people with respect), and always tell the truth about - everything. No, we don't need to know that the COO is sleeping with the receptionist at the Boulder satellite. At some point common sense must prevail. Rather, just be authentic. 

Perhaps the best advice about brand development (whether in social or not) comes courtesy of a dead English poet: "To thy own self be true." When you can do this, everything works out for the best. Always. Especially with the girl. 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications, llc. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv.  

The Parable of Social Media

Guest post by Callum Saunders Once upon a time, there was a small classroom in a local school.  The teacher used to come in every day, ordered his pupils to sit down and began talking at them, using methods he had crafted over many years.  The children were docile – they didn't know any different.  One pupil put his hand up to ask a question.  The teacher told him to be quiet.  The boy was. Then Social Media came along.  The classroom grew exponentially, until pupils from all over the world were all in the same classroom.  They started talking to each other.  They started to make small groups for those with similar interests.  They stopped listening to what the teacher was saying.  Frantically, the teacher tried to shout louder.  He tried direct mail, one-way e-newsletters, telephone marketing, print adverts, even giant posters!  But nothing caught the children's attention.  They didn't want to be spoken to.  They wanted to speak to each other. The teacher was in a frightful state!  All of his methods were no longer working – what was he to do?  Concerned, he went to visit the head-teacher,  Sat in her office, he quietly explained what had happened.  “Whatever am I to do?” he enquired.  The head-teacher, a wry smile on her face, turned to him and calmly assured him.. “Be part of the conversation.”  She said. Getting up, the teacher returned to his global classroom, where children from all over the world were now having thousands of conversations with each other, sharing news, swapping stories and getting together with others that held similar interests. Walking up to one of the groups, the teacher listened to what the pupils were talking about.  Slowly, he realised that it was something he knew lots about.  Waiting for a pause, he then proceeded to talk with the pupils.  They listened to him.  They liked the fact that he was talking with them about the things they liked.  The teacher grew happy again.  He used this new method to go round the global classroom and teach the pupils the things he wanted to teach them.  They started to listen to him again.  And everyone was happy. *** It amazes me how many marketers are still stood in front of the chalkboard, using traditional methods to engage a global room of consumers.  Like it or not, Social Media has changed the world, and marketers need to change with it.  Consumers no longer sit in rows like docile sponges, soaking up direct marketing that is thrown their way. Put down the chalk.  Walk amongst your audience and listen to what they are talking about.  What they want.  What makes them tick.  Listen. And then engage. @callumsaunders is a Digital Marketing Executive at the Stopgap Group (http://www.stopgap.co.uk) you can also find him here http://www.callumsaunders.co.uk and here http://www.linkedin.com/in/callumsaunders.  Posted via email from Jim's posterous

Thanks for the RT

This post is dedicated to everyone who has ever thanked anyone for an RT (retweet.) I used to do it, but don't anymore. Here's why - 

1) Clutter. I talk enough here for most streams. 

2) I don't understand why people thank others for passing along information. 

I'm a fairly nice guy. So part of me wants to follow the general rules of etiquette and do the polite thing. After all, I'm a writer. It's my nature to reciprocate (see #1 above.) 

I recently saw someone tweet about www.retweetrank.com. Curious, I went to the site and queried my own twitter handle (no password needed, by the way). Turns out I'm like in the top few percent in retweets (yes, I was as shocked as you are.) Anyway, knowing this, how could I possibly thank everyone who has ever retweeted me? If If you think I look like a jerk for not thanking people, imagine thanking only *some* people. Please know that I do really appreciate that people think some of the things I share here are worth sharing with others. I'm totally grateful for that. Who wouldn't be? 

But I still don't get the public thanking thing. If anything, the person RTing you is thanking YOU for passing the information along to them so they can share it with others, right? In which case, the appropriate response to someone who RTs you *should* be, 'You're welcome.' 

Anyway, if you've ever RTd me, thanks. And you're welcome. 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications, llc. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv.  

Brand is Still King

Don't kid yourself - advertising still matters. Thanks to the digital revolution, traditional advertising is sliding into oblivion with print, radio and outdoor becoming smaller and smaller like the opening narrative in Star Wars. But the one component of traditional advertising that's just as important now as ever - is brand. So before we abandon traditional logic altogether, let's not forget what got us here in the first place.

I'm not talking about just a logo, tagline, color palette or typography. I'm talking about the deeper stuff. Real branding. Core ideals that drive corporate cultures and that are developed at the top of an organization and flow freely downstream into every tributary of the company. The best an advertising agency can do to develop a brand is decipher what is most true about an organization, and then let that thing be the tip of the communications spear. For everything. 

Consider that until the arrival of Social media, advertising in any form was, at best, a one-way appeal. And don't try to tell me that telemarketing or direct response was somehow 2-way advertising either, mister. I know first hand how to write scripts that feature variable data as actual people. By virtue of its nature, one-way communication is manipulative. Do something. Buy something. Act now. 

Only, social media is where 'Act now' goes to die. 

So how do you exist in this space? Thankfully, just as with traditional advertising, the best strategy is to lead with brand. Brands that are true to their values and are willing to share them with prospects, customers or even strangers will, no doubt, transition easily into social media. Those that rely on traditional manipulation tactics to drive sales - not so much. 

The best brands get out of their own way.

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications, llc. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv.  

Scott Monty works for Ford? Right....

Ladies and gentleman, New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman (L) and Ford Motor Company's head of Social Media Scott Monty (R). So what do you think, has @scottmonty been pulling the strings for four Yankees championships since 1998? Have you ever seen Monty and Cashman in the same room together? Just sayin'. 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications, llc. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv.  

 

The Hybrid

I've noticed a lot of chatter here recently around how companies should categorize social media. After all, the more that businesses get involved in social, they'll need to allocate budgets from somewhere. And when something draws from a departmental budget, the purpose of that thing is usually aligned with the goals of the mother ship. 

For example, most people here consider social media as marketing and it should therefore be funded through marketing and then, like traditional marketing, prove a return on the investment.

But if you've spent any time in this space, you know damn well that marketing is only part of it. A small part. In fact, your sales are only likely to increase as a direct result of engaging here if A) you have a great product and B) you develop trust with people. If you come into social media thinking you can drive sales through Twitter like you do in the Sunday circular, you're going to fail. 

Yes, it's more than marketing. Social media also part public relations. From customer support to crisis management and everything in between, true public relations (not promo heavy stuff) is not marketing either.  

Social media is also content sharing, but that doesn't mean it's journalism. 

The fact is, social media is nearly unbucketable. Let's call it a hybrid. A range of communications disciplines that exist in a wide-open digital platform that's as individual in its commercial applications as the people you're trying to sell. Because when you get right down to it, aren't we all just human hybrids anyway? 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of the virtual ad agency smashcommunications, llc. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv.  

Bending Time and Space in the Toilet

Guest post by Ben Kunz

A curious trend in social media is how most of its tools start out as perceived toys, worthy of laughter, and then gradually migrate to the mainstream. When Facebook and Twitter launched, early adopters in the business world were often kidded by colleagues. "That's great," an old friend emailed me in 2008 upon hearing I was on Facebook, "now you can stay in touch with teenage girls." Yet soon Twitter is tied in to CNN feeds and chief marketing officers are networking with their ad agencies inside Facebook. In 2010, if you are not using these tools you risk looking stupid.

So here we go again, with geolocation-social media tools. Relatively new services such as Foursquare and Gowalla update your friends when you reach certain physical spots -- in essence, broadcasting your location on a map into your online network. Like early social networks, the premise makes sense yet combines a whiff of immaturity that gives grownups pause. Sure, in a busy world it could be useful to get pinged by a colleague when she reaches a certain point. But the services include stupid-sounding updates. "Hein V. in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, became mayor of Vespuccimarket." "Patrick unlocked the 'Adventurer' badge." The only mature response is: "WTF?" And this month, the latest silliness Foursquare update, Jan. 28, 2010 has been decreed "International Day of the Toilet," wherein you can let your friends know exactly when you hit the can.

 But pause. Reflect. Before you deride such silliness, realize the two real undercurrents. First, early creators of new technology must always push the boundaries of maturity, because none of us really needs anything new -- so first forays often come off as gimmicks. (Remember the first camera on your cell phone, and the jokes about who needed to take a picture of their ear? Now most people love them and real camera makers are watching their business slip away.) And second, in a world where everyone is now leaping into social media, creators of new social media networks must create game-like mechanics to try to boost adoption and break through the clutter. Gaming psychology is extremely powerful; the "follower" counts on Twitter have become high score rewards that help boost loyal usage. So it's no mistake that Foursquare updates users' networks of colleagues with the strange-sounding whimsy of "mayors" and "badges": It's a way to get attention, to wake you up, perhaps to get you to try the damn thing.

As such geolocation technology becomes prevalent, we expect the maturity levels to rise and the gimmickry to settle down. Soon, you'll be updating everyone about your whereabouts, too. Just be careful when you're in the can.

 Ben Kunz is the Director of Strategic Planning, and sometimes wishful thinking, at ad planning shop Mediassociates.

SM: Where the Hard Sell goes to Die

I’m Jim. I’m a copywriter. And I could be wrong, but I was always under the impression that whatever I wrote was supposed to create something like an internal dialogue in the mind of the person reading it so that they felt that the correspondence was created exclusively for them. Personal. Like a letter. Think of it this way - are you more likely to act because a stranger commands you to, or because a friend recommends that you do? 

Saturday morning Chris Brogan posted a link to a new post "How Relationships Improve Sales."  In it, Chris says he was in the shower thinking about how relationships lead to sales. Strange coincidence, as I was thinking about the same thing this morning - sort of. (I was also in the shower thinking about it, but the fact that 90% of the ideas I have for blog posts or taglines or ad concepts or pretty much anything occurs when I’m in the shower, isn’t important.) Rather, I was thinking about how the transition to Social Media away from traditional advertising communications isn’t that big a leap for copywriters. In fact, when you consider the whole thing about exclusivity and personalization above, it kind of makes sense that we thrive as communications agents in Social Media. One year ago, after I’d been involved with SM for about a month, I wrote a post called "Revenge of the Copywriter." In it, I proclaim how I believed that copywriters will thrive in SM by working for big brands. This idea was, again, based on the personalization thing. Only, my proclamation didn’t exactly pan out. Yes, I'm sure there are copywriters working for brands out there now, but not on the scale I’d imagined. Rather, most of the people Tweeting and blogging on behalf of the big brands are mostly PR and general marketing people (and in some cases, designers - gasp!) Granted, not all copywriters subscribe to the idea of exclusivity, and not every copywriter has the acumen to pull this off, but I sure thought a lot more of us would be out there engaging for pay. Still do. It just makes sense. Maybe there are agencies out there trying to pull clients into SM but don’t know how to utilize their stable of writers? Plus, it’s time consuming. And we’re usually not cheap. When you start adding up hours for professional copywriters and then placing that next to a sales schematic based on regular marketing efforts, people are likely to freak out a little. 

And I’m sure some of you will say, “Copywriters are liars and manipulators.” But I say you’re wrong. Sure, there are writers out there who SELL SELL SELL at any cost, but that’s usually because that's exactly what that brand wants. Besides, in Social Media, that stuff don’t fly. Writers who thrive in the hard sell are useless here and will probably go away with print. 

I’ve always written to engage people as personally as possible with the idea that relationships lead to sales. The point is to do more than just get in someone’s pocketbook - but get in their hearts. By respecting the audience, you gain their trust - and sales follow. Is this manipulation? I guess you could make an argument that by hiring a professional writer, you tilt the conversation in your favor. But really, it’s just articulating an idea to someone who cares. It’s not up to us to sell the products - but for the products to sell themselves. 

Too much pressure is put on the ROI of Social Media. The brands that can afford to engage their audience in a true personal relationship are going to kill here because the core concept of Social Media is built around relationships, personalization, exclusivity and openness. Products and services sell themselves. Put relationships in front of sales, and Brogan’s absolutely right.

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of the virtual ad agency smashcommunications, llc. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv. 

Twitter Saves the Decade

New Years Eve, Charlotte, NC. Plaza-Midwood neighborhood, to be exact. It was 10 minutes to midnight, and a dozen adults, and even more children, were in an unfurnished home that our friends had closed on that morning. There was no cable or Internet access. In a rare moment of sobriety, it dawns on the adults that we don't have a way to know when the exact countdown begins in Times Square. Everyone panics. I turned to Twitter. With only about 7 minutes to go before the ball dropped in NYC, I stepped onto the porch to grab a couple extra bars and sent a Tweet out: "Help. At a party in a house with no internet/tv. Is there a link to watch the ball drop on the phone? Thanks." I nearly ran out of API hitting refresh on Tweetdeck, but the links starting pouring in and iphone.livestream.com was the ticket. So I called for everyone to join me outside, and 20-30 something people gathered around me with cups of champaign and sparkling cider and counted down with the rest of the world from the front porch of an unfurnished home in Charlotte, NC - on an iPhone screen. 

Thanks to Twitter, livestream and AT&T - we were able to connect with the rest of the world, and feel connected as well. Happy 2010. Amazing. 

  

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of the virtual ad agency smashcommunications, llc. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv. 

Social Media by the Numbers

Taking Control in Social Media

I did something tonight that I rarely do - jump into a Twitter #chat. I've participated in a few #scriptchats recently, and observe other #chats from a distance - soaking in what I can use and leaving the rest. But tonight I dove into #blogchat, and I'm sure there are more than a few people who thought, 'Who the hell is this guy?' From what I can discern, most #blogchat people are either in public relations or have some type of journalism background. Like I said, I usually keep my distance. But tonight I was following their topic of 'influencers and control' with an eye on a prospective client strategy. The conversation shifted a bit to whether you have any control of dialogue in Social Media. Yes, this directly pertained more to bloggers and commenters, but I believe you definitely have the opportunity to control dialogue in Social Media so I decided to contribute to the #chat. In 140 characters, however, I'm pretty sure my position looked something like lunacy. So consider this post my explanation. 

First, you don't control everything. Obviously. People aren't robots. So, when I say control - I don't mean *total* control. That doesn't exist. 

Second, because people aren't robots, the best way to build an audience in Social Media in any capacity is authentic, transparent and open dialogue with people. Real people. Not just demographics. That in itself is a foreign concept for most companies. 

Third, because it's a dialogue (i.e. a 2-way conversation), it requires a well-conceived strategy to guide how it progresses. Remember, people are people - not robots. Every dialogue is as unique as the people engaging in it. 

As an advertising guy, I've spent my career inside of the heads of people discovering the precise tone and message necessary for communications to act like internal conversations to the people reading it. The overall goal of every project I've ever worked on has been to get someone to act or think favorably. The only way to reach specific goals is to have a sound strategy in place. A strategy requires thinking through every possible contingency to ensure that no matter what someone might think going into the conversation, you're prepared to overcome any objection and ultimately influence (control) the outcome. Based on the strategy, you engage the mind of a reader in a meaningful dialogue. The moment the reader engages with the communications - you own control. Even if it's for :15 seconds on the radio, :30 on the telly or 140 characters on Twitter. What you say counts. Say it well, and with sincere respect to your audience, and you're on your way to controlling the dialogue. The only difference in Social Media is that you must be prepared for reciprocal communications (which makes it a true dialogue.) If you've done your homework, and you have a solid strategy in place - almost nothing can throw you off.  

Understand this - you no more control how people think and what they say any more than you control the weather. Likewise, if you think BUY MY PRODUCT will work on everyone who comes into contact with this command, you're delusional. My point is not that you control what everyone does, thinks, says or writes - but rather that you control what *you* do and say. Preparation means you're more likely to influence people to get them to do whatever it is you want them to do (based on specific goals within a strategy.) 

I have to tell you, writing this post is not what I expected to be doing at 1:00 a.m. on a Monday. But sometimes you've just got to think things through. Thanks for that, #blogchat.

[Note: Because of its exclusive 1-way nature, traditional advertising is a lot like smoking in a restaurant to the Social Media crowd. But what you might not know is that for us to get to the point where the messages we create have an impact on an audience requires a lot of 2-way conversations that take place only in the minds of the people creating the communications. Which makes traditional communications problem solving a lot more relevant to Social Media than you probably realized.]  

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of the virtual advertising agency smashcommunications. You can find him on Twitter at @smashadv. 

Connectedness

I love sport, but I'm not a hardcore fan of any one team. After all, why the hell do we care if a team we're not on wins or loses? Why? Because it matters to us as a community of fans who cheer the team. Community. Belonging. Connectedness. These are fundamental needs of human existence.

And so connectedness is the core appeal of Social Media and precisely what makes it hard to think that all of this is just a passing fad. 

I've made friends here with people from all parts of the globe. People who would be strangers if not for the advent of the Internet and Social Media. So what does it really mean that we can emotionally connect with people everywhere in real-time? For one, we can know what we're all having for breakfast. I jest. Of course this is one of the arguments employed by those who don't understand global connectivity. What it really means is that we gain a wider perspective of the complex world we live in. It forces us reconsider that which we hold true by virtue of our own limited experiences. Mostly, it makes us more human. 

Hillary Clinton once said, "It takes a village." I've never been a Clinton fan, but that one line is brilliant. The closer we are to our common humanism, the harder it is for us to destroy each other. 

Sure, we talk about how to commercialize Social Media and how to make our work and lives more efficient by using this amazing medium - but none of us should discount the global connectedness that it offers. We're lucky to be alive during such an enlightening period of human communications.

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of the virtual ad agency smashcommunications  You can find him on Twitter @smashadv

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Social Media

When I first threw myself into Social Media in December 2008, it was like an epiphany. But not a clear epiphany that you get when you see yourself in the eyes of your child, or when you discover what it is you're supposed to do with your life - more like a rush of adrenaline that unlocks something in your brain that says "OMG - this is going to change things!" 

Here's what SM is to me - a communications platform unlike anything the world has seen. It's real time collaboration without any borders. It's connecting with human beings whom you'd otherwise live your entire life without knowing *about,* much less knowing. In essence, Social Media is base of the steep upward curve of human communication. It's only going to get better, or rather easier, to connect to each other going forward. That's my epiphany. 

But epiphanies don't usually pay the bills. I needed to figure out how to apply SM to commercial applications. So I listened and engaged and paid attention to people who are a lot smarter than me - and you know what? It seems like we're all trying to figure out whether (and how) SM really applies to big business, small business, B2B, NFP, etc. etc. It's been my observation this past year that every business can benefit from Social Media. After all, it's just a device of advanced communications, right? 

So my question is this - instead of trying to figure out which industries might benefit, name one that *wouldn't.* In considering this recently, it caused me to think critically about a wide range of industries and how they communicate with (and to) their constituencies. Now it's your turn. Betcha you can't think of anything. 

Q: What industry doesn't really stand to benefit from Social Media? Why? 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of the virtual ad agency smashcommunications  You can find him on Twitter @smashadv

A Jumping Off Point

Social media is so simple that some people can't wrap their minds around it. Blame it on the baggage of traditional thinking. However, we can use traditional thinking to help explain the relevance of social media - especially in business. 

If you believe that face-to-face meetings with a handshake is the best way to close a deal and that word of mouth advertising is better than anything you can buy - you're 100%, dead-on right. However, somewhere along the line we got sucked into thinking that dictating the message downstream to the minions was the best (and only) way to go about it. It was like a full court press of control.

This is new. Different. Unfamiliar. Social Media is face-to-face in a virtual environment where open dialogue is encouraged and you have the opportunity to make your customers your brand ambassadors. 

Simply stated, a properly executed Social Media strategy is like positive word of mouth advertising on Red Bull. Just be careful, word of mouth works both ways. 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of the virtual ad agency smashcommunications  You can find him on Twitter @smashadv

Trust Me

If you throw a stone into Social Media, you're going to put an expert's eye out. I have never before seen such a glut of confusion as that which exists in terms of Social Media and who you should trust to help you make the most of it. 

Let me ask you a question - are news anchors experts on the news? Maybe, you say? Ok, but can they help solve the problems that the news (constantly) presents? Sure, they're nice and they're pretty to look at and they usually have a very solid delivery - but they're mostly just copy-readers. The same can be said of most of the self-professed 'experts' in Social Media (SM.) They know how to make you trust them, and know how to spin some of what swirls around them so that they sound like they know what they're talking about - but most of it is regurgitated (RT'd) information they've distilled from Seth Godin's blog. If you're lucky, they actually understand the core concepts of SM. If you're really lucky, they're capable of auditing your specific scenario, creating a solid SM strategy, helping train you and your staff, launching your project and then monitoring it to ensure you're positioned for a strong ROI. 

Good luck. 

What can you do? Well, if you're a company looking to expand your marketing/advertising and customer/public relations via SM - avoid people who wear ties in their avatar. No, really. These avatars simply state that they know you're looking for them. This isn't to say that all people wearing ties in avatars are fauxperts, but there is an element of traditionalism that exists in the business world which makes everyone skeptical of new ideas and technologies. To overcome the unfamiliar, one looks for the familiar. If you've engaged in traditional sales and marketing in the past and you see a white man with a tie on who doesn't look like an axe murderer and who has 20,000 followers, you're naturally more inclined to gravitate toward this visual image than someone with mussed up hair wearing a Che tee shirt and with a small, but loyal, follower base. 

Do yourself a favor, when considering your Social Media consultant or firm, look beyond the buzzwords, the million-dollar smile and the Dior tie. Most of the time these experts are only going to say what you want to hear anyway - which is exactly how we got stuck in traditional thinking in the first place. 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications  You can find him on Twitter @smashadv