Which came first, the online chicken or the offline egg?

Where does Word of Mouth spread...online, right? Or, is it offline?

Those who do it best understand that an important relationship exists between on- and off-line Word of Mouth. One drives the other and vice versa.

For example, Joe Consumer reads a review about a restaurant online and then talks to friends about whether or not to try it offline. Or, does Joe hear about that same restaurant from his friends and family and then, refers to the Web for reviews from perfect strangers to reinforce his decision on whether or not to try it?

This delicate "which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg" balance is what separates single-channel buzz campaigns from truly sustainable WOM initiatives that lead to recommendations.

So, what do we do when Facebook and Twitter both announce location-based technology additions to messaging in the same week? Or, when Augmented Reality creates a memorable off-line experience using online technology? And, what about those QR codes that are slowly creeping into local markets, but are only accessed by cell phones with the right technology?

If you recognized this critical yin/yang relationship between on- and off-line WOM early, you're already ahead of the game. But as the digital world evolves, you better believe that this line between the on- and off-line worlds will continue to blur.

Have you seen new approaches that are bringing the on- and off-line conversation closer together? Let us know here...

Image Source: AdWeek "Walk the Talk"





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"Today I interviewed a squirrel in my backyard and then threw to commercial. Somebody help me."
 
So wrote Conan O'Brien, in his first ever Tweet a few weeks ago. His first foray into Twitter was an instant trending topic and garnered 15,000 followers in the first half hour. He continued with a blistering pace of one Tweet per day over the next couple of weeks, until March 5 when this appeared:
 
"I've decided to follow someone at random. She likes peanut butter and gummy dinosaurs. Sarah Killen, your life is about to change."
 
A smart stunt that showcased Conan's quirky humor, utilized the medium perfectly and gave O'Brien trending topic status yet again. Then, the next week, he used Twitter to announce a comedy tour:
 
"Hey Internet: I'm headed to your town on a half-a$$ed comedy & music tour. Go to http://TeamCoco.com for tix. I repeat: It's half-a$$ed."
 
The tour sold out instantly and a new Twitter star was born. As of today, Coco's got over 670,000 followers (Leno, by the way, has only 37,000).
 
It's really not surprising that Conan O'Brien would be a natural on Twitter. His fame and quick wit has brought him a level of social media success that is both interesting to follow and analyze, especially given the short span of time in which he has been active along these channels.

Some cool things Conan did while Tweeting:

1. He kept them wanting more. That first Tweet gave Coco instant trending topic status. Keeping the Tweets to a minimum built buzz and expectation. Which meant his every Tweet had trending topic status for that first week.
2. He rewarded his followers. By announcing his tour on Twitter, he let his followers feel like they were in the know.
3. He used the right "voice." Unlike Leno's Twitter feed, O'Brien's at least appears to be written by him. Which makes it feel so much more personal and interesting to follow.
   

While Conan proved his social media prowess during his first month of Tweeting, these are by no means a list of "rules" for Twitter. It's easy to look for what's worked in the past or how other brands have done it when formulating a Twitter strategy. But what's right for one brand isn't necessarily right for another. O'Brien's Tweeting worked because he obviously has a firm understanding of both his brand and the medium. His success should remind us that each brand should be sure they have the same understanding before venturing out into any medium, especially Twitter where backlash can be swift and difficult to undo.



Image Credit: Justin Stephens on http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20172074,00.html
 



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If you haven't heard, the South By Southwest (SXSW) conference series commences this week in Austin, Texas. These week-long conferences and festivals bring together music, film and media minds alike in a unique convergence of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies.  The Interactive portion of this event gives its participants a chance to not only shape the direction in which social media is headed, but puts into perspective the vast impact we as a generation have the ability to make by utilizing these channels.

Working in a field engrossed in social media, it is impossible to avoid the chatter surrounding an event that has the digital world doing what they do best - buzzing, digging, blogging and tweeting.  This conference has been around for twenty three years, and the festival that many in the marketing and PR profession regard as a social media conference is much more than that, merging digital media with music and film elements.  In some respects, it is a lot like a modern day Woodstock - drawing massive crowds, and bringing people together to enjoy a common passion and genuine desire to impact the world around them.  It is a stimulating conference that is more than deserving of the buzz it creates.

It's amazing to realize how drastically the Interactive conference at this festival, which was started in 1994, has changed since its inception.  Thousands of bloggers, consumers, and industry professionals come together from all over the world to learn, develop, teach and discuss topics that didn't even exist when the conference was first created; although these have quickly evolved in only a few short years.  With keynote speakers such as Twitter CEO, Even Williams, and discussion panels on topics ranging from "The Broke Diaries: Using Blogs and Twitter to Live Cheaply" to "Crime Scene: Digital Identity Theft," this festival brings together thought-leaders, bright minds and new talent who are the driving force behind this rapid evolution of the social media world.

When you read the many Tweets and blog posts full of passion and enthusiasm surrounding this event, it becomes even easier to connect SXSW with this idea of it as a contemporary Woodstock - not just based on what it was, but on what it meant and what it stood for.  Thanks to the abundant social media tools being - quite literally - at the fingertips of the current generation, we too have the opportunity to be involved in something significant and historic, and we take part in it every day.

The over arching movement and development of the digital world, furthered by events such as SXSW, is a defining moment in this generation.  Social media is a powerful tool that gives everyone a voice and a platform to be heard.  Gen Y-ers have the ability to make the same noise and impact as their Baby Boomer parents; we just have the capability of doing it with a few clicks and typed words.  It's both exciting and rewarding to be a part of a generation that not only has the chance to experience the wonderful world of social media, but to appreciate and utilize this platform as a way to shape and directly affect marketers, brands and the world around us. 

Working in a field where "Tweeting" is  a common verb as well as a daily task, and updating client Facebook pages is second nature, it's easy to become wrapped up and lose sight of the bigger picture of how the world around us has changed and the vastness of what these social media tools have brought to us.  I encourage all of you out there who are still skeptical of why anyone would care about what you have to say on Twitter, or what difference voicing your opinion of a product makes, to jump in and join the conversation.  You will be surprised by the wealth of information you will learn, and may even find the voice you never knew you had.  And at the very least, years down the road you can look back and tell the next generation - "yep, I was a part of that."

 

 

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Recently, it seems as though the majority of conversation surrounding Twitter focuses on its marketing value. With celebrities like Kim Kardashian reportedly being paid $10,000 per tweet, it's easy to overlook other less profitable aspects of the social media site.

With the natural format of many college courses making it difficult for students to focus, it's not really surprising that schools are turning to social media to try and win back their students' attention. Incorporating Twitter into the educational dialogue is a great way to create authentic conversation around course material that can often become muddled and confusing. If absent from class, the ability to scroll through previous posts and comments gives class notes a whole new meaning.  

Take the University of Texas at Dallas, for example. With decreased class participation coupled with increasing class size, Dr. Monica Rankin knew she needed to do something to engage the students in her U.S. History class. Dr. Rankin, who wasn't incredibly familiar with Twitter, introduced it into the course as a way to expand discussion and increase participation. With a real-time feed displayed in the front of the classroom, students can tweet comments and questions during class. Any issues that aren't addressed during the hour-and-a-half time period are then tweeted by the TA afterward.



What both educators and students are finding is that incorporating Twitter into the classroom creates an ongoing dialogue, allowing students to interact with the material long after class has ended. Another benefit of using Twitter in this capacity is the ability for it to overcome the shyness barrier. For many students the thought of having to ask a question in front of 100 of their peers can be extremely daunting. Ben Van Wye, a student at Purdue who is also part of a course that is experimenting with Twitter, agrees. Twitter is allowing for a certain amount of anonymity while still providing students the opportunity to participate and interact with one another.

A recent course I took at the University of Pennsylvania clued me into the fact that many college students have yet to understand the appeal of Twitter. Seeing it as a marketing scheme or a haven for the narcissistic, many refuse to jump on the bandwagon. Add the educational value however, and many people seeking higher education may opt to join.

The slow adoption rate of Twitter among young adults has been cited before, in articles featured on CNET and The New York Times to name a few. Unlike most social networking sites, Twitter has a surprisingly low adoption rate among an otherwise media-savvy age group. As more colleges begin to integrate Twitter into courses, this could be a significant push towards getting that untapped demographic to finally latch onto the site. Once they become familiar with using Twitter for academic purposes, it's more likely that this group will continue using it on a regular basis. This means something for marketers too, who up until now have had a hard-time honing in on some of the specific dialogue occurring among this group.

On the other hand, one has to wonder about the negative implications of courses relying too heavily on social media. Students could begin feeling less pressure to attend class and instead, view their tweets as sufficient class participation. Or, as Professor Chakravarty at Purdue noted, there is the potential for less ethical behavior. In some ways, social media tips the balance of power from the teacher to the students.

If used productively, Twitter in the classroom has the potential to be groundbreaking - offering students a unique way to connect with course material and their classmates. With the popularity of social media continuing to rise, I think we will see an increasing number of teachers attempting to use it to get back in touch with their students.



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Two weeks in, FOX has gone back on this decision, citing their inability to hide the number of fans and followers each contestant had as a factor in the move to discontinue contestants' profiles.

Why is this a crucial question, anyway? Is there anything about being able to see a contestants' number of followers and fans that makes the competition less fair? Does the predictive power of followers affect the outcome of the show? Does this predictive power even exist?

Let's concern ourselves right now with that last question: What is the predictive power of followers? In other words... is the contestant with the most followers most likely to win the competition?

If we were to try to predict the outcome of American Idol using Zócalo Group's Digital Footprint Index [PDF], we'd take into account three different dimensions of the online conversation around each contestant:

• Height - The sheer number of blog posts, forum conversations, status updates and pieces of multimedia connected to the person, from all sources - official and unofficial.
  
  
• Width - The level of engagement and interaction with this stuff. Followers and fans would come in here, as would views, comments and sharing.
  
  
• Depth - The tone and content of these conversations. Do people love or hate the contestant? Do they think someone is "pitchy, dawg," or maybe that they've got a Kevin Covais thing going on? Interestingly, WhatNotToSing.com has built an entire database around the potentially predictive nature of online sentiment alone.
  

From a Zócalo perspective, these indicators only create a comprehensive picture of the online conversation when taken together and compared across contestant. Of course, using that picture to predict the outcome of American Idol would require two major assumptions:

1. That online conversations are an accurate representation of all conversations - and that there is nothing distinct or disproportionate about a contestant's digital footprint as opposed to his or her overall cultural footprint.
   
   
2. That a bigger or "better" footprint (digital or cultural), will necessarily translate into more votes.
   

We have reason to believe that the first assumption is true in many cases. The second one would probably need to be tested. As for the question of whether revealing contestants' follower counts would compromise the integrity of the show... when was the last time American Idol had any integrity to preserve?




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Baseball is back.  Pitchers and catchers are reporting to spring training.  Legions of fans (and fantasy gurus) are dusting off their allegiances and refreshing their commitment to following their hometown team's fate for a grueling stretch of 162 games.  As a lifelong Cubs fan, I've learned that off-field affinity bears little to absolutely no impact upon on-field success.  The world of sports is a rare arena in which consumer dialogue and endorsement of a brand fails to significantly impact that brand's "success" (as measured by victories, not dollars). 

So, in this context, just how talkable is victory?  How "engaged" do consumers remain in their favorite sports brand if the team hasn't given them an on-field justification to stay engaged?

With an off-season that provides countless rivalrous entertainment options, from the Super Bowl to Jersey Shore, baseball is often forgotten, shoved to the sidelines until fans have a reason to care yet again; until a blank slate and fresh start offer a new glimmer of "this year could be the year" hope. 

However, some fans do engage in off-season dialogues.  And some offseason dialogue is significantly more robust than others.   Many who drive the off-season conversation are die-hards (brand evangelists).  A good handful find their interest and conversation stirred back into action by the exciting announcement of an impending acquisition or the next great hope who can carry their team to victory. 

The following chart attempts to uncover a correlation between on-field victory and off-season dialogue across online (blog) channels.
 
Comparative Graph of 2009 MLB Regular Season Victories and Offseason Blog posts (in Jan/Feb 2010) - Yankees v. Phillies v. Cubs v. White Sox + "Baseball"

• New York Yankees - 103 regular season victories (World Series champion); 112.22 blog posts/day= 1.08 blog post/victory
• Philadelphia Phillies - 93 regular season victories (World Series loser); 45.53 blog posts/day = 0.489 blog post/victory
• Chicago Cubs - (83 regular season victories, no playoff presence); 53.7 blog posts/day = 0.646 blog post/victory
• Chicago White Sox - (79 regular season victories, no playoff presence); 36.33 blog posts/day = 0.459 blog post/victory

Findings:

• Although the World Series winners (Yankees) were the most talked about team, simply making the World Series (Phillies) doesn't guarantee more off-season dialogue than other teams
• The Chicago Cubs, lacking a postseason appearance, drove significantly more off-season dialogue than the World Series runner-up Phillies

Conclusions:

• Building a truly talkable brand requires more than just short-term salience (i.e. a World Series appearance)
• Building a truly talkable brand requires building a deep, ongoing connection/relevance in shaping the identity/lives of its consumers (fans) - which the perennially-losing though deeply-revered Cubs have clearly achieved
• Although the Philadelphia Phillies are the "oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports" (thanks, Wikipedia) - and have appeared in back-to-back World Series (actually winning in 2008) - short-term salience alone - aka "buzz" - is not enough to sustain talkability
  

Considerations/Limitations:

• Please note, the sample size is painfully small and insignificant, as it features just four teams and tracks off-season dialogue over just one season.
• It also doesn't account for varying rates of salient alternative off-season entertainment options among each of the four local markets.  
• Nor does it account for "control seasons," as postseason appearances could unfairly drive an increase in off-season dialogue, simply for prolonging the period of salience.  
• It fails to account for potential errors/limitations in the freeware IceRocket.com software used to generate the graph
• Additionally, some might argue that "victories" is the incorrect metric by which we measure "success" - if truly trying to find similarities/parallels between a sports "brand" and a traditional consumer "brand" - the evaluative metrics ought to be ticket sales, ad revenue, TV revenue, food/beverage revenue, etc. - to truly understand the impact of talkability on the brand's bottom line.
  

FINAL 2009 MLB REGULAR SEASON STANDINGS - Source: ESPN.com


Comparative Off-season Dialogues - Brand Name + Baseball - Last 60 Days - Source: IceRocket.com (Blog posts only)



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Brands and marketers using Facebook know the less clicks a user has to make to access their content, the better the chance they will engage with it. Of course, the fastest way for content to get in front of fans is for it to appear directly in their news feeds. This already happens with some types of shared content - like links and uploaded videos - but until recently, it wasn't possible for live streaming video. The company that has made this possible is the Sweden based Bambuser.

Now, say your brand has a major announcement or event approaching and you want to get a live video feed of said event in front of as many of your fans as possible. Unless your announcement happens to involve The Jonas Brothers, it may be difficult to convince your fans to set their watches and click over to the special tab on your Facebook page to watch it. But what if your stream appeared directly in their news feeds when they first logged in, allowing them to watch it and chat with the rest of the audience without ever leaving that page?  Think you might be able to attract a few more people who weren't planning on watching otherwise?

This is the definitive feature setting Bambuser apart from its competitors (namely UStream). The service allows users to broadcast live from their webcam or smartphone directly to a Facebook page, blog, or Web site (or all three simultaneously). To top it off, the service is currently free for personal or commercial use.
While Bambuser's Facebook integration is definitely a major step forward, the service isn't perfect. Although you can technically broadcast from your phone, video can be choppy or delayed unless you have a steady, perfect 3G connection. For this reason, if it is at all possible, I'd highly recommend connecting to a Wi-Fi network.
 
Currently, Bambuser is used primarily by individuals, but the opportunity it offers to brands is too significant for that to last much longer. As brands continue to expand the scope of their presence on Facebook, what role do you see live streaming video playing?




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1907 Men's Advertisment

We live in a post-TiVo era.  Every schmo with a Twitter handle tells you how the world is changing.  Social Media's rising!  Two-way dialogues!  But, advertising isn't dead.  Smart advertising, that is.  It's simply changed form, leveraging insights and best practices from Word of Mouth.

A recent Old Spice spot is a jolt to the jugular, breaking the "fourth wall" to spur direct dialogue with its Ikea-computer-chair-sitting consumer.  Currently, it is infinitely talked about and recommended on Twitter.  It has been viewed over a million times on YouTube.

It's a reminder of what great ads should be.  Unforgettable.  Fully-articulating and linking the product's functional and emotional benefits, in a way that you want to keep watching, appreciating and sharing, over and over again.  Cleverly targeted to the product purchaser (the woman in the house), it still vehemently appeals to the product user (the man).  By its very nature, it demands to be reckoned with.  The ad reminds tech-savvy, video/photo sharing, self-sufficient, 21st century consumers that a larger, more powerful, and more expert force exists [the brand], able to create an experience and deliver a tangible benefit [the product] capable of improving their lives.  The ad empowers the brand to spark and lead a dialogue with its consumers.  It is a perfect example of how advertising and word of mouth work hand in hand. 

It is reminiscent and perhaps inspired by the same consumer insights that sparked the recent (and highly talkable) Dos Equis "Most Interesting Man in the World" formula:

1. Present holier than thou immortal to couch-slumping Americans.
2. Show him leading an extraordinary, ridiculous, adventurous life in a tongue in-cheek way that incites excitement and laughter.
3. Articulate that while you, mere consumer, will never be as immortal as he, you can take a first step to becoming like him. 
4. Insert product and articulate or imply its benefits here.
5. Button up ad and reinforce recall of brand through clever tagline ("Stay Thirsty, My Friends") or non-lyrical jingle (the Old Spice whistle)
   
   

This ad, like the Dos Equis spot, effectively addresses the fact that consumers know they are being marketed to, and are resistant to it.  Rather than trying to manipulate them into coveting something they don't have, it humors them into acknowledging it.  It doesn't claim to elevate their lives to a wonderful new frontier.  It implies it.  And it tells you, directly, that it implies it.  No, but seriously, go check the Brand's YouTube page.  Transparency of intention.  Thus sparking a conversation.





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