Logic+Emotion

Visualize Word of Mouth, Get A Free Pass To WOMM-U

recent submission from Patrick

The folks over at WOMMA (Word Of Mouth Marketing Association) are up to something pretty cool. From May 13-14, they are putting together "WOMM-U" in South Beach Miami . I've been invited to attend, have my costs covered and in return I can give out a complimentary pass to the event to one of my readers (a $1,500 value for non WOMMA members). But I'm going to make you work for it. If you'd like a free pass, you'll need to do a visual representation of what you think "word of mouth" looks like. The visual can be a sketch, a photo montage, or a simple diagram using basic shapes. Use whatever tools you feel comfortable using. Upload your visual either to Flickr (tag WOMM-U-viz there and #womm-u-viz for Twitter) or somewhere else and provide a link in the comments here. I'll give it about 3 weeks and announce a winner in an updated post.

Hope you can participate—think of it as a crash course oin visual thinking. Below is some more details on the event:

"WOMM-U is a 2-day comprehensive and interactive educational experience from WOMMA. It’s built around giving you the real-world knowledge you need to execute exceptional word of mouth marketing programs that are most effective in today’s recession economy.

Social Media-based WOMM presentations and workshops with the most important platforms engaging consumers like MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Eons, Twitter, blogs, Widgets & Applications, Mobile, Video on the Web and more*. (this is a mix of platforms that have presented before or will present in 2009)

Intimate roundtable deep-dives with WOMM experts like you. Each table is topically driven and allows practical marketer-to-marketer conversation about. Topics include:

·        Year 3-5 of your WOMM program

·        Optimizing your Twitter efforts

·        Activating WOM in Social Networks: Advanced Social Media

·        Managing Reputation at the Speed of Social Media

·        Selling-in Word of Mouth Programs to the CMO, the Communications Officer, & CEO

·        Evaluating the Social Media Toolbox

·        Finding Influencers that are really influential

·        Creating a brand movement

·        Driving B2B WOM and recommendations

·        How Advertising fuels WOMM

·        Integrating WOMM in complex 360 programs

·        Measuring performance in Marketing

·        KPIs to make a Brand Marketer Proud

·        Measuring ROI in Customer Service

The Bare Feet Tweet-up. Network meetup, you guessed it, on the beach. Connect with marketing colleagues from national brands and WOMM specialists on the beach. All you have to do is follow the Twitter hashtag during the event….

The Brand Council By The Beach. If you are part of a brand – big or small – join WOMMA’s Brand Council seminar that is exclusive and specifically set up for brands."

Sound like a good time?  Get those pencils out!  And have fun.

Marketing 2.0 + A Trip To Paris

Tonight I'm off to the Marketing 2.0 conference in Paris, France. With speakers from companies like Nike, Lego, Ford, Virgin, Southwest, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Nokia and more it promises to be a solid event. I'll be talking a bit about "micro-interactions" and how I believe this is important to the future of markeitng. I will be joining Crispin's Steven Eric where we'll be discussing the roles creativity and interactions in advertising. Where they differ and possibly overlap.

More importantly, after the event I'm taking some time off with my better half to take in the sights and sounds of Paris. We've just dropped the boys off at their grandparents house and are ready for some time away from them!  If you are going to be at the marketing 2.0 event, please let me know and be sure to say "salut"! Oh, and if you have any suggestions as to things to do while in the great city of lights, let me know with a comment.

Measuring Social Marketing

 

Couple of days ago, I pointed you to a product I believe in and bought with my own money. Roger Von Oech's iPhone version of his Creative Whack Pack. I've been using the real world version of the cards for years and it's only natural that I have it on my iPhone. It's actually a very practical app and I'm looking forward to flipping through them on my flight to France. What I didn't tell you was that Roger who I consider a friend approached me as his first and only "marketing vehicle". Prior sales of his new product were completely organic and he had not yet started marketing the iPhone application. This blog was the first mention. Here's what Roger had to say in his own words about the results over 2 days.

"I had been expecting Apple to take six weeks to approve my Creative Whack Pack App. When they okay'ed it in two days, I was excited, but I was also caught flat-footed because I was in Argentina — and my marketing wasn't in place.

But this created a big opportunity: to test the power of a single blog (Logic + Emotion) to get the word out about my new App. With no marketing (or product announcements) at all, the Creative Whack Pack was selling at an okay level.

When your post went up, sales have gone up by 260% over the past two days. And that's not all. Almost all of my previous sales were only in the US and Canada. Now, they are world-wide (see chart, courtesy of Apple). This — at least in my mind — shows the efficacy of social marketing."

A 260% increase in sales in two days is nothing to sneeze at (especially in a market where many iPhone apps are free—Roger's app charges a premium). So I thought I'd share some of this with you since there is so much discussion around "measuring social media"—one of the first things a business professional will ask in this area is "will it help us sell more products"? Well, the answer depends on the product, the delivery and distribution of that product and how you can measure the impact of your marketing initiatives. In Roger's case, the application and the way we chose to "test" this was very simple and easy to gauge.

Now imagine if this wasn't an individual, but a brand who developed a useful application and developed relationships with people who believed in their products enough to both use them and help market for them. Imagine if instead of just me, this was a planned and coordinated effort with others that could be sustained over time. The results would be impressive in my estimation. Roger reminded me that today's "Whack of the Day" is "slay a sacred cow". I think he did that by marketing his product in a different way than he had in the past. Or at least starting it this way. So, "social media" can actually be measured. Go Figure. :-)

SXSW In Pictures

Friend and fellow visual thinker Dave Gray recently uploaded a few of his visual notes from SXSW which includes a creativity panel featuring Merlin Mann John Gruber and the Friendship is Dead Salon I co-hosted with Russ Unger. He did a wonderful job capturing some of the key takeaways in that conversation in a unique and engaging way. I especially like the argyle/hat Venn diagram. For more visual goodness of SXSW, check out the sketchnotes from Mike Rohde. They speak for itself.  

How To Be More Human

This morning a couple of things came together for me. The first, was that I unfollowed a company/individual on Twitter because the volume they were producing felt automated and not human even if there were college interns manually updating it (or maybe just a script). It just didn't feel right. The second was reviewing a deck where it talked about the need for "being human" on the social web. But it didn't get into how exactly, and that's where my gears started turning. Right now the biggest challenge to being successful on the social web is through high quality micro-interactions with high quality human beings. But organizations will find this difficult to embrace. The industrial revolution has taught us to mass produce and move away from human dependency. ATM's have replaced the need for that local bank teller in most places and call centers are known as cost centers, so companies face a bit of a problem here. But if they can figure out a way to make the numbers work, organizations who put a human face to themselves stand to become the industry leaders in a space that's still in it's early phases. Here's a few ways to be "more human".

Don't Automate
Automated interactions are done by machines and people know it. Right now, we're flocking to the social web because we can get a personal touch that cannot be gotten elsewhere. While the "masses" deal with terrible automated phone services etc, we feel privileged to be able to interact with the real people behind an organization. This presents scaling issues to the organization, but the the average customer we just like it and will come back for more.

Don't Strive For Perfection
People aren't perfect, and that's expected in the social web. In fact, the more perfectly something is written, produced, or executed—the more suspicious it becomes. Communication and interactions on the social web should be similar to those in real life. Imperfect, messy, spontaneous, and occasionally personal. Zappos understands this well. After a conversation with one of their representatives from their call center, we received a handwritten note that referenced something personal that was discussed during the call. You don't get more human than that.

Talk Back
In a scene from "I Am Legend" Will Smith talks to a mannequin to try to emulate human contact. Of course this falls short and it's exactly the same dynamic that exists on the Web when organizations refuse to talk back to the people who they want to talk to. The substitute doesn't work and all that's left is something that looks alive from a distant, but really isn't.

Talk Like A Human
People can spot robots, artificial intelligence and a fake a mile away. Talking like your legal team, your PR agency or a computer will get you unfollowed, unfriended or ignored. If we wanted to hear from machines, robots or legal eagles, we'd watch more advertising or interact with your organizations mainstream touch points.  We're on the social web because we want to connect with other human beings and we want them to act like them. Being human means talking like a human. Conversational style trumps dictation because human beings only dictate when we're in very specific situations. If people walked around all day dictating as opposed to being engaged in human conversations, it would come across as very odd. Interestingly enough, many organizations don't have people who know how to communicate like this. In the coming years, you may have to find some.

Avoid Artificial Additives & Preservatives
Until someone invents the perfect android, there's not much that's artificial about being a human being—we make mistakes, are fragile and the good ones know when to say "sorry" and try harder. Anything else comes across as artificial and less than human. Being more human on the social web means doing all of these things because it's likely that you'll make mistakes and that's part of the process. It's OK, because you'll be interacting with other humans who also make them. An artificial presence is unlikely to succeed because it will feel too much like the way your organization presents itself traditionally, and again—that;s not why your customers are engaging on networks. They want a more human approach.

So these a few thoughts on how to be more human. What are your own? What would you add? I'd love to know.

Pioneers + Arrows

Kathy Sierra + Hugh McLeod

"You can tell who the pioneers are from the arrows sticking out of their backs"

This may be the one-liner that stood out for me most during my stay in Austin at SXSW. Hugh Mcleod told me this over breakfast, as we casually chatted about the state of affairs somewhere between art, business, marketing and this thing we're calling the social web. As most people will tell you, SXSW doesn't happen in the panels or keynotes, it happens in the hallways and the getaways (getting away from the crowds into more intimate settings where you can spend quality time with your peers). For me, this is how the event started and ended. On my last day there, a couple of us invited  Hugh Mcleod (Gapingvoid) out for a last cocktail and as we sat in the sun with our drinks, Kathy Sierra also well known in her own right came out of nowhere and sat down with us.

Now, this was simply a magical moment for me—two of my influencers and people I'd consider to be pioneers in killer blogging were sitting at the same table. And what was better was that we all knew each other. Kathy gobbled up a few of my cards which had graphics on them, Hugh and I exchanged drawings and we sat around and talked about where things have been and where they are going.

As I sat and marveled at the company I was spending time with, I could't help but think about what Hugh had told me just 2 days prior. About pioneers and arrows. Kathy had stopped blogging because of an incident that left her feeling vulnerable and Hugh is spending more time on his art as well as his book on creativity which is coming out very soon (more on that later). These are the true trailblazers, they are constantly evolving and moving, they pave the way for the rest of us while we bring up the rear.

There's something about people like Hugh and Kathy that's different. While folks like Jeremiah Owyang and Chris Brogan do an outstanding job of helping the world understand and execute interactive strategies, it's the Sierra's and Mcleod's of the world that did things so differently that they are difficult to replicate. There is still not a blog remotely like Creating Passionate Users, and Hugh's cartoons are unique to him only. As Kathy and Hugh sat there, I couldn't help but think that I was looking at two pioneers (at least to me) and the arrows they've taken in their careers.  Yet, as the photos prove, they've survived to tell the tales and I'm glad they did—so thank you Kathy, Hugh and the rest of you pioneers for all you do.

Creativity Workshop In Your Pocket

Creativity coach, inventor and friend Roger Von Oech recently gave me a heads up on a new product he's come out with. He's taken his world famous "Creative Whack Pack"—a set of cards that provides creative inspiration and made an iPhone application out of it. I've used Roger's Whack Pack in many brainstorms and ideation sessions and the iPhone version is pretty sweet.

One of my favorite features is "Give Me a Whack" which serves you up a new card after clicking on it, but even more cool is that you can shake your iPhone and it will serve up new cards "randomly" each time you shake it. It's like Magic Eightball meets creative inspiration.

Another cool feature is being able to share cards with someone you know. If you found something that sticks with you, all you have to do is click on that middle icon and it will e-mail a Web version of the card to the recipients of your choice.

While I won't give up my papaer sets of cards, this is a nice compliment to them and I can see flipping through these on a plane or even connecting the iPhone to a projector in a meeting and using it that way. Neat stuff. The content is great and this is just another way to interact with it. You can find the app by searching for "Creative Whack Pack". If you don't have the paper version and an iPhone, it's worth it.

Brands Will Learn By Doing. Get Over It.

What was my strategy when launching this blog? How about when I started using Twitter over two years ago when most people dismissed it as a fad, trend, and a tool for narcissistic individuals who wanted to tell the world what they had for lunch?  My strategy?

I wanted to learn by doing.

I made mistakes, I also got some things right. I got a crash course in web metrics seeing spikes in blog referrals or comments when I would publish a particularly helpful visual, and less activity when I wasn't adding enough value. I'd see additional followers on Twitter built over time and even some growth spurts when someone with influence recommended me. Same goes for blogging. I've learned almost everything I know about this space by doing it. I've always learned by doing. It's instinctual for me—I have problems learning other ways, you can ask the nuns who tried teaching me in grade school. Which is why I'm perplexed that now that we're seeing brands actually do what I've been doing for years (learning by doing), we're all up in arms. Whether it be P&G, Skittles, or examples of brands that most of us applaud such as Zappos, I hope you see the writing on the wall here. Brands will actively engage on the social web by doing—and learn in the process. They can't sit on the sidelines anymore. The social web only kicks in AFTER something is put into the space. Just like I launched this blog in 2006. All of the effort came AFTER the launch. Listen. Learn. Adapt. This is what I believe in.

I recently came across a Forrester blog post which provided some actionable insights on P&G's "Digital Hack Night". I recommend you read the entire post.  I also recommend you read Brian Morrissey's reaction to P&G's effort and the comments in the thread. Read both, you will be better for it. Digest, analyze and sit on it for a bit. But whatever conclusions you come to, you can be sure that the days of inactivity on the part of large brands, companies and organizations are behind us. Learning by doing may become the new ROI. Watch and see.

From Forrester's E-marketing blog (findings on P&G Digital Hack Night)

• "Social media is a full time commitment. Across the teams those who were able to generate the greatest number of sales were full time bloggers (or at least full time social media gurus). Even among the so called digerati those of us for whom social isn't our sole focus were left in the dust by those who do it for a living. What it means for marketers: don't think you're going to make an impact asking your current digital marketing manager to add Twittering and blogging to their current job description. Figure out what your role should be in the social media space and staff with people knowledgeable and connected who thrive on contributing to and participating in that space. Social media isn't something you turn on and off for a campaign; it's something you live and breathe every day.

• Suspicion runs rampant. No sooner had the project begun than the comments started coming back: who is this for, whom does it benefit, why should I give, how do I know this is legitimate? Fortunately Tide had provided teams with information, images and a website with full program details. Even so, most people needed a lot of proof points before they would embrace talking about the program. What it means for marketers: Anyone who thinks corporate America is welcome at the social party hasn't been paying a lot of attention. Corporate messages and their bearers are viewed with suspicion and in some cases, derision. Overcoming it takes patience, information and most importantly truly good intentions at the root of your efforts.

• You can't please all the people all the time. No matter what some people seem to believe that most corporate efforts spring from bad intent. Some people were angered there were no plus sized t shirts, some were outraged that P&G was involved at all wondering why they didn't just send their money to a charity. Most of these concerns were mitigated with a healthy discussion and an honest mea culpa when appropriate (the T shirt size issue was, admittedly, an oversight but certainly not a slight) but some of them spring from the conflict that comes from companies who need to sell goods and services entering a space that has been largely non-commercial. What it means for marketers. Take time to plan for worst case scenarios: how could your intentions be misconstrued and how and when do you respond? Accept that you will never be welcomed by all but with a good faith effort, honesty, transparency and a long term commitment you can at least get a chance to tell your side of the story."

Brands, companies, businesses and individuals are going to learn by doing. If you want to make money building your consulting business around their efforts—help them. Or get the hell out of the way.

Critter: Twitter for Pets

Another fun part about SXSW was the Windows Mobile competition that I got to be a part of. I was invited along with Charlene Li, Hugh MacLeod, Tara Hunt, Steve Rosenbaum, Dave McClure, Chris Brogan, Erin Kotecki Vest (@queenofspain) and Deb Schultz to come up with a mobile application idea that the Windows Mobile team will actually build out. My idea? Critter: Twitter for pets. It's kind of lighthearted, but people do love their pets. Like it? You can view a video with further explanation and vote for it here.

Friendship Isn't Dead. The Strengthening of Loose Ties

Video by @matto
This is my first attempt at writing anything since attending the SXSW conference for the first time—it was quite an experience, from the panels to the parties to the conversations in the hallways, cafes and sidewalks. I spoke on a couple of panels but there was something really special about the "Friendship is Dead" salon that friend Russ Unger and myself "moderated".  I use the term loosely because it felt like a casual conversation more than anything else. Some even joked around about it feeling like "therapy".

We started off the panel with the premise of friendship in the basic sense and quickly moved into social media territory. It became clear that few people in the room felt that there is a need for social applications to offer better controls around how we can classify "friends"—from those who we may have met online, to the ones we work with to the ones we've known from childhood that may ore may not be close with anymore. The conversation quickly moved into a very organic space where many of us felt the need to express opinions on the subject, and were clearly wrestling with the notion of managing our relationships as they soar into higher and higher numbers. If you reference "Dunbar's Number" (below), there is an assertion that once we exceed the number of relationships past "150", that our relationships become less meaningful and more difficult to manage.

There was no doubt that many in the room that day feel this as our social graphs expand upwardly and outwardly putting all of our family, friends, and contacts together in ways we may not have anticipated. The intangible notion of "ambient intimacy" coined by Leisa Reichelt could be felt in that very room. In fact it was the one thing that I couldn't shake as I walked around the room looking at scores of familiar faces who I felt I'd known for years. Some of us had met before, many of us hadn't and yet as I looked around, it was like a living slice of my social graph layed out in front of me. People from all walks of life—design, marketing, social media, journalism, the list goes on.

So are these people my friends? This was the question that kept popping into my head as we moderated the discussion. And that leads to more questions including "what are friends?". The conversation continued into areas of privacy, how much we share, the need for us to connect with others who are "like us" and the tendancy for some of us to project ourselves differently to different online communities. This is the kind of topic which is philosophical in nature—there really are no definitive answers, only thoughts that might be able to help us navigate through a very interesting time. Then at the end, something was said from Jeff Dachis, the former founder of Razorfish and it stuck with me ever since.

"I know who my friends are. What's confusing us is how the Web is strengthening our loose ties"

This struck a chord with me. Most of us intuitively know who our friends are. They're the ones we feel comfortable around, they accept us for who we are yet challenge us to be better, they help us get through difficult times and stick around when others have left. These are our friends. But, with networks we have access to more individuals then ever before in history. We know when they are sick, when they are traveling and even when they've lost a loved one. Some of us stay in constant communication with people who would have normally been considered "loose ties", people we've met at an event, a party, a former co-worker, or college friend. These ties can become strengthened and feel like something more than they used to be. And of course, they can turn into friendships at any given time. So while most of us know "who our friends are", it's likely that we're also managing our relationships in ways that allow us to scale. The loose ties become strengthened, while we may rely on social networks even less for our "inner circle" of friends.

So friendship isn't dead, thought it might be pushing us to our limits as we open ourselves to more connections and relationships—in some cases maybe more than we can handle.

Turning The Tide: An Insider's Perspective

From left to right: Deb Schultz, Me, Kevin Dugan

The e-mail that hit my inbox several weeks ago said "you are invited to attend a digital hack night at P&G". It didn't say much more than this, other than to clarify that all the participants in the e-mail were not to talk about the invitation and had to keep it quiet. The list on the e-mail was impressive. Folks from companies such as My Space, Facebook, Google, combined with numerous agencies and even analyst firms such as Forrester. Full Disclaimer, P&G is a Critical Mass client (the agency I work for).

Weeks went by with updates on logistics. Then before you know it, I was flying into Cincinnati. My hunch was that P&G was going to conduct some time of exercise where we might ideate and build out new digital marketing ideas—we'd be able to publicly leverage our networks in the process. I was right on the latter point but not on the first. In reality, we were called in to raise as much money as we could for a disaster relief charity (view video). We were divided up in teams, told to compete with each other and went to work. And we worked it hard.

Ad Age has the official story, so I'd like to provide you with some insights you might not get from mainstream coverage. Here's a few highlights.

No time to overthink
As the doors opened to our War room, the firs thing I did was crack open the laptop and continue prepping my network while I sized up the challenge. P&G employees were embedded with every team and watching everything we did. I first summized that there was not enough information on the page where we were asking for people to buy shirts and so I quickly started writing a blog post with the information of who the charity was, where you could buy the shirts along with some popular Q&As. The post was done in less than 20 minutes to the surprise of some of the P&Gers and I didn't use the media they provided because the files needed reformatting. A big lesson learned was the power of speed in this space. 4 hours is not a lot of time.

Making people feel "there"
In addition to a blog post and using Twitter to get others to spread the word as well as point them to purchase, many of us were taking pictures or live streaming the event so people knew what was going on andn that it was for real and that there were real peopple behind it. Again, P&Gers were able to witness and learn from this activity. We were uploading more media in 4 hours than most brands do in a week.

Driving traffic and revenue
I was on the red team which was the team that ended up in 1st place at the end of 4 hours (go Red!). I was told that the biggest traffic drivers were a placement on the homapage of My Space and the blog post I had written, As of last night, the blog post had resulted in the most traffic and purchases within the 4 hours. You can bet that P&G will be thinking about this in the future. Normally, interactive marketers rely on banners to drive draffic and hopefully sales. Above is the dashboard we used to monitor both conversations as well as traffic and T-shirt sales. It helped fuel the competition between teams.

At the end of the four hours it was announced that all teams had raised approx 50k for the charity and P&G matched that with 50k. I don't have the most recent numbers but purchases are going until 11:00 EST today. While I'm sure the effort will be criticized as everything including usage of social media tends to get—you can be be sure that big companies such as P&G are tired of sitting on the sidelines and doing nothing, they are going to learn by trying. In my book, that's a win and perhaps the tide really is turning.

Make A Difference. NOW.

P&G is doing something you might want to be a part of tonight. Instead of marketing in the usual way, they are going to ask you to buy some T-shirts. The shirts are cool, retro and I'm wearing one right now. If you buy one 100 % of your money will go toward Disaster Relief, specifically Feeding America this is the type of organization that can be mobilized to make a huge difference in future "Katrinas" should they happen (unfortunately, they will).

You can buy the T-shirt HERE. Use this link specifically as it will tell P&G where the traffic is coming from. They want to see the power of networks in action. Make yourself heard.

This is legit. And it's an opportunity to change the face of marketing into something that helps as opposed to "branding" or pushing out messages. If you buy 2 T-shirts, you won't be charged shipping. The shirts cost $20 US dollars.

Make your mark. This WILL be the newt tomorrow.  Tweet, link to this and get the word out to everyone you know. On Twitter, use the hashtag #pgdigital.

Here is the fine print. Because I want you informed. Full Disclaimer, P&G is a Critical Mass client. I was invited here to participate in their "Digital Hack Night" not knowing what the purpose was. Now I know.

Q.  Where does the money for the t-shirts go?
A.  100% of profits raised by Loads of Hope are spent in 2 ways 1) a donation to Feeding America (formerly known as America’s Second Harvest) to be spent on disaster relief and 2) to mobilize the Loads of Hope truck/ vans to send to communities affected by disaster.

Q. How much are the profits from the t-shirts?
A.  A minimum of $4 from every t-shirt sale (on average, approximately $6 from every order) goes to support families affected by disaster.  Profits increase as we sell more due to volume discounts and help in fixed costs.  Tide passes all profits to the cause.

Q.  How can I get the Loads of Hope truck to my community?
A.  The number of natural disasters continues to rise, with 75 FEMA-declared disasters last year alone. While the Tide team unfortunately cannot respond to all of them, in the event of any natural disaster, Tide - in partnership with Feeding America (formerly America’s Second Harvest), FEMA, and other local and state agencies, officials, and relief organizations -  assesses a series of criteria such as the number of people affected and the level of need for our services.  Our goal is to mobilize our Loads of Hope program where we can be of the most help to others while ensuring the safety of our own staff and volunteers.  Tide will also help bring hope throughout the year to many other natural disasters via its donations and support of Feeding America. You can help by going to www.TideLoadsofHope.com and purchasing a Tide Loads of Hope vintage t-shirt. All of the profits support families affected by disasters.
 
Q.  Who is Junk Food?
A.  Junk Food Clothing was founded in 1998 to create the perfect t-shirt:  a vintage, soft-weathered tee that captures the essence of American pop-culture through licensed, retro-inspired graphics.  Junk Food first partnered with Tide in 2007 to create the Loads of Hope vintage t-shirt.  www.junkfoodclothing.com

Q.  Where are the Tide Vintage T-shirts made?
A.  All Tide Vintage T-shirts are made in the USA.  Junk Food has 2 facilities in Los Angeles, CA that dye, sew and screen print the t-shirts.

Q.  What is the fabric blend of the t-shirts?
A.  All Tide Vintage t-shirts are 50% cotton/50% polyester blend.

Q.  What is the sizing for the women’s t-shirts?
A.  The women’s vintage t-shirts are created for a more fitted look.  Please see the size chart in the previous slide for more information.

Q.  How much is shipping?
A.  With the purchase of one Tide Loads of Hope t-shirt, the standard shipping cost is $5.00.  With the purchase of two or more t-shirts, the standard shipping costs are waived.  Expedited shipping is $17.00 regardless of quantity purchased.  Please see the above slide for additional shipping information.

Let's take over the Web and make some money that will help people when they will need it most!

Social Vs. Networking

A funny thing happened on the way back from my guest lecture at Parson's Design At The Edge class. While the students (approximately 80 of them) were busy Facebooking their lives away—they could not fathom the idea of leading a public life or using social networks like Facebook for anything but pure social activity. Other networks such as Skype were preferred for even more intimate interactions. Practically no one in the class could even grasp why anyone would want to share uptates to large groups of people (some who would not be considered freinds or peers) through services like Twitter. It was an fascinating dynamic.

Interestingly, some of the senior students (the ones ready to start careers) didn't see as much of a divide as did the Teacher's assistants. All were curious about these emerging dynamics. Bruce Nussbaum of BusinessWeek and the professor had this to say in a recent writeup:

"Most of the students were sophomores and juniors and used Facebook as a private network among friends. The seniors, however, were beginning to use Facebook as a network to get jobs. There was a sharp Age Break or Life Cycle Break within the Gen Y class. Younger students faced inward in their use of Facebook, toward their friends. Seniors faced outward, networking with people outside their circle of friends. Facebook has both a social and professional function, and at least two micro-cultures. Three micro-cultures really. Aging boomers are using Facebook socially to contact old friends, including old boyfriends and old girlfriends."

Now it came as no surprise to me that the students would not be using networks like Twitter. The stats back that up and I kind of get why the appeal isn't there. But I started to think about this a bit differently as Bruce and I discussed the behaviors a bit more. I began to wonder if there is a bit of a divide between the ideas of "social" and "networking" and do the two priorities shift at different times in our lives. Of course the two overlap—but bear with me as I think this through.

Early Education Years
The current generation of children is being exposed to a new form of entertainment that combines being playful with a social element. Enter Club Penguin Wii, etc. Our children will learn how to be social digitally in ways we never knew. But there is no need to "network" with contacts as I'm defining it here—they don't exist. There may however be some type of "pen pal" activity though I'm guessing this would also be social in nature.

Early Education Years
In our later education years, highschool to college—social networks are ubiquitous and as the class validates prmarily used to manage relationships with friends, family, peers, classmates, etc. in 5 years or less it's possible that this won't be Facebook, but for now—this is where the action happens. As students begin to come closer to the working world, they see opportunities for "networking"—looking outside their immediate social circles for contacts who they can learn from, get connected into industries etc. Here the lines begin to blur more.

Career Years
Here's where I can speak from experience. Many of us are using networks not only to stay in touch with families, but also to "network" ourselves. The line is very blurry here, but the shift from being "inward" as Bruce points out to becoming more "outward" in our connections begins to take place. Many readers here will relate to this, but you have to understand that the premise to students is foreign. I just read today a comment from a student wh said they could never imagine meeting and making friends online that turn into meaningful relationships yet at this stage—many of us see happen. The balance here betwen "social and networking" drivers is nearly equally strong.

Post Career Years
I'll define this loosly as years where your career is not the priority it once was (or is different in focus), and so the shift and need for more social interactions that feel more like genuine friendships vs. casual contacts begins to increase once again. Talking with Bruce who is a veteran in his own career provided some interesting insights into this.

Now I fully understand that pulling apart the "social" from the "networking" is not how many networks operate—but, after digging into this a bit with folks representing all different stages, including myself—I thought this would make for an interesting way to frame the topic. I suppose you can look at this a number of different ways—but if we are honest with ourselves, we'll recognize that our stage of life dictates how we interact with this thing called the "social web". As always, I value your thoughts and opinions.

The Micro-Sociology of Networks

The Micro-Sociology of Networks

View more presentations from David Armano. (tags: behavior human)

Next week I am giving a guest lecture at the Parsons School of Design, specifically an innovation course being taught by BusinessWeek's Bruce Nussbaum. I've been fortunate to establish a relationship with Bruce over the years—ironically all initiated and somewhat sustained by social networks.  But the premise of my talk is going to be somewhat different (hopefully) from what we see and hear in the business world which is currently infatuated with the latest and greatest bright and shiny object to hit the scene. What I'm hoping to delve into a bit more is how these bright and shiny objects influence our behaviors and how these behaviors are evolving even thoiugh our basic needs remain relatively the same.

As I do with nearly all my presentations—I post them up before I give them so you can have a look and I can initiate a first feedback loop before the "launch" on Monday. Working this way always benefits me as I usually get one or two gems of insight that end up impacting the presentation before I give it. So put yourself in the mindset of a student—someone who knows this space pretty well, is uber connected on networks like Facebook and is looking to change the world after they graduate. These are a very smart group of people and I'm going to make sure there is enough time for a good discussion. Hopefully the "lecture" turns into something more conversational. I prefer the latter anyway. Got thoughts? Speak your mind.

Skittles Smackdown, A Sociological Viewpoint

So this will be the last mention of Skittles on this blog. I was able to share some thoughts with Jackie Huba from Church of the Customer (audio of Jackie has echo in the beginning). Bottom line, she doesn't see a lot of value in the effort for the brand, while I thought it was just plain fun (and fascinating to watch). I think the real winners here are the employees of Mars corp who were no doubt GLUED to their computers these past couple of days. They got a first hand quality education on the social web that in my opinion is priceless. Money well spent if you ask me and insights that can inform future strategies. So with that, I would like to leave you with one gem of a perspective I came across from Steve Portigal. I spent hours scouring through commentary on this topic and even more hours immersing myself in the phenomenon first hand. I have to say that I was less than impressed with the quality of "analysis" out there and for me, Steve's insight was like a beacon shining in a tempest of opinion.

I'm surprised by the summary dismissal of the reaction of twitter as "vile" and "immature." It might be helpful to be slightly more sociological (and therefore less judgmental) when considering a phenomenon like this. What were people really feeling? What drove them to take those actions? Skittles decided to co-opt a conversation, and some of the participants co-opted it right back. People used words and ideas for shock value, not because they truly held those beliefs or would otherwise use those words.

Maybe that meets your definition of immature, but there's a stimulus-response here and a context, and I think it would be useful to consider some alternate frames of reference rather than dismissing them. And maybe Skittles wanted it this way; they said we could all play with their home page and indeed some people explored the boundaries of play. Just like we'll put our face all the way up to a camera lens, it's being playful. It's a use of the medium that affords the individual trying to draw attention to themselves and "shock" is one way to do that."

I've followed Steve's writings for a while and the guy knows a thing or two about human behavior and why we do the things we do. For me, his take is worth chewing on. Pardon the pun.

Getting Passionate About Passion

The Passion Files Ep1 David Armano

I've known Sean Howard since I first started blogging back in 06, and was fortunate enough to meet and hang out with him last year in New York. Sean has started a new project he's calling "The Passion Files". It's an interesting concept—right now we're all thinking about changes in media, technology and even the economy. But it's passion that drives us, motivates us and keeps us going. Sean and I discussed a number of topics including passion in the workplace, the Tropicana package re-design, paid/earned media, and personal/professional brands among other topics. Interestingly enough, I'm a bit passionate in the interview. A little too much caffeine I think. Hey, it happens. Hope you enjoy and be sure to check out Sean's series as he interviews others.

Skittles Goes Modernista! With A Distributed Experience

Update:
Adweek's Brian Morrissey has a nice take and conversation around the topic.

Yes, it was originally advertising agency Modernista! that threw away their Website in favor of simply patching together all of their information across various social networks and services. Nearly a year later, Skittles has done the same thing.  If you point your Web browser to Skittles.com, you will not be greeted by the familiar sight of a highly "experiential" or branded site complete with games and promotions—instead, you will go to a Twitter search result page that shows you what people are saying about the brand in real time.

The "siteless website" then places a "widget" above the Twitter search result and lets you navigate to other destinations, mostly distributed across the Web, from product pages on Facebook, to video channels on You Tube, to simple product information on Wikipedia and don't forget photos on Flickr.

While I would not recommend agencies or professional services firms to go the Modernista! route (people aren't talking about you like they are about products)—this is an interesting tactic and raises a few issues. For one, as Modernista! has taught us, you can't fool around with your Wikipedia entry. And secondarily, the tactic is still experimental. (currently Skittles requires you to enter your date of birth every time you visit the "site"—a less than ideal experience probably caused by a tech glitch.)

Another reason this is worth watching closely is because we're seeing a social media reality play out in real time. While you can listen in on, respond to and potentially even influence conversations—you cannot control them.  Currently, pointing your browser to Skittles.com will also result in some profanity showing up (via Twitter). Note: Skittles does have age verification in place, as mentioned earlier but you can see the updates behind it.
Now all that said, this is a very interesting solution for consumer goods brands. For one, people do talk about what they eat on networks like Twitter and skittles makes the list. Secondarily, no one is going to talk about another consumer Website or contest that the average person could care less about, so for now—Skittles is upgrading their Google and social juice by the chatter they will get out of this (Twitter went down right after a ton of conversation started happening around this and it's currently the number one most talked about topic on the Network beating out the stock market!)

Whether you love it, hate it or think it's a gimmick—right now this tactic is providing a valuable insight into the business world and current marketing challenges. Brands are scrambling to become more relevant in our lives. Traditional Websites aren't enough. Banner ads aren't enough.  30 second spots can be ignored and brands are desperately looking for new ways to interject themselves into our conversations.

We will see more of this, not less.

In somewhat related news, Forrester released a new study today titled "Add Sponsored Conversations To Your Toolbox". Now watch the language here very closely. "Sponsored Conversations". This is an attempt to frame an emerging media model which we will also be seeing more of. Getting people to distribute your content by brokering paid arrangements with agencies or the distributors themselves. The "distributors" can be bloggers, influencers etc. who are empowered to say whatever they want about your brand. I cover this example under my "paid and earned" media model on the paid side, since bloggers do get paid. But it's an emerging model and the focus is on distribution etc. Again, this is a response to the media fragmentation and poor search engine results many brands are experiencing. Increased chatter about brands can help resolve some of these issues (and positive chatter is ideal).

Paid & Earned Media

Listen, Learn Adapt
Now comes the hard part. It's difficult enough for brands, organizations and their partners figuring out all of these new models—on top of that, it will not be enough in the long term to merely tap the social channels or point your URL to what's being said about you. If you take a look at the right side of "earned media", brands will have to begin their initiatives my leveraging both listening tools (Radian 6, etc.) and qualitative insights, and evolve the existing creative process to something more informed, adaptable and responsive. This is something that I've been working on in it's early stages (below).

So in reality, the story is bigger than what Skittles or Modernista! have done and the punditry that will inevitably swirl around it. The big takeaway is that the traditional (yes, this includes digital) model is being distrupted before our eyes. Business as usual in interactive marketing used to mean a Flash and promo heavy website for a brand like skittles, and now it looks entirely different. And it doesn't mean it will work either. Do people really want to engage with a brand like this on Facebook, a ecosystem built primarily for managing your social and professional life? We're getting closer to finding out. So what do you think?