YouTube Direct: Friend or Foe?
If an organization is savvy, it will make this new tool a friend. Disregard it, it could become a foe.
There has been quite a bit of buzz this week surrounding YouTube Direct, a platform that narrows the gap between news organizations and anyone with video-capture capabilities. Thanks to digital cameras that shoot video, the economically priced Flip video camcorder and the fact that many cell phones can now shoot video, that means A LOT more people just became citizen journalists.
The new tool allows media organizations to request, review and rebroadcast YouTube clips directly from YouTube users.
If you work in or with your communications department or agency, then you may be familiar with the idea of pitching stories to, or having stories broken by bloggers. You may have also heard horror stories of disgruntled customers sounding off on blogs, Twitter or Facebook. You also hear great stories about customers promoting brands themselves through those same outlets. Imagine all of this in video, and figure in that these videos may have just gotten exponentially easier for news organizations that hit your key demographics and stakeholders to upload and share.
There is a lot of exciting opportunity that YouTube’s new tool presents. Only time will tell whether or not this really takes off and how much the media will really put it to use. I imagine it will take off, though, since everyday people like you and me can capture a video faster than a news crew can arrive on a scene, and because having video to accompany a story makes the content much more rich and the story much more authentic.
The Washington Post, ABC-News, NPR and the Huffington Post are among the media outlets that have already used YouTube Direct.
Consider what doors this development opens, as well as what you need to be careful of. If you do not do regular YouTube searches related to your brand, you could be missing out on something that just got a lot easier for a news organization to find… for better or for worse.
Everyone is doing it…Or are they?
With all the hype today about Twitter, everyone who’s anyone is on it and actively using this new social media channel to its full capacity, right? Think again.
According to an AdAge article, 76% of Twitter accounts are infrequent users. I guess that shouldn’t really surprise me since it does take extra effort to make the most of this tool, but I just assumed that these big name companies have the resources and time to invest as well as the know-how to execute. I guessed wrong.
So, my point in all this is that it is not too late to start taking an active role in your company to increase the chance for success. As long as someone is held accountable for keeping up with it, there is a lot to be gained.
Whether you use Twitter as a newsfeed, brand-builder, sales channel, thought-leadership vehicle, or as a customer-service tool, just get started and keep the momentum going.
In closing, I would just like to say to all you slackers out there, get your assets in gear.
Death by Marketing Metrics: How Walmart’s Funeral Caskets Prove Social Media Monitoring Isn’t As Certain As Death.
It was the perfect brand storm. Just in time for Halloween, Walmart entered the lucrative world of online funeral casket sales, following in the footsteps of Costco. The move sent buzz metrics surging: millions of hits, site visits, tweets, and even positive product ratings. In short, everyone was talking about discount funeral caskets and the smiley-faced retail icon. Most importantly, Walmart’s social media monitoring tools showed the greatest spike in customer interest since the Snuggy first hit shelves.
But soon a macabre reality hit home. Most of the positive social media activity had come from the iPhone/generation Y-Not community, hardly the target buyers of caskets. Worse, a large degree of the positive social response was, in fact, vicious sarcasm (including fake product reviews poking fun at Walmart’s virtual funeral parlor), a concept that social media monitoring tools are woefully unable to detect.
What can we learn from this marketing case study?
- Social Media Metrics are only as good as the people who interpret them. All activity should be highly scrutinized in order to ascertain whether the target audience matches the target demographic. Misguided buzz is worthless, unless you believe that college kids are replacing their beds with comfortable padded coffins.
- Even the most advanced software analytics have a difficult time discerning intent. When Walmart declares a spike in positive product reviews without having marketing professionals vet the data, the knowledge gained is as meaningful as a “How to Win the Lottery” book.
- As Albert Einstein once said, “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” And he said it before Twitter.
Bottom line: As corporate marketers and their agencies oversee the strategic shift to digital media (with the promise of more accountability and measurability), they must always remember that no computer or offshore $2/hour data monitor will ever replace critical, expert analysis. Forget that, and we just might end up financing our own marketing caskets.
(Kudos to Craig Daitch’s column on www.Adage.com)
Company Twitter Can Make Customers Hate You Less
Recently, I switched from one cable provider to another. I was fed up with the lousy customer service, overpriced cable packages and mediocre reception and internet speed that this particular, let’s call them Bombast, provider gave me. I switched to a different, let’s call them Horizon, company with the promise of faster speed, better picture and sound quality and customer service that doesn’t make you want to start polishing your rifle and head to the nearest bell-tower. Needless to say, in the switch, there was some equipment that was not installed properly. It looked like my days of having to deal with customer relations call centers were not yet behind me. And I would probably still be on hold waiting for the next supervisor in the line of command had I simply used the phone. Instead, I sent a quick Twitter update expressing my frustration, and within minutes, had several replies telling me what I needed to do, how my order was being expedited and a service technician would make our issues their first visit the following day. The two Twitterers from the company gave me status updates, and let me know when the issue had been resolved. We haven’t had any problems since.
Twitter, as with any other communications platform, sees a gradual acceptance of use among businesses. From my experience with the two different cable providers, Twitter offers better and faster customer service than I ever received while spending an evening on the phone to a call center. Companies looking for a competitive advantage should embrace the service, and engage with their customers and potential customers, in a way that is beneficial to both. Had the fictional company Horizon not had responsive representatives on Twitter to help me, I may very well have switched to yet a different company.
Just give it away, why don’t you?
Yesterday I listened to a Newfangled webinar entitled “The Modern Marketing Website.” It was so simple, yet so true. The one main message that really stood out to me was the message of generosity. Too many times we covet our knowledge, or are afraid to give too much away. But in the world of social media, it is all about sharing. No longer can we work behind closed doors and expect to gain the respect of others. Now is the time to really show your generosity and knowledge. I think we can agree on these two things: People like free stuff and people (especially professionals) like to learn. So, what better way than to do that through the Internet? Whether that is your website, blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, newsletter, or any other form of communication of your choosing—anyone can do it. Once you have the customer engaged in your content, you automatically build respect and confidence, and they now come to you. Granted, it isn’t a quick process, but imagine the clients that you can acquire.
So, what have we learned? Be generous and don’t ask for too much in return. Or, as in the famous line, “build it, and they will come.”
In Case You’re Still Thinking Social Media is Inconsequential to Your Brand
I fully admit, until as recently as this year, I held the firm belief that social media was nothing more than the faddish playground of teenyboppers and techno-geeks. This, despite the urgings of colleagues and peers that social media is in fact, a game changing brand management tool. I have come to see the light (evidenced by my participation in this blog), and here is a prime example why: Google Sidewiki.
Sidewiki is a relatively new tool that allows any user with a Google login to post comments (positive or negative, benign or mischievous) about any webpage that will appear in a sidebar frame of the browser for any other user to see. Furthermore, the owners of the website have no power to remove said comments (Google reserves sole moderation rights). Imagine if you will, the din of a flame war going on directly adjacent to your homepage for the world, and more importantly your prospects, to see. Yikes! (see The Google Sidewiki Controversy) Even more scary, the idea that these posters are now given the power to define your brand for you if you are not monitoring carefully and maintaining a steady stream of corrective comments. (see Don’t Blame Google Sidewiki if Your Brand Takes Another Hit) Brand management in the age of social media is not really a new idea anymore, but this particular application brings into shocking clarity the need for such management due to its extreme proximity to your most important outward facing channel, your website.
Google Sidewiki is still relatively new and adoption rates are unclear at this point but regardless of any personal feelings I may hold about Google overstepping here, the point is clear, social media, while no panacea, is a force that must be recognized in strategic brand management for the foreseeable future.
Google Sidewiki may just be the flavor of the month social media tool, but make no mistake; other tools are currently under development in some garage somewhere in the world that will one day be the next outlet demanding your direct and immediate attention. The only way to truly prepare for the onslaught is to make sure you have a well thought out and defensible brand platform and a strategy that allows for the rapid adoption of new channels to manage that brand.
Profile pictures get a makeover
I recently read an article in AdAge about how Estee Lauder is promoting their brand within social media. I thought is was brilliant. As the article states, their strategy is to offer free makeovers to women, take a picture and then the professional photograph is emailed to the customer. This is smart on many levels.
First off, Estee Lauder has a target audience of 35-55 year old females, which is now one of the fastest growing segments on social media sites. Secondly, since there is a large majority of younger women currently on social media sites, they can possibly break into an even younger audience category. In addition, they will be able to capture contact info for future email lists, if the customers opt in. And it will no doubt increase sales if many women feel even a small obligation to purchase some makeup after receiving a free makeover. And I haven’t even touched on the brand visibility/coverage they will receive.
We promote ourselves each day online, why not take it to the next level and really make it polished? There might be an untapped business here, especially for professional sites such as LinkedIn. And I have a feeling they will be popular with the younger crowd soon enough, particularly if they can create a slightly less expensive category for the younger folks, that is, without watering down their current brand.
So, are you ready for your close-up?
Twitter Rolling Out Accounts for Businesses
Once upon a time, like in July, I wrote a post to this site called “Simple Business Rules for Twitter.” Back in those halcyon days of our blog, I was a relatively novice Twitter enthusiast, but I understood the service well enough to embrace it, and to see the benefits that it had for businesses.
Now it seems like Twitter’s founders are preparing to roll out “premium” – i.e. paid -services for businesses. In an article appearing in today’s Chicago Tribune, Biz Stone, one of Twitter’s cofounders, states that the microblogging site will offer commercial accounts for businesses by the end of the year.
I am glad that Twitter is coming to the realization that their venture capital funds – even the $100 million they recently received – will not last forever. Twitter needs to develop a business model if it wants to be more than a flash-in-the-pan internet fad like the pets.com sock puppet, or be taken over by a savvier competitor. Does anyone else remember the pre-Facebook days of Friendster?
Twitter needs to find a way to offer companies premium features while keeping its core services free for all to use, and they certainly have their work cut out for them. Cited in the Tribune article is adding data and analytics that companies would be willing to pay for. Yes, all companies want to know that their social media initiatives are working, and that embracing social media actually generates ROI. The problem is that there are already services, such as Mr. Tweet, that let people see how active they are as twitterers, the percentage of replies they receive, and the percentage of people who click on links tweeted. For example, according to Mr. Tweet, @CMcGurn is categorized as an “enthusiastic” twitterer with an “above average” reply rate of 40% and an “average” number of followers, 14%, who click on links that I send.
Yes, the metrics are fairly basic, but they give a good snapshot of how engaged a particular Twitter user is with others. I am curious to see what Twitter plans to roll out for businesses that will be worth charging for, and whether or not companies will buy into it.
Men, Women and the Social Web
Remember once upon a time when the term “Internet” conjured up images of these guys?
Yes, there was a time when it was believed that the Internet was the sole purview of the nerdy, male computer hobbyist. Then the bubble inflated, popped, and what developed is far more demographically diverse than Benjamin, Doug and Gary – the three gentlemen pictured – could ever have imagined.
In data recently compiled by Brian Solis and visualized by InformationIsBeautiful, the Internet, at least social networking, Web 2.0 sites, actually skews towards female users. Of the most popular social networking sites, LinkedIn and YouTube have about an equal number of male and female users, while Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and MySpace all have more female than male users.
As someone who works in the PR industry, I am not at all surprised by the data’s findings, since the industry as a whole skews female and the industry as a whole embraced social media – to one degree or another – in its infancy.
Still, I would be curious to see if there was any shift in data, and in the breakdown of male to female social media users if such sites as Wikipedia and general blogging statistics were incorporated into the findings.
CEO Junction Roundtable: Business Development Strategies for Today’s Economy
Earlier this week, I attended a very lively and informative panel discussion sponsored by CEO Junction. The topic was how to grow and develop business in difficult economic times – re: today’s economy. The panel consisted of four experts who discussed different BD strategies: Gregory Caruso discussed how mergers and acquisitions can be a successful development strategy for both the buyers and sellers of companies. Catherine Read talked about the importance of social media as a key component of business development, Kim Guarino detailed why marketing strategy is so important for a company’s development goals and Mark Slatin spoke on the importance of customer loyalty to grow a business.
The audience seemed to be most interested in the social media and marketing components of the panel. Since that is part of what we do at The Borenstein Group, I had the opportunity to speak with many of the attendees about how, and why, social media is a key component of strategic, integrated communications strategies and why such strategies are crucial for successful business development.
I tweeted the whole event. Much of the audience is yet to adopt social media, and was impressed when I told them that I captured the whole event via Twitter. It presented a great opportunity to tell people about the platform, how easy it is to use, and how it can help keep a record of meetings, forums and other events. If you would like more information on what topics were covered and what insight was gained, my Twitter notes can be found here.
Thanks to Art Medici and Bill Campbell of CEO Junction and all of the panelists and attendees for making this such an engaging conversation with a lot of great information.