Internet Search Engine Optimization

Deep Thoughts from CLIO and CAT

Thursday, June 17, 2010 by Doug Dimon

I attended two conferences recently: The Clio Awards Conference and Creativity and Technology (CAT). Intermixed with the mediocre food, self-congratulatory speeches, and months old "trends" were some pearls of, if not wisdom, at least things that make you go hmmm.... (I was wondering when I'd be able to work in an Arsenio Hall/C+C Music Factory reference). I'm going to summarize some of the discussion I found interesting or useful. There was significant cross-over between the two conferences (both in presentations and presenters) so I'm going to mash them together and serve them up with my own blend of seasonings. I will try to give credit to the appropriate presenter, but if I drop the ball, feel free to call me out in the comments. I also believe in brevity in blogs, so I will spread this over a few posts.

On Leadership:

The first session at the Clio conference was one that seemed perhaps to be the least relevant, but ended up being the most interesting. What is leadership and what makes a good leader, specifically in a creative company? The presenter was Doug Guthrie from the Berlin School of Creative Leadership.

The examples of great leaders we often site are those people who are charismatic, have taken charge of a situation, have orchestrated a "big moment", or have displayed a specific strength as an individual that allowed a situation to be overcome or a goal to reached for the betterment of a group. While these types of people can be successful leaders, those are not necessarily the characteristics that make a good leader within a company. Here are some key points discussed:

Your position is not important, how you act in your position is.
Everyday activity is more important than a "big moment". You must lead with every action not just once in a while.
Managers think about their departments. Leaders think about the broad organization, independent of individual or departmental needs.
Good leaders lead through empowering others.
True leaders embrace complexity inherent in the structure of an organization and human dynamics. They don't try to oversimplify the situation.
Don't confuse aspiration with vision. Vision shows the path to success and is essential in a leader.
Create harmony among component parts by thinking about complexity, articulating a strategy, and then doing the actual work of creating the structure to let it happen.
Inspire and facilitate other employees to succeed.
Be introspective. Know yourself.
Embrace failure. Innovation involves risk so evaluate on effort and intent and not always on success.
Admit to being wrong.

One of the ideas that came across throughout the entire discussion (at least to my ears) is that a good leader pushes his organization ahead rather than pulling them. He is thinks of the organization over the individual, to the point where a good leader will eventually render themselves obsolete (at least in the context of specific goals to be met).

In this sense, Steve Jobs is not a good leader. He is a great innovator, a creative and business genius, and an tremendous influence on the world... but not a great leader. I don't say this to slam Mr. Jobs, but he was brought up in the session as a good example of someone who would normally be pointed to as a great leader, and yet falls short within the tenets listed here. He inarguably has changed the face of consumer technology and his influence in Apple and beyond will be felt long after he retires, but, by all evidence, is a leader in the traditional "pinnacle" paradigm, rather than the idea of "leader as foundation" ideas discussed here. In truth, many people we would list as strong leaders would have a hard time standing up to this categorization. This is simply because those people that draw our attention are often characterized by actions and personalities that are not specifically important within this framework, and those that fit this description tend to be less noticeable as an individual even while the success of their efforts are obvious within the industry.

And with that... let's go to our studio audience.

(Tune in next time for more from CLIO and CAT... and me of course.)

Best Practices for Facebook Pages

Wednesday, June 2, 2010 by Ashley Reed

Major brands are increasingly turning to Facebook to reach consumers and engage them deeper. In order to get the most out of your Facebook presence, be sure to formulate a strategy. What do you hope to get out of your Facebook Page?

Facebook Pages can be used for:

Building brand awareness
Increasing consumer engagement with your brand
Generating leads
Qualifying fans and converting them to customers
Improving customer service
Establishing your company as a thought leader

Once you’ve defined your goals, keep in mind these Do’s and Don’ts for engagement:

Do:

“Listen” to what your fans are talking about on your page – do they have praise or complaints?Identify what interests them and customize your messages accordingly.
Post compelling content like pictures and videos that keep them coming back for more.
Share exclusive content that they can’t get anywhere else.
Utilize Facebook applications like surveys, quizzes and games that foster an interactive experience.
Use Facebook’s analytics tool to determine what tactics are working, and which one’s aren’t.
Promote your Fan Page everywhere: print, online and TV advertisements, email signatures, business cards and targeted Facebook ads

Don’t:

Automate your content – Facebook is about conversation!
Sound impersonal - use a casual and informal tone.
Sound like a press release.
Spam your fans – maintain a balance of promotional and conversational posts.
Neglect your Fan Page – make sure you are monitoring it on a daily basis to respond to fans and post new content

Have more tips to add? Leave a comment below!

Twitter for Media Relations

Wednesday, May 5, 2010 by Jeremy Porter

By now, Twitter should be an integral part of your media relations strategy. Twitter has become one of the most efficient tools PR professionals use to manage relationships with journalists and other influencers. Why is Twitter such a great channel for media relations? Here are a few reasons:

Fish where the fish are: most mainstream and amateur journalists and bloggers are on Twitter. There are many tools for finding journalists on Twitter, such as MediaOnTwitter, MuckRack or JournalistTweets.

Mix business with pleasure: Twitter provides the ultimate glimpse into a person’s world. You can learn a lot of about journalists and bloggers by following their tweets and getting involved in conversations. This will help you not only identify ways to approach the journalist better, but also to monitor and respond to journalists’ needs – positioning you as a trusted expert.

Get to the point: journalists are overwhelmed with pitches. The short message format of Twitter makes it easier for journalists to scan brief messages. The chances of your tweet being read may be better than with email – just make sure the journalist is cool with being pitched via Twitter before you tweet it.

Pass it on: a tweet (Twitter status update) mention of your company or product by an influential journalist can be just as effective as a mention in a print publication. In many instances, the tweet may drive more traffic to your site in a short period of time. If increasing qualified site visitors is a core objective of your PR plan, you may want to consider Twitter.

Track results: most of your activity can be tracked through Twitter. Whether you want to track the pace at which you’re gaining new followers, the number of times your tweets are re-tweeted (passed along to others), or how many people click on a link that you share (using trackable URL-shorteners like Bit.ly or Su.pr), it’s easy for you to keep tabs on the effectiveness of your social media impact.

Build relationships: Twitter is all about relationships. The longer you use Twitter – actively use Twitter – the more relationships you will form. I can honestly say that I’ve built more relationships with media in the past two years on Twitter than I had in the previous five using conventional methods.

So how can you use Twitter for media relations? I suggest you look at Twitter as a channel like you would any other outlet. Treat journalists and bloggers with the respect they deserve – you know, the way you would like to be treated. Listen and observe at least (if not more) as much as you talk or tweet, you’ll be surprised what you can learn from journalists and bloggers. If you follow the media on Twitter long enough, you’ll notice that most tell you exactly what it takes to score publicity opportunities with them step-by-step.

Here are some general tips for using Twitter as a media relations tool:

Follow journalists and bloggers relevant to your organization and read what they tweet about. If you see a tweet you really like, consider passing the tweet along or sharing your feedback with the person. This is a great way to build relationships, outside of just wanting coverage.

Use the Twitter Search function to search for keywords related to your business. This will make it easier to see which of the users you’re following are talking about relevant topics. You can also set up saved searches for keywords or hashtags (#journchat for example), so you don’t have to read every tweet that comes along.

Monitor Twitter users like @prsarahevans, @skydiver and @profnet to keep tabs on publicity opportunities issued through Twitter. You should follow each of these users if you’re not already.

When it’s time to pitch a story, you should know that the journalist or blogger is open to being pitched through Twitter. If you’ve followed the steps above, you’ll know the answer.

Finally, don’t make the mistake of thinking Twitter is just another social media fad. As someone with firsthand experience using Twitter for media relations, I can tell you that – for today, at least – it’s the easiest and most effective way to get the attention of today’s busy journalists. It’s also a great way to accelerate your learning around PR, with thousands of helpful PR professionals at your disposal for advice at any hour of the day.

(Image Credit: Twitter Badge by 7son75)

How to Leverage Online Video on Your Site

Monday, May 3, 2010 by Stephen Boyd

Over the past two years, and more specifically the last six months, more and more companies are understanding the need to have online video on their website. A good website should be a place where a person can come and get good solid information on a company, product, or service. A great website will tell an engaging story around the brand that will pull the customer in and make him or her want to get more information. Great video content can take your site to the next level.

But what makes great video content?

What is good video? Just like anything else subjective, that depends on the viewer. However, with the constant arrival of high quality production/camera equipment for both professionals and consumers, creating a good quality production video is not nearly as difficult as it used to be. From homemade videos and basic talking head videos to more professional e-commerce pieces and live action mixed with animation, online video has a wide array of uses. Now, more than ever, producers and users of online video really need to focus more on the message itself and make sure that is engaging.

Here are some examples of great video content I've seen used - hopefully this will spawn some ideas for how you can leverage online video on your website:

President Obama - Even using cameras installed on computers will work for the right message, as Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign showed. David Plouffe used a series of videos made in his office to keep Obama’s fans informed of what was going on in the campaign. While being just a very basic, low production video, Plouffe used PPT slides to emphasize certain points and utilized the fact that the information itself was interesting to viewers to make a more engaging video.

TED – A great website with an incredible array of videos of speakers on a variety of subjects, this is a fantastic example of the most basic video production can still be engaging and entertaining as long as the subject matter is worthwhile. Nothing more than a camera following a speaker around on stage (granted, some of the speakers are among the brightest people on Earth).

E-commerce – plenty of companies are trying to use video as part of their e-commerce strategy to get users to buy their products. Zappos has been leading the charge, creating not only their own youtube video but also asking consumers to create their own videos showing their experience with their shoes. Lots of great press and interest in this campaign has made for a very successful period for the company. Diesel has a great video on their site of video utilizing tagging and e-commerce within the video. For companies who feel they can engage customers with their products while being worn/used by others, this is another great example.

Viral videos – Everyone wants to have the next viral video ant there are some great examples of thses – from the homemade laughing baby video that has been viewed 115MM times, to the now famous music video for OK Go on treadmills, there are plenty of ways for companies to engage with consumers.

Many of the top brands have their own YouTube pages to let consumers immerse themselves in the brand experience. As we all know, YouTube is now the second most used search engine in the world behind Google – so use it. Create your own channel – post videos, link them to your Facebook page and tweet about them. See what happens.

Another great way to engage in viral is of course comedy. One of my favorite sites for this is Return of Terry Tate - Terry is a former NFL player who both creates his own viral videos (professionally done) and is also often used as a spokesperson in viral videos for brands. Check out his website - and if you have budget and want to do something hilarious, think about him. I have seen examples of both external and internal company videos featuring Terry.

So, companies hoping to use online video no longer have to worry about huge production budgets for these videos. Of course, the better the video looks, the more likely it is to be shared. But, as I mentioned before, if you can create a great story to tell, you don’t have to spend a million dollars to tell it.

Here are some other great online video sites that you may or may not have heard of:

Funny Or Die - www.funnyordie.com
DailyMotion - www.dailymotion.com
MyDamnChannel - www.mydamnchannel.com
NextNewNetworks - www.nextnewnetworks.com
Heavy - www.heavy.com

These are some of my favorites. Please feel free to share some of your favorite sites with me as well - I'd love to check them out.

Location Based Services Are Here to Stay

Friday, April 16, 2010 by Gil Wolchock

While the race for ‘ownership’ of the LBS market (Location Based Services) rages on, and naysayers’ debate its viability, I am sold on the concept.

If you are not familiar, LBS are the latest craze in the ever growing social media marketing landscape. The general principle is that an end user uses their smart phone and its GPS abilities to ‘check in’ to their current location.

Like its social media older cousins Facebook and Twitter, there are many out there that think this is just a passing phenomena - a game if you will. Like Facebook and its now 400 million plus users, and Twitter and it’s large following I believe in the LBS strategy. Out of the pack has emerged two ‘major’ players in the field, FourSquare and Gowalla. Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and even Apple are also looking at entering the playing field but I believe they will have to make an acquisition to truly play.

Along with the hype of these types of services there is also a lot of criticism. Since I am a ‘fan’ and a user I might be a bit jaded but I think I can at least address the critics; here are the gripes I have heard, some legit, some just silly:

1. If you tell everyone where you are then you are leaving your house open to be robbed. I originally thought that this was a ‘non-issue’ I have to admit but after a conversation with people smarter than I over drinks I have amended my opinion. This is one that you DO have to pay attention to. Use common sense, if you are ‘checking in’ on vacation, turn off the setting that posts to Facebook and Twitter, so ONLY your friends on that LBS Tool of your choice get it. Second, and this goes whether you use and LBS or not, CHECK YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS IN FACEBOOK! Facebook has gone through a number of changes and many people have forgotten to go into their settings and make sure they have the level of privacy that they want. For me, I only want FRIENDS seeing information; others may have different standards and that’s cool, just make sure you are comfortable with yours. As for Twitter, you can ‘protect your tweets’ as well so only your followers can see them.

2. You can get stalked by a crazy ex and have to deal with all that. True, but is that really a concern? If it was, you wouldn’t be on FB, Twitter or LinkedIn. Can it be a problem? Sure. However, you don’t have to tell EVERYONE where you are. Your standard LBS lets you self select who the information goes to. Side note – crazy ex probably knows all your haunts and when you like to be there anyway…

3. Why would you want to be doing free marketing/advertising for a place or a brand? Are we seriously talking about this one in 2010? Look down at your feet people (go ahead, I’ll wait) --- is that a ‘swoosh’? Did NIKE pay you to wear their shoes or did you drop $100+? How about that laptop I carry around? You know the really sleek, chrome looking thing with the fruit in the middle very well lit? Let’s face it people, WE have become walking billboards! Take the silly Ed Hardy T-shirts (yes, I am just over 40 and don’t get it). You have people clamoring to be seen in an Ed Hardy, and what is besides some crazy print with the biggest part of it being his SIGNATURE!!! I’ll talk more about personal brands in another blog.So there are some of the negatives, which may be legitimate, but aren’t exactly deal breakers.

What are the positives you might ask?

1. It’s fun and it’s social. One of my favorite shows as a kid was CHEERS, the bar where everyone knows your name. Basically, with a tool like FourSquare you can become your own walking CHEERS. Check in at a friendly place and the bartender says, “Welcome, how about a beer Mr. Peterson”, OR how about you get to a place that is running an amazing special, you could take the time and call or your friends, or break your fingers and text them OR check in with an LBS, type in a comment, it automatically gets to everyone through whatever social tools you are using and who knows what can happen when everyone shows up. Simply put, in its most elemental form, it’s a way to extend the party.

2. As I have heard from Social Media Guru, Gary Vaynerchuck, “why would someone check in at a bar?” Give’em a free beer and watch them check in all day! What a cool way to earn stuff and allow a small business truly establish a win-win customer loyalty program. At one of the Whole Foods in Austin, TX you get a very valuable coupon on your 5th visit. What does this do? It drives loyalty, rewards it, makes it fun and even mysterious…what will I get on my 10th check in, etc…Not enough small businesses are using these tools to see a huge uptick here but I believe by this time next year it will be off the charts.

3. That last part of #2 is part of the biggest positive from a business application and it’s the direct corollary to the third criticism. I’m not sure when MARKETING became a four letter word but when it comes to LBS that is seems to be the #1 complaint and it goes something like this, “that stuff is just one big marketing ploy to get you to go somewhere or buy something”. My response is somewhere along the famous Socrates reply of “duh!” Isn’t that the whole reason for newspapers, magazines, TV shows, etc…sure they have their entertainment and news value BUT no one is shocked to know that advertisers are paying to place their content in front of your eyeballs to get you to buy stuff! Not sure why the uproar when it comes to LBS, it seems to me like a natural fit.

4. Last but not least and this is by far where I see the big win for LBS and that is creating partnerships to pull off some really cool stuff. I was discussing the value of FourSquare with an Executive at one of the major record labels. She is responsible for new acts and we were discussing the value of LBS for her and she said; give me one way it works in my world. So I said, do you have an all girl band you want to promote? The answer was yes. How about an in store ‘tour’ across America teamed with an outlet like Express? You have all the traditional ways to support it but now add an LBS layer for very little cost. It is also a completed integrated approach across all the social media tools; from Facebook, to Twitter, blogs, Flickr and a full activation using LBS. Her eyes lit up and she said, write it up and let’s take a look at it. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.So, mock it if you want. Five years ago you never thought you’d be on Facebook.

If you can remember back to 1991, if someone asked if you wanted to be accessible 24/7 via the phone, some new thing called email and a feature called text that in our old lexicon meant a book at school you would have said, “no freaking way”…and how many of you don’t have a cell phone today?

Are You Drawing Pictures in the Dark?

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 by Kevin Smith

While talking with a family member about things to do around town, one of them shared their experience at a “Dialogue in the Dark” exhibit. In the exhibition, blind guides lead visitors through a completely dark environment where they learn to interact by relying on other senses. The activities provide an innovative and powerful tool for reinforcing a trusting collaborative mindset and emotional intelligence. The exhibit is based upon writings from German-Jewish philosopher Martin Buber’s work The Principles of Dialogue which states: “The only way to learn is through encounter”.

Having to experience life without the sense of sight reminds me of how many customers ask for help in the building of a new website or some other piece of creative, without wanting to take the time to share anything about who their target audience is, their industry, their competitive landscape, or their vision for the future. Execution on creative for marketing campaigns without the input required to understand how to support and target the message is like drawing pictures in the dark. You have no sense of direction to guide you in the creation of the most attractive and appealing designs.

Here are several points to consider when guiding someone on a journey in an area they are unfamiliar with using their other four senses. Remember these steps are intended to build trust, confidence, and stimulate use of other senses beyond sight.

“Hearing” the Voice of your Customers

Listening to the Voice of Your Customers can at times sound like an old wives tales to many who choose to shoot first and then aim in their approach to designing great creative. The process of capturing a customer's requirements to produces a detailed set of wants and needs, and then prioritized in terms of relative importance can consist of both qualitative and quantitative research steps. It usually starts with a series of forensic questions that yields measurable results focused on awareness, credibility, loyalty, accuracy. This input is valuable in the creative process because it provides the designer with a framework for developing the creative to appeal to the most important needs of an end user.

“Smelling” the environmental ques around you

A designer can learn tremendous insight from your competitors and other industry and non-industry related sites that are generally appealing to your target audience. Most consumers look at search results and make three to six second decisions based upon how copy and the initial creative “smells”- that is the first impression of trust and care that one senses when seeing a new site. People know what authenticity really smells like.

“Touching ” your clients with the right message

We have all seen how a cute picture drawn by a small child can touch our hearts and pull us to act in a certain way. Planning is an essential key to an effective website that will earn the trust and loyalty of a dedicated customer base. If you were to walk around a well built house with your eyes closed you could use your sense of touch to know that a solid architecture was used in the construction of the home. A quality user experience has to be the centerpiece of any online strategy.

Share the “Taste” of the success of great design

Whether you are enjoying a meal at a hole in the wall beach shanty or white tablecloth restaurant, you know when you have experienced a meal well served with lots of different flavors that truly satisfies you. When you are following a process to developing quality user focused creative for a marketing campaign, you will want to experience the comfort of a site map that meets your target audience(s) prioritized information needs. You will likely have a taste for various design comps and want to add a few savory changes before the recipe is finally to your taste.

To steer clear of beauty pageants that want you to show your pretty pictures and to avoid having to draw pictures in the dark, look for every opportunity to show your prospects and clients how to use their other senses in developing great creative.

The Power of Cross-Platform Engagement: A Day in the Life

Tuesday, April 13, 2010 by Susie Riordan

Jim wakes up to his alarm on his Blackberry at 7am – Dismiss or Snooze? Jim hits Snooze. He turns on the TV and starts watching “Mike and Mike” on ESPN. As he listens to the show while checking his email, he hears Golic read an email from a listener ranting about Tiger – “I just want to see him back on the green.” Immediately he emails “Mike and Mike” and states “sexual addition is a cop-out! He got busted.”

After 10 minutes, Jim’s alarm triggers again on his Blackberry – this time he gets up (but he is stalling wanting to hear if Golic reads his email on-air). After his shower his attention is grabbed by a commercial during a break – grill’s are on sale at a national home improvement retailer. While he is rushing out the door, he hears that you can engage in a sweepstakes to win a grill by texting “grill” to 56779. Sitting at a red light he enters the sweepstakes and text’s “grill” on his Blackberry with a smile on his face.

Jim recently bought a condo with a great deck including a gas line. As he listens to the radio, he hears another add about the sweepstakes, telling people to text or go online for more information. As he settles into work he check’s his text – “Thank you for entering the ‘I want a grill’ sweepstakes – please text us in 146 characters or less why you should win a grill.” Jim takes a minute to describe his new condo, gas line, etc…

Lunchtime arrives and Jim becomes cynical. There is no way he is going to win and he wanted a grill by this weekend. He posts a message on his Facebook asking is anyone can recommend a good grill. While online checking the website of the improvement retailer, he finds several on sale, but feels at a loss as to a decision. By the time he gets back to his Facebook, he has 10 new messages on his wall with comments from friends on the best grill to buy.

Jim goes to the retailer that evening with the intent of purchase – it has been on his mind all day. While in the store looking at grills, he sees next to product specifications a message that encourages him to text a keyword to a short code for a product review. He finishes reading the responses from the retailer, then goes on Facebook seeking more advice from his buddies.

Another text arrives from the retailer letting him know if he purchases grill “A” in the next 10 minutes he’ll receive 10% off. Jim grabs the tag on the grill and runs to the counter and purchases a grill (one that one of his buddies recommended), and he gets his 10% discount.
He won the sweepstakes four weeks later. He sold the grill on Facebook and made $200 extra dollars.

Moral of the story? The power of engagement and influence of a cross platform strategy is undeniable.

How Does Social Change Your SEO Strategy?

Tuesday, April 13, 2010 by Sherman Distin

Off-the-rack SEO plans from four years ago are still turning up in proposals. You can spot one by seeing how they rely heavily on keyword optimization and site-to-site link building.

While these aren’t tactics that should be thrown away, they pay no attention to the fact that the Web has turned social. SEO is no longer about telling the search algorithms what to think of your site. The search engines are more interested in what everyone else thinks about your site.

Forming strategic link partnerships and making sure you’ve used all the right keywords does one thing – it tells the search engines that you know what you want to be ranked well for. This is an important step but nowadays good SEO doesn’t stop there.

The goal should be to build organic traffic not just SEO traffic. You should be leveraging social media tactics to get more people sharing links to your site. Make sure your site itself is Web 2.0-friendly so you get a viral effect from the increase in traffic.

The more recommendations and mentions your site has online the higher the probability of your site being ranked well for your target keywords. Essentially, if more people are discussing your company as the best place to find product XYZ, then the search engines will rank your company higher for product XYZ. Encouraging and facilitating discussion around your products or services can be as simple as offering the functionality on your site to do so.

Capturing User Reviews on your site creates more content to attract Search Engines but also creates copy that other users may want to share. Let's say one of your customers shares a story of how your product solved their problem or was a best fit for their need in a user review captured on your site.

Other shoppers may want to send this review to other shoppers who have similar needs or problems. The more convenient you make the action of sharing the user review, the more likely it will be shared. This functionality can be done through an AddThis button, a FaceBook Share button or a ReTweet button.

With all of this sharing going on through social buttons or good 'ol fashioned cut & paste, you could run into a problem with people sharing different versions of the same link. This is especially likely when you are using Session IDs or when people are sharing links to search results from your site's search box. The URLs can point back to the same content but how each user arrived at that content could change how the URL looks. How is a Search Engine to know which version of the URL to index and rank? Here come canonical links to the rescue.

Canonical links are not brand new yet they are very under used. Canonical links are inserted as <link> tags in your header tag within your HTML. This is a relatively simple operation when compared to creating 302 redirects and modifying your .htaccess files. If that last sentence gave you a nose bleed then canonical links are definitely a better option for you when it comes to dealing with multiple links pointing to the same content.

Making sure your site is social friendly as well as SEO friendly can multiply your traffic greatly. Socially-friendly sites are a great leap forward but don't forget the basics! Content is still king.

How you like me now?

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 by Matt Timpson

We've all seen the commercial. The Sock-Monkey, the Squeak-Monster, the Robot, the Teddy and some sort of Yarn Creature dream of an adventure centering around the freedom of being big enough to drive whatever that car is the ad is selling, set to the indie rock beat of a band called The Heavy.

I know the name of the band because that information can be easily found by plugging the song into my favorite search engine. They hold the honor of being the first band to ever be asked by Letterman to play an encore of a song, and it was that song.

I remember that this particular commercial first aired during the Superbowl. I suppose we could only guess how many millions of dollars that car company has spent getting that commercial out there and then running it over and over during primetime on television for the last few months. The commercial has been run so much, in fact, it’s dangerously close to making me kind of sick of it…

Yet, I don’t know the name of that car. Do you?

All of that air time bought, all that money spent, and that cute, fun commercial has failed to do the one thing it needed to do most: make me like that car. I don’t even know what kind of car it is…

That really bugged me, so I searched some more, and since they spent all that money I guess it’s only fair to mention it’s a Kia. Let’s examine just how Kia wasted all that money.

Though catching a virus is generally considered an annoyance, a good Viral Advertising Campaign has to be the opposite of that to catch on. A Viral Campaign makes people go looking for your message, not get tired of hearing it. Having spent the money to make a fun commercial and then run it during the Superbowl, the company should have switched gears and set it free on the internet, letting it be distributed, at no cost to the advertiser, through e-mail, Facebook and Twitter using YouTube or Vimeo.

Utilizing the money saved by choosing not to run the commercial into the ground on primetime TV every night for months, the company could have spent considerably less to include Search Engine Optimization and a massive Social Media presence in their campaign, to keep the message upbeat, fun and all that much more reachable for their target audiences.

By now, we could have had more commercials, too. The Robot could take the car off into the woods for a camping trip to show how rugged and outdoorsy the car is, and the Squeak-Monster could have used it to take over a city to show the car’s urban side. By controlling the release of the new commercials through Social Media, people would be watching the car company to catch that new video rather than wishing they’d stop running that same ad over and over.

Viral Campaigns spread because people want to share interesting and fun videos with their friends and family. Sending something cool to someone that hasn’t seen it makes you feel cool, so the probability that something will be shared enough to be considered viral is inversely related to whether you think they’ve already seen it. That’s why Kia should have stopped after the Superbowl. Everyone would have wanted that video in their Inbox within a week if the commercial hadn’t already been in their face on TV a hundred times.

That is the underlying beauty of the viral method. Instead of trying to force your message down the throats of your potential customers, you use more creative methods to have them coming to you. These methods are proven to achieve just that, and that means that Viral Campaigns are the way your customers prefer to be reached.

If you give them what they want, they will give you the business you want.

It’s just too bad Kia only sells cars, because after seeing that commercial a thousand times, I would definitely buy a Sock-Monkey from them.

Fortune 500 Companies Love Twitter

Friday, March 5, 2010 by Jeremy Porter

Social media marketing is at the forefront of integrated interactive marketing programs underway at almost every Fortune 500 company out there. Corporate blogging, online video and podcasts are among the most popular strategies used by the world's largest comapnies. But what about Twitter?

What might surprise you is how quickly Twitter is growing as the social medium of choice among Fortune 500 companies. According to recent studies like “Fortune 500 and Social Media: A Longitudinal Study of Blogging and Twitter Usage by America’s Largest Companies,” conducted by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Financial Insite, a Seattle-based Research Firm, Twitter is the platform of choice for Fortune 500 social media marketers.

The study examined the 2009 Fortune 500 in an attempt to quantify their adoption of social media tools and technologies, finding that 22% of Fortune 500 companies have a public-facing corporate blog – six percent more than 2008. The study also found that 86% of these blogs link directly to a corporate Twitter account, a 300% increase over 2008. Even more corporations have Twitter accounts, but not all link to them from their blog.

It would appear that Fortune 500 marketers are moving fast to Twitter for engaging with their key audiences. Of course, upon further analysis, you’d find that only 35% of these Twitter accounts are active – described as having been updated within the past 30 days. If I’m reading the study correctly, that means 65% are not being actively used.

While Fortune 500 companies have realized they need to be on Twitter – probably as defense against username squatting – few have truly embraced Twitter as a social channel.

Of the groups that have engaged most heavily with Twitter, the insurance industry is leading the way, with 13 active Twitter accounts according to the study. Of course there are also companies like Exxon Mobil, the #1 company in the Fortune 500, that have no presence on Twitter.

A separate analysis of Fortune 500 Twitter, “The Global Social Media Check-Up” conducted by Burson-Marstellar, found that 79% of Fortune 100 Global companies are using one of four popular social media platforms, with Twitter leading Facebook, YouTube and corporate blogging as the platform of choice.

65% of Fortune Global 100 companies have active accounts on Twitter, while only 54% have Facebook accounts, 50% have YouTube channels, and 33% have a corporate blog. There is still plenty of room for improvement here.

Why Is Twitter the Preferred Platform?

Nobody knows for sure why Twitter is so popular, but there’s a good chance that it’s because it’s the easiest platform to launch. Companies can have a Twitter account up and running in a couple of hours (or less). There is a lot more work to do to launch a YouTube channel, corporate blog, or Facebook presence. It also takes considerably less resources to manage content production and audience interaction on Twitter than these other platforms. It’s a relatively low-cost and low-maintenance option for getting in the social media game.

Are Fortune 500 companies getting any value out of Twitter though? According to the Burson-Marstellar study, the answer is “yes”. Twitter accounts to the Fortune Global 100 average 1,489 followers. This doesn’t seem like much when you consider the average Facebook fan page for these companies has more than 40,000 fans, but it's progress.

A full copy of the new research report can be downloaded here: http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studiesresearch.

The Secrets of Online Video: REVEALED!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 by Doug Dimon

I've decided to break with the tradition of mystical subterfuge that we creative types like to use to keep our methods secret. I’m going to come clean about the three easy steps to create successful online video marketing. I know this will likely get me scratched off the list at all the best industry events, but I can no longer hold my tongue in good conscience.

Step1: come up with an engaging concept.
Step2: produce a well-made, compelling video.
Step 3: post the engaging and compelling video.

Yea, I know… not much of a secret. The truth is people seem to view online videos as some sort of crazy alternative marketing. It’s as if there is some secret ingredient that gets sprinkled over the computer while posting that makes it different than something you would see on television. The truth is that it is not the content that is different, but rather how it is consumed. Television is a fairly passive medium and people are more likely to watch something simply because it is in front of them. This is changing thanks to the DVR culture, but it is still largely true. Viewing a video online, however, is a much more deliberate act. People have to want to watch it. And, hopefully, they will pass it on to others so they can watch it. For this to happen it needs to really be engaging. Clearly the intent of all brand marketing is to engage the consumer, but online video needs to be or you won’t have an audience.

This fact makes it all the more absurd that many people believe that successful online videos can be created by anyone with a webcam. Certainly, there have been many such “successful” videos (witness the most viewed Youtube video ever), but this is the exception not the rule, and is rarely true when it comes to brand marketing. I’m not saying that you need to have a million dollar budget, or hire the top Hollywood director, but you do have to approach it with clear creative intent, even if the end result is unscripted, or “low tech”. The principles that hold true for any successful film or video still apply: good narrative (whether plot or visual) and solid construction. Brands would never air some poorly produced piece with half-baked creative on television, yet they all too often treat their online video offerings as amateur hour.

Your video has to connect with your audience on some level, through humor, compassion, awe, outrage, etc. It has to offer the viewer some intrinsic value that will create an attachment and drive them to become a brand advocate. Once again, this is not a new marketing concept. What is new, is the tremendous advantage online video offers in this endeavor. At its core, a viral video is a social media tool. People love to share things with their friends and online video gives them the tools to go beyond the water cooler chat (did you see that spot on TV last night with the blue thing… hilarious!) to actually presenting your video to a person that trusts them. This is why an online viewing number that is a fraction of the viewers of a spot during a primetime show represents a much bigger win for the brand: the online viewers are active participants. Do it right and those participants become advocates.

There are specific factors that do distinguish online video from a televised spot: no length requirements, resolution and audio playback quality, trafficking to specific market, ease of deployment, etc. But do not let those differences cloud the fact that at it still needs to be approached with the same level of detail and planning as any on-air piece. Just because it is simple and inexpensive to get your video on the web, don’t treat like a second class marketing strategy. It has massive potential to influence your customers.

Integrated Marketing Strategy: Tying It All Together

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by Chris Thornton

I recently had an opportunity to participate in a webinar about the current trends and thinking around integrated marketing strategy, particularly in the areas of interative marketing.

The digital evolution has completely changed the way companies interact with their customers. Companies can longer push their agenda to drive business, but must find ways to add value at every single touch point. How can companies effectively create a unified message across so many disciplines to evolve the way consumers think of their brand?

A good part of my strategic discussion revolved around reinvention of the idea of brand, and what it means to be a marketer for a company in the 21st century. Some specific takeways I think I cover in this presentation include:

How to organize and integrate your marketing operation to create a cohesive message
How to identify early in the process if you are achieving your goals
How to optimize your branding efforts and align them with your sales organization

If you're thinking about integrating your marketing programs, or just looking to improve the performance of your existing integrated marketing programs, perhaps you'll find the presentation relevant to your current discussions.

To view my presentation from the webinar, please click on the presentation below:

Integrated Marketing Strategy - Tying It All Together

View more presentations from Definition 6.

Questions or comments about the proposal? Please feel free to reach out to me through Twitter.

Choose Your Agency Wisely

Monday, January 11, 2010 by Sherman Distin

Far too often agencies lose sight of what's really important. They become entrenched in the many details of just running a successful Paid Search campaign. That usually translates into weekly meetings where metrics like Impressions, Clicks and Average Cost-per-Click are heavily discussed. Don't get me wrong, these metrics indirectly indicate how your paid search campaign is tracking against your business goals but who has time to try and put those pieces together? When you have multiple stakeholders breathing down your back for various reports and executive summaries on those reports, do you really want to be bothered with figuring out how to make a 20% increase in clicks week over week sound important to those stakeholders?

Let me offer a little story to help drive the point home -

A bright recent college grad is considering investing. He calls on three highly recommended investors to have a meeting. In the meeting he reaches into his pocket and puts the change he finds on the table. He asks the first investor, “What do you see?”

The investor replies, “I see thirty-six cents.”

“You are very good with math, thank you.” says the college grad. He turns to the second investor and asks, “What do you see?” The investor thinking he has certainly outwitted the first investor replies, “I see a 2007 Quarter with George Washington’s portrait, a 1996 Dime with a portrait of Franklin Roosevelt and a 1943 Penny with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln.”

The college grad replies, “You are extremely observant and detail oriented. Thank you.” The college grad then turns to the third investor and asks the same question, “What do you see?”

The third investor replies without hesitation, “I see you paying off your college loans and buying a sports car.”
“You’re hired. Let’s meet again on Monday,” said the college grad.

After walking out of the room the two befuddled investors turn to the smiling investor and ask in unison, “What the hell was that?”

The smiling investor replied, “You see, in 1943 pennies were struck in silver. The pennies struck in copper were rare errors and are highly valuable. Being that he is a recent college graduate, he should put that money towards paying off his loans. I also noticed he was reading a sports car magazine when we entered. After a few investments, He will be able to use the left over money to invest in a little fun. That’s really the big picture.”

Most agencies are like the first investor. They get the math right. They understand tracking, reporting and all the intricacies of tactical execution but those agencies really have no clue what the larger corporate initiatives are of their client because they are too narrowly focused on making sure the campaigns they are running have excellent performance when judged by Paid Search KPI's.

Agencies that are like the second investor take pride in surface level knowledge and cool reporting gimmicks. They all too often skip over the actual math and performance. They are usually guilty of having flashy sales people in place of strategy driven Account Service team members.

The third investor is the agency you want to partner with. They won't bog you down with details of pay per click performance metrics that get in the way of you understanding what that performance means to your business objectives. They understand all of the tedious details in paid search marketing but provide summaries in a way that is meaningful to your business. Do you want to talk to your VP or CEO in terms of Click-Through-Rates or in terms of increases on efficiency in customer acquisition? The third investor also picked up on an interest the college grad did not mention. A good agency should note the goals you mention as well as ask for confirmation on the ones that may be implied.

When choosing your agency make sure they are asking the questions that show they are interested in not only displaying their paid search expertise but also helping your business grow.

Be Creative

Monday, January 11, 2010 by Doug Dimon

“The key question isn't "What fosters creativity?" But it is why in God's name isn't everyone creative?” –Abraham Maslow

The idea of creativity is held in high esteem by a great many people. When you see a fantastic work of art, or see a new piece of technology that blows your mind, you can’t help but feel appreciative of the creativity that went into making it. You may also feel envy. “Why can’t I be that creative? My world is too structured to be able to do those sorts of things.”

In my position at our creative advertising agency, it's my job to "be creative", but the truth is that anyone can, and everyone should, be creative. In many ways, I believe people are more creative than they give themselves credit for. It is easy to appreciate grand gestures of creativity: the Gugenheim Museum in Bilbao, the XBOX Natal project, Avatar. But you must realize that those large expressions are merely the accumulation of small frequent expressions of creativity. The people behind them are disposed to looking beyond the boundaries of the everyday. By opening yourself up to the idea that each choice you make can be infused with the unexpected, you will begin to see your life and your business enriched with the individuality of creativity.

So what does it mean to “be creative”? You may not have a gift for the arts, but that in no way hampers your ability to be creative. Simply doing something or seeing the world in a new way is the very essence of creativity. Break free of what you know and get outside of your comfort zone. In its purest form, creativity is anarchy. Of course that type of creativity is only useful in an abstract sense, wielded as a hammer to break through a wall of convention. Truly inspired creativity brings about brilliant new ideas within the constructs of necessary guidelines. For example, I can strap an accordion to a rodeo bull and record the “music” as it tries to throw its rider, but likely that will only result in a painful accumulation of noise. It certainly would qualify as a creative act, but that creativity would be wasted in the final product. It’s important to break out of our familiar way of thinking and acting, but do so while still respecting the natural boundaries of human perception. Creativity is a delicate balance between spontaneity and limitations. Often “new” ideas will be criticized as derivative. That may be true, but that in does not diminish the achievement. No matter how “out of the box” you get, it is still related to the box in some way. Anything that ignores all conventions is only interesting in the abstract. A relationship to the world we live in and the conditions our lives and businesses thrive in is a necessity for success.

Not everyone can throw away convention and embrace the unknown, nor should they. Clearly, some level of control and stability is necessary in business and in life. But being comfortable with the unexpected will allow you to make more creative choices, and, perhaps more importantly, accept and encourage creative choices in those with whom you work. Start small: re-arrange your office, take a new route home, or run a meeting differently. These things have little risk, but will force you to see things in a new way. It may take you longer to get home, but you may see or experience something new that spawns new ideas or growth in your life. Each small act will make you more open to new ideas and change. Many consultants will tell you that a repeatable process is necessary to create an environment of measurable success, and that is certainly true, but innovation is equally important to business. Repeatable process is the antithesis of innovation. Even the most successful business will ultimately stagnate if it does not embrace change. Indeed you must go beyond simply rolling with the changes of industry and be an initiator of change to truly rise above the rest.

Whether you are a designer or an accountant, a CEO or a secretary, make an active effort to infuse creativity into your life. Train yourself to be open to the new and unexpected, whether it be a new, but accurate use of your brand or an off the wall execution for a social media strategy. It will make you at least a little uncomfortable and anxious (it should or you are not doing it right), but even the smallest of gestures will also enrich you, both professionally and personally. Where should you start? I don’t know… be creative.

Drinking From The Fire Hose

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 by Tom Kirszenstein

I've been hearing the phrase "Drinking from the fire hose" more often than usual lately. The curious thing is that it's coming from Interactive Media Professionals (including myself), as much as from end users. With the exponential growth of the Internet and its related technologies, we now have access to more information, in more places, in more ways than ever before. Web 2.0, Social Media, Application Software Development, Mobile and related technologies are having a profound impact on Interactive Marketing Strategies. Many agencies are capable at traditional & online media marketing, or they may have strong technical capabilities--but, it is rare to find an agency that has all of these abilities and deep technical resources such as Definition 6.

To follow the fire hose analogy--anyone faced with that situation would get out of the way. The high volume and velocity of incoming data require some type of control and direction to be useful to ourselves, our clients, and our business. Developers, interactive designers, and marketers are faced with the same questions as consumers--how to manage the onslaught of incoming information. Interactive Ad Agencies are faced with the additional responsibility of creating new tools to distribute information in a clear and meaningful way. These interactive professionals are the firemen holding the hose.

At the height of the dotcom boom, an old colleague used to remind me that technology is simply a way of doing things. As the old broadcast model of advertising becomes obsolete, and user discovery & social interaction drive engagement, the function of marketing itself must now change to meet these communication challenges. This new model now poses new questions about where marketers should be, how they communicate, and when that interaction will occur. I still remember the first 7-Eleven convenience store that opened in my neighborhood, and discovering that name comes from its operating hours—--it was a big deal to be open until 11PM! Marketers didn’t create more ads to attract customers from 9-5, they simply changed to meet customers on their own terms.

Integrated interactive marketing campaigns must be open and immersed in the culture to create value and be relevant. Successful marketers are positioned alongside their target market, making use of tactics such as Branded Content and Branded Entertainment to engage the user, enabling them to discover that value on their own, and decide what truly fulfills their needs. This is not an easy task, and creating meaningful user interaction grows out of qualified analysis of users and their interactions. Those of us in Media and Advertising have been exposed to these ideas before, but never before have these been more important to interactive design. Today's consumer has become a partner in the design process, and defines how we approach our interactions with them. Social media tools such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter provide marketers with a limitless cache of information to help segment, target and engage users as never before— which only highlights the need for efficient processing of data.

Our obligation to clients is to find the relevant information, manage and organize it, and disperse it to potential customers. To do this, we interpret client requirements and translate those requirements into a meaningful Interactive Experience. We need to collect and analyze enough user data to create strong, branded messages that reach the intended target. In addition, we must combine data with the tools and applications that make it meaningful to those target consumers.

In this new age of discovery, the true Integrated Interactive Agencies are taking the time and effort to find the tools necessary to do the job, or when needed, create them. With information coming constantly from every direction, those who are efficient at organizing, managing, and presenting it will be successful. Otherwise, we're just spraying a fire hose. If we attempt to do that, consumers will just get out of the way.

Price or Differentiation

Thursday, October 15, 2009 by Jasdeep Jaitla

With new businesses and new business models popping up on the Internet like a bag of microwave popcorn, differentiation is far more transitory these days than it once used to be.

Let's take this summary of the 21st Century Corporation from Business Week in August, 28, 2000*, over 9 years ago:

1. Everything gets cheaper faster. The Internet commoditizes every new service or product idea so rapidly by providing the ability to not just compare one or two sources, but 100 or 1,000 sources, that price reduction has accelerated almost out of control.

2. Cutting costs is the answer. With significant downward pressure of margins it is imperative to reduce expenses to maintain profitability.

3. Innovation builds profits. Since you cannot raise prices, and must consistently reduce prices, innovation is required accompanied with rapid expertise development and ingenuity. This advantage is temporary, so innovation must be constant, reflexive and accelerate (rather than coast forward) to address #1 above.

Adaptability

That article was almost a decade ago, and is still relevant, if not even more significant now than it was then. It was published prior to the dot com crash. Unlike 100 years ago as the Industrial Revolution and the Carnegie's, Rockefellers' and Fords' were taking assembly line production to it's maximum potential, we clearly know it's weaknesses and limitations. One of the most significant limitations is adaptability. Workers specialize so much on their individual task that they cannot readily adapt to other tasks or provide generalization or see the whole picture.

The transition from the assembly line mentality of large deparments and silo style development is a slow one. Integrating departments and collaborating by increasing communication between sales, project managers, creative development, application development, product managers, production and delivery is not as simple as it may sound. Your value chain may involve a very large set of people and keep communication clear requires expertise and training.

New Models for Development

In application software development and internet software development, the models over the last 20 years have evolved considerably. Agile methodologies are gaining traction as a way to create adaptable solutions and modular approaches. This keeps the customer focus as well as the requirements together, and allows flexibility with solution delivery as the landscape changes. Social Media strategy is a fabulous example of this, requirements change so quickly that modular frameworks are developed so that new quick features can be added onto the framework rapidly to meet social change and social needs and Facebook is a fantastic example of this type of structure and development.

Clearly, to stay on top and to consistently provide value, you must value education exponentially, foster creative thinking, be vigilant with the technological landscape, and be able to generate ideas and critical thinking. In Interactive Media Agencies such as Definition6, we constantly strive towards an integrative approach, with all skillsets and all mindsets sharing information and cross-pollinating ideas. We dedicate ourselves to innovation through cross-department research and landscape analysis. Our Innovation Team is specifically dedicated to meeting the demands of the 21st Century business.

* "Twenty-First Century Corporation," Business Week, August 28, 2000, p. 278.

Innovation and Cost Drivers

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 by Jasdeep Jaitla

Intuition can guide you to the place of innovation, and analysis guides you to the method of innovation.

Driving down costs is the goal of every business in every industry. Identifying and nailing down Cost Drivers in a Interactive Media Agency is one of the most challenging aspects of Innovation due to the service model and diversity of projects. The more diverse the services and the more capabilities an organization has, the harder the cost drivers are to innovate. This is the challenge.

Create Measurability

In order to analyze data, you need to collect data. The first step is to establish a normalized set of information, and discover commonalities that you measure over time. It's difficult in service business models to identify measurable practices since commonality between projects may not exist. In contrast, it is much easier to find measurable actvities within consistent services. For example, in the realm of public service such as law enforcement, response times can be measured which can lead to innovation in terms of communication technologies, route mapping, and routine patrolling route generation to optimize the response times and measure improvements. In the same light, commonality and metrics need to be put in place so that you can innovate. Without this baseline set of metrics, most improvements are subjective and can be hit and miss.

Measurability and Interactive Marketing

Interactive marketing strategies and improved search engine optimization follow the same metaphorical principle. Because optimization is always a moving target, you have to establish a control on your marketing practices and only change a few independent variables at a time, such as keyword density, or keyword targeting in ads, in order to see their effect. In the case of organic search results, the effect of changes may take weeks or even months before they actually show results. To top it off, search algorithms and prioritization change "without notice." To discover these changes requires a scientific mindset for the search engine optimization consultants.

The cost drivers in Search Engine Marketing involve keyword market prices. Camping a commonly used keyword for PPC can cost you a fortune. Using longtail strategies and finding ways to effectively identify your product, service or company is the innovation point, and only good analysis and keyword research will get you there. Consistency is the rule of the game to establish and maintain hold of brand loyalty, market share, market segment, and also online in terms of keyword ownership, and search engine rankings.

Internet Application Development

With Internet Services, the identification of cost drivers needs to be built into the process by abstracting out parts of the process that show commonality and measurability. This should be the starting gate through which your innovation charges. Like online marketing, application development is a moving target. New technologies explode onto the marketplace on a regular basis, tempting you to change how you do business. Again by using a scientific approach, by controlling your process and making sure you change a few things at a time, you can drive changes from the right point of view rather than hype, and effectively make improvements on your cost drivers.

Taming the Social Media Beast

Friday, October 2, 2009 by Mike Reese

Despite recent articles claiming the decline of adoption for social networks like Facebook and Twitter, social networking is an ever-growing, ever-expanding beast. Consider for a moment, that MySpace and Facebook really just got the whole thing started. Now there are networks popping up everywhere, corporate networks like Yammer, entrepreneurial networks like ParnterUp and advanced social aggregation tools like the promise of Google Wave.

Slowly but surely, even traditional companies, with traditional practices and traditional mindsets, are realizing the importance of social. Don't believe me? Here's a real world example: 2 months ago I felt like the last person on earth that hadn't engaged in some form of social media. My friends, my wife, my family and my coworkers all had MySpace pages, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. I was proud, a renegade, a leader, not a follower! Now look at me, as I write this blog, I'm monitoring Yammer communications from Definition 6, Tweets from my favorite people, I've checked my Facebook page twice and I just submitted a request to Google to be a beta tester for Google Wave even though I know I'm too late. Believe me, social media is relevant!

Okay, now what? Well, before you go building out your social media strategy and corporate policy, take some time to understand what impact social is currently having on your online presence and your brand. My suggestion: start simple, work with your website analytics team and develop a baseline. What volume of traffic comes from social networks? What is the bounce rate of those visits? What is the conversion rate of those visits? What is the retained visit conversion rate? (thank you Brandt, awesome article about meaningful conversion metrics!) And, if at all possible, monetize clicks from social. Odds are, there will be some form of expenditure for your social media strategy, baseline these metrics before you begin or you may never know if you're succeeding.

Don't rely on website analytics alone! Imagine this scenario. Scott, Jeremy, Jack and Mitch are looking for the best Vegas dinner destination prior to Frank's bachelor party festivities. Jack gets a promotional email from your restaurant describing the best Saturday night drink deals in town. Scott has been watching Twitter for "Vegas Restaurant" tweets hoping to get an indication of the best spot. Jeremy has been on a dozen restaurant review sites. They all come together in Google Wave to discuss. They invite other friends and family to chime in on their last Vegas experience. They finally decide on your place because of the drink deal (good choice). Mitch calls in the reservation and the Vegas plans are set. In all, across numerous networking sites, there were 21 mentions of your brand, 14 people commented about your restaurant, 13 other people hadn't even heard of your restaurant before conversation "Wave". And a $500 dinner was booked at your restaurant...all without anyone ever going to your website!

Hard to measure the impact of social media if you're just looking at website analytics. You've succeeded at integrated online marketing, but you may never know it. Work with an interactive agency capable of measuring, baselining current social impact (website and elsewhere), as well as the capability to develop a social media strategy that meets your objectives and expected ROI.

Marketing Integration. Technology Innovation. Building Brands that Matter.

Thursday, August 27, 2009 by Chris Thornton

And so it begins...

Over the past 15 years we have seen the rise of the digital age. Well, we’ve seen the rise, fall, and rebirth of digital over that time frame. Out of the ashes of the dotcom bust came a stronger, smarter marketer. A marketer that understands the importance of measurement, ROI, brand, and business objective. Also, out of the ashes came a smarter consumer. A consumer who suddenly realized they have a voice, and the power to initiate change. This combination has resulted in interactive marketing going from an afterthought in a CMO’s marketing plan to a focal point. The web is now the hub of most marketing initiatives. It is the place where we can create the deepest engagement, measure the most activity, and impact the audience the most by creating true brand experiences and real interaction with the brand.

So traditional is dead, right? Wrong. Traditional mediums continue to be important. I have not thrown my HD flat screen out on the lawn yet. My IPOD and my radio take turns in my car. Occasionally, I still even read a magazine. The real problem for marketers now is this: the interactive medium has gone from the smaller part of the overall mix, to the key driving factor that is the glue that enables a truly integrated experience for the user. The advertising and marketing world has gone from a push to a pull. Marketers need agencies who can execute a truly integrated plan by developing real interactive strategy…one message, one brand, many channels, multiple experiences.
This fact has been the driving force for the recent growth and expansion of Definition 6. For 13 years, Definition 6 has been creating interactive solutions that deliver measureable results for our clients. We have taken great strides to build integrated strategies that work with our clients’ entire marketing plans. And so today we announce the next evolution in Definition 6.

Definition 6 has acquired Creative Bubble – A New York Based video design, production, and editing firm. Creative Bubble is an Emmy Award Winning agency working with some of the best and brightest networks in the entertainment field including Nickelodeon, HBO, ESPN, Showtime, and USA Networks just to name a few. This acquisition means a several things for Definition 6 and our clients...

First, we now have full in-house video production and editing capabilities, from script to screen. As the lines between digital and traditional continue to blur, content becomes king. We now have the ability to 100% in-house develop rich video content, coupled with our digital experience, enables us to develop and execute full integrated marketing campaigns that can be distributed across multiple mediums…Definition 6 has the capability to develop across the three screens that really matter: TV, Internet, and Mobile. We also now have a fully functioning office in New York, the epicenter for the media world. Again, with our existing strategy, social media, and analytics practices, we can develop more effective campaigns more efficiently that deliver real, quantifiable impact to the businesses of our clients.

There will certainly be more news in the coming months from Definition 6. But we are beginning to see the vision we’ve had for years come to fruition and we are very excited. Marketing Integration. Technology Innovation. Building Brands that Matter. That’s what Definition 6 has set out to do for our clients. The game is changing everyday…and we can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Successes in Social Media (or Please start using Social Media now)

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 by Lance King

I've compiled a small list here of Social Media success stories. One of the interesting things that I find about most people who have already started marketing and consumer communications using Social Media is that they often say "don't be afraid to try something new" and "don't be afraid of failure". Some failures have lead to even better campaigns. If these companies (and more) can try a few ideas, so can you. Most people familiar with social media agree that if you really want to connect with your consumers and help establish or reinforce brand recognition, you need to get on Social Media outlets now. For one thing, it is often very cheap to do this while being able to reach out to thousands or even millions of potential and long-standing customers. So please review these stories to see how easy some of them got started and the great successes that they had.

1. Taco Mac on Twitter
Followers of Taco Mac can follow the individual Taco Mac location of their choice. They get updates on Taco Mac's latest specials and reminders of special events. Taco Mac gets a lot more people attending special events because many of them might have forgotten. On Pint Night they are running out of free pint glasses in 1 hour instead of 3 hours like it was before Twitter. What else could your company do if you were sending constant "reminders" to your customers?
(http://www.ajc.com/business/taco-mac-uses-twitter-102656.html)
(http://twitter.com/TMacLindbergh)

2. Masi Bicycles on Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube
New Masi Brand Manager, Tim Jackson, was given a very small budget and they were already spending much of that on some magazine ads. So he had to come up with an inexpensive way to better market the Masi brand. The easy (and cheap) way for him was to create a blog that he regularly posts to. This actually helped him to establish good relationships with some of his vendors. He is also actively using Twitter and Facebook and is moving toward podcasts and video. With a new "cult" following, sales are really starting to grow. What's really interesting is that Tim had never done any of this before.
(http://mediahunter.typepad.com/media_hunter/2008/07/social-media-su.html#more)
(http://twitter.com/MasiBicycles)

3. CNN with Facebook
CNN had a huge success when they teamed up with Facebook to present the Presidential Inaugaration and Michael Jackson's funeral. 21.3 million live video streams! That's a lot of people. Oh, and guess what? CNN's first attempt failed (The Primary Debates). But they figured it out before the inaugaration. What can your company do that would attract watchers, even if you don't get 21.3 million? Maybe a live fashion show for a new line of clothing? Perhaps a live demonstration of how your product works or a new product offering? Or maybe a conversation with your CEO?
(http://vmarketingblog.com/2009/07/31/cnn-and-social-networking/)
(http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/01/21/inauguration.online.video/index.html)
(http://mashable.com/2009/01/20/cnn-facebook-inauguration-numbers/)
(http://newteevee.com/2009/01/20/facebook-cnn-is-future-of-tv/)

4. Zappos on Twitter, Blogs
Customer satisfaction and relationships. That is what Zappos is all about. QUALITY interactions. Not only do the CEO and COO get online, but many of their other employees do too. It is like they are your friends. What would it be like for your company if people considered your brand as their friend? Zappos has come to the realization that your brand isn't what you say it is, it is what the consumers say it is. They proudly look for and respond to negative comments about them. They are all about "making things right". They want people to be comfortable not just with Zappos' products, but with Zappos' employees. How would people respond to your employees if they were responding to and interacting with consumers online? To quote from the article below "we may not always remember what someone tells us, but we generally remember how we felt when we were interacting with the person. And when people feel respected and engaged, whether it is in-person with a co-worker or online on a social network, they have a natural desire to tell other people about the experience."
(http://mashable.com/2009/04/26/zappos/)
(http://twitter.com/zappos)

5. Common Wealth Credit Union (CWCU) on YouTube
CWCU wanted to target a specific demographic. People between the ages of 17 and 25. They wanted a way to keep the buzz going while acquiring new customers for life. They created a microsite for this campaign that is managed by someone who is 17 - 25 years old and use YouTube to upload videos that will appeal to people their age, usually videos of themselves. People can interact with the website by answering poll questions, watching videos, sharing pictures, submitting job postings, adding information about free stuff in their communities, and of course, applying for a chequing account. The site "spokester" also blogs about money with fun little YouTube videos. They opened up 2400 new accounts in the first 8 months after the campaign started (Note, the article does not say how that compares to previous months, but it must be good because they are still going and have a new "spokester" with lots of new material).
(http://mediahunter.typepad.com/media_hunter/2008/08/social-media--1.html#more)
(http://www.youngfreealberta.com/)

So those are just a few examples of companies making the most with Social Media. In many cases it involved very little cost. In other cases there was quite a bit of time, effort and money put into it, but the results were out of this world. Given that there are several very active social media sites, it would be a smart move to get your company out there and in touch with your current and potential customers.

If you are looking for great ideas, let Definition 6 help you. We are an online interactive marketing agency with experience in Social Media efforts. There are so many good online marketing techniques and we can help you find the one (or more) that are right for you. If you go to www.definition6.com, you can check out our new game that interacts directly with Twitter called TwitterINGO. Or you can check out how we integrated AutoExtra's campaign with MySpace. We can also help you with mobile marketing strategies.

If any of the above stories don't convince you to get on the Social Media bandwagon, then check out Mashable.com's "10 of the Smartest Big Brands in Social Media".

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