It is a very difficult task for brands to choose a new marketing agency. There are lots of promises - and just like prom night - everyone is looking their best. But once the decision is made, reality sets in.

You thought you knew what you were getting, but then the estimates change, timelines extend and the people you thought were going to work on the project and no longer available. Make sure you get the truth before you sign the contract.

So how do you avoid making the wrong decision and ensuring you get the truth upfront before you hire an agency? Here are three suggestions that can save you the headaches later on:

1. Process. Process is key. Great ideas are magic, but creating them is a science. Can your agency clearly show their process and demonstrate its value? How do they manage you through this? What are the key milestones and deliverables.

2. Impact. Impact on your business. Cool ideas that don't increase revenue aren't really cool? How do they plan on measuring the results? Does your agency talk about ROI?

3. People. People create and execute ideas. Who is really working on your project?

Given the importance of your unified marketing strategy, not to mention the financial and resource investment, it is essential you spend the time upfront to ensure the both you and your agency understand the rules of engagement. You should have clear project definition and criteria for evaluating success.

This will manage expectations for all parties involved, reduce cycles spent on dealing with distracting issues but most importantly it will reduce the risks associated with the project and keep you in control.

Sean-Michael Daley is Group Account Director for Definition 6's Dallas Office.


(Image Credit: "How Could You Say No?" by kennymatic)

There’s not a day that goes by without some discussion of budgets, especially this time of year. This is certainly the case with the senior-level discussions I have, where the conversation ultimately ends up on the subject of budgets.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all we talk about – there’s plenty of discussion about ROI, market share and the latest strategies and tactics for unified marketing, but the conversation always ends with some discussion of budgets. Maybe that’s the problem?

I’m not talking about the frozen budget problem or the not-enough-budget problem, there’s no solution for that. Rather, I think the problem with budgets today is how they’re split up. Budget allocation is the problem.

Take for example the CMO (names withheld to protect the innocent) who has a traditionally organized budgets like this:

• 70% working media
• 15% trade media
• 15% production/PR/fees

If this client wants to leverage social networks to engage with consumers, the allocation is actually a little more like this:

• 5% working media
• 80% production/PR/fees
• 15% additional staffing requirements

The budget isn’t organized this way today, and the CFO’s office and procurement aren’t being flexible. I find this situation happening pretty regularly. It isn't that the CFO's office isn't part of the business discussion and that they don't want to see the organization succeed, but the system is set up one way and in many ways, it is dated from a previous time and period of advertising.

Most CFOs and procurement offices have a procedure for modifying budget categories and moving stuff around, unfortunately they allow for easy movement on the edges and make it much harder at the core. The real problem is that it might take 60-90 days to make the shift. In that amount of time, an agile challenger or a progressive market leader is already having a dialogue with the community and the space is crowded and noisy.
 
The Headcount Line Item
The biggest problem however is that the real budget change the marketing department needs is head-count. Adding people is the hardest thing to do in today's climate as the capital markets, equity markets and global environment is volatile to say the least.  However, consumer engagement is a person-to-person event - it requires people.

Agencies are adapting and adding solutions to help CMOs outsource community management, social monitoring and engagement and even helping to route contact into call centers as need be, but marketing organizations need a few more people to make a really big difference.
 
Shift to ROI-Based Budget Allocation
What I suggest is moving budgets into a ROI based allocation that the CMO is accountable for and that the CFO requires reporting and monitoring, but not strict category adherence.  The pace in which we operate is too fast to use conventional means of fiscal control and the need to grow market share is too great to allow a GL to impact our performance negatively.  

What do you think? How should budgeting change to reflect the realities of unified marketing?

I woke up this morning to a pretty interesting e-mail that was sent to me by way of my Google profile from someone named David Anderson:

I am making a blog for an online writing class I'm taking through UF, and for a module on search techniques I needed to find a non-mainstream website about my topic (sports bars).  I found your old site, the East Lansing Bar Review, and I loved it so I've written my post for this assignment about it.  I've only made five posts so far, but here is a link anyway: http://sportsbarjunkie.blogspot.com/

This is really crazy in so many ways. The site he is referring to is something I created back around 1995. I was attending Michigan State University and worked part-time in the MSU Network Center to make some extra cash. My official title there was Mainframe Consultant and mostly I helped professors and students to use things like Gopher, Banyan VINES, FTP, configure dial-up PPP access, and learn how to use our Unix-based ELM e-mail client. This was a time when most corporations hadn’t even heard of the web, it had fledgling use by Universities, it was being referred to as a fad, and I had just helped to get Michigan State’s own first web sites up.

I wanted to play around more with this new-fangled world wide web so using a vi editor in Unix, working in HTML 1.0 and armed with a copy of the predominant browser of the time NCSA Mosaic, I decided to create a site that offered a personal review of all the local bars and pubs in the East Lansing, Michigan area. I had a lot of fun creating the site. I had even more fun doing the critical research required to provide the reviews. But it really was bare bones ugly, used hand coded tables, some basic formatting tags, and the most advanced thing it included (which was hot at the time) was an image map that used a monstrosity I created with a copy of Photoshop 1.0.

But so it was born: the East Lansing Bar Review. For a couple of years I kept updating it and occasionally I got really interesting feedback or comments. It even got me a few free beers from local bar owners. When I left MSU my younger brother Mike took over the site and moved it (all 4 or 5 HTML files and all 5-6 images) from my student web account to his. He kept it updated for a couple of more years before he graduated. A couple of years later we got tired of being contacted about it from people asking for updates so Mike posted a note on the site explaining this and since then it’s gathered electronic dust but apparently it’s still there.

15 years from when I created the site, I’m now the CTO of Definition 6 where we create massive high-end brand experiences that include transactional sites with extensive back-end systems integration, hundreds of thousands of pages of content in enterprise-class Content Management Systems, on-line video experiences, mobile web sites, mobile applications and more in addition to spending a ton of time doing Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, On-line Display Media, and Analytics.

In an effort for this blog post to have a point and not just be nostalgic rambling or reflection on how far we’ve come in terms of the web and on-line advancements, what really stands out to me is considering how high this site shows up in results for major search engines. If you search for East Lansing Bars it still comes up as one of the top several results on Google. And if you search as David describes he did in his blog post it’s number one. Keep in mind the site was originally written and posted before Google even existed and at a time when Yahoo! had just come onto the scene as a start-up. The very concept of organic search engine optimization didn’t even really exist let alone was it the means of livelihood for the legions of people that practice its art today. I’m sure there are some things to be said for how today’s algorithms treat a site with such a long tenure favorably as well as the tenure of links to that site. And I’m all but certain that the same site published today would not be treated so favorably. But it is probably worth noting that a site hosted at relatively bad URL by today’s SEO standards with no meta-data, no thought to Information Architecture, and bad file naming practices still shows up high for certain not uncommon searches when the content was meaningfully written and relevant to the subject matter of interest. I’ll leave the rest of the analysis to the real SEO experts out there (and my apologies to our Creative Department for even publishing a link to this relic of a site on our blog).

Thanks, David, for the trip down memory lane and for giving me some interesting things to think about this morning.

Fall is my favorite time of year, just like it is for a lot of folks. While I enjoy the cooler temperatures, the changing of the leaves and all the preparations for the holidays, the real coup de grace for me is sports. Let’s face it, summer is the ‘dead of winter’ for a true sports fan, but fall is our Valhalla. 

I mean, could October be any better? You have baseball pennant races, playoffs and The World Series. In Hockey and Basketball, the seasons are just beginning and everyone thinks they have a chance. For America’s new favorite pastime, college and professional football are in full force.

But you're on our blog to read about unified marketing or the latest technology trends, right? You don't really care about my passion for sports.

When Sports and Marketing Collide

Sports and marketing have been closely aligned for as long as I can remember now. From the ads you see in the programs at the ballpark, to TV/radio spots (and shows created for the sole purposes of selling ads I might add). Of course, there's also the signage all over, including player uniforms, the scoreboards and that precious real estate in the line of sight of any television camera (like behind home plate).

The next iteration of fan engagement is coming through Location Based Services (LBS). There is no question that services like FourSquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places have moved beyond the fad to widespread fan adoption.

For me, I think sports is the bridge between fad and reality for LBS. Sporting events - whether you're at the game or watching it in the neighborhood bar or from your couch with your Snuggie on - have always been about participation. Fans want to be part of the experience. With LBS, they can mark the event.

-          A captive audience – when you arrive at a stadium for a game, they have you at “hello”.  You are there for 3-6 hours (if you include tailgating).  Advertisers have long seen the value here with placement in Programs, buying up ballpark ‘real estate’, etc…

-          Fans are a passionate, core demographic for sports. The term ‘fan’ comes from ‘fanatic’ - is there a more poignant example of this passion.

LBS Creates New Opportunities for Storytelling

-          The narrative – here ‘IT’ is, the KEY to making LBS truly successful. At the heart of any success is STORYTELLING. At the heart of sports and why we love them is STORYTELLING.  Whether it is sharing the ‘moment’ with 95,000 others or telling your grandchildren 40 years later about how you were there when ‘IT’ happened, sports is about the story! Deep in this concept of STORYTELLING is the desire to SHARE, which is really what LBS is about.

So now that we have the groundwork we need to look at LBS and assume that something is ‘missing’.  If you agree that three things needed for success today from a marketing standpoint are storytelling, technology and social engagement you can begin to see where I am going.

Clearly LBS’ have the technology angle solved. Smart devices with GPS and social networking built in are what have fueled the revolution. Additionally, they are inherently social. You check in, tell your friends where you are, see where they are, etc... 

What I see as missing is the ‘story’. When LBS first launched the question was raised, “Why would I check in and tell people where I am at?”  In those early days the answer was, “If you give them a free beer they will check in”. While that worked initially, I don’t think it is a long-term strategy.

What should be the answer is sharing. Let people share in a group experience, add in their commentary/story, record it for posterity, and then relive it as they choose. Now, what better platform is there for that than sports? 

Take this past week and look at all the great stories you could have been a part of:

• Roy Halladay pitching only the SECOND No Hitter in baseball playoff HISTORY
• Bobby Cox managing his last game for the Atlanta Braves
• Brett Favre throwing his 500^th touchdown last night on Monday Night Footbal

Quite literally there were THOUSANDS of fans looking to share those stories and LBS’ could have been the perfect tool to do so. Sure, you get a glimpse of the story with a short message, but there's more to it than that.

You could check in that you were there, you could post pictures, add running commentary and lastly share the emotions of the moment.  Yet, it’s not being done, at least not through one consistent service.

The question is then why? The answer is money. It’s expensive to launch initiatives, especially ones that don’t have a direct ROI to the groups, in this case a Sports Teams, bottom line.  But I see that as short sighted and where advertising can step in.  For an advertiser what is the benefit of placing an ad in the program of a World Series Game? It’s that eyeballs in the stadium will see the ad, resonate with it and choose to purchase your product. 

The same thing can happen through LBS with an even more emotional pull. Take the Halladay no-hitter (as a Philly fan I will). If I were checked-in to the game and right after it ended, I received a personal message to me (and the others that checked in) that I could be the FIRST to get the t-shirt commemorating the event --- how fast would I do it? Two seconds! How long would it take me to tell the rest of my social network that I did?  Less than two seconds!! 

Soon I would have two stories to tell, the game AND the great offer I received after, all because I was checked-in. How many of my ‘friends’ will now check into games waiting to see if they will get anything? A lot of them. If they get something, they might tell two more friends, and they tell two friends and soon we are all using shampoo from the 1980’s!

So, why haven’t teams, leagues and advertisers seen the power of this yet? I’m not sure, maybe they need to check into LBS in the off season.

Having just spent the better part of the week in New York for Advertising Week and in particular time at IAB MIXX 2010 Conference & Expo, I wanted to jot down what I learned before my day-to-day activities got in the way.

The conference was fairly well attended with a high mix of publishers, DSP's, measurement tool providers and agencies.  There were about 20% in-house folks from brands, with most being B2C and ranging from small to very, very large. For the most part, like most Advertising Weeks and events I have attended in the past.

My key takeaways from this year's IAB MIXX 2010 Conferece are as follows:

• Measurement matters: If you cannot measure it, sort it, slice it, dice it and present it in a dashboard you are missing the boat and your arguments to management are going to fail (as a side note, this is precisely why we've focused so much energy helping our clients with Vitality this past year).

• Building brands matters too: tapping into real-time data to make more-informed business decisions is a high priority, unless of course you want to build brand. If you're focus is building brand, than you don't have good measurements yet for digital (but you have faith, right?)

• Data-driven marketing is in-fashion: Data-driven marketing and decision making is the current "black" in marketing. If you got into advertising because there was no math requirement in undergrad, you need to pull those text books out (or learn the ins and outs of pivot tables).

• You need to move in real-time: Make sure that your tool kit enables you to activate quickly once you have made a decision. Prepare for the realities of real-time - it's here now.

• Fuel your furnace: The metabolism of the web is very fast. It consumes a lot of daily calories, so you must feed it regularly with quality content your audiences value (special thanks to Elizabeth Spiers and the 7x7 event).

• The message still matters: If your idea doesn't matter, the medium is irrelevant.

I'm still absorbing all the great content from the past week. There are some other ideas I'm kicking around that I hope to share soon.

Thanks to the New York office for all the great work this week. Mashlanta 2.0 (Mashable's 2nd Atlanta event we're sponsoring tonight) here I come.

As the CMO of a unified marketing agency, I attend a lot of marketing conferences (more than you would believe). You get to a point with marketing conferences where they all start to look the same - and it takes a lot to surprise me. I was surprised twice last week.

First, I attended the best marketing conference I've ever been to... and it was in Indianapolis. Second, it was hosted by a software company. The ExactTarget User Conference, Connections 2010, was an outstanding educational, inspirational and impressive experience. I was blown away.

Then again, it's hard not to be moved when you have conference speakers like Sir Richard Branson. He is an amazing guy. He really believes he cannot fail at anything - and therefore rarely does. He spoke of commercial flights to space NEXT YEAR on Virigin Galactic. 

I mean, I still am impressed I can to the Internet when I am on a plane.  He also gets it.  My favorite quote was “Conversations can change the world, one person at a time, one moment at a time.” Branson has built his success by bringing the right message at the right time to the right people. Which is fascinating, because historically brands have felt consistency and repetition were keys to success. But Virgin’s founder has built a brand based on collective and dimensional experiences.

There were several other fascinating speakers who contributed as well…Andy Sernovitz, author of “Word of Mouth Marketing  was spot on in his thinking when he said, “Advertising is the cost of being boring ” - and that earned media was gained by creating things worth talking about. Jeffrey Hayzlett, former CMO of Kodak, is always entertaining and did great on his panel. 

From an educational standpoint, the guys from ExactTarget did great showing us not only where they are taking the platform as a centralized location to manage the conversation, but also backed it up with some wonderful research on email and social media…reminding us yet again, that social media only increases emails importance vs. kills it. 

I also enjoyed some great insight from Michael Donnelly of The Coca-Cola Company (disclaimer: they're a client). He reminded us of the power of Metcalfe’s Law: “Fans aren’t necessarily there to share with us, fans are there to share with each other.” He also made it evidently clear to one audience member that you should not misquote him on Twitter. 

Overall, Connections 2010 did a great job of really demonstrating this brave new world of marketing…one defined not just by the message, but the intersection of message, context, and persona.  Conversations with your customers are what matter.  Real-time relationships are how you move the bottom line.  Are you ready to change your approach?  Your customers are moving with or without you.  In the immortal words of Richard Branson, “Screw it…let’s just do it.”

If you weren't one of the lucky few to attend the TEDx Atlanta Re:solve event last week, here are some great quotes I wanted to share with you:

• “The modern approach to movie making is one of mankind’s most incredible and perhaps most underutilized tools for collaborative problem solving.” - Logan Smalley

• “In the modern world, we’re all marketers, we’re all neighbors and we’re all pulling up a chair to the same fire – the Internet.” - Logan Smalley

• “There is a window of opportunity that exists while you’re young to get advice form the smartest people around because they don’t expect you to pay a consulting fee.” - Logan Smalley

• “The Internet of the ancient world was the solar system.” - Farmer D.

• “By 2020 there will be more millionaires in India than there are total people in Canada and Australia.” - David Butler

• “Learn by doing.” - David Butler

• “Hydrogen has the most energy of any element shy of radioactive.” - Mills Snowden

• “The most important part of developing your idea is you have to start.” - Mills Snowden

• “The world conspires to help whn you are up to something big.” - Harrison Dillon

• “Energy time operates in 10 year cycles.  Political time operates in 2 year cycles. [It’s the reason we have such a hard time solving our energy problem].” - Harrison Dillon

• “We have to make sure that our politicians know that we all care about more than what happens beyond the next political cycle.” - Harrison Dillon

• “Everyone has a sea of influence that can be traced.” - Jim Hartzfeld

• “There’s a fundamental difference between curing sickness and creating health.” - Jim Hartzfeld

• “Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion.  Not everybody’s entitled to their own facts.” - Sam Williams

For more information on TED and TEDx Atlanta, visit the TEDx Atlanta site here. You can also view photos and videos from recent events.

As you can see from our new website, Definition 6 is now a Unified Marketing Agency. It might look like something that happened over night, but it is an approach we have been refining for years now.

There is only one constant in marketing today: change. Customers change. Technologies change. Mediums change. You change. As an agency, we too must change to help clients better manage business performance. It’s something we’ve been doing for 13 years now.

Unified marketing is our most dramatic transformation yet. It’s an evolved approach to marketing that is designed to challenge conventional wisdom in the agency world.

While some are looking to add more capabilities, we’re looking to develop a better model equipped for the realities of marketing in an always-on and always-evolving marketplace.

Unified marketing is our new approach to strategy and execution. Rather than thinking in terms of campaigns, we think in terms of real-time experiences - every time a person interacts or transacts with your brand. Our unified marketing strategy framework is designed to help clients create experiences that unite brands and people in motion - in real-time.

Experiences come in many forms, and not all points of engagement are predictable - but smart brands can plan to build collective, dimensional relationships with customers with each and every experience.

Our Unified Marketing Approach

Our unified marketing approach is designed to help you identify where your best opportunities are to engage and connect with your most valuable customers. We create meaningful - often one-of-a-kind - brand experiences that are relevant to your audiences and build collective value.

Unified marketing is a departure from start and stop, short-sighted and disconnected marketing campaigns. It’s the beginning of a mindset that looks at relationship building as a constant, persistent effort across all experiences.






















There are four stages to our unified marketing strategy framework:

•    Find & Define the right audiences that represent the greatest brand opportunity for you

•    Engage & Connect through more meaningful and relevant experiences that strengthen your relationship

•    Build & Maintain your relationships to build collective, dimensional value over time and foster reciprocity across your communities

•    Understand & Optimize through insight and real-time data, making better informed decisions to drive better interaction and transaction

This process enables us to continually refine and optimize campaign performance in real-time, ultimately helping our clients build more meaningful brand experiences and relationships.

Proving the Model

We’ve put our unified marketing approach to the test with several clients and are pleased to report the results have been impressive. We’ve also continued to build out our capabilities to support the unified marketing model. Our acquisitions of Creative Bubble and Leach Communications, the opening of our Dallas office, the addition of 100+ new team members, and some of the most impressive work we’ve done to date, are all strategic moves to execute on our unified marketing vision.

We’re beginning to see the results of our work, you can see it through the impact our people are making, and we hope it creates more opportunity for us to work together.

We look forward to talking with you more about our unified marketing approach and how we create brand experiences that unite people and brands in motion.

Note: Please visit the What We Do section to learn more about our Unified Marketing Approach and process.

I don’t know why this ad ticked me off so much. Maybe it seems to embrace the notion of bad money management practices? Maybe it's the fact that there is no amount of personal responsibility or accountability?

Who does this ad speak to? The consumer who doesn't want to be punished if they spend more than they have, but still manage to scrape together $3 for a cup of coffee?

I have no doubt the message is well-targeted, but is it the right message to send? Does it really hammer home the 'less fees' message it was probably intended for?

It sort of is a "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche” comment and it didn't sit well with me.

I'm one of thousands exposed to this message, but keep this point in mind - while your message may resonate with a lot of people, make sure it's not going to irritate an equal or greater number.

I'd rather see them figure out a way to make my coffee cheaper.

I was at an event a few weeks ago hosted by Blue Hornet and the speaker was talking about growing your e-mail list through multi-channel  techniques.

More specifically, how to use SMS to add to your e-mail list, and how consumers who subscribe via SMS tend to have higher value than consumers who register through other channels.

Some of the folks in the audience were unfamiliar with the concept and none had implemented it for themselves. It's easy to take this stuff for granted when you're managing SMS campaigns for major brands.

When I was out over the weekend, I saw a great example of SMS opt-in and figured I'd share (this isn't one of our campaigns). I think this example does a great job at illustrating how to tie POS materials (offline) with SMS (mobile) to build your e-mail list.

We have found this to be useful for our customers and I find it useful as a consumer.

Now if only my birthday hadn't just passed. I could go for a free scoop.

I took this picture earlier this month in a small cafeteria in an office building. Six months into the year and the sign still has a Happy New Year message on it.

While I too am surprised by how fast the first half of 2010 has gone by, I can't help but think how many times the business owner has passed this sign since January. He's probably walked by it every day and night, yet hasn't thought about updating it.

This isn't the first time I've seen this. You'd be surprised how many times I come across websites with 2009 press releases on their home page or a blog post from April. It's easy to to let time get away from you.

Even if you're updating your news room and blog on a regular basis, when was the last time you updated your product pages with fresh images or refreshed the copy on your "About Us" or "Our People" pages? Chances are, there are updates to be made.

Think about content management as part of your marketing responsibility and part of your customer service responsibilities.  It does matter.

Oh yeah, in case you didn't know it, U LOOK MARVELOUS.

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.)

I’m proud. 

Almost every week I continue to be shocked at some aspect of how Facebook is treating the privacy of their users. While I think Facebook has done some amazing things to redefine the landscape of connection and community in the digital age, the way they auto-opt-in users to new policies and settings that unwittingly further expose them in a manner that is beyond confusing for almost everyone is driving me crazy.

It seems to be a total disregard for privacy that leverages "confuser interface design" tactics and misleading redesign functionality alterations to extend their dominance at the unknowing expense of most of their users. They actively seek to get you to enter as much personally defining data as possible. They make it incredibly complicated to manage your assorted privacy settings, then they go and make significant changes that auto-opt in users to new options like making all of your posts available to search engines or to share your personal data with applications and sites using FaceBook tools. All of this while presenting typical users with a perception of communicating and sharing with their "Friends." Maybe FaceBook is just working towards a Nobel Peace Prize by wanting everybody on the planet and every corporation to be Friends? Ummmm.... no.

 

Conversely, while not exempt from scrutiny, Twitter takes a much different approach. They begin by having an established perception that what you post is public, they have one very clear and simple blanket option to make your posts private, and the information they ask you to enter for registration is extremely limited.

 

I'm also driven crazy by the constant changes to FaceBook API's that make the lives of developers miserable as they struggle to work with this juggernaut of social media and the fact that they employed algorithms that began to selectively decide whose posts among my friends they thought I should see (and even excluded my wife's posts from my stream until I manually added her back in)... but that's a whole other couple of blog posts to write. The following is a short list of things I actually find less annoying than FaceBook's treatment of the concept of privacy:

 

15.       SPAM e-mail

 

14.       People who post their every Foursquare or Gowalla check-in to Twitter

 

13.       The mere existence of Farmville and Mafia Wars

 

12.       The first time I saw Clippy

 
      11.    Developers that hardcode and use auto-code generators out of laziness

 

10.       Requirements documents for a web site or app that say: "should work in every browser"

 

9.       Web sites that dramatically over-use Flash for everything they possibly can

 

8.       People that show up for an interview and haven't read and reviewed your company's web site or have any ability to articulate what your company does

 

7.       People that text or use mobile devices to tweet while driving (or drive while talking on their mobile phone without using a Bluetooth or hands-free device)

 

6.   People that call themselves "Social Media Gurus" in their bios or otherwise

 

5.   People in busy airports that obliviously stop walking out of the blue and then wonder why everyone crashes into them

 

4.   Every scene on the Fox TV series 24 that ever involved Kim Bauer

 

3.   Stupid people (as one of my friends is fond of saying as he quotes his old high school football coach, "Ya can't fix stupid.")

 

2.   The continued existence of IE6

 

1.   The constant deluge of Top <insert number here> Lists

 

I could probably learn to live with all of the above. But I'm on the verge of simply shutting down my FaceBook account instead of constantly fighting to control my own information and exposure. Of course... I don't think FaceBook makes it terribly easy to truly shut down an account, they'd probably just auto-opt me in to be reactivated in a couple of weeks.

(Image Credit: Privacy by alancleaver_2000)

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)

 
A friend recently asked me what all the sensation was around Foursquare and Gowalla. These location based services (LBS) now gaining serious traction in the social media space. This same friend had asked me the same question a little over two years ago when I started actively participating and raving about Twitter and Facebook.

The first time I was asked this question, I initially struggled to answer it in a way that would easily explain the excitement and draw of using an online service to tell other people what I was doing, where I was eating, or why I think that (so and so's latest article) was so interesting. 

However, this time the answer came to me rather quickly. "It's all about our interaction with our communities. Mine and yours and how they overlap!" When I see a friend write that the Thai place down the street has some kickin' sushi, I give that more credence than the billboard I see driving to the office. When I see one of your friends talk passionately about their son's kung fu instructor, I take that as a more qualified reference than a yellow pages ad.


So what are we really seeking when we post our latest thoughts on Facebook and Twitter? Or when we check out where our friends are checking in on Foursquare or Gowalla? Are we just vain and think that what we are doing is SO important? Or are we just seeking a way to connect in an ever busy, ever moving, ever expanding world?

We have friends and family and colleagues and people we just admire with whom we go days, weeks or even years without actually laying eyes on each other. Or even more rare, actually sitting down and catching up on what has been going on in our lives, our careers, our family, friends, churches, baseball leagues … our communities.

Thanks to these online tools, I get to keep up with a larger number of people than ever possible before. And I learn more about their communities and the people and places in them. This in turn, expands my own known universe. It makes me bigger than I could be on my own. My boundaries are constantly expanded, and in a way that is relevant and meaningful to me and my friends (and your friends and their friends). Growth is good, is it not?
 
I live and work in Atlanta. I like to enjoy the occasional tasty local brew, listen to great live music and I also just so happen to really get geeky about the latest and greatest innovations in the .NET developer community. Wonder how many different ways those communities intersect and how they are related? Wouldn't be a cool thing if I could go somewhere and see my friends in these different circles talk about these things that are interesting to me and that we have in common. What if I can be the catalyst to help bring these different communities together in new and interesting ways?



One of the most interesting ways that new media tools have affected me and my community are when my online and offline worlds converge. Last November, I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to host and moderate a panel for the TAG Consulting Society on "Marketing Your Practice to Build Loyalty and Brand Awareness". I was able to engage 2 panel members through my offline community and reached out to my online community to find the remaining two panel members.

Thanks to my network of friends, I was introduced to two extremely smart and engaging panelists who helped round out a wonderful panel. (Thanks again to @lisa_sherman77  and @johnreed3000). Another example of where my friends reach out to their friends who then become my friends who then can become your friends too.
 
I would like to extend this opportunity for us to become part of each other's community. Follow me on Twitter @andrewmccann or on Facebook or on LinkedIn. From there you can find me on Foursquare and Gowalla and whatever the next big thing is that allows me to connect with my friends and your friends and my friends with your friends.

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.
-- Herman Melville

What do you want? Those of you that are CMOs, Brand Managers, VPs of Advertising or Marketing, what do you really want?
 
Whenever and wherever this question is asked, the answer is always the same: Results! You want results and you want them now (it’s the same thing you wanted yesterday, and the same thing you’ll want tomorrow).

If you are in the agency business, you should never lose sight of this basic marketing need. If you are in-house and spend your money on advertising and marketing, I hope this helps you think about how to find people who can improve those results faster.
 
This topic has been on my mind since I got together with a group of marketing professionals earlier this month. We started off talking about how to produce ROI reports for their CFOs and finance counter parts. Ultimately, what everyone really wants to see is results.

How you define results and what value they deliver for your business may vary, but here are some sample measurements based on our discussion:

•    Brand health metrics
•    Units Sold
•    Leads Generated
•    Awareness and Recall levels
•    ROAS
•    E-mail marketing conversion
•    Increased Foot Traffic
 
How can agencies produce results more consistently when results are so varied by each client? Here are six suggestions for ways I think agencies can be prepared to provide a variety of results for a variety of clients and also for the same customer who has evolving needs over a long period of time.

1.    Understand your client's business. If you are not as much a management consultant as an ad person, then I think you will fail in the future. Today's marketing and advertising challenges, impact customer service, public relations, product develop & procurement as well as IT, finance and channel relations. Now, they always have, but now that the world is digitized and visibility is possible; the demand to work on more than just demand is higher.

2.    Understand customer behavior. One of the things I think Agency can do better than most client-side marketers is getting to know the end customer and the customers along the way.  We can and should provide outsider insight into the purchase drivers that lead consumers or businesses to buy from clients. By being involved in the insight business, we can help our customers produce the results they need.

3.    Be more social. So much has been said about this over the last 18 months, so I'll share why I think agencies need to become more social. We are in the business of communications and in connecting companies and customers. The landscape has evolved where the cost of distributing messages is virtually zero and the demand for connection is 100%.  When demand is this high and the cost is so low, there is an unlimited amount of success you can have for you and your customers if you tap into this skill set.

4.    Learn math and how to analyze data. I became a Speech Communications major because it had no math requirement. I bet a lot of people who are in our field did the same thing, I know it.  Math has never been a problem for me, I just didn't care to do any more formulas or equations. Then I got into advertising, and as I did Nielsen store data, GRPs, category management, research, coupon redemption and media plans, it became clear that math was going to be a big part of my life. When I started our Integrated Interactive Agency in the 90s it become clear that math, engineering and analysis would be at the center of much of what we would do to help clients. A strong analytics capability and good math people, programmers, engineers and analysts are essential if you are serious about producing results and proving those results.

5.    Learn how to produce.  Content, code, sounds, event. From branding to social, to broadcast to micro-cast. From visual to technical, and in-home to the 6th screen. A good partner doesn't outsource the doing to sub-contractors, it is no longer acceptable to do the boards, the concept, the design, the plan and then hand it off. In these days and times, buyers expect ongoing interactions and learned messaging overtime. The mediums must be an integrated seamless experience or you will lose sales and revenue for your clients. That is not the result they want.

6.    Ask your clients what they need to thrive. So I end with this, what do you need to thrive in your current marketing and advertising role? We are listening……….
 

Facebook’s Hottest TV babes, Celebrity babes on Twitter, Hot babes on LinkedIn, babes, babes, babes...

Did this get your attention?  OK, so let’s progress.

I recently attended a few industry conferences on leveraging “Public Relations in the Social Media Era.”  The sessions were eye-opening.  With a show of hands, it seems most of the 500 attendees, who were charged with managing their brands’ PR function, didn’t understand much about how to harness the power of Social Media or how to convince their executive management to engage in it. 

A prevailing theory shared with me follows: Social Media has enabled a two-way dialogue between brands and consumers.  However, many brands over the last 50 years grew accustomed to telling customers via one-way conversations (advertising, promotion, news releases) that their product or service was essential to the customers’ aspirations or success.  So, now there’s a disconnect.

Well, I’d like to share some of the new “truths” about re-connecting that I have heard from my recent travels.  And I hope they will be of some constructive use.

Truth #1: Social Media has put the “PUBLIC” back into Public Relations.

Years ago, PR consisted of community town hall meetings, public comment forums, press conferences, and other means that enabled public feedback, deeper questioning and public input. Back then, the public had some say and means of expressing their opinions and their voice could be heard.  But public dialogue was hard because you couldn’t easily reach the masses in a personalized way.  So, the press release took over and gave birth to one-way dialogue and allowed brands to merely issue holding statements on issues instead of getting in front of customers and listening to what they had to say. 

This is an exaggeration but you get the point.  Then the Internet arrived and Social Media soon exploded.  Now everyone has a say in your business affairs and consumers are in charge of your brands’ reputation and companies are in a responsive mode -- catering to the interests of their customers once again.  Not a bad thing….

Truth #2: “Every day is ELECTION DAY.” 

I heard this statement and it resonated with me since I once worked in politics.  If brands want to effectively communicate and engage with their customers, they need to get into a campaign mindset and determine how to get “elected” every day by consumers, shareholders, employees, etc.  This mindset requires the willingness to conduct a dialogue with your stakeholders. 

Find that common interest or common ground you have with your customers – determine what’s the breadth of your relationships with your customers?—what emotional connection do they have with your brand or CEO?  -- and then leverage it.  Listen, chat about it and let the conversation grow.  If you want to win (the election), you have to play.  (Okay, yes, that’s a tagline from the NY State Lottery but it obviously was effective and memorable, and it underscores the point.)

Truth #3: LISTENING is more important than talking. 

Who da thunk?  This seems to be a revelation to us communicators who are expected to jump-start discussions and then deliver the pitch.  But, lest we  remember, we’re in a new era where customers have a large share of voice and they are talking back.  So, it’s probably better that we listen to what they are saying first and then jump in. 

Let’s test this theory (some sarcasm intended here; my dad was British so sometimes I let loose….) Testing the theory here:  Imagine going to a party, walking into a roomful of strangers and telling your date:  “Get out there and say something?”  Not very effective -- unless you’re Jim Carrey.  Rather, we’d ease up alongside a group, listen to what they are discussing and choose a tactful means of joining the conversation.  PR in the Social Media era is no different.  Use the “listening posts” that your Social Media experts (or ours) know all about.  Use them to better understand what conversations you should be monitoring and participating in.

Truth #4:  In times of CRISIS, your stakeholders consume, process and use information differently – they are more emotionally engaged. 

As a result, using IMAGES in times of crisis are more effective than words (that dreaded news release again).  So, getting your CEO on video to explain what’s happening, how your addressing the crisis and what to expect is key – post it to YouTube, your website, link it in email blasts, used paid search to drive traffic to your video, and, yes, add hyperlinks to your video in your news releases.  Video is visual and allows you to convey trust, express empathy, to show respect for your stakeholders needs and demonstrate that you’re taking action.


So these are some of the basic truths that I have heard about from experts in Social Media, Public Relations and Stakeholder Communications.  I think they make sense and seem reasonable.  Nothing appears too hard to grasp here in my view.  I asked some of the conference presenters why so many peers face challenges in embracing Social Media.  To these questions, I was presented another truth.  You cannot learn or recommend anything unless you personally first make an effort to try it yourself first and understand it. Seems reasonable. 

So, about those hot TV babes on Facebook….

 

 

As the U.S. recession winds down, and the recovery begins to pick up steam, talent acquisition, development and cultivation will again become important to companies that want to get ahead.

“The War for Talent” is now global and very, very digital. Finding talent might be easier than you think. I’d like to offer a high value, low cost way to find talent in the marketplace and within your organization.

In the information age and knowledge economy we’re operating in, the power of the mind is key component of success – at least for organizations able to tap into that power.

From a management perspective, managers need insight into the minds of their employees like never before. It’s not easy to figure out who is willing to go the extra mile to get the job done.

I believe the answer to the challenges can be found in the blogosphere.

Finding Talent in the Blogosphere

If you establish a companywide blogging program that is open to all employees, at all levels and job functions, it can be an excellent device for gauging the intellectual abilities of your team.

You can do it as internal blogs, public blogs, and topic specific, pre-screened or free for all. Whatever you do you will gain insight into your employees. You will find out which ones are slow to adopt new technologies, which ones have good thoughts, but poor communications skills, great writers with hollow thinking or innovators trapped in task jobs.

You’ll get far more valuable information than you can from performance reviews, meeting attendance or coaching sessions. Simply because it is self selected participation, self-expression and the opportunity to rise to the top or to fade into obscurity.

Just track who is a continuous contributor, who is a commenter and who is absent. Then read those that are intriguing, comment back and see how they conduct a digital conversation. And before you say your business is about relationships and face-to-face today, the future of face to face is digital to digital.

The ability to conduct civil discourse that is a matter of digital record is a daily requirement in business and in life today. The understanding of when to add imagery, video, graphs, links to others and medium appropriate content, is critical and the best new weapons in your arsenal.

I guarantee you that as the talent wars heat up, that your competitors will look for talent in your organization and your employee’s Facebook profiles, blogs, tweets and comments on the digital radar will be part of how they determine who to target for recruitment. You should do the same thing, start with your employees and then move to theirs. The future of your business is dependent upon the next generation of thinkers, doers and digital actors.

 

I just returned from SXSW Interactive (SXSWi) and was blown away by the scale of the festival. There were more than 15,000 people in attendance, looking to expand their knowledge around the Web, social and mobile (for the most part).

It would be impossible for me to summarize the entire festival for you, so here's the "what was trending" version with what you might have missed in the stream:

#1 Location-Based Services Stole the Show

For the first time in many months, something made more noise than Twitter among the Web crowd, namely Foursquare and Gowalla. While there are a bunch of location-based services (LBS) out there, SXSW Interactive was a showdown between Foursquare and Gowalla.

SXSWi was the perfect venue for LBS to take off, due to its geographic focus, large number of events and high concentration of early-adopters. I saw more people checking in on Foursquare than tweeting. Foursquare hit a new usage record at the show, with more than 347,000 check-ins in a day.

Every inch of Austin was checked-in to on one or both of these services during SXSWi, with attendees trying to take over mayorships on any piece of fictional real estate they could find. There's still some question over business models and monetization, but with usage levels like this, there remains a lot of potential.

Gowalla (a similar service) made a fair impact at the festival, but was overshadowed a bit by Foursquare's daily four square games, custom SXSWi badges, heaps of swag, and its star-studded party with the likes of Ashton Kutcher.

While there was a lot of buzz for Foursquare, you really need massive user adoption to make this stuff work. At a show with 15,000+ people, you're bound to have a friend nearby. To really make LBS stick, locations will have to start offering up incentives to people who check in (the most logical extension to all this stuff).

To quote Gary Vaynerchuk's keynote (see #3): "Why the heck would I check in somewhere? If someone gives you a f**king beer for checking in, you're going to check in."

It's true, once businesses start rewarding customers for their check-ins, services like Foursquare are going to explode in popularity (which is what happended when Twitter followers started to get hookups). I wouldn't be surprised to see Foursquare owned by somebody else by the time SXSW rolls around next year.

#2 Private Parts

The more people share online - such as where they're having lunch or who they're hanging out with at SXSWi - the more privacy becomes an issue.

Danah Boyd, Social Media Researcher at Microsoft Research New England, delivered the opening remarks at SXSWi, quickly launching into a mild attack on Google Buzz and Facebook for their recent, well-reported missteps regarding privacy. "Just because something is publicly accessible, it doesn't mean people want it publicized," said Boyd.

As more and more people take to lifestreaming, there's mounting concerns over the sharing of sensitive information. Boyd says she's never met anyone that really knew what their privacy settings were on any social site they use.

While on one hand brands want to open up the lines of communication with customers, they also need to consider any potential privacy implications.

There's a great write-up on Danah's keynote on Techcrunch here.

#3 Gary Vaynerchuk's Keynote

There had to be more than 1,000 people there to hear Gary Vaynerchuk have a conversation with the crowd. Gary is all about connecting with people on a personal level. He stood at the door and personally thanked everyone for attending the keynote (did I mention there were about 1,000 people in there?).

Gary has a no-BS approach to his presentations that reallly make you just want to watch him again. Bottom line? Most companies don't care and consumers know it. When companies even show they care a little, they get rewarded (Zappos is a perfect example).

For a great summary of the keynote, check out Andrew Mager's post on ZDNet. And in case you're wondering, he's got a mean four square serve too.

For a more coloful view into the keynote, you can watch it here. The quality's a bit shaky, but you can still get the content. Keep in mind, Gary's a brilliant speaker, but he does have a potty mouth (in case you get offended by profanity).

#4 Twitter Launches @anywhere

While Foursquare and Gowalla drove the buzz, Twitter still managed to get its share of the lime light. Unfortunately, a good part of the chatter revolved around how boring the keynote was, causing about half the room to leave before it was over.

Dissappointing keynote asside, the launch of @anywhere was significant. @anywhere is a new framework that enables developers to integrate the Twitter experience into their sites. Early @Anywhere partners include eBay, Amazon, Salesforce.com, Bing, Yahoo! and MSNBC.

For the full scoop on @anywhere, check out the official Twitter blog.

#5 Can You Digg It?

Almost launched in the midst of SXSWi was the announcement that Digg is getting a major overhaul. Digg CEO Jay Adelson made the announcement at the "Bigg Digg Shindigg" (love the name). The overhaul will include personalized feeds and the return of the Digg leaderboard. You can learn more about the new version (and sign up for the beta) at http://new.digg.com.

#6 QR Codes

There were QR codes (Quick Response code technology) on everything at SXSWi, from everyone's name badges to the fleet of Chevys on display. QR codes, a special type of bar code, are becoming more prevalent in advertising and product packaging. They provide an added way for consumers to interact with content, typically through a mobile device.

For example, if you used one of the QR readers (like I-Nigma for the iPhone) to scan an attendees badge at SXSWi, you were able to save the person's information. It was a cool way to exchange information, despite the experience being a bit slow. Look for QR codes to show up more and more (more on the SXSWi QR stuff here).

Checking Out

In conclusion, when all the hype dies down, everyone will remember this year's SXSWi as the kickoff of LBS for the masses. If last year was the year of "What are you doing?", this year will certainly be the year of the "Check-in".

Were you there? What was your favorite part of SXSWi? Let us know.

(Image Credits: Danah Boyd Art by amanichannel)