Web application development is on the precipice of a revolution; through a confluence of independent practices and technologies, the way in which web applications are built and consumed is about to change radically.

What is happening is a fundamental shift away from the current state-heavy, page-based processing model to a loose collection of lightweight web-based services that an empowered client can consume to provide full functionality in a composite fashion. It started with AJAX, grew substantially with MVC, took shape with REST, and is now about to break wide open.

Web development up to this point has been tied very closely to processing HttpRequests on a page-by-page level. Remember classic ASP and ColdFusion with code intermixed with html on the page? [Honestly, was there ever a worse language to work with than VBScript? If…EndIf…Next? Please. Microsoft still owes the development community a sincere apology for making us suffer through the miserable excuse for a language that was VBScript – JT] Nightmare! ASP.NET brought the separation of code and markup, which was a huge advancement, but brought along with it a heavy page-processing model and cumbersome state management tied to the server, or worse, hashed and embedded in the page itself. [He’s using ViewState! Grab your torch and pitchforks! Raah!]

AJAX was the emancipation proclamation that freed web development from the confines of postback processing. Utilizing the substantially overlooked XMLHttpRequest object [Thank you Microsoft for developing the XmlHttpRequest in 2000 but not incorporating it into a browser until 2006], developers were suddenly free to call back into their server for processing without having to post an entire page’s content and wait for it to come back. In its entirety. Which took time. Like reading this. OK, you get the point. AJAX did more to enliven the web than any plugin had ever done previously, [sounding the death knell for Flash and similar technologies, R.I.P] and was the timely injection of functionality and responsiveness the web desperately needed. AJAX, however, despite its freedom from the page processing lifecycle, is still inherently tied to a page – its whole intent was to be able to refresh parts of a page without having to throw the whole page back to the server, so no matter how you implement it, Ajax is fundamentally tied to a page. Figure 1 is a good representation of the current state of web development, with different clients requiring dedicated applications to process information over the web

Figure 1 - The current state of web development


MVC changes how we even think about web processing by changing the url from pointing to a physical file sitting in a directory on a server somewhere to a call to a method in the code of our application. This is a huge change; the url doesn’t point to another page or image or even another site, it fires off functionality on demand.

Now, combine this url-based functionality with a robust client-side library such as jQuery, which is capable of consuming and populating services of various types, and you have the basis for a new processing model for web applications. Consider, free from the duty of page DOM processing, jQuery can intercept a click on the page and call any service we want instead. In this scenario, jQuery acts as a controller of our base page, synchronizing calls to a myriad of distributed lightweight service endpoints to deliver full functionality as a composite set. Incorporating the capabilities of HTML5, we’re free from supporting multiple plug-ins to support media, which we can also stream in from services as required.

So what’s really happening here is a combination of the extensibility of service oriented architecture (SOA) with AJAX-style web client processing for the purposes of delivering web applications as outlined in Figure 2.
 
Figure 2 - Composite Web Application Development



This model offers significant benefits over previous web development techniques including, but not limited to:

·         Extensibility: need a new feature? Build a new service and .js file to consume it. You’re done. And you can implement both to the live app without disruption of service.

·         Scalability: services can be provisioned collectively or separately to address performance concerns – which fits perfectly with modern virtualization practices.

·         Performance: by relieving the server from redundant page postback processing, and moving a large portion of processing onto the client, the server is free to dedicate more resources to handling dedicated lightweight service calls, significantly speeding overall responsiveness.

·         Maintainability: encapsulating functionality into independent services means if changes or added features are required by the application, only one service needs to be updated, not the entire application. And as it’s the service that will be altered in most cases, production environments will not have to be impacted by the service refresh.

·         Client Agnostic: Implementing this model frees processing from the page, meaning the same services which feed our web application can easily be consumed by a mobile or platform-specific client, extending the development effort in a parallel fashion.

Service based applications have been highly regarded for quite some time due to their clear separation of concerns and inherent benefits of such an implementation, but the challenge thus far in utilizing a Service Oriented Architecture with web applications has been the limitations of the page/postback processing model. Combining the capabilities of url-based method calls with AJAX-style lightweight service consumption, a composite web application model is emerging which will change the way web application development is considered and pursued. The revolution is coming.

Many application development companies regadless of web development or windows development want or need to implement search functionality. However, it is a commonly underestimated function and it continues to evolve over time. Interestingly users want search to have minimal to no interaction while having a maximum result. With data and collection systems becoming more and more complex this becomes and increasingly difficult challenge. I remember a system I was architecting for a customer where the customer wanted to enter a DNA result that consisted of an 800 to 1600 character string into a web application and have it search a database using an algorithm providing scored search results. The customer was convinced that a basic desktop machine would act as a server and be able to conduct the search against a large database efficiently. The production architecture needed to support the customers’ performance requirements was a High Performance Computing hardware environment.  Like many customers they didn’t understand the complexity of certain functions. Thinking through this topic recently had me researching how functions in systems and their architectures evolved.

Architecting a system today has many facets, and search certainly is a prominent one. Searching for information is not a new concept but a heavily evolving one. Once computers evolved beyond just basic mathematics and started capturing, storing and manipulating other data the need for search began. Early systems collected data that was somewhat structured in files and databases. Search functions found data quickly within those structures. With the development of relational databases and more complex data capture search the tools for search had to grow. Also the acceptance and use of computers was growing and more and more.
Architecting search within a system has consistently had to recognize simultaneous evolutions. Database tools added the ability to index tables to help search perform better. Search appliances like Wizards emerged for more technically savvy users to pull data from a data source. Multiple levels of searching complexity were emerging. While these searches largely dealt with structured data stored in systems, at the same time this evolution was occurring what cannot be ignored is the emergence of the internet and its impact on search. 

Early on companies like Yahoo profited on the simple concept of locating content. While this wasn’t structure data as in databases internet standards of things like meta-tag’s and other items made it possible for users to find content early on. Searching on the internet allowed users to enter terms and content related to those terms would be returned. Later companies like Google would improve the algorithms and set that industries standard for a time. E-commerce companies were also integrating user shopper experiences with search as a means of driving revenue. So while a user shopped for shoes, related items and previous shopping items would appear in the links and advertising throughout the system. While the motives were different the capture of information and providing relevant data back is essentially an implied search. The evolution of the internet and its potential was impacting local systems.

Users’ expectations were changing as the interaction was to enter in a few terms and that brought back content they wanted to see. At the same time computers continued advancing in hardware and use. Pictures, Videos, art, music files evolved to become more common to be stored on systems. In fact digital has become so big that companies like Kodak have stopped producing film based cameras. Users have embraced and ran with the lower cost and portability of digital media. This new media has presented a new challenge and forced search to evolve in multiple ways again.

Architects and systems were faced with growing use for search.  Users were searching as an exploratory exercise as more complex data and more types of data were being captured. Allowing for the advancement of tools like Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) and reporting tools. Users weren’t looking for specific data as much as looking to see what trends might appear in the data. These tools while technically complex have easy to use interfaces that allow users to review and analyze data. The complexity lies in the architecture and backend. The emergence and development of these tools was a move from appliance parts of a system to search to a full blown system of its own.

Users now expect applications to be able to search both structured and unstructured data. They want to give as little information as possible and quickly find very relevant search results. Algorithms and techniques for searching continue to advance because they must--including incorporating e-commerce like changes in the system and having subtle changes help the customer get to the results they want more quickly. One of the many reasons unstructured data evolved was not only digital media but mobile devices.

This latest evolution has occurred simultaneously with the acceptance of mobile devices. Now users have a high level of portability and connectivity to data. These mobile tools work quickly using touch screen technology and other key changes that impact the user experience for working with data. This has resulted in a need for better performance and system architectures that incorporate different devices, connectivity, and desired results.

Today’s cutting edge searches involve grabbing information from a part of a picture and searching for related information. Searches that work from audio files or live audio and provide related information quickly on portable devices is another technology that has been developed. Users want more with less required of them, resulting in more complex algorithms and models for searching.

Successfully architecting a system means taking a lot of factors into consideration. A successful solution can't overlook what the implementation's search functionality has within an enterprise system. Architecting search as a part of a system today means taking many factors into account. Understanding the user’s expectations and desired results has become critical to the successful use of a system. What devices are targeted for use, what is the complexity of the data, what type of data, and other questions like these are all key to get answered to develop a successful search system. Working with customers to identify the business rules that lead to implicit and explicit searches is important as systems more and more are expected to show relevant data.

The other day I was discussing the finer points of flat file conversion in Application Development (or lack thereof) with one of my colleagues on the Definition 6 Architecture team, and we got into a rather interesting conversation regarding how much of today’s data still gets transmitted via data documents of some kind. Modern programming practice is to transfer data via on-demand services, it's faster, easier, and in most cases much more secure. The truth of the world we live in is that most older systems, and an uncomfortably large number of new systems still  transmit data to business partners across the world using plain old text files filled with data in whatever standard they were supporting when the system was built. How's that for communcation planning? [Note: this practice has a name – Electronic Data Interchange, or EDI, and Microsoft has an exceptional tool for optimizing and synhcronizing these efforts, Biztalk 2010, but that's another post entirely – JT]

Now, my colleague, who shall remain nameless, pointed out that these systems have been functioning without problem for years, so something must be said for the persistence of such file transfer processes. My carefully worded retort was that this perceived stability was the direct result of poor sods like myself working my tail off to keep them going. At this point I feel it is my duty to disclose that while it doesn’t seem to have affected him personally, my colleague was once a long-time employee for an organization many would lay the finger of blame at for the creation and continued use of this file-based data transfer silliness, even in the face of more reliable, efficient alternatives (I won’t disclose the name of this much maligned organization, but it rhymes closely with "aye, be them"). And conceding to my colleagues’ point, this is surely the reasoning why these processes still exist today. (A clearer case of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ you’ll never find)

Thus, like them or not, we as developers are stuck with these processes, and it is up to us to implement solutions that accommodate them as best as possible. Now, a simply staggering majority of these systems rely on FTP transfer to distribute their data files, and typically it is up to the receiving party to pick up these files from an ftp "dropbox" and process them in a timely manner. FTP transfer has its own peculiarities that do not help this process, however, the most prominent of which being unpredictable transfer times and the disparity between the file arriving at the destination dropbox and the file completely downloading in its entirety from its origin. Aha! Herein lays our opportunity.

The problem of uncertain FTP delivery schedules causes file recipients to either delay retrieving the files from the dropbox until a time when they are certain the file will be there, "nightly file transfers," etc., or resort to "polling" to periodically spin up a process to look for the file being in the dropbox, and if it is, begin processing of the received file or pass it along to another process for further manipulation. These practices are inherently flawed and incur extensive overhead in time and system resources while constantly checking to see if the file has arrived, then locking resouceswhile the file finishes downloading before the processing of the files data can finally take place.

With .Ne however, these problems can be solved easily enough – if we can’t change the process, at least we can make it better, right? Let’s get started.

The key to our solution is a little-known member of the .NET System.IO namespace, the FileSystemWatcher class. The FileSystemWatcher does exactly what its name implies – it’s a lightweight object that monitors a directory and raises events to any changes that occur. We’re going to build a small console application and use a FileSystemWatcher to monitor our ftp directory for any new files that get created. Code Segment 1 details our System.IO.FileSystemWatcher implementation.

Code Segment 1

class Program

    {

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            //This should be an actual ftp directory path,

     //preferably from an App.Config file      

            String ftpPath = "path-to-ftp-directory";

 

            //Our watcher! 

            FileSystemWatcher watcher = new FileSystemWatcher(ftpPath);

 

            // Add event handlers for file created event

            watcher.Created += new FileSystemEventHandler(OnCreated);

 

            //Begin watching.

     //you need to set this to enable the FileSystemWater to raise events

            watcher.EnableRaisingEvents = true;

 

            // Code to shutdown the console if the user hits 'q'

            Console.WriteLine("Press 'q' to quit the sample.");

            while (Console.Read() != 'q') ;

        }

 

 

Right, so pretty straight-forward so far, a simple console app in which we setup the directory to be watched, implement a new instance of the FileSystemWatcher class then enable it to raise events whenever anything occurs in that directory. Now, the event we’re clearly interested in here is the Created event, which will fire every time a new ftp transfer arrives in our directory. To react to this Created event we wire up an instance of the FileSystemEventHandler to the watcher’s created event and point it to our method OnCreated, which is outlined in Segment 2.

Code Segment 2

        // Define the event handler

        private static void OnCreated(object source, FileSystemEventArgs e)

        {

            // write file name and arrival time out to the console when new files arrive

            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

 

            sb.Append("File: ");

            sb.Append(e.FullPath);

            sb.Append(" arrived @");

            sb.Append(DateTime.Now.ToShortTimeString());

            sb.Append(". Processing...");

 

            Console.WriteLine(sb.ToString());

 

            //now route the file to where it needs to go.

            ProcessFile(e.FullPath);           

        }

 

Again, fairly straight-forward, the OnCreated method simply reacts to the watcher’s Created event, and allows us to kick off whatever further processing we need to, namely writing out to the console the name and arrival time of the new file, then handing the file off to another method for further processing. Notice the FileSystemEventArgs object in the OnCreated method’s signature – we need to implement this class in order to capture the event, but it also allows us to work with a number of key parameters regarding the watcher.Created event, in particular the e.FullPath property which we’ll use to programmatically work with the newly arrived ftp file. The ProcessFile method is outlined in Segment 3.

Code Segment 3

private static void ProcessFile(String filepath)

    {

        FileInfo file = new FileInfo(filepath);

       

        //Switch to handle different file types

        switch (file.Extension)

        {

            case "txt":                   

                //process text logic here

                break;

 

            case "xml":

                //process xml logic here

                break;

 

            case "csv":

                //process csv logic here

                break;

 

                default:

                    break;

 

            }

 

Ok, so this is the final piece of our solution; we want our console app to be running constantly on our ftp server to watch our ftp dropbox at all times, so we need to be sure it’s as lightweight as possible and doesn’t maintain any internal state whatsoever, otherwise we’re adding extra load to our ftp server, and that’s entirely against what we set out to do in the first place, isn't it?. So let’s not do that.

The ProcessFile method is our routing method to move the file or notify any further services down the line that the file has arrived [an exceptional opportunity to implement the .NET Event Pattern, discussed in my previous post - JT]. We declare a FileInfo class to derive the extension of the file and route the file to a final destination based on file type.  By doing so, our console app never opens the file, never reads it into memory or maintains anything that would drain resources away from our server’s memory or processing pool, so it can run quietly alongside the rest of the server’s workload catching every new file that arrives in our FTP directory, and routing them to their final destination.

Ooo, Aahh.

Now, as simple as this solution is, we need to recognize what this implementation saves us – every time a typical FTP polling process started up, it would need to first gain access to the FTP directory, declare the directory reference in memory, then enumerate all the child directories (even if there weren’t any) followed by enumerating all the files contained in the directory to check if the file the batch process is looking for is there, and because the file transfer cannot be guaranteed to arrive at a specified time, the process would have to execute repeatedly until the file was finally found. Our FileSystemWatcher class, on the other hand simply responds to events that occur within the FTP dropbox, consuming substantially less resources.

So the key for gracefully processing FTP files without having to wait for the entire file to arrive is to process the file asynchronously. Doing so allows the main program to continue receiving file processing requests without having to wait for the code that actually processes the file. .NET provides a number of different avenues to finish that thought with, particularly in .NET 4.0, but that’s a bigger topic I’ll save for a later post. (Oh yes I did)

So to recap, yes we still have to deal with flat file transfers, but at least we can do so in a better manner, can’t we? Oh yes we can.

Date: 7 April 2011
Subject: MI-6
Location: NOT LONDON!!!!

MI-6 is NOT the British Secret Service...it’s the name of the PROMAX/BDA Game Marketing convention in San Francisco.

That’s right, Gamers need marketing too!

And I will be there representing Definition 6 in my role as Grand Inquisitor, interviewing Lloyd Kaufman, President, CEO, Director and Producer of TROMA Entertainment, America’s longest running independent film production company.



You may remember such films as “The Toxic Avenger (1-4),” “The Class of Nuke’em High,” and “Sgt. Kabuki-man, NYPD” (and if you don’t, you should) Well..Lloyd made them all and more.

This guy is an institution (and he’s hilarious) and he has a lot to say about the business, marketing, movie-making and on the serious side...Net Neutrality!

Joining us will be Def 6’s own Jon Accarrino, reprising his role as the Social Media DJ, brining to life everything Lloyd and I talk about on stage.

It should be a great time in history.  Hope you can make it there.

I've traditionally never said anything about a trip to Las Vegas, but in the spirit of shared experiences, I wanted to highlight a few things from CES 2011 that I found worth noting #CES (hangover habit from the conference).  I think out of everything that I saw and heard, the following really stuck out to me: 1) Build a platform 2) Exports are key 3) Droid Tablets 4) Multi Screen TV watching 5) Mashable throws a hell of a party 6) Facilitate Networking to add value

 

1.       Build a Platform - In our unified marketing agency, we talk with customers about paid, earned, and owned media all the time.  We firmly believethat a company should strive to have a robust owned media asset platform upon which to leverage and create additional earned media by adding value and asking others to contribute to their ecosystem.  In effect we want companies and brands to think about developing a platform for future development. # CES brought out many examples (App Stores by TV and Cable operators and Telco), but the one that I found very intriguing was the Ford Sync Developer Community.  The idea that a car company would be embedding within its vehicles a platform for third party developers to provide solutions inside the vehicle is just amazing.  We in America spend so much time in our cars, it is very exciting to see what tools and capabilities we will be handed over the next 24 months.  Personally, I would like the sound cancelation application for long family road trips as well as the "clean and closest bathroom app" – Note: I have two daughters. In a company and brand sense, if you can build a platform for others to add value to, then your customers, suppliers and you benefit and will enjoy a higher value than if you merely communicate with each other.  A platform mentality will encourage you to think about connecting with each other and that is what is required for the always on and always in motion society we live in today.

2.       Exports are key - the Innovations Power Panel was fantastic - I encourage you to take an hour and watch it.

 

The panel was fantastic and talked about many things:  education, tax policy, infrastructure, but the comments regarding Germany's economic strength and focus on Exports really caught my attention.  Applying the thoughts to business and brands; aligning ones company exclusively and daily around producing something those outside your business want and value is a very powerful idea.  I know that is what we should all think about because we are supposed to be customer centric, focused on adding value to others, etc. etc. But much of the time I hear folks talking about their challenges, it has a lot to do about internal stuff and not enough about the export we are making that others value. If we think in terms of being a country, do we want to be an import or export company?  It seems to me that focusing on being a trade surplus organization is better and creates more value for everyone over time.

 

3.      Droid Tablets - the year of the Tablet #CES 2011, that was probably the most tweeted phrase day one and in almost every release about the show. And it certainly was in many ways.  There must have been 1500 different tablet manufacturers and by end of 2012 everyone who wants a tablet in any country will be able to find one that fits their needs, budgets, and networks. But to me the thing that will have the biggest impact will be the Droid Tablet, the free OS and readily available app developers from the Droid phone will make the tablets richer and more robust than any first generation platform ever. Apple will still be "King of the World" and RIM's efforts should be rewarded by corporate users and Samsung has a wonderful new place in the market headed there way. But I predict the Droid Tablet will be much like the AK-47 - the world's workhorse in its category for years to come.

 

 

 

4.       Multi-Screen TV watching - I think that people like to lean back and watch TV and not lean forward point a device at a screen and try to navigate a computer type experience from their couch. And I think people like to have a tablet or laptop on the couch so they can do more than one thing at a time.  So to me the smartest "Smart TV" was the Viera Connect from Panasonic - It took the remote, turned into a tablet and allows you to control the smart internet enabled TV from a computer interface 6 inches form your face and then watch the results on the big screen. It allows you to view content that is in parallel with each other on both screens (it should make Bad Girls Club and Fantasy Football fans more glued than every before); It opens up a whole new world to advertisers, marketers and programmers to be able to have access to both screens in the living room and to add value in new ways not yet "Seen on TV". I'm very excited about what we can do for brands, broadcasters, content creators and consumers with this new multi-screen interaction capability.

 

 

 

5.      Mashable throws on hell of a party - The Mashable Awards started with a great VIP event serving 21 year old McCallan and various meats on a stick, rolled right into a 1000+ person theater with a great DJ team, well produced videos and a great overview of all things social, digital and hip; Followed by an after party in the club and then, and then and then…..Thanks guys, looking forward to Orlando.

 

 

6.       Facilitate Networking to add value -  every sentence for about 72 hours had a #CES when I typed and I found it interesting that on Friday I spent about 10 minutes just watching my TweetDeck column with #CES.  It barely could keep up and was moving about 3 tweets a second and in at least 5-7 different languages.  There was a good amount of PR content from manufactures, but mostly it was comments caught by participants during panels, keynotes, demo's and conversations that were being documented, shared, RT and discussed. I guess we had long format blogging a few times a day three years ago, and press releases and video before that.  The energy that a full community dialoguing continuously and in real time was amazing and empowering.  I sent a lot from @mkogon and my recommendation is that if you have a supplier show, customer event, user conference, sales rally or other major gathering, you incorporate a #hashtag, a social media DJ, large screens, readily available Wi-Fi and encourage your audience to participate via social media. It will make your networking event more valuable and your participants more connected to you and to each other.

 

So there you have it, I've got another post coming about "Who asked you to make my idiot box smart?" and a few others that came from the show.

 

 

It’s December and the end of another year. We all know what that means. Christmas? Wrapping up the fiscal year? Coming up with New Year’s resolutions we won’t keep? No, my friend. No. Most importantly it’s the time of year for social media and the blogosphere to flood with Top [insert # here] of [insert random subject here] Lists! The Top 6 Most Googled Terms! The Top 10 Most Watched YouTube Videos! The Top 8 Most Popular Hashtags! The Top 12 Most Photographed Sandwiches! Gone are the days when Top 10 lists were the exclusive monopoly of the Ranking Dictator David Letterman! I don’t know about you, but it’s hard to imagine what could be more exciting. So I decided to create my own contribution to this joyous annual ranking extravaganza. And I’ve based this list on highly extensive research that includes thousands of my own opinions, hundreds of my own anecdotal experiences, and dozens of my own biases.

I’m quite certain that if all Twitter and Facebook posts with content that falls in one of the below 10 categories suddenly ceased that the entire world of social media would either collapse upon itself like a black hole or it would would see about as much use as telegram services do today... lots of RT's with cricket sounds.

10. Top X of Y Lists. I’m pretty certain that practically anyone can take about 5 minutes and write a list of X number of Y things on a blog then post it to Twitter and get a large number of click-throughs and RT’s.  I mean… you’re reading this one and I’m totally just making it all up as I go along with zero actual or real research to back it up.

9. Posting links to funny videos on YouTube. This is hilarious. This is too funny. Totally LOL! What’s interesting to me is how many of us roll our eyes at our parents for their constant barrage of forwarded e-mail humor, but we think nothing of posting our own barrage of it to social media each and every day.

8. Posting cute pictures of your kids and funny things they said. My kids are adorable, dammit. And everyone must know this. And if you don’t comment or reply with things like “Adorable!” and “So cute!” I will shun you by refusing to comment on how yummy that picture of your arugula salad looks. Take that.

7. Individual content curation: The Human RSS. Who needs trained and experienced content editors that might actually have journalism degrees and do stupid things like verify sources and accuracy of information when you can rely upon that guy whose avatar is a close up of the upper left quarter of his face?

6. Celebrity Obituaries. What?! OMG! Another celebrity died? Quick! Pls RT! And don’t forget to add in your own personal tribute or reference memorable quotes.

5. Letting everyone know what new gadget you got. I mean, what good is having some new tech bling if you can’t show off your technical superiority to people you never talked to in high school or 736 of your Followers that you never met?

4. What you “Like”, where you are traveling to, what you are eating, what you are watching, what you are reading, what the weather is like where you are at, and who you are hanging out with. I unfortunately know more mundane details of the lives of people I never actually met, seldom see or barely ever spoke to then I really ever cared to know. It also scares me to realize that I now hear real-world conversations where people refer to themselves in the 3rd person stating they "Like this".

3. Apple rumors and anticipating Apple releases. If it wasn’t for debating what features might be in the next iPhone or complaining about the lack of Flash support on the iPad, Twitter could probably reduce its server capacity by about 10%. Never before have people spent so much effort complaining about products that they collectively and eagerly spend so much money on.

2. Opinions on the daily breaking news. Because all the talk shows, pundits, broadcast news commentators, and daily water cooler conversations really just didn’t give us enough of other people’s opinions on which to base our own.

1. Discussing social media. Seriously… has any other medium ever been used so reflexively to discuss itself? Imagine if the largest percent of your phone calls were to discuss phones and phone related technology or if most of your e-mails were focused on the subject of e-mail, e-mail clients, and e-mail servers. Pretty insane when you think about it.

Of course, I just realized I forgot to include a big one: complaining about products and services in general. But I only want 10 items in my list. #FAIL

All that said, please don't think this means I see social media as worthless or a waste of time. It is an incredibly powerful medium that really has changed the way people communicate and it has connected people with each other in a way that is truly staggering to consider. It can be an amazing way to gain insights, it has forever changed the nature and control of information flow, and it has empowered individuals and movements across the globe. It can connect consumers and brands in a more personal fashion than almost any preceeding medium. It has placed the pulse of the moment in any given place from any given person's perspective at the potential fingertips of billions. And IMO it's really just the beginning. So has anyone heard what the specs are on the rumored camera that's suppose to be in the next version of the iPad?

Happy New Year!

Conversations are happening at record pace all around us across all channels. How do you determine which conversations to listen to? When should you pay attention? How should you respond? How can you start your own?

As a unified marketer, the art of establishing the framework to allow customers, prospects, and employees to have a conversation about your brand is increasingly challenging. When successful, the rewards can be great for all parties involved. So the question is, how do you fuel the conversation?

Here are a few core items to get you started: Stop thinking single media.

People don’t consume messages in a single channel anymore. A personal example of the number of media I consumed (several simultaneously) this morning. On the way to the airport, I was listening to the radio, viewing billboards, reading personal and work email, texting, checking in on 4Square, and checking my Facebook newsfeed.  If I stop and break down my goals by channel, what were my goals? This is what I have to understand as a marketer in order to deliver the right message at the right time.

• Radio: Morning traffic/weather updates enroute to airport (How late was my flight or I going to be??)

• Outdoor: Boredom in the traffic I was hearing about on the radio and sitting in on the interstate

• Personal Email: Plans with friends for the week and planning Halloween activities for the coming weekend

• Work Email: Trying to stay on top of the normal Monday flurry of emails as clients are back in the office so that I wouldn’t be too far behind after a few hours of ‘being unconected’

• Texting: Normal conversations with my inner most circle of friends

• 4Square: Seeing who else was at the airport? Any specials that look good? Getting those early week points on the leaderboard (and trying to earn my Mile High Badge in-flight).

• Facebook: Sharing frustrations about flight delays and seeing what the larger group of virtual friends have been up to since 11:30 last night

The reality is that I was open to receive marketing message during very few of these activities but I was absorbing brands every step of the way.

If you don’t know your target intimately you will be hard pressed to truly engage them.

A unified approach to messaging is essential!

Quit Talking To Me

I don’t trust you and I’m going to ignore what you have to say about your own brand. As a consumer, all I want you to do is have the best product or service possible and allow me to find the information I want, when I want it EASILY.

Let your customers tell me about what you do and why it’s superior.  I will automatically trust them more even if I don’t have a relationship with them because I see them being infinitely more genuine and unbiased.

As a brand, provide the framework for me to silently observe the conversation, obtain facts, and choose if I want to hear from you.

Be Different and Human

The one thing I consistently feel like I’m not getting enough of is human connection. 90% of the time I become loyal to a brand because of its personality or the connection I have and I guarantee you I’m not alone.  Brands are humanized differently based on the channel they are speaking in but the persona must be consistent to reach me, get my attention, and keep delivering.

All of this being said, here are the key takeaways to achieve success in my opinion:

If you’re a marketer – quit planning by channel.  Decide which conversations you want to fuel, where they occur, and build the framework:

• If you’re a brand – know your customers and who you want to be your customers.  You have to go way beyond demographics in today’s world – you need to get intimate. Pull it all together, Behavioural, Psychographic, Attitudinal. Put a name and face on these personas – it will help.  Secondly, if your product or service sucks, fix it!  You can’t afford to waste any more time.

• If you're a consumer – keep expressing your opinion and thoughts. Good, bad, confused, etc., because your peers care what you have to say. And you (collectively) continue to shape the world I work in and we all live in.  The conversation I’m trying to fuel comes from you (and it makes work challenging and fun)!

These are my thoughts on fueling the conversation. As you begin migrating to a unified marketing approach, the conversation becomes more critical to building experiences that unite brands and people.

What do you think?

(Image Credit: Pratts Fuel by conorwithonen)

I’ve been thinking a lot about generation gaps lately. Maybe it was celebrating my 40th birthday (or celebrating my dad’s 70th)? Maybe it is my disbelief that my youngest daughter is now 4 and prefers my iPad over watching television? Regardless, this age thing has been on my mind lately.

As a unified marketing agency, we tend to look at the issue of generational gaps through the lenses of a brand, a consumer and a marketer all the time. The most striking view for me is the world view, how do age gaps across the world affect how we consume information, engage with media, talk with each other, or conduct ourselves daily?

WIIFM - What’s In It For Me?

My dad used to always say “Everyone listens to the same radio station - WIIFM – the ‘What’s In It For Me?’ station.” When you’re selling something or marketing a product, you need to tune into WIIFM if you want your audience to pay attention.

We’re all shaped by the media we interact with over the years, which starts out when you’re young. For a lot of us, our first interaction with media was via a radio, others the television and now – as is the case with my daughter – through consumer electronics like iPads. It’s fascinating to think about the long-term impact of this technology on the next generation.

Young children right now are the pure definition of a ‘digital native’. They will always know a world where all answers, media, content and so on are accessed in real-time in the palm of their hands. I’m probably most curious about the social networking aspects of this digital lifestyle, as they’ll grow up as more of a “we” generation.

They’ll have friends they’ve never met, but respect their opinions and support each other through Facebook, share memories through Flickr and listen to music through Pandora – of course, they’ll use platforms that haven’t been invented yet too.

I believe this shift in interpersonal communication will break down stereotypes and biases that have long existed. Perhaps things like house size, skin color, race, religion or gender will matter less to the social networked generation.  Maybe they’ll care more about freedom and access – and they’ll want their voices to be heard, because their ideas are valid and their age is immaterial. We as marketers need to take these shifts into consideration, because it influences so much about how purchasing decision are made.

Remember the Good Ole Days?

If the older generations are movie stars and heroes, then I propose Millennials are the Composers and Conductors. That’s what they do most – they connect with friends and associates. They share information, and things they find funny, interesting, sad or provoking. They do it all the time, constantly regardless of what else they are doing. It is the thing they are always doing. Children today can walk, chew gum and text at blazing speeds.

Your TV spot isn't interrupting their TV viewing, the problem is the TV show isn't as interesting to them as their friends are (if you don't believe me, look at all the success when a show incorporates live social into broadcast vs. those that don't).  You don't have advertising clutter - you have complete abandonment of caring about your promise. They don't care who is watching the details of their life, because they find the details of their friends more interesting - and sharing is caring. And they only mention your product or service if they love it (okay, “Like” it) or hate it.
 
If you really want to be part of their day, add sound, video and content to the ecosystem of the millennial. Make it easy to share, comment, edit and reuse, so they can conduct it into their community.  Put yourself out there so that by finding you, they can be more informed, funny, and provocative, and they will share that with their greatest gift, their relationships with others. And if you digitally unify your life into theirs, they will buy your product and service and give you their money.  More importantly, you won't be an interruption or a bother, you will be a welcomed friend and don't we all just want to be "Liked" more?!

Regardless of the generation stereotypes you fall in, we’ve all become multi-taskers. As marketers, we need to realize that for multi-taskers to care about us, we have to make ourselves part of their fragmented lives. It’s this multi-sensory marketing that will enable multi-taskers to be more efficient.

If you want to be part of their day, add sound, video and content to the ecosystem of the millennial.

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.

Part Two:  The National Basketball Association (NBA)

In Part One of my look at the presence of natural social networks in sports, I looked at social media's impact on professional soccer. In this part, I'll look at the National Basketball Association.

Let's start by taking a look at the top corporate brands on Facebook:



At first glance, it appears that one of the most effective tactics utilizing social media is providing promotional privileges for fans to get their pick-me-up.  Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and Red Bull are all in the top five. What can brands in other industries learn from the natural social networks formed by sports?  

The NBA, at #9 on the list, is actually ranked 1st in “Page Value” by the same site.  Its success in the social media space is likely driven by its success across the globe, with a powerful fan nation both online and off.  

For over three decades the league has been expanding internationally with marketing programs growing the game in over 240 different countries.  

The international growth demonstrates the sport’s ability to translate across culture, gender, and level of play. In an interview with Emilio Collins, the Senior VP of Global Marketing Partnerships for NBA Entertainment, he explains how the nature of the game facilitates social inclusion. “The game can be played a variety of ways, 1 on 1, indoors or outdoors, male or female.”  

Participation fueled the craving for content, which proved profitable for the NBA.  In fact, Collins cites content distribution as the NBA’s number one source of international revenue.  150 different broadcast partners and numerous highlight shows provide fans their daily fix of the league’s core attributes: passion, teamwork, intensity, history of the franchises, and tradition of the league.  Combined, this is the caffeine equivalent to sports fans.  

Most importantly, the league has maintained its brand identity throughout its development.  Collins states this simply, “Basketball is the NBA.  One entity, one brand associated with the sport.”  The sweat, tears, and slam dunks all make up the National Basketball Association, and the fan nation follows religiously.

So what can other brands learn from the NBA?  “Make your consumers as passionate about your brand as you are,” suggests Collins.  Find those defining attributes that make you brand stand out, and offer a powerful identity to encapsulate those attributes.  

For example, take the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, cited as the turning point in the NBA’s international growth by Collins.  This is when the world met the Dream Team, setting the stage for the perfect storm of sport, strategy, and brand.  “Kids got to see how inspirational the sport can be, and they saw the domination of our players.  And as a result, we saw all points of our business grow—the distribution of media, participation rates, and the increase of international players,” said Collins.  In effect, the NBA only had 17 international players in 1992.  Now they have 85.  

Regardless of industry, businesses can learn a great deal from the NBA’s success.  More companies need to find passion in their product or service offering and package this into one voice, one brand.  Once established, this brand should serve as Team Captain to employees, fans, and followers, directing the entire team down a path to victory.

Just as athletes communicate during the game to adjust the game plan on the fly, utilize social media to listen to your consumers and respond with innovative marketing strategies.  Finally, commit… to your team, to your fans, and to the game plan.  The NBA has done just this, and fans and teams alike are enjoying its success.

“6 Things” is a list of things I've come across that I find interesting, inspiring, adventurous, or just plain cool. I’ll be publishing these fairly regularly, so keep an eye out.

It's been a little while since my last "6 Things" post. It's not that I haven't had lots of cool stuff ooze through the interweb onto my screen, it's just that I wanted to get my CAT/Clio posts out. And besides, absence makes the heart grow fonder... or is that absinthe?

This list features 6 awesome time-sucking activities I've come across recently. They aren't all new, but if you haven't had the pleasure of using these to fill up your copious free time, then you are in for a treat. Actually, the real question is, "are these a waste of time?" If you are engaged and entertained, is that not a worthwhile activity? Who's to say, but if you get caught at work spending your time on these... you don't know me.

Most of these are tied to brands. Do they do anything for them? Much of marketing is building awareness, so in that sense, many of these are successful (but not all). Will they lead to better business? That's hard to say, but they probably aren't hurting it.

1. Who doesn't want a paper head?
Converse has posted an application on their blog that allows you to make a paper mask of yourself.  Here's mine.

It took some time, but it wasn't difficult. You can print on 8 1/2 by 11 paper, but only if you are making a mask for your cat (it's very small). 11x17 will yield a nearly life-size mask (that's what I used). If you have access to a large format printer, a giant paper head would be awesome.

Does it do anything for Converse? Well, they are really a lifestyle brand, so I say yes. Their blog is all about be cool, hip, and funky... and this fits right in.

2. Rube Goldberg meets Jeopardy
To promote their Chrome browser, Google created a hybrid video/trivia game.

 

It uses a cool YouTube feature that lets you play multiple movies in a sequence and interleaves little trivia games between them. The object is to get through the course as quickly as possible.

It's fun, uses Google services (search and YouTube), and it gets the message out that chrome is fast (over and over, in fact). Will it make you download chrome? It might. They provide a handy download link right on the page.

3. Drink a fake beer, win a real prize.

To promote Strongbow beer, they poured a virtual pint and invited everyone to take a sip.

4. Do a little dance.

You, too, can be a video DJ, creating a seizure inducing video montage that you can send to all your friends.



5. Cast you and your friends in a film trailer.

"Lost in Val Sinestra" is a horror film directed and starring you and your friends. Well, at least that's what the trailer says. If you have a Facebook account, create your own. 



Sure Pixar is great, but have you thought that if Buzz Lightyear would just drop a few more F-bombs it would be high-larious. Well, now is your chance to script a 3D movie your way.

These are not new, but they are still fun to make and watch. Between the too-cute characters and the almost creepy vocalizations, it's hard not to love them. You can create free movies using a limited character set. "Premium" characters cost money (which I suppose is how they stay in business). But even if you only play around and never actually "publish" a movie, it can be hours of fun.

(warning: Most of these movies are rated M for mature... although clearly the people making them are not.)

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.

This is the final post of a series on my insights from two conferences I attended: The Clio Awards Conference and Creativity and Technology (CAT). If you haven't done so already, please read the first and second, or you'll completely lose the plot.

There's been a lot of talk about what will be the next big thing in the digital world: augmented reality, location-based services, geo-tagging, etc. All of these things were mentioned at the conferences with varying degrees of excitement. But what became clear is that these are all expressions of what is really going to be the big news over the next couple of years... merging the digital and the physical world.

I know a few people (a very few) who can legitimately claim not to have a digital life. They aren't part of any social network, they barely use email or text, and they would actually rather stand in a line to hand a teller a piece of paper than bank online (crazy, right?). Conversely, I know a some people who seem to only have a digital life. They do everything online, and their social activity is confined to Facebook, chat rooms, and MMORPGs. But most of us live comfortably in the middle, navigating on and off line between our digital and physical lives.


So it should come as no surprise that any technology or creative that breaks the boundaries between the digital and physical worlds is making a big splash. More mobile devices, GPS ubiquity, faster web access, and advances in graphics processing and display technology are all helping to push this wave.

Whether it is something as simple as being able to geo-tag your photos or as cool as having your message chalked on the Tour de France route,moving messages and experiences beyond the digital is the hottest way to engage people. It moves the experience beyond the bits and bytes of the digital world and gives your messaging something tangible to which people can relate. Interestingly, most information in the digital sphere has a much greater longevity than it's physical counterparts and yet people put greater value on the physical.  I believe this is because no matter how plugged in we are, we still live in the world and physical things seem more "real" to us and thus have greater value.

The exciting thing is that there are increasing opportunities to leverage the advantage of digital with the appeal of physical. Advances in mobile AR (e.g. Juniao and Layar), interactive projection maps, "controller-free" systems, or real-time effects... things that used to be seen only in sci-fi movies... are becoming possible. Decades ago, the promise was of virtual worlds we could escape into, but bringing the wonders of the digital realm into the everyday world is proving to be much more interesting.

 

You’ve probably heard about location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla, but have you tried Pegshot yet? Instead of answering the question “Where are you?”, Pegshot tells your friends “What’s happening where you are?” by enabling users to quickly share videos and photos with their social networks.  The application allows users to “peg” a shot from their location and post it to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Digg and Posterous in real-time.  

There are many ways in which brands can take advantage of Pegshot to increase awareness and engagement with their organization. Pegshot is especially well-suited for promoting events as it facilitates quick and easy sharing of photos and videos in real-time, allowing immediate visibility on the social web.  This means your audience can interact with your events while they are happening even if they cannot be there. 

Real-time sharing also increases pass along rates since, attendees are usually active on social networks at events and can quickly view your content and re-tweet it, “Like” or comment on it.  Not only can content be published on your social media accounts, but Pegshot even allows you to post photos and videos directly to your company’s website.  In most cases, companies allow only their employees to publish content to their website to ensure that all material is appropriate.   

To take advantage of Pegshot at your next event, follow these easy steps:

1. Create your event.

Add your event by filling out the details of your event including the name, date, your Twitter hashtag, and location.  Your event will appear on any user’s mobile device in the surrounding area.

2.  Create a branded landing page for your event.

You can create a custom branded landing page for you event or choose your Twitter background.




3. Promote your event and add contributors.

Pegshot offers a custom registration page so you can collect as many contributors as possible. You can use this custom landing page to promote your event across social networks as well as your website, email and print marketing initiatives. 






4. Capture your event as it’s happening. 

Now you’re ready to begin pegging photos and videos of your event in real-time.  Your contributors as well as any Pegshot users in the vicinity can share content of your event which will be displayed on your custom landing page in addition to social networks and your website (if permission is granted.)


 

Part One: Professional Soccer

What is it about sports that make “social networking” so natural, so effortless?  More importantly, what can brands in other industries learn from sports as they spend marketing dollars to acquire digital fans?  A recent attempt by Syncapse to estimate the value of a fan on Facebook has resulted in an average worth of $138 per fan.  The study further states that:

• On average, fans spend an additional $71.84 on products for which they are fans compared to those who are not fans
• Fans are 28% more likely than non-fans to continue using the brand
• Fans are 41% more likely than non-fans to recommend a fanned product to their friends

Given the demonstrated value, I sought out Casey Romany, an Account Executive for Soccer United Marketing (SUM) to uncover their ingredients for success.  SUM holds all commercial rights to both Major League Soccer and the United States Soccer Federation, including the men’s and women’s national teams that are playing in the 2010 World Cup.  In addition, they hold rights to Mexican National Team games played in the United States, the CONCACAF Gold Cup™, and InterLiga.™  

SUM just launched the new MLSnet.com, which has been years in the making.  Obviously, they are not ahead of the technology curve, but as Casey describes, perhaps it is because they have never needed to be. 

Soccer fans are extremely loyal and craved a centralized location to read about the sport.  They flocked to the new website where they can read about international matches, local MLS games, and their favorite players from all over the world. 

“We needed to take control of the space.  A fan would have to go to so many different leagues, teams, and national sport sites to access information about soccer,” said Casey.  SUM then supported their investment by hiring some of the biggest soccer journalists, affectionately called “soccer heads,” to tell the sport’s stories.  Genius.

By building one platform for all of soccer and capitalizing on its protagonists, its epic battles, and its gossip, SUM has pulled together a social network so powerful that other brands invest marketing dollars to gain access to the soccer fans that SUM has unified.  When a multi-million dollar business model also includes a way to monetize your marketing and PR tactics, it’s clear your fans are worth more than $138 each.  

The key takeaway:  Soccer, and the rest of the sports industry, is in the business of telling stories.  Strong, passionate, exciting, tales of victory, tragedy, and legends in the making.   Shakespeare only wishes he had it this easy.

And by comparison, fan pages on Facebook are flat.  Most connections are superficial—purely discount driven, and without true loyalty.  Where are the stories?  The passion?  Brands forget that they are selling more than products, and they lose depth in the relationships when they set the expectation that being a fan means getting a price reduction.  I’m not arguing that this method isn’t a great way to build numbers, but I am arguing that it is a fragile way to build loyalty.    

In my opinion, here are a few brands that have succeeded:  

• Starbucks: Starbucks offers promotions, but more importantly, the page also connects to those fans that are socially and environmentally aware— a strong attribute of Facebook users within that 18-24 demographic segment.  Maybe this is why a Syncapse report revealed that Starbucks fans are likely to spend $238.22, more than triple the $71.84 average.  In addition, their photo albums tell vivid, engaging stories about the company, the products, and the leadership (Check out Howard Schultz’ trip to Rwanda).

• Southwest Airlines: As over-the-top as the flight attendants can be, it is refreshing to witness personality in the airline industry.  The persona is also displayed full force on the Southwest Airlines Facebook page, and fans eat this up (a relatively safe assumption given the number of times fans ask, “How do I work for Southwest?”).   Another thing I like about the page is how they speak to checked bags like they are passengers, personifying a service they offer.  I value my personal belongings on a trip, and everything on this page reminds me that Southwest Airlines does also.

• Nike Football (Soccer): Admittedly chosen due to its soccer content, this site still exemplifies the art of storytelling.  The videos instigate a real emotional connection, and the calls to action are extremely powerful.  The Nike Red campaign is building the same momentum as the LiveStrong campaign did $47 million dollars ago.  This page screams “Join the team, unite as a fan of the sport, rally behind the cause, and be loyal to the Nike brand.”

Soccer United Marketing has united fans in a way brands can emulate.  If you are looking to build loyalty, why focus solely on the collection of fickle bargain hunters?  Present your product information by telling the details about the hard work and research during development, or build stories around employees and spokespersons similar to fiery sports features on players and teams.  Most importantly, let your fans know that you have a heart; you are human; and you are the hero, not the villain.  Like.

I’m proud. 

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!

What’s the biggest buzzword around social networking right now? If you guessed location-based services, it would be hard to argue with you. If we ask you again in six months, chances are good you’ll answer the social graph.

The social graph questions keep coming up in client and prospect meetings. What is the social graph? What do we need to know about the social graph? How can we use the social graph to deepen relationships with customers? So on and so forth...

While I can’t answer every question you have about the social graph, I can help to start framing the conversation for executives struggling to gain a deeper understanding of the impact social graphs will have on their business.

For starters, the social graph is just a fancy way of describing relationships or connections with people, places and things. It’s a map of your social connections and preferences – a visual data model if you will, with hubs and nodes. For you, your social graph could be the Connections you have on LinkedIn, the places you’ve checked in on FourSquare, or the brands you’ve ‘liked’ on Facebook.

For illustrative purposes, there a few dozen lacrosse fans who are my Friends on Facebook. How many of them are from upstate New York? Syracuse fans? Of those, how many also listened to a lot of grunge in college, now live in Atlanta and work in marketing for an integrated interactive agency?

Granted, there’s probably not another one of me – at least not that specific, but you can see the potential. You’ve never been able to slice and dice data with this level of precision before. It’s this unprecedented level of targeting that gets innovative marketers excited, while privacy advocates reach for their pitchforks and torches.

Of course, my example above only illustrates relationships between connections and doesn’t get into activity, preference or myriad other social graphs that can be linked to one another. For example, who likes the same things or has been the same places as me? Who’s reading this article at the same time you are? These are questions you will be able to answer as social graphs get more sophisticated.

Where Did The Social Graph Come From?

Social graph has been popularized by Facebook, the world’s largest social network and the company most likely to serve as the epicenter for social graphs. While Facebook has plans to be the only social graph, recent announcements like its “Open Graph” suggest the company is happy remaining the epicenter of all social activity online. Plus, it’s unrealistic that Facebook could sustain a monopoly over the social graph – we all want to use other stuff.

With offerings like “Open Graph”, any electronic asset online can be linked to an individual’s social graph. In the months to come, look for this to include every place you go, everything you do, and everything you buy.

While Facebook has a lot of influence, there are no rules to the social graph. Any piece of social data can be woven into your graph to provide a more accurate picture of the interdependencies between your relationships and preferences. Privacy concerns aside (a future post perhaps), this stuff is truly amazing.

In the first wave of the Web, we were excited to discover new websites via links to other sites or search results. Early social networks encouraged us to link to one another, which dramatically accelerated our discovery of mutual relationships and made networking (the human kind) much faster – and in many ways enjoyable. Now everything is getting out there.

What’s All This Mean for Business?

For starters, you’ll start to have a crystal clear view into who your potential and current customers are. In the short-term, this will provide you with tremendous targeting advantages over your competition. For the 1st time ever, you’ll be able to customize incentives for all the 32 year old homemaker motor cross fans that have purchased a tofu burger from you in the past year.

Keep in mind, the more accurate you can target customers, the more accurate customers can target you. It is yet to be determined how consumers will react to the knowledge that they are your best customer. How much longer will it be before Foursquare mayors start demanding more incentives for the role they play in your viral marketing? What happens when Blippy users start demanding special incentives for all the purchases they’ve made?
These are good problems to have. Smarter brands and smarter consumers always forces us to innovate and push the needle farther. And who doesn’t love a good challenge?

Bottom line? The social graph takes a lot of the fun out of the guessing game of life – learning about people and things over time. Only time will tell whether or not instant gratification is a good thing or not. As marketers, it’s hard not to get excited about the potential to target with the greatest accuracy, reliability and ease ever. Bring it on.

At the same time, let’s tread forward lightly. We don’t want to create such huge concerns over privacy that regulation and oversight come in to drain the life out of the creative process.

What do you think? Are social graphs a good thing or a bad thing? Do you want people to know what kind of ice cream you like or what kind of car you drive? How much sharing is too much?

The adage “A picture is worth a thousand words” is widely attributed to Frederick R. Barnard, who published a piece extolling the effectiveness of graphic images in advertising titled "One look is worth a thousand words", in Printer's Ink, December 1921. And while certain devices are rendering printed publications somewhat obsolete, the immediacy and therefore power of a quality still image will never be deemed old-fashioned.

Speaking of such devices, in this brilliant iPad demonstration, a friend cheers on her teammate who is competing in a national level dog agility competition while her brother receives his Master’s Degree.

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.