Last night, Definition 6 hosted the PromaxBDA Emerging Media Workshop to talk about trends for 2012.  Presenters ConnectTV, Crimson Hexagon and Google+ talked about what the broadcast community needs to know as they plan for 2012, including how social TV will become more integral into programming, how data (especially social media data) will evolve and the importance for communication planning - right message, to the right audience, at the right time. 
What truly came out of the event (besides great networking and an excuse to eat pizza while drinking beer and wine) was that unified marketing is critical to the success of any brand.  Whether it's on-air content, social media or other owned media online properties, by leveraging the data we can now gather, unifiying your marketing message into the proper channels will exponentially amplify your message and increase awareness around your show, promotion, event or any other marketing objectives.

Google+ showed examples of this by using a simple story about a guy who had just visited Boston, and was asked "how was the trip?"  By Google's explanation, the answer is dependent on the person asking the question. If it was the guy's mother, his response would probably be drastically different than the answer he gives to his buddies, or even his co-workers.  This idea of the right message to the right audience and the right time, is exactly how we look at marketing and branding at Definition 6.  Our unified marketing approach is just that - leverages data to communicate brand messages appropriately to its core customers, in the proper environments and at the right time. 



Thanks again to PromaxBDA for hosting their event here at our offices!

All across the internet today websites are taking a stand against censorship. Resources such as Wikipedia, Google,  Reddit.com, and Craigslist are all blacking out  content in protest against the SOPA and PIPA  acts. Washington, DC has already begun to buckle this week towards the public outcry, but that hasn’t stopped a whole lot of people from making a voice for themselves today.

So, you've been downsized or made redundant. But you're certainly not ready to throw in the towel.

You've been paid lots of money over the years by some big company where you learned and refined the exact skills they needed you to have in order to make their business work.

Now it's your turn to do it for yourself. But where do you start? You've always had the company to give you business cards, cell phones, laptops, desktops, probably an office or a cubicle, and maybe an assistant and an expense account.

Now it's all gone!

But it's really not if you know what to do.

The most important thing to remember is...Your Name is your Brand!

Your skills are still there and your experience has taught you how to hone them.

Here are 5 practical starting points to get your personal brand going.

1.  Register yourself as a company or a partnership (first name last name company) This is easy to do, but you may have to wait in line at City Hall for a while.

2. Get your own URL. (You can lock that down at any number of place like name.com. Own your name if you can with your first name & last name.com (joeschmoe.com). Make a basic web page (you can do that a places like use.com).  Make it simple and use your new URL as the title (JoeSchmoe.com)

3.Get your own e-Mail address appropriate to your URL. firstname@firstnamelastname.com (you can do this for your business at google Apps) (Joe@joeschmoe.com)

4.  Print business cards that are very simple. Your name, your URL, your e-mail address, and your mobile phone number

5.  Start a Facebook fan page and a Twitter Page for your company. Show links to them on your website. Make a Linkedin page and get someone to do a Wikipedia page for you.

After you have populated your sites and pages with your expertise, experiences and some examples of your work (make sure you use video), get out there and network.  

Hand out your cards, talk up what you can do for a potential client.  Get their card....and then...Follow-Up.

A great example of personal branding is the recent campaign by Matt Epstein called "Google Please Hire Me" where he created a website and a video all focused on landing a job at Google.  He even worked his personal brand into the URL playing up the double entendre of "ME" to reference his initials.



TalentZoo also released an article last week entitled, "10 Strategies to Reinvent Your Personal Brand" which outlines many of the topics I touched on above.  In fact, it even further discusses ways in which you can improve your personal brand by being a catalyst or being a source of great knowledge.  In this day and age, you need to market yourself even more to differentiate yourself from the ever-growing talent pool.

Of course you need a strategy and you must understand how to use all of these tactics...but you've got to start somewhere.

Now let's get this party started.

I like Google+. +1.
 
It’s interesting to see how many people are almost afraid to say so, stick their neck out, or venture to say this is going to make it. I’m guessing this is mostly because they scrambled to praise Google Wave, and Google Buzz and were later proven wrong. And they were still recovering from Marketer’s PTSD from their ventures into Second Life.
 
But I’m willing to say I think Google+ will be a hit.  

There are so many thinks I disLike and -1 about Facebook: their abhorrent privacy practices, the way they try to decide who my friends are and whose posts I should see, the way they make control over selective posting difficult (the big difference with how Google implemented Circles is usability), the way they make grouping people difficult, their immature handling of API updates, their authoritarian control over brand flexibility on their site, the minimal real estate they offer brands while still applying extensive limitations on use, the fact they insist on it being a destination site instead of an integrated part of your overall web experience, and the fact that I simply don’t trust them. Using Facebook and developing for it feels like a massive step backward in time to the days of AOL and Prodigy.
 
Google+ definitely has a lot of room for growth and improvement. But there’s so much to like. I love having a do-over on my friends list, there are many people I didn’t Friend because I barely knew them but I would connect with them on Google+ and just put them in the circle I felt comfortable with. I love the ease of control over friend/follower categorization and the ease and obviousness of selective posting. I love the ease of export and that it’s termed Data Liberation and Google Takeout, the ease of Circle views is awesome, the very free form posting ability, the fact they have made it an integrated part of your web experience, and not just a destination site with Like buttons funneling to it.  Mashable published a great cheat sheet for Google+ that you can check out, too.
 
It needs a Wall, an iPhone app, and maybe a few Profile improvements. I really want a hashtag equivalent. Lots of work to do on how brands can use it to engage their audiences. Really the main misses in Google+ are what they haven’t yet done but could easily do, what they have implemented I really like.  It lools like a lot of the stuff is already in the works, too as seen on Geek.com article.
 
I have big and pretty well founded hopes that they will be far better about how they handle API updates and major changes for those of us that want to develop for their platform. I believe they will be far more flexible about how they allow brands to build in and around their platform or just incorporate it into theirs. That alone will keep me hoping this makes it. And I think this could be a major Trojan horse for expansion of Android and Chrome market share.
 
I think Facebook will be around and competing for a good while and will remain very relevant. They’ve gained too much market share and mindshare and too many users to just go away. But I think they have a very real competitor. By contrast, you don’t hear Twitter users constantly pleading for a new Twitter or a Twitter competitor. But you hear it all the time from users of Facebook. That’s not a good position to be in, especially when someone the size and caliber of Google actually releases something that’s pretty equivalent and compelling.
 

Earlier this week, I attended the BrightcovePLAY Conference in Boston. If you know anything about Brightcove, you know they have something to do with online video. As such, the conference talked a lot about online video, and I’m about to do a little of the same.

We’re going to do a fairly quick, informal poll. Raise your hand if you watch online video? Ok, keep your hand up if you have a smartphone or tablet device? And hands still up, how many of you watch video content from your smartphone or tablet device? Yep, that’s what I thought.

Current statistics state that online video accounts for 50% of all traffic on the internet (which makes sense, considering YouTube is the number two most-used search engine after Google). Those same statistics say that 25 million Americans watching online video also do so from their smartphone or tablet device. Consider this: In 2010, 31% of people own a smartphone, which is up from 23% in 2009. Currently, 8% of the American population owns some type of tablet device, and that is expected to jump to 27% in the next year as more companies release their versions across different operating systems.

So what does this tell us? It tells us that online video, particularly mobile video, is becoming increasingly important for video content generators. Fairly obvious, given the statistics I threw out, right? (Let’s hope so.)

It is no longer a matter of “I want to watch X when I get home”; it is “I want to watch X on my nearest screen.” It doesn’t matter if your nearest screen is a smartphone, tablet, PC or even TV – either way, people are transitioning from delayed gratification of watching when and where media is being pushed to them, but rather instant gratification of watching when and where they are pulling media to their (mobile) devices.

As a content-generator, that means you must work to limit or (even better) remove any barriers that keeps the user from getting to the desired content -- your content. Your mobile content.

Some things to consider: Does your site only render video in Flash? If so, that means you’re missing the nearly 25% of smartphone users that own an Apple iPhone and 75% of the tablet users on an iPad – I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t exactly scream “edge case” to me.

Is your site optimized to be mobile-friendly? Easy to navigate with touch-screen controls? Adaptive bitrate streaming so you deliver the best quality video no matter if the user is on a 3G network or connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot?

This doesn’t mean that you have to change your desktop website experience that was built with a specific experience in mind. It means you can't just expect users to navigate your site as-is from their mobile device. Nor can you create one mobile version and expect it to work on all devices – different operating systems, different screen sizes, and different purpose.

I know, you’re starting to grab your calculator and your eyes are bugging out about how much that is all going to cost. Customization gets expensive. But what is more expensive? Losing out on your target demographic because your mobile experience is cumbersome or not available at all. (And there are great options available for customizing content for mobile devices – Brightcove just launched their new AppCloud platform this week.)

Bottom line? If your video content is not available when and where your viewers want to consume it, and if you don’t make it easy for them to do so, you lose the opportunity. Which means lost revenue.

Another great Ragan event took place last week in San Jose, CA at the Cisco headquarters, and while we didn’t see the same antics that went on at the last event in Las Vegas, we still managed to have an incredible week. As a resident New Yorker, and not a car owner/driver, I was a bit apprehensive at first about driving in San Jose, by myself, as I'm not the best with directions.  My fears were proven true on the first attempt to attend the pre-conference workshops, where I got lost and ended up in a landfill.  When I asked for directions, the attendant told me he "only knew how to get from his house to this place" and I found myself surrounded by trucks, and in a bit of a pickle.  Eventually, I was saved by my Android phone and Google maps.  I missed the pre-conf sessions but oh well, at least the weather was nice.

When I finally made it to the conference the next day, the energy was incredible.  We were tweeting so fast that the Twitterfall couldn’t keep up, which resulted in #RaganCisco trending in San Jose, and in various other global locations!



Held at the Cisco headquarters in Silicon Valley, there were presenters you’d expect to see from this area including Cisco, Adobe, SAS, Facebook, Yahoo! and PayPal.



The conference kicked off with Cisco’s SVP, Corporate Marketing, Marilyn Mersereau, sharing an anecdote of a recent Cisco social media “crisis,” where a customer was not satisfied with his wireless router. After becoming frustrated with customer service, he did what we now see as a natural response – create a YouTube video called “Cisco Sucks.”



Luckily, it did not go viral, but it did get about 1,500 views. In this new reality where social media gives power back to the people, brands are held to a higher standard. Customers now have a very public medium to complain about things when they unhappy.

In response to this video, Ms. Mersereau told us that she bought the customer (whom she thought was very cute, and happened to be a fellow Canadian like Ms. Mersereau) a new router from Amazon.  Her philosophy here was that the router was a small price to pay to appease this customer, and she had hopes that he may go back to his viewers to tell them the problem was rectified. No word yet if this has happened. Although this seemed to rectify that particular instance, it does raise the question – how sustainable is that model? Thus, we dove into the Ragan Social Media Best Practices for Communicators event.

The conference was jam-packed full of great speakers, with Carlos Dominquez, SVP, Cisco, wishing everyone a happy @Cisco de Mayo (as it was Cinco de Mayo) in his opening keynote, and well, we were already ready for some margaritas! He then went on to define the role of a “Tech-Nowist” – “someone who embraces change, understands what technology is available, experiments with it, learns from the experiments, and leverages it for a competitive advantage.”



Other hot topics included internal adoption of social media tools for higher efficiency at large corporations like Adobe and SAS, social media CRM (a huge leap forward where social media will become scalable with the use of data: recent example of SalesForce acquiring Radian6) as presented by Altimeter Group, Shel Holtz on creating compelling content (content vs. context brought up yet again!), and of course, how to measure the effectiveness of social media, specifically when presenting to senior leaders in your organization to create more internal adoption.

The conference ended with an inspirational talk from Brian Solis at Altimeter Group, empowering us to not to social media CHAMPIONS, but instead, be LEADERS. Entitled “Engage or Die,” his twitter-friendly presentation focused on collaborating internally at companies, before promoting messages in social media channels, stating that the consumers only see one brand – we can’t be comfortable in silos anymore, sounding a lot like our unified marketing approach at Definition 6! We all know the world is changing rapidly.

We need to be comfortable with that change, and lead the way on how to act/react appropriately. One thing I’ll leave you with is something that Brian mentioned which epitomizes the current social media disconnect between some brands and consumers. He did a bit of role-playing where he described the point of view of why brands want to be involved in social media (using Facebook as an example) and what consumers are looking for when they “like” brands. Brand: "My customer will want to 'like' us on Facebook because they are really looking for more information on our products/services. Customers want to get more information. They want to engage with us to create a community." Customer: "I’m going to 'like' this brand on Facebook because I want coupons, specials, discounts or win free stuff. I want the ability to purchase items within my social networks."



By just having people follow your brand on Twitter or Facebook is not enough. If you don’t provide value to the consumer, they will essentially break-up with you on those social networks. How much harder will you need to work to gain them back? In fact, You need to have a strategy that provides value over time. Without that, you may as well not bother. Oh and you will want to plan for an F-commerce model, which sounds like it should be a bad word, when in fact, this is the future. For more recaps, check out Cisco’s blog for day one and day two or search on Twitter for #RaganCisco to read the top tweets.

As always, you can hear more of my thoughts by following me on Twitter @RachelConforti.

I thought for a hot second about writing the "here's my thoughts from SXSW upon returning from SXSW" blog - instead, I'm going for the tried and true list of the things I loved (and hated). It's so much more convenient. Besides, haven't you read enough blogs on the many marketing merits of Social Media, the tenets of context in content, the game layer and the 9 million apps vying for the title of "The Foursquare of 2011"? I know I did. On to the list!

NUMBER 6

LOVE this. http://ogilvynotes.com/ Not only a great concept - they brought it to life via some talented illustrators that would turn a given panel into an illustration, bringing the broad concepts of the panel discussion to life visually. Brilliant. Tumblr wins again. Nice work.

HATED the panels, for the most part. It was actually a common theme in discussions throughout interactive. Whether outside a panel, in a bar, at lunch, in a bar or at one of the many co-branded parties, lounges and kiosks - the feeling was that the panels were more than ever talking at the audience without really engaging them and not delivering much beyond common knowledge. I took very little away from those I attended. It was a bummer. I actually sat in a panel about marketing to influencers (apparently a new concept to the 500 or so in attendance) at which the moderator kicked off by asking, "raise your hand if you work in social media"…the entire room did apparently. I left after the first panelist reminded everyone not to forget about those consumers in between the coasts that buy stuff. Yikes.

NUMBER 5

LOVE the people. Last year, I left Austin feeling inspired, energized and entertained, especially by panels like Web Video Thunderdome (were those guys here in 2011?). This year, I left feeling the same but as I mentioned above, not because of the panels, because of the people. It really is the best thing going at SXSW. I can't think of another venue where so many people from so many divergent backgrounds just want to meet, and talk, and drink Shiner (or pitch an app?!). You can't help but meet people in the elevator, out to lunch, in a cab…it was great. My liver hurts but it was well worth it. The people are the conference.

HATED all the apps. The quest to be the Foursquare of 2011 was in full effect. There were apps everywhere, literally. Group Me, Mogwee, Livetap…can the world possibly need, or hope to sustain, this many apps? I would argue no. But, if you say yes, I have an app I'd like to pitch you! There's no better example than Hashable. At dinner someone showed it off as a must have. I don't get it. Why do I need this hash tag aggregator? However, this turned into a great little poll I conducted all week. Can you pitch me Hashable? No one could. Not one person.
TRUE STORY: I shared a cab one day with a fellow on his way to ironically…wait for it, The Hashable Party. Nice guy. We had a great chat that of course ended with my question: can you pitch me Hashable? His response? "Well, yeah (beat) I should be able to because I invested in it. But no. No, I can't". BOOM! Winning. I think I'll passable.

NUMBER 4

LOVE what R/GA did with the many, many platforms being used @ SXSW. They created Social Media Hell. Pretty genius. The seven deadly sins on blast in Austin make a perfect competition for Dante's lovely, lovely inferno. Check it out…who wouldn't want to become the Mayor of Hell?

HATED the new venue format that dispersed the panels all over town, but did so by genre or subject…sort of. It was a little vague and confusing actually and a total bummer that really interesting talks were happening all the way out at the ATT convention center. You really missed the opportunity to see a cross-section of the best of the best within walking distance due to this. I hope SXSW looks into how successful this move to segment was - people seemed pretty put off by it.

NUMBER 3

LOVED the band THE BLACK ANGELS. Caught them at the ETSY party and stayed for the entire show. It's rare to see good music before the music conference gets going - and even then - it's just so rare to stumble upon something like this. Bottom line, I woke up the next morning an bought the LP. Yes, I paid for their music. You should too.

HATED the hours. Man am I old. This is one epic run and it's a marathon, not a sprint. Everyday my disco nap was thwarted by a text or a tweet or that damn Group Me. Hey, Group YOU, buddy!

NUMBER 2

LOVED the Mapquest road trip to Salt Lick. I still feel like I need the non-marketing event Salt Lick BBQ experience, but gosh-dangit…they can cook up some meat! Still perplexed as to why not a single attempt by Mapquest to speak to a captive audience and explain why we should all like their shiny new rebrand and dump Google maps? But, I digress.

NUMBER 1

I <3 The Social Media Clubhouse. Of all the great panels not chosen for SXSW 2011, they picked mine! The panel, 99 Questions and Viral Ain't One of Them, was a great opportunity to discuss the work we did on The Coca-Cola Happiness Machine - and we were live on twitter to boot! I thank SMC for the hospitality. Even though it was off the beaten path in Austin, it was worth the trip. It's really a genius idea that I hope they do bigger and better next year. I would do it again in a heartbeat. If you dig it, share it. Thanks SMCH6!

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 Information Technology field has to have one of the highest rates of evolution of any field. A friendly warning for College Students, if you don’t like learning and discovering choose another field. Over the last 10 years the evolution of the web has been constant. Today we have information flowing to multiple channels, more complex information being captured, and more data being provided to users. With all of the content and information available it is no surprise that finding that content has had to get more complex as well. Optimizing your web site or web application for search engines is getting more and more complex. One aspect to look at is a subtle one. Ensuring that your site map and your keywords are captured, architected, and developed to work together.

A good BA is worth their weight in gold and early on in the requirements and discovery process capturing the keywords can really help the development of your tool. Keywords are a known importance to optimizing your site for organic discovery by Google, Bing and other search engines. There are tools dedicated to keyword mapping to show how your site will be captured by a search engine. What the keywords can’t be, however, are an afterthought to the development process. Keywords are concise definitions of your web site. Like the advertisement on television for a popular clothing retailer right now, the tag line is “Modern. Southern. Style.”. In three short concise words they define themselves. Even the government has taken to this “Safer. Healthier. People”. Keywords have been around for a while and we all know about them but I bring this up to discuss how we focus on them and use them.

A BA can use keywords to focus requirement sessions, the architect on the site map and architecture for the system, designers to ensure the colors layout user experience match the keywords, developers for for the folder structure, and testers to make sure they got it right. Now some would say that keywords should be derived from the requirements and the experience the company wants for its customers. Which is a great point that opens a question, are the creative people that can help write that copy and help getting involved early enough? Once the keywords have been defined so much can be based on them. The point of this column is architecture so lets jump there.

When the site map is being determined and the layout of the site designed/architected keeping the keywords in mind can really help. It is a common best practice to have a site-map on your web site. Many web sites have several versions to ensure they are read by the search engines. Ever added an XML web site document to ensure Google would read it? So using your keywords in various other locations can greatly assist your website.

If your keywords define your site and its content then shouldn’t your page titles include these keywords? With our keywords in the title another step is to ensure that we use the keywords in the URL. For example, instead of www.sitex.com/en/ we could include keywords www.sitex.com/keyword-keyword/. Not only is this more descriptive for the user the search engines will jump up the importance score. Why does this need to be part of the site map? If you are going to include keywords as part of the URL and folder structure the developers need this info to focus on. So that means knowing the site map before the pages are developed so they can use this information to their greatest value.

Considering the search engine will use the links on the site map to crawl the site, using keywords would help raise the score wouldn’t it? Getting into Canonical URL is a little beyond the scope of what we are discussing here but is a topic you might want to look up as well. While it may seem simplistic at this point in time of the internet’s evolution, keywords are still and will remain and important part of content discovery. Understanding how to re-engage on the importance of keywords and their use can help prepare for future evolution of the web.

Ever hear of the concept of ‘the semantic web’? Today a user views pages for information gathering and capture for activities like travel. With the sematic web, pages will interact in a more automated fashion reducing the amount of work a user does. As the web continues to evolve the potential for keywords to grow in importance is still relevant even considering their long history. The tie in to the site map becomes more important as desired functionality evolves. The key to scalability will be planning today for what is coming tomorrow. Preparing for tomorrow begins with looking at the process, collaborating, and working to the future. Don’t pass over the simple things, they just might be the key to the future.

About 18 months ago we bought a post-production business in Manhattan Creative Bubble (now definition 6) and  unified it into our interactive agency because we fundamentally believed that the future of the internet and marketing was brilliant story telling. We wanted a group of story tellers and emotion creators to be a core part of our team and have the capabilities to produce work for Hollywood, TV and Madison avenue at a world class level.  We have achieved this and since unification have won a Clio, an Emmy, an IBIXX, OMMA, ADDY, ProMax and even Small Agency campaign of the year from Advertising Age.  But what I did not expect was to be so engulfed by the discussion regarding "What is happening with TV, entertainment and the internet?"

 

Most of the conversation has sounded like "who moved my cheese?" especially to an outsider who never had cheese in the first place (cheese is consolidated broadcast advertising dollars and limited distribution channels such as movie theaters and DVD's). Ultimately, I've come to believe the issue isn't that TV is dead or dying, in fact it is growing and thriving, or that VOD is going to destroy Hollywood. The issue is that ad buys are more complex, dynamic, fragmented and content distributors are having to work harder to maintain margin and that content producers are having to become more sales savvy because they need to have more customers than the limited number of broadcasters and theater distributors from days long ago.  Everyone blames the internet, the Millennial’ s, the mobile revolution and cord cutters for fragmented the audience and making it harder and harder to find a digital dollar vs. digital penny.  As a response, we are seeing a slew of "Smart TV's" internet enabled televisions with app stores, over the top content, deals with VOD organizations and social integration. Awesome! Fantastic! we will bring the distractions from traditional living room TV into the living room and then we will get all the dollars in one place again and things will just be beautifully profitable for us again.   Except…..

 

Who asked you to make the idiot box Smart? I want to watch TV, not necessarily watch a specific show, just watch TV.  According to a #CES panel where either Nielsen or TV guide said "70%+ of the people who sit down to watch TV don't know what they are going to watch until they sit on the couch" - ok, I buy that, and to me that means I still want it to be easy, passive, yes I want to do discover, but not necessarily search and explore like I do with Google, Twitter and Pandora. Stations and networks are good, they have themes, they have repeats, they have marathons in case I've fallen behind or want to get immersed on a weekend afternoon in a new series. So stop touching my TV, I want to sit back, relax and watch the "History of Steel" or "Golf" or "The Guy from the 70's painting and talking in that soothing voice" - I don't want to grab content, make my own playlist, find my favorite actor that cross references with Kevin Bacon to kill 20%-50% of the time I have to WATCH TV. Leave my few times a week I have no plan, and only want to enjoy.  Now if you can make it work with my iPad and come with me on my phone when I'm in line at the supermarket, then I'm all yours and I look forward to the new adventures of "TV and Me".

Follow Michael on Twitter @mkogon

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!

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.

Following my post yesterday on great quotes from TEDx, I wanted to share some takeways from the event.

I was fortunate to attend the fourth TEDx Atlanta last Tuesday.  It was the third TEDx Atlanta that I have been lucky enough to both attend and help organize (as well as the second TEDx Atlanta sponsored by Definition 6).  As expected from any product or event associated with TED, the speakers were all great and the content was interesting and insightful.
















Having had a few days to let the content percolate, a few patterns have emerged:

The first is the importance, not of dropping out of college to change the world (we’ve all heard enough from geniuses who skipped school to accomplish great things), but of looking in perhaps unexpected places and connecting perhaps unlikely dots to do your best work.

Having the ability to see opportunity when others don’t, while obvious in its own right, was pervasive all day long.  A few years back, a book called The Medici Effect showcased how successful people all through history have repeatedly had this skill.  Being able to sit in a conference and have what Stanley and Danko might call “the geniuses next door” demonstrate this aptitude was enlightening. 

Ranging from Farmer D, who one day while stoned and skipping class in college, asked his Turkey sandwich “where did you come from?” to Mills Snowden, whose thinking about building a more efficient home randomly led him to being a contender for the X Prize. 

Perhaps Coca-Cola’s VP of Global Design, David Butler, summed it up best when he said: “We can’t think in silos anymore.  We have to think horizontally.  We have to think hollistically.”

While the only group to take the stage was the band Modern Skirts, the pattern from the day involves the importance of collaboration and sharing in accomplishing great things. 

Presenter Logan Smalley, maker of the award winning movie, “Darius Goes West” was a prime example of this.  He started making the film with a Google search asking how to make a documentary film.  By collaborating with people online, he eventually got passed his frustrations of not being able to afford the equipment when somebody told him that it doesn’t matter what he shoots the movie with – if he has a story to tell, people will listen.  Had he not pursued collaborating with other film makers as strongly as he did, there’s a good chance the movie would have never happened. 

Likewise, by working with a close group of friends (all of which knew nothing about movie making) he was able to build the alliance and gain the support he needed to accomplish his goal of making a movie to raise awareness of the disease that his friend was suffering from all while giving his friend the experience of a lifetime.  He additionally said, “The modern approach to movie making is one of mankind’s most incredible and perhaps most underutilized tools for collaborative problem solving.”  Today, everything is about collaboration.  

This leads to what was probably the most prevailant pattern of the day:  As David Butler coined it: “Learn by doing.”  Logan Smalley’s Google search is an example of this, as is Mills Snowden’s work on creating a car that can achieve 100 miles per gallon (like Logan, Mills had zero category experience prior to his effort).  On this subject, Mills said, “The most important part of developing your idea is that you have to start.”  Farmer D (Daron Joffe) is a self-taught organic farmer.  Even the band’s opening set which utilized various furniture to make noise exemplified this notion.

When asked by an audience member how to move beyond the brainstorming stage, a panel of the first five speakers responded:

• You need to enroll people in your idea... You’re very limited if you’re the only one doing it.

• Be sure you’re prepared to know what you’re talking about before you get people involved.

• Use the language of the people you’re talking to... Don’t get lost in your own language.

Google Instant is a new search enhancement from Google that loads new search results with each keystroke you type – it performs queries in real-time. Google is now pretty much predicting what you are searching for before you finish typing your query. Of course, this confirms what we've all known for years, Google IS actually smarter than you.



According to Google, the primary benefits of Google Instant include:

•    Faster searches – Google Instant predicts what you are looking for before you finish typing (Google states this can save a user 2-5 seconds per search)

•    Smarter predictions – Google knows the words people use to search for different things – as you start typing, Google produces a list of search terms (usually including the one you were about to type)

•    Instant Results – you no longer have to hit return to get your search results – your search results load as you’re typing.

Those are some pretty meaninful benefits. For me, I"m most excited about the fact that Google has unveiled some pretty significant innovation around what it does best: search. 15 new technologies contribute to Google Instant and with this launch, it's pretty clear Google plans to maintain its market dominance as the world's most used search engine.

But Wait, Do I Need to Change My SEO Strategy?

The most common question people will want to know about Google Instant is what impact these changes will have on search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. The short answer: none. According to Google, Google Instant doesn’t change page rankings at all, so your current rankings will be intact.

Realistically, SEO strategies will need to change as a result of Google Instant. For starters, marketers should pay attention to what alternative terms appear in Google’s suggestions list under the new Google Instant model.

Google's suggestions can sway users to select a term other than the one they intended to search. Depending on the terms your site is indexed for, and the volume of searches for the particular term each month, websites could notice a decrease (or increase) in traffic as a result of the suggestions.

Search engine marketers would be wise to optimize their sites for suggested terms that may compete with terms they already enjoy prominent ranking.

Closing Thoughts

Google Instant is a significant change in the way Google works. I like the change and feel it’s a great enhancement to the user experience. I also like anything that saves me time in my workday (even if it’s only five seconds at a time).

By improving the user experience and delivering more instant gratification for users, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Google’s market share tick up a bit. As usage increases and user experience improves as a result of Google Instant, organic and paid search strategies may need to evolve to adapt to changes. For now, marketers should hold tight, but earmark some more budget for search enhancements in 2011.

What do you think? Do you like Google Instant? Does it improve your search experience?

BONUS: Want more on Google Instant? Watch Marissa Mayer, Google’s VP of Search, discuss these changes in her interview with TechCrunch:

“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.)

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.

Who doesn't love a good Top Ten list? The answer is nobody! Why else would Letterman still be doing it after all these years? I decided it was due time I compiled my own. So, here is my Top Ten List of Top Ten Lists:

#10 - Letterman’s Top 10 - the mother of all top 10 lists

#9 - Top 10 Cat Videos - woo hoo (ironically, I'm allergic... but not to video)
 
#8 - Top 10 Best Tracking Shots Ever - a personal favorite

#7 - Top 10 Inventions That Changed the World - did the bread slicer make the list?
    
#6 - Top 10 Sports Cliches -

#5 - Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs - yeah, thanks for narrowing it down guys. It does have a Top 10 though.

#4 - Top 10 Burgers in the U.S. - according to Playboy (the obvious source)

#3 - Top 10-est Rap Albums of All Time - according to Steady Bloggin'

#2 - Top 10 Video Share Websites - from Top Ten Reviews

And... drum roll please... my #1 pick for best Top 10 lists is...

#1 - Wayne's World - the duo revised the famous bit a couple of years ago.

My point is not the Top Ten lists, but rather, that these lists (and in some cases the corresponding content) have been around for as long as we can remember.  Essentially it’s like a radio DJ of old, someone making choices for you and putting the selected material into neat little buckets to presumably be more easily consumed.

For brands the time has come that we start talking about making a clear distinction when it comes to web video (and content), and all brand messaging online for that matter - the distinction between content vs. intent.

Cats doing wacky stuff is merely content for content sake, there’s no intent to make it spread or sell anything. It’s just…cats? However, what if you do in fact to want to speak to the cat people. What then? How do you ‘meow’ to the feline masses? You want to connect with, collect and ultimately sell to the cat people.

Now we have intent.

This is crucial as the era of services like Peter Gabriel’s TheFilter.com reach the marketplace and begin to filter content for us. Forget search. Imagine all the portals claiming to be the source for the most effective filtering, aggregating only the content that’s right for you.

The media landscape is already fragmented to such a degree it’s difficult for anyone, even the most literate and tech savvy, to follow. Which means now it’s even more important that brands are intentional when creating content to reach their preferred consumer.

Can you just throw a banner ad on some zany video of Al Bundy dancing to the latest Major Lazer jam? Sure, that still works…Google’s banking on it. But you’re not speaking directly to anyone.

Instead, go find people. Your people. Seek them out where they are, and speak to them in their language so you connect in a way that’s engaging, authentic, and real. Intent.

Now take that idea and run with it. That’s what the Internet is for.


(Image Credit: Number 10 by yoppy)

The following is an abbreviated step-by-step guide to measuring social media ROI.

Step 1: Define Goals & Success Metrics
The first step of ROI measurement is defining your goals.  What do you hope to accomplish by being active in the social space?  One problem is that brands launch social campaigns without clearly identifying or understanding their goals, which makes measuring success difficult (if not impossible).  

Here are a few examples of social media goals:
•    Expand brand or product awareness
•    Increase engagement with brand
•    Generate qualified leads
•    Drive sales
•    Build community
•    Create brand advocates
•    Qualify fans and convert them to customers
•    Improve customer satisfaction
•    Establish company as a thought leader
•    Attract talent

Once goals have been defined, the next step is determining the appropriate success metrics that align with these goals. For example, if a goal is to increase brand awareness, metrics might include the volume of online discussion or “buzz” about your brand, the level of audience engagement (re-tweets, comments, posts, video views), the number of fans, followers, etc. and the number of user impressions.

The following are examples of social media success metrics:
•    Volume of  online “buzz” about a brand
•    Volume of positive sentiment
•    Number of fans, followers, readers (or number of high-quality/targeted fans)
•    Engagement (number of video views, duration of views, time spent on the company blog site, time spent playing a company’s branded game application, etc.)
•    Volume of user comments posted to company blog, profile or posted content
•    Retweet or peer-sharing statistics for related content and posts
•    Comment or retweet resonation (number of user comments multiplied by
    how many followers or friends each user has)
•    Media coverage
•     Media impressions (mentions on blogs or other media multiplied by the size
    of the audience)
•    Quantity of new or qualified sales leads (referred from social sites)
•    Website Referral Traffic (from social sites)
•    Advertising click-through rates
•    Volume of customer service issues handled

Step 2: Establish a Baseline
In order to effectively measure success, make sure to first establish a baseline by determining your current position within the social landscape.  For instance, if your goal is to increase awareness and you will be tracking the amount of “buzz” or mentions about your brand, you must first know what the current levels are before taking actions to reach that goal.  Without establishing this baseline, it’s difficult to accurately show ROI.

There are a variety of analytics tools available to help with social media measurement.  I won’t go into too much detail here (there are dozens of options), but a few of these include Google Analytics, Social Mention, Viral Heat, Scout Labs, Radian6, and Listen Logic.  These tools can be used to gather key social media metrics and help you identify strengths and weaknesses of your social presence.

Step 3: Measure and Track Success
After you launch your social media program, begin the measurement process to track success.  Gather the success metrics from your analytics tools and start to see how (or if) they correlate to higher sales, increased customer satisfaction, website traffic, store traffic, etc.  Try to identify trends where possible. Does positive consumer sentiment or an increase in chatter about your brand lead to higher website/store traffic, leads or sales?  Recognizing these trends and identifying their point of origin is key in measuring social media ROI.  

(Image Credit: "Basics of Social Media ROI," by Oliver Blanchard)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What are the positives you might ask?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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