In the last few months, I’ve been amazed at some of the innovative ways companies are aggregating and using information from social networks. From Bravo’s use of Foursquare to We’re All Fans, wow. It seems like the economy has slowed the innovation of “new” and allowed marketers to really harness what’s out there. And, harness it quicker than ever before.
Surprisingly, tonight’s Grammy’s was the first event that twitter both spoiled and enhanced for me. Everything online, from the MSN homepage to twitter was reporting and commenting on the Grammy’s in real time. The comments made me excited and frustrated. I wanted to see the outfits and performances my “friends” were commenting on. But alas, being on the West Coast, I was three hours behind. For me, it was an interesting and new experience. And yes, it made me wish I was living on the East Coast that much more
One of the coolest parts of the Grammy’s was their use of social media. An institution that’s been around for 52 years continues to innovate and stay relevant. From an iPhone app to We’re All Fans, kudos to the marketers behind the show… We’re All Fans was one wicked cool and beautifully done aggregater of what fans we’re saying.
This linkfest has been sitting in my drafts for weeks, but still, a few good links.
QR Codes. People still don’t quite see the possibilities. However, this article does a great job expanding on some of the possibilities and reasons why hotels would benefit from utilizing QR Codes.
My guilty pleasure is AXE advertising. Always edgy, always cutting edge. The incomplete ad that marries traditional print with mobile marketing is simple and pure genius.
I can’t wait for Best Buy’s holiday ad campaign to debut. The way they’re using cookies to engage and provide “value” is brilliant.
Holy cow! Clearly Thought Leader vs. Practitioner was quite the burning topic. But, it also seems like people are getting bogged down in names and favorites. You have your Brogan defenders and I have my Sharpie biases. Seriously and honestly, I’m obsessed with how Sharpie has integrated their brand into the social web.
So… let’s take away all the names. Let’s play in theory and thoughts with this scenario:
I’m a client/advertiser. I’m looking for someone to put together a complete Mobile Marketing program for my Brand (yep, I’m even taking social media marketing out of the mix). I bid out the project. The following two bids come back:
Bid #1 from Thought Leader A: Proposal is great. Theories, ideas are spot on. Thought Leader A even has an existing platform for me to use. But then, I ask for a client list. No relevant experience and/or clients. No understanding of how I house my customer data or my Point of Sale (POS) systems. Bottom line: Bid #1 has the ideas. It talks the talk. BUT, it’s never walked the walk.
Bid #2 from Practitioner B: Proposal is great. Theories, ideas are spot on and similar to Bid #1. Bid #2 has an existing platform as well. They also have similar industry experience AND they understand my POS system. In fact, they’ve linked to it for other projects, so they know some of the ins, outs and potential quirks. Bottom line: Bid #2 has the ideas AND the experience. It talks the talk AND can prove it’s walked a similar walk in the past.
If cost was the same, I’m choosing Bid #2 aka the Practitioner. Which bid would you choose? If you chose Bid #2 as well, why and how is this different from choosing a Social Media Marketing Practitioner vs. a Thought Leader?
The ad is big, colorful and annoying. Think pop-up ads when they first debuted
If you’re a non-iPhone user the chance of your browser being configured to javascript and html is low. What does this mean? It means all you see is ugly, text based stuff aka no big, colorful ad
On a non-sarcastic note, I am both a heavy iPhone and Blackberry user. If I want a “pretty” experience, I use my iPhone. If I have time to play around, I use my iPhone. If I want a great user experience, I use my iPhone. If I want black and white, down and dirty data? I use my Blackberry. Aside from the “duh’s” above, I think it’s the way phone users are conditioned- your Blackberry user is the finance/analyst/legal person inside you. The iPhone user? Well, they are the artist/marketing/creative thinker inside of you.
When I first heard about location based services, they creeped me out. Being a single woman with family 2,600 miles away, I’m usually overly cautious. Therefore, understandably, allowing my “friends” to know exactly where I was at any given time was a huge red flag.
BUT, then I got an iPhone. Finally, I’m starting to understand the beauty of location based services. For someone who has no sense of direction, iPhone’s Map feature is a godsend. Now, I don’t have to know where I am because my iPhone does
In terms of social networking and taking those interactions to immediate/unplanned real world settings, Loopt, Bright Kite and Tweetie are cool.
What does it mean for marketers? Well, I think this post starts to touch on it. It gives SMART marketers the ability to provide their customers with relevant, high value offers that, in theory, lead to faster and larger sales conversions. But, since 18% of today’s marketers don’t even target/track their email campaigns, I wonder how many will really hold fast to only sending high value offers and/or targeting them.
Unfortunately, I’m already seeing marketers simply think of the phone as just another marketing channel. The same offer from Target I get via email I also get via their SMS program. Same with Victoria Secret. Same with many of the hotels in Las Vegas. In fact, I usually get these SMS offers the SAME day I get the email offer.
What a shame. Couple desperate marketers with customers and a technology that aren’t quite there yet and I think we have a long way to go before any of us start receiving relevant SMS offers let alone ones that are immediate-location targeted.
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