Community Guy – Jake McKee

Social Media Marketing – The Next Generation of Business Engagement

It is with extreme pride that I announce Social Media Marketing – The Next Generation of Business Engagement, a book that Dave Evans and I wrote together this year. After tech editing Dave’s first book, Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day, Dave asked me to co-author the second book and I gladly accepted.

This new book takes a deeper look at how to apply social media principles to change your business. It was a ton of fun to write, and Dave was a great partner and co-author. The book is getting a great launch reception, and we’re hoping it does as well as the first, which is still selling at a fast clip.

Want more info about the book? Check out the book support site or the Facebook page.

So? What are you waiting for? Head over to Amazon and pick up a copy!

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Let me first start this post out by saying that I have loved the Web since the very first time I pulled up a Web site. Literally the very first one. I don’t remember the site (although it’s likely it had a stone background image), but I do remember the rush of ideas, emotions, and potential that flooded over me the first time I pulled up that site.

In the last year or so, I’ve been decidedly harsh in my critique about where the internet has gone in recent memory. In particular, I was incredibly disappointed in this last election, not because of the results (that’s another topic, and if you read my twitter stream you’d probably be surprised why). Actually the reason was that in all the conversation that’s happened around US politics in the last two years, I feel like we’ve largely seen Social Media used as a marketing tool meant to skew reality, not as an ability to create transparency and deeper thought and discussion.

So yeah, I’ve been pretty down on the Internet lately.

But last night I was reminded why I <3 the internet: social community that works. I am learning (or trying to learn) photography. I’m getting there, slowly but surely. But after acquiring a new (and really cool) lens via Craiglist, I was having some problems figuring out why the autofocus never seems to work quite right. I’m less concerned about the physical quality of the lens, it was in great shape. No, I knew I was likely doing something wrong.

So I exported an example image, uploaded it to my new favorite photography community, and asked for help. Hours later a kind soul had responded, giving me some direction in how to address the problem. Why? Because he wanted to help.

This is the information utopia I saw so long ago, and it’s pretty fantastic.

Brand Haiku

Ever the community organizer, Aaron Strout started a conversation amongst a group of social nerds last week and his idea was just too much fun not to participate. The idea? Share a haiku about a brand experience in the last month that’s really impressed us. I’ve been meaning to write about several lately, so what better opportunity?

Without further ado:

Last minute need
And once again they come through
Men’s Wearhouse

New site launch fail
Sorry, a coupon in the mail
Papa John’s w0w

Next up: Tamsen McMahon and more haiku fun!

UPDATE: Check out the full list of #brandhaiku participants!

Magnet company smackdown

Live for your viewing pleasure, a smackdown of a grand nature, magnet style:

In this youtubed open letter, a representative from Zen Magnets (small-fry makers of little round powerful magnets you can use to make interesting shapes) replies to a legal threat from Buckyballs (leading makers of little round powerful magnets you can use to make interesting shapes). It starts with a recorded voicemail from Buckyballs CEO Jake Bronstein threatening to sue Zen Magnets for selling a kit containing both Buckyballs and Zen Magnets on eBay with the claim that Zen Magnets are manufactured to a higher tolerance, are stronger, and have a brighter finish. From there, the Zen Magnets rep does a wonderful job illustrating the validity of his claims — and making Buckyballs look like an anti-competitive bully who fights dirty with threats instead of superior products.

In a niche industry like high end magnets, personality is a huge differentiator. In one swift movement, the Buckyballs CEO created a platform for their competitor to own a space that, as a “$20 million company”, they should have been theirs. As you watch this video, you’ll probably notice a nearly uncomfortable amount of snark from the folks at Zen. That approach might not work for your business, but it certainly works for theirs. Snark + data + underdog status = huge win for Zen.

Apple tried this approach during AntennaGate by posting a page on their site called “Apple’s Antenna Design and Test Labs“.

Every smartphone has a cellular antenna. And nearly every smartphone can lose signal strength if you hold it in a certain way. To make sure our antennas work as well as they possibly can, Apple has invested more than $100 million building its advanced labs. Our engineers have logged thousands of hours designing and testing iPhone 4 in these state-of-the-art facilities.

There are several problems here, and there’s a reason why it largely didn’t work to convince people that the antenna problems were just part of using a cell phone.

• It’s bullshit. Seriously, can anyone name a single phone they’ve had in the last 15 years that you could manually drop the call by holding it a certain way? I can’t, and I’ve had something like 30+ cell phones in my life.
• It’s proven true. It’s not bullshit just because we’ve heard a random urban myths. It’s proven, I’ve done it myself. Close friends have told me they’ve replicated it. Multiple times. In many conditions. Industry test labs have proven it.
• It’s a cold approach. Showing me that you’ve spent a ton of money on a testing lab does not necessarily equate to product engineering success. Since I’ve SEEN the antenna problems personally, I know that even great teams with great facilities and tons of time spent can still make big mistakes. Hell, how many hours did it take to plan, code, test, and launch Microsoft Entourage (any version)?? Just because you have the tools, doesn’t mean you are inherently perfect or problem free.
• There’s nothing to believe in. Apple takes Apple’s traditional approach: trust us, what know what we’re doing. You’re not seeing what you are seeing, it’s all your fault. They put up a few bits of nicely designed static content and a video that talks about their process and their equipment. Never do they mention anything specific a regular Joe like me could understand. Never do they say flat out “It’s false and here’s why”. They simply focused on the process and an overview of antenna strength and signal loss. They’re protecting themselves rather than rolling up their sleeves and talking about what they believe.
• They’re acting like 5 year olds. They make some vague “nuh uh!” claims about how all antennas have the same problem. They say that every smartphone has antenna problems, but they’re not ballsy enough to show examples. And like parents of a 5 year old know, when you hear “nuh uh, wadn’t me! He did it! He did it!” you’re pretty clear that your kid was involved.
• It’s bullshit. Did I mention this one already? Oh that’s right, I did. Well, it bears repeating. If it wasn’t an issue at all, why did Apple spent so much money on sending out free iPhone 4 cases to users? Yeah. Because they knew it was a real problem.

I’m not advocating for Apple to approach the problem the same way Zen Magnets did. Startups are absolutely different than large companies. There are all kinds of legal, financial, and marketing/PR reasons why Apple couldn’t be as direct as Zen was in their video. And the scenarios are different, of course: Zen was proving higher product quality, while Apple was trying to play sleight of hand games to draw focus away from the worst iPhone design to date.

There are three takeaways here, and they apply to any company:

1. Don’t be a dick, it always comes back to haunt you… especially these days.
2. Confront challenges directly, and with data.
3. If it’s your fault, work harder to owning up to it.

Social strategy by the numbers

A few weeks back, Jason Falls posted a great article, “Why Social Media Purists Won’t Last“. Here’s the money quote:

As a result, the social media purists have laid down the law and, so, to participate in social media as a business, you must do things like, “participate in the conversation,” “engage your customers,” and “talk with us not to us.”

I’ve got news for you. In the world of business, all that talk will get you exactly nowhere. Conversations do not ring the cash register. Engagement does not sell more product. Talking with people just means you have to take time to listen which prevents you from spending valuable time selling more product.

My business partner, Sean O’Driscoll likes to tell the story about doing research while he was still at Microsoft about what “Joining the conversation” translated to. He found out that he would have to find a way to staff up. Way, way up. His research told him there were more than two billion conversations a year around Microsoft.

Social tools are, without a doubt, powerful in ways we’ve only began to discover. But we have to start thinking (and acting) differently, more considered. Here’s a few questions for you and your business, and some numbers that you should know as you consider your answers.

Are you paying attention to the right social tools?

4 billion – Photos hosted by Flickr (October 2009).

2.5 billion – Photos uploaded each month to Facebook.

Seriously, why aren’t you doing more with Facebook?

350 million – People on Facebook.

50% – Percentage of Facebook users that log in every day.

84% – Percent of social network sites with more women than men.

Are you still putting value in your email campaign?

90 trillion – The number of emails sent on the Internet in 2009.

247 billion – Average number of email messages per day.

27.3 million – Number of tweets on Twitter per day (November, 2009)

Why are you so scared of open source software?

46.6% – Percentage of Web sites run by Apache (open source)

21.0% – Percentage of Web sites run by Apache’s closest competitor, Microsoft IIS

13.9% – The growth of Apache websites in 2009.

-22.1% – The growth of IIS websites in 2009.

Are you remembering the rest of the globe?

57% – Percentage of Twitter’s user base located in the United States.

Are you considering video, and the places people *actually* watch it?

1 billion – The total number of videos YouTube serves in one day.

182 – The number of online videos the average Internet user watches in a month (USA).

Are you properly contextualizing your opportunities?

83 million – The number of active monthly users playing Farmviille on Facebook

75 million – The total number of registered Twitter accounts

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The point here is that there are no easy, obvious answers when engaging in social activity online. We may hear a lot about the latest hot new tool or Web site from the experts, but unless you’re fully researching all of your opportunities (not just the new, cool ones) and unless you’re comparing that activity against your business objectives, it doesn’t matter how cool Plancast or Foursquare or Chatroulette is. While I point out the numbers above about email, check out this chart Morgan Stanley Internet Trends report (via Fred Wilson). We’ve just recently seen social networking activity surpass email.

That said, the issue today isn’t whether or not to engage, it’s where and how. Keeping abreast of the trends is crucial to both growing your business and beating back competition. I doubt I have to convince any businessperson alive that social tools and activities are a big deal. But it is important to remember that this stuff isn’t easy, no matter what anyone tells you.

For more data on how companies are leveraging social media, check out this great infographic.

Social Media ROI Is Meaningless

Social Media ROI is meaningless.

There, I said it.

OK, maybe that’s not entirely true. But if you product or service isn’t relevant or isn’t up to snuff, then concerning yourself with your Social Media ROI is the wrong place to start your planning. More on this point in this video:

Worry Less About ROI – Worry More About Being Relevant from Ross Kimbarovsky on Vimeo.

Did Sean get his predictions right?

In March of 2009, my business partner Sean gave the interview below about what 2009 would hold for social media.

What do you think? Did he get his predictions right?

Intuit on Amazon

Many companies struggle with the best way to engage users where they are. On-domain properties are easy since they’re under the company’s control, but what about when users are talking about you and your products off-domain? Intuit noticed that users were having dynamic discussions about their products in the reviews and review comments on Amazon. Rather than ignore, they rolled up their sleeves and jumped into the fold.

From Intuit’s Small Business United blog:

Since QuickBooks 2010 launched, our team has responded to every single review on our QuickBooks Pro 2010 Amazon site by posting a comment. Although this has worked well for us to resolve issues and thank happy customers, there were certain instances where our comments provided important information and clarifications about the product and it was hard for customers to get to that information.

For example, when the QuickBooks team worked over a weekend to make a major change to the product based on feedback from the Amazon reviews, it was hard for people visiting the Amazon site to know that there had been a change. The original reviews complaining about the issue were front and center on the Amazon page, whereas our comments stating that we had fixed the issue were almost hidden from view. We knew we had to do something, as our QuickBooks customers were getting outdated information on the Amazon site.

They were so proactive, Amazon even asked them to work together on the redesign for manufacturer comments.

The lesson here: Roll up your sleeves, wade in, and start working. It can yield fantastic results!

Apps vs. Widgets

Are apps just the updated version of widgets? Today Peter Kim asks that very question:

Remember widgets? In the early days of corporate social media (i.e. 2005 – 2006), widgets were all the rage. They were light and viral; the minimal effort to support them post-lauch made them more attractive to brands than blogs or podcasts.

What also made them attractive to brands was an ability to fairly easily reformat existing content. This meant they could “be social” without much additional work. Thing is, widgets were a pain in the ass. If you weren’t a fairly skilled nerd, and let’s face it, most people aren’t, you wouldn’t know what to do with widget installation code if you life depended on it.

The other issue with widgets is the platform. The iPhone or Facebook as the platform inherently allow vastly more people to use apps than widgets ever did. The difference between app success as a concept and widget success is almost entirely based on the platform(s) by which they are delivered.

Generally, Peter is absolutely correct when he says:

If you’ve been trying to figure out how to think about the new world of applications, look back at your resources on widgets and run a find-and-replace…it might get you up to speed sooner than you imagined.

But it’s important to be clear that while the underlying thinking of apps and widgets is extremely similar, don’t be convinced that we’re going through the same thing we did when widgets were the rage a few years back. Widgets, and the ensuing conversation, helped to get us to a point where small, inexpensive applications could be easily delivered. But today’s apps and yesterday’s widgets are absolutely not the same thing, anymore than the Model T and a Prius are the same thing.

Linchpins and Community Managers: The artists of the business world

My colleague, Jackie Huba interviewed Seth Godin about his latest book, “Linchpin“. It’s a great interview, but in particular two things stand out to the community guy in me.

Q: You talk about linchpins being artists. What’s the difference between a conventional marketer and one who thinks like an artist? Can you give an example of a marketer who is an artist?

A: Art, by my definition, has nothing to do with painting and everything to do with connecting with people in a generous way and causing a change to take place. A movie director is making art when she makes you cry. A product designer creates art when the UI is better than it needs to be and it creates efficiency or even joy. Marketers can find plenty of Dummies books and manuals and insider PDFs that demonstrate, step by step, how to follow the rules. That’s easy and not particularly valuable. A marketer becomes an artist when she goes out on a limb, does the unexpected or the risky and makes a difference. I’d argue that you two do art when you stand up and give a talk about the 1%. Or Biz Stone was an artist when he figured out how to launch and scale Twitter’s marketing. Or Scott Monty at Ford when he does a car show rollout that bypasses the cocktail parties at AutoWeek in favor of individual interviews with social media mavens. The second time someone does something, it’s a copy. The first time, it’s art.

Social engagement/community building work is absolutely an art form. You’re taking complex, deep seated business practices and personal emotions and bending them into something new and amazing. As Seth mentions above, Scott Monty is doing something pure, unique, and quite amazing. Art doesn’t “just happen”. Art takes work, work that may not be obvious. I recently attended a lecture by a well-known art curator who talked about a number of projects that he had overseen. At first glance, the projects seemed obvious: create a theme, open a space, invite artists in to fill a theme. But as he explained the details that went into the creation of each project, it was obvious that there was years of skill, hours of thought, and months of preparation that each event was based on.

And nearly all of that time was impossible to track, much less apply an ROI calculation to. And that’s OK. Look at how Seth describes the idea of quantifying this art:

Q: We love this quote in the book: “The easier it is to quantify, the less it’s worth.” Can you tell us, and our MBA friends, why this is true?

A: If you can quantify it, then probably someone before you figured out a why to grind it out. And if you can grind it out, someone can grind it out cheaper than you can. On the other hand, the really valuable stuff, the stuff we pay a lot for, is unquantified. Things like creating joy or security or happiness. No easy measurements for those, thus they are art, and art is always worth more than the predicted. We measure the quantified because we can. But we should create the unquantified because it’s so rare.

To be clear, branding something “art” and therefore giving the artist an excuse to create junk is unacceptable. I went to design school, so I know that far too many artists get away with saying “You just don’t get it” when people rightly look at a lazy piece of junk and wonder “WTF??” Amazing art is the distillation of a complex concept into a unique and emotionally satisfying form. If I don’t “get it”, the artist has failed, not the viewer.

Community management is a tough gig because it’s primary function is to create art in the form of experiences, products, or relationships that satisfy an emotional need. Even though a customer might not understand their own emotional needs enough to ask for them, the Art of Community Management is understanding customers enough to distill that emotion into an amazing form. Apple, Amazon, Zappos, Alice.com, and many others understand this and have succeeded because of it.

As with truly great artists, community management is about way of thinking that allows you to find beauty in a variety of places. It doesn’t end when you walk out of the office, nor do you ever really stop thinking about projects (or relationships or programs or interactions) you’ve built in the past.

Community management and interaction, like art, doesn’t have to always be “good” or immediately understandable. It doesn’t always have to have a specific objective beyond the process of creation. And it most certainly doesn’t discount passion in the face of measurement difficulty. Community management, like art, is simply the process of showing enthusiasm for giving joy where you can and explaining the process you attempted when you can’t. Most importantly, it’s about picking up the brush and giving it a shot.