Location, Location, Location

Posted on by RichardAKent

On Wednesday this week Facebook launched ‘Places’. Its own location based application.

As Four Square, Gowalla and others have proved, we seem all to willing to ‘check in’ and in doing so give away our most valuable personal asset – our location.

Despite the Mayor badges and other medals on offer, we seem to do this for no reason other than to let people know where we are. Are they interested? Probably not, and yet we still feel the need. To me this justifys Stan Rapp’s quote this week, “this generation of consumers are the most narcisistic ever.”

We all manage our “I” brands carefully on Facebook specifically, and adding our whereabouts gives us another reason to talk about our favourite subject-ourselves. This isn’t a judgemental observation- I do it too!

How Facebook develop Places remains to be seen. Tying it in with retailers, targeted advertising and location based incentives will no doubt grow.

But how my friends now start to use a tool that is an integral part of their favourite social network, rather than a third party application will be fascinating.

More polishing of their “I Brands”? I bet they won’t be able to resist it! I’m going to have a play!

Ignore the ‘Real World’

Posted on by RichardAKent

I just read a review of a new business book, Rework, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. I just felt so lifted by this quote: “Ignore the Real World.” This is their reply to all those pessimists who insist that a new idea could never work in the “real world.” They explain that “the real world isn’t a place; it’s an excuse. It’s a justification for not trying.”

Beautifully put!

“Doing to is bad. Doing with is good. Doing for is great”

Posted on by RichardAKent

Is the most memorable quote from Stan Rapp at the ‘Engaging Times’ Summit held in Chicago this week:

Two more:

“Today’s consumers are the most narcissistic in history. We’re all looking after brand I.” another from Stan.

“Don’t bother wasting money on social media until your organization can competently handle a customer phone call or email.” Don Peppers

The first is a succinct observation on fact that millions of us now manage our own “I” brand, primarily through Facebook. The second, a warning to those who think this funky stuff looks too cool for school and want to jump straight in.

The link between the two is not just that they are from two of the most important thinkers in marketing in the last 25 years, it’s that those of us with “I’ brands are all too willing to trip companies up when they let us down, don’t deliver and disappoint us. And this negativity can be devastating. Just ask Tiscali Talk Talk and SouthWest Airlines.

Here’s another quote: “Customers wouldn’t feel the need to embarrass us en masse, if our customer service channels weren’t so completely broken.” Bob Knorpp, The Beancast

The marketing buzz in the US right now is about two things – listening and engaging. By connecting the two, businesses and organisations can respond to the conversations their customers and prospects are having. That’s great. But, the real winners are those who have taken an additional, crucial first step; accepting that the world has irrevocably changed forever and that they no longer control the message.

It’s not a comfortable thing for businesses and marketers to acknowledge. But those who think they are in control are doomed. Maggie thinks that by turning her toy steering wheel in the backseat while Marge is in the front, she is driving the car. Some marketers are labouring under the same illusion as little Maggie Simpson, and she never grows up!

The good news is that those who get it – really get it and are prepared to accept the letting go that this entails, can win and win big.

While @ThatKevinSmith and his 1.6m followers are destroying SouthWest Airlines because he was too fat, United are issuing extra airmiles to people tweeting about delayed flights from the departure lounge. By the way that’s ‘delayed’ not ‘adjusted’ as SouthWest refer to their changes in flight schedules!

The thousands of employees that make up Best Buy’s twelpforce are answering customer service issues minute by minute under some common sense and open ended guidelines – if you don’t know, don’t publish, never use the customers name etc. etc.

They have wiped out Circuit City and made Radioshack a virtual irrelevance. Best Buy are now in UK – be afraid!

So whilst there are huge opportunities to grow sales, increase web traffic, develop new products, carry out research, or whatever your objectives are through social channels, the first place to look is your own backyard.

Are all of your customers happy all of the time? Of course not. What aren’t they happy about? Address these things first. Turn negativity to positivity without asking for proof of purchase first!

Whilst the Old Spice campaign was brilliant in its design and execution, don’t get carried away. Make sure your house is in order before you dive in.

ROI – Return On Investment, Involvement or Ignorance?

Posted on by RichardAKent

Speaking with my Financial Director several years ago about my thoughts on an acceptable ROI for our paid search campaign, he thought we could probably go to 3.2:1 whereas I was more ambitious and having diced and sliced the numbers, felt we should push for 3.7:1.

I feel embarrassed recalling this now, but as someone brought up on direct marketing and crunching the data until the pips squeaked, it was (and is) in my DNA.

Social media experts I met back in the day used to shy away from my final question to them; “What is your projected ROI for this activity”. I was secretly sniggering as I asked, knowing that they’d struggle and squirm to avoid answering.

Recently however, I’ve heard some more experts talk about not even pretending they could measure this thing they were about to charge me the world for – felt refreshing.

But my DNA keeps nagging away at me. The bottom line is that, although you can’t measure ROI in the way you can a paid search campaign, a direct mail campaign or an email campaign, you can make some pretty good assumptions and track results from the impressive set of ‘listening tools’ available now that will report on spikes in discussions across the web.

For example, hotels can listen for people looking for stay in a particular city, offer them a discount and hey presto, a highly profitable Return on Involvement!

What gets measured, gets improved. Was always the case, will always be the case.

What do you think?

Is a Social Crash Coming

Posted on by RichardAKent

Is a Social Crash Coming.

I guess Chris is talking about coping with the overwhelmimg amount of stuff that is generated and available now.

Can’t help but agree. Sometimes you feel lost in all of this.

Makes coming up for air and seeing the world from a customers viewpoint all the more important.

All the technology in the world doesn’t escape the fact that at the end of the day all of this is the result of human endeavour. We are all falible, make mistakes and should be wary of over automation everywhere.

Jargon bore!

Posted on by RichardAKent

Back from a great trip to Wyoming and a chance to reflect on a couple of things.

By and large I hate three letter abbreviations, or TLA’s as I call them. But Here’s a cracker that makes me think of Dirty Dicks in Bishopsgate…

ALE.

ACCEPT – that the world is changing rapidly and that unless you do your business or organisation will die.

LISTEN – to your customers, your prospects, your competitors, your secondary markets – and don’t stop. Then..

ENGAGE – Appropriately, relevantly (sp?) and frequently. Social media doesn’t take a holiday!

Hats off to H&R Block

Posted on by RichardAKent

To a Brit, H&R Block are an unfamiliar entity. Only really visible between January and April, H&R Block ‘stores’ pop up in malls, in bleak looking offices inside Sears and by gas stations and are supported by huge TV campaigns.

For those who don’t know (and I had no idea), they are tax specialists.

Everyone working in the US is legally obliged to submit a tax return to the IRS every year for the preceding calendar year.

So for my first experience at filing a federal tax return I visited my local H&R Block.  Being a slightly unusual case – legal non-resident alien (or whatever I am) – meant that additional form filling was required by my tax advisor Bruce. But we got there in the end. Or thought we had.

Six weeks after filing the return I received a letter from the IRS telling me it had been rejected. After speaking to Bruce, we filed again. Six weeks later, another rejection letter arrived with no explanation.

Now I was due a pretty hefty rebate and the delays were proving annoying to say the least.

Having failed to get any help from the local office, which had returned to a dormant off season state, I contacted H&R Block on Twitter. They were back to me inside 12 hours and before long I was in regular phone contact with Britney who has played a blinder in resolving my issues – a nice compensation cheque is on it’s way 🙂

So, a first hand example of how a huge business has utilised social media tools to help me directly.

Anyone got any other positive stories?