Marketers Studio - David Berkowitz's Marketing Blog

Stop Dreaming of a Stripe Christmas

Image via Stripe.com

So, Twitter's talking about allowing people to buy stuff from tweets. Great news, right! Umm, maybe...

I posted a column in Ad Age about this. The pre-edited version is below, so read the better version there, or my edition below.

Stop Dreaming of a Stripe Christmas for Twitter

Most marketers can park their sleighs on the sidelines, but five kinds of offers could work well

Are you dreaming of a Stripe Christmas, unlike one you’ve ever known? Where the commerce glistens and Twitterverse listens to hear cash register bells as it snows?

Wake up. If Twitter’s partnership with payments startup Stripe materializes in time for the peak holiday shopping stretch, it will be a boon for a handful of marketers and retailers. It will also bolster Twitter’s advertising offerings. For most brands, however, this won’t make a difference, and this should have little impact on their Twitter marketing strategies.

Re/code broke the news about the Stripe partnership and timing. Jason Del Rey wrote, “Later this year, Twitter is expected to unveil buttons within tweets that say ‘Buy’ or some variation of the word; after clicking on the button, shoppers are expected to be able to enter in payment and possibly shipping information without leaving Twitter’s service. Sources say that businesses that want to sell products or services within tweets are being instructed to sign up with Stripe to process payments on their behalf.”

I can picture so many marketers reading this and literally drooling at their desks, in a rather less adorable way than how my six-month-old daughter drools all over the board books I read her. While marketers may be nearly as helpless as my daughter in preventing themselves from drooling at such stimuli, it would behoove marketers to exercise a little more control.

One of the reasons marketers should show more caution in this realm is that the whole notion of social commerce is often misunderstood. The two aren’t generally meant to be linked together in so seamless a fashion. Years ago, several brands tried promoting flash sales on Facebook where consumers could make a purchase directly within the post, but it wasn’t sustainable. Nor were group commerce models, such as the original approach of Groupon. Pinterest functions differently, as it is in essence a product recommendation site, but usually people aren’t spending time on social networks with the intent to make a purchase. That’s why so many social commerce attempts have failed.

When social commerce tends to work on social networking sites, it’s usually at opposite ends of the theoretical purchase funnel. On one end, there is the chance to make people aware of brands and products, often through content marketing. At the other end, by connecting with people who are already customers and fans, there are some opportunities to convert them into advocates. The toughest area to play is the middle – taking someone who is aware of a product and interested, and having them make a purchase at that moment.

Even with those caveats, there are five kinds of use cases for Twitter-powered commerce that could make sense:

1)      Sampling: It’s not usually the hardest challenge to give away free products, but marketers can tap Twitter’s interest graph to get goods in the hands in the right consumers.

2)      Exclusive offers: Some of Twitter’s earliest advertisers used ads for flash sales, and the Stripe connection will make this appealing to a broader range of brands. Exclusive goods can benefit from the word of mouth marketing on Twitter, and for such marketers, the real-time nature of Twitter makes it the perfect channel.

 

3)      Digital media: Low-consideration items such as mobile apps could work well for impulse buys. So could music singles, given how much clout celebrities have on Twitter. Granted, publishers will have to be willing to integrate with Twitter and Stripe, and that will limit which ones participate.

 

4)      Subscription services: When trying to convert non-paying followers to paying customers, popular services could float offers to their current fan base, and some of those fans may spread the word further with their retweets. Spotify, LinkedIn, The New York Times, Pocket, and TripIt are some that could assess whether Twitter followers become subscribers faster with Twitter enabling purchases.

 

5)      Fundraising: This could be the social media equivalent of the pleas to text a quick message to donate $10 to some trendy cause. When it’s so easy to donate a nominal amount with a tweet and a charity is connected to a cause people are buzzing about, that’s precisely the kind of message that people will want to spread.

Even as these are some of the most likely candidates for finding success with Twitter-enabled payments, marketers hawking shampoo, smartphones, and perhaps even cars may give it a shot. If it is tempting to participate yourself, go into this thinking that this is an experiment that won’t yet work. Instead, keep trying to figure out if Twitter matters for your brands on a more macro level, and determine how to best use it. If this year also winds up being a Stripe Christmas for you, then your holidays will be even merrier and brighter.

 

What's the Minimal Requirement to be Taken Seriously as a Media Company?

The story behind the story

I'm a big fan of Foursquare. I am a Level I Superuser who has contributed 291 tips and 756 photos over the course of 6,169 check-ins that earned me 147 badges. I own and love its shirts, both the English and Japanese editions. I've clearly been a fan over the years.

I guess I'm no longer their biggest fan. Well, I have had issues for quite awhile. Last November, after a reporter wrote a feature on a new ad product they put out, I wrote him, "I still can’t believe they avoid reporting active user #s. What are they afraid of?" He responded, "I’m thinking the #s must be very grim…" and later added, "I bet a lot of people would agree with you! (I agree with you!)." I told him, "Thanks for the encouragement. I’m wondering how to make it into a post that’s more than a few sentences, or if there’s anyone else that’s remotely as egregious, and thus looking at it as more of a trend piece."

Eight months later, Foursquare's just as quiet on user numbers, but it touts some grandoise claims. I don't think it's right, I don't think Foursquare the company deserves to be taken seriously by marketers until it discloses a bare minimum of verified information. When I was finally motivated to write a column, I turned to more sources than I had in ages: Foursquare directly, Ad Age reporters, comScore's Mobile Metrix, and eMarketer's media relations lead. No one had answers. For such a name brand in digital media, especially in terms of marketer awareness, it is the biggest black box that I'm aware of.

The column was recently published in Ad Age. As per usual here, the better, edited version is there, and this one had more edits than usual given the sensitivity of the topic and my own approach to writing it like a journalist even when contributing it as a columnist (to be clear, I don't receive any income from Ad Age or any other source as a journalist, and I have never made a dime from Ad Age).

I will also note that after discussing the story before it was published with a contact at Foursquare, I toned down the rhetoric considerably, well before it was submitted to Ad Age. I saved quite a number of versions of it, and the contact helped me keep a level head in terms of tempering any raw ranting and focusing this on a substantial issue that should be top of mind for media buyers and sellers alike. I have in turn heard some other people at Foursquare are none too pleased with the column, but they haven't reached out to be directly. Perhaps they'd at least appreciate that the first draft wasn't the final one.

Granted, any post that starts with "obfuscation" and ends with wondering why anyone would work with them isn't exactly a puff piece. Your thoughts on this are welcome. My final draft is below, with Ad Age's headline (since it's better than what I had).  

Foursquare, It's Time to Be Open about Metrics 

After five years of obfuscation, it’s time for Foursquare to decide it’s going to be a real media company, one worthy of marketers’ attention. The lesson for Foursquare and its peers on the sell side is simple: be open and transparent if you want to be taken seriously.

Foursquare has refused to release its metrics on monthly active users (MAUs) since it launched in 2009. I should know, as I’ve asked them repeatedly while representing two different agencies. Then, while writing this column, I had an exchange with a spokesperson from Foursquare’s communications team. I’m still no closer to an answer.

What prompted the outreach out to their press team was a message Foursquare sent to its first million users about a forthcoming update to the app, described publicly on its blog. The missive noted, “You’ve seen us grow from a tiny project to a 50,000,000-strong community.” The zeroes seems to carry a hint of self-aggrandization, and something seemed off, as did its liberal use of the word “community.” Who is really using it now?

When emailing Foursquare’s communications director about MAUs, he said, “We don't share our monthly actives or specific country-by-country breakdowns.” The geographical issue remains equally troubling for marketers – it should be one of the first questions buyers ask, along with requesting MAUs. I also brought up the 50 million figure, and Foursquare’s representative responded that more than 50 million people have downloaded their apps since Foursquare began in 2009.

I had further questions, such as whether Foursquare could confirm that 50 million referred to unique individuals as opposed to app installs. It’s hardly about semantics. I have probably installed Foursquare on ten different devices over the past five years, and at least two operating systems (iOS and Android), so does that mean I am counted once, twice, or ten times among the 50 million? Foursquare wouldn’t provide any clarity. When I followed up, the spokesperson said, “Just never felt the need to offer a deeper breakdown of our user community. One of the perks of being a private company, I suppose!” Why not add smiley face emoji, with an adorable little cartoon animal, if he’s going to be that flip?

Foursquare, the perk is over. This is a company targeting marketers, and it is holding back the most basic information that advertisers need. If a company can spend five years thinking it doesn’t need to share this, it’s deluded. Meanwhile, Foursquare won’t confirm whether it’s lifetime number refers to installs or true unique users.  Just what is Foursquare trying to hide? It should be honest with marketers, show the value of what it can be used for, and talk about the plans for growing its user base.

Marketers shouldn’t accept the status quo. In fact, marketers should be wary of conducting anything more than a pilot with a media company without that basic MAU and geographic information. This isn’t some secret project run by the Defense Department or Elon Musk; this is a company that has been courting the press and marketers for half a decade. In that time, Facebook and Twitter went public, Pinterest and Snapchat launched and garnered multi-billion-dollar valuations, and social media acquisitions have included Tumblr, WhatsApp, Instagram, and so many others. Facebook even acquired Gowalla, once billed as Foursquare’s top competitor, back in 2011.

Foursquare, meanwhile, seems to have idled. All the while, Foursquare has developed some compelling marketing offerings for local advertisers, whether small businesses or global advertisers looking to drive people to local stores. Broader campaigns for major brands, also running on Foursquare, don’t yet seem to be in its sweet spot.

Marketers, go ahead and run tests even without a lot of basic information. If a media property is brand new, great; it shouldn’t have to disclose much as long as it sets expectations. Find a partner with a relevant offering and get something in market. Even a company with a massive audience such as Snapchat can take its time releasing user data until it rolls out a well-defined offering targeting brands. If a company like WhatsApp doesn’t want to work with advertisers at all (as was its founder’s stance before joining Facebook), it doesn’t have to reveal anything at all.

Yet marketers should reward transparency and push back against obfuscation from companies that have been courting their attention, love, and money for years. If basic information isn’t forthcoming, there are alternatives. For marketers who need MAUs and other data for pilots, go on sites like AngelList, Crunchbase, Industry Index, or Partnered, and connect with more willing companies.

The free ride has to end somewhere, and a five-year anniversary seems like a great time to move on. I will try Foursquare’s app update and keep using Swarm, but Foursquare needs to finally earn my trust as someone representing marketers. If Foursquare starts treating marketers with more respect, then we can have a real dialogue. Until then, why would anyone do business with a company that considers its secrecy a perk?