Inside the Marketers Studio - David Berkowitz's Marketing Blog

The Truck Stops Here

Here's today's Social Media Insider, originally published in MediaPost. Photo credit: Me.

In the future, will all of our restaurants turn into roving trucks? You may not ask yourself that question every day, but answering it will reveal a few things about the evolution of social media.

This megatrend of trucks serving gourmet food is one of those cataclysmic events that can only be brought on by a slew of events that were never supposed to happen at the same time (think "The Day After Tomorrow"):

·  A recession that caused consumers to be thrifty when eating out while also giving the jobless and underemployed more time than they're used to.

·  GPS technology accurate enough to locate restaurants on wheels.

·  The advent of Twitter, which allowed truck-food proprietors to economically broadcast where they are, along with empowering consumers narcissistic enough to tell people they are on line waiting for a truck chef to serve them.

·  Finally, the emergence of Dr. Scholl's shoe inserts so comfortable that truck chefs can be gellin' without having their feet resemble snapshots from the podiatric-themed issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

New York City has a multiplying fleet of truck chefs. Battles for the streets have become so intense that one truck food purveyor told The New York Times a few weeks ago, "I should not have to carry a baseball bat on my truck in order to sell cupcakes." I've visited two trucks for food this month alone: Van Leeuwen artisan ice cream by the High Line park (after trying the vanilla, "artisan" must be a synonym for "bland"), and the CupcakeStop.com truck that I found via a colleague's tweet, which served the best red velvet I've had east of the Mississippi (either side of it, you can't top Sprinkes).

The most famous, uber-hip food truck isn't driving near my office anytime soon. It's Kogi, the Los Angeles-based Korean barbecue truck fleet with over 35,000 followers on Twitter. Proprietor Mark Manguera seems to have an Oprah-like command of his followers, with hundreds of them lining up for Asian-Mexican food whenever his trucks tweet.

How much further will this trend go? Here are a few ideas:

·  The locations of these trucks will be crowdsourced. It's the converse of the drive-thru: instead of the truck saying where it is and people tweeting about it, people will tweet and the truck drives to where the most buzz is.

·  Mobile applications will instantly show which food trucks are in your area. Trucks will be sorted by cuisine type, location, and the length of the line.

·  A market of line-savers will emerge. Someone spending $10 on dinner from a truck may well pay another $20 not to wait on line for an hour or two (I couldn't find anyone offering or requesting this on the Los Angeles Craigslist boards). A secure arrangement between the parties using SMS and PayPal could ensure timeliness and accuracy. A more sophisticated system could have the person on line periodically checking in via GPS to confirm their location.

·  Trucks will eliminate all of their selection and will tweet the day's option along with the location. One day, it might only be steak fajitas, while another it's shrimp tamales. And the same people who waited two hours to get what they wanted from the truck would wait four to have no options to choose from.

·  Trucks will tweet the wrong locations intentionally. This will weed out the fans from the superfans. Anyone can follow a truck on Twitter and find it and wait on line for food while telling all their friends about it. But imagine if people had no clue where the truck was, and even their friends tweeted the wrong locations to throw them off? The same people who waited four hours to eat food from a truck with only one menu item would spend another four hours trying to find out where the truck really is before waiting another four hours for food.

Thanks to social media and the mobile technologies facilitating it, these trucks may in time lead to a super-race of Twitter users. Consumers already too thrifty to gorge themselves will spend four hours running around after a truck and four hours longer standing in line, all to consume undersized portions designed to easily fit in their hand for on-street consumption. While engaging in these tweets and spending ample time with their fellow line-waiters, they're bound to comingle and eventually reproduce. These offspring will in turn exhibit the genes for fitness and tech savvy that will give them disproportionate advantages in the centuries ahead.

I'm not sure I'll be one of them. Sunday night, while walking home, I discovered a Vietnamese restaurant in my neighborhood and ate my first banh mi sandwich. I had read no reviews, whether by professionals or consumers. I saw nary a tweet about it, and didn't tweet it either. Monday night, I went back for another banh mi. It won't be my last. The whole time, the restaurant stayed in the same location, there was no line, and I sat down while waiting. I'm clearly not cut out for the future of truck-based food consumption, though if it's carrying red velvets, I may make an occasional exception.

140 Characters Conference Panel: Video Edition

For what should be the end of my 140 Characters Conference coverage, I’ve posted the video from my session. You can find a lot more at Blip.TV. Lastly, you can read one more recap I posted on 360i’s blog, covering the event in less than 1,400 characters.

"twitter as the GPS for the Greater Social Media Mesh"

Participants:

Aaron Strout (@AaronStrout) - CMO, Powered, Inc.

Brian Morrissey (@bmorrissey) - Digital Editor at Adweek

David Berkowitz (@dberkowitz) - Emerging Media Director, 360i

Hadley Stern (@hadleystern) - Vice-President, Fidelity Labs

Peter Fasano (@pfasano) - Principal/Lead Catalyst, Mass+Logic

Watch: http://blip.tv/file/2269763

 

Technorati Tags: 140conf

140 Characters Conference Multimedia Recap

It was an honor to be part of Jeff Pulver’s first 140 Characters Conference. I’m still trying to figure out what it was, what happens, and what it means. It was a two day conference on Twitter, one of a bunch of Twitter conferences going on.

If you consider going in the future, know that it’s not about marketing. I was on a panel with others from the marketing world [ Aaron Strout (@AaronStrout) - CMO, Powered, Inc., Brian Morrissey (@bmorrissey) - Digital Editor at Adweek, Hadley Stern (@hadleystern) - Vice-President, Fidelity Labs, Peter Fasano (@pfasano) - Principal/Lead Catalyst, Mass+Logic ]. Other marketers were there too. But we were the odd men out (yes, all men in this case – sorry).

The event was about transformation. How is Twitter transforming journalism, television, music, relationships, and, yes, marketing? What does it really mean?

There is the risk of an echo chamber effect. People there were on Twitter. This wasn’t a how-to seminar. It’s hard to say what it was. But anyone who sat in on the Ann Curry panel knew they were witnessing something big. She is quite possibly the best panelist I’ve ever seen, with her passion and authenticity. A clip of the end of the session is below, so you can get a taste of it (you’ll also see Rick Sanchez from CNN and Clayton Morris from Fox and Friends – see more coverage on Twitter as a news Gathering Tool on my blog). I’ll share the whole session if I see it somewhere, and you can just fast forward to anytime Ann opens her mouth. Oh and follow her on Twitter.

On that note, thanks Jeff Pulver and congrats on the event. The YouTube clip is below, followed by a slideshow of Flickr photos. You can also see those photos on Facebook if you want to tag yourself or friends in any.

 

 

Technorati Tags: twitter 140conf "140 characters conference" events

Fresh Eyes on Social Media

Here's today's Social Media Insider originally published in MediaPost

If you think you've read everything you need to know about social media, maybe you should get your eyes checked. When you go, with any luck your optometrist will be Nathan Bonilla-Warford, O.D. in Tampa, Florida, as he can teach you a few things.

Nathan reached out following last week's column about my optometrist uncle,  who said my article was posted on an optometrists' forum. His email signature included links to his Web site, Yelp listing, Facebook page, and Twitter account, and he later revealed he's a blogger too. I thought his practical experience as a business owner grappling with social media should be shared with others. Here's an exclusive interview with Dr. Bonilla-Warford.

Social Media Insider: How did you decide to tweet? What's it doing for you?

Dr. Nathan Bonilla-Warford: Another optometrist turned me on to it. Because I blog, it was a no-brainer. It gets my message out about news and events. Twitter has led to new patients and new sales. Now that I have been tweeting for a while, I truly see Twitter (social media more generally) as "The Chamber of Commerce for our generation."

With Twitter you get to see the people behind the business a bit more and, in this day where we are all fed a steady diet of overhyped, irony-dripping marketing, it is nice to see real people. Add local tweetups to the mix and it is awesome, especially for a small business like mine that likes to work in barter when possible.

So I love it. And being the ONLY eye doc in Tampa Bay who tweets, I've got that self-selected demographic all to myself -- for now. And I am taking advantage of it while I can.

SMI: How much time does it take you to manage your social media presence?

NBW: Well, my wife thinks it takes me a lot of time. Really, though, social media is so integrated with other tasks such as administrative and leisure time that it is hard to quantify the time put in. Perhaps 30 minutes a day total, apart from stand-alone marketing time. I don't think of it as taking a lot of time, because it is fun and rewarding. An important note is that this really only applies to maintenance of social networks. Setting up a new presence DOES take time and effort at first, deciding on what image to present, literally and figuratively, and what the written and unwritten rules are of the new network.

SMI: Are any social media channels more important than others?

NBW: I'm not a guru on this subject, but I think it all depends on your goals and perspective. I pretty much see my blog as the central hub of the Web presence and then other systems/networks making use of that content. However, this is changing as I am becoming more active on Twitter. I am starting to dislike Facebook due to all the quizzes and applications, but I know that it is still popular.

SMI: Is it just you managing it? Do you have anyone in your office helping you?

NBW: I have talked about this with other optometrists. Historically, optometrists are not great at delegating. I'm not sure why. I have introduced social media to my office staff and asked them to participate by writing blog posts. I would like to get them more involved and tweet about office events and allow me to focus more on clinical topics, but we are not there -- yet.

SMI: Who's your target audience? Is there a certain demographic?

NBW: The target audience is tricky. Initially and ideally, the target audience is people (specifically mothers) who live in the area and who are patients or potential patients of Bright Eyes. However, we also provide specialty services of infant & pediatric care, vision therapy and orthokeratology, and there is not a large number of these specialists using social media nationwide. So I am simultaneously creating a national and international audience of people who are interested in this niche care.

This has caused me to realize that I have to create different entities to address these audiences, and I am now working toward this, in conjunction with national professional organizations within these specialties. To some degree, I am leading them to it, because they are thinking about the message spreading from more conventional channels.

SMI: What's your advice to other business owners about using social media?

I think that virtually any business could benefit from social media. There is a small, local house cleaning company that I think is doing a great job (@serranocleaning ). I plan on using their services in the future. Ikea opened a new store in Tampa, and they have been the example of "doing it right" with @IKEATampaFans. They listen to tweets and encourage exchange without spam.

So to any business, especially one that deals heavily with human interaction such as sales or consulting, I would say, "Come on in, the water is fine." But do spend a little time dabbling with a personal account to think about what style and approach works for you, before you commit.

I also feel very strongly that businesses should separate their personal and business social media identities. I know others disagree with me on this point, saying, "You are your brand." But I just think it is confusing if you are using your office/business name and then sending a bunch of tweets that have no relation to your core concept. I'm not saying to refuse to show some personal side because that is a good and important aspect, but to keep it relevant to your brand.

CNN’s Rick Sanchez Goes from Mocked to Hero to My New Bud

CNN’s Rick Sanchez and I have had a pretty crazy relationship.

First I mentioned how he brought out the best and worst of cross-platform journalism thanks to integrating social media comments in ways that didn’t always add to the value of his show.

Then Rick actually responded on his own blog, and even on his TV show, in as transparent, humble, and authentic a way as anyone could ever do.

I came around and shared what a great listener he is. Yes, I’m still impressed.

Now, at 140 Conference (the Twitter event here in NYC today), I got to meet him, and even enjoy a photo op. Couldn’t resist. We even look a bit alike.

Gotta love social media – and how cross-platform has taken us through blogs, Twitter, TV, and ultimately an in-person meeting, which is what it should really all be about. It doesn’t get more social than that.

 

Technorati Tags: 140conf,conferences,events,rick sanchez,cnn,ricksanchezcnn

Israeli Consulate’s David Saranga Discusses Tweeting, Peace, and Perceptions at 140 Conference

Here’s coverage of the 140 Conference today in NYC

David Saranga (@DavidSaranga) - Consul for Media and Public Affairs at the Israeli Consulate in New York
The use of Twitter in Public Diplomacy

When people see Israel, they think of a kid in front of a tank. The media concentrates on that - "I can understand it."

"I would like to add another dimension." He shows Maxim Magazine coming to Israel, getting coverage in international press. In Central Park next week, they're bringing a beach to Central Park.

In December 2008, during the war on Gaza, they got on Twitter. "The definition of public diplomacy has changed." There's no middleman (the press). "For the first time we can have a dialogue with the public opinion." The Israeli government can listen. "We want to know what people think about us." Announced government press conference on Twitter. International coverage ensued.

They weren't neglecting conventional media for this new channel. It was about "fusion" - it was one more channel, especially to reach the younger generation not reading newspapers or watching TV.

The trends:
* People can talk directly to governments
* Governments can bypass the media
* Face to face dialogue possible

It allows government to speak on an "eye to eye level" with public opinion.

Built platform of Tweet for Peace to promote 3 topics:
* Environment
* Minority rights
* Education

Technorati Tags: events,140conf

Ten Ways To Decide If Your Business Should Tweet

What's up with all the Twitter talk at Applebee's? by Thomas Hawk via Flickr

Originally published in MediaPost's Social Media Insider

During a late lunch (for me) or an early dinner (for my wife's grandparents) at Applebee's in Reading, Pa., I was distracted from figuring out how to eat my riblets when I heard the conversation inevitably turn to Twitter.

It wasn't the most senior members at the table who were interested in tweeting -- thank goodness, as that would have made me fall off my chair faster than an Applebee's Top Shelf Long Island Iced Tea. Instead, my uncle, an optometrist, had been hearing about Twitter and wondered if he should tweet professionally.

When I answered Uncle Glenn, I brought up a number of factors that he should consider when evaluating the service. I also compared his situation to that of Jeff, my father-in-law, a plastic surgeon in Dallas. Glenn and Jeff have several things in common: small businesses in healthcare targeting older-skewing customers who aren't particularly tech-savvy. There are key differences though, and those are described below.

Here are ten factors Glenn, Jeff, or anyone else should consider when deciding whether to tweet:

1. Domain squatting: Is there any value for you to register your business name or even real name (if you own your business or are the face of it) as a Twitter user name? I covered this recently, and there are a number of reasons why you should, even if you don't plan to actively use it.

2. Brand mentions: Is anyone talking about your actual business already? For a small business, this isn't as likely, but you absolutely must check. For this search and others discussed here, use Twitter Search at  search.twitter.com. While Twitter offers search functionality on its own site, it's only available to registered users, and Twitter Search is more robust.

3. Topical mentions: Are people on Twitter discussing topics relevant to your business? For Glenn, this might mean posts about getting glasses. For Jeff, it might be concerns about aging, or about certain products like Botox. These signal opportunities where you can respond and be a resource. I once tweeted about a friend needing a WordPress programmer; the person who responded wasn't following me but was getting alerts for relevant terms, and he wound up with the gig.

4. Location mentions: If your business is based in or focused on a certain city or region, search Twitter to see what people are saying about it. Then use the advanced search feature to find posts from people based within a certain area. There may be ways to be a resource about your area. You should also run location-specific searches for your brands and relevant topics. The potential reach also matters; Glenn's target is residents within a small radius of Reading (population: 83,000), while Jeff's customers live in and beyond the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, home to one-quarter of all Texans.

5. Target audience: If there are lots of relevant mentions, click the user names to see if they look like they could be in your target audience. If the volume of tweets is high enough, you'll find a sample of people who are sharing information about themselves, whether from their Twitter profiles, the links to their sites, or what they're talking about.

6. Competitiveness: How cutthroat is your business? Do you need to do anything and everything to stay ahead? Twitter could be a competitive advantage, or a necessary defensive strategy. Jeff's business is one of those fields where his competitors will shamelessly copy whatever he does, from marketing to innovative surgical procedures and technologies. Glenn's field is toward the other end of the spectrum, where he spends a lot of his time sharing what he knows with his peers. Someone like Jeff is thus more inclined to use Twitter because they have to, while someone in Glenn's situation would use it if they want to.

7. Sales cycle complexity: How involved is the purchase decision? For Jeff's business, there's a lot of complexity in terms of understanding the procedures and technologies involved. Plus, if anything goes wrong, it will often be very visible to everyone the customer knows. This means Jeff must invest a great deal of energy in making prospective customers feel comfortable with him and his business. With Glenn, trust is no less important, but his customers don't need to conduct as much research online; he'll wind up earning most customers' trust in person.

8. Purchase frequency: This can vary considerably for both Glenn and Jeff. For Jeff, many customers need to return regularly for maintenance. Glenn, meanwhile, has an opportunity to provide services for the whole family, from eye exams to glasses. How valuable is it to stay top of mind?

9. Acquisition vs. retention: If most of your business comes from existing customers, then just ask them if they use Twitter and if they'd want to keep in touch with you that way. If you're continually prospecting, then you need to review these other factors.

10. Bandwidth and resources: Even if your target audience is on Twitter and there are a million reasons to connect with customers there, do you work with anyone who understands Twitter well enough to participate, or can you afford to pay someone else to train you or run your Twitter program?

That's the long answer. The short answer is, "Are your target customers on Twitter, and do you have the resources to reach them?"

Jeff gave these factors a lot of thought and is already tweeting away, even if he's still figuring out the best way to use it (like most everyone else). Glenn will probably hold off unless his Twitter research uncovers surprising results. Both can periodically return to this guide to assess whether Twitter has the potential to help them grow their businesses. Even if it's a little challenging to understand, it's all much easier than figuring out how to eat a riblet.

The Top 11 Twitter Tools - Links and Presentation from Brandhackers Meetup

On Monday night, I had the pleasure of presenting on Twitter tools and best practices at the Brandhackers Meetup in NY with Greg Galant. View the presentation via SlideShare (click through to see the full size), which includes an intro before the tools and best practices after. And if you're so inclined, you can find me on Twitter at @dberkowitz.

Top 11 Twitter Tools and Twitter Best Practices - Brandhackers Presentation

View more presentations from David Berkowitz.

1.Twitter Search
www.twitter.com / search.twitter.com

2.Bit.ly
www.bit.ly

3.Twist
twist.flaptor.com

4.Mr. Tweet
www.mrtweet.com

5.Topify
www.topify.com

6.TweetMeme
www.tweetmeme.com

7.TwitPic
www.twitpic.com

8.HootSuite
www.hootsuite.com

9.Seesmic Desktop
desktop.seesmic.com

10.Twitterfon
www.twitterfon.com

11.Troy’s Twitter Script
a) Install Greasemonkey (Firefox):
addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748
b) Install Troy:
userscripts.org/scripts/show/40617

When Your Mother-in-Law Visits Twitter

Here's today's column, from MediaPost's Social Media Insider.

The world's gone (bleep)ing mad.

When Your Mother-in-Law Visits Twitter

However I try to explain what's happening now, I keep returning to that thought. It's what I told my dinner companions Thursday night at the Search Insider Summit, moments after I called my wife and she couldn't talk because she was teaching her mom how to use Twitter.

Put aside the fact that, at the time, my wife had never used Twitter. She's been a loyal reader of my blog since we started dating, but she hasn't seen any of my tweets since I joined Twitter in March 2007. Put aside the fact that I've personally sat down with countless executives and marketers to walk them through Twitter. Put aside the fact that the day my wife told me this, I was working on a presentation for the Brandhackers Meetup that was all about the tools people can use to manage Twitter. And put aside the fact that my mother in law just got a laptop -- her first computer -- three days prior as an early Mother's Day gift from her husband.

Okay, I lied. Don't put it all aside because it makes no sense. Who in the name of Oprah thought my mother-in-law would be asking my wife about Twitter? It reminds me of the times growing up when family friends would call my house to discuss medical issues and talk to my mom, a real estate agent, instead of my dad, a gastroenterologist.

My email notifications tell the story another way. At 3:57 p.m Thursday, @barbadel started following me on Twitter. The other person she was following: Larry King. Her sister @CandysTime followed me at 4:05 p.m. At 7:27p.m, my wife @caralana started following me. Before that, the only relative I saw on Twitter -- and one of the only people I've seen there from my personal social sphere -- was my 19-year-old cousin Eddie, and his Twitter profile comes with an entire brand identity around his @eddiefresh persona.

Really, what happened? I went to the source and emailed Barbara, better known as @barbadel, for her thoughts. This new technology enthusiast responded to me right away -- via her iPhone.

David Berkowitz: Why did you join Twitter?

@barbadel: I joined to stay current, relevant and stalk my son-n-law (joking).

DB: How has the experience been so far?

@barbadel: Absolutely addicting... I want to manage several Twitter accounts to increase visibility, both for personal and business uses. [I recommended she try HootSuite to do this.]

DB: I saw you're following Larry King. What do you think of his tweets?

@barbadel: I love Larry King' competitive spirit... but "I'm eating peanut butter now..." -- why bother? [She's serious. He wrote last Thursday, "one of my new favorite foods is peanut butter."]

DB: Do you think you'll still be using Twitter a month from now?

@barbadel: Twitter therapy in a month will be required, and some sleep... I hope my husband doesn't regret the laptop gift.

DB: What do you wish could be better about Twitter?

@barbadel: People like Michelle Obama and others may be hard to get here. Maybe it's a security issue. I convinced my sister and daughter to get on board and we are tweeting.

I've had several conversations with Barbara since then, all of them revolving around Twitter. Each time, along with discussing some new tip or tool I'm teaching her, she asks how we can get another member of the family on board. She's been plotting how to rope in her son, my mom, my aunt, and even my grandmother. She already has her husband tweeting and trying to keep up with her.

She also has a real knack for it. While she's still figuring out what to tweet about and how to tweet it, she is developing three personas: her own, one for her business, and a hybrid that's a more personal version of the business account. We'll check in with her later on to see if she's keeping up her Twitter empire, or she joins the ranks of the Twitter quitters (I'm betting on the former).

There are only two things that would make the experience better for her: if Larry King would tweet less about peanut butter, and if he'd start replying to her. In the meantime, it's proving effective for stalking her son-in-law, daughter, sister, and anyone else she can convince to join.

Tyson Using Social Media to Build Community around Hunger

Most people probably associate Tyson Foods with chicken. Tyson wants you to think of hunger relief, and they’re using social media to help them do so. Tyson Foods Director of Corporate Community and Public Relations Ed Nicholson discussed how it works in his presentation “Tyson: Study: Tyson: Tweeting & Feeding With Social Media” at BDI’s Social Communications: The Case Studies.

Here are notes from his talk:

Hunger Relief Strategy

Goals:

• Humanize brand
• Establish company as thought leader about hunger
• Grow community recognizing them as credible and will defend them if needed
• Leverage in-kind donations to more than just PR

Strategies

• Engage employees: 104K people there
• Makes them feel good about the company, creates people dedicated to the cause, another step to be authentic and humanize the brand
• Utilize communications resource to create awareness, build community.
• More than just a campaign
• Leverage donations to create more awareness around hunger

Began formally working in hunger relief in 2000 in earnest. Early focus very brand focused, expectations changed. Became more collaborative, more outwardly-focused.

Set up hungerrelief.tyson.com in 2007 – tell stories of people working in hunger relief, archive those stories, expand awareness of the issue. Also on Flickr, YouTube

Summer 2008, created official brand presence on Twitter – 3500 followers. “I think its’ very important to have that two-way communication.” http://twitter.com/tysonfoods 

Started working with Social Media Club in Austin. Offered 35,000 lbs of food, one truckload – 100 lbs per comment on an SMC blog post. Got the 350 comments in 4 hours.

Parting thoughts of his:

• Relationships and reputations survive technology changes.
• There’s a reason they call it social media. People with mass marketing skills understand the media part – they just don’t get the social part.