I can tell you that every day, every single day, I receive somewhere between 50-75 touches from someone wanting to sell me something. I get phone calls, emails; they even mail me letters. Of the 50-75, I maybe get to look at 25. They all say the same thing: “Can I get 30 minutes of your time?” If I did 10, I would not have time to do my job.
Buzzfeed just posted about the "Ignore Hitler" meme spreading through Draw Something. I'm not really offended by the meme, but there has to be a better subheader for the story than saying "They've lost 6 million..." That's an unfortunate Holocaust reference, used in the context here of an app losing some users.
The Chosen Media
originally published in MediaPost's Social Media Insider
(update: for the benefit of the Walgreens representative who commented below, and the benefit of anyone else who may be confused, this entire column is an opinion, as is everything else on this blog)
“Now therefore, if You will obey our voices, and keep our covenant, then social media shall be a special treasure to us above all media. For You are holy media to us, and we have chosen You to be our treasured media from all other media on the face of the Earth.” – The Gospel of Zuckerberkowitz 3:16, shamelessly bastardized from Biblical passages cited in Wikipedia
Social media has clearly become the Chosen Media. If you have any doubt, consider the outcries over the past week directed at Google, Facebook, and Walgreens:
1) Google sparked the biggest backlash. As noted by fellow columnist Cathy Taylor, Google betrayed users’ trust by pumping Google+ results into natural search listings while shutting out Facebook and Twitter. The outcry will reverberate as more people initiate searches that trigger questionable social results. My friend Dan Lewis tweeted, “Google's social-ly image search stunks. [sic] I like @dberkowitz, but I don't want his vacation pics when doing a search on ‘Tiananmen Square.’”
The headlines coming out of it were sometimes scathing. The Washington Post ran a guide to its privacy and antitrust implications. Gizmodo declared, “Google just made Bing the best search engine.” Relevance is personal, so Google had some defenders, but if this is what social search looks like, the early verdict indicates people would rather keep the two separate.
2) Facebook can thank Google for taking attention away from its own controversy. The social network is now mining public and private Facebook posts for data that Politico can use in its reporting. Anytime you reference Mitt Romney driving to Canada with the family dog strapped to the roof of his car (that means you, Gail Collins), Facebook will tabulate your feelings about it and send it over to Politico’s editorial desk.
The problem lies with Facebook mining private posts without educating users about what it’s doing or providing a way to opt out. There are probably millions of people paranoid about the government monitoring their lives who don’t realize that Mark Zuckerberg’s operation is at least as sophisticated. ReadWriteWeb noted that this is a great potential service from Facebook, but Facebook can’t violate users’ trust.
3) If you can’t trust Google and Facebook, you can at least trust your local pharmacy, right? Not so fast. Walgreens has been involved in a lengthy and public dispute with pharmacy benefits provider Express Scripts. While Express Scripts is reaching out to consumers to help them switch pharmacies, Walgreens is wagering that the court of public opinion will be decided through social channels. It kicked off a widespread campaign by sponsoring tweets and paying off bloggers, with the goal of pressuring Express Scripts to relent to Walgreens’ terms.
The problem for Walgreens is that it’s bringing a lot of extra negative attention to the issue. Promoting a tweet with the hashtag “ilovewalgreens” hardly feels authentic, and the bloggers being paid don’t necessarily have any connection to or affinity for the retailer.
In each of these examples, the offending party is being accused of violating the Covenant that was formed between the People and the Chosen Media. It’s a Covenant that says transparency, privacy, and authenticity are sacred. It’s a Covenant that says the People own the Chosen Media, no matter which corporations participate. It’s a Covenant that says that the People’s loyalties are to the Chosen Media, and to each other; everything else is fluid.
Few other things are sacred anymore. The prophets of Lucy and Berle and Cosby no longer carry the same resonance. Newer idols, like “American Idol,” work precisely because they resonate through the Chosen Media. In lieu of temple chambers, we have echo chambers.
What’s sacred today may not be tomorrow. Yet right now, media companies, marketers, and everyone else must respect the Covenant between the People and the Chosen Media -- or face the uproar by those aggrieved.
Qwikster can come soon enough
Netflix In Netflux Flunks Recommendations
originally published in MediaPost's Social Media Insider
I wouldn't have predicted that I'd be seeking a new entertainment recommendation service right at the time that I've been using Netflix the most. Sadly, with its forthcoming split into two companies, Netflix has lost any concept of what it is, and it has just opened a massive window for someone to trump it.
Since returning from Asia on Sept. 11, I've been using Netflix more than I ever have. It's been a perfect storm of sorts. Jet lag kept me awake at odd hours, a stomach bug kept me home more than usual (thanks, Mongolian mutton), and rerun-heavy weeks before the fall TV premieres ensured there were few new shows worth watching. Naturally, I turned to Netflix to fill the void.
It proved to yield mixed results. I did watch a number of films on Netflix, mostly documentaries. I only did so after sifting through hundreds of recommendations for movies I'd never want to watch, while looking for several movies that weren't available via streaming. Alternatively, I'd sift through the more limited options from Time Warner on-demand, including selections such as the wonderful "Mao's Last Dancer" that aren't yet available from Netflix. And rewatching this season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" on HBO on-demand got me through a very long night.
All of this leads to what makes Netflix different from its competitors. Netflix isn't a movie delivery company. It's an entertainment recommendation engine that provides fast access to its recommendations. Netflix once valued recommendations so much that it offered a $1 million prize in October 2006 to anyone who could substantially improve its recommendations, a reward claimed in September 2009. The history of Netflix from 1997 to 2009 hinged on recommendations. And these recommendations benefited from the network effect: as more people participated in rating films, the ratings continually improved for all Netflix subscribers.
Since then, Netflix has shifted its focus to streaming. There are several challenges with that. The first is that the best streaming companies we have in the U.S. are the cable companies, as their pipes are best equipped to transmit the content. I'm no fan of Time Warner, but most of the time, it works instantly, and the high definition quality is a great bonus. Even in this economy, with cord cutting an important trend to follow, it will take a long time for most people to wean themselves off cable.
Then there's selection. Netflix has a great selection for DVDs, but the selection for streaming will always be hindered by obvious examples of what's missing. If you're looking for movies that Netflix doesn't have for streaming, and it happens over and over again, it triggers a conditioned response. You get used to the idea that it only has what it offers you, not what you're looking for. People are used to that from cable operators, but not from Netflix, which once was known for having just about everything.
What Netflix is left with is a dumb pipe. It's a delivery mechanism for a lot of streaming content, and most people can probably rationalize getting their money's worth if they watch a couple movies or a chunk of a TV series each month that way. That's fine, and I'm not canceling my Netflix subscription yet.
But now you have a slew of opportunities. Others can trump Netflix in providing even faster access to content (possible winner: cable operators), better guides to figuring out what's available across content providers (potentially a next-generation Google TV, or the Xbox), better recommendation engines (startups like matcha.tv, or teams that competed for the Netflix Prize), or amassing the widest range of content (Facebook may play a role here).
The old Netflix encouraged others to beat it at its own game. During the 35 months of the Netflix Prize, and in the aftermath, it was clear that no one could beat Netflix at recommendations. Its analysis of user-generated content was such a competitive advantage that anyone else who moved into Netflix's space wound up falling behind from the start.
Now, Netflix says recommendations don't matter so much, as the streaming recommendations won't be as good when decoupled from its DVD library. Recommendations will matter more for Netflix's DVD service, Qwikster. Yet Netflix cares so little about its new brand that it didn't even secure the seldom-used Twitter handle from Jason Castillo, who posts gems such as "About as tired as shyt n I can't sleep" and apparently may not have recovered from hitting his head with a wrench.
If Netflix continues to go in this direction and hangs its hat on the dumb pipe delivery mechanism, it's a commodity. Ratings aren't commodities, though; they're personal. They'll turn a dumb pipe into a Ph.D. scholar. Who will be smart enough to capitalize on this opportunity?
originally published in MediaPost's Social Media Insider
Congressman Anthony Weiner, representing New York's 9th district, has many accomplishments under his belt, from putting at-risk teens to work removing graffiti in a program he called "Weiner's Cleaners" to getting elected "Whip" of his Congressional class. Marketers will be wise to pay attention to something else that happened under his belt, as the representative publicly posted a photo of that region to his Twitter account when he meant to send it as a private direct message instead. (Here's a timeline that mercifully doesn't include the photo that started it all.)
You should have bigger concerns right now beyond how many New York congressmen will expose themselves through social media, following Chris Lee's Craigslist scandal earlier this year (Representative Charles Rangel, please have mercy on the interwebs and keep your shirt on). Marketers, "Wienergate" can happen to you, but the power to prevent it is in your hands. Here are some helpful dos and don'ts:
Do take inventory of who can post to your social media accounts.
Don't use your Twitter handle as your password. Using the Twitter handle of a college student you're flirting with is not a step up.
Do find a way to manage your accounts that feels natural so you stick with it, whether that's on your desktop, mobile device, in a browser, or even via email.
Don't use the same program to manage both personal and brand accounts, given how easy it is to post content to the wrong account. This wouldn't have helped Rep. Weiner, but people so self-destructive are beyond help in such scenarios.
Do follow other Twitter users if you feel so inclined.
Don't follow only people listed on the Hot or Not Top 100 list, unless your brand only targets physically attractive people. As Rep. Weiner learned, others can analyze whom you follow to come to conclusions about your interests, preferences, and whom you're sending naughty pictures to.
Do monitor your social channels regularly.
Don't instantly assume you've been hacked if you see some unexpected content posted on your account. And now that Rep. Weiner acknowledged this was just a cover, no one will believe you anyway.
Do post multimedia to your account. It's normally a great way to engage your audience.
Don't post images of any body part unless it's directly relevant to your brand. Rep. Weiner, for instance, might have been justified in posting underwear shots if he was trying to post solidarity with American cotton growers. More to the point, oral hygiene brands could find rationale in posting photos of people's mouths.
Do remove offensive content if something unexpected and unapproved appears there.
Don't come up with 10 different stories on how such unauthorized content appeared, and then share versions of all 10 stories simultaneously.
Do fess up to any mistakes using the same social channel(s) where you made them, beyond any other way you get the word out. It's the first place people will look for follow-up information.
Don't call a press conference weeks after the mess started only after others discovered how much worse the scandal is.
Do have a sense of humor when human error happens, as most people know it can happen to anyone, including themselves. Even the American Red Cross was caught posting about "gettingslizzerd" with Dogfish Head beer on Twitter. Thanks to quick thinking, it wound up leading to great exposure for both the Red Cross and the beer company.
Don't be a Weiner.
I was reading through an article on Slate analyzing Mitt Romney's comments about a proposed U.S.-Russia nuclear arms treaty and did a double-take. It started to talk about rail-based missiles, and then went on for a bit. Right next to the article was an ad from Siemens touting the benefits of high-speed railroads. I wonder if Siemens can launch missiles off their railways? That might open up some new revenue streams from them and make these ads REALLY profitable.
See the snapshot of the placement:
The ad led to this page on rail development.
In case it's easier to read, here's the full text of the paragraph on rail missiles:
First, neither Russia nor the United States has any rail-based ICBMs or launchers. Second, the treaty does deal with mobile ICBMs, in two ways. Article IV, Section 1 states that ICBMs can be deployed "only at ICBM bases." If, in some perverse wordplay, the Russians claim that a railroad line is a "base," Article III, Section 5b notes that an ICBM is counted under the treaty's limits the moment it leaves the production facility (which other sections of the treaty place under constant monitoring); it doesn't matter where the missile goes afterward, it's still counted as an ICBM. So while mobile missiles might not be "mentioned" by the treaty, they are, in effect, restricted.
Originally published in MediaPost's Social Media Insider
In honor of the season, where some celebrate the ancient story of slaves' exodus from Egypt, it's time for a new telling of the ten plagues: the Ten Plagues of Social Media. All are paired with a counterpart from the ancient rendition. Note that some debates remain as to the ancient plagues' literal meanings. When in doubt, I deferred to biblical scholar Robert Alter's translation of "The Five Books of Moses." 1) Blood: Lack of transparency Whenever marketers aren't fully transparent as to who they are and what they're promoting when reaching out to consumers and online influencers, they cloud consumers' trust just like blood clouded the Nile. The demands of transparency also fall on the content producers whenever their contributions can be considered influenced by other parties. 2) Frogs: Oversharing Imagine trying to get a good night's sleep with millions of frogs croaking up a storm. Now try staying on top of what's happening with your social graph when so many of their updates are dedicated to what errands they're running or how much they had to drink last night. Oversharing can wind up hurting relationships, and rightfully makes some question how much value social media adds to their lives. 3) Lice: Campaign-based thinking It's hard to get lice out of your head, and there's no easy cure for shaking off campaign-based thinking, either. Campaign-to-campaign and quarter-to-quarter thinking prevents marketers from reaping the long-term benefits of social marketing. 4) Flies: Autoposting Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare, and other sites are not all the same, but the way some marketers unleash hoards of content, you might think the sites were interchangeable. Posting the same content in the same way across every social site is efficient for the producer, but diminishes the experience for the recipients. Marketers need to think twice about nearly any kind of automated messaging. There's a place for it; headline and deal feeds are some that can work as syndicated feeds while managing consumer expectations. The first instinct should be to avoid this, though. 5) Pestilence / livestock disease: Lack of internal communication I don't want to refer to your colleagues (or mine) as livestock, but you depend on your colleagues for your livelihood and putting food on the table, just as our ancient forbears relied on livestock. When marketers and their agency partners aren't in close communication, and when there isn't communication internally with any of those parties, it amounts to a plague on their livelihood. 6) Boils: Lack of Integration In this case, the plague fits the crime. Social marketing campaigns should be planned just as tightly in conjunction with other marketing programs as boils are connected to victims' skin. Perhaps it's not the most pleasant analogy, but these are the ten plagues, not the ten happiest things to ever happen. 7) Hail: Talking at consumers Sometimes, reading marketers' updates in social channels feels like walking through a hailstorm. You get pelted by a self-aggrandizing update here and a limited-time offer there, and you can't wait to run for cover. Conversing and asking questions can soften the blows and make it more like a day at the beach. 8) Locusts: Bright shiny object syndrome If you've ever seen a swarm of locusts on National Geographic Channel or Discovery, you'll appreciate why this was the first plague association to come to mind. Look at all the locusts move from field to field -- blogs to MySpace to Second Life to widgets to Twitter to Facebook to augmented reality to Foursquare -- sucking the life out of them and then looking for their next meal. Marketers can shed their locust exoskeletons by figuring out what works and sticking with it, even while exploring new opportunities. 9) Darkness: Lack of vision When you see marketers fumble royally in social media, you're usually witnessing a marketer that didn't plan ahead. These fumbles can often arise when a marketer is dealing with a crisis, but they can also come up when marketers are more successful than they anticipated, such as when too many consumers take them up on a deal. Plan for the best and the worst, and be prepared to act when either arises to prevent darkness from descending on your social programs. 10) Death of the firstborn: Death of marketing as we know it The death of the firstborn plague is the most permanent. There has been a similar plague on marketing and media: rising consumer expectations of some form of two-way communication. For consumers like myself who grew up writing letters to brands that pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised me, this is deliciously empowering. This plague will kill off some marketers who can't adapt. Egypt wasn't undone by the exodus, or any version of it that has been passed down to us. It remained a capital of the ancient world for over a thousand years more and has been a pivotal part of many great civilizations and cultures since. Plagues may afflict us and they may kill off the weak, but the springtime exodus saga tells the greater story of rebirth and renaissance. If there's not a promised land for marketers per se, may we at least heal from these plagues to uphold brands' promises to consumers.
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