I've been working with CPG's for years and have figured out why so many have trouble staying relevant online. These insights come from examining internal documentation, and conducting ethnographic studies, from four different global CPG's and finding correlations. 

The synthesis of this work has cumulated into "The Ecosystem of Understanding", a framework for keeping CPG's (and everyone else) relevant online.

 

 

(View Full Size)

 

 

Although this framework was created specifically with CPG's in mind, it applies to many other industries. 

I've been able to extract 5 insights common to every CPG I've worked with; even the most innovative.

1. We don't know who we're talking to, but we like to pretend like we do.

2. We don't know why we're talking to them, but we know we should be.

3. We suffer from Shiny Object Syndrome.

4. We're inconsistent, but we're learning.

5. We're old, scared, and angry; but its only a matter of time before we're phased out.

 

THE SOLUTION: THE ECOSYSTEM OF UNDERSTANDING

 

 

The Ecosystem of Understanding was produced out of necessity. It began approximately a year ago, when the biggest of the CPG's I've been working with began asking some interesting questions. They asked things like: "Why are we spending so much time managing our vendors?", "Why are we the last to hear about emerging digital trends?", "What digital tools do we need to measure ROI more effectively?", "Why aren't our customers getting more excited about our products?".

After expanding my consulting contract beyond simple user experience, to include all aspects of the customer experience, I began a the long process of identifying issues, insights and eventually solutions.

A version of this ecosystem has been blown-up and pasted on the wall of several global CPG's brands walls. I was actually engaged by one to extract each element, and export each to allow them to print the ecosystem as a series of magnets.

For those of you who find the entire ecosystem overwhelming, here's a breakdown of each element.

 

 

STEP 1: IDENTIFY AREAS OF USER INTEREST

 

CPG's are generally very accepting of performing user research, if there's a good reason to do so. Many times, existing persona research is repurposed from print/ broadcast to be used to inform digital marketing/ communications. This tends to provide exactly the WRONG information digital strategists need.

Here's the process I like to go through, and recommend to the clients I work with:

1. Begin a social-listening campaign: This campaign should be run like any other social campaign. A social monitoring tool should be utilized to help identify authorities within your industry, use those authorities as hubs to identify related topics of conversation. Map those topics back to your original audience pool and expand each topic-pool by identifying all users who frequently discuss both topics related to your industry and topics from the related industry. Mapping these using a modified binned analysis will clearly indicate which topics you should be including in your communications strategy.

2. Within the selected topics, identify sub-groups (or Cohorts) who have similar traits. Each cohort grouping should have a clear authority (or hub) individual.

3. Within each cohort, identify common online activities every user participates in. Also identify what motivates each user to perform each activity. (i.e. Entertainment, Necessity, Security, Convenience.)

 

 

STEP 2: CREATE AUTHORITIES

 

Although this step can work on a departmental, or brand level; it works best when an entire organization has committed to the process of creating authorities. 

In it's simplest terms, a corporation can create authorities or 'centres of excellence' who'll be mandated to stay up-to-date on a particular channel, or topic. These authorities might work for a particular brand, but will operate like a consultant for all brands within the corporation. 

These authorities will need to be tapped into the collective wisdom of both internal teams, as well as all vendors. The easiest way I've been able to establish this type of collaboration, is through a micro-blog. In different circumstances, I've recommended both Tumblr, and Posterous to support collaboration.

Essentially, anyone from any department internally, and anyone from any vendors department can contribute to the micro-blog. The authority will curate what actually gets published, but will be notified anytime someone wants to contribute. 

Ideally, everyone from the authority team will subscribe to the micro-blog using an RSS reader, and will keep the RSS reader open in the background throughout the day. If a team member is often out of the office, a mobile RSS reader would work just as well. 

 

 

STEP 3: IDENTIFY COHORT COMMUNITIES & COMMUNITY HUBS

 

Micro-segment and automate social signal response assessment: At this point, I think everyone knows how to set up Google Alerts, Sysomos, or HootSuite to help with brand monitoring. These tools (combined with a governance document) can help determine when & how to respond to any given social signal. Many tools can take it one step further and establish a triggered workflow, alerting authorities based on pre-defined triggers. (i.e. If someone mentions the brand name with a negative sentiment AND mentions a competitor, that conversation can be automatically distributed to the most relevant set of authorities with a recommendation on how to respond.)

Create experience map to illustrate campaign, program, platform, and account user journeys: For any digital project, a large experience map (ideally printed on large format 3'x20' paper) that utilizes swim lanes to organize multiple user journeys across all digital channels. (Ideally, these user journeys will include all mediums, digital and non-digital.)

 

 

STEP 4: UTILIZE AUTHORITIES TO LEARN AND TEST

 

Utilize collaboration principles established in step 2 to organize learnings and establish ongoing testing. Here's one of the processes I've helped establish:

A. Each authority is responsible for managing their own test schedule, and test budget.

B. Each test (and the test parameters) will be posted within the respective category on the micro-blog and will automatically alert every other authority.

C. Each authority will have at least 2 business days to add comments to the post (test plan).

D. The test will be recorded and results will be shared in their raw format immediately upon receiving the results.

E. Each authority will have the option to analyze the results independently

F. The authority conducting the test will upload the results as an EDIT to the original post.

G. Anyone subscribing to the authorities collaboration RSS feed will be alerted to the final post.

H. 30 days after the publication of the test results, all users will be asked to rate the test & results and comment on how the information has been helpful or comment on how the information needs to be expanded upon.

 

Obviously, this framework doesn't work for every industry, but it does apply to many different industries outside of CPG's. I'd like to provide everyone with an editable PDF of the full ecosystem: this can be downloaded and edited in any vector editor like Adobe Illustrator. 

If you have any comments, questions, or thoughts about this; please leave a comment. I'm always looking for ways to improve, and expand. If you want a quick response, message me directly on Twitter. (@thejordanrules)

 

Did anyone else else grow-up on stories about the old automotive pioneers? Stories about how every innovation pushed the industry forward. I'm not sure what happened, but let me outline a 5 point plan to re-energize the automotive industry.

 

1. THE CAR API

 

 

Let's assume the constantly connected car is already here. I think there can be 4G syncing for the short-term, and think wireless networking will become available globally within 5 years. 

 

If the possibly of having a connected car is already here, why isn't every car connected and transmitting data? We should have bidirectional communication between the cloud and any vehicle. This communication & data can be built on, and monitored by developers. 

 

I think this should become standardized, and mandatory for all new vehicles. This could revolutionize traffic reporting, toll roads, parking, law enforcement, driving, emergency response; as well as the automotive aftermarket, and automotive retail.

 

Automotive manufacturers: Imagine having access to data from every vehicle you have on the road, and imagine offering that data in a smart system to every owner. Imagine those owners monitoring their data through your site & apps. You'll have the attention of millions, and will have enough data & infrastructure to communicate real-time hyper-targeted notifications to anyone. From traffic alerts, to law enforcement alerts, and from marketing alerts to  alerts based on bio-sensor data; the potential of the CAR API is only limited by what we can imagine.

 

 

2. TAP THE CROWD

 

 

Understand the value of long-tail innovation. Essentially, there are lots of people who have lots of ideas. They don't always have good ideas, but establishing a listening & curation team can help utilize the power of the crowd.

 

Try using the opposite of the long-tail graph to outline how much listening you need to do in order to get the most value from the long-tail.

 

Some of this is already appearing in social media governance and organizational structure for supporting social business practices. I think the science and art of LISTENING is still in its infancy. Everyone needs to understand that listening isn't just a passive activity, but deserving of a department, and deserving of active analysis and testing.

 

 

3. BECOME MOTION FACILITATORS

 

 

I don't want to get too abstract, but the original requirements for cars were, at one time, fulfilled by horses. The world was getting bigger, and people were living further away. The further we live from each other, the more we rely on vehicles. 

 

So, now that we live all over the place, and have roads connecting us; why would we want to move in any other way than by car?

 

This is actually a big issue. Why would any industry work towards its own demise? Because it's them or us. Either we phase out petroleum reliant vehicles, or we won't be able to curb climate change enough to continue our way of life. The automotive industry isn't ignorant to this fact anymore. The overwhelming move to electric & hybrid technology is testament to the shift in thinking. 

 

Although electric vehicles is a great first-step; we can't stop there. Clean efficient mass transit for short, medium, and long distances is ideal solution. I think the automotive industry needs to lead this transition, and I believe a CAR API may be a great first step. Complete automation & logistic management over fleets of clean vehicles would allow us to:

 

A. Reduce/ eliminate roads & associated costs: Creating roads took a long time, and costs a lot of money. Replacing them with anything will take a long time, and will cost a lot of money. If we believe its worth it, we should start immediately diverting funds associated with building new roads to building a new infrastructure of mag-lev rails or something. I'm not staying we have to move to rail transportation, but we can definitely come up with something with a smaller physical and economic footprint than roads.

 

B. Reduce/ eliminate vehicular crashes: If we're building new infrastructure anyway, lets build it with automation controls to avoid people from having the ability to get into accidents, or drink and drive, or purposely run someone down.

 

C. Improve planet health: Obviously reducing emissions associated with vehicles will help curb climate change, it can't be the only effort. 

 

D. Improve human health: Again, it's obvious that making people walk a little bit, and bike a little bit, will make people a little bit more healthy. A side effect of shifting people away from cars, and building facilities to accommodate more bikes & people on-foot, is that more people will feel safe and encouraged to take healthier alternatives. I mean, I'd bike if I didn't see at least one bike accident each day. There are also psychological benefits associated with being more social and spending time around others.

 

 

4. THE NEW ROADS

 

 

By now, I'm sure everyone's seen Transcendent Man, and understands the idea behind the Singularity premise. For those who don't know: Transcendent Man is about a guy who thinks technology will merge with biology enough to allow us to live forever and connect in a way never thought possible. No one's really sure what it'll look like, but I'm thinking it'll start like the game Deus Ex: Human Revolution; with technological enhancements. 

 

Anyway, roads were always meant to be a way to connect people. They helped make the world smaller and more accessible. I think the internet represents the foundation for new roads. If vehicle automation is going to work, we need to have a network that can support that kind of traffic without losing connection. Essentially, we'll need to have access to the network from anywhere. There are several technologies that could provide us with global coverage. 

 

Once we have access to the network from anywhere, we'll need to improve bandwidth - or data compression. We'll need to prepare the network for improved interfaces. Now, when you think about it, our current interfaces rely on human physiology to interface with machines. (i.e. we have gestural interfaces because we have fingers, we have vocal interfaces because we can speak.)

 

So, once we have an omnipresent network that can transfer huge amounts of data, we can take advantage of biological & cognitive interfaces. We'll essentially be able to move from an age of sharing knowledge to an age of sharing understanding.

 

 

 

5. THE CORN OF THE MODERN WORLD

 

 

I think, at this point, everyone knows that corn is the most pervasive ingredient in the North American food industry. Corn starch, corn glutton, corn syrup, and a host of other corn byproducts make it directly into our foods and corn feed is often given to farm animals. 

 

Cars have become the corn of the modern world. Cars gave way to roads, roads shaped cities, and cities shape the world. I think the oil industry got a bad rap - I think the oil industry scaled up to meet the demands the automotive industry put on it.

 

What kind of world to we want to live in? Why don't we work backwards from there? Let's say we want to live in the world of 1000 years ago, with all of the conveniences of today. What would it take to get that done? 

 

1. Landscape

 

Ideal: Remove all the roads.

Problem: How will we be able to connect with one another?

Solutions: Either live closer together or find a way to travel long distances without roads.

 

2. Unite & Understand

 

Ideal: Reduce Population.

Problem: No one likes regulations, especially not on life.

Solution: International support of community planning initiatives. At one point in time, the automotive industry united communities. We need that sense of community again, this time on a global level. Individuals tend to do what's best for their community when community planning works.

 

3. Connect

 

Ideal: Wireless Innovation

Problem: Infrastructure 

Solution: WIthout diving too deeply into the technology, I believe wireless networking technology can encompass the world. This would essentially provide connectivity to anyone anywhere on the planet. I also, believe this same solution can be applied to power distribution. Allowing devices to access power anywhere.

 

4. Move Forward

 

Ideal: Learn from the Past

Problem: Mediocrity & Survival. People don't all like things the way they are, but are all used to them. It's hard enough to survive in the world we live in. Many people just want to get by.

Solution: Revolutionize the education system. Stop focusing on teaching every child the same stuff, in the same way. Start bringing psychology and anthropology into teaching by observing and listening to children in the early grades. Use empathy and sociological experimentation to determine what each student likes to do. Allow their interests to guide their educational experience. 

OK, so I'm not saying all of my ideas warrant exploration; but if you're reading this, I'm sure you have your own ideas that are worth exploring. Don't wait for the automotive industry, start exploring your ideas on your own. Explore them, and find a way to share them. 

I don't know about you, but I'm alright with things changing if they change for the better. I'm even ok with things changing for the worse, if we're striving for a long-term improvement. 

All I'm saying is, if we know we need to change the automotive industry - can someone please figure out how; and how we're going to get there? 

 

Introduction: How digital ecosystems have evolved.

Over the past two decades, the world watched as brand-ecosystems evolved online. Where once, brands merely wanted to establish an online presence; now, they want to engage their customers through transmedia ecosystems.

 

This shows an evolutionary leap forward in terms of digital thinking. Many marketers and agencies have been slow (VERY SLOW) to react to the nature of this paradigm shift. It's hard to say who's catering to whom, but it's distructive. I believe education is the only way to move the industry forward, which is why I'm still committed to giving away my knowledge, templates, diagrams, and any other assets necessary to help encourage user-centric projects.

 

The two biggest problems & opportunities: design-centric projects & technology-centric projects. First, let me be clear about what I mean when I say design-centric or technology-centric. I simply mean, the driving-force behind the project is design or technology focused. (i.e. Starting with a CMS and designing templates that fit, or starting with photoshop and presenting a sleek set of mock-ups.) If you don't begin a project by engaging a UX strategist (or some similarly titled person) you risk running a project that isn't user-centric. I'm more convinced now than ever, that ALL digital projects should engage a UX strategist at some level.

 

A simple exercise I call Prioritization Scaling allows a project team and client to align quickly on what's most important.

(Download PDF Copy)

The scale is divided into two sections, top & bottom. The top section is intended to define what type of project we're working on. Is it: experiential, informational or usable. Obviously, these aren't mutually exclusive, but should be prioritized. The above example is for a usability-driven project, where content consumption is the biggest goal, and design takes a back-seat.

The bottom section is intended to determine the implementation priorities. What elements are most important: Accessibility/ Responsiveness, Visual Appeal, Utility/ Content, or Navigation. Again, this is just trying to strike the right balance.

 

Once the two sections have been arranged, they should be compared against each other. If there are inconsistencies, they should be discussed and the sections should be reordered if necessary.

 

 

Process: Standard project management methodologies lend themselves to user-centricity

 

There's a standard project framework that I refer to anytime I'm engaged to work on a project. Whether it be run in an agile or waterfall methodology. 

Essentially there are 4 phases, that are sometimes combined, or split-up. There's some level of research done, whether we actually conduct the research or it's given to us for analysis. We're looking for key user insights. When we've found them we need to synthesize a project roadmap that outlines how we plan on using the insights. This could be a BRD, brief, user stories, or sketches. The goal is to put some boundaries on the scope of the project. The end of the planning phase should produce a set of detailed wireframes or a prototype; ideally with a working design specification document (DSD). 

 

Baselining a set of wireframes or a prototype will allow the creative team to begin brainstorming on how to interpret them. Personally, I like to be involved with this process to help the team understand the underlying principles and intention of flows etc. By the end of the creative phase we should have a baselined design specification document. This can often serve as the online style guide.

 

The DSD and wireframes/prototype will be used concurrently by the development team to build the final deliverable. By the time the build phase is finished, we should begin to get data back so that we can begin to determine new user insights.

 

Now, the reason I don't think this process works as well with a design-centric project is that they tend to begin with creative and 'post-rationalize' planning and research. It might not sound like this is a big deal, but starting with creative doesn't always take users needs into account. This could lead to usability, business, or conversion issues down the road.

90% of the creative directors that I've worked with understand that this isn't the most ideal way to work and participate in the research and planning phases to understand and help guide certain key decisions. 

 

 

Benefits: How it benefits the WHOLE team

 

Understanding the user and what they need is a key aspect of any strategy department. A user-centric project gives the strategy department the time they need to do a proper discovery with users and the client.

Having key user insights and a framework for best practices with regards to IA & UX allows the creative department the freedom to focus on being really creative and innovative. The biggest hurdle I've experienced is the unwillingness to deviate from the wireframes. Including your experience strategist in brainstorming will allow you to blue-sky the interpretation while using the wireframes to stay grounded in reality.

Since users are the people who'll actually be using the end product, developers like user-centric projects because they take the time to figure out how everything will work. 

Project managers tend to like user-centric projects because they follow an easy-to-understand process. They also don't require that people take responsibility for aspects of the project that are outside of their expertise. (i.e. developers figuring out how creative should function)

It's easy to sell user experience and user-centric projects. It's been my experience that user-centric projects make clients happier, and keep them coming back, longer than design-centric projects.

 

 

Long-Term Revenue Model: Why user centric projects will keep the lights on.

I'm a strong believer in iterative improvement, even on a campaign-basis. This means you do something, measure it, analyze the findings, and improve it. The more you improve it, the better the experience will be for the user, the better the ROI will be for the client, and the more the client will want to invest with you.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Why wouldn't you want to have a user-centric project? The only reason I could think of: We don't have a seasoned UX professional to guide us. I actually think this might be a more pervasive reason that you might think. Many agencies make their name on their creative, and think they should lead projects because they've had success in the past. This kind of thinking is great for agencies who want one big campaign to sweep the awards shows, and make a big name for themselves - but one 'hot-spot' for a client doesn't mean as much as consistently delivering quality. So, it's not only that you might not have a UX person to guide you; it might be that you don't even know you need one. UX people only help the creative process when they're used properly. If you're not sure how to integrate UX into your practice, let me know, I can give you some tips in 15 mins.

 

Note: Next article will focus on user-centric pitches

Follow me on Twitter @thejordanrules

Over the past three years I've invested a lot of time and energy figuring out how digital channels, specifically social media, can be used to achieve business objectives. I've received a number of requests to summarize what I've learned. This post represents a compendium of my work on social media and digital strategy.

 

This post will cover the following note: I tried making these anchor links, but it didn't work:

Determining If You Should Be Using Social Media

Part 1: The pervasive reach of social media

Part 2: Information distillation through social media

Part 3: Propagation of News through Social Media

Part 4: Corporate Adoption of Social Media

Part 5: Process of participatory marketing

Part 7: Maximizing revenue through social media

 

How You Should Be Using Social Media

Part 1: Which social media channels should You be using

Part 2: How you should be using social media

Part 3: Framework for branding through social media

Part 4: Social Media Lifecycle Framework

Part 5: Why PR is ruining social media

Part 6: Collective Storytelling

Part 7: Social Customer Service

 

Advanced Social Media Planning

Part 1: Iterative Brand Equity

Part 2: Radical Social Design

Part 3: Models for Social Media Integration

Part 4: Cohesively Tie Marketing Tactics Across Multiple Social Media Channels

Part 5: Permeable Community Strategies & Sympathetic Social Systems

Part 6: Social Media Achilles Heel - Content Generation

 

 

DETERMINING IF YOU SHOULD BE USING SOCIAL MEDIA

PART 1: THE PERVASIVE REACH OF SOCIAL MEDIA

I think everyone should be using some form of social media; especially in business.

Many businesses have started making use of social media in some way; however many still aren't participating in any form of social media. Of those, the most common reason for non-participation is that they genuinely believe that their customers aren't using social media; therefore they shouldn't.

In fact, I've recently heard that some businesses don't even think their customers are online.

I've compiled the following, to address why even businesses without online customers should participate in social media.

If you think your customers aren't online at all, here are reasons to participate in social media:

Reason 1: Even if your customer isn't online, those people he trusts and looks to for advice might be.

Reason 2: Your business can collect valuable research on your competition, industry trends, upcoming technology, etc. Using social media as a business intelligence gathering tool is a valuable reason to participate.

Reason 3: If your customer isn't online; there might be an opportunity to market to those who aren't buying from you. You can endear your brand with a new audience without alienating your current audience, or you could create a brand extension that would appeal to a new market.

Reason 4: Influential publications often pick up stories that make use of social media in new or unique ways. Start a social media campaign; and get in front of your customer via traditional media covering your campaign.

Reason 5: "Bacterial Growth" - What I call "Bacterial Growth" is like viral content; but when something goes 'viral' it generally means that it spreads until market saturation is reached, then effectively dies. "Bacterial Growth" refers to a multi-channel infection that experiences a heightened growth period and a long sustained brand equity. Where the 'bacteria' doesn't die; it just changes. I suggest that a well-thought campaign that includes offline components can go viral online and offline. (e.g. iCoke, Foursquare)

[ Complete Article ]

 

 

PART 2: INFORMATION DISTILLATION THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

It's generally accepted that we have access to more information than we could ever process in a lifetime.

Social and online media are especially great because they are inherently more manageable than offline media.

I suggest that users get information from 3 main categories online:

1. The Micro-Blog: Includes Twitter, Friend Feed, Facebook; and any other site that makes use of micro-interactions.
2. The Blog: This would include blogs; but would also include any site that's article-based.
3. The Email: Includes newsletters, promotional emails, and any other media sent to someone's inbox.

With those assumptions; here's the model:

 

There are inherent information management problems with each channel.

The Email

In this model, this will represent a message: 

Email generally contains unidirectional messages, that come to one place (the user's e-mail address). In this model, our subject would have subscribed to several interesting entities that send periodic information via email. These emails might contain multiple messages, but will generally have unique content.

Primary Problem: Information quality - Receiving email means you're at the mercy of the publisher. You receive the information they deem to be relevant & often don't get to clarify any ambiguous content.

Solution: Sophisticated Email Client - many e-mail clients offer auto-storing; where you can have e-mails filtered and sorted into folders for your review. You can also use search tools to quickly locate the most relevant information.

[ Complete Article ]

PART 3: PROPAGATION OF NEWS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

 

(click here for full image)

I've been thinking about news lately. What it is, how its transmitted, and how it changes things.

News is undoubtedly important; it's how we learn what happening around us. Other than experiencing it for ourselves, it's the only way we know what's going on in the world.

News takes many different shapes, from formal investigative reporting, to anecdotal storytelling. All news are stories; but not all stories make the mainstream news. Here enters social media and the independent reporter.

We no longer have to accept the sensationalized definition of news. Mainstream media, in my opinion, creates news that the largest percentage of the population in a given area will find interesting. This averaging of news often ends up including reports some people don't care about; and not including reports other people really care about. Through social media we can now choose what we consider news - and here's how news propagates through the social media universe.

 

Often, news starts out as rumor and speculation. One person hears something from a source, and it gets spread to another and another. The more interesting the information, the quicker it will spread.

 

Once a legitimate news source picks up the story (you can decide for yourself what a "legitimate news source" is) they'll start the reporting cycle: Research, lead checking, analysis etc. Until they produce a finished news product. This could be a written story, tweet, photo, video, etc.

 

When a finished news product is released, it'll spread throughout the social media sphere based on how relevant it is, how trust-worthy the source is, and how engaging the story is. It'll eventually reach maximum interest and start becoming 'yesterdays news'.

[ Complete Article ]

 

PART 4: CORPORATE ADOPTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Getting a corporation with established marketing rules and complicated communications departments to adopt a new way to communicating to its audience can be difficult. With the rise of social media, corporations are beginning to listen; but still require a process to get everyone onboard. The following is a framework that reviews an ideal process a corporation will follow when adopting social media as a new communications tool.

 

Define Initial Parameters

Define how many resources you can devote to social media

Define which sites you want to monitor

Define which tools you'd like to test

Define sampling size benchmarks

 

Begin Listening

 

Once you've finished defining everything; you can begin listening. Many corporations successfully do this in 'stealth mode' - meaning the brand name or corporation name isn't publicly available to the networks being listened to.

While listening, you should also be recording what you hear. There are several easy ways to monitor your brand & turn the streams of activity into an RSS feed and store the RSS posts for future reference.

[ Complete Article ]

PART 5: PROCESS OF PARTICIPATORY MARKETING

 

I'm not saying that this model is the best way to run social media projects; but if we start listening to customers and use those insights to drive business needs we're already starting on better footing. Keeping the user engaged throughout the process will help ensure the campaign is really targeted to the right crow

[ Complete Article ]

 

PART 6: SOCIAL MEDIA CRM

We all know there are essentially 2 ways to increase ROI.

Here's a quick review:

1. Get new customers to buy your product
2. Get existing customers to buy more product

The way to do this; combination of increased message reach and increased message frequency.

Assume, for every 10 people I reach with a message, I get 1 conversion. (1 person buys from me).

Reach: If I reach 20 people with a message, I'll get 2 conversions.

Frequency: If I hit the 10 people with 2 messages, I'll get 2 conversions.

Pretty straightforward. Everyone understands that.

ROI is different in the social media universe. Why? Because reach and frequency are, in majority, controlled by the community.

 

 

 

PART 7: Maximizing Revenue Through Social Media

Building legitimate social equity requires slowly shifting the perceptions of others. Building social equity, and understanding how to use it, is fundamental to maximizing revenue through social media.

Three phases to maximizing revenue through social media

These are not steps. When you've spent enough time focusing on awareness, your social equity will reach a level that will allow you to create engagement-type campaigns that will be successful. If you try launching engagement-type campaigns without building your social equity to a sufficient level, your campaigns will not be successful - and should be an indicator that you need to focus on awareness & build your social equity.

It's also important to note that having enough social equity to successfully move to the next phase doesn't mean that attention should be completely removed from the previous phase. (i.e. If you move from awareness to engagement; you should still continue awareness efforts. If you stop your awareness effort you risk decreasing your social equity.) 

 

Awareness (Social Equity Required: Low)

 

The first phase of maximizing revenue using social media is establishing a presence and earning a reputation. Before you get started you'll need to define some goals, and define what groups of people you want to build a relationship with.

Once you've defined those things; you can decide what social media channels you'd like to participate in. Depending on your goals and your audience, you might end up choosing several channels. These posts can help you make your decision for companies or forindividuals.

Many larger brands want to bypass this phase and jump into engagement; the reason usually is that they've built up substantial lists of users via other media. Often these brands blanket-invite anyone who's interacted with them in the past to join them in their new campaign. The biggest problem with doing this is that you're not qualifying your audience. Ideally, you'd target users who already participate in some social media channels & are informed about how to participate on the channels you're inviting them to. These active users have the best chance of becoming advocates for you. (Adversely, if you invite users who aren't interested in participating - you could end up with a bunch of 'dead' accounts following you. This can have negative repercussions for you and your community for several reasons. I'll cover this in more detail in an upcoming post called "Social Media Deadfall, Dangers of The Unfocused.")

So once you have goals & defined the channels you want to create a presence on; you can begin establishing your presence and earning the reputation you want. There are two reasons people join communities - for value or for fun. (Usually some combination of the two; but it's proven helpful if you plot where you'd like to be on the spectrum between value &fun.)

[ Complete Article ]

 

 

 

HOW YOU SHOULD BE USING SOCIAL MEDIA

PART 1: WHICH SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS SHOULD YOU BE USING

I've categorized and compared 7 social media channels that are currently being used by both B2B and B2C brands. I've suggested which type of brand works best in each channel.

 

(click here to view full size)

 

Blogs:

Generally, blogs work better for B2B brands because they require a certain level of prior knowledge and interest. The effort required to follow blogs generally means that the audience already has an interest in the industry. That is why there are so many industry-based blogs.

B2C brands can still take advantage of 3rd party blogs; but generally don't get the ROI required to justify maintaining their own blog
 

Micro-Blog:

For a similar reason, B2C brand's likely won't find the value in maintaining a micro-blog. However there are exceptions, and this particular channel is evolving.

B2C brands are starting to exploit micro-blogging for customer service. Additionally, some B2C brands are figuring out ways to integrate the real-time functionality of micro-blogging platforms into their marketing efforts.

I maintain, that at the present time, this channel is still better suited to B2B brands; but I can recognize that it has value for B2C brands.
 

Social Networks:

 There are many types of social networks; many niche social networks are specifically designed for B2B brands, and, therefore, are better suited for them. (e.g. LinkedIn)

Excluding those social networks that were designed for a niche market; I suggest that social networks are better suited for B2C brands. The reason is that brands can take advantage of being introduced to their potential customers through their friends.

People have the ability to 'discover' brands their friends like. Additionally, many social networks offer in-network multimedia communication options. Example: Facebook allows you to create a dialog with your audience through images, video, text, and interactive applications; while Twitter allows you to create a dialog using text & links only.

B2B brands definitely should take advantage of social networks; but many social networks are better suited for B2C brands.

[ Complete Article ]

 

PART 2: HOW YOU SHOULD BE USING SOCIAL MEDIA

 

[ Complete Article ]

PART 3: FRAMEWORK FOR BRANDING THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

 

I suggest there are 5 primary models a brand can use to communicate with its audience via social media. (These models can be applied to other media as well, but some work much better, and are much easier to execute using social media.)

1. Direct Communication
2. Communications Catalyst
3. Cooperative Communication
4. Participatory Definition
5. Brand Embodiment

Direct Communication: Occurs when a brand communicates it’s message directly to the audience.

Timeline: Instant

Participation: Minimal

Example: Youtube Video (Dove Evolution)

Communications Catalyst: Refers to a brand that encourages or provides the means of communication between two or more customers.

Timeline: Short

Participation: Minimal

Example: Crowd Sourcing (Best Buy IdeaX)

Cooperative Communication: Is a type of participatory marketing, where the brand proactively participates with its audience.

Timeline: Intermediate

Participation: Results proportional to participation

Example: Dynamic Facebook Page (Dew Labs)

Participatory Definition: The opening of a brand to influence, or re-design by its audience.

Timeline: Intermediate to Long

Participation: Minimal, but ongoing for better results

Example: Customer-Generated Branding (Doritos Undefined Flavour)

 

Brand Embodiment: Happens when an individual, or group of individuals, develop such a strong affinity for the brand that they will recommend it without being prompted. (Of course this also means, that if prompted they’ll recommend the brand, and also means that it’s their brand of choice.)

Timeline: Long

Participation: Substantial, and ongoing

Example: Apple* (Check out the # of related videos & comments)

*Note: Apple isn't the best example, because they didn't strictly use social media to follow this model. A better example might be Best Buy.

 

[ Complete Article ]

 

PART 4: SOCIAL MEDIA LIFECYCLE FRAMEWORK

 

Many of the clients I've been consulting for have interesting notions about social media. One common idea is that social media is an ongoing effort and doesn't conform to normal lifecycle rules.

The Social Media Lifecycle Framework

I would agree that social media initiatives are different than many other campaign models, but I do think most initiatives deliver a higher ROI when the following lifecycle framework is considered & followed.

 

Conversion Funnel

 

Monologue: A broadcast form of communication that works well for creating initial awareness. Before broadcasting your message, be sure to craft your message by listening to what people are already saying about you.

Conversion A: Converts users who have simply heard of you, to users who want to have a conversation with you.

Conversation: A participatory form of communication that works well after you've created a community. Not everyone in you're community will feel comfortable engaging in conversations, which means your community needs to be large enough to support multiple levels of participation.

Conversion B: Converts users who are participating in conversations, to those who will take your message & use it to influence others.

 

Influence: An extended form of conversation that works well when influential community members believe your message. Influential communication is effective at achieving perfect conversion.

 

[ Complete Article ]

 

PART 5: WHY PR IS RUINING SOCIAL MEDIA

 

I remember when social networking was about sharing personal content with family, friends, and colleagues. Lately, I've noticed a lot of inauthentic brand communications littering my streams with noise.

The Conflict

I do 'like' certain brands, and want my friends to know which brands I have a particular affinity for. However, I don't want to get spammed with creepy questions, or comments from a brand spokesperson. (or Brand Ambassadors)

Branding and PR are intrinsically linked

I subscribe to the idea that it's possible to create and maintain a brand through social media. I don't believe PR is the most effective way of doing that.

 

[ Complete Article ]

 

PART 6: COLLECTIVE STORYTELLING

 

The ability to tell stories has always been one of the most powerful ways to connect with other people.

Social media has given us a unique way to to tell stories as a collective. Here's a road map for collective storytelling.

Stop #1 - Define Your Story

The process of discovering what you want to tell a story about is always different, but the most important step in storytelling. You need to be an expert on what your story is about.

Starting a story without knowing what it's about will likely cause confusion. If the collective is confused by a story, it's unlikely that they'll participate in telling it.

 

The collective will look to that person who started the story for reinforcement and reassurance that the story is still on track. Ensure you monitor your story and continue to participate in telling it, or risk the story ending.

 

Stop #2 - Spark a Conversation

In collective storytelling, stories are made up of wide-reaching conversations. Those conversations begin with a 'conversation spark'.

 

PART 7: SOCIAL CUSTOMER SERVICE

 

Customer service has always been that business competency that either makes or breaks the customer experience. Over the past decade, many large organizations recognized this fact and have heavily invested in ensuring extraordinary customer service. In recent years, social customer service has become a necessity.

Social customer service can increase revenue in five ways:

Increased Awareness: Addressing customers issues via social media provides interesting content. The more you help, the better the chances customers will find you.

 

Increased Customer Satisfaction: The great thing about social customer service is that other customers, who are satisfied with you get the opportunity to observe & participate with other customers. This has the potential of increasing their satisfaction through education. I've seen a discussion board with customer service interactions between a software company and its customers; many of the posts indicated that the customers reading the posts discovered additional functionality they'd never have known about. Of course, simply solving a customers problem increases their satisfaction.

Public Customer Reviews: Each time provide customer service via social media is another opportunity to have a public customer review. It shows the issues customers have, and shows how your company deals with those issues. In public forums, an unsatisfied customer doesn't necessarily mean a bad review. If the company does everything it can, but the customer is unreasonable; the public will often express it's admiration of the company, and dismiss the customer as unreasonable.

 

[ Complete Article ]

 

 

ADVANCED SOCIAL MEDIA PLANNING

PART 1: ITERATIVE BRAND EQUITY

Model

 

Iterative Brand Equity changes. It doesn't dispose of what existed before; it will update, hand-off, or reconfigure itself to become something new.

(pretty simple, but click here for a larger view)

Framework

 

Set expectations - It's hard to set expectations when you're uncertain how the next iteration of a campaign will unfold. That being said, it's important to keep your users informed with what you know. If you're uncertain what the next iteration will look like, it's perfectly fine to tell that to your users, and ask them for input.

 

Extract key campaign elements - In every campaign, there are key themes, memes, and technology that can be carried forward in each iteration. For instance, if you ask your users to upload photo's during a campaign, the next iteration could involve writing captions for the images; or turning the images into comic strips.

 

Provide a feedback mechanism - The biggest mistake any campaign can suffer from is not allowing customers to provide feedback. If you have a channel that allows customers to provide feedback, you'll end up gaining some valuable insights. If you don't have that channel available, the feedback will often be presented to the public via social media. Feedback should always be incorporated into the next iteration of a campaign.

 

Recap - Just like the beginning of a TV show, an iterative campaign requires a recap. This can take many forms; the best are integrated into drivers to the transformed campaign site. For example, if you have a media buy making people aware of your new campaign, you can include information about how the campaign started, and how its transformed.

Recognize loyalty - Users who stick with you from campaign to campaign should be recognized and rewarded. They don't necessarily need a monetary reward, but they can be rewarded by offering pre-registration, or access to exclusive tools. The better you treat your loyal customers, the more likely it is they'll continue being loyal.

[ Complete Article ]

 

PART 2: RADICAL SOCIAL DESIGN

The days of social media marketing campaigns are numbered. The future lies in radical social design; the ability to socially-enable the things we do everyday. I'm not suggesting we share EVERYTHING we do, but share valuable things we don't even realize are valuable yet.

 6 OBJECTIVES OF SOCIAL DESIGN INTEGRATION 

Establish A Presence

Even @chrisbrogan once had no followers. As hard as it is to believe, even the most well-connected users were once disconnected. They had to invest in building a brand & building an ecosystem they wanted to participate in. Not sure how to get started? Start by identifying users who you aspire to, and investigate how they achieved their goals.

Build Social Capital

The more you contribute, the more social capital you'll earn. Earning social capital can be thought as earning a share-of-time from your audience. With a maximum number of sources for information, every user needs to prioritize where to gather his information. The likelihood of being chosen as a source for information increases with the level of social equity you've earned.

Personalization

Those users who actively participate in social networks leave a trail of personal information behind them. Some smarter marketers are figuring out how to collect & analyze that data. Tools like Facebook Connect, Open Graph, Open ID, Friend Connect, etc. are making it easy to share personal information with marketers you choose to connect with. This type of data can be useful in personalizing a users experience & serving up the most relevant content. Eventually websites will know me so well, I won't need to search for information because it'll already be served up to me.

Research

Until recently many marketers didn't have the resources to effectively monitor brand conversations. Many leading brands are using radical social designs to encourage users to participate in brand conversations; using these conversations as a sound-board to do serious market research.

 

 

PART 3: MODELS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATION

 

I've recently been talking to some of my friends & clients about the value of integration of social media efforts with online marketing efforts.

 

The big underlying question: How should my website integrate content from my social media properties?

HERE ARE A FEW OPTIONS

1. Bi-directional hub & spoke model

Benefits: 2 way syndication and a well thought tagging taxonomy allows much of your social media content to be syndicated in relevant places on your website (and vice-versa) without much work.

Draw Backs: Some content, out of context, can be misinterpreted; especially network specific memes. Syndication can add a barrier to sharability & the organic viral nature of certain social media channels.

2. Multidirectional hub & spoke model

Benefits: All the benefits of #1 plus allows conversations to exist across social media properties regardless of which property a given user belongs to. (Note: certain channels like Twitter & Facebook are easier to integrate in this way than others.)

Draw Backs: A unified tracking system that ties conversations back to specific users is much harder to set up. (Also all the drawbacks of #1)

3. Clustered honeycomb model

Benefits: Allows for additional segmentation of content. This is a huge benefit in an age of information overload. Having multiple streams of content, dedicated to specific user-groups allows users to get the content they want, and avoid the content they don't. This type of segmentation will help identify potential brand advocates.

Draw Backs: More upfront content strategy planning will be required. A valuable amount of content will need to be created for each segment. Additional effort will be required by community managers to ensure easy cross-channel communications between segments.

 

 

 [ Complete Article ]

 

PART 4: COHESIVELY TIE MARKETING TACTICS ACRROSS MULTIPLE SM CHANNELS

 

Let's first decide which tactic will work best.

 

Here's the Social Media Tactic Refinement Framework I use:

(Click here to download as a PDF)

Here's how it works:

Part A: Consider business goals, and distill them into a coherent strategy.

Part B: Take the strategy and derive campaign objectives. Distill your objectives into the primary message you want to deliver.

Part C:

 

Plot whether your message is targeted to businesses or consumers. Refine the message as necessary. 
Then, plot whether the campaign will be providing more value, or more entertainment to the community. Again, refine the message as necessary. 
Then, decide the type tactic you'll use. 4 basic social media tactics are:

Content: Where original content is created, or content is reused.
Contest: Where a submission is entered, and winner announced.
Game: Where one or more users play a game. Prizes are not required.
Incentive: Where the company will give you something, if you participate, or do something for them.

 

 

[ Complete Article ]

 

 

PART 5: PERMEABLE COMMUNITY STRATEGIES & SYMPATHETIC SOCIAL SYSTEMS

 

Create permeable community strategies & sympathetic social systems.

Mastering the permeable community strategy

A permeable community strategy is special because it allows marketing & other communication messages to pass through without altering the fundamental social constructs of the community. (i.e. if I join the Nike Facebook fan base because they were supporting the Tour De France. I'll eventually become a disenfranchised fan because they'll eventually move to a new discussion. In fact, I might find all the other non-Tour-De-France updates annoying. If Nike created a community called "Enjoy the Ride" and encouraged people to share bike-riding related information, and provided curated content year-round, it could easily support the Tour De France sponsorship campaign.)

There are 3 steps to create a permeable community strategy.

1. Identify your customer: This isn't always as easy as it sounds. Identifying your customer involves a market analysis that should tell you who your highest-value customers are, and what they think about you. It should also tell you where your customer tends to spend his time online.

2. Identify topics your customers find interesting: Once you know who you need to observe, begin observing them. This step can also take some time, but it shouldn't prevent you from doing a preliminary topical analysis & begin to create a broad-topic community; it can be focused over time. Observing your high-value customers will help you identify topics they're interested in.

3. Create topic-based communities: Once you've identified topics your high-value customers are interested in, you can craft a creative platform that can support the community.

 

[ Complete Article ]

PART 6: SOCIAL MEDIA ACHILLES HEEL - CONTENT GENERATION

One of the most pervasive social media tactics involves generating content. It's very easy to do, but very easy to get wrong.

When you think about it, almost anyone can write status updates, add comments, create tweets, or upload photos. The fact that creating content can be done so easily, allows for it to be rushed into.

Here are my guidelines for creating content.

Figure out who you know best

 

Know Yourself: Create content you know about. Be genuine & interesting. People will be responsive to your content, as long as it's authentic.

Achilles Heel: Lack of focus. In the end, the content you create helps define how people perceive you; this is the essence of branding. If you don’t define how you’d like people to perceive you; you risk misperception. 
So, treat yourself, and the content you create, as a brand would. Develop a voice, and focus your content toward achieving the perception you want from your audience.

 

Know your audience: Create content your audience finds interesting. If you're able to figure out what you're audience is interested in; you can find spokespeople to contribute content on your brands behalf. (e.g. If you find out that Toyota Prius owners like gardening, you could get a professional gardener to create a series of blog posts for the Toyota Prius blog.)

Achilles Heel: Creating phony content. The biggest offenders are people who engage in fake conversations. This often happens with brands that outsource social media management to those who aren't familiar enough with the brand. (E.g. The person in charge of the Nike Plus Twitter account compliments someone on a great tennis win, but doesn’t actually know anything about tennis. If a follower reads the post and tries to engage in a conversation on the subject Nike Plus will have been exposed as not knowing anything about tennis, and might alienate some followers.)

 

Learn the social media channel you're using

 

Know the medium – Content can take many forms, video, audio, images, presentations, motion graphics, or copy. Know what media work best to communicate your message to your audience. 

 

[ Complete Article ]

 

I hope this compendium of my work on social media will be helpful for you, your organization, and your clients. The more everyone understands, the easier it will be to create effective communications, content, and experience strategies. 

 

Questions or comments, please let me know below or @thejordanrules

 

 

As more-and-more brands increase their online presence, they'll be faced with a dilemma: create strict UI standards, or flexible UI guidelines.

There are pros and cons associated with either choice but, with the chancing face of the internet, flexible guidelines seem to be the best option.

Firstly, let me explain what I mean by UI standards or guidelines. Anytime a online style guide is created, there should be a section for UI and UX guidelines. Creating this type of document is often lead by the creative team. When creating this section, you'll be faced with the decision to create strict or flexible guidelines. Note: Not all online style guides govern an entire portfolio of sites or the entire brands online presence, but a more succinct user experience will be achieved if the style guide takes everything into consideration.

I recommend having the following sections, relaying the following information, within this section:

(Click here for a larger image)

Considerations when defining a guideline

Cross-Domain Frequency

Description: How often your users move between the different web properties your brand owns or has an established presence. If each site caters to a different audience, there might only need to be branding similarities - rather than UI consistency.

Question to ask: How often do users interact with your multiple online properties each session?

 

 

Importance and Impact to User Experience

 Description: The reasoning behing applying this guideline to all sites. For instance, if a consistent link style across all platforms increases usability for 4% of users it might be worth implementing, but if it didn't increase usability for anyone it would be better to allow different link styles on each site. This can be easily measured through remote usability testing.

Question to ask: How does this guideline contribute to an improved user experience? Answer in the form:  This guideline will provide consistency when creating __________ , which is important to the user experience because _____________.

 

Dependencies

Description: Some conventions will work for all situations, but some require that additional conventions be established. A good example are tool-tips: Some forms can open a tool tip when a user interacts with the form field, but some forms (like radio buttons and drop down lists) will require an icon or label to trigger the tool tip.

Another great example are the search fields associated with google and youtube. There are consistent elements, but diveate when it benefits the user.

Question to Ask: Will this guideline work for all defined use cases?

 

Context

Description: Some conventions work when in context with specific content, visual design, or other conventions; and don't work outside of that context. A good example is the left navigation established on sears.com - This navigation works very well for the amount of content on the site, but wouldn't work as well for a microsite, or the sears card site.

Another great example is any site that has a registration process and checkout, but the primary site is more of a brochure site. You might want to create a guideline that suggests that the header/ footer be omnipresent, but it's often better to remove all distractions during registration and check-out.

Question to Ask: Does this guideline enable the optimum user experience when examined in different contexts?

 

As an experience strategist, the only thing I dislike more than a poor user experience is being forced to create a poor user experience due to a lack of understanding of how strict guidelines and rules interfere with experience architecture. Although this often comes from either creative directors, or clients who are misinformed; it can happen at any level when online brand/ style guildelines are created.

In the end here's my advice to anyone relying on established guidelines to inform the UX of a site build or redesign: If the guildeline doesn't support a good user experience, it needs to be re-examined. Strict, detailed guidelines tend to get outdated quickly, and broad guidlines tend to last for years (if not, forever).

If you're a marketer and you're agency creates guidelines for a portfolio of sites that suggest unreasonably strict UX/ UI, question them on it. Fight for guidelines that focus on great user experience over unnessessary consistency.

Share your thoughts below, or let me know what you think on Twitter.

 

 

Brands have been focusing of integrated experiences and integrated marketing for the past decade or two; recently social media integration has pushed marketers to try new things, like transmedia storytelling.

Now, Bloom’s Taxonomy was first proposed in 1956 by a committee of smart people, chaired by Benjamin Bloom. The first domain that was described in first publication is the cognitive domain.

The following classification system first appeared in The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. 

Here, I describe how the classification system can be applied to integrated experiences.
 

Remembering: Refers to remembering a specific brand

Understanding: Refers to understanding that a specific type of product/service/idea exists. (i.e. I never knew they made tablet computers.)
 

Application: Refers to conversion. Think applying for a credit card or bank account. This could also include subscribing, or purchasing.
 

Analysis: Refers to the cognitive processing of a specific message as it relates to other messages the user may be receiving.
 

Creation: Refers to the response from a user in reference to a specific message. A user can create an actual artifact, or simply create an opinion.

Evaluation: Refers to ongoing evaluation of individual experiences, which contribute to individual preference.

 

What does Bloom’s Taxonomy tell us about integrated experiences?

1.    Integrated experiences should only utilize channels that facilitate achieving one of the goals established above.
2.    Buying has nothing to do with sales.
3.    Integrated experiences and integrated systems are two different things

How does Bloom’s Taxonomy help us map an integrated experience?

 

Introducing the Deconstructed Bloom’s Wheel Ideation Map

(Full PDF Download Here)

 

This type of ideation map will help:

A.    Keep the team focused & on track
B.    Deliver stronger ideas, with a stronger rationale
C.    Produce more ideas
D.    Prioritize communication channels
E.    Create synergy between strategy and creative
And more.

Here’s how it works, but keep in mind that the PDF can be opened and edited to allow you to customize the maps use for your specific needs.

 

Bloom’s cognitive domain information is categorized and spread across the map.

 

STEP 1: Define & segment your users.

If you haven’t already done this, it’s an important first step. Define your target audience, ideally as personas, and map them against the categories established by Bloom’s Taxonomy.

 

STEP 2: Identify what you want your user to do.

This step is often forgotten in many marketing campaigns; instead, many marketers define a project from a business requirements standpoint. This can leave the end-product lacking focus.

Reference how each category is used and decide on realistic goals for each persona.

 

STEP 3: Ideate vertically & theme

Look at the map as vertical columns, and ideate. Take Bloom’s verbs & assessment types into consideration while focusing on each individual persona & goal.

I recommend using the KJ brainstorming method to develop ideas for each column & persona, then pooling those ideas based on their similarities. These pools will represent your idea ‘themes’.

 

STEP 4: Ideate horizontally across 3 individual themes

During step 2, you may have several dozen themes. The task, at this point, will be to find (or develop) 3 themes that are common to each column or persona.

[Note: You don’t have to create 3. The number you chose will represent the concepts you’ll be fleshing out. Choose as many or as few as you want to present.]

 

STEP 5: Sketch

If you have a media strategy already done, you can use this to help inform which channels of communication will be used; if you don’t just start selecting some.

For each channel of communication (i.e. website, search, facebook, email, newspaper, tv, magazine, billboard, bus shelter, etc.) sketch out implementation concepts that align with the ‘idea platforms’ you’ll have developed in step 3.

I recommend using the large paper approach proposed by David Sibbett over sketching out experiences/ ideas on your own.

 

STEP 6: Evaluate

Don’t evaluate immediately. Let each idea compilation marinate at least a day. Ideally, you’ll have a week to think, compare, enhance, and experiment.

The goal of this step is to identify which concept will be your recommendation, which channels you want to focus on, and how the concept will come to life on each channel.

 

Obviously, a similar process can be applied to content strategy; and a slightly enhanced process can be used to create a CRM strategy.

I’d love to answer any questions you might have, or respond to any comments you’d like to leave. I encourage you to leave comments, or tweet me @thejordanrules.

If you’ve ever wanted a resource that outlines a easy-to-reference library of social media interaction patterns, you’re in luck. I’ve outlined the 12 primary social media interactions, their standard conventions, how to use them, and what goals are best achieved with them.

If you think there are any additions I should add, let me know. Leave a comment, or send me a note on Twitter @thejordanrules

 

12 Primary Social Media Interactions
 

 

The Vote

Use: A user is given the opportunity to show favor, or disfavor, for some content like a photo, video, blog post, etc. OR for a brand, group, individual, or idea.

Goals: Research, Awareness,

Examples: Facebook Like Button, Linkedin Like Button, YouTube Star Rating (before they were removed)
 

 

The Share

Use: A user is given the ability to share content with a friend, or group of friends.

Goals: Awareness

Examples: Share This Button, Post to Twitter Button
 

 

The Comment

Use: A user is given the ability to respond to a piece of content.

Goals: Research, Lead Generation, Engagement, Awareness

Examples: Blog Commenting, Facebook Comments, Disqus
 

 

The Post

Use: A user is given content to consume.

Goals: Establish expertise, Lead generation, Awareness

Examples: Flickr Photo, Blog Post, YouTube Video

 

The Chat

Use: A user can directly communicate in real-time with another user

Goals: Customer Service, Engagement, Establish Expertise, Awareness

Examples: Twitter @reply & Direct Message, Facebook Chat

 

The Play

Use: A user can engage with a game, contest, or other system that employs game mechanics.

Goals: Awareness, Engagement, Lead Generation

Examples: Farmville, Burger King Sacrifice, FourSquare
 

 

The Join

Use: A user can show interest in a brand, group, individual, tool, or idea by becoming a part of a group.

Goals: Lead generation, Awareness

Examples: Facebook Like Button, Sign-in with Twitter, MSN Passport

 

The Buy

Use: A user can directly purchase a product or service; or make a donation.

Goals: Sales, Awareness

Examples: Facebook Storefront, Groupon, Amazon
 

 

The Update

Use: A user can quickly share a short thought, idea, or other piece of content.

Goals: Branding, Establish Expertise, Lead Generation

Examples: Twitter post, Facebook Status Update, Linkedin Status Update, FourSquare Check-in

 

The Tag

Use: A user can identify another user when posting some content.

Goals: Awareness

Examples: Facebook Tag, Twitter @ Reply

 

The Invite

Use: A user can ask a friend to perform an action.

Goals: Awareness

Examples: Linkedin Group Recommendation, Facebook Application Invite
 

 

The Connection

Use: A user can create a link between himself and another user.

Goals: Lead Generation, Awareness, Establish Expertise

Examples: Facebook Friend, LinkedIn Connection, Twitter Follow

 

I've found it valuable to refer to this list (and use these graphics) for roadmapping social media strategies.

Mediocrity is relative, so it's not usually something that can be monitored. You can monitor the people you put in charge of leading your business, however.

Innovation is rarely the reason companies fail, but when it is, it tends to be a acute failure. On the flip-side, mediocrity is like a chronic sickness that will kill a company, but can keep it alive for decades.

I'm usually hired to help guide marketers toward achieving their goals by improving user experience. However, doing this can sometimes lead me down a path I was never expecting to go.

Late last year, a major Canadian financial institution hired me to improve online customer experience. It started off as a great project, they had huge budgets, and have been stagnant for years - so they were focused on getting it done right, over getting it done fast.

I'm now involved with a inter-departmental restructure, and the distribution of talent. When I started the project, I never thought I'd be involved with something like this, but I feel very lucky to be able to be a part of it.

Although I'm not allowed to reveal the name of the financial institution, I've been authorized to share some key learnings, and solutions to issues that ran much deeper than a mediocre online customer experience.

 

Insight #1 - The organization has too much red-tape to be innovative.

Solution: Institue TOMB protocol

Description: To enable innovation from every corner of the organization, I worked along side an ethnographic research firm to identify key barriers to achieving this goal. We created the TOMB protocol to expedite potential issues, and ensure those issue don't prevent forward thinking & innovation.

TOMB stands for: Technology, Operations, Minority customers, and Budget. Essentially, there are interdepartmental directors that facilitate the TOMB protocol, which can be used to identify concerns without placing restrictions on a concept. Whether there be technological concerns, operational/ organization concerns, concerns regarding minority customers, or budgetary concerns, the TOMB protocol can be used to ensure a concept can make it through the red-tape without being shot-down or diluted.

Cutting through the red-tape doesn't mean a concept will actually make it to implementation, but it's surprising how much money, time, and resources can be made available for good ideas that might never have gotten past gate-keepers.

 

Insight #2 - Jaded business leads are relying on outdated thinking to inhibit innovation.

Solution: The 3-Year Glitch

Description: I'm not sure if this is as pervasive as I think it is, but it was definitely a big issue in this company. Many business leads have held their positions for decades, while producing mediocre results. They weren't doing anything that would require disciplinary action, but they weren't doing anything that required recognition. They were meeting their goals; many seemed to be struggling to even do that. We found out the reason was the goals were often set on market analysis that put very little weight on the decisions made by the business lead. As long as they maintained the status-quo their goals should be achieved.

So, when business analysts and external consultants were hired to identify how the business could move to the next level, many business leads resisted any suggestions that put the status-quo at risk. I actually used a quote I took from a business leads email correspondence to her business analyst to explicitly illustrate this point: "Well, yes, we NEED to get better, but we don't want to change anything substantial to do it."

This helped us to pass a new HR policy called The 3-Year Glitch. Essentially, once a business lead has held their position for 3 years, they will be moved to lead a new part of the business. We created a series of programs that supported this in terms of training, peer reviews, mentoring, skills/ interest analysis; but essentially, after holding a position as a business lead for 3 years, you got to own a different piece of the business. The rationale was that the open-mindedness of business leads within the first three years of holding the position, encourages innovation, discourages mediocrity, and fosters trust & reliance on subject matter experts & consultants.

 

Insight #3 - Fear of failure is causing inter-departmental sabotage

Solution: Transparent Non-Departmental Bonus Structure

Description: This one still hasn't passed, but is being presented to the board of directors. The issue we identified was that business leads were deflecting potential failure by transferring issues to other departments. An example was, rather than improving recruitment & training for call centre representatives; the business lead for online customer service buried contact numbers. Although this might help short-term figures in the sense that there's fewer calls, and less of a requirement to have staff available to take calls; it eventually will lead to customer dissatisfaction, or a branch visit. Either way, the offset cost, is simply a band-aid solution for an overwhelmed call centre. So, instead of rewarding the business lead for saving money in his department, we'd penalize the entire corporation if the bottom-line fell.

This suggestion has a substantial appendix of methodologies to improve collaboration, communication, and team work among different departments. Essentially, we want to enable employees to identify root-causes of issues & ideate innovative solutions. With regards to the call centre issue; we'd prefer the business to put the contact numbers up-front, and staff properly. Ideally, some of the collaboration methodologies should help him identify that the root cause of an overwhelmed call centre is because of unclear communications, lack of self-serve options online, and improperly trained customer service representatives. These would all be actionable items that could increase profit for the entire company.

 

Although these three insights & solutions are specifically designed for one large financial institution, many of the principles can be applied to any size company, from any discipline. I know that some of these solutions don't contain enough detail to be implementable, but I'm not writing this article to provide you with specific, actionable, solutions - but am writing to (hopefully) inspire you to join the fight against fear-based mediocrity. If you have business leads who're afraid of a lower bonus, losing their job, or just being blamed; you're encouraging fear-based mediocrity.

I encourage you to find solutions. If anyone else has run into issues like this, I encourage you to share them & share solutions you think could correct the problem.

Obviously, not all companies are willing to change; but those that are open to it are setting themselves up for success.

@thejordanrules

One of the most common questions I was hearing two years ago was "How should I use social media?". Recently, I've been hearing the question less and less. I'd normally be thrilled that people were learning how to effectively use social media, except people aren't. People have stopped asking, but only because they're jumping in without a plan - or worse, with a poorly designed plan.

Since November of 2010, I've been collecting data from a series of spiders, feeds, and alert platforms I was able to tie together. I've sliced the data-up and created the reference guide (located below) outlining the most effective ways to use various different social media channels, some pitfalls to be aware of, and some opportunities & insights to consider.

I also included three pieces of "stinky" advice that have been presented to me over-and-over. These are some of the most dangerous pieces of advice, because they seem logical, yet can be interpreted in hundreds of different ways. People misinterpreting these pieces of advice are actively damaging brands, wasting money, and annoying their audience.

Stinky advice #1: Fish where the fish are.

I have two big problems with this; it's obvious, and it's misleading. It's obvious because it's common sense; you don't fish in the city, and don't market AXE deodorant in bingo halls. It's misleading because people have been using it to rationalize being on Facebook & Twitter. Sure, your audience might be on those social networks, but so is everyone else. The real question should be: how are they using those social networks? Answering this can provide you with insight on how to really target the people who'd be most receptive to your message.

Stinky advice #2: Listen & respond to your customers.

On the surface, this seems like advice that everyone should follow. My issue is that it's not specific. Almost anything can be considered a response; and your customers talk about so many different things, the real value is finding commonalities between the subjects your customers talk about. Many agencies & marketers I've been working with have interpreted this as: listen for brand mentions, consider sentiment, and respond accordingly. This, obviously, isn't a bad thing to do; but it's the least you can do. If you're not doing this, you're missing out on the lowest hanging fruit social media channels can produce. If you want to really create brand advocates & engage with your customers demonstrate that you're listening through real-world actions. (i.e. Don't just tell me you're sorry, fix the problem so it doesn't happen again.)

Stinky advice #3: Content is king.

This has to be the most ambiguous statement I've ever heard. Everything a marketer produces can be considered content, so yeah, it's king, queen, and everyone else. I've actually worked with several major brands that use this statement to fuel their shotgun approach to content development. They've interpreted this to mean: Create an editorial calendar that focuses on supporting different business units throughout the year by targeting different user personas. The problem with this is that a brand that tries to be many different things to many different people risks alienating everyone. A better option is to focus on something you can own, and use alternate communication channels for secondary messaging.

(original size)  or  (PDF)

 

The better you understand the concepts illustrated in this reference guide, the better you'll be able to craft a communications plan.

1. Understand what you want from participating in social media:

Branding: building or maintaining an image or reputation.

Direct Sales: selling a product or service directly to users.

Indirect Sales: converting a user into a customer through the use of a conversion funnel.

Research: finding out insights about your customers, your market, or your industry.

Customer Service: helping users who are already customers.

Collaboration: helping employees learn & communicate with each other (and your customers).

2. Understand the issues & opportunities associated with each potential social media channel.

3. Select channels, and set realistic benchmarks. Understanding how different networks grow, and what to listen for is key.

4. Never stop testing, evaluating, and learning from the communities you participate. It's better to participate in fewer channels effectively, than it is to try and participate everywhere the "fish" are.

 

I encourage you to ask questions, post comments, and share any insights you have.

If you'd like a high-res PDF version of this, you can download one here.

@thejordanrules

I think R&D and an investment in a "Labs" strategy can drive any business forward. I've surveyed a total of 1000 agencies & marketers from North America to find out one thing: What do you do with your R&D budget?

Although many respondents have a substantial R&D budget, only about 25% have formalized a "Labs" department that drives company-wide innovation. Of those respondents that do have a "Labs" department, less than 1% encourage innovation from outside the organization.

Open innovation can do something almost magical for businesses; it can give perceived ownership to customers. The pervasiveness of open innovation can reach every facet of of business, from marketing, to product development, to human resources, and administration.

Some companies like Dell & Best Buy make affordances for open innovation, but very few do an adequate job at following the cycle of open innovation. If you get your customers involved with core business strategy & product development; you need to explicitly show the results of their involvement, and support the outcome in an ongoing iterative way.

Introducing "The Cycle of Open Innovation"

(Full Size)

 

Understanding: A Great Place to Begin

Social media represents an invaluable resource for developing a deep understanding of your customers. The simple act of engaging and communicating with communities on social networks can reveal powerful user insights that can change the way you approach business.

The best way to gain these insights is to listen to what your customers are interested in, and probe them on the identified subject to find out how your business can take advantage of their interest.

Don't patronize your community members by asking them inane questions; demonstrate that you've been listening & ask them questions that link back to your company; or at least your industry.

Example: The way Steve Jobs described the reason for introducing the iPad was that a market gap was identified & the iPad was created to fill the gap. Then Apple (theoretically) went through the process of producing the iPad (designing it, sourcing the production with Foxconn, and beta testing it.)

What if Apple followed an open innovation model of product development? Would there have been a camera on the iPad, a finger print resistant screen, a usb port, near field communications, a fold-able keyboard?

Better yet, what if Samsung followed an open innovation model for the Galaxy Tab? Could they have figured out how to better compete against Apple?

BIG QUESTION: Why do companies think they need to identify and solve business problems internally?

 

Identification: An Expert Analysis

Business strategists, market analysts, brand managers, and all those well-paid titles are still valuable, and often essential, for open innovation to work. Being able to interpret user needs, market requirements, and business goals is best left to those people who understand them.

The better you understand your customer, the more likely it'll be that the experts will craft successful strategies and create products/ services that work.

 

Test: The Missing Link

I understand the value of being first-to-market, but strongly believe the value of open innovation outweighs the risk of potentially not being first-to-market.

I know that spending three months experimenting, testing, and analyzing feature sets costs additional money, but think the value of doing this is worth it. These types of activities can often be conducted without revealing the end product.

Example: You don't need to reveal that you're making an iPad in order to test & facilitate recommendations on gesture-based text input. If this was experimented with, and open to the community, it's possible that Swype might exist as the native text input method for the iPad.

 

Produce: Standard Model, Opened

The standard production model wouldn't change, but there are opportunities to accept innovations surrounding production from an public, or semi-public community. I've seen examples of sourcing influencing design. An example could be the shift from plastic casings to aluminum casings. If materials affect price, and material quality affects purchasing behaviour, than innovations surrounding the ability to use materials that can be perceived as higher in quality, while maintaining price, will affect design. (This is all too true with web development. User experience architecture is often influenced by the technology being used to create the site, app, or software. There are things that work well in HTML5 that wont work at all in Flash. There are designs that produce a positive user experience when created using AJAX that produce a negative experience when created using Javascript.)

So, if one manufacturer can produce a higher quality product for the same price through an innovation in their production process, designs can be reexamined to be optimized. (Example - Using micro-dimpled glass decreases glare & fingerprint smudges. However, creating a mass production system specifically designed to create the glass would be expensive unless the sourcing is opened to the community & a production facility already equipped to produce the glass comes forward - or is open to sharing their technology.)

 

Adoption: Integrate or Abandon

Rather than simply making a decision to keep or scrap a product or service based on preliminary business data, an open innovation model would allow for community input. There's been instances where communities rallied to save a product, service or idea just as is was about to be scrapped.

There's also the potential of being able to use the community to identify why the product or service is either successful or failing. Working together, the community and business leaders might be able to turn a failing product into a successful one through iterative design improvement; additionally, they might be able to identify keys to success that can propel future products/ services to success.

 

 

Key Takeaways:

1. Don't assume you know what your customer wants
2. Fostering personal ownership of product/service development can create powerful brand advocates
3. Innovation can come from many sources; tap into them
4. Using social media to encourage & utilize innovative ideas is one of the most powerful methods of communication and one of the most relevant uses of social media
5. If you're investing your R&D budget building & investigating ideas & technologies that already exist, and are well established, you're doing your business a disservice. Labs should not be about training, they should be about innovation.
6. Experiment with the Open Innovation Life Cycle model. Even in small-scale, it will work.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, comments, feedback & questions. @thejordanrules