positive disruption by: Tom Martin | New Orleans based Social Media Consultant

You Gotta Want the Ball

Yesterday a post by Chris Brogan, Confidence and the next move and something my 10 year old son said this weekend, prompted me to write something I've long wanted to post.

My son plays travel ball and this weekend at a tourney his team was in a very close game during the seeding round. The go ahead run was on second and there were no outs. The batter came up and ripped a short liner to right field. The coach had my son playing back so he had to get on a horse to go get this ball. As the ball began to dive to the ground, the opposing coach assumed my son would not be able to make the catch (a safe assumption based on the trajectory) and sent his runner towards third base and ultimately towards home base. And then it happened. My son made one of those incredible catches, snagging the ball mere inches before it hit the ground, rose up and drilled the ball to his second baseman for a double play (the runner had failed to tag up). Everyone went nuts, the entire team elevated and the opposing team deflated. With all that momentum, it was almost a forgone conclusion that the pitcher would strike out the next batter, which he did. Game over.

After the game, as my son recounted the moment, he said, "Dad, I was just sitting there and I was thinking, please hit the ball to me. Hit it here so I can make an out."

In sports, as in life, it all comes down to a few moments. The clutch shot or the great catch, momentarily transforms mere mortals into mini-Gods. Worthy of our praise, adulation and respect. String enough of these moments together and you become what others think of you -- the "go to guy."

Being the go-to guy is a pretty good thing if you can handle the pressure. In sports it means you're the first picked at recess or during the draft. You get the girl (kidding -- well kind of), get the scholarship, get the big contract, make the big money and enjoy opportunities in life that simply are not bestowed on the rest of the folks that do what you do. But go-to guys don't just exist in sports, they exist in business too.

Think about the big meeting, the big pitch, or any really important business opportunity. Who do you want in the room? Who do you want assigned to the project? Who? You want the go-to guy. Why? Because you and the rest of the organization feels (rightly) that with that person on the team and handling key aspects of whatever you're doing, you're chances of winning increase significantly.

Thus, like in sports, the go-to guys in business get the girl (sometimes), get the high profile jobs/projects, and yes, get the money. They're the ones that always have a job. They're the ones that aren't overly worried about the recession because even if the company they work for now craters, someone somewhere is waiting for a chance to hire them. To bring the go-to guy's particular brand of magic into their organization. And in today's hyper-connected social media world, the ability to find the go-to guys is easier than ever.

So what separates a mere mortal from a go-to guy? Obviously things like talent, practice and intelligence. But mostly I think it is confidence. You see, when the chips are down, the pressure high and it's all on the line, go-to guys want the ball. They want that chance to either be the hero or the failure. They want that spotlight and that is why they are the go-to guys. Mortals, well they're just really happy to be on the team.

So ask yourself, do you want to be a go-to guy or a mortal? Are you willing to do what it takes to be a go-to guy? Have I missed anything? Are there other key traits I failed to mention? Let me know.

Oh and for the record, there are go-to girls too... before any of you put that comment out there ;-)

Reach Across The Aisle

I once counseled a company to partner with their largest competitor for a major promotion. After they restarted the CEO’s heart, I had to calmly explain the concept of “all ships rise” and help him understand that he simply couldn’t go it alone. He didn’t have the marketing budget to reach enough of the right audience. His only hope was to join forces with his competitor, launch an “industry” campaign and then rely on the fact that his product was superior to ensure a favorable share of any new sales. In other words, sell soup not your soup.

Just like in politics, sometimes the greater good outweighs partisanship. At the end of the day, more sales for you is good, even if it involves generating a few new sales for your biggest competitor.

So if you're looking around wondering how you're going to survive this wonderful economy, take a moment and think about how you could partner with your competitors. Now this works best for companies that have geographic strongholds, the pizza joint in my neighborhood for instance. They can't afford a "go eat pizza" multi-media campaign but what if all the pizza joints in New Orleans teamed up? While I might travel across town to visit one of the others, chances are I'm going to default to my local favorite down the street.

But don't just stop with partnering. Add layers to the call to action. I like pizza. I like it even more if you're going to donate money to my kids' school or my favorite charity or to create a "rainy day" fund to help people that get downsized.

Ask yourself how you can extend the campaign. A mass media campaign is great, but what about something like good old fashioned door hangers. You could mass print (most of the cost of printing anything is setting up the press -- paper and ink are cheap) generic "eat pizza" hangers and then stickers for each local pizza joint. This would allow each joint to burst market to its core geographic zone based on each joints unique customer usage pattern.

Then figure out how to lay in a bit of digital or social media. Could these pizza joints do something with Yelp? Could they somehow reach out to the Elite Yelpers and get a buzz campaign going? Could the pizza joints all "start a wave" on Facebook? How about a Twitter campaign? Think of the power of hundreds of Tweeters all tweeting about your "rainy day fund" campaign. Could you must enough votes on Digg or Reddit to get your "press release" on the first page? Would a local band or two cut a special "pizza rainy day fund" music video that you could put on you tube and seed with your loyal customers wh are on Facebook and MySpace? Can you cost effectively use Google? What if your campaign contained a keyword, the name of the "rainy day fund" for instance. Given that you're the only folks using this word, would that make it cheaper to "bid" on that word using Adwords? My local joint can't afford to buy "pizza" but they could afford "pizza fund" if no one else was bidding on it. Yes, people do see tv/print ads and then search keywords like campaign titles.

I'm sure you can think of far more creative offers than I can. Or maybe examples of where you've seen this work in the real world. Or better examples of cooperative versus singular elements of this campaign. Let me know. Tell me what I have neglected to mention. Talk back.

photo credit:  Brick_Alchemist

Is Pizza Hut's Twintern Job Post Ethical?

Yesterday the NY Times published a story about Pizza Hut's quest to hire a summer Twintern -- an intern that would spend the summer handling Twitter for Pizza Hut. I found it odd, especially coming on the heels of the Domino's fiasco. So I asked around Twitter to see if anyone else thought it a good or bad idea. There was a good range with folks like James McGinn, Stephanie Busack, Anna Whitlow, @Schwalb (sorry she doesn't list her name in her Twitter bio) all felt it was a good iea.

Others like Tiffany Starnes, Dustin McQuary, Charles Neville felt it wasn't such a great idea and/or that it was just mostly a PR Stunt. Lastly, Charles Miller, of DirectTV indicated they too were doing Twintern's but pulling from a base of Grad students steeped in business analytics and not just a college kid who likes pizza, Twitter and a summer in Dallas [my words not his].

Personally, I tend to favor the unethical "PR stunt" theory for a few reasons.

1. They advertised it in the NY Times. If you're looking for a kid that gets Twitter, why not just use Twitter to find your Twintern? Folks certainly would have RT'd it, in fact they did.
2. They defined common Twitter terms - again, any newbie would know what those mean so why define them in the ad? Kind of defeats the whole knowlege of Twitter angle eh?
3. They point you to the Domino's video on YouTube. For me, this is both ethically wrong and completely unecessary. They've already told applicants they will need to monitor and notify if they see anything negative.

Now if they are serious, and they very well may be, a couple of other issues jump out at me.

1. On one hand I like the whole embedded journalism thing with using the Twintern as a Social Media Journalist.. cool idea and something different.
2. But nothing noted about how the Twintern will need to "engage the Pizza Hut community," or grow it or anything. Twitter is first and foremost a conversation medium, so very odd that this job duty would be left out, don't you think?

Personally, I think the effort shows that Pizza Hut doesn't really get Twitter, Social Media or Crisis Communications 2.0 -- as one Tweeter put it in their reply to me:

What do you think? Anyone from Pizza Hut reading this? Tell us what you're trying to do and why? Explain the curious timing (coming on the heels of the Domino's disaster). Why did you feel the need to point folks to the Dominos YouTube video? Let me know folks, I'm really interested in getting more thoughts on this subject.

Dear Pizza Hut, I'm sorry. I got it wrong.

Yesterday I wrote a story about how Pizza Hut is looking for a summer Twintern. Based on some of the verbiage in the story, namely a reference to the recent Domino's Pizza YouTube fiasco, I stated that I felt it in poor taste, a PR stunt and did little more than demonstrate Pizza Hut's lack of SM creds. I still maintain the timing of the announcement could have been better managed on Pizza Hut's part, but other than that... well read on.

Yours truly got it wrong. Unlike a real reporter, this blogger never attempted to talk to Pizza Hut or Stephanie Clifford, the NY Times reporter that penned the story.

Luckily for me, Chris Fuller of Pizza Hut does know a thing or two about social media, and specifically how to handle a blogger like me getting it wrong. Based on his comment on yesterday's post, I emailed him a few additional questions and emailed Stephanie @ the Times to gain confirmation to what Chris was telling me.

The long and short of it: Stephanie added two important pieces of copy that I and other bloggers fixated on and used to render our judgement. Specficially:

• I asked if she or Pizza Hut wrote/suggested the Domino's stuff and if the LOL/OMG and Twitter definitions were hers: Her reply:

> Hi Tom,
>   Yes, it was me that added that language.  The story was a story - we
> weren't just running a Pizza Hut job posting verbatim, but using the
> format of a typical job posting to write the story.  I wrote the story
> with a light touch, as you can see from "the applicant will speak fluent
OMG and LOL"
> line. 

• She also offered (unsolicited by me) that...

Pizza Hut did say to me, as it had said in the comments on your site, that
the Twintern idea had been in development since well before the Domino's
crisis.

Chris was good enough to send me the link to the original job post

So all of this to say, Pizza Hut, I screwed up. I jumped to a conclusion and should have offered you a chance to answer questions first. Instead, in an effort to jump a hot topic, stir it up a bit (yes I do that sort of thing here) and drive some traffic to my site, I posted.

And for all of you that visited yesterday (over 400 of you) and the many of you that tweeted or RT'd the story on Twitter, do me a favor. Do the same with today's post. I hate it when newspapers print retractions on page 12 in a 1x1 column space. It sucks for the brand. I got it wrong and hope you'll help me make sure that anyone who read yesterday's piece knows that... it's the right thing to do in my book and will only take you a second. In fact, look down a line or two-- see that "tweet it" link. Click it and you're done.

And to Chris, thanks again. I hope you'll take me up on my offer to interview you and your Twintern mid-way through the internship to see how it is going. Personally think the embedded journalism stuff you're talking about letting that intern do is very cool and a spot on use of social media, as I learned with my similar approach during my Mardi Gras tweets experiment.  Or at least let me buy you and anyone else at Pizza Hut a beer the next time I'm in Dallas. We can talk about loud mouth bloggers and what a pain in the a$$ they can be for brands.

photo credit: by JillHannah

Positively Disrupting Thoughts for Ad Agencies

If you're like most companies today, you're scared. The economy sucks, the financial world is chaotic and your 401(k) is getting smaller, not bigger. So what is a boy to do? Well, for starters, stop doing what you're doing now. Why? Because I'm guessing it is what you've been doing all along and, frankly, that isn't going to cut it these days.

So here are a few thoughts of my own. You can decide if they are helpful or not. And do me the favor of adding a few more of your own in the comments section below. If we all practice a little Intellectual Darwinism, we'll be better for it -- don't you agree?

Click Here to read the rest via Ad Age.com Don't worry, it will open in a new window so you can still add your comments here for the rest of us to see. I hope they're as lively as the ones over at Ad Age.

To find insight, just listen.

Not sure why, but I was thinking about a project I did a few years ago when I had my own consumer insight planning firm. We were asked to help a local ad agency figure out a new way to position New Orleans in terms of an ad campaign. The agency wanted to go beyond the traditional architecture and food shots that had become a mainstay in NOLA advertising messaging.

So they called us and asked if we could go listen and find a new angle. We loved the idea and spent a day in the quarter and CBD talking to tourists. No focus group guide, no set questions. Just a simple offer. $20 for 5 minutes of your time. And we'd ask them one question "What do you like about coming to New Orleans?" And they'd talk. And we'd listen and tape.

Here is snippet of the insight video we created for the agency to use in their pitch. Remember, we didn't prompt folks beyond the single question. We didn't try to get them to say any specific phrase. We just listened. The result was quite interesting if you ask me.

Sadly, the agency didn't win, which is too bad because I think the resulting campaign based on our insight could have been really powerful. But you be the judge.

You can’t win on price.

 

Every day consumers log onto the Internet from their computer to search out the best prices on the products and services they want. Ask anyone selling software, TVs, even cars and they’ll tell you a story about a consumer coming in holding the printout from a website. The Internet has created a price transparency dynamic that has fundamentally altered price driven industries like computers, hotels and airlines. And it’s going to get worse. 

Right now that same consumer can stand in the aisle of their favorite store, and with their cell phone, scan a bar-code to instantly see if your competitors are selling the same product for less. Before long, someone will create a means for doing this before that consumer ever leaves their house. That means consumers can price shop groceries just like they do airline tickets. Upload your shopping list ad instantly see which grocery store will result in the best overall pricing -- not just best on a few items. Think about what that means for products, but more importantly retailers. It means that there will be only one low –price leader or worse, no low price leader. Everyone will be selling everything at the same price.

So what is it that you’re going to do to differentiate? How are you going to compel consumers to do business with you? I think it is going to come down to three things.

First, shopping/brand experience. Let's face it, what passes for acceptable experiences today basically isn't all that great. That's why Starbucks is able to charge $3.95 for a latte -- because they give (or used to) you an experience that is actually desirable and meaningful.

Second, service. Imagine if a grocery store gave you an iPhone app that allowed you to not only track your grocery list, but once you enter the store, gave you a map of the most efficient shopping route. Maybe it even included the ability to scan the bar-codes as you put the items in your cart and some kind of payment gateway so that check-out lines become a quaint thought. And best of all, as you scan an item, it automatically pushed coupons to you from competitive items or the one you're holding. After all, the manufacturer of the item is willing to give you the discount, why punish you for simply not knowing about it. Lastly, it could have a search feature so that when your wife calls you and asks you to add one more item to the list, you don't spend 10 minutes looking for it. You just search and bingo, the app tells you aisle and location.

Third, recognition. We all like a good ego stroke now and then. Retailers that find a way to include recognition of loyal shoppers will win in my book. It is that extra intangible that successfully done, can't be easily copied by competitors.

If you're a retailer of goods, I think you have less than two years to figure all of this out. Right now the bard-code on the phone trick is still limited primarily to G1 phones with the Android OS. It's coming though, quicker than you think. Tick Tock.

And thanks to @andreagperez for Tweeting me this link to a Microsoft "view of the future" video on YouTube. Exactly what I'm talking about. Tell me you wouldn't favor this retailer over the competition that is doing it the "old" way.

Are You Hyper-syndicating Your Content?

On Friday, I had the honor of serving on a WordCampNola Social Media panel with Tiffany Starnes, Damien Lamanna, Robbie Vitrano and moderator Chris Schultz. After the panel, I received a tweet from Peter Rad asking,

to @tommartin #wordcampnola Why do you want your tweets to go to every social site? Why repeat that over and over?

Peter had misunderstood a comment I made during the panel. The panel was talking about how to grow your tribe and expand your online footprint using social media. Rather than try to explain it in 140 character bursts typed on my iPhone, Peter and I agreed a blog post would be easier -- so here is that post.

The point I was making involved hyper-syndication. There are literally hundreds of social media platforms with most folks maintaining 2.3 profiles (according to recent research). Some folks favor Facebook, others MySpace and then you have your power LinkedIn users along with those that have a LinkedIn profiles but just don't go there all that much. Toss in Twitter and content social networks like YouTube, Vimeo, Slideshare, etc., and you end up with a gumbo of social sites.

What I have found is that it is far more successful to take your content to an audience rather than expect them to come to your blog to get that contact. Thus, interlinking your various profiles. Here is how I do it, but I'm sure there are lots of other examples of folks doing it even better than me.

First you have to have a home base. For me that is my blog. Every social profile I have points back to this blog and if a social media site profile will allow me to cross post my blog to the profile, I do that. Thus, when I publish this post in a few minutes, it will automatically cross-post at Facebook and Twitter. Further, my LinkedIn profile has a widget that sucks in my blog posts, so anyone that views my profile today should also be able to find and read this post without leaving LinkedIn.

If I upload a video to my YouTube account, Facebook will pull it into my news feed and I'll likely cross post it to my vimeo account as well. Slideshare decks get pulled into my Facebook speaker fan page as well as my LinkedIn account and I manually link to them from my blog.

Second, if I am doing anything really interesting or important, like delivering a keynote or working on a work project that will support my online brand persona, I will update my status on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter with that same information. Which is what I think Peter thought I was saying during the panel. Except he thought I was talking specifically about posting ALL my udpates across ALL my platforms. Peter -- if i'm still not understanding your question, let me know via Twitter and comments so I can further update this post to answer accurately.

And Peter I kind of agree with where I think you were going. For instance, Twitter gives you the ability to post all of your Tweets as FB status updates. It does this automatically for you by cross posting. I'm NOT a fan of this feature. While I like the ability to selectively do this (thanks Tweetdeck) I hate when I open up my Facebook profile and see my news stream cluttered with Tweets from a friend. That is why I am on Twitter -- and if you're my friend on FB, chances are I'm following you on Twitter so why would I want to see the same info twice?

But I do think there is a good reason to cross post SOME tweets/status updates.

1. I have followers/friends/connections at various outposts on the Internet. Some of those folks cross over and follow/converse with me on more than one platform but the vast majority do not. Thus, by cross promoting the same important information, I ensure everyone hears about it.
2. Repetition can be your friend. I don't check my LinkedIn profile as often as I should, just like lots of folks I know, so I sometimes miss important and timely updates from friends. Also, my friends might miss my tweet but see my FB status update, etc., etc.

Overall, the point I was making and it was echoed by the other panelists in different forms -- You can't expect to create brilliant content and have folks just find it. You have to invest in marketing your content by Tweeting about it, posting it to your Facebook profile, etc. You have to make it really, really easy for prospectives fans to find it.

Peter, @me today and let me know if this makes better sense and/or leave a comment. Everyone else, thoughts? Agree? Disagree? Anyone have other examples or suggestions for hyper-syndicating your content/brand on the Internet?

Photo thanks to WordCampNola

Using Social Media to Recover After Cust Svc FAIL

There are a few universal truths in life. Everyone will die, you have to pay taxes and if you sell a product/service – your organization will fail the customer.

But customer service failure doesn’t have to necessarily be a bad thing. These moments of truth can be an opportunity to strengthen your relationship with the customer and in our hyper-connected world, even create some good marketing.

As you can see from the pic above, DirectTV recently failed me. I wanted to upgrade my receiver and couldn’t figure out how much it would cost. I’m not a huge fan of their website, have always found it confusing…but that is another post. So I did what most folks would do – I emailed customer service and asked how much it would cost to upgrade and what the processes was to do it. The pic above is the email they sent back. This was a total fail. They didn’t address my question or help me in any way.

So I sent out this tweet on Twitter:

I did it for one and only one reason. I figured DirectTV was monitoring Twitter, much as I figure any smart brand is. So while I was publicly chastising DirectTV, I wasn’t really all that peeved – yet – which meant they still had a chance to recover.

Which they did via this tweet:

Shortly after sending me this tweet my office phone rang. It was DirectTV calling. I didn’t answer so they tried my home phone. My wife didn’t answer so they sent me this email:

Now that is a recovery. Like yesterday’s post suggested, DirectTV made it very clear they were on the case. Just as Entergy sent 10 trucks, DirectTV used every communication channel I gave them access to in my life. They didn’t just call my office and say they were sorry they missed me and that I could call a 1-800 #. They made it very clear they were sorry for the email I received and that they wanted to make it right. Bingo – they recovered. Which led me to share this tweet in response:

Companies ask me all the time, “Why should I be on Twitter or Facebook, etc.?” The truth is there are lots of reasons to be in the Social Media space. But the number one reason, because your customers are there AND they expect you to be too.

When there is a problem, customers don’t want to sit on hold or work their way through voicemail prompts. They want instant gratification. They want to be able to tweet a problem and have you fix it. That is the new expectation in customer service.

Are you ready? Did I miss anything? Do you have other examples of companies using Social Media to correct a product/customer service failure? Let me know. Join in on the conversation.

How to Recover When Your Product Fails

Earlier this week an 18-wheeler decided to take out a few light poles in my neighborhood. Unfortunately for me, the power lines on those poles were attached to my house.

The funny thing about electricity and the companies that provide it, we seldom think about it other than once a month when we pay the bill. Usually that isn’t a pleasant thought as we wonder “how the heck we used so much” or get upset at how much we’re being charged to keep the lights on.

And that makes it hard on electricity brands or any utility brand for that matter. Think about it for a second. Electricity, gas, water, telephony and Internet service – they’re all mission critical apps. We don’t much think about them until they fail. And then when they do fail, we go from upset to ballistic in short order. Why? Because we have become so reliant on them. So if you’re a utility brand like those above, you have to treat every outage as a tragic event that requires maximum response lest you allow that customer anger to manifest.  But what can you do? How should you respond during these times of failure?

First -  respond in a way that clearly communicates that your company is “on it” and doing everything you can to solve the problem quickly. As you can see above, Entergy didn’t just send out one or two trucks. They sent 10 trucks. I wish I had my Flip with me so you could have seen these guys in action. It was like a ballet in the sky. For 5 hours they bobbed and weaved while they removed two broken poles and reinstalled the new ones. It was quite impressive and really made my wife and me appreciate how much work is involved in fixing a downed pole, much less multiple ones. A lesson we’re sure to remember during any future storms, hurricanes, etc.

Second, communicate with your customer. Our local electrical company, Entergy,  had a crackerjack supervisor, Ronnie Durant on site. Ronnie directed his teams, handled interface with government agencies and most importantly, fielded customer service inquiries on site – like those from my wife and me.

In my case, this was supremely important. You see, while Entergy would restore the downed power lines, we were responsible for getting an electrician out to our house to reattach the power (physically) to our home at our cost. Put yourself in this situation and think about how you’d feel being told you had to arrange and pay for a reconnect because their power line was ripped off your house? Needless to say, the thought of having to get a private company out on short notice sent chills through our spine and as my wife is a realtor that works from home, every minute the electric was off was “downtime” for her. Additionally I was leaving town the next day and couldn’t possibly do so if this situation was fixed before I left. Needless to say, tensions were high in the Martin household.

But Ronnie handled it all superbly. He calmly explained the whole process, why the process was like that, exactly what steps we needed to take, what kind of timeline we were working under and then repeatedly checked in with us on how we were coming along with getting someone out to the house. He also provided timeline updates from his crews as they day wet on. This was important because our work had to be completed before Ronnie and Entergy could hook up power to our house. If we weren’t ready when they were, we’d have to have a second truck roll to restore power.

Even the linemen communicated. At one point, our 6 year old was fascinated with all the commotion and bucket trucks. Of course, like most 6 year olds, he was asking lots of questions and when he’d ask one within earshot of a lineman, they took the time to explain in far greater detail than I could what was happening, etc. He loved it.

By the end of the day, 5pm, a mere 6.5 hours after the initial failure, Entergy had restored power to my house and done so in a way that didn’t leave me upset but instead actually made it interesting.

My only remorse, not having that Flip camera… the resulting ballet in the sky video would have been great! The perfect YouTube video.

Do you have a great example of a company recovering from failure? Suggestions on what companies should do to recover? Let me know via the comments.

And be sure to stop by tomorrow when I’ll share another example of a company recovering from customer service failure – only this time, we’ll focus on using Twitter and Social Media as recovery tools.