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

Are you creating Kindle friendly eBooks?

So you just finished that great eBook and you've uploaded it to your blog and tweeted about it and yes! a friend just posted a link to it from her Facebook page. All is well in the world...right?

Maybe. Or maybe you missed something. Something that could significantly increase the size of your readership.

I just got a Kindle for Valentines Day. My wife knew I have been wanting one so she got it for me. Who knows, maybe she read my Amazon wants to Publish Your Next Book post. In it I talked of the new feature that allows users to email or sync PDFs directly to their Kindle for reading.

In my post I showed a pic of the newer, large screen Kindle but as that one is near $500, I opted to receive the standard model. This model still has the emailing PDF capability but there is one little problem. When I downloaded Building and Sustaining Brand Communities from the fine folks over at Radian6, I couldn't read it. It was formatted it for 8.5" x 11" and the screen on my new Kindle is only 3.5" x 5" and I cannot increase the size of the text. But it isn't just their eBook.. it is every eBook I've downloaded or research report I've downloaded. They're all built for an 8.5"x11" world.

Which leaves me with two options. Send my Kindle back and get the larger sized one or write this post and implore all eBook writers to create two sizes... so I can take your eBook with me on my next trip or read you in bed.  And I'm guessing I'm not alone in my wish...so if you too own a standard Kindle... Tweet or Link to this post and tell the world ---

We Want To Read Your eBook. But We Need it Smaller!

We have the power. ;)

Three For Thursday - February 25

Auto Ad Builder

 

I found this via @Springwise and I just don't know what to make of it. As an ad guy, maybe I'm biased but doesn't the quality of the message have some effect on the likelihood that a consumer will act on it? To think that some computer program can mashup an ad based on stuff some algorithm finds on the Internet seems like a con to me. Sure you can edit your ad, but if you as a business owner felt you could write compelling ads why would you need this service to begin with? Sometimes I think folks need to step back and think through the complexity of effective advertising. It's not just about putting some message in someone's face. You have to create something relevant and compelling -- else folks will just ignore it as useless noise.

Swagapalooza

I've been watching this one since I first saw it in Ad Age... and this week @Springwise had it in their newsletter. Frankly, I'm not sure what to make of this one either. I have to admit, I like the basic idea. You have a product, you get 5 min to share it with bloggers and they get to decide if they blog about it. Worst case, you're out a free sample. But here is what makes me think -- wait a minute.

Applicants will be selected based on quality of content, number of followers, and reader engagement.

Notice anything missing here?

What about relevancy? Sure you may have a lot of followers, great content and your readers love you...but if you're a tech blogger and it's feminine product Swagapalooza? You get the point. Once again, people confuse numbers for influence. BUT -- if relevancy was a primary driver of invites or if the folks over at Swagapalooza curated the invite list vs letting anyone submit -- and they didn't decide on the random make up (from the site: In total there will be 70 bloggers and 15 tweeters.) but instead focused on making sure the best available folks were in attendance now that is an interesting model. 

Crazy Inventions

Last night I asked Twitter for a third and final cool thing to include here. BryanRicard a Marketing Major at Rhode Island College, tweeted back a link to Crazy Inventions. Honestly, if you click no other link today, click this one. Amazing, funny and in some cases, just plain odd stuff here.

Personally I love the lunch kit and the "in stair" storage. Quite cool. Thanks Bryan for sharing.

What about the rest of you? Did you find something in Crazy Inventions that you found interesting? And I'm really interested in hearing what y'all think about Swagapalooza or the Ad Builder. Good or bad? 

Turning Pride Into Advertising

What if you could get your customers to advertise for you? I'm not talking about just word-of-mouth. I'm talking about turning them into full-fledged outdoor boards.

It's that time of year here in New Orleans. All around the city children are receiving thin or thick envelopes indicating their admission status to the high school they applied to this spring.

But what has always struck me as odd is that accepted students get an envelop at all. Why not send a box? A box full of school colored balloons, yard signs, door hangers, stickers for their lockers and laptops, and maybe a t-shirt or sweatshirt to wear. I mean they just got into the high school of their choice. Their pride is at an all-time high and they'll gladly tell the world they selected you as their high school.

The sign to the left is sitting in my yard right now. A very high traffic street corner (I live across the street from the local grammar school) where parents and students alike pass twice a day going to/from school. Talk about your free advertising. I should send Dominican a bill instead of the other way around ;-)

But while this may seem very obvious for schools, colleges, politicians and such, I think there is something here that goes beyond this limited usage.

Think about the travel industry. I've often wondered why more travel destinations, hotels, resorts and cruise lines don't launch "Day After" campaigns. I just got back from a few days in Cancun and guess what... I've probably talked about the resort I stayed in a half a dozen times. How much richer would my memory be if the resort had sent a little something to my house so that when I arrived home I had a memory of my trip. I guess in my case that would be a koozie or a large drink glass... but you get the picture. If we remember the first and last thing about an experience, why not make sure my last memory is a good one that calls to mind the beach, the pool or just the very attentive bartender/waiter combo that made my short stay a great one? Or better yet, send me a couple of koozies so that the next time I have friends over to BBQ, and I give them a koozie (yours) they ask me, "so where is this place?"

Maybe it is counter intuitive, but I've always wondered what would happen if a resort or hotel property engaged in a real day-after marketing campaign. What would it do to repeat guest business and friend of guest bookings? What if a restaurant emailed you the recipe for that dish you loved at dinner last night, in case you wanted to try your hand at recreating it at home. 

We all like to be proud of our choices. Is there something in that basic human desire -- to be proud, to believe we made the right choice -- that we as marketers can leverage to create "free advertising" in a marketplace? Are there certain industries that make more sense for this approach or maybe some for which it just wouldn't work? And what would it look like in those different industries. I mean I'm not likely to put a yard sign up that says I bought Jiff peanut butter but is there a way to leverage pride (if your Jiff) to get me to help advertise their brand? I'm not sure I have a complete thought here... but seems maybe a germ of an idea mabye? Guess I'm hoping maybe y'all can help me fine tune it.

Thoughts????

I Need You To Help Me Help You

 
For the past few weeks I've been sharing My Mardi Gras Experience with you via the MyMardiGrasExperience.com website. Hopefully you stopped by and saw Mardi Gras in a way you've never seen it before.

But now I need something from you. The site was more than just a way to expose you to another side of Mardi Gras. It was a huge social media experiment that can't be completed without a final survey poll to see what you think about Mardi Gras. So can you do me a favor and take our Mardi Gras survey? It will only take 3 minutes and the results will be shared here and via @TomMartin on Twitter for all to see and use.

Thanks folks. Oh yes, and can you tell a few friends to do it too?

Making content moments

 

While hanging out waiting to shoot more parades for my MyMardiGrasExperience project, my buddy (up there on the right) Lance spotted Hosea -- the Top Chef winner from Season 5. Then the fun really began... Click here to see the Tom & Hosea cooking spot. A perfect example of finding a content moment in the middle of everyday life.

Can Reality Change Perception?

 

What if by allowing you to experience something you "thought" you knew about, even virtually, I could change your mind about your perception of that thing/event/brand? Would that be a powerful marketing tool? Would you invest money, time and effort behind that sort of thing? I'm thinking most would but first, you'd need the case study demonstrating that it really works.

Well that's what we tried to learn last year via One Man, and iPhone and a Dream. 

And this year, we're at it again but we invited a few more friends to help. This year you can virtually visit Mardi Gras to catch a Mardi Gras parade live -- yep right there on your computer screen -- you can watch the same parade I'm watching and likely the camera streaming it to you will be perched next to me. So I guess that means we could share a cocktail too. Weather permitting we'll be streaming tonight and every day through Fat Tuesday. Oh and rumor has it Mr. Peter Shankman of HelpaReporter.com will be joining us to live stream his actual Mardi Gras ride on Fat Tuesday -- which has never been done before. So you'll get to see what it is like to actually ride in a parade and you'll be able to Tweet Peter to see what he's thinking.

Is this post just a shameless plug for my round II Mardi Gras experiment -- MyMardiGrasExperience.com -- kind of. But more importantly, I'm hoping you'll stop by, watch what we're doing and then when we release the case study in March, learn something.

So come on down (virtually) and enjoy the greatest free show on earth. I'll be back here on Wednesday, February 17. Till then, you can find me and a bunch of other really great bloggers blogging over at MyMardiGrasExperience.com. Tell a friend maybe?

Is this a Content Moment?

Have you noticed how much content drives conversation in Social Media today? Take a quick scan of your Twitter stream or Facebook wall and you'll likely notice that the vast majority of tweets and post contain a link to content -- be that video, photo or even written (in the form of an article or post).

So it would seem that one important piece of training for any company or brand team that is charged with managing a brand/company's social media program is content creation training. Now it is easy enough to show someone how to use a digital camera or a Flip cam, teach them about using Photoshop or Final Cut, and show them how to upload to blogs, Flickr, etc. But what is harder and I think quite often overlooked is the softer side of content creation...the part that really drives success -- identifying content moments.

What is a content moment? To me it is a moment in time or a few moments strung together (think video here) that are interesting, compelling or say something about your company/brand. It is true content that someone would find interesting. Ideally it also moves you closer to some marketing goal too.

So if you're a brand manager, social media consultant or maybe the head social media person at a corporation, a few questions you might consider or discuss:

1. Are some folks just wired to recognize content moments or is it a skill that can be taught? If it is an inherent skillset, then do you need to factor this into your hiring process? And do you just factor it into the hiring of a Social Media Strategist or the hiring process for the entire company?
2. Can you standardize a definition of content moment? This could be huge if you're truly trying to wire social media into an entire organizational culture. Seems like it would be really hard to train everyone (even in small classes) in larger organizations like Fortune 500 companies.
3. Can you create some kind of guideline document or reference document that helps employees throughout the organization recognize when they are in or viewing a content moment? Guess this kind of flows out of #2, but it is important no? Training has a way of fading into the past, while guideline docs or some kind of ongoing reinforcement program tend to help institutionalize common practices.

I think that last one is huge don't you? It's hard for one person or even a small team to be everywhere and see everything. But if you could find a way to program an entire organization to look for, capture and communicate content moments, what would that mean for the power of your social media program? 

If you want to see what I'm talking about first hand, head over to MyMardiGrasExperience (shameless plug) where we're trying to string a lot of content moments together to tell the Mardi Gras story. Then let me know what you think about the whole idea of content moments and how we did finding and sharing them.

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Three For Thursday - February 4

This week I wanted to touch on a couple of trends and one really cool branding idea. First the trends.

Virtual Self-Service Kiosks

I've been watching the insurance industry of late with a good bit of fascination. First there was Nationwide Insurance's iPhone app, then Geico got into the game and now State Farm has joined the fray. All three have launched iPhone apps that have a lot of bells and whistles but most importantly, all three offer Accident Claims Filing tools. 

If you remember not too long ago, it was Progressive that jumped the competition with their mobile claims cars that would come to an accident scene, file the claim and even (I believe) print a check for the claim -- all right there before the wrecker took your car away. But until recently, it looked like competitors had taken a page from their book and jumped Progressive in the iPhone race -- but as of January 11, Progressive had caught up. So now all these insurance companies want you to file your own claim (which saves them money) and I'm guessing we'll all gladly do it because it takes the hassles out of filing a claim. Everyone wins. And there is the point: smart companies are going to figure out how to leverage mobile apps to lower their cost of delivering their services by offloading work to consumers who will gladly take it because it simplifies their lives and actually creates a better usage experience. So what do you think? Will other industries follow? Will we consumers actually do the work for them just because it seems more convenient?

Rent Not To Own

I've got four kids that are all into video games -- yes even the two year old is getting into it. Can you believe that? And just like other toys, kids and video games are short lived loves. They get a new game, love it, play it all the time and then poof... they move on to the next game or worse, gaming platform. So I was rally intrigued when I heard about SmartyRents.com.

 
It's like Netflix, only for educational video games. Which is perfect. Pick a package (depends on number of games you want to rent at any one time) and then pick your games. They are delivered to your door. When you're tired of one or all, return them in the pre-stamped pack and the next games on your list arrive. Simple. And when you think of the the speed at which gaming platforms are advancing, this makes even more sense because today's hot gaming platform is tomorrow doorstop. What I'm wondering though is how many other industries might adopt this model. What about categories like outdoor sports? What if you are an avid outdoor person? Might you sign up to receive skiiing equipment in the winter, climing equipment in the spring, camping in the summer and something else in the fall? All the equipment would be refurbished vs new but instead of buying it, you'd just rent it for this season. Then next season, you'd get all "new" stuff. At first it may seem odd, but think about it for a few minutes... I don't know, but there might be something there... what do you think?

Brand Tastings

 

This is a picture of the Glacéau suite at the La Casa del Camino hotel in Laguna Beach. There Casa Surf project is a really interesting temporary brand immersion. They took 10 rooms and redesigned them. Each room is designed around a different brand and designed to convey the qualities and attributes that brand wishes to emphasize. We've all seen examples of brands positioned in hotels -- especially bath products, water and I once saw Crystal Light. But this goes beyond mere product placement. This is like pop up store meets product placement. Not only is it a cool gimmick for the hotel but I find it an interesting test for the brands. Though I'm not sure how they are judging ROI (I'm assuming the brands are paying for the integration but I could be wrong). None the less, it makes me think about the role of brand tastings from a experiential marketing point of view. I'm not sure too many brands have really leveraged this -- but this certainly seems like a step in the right direction don't you think?

That's it for this week folks. Be sure to let me know what you think about the ideas here. And as always, if you see something worthy of inclusion, do let me know.

What Dancing Taught Me About Customer Service

A few weeks ago I attended my daughter's state dance competition and I found a number of similarities between a dance team and customer service team.

First, her team practice all year for one shot. There are no second downs or losers bracket. You either nail it or you don't. They only compete a few times a year but at each competition it is the same. One dance. All or nothing. Sort of like customer service. You practice, train and teach for that one moment when your team has a chance to deliver a great customer experience or at least recover from a bad one. But ask yourself, does your team approach it like my daughter's team approaches competition? Does your team tackle each opportunity as a "no second down" proposition or do they think, "we can always make it up to them." Seems to me this simple change of point of view would translate into a huge change in the customer experience.

Beyond the mental approach, another thing a team dance competition drives home is that every action by every player matters. Every girl on the team may nail it but if just one falls- well that could be the difference between winning and losing. Again, because you only get one shot everyone has to be perfect. In this particular competition they lost first or second place (can't remember) by just one point. One point on a 20 girl, 3 minute dance routine. Wow. But then, that's just like customer service. I can have a great waiter but if the food comes out undercooked or cold, bam! my experience just lost a few points. A dance team is an ecosystem of choreographed movements, which is just like customer service. The great experiences are little more than properly timed and choreographed movements that result in first place finish for your brand.

And lastly, a couple of the routines drove home a key point we all forget: That the little things make all the difference. You see this one team had a cool routine but their costumes were bland and while it shouldn't have, it really made the routine less impresive. A couple of dances later, another team whose costumes actually accentuated the choreography via the color scheme [I know I should have taken pictures] and addition of sequins in certain areas of their costumes that picked up the light in just the right way. Again, their routine was quite good but probably not that much better than the first team -- but with those costumes, it just looked so much more energetic and polished. I once visited a prospective hotel client and as I sat in the lobby waiting for the GM, I noticed something. Every single employee that walked by said hello or good morning and smiled at me. Every single one of them and no I was not sitting at a Ritz. It was a standard, every day brand hotel chain. That was almost 8 years ago and I can still picture it like it was yesterday. It was a simple, little thing that made a huge impact on my experience.

As we move forward and advertising continues to lose its power to create and maintain brand impressions, customer service will no doubt become a bigger and bigger player in your marketing efforts. Yes, I do see customer service as marketing. So ask yourself, if you had to compete for Gold, could you win? Is your choreography up to snuff? And are the little things like your uniform enhancing or detracting from that experience?

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