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

Three For Thursday - May 27

Welcome to the "I'm taking the family to DC" edition of Three for Thursday.

Today I wanted to try something a bit different and I truly hope you'll play along. I've been doing this series for a few months now and it's quite a bit of work to constantly find three new things. Lately, I feel like maybe I've not been doing this series justice and maybe it has become less valuable for you my reader.

So, today, instead of sharing three cool things with you, I'm hoping you'll share three things with me - specifically your answers to three important questions I have.  Thanks in advance... I really do appreciate the input and hope to use it to make this series more valuable to you.

Just click this link below to get started.

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Three For Thursday - May 20

Ok, it's late so I'm going to apologize in advance, this is going to be the "How can I share three cool things and not have to type a lot" edition of Three for Thursday. 

Making it easy to find you 

Seems like there are a lot of services out there lately that want to make it easy for you to link all of your social media accounts from a single domain. Hi.im is a newer one that I found. Really simple, straightforward way for you to have a single domain that you give folks and from there they can discover all that is you on the internet.

Here is my Hi I'm Tom Martin page. (ain't it purdy?)

Profiling Your Connections

Do you have a great eMail database but wish you knew if any of those folks were on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn? Or maybe you've got a few folks on Twitter and you'd like to know where else you might be connected to them? These and a host of other questions can be answered via Flowtown. A nifty little sleuthing tool I came across. It also seems to offer up "campaign" tools, but honestly, been too busy hustling new clients to truly put it through it's paces... but if you have, could you help a brotha out and let me know what you think via the comments? Thanks in advance.

Real-Time Search

Ever wonder what folks are Kurrently talking about on Twitter and Facebook? Yea, me too. And no, that wasn't a typo... I meant Kurrently as in a cool little website that lets you search Twitter and publicly shared Facebook updates. Last night was the Idea Village graduation and so for grins I thought I'd see who all was talking about the Idea Village last night via a Kurrently search of Idea Village. Sure you can run Twitter searches and Facebook searches, but this brings it into one tool which is efficient.

Well speaking of efficient...that's all for this week's I've got to ramp up a new company edition of Three for Thursday. LMK what you think via the comments please and as usual, if you see something cool that you think I'd like to feature here... tell me!

Why Social Media Experts Hate Being Called Experts

 

If you ever want to get a rise out of a social media expert, call her one. Seriously, try it. Do it on Twitter or their blog or in person... and what you'll get will range from mild "oh please!" to downright frustration verging on anger. In fact, it's quite en vogue to practice humility when tagged as a social media expert. If you Google the phrase "I'm not a social media expert" you'll get over 4,800 results. Now, not all of them are blog posts about how "I don't think I'm a social media expert" but a quick sampling of hits will show you that a good many are about this topic.

At first, you might think that it's just humility. I mean, boastfulness isn't really liked in the Social Media World and Social Media strategy consultants are quick to discount those that practice the art of self-spin. But I think it goes deeper than just humility.

I wonder if maybe, just maybe social media consultants deplore being tagged as social media experts because in the words of Nicholas Murray Butler, an expert is defined as one who knows more and more about less and less. Or maybe it is because to become an expert, one has to master the past. After all, we deem humans an expert in something usually because they have studied it to a point of mastery.

Yet, as we all know, communications change. The art of communication, the manner of communication and lastly, the technology of communication changes constantly. Therefore, to be deemed a social media expert would seem to suggest that you have mastered all that there is to know about the subject today.

And that is what I'm thinking rubs the social media expert the wrong way. They don't want to be experts.

They want to be explorers. The identify with explorers more than experts. In fact, one social media expert, Jason Falls, named his blog and his company Social Media Explorer. Maybe that's why he gets a little fired up when you bring up the topic of social media experts. [be sure to watch the video half way down the post] it's classic Falls and one of the many reasons I think he rocks.

My two cents on the whole social media experts (or any other marketing experts for that matter) is that the problem with experts is that by definition they're looking the wrong damn direction. They're studying the past versus wondering about the future. [video version here] and I think that is what gets to the Social Media Experts (even if they may not realize it). They thrive on learning and sharing and growing. They never want to be experts because becoming an expert is well kind of like dying, or at least starting the process. We don't want to ever stop learning, evolving and sharing that knowledge with others that are a few steps behind us on the trail of knowledge.

Or maybe I'm just getting all esoteric because it is late and in reality, social media experts just really hate the term for some far simpler reason. What do you think? Any social media experts out there want to chime in?

photo by astuecker

Three For Thursday - May 13

While in Asia doing a few Social Media Workshops, one of the attendees asked about a good polling app for her Facebook Fan Page. As I've not really used polls on any of the FB pages I work with, I started looking around and recently found PollDaddy. It is super easy to use and lets you embed your polls on your blog, Facebook page, MySpace page, etc. In fact, here is my first poll I created...will you take a second and answer it?

You can also do Survey's and it looks like you can create Ratings for blog posts, etc. I'll be playing with those features next.

Looking for an alternative to Ning?

Can't remember who turned me on to this site... BlogFrog... and while I haven't used it yet, it looks simple enough. If you've ever wanted to create a micro-community around your ideas, passions or blog, BlogFrog seems to be a valid option to consider. 

Like Ning, you'll be hosted in their environment but you can place a widget on your blog.

Merging The Real World with The Digital World 

I'm really interested in this next find... StickyBits. I first came across this during SXSW when I found a booklet of these stickybits barcodes in my conference bag.

Luckily for me - I recycled most of what was in the bag but kept these. The idea is pretty cool. There are things in the world that you might want to attach additional information to. For instance, you might want to give someone your business card but also be able to have them see your company portfolio or a quick video explaining the ethos of your company. It's pretty easy... just download a sitckybits bar code -- kind of like the one to the right over there...

Then attach whatever you want to that code and presto, when the code is scanned via the stickybits app (iPhone and Android) the person holding your card will get a special treat. Go ahead... download the app (iPhone & Android). Then scan the barcode image you see above and see what you get... NOTE: after a bit of experimentation, it seems that if you want to be able to ADD content to the stickybit, you'll have to register/sign in to the app on your phone. Once you do that... works pretty well.

Well that's it for this week folks... tell me what you think... really interested to hear your thoughts -- especially about my stickybits.... 

Please Contact the Manufacturer

 

Have you ever asked yourself what separates one online retailer from another? Especially those smaller online retailers that don't have the benefit of a well known name like Target or Best-Buy? Stop for a second and think about that. What is their unique competitive advantage? What is the only really big differentiator (besides price based promotions or free shipping) that one online store can offer you over another? What is the one thing an online store has that their competitor likely may not?

Ok so we'll get to that but first let me tell you a quick story to place this whole post in context.

Ever see one of the devices in the picture above? Me either...but this is what my son's baseball coach told him he needed to improve his hitting. It's the Quickswing Batting Aid. So, being the great dad that I am, ordered him one. I was traveling so the only way to get it was online, which I did. I even got the net that goes with it so he could use it in the back yard. All in all -- best $140 I've ever spent. He (and his two brothers and sister) used it, loved it and during parties all the kids would take batting practice.

Best of all - it works. His hitting has improved. But that is where the good news ends.

You see the net that came with it broke. Thus, without a net, he couldn't use the device without breaking a window...so I sent an email to the online retailer that we purchased it from and requested assistance. What I got back was:

 

I was a bit surprised as I'm used to retailers playing that middleman role. Usually they take care of your problem (replace defective merchandise) and then handle the issue with the manufacturer directly. That's the hallmark of great customer service. So now, maybe you're saying that customer service is the answer to the question we began with? And yes, customer service is certainly a differentiator... but let's face it, great customer service CAN be duplicated. So while important, I don't think it is the one thing an online retailer possess that their competitor doesn't.

Now luckily for me, the fine folks over at Quickswing rock the customer service world. Through a very quick series of emails, they concluded that the best way to ensure they fixed my problem was to just send me a new net. Which takes me to the final point of this post... check out the pic below.

 

See that little Google Checkout cart? See what the online retailer gave up when they pushed me to the manufacturer? They gave up the ultimate resource. The single biggest differentiator an online retailer has to compete in today's hyper-competitive retailing world.

They gave away the customer relationship.

Yep, they could have helped me and kept that relationship for themselves. I have three boys (11, 7, and 2) who will all play baseball for a very long time. What's the lifetime value of that relationship that they just gave away to the manufacturer? It's one thing for a brick and mortar store to cede the relationship to a manufacturer because the brick and mortar retailer has convenience as a tool in their marketing toolbox. But the online retailer is only as good as their last click. The only thing they have going for them is the customer relationship. Cede that to the manufacturer (who as we see can also be the retailer) and you give away what is probably the biggest, most valuable asset you own as an online retailer.

Well, at least that is what I think. But what about you? What do you think?

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Is Team Obama Mismanaging the Elena Kagan Announcement?

As I watched the online chatter surrounding the announcement that President Obama, the most social media friendly President in history, was nominating Elena Kagan to replace Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, I couldn't help but think, "he's blowing it."

Why would I think that? Let me show you a few screenshots and you decide if our social media friendly President is missing the boat on this one. 

First, I Googled "obama supreme court nominees" and look what I found or maybe didn't find in the Google Results. The only Obama managed site in the list is on the Sponsored Results list. That's right - in order to put his voice into the conversation, he bought an ad. So I clicked on the ad thinking that I'd at least be transported to a dedicated page the Obama team had created to help sell Elena Kagan to the public.

So you cam imagine my surprise when I clicked on the link and was transported to this page. Where is the information on Elena Kagan's judicial background, her past judicial qualifications, her past judicial points of view? Where are her public statements on key issues like abortion, government vs state powers, or any of a host of issues that will certainly confront her during her confirmation hearings? But wait, it gets better. For fun I clicked on the Facebook share button and check out what happens.

   

I mean, did they not see the whole Chevy Tahoe build your own TV spot debacle? But more importantly, where is the information and why isn't it on this site? For instance, if you go to the White House Blog, you find a pretty thorough blog post complete with video announcing the nominee of Elena Kagan. So it isn't like they don't have the content, they're just missing the opportunity to seed it with the public via their microsite or via an aggressive link building campaign so they try to compete for page one of Google. I also found it quite interesting that a mere 22 minutes after the Kagan post was published, the White House pushed a second blog post covering the President's commencement address at Hampton University on Sunday. Why would I consider this an "issue"? Because it pushes the big story below the fold and anyone that is pushing a link to the home page of the blog is actually pushing a commencement address story vs the big story of the day, the Kagan nomination. Is that smart? 

I'm scratching my head at why the Google Ad Word ad isn't point folks to the Organizing for America site, where there is just a ton more information and a prominent "ad" for supporting Kagan, which takes you to the same Kagan for Justice page shown above. NOTE: in the short time since I started writing this post, they have already added information to the home page... not much but at least they're starting to try and frame her nomination. See below.

 

The second thing I did was what any blogger wanting to write a pro or con post about the nomination would do, I started searching for pictures, video and any content I could link to or use in the creation of my post. And here again, I was a bit surprised that our social media savvy President misses an opportunity.

Check out the pictures on page one of a Google search for Elana Kagan. Not exactly press kit material. In this day and age, wouldn't it make sense to pre-populate this search with really great photos of Ms. Kagan. Maybe even multiple shots of her from a major event or something so that the first page of results is dominated by the image you want of your nominee vs the image that Sulekha.com likes. Wouldn't this fall under PR2.0 tactics?

By now, I've figured out that the team Obama doesn't seem to be really working the SocMe angle on this one. Why do I believe this? Well check out what the blogosphere was saying about the nomination?

   

Within less than 24 hours President Obama's nominee was the Gay Nominee. And in this Washington Post article, you see that most of the attributions are made to blogs. And what was the White House's response -- they gave the rumor legitimacy by condemning it and asking for the post to be pulled. So now, if you do a quick Google search on Elena Kagan Gay you get this. I visited some 20 posts listed in the Google results and two things stand out. 1) There is no one out there trying to manage the conversation or guide it back to a productive place and 2) people with an agenda are jumping all over the gay angle.

Then, I checked both President Obama's official twitter feed and the White House's feed -- and sadly, nothing there. More sadly, no real history of anything being there (conversation wise) but that is another post entirely. Here the President's team has almost 4 million people following and nothing, not one peep or attempt to manage the event. Seems like a big miss to me.

And lastly, something that truly blew me away and would sadden the likes of DJ Waldow, I didn't get an email. I mean, Team Obama emails you about everything. Every major piece of legislation, every major move, every major issue gets and email. But today -- nothing. Big, huge miss IMHO.

I could go on but I think I've made my point. We live in a social media, easy to share information, find it on Google kind of world. But Team Obama, which used digital conversations masterfully to get elected, seems to have forgotten the playbook or at least misplaced it.

What do you think?

 
 

Three For Thursday - May 6

Welcome to the one small step for me, one huge step for me kind edition of Three For Thursday. This week we've got a bit of mobile information for you and a cool scheduling tool. Enjoy.

Takeout 2.0 goes Mobile

 

From Springwise, a European iPhone app for the Wagamama restaurant chain. This trend only makes sense... with American's and pretty much all worldwide citizens tethered to their phones, making it easy to see a restaurant's menu, order the food (including customization requests), see when the order will be ready and pay for the meal -- all from one app is a no brainer. To me the question will be -- who will be the first company to create a multi-chain version...Yelp, are you listening?

Adhoc Mobile Networking

While in Singapore a few weeks ago, I had a chance to meet and chat with a few Singtel Product Development guys. The talk quickly turned to mobile social networks like Foursquare and more specifically of the numerous opportunities to use mobile, location based apps to create truly useful networks. For instance, I was traveling alone on this trip... it was my first time to Asia and frankly, I would have loved the opp to meet up with other solo travelers or maybe residents of KL or Singapore that would be willing to serve as "tour guide" or just someone that would show me the local side of the town. So I get really excited when I see platforms like Urban's Signals. While it may be little more than Hookup 2.0, the underlying approach is exactly where I think mobile networking will go. What about you? Agree? Can you think of a few applications?

Schedule Me
Have you ever tried to schedule a meeting with someone or a group of folks? How many emails does it usually take? If you're lucky and work in a company that is on an exchange server, you can see your fellow workers' schedules, which is great but God forbid you need to loop outside resources into the meeting. Then you're back to the emails. There are a number of folks (Google included) that are trying to help. One that I've been playing with is Tungle. Tungle will sync with your calendar and then show folks when you're available and when you're not. It doesn't tell them what you're doing - just that you're scheduled to do something. That alone is pretty cool, but then I popped over to my friend Sloane's new consulting site - AnswerWithAction.com -- I saw a really interesting way to use Tungle to let prospective clients schedule a session with Sloan.

Once you get to her site, click on the "Book a Consultation" button and watch what happens. Very cool use and for folks that sell blocks of time this combined with something like PayPal (also on Sloane's site) creates a super simple schedule/payment process. When you add in the iPhone and Blackberry app versions of the service, which lets you manage your Tungle calendar from your mobile -- well now you've really got a complete package.

That's it for this week's one little step for me, one huge step for me kind edition of Three for Thursday.

Are you on a mission or just doing your job?

Whether you are a brand, a person or a cause... Ask yourself this. Are you just doing your job everyday or are you on a mission?

What's the difference?

People who are doing a job are following a plan (maybe) that is designed to achieve some goal. Maybe they want to sell more widgets, grow their donor base or get a promotion.  To achieve this they follow the rules, work the system and in general work hard to achieve those stated goals.

But folks on a mission are playing at a whole other level. They'll forgo food, sleep, health and occasionally harmony in their quest to do things and achieve goals and that will leave a mark on the world.

You see missions aren't about achieving a goal. Missions are about changing the world or at least your little part of it.

Missions serve a greater good. Missions cause all boats to rise. Missions usually invoke breaking rules, creative tensions, elation and despair and days when you wake up and think, I've had enough. This is too hard. But then those on the mission get up anyway and motor on.

Maybe that's why I like missions. They beat you up but when you can see that your mission is succeeding, when you get to the other side, well that gives you yet another reason to keep on trucking.

So... what's your mission and how can I help you achieve it?

Why I'm Quitting the Ad Game

For those of you that are not Ad Age subscribers... you likely missed this post yesterday. Given that it's kind of a big deal post for me... I'm reprinting it here for y'all to read/comment on and share.

Over the last few years I've become increasingly less interested in the core concepts of advertising. While so many in our business want to talk about concepts, I fancy ideas. When they speak of campaigns, I push for conversations. And when they boast of impressions, I can't help but think about impacts. At first I thought I was having a mid-life crisis or something. But then I found out I wasn't the only one having these thoughts. I wasn't the only one wanting to have these conversations.

In the last year I've had the good fortune of sitting across the table with lots of clients who wanted to explore this idea of conversations and impacts. And they wanted to pay for ideas instead of concepts. Whether we were doing some kind of private workshop or chatting after a speaking gig, they all understood we are at critical juncture in the history of marketing. We are at a point where interruption must be replaced by invitation.

In short, they were as enchanted as I with this whole notion of having digital conversations with customers and prospects. They wanted to move beyond simply advertising to their customer, preferring instead to connect with them in a meaningful way. And they loved the idea of gaining permission to talk as often as they wanted with a customer without paying for the right to do so each time. Yes, they wanted to talk, but it wasn't about advertising.

Likewise, I found a willing ear inside agencies near and far. I had the great fortune of addressing a group of agency owners at the spring Transworld Advertising Agency Network meeting in Cancun. We talked for hours about building passion-based communities and using social media to change brand perceptions. We discussed at length how far behind most in our industry are when it comes to monitoring, creating and engaging in digital conversations. More importantly we talked about why this was happening. And finally, we talked about the hurdles that make it difficult for agencies to embrace this new way of thinking and creating.

It was the combination of these two sets of conversations that has led to my decision to quit the ad game. Not because I believe that advertising is dead or that ad agencies are dying. On the contrary. I think this may be one of the most exciting and dynamic times in our industry's history. Yes, I believe history will show that we live in a time no less important and game changing than the creative revolution of the '60s.

However, for our industry to see around the corner and evolve to the next level (yes, I hate that cliche but I couldn't think of a more suitable one) we must invest in knowledge. But that investment is the hurdle. In a world where margins are increasingly pressured, where competition is fierce and where "get me sales tomorrow" is the name of the game, it is very difficult for an agency to invest in dedicated or even quasi-dedicated resources to learn and then teach the concepts of this new digital world we live in today.

We look to industry trade groups like 4A's, AMA, IABC, PRSA, etc. But are we finding the resources and answers? I'd argue no. So if we're not able to invest in this knowledge ourselves and our trade groups aren't getting the job done, then where does this leave us?

Well that is the question I asked myself. And the answer I came up with was . . . we're on our own folks. We have to get smart and do so fast.

So to do my part, I've resigned my position at Zehnder. Instead of writing about how I'm helping to change one agency, I hope to write about how my new firm is helping to change lots of agencies and maybe a few clients too. I'll try and give you the inside scoop and help you see you're not alone. I'll bring those thoughts here and share them with you in hopes of enticing debate, insight and most of all -- change.

photo by bryanrmason and you must click over to see why I picked it for this post.