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

Blame it on Rio

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Today I'm off to Curitiba, Brazil, a city I'd never heard of prior to being invited to come there and speak about using social media to alter brand perception for destinations and festivals. But what makes this even more interesting is what you find when you virtually visit Curitiba as I did with my kids last night.

• According to the American magazine Reader's Digest, Curitiba is the best place to live in Brazil.
• In 2010 the city was awarded the Globe Sustainable City Award which was set up to recognize those cities and municipalities which excel in sustainable urban development around the world.
• And PBS's Frontline did a story on Curitiba's public transit system, which has been studied by communities around the world as a model of urban transport planning.

Not to mention, the place is downright beautiful, full of greenspace and inspiring architecture. So why is it that I've never heard of this place? Well I think you can find the answer by thinking of the city I most likely link to Brazil -- Rio. Human beings use shortcuts. And for me, my shortcut to Brazil is Rio. It's the vision in my mind's eye, it's Carnival is a major visual/cultural touchpoint in my perception of the country and it's population. And for better or worse, it is the only city that I have ever considered visiting in Brazil.

And that's why I think the future of tourism and hospitality marketing for "2nd tier" destinations, those that are not the automatic tourist must visits, is about to undergo a radical change that will fully integrate and leverage the power of social media platforms and conversational marketing strategies. While I'm in Brazil, we're going to spend time talking about four key ideas that I think will play a major role in accomplishing this transformation.

The Discovery Platform
If you look at most tourism and hospitality social media programs today, you'll find the requesite blog, Twitter and Facebook pages. While a necessary component, these platforms are often judged by number of followers or fans and raw traffic. However, regardless of how good the social marketer behind these platforms is, I think it unlikely that you'll ever see a huge number of fans/followers or consistant traffic to the blog because a) I'd only find these sites if I was actively looking for them. Thus, if I'm already in the mindset to travel to a destination, these platforms might be helping me plan but they are not serving any realy acquisition role. b) Ask yourself, why would you follow a destination on Twitter or Facebook? If you were traveling there often then yes, it might be helpful but if let's say the destination was a 2nd tier -- one that was off the beat and path so to speak, why would you fan or follow?

What's missing in this social media equation is the Discovery Platform. A discovery platform would be a place where consumers can go to find information on lots of 2nd tier, off the beat and path destinations. Where they could start their journey of discovery and ultimately find and follow/friend destinations. It's the top of the funnel and the social media platforms become content channels designed to move the consumer down the purchase funnel. But it's not an Expedia or TripAdvisor. No, we'll talk about creating something more akin to a Japanese Keiretsu, where "ownership" of the platform will be decentralized and the platform is actually a series of interdepentantly linked objectives.

The Immersion Platform
Currently this is likely the destination's blog. But unlike the traditional blog, which tends to be text focused, we need to combine the best of a destination's website (photos/video) with blog (current/content rich/alive) to develop a living, breathing web destination that immerses the prospective traveler in the destination. During my talk we're going to think about creating a place where the consumer can go beyond discovery to truly uncovering what makes this destination special and why they'd want to place it on their bucket list of places to travel. Specifically, we're going to talk about telling the story of your destination -- one breadcrumb at a time.

Your Most Important Reader
Google is your most important reader. Build a living, breathing site with lots of high quality, constantly updated content and Google will come back to read often. Best of all, Google loves to tell his friends about you when they ask. So it we'll talk a bit about the kinds of stories Google likes to tell.

Measurement of Social Media Efforts
And lastly, we'll talk about ROI - Return on Investment - and what my previous experiments have shown. For instance, we'll talk about how long a tweet lasts. How many tweets can we expect a consumer to read over a certain period of time. What kind of brand perception movements can we hope to see? How much can we hope to move those perceptions? And a few more that I'll save for the crowd in Brazil.

So what do you think? Am I leaving anything out? What else should I talk about while I have the stage? Any suggestions -- for the talk or heck, for a couple of good books I can buy for the rather long plane ride there and back? ;-)

BTW, does this sound like a webinar you'd like to hear or maybe you'd prefer a private workshop on this topic for your marketing team? If so, drop me a line with your preference and I'll follow up with you when I get back.

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It's Not About Big Budget. It's About Big Content.

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Sir Ken Robinson's TedTalk, Do schools kill creativity? had over 1.4MM views.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture has had almost 12MM views...

and the JK Wedding Entrance Dance video has logged a mind-bending 54.6MM views.

The cost to produce these three videos combined probably doesn't add up to the craft service budget on a typical 30 second tv spot.

Oh yes, and the consumer, that guy and gal we're all trying desperately to reach -- they invited these videos into their lives, shared them, commented on them and in some cases, imitated them. Likely as they were Tivo'ing past your latest TV spot while they surfed the web on their laptop.

All of this to say, it's not about the budget folks.

Great content moves people. It touches people at their human core and that -- the ability to connect with human beings -- overcomes any and all budgetary deficits you might encounter in marketing today.

So the next time you're sitting down to write a creative brief or your evaluating your next campaign... think about this post. Then go create something that speaks to and not at your consumer. You might just be surprised at what happens next.

photo credit:_J_D_R_

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Thirsty Thursday of Knowledge - SEO Resources

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SEO is one of those things I always wish I knew more about but just don't have the bandwidth to add the kind of deep reading required to my repetoire. Luckily, the intrawebs make it easy to find and follow folks who do.

So today I wanted to share two of my favorite SEO resources that help me keep abreast of what's all happening in that space.

First up is my local NOLA buddy, Will Scott and his firm Search Engine Influence. Will's company does all kinds of SEO but their real focus is LOCAL SEO. They do a lot of work with companies that want to make sure folks that live next door find them when they visit Google. He's a great guy and loves mexican food -- which makes it quite convenient for us to have lunch. Be sure to stop over and tell him Tom sent you.

 

Next we have VKI Studios out of Canada. Honestly don't know how I found these chaps but so glad I did. They publish daily and honestly, I convert a lot of their posts to PDF for easy saving on my computer. They tend to tilt more towards the analytics side of the house, at least in their blog posts, but what is great SEO but analytics optimization right? If you're a bit in the dark on how to use Google Analytics to the max, go add these folks to your RSS reader or follow them on Twitter.

 

That's it for today. If you have any great SEO or analytics resources, please drop a link to their blogs here won't you? I'm always looking for other smart peeps to follow.

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Breadcrumb Marketing with Social Media

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Last week, we talked a bit about the difference between marketing with advertising and social media. I mentioned the idea of breadcrumb marketing as a construct for thinking about how you'd market via social media.

Today I want to share a bit more about that with you because I've had a lot of folks comment on Twitter, in person and via email that they really like the analogy.

You remember the story of Hansel and Gretel right? In the story they dropped little white pebbles to mark the path back to their house.

Breadcrumb Marketing Explained
Breadcrumb marketing is very similar, except you're not dropping crumbs that you will follow back to your home, you're dropping crumbs that your consumer can follow back to your home. In this analogy, home can mean a lot of things. If you're a retailer, home might be literally driving traffic to your store. But you might be trying to alter brand perception and thus your home is a consumer changing the mind about your brand. Whatever the case, success is helping your customer/prospect find the trail and then follow it, one breadcrumb at a time.

 

This is really counter to how we've all been taught to market. In a traditional advertising centric world, we're taught to tell the entire story in one sitting -- whether that be in an ad, a TV spot, radio advertisement or direct mail piece. If we're lucky, we won't be forced to literally tell every piece of information. However, it is safe to say, no client is going to fund an ad that is designed to get you to simply read another ad -- well except for teaser campaigns. That simply isn't how you generate good ROI using high cost mediums like advertising.

Enter social media. Because it's relative cost is low (note, I didn't say social media was FREE, I said LOW) and the natural limitations on communications (Twitter's 140 limit for instance) social media lends itself to a breadcrumb approach. You can't tell the whole story in one sitting, so why bother to try. Because the medium is about ongoing engagement/conversation, why not leverage that in your favor?

Thus the breadcrumb strategy. Help a consumer find that first breadcrumb. This is actually a place that advertising is quite adept. Once they find that first crumb, entice them (with something in the first crumb) to want to find another. Now, unlike Hansel and Gretel, the consumer doesn't have to follow EVERY breadcrumb in order to successfully arrive at your house. But they do probably need to interact with a significant share of them, lest they lose the train of the conversation. The important point, be sure that you're leaving them wanting something more with each tweet, post or email. Breadcrumb Marketing is about enticement, allure, information and persuasion -- all without the consumer really realizing they are being sold.

Guess the only thing left would be to figure out how you'd plan such a campaign. Maybe you can help me there? How would you go about creating a breadcrumb approach for your brand? And once done, do you think it would work? Let me know...

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Put Down That Mouse and Go Meet Someone - Part II

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Last week I invited you to put down your mouse, crawl out from behind your computer screen, and go out and meet people in real life. I thought it was a pretty good post, but I have to admit, I never expected the amount of traffic it generated. It seems my little post struck a chord with you, which I'm so happy to see. So, as I'm a man that believes that talk is cheap, I took my own advice last week and jumped on a jet airplane to go visit a bunch of the folks I met last year at the Social South Conference in Birmingham. While I was there, I had a few thoughts I wanted to share that may make it easier for you to go out and network in real life, and at the end of the video - I think I finally figured out why it is so important to do this. So hang in there and let me know what you think, ok?

I also wanted to thank the nice folks (looking at you Renee) over at The Hotel Highland who gave me an incredible rate on an even more incredible room. Y'all rock.

On the way home from my trip to Birmingham after meeting even more great folks, I've decided that I need to do a bit more of this. I've been kicking around a project idea for a while now -- one that would let me meet and interview 52 of the smartest peeps in the digital space -- and invite them to share their knowledge with me and via my blog share with you. In the end, I think it will create a really great knowledge base and hopefully would be the first step in building an even larger repository of knowledge about social media, digital conversations, email marketing, seo, etc. But more about that tomorrow.

Till then, I want to know -- who are you going to go see?

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Thirsty Thursday of Knowledge - Selling Social Media Internally

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I've had a number of conversations over the last week or so with companies big and small that all share a similar problem -- How do I sell my organization on using social media? Maybe the person needs to sell their boss on the idea, the CEO or CMO or on a broader platform -- get the entire organization believing in the power of social media.

I've been taking notes on my conversations and I'm putting together a more complete post for next week, so stay tuned. But in the meantime, here is one tip/tool that I found via the incredibly talented Lisa Petrilli who is using Paper.li to create a daily "newspaper" of the content she thinks her MENGonline group will value.

So what does Paper.li have to do with helping you sell in the idea of using social media to your organization? Simple. It's a great Drip Marketing tool. I'll talk more about Drip Marketing next week. But suffice to say, one of the best ways to sell anyone on anything is to stop selling and just let them make a buying decision on their own. Paper.li gives you the ability to create a daily paper of good social media content (that will help bolster your argument) and have that paper delivered directly to the in-boxes of your key decision makers.

A couple of things I really like about the service:

• It looks like a paper. Sometimes when selling something new, I find it is helpful if there is something recognizable or "known" about the idea/product you're selling. Thus, when trying to convince the 60 year old CEO to monitor mentions of your brand in social media, maybe it would help if what he was reading looked more like what he's used to reading -- a newspaper.
• The ability to have multiple "authors" create the paper. By using a unique hastag, you can curate a list of posts/tweets that all find their way to your personal paper even though the original link/tweet may be shared by anyone who knows of and is actively using the hashtag. For instance, Lisa uses the #MengOnline hashtag to create her paper. I've started one using #IandI (short for Insight & Information) that I'm going to use to create my own curated newspaper. If you like the stuff I share on Twitter, be sure to sign up to get this daily digest -- which will be easier than following all my tweets.
• You can create a paper that follows lists of Twitter folks -- this might be really interesting if you want your bosses to see what the Twitterati of your industry are sharing. I could certainly see this as a way to help make the point that your company isn't in the conversation while the competition is... hmmm getting any ideas yet?

A couple of things I'm not crazy about and hope Paper.li will add very, very soon.

• Once you have a paper set up, I don't see how you can delete or edit the settings. Given that you can only have 10 papers per account, this would seem like a much needed feature.
• You can't print the paper out as a PDF or hard copy. Again, thinking about using this as a tool to help non-social media users and likely techno-challenged individuals "get" the need to use social media, having the ability to create a physical printed piece would be nice. Further, if you've ever used a service like HP's Tabbloid, which lets you convert an RSS feed into a daily magazine/newsletter in PDF format, you know that having a printed copy of your online reading can be helpful. It's far easier to carry around all day and read a post or two when you have a few free minutes. It's also something more "comfortable" for those not accustomed to reading RSS feeds.
• You can't create some kind of "private" tag or multi-author paper. While it is nice to be able to use a custom hashtag, it would be easy for a spammer to jump on that tag and start inserting their crap into your paper.

All in all, I'm very intrigued by this service and look forward to using it for clients and myself personally. Take a peek and let me know what you think? I'd be most interested in hearing your thoughts and maybe your own ideas for how you'd apply the technology.

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What's The Difference Between Advertising & Social Media?

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As a 20 year vet of the ad business that has steadily morphed his focus from traditional advertising to digital/social media strategy, I get this question a lot. Here's how I answer it. Be interested to see how you respond to it too. Let me know?

Advertising is about selling. Thus, it is based on interruption and scale. Because you're interrupting someone that ideally would rather be doing something else -- watching TV, listening to the radio, reading a magazine or a newspaper, etc. -- you have to do something conceptual to first gain their attention and then reward them for making the effort. Because it is based on scale, you emphasize things like reach and frequency. Ideally you find a place where you can assault the maximum sized target the most possible times. You have to because that target is actively trying to avoid you. Thus, you have to give yourself maximum possible opportunities to interrupt. And when you successfully interrupt, you quickly tell the whole story. You tell the entire story in each and every ad. You want to make sure you don't miss anything the consumer may react to in a hope that they'll react to something.

Social Media is about helping people make buying decisions. It's based on invitation and aid. Because you're trying to help, you don't need a concept. You don't need to reward consumers for taking the time to read your tweet or post, because if you're doing it right -- they were looking for that post to begin with and are thankful you created it. While like advertising, social media would love to have scale -- scale isn't the goal. Influence is the goal. The more you have, the more likely you can help folks decide to buy what you're selling. And you rarely tell the whole story -- in fact in certain platforms like Twitter, telling the whole story isn't an option. So instead of telling the whole story in one sitting, you leave bread crumbs. Like Hansel and Gretel, you leave those bread crumbs in the right manner and consumers will ultimately find their way to your home. But I'll talk more about that idea in a post I'm crafting for next week.

So, in the meantime what do you think? Make sense?

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Are You A Conversation Starter?

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"I don't get Twitter. No one talks to me."

If I had a nickle for every time I heard that from a friend or client I could write this blog full time. ;-)

So often Twitter newbies fall into the trap of thinking that if they just show up, things will happen. It is understandable. If you follow the some of the more high profile Twitterati, you see lots of tweets and tons of @reply tweets from people talking to the person on Twitter. You see a ton of tweets from the Twitterati responding to others, helping others, answering questions and just having everyday "how are you Joe" kinds of conversations. They're the life of the party.

While at the same time, you're looking at your @reply column like a schoolgirl waiting for the phone to ring after meeting and falling all over her guy crush. And like that phone, the @reply alarm doesn't ring.

So what do you do?

There are lots of theories out there, many written by those far smarter than me, but here is my two cents - you can decide what it's worth.

Be a conversation starter. Don't wait to be talked to, go start talking. For the next couple of weeks, try some of these tactics:

• Those smart people you are following and reading -- ask them a smart, insightful question about a recent blog post they wrote or shared.
• See a tweet with a link and associated point-of-view you disagree with, politely engage the Tweeter in a little debate. Most of us welcome that kind of banter.
• Say good morning and hello to people you follow and who follow you. Nothing special, just a little tweet to say hello -- I see you -- you matter in my world and I'd love to chat today.
• RT those you follow when they share smart links, content and especially charitable causes. You'll usually get a thank you and an opp to engage further if you so choose to.
• Use Twitter search. Pick topics you care about and/or know something about. Then when you see folks you can help either directly or by RT'ing, do so. For instance, because I do a lot of professional speaking I have a constant search on Twitter for "looking for speaker." I often find folks that are looking for speakers for events I either can't do or am a poor match for...but I RT those tweets and ask my 7,000+ followers if any of them can help. Needless to say, it usually starts a conversation or at least gets a "THANKS" tweet.
• Get Twitter on your mobile. You'd be surprised how many times during the day you get five minutes and really don't have anything to do... if you have your mobile and a Twitter client, you can pop on, scan for peeps or conversations and jump in or just say hello.
• Go find TwitterChats and participate. I still think this is one of the best ways to meet and engage new people. I personally have made a number of good friends and contacts from this approach.

What it all boils down to IMHO is that Twitter used to be like a small town. Today it's far more like a large city. It's easy to get lost in a large city unless you join a club or find a neighborhood bar. So go find that club and bar on Twitter. You'll get a lot more out of Twitter and have a ton more fun.

But like I said, there are lots of thoughts on this subject. What do you think? What is your silver Twitter bullet to engage in more conversations?

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Image via Wikipedia

Today's Thirsty Thursday of Knowledge - QR vs 2D Codes

I've been on a bit of a QR Code kick this week, but I just had to share this recent find. When I talk to folks about QR codes they usually have three issues.

1. Their ugly and creative types really don't want to muck up their ads with them - especially if the industry is brand image driven
2. They don't work on every phone (you need a smart phone)
3. They require extra software on the phone - you have to download an app first

These are all valid points and worthy of discussion and consideration. In fact, it was that desire to think through these points that led me to an internet search that led me to today's Thirsty Thursday of Knowledge find.

JagTag is a different kind of QR code. Like a QR code you need a phone with a camera but unlike QR, JagTag will work on ANY phone with a camera and you don't need to download any special apps. That's because JagTag actually just takes a picture of the QR code and then you text that photo to a special text code.

The upside is that the JagTag 2D code is pretty much universally readable.I mean even my grandma's cell phone has a camera in it. And pretty much everyone knows how to text. BUT - unlike QR codes, JagTag requires a two step process and a bit of explanation. So to use them you'd need the 2D image and then a line of text explaining to the user that they need to take a picture of the image and then text it to 55555 (or whatever # you use) provided your on AT&T or Verizon. Not sure why the example above doesn't work on Sprint, T-Mobile, etc. Maybe the folks at JagTag will stop by and explain that to us.

To see one in action, just take a picture of the JagTag at the top of this post and follow the directions. You can also see examples of it being used in advertising, POS, etc. by clicking here.  Check out the Ford example to see one in an actual ad. I have to admit, doesn't look half bad.

So what do you think? Is this better or worse than QR? Whatcha think?

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Put Down That Mouse and Go Meet Someone

Last week my good friend Tim Hayden was in town. Over drinks and dinner we caught up and as usual, I was astounded by how good he is at getting meetings with prospect companies. I mean, really great companies. The kind we'd all like to know and work with one day. So of course, I asked for his secret sauce. Wait for it......

Get offline.

That's it. His secret sauce advice was that if you're wanting to meet people that need help people with their digital strategy stop being virtual and start being physical.

Now I'm sure there is more to his success than just that... I think he's just damn good at networking, but his comment is one we should all take to heart. It's a great reminder that while you really can get to know folks online in places like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, as well as by reading/commenting on their blog, there is just something special about meeting IRL. It gives you a sense of the person and an opportunity to form a bond. And I'm not just talking about prospecting for business... I'm talking about building and nuturing that network of friends, associates and supporters that are so important in life. Believe me, I found out in August 2005 how important a network can be to surviving a catastrophic life event.

So today, do yourself a favor. Put down the mouse (unless of course you're using it to book a plane ticket to go meet people in real life) and go out and invest in your network by meeting folks for real.

Luckily for me, Tim wasn't the only one suggesting that real life is real powerful, so my plane ticket is already booked. That's right, next week I'll be popping over to Birmingham, AL just for the hell of it. I'm going to catch up with the great crowd I met at Social South last year: Mack Collier, Jamie (I'll pick you up at the airport in the Tesla) Sandford, Scott Schablow, Stacey Hood, Ike Piggot and I hope a host of others.

Why Birmingham you might ask? Well if that list of smarties up there isn't reason enough, Southwest had a ding fare so the flight was dirt cheap. Which by the way, is a great use of Ding Fares from Southwest. Pick a city you want to go to and meet up with your online buddies IRL and then when it goes on sale, ping your buddies on Twitter to do a quick scheduling of something and book it. That's how my trip came about and frankly, think it is going to be one of the best ones of the summer.

So that's what I'm going to do... what about you? Are you going to keep hiding behind that mouse or go out and meet folks the old fashioned way? Let me know.

And hey, if you enjoyed this post or you just want to hear about my great trip to Birmingham, please consider subscribing so you can have posts from this blog sent directly to your eMail in box. And don't worry, I'll never share your email with anyone and I don't send anything but blog posts... because that's not what your here for right?