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

Is Social Media Making It Cool To Be Square? - Thirsty Thursday of Knowledge

Is social media and social media marketing making it cool for brands to be square?

Personally I've always favored horizontal logos -- they just work better in ads, letterhead, etc. They're easier to place, etc. But now with social media, I'm wondering, should brands favor square logos instead?

I always admired the folks up at Landor for how they approach logo creation. They seek to understand the "power application" - the place where the logo will be seen the most or work the hardest. For instance, when they redid the NY Stock Exchange logo, they realized that the power application was the banners that hang from the ceiling and are seen on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, etc. So they decided that the logo had to work first and foremost in that application. All other applications were secondary. (At least that is how I remember the presentation which was a few years ago -- if anyone from Landor is reading and I got it wrong, please say so)

So, using Landor's Power Application approach, has Social Media become powerful enough to rise to a power application for some brands? Most brands? And if so, should logos be designed to work first and foremost as avatars living in an 80x80 world?

What do you think?

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More Thirsty Thursday Posts are Here

photo credit:  vonSchnauzer

 

Using Social Media To Get a Job

Last week I had the chance to address the American Marketing Association Collegiate Conference here in New Orleans. As I've done twice before, I shared my thoughts and tips for job hunting in the hyper-competive advertising world. This year I added a bit more content about the pros/cons of using Social Media to connect with people and companies that can hire recent college graduates.

I promised the students I'd create a slidecast and post it here so they could revisit the talk and/or share it with friends, professors and college placement offices.

After reviewing the deck, I'd also add, this isn't just appropriate for college graduates, it's pretty much appropriate for anyone on the hunt for a job. But as I always say, that's just my 02, you tell me what you'd add, delete or suggest to make this post more valuable for job hunters.

Hope you found a bit of value. And if you're interested, here are a few other social media marketing presentations I've given.

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Does Your Destination Have An Edifice Complex?

When you're thinking about going to a destination, what's more important, the look of a place or the experience you're going to have in that place?

Today I saw this tweet in my stream and clicked on it. Not because I wanted to go on a swamp tour, but because I was interested to see how New Orleans was marketing these tours.

 

There was a day when just having a web presence was enough - you loaded it with pretty pictures, great copy and in general, created a digital version of the vacation guide you'd been producing and shipping for decades. There was a day when you sold the surroundings. In my hotel/resort marketing days we called it the Edifice Complex. Brands always wanted to feature their building, their resort, their beach.

But today, everyone has a web presence. And with broadband, YouTube, MTV and Flash, we consumers have become more demanding of our web. We're just not that impressed with animated Gif's anymore, hero shots of resorts, and beauty shots of beaches. We know it's all been photoshopped anyways.

As you can see, the page the Tweet above links to gives you a nice photo, good copy, and a rather long list of Swamp Tour companies around New Orleans. It's very functional. It's very rational. But it doesn't really tug on those heart strings and honestly, having been on swamp tours, it kind of undersells them.

It doesn't really give you is an idea of what the heck a swamp tour experience is really like.

If you've never been on a Swamp Tour, it's actually kind of fun. Like any tour, the operator of your boat plays a HUGE role in how much fun it is, how educational it is and in general, is THE differentiator.

Most importantly though, swamp tours are actually pretty active. You get to hold a baby alligator, you get to watch as the guide feeds alligators right off the boat and other such things. If you've got young kids, it's really a treat.

But if you've never been on a tour, how does a destination expect you to understand that? Instead of using static images and text, why not take the time to create a YouTube video -- sort of a movie trailer for a swamp tour. The one below was obviously shot by a tourist, but give it a gander and ask yourself, would my kid find that exciting? Go ahead, I'll wait.

Vacations are dynamic, experience filled times of our lives. And with the economy the way it is, we destination marketers are fighting harder for a shrinking pie. Thus, it's imperative (in my opinion) that we virtually immerse our prospective consumer in our experience via social marketing in hopes of puppy dog selling them into wanting that virtual experience to become a real one. 

Obviously, I've only shown one example of what can be done... I'm certain that I'm likely missing a ton more... maybe you can help with that and share a few examples of great immersive marketing approaches that you've done/seen lately?

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You're Invited to Mardi Gras -- My Vweet

Time for another fun social media experiment. Back in 2009, we found out that social media can change brand perception via my Mardi Gras Twitter Experiment. Then last year we found out that social media can positively enhance intent to purchase. [email me if you want to see those results]

So what are we going to learn this year?

Well this year we're going to do a total technology play. You see in 2009 I live tweeted Mardi Gras, so this year, I'm going to try and live vweet (live mobile video coverage) Mardi Gras. Using Ustream's iPhone app, I'm going to see what we can come up with and if you'll find it interesting enough to watch, return and most importantly, tell others about.

You can watch all my live video coverage of Mardi Gras and I'm going to be tweeting Mardi Gras photos too.

I'd love for you to follow along -- to be notified each time we go live just follow Mardi Gras Live on Twitter. It will be sort of like the hot donuts light at Krispy Kreme only less fattening. Well, at least for y'all.

Then via Twitter, here on this blog or on Converse Digital's Live Mardi Gras coverage page, leave a little comment to let me know what you like, don't like or suggestions for things you'd like me to try and do between now and Fat Tuesday.

Laissez les bon temps roulez!

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Thirsty Thursday of Knowledge - Social Networking edition

Someone once asked me why I speak -- publicly that is. They wondered if it was for the money, the travel or "the notoriety?" And truth be told, all of those are great side benefits of doing a good deal of public speaking. But the real reason....

I'm here.

And you're there.

And really, it's that simple. By doing the speaking thing I get to travel around the world meeting you and others like you. Best of all, when you speak and it get's published locally in the market you'll be traveling to, lots of the local social media types will find and begin to follow you. So you get to "meet" them before you land.

Just yesterday this happened to me. I'm due to speak at Social Media Club of Dallas on April 21. A local social media person in Dallas that I had never crossed paths with saw it, looked me up and followed me. When I got the notification email, I did the same... and guess what? He's pretty friggin smart. A couple of quick DM's later and I've got a "date" to say hello before or after the speaking gig. So I've made a new connection, found a really helpful new blog, and my world is a little bit richer... all in exchange for a day of my time.

Think about it... you can do so much networking on on Twitter and other social networks, but if you really want to leverage social media networking... you gotta get face-to-face.

Maybe being a social media speaker isn't your thing... that's cool. Find something that is your thing. Create an excuse to go out an interview social media thoughtleaders or whatever your industry is about. Then create a blog where you post those thought leader interviews. It's an excellent opportunity for you to make great connections, learn something AND give folks a reason to connect with you. Win - Win - Win.

Think about it... then tell me how YOU are going to do a better job of social networking this year... ok?

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5 Reasons Twitter Sucks For Customer Service

There I wrote it. That's right... when you stop and think about it, Twitter really sucks for customer service.

And that's coming from a guy who has written in the past about how to use social media to recover from a customer service disaster. Or how companies have successfully used Twitter to deliver a better customer service experience. Yes I, like many of you, am a huge beliver in and user of Twitter as a customer service tool. I rarely call 1-800 numbers any more, instead I just find the company on Twitter and tweet them. It usually works. So why am I now writing this?

Yesterday Matt Ridings wrote this great post about how social media is changing business as we know it. And I quote:

            It's A Business Revolution

Yes, this is a revolution, but it's a business revolution not a social media revolution.  Social media has led us down the yellow brick road and opened the curtain to expose the weaknesses in our business structures.  It has helped us frame the proper questions, but now it's back in the hands of the wizard to find the answers.  We are now challenged with how to make our businesses flex and adapt to this new age much like the Wizard of Oz when he was exposed and forced to think of new ways to get Dorothy home .

And it struck me, he's absolutely right.

The need for better customer service has always been there and consumers' desire for great customer service isn't going anywhere. And that's one of the "revolutions" of which he speaks. (Matt, if I got it wrong, let me know in the comments.)

Consumers don't need, and I'd dare say want, Twitter as a Customer Service tool. They just want customer service, and right now, the place their getting it is on Twitter...so they flock.

But honestly, I can think of at least 5 reasons why Twitter sucks as a customer service tool vs phone/email.

1. It's 140 characters long. That's great for "dude, who moved my cheese" but for those of us that have slightly more intricate issues, the 140 character limit makes it harder, not easier, to lodge our complaint.
2. You have to be on Twitter to get a response. There is no built in way to get notified of the response from the company... so Twitter Customer Service is actually more of a pull vs push system. Inherently more difficult.
3. It's impossible for the company Customer Service Rep to hand me off to someone that can solve my problem without breaking the paper trail. As a customer, I'd always like to have a paper trail. Paper trails are easy with something like eMail. The representative just emails me that they are handing me off and cc's the new person. Presto -- the conversation continues and I have every contact in a single, neatly organized, time/date stamped place.
4. It's public -- or at least the first tweet is public. So that means the customer risks looking like a whiner and the company is guaranteed at least one negative sentiment tweet that day. As a company, wouldn't you rather keep this kind of stuff behind the scenes vs public?
5. Not everyone is on Twitter. In fact, I think I saw something yesterday that said it was like 7% of the US online population is active on Twitter. I don't have the exact stats of phone/email penetration in the US, but I'm guessing I'm safe in assuming it's pretty much higher than the Twitter penatration.

I could go on, but you get the point.

Customer Service is much better delivered via email or phone. Yet, we turn to Twitter because companies have done a poor job of making that email/phone channel work for us. But, if companies would devote attention and resources to making the "Help@Brand.com" a more real-time response tool or add more operators (preferably ones we can understand) to handle their customer service lines, ask yourself if you'd still prefer to tweet your problem/issue or just email/pick up the phone?

But that's just me... the opinionated social media consultant that likes a debate... what do you think?

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photo credit: by y2bk