Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

I wanted to give a shout out to the podcast Marketing Over Coffee . In this weekly podcast, Christopher Penn and John Wall discuss online marketing, social media and tech trends. The podcasts are short (under 30 minutes) and I always learn something new. I like listening to them on my way to work to help get me mentally pumped for the day.

Are there any marketing podcasts you like to listen to?

I will admit, if you are a company, it's really hard to get me to follow you on Twitter or sign-up for emails, let alone tell someone else to follow or email you. Like everyone else I am bombarded and inundated with digital marketing, most of which are irrelevant to me. Two fairly new concepts that I not only happily follow, but also recommend to people are Groupon and Twongo. They are on the elite list of the few sites I visit daily.

Similar to Woot!, both websites provide a crazy good deal for a limited amount of time, usually a gift certificate sold at 50% or less of face value. Twongo has the added bonus of being based on the Chinese concept of Tuango, where the more people that buy the deal, the more they save.

Groupon and Twongo both focus on local small businesses. Groupon is available in many cities and is only a recent additional to the Triangle and Twongo solely focuses on Triangle area. I would tell every small business owner to partner with one of these sites. There have been several businesses that I would never had tried or even heard of if they weren't featured on these sites.

Why these sites work? Aside from the obvious price discount there is a good lesson here for all marketers. These sites are highly targeted, updated with relevant content and create a sense of urgency and immediate call to action. Twongo's additional concept of the more people buy, the more they save encourages word of mouth promotion, which is a difficult even under the best circumstances.

Are your marketing efforts are timely, relevant, targeted and promote word of mouth dissemination?

I probably would not have my current position at Capstrat if it weren't for Twitter. How did I achieve this magical and mystical feat, especially in this economy where the odds of getting a new job seem akin to winning the lottery?

First, I made the very conscious decision to leverage Twitter to promote myself and my personal brand through Tweeting about marketing, branding, social media mixed with some local and fun things. Secondly, I started to follow and engage with local companies and influential marketing people by RTing and responding to their tweets. Finally, the most important component, I went to A LOT of in person networking events where I could meet these people IRL (in real life). Since they already "knew" me on Twitter, I found it to be much easier to talk and engage with them in person and I became known by my Twitter name (@mbagrrl). In addition, going to these events, I would meet people IRL first and then they we would start following each other and expanding our networks. Along the way I met a lot of smart interesting Tweeps that I maintain professional and personal relationships. Cord Silverstein was one of those people. We met through my RTing and responding to @Capstrat and then eventually met in person. When a position became available that matched my skillset with Capstrat's needs, I was top on the list for an interview. I still had to rock the interview and dazzle them with my marketing knowledge, but I would not have gotten in the door without Twitter.

However, a word of caution, in my social media endeavors I was always open, transparent, and genuine. If you are not prepared to represent yourself or your brand accurately, you are not ready for social media.

So there you have it, real life proof you can get a job on Twitter.

The options for social media seem endless nowadays. The ability to connect with the broader world - as well as the groups you really care about - is becoming easier each day. Every new device we get comes loaded and geared for making just those types of connections. But as pervasive as they are, as much as they are part of my everyday life and those I interact with, I can't take for granted everyone cares or even understands.

I recently tried to convince a client to run targeted ads on facebook to support a public affairs project. My thinking was this is part of the suite of services we should be using for this project. Their response was this is not relevant. The connection seemed so obvious and targeted, how could they not see this? But, digging a little deeper I find out they're not using facebook. Matter of fact, they've never even seen it in use. So instead of convincing them about the benefits of facebook and other social media, I am now offering an introduction to social media.

The point is they - and many of our contacts - are very busy people. Their work continues as it has for many years, regardless of blogging, facebook ads and fan pages, or Tweeting. Sometimes it's not about communicating the value of a specific tool from the social media toolkit. Instead, it's communicating what social media is and why it is valuable.

As options and the number of sites continues to grow in a seemingly exponential way, maybe it is time to dial back the clock and reassess what people really understand about what we think everyone already knows. This was a great learning experience for me because it reminded me that we need to not only think about what's next, but help ensure the people we touch know what's here.

Twitter is a part of my daily life - work and play. So is "The Associated Press Stylebook."

The AP  announced today on Twitter that they will be providing assistance to folks with style questions.

For me, this is a big deal. Oftentimes, the AP Stylebook isn't clear on some items. So all I have to do is send a tweet and include the hashtag #apstyle and my question will be answered.

Beautiful... 

BTW, I'm @Lilyn on Twitter.

L. 

 

OK, so I waited a loooooooong time before writing about my thoughts on Adobe's $1.8B acquisition of web analytics vendor, Omniture. I've probably missed the boat on saying anything groundbreaking, but I've wanted to espouse my beliefs ever since it was announced.

I've worked a ton with Omniture over the last 3 plus years and even interviewed with them for some positions recently, so when this showed up over the wire, people were peppering me with questions on what this means. So...I'll try to explore what I think it means and hopefully somewhere in here I have something that somebody else hasn't mentioned before.

Adobe?

This was the hardest piece to figure out at first. It seemed like it came out of left field. I always thought that it might make more sense for a company like SAP, Interwoven/Autonomy, or IBM to be the one to buy Omniture and integrate with their web platforms to create a seamless web ecosystem, where the content and the presentation of that content is based on the data being collected. Think of the Amazon model, where you come to the site and it 'knows' about you and suggests things based on behavior. That isn't done through magic. It's all web analytics and algorithms. Ok, and a little magic thrown in. So for an IBM, you'd throw Omniture on top of Websphere and all of a sudden you have a decision engine integrated with a web platform. Web personalization and delivery become a little easier.

But once I thought about it for a while, Adobe started to make more sense. Adobe wants Omniture so tracking of Flash and rich media becomes common place and tightly integrated. Tracking Flash applications today is not exactly the easiest thing in the world. Once you get the hang of it is not terribly difficult, but imagine if it was already in there out of the box with a few checkboxes to click to turn on. All of a sudden you have can track all the wonderful interactions inside of Flash. Here is something I learned a long time ago, if you can see how things work from a measurement perspective you end up doing more of it and do it smarter/better. The easier it is to track interactive media, the better the end products of marketers and web designers.

I'll give you a simplified view...one of the reasons Google Analytics exists is to drive more Paid Search and Banner ads. Why? Because if you can measure the effectiveness of these tactics you'll end up spending more to drive it. Google gives it away with hopes that it gives you a view into your online campaigns so you do more of them. I am thinking some of the same characteristics exist with this deal. If you can see what is happening with Flash or other Adobe applications, you'll use them more.

Optimization is key

A lot of folks might only use Omniture's SiteCatalyst and not realize that Omniture has bought a ton of technology over the years in the realm of optimization. In fact, over the last year they viewed themselves as an optimization platform, not a web analytics vendor. The notion is that you can leverage the huge amounts of data collected to determine what gets presented to visitors of a site. Behavioral targeting and personalization are possible using some of these tools as they utilize the reams of data to dictate the content, images, messaging, color, whatever you want. A/B and multivariate testing are part of the solution to designing better web sites as well as recommending content or products to visitors who have exhibited certain behaviors either on this visit or on previous encounters. Its pretty awesome stuff and a marketers dream. This is where the web is heading in a big way.

So...take it again into Flash or other rich media applications. All of a sudden you can have Omniture's Test & Target/TouchClarity platform underneath the application to generate different versions of content based on behaviors. This could be used on site as well as in off-site rich media banners for demand generation, especially around retargeting or different messaging based on what site you are on. Imagine if that was all integrated into the tools so you didn't have to think about it, you just come up with the content (no small task mind you). And you track it.

All of a sudden the applications become somewhat self-learning and the content more revelant for the visitors. I am oversimplifying, but I think you get the idea. The Omniture piece creates the feedback mechanism that drives the content through Flash.

Different Businesses

Unlike a lot of mergers where there is often cross-over with businesses and the deal is just to grow market-share, this is a deal that really broadens Adobe's business. Not much overlap with what Omniture does and what Adobe typically does. Theoretically, Omniture will benefit from Adobe's funding and software expertise.

Concerns

My biggest fear is that being owned by a particular web platform will mess up Omniture's agnostic view of web applications. For example, will Omniture devote as much time to figuring out how to track Silverlight applications now that its owned by the guys that create Flash? 

Will all the guys that have built up Omniture over the last decade jump ship and Adobe runs it into the ground? I've seen it all too often where a company buys another and all the talent eventually flees or the integration doesn't really fit because of cultural differences. Time will tell.

Implications

As I mentioned before, in theory this might help bring web analytics more into the mainstream as I would imagine this might get embedded inside of all of Adobe's software so that tracking is common place and not an IT exercise. I got to thinking though, if that happens doesn't that open up the door for some level of free web analytics? If it's in the tools, would you have to pay for an Omniture license or is it out of the box? And in that case, does it create different versions of Omniture SiteCatalyst where you have the free bare-bones one that comes with Flash, Dreamweaver, etc, or a pimped-out enterprise version that does everything and costs you something. Is that the way to compete with Google on this? And by being free with the tools, does that grow the usage of Adobe products? 

It's possible that Adobe isn't going to integrate it with their products so maybe the above never becomes an issue, but I sort of think integration makes the most logical sense. 

So...there you have my thoughts on the situation. What are your thoughts? Did I overlook something? Am I crazy/delusional?

 

 

Cities across the USA actively compete to host mega events and conventions like the Super Bowl, national political conventions, National Championships and even conventions as obscure as Knitter Nirvana, which bills itself as the world's largest knitting convention drawing 1,500 every year.

All of these events promise exposure beyond your wildest dreams, thousands of visitors, sold out hotels and restaurants and positive economic impact for the host city coffers.

But what does the G-20 really do for a city in our nation's rust belt like Pittsburgh? Here is a sampling of recent headlines:

Pittsburgh braces for more clashes at G-20 summit – Associated Press

As G-20 opens, some Pittsburgh businesses close - CNN

Consensus and Protest at G-20 – Washington Post

Protesters target G-20 summit – LA Times

I think you get the idea. I just hope the city of Pittsburgh knows what it signed up for.

Have you ever wondered how many unknown geniuses came before Einstein? Or how many Elvis Presley's out-danced and out-sang the star in the privacy of their own homes? How many explorers "discovered" America before Columbus?

The truth of the matter is, there have been many "greats" that came before the people that we regard as legends. These individuals were never "discovered" or properly recognized for their talents or contributions; they somehow got lost in the crowd and probably ended up wistfully shaking their heads at the news while thinking, "I thought of that years ago."

These unsung heroes were not recognized because of a lack of resources or outlets to share what they possessed, whether it be talent or information. In the end, self-promotion through effective communication and exposure is what led to the reverence that many such as Einstein, Elvis and Columbus receive today.

Luckily, social media is opening up a brand new, accessible venue for individuals to share what they've got. Last week, a star was born in Australian computer programmer Anthony Wesley. While partaking in his frequent hobby of stargazing, Wesley became intrigued by a large spot on Jupiter that he had not previously seen. He said he immediately recognized its significance and he uploaded images of the planet onto Flickr, a popular photo-managing social media site that allows one to share images with the world.

With his $400 telescope, Wesley was the first to make the ground-breaking discovery of an Earth-sized scar caused by an asteroid or comet collision to the planet. He is now being revered by NASA and astronomers around the world. The once unknown computer programmer is now the first result in a Google search of his name. Wesley is describing his discovery as a dream come true.

Social media is allowing many individuals to gain the fame and fortune that they only dream of. YouTube has served as an open karaoke stage for many singers who have been signed by huge record labels. Soulja Boy, a platinum-selling hip-hop artist from Atlanta, was discovered through the social networking site in 2007. Many others have been discovered through the site, including Canadian YouTube sensation, Justin Bieber, who is on his own rise to fame after being signed to a record label this year.

Whether you're an aspiring writer, singer, dancer, amateur astronomer or circus clown, there is no longer a reason to not be recognized for your talents. Social media is an accessible resource for everyone and by sharing your talents with the world, you could be the next big discovery.