To date, the Insights have been underwhelming.  They have covered only the most basic information, and as somebody who works with big brands to engage and guide the community, I’ve got to say they have been less than helpful.  It seems that all of that changes today, however.  Facebook has announced “Facebook for Web Sites” and have already published full documentation about it.  The insight to user behavior should be interesting, as Facebook says:

“Once your app is up-and-running, you can get detailed analytics about the demographics of your users and how users are sharing from your application with Insights.

Insights supports analytics broken down by application and by domain. The product includes rich data about users sharing content from your site within Facebook no matter where those shares originated. For example, if a user puts a URL from your site in their Facebook status message, that data is included in the analytics for your domain.

The data from Insights is also included in the Graph API so you can integrate the Facebook analytics data with your own, in-house analytics systems.”

You can read some good commentaries over at Read Write Web and All Facebook. I’m not a developer, so it’s a bit early for me to really speculate on the implications of all of this.  I am a marketer, and the implications for this are exciting.  Having access to more granular user data (for example, being able to see what happens to a wall post after it is shared) is exciting and helpful.  It will allow me to do my job far more effectively, and will help me to predict future user behavior more easily, as opposed to just looking backward at what they have done.  Privacy groups are already crying foul (which is no surprise, the tiniest change in Facebook evokes this reaction), so we’ll see how it all plays out.

I think this is the first of many steps that Facebook will take to solidify itself as the premier destination, not just for users, but also for brands.

If you want to watch the video of F8, you can do so on the Facebook page. So what do you think…is this a step in the right direction, or a slippery slope toward invasion of privacy?

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If you aren’t familiar with Foursquare, it’s a service that sprung up last year and has really hit the scene (at least the geek/tech scene) with fervor this year.  I’ve been a fan of it for some time, going as far as to call it the “next” social network way back in October 2009. So today is a day of virtual celebration for all of the mayors, checker-inners and social media geeks, it’s April 16th! (Get it? Four squared is 16….4/16…..)

There are a few things that make today that special day, but one of them is a new badge, just for this occasion.  Today only, when you check in to your favorite local haunt, make sure you give a shout out to Foursquare Day and include the hashtag #4sqday…you’ll be rewarded by unlocking the cool new badge that tells the world you are an uber-geek.

Foursquare themselves talked about it on their blog, and naturally there is a website that aggregates conversations from Twitter that mention #4sqday, and finally there is the official #4sqday Twitter account that is chatting up the festivities.

So what are you waiting for? Check in (if you don’t have the app you can get it here, available for iPhone, Android and Blackbery), give a shout-out in your checking using #4sqday and then add me as a friend so we can keep up.

Happy Foursquare Day!

An RFP is a “request for proposal”.  People at various levels of responsibility that work at marketing and creative agencies get a lot of these, and they are usually at the last minute.  When multiple agencies are working in unison to try to piece something together for a client, well…it gets a little crazy.  Countless hours of phone calls and a seemingly endless stream of emails begin, all trying to put together a presentation deck (a PowerPoint), taking up dozens or hundreds of labor hours.  As this video mentions at one point, it’s likely that the client won’t even open it. I love the computer-voice line ”we may only send you one idea, since the decks we send you, you never even open”, hahaha!

If you live in a world of RFPs, please take a moment from the current deck you are working on and watch this.  You’ll thank me.

There have been a couple of times that I was alarmed by what people are capable of thinking or doing.  A few years ago I started getting anonymous comments on various videos of my children, asking me to pose them in certain ways or have them do certain things.  Naturally I deleted all traces of the videos online (yes it is possible) and became very aware of what I was posting after that.  Although I was always careful to never name them or reveal the location of my children even before this incident, I became very protective after that and have been quite conscious of what I would and would not publish.  Over the years I have become more widely known because of my marketing and social media work, and although I’m certainly a small fish in a big pond, I do have a lot of connections with people that I’ve never met face to face.

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade my social media life.  I’ve turned so many of my digital-first relationships into real-life relationships, and I love social media and the way it connects the world. But, and there is always a but…

I’m closing up my personal Facebook profile, restricting it to only people I know in real life.

I was going to post this earlier in the week, but as I was proofing the draft, I skipped over to my blog reader and was quite surprised to see that one of the greats in social media, Darren Rowse the ProBlogger, announced pretty much the same thing.  It’s an excellent article, you can read it here, but it left me thinking that this was the right move for me.  Darren has a much larger audience than I do (and he deserves it!), so pointing people over to his Facebook Fan Page yielded some pretty good results.  The very next day on Twitter I saw that my friend Jessica Gottlieb was doing the same thing…purging Facebook.

Honestly, the announcement of my personal Facebook page going private isn’t big news.  I’m writing this because I am looking at this as perhaps more of a renewing of the line between public and private lives globally.  The pendulum tends to swing in trends…we went from very private (no internet access) to very public (ChatRoulette) and I think we’re going to start seeing a swing back to the private.  It’s not going to go back to total segregation however…I see a hybrid emerging, especially for social media professionals.

I’m closing up my Facebook profile and unfriending people that I don’t personally know…but honestly encouraging them to join me on my fan page.  And yes, I hate the term fan page…who am I that somebody would become a fan? I wish it were worded differently.  But it’s not, so that is what I will develop over time.  I had a conversation with somebody about this today, and they initially said something along the lines of “nice knowing you”, meaning that our digital connection was being cut.  On the contrary, I replied…I really think I’ll be engaging people a lot more with this move. My current Facebook status is automatically updated from my Twitter feed, so it’s actually not all that personal to begin with.  Twitter is still probably the best way to connect with me, but I’m not going to send it over to Facebook anymore; not to my personal or my public page.  We’ll see how it goes.

Hopefully now the separation of worlds will make more sense.  When my Aunt writes on my wall and asks how my mom is, half of my friends won’t wonder what she’s talking about.  When an online friend starts talking to me about HTML5 vs. Flash, half of my friends won’t wonder what he’s talking about.  And out of all of it, I think I can start putting up pictures of my children, and my friends from high school can comment on what good looking kids they are….because they really are good looking kids!

Thanks for understanding! I would love it if you would join me on my public Facebook page (I’m going to be careful to not call it a fan page), and if you have been thinking about this separation of public and private lives, I would love to hear about it in the comments or on Twitter. Or even on my new f** page.  ;)

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Did you enjoy this post? Consider subscribing to the RSS for future updates delivered straight to a feed reader, or come over to Twitter and say hi…that is where I do most of my one-on-one engagement

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Bathroom photo used under Creative Commons from Brymo

Earlier today, the very large, very well known UK mobile company Vodafone posted an incredibly inappropriate tweet on their official company Twitter account.  It said VodafoneUK  ”is fed up of dirty homo’s and is going after beaver“.

Ummm….

Needless to say, this is not something that any company would want published on their behalf.  I don’t know if Vodafone runs their social programs through an agency or internally, but either way it’s obvious that there was a breakdown of protocol.  I suspect one of two probable scenarios that would lead to something like this.  First, it’s possible that it is a disgruntled employee that was either on their way out the door already or was ready to be fired, because certainly somebody is getting disciplined for this.  Second, and what I think is more likely, is that a single dashboard was being used (perhaps something like CoTweet) to update business and personal accounts.

They responded in what I think is the best possible way: acknowledging it and apologizing profusely all day long on their Twitter account.  Many companies would be tempted to delete the tweet and then pretend it never happened, refusing to reply to anybody that pointed it out.  I’m glad Vodafone has taken this approach, but I also hope they will tell us how the “severe breach of rules” happened so that all of us can learn from this mistake.

Community managers take note: be extremely careful with your updates, and don’t mix up your personal and corporate updates!

In this day and age of social media people can, and do, often write and publish opinion as if it were fact. As I write this, I still do not know if McDonald’s does officially sponsor the rodeo or not, but I have reached out to them for comment. Taking a step back, to so broadly describe the rodeo as racist because of one person’s obviously emotional blog post is, in my opinion, a mistake. Social Media allows anybody to publish anything at anytime. Most people that do this have small audiences, but some, like Ms. Trunk, actually get a pretty big following. I don’t know where the breaking point is, but certainly it must be acknowledged that at a certain point a person does have a certain amount of social responsibility when they have such a large audience.She writes and gives business advice to Generation Y, and is widely held as an expert on many subjects. I think all of that is wonderful, and I wish her nothing but the best. However, the regurgitation of opinion framed to decry racism on Martin Luther King Jr. Day without doing any diligence or getting any facts from those accused is simply wrong. It is the digital equivalent of lighting the torches and storming Frankenstein’s castle…only in this case the monster is a large corporation. Racism is, in my opinion, often spread by fear and hatred, with very little room for facts or personal understanding. When I apply that same measure against Ms. Trunk’s charge to “do an act of activism” and “each Twitter today: @McDonalds Racism is not okay and neither is hate. Please stop your support of the All-Star Rodeo”, I see that she is spreading fear and hatred, with very little room for facts or personal understanding. I hate seeing such spurious activism being propagated through social media…already many people have tweeted that message, but I am guessing than none of them have done any fact checking.

I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what happened. I do know that racism happens every day in this country and all around the world, and it should not be tolerated. I also believe that posts like this actually hurt the effort to bring true change and healing to our country as it relates to race.

Penelope Trunk’s blog has over 60k unique visitors, and that is where social media and responsibility come into play. With one tweet, she not only tied McDonald’s to racism and hate, but also asked others to do the same…all without checking with a single person from McDonald’s or the rodeo as to what the facts are. I run social media programs for some of the largest and most widely recognized brands in the world, and I was incensed by her lack of professionalism or follow-up. It seems that these days it is far easier to incite anger and hate than it is to educate and understand a problem. I know that Ms. Trunk has subscribed to this theory also, at least in the past. In her post from August 2007 she says:

“But this is what I know: The core to stopping racism is to understand it, and then trust the understanding. That’s how we can be ready to call out racism as something wrong when we need to.”

I believe that also…I believe in understanding. However, throwing around accusations and then asking your followers to do the same does not promote understanding, it propagates misunderstanding and confusion.  I believe that the idea behind the message that racism will not be tolerated is spot on, but the delivery was inappropriate.

How does this tie into social media? For me it is very simple and can be summed up in just a couple of words: responsibility and accountability. Now that social media allows us to spread a message around the world with just a few key strokes, all people…authors, tweeters and retweeters, should consider what they are publishing before they do, especially when something is as charged as accusations of racism. I would strongly encourage all to do some research before they put “publish”.

I want to let you know that I did reach out to McDonald’s, the All-Star Rodeo and to Penelope Trunk. My efforts took a total of fewer than 10 minutes, but 10 minutes well spent. I wasn’t able to get in touch with anybody personally at McDonald’s, although I did find facts on their corporate website about how sponsorships and fundraising are handled. They say, “It’s important to know that approximately 85 percent of our restaurants are individually owned and operated by private business people. The decision to provide local sponsorship or donations is up to the individual franchise owner.” I have not heard back from Ms. Trunk yet, if she responds to my email I will certainly make a note of that here. The All-Star Rodeo did get back to me and sent quite a long email explaining their stance on the situation:

“All Star Rodeo Challenge was not sponsored by McDonalds it was raising money for the Ronald McDonald House Charity through autograph bandana sales at our Cowboys for Kids Pre Show of which 100% went to the Charity. Our cowboys and personnel went to local hospitals to visit sick children and brighten their day for no financial gain. In fact we raised over $15,000 for the Charity last year. In 2008 we worked with the Deanna Favre Hope Foundation and raised over $150,000 for women in Wisconsin for treatment of breast cancer. We as an organization always try to work with a charity in each market to give back to the community… We also believe in the First Amendment and freedom of speech. We believe you (referring to Penelope Trunk) have a right to your opinion, but also believe that does not necessarily make it true…many misrepresentations were made with no consideration of the truth.”

My point here is a simple: personal opinion is good…and publishing it online is great! Activism is what will continue to evolve our communities and countries into places where anybody, regardless of race, gender or religion, can thrive. Social media can be a great place to bring attention to problems…but if you are going to be making a stand, make sure that you have your facts in line before you hit the publish button.

Imagine then what social media would be like if Facebook decided to keep their community confined to college students only.  What if Twitter really did make you answer the question “what are you doing?” and excluded external links, retweets and other crowd-sourced behavior? The reason that social media is the way is it today is because Twitter and Facebook, along with countless other services, adopted to the powerful voice of the crowd. They didn’t let pride or “what they knew to be true” hold them back from making smart, and undoubtedly difficult, business decisions.  Embracing the crowd is always challenging, it means you lose a certain amount of control…and to many that is a scary proposition.

Do you remember Tower Records?  I recall going into one of their stores in Sacramento, California with my cousin in the ’80s.  I was blown away by the massive selection of tapes and CDs and thought that it was the greatest music source on the planet. Apparently, so did they; so much so that they refused to change their business model at all as the ‘trend’ of digital music exploded.  It’s not difficult to understand their outcome: they ended up filing bankruptcy and closing all of their stores, the name later being bought by an unrelated group that now distributes digitally online.  Tower Records refused to embrace the crowd, instead stubbornly pushing forward their own way. Tower Records died.

I previously consulted a company that had created what I would consider to be a game changing service, but it was lacking one thing: the crowd.  I won’t get into details, but this service was teed up perfectly to embrace the crowd, to allow people outside of the company to quickly and easily share information provided by the service.  My recommendation to include and champion social media was considered and then put into cold storage.  What was once a front-page news story is now no more than a mention in articles that talk about similar services that do actually allow the crowd to participate.

My point here is simple…the crowd is powerful.  It is you and me, and we now have a voice.  We don’t just want the ability to share your products and services with our friends and others within our sphere of influence; we expect it.  If you are building an online service, a mobile phone application or some other piece of digital wizardry that you just know is a game changer, make sure that it includes the community.  Once you release it into the wild it will change, hopefully for the better.  Where would Facebook and Twitter be if they refused to do this?

Embrace the crowd or die.

I work with a lot of brands, running social media programs in all shapes and sizes. As such, I want to be perfectly open and clear about who I work for and who I do not. It would be impractical to list companies and brands that I frequently mention that I do not work for (there are far too many), but I will list those with in some capacity. Between my previous consultancy and my current position as Senior Director of Social Media Strategy at M80 I get to do some pretty amazing things with some really exceptional companies. Below is a list of organizations that I have (or had) a professional association with in some way. Some of them have paid me to run social campaigns, some have given me products or services to review. In any case, I do my very best to disclose that I am associated with them in some way. That said, what I write on my blog is my own opinion (same for Twitter and Facebook) and I only say what I feel to be true. In other words, when you read what I write, you can believe that it is my own opinion and not that of my employer(s) or anybody else. Lucky for me I happen to really, really like most of the products that I build programs for!

Here’s a list of some organizations that I currently or very recently have worked with.

Zune

Xbox360

Dr Pepper

Volkswagen

LG

Sony Ericcson

T-Mobile myTouch 3G

Warner Brothers

Snapple

Geodelic

Operation Smile

Macy's

Ingram Micro

First of all…I referred to Foursquare as a social network, but inside the business walls I’ve been calling it a “location aware ad platform”.  There are implications and advantages for both the average user as well as business, and I’ll break it down for both after a brief introduction.

What Is Foursquare?

It looks like a social network that you use from your phone.  The premise is simple: when you are out on the town you can “check in” to different locations in selected cities (although soon to be available everywhere) and it will push an update out to your friends.  ”Friends” can be represented by several groups, the most intimate of which are those that you have friended on Foursquare itself.  You can also link your Foursquare account to Twitter and Facebook to send updates to your friends/fans/follower and associates there.  Once linked, you don’t necessarily need to ping these networks, I opt to keep about 2/3 of my Foursquare check-ins within the Foursquare network.

After you have checked in at a venue several things happen.  First, it will allow you to click through to some more information about the venue…showing tips that are added from other users, people that have been there recently (or are there currently) and a link to a map on Google.  It also shows nearby tweets, which is kind of cool for finding people in your neighborhood.  The crowning glory of Foursquare (pun intended) is in the form of mayorship…if you check in to a venue more than anybody else you become “mayor” of that location.  It will automatically ping Twitter that you have become mayor, and if you are stealing the mayorship from somebody it names them as well.

There are currently apps for iPhone and Android and “other devices” but really these are the two biggies.  If you have one of those phones, download the app now, add me as a friend, then read on. You can also find answers to most of your questions directly from the fine folks at Foursquare here.

For Users

If you want a fun, active social network to be a part of, Foursquare will fit the bill for you.  It’s really easy to add friends, and the home screen will show you updates about where your friends are and what they are doing (if they are putting up tips).  The best part? The competition.  By nature I think most people like to compete, and becoming the mayor of a venue, especially a favorite neighborhood haunt, gives you some cred.  It’s a lot of fun to constantly be fighting for mayorship (I’m trying to stay on top of M80 but am currently ousted….dang….) and a good way to keep tabs on your friends.  A bit stalker-ish? Perhaps, but it’s fine if you keep your friends list restricted to people that you really are friends with.

For Businesses

The possibilities for a tie-in with businesses are restricted only by your imagination.  There is a pretty cool program that you can opt in to for special offers to users of Foursquare, and honestly I think it’s effective. I was in San Francisco recently eating at a local Thai restaurant.  I checked in on Foursquare and was greeted with a small message that let me know there was an offer nearby.  I ended up going across the street to Froots and checked in for the first time…and received a free bowl of frozen yogurt as a reward.  Another example…I checked in to the a small restaurant and was told about an offer “just around the corner” from a theater that was going to give me a drink for free, just for showing the screen.

If you are  a business, big or small, think about what this means to you…you now have the ability to not only know who your customer is, but where they are.  Wouldn’t it be nice to know about a potential customer in your neighborhood? Wait for them to check in, then give them an offer they can’t refuse.

Why You Should Join Foursquare

I have no association with Foursquare, but I can recognize a good thing when I see it.  They have created a service that combines some key ingredients to be a viral-like social network (it’s easy to use, and it allows you to share information with your friends) and have built it upon a platform that can be beneficial to regular users and businesses.  Honestly, that is rare.  Banner ads are dead.  Sponsored tweets are treated like the plague.  Location aware ads that are recommended by your friends…now that is something that can really get some traction.

Give it a shot and let me know what you think.  Add me as a friend, and if I’m in your city, let’s try to connect! After all, social networks are just an extension of our real lives, and I look forward to meeting you face to face…

As it relates to social media, I think a very common mistake that many companies make is doing things the same old way.   Especially with large brands, once PR, HR and a few corporate attorneys get their hands on the social media marketing plan it starts to look like…well, what they’ve always done.  Carefully crafted letters and press releases are posted in new mediums and are then called “social media”.  Let me make something perfectly clear: the use of a social media channel does not mean that you are in fact engaged in social media.

For social media to be effective, old ways must be shed.  No longer can you preach (pardon the pun, given the opening paragraph) to your audience about your product from a podium.  Filling your Twitter stream with an RSS feed that is only pushing content out isn’t enough, because the podium doesn’t exist anymore.  Instead you are in a social circle, with people all around, talking, questioning and interacting with your brand.  If you don’t engage in a personal and likable way, your brand is doomed to fade into obscurity on that channel.

“But that’s the way we’ve always done it”.  I know, I understand.  It’s hard to move into a new arena without HR, PR and William from legal looking over everything that goes out…but it’s going to be okay.  In fact, it’s going to be more than okay, it’s going to be liberating.  You will find that once you break the bonds of “that’s the way we’ve always done it” you will find new freedom with your brand and your messaging, and ultimately that will turn into a nice bump in revenue.

Of course there are guidelines for everything that is done publicly, but that is another post for another time.