Archive for category online
you missed it
Posted by Chris Houchens in media, online on May 3, 2010
If your only source of news is national media, you may not realize that a U.S. city was heavily damaged this weekend.
Yes, the Gulf oil disaster should be the top story and the Times Square car bomb attempt was news as it happened. However, the 38th largest MSA in the U.S. (and the capital of one of its states) was (is) being destroyed by flooding and the only place I was getting information about it was through Twitter.
I am a fan of Nashville for many personal and professional reasons. I have several clients and friends there. I consider it “my big city”. It’s where I fly from and where I go when I need resources that aren’t available locally.
WordPress guru @studionashvegas has a great post about how Nashville has been forgotten and makes some good points about how social media, the community, and traditional local media are the future of information…
National media is dead. Local media, and social media, are the blend of information services we need to survive.
If consumers can’t find the information they need, they will seek it out or create it themselves. We’ve already seen this happen with citizen journalism about in-depth topics. It’s now happening with the real time web for breaking news.
Sure. There can be a mob mentality in these situations where mis-information is disseminated exponentially. But that’s exactly the reason why credible news orgs should be participating in social media offering facts such as @tndotcom, @nashvillest, and @wkrn did during the Nashville event.
The lesson for (any) media is this: Consumers’ first concern is always with what’s happening NOW. They’ll mull the consequences later. Your worries need to lie with why you’re not offering immediate information in an immediate media environment instead of worrying about how to create the souvenir of the news the day after it happens.
Part of the lack of national response for Nashville may come from the lag between the real time web and when traditional media figures out there’s a story. I wrote a post about this phenomenon of the tuned-in minority back in 2008. More recently, I tweeted this on April 20th. I saw the story pop up in newspapers and on TV three or four days later. We’ll see if Nashville gets on the radar in the next few days.
UPDATE: I called it. It was an issue with the tuned-in minority. http://shotgunconcepts.com/2010/05/nashville2
[ btw -- if you want to help people in Nashville, you can find info here:
http://nashvillest.com/2010/05/03/so-nashville-is-flooded-how-can-i-help ]
social media marketing perfection
Posted by Chris Houchens in advertising, marketing, online on April 7, 2010
Small businesses and large corporations are all atwitter about how to do social media. (pun intended)
They hire snake oil social media gurus or they rely on advice from an agency (who only has 13 facebook fans and 81 twitter followers — mostly their employees and spammers) to sell them things that are common sense.
A few weekends ago, I enjoyed the perfect social media incident. Nashville’s Noshville Deli placed these Facebook updates in their followers’ streams on a lazy rainy Sunday morning.
And that’s all there is to it. You’ve placed your brand in the online lifestream of your customers. Just interact with them (and sell) based on what’s happening with their lives.
The secret to all marketing (not just social media) is pretty simple: It’s not about what you have to sell. It’s about what people want to buy.
It’s not rocket science. (unless you’re selling rockets)
drive by social media
Posted by Chris Houchens in online on March 30, 2010
Ahhhh. The age of customer empowerment. Nothing quite as satisfiying as sticking it to the man with a social media lashing. I’ve written on this blog and elsewhere that this is a good thing for both customers and brands. It allows companies to interact with their customers better.
But you’re probably seeing more and more stuff in your streams like this:
Widget Corp. is so STUPID. They HATE their customers. Their web site sucks!!! #WidgetFAIL
And then a few minutes later, a more meek tweet comes down the stream…
Oops. I didn’t have my computer plugged in.
Here’s the thing you need to think about. The first tweet comes up in searches for Widget Corp, the second doesn’t. And there were people watching your stream during the outrage that aren’t there for the mea culpa.
Remember that you’re packing a loaded gun (some of us have BB guns, others have AK-47s) with your online presence. If they deserve it, let ‘em have it. But you need to be careful of what you’re casually destroying with a drive-by social media attack.
I know it seems like online anger makes you look cool like an A-list social media rockstar. But how about some seasoned sensibility before lashing out? *(you know, like you would do in the real world.)
Full Disclosure: I sometimes pretend that Widget Corp. is one of my clients. They have provided me widgets at no cost.
learning as you go
Posted by Chris Houchens in online, strategy on March 19, 2010
I would venture to say there are very few people who would skydive, ride a bull, wrestle alligators, or climb one of the Seven Summits without experience or at least after watching a very good orientation video.
And yet companies are rolling up their pants legs and wading out into the shark-infested waters of social media without a clue. They’re letting the interns and other untrained personnel control the messaging to some of their most important contacts and setting up a social media disaster.
Social media is currently biting Nestle on the Nestle facebook page.
Protesters are taking to the Nestle page to voice opposition about their alleged use of palm oil from deforested areas in Indonesia. That’s trouble, but a prudent social media manager could handle it (like the way Southwest handled the Kevin Smith incident). Instead, the admin(s) of the Nestle page went on the offensive responding to fans in a derisive and aggressive tone. This is not breaking a social media rule. It’s destruction of basic PR 101. The company should never argue with someone in public (and for all practical purposes, it was the COMPANY not the admin making the comments.)
Overall, this is a great look at how companies should think about their online reputation management mechanics and the need to plan for an online crisis response in the same way you’d plan for a traditional crisis.
My favorite thing about the Nestle incident is that on Friday the admin(s) posted
“Social media: as you can see we’re learning as we go. Thanks for the comments.”
This is true for any brand. Despite what the social media snake-oil salesmen say, there is no one who actually has any real experience in social media.
What companies should have experience in is basic customer service, public relations, advertising, etc and apply those lessons learned in old media to the new model. And if you’re going to jump in the deep end of the pool, you’d better know how to swim and expect to get wet.
punish your biggest fans
Posted by Chris Houchens in media, online, strategy on January 20, 2010
A memo from the top brass at the New York Times was sent to employees about the plan to charge for online content at nytimes.com…
Today we are announcing that we will be introducing a paid model for NYTimes.com at the beginning of 2011…we have chosen a metered approach that will offer users free access to a set number of articles per month and then charge users once they exceed that number.
(Read the full memo here)
There is no doubt that there will have to be a paid model for online news. Journalism is not free. But what’s the revenue solution for online news consumption? Hard to tell.
But I do know that penalizing your best and most frequent users is not the answer.
While I can see their plan is to try to have their cake and eat it too — I think it would work better in reverse. Give it to the power users. Those influencers would spread the links, ideas, etc to occassional users who would pay.
electing the best spammers
Posted by Chris Houchens in online, strategy on October 23, 2009
The people who seem to be the most clueless about communication are incumbent politicians.
And the area that they seems to be the most clueless about is opt-in/opt-out communication of any kind. Initiate any contact with them and you’re added to their snail and email mailing lists — whether you want to be added or not.
Today’s example: Take a look at the end of this e-survey form from a member of my state’s congressional delegation:
Do or die. Opt in is not an option.
The cynic in me says that constiuent input is not really wanted here and it’s just an underhanded way to populate a database. After all, I’m used to members of Congress trying to scam me.
But I like this Congressman and think he’s a good guy. And he actually does a really good job getting out and making personal one-on-one connections with people in the district. So I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he doesn’t know that opt-in communications are not only much more effective for the sender, but are also just the right thing to do.
It’s basic e-communication 101 and anyone with any common sense should know it, but politicians seem to be blissfully ignorant.
But think about this. These ham handed / bone headed moves are done by the same people who are making big decisions that affect every aspect of your life. Sleep well.
stupid tweets
Posted by Chris Houchens in marketing, online on September 30, 2009
I’m sure you find value in your Twitter stream. But among the constant golden nuggets of twitter-dom, there are ocasssionally some stinker tweets. Most of these come from wannabe gurus who feel they have to constantly “provide value to the community” so they wind up tweeting their idiocy.
The ones that get me the most are when something big has been happening for several hours and is already firmly entrenched as a trending topic. Someone logs on and feels they need to be an “innovator” and help their poor “laggard” followers. For example: if gmail has been down for 5 or 6 hours, they would tweet this:
Whoa. I’m having trouble with my gmail acct. Something may be happening.
Related to that are the people discovering technology, but trying to act like a tech insider:
Just visited a WordPress blog and it gave me the ability to leave a comment at the bottom of the post. New feature?
Matt Foley wannabes:
Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?
You gotta love people’s first tweet:
Trying out this new Twitter thing…
btw — I think a person’s first tweet should be:
@Watson! come here I need you!
T.M.I:
Good news: I get to leave the house today. Bad news: It’s to buy new catheter bags. (actual tweet!)
Crowdsourcing the mundane:
Anyone know how many toothpicks are in a standard box? has it traditionally been that number?
Spending the attention that I have given you to play some inane game:
I just ousted Cleatus as the Dog Catcher of Hooterville on Five Rhombus!
And sadly, I see this truly stupid one all the time…
Is Twitter down?
Did I miss some tweets that annoy you? Leave them in the comments. And if you want to see some really dumb tweets, you can follow me on Twitter @shotgunconcepts!
just a tweet
Posted by Chris Houchens in media, online on July 28, 2009
The twittersphere is all a-twitter about a company suing a woman for $50,000 over one of her tweets. The offending tweet from @abonnen to her 20 followers was:
…who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.
Most reactions to the news seem to be centered around the idea of “it’s just a tweet / lighten up”.
OK. Using that same mindset, then…
- United Breaks Guitars is just a YouTube video.
- ComcastMustDie is just a blog.
- #MotrinMoms is just a hashtag
If we’re all going join hands in a circle and get weepy over the fact that “everyone is now a publisher”, then everyone is now accountable to established publishing laws. This tweet may violate a little one called libel.
Ask yourself this: If a newspaper or TV station reported without justification that a local landlord condoned their tenants sleeping in mold infested apartments, would the company be justified in suing the media outlet? If you think so, then how is “new media” different than “old media”?
I have no idea (and don’t care) about the specifics of this case. Maybe @abonnen was sleeping in a petri dish. Maybe the company was attacked unfairly. (although I do find it hard to side with any company that describes it’s business philosophy as “sue first and ask questions later“)
But here’s the big point that everyone needs to think about. We’re going to have to decide does consumer generated media mean “fundamental groundbreaking change” or “just a tweet”?
my God, they’re throwing guitars out there
Posted by Chris Houchens in marketing, online on July 16, 2009
So over the course of about two weeks, a Canadian folk singer has brought United Airlines to its knees with over 3 million views (and growing) of this viral video:
There’s been lots of talk online and in the MSM about how this is a great customer service lesson in the new economy. And it is. United has even said they will be using it in their internal training.
The customer service angle is the most important, but I think there are four other big lessons here:
Presentation counts.
There are thousands of consumer gripes at this very moment on twitter, facebook, youtube, individual blogs, and every other web thingy you can think of. What made this one stick and go national?
It’s because it’s well done.
The first time I watched the video, I watched the entire 4:36 (and then watched it again) and you probably did too. By comparison, see how long you can make it through another United Airlines consumer complaint video.
Unless they have no life and unlimited time, people will choose to spend their time with engaging online content instead of stuff they have to struggle to digest.
And the important part for online virility: they won’t pass it on unless it’s really good. Think about your other WOM recommendations to friends. “That restaurant is awful. You should go!”
You still need big media to make a big impact
The video got a response from United within a short time of being posted, but it didn’t really take off into the stratosphere until several new and old media like the Consumerist, LA Times, NY Times, CNN, and other “big guys” featured the video. It might have taken off itself, but these Digg/Oprah-type spotlights amplified the user-level passalong effect to make it go viral. It also helped that Sons of Maxwell already had a fanbase that could help spread the message.
You have to have a base to push off of — if you’re going to jump high.
Don’t back down
United has offered Dave compensation for his guitar and he refused, requesting that United give the money to charity (United is donating $3,000 to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz). And he is going ahead with the other two songs of his promised United trilogy.
In the end, he is going to come out way ahead. Taylor guitars has offered him some new guitars, other airlines are offering seats, and he and his band now have tremendous publicity.
Learn from your mistakes
It seems that United has no choice except to assume the Duck and Cover position for now. They’ve made the donation. The other songs are coming. (I hope one of them explains the sombreros.) At the minimum, the upcoming second one will get publicity. And United has said they are going to learn from the experience…
Rob Bradford, managing director of customer solutions at United, called Carroll Wednesday to apologize for the foul-up and to ask if the carrier could use the video internally to help change its culture.
(My first suggestion: eliminate stupid titles like “managing director of customer solutions”)
I’d love to see a case study or something come out of United on how they handled this. I think they actually have an opportunity to shine here if they don’t mess it up. The best thing they could do? Offer to help Dave to make the third video a happy ending.
UPDATE (7/17/09): I have thought of a fifth point. From my perspective, Dave Carroll seems like a nice, decent genuine guy. Being a good guy counts probably more than anything.
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