Affinitive’s Social Media Playground

So, you’re a social marketing professional with your fingers all over the Internet, constantly tapped into the river of information flowing out on the wire. Sometimes it feels like you are sitting behind the control panel of the Nebuchadnezzar watching the matrix flow down the screen in odd characters. In the future Tweets will be limited to just one character and we’ll be back to monochromatic monitors. But even now, with our 140 characters, you can sit back in your chair and just watch the conversation unfold all around the globe. And the more you provoke that social flow, the more it teems with life. The romantic side of my brain loves the palimpsest of characters before me, the many layers that continue to connect.

Unfortunately, I have work to accomplish. And well, if I don’t get this left brain humming, that universe of opportunity will do me no good!

With Facebook, Tweets, IMs, SMSs, emails and good ole telephone calls, a constant barrage of information can consume our day leaving us myriad half-done tasks and unchecked to-dos. Here are a few ways of making sure you are being efficient and effective with your time, while keeping your finger on the pulse of the matrix:

1. Stop Multitasking - I know we always ask our prospective employees to be good at multitasking, but unfortunately it really is less productive.Want some research to support that? It's out there.  I thought this quote nicely sums it up:“In a recent study, a group of Microsoft workers took, on average, 15 minutes to return to serious mental tasks, like writing reports or computer code, after responding to incoming e-mail or instant messages.” Fifteen minutes for a 30 second email. The moral of the story is, when you start something, finish it before you jump off to that new notification on your status bar.
2. Mind the Pareto Principle, a.k.a. the 80/20 Rule: 80 percent of the benefit comes from 20 percent of the causes. Going through your work day ask yourself, is this the most important thing I can be doing right now? Am I spending my time wisely? Don’t feel the need to be busy just to be busy, bring your focus to the 20 percent that is giving you the greatest return. Deciding what not to do may be the most important decision you can make.
3. Remember Parkinson’s Law? We learned it in college: work expands to the time available. I don’t know about you but I waited all semester to write my paper then banged it out on a caffeine-inspired all-nighter only to receive high marks. Take a look at your to-do list, what can you knock off in the matter of an hour? Do it! Then go outside and take a walk around the block to reward yourself for your hard work, and think about what you can do to capitalize on that 20 percent when you go back into the office. (A hint: if you shut off your Tweetdeck and email for that hour, you will be amazed at how much you get done.)
4. Protect the critical chain – In every process there is a set of steps that represent the minimum lead time it will take to finish a project. As you prioritize your day, keep in mind especially how your tasks affect your projects. The rule is: one minute lost for the critical chain is a minute lost for the entire system.

Last weekend, some good friends and I put this theory to work. We knew the first coat would need to dry before we applied the second coat of charismatic purple paint to the walls of my friends' new nursery. We decided that despite the fact that we were in the middle of installing the headboard, we should stop and get the critical chain rolling...and brushing, and masking. And we finished the headboard while the paint dried, adding no net time to our day of chores. Well done team.

As you tread the river of updates, be aware of your own effectiveness. Manage your multitasking by not checking your Tweetdeck every time a post comes in. Decide when to be involved with social river and when to focus on leveraging that social river. How can we tap that top 20 percent for a bigger piece of the pie?

Please, keep me posted.

Related Links:

Why Multitasking Doesn’t Work, by Mark McGuinness

The 4-Hour Workweek, by Timothy Ferriss

Sunday marked my three-year anniversary with Affinitive. While three years might not be a monumental milestone for many who have been with companies for decades, in the agency world in this city - it is a measurable moment.  At least it is for me. My longest commitments outside of Affinitive are to my chihuahua and my education, both of which I'd like to keep my entire life.

When I arrived in NYC in late August of 2006 still closing the final chapter in my first start-up experience with a mobile marketing company, I was an active social network user but had no idea that my career would take a turn down the social marketing path. I'm not sure I even realized that brands were leveraging these types of networks, mediums and platforms, although perhaps at that point many of them weren't... yet.  How quickly the industry has grown. The frequency and volume at which brands have begun to adopt these non-traditional social tactics, it all feels a bit like a whirlwind. I often feel as though I've blinked and now so many of my favorite brands (some clients, some not) have begun to talk to so many of their biggest fans and foes. Really talk to them.

My educational background firmly ingrained in the world of "Public Relations" - I had grown wary of the "pitch" and the idea of trying to convince someone that whatever I was schilling was newsworthy. While I still believe that PR is an integral part of any company's overall communications strategy, especially in moments of crisis or groundbreaking news, I knew back then that I wanted to move to a more consumer centric experience - as a consumer of so much in this big new city, the foundation of so many of my decisions (where to go for a weekend getaway, what to eat, which museum to schlep up to on which days, which galleries had great opening parties) were all based in Word of Mouth - it just felt like a natural fit for me, in that time in my life. This city can be quite intimidating - I don't know what I would've done without consumer reviews of NYC 'things' and my favorite foodie blog.

I didn't know until  I started doing my homework that research companies like Forrester had been measuring the growing impact of peer recommendation and WOM for quite some time.   When I discovered that boutique agencies like Affinitive actually specialized in facilitating, measuring, and amplifying this type of brand communication - I knew what my next move had to be.

At times I feel like this industry is one big sociology experiment - what people respond to, what compels them to make that recommendation, what happens when they are jaded... how you can influence and ultimately change perceptions... it is all quite fascinating.

Three years and over 30 + programs and campaigns later I feel as though I've learned so much I could perhaps author a book. Although for every single strategy I've concepted, program I've managed, campaign I've executed, ROI I've calculated... I feel as though I've barely scratched the surface.

Perhaps that is what is so amazing about this niche in the big world of marketing - it is so new that we all can be teachers and pupils at the same time.

I intended on writing this post about my most interesting projects to date but the list became so epic it is really impossible for me to narrow it down.  Whether it was  a multi-city non-profit beach event  series or a video game fan community or the launch of a new wine varietal or an automotive focus group - they've all been fun, fascinating, and mentally rewarding. Honestly.

In a quest to find commonality and come up with some conclusion about my experience to date, I realized that the core of all of these programs is a deeply rooted foundation of listening. First, foremost, always.

Interestingly enough, my time in NYC here outside of work has taught me the very same thing - it all starts with listening. Listening to what people are saying, what your city is saying, what your stomach is saying (ha!),  what your mind and heart are telling you, from inside to out. Listening to your gut, when it tells you to follow your dreams, pack up your Volvo and move to the big city that never, ever sleeps.

Anyone who has developed Facebook apps, or any kind of Facebook integration, knows that Facebook development can be a less than pleasant experience. How often does an API need a live status? Even though we all know the way Facebook has opened up their platform has been revolutionary, an already amazing source of revenue and outlet for marketing for brands, developers, and Facebook itself, it is still immature. As a platform it is still evolving rapidly and there's promise of a better future, but if you intend to dive into the world of Facebook development, be prepared for some things you might not expect.

One of the more commonly used functions is getInfo(), which returns almost any piece of information from a user's profile page; gender being one of them. The value returned for gender is either “Male” or “Female,” which is fine - but they are localized in the user’s language. So does this mean you have to check for “Female” if the user is using Facebook in English and “Weiblich” if the user chose German? Yes. It also means you have to check for imaginary languages. “Lass” is what you get if the user has his language preferences set to Pirate (English). You can see the headache this causes a developer if they are asked to report on the demographic of users of your app.

Another problem plaguing developers is the lack of organization for the documentation. The bulk of documentation exists on their developer wiki. This works well enough if you know exactly what you’re looking for, but if you don’t know the name of a function you’re better off using Google. A wiki format is more conducive to separate pages. So for a new developer stumbling on to the wiki, aside from a few copy-paste tutorials, there is no clear path of where to go. Only recently, with the release of their Javascript SDK, have they created a concise page containing documentation. Facebook officially supports 5 client libraries. For some of the libraries, documentation exists on the wiki and is shared amongst one another. All of the functions are typically the same for every language, so only one wiki page exists. PHP as well as Connect for the iPhone use the wiki pages, while the ActionScript library documentation is housed on Google code. This is because a lot of these libraries were contributed by the community and not officially created by Facebook, but this can be a large annoyance if you automatically assume that the function you’re using in a particular language is described by the wiki. Forcing people to scour multiple sites and forums for documentation is never a good idea if you are trying to build a good developer community around your platform.

The Facebook Platform status usually states “Facebook Platform is Healthy”. Occasionally it displays messages about performance issues, but that doesn’t help you much. Chances are, if you’re looking at Facebook platform status, you noticed the performance issues on your application. Looking at the “Average API Response Time” and “Error Count” doesn’t reveal much because there are no units on the y-axis. However looking at Developer Updates and Top Life Platform Bugs mights shed a light on the current status of Facebook. So what is the state of Facebook? Developer Update states they are changing profile picture sizes. So everyone who ever uses a profile picture in their application should go and double check that the new sizes will work. Existing Facebook applications constantly need to be updated to simply work. The bug list is as expected; there are a few major bugs, e.g. suggest to friends does not work (opened 29 December). And less critical but still annoying ones, e.g. request-form action opens a new window (opened 07 April 2009). The platform is in a state of constant flux with backwards incompatible updates being released and bugs for old features being introduced. If you create a Facebook app, you can't just “set it and forget it.” You must monitor for changes to the platform and update your app as needed. You must also expect that there will be periods where your app won't operate due to internal problems with Facebook's system.

So where does this developer hell leave us? It actually promises a brighter future. The reason the API is broken is due to Facebook constantly working on it and bringing more enhancements to users and developers. They are rolling out new features such as allowing applications to gather a user’s email if given permission and giving more control to users over their privacy settings. Yes the platform is immature, but it’s certainly not stagnant. So what can a developer do to make things smoother? There are certainly enough complaints out there, so that path won’t lead anywhere. Trying to write more on the wiki and help the community won’t be very fruitful, because the API changes quickly enough that your notes may be soon outdated. In fact, the abundance of notes like this on the wiki makes it confusing as to who is right. Here are some suggestions for developers to cope with the situation:

1. Manage your client's expectations. Make them aware that Facebook encounters issues periodically and this is out of your control. Give them the link to the Platform Live Status page so they can check that before coming screaming at you.
2. Subscribe to the Platform Live Status Feed, Developers News Feed, and Facebook Pages Notes. This way you should always be aware of a problem or an upcoming change before your client. The feeds are available via RSS or email except for the Pages Notes which seems to only be RSS.
3. Stay up to date with the Developer Roadmap in the wiki. You can create an account in the wiki and “watch” this page to get notified of changes.
4. If the client library you're using has a svn repository, you can check the log to read about changes. For example, this command works for the PHP library - svn log -v http://svn.facebook.com/svnroot/platform/clients/php/trunk/. The ActionScript library on Google code page has a web interface for browsing changes - http://code.google.com/p/facebook-actionscript-api/source/list. There are some tools for automatically getting notified of an update to the code: SVN-Monitor, CommitMonitor, and SVN Notifier. Unfortunately, these are all Windows programs. Leave a comment if you know of one for Mac or Linux (yes, we know you can easily write a cron script to do it

In summary, at this stage if someone says “We want to do this and that with Facebook,” the best thing to do is say “I can try but I make no guarantees” instead of “Sure, it’s totally possible” because with Facebook you never know if what is available today will be still available by the time your application is ready to launch.

Those of you who watch a little show called Glee are aware of how important it is to "find your voice". While characters on Glee find their literal voice, the lesson to be learned from the show is the importance of understanding who you are and staying true to that personality. The same can be said for the voice of a brand.

When you are the voice of a brand, either through a blog, Twitter or Facebook, it is important to make sure that the voice is unique, polished and genuine. When interacting directly with a consumer, you need to make sure that the brand sounds like someone the consumer can trust, be friends with. You’re representing a brand, so if that brand were a person, what sort of characteristics would he/she exhibit? How would this person sound, literally?

I find that it is immensely helpful when trying to mold the voice of a brand to create a voice sheet and refer to it when blogging, tweeting or updating the Facebook status. When creating a voice sheet, think of the target consumer and try to match your voice to theirs—it would be best to read Tweets, status updates and blog posts that your target demographic has written to gain a better understanding of the type of language your consumer uses. Here are some things your voice sheet should include:

• Adjectives – List of adjectives your target commonly uses
• Key Phrases – List of key phrases or expressions used by your target
• Tone – What is the overall tone of your voice? (Example: Intelligent, humorous, approachable, youthful, worldly, etc.)
• Writing Style – When writing, should grammar be more formal or laid-back?

Remember, the key to strong, fruitful interactions with the consumer is developing an authentic voice that people will come to recognize, trust and love.

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

I don't claim to have any of the answers to the many major issues that are currently plaguing the music industry. If I did, I wouldn't be sitting at this desk. I'd be in world domination mode somewhere up on Broadway where Bad Boy holds court convincing Diddy to let me revolutionize his label.

However, I can tell you that there isn't a week that goes by when as a music lover and marketer I don't get extremely frustrated by the current state of affairs. As a marketer, I can understand that there are multiple clients if you are sitting at the top of a music hierarchy - the musicians, the music lovers, and the shareholders, who keep you in your throne. The latter in that list want restrictions - they want content to be controlled by the label - they don't want fan videos or content sharing - they aren't convinced in the power of WOM, because as we all know the ROI is not always so black and white. They want every view or play to count for at least one red cent.

As a music lover and a blogger, I just want to be able to share music I love. Whether it is posting an MP3 of my favorite new Buble song or embedding a video from one of my favorite bands to run to - Ok Go. I still believe in my heart that if you love the music, you'll pay for it, even if you can find it on a million torrent sites for free. Naive? Perhaps.  But I also believe that if someone wants to steal music - they can find it, no matter how many hurdles and hoola-hoops the labels throw their way. And it doesn't take a PhD in hacking to figure it out.

I find it hard to make an argument that allowing a video to be embeddable really hurts the bottom line. Sure, YouTube (in an attempt to pacify the label gods and stop the endless stream of infringement suits)  pays labels for video views - as long as they are within network - embeds don't count for obvious, scalable reasons. But, doesn't the ROI of a new potential consumer discovering the video on their favorite music blog and then buying the song because of that outweigh any penny per view? Or is the ambiguity and hypothetical nature of this ROI deduction make things like embeds the new martyr of the industry?

Perhaps it is a small victory that now, on some label controlled official YouTube channels - the videos can exist. As a fan, I can now at least see the video - most of the time, which is  quite a feat in a world where MTV is filled with Jersey Shore reruns and no real music at all. However, as a marketer who specializes in Social Marketing & WOM - this is infuriating. Cutting out the ability to share via embed is hurtful - to PR, to the artist, to the virality of the content that is created. It's cutting off the legs of something that could be easily buzzworthy via the social actions of share/rate/review that foster a bevy of C to C interaction.

Quite simply - Socializing content is a proven tactic to generate awareness leading to consumer loyalty and retention. This is a fact.

In a land where many musicians become famous (and get record deals) through social media platforms (Colbie Caillat + MySpace = one example) it truly comes full circle when on their new big prestigious label - they are no longer allowed to share their creations on the platform that the label discovered them through - primarily through content embeds which generate a bulk of the views, which increase awareness / buzz, etc.  It's almost mind blowing.

One of such examples sprouted up this week with Ok Go, whose member Damian posted on their forum a message about how their label is insisting on prohibiting embedded playback of their new video. [Full disclosure, way back in the day, we created their fan community for the label]:

"Four years after we posted our first homemade videos to YouTube and they spread across the globe faster than swine flu, making our bassist’s glasses recognizable to 70-year-olds in Wichita and 5-year-olds in Seoul and eventually turning a tidy little profit for EMI, we’re – unbelievably – stuck in the position of arguing with our own label about the merits of having our videos be easily shared."

It is hard to ignore the irony that this all seems to bleed. What is OK Go's solution to this situation? Syndicate the video on sites like Vimeo where labels like EMI can't stop them from sharing it. The irony layered upon the irony is that if the label had any digital strategy whatsoever - the video syndicate would be part of the launch of any new artist material already.

As anyone might have guessed, December 2009 brought with it a deluge of year-end retrospectives and year-ahead predictions in social marketing. Industry luminaries, climbers, and just about anyone with a Twitter account and an opinion spoke out.   By putting an ear to the ground one may have heard some harmony emerging, and innovation in cause marketing was among these topics cutting through the noise.

Now, as we’re just oiling the gears , the first major cause marketing program of the year has kicked off, courtesy of Pepsi. Dubbed the Pepsi Refresh Project, the effort has begun accepting ideas for community projects, and setting aside a Super Bowl-sized sum for funding the best of the best as voted on by the public.

Initial evidence points to a home run here (despite a slight stumble out of the gate).  A recent study from Cone reports that a majority of Americans are keen to support causes online, especially if the support isn’t a direct financial contribution. This is exactly how Pepsi is playing it, backing the funding of winning projects with dollars traditionally spent on Super Bowl advertising.

“Eighty-five percent of respondents say new media provides them (Americans) with an opportunity to learn about new issues, and a similar number (80%) believe it provides another way to support their favorite causes. They champion important issues in a variety of ways, including advocacy (36%) (such as forwarding a message to friends), personal behavior change (34%) and purchasing cause-related products (23%).”
-2009 CONE CONSUMER NEW MEDIA STUDY

Cause marketing is nothing new, but innovations in crowdsourcing has allowed Pepsi, a brand not necessarily built from the ground up to be socially conscious, to take a step back and empower consumers to make a difference on an individual and personal level.

It’s a program we’re watching here at Affinitive. What are your first impressions of the Pepsi Refresh Project?