Famine City

Social Media Covers Mumbai Attacks...in 3 Hours

by Jason

Terrible attacks today in Mumbai. Beyond the horror of the attack, I'm amazed at the scope and scale of consumer generated coverage, and how quickly social media is being used to both report AND offer aid.

At this point, just 3 hours after the attacks started, there's an active Twitter page where people are both reporting and offering to help people (with things like "PM me if you're trying to get in touch with someone in Mumbai.") See here for up-to-date reports on Twitter.

And there's.already.a.blog. Crazy. Literally within 180 minutes of the attacks happening.

This suggests to me:

1. Social media will become the go-to connector during future large-scale disasters 

2. People are using their phones, but not to call...to connect via Twitter, blogs, other web apps, etc. 

3. B/c of #2 above, having access to the full web from your phone is going to become a have-to-have safety feature across the u.s. (I think that's already the case among most of the globe...something like this might push adoption across N.A. in the near future.)

4. (and most surprising) Lastly...I'm struck by how much social media usage in a disaster has advanced since the London bus attacks, where users sending camera phone photos to the BBC felt cutting edge. Social media's evolved from consumers reporting-after-the-fact to offering/requesting/getting support or help in real time.

Technology is changing fast, and the world is keeping up.

The Google Penalty

by Marty
In my last post, I discussed the mistake made by Motrin handling the bad commercial that caused an online stir--I did not discuss the problem/commercial, but the playbook on the Motrin reaction. Just do a search for Motrin + Headache in Google if you're interested in that commercial content. Thinking about the lasting implications of what occurred is what I am calling The Google Penalty. While I do recognize this applies to search engines as a whole, Google has market and mindshare.

Google Penalty defined: unfavorable brand impression as a result of search results that have consumer generated content on par or greater than brand messaging.

 

As this started to unfold, you have people that are searching and getting negative brand impressions to see what the stir is about. You expect that. However, after the stir has subsided, all the CGM content that was posted about your brand on other websites that is inherently designed to be search friendly will trump your brand in the search engines. It will be linked, indexed and cross-linked and referred to on the web and news outlets. This is exactly the search formula for success, right? Even though Motrin has performed a mighty expensive key word buy (I'm sure it was pricey) AND they own the domain name, two years from remnants of this debacle is going to be returning in search engines. The Motrin brand is going to be in "Dell Hell" aka the well known Jarvis situation from long ago. This has had a lasting impact on brand impression via search engines for years past the original post. Did I mention, books, blogs referenced, HBR and so forth?

Your action period if something goes awry on your watch, at your brand: 12-36 hours. Read my playbook for the to do list.

After that amount of time, you are going to have so much content posted about your brand on other websites, it will be hard to contend with them. Your goal should be to collect comments on your brand site. This Motrin example, while it may have been in poor taste, it was not related to product safety or quality. My estimate is that it probably will not offend enough to alienate users to the point of not purchasing the product--bad taste. However as users are searching for content about this brand, they are going to be left with all the content around this issue. Even though though most of the content will be in regards to the bad taste, searching consumers will be laddered up to product quality (in my estimation). People will see so many posts about something to do with Motrin and assume the product is of poor quality. Regardless of how much you spend on CPC media, Motrin will not win that battle with the searcher.

Had they prepared well, you could say this was a clever rouse to make the brand a bit more relevant, but I do not think this is the case. To many things are out of place, like the lady's letter on the brand website, no picture? Basic mistake, they did not personalize the content. What's the prescription now? My next steps would be, reach out to bloggers and influencers whom I specifically offended (I think they are doing this at some level). Specifically, those who posted your content first. Then find the blog tours, attend/sponsor BlogHer next year, social media badges and better get a good interactive company that knows the space. While there is a lot of energy and human effort now, the cost of unfavorable brand impression is only going to grow with time: The Google Penalty.

So Marty, what's the playbook for the Motrin thing?

 by Marty
Let me first say that I am in not an advertising creative. I'm a technical guy that works at an advertising agency. I am not going to evaluate the creative issue that was referenced in the Motrin commercial from my previous post.You know the one causing all the stuff out there.

If I were calling the shots on handling this issue, I would probably have taken the following steps.

1) Replaced the content on www.motrin.com with the apology message from the VP of Marketing at McNeil Consumer Healthcare. However, I would have left the spot on my website. I want to own the problem and the proposed solution (read on).

2) Don't take your legalese advice and put your buns in your hand. I would not have taken down the site, this only magnifies the issue that you do not understand the space. This isn't a legal matter or a safety matter, it's a perception issue.  Do something special with the energy, which is my next step.

3) I would have quickly called Bazaarvoice or got my tech group on the phone or started writing some feedback mechanism, like stat. I thought of three separate solutions I could institute on any website within a matter of hours. I would then ask consumers share their feedback directly on my site. Publish it immediately and thank them profusely for their time. Ask for recommendations for fixing the spot or offering them to preview/react to the next spot.

4) Now these things are in place, tell everyone you can about the gaffe and press release it to the public. Ask people to come to the site, see for themselves the snafu and place their comments there.

5) Do the biggest keyword buy of your life, on both Google and Yahoo. People are going to see all the other content out there, let them come to your site, see the issue and share their opinion. Do a search for Motrin + Headache on Google. Get out the checkbook.

Your consumers own the space now anyway. Use the (unfortunate) opportunity to own the conversation on your site. Right now, inaction means you are losing credibility and the search engine problem that you are going to run into long term is going to be an issue. People when searching for motrin or ibuprofen will end up at the CGM posts and not organizational content.

Obviously there are things there may be some creative solves that I cannot speak to, but thinking through this problem, this is my playbook. What's yours?

Watch the Motrin mess unfold...

Not sure if everyone has seen the Motrin debacle ocurring, but the brand is getting crushed in the social media circle.

Want to see for yourself, the commercial can be found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmykFKjNpdY  

Response videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A13uh7XPih4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhR-y1N6R8Q&feature=related  

Here's a good summary
http://www.drumsnwhistles.com/2008/11/16/twitter-swarm-motrin-v-moms/  

It's probably worth sharing with a response from the company that seems authentic, but this is going to be tough, tough and tough.
http://crunchydomesticgoddess.com/2008/11/16/motrins-response-to-the-onslaught-of-complaints/

Summary: Your consumers are in control. I'm not judging here, but wow. It's a firestorm and I haven't seen information fly this fast in quite some time.

Put the crack down on the crackberry

by Marty
Today I read something that caught me by surprise, future pres will have to do away with the Blackberry. After reading a bit about it there are a ton of outdated policies that will have to be reexamined during the course of his presidency. That's a good thing. However, I read a practice of his campaign strategist employed during the race that stuck with me: During all meetings, people had to put their Blackberry devices on the table. That's powerful and I agree. So I  thought I'd propose some smart device etiquette.

1) During meetings, turn off the ringer, turn them over and place them in the middle of the table. There is something powerful about the overt action of placing it in the middle of the table and turning it off. This is a powerful non-verbal action that says I'm going to engage in whatever I'm being asked to do. I (would) like it even more that this is codified at an organization. If your meeting is over 45-minutes, a person will be granted a few minutes each hour to check in. Your brain is being paid for your attendance, so engage. You did accept the meeting after all If you are expecting an emergency phone call, excuse yourself, but there generally aren't that many emergencies. If you want to schedule a fake phone call, support the Popularity Dialer.

2) Please do not tap your buttons so loud that I have to hear you when you're in the toilet--I have somewhat accepted that you are already using your smart device while going potty, but can you not bang out your a master treatise while they are performing your daily constitutional.

3) No phone calls while on the toilet, especially at work. Take out the blue-tooth headset too.

3.1) This includes the urinal.  Again, take out the blue-tooth headset please.

4) Do you really need the blue-tooth headset in at dinner? Nope.

I saw a guy camping at Mammoth Cave National Park with a blue-tooth headset. Poor guy, that's not camping.

5) If you are about to engage in an ordering process of any sort, please take the time to hang up the phone or stop typing prior to starting your order.

5.1) You cannot ask aforementioned person trying to attend to your needs to hold while you are on the phone or typing unless you are walking person on the other end of a complicated surgical-like procedure, disengaging a bomb or an emergency appendectomy qualify here. In either one of the latter cases, you probably shouldn't be on the phone.

6) Do not take your crackberry to bed. This falls into the same category as TVs in the bedroom. I don't think either belong there. More important matters should be attended to in this holy area.

7) Do not take your crackberry to church. Perhaps St. Peter will send a few tweets while your ass is hanging out in purgatory. See how you like it then.

8) Texting, Twittering or emailing personal information, like I want to break up, a divorce or prego information is NOT fit for these devices.

9) Don't text and drive.

UK article suggests:The Transport Research Laboratory found that motorists who use their mobile phone to send text messages while on the road dramatically increase the likelihood of collision.Their reaction times deteriorated by 35 per cent, much worse than those who drank alcohol at the legal limit, who were 12 per cent slower, or those who had taken cannabis, who were 21 per cent slower.

Have some better suggestions? Please share. I'm just trying to figure my way through this crazy wired world.

Devo, Nelson and Bob Marley: what do they have in common?

by Marty

Answer: These are all in my cd library and more shameful CDs are present. How'd I get here? If you have a shameful cd in your collection, post it here. Be proud.

I'm a self-proclaimed technologist, but I'm not an iPod or iTunes user. I've never been an iTunes fan and it hasn't worked with my MP3 players. However, I'm just about to jump into the Apple experience wholearse and my media change is causing a time-succubus to appear from nowhere.

Why the switch?
About every year, for the last three years, I've made it a point to change my media habits. I do this because it forces me to discover new technologies that I would otherwise not discover. Sometimes this involves changing my music service, sometimes this involves changing magazine subscriptions and now I'm going to give a whirl using the iPod. I'm a Win-Amp guy and have been for 10 years or so. While I do know that I can install Rockbox or something, I don't want to fool with it.Today I purchased a used GB iPod for $50, sans ear buds or cable. That's OK, Shannan, my wife, is an iPod user, so I have the cable. I'm getting ready to jump in into the experience, but preparation is key.   

The time succubus
First I need music. While I purchased some tracks with Napster, my previous music service, a bunch were under a use agreement and I don't steal music. It's just one of those paranoia things for me. So how do I get music? I decided to take all of our CDs in the basement and begin to digitize them. We haven't touched these in six years or so, to the tune of about of about 400 cd's. I have another couple thousand MP3s on regular CDs that I've burned as well, but those were easy. Would I have been a smarter person, I would have used a service like Pickled Productions. That's not me, I like the hard way of doing things. So I grabbed some great free software, Free Rip to start ripping and I'm about 4 days into the project. Over the weekend I had multiple computers going--I think I'm about half way through. Though this is highly crappy process, I'm looking forward to the result.

Going through your old CD's in storage is like a visit to the Way Back Machine. I recommend it highly. It could be even slightly shameful. Who knew that my wife had an Amy Grant CD from high school? Should I rip it, sure. It's going to be an Easter egg on someone's iPod. 

Insight: Apple has done a phenomenal job of infiltrating my life and I wasn't an iPod user (someone else in my house is). I did not realize it until I started this process.

• We own two iHomes, I bought these for public space in the house (kitchen/rec area). 
• One car has an iPod ready stereo in it, meaning you can control the iPod from the stereo. I had this installed when I purchased the Matrix a few months ago. I thought at the time, why not? It was a $40 difference and seemed like a decent enough idea. The other car has a tape adapter (2001 Honda Passport).I don't think Shannan's iPod has left the car since.
• I own another piece of software to backup iPods. 

Net, even though I did not own an iPod at the time, I spent over $400 in devices that support it. How many other technologies/brands can have such an impact by passive/household use? Apple (obviously) has affected my purchasing decisions for years. I made all of the aforementioned purchases for household, automotive or gift related reasons. There is not one brand, as I was looking around my technology inventory, that has as much presence without my explicit user/consent. That's good marketing and great technology. Hopefully it will bode well for my experience. At the very least, I'm going through the shameful CDs :)

Read this: ASAP!

by Marty

I hate the term ASAP. ASAP means (to me) that you should stop what you are doing, whatever you are doing and do something for whatever is the subject matter of the ASAP condition. This seems mighty presumptuous that whatever I'm currently doing is that less important than what you are asking me to do. With that in mind, I also hate this button:

This button comes in my email and demands my time. You'll recognize this especially if you use Outlook. Generally speaking, this type of message waits until I have a few minutes to dedicate to it because I'm going to have to take some action on it. That's the point of the exclamation point, right?

I have my own method in this case when I want someone to act on something, but I don't think it will take them more than a minute, use the "Low e" button. This is the blue button that is directly to the right of that annoying exclamation point.

This works brilliantly. It shows up as saying something isn't going to take much of your time and get back to me when you get a chance. This is exactly the type of response that I want to make, something not important and when I get a chance (Covey, important/not urgent). These messages almost always show up different in someone's inbox, so they pass the new stimulus test (you know annoying stimulus that gets your attention), plus they pass the unobtrusive test. Just the kind of thing I want to over deliver on, sort of like that annoying beep from Twhirl.  

A survey of my peers suggests one of two outcomes to my theory:

• I'm dead wrong and people do pay attention to the exclamation point, begrudgingly. I don't think I believe them.
• They don't know what the "Low Importance" button is at all.

In any event, let's all agree, the "high importance " button is overused. ASAP is overused. Everyone, even you, try to use it sparingly. Remember the Seinfeld episode where Elaine's character talks about the use of the exclamation point?

Your task, should you choose to accept it, is this: try the "Low Importance" method. See if it gets you a quicker response. ASAP.

Google's Utility Beats Yahoo's Choice

by Jason

I thought this was too good of a comparison not to show off. You want to know why Google’s future is so bright, as opposed to Yahoo?

Google would rather provide meaningful utility to a few people.

Yahoo would rather provide choices and options, and leave it up to the user.

 

The entire Internet is nothing but choices, so I don’t need more. I need someone to whittle out the stuff I don’t need. That’s WAY more valuable to me.

 

Another interesting take is Janet Meiner’s What Voters Google Before Going To the Polls. In her post, she notes the difference between what’s being searched today (it’s people trying to find election results, seeking utility like Google’s) versus what’s been searched over the past month (general candidate and election news…like Yahoo!). In other words, Google’s designed for today, and Yahoo’s designed for the last month. Weird.

 

Go Google.

Dumb mobile companies

by Marty

So I was breezing through a piece on the NY Times this morning that caused a visceral type reaction. The article's premise mentions that video is surpassing illegal file sharing. Joyous. The second part of the piece talks about unlimited data plans and why prices are going to go up. I'm tired of dumb mobile companies.

Several executives from telecommunications companies argued that that this surge in data use, and the disproportionate nature of who uses it, would require an end to plans that offer unlimited data use.

“We have light users subsidizing heavy users,” said Maggie Wilderotter, the chief executive of Frontier Communications, a regional phone company. “We have to move to a model of consumption-based pricing.”

In an interview after her talk, Ms. Wilderotter said Frontier was going to start displaying to customers a gauge that shows how much bandwidth they are using. Then it will start imposing an additional fee for customers who use more than 5 gigabytes of data a month.

T-Mobile’s wireless operation in the United States is looking to do the same thing, said Mr. Mallahan.

“It’s crazy,” he said. “People who want moderate usage have to pay way too high prices.”

Right now he said, wireless carriers don’t really offer truly unlimited plans because they cancel the accounts of the very heaviest users.

“Every one of the wireless carriers fires high-use data customers,” Mr. Mallahan said. He suggested that wireless data services offer a certain amount of bandwidth, with a “moderate” charge for additional use.

I see this and just shake my head. First because of the lack of transparency for phone companies and unlimited data plans. Second wireless companies epitomize the word stupid to me. Let me give you some examples why.

- FAIL 1. The phone companies charge MORE to people that want to offload the phone company traffic onto IP based (instead of wireless-based networks). I have a friend that has bad reception in his condo. What did they tell him to do, pay an extra $10 a month to use his IP based phone network for better reception. What other businesses can say, hey, don't use my resources, I'm going to charge you more and you'll be happier. Mobile companies should give this away to every person imaginable and spend more money with phone companies switching between 802.x based networks. Instead they spent their time writing doctrines on how to create hardware, while Apple and Google said, here's the hardware AND software. People will buy it.

- Fail 2.The biggest, I mean BIGGEST, source of revenue for wireless carriers has been sitting under their noses for quite some time. Data. Wireless carriers should have given away the services to uses as data plans, subsidizing the service with ad revenue. Create your new network with the ad revenue and allow consumers to opt out of the free ad sponsored data service with an upcharge, say $10 per month. Instead, the dumb wireless carriers have running around trying to figure out a publishing model as an advertiser to pimp out their user base, at the expense of their user base for some companies (Sprint?).

- Fail 3. It should not have taken 20-years to figure out the value of a standardized platform, whether on hardware or a network. Is Google that smart? Maybe so. While Nokia is struggling and their profits are plunging, the G-phone is pumping out more applications by the minutes by distributing the ability for people to create and disseminate applications through their store. It's about the applications. Not your damn handset.

My recommendation to the average consumer that wants to use a lot of data? Be sure to purchase a phone, like the Google phone that uses a 802.x networks for data and switches elegantly. Save your dough. Don't give it to the dumb phone companies. Thankfully most of the better phones that are designed to have data use on them do this pretty well.

Quick follow up: In my previous post, I commented that everyone compares the iPhone and Google Phone, but that's the wrong comparison for folks to make. My co-blogger Jason pointed out the question I did not answer (great feedback Jason), "so what is the right comparison?" For Google, it's every medium that informs. Meaning every medium that performs searches. Your home telephone, your Wii, your phone, your desktop computer, your car's GPS, etc.

PS- Thank you, thank you typepad. I'm far too lazy to move this blog over to my own hosting service. This editor is much better.