Click-and-mortar shopping -- the way it should be. Kudos, Barnes & Noble!

Today, I wanted to buy a book after dinner as a last minute gift. From my dinner table, I whipped out my Droid and searched on barnesandnoble.com for some ideas. I am usually a very loyal Amazon.com shopper, but in this instance, I couldn't wait for mail delivery.

Within minutes I found a book I wanted. And I noticed an in-store inventory check and pickup option.



Punched in my zip code, got presented a few nearby stores with my book available now, and filled out the "Pick Me Up" pop-up form.



I noticed the checkbox for a text message when the reservation is complete. So, I figured I'd give it a shot and hit Submit.

I paid my dinner bill and drove 5 minutes to the bookstore. I got a message from Barnes & Noble that my book was set aside while I was in the parking lot. I walked in to a special express pickup area inside the store. I gave the salesperson my last name and she pulled out my book that had my Pick Me Up information attached to it. I was in and out in 2 minutes. Awesome!

This may not seem surprising. And one could argue this is expected in this age of e-commerce. But it's not. This actually worked as expected!

This made me realize that there is hope for brick-and-mortars that master this online-to-offline integrated shopping experience. Or in this case, mobile-to-offline.

This will be the only way to compete against the Amazons of the world.

##

Why I Don't Want to See the iPhone on Verizon

Last week, after Apple did not announce an iPhone for Verizon at WWDC (no surprise really), I got tired of waiting and got a Motorola Droid. And I must say, it's better than I thought! Perhaps I shouldn't be since it's gotten strong reviews, sold over a million units, and has resurrected the Motorola brand. But it's probably because everyone at work has iPhones and this week, they were all going crazy trying to pre-order their iPhone 4.0. But that's another story.

So what's cool on the Droid?

1. Google Voice integration - I love using Google Voice but was annoyed when I called people, it would show the phone number of the device I was calling from and not my Google Voice number. For example, if I called someone who had my Google Voice # in their cell phone, they wouldn't recognize my called ID on their phone. Well, the Google Voice app on the Droid let's me choose for every call if I want my Google Voice # of my device's real phone number to show on the recipient's caller ID. So, now, I can call and receive calls on my one Google Voice #. Awesome!
   
2. Built in turn-by-turn voice navigation app - Google Maps with GPS already rocks (even iPhone users can't deny that!). Throw in turn-by-turn audible navigation and make the feature native and free, you got a winner!
3. Separate Google and Corporate Email and Calendar apps - I like to keep my personal and work life separate. As a Google OS phone, this is probably no surprise. But I like the fact that there are distinct Gmail and Google Calendar apps, in addition to my Outlook email and calendar.
   
4. Google Sky Map - Whether you're an astronomer or not, this is cool. Point your phone to the night sky and it overlays the star constellations so you can find the Big Dipper the next starry night.
   
5. Google Goggles - Have only played with this a little bit. But it's a cool way to search for relevant information based on where you point the camera on the phone. Read more here.
   
6. ...and there's probably more things I haven't discovered or checked out in the app market
   

And soon, with Froyo or Android 2.2, I hope to run Flash on my Droid. Take that iPhone!

(Actually, one major pet peeve on Droid: I can't accept or decline meeting invites in Corporate Email program that syncs with my work's Outlook. Talk about #fail!)

So, with my new Droid, I love the legendary Verizon nation-wide coverage and 3G data speeds. I also have an iPad 3G and despite the AT&T commercials you see with Luke Wilson, don't be fooled. Verizon kicks *ss! There are times when I get no signal on my iPad, so I flip open my Droid and I can make calls and surf the web in the exact same spot on Verizon. That's the only proof I need.

Back to the title of my post...why don't I want iPhones on Verizon...even after lusting after it for 6 months? Simple, I'm selfish =) If you believe this report, Verizon could gain 7 to 8 million iPhone users on its network should it carry the iconic Apple phone. I don't want those iPhone data bandwidth vampires on MY network. I'm not foolish enough to think that Verizon won't face some of the challenges that AT&T has faced with capacity on its network. So, I don't want to see my 3G coverage go down...plain and simple.

##

My Brand Strategy for HP and Palm

Now that HP has bought Palm, there is lots of speculation about what will happen to their employees, their webOS, their devices, etc. But I'm intrigued about the brand strategy and transition.



There are a few branding options for Palm:

Palm - Keep it as Palm and change nothing. This is unlikely to happen and not a good idea. HP should associate its brand to Palm so that it can build greater brand awareness in the mobile space, which is a primary benefit of acquiring a company in a space you don't have a strong presence in. The other reason why the child brand is left alone after acquisition is if the parent brand is a liability. For example, luxury brands often aren't closely aligned to a mainstream parent brand. For example, Ritz-Carlton (and Marriott) and Lexus (and Toyota). But Palm is not a luxury brand.

HP - Kill the Palm name altogether and call the devices HP. Presumably, HP bought Palm because Palm still has a strong brand name and awareness in the market. Switching instantly to HP would be unwise because you just threw away all that Palm brand equity of the original PDA pioneer!

So that leaves 2 scenarios: co-branding and endorsed branding.

Palm by HP - This endorsed brand strategy is very common for mergers and acquisitions. It is not as aggressive as co-branding and is used regularly when there is perceived risk in too closely associating the parent brand (HP) with the child brand (Palm). For new ventures, this is quite common. For example, Courtyard by Marriott when it launched. In this case, I think the risk is not that high for HP. Palm and HP are similar brands in terms of target audience and brand premium. For example, with Courtyard, it was a different customer and different price point.

HP Palm - That leaves a co-brand strategy, which I like. This gives both brands equal billing because I believe both brands offer the target customer benefits. Also, it will accelerate the brand equity transfer from Palm to HP in the mobile space. I would however consider dropping Palm subbrands like Pre or Pixi. With HP Palm, it's already a mouthful. You don't need to say HP Palm Pre. Instead, to focus all the marketing on HP Palm, I'd consider a numeric naming convention for models. E.g., HP Palm 750. People will call the phones HP Palm 750 or say I have the latest HP Palm phone. If they forget the number, big deal. It's all about building the HP Palm brand name. This strategy is deployed successfully by all luxury auto companies (e.g., BWM 330ci, Acura RL) and even tech companies (e.g., iPhone 3GS).

On a side note, I was a big fan of Palm for years. I owned 7 Palm OS-based devices (Palm II, III, Vx, VII, 2 Sony Clies, and the Tungsten E2) and wish Palm well...or should I say HP Palm?

##

Reflecting back on my day at ad:tech SF

Today, I converged on the Moscone Center in SF, joining thousands of other online marketers for ad:tech. And one thing was clear -- the online marketing industry is alive and well! There was so much energy and activity everywhere...and I'm not just talking about the sheer volume of tweets with #adtechsf.



The other thing I noticed, and this may be because of this resurgence and the fact that I was standing at the iCrossing exhibition booth, there were a heck of a lot of hungry companies looking to sell to me and iCrossing than client prospects, which is why we usually go to such shows. But it's all good. I met a few interesting companies today.

Despite the eminent return of good times, I didn't really see a lot of booth babes at ad:tech. You can read more about that at valleywag.



I was primarily at ad:tech today to speak at a session on social media marketing. My goal was to:

1. Not show sales slides
2. Talk about work and name clients (not Brand X) that are big brands (not a small company you never heard of doing some social media test)
3. Show real results...yes, I mean data and lift! Absolute numbers, not just %.

You can check out the preso below. Both case studies are awesome...if I do say so myself. =) But I call your attention to the PAID search and social synergy we saw on bebe. There's a lot of talk about SEO and social synergy...and real-time web. But I was personally surprised by the paid search lift we saw from the Twitter engagement with the Kardashians.

Social Media Break Out Case Studies: bebe and Billboard.com

I also want to thank our bebe and Billboard.com clients for their support and allowing me to share their stories with you all.

Popping in and out of sessions, one of the ones I enjoyed that didn't talk about Facebook or Twitter was the keynote by Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine about the potential future of the tablet PC (starting, or restarting, I should say, with the iPad) in saving the publishing industry.


Chris thinks tablet PCs will really take off this time. And he attributes it to 3 major industry events:

1. iPhone - Of course!

2. Kindle - Yep, get it!

3. Cloud computing - First 2 are obvious reasons. To be clear, this 3rd one allows OEMs to build fast thin clients that can focus on a rich, interactive user experience as opposed to worrying about power and other technical constraints

Chris sees and hopes for his industry's sake this next generation of tablet PCs will re-balance the economics of consumption and distribution. Consumers will pay for bite-size content when they want it. Publishers will design a digital user experience in parallel to the print magazine planing stage so it is not an afterthought.

We all know why and how the web made all of us feel that content should be FREE. And that anyone and their mom can publish online. One interesting tidbit that Chris shared was they were working closely with Adobe on developing new publishing and design tools for publishers to design richer experiences on the iPad. (I hope it's not all based on Flash!) And if they get it right, these new Adobe tools will not only reset consumer's expectations of what a high-quality, professionally-produced experience should be on a tablet, but it will actually erect barriers to entry again...and thus content scarcity...which equals pricing power restored to the publishing industry!

As Chris puts it, it will be up to publishers...and i would argue marketers too...to design an experience so compelling for the iPad that you get people to stop their finger flicking and engage with your content.

Whether the publishing industry can pull it off is to be seen. But I came out pumped. Or that may be because I'm days away from getting my iPad 3G!!!

##

"Undercover Boss" Proves Benefits of Being "Human" by Companies

I love the new reality TV show Undercover Boss. Partly because I'm a constant student of business management (Yes, I like Peter Drucker and Jack Welch books too). If you haven't seen the CBS show, it about executives at large companies going undercover and work "in the trenches" for a week to see how their operations is really doing. Executives from big brands such as 7-Eleven, Waste Management, Churchill Downs, Chemed (Roto Rooter), and...Hooters have been on the show.

While I think it's gotten formulaic with the executive discovering and recognizing that unsung hero to the rogue manager that is a borderline harassment lawsuit waiting to happen, it's still good TV and reflective of the spectrum of talent you'd find in every large company.

Today, the WSJ ran an article correlating the lift in stock price of many of the companies that have been featured on the show and how they have beaten the S&P. I'm not writing about investment strategies here, but more about customer expectations today and the brand halo effect from Americans seeing executives as "real people."

Waste Management, which was featured in February, saw traffic on its site go up in a few notable areas -- a 256% increase in "become a customer" inquiries, 98% increase in Careers page, and inbound email doubled! Not to mention it's stock is up 9.3%. I believe this is due to "humanizing" the company and executives.

This is about more than a hit show. It's a growing trend that consumers are seeking more transparency from companies today and in a crowded marketplace, any differentiation is a competitive advantage. And social media has been a driving force behind this! Whether it's 'straight talk' on corporate blogs (such as when GM's CEO blogged during its bankruptcy proceedings) or responding to customers on Twitter, consumers expect it and want more of it. eMarketer recently found that consumers trust brands in social media, second only to peers. They even trust brands who are directly speaking to them more than media.



And engaging with consumers in social media actually pays, according to a recent Chadwick Martin Bailey study. It said consumers are more likely to to buy from brands they fan on Facebook or follow on Twitter.



Whether you buy into this theory or not, I recommend you at least catch Undercover Boss on CBS. It sure beats Celebrity Apprentice!

##

I Love Weather Forecasts in Google Calendar!

I don't know how I never noticed this before in Google Calendar. But yesterday I noticed little weather icons integrated seamlessly in my week view for about 3-4 days out. When I click on the icon, a little window pops up with the local forecast details (above).

I know this seems simple, but I've found this quite useful and now I don't need my weather email alerts or my Firefox add-on that I've relied on previously since I'm in my Google Calendar all the time. And now I can cut these other 2 out to minimize information overload! Who doesn't like that?

##

Why Online Grocery Shopping Doesn't Take Off

I've been using Safeway.com for the past several months and now I know why online grocery shopping is still an extremely small percent of total e-commerce revenue and 90-95% of Internet users have never bought groceries online.

In fact, I worked for a major online grocery client about 4 years ago and it's fair to say the market share and the user experience have not changed very much...quite disappointing!

Online grocers tout the benefits of:

• Convenience - saved shopping lists, home delivery
• Larger product assortment - in theory, they can stock some things your local store may not carry
  

When Webvan flamed out with its hub and spoke distribution model years ago, it seemed like it would open doors for Safeway and Peapod, among others, to take over.

Sure, online sales have grown, but it still equals the sales of a handful of its 1700+ offline stores. However, my recent experiences, compared to 3 years ago, have shown little progress in its multi-channel shopping experience.

Unlike other e-commerce sectors, Safeway.com is dealing with some unique challenges:

1. Pickers Because Safeway "pickers" are actually fulfilling your online order from local store inventories (unlike Webvan who had centralized warehouses), you're beholden to what that local store has in stock at the time before your delivery window. Safeway.com does not have adequate inventory management systems to ensure what you ordered will be available at time of fulfillment. Some brick and mortar stores have overcome this similar issue with "order online and pickup in-store" capability that shows stock availability. (One of my favorite examples was Circuit City. --- R.I.P.)

2. Perishables. We customers are very picky with groceries, especially meats and produce. Webvan had pretty good quality and Safeway is more spotty. Their pickers don't scrutinize produce as much as you would. But look at it from their perspective. Despite their best intentions, if a picker selects nothing for your order, you're p.o.'ed. If he selects something below par, you're upset. But sending something lets them recognize revenue; sending nothing doesn't.

But selling perishables online also means inventory can vary a lot and advanced ordering fulfilled by a local store makes order management quite difficult operationally.

3. In-person Home Delivery and Receipt. Unlike receiving a non-perishable item from Amazon.com, you do need to be present when Safeway.com arrives. For Safeway, this means they must deliver what they have in stock at that time. There is no telling the customer it's on back order and will be there the next day or week.

4. All or Nothing. With online grocery, there's kinda an all or nothing outcome, especially if you are relying on Safeway.com for all your household's weekly needs. And you don't know what you will get or not get until the driver arrives at your door with your order! On one of our recent orders, all the meats we ordered (a week's worth) were not available! So we ended up having to go to our other preferred grocery store during the work week in order to prepare dinners for the week, thus defeating the purpose and convenience of online ordering and home delivery to begin with. Recipes can be screwed last minute if you were counting on a key ingredient!

Overall, the concept is great, but the inventory issue does suck. Here are some of my recent substitutions or mistakes Safeway made:

• Cinnamon raisin bagels, instead of plain bagels
• Blackberries, instead of blueberries
• Yogurt, single single serving sizes got replaced by the economy size. How am i supposed to bring that to work?
• Moldy garlic
  

And then we had some delivery issues:

• 2 yogurt containers arrived broken and open. We got charged for them anyways
• Gin bottle from another order cracked and spilled on my order. No reconciliation or discount code for next order. The driver tried to wipe it off all our food products but you can only do so much with a wet cereal box!
  

As well as customer service problems:

• A discount promo code they mailed me didn't work online. After submitting an online customer support form, it took them 2 days to reply with a form letter telling us to try the code again. Clearly, I had abandoned my cart 2 days ago and got my grocery needs met elsewhere! Surprisingly, they didn't even offer me a new discount code to encourage me to try them again!

In the past 3 months, I've probably had 6 deliveries and NOT ONCE did my order get filled 100%.

I keep hearing Safeway commercials that claim: Get what you want, when you want it. That's our promise. Isn't that false advertising?

One kudo: Despite having unfilled orders every time, my Safeway.com driver is always very nice and friendly. I tried tipping him initially a few times but he says it's against company policy and gives me a warm smile. Don't shoot the messenger...er, delivery man...for inventory issues.

##

Musings from AdWeek's Social Media Strategies Conference

How come I always end up indoors for conferences on the most beautiful days of the year in San Francisco? Today was no different for AdWeek's Social Media Strategies conference at Fort Mason.

A well attended crowd of brand advertisers, agencies, and Silicon Valley techies.

My personal highlight of the conference was sitting about 20 feet away for a keynote from one of my favorite entertainers from the 80's turned social media maven, MC Hammer (a.k.a. @mchammer). Here's what I enjoyed from Hammertime:

1. Social media is to Hollywood like Napster was to music. Hammer felt entertainment companies and labels were doomed and are too slow to adapt.
2. Social media is about being at the center of your brand. He was referring to the importance of listening and joining in conversations to give people a more holistic perspective of who you are, which led to this comment:
3. "I'm more than just about parachute pants!" Enough said.
   
4. You can't wait until disaster strikes before you decide to setup a Twitter account. That will be too late and you'd be tweeting to 2 followers!
5. Not a fan of ghost Twitterers for brands. You can't outsource this to Asia.
6. He felt MySpace still had a place in the world as a music destination and wanted to see better filters for music discovery. Wasn't a fan of the deals they have cut with labels.
   
7. "I look at Facebook and I see a diamond mine." He was suggesting he could do something to monetize a site that has 250-300 million users
   
8. If you're a 9 year old living in the 'hood, walk to the Oakland Coliseum to increase your odds of finding something to sell 50,000 fans. Ok, this last one was a great childhood story Hammer shared that you had to be there to fully appreciate! But it was related to the opportunity one has when you aggregate large audiences, like Facebook
   

Then Gap Inc and AKQA presented a great example of an integrated social media campaign "Born to Fit" that promoted their totally redesign jeans. They showed some cool stuff they did on Facebook, a StyleMixer iPhone app, and a contest on Polyvore. It was interesting they said driving sales was not the goal and they measured the campaign success along these criteria:

1. Actual user behavior (e.g., traffic, clicks)
2. # of fans/followers
3. Consumer comments
4. An in-depth ComScore study
5. Buzzmetrics data
6. Press coverage
   

All of those are great metrics other brands should be using. Frustrates me when clients try to measure social media like direct response and assumes everyone is at the bottom of the funnel. So, I give Gap a lot of credit for this.

Then a bunch of my peers from the digital marketing industry talked about the usual stuff I always hear at conferences and debate internally as well. Things like who owns social media in a client's company. How does one measure social media? How can brands get started? What works for smaller brands? Yada yada yada...

There was also a basic "how to" lesson on leveraging Twitter that didn't teach me anything I didn't know, but was delivered by a very entertaining duo who are supposedly the real people behind @bettydraper and @roger_Sterling from my favorite show Mad Men. They also talked about "prom king brands," which are naturally cool brands that can easily get followers and fans in social media. Like the NBA or Ashton Kutcher. But other brands have to work at it and give people a reason to follow them. I agree. There is almost no excuse for prom king brands to not be involved in social media! The last thing that I took takeaway from their preso was to start following @shitmydadsays. Awesome! See for yourself.

Ok, maybe they taught me 2 things after all.

Gotta crash after a long day...

##

Cash for Clunkers Trickle Down Effect

Much has been discussed in the past few weeks on the unexpected success of the government's Cash for Clunkers program and the recent $2 billion extension.

No doubt automotive manufacturers, dealers and all the working class people on the assembly line in middle America got a major boost financially from this program. President Obama's administration had conjectured that this program would in turn stimulate all those people to increase consumption that will help lift us out of this recession.

But there are some interesting, unexpected beneficiaries of this program as well.

Sodium silicate providers. Who? What? For car dealers to receive government reimbursement for "clunker" trade-ins, they must agree to "kill" the old cars using a method the government recommends: Drain the engine of oil and replace it with two quarts of a sodium-silicate solution.

Scrapyards. Once "killed," guess where those cars went? The first installment of the program funded the demolition of about 250,000 cars. Good times for Sanford and Son!

Satellite radio. Even folks at Sirius XM who reported a $157 million quarterly loss last week are looking to benefit from the program. How? They had cut deals with many of the automotive OEMs before the downturn to pre-install new vehicles with the satellite radios.

Who may not be too happy about the success of the program? Auto repair shops who won't get to service those "clunkers." But, hey, they had a good run for the past 2 years as penny-pinching consumers deferred new car purchases to keep their current ones a little longer.

##

Better to work for Microsoft (Bing) or GM?

For the past 2 weeks, there have been 2 major business news events.

1. Microsoft/Yahoo! search partnership. Unless you've been living in a cave, you've heard about this so I won't go into it here.

2. The government's Cash for Clunkers program is working so well that it's already burned through its original $1 billion funding in first week! Almost every automotive manufacturer is claiming July is their best sales month for the past year.

So, what could these 2 events possibly have in common?
Well, I am posing this question -- Would you rather be working for Microsoft battling Google or working for GM to turn the company around?

Both are similar challenges in my mind. You have to convince consumers to switch from their current preferences to your low market share brand.


Comscore states Bing is making some progress. Its search share went from 8.0% to 8.4% from May to June. I guess that's progress. But Google holds nearly 70% share. The bad news is most consumers still can't tell the difference and many use Google out of habit. It will indeed take something dramatic like the Yahoo! deal to move the needle for Microsoft. But they're just buying share. The marketing and engineering group at Microsoft still faces an uphill challenge shifting consumer perception...and behavior.



Now, let's look at GM. Its US market share has dropped like a rock in water for the past 2 decades (18.9% in July). Last year it lost its #1 global leader, by volume, title to Toyota. Years of making boring cars and having too many brands or makes (in my opinion) led to its bankruptcy filing recently. Now that it has exited in just over a month, it has much to do to rebuild consumer confidence in the auto manufacturer. While Microsoft faces 1 formidable foe, GM faces many Japanese, Korean, American, and German competitors. Perhaps its return to leasing with partner GMAC and the $2 billion extension of the Cash for Clunkers program will help stimulate sales.

Right now, I applaud the men and women who are working for either company and wish them luck in the battle that lies ahead...

##

Be prepared to fork over extra $50K to Facebook for contests or custom tabs

More signs of Facebook trying to monetize its popular site this past week...

1. Contests on Facebook - I am trying to setup a contest on a client's Facebook Page. Even though it's being hosted on a different server, FB considers it on their site since it occurs within the Page environment. A contest like this requires a Letter of Indemnification for FB. And to pay for their lawyers' time, FB requires a $50K media commitment and setting up a direct sales account with a rep. That's quite a billing rate for those FB lawyers! Even if they spend 10 hours to review and process the LOI, that's $5,000/hr! Impressive!

The more shocking thing is when we asked for a copy of this new policy at FB:

our legal team actually doesn’t have a public policy for the spend requirement for running contests/sweeps on Pages. It’s an internal policy, which apparently is very common for these types of circumstances.

"Common for these types of circumstances?" What?!? This is unchartered territory here for social media marketing. Sounds like lawyer BS if you ask me.


2. iFrames on a custom tab - One of our iCrossing developers was looking for an iFrame application to build a custom tab on Page. We asked FB about it.

We do indeed have a Facebook Iframe application that we make available to our direct advertising partners that have a current campaign in place.

You know what that means. $50K minimum media spend and setting up a direct sales account. Cha-ching for FB again!

Of course, this is not documented anywhere either.

It all feels a little shady if you ask me. For anything interesting you want to do on Facebook, you need a media commitment it seems. No wonder why advertisers are hesitant to invest in social media! Facebook even makes it tough for agency partners to help our clients invest on Facebook with all this craziness.

In the words of Jerry Maguire -- Facebook, "help me, help you!"

##

A Few Interesting Offline Observations Today

Despite working online and spending way too much time on a computer and on the Internet, I still do enjoy reading offline publications. As I've mentioned in the past, I'm an avid WSJ print edition reader. And Thursdays is my favorite because it's the tech edition, featuring Walt Mossberg. Today, as I was reading his Mossberg Mailbox, something caught my eye.



Walt was directing a reader to one of his old product reviews and listed the URL. In the past, he's included the full URL and because the way his site is structured, it's often a very long path with lots of /'s. But to my surprise today, he listed a short URL using bit.ly. While bit.ly is often discussed in reference to Twitter, I have never seen it in print before! Often times, authors are promoting their websites and want people to not only to go to their site but also to do some brand awareness building from just the impression in the publication. But using a URL shortener would obviously defeat that purpose and readers can't click through from a print document to see your actual URL. I guess if you're as famous as Walt Mossberg, you don't need to promote yourself any further =)

As long as I'm talking about print publications, I was also skimming my latest issue of OMMA today and laughed when I saw this ridiculous job title!



If you work for Nielsen Online, the digital arm of Nielsen, why do you need Digital in your department name? Isn't that implied if you're in the online division? No disrespect to Pete Blackshaw here. But come on? Nielsen Online Digital Strategic Services? No one, not even someone in the copywriter group, read that and thought it was redundant???

I know Intel was getting trashed today by "arm chair branding geeks" for its announced product line name changes. And they have a very complex problem, given what they sell, and as a former brand strategist, I don't think there is one "correct" answer. But this Nielsen thing seems like a no-brainer.

##

5 Interesting Things I Learned about Twitter at SMX Advanced

Reflecting back on my Seattle trip early this week to attend SMX Advanced, the Twitter session and the amount of questions and discussions about Twitter overall stood out in my mind.

Even though I live and drink the social media Kool Aid daily, I learned a few things about Twitter that I thought I'd share in this post (in no particular order).

1. Twitter will ban your account for various reasons. One audience member claimed this could happen if you tweet a lot more links rather than real conversation messages. Or if you follow a lot of people in a short time period. Apparently, all of this makes Twitter think you're likely a Twitter spammer.
2. Several attendees had questions about how do you separate personal and business accounts if you have a very visible and successful Twitter company account managed by someone who could leave the company any day...and all that equity on Twitter goes out the door with him/her. For example, if Tony Hsieh left Zappos or if Frank left Comcast, what would happen to those accounts and their loyal followers? What should companies do to "protect" such a scenario? Interesting situation to think about...
   
3. Not all URL shorteners are created equal. Beware of those that don't do 301 redirects. Danny Sullivan wrote a great guide based on his in-depth evaluation of URL shorteners. His top suggestion? Bit.ly. Mine too.
   
4. On the subject of URL shorteners, I'm starting to think twice about clicking on a shortened URL from people I don't really know or trust since one has no idea where that link takes you. I might end up getting my computer hijacked!
   
5. Learned about Easytweets, a good tool for brands to manage multiple accounts at once, monitor mentions of your brand or other keywords continuously, and get alerts via SMS or email. I added them to my list of client recommendations for a good Twitter management tool.
   

##

Proving the Value of Forum Engagement - SMX Advanced

Today I attended SMX Advanced in Seattle, which had surprisingly nice weather. This was definitely a more digitally savvy group than other conferences I've attended recently, but I guess that's why they call it "advanced."

I had the privilege of speaking on a panel on "Proving Social Media's Value" and was joined by Ben Straley of Meteor Solutions, Tarla Cummings of Location3 Media, and Tony Adam from Yahoo! Chris Sherman from Search Engine Land moderated.

Ben's company helps clients track the "pass along" effect from online campaigns. Whether it's a retweet, email forward, or IM forward, he made the case that looking at traditional site traffic referral site logs undervalues the WOM effect. He showed some great data with the group and how niche sites (based on referral traffic) can some times spread the word better than the perceived high traffic sites.

I then presented a way to measure forum engagement, based on allocating a revenue value for promoters and detractors, a concept based on Net Promoter. The key takeaway was that public forums offer companies a way to improve their brand perception (if done right) and win over detractors. And I presented some simple math to calculate the incremental revenue lift from doing so. I won't do into it to much here, just check out my presentation below instead.

Proving Social Media's Value (Forum ROI model) - SMX Advanced

View more OpenOffice presentations from Edmund Wong.

Tarla, a fellow online agency representative, shared a case study for a hotel client of a marketing campaign they designed, managed, and measured from start to finish. They pushed out promo codes over, Twitter, Facebook, and SMS, among the usual online marketing tactics. She tracked the usual conversion metrics and also the # of fans/followers acquired, email sign-ups, and retweets. So while the campaign broke even in terms of revenue vs. marketing spend, she argued there was future value in the opt-in fans, followers, and mobile contacts.

Tony, who made it clear that he's not from the Search side of the business, talked about how hard it was for him to convince Yahoo! execs internally to invest more in social media. He shared tips on how to do that, such as showing competitive examples.

Side note: The free lunch that was provided for conference attendees was awesome! Kudos to Third Door Media and others who planned that part of the conference! =)

##

Pharma companies match "assurance" programs from auto companies

First, the auto companies were offering special assurances that if you got laid off, you wouldn't have to worry about your auto loan payment and could return the car. Kudos to Hyundai for its ground-breaking Hyundai Assurance program. Obviously, this was designed to stop the steep decline in new auto sales since last year.



But, last week, Pfizer upped the ante with their MAINTAIN program that lets recently unemployed and uninsured Americans continue to take more than 70 of their drugs for free for up to 12 months!

Eligibility requirements of the new program include:

• Loss of employment since January 1, 2009
• Prescribed and taking a Pfizer medicine for at least 3 months prior to becoming unemployed and enrolling in the program
• Lack of prescription drug coverage
• Can attest to financial hardship

This even includes blockbusters Viagra and Lipitor! Yes, Viagra -- so, if you're depressed because you lost your job, I'm sure you can think of some way to lift your spirits. =)

Big pharma gets kicked around a lot and with all the talk in Washington about health care reform, this is a very innovative and impressive move by Pfizer. You guys rock!

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