Advertising fun

We’ve been seeing this commercial run in the evenings and fall off the couch laughing.   I assume this was done by the Martin Agency, the wonderfully quirky firm that brought us the Gecko and the Cavemen series of ads for Geico.  None of these have made me switch, but they have created a positive feeling toward Geico as a company through some kind of transference. 

If I don’t switch to Geico, is the ad still effective for having been only memorable and entertaining?   Perhaps so.   Now with DVR and satellite, we either record shows we want and watch them at other times, blasting through the commercials with the FF key, or delay watching in prime time by 20 mins or so which allows us to FF through the commercials and catch up by the end of the show.   So, a commercial has to be engaging to make us stop and watch it, even go back and watch it repeatedly.  This one did, but in the end, was it effective in driving conversion or simply providing entertainment?

Week in Cozumel

 The early drive to the airport, security and customs, plane changes, hours spent packed into the inevitable middle seat somewhere in the depths of coach, and the overstuffed suitcase of anxiety I packed along, soon melted away as I found the bottom of my third Mojito.

The resort was perhaps twenty percent full, so we perpetually enjoyed our pick of deck chairs, attentive staff, quiet hallways, and plenty of  personal space at the pools, bars, and restaurants.  One could be as adventurous or as restive as they desired.

By late morning, perhaps a third of the chairs around the pool were in use, and we swam, ate and drank, and socialized with other couples between activities led by the entertainment staff. 

We participated in water aerobics daily, which I thought would have been a joke, but it wound being more challenging, especially in co-ordination and balance than I would have imagined.    We reasoned that this daily act somehow partially redeemed us for our other indulgences.

Water volleyball, decorative food carving , drink mixology, ping pong, snorkeling along the shore,  and variety of campy games in the pool whiled away the afternoon hours.

Activities and entertainment every evening, from Casino night, to Mariachi bands, singers, dancers, and the extremely popular fire show kept things lively.  

I took a number of photos of the fireshow, but couldn’t begin to do it justice.  The men and women performing were truly spectacular.  A few stills I captured from this week in October, and then a short Youtube video uploaded by someone else back in July, yield a better sense of what it was all about.  I recommend the video.    I wonder if Lucas saw something like this when he dreamed up the light saber battles?

 

 

 

We experienced a lot of things and took a lot of pictures, but I don’t want this post to become the Web 2.0 equivalent of showing a whole bunch of slides of “our vacation” to a hapless dinner party audience.

I will note that we spent a morning on a “swim with the dolphins”  experience, but I’ll leave that for another post entirely.

The work week looms, and my inbox is a sea of red.

Anniversary escape

No, I’m not trying to get out of my 3rd anniversary, rather I’m embracing and celebrating it with my wife Leslie.    As much as I’m looking forward to getting away for a bit, I’m always anxious about all the things we will be entrusting to the care of others in our absence.  From the feeding and care of frequently neurotic pets, to the anxiety of unanswered workplace challenges, it can be hard to temporarily unplug and relinquish responsibilty and control.  Man, I need to escape for a while…

Hopefully this place will do the trick.  I’m looking forward to settling into one of those lounge chairs with a cool drink,  holding my wife’s hand and letting  my anxieties wash away with the tide.

Facebook capitulation

To this point, I shunned Facebook, Twitter and many of the more prominent social networks because I didn’t see them as being particularly valuable to me.   I’ve chaffed against what I perceive as the “willy nilly” social campaigns that seek to build followers, friends, etc, and have focused my time on what I thought was a higher return on investment working through blogging and forums, and analytical monitoring.

For me, blogs and forums have more applied substance – more topical content, a defined framework, and a reputation management system that shapes and influences human behavior within the network.   Forums are especially appealing to me because of the value momentum that gets built over time – the critical self sustaining mass of contextual interactions.

Today I capitulated and joined Facebook for a variety of reasons.   Perhaps ironic that I join this now after having been involved in social media for several years.   After just a few minutes sorting through a number of friend requests, and seeing the subsequent list of recommended mutual friends, and exploring a few of their social circles, I quickly grasped just how evident the six degrees of separation concept seems to be.  Where Facebook might lack some depth, focus, and complexity, it shines in breadth, flexibility and the power of discovery. 

I think this will be good for me – what blogs, forums, and analytics have done to help me understand application of content, search optimization, and creation of business value, Facebook is going to help me develop more understanding of discovery and  networking.

Who knows, I might even give in to twitter…

My magnificent mile experience

“ How did you enjoy your first event?”, my wife asked as we climbed into the car and headed home.  As I responded with my standard “It was pretty good” , I thought about the experience and decided it was definitely better than pretty good.

I had been aware of the Magnificent Mile , now in its fourth year,  not only because the company I work for has sponsored it but also because it was co-founded by the wife of an employee.     In previous years, this just wasn’t my kind of thing, and I stayed on the sidelines, but as I got to know this employee more this year and saw not only that this was a worthwhile cause, but how deeply vested he was personally, it was definitely the year to get involved.

Arriving a bit early, we collected our packets, T-shirts and pinned on our entry numbers.   Leslie has entered other events including a 1/2 marathon three years ago, and while she hasn’t kept up her training, she certainly knew the ropes.   Knowing we had done absolutely nothing to prepare for this other than getting in the car, we wisely decided to enter the  1 mile fun run vs the men or women’s competitive events.

Seeing the competitive runners, especially the elite was an amazing experience.   The men’s winner returned in 4:09 I believe.   That’s just a gnats whisker short of a sustained 15 mile and hour sprint for an entire mile.   For someone who might only run a little faster than 10 miles an hour while being chased by a swarm of yellow jackets, having found their nest while driving fence posts several weeks ago, 15 miles an hour is just a crazy speed, especially for the space of a mile.  I know, I’ve done the math on some marathon runs, and know there are supermen among us who can hold that pace over 26 miles.   Still, it’s just math on paper until you see the lead runner streak by, breaking the tape at the finish.

The Women’s event followed, and some were equally impressive in their own right.   Leslie pointed out the serious among the ranks as they stretched and prepared themselves.   Sure enough, an elite runner, wearing the #2 entry tag, completed the loop somewhere around 5 mins.  So short an interval that the back of the pack was barely out of view by the time she was back and bearing down on the finish.

All of this made even more of an impact on me as those of us in the recreational run loosely assembled ourselves at the starting line.   We met several other couples from work and chatted about whether we were going to run or walk.   I had every intention of just walking, but when everyone took off, after a couple of steps, I felt compelled to start trotting after pack.   Leslie joined in and we ran together for a little while, but we know from past experience that we have very different strides and it’s awkward at best for us to run together.  We threaded our way forward along the first 1/4 mile and being unconditioned, I wasn’t sure how far I was going to be able to go.    Rounding the back of the capital and reaching the half way point, I developed a cramp in my side and slowed back to a walk.  Perhaps the chili-cheeseburger and 32 oz sweet tea an hour before the run wasn’t such a good plan.  After half a block things eased up and my lungs had recovered a bit.   Checking my watch, I noted that 5 mins had elapsed – not too bad as we were now past the 1/2 way point.  I started running again and despite the fact that I felt better, I knew I had a way to go and wanted to cross the line with some composure.   I mostly managed that, and wrapped up the run in under 10 mins.  Six miles and hour average, an average drug down by my walking.

I still don’t like distance running, but I think a mile, or even a 5k might be a good distance to keep oneself in shape to be able to run on demand.   I think I’ll work a bit this year and see if I can take two mins off my time for next year.   If I could do that, who knows?

The event was rewarding – it reminded me how much we take our general health for granted, and how many people are afflicted with degenerative diseases.   Maybe this also inspired me to step away from the keyboard and get in a little better shape before my 40th birthday now looming at the start of 2010.

 

Why Community, why forums? – revisited

About two and a half years ago, I was working through the business case to launch a community and I wrote about why I thought forums were a potentially high value opportunity for an enterprise to invest in.  At the time, I was focused more on the human side of the equation, and the interpersonal dynamics.    These are still the right things at the core of the community, but what do you do with it once you have it?   What business objectives are met by the community?    

Looking at the results from MyFICO, shared in a guest blog post by Barry Paperno, community manager of MyFICO, we find a number of ways in which a forum can be harnessed to deliver tangible benefits.  Quoting some of his results…

“Lowering support call volume and length: The community contributed significantly to overall customer service inquiries declining over the last year by 1% (vs. 23% growth the year prior). myFICO also directs about 10% of callers to the community for more detailed user-to-user help, helping to decrease myFICO’s average support call length.

Attracting new customers:Community URLs have grown to account for 39% of all myFICO.com traffic from search engines, significantly helping FICO achieve its Web marketing goals.

Driving sales: The community helps FICO achieve its sales goals in two ways -  the average spend of a customer jumps 66% after they join the myFICO community, and  13% of all myFICO online sales involve viewing a community page.

Enhancing the customer experience: Facilitating user access to helpful educational content and advice helps myFICO deliver a satisfying customer experience, a key component of the company’s strategy to attract new customers and enhance the loyalty of existing customers.”

In challenging economic times, where spending on social media can be scrutinized or completely cut by those who think it unnecessary window dressing, it is important to keep discussion focused on what your social programs are delivering.   Attract new clients, increase sales conversion rate and average spend, and lower support costs.  Three very tangible, very measurable benefits.

I remain more convinced that a well designed, well implemented and operated community is a strategic priority for investment because it builds equity over time.   I see so many companies engage in various social media campaigns in which  sizable investments are made for a set interval of time to create a site, contest or promotion, with a set of  required customer activities.   At the end of the campaign, the party is over, the lights are turned off and what is there to show for it?   Do customers stick around, do they convert to the brand and continue to provide tangible and ongoing benefit?   What is that ongoing benefit and how is it  measured and tracked?  

MyFICO and other successful communities are adept at building momentum, quantifying and tracking the growth in their equity, investment, and ultimately dividends on that investment over time.

Part of the groundswell

Yesterday, I pushed the submit button for our entry in the support category of Forrester’s Groundswell award site.   I see that we are in excellent company, and reading through some of the  submissions of others I can see that it will be challenging to choose a winner.  With six different categories represented, it is clear to me that the groundswell is growing and many top companies are taking it seriously and have invested wisely to involve their customers constructively in social networks. 

The great folks at Lithium have been extremely supportive, and ScottD was gracious enough to cover our entry in his blog.  I’m glad for the interview format, and wish we had an opportunity to get more of our customers,  our collaborator’s stories out there, because the community is successful because of them, not because of me.   Toward the end of the post, Jane references my comment about throwing the customers the keys.   I wrote that post a couple of weeks before we launched the community, and now almost two years later, I see that it is turning out better than I expected.  

 Still, I know that there is more gold in the hills -  there is untold talent out there in the customer base, and I’ve only gotten to know a small portion of it so far.  There are jet pilots,  graphic designers, engineers, students,  and all manner of experts, many of whom have advanced degrees and years of experience.  The community is an opportunity to bring all that capability together and to harness it in as many ways that create value for others as possible.  

I’m looking forward to the miles ahead -  I think we are just getting warmed up!

August was a blur

August is fast drawing to a close and I’ve not kept up my blogging here, though I’ve had good intent.

Three weeks ago, I attended a nephew’s third birthday at “Pump it Up” an indoor funhouse made out of inflated slides,obstacle courses and bouncing trampoline kind of stuff.  I tried to take some decent pictures, but imagine 15-20 three year olds zooming around, and you get a sense of why almost all of the pictures came out as focused backgrounds with blurred blobs of color in the foreground. 

 The pictures featuring multiple kids at play reminded me of those traffic studies of car lights at night taken as time exposure shots.   Except this was occurring in real time.     I did get some quieter still shots when it was time for cake and ice cream.   Following the big party, we had another one at home with family and more presents.   I think his first bike, given by his grandparents, was a big hit.

About two weeks ago, my cat of of 16 years turned ill, and had to spend the night in the kitty hospital.  I thought pet insurance was a joke, but after you pay out for a night or two of these kinds of emergency services,  it starts to make sense.   It’s been a tough couple of weeks getting meds into her via syringe (mixed with baby food – chicken & rice), and administering sub-cutaneous fluids via our pot rack turned IV bag holder.  

She seems to be on the mend now and has her strength has returned these treatments are proving neigh impossible.   Imagine trying to stick a needle in a running Cuisenart.   Hopefully another week and things will be back to normal. 

I’ve been fencing.  No foils, mesh face-masks or white suits.   Touche’. 

No, I’m trying to finish a fence around the entire property that I started in 2001 before I divided it up and sold half to my neighbor and good friend.   Wouldn’t you know, we started on his side first and so it’s done.   I put the rest on hold when I started the house planning back in 2003.   It is roughly 2/3 of a mile around the perimeter – and that’s a lot of  T-posts to pound, post holes to dig, timbers to plant, cement to mix, and wire to stretch, staple and tie in my “spare” time.  It didn’t seem this hard 8 years ago…  Truth told, I’m really not complaining.  I’ll get some neighborly help to stretch and tie the 12 guage wire fabric, and in the mean time, I’ve enjoyed the physical labor.  Too much PC time has left me out of shape.  

At work, I’ve been dividing time amongst the routine fire-fighting,  updates to our community, including a very cool addition that’s still very much in Alpha test, and pursuing my own experiments with long tail marketing to build support  for the initiatives I’m involved in.  This last piece has been a bit outside my comfort zone – there are elements of risk, but almost nothing except added pounds are gained by staying on the couch.

Chuck Lorre vanity cards

If you are paying attention while watching Two and a Half Men or the Big Bang Theory, you will note the appearance of an Easter egg of sorts – a black text on white background image that lasts but a scare moment at the end of each show.   It’s best to DVR the show and use the pause function to allow yourself time to read and digest the hilarity of Chuck Lorre.

Chuck thoughtfully numbers each of these little nuggets of wit, and archives them thoughtfully on his website.

Sometimes these are censored, and you will have to go to the site to find the original version.  Here’s a fine example.   I rather like that one, not for the original joke that was stricken, but rather for Chuck’s thoughts on network execs being made unhappy by having to go to meetings with angry people.  

I love it.

Is ‘Social Media’ becoming a tired term?

I have social media in my job title at work as that’s a convenient way of succinctly summarizing what I do.  Or is it?   

Several years ago, “Social Media” was a convenient term to bundle together a variety of web based platforms and tools that created ways for individuals to create and publish their own content, to interact with others, and to manage and organize content for easier consumption by themselves and others.    

I suppose that is still a fair definition, but as many of these technologies and platforms become increasingly mainstream,  they no longer reflect something new and separate that needs to be labeled, discussed, and analyzed apart from the way people and business function primarily operate.     As such, perhaps working in this space isn’t uniquely a job function best defined by these social tools.

As this continues to evolve, does “social media” fade away as an all encompassing term?  Will Facebook, Twitter and their like become self explanatory terms the way Television, Radio, and the newspaper are today?   

So, does social media still fit?   If not, what is it evolving into -what’s the new superset term?

Update:  I appear to be a little over a month late with this thought.  Steve Woodruff posted along the same lines, and did a much more credible job back in June.    I do think that personal and business objectives will move to the forefront, and focus on venue, tools, measures as objectives unto themselves will fade into the background.    I’ve got to think about what is the core of my business value and rethink my own personal branding.  Social is the venue at the moment, but it’s really just a most recent iteration of what I do, which is probably to analyze needs and foster positive change – I’m a fixer, perhaps…