360DigitalInfluence

Ten years ago, sharing photographs and videos meant snail-mailing content to family and friends. Now, sharing photographs and videos are a digital activity, with online sharing sites and smart phones applications like Instagram, Path, and PicPlz being quickly integrated into daily social media regimens.

Enter Color: the latest mobile photo application drawing mixed reviews about the application. Prior to Color’s launch, Sequoia Capital, considered “one of the highest caliber venture firms” by Wall Street Journal, invested $25 million,  Bain Capital invested $9 million, and Silicon Valley Bank provided $7 million in venture debt, presenting Color with an accumulative $41 million in funding.  Since its launch, the application has received 2/5 stars based on over 600 reviews on the iTunes App Store. Commentary has noted the application’s function as a stalking mechanism, others have expressed that the user interface is not very intuitive, and the most reoccurring question I’ve encountered is, “is Color worth $41 million?”

Despite this feedback, Color attracted adoption and positive reactions from technology elites, including Tristan Walker of FourSquare, Joshua Williams of Gowalla, and David Heinemeier Hansson of Ruby on Rails. Within a week of its public debut, Color is ranked second in number of downloads for social network applications, just behind Facebook. After having the opportunity to use this application over the past few days, I have come to two conclusions: 1.) I am shamelessly addicted and 2.) It is indeed an important product that has high business potential.

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In just a few weeks, members of Ogilvy’s 360^o Digital Influence and Social Marketing teams will be heading to Dublin for the World Social Marketing Conference – an annual meet-up of social marketing practitioners from across the globe. Several of us will be giving presentations and leading expert panel discussions.

Can’t make the conference this year? 

We’ll be live-tweeting and blogging from some of the most compelling sessions at the conference, including discussions on Web 2.0 and its implications for health-related social marketing campaigns, using social marketing to reach youth for HIV awareness and risk-reduction, and applying social network theory to social media interventions. Join the conversation April 11 and 12 on Twitter using the hashtag “#ogilvywsm” and on Ogilvy’s 360^o Digital Influence, WomenOlogy and Social Marketing ExCHANGE blogs.

Stay tuned for more information on how Ogilvy can help you stay on top of the most intriguing issues at this year’s WSMC.

Following our update on Foursquare’s latest features last week, it’s timely that we check back in on Facebook Places as well. Even though Business Insider recently reported that the number of Foursquare users has doubled since Facebook Places launched last August, there’s still plenty of reason to keep an eye on the social networking Goliath. With the largest base of users, who are now checking in globally, it’s clear that Facebook’s location-based service is still a major player to watch. And recently, new statistics and features provide further light on the role Facebook Places is setting up to hold.

Local Businesses Prefer Facebook Places

To be expected, places with the highest check-ins on Facebook and other location-based services are the ones that receive mass traffic, especially transport hubs. A top Facebook statistics portal, Socialbakers.com, shared last week that Los Angeles International Airport is the site with the most check-ins on Facebook worldwide (more than 200,000 to date). However, widespread adoption of location-based services will also be impacted by the perspective of local business owners. How are the businesses people visit everyday engaging with their customers? A survey from February suggests Facebook Places may already be a clear leader.

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According to a PRWeek article, the FDA has officially delayed releasing guidelines for social media, once again. As our team has shared before, social media guidelines are simply not a priority (at least until 2013) for the FDA. Waiting for these guidelines to come is akin to sitting in a busy hospital ER after a major accident waiting to get treated for a skinned knee … you’ll be waiting a while.

Now is the time to face a reality that most Pharma brands have never really admitted to themselves … that guidelines are unlikely to come anytime soon simply because it is not urgent for the FDA to focus on. In the meantime, the FDA will continue to prioritize the more important activities they are responsible for - and any significant guidance is unlikely to come in the near future until something forces the FDA to treat this as a more urgent request.

This lack of guidance has meant that pharma brands are forced to operate in the dark when it comes to social media. The lack of guidance has led to many misunderstandings and angst over warning letters sent for digital marketing efforts, and as a result many valuable patient education efforts have been stalled in the hopes that guidelines would be coming soon.

Most thought leaders working in social media for pharma brands will share that there is already a way to use social networks and tools to offer value to patient communities, support HCP communications and otherwise make a positive impact in communications. The lesson any pharma brand should take from this latest delay is that waiting for some guidelines is no longer a viable alternative to moving ahead with the strategic use of social media.

It’s time to move on.

I have a confession.

When I have a bad day, I turn not to my boyfriend or my family, but to Ruth Bourdain. I laugh. I smile. I feel better about life. And I engage. Frankly, I engage much more than I ever would with any of my in real-life Twitter friends, let alone the brands I follow.

What is it about my dear (totally fake) friend Ruth B that captures my heart, so much more than (the totally real) @RuthReichl or @NoReservations? Is it those dark locks above his/her avatar’s mysterious eyes? Our shared love of offal? Or just his/her biting wit? I’m thinking the latter. And @RuthBourdain is just one of a number of fake Twitter personae with sizable followings: @FakeAPStylebook has over 200,000 followers, while the original @APStylebook only has  72,000. Why is the fake beating the real?

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I have been in the question mode for the past few weeks. I am currently trying to buy a home in a city that I have only lived in for two years and feel like I lack the resources needed to handle such a large milestone. So I took to Facebook and asked of my friends in this fair city who they recommend.

Real Estate agent– check
Mortgage broker – check
Closing Lawyer –check
Accountant – check (everyone needs one of those!)

A few haphazard (and slightly frantic) status updates and I had names and numbers for every need from friends that I value their opinions and recommendations. Genius!

So how does this type of random query among a group of friends affect the larger picture of word of mouth, and more specifically how can my personal experience provide learnings for how I guide my clients?

I conducted my personal research in a rushed manner sans any applications and still received results, but what if I could have not only asked my friends, but their friends too? The chance that one of my friends in Chicago has a friend that is a Real Estate agent, Mortgage Broker, Lawyer or Accountant is probably pretty decent. The recently updated Questions application on Facebook could have been just the tool to do the trick. Facebook Questions allows a user to ask open ended questions and every friend that answers in turn is sharing their recommendation with their own friends. Imagine my anticipated reach from just one question?  

Putting my service provider hat back on, how can this type of functionality help my clients? Having clients in the travel industry, the possibilities seem endless. Acting through an admin a property or destination could run an impromptu poll to decide where they should host their next familiarization trip or offer an open ended question to the favorite restaurants and shops of their fans in a specific region.

This is market research that fans are happy to participate in. They can show off their insider knowledge to help others and in the process are also sharing with their own audience. The sharing can increase exponentially as people are sharing through familiar connections and shared interests.

How do you see brands taking advantage of Facebook Questions?

As SXSW wrapped up I realized that two years had passed since Foursquare made a big splash at SXSW 2009. Time to check-in.

Foursquare has been very busy lately. They added the ability to post photos and comments to check-ins via the iPhone and Android in time for the holidays.

Last August I heard predictions that Facebook Places would be the end of Foursquare, but Business Insider recently reported that Foursquare has actually doubled its user base since Places launched.

And perhaps in a bid to compete with Facebook’s location based deals, Foursquare expanded its Merchant Platform to include five new types of discount offers or “Specials.”

Foursquare’s iPhone app 3.0 showing Specials nearby

Foursquare’s iPhone app 3.0 showing new types of Specials

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Who among us does not enjoy a good social experiment? As you have probably heard by now one of the themes rising out of this year’s SXSWi is the importance of game mechanics and how people engage when a game layer is added to community.

Seth Priebatsch of scvngr.com ended his presentation with a little social experiment that was a great illustration of how the game layer can bring people together. As we entered the auditorium everyone was handed one of two cards that were color coded.

One card was blue on one side and green on the other while the other card was gold on one side and orange on the other. As Seth wrapped up his presentation he announced he was launching a social experiment. The challenge: Without getting out of your seat, work with the people on your row to determine what color card your row was going to be and then negotiate from your seat to get the color card you needed. He gave us a time frame and if we made the time his company would donate $10,000 to a charity. He counted us down and the game began.

On my row and the rows around me, we had several empty seats and while you would think it made it easier to choose a color it was actually harder to communicate. As the game began, each person was created equal because each person in the auditorium was working toward their own goal as well as making their row or team reach their goal - celebrity status did not matter. Quickly, my row decided we would go green, and then the race was on to use our influence to negotiate with the rows and people around us to trade cards so that each person on my row had a green card. We quickly determined how many “greens” we needed and then went about making the necessary trades to secure green cards. The process was exhilarating and challenging and at the end of about 150 seconds, Seth called time and asked each row to hold up their cards.

Personally, I was concerned as I found myself wanting to win and for the charity to win. As we all held up our cards, much to I think everyone’s surprise, we (meaning the entire auditorium of 2,500 people) had accomplished the goal. Each row had come together and worked not just with the people on their row, but also the rows around them. It was quite a moment; 150 seconds and 2,500 people had come together and made the experiment a success.

So why am I so energized by this experiment? I think there are several reasons:

-    While Seth’s presentation was interesting I think his point was made stronger through the “game.”
-    The experiential side of this exercise made it more powerful; this was experiential learning at its best. One of the guys sitting next to me commented that he never thought he would fall for game mechanics but as soon as the challenge was on – he was all in to win.
-    Your influence comes with accountability and responsibility and you never know when you will need to exercise it. Someone sitting in front of me had a minor kerfuffle and I noticed as we started the experiment it took his row longer to embrace him. I could not help but find myself wondering if he was wishing he had made different choices about how he joined that row.

In the end, I think Seth did a great job of proving his point that a game layer not only breeds participation but that it can breed cooperation. However, I also find it troubling that the game layer is what motivates people to come together. I’ll admit the gaming made it more fun but is that what we are becoming as a community? Do we need a game to work together?

Right now, many of us have a solid grasp on how to leverage Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Tumblr to build online communities, promote their latest events/products/services and generate overall buzz about our clients’ brands. But what about LinkedIn?

What about the fact that LinkedIn is reaching 100 million members worldwide as we speak?

Maybe the fact that LinkedIn has company pages that smartly showcase how users are connected to brands and make it easy for them to recommend them?

The knowledge of LinkedIn’s growing recommendation engine that provides insights on companies & jobs that may be perfect for its members?

Today’s launch of LinkedIn’s student job portal that leverages the networks of students & recent graduates to recommend jobs & illustrate connections that may have been forgotten?

Or even LinkedIn’s API development that allows brands the opportunity to tap into LinkedIn’s growing network?

Every one of these opportunities benefit both the user and the brand. Every one is an opportunity for the brand to extend its reach, showcase its prowess, grow its credibility and have the best talent at their companies. We can help our clients do this with LinkedIn. continue reading

I’ve got a lot of thoughts about SxSW.  Frankly, I’m not sure how I’ll synthesize them all into a longer-form post with a modicum of value (perhaps I should hire one of the unbelievably talented Ogilvy Notes artists).

Starter for 10, I pulled a slightly incomplete word cloud based on my Twitter output from Friday-Monday (courtesy of Wordle).

What it tells me … I obviously liked it.  Clearly I met a lot of  great, funny people.  Apparently the iPad was on my brain.  Austin made a big impression on me.  I liked a lot of people, places and things.  I responded to @virginiamiracle quite a bit.  My outfit of choice was jeans.  And I crowdsourced a new word for when someone accidentally takes your drink at Starbucks - Starpluck (I am on an Urban Dictionary kick lately).

Again, I’m still trying to sort out what resonated with me.  Broadly speaking, here are the themes that sparked second and third thoughts, and which I hope to explore in the near future:

Video: I sought out and loved a few sessions on video.  How to make it compelling.  How to make it interactive.  How to make it beautiful.  There is some unbelievably creative stuff going on right now on YouTube, and the future promises to blow our minds.  Check out what the Fine Brothers are doing with ‘choose your own adventure’ style videos.  The opportunities seem endless.

Experimentation: Something I heard everywhere - regardless of the topic at hand - was that experimentation wins.  It’s faster.  It’s more agile.  It often leads to bigger breakthroughs.  Idea to execution in the shortest time can be a winning approach.  Duh, Ian.  I know, but hearing it so many times in so few days is very reinforcing.

Humor: Between the Oatmeal and Baratunde I had plenty of laughs.  Humor entertains.  And entertainment can be a form of engagement.  There’s a right and wrong way to be funny in, say, 140 characters.  What intrigues me is the permission (or not) brands have to be funny (or try to be funny) in social media.  Get it right - you’re beloved.  Get it wrong - get the gong.

Relevance: Our own relevance, that is.  Lots of discussions.  How do we stay relevant?  How do we stay passionate?  How do we discover the next great thing?  How do we innovate - for ourselves, our agencies and our clients?  How to we keep learning?  One answer I heard over and over  (and over and over) was delving into side-projects.  Little things with friends or colleagues.  Not necessarily to make a buck, but rather to make something cool and energizing.  The lingering question … how willing are employers to give their people the white space to experiment?  3M and Google have thrived off this model.  Are you willing to follow that path?  Check out Method & Craft for a really inspiring example of passion-turned-side-project.  Wonderful stuff.

Branded Content Creation and Curation: The role of brand as creator and curator of content was a pervasive theme.  Besides one very dogmatic journalist I saw, everyone seemed to agree that brand as content creator is an unstoppable force. Fraught with issues yet to be sorted?  Sure.  But it’s happening and only promises to grow.  The topic of brand as curator wasn’t as widely discussed in the panels I attended, but I’d argue that’s where the debate should be taking place (best-practices, editorial obligations, rights issues, etc.).

That’s all I’ve got for the time being.  By the way, having been on the outside looking in, I know how ‘noisy’ SxSW seems via Twitter.  I can assure you the madness and mayhem of SxSW has been grossly exaggerated.  It’s quite manageable, sane and enjoyable (with a little planning, and plenty of flexibility).

As you’ll likely hear in every wrap-up post, it’s the people that make SxSW amazing.  So many old and new faces.

Dive in next year - I’m happy to hang with you in a quiet bar over a beer and BBQ.