I Don't Get It

Do you ever post to Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter? For yourself or clients? Please try to use words that people will understand. Avoid acronyms unless they are truly common. Your specialist audience will forgive you, and you'll help tangential influencers get your message. 


This just popped up on my Facebook news feed. If you like Microsoft Visual Studio, it's on your feed too.

It is a post inviting me to click through and get excited about something called ALM. I don't know what ALM means. I feel a little dumb about that. Especially because I see a couple of people liking this.

Imagine you are in a restaurant, and your server smiles and says that the special is a delicious smjörköku. Two of your friends at the table smile at you and say "I like that!" You might feel dumb.

And of course you shouldn't. I know that the title and body copy on this post can be easily edited and customized by the poster. Explain the lingo. Maybe you only care about speaking to people who know your acronyms. I work with developers and think Visual Studio is pretty cool. I am lucky enough to be in a position to influence decisions, but you make it harder for me to help you tell that story when you confuse me.

Fortunately, I did click through. And Thomas offers some great points. The most important mobile applications are customer focused. That's where the customers are. Applications are growing in complexity and live as systems and vehicles of engagement. The cloud changes the game about application delivery. I get that it's important. Devs are hustling to keep up and serve both the business people and the IT people. Visual Studio has features to help developers deploy their applications more easily and efficiently. He's talking about Application Lifecycle Management. Which is a thing that he specializes in.

Thomas also says some weird things. Like "Did you know that water-scrum-fall is the reality for most teams?" But I think it's just because he is an analyst and we communicate differently. Hey the video content can be specialized and technical, that's cool. Just use the Facebook post to set it up and give us the "so what."

• You could have done a better job of distilling the overall concept/story into a more impactful post. Think "executive summary."
• Please give more thought to the accessibility of your social media content language. Careful word choice and sentence structure can make a good post great.

Thanks.

What Are You Lookin' At?

Metrics are big. People sell engagement, relative influence, and community activation as social media goals that they can deliver for you. I wish them luck.

I prefer to deliver revenue. Or reduce the cost of customer acquisition. Directly. How can we use these channels (Facebook, Twitter, et al.) to do that? Yesterday I read that +140,000 people on the internet are mean to this girl. This was a social media campaign to increase Twitter followers. I would be surprised to learn that it sold an incremental unit. And I wouldn't be surprised to hear that it was expensive. There is a whole story about audience reaction unrelated to the product. Something in its telling made me cringe:

 

I'm not a supporter of the video—Teachout explains how it came about like this: A "social media contractor at my advertising agency was charged with making a viral video to acquire more Twitter followers for one of our clients," which is an explanation that makes me want to light myself on fire—but the commenters are really over the top.

 

-Paul Constant, SLOG November 28, 2011.

 

I have a finance background -- my favorite metrics are those closest to your financial statements. Bonus points if your metrics are actual lines on those reports. Their relationships are worth watching too. Unfortunately, most people aren't hip to the acid test ratio, EBITDA, or enterprise value calculation. Raise your hand if you think that Black-Scholes are cool new inserts for your running shoes.

 

So I'm especially irked by metrics that correlate poorly to business results. Can you really look your CFO in the eye and justify a six figure marketing campaign focused on getting a @snoopdogg retweet or ten thousand likers incented by a chance to win a cruise? I didn't think so. Let's say you manage to build that audience. Now what? Ask them to buy your stuff? Why not just put your effort into sales and demand gen in the first place? I love social media strategists even though most of them are punks -- but why not hire another salesperson or two instead?

 

Here are my current top metrics:

• Quick Ratio This ratio tells you about liquidity. Is your business, product group, or region living within its means and aware of timing?
• Profit Margin Analysis Okay maybe this one should be listed first. It's obvious, right? You would be surprised how many people don't understand the difference between margin and profit, or gross and net. School up.
• Return on Assets This is a profitability measure and a good reminder that your business is tying up value in assets (human, capital, or other). Are those assets performing? Is your business or product group worth running, or would the assets it ties up perform better in low risk bonds?
• Revenue per Employee This metric has less to do with profitability and volume and more to do with organizational performance. Do you have the right mix of people on your team? Where would you add or subtract an incremental resource, and what effect would that have on this metric? What if you tracked Net Profit per Employee instead?

You can track whatever you want. I can't stop you. But at least try to care about the accounting. Drive gains here and you'll begin to level up a hell of a lot more than your brand's Klout score.

 

Pivot It!

Not everyone has played with pivot tables before. Here's a quick look at what they are and how they help you to answer questions with data. This is not a how-to, just a walk through a common use case.

I have a finance background, and that means I spent formative years playing with MS Excel to explore numbers and answer questions. Pivot tables and charts are among the most powerful and simplest tools for data analysis.

Very often we are given a large table of data, and need to make sense of it or identify an insight. Exporting your checking account transaction history to an MS Excel file is an easy way to quickly pull a set of data to play with.

I happen to have some U.S. economic data going back into the 1960s. It is hard to see trends or answer simple questions by scrolling through these values:



So I select the data and ask Excel to create a pivot:



This is what a new/empty pivot looks like:



It's fresh and clean. A welcome sight after the big table we began with. Each of the table’s columns is now an item that you can select, drag, and drop. Let's get busy.

Question: How has income changed for the average American since the year 2000?

I built this pivot table and chart in about :45 seconds:

Answer: You see, there was a little income bubble which receded. American personal income has returned to just above its normal average (~$34K).

Answering questions is easy. Something magical happens when you begin asking follow-on questions and sparking a dialogue with the data. Though I suppose you are really just talking with yourself.

I remembered that income numbers can be misleading if you aren't also asking about inflation. This is especially true over longer time spans. In less than 20 seconds, I was able to swap out the income data and drop in inflation data (CPI) for the same period. You’ll see that over the same period the consumer price index (a reasonable measure of domestic inflation) appears to be rising steadily.
Beginning in 2008, the pace of that rise has decelerated:



This leads to many more questions.

• Was that personal income data already adjusted for inflation?
• It's easy to mislead an audience by scaling chart axes. So is that CPI trend really that steep?

Enough economics. You get the idea. Got some data? Pivot it!

Help the Seattle Police Department to Shine Online

In a positive update, the Seattle Police Department is asking the public to participate in a feedback session to improve their website. As I wrote earlier this week, there are some easy fixes they can make. If you would like to help them, fill out this form and you may be invited to a 90 minute discussion about it. They're even offering to pay you for your time.

_______________________

It's easy to be critical. Far better to be constructive. Here is a constructive take on a Seattle Police Department communication that fails in at least seven specific ways. This was posted about three hours ago during the evening commute:

1) This page fails as a landing page for this tweet:

@SeattlePD #SeattlePD investigating shooting near 3 Ave / Yesler Way. Suspect(s) at large. For more go to spdblotter.seattle.gov/2011/10/31/sho…

The only information added by this page is the gender of the victim.

2) The page has no call to action >> not even "Call 911"

3) The content is fragmented and incomplete. What is the status of the victim? Was the victim harmed (we all assume the worst)? Are neighboring downtown residents and commuters in danger? Use this page to communicate more information than afforded by Twitter's 140 character limit.

4) There is no way to share or promote this content. How would I put this message on my Facebook wall or post to Twitter? If a friend of mine intended to meet me at a restaurant in the neighborhood, and I'm delayed by related traffic, wouldn't it be nice to send this as an explanation (and give them something to read while they wait for me?)

5) There is no on-page forum to encourage community discussion and gauge sentiment. This is a Wordpress site, but comments are disabled. Enable those features.

6) There is no way to contact Detective Jeff Kappel. His name is not linked or associated with a profile or account. Does he serve in a communications or administrative capacity? Is he in charge and looking for information relevant to the situation? There is no way to reach him privately with information relevant to the case.

7) The post's tags are arbitrary and nonspecific. "General" and "West Precinct" will not help journalists and the public searching for trends in "shootings" and/or "Pioneer Square."

The immediacy and reach of this site and its associated @SeattlePD Twitter account provide the SPD with a valuable law enforcement and public safety tool. A templated CMS form to capture relevant information about these announcements would help content creators to better activate their audience through more actionable communications.

A live Twitter feed search for keywords "shooting" and "yesler" resulted in a stream of confused and alarming posts:

@c_johnston @SEAwordnerd shooting/sniper at 3rd & yesler

@SsterSuzie Shit! Shooting in downtown Seattle at 3rd & Yesler. The sniper/shooter is in a dodgy hotel on 3rd. Pioneer Square is shut down...

@duthesbloodline Some shooting is going off at Yesler n 3rd by China-Town.. Now streets are jammed up..

@ LByram @KIRO7Seattle Is 50 yr old shot at King Co. Courthouse same incident as shooting at 3rd & Yesler?

Simple customization to the back-end of this Wordpress site would allow posters and moderators to enable and manage public comments, open required fields based on scenario (press release, crime in progress, commendation, crisis communication, etc.) and more. Is a description of the suspect available? What should citizens do if we spot the suspect? What is being done to prevent further shootings on 3rd Avenue? All of this information can be prompted and in some cases pre-populated to make social media easier and more effective for Det. Kappel and his team in the future.

Of course, a better website won't stop the shootings in downtown Seattle. What will help is a better informed audience prepared to respond to violent crime in the safest and most helpful manner possible.

_______________________

UPDATE: The Seattle Police Department has updated the page to include more detail on the incident and an invitation to contact 911 or the Seattle PD with information.

Uber Economics

Uber paid attention in Econ.

I have a client (not Uber* - let's call the client Zebra) with a demand problem. Not the usual demand problem, where nobody wants your stuff. No, Zebra has the opposite demand problem. Zebra sells out of stuff and making it takes a long time and a lot of care. It's exquisite stuff, believe me. What should Zebra do? Raise prices. Of course they won't. Because they are nice to the people who buy their stuff. I love Zebra for it, but what about the people who can't buy Zebra's stuff because it's sold out? Fortunately Zebra is in the luxury discretionary space.

The car service space is a different animal altogether. When you need a ride you need a ride.

Uber offers a fleet of well-screened well-suited drivers who steer shiny black cars. There are only so many. They plan to ensure that enough wheels are on the road in the right places and at the right times. They plan their supply to meet demand. At my agency we call it resource management. Economists call it fitting the curve.

Holding a supply curve up to a demand curve is easy when you have predictable demand volumes and geographies. Even volatile volumes can be snugged if those changes are predictable ahead of time (e.g. the seasonality of umbrella purchases when Winter drips its way across Seattle).

Uber is doing something brave and smart: they're playing with both curves.

Problem: Supply management turns ugly when you face unpredictable points on your demand curve. You don't know how many resources you'll need to get stuff done. To a business owner, that's scary. Like Halloween, a perfect example of unpredictable demand in the car service business. Uber knows that demand will increase on and around Halloween, because it's a big night out. A big few nights out. That said, it's kind of hard to predict demand with any accuracy. They know their customers' costumes will be awesome. But they don't know the severity, duration, or geographic dynamics of that surge.

Solution: A couple of hours ago, Uber sent me an email explaining this demand spike. The message walked me through four points:

1. They helped me to understand the upcoming supply shortage. Makes sense.
2. They want to make sure I can get a ride if I need one, with the service and short notice I've come to expect. Sounds good to me.
3. They prepared me for "Surge Pricing Up to 2X"
4. They promised to let me know when Surge Pricing is in effect, so I'm never surprised.

Bottom Line: Pay more, up to twice more, but know a driver will be there for you. Same quality of service, same availability you've come to expect. Honest. It's up to you as the consumer if its worth it. Elasticity changes fast when substitution opportunities are all booked. I flash back to my high school economics class' willingness to pay curve. My high school and college econ professors always urged us to make decisions "on the margin."

Essentially, I'm arguing that if it's raining, and there are no cabs, and you shouldn't be driving, it will be worth it to ride with Uber.

Uber closed their customer email by kicking off a costume photo contest and a chance to win a $100 credit. They're also winning hearts and minds with a Viaduct promotion (50% discount promo code: FUBAR).

Those of us in cities like Seattle, Boston, and San Francisco can have trouble reaching a cab company on the phone--forget about finding one able to take us to dinner in time for the reservation. Or finding a cab on the curb to get from happy hour to dinner. Or waiting for a cab when we're late and need to be at the airport. You know what I mean.

Uber will get you a car fast. The car will be nice. My beautiful wife and I took around a half dozen Uber trips in San Francisco the weekend before last. All of them were long wheelbase Lincoln Town Car L models. If you aren't paying attention you may just think the front seats are scooted all the way up, but the frame is bigger. I liked to compliment the drivers on this. They would invariably say, with an appreciative humility, "Oh thanks for noticing. It's only six inches but the customers really like it." And enjoy them now; once the last Town Car croaks their replacement livery model from Lincoln is ghastly.

Uber's mobile and SMS ride request application is cool if you're into the geekery of that--and it's not a trivial technical challenge--but what I appreciate most is the payment system. At first blush, there doesn't seem to be one. You request a car. Your car arrives. You get where you're going. Your driver thanks you, opens the door, and you hop out. No money. No change, no tip, no cash, no begrudging driver wrecking your card with a mechanical slidey swipe machine. Of course, you pay a premium, but you get a premium. Value dynamics are food for a different thought. We'll save that topic for later.

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*Disclosure: Uber is not a client of mine. If they were, I would disclose that in a disclosure footnote like this one. I may describe client situations anecdotally without naming names.

Power Up Your Landing Pages

I want to share two recent examples of integrated campaigns that deliver compelling landing page microsite experiences. The landing page is just one arrow in the digital marketing quiver, and I'm sad to see so many dull pages out there.

Through some demand gen magic you have enticed users to hit a URL. Too often they are dropped off on a page with lame content, no clear calls to action (CTAs), nothing shaking. You're wasting their time and attention, and you are sacrificing goodwill. There are plenty of calls out there for better landing pages, but most of them focus on driving conversion. I want to go further and improve the experiential value of these pages.

Even if your users aren't the right fit for your CTA, you can still give them a cool experience and take them out later when you have an offer that better matches their desires. Here are a couple of my current favorites:

UNIQLO Meets NYC / UNIQLO NOW
This campaign aims to extend launch experiences at Uniqlo's NYC stores to an audience on the web. Think about it -- if you're spending budget on experiential marketing, it makes sense to capture that fun and extend horizontally across your digital channels (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.) The use of video and sound are engaging.

Back for the Future
The twin goals of this campaign are:

1. Increase Nike's brand perception favorability through a halo concept
2. Drive donations to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research

I am working with a client in the philanthropy space towards a major digital launch this Fall. Brokering marketing relationships between brands and charities is tricky. This Nike campaign works well because of the pop nostalgia for the Nike Mag shoe concept seen in the "Back to the Future" franchise. Michael J. Fox is the face of the charity and the tie-in is smooth and fun.

Secondary partners in the campaign (eBay and UPS) don't have the same cultural connection and felt like tag-alongs. I was enraptured by how novel the full screen video experience is here (especially the scene where you observe the shoes' observers). Doesn't it feel like the internet of the future is almost here?

I wish that all landing pages and micro sites were as fun. I'm not advocating for this sizzle on all webpages (that would just turn the internet into clickable TV. How annoying would that be!) On a more standard web page (a careers page, privacy policy, ecommerce flow, etc.) I would dial back the rich media. Rich content makes sense on a landing page because you want to deliver your offer and close the deal before your audience bounces out of there. Show us a good time and we'll stick around.

Guten Hashtag

Does a proactive use of tags increase the volume of mentions in social media? Does the interpretive act of comprehending a tag drive brand/concept awareness and consideration?

Tags are abbreviations, sometimes acronyms, that are used to condense meaning, provide consistent references, allow systemization and concatenation, simplify categorization / aggregation, and more. When preceded by a number sign, terms are often referred to as "hashtags."

USVC
On a brisk autumn walk through the Seattle University campus today, I encountered new building signage that utilized tagging in a provocative way. My encounter with those tags on building signage led me to consider the volume of tags all around us that we take for granted.

I think we are most familiar with conceptual hashtags that are used for syndication and community through social media like Twitter. #OccupySeattle is trending in my area at the moment because some people think that camping downtown is a fun idea and easier than going to the woods for a proper camping trip. Ticker symbols have long been used for systemic reasons. "MSFT" should be familiar enough, but they can be opaque too: "2498:TW" (HTC Corp.)

Abbreviation is the purest form of synonym. Tags can go further to connote information or emotion or orientation, or to add meta description to accompanying content. For example:

I love my new phone! #mango

Seattle University's decision to tag a physical facility space is brilliant because it stakes a claim on the space and encourages inclusion of that tag in social media. Bound up in the recognition of the characters as a tag, a natural impulse is triggered to consider the use and nature of the object. Total bondage. This is because comprehension and conceptual attachment of a tag to its object requires consideration and consciousness of the content in play. Multiple concepts adhere to the #mango hashtag (Microsoft, tropical, metro tiles, new, I hate iPhone, Windows Phone 7.+, and many more positive, neutral, and negative concepts).

Are you a marketer? Do you fall asleep at night dreaming about these goals:

• I want to increase product/brand consideration
• I want to drive mention volume and increase product/brand awareness

Let's say you are in the business of distributing champagne in the United States, and benefit from increased awareness and sales. Wouldn't it make sense to claim the conversation about "#bubbly" (to adhere a sense of magic and pleasure), or "#realchampagne" (to reinforce a value of authenticity?) Put these tags on your product, on your retail merchandising, on all of your communications. Be a picador. People will take a moment to think about your tag.

By finding intelligent ways to integrate tags into your communications on and off the web, you will find a keyhole through which to eavesdrop, an opportunity to counter and improve awareness of defamatory or unfavorable mentions. And the analytics benefits are obvious.

I would expect to see a rise in tag mentions as your audience adopts official or proper tags and substitutes for nonconforming tags (e.g. "champers"). I would go further to suspect that the volume of mentions (and related awareness/engagement metrics) will rise as people encounter the tag and are driven by their brains to consider its uses. I can't guarantee favorability, but I can guarantee consideration.

No diggity. I got to tag it up.