Digital Influence Mapping Project

Future PR Skills 2008: Advanced Search Engine Optimization

 

As part of a series, I am exploring what skills the next communications professionals need to have in hand to succeed and lead. We once thought search engine optimization (SEO) was a technical, geek activity. Get the guys and gals who talk in 'algorithms' and meta-content together and they'll fix you up. Enter the social web. Now for all the reasons we know too well, SEO is a critical public relations function.

The reasons again:

• 80% of Internet users in developed markets start their online session at a search engine (In North America that is either Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL or Ask.com)
• Put another way: The Google search results page for your brand is your new home page
• Social media - blogs, reviews, Web 2.0 content, social networks - return really well in search engines
• Despite the algorithms behind the scenes, the key to great search results is great content that is socially connected
• SEO is more than technology and 'advanced SEO' is at the heart of brand and reputation management

I now love Tadeusz Szewczyk. His SEO blog is so simple and straightforward - no, not just the design, but his writing too. He defines very clearly a great definition for 'advanced SEO'

"In basic SEO you just want

• to rank
• get found
• or garner huge traffic.

In advanced SEO you make sure the traffic is viewed as people, customers, multipliers.

In SEO 2.0 people out there do not hate SEO, they don’t even notice it because it just perfectly fulfills their wishes. Advanced SEO is not about cool programming skills only, it’s about social skills."

The Future PR Pro has mastered the critical parts of advanced SEO:

• creating content that is authentically valuable to people (stakeholders, audiences, users, publics)
• syndicating, distributing and sharing content to encourage linking and mash-ups
• building partnerships to gain access to new networks
• creating multimedia content for universal search
• engaging with WOM 'relayers' to build more 3rd party content and links
• integrating SEO with SEM efforts for a complimentary 'boost'
• user experience design to ensure owned Web properties follow the prime directive: be useful and in sync with best-practice SEO design

Resources to help understand Search Engines and SEO:

How Search Works

• Google Guide
• Google Technology
• Search Engine Watch: How Search Engines Work
• Search Engine Land Guides
• Yahoo Ranking

How Search Works with Social Media

• Pandia The Year of Social Media and Search Engines
• Dominating with Social Networks
• Leveraging Social Media Sites for Search
• 10 Q's for David Sifry
• Top Web 2.0 Search Engines

We Are All Fashion Designers Now!

I love women's fashion. No, not in that weird, creepy way. I love the imagination and the style applied to a look. I have always known women with style who could put a look together beyond what a card-carrying fashion designer might do for the masses. Individual fashion. I gave my daughter (11)  a book on Japanese Street Fashion - harajuku - because she was intrigued by the extreme styles and drama of the looks. She puts her own looks together (no, that is not a picture of her)

Now there are two resources - one online and one in Beverly Hills - that tap into the personal stylist in all of us.

The social network for street style
"Street" is probably the wrong word. Personal Style is probably a better phrase overall but still we are talking about everyday fashion made for and by the people. I love Chictopia. The name comes from "chic" not "chick" so, don't worry.

Helen Zhu and her cofounders have established a social network grounded in people sharing their looks for themselves and getting ideas from the community. you can dive deep into the forums but the real action is in the photographs and the voting. This simplicity is the core of its beauty. In a time when we all belong to too many social networks, a simple structure that builds on teh one affinity - personal fashion - that brings members together is better than all the bells and whistles in the world.

Did I mention Hot Deals! Chictopia has a great business model that goes beyond targeted display advertising into deal sponsorships. If I were a retailer serving young women, i would be all over this community. (Sure, they don't have real "reach" yet, but I love this idea so much I knwo they will get there).

Fashion DIY in Beverly Hills
FashionologyLA recently launched (thanks Springwise) a new store catering to young girls who want a distinctive look at the touch of a few buttons. It's co-creation at the retail storefront. Here's how Springwise described the store experience (designed by: BigBuddhaBaba )

"Using touch-screen Design Pads, they begin by selecting what type of garment they'd like to create, choosing from an assortment of tops, bottoms and dresses. From there they select a fashion "mood" onscreen—themes include Juku, Pop, Rock, Malibu and Peace, all of which include a colourful array of graphic images. They then pick embellishments for their garments, choosing from options including Sew It, Clip It, Bling It and Pin It. Once a girl completes her design, she proceeds to the U-Bar, where a friendly Fashionologist uses a heat press to add the key design element to her new look and gives her a tray of embellishments to take to the customized Make It table. "

I am going to LA in a few weeks and hope to stop into the store to get some pics. For teh tween who wants a distinctive look - something that defines her - this could be a great choice. The looks have to be "ownable."   It cannot just be the difference between a glitter butterfly vs. an applique puppy. I serached Flickr and came up empty. But that is what they need - a gallery of customers proud in their looks (tough when your customers are so young and online privacy is a concern). Can they create a Chictopia-lite community? Will they offer looks as dramatic as the streets fo Japan? Whil ethe seocnd isn't likely, i hope they figure out the online gallery. Their store begs for user images.

I love how digital is putting the consumer in charge of fashion.

Battle of the Brands

Noah Brier released Brand Tags back in May. Until it accumulated some usage it was the kind of quick hit that could be forgotten. I presume he has pulled in some decent traffic over the past few months as there seem to be a lot more brands and a lot more tags.

A recent addition and frighteningly entertaining is "battle mode" which pits two well know brands against each other and you decide in a "Blink" who would win. The interactivity is infectious. And while it is easy to dismiss this as trivial and "non-scientic", I was surprised at how insightful it reall can be. Check out the entry for John Deere. I added "sturdy" as that was my association. But how many people must have added "Redneck" to make it so big?

The more people use it, the more insightful it will be. I hope that Noah makes an app or widget - I would definitely add it to my blog!

What else did the crowd do for John Deere?

• JohnDeere in del.icio.us
• John Deere in Wikipedia
• John Deere on Flickr
• John Deere on YouTube

A Unique Way to Get the WOM Manual Volume II

Dave Balter and I serve on the board of WOMMA. He runs a company called BzzAgent which you have probably heard of if you are in the marketing business (or if you are a BzzAgent). We actually have a partnership with BzzAgent because we believe in the value of their business for our clients and have run several very successful agent-based word of mouth campaigns.

But back to Dave. Before I knew him, I read his first book, Grapevine: The New Art of Word of Mouth Marketing. And while I knew he was using the book to make a case for his company, it was a really smart assessment of the power of WOM and his experiences making BzzAgent work. It remains a solid business book.

Dave has a new book - The Word of Mouth Manual Volume II. I read it this weekend in my backyard. And I can heartily endorse it. I will tell you why in a second so you can be your own judge.

But before I do, I want to give you the opportunity to download the pdf of the entire book for free by CLICKING HERE.

Of course you can buy the self-published book via Amazon where for $45 you will also get a signed piece of artwork. While I enjoy Seth B. Minkin's illustration (awesome Monkey!), I am more interested in more people reading the book. Here's why:

1. Dave is a practitioner, not a pundit. He speaks from deploying WOM programs via BzzAgent and examining programs from our WOM colleagues around the world. He offers insight from his professional experience ( while also being a human being about it thus the references to Weezer and "the Dude")

2. He offers practical knowledge like why post-purchase is the best time to share and that the third-person stories following a product experience become essential first-person narratives (Chapter 4).

3. He acknowledges the importance of measurement and offers a model. His first few paragraphs in Chapter 5 were channeling the exact points I have been making with clients throughout the year: study after study proves the overall strength of WOM, Brand marketers need a way to valuate it and compare to other marketing choices, and that we in the WOM business are being held to a higher standard of measurment than our advertising brothers and sisters. He goes on to propose a model which I plan to challenge in a later post but it is well worth our consideration. 

4. The book starts with recent insights and then goes back to cover some basics. This makes it instantly relevant to experienced WOM practitioners and those just starting their exploration of WOM.

5. There are lots of real world examples and not just the big guys - iPhone and TIVO. Brands like American Express and Lacoste and a myriad of pop culture examples abound to make relevant points.

6. Yes, the book supports the choices Dave has made with his business, BzzAgent, but what I like about his accounts is they remain relevant to much of the larger arena of WOM. 

7. We will recommend this book to all of our colleagues within Ogilvy and we don't take the use of their time lightly.

Pass it along.

Learning from Product Design

I have always been a fan of product design. While I have spent a lot of my professional career in design - graphic design, user experience design, televsion design - I have never worked in traditonal product design. I admire Ideo and have had a chance to work with them via my client Snap-on. I used to follow frog design back in the day. Now I am becoming a fan of Adaptive Path.

Subject to Change is the "Adaptive Path" book written by Peter Merholz, Brandon Schauer, David Verba and Todd Wilkens. They cover a lot of their experiences and methods for product and service design. It's a good read. Part of the time I felt they were corroborating what I already believed. Part of the time they demonstrate a clear POV on develop products and services for clients that is insightful and fresh.

Social Media Engagement is like "Product" Design

One reason I focus on product design (I put "product" in quotes because it is the trade term but as you will see in my post, it is a misleading term) is that the discipline shares some best practices with what I do now with social media programs. There are three things in Subject to Change that stand out and are worth mentioning.

Empathy

The Adaptive Path guys (APgs) spend a lot of time talking about best ways - some new, some old - for understanding people. They stress the importance of empathy and they introduce research methods that can lead to spreading empathy for people (who use services and products) throughout the organization. One way they define empathy is "an understanding of a person or group's subjective experience by sharing that experience vicariously." While I know that the APgs are trying to be very professional - and I agree with them - I cannot help but want to shout - "It's not enough for companies to practice empathy; they should love their customers and want to know them personally." Anyhow, that's just the social media nut job in me. But the world would have a lot better products and services if companies made empathy a priority.

Behaviors, Motivations and Meanings

I am a  champion of usable design. Sounds terrible when I think about it. "Usable design" sounds like such a low bar. When I use it, I mean focusing on being of-use and offering a streamlined user experience. It implies focusing on tasks - what does the user want to accomplish. Just the term "user" says it all. APgs champion a new way which is not so new. It stresses understanding behaviors, motivations and meanings beyond simple tasks. They talk about people, not users. Their field research methods support this.  While APgs are suggesting this is an evolution for interactive and product designers, this is one area where I think the best brand marketers have a leg up. Our agency and many of our clients have long had ethnogarphers and held a deep value behind understanding behaviors. We long to understand the emotional drivers of our fellows by knowing what they do and where they find meaning.

Stop Designing "Products"

There is a huge interest amongst marketers to think about traditional products like services. In APgs case, they use examples like the iPod/ITunes service and the early Kodak film system (camera + development services). Any company ought to be looking at how to expand their view of their product to a potential service. That will be more difficult for simple consumer packaged goods (i.e. toilet paper). But with digital marketing and social media many, if not any, brands can think about being "of-service" in their marketing of their products. Listen to what your customers are saying and observe what they are doing. Find some way that you can enhance their lives that stems from the barnd. If you make Tupperware, help potluck supper enthusiasts. If you make computers for students offer people a companion program from Stephen Covey. If you offer a weight loss product, build your customers a way to track and reward their progress.And build a community of customers who add value to the overall customer experience. Spend more energy on that than on old-school advertising.   In short - design services not products; and market products likee services.

You should pick up Subject to Change. And you could do worse than to start thinking like a "product" designer.

Are Social Media-based Programs Scalable?

There is a general perception that advertising is thoroughly scalable and that public relations is not. But how about social media-based word of mouth programs?

You can develop a $5m, $10m and $100m ad program. You will get increasing "returns" for your investment. Reach and frequency can both go up. There are limits but they are pretty out there. It is predictive and incremental. The media relations side of PR can only be dialed up so much before traditional media shuts down on additional coverage for the same brand & message. Now, there is a lot more to public relations that just media relations. The value of public relations goes beyond (yet includes) short term marketing goals to include enduring brand reputation. It seems that PR's role in supporting short term sales such as a new product launch is more limited than the scalable "burst" of awareness available via paid advertising. PR's impact on reputation is almost infinitely scalable. But we are now talking about word of mouth and social media-based word of mouth.

Scalable: Reach

At WOM University, we held a roundtable discussion on the scalability of WOM programs. Keep in mind, my position that most social media-based programs are ultimately WOM programs. The table's focus fell on both online and offline programs. Walter Carl of Northeastern University and Chat Threads presided over the table. He introduce the group to his measurement model which, while complicated, suggests a method for understanding overall performance and then being able to dial it up or down accordingly. Walter modeled out his generational pass-along effect which I will call the 'multiplier effect.' A recent Fast Company article on NING rechristened this a "viral loop." I am not sure that new definition adds anything to our understanding. The multiplier effect tells us how many people we will reach and convert into "relayers" once we give Gen '0' something to talk about. Walter can match back G0 and G1, for instance, to verify that G0 actually passed along their story to 6, 8, or 12 people. It is the same logic he used to support BzzAgent's impact and make it meaningful to the media planners of the world (who rely on scalable "channels").

It's great stuff but a little complex. It speaks to the "reach" capacity of a WOM program. I need to simplify the issue to make it useful in my daily life. If there were predictive models for the multiplier effect, that might help.

Scalable: Frequency vs. Multiple Voices

Walter's model is a great way to understand the reach of a WOM program. The problem is that it remains very complex and requires a self-reporting procedure itself needing an incentive to motivate participants ("Tell us who you talked to and you might win an iPhone or we'll give $5 to charity or...").

The best value of a social media-based WOM program is scaling through time combined with the slower growth of more relevant reach. "More relevant reach" is a loaded phrase. I am suggesting that one's 'social graph', is a more powerful channel than the audience of a particular media property (TV channel, show, magazine, newspaper, etc...). I also assume that when I hear something from a colleague, friend, or "stranger with expertise," it sinks in without the same need of message frequency that we expect with advertising (i.e. need to hear something 3-5 times for it to be memorable, never mind actionable). My client, Gerry, recommended a reasonably high-end coffee maker a few weeks back. I Will eventually buy that coffee maker without any other input save for some model-browsing on the Web.

There are plenty of purchases or decisions that I need to make where the number of 'promoters' matter. On most book purchases, I will scan the reviewers to make sure there are more positive reviews than negative. I scan the negative comments quickly to see if the complaints resonate. But I don't let a few negative comments dissuade me from purchase. There is a name for this behavior which I don't remember. I'll call it a simple 'disaster-check.'

It takes fewer positive voices to drive me to purchase consideration and even purchase than the number of ad impressions it takes to persuade me. In fact, beyond direct-response offers, no advertising really gets me to the same deep level of consideration. This begins to speak to WOMs place in the "funnel" - the deeper end of the purchase/advocacy decision.

If I spend $100K more on my WOMM program, what do I get?

Classic marketer question. Will you get more reach? Will you get more brand/product advocates? Will you get a deeper bond with a select group of enthusiast influencers? And the kicker: will it sell more product?

The answer to all questions is yes, yes, yes and yes. The problem is that I need 30 minutes of your time to explain how. If you intuitively believe in the strengths of WOM and the sales impact of a great Net Promoter Score, you will give me that 30 minutes. If all you care about is a proxy metric like site traffic (i.e. cpg brand marketers online), than you will glaze over right after I tell you this is a different measure than traditional advertising.

You can use Walter's model to answer the $100K question. But I have to ask is that model practical and itself, scalable?

We need simplicity based upon reasonable and shared assumptions. How do you show that WOM is scalable?

Relevant Links:

• Walter Carl's Post on "Communication Value"
• WOMMAs Measurement Books
• Jeremiah's Measurement Tag (for good measurement resources)
• Rachel Happe's Long list of Metrics

Stories at the Personality Project

One of my favorite "features" of Rohit's new book, Personality Not Included, is a related Web site he created, The Personality Project. I, along with lots of more luminous luminaries are featured there talking about the importance of personality in marketing. each does it with perosnal stories and examples from their business or their lives. The great thing in most is that there is not a huge division between their POVs as business leaders and their own personaloutlooks on life.

My story is very personal and includes Air Canada. You will find many other stories from the likes of Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com. I had the chance to see Tony speak at Community 2.0 this past week. He told the story behind Zappos. At times, it sounded like he aspired to be Amazon (the epitome of customer service, selling everything not just shoes), but he revealed that personality is a big part of their story. You can read his Personality Project post here. I love that his staff will check three competeing web sites to find something for a customer if they, themselves, do not have it and then will drive that customer to a competitor.

Tony, a serial entrepeneur at a disgustingly young age, is serious about the Zappos culture. 'Culture' is the whole point of my post. Culture is real and organic. It is a value system that lets people be themselves (yes, they must share some of teh values to fit in, but unlike our families, we "choose" our job, and can move to one that aligns with enough of our values). Culture promotes someone at Zappos to go the extra 10 miles for a customer not just because it feelsl good but because customer retention is key to profits and to outbound word of mouth.

So, I love The Personality Project because of all of the original stories from a collection of not-the-usual personalities. And I also love it as a great example of what I will now call "transmedia" - a term that first noticed last week in an article (where was that article?) about the new generation of Hollywood science fiction geeks - the creators of Lost, Heroes, Battlestar Gallactica. These followers of Joss Whedon are super sharp about extending the experience of their stories and characters into different mediums without resorting to indiscriminate license deals. No lunchboxes. They only do what will extend the story. That is what Rohit has done with the Personality Project. It complements the book but takes it further in a new direction (not to mention that it's a great way to invite people in to whitewash the fence with you a la Tom Sawyer).

There are a hundred slots. Let's see who shows up next. 

Marketing: War Metaphors Should Surrender to Community Development Metaphors

Many of us complain about the use of war metaphors in marketing: target audiences, campaigns, strategy & tactics, KPIs (not sure this is really a war thing it just sounds like KIAs). We really attack our problems. We report out campaign success with McNamara-like data devoid of much humanity. Try as I might, I always come back to calling people like myself "target audiences." I do it so the different marketing teams that I work with will know what I am talking about. The war college vocabulary is that ingrained.

We need a new model that we can teach at B-school and start using in the marketplace. I don't have the ultimate right answer but I think it has something to do with community development.

I don't mean community online. I mean like urban, suburban and rural community development. I remember designing a town in 5th grade complete with streets, buildings for government and businesses. You know - ice cream cone shaped ice cream stores, schools that looked more like amusement parks (I remember one boy designed a strip joint into his town that looked like a pair of breasts - 5th grade!). Anyhow, the ideas behind designing communities are very positive and appealing on some level.

The Ol' In-and-Out vs. a Committed Effort
Campaigns come and go. We dial them up and then close them out. We always "win" in marketing campaigns as we cannot admit defeat. Community development is a long term play. When we think about how to design and support a community, we spend time observing what's important to the people in that community - what are they talking about, where do they spend their time, what are their shared values.

We design to bring value to their lives, sometimes to make their lives easier. We try things that may serve the people. What if we add a community center with a gym since the schools sports programs are underfunded? If we insert a road here will it spark more commerce between neighborhood A and B?

What is the language of community development? I am no expert despite my fascination. I would guess we talk about "the public," community groups and citizens. We talk about community enhancements, projects and initiatives.

If the ultimate goal is selling ("We sell or else!"), does selling have to be such a conquest? Can it be not just a transaction but part of a relationship, a long term commitment to build up communities?

Links of use:

• What are KPIs
• Eric Petersen's Great Book on KPIs
• The Dashboard Spy
• Peace Magazine - History of Military Metaphors

(Photo CC from AtomicShed)

Social Media at Verge Toronto

I spoke about Word of Mouth Marketing at this year's Verge Toronto - Ogilvy's digital confab for clients (thanks to Guy!). Paul Beck, Digital Strategist at Ogilvy and all around smart evangelist, delivered a great snapshot of innovative digital programs - many of them anchored in social media - in the B2B and B2C space. He has been a tremendous ally within Ogilvy from the advertising side and is pushing some terrific "social" programs with clients like American Express.

I shared about choosing a new coffee making solution (thanks Gerry!).

Paul shared about his "Cell Phone Experience." Paul dropped his phone in a puddle. He went online to research the right replacement. He started at Google (only customer acquisition links there), to Technorati, to YouTube. He bought the LG Envy based upon cgm videos and positive mentions from "strangers with experience." He wanted to do what many of us want to do now - hear what others have to say about their exeprience with the product. 

This category - "Strangers with Experience" - has grown as a source for product referral more than any other source from 1997-2007. This starts to speak to the idea of who we find influential amongst people we do not directly know.

Paul has a very clear and strong POV about transforming the marketing process. He describes this as "Flipping the Long Tail." It's simple really. Find and connect with your advocates and fans, engage with them, amplify what they say or do and then market around that to ultimately reach a mass audience.  This is the true promise behind word of mouth programs.

Paul's 3 point program
1. Listening as a disciplined marketing practice: Don't listen once. Don't just do focus groups. Make listening a fundamental and ongoing practice.

2. Advocacy as a deliberate marketing channel: Don't just tack on a WOMM program. Make it core and make the discipline of making it work central to your team.

3. Unlock and unleash the content: Once you have engaged consumers to create cgm - work it, merchandise it, get it into search engines

Cardmembersvoice.com
He shared a great program he leads with American Express which just launched. Cardmembersvoice.com asks members for their input and feedback. Using our 'Voice of the Customer' platform, they solicit ideas and report back to customers what they may do with that good thinking. I know this was a journey of internal evangelism and education to get to this point. It's a great program and reflective of what experts like Paul - real practitioners, not pundits - can do to transform marketing.

My favorite Paul quotes from his session:
"Open source problem solving - don't ask broad questions - invite them to help solve a specific problem."

"Community is not a place. It is a shared set of values"

He also left the audience with four related imperatives:

• try it
• experiment now
• it does not have to be pristine
• learning will lead the way

Still in love with BlogHer

I know its right but sometimes it feels so wrong - my love affair with BlogHer. Tomorrow is the first day of the BlogHer Business Summit in NYC. We are hosting the "Best Practices" track. I continue to believe strongly in the value of the BlogHer community for marketers. They are unique. Maybe they don't have the same reach as Federated Media. But they have a vision and integrity (I mean, FM has that too but BlogHer's is special).

The tie that binds members to the collective is stronger than other affiliations. It's born from the relationships developed online in what for all intent and purpose is a social network. These are made deeper during the annual big conference event (July in CA).

The NYC event is really for brand marketers to come together with BlogHer and talk about real ways to collaborate between marketer and blogger. We will be video-ing a bunch of it and will publish soon after. I, of course, cannot be there. Butthe 360° Digital Inlfuence team - Virginia, Laura and Kaitlyn (and I think Matt, too) will all be on hand. Stop in. Say hi.