Digital Influence Mapping Project

The Quality of the Conversation on Facebook Matters

Last September Michael Scissons, president-CEO of Syncapse, used data to reveal that “Engagement on the Facebook walls of leading brands is down 22%.” He plotted engagement metrics on the top 300 brand pages. His hypothesis is that brands are not delivering long term value in favor of quick bumps from overuse of coupons and offers.

More recently the Facebook Timeline innovations seemed to improve overall engagement. According to Simply Measured, the change brought a 14% Increase in Fan Engagement. The format and the much industry-discussed launch called for lots more pictures and video content which saw a 65% increase in engagement (people interactive with multimedia content).

Are we good or are we in trouble? Are brands delivering the best quality interaction and value via their page content or is it all devolving? Are learning the hard lessons of the difference between a Facebook relationship and a broadcast channel?

Quality matters
My hypothesis is that many brands are not doing all they can to create a sustained and valuable relationship with their fans, followers, customers via these still new channels (facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc…). They too often fall into a habit of just broadcasting out content. Since the metrics say pictures and video do well, they try and create as much of that as possible. Sometimes they fly by the numbers alone without context. Rohit Bharagava has a new compelling book out now called Likenomics. It is not about Facebook. He makes a great point about marketers who steer completely by data without regard for context in the section, “Why Context Matters (And Your Sticky Website Actually Stinks.” He cites John Hayes from American Express with a thoughtful quote – “We tend to overvalue the things we can measure and undervalue the things we cannot.”  I would add one word in there - “We tend to overvalue the things we can measure easily and undervalue the things we cannot.”

Marketers are looking at readily available data on what drives the most interactions. They are not always weighing the benefits of a varied and enduring relationship with fans. I hope everyone knows that a small number of fans in any fanbase routinely do most of the interacting with content. That is a standard quality of many communities. Keeping that loyal core involved is valuable and just good business. And, yes, when asked, consumers cite coupons or offers as the number one reason they follow a brand. Again, let’s not over simplify and make every interaction a “10% off coupon.” That flies in the face of everything we know about building valuable brands.

The data should guide us. Not rule us.

Relevance too

AdAge recently needlessly took a jab at the social media specialists who champion a more conversational approach to wall content.

“Among the weirdness Facebook's existence has loosed upon the world is the idea that it's OK, and perhaps even good business, for brands to sidle up and give you verbal balm for your case of the Mondays, ask for predictions on the big game and offer random thoughts on things that have not a whit to do with their product or service.

The touchy-feely strategy is meant to be conversational -- human, even. But new data from Facebook itself tell us that what looks good on the social-media guru's presentation deck isn't the best approach for making Facebook work for the brand.”

Their true point and the point of the Facebook study is that content that relates to the brand – the reason people liked the page in the first place – matters. Users engage more with content relevant to the page topic which just happens to be the brand.

Clearly, relevant content is key, yet a conversational tone true to the brand can help as well.

Create the right mix
Different wall content drives different fan action. Likes, Shares, Comments all have value but not equal value. Object Likes (liking a piece of content vs. a page, also called “fanning”) are often devalued by brands. I had a spirits client who dropped them from KPI metrics since he felt, rightly so, that it was too thoughtless a gesture and was not indicative of any serious engagement. ‘Shares’ show up in your wall and therefore take bigger advantage of the network effect available in Facebook.

As Matt Creamer put it in the recent AdAge article, “Facebook to Brands: You're Posting Stuff Wrong”,

“Another important finding was that asking people to like a post indeed yielded more likes, but it didn't do much for the other forms of engagement, including the all-important share action that sends a brand's post into a users' timelines for all of their followers to see. Compared with likes, shares represent a bigger investment from the consumer and occur less frequently. Thus, shares are often going to be more meaningful from a marketing perspective. After all, they suggest the brand is tapping into that friend-of-fan network that's central to Facebook's viral proposition.”

We have found 7 simple types of content that each drive different types of user engagement. (See 7 Types of Facebook posts here.) Our Community Managers use them creatively and responsively with communities to drive long term and immediate actions. We listen and respond. If we drove simply by the data without context or a long term commitment then we would simply post remarkable picture after remarkable video – multimedia driving the most ‘shares’ in the Facebook study.

Quality of the relationship matters. Quality of the content, too. Brands can embrace a more fine-tuned and, yes, conversational but not irrelevant, cadence to their communications. Just using the Facebook wall as a broadcast channel will never justify the huge valuation in the Facebook IPO nor  the substantial bets that brands have made in their multi-million dollar ‘partnerships’ with Facebook.

The Quality of the Conversation on Facebook Matters

Last September Michael Scissons, president-CEO of Syncapse, used data to reveal that “Engagement on the Facebook walls of leading brands is down 22%.” He plotted engagement metrics on the top 300 brand pages. His hypothesis is that brands are not delivering long term value in favor of quick bumps from overuse of coupons and offers.

More recently the Facebook Timeline innovations seemed to improve overall engagement. According to Simply Measured, the change brought a 14% Increase in Fan Engagement. The format and the much industry-discussed launch called for lots more pictures and video content which saw a 65% increase in engagement (people interactive with multimedia content).

Are we good or are we in trouble? Are brands delivering the best quality interaction and value via their page content or is it all devolving? Are learning the hard lessons of the difference between a Facebook relationship and a broadcast channel?

Quality matters
My hypothesis is that many brands are not doing all they can to create a sustained and valuable relationship with their fans, followers, customers via these still new channels (facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc…). They too often fall into a habit of just broadcasting out content. Since the metrics say pictures and video do well, they try and create as much of that as possible. Sometimes they fly by the numbers alone without context. Rohit Bharagava has a new compelling book out now called Likenomics. It is not about Facebook. He makes a great point about marketers who steer completely by data without regard for context in the section, “Why Context Matters (And Your Sticky Website Actually Stinks.” He cites John Hayes from American Express with a thoughtful quote – “We tend to overvalue the things we can measure and undervalue the things we cannot.”  I would add one word in there - “We tend to overvalue the things we can measure easily and undervalue the things we cannot.”

Marketers are looking at readily available data on what drives the most interactions. They are not always weighing the benefits of a varied and enduring relationship with fans. I hope everyone knows that a small number of fans in any fanbase routinely do most of the interacting with content. That is a standard quality of many communities. Keeping that loyal core involved is valuable and just good business. And, yes, when asked, consumers cite coupons or offers as the number one reason they follow a brand. Again, let’s not over simplify and make every interaction a “10% off coupon.” That flies in the face of everything we know about building valuable brands.

The data should guide us. Not rule us.

Relevance too

AdAge recently needlessly took a jab at the social media specialists who champion a more conversational approach to wall content.

“Among the weirdness Facebook's existence has loosed upon the world is the idea that it's OK, and perhaps even good business, for brands to sidle up and give you verbal balm for your case of the Mondays, ask for predictions on the big game and offer random thoughts on things that have not a whit to do with their product or service.

The touchy-feely strategy is meant to be conversational -- human, even. But new data from Facebook itself tell us that what looks good on the social-media guru's presentation deck isn't the best approach for making Facebook work for the brand.”

Their true point and the point of the Facebook study is that content that relates to the brand – the reason people liked the page in the first place – matters. Users engage more with content relevant to the page topic which just happens to be the brand.

Clearly, relevant content is key, yet a conversational tone true to the brand can help as well.

Create the right mix
Different wall content drives different fan action. Likes, Shares, Comments all have value but not equal value. Object Likes (liking a piece of content vs. a page, also called “fanning”) are often devalued by brands. I had a spirits client who dropped them from KPI metrics since he felt, rightly so, that it was too thoughtless a gesture and was not indicative of any serious engagement. ‘Shares’ show up in your wall and therefore take bigger advantage of the network effect available in Facebook.

As Matt Creamer put it in the recent AdAge article, “Facebook to Brands: You're Posting Stuff Wrong”,

“Another important finding was that asking people to like a post indeed yielded more likes, but it didn't do much for the other forms of engagement, including the all-important share action that sends a brand's post into a users' timelines for all of their followers to see. Compared with likes, shares represent a bigger investment from the consumer and occur less frequently. Thus, shares are often going to be more meaningful from a marketing perspective. After all, they suggest the brand is tapping into that friend-of-fan network that's central to Facebook's viral proposition.”

We have found 7 simple types of content that each drive different types of user engagement. (See 7 Types of Facebook posts here.) Our Community Managers use them creatively and responsively with communities to drive long term and immediate actions. We listen and respond. If we drove simply by the data without context or a long term commitment then we would simply post remarkable picture after remarkable video – multimedia driving the most ‘shares’ in the Facebook study.

Quality of the relationship matters. Quality of the content, too. Brands can embrace a more fine-tuned and, yes, conversational but not irrelevant, cadence to their communications. Just using the Facebook wall as a broadcast channel will never justify the huge valuation in the Facebook IPO nor  the substantial bets that brands have made in their multi-million dollar ‘partnerships’ with Facebook.

Welcome to Social@Ogilvy!

(this post is also found in s similar form on our new Social@Ogilvy site)

The Social Imperative

Brands will spend between 17-18% of their total marcom spend on social media within 4 years. They will spend more on social business solutions. They are seeing value and expecting more every year. 

The key reason? 90% of us look to friends and family for the most trusted recommendations on products, service and issues. 70% of us count on consumer opinions online above traditional media. And it’s only going to grow. Millennials are three times more likely than Boomers to look for a social opinion on choices they make. 

The future is brand advocacy. And it cannot be faked, gamed, or outright ‘bought.’

There are only three ways to connect with and build a strong relationship with customers and stakeholders these days. 

1. Deliver highly relevant content or service. This could be advertising, media relations or what we call ‘owned’ content (including valuable services). Now it’s all highly targeted and tailored. No more 360 degree ‘onslaughts’ of interruptive advertising. Now our messages must be deemed highly relevant to our targets to earn their attention. Lets use the ‘10 degrees’ that matter. Useful content to run a sustainable business from DuPont. Better ways to use member ‘points’ from American Express. 
2. Be discoverable in search. When people search Google, Baidu or Yandex, brands need to be there for all the topics that intersect between a person’s intent and where the brand can add some value. Ford on fuel efficiency. Hellmann’s on Real Food recipes. 
3. Earn our way into their ‘social graph.’  To succeed in social media, we must become genuinely valuable to the people we serve and earn their attention, their advocacy and their business.   Inviting people as VIPs into the launch of the new Ford Explorer in Facebook. Sparking a social conversation about the dreams of the next generation of Chinese from Johnnie Walker. Helping Hong Kong parents celebrate their baby pictures in a much bigger way from Huggies.

How we form opinions about products, services and issues is constantly changing. It’s imperative that we make social a new way we do everything.

What is Social@Ogilvy? 

Social@Ogilvy is the global, cross-discipline team of social experts from across all of Ogilvy’s businesses delivering social solutions to all parts of our clients’ business. This is new. This is bigger than before. We have been designing and executing social media marketing and communications programs for 7+ years as 360 Digital Influence – a specialty practice born out of Ogilvy Public Relations. We quickly grew to deliver social solutions for all sorts of marketing and communications clients. 

Now we have grown into Social@Ogilvy. We are a true global network with a common approach. 

Integrated Social Media Matters More 

The whole PR vs. marketing battle is moot. Social media will inform every discipline and deliver business value for the foreseeable future. Social media as a standalone specialty doesn’t make sense. All the power and potential in social based solutions comes to life when you integrate it into marcom and other functions. 

We design integrated social solutions that combine deep disciplines like crm, public relations and shopper marketing and rooted in what drives behavior.  We plan around owned, earned and paid media working together for a compound effect and at its heart our work is ‘social by design’ – phrase used now by Facebook but that captures what we do quite well. 

A Global Shift

We do believe there’s a new customer and stakeholder journey defined by the increasing impact our networks have on purchase decision and our behaviors. How we buy, vote, and form opinions has changed. We tap into our 130 friends (the Facebook average) to discover, consider, compare, decide and rave about products, services and issues.

This shift is happening in one way or another all over the world. Growth markets like China, Indonesia, Brazil and Turkey will define the next episode of social media use. They are all growing their social network use and outpacing western markets including the US. That’s why we have grown the world’s largest global team delivering solutions relevant in each local market.  

And it’s more than just marketing, we design social business solutions that use the collaboration and advocacy strengths of social media to drive value internally and in customer relationships while at the same time managing risk. 

 

Join Us

We will be participating or hosting 23 events in and outside of Social Media Week this week in NYC, London and Hong Kong not to mention a dozen other markets. Join us as we launch this new ambitious business. It's been a wild ride to get to this point and we would love to see you. You can find out more at our new Social@Ogilvy site.

Actionable 2012 Social Business Predictions: #1 Comprehensive Content Strategy

Timing is everything in business. Business leaders want to embrace innovations the moment before they become profitable business strategy or execution. That goes for most social media-based business solutions.

Most annual social media predictions are loose stabs at what may happen and often range from the obvious, “20-whatever is the year of mobile,” to the interesting, “2012 will/won’t be the year of Google+.”  

With hard-to-read economic indicators, business leaders don’t need broad meditations on what might happen but rather ways of more precisely anticipating change and what they might do to take advantage of that change.  For teh next few posts, I aim to deliver practical predictions complete with my suggestions on what brands ought to do. I have also narrowed my focus to quarters to help with understanding timing.  

The first in the series is a potentially big shift in marketing and communications. 

Comprehensive content marketing finds its value

With more than 30 billion pieces of content shared on Facebook every month and the steady increase in Google searches, people are hungrily sharing content they find relevant. Still most major marketers do not have a big, grand approach to content marketing. Bright spot exceptions include American Express’ Small Business site, Open; Intel’s Free Press and General Mill’s Tablespoon.  

Many marketers predict that “content strategy” will eclipse or become the driver for advertising strategy. As the pressure continues to build on advertisers to deliver more and more relevant advertising (i.e. content) and marketers look to engage customers and stakeholders directly via social networks (i.e. content sharing platforms), we will see two efforts lead to the same result – brands adopting more sophisticated content strategies and practices to serve their customers.

There are two barriers in the way: a simple way to understand the business value of content marketing and organizational inertia. We just don’t have an easy formula to evaluate the business impact (sales + preference + brand/reputation + customer value) of great content programs. Yet everyday, we are learning about what content our customers value on Facebook. We post content. They post content. They like/comment/share on piece of content more than another and that tells what is valuable.

 

Combine the network effect of the average Facebook user (and their 130 friends) passing along content links with the “google-juice” of a great content reservoir like Open or the reach partnerships available with media companies like Vice Media (see The Creator's Project, their partnership with Intel here).

2012 will bring major marketers more usable value metrics to understand why they might shift spend from traditional marketing activities (e.g. traditional ad creative vs. new ad-as-content creative).

 

Do:The penalty for not aggressively developing a comprehensive content strategy that drives interactions with customers no matter where you meet them won’t be felt immediately. This is an innovators game and those marketers who want to rely on the reliable won’t lose their job over this one. For the marketing innovators, start by finding those topics that naturally intersect with your customers/stakeholders and the brand.

American Express helps its small business customers with content about running small business (not just how to leverage card services). General Mills goes beyond the benefits of Betty Crocker foods to offer a collection of highly shareable ‘quick recipes.’ What is that natural intersection between what customers need and the benefits of your brand or the solutions it makes possible? 

• Research what terms people use when they search for related topics
• Build content for your website, blog and social media calendar around those topics
• Connect these topics with your communications departments “message platform” so they are reinforced in their public relations efforts
• Feed the topics to the advertising team to either use in supporting copy or, gasp, to actually drive the creative concept

 

Resources:

• Content Marketing Institute - from the strategic to the mind-numbingly tactical, this content source has great suggestions for applying content marketing to business 
• Chief Content Officer group on LinkedIn – clearly a bunch of marketers have gotten the message for how important content’s role in business will be 

 

Timing: This is a marathon but one to get started in 1stQ 2012. There is a little of a first-mover advantage at stake here. I could easily argue that American Express did not own the attention of small businessmen/women, but their persistence with Open may have changed that. 

 

How Social Media has Changed the BBC News Operation

There's a pretty good post on the BBC The Editors blog featuring a video that highlights some of the changes brought by social media to their newsroom. It includes shots of the BBC "UGC Hub"( User Generated Content).

"Many of our leading journalists and presenters now incorporate social media platforms into their work: Tim Willcox; Lyse Doucet; Robert Peston and until recently Laura Kuenssberg (who has now been joined by her Twitter followers, with our blessing, at ITV News).

We've innovated, experimenting with branded hashtags to curate coverage; visualising Royal Wedding day tweets on our website; and work is under way to seamlessly integrate field despatches from our correspondents and reporters into our core news services and social media output.

And like many established news providers, we have created an open and modern set of guidance to help our staff engage, gather news and spread their journalism, working within the BBC's editorial values that are at the core of our journalism."

 

 

How Game Dynamics Can Drive Social Behavior

Game mechanics or 'gamification' are kind of buzzy terms right now. Still, they represent very powerful ways to motivate behavior. Rajat Paharia, the founder and Chief Product Officer of Bunchball – a developer of a technology platform that incorporates “game mechanics” into digital work, gave a great lecture at Stanford - “Driving User Behavior with Game Dynamics and Behavioral Economics.”

He's a great fast-talker who clearly understands this space well. It's a great watch as he covers some of the basic concepts including those we already use in our social strategy planning. 

Twitter Strategy Made Easy by Melvin

Just think, they put this all together just to justify to have something to Tweet about. I was exhausted just watching. Then I thought, "how many social strategies are a flurry of activity with a small payoff?" At least this is ...art.

 

Melvin The Magical Mixed Media Machine from HEYHEYHEY on Vimeo.

More Content Lessons for Brands from TED

The main TED conference franchise makes great video content. I would argue that they do a great job of "content activation" - meaning that not only are many of the videos strong, they are distributed well, and made quite shareable. They distribute them pretty freely. Videos are well branded. Like the event itself (never been), the sessions are thought-provoking, often quite interesting and delivered by folks you want to hear from or discover that you value (the video above is a compelling piece from Noreena Hertz: How to use experts -- and when not to).

There are many reasons why the content is consistently strong. I would summarize them as:

• The event is exclusive (both expensive and limited registration) and its presenters and audience represent some of the most influential organizations around the world. That means that folks who present prepare something valuable to leverage the quality fo the venue
• The presentations are short and are well suited to Internet access via mobile device or PC
• Videos can be sorted by useful meta-data. Not only can I sort by technology vs. design, but I can arrange the videos by terms such as "persuasive" or "inspiring" or "funny."
• Videos can be sorted by user behaviors like "most emailed" and "most comments"

Now Even More Shareable

Ted announced at SXSW Interactive that they were following in the footsteps of open API initiatives from other data-rich brands by making their API for all of their talks available to developers for them to mash it up into something new. I haven't see the API. I did say "data" which is what we normally associate with open API efforts (vs. content). But I assume beneath all those luscious videos is an aspiration to build a ton of meta data allowing focused access to that content. TED Media Executive Producer June Cohen seemed to be anticipating that new apps or distribution and access ideas may come out of the opening up. 

Brands as Content Companies 

Many brands want to gain the benefits of being a content or media source. As traditional media continues to rearrange itself and social media encourages them to create direct relationships with customers and stakeholders, brands aspire to becoming their own media company. But the mission of the core business and even the corporate brand are in conflict with the type of focus and investment necessary to build audience and persistent engagement over deep and rich content.  Few can hope to deliver as TED has done with the quality of their content.

The Pepsico employee blog covers the panel at SXSWi, Brave New World: Debating Brands' Role as Publishers, and champions the notion that brands can deliver lots of content directly now. Content about Pepsico initiatives like their "Performance with Purpose" commitments will be interesting to company stakeholders. Still, its a far cry from the compelling roster of TED talks. These are two different businesses and it's not fair to compare. 

The Lessons

Ted has shown smart ways to curate high-quality content. Clearly the Huffington Post has done so in a different, far less "premium quality" way. The most recent lesson for brands from Ted is not opening up of the API. Visions of the Chevy Tahoe debacle/flub (depends on who you listen to) dance in my head at the thought of brands opening up their data/content API from their video library of executive speeches. No, it's more about their relentless drive to make their content available in new ways. Their smart use of simple metadata, optimization for Google, and portability of the content are all best practices that brands should apply even in their own more modest aspirations to establish themselves as content publishers to their stakeholders. 

Social Business: Create a Content Activation Culture

CES 2011 is all tablets, wireless connectivity, Internet-enabled 3D TVs and Android-fueled smart phones. Look at the innocuous next generation Chumby2 - essentially a bite-sized internet-enabled tablet for the end table. Each represents the diversification of internet and content access.We are accessing content in more ways via more devices.  Add that to the established trend for people to spend time and get information via social networks. We are not spending significantly more time on brand web sites. And while TV-usage may be trending up in the US, I guarantee you much of that is multiplatform time (laptop open). Oh and don't forget that professional media companies from B2B trades to B2C multiplatforms are hungry for content. The time for brands to step into the role of their own media company is here. 

Content Activation = Create, Distribute, Promote and Measure

Today, the corporate marcom lead has plenty of reasons to see the value in developing a complete content strategy to reach corporate communication goals and to reach product brand marketing goals. Brands can build virtual engines to create a mix of multimedia and more spontaneous content that is designed to either be useful or entertaining.  This causes people to spend time and interact (i.e. "engage") or spread that content across their social graph (i.e. advocate). Brands must distribute that relevant content across an ever-changing ecosystem of owned, co-owned (e.g. Facebook), earned (e.g. bloggers, media) and paid platforms (e.g. all types of ads from advertorials to print ads to online display).  But feeding the fire hose with the right content is not enough. Brands must take responsibility for promoting content to get in the hands of people who will engage and advocate. Lastly, true content activation culture requires constant measurement to understand performance and the diagnostics or levers that can be pulled to improve impact and outcomes. 

Chief Content Officer vs. Process

There has been a lot of good discussion about the notion of a new C-suite position - Chief Content Officer. LinkedIn has a group dedicated to the concept (but where few members actually carry that or a related title.) I particularly like Greg Matusky's take on a job description:

"If you can write like a journalist, think like a marketer, and understand the vast and shifting seas of digital communications, Mega Global Corporation needs you to express our world view and communicate our value to financial and consumer markets, partners, and governments.

You must be able to manage a worldwide editorial staff, producing both written and visual communications, and must be able to deliver daily, even hourly, content that is fully optimized to gain visibility over digital pathways.

This individual will report directly to the CEO, but will have the strength of character to beat back corporate encroachment in favor of honest, accurate content that provides real value to worldwide audiences.

Most important, this individual must understand how to monetize this content throughout the enterprise, converting incoming interest into business opportunities for the organization as a whole. Compensation: Name your price if you can deliver on the seemingly impossible yet urgent responsibilities described here."

I am not convinced that centralization in the C-suite is the only way to go to create a culture of "content activation." Equally important is the right mix of teams and process to make it happen. 

 

Creating Responsive Content: Analytics Team

What are customers searching for and what are they saying in online conversations about the product, brand or important ideas that connect with them? This sympathetic intelligence fuels all of our best content strategy. We literally make content that has the words and ideas people are looking for. Of course that content must be useful or entertaining to customers and it must authentically represent our brand or products. This isn't about tricking people to consume content. It is all about relevance. 

Brands should establish or expand the role of existing groups to take responsibility for this intelligence. The Analytics Team is constantly sensing what customers need and want. That is feeding into creation and distribution strategies. There is a "geek factor" here that is best delivered across the enterprise form a single group. In other words its hard to get right and this type of foundational knowledge and insight should come from one place such that it cascades throughout the organization from a consistent center.  

Establishing Clear Brand Themes: Theme Development Process

In corporate communications we call it a message platform. Marketing teams think more in terms of 'brand story.' Internal communications think more in terms of values and principles. Our customers and employees are seeing both what corp comms delivers and what marketing publishes. They ought to be aligned. the disciplines ought to work together to establish a common and focused story platform. I will call it "theme" as it can sit above and drive individual stories (or campaigns). We don't need a single unified team but a process that brings marketing and communications together. Their goal should be to define three themes that can drive their work over a half year or longer. These themes can be revised from time to time yet ought to be consistent for long stretches as they are likely derivative of true culture and ought not to change like so much campaign "fashion" (i.e. constantly changing campaign messaging). Product brand stories can be written in alignment with these themes. Even short-lived campaign ideas can be derived from them. It's important to establish and communicate across the entire enterprise. 

Train on Technique: Content Optimization Process

There is quite a bit of technical and process know-how needed from meta-information creation to advanced techniques in search optimization to really succeed with content activation. But most groups who create content can get it. I am arguing against a centralized 'content factory' responsible for all content creation and optimization.  I just don't think that is realistic. Too many disciplines within the enterprise have an interest and need in content creation. It is possible to think of the content factory as a federation of distributed groups. Let's simply establish a common process for making all content work as hard as it can. Let's train our teams in this highly valuable optimization process. 

Always Be Assessing Progress: Measurement Team

Every week, brands should be looking at a dashboard of performance. That must have the simplified view of key performance indicators as well as enough diagnostic data to know which levers to pull to improve things. This is best left to a Measurement Team both cause its geeky but also because senior leadership will trust the numbers from an independent group. The only generalization that I can make about what these measure should include is that the ought to report both on whatever KPIs describe the action you want from people and those that reflect increased advocacy.

Teams and Process

Don't get me wrong. I love the idea of the Chief Content Officer. But this lucky guy or gal will still have to establish the teams and process I have described to actually implement a content activation culture in today's business enterprise. The benefits of this approach include:

• More people talking about the brand in relevant ways
• Input into how your brand is talked about
• Increased brand presence in search engines
• Alignment of internal and external communications
• More customers and prospects spending time and interacting with the brand via content
• Treating employees like the advocates they are
• Moving beyond a campaign marketing cadence into an always-on relationship 
• What else?

Will Starbucks Digital Network Get the Wifi Access Portal Right?

I travel a lot. It gives me a chance to live on the road where I become dependent on the places I do business to take care of more than what I am there for. Hotels, planes, rental car centers. Each offers a customer experience. Some are tied directly to delivering their core product. Most of what I get from Hertz is about streamlining the rental experience. Some expand their core service. I have become a fan of the wireless service from GoGo while on Delta. Obviously, it has nothing to do with getting me from point A to point B. It does allow me to be more productive. 

Starbucks just launched their new in-store Digital Network. They realized that they could enhance the customer experience by extending the concept of the "third place" to the Internet. When a user logs on to wireless access in the store (made more simple via one-click access), they arrive at the Digital Network main screen which gives them local information and access to paywall content made free for the customer. 

A View from the CIO

Robert Scoble captured a great interview with Starbuck's CIO Stephen Gillet that explains the service in brand terms. One datapoint he delivers is that laptop usage in-store remains flat while mobile devices (iPhones most of all) are growing fast. There is something super-smart in Starbucks mining of the network usage data to better understand their customer. It's impossible to comment on the economics of this offer. We all know that bandwidth can be expensive to dole out especially as many of us gobble up more video wherever we are. 

Customer Experience

But from a pure customer experience POV, this is a great and smart move. They have already seen session-time increase with the advent of free wifi (up to 12 minutes). The paywall access - subscription editions of The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today - may even increase that and one would hope for Starbuck's case that means at least another tall latte at the register.The service is a partnership with Yahoo. I assume they provide some of the infrastructure, content and hosting. 

Think of all the places you get wireless on the road (usually for a fee). Hotels, airport lounges, airplanes and more. Have you ever logged onto a protal that had any value for you whatsoever? Usually it either defaults to a web page (hotels) or to the service provider portal or to some white label version of same. They are all near useless and appear to have been designed with about as much user experience care as an airport security line. When you think about the customer experience that Starbucks is trying to grow, they have a pretty good chance of getting it right.

What could they do to tip the design in their favor (some they may do or may be planning):

1. Daily song giveaways (they used to do this in-store)

2. Continue with the paywall content 

3. Keep it simple - most people are logging on via laptop to get something done. Give them some quick value and let them move on. 

4. Connect the experience to the smartphone app so when I move between devices I am not learning a whole new universe

5. Give out random coupons to surprise us when we log on

6. Recognize me when I log back on

7. Let me check-in to Facebook Places and FourSquare from within the interface