Digital Influence Mapping Project

NetVibes for Marketers

Michael Cohen from Netvibes presented the basics of the customizable interface for the Netvibes service. He is talking to a room full of CRM marketers for a major CPG (consumer packaged goods) in Barcelona. They all want to know how they can brand widegts and pages within the service and then count the hell out of everything. CRM folks are data geeks, data junkies, Ninjas of ROI.

So netvibes remains a small enterprise - 39 employees in Paris - with a deceptively prolific developer core - currently there are over 120,000 widgets created by more than 700 developers. They have 60 million pages created but then comes the kicker that they are trying to remedy: most users are not registered and rely on cookies-only to maintain page-state. They recently released 'Ginger' which prompts you to upgrade (and register). But as an avid Netvibes fan and user, I have't upgraded yet, myself. (Ginger offers a bit of a social network that allows people to "push" changes to their subscribed users - think Facebook.)

Brands can work 2 ways: Premium Universes
There are two ways that brands can "use' Netvibes. The first is to create  a "premium universe" - a branded page that collects widgets together in a private-labeled user experience. If you were Marshalls (disclosure: client of Ogilvy), you might assemble a bunch of bargain hunter widgets - store locator map, Web site homepage, trendspotter blog feeds and more. Anything with an RSS feed or HTML can be embedded in a widget. You market that as a custom url to your customers as an added service (and Google food).

Michael showed examples where Figaro and Tagged have embedded NetVibes customized 'start pages" in their services. He, of course, then demonstrated our client's branded start page. The moment of truth happens when the brand realizes that the user can combine their brand with any other widget content from the library (competing branded content, non complimentary content, etc...).

Widgets
The other way to make use of Netvibes is to create widgets and place them in their library (dollars for premium placement).  1000 brands have created widgets. they come in 76 languages from 69 countries. In this mode, you are leveraging (I said the "L" word) Netvibes user base which they don't know enough about to satisfy even the least disciplined marketer (never mind the CRM folks). For the few that are registered, they know age, gender and town. They could do more but they respect their users privacy.

They have a very versatile approach to widget compatibility (not in the OpenSocial sense). Netvibes Widget Platform (Universal Widget API - UWA) makes widget sportable across OS, device and browser platforms.

Brands track number of downloads and can use their own tracking (like a special Feeburner feed). Netvibes is working on reporting "canceling" or dropping the widget. They have their own CPC-like model = "Cost per installation" (CPI).

He showed examples from NYTimes and CBS (CSI Video widget).

Michael had some good one-liners:

• "The user is your best friend to distribute the brand" - speaking to letting users spread your widget
• "The brand as a service provider" - this is the new mantra from marketers who know that product brands have to think differently now to build stronger relationships with theihr customers. they have to think like service providers.
• "Really Sexy Syndication" - they are enthusiastic about RSS

I love Netvibes

Netvibes has put togther a very useful platform for brands. On the widget side of their business, until they convert more users to registered users, they will attract brands looking to reach the great unwashed (young tech males?). The premium universe offering is a great user experience but relys on the brands existing marketing strategies to drive awareness and usage. Also, it is at the end o fthe day a supercool portal concept. Brands have been trying to capture the start page of their customers for years (most rightly gave up). How many people need a widgetized portal from their favorite soap brand? Still for the right product and service, it is a great solution (slam dunk for any major media company).

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

Why Comparing Social Media to Advertising is a Mistake

Ever have one of those projects where you think you have successfully positioned the value of a social media-based WOM program and then in the 11th hour, someone decides that all they want are click-throughs to the ad campaign microsite?

Don't use WOM for awareness alone
Don't get me wrong, the right WOM program can drive traffic. But that should never be the sole KPI. And looking at WOM as a channel is a BIG MISTAKE. WOM's best value is at the lower half of the funnel: engagement - loyalty - advocacy. You can combine that with some solid marketing goals like conversion and, even, raising awareness, but if you do not value the benefits of deeper enagagement for a particular initiative, then you might want to stick to the traditional bludgeons like advertising.

Frequency vs. Attention
Advertising, in general, is measured by GRP or gross rating point. Reach x Frequency = GRP. Pretty simple. That's how it is valuated for 'sale" so-to-speak. Marketers plan against target GRPs based upon the belief that a certain frequency of ad impressions on an individual make an impression on that person. That belief is based upon studies that demontrate that multiple impressions have an effect. That potential effect can be a higher consideration for purchase. Pretty basic stuff.

Alternatively, other studies show higher trust for different types of WOM and a preference for recommendations from other people over one-way marketing in purchase considerations. That would suggest that WOM has the capacity to grab our 'attention' more than ad messages or even multiple ad messages. In a long tail-world where everything is in abundance except our time and capacity for attention, grabbing attention is valuable.

In most WOM campaigns, we cannot report "frequency." We cannot say that some number of people (reach) read 4 blog posts or comments (frequency) about our brand-related topic. Can we say that a single positive WOM mention grabs attention better than an ad message? Yes. Better than 4 ad impressions? Now I am starting to slide down the slippery slope in an effort to compare the impact of advertising and WOM. I suspect that the right answer is that advertising will never garner the same attention that authentic WOM will. (Strangely enough, the advertising industry is trying to co-opt both 'engagement' and 'attention' by applying those same concepts to one-way advertising. See an interesting ARF paper here)

So What?
I feel like my train of thought has been a little academic. I am trying to get somewhere. Simply put, to define how WOM programs are scaleable, we want to say what some unit of WOM is worth. So we pine for our own version of GRPs which would answer the question, "If I throw $100K more WOM into the mix, what do I get?" Problem is a GRP-like model requires a companion assumption that describes the impact of WOM. Just like GRP says that reaching a number of people multiple times produces a impact on attitude and behavior, we need the analog for WOM. Is it that a WOM unit is 4 times, 8 times, 12 times more likely to impact our attitude and behavior than an advertisement? Again, I am back to the slippery slope.

I suspect that we need a few more, very focused studies that will tell us the following:

• Is positive WOM (please define) x times more likely to affect attitude and behavior in relation to product consideration and purchase. We need the "x" even if we have to get multiple "x's" for different product types if they behave differently (is a WOM unit about a high-engagement product like a car more or less impactful than one for, say, soda?).
• Is here a tipping point in "personal share of voice" (what I hear about a movie, car, cause from other people) that drives a person to consideration and finally conversion?
• What is the trust or attention differential between people I "know" and those I do not?

Some of these studies may exist in various forms. I may have even read them. I think some combination may be key to acheiving the "Attention Rating Point" or whatever we use to evaluate WOM for spending purposes.

Warning: I am trying to work out some thinking about social media measurement. I may be onto something useful or I may just have drunk too many cups of coffee. I need your feedback but if you think it's the coffee, just be kind.)

The Next Evolution of Social Media Measurement

What we do is different than advertising. It is different than traditional, narrowly-defined PR. It is different than direct. But what we do - word of mouth marketing using social media methods - must be comparable to the more established disciplines or our programs won't grow beyond enthusiast clients and "try-and-learn" scenarios.

There are those who believe that social media marketing initiatives should not be measured quantitatively. They must be measured that way. the problem is that we are all missing a "value" or a set of values that we can all agree on.

I started by saying that what we do is different.  Here's how:

• We activate third party word of mouth - neutral and positive mentions of a brand, experience, issue. Those mentions produce "impressions" that are more valuable than traditional display or search advertising because someone feels strongly enough about the topic to "relay" it along. WOM ranks higher in almost every measure of trust than advertising and media.
• Much of our work is more "engaging" than other means of communication or marketing. That means that people spend more time with it, often participate in some way and can become more "invested" in our experience due to that time and contribution they make. That is more valuable than simply "seeing" an ad or seeing that ad 5 times.
• Our programs offer deepening levels of participation and engagement. We have different approaches for different clients and different marketing challenges. And at the far end of the engagement scale, we can involve customers so deeply, so authentically, so personally that they become brand advocates or loyalists. All you have to do is look at Virginia Miracle's "Brands for a Weekend" thread to get that.
• Certain types of word of mouth programs can develop greater trust between a company and its customers. We exist in the nexus of marketing and communications - relevant to both brand marketer and corporate public relations practitioners.

All of this is hard to measure. Harder still is making it a predictive model - "If I just ad $10k more budget to my WOM program I get this..." But this year, we will see the next evolution of social media and word of mouth marketing measurement.

Attention

For us, that will start with an assesment of an "attention" factor - to what degree will you pay attention to a advertisement, media-mention, or word of mouth recommendation/mention for a certain product or service. All of the research on the broad category of WOM suggests that personal WOM commands more attention. Now we want to demonstrate that on a client-by-client basis. That will start to illustrate the greater value that WOM provides - over and above the value of advertising per se.

Next we need an ad equivalency model. I wish we didn't but based upon all of the conversations I have had with clients on the marketing side, we need that.

That leaves making WOM more predictive. Only experience will give us enough data and even then, the discipline will behave more like public relations - we can put all the best conditions in place to activate and amplify talk and it will either happen or it won't. Still with more complex case studies under our belt, we will continue to build a strong knowledge base of what works best.

A lot of folks are exploring measurement. Here are some interesting posts and resources:

Beth Kanter on Success Metrics for Non Profits

Jeremiah Owyang on Success Metrics

Krishna De on Measuring Success

WOMMA on Measurement and Metrics

What's your model?

 

Non-invasive Social Media Strategies

Also known as superficial strategies, "toe-in-the-water", strategies-that-remind-me-of-advertising, not-rooted-in-organizational-behavior strategies, and a-less-risky-strategy. It is kind of like non-invasive surgery - no big impact on the patient, easier decision to make, less change. I am talking about the two fundamental ways that businesses and brands can plan and execute word of mouth programs online that leverage aspects of social media.

One way is to embrace the changes that go along with a culture of conversation with your customers and stakeholders.

The other way is to look at digital word of mouth (WOM) as just another channel and try to figure out how to weave it into your media or communications plan.

A lot has been written about the first way. Many social media evangelists including ourselves have waxed poetic about the business and karmic benefits of authentic conversation and an earnest interest in customers/stakeholders/employees as people. (Far fewer of these evangelists offer any credible measurement model. They often just speak about "getting it" and criticize those who don't. It is critical that we all get very disciplined about measurement and reporting impact to have our arguments hit home in favor of the "one way")

Brands who embrace their fans fall into this category. While part of me wishes this path was for everyone, it's really not. Microsoft, Harley Davidson, Nintendo, LEGO, Intel, Dell and others have all done this, no matter how imperfectly.

The other way
Many brands and businesses want to take advantage of social media - influencer outreach, activation of networks or communities and radical visibility - to fill out their marcom plan. They are not ready, or maybe even suitable for organizational change. They need to launch a product, boost sales this quarter, or demonstrate that they are innovative. We see this with many consumer package goods companies (CPGs). They are sales machines. Often their brand leadership is transitory at best. The brand managers move from brand to brand within the organization as they conquer challenges. Short term gains - those that get measured in no more than a season or a year - are the key driver.

Examples of the "other way:"

• contests that solicit user generated content for some marketing purpose -i.e. submit your photo to win, submit your video to be part of a commercial, submit an essay to win.
• Brand Facebook pages without an outreach or community strategy - basically just a beachhead with no plans to go further inland.
• Viral video attempts
• Many ideas that leverage social media channels but without the conversation or intent to do much more with the consumer generated ideas/content.

Experiementation with the other way, which treats digital WOM as a "channel" breeds an interesting pressure. One that I actually believe is good for Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) as an emerging fresh discipline. One that could help the "one way" (I mean the fisrt example I gavce above, not that there is only one way to do it

Unintended Trojan Horse(s)
The "other way", the way of the experimenter who may not be committed or even fully aware of the potential benefits of WOMM, does three important things:

1. It let's brand marketers try some of the techniques of social media and activating WOM before going any deeper - a move that might require business or organizational change that just won't happen at the brand marketing level.

2. "Light experimentation" is shared across the organization, across brands in a typical multi-brand universe. The stories of social media success spread through the halls pretty quick. This pushes the learning across more brand teams.

3. It forces a measurement discipline on WOMM. These marketers live and die by KPIs (key performance indicators). If the WOMM effort doesn't compare well to their advertising or PR metrics, it's going to be hard to repeat 3 times (sometimes institutional memory is short in a multi-brand marketer just due to the churn of brand leadership and teams)

What's the downside?

Simple. This less-committed approach, can lead to trying shortcuts around best practices in WOM. Many best practices require a different way of thinking of marketing and the benefit of building relationships with customers. Shortcuts can lead to program "underperformance" and a perceived sense of failure. E.g. "social media didn't move the needle as much as my online advertising"

Both ways exist. Both ways are valid. Both ways are here regardless of what WOM purists would prefer. (they would prefer the "one way").

Can we inject enough best practices into these less intrusive experiments to make more CMO's and more brand managers believers in the bigger potantial of WOM to transform their business?

 

Will Samsung's Video Promotion Recipe Make a Tasty Treat?

Samsung Mobile is running a promotion via YouTube that is a crazy collection of some of the right ideas that just don't go together in a recognizable and tasty dish. (Thanks to Orli whose Go2Web2.0 blog is terrific)It's as if they looked at the recipe list for video-based engagement but forgot the idea or concept to hold it all together.

Essentially, they are soliciting users to create videos - against 4 categories - plant their video "pin" on a Google Maps mash-up alongside videos from "select" Warner Brothers music artists while colecting customer ideas on product innovations and, oh, by the way, your video may be featured on the Times Square Samsung Billboard. Whew, that's a mouthful.

Here's the recipe where each ingredient is finger-lickin' good:

1. Ask users to create short videos: take advantage of the mass of video creators out there and populate YouTube with related videos
2. Offer them a "soapbox" for personal expression that goes beyond them talking about your product. Two of the 4 "scenarios" that users can depict include - tell them your watch word for 2008 or act out the best or worst thing that happened to you in 2007.
3. Create a "meme" that may travel and be shared (see #2)
4. Ask them to create videos about how they use your product (not reviews of the product)
5. Ask them for ideas on product innovations
6. Add a Google maps interface to incite users to compete regionally
7. Offer 15 minutes of fame via the YouTube channel & homepage and the Times Square billboard
8. Offer glimpses and shoulder-rubbing with "celebrities" via the Warner's talent tie-in

What aren't they doing?
Just about the only thing they left off the list of potential incentives is a "social good" element where they make a donation triggered by site activity. There's no reason why they should do this other than that they seem to have thrown in everything but the kitchen sink so far.

They do not have a real contest strategy either. There is no clear "winner" nor prizes beyond the vague suggestion that your video may end up on the Jumbotron. Usually incentives break down as follows:
a. the activity is organically relevant
b. there is a chance to win something of value
c. you get a spotlight and/or credit
d. there is a social good outcome

They have played a little loose with a and c.

I do not know what their outreach strategy is. There is no way to know. Whenever we run a program along these lines we have a whole outreach and activation plan to help the experience grow and be discovered.

There is no binding idea here. The headline is: Ringing in 2008 with Samsung Mobile. Not a lot of definition to the idea there. 

It is a collection of some of the right things but not all of them should be thrown together like this. For instance, the 4th video submission category is "Tell us what type of mobile phone Samsung should develop for you." If they are really interested in soliciting customer ideas and driving innovation from the outside in, they would make this the cornerstone of their activity. (Lest they get the videos of the telepathic man who needs a phone to go with his special "abilities")

The Warner tie-in is a bit of a head-scratcher, too. Usually you do this to really leverage the fan base of the talent. The talent is all but invisible here.

We shall see how it goes.

There may be enough engagement that enough users will find something they want to do here. So far the promo video has been viewed 215K times since Dec 5th (I played it 6 times during the writing of this post to get the facts of the promotion correct). They have 75 subscribers and 9,269 channel views. They accept video until January 14. A stronger idea with half the recipe items might have served them (and their customers) better.

5 Steps to Making the Business Case for Social Media

We started three years ago by deploying social media-based programs as try-and-learn projects with our clients. Many clients especially on the consumer marketing side and the tech side (B2B) had an intuitive desire to get involved with social media.

Two years ago, we saw a shift and developed a very solid measurment model to report performance to marketers and ourselves. We are marketers. We know the importance of measurement. Experiments will only go so far (and only justify so much in terms of budget). We had to make the business case for programs that leverage social media. We had to do that for ourselves first and foremost. As much as I believe in the dynamics of conversation-based marketing and word of mouth, if it doesn't make business sense then I cannot recommend them to clients.

It got me thinking about how we ourselves have analyzed the value of social media as a "discipline." Then I read Jeremiah's How To: Effectively Talk To Execs....About Social Media.
He makes a case for the right orientation overall - not just the right justification (Needs assesment + value statement) but also how to be a sensitive communicator.

Here are 5 steps to making the business case for using social media.

1. Confirm the business objective and communication goals
Are we selling more product and services? Launching a new product? Are you trying to raise awareness? Educate customers about a product or service? Build long term loyalty? It amazes me how many programs are not tied back to what we are trying to accomplish. If you can clearly state the business objective and the communication goal(s), you are much more likely to come up with a program that is relevant to the business owner. The attached diagram is a variation on an Ogilvy chestnut known as the Funnel. I have used it here to demonstrate some hypothetical alignment of social media tactics and communication goals.

2. Create a short, simple yet relevant strategy
Some clients don't want to hear strategy. My hypothesis is that they do actually want it but want the strategy to take up only 6-8% of our time, energy and budget. They want action and results. They suspect that agencies spend too much time on strategy as if prone to navel-gazing. Not so. Since strategy is the thread between communication goals and tactics, it is important to have in place to justify our choices and recommendations. We just do it very efficiently these days. Whenever we are compelled to skip strategy, it always, and I mean always, comes back to haunt us. I will assume that knowledge and hopefully, insight into the digital lives of our people (audience, target audience, users, customers, consumers, mom - choose one) will be built into the strategy.

3. Create a vision of success and...
Our programs are highly creative. We mean "creative" in a new way, not in the old-school ad agency model of the cult of "Creative."  We actually get excited about what can happen for a client if they engage their customers in new ways. It's not just the novelty of new technique. Generally, it's the promise of creating a stronger bond with between brand and people. Anyhow, we need to share that vision and share our excitement. We have to paint an easy-to-see image of success - e.g. "What if we created an idea-center for customers where they post their own thoughts on how to make the service better? We get more loyal customers by increasing their "ownership" in the service, and they tell their friends....."  But vision without numbers is dead, so....

4. ...finish the image with measurement
What are we measuring and what will it tell us? Social media promises more than 'reach.' It offers "engagement", which remains an ill-defined concept. Still, we measure and report metrics that are indicative of a deeper level of engagement. Deeper than ad impressions. Deeper that simply 'time-spent.'

My suggestion? Start with conversion and work your way backwards. It is not always easy to connect the dots between social media-based programs and sales or sign-ups (or other conversion points). But try. And then demonstrate the growth of third party mentions and recommendations. Show how you will improve search engine results with new content from advocates. Apply the Net Promoter Score if your client subscribes to that model. While there is no industry standard on measurement, there are many ways to demonstrate how to measure social media programs both for optimization purposes and final judgement.

5. Tell 2 relevant stories to answer "why now?"
How did a competitor use social media? As long as it is is relevant and not a story of failure, this will help the executive you are talking with to see the competitive pressure to move ahead now. And tell one more story of how a business used a similar strategy to achieve a goal. Too many stories and you will inundate them with data. You want to demonstrate that you understand the executive's situation by being able to reference relevant stories.

Perhaps this is all common sense. Still, I am struck by how quickly people jump into tactics only to become alienated later in the process by irrelevant or unmeasuremable results. Chances are that most marketing and communication executives will insist on these 5 steps before "greenlighting" anything.  I know we do. Sometimes our own standards are more rigorous than our clients. I am guessing that ultimately that is okay....

How do you make the business case?   

How Do Community Managers Report Up?

Bill Johnston over at OnlineCommunityReport recently released the 2007 survey results from those running communities online. Fifty respondendts commented on the average yearly spend, staffing and other statistics. You can get the report here from Bill.

I am particularly interested in measurment and reporting. Here is one key question and answer included in his report about how those running communities (90% were commercial enterprises) justify their activities:

Question 14
From your experience, what are examples of effective strategies and tactics for
making the case to management for investment in online community activities?

Summary:
Key strategies and tactics for making the case to management for community
investment were:

• Report Direct Revenue: Report on direct revenue from Community Members.
• Establish Comparative Costs: Compare cost of the same result or activity in other
  media, like blog post comments vs. the cost of hosting a focus group.
• Communicate Cost Savings: Cost savings by hosting community, including support
  call deflection. Word of mouth vs. traditional marketing vehicles.
• Compare value of Member vs. Non-Member: Track and compare activity of subset of
  community member vs. non-member activity, including activity outside of community.
• Highlight the Direct Connection: Communicate the disintermediation opportunity for
  businesses, especially if your business is not directly selling to customers. Their online
  community creates a connection with the customer during and after the sale being
  handled by channel.
• The 24/7 Focus Group: A subset of your community will be giving real-time feedback
  on initiatives, products and company activities. “Human voice compliments the
  numbers.”
• Evangelist Creation and Mentoring: Communities attract your biggest fans and give
  them a place to connect with others, in the process creating new evangelists.
• Communicate the Cost of Not Being Engaged: Including increased marketing
  spend, and the threat of competitors engaging prospects and taking existing
  customers.
• “Value for all Departments” Communicate the broad value back to the business,
  including:
  • “HR - Recruiting talent through fostering relationships with engineering interns
    and other prospects
  • Customer Service - Tie in to the KnowledgeBase and help users help
    themselves and others
  • Sales - pre/post sales, online
  • EBC (executive briefing center), lead gen
  • Marcom/Marketing - brand awareness and loyalty
  • Engineering - product development/enhancements"

Everyone Wants a Fan Brand (But Cmon...)

  This week is the Word of Mouth Marketing Summit in Vegas. I have been promoting and talking about this as have others for a while now. One of the discussions that I am looking forward to having is about fan brands. These are those brands with a following. Apple qualifies. So does Flying Dog Brewery. And Moleskine. Very often these are smaller brands with personality, an authentic story, accessible founders and brands that treasure their customers.

Fan Brand Mojo

Fan brands have an easier time of engaging those fans in word of mouth. Probably for some simple reasons:

• They cannot afford more expensive, complex marketing
• These brands are close enough to the customer that they see and feel the value they get from customer interaction
• They can see the impact of positive word of mouth amongst fans on sales or conversion since they don't have a lot of other marketing in the field
• They really like their customer
• They believe in their story

Big, mass brands - some in the consumer products (CPG) category - want that fan brand mojo. Can they get it? Dove seemed to get some with their Campaign for Real Beauty. But they are an exception. It is really hard for a big consumer product brand to trigger the same emotional involvement. It's not just that soap or frozen dinners don't have the same consideration level that a more expensive and complex product like a car might have. After all, many fan brands are foods and beverages and simple products.

No, big, mass brands fail at the fan brand mojo for the exact reasons fan brands succeed. Big, mass brands:

• Can afford big ad campaigns which may be more expensive but is ultimately easier to deploy and seemingly more predictive
• Cannot measure the impact of word of mouth (WOM) in a way that stands up to the scrutiny of the Brand Manager/CMO/CEO foodchain
• Have too much marketing in the field to know what is actually triggering conversions
• Think of their customers as "targets"

Ultimately, I have never met a Brand Manager who didn't believe the brand story. But often this is with a textbook-like commitment rather than the naive zeal of a founder. Ultimately, a big mass brand has to take an action outside their normal 'brand key'. They have to do something that is worthy of that love. Dove embraced a contrary ideal. What are other brands doing and can CPG actually achieve fan brand status?

The WOMMA Summit will feature lots of debate about what it takes to generate, amplify and measure word of mouth. One session is even titled:

"Brand Fans: Your Best Asset or a Train Wreck?"

Join us at WOMMA’s 2007 Summit, November 13-15 in Las Vegas. Get the agenda now>

And jump into the conversation now. You can see what the WOMMA conversation is by using the del.icio.us tag - wommeme.

Idea Bar #8: Nonprofit Widgets in the age of OpenSocial

With this week's announcement from Google of OpenSocial - essentially creating a uber-platform to eclipse all platforms (i.e. Facebook) - and the news that MySpace has joined, widgets suddenly became a lot more relevant. The promise behind the Open Social move, whose API became available late last week, is that advertisers can now create widgets that hold some, hopefully, useful or delightful code, that can be embedded in user profiles across a range of social networks including MySpace, Bebo, Linkedin and more. More than that, we may achieve that wonderful goal of a single social network profile, "one ring to bind them."

Non-profits must jump on the widget wagon now!

If you go to widgetbox, one of the clearinghouse directories of widgets for different social networks, you will find approximately 29 nonprofit widgets available for your download and installation pleasure. They are a pretty varied and obscure bunch from the Dancing Dolphin to the Wild Apricot. Where is the Peace Corps? Amnesty International? Oxfam? Oceana?

So far, folks are using the widget to pull RSS headlines into a special box. (You can check out my Auctions for Change widget on my MySpace page)

I want to feature the 1-2 organizations that I support on my blog(s) and social netwrk profiles. I want to promote their mission and solicit other supporters ($$$). I need a widget that offers something more than headlines. It should offer something engaging like a dynamic statistic of the number of people going without meals in different parts of the world right now. Here's my RockYou countdown widget reminding me that I am off to Taos in t-minus "x" days and counting. How hard would it be to make that a "stat-widget" driven by real research numbers that tell me how many folks are starving, how much of the ocean is polluted, or the average human carbon footprint?

Then I need a micropayment button that allows visitors to give $1 to $1000 (or whatever) right there in the widget. How many people will click and give based upon widget exposure alone? No idea. But chances are, if it's on my blog, it's a cause I support and I will blog about it. Let me be your champion.

Non-profits need to engage their brand ambassadors now. We need nonprofitwidget.org to emerge not as just another clearinghouse (like widgetbox) but as a toolbox for promotion and measurement for nonprofits who would use this type of resource.

Here's how nonprofitwidget.org can work:

• All nonprofits can publish their widgets in this directory which features all of the requisite download and embed protocols to relieve the necessity of too much technical knowledge.
• A directory of developers with rating systems would help nonprofits connect with folks to build the widgets.
• A promotion toolbox will give the nonprofit staff a set of procedures and tools to help promote their widgets
• A voluntary "membership" link will allow all of the folks who are using the widget to remain connected.
• Each widget "page" would feature and aggregate set of links to the blogs who feature that widget thus sending some link love back to those who publish the widget. 

Unlike advertisers who will wrestle with how to measure the use of widgets in terms they are used to (online advertising - see this WaPo article from Saturday), nonprofits have everything to gain by activating their greatest asset - their supporters and fans. 

As reported in the NTEN, Network for Good has released a new whitepaper on technology and fundraising. In general, the report includes their experience with widgets and here are some key points:

"When Wired Fundraisers Talk, People Listen: The messenger matters even more than the message.

Not Every Wired Fundraiser Is a Champion: The successful Wired Fundraiser has a relatively rare combination of true passion and a means to lend a sense of urgency to their cause.

Technology Makes a Difference: Widgets and social networks make existing personal fundraisers more effective.

Smart Charities Embrace the Wired Fundraiser: And they find their own, “inner” Wired Fundraiser. "