Paul Papadimitriou

IMMAP: Paid Media Priming The Viral Pump

The average Asian spends more time on…?

1. Brushing Their Teeth
2. Having Sex
3. On Yahoo!
4. On MSN

I’m not an average Asian. Nor is Ken Mandel, but he sure does know a lot about the Asian market. You know, being the VP Advertising, Sales & Marketplace of Yahoo! APAC and all.

And all? Well, more than that. People keep telling me how they’d love doing what I’m doing. Look elsewhere: I’d like to be Ken when I grow up.

His Internet & Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines Summit keynote was, well, extremely cool. Turtleneck-less Jobs-cool.

When he talks about digital trends, we listen. I listen. Age is only a matter of perspective, but since he likes to call himself a veteran, I’ll hand him that title easily. He’s got chuck loads of expertise to share. And seven trends.

No standardized measurement

How right can he be about that one. I keep talking metrics and tracking with people I meet (one cannot fully close a loop without measuring). But if I’m not on the same page with you, there’s no way we’ll agree on objectives, be it for a campaign or for social conversations measurement.

Ken made it very simple. A big fat popcorn cup contains 37 grams of …fat. What does it tell you? Not a lot. Can you picturize fat? Are you able to evaluate what it is or what it does to you?

Well, Ken revealed, it’s equivalent to a full breakfast: two sunny-side up eggs, two pieces of toast & bacon. Or to a Big Mac.

Oh yeah, suddenly I understand the nightmare. Now, I’m not a popcorn guy. And I’m on a constant diet -friends can attest to that one. I still eat Big Macs though. I get it. Holy cow.

Take that same cup and say it is a campaign return on investment (ROI). And say the 37 grams are 37 Gross Rating Points (GRP).

Same story. How do you match that with CPC, CPA or engagement rate?

Wouldn’t it be easier to have standard measurement. To easily translate into leads, conversions, sales & profit?

Ken nailed it. For all the metrics we’re using, most clients don’t care. They want business objectives aligned with business goals. We all need to talk the same language.

Paid media has sisters now

I loved that one. Absolutely loved it. You know, I’m not from a pure marketing/advertising background. All I ever dealt with were business objectives, getting things done in a word. So when I hear people drowning themselves into the difference of Earned, Paid and Owned media, I -sometimes- scoff.

Come on, do you really think customers care about this division? No they don’t. Ken said it better than I ever could -I’m not as cool, ya know ;-)

No consumer is interested in the difference between earned, paid and owned media. It’s just media.

➡ Ken Mandel

Get a grip, mix the three and see what works. I know what I’m saying doesn’t sound very scientific. Flame me. At the end though, it’s a trial-and-error industry. It’s an art surrounded by non-standardized metrics and bloody business objectives.

The advertising ROI is coming from a mix of these earned, paid and owned media. Yes, of course, Ken has an ad industry background and works for a major online portal, he wouldn’t dismiss what brings revenue, but he’s right. Think about it.

A good example? Ikea.

Consumers surf the stream

Oh boy, another guy who’s into surfing.

Ride the wave, not the board

➡ Jeremiah Owyang (quoting Duke Kahanamoku)

I suck at surfing. You might too. But it’s easy to understand: do not think social as a destination. It’s a dimension, for C’s sake! It’s everywhere around you. People are everywhere online. Know where they hang out, but don’t expect them to follow one pre-defined road.

Those who get that right will have success. The other will stay “social media ninjas” or old-farty advertisers.

You wanna lead those customers towards you? Be contextual, be a curator. Listen, they will listen back. Engage. They will engage back. They’ll know who you are.

In other words, customers might have ADD, the famous attention-deficit disorder, but if they don’t see your products through their streams, you’ve got a PDD, a profit-deficit disorder, most commonly known as the IDSD, I don’t sell sh*t disorder.

Digital flattens the funnel

This is very close to my definition of the Inception Loop -more on that in a later post.

There are no more clear steps. Awareness. Consideration. Purchase. They’re all in a cyclone. An extremely fast cyclone.

From awareness to purchase, it might take me under a minute on the web. I’ve got Twitter to hear about a new product. I’ve got reviews to judge it. I’ve got friends to vouch for it -or recommend it through Facebook Likes for instance. I’ve got information galore to learn about it. I’ve got portals to buy it.

And it’s real-time. It’s fast. The consumer purchase decision-making process becomes a hell lot faster. Be in the loop. Be in my loop. Or I’ll disregard you.

Imagine how impactful this is on brand management. The nice graphics or the funnels and all steps leading to a sale cannot be nicely schematically represented to your clients/boards/whoever-who-pays-the-bills anymore.

It’s unsettling. When surfing, you might fall. But you get up and surf again. And again. Fail fast, learn fast. No whiteboard planning will teach you that.

Mixing analog & digital

For those who stay in front of their screens, get out a bit. Not to get some Sun -well, it’s proven to do you good-, but to be analog for a while.

People keep asking me how I was able to create a network of cool people around me in such a short time. The answer is not Twitter. The answer is I went out and met them. I freaking spent hours traveling, whatever buck I could spare on paying for my own trips & full-price conference tickets. I still do that to this day. I go out. I see people.

Same for brands. Go out and play. Go meet your customers. Digital will never replace analog. Not in our lifetime anyway.

It can be with a simple gimmick, like the one Ken showed. Unilever partnered with Sapient Nitro to create a fun vending machine. One that will treat you with an ice cream if you made a great smile in front of it. And your pictures did go on Facebook, obviously (I’ll take smiles over those MySpace self-portraits any day). How would my 27″ iMac ever deliver me an ice-cream? Gotta go out

Now, I know a bit about vending machines. Well, I’ve seen plenty. Living in Japan and all, you know. Go to Shinagawa station and find those equipped 47″ OLED flat screens. Cool, heh?¹
Now, the real feat here is the facial recognition software. The machine will actually suggest you drinks according to a database of stats (demographics mainly).

Male, 34, 6″5, bald. Will it recognize me as a Swiss and offer me some chocolate-based drink or as a Greek and recommend me some Ouzo?

It’s the internet of things. Machines do communicate data and play with you. The experience is not only behind your screen. It’s all around you.

LSC

Doubt this mixes well with LSD. Ken might know better. Location + Social + Commerce.

It’s been since SXSW that I’m hearing the first one. Location. Location. Location. Location. Location.

I might not be convinced of the road some location-based services (LBS) are taking on now, but this trend has legs.

The one who closes the purchase loop wins.

➡ Ken Mandel

Indeed! I don’t know which form it will take, but it will be:

Contextual. Fun. Simple. Real-time. Relevant. Predictive. Mobile

And you and your friends will be its fuel².

In terms of campaigns, if you haven’t experienced an iAd, Ken is right, wait for it. It’s quite amazing. Makes you bow to Steve Jobs on stage in front of hundreds of people type of cool!³

Foursquare mayorships, barcode readers applications linked to a purchase call-to-action (Japan is big on QR for instance) or Dentsu’s iButterfly.

Mobile LBS + LSC indeed.

Branded Engagement

Social media is not a world in itself. We don’t call it social for nothing. People talk everything and nothing -I do a lot of nothing and chocolate myself. And people talk about campaigns when they’re great.

I mean, just look at the noise the Old Spice campaign did! Great ads⁴. The conversation was not sparked out of thin air. There was strategy. Investment. Work. And success at the end. Viral was only a result.

Or, as Obi-Wan said on stage:

Paid media priming the viral pump

➡ Ken Mandel

Hell yeah.

IMMAP coverage:
Paid Media Priming The Viral Pump
Maria Ressa And Your Heroes
Going Social With Your Brand
The Corporate Culture Of Social
Flickr photos

1. Well, those who just said yes are just geeks: “freaking cool, a plasma screen on my vending machine, a big leap forward for mankind“. [↩]
2. That was the topic of an presentation of mine last April, if you care to take a look. [↩]
3. “STEVE KNOWS BEST” reacting to his own iPhone dissing in Media Magazine early ’07 LOL [↩]
4. great abs too, girls, I know…. [↩]

IMMAP: Maria Ressa And Your Heroes

Today is Araw ng mga Bayani in the Philippines. The National Heroes’ Day.

Unbeknownst to many, Ἡρώ -Hero- was actually a woman. Her lover, Λέανδρος -Leandros- would swim every night across the strait to be with her, guided by a lamp she would light on at dusk.

Hero was not the one who swam through dark waters. Hero was the guiding light. She was the one who showed him the way.

We’re all Leandroses, we need heroes. We need φῶς, that which gives light.

Not for the grandioseness of worshipping the past. Not to be forced in any predefined channeled life. But to be to have our smiles lit up. To be inspired. Challenged.

Maria

Maria Ressa is an inspiring figure. I had been impressed by her talk at the Social Networking Conference this past April in Manila, but, this time, she did more to me. She lit me up.

Her talk at the Internet & Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines Summit was nothing short of impressive. Not because of its delivery only, but because of its tone.

Social media is transforming us. We all become media. For the best and the worst. As a journalist -and manager-, she’s on the forefront of this shift. While brands may look for new ways of engaging with customers, while they try to monetize these new channels, the passion is not always in their camp. It can’t.

The Real Passion Of The People

I mean, I love brands. I can be passionate about some -Apple haters, start flaming me now-. But is it even considerate to compare a passion for a brand to a passion for your country? To a changing society? To the future of next generations?

I don’t have to answer that one, but I will: no, it can’t be compared. The transforming effect of social technologies, its impact on people, on politics -as better defined by res publica, republic, the latin for the public realm- and on the culture is far deeper that the one brands will experience.

Did I just say that? Yes, I did. And I tell brands I work with. In order to understand the social web, they need to understand the people. The people and their culture. This is where the tectonic shifts are happening, the commercial aspects of it only being an aftershock.

Journalists 2.0

I was lucky enough to sit with Maria, along with Jeremiah Owyang, at her ABS-CBN News office the day before her keynote address.

Yellow painted walls for hope, Larry King calendar for scheduling, a calm posed voice for a passion.

She told us, along with Glenda M. Gloria, ANC’s CEO, how the channel -a real media conglomerate- was adapting to this new chapter for journalism. Adapting is not the word. Testing the waters is more likely. That’s what I liked. For all the hoopla about social media “expertise”, we’re all testing its outcomes and trying to figure out best practices. We might sometimes be critical of journalists -I have- for some show poor adaptation skills, but, hell, it’s unsettling.

ABS-CBN has to be recognized for trying. Testing, failing, learning, reshaping, testing again. The Fail Fast theorem.

Yup, all journalists use Twitter (gotta love my friend TJ, their early adopter), although Maria admits that some needed to be pushed more than others. The breaking news policy is clear for it is short. Common sense seems to be the basis for most that the channel is trying. Best policy indeed. But journalists using online media is not what I want to talk about here¹.

There are two initiatives I want to focus on. Read on.

Citizen Journalism

First is the ABS-CBN Citizen Journalism initiative started as early as 2005 (!) with Citizen Patrol. Through various iterations, it became what it is today. A citizen feedback loop.

Last year, just as I was closing my Philippines chapter -I had lived there for 8 months- the news of the Maguindanao Massacre slapped me in the face. There I was, in Disneyland -Makati City, the hypercentre of Metro Manila- listening about a local political feud that ended up with 57 people butchered.

This is not the kind of news you often get when sitting in a Geneva or Tokyo office. This is the kind of news that revulses you. That puts you on the edge. It did put me on the edge. And here I am, months later, sitting with Maria telling about how the channel deciphered the bits of news getting in on that November 23. Gripping.

Citizen journalism is reshaping the world of journalists. People are media. Through the proxy of their phones. With video. With camera. With text only sometimes. But they report. They send information around. And ABS-CBN channels it. Becomes that guiding light. Tell them what to do with it so that it gets amplified. Curates it.

The channel has more than 75,000 so-called patrollers, or citizen journalists². A real community. More than 20,000 on Twitter, almost 4,000 on the BMPM micro-site. Around 3,500 on Multiply³. Roughly 25 emails, 130 voicemails and 40 texts are left per day.

This website is a collection of news stories submitted by Boto Patrollers. The stories are not edited, fact-checked or verified, unless marked otherwise.

➡ ABS-CBN News BMPM

And more than 110,000 on Facebook. Up to 400% more engaged apparently.

Now, imagine getting the first picture of the massacre through these channels. What do you do with it? How do you verifiy the information? All journalists on the ground are dead. What a responsibility.

What a learning curve too. This is the forefront of social media.

Citizen Feedback Loop

The Philippines has a history of early adopter syndrome -a mix of culture & emerging market factor maybe. Do you think American Idol was the first asking to text in votes? Think Philippines. 14 years ago.

And still today: last March, the Vice-Presidential debate -Harapan- added a citizen feedback to its format.

It might sound crazy to some -I used to be a lobbyist, I know about pre-formatted debates-, but what a result in terms of feedback. Not only did #Harapan trend on Twitter that night at number 6, but there were almost 10,000 comments on the online chat, almost 9,000 tweets (at 27 tweets per minute) and 2,300 posts on the Facebook Event page⁴.

Now, Pinoys can be very vocal politically online. I always found that striking compared to the reserve they always had about the topic in front of me -then again, I’m just a foreigner. Using this passionate feedback loop to scrutinize candidates live? That must have been something.

The usual polls were not fast enough. ABS-CBN had all the cards live⁵.

Again, this is the forefront of social media.

Be Inspired

So, why am I telling you all this, besides the impact it had on me? Journalism is at the front of passion. It deals with our lives much more than brands do.

Journalism is also one of the first industry that is being completely reshaped by social media. Shaping the citizen feedback loop is key. The customer feedback loop that brand marketers seek to understand will be very close to it.

Learn from journalists. They know how people become empowered through new technologies.

You are powerful. You will make a difference.

➡ Maria Ressa

When Leandros died, submerged by heavy waters, Hero jumped in the strait and drowned.

Don’t let anyone drown. You all can be heroes.

IMMAP coverage:
Paid Media Priming The Viral Pump
Maria Ressa And Your Heroes
Going Social With Your Brand
The Corporate Culture Of Social
Flickr photos

1. I’ve done that here [↩]
2. all the following numbers are mostly from memory only, feel free to correct me in the comments [↩]
3. that community platform stays very popular in the Philippines, even if dwindling now [↩]
4. I don’t have the numbers for the second debate in April, I think it did trend at number 5 on Twitter though [↩]
5. they added WARS, Wireless Audience Response System, in the mix, giving an approve/disapprove box to 180 selected citizens in the country to constantly vote on the candidates’ performance [↩]

IMMAP: Going Social With Your Brand

After my talk at the more exclusive workshop, things took a different scale for the Internet & Mobile Marketing Summit 2010 on Thursday.

It’s only my second time at this conference and I must say I was really impressed by how it improved in a year. I’ll do a summary in a next article when I wrap things up about thess 10 days in the Philippines, but I need to stress from the get go that you’ve got a world-class event here. Better than conferences I attend in more traditional cities like Singapore for instance.

My task on that day was to participate in a panel about how brands can become social. I was sided with George Foo, the Founder and CEO of iHub media, the Facebook Official Sales Partner for South East Asia, South Korea, Japan & Taiwan and Frederic Levy, #3 of Netbooster Asia, a subsidiary of the French digital agency, headquartered here in Manila. Good mix: a platform, an agency and a business consultant.

In a society where women have such an importance¹ what a relief to see one moderating the panel: Crisela Magpayo-Cervantes, the head of ABS-CBN Interactive, the biggest multi-media conglomerate and TV broadcaster in the Philippines.

Whew. Lots of great minds around me. Let’s take a notepad and my favorite Mont-Blanc ballpoint pen which never leaves my side.²

The panel took cues on what Jeremiah Owyang, Maria Ressa and other speakers presented before us and built upon it, in a slightly more interactive way (hey, we’re talking social, right?), the public being able to ask questions and get varied answers from three cool guys.

Interactive is not social

Is social good for all brands? That was the first question.

My starting point, which is kind of becoming a motto now, is that interactive is not social. These are two different approaches. In interactive, there’s a people to machine and machine to people interaction, while social is a people to people platform -I sometimes call that C2C in the pure business sense.

The dynamics are different. I think it is key to understand this, especially with many agencies in the audience. Campaigns and discussions are linked, one can empower the second, but while campaigns tend to limit themselves in time, people go on with their lives and have on-going conversations -including those about products and companies.

It’s no different here in the Philippines than elsewhere.

The Philippines social numbers

With the staggering 79% YOY growth, reaching the 17m mark, the Philippines now stands as the 7th biggest Facebook market in the world in terms of active users. Up to last September, Friendster was still the top social networking platform here and seems to be going down the drain everywhere else in South East Asia too -it’s former last stronghold.

Extrapolating on the recent ComScore numbers, Twitter is reaching 2m users here, the 6th biggest Twitter market worldwide with a reach of almost 15%. Not bad. Not bad at all -and again, what a striking difference from the time I was living here when Plurk was leading.

Interestingly enough, while mobile data is still limited in the country, AdMob ranks it 10th for mobile usage [pdf], based on ad requests. Add to the mix that it is the texting capital of the world -I’d say over 1.5bn SMS with a subscriber base of slighlty over 50m- and you’ve got a pretty interesting picture: social networking + mobile = traction.

Now, the most important numbers, in terms of social strategy, are still lacking in the Philippines: What are people exactly doing online.
How long, where, when, how? Which demographics is where? What are they doing? Social games like Farmville -hint, they tend to drive a big female demographic? Are they on Tumblr? Are they active during the week and not the weekend? One needs to survey the market with all those questions. The absence of these more ingrained numbers limit the creation of valid strategies for brands here.

I’m sure that, by this time next year, those will have appeared on the market, though. It’s an absolute certainty. Jeremiah hit the nail multiple times.

Research, Strategy, Preparation

Coming back to brand strategy, going social is first about knowing where your customers and prospects are & what they do. It’s fashionable to open Facebook Pages, Twitter accounts, but it is often done without doing research, without preparation. This is step two after intent. Research, strategy and preparation.

To quote myself: “there’s no such thing as a Facebook strategy, only business strategies”

The lack of deep demographics and online behaviors -the point I just made above- is limiting the research. But Filipinos brands haven’t waited, obviously.

In all cases, lack of strategy creates more problem than it solves. A very simple example: my airline of choice, Emirates. I don’t have any insider information on their strategy -or lack thereof- but opening a Twitter account then abrubtely stopping it (last tweet was on Jan 6th) shows a lack of long term planning.
On the other hand, look at Air France, the airline I used to fly the most when I was a resident in Tokyo, which offers great customer support through its social tools. When, as a customer, I was reacting on Twitter to the fact that my miles card didn’t get accepted in one Singapore hotel, they went as far as sending me an email within 24 hours, explaining them the differences in hotel miles rewards across continents. They couldn’t send me a direct message on Twitter -one needs to follow an account to get those direct engagement-, so they went and looked my email up in their database. Good stuff!
Nice for Emirates that I only have good things to say about them. Imagine the contrary. No one would have reacted. This is how stories like the Montrin Moms against a brand go in overdrive.

Negative comments are usually an overblown matter. I estimate they don’t surpass 20% of the comments -or reviews of a product. They act as validation for the positive ones -is there such a company or product that really gets 100% of satisfaction rates? Dream on-.
More importantly, and this is a motto of mine, by humanizing your brand, since going social is a people to people business, forgiveness is higher.

We, humans, do forgive others for their mistakes -unless too grave or repeated. I don’t want to forgive a machine or a brand. I don’t care. But I can forgive a humanized brand. Negativity is soothed by this process -unless you really have a crappy product, that is.

Training

Preparation does also mean not giving these social tools to the new hire, just because he’s young and Facebook is a “teen thing” or whatever. First, it’s not a “teen thing”. Second, it leads to the Nestle brandjacking debacle, where the employee, while maybe not a new hire, had no clue about crisis management. You don’t say to people to shut up. Imagine Nestle telling you to shut up. This is not communication on a professional level. Lack of training which led to a backlash against Nestle that got the world headlines.

Social media is a serious matter. It’s a job. With skills, both soft -empathy, sensibility- and hard -crisis handling being one. It requires both carefully choosing the pool of talent that will represent you online, but also training them on a on-going basis, while offering support (the Nestle Facebook page employee could have gone and ask what to do about it -he might have, again, I don’t have the specifics).

That, with the previous point, answers one of the question Crisela asked us: how to minimize the risks of social media.

Fred made an essential point there: life comes with risks. I’d add: deal with it. But I’ll advise: prepare yourself (with the risk of repeating myself).

This also applies in the choice of community managers, probably one of the most sought-after profile companies will get for in the coming years. Chose carefully. Pick a good listener. Think diplomacy.

Social Media doesn’t scale

Social media doesn’t scale. Repeat that in your head. Do that again, repeat it. Churn on it. You will never be able to follow the amount of conversations -including criticisms that need attention- especially with the high growth rate of social platforms adoption. You need tools to monitor, prioritize and group. Social CRM, in analysts’ talk.

Whether you’re a small company or a big corporation, this is tantamount. This requires investment. People’s investment. Money investment. You cannot escape this.

This would require a full analysis by itself. It was a 45 minutes panel -and I tried not to keep talking at the expense of my two great co-panelists-, I only touched the surface.

I however quickly mentioned the Apple case. Besides an App Store Facebook page, the Cupertino company seems absent on the social networking platform. Really?
Do you really think Apple is not listening the online chatter? Do you really believe Apple reacted to the recent antenna-gate issue because some big newspapers started talking about it. Apple listens. You can listen without being present. That’s your choice. Not always a wise one, but in case of Apple, they addressed the mounting complaints with a official press event. They were listening.

Being social is about being a good listener first. Not about babble skills.

Feedback loop

Listening with the appropriate social tools also allows a brand to measure the success or failure of a campaign. And it’s immediate. The campaign can be refocused -let’s say on the part that click with people, abandoning what doesn’t resonate. Quickly.

Use the feedback loop to full effect.

Listen, measure, track, rinse. And restart.

Use what people are telling you to get better, to evolve. Whether it is during a campaign or not.

Interactive can become social

Ken Mandel, head of Yahoo! South East Asia, said it best during his keynote: “paid media priming the viral pump”. Yes, an interactive campaign can generate conversations -and great ones. This is why I talked about interactive and social in terms two different approaches: they are still part still of an ecosystem. This was a main point in my keynote on day two, I’ll write about it on a subsequent post.

Going Agency or not?

This question comes a lot when I talk to clients. Coca-Cola is using an agency to run its Twitter, so it’s not something only small companies do because they don’t have the right staffing. The advantage, as my presentation on the corporate impact of social pointed out, is the professionalism. The disadvantage is the disconnect.

An agency, when it comes to listening and engaging in conversations, is not as passionate as you. It’s, at least, difficult that it will reach the level of knowledge you have for the brand that you do. Moreso the passion that you do have as you can imagine. Agencies are still, for the most part, in a broadcast culture, not in this C2C world I’ve mentioned. Beware. Only a handful of agencies understand this.

A very small amount compared to the massive presence of “social media experts” -you can replace that last word with gurus, rockstars, etc.- and to phony agencies -adding a social page to an existing agency website is easy, even famous ones do.
Be sure you get an agency that knows what it’s talking about. It should have done its homework. It should have deployed -it’s so easy to fake the appearance of seriousness and expertise.
Ask for credentials. Be social: ask around you. Why not create a Filipino website with reviews of agencies, that’s surely a good opportunity for someone!

I’m sure I’m missing lots of what has been said during these intense 45 minutes. I hope I gave you a good overview though.

More to come about this IMMAP experience in the days to come.

IMMAP coverage:
Paid Media Priming The Viral Pump
Maria Ressa And Your Heroes
Going Social With Your Brand
The Corporate Culture Of Social
Flickr photos

1. this is actually something I realized when I was living here last year, impressive, I love it [↩]
2. thanks to Leah Valle for the nice pics [↩]

IMMAP: The Corporate Culture of Social

Here’s my presentation from this morning Social Strategy Seminar-Workshop in Manila.¹

Like last time in the Philippines, this is a new presentation. I like the audience here, they help me reshape my thoughts with their feedback. I need to make some adjustments to its dynamic, but the core is there.

I took the audience for a tour at my experience in management issues that arise with the integration of social technologies into corporations.

Organizational Culture Shift

The new interaction between the brand, the employees -the internal assets-, the existing base of customers -the external assets- & the potential customers, seen a as rings in expansion -rings of trust expansion-, is shaking the organizational roots of companies.

I’ve seen it happening in front of my eyes: power struggles between departments, executives being wary of employees’ empowerment, absence of strategy -from target definition to clear objectives- in the hastiness to jump on the social bandwagon, lack of expertise leading to social fallouts.

Clear strategic objectives and being advocates of internal change to succeed are factors maximizing the opportunities -and monetization- of social media.

From Anarchy to Participative Democracy

Most of the organizations I’m consulting with are still at a pre-socialization stage, where testing out means authenticity flies high, but where the experience for the customer can suffer a lot, not mentioning the absence of readability for executives steering the company’s strategy. I called that -bluntly- Anarchy.

The Protectorate -a UN Mandate of sorts- solution, to keep my political system analogy, by outsourcing social media handling to agencies is worth a look but the disconnect between the reality of a company and the message of an external body is often clear and hard to consolidate.

The Central Planning route offers constitency but doesn’t really take the various needs of various departments, social technologies being very different if used for customer support, talent scout or direct sales for instance.

Democracy is a model that remains costly, but certainly the one that offers an excellent balance without the need of total overhaul of the organization. Participative democracy, like the one I enjoy as a Swiss citizen, requires such a DNA reprogramming that I don’t think it will be achieved by most. Only newly-created companies built on that baseline -think Zappos- or small enterprises organizations can currently hope to get to that stage.

You know, Switzerland is still the only country in the world with a wide direct voting system. Hard to replicate indeed.

Evolution of Trust and Control

I also propose that trust and control can be correlated in their evolution. The term ‘brand’ still evokes a culture of ownership, thus a trust more limited than if relayed by -less controllable- employees and customers, who might not be controllable but who can increase loyalty -trust equity- towards prospects.

From the inner circle to the outer ever-expanding ones. In fluid dynamics talk, a ripple.

A ripple towards a bigger customer base. More sales. More revenues.

Interactive is Not Social

The creed of all this? Use the fast feedback loop that social media brings into the equation. Monetization of the opportunities of social marketing comes at this realization.

And with people being the field of that expansion, C2C -even for B2B companies- is playing a key element of this foundation.

C2C. Consumer to consumer. People to people. Human to human. Interactive is not social, be warned.

Digital Brand Health

Before my talk, Dr. Donald Patrick Lim², ex-Yehey recently hired by MRM, shared a very interesting take on social capital. Using a financial output comparison, he proposed a new Digital Brand Health framework.

Finance wording:

Digital wording:

He assesses that by looking into components of online brand presence, one can derive the total health of the brand. This baseline become the pulse used for diagnostics and corrective measures.

Smart. I’ll comment the framework in another post. Hope Donald puts his presentation online for you to see, it’s worth it.

Socialgraphics

Jeremiah Owyang, whom I brought in my bags for his first visit here, ran his famous workshop of developing a social strategy. I’m sure he’s going to post this new presentation on his Slideshare soon, so let it just be said that he accompanied us on a fascinating journey from socialgraphics -the demographics and social technologies usage of your target- to ROI calculation case studies.

This presentation is the best I’ve heard from him yet. He’s stepping up his game every time. Impressive stuff. He has also mastered his on-stage persona. Call me lucky for having him as a friend.

Negativity is overblown

During the Q&A, Jack Madrid, GM Yahoo! Philippines whom I finally met in person after all this time conversing online, had a very sharp question on dealing with negativity.
I support the view that negative mentions are overblown in the eyes of many, meaning that they’re not as widespread as one would want to believe. They also allow for benchmarking. I will never believe that any product has no flaws. Negative reviews help me value the positive comments.

Now, product is the new marketing. Companies have thus to undertake self-inquisition journey to evaluates their offering -and themselves-, then only choose the right providers & consultants and train their staff appropriately.

By humanizing, brands also grab the added benefit of getting a more forgiving audience. Humans do forgive humans. Humans do mistakes. Brands are faceless.

In that regard, the Nestle debacle is proof, in my eyes, of poor foresight from the Swiss-based corporation. Crisis management know-how & processes are crucial on the real-time web.

Interestingly enough, I didn’t hear any of the attendees telling us how the loss of ownership bothered them during that Q&A. I usually get that a lot from executives. Didn’t they dare to?

The event, catered to C-level corporate people and marketing executives, was organized by IMMAP & Fiera de Manila at the exclusive Tower Club in Makati. Thanks to Leah, Nix, Norelyn and team for a fantastic event. I was honored to be sided with such great analysts like Jeremiah and Donald.

Note that Jeremiah will keynote tomorrow’s 4th IMMAP Summit (9.15am PHT), followed by the fascinating Maria Ressa, whom we had the chance to meet at ABS-CBN Studio 6 earlier this afternoon in Quezon City.
I’ll participate on a panel, ‘Going Social with your Brand’ moderated by Crisela Cervantes, head of ABS-CBN Interactive, at 4pm PHT. At 5.30pm, I will join Jeremiah on a live webcast hosted by the excellent TJ Manotoc.

My keynote on Social Listening & Earned Media is scheduled on Friday around 2pm.

IMMAP coverage:
Paid Media Priming The Viral Pump
Maria Ressa And Your Heroes
Going Social With Your Brand
The Corporate Culture Of Social
Flickr photos

1. yeah, I know, it’s in Flash, anathema for an iPad user like me. [↩]
2. and not David as I mistakenly wrote on my Twitter, Jeremiah calling him Patrick, TJ making fun of us in the process LOL [↩]

Happy Birthday Dave

Happy Fucking Birthday Dave.

Syncrisis

La belle Antiquité fut toujours vénérable;
Mais je ne crus jamais qu’elle fust adorable.
Je voy les Anciens sans plier les genoux,
Ils sont grands, il est vray, mais hommes comme nous;
Et l’on peut comparer sans craindre d’estre injuste

➡ Parallèle des anciens et des modernes en ce qui regarde les arts et les sciences, Charles Perrault, p. 173¹

Slowly first. Faster then. Jerking off.

That’s basically Miyazaki‘s definition of the iPad culture.

Of any culture that doesn’t use a pencil.

To each his own. I prefer sex over the iPad or a pencil.

But I dislike arrogance.

Arrogance, that bastard child of the classic case of the old v. new quarrel. The old-fart quarrel.²

In 17th-century Renaissance Italy, paragone -or comparison- was the hottest debate around. Being able to compare was the new paradigm. It equaled freedom of thought.

Boileau and Perrault were leading the same argument in France.
In red shorts, The Ancients, led by the former, believed we were stuck at imitating the perfection in Arts that the Greeks and Romans had set. Rules had to be followed. Dues had to be given.

The Moderns, in blue shorts, thought that new forms of art had to be invented. Rules could be broken. Innovation spurred.

Authority v. Progress.

Syncrisis.³

You aren’t going out into the real world and pouring your creativity into something [...] nothing more than consumers.

➡ How dare he dislike my gadget!

While Miyazaki makes a valid point about cases of herd psychology shown by people wanting the latest gadgetery⁴, his prism is blocked by his ceteribus paribus assumptions.

The real world is his own⁵. Creativity is his own.

These are his rules. His Greeks. His Romans.

Ironically, they collide with the credence -or authority- his comments are getting, as it is derived from the same factor the Japanese director criticizes: a communion of opinions, i.e. a mass of people flocking to see his art and approving it. Let’s call that mass approval⁶.

Creativity is not measured by the level of old-schoolness -or authority, again- you’ve got. It’s not because you’re using a ballpoint pen that you’re a better writer than someone using a typewriter. The same goes between analog and digital photography. Or a pen versus an iPad.

Don’t blindly follow those who tell you how things should to be done. Don’t fall into that type of herd behavior: non-sensical collective worship of modern so-called creative Gods. Miyazaki, Jobs, Nolan or Gladwell.

he is coming from an “All I need are pencil and paper” point-of-view. That might be all he needs. He’s Hayao Miyazaki!

➡ Hayao Miyazaki Compares iPad Use To Masturbation⁷

Get a clue. The communion of opinions about Miyazaki -his authority, again and again- validates the bashing of the communion of opinions on the iPad -his old-fartiness. Non-sensical.

Expertise -authority, yes …again- gives an opinion more weight -authority, always. It doesn’t make it of higher value.

Learn from the Ancients, respect them, give dues if you wish, but don’t let them tell you what your path should be. How your creativity should be shaped.

Don’t mix the medium and the format. Don’t mix the goal and the means.

Use a pen, an iPad, whatever suits you. Define your world. Break the mould. Be a consumer. A prosumer. A producer. A watcher. A stroker.

You’re probably going to become an old-fart anyway.

1. The great Ancient History always was venerable; But I never thought it was adorable. I see the Ancients without bending [my] knees, they are great, it’s true, but men like us; One care compare without fear of being unjust. Translation mine. [↩]
2. I’ll readily disclaim it. Not even 35 and I’m somewhat in the former category already. Took me ages to go from film to digital. Will take me forever to accept 3D movie technology, the most idiotic & useless trend. I’m an old fart. [↩]
3. Syncrisis [sin'-cri-sis]: from Greek syn ”with” and krinein, “to separate”/”to compare”. A comparison and contrast in parallel clauses. [↩]
4. or willing to flock to the latest movie …even when as stupid, boring and dangerously backwards as Avatar. [↩]
5. one which somewhat lacks introspection, the real world also meaning taking care of your son, in my humble opinion. The real world not being limited to staying in front of a piece of paper for hours. Again, to each his own. Maybe. [↩]
6. don’t get me started: you’ve got to be delusional -or Ancient- to derive authority from the essence of his art. [↩]
7. emphasis mine [↩]

Re: @OldSpice | Paul Papadimitriou

In the world of campaigns, there is nothing better than earned media — free television and radio exposure

➡ Being an Incumbent Has Many Benefits¹

Thank you Old Spice. Not for reminding me that I should work on my abs. But for proving me right.

Right about what? That the wall between earned media and social media is nothing but thin air. It’s not editorial efforts on one side and grassroots actions on the other². There’s only one wall. Between success and failure. Between phenomenon and oblivion.

Thank you Wieden + Kennedy. Thank you Iain.

Simple-minded social media experts -i.e. douchebags- will repeat the oh-so-often heard rule of engaging the influencers -to death. It’s not enough. On how to have a presence on Facebook. It’s not enough. Social media itself is not enough. You need much more.

In order to leverage the “grassroot” voice for an advertising campaign, you need a blend of creatives, marketers, writers & techies. You need people who breathe the real-time web. You need people who know what they’re talking/writing about, what they’re analyzing -and fast-, who they’re targeting. You need a plan. And you need the trust of your client.

W+K PDX had it all. The result is nothing short of admirable.

Over 185 videos, the Old Spice Guy answered online messages of celebrities like Alyssa Milano or Ashton Kutcher. And while he talked to them -caressing their ego- he messaged the rest of us. Real-time.

social media guys [...] figured out the who and where, spotting the opportunities, pulling out the gems and putting them cleverly back into the world. [...] [T]ech guys [...] pulled together a super smart workflow system

➡ Responding to allegations of douchiness and congratulations to a great @oldspice team

It was one-to-one-to-many. But it didn’t stop there.

we’ve built an application that scans the Internet looking for mentions and allows us to look at the influence of those people and also what they’ve said

➡ The Team Who Made Old Spice Smell Good Again Reveals What’s Behind Mustafa’s Towel

He also talked directly to the rest of us. The ones who had a fun sense of creativity. The crazy ones who were willing to propose our girlfriend.

It’s not just responding to tweets, it’s looking at the environment right now.

➡ ibidem

He talked via requests taken on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and 4Chan. Yeah, on 4Chan, daring the ones who decided to send Justin Bieber to North Korea.

And he talked Geekery³.

Geekery? W+K understood demographics & behaviors. Understood that social media channels are still influenced by early adopters. People who love technology so much that they’ll jump into the indescribable 140-character message board that Twitter is. People who will understand the answer Kevin Rose received.

People who, like me, will laugh hard at the answer 4Chan got.

People who will be crazy enough to remix the videos.

People who will share the love.

People who will put the story on top of social sharing sites Reddit and Digg. People who will trigger the huge surge the Old Spice Twitter account got -from 3,500 to 55,000 followers in one day⁴. Triggering more spill over to Facebook -600,000 fans of the brand, I’d say 20,000 more since the campaign started. A spill over talked about in larger circles thanks to news outlets like the Telegraph or the New York Times.

People who will get the videos to top 6 million views on YouTube in 24 hours -a record.

➡ Old Spice’s Online Video Coup

People who reacted to the Old Spice Guy’s persona.

W+K understood what a Tummler -to use the old Yiddish word⁵- really is.

It understood the true concept of engagement. And the work it required.

It understood that pulling the comments real-time, quickly spotting the right opportunities required the right skills. That processing this back to the writers for a rapid video shoot required the right team. That working that fast required the complete backing -bravura?- of the client⁶.

It understood the demographics for the product it was promoting. The behavior and psychology of the target. The referrals that could follow.

W+K had a plan. An intention for its client. And massive amounts of coffee.

The wall is between success and failure. If brand awareness was the goal, social media really is part of earned media.

Thanks for the diamonds.

I’m going to exercise now.

1. subscription required [↩]
2. don’t get me started on the artificial distinction which implies that earned media should be reserved to initiatives, not advertising. We live in a world of blurred definitions. [↩]
3. to use Ken‘s right word in his W+K announcement [↩]
4. 66,000+ at the time of this writing [↩]
5. Tummler: [ˈtʌmlə] One, such as a social director or entertainer, who encourages guest or audience participation. [↩]
6. as a bonus, P&G got a funny cross-promo for Gillette

   [↩]

I’m A Tourist

I’m a tourist in your company. I don’t know nearly as much about it as you do – you’ve lived here for a long time and I’m quite new. And as a tourist I’m not likely to stay here very long so you’ll have to live with the results. But like any person living in a city for a long time, I find that my clients often stop visiting certain attractions that used to excite them. They stop questioning why things are the way things are and just accept the status quo. And the great thing about being a tourist is that I get to visit many places and can bring some good ideas that I’ve seen elsewhere that you may like. But let’s be clear – I’m only a tourist. You really know your town. And if I’m going to help a bit while I’m here the better I know ‘what’s what’ the easier it will be for me to help and be on my way

➡ How a Tourist Can Help you with Your Startup

This piece by Mark is a stunner. A must-read.

I’ve always been client-oriented in my career, whether as an account manager, a lobbyist or a consultant. I realize I’ve been a tourist all my life, now that I got this amazing analogy.

Sometimes in awe. Sometimes bored. Sometimes disgusted.

Always curious.

Taking too many pictures at first. Nor digesting the flow of information that came to my eyes. Learning to become a better tourist. Respectful. Understanding. A tourist who knows what he wants. And gets it done.

I was sharing some excellent Lebanese red wine¹ last night with a good friend of mine who’s in Cyprus to spend one week of holidays at my place. He’s an institutional banker. The kind of honest and good person I hope you meet one day.

We were exchanging experiences on how we deal with clients. Strike that. On how we deal with people. How we deal with decisions impacting people and how they impact us, as human beings. How to fine tune the correct balance between your call, the clients’ call and your boss’ call. A topic as deep as the red color we were drinking.

One story stuck.

A common friend is specialized in strategic marketing².

She was consulting for a company that went way over its head trying to diversify. Designing the fit between the organization, the resources and the revisited objectives. Improving the engine, in a word. Making some hard calls, in another³.

In the report she submitted to the CEO was a list of people that were no longer needed in the company.

The last name was hers.

She was a tourist.

1. Chateau St Thomas, 2005. A real discovery. [↩]
2. for the clueless social media douchebags, it’s not strategically communicating via Twitter, right? It’s way more complex than you’ll ever understand. [↩]
3. I love the smell of strategic planning in the morning. Really, I do. [↩]

John Gruber Was Right All Along

Gruber says that when he’s writing Daring Fireball, he’s picturing his ideal reader — a copy of himself — and conceptually writing just for him. With everything he writes, he’s writing to and for that one ideal reader, not trying to boost his SEO for target phrases or appeal to an ever broadening demographic.

➡ How I write and time-manage

There you have it.

I love writing. For more than fifteen years, I’ve been having amazing debates online with a selected group of friends¹. I can spend so much time crafting the most documented answer or going into a non-sensical reply frenzy that it can be described as a real passion.

I was never able to translate that completely into blogging, though. I have had several blogs dating back to 1995, on way too many platforms, with way too many different domain names.

Gosh the staggering amount of time I’ve spent experimenting. Don’t do it. Well, do experiment. But don’t think technology. Think content. Think you. You’re the ideal reader.

I’m the ideal reader.

I was thinking too much. I’m a Virgo ascendant Virgo. I don’t value astrology, it’s a know fact amongst my friends, but random online searches about the topic would tell you that, besides not hiding my personality, I’m double the perfectionist, double the the analyzer. I think too much.

I was always struggling with the eventual noise I was putting out. Not noise to me, but what could have been noise to you. I didn’t want to disturb. I don’t care anymore. Well, I do, I just learned to better deal with it.

Twitter, the so-called grave-digger of long-form writing, has been my therapy. I realized I’m doing just fine with my half-professional, half-personal, half-witty, half-grunty, half-worldcup, half-analyst, half-Japan, half-non-sensical shots². People are free to like my noise or not. To follow me or not.

To like me or not.

I’ve repeated over and over and I’ll do it again: I like opinions. The only reason I ever read newspapers is for the op-eds.

I’m opinionated. Like my articles³. Or not.

Like my tone or pass. There you have it.

1. entirely restricted to a small trusted circle of friends via an old email address [↩]
2. I know these halves don’t add up, but since you’re at the footnote, read Steve: “in an age where transparency begets trust, there’s a lot to be gained on an individual and institutional level for those who decide in some way to live some of their lives in public and converge networks“ [↩]
3. with cryptic titles, without them ending in a question to beg for commenting, with somewhat scattered topics. In full SEO anathema glory. [↩]

Take A Stand Or Shut Up

CNN: une journaliste spécialiste du Moyen-Orient licenciée à cause de Twitter

CNN: a journalist specialized on the Middle-Est fired because of Twitter

Because of Twitter?!

I repeat. Because of Twitter. Seriously, people, because of Twitter?!

Yes, I got the news in French -flame me for having that one as a mother tongue- and I’ll admit a rapid skimming of Google News shows English headlines make more sense, but still… The art of not taking responsibility has reached a new height. The art of bullshit I’d say.

I’ve said it many times and I’ll say it again. I love opinions and opinionated people.

I think journalists should have the right to express their opinions on the topics they cover. More importantly, I think readers have a right to know what those opinions are. Frankly, I’d like to know sooner rather than later just how insane some of these people at CNN and Fox News are. To stop them from giving me that information is just another way to lie to me.

➡ We Need More Opinion In News, Not Less

Mike is right. I’ve had enough of editorial policies leading to convulsed news report trying to hide any bias. I like frankness. I like to know what people think. It allows all of us to form a constructed opinion rapidly -if you’re slower, you just might be dumber. A better opinion.

See? That’s what I always do. I’ve called some of you dumb. Dislike that? Don’t read me. Or read me and discard my opinion. Hate me. Do whatever the hell you want with what I’m telling you. But take responsibility.

Stop blaming technology at least. It’s not because of Twitter that Octavia Nasr was fired.
The postulate of Twitter is simple. Broadcast 140 character messages. In public by default. You don’t have to be on Twitter, you don’t have to use it and you sure don’t have to write everything and anything.

Stop blaming technology, take responsibility and take a stand.

Let me take this back to me -yes, that opinionated egocentric guy who takes responsibility of everything he writes online, including the expletives. I’m a fan of the World Cup¹. I comment the matches live on Twitter. On the spur of the moment. With emotions. Boring some of my followers. Like I’m in a bar.

10 days ago, during the exciting Germany – England game, I did react to the German team rising domination with a tongue-in-cheek tweet which referred to their former armored fighting vehicles. I’m no Monty Python though. It didn’t fly well with a good friend of mine who immediately reacted. I apologized and removed the tweet.

I took a stand. I took responsibility. I apologized. I removed the tweet. Nothing to do with “because of Twitter”. It was me writing that tweet down. Me. Me. Me. Someone didn’t find it funny. I didn’t want to offend anyone. Didn’t try to find excuses and blame it on an external factor. It was me. I was wrong. I am sorry.

Nars did tweet. She knew she had 140 characters². Her account is called OctaviaNasrCNN. It’s officially linked with her employer. She knew that. And tweeted with it. On the spur of the moment. With her emotions. But it was her. Her. Her.

a good lesson on why 140 characters should not be used to comment on controversial or sensitive issues

➡ Nasr explains controversial tweet on Lebanese cleric

Wrong. Completely wrong. It’s a choice. And a responsibility. To your employer. And yourself.

Take a stand or shut up.

1. it’s called football, not soccer, everyone. [↩]
2. It’s beyond the point of this post to say if she was right or not, nor if CNN has a sound editorial policy or not, I’ll leave that to the political pundits [↩]

That Which Gives Light

It takes courage to let your employees shine.

Think of this. A sword is like a bird. If you clutch it too tightly, you choke it – too lightly and it flies away.

➡ Scaramouche (1952)

Last February, Forrester, the famous technology and market research company, took the bold decision to forbid its analysts to share insights through their personal blogs.

Online shitstorm ensued¹.

Let me brush aside some critics right out of the door: I am indeed in an easy position here. I’ve got this blog under my name while linked with no organization besides my clients. I don’t have to ask for permission. Nor do I have any conflict of interest. I’m my own boss.

As someone who used to create web policies though, I truly feel how struggling such decision can be when debated in a board meeting. And as someone who basically sells words, like Forrester does, I can understand how much more delicate the situation can be when research is the core value².

What people need to understand is that Forrester is an intellectual property company, and the opinions of our analysts are our product.

➡ Why our analysts blog at forrester.com

The nature of the web is disruptive. Look at what’s going on in the music industry. More appropriately, look at the debates surrounding the future of newspapers. There lies the future of selling words.

The nature of the social web is also person-centric -”hey, look at my profile!”. Narcissistic some would say, but people-istic nonetheless. There lies the future of sharing words.

Resistance is futile.

Oh yeah, having non-compete agreements with your employees is feasible³. Stringent policies are an option too. Policies that reflect what type of company you are though.

It all boils down to that. What type of company do you want to be?

As a potential customer, I don’t give a damn about your policies. I won’t read them, thank you. I want the best company with the brightest people. The company that will offer me the best value. This is the company I want you to be. Or I’ll pass.

Of course, CEO George Colony knew oh so well what he was doing. He had just lost two high-profile analysts known for their blogs, Jeremiah Owyang, the famous web strategist & R “Ray” Wang, the SaaS CRM specialist, after having seen a massive brain drain in 2008, Charlene Li leaving in July, Peter Kim the same month & Brian Haven in August.

What a reversal of fortune. But I won’t pity him too much⁴. One of the key factor behind Jeremiah’s hiring was his blog. Yes, his blog. He was the star of Forrester in part because of his hyper-valuable articles and Forrester did gain ground because of Jeremiah’s reach⁵. Cross-pollinization is one term those other word sellers, McKinsey, would use.

So, ask yourself: do you want to have the brightest stars working for you?

Who are they, where are they, what do they do? Sharing, tweeting, blogging, podcasting, livecasting. That’s what they do. Coders, engineers, marketers, analysts, biz dev guys. Pretty much all of them. They’re getting personal online.

These are the people who breathe the web. These are the ones you want. Whichever business you’re into.

Their personal blogs are their new resumes.

Not the pretty static LinkedIn, but their personal blogs⁶. There to be googled & show value over time. There for you to find your next star.

A personal blog is a place -and, yes, one URL- of experimentation. It’s not about so-called personal branding -oh boy, I’ve come to hate that term⁷-, it’s about testing the waters with new ideas. Discussing topics outside of the more confined garden of a company. And getting more opinionated.

Opinionated, I love that. Opinions are what I use to rate people. It’s at the heart of human interaction, like body language. Let’s be realistic, it’s not by reading Ray’s blog that I will be able to re-invent myself as a SaaS specialist. But it’s by reading his blog that I will understand how smart Ray is and, in turn, what value Altimeter can bring me.

Ray makes Altimeter shine.

A star makes your company shine.

Shutting down a star will have one effect. Less light. Like every organic living animal however, your company needs φῶς⁸. The nature of stars is to come and go. Have them as long as you can. Cherish them. Let them bloom, become supernovae. And be on the look out for the next one. Your company will glow. And grow.

Cut the ropes and let them be free.

Great Customer Experience are enabled through inspirational leadership and empowering culture and empathetic people who are happy and fulfilled.

➡ Forrester takes the ’social’ out of social media

It takes courage to hire bright minds. It takes courage to be a better company.

further reading:
What You Can Learn From Forrester's New Blogging Policy
Forrester's Blogging Policy Misses the IP Point
Forrester Crimps Bloggers: Epic E2.0 Fail
You Can't Take The Personal Out of Blogging
Forrester To Analysts That Have Their Own Blogs: Umm, No
Forrester's New Blog Policy Creates Quite A Stir
Forrester's New Employee Blogging Policy: Four Reasons It's Spot On
My Thoughts on Forrester, Analysts, and Blogging
Why Forrester Made The Right Call About Employee Blogs

1. to be fair to the debate, since some called it a tempest in a tea pot, I’ve included both points of views in the further reading section of this article [↩]
2. though one could argue that every company is IP-based [↩]
3. it actually depends on your legal system, check with someone who sells the right words [↩]
4. Dave adds, in all his epicness: “Clearly, no analyst with a shred of talent or ambition will ever likely choose to work for Forrester, assuming this policy is enforced. Best of luck to the remaining losers who decide it’s a good idea to tuck tail between legs and go silently into the night to work as a faceless drone for FR. why not require everyone at FR commute to work by horse & buggy while you’re at it“ [↩]
5. look how Sam values that one, read his Forrester card, 3rd point [↩]
6. Twitter builds a lot of equity as well, but with less archivability [↩]
7. although this Charlene interview is worth a read: “personal branding efforts can greatly benefit the company“ [↩]
8. φῶς [pʰɔ́ː̀s] : That which gives light [↩]

Do Google Me

Did you Google me lately?

That simple phrase could take an entire new meaning soon if we believe what Kevin hinted yesterday.

Ok, umm, huge rumor: Google to launch facebook competitor very soon “Google Me”, very credible source

➡ Twitter / Kevin Rose

Let’s be clear. Google has all the pieces in order to create a social network –besides the ugly UI, that is.

Gmail, Chat, Blogger, Picasa, Buzz, Apps, Docs, Friend Connect, Latitude, Calendar, Chat, Profiles (upon which Chris Saad seems to think that Me thing will be built¹). You name it -just don’t name Orkut. In a way, it’s already a social network of sorts.

I know, I know, you’re thinking Wave and Buzz right now. As a sign of an upcoming failure?

I would argue differently.

Let’s immediately skip the Wave case. People hastily compared it to Twitter for the sake of a fallacious simple categorization and it stained that great collaboration tool into the failure box while it shouldn’t have. Not that everything is perfect there -again, that ugly UI-, but it’s not, I repeat, not a Twitter nor a Facebook. It’s a different beast.

For all the -privacy²- mistakes done during the roll out of Buzz on the other hand, the tool remains a solid implementation of social sharing -beside that UI again-, one that is linked with the massive pool of existing Gmail users.

Google Buzz might have not met expectations -it hasn’t fully met mine- but mainly because most pundits were waiting for the Second Coming, that competitor to Facebook -open versus closed, that recurring debate, you know- while, it has to be noted, Google never presented it as such.

Also, you know, for all its soon-to-be 500m users base, Facebook is not the gold standard of social networking sites. It certainly is not the gold standard of monetization or advertising platform.

Google sits on a user base of approximatively 100 million active Gmail users alone. Add 100m with that thing I told you not to name, Orkut. It has the most popular search engine out there. It knows about ads. And it has data. Lots of data. Scary shitloads of data. Data that could serve into rapidly building a very satisfactory social networking experience. Data that, as a user, I’d love to leverage to rapidly built a cohesive network. Data that, as a brand, I’d love to be able to leverage in order to deliver relevant ads.

It’s evidently too soon to make any reasonable analysis. We’re talking about thin air. Thin air that users won’t maybe care to breathe. But Google has a shot. A clear one.

Besides the ugly UI, that is.

1. read his Tweet [↩]
2. I won’t say it better than Danah Boyd’s SXSWi opening remarks, skip to the 11th paragraph [↩]