I attended a Tweet up last week in Wichita, KS on our way down to South by Southwest. We talked about the integration of social media in mobile devices, including downloadable applications, using the mobile web to check online e-tailer prices while at a home town merchant, or making social streams from Twitter, Facebook and other networks part of your mobile home page as the Motorola DEVOUR with MOTOBLUR. An interesting take from a couple of folks was that local merchants can monitor the web for the lowest prices online for similar products that they carry in the local store, then be active with the local community online and those merchants will be able to charge the premium while building customer and community loyalty.

Another issue the Wichita covered was about how consumers are being marketers for brands. After all that’s the attraction of social media for many big brands, have customers do with credibility what marketers have tried for years.
Wichita Tweet Up Mobile Apps and SxSw

Wichita, KS Tweet Up, March 12 from Albert Maruggi on Vimeo.

We raised the case of TGIF’s Friday’s integrated campaign to get 500,000 fans in the month of September for their number one fan/spokesperson Woody on Facebook. If you became a fan everyone would benefit with a free Jack Daniels burger. Woody quickly met his goal of 500,000 fans by mid-September, presenting a problem of what to do with the remaining two weeks, and the ad buy. After the grumbling began online they doubled Woody’s free burger allotment to 1 million.

Tom Shaw writer of the Marketing Executive blog estimates that if 50% of the 500,000 fans bring one person who buys a meal and a drink, it will generate up to $5 million in sales.

We put the question of marketing to your network and the Woody’s example to the Wichita group and the feedback was mixed. Some bought into the idea, if they liked a product they would share it with their network, others took a case by case approach, perhaps sharing with only a portion of their fan/friend/follower base, while others shrugged it off as part of the new dynamic of social media. Give a listen to the video. Apologies for some of the side conversation going on in the background.

We met at the Donut Whole, a fantastic place with outrageous donut flavors like bacon maple and chocolate cheese cake. I’m told by one of the employees that one of the secrets is the fresh spices purchased from a local importer. The donuts are worth the trip even from Minneapolis!

Special thanks to Cindy Kelly @wichitacindy for helping organize the Tweet up. I’ll donate a food item to a St. Paul, MN food charity for every comment we get on this blog.

Coverage of the road trip and South by Southwest was supported by Verizon Wireless.

A telling moment at the South by Southwest Interactive 2010 festival was when Mobile Roadie was one of the winners of the Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator award. Mobile Roadie enables users to build mobile applications and submit them to the iPhone App Store and the Android App Market. Mobile Roadie started by developing mobile applications for bands, and rapidly expanded to business, media, sports, and other organizations including churches. AdMob, a research firm, did a study released in January 2010 that showed Android and iPhone users spend an average of 80 minutes per day using applications.

The Mobile Roadie platform cut its teeth in the entertainment industry, being the platform for Ashton Kutcher and Taylor Swift, but they were quickly approached by a wide range of customers from businesses to churches. I use this event to underscore the increasing trend of smart mobile devices and the voracious appetite for information, entertainment, and social connections on-demand. That’s all mobile is, information on-demand. This is a natural progression for a society that inhales its fast food and as no time for the morning paper.

Scott Raney, a partner at Redpoint Ventures commented about SxSw in a Wall Street Journal blog saying, “Mobile in general was a big topic of conversation. People really do believe in these platforms and that they can do a lot of interesting things with them. You’ve got pretty broad platforms and faster network speeds.”

Mobile is a Condition

As you look at whether your business or organization should include a mobile application as part of its marketing mix, consider the relationship of the information you would offer, the consumer, the location of the consumer, and what the reaction will be once that information is obtained. In the case of SxSw, mobile apps like Levi’s Fader Fort highlights the popular hang out sponsored by Levi’s during the music festival in Austin, Texas. The Levi’s Fader Fort has a popular application built by Mobile Roadie.

The Levi’s Fader Fort is the setting for big name bands and those whose names are yet to become known. Given that attendees are always on the move, the best way to connect with that audience is with a mobile application. Information that has value in that environment includes band schedules at the Levi’s Fader Fort, sample songs, interviews with band members, and the social component for others using the app to comment. Thumbs up or down for a band performance may well change the direction of a small mob within a square mile.



Raney summed it up best echoing what many digital marketers are saying, “If I’m going to do something it’ll be predominantly mobile, or if it’s a traditional online experience, from the ground up I’ll think about mobile.”

Mobile adoption by businesses, venture capital, and developers is occurring at light speeds compared to other platform transitions, radio, TV, and Web, for instance. The SxSw Interactive panels and hallway conversations point the direction of where the consumer wants to go, the mobile web and applications is the next, like right now, big thing.

Is mobile in your planning either with an application or a mobile website ?

Provident Partners donates a food item for every comment received on this blog.

Verizon Wireless sponsored the Marketing Edge coverage of South by Southwest.

I covered the South by Southwest Interactive Festival from a mobile perspective because that is the “hot” area for the social web. I am fascinated by location services and what I think are the conservative predictions by web analysts that half of the web connections will be on a mobile device within 3 years.

The mobile device is central to social web 2.0 growth, “because it is carried with the user at most times, is ideally placed to capture information at its source, and is a key enabled of user-generated content and social web interaction.” The report also predicts that the mobile web market will reach $19 billion by 2014.

I am fortunate to have had Verizon Wireless, a regional client, to also be interested in supporting this coverage. We decided to have a little fun with this project as well. I took several new Verizon mobile devices with me, the Droid by Motorola , and Devour with Moto Blur, the HTC Eris, and the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus. Also the Verizon Wireless MiFi mobile hotspot, which I happily named, “Web in my Pocket”.

The coverage around this project is not meant to be a review of phones or service, just how we used them and how they were presented within the context of brand journalism. Author David Meerman Scott talks about brand journalism in his book New Rules of Marketing and PR, also in a recent Marketing Edge podcast episode

I believe this will be the way marketing, PR, and trade journalism morph into coverage of topics, products, and services. It will become part of the conversation of these topics in social ecosystems.

Web In My Pocket

Look it’s one thing to make a voice call driving 80 miles an hour but it’s another to connect to the web, send emails, upload photos from your lap top with Wifi speed. That’s what my traveling colleague Rick Mahn, founder of Social Media Breakfast Minneapolis/St. Paul and I did on this road trip. It was virtually uninterrupted coverage using the Verizon MiFi in the car plugged into the car charger port. We didn’t miss a beat with other work back home or with the Twitter stream following our trip on #smbsxsw Oh, did I say 80 miles an hour, no I was mistaken I meant 70, sorry.

I gave it the nickname “web in my pocket” during the Social Media Breakfast at South by Southwest. The popular morning gathering of those interested in social media and marketing held a wonderful breakfast on March 14 at the Hyatt hotel in downtown Austin, TX. There were more than 200 in attendance which would push many hotel WiFis to the max.

I was either A) selfish or B) considerate in that I did not tap into whatever open network was available, I did turn on the Verizon Mifi, which was a secured network requiring a password, to access the web, twitter and email. It was fully charged so the couple of hours during the breakfast was a snap. I also used it during some of the peak times of the SxSw conference panels which worked out great. Selfish or considerate you decide.

You have to admit when something is hot, I mean real hot, like a 65 degree day in March in Minnesota that gets people thinking. They get outside in shorts, they get a jump on their garden, and they start believing that outdoor baseball in the new Twins Stadium (the one without a retractable roof) in less than three weeks will be comfortable. Look even I can buy into this with a couple of days of sunshine.

That’s why my head and brain perked up when I got this email from Karen Aaker, a person I know through networking circles, an independent insurance agent, although I do no business with her. I did find this email newsworthy from a marketing perspective.

Dear friends and colleagues,

Yesterday my Twins season tickets arrived. Every year I purchase a half season. Because I am so very greedy I use a good portion of them myself. This year, however, will be a little different. As you may or may not know I am now in the insurance business, and have been for a few years now. What I need for my business to succeed is good referrals. Therefore, this year anyone who sends me five good (good meaning legitimate) referrals (name, number and address) will receive use of my tickets to the series of their choice on a first come, first serve basis. The first week, meaning the April 12 to April 18th games, have all been claimed already. My seats are great in the lower level just off of the third base line and on the aisle.

Just a side line, I am an Independent Agent. I represent six (plus) different companies so I am able to find the very best coverage at the most competitive price. I can help the very best, and the “more troublesome” drivers. Your referrals will help me build my future. I appreciate your trust and support!

Sincerely,

Karen Aaker
Common Sense Insurance
763-557-6707 – office

Key Elements of Good Marketing

1. 1) Piggyback onto something that is hot, see what’s in the news or will be in the news/conversation and jump in.
2. 2) There are times when sports tickets are a great investment, it goes in cycles, so if you have the type of clients or prospects where this makes sense get in at the bottom. Are you listening would-be Timberwolves fans, there’s never been a better time to lock into season tickets for the NBA in this town, just ask @ryantanke
3. 3) Make the ask. One of my favorites on Twitter is @MNheadhunter aka Paul DeBettignies constantly reminds me because I’m so poor at it, but it may be the difference between achieving your goals, getting a better deal or discovering a new opportunity, ask. This could have been a typical email saying got any business for me. It wasn’t, Karen saw the stars aligned for a unique communication that provided mutual benefit at a time when lots of Minnesotans are thinking outdoor baseball and she made the ask. Will I respond in the way Karen wants? Not sure only because I’d have to really think about potential referrals, but is she the only insurance person on my mind for at least the next two months, you bet.

One comment that I’d rather not see is the generic Dear Friends open, but given the power of all other aspects of the email it made me open and spend time with it and share it with you.

Thanks Karen, now Play Ball!

South by Southwest a place to see and be seen for sure. It was for music and film the primary focus of the festival for years, and now it is for the world of social interactive media. Any place where you need to be on a list to get into a party will have that kind of cache (typo intended for geek punery). As a DJ in Philly in the early dance era I get the whole list thing. Let’s put celebrity in perspective, SxSw is not the Oscars, but social media is getting its celebrities. Some traditional celebrities enjoy being a part of the SXSW social stream. Comedian Brian Posehn entertained the crowd at Joseph Jaffe’s party launching his new book Flip the Funnel (Greg Verdino shares some excellent photos

The Twitter trend spikes when Chris Brogan walks into a room or when #secretwinetasting signals, the King of Social Media, Gary Vaynerchuk is pouring into, and for, a party, this one was at Big Omaha. sponsored by Silicon Prairie News

But @GaryVee will likely be the first to tell you that there are no kings of social media. That all those at SxSw and those who are active in the social web contribute to the ecosystem of social. It’s an ecosystem that supports quality content in all types of niches. So Ed Bennett and Jane Sarasohn-Kahn are celebs in health care and Becky McCray rocks the house in tourism circles and Gregory Ng is truly the Master of Frozen Food with Freezer Burns, and the list goes on as long as there is an audience to comprise a niche. No they don’t do wine pourings, but they, as does Gary, command the attention and respect of their audience because of their passion for their content. It’s the foundation of Gary’s book Crush It!

Celebrity Closer to the Fan Base

There is still an element of camaraderie throughout the Austin convention Center that on the social web there is a common thread. The connection that every social media celebrity began from a first blog post, or video or podcast. Perhaps it’s a connection that can be maintained at events like SxSw. There is less distance between those who have succeed in their niche and those hoping to learn from that success. Everyone started out the same in social media and there is still the belief that others can achieve the same level of recognition, and in rare occasion, financial success. Why? because the rules of success are the same, good quality content, presentation, and yes, timing and luck factor into success today just as much as they did in the industrial age. Today It’s just less costly to enter and produce.

The question is whether social media will follow the patterns of the majority of other industries, which is early expansion followed by consolidation. Will the wide open landscape that is fertile ground for the first generation of web 2.0 content celebrities morph into the hierarchal, gatekeeper, celebrity maker, structure of the previous century. Just as an appearance on Johnny Carson was the golden ticket in the golden era of television, will todays’ celebrities be tomorrow’s king makers? If this is the case, then what will SxSw look like in 2015?

Disclosure:
My road trip from Minneapolis to Austin and coverage of South by Southwest is sponsored by Verizon Wireless.

Provident Partners will donate a food item to a St. Paul, MN food shelter for every comment on this blog

Amanda Congdon presented about items to consider when producing your own web videos. Here are her highlights from South by Southwest. These bullet points paint the picture of the confluence of traditional media, independent journalism, and branded journalism. Amanda Congdon was a pioneer as the face of Rocketboom.com more than six years ago. Her web popularity gained her a shot at ABC doing interview shows called AC on ABC. Now she is producing Sometimesdaily with Amanda Congdon http://twitter.com/amazingamanda

Whether you are an individual producer or corporate marketer, video is growing, in demand, available on an increasing percentage of mobile devices and yes, compelling. So here is a checklist to set a foundation for how you should consider video as part of your brand or marketing mix.

• Innovation is Everything – do not fear being different

(my add, being different within the context of the corporate brand is surely more difficult, but that commitment needs to exist for the video to achieve it’s objectives.

• Small teams and collaboration and communications are essential
• Main stream media card is important – let’s face it, the world is still based on hierarchies
• Must be about to keep your niche on the web, focus, focus focus,
• Mo People, Mo Money – use your own crew so the videos get the same style

THE LATEST THING

Outside of the big networks there are ample resources for independent and cost-conscious companies to produce outstanding video. Congdon offered these resources and suggestions

• Archive.org and Flickr Creative Commons
• Getting involved with a greater project on the web can help get the word out about your independent show.
• Get your viewers involved involved on a production level

You can follow Amanda on Twitter at @amazingamanda

My coverage of South by Southwest is brought to this blog by Verizon Wireless Midwest

Time 10:15

Kansas City social media practitioners shared gems at our South By Southwest tweet up yesterday, thanks to local organizer  Lisa Qualls of Fresh ID.   As Rick Mahn and I make our way to the SxSW tech festival  we are asking consumers and producers of social media about the state of the medium, and how businesses are using it (or not).  Also how consumers are interacting with each other and with brands.  The dynamic debate among this group was outstanding.  

As a journalist of these issues,  as well as a practitioner, these gems of opinions from others are data points I keep in mind as I assess recommendations for companies.  There is no “right way” to do social media, and each case, each company culture has a different perspective, which is why this summary should be viewed as a pantry of good quality raw ingredients, and not a recipe for the one size fits all social media strategy.  Some ingredients may be right for some, companies may have the budget to use them all, some may not. 

1. Measure everything, apply tools like Google analytics, www.bit.ly and www.idek.net (last one shared by Bestofjess ) to every link.  – Really I say?  Really, the fact is whether you are an individual blogging about a passion or a Fortune 500 company selling cars, measuring is one of the major ways you know that what you intended to communicate is what the recipient receives.  Don’t leave it up to the response mechanisms like comments to determine whether you have engaged or not.  Measurement to me in social media is like watching someone’s body language when you are having a conversation.  Those gestures, facial expressions and twists and turns are cues which impact the next message you send.  
2. Explain stuff until people understand it.  Regardless of the “advanced” level of the group there is always something new for anyone in the group to discover.  Whether it’s, “this is an RSS feed”  or this is the beta version of Google buzz, heck, this stuff is being made hourly, there are no experts on everything.  There is constant learn and props to groups like the Social Media Club and Social Media Breakfast who are in local communities creating forums for learning.  Bless you. 
3. The relationship between data, individual, and their location is a condition I call mobile which is powerful.  Mobile services interacting with location based applications like Yelp, Layar, Foursquare and Gowalla (to name only a fraction) come as close to getting inside your head as we have today.  An example raised at the Kansas City meeting was telling.  Jenn Bailey was traveling in New York City, stopped in a couple of shops and local landmarks checking into Foursquare at each location.  After her fourth stop she received an invitation that went something like this “You’ve been busy this afternoon, must be tired, stop by our restaurant and we’ll buy you a drink.” 

   As the group concluded, we’ll give up a little privacy to gain something that  may well be very relevant to us at that point in time and space.   The huge increase in smartphone sales is simply making this relationship easier and putting the power in the hands of consumers as they interact with a society on the move.  Analysis predict 50% of web connections will be made via mobile device by 2012. 

You can see the discussion at the Twitterface page created for the event.   Twitterface is a neat application that allows companies to create a brand experience with streaming video, which is also recorded, and the social media stream.  

Time 6:15

We are working our way through the Heartland of America on our way down to the South by Southwest Interactive festival. The more social we get online and on our phones, the more it seems we want to meet in person. That’s why Rick Mahn and I are looking forward to the tweet ups in Des Moines Wednesday, March 10 at 5:30 at the Raccoon River Brewing Company. Then on March 11, we stop in Omaha at Caffeine Dreams at 8AM – 9AM, Kansas City, at Kansas City Cafe at 2pm – 3pm and Lawrence, Kansas. location is TBD. I know Lawrence there’s basketball this weekend, but we’ll coming by anyway. : )

Our last tweet up before pulling into Austin is the morning of March 12 in Wichita at the Donut Whole. 7:30am – 8:30am. I’m told they have a bacon maple donut that’s TDF.

We’ll do profile pieces on innovators in social media and mobile applications in the Midwest. We’ll capture conversations about what’s working and what’s next in business and consumer technology. During the coverage of South by Southwest I will get into some of the challenging topics including, the next phase for journalism, whether greater community participation is necessary for the social web to grow, and how will life change when more than half the web connections are made with a mobile device.

Gadgets & Devices

What’s a geek road trip without gadgets and devices? We’ll have the latest line of devices to try out from Verizon Wireless including Motorola Droid, HTC Droid Eris, Palm Pre and Pixi and the DEVOUR with MOTOBLUR and gadgets like the Verizon MiFi.

Oh yes and of course TShirts, plenty of TShirts. I can chuck the map, I’ve got turn-by-turn directions. Special thanks to Verizon Wireless for sponsoring this coverage.

Time 22:50

The second printing of best selling author David Meerman Scott’s New Rules of Marketing and PR demonstrates A) these rules work and B) it’s OK to learn as we go. In this conversation with David, we discover that another one of the rules is ideas are fluid and when even two people focus on a topic, preconceived notions can change, and concepts can germinate into the next great case study.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR include participating in the communities with which you do business, not talking at them. Don’t worry we’ll put this in a nice list for retweeting and SEO purposes. The label David applied to this concept is “Brand Journalism” and it’s a hybrid of what trade journalists and thoughtful marketers have tried to do in the nineties. The key here is for companies to consider information that has news value and not just company/shareholder value. Information about the latest widget or big name customer being in the latter category and a more thorough conversation about issues that include technological advances, government regulation, or the ways society is changing to interact with products being in the former category. When a company’s perspective of what’s news expands, so does their number of mentions and conversations. Public relations practitioners can and should expand their thinking of news value, review the online discussions and contribute where appropriate. Not just in news release form, but in the infinite ways their creativity will take them, because any format, any locale, and any audience is now affordable and reachable.

David’s Brand Journalism idea may result in an actual job position I call the “embedded corporate journalist”, a paraphrase from the journalist embedded with military units in the Iraq War. This leads to understanding a situation more thoroughly so you can report it with perhaps greater sensitivity and depth. This is of greatest benefit if the entity being reported on seeks its audience to have greater understanding of its rationale rather than an entity that believes PR and news is a broadcast.

David’s work is insightful and I trust our conversation in this episode of the Marketing Edge is for you. Here is my take on ways to consider the New Rules of Marketing and PR

1) Who Cares? – Find out who cares about your stuff, not just mentions of your brand (that’s so narrow) but things that comprise the universe in which your company operates.

2) Do You Care? – Consider whether your entity really cares about opinions outside of the organization? Seems like a simple question, however, your lip service radar needs to be tuned in with reality here. If they are not, the New Rules of Marketing and PR will read like a novel, not a guide to your success.

3) Can We Try? – Analysis paralysis is a function of group think. We are not landing planes or experimenting with a deadly virus. We are having a conversation and no one will be injured. The prerequisites then are thoughtful, sensitive to community, readily engage comments, and be prepared to acknowledge a short coming. The rest will work itself out.

Practicing What We Preach

On a similar note, I will be covering South by Southwest this week and next on these pages. It’s a similar note because Verizon Wireless is sponsoring the trip. We will feature stories about social media innovators from the Midwest who are attending SxSw. We’ll focus on stories that I believe are hot topics for 2010, mobile applications, location based services, and the mobile web space. We are also doing some fun events and playing with neat gadgets during the week. I am road tripping to Austin with Social Media Breakfast Minneapolis/St. Paul founder Rick Mahn. His trip is sponsored by Tungle the web-based scheduling platform. We’ll be using a variety of Verizon mobile devices including the Droid, HTC Droid Eris, Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus, the Motorola DEVOUR with MOTOBLUR and tap into the Verizon Mifi when no wireless is around.

I suggest this project has the elements of the type of interaction the New Rules of Marketing and PR says are what is needed to engage communities.

It’s a classic a case of hip-notic marketing. Be the carrier of valued (entertaining) content, then the subject of the piece is the premium product you now desire and can purchase. Brilliant!