Time 28:34

So many mixed messages these days. First its declining active users vs awareness on Twitter – according the the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Second, Inside Facebook reports Facebook lost 6 million users in the United States base of users. But not a day later, consumer products manufacturing giant Procter and Gamble announced it was opening several product Facebook Commerce pages for Tide, Gillette, Olay, Gain, CoverGirl, Luvs and Febreze. So there seems to be mixed messages about whether social media is growing or leveling off.

In this Marketing Edge Podcast with Garrick Van Buren, we talk about the characteristics that attracted the early growth of social media, and the attributes it has developed over time that may be responsible for the current pause in growth. Garrick is a web application developer and person who is an astute early adapter with an understanding of consumer interface fundamentals. He gives to the community but does like to fly under the radar which is one of the reasons he stopped using Twitter several months ago.

Key elements of the social trend curve

• Early access to new information and people (enlightened conversations)
• Efficient communication paths (quick messaging with clear intent)
• low noise to clear signal ratio (no or little advertising )

As social grew

• abundance of new information and people (quality high, but potentially overwhelming amount of relationships)
• cluttered communications paths (advertisers and company participation)
• noise increases and signal distortion grows (public and private agendas muddy the message)

The conversation highlights potential pitfalls marketers can avoid as they attempt to be valuable to social consumers and responsive to their internal business clients.

1. 1) Be aware of consumer apathy
2. 2) Frequency of ask can lead to fatigue
3. 3) Divide social consumers in to smaller groups with greater interest and topics to keep enthusiasm

Marketing Edge Survey

Looking for your input on topics and other potential channels bit.ly/marketingedge

Time 27:00

Home Depot’s version of Spring Black Friday on Facebook was a huge hit, promoting sales items on the Home Depot Facebook page, then directing consumers back to the Home Depot website for the transactions – no apps, no plugins required.

Recently Angie Schottmuller @aschottmuller wrote a post about this campaign Home Depot used Facebook on selling merchandise in a matter of hours. On the Home Depot Facebook page they offered select merchandise for a limited time. The hook was when a product post reached a specific number of “likers”, the next promoted product offer was revealed. Anticipation and known goals are great motivators!

Schottmuller outlines six reasons why this effort was successful. I take another wrinkle on these reasons and tie them back to characteristics from other technologies, communities or old fashion, yes, behavior modification techniques, which have been around since Moses’ stone tablets. Funny, tablets are making a comeback too.

What Works There May Work For You

The Game – A concept perhaps best highlighted by TGI Fridays be a Fan of Woody where if Woody received a certain amount of fans 500,000 everyone wins a burger. In the Home Depot version, each promoted product was essentially a Woody, encouraging viewers to Like each one. With each threshold crossed a new product was revealed. Everyone knew the rules and was anticipating the trigger moment to occur. This highlights the effectiveness of transparency about milestones for a game environment, as Schottmuller points out in her post.

The “Members only” Approach – This Home Depot offer targeted current fans. So you needed to be a Liker of the page before you could weigh in on a promoted product. The way Facebook works is when I Like something my network knows it, making the content only visible to fans, was also a signal to the Likers’ network.

The Offer & Timing – Deep discounts and a limited offer, sound “Groupon” familiar? Yes, and a nice observation by Home Depot I suspect of what makes the Groupon system so effective. However, let’s not give too much credit to the digital generation. Limited time offers and scarcity has been around capitalist economies for a long time. The tactic is proven. The takeaway here is that social technology exponentially collapses time and geography which enables the information about the promotion, and the Word of Mouth association via the Like button to have essentially an economy of scale.

A Bit of A Question Mark?

Mari Smith, the co-author of Facebook Marketing an Hour A Day, commented on her Facebook page, “I’m assuming Home Depot are in compliance with Facebook’s Promotions Guidelines – simple liking of posts gets you deals. Hmm!!” The way I see it the answer is yes, Facebook Guidelines notice my comments in Smith’s comment thread.

As Schottmuller pointed out on the comments on Smith’s page, the Like-Gating tactic was about seeing what was next, not the current product up for sale.

Are you considering a gaming, time, discount, and/or networking element to your marketing?

Time 31:38

You thought the TV remote was the greatest invention for men, check this out. You can order men’s underwear online from Manpacks. You can even get packs of the boxers, briefs, or boxer-briefs for the uncommitted delivered on a regular basis. That’s right, now men have more time to use the TV remote with the time he saves not walking the asiles of some local Target store.

This podcast with Manpacks co-founder, Ken Johnson, reveals that while the idea of automating the purchase of essentials may be the next wave in retail, there is considerable learning, Johnson has done since launching Manpacks in January. Among the take aways:

• Twitter is a better relationship building platform for Manpacks than Facebook,
• Listen intently to customers for danger signs that you’re not providing the right products or services,
• analyze customer buying patterns to anticipate what they need in the future.

I’m joined in this interview by Justin Dessonville who gave Manpacks the idea of a cause marketing promotion, Buy One Give One. The sales of Manpack underwear in the month of October will be matched 1- to – 1 from Manpacks with donations to Saint Stephens homeless shelter. Web entrepreneurs like Johnson, have an unquenchable desire to execute their idea, and the successful ones are married to the learning, not chained to their ideas. Enjoy the podcast and leave your ideas on whether you think subscribing for essentials is a good idea.

Yes Ok I admit it. Once in a while I will check out my college age kids Facebook page. Guilty as well that me, a social media early adopter, a social media consultant, a social media speaker have not approved my teens and tweens having a Facebook page. This does not make me a hypocrite. (or does it?) Perhaps I’ll give you this, it makes me a cautious, some might say overly cautious parent.

I don’t talk about my five children much on this blog because I reserve this space for purely business. Today, however there is a mix of business and family as I’m participating in the social media and family event tomorrow at the family friendly Depot Hotel in Minneapolis. The event is sponsored for the most part by the Social Media Club and Chevy (there is a $10 cost to attend ) there will be a reception at 6, followed by panel discussion at 7 and chatting after. More Details and RSVP for Social Media and Family on Eventbrite.

As more smartphones are marketed to tweeners and our society increases its mobility, staying connected on the grid is almost essential. I am reminded however, from teachers in my children’s junior high school that constant distraction has a direct correlation to memory recall. Linda Stone calls it Continuous Partial Attention There are studies that show a physiological reaction to receiving a text or a tweet, hmm feels good being needed, thank you for that hit of serotonin. These are all issues that social media meetings mostly avoid, I’m not saying they are invisible, but clearly they are not part of the social media provider discussions.

I’ve come across a couple wonderful resources that marketers may want to consider when pushing the envelope using social media regarding families and tweeners.

Parent Further highlights a variety of family issues and the connected society. They have a section dedicated to Technology and Media usage among children, including video games.

Talking about Lisa Ray’s blog Parents for Ethical Marketing will not win me many marketing friends/followers? or will it? After all, we are participating in a supposedly transparent medium. Most participants espouse that companies be “authentic” and “human” so it may be a good time and place to push the debate about the role of marketing and its intersection with family guidelines when it comes to social media.

Hope to see you at the Depot Hotel in Minneapolis tomorrow, a neat family place downtown. If not, what’s your belief about social media and family – unfettered participation or it’s no place for family matters?

Time 24:33

This post is a quick comment on Shel Holtz’s Deathwatch: Why Facebook Won’t Kill the Website who responded to Jay Baer’s 3 Ways Facebook is Killing Your Website Baer, one who does have a way to use words to ignite a response concluded in his post “RIP websites, It was great while it lasted.”

I’m less inclined to believe the website is dead, but acknowledge our mark is left in many more digital places including Facebook. Will companies abandon their websites for their Facebook page? Companies active in the social web have an increasing percentage of their content on Twitter, YouTube Facebook et. al. but they do need the digital version of the American Dream, home ownership and not to be a tenant in Facebook’s apartment complex inside a walled city.

A website is a place to keep your stuff organized, a place to call your own. From a business perspective it’s a place where you can engage and set the rules without the whims of a crowd which only a very small percentage have an interest in you (and visa versa truth be told). Perhaps as a destination the website has seen better days. It’s really not that imperative to “drive” people to my site, it is more important to engage with others, especially from a business perspective. Perhaps the term web repository is better than destination, even if it is just there to make me feel comfortable about my own possessions, my own content, my own intellectual property. After all without that, what do I have? A website is like a book, a place where I can compile my ideas, my way. Yes I know books are dying too, but not the concept of the book as a place of structured thought.

Format Note:

For those regular listeners of the Marketing Edge Podcast I am trying this a bit differently today by using an audio file I recorded using Cinchcast. I use Cinch as a supplement to the regular Marketing Edge Podcast as a quick, unedited audio capture and release type of format. Most of the time I record on Cinch while I’m walking the dog early in the morning. Since I added my thoughts in print and wanted to link back to Holtz and Baer, I figured it would be more complete to include the audio file as well. Let me know if you like it or it threw you off. thanks

Time 24:33

You know I could have done the solutions headline and just throw a number in there, but I hate those things. The hungry part is because in some of this podcast we talk about Facebook and restaurants. Facebook Marketing, An Hour A Day is a book by Chris Treadaway and Mari Smith. In this podcast we talk to Chris Treadaway about some of the ways Facebook is used to market companies. Facebook is a place that requires attention, lesson one if you are not prepared to give it attention, forget it. This is where the hour a day comes in.

To pull a favorite useful idea out of this podcast I’d call attention to using Facebook as a market research tool. Creating an ad in Facebook will give you insights into potential online market size. Here is an example where I took the city of Chicago, people age 21 and over that self identified interest of football or fantasy football. The kind of information of interest to a sports bar owner. Targeting by interest, geography, age and other variables is a great feature of Facebook.

Using Facebook Advertising for Market Research from Albert Maruggi on Vimeo.

We are holding a drawing for the book Facebook Marketing An Hour A Day. Email MarketingEdge AT Providentpartners DOT net – put Facebook in the Subject line. Link should do that for you.

Other Examples of Social Marketing to Hungry Patrons

Smalley87Club – Tied Twins ticket drawings to items people like on the menu with a link to the Smalleys 87 Club menu page. (I helped on this one)

Dino’s Gyros IAMDEZ – Guess random number between 1 and 10,000 on Tuesdays before 7PM, closest 10 get a free gyro.

Izzys Ice Cream incorporates a variety of platforms and communities. Also has unique notification of the availability of limited time flavors Dave Erickson

The Sterling Cross Group broke new ground with Motoi only Japanese saki brewer in Twin Cities

Time 20:53

As more consumers use the web to research their medical needs and choices, the greater the demand for some type of performance metrics in healthcare delivery. This dynamic taking place in healthcare is causing greater competition among providers, and more healthcare marketers to look for ways to tell their story.

Healthgrades dot com is one of several sites that provide detailed reporting on physician performance, legal issues, and hospital outcomes. Within the last year, surveys of hospital outcomes mandated by Medicare are now available to the public. These points of data are piling up to create a mountain of information for patients to sort through as they make a decision on healthcare. To be sure, reliance on a general physician and friends and family are important, but checking that information against a report card gives a bit more substance behind a decision. Other physician rating sites include Find a Doc, Vitals, and RateMDs

In this podcast with Christopher Boyer of Healthgrades.com , we explore some of the reasons why millions of people are using these sites. We get into what tactics hospital marketers should be evaluating to tap into the stream of information patients and their families are accessing.

The most important indicator to examine social media and understand the impact of rating sites is the powerful element of “intended search” in healthcare. Those searching for healthcare information are usually doing so because of a need. It is more than likely it is an urgent need. Healthcare is different in this regard that many other industries. People can causally shop around a vacation destination or a car without a making a purchase, it’s unlikely that people are casually browsing hiatal hernia or slip disk remedies.

Another good resource is Boyer’s social network for healthcare marketers hosted on Ning. I’ve posted Marketing Edge podcast interviews on healthcare on a dedicated healthcare and social media page. www.providentpartners.net/healthcare

Call us with your comments or questions that we can chat about on the show, 206-600-6887. Provident Partners donates a food item for every comment we received.