Archive for March, 2013
Brian Solis goes bold with the “Future of Business”
Mar 21st
Click here if you cannot see this interview with Brian Solis.
Brian Solis is among the world’s most prolific business authors but when you see his new book, What’s the Future of Business: Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences
My take on the book: Since doing the interview I had a chance to read the book and I think it is Brian’s best effort to date. He is an excellent writer and the time just flew by.
Think about this gift — In his consulting practice, Brian gets to observe the inner workings of many of the top brands in the world and now we get to see his cumulative learnings in one place. The book is filled with many thought-provoking gems like “We live in a time when brands are people and people are brands.”
I would say that this is a very B2C-centric book. His models may have some applicability to B2B but generally the book is tailored to a world of personal loyalty instead of a world of long-term contracts and annual price negotiations, but there are lessons in here for everybody.
The main take-away for me was his idea to create conversational customer experiences in a proactive, measurable way as part of an overall marketing plan.
Disclosure: The book link is an affiliate link. The book was a provided to me free from the author. Brian wrote a testimony for my book Return On Influence, which was published in the book.
How Siri and Google Now could change the social media landscape
Mar 20th
By Neicole Crepeau, Contributing {grow} Columnist
On the Internet, the big battle continues to be over “place.” Twitter’s spat with Instagram and Facebook’s continuing restrictions on data use are all about making sure that you use their website and applications — i.e., come to their house –so they can serve you the ads that make them money.
It’s critical to these social networks that you come to their owned sites/apps. You, however, probably don’t feel the same sense of urgency. I’m betting that you go to these social networks largely because that’s where the action is. That’s where your friends and family are. That’s where the news and updates you care about can be found. That’s where the photos and funny videos are served up to you.
But if the conversations and content came directly to you — precisely where and when you needed it — would you ever choose to go to Facebook?
Re-positioning the content source?
Companies like Google and Apple are positioned to shift technology in that direction … and possibly to THEIR direction.
As we shift our online time from using computers to mobile devices, the companies that own the mobile operating systems are introducing technologies aimed at bringing information to you rather than requiring that you go looking for it. Specifically, they’ve introduced Siri on the iPhone and Google Now on Android devices: intelligent Personal Assistants.
These personal assistants respond to direct queries from the user and Google’s Now is taking it a significant step further by leveraging the knowledge that Google has about you and your activities–eventually across all the Google technologies you use daily—to predict what information you might want or need and serve it up without you asking.
Information before you know you need it?
For example, you might go out to your car to head to work. Suddenly your phone pipes up to tell you that there’s been an accident on your normal route and you may want to take the alternative route it’s mapped out. You didn’t ask for the information, but it’s an alert you’re glad to have.
As it advances, it will cover more scenarios. You might be working later than usual, past dinner time. Your phone notices that you’re still at the office and pops up with a suggestion that you order takeout from a nearby restaurant you’ve previously ordered from and that it knows is having a special on your favorite dish.
When these Personal Assistants can predict what practical information you might need at any given time, they can predict what social information you might want at any given time. They will be able to tell which friends you’re most interested in hearing from, which photos you’ll like the best, which news or status updates you’d want to see right away, and which ones you might only want to see when you’re bored. Eventually, your phone will probably even be able to tell when you’re bored and when you want to see those updates.
Is this the time for Google+?
As the technology advances, the only thing stopping Google and Apple from serving up your relevant social updates will be the resistance from the social networks themselves: the barriers Facebook and others put in the way because they want to remain your destination for social news.
Which is where Google+ comes in. G+ may not have displaced Facebook, but it’s gained a respectable following. (Its Circles feature also provides some great data about the importance and type of friends you have.) Google’s first step will likely be to integrate G+ into Now and begin serving G+ updates—and prompting you to update your status—via the Personal Assistant.
After G+, Google will likely provide apps and tools that allow you to give Now greater control over the other social tools you use (Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Tumbler, Pinterest, etc.). If Google’s smart, it will provide a user experience that enables people to share using a single method and without having to think much about where they are sharing (whether it’s Facebook, Skype, etc.).
The battle will begin. Google will leverage the API of these social networks as much as those APIs allow, and the networks will continue to try to resist becoming a service by placing restrictions on the API. Facebook may even choose to come out with its own phone and adopt the Personal Assistant model on it. The company would face an uphill battle, though, and I don’t expect it could win market share with the head start that Android and the iPhone have.
Would Facebook give up on being “the destination?”
Google, being Google, will find a new way to monetize the Now social experience with ads. They may find a way to monetize that gives Facebook and Twitter a cut of the revenue when they are acting as a content/social service. A model that cuts them in would make it easier for the social networks to let go of their existing ad model and give up the battle to be a destination. For instance, Google may pay for the detailed social and behavioral information that Facebook has (or enable advertisers to pay for it) and leverage that information in real-time for ad serving.
Regardless, as the battle plays out, users of Android devices (and perhaps Apple, depending on the strategic alliances it develops) will have a superior experience. They’ll get the content they like from the people they care about at the time they want to see it—without ever having to ask. If the experience of G+ users is significantly better than that of Facebook users, people may well begin opting for G+ over Facebook, simply because they socialize primarily from their phone and G+ with Now is a better social experience.
Before long, Personal Assistants will appear on our desktops as well as our mobile devices. The usefulness of the Personal Assistant model will be so compelling that Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks will be forced to capitulate and adapt — rather than being a destination for users, they become a service. And in the not-too-distant future, the only destination that social users will have is the screen that their Personal Assistant serves up to them.
Data when you want it and need it — ALL data, including the social stream. It’s about to get interesting. Agree?
Neicole Crepeau is the Senior Marketing Manager at Vizit Corporation, and blogs at Coherent Social Media. She’s the creator of CurateXpress, a content curation tool. Connect with Neicole on Twitter at @neicolec
Reflections on social media power and influence
Mar 19th
I wrote my first blog post about Klout about two and a half years ago. At that point, it was little more than another obscure social media start-up fighting for attention. Over the ensuing months, I wrote follow-up posts that criticized Klout and its competitors for some of the embarrassing mistakes they made.
But I grew fascinated by this topic of social influence. How DOES a person become powerful and influential on the Internet — an alternate universe that HATES any form of authority, titles, or rules? The more I studied and thought about this, the more interesting it became. I eventually wrote a book about the subject called Return On Influence
I studied this topic of online influence intensely for a year. I read books, academic research, and white papers. I interviewed more than 70 people ranging from brand managers and mommy bloggers to Dr. Robert Cialdini, arguably the leading expert on influence in the world and the author of the seminal work Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. I got to peek inside Klout (at that point virtually the only game in town) and talk to its customers. And here are the three conclusions I made:
1) This is a historically important time where personal power has been enabled through our ability to publish on the web.
2) The nature of power and influence in the online world is vastly different than what we are accustomed to in the offline world. It’s important for businesses and individuals to understand this — your paradigm has to shift.
3) Klout is on to something.
A year later, I’m very proud of the acclaim the book has received from the press, reviewers, and thousands of readers from around the world. I haven’t written on the topic of social influence in awhile and I thought I would reflect on what has happened in the field since the book came out.
The good.
Moving the debate along — It has been great to see meaningful debate emerge from the book as people begin to understand the changing nature of influence. There have been some great blog posts examining the potential for corruption of these scores, the difference between advocates and influencers, and creative new ways these tools are being incorporated into traditional marketing. Almost every marketing conference now has some element of social influence discussion on the agenda. Some of the more interesting topics include:
- What are the differences and relationships between advocates, influencers and fans?
- How do we connect influencer outreach initiatives to measurable business gains?
- How can we integrate influencer data into traditional marketing initiatives?
- Now that we can find these legitimate influencers, what do we do with them?
New technical development — A group of new companies has emerged to challenge Klout, the acknowledged market leader. Some of them have been niche knock-offs, but others, like Appinions, offers breath-taking new opportunities for marketing insight and innovation. Appinions digs deep below the surface of mere social media input, leveraging patented Cornell University technology to cull insight from 5 million online sources. Now this is getting interesting!
Stabilization — Klout and its social influence comrades have the unenviable task of scaling fast and iterating in public. Being publicly scored and evaluated pushed a hot button with a lot of people and a rash of PR gaffes seriously hurt the credibility of the genre to the point that people could not get past the damage to rationally assess the potential of the technology. Thankfully a lot of that drama is in the past. Scores have slowly stabilized, scamming has been addressed, and the focus is on progress instead of PR spin. The debate is generally becoming less emotional and more intellectual, although many people are still rolling old tapes.
New commercial development — Nearly all the major social influence programs are finding footing with customers. Klout announced new partnerships with Microsoft and ESPN. Kred has introduced a dizzying array of features that slice and dice scores a dozen different ways. PeerIndex has evolved to become a UK-focused discount shopping site. Appinions is gaining ground with a subscription model. Almost every PR, advertising, and marketing firm is trying figure out how these useful new tools can be integrated into marketing campaigns, or even coming up with versions of their own. The idea of “social influence marketing” is moving into mainstream marketing budgets.
The bad.
The social influence feeding frenzy — In the past 12 months there has been a feeding frenzy of misguided PR and marketing people trying to hook up with “influencers,” in a desperate attempt to ride the wave. As somebody typically on the receiving end of this behavior, I can say that 99% of the activity is crap. I especially feel sorry for the most popular mommy bloggers who are deluged with offers and incentives. Everybody wants a piece of an influencer but most are clueless on how to do it well. It’s still about relationships, folks.
The Klout Addicts — There is an underground network of folks supporting each other’s Klout addictions. They are obsessed with elevating their scores and doing whatever it takes to grab more valuable loot. Swag-grabbing is harmless good fun, but I’m not sure what a connection with these folks really does for creating business results. I’m guessing the brands are starting to figure this out? This is one of the potential dangers I pointed out in the book and it seems to be coming true.
The Klout Echo Chamber – There are still a number of folks out there regurgitating the same tired, out-dated, and irrelevant criticisms of social scoring companies. As they repeat their rants among themselves, they have simply created their own Echo Chamber. The biggest problem is that these folks are stuck in an “offline” framework of power and influence or haven’t bothered to look beyond their emotions to understand the theory and psychology behind the scores. Some of the wearisome rants include:
- “Klout is just stupid and doesn’t measure anything.”
- “Justin Bieber has a higher score than Warren Buffet so that proves that Klout is meaningless.”
- “Klout says I’m influential about grapes so that proves that it is worthless.”
These were perhaps valid commentaries at one time but today it is simply running old tapes. Here is what a Klout/Kred/PeerIndex score provides: An indicator of a person’s relative ability to create content that elicits online sharing and reactions. A company like Appinions further applies these scores in the context of topics, themes, and sentiment.
No more, no less.
Like credit scores, social influence scores are imperfect and not necessarily an indicator of future behavior. And yet, both of these indicators are useful. How many careers today are dependent on a person’s ability to effectively move content on the web?
How am I influencing you right now?
It’s likely that you know little (or nothing) about me as a person. I’m not an “influencer” in a traditional sense in that I have any power over you through a title, an elected position, or an organizational chart. And although I can’t tell you what to do, you may actually take some action after reading this post. Will you tweet it? Forward it to a colleague? Save it for later? Will you spend your precious time to comment on it? Have I even changed your view or attitude? Made you angry? Made you interested enough in the subject to explore the book?
My source of power on the web comes from essentially one place: Having an ability to create or aggregate content that is shared and creates a reaction. Without having the ability to create and move content, most influential bloggers you admire today would probably be toiling in a cubicle someplace instead of speaking on a global stage.
In this limited context, does a social scoring number like a Klout score make sense? Can Brian Solis create and move content better than me? Yes. Can I do this better than many of my students? Yes. Social scoring is far from perfect, but over time, this is the valuation that is beginning to be refined – a relative ability to move content. And that is very limited, but also very useful to many companies and brands who want to find people who can create buzz on a topic or product.
In conclusion …
Thank you for supporting (or debating) these new ideas over the past year. I hope there are two main lessons you took away from the book:
First, this is an amazing time for everyone to find their own online power, their return on influence. It doesn’t matter what college you attended, the color of your skin, or how much money you have. You can publish on the web and you can find your own power. Now, what are you going to do about it?
Second, I encourage you to be a critical thinker and cut through the emotionality of a company that purports to measure your influence. Yes, that might seem distasteful. It’s icky to me too. But as a business professional, we must move beyond the noise of the debate and look for the signal. Take a clear-headed look at the real dynamics of online influence and the implications for you, your brand, and your business, and make an informed decision.
Disclosure on companies mentioned in this post: I have never received a gift or “Perk” from any social scoring company. I accepted a dinner from the president of Kred in 2012. Both Klout and PeerIndex provided Return On Influence as a premium to their customers in 2012 as part of a promotional deal with my publisher McGraw Hill. I have indirectly provided paid counsel to Appinions as an adviser to one of their outside marketing agencies. I provided unpaid marketing counsel to Dr. Cialdini’s company. Links to books are affiliate links.
A plan to challenge the Facebook monopoly
Mar 17th
A very frequent question I am asked is “What will be the next Facebook?”
For many people, the logical assumption is that a better product will come along to replace Facebook because MySpace bumped AOL and Facebook bumped MySpace and so it is inevitable something will bump Facebook in the foreseeable future. That logic is incorrect and I will explain why. However I do think Facebook has a seam of vulnerability and could be trounced, and I will riff on that too.
But before we get to that, let’s first explore why Facebook is seemingly invincible, despite rumors to the contrary. Let’s look at Facebook’s obvious flaws … and why they don’t matter.
1) Somebody will build a better technology. But who cares?
What you must first understand is that technology did not make Facebook the biggest media entity in the history of the world.
Facebook is not a “technology.” Facebook is not a website. Facebook is a lifestyle. So you need to shatter your image that some technological tweak is going to unseat Facebook. Arguably Google Plus is a better mousetrap and it has not made a dent in Facebook’s growth.
To unseat Facebook you have to focus on creating a lifestyle alternative that is cooler than Facebook. Now, how hard is it to change somebody’s lifestyle, their daily habit? Just about impossible. It is easier for people to move to a new house and a new city than to move away from their social network. So the first idea is, this is not about technology.
2) Privacy violations will be their undoing. Wrong.
Many people are waiting for a backlash against Facebook because of their arrogant approach to privacy. My question is, “why hasn’t it already happened?” Facebook was found guilty of misconduct by a U.S. congressional investigation and even this did not mitigate Facebook’s growth.
Privacy in our culture is like a lobster being boiled in pot. If you drop it in a hot pot, the animal will try to get out. But if you drop it in a cold pot and turn up the temperature slowly, it will allow itself to be boiled without a fight. This is what is happening to us all now. Unless some privacy violation affects us monetarily in this moment, there will be no critical mass of unrest to unseat Facebook because of privacy concerns.
3) People need choice so alternatives will appear. Not.
Choice is desirable for most consumer goods. We enjoy having choice on the breakfast cereal or shampoo aisle of the shopping center but not so when it comes to social media platforms. We don’t have the bandwidth to desire two Twitters or an alternative to LinkedIn. We already have platforms in those spaces that work just fine. And the social networking space has also been fulfilled for most people and we don’t need another one.
In fact, day by day Facebook’s stranglehold on the social networking space grows tighter. As they scale, add new features, win new patents, and solve the complex problems of serving a billion people, they are creating further distance between themselves and any challenger. In general, people don’t want choice in this space, which is why the monopoly persists.
So where will the competition come from?
Let’s go back and see where this powerful emotional attachment to Facebook came from in the first place. How did it become a lifestyle?
It’s hard to imagine but not long ago, Facebook used to be a very exclusive club. It was only used on college campuses by college students. You had to have a college email address to even have access and if that went away, you went away too.
So it was this limited, exclusive connection, this college coolness that first ignited the Facebook fever. And that is exactly what could unseat them now.
Facebook is now a public company trying to be everything to everybody. They are gaining ubiquity across every demographic and every corner of the world. And as they are working hard to be the social media channel for everybody (and their shareholders), they are creating something supremely excellent for almost nobody.
The only way to unseat Facebook is to go back to the beginning and create a platform so exclusive and amazing that it will attract the “cool kids” and thought leaders in junior highs, high schools and college campuses. That is where a new network will be born and I believe that is the only way a new idea will “tip.”
The biggest complaint I hear is that Millenials don’t like Facebook because their parents and even grandparents are on it now. Perhaps the time is right to give the cool kids what they want. An exclusive place of their own, limited to their own group. And by the way, when you hit your 25th birthday, you get kicked out.
Here’s the game plan if you’re a willing entrepreneur:
- Create an interface that is bold, conversational, and truly user-centric.
- Commit to serving the 25 and under crowd exclusively.
- Spend every marketing dollar you can muster aligning yourself with the under 25 crowd and their culture, sports, music, and Hollywood idols. Be the definition of cool.
- Don’t become a public company. The moment you do, your focus is on serving shareholders and quarterly financial results instead of customers. Your cool would be doomed.
So that’s it. Your plan to unseat Facebook. Now, who’s ready to get started?
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