-from AdAge-

Marketers can’t afford to ignore the social dimensions and interests of their customers. Frankly, it’s irresponsible and leads to a host of undesirable consequences:

- Massive media waste: Marketers are paying to retarget the same people multiple times, which produces media waste and substantially throws off attribution modeling.

- Limiting scale/potential: By simply retargeting the same people repeatedly, you miss out on growing your next most profitable customers. In some cases this newly expanded pool can be 60X the original audience size.

- Buying the easiest, lowest hanging (media) fruit: Taking the generic route and buying in scale from trusted sites won’t always get you the highest impact for your dollars. In other words, you won’t get fired for buying Facebook, but it doesn’t truly represent where the majority of consumers’ online interactions are occurring.

To read the entire article, go here:
http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/ad-campaigns-dead/230213/

My point is there is always an excuse for a marketing failure. When I heard the news about Borders folding they blamed it on digital readers and people buying off sites like Amazon. But the truth is, if they were really paying attention and marketing themselves well using the same media they claim did them in they’d be as solid as companies like Barnes and Noble and Books a Million.

The first sign that lead to their demise happened nearly a decade ago when they farmed their website out to Amazon.com. People forget that it hasn’t been that long since Amazon started posting record profits. In the early 2000s they were only just starting to really explode and so were sites like MySpace. Where other companies so digital shopping as a competitor Borders saw it as a way to be lazy. They farmed their online store out to Amazon and gave them a huge leap in web traffic that drove people to exclusively online shop and killed any chance they had of taking advantage of Social Media and SEO.

One of the things that surprised me a lot is that Borders never really took advantage of social media in the last few years. They had a readymade audience on Facebook and Twitter. It would have been easy for them to build a Twitter of over a million followers and a Facebook page with lots of action. They already had a niche audience with tons of disposal able income and they basically handed it to Amazon in a gift wrapped package. What they should have done was promoted their Social Media pages to get people talking about what was going on in store. Promote the store as a place to meet like minded people. Give them what they can’t get sitting on their computers, a genuine social experience.

They missed their chance to do this with MySpace in the early 2000s but when Facebook and Twitter sprang up with their audience full of teenagers and tweens they squandered that too. They should have set up local Facebook pages for each store. (Usually I’m against this because it weakens your SEO but it would have worked well here.) They should have started running online exclusive events and online an Q and As with authors or other people interested in a particular book (It’s not like that age group isn’t reading these days.) Then after a while they just shift things from online to in store. You’d be surprised how much a big event can spread word of mouth, especially among that particular audience.

Pictures also go a long way in making your place look like it’s fun to go to. With all these midnight release parties for those Twilight or Harry Potter books they never really put much of it online. They should been all over those things with live blogging, pictures and even streaming video. The best way to establish yourself as a fun place to spend a night and a place with happening events is to show people what they missed by not being there.
Ultimately for Borders to not take advantage of social media was a huge mistake considering their audience was already on it and looking for the next big thing. Even with Amazon undercutting them if they could establish that there social media sites are the place to go to get the next Twilight or Hunger Games people would buy come inside and buy there. Instead they sat there and barely lifted a finger in the social media scene that could have kept them alive a little longer.

The lesson of Borders: Bookstores need to guide us

With Death of Borders, What Is The Future of Independent Book Sellers?

Independent bookshops consider future without big boxes; Bull Moose to bid for Borders stores

Google has two previous dives into social media with less than stellar results. First there was Google Wave that failed to catch on and then there was Google Buzz which caused some uproar over privacy issues. The fact that you needed a G-Mail account to sign up for either of them didn’t help things as complaints of e-mail spamming popped up as well. Google built them both as a way to show people what videos and websites you were looking at. They launched this with full knowledge that both Twitter and Facebook already added things to make it easy to share your stuff. The thought at the time was that the Google brand would draw people over and they’d start using that instead. Clearly they were wrong.

With Google plus they may have finally learned their lesson. Instead of trying to go where the puck is and compete with Facebook on their own terms they’ve finally tried something new and predicted where the puck is going. Google Plus is for those who are less concerned about seeing pictures of “friends” you haven’t spoken to in years or people that want to stockpile as many “friends” as possible. Google plus is more about making your own website in an easy fun way. Instead of taking the Facebook model they’ve looked at what smaller up and coming sites like Stumble Upon and Justin.tv are doing and taken that to a whole new level.

By putting the idea of custom pages through Google out there they’ve set themselves up to be in a great position to take advantage of mobile media down the line. Surfing Facebook on your phone isn’t easy and if they don’t develop something to change that they’re going to be in trouble very soon especially now that Google Plus has put all your stuff in one place. Once they’ve established a custom website they’re only a step away from giving you a personalized custom app. If they can make a consumer based custom app program that’s easy to use they could very well find themselves at the top of the heap. It looks like that is the way they are heading and if Facebook is smart they’ve got one in development right along with them.

It seems like, after years of trying to compete with Facebook and Twitter, Google has finally found an entirely new foothold into social media that could get them a foothold into mobile media. What they need to do going forward is make sure people know they aren’t just doing “Facebook for Gmail,” as they’ve been criticized for doing in the past. If they are going to stick in the world of social media you could have a great new alternative to Facebook or Twitter advertising and if they fair well in mobile media it would make it a lot easier for small business to use mobile advertising.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/biz/2011/07/google-plus-for-businesses-brands.php

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/blogarticle/124431/Google-Plus-whelms-the-Internet/blog/The-Hashtag

http://technorati.com/technology/article/google-plus-vs-facebook/

If anything Warner’s attempt to buy Flixster shows that there is still a big push to release creative content via social media. Releasing movies, music, or webisopdes is something none of the major social network sites like Facebook, or Twitter have gotten into. Even streaming sites like Justin.TV and YouTube have stayed out away from creating their own content and continue to promote themselves as a place for fan generated content. If Warners starts releasing original content via Flixster and it catches on big it could mean that even the top social media sites might revisit the idea of using original content. This could be a big boom for viral marketing and make it so even small business can take advantage of new digital streaming technologies to boost their social media campaigns. If original content on social media is widely accepted it means you can do it all the cheaper.

At first glance Blockbuster might seem like an odd purchase for any company, let alone one that’s actively trying to get people to stay in and watch their content. But Dish Network believes there is still life in the Blockbuster brand. And they’re using it to bolster their “on demand” content. In the past Comcast (now Xfinity) has made a huge point of advertising just how great their On Demand content is compared to their competition. If Dish Network and Blockbuster can blow that lead open you’ll see the cable companies scramble for an advantage. With social media and internet streaming hitting your TV in the next few years, a feud between the cable providers could push that envelope even further and bring web content to your TV and change the way you advertise on television and the internet even quicker.

Personally, I like U-Verse but they don’t get the press that the others do. Maybe they would have benefited from bringing in an established brand to help them out. As it stands, with they are poised at a distant third, maybe fourth if Direct TV’s gamble pays off. That shows you just how detrimental a bad ad campaign can be.

The big deal hitting the news just this week that has theater owners a bit upset is that Direct TV is going to provide movies for home viewing 8 weeks after their theatrical release. This is a huge gamble on Direct TV’s part if it doesn’t hit it off the studios will kill it quickly and put even more support behind things like Redbox and Netflix (Hollywood is nothing if not reactionary) if it goes well this could completely legitimize streaming video and put another nail in the coffin of physical media. Either way it’s going to make the theater companies re-think their business model and it could lead to some major changes in the way they do business.

One thing about social media, and most fledgling forms of media, is that every change can affect all different aspects. Being ahead of the curve on social media means keeping up with all the latest new bells and whistles, including television and streaming video. You never know when something big will hit and change things but if you are up on what’s going on you can act quickly and retool your social media advertising in the right direction. Since the movie industry in some form or another puts so much money into social media and new digital technology they’re a good place to keep an eye on.

Warner Bros. May Buy Flixster – What’s With All the Embracing the Future?

Dish Network plans to close hundreds of Blockbuster Video stores

Direct TV Causes Anger Over New VOD

The brand new Milk / All American Games / High School Sports National Cheer Contest is live! Teams from high schools all over the country can upload videos of their best routines and win a trip to San Antonio, TX and work the sidelines of next year’s U.S. Army All-American Bowl! The game will be televised on NBC, on January 8th, 2011 so don’t miss it. We’d like to thank everyone who made this contest hum just in time for cheer squads all around the country to participate! Thanks, TM, CS, CW, RN, SM, GV, TT, SR, TB and FG at All American Games.

There are a lot of thanks to go around for this project, but we’d especially like to thank Omnia who largely took up the role of architect and developer throughout the process. We also want to acknowledge Steve, Ryan, Tyler, Bryant and Ted for their amazing work in all things creative.

We had a lot of fun making this game app and we hope that families traveling on highways and byways all over the U.S. will enjoy it too.

In a nutshell Google Me is a social network that doesn’t have the restrictions that come with G-Mail like Google Buzz did. Other than what it doesn’t have, Google is playing it low-key and letting the speculation run rampant and spread word for them. All they are saying is that it will be a much simpler networking tool without all the games and spam messages. (Roughly the same thing Facebook said when they went up against MySpace.)

This would actually be Google’s third try at running a social network. The first try was way back in 2004 when Facebook was in its infancy. The Orkut caught on in Latin America but was a dud in the United States and Google Buzz was drowned out in complaints of privacy breaches and glitches that revealed private data. Of course you don’t get to be a company as big as Google without learning from your mistakes, right?

Google has had a habit hyping up their new products. Every year Google has a new and revolutionary product and sometimes that works in their favor and sometimes it doesn’t in the case of Google Buzz it just didn’t live up to its hype. As I said, this time Google is keeping quiet about exactly what Google Me is, preferring to let to build a groundswell by using sites like Wired. Com and G4tv to get people talking about what exactly what they have coming.

Google certainly learned the value of picking a good time to launch. Facebook has been getting some bad press recently for breaches in privacy and information exposing glitches. There’s even a movie coming out in the fall that could cause Facebook and the people behind it some headaches in the media (See trailer) If Google can spin Facebook’s bad press into good press for them this could be the break they’ve been waiting for.

So how does Facebook respond to all this? If I were their marketing wizard I would publicize the new privacy setting and talk about cracking down on spammers and bots.  I would promote Facebook like they did back when they took on MySpace.  They were the place to hold conversations, stay in touch with friends, and above all downplay all the bells and whistles that they’ve added over time and focus on the networking aspects.

One of the reason’s Facebook has been so successful is that it has shown a remarkable ability to adapt to what people want. When Twitter became a hit, Facebook quickly retooled their front page to assimilate with their ideas. If Google is going to beat Facebook it better do something that catches on quickly and surprises Facebook by doing something fairly innovative.  They said Google Buzz would be revolutionary but it turned out to be just another version of 4-Square using your G-Mail account.

Google has said they will launch Google Me later this year.   The odds are we’ll know pretty quickly whether or not it’s a success.   A massive launch like this is either a hit right out of the gate or it’s nothing and there are only so many times Google can announce they are taking on social networking before people stop listening so this could be their last shot at it.  As far as your own advertising dollars there could very well be a downturn in Facebook traffic as these privacy complaints pile up.  If internet privacy becomes a big issue Facebook will most likely find themselves doing some major damage control.  If Google Me can set itself apart from the rest it could be an interesting way to get your message out there.

news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20009159-265.html

edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/06/28/facebook.attitude/?fbid=EcJX7RW-7kT

www.inrumor.com/in/all/will-google-me-compete-facebook/

mashable.com/2010/06/30/google-me-rumors/

1. Userzoom (Sunnyvale, CA) provided the technology. They offer UX pros the ability to run online, task-based studies with geographically dispersed participants.
2. KeyLime Interactive (Miami, FL) moderated the sessions. They specialize in online web-based usability testing as well as traditional lab-based testing.

A little background about the study before diving into the results. Each Hotel site tested (Hilton, Marriot, Intercontinental, Starwood, Hyatt) were randomly assigned 50 different users to perform 2 tasks seperatly. Tasks took roughly 10 min in length to complete. Users were selected regardless of their prior affiliation with any hotel rewards program or familiarity with the site.

Tasks:

1. Finding a room on a beach at a particular time of year, particular distance from a landmark, within a set budget of $250.
2. Finding a hotel that provided parking to it’s guests

The web sites were evaluated on several metrics based on the tasks which users attempted to cary out (Overall success, Ease of use, Ease of Navigation, Clear where to start, Satisfaction with Time) and then are given an overall score (KLI score) by the moderating agency (Keylime interactive)

Data gathered from open questioning and Task 1 Results overview:

• Marriot, Hilton had largest groups of rewards program participants – and considered ‘most popular’ by users as well
• Hilton ranks best from a search perspective
• Hyatt ranks worst from a search perspective
• Marriot and Hilton brands scored well on ease of use and accessibility
• Hilton & Marriot score highest on success rate, Ease of Use, and Satisfaction. Hyatt scored lowest
• User satisfaction related directly to the time it takes to complete tasks

Data gathered from open questioning and Task 2 Results overview:

• Marriot scored highest on search, but most users had a hard time figuring out where to start clicking
• Hyatt & Starwood rank consistently low in all categories of evaluation within the task result

The KLI results from the 2 tasks were the aggregated for an overall KLI score

Executive takeaways

• All brands had varying strengths and weaknesses
• All brands have room for improvement
• All brands had a ‘negative’ score of with regards to the brand meeting end-users expectations (Hilton however was the ‘best’)
• No single brand or site should be picked on as being ‘bad’ in strict black and white terms. These results were simply the outcome of 2 tasks performed online. But it starts to paint a picture of the overall User Experience the various brands provide

Last night we discussed Dan Saffer’s Book: Designing for Interaction: Creating Innovative Applications and devices. It was fairly well received by all in attendance. Overall the book is very concise and informative. We all especially liked the brief history of interaction design section, and there was spirited conversation over weather the function of Interactions Designers is to ‘’Make the world a better place to live.” It’s a 200-page overview consisting primarily of tools and techniques that Interaction Designers should be aware of and potentially using. Ideally this book would be found in a classroom or on the shelf of an ambitious student. Practitioners however may not reap as much benefit for the simple fact that the book outlines an extensive set of techniques that, as described, can only exist in a vacuum. They are neatly sectioned off for designers to consider using throughout their process. Sadly, there is little to no mention of the process itself, or of clients, or business requirements mentioned in the book. For purely educational purposes, it does a nice job of familiarizing readers with the nuts and bolts of Interaction Design practices, but might leave some wanting to hear more detailed accounts of how they can be applied in the real world.

On a related note: The club often hands out a copy of an upcoming scheduled book, and this time I was fortunate enough to win! I’m very excited to be reading Todd Zaki Warfel’s new one called Prototyping: A practitioners guide, slated for discussion at the end of June. Look for a review on that when the time comes and look for other book club meeting notes in the future.

If you would like to attend a meeting in person, check the UX Book Club Chicago website for times and dates. It meets at 350 N LaSalle Dr Chicago, IL