In case you haven’t heard, last night TechCrunch announced that Pinterest hit 11.7 million UMVs, becoming the fastest standalone site ever to surpass 10 million monthly uniques.

The #1 driver of consumer purchases is word of mouth recommendations from friends, and Pinterest holds the power to drive authentic “word of eye” recommendations in a way that is changing the landscape of social commerce.

How? The landing page for Pinterest is an endless visual stream of subtle product recommendations from the very people who influence your purchasing decisions - friends and strangers with good taste. This means that there is an endless opportunity for your brand and its products to be seen by Pinterest’s 11.7 million unique monthly users as endorsements from friends in the form of repins.

Currently availably stats show the average Pinterest user spends 98 minutes per month on the site, compared to 2.5 hours on Tumblr, and 7 hours on Facebook. Pinterest is most popular in North Eastern states, among females (estimates range from 58% to 70% female), and with people ages 25-44 (59% of visitors).

How it Works

In case you haven’t already joined the millions of others pinning products, here’s a quick overview of how Pinterest works: Pinterest enables users to “pin” images found around the Web into categorized collections, or boards. Think of it like an interactive, shareable scrapbook. Or as I like to say, it’s your virtual high school locker. Pinterest can capture the brand essence, personality, inspiration for product design, or company culture through visual boards. It could also be used to organically grow your brand’s reach through an influencer re-pinning strategy, to further engage with fans through themed boards, and to inspire consumers to action, perhaps through a “best board” or a “most pins” contest.

Why People Love It

“It’s lovely from a visual perspective,” says my colleague (and Pinterest addict) Sophia Aladenoye. Apart from Pinterest’s tactile and user-friendly experience, it helps people make visual mental notes of a life they aspire to, like a vision board. “Pinterest is personally helping me with my 2012 vision board exercises… helping me to more easily remember the images that represent my goals, wants or benchmarks for 2012,” say Sophia. Others claim that the site is helping them to “de-stress,” to plan their wedding, or help redecorate their home. And some say they honestly just like the fact that is invite-only and feels exclusive (or perhaps felt exclusive before its recent boost). Men are also jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon - my friend and colleague Maury posts vintage cars, and Grassroots Modern blogger Creede Fitch posts photos of modern furniture designs he finds inspiring.

How Brands Can Leverage Pinterest

1) Create a new social commerce touch point

With 11.7 million UMVs and counting, Pinterest presents an opportunity for brands to expand their audiences by going where the masses are. Consumers are always a step ahead of brands and its important for brands to follow behavior rather than dictate it. Your brand’s presence on Pinterest will create another consumer touch point and a way to be discovered by new people. The visual Pinterest boards would help invite new people into the fabric of your brand by setting a mood or encapsulating a lifestyle, helping users to imagine how your brand’s products, services or culture fit their lives.

2) Grow influencer networks

Brands can leverage Pinterest to find influencers with whom to engage. You can expand your influencer networks by following influential Pinterest users and boards, and repinning items to our own Pinterest boards, giving credit to the influencer. Brands may also choose to engage with influential bloggers and have them curate a board on their Pinterest page. Ask Ogilvy for advice on who to follow and repin, and who might be right to engage offline or on another brand platform.

3) Identify and engage super fans

Pinterest may also be a way to identify natural brand advocates or “super fans.” You can search for your brand’s products and discover who is most frequently pinning about your products and engage with those people. Surprise and delight super fans by rewarding them with products they pin to their boards. Eventually you may create a fan-curated board that allows super fans to add their pins.

4) Increase brand loyalty by sharing your brand’s culture

Pinterest is a fun, inspirational and highly visual atmosphere and your brand has an opportunity to engage fans in new and creative ways. Consider creating boards that align with product or service themes, for example, West Elm categorizes its boards by colors from its design palette, such as “Aquamarine.” Or create a board that reflects your company’s dedication to a CSR initiative. Or, compile pictures of everyday fans and influencers engaging with your brand, such as a board that features pins of people across the globe wearing a retail brand’s clothing.

5) Host contests for further engagement

Perhaps you can host a contest for fans to create the best Pinterest board with your products, and reward the winning fan with items from her board. Or, invite other users to co-create boards on your page around certain themes, and reward the winning team with product or a brand experience. For example, a travel brand can ask Pinners to create mood boards that reflect a destination like the French Riviera, and then reward the winning board with a trip.

7) Inspire repins (and purchases) through bold visuals

As mentioned earlier, the #1 driver of consumer purchases is word of mouth recommendations from friends, and Pinterest holds the power to drive authentic “word of eye” recommendations through a repin endorsement. To accomplish this, you’ll want to make sure that you have high resolution, professional quality, close-up photos to leverage. Photos of products should be taken in a way that enables the viewer to imagine herself wearing the product, engaging with an item, or taking part in the setting. Photos should taken in a way that makes them stand out in the visual stream that is Pinterest. For example, a bold-colored photo or a gray-scale photo might set itself apart from the photo stream.

Promote your culture first, products and services second

The trick with Pinterest is to leverage the “soft sell” and promote your brand culture over the products or services themselves. Pinterest is committed to maintaining a non-promotional atmosphere, and the hard sell could get you kicked off the platform. So to create the right atmosphere, think about what your brand has to offer and what the images say to people and what you want to ask, for example:

• A tech brand: “Do you like innovation? We’re innovative too, and here’s a photo of our developers making our first-ever app for iPhone.”

• A fashion brand: “Do you like bold, basic colors? We love everything bright and bold, and this painting by Matisse captures our upcoming line’s color scheme.”

• A home furnishings brand: “Do you enjoy a clutter-free living space? So do we, and here are three books we love that talk about a clutter-free home.”

• A credit card company or bank: “Do you imagine yourself living a lifestyle of luxury? Here’s a picture from the beach in the Virgin Islands where you could be right now.”

Through play and inspiration, Pinterest might just empower you to become the architect of your brand’s culture.

What do you think about Pinterest for brands? Do you think users will stay engaged once brands join?

Special thanks to Chris Heydt and Sophia Aladenoye of Ogilvy for their contributions.

The Talkable Brand video series continues…

Episode #5 | Talkable is Practical

In this episode, you’ll learn when a marketing idea is more practical, it stands the chance to become perpetually talkable.

DIRECT LINK TO VIDEO

BACKGROUND INFO:
The Talkable Brand video series will help you to strategically think about ways to make your brand, your business worthy of word of mouth. Every Tuesday on the Brand Autopsy blog a new episode will premiere giving you knowledge and a nudge. Knowledge being interesting information. The nudge being compelling motivation to make the information happen. The result, I hope, is helping you make brands more talkable.

EPISODE ARCHIVE:
Jan. 10 | Achievable
Jan. 17 | Believable
Jan. 24 | Bankable
Jan. 31 | Original

While the gridiron battle between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots was close, the advertising battle on the tube was not.

The Super Bowl battle for commercial success might better be described as a mixture of the old classics, the new stuff, the overly sexy and the over the top.

Here is my brief recap on the best/worst ads of the night.

 

The Old Classics

The Super Bowl isn’t for also-rans. The big game is best served by big brands that are category leaders and that support the game year after year with consistent themes.

 

Coca-Cola

The three polar bear ads delivered. The ads were classic storytelling for the whole family from the world’s most valuable brand. Coke combined its well-known Polar Bears with a football theme and its iconic bottle to produce a series of commercials that were both entertaining and memorable.

 

Budweiser

When Budweiser does it right, it gets it really right. The “Return of the King” and “Eternal Optimism” delivered on a recurring theme of the night. Times are tough, but Americans pull through so why not celebrate with a Bud? On the funny side, Bud also delivered with a Weego  rescue dog that fetches beers. An overused gag, but Bud found a way to make it fresh and fun. The misses came for the new brand called Bud Light Platinum. Nobody has heard of it and nobody knew they needed another line-extension of Bud. But when they find out that Bud Light Platinum has a higher alcohol than regular beer, the brand could have legs with young adults.

 

E*Trade

The talking baby is now a classic for the brand. Consumers love the creative which conveys the message that E*Trade is so easy a baby can do it. The brand has nicely evolved and continues to introduce fresh, new ideas. This ad talking about “Fatherhood” had a nice connection with the Super Bowl and family time.

 

Doritos

Getting customers to create winning commercials has turning into a successful Super Bowl strategy for the chip maker.  The Doritos contest has become a classic and much anticipated part of Super Bowl Sunday. As in years past, amateurs turned in some of the funniest laughs of the night. Man’s Best Friend involves a cat-murder, a cover-up and bribery. And Sling Baby, has granny using a baby slingshot to get some Doritos. I love the creativity and fun these ads deliver for a brand that is addictive with bold flavors.

 

The New Stuff

The Super Bowl can be an excellent place to launch a new brand. Apple famously did that with its Macintosh ad in 1984.

 

Skechers

Dogs and kids always attract attention in advertising. In this commercial, a cute little French bulldog takes to the greyhound track and wins thanks to his new Skechers Go Run shoes. The line promotes a more-natural running experience that is all the rage these days. The spot was particularly good as compared with last year’s revolting Skechers commercial featuring Kim Kardashian rolling around with a personal trainer.

 

Acura

Since 2005, car enthusiasts have been mourning the end of the NSX supercar. So Honda’s plan to return with a new generation of the NSX has gotten a lot of gearheads excited. This spot nicely uses Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno in an over-the-top story line about bribing the guy who is first line to get the NSX. The only problem is the car won’t be in production until 2015.

 

M&Ms

This spot introduced the new brown-color M&M character. Ms. Brown is smart and sassy. And using humor and a killer song makes this ad melt in your mouth not in your hands.

 

The Overly Sexy

Using hot girls to sell everything from boats to beer is taken right out of advertising 101. But several ads crossed the line and were more repulsive than seductive. When it comes to the Super Bowl and sex, there really can be too much of a good thing.

 

Teleflora

The oh-so-subtle “give her flowers on Valentine’s day and you shall receive” pitch. I’m sure guys would send that Victoria Secret model anything for a peck on the cheek. But as a women, I cringe at the transactional tone of the commercial. But I am looking forward to seeing what they are going to do for Mother’s Day.

 

GoDaddy

The entire marketing plan for this Internet registration site is creating a “too sexy” Super Bowl ad that will hopefully get banned, thereby generating a lot of publicity. This approach has gotten stale. Body paint? There is way too much porn on the Internet already, nobody needs to go to Go Daddy to see more of it.

 

H&M

Equal-opportunity nudity alert: David Beckham in his underwear! Goes to show you, naked men can flop just as easily as naked women. He is beautiful, but fast-fashion retailer H&M needs more than a naked Beckham to run a successful Super Bowl spot. How about an idea?

 

Oikos Yogurt

Full House hunk John Stamos eating Greek yogurt “9 ½ weeks style.” There is so much good to say about the sky-rocketing Greek yogurt category. Too bad they resorted to sex to sell it.

 

 

The Over the Top

Too many superbowl ads try too hard and do too much. More often than not it falls flat.

 

Century 21

Smarter, bolder, faster might be the name of the commercial, but it fails to deliver on any of those traits. The real estate company selected celebrities they felt embodied these traits. Smarter: Donald Trump, Deion Sanders. Bolder: Apolo Ohno. But where is the connection to selling houses? And “smarter, bolder, faster” is the last thing people say or think about after a visit with a Century 21 agent. They should stick to the Gold Jacket.

 

Kia

Over the top and loving it. This testosterone-fueled ad has a little of everything, hot girls, fast cars, cool bands. It is turbo-charged and might appeal to the young men in its demographic but the brand would have been better off if the commercial had first provided an understanding what a Kia is.

 

Pepsi

Pepsi was once the choice of a new generation. But with Coca-Cola beating them up and bumping Pepsi down to 3rd place behind Coca-Cola and Diet Coke, this spot doesn’t ring true. The cruel King Elton John isn’t keeping anybody from Pepsi. Kids just don’t want to drink it as much as they once did. They are drinking Monster and Red Bull instead.

 

Volkswagen

You know when the sequel goes right to video. Well this commercial is like that. After last year’s success with Star Wars’ themed The Force, Volkswagen this time mixed dogs, weight loss and some weird Star Wars stuff at the end. It wasn’t a cohesive story and didn’t ever connect to the brand. It was just Volkswagen trying too hard to make a Super Bowl commercial and it shows. Simple stories that relate to the brand work much better.

 

Chrysler

Chrysler gave us an inspirational, gritty, 2 minute mini-movie – Half-Time in America with tough guy Clint Eastwood. But what are they selling? Detroit? Obama? I don’t get the connection to Chrysler, who promotes all the Dodge, Ram, Jeep and Chrysler brands at the end.  My problem is not with the production or sentiment; both are over the top and terrifically powerful. But Chrysler is the weakest of the big 3 and only survived because it sold a 53% percent stake to Fiat an Italian company. More like imported and paid for by Italy.

 

We’ve been watching social media chatter around the “big game” intensify over the past week – especially if you live in Indianapolis. But since Volkswagen first teased its teaser ad with the barking dogs (and garnered over 11 million views along with way), the ad community has slowly followed suit and rolled out their wares.

Consumers that wanted to gain clout (and Klout) passed it along as quickly as possible. But will two weeks of conversation or two minutes of 1.5 million tweets (like those amassed around Tim Tebow’s heroics this season) sway opinion, increase favorability or drive sales? Or are brands just trying to be “part of the conversation”? The answer to both is yes.

Sometimes we overlook the power of social media to actually drive business. We spend time counting tweets, status update comments and blog posts instead of sales. But with #SuperBowl being a promoted trend on Twitter all day and the social media command center created by the Host Committee in Indianapolis, this Sunday’s investments in more than just television airtime surely sound like a ringing endorsement from CMOs across the country that social media isn’t a nice to have, but a need to have.

That’s because social media makes the viewing party and the water cooler the next day exponentially larger. As we all look down to our phones rather than up to our neighbor to share our instant opinion of that play or that ad or that tweet, social media allows messages and implied endorsements travel much farther than Neilsen ratings on TV. Based on ever-increasing platform usage, consumers have told us that the size of our circles matter. And that’s why every star uses Twitter (and why the NFL has invested in a player’s application so they can own the content instead of Twitter).

Since I don’t really have a favorite in today’s game, I’ll be watching to see if Twitter crashes. And then I’ll see how long it takes for this giant conversation to fade. According to Google Trends, although the search volume peaks the week of the event and then subsides into the ether until the next year, the overall conversation volume continues to climb year over year. The goal of social media is for brands to take advantage of those event peaks to increase their baseline of online conversation. Intuitively, that should work better for those with lower brand recognition, rather than the behemoths that can afford to pay. We look forward to finding out how long the proverbially tail can actually be not just in the social media conversation, but also for sales, awareness and preference.

What type of journalism could be more up to date than live broadcast or real time reporting? The UK paper the Telegraph may have come up with a solution – publishing articles from the future. Today, Feb 5, 2012, the Telegraph has published an article from March 4, 2012. I knew the Brits were smart, but to see one month into the future was even more than I expected.

Of course, there could be another explanation. That the Education Editor dropped out of math in school…

 

Related Posts:

• Spotify founder named “Elk” by Reuters
• Edelman Trust Barometer 2012 says trust in social media is up
• How to create a Twitter background image from your Instagram photos
• Socialbakers Facebook report for Sweden – Jan 2012
• One tweet causes crisis for Vodafone

Swedish names might be a challenge for foreign journalists, but to misspell the last name of Spotify’s founder Daniel Ek is quite an achievement. In a list of the most social CEO’s, Reuters calls him Daniel Elk. What a moostake…

Related Posts:

• Reuters launches software generated podcasts
• Benkow admits – Gates interview was fake
• Six Swedish companies among the Top 100 Global Innovators
• The Telegraph can see into the future
• Nissan in new Australian social media backlash

“There are no problems, only solutions..”
— John Lennon

(Part 2? Yeah, check out Part 1.)

In case you missed it, Ron Paul supporters, ASU students, and VFX artists were among those that joined the fray since my last post. The variations continue to proliferate further down the tail, satirizing - and entertaining - more niche audiences. What does this add up to? Segmentation.

While I easily enjoy Sh*t ASU Students Say even though I’m not a Sun Devil - and haven’t even been to the campus - the video resonates better with those who were. Beyond that, the video’s arc is more relatable to students who enrolled in the past 5-10 years and drink socially - perhaps even deeper for students who were in the Greek system and enjoy campus takeout.

The point is, there’s a clear difference in the type of viewer who’s going to watch the video halfway through for a chuckle and a viewer who’s going to share across social networks. Those pearls of info are demographic, psychographic, and behavioristic qualities - in some ways digital has obscured their importance.

As segmented as some brands' social media programs get these days.

On-platform segmentation

On Facebook you can get granular with ads - age, gender, interest, etc. - but what’s the deepest a brand can go with a non-paid Wall post? Zip code - better than nothing, but hardly ideal. What’s the most specific you can get with a non-promoted tweet? Well, there isn’t any targeting at all. A brand can use hashtags, but hardly a guarantee it reaches the right followers and non-followers. The list goes on.

When considering the lack of earned and owned targeting, should we have been so shocked by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute’s recent study showing 1.3% of users who Like a Page also engage with it? There are a host of reasons - and it’s not panic time - but a lack of targeted relevance is likely a large factor.

Is there hope? You probably saw the Pinterest infographic shared far and wide yesterday. The standout points are a 429% traffic increase since September and a higher referral rate than Google+. The larger question is how we account for the platform’s explosion - my takeaway is self-segmentation. Users can very specifically choose what content they consume from brands. For example, a user may be more interested in HGTV’s Design Happens Blog board than its Party Planner board - and the user can choose.

Of course, we can’t always expect audiences to do all the work - that’s kind of our job - but content segmentation is likely a contributor to the platform’s growing popularity. This is also why diligent brands should use Google+ to group users and serve-up relevance by the Circle-full.

What are the lessons?

Segment your influencers - While mega-buckets like green and lifestyle are easy defaults, your influencers should be as refined as your audiences - and pitched with the same specificity. This involves additional research, but is worthwhile in the long-run. This principle is emphasized in our and freshly-updated Ogilvy Social Media Engagement Code. We will always work hard to have good reason to connect our brand or program with a particular influencer or fan.

Diligent application of paid - Sometimes paid feels like a dirty word in our idyllic world of social media and word-of-mouth comms, but it’s a huge value-add when used properly. If a brand has a strong, relevant message it feels will resonate with ASU students or VFX artists, paid could be invaluable in getting the value exchange to a receptive audience.

Be targeted in your research - Broad statistics about social media won’t get you far. You may see large trends, but it doesn’t say much about your audiences. Believe it or not, MySpace is still relevant to stand-up comedians and forums are strong in industries like health care. Research + expertise for insight. As quickly as the digital world changes, intelligence must also be refreshed regularly - and with rigor.

As we continue to hear what sh*t all kinds of people say, more lessons about marketing in a digital world will come to the surface. Including when a campaign has run its course. Exhibit A @ 1:29. (It’s still hilarious.)

Are there other lessons you took away from this meme? What niche do you think is underserved in social media?

Facebook report from: http://www.marketingscience.info/.*Image credit: Despair.com. +Inspiration credit: @AlexisPond.

The Talkable Brand video series continues…

Episode #4 | Talkable is Original

In this episode, you’ll learn there is no recipe for originality. However, there is a way to encourage originality — it’s about being obvious about what you do, how you do it, and why you do it.

DIRECT LINK TO VIDEO

BACKGROUND INFO:
The Talkable Brand video series will help you to strategically think about ways to make your brand, your business worthy of word of mouth. Every Tuesday on the Brand Autopsy blog a new episode will premiere giving you knowledge and a nudge. Knowledge being interesting information. The nudge being compelling motivation to make the information happen. The result, I hope, is helping you make brands more talkable.

EPISODE ARCHIVE:
Jan. 10 | Achievable
Jan. 17 | Believable
Jan. 24 | Bankable

Just like in the last report (Nov 2011) from Socialbakers, the Body Shop is the brand page in Sweden with the highest level of engagement. OKQ8 is the page with the highes response rate, followed by two Telia pages. In fact, half of the top 10 pages in regards to response rate, are telecom operators.

Vakna! med the Voice is the media page with most fans.

In case you are missing a page that would qualify in the top 10 lists above, please suggest it here.

Related Posts:

• Socialbakers Facebook report for Sweden – Nov 2011
• 2.5 million LinkedIn members in the Nordic countries
• The brands on Facebook that most people are talking about
• Your Facebook page is a litmus test of your brand’s health
• Zlatan Ibrahimovic is not on Facebook, but his fans are

What is your social strategy? Are you trying to increase the amount of positive consumer generated media (CGM) for your brand or are you trying to inspire and manage brand advocacy? The media mindset thinks in terms of CGM. How can they make more of that and put it in all the places where customers will find it. How they “make” that media happen is a means to a simple end. 

The social mindset thinks in terms of genuine brand advocacy. How can we give customers, employees, stakeholders a reason and a means to share a sincerely positive point of view about a brand with their friends, family and people ‘like them?’ How they make that advocacy happen is more than a means to an end, it is indivisible from the end. 

The VIP Deals Deal

It’s not just semantics. Look at the recently reported case of VIP Deals offering free iPad covers (their product) to customers who submitted a favorable review on Amazon. The NYTimes covered this recently and even posted the deal memo sent to customers here. Their goal was to generate overwhelmingly positive reviews. They offered the value of the product price ($30-$35 retail?), told the customer the action they wanted to take and insinuated the tone of that review. Can you split hairs and say that they did not require a favorable review? Perhaps. But there is no mistaking their intention. They wanted to “buy” favorable reviews, consumer generated media, to dominate a channel, Amazon reviews. 

The review space has long been suspected of abuse. Employees giving their own hotel, restaurant, lawnmower a positive review. We imagine  pay-per-review farms in off shore locations and more incentive programs like VIP Deals than are ever revealed. It is not clear what most consumers think of product reviews. I would guess that there is a large amount of skepticism even while we all still look at them to make quick judgments (who wouldn’t download the 4 star weather app on iTunes over the 1.5 star – presuming similar price?) 

Media or Advocacy?

Brand marketers must decide what their intention is – media or advocacy. That choice will inherently guide their actions. Big, multi-national brands need to make this choice more than any small business. What they do in one market will quickly infect another. It’s not as simple as saying “when in China….” All local activity is now global.  The danger in a pure media mindset is the possibility of losing sight of what makes social media so powerful – its ability to earn people’s advocacy and share that at a large scale. 

Getting the right actions and intentions

• One of the best resources for brand and business leaders on practical social media ethics remains the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (disclosure: we are a governing member and I remain as a non-voting board member). Their ethics code and disclosure guidelines  are a foundation that any brand marketer can apply with confidence. 
• We have just updated our Ogilvy Social Media Engagement Code  which is being reviewed in draft form but I have shared here. We have had a social media-related  ethics code in place since 2005 and find it invaluable to rally our global network around. This is how we roll. 

If you’ve been following along you know we’ve done three video ditties giving you knowledge and a nudge on how to make word of mouth happen for your business/brand.

The newest video, Talkable is Bankable, explains how marketers can absolutely bank on the fact when a brand is in the conversation then it will be under purchase consideration. (If you didn’t watch the short video, you can here.)

Or, you can read the script below to learn if marketers can design brands to become worthy of word of mouth, then word of mouth will happen.

Talkable is Bankable

So much has changed in how people connect with others. All the high-tech gadgets and online apps make connecting with people easier.

HOW we talk has changed and is changing but the WHY has not.

Since human civilization began, the reasons why people talk hasn’t changed at all. We are social by design. We share information with people because it is interesting, it is helpful to others, and it enhances how others perceive us.

It’s an absolute guarantee that people will talk about matters they find worthy of sharing. These matters include: Gossip. Weather. Politics. News. And, brands.

Marketers can bank on the fact if a brand is in the conversation then it will be under consideration.

The Keller Fay Group, through its ongoing TalkTrack® study, has found Americans will mention specific brand names about 60 times every week in conversations with others.

A recent report from Experian found Word of Mouth is the most influential factor in driving consumer purchase decisions.

A Harris Interactive report from 2010 reveals 71% of us believe reviews and opinions from family members or friends have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of influence on our purchase decisions.

Those statistics shouldn’t surprise you. These stats might.

Robin Dunbar, anthropologist, has studied and written about the social nature of humans. You may know his work because of Dunbar’s Number, 150.

One hundred and fifty is Dunbar’s Number and it’s the maximum number of people you can maintain stable relations with. His research also reveals 80% of our conversations are with the same 5 to 10 people.

Data from Keller Fay backs up Dunbar’s research findings. According to Keller Fay, 62% of our conversations are with our strongest ties, those people closest to us—spouse, family members, best friend.

There is more interesting data concerning how much we talk with our strongest ties.

Data from Stefana Broadbent, anthropology researcher, says 80% of all our phone calls are with just 4 people.

Facebook and other online social networks are changing how we talk by making it easier to connect with friends and with friends of friends. However, despite being connected to more people, we are still only meaningfully connecting to a small number.

The average number of friends a Facebook user has is 130. But according to Paul Adams, a researcher at Facebook, the typical Facebook user directly communicates with just 4 friends on Facebook every week.

New technology will change, making it easier for us to talk and connect with friends and with friends of friends.

Old reliability will remain the same. We will always talk about things we find interesting, stuff that can help people, and about matters that make us more interesting with family, friends, and friends of friends.

We will also continue to maintain and deepen our connections with small groups of people even as technology makes it easier for us to connect with more people.

If marketers can design brands and business to become worthy of word of mouth, then word of mouth will happen. You can absolutely bank on those conversations taking place.

DIRECT LINK TO VIDEO

First of all, this isn’t new. We have had a social media-related ethics code in place since 2005. At that time, it was the Blogger Outreach Code of Ethics. It helped us decide what was ‘best-practice’ and what wasn’t. These are our ethics not something handed down through culture or a governing body. We simply believed that social media’s true power was grounded in trust — trust between bloggers and their readers; between brands and their followers; between marketers and customers.

The updated code covers more contemporary circumstances. Facebook for one. We have learned that there are principles that can guide our behavior in community management as well as influencer management. We have made a choice to embrace the principles of clear disclosure in our work everywhere even while only one consumer protection body that I know of, the FTC, requires it.

I wanted to share with you and certainly ask for input and feedback. This is a living document and can hardly ever be called “done.” Still, it will guide our global teams as we continue to design and execute complex, multi-market programs around the world. Check it out:

The Ogilvy Social Media Engagement Code

Great relationships are built upon trust. From the start, the value for marketers to use social media was to earn the attention, advocacy and action of customers, influencers and stakeholders. While there are ways to improve our odds at “earning” all of this, there are also perils at short term tactics that can undermine the circle of trust and effectively poison the well.

The relationships we grow online between brands and customer or stakeholders are the future of our business. The digital age has changed the marcom world. Our ability to grow healthy relationships, earn brand advocacy, earn a place in someone’s social graph, earn people’s precious time and attention - will define marketing and communications effectiveness.

Trust, transparency, and true value exchange are not clichés nor empty buzzwords. They are the difference between effective use of social media and word of mouth marketing and harming relationships between organizations and their customers and stakeholders.

We, at Ogilvy, have had a social media code of ethics to guide us since 2005. It began as the Blogger Code of Ethics and spoke to our commitment to doing things right. It’s grown but never wavered from what we know from experience is the right way to run our business and provide value to our clients.

So here is the latest generation of our engagement code. This is foundational to how we do things. It has been informed by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Code of Ethics as well as consumer protection laws such as the United States Federal Trade Commission’s Guidelines on Endorsements and Testimonials. This is a living document and will be refined periodically.

Beyond our commitment to doing things right in social media, never forget how David Ogilvy captured our approach to business, “Only first class business, and that in a first class way.”

Disclosure

• When reaching out to a Influencers & fans (these could be bloggers, journalist-bloggers, Facebook fans, Twitter followers, message board members - all of the influencers we might engage) on behalf of a client, we will always identify ourselves as Ogilvy working on behalf of our client, clearly disclosing who we are and who we work for.

• Within an initial outreach email, tweet or other communication, we will always fully disclose the purpose of the email as it pertains to the program or campaign, our disclosure requirements including a link to Ogilvy’s Social Media Engagement Code.

• In our communication we will convey why we think an influencer or fan, in particular, might be interested in our client’s product, issues, event or message.

• When blogging about Ogilvy, an Ogilvy client, or products and services, an influencer must clearly disclose their relationship with Ogilvy and the Ogilvy client, including any ‘material connection’ between Ogilvy or the client and the influencer (e.g. a product loaner, an event experience, travel expenses to a brand event, etc…). We follow the WOMMA Guide to Disclosure in Social Media Marketing for Disclosure Best Practices. This approach outlines our responsibilities in enforcing clear and prominent disclosure. http://womma.org/ethics/disclosure/

• Ogilvy staff will not publish (blog, tweet, Facebook post, etc…) about a client without the explicit agreement from the client that we can do so and then only with full disclosure of our connection to the brand (e.g. adding (cl) to a tweet about a brand to signify that they are a client) and in compliance with Ogilvy’s Social Media Guidelines for Employees

• In working with employees of brands as ambassadors, we will always enforce their full disclosure of their employee relationship in their external communications.

Transparency

• Whatever the influencer or fan chooses to write or produce should always reflect their honest and truthful opinion and actual experience.

• At the same time, we are responsible for the claims a blogger, whom we engage, makes about a product and when they make incorrect or false claims, we must correct the record

• When we engage with influencers or fans specifically about a client product or service, they are never required to create positive content about that product or service, no matter the type of experience they may have with us or our client. That is their choice and their opinion is their own.

• We won’t pretend to have read an influencer’s blog or other content if we haven’t, and we’ll always get to know an influencer before we reach out to them.

Relevancy

• We will always know who we are trying to engage and respect their position with their audience or community. If they are a professional journalist first and foremost, we will understand that role and treat them accordingly. If they are a busy mom blogger, we will be sensitive to their issues and needs. If they are a customer, we will treat them with care and respect.

• We will always work hard to have good reason to connect our brand or program with a particular influencer or fan. We know that everyone’s time is precious and will not indiscriminately contact influencers.

• We will seek to present influencers with a range of opportunities to work together around a campaign, so that he/she can create the best experience possible for their audience. We acknowledge that, when it comes to knowing their audience, they are the expert.

Value Exchange

• We will always be conscious of the value that an influencer or fan will receive for engaging with us (and how the brand will benefit) and work hard to make it relevant, inspiring and right-sized. And whenever it is something of value from a product loaner, to travel expenses in order to have an experience with the brand or dinner and drinks, we will enforce our disclosure policies.

• If we reach out to an influencer about a product, campaign or issue, we will not provide monetary compensation (e.g. cash, cash cards, similar cash-like offers) for them to produce positive content about the product, service or brand, because we believe it is bad practice to “buy” favorable reviews and do not want to appear as if we are.

• If we ask a influencer to review a product and, therefore, provide the influencer with the product to enable him/her to “experience” it, we will ask that he/she be transparent and reveal that he/she has been given the product temporarily, or permanently.

• If we engage the influencer or fan as an advisor or consultant on a specific project, we will consider providing compensation (agreed upon at the start of the project). This compensation will solely be for time as an advisor or a specific job and will not include an expectation that they will write favorably about the project, product or brand.

• If an influencer has advertising opportunities on his/her blog or media site, we will counsel our client to consider purchasing advertising as a way to reach their readers. We will make it clear, however, that paying for advertising does not mean that the influencer will post about the campaign or that, if the influencer does, he/she will do so in a way that is favorable to the brand.

• If we involve people in a contest that rewards sharing or posting of content, we will avoid any conditions that would promote people spamming others or falsely supporting a brand, topic or issue.

Privacy

• Unless specifically requested or opted in, Ogilvy will not send email newsletters or other material that could be considered as SPAM to any influencer or fan.

• Before we email an influencer, we will check out the site/blog’s About, Contact and Advertising page in an effort to see if he/she has said he/she does not like to be contacted by PR/Marketing companies.

• If an influencer tells us there is a specific way he/she wants to be reached, we’ll adhere to those guidelines.

In accordance with consumer protection laws (we use US law as a global baseline) we will not directly contact children under the age of 13 for any social media or word of mouth marketing program and will comply with all applicable laws dealing with minors and marketing, including the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (”COPPA”).

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Consider the famous exchange from Pulp Fiction in which Jules and Vincent debate the rationality of abstaining from pork. Jules just doesn’t dig on swine, that’s all, because they’re basically dirty, like dogs.

VINCENT:     Yeah, but do you consider a dog to be a filthy animal?

JULES:          I wouldn’t go so far as to call a dog filthy, but they’re definitely dirty. But, a dog’s got personality. Personality goes a long way.

VINCENT:     Ah, so by that rationale, if a pig had a better personality, he would cease to be a filthy animal. Is that true?

JULES:          Well, we’d have to be talkin’ about one charming #@$#%& pig.

Indeed, we would have to be talking about one charming #@$#%& pig. Sure, people can “like” a brand. But most people don’t really like brands. Brands need to be more charming. For that, they need personality. Without it … well, we wouldn’t call them dirty. Just invisible. Like a ship passing in the night, to quote our founder.

In fact, I think to feel human might be the greatest feat a company can pull off. But letting your “you” come through is not an easy switch to throw. It takes knowing the central truth about your offering, and identifying the one cultural tension it can speak to. It takes a team of smart, honest people leading the dialogue.

And it takes a social platform that helps these people shine. To be personable is to be in dialogue. The consistency of traditional media is critical, but social media offers opportunities to be carefully inconsistent, like all humans. How? For starters, by not yammering about yourself all day. By listening. By developing a dynamic social cadence that steps away from your textbook tweets, and dabbles in your fans’ interests and even their voice.

Maybe then they will a) always know what to expect and b) be pleasantly surprised at the same time. Charm can run the gamut, from funny to sincere to Arnold on Green Acres. Some varied examples, below.

“It’s an English basement.”

That might not mean much to you, but it probably made you chuckle if you fall into one of the two groups:

1. Current or former D.C. residents
2. Viewers of Sh*t People In D.C. Say

Of course, this video is one of many variations of the Sh*t Girls Say series - which has a cumulative YouTube viewership of 20+ million and growing. You know the premise: Stereotypical expressions from people of a certain ilk, organized by gender, hobby, lifestyle, or geography. There are takes on skiers, hipsters, suburban moms, and even sh*t nobody says (a personal favorite) and the meme’s ’success’ reminds me of basic marketing program goals: generating word-of-mouth, stimulating co-creation, and targeting segmented audiences.

$1,400 for a converted sunroom? Not bad - better than an English basement.

First: Why do we care about sh*t other people say?

As a meme - both intentionally and by accident - these videos satisfy several of the 7 Drivers of Word of Mouth synthesized from Emmanuel Rosen’s work: there’s a good story, people can show their involvement, there is an implicit invitation to participate through their involvement, ’supporters’ can be creative, and, most crucially, there’s a clear value offering - comedy.

The power of these elements is not only clear in the 20+ million video views of the original - and millions more on the variations - but the number of amateur aueters who created their own. An absurdly unscientific calculation using YouTube shows 200+ videos using a basic search - let’s safely presume 50 are duplicates and 50 are spam. Even at 100 and with absolutely no prize, that’s higher participation than most branded video submission challenges get - save Survivor applications and Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl.

What’s the lesson?

This concept - again, presumably by accident - encourages marketers to revisit basics about constructing effective programs to generate word-of-mouth and cultivate co-creation. Here are a few quick ones:

• Establish a proper barrier to entry for a desired output - if you’re inviting the masses, you better make it low.
• Make it real - do a participants’ efforts really matter or is this just a marketing program? The former will help cultivate stronger long-term benefits.
• Allow for creativity - while some of the videos are mocking groups, I would confidently presume that most of them were created by skiers and D.C.-ites themselves.
• Let your co-creators own it - while everyone involved knows this is a marketing effort, no one’s interested in making a 6-minute branded video - nor does anyone want to watch one - so ensure the brand is seen through the lens of its fans, advocates, and consumers, not the opposite.

In Part 2, I’ll explore the concepts of segmentation as it applies to long-tailed messages and why - even if you don’t live in The District - Sh*t People in D.C. Say is still funny.

Why do you think this meme has become so popular? What are the other takeaways do you see that apply to marketers?

Starbucks is proud to say they’ve listened to nearly 125,000 customer ideas and implemented 185 of them from their MyStarbucksIdea.com (MSI) program. (MSI is a website where customers submit and discuss ideas on ways Starbucks can improve its business.)

A year ago I dissected the 53 customer-submitted ideas Starbucks took credit for implementing and found Starbucks should only take credit for implementing 6 ideas.

For example, Starbucks credits a customer idea for the Splash Sticks they offer customers to help ensure coffee doesn’t spill out of the plastic lid. Reality is this idea was being done in Japan months before its introduction into the North American market. It’s not a customer-generated idea because this idea was already in the Starbucks product pipeline.

(You can read my full breakdown of those 53 ideas in this post – Tough Love for Starbucks.)

Today, Starbucks claims to have listened to and launched 185 ideas from customers. Much like the original list of 53 ideas, Starbucks is taking far too much credit for implementing customer-driven ideas.

Here are a few ideas where Starbucks falsely credits customers as the source and wrongly takes credit for making the customer idea happen:

Idea #170 | Starbucks K-Cups®
Let’s be real. It took Starbucks a few years to get on the K-Cup bandwagon because it didn’t want to help a competitor make money. Green Mountain Coffee roasts/sells coffee and owns the Keurig K-Cup brewer. It’s estimated Keurig has 80% market share in the single-serve coffee brewer category.

Green Mountain Coffee receives a royalty fee for each K-Cup pod produced and receives money by having coffee roasters purchase a K-Cup packaging machine. Starbucks has been reluctant to produce K-Cups because if they did, it would directly benefit a competitor.

The single-serve coffee market has become too large and the financial opportunity is too huge for Starbucks to ignore. K-Cups have always been on Starbucks radar. It didn’t take a customer suggestion on MyStarbucksIdea to make Starbucks aware of the K-Cup opportunity.

Idea #138 | 24 oz. Reusable Cold Cup
Hard to give credit to the customer idea for something that has long been part of the Starbucks merchandise mix. Starbucks has sold Cold Cups for years in all sorts of styles, colors, etc. They’re called Travel Tumblers and these cups can keep cold coffee cold and hot coffee hot.

Idea #124 | Sell Kona Coffee
It’s not like Stabucks hasn’t thought of selling Kona Coffee before. It’s not often, but Starbucks has sold 100% Kona Coffee before and will sell it again when they get a crop that’s worthy of selling as a stand-alone varietal.

Idea #114 | Open a store in El Salvador
Idea #64 | Open a store in Sweden
Are we to believe Starbucks didn’t have El Salvador and Sweden on the list of potential new international markets until a customer suggested it?

Idea #84 | Extend the Treat Receipt
The “Treat Receipt” is a $2 OFF coupon to encourage morning daypart customers to make a return visit in the afternoon daypart. Starbucks began this promotion in 2009. Did it again in 2010. And, did it again in 2011. Not sure the company can give credit to a customer idea for what looks to be a successful on-going promotion.

Idea #80 | VIA® Ready Brew at Grocery Stores
It was always in the plans for Starbucks to sell its instant coffee in grocery stores. In no way can the company give credit to a customer for giving them this brilliant idea.

Idea #78 | Better Incentives for Personal Mugs
The long-standing Starbucks policy has been to give customers a 10-cent discount for using their personal mug. It’s a policy that has been around for 20+ years.

Starbucks could have responded to this customer idea by upping the 10-cent discount to 15-cents to better account for inflation. Nope. Instead, Starbucks responded to this idea by offering a one-day promotion where a customer could get a free brewed coffee in their personal mug.

Not sure a one-day free coffee promotion is what the customer had in mind for their idea of having a more compelling reason to use their personal mug.

By no means am I saying the MyStarbucksIdea website isn’t worthy. It is worthy. The conversations that take place on the website give Starbucks a worthwhile look into what customers are interested in. It also gives the company a valuable opportunity to talk directly with customers.

My point was and still is… it’s cheating to match programs/products you already have in the pipeline with the ideas submitted by customers. It’s also cheating to declare you’ve implemented customer ideas when clearly, you haven’t. Starbucks is too smart a company to cheat. (So don’t.)

As a former Starbucks marketer, it irks me to think Starbucks partners are walking around HQ congratulating themselves for being so customer-focused when, in reality, they would have done nearly all of these ideas without the MyStarbucksIdea website.

Daniel Milstein is running an interview he did with me on his blog. He asked questions related to word of mouth marketing and social media. My responses might surprise you. Here’s a snippet…

DANIEL: How has the world of marketing changed since you began? Especially in terms of the social media revolution?

ME: Strategically, marketing hasn’t changed. Marketing will always be about getting the right product and right message to the right customer at the right time in the right way. If a business does that, sales will happen.

Tactically, things have changed because of technology and consumer savviness. Marketers now have more ways to reach customers (social media, mobile, etc.). Because customers have more access to information, they’ve become smarter about making purchase decisions.

I believe really good marketing is, was, and will continue to be about getting the right message to the right person at the right time in the right way(s) to deliver the right results.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW

The latest installement of the Edelman Trust Barometer has now been published and as usual, it is interesting reading. This year, there have been some dramatic changes in the views of the public in most of the countries surveyed. Trust in government, business and NGO’s is declining while trust in media is rising.

Trust in government shows an exceptionally sharp drop in the 2012 Barometer, after rising steadily for four years. In Sweden (“informed public”), trust in government is quite stable, dropping only from 64% to 62%, making Sweden the market with the fourth highest level of trust in government. Trust in business is also decreasing, although in Sweden it is acutally up from 52% to 54%, possibly thanks to the relatively stable Swedish economy compared to many other countries.

If we look at different media sources, it is interesting to see the dramatic increase in trust in social media, now almost at the same level as corporate information. Note: responses are for “informed public”, i.e. college educated, high income, high media consumption.

Overall, there is a huge drop in trust for CEO’s while trust in pers such as regular employees and “a person like yourself” is increasing dramatically.

In other words, there is less trust in messages communicated by CEO’s through traditional corporate channels and increased trust in messages from our peers, communicated through for example social media channels. There’s a lot more to read and you’ll find the whole presentation here below.

2012 Edelman Trust Barometer: Global Deck  

View more presentations from Edelman Insights

Related Posts:

• In me we trust
• More trust in business than in government says Trust Barometer
• NASA and social media
• How people use social networks – a global study
• 55 fascinating statistics about social media in Sweden

Sales force-driven organizations are wising up to using social media to build relationships with customers. Businesses are investing in sales enablement software like Salesforce.com, iCentera and Jive that have social-related functions internally to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing and some even have ways to manage social contacts.

Sales as Content 

Sales organizations are all a-twitter about content marketing, certain the answer to closing sales is in a steady flow of just the right white papers or video talking heads. All that is right-minded in my book. The sales process, especially in B2B, starts earlier and earlier with business leaders investigating their problem online before they may have even formed the words to describe the problem exactly. Companies like IBM with their Expert Network and use of LinkedIn  are building presence and thought leadership online that tries to anticipate the business leader’s pain before it’s diagnosed. 

Sales as Service 

Thinking about content as sales “bait” is one thing (and a little insulting to the customer, I might add). Thinking about sales as a continuing service to customers and prospects is different. Instead of simply ramping up on valuable content, sales organizations who want to get into the sales cycle earlier and even build strong relationships with prospects well before closing would do better to think like IDEO. 

One of the most well-known product design firms in the world, IDEO is expert at getting to the root of customer problems whether they be rooted in usability, service, or some anthropological insight. They’re good at making life easier for customers. True, their solutions tend to be in the product and experiential like designing the Community Pharmacy for Walgreens. Beneath the actual solutions lie a relentless curiosity about behavior and behavior change, “We identify new ways to serve and support people by uncovering latent needs, behaviors, and desires.”

If a sales organization spent their energy on understanding their customer’s actual experience and behavior and then sought to deliver services that made their lives a little easier, they might end up with a great strategy for building enduring relationships. Inevitably it would actually point to creating content that is helpful to customers/prospects/influencers. So, right back to that content marketing model we are all working on just within the context of delivering service.  

It might also cause the sales organization to create tools and applications that make it easier to make a smart business decision. Pull out your iPhone. Mine is full of consumer-facing examples of new customer services from my airlines, Delta; my aspirational travel agent, Jetsetter; even my car insurance provider, Geico. IDEO would think holistically (design thinking) about the buyer’s experience and how we might overcome barriers, friction points, and emotional moats.  That is a refreshing way to state the goals of social selling. 

Do: I am all for quick hits and big solutions. I would suggest committing to a content strategy based upon delivering the most useful content possible to your customer’s decision-making process. What reports, white papers, customer testimonials would help them make a good decision? Simply putting on the buyer’s hat vs. your own seller’s hat can drive you to create more useful content. Meanwhile, try a process where you think more creatively about delivering useful services to help the selling/buying process. You can hire a consultant. You can interview customers. You can trigger some effective brainstorming to explore new service territories. 

Resources:

• IDEO Method Cards – this pack of cards introduces you to a variety of ways to apply a design approach to business problems. Flip through. Find 3 that sound promising and just try them.
• Patterns - a useful blog from IDEO on design thinking and application 

Timing: By 2nd Q it will be key to be executing on a content marketing strategy that embeds social components. By 4thQ, it would be terrific to have a utility or buyer service in place being used and tested.

(thanks to madupiyadasa for the pic)

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