CS2 Live

BY: Keith Essary

Recently I have noticed a stream of chatter about the number of subscribers (likes) on a Facebook page not being used as a metric of success. When I hear or read it, it is usually accompanied with statements about having a small community of dedicated followers genuinely interesting in conversing about the company or brand. I may loose some peer points by saying this, but for most businesses, this is a misguided approach to Facebook.

Generating brand-consumer and consumer-consumer conversation on Facebook is an important goal. However, this is obtained through a high number of subscribers who use the inherent features of Facebook. Further, strategizing toward this single goal tends to produce some tactics and campaigns that I can only describe as “reaching”, which can lead to a failed initiative or negative ROI. To drive it home even more, this goal alone barely scratches the surface of the benefits provided by Facebook.

A company has to carefully consider how best to position itself on Facebook, including defining a strategy and being deliberate with its execution.  However, fundamental marketing tactics should not be ignored or replaced with something entirely new.

First and foremost a business must understand that, within Facebook, they are operating among consumers in a technical construct similar to a consumer, but they are still a business and are expected to behave as such. In my experience, most consumers expect something that falls within the realm of a basic business function – customer service, support, promotions, offers, public relations, brand loyalty programs, etc.  The first challenge is about developing engaging methods to perform any combination of these existing functions on Facebook. With proper concept and execution, the dedicated followers and conversations can naturally occur.

When performed in moderation, the notion that if a business markets to consumers on Facebook in a traditional manner they will be disliked, is simply false. Rather, if a business attempts to be something they are not in order to solicit conversation, they run the risk of being labeled artificial or “trying to hard”.

Experimenting with Facebook is great way to gain an understanding of how consumers will receive marketing tactics and standard business functions on Facebook. For example, if a business knows it obtains a .03% redemption rate of a particular coupon through a direct mailing, drop a coupon to the business’ Facebook subscribers or through a Facebook advertising campaign and compare the results. Another helpful tactic is to make wall posts rooted in different business functions and compare the interactions to the posts.

Through all the hype and struggle to “be social”, remember that, at the base level Facebook is a media just like any other media and fundamental philosophies should be applied.  More subscribers means more marketing opportunities – sometimes it’s just that simple.

I check out the Wall of these Facebook pages from time to time:

Chili’s: Primarily offers, coupons and giveaways – 923,763 subscribers.

Home Depot: Primarily an extension of their existing sell-by-how-to approach blended with public relations and general conversation – 411,130 subscribers.

Sears: A combination of customer service and product promotion blended with general conversation – 631,136 subscribers.

Facebook: Promotion through user success stories and announcements – 47,815,792 subscribers.

BY: Brian Sullivan

I think it is funny how much I have been reading lately about the persuasive power of recommendations from friends and family.  People are acting as if this is some new phenomenon that has just occurred in the millennial generation (ages 16-34). People have been asking their friends and family about the quality of goods, services or entertainment options probably since the beginning of time.

Q: Hey, should we go to the gladiator fight at the colosseum tonight?

A: I went last night and it was pretty boring.  These new prisoners are too weak for the Lions.

I am probably not going.

I read a great modern day example today that a movie production company could spend $100 million on producing a movie, $50 million on marketing it and if my friend says it sucked, I am not going.  If I am looking for anything from a washing machine to a car, I am asking people for their recommendations and experiences.

So, what does this mean to a marketer?  It means that if you provide forums for people to share insights and comments on your product or service, these comments could act like the recommendations from friends and family.  They are not quite as influential because there is no true relationship with the people making the comments but still effective.  This could come in the form of a facebook page or providing a way for people to leave comments on your e-commerce site.  Either way, it is the power of this persuasion that every marketer should be thinking about how to tap into.

For example, I recently was looking for a pair of trail shoes.  I don’t spend a lot of time on trails, but I like the way they look and feel. As I scoured the Zappos website, I read every comment about each pair of shoes I considered.  Some were talking about the shoes giving out after a 100 miles or so, some were talking about how great they tackled uneven surfaces, some were talking about how great they felt just walking around town.  All good information which was presumably from actual users (personally, I believe I can spot planted comments pretty easily).

Ultimately, I decided on a shoe based on my preferences supported by the comments by those who owned the shoes.  For the record, I did my research on the internet, but bought the shoes locally in an effort to support local retailers.  Those comments helped me make a decision.  Some were positive and some were negative giving me all the real world information I needed to make an informed decision.

Do you pay attention to comments online?  Do you make comments online?  If so, do you have to feel really strongly one way or another to take the time to make a comment?

BY: Keith Essary

I caught the tail end of a Willie Nelson interview a few weeks ago. I am not sure if it was a planned plug or genuine, but during the interview Willie made reference to not smoking marijuana anymore. He claims he now uses a vaporizer to lessen the lung damage as he gets older.

Curious, I went Googling to find out what a vaporizer is.  As usual, Google came through and, within minutes, I was well versed in modern weed vernacular and technique. I closed my tabs and moved on.

For the next few days, almost every website I visited presented me with a banner advertisement promoting marijuana paraphernalia. For a guy like me, who often demos website functionality on my computer, this was somewhat embarrassing. However, it is a great example of Behavioral Targeting on Display Networks.

While Behavioral Targeting is not really a new technology, it is still one of the biggest weapons Display Networks use to compete with the more precise demographic targeting available on social networks. BT, which displays ads to users based on their web browsing activity, generally competes for the same space on a website as ads that are displayed based on the context of the site. Over the last few years, we have seen BT maturing, but it’s still not without problems. There are technical challenges for accuracy, and it’s relatively expensive, as many publishers request a premium over contextual advertising. On the flip side, we have seen higher conversion rates coming from BT ads over contextual ads in some applications. Although the benefit is wide, most people believe BT primarily benefits in the product purchasing cycle, making it more relevant for certain brands than others.

With Facebook now serving nearly one third of all display advertisements in the U.S., expect traditional online ad networks like Yahoo, Microsoft and Google to continue ramping up and tweaking technologies such as BT.

Keep in mind that social networks have barely scraped the surface of the behavioral concept, but assume it’s coming. When it does, it could be a game changer as advertisers may be able to display messages based on a user’s real-world activities and conversations with friends.

For advertisers, targeting is only going to get more precise. Personally, I’m just glad Rogaine isn’t running a BT campaign – vaporizers was embarrassing enough.

BY: Keith Essary

I recently read an article that spoke to the enormity of information being generated each day throughout the Internet.  In addition to the thousands of articles being generated from traditional web powerhouses such as ESPN and the New York Times, the article insinuates that user generated content has pushed the information on the internet to new levels.  In fact Google CEO Eric Schmidt is quoted as saying “Every two days, we create as much information as we did up to 2003.”

This statistic is certainly not hard to believe with all of the blog platforms, social streams, and video content uploaded every minute. It is also not surprising that many of the new apps we read about are geared towards organizing this information in order to keep the “signal-to-noise” ratio in balance for consumers (does it seem there is a new RSS reader or social portal app launched everyday?). And older technologies such as search engines are battling to keep up as is illustrated by Google integrating Twitter mentions into hot topic search results.

Like consumers, advertisers are facing a similar “signal-to-noise” problem. In other words, there are so many options and segments that advertisers have to be careful to recognize the noise – or at least prioritize it. For example, when a Facebook user declares in their profile that they like BMW, does this make them the right audience for a BMW (or Lexus) advertisement? Is that as powerful as a consumer who Googles “BMW for sale”? Today, it is not uncommon for a digital advertising campaign to include display, search, video, blogging, PR, mobile, email, and social components using numerous platforms. An obvious risk is spreading the budget too thin and not being effective on any channel. In turn, this is also one contributor to digital marketing being allocated a higher percentage of the overall budget.

There is hope for advertisers. Amidst all the clutter, new technologies are emerging and a fundamental shift is occurring. This technological shift could push advertising to the next level in terms of targeting. Consider that the line between the Internet and real life has diminished. A growing amount of collected data comes from real world actions such as social check-ins and purchases. Also consider that conversations that previously happened over closed channels like email are now happening over open platforms like Twitter and Facebook, where the information can be indexed and recorded by the platforms themselves. Therefore new options arise, such as Lexus marketing to people who have visited a BMW dealer recently or to people who have mentioned buying a BMW while conversing with their friends.

Will advertising based on real-world behavioral information (not to be confused with the internet term “behavioral advertising”) be more fruitful than advertising based on user-input data such as profiles and search phrases?

BY: Keith Essary

In a move no doubt indicative of more to come, Facebook has announced that it will no longer support Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 6 (IE6) for some social networking features. Google / Youtube killed support for the IE6 web browser earlier this year.

Web Browser compatibility is one of the most common conversations had during the development of a website. In web dev, one size certainly does not fit all. It is often a tedious process to develop for each and every web browser.  In fact, this goes much further than developing for every brand of browser into the different versions and platforms of each one.  For example, consider Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8, Firefox 2, 3, 3.5, and 3.6 for Mac and for Windows, Safari 2, 3, and 4 on Mac and on Windows, Chrome for Mac and Windows, etc. If the site requires a mobile version (most do) then you also have to program and test for Safari on the iPhone and iPad, Opera Mobile, the Blackberry browser and on and on.

This can be achieved in a couple of primary ways:

1. The most common method is to “dumb down” the code.  This means make the development simple enough that all browsers can render the code appropriately. You might call it the lowest common denominator method.
2. The more time consuming method (and consequently, the more costly method) is to detect which browser the visitor is using and serve them a website version appropriate for their respective browser (some versions can be used for multiple browsers).  This allows for more advanced features to be shown to those who have a supporting browser and a limited version for those who do not. This method must be used when you are developing a mobile version.

All self-respecting web development companies are monitoring web browser usage statistics. And the determination of which browsers to support should be development specific based on the scope, purpose, and budget of the development.

There are some browsers and browser versions that simply must be included in all developments for public use. However, older and obscure browsers should always be in question for cost savings or feature impacts to the project. Using IE6 as an example, providing support for a browser used by 4.7% of visitors can cause the development features to be limited for the other 95.3% or create costs comparable to performing a separate development project. That being said, 4.7% still represents a lot of visitors.

A decision not to support a particular browser is often a hard one as no one wants to exclude any potential visitor. However, sometimes this is just the nature of the technology beast. In all cases, decisions of which browsers to be supported should be decided at the onset of the development, redevelopment, or feature addition.

BY: Keith Essary

Everyone, or at least the roughly 500 million Facebook users, knows by now that Facebook overhauled their user profile system back in April along with a slew of other changes.  As written about previously (Facebook- Do You Like It), the profile change centered on enticing users to enter more detailed information about themselves and to keep it updated more frequently.  This would allow Facebook to better target advertisements and ultimately provide advertisers better results.

The change appears to be working.

Like most private companies, Facebook keeps financial information close to the vest.  However, outside estimates report that Facebook is on track to increase 2009 revenues by 63% in 2010 coming in at $1.1 billion (Inside Facebook).

At CS2, we are finding that the click-through rates and goal conversions of our Facebook ads are among the highest of all major digital mediums.  Of course this is primarily because we develop kick-ass ads and landing pages, but we have to give Facebook some of the credit for helping us target the right audience.

Leveraging the new profile system even further, Facebook and Amazon have just rolled out a system for social product recommendations (Tech Crunch). Through this integration, users will see product recommendations based on their Facebook profile information and even receive notification and gift ideas for their Facebook friends on their upcoming birthdays.

During times of constant rumble over privacy and public outcries against profiling in general, Facebook seems to be immune as users appear to be embracing the profile change and are allowing themselves to be, well, profiled. One thing is for sure, if you have 500 million users (and growing) who are voluntarily providing information about their interests and “likes”, you become very popular with a lot of advertisers and advertising agencies.  I expect the uses we are seeing now will be only the beginning steps of tapping into the enormous database that is Facebook’s users’ profile information.

BY: Keith Essary

Last weekend I purchased a video camera in order to film one of my son’s tennis matches.  Not much of a shopper, I simply stopped in a Wal-Mart and asked the video clerk to recommend the cheapest quality camera they carried.  I was referred to a JVC for $199 that fits in my pocket.

After recording the match, I uploaded the video to my computer and was astounded at the quality of the video.  The picture was crystal clear with bright colors and zero distortion.  I couldn’t believe it.

Through personal use and services such as youtube, I have been conditioned to mobile phone video quality.  I suspect the same is true for audio as I often listen to my iTunes library on my phone or streaming over Bluetooth.  I was sacrificing quality for convenience and I didn’t even know it.

This situation is telltale of perhaps the biggest change to the website development in recent years – maybe ever.  Traditional web surfing from a computer and high-speed bandwidth allowed websites to be “experienced” and the best sites were those with quality pictures, video, and flash transitions. The mobile internet might best be summed up by a quote from my teenage hero The Lizard King, “We want the world and we want it, NOW!”  Mobile phone internet usage is less about the quality of the experience and more about quality content, which is partly defined as how fast one can get the content.

This shift or morphing of internet content is evidenced in many current happenings such as Apple’s stance (aka refusal) on Adobe’s Flash for mobile devices, the enormous growth of info based mobile “apps”, and even the decline of traditional journalism.

Human nature, or maybe “the American way”, is that once we have something fast, we rarely go back to waiting, even if it’s for the sake of quality (let’s all say “fast food” together three times). Therefore, even when on a computer, users are bringing back the experience they have on a mobile device and traditional websites are being forced to adapt.  The next year is going to be big for redevelopments and adjustments.

BY: Keith Essary

For search and contextual advertisers it is common practice to monitor news stories and other happenings on the web that may affect advertising keywords.  In some cases, entirely new phrases are developed such as “Health Care Reform 2010” and “Gulf Oil Spill.”

As the Gulf spill has, unfortunately, carried on for weeks now with related news articles hitting the web several times a day, I decided to poke around and see if anyone might be trying to create an opportunity from the new-found search phrase and content. It didn’t take long to find.  As you can see from the screenshot, there are several advertisers working the search phrase “oil spill.”

Of course, BP’s public relations engine tops the list with an ad linking to their dedicated micro-site.  Almost as expected as BP’s ad, down the right we see what I assume is a law firm ready to represent those damaged by the spill in a lawsuit against BP.  More targeted searches such as “oil spill Alabama” and “oil spill Louisiana,” resulted in six more ads for different sites speaking the lawsuit language, as well as ads for environmental groups, dedicated Facebook pages and even individuals seeking website traffic and exposure by claiming to have “solutions.”

However, after a little more digging, I found what I was really after…

The screenshot displays the Myrtle Beach, SC Convention and Visitors Bureau site being advertised on a YouTube search for “oil spill gulf.”  YouTube offers geo-targeting, and it’s no secret that Memphians frequently vacation in Gulf areas.  I’ll have to defer to my branding and PR co-workers for a formal opinion, but could placing this ad backfire with negative publicity over exploiting a tragedy?

Also, I have to say that the ad showing on this exact phrase might not have been intentional. In other words, it could be an oversight from whoever is running the Myrtle Beach campaign. Just like monitoring for new search phrases as mentioned above, an important aspect of running a keyword-based campaign is also monitoring for negative keywords.  The Myrtle Beach campaign could have included the broad keyword “gulf” in order to run as a competitive ad during normal circumstances.  In this case, the ad could show up anytime the keyword “gulf” is used, regardless of any other words around it.  When placing ads in this manner, one must be monitoring the campaign regularly and adding specific exclusions (referred to as negative keywords) to avoid showing up on terms where the ad is not productive or is otherwise inappropriate.

At least I didn’t see an ad for farm-raised catfish.

BY: Keith Essary

Over the past few days the Internet has blown up with articles relating to Facebook’s changes this week. Most of it started with this post from Facebook, which has led up to more detail at Facebook’s f8 developer conference. Continue Reading »

BY: Keith Essary

There is a lot of talk around cs2 about the Google Fiber project and the possibility of Memphis becoming one of the trial communities. Continue Reading »