Popular location-sharing service Foursquare has just announced revisions to its privacy settings, no doubt to combat the risk of perception in articles like this from The Guardian where it was depicted more or less as a stalker’s best friend. What’s interesting is that in this case, as with many, the vulnerability was introduced by poor judgement on the part of the user.
As with viruses where behavioural engineering has become the key means of tricking users into activating the malicious code, this is now the biggest threat for the new generation of location-based services.
Arguably, education is the key and with its new “privacy grid“, the company has gone some way to providing a way to clearly understand who can see the information you are sharing. Whether or not the average user will ever examine this table, on the other hand, is a different matter.
Facing the privacy challenge
Of course, Facebook is supposed to be revealing its own location functionality today so it’ll be interesting to see how the privacy policies match up with those of other services in the area. Especially considering the hubbub that surrounded Zuckerberg and co. earlier this year when they tried to make all profiles public by default.
There’s another conversation to be had here too about the trend of automatic syndication to other social networks. In The Guardian article above, it was the automatic linking with Twitter that actually allowed the ‘stalker’ to hunt his prey.
Sharing without permission
On a more innocuous level, Twifficiency, a service which rates the efficiency of a Twitter account, yesterday showed how badly such default behaviour can go down. Because simply clicking the link and authorizing it to check your account resulted in a tweet, streams were soon full of them, sending the topic trending and abuse hurling towards its creator soon after.
But for better or worse, it’s equally testament to how effective the auto-tweet can be in terms of publicity. One thing’s for sure, there’s a 17 year old Scottish programmer who now has a great line to add to his CV.
Raised stakes
As the real world meets virtual, getting these challenges right isn’t going to be easy and there will be no doubt be further slip-ups in the future. But the big issue is that when things go wrong with privacy settings, we’re not looking just at bug reports but potentially very serious crimes. This should be incentive enough for the odd privacy grid here and there.
A recent experience with Amazon.com reminded me just how effective, and (on the face of it) simple, email marketing can be.
I went on Amazon.com recently to find a book for a friend (a Lee Child novel while we’re on the subject), popped it into my shopping basket but promptly abandoned my purchase when I realised I’d left it far too late to get it delivered in time for friend’s birthday the next day.
My fault entirely, so I left the website and resorted to taking my friend out for a beer instead.
But four days later, I received an email from Amazon, setting out lots of Lee Child novels at discounted prices, as they thought I might like to have one. So I did. Buy a book that is (let’s face it the token beer was a bit naff).
Why bring it up? Because I was pleasantly surprised by Amazon’s approach. They spotted I’d abandoned my shopping basket and reacted in a timely way with a very relevant, personalised message to try to change my mind about buying from them. And it worked.
Now I know that email marketing isn’t simple, not in the slightest. As our client email service provider dotMailer will attest to, there’s an almost never-ending list of things to get right, like timing, renderability, content, legalities, design, subject line and coding.
But as a consumer – the one who receives the message in her inbox – I want email marketing to be simple. And I want to feel like the email I’m receiving is just for me.
And that’s where Amazon.com worked. They spotted my behaviour, reacted quickly when they thought they’d lost a sale and sent me a very clear, personalised email marketing message that compelled me to purchase from them.
Despite this, the stats reported by creators John and Leo Resig are impressive! Site traffic went from 15,000 uniques to 440,000 uniques in a single hour and there were 238k Facebook shares and 31k tweets.
It just goes to show, a story that really taps into the minds and desires of an audience can go viral in a big way.
As Resig states:
“People, particularly journalists, underestimate America’s appetite for a good story. This story wasn’t primarily done to see how many people in the mainstream media we could hoodwink (though that was fun), it wasn’t done for the publicity, money, nor was it a slapdash reaction to some JetBlue clown; it was done purely for the entertainment of the people first and foremost. The purpose of the hoax was to entertain and inspire, not to inform, so what difference does it make if the story has a single ounce of truth?
As for Jenny – the model used in the shoot – internet fame beckons. She already has a million Facebook friends and numerous Facebook groups dedicated to her. Step over Old Spice man, the web has a new celebrity du jour.
Over the last few weeks, one of the most unlikely brands has been on the lips of all social media enthusiasts: Old Spice. Yes, the deodorant brand, which brings back memories of slightly dodgy spells, whiffed when passing older men, has taken Twitter and Facebook by storm following the release of its latest “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” advert.
Ad agency Wieden + Kennedy took the campaign to a new level when it started answering questions posed by fans on Twitter and Facebook with personal video messages. Old Spice put together around 200 video responses, some within minutes of receiving questions from celebrities and laypeople alike.
The stats are impressive: 92,000 Twitter followers, nearly 700,000 likes on Facebook and just over 9 million channel views on YouTube. The brand has seen a 107% increase in sales in the last month.
Most companies throughout the world will be unable to pay for the genius of Wieden + Kennedy and the millions of advertising spend that fueled the initial success (this was not solely a social media campaign), but there are still a number of notable takeaways that brands of all shapes and sizes – B2B and B2C – can use to inform and inspire marketing, and especially social media, activity:
1. Challenge perceptions
Old Spice doesn’t have the greatest brand reputation. But what this campaign cleverly does is ignore previous perceptions and instead challenges them very boldly. In one swoop, consumers will now think solely of ‘The Man’ before any more negative connotations. Changing perceptions takes time, but Old Spice has gone a long way to doing this very quickly.
2. Personalise a brand
Personality lies at the heart of ‘being social’. This is a campaign with a very strong personality at its heart. As with other advertising driven campaigns like Comparethemeerkat, the central figure is the one that allows social engagement to work effectively.
3. Creativity
This was a very simple idea, but one that was executed in a very creative way. Not only was it funny, it was inventive and quirky. It’s this creativity that succeeded in making it a social media success story, with people throughout the world happy to share it with friends. A great idea, creatively executed will go far.
4. Use one idea in multiple ways
Yet again, this campaign demonstrates the longevity of a great idea. W + K succeed brilliantly in taking a traditional advertising campaign and make it work digitally. It remains to be seen how this campaign will progress as I have no doubt there is still life in it yet.
5. Be social, be personal
Back to the personality theme and this campaign succeed in actually being social, in engaging with fans and followers. So many campaigns are successful in getting that viral element through social channels, but the ultimate goal is for a brand to actually be social itself. The personality of ‘The Man’ enables this to happen easily and quickly.
6. Traditional media can be social
So many traditional advertising campaigns tick many of the boxes mentioned here – creative, viral – but so many of them fail to really use social media to its fullest degree. This campaign manages it and proves that, used in the right way, traditional channels can be integrated with social ones to devastating success.
7. Celebrity can work
Building on from the previous point. it was no accident that W+K targeted internet celebs like Kevin Rose and Aplusk in their response videos.Targeting influencers is nothing new, but it’s not easy. You still have to have the compelling idea to make them sit up and take note.
8. Brevity is key
The responses videos were short, sharp and were more engaging for it. Video really does work online, its an incredibly visual medium, but too often, videos are lengthy and complicated. This campaign is a great case study into how to use video in a way that is engrossing and thereby increases the likelihood of being watched and shared. Creating lots of short videos is so much more effective that simply relying on the one more lengthy advert.
So, recently I spotted a Facebook update from a friend saying: “thinking about the pros and cons of blogging”. It initiated a variety of comments, from a “yes, do it, your public needs you!” to “the pros are more expensive” and a simple “oh dear”.
It seems my friend isn’t too convinced himself at the moment, stating in response he was finding “lots of cons – not many pros”.
Now I’m not saying I’m a blogging expert, but it struck me the ‘cons’ were getting an unfair advantage.
Blogs are arguably easier to control than other social media methods and, used well, can drive traffic, encourage engagement and help create community and new relationships. They’re also a great way to boost search engine optimisation (SEO), convey the personality of a brand or individual and demonstrate expertise in specific areas.
Admittedly, effort needs to be spent establishing the platform. And it will take time to regularly put those nuggets of wisdom down ‘on paper’, more time to monitor the blogosphere to find like-minded people, and even more time to respond to and engage with them. There’s also cost to consider, for paying a dedicated blogger or the salary of an employee spending time writing blog posts.
But I know through Wildfire’s work with clients that the investment in blogging can really pay off, increasing a company’s influence, generating business opportunities and delivering measurable benefits to an organisation.
Set realistic frequency targets and stick to them – don’t pretend you’ll blog every day if you know that will be a challenge. Be realistic, making it easier to stick to goals and setting expectations for web visitors
Keep posts, paragraphs and sentences short – we read differently online. Around 300-500 words is ideal with sub-heads to break the text and help readers navigate through your post
Make your content interesting and relevant – think about your audience. Who is it you are trying to appeal to? Make sure your content will be interesting and useful to them
Convey personality – set the right tone, but don’t be afraid to give your bloggers the freedom to convey their own individuality
Demonstrate your expertise and knowledge – show your readers you know your industry and make them feel they can trust you to come up with the goods
Always reply to comments on your blog – even if it is just a sentence or two. Make your readers feel valued and they’ll return again and again
Add RSS and email sign-ups – RSS feeds allow your readers to subscribe to posts without having to visit regularly. Alternatively, you can let visitors subscribe by email
Share your posts on social networks – ensure you remember to alert followers on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin about your latest blog posts
Read and respond to other blogs – as a blogger, you need to participate in the community to really reap the benefits. Reply to posts on other blogs in your sector and they may start to return the favour
Be controversial – make your blog stand out from the crowd by saying something different. This will help you attract and retain readers
Popular location-sharing service Foursquare has just announced revisions to its privacy settings, no doubt to combat the risk of perception in articles like this from The Guardian where it was depicted more or less as a stalker’s best friend. What’s interesting is that in this case, as with many, the vulnerability was introduced by poor judgement on the part of the user.
A recent experience with Amazon.com reminded me just how effective, and (on the face of it) simple, email marketing can be.
We all love a good story. It’s one of the fundamentals of human nature on which a lot of marketing (and especially PR) is based. And if you love a good story, chances are you will have been taken in by the 
“People, particularly journalists, underestimate America’s appetite for a good story. This story wasn’t primarily done to see how many people in the mainstream media we could hoodwink (though that was fun), it wasn’t done for the publicity, money, nor was it a slapdash reaction to some JetBlue clown
; it was done purely for the entertainment of the people first and foremost. The purpose of the hoax was to entertain and inspire, not to inform, so what difference does it make if the story has a single ounce of truth?
So, recently I spotted a Facebook update from a friend saying: “thinking about the pros and cons of blogging”. It initiated a variety of comments, from a “yes, do it, your public needs you!” to “the pros are more expensive” and a simple “oh dear”.
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