Being Peter Kim

Recap on P&G Digital Night

That was fun.

Last night, P&G brought a group of internal staffers and external partners together for a friendly charity-based event.  I didn't have any details about what we'd be doing before arriving in Cincinnati, but was looking forward to reconnecting with former colleagues, social media connections, and others who I've heard of but never met in person.

The essence of the event was network activation to support Tide Loads of Hope and education for observers.  We were split into four teams, each with a vanity URL (e.g. Tide4.com) which would track t-shirt sales.  If you review the Twitter stream for #pgdigital, you can see most of how the four-hour competition unfolded.  If you search further, you'll also see how creativity played out in online videos, blog posts, and even a music video. And you can still participate, until 11 am EDT on March 12th.

I want to share my key takeaway from the event with you.  Because it has little to do with cause marketing or even social media marketing.

At the end of the evening, P&G's CMO Marc Pritchard remarked that in the future, all employees should get involved in activating connections similar to what had just been witnessed.

The significance of that idea is staggeringly huge.  This is a company with 138,000 employees starting to realize the value from having all of its constituents connected and activated.  They're also learning about new tools to change the process of engagement.  Events like "Digital Night" help recalibrate the company's mindset.

P&G is taking steps to make social business a reality.

By the way, my team won.  But the true winners will be the recipients of relief from Feeding America who will benefit from everyone's generosity in participation.  We collectively raised $50,000 which was matched by Tide.  In the long run, P&G benefits as well by moving along the path to transformation.

Disclosures:  P&G is not a current client.  I was not compensated or reimbursed in any way to attend.  And I have been a Tide customer for as long as I can remember buying laundry detergent.

Other event-related posts:

- David Armano:  Make A Difference. NOW.

- Shar VanBoskirk:  P&G Tests the Power of Social Media and P&G Social Media Night: The Results

- Kevin Dugan: Being Digital at P&G, Raising $100k for Disaster Relief

- Everything Typepad:  Get A Cool Shirt, Save The World

- Chas Edwards:  P&G Digital Hack Night: Selling Tide T-shirts for Disaster Relief

- Bob Gilbreath:  Helping Victims of Disasters—LIVE at P&G ‘Hack’ Night

- Dave Knox:  Support Charity with a Tide Loads of Hope Vintage T-Shirt and My take on the P&G Tide Loads of Hope and #pgdigital

- Jason Falls:  A Tide Retro T-Shirt For A Good Cause

- Karl Long:  Tide selling vintage washed T-Shirts for charity

- Kelly Mooney:  Special Ask - Help Me Help Families in Need

- Jory Des Jardins:  Blog for your life! ... and help save Disaster Victims

- Brian Morrissey:  The feel-good social marketing bribe

- Deb Schultz:  P&G Digital Hack Night: Learning to be a good digital citizen

- Lisa Bradner:  Lessons from Loads of Hope

- Sucharita Mulpuru:  Lessons from P&G's Digital Day

One final note.  During the event, a small volume of snarky tweets showed up.  I'm looking forward to reading commentary from those who weren't here in person.  I believe the ego trap was defused for many participants given a request for silence leading up to the event - but I wonder how many bruised egos will lash out tomorrow from the uninvited.

UPDATE: Word from P&G on final results.  Over 3,000 t-shirts sold, over $100,000 raised.

P&G Digital Night - For Tide Loads of Hope

You may have heard about the P&G Digital Night and how it will might change the world.  Hopefully we will, but probably not in the way it's been hyped in the media.

A diverse cross-section of minds have come together to work with P&G in conjunction with the Tide Loads of Hope program.  It's an initiative that started after Hurricane Katrina to assist disaster victims.

Tonight (March 11, 2009) we have come together in Cincinnati for some friendly coopetition and help sell t-shirts to raise funds for the program.  100% of profits go towards helping disaster victims.

Shirts are $20; free shipping on orders of two or more.

The competition part - by clicking through to the site using this link and buying a shirt, my team will get credit.  You can watch the night unfold on Twitter by searching for #pgdigital.

More info - David Armano is on my team, he gives more detail here.

Thanks for your consideration!

And thanks to everyone who's helped with dollars and/or messaging.  Warren Sukernek.  Tim Hayden.  Chris Brogan.  Laura Fitton. And more.

A Wiki of Social Media Marketing Examples

Over the weekend, I created a framework to port A List of Social Media Marketing Examples into a wiki.  I also invited the 166 people who've left comments on that post to become the initial collaborators in the new effort. (At least I tried to...Google Sites seems to have had a delivery problem. If you think you should have a login, try your existing email address - it may already be setup.)

Soon after inception, several people asked about turning the list into a wiki, which is a natural container for this type of information.  However, I delayed doing this immediately for many reasons.

One of the benefits of doing so manifests in the framework, which allows users to sort information by different categories.  In an early experiment, I had created an alphabetical directory by company name, with 26 pages.  Continuing with that approach would've meant replicating efforts to relist examples by channel, industry, or geography.

Let me say thanks again to everyone who's contributed to help create

A Wiki of Social Media Marketing Examples

I'm looking forward to collaborating on this new community resource with you.

Social Media Marketing's New Clothes

Lewis writes, "Don't Say ROI Unless You Mean It."  Agreed.  I see a lot of bloggers wading into unfamiliar territory, starting to spew opinions on measuring return on investment (ROI).  It's easy for anyone with an understanding of business finance to see the shallowness of these analyses.  But don't be surprised - has not knowing anything about a subject ever stopped a blogger from writing about it?

There is one correct approach to calculate ROI.  The result is a financial ratio.

To get to the root of the problem, we first need to go back to school.  Marketing has historically been a right-brain discipline, reflected in academic coursework.  Left-brained marketers end up focusing on direct and/or B2B - staying far away from social media.

Fast forward to the top of the food chain.  CMOs have a shorter tenure than other executive roles.  Why?  According to Spencer Stuart, the firm that publishes the most widely cited statistics on the subject, CEO and CMO agendas are misaligned.  CEOs want to see business results - I'd say now more than ever.  Marketers can't counter with, "well, I can't give you a number, but there sure are a lot of people talking nice about us."

Social media is easy to use.  If you can type in a box and click a button, you can blog.  Click the button that looks like "play" and sure enough the video starts rolling.  There is no secret to using Twitter.  Being a social media user meant that you were an expert...five years ago.  Not today.

Do you know the story about The Emperor's New Clothes?  Let's pick it up near the end:

And so the Emperor set off under the high canopy, at the head of the great procession. It was a great success. All the people standing by and at the windows cheered and cried, "Oh, how splendid are the Emperor's new clothes. What a magnificent train! How well the clothes fit!" No one dared to admit that he couldn't see anything, for who would want it to be known that he was either stupid or unfit for his post?

We know the Emperor should've just used some common sense.  Calculating ROI from social media efforts is no different.

If ROI doesn't apply to social media marketing, then social media should not be used for marketing.

Slicing and Dicing A List of Social Media Marketing Examples

Since starting a list of social media marketing examples, I've seen some great work to frame content for specific uses:

By technology/media type

• I posted a framework on Mashable called The 22 Step Social Media Marketing Plan
• Ray Schiel has listed almost all the examples by category

By country

• Australia: former colleague Steven Noble has bookmarked many examples
• Canada: David Jones has set up a wiki
• Germany:  Benedikt Köhler has blogged a list
• Malaysia:  A table at GreyReview
• United Kingdom:  John Welsh has blogged a list

By industry

• Haven't seen any yet...

If you are maintaining or know of a segmented list, please let me know and I'll link to you here.

Ego Trap: Social Media Ranking Tools

It seems like a new ego trap gets sprung every month.  This time, it's social media ranking tools.

What's an ego trap? In a nutshell, social technologies use game mechanics to get users hooked on participation.  People often get addicted to ego-stroking system feedback, until they can temper their usage (addiction?) in terms of utility vs. serendipity.  Self-promotion lies at the root of ego traps.

I don't think ego traps are inherently "bad."  However, I believe that individuals should be fully aware of the implications when participating - particularly what they're trying to accomplish and why.  Honesty with one's own ego is the key.

Some people are panicking after submitting their Twitter username and password to a site called Twitterank, which will "determine how worthy of a person you are in Twitterverse," while potentially stealing your password in the process.  Clearly an ego trap in action.  Why?

• There's no practical use of the service except for stroking one's ego. 

[Okay, I know the other posts had longer lists, but this one is just too obvious.]

Similar social media ranking tools include egoSurf, Twitter Grader, twInfluence, and [the now defunct] TweeterBoard.

Ranking tools are great when they're used for fun.  Be smart and don't give out your password to random sites.

BTW if you want to see if your favorite Tweeter got caught in the Twitterank ego trap, visit http://new.twitterank.com/?u=[username]

Previously:

• How to set an ego trap
• Ego Trap: Influencer Lists
• Ego Trap: Industry Awards

What goes up must come down

Influence: like Plinko?

I've typically thought of influence tactics as uni-directional, in a downward direction.  I imagine that the traditional approach of getting a message widely disseminated consists of targeting a beacon and letting your message bounce down a pyramid of nodes, like Plinko.

A "good" beacon exhibits wide reach, in the media sense.  Traditional media fit the bill quite nicely here.  The better the beacon, the more widely your message will travel.  The more beacons you seed, the more pyramids you'll sow.

Tom O'Brien's comment on influence has got me thinking about how beacons operate in social media.  They get used in two ways:

• Some programs target influencers as "quality beacons" that disperse messages effectively to a niche.
• Other programs target influencers in "beacon quantity," reaching out to as many nodes as possible within budget - think mommy networks, BzzAgent.

No doubt, social media has democratized influence and both of these approaches work.

What if we turn the board upside-down?

But I wonder if there's another more surgical approach to outreach that doesn't assume a uni-directional downward message dispersion.  What happens when you connect to beacons that will transmit upwards instead?  Doesn't it follow that what goes up, must come down?

For example, I was recently emailed by an author who said that a certain trade publication wouldn't review a new book.  I know the book has been sent out and been reviewed by some well-read bloggers, i.e. quality beacons.  But wouldn't this have been more effective by targeting "influencers" who would be able to connect directly with traditional media?  I know journalists participate in pyramids like everyone else - but I'm pretty sure no one wants to write a story two weeks after it's been kicked around in the blogosphere.

Maybe this is what professionals already do...

Maybe this is just PR 101 and I don't know it.  I've never had any formal outreach training, which you can probably tell...so if I've offended the PR professionals who read this blog, I apologize - please enlighten me!

From the outside, it seems like today's blogger outreach should be happening at step two, preceded by a step one of more precise and surgical targeting of upward-facing influencers - and rarely, if ever make a noise within the echo chamber, let alone in public.

Influencer, persuade thyself.

I've been reading the reactions to Pepsi's recent influencer outreach program, PR for The Pepsi Cooler.  Have been thinking about it in the perspective of other outreach campaigns, like Nikon, Vista, HP.

Seems like the lesson here - whether intentional or not - is "influencer, persuade thyself."  You don't make a meaningful dent in a $39 billion business by sending some aluminum out to 25 well-networked people.  What you do achieve is a discussion that starts to bounce around the echo chamber.  That's not necessarily a bad thing.

"There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." - Oscar Wilde

So what's NOT being talked about here?  Coca-Cola.  RC Cola.  Jones.  Red Bull.  Et al.

Look at this spike in Google search traffic for "pepsi new logo" since the first delivery date.  You think the program's working?

Free marketing advice and education

Chipotle Boortio, 10/31.

Times are tough, for sure - but that hasn't reduced the number of gratis opportunities available to learn and network for free.  I've noticed more than a few events happening this week, offering free advice and education.  Thought I'd pass them along, in case you're interested.

• Mon 27 Oct
  • 2 pm EST:  Tribes book tour teleconference featuring Seth Godin, Keith Ferrazzi, Pam Slim, and Dan Pink. (thanks, @pamslim!)
  • 6 pm CST:  Dallas Tweetup including Jeremiah Owyang and David Armano.
• Tue 28 Oct
  • 9:30 am EST: Forrester's Consumer Forum 2008 kicks off - watch for live streaming video, blog, and twitter updates.
  • 12 pm PST: Social networking for law firms featuring Ed Poll and David Nour.  (thanks, @heathermilligan!)
  • 5:30 pm EST: Social Media Club Louisville Happy Hour at Proof. (I'll be there, looking forward to seeing Nick Huhn, Jason Falls, and others.)
• Wed 29 Oct
  • 1 pm EST: Solutions Stars Video Conference featuring 34 small business and marketing thinkers including Guy Kawasaki and Brian Solis. (thanks, Geoff!)
• Thu 30 Oct
  • 9 am CST: SWOMfest 08 hosted by Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell
• Fri 31 Oct
  • All Day:  Chipotle Free Burrito Day.  (okay, it may not be about marketing, but it IS marketing.)
• Sat 8 Nov
  • 8 am PST: Real Time Matrix Social Summit (thanks, violetmae!)

If you have anything to add to the list, please comment below and I'll include above.

Ego Trap: Influencer Lists

I've been thinking about how ego traps operate in social media - which could also be called hero marketing (credit Seth Godin for suggesting the term).  Social media focuses on individuals.  Self-promotion lies at the root of ego traps, usually inclusive of helping and promoting others.

I don't think ego traps are inherently "bad."  However, I believe that individuals should be fully aware of the implications when participating in a hero marketing scheme - particularly what they're trying to accomplish and why.  Honesty with one's own ego is the key.

There's some chatter going on about "50 of the most powerful and influential women in social media."

Influencer lists are ego traps in action.  Why?

• The list host seeks credibility as an authority, in order to win more business.
• Those included on the list legitimize the host by linking back to the list.
• Those left off the list (and/or their friends) legitimize the list by linking to it.

(To Ron Hudson's credit, he comments on the digg story, "...digg this story so that they are discovered by more people. Keep in mind, you will also be contributing to my own popularity as well. With that in mind, digg or digg not.")  Other influencer lists include people on Twitter, marketing bloggers, or the Silicon Alley 100.

Influencer lists are great for discovering new voices and recognizing well-done work.  Let's just be aware of and honest about what everyone seeks in the process.

Previously - Ego Trap: Industry Awards