have your starbucks and drink it too

from the fabulous Chris_J on Flickr

It's common to hear global health advocates try to break down the billions of dollars needed to defeat the "big three" — HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis — in terms that are easy to grasp and to perceive as "reasonable".

One of the most popular is one that Columbia University's Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, a special adviser to UN Secretary-Generals Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-Moon, has used on more than one occasion — reminding us all how much we spend on that morning cup of Joe.

"Three dollars per year from each of us. That's all we're talking about, a cup of coffee, once per year from a Starbucks."

Did someone tell Starbucks?

From November 27 through January 2, Starbucks, through its partnership with (RED), is donating 5 cents to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for each purchase of one of three "Exclusive" coffee drinks. On December 1, World AIDS Day (tomorrow), Starbucks is expanding the program by donating 5 cents for each "hand-crafted beverage".

(RED) has been relatively successful in raising funds for and awareness about the HIV/AIDS pandemic by asking very little of consumers. Buy something for yourself, feel good about it, appear socially or politically conscious, and throw a few dimes to cover the cost of AIDS medication for people in Africa. It's a win win all around, even if some folks think it's a scam.

With news of the global financial crisis confronting us every day, we're all looking around to see where we can eliminate costs and, judging by Starbucks' financial performance lately, that morning latte or afternoon Frappuccino might not be making the cut.

Will the new campaign help the coffee/lifestyle company to reverse that trend? Will the guilt of paying $3 for something you could make for a quarter back at home be alleviated knowing you will be helping to save lives? Can we have that cup of coffee and still triumph over the big 3? Can you have your Starbucks and drink it too?

del.icio.us tags: twitter

Still collecting content on Twitter to get ready for my upcoming training. Luckily, there's lots o' sh*t out there, probably written by Twitter junkies during the many occasions when the site is down.

Todd Mintz posted 101 Everyday Uses for Twitter on InsideCRM this past week. 101 sounds like a hell of a lot, but Mintz's point is that Twitter has "more possible uses than a Swiss Army knife." Not a great deal of analysis, but a good read nevertheless because he lets the Tweets speak for themselves, contributing an excellent structure to the content.

Lee Odden at Online Marketing Blog polled the blog's readers to gain some insight as to how THEY are using Twitter, with the majority of responses falling into the broad categories of sharing (and promoting) sh*t and schmoozing.

Jennifer Woodward Maderazo at PBS' MediaShift has her own take on the value of Twitter. She's a fan, with the site going "above and beyond (her) original expectations in terms of usefulness." She finds it to be particularly useful for her reporting. "If you put out a question to 800 people, someone's bound to have an answer."

Matt Dickman at Techno//Marketer believes Twitter is "the ultimate customer service tool." Joshua March doesn't agree. I fall somewhere in the middle. I think companies should have a presence on Twitter if their customers tend to be early adopters who are inclined to talk about customer service and have some reach or influence. I don't think Twitter should become a core part of your customer service strategy if they are not. Like March says, trying to teach the majority of your customers how to use it is not going to make it something that's well-received. Despite the fact that I agree with March, I wish he used the term "social media" and not "social marketing" to describe his site. (Oh well.)

Seattle is my second home these days, so I shared this post with my peeps in Seattle who I count among my "followers." It's the Most Famous Twitterpreneurs of Seattle, the kings of the 2.0 geeks in the land of the Space Needle. At least one of the comments on the post picked up on what I noticed: "What, no women entrepreneur-twitterers?"

According to Compete, traffic on Twitter doubled between February and April, when approximately 1.2 million people were using the site and the percentage of time spent on Twitter, relative to the overall time spent online, has quadruped in the past six months. Nearly a quarter of the users are "heavy users," which, I am embarrassed to say, means 6+ tweets per month (I average that per day, folks) and overall, users skew young (18-24) and male. (But the experience you have on the site is dependent on who you're following, so, if you're worried about spending too much time with little boys, don't fret.)

I posted about Noah Brier's brandtags, so I hope you've checked it out by now. Here's how folks are tagging the Twitter brand: annoying, pointless, stupid and useless? Who are these people? ;)

For you design lovers, Wallpaper Magazine is on Twitter now . . .

Finally, Palin Ningthoujam at Mashable posted 140+ More Tools to the Twitter Toolbox they created last September. I am officially completely overwhelmed.

del.icio.us tags: twitter

I'm going to be doing a Twitter training at the agency late next month and I'm collecting great content in the meantime.

Here's some of the latest:

• Comcast is one of the many companies who is using Twitter as part of their online customer service. Of course, I still hate Comcast, but maybe just a little less.
• Firehose is a real time Twitter timeline. Don't try to read it. Just try to take it in: people want you to know what they are doing right now.
• Twitter (and all-around) rock star Dave Armano gives you his tips on How to Twitter Conferences Like a Rock Star. Because I'm not a total social media wanker and don't go to conferences every week, I've yet to have the chance to tweet from a conference, but I'm looking forward to the chance. It's got to be better than my lame attempts to live blog conferences. In the meantime, I think Spike Jones from Brains on Fire does an excellent job of tweeting from conferences and we have a deal that he will attend conferences on my behalf if I fly him first class and put him up in boutique hotels.
• TwitBuzz is trying to capture what is generating the most conversation on Twitter (I have a serious aversion to the term "buzz.") It looks like they measure popularity through the number of links to content. They also rank the folks who, I believe, are generating the most tweets. (Is that what it means to be "most social?") The tool is meant to address "the desperate needs for management" of the content on Twitter. I don't see it.
• Finally, Stephen Baker writes about "Why Twitter Matters" at Business Week. It's definitely worth a read if you're trying to shed some light on the microblogging site. If you want to check out some of the research for the piece, look to the source. Baker asked fellow tweeters what they think. Check out the slide show that accompanies the article as well. (I had no idea Biz Stone was so hot.)
  

and another thing!

Following up on yesterday's post . . .

This has been said before (maybe even by me) but the thing companies should be focusing on -- if they want to generate word of mouth -- is being good at what they do. If your product or service is great, I assure you that someone will be talking about it. The great hotel I stay in when I am in Seattle? The restaurant where I get shrimp and grits when I am in Chapel Hill? My favorite scotch? The boots I bought this year and seem to wear every day?

I talk about them.

Like I said yesterday, companies stop telling agencies to "start a conversation." The conversation is already underway. Listen to that conversation. See what you need to do to be better at what you do and make the commitment to do it.

Then we can talk.

And they'll talk too.

listen and be useful

I went on a rant this morning on a friend's blog. It had little to do with what she wrote, beyond it prompting me to think about my growing distaste for social media marketing tactics. In fact, I told her,

"Most of what agencies are doing in the space is a load of horsesh*t. Disclosure doesn't impress me anymore."

She works in an agency. The same agency I once worked in. I work in a new agency. This isn't about either of those agencies.

So, when is it not "horsesh*t"?

When you use social media as an, admittedly, unscientific "focus group": Screw the nonsense about "starting a conversation." Unless you're launching a new brand or product, there already is a conversation. Listen to what your customers are saying because they're telling you how you can be better or why they think you're great.

When it's an extension of your customer service department: While you're out there listening to what your customers have to say, offer to remedy the errors of your ways. Train your front line to know when and how — in a noninvasive way — to be responsive. Word of mouth about customer service is strong. Help to make yours positive.

When you use it as an opportunity to share your values: Are you innovative? Socially responsible? Global? Committed to your community? Transparent? Prove it. Tell us about it. And don't fake it because we know what fake looks like.

When you provide utility to a pre-existing community: If you've been listening, you'll know what to provide. The folks at Etsy.com listened and they gave the crafting community a store front to reach people, like Dooce, who will buy their beautiful wares. Elisa, Lisa and Jory listened and they created BlogHer to give women bloggers a community, conferences and the opportunity to be compensated for their writing. "Utility" takes on many forms. Figure out what it means to your customers and think -- think hard -- about how you can give it to them.

Everything else is horsesh*t.

As I told my friend, "This last one (utility) is the most interesting to me. What can you do to make things better for the people with whom you're trying to build a relationship?"

When you go to a new friend's house for a dinner party, you bring a bottle of wine, you don't bring a hammer and rebuild their house.

You provide that bottle of wine because you want to help the host to entertain their guests. Help them achieve their goal and they'll say thank you and maybe even kiss you on the cheek.

But don't expect them to ask you to move in with them. Just be a good guest and maybe they'll invite you to the next dinner party.

del.icio.us tags: environment

Burst Media has released research about the impact of "green marketing."

• At least 2/3 of consumers at least occasionally recall green marketing messages.
• Despite the recall, nearly 23 percent never believe what they are being told -- or sold.
• Nearly 80 percent of consumers use the Internet to find additional information about a company's green initiatives, but most are disappointed with the information they find.
• Being green is the way to go (when consumers are asked in a survey, hopefully it's true). Only about 13 percent say they are not green at all.
  

del.icio.us tags: moms

According to research from BSM Media, pregnant women and new mothers rely on word of mouth more than other women and more than consumers, in general. 64 percent of mothers ask other mothers before they make a purchase and 63 percent think other mothers are the most credible source for purchasing decisions (via eMarketer).

del.icio.us tags: research

Piers Fawkes suggests using TweetClouds as a tool for monitoring the topics on the minds of the audience you are trying to reach as a marketer. (Right now my Tweet Cloud is dominated by "@catchuplady" — which might lead you to think I actually like her. I need to work on that.)

del.icio.us tags: environment

I don't imagine it would shock any of you to hear that the "buzz" about sustainability grew about 50 percent last year — moving from a discussion of global warming to a conversation about actions individuals can take to alleviate their negative impact.

Nielsen Online's research also indicates that the increased attention to "green" issues has led to greater cynicism about the credibility of many companies' efforts to portray themselves as acting in a responsible way toward the planet. 25 percent of consumers point out a company's "contradictory actions," 21 percent think that the actions being taken are "incongruous with the company or industry" (oil companies, perhaps?), 19 percent think companies are making "false/misleading comments," 18 percent think the government should be able to regulate claims that companies make about their "green" behavior and 17 percent of consumers are just plain suspicious.

del.icio.us tag: environment

Patagonia has launched The Footprint Chronicles, which allows customers "to track the impact of a specific Patagonia product from design to delivery." Currently, the site only provides information on 5 items from the brand's vast inventory of products, but the willingness of the company to be transparent -- to talk not only about "the good," but "the bad" is impressive. The site also links to Patagonia's blog, The Cleanest Line, where they are responding to comments about the new site and asking for additional feedback. Great stuff. Gore Tex hats off to Patagonia.

Fast Company has an article about the site, containing a quote from Andrea Asch, manager of natural resouces use at Ben & Jerry's saying that Patagonia has set a new bar among firms with "progressive sustainability agendas."

del.icio.us tags: cool stuff

You too can own one of those street banners from your favorite art show, courtesy of BetterWall. Be prepared to drop a few dimes, however. If you want to stay on top of new stock, you can sign up for their e-newsletter.

I told Gabby I would find an excuse to come to Minneapolis and this might be it: the Chambers Hotel. Piers Fawkes posted about the Chambers, a "proper art hotel" last month on PSFK. I just stayed at the Hudson Hotel in New York, which has a beautiful lobby, but is not someplace I'll be staying again because I really don't need to bruise my knees on the wall when I sit down to pee.

If you've spent more than five minutes working in a communications agency (like me) — or have ever been presented to by one as a (potential) client — this great piece from the A.V. Club, "5 Trends I Just Made Up Looking Around the Office," will make you laugh — or cringe.

Dooce posted these amazing series of photos of folks in life and death. If you're in London between April 9 and May 18, you can catch Life Before Death at the Wellcome Collection. Update: Jason Kottke thinks the photos should be seen side by side online, giving you another reason to go to the show in London, where I'm guessing they are.

del.icio.us tag: marketing

Alexander Kjerulf at Chief Happiness Officer thinks the old notion that the customer is always right is a load of sh*t. If you operate under that presumption, you have unhappy employees who may provide bad customer bad service, it encourages customers to be abusive, it neglects the fact that not all customers are good customers and that sometimes, yes, they are WRONG.

trojan, what are you doing with my name?

This morning, while reading The Washington Post, I saw a 3/4 page ad from Trojan about the recent report from the CDC that 1 in 4 teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease. The condom maker is responding by collecting signatures on a petition which calls for "greater access to accurate sexual health information, options, services and products, such as condoms. This includes comprehensive sex education in schools."

The petition is part of Trojan's Evolve campaign, which launched nearly a year ago in June 2007. The campaign, apparently developed by Edelman Public Relations (their name is on the press release for the campaign's launch) is "a wake up call to change attitudes about condoms and, on a larger scale, the way we think and talk about sexual health in this country."

I support the message of the petition and, while it's obviously within Trojan's self interests to promote condom use, I think they warrant a seat at the table as a corporate citizen.

But there IS a problem — that can be solved.

It's not clear what they are going to do with the petition signatures — policies regarding curriculum are decided at the state, county and school district levels, for example. For AT LEAST a couple of reasons, it would benefit Trojan to be more transparent about what they plan to do with the signatures.

1. To be effective as an advocacy campaign, providing this information would be more empowering: "If you sign this, your simple action will contribute to this outcome." Signing a petition so that Trojan can do a press conference a few months down the road doesn't actually lead to any real social or policy change. Sincerity works wonders. If Trojan actually DOES have a plan that will lead to change, share it with us.
2. Many — if not most — folks (including myself) are hesitant to provide their contact information to potential marketers and the site's privacy policy makes it clear that they will indeed contact consumers with marketing information.

Come on, Trojan (and Edelman), add this information. Talking about sexual health requires people to be honest and transparent and effective digital advocacy requires the same.

Update: Good morning, Edelman NY. Great idea. Take it further. We know you can.

del.icio.us tags: marketing

Dave Armano from Logic + Emotion shared this great presentation from Paul Isakson at via Twitter. The deck -- don't let the 91 slides scare you, it goes fast -- is a brilliant look at the evolution of marketing.

The biggest takeaways?

• If you have a great product or service, people are going to talk about it.
• If you're product or service isn't that great (come on, be honest with yourself), you have the opportunity to create great content.
  
• That content needs to be one of two things: 1) ENGAGING content that can't be ignored. Not wacky "viral" videos, but great content that keeps customers coming back for more.
• Or USEFUL content that makes people's lives better.
  

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del.icio.us tags 03.22.08

Pete Blackshaw writes a definitive post on the Ten Things Every Marketer Should Know about Wikipedia. In other words, please, dear G-d, stop thinking you can continue to ignore and even dismiss the impact that Wikpedia is having on your brand.

Tamera Kremer posts on 3i about how to use social bookmarking sites (like my beloved del.icio.us) to gain customer insight. Both the tags and notes chosen to describe your brands or products can reveal a great deal and help lead you in the direction of better product development or more effective marketing strategies.

del.icio.us tags 03.19.08

Blogs
Regina Schrambling writes, at The Los Angeles Times about the growing number of professional chefs who are blogging to build their personal brand, demonstrate (through traffic) their popularity to potential restaurant investors and sell product. I'm not thrilled with the folks who let their publicists write their blog posts -- you're missing the point, as far as I'm concerned -- but I love that Michael Laiskonis of Le Bernardin in New York makes the connection between the zines "he grew up reading in the age of underground punk rock" and his blog, Notes from the Kitchen.

CSR
Allison Mooney at PSFK writes about P&G and Unilever's dueling efforts to demonstrate who's more bad a** on the environmental front as they try to create loyal customers out of young consumers, who are increasingly demanding ethical behavior from the companies to whom they give their money. Sure, as Allison and others have pointed out, contradictions abound but I'm with her when she says, if "eco-minded consumers -- and the earth -- end up benefiting," who gives a toss?


One More Reason to Love Charlie Rose
I disagree with Sandra G, the first to comment on this TechCrunch post about Charlie Rose's commitment to his MacBook Air; Charlie is one of the sexiest men on television. There's a group of us who probably have had fantasies about sitting across from him at his big round table, lamenting the fact that he's so close, yet oh so far away (purrrrr). But a man who sacrifices his visage for his laptop? I'm with you, Charlie. If the house was on fire, my iBook would be the first thing I grabbed.

Search
Overture helps you to pick search terms for a keyword marketing campaign. Brian was the one that told me about it a while back, but I just got around to adding it to del.icio.us. Nothing like getting a peak into the mind of your customer.

del.icio.us tags 03.13.08

Politics
I've heard a few Republicans smirk and make the comment that Democrats only stay Democrats until they grow up -- and become a Republican. Not so fast, kiddies. LiveScience reports (via The Huffington Post) that a new longitudinal study says that people become more liberal as they grow older.

Digital Advocacy
From late January, here's an article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy about how nonprofits are using social media to engage supporters, promote their issue and raise money to meet their mission. Gone are the days (hopefully) when these organizations need to build expensive -- or crappy -- web sites to achieve these goals OR try to figure out how the hell to drive traffic to these sites, adding one more unvisited destination on the "information highway." As should be expected, the success of these efforts can be attributed to word of mouth. Gather.com's Tom Gerace knows what he is talking about when he says, "If you get contacted by a friend or colleague who points out a group doing great work, that can be (IS, Tom, IS) much more effective than trying to reach people with a random mailer that doesn't have the same trust factor."

If you don't believe ME that the promise of the future is NOT building more web sites, listen to Steve Rubel at MicroPersuasion who proselytizes about "the promise of small content that can go anywhere."

Word of Mouth
Spike at Brains on Fire makes the argument that it's quality -- and not quantity -- that makes all the difference in word of mouth. Those few are willing to do some heavy lifting for your brand, your issue. Reward them, recognize them, help them to be the evangelists that will take the conversation -- and the love -- further.

del.icio.us tags 03.07.08

Word of Mouth
Robbin at Brains on Fire can't figure out why folks in the C-suite are so freaked out about "loud and proud customers taking co-ownership of (their) success." As she says, "It requires letting go of control," something that the Barack Obama campaign, she points out (as well as Ron Paul, I point out) have been willing to do, to their benefit. In this election cycle, voter generated contact has increased the profile of candidates with minimal name recognition and have helped to turn out record numbers of voters at the polls. "Why," Robbin asks, "should a company care if its customers create art with your product or express their love in a song?"

Digital Advocacy
Katya at Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog has a list of 15 reasons why people make donations to organizations. Note, she says, that "'Because I loved the organization's brochure,' is not on there." What is? Word of mouth, great storytelling, a belief that they can have an impact, tax deductions, personal values, it's the cool/right thing to do. Check out the full list and consider adding a few of your own.

Fan Brands
Dave Armano is such a rock star. I would love to be able to think in terms of visuals and tell such simple yet fascinating stories through infographics in the way he does. This time it's the "Novelty Curve": the path from "I can't live without this" to "what was I thinking?"

del.icio.us tags: 2008 resolutions

Ben McConnell at Church of the Customer Blog has 10 marketing resolutions for 2008. It's impossible to disagree with any of them, but I'm particularly gungho for #9 ("Raise the ethics bar.") and #10 ("Do what you love.") I like to think that #9 was already my mantra in 2007, but can I make #10 a reality in 2008?

Dave Armano at Logic+Emotion is looking forward to 2008 as well and argues that microsites may not be the way to go for most brands. "If there isn't a steady supply of new, quality content -- then users really don't have a reason to come back and engage." Listen to him, folks. Save your money. Don't presume your customers will come to you. Be creative and go to them. Engage with them.

Marcia Conner urges us all to Create a Stronger, Smarter Organization at Fast Company and provides a Learning Culture audit tool to assess where you're starting from and where you need to go. Be brave and be honest.

luck or genius

There's a line in "Handmade 2.0," Rob Walker's excellent article in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine about the online craft business/community that hits the nail on the head for me, primarily because it gets at my frustration with what so many marketers are setting out to do within social media.

"I was (more) interested in what made Etsy seem different from so many current efforts to 'build community' online: the luck or genius of the site is that Kalin and the other founders encountered in the D.I.Y./craft scene something that was already social, community-minded, supportive and aggressively using the Web. It seemed to me that the company's future would depend not only on the success of its sellers but also on its reputation among them."

Find a community, provide a service to that community that actually creates added value, and listen to the community so that you are sure that the service remains valuable to them. Don't create community because you want to access a large pool of people who have no reason or desire to spend time with each other and are sure to see through your self interests. It may seem like a smart solution to your business objective, but you're destined to fail.

Update: Orli Sharaby at PSFK thought this section of the article was worth noting as well.