Social Tuesday - Why does everyone use the Facebook 750Mil user number?

This is the biggest load of horse shit ever. They never say how many people you can reach today on Facebook. They say there is 750mil users. Well considering in the US the average user logs in 23 times a month. And of course many people log in more than once. So there are many heavy users. And many more casual users. You can't reach casual users. There are maybe 25 million active US users on Facebook today doing something. 1 in 10 US Consumers.

SO YOU CAN"T REACH 750 MILLION PEOPLE ON FACEBOOK! 

or 200 MILLION ON THE TWITTER!

What is your business? Unless you are a media company most of the users are never ever going to be customers. If you are a small business, say a restaurant in Albany, NY or Des Moines, IA what does 750 million users mean to you? It means less than Diddly Squat!

As a small business, the type of business will determine the radius for potential customers. And the number of Facebook users in that radius is all that matters. And guess what? That data DOES NOT EXIST! Well I bet Facebook will give you some data if you want to buy Facebook Ads. But they will not give you that data if your strategy is a Brand Page. How do you know how many people you can possibly connect with on Facebook that can be customers? For MOST Businesses your street sign and store front will always out perform anything you do on Facebook. ALWAYS!

If I see another presentation or media material from a Social Media Agency, Guru, Mashable, etc saying 'With 750 Million Users.....' I am going postal and showing up at their offices and throwing dog poop on their desk because that is what they are dog poop for lying. Because I hear small business owners throwing these numbers around casually like they actually mean something to them.

Do you ship to Pakistan? Mongolia? No? Then why do you want to reach those users in those countries? And the only way you can reach people on Facebook really is with Facebook ads which are more expensive and perform 50% less successfully than traditional digital ads. And guess what? The average Facebook user spends only 31 minutes a day on the site. Down from 55 mins in April 2010. Why is that important? A digital ad network can reach people online during the 87.5% of their 4 hours online or on Mobile. While Facebook can only reach people on Facebook.

Think about it!

BTW Dear Bob Hoffman the Ad Contrarian. I am sorry. I can not believe I just supported Digital Advertising but over Facebook and Facebook Ads....it kicks ass!

Social Tuesday - Death to Marketers! Long Live Marketers!

I am writing this post out of anger, and angst. I know. Best frame of mind to be in right?

I love Marketing. It is my second career after B2B Sales/Business Development. It fascinates me to no end. In some ways in large scale it is more complex than say the Missile Defense Program. Imagine having to come up with the Marketing Strategy and Buy for a blockbuster film with a massive budget. Having to figure out not only the content but the platforms and where those will be. How can someone in an office in NY or LA know when they buy placement on 1000 billboards nationwide where they all are located? Or all the Bus Stops and Bus Wraps etc etc. You also have to get everything set including any cross promotions all to run at the right time to maximize excitement to see a film in the movies and if you fail your client could lose millions. No pressure right?

And we all would agree we are consumers and like learning about new products, services, brands etc locally and nationally. Even if Brands are not the focus of our lives like Marketers want to believe they are, I am ok with this disconnect because we are performing a service. In fact I wrote about this not long ago:

I just don't care about your Brand, your Company, or your Product

But with the emergence of G+ I get angry at what I have seen all along. This view by Marketers that they have an inalienable right to market to us anywhere our eyes go. I mean there is marketing being sold on the plastic deodorizers that sit at the bottom of men's urinal's at bars! 

Currently Twitter and Facebook enable us to market in some way shape or form based on the current platform format. Twitter because it is public. Facebook while Brand Pages, Places, Open Graph, etc have failed miserably to drive sales or awareness beyond a very small percent of the Fan base, you can buy Ads on the network. You can't reach me because I block almost all digital ads except from some very specific websites I care about and wish to help them with revenue like the Economist. But I never click on Ads. And anyone who knows me, knows I hate Facebook for being Hucksters, Exploiters, Shysters, and Slimeballs. So I surely am not reachable on Facebook by Marketers.

But now G+ is coming out and Marketers are insisting they have a place there. And that is BULLSHIT! Buy a Digital Ad if you want in. But I am not bringing them into my world there. I can already find them when I want how I want 24/7. Just like Telemarketers crying over the Do Not Call Registery like they have a right to call me at dinner time there is a lot of Social Media Marketers, Agencies, and Talking Heads scared shitless if they are locked out their Fraudulent Gravy Train is gone. No more books and speaking engagements shoveling shit for money are gullible business owners. No more fame and fortune. No it will be back to reality!

Two great posts on the G+ Marketing Fraudsters including some of the biggest names in social being taken down and exposed come from:

Gini Dietrich on Spin Sucks - Beware the Google+ Experts

and 

Danny Brown + Geoff Livingston on Danny's Blog - Advisory: Google Begins Booting Brands

Fact is Social Media is a Revolution of Interpersonal Communication Technologies. It brings together people and is great for networking and socializing. It is not great for marketing! Youtube videos, Fan Pages, Twitter Accounts, nothing has scale. You can't reach people like you can with TV or Billboards via Social Networks. And we do not have an INALIENABLE RIGHT to Market via these platforms!

Social Tuesday - Thought Leader Round Up!

This has been quite a week. The discussions around Google + have migrated from Google + itself to carpet bagging, gurus, and love.

Gini Dietrich had her blog on fire yesterday when she took a stand against people claiming to be Google + experts after just 24 days of public beta release of the platform and charging for seminars, webinars etc.

Beware the Google + Experts

On Danny Brown's Blog there is a great guest post by Olivier Blanchard:

Social Media Gurus, Real Work and Diversity

Today Shanan Sorochynski on Waxing Unlyrical shares how the new G+ network has evolved so far in her personal and work life.

Google v Facebook: The Battle for our Love

Geoff Livingston who has been beating the Facebook death chant now which is refreshing since he is brilliant wrote a great piece: 

Why the Facebook Feature Frenzy will Fail

And last but never least Mr. Ben Kunz who is often the smartest man in any room once again wrote a killer piece:

Facebook Should of Seen it Coming

All great and thought provoking reads. What should be taken from all this is several things. There will always be people seeking to make bucks even if at the expense of others. There will always be new social networks coming into play and we had better get used to it. And no social network is too big to fail, or so smart they can't.

Social Tuesday - Bad News for Facebook, and it isn't Google +

This Center for Media Research article on Media Post highlights some really bad numbers for Facebook and maybe debunks how social we really are on Social. I am always surprised the industry media's never catch this stuff or connect. With all the press and valuations about Facebook. 142 million US consumers visited Facebook in the Month of May per Compete.

I was shocked when I saw a stat that for every Facebook Status Update there is 128 SMS Text Messages sent. And the Average US High School Student sends 3300 per month! They are not updating their Facebook status this often. They surely have access to Facebook. It is not a true real time Communication Platform like Text or Twitter.

The stat everyone will cherry pick because they like to lie is that 92% of the Social Network Users are on Facebook. Without asking how many are active on Facebook.

So here is the numbers for the Average US Consumer who is on Facebook. 

Only 51% log into Facebook every day. 

The rest are much more random. It is my view anyone who logs in every other day is going to be REALLY hard to reach for marketing unless you send private emails. When the user logs in if they have 200+ friends they will have 300+ status updates and I doubt even half will get read.

31% are highly active which says that  45 million in the US are on it everyday being active. 29 million log in for a visit. But this also says of the remaining 70+ million barely use the network.

In an average day on Facebook:

15% of Facebook users update their own status.  

Only once every 6.67 days. Obviously we aren't telling much about our day to our network.

22% comment on another's post or status.

Only once every 5ish days we will comment on a post on Facebook.

20% comment on another user's photos.

Once every 5 Days we will comment on a Photo

26% "Like" another user's content.

 We only Click Like ONCE EVERY FOUR DAYS! Is this not proof Facebook isn't viral? Or that we are not active. You have to tell me in a network filled with real friends as well as semi-real we only see one post or item to Like every 4 days? Not even sympathy LIKES?!!!!

10% send another user a private message.

We obviously aren't using Facebook for email since we send a message once every ten days!

Towards the end they show that most Facebook connections (vs say Twitter) are real life connections. So you would think since you know 90% of your network personally on average you would Like more content and be more active on the network. But obviously the reverse is true.

So you think you can reach people on Facebook for your business. Good freaking luck! Better chances of picking the Tri-Fecta at Belmont. I am not saying don't have a Brand Page or have one on Google + if they allow them. But be realistic about things. Your customer is not on Facebook. You have some customers there but not most. And you want to reach most, not just some right?

Still value the traditional and proven Media Channels. They work. Social hasn't changed anything when it comes to marketing yet. You still have to work to reach your target customers.

Social Tuesday - LBS Check Ins, Miami vs Orlando, Ignoring Social

Going to start this off really slowly since everyone was getting rowdy yesterday for the 4th of July except for my friend Gini Dietrich who said she was staying in to respond to all my comments about Google + on her blog yesterday.

LBS Check In Fails:

There was a time when I thought services like Gowalla and Foursquare would never catch on because they seemed really a means to tell people you aren't home so please rob me, or for stalkers, etc. I seriously was expecting the first serious news events with people being robbed, murdered, or possibly hounded for autographs. But this was before I got my Android Phone back in August 2010. 

But then I got my Droid2 and started the 'I will check in everywhere and post to Twitter' part of my life that everyone hates so much. Which then led to me getting my first reward last October at Chili's...Free Chips and Salsa. And then no others. I stopped sharing on Twitter except for very unique instances. And I stopped adding any friends on either network whom I did not already know. But I still check in. Not everywhere. But I do. But guess what. You are not. No one is.

Go to any establishment with high traffic. Your mall. Your favorite restaurant. And look at the check in volume on Foursquare, Gowalla, and Facebook Places. It is really zero. So the fad is over. And unless I start seeing value these businesses will go under. It's not that I do not see a use for them if they offer proper incentives. And I have seen some when I look at what is nearby. But they obviously aren't prevalent enough with critical volume of participants to really motivate anyone right now. And to me like the years 2000-2009 were a lost decade for America since in that time span the US worker was making less than when they started the decade (after inflation), it was a lost year for LBS where they could of showed us enough value to catch on like crazy.

Miami v Orlando

Miami decided to open a storefront on Facebook. While someone like Aaron Strout, with all the rational reasoning says this is a good move, eyeballs are there and why not sell some stuff if you can. I question whether the Heat are moving product on their page.

http://apps.facebook.com/heatfanstore/

If you check out what is offered vs their own private store that gives zero money to facebook and can be tricked out in impressive ways who would prefer shopping on the Facebook Page?

Miami Heat Store

In fact if you look at their wall, they get about 1,000 to 5,000 clicks of Engagement per wall post. They have 3.3Mil fans. That is a whopping 0.03% to 0.15% Engagement. That is not moving product. Of those 5,000 who click LIKE how many never leave their own Facebook Page? Most. And since the company who created the store front Milyoni doesn't share sales data we have zero proof anything was sold. Am I against extra sales this way? No, not at all. But it will never be a big driver of revenue since the store is so limited and so few come to the Fan Page directly.

Now Orlando is smart! 

http://www.facebook.com/OrlandoMagic

If you click the little shop button it takes you to.....drum roll please

http://www.orlandomagicshop.com/

The Lie about Social Product Research:

Lastly let us get over the bullshit being slung by Facebook, Social Media Agencies, Mashable and the Social Media Talking Heads. We are not going to our social networks first for product research. I have tried crowd sourcing and it fails. Almost always. I rarely get feedback on Twitter or Facebook when I ask questions about products. It is because I am not asking my network. I am asking the small percent of my network that sees my inquiry. So of my 1300 Twitter followers if I am lucky on a good day 100 will see my tweet. Then of course of that 100 how many will actually have an answer for me? Nevermind respond.

And the latest study confirms we go to our Social Network last:  LINK

I bet when you look over that list you will agree it most likely mimics your own behavior.

In Fact Media Post published yesterday a study (totally mis-titled!) that only 25% of Consumers go to Facebook Brand Pages at least once in a month to keep up with sales and promotions. If you go to 1 Brand Page in 1 Month for this purpose that is equal to ZERO people. Good luck getting your promotion seen on Facebook. People just don't care when it comes to social networks about your Brand. Sorry. It is a flawed article. Considering we each have hundreds of brands that want us to fan them, if only 20% of consumers Like 5 or more pages this proves they are a failure. If 75% of consumers never go to the pages after all this time touting them, they are a failure. And if you think your brand is different I have proof it is not.

And I know someone will now show me the Exception like Tony Hawk on Twitter. Exceptions are great. But they are called an Exception for a reason!

The true title of the article: People don't care and don't visit Brand Pages on Facebook!

Just maybe we are too busy chatting with friends and family? Just maybe we rarely see posts from Fan Pages? Just maybe we just don't care about Brands the way Marketers say we do? Just maybe....

Social Tuesday - Torching Social Influence for Marketing and just a bit of Facebook love

First off I need to state Ben Kunz has been killing it. Not sure if he is the smartest person on the Twitter or possibly Gunther Sonnefeld but they are neck and neck. Ben has been blogging using math lately over at Thought Gadgets. His latest post is brilliant.For the most part Twitter and Facebook are not Viral Platforms. In fact they are almost just plain NOT VIRAL. There are trending topics but rarely a trending piece of content. And it's the content, not a topic that is what viral is all about in Marketing.

A Deeper Essay into Viral Success

I can say a You Tube video that is viewed 1 million times in 1 month is Viral correct? But that comes down to just 33,333 per day. Considering how many people are on the Web world wide that is almost zero. 

Next some observations I wish to share as proof Twitter is really not a Viral Platform for Content:

This really dings Klout too and Social Influence. Notice Mari was tweeting about a FREE Webinar. In 90 minutes she got only 3 Retweets from her 100,000 plus followers. I don't know who Guy Kawasaki is, and maybe the problem is no one else does either and thus they didn't retweet it. But only 3? Wouldn't Mari have at least 100 friends out of 100,000 followers who would retweet just because it is her tweet? Obviously her 78 Klout does not include influence when it comes to Webinars or Guy Kawasaki.

Notice Mashable (I hate that mug shot serious who could ever follow on Twitter that mug shot! lol) has 2.3 million followers and got a whopping 17 and 40 retweets. The 17 was in 2.5 hours and the 40 was in 3.45 hours. Obviously Mashable has zero influence on the topics of HTC, Social Media, Tech and Mobile because otherwise wouldn't the 88 Klout score earn a ton more Retweets?

As we know the longer time lapses the less likely a Tweet was seen so I doubt it will bring up more. Caveat is if this is only recording Hootsuite Retweets (anyone who can clarify please share). To me this torches Viral and Influence (Klout)

Next Facebook:

Really what does gaming the system get you? I have proven no one will see your Brand Page Posts like a gazillion times.

First the positive for Facebook as promised. Cross posting photos for my client to Twitter that reside on Facebook has greatly increased traffic to the Brand Page. But the impressions are so wrong it isn't funny. Facebook is adding the network numbers of the 2 LIKES to the total. I mean seriously with 1800 Fans who wouldn't at least LIKE this delicious gourmet ice cream sandwich?!! No we got two because so few saw the post. Bad platform for marketing simple as that.

Lastly I won an award I am very proud of!

THE CHIEF ALIEN HAS BEEN BANNED BY MASHABLE FROM COMMENTING! 

They got tired of me exposing their Fan Boy Journalism and shoddy reporting. I never once used bad language on their site or said anything anyone would be offended by. But the truth hurts. This hasn't stopped me from commenting. But I can not comment with my Sky Pulse Media Twitter Account. Which BTW get's me back to these STUPID commenting systems based on Facebook and Twitter! 

If you require me to log in with Facebook to comment.....NO COMMENT

photo: ben andrus

Social Tuesday - Feeding the Fire under Facebook

Another few rowdy links to read to stir the pot. But I want to preface something so my readers understand my stance on things. 2 - 2.5 yrs ago Facebook was a people to people communication platform. A platform people might of paid a fee to be a member on. They weren't doing crazy things to exploit their users until the failed Beacon Project. Beacon technically has been revived in various ways and was definitely a precursor of their mindset. Exploitation of it's users. There was a time that I uploaded photos to Facebook and actually participated with friends non-stop. That ended 2+ years ago. I do communicate some on the site. I have added a few connections here and there. But not like I was 2+ years ago.

I run a Brand Page for a Client but Twitter is much more successful a platform for us. I do communicate with friends and a few Brands but usually when I log in I have 300+ updates waiting and if your update is not on the first page it will never be seen by me. For a site that has a business model telling Brands they can reach me this is 100% a lie. Brands have a CHANCE to reach me. That is all. And not a high chance at that. I estimate a robust 3% chance I see their posts. In fact I only go to one Brand page on my own that is Chobani Yogurt.

So here are a few great links for your reading enjoyment:

Ben Kunz is back! Here is Math of 1 out of 6,250 Fan Pages 
btw follow Ben he is one of the smartest people on the Twitter!
Read his blog Thought Gadgets!

Mashable and Likeable - One the worst articles on Facebook ever possibly  I guess it is all about fans huh? I mean really? May 2011 and you still write articles about Fan accumulation being the measure of success? I can't believe any CMO would hire Likeable and not fear for their job. No data on what these Facebook Pages did after they garnered fans. How many see the posts. How many participate and engage. Did it increase sales or revenues. Upcoming blog post will go deep into the numbers for you.

Lastly the MOST DAMNING ARTICLE EVER WRITTEN ABOUT FACEBOOK on the Huffington Post.

This wasn't meant to be. Read it. You will say Chief Alien what you smoking? Can I have some? Read it. Facebook is built on display ads. It is most of it's revenue if not all it's revenue right now. There have been recent studies showing click rates are half the rate for traditional digital. Now granted clients only pay for clicks. But the premise is since Facebook has so much personal data (they actually don't they only have demographic data and they only see a fraction of what we do online and in real life) they can laser target who to serve ads too.

So in this study they served 74 million ads aimed at people who stated they are Republican. The same group of people that over 50% think Obama is not a US Citizen and almost the same number think he is Muslim! If you were an investor and a Stock Broker said Facebook is worth 50bil or 100bil based on pure Display Ad revenue what are your thoughts when the people who should be going rabid with clicks did not click.

"While SocialCode purchased over 74 million advertising impressions for this project, those display ads were clicked on less than 16,638 times and liked just over 5,192 times. That means that just 0.02 percent of the ads were clicked on at all and only 0.007 percent received a "like."

I think Swifty has a much brighter future than Facebook does.....

Social Tuesday - Finally the Facebook is Dying Wake Up Call

This blog is littered with proof Facebook is dying. The reason most Media Publications are silent is if it dies they have less news to write. Mashable has their whole business at risk. VC's will flee Social Technology Companies if this happens. Workers, Entrepreneurs and I.P. will run to where the highest potential for gain is. This wouldn't be the case if the hype machine had not started. If people who are smart cunning self promoters but only average marketers in real life, hadn't jumped in early with books, and twitter followings, and Brands and Agencies getting suckered into thinking Social Media Marketing was ever going to be bigger than TV or even Digital. 

Would you read a book (never mind buy) by Brian Solis or Chris Brogan focusing on the next big wave in Marketing if they do so just 2 years from now knowing Facebook is flailing and Brands have decided there was no home run, that it was just ancillary sales being added and that all the hype for Brand Pages and Communities just didn't pan out? Would you hire them as a CMO even? Probably not.

What if the Social Influence companies like Klout or Edelman also don't deliver. Klout goes away. Does this impact Edelman's non-social line of business if their clients feel they were mis-led in a major way (not on purpose btw). How would you feel about the quality of their advice? This is no different than the stock market people. When a brokerage house bets wrong and their client's lose money, investors flee to who got it right vs saying 'Well next time you will get it right'.

Three key articles here are worth reading:

First is by the wicked smart Ben Kunz (@benkunz)  of Media Associates on his blog Thought Gadgets: LINK

He discusses why Facebook will die using history of networks dying for his thesis.

Next is Business Insider who shows a loss of users in key markets like the US as a sign of something is wrong. LINK  (thank you Chris Baccus for this article)

You should compare that to my last blog post. LINK

Lastly is Media Post also bringing up a flagging network. LINK

In April I proved the network had seen over a 30% drop in use per person per day. I also guest posted on Waxing Unlyrical showing how anyone can use math to figure this stuff out: LINK

As a Brand what do you do. Do you blindly trust the Social Agencies, Social Media Talking Heads, Mashables, VC's and Goldman Sachs that Facebook will be supreme in commerce and marketing to make you money when really the goal is for them to make money, when they don't give a flying shit about you? Or do you believe the smart people who show you over and over that this is not happening now nor will it happen in the future. 

Remember once again Class Repeat after Me:

Social Media is not Media nor Marketing! It is a Revolution in Interpersonal Communication Technologies. Ad Support will fail Marketing will fail! Proof is your cell phone! Do your calls get interrupted by a word from your sponsor? NO! You pay through the nose for the service because the value is communication! And that is where these networks should focus. On bring value to consumers and showing they need a service and will pay for the service vs gimmicks, smoke and mirrors, and cutesy games.

Yes I can be smug. I have been screaming about this for over a year. So dear clients of the Agencies like Virtue and Likeable Media I am available for hire. I will not steer you wrong.

As you all know I hate Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg. I find them slimy unethical weasels who would rather exploit people over and over in chasing a buck than care about their users whom without they have no network! Es Stupido!

Social Tuesday - LinkedIn did what?

Facebook Delivers the Ads - Media Post 

This is not the same ads. You can not compare a Facebook Ad with a Banner Ad for form fit and function.

LNKD goes Public. Wall Street fleeces LinkedIn and Main Street. Nice to have things back to normal.

They IPOed at $45 but quickly peaked at $122 on the market. Just think LinkedIn could of gotten easily double what they got. Who got the rest? Wall street. They bought the shares bid them up sold to the public high. So many of the 'Gold Rushers' who thought this was money in the bank bought no matter the price. Someone bought at $122 share! It's $89 today. 25% loss for whoever bought at the peak.

Remember 9 out of 10 IPO's end their first year at a lower share price than their issue price. 

Fun fact: You can buy $1 of LinkedIn's Revenues for the same price you can buy $1 of Apple's PROFITS! In fact it costs $18 to buy $1 of Apple profits today. It costs $1,312 to buy $1 of LinkedIn's profits.

Yes Social Media has gone Traditional Media with ReTweet This!

Social Tuesday - Facebook $100B Follies + Top 50 Twitter Women

Just going to cover two topics. I figure you can enjoy a more leisurely day than most Tuesdays.

First off Congrats to this great list of Women on Twitter! I know there are many such lists but just to be named in any list is an honor. As you know us Space Aliens are all for equality and a huge supporter of the Ladies. This comes from the wonderful Cheryl Burgess of Blue Focus Marketing and Tom Pick of Webbiquity. Not sure when a Top 50 Space Alien's on Twitter list is coming but it had better be soon!

NIFTY 50 TOP WOMEN OF TWITTER

Next topic which is like the weight around your ankles as you are tossed into the ocean by the mafia for not paying your gambling debts. Our Chief Alien has proved over and over that Facebook is dying just waiting for a better network to pop up and poof we all migrate. Yet more and more idiots keep claiming higher valuations. I have told everyone to sell the IPO short. It is the biggest pump and dump scheme in history and will make Bernie Madoff seem like peanuts when this is done. Please if you have a pension or 401k beg the administrators not to buy their stock when they IPO and that you value your retirement.

This article from Media Post covers not only a ridiculously rosie Social Media display ad forecast but notes the Wall Street Journal (whom this Finance Grad doesn't read anymore as a trusted business news source) is claiming a $100bil value next year. Go to the NYSE and NASDAQ. Look at all the companies that have a $100bil value. Look at their revenues. Their profits. Look at what they MAKE AND SELL. And you get my drift.

LINK 

The problem I have with the display ad forecast is once Brands realize they aren't getting clicks on Facebook and the Facebook ads are pitiful vs real Display won't prices slump and what Social Media Properties are going to pick up the slack?

Social Tuesday - Lockerz - Social Bribing

 If anyone isn't aware Plixi is now Lockerz - LINK

Watch the video. It is going to try to make up for Facebook's failings. The Chief Alien has always felt Facebook made a fatal error courting Brands and Marketing instead of building the best Person to Person communication platform out there. Something we would pay a monthly fee for. We have railed against all the failures that Facebook has had to date: Open Graph, Brand Pages, Facebook Ads, Places, Deals. We have also destroyed with their own stats how little sharing goes on the network, how few people actually do anything on the network, and how the live feed is so cluttered with white noise it is almost useless. 

There is a big reason usage per person per day is down over 30% in the last year from 55 mins a day to 38 mins a day. We posit using Facebook stats that there are only between 20million and 30million US consumers active on the network on any given day out of 250 million Americans 14 and over. Not a bad pool but you can see why activity is so low.   

Today as a Marketer 8 of 9 US consumers are unreachable via Facebook.

But Facebook never tried Bribery! Maybe that is all we needed to share more. Would we share more if we earned points like we do Airline Miles. Would be stay with a network that we invested time and effort and have something! We have NOTHING with Facebook. Remember all the Myspace Pages we tricked out and put blood and sweat into then left? We we have put in even less into Facebook.

Lockerz is interesting that for activities you earn points that can be converted into deals. When I watch the video some things I can get with. Others I am not so sure because of human behavior will play out. They give an example of sharing the Camera I bought with friends and getting points. Then if someone buys it I get uuber points. But would a friend want that exact Camera? What if I said 'It's great but wish it had this feature'. Would maybe it being Brand Specific vs Model Specific be best? 

And how much do we want to share. Based on the fact the average Facebook user shares only 1.7 items a day out of the hundreds we see or can...the answer is not much. We didn't want Beacon. And there is a level of sharing we want ie "Cherry Picked Good Stuff...Gems...Steals etc' but we do not want to know everything everyone is buying, watching seeing. That becomes massive spam. Imagine if our Facebook feed was loaded with just 20 things each 'friend' did today. We would leave the network.

But what if the bribe was so incredible we put up with it? Would we just share without participation just for the points. It could be a gold mine of data for someone but maybe not quite the network they envision.

Social Tuesday - Brands Must Read! Social Media Hypsters Shoo Go Away!

I recently wrote a rebuttal to Mr. Bob Hoffman the Ad Contrarian one of my favorite Bloggers and Observant Minds about why I felt we are measuring Digital Advertising wrongly. I was shocked because I almost never disagree with him. LINK

But now he just rocked the latest Beancast which is Bob Knorrp's most excellent podcast for Marketing, where the discussion was Digital Marketing and he Owned his adversary in the discussion. You really should subscribe on ITunes and listen every Monday. Forget #FF for Twitter. Just follow like pretty much everyone he has on

LINK to Listen

Now back to Mr. Hoffman. Bob has been on the attack using Pepsi Refresh as a glaring failure for Social Media. Anyone who reads my blog knows I slam Facebook, Mashable, and the Rock Star Social Media Talking Heads all the time for fraud, deception, over hype, under delivering for Brands and Marketing. That is 100% Fact. No needles are being moved using Social Media for Major Brands. As I have stated Starbucks with 18 million fans getting even 2,000 to post on their wall everyday is zero (they average 200-400). Seriously. Divide 2,000 by 18,000,000 it is zero. Divide 2,000 by their 200 million customers in the world. Now we are negative infinity.

You must read these two very important blog posts from last Friday and Yesterday:

Friday

Monday

Then you must read this article which Bob linked yesterday that was in Ad Age in late March by Johnathon Salem Baskin. 

LINK

Bob also had a few more worth links in yesterdays post. I think it is all 100% the truth. It is basically stuff I have been yapping about on Twitter and blogging about for 2 years now. As a Defender of Brands they need to know this stuff. I am not a Defender of my Industry or Agencies. Agencies that push horse shit to make money or Social Media Talking Heads that give speeches and write books that only help their bank account can jump off the Brooklyn Bridge because while I am not good at using the word SUCK like Joey Strawn is. They SUCK. 

BTW if you want to really know how not to suck or use the word perfectly read his blog: http://joeystrawn.com

Plus he is an amazing and funny ass cartoonist!

Social Tuesday - Ad Contrarian Right Message, Wrong Case Study - Pepsi

 

This week Bob Hoffman one of my favorite bloggers took shots at Social Media and specifically Pepsi as his case study. I am ok with his bashing Social Media. My view of business is from the CEO/CFO standpoint. Not marketing. Marketers are suckers. They snow each other all the time. It drives me crazy. Social Media Marketers tend to be the worst over all. It is very hard weeding through the Bull Shit. You want to know why I am such a dick sometimes by bashing my industry. Because I am CEO not CMO not someone making a cool commercial that is nifty.  

SELL SELL SELL!

It is why I refuse to read Mashable. It's like reading Fox News but for Social Media. It is why I don't read Chris Brogan, Brian Solis as much as they are nice guys. Their views help small businesses. But not Big Business move their stock price. It's why I laugh at Klout and the Edelman Trust Barometer. Big Picture people! What will move stock prices of a Fortune 2000 Company? Not a Facebook page. Not Fan Engagement on Twitter. Not identifying key online influencers.

http://adcontrarian.blogspot.com/

Read Bob's Pepsi Posts. Also read his Febreeze Post. Because for Febreeze he is dead on. And his Pepsi's posts are not off mark, except for using Pepsi as a case study.

Social Media is not moving sales for big companies. But I will not be baited into saying it has no value. I have a Finance Degree. I put a value on EVERYTHING and everything has a value. Starbucks with 18 million Fans on Facebook, the value isn't 18 million fans. It's not even the number that they engage. The value is how many Fans because they engage with Starbucks on Facebook buy more Starbucks, or at least shift their purchasing to increase Starbucks market share of their total purchasing. And how many get friends, family etc to buy more Starbucks or increase Starbucks market share in their life So using this formula I bet it's safe to say Facebook has zero value to Starbucks at this time. Look at their page. They get about 200 to 400 people posting to their wall saying they love Starbucks. Divide even 1000 by 18,000,000. It comes out to almost zero. And we have no clue about sales.

Now let me look at Pepsi.

1] I have no idea their total Ad Budget for 2010. But safe to say $20mil for Pepsi Refresh or the Superbowl is less than 1% of spend. Why bash them for giving back to the community. Bob's taunt on this is almost saying Sales trumps doing good. And trust me. He is not that type! And I doubt Facebook Fans were the goal here vs having Communities look at Pepsi as a Do Gooder Company.

2] Pepsi has 19 Divisions that each bring in $1bil. So they are a much more complex company than Coca Cola.

3] Maybe their Creative Agency is doing poor work? Maybe Pepsi should put their Advertising Account under review that currently is with TWBA/Chiat/Day? This would be one place I would look hard. At their 'Traditional Marketing'. I see Pepsi Out of Home but don't watch much TV so not sure what the Commercials are like today. (Please note I like TWBA and it grieves me to write this)

4] Maybe Coke is discounting more at point of purchase. I got a TON of Coke Coupons Superbowl week at my store. Zero from Pepsi. For every person who will not substitute I bet 100 will. I don't care what surveys say. So if my Supermarket has Club Card Specials more often for Coke vs Pepsi then yes Coke will see a sales uptick.

5] Maybe Coke drinkers are less healthy and are more obese and willing to suck pure sugar into them diabetes be damned and all these years Pepsi drinkers were more likely to switch to water? Granted Diet Coke has done well.

6] Maybe the Media Buying Agency for Pepsi is sucking. Maybe they have been blowing it big time on the Ad Spend and wasting their money? I see Pepsi still everywhere Out of Home. This would be the second place I would look hard.

7] Maybe operationally Coke is doing better from Supply Chain Management to their Direct Sales group?

My point is this is a very complex situation and you can not point the finger to Social Media for the Pepsi situation. Point all you want at Social Media. Social Media deserves the scrutiny. But you can not simplify a very complex situation like this by blaming Social Media or Digital Strategies.

Social Tuesday - Mash Mish

Just a few thoughts:

ARBYS

I clicked on their Sponsored Tweet

It took me to their Facebook Page which is a BIG NO NO!

So I tweeted them telling them they failed and now I won't use the coupon. Surprise they responded and fast:

Kind of a gnarly new sandwich which is not something I would eat once I viewed it. But I do like  their food so anyone who wants the coupon here is the LINK. I was very impressed with their response time and the fact that in discussion they were not using Twitter to funnel to a Facebook Page. If I follow you on Twitter that is where I want to engage. If I wanted to engage on Facebook I would be doing that. In fact the quickest way for me to un-follow on Twitter is when I follow getting a Direct Message saying to Like a Facebook Page.

GOOGLE CIRCLES

Please Oh Lord or Goddess under heaven and above the stars. Please make this real. Please make it worthy of canceling my Facebook account!

From Read Write Web LINK

This proves why speed is important. What if this is the bee's knees and Diaspora comes out later? What if Diaspora is good enough to draw millions from Facebook, but Google beats them?

FACEBOOK MARKETING

Marketing Profs has a great article with 6 reasons to be very careful about Facebook: LINK

HEAL LA

Social Giving! 

Lastly we just went live yesterday for a client choosing Heal LA instead of Groupon. LINK

Why? The only thing Groupon has right now is reach. But Heal LA blows it's socks off in every other aspect:

1] Your donation goes directly to charity. 100%

2] You pay for the deal at the Brand. Meaning you get a coupon you take to the place that made the offer and use it. This gives the Brand the money right away. There is ZERO commission. ZERO money in escrow. 

3] It's FREE. They do everything from the graphics to the copy.

Social Tuesday - You Never Had Control of Your Message

I had a delightful dinner last night with Kristien Del Ferraro (@KDel713) of Humongo Agency and her husband Daniel (@DannyDGoatee) in Windham Mountain, NY. Kristien and I were discussing Brand's being nervous about getting involved in Social Media and how they fear losing control of the discussions or their message.

Brands you have never had control of your message!

Do you really think that by not having a Facebook Page, Twitter Account or Blog, that customers aren't talking about you? Did this work with BP? Or Tiger Woods? That we just accept your Press Releases or Advertising at Face Value? The fact is we are all talking about you all the time whether you are there or not. So why not participate. Why not engage? Why not set proper expectations? 

I am writing this post because of he NY Knicks. They have been in talks to get Carmelo Anthony from the Denver Nuggets all season. Doing a Google Search for the NY Knicks Blogs I find these blogs. All of which the Knicks have ZERO control over the content.

When I go to their Facebook Fan page unless I change the filter to show fan posts all I see is the posts from the NY Knicks. There are many reasons for this. One is not to clutter and cloud out what they post. I get that.But they don't have a place for Knicks fans to discuss the team.

But people are CLEVER! Yes people are suckers. But they are also CLEVER! The Knicks wanted to show case their young rookie Landry Fields who has been kicking ass. This is his moment in the spotlight. Yet his interview got hijacked by the fans wanting to discuss the Carmelo Anthony situation!

If the Kicks were smart they would customize their Facebook page or steer Fans to somewhere to have this discussion. The only reason they chose this Facebook post for this discussion is because they didn't see a place on the Fan Page to do so. The Knicks forget that Social Media has the word Social in it. That if Fans wanted push advertising/promotions they would sign up for their email Newsletter!

I highly recommend participation real time. If your customers hate your Brand you won't last long in business. You can stop rumors in their tracks. You can help guide and steer expectations. You can even turn around disgruntled customers into Brand Ambassadors with the right forms of engagement. But if you think that sitting on the sidelines with your head in the ground like an Ostrich means people will not talk? Preposterous! 

Addendum 2-25: Many Knicks fans have questioned whether the price paid for Carmelo Anthony was too high. The Knicks who own MSG Network had their highest one game ratings since 1995. LINK

Social Tuesday - Your Brand is not a Social Media Rock Star

Unless of course you are a Rock Star!

With all the Social Media Talking Heads trying to con Brands into thinking that Social Media is such a game changer for Sales in hopes of raking in Speaking Fees and Selling Books, does their Yapping hold up to reality? No of course not. 

I have blogged about why Social is not in the C Suite of Major Brands. LINK

I have blogged about why we don't care about your Brand being on Social. LINK 

Unless of course we are pissed and then you had better be. LINK

But the question comes down to why. Why do we on average only engage with about 4 Brands regularly via Social Media? Seriously think of the hundreds of Brands in your life today all around you. How many will you engage with via Social Media today? Do a test. Count them after you read this. Remember almost every Brand now has a Facebook Page or Twitter Account. Count them.

I think the reason is passion. 

We are passionate about a lot of things in our life. But very few Brands are we passionate about. And even fewer are we so passionate that we want to engage with them during our day. I might love surfing or rock climbing and have specific gear I am sold on. But it's the sport not the gear I am most passionate about. So here are some recent observances to prove my point:

The Chemical Brothers have 755,000 Fans on Facebook and got 270 Engagements in 15 minutes from a post.

Doritos with 5 million fans posted this on Jan 16th and I took this snapshot on Jan 28th. 723 Engagements in 12 Days!

World reknowned DJ Sasha has 166,000 Fans and got 135 Engagements in 3 Hours.

McDonalds has 7.1 million fans and had 918 Engagements in 3 Days.

The Glitch Mob has 95,000 Fans and got 777 Engagements in 3 hours.

But some Brands truly drive passion. But this is rare.

Volcom Clothing has 1.15million fans and had over 1500 Engagements in 17 hours yesterday. I am passionate about Volcom. Though as with any Facebook post I did not see this because we only see 5-10% of Posts in our stream on a good day!

The moral of this story is people are never going to be as passionate about your Brand as you you feel they are. You compete with a lot of things in people's lives. There are priorities. Many consumer Brands are beloved and bought and used by loyal dedicated customers, but just because you are now using Social Media does not mean you will be elevated above a Band or someones best friend.

Remember Social Communication Technology is a Revolution in Interpersonal Communication. Not a Revolution in Marketing. 

At any moment Brands can be locked out of the conversation. People will be migrating to new networks and take more of their discussions private, which is going to happen. So the best advice you can have because a Facebook Page or Twitter Account is not going to impact a big Brand the way the Talking Head you overpaid for advice told you:

Stick to the three pillars of excellence Great Product, Right Price, Great Customer Service.

Social Tuesday - Why Social Sentiment and Ad Interest is a False Measure

 

This is the snapshot from the Brandbowl Website that was created by Radian6, Boston.com and Mullen Agency. It captured all the tweets using the #brandbowl hashtag to judge sentiment.

Basically shows number of tweets. And the difference between Positive and Negative sentiment. So VW at this point had 9505 Tweets and a plus 30 sentiment. But what does it mean? We liked the Ad? The Brand? The Product? No one knows. Unless VW sees an increase in searches or website hits, calls to dealers, and sales does this mean anything except: Thanks for the great commercial?

What about Negative Sentiment. Does it mean I dislike the Spot, the Brand, the Product? Does Lipton and Best Buy know that I will not spend a nickel with them for 1 full year because they used M&M and Bieber? Do they know that many people thought the Pepsi spots were classless and often showing bodily assault? Or the Groupon spots also being a bit uncouth and strange? (Yes Alex Bogusky it's ok for you to be smug today!)

Edward Boches , Mullen's Chief Innovation Officer has a few posts on the Brandbowl: LINK   LINK

BTW I loved the VW commercial. And ironically they had 12.5 Million views on YouTube before the game! But all I know of the Passat is I can start it from my key chain! That said I did enjoy participating in the Brandbowl.

This is the final top 4. As you can see Chrysler took the top spot. But sentiment wasn't as positive. Part of the rankings took in chatter. Now using a polarizing Celebrity like M&M will cause chatter.

But focusing on Chrysler. Old car lineup. They showed nothing new. They have horrible quality ratings. Does a great commercial mean a car will not fall apart? Does it make up for an old lineup. I know they have new cars coming out soon, but not sure Fiat is stellar for quality either. But what does the commercial change? 

Now the social media aspect is interesting. Brands can technically see if people like their commercials outside of focus groups almost instantly. Even if it doesn't connect with Sales immediately and then pray. Still most chatter is off line or out of sight and there still needs to be work connecting long term success.

Lastly Media Curves did their own traditional assessment with each spot having a sentiment line as the spot progresses. And guess what? They have Chrysler ranked 40th!

Except for a very few Ad Spots in the last 15 years very few moved Beer as much as chatter either. Personally I felt this spot was ok. But why the high sentiment? Puppies earn high sentiment!

Now the big disconnect is between successful Ads which make people like the Ad, and Sales. Which if there is no sales increase the Creative Agency will still say 'Mission Accomplished' if sentiment was high/positive. Technically in some cases they can do that. It's not an Agency's fault if a product is bad. Though that reduces the public's trust in Advertising as a whole. 

My view for  the Superbowl is major brands like Coke, Pepsi, Bud kind of pay us back for having to endure Advertising overload all year long. For new brands and products it is a great launch pad and worth the investment/risk. But overall it's kind of like a boat...you know that hole in the water that takes all your money. 

Would Bud or Coors or Pepsi sell less product in 2011 if they didn't buy commercial time at the Superbowl? Nope. Not at all.