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!

Mobile Monday - Assorted Mobs

We often talk about the consumer side of things here at Space Agency Notes. But sometimes we come across developments that enable businesses to evolve and this trend is something we like very much. One thing our Alien's love to death is summer/fall festival season here in the north east. Filled with events celebrating food, crafts, farming, wine etc. And often many small businesses have to take cash or checks still. 

But Square offers an easy way to accept credit cards with your smart phone:

Square Up

They aren't the only service out there. But now it is much simpler to accept payments for small businesses.

I have also been crafting a blog review of the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Motorola Droid2 that I have been kicking around. It is definitely a love hate relationship. My sister now has a Galaxy S Android and it seems a higher quality phone.

Lastly I wanted to discuss the news that Color received $41 Million in VC Funding. LINK

This was discussed on last weeks Quick-n-Dirty Podcast with @AaronStrout and @KyleFlaherty as a sure sign of an LBS/VC Bubble. But I want to give you a take from someone who has used LBS and why LBS sucks.

LBS has really only benefited me when looking for something nearby. Meaning I go onto Gowala or Yelp and let it show me restaurants in the area. Or using the Google Maps Navigator/Locator. It has been a massive failure to me where there is check ins involved. Anyone who knows our Chief Alien, knows he is against Auto-Check Ins for Privacy and Respect issues of many sorts. We are also against the Satellite for Check Ins. They are a big failure. They do not work indoors or in some parts of cities with tall buildings. 

Now lets look at Color. Color is an App that will let me go to say a concert, check in there and my pictures will get uploaded to the cloud and mixed with everyone else's pictures. So when I go home or from my phone I can see other view points. It is supposed to be anonymous. Ruh-Roh! I can see an LBS Chat Roulette coming here from participants as my first concern. You don't think some drunk dude in the men's bathroom stall isn't going to take a photo of his junk and upload? Now let's get to the Satellite issue. I have to remember to check in outside. I have to remember to check out too. What if there are two clubs next to each other? And say one is a strip club?

I just see so many opportunities for slick technology to be perverted in ways that people decide to shun it. Not saying it can not be over come. But $41 million is a lot of VC money for an APP.

Now click to Colors Landing Page: www.color.com You don't see Photo Roulette staring you in the face?

Garbage in Garbage Out. Why Research Sucks Part 2

Back in November I discussed how I felt Research is Shoddy at best. LINK

But what I did not cover was the Human Side. We are eternal optimists in a general sense. We also can be vicious and vengeful and biased and deceitful. I have been part of the You Gov Poll now for a long time. They have a lot of polls about Brands, the Economy, and our own Personal Economic situation.

Typical Questions:

They show a Grid with Consumer Brands and ask which we view positively and which negatively.

They show a Grid asking which Brands you would be proud to work for and which embarrassed.

They show a Grid asking which Brands we have heard positive news in the last 2 weeks and which negative news.

They ask purchasing questions. Last 12 months. Last 30 days. Next 30 days. Next 6 months.

They have lists of restaurants and ask which we have been too in the same time frames.

They ask if we feel the Economy is getting better or worse.

They ask if our own economic situation is getting better or worse.

Now think of the things I said in the beginning and how this will affect the research/polling.

• A Brand I hate or had a bad experience with I will go out of my may to say bad things, true or untrue. Vice Versa as well!
  
• I will always feel I will be making more money.
• I will often choose to answer about the Economy based on if my Political Alignment is in Power or not.
• They fail to ask proper questions. I might be embarrassed to work for the Dollar Store. But not if I was CEO.
• It is very hard to know how much I will spend going forward. Today they asked how much I spent at Target last 30 days and what about next 30 days. My needs will change. That is more spontaneous. How the hell can I estimate this?!!!
• I hate Walmart. I said Sams Club sucks today. Horrible place. Service deteriorating. Guess what? I have never been in a Sam's Club! But I will always say this. Sorry. Treat your employees like chattel, the environment like crap, small towns like shit, keep poor people poor so they will stay your customers, pawn healthcare on the Fed and State Government and buy products from sweat shops in China. Sorry. BTW I would love to say what I think of the Owners the Walton Family but let's just say they are very immoral for people who Bible thump. I will always say negative things about anything Walmart. My own personal view btw. Nothing you can do to change it. I am not ashamed to be biased in this way. Shop there. I don't care.
  

But guess what people? This is HUMAN NATURE! We are not in nice little boxes. We are Random. We are Unpredictable. We are Emotional. Good luck with your research.