Digigen & The TinMan

This could be my Jerry Maguire moment. Putting my neck on the line and saying, I don’t agree with alot of what goes on within the social media industry. There is a lack of clarity in what we do, even though we tell clients to be open and transparent. There is a lack of rigid and reliable understanding of effectiveness, with little use of the genuine meaning of effectiveness e.g. business, campaign, advertising ROI.
It also feels like the planning side of things is covert, meetings I have been in have talked about “complicated tools”, “dark arts” and some clients I am close to refer to it as “smoke and mirrors”. They also complain of agencies putting the same outreach blogs and partners sites on their plans everytime.

In the aim of being open, I thought I would share something which I have called The Social Planning Framework v1.0. 1.0 because I want people to feedback on it, to make it collaborative. To be honest, alot of people might not view it as completely groundbreaking, but groundbreaking isn’t always best.  Some people may think it is basic, but for me it feels like the right framework to build a social plan from. Its based on a number of things which I have found interesting and relevant, others which I have simply found frustrating.

None of it is based on traditional social media theory and if you look at books like “Business Model Generation” you might find some very similar traits. It is effectively a business planning model but with a social twist. I think we need more of this sort of thing; planning frameworks and social tools which create a long-term credibility around the industry. Something which I believe we are in danger of losing if we don’t continue to prove ourselves, demonstrate our brilliant planning capabilities, and stop that “close our eyes and hope” mentality which alot of clients talk about.

I tried to shy away from creating lists about things, top tens and how tos in 2010. However, its clear that they have their usages and fortunatley mine aren’t selfishly about driving SEO, these are about genuine beliefs in what I think will make Social Strategies even better in 2011.

1) Creating Real World Collaborations. When I used to talk about bloggers, I talked about how they wanted to move from a virtual voice to a real voice. From the digital web to print media. I think its strange that this is the case, but I still believe it is. However, in 2011 bloggers and influencers will no longer be points of contact for simply sending out emails, they will be brand collaborators. They will have a key function in the future of brands.

To understand this you just need to look at the way that brands like Gap have used Cool Hunting’s Josh Rubin and Evan Orensten, and how they have also used Denis Crowley from FourSquare. You could argue that Denis Crowley is less collaboration more advertising, but my feeling is that the “celeb face on poster = sales of product” equation no longer exists for alot of brands. Although more complex, collaborations really are the future and I am looking forward to creating these myself in 2011.

2) Understanding the Value Creation of an Influencer. There have been some pretty negative stories in the press about “influencers” being paid to tweet or post positively. It seems suprising that these issues are being raised now as this sort of thing has happened for awhile. However, in the campaigns I have worked on, we have never paid influencers to tweet, but it does clearly show that brands value influencer approval. There seems therefore a desperation to find “the most influential” and Klout has certainly stolen the show on this. But it doesn’t do enough for me. We need more, we need to understand value.

My personal goal in the first quarter of 2011 is to identify a methodology for understanding the value actually created for an influencer. I don’t believe in the PR AVE value calculation and don’t believe you can place the same £ figure on each influencer. To understand this I am reviewing PR methodologies, sports sponsorship methodologies and costings, endorsements, brand advocacy, and I will be publishing results end of February.

3) Leaving seeding to the PR people. Seeding is one of the unglamorous jobs of any social strategy. Its pure implementation and sadly, time and time again its value is diminished by a press release on PR Wire, Cision Wire etc. Social shouldn’t be about seeding, it should be about identifying key value creators and taking them on a brand journey.

This could mean giving them access to parts of the factory never seen by anyone before, it could be giving them a year’s supply of product, it could mean getting them to be your board’s cultural advisor. All in all, 2011 shouldn’t be about seeding if you are a future-facing social strategist, brand and agency.

4) Working on the Inside.. The impossibility of implementing strong social strategies from the outside of a company grows further and further each day. Insider knowledge in terms of social channels and strategies is absolutely vital. I can never know as much about your brand as your brand managers, I can never know as much about the functions of a product as the product designer.

To succeed in 2011, it is vital, absolutely vital, that social strategies start from a core of ambassadors, linchpins, mavens, rabbits (they know all the routes down the tunnels), and is amplified by external connections and channels. Those that do this will win, those that don’t won’t.

5) Working in threes. You need three people to run a social strategy. A social strategist (focused on the cross-section of sociology and techology), a creative technologist (focused on the cross-section of technology and ideas) and a creative writer (focused on bringing alive ideas, content and collaborations)

Josh Rubin and Evan Orensten are two big voices in digital culture. Highly creative minds who happen to also run one of the web’s most influential voices on fashion, style and culture called Cool Hunting. I ran my first campaign on Cool Hunting with Philips back in 2005, a promotion of their Ambilight TV. Fortunately, strategies around Cool Hunting have come along way since then and its good to see them making an appearance on the high street through their amazing partnership with Gap.
Gap to me, are a traditional brand. They haven’t made many digital inroads and I don’t think they have been set-up to be a digitally driven retail player. However, the incredibly smart move to get Cool Hunting on board has pushed them forward with two gigantic steps.

The first step is to tie in with a massive online influencer and within the area of fashion/style, they don’t come much bigger than Josh at Cool Hunting. What this has done for them is generate a huge amount of coverage, both mainstream news and online cultural news. Something that Gap would have struggled to do on their own, apart from their obvious and slightly sad logo debacle. Sadly, Gap’s lack of knowledge about online continues as there is no reference to the Cool Hunting partnership (as far as I can see) within their gap.com site.

The second step is to position themselves away from chinos, boring white shirts and badly fitting jeans. The usage of the Cool Hunting name and Josh’s eye for great products has meant that Gap have developed an interesting alternative string to their bow. Something that people wouldn’t have allowed them credibility for if they had simply said “we are going to do a Gap concept store”.

I think this marks a new age for marketing. Taking really genuine online influencers, people who have been crafting for years on their blogs, their websites and most importantly their audiences, and developing an offering alongside them to push into the more real space such as the high street, but potentially into theatres, movie screens, brand design etc.

The new BBC iPlayer launched this week to a chorus of applause. You may take a look at it and wonder what makes it so special. The truth is on first glance, you might simply think this is simply a slightly more polished video player, but with plans to share the iPlayer further abroad the social aspects of the player are suddenly much more apparent.

My view on the old player was simply that it wasn’t social enough. There wasn’t much, if any, sharing functionality, it didn’t profile me or my interests and I found it hard to get recommendations. The new iPlayer is much more social. Although I have to log-in via a BBC iD rather than the seemingly standard Facebook Connect, the connection allows me to post what I am watching through my status update on Facebook and Twitter… effectively meaning that BBC is allowing users to show they are “checking-in” to programming, something that GetGlue have been trying to kick-off in the UK recently.

Fast Company have done a really good piece on this:

“The watchwords for the new site are convenience and personalization. Hence, the BBC has arranged the user landing page for so that it’s easier to find TV shows one wants to see. The player module can now be launched in a stand-alone window, meaning you can continue to watch a show while you do other things on the site, or elsewhere on the Web, much more easily. It’s also a neat way to power your TV directly with iPlayer content, if you’re one of those connected souls who’s TV is hooked up as a second monitor for your PC. Meanwhile, integrating the iPlayer profile with Facebook and Twitter accounts is now simpler, to facilitate sharing info about your shows with your friends or followers.

But this social net interactivity isn’t fast enough for the BBC, so soon the network will be building in Windows Messenger powers to the system, enabling real-time chats during program viewings. The Beeb is obviously envisaging TV show catch-up parties, with excited folks IM-nattering about this week’s goings-on by Doctor Who or whatnot … though the jury is still out over whether this is actually a good idea (check out Fox’s disastrous attempts at the same thing). In a move something akin to Facebook’s “like” button or Amazon’s “wish lists,” you can also now build lists of your favorite shows to share with people.

The revamped system is also cleverly rigged up so you can download TV show content before it’s had its first terrestrial broadcast, and although you can’t watch it during this period, it means you can do so instantly upon its TV airing. In some sense, this is the BBC enabling a Tivo-like “live TV pause” power into its service.”

The reason I find this interesting as a benchmark is that the iPlayer has made some really simple changes to a product which was already fundamentally very strong. What they have done by adding sharing functionality is to create multiple advocates, linchpins, or collaborators for every single bit of content that is screened on the iPlayer. This is something that all business should be thinking about socially… how do I turn every consumer touchpoint I have into an opportunity to create advocacy for my brand?.

As with every network my handle is: mattbambow

Seth Godin stands out as one of the most important business writers of this generation. Not only has he been at the forefront of ideas such as The Purple Cow and my Dad’s favourite, Tribes, he has also recently pushed forward the idea of the Linchpin. (Link Here) The Linchpin is an essential person to be, but also an essential person to have around you in your organisation.

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