Chapter 9
The New Media University 601
Mobile Marketing and Video Broadcasting
Higher education inspires us to strive for the insights that yield intelligence and personal significance. And here we are learning and sharing together—not about what we think we know, but mining for knowledge we don't yet possess. It's this ambition that broadens the gap between you, your goals, and everyone else. This is your time.
Let's now draw the curtains to reveal the windows into geo location and mobile networking, widgets and applications, and the immensely gripping and popular video broadcast networks.
GEO LOCATION AND MOBILE NETWORKING
One of the lesser-known, more interesting facts about Twitter is also one of its most legendary. Even though Twitter debuted in March 2006, it took one year and an onslaught of South by Southwest (SXSW) geeks convening in Austin, Texas, and the transient activity that would ultimately bring Twitter into the social media spotlight where it would stay for years later. For those who are unfamiliar with SXSW, it is an annual landmark event that combines music, film, and interactives to celebrate the artistry of the people who are engendering innovation and engaging communities in the real world.
During SXSW 2007, Twitter became the glue that connected everyone together during the pandemonium associated with the conference, which is attended by thousands of geeks from all over the world. Tweets flew back and forth, with attendees alerting friends and followers where they were and what they were witnessing, to share experiences and designate the next rendezvous. This rush of early adopters congregating in one city at the same time and using Twitter as a real-time human-powered positioning system helped to establish awareness for an application that initially struggled to find a market.
Even as Twitter was acquiring market share, it wasn't the first micromedia network designed to connect people through geography and location. At the time, Dodgeball was also competing for users as the essential network that bound together people and the locales they occupied online and in the real world. For several reasons, Twitter adoption outpaced Dodgeball, and subsequently Google eventually laid the service to rest.
With the launch of the iPhone and other smartphones, the rise of mobile networks flourished. Applications such as BrightKite and Loopt introduced a new element to micro and mobile networking. Not only are people encouraged to update their status, they're motivated to check in to specific locations, tying a place with an action.
Two years after Twitter stormed SXSW, a new service also emerged as the breakout application to consume attention (and bandwidth) during the popular show in Austin. Built by one of the original creators of Dodgeball, FourSquare united location-based networking with micronetworking, and introduced a gaming element to the experience.
Like Loopt, FourSquare uses the phone's ability to discern a location and, based on the privacy settings, can show nearby friends and the locations that they've visited on a map. FourSquare also rewards users and ranks them by city and by location. Updates are also transmittable to Twitter and Facebook for public consumption or as direct messages to stay connected to important contacts in both networks. While these mobile networks operate independently from Twitter, they are meant to extend the functionality of existing networks, not replace them.
With mobile networking, the world becomes a much smaller place. Mobile networking also uncovers new riches and interesting people within each neighborhood for discovery and exploration. It brings to life not only online and offline relationships, but also the local businesses and locales people are checking in to.
There's an interesting play here for businesses looking to promote a local presence and also attract new customers. Certainly, many of the applications mentioned in the Top 21 Tips for Twitter (see Chapter 8) will serve as inspiration. Coupons, offers, events, tips and advice, and to-do lists represent the initial opportunities to establish goodwill, create a presence, and forge loyal relationships. When tied to Yelp, local-based networks can symbolize a potential windfall—when practiced genuinely, sincerely, and creatively.
For example, in FourSquare, an individual who repeatedly visits and checks in to a particular location eventually becomes the mayor of that establishment, until someone else overthrows her. In one example, San Francisco–based Marsh Cafe is promoting free drinks for the Foursquare Mayor. Thousands of businesses all over the world are following suit. And why not? Millions of people everywhere are already using the service. Every time someone checks in, he's essentially marketing and advertising a business or service—especially if he adds updates, tips, and to-dos around the location. It's peer-to-peer influence at its best and very engaging.
However, as in any social network, you must embrace and participate in the community if you wish to truly be part of it.
VIDEO BROADCAST NETWORKS
Video is the new frontier, again, and it's powered by the socialization of content. The ability to produce and publish online video is universal and the networks that host them can extend the reach of any person or brand globally, facilitating connections based on the content in a practically limitless array.
YouTube popularized the use of embedded code to encourage people to automatically add favorite videos to their websites, blogs, and profiles in social networks. It is this use of embedded code that further fueled the creation of other embeddable content, such as pictures, documents and presentations, animated media, and games.
In December 2010, Forrester Research released a powerful statistic: the average U.S. consumer now spends as much time online as watching television. Social networking and online video are among the top catalysts for the shift in attention.
Obviously the opportunity for finding online video audiences is tremendous. Getting and holding their attention, however, is different. Anyone can shoot and upload a video. We represent a brand, however, and that brand perception is defined through the content we produce and share. Quality, professionalism, creativity, and context speak volumes. Otherwise anyone, including your competitors, could win market share through the creation of amateur video.
There's a reason why I say that there's no such thing as viral videos and viral marketing. It's people that make something viral, not the video itself. Simply uploading a video to YouTube will not in and of itself earn attention, nor will it spark a flurry of views and shares. Almost nothing goes viral without preparation and orchestration, with a little luck added for good measure.
Videos are mostly viewed as finite campaigns and not as dedicated channels to visualizing a company or brand story.
In one such example, which must unfortunately go unnamed, I was hired by a major consumer pet food company to help save its viral videos that debuted on YouTube a month earlier. The marketing team was frustrated that the videos hadn't received a significant volume of views and were prepared to kill the entire campaign. However, with a little strategy, guidance, and coordination, we resuscitated the videos through an informed, targeted, and substantial outbound program.
First, we removed the videos from YouTube and created a new, more intriguing, dedicated, and polished channel to house the content. We then cleverly titled and tagged the videos to promote social media optimization (SMO). This gave the videos a fresh start, with zero views and recent upload dates. Since time was of the essence, we didn't include the usual program element of assembling and managing a devoted digital street team to help us promote the videos across the Social Web. Note: these teams are either paid or rewarded with noteworthy or valuable stuff.
We then monitored conversations on Twitter, blogs, and other video networks related to dogs, bacon, and other key attributes of the video series and drafted clever, yet informational introductions to the video and encouraged people to view and share. For Twitter, we used Search.Twitter.com and PeopleBrowsr (now ReSearch.ly), and for blogs we used blogsearch.google.com and Technorati (we searched blogs by topic, not keywords). The video earned 20,000 views within the first 24 hours, and that number only continued to skyrocket as time progressed. Not that views account for success, but in this case, views were used as the metric from the inception point.
In other cases we tied an action to the end result to help us truly measure the effectiveness of the video. When we were introducing a particular online social bookmarking tool, we realized that its greatest market opportunity resided with the vertical markets of users seeking to document, share, and plan activities and projects around information discovered online. We shot a four-minute demonstration video as a screencast (a video that captures what's on the computer screen) along with narration from the user perspective. The goal of the video was to inform people that a new solution existed that could help them. Our metrics were determined by how many people watched the video and clicked through to download the application. With these two parameters in mind, we drafted a script and storyboard that would entertain, capture attention, and motivate people to click through to install the software based on their needs. Again, titled and tagged strategically in YouTube as well as promoted among the people we discovered who were already looking for a solution like this on Twitter, blogs, and other social networks, we earned 70,000 views in one week with almost 60 percent of those translating into direct downloads. The campaign continued effectively and would ultimately spark a new series of videos that demonstrated its advantages to specific markets.
With reference to digital street teams, they can be a highly effective group when directed and managed. They must be held to metrics, which should be defined before the formation and official deployment of the team. Viral marketing agencies exist and they can help you produce and promote videos. They're not inexpensive, but they can orchestrate popular, far-reaching campaigns. Ultimately, it's the intent and goals of the video that determine the content and promotion strategies.
Many businesses film their spokespersons or project leads demonstrating or discussing a product or service and in most cases, it never truly connects or resonates with viewers. That's marketing of old as they're usually presented in a top-down messaging format, showcasing the features and benefits that the presenter thinks makes for interesting viewing. Other videos feature interviews with executives or key personnel, but much like the demo videos, most are not terribly interesting, revealing, or gripping. Online videos aren't necessarily gimmicks nor are they intended to provide the same old broadcast messages using new mediums. We learned otherwise.
This is storytelling.
This is entertainment.
This is education.
This is your chance to genuinely connect with people in ways and in places where their attention is focused and impressionable, using a human voice or creative narrative. It's where they already search for interesting videos tied to the keywords that are important to them. What's there to represent you now?
Videos can range from short demos, screencasts, or event footage, to entertaining “day in the life of” snippets, collages, customer or hero interviews, original episodes related to your value proposition, or behind-the-scenes footage, to helpful guides and did-you-know segments that appeal to viewers as well as help them learn, solve, or perform something they couldn't do before watching the video.
In 2010, when Ford was set to introduce the all-new Explorer, it decided to break the rules. Instead of launching the car at an auto show like every car manufacturer has done over the years, Ford took to Facebook, creating a custom tab to host the debut. As part of its Reveal campaign, it reached out to bloggers and influencers to alert them of a unique campaign that would reveal the new Explorer on Facebook using social video as the key ingredient to tell the story. On the hour, Ford released a new video, each with a different perspective on the story behind the story. Rather than use typical spokespersons, the company relied on the people who brought the new Explorer to life. It was their story and with it, pride and gratification beamed through. According to Scott Monty, Ford's head of social media, the Reveal campaign earned as many impressions as a Super Bowl commercial for far less. And, it made an emotional connection with viewers.
Now before you jump in to the director's chair, think about the video strategy and the associated branding of your online video presence. I highly recommend creating one master channel and also dedicated channels to specific programming and company divisions. These channels also need satellite channels such as Facebook. This keeps everything focused, organized, and highly brandable without cluttering or diluting the brand through the saturation of various videos housed in one massive location.
Also, it's essential that each video is titled, described, and tagged with SMO using the keywords that are important to your market as well as the keywords that your customers and prospects are using to find relevant information.
Figure 9.1 Home Depot on YouTube
VIDEO EXAMPLE: HOME DEPOT
Home Depot serves as an excellent example of a brand publishing relevant and educational video content that won't be dismissed as overly promotional or gimmicky. The company launched a Home Depot branded channel on YouTube (www.homedepot.com/youtube) that features know-how videos on relevant material—anything from programming a thermostat for optimal energy efficiency to installing a bath fan (see Figure 9.1). While a step-by-step video on retiling the shower doesn't have mass appeal, it's going to be highly relevant to a key demographic—those interested in do-it-yourself home renovation projects (and those most likely looking to buy bathroom tiles and other needed supplies).
What's particularly successful about Home Depot's approach is that the videos lack outright product pitches by blatant spokespeople. Instead, we see Home Depot employees offering practical advice and walking through each step in a very natural, friendly way. It's almost as if someone walked in to their local Home Depot and asked a store associate a question. Of course, Home Depot is promoting their merchandise, but more importantly, they're establishing themselves as a trusted and friendly resource for whatever home improvement task is on the front burner.