Marketing today

Gen Y are the children of the baby boomers. They are the largest group of consumers on the planet and that makes them very interesting to marketers pushing products. The really fascinating thing about this group is that everything about them is game changing. Full report here. The highlights look like this;

• They are connected ALL the time (cell phone, ipod, PS3). What does that mean for marketers? They don't see or hear your messages.
• They consult their friends and parents for buying decisions so your ads don't matter
• They are closer to their parents then any other
• They are more interested in lifestyle when choosing a job and aren't as motivated by money.
• They expect their web tools to connect them at work as well as home. Gen Y connect with their friends all the time all day via instant messenger and social media sites. Companies that don't use Web 2.0 technologies will be left behind.
• They expect transparency with brands they love
• Good news; they are forgiving. Make a mistake, own up to it and they will give you a pass.
• Good news; they are socially conscious. They will demand the same from employers and brands they do business with

I find this group of consumers fascinating. I'm a Gen X'er. My generation is vastly different from this group. I don't remember ever consulting my parents for opinions before I buy.  But make no mistake, this very large group of consumers will change the way marketing is done. Since kids and parents are so tightly connected marketers will have to figure out how to appeal to both groups of consumers.

eMarketer came out with a very interesting report today that shows some staggering growth for online communities. It reports almost 50% of all Internet users participate in some form of online community. Hobby-oriented and Social communities are the most popular. The community I launched this week would be considered a hobby-oriented community because people are sharing about things they like to do in their free time, photo sharing, blogging, movie making. I also agree that as the social graph continues to evolve websites will get smarter about aggregating people's content. I should be able to have one place where I keep my profile data and I should be able to automatically input that data into any community I want to participate in. I don't want to upload new photos and write new favorite things list every time I join a new online community. But if I'm participating in a professional community I would have a different profile than if I was participating in my fashionista community so I want the option to change profiles. But either way I should be given the change to use my existing profile data from my blog, Facebook page, or whatever.  The back-end support for the Window Live community that will be live in July is an aggregation model that pulls existing data from people's Spaces profile page. If they ever want to update their profile data they go to one place and the data syncs across all the different properties they have chosen to participate in.

Today I'm really excited to announce the community program I have been working on for the better part of ten months is taking it's first baby steps. As I've mentioned many times on this blog I am a true believer in the power of the community, the voice of the customer. Communities have been around for centuries in many different forms. And today with the tools available on the Internet it's become easier than ever to bring together people who share common interests, goals and passions.

What first started me on this road to build a Windows Live community was last summer when I was focused on Spaces. I was constantly amazed at the creative and innovative ways people were using Spaces to build businesses, connect with family, share family photos and babies first steps. Many of these Spaces are hugely personal websites where people share the most important part of their lives with the people they care about the most. It occurred to me that the Spaces customers were the ones who knew Spaces the best and the experience they had would benefit other people who may want to do the same things but maybe don't know how.

Today I've asked a small group of Windows Live customers if they would like to share their experiences and expertise with the larger Windows Live community. My hope is people will learn from each other and find inspiration from the community. I believe our customers are our best advocates as well as the best way for me to learn what we are doing right and things we can do better. My role will be primarily as an enabler letting the conversations flow between consumers. I look forward to working with them honestly and openly. In the coming months as we get things up and running look for more information.  As well I'll share learning's along the way. It should be an interesting and exciting ride.

I had an agency I work with ask me this yesterday. In the spirit of true Social Media, also known as Generation C (consumer, connected, community, creative, controlling, content) rather than create my own definition I found a great presentation on Slideshare.  My short answer to the agency is Web 1.0 was about traditional media, adding another channel for brands to talk 'at' people. Like TV and radio Web 1.0 was a medium to spout brand messages and product info. Web 2.0 has brought about a new media, Social Media. Instead of a monologue there is now a dialog. The conversation is two way between consumers and brands. This huge shift in media calls for a new marketing strategy. It's not sufficient or effective for that matter to use traditional media tactics in this new social media.

 

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For those interested, I'm participating in a free American Marketing Association webcast next month. The topic is Unlocking Social Media’s ROI through Engagement & Participation. I'll be talking with Peter Kim, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research and Blake Cahill, Sr. Vice President of Marketing, Visible Technologies. You can register here.

I was at the now semi-famous Twitter session this week at Web 2.0. You can see some interesting discussions by Des Walsh and Jeremiah Owyang on the subject. I commented on both discussions.  For me the Twitter session confirmed my opinion that while entertaining, there isn't a clear business value on Twitter as a stand alone channel. I definitely believe monitoring Twitter conversations for discussions about your brand should absolutely be a part of a Social Media monitoring plan. But that isn't specific to Twitter, it's listening to conversations across the entire social web. This Twitter session had the Twitter feed showing up on the big screens so everyone in the audience could see what everyone else is saying. This was hugely distracting. The Twitter feed took center stage of the session and anything the panelists said was trumped by what the audience members were saying to each other about stinky people sitting next to them or that Robert Scoble walked into the room.

What the session did prove is Twitter can be useful as a backchannel tool during group presentations. It would be difficult for a speaker to monitor Twitter herself if she is presenting, but if it's a panel or a group of speakers someone can be monitoring the Twitter feed and make needed real time adjustments if needed. That was pretty cool because I did see one of the sessions I was in getting a lot better once the moderator started taking feedback from the audience via Twitter.

I just completed my first day of sessions at the Web 2.0 Expo. Definitely a bit of brain overload but overall I've been underwhelmed.  Only one session I attended today talked specifically about business goals. Groundswell authors Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff gave a great presentation based on the material in their new book. They did a great job of driving all strategies back to business goals. According to them the last thing to consider in a social media plan is the technology. It's crucial to understand and be very clear up front what business challenge you are trying to solve for. As basic as this sounds, very few people are talking about this. I sat in on a Community panel session this morning and the majority of the discussion was around tactical elements; How do you get the traffic? How do you moderate the posts? What I wanted to know was what business objectives they were trying to accomplish? Are they trying to lower support costs, raise brand awareness, upsell check out carts?

I have to say I've seen Twitter used in an interesting and productive way. Two sessions I was in the panel moderators were monitoring Twitter feeds to get real time feedback on the session. They were able to take questions from the audience and get at least one session back on track that was getting very dry. I still haven't seen a clear business reason for a brand to create a presence in Twitter. I definitely see value in monitoring tweets and responding when a brand can offer help and assistance to customers. But that doesn't require a brand to have a presence in Twitter, that's part of a comprehensive social media management plan where brands should be listening to all different online channels of discussion, not specific to just Twitter.

On a somewhat amusing note the amount of social networking opportunities is comical. Here are all the possible links a Web 2.0 attendee could participate in; Twitter, Blogtropol.us, Facebook, Crowdvine, Fireball, Backchannel, Flickr. I've checked a few but not much conversation on them. I have yet to see the value of at least half of them. As one keynote presenter said today, don't innovate just to be innovative. Make sure there is a business problem you are trying to solve. I'm pretty sure we don't need 7 different social media sites to find out where people are having beer after the keynote.

Hope better for tomorrow.

In honor of Earth day yesterday I thought I would take a minute to share the things I do with my kids to make sure we are aware of our earth and natural resources.

1. I have a new rule I only allow myself to drive to work 2 days a week. The good thing about this is I condense what errands I would need to do in those 2 days I have the car. The other days I either carpool, work remote, or take our fabulous MSFT shuttle.
2. We recycle 80% of our trash. We are very lucky in Seattle to have such a good recycle program. We rinse out most all packaging (cream cheese, ice cream containers) and recycle
3. I send my kids lunch to school in Tupperware, not plastic bags. They never have garbage after their lunch to throw away.
4. We wash and reuse plastic water bottles.
5. I bring my own bags to grocery stores.
6. I will never take a bag from a store where I'm buying something if it's even remotely small. For example, the kids and I hung out at Barnes and Noble Sunday afternoon. They each got 2 books and carried them out of the store, no bag needed. I bought a post card the last time I was in Vegas to send to my dear Grandmother and the store actually offer me a bag.. for a postcard! You'd be amazed at the trash you save by not taking bags all the time.
7. We buy and use the more expense light bulbs.

Of course I still haven't figured out how to make up for the 4 years worth of plastic diapers I filled the landfills with when my kids were babies. Ahhh.... always learning.

No surprise there. Google grabbed the top spot on the list of this years most powerful brand.  Apple's moved up, and poor Marlboro is barely clutching on to the top 10 by a hair.

1. Google
2. GE
3. Microsoft
4. Coke
5. China Mobile
6. IBM
7. Apple
8. McDonald's
9. Nokia
10. Marlboro

I've watched reaction in the blogosphere to MyStarbucksidea and it's been quite interested (original post here). Some heavy bloggers really hate the idea, like here and here. But if you read down in any of the comments the response has been much more positive that the bloggers are giving it credit for. Much criticism has been around the fact that it doesn't work like a social networking site should. I would argue that it is not at all intended to be a social networking site. It's an open forum for customers to say what they want and for Starbucks to hear the good and the bad. Why is that such a bad idea? If you disagree with this idea then you have to add Dell's Ideastorm to the mix. Ideastorm does the exact same thing.

These bloggers have taken the opportunity to jump on a negative brand bashing bandwagon without pointing out the good things the site has done. I agree it's not a perfect execution. Starbucks may have been better served by leveraging the love of the over 800 current blogs devoted specifically to Starbucks. They have an online community that already exists and it would have been interesting to see what that community thought of the idea first and how they could help spread the word. But having said that I think it's a real shame fellow marketers would throw any idea under the bus that is as customer focused as this one is. 

This is Monday morning quarterbacking from people who weren't running up and down the field Sunday afternoon. Unless you are out there everyday trying and failing and trying again to crack this Social Media code as I and many other marketers are I don't think you have the right to judge. Maybe it looks easier than it is, because I will tell you it's not. I haven't seen a brand yet that has found the secret sauce, but as a supporter of markerers like myself I applaud them for trying. It's become far too easy to judge and criticize from afar. If you aren't running a business everyday that lives and dies by the product innovation, positioning, marketing opportunities and yes... marketing, please understand that for those of us who are small victories are mighty.

AND.. FYI Starbucks is listening. The number one request from customers was a frequent shopper card, a coffee punch card, and Starbucks has announced a Card Reward Program that will work with their existing Starbucks cards. Customer register their Starbucks card online and will be eligible for coffee discounts. Rock on!