The year was 1994, and a top sales exec at Procter & Gamble was asking our agency about “this World Wide Web thing. Should we be on it?” I was trying to get our CFO to fund a domain and email server in order to demonstrate that we did indeed have the expertise to guide P&G through what would become a seismic technological shift (he eventually relented and we helped create pg.com, Version 1.0).

“BOOOO!” “GET OFF THE STAGE!” “Why would I sell my cars online?” “We don’t want your Internet!”

The chorus of boos was growing louder. This time it was 1999, and I was onstage at a national dealer association annual meeting, proposing to bring e-commerce to 1,200 very hostile car dealers. And they weren’t having any of it. They saw e-commerce not as a shiny new sales channel, but as a serious threat that gave buyers visibility into secretive dealer pricing and margins. But after an intense hour of countering objections that tested my debating and crowd control skills, my antiperspirant and my professionalism, they eventually relented and signed up for the first online test-drive scheduling system.

Fast forward to 2016 and I’m still guiding skeptical companies through the often-challenging process of digital transformation. Still. Because two universal truths still hold true:

1. No one likes disruption. 
2. People, culture and process are still the make-or-break factors in successful digital transformation.

A rock and a hard place: the balance between productivity and disruption

People are the mechanism by which companies create value — yet once our teams find equilibrium with their skill sets, culture and process, prying them from that hard-won equilibrium is quite difficult. In a increasingly complex world, when it comes to getting work done, people like simplicity, clarity and routine. Job insecurities can create a culture of keeping one’s head down. And KPIs must be achieved. Bonuses, where they exist, must be had. Who wants to rock that boat?

But pushing against team equilibrium is the ever-accelerating flow of innovation, and increasing urgency from upper management to adapt. Continuous innovation is creating more connectivity, more engagement, new revenue opportunities, new competitive threats, and challenges to incumbent business models. Adapting to the right innovation is critical: 78% of businesses surveyed said that achieving digital transformation will become critical to their organizations within the next two years (MIT Sloan). 74% of CEOs are concerned about new entrants disrupting their business models (KPMG). And 50%+ of executives and 10 out of 13 industries anticipate massive digital disruption in their industry over the next twelve months (HBR). Hesitation? Ain’t nobody got time for that!

There’s also a monetary incentive: according to McKinsey, digital transformation is expected to boost the bottom line for many companies by +50% over the next 5 years.

What’s an executive to do when their teams have found equilibrium around ways to achieve short-term revenue goals, yet short- to medium-term disruption is requiring immediate change? Answer: embark on a mission to transform the organization and increase talent resilience, through culture change, skills adjustment and process re-engineering.

Successfully advancing our clients’ digital maturity happens in that murky place between culture and disruption. That’s why my business partner Sean Moffitt and I are proud to announce today’s launch of our digital transformation consultancy, Precog Digital. Our goal? To bring clarity, rigor and politically-agnostic digital change that benefits the entire organization. Because…

We’re not there yet with transformation. Fortunately, some basic approaches can help.

For many of our clients, the thought of “digital transformation” creates an intimidating mix of fear, uncertainty and doubt. This from the May 2016 InformationAge:

“(There is) a growing sense of anxiety about embarking on digital transformation — 47% of companies haven’t actually started yet. 33% won’t execute this year.” (IDC)

So if you’re unclear about the What of transformation, and hesitant about the When, you’re not alone! Fortunately, some basic approaches can help reduce risk and pave the way to easier change.

First, a good Innovation Management Plan can detail the whys, whats, hows and the business case supporting the change. This plan should also identify and quantify the potential financial impact of competitive threats – which often come from outside your category. Tie the plan to management KPIs and you’ll have better chance of obtaining their support.

Next, you’ll need to foster a culture of risk-taking and agility. We know that’s easier said than done. Nurture a sense of fearlessness and curiosity within your teams. Explain the stakes – and the opportunities. Encourage employees to rethink processes, tools and new products in their own terms (but arm them with some thought-starters).

We’ll just leave this right here. #coolcurator

A photo posted by Headlines & Heroes (@headlinesandheroes) on Aug 2, 2016 at 4:36am PDT

Conduct hackathons and innovation days. When employees come to you with their first tentative efforts to propose change, they will likely need your guidance. Do not shoot their ideas in the head. Put some basic governance guardrails into place to allow teams closest to the work to have the autonomy to find new equilibriums. Incent them to succeed. And if they can’t or won’t, make the required talent and structure changes. The stakes are that high.

Google and 3M are great examples of companies who have encouraged fearlessness. For example, 35% of 3M’s company revenues come from products released in the last four years. That’s the kind of leadership needed to guide, nurture and support the changes required to succeed.

As far as agility goes, consider working with management and Human Resources to turn annual reviews into quarterly performance sprints. Focus each employee around a max of 3-4 key goals. Remind them that “Perfect” is the mortal enemy of “Done.”

Recognize that not everyone is digitally-minded. And that’s okay. Of course most CEOs, COOs, CMOs and their teams should “be digital.” But the reality is that tech knowledge and comfort come more naturally to some rather than others. Don’t try to force everyone into Innovation Conformity, but definitely encourage a mindset of curiosity, exploration and freedom from worry that “no good idea goes unpunished.”

Operational teams will need to identify and choose the tools and platforms that work best. These may not initially meet with IT’s approval depending on security concerns. Software platforms like Evernote, Slack, and Trello might be inexpensive ways in which to achieve faster workflows and reduced costs – but might also draw objections from the CTO. When the team chooses its tools, adoption comes much more quickly (think about the adoption rates when a platform was last forced on you *cough* *Yammer* *cough*). You’ll need to champion your team’s selections with your CIO/CTO and try to find some mutual goals.

Remember: commonly-held assumptions often block transformation. You’ll need to challenge everything you know about your current business model and product/service offerings. And as you consider how to deliver value to customers, be sure to stress-test each idea. An innovation that can’t survive simple tests isn’t something you should sell to management or bring to market.

It’s all on you, leader

Finally, as a leader, you’ll need to provide constant feedback and communication — to upper management, employees, and the board. You will need to be the champion, owner, spirit guide, cheerleader, and management whisperer for this change, which means that you will need to truly believe in the value of the effort. Create communications plans with regular Transformation Updates, success stories, team transformation and innovation awards, and the real value provided by ad-hoc digital projects, competitive advantages gained, customer experiences improved, talent that’s been transformed, and ways the company has future-proofed against revenue threats.

The list of shuttered companies who failed to anticipate is long.

Don’t let a natural reticence to disrupt your team’s equilibrium turn your firm into another Radio Shack, Blockbuster or Borders. Leverage smart disruption to effect positive change and revenue growth.

——————————————————————————————

ERIC WEAVER is co-founder and managing director for Precog Digital. He has advised executive teams at over 80 major brands across 10 countries on digital disruption and transformation. He speaks globally and has been quoted in AdAge, Brand Republic (UK), BusinessWeek, Cemiyat (TK), Forbes, Fortune, Hoover’s, Inc. Magazine, MediaWeek, Subvertising (IT), TV Guide and the Washington Post.

PRECOG DIGITAL

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Seattle WA 98104

+1 855 5PRECOG (855-577-3264)

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THE LATEST: Want the juicy details about the state of digital transformation in 2016? Take our Digital Periscope survey and we’ll share our findings and key insights with you, upon its completion.

SPEAKING: our principals are frequent conference keynoters covering digital disruption and transformation. Contact Brandie ( a t ) PrecogDigital.com to enquire about topics and rates.

Highlights:

• This problem is far, far worse than you might think
• Identity theft is on the rise – and social data is powering that rise
• Your face + your public social data can equal identity theft and bank fraud
• Governments and some predatory corporations now have access to, and are shopping for, illegal hacking and surveillance tools
• This isn’t about “targeted marketing”
• We’re a bit addicted, aren’t we? We turn off our risk-o-meter. And social media enthusiasts may be the most resistant to the idea of social-powered risk.
• Government is waking up to the problem, and Obama passes a new Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights –  a step in the right direction (see “2013 Update” at the end of this article)

A social strategist — concerned that social media has lost much of its safety

I COUNSEL FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES ON CORPORATE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR A LIVING. I also have a full-on love affair with both social networking and with my friends and my connections to them. Social technologies and memes are not just an interest, they pay my mortgage and they make me smile on a daily basis. They bring a tremendous richness to my life.

I’M ALSO A PRIVACY PRAGMATIST. I realize that if I want those connections and that constant stream of friend data, there is some risk involved. So when I post anything, I’m thoughtful about who might see it. I also know the business models of many sites rely on advertising and ad sales – and I’m cool with them making a buck within the context of a trusted, transparent relationship.

But as careful as we may be with what we post, a growing list of privacy breaches, bugs, and corporate malfeasance incidents put our identity, the control of our privacy, and ultimately our bank accounts in jeopardy. Our happy days of connecting with friends, and sharing a lot of info, without concern about privacy risk, have come to an end.

For the latter half of 2011 and into early 2012, we witnessed a significant increase in privacy breaches, bad corporate behavior and other Web-related violations of the social compact – each one seemingly more egregious than the previous. Concerned, I began looking into privacy and social media – particularly around Facebook, my primary social network.

Much to my dismay, I found myriad examples of privacy gaffes and slip-ups, along with powerful and secretive surveillance companies mining social media, and opportunities for identity thieves to use your social footprint to defraud you. Apparently, it’s easier than ever.

“Well, duh,” you snort. “None of that’s a surprise.” Here are a few things that might raise your eyebrows – or the hair on the back of your neck.

Serious new risk from identity theft

Identity theft is on the rise – powered in part by social sharing

According to a report by Javelin Research, social media users who post their personal information online or with smartphone apps are helping fuel the rise of identity theft in the US, up 13% in 2011 from 2010. Through accidental posts revealing too much, to naïve newbies who don’t realize the reach and search ability of social information, we are aiding those we’d rather not in taking our identity. For example:

Your photo, coupled with public social data, can lead thieves directly to your Social Security Number

A recent CBS News story on a study by Carnegie Mellon researchers showed that all it takes to get very very close to your SSN is a photo and public identity data available from paid databases or social networks. They even developed an iPhone test app that could extrapolate a social security number from a face – within three seconds. Take a snapshot, an image search occurs, your public social data is scanned, and voila, a SSN! Which means that nefarious parties with some cash, software and statistical savvy can use your online photos to steal your identity and clean out your bank account, just by walking by and snapping your photo. No I’m not kidding. Read the whitepaper to see how it’s done.

Inference engines, powered by freely available social media data, can fill in informational “holes” about you

Even when someone doesn’t have all the data on you, it’s easy to fill in the pieces, particularly if you’ve been active in social. The more you’ve willingly posted, the more likely it is that inference engines will accurately fill in the holes of what they don’t know about you, including behavioral projections, password projections and remaining pieces of your private personal data. Add social media to what data brokers sell, and you have identity theft on steroids and cocaine.

Facial recognition software now ties your face to your online footprint

THINK ABOUT IT – do you really want interested parties – government, corporations, stalkers, exes, opportunistic litigators, the press – being able to dig up dirt on you, from just your face? Facial recognition software has become rampant – perhaps irrevocably so. The problem is its use within social networks, where it can be tied to all sorts of very private information that you might not want others to have access to.

Law enforcement has become attracted to the power of this software in helping catch criminals, but simultaneously, its track record on a few high-profile tests netted few if any suspects.

Fortunately, lawmakers have taken notice about facial recognition. The real test is whether they do anything about it.

Once you’ve been defrauded, it’s going to get much harder to get your money back

This year, I had my first real identity theft, in which someone placed a skimmer (visual examples) on an ATM I used and created a fake debit card. They cleaned out my account. The surprise: how difficult my bank made it to get my money back, stating concerns that perhaps it was ME who was trying to defraud them! The investigation — in which I was simultaneously and very clearly using the “same” card in another part of the state — took two full months.

So don’t think it’s a simple call to your bank anymore. To protect themselves, banks need to do some digging on you as well.

Corporations and governments putting themselves first — and you last

Facebook using cookies to capture site visits — even when you’re logged out of Facebook

Facebook has been capturing URLs of sites you visit even when you’re logged out, “for your own safety and protection,” claimed one FB engineer. Facebook says this practice helps prevent fraudsters from logging in on public computers as you. Unconvinced, several plaintiffs are now suing Facebook for violation of federal wiretap laws.

In 2011, the FTC filed a formal complaint about Facebook’s privacy claims – calling them “deceptive.” The company settled in November, after which FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz praised Mark Zuckerberg’s blog post making a commitment to privacy. So are you ready to trust? Read this article on Mark Zuckerberg first.

In my opinion, that attitude totally conforms with this article about half-apologies and privacy boundary pushing.

Former CTO claims that forcing you to move to Timeline is a mechanism to sell more ads

This year, you’ll have to choose to convert to Timeline and its Sponsored Stories ad product – or leave Facebook. Why the push to Timeline? A supposed former CTO shared a presentation on how Facebook appears to be ramping up ad placement technology in preparation for an IPO. His or her identity has been kept secret by Business Insider. Hoax? Perhaps. But it makes sense.

Predatory marketers are totally cool with practices that would be considered completely unacceptable if done by friends or neighbors

From Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet & Society: “Click the local Home Depot ad and your email address gets handed to a dozen companies monitoring you. Your web browsing, past, present, and future, is now associated with your identity. Swap photos with friends on Photobucket and clue a couple dozen more into your username. Keep tabs on your favorite teams with Bleacher Report and you pass your full name to a dozen again. This isn’t a 1984-esque scaremongering hypothetical. This is what’s happening today.”

Many marketers and management teams have let fear and recessionary pressures drive them to unethical techniques that would be considered sociopathic if done by individuals. Bypass consumer control and you destroy trust. Destroy trust, decrease your transactions. Destroy your reputation, destroy your revenue.

But isn’t targeted marketing a good thing?

Yes, of course. If I have to have advertising in exchange for free site use, absolutely I’d rather it be targeted than shotgunned. But I should be able to control what I give up in exchange. And corporations should give me fair warning when they use it – not try to sneak it in the background. As Joshua Topolsky so smartly noted in a recent Washington Post article, “simply acknowledging that you’re going to take [our] data doesn’t make it a good idea; it just means that now we know you’ve got it.”

Couple this with a very alarming WSJ report on how corporations and governments are buying massively powerful and sometimes illegal hacking and surveillance technologies

The Wall Street Journal recently did a chilling exposé on a private hacking and surveillance technology conference in which surveillance vendors hawked their wares to governments and corporations. The public and press were denied entry to this conference – because of the potential public alarm it would cause.

Recently the WSJ updated the site with a list of the US and foreign agencies who are shopping for illegal hacking and surveillance tools.

Culturally, shouldn’t we care more?

Europeans seem far more concerned about Facebook and privacy than we do

These worries aren’t just in the US. European countries like the UK, Ireland and Germany are growing quite concerned about Facebook, social networks, facial recognition and privacy. FB is taking steps to defuse the situation. More: “EU Set to Slap Facebook With Privacy Sanctions”

All of this has also alarmed many long-time Internet veterans, several of whom are permanently logging out of Facebook

Stowe Boyd, managing director at Work Talk,  has spoken out against FB’s privacy follies. NYU’s Danah Boyd (unrelated to Stowe) is rightfully angry over the forcing of the masses to share personal data. Dave Winer, the social media pioneer who invented the podcasting concept, has bailed, out of concerns about Facebook’s alleged lack of privacy.

Surprisingly, many in the general user population don’t seem to care about the pervasiveness of surveillance and the selling of their information

Several surveys have been done that show that, despite multiple breaches of privacy and the resultant press coverage, many Facebook users don’t really seem to care — perhaps the desire to stay connected is that strong, or perhaps a feeling of powerlessness to change the trend. Are people just not aware that the more of a social footprint you leave, the bigger the risk of serious identity fraud? See “Facebook Users Don’t Care About Privacy After All” and “Facebook privacy is awful, but users don’t care, security expert says”

We’re also accepting half-assed answers — and few are being held accountable

Senator Al Franken, in his role on the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, demanded mobile software developer CarrierIQ explain its keylogging software. While CarrierIQ and several mobile networks responded, Franken continues to be “very troubled by what’s going on … there are still many questions to be answered here and things that need to be fixed.” Lame mea culpas about privacy violations aren’t just coming from Facebook. YOUR MOBILE PHONE KEYSTROKES WERE BEING CAPTURED WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE. People should be SCREAMING about this.

But should the blame also be on us? Are we creating a culture in which fear makes it acceptable to stalk anyone in your life?

Significant others, professionals, and others we meet in real life, can now be investigated via sites like BeenVerified. Have you seen the commercials? Some will say that if you’re doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide. But seriously — are you ready for this level of transparency? A dentist doing a background check to see if he should work on your teeth? A mortgage company’s loan offer being retracted because they found the WRONG record, for a different person with the same name?

A few years ago, I had all of my personal checks come back as fraudulent – because someone at CheckFree had miskeyed an account number by one digit, matching mine. Of course, there was no easy way to contact the company – and it took weeks to get my checking account number off the black list. What happens when the wrong social media data is pulled?

Or are we just accepting a lack of privacy as the norm, as Mark Zuckerberg suggests?

Think about your social footprint in the context of companies that are mining social data to stalk and report on you

New software and services offer unparalleled investigation into your social efforts. An underwriter might review your publicly available social media data to find out if you really did hurt yourself. I don’t mind fraud checking but this business practice has been largely ignored by the news media. What if I’m sick with a flu, but feel well enough to post “I have a flu” – and an underwriter judges me to be committing insurance fraud?

Your personal details aren’t just accessed – they are shared and sold and then sold and then sold

These privacy breaches aren’t just one-offs with limited outcomes. The implications echo on over time, because personal data is shared and sold. A recent report by CSO (Chief Security Officer) shows that criminals have established an online black market for login credentials. Path might take your contact data, but if Path is hacked, your data is now public – with the wrong kind of public.

Beware social media experts who downplay or disregard the risk

It behooves those who make their living off of social media expertise to downplay this entire issue. I also suspect many of them are so enamored by the technologies (like me) – and dependent on the incomes they provide – that my raising these issues is like being a messenger with bad news. No one wants to hear the party may be over – not when it’s so much fun!

They seem willing to trade their privacy for the functionality and connection, because a deep understanding and immersion in social is key to their business. Personally? I’m not willing.

IMO, this is a huge issue that all should be aware of and more should be concerned about. 

There is some good news

Awareness about privacy violations will drive change

A recent study by Pew seems to indicate that an awareness about privacy, and privacy controls, is on the rise. As more people are aware of the risks, they will clamor for change, driving both legislation and corporate change.

Some states are holding companies accountable

California just announced a privacy deal with the six largest mobile Web providers that will change how millions of consumers download apps to their smartphones and tablets. Through this deal, consumers should see prominent and easy-to-understand privacy disclosures before they download an app. This is great because it strengthens the existing California Online Privacy Act.

Government is finally getting involved

Thankfully, the Obama administration has accelerated legislation around consumer online privacy. Last week, on February 23rd, the White House announced the creation of a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights – a huge step forward toward removing the status quo. Several privacy watchdog groups feel the bill doesn’t go far enough – the Electronic Freedom Foundation worries that it undermines privacy advances at the state level – and some groups like my *cough* creepy stalker *cough* friends at the Direct Marketing Association are actively opposing it – but I’m just glad we’ve started the conversation about giving the consumer some control back. This Privacy Bill of Rights push continues to unfold and we’ll likely see much more about it over the next few weeks.

So what can you do?

Avoiding social is not a good strategy

Simplists will say, “ya don’t want any private information to leak out? Don’t post it online!” It would be great if the world was such a simple place. But that’s not realistic – particularly when 90% of recruiters pre-screen based on LinkedIn, and 69% will vet a candidate based on their social footprint. Avoiding social will actually work against you in this situation.

And when Google is the front door for finding and vetting people (business partners, candidates, a new neighbor), having a controlled footprint is far more beneficial (think personal branding) than being invisible. In my opinion, controlled transparency is a good thing.

Switch from Facebook to a more privacy-focused network?

As much as I love my Facebook experience, I started looking into alternatives in January 2012 when the gaffes and breaches started seeming very intentional.

GOOGLE+: “What about Google+,” I often get asked. I have no comment (former client) but they too recently bought a facial recognition software firm. And they are in the business of finding information and selling ads.

Google was also caught circumventing cookie blocking technology within Apple’s Safari browser. Circumvention of privacy controls is unethical, in my opinion, and violates consumer trust in a huge way.

ANYBEAT: Anybeat sounds great on paper. Billed as an anonymous alternative to social networking, the idea of connecting while maintaining privacy seemed very interesting. But a look at the privacy policy shows you can turn off data, but that in doing so, you’ll “disable important features.” Almost as if to say, “sure, you can be private, but look at how much less fun you’ll have!” Enticement.

PATH: Mobile-based Path — with a key selling argument that “Path is private by default” — also seemed interesting. But its policy basically states “we own all your data in conjunction with our service” — and if it gets hacked, sorry, not our problem. Weak. And then there is the fact that they intentionally uploaded user address books from unknowing users. WHAT A JOKE. “Private by default,” hunh?

Path may have deleted the data it uploaded – but it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

Stunningly, this month Twitter admitted to doing the exact same thing.

DIASPORA: New networks based on open-source code and distributed control have also thankfully appeared. The most interesting network to me is Diaspora — the only problem is that it doesn’t seem to have the funding behind it to survive long-term. I’m hoping they gain mass and a round of benevolent funding but in my opinion, they’re not quite ready for prime time.

MOVIM.EU: From my perspective, Movim.eu, Europe’s answer to a decentralized, more private social network, is similarly not quite ready for prime time. I’ll keep watching Diaspora and Movim, though – they’re “movim” in the right direction.

I’ll keep my eyes open but for now, there doesn’t seem to be any social network providing the real control of security and privacy that seems reasonable. Any suggestions?

What else can you do?

LEARN MORE. Read up on privacy, how you can protect yourself, at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

BLOCK TRACKING ADS AND COOKIES: How much value do you get out of online advertising – seriously? I’m a marketer and I feel I get NONE. So why let them stalk you anyway?  Ghostery, a magnificent plug-in for several browsers, will let you see how websites are attempting to install tracking cookies – and will block them. Frictionless, an add-on for Google’s Chrome, will improve your privacy specifically on Facebook.

Also, not to be obvious-impaired, but make sure you are fully utilizing Facebook’s privacy settings.

DISCONNECT COMPLETELY: What if you want to delete your Facebook account completely? It’s an option. But do this very carefully to back yourself out of the servers so as not to leave undeletable data that lives on after you’re gone. “FoodAndArt” posted this six-step approach to leaving Facebook on CBSNews.com as a means to leave as small a trace as possible.

COMPLAIN UP A STORM! Write your congress representatives and senators. The conversation is heating up right now about this issue. Make sure you’re heard.

“What about you, Eric?”

I’m doing a few things differently.

PRUNING A LOT OF FACEBOOK DATA: I’ve started deleting photos and extemporaneous posts from Facebook, while not hiding things that are already widely available in the public record (like cities where I’ve lived). I’m also removing Likes, disconnecting tangential connections, and thinning the content into a smaller public online profile I am comfortable sharing.

REMOVING MY FOOTPRINT FROM NETWORKS THAT OFFER LITTLE VALUE: Path? Deleting it. Xing? Bebo? MySpace? FourSquare? Either deleting my profiles or stopping my activity. I’m a huge FourSquare fan so that’s saying a lot.

DELETING RECORDS FROM DATA BROKERS WHEREVER POSSIBLE: they won’t all let you delete your public listings, but you can write to many data brokers to have your records expunged. Doing that now. Want to do that for yourself? Here’s a great list of brokers and steps to expunge your record.

The bottom line

As immensely valuable as my friend connections are to me, and as ironic as it is that social media is my vocation, and as much as I am aware that there’s already a ton of information available about me online — I will not help anyone stalk me, sell me as a product, or defraud me or my family. So my days of open “friends-only” sharing on Facebook are grinding to a halt, and I’m reexamining my entire social footprint, with less experimentation and with a greater eye on identity theft opportunities.

I suggest you do the same.

* * *

Pre-emptive Caveat: I have no solid proof of any social site selling data or operating in an unlawful way — I only have public behavior, news articles and company and government statements to examine as I determine the best course of action for myself. This isn’t about crucifying some company or the social media scene in general. Read, research and draw your own conclusions about privacy, your boundaries, and your participation in any social network. Also, this post and all others here at EricWeaver.com/BrandDialogue.com are my own views and not those of my employer, my clients, my wife, my family or our dog. 

UPDATE 1 • MEN ARE MORE PUBLIC ON SOCIAL SITES • MAY 2012

In a study just released by Pew Internet Research Center , men seem to share more data online than women, who are more careful about what they post to social networks:

UPDATE 2 • SOCIAL POSTERS ARE HELPING FUEL THE RISE OF IDENTITY THEFT • MAY 2012

Also, according to a report by Javelin Research, social media users who post their personal information online or with smartphone apps are helping fuel the rise of identity theft in the US, up 13% in 2011 from 2010.

UPDATE 3 • LOCK YOUR MAILBOXES • MAY 2012

Finally, our neighborhood watch group has noticed mailboxes all up and down our suburban residential street opened during the night. Identity theft is real, folks – and it’s not just hackers. As for us, we’re investing in a solid steel locking mailbox.

Never thought this would be the shiny future I imagined as a kid. :/

UPDATE 4 • NSA CRISIS • JULY 2013

Well, needless to say – the June 2013 outing of the fact that the NSA is collecting data, not only on us but on our allies, amidst questionable laws and secret courts, really makes me have to step back and question not only my support of President Obama but of our government.

It’s likely that several potential terrorist incidents have been avoided through the use of clandestine data collection and wiretapping. But at what cost?!? I don’t care whether or not our “government is broken” – it must be accountable to its own citizens. There can be no possibility for corruption or ownership of such data activities by a handful of people, and if there is, we need our leadership to remove it.

It’s one thing to scrape public Internet data. It’s another to store the movement of all citizens through license-plate camera tracking, or remote hard drive searches, or tapping lines at foreign embassies. When we piss off our allies, we end up standing alone against the world. How much goodwill has been squandered by this incident? Are we really that damned paranoid?

The NSA activities are a national embarrassment, a destabilizer, and a powerful potential weapon against our fellow citizens.

Reason #2: IT’S AN ARBITRARY NUMBER. There are often many ways to achieve search engine optimization or social media hiring secrets or Twitter tools you can use. Top 5, Top 10, Top 13.5…you’re choosing an arbitrary number to not-so-transparently try to make your blog post seem easily digestible. There’s really no Top 5 anything, there’s just your own self-promotion and again, it’s become super-boring.

Reason #3: IT KILLS YOUR DIFFERENTIATION. Sure, it’s great to try to capture attention by suggesting your content won’t require a heavy time investment. Shouldn’t your content already be targeted at a time-starved audience? If you want your content to sound like everyone else’s, go ahead: give us your Top 10 Tips to Tepid.

Reason #4: YOU REINFORCE THE ECHO CHAMBER. Let’s say you create an interesting post and it gets retweeted or reblogged and reGoogled and regurgitated and now we’re hearing about your Top 5 Ways to Achieve SEO Nirvana post through multiple channels.  IT it it GETS gets gets REPETITIVE tive tive.

Reason #5: There is no reason #5 because the first four are plenty. Show your creativity for god’s sake. Do something different. Stand out from the crowd. Don’t follow the pack of blog lemmings off the Cliff of Undifferentiation. Demonstrate your value, without demonstrating your willingness to follow others.

UPDATE, 9/22: Every once in awhile, a marketing meme sweeps through the profession. Sometimes it’s “repeat the 800 number three times in the DRTV ad.” Another is, “make sure you have a suggestive call to action at the bottom of your mailer.” Now it’s “make sure you try to create a definitive list in your content by calling it your Top X Whatever.” And what happens? Everyone lines up to do the exact same thing, and individuality and differentiation go out the window. And every ad, every mailer, every infomercial, and every blog post sounds exactly the same.

It’s tough enough to have your content stand out in the noisy social space. Don’t water it down by jumping on the same tired techniques as everyone else.

It’s happened quite suddenly: celebrities have found Twitter, and so have the masses. In the last few weeks, we’ve started to hear more and more in the media about Twitter, everything from Larry King/CNN and Ashton Kutcher throwing down in a contest to be the first to reach 1 million followers (Kutcher won), to Oprah doing her first tweet. What started as a small community of early social media adopters has become the CB radio—no, the AOL—of the late 2000s.

I realized this the other day when CNN’s HLN channel started posting “Follow CNNBRK on Twitter for breaking news” at the bottom of the screen. I sat there amazed: Twitter IDs…on CNN?!? Clearly, things have changed, and they’ve changed very rapidly:

Twitter has gone mainstream.

“Getting” social media

This recent tweet from Julian Matthews (@trinetizen) got me thinking: all the recent news about Twitter, all the recent Twitter adoption by celebrities, is going to cause two things: 1) the masses will investigate, and 2) the masses’ impression of Twitter will be hugely impacted by this flurry of celebrity tweeting.

The only problem? If you don’t follow others, you can’t possibly “get” the value of Twitter…or any social media, for that matter.

Why? First of all, Twitter’s value comes from dialogue. Social media and networking were borne out of the desire to connect you to others, to learn from others, to create an exchange, and to share items of interest. When we use it as it was intended, social media is extremely powerful: consider the recent successful Obama presidential campaign.

But when we use social media for monologue, e.g., blasting one-way content at whomever will listen, then we’re not connecting, we’re shouting from a street corner.

Imagine, if you will, handing out megaphones at the various street corners in Times Square. Add some TV cameras to the mix. What would you get? Overwhelming cacophony of very little value.

Yet that’s how many Twittering celebrities are using the site: as one more one-way communication channel. Some seem to be taking the time to respond to fans, but most appear very uni-directional.

That had me wondering: which celebs are following the most people, and by extension, getting a more accurate impression of Twitter? Is it Demi Moore or Ashton Kutcher? Oprah? Larry King? Let’s take a look.

Celebrity Twitter Follow Ratio

Amongst the least dialoguey celebs are, yes, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Oprah and Larry King. Pat yourselves on the back, kids! The news commentator ranks the highest of the group, but even he is only following a mere 46 people out of the 123,000+ following him.

Interestingly, the person most open to the most inbound information is none other than Karl Rove. Whether you think he’s a wiley super-genius or Satan Reincarnate, the man is at least giving the appearance of doing the most listening. I’d say he’s up there in the Most Likely to Get Social Media camp.

In the meantime, his political antithesis, Al Gore, is following 7 people out of 664,000.

Musicians Yoko Ono and Björk are both following over 90% of those who follow them. Yet Mandy Moore and Dave Matthews follow 2 and 3 people, respectively.

In the news realm, CNN’s Rick Sanchez is following over 30,000 people. Talk about casting the net widely! But CNN’s own Anderson Cooper follows a paltry 22.

Finally, comedian Robin Williams is following over 1200 people. Yet comedienne Kathy Griffin, whom I find equally hilarious, has only posted two tweets and follows no one. Kathy, here’s your perfect focus group for jokes!

Your brand needs to listen, too

And I guess that segues into the punch line for my post: like these celebs, you need to listen to your audiences—your market—if you want to understand social media: how it works, the advantages, the disadvantages, and the power it provides. Not power to blast your one-way message to waiting millions, but the knowledge, connections, conversation and feedback it provides.

Because if all your brand is doing is barking on a street corner with a megaphone, you ignore the competitive advantage provided by engaging your market. You ignore market feedback, specific market needs, advice on what to avoid pursuing, and perhaps just some really good ideas. By not listening, you won’t really “get” the power of social tools.

You leave your social media “success” up to the power of your brand’s celebrity—or lack thereof. And you do so at your competitive peril.

Caveats

I’ve excluded Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and others where their tweets were clearly done by staffers. Britney Spears was included because her staff differentiates between her tweets and those of her manager/publicist. There are other minor celebrities, some of whom you may feel unnecessarily excluded, that I bypassed simply because I didn’t know much about them.

Obviously, also there is a human limit to the number of people you can follow before the resulting onslaught of information becomes unmanageable. So while MC Hammer and others may be following thousands, for them the Twitter experience is likely overwhelming on a good day, repulsive on a bad one. A high following ratio shows openness, not necessarily actual listening. I get that.

Finally, I didn’t link many of the Twitter handles because I simply didn’t have time. I think you can manage.

Expert. Guru. Genius. As jobs dry up and self-promotional tools proliferate, more and more people are rebranding themselves as Social Media Gurus. What you should watch out for, and why.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: You may say to yourself, "Self, isn't this dufus a 'social media guru'?" Hell, no. The tools, trends and the power of the consumer are changing at an astonishing rate. This social media "bus" is moving far too fast for anyone to have pulled it over and taken apart the engine. Beware those who say they have.)

If you're like most marketers, you are a Very Busy Person. Chances are your budget has been slashed, your staff has been outsourced, and as sales dry up, you're under the gun to produce leads, build awareness and convert fence-sitters. Most of the marketers I know are insanely busy, running from meeting to meeting, juggling project after project. In many cases, the reason we got into this business—the chance to apply creativity and strategy to the brand we built or fell in love with—has been diluted through quarterly goals, reduced budgets and increasingly unreasonable expectations. Our dream job, now a nightmare. What's a marketer to do?

Because we're the cheerleaders for the company, and because we love those shiny objects, we may look at social marketing tools and tactics as a hopefully inexpensive solution to the demands placed on us. We've heard a lot about Twitter, or we get conference mailers to new media events we can't take the time to attend, espousing the green, green grass of branded Facebook pages and magically viral videos. Perhaps these are levers we can pull to generate success. But where to start?

Being overworked, often we turn to outsourced consultants, particularly in the case of trials. A quick Google search, or a trolling of LinkedIn, produces a glut of results, mostly saying the same thing: "social media guru." "Marketing innnovator." "Facebook expert." In a hurry, we may reach out to one or two, to see how they approach engagements and brands like ours.

When money is tight and expectations are high, the last thing you need is a mistake to be held up to public scrutiny. You ask yourself, "should I go with a big agency? They've gotta be more buttoned up, right? Or should I find a best-of-breed consultant who specializes in this stuff?"

Part of the problem of a Google search for help is the level of noise. Social tools help extend brands like yours. They also help amplify the voices of self-named gurus. So sifting through the results can be daunting at best.

Here are six key traits I would recommend you look for, and watch out for.

1. Look for a media-agnostic perspective. Many people are enamored with the tools, extolling their virtues to eager, curious audiences. The reality is just that: these are tools. Not strategies. Not programs. Ask the consultant how they perceive social marketing tools and their place within a marketing mix that includes traditional channels. If you get the standard Cluetrain Manifesto response or someone who is all about the amazing miracle that is Twitter/Facebook/etc., keep looking.
2. Look for a marketer, not a technologist. Marketers often feel that these new tools are technical because they live on the Web, and therefore they are less qualified to investigate or even understand these tools. This could not be further from the truth. Marketers see tools in terms of brand, outreach, dialogue, and trust—the real levers in market engagement. Technologists-cum-marketers often feel they are equally creative, have a customer perspective and understand branding, but the reality is they don't—not really. Look for marketers who have embraced and utilized social tools as part of overarching awareness, conversion or loyalty campaigns. They'll be speaking your language and you'll know they have felt your pain.
3. Look for quality of thought, not quantity—clients, not followers. Many social media dilettantes will generate a cult following of people who are similarly enamored by the technology. The gurus will engage in endless and frequent conversations with their fans, exploring heady subjects like "by replacing their homepage with a Twitter search, did Skittles do something forward-thinking, or lazy?" That's all fine and dandy, but what have these experts done with actual client brands? There are plenty of armchair marketers out there—don't mistake online popularity or digital verbosity with expertise. Food for thought: the people who are truly busy building digital programs for their clients don't really have the time to create a daunting stream of social media run-off.
4. Look for selflessness rather than self-interest. Everyone has a mortgage to pay—that's to be expected. Yet what if a rocky relationship with a consultant turns ugly, and your brand (or even you personally) are paraded before a guru's fanbase and the public as a Cautionary Tale, an idiot...or worse? What if an "expert" really doesn't know what they're talking about, and blames you for the results of a campaign? A successful consultant will act as a champion and advocate for their client brands AND their clients: helping you understand the new tools, and how to achieve your own goals. The best ones will place your goals over their own, even if it means passing up a possible long-term relationship to provide you with a short-term solution. Sharks don't always need ramora fish to help keep them clean. Similarly, watch out for hangers-on who are more interested in a steady stream of work than doing the right thing for your brand.
5. Look for evidence of commitment. This is the Age of Non-Commitment. There are examples everywhere. It's hard to commit to a job when the management team may not be committed to you. It's hard to commit to a vendor when you've been screwed in the past. And if you're a consultant, it can be hard to commit to completing a project if 1) you have a propensity for overcommitment, usually out of fear, or 2) when finding and locking down executional resources can be challenging. I myself am ashamed to say that despite a huge desire to be completely responsible, I too have flaked on a project. Never intentionally, but the client was impacted nonetheless. Look for client testimonials and proof positive that this "guru" has come through for people like yourself.
6. Look for final products, and ask them to fully disclose their role. "I've built a corporate blog for Client X." Does that mean they threw a WordPress installation together? Anyone can do that. Is there evidence of executive coaching in blog protocol? Discussion of how a blog can integrate into publicity efforts? Talk of engagement guardrails—when to engage trolls and when to be silent? It's not a blog implementation that's important so much as a consultant's understanding of how it fits into an overall engagement strategy, knowing the difference between fluff and true value, and how to create a content creation process within the enterprise. Same applies for podcasts, Facebook fan pages, or a custom YouTube channel.

I'd also encourage you to attend great conferences like the Forrester Marketing Summit to hear case studies of marketers who used consultants to great success, or inquiring at your local AMA luncheon to see if any local folks have utilized your prospective consultant.

It's tough to find good help these days. Vetting the gurus with these six filters in mind should help you find a truly valuable resource, rather than a noisy "tool guy" who talks a good game but is totally cool learning how to "market" on your dime.

my.commetrics.com

When you spend most of your time immersed in the Social Media/Social Networking “scene”, discussing where things are going with other social media proponents, it’s often easy to forget that most companies are still trying to determine what this phenomenon is, and whether or not they should participate. I was recently asked some questions by Katie Ford, who is compiling some ideas and suggestions for customers of Hoover’s, that made me go back and think about what massive shift in culture, commerce and media is all about, and why companies should pursue it.

She had some great questions, which I’m posting, along with my responses, here.

Q: What does marketing in the age of social media look like?

The growth of social media and networking are signs of dramatic shifts in how consumers express interests and needs, share affinity, and find value.

As marketers, our job is to craft and communicate a value proposition that generates market interest and compels our prospects to purchase. For decades, this has been a one-way communication effort. But lately, as our customers use these new tools to communicate with one another, marketers are finding their audiences expect to engage in dialogue with brands rather than merely listening passively. Social media and networking provide powerful, inexpensive tools with which to participate in dialogue with your target markets.

Marketers who leverage these tools are showing their markets that they are not merely window-dressing when it comes to expressing an interest in their customers.

Whirlpool created the American Family Podcast, a parent-targeted, downloadable talk show in which they interviewed thought leaders on the state of the American family. Little or no mention was made of Whirlpool or their products. (2009 update: it appears the American Family Podcast has been discontinued by Whirlpool, an incredible shame.)

With no marketing budget, the podcast has generated more than 70,000 downloads per month, all through word-of-mouth marketing. Through this, Whirlpool was seen as an advocate for the family, which spoke strongly to their core brand values.

Eager to experiment with Facebook, Target created a Facebook group (2009 update: group page no longer active) aimed at helping college students deal with moving away from home into a small, cramped dorm room. The idea was to help students come to terms with this adjustment, with the ulterior motive of selling furnishings.

By October 2007, the group had attracted over 7,000 members, over 400 photos posted by students, 483 posts and 37 discussion topics. Feedback from students was primarily positive (statistics from Jeremiah Owyang at Forrester Research)

Q: Why should marketers pay attention to or consider social media as part of their strategic planning? Secondly, what price will they pay for ignoring it?

If marketers value their customers, they MUST consider social media as part of their brand strategy. Any Google search (typically the first place customers go to find out more about your brand) will not only turn up your official site, but will likely show customer-generated commentary on your brand — both positive and negative. Marketers who ignore this community conversation do so at their brand’s peril.

According to a 2006 Edelman PR study, when asked where they turn as the most credible source of information regarding a brand or product, 68% of respondents said “a person like me.” Clearly, trust and authenticity are hugely important to purchase decisions. As the “volume” of the customer dialogue grows around a brand, the more “people like me” are heard – and the more a finely-honed, one-directional marketing message will sound self-serving, inauthentic and untrustworthy.

Marketers will invest millions in lead-generation and brand building efforts this year. Without taking into consideration this very loud conversation happening outside of their control, they are dedicating marketing spend toward highly-polished communication channels that are of less and less interest to their targets.

A metaphor I think works well for the social media space is a large cocktail party. You’ll enter the room and be sized up by attendees. They’ll wonder what kind of person you are, what your values are, who you associate with, how impactful you are to the market. They WILL talk about you behind your back, in groups that trust each other’s opinions. Knowing that, what will you wear? How will you act? What will you say? When encountering a snide remark, how will you react? If all you care about is your (brand’s) own appearance, and you ignore and disengage from these conversations, a marketer is a little like a person spending more and more on clothing to attend a party where no one wants to talk to them. What’s the point?

Q: In your observations, what types of companies (or industries) are embracing social media in their marketing plans? Which ones are not? Do you have theories on why certain companies/industries are leveraging social media and others aren’t?

Many companies have taken tentative steps into the social media space over the last three years or so. Consumer brands with youthful audiences, such as Coca-Cola, Ford, Target, American Apparel, Juicy Couture, and Acuvue have embraced social media as part of their marketing efforts. American Apparel, for example, got a huge awareness spike by merely opening a virtual store in the 3D world of Second Life, in which they sold virtual goods.

Social media adoption – tied to marketing leadership generationalism?

Why are certain companies or categories investing more into social media? I believe it’s due to the generational social issues inherent in their marketing leadership.

Marketers like myself, perhaps aged 38 and above, were from the generations who were taught not to overshare, not to over-express nor to be self-aggrandizing. For these generations, you put on your best outward appearance, controlling your own behavior and appearance as best you could. Adages such as “never let them see you sweat,” “put your best face forward,” and “keep a stiff upper lip” were taught to us since childhood. Marketers my age were also taught to try to displease as few people as possible, to be appropriate and acceptable to as wide an audience as possible, in hopes of maximizing revenue opportunities. These marketers seem to direct their outbound communications in a similar way: high level of polish, avoid dissent and control your image.

Gen X and Gen Y marketers, however, learned to share more with others, to worry less about façade and more about substance. To me, they seem less concerned about appearances and more interested in being understood. They prefer to be themselves and to find others with shared outlooks and affinities rather than trying to be all things to all people. Their marketing seems to follow similar directions: to seek out more venues to express brand values and to communicate with audiences with shared affinity. With the search and affinity tools inherent in social media, younger marketers seem to embrace these tools more readily, compared to older marketers who are more likely to vet image and copy through management, PR and legal departments.

Q: In your opinion, are their certain types of businesses that shouldn’t include social media in their marketing plans? If so, who are they and why is social media not their best bet?

B-to-B companies should monitor the online dialogue around their brand, but until vertical-specific social networks emerge, these companies are less compelled to invest in it.

That said, B-to-B companies can set up their own customer networks to allow brand zealots to connect with one another in a “walled garden” environment. Upside: the pre-sold help sell the unsold. Downside: who has time for all these online communities? Companies need to be realistic about whether such an effort would truly draw time and attention from time-starved customers.

Q: Are certain types of social media better/worse for specific messages that you want to get across to your audience/consumers? For instance, is a blog from the CEO always your best bet?

It depends on the CEO. A strong, outgoing, market-friendly personality can propel a blog to become an authentic platform for dialogue, whereas a tightly-controlled blog with comments turned off will immediately smell like a traditional monologue mechanism.

Blogs are good feedback channels, although companies should be prepared to address how they will handle “trolls” (online louts), how to keep conversations on track, and where or when they should link to external content.

Podcasts and vidcasts put a voice and a face on a brand. They can create a stronger personal connection between the team behind the brand and their audience. These are great channels for brands that need to show more personality. However, audience quality expectations are high.

A brand presence on a social network can be good channels for offers. Like viral videos, social networks make it easy to spread interesting content to friends. This content will have a natural advantage in breaking through market noise, and if it’s a positive impression, it will be given more credibility than highly-crafted marketing messages.

Q: What kinds of marketing goals can social media help you reach in particular?

• Conveying your value to the market.
• Conveying your unique proposition within the competitive landscape.
• Conveying your brand’s values, reason for being and “brand spirit”.
• Creating affinity with your desired audience.
• Creating a viral spread of your value prop.
• Showing your brand and company to be authentic.
• Providing more touchpoints for interested prospects to find via search.

Q: How can you measure your ROI with social media marketing? What metrics can you use?

This is another huge area of discussion. Generally speaking, measurement tools are evolving for this space. Traditional metrics (pageviews, clickthroughs) don’t apply. For example, how do you know that someone downloaded the entire podcast? How do you know they listened to the entire podcast?

Also, many metrics are based upon the end conclusion of a marketing effort: a sales conversion. Yet “social marketing” is as much about building affinity as it is about a conversion. Given this, many marketers are advocating measuring social media from the perspective of outcomes: awareness or conversion. Rather than trying to measure downloads or blog comments, many suggest focusing on measuring overall results.

Q: Any other noteworthy comments or statistics on this topic that my questions did not address?

Regarding the question, should companies invest in social media, here are some interesting statistics:

Now that it has opened up its community to anyone, Facebook has more than 54 million users, which, if it were a country, would make it the 24th largest nation in the world. It adds over 250,000 new users a day — equivalent to the entire population of St. Paul, MN or Fort Wayne, IN signing up each day. That’s just crazy!

Recent statistics released by Facebook claim that over 55% of its users are over the age of 35. They project that 75% of worldwide users will be out of college by December. College students are officially in the minority. This older demographic is interesting to marketers because according to Forrester Research, more than half of adult professionals on social networks are wanting to hear from their brands in those venues.

For comparison, as of September 2007, MySpace had over 200 million active accounts, which would make it the fifth largest country in the world.

POINT: social networking and media are neither fads nor something just for kids. As a primary intersection point between culture and media, they are clear indicators of where marketing efforts must be.

Also, when placing purchasing opportunities into the context of trust networks and shared affinity, more people take action than on traditional websites. For example, Facebook newsfeed ads are generating 4%-26% higher clickthrough rates than traditional banner ads.

Weaver tips for businesses considering social media

1. Take the time to study and participate in social media before engaging in marketing to these audiences. Missteps are painful and public.
2. Be very transparent and honest. Consumers often assume marketers are self-interested. By being transparent, you curtail doubt.
3. Ask your visitors to provide feedback on your communication efforts. These tools allow you to easily gather feedback.
4. Be fearless. Many marketers will cringe when they get their first scathingly negative comment. You will receive both positive and negative commentary. Use it to learn about your market and your brand impression.
5. Draw up engagement boundaries. When should you respond to a negative critique? When should you be silent? When should you ban a “troll” from your corporate blog? Determine how you will behave in the public eye — when you’ll assert control and when you’ll let the market be itself.

The best conversationalists are the best listeners

All in all, social media and networking are incredibly inexpensive to explore. Going back to the cocktail party metaphor, better for companies to know now how they should engage their markets “socially” than to be an overdressed wallflower brand that no one wants to talk to.

2009 Update

I recently found Katie’s whitepaper posted on the Internet. You can view, print or download the whitepaper here.

His name is Mach Arom, and he was executive creative director for FCB Interactive in New York. I just found out he died on August 23rd, while doing humanitarian work in Rwanda.

I worked with Mach while we were at Magnet Interactive in Washington DC. Mach was the “mother hen” for our large, boisterous and extremely talented creative department. He was a skilled designer, an inspired leader and an intelligent, funny guy.

Much of our business, our daily lives, as marketers revolves around the task of being creative…or at least, facilitating good creative on our projects. It’s not easy, creating the aesthetics of a communications program, be it a website or ad or whatever, since aesthetics are so personal and subjective. You can have the best creative strategy, the best wordsmiths, the best offers, but if the creative stinks, the program will flop.

Mach knew good creative, and he drew the best talent out of his team. He led them by example, directed design, managed egos, kept account types at bay and led his team to build the best creative product I’ve ever seen.

He died at 38, doing what he loved: helping people.

I remember coming over to bug him, repeatedly, for proposal graphics or for status updates on client work. He would protect his creatives fiercely. I remember his terse “Weaver!” when I would ask for a level of effort that would impinge on his team. And his alternating between being all-business and then joking and smirking while we discussed projects.

He went on to Ogilvy Interactive, then FCBi. I spoke to him last year, caught up on where he was. It was good to hear from him, to hear he was happy in his new role.

Since being spoilt at Magnet, I’ve been looking for not good, but GREAT creative. I’ve found strong talent in people I’ve worked with over the last few years, but nothing like Mach. I’ve not found another creative department like his, either: hopeful, happy, joking, wildly creative and supremely talented.

If you’re an account guy like me, selling creative isn’t easy. Clients can’t always tell you exactly why they like or dislike certain creative efforts. It’s often related to past experience, background and taste. Because of this I respect good creatives who can translate communication problems into beautiful, compelling and at times emotionally moving works.

Safe journey, Mach. Thanks for being such a great person, and such a great example to others.

His memorial is here.

Those of you creating a Web 2.0 startup: avoid the urge to name your firm after the successful players in the space. A trendy copycat company name and market presence may directly work against your own success.

For the last 18 months, there has been a huge increase in me-too branding efforts in the tech space. The success of well-known sites such as Google, Yahoo!, Flickr, Digg and Del.icio.us has inspired many startups to copy the branding elements of the big boys, particularly their names. This lemming effect sometimes drives them to copy even the design elements and exact colors of the more successful sites.

Before I begin my marketer’s diatribe, let me first acknowledge that almost all the good brand names have been thought of and are taken. Finding a unique company name, let alone an available URL, is extremely challenging these days. So creating a name that mimics Flickr, for example, “Stiflr”, can help you solve both these problems.

I also suspect that many of you are also hoping to capture a little Web 2.0 VC love…can’t say I blame you for that. But here’s the thing: by creating a copycat name of a popular Web 2.0 site, not only does your company name become “trendy” (and therefore, easily dated), you end up giving away all your market differentiation. You actually reduce customer interest and appeal by sounding like everyone else: in this case, Slickr, Zooomr, Frappr, Mappr, Blogr, Grazr, ad nauseum.

The right way

My job as a marketer is to help companies identify their unique value proposition (“UVP”): the special sauce that will compel people to sign up, subscribe or enter a credit card number. The thing that makes them stand apart from the competition. When I lead naming engagements, our team starts these assignments by identifying our clients’ value proposition, unique traits, their market’s interests and preferences, and the messages that will lead to market success. Once you know these things, then you begin work on a name and identity: one that’s memorable, easy to pronounce, rolls off the tongue, and is meaningful to customers.

The thing is, your name is only one part of your brand. And the most effective brands use the entire branding ecosystem of company name, logo, tagline, and marketing messages at every customer touchpoint to talk about your uniqueness, your value proposition and your customer benefits. When a component as valuable as your name is a copycat, it kills the impact of the rest of your efforts…and dilutes the impact and effectiveness of your marketing spending. Far better to establish a name and identity that works with your marketing instead of against it.

From my perspective, the tech startups that are copying their more successful brethren show a lack of imagination, which is surprising given the tremendous amount of imagination it takes to craft a brand new kind of functionality or mashup using C++ and AJAX. And when some even steal signature graphic design elements from others – at times, even exact colors – they simply should be caned. At that point, they deserve to be just one more me-too play on the way to market fade-out.

You know it’s gotten bad when the depth of misspelt or silly 2.0 names has spawned a site called CERTIFYR. It humorously certifies your site as trendy-compliant as it checks it for big fonts, me-too names, a “beta” designation, overly bright colors with or without pink, rounded corners, use of Google maps, and whether or not the “founder has a blog”.

A strong, relevant connection with your customers, along with an identity that supports a unique market position, will generate revenue and awareness far more effectively than a me-too name emulating the first-movers in the social networking and media spaces.

Here are some examples of copycat naming. I list them here not to say they’re “bad companies” but to point out the overwhelming similarity and lack of differentiation when you choose a copycat name.

Paying homage to Flickr…or just a lack of imagination?

Flickr.com was apparently registered by Ludicorp in November 2003. Here are a sample of sites employing lipogrammatos, Greek for missing a letter, and how long after Flickr they registered their domains:
Blogr – (Jun 2003 – predates Flickr’s domain registration by 6 months)
Talkr – text-to-audio tool for blogs (March 2004)
Lookr – Japanese site (March 2004)
Colr.org – a site for playing with colors (Jan 2005)
Wrickr – Polish open-source startup (March 2005)
Coastr – “the social guide to beer” (May 2005)
Gtalkr – IM client purchased by Google (Aug 2005)
Suprglu – ties together results from Flickr and others (Sep 2005)
Frappr – Google maps mashup (Oct 2005)
Flagr – geo-bookmark sharing (Oct 2005)
Gabbr – social new sharing site (Oct 2005)
Zooomr – Flickr competitor that adds localisation (Oct 2005) – the 17-year-old kid who launched it gets some slack for being 17, but has said slack removed due to being the worst copier
Enablr – software firms with products called Transcribr, Stenographr (owner says he “runs a marketing firm” – run, customers, run!) (Nov 2005)
Nabbr – broadcast/share your lists (Nov 2005)
FeedBlendr – combines RSS feeds into one (Dec 2005)
Squishr – unknown app in alpha (Dec 2005)
Grazr – RSS feed browser (Feb 2006)
Calcr – online calculator (March 2006)
Ticklr – legal bookmark sharing (March 2006)
Rel8r – tag, read, search blogs
Phixr – photo editor
Empressr – Flash-based PPT competitr
Skinnyr – Widget for MySpace (“Beta!”)…they just get lamr and lamr

AT LEAST THESE HAVE AN EXCUSE

These apps/plugins/sites have an excuse for the dropped vowels: they’re directly related to Flickr.
Bloggr – WordPress plug-in to display Flickr shots
Bubblr – add speech bubbles to Flickr shots
Delivr – create digital postcards, “made possible by the fabulous Flickr”
Grabbr – Flickr uploading app
Groupr – Flickr mashup
Mappr – Flickr map mashup
Phrasr – Flickr mashup
Retrievr – sketch-based image search of Flickr
Slickr – Flickr screensaver app
Stalkr – email search tool, now renamed
Tickr – Flickr mashup (slideshow)

Worst Branding Award goes to…

Zooomr, a competitor to Flickr that not only copied the name, but colors the R differently too, just like Flickr.

Ob.noxio.us copying?

Digglicious – live comparator between Digg/Delicious
Expialidocio.us – Delicious mashup
Fort.uito.us – blog
Grat.uito.us – tagged, social wishlists
Icio.de – German clone of Delicious
Lib.rario.us – catalog your media collection
Mobilicio.us – Del.icio.us bookmarks via mobile phone
Podolicious – personalized podcast news
Script.aculo.us – Javascript library
Singlestat.us – MySpace relationship monitor, now shut down?
Staralicious – Delicious about celebrities

They dig Digg

BlogDigger (predated Digg)
TalkDigger (predated Digg)
Diigo – social annotation
Digforit
DiggDot
Diggnews
Diggol – personalized news site
DigLog – Chinese Digg
HotDigg – blog
Hugg – environmental Digg clone
Polidiggs
SlashDigg
StockDigg
VCDiggz

The Yahoo!/Google double-O thingy

Accoona – “Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful phrase…”
Asoboo
Baeboo – mix Billy Blanks and Taebo and you get…
Congoo
Cluckoo
Dodloo
eefoof – very descriptive for a video site!
Emongoo – tools & marketplace to sell your property
Favoor
Favoritoo
Foonance – manage your finances
Getboo
Gootodo
Gumshoo
Newroo
Noodly
Nooz – news for MySpace members
Orangoo
Ouioo – Captain, consonants have failed!
Picaboo
Polloo
Publicloos
Qooxdoo – WTFHell?
Queoo
Reevoo
Sabifoo – which was one of few names available on all IM clients: nice IM-to-RSS-feed app
Schoopy – classroom organizer
Squidoo
Springdoo
Woomp
Wufoo
Yoosi – create your personal startup page

At this point, I stopped searching. It was just too painful.

Hat tip to fellow marketer Alison Moore for getting me thinking about this one, and Simon Looker for “lipogrammatos”.