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John Vajda - LBS and craft beer lover.

In this month’s quest to pull back the covers on Location Based Services, I was lucky enough to score an interview with John Vajda, Product Manager at Untappd, a social network for beer enthusiasts (I’m here on Untappd so friend up!)

What I like about how Untappd uses LBS is location is part of the offering, not the focus. The app serves a specific market segment (craft beer lovers) and lets them discover, rate and share there favorite brews but you don’t have to check into a location if you don’t want to.

10 LBS Questions with John Vajda

1. What is the most important thing Marketers should know about LBS?

Not all platforms are created equal and you really need to understand your users to know what they use. Measure their usage, poll them, engage them  regarding the apps they use.  Don’t assume Foursquare specials will work if you are in the middle of a strip mall where people need to drive to get to your location.

2. What does it take to execute a LBS strategy correctly?

Treat it like any other marketing campaign. Develop a strategy come up with metrics and objectives you wish to meet, and track yourself to validate you’ve made those goals. Adapt where needed. Create – measure – learn.  And PLEASE don’t just throw an intern at it.

Create –> Measure –> Learn

3. What are the common mistakes LBS early adopters have made?

Not training their staff on the redemption process. I call it point of sale, point of failure. Nothing is worse than earning a reward and walking into a location where a cashier stares at you like you have 2 heads when you show them the redemption screen on an LBS application.

4. What are the best practices for integrating LBS into a multi-channel campaign?

Remember it’s an extension of the overall promotion, it’s not the single source of truth. It’s one of many avenues you should explore on a campaign and should always be tied back to to overall marketing goals of the program. LBS is new so make sure to give it some room to adapt and grow over time, experiment a little and don’t be afraid to fail a few times.

5. Examples of brands using LBS well?

• Disney and Gowalla
• 7/11 and Foursquare
• Universities and SCVNGR
• SCVNGR and their Diamond dash promo
• AMEX and Foursquare

6. Daily deal sites or LBS check-in – which do you invest marketing resources in and why?

It depends on your users/customers. What do they use? What do they like? Go where they are. Don’t assume too much on what your users/customers are willing to adapt to.

7. A recent Pew study provided information on LBS usage providing adequate fodder for LBS proponents and nay-sayers. What do you make of it?

As LBS services become more mainstream and technology allow us to use the services more passively we’ll see higher adoption rates. I am not too concerned by the reports of the lower overall usage of LBS apps since it’s still a relatively new space. However, I am concerned about how we will engage users in more suburban areas, LBS seems to be a very city-centric function. The big question to me is how can we engage soccer Moms and Dads in middle America? How do we make it worth their while to use a Foursquare or a SCVNGR or an Untappd LBS app?

8. What’s your go-to app (if you don’t mind sharing)?

Foursquare and Untappd of course!  I check into Foursquare everyday, and Untappd everytime I have a beer. (which is almost everyday)

9. What does the future hold for LBS?
Forecasting and customizable deals! I think it will be all about what you WILL be doing and how you can be enticed to do something else via a customizable offer. What if you Forecasted you’d be going to one bar for a particular beer and bars around you see that, they can then customize a deal for you and offer you the lowest price on that beer. I can see big box retailers creating Wall Mart-esque falling prices real time to meet customer forecasts.  Check out Foreca.st for more on this concept.

10What’s in your Untappd Wish List?

Go see for yourself => http://untappd.com/user/genexerjv/wishlist

John Vajda is Product Manager at Untappd and loves LBS almost as much as he loves craft beer. Untappd is a social network for beer enthusiasts and has an  HTML5 mobile web app, iPhone native App and Android native App that allows you to share what beer you are drinking and where with your friends. You can also upload photos of your brews as well as rate and receive recommendations on what you should try next.

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There are so many check in apps that you can spend more time checking in to a restaurant than actually eating a meal.  I pretty much stick with Foursquare but I do use Facebook if I’m with “Facebook friends”.  I’m also interested in trying LevelUp.

What LBS check-in apps do you use? Select all that apply.

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(polls)

image credit Salvatore Vuono

Continue reading »]]> I was inspired to do another post on social influence measurement after seeing klout get trashed on a few sites.  I understand why people argue against it, but I think it’s helpful to look at it from all sides.  The post ran long so I’m running in a series: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Starting with…

The Good

Before we get into it, let’s set up what we mean by “social influence”. I’m using the definition Forrester analyst Zack N. Hofer-Shall suggested:

“The power individuals have over your brand based on the size and quality of their networks.”

Of course social influence vendors don’t publish their algorithms, but klout does provide clues on how it derives its score:

klout score is comprised of: True Reach, Amplification, Network Influence

• True Reach = the number of people someone influences
• Amplification = how much you influence people
• Network Influence = the influence of the people in your True Reach

Intuitively, this equation feels right. Doesn’t it?

In general, measurement is good! Metrics provide transparency and allow for meaningful, quantitative analysis and discussion. Yes, numbers can be used to distort the truth, but I don’t believe the social

Believe it or not, Blondie (Clint's character) was "The Good"

influence vendors have an agenda other than to build a sustainable business model. (They aren’t trying to get anyone elected.) As long as the algorithms are applied evenly across social media, they provide useful data and insights.

Erica Ayotte (@inthekisser), a Social Media Manager at Constant Contact, pointed out that even if Marketers can agree on who is influential, what do you do with them after you’ve identified them? Well, klout has an answer for that too. Social influence measurement is about more than keeping score. For example, klout has a perks program that allows marketers to reach influencers and offer them exclusive packages with the intent of supporting a Word Of Mouth campaign.

See a list of current perks and claim those you qualify for <here>

Sure there is plenty not to like about these metrics, but social measurement vendors (klout, PeerIndex, Empire Avenue, etc) are still new and they continue to improve their services. For example, klout, who gets the lions share of attention, keeps adding services and features. klout uses its algorithm to measure influence on 12 social media networks. It currently has a new feature called “Topics” in beta. Topics provides users the ability to see the top ten influencers on a given topic.

Okay, social influence measure not perfect, but as Voltaire said “the perfect is the enemy of the good.”

The Bad

Let’s keep it simple, here are 4 things that are bad about measuring social influence:

1. A high influence score doesn’t necessarily mean this person is actually influential. A high klout score would indicate an individual has a larger audience of influential people that engage with the content being shared. But does this measured influence cause action? Does a high score mean that person can help a brand move more product? Not necessarily. There are other factors that come into place like product/service accessibility, location, suitability and personal taste.
2. Klout lacks context – you may have a klout score of 70, but that doesn’t mean you know jack about sewing, mountain bikes, grilling, scrap booking, etc. This leaves the scoring system pretty empty – you need other data to provide context be it (demographics, behaviors, etc.) However, klout is in beta with Topics. If it works the way one would hope, this will be a huge improvement in the system since it proves context. I may have a score of 70 on the Boston Bruins, but a score of 1 on dating Gisele Bunchen. For what it’s worth, PeerIndex also provides some context by measuring influence on eight industries.
3. Some people fault social measurement scoring because it can’t t measure offline influence. I think that’s a specious argument. If you’re already tracking offline influence good for you. Consider their digital score additive to your assessment. But admittedly, using the definition offered, the solutions available do not measuring online influence. That’s bad because marketers can become overly focused on a digital score and totally miss the point of social influence.
4. Vacation – if I go quiet for a week, my score drops ~5 points. Did I suddenly become less important?

I think this list may be too short, let me know why you think social influence measurement is bad in the comments.

The Ugly

I’m calling two things “ugly”:

1. What if influence doesn’t matter?
2. Data privacy

Influence doesn’t matter?

A Fast Company article, Is the Tipping Point Toast? explores the research of Duncan Watt.  Watt ran computer simulations to determine how things (viruses, ideas) are spread. It’s not that influence doesn’t matter, it’s that influence doesn’t matter as much as we think it does. Watt’s said:

All the clever (and lucrative!) targeted viral campaigning may ultimately be less effective than good old mass marketing.

Here are Watt’s reasons:

1. No one can clearly explain how an influencer actually influences. Is it one discussion? Several discussions? A mix of activities? Is an influencer so influential that they mobilize the influenced to
   

   Duncan Watt

   also be a strong brand advocate?

2. Societal readiness is the determinate factor regarding whether or not an idea spreads. He uses the example of forest fires. There are thousands of forest fires a year, but only a few become roaring monsters. A specific mix of environmental factors are required for a hugeforest fire: dry woods, lack of rain, distant fire departments, etc. Intuitively, this makes sense. Cultural factors play a part in how “right” ideas are for a community.
3. Marketers like the idea of influence because it exudes a measure of control. (and that control can be sold to clients.)

Data Privacy

I’m a cup is half-full type of guy coupled with some good old conspiracy theorist. When I learned of klout, it could only measure two or three social networks: twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Now that klout has scoring on twelve platforms it starts to feel less like influence management and more like data collection.  Let’s be real. Just as on Facebook, you’re not the customer, you’re the product.

You’re not the customer, you’re the product.

I’ve reviewed klout’s Privacy Policy <here> but it deals with the information you share directly with klout, not the information you later give klout access to when you connect klout to social networks such as Facebook.  For example, when you connect klout to Flickr you see this warning:

"including private content"

It seems that I’m granting klout access to information that is kept private on Flickr. I asked klout Marketing Manager, Megan Berry (@meganberry) about this. (For the record, Megan has always been a real straight-shooter with me in my brief exchanges with her.)

Regarding the Flickr example, Megan replied:

On flickr: Your private photos will definitely stay private. We are
asking for the lowest level of permissions flickr allows which is
read-only access and does include private photos (we can’t change
that). However, we NEVER use your auth to display photos, or look at
them or share them. Instead, our algorithm looks at the response your
photos are getting — i.e. are people commenting, favoriting them etc.
We will never access or use your private information.

On privacy in general:

Klout collects data from your networks in order
to discover your influence. We do not share any of your private data
or email address with 3rd parties. We do not access your Twitter DMs,
private Facebook messages, private Flickr content or any other private
communication.

I want to believe Megan, I have a lot of respect for Joe and the whole team, yet unless I’m misunderstanding the privacy policy, what Megan shared is not in their stated klout privacy policy. Why not spell it out further?

My advice is for users to be aware of what they are agreeing to be connecting your social networks on Empire Avenue, PeerIndex and klout. Don’t take your privacy for granted. If your concerned, don’t link your accounts. Some measure (a little? a lot?) of the scoring comes from the public view of your web 2.0 life. Perhaps that’s enough for you.

Feature photo credit Rusus Gefangenen

Continue reading »]]> Instead of doing the regular “5 stories you might have missed”, I’m focusing on the recent changes to Google+ and Facebook. There is just too much going on to ignore.  This update brings you up to speed on what happened in the last two weeks or so.

Google+ may be at beginning of lifecycle, but Facebook is running away with the competition.  I heard it said, and I tend to agree, that:

• Google+ is for the techie, early adopter type
• Facebook is for everybody else

Google new features

1. Opened to everyone 18+: This is important because one of the reasons Google+ has stalled is it doesn’t have the “network effect” working for it. That is, it didn’t have enough people on the site to make it relevant or spreadable. For example, it’s great that I can create circles of my friends, but very few of my real-life friends are on Google+. The real question is will the masses adopt to Google+? Google+ needs the late adopters to jump aboard, but the feature set, as compared to Facebook, doesn’t give people much incentive to try Google+.
2. Added search: Ummm…yeah the search company added search to it’s social networking platform. No. I don’t know why it took them so long either.
3. Google+ API: Another thing holding back Google+ is that you can’t update Google+ from social publishing sites like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck. The problem with the published API is that it is only for “reading” public updates on Google+, you can’t “post” to Google+ from other sites. Besides the hassle of having to go to Google+ to post there, it also means you can’t schedule updates – which is a pain. In summary, this initial API is “ho-hum.”
4. Hangout improvements: My favorite recent improvement are the changes to Hangouts (video conferencing). Hangouts are now  available on mobile. You can do document sharing, hangout naming and broadcast hangouts. This can be a great publishing tool and I’m considering trying out a scheduled Marketing Technology hangout.
5. klout integration: With the published API, klout is now able to score your influence on Google+,. For some this is an incentive to post more frequently on Google+.

Facebook new features

This is a list of recently added features added, they are not the newest features announced at F8.

1. Subscribe [Facebook]: This feature allows you to get updates from people who you don’t follow.  For example, I learn a lot Jay Baer, but I don’t really know him (although I did snap a great picture of him at sxswi) – so it would weird for us to be “friends“. I can now subscribe to Jay’s updates from his Facebook page.  Y0u can also control how many updates you get via the subscription. So, subscribe is like a follow on Twitter, although the granular controls are an improvement.
2. Improved friends lists [Facebook]: This feature is a direct response to ongoing concerns about privacy and Google+ Circles feature. The new friend lists are created automagically (close friends, family, etc). In addition, Facebook has made it easier to add people to lists. One of the challenges of getting set up on Google+ is setting up your Circles, so this easy-of-use feature is a plus.
3. Reorganized page layouts [Facebook]: What’s nice about this update is Facebook is adapting what you see according to your usage. If you check Facebook frequently you’ll see the most recent news, however, if you visit less often you’ll see the top news in a newspaper layout. The new ticker moves some of the noisy posts to the side in a real time feed.

Facebook announced features @ F8

1. Timeline [Facebook]: This was the focus of the Zuck’s presentation at F8. Timeline provides a seamless chronological view of your life (rather, your life on Facebook).  Your updates on Facebook will be smartly arranged on the Timeline and you can add past events/components to curate your Timeline before Facebook existed. I found this update underwhelming because I have neither the time nor the inclination to invest time in curating my life on Facebook.
2. “Frictionless” app integration: This improvement updates your Facebook activity without you having to do some clicking. For example, with a one time authorization of the Spotify music app, the music I listen to is posted to my newsfeed. Critics of this new feature say that Facebook is “killing taste”. I’m not so sure about that but I do know I still like a measure of control over what is posted about me. Not everyone needs to know how much Girl Talk I really listen to.
3. Verbs!!!: Goodbye “Like” button? Soon you will be able to do more than just “Like” something.  “Like” allowed brands on Facebook to draw people to their Facebook page. The additional traffic was good for brands and Facebook. Now that everyone is on Facebook, “liking” something feels like a very limited range of action.  With verbs users will be able to “watch” a movie, “listen” to a song and “eat” some yummy BBQ.  Good move Facebook, but brands will have to rethink how they move from “Like” and take advantage of the new verbs.
4. Shared experiences: As Zuck demonstrated on stage, you’ll be able to listen to a song with friends and when Congress fixes the online video privacy restriction, I imagine you will be able to watch a Netflix movie with friends. Facebook is working to keep you on the site and shared experiences is a step in that direction.

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1. Use technology to support a market differentiation strategy

Be focused and committed to one ideal and you will stand out. Too many companies are racing towards sameness with an arms race of copy-cat features. It’s difficult to build brand affinity if customers can’t tell you a part.  Examples that come to mind are LBS vendors (though I seem them taking diverging strategies now) and the Google and Facebook social network competition.

2. Become adept at using Google+.

Your presence on Google+ will be rewarded with a higher search ranking. It’s no surprise Google favors it’s own social outposts over others (what happened to “Do no Evil?”).  Be sure to fill in “Current Employment” with the most interesting content because that’s what people see when they roll over your image.

How to find people on Google+

• Findpeopleonplus.com
• Group.as

Lastly, if you’re in a regulated industry your access to Facebook and Twitter is likely blocked or limited. However, corporate IT departments are more likely to keep Google properties open. If you’re selling into regulated markets, Google+ could be the best avenue for reaching your audience.

3. Focus your technology on three segments

Top of the Funnel

1. Content is king (blog posts, videos, etc)
2. Social media
3. Online Marketing (PPC, SEO)
4. Referrals, Partners

Middle of the Funnel

1. Create custom campaigns for hot, warm, and cold leads
2. Personalization is key
3. Make every touch relevant and useful

Bottom of the funnel

1. Automate sales stage communications
2. Provide supporting evidence
3. Welcome customers (make it personal and relevant)
4. Be systematic about every decision

4. QR code scanning has not reached mass adoption, so continue to pilot. [YMMV]

The Celtics noticed recorded that at an outreach event there were two subscription options: digital with QR codes and analog with a paper sign up sheet.  Here were the scores:

QR code scans = 100

Paper sign ups: +1,500

The Celtics found that a simple paper sign up was a simpler choice for events, but that doesn’t mean QR codes are bad – your mileage may vary.

5. Tools + Tactics – Strategy = Chaos

Make sure you have a plan. I recommend Forrester’s POST strategy framework. Infusionsoft provides this template to help map out your tactics.

6  Want to build a twitter following?

• Tweet a lot of links and don’t be overly conversational.
• Click through rates increase with tweet scarcity; don’t crowd out your own content.
• Click through rates are higher on Saturday and Sunday when there is less tweet volume.
• Don’t be afraid to identify yourself as an authority.
• Be positive, people shy away from negativity.
• Ask for a RT, but don’t be annoying.

7. Have a mobile strategy that converts searches to revenue

70% of mobile searches lead to action within one hour, is your mobile strategy capturing that potential?

Kendall Jackson was held out as an example of doing mobile right. They have SMS, QR codes and URLs on bottle tags – let your customer pick the tools. Don’t force them to adapt to you.

8. How much content is enough?

I thought this was a great question for Chris Brogan. His answer was an eye-opener:

1. Post 2-3 times a week to maintain an audience
2. Post 2-3 times a day to grow an audience

9. Updated Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) metric

Social CLV = Word of mouth referrals + new sales idea + customer support savings

Many wrestle with how to measure social efforts, the above was provided by Clara Shih and I think it provides a good strategy to define metrics from.

10. I’m leaving this one up to you, what was your Marketing Technology take-away from IMS?

Hit me back in the comments.

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Day 1 afternoon notes

Day 2 morning notes

Uncovering The Science Behind Viral Marketing with David Skok

• Best business model is low cost of customer acquisition (COCA) and high lifetime value (LTV)
• The viral loop: customer sees your app –> tries it –> decides whether to share –> creates and invitation –> friend receives –> friend decides whether to look
• K = the Viral Coefficient
  • k = # invites x conversion rate x
• Shortening the cycle time has a far bigger effect than changing the Viral coefficient
• See full presentation here.

The basics of virality

• What is the viral hook – what makes people want to share content?
  • Something very compelling that the user wants to share
  • Something of value
    • Applications
    • Educational content
    • Data
    • Things of monetary value
  • Something entertaining
    • Humor
    • Games
  • News
  • Inherently Viral Services
• Content or Product/Service
  • Has to be a FREE product service, not cheap.  FREE!
• Seeding
  • The bigger your initial seeding the better
  • Paid seeding – there are companies that provide such services
• Spread through Communications Networks
  • Use reshare buttons
  • What you want: low effort for user to share. social, email, etc…
• Refreshing and re-seeding
  • Google Search: paid and organic

Why do people share?

1. High arousal, Positive (awe)
2. High arousal, Negative (anger)
3. Low arousal, de-activating (sadness)

How to Optimize Virality

• Optimize your sales funnel
• Get inside your customers head
  • what are they not doing what you want them to do?
  • figure out what motivates them
  • create a solution that entices them
• Look for ways to get your customers to tell their friends about you
• Hybrid viral = added some virality to your existing content; good not great, but better than nothing

Info at: http://forEntrepreneurs.com

The Future of Mobile Marketing

What is mobile marketing?

• Most intimate device ever invented.  It knows more about you than any other device
• Develop mobile ads for mobile devices
• Information is very actionable, 30% of restaurant searches are done via mobile
• 70% of mobile searches lead to action within one hour
• URL has to go to a mobile landing page (otherwise you burned a prospect – perhaps for life)
• Examples of excellence
  • Kendall Jackson wine – next tag has a QR code, URL and SMS: Offer is a pairing geo located to local tastes
  • Use SMS, QR, Short codes AND URLs – different people use different tools
• Watermarking is the ability to see an invisible bar code

Developments In SEO: What Every Marketer Should Know with Dharmesh Shah

• 46% of daily searches are for products/services
• 70% of links in search are organic  – not paid
• Best thing to do for SEO is create great content

• Goal: increase SEO to reduce your PPC
• Search and social together – social discussions are used to personalize search results (signals of quality)
• Search isn’t competitive game, you need to beat others, ergo your social efforts enhance your visibility (more than your competitors)
• Google+ will likely result higher in search results
• Another value of sharable results is that you can see which of your friends have shared the content (or not) drives higher click thru rate
• Google Panda update removed crap from search results
• If your marketing is broken, don’t automate it. TRANSFORM IT
• Forget b2b and focus on b2h(uman)
• Call to action: rethink how we market, even the touchier/feelier upgraded marketing

Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard with author Dan Heath

We have two brains
1 – rational conscious deliberate
2- emotional unconscious automatic

• Emotion is like an elephant, the elephant drives us
• There is a rider on the elephant
• For example, a diet is hard because the rider is barely in control of the elephant

3 part framework for change

1- Direct The Rider

• Analyzing problems comes naturally to us, analyzing success doesn’t
• Psychologists say: “Bad is stronger than good”
• Find the bright spots – obsess over success and figure out how to replicate it
• Information can be TBU – true but useless
• Instead, find what’s working today despite the obstacles and do more of that

2 – Motivate The Elephant

• Need to induce acceptance in those we want to accept the change
• We typically start by explaining the change
• Instead, speak to the emotional elephant
• Change comes from feeling

How do you convince colleagues to change?

• Spreadsheets don’t work. Tangible, evidence that people connect to does work
• How we think change works: analyze –> think –> change
• How change actually works: see –> feel –> change

3 -Shape The Path

• Being specific with instructions significantly increases the likelihood of change
• Ultimate Example: Amazon’s Buy now with 1-click
• Have you 1-clickified what change you want to drive?
• Example: stand up meetings combat long meetings
• At work: remove obstacles and make change easy
• Make “yes” the path of least resistance