<obvious statement> We’re living in a world driven by information </obvious statement>

The internet and all of its iterative constructs have enabled the creation and sharing of information.  In its current form, public consumption of this information is driven by a mixture of search and socially-enabled sharing. This means that successful sharing of relevant, engaging information is the key to maximizing the digital public’s consumption of your content.

There’s a very wrong assumption floating around the heads of many CMO’s and small business owners alike. They are of the belief that just having a social media presence is enough. »

Day 2 was another marathon of sessions- some great, some not so great.  That being said, one can still learn something from a mediocre session- it just happens to be in the form of the discourse that’s happening on the event’s hashtag.

Monitoring a hashtag via a client like tweetdeck is a great way to discuss what’s going on with your fellow event attendees.  With the sheer numbers of tweets going back and forth, it tends to be fast and furious, but one is able to quickly get an idea of what public sentiment is like during the event.  Then again, public sentiment is one of Twitter’s most powerful uses, so it shouldn’t come as much of a suprise.

Social Shopping: The Future of Online Shopping #getcrafty

This session took a turn for the ugly, and I felt bad for the presenter.  She was having A/V issues, did not come off as prepared, and was covering the subject matter in a very, very, introductory fashion.  If the session had been marketed towards less savvy users then it would have been a non-issue, but the ballroom was full of hundreds of influencers and forward thinkers who know what the current state of online shopping are.  We were hungry for discourse related to what the future holds.  After the first 10 minutes, the crowd got restless, the tweets went south, and people left en masse.

It’s too bad, because the subject of social shopping is huge.  While we’re discussing, I might as well share my opinons on it:

Social shopping is already here to an extent, but it has the potential to be much more pervasive, helpful, and easy to use/implement.  Amazon already does a great job of applying your friends’ purchasing activity into its algorithms, and groupon makes participation an itegral part of the sale process. Some sites already let people share their purchases on facebook and twitter.

I believe, however, that the next wave of social shopping is going to invade traditional brick-and-mortar shopping experiences.  The key to it is the adoption of NFC Technology.  NFC tech will make many things possible and easy, including adding a social element to shopping. by swiping their phone to make a purchase, functionalities could be put in place to share these purchases to social networks automatically and easily.

Keynote Speech with SCVNGR’s Seth Priebatsch #gamelayer

Today’s keynote speech was fantastic.  Seth Priebatsch is the 22 year old ninja behind SCVNGR,  and I think the content of his speech encapsulates what lies in store for our digital futures. It seemed to build on what my good friend Colleen was talking about at her panel the day before.  Gamification.

Seth’s speech was mile-a-minute, full of great assertions, and covered quite a few topics.  If i could distill it down, it would be with the following bullets:

• -Gamification is the wave of the future.
• -Social Media laid the foundation for the gamified world. It takes engagement to the next level by adding problem solving, group coordination, and more significant action in the real world.  Calls to action are more effective when the user is emotionally engaged.
• -The school system needs to be revamped with game mechanic values in mind.  It’s currently a terrible game the is framed within the perfect game ecosystem (challenges, deadlines, conflict, social interaction, adversity).
• -Grades shouldn’t be based on a weighted average, but instead on a level-up experience points structure.  The distribution of performance would  be similar, but student’s wouldn’t be  penalized for having a bad day. Grades represent status while levels represent progression.
• -Citing Yale as an example, cheating could be drastically reduces using a combination of the honor system and having students themselves act as their own watchdogs.  Complicity equals responsibility.
• -Rewards structures in the social world devalue customer loyalty.  One-off benefits result in one-off visits.  Gamified deal structures can encourage repeat visits.
• -Communal gameplay and communal discovery can solve the world’s problems. Local solutions permeate virally in communal gameplay, resulting in quickly solved problems

As I said, he covered a ton of topics, and truly believes in the game layer as a new social structure that enables and progresses us.

Like the social layer, however, it’s sure to have negative effects as well.  Social structures tend to be reflections of the people operating under them.  Seth didn’t touch on it, but I wonder about how the game layer interacts with the significant negative portion of human nature.  If we think of gamification as a societal tool, then we need to acknowledge that how it’s used makes all the difference.  For example, a scalpel could save a man’s life or kill him.

Regardless, Seth describes a world that features a whole new dimension for innovation and commerce. More importantly, it offers chances for us as a people to improve ourselves and the world, and that excites me.

As is customary in the transitory world of social media, best practices for audience engagement continue to shift and evolve.  While the primary function of social media portals remains the same (tools for maximizing engagement), marketers and social media professionals alike are constantly striving to magnify the level of engagement they can achieve with their current and potential clients.

The assumption has been that users who “engage” with a brand digitally are more likely to: 1) Buy the product or service and 2) Share their interest with their social circles.  The more people that engage a brand, the more likely they are to see an increase in traffic and (consequently) sales.  User engagement creates an increase in the conversion rate from a site visitor to a paying customer.

So what’s the next iteration for increasing engagement?

Liking someone on Facebook for your whole network to see is all but commonplace.  While the underlying assumption of user engagement still holds true, one starts to wonder if this action becomes less effective at high adoption levels.  Perhaps the next iteration of user engagement is providing means for users to engage with more intensity.

Actions such as “liking” were the first rung of user engagement. The second rung was sharing the brand with others. But what’s the next level? What’s the next tool that marketers can present to users that enables them to outwardly show their support/love of a brand in a more meaningful way?

Cue our example:

The folks at Heinz Ketchup UK provide a shining example of the next generation of audience engagement.  By leveraging Facebook’s new iframes capabilities, visitors land on an interactive tab that offers an exclusive offer just for fans of the brand.  Naturally, we became fans (half out of curiosity, half out of a genuine love of ketchup) and were greeted with the following:

The offer was for first dibs at buying a new, limited-edition flavor of Heinz Ketchup. It may seem like a simple variation on the old model, but there are numerous benefits:

• Increased initial engagement: The audience is more likely to become a fan just so that they are able to discover what the offer is.

• Direct link to sales from the social media portal: This limited model is able to do away with the need for pushing site traffic from the social media portal to the website. The sales are done right at the point of engagement.  This is a significant benefit.  Digital marketing revolves around making it easier for one to learn about and eventually buy the product they want.  Keeping the user’s experience with the brand centered on Facebook minimizes the chances of users bouncing from a website after they click to learn more.

• Preliminary gauge of new product success: Implementing a limited offer of a new product to fans before it hits stores allows for a more facilitated analysis of how well a new product will do when released to retailers.  This gives a brand the change to more effectively use whatever input its fans give them prior to a full launch.  Brands may be able to head off potentially unsuccessful products before they fail in a more widespread manner.

The potential for this new sort of strategy is significant, and marks the next iteration for marketing in the social space. CMO’s should be shooting for the realm beyond the simplistic “like”.  Making sure that your brand is at the cutting edge of engagement enablement allows for more successful ad campaigns. If you’re interested in seeing a few additional examples of brands who are taking it to the next level, check out this piece from our friends at Hubspot.

Moral of the story: don’t leave the ripe tomatoes on the vine! Turn them into ketchup and sell them to your Facebook fans.