Can harassing your customers be profitable?

Here is a really interesting (and scary) article about a business that figured out how harassing its customers could lead to higher profits (and it is all driven by social media). Essentially, what one guy figured out, is that negative reviews have two effects on his business: First, they reduce sales a bit, since people who find the negative reviews are less likely to shop at his online store. However, they also have a positive effect: the more people complain about his store, and link back to it, the higher it appears on the Google rankings. Sadly, the second effect is larger than the first, so this business owner purposely harasses some of his customers (to an unimaginable degree) purely to get them to write negative reviews.

A couple of weeks ago we discussed ethics in class, and how it is important to consider more than just profits when making business decisions. Clearly this guy skipped his class on ethics. I hope you guys remember that class when you rejoin the business world.

http://nyti.ms/h0pUSN

The Price of A Tweet

Seeing Malcolm's earlier post, "Rady Social Media Marketing: Social Payment," inspired me to actually try the idea out. I downloaded the book by the developer of the "Pay with a Tweet" app, amusingly entitled "Oh My God What Happened And What Should I Do" - unsurprisingly, the price was a tweet. It's actually not a bad book. I was going to blog about it on my personal blog, but since I'm going through a massive PHP upgrade right now that will probably take all weekend, I want to share a particular page I really liked called "Live the Media." It boils down to this well-trod point: there are 1001 free tools out there for you to experiment with. If you want to understand social media, you can't ask someone to do it for you, you have to try things yourself.

This point is probably obvious. Nevertheless, I understand a lot more about Twitter than I did 8 weeks ago. I think one of our unfortunate tendencies is to dismiss social media as "a waste of time." But think back to your shop class, when you made your first little wooden puzzle or doodad or whatever. That puzzle/doodad was, of course, entirely worthless and is probably now sawdust. But in making it, you learned how to use a bandsaw. So was the process of making the puzzle/doodad a waste of time just because the end product didn't add any value to your life? For a lot of us in this class, I think this is a metaphor worth considering.

Porsche Reaches One Million Facebook Fans, Will Carve Their Names Onto A Car

Luxury auto manufacturer Porsche will be celebrating its one millionth Facebook fan by carving the names of fans who sign up through the social network onto a special (and probably very unattractive) Porsche model to be displayed in the Porsche museum in Stuttgart, Germany.

Porsche has some pretty intense online outreach (A Porsche Family Tree! A Porsche Google Chrome theme!), but for most people (myself included) “Liking” that Porsche on Facebook is the closest we’re going to get to a Porsche in real life.

So here’s to hoping the company has an even better surprise planned for its relatively modest 3,305 Twitter followers.

Dancing with the Stars and Social Media Flaws

If you have not been watching Dancing with the Stars (yes, I am married), you have been missing a great example of where social media has its flaws. ( http://fxn.ws/9uzNoc and http://usat.ly/aNY46E) Bristol Palin (Sarah's daughter) has continually advanced in the contest because conservative Republicans (advocates of Sarah) have organized on social media sites and made great efforts to vote on-line for Bristol each week (sometimes creating multiple email addresses to increase the number of votes). Yes, they are gaming the system, but it also identifies some of the issues with social media (namely, you do not always know who your audience is and you cannot always trust them!).

The lesson learned is that if you are going to create a social media tool, you have to understand the weaknesses of your system.

On another note, I think its funny that the Republicans lost in the Senate, but they are organizing over a dancing contest! I am not sure they really understand the value of social media...

Event held by CommNexus: Managing a Crisis in the Age of Social Media

I do not know how many of you are familiar with CommNexus. It is a non-profit network of communications industry companies, defense industry companies, service providers, professional trade organizations, and local government which hold events in their specific fields. 

Nevertheless, they are having an event regarding Social Media.

The title is "Managing a Crisis in the Age of Social Media". If you have free time I suggest going there.

Since we are students the registration will be free. 
Please click here for further information.

The Future of Advertising

Excellent (but long) article on what's in store for advertising. Will agencies be neglected and eventually go out of business? Why seek consulting on your campaign when you can directly test ideas with consumers through social media?

My favorite quote is by Jon Bond, "Marketing in the future is like sex. Only the losers will have to pay for it."

http://bit.ly/cb4qiD

Of course this means that there is also opportunity. As graduates-to-be, we can actually be thought leaders in a whole new way of offering services to corporations looking to advertise. An element of excitement that adds a wrinkle to our education thus far!

Results: Jpn Groupon violation of rule

This is an update of Jpn Groupon violates rule. 1st graph: blue line is accumulated purchase and red area is purchase per hour. At first Ponpare has estimated the blue line will reach top ceiling 500,000 minimum requirement.

However, Ponpare saw the weaker demand and then removed minimum requirement. The purple line indicates this decision.

The daily amount of purchase increased AFTER the decision. 2nd graph shows daily (12pm to next day 12pm) purchase, and the red bar was the decision.

What they did worked well, IN SHORT TERM. Regardless of positive or negative tone, the responses to the decision created huge buzz and contributed to the increase of awareness and purchase.

The other thing to learn was the interesting behavior of users. 3rd Graph shows that the pattern of weekday (blue) and weekend (green) is little bit different.

Lunch time is more important in weekend, and nighttime is more important in weekdays. Also, weekday's 2pm is air pocket.

Finally, 4th graph shows the distribution of weight of each hour in a day. The red bundle shows 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80% confidence.

These graphs are only from public data. Ponpare must got bunch of data. They also got 367,401 users. They might have lost something, but they got priceless data and users pool.

Are we scared yet?

The Wall Street Journal just came out with its latest installment on online privacy which I suggest you check out:

http://on.wsj.com/dh7jzs

If last week’s reading didn’t already get you concerned about the privacy issues that can arise from the vast amounts of personal data collected online, this newest article will. Apparently insurance companies are turning to online data to build more accurate models in order to predict your health and longevity. You like McDonalds on Facebook? Maybe we should raise your premium. You installed the jogging app on your iPhone? Maybe you are due for a small discount.

An interesting question this raises though is whether you can game the system, since ultimately the information they have about us online is what we choose to share. You could imagine that if this became a popular method for pricing insurance, people would publicly like health and fitness magazines, and check into salad bars on Foursquare right before walking into a McDonalds to eat. Either way, this really highlights the difficult ethical and privacy issues that we will have to deal with moving forward.

Another Google Ad tool is coming out of Beta

A year ago Google launched an Ad tool which they called "Product Listing Ads".
Now it is coming out of Beta and going online in USA. Based on what Google says through this mechanism the product lead increases because of a much more accurate customer targeting and developing "product extension".
Nevertheless, for those of you who are interested in selling your products this new tool might come in handy :)

I am not sure, but as more and more Ads become targeted I find them frightening!!! I wonder what else they know about me?!!

One last question, does anybody know how big the Fuzzy Region is ;)

Movember

Using social media for social good. Everyone knows about breast cancer month, but not as many know about Movember. A chance to shine a spotlight on conditions that affect men.

So im busting out my version of the stash to try to raise some cash. I also thought it would be worth while to use my social media outlets to market and get the word out. You will find posts on my twitter, facebook, and others accounts.

Fine moustachery and immaculate grooming doesn't grow on trees. Pls donate to #Movember: http://us.movember.com/mospace/1275110/

The Math Doesn't Add Up

This is a purely editorial post, so I apologize in advance.

It looks like today's class stirred alot of thought - which is good.

But, I keep coming back to the same question centered around the economics. Virtual planet purchasing aside, we know that all of these sites that have no revenue model cost money to start, operate and maintain. Collectively it's probably in the tens of billions of dollars, but the only revenue model I hear being consistently mentioned is advertising revenue. Regardless of how sophisticated the data mining gets, there are only so many advertising dollars being spent. Even if that number increases 100% because of the effectiveness of the advertsing, the number of companies wanting to share the pie grows exponentially.

So, I have come to the conclusion that in very short order the social media bubble will pop. There will be a few survivors (Groupon?, Facebook?) but a majority of companies will go the way of dogfood.com and the rest of the dot.comers. The math just doesn't add up and we all know that math never lies.

More on Groupon

As I was traveling this past weekend I read an interesting article in United's in-flight magazine. Much of the content of the article was presented in class today, but not mentioned is how Groupon came to be. I think it's a pretty good story of entrepreneurship. Andrew Mason, the 30-year old CEO of Groupon, first created a site called The Point in 2007. The Point organizes people behind charitable causes, and once enough people have donated time or money to a project, it's undertaken. Unfortunate for charities, The Point has not been hugely successful, but Andrew Mason saw the potential market behind group purchasing...and so it he gave it a try with coupons and has become wildly successful.

There are other interesting details about the growth of the company. For example, Groupon is expected to be the only company to achieve $1 billion in sales within 2 years (priceline.com did it in 2.5 years).

Read the full article from Hemispheres Magazine at The-Tipping-Point

Overload

After being exposed to more and more forms of social media and reading about strategic invasion of privacy that is used by many companies, I find myself getting frustrated with many aspects of social media: the constant page suggestions (I am guilty of sending a few of these as well in the past), companies and aspiring musicians trying to be my "friend", links, tags, and many other types of social media tools. Is anyone else experiencing this social media overload? It brings me to my question: when will social media go too far to where the people will turn away from it and not pay attention like they have done (at least for the most part) to commercials, print ads, etc. Where are we headed next in terms of marketing?

Google Hot Pot

Google has a cool location based recommendation engine called Google Hot Pot. As location is becoming more and more popular especially with social media groups such as Facebook and Foursquare, users are trying to make the most out of the functionality.

So what does Hot Pot do? It takes all of Google’s places, features, reviews and ratings and adds som what of a… personal touch. Google will use your profile and link it to the likes and dislikes with a counter at the top of your profile, this data will then get fed into the search engine. One of the aims is to get you to rate and review businesses for others to see.

If you are worried about your name being used, then stop worrying. You can create a Hot Pot nickname that can be separate from your Gmail account so that only your friends can see your real name and the rest of the web can only see your nickname.

Thought that it is interesting topic to share. More can be found at -> http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/11/discover-yours-local-recommendations.html

The key to blogging is connection!

I have been fairly skeptical of blogging. I understand how to use it. I can talk to my audience, I can build relationships, I can sell my product (whether that is an idea, a concept or a physical product). My major issue has been getting to the blog. What drives me to find the blog? What makes me want to share my opinion?

In that light, I have a friend's sister who is a foodie and she blogs about food. Here's a great site that is featuring a contest that drives both participation and content:

http://www.foodbuzz.com/project_food_blog

If this is being done about food, could the same idea work to tap into the passion people have about your product? It might have already been done, but I still thought this was cool. What makes people want to connect with your product (whether its to read or write about it)?

It went viral

"The latest online video to go viral features an annoyed San Diego airline passenger refusing a pat-down from a Transportation Security Administration worker. John Tyner, the Internet celebrity of the moment, is now being hailed in some circles as the everyman victim of overzealous government employees."

- The Baltimore Sun

10s of thousands of views already on YouTube!
Definitely falls into the SUCCESS Model.

Be Obama's Social Media Manager

With the mid-term elections behind us it ought to be another 15 minutes or so before the 2012 election season starts. You can bet that the President will be going back to the social media well before long. He currently has 7.5 million Facebook followers, 3.3 million Twitter followers and 2 million MySpace friends.

Now for the good news He is hiring a new Social Media Manager! It could be you. Here's the article with the contact to submit your resume.

www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/16/obama-seeks-new-social-media-mouthpiece/

Social Media Marketing gives small business big chances!

In Japan, among the people, the brand, Satisfaction Guaranteed has been very popular rather than Uniqlo, Beams, and so on.

The company was founded in 2007. Basically, Japanese clothes items are made in China or other low-labor-cost countries because of the cost-effectiveness to beat severe competition while the company has persisted with the brand made in Japan.

In three years, the brand has increased the popularity such as the number of Facebook fan, 170,000 and opened the shop in Singapore.

Note: The number of Facebook fan of Panasonic is 54,000.

Why is the brand successful? The key is utilization of Social Media.

According to Japanese business journal article, the CEO, Shunsuke Satoh mentioned the following successful key points as follows:

Unlike famous brand, the recognition was so low. He clarified the goal of the brand’s facebook. Afterward, the CEO communicated directly with customers through Facebook’s personal account, created Fan Page and expanded its contents to increase the number of fan

Investment heavily in advertising at initial stage in utilizing Facebook, Asian countries’ Yahoo! Banner advertisements.

Posting Facebook Fan Page Posted on the shop’s windows which many passers-by can access the page through their mobile.

Collaboration its official site with its Facebook Fan page and other brand’s Facebook Fan page with its Facebook Fan Page.

He also mentions that the number of fan does not always show the number of the core fan. So his direct communication with fan/customers makes him grasp what the fan seeks for the brand.

Social media marketing has a huge potential for small business or entrepreneurs!

Facebook Fan Page:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/japan.satisfactionguaranteed?v=info

The company’s URL:

http://www.satisfaction-guaranteed.jp/sg/index.html

Job seekers beware

We all know the importance of LinkedIn job search. I would say Facebook plays an even bigger role in determining if you get that call from recruiters or not. In the olden "golden" days, it was enough that your resume attracted the attention of the hiring manager. But that is no longer the case now.

Whether the applicant has a LinkedIn profile or not, they have to make sure that they or their friends in Facebook and other social media networks have nothing that can discriminate them in the eyes of the recruiter. A recent article mentions that “Social media ‘stalking’ has become the norm in the hiring and retention process. Before calling in applicants for a job interview, HR will likely snoop around online to make sure there are no virtual red flags. And according to Mary Hladio, the CEO of leadership group Ember Carriers "Beyond typing names into a search engine, companies will also employ sophisticated online monitoring platforms that dig even deeper. If there’s something on the Internet you wouldn’t want your boss to see, it’s probably in your best interest to take it down."

Recruiters are not only using social media to vet the wrong candidates, but they are also using them to find the right candidates. Another article mentions that many use sophisticated boolean techniques to extract candidate profile information from sites like LinkedIn, Plaxo, Google Profiles, Twitter, etc.

Here is some statics that I found online related to this:

72 percent plan to invest more in recruiting through social networks
80 percent of companies are planning to use social networks to find or attract candidates
LinkedIn use grew from 80 percent in 2008 to 95 percent in 2008
Facebook use grew from 36 percent in 2008 to 59 percent in 2009
Twitter ranked third at 42 percent

Food for thought: Did you know that there are training programs for recruiters to help them use "Social Media" for candidate selection and filter. How many of us are thinking of such diversified career instead of the run of the mill corporate job??

Corporate Social Media Fail

Our class on metrics reminded me of a recent experience I had with Gilt Groupe. They had some sweepstakes where you could win a ridiculous amount of credit on their site, but to enter you had to "like" them. I shop at Gilt a fair amount (portable BBQ grill for $20!!) so I broke my rule of "never 'like' anything" and "liked" Gilt. Then they hit me with a curveball: the "like" thing was just to get to the entry form. To submit the form, I had to install the application and give it access to some of my personal Facebook information.

This whole episode felt gross. I'm especially annoyed because Gilt is run by a bunch of smarmy fresh-out-of-b-schoolers from one of the smarmier East Coast schools, I think Columbia, and this reflects poorly on how MBA students utilize their education. Anyway (/soapbox), the point is that there will probably be a time in each of our careers where we think "What our company needs is more people to install our application so that they will see our marketing," and in the rush to meet the metric we will find a tempting option whereby we completely torpedo our goal. I hope that when that time comes for me, I'm able to recognize it and see the forest for the trees.

Social Media Advertising more competitive in Japan

Apple agreed with Dentsu (Japanese mega advertising agency) about Apple's iAd network in Japan. Dentsu concentrated heavily on outbound marketing, so far while a few small venture companies dominated social media advertising in Japan.
This agreement would change social media advertising field in Japan from blue ocean into battle field......

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2010/11/10/apple-dentsu-team-bring-apples-iad-network-japan/

social media crimes

I came across a website that has compiled a list of the 25 most "shocking" crimes in social media. It is actually broken down into two sections. One on copyright issues and a second on physical crimes.

Interesting to see how often Facebook shows up on the list as both a plaintiff and defendant. There is one recurring theme in the list, infringment on rights to privacy.

Check it out:
http://www.mastersincriminaljustice.com/blog/2009/25-most-shocking-crimes-in-social-media-history/

Japanese Groupon violates rule of the game.

Ponpare (Groupon style service in Japan) inflinged the most important rule of the business model. Ponpare has offered $1 coupon for two Häagen Dazs (usually $7), if more than 0.5 million user buy it. But 5 days later, only 0.13 million user have clicked it. In response to the lower (than expected) demand, Ponpare changed the rule and turn on the deal.

Most of the Ponpare user are pleased with it. But... I feel the company has entered off limits area. This action distorts the mechanism of the business, and weakens the incentive to Retweet a coupon in the future. This incident not only affect Ponpare but also affect other Groupon style service.

In Tokyo lots of Ponpare user tweet "Good Job!", though a game theorist in San Diego believe "Worst Job!"

Labor Board says employees can talk about work on social media !!

It's probably not the best idea to complain about your boss on Twitter or Facebook -- but the National Labor Relations Board argues that workers have the right to discuss working conditions on social media, positive or otherwise ?

Doesn't it sound interesting ?

RockMelt - The social web browser

Long time reader, first time blogger…

A friend of mine posted the following link on facebook from cnn.com regarding a new browser called RockMelt.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/11/08/rockmelt.browser.mashable/index.html?hpt=Sbin

According to the article, RockMelt is “a new browser that lives in the cloud and uses Facebook authentication to synchronize a user's browsing experience across machines.” Basically, by using RockMelt you can have the same browsing experience on any computer that has RockMelt. Your settings are saved in the cloud, including bookmarks, browsing history, and even your social media profiles.

Please read the article and watch the video demonstrating the capabilities of RockMelt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAPKPhoTqFY&feature=player_embedded

There are issues that the article and video do not cover. It is great that your personal browser and social media settings can follow you around wherever you are, but what else can follow you around? How about advertising? No matter where I log on to Gmail, I receive personalized ads based on the content of my email. With RockMelt, every website on any computer could have ads targeted at me.

What about security? RockMelt will need to guarantee that someone cannot hack into my RockMelt account and then gain immediate access to who knows what from pages I visited who knows where.

Several weeks of Social Media class has led me to keep an open mind towards internet marketing but security vulnerabilities still concern me. The general public is probably more averse to targeted ads and security concerns than I am. As a result, RockMelt may have some obstacles to overcome before gaining wide acceptance.

With that said, I have requested an invitation to use the beta version of RockMelt. I will report back with how my experience goes. Wish me luck.