links for 2006-03-15
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load firefox bookmarks directly into delicious…are bookmarkets so 15 minutes ago anyway?
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the ultimate definitive list of delicious tools…crazy delicious is still available.
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From Liz Strauss
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New features for Tail Rank
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someting else to worry about and back up.
links for 2006-03-10
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Been in lots of discussions lately about stats…this explains a lot!
What’s New About Word of Mouth? (If you are reading this you probably know)
Jack Trout, writing in Forbes, asked the question, “Is Word Of Mouth All Its Cracked Up to Be?” Well, he wasn’t really asking…he went on to write that word of mouth was out of hand because there was an asssociation, WOMMA; and the association had a Conference attended by over 400 people.
Further, he wrote, in support of his out of control premise, there is a new vocabularly for word of mouth which includes but is not limited to buzz, viral, evangelist, and blogs. And of course we all know the Forbes take on blogs, “Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel, and invective.”
His remaining points were, not new, just another 3rd party Holy Grail endorsement by early adapters….yes, we know he means adopters; he acknowledges the internet but only by way of saying its raised the noise level and then writes that nobody talks about products anyway. Next thought from Jack? Well, even if they were talking, the talk would be negative if you had a bad product. Last thought…he wants his message that he’s work so hard on to be delivered and he is not going to give up control of his arsenal.
There were lots of really great responses to Mr. Trout’s fisheye interpretation of word of mouth: George Silverman, JohnMoore (check out his post about trying to share Gil Scott-Heron videos on YouTube.…..then check out Gil Scott-Heron!). JohnMoore and George Silverman pointed out the fallacies in Jack Trout’s attack which can best be summarized with “Jack, it’s not about you.”
Jack, you don’t have control so you can’t give up control.
Now, so we know that the consumer is in control. That is not a new new concept. The consumer ultimately makes the buying decision. And the so called volume of information noise has gone up to such a level that the customer has to control what information gets in…there is simply too much information. Again, not new new…but because the consumer controls the information, marketing has to be kinder and gentler. As George Silverman said at WOMMA, “embrace the customer…make love not war.” War was the Trout Reis way and that was the ’80s. Their focus was on destroying the competition.
So…there has been a shift in control based upon the sheer availability and magnitiude of information as well as the speed and noise level of the onslaught of messages. This is a result of technology. Technology has also developed the noise filters. Comsumers seek information about products and services…before, during and after the purchase. Marketing and advertising are part of the information process not just the sales process. This is a shift.
But…..what is new new about word of mouth that makes Jack Trout’s article completely old school?
Peter Kim talks about it in terms of the efficacy of technology and a reference to Charlene Li’s at Forrester’s report on Social Computing:
”Easy connections brought about by cheap devices, modular content, and shared computing devices are having a profound impact on our global economy and social structure. Individuals increasingly take cues from one another rather than from institutional sources like corporations, media outlets, religions and political bodies. To thrive in a era of social computing, companies must abandon top down management and communication tactics weave communities into their products and services and use employees as partners, and become part of a living fabris of brand loyalists.”
Simply put….the technology has put tools in the hands of consumers such as blogs, wikis, mobile, on-line social networks, and given the consumer a voice never available before. Consumers care more about what other consumers think than they do about advertising…not new; but, one consumer no longer just tells one consumer who tells another consumer. Now, one consumer can reach an unlimited number of consumers and speak with the authority and credibility of a friend. It’s about the technology but, it is the relationship, stupid.
Two more points. One, regarding why we know that this version of word of mouth is new AND all that it is cracked up to be…in other words, a paradigm shift.
What is the scientific definition of a paradigm shift? According to Kuhn
“when scientists encounter anomalies which cannot be explained by the universally accepted paradigm within which scientific progress has thereto been made. The paradigm according to Kuhn’s view, is not cimply the current theory, but the entire worldview in which it exists. and all the implications which come with it.”
Think about social computing and the speed and the volume of information that people have and then think about the speed at which the information is passed and the number of people that it can be passed to that belong to a community of practice and you will see paradigm shifting in action.
Second point….Knowledge at Wharton had an article yesterday about customer disatisfaction with the title, Beware of Dissatisfied Consumers: They Like to Blab. They were referring to a study of retail establishments but I think the numbers are most likely directionally accurate for any dissatisfied customer: Overerall, it says for every 100 customers that say they had a bad experience a retailer will lose between 32 and 44 of them as customers.
“The complaints have an even greater impact on shoppers who were not
directly involved as the story spreads and is embellished, researchers
found. Almost half those surveyed, 48%, reported they have avoided a
store in the past because of someone else’s negative experience. For
those who had encountered a problem themselves, 33% said they would
“definitely not” or “probably not” return. “This storytelling has even
more impact on the people the story is told to than the people who told
the story,” says Hoch. The data is based on a survey of 1,186 shoppers”
These are numbers from plain, old fashioned word of mouth. Put them into the social computer and it is obvious what is new about word of mouth. Imagine if the social computer was a mobile device how immediately the bad experience would start to travel….one could still be angry.
Technorati Tags: marketing, blogs, advertising, WOM, WOMMA, social computing, wikis, word of mouth
links for 2006-03-09
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The question seems to be………full disclosure?
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More on Coke’s strategic shift from the Interesection of Anthropology.
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Edelman responds to NYT
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Jack Trout puts his foot in his mouth.
Follow Up: Leo Burnett Chooses Global Giving for Packaged Good Partner
As previously posted, Leo Burnett, USA sent out a request for proposal under the name, Packaged Good, seeking a worthy cause in need of their marketing and advertising expertise. They announced that they have chosen GlobalGiving from almost 400 organizations that submitted proposals.
GlobalGiving is a web based organization that connects donors, individuals and organizations, directly with "social, economic development, and environmental projects around the world" in need of funds. Current projects supported by Global Giving are Phillipines Mudslide
Hurricane Katrina rebuilding, Tsunami Relief and many many others.
Congratulations to Leo Burnett and GlobalGiving and best wishes for a successful partnership!
Technorati Tags: Leo Burnett, GlobalGiving, non-profit, social entrepreneurship, pro bono, advertising, Packaged Good
links for 2006-03-07
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the google, the bad and the ugly.
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does anybody really know what time it is? does anybody really care?
links for 2006-03-06
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Cheating by mobile…getting caught by turnitin.com; What’s wrong with this picture?
From Brand Noise -
definitive list, for now.
A Personal Note: Matt Gossage Leaves MICDS
Matt Gossage, the Head of MICDS (Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School) announced last week that he was leaving to head the Cannon School in Concord, N.C. My youngest son is in the seventh grade at MICDS and has been at MICDS since the first grade; my hope is that he will remain in the MICDS class of 2011 through graduation. So far, so good.
I am deeply disappointed that Matt Gossage will not be there to hand him his diploma. His departure is a loss to MICDS and therefore to myself and my family. We wish the Gossage family the best, but we will miss them.
Matt came to MICDS in 1994, shortly before we moved back to St. Louis. Matt has provided exceptional leadership and sound judgment to difficult issues over those twelve years that gave meaning to the words in the school’s mission, written during his tenure, think critically, live virtuously and compassionately.
I can look at my own son, who has thrived at MICDS, and know that Matt Gossage was leading the school in a positive direction; and I can look at Matt’s children and see that not only is he an awesome leader, he is an awesome father.
Each month Matt writes "ending point" for the school newsletter. I always look forward to reading it. This month he wrote, "It is my hope that our school and our homes will continue to provide the spaces for children to discuss these dilemmas that life poses….I hope we can use the 24 hours entrusted to us as we work together with these children to give them the places to talk about the tough decisions between good and good."
I don’t know for sure, but I do wonder if Matt was talking about leaving MICDS. I do know that his departure poses a dilemma for the parents and children of MICDS. Knowing that he must believe that it is the right decision, we are nonetheless sad to see him go.
As a classmate of my son said to his mother, "But Mom, Mr. Gossage knows my name." Yes, he does seem to know everyone’s name… and we will always remember his.
Technorati Tags: MICDS, Matt Gossage, Cannon School
links for 2006-03-03
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At last a reward from a brand I love.
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Says it all…but what was new before black was.
What is Technorati Anyway?
I have posted about the difficulties with Technorati tags and indexing more than I would like to even think about…my problem with non-working tag bookmarklets (yes, these very same bookmarklets worked on other blogs….just not on mine) seemed to finally be solved by using Performancing. I have also found Janice Myint to be very responsive each time I have emailed about the indexing issue.
Having said that, I agree with the statement "Technorati is still broken" that is appearing on many blogs in one form or another. Speaking specifically about the two places I blog, here and as one of the four editors of the blogging and social media blog at blogher (Zadi Diaz,Debi Jones ,and Nicole Simon are writing about video blogging, mobile blogging, and blogging respectively) I have to say that there are problems with tracking updates, tagging, pinging, and even the number of blogs per url.
For Resonance Partnership blog, I found two listings in my own favorites:
Resonance Partnership…Updated 28 days ago and Resonance Partnership by marianne richmond.,Updated 19 hours ago.
Blogher is listed as one of my favorites and on my list, Technorati shows updates 9 hours ago; 9 seconds ago would be a closer guess. As Laura Scott says, "there are 1046 members, 2737 posts and 1805 links. There are constant updates.
Further, I keep a Technorati Chart on my blog that is supposed to automatically update posts tagged blogher.
The graph, Posts tagged Blogher per day for the last 30 days shows blogher tags declining. That is difficult to believe with the number of Blogher blogs and posts increasing.
Get your own chart!
Laura Scott posts the question, "If you built it, and Technorati doesn’t track you, will they come?" and of course for Blogher the answer is "yes". For individual bloggers who are constantly fighting the battle of the tag, the Technorati model is a bit more problematic. As Laura says in reference to the new Technorati Favorites, " Technorati’s latest popularity measure–which is very undemocratic, tends to mainstream traffic, and generally rewards the already-successful."
In fact, in a matter of several days, Technorati first gave us favorites and then after we listed our favorites, we got to find out who was the most favorite…
So to link (no pun intended) two points of this post together: #1 Technorati has fundamental problems with its basic features, tracking and indexing, but instead of fixing the basics they keep adding new features, favorites, most favorites and authority which, by the way in case you didn’t notice, keeps enhancing the dance cards of those all ready dancing the most;
#2 the question of giving Technorati the authority to be the arbiter of the blogosphere because it seems to have one BIG problem that we have all experienced: Is It ACCURATE? Is It BROKEN? Did it ever work? This is the results of Google search for "Technorati is Broken." This is the result of a Google search for "Technorati is not accurate." Most importantly, what do we experience on our own magic middle blogs? How can something so apparently inaccurate measure authority?
As Debi Jones wrote a Mobile Jones and Blogher, What if I told you that there was a part of the blogosphere that claims 56 million members, 2 1/2 times the
traffic of Google and adds 1 million new bloggers per week? Technorati
does not track this part of the blogosphere. If Technorati added feeds
from this group of bloggers, their current "blogosphere" would be a
mere 1/3rd of the total. " She was talking about My Space.
And what is Technorati anyway?
Tag, you’re it….
Technorati Tags: Technorati, Blogher, Authority Google, blogs. blogosphere, favorites, social media
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