The next installment in my favorite movie series, Saw V, comes to theaters this Friday, October 24th.  Let me tell you how a unique tool used in its promotion blows my mind - nasty pun intended

Here’s what engagement with movies used to look like:

The consumer sees a movie trailer a few months before the film’s release.  In the weeks preceding the big release date, the consumer sees a few 30-second commercial spots on TV.  Perhaps they catch a glimpse of the movie poster during a visit to the theater.  Finally, the big night arrives, and it’s up to the producers to immerse the consumer in a 2-hour experience that will encourage them to speak positively about the film with their friends.

The quality of the movie is out of marketers’ hands, yes.  But marketers have found a new way to ensure that consumers are spending more than 2 hours with their movie brands, thereby increasing the chances that they will share their engagement with others.  Furthermore, marketers are transcending the concept of word-of-mouth, a crucial determinant in the movie-going process.  In a 2006 Los Angeles Times poll on the moviegoing habits of teens and young adults, 38% of those surveyed said they share their opinions about a movie during or right after the film or on the same day.  It is hardcore fans alone who hit up the message boards.  So how can marketers gain and virally spread the interest of casual movie-goers, people who may have a slight interest in their films?

Enter mashups.  Let them direct the movie!

Mashups aren’t entirely new to the YouTube universe.  People have been recreating trailers for a while now, posting “re-cut” versions on YouTube for pure entertainment purposes (sometimes, hilariously inappropriate entertainment purposes).  Marketers found a way to turn these blatant copyright violations into promotional machines. The mashup has become an incredible marketing tool.

You want the proof?

In 3 days, I spent 10 hours creating mashup trailers from the Saw movie series.  10 hours of TRUE engagement.  10 hours of FREE engagement.  And you better believe that I am creating buzz with my friends.  Upon posting the mashup tool to my Facebook profile, I uncovered three more Saw fans, manifested in the form of public wall posts, status updates, and news-feed glory.

It’s a simple concept: incent me to chop up your movie by entering my work into a contest with a sweet prize.  I am likely to spend hours perfecting my trailer, spread the word, and see your movie.  Combined, DVR adoption and the internet have opened doors such that a 30-second commercial should serve as no more than a reminder.  Make consumers feel your brand by finding ways they would like to interact.

It used to be a scary thing - giving control of your brand to your consumers.  But isn’t marketing about giving the people what they want?

Issues, personalities, gaffes and SNL parodies aren’t the only interesting things to look out for this election season.  It has been fascinating to see how the candidates are using media, particularly digital media, to their advantage.

Taking a look at the candidates’ digital media usage, both have a presence on Facebook, as well as run-of-the-mill campaign emails.  Obama has a section of his website devoted to media and has enlisted text messaging, ringtones and site widgets to name a few.  The newest addition?  “Obama ‘08,” a free iPhone application that can be downloaded from the Apple.com iTunes store.  It is currently #15 on the ‘Top Free Apps’ list.

The application is very thorough and easy to use.  One of the unique features I found particularly interesting is the ‘Call Friends’ tab.  It organizes your contacts by battleground states and keeps track of the calls you have made.  Another interesting feature is the ‘Issues’ button which allows you to expand each issue of this election to read Obama’s plan for each one.  Also not to be missed is the ‘Donate’ button in green, with an election countdown next to it.

To maintain fairness, a thorough review of McCain’s website was conducted to see what media is being used.  Like his opponent, he has his campaign commercials, interviews and speeches.  The website also highlights videos that are available on YouTube.  However, you cannot click on the YouTube icon to take you to the campaign’s channel.  I also was not able to find a link to their Facebook application.  If I was not a political junkie, it is unlikely I would have known he even has a presence on Facebook.  It should also be noted that at the time of the Obama campaign’s launch of the iPhone application, the McCain campaign did not have an iPhone application available.

Regardless of who your vote goes to in November, it has been so interesting to see from a digital marketing standpoint how these candidates are using digital media to their advantage and the impact it will have on how future campaigns will be run.

Have you ever wondered about natural group dynamics, who actually leads them, why we’ve joined the ones we are already in, and how to effectively communicate your brand to them?

This was essentially the platform for a presentation I was fortunate enough to participate in. On Thursday, Oct. 9th I attended a day of the Catalyst Leadership conference here in Atlanta, touted as the largest gathering of young leaders. Sitting amongst 12,400 highly enthusiastic participants, I think the Catalyst folks who claim this position and produce this highly creative event might be right. Switchfoot killed it with an acoustic set.

The experience was tops – I enjoyed hearing Jim Collins, Author, Good to Great and a certifiable genius, challenge everyone with the statement “good is the enemy of great”. Ponder that for a bit. But the speaker I want to share about was Seth Godin, who probably needs no introduction to this blog’s audience. He continues his rich trail of marketing consulting with a new book called Tribes. It releases October 16^th and I received an advance copy yesterday. Also gave an extra one to my colleagues Shannon and Darren (SG fans), and told them to share. We’ll see how well that goes .

First, a definition for you. A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea. They are about faith – about believing in an idea and in their community. Now, let’s consider the Internet. It has enabled these tribes to form and flourish - with blogs, social networking sites, Twitter, content, self-publishing and more. It’s eliminated geography and done truly amazing things for creating tribes. For the wine nut who follows Gary Vaynerchuck, or the microfinance enthusiast on Kiva or conscientious giver on GiftCard Giver, you know what I’m talking about.

It’s the people, people!
Seth shared so many awesome examples of the Web enabling tribes to be more effective – some close to home, some totally mind-opening. But it became clear to me that it’s not really about the Internet. I mean it is, in terms of tactics and tools, but don’t we know by now that current ones will fade away and new ones will replace them. What’s really powerful about tribes is the people. The segment of an audience. People who are in a tribe because they all believe strongly in the same cause or movement. People who communicate to each other in their tribe.

Heretics. The new leaders
Seth posited that while the Web can do amazing things to nurture tribes, it can’t provide leadership. He asked the question: Who is going to lead these tribes?

Think about the term heretic and you’ll know why he uses it. Heretics don’t let rules or religion stand in the way of what they want to accomplish. Oh, and for all my Marketing peers out there, I’ll share a simple but loaded equation to you from Seth: Marketing = Leadership and Leadership = Marketing.

He shared 7 traits of a heretical tribal leader:

1. Challenge – they challenge their tribe!
2. Culture – they intentionally create it. And I’ll add a favorite quote of mine from the brilliant Andy Crouch: “the only way that cultures change is when people make more culture”.
3. Curiosity – they’re always probing…
4. Charisma – some inherently have it, but most get it because of their leadership
5. Communicate – they talk with, not “to” or “at”
6. Connect – they make it easy for followers to connect with them and with others
7. Commit – they commit to the wellness of the tribe

Inspire you?? One other thing. You may know Seth Godin is a renowned speaker. I had heard he was one of the best presenters in the business world yet I was still blown away by his impeccable skills. His story (and it really was a story) was illustrated by no less than 70-80 slides. Each slide was a photograph, or diagram, with very few texts, all powerfully aiding his narrative. It’s the type of presentation I always strive to give, but woefully fail at…

So I’ll close with a few questions for you to think about:

• What tribe are you proud to claim membership in?
• Are you a tribal leader?
• Marketers, what are you doing to nurture tribes in your profession and provide relevant brand experiences to tribal members?

I welcome your thoughts!

Recently heard:

I don’t get the whole social media thing… if I want to talk to someone I’ll just call them.

Social Media is on the way out. No one uses it other than those in technically related industries.

I say these people are:

• Truly missing out on a very useful and generally free service
• Are sorely misinformed about social media’s viability and popularity

Why do I find value?

While I am not a huge text messager… If I take an inventory of what I use a daily basis…

• I can say I am very well connected via Facebook and LinkedIn.
• We are playing with Ning and Yammer (have hooked into IM and phone) at work
• I participate lightly in an ad-hoc email list of friends and associates
• I submit articles and comment on Digg posts
• I have a personal but public Wiki and Blog that I post to on a fairly regular basis
• I frequently use Motley Fools’ CAPS network for participation and research into investment ideas
• I blog scan 50+ feeds of varied matter through Google’s Reader

I can say that I am more connected this year than I have ever been before in my life, even when in school. For example, yesterday:

My birthday arrived and I woke up to receive a phone call from a previous co-worker wishing me a happy birthday. I checked Facebook to see I had 3 current and previous co-workers sent a quick message to wish me a happy birthday. I left the house and stopped by my usual coffee shop for my morning fix and was greeted by “Happy Birthday!” by the employees who also gave me a free drink.

I subsequently arrived at work to a barrage of greetings and received a hail of additional notes through facebook and email from over 20 different folk I have different levels of communication with. My last “Happy Birthday!” actually came from my own Mother in the latter part of the afternoon (granted she had already sent a birthday card).”

A vast majority of this recognition came about because of the simple birthday notifications that comes with Facebook and displays current and upcoming birthdays. However I also received communication this week, albeit brief and simple, from:

• My high school valedictorian I connected with after the last reunion
• The AJUG president I speak to at most once a month, commented on my music preferences
• I saw two past brides I shot pictures of post them and got to see comments on them
• I got status comments from a handful of friends I don’t get the chance to speak with very often
• Kept us with close friends on vacation and updating their status via mobile
• Learned about some cool events I want to go to this week
• Updated information about an upcoming Halloween party I am throwing to all my invitees

Like the cell phone or internet, I just can’t imagine going back to the more disconnected way of life even 10 years ago.

Are they still relevant?

A quick search on the intertubes reveals that social networks are as relevant as ever.

• Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester says:

Facebook - The hot talked company Facebook has the highest growth rate, and at Forrester we predict it to achieve the same number of registered users as MySpace in Q4 of 2008, or early 2009 given the current growth rate.

General Growth: * More than 60 million active users * An average of 250,000 new registrations per day since Jan. 2007 * An average of 3% weekly growth since Jan. 2007 * Active users doubling every 6 months

• Jacob Morgan, a marketer that researched social media from compete.com

shows MySpace is declining

Facebook is climbing though

Twitter and LinkedIn are also up though

• Empirically, I know that I am more and more involved in a social media type of site all the time
• According to this site… Gen-X is actually one of the largest growing segments as well…

Maybe I’m not that unique in understanding the real benefit of these tools in making me feel more connected, more informed, and more effective.

You just know that the term “Web 2.0″ is played out when an accounting firm is praising the virtues of Facebook. A snippet from an eye-opening Fortune Magazine technology article has found its way to my desk. Apparently, companies, not just consumers, are using Web 2.0 tools (who would’ve thunk it?). While this may not be too surprising, digest this: Ernst & Young’s career page on Facebook has almost 19,000 fans. And they are active - 150 discussion topics and 1,700 wall posts. E&Y recruiters personally reply to messages in the fbookers’ language.

One example wall-post reply to an internship inquiry: “Kelsie - we are not currently looking for additional applicants for Tampa internships at this time - feel free to message me personally if you have any other questions….” The reply was posted at 12:55AM on a late Thursday evening by an E&Y employee who is pictured posing like an Olympic champion in front of a snow-covered mountain, wearing a striped sweater that clashes terribly with his zany ski cap.

Rejected.

Alas, Web 2.0 poses the question: would you rather be rejected in a personal-manner publicly, or in an impersonal-manner privately? Hmmm… Rejection or no rejection, I’d much rather facebook a company representative than play their stressful game.

In the future, I think that applying for a job will be as easy as one click. All applicants will have to do is click the “Apply Now” button on a company’s LinkedIn job profile, sending along their resume, profile, recommendations, contacts, etc. No duplication of effort. No stress. Ahhhhh. The downside to this? When the 15,358,137.3 unemployed Americans apply for the new Marketing Coordinator job opening at Time-Warner. What an HR nightmare.

On the flipside, companies such as Best Buy are beginning to use 2.0 tools internally, creating employee networking communities that allow them to bounce product-knowledge and best practices off one another. Imagine a world in which these internal communities are open to the public! Today, everyone talks about outsourcing technical support like there will never be greater cost-savings to be found. In the future, these technical support jobs could be eliminated when everyone has internet access (it will happen one day!). Employees, being offered bonuses for helpful instant-responses to customers, may actually strive to make my shopping experience a pleasure! That is, if there is a retail shopping experience to be had at that point…

I’ve been thinking a lot about privacy, lately. Consider what has become the norm in the past couple of years:

• social networking is becoming the prevailing source for information about family, friends, acquaintances, and even strangers
• bloggers spill their deepest thoughts into public posts
• Youtube and Flickr host thousands/millions of videos and pix of intimate family moments

For a culture that apparently prides itself on its right to privacy, this shift is intriguing.

Personally, I want the ability to post whatever I choose on the web about myself. Posting mainly to my friends, family, co-workers, etc. For their benefit, mainly. However, there are definitely people I don’t know that come across and read my blog posts. But when asked, I would definitely say that I value my privacy and don’t want people using this information for nefarious reasons.

Consider Twitter or Facebook statuses. A bunch of ordinary folks are posting to the world-at-large the minutia of their day.

• Angie is not feeling so hot
• Angie is wishing she could go to the beach
• Angie wants you to read this…
• blah, blah, blah

Seems boring, right? Initially, while pondering whether we want to participate and divulge all our feelings, thoughts and activities to our entire network, it seems preposterous. “Who really cares what I’m doing right now?” We think, “Who could be interested in my boring life?” Or the (more) narcissistic think, “Will enough people really pay attention?” In general, privacy isn’t necessarily top of mind.

In a recent NYTimes article, this phenomenon was discussed in great detail.

“It’s an aggregate phenomenon,” Marc Davis, a chief scientist at Yahoo and former professor of information science at the University of California at Berkeley, said. “No message is the single-most-important message. It’s sort of like when you’re sitting with someone and you look over and they smile at you. You’re sitting here reading the paper, and you’re doing your side-by-side thing, and you just sort of let people know you’re aware of them.”

Each individual bit of social information our friends post about themselves is insignificant on their own. Pretty mundane and boring. And especially not that important relative to our privacy. But taken as a whole, as an aggregation, these bits become themes and stories about us, posted and logged like an electronic journal of our day-to-day lives.

It is almost as if we have re-created the structure of small-town living, where everyone knows your business, but on a big-world scale.

In this context, privacy becomes more important, yet increasingly complex. What if government agencies start aggregating and mining this data? What if marketing agencies do, if they are not already? Would we mind? Could we stop it from happening? As always our laws and policies are years behind the technical and social movements.

It’s an interesting dilemma. Do we abstain from the social media and leave our networks to those that we can see and touch (or call up once in awhile)? For myself, who really doesn’t like talking on the phone that much, I have reaped the benefits of staying in touch with people that are miles away. All my friends from school, my family, etc are scattered across the country and the world. Yet, those that are in my network, I feel like they are closer than before. We are re-creating the neighborhood, the small-town over the web.

In the same NYTimes article, Leisa Reichelt, a consultant in London, contemplates where this will lead us as a culture and asks, “Can you imagine a Facebook for children in kindergarten, and they never lose touch with those kids for the rest of their lives? What’s that going to do to them?”

Gen Y’ers, probably the most embedded generation of the small-town internet, seem at once vigilant and laissez-faire about their privacy. If a company is found out to be “posing” in the blogosphere or in the social networks, they can be revealed and quickly lose their reputation. Yet, more than any generation, this group reveals the most intimate aspects of their life on Youtube and Flickr, for the whole world to see.

We do so in the hopes that only the “right” people are looking at it. That it’s all done in good faith and no one will use that information for harm. And we just figure we can’t control it all and continue to form our networks and share with them.

Will something we did when we were a kid be held against us later in life? Can we ever escape the history that we’re creating and publishing for all to see. Doubtful.

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for our small-town life.

I have officially noticed something about the way I use Facebook since I started using the “new Facebook.”  I’m wondering if anyone else is experiencing what I am.

First things first, I think the new design is aesthetically very pleasing. That’s not my issue.

What I’ve noticed is the way I use it now.  With the “old Facebook” I’d regularly glance at the consolidated list of Status Updates on the main page, and actually found that I kept up with friends far more than I would normally, just by looking at those updates.  Now, though, I never click on the Status Updates tab where that consolidated list lives.  For some reason, that extra click is one step too much for me. 

Another thing I noticed is that I have virtually stopped using my applications.  I have all kinds of applications that I used to visit fairly regularly (Pieces of Flair!).  But, I noticed today that I haven’t looked at any of them in weeks. And I have no desire to click around to use them.

How I use the new Facebook:  Primarily, I log onto the main page and click on any interesting updates from my friends under the News Feed, such as new pictures, comments on pictures, or if I’m feeling ambitious - locating status updates in the long News Feed list.

As a marketer, the first thing that springs to mind is – if I’m not the only one, and this is a trend for Facebook usage, how will this design impact the way that brands market through custom applications?
 

As a parent, I’m well aware of this busy part of the year – it’s back to school time for our kids. Retailers are feeling it too since they’re trying to entice shoppers with their Back to School sales. For this year’s Back to School promotion, retailing giant Walmart is catering to our youngsters with virtual worlds and Miley Cyrus, a busy teen celebrity that’s a singer (well, you be the judge of that) and television actress in a show called Hannah Montana.

Miley is selling gear from her show Hannah Montana including a line of clothes and accessories, backpacks, lunch boxes, etc. To promote the gear, Walmart has created a Hannah Montana virtual world where you can design an avatar, or a 3D representation of you, that can dress up in Hannah Montana clothes. Your avatar can also decorate that room with a Hannah Montana bedspread, posters, etc.

Walmart is driving people to the site via a print ad in their weekly circular — the ad contains a link to the virtual world site. They also created a micro-site where you can get Miley (aka Hannah) to call your child and remind them to go back-to-school shopping at Walmart.

So can this promotion be a success for Walmart?

There are indicators that virtual worlds are more than just a game. For starters, virtual world proponents have argued that these environments mimic real life. This argument is backed up by virtual world gamers reporting that they have real-world emotions or ties when they engage in virtual activities, such as a virtual marriage. And beyond emotions, the exposure to a virtual environment has influenced the purchasing decision of online shoppers. In the case of Land’s End, the integration of a virtual dressing room into their eCommerce engine demonstrated a 13% improvement in the shopping cart totals and a 26% increase in online purchases.

So while Walmart’s social media experiment two years ago never did more than generate buzz for the company, their foray into a virtual world with the backing of a teen celebrity has the makings of a successful marking campaign.

Facebook was launched when my older sister was in her senior year of college.  I remember her saying she avoided the social network because she “didn’t need another distraction.”  That’s an admirable decision; I personally have spent many hours browsing bumper stickers to avoid term papers.  I’ve had multiple friends suspend their profiles for months at a time because they “can’t get on a computer without getting on Facebook.”

A recent survey stated that “22% of firms ban social networking websites.”  Their reason?  Facebook lowers productivity.  I completely agree.  However, what would all of us do if we couldn’t get on Facebook once or twice (OK, ten times) a day? The end of the article does note that some firms use Facebook for actual work purposes, so a ban would not be feasible. Here at Engauge, we need to have access to Facebook to study it as marketers.  So what’s next?  Will there be a way for firms to add a filter to their employees’ Facebook pages so that only “approved” pages can be viewed?

I think it would be interesting to conduct an experiment where you could baseline the productivity of employees at work and college students at school.  Then, suspend their Facebook accounts and re-measure their productivity after a few months.  Are they more productive now?  Or, did they find another way to procrastinate? (Word of Warning: good luck finding participants, I know I won’t be volunteering!)

Now take a step back and think about this.  We’re addicted to a social network.  Not a website that tells us what’s going on in the world, but a social network that tells us that “Sally is excited for the weekend” and which of your friends are attending (or “maybe attending”) the party on Saturday night.  Have you ever tried to explain Facebook to someone who isn’t on Facebook?  Chances are you got the same look my parents gave me, which is utter confusion and astonishment at the amount of time I’ve invested being on Facebook.

So why do we invest all of this time and energy into Facebook and other social networks (keep in mind that many of us are maintaining multiple social networking accounts)?  Below is a picture of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  Maslow says that there are five levels of needs; each level needs to be fulfilled before we can move on (and up) to the next level.

So if you’re on Facebook, it can be assumed that your Physiological and Safety needs have been met, otherwise, how and why are you on a computer?  The next level is Love and Belongingness (i.e., Social Needs). Does Facebook really make us a sense of love and belongingness? I believe it does. When your friends write on your wall or send you a bumper sticker, it means they were thinking about you.  Come on, admit it, you love getting notification emails from Facebook.

Recent research has indicated that in-world interactions in virtual spaces have improved users real world social skills.  So I believe that Facebook, while still the primary cause of my procrastination, has its benefits.  Facebook is similar to other virtual worlds or online games in this respect: it gives shy users a level playing field.  While some people may be too shy to go out and interact with strangers, the use of a computer makes the situation much less intimidating.

So in the end, we all must decide for ourselves if Facebook is a friend or foe.  I vote friend!

As a huge fan (and three-year member) of the social networking site Facebook, I try to keep in the loop when updates are being made. Back in March (2008), Facebook noted that they would be making updates to the Facebook Profile. They created a “Facebook Profiles Preview” page to allow users to subscribe to updates regarding these profile changes.

Every week, The Facebook Team provided updates to their most loyal fans, seeking their thoughts and feedback on the changes being made. Screen shots were uploaded followed by over 600 comments with “I love it” or “I hate it” responses of varying degrees. As adjustments were made, they provided commentary and updated screen shots.

When Facebook first decided to change the layout everything, my initial thought was “Why mess with a good thing?” but quickly remembered the advancements made with the news feed, applications, etc. I figured I’d give the new layout a chance, and I found that I don’t hate it. It will definitely take a day or two to get used to the changes:

Homepage Before Screen shot | After Screen shot

The biggest difference is the layout and spacing of the different sections. In the old layout, content seems concise and put together. In the new layout, there’s a lot of white space on the page. I don’t know that I feel it’s necessarily cleaner…but it does take advantage of the amount of space on the page. Rather than having the secondary navigation (search and applications) on the left, everything is now on the right. Moving the search bar to the top right corner follows standard site design, so it’s not surprising to see this move. And the newest navigation change is moving from the ‘Profile’ button to a link using the user’s name.

Profile Before Screen shot | After Screen shot

The new profile design, in my opinion, is cleaner. You’re not forced to have all of your profile content on one page. It’s broken up to help you sort out the information you’re looking for. Rather than scrolling down the page to read someone’s wall – it’s the first tab you see. From there, you have the option of filtering what you see “All Posts”, “Posts by User”, or “Posts by Others.”

Next is the Info tab, which contains your basic, personal and information, education/work history, as well as groups/pages. Standard information, but not the most important to the users.

Photos are by far my favorite thing to look at/share on Facebook. Within the new layout, they’ve made it easier to access your friends’ photos, as well as your own, since they’re now located on their own tab too.

With the addition of applications, profile pages started getting messier and messier. Fear not, with the new profile layout – they’re on their own tab and no longer on the main profile view.

Overall, I’m pleased with the new look and feel of the site. The one thing that I haven’t seen Facebook promoting is that the changes are going to occur. For those users that aren’t part of the “Facebook Profile Preview” group – there was a bit of confusion when I mentioned the new layout. I think Facebook should look at past roll-outs and realize that making sudden changes that impact the site will cause uproar amongst users. They’ve noted the change will be in the coming weeks, but I think they should start preparing everyone for what those changes will be.