SMO Blog

• Ford's Got a Reason to Fiesta

  Last week, I wrote about how Ford was so thankful to the Fiesta Agents who were in 100 of our vehicles as part of the Fiesta Movement, and how some of them began to show their thanks as they wrapped up their experience. This week, it got even better. On Tuesday evening, Ford hosted a tweetup in Hollywood at the famed Palladium, where we brought together more than 90% of the Fiesta Agents in person, their friends, and fans of the Fiesta Movement to celebrate the conclusion of 6 months of activity by these social influencers. It was a remarkable event - check it out on Current - featuring the band Parachute, a short awards ceremony hosted by Jake & Amir, mobile tweeting food vehicles (including the famed KogiBBQ and Coolhaus), and the first reveal of the 2011 Fiesta. We even managed to score the World's Largest Tweetup according to Guinness World Records, which is now getting into the social media record-keeping business. And when we were done with that, we brought all of the nearly 100 agents out on the floor of the Los Angeles Auto Show to help us unveil the new cars. You can check the video out on The Ford Story. And Now, For Something Completely Different We've completed the first phase of the Fiesta Movement. The numbers were great. But lost in a lot of that was the fact that the pool of 100+ drivers acted as something of a focus group for six months. The agents gave feedback to our design & engineering team so the North American version could be made with drivers like them in mind. Not only that, but here's the cool part: they've been creating content nonstop for 6 months. And really good content too. So here we have the making for consumer generated media as the cornerstone for some of our early advertising for the 2011 Fiesta: Now What?Since the Fiesta won't be delivered until the spring of 2010, there are still a few months to go to continue the online buzz. But how will that happen now that the program is over? The good news is there's a Chapter 2 to this evolving story. If you liked what you saw over the last six months, now you'll have the opportunity to get involved yourself and apply to be one of the 20 teams of two that will be part of the Fiesta Movement Chapter 2. Just head over to FiestaMovement.com and check out the rules. And in the meantime, Ford will be continuing to nurture the relationships with the 100 or so agents who had to give their cars back. They'll be part of @FordFiestaAsk, which is being set up to answer questions from people who want to know about the car or the reservation process. You can see the "Real Answers" interface here or follow the hashtag #FiestaAsk. And on the shopping site, we're giving people a chance to totally customize their car and get some pretty sweet features and a customer experience that are unmatched in this segment. Once your reservation is complete, you'll be able to share it on Twitter and Facebook to tell your friends about it - and show them the design you've chosen. So that's where we are at this point. Lots of information, I know. But it's exciting stuff. And there's more to come. Related articles:Ford is Fiesta Movement's Big WinnerCrushing Doubts About Social Media MarketingFord Update: Automaker Launches Chapter 2 of 'Fiesta Movement'

• On Giving Thanks

  For those of us in the U.S., we have just celebrated Thanksgiving. It's a time of year when we gather with friends and loved ones to celebrate and give thanks for all that we have and all that we are. I thought it was entirely appropriate then, to mention that the first segments of Ford's famed Fiesta Movement is coming to a close. And Ford has a lot to be thankful for. A bit of background, just in case you're not familiar with the program. The Beginning of a MovementFirst of all, why the term "movement"? The Brand & Content Alliance team that put this program together likened it to a social movement - which as defined by dictionary.com is a diffusely organized or heterogeneous group of people or organizations tending toward or favoring a generalized common goal. The collective awareness of and excitement around this new vehicle would be the goal. In late 2008, Ford re-launched the Fiesta as an all-new vehicle in Europe. The name had been around for some 30 years, but the new Fiesta was to be something special indeed. This would Ford's first truly global platform car, which means that it will be nearly identical in any country you find it. Since the car was already available in Europe and would not launch in the U.S. until the spring of 2010, there was a unique opportunity at hand. So, earlier this year, Ford announced that we would be making 100 Euro-spec Fiestas available to individuals or teams who proved they were socially vibrant and could take part in a 6-month long experiment, during which we would loan them a vehicle. The only requirement was that they would have to produce one video a month based on a theme (Travel, Technology, Style/Design, Social Activism, Adventure, Entertainment). Other than that, the Fiesta Agents (they received assignments, or "missions," from Mission Control) could say whatever they wanted about the vehicle. And we aggregated all of their content on fiestamovement.com - unedited, uncensored, in real time. In addition to building buzz, we solicited feedback from the agents as to what they liked and didn't like about the vehicle. We shared that input directly with our engineering team and they were able to make a few tweaks to the North American version of the Fiesta before production was locked down. Results The program is just winding to a close, but the output has been impressive. Of the 700 or so videos that the agents have produced, we've seen 6.5 million views on YouTube. Their Flickr photos have been viewed more than 670,000 timesThere have been over 3.4 million impressions of Fiesta Movement on Twitter. Over 50,000 hand-raisers have indicated that they want more information about the vehicle as it goes on sale97% of those 50,000 do not own Ford vehicles. There is a 58% level of awareness of the Fiesta - for a vehicle that's not even available in this country yet, which is the equivalent of the awareness of some of our vehicles that have been in market for 2-3 years.All with $0 in traditional advertising.More information on the vehicle and the program can be found on Ford's Media site. It's a CelebrationTo help celebrate the success of our agents, Ford is throwing a little party - a fiesta of sorts, you might say - in Hollywood on Tuesday, December 1. We're hoping to make it the world's largest tweetup - and you're invited. Not only that, but as a community, we can work together to make the record a possibility. More on that in a moment. The event will salute the agents - some 90% of whom will be in attendance - with awards. The band Parachute will perform and music will be spun by DJ Pesce, all while Current TV roams around, giving you a chance to be seen on television. Not to mention that the North American Ford Fiesta will be revealed for the first time. Add to that some celebrities, weblebrities and lots of interaction, and you've got a rockin' party. Here's Where You Come InWe'd love to see you at the party. Here are the details: Date: Tuesday, December 1, 2009Time: 8:00 p.m.Location: Hollywood Palladium, 6215 W. Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, CA (map) You can RSVP on Eventbrite if you think you'll be in California next week. If not, please share the link with anyone in your network who might be in the area and encourage them to attend. There are a number of social networks built into Eventbrite, or you can tweet out something like this: Ford Invites You To a Hollywood Fiesta! http://bit.ly/FiestaParty We'd like to make sure we've got lots of people there who are connected to the program, the agents, or to our extended networks in some way. This is a great way to show the power of social media. Giving ThanksAs I intoned in the opening paragraph, this time of year is about giving thanks and also about reflecting on what's happened in the past year. I'm reminded of Thornton Wilder's play "Our Town," in which the characters were reminded that it's important to stop and consider the little things in life. One of them lamented: "It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another." You can imagine that the Fiesta Agents, with their frenetic schedules over the last six months, have had little time to reflect. But already, even before the program is over, I've already seen a few of them stop to acknowledge how lucky they've been to be part of the program. Notably Hilary McHone (aka @BrooklynHilary) and Natasha Wescoat (@natasha). There may be others; these are the ones I recall seeing in a blur last week. We have a lot to be thankful for at Ford this year. But that will be another post. Until then, I hope I'll be able to see you in Hollywood. If you can't be there, follow the #fiestamovement hashtag on Twitter on Tuesday night. It'll be a real fiesta. Related article: Ford's Got a Reason to Fiesta

• Enough Is Enough

  The spam and other unsolicited DMs I've been getting on Twitter have finally gotten to me. And I'm going to be taking action. A Bit of BackgroundYou know the kind of direct messages I'm talking about, all with spammy links in them:"Is this you on here?""I just gave you a High Five! Check it out""Hey, I got some free ringtones from here""Hey, can you take this quiz thingy?""I found out my IQ. You should too.""I lost a bunch of weight doing this." And many, many more. Lots of the direct messages I get are of the automated sort when people first start following me. Having been someone who used to do that - mainly to let people know how I preferred to communicate - I can understand the need to do that. But what I've been seeing lately is out of control. It's gotten to the point where these disruptive DMs have crippled my ability to monitor and respond to legitimate direct messages. I'm spending more time deleting or ignoring messages, at the risk of missing messages from people I want to hear from. ReciprocityFor a long time, I've believed that when someone follows me on Twitter, it's common courtesy to follow them back. What I have to say shouldn't be any more important than what anyone else has to say - that's one of the great features of social networks: true democracy at work. I realize that this isn't everyone's style, but it's been something I consciously chose to do. A tool I've used pretty successfully to manage this (rather than eat up my time manually following people back) has been SocialOomph, which was previously known as TweetLater. It allows you to automatically follow (and unfollow) people back, among other nifty features. But lately, my Twitter stream as well as my direct message inbox has been polluted with spammy posts. The recent addition of Twitter lists, which have allowed me to begin to categorize some of the people I follow, has been helpful - you can check mine out here - but I'm finding it's not enough. No MoreI've decided that from now on, I can no longer afford to follow people back automatically, so I'm suspending that feature from my SocialOomph account. If you wish to be followed by me, you'll have to request it and I'll have to ensure that what you're saying provides value to me. In addition, I'm going to be unfollowing anyone who spams me with these Facebook-like apps that send automated direct messages or anyone who DMs or @s me their latest money-making schemes. I haven't gotten to the point where I'm purging and rebuilding my Twitter followers, nor do I feel like I need to go that extreme thanks to the addition of lists, but if this level of spammy behavior keeps up, I may have to revisit that decision. I suppose this is a natural extension of a service or platform going mainstream. But for those who use Twitter for more meaningful connections and communications, it's frustrating. I hope that Twitter management has a plan to try to minimize this. Update: reader Andy Michaels notes that SocialOomph has an opt-out service that takes care of automated DMs. Image credit: Chris Pirillo (Flickr)

• When Worlds Collide

  Well, it's finally here. Twitter and LinkedIn have decided to combine forces. This is pretty significant, and I know that it'll make it easier to share job opportunities and other more networking opportunities that are more professional in nature. I won't bore you with all of the details, but you can now update your LinkedIn status via Twitter, and your Twitter status from LinkedIn. If you'd like to see how to go about it, check out the post on the LinkedIn blog. One of the features I like best is how you can select which updates you want posted to LinkedIn - everything or just those posts tagged with #in. In December of 2008, I predicted that Twitter would attain legitimacy in 2009. Aside from it being used by pretty much every major media outlet, not to mention a good number of celebrities, I think we're there. The fact that a site as grounded in the business world as LinkedIn would choose to align with Twitter is a huge nod to the 140 character service. Of course, two things need to be considered as these seemingly different worlds come together: 1. If LinkedIn is the business meeting and Twitter is the cocktail party, we need to be very careful with the alcohol intake at work, so to speak. ;-) 2. Twitter has its own language - some of which can be very confusing to outsiders. As our updates cross into new territory, we need to be mindful of how our networks understand us. This tweet from Mandi Engram says it all: So there you have it. Twitter. LinkedIn. Two great tastes that taste great together. Or something like that. What do you think? Will you use this service? Image credit: K e v i n (Flickr)

• What's a Brand to Do?

  Say you work for a brand. Customers have more access to you than ever - and you've got a wealth of choices as far as channels go: traditional marketing, online & interactive, gaming, mobile, social media, etc. But for your customers that are interested in interacting online, what do you think they want from you? And what should you do when you connect with them? Look no further! eMarketer Daily has very helpfully published a piece on Lightspeed Research's "Global Web Index." What do customer want from the brands they love? Information, mostly (well, after a good discount, anyway). Ultimately, they want value. They're not there to be "friends," or to get your time-wasting app - they want something that's relevant to them that helps push the relationship forward. Something to think about when thinking about your online strategy. Chart courtesy of eMarketer. Posted via web from The Full Monty

• Recent Twitter Statistics

  The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released some statistics about Twitter and other similar services that Americans use to post updates about themselves. The bottom line? About one in five Americans uses such a service. Click here for a larger image.Another interesting phenomenon is that we're seeing more young people using Twitter now. There have been anecdotal reports that young people were shying away from Twitter, but we can see the hard numbers here:The median age for Twitter is now 31, while MySpace is down 26 from its previous 27 in May of 2008; and Facebook has risen significantly from 27 in May 2008 to 33 now.There's a lot to digest in the study, but these are a few highlights that stood out. Anything interesting catch your eye? Please consider leaving a comment below. Chart courtesy of MarketingCharts.

• No Kidding

  I originally wrote this over a year ago, but I think it deserves another go around, as there seem to be even more social media "experts" out there. Please add your suggestion to the comments section or on Twitter with the hashtag #smbulb and let's see how many responses we can get. Stop me if you've heard this. Yesterday, I asked a question on Twitter - one that Joseph Jaffe rhetorically asked on his blog - I posed it as a joke and asked for responses. The question was: How many social media experts does it take to change a lightbulb? My original answer on Joe's blog was: "309. One to come up with the idea, three to turn it into a strategy, five to execute it, and 300 to influence someone else to do it." Naturally, responses to my question were far better than my lame punchline. Here are some examples of what I received:   @mncahill: 14,465 to twitter about the need for "LightBulbCamp" and one to hire a developer to change it. @scottaparks: None, it never gets changed. They are too busy looking for a better bulb! @cohnjoyne: before I tell you how many soc media experts it takes to screw in a light bulb, full disclosure, GE is a client of mine @adam_rosenberg: at least 10. that way you have 1 to change it and at least 9 to tweet about it. @scottstead: A: 500, Chris Brogan to ask the question, 495 to respond, 3 to organize #changealightbulbweek08, 1 to change the lightbulb @ScottWitsToo: 3. One to change bulb. Two to discuss how we could change light bulbs better if only we could talk ad nauseum about the process @LewisG: At least two, so an argument over the ethics of monetization can occur. @jtobin: A team of 6 will happily consult, but nobody actually wants to execute the light bulb change for you. :-) And this one from @jeffglasson: 4, Mitch Joel to give 6 steps to open the package, Brogan to write a 100 blog post series on the process, L. Feldman to score the puppet adaptation, and CC Chapman to actually screw the lightbulb in and get the job done! My favorite was from @dmscott: What's your budget?   Got a retort humorous? Let me know by leaving a comment, or share the joke with some friends. Photo credit: zetson (Flickr) Posted via web from The Full Monty

• Why Apple & Google Win - and Your Company Doesn't

  It's all about usability.      Common sense dictates that the easier something is to accomplish, the more readily it will be passed along. What information do you ask your customers to submit? And of that, which is really necessary? Less is more.   Courtesy of Stuff That Happens.   Posted via web from The Full Monty