In the past few weeks we’ve celebrated two milestones of important institutions that have come to influence the lives of people – young and old. Google’s masthead mashups of Sesame Street characters and the Google logo pretty much say it all. Its here that the spirit of learning and the Internet collide in a very cool way.

When we have a question or want to learn about a topic, Google is one of the first places to look. Google has of course even morphed into verb that has replaced “search”, and has been part of my six year old daughter’s lexicon since day one… along with Ernie and Bert.

Google seems to also embody what we think of when we say “Internet”. (Wow. Did I just say that? That’s some serious branding right there.) In any case, the Internet today is nothing like what Internet grandfathers like

Charley Kline (left), working at UCLA, sent the first transmission over ARPANET to Bill Duvall at the Stanford Research Institute. (From NPR.org)

The theme of evolution is the heart of this, in my mind, and Sesame Street has really embraced the Internet and built out an awesome array of web-based content, games and learning tools for kids. Just as the TV show has been a trusted go-to for parents and kids, now it’s taken on a whole new dimension of learning entertainment, and it’s all evolved in only the past 5 or so years. Pretty cool.

The crazy part is just how this next generation of digital natives (thanks @jonathanpb) surf this grand new world. Watching my daughter grab my new Droid and intuitively navigate is nuts.

Boy, when I turn 40… long long in the future… (Monday), I sure hope I will have evolved half as far.

Facebook really let down many of us who stayed up late this weekend waiting patiently to get our vanity usernames (facebook.com/companyname). These vanity names are a very welcome replacement to those very long url strings, and provide a nice clean address for companies to promote their pages. Not only did they not follow the same schedule of opening the doors at 12:01 am of the date, but also added new restrictions days before – and then hours before. Very frustrating.

Facebook released the program earlier in the month and allowed individuals to register their personal usernames two weeks ago – along with brands who had over 1,000 registered fans previous to May 31. For all others, they were to wait until Sunday the 28th. When they posted the eligibility requirements, there was no minimum number of fans required. Then last week, they added a 25 fan minimum requirement. Then just a few hours before the doors were to open, they upped the threshold to 100 fans.

It was a pretty funny moment though, when I went to capture /propellermediaworks. Having anticipated beating what I understood to be a 25 threshold, I was dumbfounded when it told me I was not eligible. So I went back for the billionth time to reread the guidelines, only now to read the change to 100. I had 99! I was lucky to find someone online on chat to hook me up. Thanks Buck!

Clearly they want to combat the inevitable squatting spree. I get that. How could they not plan better for this. Everyone knew this squatting thing would happen, and they had already used a fan threshold before to block squatting, so why wasn’t it until the last hour – literally – before adjusting the threshold to a level that would be effective?

I did get ours at least… www.facebook.com/propellermediaworks

Side note: in this process I had debated whether to try to capture facebook.com/propeller. Sure that would be nice, however I don’t own the trademark to that name. AOL does, and they have lots of lawyers.

When considering a username, I advise only taking what is yours – and which you can defend. Be assured that many intellectual property lawyers have a ton of new business streaming in today!

Forgive the unoriginal metaphor, but online marketing and fishing have much in common. We can fish with broad nets as commercial fishermen do at sea, and (not or) we can fish more precisely as the fly fisherman does on a stream. With the net, the commercial fisherman casts broadly and indiscriminately pulls in the catch, while the fly fisherman hunts for that special fish. The volume of the catch would of course be drastically different, however at the end of the day, who’s to say which is more successful.

In online marketing, the catch is moving from the broad web ocean up smaller tributaries of the social web. The special fish are “influencers” who serve as unknowing word-of-mouth marketers as they share experiences with brands to their networks of friends. What is funny is that they aren’t even aware of their impact or value. It isn’t like someone that updates their Facebook profile with “I just had an epic powder day at Stowe” is consciously trying to help Stowe’s marketing department, but they are and they’re doing it for free.

The channels we find these influencers are unique to brands. The sneaker brand going after teenagers will find influencers in a much different place than the computer accessory brand trying to reach geeks like me.

What is fun now is that nobody expects us to have the formula. Our partners understand that we’re all experimenting, but because the investment is so modest and our ability to measure conversions is so clear, partners can afford to take the risk to just try it. Our circle of test, analyze, and adjust is ever so tight, so we can quickly determine whether this nook is better for fishing than the last very quickly and with little investment.

While there is no formula, what I do feel sure about is that the deepest success is found in fishing in many spots simultaneously. Alone, website, blog, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube… will not produce. They must all work together to get the greatest traffic exposure, SEO boost, and content distribution. Naturally the ultimate is when the audience distributes the content on your behalf with their comments added… ah that’s the digital WOM love we all are working for.

I’m sorry. I have to stop. I need sushi now.

I’m starting a list of examples of custom Facebook page, and encourage you to submit any really good ones you’ve found.

We’ve recently introduced custom Facebook pages as a new services. I think there is a ton of opportunity using the new custom options Facebook now offers developers to introduce the brand and deliver custom functionality. I think we’ll see adventurous marketers go after this channel and score less volume, but much better quality. Facebookers are good customers.

The Mayor’s office asked me to me to present to Mayor Kiss, department heads and city officials, and provide insight and direction in how the city could use these social web tools. The group was very well informed and most were already engaged in social web. The conversation touched on audiences, goals and tools.

I started by asking why I was speaking there today. My answer? This guy: Obama in his campaign and subsequent execution of government uses the same tools available to city government, and they serve as the model.

Look at the consistency and excellent use of each channel starting with the whitehouse.gov website which features its “Stay Connected” box right on the homepage.

The model for social gov

Different budget resources. Sure. Different audiences and goals. Definitely. From DC to Burlington, however, the tools are all the same. Most of them are pretty much free. It comes down to having the will, the people, and the time.

There were some great questions about usability, disability access, structure, strategy, and the foot forward we present online as a city. The website as the core- extending out to some 18(?) different websites for various departments and initiatives, and all managed independently with tools ranging from CMS to FrontPage to hand coding. Not unusual for most municipalities I expect, however I think everyone in the room recognized the inefficiencies of the system and how much better a well planned system could be for meeting the cities goals and serving its constituents.

With the website(s) as the main island, the social web serve as the surrounding islands. These islands hold many of the most expressive, connected, and influential members of the community… making them quite valuable. My main points were how these tools integrate and work together. The role of Twitter for example to broadcast to those “influencers” and how that content can be syndicated out to websites, blogs, custom Facebook page, etc.

Social monitoring was another key point I tried to convey. Even if a city or brand lacks the resources to engage in each channel, I think its critical to hear what is being said. Of course there are going to be extremes of voices, for which you ignore and focus on the middle. Some of social/web monitoring tools suggested included:

• Tweetdeck : tweetdeck.com – Tracks Twitter – Free
• Trackur : trackur.com – Tracks blogs, news, images, video – great filters – $18/mo
• Google Alerts: google.com/alerts – Tracks websites, blogs – Free

Some examples of other cities that seem to be doing a good job online include:

Albuquerque, NM http://www.cabq.gov/
Fresno, CA http://www.fresno.gov/
Chandler, AZ http://www.chandleraz.gov/
Augusta, GA http://www.augustaga.gov/

Many thanks to Mayor Kiss, Joe Reinert and those that attended for your ear and great questions and thoughts.

Download Social Web Presentation to City of Burlington

Here at Propeller, my office sits between Stew who’s my director of sales and account services, and Eric who leads the development team. Sliding windows (think drive thru) separate us and they’re usually open. Yesterday, Stew got a call from a client and suddenly exclaimed: “that sound was the phone hitting the ground,” and continued “never in the history of this company have I ever heard that from the client”.

Oh crap.

Yet Stew’s expression was ecstatic. (see the picture – that’s Stew being ecstatic)

When he got off the phone he told me that the client wants to pay us additionally for the extra work we’ve been putting into their project. Wow, I thought- that’s a client that sees the value of partnership.

In a time like this, when all budgets are squeezed, it simple to put all of the outsourced services into one expense bucket, and squeeze them all. The reality however is that there is a big difference between vendors and partners. Vendors are commodities that add little additional value. Partners are strategic and add value in focusing their resources on the client’s goals, and loosing one can be very painful on both short term and long term levels. Treating partners like vendors is a mistake, and we’re thankful that our clients treat us like partners and get that same treatment in return.

The fact is, we’re human and the quality of our relationships is reflected in how we service our clients. Let’s face it, not every client gets the same attention and nice guys don’t finish last – they finish first here. Few of our clients bark (we weed those out in the sale qualification process) and we work with some great clients – with over half here in Vermont. Vermonters have a strong sense of value and fairness – and believe me, they never pay a penny more than they should. That fact has forced us to deliver an exceptional product at an awesome price. On top of that we treat clients as the partners we hope to be to them.

To my fellow agency folks, my advise is that treat your customers as you want to be treated and they will do you right. If they don’t… loose them.

To my clients… thanks partner.

Embracing our modern cliché: change is now! Political, technical, economic, and societal. The whole world is in flux.

This is not a time to retreat into the comfortable. Now is the time to explore, stretch comfort zones and learn. Quick. If you don’t you risk more than you might think.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of moderating a panel entitled: Social Media – The Making of a Movement for a program sponsored by the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce called Leadership Champlain. It’s a highly regarded professional development/management program that attracts professionals eager to reach forward. This should be a room of early adopters, right?

We polled the room to get a sense of adoption of social web tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Adoption was probably around 30% at best. Disappointing.

The fact is that we really don’t like change. Even I don’t sometimes. When Facebook redesigned Pages last week, I nearly had a cow. Then I banged on it and now think the new layout is better. Change is difficult but I can’t stress how important it is to push ourselves harder now to adapt quickly.

One of the important points that Elaine Young (social maven & Champlain College Assoc Professor of Marketing/e-Business Management) stressed is the need – especially now to be constantly banging on the “new stuff”. I don’t care what you do or what industry you do it in, there is new stuff everywhere and a lot of it can help you and your company. There is an extreme to this of course, and chasing shiny objects is a risk. Instead you want to pursue the new stuff strategically.

1. Awareness: be aware of the “new stuff” in your sphere
2. Quick research: Google it to capture the key plusses and minuses, and see what others think
3. Select the stuff that promises the greatest return on your investment (time)
4. Bang on it with goals in mind to understand its value to yourself or your organization
5. Share that knowledge (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Wiki, Knowledge base…)

Late adopters are at risk right now, especially when it comes to Social Web. Those not networking and sharing right now will be the last to learn of what will affect them tomorrow. For those in the news media, its well known that tomorrow’s news is today’s Twitter conversation.

As my buddy Ted Adler at Union Street said in the panel discussion “As G.I. Joe says, knowing is half the battle.” Yes, Ted quoted G.I. Joe and so have I now by extension. Lord.

At our recent Social Marketing Jam Session @ Propeller, we had a great crew of folks interested in sharing knowledge and learning about social marketing. We had an excellent panel that included myself, Chris Middings of Seventh Generation, Bob Kilpatrick of Seven Days, and Dr Elaine Young from Champlain College.

1. Targeting and Leveraging Influencers.
Say you’re a service organization (like us) that really wants to get Company X’s business. Traditionally, reaching those people who actually made these decisions were well protected behind layers of defense. Now you can get on LinkedIn, search for the company name and find contacts to reach out to. You can learn what these people do, what they’re interests are, and where they’ve worked before. Somewhere there is the seed for the conversation to get your foot in the door.

Say your a product company who wants to test a new product or message. If you have a Facebook page with Fans, you can solicit their input. That very act, includes them and says “we care what you think”. Converting those influencers into brand advocates can become very powerful from a word of mouth perspective.

2. Transparency & Trust : You can only fake so many things, whether you’re an individual or brand. All that well crafted marketing gobblygook your copywriter comes up with lacks depth. If you want to turn users of your product or service, to be more loyal or better, to serve as a brand advocate, you need to get real and reveal who you are. Here your employees can play a big role in revealing the culture and mindset.

3. Content : Video is the most effective communication tool, and creating this content is easier than ever before. An inexpensive video camera combined with iMovie and some creativity, can yield great results. It doesn’t need to be slick. In fact, the more rough it is, the more credible it seems. See how Google uses video from desktops published to YouTube. YouTube and others make it super easy to share.

4. Viral Tools : Add This is a tool that is incredibly easy to add to any content, and even easier for visitors to user to share with others. In doing so, users tend to add their own comments. Those comments and the act of sharing serves as endorsements from a word of mouth perspective. Users who think of themselves as influencers, gain cred by first finding and sharing other’s ideas and adding to them.

5. PR & Monitoring the Conversation : If you think “I don’t have the time or resources to engage in social”, then at the very least make it one person’s responsibility to monitor the social airwaves. Chris Middings of Seventh Generation shared that he does this twice per day. In discovering an individual with a question about diapers, and answering that question, he brings a personal customer service level that likely turned that strengthened that relationship. Perhaps that person shares that experience or at least the answer to the question with others. The tools now exist to monitor the good and the bad. The rapid viral social world presents great risks to brands that are not listening, and great opportunity for those that do.

6. Customer Service : In a fickle time when price plays such a huge role in consumer decision making, showing that you’re listening and responding to customer’s needs can play a huge psychological role in not only keeping customers, but also giving them reason to advocate for you

It was very exciting to see the volume of interest in this subject. The questions that came from those representing for profits and non profits of varying sizes showed me that this is a very important and valuable marketing and PR toolset.

Our next jam session will dig in deeper into the PR and Monitoring side. We’ll discuss the tools to use and methods of response. Can’t wait.

Viral brand advocacy really seems like one of the huge take-aways of social.

If you attended, I please give me feedback…

Its clear that there is a lot of misconceptions and skepticism out there about social in general, so I want to get folks together to share concepts and tactics people are applying. I expect we’re going to find that each is using these channels for different purposes and with different goals. I know that most of this can be measured, and I know that bringing metric tactics will go a long way in revealing value… beyond the softer branding aspects.

So we’re hosting three part series focused on social marketing. The first on Feb 20 will serve as an overview and the second two will dig deeper into Social Networks and Social Media.

The format for each will start with an basic 101 presentation, followed by deeper panel discussions.

I’m really excited about this. We’re getting a lot of interest and I’m pretty sure we’ll be full for this first one. I’ll be leading the 101 presentation and will also participate in the panel along with some regional players who are either teaching or employing social in their marketing mixes.

Dr. Elaine Young from Champlain College, has been well ahead of this curve for some time. She’s opened my eyes in many respects and helped me to understand the business value in these channels.

Chris Middings from Seventh Generation and before from Champlain Chocolates is very analytical and multitalented. Seventh Gen was fairly early in embracing social and has invested heavily in developing and supporting an army of brand advocates.

Bob Kilpatrick at Seven Days brings the perspective of a media publisher that is adapting to how people find and consume media. Seven Days is publishing via multiple social channels and using multiple media formats. It will be interesting to hear what is and isn’t working for them

Space will be limited. The event is fairly open, but I don’t want every shmo off the street, so drop me an email if you want come… david@propelled.com – RSVP and all event info posted to our Facebook page.

This is one of my predictions for 2009. The combination of recession and a new class of mobile device led by the iPhone will provide an accelerated catalyst for even faster and deeper adoption of social networks.

Unemployment is causing people to network like never before. While some find that next job by reading the papers, most job openings are filled before every making it that far. More often positions are filled via the cumulative networks of its employees, so smart people looking for that next opportunity are turning to network management systems like Facebook and LinkedIn to both get the word out about their needs and skills, and to listen for those inside-scoop opportunities. Even those with jobs are smart to network now because nobody knows what is around the next corner.

The iPhone was a game changer when it’s come to accessing social media and networks. The iPhone and the throng of new copycats have now cut the tie to the computer and enable people to continuously stay connected to their networks wherever they go. Manufacturers and resellers recognize this specific need and are actively promoting their “social features” along side camera, gps, touchscreen, music and whatever else they can pack into these things. Many are opening their devices to developers to create custom apps that pull from social networks and media to provide unique functionality – often making it especially fun to connect and interact. As these apps get better, adoption deepens and spreads.

While those putting in extra hours to help secure the future of their job may not have extra time to network online, those unemployed unfortunately do. For these people, Facebook and LinkedIn serve multiple needs, which further accelerate usage. For one, they serve the primary purpose of helping to find that next job. Also, unemployment can be lonely and traumatic, and these tools can help to maintain a sense of connectedness to colleagues, friends, family, and that next opportunity.