Grown Up Thinking

As we are all aware of by now, peer recommendations are the strongest drivers of purchase intent among consumers. We’ve seen the numbers. It all makes sense. We trust the recommendations of our friends the most.

If we trust our peers’ recommendations the most, why are marketers so obsessed with the ‘Like’ button and not the ‘Recommend’ button? Levi’s has become famous in the social/digital work for being the first major brand to completely socialize their shopping experience. After that, everyone else followed suit and ‘Like’ buttons went up all over the place.

As marketers we understand the power of one word over the other, even if it seems minuscule to most.  If we spend so much time talking about how peer recommendations are the most powerful form of WOM and drive purchase intent, why are we not asking people to ‘Recommend’ products? Why are we only asking people to ‘Like’ them? I think there’s a place for both plug-ins in the online experience. In many instances a consumer might prefer to ‘Like’ a product over recommending it, because they may not have used that product before and liking has a lower cognitive barrier to entry (in the same way that liking has a lower barrier to entry than commenting or sharing).

Where I’d most ‘Like’ to see ‘Recommend’ plug-ins implemented:

- On review sites and message boards discussing products
- During the e-commerce experience, maybe during purchase or post-purchase
- In follow-up emails after purchase
- In email marketing to existing customers and frequent purchasers

What are your views on Like vs Recommend as a marketer and/or as a Consumer? Have you used either of them? Do you see a larger place for the ‘Recommend’ button? Share your thoughts below.

It’s that time of year again in New York City. The trendy restaurants are booked solid, there are black Escalades everywhere and the white tents are up in Lincoln Center. It’s Fashion Week, and this year for the first time, fashionistas everywhere are given real-time access to the runway thanks to Maybelline New York, the official makeup sponsor of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.

Throughout the seven day fashion extravaganza connoisseurs who aren’t lucky enough to have a press pass (or volunteer pass for that matter) can tune into the Maybelline New York YouTube channel where 30 runway shows are being streamed live. The live video is supported by a #liverunway Twitter aggregator that pulls in consumer conversations about the live show, and is wired with Facebook and Twitter Connect for easy content sharing.

The Fashion Week access that Maybelline is providing consumers through social media is unprecedented. Never before has a regular gal like me been able to see the latest looks and designs of Monique Lhuillier and Christian Siriano at the same time as Anna Wintour and Nina Garcia. Thanks to social media, a coveted seat under that white tent, which by nature is so exclusive, is suddenly so attainable. An excellent case study of how brands can use social technology to provide consumers with exclusive access to the content they crave, thus further establishing and strengthening the consumer/brand connection/relationship.

Maybelline’s decision to provide consumers with exclusive Fashion Week access is no accident. Over the past year Maybelline has taken an extremely editorial position in the marketplace, providing consumers with trend reports, make-up lessons and more through their digital and social properties. The Fashion Week initiatives are an extension of this stance, deeply engaging consumers with fashion and New York, two pillars of the Maybelline brand, up close and personal.

If 3,029,062 people “Like” Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook, could 18,976,457 people “Like” New York City? Rumor has it Mayor Michael Bloomberg just had a powwow with the world’s most popular dweeb to discuss pushing the Big Apple into the social realm (which is really the least Zuckerberg could do to redeem himself for that painful SNL cameo.)

The NY Daily News reports that while Big Mike has been somewhat vague about the details of the meeting, he believes “there’s a lot of potential” in NYC having its own Facebook page. Bloomberg’s even gone so far as to hire a Millennial to man the helm as Chief Digital Officer – 27-year-old Rachel Sterne (<< follow her!) There has been some criticism that Sterne doesn’t have enough experience for the position or its reported $115,000 salary, but I beg to differ.

What does her resume look like? Our new CDO is founder and CEO of citizen journalism site GroundReport, and was named one of America’s most promising social entrepreneurs by Businessweek, at age 25. Rachel’s also an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, despite the absence of her own graduate degree. AdWeek even claims she’s “a bit of a darling in New York’s digital scene“. So, what else do you want? Social and digital is a relatively new space for city government to play, and I believe it takes a fresh and eager mind to understand, embrace, and stay on top of it all.

Equipping the Big Apple with a social media presence will do more than give New Yorkers a greater sense of city pride, it could be an efficient way for NYC to both communicate and collaborate with those of us who live here. I’m curious to learn more about Zuckerberg’s plan for how New York can use Facebook, and what our new CDO will bring to the table. What’s your social media strategy for your city?

As the name may imply, here at Mr Youth many of us are not that far removed from college and often find ourselves immersed in the culture as part of the job. Via our RepNation influencer platform, we spend a lot of time on college campuses working with students and studying youth trends. Whenever I find myself on campus, I can’t help but reminisce about the good ol’ days and it always surprises me to see how much social media and technology has influenced college life in the short time since I left.

The Notes:

(Then) Paper and pen. Many of my professors frowned upon students having laptops in the classroom as they felt it was a distraction. I didn’t own a laptop until my senior year of college, and even then I rarely took it to class.
(Now) Studies are being done at colleges like the University of Notre Dame that analyze the pros and cons of using modern technology in the classroom. In this study, iPads were provided to a group of students, intended to be used as an e-reader, but over the course of the semester students found the iPads to be more useful as an aggregation tool rather than a replacement for a textbook. They reported that the devices are hard to take notes on and the majority felt the $499 price tag was just too expensive for their beer and ramen noodle budgets. Still, when asked how they felt about giving up the device at the end of the study, 65% said it would be hard to relinquish the iPad.

The Courses:

(Then) Looking back on my college curriculum, my major in Strategic Communications was largely focused in Public Relations – writing press releases and learning how to gain PR through traditional news outlets. I can’t help but wonder how much the curriculum has changed in these few short years since I graduated, as I naturally assume a large focus must be on non-traditional media like Facebook, Twitter, blogs and the like.
(Now) Interestingly enough, I spent a little time on my alma mater’s website and it doesn’t look like much has changed in terms of the courses required to graduate with a BA in Strategic Communications. I’m going to guess that social media is interwoven into the current curriculum, which brings up an interesting question: Can social media really be taught, or is it something you can only really learn through practice?

The Phones:

(Then) Having a brother who works for a wireless provider, owning the latest and greatest cell phone has always been an obsession of mine. I vividly remember walking into college sophomore year with a hot pink Motorola flip phone with photo, video and texting capabilities, and wondering how it could ever get better than that.
(Now) Fast Forward to 2011, a recent study revealed that 49% of all college students own smart phones and this figure has nearly doubled over the past year. I would estimate that about 90% of the students we work with though RepNation equip themselves with iPhone, Droid and Blackberry devices which result in an expectation of near-immediate response time. It makes me wonder – in another 5 years, will students no longer have the luxury of reading emails and taking time to come up with a thoughtful and strategic response, in an effort to respond as quickly as possible? And, if this begins to become the norm so early on in one’s professional career, how will this affect the way we do business in the “real world”?

At the end of the day, I find the changes all very exciting, yet slightly terrifying at the same time. With endless potential it’s going to be hard to keep up with it all, but with the possibility of lectures being held via hologram, how can you not want to try?

Today the world waits as reports are rolling in that Egypt has put a lock down on Internet and SMS, creating a blackout that has prevented internet traffic from entering or exiting the country as of 12:30am.

The unprecedented move was made by the Egyptian government in an effort to silence voices of dissent against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, just hours before a new series of major protests were planned. Before the blackout, Egyptian activists were utilizing hashtags such as #Jan25 to communicate.

As we’ve seen in Iran and Tunisia previously, Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms are key communication tools used by political protesters to organize large-scale gatherings and rallies. By blocking these sites, the regime has stripped its people of something much more important than a tweet or a status update—the fundamental right of equal access to knowledge and ideas.

Speaking on the importance of social media, President Obama stated, “There are certain core values that we believe as Americans are universal: freedom of speech, freedom of expression, people being able to use social networking and other mechanisms to communicate their concerns; and that is no less true in the Arab world than it is in the United States”.

While we cannot predict the ultimate political and cultural significance of the outage, our thoughts are with the people of Egypt today.

This article originally appeared as part of MediaPost’s Engage:Teens Publications.

Nearly everyone is pointing to 2011 as the year of mobile, but it’s time we start getting more specific about what this means to better capitalize on this new form of interaction. I’ve been taking a look back on 2010 to see what we can learn about how people are using their mobile devices, from texting to the web to apps. The first stop in this exploration took me to “social scrapbooking”: the potent mixture of mobile, social, and photo-sharing. This is going to be big for teens in 2011, and here’s the why/how of it:

It’s obvious that mobile has taken on a life beyond simple communication with a friend or family via voice or text. The combination of mobile and social sharing has put a powerful broadcasting tool in the hands of teens. It’s a world in which the on- and offline worlds are constantly bridged. This is a game-changer for the teenage mindset. Teens, who, as Frank O’Brien articulated on the Engage:Teens blog back in October, are primarily concerned with crafting and maintaining their image among social circles, now have the ability (if not also the social pressure) to constantly broadcast the defining elements of their lifestyle and image to their social networks.

Marinate on that while sprinkling in some data from the likes of Pew, Neilsen, and other 2010 studies that have told us one of the top uses of mobile devices among teens is the taking and sharing of photos. There’s no simpler way to offer up a rich slice of your life than by sharing a photo on your social networks for all to see, like, comment on or retweet — or even by sending a mass MMS to your inner circle. Every photo shared is an opportunity build ego and define one’s self in the eyes of one’s friends.

So this social scrapbooking trend has a lot of potential, that much is clear, but can we point to any tangible results or specific instances of how these habits are being capitalized on? I explore a few over at the Engage:Teens blog, jump over there to read on!

1. Smelling Like A Monster: With over 4.1 million views in just 6 days this adorable rendition of the Old Spice Man, brought to you by Grover, is a huge hit for Sesame Street fans of all ages.

2. Blimp Badge: Conan O’Brien’s comeback show on TBS is approaching, and east coast dwellers have a chance at unlocking a unique Foursquare badge for the occasion. If you see the giant orange CONAN blimp overhead make sure to check in!

3. Buying Starbucks for Friends through Facebook: As the 100th My Starbucks Idea this Facebook application allows users to reload the Starbucks cards of their friends. A great way to surprise, celebrate a birthday, or to pay that debt you owe…

4. Diesel Sneakers: Buyer beware. These shoes are “Not made for running. (Great for kicking asses).”

5. Instagram iPhone App: This wildly popular photo app allows users to morph their casual photography into amazing images, and share with friends in the process. Tapping into our egos, it also aggregates the most popular photos – challenging all 100k+ users to get their snapshots noticed.

6. Skype 5.0 Hearts Facebook: Remember when the social(media)ites were predicting a Skype/Facebook mash-up as part of Zuck’s big announcement? Well the new groups took that crown, but the functionality of connecting Skype with Facebook has arrived anyway!

7. Total Eclipse of the Heart Literal Version: I just always love this and wanted to remind all readers that it exists.

As a self proclaimed caffeine addict with an unreasonable loyalty to Dunkin’ Donuts’ hazelnut blend, I couldn’t help but be lured by their latest social media campaign aimed at finding the chain’s number one fan.

Named The Ultimate Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee Fan Contest, the contest requires consumers to submit a 60 second or less video to the Dunkin’ Donut’s Facebook page for the chance to win the ultimate Dunkin’-lovers prize – 60 months of free coffee and a trip for two to Costa Rica to tour the Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee Lab (a dream come true for a recent college graduate, like myself, who spends a whopping $2.05 on her morning joe).

Contestants can submit their videos through October 20^th. Public voting starts October 21^st; however, 75% of the video’s overall score will come from Dunkin’ judges. In addition to the grand prize, ten Facebook fans will earn 12 months of free coffee.

While Dunkin’ Donuts is no stranger to social media campaigns, this is their first Facebook-only campaign – a very smart strategic move for a company touting over two million Facebook fans.

With many other brands also administering number one fan contests to engage consumers, I believe Dunkin’ will come out on top. Knowing the nature of brand loyalty I can safely assume anyone even half the Dunkin’ devotee I am will be just as eager to jump on this prize.

Finally! Ever since the emergence of Chatroulette I’ve been eagerly anticipating a viral marketing campaign that takes it to the next level.

For me it has arrived in the form of “The Last Exorcism” where some genius marketer has combined the two best things about Chatroulette: sex appeal and shock value. This viral move comes as a follow-up to the newly created Church of St. Marks website that provides tips and tricks to avoid being possessed by a demon, and in the event that this is unavoidable, also provides guidance to care for the possessed.

An important point to note with this is that the actual promotion on Chatroulette isn’t what will bring the movie in to the spotlight, but rather the virility of the reaction videos. Considering the largest demographic on the site is 18-24 year olds, Chatroulette seems like a perfect fit for this type of promotion.

All-in-all, I’m glad to see that someone is keeping Chatroulette in the headlines and giving us even more entertaining reactions to enjoy.

Check them out here.

I remember when watching TV used to be a sociable experience.  My friends and I would base our Friday night plans around ABC’s TGIF line-up, a bowl of popcorn and our parent’s carpool schedule.  These days watching TV is my “me” time, curling up in my bed with my laptop and catching up on a week’s worth of TV via Hulu.

I’m happy to report your TV viewing experience is about to, once again, revolutionize with a so-called “second screen” experience.  The concept is being fueled predominately by the growth of mobile and sites like Foursquare and GoWalla, and will take your on-screen viewing experience to your social networks where you can connect with friends (and strangers) who share similar viewing interests.

Two start-ups forecasted by Mashable caught my eye:

Miso, the self-described “Foursquare for TV”, allows users to check into the show they are watching and push notifications live to both Facebook and Twitter.  Badges and check-ins work very similarly to Foursquare which in turn, socialize your TV viewing experience.  A simple concept, but does it have the ability to take-off like Foursquare?

i.tv takes socializing television to a whole new level.  The app aggregates conversations happening around shows and can provide the user with these conversations no matter what time they are watching.  This is particularly helpful for people like me who watch TV shows several days after they air, and then wants to see what everyone has to say about the latest episode.  The app allows for additional functionality such as remotely scheduling your TiVo, using your iPhone as your remote control, manage your Netflix and more.

No matter which startup wins this war, I think it’s safe to say things are about to change.  As social media evolves and more and more people jump on the bandwagon things we’ve become accustomed to, like watching TV or a movie, are going to change.  Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing?  Well, that’s up for you to decide.