In many ways it’s obvious why they should. Marketers (or ‘marketeers’ as others would say) capitalize on trends that potentially influence how products and solutions are perceived. It’s what marketing folks do. And organizations benefit from knowledgeable teams who not only substantiate why a given trend is relevant but also understand its nature and long-term implications.

So what are marketers, entrepreneurs, techies and scholars saying? Well, you hear a lot of these terms being referenced: exponential, analytics, petabyte, terabyte, insights, business intelligence, real-time and sensemaking—oh wait, let’s save that one for last.

In the interest of offering raw, top-of-mind views into big data I thought it sensible to knock on a few doors and ask some feedback from my Twitter follows—some of whom in fact are seasoned marketers.

Marketeering the predictable
No surprise that data analytics, predictive modeling and the like are the obvious areas where marketing can benefit from tapping into “what the data is saying” and crafting innovatively aggressive marketing strategies, which are non-intrusive, of course (in a no-telemarketers-here kind of way).

Imagine analytics software that could help yield mind blowing insights from those petabytes [of data],”

notes @mktgdouchebag citing a random example in retail where a multitude of daily transactions are logged and accessible. Imagine indeed how effective this would be via behavioral targeting tactics.

Enterprise is naturally one of the most active users of big data. And according to @noellechun it’s an emphatic ‘yes’,

…big data has enormous implications on our ability as marketers to deliver relevant messages on the web…We can use big data to help others understand the effectiveness of those messages. There are a bunch of us at big tech companies who analyze the data to tell business stories.”

How about the ability to analyze your competitor’s data? @erniehuber points to the upper hand of competitive intelligence where big data plays into

…how well marketers will be able to leverage all this new intelligence from their customers as well as potentially their competition’s customers.  Having access to this level of  information has to be a differentiator…”

Parsing ways to monetize
While analytics itself is not new, offering novel—and efficient—ways of tapping into vast data sources is a clear opportunity for entrepreneurs and tech professionals alike.

The number of data points is growing exponentially, so I fully expect that in time, marketers need to be equipped to deal with big data. I see this as an opportunity for technology start-ups to build software-based analysis tools for marketers to help them make sense of relevant [big] data,”

says @dshiao.

An equally intriguing proposition comes from @jshuey whose prolific (and technical) feedback includes a suggestion for a service model for big data use I had not considered before (but which I’m sure is already being done). Consider

real time monitoring: I think a fee structure (i.e., way to monetize access and timeliness) will be imposed to provide access in real-time to the highest bidders. Some people don’t need access in real-time and should not have to pay a premium.”

I don’t have to tell you why real-time is a big deal in this scenario, right?

Now comes the ‘sort of’ part
See, to me, data (big or small) is a component, or series of components. When aggregated, these components become large bodies of information, which I viscerally identify as a type of building block or infrastructure piece.

It’s good to be aware of how these building blocks are growing. But personally I am more fascinated by the computational science that enables these data sets to be intelligent. But that’s another post, really.

Meanwhile, back in big data land…I wouldn’t call them naysayers or party poopers. Probably because I strongly identify with some of the points they raise. And the reason why I do tend to agree with most of their views circles back to the way I view data. It’s a component. A component in itself is interesting, but not that all that relevant to the day-to-day machinations directly affecting and influencing individual and social behaviours.

Amplifying pitfalls
This is the type of stream-of-consciousness thinking that I find refreshingly candid and sobering. And it may seem lazy on my part not to attempt articulating @andymci’s thoughts, but if I were to do that I would likely end up with a poor paraphrasing:

I worry that “big data” will distract marketers. I worry that businesses will rely too heavily on big data to find insights and opportunities and answers to all of their problems. I worry that the big data trend will be used as a scapegoat, with lines like “according to the data” being used as an excuse for when things go wrong.

I worry that the big data trend will throw too much weight behind database marketing at the expense of other marketing strategies, and the pitfalls of database marketing will be amplified.

Don’t get me wrong – I think that having access to this much information is great. But we need to maintain a balance. There are things that marketers can’t glean from databases.

As meaningless as web 2.0
I do like saving the best for last. And for the crème de la crème of opinions that help justify why I sort of care about big data, I am very pleased to share @Liberationtech’s thoughts. I identify with this response because it offers a fairly holistic and balanced view IMO:

I may not be the best person to ask because, personally, I think the term is as meaningless as web 2.0.  Moreover, big data has been with us since the emergence of the commercial net in 1995 (and of course, before that too), and we’ve always analyzed large datasets both in academia and industry since then.

It’s really more like sensemaking than anything else because once we analyze big data, we extract it from its context, so we can only have very little to say about its structure and semantics.

As a result, for marketing purposes, it’s only as good as polling, except that polling measures people’s attitudes and has longitudinal limitations, whereas big data can enable you to see past and current behavior and track it in real-time to see dynamic changes.

But as you know, predicting future behavior on the basis of past behavior requires a set of assumptions about a static world that doesn’t exist in practice.

So to make a long story short, if you’re a marketeer, and you want to see shifts in the opinions and sentiments of your consumers in real-time, big data is a good tool.  e.g.,  http://therealtimereport.com/2012/02/24/realtime-marketing-teradata-combines-big-data-and-social-data-to-deliver-custom-offers/”

So. Is big data a big deal to you?
_________

To read complete feedback from the above follows, go here.

I have the tremendous privilege of having one of the most diverse and responsive Twitter following. I thought it only fitting to cite their verbatim input, as I have left out some content, which may offer better context to the quotes I’ve chosen to cite on said post.

Thank you again to the individuals below. You rock.

So I asked everyone, this one  question:

What in your opinion is the significance (if any) of the big data trend to marketers?

@Liberationtech
I may not be the best person to ask because, personally, I think the term is as meaningless as web 2.0.  Moreover, big data has been with us since the emergence of the commercial net in 1995 (and of course, before that too), and we’ve always analyzed large datasets both in academia and industry since then.  It’s really more like sensemaking than anything else because once we analyze big data, we extract it from its context, so we can only have very little to say about its structure and semantics.  As a result, for marketing purposes, it’s only as good as polling, except that polling measures people’s attitudes and has longitudinal limitations, whereas big data can enable you to see past and current behavior and track it in real time to see dynamic changes. But as you know, predicting future behavior on the basis of past behavior requires a set of assumptions about a static world that doesn’t exist in practice.  So to make a long story short, if you’re a marketeer, and you want to see shifts in the opinions and sentiments of your consumers in real time, big data is a good tool.   e.g.,  http://therealtimereport.com/2012/02/24/realtime-marketing-teradata-combines-big-data-and-social-data-to-deliver-custom-offers/

@mktgdouchebag
As with many concepts, “big data” means something different depending on whom you’re talking with. If you’re talking to an IT storage admin, big data really impacts their life in handling all of the terabytes created in today’s world. If you’re talking to a marketer, big data isn’t so much the IT storage required but the analytics they can glean from the data found within. Soon, IT storage and analytics software will be so sophisticated that marketers can make *measured* decisions unlike ever before. For example, a chain retailer handles millions of customer transactions per day, manifesting really big data — multiple petabytes. Imagine analytics software that could help yield mind blowing insights from those petabytes. what products, when, how, where. today, firms like dunnhumby analyze this data for huge retailers/brands. but, soon, such b.d. insights will be avail. to the little guy too.

@erniehuber
I do believe that Big Data will be the hottest buzzword of 2012 (dare I say hotter than cloud computing).

From the product and solution standpoint, marketers from those companies will have a field day as companies scramble to understand all the offerings and get pressure from their executives to understand their particular big data.  These marketers should and will ride the wave while they can because just like all hot trends will slow down as companies become more educated to what the real opportunity is and what they really need ( or do not need) to leverage their big data.

The other side of this coin is how well marketers will be able to leverage all this new intelligence from their customers as well as potentially their competition’s customers.  Having access to this level of  information has to be a differentiator if companies are able to not only process and manage it but  more importantly incorporate it
into really strong processes such as their

• Pricing strategies and actions
• New product development
• Product exit strategies

If these processes are not solid, all this additional intelligence will likely overwhelm marketers, create confusion and do more harm than good.

@jshuey
This is an extremely nuanced question, but the gist is …

Big Data is a Big Deal for Marketeers
Never before has so much information been made available on such a broad scale basis. The smart marketeers will slice and dice this information along so many pivot points that it will make a traditional maketeers head spin.

Think about it. Internally generated information is growing at an exponential pace. The same is true with every organization. One idea behind Big Data is that these internal and external data stores can be combined – or at least cross-searched and indexed. Advances in traditional Business Intelligence capabilities is driving Big Data. BI is not the only thing that is driving Big Data, but many of the tools and techniques that have been developed to create Data Marts and Data Cubes are being using to parse and process the ever growing repositories of Big Information … Or Big Data.

Here are a few data points to consider:

• Data analysis: Your Data, My Data, Their Data. If you have access to the data the possibilities are endless on how to slice and dice it. (There are some ethical and perhaps legal implications to consider).
• On and Off Premise: where the data is located is not as important as that the access to the data is enabled.
• Real time monitoring: I think a fee structure (I.e. Way to monetize access and timeliness) will be imposed to provide access in real-time to the highest bidders. Some people don’t need access in real time and should not have to pay a premium.
• Complex event processing: advanced analysis in a myriad of ways across numerous pivot points and spanning multiple data repositories.

@andymci
Forgive me, but I haven’t been paying enough attention to the big data trend of the last couple of years.

If we’re talking about the rapid growth in data volume, the demand for large-scale databases to hold all the data, and the tools+talent required to make sense of everything – great! If not, I’ve missed the point entirely.

So, assuming the former, here are my thoughts:

I worry that “big data” will distract marketers. I worry that businesses will rely too heavily on big data to find insights and opportunities and answers to all of their problems. I worry that the big data trend will be used as a scapegoat, with lines like “according to the data” being used as an excuse for when things go wrong.

I worry that the big data trend will throw too much weight behind database marketing at the expense of other marketing strategies, and the pitfalls of database marketing will be amplified.

Don’t get me wrong – I think that having access to this much information is great. But we need to maintain a balance. There are things that marketers can’t glean from databases.

@dshiao
Unless you’re analyzing traffic patterns for Facebook or looking to make sense of the entire Twitter fire hose, most marketers today don’t deal with data sets that qualify as “big data.” That being said, with online media, the number of data points is growing exponentially, so I fully expect that in time, marketers need to be equipped to deal with big data. I see this as an opportunity for technology start-ups to build software-based analysis tools for marketers to help them make sense of relevant [big] data.

@noellechun

Generally speaking, big data has enormous implications on our ability as marketers to deliver relevant messages on the web. And from a B2B perspective, it enables us to measure ROI. We can use big data to help others understand the effectiveness of those messages. There are a bunch of us at big tech companies who analyze the data to tell business stories.

I can’t speak as an official representative of my company. But at Yahoo! we see the influence and impact of big data every day. Our cloud, for instance, has grown to more than 200 petabytes and grows by about 50 terabytes a day (to put that in perspective, the Library of Congress has about 200 terabytes of data—we get that every four days). It’s one of the largest data infrastructures in the world. And that big data allows us to serve really relevant content and ad experiences consumers. We have this thing called a Core Optimization Relevance Engine (CORE). It’s able to personalize 45,000 variations of the homepage every five minutes—that’s 13 million in a single day. And this particular kind of science drives huge clickthroughs for our content. So big data has huge impact on our ability to market and sell. You can actually see CORE at work here: http://visualize.yahoo.com.

There are two caveats on this, though:

1) How we use big data will depend in part on legislation. There are still big questions the U.S. government is interested in answering: Who owns the data? So marketers’ potential to use the big data will naturally be impacted by the laws that end up governing it.

2) The ability to use big data is only as good as your ability to synthesize it. So it naturally it depends on the tools you have or create to leverage the content. The future is going to be more than web behavior and demographics. We’ll see the interest graph in addition to the social graph and all that.

@blogbrevity
Regarding our discussion on big #data #trends see this fascinating video by @byronreese http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/20627367 (at the 12:12 mark) – Angela, I was at a loss to find a proper reference for your input. Nonetheless, I do appreciate you offering a source

Apparently it’s even more of a big deal now. According to a recent tech post, big data will be a $50 billion market in 5 years.  Great. But short of identifying big data as a key trend, what practical value could this have for marketers?

Well, in the realm of CRM and “Customer Intelligence” it’s all the rage. Another post I caught last week through a tweet from @Liberationtech examines whether or not big data is in fact the next big deal.

While that post focuses largely on the usefulness of big data in trend analysis and application to predictive modelling etc., it still left me wondering why I should care.

So I turned my thoughts from volume to substance: what makes up big data? And how are some of the key characteristics of these large data sets being affected as the web evolves exponentially at a rapid rate?

Intelligent content
The web, and all the data that resides and moves within its framework, is clearly massive. But how intelligent has it become?  In other words, what is the current state of the semantic web?

The concept of the Semantic Network Model was coined in the early sixties by a cognitive scientist.., linguist..,and psychologist..as a form to represent semantically structured knowledge…” – Wikipedia

If big data is the macro view of digital information’s infrastructure evolution, then I see the semantic web as either a subset or a significant instance of all that immensity.

As the known, collective data in the world approaches the zettabyte unit,  I can’t help thinking that somehow, certain day-to-day applications must be influenced or affected by the scaling that’s happening to the digital infrastructure, along with the exponential rise of various data sets online, including social graphs, that are contributing to what I would now assume as a more sophisticated semantic structure.

The quest for ubiquity
Recent correspondence with Briox co-founder, Itamar Rogel,  got me further inspired to ask his opinion on how content publishers and news aggregators are responding to the designs of the semantic web. Are we indeed seeing mass alignment of development approaches as a result of increased awareness of the semantic framework?

It depends how you’d define “mass alignment” with respect to the semantic web, I guess. If I’m leaving out the obvious stuff like some aggregators sourcing information from open semantic repositories (i.e. Freebase) to do their job, and if we’re talking about true forms of semantic web—where we’ll see deployment of interconnected semantic information on a massive scale by publishers—it will need to be a gradual, dual-headed process (which you could claim is already underway): The channels [readers, aggregators, social apps...] will need to offer truly enticing user benefits for content that is annotated with semantic information, with great UX—and the publishers, if incentivized via these advanced interactions that are enabled by semantic data, will in turn respond with including more semantic info in their online media.

Of course, some publishers will do this before others— indeed, some have already been doing it for a long time now—just because they like to get ahead

The gradual, dual-headed process makes sense. But has the semantic web advanced in past 5 or 6 years, say since Twitter went live or blogging broke into the scene?

It certainly did, although not as strongly as some have expected it would. This is because the trends in the web in recent years have been (and still are) towards half-closed ecosystems, whether we like it or not. I.e., you have an API for Facebook, but you can’t freely interconnect with the semantic data that it contains. Other social networks and mobile platforms are similar in this, to different extents.

As a concrete example, we’ve seen deployments of FOAF (a semantic web ontology for social networks, loosely speaking) in blogging platforms and elsewhere, yet how much impact has it had compared to the social networks everyone knows and uses?

Still, I believe that with time, off-the-shelf publishing services/backends (i.e. WordPress) will provide better and better support for integrated publishing of semantic info – and it will become ubiquitous. Currently, we’re still at a stage where you see only some of the publishers and aggregators truly leveraging these technologies… But you can definitely claim that there’s ongoing adoption of semantic web technologies. Personally I feel there still needs to be a “killer app” for this to truly gain momentum on a wide scale (and not just on vertical sites or for relatively fringe uses).

The future of information consumption
A killer app, eh? Some  believe that mobile sites not apps are the key content portals. Do you think one is more influential to a user than the other?

Well, I mean app in the generic sense. Whether it’s a manifested as a mobile site or a native app per se is not really important. The question is, will it actually provide users with value and usefulness that would make the necessary effort in supporting it – both technically and content-wise – worthwhile? This requires advances in neighbouring issues and aspects as well. For instance, Apple’s Siri (and similar software elsewhere) can be greatly extended in usefulness and scope if sufficient semantic web infrastructure and content are available.”

Being a fan of his app, Riversip, I asked Itamar’s thoughts on news aggregration and how it will evolve over the long-term. How would one characterize the evolution of existing UX models as they impact both user and developer?

That’s a great question. I think a few significant trends would converge onto indeed creating a richer experience for users. One of them is the process of app-ization – online experience would become more tailored to the user’s context, specific needs and task at hand. To be clear, this is orthogonal to whether the specific implementation would be native-app-based or not, which is another issue. What matters is the app-based user experience that users have become accustomed to, that they evidently like, and that – quite importantly – has allowed the creation of a viable economic model for developers. So users would just start having richer and richer abilities to interact, engage and perform tasks online.

Another process is multi-channeling: Whereas once the website and its content were almost synonymous, nowadays you consume the same content in many different channels, and expect to get different experience: In your mobile device, as a social network app, on your tablet and soon in your TV and car – you essentially experience the same content in different ways. This decoupling of content from the way it is experienced has deep-running implications for publishers, developers and users.

Note how each channel nowadays wants developers to create apps for it: iOS and Facebook (and others) in this sense are all channels pushing developers to create apps for them, so they can have better monetization footprint.content in different ways. This decoupling of content from the way it is experienced has deep-running implications for publishers, developers and users.

Would we see dramatic shift in user behaviour? Are we in fact going to see a clear pattern that identifies content dissemination and consumption as typifying Web 3.0?

Regarding apps and channels, sure – this is a major trend we’re all feeling and will feel even stronger in coming years.

Regarding the semantic web per se, I’m not sure if from a user’s standpoint, it would necessarily feel like a revolution anytime soon. Sure, you’ll be getting richer and richer abilities available to you at your palm, but it does seem like a natural vector of progress, doesn’t it? It can thus be claimed that this ‘Web 3.0′ shift – if indeed that is what you mean here – would be less “immediately visible” than Web 2.0 for instance. I mean, Siri can already answer quite a few semantic queries. Take that and other apps, given increasing ubiquity of the semantic web, you’ll get better and more powerful such abilities. But would users experience it as revolutionary? I’m not sure.

What about you? What do you think? Are you star struck by big data and don’t know if you should care? Do you *get* why the semantic web is so key and yet so not meme-friendly? Haha.

About Itamar Rogel
Itamar Rogel (@itamarro) is a co-founder of Briox – the developer of Riversip, an algo-social editing platform. Riversip powers a series of news applications that help people stay posted on  news, at their own pace. More info can be found at www.riversip.com.

Useful posts on the Semantic Web

• W3C Semantic Web  Activity
• The Semantic Web
• Semantic Web Patterns: A Guide to Semantic Technologies

NOTE: This is not a sponsored post. Itamar and I are equally interested in advancing discussions surrounding the above subject. I am privileged to share Itamar’s thoughts and thankful for his time and contribution.
_____________________________
Sources of Images in descending order:
-  http://visibledata.files.wordpress.com
-  http://www.alloydesign.com.au
-  http://seohouston.stalwartcorp.com

1.  the “industrial age” and how one could potentially interpret this term,
2. the “average worker”, which is so general a term in itself that, well, I can only anticipate more feedback in the commentary from *your* own PoV, and
3.  of course, the illusion of “unique”.

Alas, after once again catching a random tweet today that happily RT’d said post, eyes rolling at the back of my head just didn’t quite cut it (happy now, @RepuTrack?)

The agelessness of “Industrial”

We all know that the Industrial Revolution occurred eons ago and created the various infrastuctures upon which current societies are built. Great. Yay industry.

But when you say that it’s “a ‘forever recession’ because it’s the end of the industrial age..” To what exactly are you alluding?

That the so-called industrial age no longer exists? That industry itself plays no significant (if any) role in the development of societies? That I am knitpicking because I can’t stand— oh wait, that perhaps a more appropriate term should have been used to describe an existing mode of working and/or doing business?

Industrial activity will always predicate the subsequent evolution of societal frameworks, whether the pace be rapid or incremental. Proposing to use the term “industrial age” in an attempt to viscerally antiquate the perception of common modes and patterns of behaviour associated with work is not only short-sighted but also, and more importantly, inaccurate.

95% of us are “the average worker”

That percentage is pure guesswork on my part, but I think you get the point.

We are the average because we do indeed count within that large demographic who actually DO the legwork, who are part of teams, communities, working groups, the broader mobilized, salt-of-the-earth workforce—who, thanks to our “averageness”, are making others thankful for the societies we are able to sustain on a day-to-day basis.

It is a regrettable generalization to coin the term “average worker” without duly qualifying and substantiating the nature of such term:

“If you’re the average person out there doing average work, there’s going to be someone else out there doing the exact same thing as you, but cheaper.”

For reals? Like ya I get the foreign threat n all but seriously, gu-gu-guru? Who is actually making threats here? And why?

These broad strokes on the notion of ‘average’ are being non-chalantly splattered on a quasi-marketing themed post in order to make a compelling case for “being different”.

Right.

But is “being different” really enough? In fact, does “being different” actually matter at all?

The fallacy of “unique”

I recall a recent tweet convo with @mktgdouchebag on the notion of “creativity”. It was brief and somewhat comical, which is typical of our tweets. But he echoes a valid point, “Everybody thinks they’re creative.”

LinkedIn recently saw “creative” among the top overused buzzwords in profiles.

Does being creative make you unique? Not really.

Scientifically speaking, we are each unique. We each have specific DNA that distinguishes us from one another. Now *that’s* unique.

This, here?

“..if you’re different somehow and have made yourself unique, people will find you and pay you more..”

Er ya: how the hell do you “make yourself unique”, when there are thousands of other marketers like you clawing at that same smarmy guru status—well, ok, 10 out of 1,000 marketers who’ve written volumes on things everyone already knows about.

My point? Social media gurus are scary. No matter what Klout, clout or cloud they’re in, they still scare the crap out of me. Not so much about who they are but how and what they preach to both clueless and converted.

Unless you’re as talented as me—I mean as talented as @mktgdouchebag (hint: I’m trying to get you to comment here, haha) people won’t actually “find you and pay you more”.

So here’s how I see it: if you’re an “average unique person”, well then, good for you.

Being unique is self-evident and won’t make you instantly rich. Being well informed and continually learning on the other hand, will help shape what you choose to make out of yourself.

NOTE : I had the intention of creating a French version of this post (original English version posted in January 2010) to share some personal thoughts on the value of these lists.
_____________________

Pour suivre quelqu’un sur Twitter, après qu’ils vous ait suivi, valide une connexion bidirectionnelle. Il confirme l’intérêt mutuel.

La rhétorique de la courtoisie

En ligne, chacun a le droit d’être sélectif avec ses suiveurs (« followers »). En effet, certains des efforts de réseautage les plus réussies sont délibérées et exécutés avec un but clair.

Donc si quelqu’un vous suit, mais que vous n‘êtes pas vraiment sûr de vouloir le suivre, que faites-vous? La plupart ne feraient probablement rien, parce qu’ils ne sont pas obligés de vous suivre.

Mais si vous voulez leur faire savoir que vous trouvez leur compte Twitter tout de même intéressant, sans pour autant être tout à fait prêts à les suivre, ne devriez-vous tout de même pas les mettre au courant de votre intérêt?

La question est censée être rhétorique, mais oui, je pense que oui. Et vous pouvez le faire en les incluant dans vos listes.

iimage par : pazeinteractive.com

La classification versus l’influence

Les listes Twitter vous permet de regrouper vos suiveurs selon les différentes catégories (genres) que vous avez créés. Il y en a qui supposent que le nombre de fois dans lesquels vous êtes inclut dans les listes Twitter reflète votre échelle d’influence.

Je respecte certains aspects de ce point de vue. Toutefois, il reste encore à trouver une explication claire qui permette de mesurer la corrélation entre le nombre de listes auquelles vous appartenez et ce que, justement, « cette influence » est censée représenter … mais je m’égare.

Votre intention d’inclure quelqu’un dans une de vos listes démontre votre intérêt pour leur demande de vous suivre. Vous n‘avez pas réèllement suivis encore, mais puisque vous avez pris la peine de mettre un « tag » pour indiquer qui ils sont, ce qu’ils représentent dans votre bibliothèque personnelle de connexions, cela signifie que vous avez reconnu leur présence. S‘ils veulent vraiment que vous les suiviez en retour, ils devraient tweeter cette intention et vous le faire savoir.

La confiance — un processus organique (c-a-d, ‘fait à mitaine’)

Être sélectif sur les réseaux sociaux n‘est pas nécessairement une mauvaise attitude. C’est en fait un moyen pratique d’établir un groupe des connexions fiable avec lesquels vous souhaitez interagir, discuter et créer des communautés.

Inclure de nouveaux suiveurs dans une de vos listes est un moyen idéal pour les organiser et démontre que vous appréciez leur intérêt pour votre présence en ligne.

Je suis toujours heureux d’avoir de nouveaux «suiveurs». Mais j’ai tendance à m’attendre à un niveau d’interaction de leur part, que ce soit par hasard ou au travers de conversations en ligne prévues (via réponses directes “@” ou un message privé avec “DM”). C’est un peu comme si je disais: «Bon, maintenant gagnez ma confiance et confirmez la valeur et la crédibilité de notre connexion.” Sinon, comment vous connaître?

Comment est-ce-que vous construisez votre réseau social? Quelles valeurs apportez-vous personnellement afin de renforcer à la fois votre marque personnelle et professionnelle?

Seeing as we’re approaching Black Friday (happy thanksgiving, my American friends!), and Apple will soon open their new Grand Central location, today seemed like a great time to make this post.

Want your company’s website to be more effective? Start giving a damn about your audience, and stop treating them like cattle. Force-feeding your potential customers a buffet of self-indulgent corporate fluff isn’t going to make them like you.

Social media marketing, inbound marketing, content development, thought leadership – it’s all based on a single theme: customer service. And the Apple Store has done a great job with customer service.

When it comes to web marketing via customer service, here’s what we can learn from the Apple Store:

Your competitors are identical to one another.

Most company websites cover just the basics: Products and services, corporate history, company culture, business model, contact information, and hours of operation. Blog posts (if there even is a blog) are nothing but press releases and company announcements.

It’s dull, unimaginative, and completely irrelevant. What stands out? Absolutely nothing. There’s very little of value, so prospects move on from one website to the next without batting an eyelash.

The Apple spin: Apple stores are different from other technology stores. The products are still at the center of everything, but the Apple Store experience is insanely different – they educate customers in a no-pressure + fun environment.

Make your website experience insanely different from your competitors. Entertain and educate your audience.

The 3 Options of Customer Engagement: Entertain, Educate, or GTFO.

If you’re going to push out press releases and promotions through your blog, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or any other engagement platform, you’re missing the point.

Social networks & blogs are meant for interaction, and nobody is going to interact with a post that provides nothing of value.

The Apple spin: In an Apple Store, customers are entertained when they play with the devices, and customers are educated thanks to the Genius Bar + one-on-one training.

How can you mimic this on the web?

• Create opportunities for visitors to interact with your product or service (virtual demos, webinars, etc.).
• Get your own Genius Bar going by taking off your Sales hat and putting on your Teaching hat. Think about how you can educate visitors through social media and blogging.

Customer service shouldn’t be based on transactions.

Good customer service is polite and friendly.

Great customer service is polite, friendly and helpful.

My favourite stores and restaurants get my business because they gave me great customer service before I ever pulled out my wallet. (I bet it’s the same for you, too.)

The Apple spin: Apple Store employees are helpful and informative, but they don’t pressure you into buying anything. They’ll greet you when you enter, and they’ll wish you a good day as you leave.

Greet your website visitors, don’t smother them in promotional fluff. Provide them something useful with every visit – maybe a free download, a useful tip, or a how-to article?

Your website is a store. Treat it like one.

Some things to keep in mind:

Website visitors are guests, not prospects.
Even if they’re “just browsing”, make it an enjoyable experience. Care about them. They’ll be more likely to come back, or refer someone else to you.

Your home page is your storefront.
Keep it fresh, keep it clean, and limit the focal point to one or two things. You want them to come inside, don’t you?

Your website layout is your sales floor layout.
Make it easy for guests to find what they’re looking for. Your layout should be clean, clutter-free and intuitive. Don’t overwhelm with distractions.

Constantly push for feedback.
“Good enough” is never good enough. Figure out what can be done better, and make incremental improvements. Open up that Suggestions box!

Crap on a silver platter, wrapped in a pretty pink ribbon, is still crap.
Appearances are important, but if what you’re trying to sell is broken/sub-par, then fixing it is the higher priority.

Reimagine everything.

The Apple Store succeeded not because we tweaked the traditional model. We reimagined everything. [...] Until the Apple Store launched, customers went to a technology store to acquire a product, and it was often an awful experience driven by a salesperson on commission whose main interest was in emptying your wallet. Apple Store associates are not on commission, and they don’t try to sell you anything. They have one job: to help you find the product that’s right for you, even if it’s not an Apple product. All those things create value beyond the transaction.

- Ron Johnson, formerly Senior VP of Retail for Apple, pioneer of Apple retail stores.

Final thoughts: It’s uphill battle all the way.

Apple has done an amazing job with their retail locations. But they’re Apple – their culture, and their business, has been built on doing things differently.

Shifting the focus of a company website towards customer service is hard work. I know, because I’ve tried, and I’m still trying.

This is what I’ve learned:

• Resistance comes from executives who don’t see the value in customer service as a marketing strategy.
• Resistance comes from employees who don’t see the value in web marketing at all.
• Progress comes from small improvements, made whenever and wherever possible.

Daunting? Absolutely. But if you’re really, really passionate about customer service being the right approach for growth and success, it’s totally worth fighting for.

Photo Credit: Rafael Torales on Flickr

This is a random post.

Usually, I’d be fired up about some insight or observation related to tech or social and then ramble on for days fleshing the crap out of every nuance or any underhyped aspect worthy of closer examination. Yes, “flesh out” not “flush out”. Idiomatic offenders please get with the program and repeat after me..

Things change. That’s the way it goes. It goes that way. And that’s why the term ‘evolution’ (a subset of the more general term ‘change’) carries such weight for me, its significance often overshadowed by its overuse..its purely scientific connotation at times badly appropriated to characterize abstract transitions and help us believe that ya things are moving along, from sun up to sun down, for better for worse..things change alright. But do they really evolve?

Escapism: the real BFF
As I tap this on my Android tablet on a westbound flight that promised onboard wi-fi but somehow I never managed to secure (like really GoGo? you too??) my customary sense of wanton adventure is suddenly feeling threatened.

Sounds smarmy and dramatic I know. But would you rather see bullet points of overworked, tiring variations on a theme about X social media phenom OR come-what-may rants that aim to turn on light bulbs and pull LOLs outta your fingertips?

Aanyway, threatened.

The young person sitting beside me is glued to seemingly endless reruns of that 70′s show. Cute. It’s about a four-hour trip, and she appears to cling to her laptop like Linus to his blankie.

Bet she doesn’t feel threatened.

We’re quite good at escaping. Especially when most of it happens in our minds. It’s almost a given, a built-in fail-safe mechanism automatically initialized, detaching us from that harrowing feeling, that raw flesh wound so we’re able to exhale, create a buffer, soften the blow..shields holding at 90%..

My English friends chuckle each time I tell them that I’m taking a vacation. Londoners typically take holidays, you see. They don’t ‘vacate’ as such. But the semantics is interesting nonetheless. Not only did I vacate the big TOe (Toronto) but I also flushed out (see now *that’s* a more sensible way to use that dreadful term) whatever’s holding me back, weighing me down etc..

We escape because we have no choice. We may not care why. But it is cathartic. It gives us hope against all odds, allows us to compartmentalize complex emotions, to push back and question coercive myths packaged as absolutes, and gives us a fighting chance in the face of our darkest fears.

Ya, escapism. U da ‘bestie’ (ugh yet another maudlin term).

All the effort
A fairly turbulent-free leg so far (not mine, the flight). Linus-ette completely mesmerized from banter underpinned by polyesterpalooza and whacky tabbacky. Bless her.

If you’ve ever had the unique opportunity to survive–I mean, live through the er glory days of the 90′s and ‘accidentally overplayed’ one too many albums by Everything But The Girl (EBTG) then you probably also noticed how their early lyrics were often fixated on shoes or references to shoes. Curious.

In any event, there’s a tune by EBTG (Downhill Racer – its a remix version) where Tracey Horn meows out this line as if it’s thick honey dripping from honeycombs (does that even happen?).. “And all the effort not to let the effort show..”

Smooth. Quietly tortured. But smooth.

I get it though. Live stage performance offers a similar experience. But what’s my point, right? Well, this post is kinda ‘all the effort (diatribe) not to let the effort (light yet dense, oxymoron much?) show’.

Is oxymoronic a word? Gee, if only I had wi-fi..(drum shot)

The captain just announced we’re about an hour and a half away from Orange County. As I take a quick peek outside my window, I look back to see the eastern horizon muddy itself out of view. Meanwhile, ahead starboard, I catch a glimpse of a fiery fading skyline, as if a barrage of golden flashes just spewed straight out of Dante’s Inferno splattering traces of the fireball.

All the effort.

Speaking of overworked, tiring variations on a theme, I’m kinda feeling the big up for Linus-ette. At least she didn’t (unlike most of the crew) eagerly plug herself into stomaching Arthur.

Told you: this is a random post.

________

Image sources:
Linus > http://loveandutility.com
Dante’s Inferno > http://videogamesrepublic.com

Part of appreciating the evolution of social media (i.e., the degree of our global connectedness via the web) involves knowing what to share when and with whom.

It's a plus! No really..you gotta check it out.

It’s been a great run to date: blogging my brains out since March ’09, switching from one blog hosting space to another (the IABC hosting site still managing to make it to Google’s top SERPs) and now the growing love-fest known as Google+.

Yay! Kill the firehose. Save the world.

I have every confidence Google will evolve into Skynet—I mean, really influence the shape of things to come in social media (i.e., the thrilling and somewhat frightening evolutionary phenomenon we call the web).

At the moment, if you must know (you may not, but I’ll tell you anyway..’cause I’ve learned how to share what content with whom and when, right? er ya..), here is a high level view of what I consider to be top social networks and what I use them for:

• LinkedIn = pros not joes networking
• FaceShmook = Gowalla geotags only (and the odd messages)
• Twitter = favourite firehose (which I doubt I’ll ever have the guts to completely shut off)
• Google + = everything else

Yep. Good one Google. You’re still shiny. And yeah, I likey. For now.

In my continued effort to remain open-minded and OS-agnostic in the relentless pursuit of exploring, assessing and quantifying digital experiences from all platforms (web, desktop, mobile etc), I figured it’s high time for the Android experience.

Many tech bloggers have blathered about the Galaxy Tab and you can probably look up the various reviews from the likes of Engadget, Gizmodo, BGR etc. But to be clear, this post is not meant to be a review per se. It’s more like my first “Ode to Android”.

Orchard life
‘Orchard’ is an image that pops up in my head when I sometimes think of Apple: a sanctuary of good design, visionary, hyper protective of its ecosystem and why not? Only the most innovative, trend-setting crops are produced right? (Even ones you have to hold right)

I completely dig my iPhone 3GS and have grown to really appreciate the touchscreen user experience. So for two years, I’ve lived in the Orchard and seen a world of exceptional beauty. That’s right. One world, one view.

Intrepid class
First, I must say that after a few days the Galaxy Tab is growing quite nicely on me. I really like its midsize feel, how easy it is to hold with one hand, and how the more I use it, the more the iPhone starts to look and feel miniscule in comparison.

Also, I find the Tab’s seeming thickness to be negligible, while its viewing area on portrait makes it ideal as an e-reader (Kobo-enabled). Using the device in portrait is perfect for viewing/processing almost 80% of activities (e.g., news, email/SMS, task management, drafting content like this blog post, etc.). In my opinion, the width of the viewing area is just right (not so stretched that it looks big and awkward, not too small that I’m having to go on landscape all the time).

Oh and of course, what’s a tech related post without reference to Star Fleet? A down right boring one that’s for sure. Aaanyway, so here is how I see these devices in comparison to starship size and class:

• iPhone = USS Defiant
• Galaxy Tab = USS Voyager
• iPad = USS Enterprise

But please don’t hold that comparison (and any mild attachment I may have to all things Star Trek) against me. Haha.

UX worm hole effect
Unlike some die-hard fanboys who are born and bred from the cradle of Orchard and claim anything Apple to be unparalleled in UX design, I do feel that the Froyo-enabled Galaxy Tab is the ideal tablet format (heck, front and back facing camera? Face2face video capability off the bat?)

No offense to my friends/follows who are deeply rooted in Orchard life, but I think sometimes you folks undergo what I see as a type of worm hole effect when you come across non-Orchard devices.

Essentially, you take the painstaking leap to cross the threshold, yet once you end up on the other side, you expect to see a universe that ought to be encoded in all things Orchard. But the minute you begin to explore how things work in this different universe,  you immediately start setting every function and interface against an Orchard standard: comparing the orange you are looking at to the apple you all know too well.

This is not a new perspective. But it is something we should keep in mind when looking at evolving technology and the multitude of devices that proliferate as a result.

Different does not mean poor build
Below are some initial impressions on some of the GalaxyTab’s UI design, in comparison to to ones typically deified by children of the Orchard. I am drawing this out to further elucidate on that orange-to-apple scenario. And kids, just because it doesn’t function the same way, it most certainly does not imply poor build.

• Home/Back buttons: Unlike the iWhatever, the main navigational interface may throw you off initially, since they are all located at the bottom of the device in portrait, which–some may argue–can be awkward when switching to landscape. So all “back” clicks are done via the bottom nav.
• Character/text selection:  Typically, with an iWhatever, you’d tap and hold to select, copy/paste, modify etc. This is interesting because that action alone is somewhat reminiscent of a brushstroke or painting with your fingers. The action is clearly intended for drawing, designing etc. However, with the Galaxy Tab, all you do is tap once (say on text) and an icon that looks like a teardrop (which when selected opens up more options for action) with a flashing cursor above it appears. And all you need to do to move that cursor is select the character or space where you want it placed. This action, to me, is akin to writing, word processing.
• Web browser nav:  Perhaps what may seem puzzling is the absence of Chrome (Google’s native web browser) in the apps Market (Android’s equivalent of iTunes).  The Tab does come configured with a web browser, which oddly enough is called “Browser”(that actually made me chuckle). And for all other available  browsers (Firefox, Opera, Skyfire etc) each respective browsing experience is different. With Firefox, for instance, you can flip the screen left or right to call out a side bar with further options to go back, front, bookmark etc. I am still debating which one I want to set as default.
• Market: Apps, apps, apps! It’s no wonder we often hear tales of the Android Army and their force to dominate the mobile space. Although not everything is all that ducky with this picture, as there have been concerns with the lack of regulation and oversight in the Android apps development ecosystem. Ergo, higher chances of buggy, corrupt or malware infested apps making their way into Market. I did however download “Antivirus Free” a neat little Droid app that detects any new apps installed in your tablet, scans and cross-references for any malicious apps and confirms whether or not the install was clean. Oh and the other bonus? Since I’ve so far only downloaded free apps, I’ve not not had to submit a credit card once. How sensible is that?
• Notifications bar: This is a beautiful, genius interface.  Each time you receive new notifications or updates, the device will ping a lovely sound (configuration needed) and the very top bar will pop up the icon of the app where the notification comes from. With grab-n-drag down, you are presented with all notifications in one view, with choice of selecting which one(s) you wish to attend to, ignore, or to clear all. On top of that page, you also have the option of toggling to activate/deactivate any of the following: WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, Silent mode, Orientation lock.
• Sounds for notification: This may seem like a minor point of contention, but @newteric and I agree that compared to the sound file defaults available in iPhone, the quality of default sound files in the Galaxy Tab are aurically pleasing. Somehow, they really nailed this component. The sounds are distinctly atmospheric, ambient that hearing them ping on the device makes for a gentle, unintrusive experience.
• On/off switch: Back in January, BGR reported rumours of Apple considering removing the Home button from the iteration of iPad and iPhone. However, Apple Insider‘s recent post seems to confirm that the  signature Home button will still appear on the iPad 2. While it took me a while to get used to the Home button, in the long run, I don’t know if it makes good design sense to keep it right on the touch surface. Does its placement right on the working surface limit more expansive development of the UI? In my mind it does, but I’m not UI expert, just an awfully pensive user and technophile. But the Tab has this covered with an On/Off (or Home button) switch placed on the right side of the device’s frame.
• Social Apps: I notice for certain apps, like Twitter for Android, that when you click to view a tweet, it’s the exact same experience as with an iPhone, except larger and you don’t have to hold the device away (nor a certain “right way”) to view it clearly. However, I did notice a slight nuance with links on tweets. Typically, when you click on a link in a tweet it would open the link within the Twitter app. Not in this case: it opens to a browser and takes you out of the Twitter app. Now this has nothing to do with the Galaxy Tab itself, but more with how the Android app is developed. Not a world-ender by any means.

There’s so much more to cover and experience with Android. As I become more accustomed to using the device, I plan to share my thoughts on the various business use cases for this tablet.

But so far, Froyo tastes yummy. What about you? What has your tablet experience been like?
____________
> Android graphic sourced from large-icons.com 
> “USS Voyager” image sourced from drexiles.files.wordpress.com
> Worm hole image sourced wallpapers-free.org
> Galaxy Tab image sourced from androidcentral.com
> Ambient ping image sourced from quadropolis.us 

Fast-forward to 2011. I pinged all four as a pulse check to see how they were doing and asked them one simple but rather broad question: “What has social media done for you lately?”

In retrospect, the question sounds somewhat superfluous, trite. But the subconscious intent was to offer a big blank slate from which my friends can start sketching, etching, carving or even blasting out a response.

And as you’ll see, themes around like-mindedness and collaboration recur in their respective input. In reality, the question was merely a ruse. What I’m really asking them is, “how’ve ya been? what’s up? tell me your story..”

Power networking and local influence

Adrian Eden

Adrian is by nature a sociable dude; funny, at times wild and uninhibited with his tweets. But it’s this refreshing candour that propels him to extend and widen his reach among prospective audiences.

Check out what he has to say. The guy’s been busy:

Lately my use of Social Media has helped me to grow my network of peers and opened up opportunities to do public speaking. I was recently invited to speak at The Network Hub in Gastown Vancouver, which is a co-working office space for small business owners. On the third Thursday of every month around 200 small business owners and entrepreneurs come out to meetup with one another, I was invited to the November 18th (2010) event to speak* about SEO and Internet Marketing.

*You can watch that video here; I start speaking just after the 2 minute mark of the video.

I also have had the opportunity to speak at the British Columbia Institute of Technology** by a professor who wanted me to talk about SEO and Internet Marketing. We had a great time doing round table discussion and I answered a lot of touch questions about team building and staying motivated in the fast paced digital world.

**You can read about that here and see a picture with myself and the students.

Overall Social Media continues to provide a platform from which to engage with like-minded professionals and business owners. It allows me to digest and consume breaking news more efficiently then I would otherwise be able to do when reading news websites.

Over the past 2 years being heavily engaged in Twitter, I have developed decent influence here in Vancouver, this translates into a lot of invites and opportunities to speak and visit businesses. I look at this as a platform from which to continue to grow.

The permanence of self-evolution

Charlotte Barker

In her response, Charlotte prefaces by saying, “I don’t like this question!  Isn’t social media not supposed to be about what it can do for ME, but what I can offer to others? ”

Touché!

Admittedly, I had not thought about this dimension to the question. And it’s so cool that Charlotte flagged this customer-focused perspective—a universal axiom, which is pretty much engrained in every decent marketer or entrepreneur.

Social Media has taught me so much; the importance of maintaining relationships, its permanence, its power. 

It’s helped me grow as a person, step outside of my comfort level on many occasions, introduce me to many amazing people I now call friends, and teach me a lot about myself – my strengths and weaknesses. It has helped me further my career and allowed me to help many businesses exceed their goals.

That being said, it’s been busy since our last chat about social media. I’ve moved away from freelance and have started a full time position in a social media related capacity working with community building, marketing and promotion. Social Media got me there.

Social media is my life.

It has certainly become one of the more pervasive aspects of my life—in fact, the lives of many other  people in the word. Think Iran, Egypt, WikiLeaks, Justin Bieber..okay maybe not the Biebs.

The enduring mantra of outreach

Grant took forever to—I mean, we all kind of took our time on this. And by the time I got my final input, I sat on posting this for weeks. Oh well.

Grant Deken

While GD kinda skirted my question a bit (yes, you kinda did there G but that’s ok even though he didn’t specify “what SM has done for him lately”, he echoes the now all-too familiar sentiment of aggregated experiences and how the phenomenon has in effect been a boon to opening doors.

The sharing aspect of social media has created a norm where we are all more comfortable and open about sharing our personal preferences and interests.

We collaborate with like minded strangers and tell the world how much we love the latest episode of this season’s hit TV show.  The aggregation of this information is creating opportunities for advertisers to go deeper than “age, sex, location” and speak to an audience that actually cares about your products and services.

What does that mean for me lately? A big boost in ROI. 

A new communications paradigm worth its salt (or its paper clip)

The ‘paper clip’ reference is an inside joke between me and Rebecca. We never tire of it nor will we tire of cupcakes (an ancillary inside joke to paper clips).

Aanyway, Becky is a close, personal friend and respected colleague. And it cracked me up when she sent her response and entitled it “social schmedia”.  Ah, the beauty of kid gloves and a sledgehammer.

Rebecca Eras

A PR pro par excellence, Rebecca shares the following food for thought:

What has social media done for me lately? I don’t necessarily think social media has done more for me today than it did a year or two ago.

But I will say that I am more familiar with the various avenues and outlets to find and distribute information. And I feel that in terms of business, there are definitely savings in time and resources when it comes to connecting with another company or individual.

We don’t need to rely on snail mail anymore, nor do we have to spend time searching for businesses that suit our needs in the Yellow Pages. We can find everything we need to about a business or individual by simply logging onto Facebook, Twitter, Google or YouTube. The many connecting channels at our fingertips allow us to better hone into the best fit for any given project we may be undertaking.

But like anything, too much social media can detract from our productivity. I worry that our attention spans are too short to really focus the way we once did when there were no online distractions to the degree that they exist today. I want to be connected most of the time but there are also times I appreciate stepping away from the cyber world and connecting the old fashioned way, in person.

What about YOUR follows?

Because we all know the long-term value of our investment in social media, I am always curious how deep people are willing to go to consistently demonstrate genuine interest in members of their network/community/tribe.

How do you stay in touch with the people who supposedly contribute to characterizing your level of social media influence? Do you deserve the perceived power of your ‘guruness’?