Monthly Archives: November 2010
Working on a cult brand at CM that triggers nostalgic associations I was asked to create personas with a mandate that “we need to know a lot more about online consumer behavior”. But given the constraints it was evident that traditional surveys and focus groups are not the right options. Companies and researchers have traditionally relied on a range of qualitative and quantitative techniques to observe human behavior. While effective as standalone tactic, each approach is subject to bias and often proves costly and time-intensive.
Enter Netnography! Having studied it as part of my MBA curriculum I turned to this emerging field of research to mine consumer insights online. Now, with blogs, forums, social networks and the plethora of information posted in social media, data on consumer sentiment and opinion is readily available.
Simply put, netnography is ethnography done via the Internet. As Prof. Kozinets (Father of netnography and my professor in the university) puts it – “Traditional research methods like focus groups and surveys ask people questions in artificial surroundings and in an artificial way. Netnography is based upon the fact that people are already communicating about things that are meaningful to them in a natural way, as cultures and communities online.”
COMMUNITIES
3 Tips for Maximizing Engagement With Facebook “Likes” and Shares
The uses of the “Like” and “Share” buttons on Facebook are sometimes lost in translation. Is it better to ask consumers to “Like” your page, or is it more beneficial if they “Share” it with their own communities? This article offers three tips for using both features, and optimizing results. First, it recommends designing your site to “Like” and “Share”. The more options a user has, the more likely they will be to choose one. Secondly, both of these features should be used to build relationships. And lastly, content on your Facebook feed should be current and interesting. Check out the article for a more in depth look.
TOOLS & TECHNOLOGIES
A World Of Tweets
With so many people all around the world using Twitter, thousands of tweets are getting pushed out every minute. In an effort to give users a visual of all of these tweets, the folks at Frog Design have come up with a web-based app, allowing users to see where tweets are coming from, and what kind of information is coming from those areas. The map uses a “hot or cold” type visualization, meaning the more tweets coming from an area, the “hotter” or more colorful the map turns in that area.
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Some say my career in social media and my training in journalism are at odds with each other. I agree that the nostalgic idea of dead-tree-news traditional journalism with newspaper smells, newspapers leads, newspaper inverted pyramid and newspaper speed is at odds with the 140-character society. However, I tend to disagree with the idea that these two things are polar opposites. I think, instead, that social media simply made news and blog content more democratic. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to fact check a story from Twitter against Google News.
Newspapers, the plural noun sold at Starbucks and 7/11s across the country, may become just a kitschy name that we hold onto like “record label”. But the Newspaper, the media organization that enables the day-to-day education of a society, isn’t going anywhere. I tend to think that content churned out by newspapers has the labels of “trustworthy” and “authoritative”.
I love social media. Facebook and Twitter are always open in the background of my computer, and I am not ashamed to try my luck and tweet at my favorite celebrity. But recently, my favorite celebrity has been a cupcake truck, who I shamelessly follow on both Facebook and Twitter, and always know its whereabouts. Not much can motivate me to jump out of my seat and run downstairs like these amazing treats. The cupcake truck (@flirtycupcakes) uses the same traditional idea as an ice cream truck and delivers fresh baked and delicious cupcakes around the city. The truck alerts Twitter followers and Facebook fans about its location, and with around 4,000 followers, there is always a line.
But Flirty Cupcakes is not the only one that had this idea. A new trend has arisen, in which food trucks are swarming cities and Tweeting their locations at hungry followers. I, for one, love this idea. It is incorporating two of my favorite things, social media and food made in a truck. Currently, there are hundreds of food trucks selling everything from easy sandwiches to fancy French cuisine, all shouting their messages from Twitter. On the recent Food Network hit “The Great Food Truck Race” all of the contestants have Twitter streams announcing updates about the show, and where they will be located next. There are even Twitter accounts created for the sole purpose of trying to get more food trucks brought to users areas (@chicagofoodtrux, for example). The food nation has discovered Twitter, and they like what they are seeing.
We hope so!
Experience Matters has had more than a makeover; it was relaunched last night to ensure you are all receiving the best experience with our blog. Not only are we excited about the new aesthetics because it feels a lot more like us, but we love knowing we’re offering our readers a cleaner experience and some helpful new features. After all, the name of this blog is Experience Matters and providing great customer experiences is a hallmark of who Critical Mass has been for the past 16 years.
When you read an article you like, in addition to leaving us a comment on the blog, be sure to Digg it, Tweet it, or share it via Facebook. And then, we encourage you to check out some of the related posts listed just below the article for other helpful reading. This blog may look new, but it’s not our first rodeo. EM has been live for over 3 years and we’ve got tons of interesting content archived here. Speaking of interesting info… make sure to stop by the footer. It’s jam-packed with information about our Authors (who come from every office and every discipline within CM), guides to the best-of-the-best posts and an extensive Blogroll of the destinations we admire most in Creative, Tech, Strategic and Social Media circles.
Keep watching for more improvements on an ongoing basis and feel free to suggest things yourself! We can’t express enough how much we appreciate our return readers, so don’t be shy. You can reach me (your friendly CM blog administrator-Katie) at katieb@criticalmass.com.
With the crazy election week behind us, allow yourself to kick your feet up and relax with this week’s edition of the Social Six. Choose from categories like Communities, Tools and Technologies, Measurement, Partnership, Influencers and Fun Stuff because after such a stressful week, you deserve it!
COMMUNITIES
Checked in? 96 percent of Web users haven’t
Location based services may be some of the fastest growing startups on the web, but only a shockingly small percent of web users have ever “checked in” to a location. According to research done by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, only 4% of adults use location based apps to “check in” at a location. On any given day, according to Pew, only 1% of Internet users use location based apps. This number may seem shocking, due to the vast growth of these features, however, Pew also noted that younger generations are far more likely to “check in” than their older counterparts.
TOOLS & TECHNOLOGIES
Twitter’s In-Stream Targeted Tweet Ads Begin Today In HootSuite
Get ready, in-stream advertisements are coming soon to a Twitter account near you. Twitter is testing their new advertising, which unlike their “Promoted Tweets” will appear directly in your Twitter feed. According to Twitter, the ads will appear first in the stream, regardless of your other tweets. They will also be targeted, so users will only receive advertisements that are congruent to who they are following. For now, the ads will only roll out to those using HootSuite, but if it is a success there, be sure to look out for ads (still being referred to as Promoted Tweets) on your own Twitter, as they will be soon to follow.
MEASUREMENT
2010 Election Tops Obama’s Presidential Win in Online Traffic
This year’s midterm elections were record breaking in many ways, and now we have one more record to add to the list. Read More
