It’s conference season (when isn’t it?) and as the leaves turn to brown and travel budgets get squeezed we all have to carefully consider where we’re going and what we hope to get out of the experience. It’s not all trays of banana bread and drink tickets, so what makes for a good conference experience? For me it’s a focus on emerging trends and creative problem solving shared with your peers.

I was lucky enough to sit on a panel titled Managing, Measuring and Evaluating Distributed Content: Video, Webinars, White Papers and More, where we discussed the challenges and opportunities that distributed content models offer. Joining me was my partner on the client side, Kelly Turner, who is the content strategy lead at AT&T and provided perspective on what a large organization faces when it comes to distributed content and maintaining a strategic vision.

Kelly and I recently discussed what we brought home from the Internet Marketing Conference in Vancouver.

Derek Phillips: So, what did you think of the IMC? Was it what you expected?

Kelly Turner: Let’s see, I expected a big conference room, people with name tags, aroma of coffee and cologne, weird haircuts, hipster glasses…and on that front I certainly wasn’t disappointed. Other than that I had absolutely no idea what to expect. But I will say that overall it was definitely one of the cooler things I’ve gotten to do in my professional career. And remember, in my life as a journalist I saw open heart surgeries and interviewed criminals, many of whom were not elected officials, so I know what I’m talking about.

Derek: Were there any “ah-ha!” moments? Did you learn anything?

Kelly: Other than wishing I had made it more clear to the baggage handler that I wanted me and my luggage to be on the same plane? Hmm, there were no real “a-ha” moments, they were more “yessss!!” Or maybe “Ha! See, I told you so!” Even though there was no one around to gloat in front of. You know me, I love me some validation.

Derek: What were those validating moments? Was it just the focus on content as an essential element of the experience or that everyone is struggling with the same issues? Misery loves company, after all…

Kelly: It was definitely the focus on content, because it’s usually an afterthought on so many websites. It was great to hear examples of how content drove design, not the other way around. The web already has enough nice-looking pages where the lorem ipsum was obviously replaced after the design was complete, or a list of video links that are more self-serving than user-focused. I thought Kathleen Maynard’s and Kelly Kubrick’s talk about moving their magazine from print to digital was a perfect example of how to do it right. Figure out how your subscribers are actually using your site, not how you think they should use it, then build a plan for your content.

Kelly: What about you? You’ve been doing the high-level strategic work for a while now, so it must be rare that you hear anything you haven’t heard before.

Derek: For me it’s interesting to finally see some recognition of the difference between content and copy. I sometimes feel like a broken record trying to explain that Content is an element of the User Experience that includes anything that conveys meaning and that Copy is an element of Content. The words are just one way we communicate. I also loved the conversation about how to manage remote contributors and the tools people are using to handle multiple layers of reviews and approvals. The topic of using blogging technology as straight publishing platforms is one I’ve been pushing for a long time. Blogging is just a type of publishing; use the tools as you like.

Derek: What was most valuable to you?

Kelly: Meeting other content strategy nerds like myself and hearing their stories. Plus you and I got some hang time in person, even though we talked so much we almost missed our flight. Oh, and seeing Vancouver, it’s just spectacularly beautiful. People kept apologizing for the weather. I’m like, “Are you kidding? I live in Florida, I’d rather be soaking wet from rain than sweat any day.”

Kelly: Did you know anyone there or were you meeting them all for the first time?

Derek: I didn’t know anyone personally at this conference, but there were a couple if people who I follow and chat with via Twitter. Rahel Bailie (@rahelab) and Lisa Peyton (@lisapeyton) in particular, so it was great to meet them in person and out a name to the tweets.

Derek: How did people react to your being from one of the biggest companies in the world? Did you get any interesting pitches or questions?

Kelly: Not really, everyone was on their best behavior. Seriously, no one seemed to be that impressed—and they shouldn’t have been impressed, we’re facing the same challenges with getting content strategy implemented as anyone else. They mostly asked me about the wireless coverage and the T-mobile merger, neither of which I have any knowledge of. It was very nice being blissfully ignorant about the right things for once. A couple of people did ask me how I got involved in content strategy for AT&T and I explained that I was chosen from a pack of candidates who had to compete in a steel cage match. Which is a complete lie because I could never win that sort of match, ever, and the truth is I was basically in the right place at the right time. Someone was looking for a content strategist at AT&T and somebody else said, “Hey, I know a guy.” Did I even answer your question?

Derek: Did you bring anything back that you’ll apply to your work as the Content Strategy lead at AT&T?

Kelly: I do have a better understanding of how to look at the bigger content picture instead of getting so caught up in the weeds. Not perfect yet by a long shot, but definitely better.

Brands make a habit of promising that if YOU follow or like they’ll give things away to a varying number of followers. Life as a Community Moderator has by no means made me immune to this. In the past year, I’ve become a fan of Einstein Bagels—even though I don’t eat bread. I’ve voted on my favorite feature of a Ford Explorer and “liked” the page—even though I have no use for a car in the city, and I’ve followed Chicago Food Critic Steve Dolinsky for the chance to go to dinner with him (and won)—even though (I’m sorry, Steve) I had no idea who he was. Why? Because these brands were all giving stuff away and even though I didn’t necessarily need this stuff, I did what these brands and people asked for a chance to win.  Was I bought or was I earned? Short answer: I was bought in all cases except for Steve Dolinksy, he’s great. I don’t fit the other brands’ profiles of a model community member, and I’m a useless fan.

Upon realizing my own affinity to follow the directions of those who will buy or give me things, I started to think through successful contests and giveaways for branded communities. Thus, my proposal for a SXSWi panel, Fans for Freebies, was born.

Aside from my own anecdotal evidence in Einstein Bros Bagels’ giveaway, the brand posted some solid fan numbers after it gave away coupons for free bagels to all who liked its page. In an interview with Spinsucks.com, the brand revealed that it increased its fan numbers from 4,700 to 613,703. Suspecting that many would have dropped off as fans after downloading their coupons, I checked the Facebook fan page’s current fan count: 613,413. That’s a 310 fan loss, out of 609,003 fans gained through the giveaway, that’s over a 99% retention rate. In college, we called that an A+. Because Einstein featured more deals and giveaways since their initial free-bagel offering, my conclusion is that these fans actually frequent Einstein Bagels enough to make use of the page’s coupons, thus they are valuable and active fans. Aside from those who gave their coupons away (me), these fans were earned.

A venture brought to life by a few Critical Mass employees, Babybot, facilitates discount days based on Facebook fans numbers. Babybot sells all things modern for babies and kids on its Web site, but the e-commerce site used its Facebook presence to both reward the loyal and increase brand knowledge. To get the page to 400 fans, BabyBot offered to give fans a coupon code that gave them 10% off for two days. With every 100 additional fans, that percentage increases by 5. They just hit the 900-fan mark and will be giving a 35% discount for 2 days. Because kids seem to grow and need a plethora of things to grow with them, this deal seems to work for parents living on the cheap and fans are sticking around.  These fans were earned, but I wonder how long this rewards structure can be sustained. It seems the hope is that once they reach 1000, enough of those fans will have purchased something and will stick with them for the quality of the goods and service, not the hope for constant discounts.

Non-profits have also been implementing these strategies successfully. LIVESTRONG encouraged new people to follow the non-profit to achieve a common goal: raising money for cancer. On several occasions, the moderator-facilitated fan drives with the end goal of receiving a donation from an outside party. LIVESTRONG once increased fans by an impossible number, around 15,000 in order to receive a $25,000 donation from a private donor. When it comes to seriously good causes like LIVESTRONG, buying or earning fans it’s really important to earn them because the end goal is continued donations and advocacy.

Facts: Currently, LIVESTRONG’s following of 76,569 is actively engaging with the brand. Approximately 11,028,000 people in the United States fighting some form of cancer. People are speaking positively about the brand in 9 instances out of 10 according to Social Mention. The facts are the facts. These followers were earned.

Because measurement and ROI comprise the takeaway I am most looking forward to from this panel, the brunt of my questions fall in the metrics category.

1. Einstein Bros Bagels saw a fairly large jump in fans after it asked its fans to simply like its page to gain access to their freebies. How much does that fan number go down when the barrier to enter goes up with contests like Gatorade’s Replay on Facebook?

2. The ease of calculating cost per fan is what makes contests so interesting to me: If the promotion runs for a week, simply subtract average organic fan growth per week from the fans or followers gained. Divide the promo cost by that number. But what about a promotion that awards something to everyone like Einstein Bros? How are sales and brand sentiment ultimately affected by social media freebies?

3. What types of fans come from these promotions? Is it ever detrimental to the brand’s community and its conversation to pull in fans that aren’t actually passionate about the brand already?

If these questions interest you as much as they interest me, please be sure to vote for my SXSW panel. If you have any additional questions that you’d like answered, please post to the comments.

Jeana is a Community Moderator for Nissan Cube and Juke brands in the Chicago office.

I recently had the opportunity to attend a seminar with the Insight & Planning team to learn about creating authentic personas. The seminar’s focus was around creating personas that are more like real people rather than the flat, somewhat contrived versions that’s aren’t entirely uncommon. Byron Stewart, an actor and co-owner of Dramatic Diversity showed us how we can use techniques from the world of theater to create personas.

This may sound strange, but he had some excellent points that hit a nerve with professionals who have been seeing a troubling trend amidst persona design. Many of us are aware of the theoretical value behind personas, but let me take a minute to illustrate how a robust, well-defined persona can make scenarios come alive.

Let’s take a well-known character from the annals of American Pop culture… Homer Simpson. Imagine him walking from the Quickie Mart to Moe’s Tavern in the town of Springfield. Now imagine him using whatever design you’re working on now. No, seriously, stop reading for a second and imagine it.

— Insert your daydream sequence —

The point of this little exercise is that since Homer’s character has been so well developed we can actually see him in our mind’s eye with a strong sense of his perspective on the world. Complete with imperfections and personality quirks that you’ve likely observed in various situations throughout the years, it isn’t so difficult to imagine what he might do using your design. Dare I say it could even be fun and helpful?

Love them or hate them, personas are an established way to put more of the user in the user-centered design process. When utilized properly personas get you out of your own head, designing for the target to make their lives easier and make the experience extraordinary. As humans we are inherently biased, and it can be easy to fall into the trap of making design decisions based on our own preferences, opinions, and proclivities. However, depending on the products or service, the actual users may be nothing like you. Choices that would work for you using your own design could just as likely frustrate and confuse your target audience. This may sound obvious but we all see far too many examples of poor user-experience planning in the products, customer service, marketing and packaging we encounter every day. According to the consulting firm Accenture, “almost 95 percent of electronic goods that are returned are not faulty and 68 percent of customers just that they can’t figure out how to use them!” Just think about any TV remote you’ve ever used.

The question then becomes how to make decisions that will satisfy your USER’s needs while providing an enjoyable experience for them. Sounds easy as pie, right? If a high quality persona is developed as a strong character with a specific point of view, using them in your work is like having a representative of your future user base at your beck and call. The persona helps guide you on your design journey.

As a designer committed to user-centered methods, I have noticed a disturbing trend that was voiced by many Planners and Information Architects in the seminar. More and more personas aren’t evolving beyond an abstract, bulleted list of personality traits, preferences, and other assorted details with an associated mug shot of some random person. These personas-esque creations are veering toward the stereotypical, the hollow and the fabricated. They can’t help us see the world from their point of view because they don’t have a point of view. They aren’t real to us–no more real than the androgynous mannequins at American Apparel, at least. To be a useful tool, a persona should be a character that is real enough for you to conjure up in your imagination, one you can ask yourself what he or she would do in a given situation. The personas that often get created aren’t robust enough to help us out in that department. Here is where theater comes in.

As it turns out, theater has a lot in common with design. (No, not just an affinity for skinny jeans.) The overlap is so obvious that it belies the depth of its utility. In theater there are characters in scenes, and in design there are personas in scenarios. In acting, much time and attention is spent on understanding a character’s motivations, their emotions, their wants and needs. If all falls into place, the audience doesn’t see someone pretending, they see a real person come to life. Even those of us (like me) with no acting background can leverage this thinking by augmenting persona development to bring them alive and make them more meaningful.

What if each member of your team ‘owned’ one persona? S/he would be the explicit advocate before any features are added or removed to the persona. This team member would my spend time determining how the target might FEEL about this, and how s/he would react. If the persona is a fleshed out character that you’ve spent days thinking about–comparing to people you know that are similar to her, discovering commonalities that you share, figuring out what s/he wants or feels—s/he would be much more natural and far from arbitrary. Get everyone on your team to know their personas intimately and then showcase them to others. Your personas can even be used in body storming (The act of combining brainstorming with the physical exploration and ideation) to enact likely behaviors.

Using Theater as part of the design process can take persona development from the prescriptive to the realm of descriptive. Your users are more likely to have amazing experiences interacting with your designs if they are more thoroughly and comprehensively considered at every stage of the design process. One of the best ways to accomplish this lofty goal is to create personas that are real to you, to the full team, and to stakeholders. If you chose to add theater-based methods to your design toolkit, Stewart ensures the user will be at the core of what you create.

Mo is an Information Architect Intern in our Chicago office this summer.

Last week, I attended the Chicago AMA BrandSmart Event “Staying Relevant in an ever changing world.” The day started with an inspiring keynote presentation from Walgreen’s CMO Kim Feil called “Changing Times at Walgreens- There’s A Way.” She explained how her team is working to change consumer perceptions and emerge as the preferred and trusted health services provider. With their new brand campaign “There’s A Way,” Walgreens is moving beyond the trusted traditional channels of TV and print and expanding into digital (online advertising as well as the largest out of home digital display in Times Square) to deliver integrated messaging and a more consistent customer experience.

What made her presentation especially fitting to the theme of the day was her own personal story… her first day as the new CMO at Walgreens was the same day that Wall Street experienced its biggest one day drop ever. Her “best laid” plans of transforming the brand were immediately revisited with the lens and added pressure of compelling consumers to spend (in especially trying economic times).

Beyond the keynote, I tried a sampling of breakout sessions from the available tracks of Innovation, Engagement and Social Media. My favorite presentation was one entitled “Diving into the Social Media Mosh Pit” given by Melissa Meulenberg, ecommerce Manager for the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago.

My reason for selecting this session was two-fold: the title sounded pretty interesting, plus this particular hotel is located across the street from the CM Chicago office and has been the topic of much conversation… but more about that later.

Melissa is a marketing department of one so I was immediately impressed by her simple but efficient methods of staying aware of the brand dialog that is in play on Twitter, Facebook and Trip Advisor. She told many stories about being tuned into what current and past guests were posting and responding quickly. Some of the major themes:
1.   Selecting the sites in which you wish to join the dialog
2.   Setting aside time each day to respond to posts and contribute new, relevant content (not solely promoting or talking about your brand)
3.   Turning fans of your brand into public advocates.
• Hard Rock has an outreach to encourage those with positive hotel experience to share their story on Trip Advisor
• Their ranking on Trip Advisor has moved up 30 spots among Chicago hotels in last 18 months to #46
4.   Proactively searching for comments about your brand as a Customer Service opportunity (before, during or after the experience with your brand).
• When comments are overly negative, taking action privately first and then publicly to remedy the situation
• Also taking action when posts give the opportunity to turn a good experience into an extraordinary one

All of the stories were entertaining, but the following account is my favorite.

In October 2009 a mom blogger (@Mom101) was staying at the hotel for a conference. Knowing that this guest was a blogger, Melissa decided to follow her on Twitter. She noticed that shortly after checking in, the guest in question posted the following question:

Within minutes Melissa quickly tweeted the following response:

An amusing dialog continued between the guest and hotel management, which ended with a happy customer and some free advertising for the hotel via the blogger’s description of the exchange. (And then being able to retell the story at events like this one and the repostings like mine provide added exposure too. ☺)

Melissa went onto explain that this is not the first time that the question of tinting the bathroom windows was raised. She explained that they had also received a Website comment/complaint about this same problem from a local office worker.

This individual worked in an office building located across the street from the hotel and complained about the hotel guests he was spotting from the comforts of his desk (and obviously not enjoying it). While sitting in the audience and hearing this story, I had to refrain from laughing out loud since I knew firsthand what a great view local office tenants have of the Hard Rock Hotel guestrooms–our office is in that same building right across the street. There have been many occasions when I’ve come in the morning or returned from lunch, and noticed a line of co-workers looking out onto Michigan Ave. No, they are not enjoying the amazing skyline. You guessed it, they were witnessing the “entertainment” provided by Hard Rock Hotel guests. (There are both good and bad spottings, but I rarely hear CMers complaining the way this hardworking gentlemen did.).

But I digress…

What I liked best about Melissa’s presentation were the easy, smart and practical methods she shared to stay in tune with the buzz on a brand. Can a property of her size do more? Leverage more advanced techniques? Absolutely. But in the meantime she knows where her consumers look for advice, practices clever detective skills and is proactively correcting problems as they occur (or even before they happen) to turn a special occasions into unforgettable ones. Well done!

Andrea is an Account Director for the Autotrader account in our Chicago office.

Being new to CM and the Experience Distribution team, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to attend Digg’s Social News & Social Marketing Summit and meet the mastermind behind Digg.com, Kevin Rose (@kevinrose). While listening to Kevin talk about Digg’s place in the social space, its upcoming new Digg platform (to be released in a month or so) and marketing concepts in a constantly changing social media world, I realized how extremely important it is today for marketers to know how to find a role in social media. With today’s audience immersed in a “snack culture” (as Kevin put it) of wanting online content in short, interactive form, marketers must learn to cater to these needs when it comes to advertising and building brands. Kevin has learned this concept well through his creation of Digg.com. Falling in a social space between Facebook and Twitter, Digg.com offers its “snack culture” audience a customizable news experience in which content is driven by the audience itself in a concise and interactive format.

“Snack culture” wasn’t the only concept I found interesting and relevant to the CM team and other marketers today. After listening to marketing panelists, Daina Middleton, Sloan Broderick, Rick Wion and Chas Edwards, I took away several necessities to making it as a marketer in an increasingly digital and social media driven world. Here are my top five picks:

1.    Role in Social Media: Before diving into the world of social media, it’s crucial for marketers and clients to talk about what each partner’s role should be for social media…Creative? Curator? Publisher? Sloan Broaderick (Managing Director, MediaCom) went into a great story about how Audi follows this concept and focuses on building brand relationships before people even enter the purchase stage. “If you’re just hearing about Audi when you’re ready to make a car purchase then we’re already too late,” Sloan says.

2.    3 Universal Categories of Digital Marketing: Daina Middleton (CEO, Performics) stressed the importance of dividing the digital marketing space into three categories of owned, earned and paid. Owned includes your own controlled assets (websites, commercials, videos); earned includes social and social monitoring and paid includes distribution. Then each of these channels/categories have a different purpose and a different set of goals/KPIs. This is very similar to how CM views the digital space and how the Experience Distribution team is structured. Whereas the rest of the CM company is dedicated to the owned category, the Experience Distribution team is divided into both an earned and a paid media group.

3.    Importance of Transparency: Consumers today value information and advertising that’s transparent and it’s crucial that marketers realize the value in this concept. By remaining transparent, marketers are able to gain consumers’ respect and offer them a more personable experience. Kevin Rose stressed this concept by comparing a “bot tweet” he received from an advertiser and a tweet he received from a real person talking about a brand. Kevin said his experience with the real person was more valuable to him than the “bot tweet” because he knew the real person’s tweet was sincere and not merely an advertising attempt.

4.    Conflicts of Interest in Digital Measurement: One of the main challenges that was brought up during the panel discussion was the conflict of interest that arises when a person on the client side is in charge of both the website and social media. Whereas the goal behind a website is driving people to the site, social is more about having people talk and interact with your brand. Sloan supported this point by saying “If you knew a cable station had 50,000 viewers who liked your brand and watch it every day…would you invest your money there? The answer is yes and that’s what social does.”

5.    Biggest Upcoming Platform for Advertisers: With the recent introduction of the iPad into the tech world, iAds now offers advertisers and marketers the opportunity to reach the “snack culture” in yet another medium. Kevin talked about the development of Digg’s iPad app and how it’s “going to be awesome.”

As the world of social media continues to expand, marketers must strive to satisfy the hunger of today’s “snack culture.”  I’m learning that we at CM know exactly how to do that.  When I look around at our digital consumption today, I can’t help but wonder what’s next for our “snack culture” way of life? What’s going to replace the iPad and iPhone in the next couple of years? Will we still be considered a “snack culture,” or will we be beyond that? These questions are just the beginning to understanding the future of the digital world.

Lauren is an intern in the Experience Distribution group at Critical Mass Chicago, focusing on paid media.

Two weeks ago, I received an awesome opportunity to attend The Art of Marketing Conference in Calgary, compliments of Critical Mass. I was actually so excited that I canceled a trip to B.C. with my mom! I had read about this conference in Marketing Magazine, and I knew that one of the speakers was Mitch Joel, whose social media blog I subscribe to on a daily basis. Nicole Armstrong blogged last week about her takeaways on brand promises and customer engagement (read her post). However, the message that resonated most with me came not from the social media experts or the young technology wizards, but from a man who’s been in the business longer than I’ve been alive.

Sir Ken Robinson is a 60-year-old British man with a dry sense of humour and a passion for passion. He didn’t come on to the stage with props and pizzazz, but with a limp and a story about his flight being delayed. And I instantly liked him. After five wonderful speakers of the day talking about “what’s next” and the future of marketing and Web 2.0 and why you “must be on Twitter”, Sir Ken got back to the core themes of creativity and finding your passion.

Sir Ken talks about “The Element” as “the point at which natural talent meets personal passion.” When you are in your element, you will feel the most inspired and achieve at your highest levels, unleashing your imagination and creativity to excel in your field. Now sure, we’ve all heard this before, but it’s just not feasible for us to all be rock stars and World Cup soccer players. We grow out of those dreams about the same time we stop shopping in the kid’s department. But this is where Sir Ken has something new to say.

If we’re talking about dreams… Personally, if I could have any job in the world, I would be on Broadway. I’ve been singing and dancing since I could walk, and nothing excites me like being center stage in full costume with bright lights shining and an audience hanging on my every word. So, when I started university four years ago, I had a choice: I could take the practical, safe road with a Business degree, or I could chase my dreams and pursue a music or performance degree. Although I was fortunate enough to have parents who would have supported me in any path, I chose business. Does this make me a sell out? I think not. And Sir Ken agrees.

I purchased a copy of his book The Element, and as Sir Ken was signing it I briefly explained my situation. His simple response, “But music is always going to be part of your life, isn’t it?” This is very true. I still sing in choirs, audition for every community theatre musical I can, and I recently returned from a 2-week trip to New York to study music, where I saw 10 Broadway musicals and visited 5 famous jazz clubs. By finding a career in marketing–which I love–I am allowed the opportunity to pursue music on the side, without the added stress of relying on it for my next paycheck. If I had chosen music as my career, I most likely would not have the opportunity to learn about the world of marketing. Not to mention CM is every bit as creative as any theatre group (minus the costumes and group choreography). Now, I seem to have found the best of both worlds. As Sir Ken would say, I have found my Element!

Now my question for you: Have you found your Element?

Emily is an Account Management intern in the CM Calgary office, working on Nissan and Infiniti accounts.

“Content strategy is brand new and we’ve been doing it for 15 years.”

-Kristina Halvorson

This was the seminal quote from†the Web Content 2010 conference held a few weeks ago here in Chicago. People (read: clients and bosses) are giving our work credence, despite an ever-evolving struggle to plan for, create, monitor, and evaluate online content.

This sentiment gives voice to both a frustration and excitement surrounding content strategy.†And thus practitioners of library sciences, taxonomies, copywriting, sociology, psychology, and content strategy, itself, came together – to learn, commiserate, and plot a way forward for our burgeoning profession.

Smart Folks, Smart Lessons

Learning was central as it should be, with insightful presentations by content strategy notables like Kristina Halvorson, Rachel Lovinger, and Jeff MacIntyre. A few of the lessons that impacted me and the work we do at Critical Mass included:

• A content strategy methodology is beginning to firm up. Whether you call it “Plan, Create, Govern” or “Audit, Plan, Build, Grow” or another variation, the building blocks of content strategy are starting to become almost universal (pointing to the maturation of the practice).
• Content governance is a huge missing piece, especially for agencies. While it’s getting easier to sell the planning and creation elements, content maintenance seems to still be getting short shrift.
• There is a great opportunity to bring in younger content strategists. Spending my 32nd birthday at the first day of the conference, I was one of the youngest attendees and most certainly the youngest full-time content strategist. It will be interesting to watch an influx of Millennials†during the next few years who come naturally to social media channels and distributed content, but perhaps lack the “publishing” experience brought by the Boomers (and the potential sweet-spot offered to Gen Xers).

Despite those learnings and many more (I will be referencing the materials shared at this conference for a long time to come), I was struck by the perfect blend of vexation and opportunity, to get back to Pulizzi’s quote.

A Time of Huge Opportunity (And What To Do With It)

We are at an amazing cross-roads where our audience is receptive to our message. Now is the time to be selling.

Conferences like this offer the opportunity to commiserate, but I thought speakers and participants at Web Content 2010 were wise to acknowledge this sentiment, but quickly get back to the business at hand (namely: growing our businesses).

Let’s face it: Some folks will never understand what we do and that’s OK. Others will green-light it, but not want to delve into your audit spreadsheet (also OK – and understandable). And some people don’t like words, period.

You aren’t going to change them. But you can prove your value to their business. Use your content strategy work to highlight missed opportunities and then celebrate when your work fundamentally changes their business for the better.

Content strategy is brand new to your clients and bosses, even if you’ve been doing it for 15 years. Thank goodness for conferences like Web Content 2010 that teach us both how to do it right and how to prove our value.

DJ is a Senior Content Strategist out of the CM Chicago office.

Last Thursday I attended the WWD Forum on Mastering Mobile Marketing, part three of WWD’s series on digital media http://www.wwd.com/wwd-summits/wwd-series-on-digital-media-2443804/. Over the course of the day, I listened to marketers from across the retail sector share how mobile fits into their marketing strategies, and how they’re integrating mobile into their overall marketing mix. The key takeaways for me were: 1) Mobile is truly changing the way that brands interact with consumers, and this change is largely being driven from the bottom up (consumers are challenging brands to evolve, not the other way around), and 2) The success of any mobile brand initiative can often be boiled down to a single, simple (yet all too frequently overlooked) principle: “know thy customer”.

Consumers are challenging brands to evolve

Consumers are using their phone as a device to gain confirmation from peers prior to purchase. I recently learned that today’s “second opinion” involves taking pictures in the dressing room, sending the photos to a friend, and if the response from that “trusted personal stylist” is positive, then (and only then) the credit card comes out. Smart brands are recognizing this trend towards buddy-shopping and co-browsing, and building parts of the shopping experience (both in-store, and online) around this new set of digitally-enabled social behaviors; they’re using their mobile initiatives to connect prospects and customers with their brands and with each other. But are they doing enough?

Ever heard of GotryIton.com? http://www.gotryiton.com/ An Accelerator Finalist at this year’s SXSW, Gotryiton is an online community that allows users to upload digital photos of themselves wearing outfits they’re thinking about buying. So the next time you buy an expensive pair of jeans, you have someone to blame!

Panelists agreed that as consumer needs evolve, so too must brand experiences. This is especially true of mobile. And especially now.  At Critical Mass, we’ve become adept at recognizing the types of bottom-up changes that force evolution, and turning observations into insights that lead to extraordinary work for our clients.

Know thy customer

Deep knowledge of the customer was a consistent theme throughout the day. These marketers understand their customers! They understand the purchase process their customer segments go through and they’re using this knowledge to find unique opportunities for engagement. They’re monitoring usage of their mobile sites to understand changing behaviors. They’re building apps and developing content, and watching where and when the content is consumed.

We all know that the iPhone is gaining share of the smart phone market and there are now over 85,000 iPhone apps in the App Store. Some marketers are optimizing strictly for the iPhone platform.  Brian Dean from Brooks Brothers, however, knows that his customers carry blackberries into the store. He is coming up with ways to use it to connect his in-store representatives to customers.

Sabine Feldmann from Teen Vogue knows that Millennials sleep with their phones. (Well, I suspect it isn’t just 14 – 29 year olds. Come on. Admit it. I know you do too.) She recognizes the importance of the device and how it fits into the lives of her readers.

By understanding the utility value the device has for your audience, you stand a better chance of becoming an important part of that value exchange.

These are just a few examples of the great content at the ongoing WWD digital media series. Marketing – at its core is really all about making connections with your customers. And more and more, mobile will be the place where these connections are established, maintained, and grown. For me, this week’s session reaffirmed my belief that Mobile isn’t replacing online. But it is changing how we think of the Web. Mobile is changing the dynamic between channels, and smart marketers are starting to realize that their channels are converging. For brands wishing to capitalize on new channel opportunities it will mean

1) Being uncomfortable in some cases, and being okay with that.

2) Having your ear to the ground every single day.

Building an app or a mobile site might seem like the easy part, but, understanding your customer’s changing behavior and the interaction they have with their mobile device, and THEN building the right app and developing the right content is the hard part. It takes insights about channel usage and channel preference. You need to look at the entire customer journey and see where the mobile influence is happening.

That’s all for now. All this talk about shopping makes me want to do some damage.

Cindy is an SVP, Group Director working out of the Critical Mass New York office.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending The Art of Marketing Conference with a few colleagues from Critical Mass. It was a great day for inspiration with an amazing line up of Guest Speakers:

• Chip Heath – author of Made to Stick
• Gary Vaynerchuck – author of Crush It and creator of Wine Library TV (http://tv.winelibrary.com/)
• Sir Ken Robinson – author The Element and internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources
• Mitch Joel – digital marketing expert and author of Six Pixels of Separation
• Sally Hogshead – author of Fascinate
• Max Lenderman – Director of OuterActive at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky and author of Brand New World

The key takeaway I took from this conference was how important it is to have a strong, unique & motivating force guiding the organization forward in an open, honest and caring manner, because the digital environment has revolutionized the way consumers & brands interact.

As I’ve written in the past, consumers are more in control of an organization’s brand promise than ever before, since word of mouth (WOM) is on steroids thanks to social media. I think Gary Vaynerchuck described how brands must adapt to this digital environment brilliantly when he said that businesses have to go back to small town business values – where customers are people you interact with directly and shouldn’t be treated like faceless numbers. Under this principle, if you don’t deliver on your promise, consumers won’t give you their business and they will make sure to tell everyone in their community about your shortcomings. However, if you do deliver on your promise and care for your customers, they will be proud to recommend your brand to everyone they come across.

To reap the benefits of creating strong brand advocates with extensive reach, brands must change their perspective on interacting with customers in this highly engaging digital world and focus on their purpose to become open, honest & caring. An organization’s purpose stimulates the brand promise. This promise must be captivating & relevant to customers as the market becomes more competitive to give reasons to select/buy your brand over another-especially as brands become more global increasing the competitive set. Sally Hogshead described this as the need to fascinate in order to captivate & win your customer’s attention. This unique point of fascination & intrigue not only attracts customers who appreciate what the brand is all about, but it also attracts talent to the organization who feel they can contribute & help the organization deliver and even overachieve on its brand promise.

Chip Heath mentioned that it’s this kind of emotional motivation (a sense of association & identity) which helps stimulate change in an organization. Considering the importance of remaining relevant to consumers and interacting with them in a way that is meaningful in the current environment (i.e. encouraging socializing, sharing, collaborating & creating), an organization must continually facilitate change. Therefore, brand purpose helps motivate the organization’s talent to innovate & create new products/services to deliver on its promise, giving consumers a meaningful reason to select your brand over another. In addition, the purpose also attracts talent whose values align with the brand, enabling people to work on what they’re passionate about and be in their element, as Sir Ken Robinson mentioned. This makes it easy for them, and therefore the organization, to deliver on the brand promise, creating an organization that is not afraid to operate in an open & honest manner.

So let’s recap. To be a successful brand in this evolved environment, you must have a motivating purpose, which creates a fascinating promise to attract customers and top talent. Once you’ve brought in customers you must deliver on your promise & continue to care/listen/engage with them. If you fail to do this, the strength of WOM will surely lead the brand to suffer.

An organization may not control its brand, but it sure does have the power to strongly influence it by leveraging digital tools. It is important to note, however, that these tools do not replace traditional methods of branding, but rather offer additional ways to deliver on and influence the brand and further emphasize the reasons to buy!

Thanks to all the people responsible for arranging such a great day with an inspiring line-up of speakers!

Nicole is an Associate Planner from the Critical Mass Calgary office.

Scott Shamberg | Critical Mass Executive

Recently I attended an event that was classified as a “marketing forum”  designed to match marketers with vendors for two days of one-on-one networking. We met with 38 marketers representing brands from all over the world.

The biggest take away for me was pretty clear – everyone and their mother want to know how to “do” social media.   Literally everyone we talked to asked us about social–from Visa to Trump, Western Union to Scotts Lawn Care. Here were the top 3 questions we heard at the event and that we are hearing on a recurring basis from marketers.

1.    My executive team doesn’t understand it.  How can I convince them?
2.    How can I do social media on a local level?
3.    Can you tell me how to measure social media?

Clearly brands big and small know they need to participate but are not sure how just yet.  But I’m seeing the irony in these brands wanting to understand a new channel built on authentic conversations in a business environment built almost exclusively on short, relatively shallow conversations. Nevertheless, let’s look at those three questions.

Convincing Executives
This is no easy solve. Many CMOs would still rather shoot a commercial than develop a Facebook page. Try the 3 E’s.
EXPERIMENT: Get your execs to play with Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare.  Let them see for themselves how influential they are.
ENGAGE: Get your agencies involved with your executives when you can and let them do the heavy lifting.
EDUCATE: You know your executives better than anyone.  Find ways to get them educated through articles, conferences, examples and stats.  The more they know they more involved they will get.

Local Social
This is a big push through media right now and is slowly making its way into social (see Foursquare, Gowalla, or Groupon for examples).  A Facebook page for a local pizza parlor doesn’t make a lot of sense.  But executing Tier 3 automotive programs does.  The key to local social is relevance – any offer or service that is relevant to me in my geographic world will resonate and I will seek out advice on who can help me.

Social Media Measurement
There is no silver bullet outside of what is already being talked about for measurement.  Engagement is a starting place but that is even  outdated already.  Anything driven by content will always come back to engagement.  So right now it is important to manage expectations for measurement AWAY from ROI.  You can’t tell how many cars are sold from the number of fans you have on Facebook.  But you can start to measure brand perception and opinion.  These are good starting places to show success.

If you want to learn about social media as a brand, I commend you. Just please don’t expect to go to a three-day conference and, as one attendee said to me, “come home with the secret sauce of social media measurement in your recipe book.” Experiment with the channel, listen to what your customers are doing, follow influencers on Twitter and read the myriad of blogs and articles being written by everyone from The Times to Arianna Huffington.  Figure out the secret sauce for you and your brand, because everyone has different taste buds.

Scott is the SVP of our Experience Distribution practice. He is based out of our Chicago office but belongs to our Global Executive team.