paolo bolpet | web strategist

Over forty years ago my parents came to the United States without much to their names to describe it generously. They struggled, started a family without secure or decent jobs and ultimately started a small business which was enough to sustain their family and see three children through college and even grad school.

Fast forward to yesterday. I was skimming my feed on Twitter and came across a Tweet from Umair Haque, a well known voice and contributor to the Harvard Business Review who had some less than complimentary tweets, some related specifically to the Create Jobs For USA initiative launched by Starbucks (be sure to watch this video interview with Howard Schultz on CNN). It was Umair's tweet and his take on the initiative which led me to check it out—but shortly after I was interrupted by one of our boys who had gotten sick and I had forgotten about it.

Earlier this morning, I saw another Tweet which linked to the story on CNN and for whatever reason, felt prompted to take the elevator down to our building lobby to see if they had the five dollar wristbands affiliated with the program (the word indivisible is inscribed on it). I bought one immediately. You can look up the details of the initiative yourself but for me, there's something about this that strikes a chord and I want to be a part of it. My parents were entrepreneurs, I have a job I love with a great company because of an entrepreneur, and if we're going to make a comeback, it will be because of entrepreneurs—people who invent and reinvent themselves.

In the spirit of full transparency, Starbucks is a client of the company I work for (Edelman). But that has nothing to do with this post or the reason I bought the bracelet and the reason I'm going to buy more. The first two will go to my parents and I'll tell them why I got it for them. The others... I'm not sure. I'll figure it out as I go along and if I donate that will be my business. But sometimes hope comes in unexpected places and we need to be reminded of the resilience which makes us who we are.

Last Thursday, Google announced that Google+ will be available for Google Apps users. This means that the millions of people using Google Apps for their businesses will now have access to the Google+ social collaboration platform.

With Google+’s unique features for search, selective sharing and rich communication, it offers consumers a very different user experience than the established social networks. For individuals, Google+ has quickly become a great place to build your interest graph — that is, find the latest content and people related to topics you’re interested in.

With its seamless integration with Google Apps, Google+ promises a very different type of social enterprise experience. In fact, Google+ has five unique advantages over other social business platforms.

1. Smart Integration With Existing Google Apps

Google+ is fully integrated with Google Apps. As a user, you don’t need a new login — it’s just another tab like mail, calendar, docs or video. Most business users spend their day in mail or calendar, so a tool that’s easily accessible from the daily workflow has advantages over third-party software.

Thinking a bit ahead of where the product is, the possibilities that are opened up by the integration with Google Apps are pretty exciting. You can imagine “+1” buttons and rich collaboration across sites, docs, spreadsheets, presentations, blogs, videos, photos and more. Or imagine working within a doc and starting a hangout with collaborators while sharing your screen. For companies using Google Apps, taking advantage of these features would require no additional software, logins or changes in behavior.

2. Google+ Already Knows a Lot About You

Because of its tight integration with Google Apps, Google+ could take advantage of what it already knows about each business user, including whom they email, how often and how recently, as well as the topics they write about and search for. Google+ is in a position to help an enterprise user not only quickly build out his internal circles, but also discover those outside the company who are talking about the same topics or industry. If Google chooses to pursue this, it would make a great tool to help each user build out broad interest-based professional networks.

3. Google+ Is Uniquely Positioned to Help You Find and Share Interesting Content

Nobody has a better index of what’s on the web than Google. So nobody is better positioned to help you find interesting content and people from both inside and outside your company. Google+ Sparks let you follow the latest from the web on topics you’re interested in, and one can imagine something similar within your domain. Internal Sparks could let you quickly find content and experts within your company on work-related topics you’re most interested in.

4. Google+ Integrates Public and Private Sharing

Unlike other social enterprise platforms, which keep most shared content behind company walls, Google+ integrates public and private sharing. When I’m using Google+, I can decide for each post whether I want to share it with my colleagues, my clients, or certain subsets of either category. Also, because a number of websites have already embedded +1 buttons, it’s easy to “like” content from across the web and share it with targeted groups.

5. Android Phones Sync Easily With the Entire Apps Suite

Finally, an Android mobile phone brings this complete integration to users on the go. Activating Android handsets with your company’s Google Apps account brings all this productive and social functionality to the palm of your employees’ hands. And the wide variety of devices and carriers means greater flexibility.

A Video Explanation of Google+

The Google+ project: A quick look

Google provides an overview of the entire Google+ project.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Business, contributor, features, Google, Social Media, trending

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Apart from restaurants, there are few businesses whose fates are linked as closely to online reviews as hotels. That’s why Accorhotels’ move in late 2010 is considered so bold.

Last September, the hotel chain began featuring reviews from TripAdvisor on some of its sites. Since Accorhotels has no control of the TripAdvisor content, it’s a bit like posting every review of your restaurant — not just the favorable ones — in your window. “There’s no question TripAdvisor plays hugely in this space,” says Melissa Parrish, an interactive marketing analyst at Forrester Research who covers the travel industry. “They make or break certain kinds of hotels.”

But the hotel chain, which runs Motel 6 and Sofitel among others, was merely acknowledging the obvious: Consumers no longer get all their information about your establishment from your marketing materials. In addition to TripAdvisor, there are blogs and sites like Kayak that aggregate reviews. People thinking of trying out a hotel can also canvas their friends on Facebook or the multitudes on Twitter.

Parrish says the savviest players in the segment have figured out a way to control some of that social media chatter by using social media as a sounding board for positive experiences. A few of the noteworthy approaches are outlined below.

Harnessing Social Media Comments

Carnival benefits from a curious phenomenon specific to the travel industry — “social media bragging.” Jordan Corredera, director and general manager of Carnival Online, says that even people who never go on social media will do so when they’re on vacation, if only to rub their friends’ noses in it. That’s not the only time they go on, though. Many consumers like to hit the site before their trip to psyche themselves up for it. Typical of this sort of interaction is this comment from Carnival fan Jessica Ayala: “I cannot wait until October 29 on the Carnival Dreams.”

Carnival’s primary hub for this kind of social media activity is its Facebook Page, which at present has about 1.2 million fans. (For comparison’s sake, Disney Cruise Lines has about 600,000 fans.) Like other brands that run successful Facebook Pages, Carnival asks a lot of open-ended questions about pleasant topics. For instance, a recent status update that asked, “Carnival sails all over the place, but there must be a destination that’s your favorite. Which port would you recommend to a friend? Why?” got 479 likes and more than 700 comments. “We’re a very social brand,” says Corredera. “Given the experiential nature of a carnival cruise, the best way to deliver that is through the comments of Carnival customers.”

Carnival uses other social media channels, like Twitter and YouTube, of course, but everything goes back to Facebook. The company’s ads are tagged with a plea to visit its Facebook Page and videos that show up on the company’s YouTube channel premiere on Facebook first.

An International Approach

Not surprisingly, many brands in the travel category have footprints all over the world. Since many areas around the world lag in social media adoption, global travel brands can circumvent that challenge. Four Seasons’ approach has been to establish a social media presence for all its far-flung locales.

For instance, there is a primary Twitter feed for Four Seasons’ global brand, but the brand’s Twitter page includes a URL that lays out dozens of feeds from around the world. Creating that kind of presence isn’t easy, says Felicia Yukich, manager of social media marketing. “It means training people in Cairo how to tweet and teaching people in Bangkok how to post something on Facebook,” she says.

All that work pays off in the sense that it provides armchair travelers with a quick portal into exotic Four Seasons outposts. For example, are you curious what the Four Seasons in Beirut is like? The Twitter feed for that hotel includes a stream of photos, including the one above.

Embracing Users’ Comments

Customer reviews are a cornerstone of online retail sites like Amazon, but travel brands have been more hesitant to embrace online reviews. There’s nothing nefarious about this — who hasn’t been dissuaded from staying at a hotel or B&B because of one stinging review that, for all you know, could have been written by the proprietor’s chief competitor? Why do bad reviews carry more weight for a travel brand? Think about it: If you order a product and it doesn’t live up to the hype, you can always send it back. But book the weekend at the wrong hotel and you’ve ruined a one-time experience. Why take the chance on a place that’s been reviewed badly, even if most of the reviews are good?

Nevertheless, Dennis Schaal, North America editor for travel news publication Tnooz, says many hotels have accepted the reality that users are going to check out TripAdvisor, and seeing a TripAdvisor widget on a hotel website is no longer unusual. Schaal says the inclusion of the widget demonstrates confidence. “If you’re a lousy hotel, chances are you wouldn’t want to put your reviews on there,” he says. Seasoned travelers know that reviews on the site should be taken with a grain of salt anyway, he says. “Some of the reviews are fake, but if you disregard the over-the-top favorable ones and the really bad ones and look in the middle, you should get a good idea.”

The Digital Marketing Series is supported by HubSpot, an inbound marketing software company based in Cambridge, MA, that makes a full platform of marketing software and tools for lead generation tools.

More About: Digital Marketing Series, features, mashable, Social Media, social media marketing, travel

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According to research conducted by the Pew Research Center and The Economist Group, the 77% of tablet owners who use the device daily are on them an average of 90 minutes a day.

What are those tablet owners — a category that now includes 11% of U.S. adults, according to Pew’s estimates — doing with their devices? After browsing the web, which two-thirds of tablet owners do on their tablets on a daily basis, the most popular activities are checking email (54%) and reading news (53%). One in four access social networks through the device, and a third play games on a daily basis. Another 17% read books, and 13% watch movies or videos.

Echoing findings from a similar study from the BBC, Pew found that tablets inspire broader and deeper news engagement. A third of users say they are turning to new sources for news on their tablets, and 42% regularly read in-depth news and articles on their devices.

Getting tablet owners to pay for this content is another matter, however. A mere 14% of those who regularly read news on their tablets have directly paid for content on the devices. Twenty-three percent do, however, pay for a print subscription that includes digital access — meaning that more than a third are paying for news access in some form or other.

Typically, tablet news readers are accessing news primarily through the browser (40%). Another 21% are perusing news mainly through apps — which perhaps suggests that publishers should invest greater resources in developing tablet-friendly versions of their websites and web apps, rather than apps formatted for operating systems like Android and iOS.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, sjenner13

More About: apple, ipad, journalism, Media, News, Pew, tablets

Thanks to the Internet, marketing has evolved over the years. Consumers no longer rely on billboards and TV spots — a.k.a. outbound marketing — to learn about new products, because the web has empowered them. It’s given them alternative methods for finding, buying and researching brands and products. The new marketing communication — inbound marketing — has become a two-way dialogue, much of which is facilitated by social media.

Another reason why inbound marketing is winning is because it costs less than traditional marketing. Why try to buy your way in when consumers aren’t even paying attention? Here are some stats from the infographic below.

• 44% of direct mail is never opened. That’s a waste of time, postage and paper.
• 86% of people skip through television commercials.
• 84% of 25 to 34 year olds have clicked out of a website because of an “irrelevant or intrusive ad.”
• The cost per lead in outbound marketing is more than for inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing focuses on earning, not buying, a person’s attention, which is done through social media and engaging content, such as blogs, podcasts and white papers. This content is interesting, informative and adds value, creating a positive connection in the eyes of the consumer, thus making him more likely to engage your brand and buy the product. So it costs less and has better a ROI.

This infographic from Voltier Digital highlights the differences between the two kinds of marketing. Let us know your opinions in the comments below.

Infographic courtesy of Voltier Digital

More About: infographics, Marketing

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Yes, that's me -- steaming over the leaks from my brand-new roof installed by a name-brand, big-box home improvement center. It's bad enough that the roof leaked when it hadn't before. And, it was made even less palatable to deal with when one of the leaks was over my side of the bed.

Repeated telephone calls to the sales person, the sales manager, the customer service manager, the regional manager, and the divisional manager all resulted in a total lack of response. For. Five. Months.

The Twitter Complaint

So, what did I do? I went to Twitter and started asking @BigBoxCares why my roof was leaking not in one place -- but several.  And, with the Tupperware bowls littering my house to catch the inches of water flowing from the newly installed roof, a couple of Twitpics to share my annoyance. 

Their tweeted response after my five moderately snarky tweets? "Please send an email to the @BigBoxCares customer service team with the name of the store that you purchased the roof, the installation date, and a complete history of the entire communication process. Oh, and by the way, please stop tweeting about your customer service concern because, you know, we care." 

My tale of woe and subsequent turn to Twitter as recourse is not uncommon in today's highly socialized world of customer service. According to customer experience research company Maritz Research, nearly half of consumers who tweeted a complaint directed toward a brand expected the company to respond—or at least to read their tweet. However, only a third of those consumers received a tweeted response from the mentioned brand. I was lucky, I guess, if that is considered the norm that they bothered to answer.

Most people expect a response to their complaints. And because many consumers are using Twitter to talk about their experiences with brands, from time to time, they share their grievances. As more and more brands have joined Twitter, consumers’ expectation for interaction with brands has risen. The Maritz study indicates that 86% of Twitter complainers would have liked or loved to hear from the company regarding their complaints. 

Expectations of Twitter Complainers

Here is a chart from eMarketer showing the age of the folks expecting a response from the brand they've tweeted. As you can see, the younger you are, the lower your expectations. I fall within the >50% population that expects a response. 

Marketing Takeaway

Many brands are responding to tweets and mentions in order to maintain their reputations and sustain important customer relationships. Are you one of them? What are you doing to monitor your Twitter and other social media accounts to respond to and proactively prevent customer complaints?

Smart marketers understand the importance and impact of good customer service -- especially online customer service -- and how it can affect brand perception. Spend time monitoring your social media presence and reacting to both positive and negative mentions of your brand. Your prospects and customers will thank you.

Do you believe that consumers view brands that respond via Twitter positively?

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Landing pages are an extremely critical component of lead generation in inbound marketing. Are your landing pages optimized to their best visitor-to-lead conversion potential? If there's any question in your mind about whether your landing pages are up to snuff, take a look at following cheat sheet. Does the anatomy of your landing pages include all of the following crucial elements? If not, it might be time to conduct a few landing page makeovers...

The Anatomy of an Effective Landing Page

1. Headline: As the first thing your visitors will likely see when they 'land' on your landing page, having a clear and concise headline is critical. Use your headline to sum up your offer as clearly as possible. If it's an ebook, say it's an ebook. If it's a webinar, say it's a webinar. What kind of ebook or webinar is it? What will visitors who convert on your page receive?

2. Hidden Top/Side Navigation: Reduce friction as well as your landing page's bounce rate and increase the chances your visitors will stay on your page by hiding any top and side navigation bars from your page. The last thing you want is for something else to catch their eye and distract them from completing the form.

3. Context: Below your main headline, consider using a sub-header to provide a little bit of information about the benefits and value. If your visitor decided not to read further, would it be enough to entice them to complete the form anyway? Next, add some context to your offer. Why should this offer be valuable to your visitor? In our example above, visitors discover that landing pages are effective for 94% of B2B and B2C companies. This should help them to understand why they are important and why they should learn how to build effective landing pages, setting them up nicely for the ebook offer.

4. Value: In many cases, your sub-header and context won't be quite enough to motivate your visitor he or she should download/register/sign up for your offer. Use the rest of the text on your landing page to explain the value of your offer clearly and simply. Use bullet points to demonstrate clear takeaways and break up large blocks of text, and keep it brief and to-the-point. What will the person get out of your offer? Will they learn how to do something? Become more knowledgeable about a specific topic? How will the information be presented to them? In our example, visitors will receive a "26-page guide." No question about it!

5. Image: It's always wise to include a relevant image on your landing page. Try to match that image with the offer. For example, if you're offering an ebook or a webinar, show a cover of the ebook or a screenshot of the webinar's presentation cover slide. This will give your landing page visitors a tangible idea of what they'll receive: "If I complete this form, I'll get a 26-page guide that looks like that." Images can also make a landing page much more visually appealing.

6. Lead-Capture Form: This is the element your landing page simply cannot function without. Your lead-capture form is the place where your page visitors will supply information in exchange for your offer. It's also what converts those visitors into precious little sales leads. As a best practice, only ask for information you need from your leads in order to effectively follow up with and/or qualify them. It's ultimately up to you to decide how many or how few form fields to include. Generally, longer forms will result in fewer but more qualified leads, and shorter forms will result in more but less qualified leads. Determine what works best for your business by testing and solving for your specific lead generation goals. Just keep in mind: visitors are very protective of their contact information, so the more form fields you require, the less likely people will convert.

7. Privacy Policy Link: Include a link to your business' privacy policy on your landing page or directly within your lead-capture form to give your visitors peace of mind. As we just mentioned, visitors are protective of their personal information. Providing them with information about your company's privacy policy will help to quell any fears that you're not a trustworthy source or that you'll sell their information to other vendors. This should positively impact the performance of your landing page.

8. 'Submit' Button: At the bottom of your lead-capture form (and as the call-to-action at the top of your form as well), use specific action words so your visitors clearly understand what they have to do to obtain the offer you're presenting. On the button they click to submit their information, avoid using a general word like 'submit.' Eliminate any vagueness, and instead indicate exactly what action your visitors must take. If they're going to receive an ebook, use a word like 'download.' If visitors are signing up to attend a live webinar, use a word like 'register.' Will they be receiving a free product trial? Try using the phrase 'sign up.'

9. Social Sharing Buttons/Links: Enable visitors to easily share your landing page with their connections, too by including social media sharing links or buttons for social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter! Don't miss out on this simple opportunity to extend the reach of your landing page and the content it offers beyond your direct network and reach. More visibility will lead to more landing page traffic and, ultimately, more leads!

10. One Single Call-to-Action: It's important to understand that your landing page should be focused around one single offer. Including calls-to-action for other offers on your landing page is a sure-fire way to confuse and distract landing page visitors from completing your form.

The Anatomy of an Effective Thank-You Page

1. The Offer Itself: Once your visitor submits their form information, they should be redirected to a thank-you page that explains the next step. If you were offering an ebook, the thank-you page should include a link to the ebook or provide instructions on how they'll be receiving their ebook copy (perhaps you'll be emailing it to them, for example). If it's a webinar they registered for, maybe you will present them with login information. Either way, never leave them hanging. You need to make good on the promise you made by requesting their information. Make the process as simple and easy as possible for your new lead.

2. More Social Sharing Links: Just as you did on the landing page, slap some social sharing links/buttons on your thank-you page, too! Just be sure the link you give them to share directs other visitors to the landing page, not the thank-you page. Otherwise, you'll miss out on some precious leads.

3. Social Media Follow Links: In addition to social sharing links, consider also including social media follow links to boost your social following. These links will encourage leads to follow you via your social media accounts on such networks as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The thank-page is a great place for this, since people who end up there were already convinced your offer was worth the form submission in the first place. There's a good chance then, that they might want to be informed about some of your other offers via other channels, too.

4. Middle-of-the-Funnel CTA: If you're regularly offering top-of-the-funnel, educational content such as ebooks or webinars, there's a chance you'll have some repeat downloaders. If someone has downloaded ebook after ebook from you, perhaps they're a little bit further down your sales funnel than the average bear. Consider adding a more middle-of-the-funnel offer like a free trial or product-focused offer to capture those leads who might be ready for that stage in the game.

Other Important Landing Page Factors to Consider

While all of the above elements are extremely critical to the success of your landing page, there are a few other factors to consider during your quest for landing page domination.

1. Testing: In marketing, there's never a one-size-fits-all approach to things. While the above anatomy highlights important elements, the best way to create the best-optimized landing pages for your business is to test these various elements. Perhaps one layout (form on the left vs. the right) works better for you than another. Test every variable possible to help you come up with the best solution for your particular business.

2. Analytics: Always consult your analytics during testing to evaluate results as well as in general to determine the effectiveness of your landing page overall. Refer to metrics such as bounce rate, traffic, visitor-to-lead conversion rate, and overall leads. Use the information you gather from your analytics to make decisions about how to structure your page or tweak certain elements to make them more effective. For example, if your page is generating tons of traffic but just a small number of leads, you likely have a conversion problem. Perhaps you need to shorten your form or make your messaging clearer.

3. Promotion: How are people ending up on your landing page? Which sources are generating the most traffic, and where are you lacking traffic? The only way to generate traffic to your landing pages is to promote them! Optimize it with keywords so it gets found in search, share it in social media, create calls-to-actions for it to use on other web pages and blog articles, and link to the landing page in paid marketing efforts such as in display ads.

4. Message Consistency: As you're promoting your landing pages through these other channels, make sure your messaging aligns with the messaging on your landing page. The best way to confuse the heck out your readers is to send them to your landing page expecting something different. Be consistent in your language, tone, and expectations.

How are your landing pages faring? What can you do to improve your existing landing pages' ability to convert traffic into leads?

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What do you think? How has content creation helped to improve your marketing results?

What do you think? How has content creation helped to improve your marketing results?

Connect with HubSpot:

In a recent staff meeting, it emerged that the most regular question our customer support agents get asked by our customers* is: “When we track our local search rankings, how much should we focus on search terms that include a local term (e.g. town name, ZIP code) vs. generic keywords without the...

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Part 8 in a series introducing my new book, The End of Business as Usual…this series serves as the book’s prequel.

Social media says so much and so very little at the same time. First, social media implies that media is just that, social. But when you study many of the best practices or test the advice dispensed through popular “top 10″ posts, you find that at the heart of notable social media successes is simply brilliant creativity and desirable incentives, not necessary authentic or genuine value or engagement.  With every Tweet or Like to win campaign, hilarious viral video, and user-generated promotional series, businesses make social media more of an oxymoron than a movement to transform two-way conversations into improved customer relationships.

According to an annual IBM study, getting closer to customers is the overwhelming top priority for CEOs. And, social media is lauded as the great facilitator for engagement and renewed business relevance. What we tend to forget however, is that social networks are merely platforms for people to connect with friends, family and peers. Businesses are not the primary beneficiary of connections, but they can certainly benefit once they realize that a Like or follow does not equate to an opt-in for marketing communiqué.

If CEOs are placing increasing importance on customer relationships, why is it that we are less aligned with the “R” in social CRM and closer in alignment to the “M,” where M stands for marketing and not management. That’s because of where social media lives within the organization today.

In IBM’s recent “From Social Media to Social CRM” report, it was revealed that social media is already siloed within marketing, marketing communication, or public relations, accounting for 52%, 45%, and 42% ownership respectively. When we think about the primary function of each of those functions, it’s clear to see why the premise of many of today’s top social media best practices are marketing driven rather than market driven.

The difference between a social brand and a social business is internal connectedness, preparedness, and collaborative approach to customer and employee engagement.

A Social Media and Social CRM Strategy are Different

As good friend Paul Greenberg noted in his book CRM at the Speed of Light, “The underlying principle for Social CRM’s success is very different from its predecessor….traditional CRM is based on an internal operational approach to manage customer relationships effectively. But Social CRM is based on the ability of a company to meet the personal agendas of [its] customers while, at the same time, meeting the objectives of [its] own business plan. It is aimed at customer engagement rather than customer management.”

At stake here is relevance among the growing base of a more connected consumer landscape. Engaging consumers from a marketing-driven approach may work for the short term, but engagement requires a holistic approach. Consumers see one brand, one company, one experience and not a series of disconnected silos experimenting in social media without a common vision, mission, or process. While businesses are building an infrastructure to support social media, governance, policies, and strategies are only as strong as the experiences they’re designed to create, the problems they’re intended to solve, and the ability to adapt to and lead consumer experiences because you can see what others don’t.

IBM studied how businesses view their foundation for social media and found that many times, the prevailing corporate culture impeded innovation and collaboration, not just with consumers, but also within. And for any change agent, that will come as no surprise. Whether they know it or not, change agents are becoming hybrid cultural anthropologists and politicians learning how to adapt the culture while rallying internal champions to bring about real change.

Here you can see the number of businesses that have defined KPIs, flexible business models, established policies, adaptive approaches to incorporating social media into business strategies, and defined governance. The blue shades on the left equates to those that strongly agree while toward the right, companies start to show that they’re not where they would like to be. According to the IBM report, only 38% are confident in the support of their company in innovation and creativity. Just 30% can comfortably say that they have strong executive sponsorship for social media. And, a measly 27% say they share insights across functions.

Once you see these numbers, it’s clear that businesses are on the right path, but we’re really just at the beginning. More importantly, one could argue that the direction of the path is questionable. Even though the businesses on the far left are established and confident, they might be operating without a holistic strategy that spans across lines of business, products, functions or across the globe.

And what of a centralized or holistic approach, defined by a common goal and reinforced through not only governance, but compliance?The effects of connected consumerism require nothing less than internal transformation and in many ways, a new outlook.

The challenges that businesses face are still relatively immature as IBM discovered. ROI, employee use of social media, and negative brand exposure lead the top three challenges companies face today. In the number four and seven spots however, we see the true threat to progress, lack of strategy and lack of support. We can not march into new territory without a unified vision. We can not lead consumer experiences if those experiences are either undefined or unsupported by the leadership organization we’re to stand behind.

When’s the last time you looked at your mission and vision statement? Can you Tweet it? Does it speak to you? The truth is that in addition to processes, businesses must rethink who or what it is to a different breed of consumer. This consumer is not just social, they’re connected across networks, devices, and they influence and are influenced differently than traditional consumers.

Mo Data, Mo Problems

What we need to do, where we need to be, how, why and to what extent is available to us today. We won’t discover these answers in the form of brand or competitive monitoring using social tools. We must capture data, interpret it, and also act upon it, now and over time, to learn and pursue relevance without forgetting our core markets and competencies.

Companies are clearly capturing data as IBM found. But as you can see, how data is analyzed, interpreted, and in turn shared across the organization is scattered. And, what happens to information (or insights) once its distributed is unclear in this study, but we can assume that it isn’t embraced and acted upon across the board.

Businesses are experimenting. Businesses are learning and adapting. But this can’t just be about social media. This must be about using disruptive technology to improve customer experiences and relationships. We can’t find comfort until we’re clearly operating outside of our comfort zones. And even then, we can’t rest until we are meeting the needs of connected consumers, where they are, how they connect, and reinforce the values, products, and services that are important to them.

Times are a changing and as a result, the foundation of business must also change. It’s a new era of business and consumerism and you play a role in defining it.

Order The End of Business as Usual today…

Part 1 – Digital Darwinism, Who’s Next
Part 2 – Social Media’s Impending Flood of Customer Unlikes and Unfollows
Part 3 – Social Media Customer Service is a Failure!
Part 4 – I think we need some time apart, it’s not me, it’s you
Part 5 – We are the 5th P: People
Part 6 – The State of Social Media 2011: Social is the new normal
Part 7 – I like you, but not in that way

Image Source: Shutterstock

Part 6 in a series introducing my new book, The End of Business as Usual…this is not content from the book, this series serves as its prequel.

The state of social media is no insignificant affair. Nor is it a conversation relegated to a niche contingent of experts and gurus. Social media is pervasive and it is transforming how people find and share information and how they connect and collaborate with one another. I say that as if I’m removed from the media and cultural (r)evolution that is digital socioeconomics. But in reality, I’m part of it just like everyone else. You and I both know however, that’ I’m not saying anything you don’t already know.

Social media is clearly becoming the new normal. For the last several years, simply adding the word “social” in front of anything and everything from media and gaming to commerce and CRM to business and consumerism, it’s clear that we are finally approaching the end of the hype curve to start making sense of what it all means and just how far it applies to the future of business and media.

But as social media becomes part of our cultural fabric and even as we witness businesses, governments, sports teams, and almost every organization socialize communication efforts today, much of what we see is merely the beginning of something that will one day become something far more important than the medium itself. Indeed, social media is affecting behavior and nothing is more important than the ability to influence decisions and ultimately behavior. The state of social media is not necessarily as much about which network is #winning as much as it is about how people are spending their time, interacting and connecting with one another, and what happens as a result.

To demonstrate this point, let’s review the profound findings from the recently released Nielsen Social Media Report.

1) Skeptics will now be recognized as laggards as they now officially stand in the way of progress. According to Nielsen, and well, reality, social media isn’t a fad. The report opens with a key finding that social networks and blogs dominate how Americans spend their time online, which accounts for nearly 25% of their total time spent on the Internet.

2) Four out of five active internet users aka everyday people visit social networks.

3) Looking beyond the U.S., in 10 major global markets, social networks and blogs reach over 75% of active Internet users.

4) 60 percent of people who use three or more digital means of research for product purchases learned about a specific brand or retailer from a social networking site. And, 48% of these consumers responded to a retailer’s offer posted on Facebook or Twitter.

5) 70 percent of active online adult social networkers shop online.

6) 53 percent of active adult social networkers follow a brand.

7) Tumblr nearly tripled its audience from just one year ago.

As a brand, Nielsen’s report gives us both validation and insight into the importance of social media in the business mix. But just who’s driving the growth? Understanding the demographics and also psychographics of social media users will help us more effectively connect our brand story to the needs and behavior of the social consumer. Nielsen reminds us that women make up the majority of visitors to social networks and blogs. The 18-34 segment boasts the highest concentration of active visitors among all age groups. Americans aged 35-49 are avid visitors as well as they are 4% more likely than average consumers to visit social networks and blogs than they do any other site. We’ve also learned in previous reports that Boomers are also flocking to social networks, with the adoption of social networks such as Facebook by the over 50 contingent growing by over 88%.

As I’ve long maintained, Facebook is the homepage for the social Web of the most progressive businesses. According to Pingdom, with 800 million users, Facebook is now the size of the entire Internet in 2004. And, as Nielsen shows us, at 53.5%, Facebook accounts for the majority of total time spent online.

Of course, social media is only part of the story. How consumers access the Internet and social networks alike counts for everything. As you can see, 37% of people access social networks from their mobile phone. Social networks aside, if your business isn’t creating dedicated online experiences for mobile devices, you’re missing a tremendous opportunity to connect with consumers.

Consumer activity is focused squarely on social networking in addition to accessing music, Web browsing, and GPS functionality. Engagement through content and 1:1 interaction is critical in earning relevance and attention in a new era of consumerism.

Social networking apps are up a whopping 30% from third quarter 2010. At the top of the list is Facebook with mobile usage dominated by 25-34 year-olds at 29% followed equally by those 18-24 and 35-44 at 20%. Access to social networks from mobile phones is up significantly among older demographics from just last year. Mobile usage among those over 55 jumped by 109% and those 35-54 grew by 68%.

Those active within social networks wield far greater influence offline than their more traditional counterparts. While we understand that consumers trust the recommendations of their peers, research by NM Incite reveals that 60% of social media users review products and services and is also their preferred source for information about the products they too consider. As you can see above, their effects are also felt offline. 33% are more likely to share their opinion on TV programs. 75% are more likely to be heavy spenders on music. Almost 50% are likely to spend significantly on clothing, shoes, and accessories.

Over the years, I’ve researched the gap that exists between what businesses think consumers want in social networks and what it is that they really want or expect. As you can imagine, there’s a significant delta between each and here, Nielsen delved a bit deeper to share insights into specific brand-related behavior by consumers in social networks. Much of their time is spent in pre-commerce phase of decision making, reading consumer feedback and learning about products. At the point of the decision, they seek to obtain coupons and promotions. Post commerce, they’re actively posting positive or negative feedback, thus influencing the decisions of others.

The dominance of social networking isn’t relegated to the United States, it is indeed a global phenomenon…and a way of digital life. Nielsen discovered that social networks and blogs are the top online destination accounting for the majority of time spent online, reaching at least 60% of active Internet users in the following countries:

1. Australia
2. Brazil
3. France
4. Germany
5. Italy
6. Japan
7. Spain
8. Switzerland
9. U.S.
10. U.K.

The End of Social Media 1.0

Social media is approaching a much needed maturity cycle where each word “social” and “Media” will no longer unite as an oxymoron, but instead as a true statement in how businesses and customers connect online. As a disruptor to everyday business, social media is forcing us to rethink everything. It is in many ways just like starting over. We are relearning and questioning everything and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. From creative and messaging to execution and measurement to service and loyalty, we now must look at applying more sophisticated and meaningful programs that combine social and media into a powerful form of engagement and leadership.

We will one day soon realize the day when “social” becomes part of the everyday construct in how people talk to one another and how we collaborate to solve for whatever brings us together. In the mean time, socializing media is only half as important as improving relationships and experiences within digital landscapes.

What do you think is different about today…what makes this the end of business as usual?

Order The End of Business as Usual today…

Part 1 – Digital Darwinism, Who’s Next
Part 2 – Social Media’s Impending Flood of Customer Unlikes and Unfollows
Part 3 – Social Media Customer Service is a Failure!
Part 4 – I think we need some time apart, it’s not me, it’s you
Part 5 – We are the 5th P: People
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Connect with Brian Solis on Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | Google+ | BrianSolisTV
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Image Credit: Shutterstock

That’s the warning from Kaspersky Lab, which has noticed the first instance of QR code tampering. The incident took place in Russia last month and hoodwinked consumers who thought they were downloading an Android app called Jimm. The code actually contained malware that sent SMS codes to a premium rate number that charged for each message.

Tim Armstrong, a malware researcher at Kaspersky, says premium rate numbers operate similar to 900 numbers in the U.S. The four- to five-digit numbers charge for each incoming text, wringing cash out of unsuspecting users. Armstrong says that it’s much more difficult to set up such numbers in the U.S., but cyberthieves will soon be able to create global premium rate numbers that could theoretically attack American consumers the same way. Infected QR codes could also be used for phishing scams, Armstrong says.

Robert Siciliano, an online security analyst at McAfee, says that infected QR codes are new on the scene. “It’s just hitting the radar in the security community,” he says, adding that it’s a “pretty brilliant scheme.”

Both Armstrong and Siciliano say that consumers shouldn’t be over-cautious about QR codes at this point. Armstrong notes that there’s a interim step between scanning the code and launching an app in which consumers can determine if they’ve been scammed. “If it’s a game and it’s requesting SMS, then you know something’s wrong,” he says. Siciliano, meanwhile, says a good rule is only to click on QR codes by a known vendor or advertiser.

QR codes are more popular in Asia and Europe than in the U.S., but many advertisers, including Taco Bell and Calvin Klein, among others, have employed them. They’ve also showed up on rooftops and on a tombstone.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, youngvet

More About: phishing, QR Codes, security, trending

For those who want to get their hands on a camera that shoots first and focuses later, the countdown has begun. Silicon Valley startup Lytro unveiled its groundbreaking camera Wednesday at a not-too-bad price point of $399. You can order them now on the Lytro website for delivery in early 2012 — first-come, first-served.

While it is revolutionary technology (see the amazing multi-focus examples in the link above), and Lytro has done its best to make the device consumer-friendly (with just two buttons and a zoom slider) and eminently social (with one-button sharing to Facebook), there are still plenty of questions to be answered. How will the photos look when consumers, not professional photographers, get their hands on them? How many will they sell? What will the magnetic lens cap look like? Will the company sell a case so you can strap it onto your hand, video-camera style? If not, will that rubberized silicone on the end suffice to keep it from slipping out of your hands? Does the battery really last two weeks? Why have a power button when the shutter button turns the camera on anyway?

While you’re pondering those questions and thinking about whether you will pre-order and which of the three color choices you prefer, check out our gallery for more details from Wednesday’s launch.

A Lytro in the hand ...

Here's the $399 electric blue model, showing the touchscreen where you see your pictures.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: digital cameras, Lytro, photo sharing

The new ad formats include search ads in mobile apps, a “click to download” option for apps and mobile app extensions. Custom search ads would run within apps that involve searching. For example, a user might go to Yelp to find a restaurant and be served an ad for a local establishment. Google rep Aaron Stein, however, says that no app partners have been announced yet. (The image below is a mock-up with a fake app.)

The “click to download” option would let users click through to an iTunes or Android Market link to download a mobile ad. For instance, an ad for Angry Birds would take you directly to a link where you could get the app.

Google’s mobile app extensions would direct you to a mobile app that’s already installed on your phone. The most likely use of that app would be for shopping. A user searching for a scarf might be directed to an L.L. Bean catalog app they had already installed on their phone or tablet.

More About: Advertising, Google, Mobile

Chime.in, which makes its public debut Tuesday, shares some similarities to Twitter’s interface, but UberMedia CEO Bill Gross argues that his social network tackles completely different problems than Twitter or Facebook. Unlike Twitter, which describes itself as an “information network,” Gross describes Chime.in as an “interest network.”

Like other social networks, Chime.in lets users share content with others. It has a newsfeed, profile pages and a system for following other users. The social network doesn’t have status updates, though. Instead it has “chimes,” which are a cross between a Facebook status update and a blog post.

Users are allowed to write short articles on Chime.in — up to 4,000 characters. A chime displays a headline, the first few sentences of a chime, a piece of multimedia (an image, a video, etc.), a profile picture, interest tags and options for liking, commenting and sharing. Chimes included threaded comments that include a Reddit-style up or downvote system for surfacing the best comments to the top of a chime.

Gross says that having “yet another social network” isn’t a winning strategy, so Chime.in has a few differentiating factors that he believes will tip the scales in its favor. The biggest selling point is that users have control over their profiles, including the advertising and sponsors that run on the page. Users can include their own ads on the page and keep 100% of the revenue, or they can let UberMedia sell ads for their page and split the revenue 50-50.

Gross believes that control over revenue makes Chime.in more appealing to publishers that want to monetize themselves in social media. UberMedia has already struck deals with E! Online, Disney, Bravo and other publishers who will promote Chime.in while keeping control of the revenue they generate from it.

Chime.in is also built with the mobile world in mind. The mobile apps (iPhone, BlackBerry and Android) allow for all of the actions the website contains. Because of its complexity, the network isn’t available to feature phones, but in return the mobile versions of Chime.in work very much like the website.

One of the problems the social network’s app solves, Gross argues, is quick access to content. Gross says that getting content from Twitter’s mobile apps is a painful process: one has to go to the tweet, open the link and wait for the page to load. In contrast, Chime.in content loads almost instantly, thanks to caching and Chime.in actually hosting content rather than just linking to it.

UberMedia has a long road ahead to making Chime.in a success. The world is already flush with social networks and user fatigue. The company will have to convince millions of people that Chime.in is different enough and useful enough to use in addition to Facebook and Twitter. Gross believes that Chime.in’s focus on interests and its offer to let publishers keep the revenue they generate will make it an attractive choice for users, publishers and companies.

More About: Bill Gross, Chime.in, Twitter, UberMedia

This is especially true for owners of tablets and smartphones in the U.S., 40% of whom use their devices while watching TV on a daily basis, according to data from Nielsen. In fact, only 12% of tablet owners and 13% of smartphone owners say they have never used those devices while watching TV.

What are we doing on those devices? More than half of smartphone or tablet owners are checking email during programs and commercial breaks, while around 45% are surfing the web for unrelated information. Some 42% are visiting social networking sites — a trend that is greater among women — and nearly a third are checking sports scores or looking up information related to the TV program they’re watching.

Fewer than 20% of them are looking up information related to ads they’ve seen on TV. Still, that’s a pretty significant amount.

Unsurprisingly, few ereader owners use their devices while watching TV. Only 14% do so on a daily basis, and nearly half say they’ve never done so. We expect those numbers match the number of people who read printed books while watching TV. Reading simply isn’t as compatible with TV viewing as smartphones and tablets are, particularly with the recent influx of apps designed to be used during programming.

Personally, I was surprised that so many people were using their devices during programming. I’ll frequently turn to my Kindle or check email on my iPhone during a commercial break, but I have a difficult time ignoring programming once it’s on. What about you? How do these statistics compare to your own TV-viewing habits?

More About: ipad, Nielsen, smartphones, tablets, TV

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