Make Seriously | Design and Life

Twitter’s new… uh… Competitor

At first it kinda seems like this mockumentary about “Flutter” seems like any other “make-fun-of-Twitter-because-it’s-popular-right-now” youtube videos, but then it begins to sink in. People really do act this way about Twitter. It’s all about creating a market where there isn’t one, and hyping it up to cash out. At the end of the day, a good portion of the people on these services are doing just that: talking it up so they can be “experts” and make a buck. It’s been going on for centuries of course. As a designer at an ad agency, I can’t really say I’m not a part of that. Let me persuade you that you need me and/or my service. You don’t just want it, you need it. Let me tell you what it can do for you. And, pretty soon, someone makes another spin to make another buck, all the while a ton of people are out there wondering why they aren’t making any money. “Where is my kick-back?” they ask. And the answer is that there isn’t one. You’ll only get the value you make out of it, not the value someone else promises you. Anyway, it’s pretty funny. Enjoy.

Facebook vs. Twitter

This shouldn’t even be a battle, but Facebook appears to be encroaching on Twitter’s status as THE real time social media application. Twitter has little (read: nothing) to fear from this change.

It’s clear that Facebook is attempting to update the way it operates to help businesses and advertisers get the same functionality from it that Twitter offers. Offering real-time updates on published items and dropping the friend limit both compete with Twitter’s real-time updating and unlimited friend number. Facebook is also making business pages more user-friendly by making them more like user profiles than a unique “page”. At face value, it seems like a competition is brewing. There are a few glowing disparities, however.

First, Twitter doesn’t offer the same capabilities that Facebook does. Sure, you can forward thoughts, images, videos and share links. But they don’t exist permanently in space in the sense that they’re posted to an organized board that everyone can see a month from now. It does not function with the same long-term abilities that Facebook has. Don’t count it as a bad thing though, there’s certainly value in the short-term messaging that Twitter allows.

Second, Facebook doesn’t have the same indexing power that Twitter has. I don’t know if you’ve ever used Twitscoop before, but it’s pretty awesome for tracking trends and news. It gives you a tagroll from the twitisphere, letting you know which words are popular at the moment. It’s actually really helpful, and generally you can put the links together before reading the tweets containing those words. For example, I saw “TO” “Buffalo” and “Bills” the other day get popular all of a sudden. Guess what? The Buffalo Bills picked up TO, and I knew it almost the moment it happened. Sadly, there was no trend for Illinois accepting Pluto as a planet.

Third, in general, Twitter and Facebook are used very differently. I, for example, use Facebook mostly as a private citizen (although MakeSeriously does have a page and a handful of fans) and use Twitter as a networking/trendf-ollowing/search-engining/random tool. Facebook is like home base, and Twitter is like a car. Facebook is comfortable and controllable. Twitter is a bit more spontaneous and I use it to take me places. They can have similar functions, but for now they’re still pretty segregated.

So there’s no need for Twitter or Facebook to worry, or for anyone to be terribly concerned that either is going away in the future. To see them survive going on in the next couple of years, they will need to learn to play nice; perhaps even partner. They can find mutual benefit from one another, and hopefully constructive cooperation will be the tone, not frantic scrambling to compete with someone who resembles your service.

It’s Good to See A Familiar Face

One of the ideas that gets thrown around in the social media world is that social media should be personal. Specifically, businesses using social media should be personal. There should be a human, with a human voice and human traits on the other side of the virtual line. There should be the same quirky interests, the same personal responses and the same unique feel that lets you know that you are communicating with more than a robot. As one blogger pointed out, there are a few narrow but distinct lines that distinguish between the mechanical and the human. A professional journal, as he writes, is professional edited and has the human part taken out. Minor grammatical mistakes, the use of colloquial language and some punctuation curiosities are glaringly missing (or excessive, as you’ll probably note in my own writing). That tone can come across on Twitter and Facebook too. People have some sort of Turing sense that helps them know when they’re talking to an AdBot and when there’s a pulse coming from the speaker. Hopefully the same test lets us see how we’re speaking to others. Maybe we could convince ourselves that we really are just robots…

This isn’t to say that coming across as a robot is a bad thing. Frankly, I could get “@Starbucks: half off drip coffee until noon” messages every day and wouldn’t be disappointed. It would, in fact, drive me and my money down the block to purchase that brilliantly bitter brew. Sometimes the robot isn’t a bad thing.

But.

Sometimes it is. I filled out a customer service survey for Starbucks this morning (Conseco Fieldhouse location). You occasionally get them when you purchase drinks there to help track how well each location is doing. As a confession of guilt, I go there a lot. The surveys are random, and I’ve happened to get quite a few due to my consistent visits. Each time I’ve filled out the survey (online) it asks me what my favorite part of that particular visit was. And, each time, I’ve had the same response: the baristas. When I get there, they know what I want and they’re always ready to make it. They always ask first though, because they know sometimes I change it up. Sometimes I want the regular blend instead of the bold. Sometimes I want the most delicious of drinks: the Pumpkin Spice Latté. And they know which of the food offerings I like and ask me if I want one. It’s usually a bagel, toasted with cream cheese. But they also know what to recommend to me, and when they have new offerings they do. When a colleague and I were sad about the lack of Portabella Piadini’s, they started getting them from another store. They couldn’t stock them like normal, so they went out of the way to serve us. They also know our names. They ask us questions and have us try new drinks they want to start selling.

And then I thought about it a little more. Starbucks is expensive. The economy is slow, I’m not making huge dollars and quite frankly life is expensive. But I go anyway. Part of it is wanting to keep going with my colleagues, definitely. But part of it is the experience there. The personal treatment we get is more than enough to keep driving me there instead of the Dunkin at the other corner. Dunkin is cheaper and has coupons all the time, but I won’t go there. It’s not personal. They don’t know me or care to know me. (and I don’t like their coffee at all…) So the personal can be a really good thing.

There’s a place for both worlds.

Twell. Twasn’t That Twerrific.

Yesterday I had the good pleasure of attending not one but two Twitter seminars (technically one seminar and one webinar). The first one was hosted by PRNewswire, given by their resident tweeter and Media Research Supervisor Victoria Akers (@prnewswire). It was really great for a new user or anyone working on the PR side who hasn’t had a plan yet. For me it wasn’t all that new, but there were a few things of note that I think bear repeating.

- You often represent more than yourself, especially if you’re tweeting on behalf of a company. I think about this a lot, actually. As a private blogger, I’m still aware that my behavior will reflect on the company I work for. When I do things well, it helps show that I work for an employer who hires great people. If I were to get catty, it would show that my office is just a bunch of snoots. It’s especially concerning when I write design criticisms, because then I not only represent my company but it seems like I help put a face on “the every designer”. Evidence? Read back to my entry on the Forbes spec work article.

- Fill out the bio. People don’t know who you are if you don’t tell them. It’s advice I haven’t taken yet, but it’s important to remember

- Follow people in your industry. Even if you don’t want to enter the conversation, you’ll glean information straight from the source.

- Don’t be that guy. You know him. He likes to talk about himself and tell you how great he is. He wants you to know why you should like him. (I just secretly want that…)

- Don’t be a Debbie Downer. The best way to lose contacts and turn people away (if not against) is to put others down, act self-righteous and be negative. Even if you’re writing about something negative you can always be positive yourself.

- Don’t get into Twights. (Twitter fights) Save it for your favorite message board.

- Learn to respond to negative comments rather than react to them. Sometimes a reaction is worse than taking the time to write a positive article that puts light on a situation that’s been framed negatively.

The second seminar was hosted by Confluence at the Manhattan on 82nd St. I think, and I may be wrong, that it’s like AIGA is to the design world. That was an interesting session that was useful for starters and users alike. Perhaps my favorite thing about it was the diverse users who regularly used it on the panel as well as the interactivity. While too chaotic to serve a good function, they had a projected queue of the #indyconfluence hashtag up and everyone could contribute while they spoke. It was amusing and engaging. It did really distract from the presentation and take out any control the panel originally had, but I think it really helped demonstrate the ability to communicate with it as well as clarify what hashtags, retweets, @replies and so forth look like in real time. Hopefully I’ll post about that next and clarify what those are as well as make my recommendations for the future. I’m also hosting a training session at the office soon, so keep an eye out for postings regarding that (hopefully we’ll publish video from the session that will be useful in some of the practical issues involved and how to get up and started)

The Best Facebook Integration EVER

Hey fellows. You know how once a month your lady gets… well… a little moody? Ever find yourself having a great time only to have it turn into a downpour of poop? With a side of crazy? Well, let me kill two birds with one stone:

1 | On the one hand, I want to promote the interesting, witty and creative use of social media integration.
2 | I want to help my fellow brethren.

So, let me introduce you to, perhaps, the most awesome use of Facebook integration to date: PMSBuddy. It’s an amazingly simple concept. You input the cycle dates of specific ladies in your life you’d like to track, and it tracks and sends you reminders. Not only will you know when the eggshells are on the floor to tread carefully, but you’ll be able to do it with a bouquet in your hands.

To take it even further (and perhaps elevate it to a level of even greater comedic genious) the makers have integrated it with facebook. So while you’re checking Josephine’s status, you can really check her “status”. It will let you know when “No, everything is fine” really means “No, everything is fine” or when it means “Why do you hate me you jerk? How could you be so inconsiderate as to not comment on the facebook status I cryptically addressed to you expecting a proclamation of love that I’ve been waiting 35 whole minutes for with my love going unrequited?!?!?!”

It’s amusing. It could be useful. It’s also maybe a little dangerous. Good job.

Why Social Media is Important, and Will Continue to Be

Time and time again I’ve come across blogs and mainstream media writers discussing one of two things:

- The demise of social media
- Marketers “ruining” social media with advertising

Both of these cause an involuntary raise of the eyebrow, especially when the articles they are writing are bordered by the exact things they decry. You can, of course, visit any of these sites as you find yourself in the paradox of a form of social media supported by advertising decrying the use of advertising in social media. There’s a clear lack of symbiosis to say the least, and it seems both counter productive and counter-intuitive.

A study by Rosetta and released by PRNewswire (09/08) shows that 59% of retailers are using Facebook. And that’s significant, and it also raises certain questions. Why on earth would a business want a facebook and why would “facebookers” want to be friends or fans of these businesses. Well, for one, there’s the phenomenon of brand loyalty that can’t be overlooked. Consumers often want to show their support for a certain brand (I have an apple sticker on my back window…) or group, and this is one way to make a public endorsement of a company. It’s a give and take relationship too. The Apple Students group for example, offers periodic “samplers” for those who are a part of the group. Who complains about ads when you’re getting free music? More importantly, who even notices the “ads” when it’s free episodes of Tina Fey’s material from 30Rock and SNL, or music from your new favorite emerging artist?

What the doomsayers of advertising keep forgetting is that it’s not a bad thing. Yes, it’s pervasive and overwhelming. Yes, sometimes it can be a bad thing. But advertising is not inherently intrusive, and often people actually crave it to be a part of their every day life. As mentioned in the study from Rosetta, “It’s important that retailers don’t just slap up a page because everyone is talking about Facebook.” That’s true. Taking an “everyone’s doing it” approach to promotions will lead to market saturation and will prevent you from making a positive investment and prevent you from fostering client relationships. And that’s the value of companies using social media:

- It creates a way for advertisers to connect with clients/users without appearing as ads.
- It drives innovation. Burger King, while slightly disturbing, has shown that buzz can come from creativity and innovation, even if it might make you cry yourself to sleep at night.
- It helps you communicate new, interesting things to the people who clearly care. One of the most valuable business lessons learned in school is that new client relationships are less cost effective than improving existing relationships. If you can do both at the same time on the same budget through social media, you’ve just created value for all involved.
- It removes the stigma from advertising. I can vote for which ads I’d like to see more of and help Facebook target me for things I might actually be interested in (like new movies or Obama’s inauguration). Why on earth would I complain about news I want to hear? Because it somehow defiles Facebook? As though it had far to fall from “Stalkerbook” status…
- When done well, it gets rid of the chaff. Good ads and innovation force the hands of those taking the cheap route. Brand recognition is one of the strongest forces in decision making, so failing to effectively advertise in an increasingly more difficult environment will mean failure to establish brand recognition.
- Have I mentioned it drives innovation? When you crowd out the market with GOOD advertising and effective communications, you force people to do better work to compete. That’s also not a bad thing, especially when the thing our economy needs most right now is innovation.