Consumers are Getting Fed Up with Mobile SPAM

If you are the proud owner of a cell phone, you have probably experienced some form of SPAM: unwanted text messages or voice mails. As a matter of fact, according to a recent Bloomberg article, the number of SPAM text messages in the U.S. reached 4.5 billion in 2011. Consumer concerns are growing so much that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) resurrected a special team just to investigate some 2,600 complaints about mobile texts last year.  Spammers are able to deploy a large volume of text messages or calls and at a very rapid pace.  Last March, AT&T filed a lawsuit stating that 20 million illegal phone calls were made using just 14 phone numbers. 

According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), there are two laws which protect consumers from receiving these messages.  The first is the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The second is the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act.

The FCC further states that “the CAN-SPAM Act defines commercial messages as those that primarily advertise or promote a commercial product or service. The FTC’s ban does not cover “transactional or relationship” messages — that is, notices to facilitate a transaction you have already agreed to — for example, messages that provide information about your existing account or warranty information about a product you’ve purchased.” 

As mobile marketing continues to grow in popularity, marketers have an obligation to know, respect, and understand the regulatory issues surrounding this medium.

Have a story about mobile SPAM you’d like to share?  We want to hear about it!

Marketers Must See the Bigger Picture with Mobile

Mobile marketing is connecting consumers and brands at a very basic level.  With the recent explosion in mobile devices usage, consumers have the ability to search, purchase, and connect any time and any where.  Tablets, smartphones, SMS texting, Bluetooth devices, and apps are rapidly changing consumer behavior, and brands are struggling to keep up. Just think, not long ago “mobile marketing” referred to the magnetic signs applied to your car!

What do consumers want from mobile?  Well, it boils down to convenience.  In an article posted on Mobile Marketer, author Mickey Khan suggests consumers have six wants when using mobile technology:

1)    Ease

2)    Search capabilities

3)    SMS updates and offers direct to their phones

4)    Ability to browse for information

5)    Identical online experience

6)    A rich multi-media experience on tablets

While consumer needs appear simple, mobile marketing is still a relatively new media and there are many considerations for marketers. It is complicated, and should be viewed as a part of an overall integrated marketing strategy – not separately.

In an effort to quickly deploy mobile marketing, some brands have miss-stepped and probably wasted valuable time and money in the process. A recent Forbes article by Ian Lurie noted that creating a separate mobile site is a mistake, and offers a more efficient suggestion.  A mobile-friendly website should leverage the main domain, but utilize what is called “responsive design,” in which the site can resize and modify navigation based on the viewer’s device.   Lurie challenges marketers to completely re-think their existing mobile strategies, stating that while marketers may invest significant resources into a mobile strategy, they often fail to consider how it should tie directly to their brand’s internet strategy.

Emerging media continues to challenge marketers.  Mobile marketing is no different, and requires them to take a step back and view each new platform as it relates to the bigger picture.

Do you have an example of a brand successfully deploying its mobile strategy? If so, we’d love to hear from you!

Scared Consumers Are Waking Up to Social Media Privacy Concerns

The sheer comfort and ease many of us have when sharing our most personal thoughts, whereabouts, and family relationships just might be the reason a new era of cyber criminals are lurking as our next “friend” on Facebook. Perhaps even more concerning is the data aggregation of consumers online and social networking behavior, which is costing some people job offers and turning away insurance providers.

Consumers are waking up from a social media trance to find out the real consequences of disclosing perhaps a little too much about themselves.  As Facebook went public, so has the real reality of the company’s most powerful asset: an inventory of human behavior and personal data.  For the company, this means a solid foundation for continued advertising sales.  As consumers, it means we may need to start reading more of the fine print when accepting those “terms and conditions” statements.

Lori Andrews, a law professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, published an article in the New York Times recently exposing the practice of social media and online data aggregation and what it means for today’s consumers.  Andrews describes what is now called “redlining,” which is a map of consumers’ travels across the web.  The term “weblining” is the practice of denying certain opportunities to consumers based on their digital identities.  Andrews and others are now advocating for a new law which would allow consumers the right to opt out of online tracking capabilities.   She has dubbed it the “Do-Not-Track Law”, similar to what we have come to know as the “Do-Not-Call Law.”

What does all of this mean for today’s marketers?  Brands need to be cautious that their efforts to zero in on a specific target audience not come across as invasive. As more online privacy red flags are raised, brands need to be working harder to build trust with consumers instead of scaring them away. Brands which can find just the right formula for this dilemma will reap long-term success.

Want to see just how comfortable some people are with their Facebook posts?  Check out a website created for that purpose at We Know What You’re Doing.

Viral Marketing with a Plan!

Images of dancing chocolates, barking dog chorales and weeping Olympians bombard us on a daily basis.  Sometimes the brand association is obvious, sometime it isn’t.  Are today’s marketers over-using the concept of viral marketing?  To answer this question, we must first understand what viral marketing means.

Through the use of new media, powerful buzz-building activities help accelerate word of mouth among consumers.  Savvy marketers have learned how to integrate paid and earned media to leverage the power of buzz building across multiple platforms for maximum results. For example, equate the speed at which word of mouth spread pre-Internet to the speed at which it occurs today.  This demonstrates why marketing practitioners must carefully orchestrate their campaigns to include a viral component with the goal of adding value to the brand.  Said differently, creating a viral campaign just for the sake of it doesn’t guarantee success.

Ad Age conducted a review of the top viral advertising campaigns of 2011.  The Fiat 500 “Life is Best When Driven” campaign, listed at number four, harnessed the celebrity power of Jennifer Lopez.  The image of lovely Jennifer Lopez driving around in a sporty little car went viral.  The campaign, which consisted of paid and earned media, launched in September of 2011 and had reached 27.4 million views by the year’s end.

Fiat sales, however, are not exactly soaring.  When savvy viewers figured out that the Lopez spot, which played heavily on Lopez’s New York roots, was actually shot in Los Angeles, the Chrysler Company drew unexpected ridicule.  Some viewers actually characterized it as one of the worst car advertisements they’d ever seen.  Ironically, this drove the video’s page views even higher. Do these results speak for themselves, making this a successful viral campaign? Did the campaign add value to the brand?  I would argue that this is an example of a viral campaign that backfired.  The design was intended to add value, but in the end, it actually harmed Fiat’s brand and de-valued its name.

Social media guru Seth Godin notes, “Viral marketing is an idea that spreads–and an idea that while it is spreading actually helps market your business or cause.”  Godin further states that viral marketing only works well when you plan for it.    Check out this Adweek article to see what they consider the best viral marketing spots so far this year.

My own advice on this topic: When you are planning a viral campaign, make sure that the “what” you want to spread is actually the “thing” consumers will pass along.

Do you have Social Media Clout?

Let’s face it, we all want to have clout and influence among our sphere of influence.  In today’s digital world, you might be surprised to learn how your own social media influence stacks up against others.

Klout is a social networking tool which calculates a single number representing the aggregate of data from an individual’s social media activity.  As host of today’s most important Wikipedia page and an active Twitter profile, President Barack Obama boasts an almost perfect Klout score of 99. Teen pop star Justin Bieber is right behind with a score of 92!

 A Klout score includes activity from seven social media networks.  Those networks are:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• +K
• Foursquare
• Wikipedia
• Google+

Some examples of the activities monitored as a part of the calculation for Klout include: mentions in Facebook posts, retweets of Twitter posts, reactions to content shared on LinkedIn. Klout is a more complex process than just the activity signals and sites listed above. Guiding principles such as: being active is different than having influence, influence is built over time and everyone has Klout help create drive the scoring process. 

While the concept sounds fun and interesting, truly understanding Klout can be powerful for marketers wanting to create buzz. As an example, for some social media savvy individuals a high Klout score actually helps generate income through paid advertising on their blog site.  In addition, those individuals with a high Klout score can prove to be a driving success behind viral marketing campaigns. A key strategy in buzz marketing is to find those individuals who have large centers of influence, also known as “alphas” to help spread a message. These individuals typically like to share their knowledge and have a thirst for new ideas and products.  Marketers should look for ways to find their “alphas” with high Klout scores to spread their message.   

Whether you are a marketer or an active blogger, don’t wait to test your Klout score by visiting Klout.com now.  Afterwards, unlock your influence and start inspiring the digital world around you; maybe you’ll surprise yourself and catch up to Justin Beiber!

Ninja Marketers Use Short Films as their Secret Weapons

Understanding the difference between a short film and a traditional commercial is a “must have” tool in the minds of today’s marketers.  Without a deeper understanding of the topic, marketers may miss significant “buzz building” opportunities for their brands.

 Short films are typically less than 45 minutes and are dramas.  They incorporate the age-old art of storytelling. According to the P.I. Reed School of Journalism, the film must have a hero who wants something and takes action but meets conflict, which leads to a climax and then finally a resolution.

 Once there is a common understanding of what a short film entails, it is important to recognize the potential results of a well-executed and integrated short film advertising strategy. Highly successful short films sometimes go viral and increase in popularity through the use of social media at a very rapid pace. 

A good example of this strategy is “Halftime in America” released by Chrysler during the 2012 Super Bowl. This film happens to be a personal favorite of mine. From the music to the artistic elegance of the black and white stills progressing into full color motion, this film inspired me the first time I viewed it.  

In this particular film which is narrated by Clint Eastwood, the drama unfolds with the people of Detroit and Chrysler as the heroes who want to prevail and bring back a thriving automobile manufacturing community.  The conflict is the downturn in the economy and the recent recession.  The resolution is that the heroes continue to fight. Chrysler and the people of Detroit are building cars, and they will win back the American Auto making industry. The actual advertising of Chrysler doesn’t become apparent until the very end of the film with a simple Chrysler logo and the “Imported from Detroit” label.

Just after airing of this film it went viral, and the original version has now been viewed 11,114,378 times on YouTube. Extensive media exposure after its release further reached the masses and accelerated interest. According to a recent article in the New York Times, Chrysler saw a 32 percent increase in domestic retail sales and revenue rose 23 percent in the second quarter of this year.

The best way to further understand this new age marketing technique is to experience some examples for yourself.  Check out the two video links below for further education on the topic.

• Back to the Start
• Best Job in the World
• Best Job in the World as  Case Study

What marketing short films have inspired you?

Get to Know the Hippest and Hottest Bluebird in History

The bluebird is everywhere these days. You can find it on the Internet, installed as an app on all sorts of electronic devices, and placed prominently on a variety of print material. Who would have thought just a few years ago that the little blue Twitter bird would become such a pop icon of the twenty-first century?

If you’d asked me four years ago if Twitter would still be around today, I would have told you absolutely not and that it was probably another fad. Boy was I wrong! Today Twitter boasts 24 million users in the U.S and experienced a 31 % growth during 2011.

My Emerging Media course assignment this week involved researching Twitter and assessing the benefits of buzz building through social media. As a result, I proceeded to take the digital plunge and downloaded the bird so I could set up my “handle.” Now that I am being fed relevant information from my chosen brands , I will admit I should have done this a long time ago.

The lingo of Twitter has always been a little intimidating to me. Fortunately I discovered some great resources and training material on the Twitter website. I was able to navigate easily through the plethora of material, from a glossary of Twitter terminology to a handy search feature.

For those of you who are just getting started, I created my own top five must-know definitions for new Twitter users:

Tweet – A tweet is simply the 140 characters used in your post. You can actually say quite a bit with that, or you can use it to link to a website or blog.

•  Hashtags – A hashtag is actually a way to categorize messages by typing a # symbol in front of keywords or phrases.
•  Retweet – A retweet is when you share a post with your followers.
•  @Replies – This feature is used for an update posted by clicking the Reply button.
•  Handle – Your Twitter handle is your username and the accompanying URL. For example, Twitter.com/LaVonneBrown.

Are you ready to join the Twitter revolution? Visit the Twitter help center for yourself, where you can find learn more about the basics of Twitter.   Don’t miss out,  start tweeting today!

Beware: What Does Your Digital Personality Convey?

As the old saying goes…”you never get a second chance to make a first impression.”  When was the last time you “Googled” yourself or your company?  This week my IMC class explored the importance of creating a digital identity.  Some of our initial discussions revolved around our own professional online presence which I will admit made me sweat a little at first.   Fortunately, after a few Google searches of my own, I felt reassured my digital personality is on the right track.

In her “Developing POP presentation,” Dr. Dawn Edmiston (2012), encourages viewers to take control of their professional online presence.  If you haven’t already, Edmiston suggests some basic first steps:

1.       Claim Your Domain Name.

2.       Differentiate Yourself.

3.       Use a Professional Photograph of Yourself.

4.       Develop Consistent Profiles on Linked In, Twitter, Facebook

           and Google +.

Once you have established yourself, how will you ensure your digital personality will be found? To help boost your search engine optimization (SEO), Edmiston recommends using a website called brandyourself.com.  This online tool helps you build out your profiles, analyze any links associated with your name, recommends titles and links to boost SEO and assists with monitoring your rankings and alerts.

Mastering your own professional online presence is a great exercise and helps to build your knowledge and skills as a twenty-first century marketing professional.  Take the plunge and Google yourself today!

When the Internet Goes Down…

                                                                                                   

The little router box in the basement of my home went dormant this week. A silent hush came over the house and signs of panic appeared on the faces of my two teenage sons. Had it been a planned outage we would have been more prepared. This unfortunate incident resulted from an unintended consequence during a landscaping project in the backyard and we had not planned for such a catastrophic loss of connectivity.

The silence suddenly broke and some possible solutions to the outage were proposed. We could create a digital “hot spot” with our cell phones. Or we could ask the neighbor for the password to their wireless connection which shows up in range of our home. Of course, those were the solutions posed by the teenagers but mom and dad had other ideas. We could go for a walk, read a book and go outside to view the evening sky afterwards.

In an article posted on the Huffington Post earlier this year, author Britney Fitzgerald builds a case for some good old fashioned “plug pulling” by parents to relieve some of the constant exposure to digital devices among teenagers. Fitzgerald provides further insights into a recent survey conducted by Common Sense Media, an independent nonprofit advocating media knowledge for both parents and children.

According to the survey, a vast majority of American teens state that social and other digital communications are a daily part of their lives. While teens today are exposed to nearly constant digital stimulus the survey concluded that most teens are fortunately still in overall good emotional health. The survey also state that 43% of the teens who responded would like to disconnect from the internet occasionally.

Fortunately for my children, they had no choice but to disconnect this week. As a family, we realized how much we rely on our digital connections and what  a nice change of pace being “digitally disconnected” could be.  Going forward, I will make a greater effort as a parent to require days where we do not use the Internet.  

LaVonne Brown: Life-long learner of IMC

 

LaVonne is the Director of Client Experience and Director of Marketing for a privately held wealth management firm in Rockford, Illinois.  She has over 18 years of experience in the sales, public relations, marketing, hospitality, customer relations, and tourism industries as well as experience in financial services, non-profit management, event planning, and fundraising.   Throughout her career, she has personally  experienced the growing need for an integrated approach to marketing.  As a life-long learner poised with an optimistic approach, she enjoys today’s challenging world of communications and marketing.