*give or take a zillion

Aside from the fact that it was just a lame attempt to try and elevate Microsoft’s ‘cool’ factor, it immediately struck me the same way that the ‘Pepsi Challenge’ did way back when.  Pepsi was never content with their share of market, always trying to compete with Coke with a series of elaborately overproduced commercials like the one where Michael Jackson’s head went up in flames.  From their ‘blind’ taste tests to their MTV video-inspired spots, their efforts were misplaced on making their marketing sexy instead of focusing on the product attributes themselves, and delivering on that.

The bottom line is that Apple is cooler.  There’s no question about that.

Macs are slicker, sleekier, sexier and just ‘ier’ all around than PCs in almost every way.

And the multimedia capabilities, fuhgeddaboudit.

But, to me, it’s never really been a contest.  So why is to Microsoft? And to such a degree that they are desperately clinging to a syndicated pop television icon hasbeen to re-ignite their popuarity.

Macs have their place.  So do PCs.

Mac OS X has some key functionality. So does Windows.

Safari and Internet Explorer… OK, so that one gets a little dicey but the fact of the matter is that the entire planet is not ever going to completely switch to Apple no matter how impressive the apps unveiled at the developer’s conference are or how many kazillion Gigabytes the new iPhone has.  Short of teleporting you to another location Star Trek-style, mass conversion is not imminent.

What Microsoft should be doing is focusing on the people who are loyal users of their brand and reach out to them instead of trying to appeal a whole other segment of the population who is never going to convert to Microsoft even if they do develop the ‘moistest,’ ‘chewiest’ new products.

And while we’re on the subject……………… moist?

This is an adjective best reserved for those peddling lubricant or touting the right-out-of-the-oven moist and chewy goodness of a Tollhouse cookie.

But it should never be used to describe software.

Never.

I think that’s in the Ten Commandments actually.

Thou shalt not use the word ‘moist’  in vain.

Shame on you, Crispin Porter.

I wonder if they were motivated more by the media frenzy circus resulting from this spot or winning an Addy award than advising Microsoft effectively about their brand. Or maybe the Creative Director ‘lost’ the strategy brief because it certainly doesn’t seem to be meeting any sound communications objectives.

In my opinion, all Miscrosoft’s succeeded in doing is alienating their current customers while becoming the laughingstock of the diehard Apple disciples.

Bill, you’re not hip. But that’s OK.

You’re a trillionaire ten times over; isn’t that enough??! Just focus on what it is you do, and do it well.  Leave the glitz and glam to Apple and focus on your productivity suite. Quit spinning your wheels on ‘delicious’ concepts and sharpen your business game before the forbidden fruit takes a bite out of that too.

In the end, remember it was Coke who taught the world to sing and Pepsi who said, ‘we’re better than Coke,’ and Coke is still the market leader.

That’s how many users are currently on social networks worldwide. (Source: WikiAnswers, 2007. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_people_use_social_networking_sites_worldwide)

The number is staggering.

There are more users in the Webosphere than there are in some major metropolitan cities — even entire countries.  So, it’s no wonder that a new social networking site seems to pop up daily, all vying for a piece of this kajillion* dollar pie.

*may not be an actual numeric value.

But as I ponder the sheer volume of social networks out there, the thought of joining yet another one seems unthinkable.  Stressful even.  So much so that even if the social network equivalent of nirvana launched, I’m not sure I’d sign up.

And I don’t think I’m alone.

For most of us — especially people like me who are heavily entrenched in the space — it’s more than just being ’social networked out.’  It’s time-consuming — and taxing — to undergo the process of sign up through daily use.

There are at least 10 steps involved to get started on a whole new site:

1. Sign up/complete registration form
2. Confirm e-mail address
3. Upload avatar
4. Set up profile
5. Import contacts (where available)
6. Find friends
7. Rebuild community
8. ‘Re-learn’ an entire new platform
9. Add and/or change socnet URL on signatures, websites, etc.
10. Begin using regularly

Some users may skip some of those steps, opting to check out the application more thoroughly before uploading a pic or inviting friends, for example, but the point is that it’s not as simple as 1-2-3 to integrate another social network into your online routine.

I think the fact that people are still using Twitter, henceforth referred to as the ‘Twitter Epidemic,’ is proof positive that quality is not the overarching factor when choosing a social network.  MySpace (pre-face lift) is yet another shining example that an error-free, well designed site is not a pre-requisite for mass consumption.

So, why is it that we continue to nurture the dysfunctional relationships with our current socnets, opting to settle for shoddy service, incessant glitches, poorly architected platforms and overall medicority?

There are many contributing factors, but the top three that keep bubbling to the surface are:

The grass may be greener on the other side but I already landscaped over here.

This is the biggest deterrant to adopting a new socnet.  All of us have spent significant amounts of time carefully cultivating our community and nurturing our network.  We’ve invested countless hours, energy and pieces of ourselves building relationships, uploading pics and making our profiles a unique representation of who we are.  What’s more, our connections have done the same thing, resulting in a living, breathing online universe that, to many of us, is a second home.  And with that, comes an affinity for the product despite any failings it may have.  That’s tough to walk away from — even for a slick new interface or totally bug-free experience (but we’ve all become so jaded we don’t believe it anyway).

I really loved the General Tso’s Chicken at the Chinese restaurant next door and they closed down.

This is a huge issue right now with the volatile web 2.0 world and start ups launching with a big media splash only to disappear as quickly as they came.  The recent coup with PodTech doesn’t help instill confidence either.  Users are skeptical of social ’saviors’ spouting salvation.  And no one wants to spend the time setting up — and acclimating to — a new network to find it yanked from cyberspace shortly thereafter.  So many bide their time, waiting to see if it ‘catches on,’ which ironically creates a self-fulfilling prophesy.  If everyone is waiting for ‘the other person’ to try it out, it’s doomed to a dismal fate.  Even the die-hard beta junkies aren’t as fervent about snagging invites or testing out the latest (and probably not the greatest) service.  And it’s not that we’ve become lazy so much as disenchanted.  The new car smell has worn off, and it would take something as outrageous as George Jetson’s flying-automobile-turned-briefcase to get our attention.

I need another social network like the iPhone needs more apps.

The other factor in all of this is simply the overwhelming amount of social networks out there.  The market is completely oversaturated, and most of the new players are merely clones of existing sites with no real key points of differentiation.  Or if they do happen to have an unrivaled proposition, the above two barriers to adoption will make it difficult for them to gain any kind of penetration, which brings us to the million dollar question of the day: is it too late to innovate?

Being first to market is always a desirable position, and companies race to launch to achieve this highly coveted status.  It certainly worked for Twitter.  Even with the advent of other sites like Pownce, FriendFeed and Plurk that have all garnered some substantial share of voice, Twitter is by far still the microblogging leader.  And again the ‘Twitter Epidemic’ defies all logic as the strength of the community offsets the myriad of mistakes, mayhem and overall melee they create on an almost hourly basis.

It didn’t, however, work for Friendster as MySpace swept in and cornered the market, demonstrating that there is such a thing as being too soon to market.  Friendster may have garnered more success if they’d launched a little later, when the audience was more ‘wired,’ ready — and able — to embrace the social networking movement fully.  Most were still on dial up when Friendster launched, making a robust experience difficult, and diminishing the overall value of the concept.  Social networks need to function in real time, mirroring the fast pace of their users, so a high speed connection is a must.

But then you have Facebook, who after expanding out of the college arena, took the market by storm, now leading the social networking revolution and giving MySpace more than just a run for their money.  They have secured a leadership position, and after Zuckerberg’s announcements at F8 around the future of Facebook Connect, it doesn’t look like they can — or will — be usurped by a newcomer anytime soon.  In fact, it seems impossible that another social network will be able to break into this space at all with any sort of notable magnitude.

What actually appears to be happening here is that, as with any product, there’s only room for a few market leaders.  And we’ve already got them.

MySpace and Facebook.

Twitter and FriendFeed.

Last.fm and Pandora.

Microsoft and Apple.

Google and Yahoo. (Looks like Cuil won’t be taking a bite out of the search market. Ouch.)

Think about it.  This is true across any vertical.

We’ve got Pepsi and Coke.  RC Cola never even made a memorable blip on the refreshment industry’s radar screen (though I love the stuff and have been known to shriek with excitement whenever I come across it!).

McDonald’s and Burger King.

Kleenex and Puff’s.

Nike and Adidas.

Kellogg and Post.

Sure, there are others with varying degrees of brand equity within those categories, but for the most part, the market — and we, the consumers — can only handle a few powerhouse products.  Everyone can’t be a winner.  As a culture built on popularity, someone will always rise to the top.  And with the leading social networks off to a seemingly insurmountable head start, I contend that it may, in fact, be too late to innovate.  On a grand scale anyway.

Plus, even if the most incredible, original, amazing, ingenious, fantabulous, grounbreaking, awe-inspiring new site came along, it would just probably be gobbled up by Google anyway!

Yesterday, via their status update blog (that ironically resides on Tumblr), the Twitter ‘technical’ crew informed users to expect inconsistencies in their relationship counts but stressed that this issue was only related to the count and not to the actual relationships.

Co-founder, Evan Williams, even tweeted that just the ‘count’ was off, only to rescind that statement a few tweets later with an ‘OK, so it isn’t just the counts but don’t panic.’

Don’t panic?  Is attempting to cajole your users with a glib ‘we’ve got it under control’ attitude really the way to go at this point, Twitter?

We [the users] are way beyond panic, having run the gamut of emotions from annoyed and frustrated to aggravated and outraged.  There was even a hearty dose of humor along the way as the Fail Whale became an endearing mascot of sorts.  But we could laugh off the bajillion errors because our relationships were in tact.

Up until this point, all of the outages and Fail Whale sightings were an inconvenience at most, where we could seek refuge at sites like FriendFeed or identi.ca, or catch up on work free of Twitter distractions, until the service was retored, returning safely to our network of friends and followers.

But now that our connections have been lost, it’s a dealbreaker.

I’ve been a diehard loyalist to Twitter despite their failings because of the value I placed on the relationships I’ve built there.  And I have contended that the reason the masses endure all the ongoing abuse is because of those relationships.

Because of the community.

Because of the friendships and the conversations.

Because it’s too arduous a process to try and re-create such a sizable network from scratch on a whole new microblogging platform.

Plus, we’d hoped that if we stayed the course, Twitter would finally get its act together.

But they’ve made the decision for us.  By cutting my followers/followees in more than half, I see no reason to stay — especially given the fact that even if I were to undergo the daunting task of rebuilding my network, I have no assurance that it wouldn’t happen again.

And again.

And AGAIN.

If past is prelude, Twitter is doomed to fail.

No amount of money or technical ‘expertise’ thrown at the problem seems to help.  Any logical, semi-intelligent lifeform would draw the conclusion that Twitter is a flawed system beyond repair and to just cut your losses.

And it looks like that’s what thousands upon thousands will be doing.

Including me.

But where will the exodus lead us?

Identi.ca most resembles Twitter of all the clones out there, and uses an open source platform, but is still in its infancy with its own set of issues — like the inability to ‘unfollow’ spammers and a clunky, manual subscription process.

FriendFeed is great for long discussions and debates — and as an aggregator for the content and articles you bookmark across the web – but it can be very overwhelming with the sheer volume of information and text heavy posts.

Jaiku just never seemed to catch on (on top of which it appears to be in eternal beta) and Pownce, while an outstanding and user-friendly product, still hasn’t garnered significant market penetration.  At least not among my network, and therein lies the key to this whole conundrum.

People will go where their community is.

Up until now, even though users moonlighted on FriendFeed or Plurk or Pownce during outages, Twitter has held the lion’s share of just about everyone’s network.  Now with the data loss and communities crumbling under crashing databases, poorly designed infrastructure, and the ineptitude of the Twitter tech team, the market is wide open for a new microblogging leader.

YouAre is supposed to the answer to everyone’s prayers, but is still in private beta so it won’t be moving the needle anytime soon.

No matter where the Twitter casualties end up, I think the microblogging contenders — and future service providers — need to take note of the following:

1. Function over Form. No exceptions. - Having a sound, functional architecture in place is more important than a glitzy design.  No amount of bells and whistles can make up for the lack of it.

2. Build with the User in Mind – If you’re creating a service, you need to build it based on how your users will interact with it — and how they can get the maximum value from it. A cool graphical timeline, for example, may seem like a cutting-edge idea, but for users with substantial amounts of followers, it’s just not useful.

3. Respect your Community - You need to care about what your users care about, and strive to protect the things that are most important to them.  When a user signs on to a new service, there is some level of trust that is imparted.  They place their trust in you for things like their personal info will not be shared, their data is safe and that the site is accessible.  You need to honor that trust by delivering on your brand promise, maintaining open communication and consistent service.

4. Be Honest. At all Costs. - Don’t just sweep problems or issues under the rug or give users a false sense of security when the walls are crashing down.  Technical issues happen, but when they do, inform users, take all necessary actions to rectify it as quickly — and seamlessly — as possible and keep users updated along the way.  If you’ve embodied rules 1 through 3, any brief disruptions in service shouldn’t adversely affect your user base, and will keep your community in tact.

I don’t know where I’ll land yet, but one thing’s for certain, wherever I go, I won’t be needing a Twitter import feature!

But I contend that social media never really began — not on the web anyway.

What it seems to me that people fail to realize is that social media is not some fad like the Pet Rock or Ugg Boots (ugh indeed); it’s been going on since the dawn of time as club-wielding cavemen built — and leveraged — social networks to snag a bigger feast or a more spacious dwelling.  And it has continued throughout history as large sects of the population broke off into sub-sets forming religious groups, political parties, and public houses (today known as ‘pubs’ — isn’t the web really just a virtual bar that never closes?), all leveraging some type of social media vehicle to organize like-minded individuals and gather together.

And while most of that ‘gathering’ today happens online, the concept itself was not born with the advent of the Internet.

It’s an inherent part of our make up as humans to congregate and socialize.  Where that congregation takes place is irrelevant.  What matters is that it does take place, and more importantly, that substantive relationships are formed through it.

Relationships.  A critical element of the process that no one ever seems to talk about, opting to latch onto the word ’social’ because it’s ‘hot’ right now.  And, interestingly, where most sites — and initiatives — fail.

The social aspect of the engagement is only step 1, and the easiest part of the process in my opinion.  And it’s really just a catalyst for communication and conduit for connection anyway.  With the right amount of hype and viral buzz, you can easily draw the masses (e.g. Plurk).

But the trick is keeping them there.  And building, cultivating and sustaining the relationship.  That’s the attraction — and the power — of the social web.  Creating meaningful encounters that are relevant to you and your circle of friends/peers/colleagues.  And then leveraging those relationships — and your sphere of influence — to some actionable end.

As a marketer, social media is just a set of tools that I employ for clients.  And it’s not even the only set.  Nor is it limited to the web.  When the focus is aptly centered around connecting people, in this case, a business with its customers, the relationship is paramount, and then you simply bring in the tools needed to achieve that objective.

One of the tools employed could be the web.  Or it could be an e-mail.  Or a text message.  Or, dare I say it, even a print communication.  And, in all likelihood, it’s a combination of all these things (or, at least, it should be) so that you have a fully integrated marketing mix — and multiple touch points — to engage in a two-way conversation with your audience.

What makes it ’social’ is that conversation.  And the ability to interact directly with customers.  Not shouting one-way at throngs of users, with little to no relevancy, on oversaturated social networks under the guise of ’social media’ or ’social marketing’ or some other equally glib term.  It would be more accurate to refer to it as ‘harnessing relationship media for social sustainability’ but that’s not just pithy enough for the divas.

And you have no doubt worked tirelessly to achieve top results on all of the major search engines.

But have you spent any time tagging yourself?

We all know that you’ve spent plenty of time Googling yourself.

(Go on, admit it.)

So, why haven’t you played a part in how you rank?

If you’re a professional, touting your expertise on any topic, you need to build your personal brand, and the most important medium for doing so in this age of technology is the Internet.

But even if you have the most riveting blog where you espouse your brilliance with your astounding acumen and quick-wittedness (ahem, like the one, you’re reading right now), it won’t matter if no one knows about it.

Or if no one can find it.

And where’s the first place people look?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, your answer should be Google or [insert less popular search engine here].

Everything from the chick you met at the bar to the iPhone makes its way into that trusty search field, and the results can mean the difference between starting a new relationship or signing a hefty 2-year rate plan. So you want to make sure that a) you come up in the top results and b) the results present you effectively.

A savvy PR pro described this to me as ‘owning your name online,’ and ever since that seed was planted, it’s become a concept on which I’ve become decisively focused (read: obsessed).

But what surprised me most as I began my personal quest to own my name online is that most people think that they are powerless to what the search engine spiders retrieve.

Just this morning on Twitter, in fact, there was a tweet from someone who had Googled herself to see what came up, stating that she was curious about what people think of her based on the results. What she likely didn’t realize is that she can drive that assessment based on how diligently she harnesses the myriad of tools at her disposal.

From social media profiles to blogs, you can take control of what appears when someone types in your handle, and truly ‘own your name’ — and build your brand ID — online.

And, as it turns out, it’s not all that daunting a task.

Or even difficult to do — albeit a tad time-consuming.

So, feel free to reap the benefits of my careful study (read: fixation) to start creating the personal brand you want to portray to the world.

I blog therefore I am. – If you want to catapult your name to the top of the heap, start a blog. If you get set up on any one of the blog services out there – WordPress, TypePad, Blogger, etc. – you can quickly climb the search ladder. Because they allow you to host your site as a sub domain off of their sites, you benefit from the high volume of traffic from their network of users and turnkey linking, trackback and RSS feed options – all the SEO friendly elements that would take months and months to develop – and implement – on your own. Just be sure to focus on hot topics in the market that are being searched regularly and tag, tag, tag! Over time, if you want to further play the SEO card, getting backlinks from other sites with a higher page rank (PR 4+) will enable you to garner more organic traffic. But initially, it’s most important for you to produce relevant and high quality content on your blog to feed the various search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Ask, Technorati, and Ice Rocket). After that, you’ll want to get your RSS feed propagated across the major social networking sites that accept link sharing such De.licio.us.

Got something to say? Say it in 140 characters or less and say it often as often as possible. – Microblogging is HUGE right now, and that’s an understatement. It seems a new site pops up almost daily in an attempt to capitalize on this monstrous movement, and you can tap into it by setting up profiles on every single one of them – Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, Tumblr, FriendFeed, etc. – and rambling on to your heart’s content. Text, IM and service integration providers like ping.fm make this task easier than ever before. The more posts you have, the greater your personal brand exposure – as long as you’re ‘following’ microblogging powerhouses such as Robert Scoble, Leo Laporte, Jason Calacanis and Kevin Rose, who all have in excess of 30,000 followers and are being searched on – and accessed – regularly. And try to reply to their posts as much as you can so that you can align your username with their pages that have literally tens of thousands of daily hits. But don’t spam them or you will see the adverse affects of their omnipotent online presence! (Incidentally, tagging those guys in this blog will help my own rankings. Aren’t I so clever?)

It’s a Social Thang – If you’re reading this post, chances are you’re already deep into social networking with profiles on sites like Facebook, Hi5, Orkut and MySpace, so you’re one step ahead of the game, but your profile will only appear in search results if it’s public, or if your name is linked to a public profile [by being friends with that person or submitting a comment or wall post, etc.] on their page. So there are two options that you can employ based on your privacy settings. 1) If your profile is public, you can maximize it by posting relevant content using vehicles like Facebook notes and MySpace bulletins. You can also beef up your ‘About Me’ section to associate yourself with key content and heavily searched topics, provided of course, that they are relevant to you. Don’t just repeat a term like ‘social media’ a dozen times because it’s a popular term right now. And, no, organizing your sorority formal does NOT make you a social media expert! 2) If your profile is private, you will still automatically appear in search results if you’re friends with someone’s whose profile is public – or even if their site is private, if they publicize their friend list with something like the ‘View Friends’ feature on Facebook, you will show up then too. Other than that, posting comments on public profiles about your thoughts on Barack Obama or excitement over the latest winner of Top Chef should do the trick.

Get LinkedIn – The LinkedIn network is powerful, and continues to grow by leaps and bounds as enterprise social networking becomes more mainstream, connecting business professionals from all over the globe. If you’re not taking advantage of this service yet, you need to be. Period. Although, truthfully, I am only just getting set up on it myself. But it works. The more connections you have, the higher your search results – especially if they are heavy hitters with topical core competencies. Hint: try to befriend an SEO expert! Plus, you’ll start reaping the benefits almost immediately (provided no one else with a more robust profile has the same name as you, that is) because their site is like one endless supply of search tags, which you control by populating your profile with key areas of expertise, interests and a finely crafted, keyword-laden summary. And if you create a unique URL with your name, it will show up in the title tag (the blue bar at the very top of your browser window), which is the most important bit of text on a web page as far as the search engines are concerned. Search engines not only assign the words in the title tag more weight, they also typically display the title tag in the search results, making it an important driver in attaining the highest rankings. Last, there are all kinds of tools and apps to promote your LinkedIn profile on blogs and websites with personalized buttons and embedding options.

Don’t Worry, Be [Comment] Happy – Submitting comments to articles and posts on high traffic sites like TechCrunch and Mashable, (or any other frequently visited blog or website) will also bolster your search status, and aid in developing your personal brand based on the thoughts you share, the qualities you exemplify, and the expertise you demonstrate. Their impressive daily visits and page views alone will catapult you into search stardom. Plus, Michael Arrington and Pete Cashmore promote the hell out of them on microblogging sites – and ALL of their online properties — so your exposure is increased exponentially (read: muchos mas eyeballos on your commentos*).

*may not actually be Spanish

You can also buy the domain of your name, and you will literally own your name online. In addition, according to SEO aficionado, Joe Apfelbaum of Ajax Union, registering your public profiles on sites like Mahalo, Digg and Propeller will produce rapid fire results.

While all of these vehicles will definitely help strengthen your search visibility, from a branding perspective, they will also show snippets of your personality to begin to build your personal brand, and give searchers a sense of who you are and what you represent. So, before you dive headfirst into the search spotlight, spend a little time thinking about your value proposition, and the image you want to portray to peers, colleagues, and/or potential clients who may be searching on your name. Then you can direct all of your online messaging accordingly and Google with confidence.

Bonus tip: You can use this service to monitor when you begin to appear in results. It has a lot of other fun uses too. No need to thank me.

… in a not-so-distant galaxy…

… there was a world without e-mail and social networks.

There was no MySpace or Facebook or Twitter or Pownce…

… no Google or Yahoo or Del.icio.us or Digg.

There was no WebTrends or Omniture or Double Click or ComScore.

There was………………… NO INTERNET.

<pause for gasps and shrieks of horror>

It was a barren wasteland where people communicated in complete sentences, punctuated, read strange paper bound objects and made curvy markings with their hands using bizarre, ink-filled contraptions.

And marketers marketed without metrics!

It’s true.

I marketed through the pre-Web era, and lived to tell the tale.

A tale of guessing and wishing and scratching our heads as we sent film (yes, film) with glossy ads to print publications, touting our brand message.

(For those as ancient as me, 133-line screen, Right Read Emulsion Side Down is forever emblazoned on my brain by overzealous Production Managers!)

We sent pithy copy to radio stations and shot TV spots. We procured huge Lambda printers to make bus shelters and billboards.

We all knew the term ‘Cling Z.’ (Not to be confused with ‘Click Z’)

We sent out direct mail with BRC’s (‘Business Reply Cards’ for those of you who grew up on the Internet and thought I just misspelled BRB – ‘Be Right Back.’) and keyed in responses by hand as data entry people tried to decipher human writing.*

*the act of using a pen or pencil to form characters using one’s hand instead of a keyboard.

We transmitted facsimiles (later termed ‘fax blasts’) on toilet-paper like rolls of shiny paper.

We gave out pens and paperweights and rulers and sticky pads with our logo and tagline on it, which we proudly donned the ‘logo lockup.’

All in the hopes of cultivating customers, building brand equity and gaining ‘share of voice’ in the marketplace.

SOV.

Yet another extinct acronym in the digital world.

And we did all of this with relatively little – or in some, cases, absolutely NO – quantifiable metrics.

Sure, we had focus groups (but we all know how helpful those were as we pranced around with marker comps and storyboards Vanna White-style).

And telephone polls. (Wasn’t everyone always oh-so-willing to take the time to talk to a telemarketer and provide feedback and insights on advertising campaigns? Not so much.)

And readership surveys. (Fill this out and drop it in the mail…rrrrriiiiiigggght.)

And ‘How did you hear about us?’ check boxes, the pinnacle of empirical fact.

Some more fancy schmancy marketing teams actually had varying 800#s for different ads, which in today’s space would be tantamount to unique URLs, but this was not the norm.

Unless you were Coca Cola, and could throw barrels of money around like drunken sailors to build your brand, your marketing expenditure could not be directly correlated to any sort of ROI.

Sure, you could draw dotted line conclusions: if you spent X dollars on advertising in the 1^st quarter and saw a spike in sales or brand growth, you could postulate the effects of your marketing, but you couldn’t validate it.

Not for certain anyway.

But we trudged on, trying to be more efficient in our spend, developing best practices and standards for how to achieve results.

My favorite was, ‘If your competitor is advertising there, so should you.’

Made sense then. Seems positively absurd now.

How about, ‘If your target audience is there, you should be advertising there?!’

That’s why the Internet is so powerful.

You can pinpoint with a high degree of certainty – if not 99.9999999% accuracy – where your customers are and reach them directly.

And you can not only get your brand message right in front of them, but you can also stimulate your desired action and bring them right to it.

All instantly.

In just a few clicks.

One to one.

You can even ‘follow’ them around and watch their behavior to see what they do or don’t respond to, and iterate mid-campaign.

Although I’ve been deeply entrenched in Internet marketing for more than ten years now, as I attempt to define online metrics and analytics, even I’m blown away.

The possibilities really are staggering.

And yet e-marketers are still initiating online campaigns without the proper metrics in place to evaluate results and optimize continually.

What’s worse, they don’t even bother to review the metrics that are available, allowing precious data to elude them. Data that could be used to drive sales, gain market share and generate, retain and cultivate loyal users.

I know what you’re thinking.

Why in the world would anyone do such a thing when we have a wealth of tools available to ensure the success of our initiatives that we never had before??!

I think it’s a combination of things.

Besides being just plain irresponsible, spending a company’s budget all willy nilly-like (and I believe that’s the technical term), it also under serves the web properties in delivering the most personalized – and relevant – experience to its users and robs users of the value that we, as marketers, are finally able to provide in pushing out targeted messaging.

To the right audience.

At the right time.

Using the right medium.

If someone had traveled back in time and told an offline marketer that they could specifically analyze each of their target’s behavior and revise messaging real time according to audience wants and needs, they would have looked at them in amazement uttering, ‘tell me more, Obi Web.’

Because that’s how fantastically, awesomely unbelievable metrics and analytics are.

Or at least can be if used properly.

So use them.

Seriously.

Do it. Do it.

Here is a really simple, ‘just add water’ cheat sheet of the high level metrics you should be focusing on to harness this immense power:

• Click through Rate: I can’t believe I even have to list this one but simply, how many people are clicking through from your ad or e-mail? Ideally, you should be testing different creative executions/messaging to see which has the greatest pull. A savvy marketer will also employ specialized landing pages per segment.
• Length of visit – How long did the user stay on your site? Studies have shown that if you can engage the user for longer periods of time in one session, they are more likely to reach a buying or conversion conclusion. This isn’t an exact science but the ‘time spent on site’ factor can offer some indication as to how compelling your site is. If you can’t hold their attention for more than a minute, it’s not likely that they’ll be performing the behavior you are seeking — or coming back.
• Conversion Rate – How many visitors completed your call to action whether it’s registration, purchase or another desired behavior.
• Site path – If you can tag your users with a unique id beyond just a referring URL denoting from where they came, you can literally follow their activity throughout your site to see where they go. This can give you valuable insights as to a) whether your ad/call to action drives them accordingly, b) if your site is intuitive in its navigation to key areas to which you want to encourage traffic, and c) if there are any trends as to when or where users may fall off in the process. (This brings us into the area of usability, but that will have to wait for another post.)

But merely reviewing these elements is not enough; you need to act on them to optimize for the greatest return. Think of it this way, you wouldn’t invite a hundred people to a party and bring them to a house with no food or drink. Yet that’s what you’re doing if you drive users to a site that doesn’t effectively lead them to your desired action. Just think of me as the one reminding you not to forget to buy booze before the big bash!

The formula is simple:

1. DEFINE the criteria you’ll need to gauge success before you initiate the campaign
2. DEVELOP the necessary code, tags, creative, etc.
3. IMPLEMENT the tactics accordingly
4. EVALUATE user activity and corresponding variables
5. OPTIMIZE, OPTIMIZE, OPTIMIZE

The tools are available. You just need to access them.

In other words, the only roadblock to success in your online initiatives is you.

And therein lies the power of these perennial portals popping up all over the worldwide web, poking and prodding the proficient online population with prodigious promises of paradise as they seek to permanently procure a preeminent position in their pursuit of pandemic preponderance.

Despite the varying platforms that execute on this concept, the principle is the same: gather like-minded people together in a personal and interactive way. Typically, teens and tech geeks have dominated the social networking space, dishing about the excessive sweating of their gym teacher and prom fiascos or sharing complex code solutions and Romulan warfare tactics demonstrated at a recent Star Trek Convention. But social networking has become more mainstream – from mommies to marketers, it has infiltrated virtually every aspect of the online experience. And now with the advent of Google’s FriendConnect, harnessing the widespread possibilities of the OpenSocial concept, social networking is poised to propagate and proliferate in epic proportions.

But how can it benefit your business, your brand, and your bottom line?

In theory, if you provide a place for people to exchange thoughts, ideas and experiences, they equate that positive experience with your brand, and hence, become happy, shiny little brand ambassadors for you.

Why do you think Rupert Murdoch ponied up piles of cash to acquire MySpace?

Not because it has a particularly advanced interface (it’s riddled with bugs actually) or because it’s a superior product (they’ve spent the better part of 2008 trying to mirror the Facebook application), but because literally millions upon millions of people have improved the quality of their lives and formed personal – and meaningful — relationships on there. And it’s that powerful experiential element that makes those loyal users a prime target for advertisers and more receptive to messaging they view on MySpace than any other site they may visit.

It also helps that recent studies show an average MySpace user session exceeds 8+ hours (when do these people work?!) and users are literally logged in from morning till night so there are always eyeballs on an advertiser’s marketing message at literally any given nanosecond.

Let’s pretend for a moment that MySpace were a person. If Mary MySpace introduced you to your husband or wife, wouldn’t you be more likely to take recommendations from Mary in the future? Because she’s already proven her worth by connecting you with something of supreme value to you. The affection you hold for your significant other translates back to Mary. In the marketing world, we call that brand affinity. But as you can see, it promotes the same intangible benefits.

Positive experience on MySpace = predisposition to ads generated via MySpace (and MySpace overall, despite its ‘flaws’)

And aren’t ads really just ‘recommendations’ from your friendly neighborhood conglomerate to, um, buy their products? OK, that’s a bit of a stretch but it illustrates my point.

If a friend recommends something to you, aren’t you more likely to act on it than if you view an ad from a company that is just trying to sell you something?

If you didn’t answer ‘yes’ to that question, perhaps you should re-think the company you keep.

Most of us would go with the referral from a friend over an impersonal ad.

Which. Is. Why. Social. Networking. For. Business. Is. So. Brilliant.

You can take an otherwise impersonal interaction like viewing an ad and make it personal.

Um, helllloooooo??! Is this thing on??!

This is the future, people! So pay attention.

Here are some possible real world scenarios for putting this gem into practice:

Host an online event – If you own a craft store, for example, you can have an online scrapbooking or Do-it-Yourself class where users can interact real time, exchanging ideas, tips and favorite products, after which you can offer a discount off the purchase of related items. There is an array of software like WebEx and Microsoft’s Live Meeting that makes this an easy-to-implement option for even the smallest of retailers.

Create an industry experts forum – A business solutions company can invite industry experts to participate in an online demonstration of their products in action, providing a peer-to-peer vehicle for strengthening the value of their offerings, and testimonials of success.

Foster a colleague community – Pharmaceutical companies are finding it increasingly difficult to reach physicians despite the fact that they are more “wired” than ever before. By providing docs with an online community through which they can discuss differential diagnoses, latest treatments and experiences in their respective specialty areas, they can facilitate better patient outcomes, practice efficiency and ensure that healthcare professionals utilize the right treatments through real world thought-sharing (DocSpace??). This ultimately serves the public – and pharmaceutical companies – by bridging relationships across the universe of docs that could not otherwise be achieved; and in doing so, the intangible (and dare I say, philanthropic-like?!) benefits are translated back in a memorable way. Remember, it was Coke who taught the world to sing and Pepsi who said “we’re better than Coke.” so it’s a smart marketing move to take the higher ground. Coke is still the market leader (even after the abysmal failure of ‘New Coke’ as many of us may recall).

But those are only a few, smaller scale examples of how individual companies — across various verticals — can capitalize on the social networking boom. The options are limitless now that OpenSocial has begun to take root in the socnets of the Interweb, and offerings like FriendConnect that I mentioned earlier, will make social networking solutions more accessible – and turnkey – than ever before.

MySpace may have opened the door to the power of social networking. But Google blew it off the hinges.

So, why are you still reading this post??!

Go forth and be social. The future of humanity depends on it.

Your ‘Internet Marketing for Dummies’ book may refer to CRM as Customer Relationship Marketing or Customer Relationship Management.

Po-tay-toe. Pa-tah-toe.

Either way, it’s about the customer.

No matter what the product or service, eCRM initiatives must be developed with the customer in mind. If you boil it down to that one principle, you can’t go wrong. Assuming you’ve got a sophisticated database in place, a sound value proposition, and a qualified list of targets, that is. OK, so maybe it’s a little complex. But if done right, it can be the most effective tool for reaching, retaining – and cultivating – a brand loyal, brand motivated audience in a highly personalized way.

In essence, you are simply having a one-on-one conversation with your customer just as you would with a friend. You wouldn’t talk at or try to sell your friends, would you? No, you’d simply (yes, again, simply) know them well enough to understand their needs, and then make meaningful – and personal – suggestions. The word ‘Duh’ should leap to mind. Or think Keanu Reeves’ “Whoa” in The Matrix. Oh yeah, this is powerful stuff. But in many ways, it’s also a no-brainer.

See, I keep telling you it’s simple.

So, where do you begin?

In this case, past is prelude. As in, harnessing the initiatives have you done in the past to help bolster the success of an eCRM program.

What information have you been able to gather about your audience to date? If you want to implement a strong program, you need to have more information than just name and e-mail address. Um, does the term ‘spam’ mean anything to you?!

But these customer ‘fun facts’ depend greatly on the type of product or service you are offering. If you sell home goods, for example, do members of your audience have a proclivity toward certain products? If so, which ones? Are they seasonal buyers? Do they buy full suites of products for large scale remodeling projects or just ad hoc items?

On the other hand, if you’re in the healthcare sector trying to reach physicians, what types of patients do they see? What are their prescribing habits? Even factors like how they prefer to receive communications are important. While the focus of this post is on e-communications, CRM as a whole extends to any vehicle through which you can directly – and memorably – reach your end user, including honoring any communication preferences they may have. The halo benefits of a positive brand association can be garnered from something as simple as reaching someone via snail mail – or even text (a rapidly growing movement) – if that is their preferred medium.

Simple, right? There’s that pesky word again.

But it can be. Really.

Follow these three simple rules when crafting your eCRM program:

(I’m trying to really drive this concept home via ad nauseum references to the word ‘simple.’ Please indulge me.).

Know Your Customer – This is pretty self-explanatory, but for the cheap seats, have a deep understanding of your customers’ wants and needs, behavior patterns, and communication preferences. Do not even attempt an eCRM program if you don’t have these basic details. Instead, take a step back and put initiatives into place that can help you gather these facts. Perhaps offer an incentive that requires users to answer a few… err… simple questions.

Data is King – When it comes to eCRM, data is King, Queen, and the whole royal court. Not only do you need the initial data detailed above at the onset, but you need to continue to collect data through a series of ‘push/pull’ communications with end users. Otherwise, your e-mails have no actionable purpose. (See ‘spam’ reference above.) Be sure to continue the conversation by gathering additional data points that will help further profile your users so that you can tailor key messages that will resonate with them specifically in driving your desired behavior. As you might have guessed, you’ll also need a strong call to action.

My Users Opted In and All I Got Was This Lousy Database – So, you’ve gathered some important details about your audience. And they’ve given you permission to communicate with them. Great. Now you’ve got to house the information somewhere. If you’re thinking database, give yourself a hearty pat on the back. Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. You need to develop a solid infrastructure for collecting, segmenting and storing user information across multiple – and possibly overlapping – data points.

Step #3 is the crux of the program, and where most eCRM campaigns fail. In this particular case, ‘if you build it, they will come’ most definitely holds true. (Kevin Costner would be proud.) If you’ve built a database that can manage all of the various data points across your universe of users, and offers the ability to query by specific variable, you can send pertinent content that is only applicable to individual users; and hence, offers a greater propensity for achieving a buying conclusion by reaching users who are pre-disposed to your message or offer.

If there’s going to be a blizzard in Buffalo, you should be sending an e-mail about your state-of-the-art snow blower to users in that geographical region. Or if you’re going to be launching a new asthma treatment, you’ll want to extract all of the specialists like Pulmonologists and Otolaryngologists from your database so you don’t hit your OB/GYN docs or Podiatrists with an irrelevant message. (I’m being a tad hyperbolic, but you get the idea.)

And presto, voila, kazaam, a la peanut butter sandwiches [insert your magic word of choice here], you have the power to turn e-mail into “me-mail!” But you don’t have to be a magician to implement a successful eCRM program that will yield results and maximize the lifetime value of your customer. You just have to send communications that are specific to the ‘me’s’ in each member of your audience. And hey, we all know that people care most about themselves and what directly applies to them. So, you’re merely delivering on that. (I thought you’d all appreciate that I refrained from further flagrant use of ‘simply’ there. You’re welcome.)

In a nutshell, find out what your customers want, remember it (aided by super-human technological devices, of course) and give it to them.

Simply put (sorry, I couldn’t resist), give your customers what they want.

Ah, a truly groundbreaking concept.

Next up, the invention of the wheel.