Branding, Facebook, Social CRM, XKCD, and more
This week saw the triumphant return of Steve from his tour of the Great American West. From the grandeur of the Grand Canyon to the old Hollywood history of Palm Springs to the spectacle of Sight and Sound Theater in Branson, MO — and all the massively boring deserts in-between — he saw it all. And apparently video recorded it, too. Still, it was great to have him back so we could all sit around the lunch table share the information we ran across in the past week.
Mini Messages and Primal Leadership
Steve Wolgemuth, Principal
Since I had been out of the office for three weeks, I gave myself permission to cover two topics this week. I opened with “mini” inspirational story about the Mini-Cooper’s viral success in marketing to their own clients using automated road signs that spontaneously produce messages to Mini owners. The whole idea is fun, got attention and makes Mini owners feel like a special class of people. To our team, this served as an inspiration to channel even more creative energy toward helping our clients market to their existing customers.
My second topic was about the emotional and social climate at YDOP, my role in it and what steps we will take to continue to develop a work-place/environment that we love and our customers describe as up-lifting. Using insights from a book I’m digesting called “Primal Leadership,” I described how emotions are extremely contagious, and that is especially true from the individuals in leadership. I am seeking to identify my own leadership styles and competencies/weaknesses using feedback from the YDOP team using questionnaires I distributed today. Could be interesting!
The Growth of Facebook
Mike Newswanger, Lead Programmer
Facebook has significantly gained in popularity over the past few years, and more businesses are attempting to reach out to both current and potential clients / customers through this social media avenue. There are many ways for businesses to approach this new medium but interaction remains key to success. By allowing users to provide feedback and having open communication with users, businesses can greatly benefit through the use of Facebook.
Facebook is being slightly restructured: the status box currently at the top of the News Feed page will be replaced by a navigation bar with links to update status, add photos, add links, and ask a question. The latter is a new feature that will allow users to ask questions globally and receive input from other users as well as businesses. These questions can be comprised of text alone, video, audio, or images. This could lead to some very creative marketing campaigns from businesses looking to increase social interaction.
A recent leak has provided access to torrents containing over 100 million Facebook users’ profile information. While not a direct security threat–the information was the composite of only public information–many large businesses are downloading this information. Time will tell if and how they will leverage this data.
The ROI of Webcomics
Jeff Burkholder, Engineer/Analyst
The webcomic xkcd describes itself as a “webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.” Not only is this all true, but it’s also very widely read among internet users, as the writer, Randall Munroe, tends to have a pretty good handle on internet-related topics. The comic for July 30 is a prime example of this. It illustrates the disconnect between how some people create and design websites with those the website is meant to service. While some people still may look at it somewhat askance as “just a comic”, it’s real, useful, and actionable information that web developers and internet marketers should really pay attention to.
Social CRM and Google Apps
Daniel Klotz, Social Media Strategist
To add on to Mike’s Facebook update, I shared screenshots of what the beta version of the Facebook publisher looks like with Questions built in. There are still a number of bugs for Facebook to work out, and even in a limited beta environment I don’t expect that process to be a quick one–Facebook currently only employs one engineer for every 1.25 million users.
I then provided updates on the social CRM scene, demonstrating one use case where the social CRM BatchBook integrates with Gmail for Google Apps, with additional functionality from Rapportive. Because business professionals already have busy lives with not enough time for social interaction (whether online or off), social CRM tools can make it much easier to stay up to date with your customers’ lives by capturing all your interactions with a single customer in a single place, whether the interaction is over the phone, on Twitter, or through e-mail.
Wanna Be Creative? Go Away (from your desk)!
Astrid Salim, Creative Director
Today, I shared some interesting articles with the team. One of them is an article from www.zurb.com, about how beneficial it is to design while standing up. The article says that standing up will increase the blood flow, therefore stimulate the brain even more. Also, by standing up, you invite people to give you feedback and interact with you. So according to the article, “standing up is social.”
On the other hand, an article from the99percent.com is talking about how leaving your desk can help you to be creative. It’s talking about how vacation, for example, can help you solve the design problem from different angle because of the different culture or situation you’re in. It also states that solitude can increase productivity and focus.
I also share some articles about branding exercise. An article from www.millermosaicllc.com tells about how a company can create their “brand statement” from an example exercise. It tells you to think about what one or two sentences you will say about your company to your audience if you have only a couple seconds. This can help a company a lot to focus on what their core statement is.