Common Sense: November 2009

November 2009

11/22/2009

Why Measuring Click-Throughs is Next to Meaningless

Whenever we do something long enough, we start to assume it actually is meaningful. Of course, this is often where we get into trouble.

A great example is our fascination with click-through rates. If we run an ad and people click through to a site, we are endlessly fascinated by whether our click-through rate was higher than last time or higher than average.

The real conclusion? It’s not relevant. It’s at best a basic diagnostic measure.

Here’s why.

People often take action over a period of a month or so after they learn about something via display advertising. We are not as pavlovian as once thought. And when we do get around to visiting, we tend to spend 55% more time than average visitors to the site. So ask yourself if you are measuring what is convenient (a click through) or what is real (activity over a period of one month).

Now, think of social media sites. One study showed that 48% of Twitter users who were introduced to a brand on Twitter were compelled to search for additional information. 44% of people said they recommend products in social media and 39% said they have discussed a product specifically on Twitter. Facebook users edged out Twitter with 46% talking about or recommending products.

This is interesting. What it tells us is that if advertising is truly compelling, customers will take their own action to recommend and discuss your brand. The flip side is that if there is silence, it is more clear than ever that you did not make a real impact. Are you measuring the conversations you generate or not? Good question to ask yourself.

Now, how about a nod towards integration. Research by GroupM basically says that if you do a campaign in isolation, it doesn’t achieve nearly as much as if you combine social media and paid search. In fact, you are 2.8x more likely to have someone search for that brand’s products compared to users who only saw paid search. So, when you measure one variable such as paid search, is this actually correct or should you be looking at the total impact you make over a period of time based on what you do via natural and paid search?

I believe I know the answer. Evolve how you measure. In today’s world, we can see quite transparently if customers care or not by what they say. Don’t guess, make sure your measurement tells you definitively what reality is for you.

All the best, Bob

Nov 22, 2009 3:36:41 PM | Social Media Insights & Trends

11/18/2009

Common Sense POV: Facebook's New Promotions Guidelines

Facebook recently released new Promotions Guidelines, which will likely have huge implications for brands and companies engaging with their customers on the platform. This newest policy update applies only to contests and sweepstakes -- however, it is yet to be seen whether or not Facebook will extend such guidelines to other promotions such as coupons.

Perhaps coincidence, but it’s interesting to note that these new guidelines come only weeks after the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials - which we’ve discussed here and here, and on the heels of the FDA’s public hearing on promotion via the internet and social media, summarized here by Bob Pearson.

Although Facebook’s new guidelines do not prohibit companies or brands from running promotions, this is a significant change in that Facebook is moving towards monetizing yet another stream within the platform (e.g., advertise or bust). In a way, it’s not unlike moves that YouTube made, only they did it earlier and it was predicated by the technological requirements of running a video (only) platform.

The complete Facebook guidelines can be found here. To save you the click, I’ve included a few key highlights below. You can also check out Michael Richter’s (Deputy General Counsel for IP at Facebook) blog post, in which he explains their thinking about the changes:

Section 1 General

1.3 You will not in any way use our name, trademarks, trade names, copyrights, or any other of our intellectual property in the rules or any other materials relating to the promotion, without express written consent.

While this isn’t new to Facebook, I’ve noted it here as I believe it will tie into point 3.6 below, so worth keeping in mind for planning purposes.

Section 3 Administering a Promotion through the Facebook Platform

You may not administer any promotion through Facebook, except that you may administer a promotion through the Facebook Platform with our prior written approval. Such written approval may be obtained only through an account representative at Facebook. If you are already working with an account representative, please contact that representative to begin the approval process. If you do not work with an account representative, you can use this contact form to inquire about working with an account representative. If we provide you such approval, you agree to the following:

3.1 You will only administer the promotion through an application on the Facebook Platform, as directed by us.

3.2 You will only allow users to enter the promotion in the following locations on Facebook:

3.2.1 On the canvas Page of an application on the Facebook Platform.

3.2.2 On an application box in a tab on a Facebook Page.

3.3 You will include the following language in a clear and conspicuous manner adjacent to any promotion entry field: "This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to [recipient(s) of information] and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for [disclose any way that you plan to use the user's information]."

3.4 You will not mention “Facebook” in the promotion's rules except in the following ways: (i) "You can enter the Promotion through the [application name] application on the Facebook Platform. You can also find the application on the [tab name] tab on the [Page name] Page on Facebook."; (ii) to fulfill your obligations under Section 3.7.

3.5 You will designate an individual to act as a primary contact to address any communications from us with respect to the promotion.

3.6 You must submit materials for any promotion you plan on administering through the Facebook Platform to your account representative for our review and approval at least 7 days prior to the start date of such promotion. Promotions not approved in writing within such time period will be deemed unapproved.

3.7 You will include the following provisions within your official rules for the promotion:

3.7.1 Acknowledgement that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

3.7.2 Complete release for us from each entrant or participant.

3.7.3 Any questions, comments or complaints regarding the promotion will be directed to you, not us.

The most important section of these guidelines – outlining specific requirements on where you can run a promotion, what specific disclaimers you must attach, and the fact that you must get approval of promotional materials at least 7 days in advance – through your Facebook account representative (e.g., you’ll need to establish an account representative (code for: you need to advertise!)

Section 4 Publicizing a Promotion on Facebook

4.2 In the rules of the promotion, or otherwise, you will not condition entry to the promotion upon taking any action on Facebook, for example, updating a status, posting on a profile or Page, or uploading a photo.

This mandate seems to directly target the more recent, growing trend with contests and promotions to require a Facebook status update. Hat tip to Facebook’s attorneys for foreseeing future litigation and putting this on paper now.

While these guidelines provide some additional hurdles, the good news is that they don’t shut the door on promotions done right. The bad news is that added steps and (no doubt) advertising costs will prohibit many companies from running repeated, small prize contests, which are often more effective than one time contests with big payouts. What do you think? Is Facebook making itself a more or less attractive channel for contests and promotions?

By Mark Bennett
Nov 18, 2009 10:07:40 PM | Social Media Insights & Trends

11/16/2009

Perspective on the FDA Social Media Hearing

The FDA has completed a two-day Part 15 Public Hearing titled “Promotion of FDA-Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools”. A total of 76 presentations were heard by a packed room and large webcast audience. This phase of the public hearing will continue until February 28, 2010, which is the last day to submit public testimony. The current thinking is that guidelines could emerge as early as Summer, 2010, although no formal commitment to a timeline has been given.

The tenor of the presentations was quite clear. It is time to figure out how manufacturers can engage directly with customers online. This was a nearly unanimous theme. On the flip side, very few solutions were offered at this time. And as Tom Abrams, Director of DDMAC said, “conversations are enduring and seen by millons”, so we need to figure out how to engage in the right way.

So, out of 76 presentations, here’s a “cut through the clutter”. Part I addresses key questions discussed of importance to future guidelines. Part II reflects how the world has changed and why guidelines will need to account for these market changing developments.

Part I

#1 – If you correct information online, are you responsible for the full conversation? -- Speakers made the point that companies cannot be held responsible for every comment made on every site worldwide. However, it is important for companies to be empowered to correct information on third-party sites in a conversational style and continue to monitor those sites to see if a 2^nd or 3^rd comment is warranted to provide further clarification. In other words, the future will be about how to monitor and engage selectively and effectively to ensure the right benefit and safety info is available online.

#2 – What is the Most Effective Way to Share Safety Information? – I don’t believe anyone is defending the current approach of mentioning side effects at the end of a TV commercial or clicking to highly detailed, hard to read information. Rather, in today’s world, we have an opportunity to display safety info online that is easier to read and navigate before the first click. The good news is that the web makes it much easier for us to create the right experience.

#3 – Current paid search ads suffer from lack of clarity and lack of conversion – data shows that when you understand upfront what is being advertised, click conversion is higher. Many of today’s ads require you to click to find out more, since the upfront ad is not clear enough. Conversion goes down. FDA was encouraged to work with companies to make it possible to have more transparency upfront.

#4 -- How much identifiable criteria must be there to report an AE? – several people pointed out that the current MedWatch form for AE reporting to FDA is onerous. Others discussed how few AE’s exist online vs. the total online conversation. The conclusion is that current AE reporting mechanisms need to modernize and be simplified. We also need the guidelines to clarify what a company’s obligations are as they further engage in conversation online.

#5 – Why extending a brand’s reach is linked to extending monitoring – if companies want to reach a wider audience online, then it’s important to conduct monitoring of a wider audience online, as well. The two go together. Responsibility for monitoring widens as your reach widens.

#6 -- Companies are responsible for communications they create or cause to be created – if a company has a hand in the creation of content, it’s responsible. The presentations centered more around defining this from a financial standpoint.

Part II

How the World Has Changed

As the FDA considers new guidelines, here are examples of how the marketplace has changed.

#1 – Communities self-regulate effectively – online communities look out for the best interests of the community and self-regulate. They are often the best at correcting information. One example at the Hearing was VU-MEDI, a community for 10,000 surgeons, which provides a continual review more comprehensive and quicker than a typical peer-review process on new surgical procedures.

#2 – We don’t live in a simple one-click world – people search for the information they need/want and links are a critical part of the learning process. It is normal to click horizontally for broader info or click vertically for deeper info on a given topic. We don’t control a person’s search. But, we can provide them with the most options on how and where to learn via clicks. .

#3 – Search now forms the first impression for a brand – where are your customers going for information about your brand, whether it involves benefits or safety info?

#4 – Offline/Online synergy is increasing – ComScore showed that 52% of people who see an offline campaign search online for more information. This integration is becoming standard for our customers.

#5 – The importance of peers -- Customers increasingly look to peers for advice. They don’t need companies in the conversation to make a decision, but they would like companies to participate, which was clear in the surveys shown this week. Companies and brands that are part of the full conversation will build trust and will be considered relevant to decision-making. The same comment applies to the FDA.

#6 – Old-style websites are decreasingly relevant -- it is content syndication that matters, not traffic to a site. The FDA will need to adjust what they require of websites to meet the new reality of how people utilize content, so content can be more easily shared.

#7 – The importance of the “core community” – Customers will often spend their days in their core community. Think of Facebook. All the more reason why we need the ability to reach people in their communities, rather than asking them to visit our sites, which they may never do.

#8 – We can improve the reach of safety information – we can extend a brand’s safety information online simply by participating in forums, Yahoo! Answers and other parts of the web where we share approved FAQ’s and other related safety information. When you combine with a strong SEO plan and knowledge of the right keywords, a brand’s reach can be extended widely with time.

#9 – The future is not with closed communities -- closed communities complicate the ability to publicly share information. They prevent the syndication of important and relevant content. Place more time on open communities when possible.

#10 – Physician and patient influence is changing – we are seeing more physicians proactively utilize the web to find patients and share information. At the same time, patients with the most influence may not be affiliated with a patient group. They will be affiliated with great content and a loyal online audience. Our customers are becoming more saavy online every day.

Overall, social media guidelines will require industry to provide innovative solutions to the FDA and for the FDA to create guidelines that can evolve with the medium, rather than place increasing constrictions on it.

All the best, Bob

Nov 16, 2009 9:35:21 AM | Healthcare Insights

The WeissWatch Podcast #4: November 16, 2009

Welcome to the The WeissWatch Podcast: talking points for clients, colleagues and friends of the WeissComm Group. To automatically receive episodes as they are published, subscribe to the RSS feed. You can also subscribe at iTunes (coming soon).

In This Episode:

Bob Pearson, Chief Technology and Media Officer, and Neville Hobson, Head of Social Media Europe, discuss the public hearing held by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on social media and healthcare communication including regulation, monitoring and guidelines.

Listen Right Now

Download the Podcast (MP3, 6.84Mb, 14:55)

Do you have a comment, question or suggestion about this episode of The WeissWatch Podcast? Feel free to let us know what’s on your mind - leave a comment in this post for inclusion in the next episode. If you wish, you can email your comment, question or suggestion as an MP3 file attachment (max 3 minutes / 5Mb file size) to weisswatch@googlemail.com.

Podsafe music from Moving On Swiftly by The Smallvilles.

Enjoy the show!

By neville
Nov 16, 2009 5:20:52 AM | WeissWatch Podcast

11/02/2009

Social Media is the Center of your Customer’s Online World. Why are you Treating it in a Vacuum?

Social Media is fairly well established as the headliner of the online world. Even its predecessor, the search engine, has ceded to social media by positioning sites like YouTube, Wikipedia, Flickr, blogs and user forums at the top of search results, and building in preferential treatment for websites that are updated often.

A quick look at the list of Alexa’s top websites in the U.S (full list below) confirms that 11 of the top 20 websites are hardcore social media sites. Click through the rest and you will find social media functionality on all of them.

This realization, coupled with the announcement earlier this year that if Facebook was a country, it would be fourth largest country in the world, and similar stats from other top social media sites (the average online video viewer watches over 6 hours of online video per month), confirms that social media is indeed the mothership of your customer's online experience.

So why do companies insist on giving the social media team their own lunch table? We’re nice people – really. In fact, our shining personalities are critical success factors in representing your brand in social media. So why can’t we play with others? Your .com team, e-commerce folks, CRM manager, search and digital agencies, there are plenty of people who would find our jokes funny.

And why stop there? Successful social media campaigns do not exist in a vacuum. They are integrated to the Nth degree. They are cross-linked from your homepage, integrated into the email design of your loyalty program, noted in the boiler plate on your press releases, displayed as hyperlinks on your TV spots, painted on the side of your trucks, incorporated into your executives’ speeches, printed on your print collateral or packaging, and more. Social media is now the most ubiquitous and most volatile element of your brand.

In social media, your customers are shaping what your brand means every single day. Often times, you can help shape that conversation by giving them assets and direction. So why is your social media team playing with their own set of blocks while the rest of your organization marches to the same beat? In few other places is consistency and coordination so important.

Below are the three reasons why most companies keep their social media team in a vacuum and what you should do about them:

1. We don’t understand social media so we don’t think it’s related to anything else we do.

a. Get educated. Lean on your social media team to teach the rest of your organization and make the learning hands-on and mandatory.

2. Social media is the wild west and our social media team is a bunch of renegade cowboys.

a. Fire them. Social media is an important and serious marketing discipline. If you wouldn’t hire the professionals managing your social media as Communications professionals, don’t hire them for social media.

3. Social media is too hot right now. Everyone wants a piece of the pie and I don’t want to step on any toes.

a. Man up. It’s time to decide who is going to be in charge of social media. Is it PR? Marketing? Digital agency? E-Commerce? A Social Media Expert? (please don’t). Decide who is running the show and then force all the other players into the same room and make the decision clear. Now we can all move forward with less jockeying for dollars and more discussions about how to make things a success.

Social media is too important to your brand and your customers to allow it to be derailed by any of these things. Your social media work needs to be integrated into everything else you do. Just as brand guidelines penetrate every level of your organization, so too should social media. Inconsistency here is often worse than not showing up at all.

Paul Dyer

Alexa.com Top 20 Sites in the U.S.