The problem isn't "too many clicks" — it's "too many wrong clicks".

On the cartoon show The Jetsons, Jane Jetson is a full-time housewife (although the show was set in the future, it was written in the ’60s). She would push a button, and a robot vacuum cleaner would pop out to clean the rug or mechanical arms would place a fully cooked meal onto the table. That is until, in one episode, she gets “buttonitis” — stress from pushing too many buttons. Ridiculous — or is it?

Why does Amazon.com have “one-click” shopping? Because they know that every click needed is one more chance for a consumer not to make the purchase. I almost always use specialized apps on my smart phone instead of going to the full website on the browser. Why? Because it saves me a click or two. In fact, with my phone’s new notification feature, I can get the weather, sports scores and emails with one swipe. I can’t be bothered with an extra click or two!

Which brings us to the Three Clicks Rule, a longstanding and often unquestioned website design rule that says users become frustrated and often leave a site if they can’t find their content in three clicks. But now there are usability tests that show this isn’t true. In fact, there was little difference in user satisfaction or retention between three clicks and 12 clicks. So, does the number of clicks matter or not? When we delve deeper into the data, it becomes clear that it’s the quality of clicks that affects user satisfaction the most. The frustration comes from clicks that lead to wrong paths or dead ends. This often gets translated as “too many clicks” when, in reality, it’s “too many wrong clicks.”

As website designers and marketers, we drive consumers on a path to a specific action. Success comes when the path is short, clearly defined and free from obstacles. That’s why we rarely direct consumers to a website’s homepage anymore. There are usually too many choices, too many opportunities for confusion and too many potentially wrong paths. More often, we recommend creating landing pages, microsites or mobile apps for each marketing campaign. Unique URLs enable us to track the success and ROI of the individual campaigns. And users instantly get exactly what they are looking for, which leads to higher user satisfaction and extraordinary success rates.

Like most so-called “laws” of marketing and design, the Three Clicks Rule just doesn’t work, yet is invaluable in its intent. Its worth lives on and will only become more important in this smart phone and tablet era, where instant online gratification is demanded. Besides, who needs a bad case of “buttonitis?”

There are huge advantages to using a CMS, but some of these features also bring disadvantages.

As a Technical Director at AB&C, I'm mainly involved in the technical production for our web projects — from landing pages for specific campaigns to websites for hospital systems. For the last few years, we’ve been doing much of this production in a content management system (CMS), a web-based application that enables us to give our clients design templates that they can fill in with text and pictures.

There are huge advantages to using a CMS, such as out-of-the-box features like page/document management, search indexing, etc. But these features also bring downsides into play:

1.    Designing and building a site in a CMS requires a lot of overhead, which we accept because of the benefits down the line. For example, a CMS makes adding new pages easier and faster.

2.    While a CMS makes it easy to do things like add pages and edit text, it can make it difficult to modify designs or change how the site functions.

3.    Many of our clients aren’t comfortable editing their sites and either ask us to help or turn the whole thing back over to us. When we end up making the updates, we find ourselves wishing the CMS wasn’t there so we could just “make the changes directly” instead of spending time getting the CMS to do what we want.

4.    Pages created within a CMS using basic text and pictures tend to be boring and poorly formatted when viewed on a mobile device.

For large sites that are content-heavy and require multiple users to make changes, a CMS is a necessity and the costs are worth it. For sites that don’t have those requirements, a CMS can be a burden.

Performance

Due to the nature of the CMS, it can be difficult or impossible to do certain optimizations that affect the speed of the website.

Speed is important because search engines like Google ranks fast sites over slow sites. Google is all about making the web faster (the faster you browse, the more searching you’ll do; the more searching you do, the more ads they can sell — have you ever wondered why Google has its own browser?). So if all other factors were equal between website A and website B, the faster of the two is likely to receive a higher Page Rank. Website speed also affects consumer behavior. Even a slightly slower site can result in fewer conversions and higher abandon rates.

It also turns out that much of the real and perceived speed of a website doesn’t have to do with how fast the Internet connection or the servers are, which version of the latest browser you’re using, or even how fast your CMS is, but with how the web pages themselves are constructed.

There are some trivial and not-so-trivial techniques that ensure web pages load as quickly as possible, and working around a CMS can put some of these out of reach.

So what?

Because of the four downsides mentioned above as well as the performance aspect, we’ve been choosing more frequently not to use a CMS. It’s often overkill for the website at hand, and without it we can make changes to the site more quickly and further optimize some of the technical components that help pages load faster. We can respond more quickly to change requests from our clients, it’s faster to make basic edits to the text, and the faster page load speed is appreciated by visitors and search engines alike.

An example

We recently built a website for an international commercial truck manufacturer. It seemed like a good candidate for a CMS: it is mostly a set of pages, it needed to be available in multiple languages and it had regularly changing content (press releases).

We chose to build the site without a CMS and bolt in basic CMS-like functionality for some key areas like press releases. The end product was a hybrid: content editors can manage press releases and dealer information, but the landing pages and other marketing content stays with the designers.

We addressed the four downsides:

1.    Overhead and costs are lower.

2.    It’s easy to adjust designs and functionality.

3.    Content can be changed quickly.

4.    Content is presented in more compelling way across all devices.

And the site is super-quick with sub-second page loads, pages and content optimized for search engines and every other trick we could find to make the site as fast as possible.

What does this mean for you?

For your next web project or website update, consider whether or not you really need a CMS. Maybe you should let your web/marketing team or agency handle that for you. I know — it’s tough to let go of that control. But the solution will probably be more portable and easier to change, the costs will likely be the same (or lower), and your website will be faster and present its content in a more compelling way. Most important, you’ll be able to focus less on making edits and more on your core business.

"Cyberspace Rules of the Road" PSA

OK, I’m not embarrassed to admit it. I enjoy watching Disney Channel’s Phineas and Ferb with my 7- and 10-year-old. There, I said it. I’m a grown woman and I still like watching cartoons.

For those of you who haven’t seen the show, it follows two stepbrothers on summer vacation. Each day the boys embark on some grand new project. Their controlling older sister, Candace, spends the day trying to bust them. Joining them each episode and creating a subplot is their pet, Perry the Platypus, A.K.A. Agent P, a secret agent who fights an evil scientist named Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz. At the end, the two plots intersect to erase all traces of the boys’ project just before Candace can show it to their mother.

OK, enough about the show. There is a point to this blog. Disney recently launched a new Phineas and Ferb PSA designed to educate kids on “Cyberspace Rules of the Road.” Once again, Disney has managed to simplify a complicated message and fit it into a one-minute cartoon that sums it all up for kids (and adults).

Although businesses probably need a little more detail to their social media policies, this PSA is a good start and a great reminder to keep it simple. According to the boys, if it’s not something you’d say to your mom, you probably shouldn’t put it on the Internet.

Check out the link, share it with your kids, and share it with your employees. Maybe you too will become an unabashed fan of Phineas and Ferb!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4Qd1WVRctc

Everyone "likes" a good deed

Barb and I spent an amazing weekend in New York last month. We saw a lot of shows, including one at Carnegie Hall. Later, while enjoying dinner across the street, we realized our camera had slipped out of Barb’s purse while we were watching the show. We called Carnegie Hall and they told us they’d keep an eye out for it. We called again the next morning, but no luck. So we told ourselves, eh, it was an old camera and we wanted a new one anyway.

Cut to several days later. I receive a message on Facebook from someone I don’t recognize: “…my husband works at Carnegie Hall and recently found a camera. While scrolling through the photos I noticed that there were photos from a baptism. As luck would have it someone took a photo of the certificate listing the parents’ names and Godparents’ names. That is where you come in, you are the Godfather at this baptism.”

Now, I may appear to be a crusty old curmudgeon on the surface, but most people know I’m pretty mushy underneath. It blew my mind that someone would go to the trouble of reaching out to a stranger to return an item she could’ve easily kept. And how cool is it that she found me on Facebook? Finally, social media has been put to good use! I replied that Barb and I were incredibly grateful for her honesty and generosity and wanted to compensate her for the postage. I’m holding the note she enclosed with the camera: “No need to reimburse me. I am just happy to return it to its rightful owner. You can pay it forward...do something nice for a stranger! Enjoy your holidays!”

So Facebook has redeemed itself in this grump’s eyes for having some social value. More important, the human race may have some hope after all.

The AB&C Twitter Team

The AB&C Twitter team recently went to the #deltweet event at Firestone, a quarterly (ideally) networking event for Delaware tweeters. Nine of our tweeters attended the event, one of whom attended virtually via tweets, following the team and the deltweet hashtag. We kept @ChrisMarts updated and entertained while he lay sick in bed. “Oh @ABCadvertising twitter team, I feel like I am there (#deltweet) reading all your tweets,” he replied. Sure, we wished he were there — “hey @ChrisMarts The tweet team will miss you at #deltweet” — but it was nice to be able to include him via the channel that brought us all together.

There was a pretty good showing — 81 on the RSVP list — and everyone’s name tag included their Twitter handle. People came for many reasons: to grab a beer, to meet the tweeters that they follow in person, to win something (@BessDenney and @cdberta won!), to meet people with similar interests, or to do some good old-fashioned networking. While @heycraigbrown jokingly tweeted, “#deltweet is this real life?” the team’s friends and family didn’t quite understand what a tweetup is. But a tweetup is just like any other networking event — it’s a way to bring a community of people that have similar interests or professions together. And Twitter is just another catalyst — and you can make what you want of it.

How much do online marketers really know about you?

“How did Facebook advertisers know I think James Franco is hot?”

Have you ever wondered if Google employees read your email? You’re not alone. Audience targeting in online advertising may seem creepy when you don’t understand how it works. And it’s even more threatening when the investigation of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! by data-protection agencies across the world is all over the headlines.

Let’s clear the air. No, online marketers do not know your name or address. And no, we don’t have a Jack Bauer operation seeking compromising information that we can turn around and sell to advertisers. Nor do we know the details of your skinny-dipping rendezvous that you emailed your best friend about, or that you’re searching for information about basophobia because your couch potato syndrome has taken a turn for the worse. So, next time you see an online advertisement that seems so perfect for you that you could have written it yourself, don’t worry — nobody’s watching you or reading your emails word for word.

Instead, take a moment to thank marketers for saving you time and energy searching for the right products and services. We categorize people based on their trail of “cookie” crumbs (the websites they visit) and show them things they like — or at least what we think they will like.

Just think. There are people out there thinking about you — not you, Fred Dewlap of Wilmington, but you who visited ESPN.com, NYTimes Health and MensFitness.com and typed “workouts for men” into the search query field on Google.com. Those people, online marketers, are offering suggestions and tips about things you might be interested in. You might even call them your online friends.

The next time you’re totally freaked out that ads for cheap replacement phones flood your screen five minutes after you flushed your IamaGeniusPhone down the toilet, breathe easy. There’s not a peeping Tom outside your bathroom window. The ad could have been displayed because the sites you frequent place you in the “New Tech Geek” audience segment. Or because the IamaGeniusPhone advertisers bought related keywords that you used when you emailed your buddy your tale of misfortune (the system auto-displayed the ad). Go ahead, click on the ad and check out your options, ’cause hey, could online marketers be any more on target?

So no, Google employees are not reading your email. Nor will they whisper targeted messages in your ear while you’re on your cell phone. C’mon, if China can let Google search back in, you can give online marketers a try.

MINI introduces new technology

Clear concise data visualization can truly be a game-changer. The difficulty comes in finding the best way to present your KPIs in a way that is quickly and easily digested.

To celebrate 50 years of motoring mayhem, MINI has introduced Mission Control as part of its limited-edition Camden package. In their words: “By bringing the engine, HVAC and central systems to life via three distinct personalities, Mission Control sets the stage for the future of motoring.” Yes, they have moved the dashboard from eye-level to ear-level, letting you keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel.

Mission Control is MINI’s first stab at a useful (while still somewhat cute and quirky) voice-based presentation of car functions by either providing new information or duplicating operating information from the physical dashboard via three unique voices within the car; one personality for the engine, one for the HVAC and one for the central systems. And just like in real life, the three do interact with each other.

This is approach is almost like a mash-up of the Corvette HUD and a standard voice-based GPS system:  audio-only, but represents operating data in a way that lets you keep your eyes on the road in front of you.

The future of Mission Control? MINI has stated that this is only round one of the technology, with voices and personalities easily updated. So can we expect Mike Rowe telling you that you’re nuts for attempting that grade in your F-150 Raptor? Only time will tell.

Boosting sales via social media

Delaware-based Dogfish Head has a recipe for success both in the kettle and in the marketplace. According to Nielsen Co., the brewery spent a mere $2,000 on traditional media in 2008, and nothing in 2009. So what are they doing?

Founder Sam Calagione has found a nice mix of limited-release beers, such as the Miles Davis–inspired Bitches Brew; pairing advice (something usually associated with wine); and encouragement of fandom and brand advocacy by being very active within the craft brew community, constantly spreading the gospel.

The Dogfish Head team explained their choice to us like this: “Social media is a great way for us to connect with our customers & talk beer.” And connect they do, with close to 20,000 followers on Twitter alone.

And how is the craft brewer faring? The approach is definitely working: in 2009, Dogfish Head sold 97,000 barrels, giving them a 29% year-over-year increase with zero dollars spent in traditional media.

Learning the do's and don'ts of Twitter

I’m not going to lie. When I was asked to attend the 2010 TWTRCON Twitter for Business conference in NYC, I thought, “Seriously? A conference for Twitter?” I mean, how hard is it to string together 140 characters as an update? Why on earth is there a full conference on this stuff? What’s the big deal?

The answer is actually fairly simple: Twitter is a way to connect with people with whom you normally wouldn’t be able to connect. It’s a simultaneous content feed that allows tweeters to get new information and updates and read about what’s going on within their industry or social network. @MrShri says “Facebook is people you went to school with, Twitter is people you wished you went to school with.” It’s why so many people follow famous brands — because they can! And those brands better be on board.

If I wasn’t sure before this conference how big of a deal Twitter is, especially for businesses, I am now. Especially after Martha Stewart (@marthastewart) appeared as the keynote speaker. That’s right. Martha Stewart of the Martha Stewart empire. Who knew she was a tweeting expert? She has almost 2 million followers on Twitter and saw that the conference was packed with eager tweeters waiting to hear the media mogul talk about her social media experience and how it has affected her brand.

As Martha pointed out, your brand needs to share its own voice and personality through tweets. And that’s important: Twitter can be a machine pumping out information, or it can be a means to connect on a human level. Read more of Martha’s insights here.

Twitter is still new and businesses are still trying to figure out how to use it effectively for their own purposes. TWTRCON provided guidelines for just that. And, whether or not you ever become an expert, Twitter is here to stay — that is, until the next social medium arrives. So make sure your business is a part of the conversation and make sure that its personality shows through.

Become involved (and strategic) with social media.

Fear is a terrible thing. Especially when it causes healthcare systems to back away from using a potentially powerful communications tool. When it comes to using social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter, healthcare systems tend to fall into two categories. The first suffers from significant fear regarding negative feedback that may come from using such tools. This group also struggles with how much time it will take to make this a successful venture. The second group is “gung-ho” and jump into the pool before they check to make sure it’s been filled with water.  This group tends to throw every possible press release, article and “approved” message they can find onto their social media channels, only to realize  they’ve created a one-way conversation.

There is a better way.

You wouldn’t run a cardiology advertising campaign without putting together a strategy. You wouldn’t invest in a web banner advertising campaign without determining key messages. Why is social networking any different? Everyone knows how large Facebook has become. We know that Ashton Kutcher has millions of Twitter followers. We know that healthcare executives are hearing the buzz and don’t want to miss out.

Items to consider before you get started.
1. Define goals. Be specific and make them related to interactions, not followers
2. Establish channels. Certain sites will work better for different messages.
3. Define internal and external resources. Who can help provide good content for your channels?
4. Integrate existing materials. Chances are you are already doing community-based events. Why not promote them?
5. Prepare for the worst, even though you probably won’t need it. Commit to a customer service model for any negative comments that are made. Resolve to help make situations better, not to censor.
6. Dedicate time. Social networking is just like live networking. If you’re not in the room you can’t have a conversation. But that doesn’t mean it should fall on only one person’s shoulders.

So, before you get started, get strategic. Get creative in how you use and measure your successes. Most important—end the silence.

Creating a customized online risk assessment

So how do you get a cardiovascular campaign to stand out above the clutter when there are more than 50 hospitals flooding the market with similar messages? How do you engage consumers to come to your website and sign up for your marketing materials? How do you get people to realize that they’re at risk for heart disease and proactively seek out a cardiologist in your health system?

These are all questions we were asked by The Chester County Hospital (TCCH) marketing team and questions we asked ourselves as we developed marketing recommendations for their cardiovascular service line.  Our answer was to develop an online risk assessment that would determine an individual’s risk level for heart disease.

But this assessment needed to be different from the templated ones that could be bought from other companies. It needed to be customized and reflect the TCCH brand.  It needed to have evidence-based questions and it needed to promote and link to the system’s monthly screenings and community outreach programs. It also needed a personal component that offered a resource to individuals at high risk.

After several planning sessions and a month of programming, Heart Tracks emerged. This customized online heart risk assessment was built with the marketing and Cardiovascular teams at TCCH, and provides a custom report that links the individual’s risk factors to TCCH programs and services. Those who are at high risk can request a personal consult with the TCCH cardiac nurse navigator and if necessary, have an appointment immediately scheduled with a TCCH cardiologist.

Backed by a comprehensive advertising campaign, this initiative has been hugely successful with more than 1,500 people completing the assessment, 300 people signing up for TCCH marketing materials, 20 scheduled appointments with a TCCH cardiologist and an appearance on the cover of a leading health care marketing publication. All of this in less than three months!

Can mobile media compete with the jumbotron?

These days, it seems like everyone is asking whether something is about to kill something else: "Will html5 kill flash?" "Will the iPad kill Kindle?"

So, with tongue firmly in cheek, I thought, "I gotta get in on this killing spree."

In my daily romp through my normal news sites, I stumbled upon an article about a guy named Fred Ehrhart who is taking advantage of online marketing's incredible targeting capabilities to ask a question usually reserved for jumbotrons, billboards and banners being towed behind airplanes: "Will you marry me?" The ads are all long gone, but they directed his potential bride and anyone else who clicked to this landing page.

He asked visitors to "Please post to your Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and anything else you can with the Hash tag #SayYesD and tell your friends to do the same. Link back to this page and show people my list so they can understand how much I love Dalila. We are going to aggregate all your messages and show Dalila how many people think she should say yes."

To answer my own question in the headline, I doubt that mobile devices can ever compete with the thrill of seeing yourself on the big screen at a ball game. So, don't be afraid of these technologies. They're not killers, they're facilitators of true love.

Spoiler alert: she said yes.

On a side note, his approach was also a lot safer than this. Ouch.

Finding the right social media tool.

My husband is a carpenter, so he’s into tools. As a social media guru, so am I. Whenever we come up with a project, we immediately start thinking about what tools we have and what we may need to buy. We’ll scour yard sales, flea markets and the Internet to find just the right compound miter saw or three-phase plasma cutter — often to the detriment of the job itself.

Though perhaps not as exotic as a four-foot finger brake or Pittsburgh lock-seam hammer, the most exciting social media tool is video. Healthcare professionals are learning to take advantage of video along with everything else in their toolbox, as this online marketing blog explains. Surgeons have used Twitter, for example, to tweet out live procedures from the O.R. — the first being a surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from someone’s kidney. Universities such as Stanford are using video on Facebook for question-and-answer sessions between professors and students. Mainstream media is now plugging into social media for obvious reasons — mainly because they know their audiences are plugged in.

Roughly nine out of ten patients who get information online learn from watching videos, which enable them to ask their doctors more insightful questions about procedures. And while you can find a video on Twitter, clicking on it redirects you to a new page. TwitVid is a new service created by Twitter for just this purpose. As with YouTube, TwitVid allows you to create and post your own videos, but this service is so new that you may end up watching hours of footage showcasing little Billy’s puppy and the new tricks he learned this morning.

While videos are used on Facebook to teach medical professionals and students, they also reach consumers. Of course, you may be redirected from Facebook to YouTube, which is riding a huge wave of credibility. Facebook enables you to network with just a click and little effort. You can truly be a people-watcher, and still gain a massive amount of information in a passive manner.

So now when I sit down at my computer every morning, I can share with all my healthcare clients all the new tools available to them — the most important being video. The transparency that video offers can deliver an enlightened, interactive and highly engaged audience. And while it’s no Pittsburgh lock-seam hammer, video can carry us into the future of social media.

Is Twitter dead?

Every once in a while you’ll see an article asking “Is Twitter Dead?” even suggesting that if you’ve been avoiding Twitter as part of a “non-strategy,” it may be paying off!

The problem with that perspective is that Twitter is not a strategy. It’s not even a tactic. It’s a channel!

The strategy (and ultimately your goal) is usually specific to your organization so it’s hard to discuss. But we can identify a general growing audience: people who create and consume information, wherever and whenever, with increased frequency, increased brevity and often with groups of people (as opposed to one other person).

Think about how different that is from something that predates even e-mail: writing letters.

Letters were typically infrequent, long, tied to a physical location and timetable, and were exchanged between two individuals. We’re at the exact opposite of that now with text messages, status updates and micro-blogging in general.

As marketers, we need to be comfortable in these mediums so we can reach these consumers. Strategies to accomplish this include:
* Increase the frequency of communication with your brand consumers
* Drastically decrease the length of each communication
* Use more conversational language
* Enable consumers to respond or participate in the conversation
* Enable consumers to do this wherever they choose (e-mail, web, mobile phone, etc.)

Now, three questions: how much of your audience wants to communicate this way, what channel do they want it on and what information are they interested in?

Answer those questions and you’re on your way to some solid tactics.

One of those tactics may involve Twitter — a good channel to address the strategies above. But if Twitter dies, it doesn’t mean you were wrong, it just means people are moving to a different micro-blogging channel, and you should find out what that is and get involved.

Watch out for marketers who don’t have a firm grasp on the difference between goals, strategies, tactics and channels. Misunderstanding these components of a marketing plan can lead you down the wrong path.

Do you care to watch them...24/7?

Remember the premise of what was arguably the grandaddy of all reality TV shows? “This is the true story... of seven strangers... picked to live in a house...work together and have their lives taped... to find out what happens... when people stop being polite... and start getting real...The Real World.”

New web reality series If I Can Dream (from American Idol creator Simon Fuller), which launched on Tuesday, March 2, takes that premise even further. It follows five aspiring artists live 24/7 on ificandream.com and in a weekly recap on Hulu.

The five hopefuls live together in a spacious Los Angeles home outfitted with 60 cameras following their every move. Viewers can engage with the cast members and the show in real time via Twitter, MySpace and blogs, and can select which camera feed they’d like to view. The contestants can even log on to their own computers and spy on their roommates down the hall.

As part of the series, celebrity mentors will come in to help the hopefuls in their quest for the Hollywood dream. Once they land a job and exit the house, a new aspiring artist will be chosen by viewers via MySpace auditions. What do you think? Worth checking out or a waste of time?

Even Barbie uses social media.

The 50-plus doll was once limited to traditionally “feminine” career choices such as ballerina, model, teacher or nurse. As times changed and women threw off their shackles (did Barbie ever even have a bra to burn?), her options expanded: paratrooper, paleontologist, pilot and even President of the United States.

Now, for the first time ever, loyal Barbie fans were asked to help her choose her 125th career for the “I Can Be” doll series by voting on the following: architect, computer engineer, environmentalist, news anchor or surgeon. Twitter followers and fans on Facebook voted for News Anchor Barbie — she’ll be available this fall. The social media campaign was such a success that fans insisted on choosing Barbie’s 126th career, computer engineer, coming in winter.

Barbie used her Twitter account (@BarbieStyle) to keep the conversation going with her followers.

Barbie: Secret agent? Publicist? Electrical engineer? Heartin’ your suggestions, dolls! @marielcisneros @sticktomyguns @rocquel74

This helped validate the suggestions people offered and kept the hype up about her next career. Barbie also sent out announcements through Facebook:

Barbie: I can’t believe it’s only one more week ’til I get my new dream job! Gosh, I better hit the beach and soak up the fun while I can…

Even with her new careers determined, The Barbster is still engaging with consumers and fans:

Barbie: This just in: I’m still deciding on a perfectly doll-tastic nightly news sign off…Suggestions?

Looks like Barbie is going to have a busy year. But not to worry — she’ll make time to keep in touch with her fans through Twitter and Facebook between reporting the news and developing the next big technology for computers.

My goal: be a better blogger.

So I am beginning to get it—this whole social media thing. I threatened to quit Facebook earlier this year…but didn’t. It’s still too intriguing to me. And yes, it is fun to connect with old friends and business associates…even some distant relatives have touched base.

So here is my commitment to myself and my company and many acquaintances—I will become a better (meaning simply a more involved and more active) blogger in 2010. Alright, this is my promise to all of you…I’ll start thinking about why you read blogs and what’s important to you. Why did you stop here? Curious about the agency? Our work? Our clients? Our staff? Or are you really that interested in me? I doubt that it’s all about me. My posts will be about what would interest you…not just what interests me. And hopefully that keeps you coming back to read new content.

Domino's - an example of social media success

If you missed the first part, check it out here.

Now for the good: a coworker in our PR department had an experience in which FedEx missed a next-day delivery. She decided to voice her frustration by tweeting, “FedEx really expletive deleted on me today.” Within 30 minutes, she got a retweet from FedexAl asking if he could help. This small effort from FedEx customer service immediately turned her from disgruntled to impressed.

An even better example would be Domino’s Pizza.

After the black eye Domino’s received earlier this year when a YouTube video of two employees defiling the food got national media attention, the company could have easily cowered in fear of social networks. A Facebook ad for Domino’s caught my attention. Partly because they pulled user content into the ad to point out that my friend Les had participated in their survey.

I clicked the video in the ad and, wow, what a bold move in spin control and using the social networks to listen and react. Domino’s took the general negative sentiment about the quality and taste of their pizza and used it as the focus of their new Pizza Turnaround campaign.  The site even has a live Twitter feed flowing in all comments positive and negative. Now, thoroughly intrigued, I decided to try the new pizza instead of just blogging about it. The whole process is so well done, I may just have to make my next post about everything Domino’s is doing online, and what I thought of the new pie (it should be here any minute).

As for the bad, there are too many examples to cite, and I don’t want to point fingers unnecessarily. I’ll just call them the people standing on chairs shouting over the conversation at the party. Anyone who is doing social network promotions without a predetermined strategy because somehow they heard that they should would fall into this category.

So, if you are considering getting into social network marketing, make sure you have a plan. Here is a helpful chart that lays out the types of things that can be achieved on the social networks. Once you have decided which ones fit your plan, then assess which networks will best help you accomplish your goals. And, as always, if you need some guidance, we’re here to help.

Sears - an example of social media failure.

Everyone seems to be buzzing about Social Networks and how to take advantage of them for marketing purposes. It is a great opportunity for companies to join a conversation that’s already taking place rather than trying to start a new one. As with any conversation, you have to listen. Imagine walking into a crowded party and just starting to talk about things that interest you without bothering to figure out the current topic of the conversation. How would people react?

Here is my step-by-step guide to getting into the social networking fray.

1. Plan: Before getting involved, ask yourself, “What are my business goals and how do I plan on measuring them?” Only then can you develop a plan to make social media a part of that success.
2. Listen: Begin monitoring the current conversations to find out if people are talking about you and what they’re saying.
3. Evaluate: Is there a prevailing positive or negative tone to the existing conversations?
4. Engage: Social networks can be a great opportunity for customer service, as you’ll see in the examples below.
5. Promote: The final—I repeat, final—step of playing in the social network sandbox is promotion of your goods or services. Once you are a part of the conversation, then you can start changing its direction.

Now for some examples, I’ll start with the ugly: a recent encounter with the Sears service department regarding my washing machine. I won’t bore you with the gory details of the electronic problems that are still ongoing. What I found to be interesting was a Google search I did when looking for their phone number.

To begin my search, I typed “sears service” into the search field. The first result, as you would expect, was Sears.com. It was the second result, right before service.sears.com, that really caught my eye: a YouTube video entitled “Sears Service Sucks”. Since this summed up my mood at the time, I clicked it first. A video of a very disgruntled fella in the same boat as myself then went on a rant about his experience.

“So what? What difference does one guy ranting make?” you might ask. Well, this video has been online for more than two years and continues to gather steam. It has over 44,000 views and most traffic is coming from searches for “Sears,” “Sears service” and “Sears repairs,” with another significant chunk of action coming virally. Sears has missed a gigantic opportunity to make things right with one consumer and change the conversation that’s happening online.

So, our interactive department did a little social network survey to see how Sears is doing now. We found the current conversation dominated by people looking for do-it-yourself advice or seeking reliable local repair people with occasional complaints about the products. Daily opportunities for customer service and sales of Sears’ repair program continue to go by unnoticed.

Read more in part 2 (coming tomorrow).

Applying strategy is critical to social media success.

99 ways to use Twitter?

There are plenty of articles on the Internet that outline the 17 ways to use Twitter or the 32 ways to use Facebook. If your approach to social media has been to start with these types of articles, you may be focusing too quickly on tactics without an appropriate social media strategy. Tactics without a strategy are particularly bad because they often end up being ineffective, hard to measure and mask real opportunities a more strategic version of the tactic may provide.

Because social media tools are so accessible and seemingly easy to use, a planning/strategy phase is often skipped, perhaps also in part because the realm of social media seems so complex. Because there is no clear place to begin, there is a tendency to start with tactics, a fatal mistake.

How to approach the problem

One technique for approaching a problem that seems complex is to break it down into a series of simpler problems. This is a great approach when it comes to the social media landscape. Instead of looking at a list of 50 ways to use Twitter, it makes more sense to look at a smaller list of ways to use social media in general.

Such a list might look like this.

In fact, you’ll find that any social media strategy probably consists of several of the leaf nodes in this diagram being used in various channels. (For the purposes of this discussion, a social media “channel” is Facebook or a blog or Twitter).

Your challenge then is to identify:

1. the kind of information your organization has or can generate, ideally something conversational
2. the types of people you’re trying to reach through social media
3. the items from the diagram above that can be used to put that information from step (1) in front of those audiences in step (2)
4. the appropriate channel for each item in step (3)

Now, just because we have a plan of attack doesn’t mean this is necessarily an easy or straightforward task. The best social media strategies look easy in hindsight but have usually been cooked up with some outside-the-box thinking. The above map is not a magic wand, but it is a starting point.

Examples, please!

Let’s look at a real-world example. Imagine your real estate agent. There may be a temptation for him to jump straight to tactics and use Twitter to post listings. After all, he has listing information (this is his product) and Twitter is easy to sign up for. Plus, this is on the map under Sales/Marketing --> Product announcement. We’re in good shape, right?

Well, Sales/Marketing on the diagram has a red flag on it. That red flag means if you’re only using something from that category, you may be on the wrong track. In this case, our real estate agent’s listings probably aren’t that useful to most people (who only wants to see the listings from a single real estate agent?), it’s not very conversational (what would people say back to him about a listing?) and he’ll probably find he won’t get a lot of followers.

Even worse would be to have a Facebook page where he is re-posting the exact same listings. Now he has a situation where even if a person were to be interested in those listings, it’s not in their interest to follow him on Twitter and be a fan on Facebook because then they’ll just get the same information twice. As silly as that sounds, we see this all the time.

Lesson learned: Directly promoting your product or service on as many social media channels as possible is not a good strategy because it abuses your potential followers and misses the whole “social” part of social media. You’re not listening, you’re just talking. And you’re saying the same thing in multiple places. And nobody cares.

This can take many forms including using Twitter to post links to your press releases or using Facebook to post links to your blog posts. I’m not suggesting never doing that but only doing that puts you in the PR category on the diagram and it, too, has a red flag. Oops.

Okay, give me a better idea.

This real estate agent has a problem, however… Aren’t the listings the only content he has? Possibly, but remember the first step is to identify the kind of information your organization has or can create. The listings may be the only content he has at hand. Grabbing whatever information you already have and using social media as a one-way channel (outward) is a missed opportunity.

This is where the strategizing comes in. What about creating a tips/tricks list for homeowners? (See the map above under Educational --> Tips/Tricks). This could include reminders to disconnect your plastic hose fittings in the winter so they don’t crack or money-saving tips for efficient energy use. Maybe it’s one tip a week and every once in a while he throws in a property listing (Sales/Marketing --> Product announcement) or an open house announcement (Notifications --> Events/Reminders).

Now this real estate agent has something useful he is providing to his clients. All of his existing clients would potentially be interested and he’d stay top of mind when they’re looking to sell or buy or even just make a referral to somebody else: “You should use my real estate agent. I follow him on twitter and he’s got great homeowner tips.” This takes the form of branding (Topics/Issues --> Brand related) and on top of that, he gets his listings and open houses in the mix. He’s now using five concepts from the diagram!

Plus, followers who have tips of their own can reply to him which means (a) the rest of his followers benefit from the tip (“Comments” from the Social category on the diagram) and (b) he can file it away later to use next year (a form of Research on the diagram). Wow – we’ve got seven nodes covered on the diagram, only a couple are red-flagged and a real social media strategy is taking form!

Hopefully you can see the difference this approach can make. Obviously there are issues like staffing and creative elements and ongoing maintenance and monitoring but try this process with your organization or give us a call and we can walk you through it.

Soon, you can search within your circle of friends.

We can get overwhelmed sifting through blogs and online discussions. That’s why we turn to our social circle for recommendations. But our friends also have several social network accounts and each one has a lot of information. So how do we keep track of it all?

Don’t fret, fellow social butterflies: Google is developing Social Search. It enables users to add their networking profiles to a Google account and see search results filtered and prioritized based on their circle of friends. This means that we can turn to our social circle first when filtering results on the web. For instance, if I wanted to research restaurants in my area, results from my trusted social circle would appear more prominently in my search.

Click here for an overview of Google Social Search.

How much time are you spending online?

There was a very interesting study released by Harris Interactive showing that web users are online an average of 13 hours per week. This is a slight dip from the same observed period in 2008 where they saw average users online for 14 hours per week. The major change? In 2008, 43% of users were online at work. In 2009, that dipped to 40%.

Harris tracks use at home, at work and at what they list as “other location.” Online at Home and Online at Work have both seen Year-Over-Year growth since the study began in 1995, with this being the first year they have seen a dip for the Online at Work category. A simple explanation may be that there are fewer people at work this year then there were last year.

Beyond that, the study is a very interesting look at the growth within the last two years in the amount of time users spend online. In 2006, that number was 9 hours. 2007 saw 11 hours. 2008 and 2009 saw an average of 13.5 hours spent online per week. Even more interesting is the fact that this time does not include time spent on email.

Another interesting takeaway from the study is subject audience itself. Harris Poll culled this data from 2,029 men and women aged 18 and over through phone surveys. It would be very interesting to know if these were randomly selected phone numbers, since landline use across the globe has been dramatically decreasing. Nielsen reported in September 2008 that nearly 20% of all households in the US do not even have a landline, effectively removing them from Harris Poll’s eligible subject group. This group also scores high for broadband web use, pointing to a population of web users that have been potentially ignored by the Harris Polls study.

Putting social networking to work...literally.

Yammer is a simple way for employees to connect and share by posting messages. As more employees participate, it becomes a corporate social network, discussion board and knowledge base. Yammer is like a combination of Facebook and Twitter. Your company can create a profile that mimics the look of Facebook: picture, wall posts/messages, an information page, etc. Your company also has a “network.” And the Yammer is protected, permitting only people from your company to join by requiring your company’s domain (@yourcompany.com). The homepage resembles Twitter — members of your company can post messages about what they’re working on or post questions to coworkers.

But what happens when employees start spending more and more time chatting on Yammer? Will it be a time-waster? Or a morale-booster? Only time will tell.

Creating a new way to Twitter for your business.

The “Contributors” feature from your friends at Twitter, currently in beta testing, will enable your company to have multiple contributors to its Twitter feed. Each Tweet will include the writer’s byline. In addition, “Contributors” promises two different levels of access: Enhanced and Partial.

Enhanced Access will allow contributors to view the account dashboard and it may include data and analytics about your Twitter feed, followers, etc. Partial Access allows them to write Tweets but not see the entire dashboard. Other business-specific features are in development as Twitter makes a concerted effort to address business needs. How will this change the Twitter game? Watch and see for yourself.

Twitter updates...brought to you by Saks Fifth Avenue and Microsoft.

As part of its legendary holiday display, Saks Fifth Avenue has partnered with Microsoft to put video screens, hooked up to computers, in its windows. The screens will display real-time tweets. When people use the #holidaywindows hash-tag on Twitter, their beaming tweets about Windows 7 (and their holiday wishes) will pop up in the Saks display. Hard-core Apple fans reportedly have tried to hijack the Twitter feed by writing anti-Microsoft tweets. But they aren’t getting through to the public. According to Microsoft, most negative tweets are being filtered out automatically. Plus, the company says, there’s a human backup.

Tweet now and see if you can reach New York’s holiday shoppers!

What happened to old-fashioned communication?

Remember “The Telephone Hour” from the early 1960s Broadway show and movie Bye Bye Birdie? The song depicted a teenager talking to a friend on the phone, then that friend talking to another, and so on. This was — and may still be for many Boomers — the quintessential method of communicating. One friend tells another a story, and then a third friend hears it from the second.

These days, many Boomers communicate via Facebook — its fastest-growing demographic is people over 45. I have embraced Facebook myself. I enjoy catching up with friends and family, seeing photos, learning what’s going on.

On the other hand, “embrace” is not the word I would use with Twitter. But because I am in the marketing/advertising industry and always try to keep up with the times, I recently made a commitment to engage in the conversation. So I went to my local library and checked out The Twitter Book, which promised to deliver “a bunch of sensible, down-to-earth material on using and enjoying Twitter.” The book has me trying to wrap my brain around “hashtags” and “tools for tracking trends” while generating click-throughs and sharing photos with “TwicPic.”

So, even as I am unavoidably assimilated into the social networking generation, I ask: if Mad Men can devote 10 minutes to Bye Bye Birdie, why can’t we all just pick up the phone when we want to engage in “ambient intimacy?”

Cast your vote for the AB&C blog.

Fuel Lines is a blog for ad agency new business, and every month it features the best ad agency blog. Each month’s winner is featured on Fuel Lines throughout the following month and is included in the voting for ad agency blog of the year. So click here and vote for AB&C’s blog as the best for October — and spread the word!

Social media is here to stay.

It’s all the buzz. Social media has exploded. It's everywhere. Some might say there is a revolution going on. Have you seen the YouTube video about this very topic? It has some very interesting statistics, such as:

• By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers.
• 96% of them have joined a social network.
• Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web.
• 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media.
• Facebook added 200 million users in less than 9 months.
• 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees.

Check it out for yourself.

Am I too old for Facebook?

So it’s no secret — I’m well into my 50s. I learned the basics using pencils with portable erasers that were the size of small Volkswagens. Eventually I graduated to relying on secretaries who used carbon paper. These same secretarial resources also made my thoughtful presentations come to life using some low-cost overhead projections. Then life got fancy and we all started using slides! The fax machine really changed the whole mindset though — I was suddenly able to “do my own faxes” (well, usually).
I’ve been able to stay abreast of all this change because for the past 30-plus years I have worked in the communications industry surrounded by lively, smart young people — all using the latest technology. But there have been personal influences as well — my 20-something daughters! Their school demanded that they own laptop computers starting in 8th grade!

So in the last two years along comes this opportunity called “social media.” Employees are (for the most part) abuzz, trade journals provide weekly updates and editorial positions on this thing called “social” and family is already there with Facebook. Hmmm. If 20-something daughters can chat with friends and show pictures, why can’t I? And after all, this is the business I’m in! So the combination of pressures was too great and with one nervous leap I was officially on Facebook. My first week on “The Book” was memorable. Tons of people were “on my wall,” others invited me to be their “friend” — what had we been up until then? I was tagged, blocked and God knows what else. And while all of this was memorable, it was not stimulating! Why?

1. Most of the early respondents were my daughters’ friends from high school! All nice kids, some were noticeably more mature but most were offering comments like, “Mr. G. — Cool to see that you are doing Facebook!” or “finally you’re on The Book — where is Mrs. G.?”
2. Most of the messages were weird “inside” jokes or outright dumb remarks.
3. Truthfully, to be “good” at this social media thing, you have to be on the edge of your computer as much of the day as possible and, quite frankly, I’d rather be on the golf course.

Please don’t misunderstand — I like technology and I love people. But The Book is too much for me. Besides which, golf is a very social game.

Don't mix texting and driving!

Of all the new media, texting has exploded in the last year and, together with its sibling, twittering, it may now come with a caution label attached. While many of us are accustomed to listening to the radio in the car, very few of us watch television in the driver’s seat. The logic is obvious, and yet many of us engage in texting behavior that defies that same logic.

According to The New York Times (7-18-09; 7-28-09), two studies have shown that this new media and driving don’t mix. A study conducted by Virginia Tech showed texting truckers (on actual runs) were 23 times more likely to have a crash, and a University of Utah study showed that college students (in simulators) were eight times more likely to crash.

About the same as cell phones, you say? The Times notes that drivers using cell phones are about four times more likely to cause a crash than other drivers — about the same impairment as drivers with a .08 percent blood alcohol level, the legal limit in many states.

So texting is anywhere from two to six times more dangerous than drunk driving. Why do we do it? As with most things, “I’m good at this — the other guy is the problem.” The 2009 Traffic Safety Culture Index study released last week by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety showed that nearly 90% of those surveyed said texting or emailing while driving was a very serious threat to safety, yet 18% of those same people admitted texting in the past month.

BTW: Both studies found that drivers really do get absorbed. The Times reported, “In the moments before a crash or near crash, drivers typically spent nearly five seconds looking at their devices — enough time at typical highway speeds to cover more than the length of a football field.”

So please, when you’re driving, put down your phone — and your makeup and your coffee!

Where is today's face-to-face communcation?

Much of what you read here in AB&C Blogland relates to technology. We offer our thoughts on the latest developments, trends and leaps forward in the rapidly advancing world of web connectivity. Things have reached the point where you can’t go too many places without spotting someone staring down at some sort of handheld device. Even my travel plans have been affected! It used to be that long car trips to client meetings meant there’d be time to catch up on the latest office gossip.

Not too long ago, we’d have a grand old time chatting it up about former employees, quirky clients and weird stuff lying by the side of the road. The vehicle’s driver would have a pocketful of change to make a pay phone call, if and when that need ever arose. Remember pay phones? But now, car trips mean catching up with others — electronically. Just last week, I rode shotgun to a client meeting with several coworkers. Instead of nonstop conversation as the car bounced down the road, there was silence — as my traveling companions furiously tweeted and texted away. It seems that everyone in America is staying in touch with each like never before — but sadly, not necessarily face-to-face.

The browser wars are back on!

Remember the browser wars of the late nineties? Half the online population thought “Netscape” actually was the Internet and Microsoft was just starting to take the Internet seriously.

Of course, Internet Explorer emerged the victor and whether you’re in the camp that faults Microsoft’s heavy-handed tactics or the camp that recognizes Netscape’s failure to innovate, there’s probably some truth in both.

But now the war is back on. Except it’s not a browser war, it’s a “rendering engine” war.

What’s a rendering engine?
So, a browser is a program on your computer that you use to access websites. You probably know this and that may seem simple but Google went to the streets recently and found many people don’t grasp that concept.

But the browser program is fundamentally just the window, the menus and buttons, your bookmarks, etc. What’s really running the show is the part of the browser that actually displays or “renders” the website, and that is called the rendering engine.

Internet Explorer’s rendering engine is called “Trident.”

From Netscape’s ashes sprung a rendering engine called “Gecko.” That’s what’s inside Firefox for the rapidly growing population of Firefox users out there (me included).

So those are two major browsers, er, rendering engines, in use. But what about Apple’s Safari? And the new kid on the block, Google Chrome? Two more browsers? Kind of. They both actually use the same rendering engine: an open-source software project called “WebKit.”

Each of these rendering engines is updated from time to time so we have different versions and frankly, these different rendering engines make it very difficult to develop websites and software for the web!

They are all supposed to work in roughly the same way but they each have their quirks and nuances and it’s often difficult to get them all to behave the same way. Particularly when your goal is to work on some of the older versions.

Let’s get back on topic: The first browser war was about features. The rendering engine wars are about performance. For the sake of accessibility, however, let’s keep the rendering engine in mind but switch back to talking about browsers because rendering engines just aren’t what people use directly.

This performance war centers around online web applications like Google Maps, Apple’s Mobile Me service, Facebook and countless others. To provide the interactive interfaces you’ve come to expect from these types of websites, the rendering engine in your browser needs to be able to work very quickly on things like “DOM parsing” and “JavaScript execution,” technical terms for “making stuff happen.”

When the rendering engine can’t keep up, things tend to be a little slower to transition — you might see animation that isn’t as smooth as it should be or other hesitations that detract from the task you are trying to accomplish.

Given Firefox’s rapid growth in market share, its ability to be extremely competitive (if not always the fastest) when it comes to performance and its add-on ecosystem, it’s hard not to crown it the best all-around browser.

Chrome and Safari seem to hang on primarily because they both use the same rendering engine, which by all accounts is well written from a software engineering perspective (the same engine also powers the iPhone browser); plus they have some niche markets like Macintosh users and Google junkies.

And what about Internet Explorer? In my opinion, it’s got the worst rendering engine. It has the most quirks, the worst performance, the worst standards compliance and the most “versions” in use. Don’t get me wrong — we develop web software almost exclusively on Microsoft’s platform so I’m not a Microsoft hater. But I’m also not an apologist: Their browser’s rendering engine sucks! They like to say you have to use a slow-motion camera to see the difference between their browser loading a page and some “other” browser loading the same page. But it’s not about loading CNN.com today. It’s about loading an immersive and interactive “search-as-you-type CNN.com news interactive web application” tomorrow. And I don’t mean tomorrow next year. I mean tomorrow tomorrow.

So the good news is that there is renewed competition in this space and while that’s a royal pain for web developers like myself, it’s good news for the future of the interactive web.

Website design requires a balance.

No matter what you design — from blue jeans to loveseats to SUVs — you have to strike a balance between form and function. Thanks to the patient counsel of my interactive colleagues over the years, I’ve learned that I can’t approach web design the same way I approach print and other media. The scales tip toward functionality, which is determined by the target audience and its needs.

User experience is the number-one priority. Of course a successful website should look good, but, more important, it has to answer the needs of the audience and bring value to the user. Complicated navigation and over-designed pages only distract and confuse the audience, driving them away from the site.

When it comes to web design, balancing form and function is critical. Your design has to be engaging, interesting and compelling, but you can’t overwhelm the user with superfluous bells and whistles. Know your audience; know their needs. Let that knowledge guide you.

New technology from Google to help ad agencies.

Google has long focused on empowering the consumer, evident in its easy-to-use self-serve tools. This focus is especially apparent to agencies trying to manage client AdWords/Analytics accounts (credit card–centric billing, max of 25 Analytics accounts per Google Account, flimsy integration of Webmaster Tools).

Google is taking steps to remedy this, however, with the launch of AgencyLand, a single repository for all agency info, including training, resources and news. It also gives the freedom to share certain relevant portal aspects with team members, enabling managers to share a piece of knowledge without bogging down employees with the whole pie.

Access requires an MCC customer ID (obviously) and an invite, since it’s a pilot offering.

A new look for Twitter.

In a need to monetize, Twitter has redesigned its homepage to make search front and center. The simple search box lets you search (duh), and below it is a ticker featuring three rows of popular topics, broken down by minute, day and week. “Popular topics by the minute” take precedence, and appear in a larger point size, indicating the general of-the-moment nature of tweets. Real pulse-of-the-marketplace info, especially if your market has a presence in the Twitterverse.

Paid search is next, folks. Give Twitter a few days (or weeks) to serve up this feature.

Everyone needs an advocate.

Imagine getting a blood test and never hearing from the doctor about the results so you assume everything is OK. Now fast-forward eight months — you’re paler and more bruised than usual so you go get more blood work. Then you wake up on your birthday and get a call from your doctor telling you to get to the emergency room. That’s exactly what happened to Matt Sheehan a month ago. After going to the ER at Hackensack University Medical Center, Sheehan learned he has a rare blood disorder — aplastic anemia. This means that the bone marrow does not make enough blood cells. It also means that Sheehan has to go through countless tests, transfusions, biopsies and other health nightmares.

After his diagnosis, Sheehan decided to share his story with the world. He uses his blog to not only update his progress or setbacks with treatment, but to document his experience with doctors, nurses, insurance, bureaucracy and all the confusion within the healthcare industry. Sheehan’s message: Be your own advocate. Read more at www.mypiccline.com.

While Sheehan’s blog isn’t technically a “care page,” it serves a similar purpose: an easy way to update those around you without having to pick up the phone every 10 minutes. Care pages are becoming increasingly popular with patients and their loved ones. As the CarePages website (www.carepages.com) says, “Through it, you can receive emotional support with loved ones and friends during a health challenge.”

And, just as individuals need an advocate when dealing with the healthcare system, a healthcare system needs an advocate when dealing with social media and the web.

Give yourself a Mad Men makeover!

Didn’t work at a Madison Ave agency in the early ’60s? Tired of dirty looks for drinking in the office at 11 a.m.? Now at least your Facebook icon can live the life, thanks to AMC’s MadMenYourself.

Suit or skirt? Martini or whiskey on the rocks? Cigar or cigarette?

Too much fun. Unlike ElfYourself, SimpsonizeMe and FaceYourManga, you don’t actually upload an image — one less hurdle, which is good. Oh, and (somewhat) easily Facebooked, Tweeted, Dugged and StumbleUponed.

PS - We couldn't help but get in on the action. Try it for yourself.

Get ready for the new "Alice in Wonderland."

Johnny Depp is the Mad Hatter. Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter are the White and Red Queens, respectively. It’s Tim Burton’s take on "Alice in Wonderland," and it promises to be over the top. Set for release in March of next year, the movie is already being very cleverly promoted using social media.

On Facebook, you can sign up to be a “loyal subject” of the Red Queen or the White Queen or a “disloyal subject” of the Mad Hatter. And the benefit for becoming a fan? The group that is the largest by 7 p.m. on July 24 will win the chance to see an exclusive new trailer from the movie before anyone else.Check out the Facebook character profiles:

Loyal Subjects of the Red Queen
Over 1,200 fans
Personal Information: How dare you ask! Off with your head!
Personal Interests: Playing croquet; eating tarts, tadpoles on toast points, and caviar; and studying Dominion Over Living Things

Loyal Subjects of the White Queen
Over 1,300 fans so far
Personal Information: I enjoy spending time with members of my court — White Rabbit, March Hare, and Cheshire Cat.
Personal Interests: Perfecting medicinal cures and transformational potions and overthrowing my sister, the Red Queen

Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter
Over 6,000 fans so far
Personal Information: Some may think I’m mad.
Personal Interests: Throwing tea parties; celebrating un-birthdays

This is a smart use of social media. Consumers can connect with the movie months before its release. This builds momentum — which translates into building audiences. Fans may also go a step further and spread the word about the Facebook fan pages — and the movie — to friends and family.

Ready to go down the rabbit hole?

Alice.com can help with your household shopping.

Would you like a website that would guarantee you never run out of toilet paper? If so, then Alice.com is for you. It’s a new website that sells consumer packaged good (batteries, soap, shampoo, coffee, toilet paper and other common household items) directly to consumers. The site also has planning and budgeting features, smart reminders and coupons (which should give grocery stores a run for their money).

Alice even provides recommendations based on who lives in your household. For example, if you live in a household with all girls, you clearly won’t have to buy men’s essentials. And you can set a time for a reorder reminder. This way, you never accidently run out.

There is a ton of selection, with thousands of options and brands to choose from, and prices that are close to Walmart’s or Costco’s (without having to pay for gas to get to and from the store). And the best part — shipping is completely free.

Alice.com also has benefits to the consumer good manufacturers. They can access consumer information about who is buying their products (thanks to selling through Alice versus a traditional store). The site also offers a variety of programs including coupons, loyalty programs, product trials and sampling, customer surveys, and category sponsorship opportunities. But is it enticing enough for you to make the switch to online shopping for your household needs? Check it out for yourself.

The Google Chrome Operating System

Google announces an OS. For anyone even remotely familiar with cloud computing (is that term still used?), thin/dumb clients, Android, Chrome and how Google operates, this is not a real big surprise.

Google’s answer to OS bloat is lean and mean (and uses an open-source Linux kernel). Empowering the programming community could (should) bring some true innovation to the OS. Speaking of these developers, Google wants us to remember that “for application developers, the web is the platform.”Any readers do any mainframe work at all? If so, this should sound familiar — hence the props to Larry Ellison of Sun. And it is fascinating to see his vision unfold, even if it isn’t being controlled by him and has taken on some unique permutations. The story is similar to that of Eric Buell and the underframe exhaust. Great concept and sound reasoning, moving a heavy exhaust can from the high tail of a motorcycle to underneath the frame to lower the center of gravity and improve mass centralization. But sometimes it takes more than a niche producer to take a concept into the mainstream.

If you really are still wondering why this approach may be good, please read from Google:

“We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.”
c/o http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

Look for the OS on hardware in 3Q 2010.