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Aristotle and Twitter at SXSW Interactive

What’s so different about Twitter? And how do you use it to best advantage? One wonderful SXSWi panel, featuring rhetoric professors from the University of Texas, answered these questions by going back to Aristotle, the original documentarian of the use of words as a persuasive medium.

The original rhetoric, as Aristotle described it in 330 BC, was temporal: arguments were oral and words could only be processed in the order they were spoken. Once the written word came along, texts could be read in any order but there was a new limitation, spatiality: once words were put on paper, the printed information itself could not be moved. The web has made possible easily movable written information and Twitter carries this to the logical extreme with a constantly moving stream which is in essence a personal newspaper with an audience of one. (Here I am brutally paraphrasing the segment of Prof. John Jones which can be seen on ZDnet.)

No two people will ever see the same Twitter stream, and you yourself will never see your stream in exactly the same way twice. Yet it is very easy to control and edit your personal newspaper through the people you choose to follow. My experience is that if you start with a few people you find inherently interesting, like @guykawasaki or @broylesa (the terrific food columnist for the Austin Statesman, who stokes my interest in eating and makes me feel like I’m still at SXSW) and then check out @ tags in their tweets to see who THEY correspond with, you will soon build a fascinating stream. And if you’re interested in a topic, whether news or personal curiosity, a # search takes you in another satisfying direction.

Back to the panel, they said the best way to write your own tweets is to take into account the possibility of modularity and reuse. Prof. Jim Brown observed that every tweet has both an intended audience (the person you identify with an @ tag at the beginning, plus your known followers) and an unintended audience (everybody else, now or in the future.) A corollary of this is that the often-levied charge of Twitter narcissism is bogus. “Narcissism isn’t in the status update, it’s in the person annoyed by the update. If you’re annoyed by the tweet, it wasn’t meant for you.”

Apparently last year was the year of Facebook at SXSWi, and 2009 was the year of Twitter. Many of the sessions were specifically about Twitter, and everybody everywhere was twittering away on the new TweetDeck desktop application. We SXSWiers seem to like Twitter very much. Savant and trendsetter Guy Kawasaki was asked in a session to confirm, “If they charged for Twitter you’d probably pay whatever they asked” and he responded “that’s right.”

Back home from SXSW: some reflections

During the last World Cup commentators often referred to the “samba wave” or “samba style” of the Brazil team…. the idea being they were carried along by an undulating wave that propelled them forward and confused their opponents. I never did understand this as it related to soccer, but it’s a perfect metaphor for SXSW Interactive. Here are a few thoughts in closing.

The attendees:

Unlike the typical tech or marketing conference, everybody is here because they want to be here. This makes them more engaged and passionate.
Everybody I met is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. It’s like graduating as high school valedictorian (not that I was) and going to a college where everybody is a valedictorian.
As a corollary, everybody is curious and wants to talk to you because they assume you’re as smart as they are. If you’re not, you get the benefit of the doubt. That’s a good thing.

The conference:

There’s no way to predict whether a session will be good or not or even whether it will be about the topic in the program. So sit on the end of the row and don’t be shy about getting up and leaving if it doesn’t work out.
Best events for me were the brilliant “Did Aristotle Twitter?” rhetoric panel with U Texas profs, the two food panels for personal interest, and most anything on Twitter including of course the now infamous #tweethall which wasn’t an event at all.
Core conversations are painful. You will be stuffed into a room like sardines and sit on the floor. Go to these only if you have a passionate interest in the subject discussed.
PowerPoints are over. With a couple of exceptions even the most visually brilliant presenters had basically no ppts at all, just a few text slides they barely referred to.

The venue:

The Austin Convention Center was designed by a lunatic, in a U-shaped configuration with the tips of the U 100 yards from each other as the crow flies but a 15 minute walk on the ground. And the SXSW management,with gentle humor, tended to put interactive events at the very outside with the film events in between.
When you go to the parties, pay attention to the music. You are likely to hear something seriously good. This is Austin, after all.

I hope to be back next year.

Twitter for marketers at SXSW

I was looking forward to the session called “Twitter for Marketers: Is It Still Social Media?” but so were lots of other folks, and when we arrived at the stroke of 5:00 pm the doors were closed. So about 50 of us migrated down the hall to the Panel Green Room area where we conducted our own discussion that gave most of us exactly the shared perspective we were craving.

This discussion continues at #tweethall (do a search for that subject on Twitter) plus you can find a fabulous post at La Luna Blanca which documents the event in detail including a number of best practices. Thank you @lunablanca !

One question that did not quite get answered in the tweethall was how do you manage Twitter in a large organization where individuals are encouraged to tweet but you also have a corporate voice you want to maintain. Those who commented, including some folks from very big companies, said essentially that they do it ad hoc. You keep track of who is talking about your company with a #yourcompany hashtag (a subject search with your company’s name substituted for yourcompany) and try to coordinate efforts without stifling enthusiasm.

The session prior to this one, though, had an answer that made sense, maybe because it came from journalists who are used to communicating with their public. Presenters were @robquig and @dan360man from @statesman and @coloneltribune. For an example with lots of best practices, check out @statesman or @broylesa … the general blogging guy and the food writer respectively … and then click the links to both of their websites.

These bloggers know what their audience wants to hear about: insider tips on what’s going on around Austin plus late breaking relevant news as well as, since they are inside SXSW, their immediate take on the day’s events. None of this “wish I got more sleep last night” personal bloviation. Then, when you click through to the web pages, you’ll find an aggregate of other tweeters at the same organization with links to their own handles or blogs.

I think this model should make good sense for companies too. Anyone is encouraged to tweet, but they always include a link back to a corporate page that organizes the tweeters. Make sense?

South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive: Bikes and Ads

From SXSW Interactive, Day One

Alex Bogusky with the bike developed for Denver bike sharing

This is the conference where:

You have to wait in line 40 minutes to get the badge you preregistered for, thereby missing the introductory orientation session.
The volunteer who gives you the bag and conference program advises you not to take the program because you’ll probably lose it and they’ll charge $42 for a replacement; instead, you should come back at the end of the conference.
The management warns that you are not likely to get into many of the sessions you want so you should enjoy the sessions you do attend, which was called a zen approach.
Sessions may or may not have anything to do with the writeup in the program that brought you into the room. Which I guess is appropriate since you don’t know what you are going to end up attending.
Your iPhone doesn’t work for outgoing calls because there are too many people with iPhones. But wait, they have great wireless so you can use Skype.

As I write this I’m watching Alex Bogusky of Crispin Porter Bogusky, people responsible for Burger King, Mini and some other ads you probably really like. (Incidental advertising fun fact he shared about Burger King: in a day there are more impressions for the printing on the side of a cup of fries than two Super Bowls… so now instead of a BK logo [pointless, since people already know they are in a BK] the fry containers have a little story.]

His preso is titled “Plan B: Can an Ad Guy Bring Bike Sharing to America?” But in fact he warned it was not about that at all but rather a quick pitch for his agency followed by a serious talk about climate change. New info, channeling Al Gore: this summer, it rained for the first time in Antarctica.

But wait: now he does bring in bike sharing at the end. And a nicely designed pilot program his agency, Trek and Humana are doing where an advertiser can sponsor bike sharing and bike rack and cute logos on special Trek bikes for $1.2 million per year in a large city and get ad impressions for far less than a billboard or bus shelter.) The bikes are very cool, adjustable for people from 5 feet to 6 foot four with a nice aluminum basket for your stuff. I want one. Oh wait, that’s not the idea.

My iPhone list of demands

I got my iPhone finally and am happy with all it does. But also surprised at some of the things it does NOT do. Here are a few issues that need to be addressed immediately… I’ll add more as I come up with them:

Camera needs exposure control and flash. Movies would also be nice.
Flash player for Safari.
Global: cut-and-paste between applications.
Global: a bigger keyboard when you turn the phone on its side, like there now is in Safari.
Audio directions for the Google Maps directions.

FSIs (newspaper inserts) and the Super Bowl

Newspaper coupons grasp at 2009 Super Bowl

Three years ago, I did a post on newspaper inserts and the Super Bowl… and how snack manufacturers contort themselves to create a “big game theme” without ever actually mentioning the Big Game, which is a copyrighted product with big licensing fees attached. Looking at this past Sunday’s crop of FSI’s, it’s reassuring to see that nothing has changed. The nation’s economy may have melted down and the web has transformed marketing for most products, but for salty snacks and their teammates it’s still “game on”.

Smirnoff offers us a “smart choice for your super party”. Newman’s Own wants you to “go natural for the big game”. Tums will let us “enjoy the game heartburn free” while Pop-Secret popcorn promises a “home field advantage” and Hersheys wants us to “treat your home team” to a “candy bowl blitz”. Marie’s salad dressings invite you to “tackle the taste” and Dean’s Cool & Creamy exhorts you to “bring the ultimate dip to the ultimate game.” You can also “score one for the home team” with Ling Ling egg rolls, say “it’s good!” [umpire with upstretched hands holding up two hamburgers] for White Castle or enjoy “football food… ready for game time in minutes” from El Monterey Taquitos.

It’s clear that the marketers are doing an end run around the NFL by not mentioning the Super Bowl by name, and that the NFL has dropped the ball by not figuring out a way to bring them into its licensed marketing huddle. But more important, there’s a flagrant violation by most of these marketers because they forget that coming up with a catch-phrase is not the same as selling a product.

And so the winner, in overtime, is an ad from Butterball cold cuts with the theme “One taste brings the party together”. Because after all, the reason these marketers are trying to tie in their products to the Super Bowl is that you’re going to serve them at a party—and here’s one marketer with a generic ad (originally created around the election, maybe?) that says how their product is going to make your event a success. Touchdown!

OLPC: when marketing doesn’t work

Give One Get One promotion — Give 1 Get 1 billboard

I find this disturbing: The One Laptop Per Child foundation repeated its “Give One Get One” program from 2007, apparently fixed all the problems from the year before (namely, virtually no promotion other than word of mouth and abysmal fulfillment/customer service)… and saw its sales drop by 93%.

This in spite of a mainstream ad campaign (including outdoor and television) and presumably seamless fulfillment through amazon.com.

The idea of this program is that you purchase two of OLPC’s mini-laptops and one is sent to a kid in a developing country and the other sent to you, allowing you to putz around and explore this approach to improving the world through technology. We did 2 G1G1s last year and it was a worthwhile experience.

But now, explaining the sales implosion, Nicolas Negroponte, the MIT professor who founded OLPC, told the Boston Globe “we’re not the newest game in town… the novelty has worn off.” Really? I would guess that the 2008 campaign reached millions of qualified donors who never even heard of the concept until now.

A better explanation is probably the economy. Most donation-supported organizations are having a tough year, and maybe the people who were most likely to be fascinated enough by the G1G1 concept turned out to be exactly those least able to afford $400 to participate.

But still… a 93% sales fall-off in spite of a marketing campaign that appeared to do everything right. For those of us who live and die by results, that’s a bunch of cold water in the face.

What we can learn from Cole Slaw

Cole slaw, that happy transformation of cabbage into a tart and appealing salad, has to be one of our most healthy, tasty and also inexpensive foods. So why is it that when we order a meal with a “side of cole slaw” these days it’s often served in a micro-cup that would be better suited to sample collection in the doctor’s office?

My theory is that this is related to the predatory financial practices that got us into our current mess. Once you’ve settled on a business model that markets home equity loans to widows on social security, why stop there? Let’s wring a few more pennies from the populace by downsizing the cole slaw served with their early bird specials.

Which is all the more reason that the pictured side of cole slaw, at Compton’s in Saratoga NY, is so reassuring. This is what a side of cole slaw should look like. (Note also the romaine and 3 slices of tomato which are not even mentioned on the menu—a garnish reminiscent of a bygone day.)

I’ve been through multiple market downturns in my copywriting career. Each time, I had some clients who took the stance that you need to maintain or even increase your marketing budget because that’s when you buy market share, on the cheap, from competitors who are cutting back.

Compton’s is doing the same thing in their marketplace, and they’ve won my business. I’m going back at lunchtime for a burger… and a side of cole slaw.

Words matter… in election materials too.

I’m working to elect Barack Obama as President, so I found myself grinding my teeth when I found this self-description of Barack in the “Easy Voter Guide” produced by the California Secretary of State and containing content produced, I suspect, by well-meaning interns and volunteers:

STATEMENT: Now is the time for our country to come together and bring real change to Washington and bring an end to the policies of the Bush Administration. I am in this race so that we, as a unified nation, can be a beacon of hope for the world again.

TOP PRIORITIES:

End the war in Iraq and refocus our efforts in Afghanistan.
Sign universal health care legislation by the end of my first term.
Put America on the path to a clean and secure energy future.

MY CRITIQUE: There were two things that made my teeth hurt. First, the choice of the word “race” in the statement. No reason to bring that word front-and-center people who are already thinking about it. Would have been just as easy to say “I am running for President so that we…”

Second, the priority to “refocus our efforts in Afghanistan”. What does this ambiguous and jargon-y statement mean? Transfer our troops from Iraq to Afghanistan and fight a big war there? Or just take a fresh look at what we’re doing in Afghanistan? And what about the rest of the world? Why not something like “End the war in Iraq and focus our nation’s efforts on mutual respect and peaceful resolution for conflicts throughout the world”?

You may say that nobody reads voter pamphlets. But what if 1 in 100 voters actually does, and 1 in 100 of THOSE voters are affected in some way by this or another statement? If there are 10 million voters in California that’s 1,000 votes! Words matter, even in election materials.

A couple of Mexicans

Some years ago I was direct mail manager for a department store, and found myself in Jonesboro, Arkansas for a catalog press check. There were problems and I and the printer’s account rep spent several unanticipated days in this unfortunately dry (alcohol-wise) area of the South. At one point, after a new disappointment, the rep pulled me aside and said, “I don’t like to say it, but this is what you might expect.”

What he meant to imply was that the project manager, who was African-American and in an unusually responsible position for a black man in the South at that time, was simply not up to the job. My reaction was not to agree with that observation but also not to disagree with it. I simply looked away, which wasn’t enough. Ever since then I have regretted my non-reaction.

This week I was involved in a complex real estate transaction involving a piece of property in the country and bats proved to be a problem—specifically a huge pile of bat guano in a barn which gives off toxic fumes. Hearing that we were getting estimates from bat remediation experts, the seller’s agent indicated that wasn’t an acceptable cost and “why don’t you just get a couple of Mexicans with shovels and garbage bags” to clean it up.

Everybody on our side of the transaction had the instant reaction that this was not an OK thing to say. Not only because of the statement, but also because of the attitude behind this and several other comments, we ended up abandoning the attempt to buy the property. Several people, from very different backgrounds and perspectives, felt the agent was not someone we could do business with.

Because this blog is about communication, a comment on the subtext behind the actual statements. In Jonesboro, it was “you and I as white Americans have the right to be indignant about being inconvenienced by this S.O.B.” This week it was “I want you to know I am an inflexible negotiator and am making a deliberately racist statement to show why you shouldn’t mess with me.” Since he knew he was offending, maybe this is progress of a sort?