A while back you might recall a blog post I did on improvisation for business training with Mike Bonifer. The entire Twelve Horses organization had the opportunity to take part in some very informative and thought provoking workshops, scheduled over the course of several weeks, which were designed to push us outside of our comfort zones and approach business strategy and brainstorming in a different way. I think I can speak for everyone that participated when I say, we walked away energized and enlightened.

This Thursday Mike will join Stanley Hainsworth on stage at The Depot in downtown Salt Lake City for a branding symposium focused on how to translate and transform brands online. If you are wondering whether you’ll enjoy it, I can promise you that it will be like a conference, but thankfully not a conference.

Building up to the event, Mike took some time to talk with the UtahPulse about some of what you might expect from attending. Here is the interview in its entirety, but you might prefer to listen to the podcast recording on their website.

Brand Evolution: Mike Bonifer

Any good businessperson should be able to improvise. The best improvisers are good listeners. So says Mike Bonifer, author of Game Changers and co-founder of a company by the same name. “I think it all begins with an understanding that we are brands who perform for the marketplace. Everyone has a vested interest in listening.”

Bonifer says the immediacy of today’s business environment, with blogs, microblogs and social networking, makes being able to improvise important. “Let’s just contrast it with scripting. Scripted behaviors are, by their very nature, about something you want to happen, and it’s almost like you envision it and you write about it after the fact. Stories and the narrative form are designed to chronicle something that’s already happened. So, you’re imagining that something has already happened, and then you go out with the script and try to make it come true.”

Bonifer says that game plan worked when the communication channels available were limited, but no more. “With things happening so quickly today, there is no time to script for every scenario, and by the time you’ve scripted to accommodate a certain scenario, that scenario has already evolved and changed. The script is no longer applicable. What do you do? You improvise your narrative, and improvisation is the discipline that lets you do that in a way that makes it not just random and ad-hoc, but disciplined and focused.”

If you want an example of businesses that are well suited for an improvisational environment, Bonifer says you need look no farther than Silicon Valley. “I think they understand that there is no dishonor is failure, and there is a tremendous amount of learning that comes with it. That’s why you see venture capitalists step up to the plate repeatedly with people that tried to launch an application or product and have failed, but there’s been a lot of learning and there’s been progress through the effort.”

Contrast the nimbleness of Silicon Valley with companies that are rooted in the industrial age. Bonifer says all companies are discovering the need to be more agile and more improvisational. “On one end you have silicon valley and the technology and media companies that are constantly renewing their relationship with the marketplace. On the other hand you have companies that have been selling the same product since the turn of the century and don’t see a real reason to rock the boat, or don’t see it until it’s too late.”

On Thursday, November 13th our CEO, David LaPlante will be speaking with Stanley Hainsworth and Mike Bonifer at BrandEvolution, a quarter-day symposium focused on how to translate and transform brands online. The event is being held in downtown Salt Lake City at The Depot. You can register here. 

Stanley was recently interviewed by UtahPulse.com about his experience working with brands like Starbucks, Nike and Lego, as well as his new direction running his own company, Tether Inc. Here is the text interview (below) in its entirety, and you can listen to the podcast interview here at UtahPulse.com.

Also, if you are interested in following the speakers on Twitter or joining up with them on LinkedIn, you may do so here.

He’s overseen all of the creative aspects of Starbucks Coffee. He helped make Nike a global brand. Stanley Hainsworth, who now is the Chief Creative Officer of his own agency, Tether, says he likes to use branding to tell the story of a product. “What I love to do is be a storyteller. Looking at the brand and figuring out what the story is and figuring out from there what’s the best medium for telling that story, whether it’s a new product, a retail experience or a digital experience online, and not being constricted by any preconceptions or mediums.”

Hainsworth will bring that know-how to Brand Evolution 2008. The seminar, sponsored by Twelve Horses, aims to help businesses transform their brands to connect with customers both on and offline.

When working to tell a brand’s story, Hainsworth likes to think of the brand as a person. “The way that you wear your hair, the way that you talk, the way you act, that all defines the way that people think about you. A brand is no different. A brand is perceived in the way it communicates, and the way it looks and the way customers respond to it.”

Taking those human qualities, and using them to create a memorable experience is what it’s all about for Hainsworth. “One of my favorite projects at Nike was a shoe called Presto. It came in 17 different color combinations, it was very iconic and a beautiful shoe. We decided to do something non traditional and rented an art gallery in New York City and put the shoes on the wall and called them art. There was no branding anywhere, we put posters up around town for the “art opening,” invited art critics to the opening. We got huge press and when they shoes went on sale the next month, they sold out everywhere.”

Hainsworth says the way that designers work with products has changed radically with the increasing relevance of online marketing. “No longer are there strictly these graphic designers, or web designers or environmental designers. It’s getting mixed up and it’s really exciting. These designers are able to work in these multiple mediums.”

With millions of blogs, and websites and other online destinations, it’s hard to break through the clutter to tell a story. Hainsworth says it’s a challenge, but not impossible. “I look at everything with the arc of a story and I look at it with the viewers eyes. Whether it’s a play that you’re watching or a piece of music that you’re listening to or a piece of design that you’re looking, it all has a story. It affects is a lot, and I tend to juxtapose a lot of unexpected things together and see what will happen, where it will take me to keep it fresh and not rehash things that have been done before.”

We are stoked to present to you a conference that, well, is thankfully not a conference. Produced by QuarterHorse, BrandEvolution is our Fall 2008 symposium, and it is coming to The Depot on November 13th.

Set in a collaborative environment and designed to get at the heart of questions such as:

How do businesses effectively translate and transform their brands to connect with their customers both online and offline?

How do businesses stay ahead of relentless consumer expectations, and form emotional connections between customers and products.

To answer these questions and more, Stanley Hainsworth, world renowned global creative director for Starbucks, Lego and Nike is joined on stage at The Depot November 13th with fellow digital storyteller and business improvisation visionary Mike Bonifer, and  David LaPlante, entrepreneur, web strategist, and CEO of Twelve Horses.

In 1994, Disney became the first entertainment company to boldly drive its customers to a narrative brand Web experience by launching the Toy Story movie web site under the creative strategy of Mike Bonifer, a move that forever changed branding.

In 1995, David LaPlante launched Lake Tahoe’s first ever ski resort website – skiheavenly.com. Today, Heavenly Mountain Resort ranks number one in skier visits, commands an impressive presence on the web, and delivers its message via video, podcasting, blogging, Twitter, Facebook, email, and more.

In 2004, Stanley Hainsworth left Lego and took the helm of Starbucks as VP-global creative and set in motion transformational creative and design strategies that created the ubiquitous brand of our coffee-shop connected generation today. As stated by AdAge.com, “Stanley Hainsworth put his stamp on nearly every piece of creative at Starbucks; he devised the “brand book” that defines the Lego image; and he helped push Nike into entertainment.”

In addition to gleaning real world branding experience, you will also benefit from a collaborative workshop that takes participants beyond the scripted and linear models of strategy, and challenges them to engage in an improvised branding discussion. The exercise is designed to develop greater emotional intelligence, and push the boundaries of defining a brand.

Come be a part of it!

For more information or to register for Brand Evolution visit events.twelvehorses.com.

WordCamp is going down this weekend in Salt Lake City, and a few of the 12H crew will be in attendance. In fact, we are pleased to be a sponsor. If you plan on attending reach out and say, what’s up! We’ll be the folks wielding cameras and causing trouble for our next episode of Horse Power. That will be forthcoming, so stay tuned!

Our president, Steve Spencer said it well on Utah Tech Spotlight. WordPress is an incredible story of a business that is more than a business. It is an idea that evolved into a community of users and contributors that has empowered millions of people to communicate and express themselves more effectively and efficiently. It has certainly changed my life, and many of those around me.

So Blog On! And come on down if you are around on Saturday.

When? Saturday 27 September 2008

Where? Novell (1800 Novell Place) Open Source Technology Center in Provo, Utah — Map

Why? Bring together people interested in WordPress, blogging (and the web in general) to talk about what’s possible, where’s it going

TJ Crawford has been with Twelve Horses for almost eight years now, and in that time he has implemented many complex business automation and multi-channel marketing strategies for a variety of our enterprise level clients. With more than twelve years of experience in website design, application development, and integrated online marketing, T.J. is a master of melding web applications and technologies with database management and customer interaction. Whether the conversation is centered around multi-channel marketing, data replication, content management, ecommerce, Salesforce integration, or an amalgamation of all of the above he has plenty to share. It is for these reasons that I thought I’d chat a little with TJ to see what he is up to.

What are you most excited about right now?

It is not any one item, product or industry but technology period. There is a lot of fantastic innovation and discovery going on. I just saw the Space Cube, which is a computer condensed into a 2-inch cube. It has decent memory, USB, VGA output, Linux operating system etc. Something that used to take up a whole room can now easily fit into your hand. A large number of our cell phones have more computing power than NASA had when we went to the moon. There is just a plethora of technological innovations going on out there. Moore’s Law is in full effect for not only hardware but innovation as well. And where I get excited is finding that innovation and bringing it to use.

What changes have you seen in the company since you first started?

I actually have the proud designation of being the first Twelve Horses North America employee going back to when we merged in 2002. It was at that time that we went from being a 12-person web development shop called, Aztech Cyberspace to an international email marketing company…overnight. At first we focused on email software solutions but quickly found that people still need web services and integration; so we made sure those areas had the proper people and resources. We had our MessageMaker platform and Content Management System already, but over the years we developed quite a few more systems (Compliance, Automated Alert Systems, Membership Managment, Ticketing etc.). We went from being a web service company to a software company, to where we are now, which is a full-scale web development company helping automate and streamline all of the above. We have the brains (the people) as well as owning the development and IP for several software platforms.

And it makes perfect sense for us when you look at it from a competitive position. Most interactive companies don’t own their own solutions. They have to go out and find an email provider, a website designer, a content management system. Because we own them we are not limited to some 3rd party’s off-the-shelf feature sets.

What is new in enterprise-level application development?

Different industries are asking for different things. For instance, the financial industry is very focused on security. If they send an email they want to be sure the information in that email is secure. Having data portability is also really important. Sharing information internally, with 3rd parties and vendors, but doing it securely. Also, where the data is actually stored.

We are still very focused on technology systems that allow us to  alleviate physical resources. Figuring out how we can automate and pull the labor out of it so the company can focus on how to make the business better, not just simple execution of processes.

Also, the ability to track data and put together actionable items. Just tracking is no longer enough. Don’t tell me I have 10,000 visitors, but tell me what they want. You not only have to provide insight, but you need to integrate it with multiple applications so you can get more of a holistic and aggregate view.

Tell us about a difficult challenge you’ve recently been faced with?

It is really the people equation. We can’t automate  a solution around people acting differently depending on the variables within a situation. While there is fuzzy logic built into many systems, we can’t really automate a relationship decision, or a decision that is based on loose variables involving the human element.

For instance, clients place value on the relationship – the history, loyalty, and personality – you can’t automate that. We use Salesforce, love Salesforce, and have dedicated employees who only work on Salesforce; but Salesforce cannot go out and meet with a client.

What are you currently working on?

I have taken a very active role in business development because of our recent product developments. For instance, with our CMS system we have done 3 major new releases since the beginning of the year. Going out and talking to our customers is very important. Internally, you can talk to project managers, developers, and designers, and while they can give you great feedback, you have to get the full balance. You’ve got to know what your clients are doing, and what they are struggling with. You need their feedback. If you are not out in front of your customers hearing what their needs are, what their goals are, then you can’t build a great solution. That is how you bring real value.

We have a lot going on particularly with our CMS and supporting application development. The applications are much like plug-ins. For instance, we have a lot of CVB clients, so we have developed a stakeholder application for them. It gives the hotels, eateries and other businesses within the community access to manage content on the CVB’s site. It gives the stakeholder control of their interest and removes the labor component from the CVB.

Also, I’ve been working for quite some time on a ticketing system. The ticketing industry has been going through a lot of changes. Technologies have improved dramatically since the early 90s when many of these original ticketing systems were being built. A lot of old ticketing systems focused on the operational side, but they overlooked the marketing piece of it. Also, if you don’t provide some of that data on what your customers are buying and their demographic information, purchasing habits, etc, then you’ve really falling behind. There is also a lot of opportunity to take these transactions to the mobile environment, both on the payment side as well as using your mobile device as the ticket itself.

What would be your one piece of advice for database and online marketers out there?

Work smarter not harder. Find ways to bring exponential value to your clients both internally and externally. Don’t just implement changes to save a penny but sacrifice your brand by ticking off a client. Also, over the years I’ve seen companies invest a lot of money developing or buying closed systems. But to get into a system that does not take into account the other systems within your company, or integrate with them, is shortsighted. If they don’t play friendly with other companies and other solutions then you should be suspect. Getting locked into these long term contracts with closed system means they basically don’t have to develop new solutions and features and compete for your business as aggressively. That is why companies like Google have done such a great job. Many of their systems are open and continue to add value. They continue to innovate at a breakneck pace.

Custom vs Out-of-the-Box?

A lot of clients think they need a custom solution, but they really don’t. You have to ask, what is the cost vs benefit? Sometimes we have customers that come to us and the solution just doesn’t exist. So we have to determine whether or not it makes sense. An example of that is an economic development authority we recently worked with. They were shopping for an event management solution. We showed them what we could do, as well as what some other competitors were doing. They did a considerable amount of research and after that came back to us. They couldn’t find one that fully integrated with their systems or managed their groups the way they wanted. So we built it; and the ROI has far exceeded their and our expectations.

When TJ is not busy strategizing, scoping, and architecting technology solutions, he can be found playing golf or hanging out with his wife and twin boys. He even on occasion finds a little time for abstract blogging.

This morning I had the opportunity to sit down with one of our resident Search Engine Optimization (SEO) extraordinaires, Mr Eric Morgan. The guy practically drinks Google Juice for breakfast, so I figured he would have some interesting information about SEO that I could share with you. Eric works out of our Salt Lake City office, so what transpired was a little phone interview on the current state of his practice.

How long have you been in the SEO game?

I’ve been working on SEO for 8 years.

How do you get into it?

My mother-in-law asked for some help on her adoption site, and I wanted to drive more traffic to it. So, I started researching how to get that done. It was then that I realized I could make a living doing it.

What are you currently working on?

I feel very fortunate in my position with Twelve Horses because I get to work on a variety of different clients. Many SEO managers work on just one specific industry where I get to be exposed to a lot of different companies.

For example, ski resorts like Alpine Meadows, Homewood, and Heavenly are definitely fun. I’m also working on Solera Networks, which is a company that provides network monitoring services and network appliance products. It’s a unique challenge because their products and services are new and relatively unknown, so I can produce some real results for them by building up their rankings from the ground level.

Uppercase Living is another one. They do vinyl lettering for home decor, which allows you to decorate your home for very little money. It is an exploding market, and they are probably the biggest player in their industry. Finally, another example is Set Point. They do industrial automation for faster and efficient manufacturing processing.

Wow, you really are working with wide array of different industries. How does a company like Set Point benefit from SEO?

You’d be surprised at the amount of people that are researching what Set Point has to offer. It really opens your eyes to how many people are typing in terms like, ‘custom automation solution‘ or ‘industrial automation‘ to improve their business. Where I come is helping make sure they get introduced to a company like Set Point.

What tactics are producing the best results for your clients?

Link building has the biggest impact on SEO, specifically from bloggers and copywriters. It also really helps to get fresh content on new topics, which in turn expands their website. Another one that you may find surprising is educating the client on SEO. Ingraining these fundamentals, truly getting the client to think in terms of SEO, makes a huge difference when they go to make changes to their own website or blog. It is often things they do every day that can make significant impacts on SEO.

What are some common mistakes that businesses make when it comes to SEO?

Biggest one is they fail at the very basics of SEO…ones that are well known. For example, the first thing we fix are title tags and meta description. The next thing we find is that companies did not do their keyword research well enough. That, or they focused on keywords that are not obtainable, do not represent significant enough search volume, or they are simply not relevant.

Others common mistakes are embedding text in graphics, which the search engines cannot see.

The URL structure is another fundamental mistake in the sense that they just don’t take it into consideration. Search engines don’t index dynamic pages as well as static pages. Also, I will often see random variables in the url as opposed to logical words that pertain to the specific page and company offerings.

How does SEO relate to website architecture?

That is another common mistake. Companies focus on just SEO, but if the traffic is being directed towards poorly constructed pages then they don’t convert. If the customer is directed towards a web page that has nothing to do with what they are looking for, or if it is too confusing, then you lose them. But if they are directed towards a well-constructed web page that is optimized to encourage them to take an action on the website, the chances are much higher that they will.

How often do use PPC or SEM in combination with a SEO strategy?

It is ultimately up to the client and their budget, but about 65% of our client are engaged in both.

Why is it important to do both?

As long as it has a positive ROI, why wouldn’t you do it? But many people think that PPC will help SEO ranking – they are not directly related. Where it helps is keyword research and retooling the website to better handle those conversions. It also helps test specific keywords up front instead of getting 3 or 4 months down the road with an SEO campaign and finding out that those are not the best words to focus on.

What are some new tactics that you are employing and testing?

Lately, we have been doing a lot of testing with bloggers and link building; interlinking where we make sure copy is linked to other pages within the website. This has also had a big impact on persuasion architecture.

How do you stay informed about SEO?

Mainly from other blogs and website such as SEOMoz, Marketing Experiments, Marketing Sherpa, and Grokdotcom.com. But there is no better way to stay informed, especially about your website, then practicing SEO, studying the results, and rinse and repeat.  I like to focus on experimentation, trying new things and constantly assessing what works and what doesn’t, and then applying those strategies to other websites.

Has there been any news lately that has gotten you excited about the industry?

The news that Google can better index flash files is pretty cool, but it still has a ways to go. Google Adwords has started to release search data through AdWords, where before you could only get that through WordTracker. But the fundamentals have not really changed that much.  Trends come out like social media marketing, but it is still the same fundamentals such as link building, html, and content. Often companies just don’t focus on the basics and instead get caught up chasing the latest fads that are kind of worthless in many instances.

What is the benefit of a business outsourcing SEO as opposed to doing it in house?

What you should get by outsourcing SEO is not only a deep level of experience with what works and what does not, but also a clear set of deliverables, a dedicated resource, and a fundamental understanding of web design and web architecture. Not only that but also how to effectively convert qualified traffic, and finally, how to interpret the analytics and create a dashboard that serves as a guide going forward.

It takes time, patience, and perseverance, and frankly, not everyone is cut out for SEO, but I enjoy it. It’s great to see results!

Eric Morgan can also be found blogging on SEO and web related topics at Marketing Morgan.

We never get this from our clients when it comes to their online marketing initiatives…never! Happy Friday!

These days I’d be surprised to find a person in charge of a company’s marketing who didn’t know the pros and cons of Flash. (Even though I still come across websites built entirely in Flash, which is awful for search engine optimization). However, I’m not sure they would necessarily know the benefits of Flex and how it relates to Flash. Let’s take a closer look.

Flash

Flash is great for designers who are looking to create graphics and animation. They can building everything from the ground up to create:

• Visually stunning web pages with capabilities for intermixing rich media such as video, graphics, and animation.
• Interactivity that is persuasive and creates a positive user experience.
• Flexibility for use in many different business applications.
• Extensibility for use in different platforms and devices.
• Small file sizes for quick initialization and load times.

Asynchronous Flash and XML give you greater control over applications, and it can also be used to trigger additional interactions, launch supporting communication channels like email or sms text messages, and store valuable data for reporting and analysis.

Early on, Flash presented many positive use cases but faced significant hurdles dealing with compatibility and lack of installs amongst personal computers. These days 98% of computers have Flash installed, and it works seamlessly with a variety of different programming languages and devices. Furthermore, recent news from Google reports they have made significant steps towards improved Flash indexing for search engine optimization (SEO).

Now enter Flex.

Flex

Think of Flex as Flash for web developers. Instead of using it for visual design, Flex is better suited for business applications that require data manipulation and visualization. It has more components than Flash for achieving this, and the resounding feedback from our Technical Services team is that it is much faster and easier to use. Flex can integrate into any database or work with any web programming language. Flex is a framework for Flash, so you can build something in Flash and then export it as a Flex application. It will work with Mac or Windows, so you don’t have to create separate versions to work on both.

Part of the framework of Flex is that it gives you a lot of different libraries that are at your disposal. For example, Flex easily consumes RSS and XML to parse the feed to display whatever information is needed. This is great for something like a widget where you would want it to check for the most recent information to display.

Sound complicated? Here are a couple of use cases to give you a better idea.

Kiosks

One of the ways Twelve Horses has been using Flex is for Kiosk interfaces. It works very well for getting things to work like.

• Touchscreen Technology
• Text to Speech
• Ticket Scanning
• Credit Card Scanning
• Printing
• Braille and ADA Compliance

Flex also works well for the backend management of the Kiosk. You can check the status of the Kiosk, as well as update it with new content from anywhere in the world. Because all of the interactions with the Kiosk are fed into a database, you can also use it to run reports based on customer behavior and total sales generated.

Project Management

Because Flex does a great job of visualizing data, it works really well for running visual reports like Gannt Charts and graphs related to new business, productivity, status, resource forecasting, profitability analysis, and so on. Combine this with the Salesforce.com toolkit for Flex, and now you can pull data through their API for any object in Salesforce.com. Ordinarily you have to build all those functions into the application, but instead it is done for you. Combine Flex with Adobe Air, and now you have a desktop application that is easily deployed across the entire organization to facilitate everything from time entry to new business opportunities.

As you can see, Flex is another great tool in our quiver of programming languages and frameworks to pull from. It is fast, flexible, and capable of being customized for a variety of different business applications. Contact us to find out how we can further integrate your online marketing endeavors with Flex.

For those engaged in or planning to implement email marketing campaigns, please be advised that new rule provisions pertaining to the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM) go into effect today. Twelve Horses recommends consulting with your own legal counsel to determine how these rules specifically impact your email campaigns. However, we would like to provide you with some more information. Below is a summary of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved rules.

(1) an e-mail recipient cannot be required to pay a fee, provide information other than his or her e-mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any steps other than sending a reply e-mail message or visiting a single Internet Web page to opt out of receiving future e-mail from a sender; (2) the definition of “sender” was modified to make it easier to determine which of multiple parties advertising in a single e-mail message is responsible for complying with the Act’s opt-out requirements; (3) a “sender” of commercial e-mail can include an accurately-registered post office box or private mailbox established under United States Postal Service regulations to satisfy the Act’s requirement that a commercial e-mail display a “valid physical postal address”; and (4) a definition of the term “person” was added to clarify that CAN-SPAM’s obligations are not limited to natural persons.

How does this effect you?

As long as you are sending permission-based emails, and your opt-out pages are in compliance, you have very little to worry about. The 10-day mandatory opt-out requirement is still in place, and the Commission determined not to “designate additional ‘aggravated violations’ under the Act.” But you need to be sure you are in compliance. Here is some more information as it applies to the above provisions.

1. The first provision deals with Unsubscribe Requirements. If you require your customers to visit more than one web page or enter a password to unsubscribe from your email list then you are not in compliance. In addition, a recipient cannot be required to provide anything other than their email address. This means you cannot ask for their physical mailing address or request a fee.
2. The second provision addresses the Definition of a Sender. If your company engages in affiliate marketing and sends email campaigns representing more than one brand, there must be a designated lead marketer. In other words, whomever is listed in the “From” line is the designated sender and the one who manages the unsubscribes. Agencies who send email campaigns on behalf of their clients or partners should also pay careful attention to this.
3. The third provision is fairly minor but indicates that you can now list a PO Box as a valid physical address.
4. The fourth provision clarifies the definition of a “Person.” The FTC has made it clear that no organization, association, group, or non-profit is exempt from the rules under CAN-SPAM.

The FTC also made it clear that the same rules apply to any “Forward-to-a-Friend” action. Furthermore, there has been clarification of “transactional or relationship message(s).” If a customer unsubscribes from your list, this applies to any additional email that is ever sent from your brand in the future. This means making sure your data is clean and synchronized and replicated across all departments within the organization.

Hopefully this helps you take the proper course of action regarding your email marketing endeavors. If you need any assistance with your email campaigns and/or the management of your data please feel free to Contact Us.

We live in uncertain times. Volatility in the market place caused by inflation, the mortgage crisis, and rising fuel prices have placed considerable downward pressure upon the average consumer. These factors have a direct impact on the bottom line of most businesses, and play a significant role in how marketers allocate their budgets. Now more than ever sales and marketing strategies must achieve the greatest reach and return on investment possible.

Print buys and traditional media spends require considerable investment and frequency to produce results. Not only are they expensive, but they typically limit engagement to direct pitches as opposed to two-way dialogues with customers. While metrics such as circulation, GRPs, and Nielsen ratings are good, they are hardly exact. Coupons, barcodes, and phone numbers can be put in place to track return on investment, but what if the amount of people that are actually seeing and using them is going down?

Everywhere you look these days you read headlines like:

Top 100 Advertisers Shifted $1 Billion To the Web Last Year At The Expense Of TV And Newspapers

Implosion: Newspapers Down 12.8% In 1Q

Auto Industry Revs Up Online Spending

Anheuser-Busch Looks To Slash Costs, But Not Marketing Spend

Major brands are shifting their marketing and advertising dollars to the web because, why?

• The Web is THE source for information and interaction.
• It represents the largest consolidation of customers with expendable income.
• You can reach customers at the point of making a purchasing decision.
• The online shopping experience is more valuable because of product comparisons, ratings, and feedback.
• You can engage your customer on a personal level and have meaningful dialogue that forms a positive relationship.
• The scale and extensibility of the Web, and web applications, is practically boundless.
• You can target campaigns based on niches, social networks, groups, keywords, customer type, and geography.
• Creative and messaging can be dynamic, interactive, and actionable.
• Companies are not bound by 3rd-party deadlines and campaigns can be launched quickly and cost-effectively.
• It is easy to append, shift,  and replace an online marketing campaign at any point in the cycle.
• The shelf life of a web page, blog post, video, or campaign is potentially limitless.
• And most important of all, you can Track, Measure, and Analyze everything.

Josh Bernoff from Forrester Research recently stated, “In the last recession, online spending cratered along with the rest of the advertising industry. But since interactive marketing programs are now fueled by measurable results, not dot-com madness, we believe that they can thrive in a recession.” Bernoff added, “Social applications in particular, such as communities and social networking sites, are cost-effective and have a measurable impact on prospects’ decisions in the consideration stage, which will be important to companies under recessionary pressures.”

Enter Social Media Marketing:

Businesses are increasingly realizing they can start a business blog, build out a YouTube channel, and join a few social networks for a fraction of the cost for a TV ad; and there is an audience. Joe Mandese, editor of MediaPost recently cited a study stating, “for adults 18-34 – social media now is the dominant form of personal communication media, with 85% of this influential demographic group relying on one or more Web 2.0 platforms to stay in touch with others.”

I guess you can call it Viral Marketing…if you want.

What has long been described as viral or buzz marketing is really the practice of getting customers to take action on a particular message by consuming it and passing it on. Because of the extensive reach of the web, a successful campaign can achieve tremendous success for your brand. But how does that relate to ROI? How much does a friend cost or a video view worth? The answer is, it depends. It depends on what you do with the relationship. Did you capture an email address from a sign up form? Did you overlay a link in your video that directed people to shopping cart for a particular product? Did it inspire enough motivation for someone to come down and test drive the latest model of car? Social marketing must consider all of these aspects and then some.

Some Words of Caution:

There is a right way and a wrong way to delve into the practice of social media marketing. If you do not have a clear strategy combined with a creative delivery your campaign will fail. People will not immediately eschew a social campaign because it is a business, but they will have higher expectations and be hyper critical. A few things to consider about a social marketing campaign:

• It must be clever, and it should resonate on a psychographic scale.
• It should be architected to persuade customers down a certain path but never force them.
• It should deliver on its promise.

As the Social Graph demonstrates, not only are you going where your customers already are, but you are giving them the means and the reasons to come back to interact with you. Done right, not only will it raise brand awareness, but it will also boost revenues by increasing direct and indirect web traffic.

Move Forward or Fall Back.

In an uncertain economic climate it is typical for many businesses to batten down the hatches and wait out the storm. They become conservative and unwilling to experiment. They worry that any marketing efforts will simply fall on deaf ears. These are legitimate concerns. Fortunately, the evolution of web applications, and our ability to get a message out quickly, cost-effectively, and with the right measurement tools in place means you don’t have to bind your hands with complacency. You can proactively get your message out and build your web base. Test, Tweak, Rinse and Repeat. Find the people that are searching for what you have to offer.

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