Dark Social: The Newest Buzzword and Its Analytic Impact

While as marketers we’ve been able to successfully develop methods to track user engagement across web pages and social networks, there is one human factor we can add to our analytic repertoire: how users share content OFF the grid. Typically revolving around cutting and pasting to share via G-chat,  Facebook message or other form of text this sharing does not only makes up a considerable section of what we’ve previously lumped into direct hits, but makes up the most engaged and important demographic of visitors. This is dark social, or organic social—the dark spot on our social analytic radar.

Because sharers aren’t necessarily readers, it’s difficult to measure how many people are actually reading our content. In fact in social networks it’s standard behavior to repost content to piggyback or emphasize the originator’s values or statement. But people that are sending to their friends individually are digesters. They are the true active and consuming customer you seek as a content marketer.

It’s what as marketers we’re always after, the most intimate connections possible, because those are the longest lasting and most profitable. And while the share button has gotten more and more prevalent, meaningful referrals are more and more powerful and hard to come by. And the trail of connections has led us here, to the dark social gates.

So we’re here, how do we pillage it? What can we track and how can I package this to my boss in a colorful folder labeled “Dark Social ROI”?  Here’s the kicker: you can’t. Technically speaking it’s more of a factor to consider than a weaponized marketing utensil—a new way to mentally segment our direct hits in a slightly more specific manner. But this is good news! Good news because it gives us a little more positive outlook on our direct hits—that a section of them are true believers and consumers of our brand to the point of referring them ways we cannot (yet) account for. And for those that just see it as a buzzword, they never really understood the value of social media anyway.

So add it to your dictionaries folks, dark social just made our analytics a little bit brighter.

For a detailed report on how dark social impacts analytics check out this article from The Content Lab.

Target Looks for the Next Best Thing, By Asking

So we all know retailers have to evolve their selling experience—fast. The in-store experience has marred by m- and e-commerce, but where to begin? You could ask your in-house people for ideas, but these are people you hired on previous selling models. People whose natural agenda is to keep their own job and not suggest a project that gets them canned. If you want fresh, you need to look outside your comfort zone—the wild, worldwide web.

And Target is teaming up with Fast Company to do just that.

In their new challenge campaign, Co.Labs & Target Retail Accelerator, both companies are giving away $75,000 to the winner and $10,000 to seven other finalists who can come up with an awesome mobile shopping service that extends the Target customer experience in a useful, instructive or entertaining way. Emphasis is on the following: social, education, in-store, personalization, completeness, design, technical expertise, date and magic. Target will own the winning app and outstanding entries will be highlighted by Fast Company’s Co.Labs.

Salivating yet? You can find the contest rules here.

Submissions close April 30, 2013 and the Grand Prize Winner will be  announced July 1, 2013.

How Fallon Is Trailblazing Creative

Creatives can be difficult people to work with. Not only do they not think like others, but they don’t think like each other—and this is incredibly important to their success and fulfillment as individuals.

Many organizations recognize this, as well as how important this value is to the success of their company as a whole. Neglecting this issue leads to decreased employee satisfaction, higher turnover and lower quality work. But what can companies do about it? How can they cater to such a variety of minds and talent? With deadlines and clients aplenty who has time for such tailoring?

In a little Instagram campaign called #Make5, Minneapolis-based agency Fallon has began giving each employee five days to create something creative of their choosing. The only stipulations are it must be to the level of work Fallon aspires and it will be shared across their Instagram account using the hashtag #Make5. Sound like a complete waste of time? Here are a few reasons why it’s not.

Be Generous to Your Employees and They Will Be Generous with their Work

Sure, employees love the boss that gives financial bonuses, but why? To show appreciation. And when a holiday or birthday comes around what means more to people, giving them cash or giving them a thought?

Creatives, the best creatives, put their hearts into their work. They take big risks everyday they work for your business. If they were in it for the money they would be doing something else, plain and simple. So giving them money is like giving a friend twenty pairs of socks for their birthday—we’re appreciative, we’ll use them, but once they’re used up we’ll forget we ever received them.

True appreciation is not the same. And true appreciation comes from the currency we all value most—our time. We all are only on this earth for a limited amount. People with heart know this the most. And these are the people you want to hire—and keep. By giving them time you show appreciation through trust in not only their dedication to their work but their talent as a creative. And that reaches deep.

The Path to Optimizing Work Efficiency Is Not Always Linear

We’re all busy. We all have too many clients, projects and responsibilities to balance. That’s why we need to get started and do things now so we can get the most of them done. Wrong. Humans are not robots, and positions that require us to use parts of ourselves that are especially human such as creativity require work systems that incorporate our humanity. In an interview with Digiday, digital creative director Marc Stephens lays it out best.

“This gives creatives a chance to express themselves without rules. It’s important to keep creatives fresh and happy, to give them an outlet to do the things they want.”

If you want work done, just do it and keep doing it, but if you want exceptional work you need to think about process while evaluating the fulfillment of not only your client but your employees. It’s not easy, it may add another layer to your workload, but it will undeniably be what sets you apart from your competitors.

So what is coming out of the #Make5 campaign? Right now mostly paintings and illustrations but employees say they are hoping to take the initiative even further into short movies, poems or even songs.

Follow Fallon at WeAreFallon on Instagram to learn more.

Why We Can Give Up the Jobs in Retail, All of Them

Recently I decided in my need for extra cash to take a side job in retail. I figured the position would be a fun one; I would get to work with friends, chat up customers and obtain a heavy discount at one of my favorite clothing stores.

And for the first few weeks this is exactly what it was. The work wasn’t hard, I got to be social and I eventually even bought a suit. What I didn’t expect, but quickly remembered from my college years, was what we all know—retail sucks.

But why does it suck?

It doesn’t just suck because the work is boring, the pay is low or the management are frequently assholes; it sucks because its method is essentially flawed.

Consider the hierarchy for a moment. The majority of retail, the positions we described as containing the most suck, are sales. These underlings range from pants folders to customer service reps but the bottom line is they all have quota and typically, very particular instructions. Above them are managers. These middlemen and women were chosen for their ability to follow these instructions, and in turn make quota. Above them, and I’m hugely oversimplifying here, are the corporate decision makers. These people are the ones who come up with the quota, concepts and rules everyone else will follow. Now, take a minute to note these people either come from backgrounds in these types of decisions or have climbed their way from the lower levels of the business for the last twenty plus years.

So, who is actually facing the customer? Well, the most economical option of course—sales—the lowest paid due to the least amount of training and easy replace-ability. And how does corporate make up for this lack of knowledge for every customer-facing rep? They give them tag lines, uniforms and scripts to read from. So each employee looks and sounds the same. This is supposed to be a comfort to the customer, like going into every McDonald’s and getting the same Big Mac.

On some level this is a success. People like dependability, but is that really what they’re getting? Let’s take a deeper look.

Whenever anyone starts in sales they suck. Overtime, one of two things happen: they quit/get fired or they get it. They learn how to connect with customers and actually meet and eventually excel past their quota. Then they quit or get moved up. So basically the exact moment a rep truly understands sales, they’re removed from where the company needs them most. They get moved to management, where they are told to tell others what they’ve learned while taking directions from upstairs.

There is no room for innovation. Only until you've put a lifetime in with a company are you able to actually change the rules and by then your customer experience is most likely outdated.

This model has been around for a few generations for a reason. It made sense for what resources were available. Our governments and educational institutions were run in the same hierarchal system.  Experts led the masses who helped the customer.

This is changing.

During the industrial era many manufacturing jobs became obsolete. The ones that didn’t we shipped to China, Inda, Malaysia, etc. Now we're in the middle of doing the same with customer service and even occasionally sales. And some people are getting upset about that: they shouldn’t be.

We are entering a new digital era where, not unlike the industrial age, more of the process is automated. Only now it isn’t just the production process, it’s also the selling. And customer service is selling.

Look at Best Buy, a multinational consumer electronics corporation. In 2001, Best Buy was named “Speciality Retailer of the Decade” by Discount Store News. In 2004, Forbes magazine named them “Company of the Year”, and in 2006 even made their List of Most Admired Companies. This was a company that had the in-store retail experience down. They had massive store fronts that housed hundreds of big screen TVs and electronic devices. And customer service was important to them. They are known for having a greeter positioned at the door of every store to make sure you find everything you need.

In 2011 however, things changed. Best Buy saw its revenue slide to $651 million on revenue of $16.26 billion. The following year they closed at least fifty stores and started to shift to, wait for it, Best Buy Mobile stores.

This particular business marks a very specific shift in the marketplace. If you were to look at book sales you would have seen it for the last decade as Borders and Barnes & Nobles went down like dominoes. What was happening was customers were coming into Best Buy, testing the products, gathering knowledge about them and going back home and purchasing them online.

Heresy! So, you’re saying they’d prefer to buy from a website than a person?

Yes.

Let’s stop kidding ourselves. You can’t indoctrinate someone for minimum wage and expect them to give a genuine piece of themselves to a job that requires connection. And customers know this. In fact, many times it’s even uncomfortable to watch someone degrade themselves to this, and by now we’ve gotten REAL comfortable with the internet.

We trust Amazon, eBay and Apple more than we probably trust our local grocery store. The structure that uses in-store people for sales is no longer valued. That isn't to say that we won't have customer service--but these people will be highly skilled, well-paid and use their own creative personality across tools to reach larger audiences. A great example of one of these positions is a community manager. I know when I tweet a complaint to Urban Outfitters, I’ll get a carefully crafted response from someone that matters. Not a replaceable face at a storefront who is working for seven bucks an hour.

Through the internet, connectivity and widely available information has allowed thousands of jobs to be reduced to hundreds. For some people the question is daunting: Does this mean there will be layoffs? Yes, but I prefer the word liberations, because less people indoctrinated means more people creatively thinking, and more people creatively thinking means more industry leaders, increased market competition and better careers that don’t suck.

How Urban Outfitters’ #UOonyou Campaign Is Nailing Interactive

Many brands have opted onto the Instagram bandwagon, but few have given the reins to their audience and seen a return on effort like Urban Outfitters in their #UOonyou campaign. Here are two concepts that have helped enable their success.

Let the audience have an active role in the brand

The most obvious part of the #UOonyou campaign, is the YOU. Immediately engaging what all social network users care about (themselves), Urban has recognized and piggybacked on the exact purpose Instagram is successful.

And it’s an open invite. Urban hasn’t ruled who participates and what is posted with an iron fist—they are inviting consumers in. Users hashtag #UOonyou in their posts and if Urban likes what they see, they post it on their website. Is it risky? Maybe a little, but the payoff is huge. Your consumers are your brand. They want to interact for the same reason they buy your product—they want the culture/personality. So let them play with it. Taking risks with your customers results in trust for a continuing relationship. Because they want to show off their cut-off Cheetah t-shirt and you want free advertising. #winwin

Sell a culture not a product

A redonkulous number of Instagram-adopting brands have used Instagram (and Pinterest) with the same approach they would traditional ad space. Each post contains an image of their product with a link to purchase, and sometimes even an annoying price tag in the corner of the shot. Guess what? We’re all here for free, and in an opt-in culture that is just not interesting enough. What’s the story? Where’s the human factor?

Shots should be organic and reach at why consumers are purchasing your product. No business wants to be dependent on the success of one item, invest your customers with your brand. Something they won’t do unless they feel like they have a stake.

And to do this you need engagement. By allowing audience members to have an active role in the brand, a culture further develops that automatically evolves with the interests of your consumers. Users have emotional stake in the services you have to offer. Your identities are tied in a relationship that continues to strengthen as long as you both listen and adapt.

Know of other brands doing similar campaigns? Would love to hear it!

From Never Enough to Niche: How User Purpose Is Getting Specific

When Facebook was first introduced to college students in 2004, it had a purpose and a target. College students could connect and share images and messages. Over time, the Facebook demographic widened, no longer requiring college emails but opening it up to anyone. This still only appealed to youth, but over time businesses caught on and in turn older generations. Pokes and pictures were followed by gift giving, pages, apps, music, notes and Zynga online games. In 2012 there were over one billion active users from across the globe. And now, everyone hates it. Why?

The service hasn’t necessarily changed. Sure, ads are now a concern, timeline has been introduced and soon Graph Search will supposedly change everything again, but the concept of promoting yourself and sharing content remains the same.

What’s different is the culture surrounding Facebook. They are no longer the only big fish in the tank, and more than that, users are no longer intrigued with simply being somewhere.

Facebook is the early generation of mass adopters. For that reason, they contain everyone, especially those that don’t know why they’re there. From there, more specific platforms were developed for a specific purpose: Twitter focuses on syndicating content in under 140 characters, Instagram beautifies our ugly faces, LinkedIn promotes our professional experience—all of this is in ADDITION to networking.

Networking, the act of connecting and maintaining a presence, is no longer a reason to be somewhere. You need a message or reason for being there. Businesses that have succeeded on social networks know this. And users are not close behind.

There was a time when being everywhere was a must—both for businesses and affluent users of social media. But now there has finally reached a level of saturation in the marketplace. Smart businesses aren’t blindly following competitors onto platforms that don’t contain their target demographic or conform to the restrictions of their brand. Users with clout aren’t on a network because their friends are—they’re there for a focused purpose.

And this purpose can be fun. SnapChat, a photo/video messaging application that automatically deletes after a few seconds, is a perfect example of this. While light-years from the growth issues of Facebook, they’ve zeroed in on a fundamental craving for social sharing without responsibility and exploded their following.  It’s simple, focused and it works.

LinkedIn has been incredibly successful because of how necessary and focused its service is. It has added many widgets to improve connectivity and professional validity but also has done an excellent job listening to their audience when their additions rock the boat too hard.

Usability is clutch, and not losing focus on why your platform exists.

People feel guilty being somewhere without purpose. Without it we dwell on ourselves and call each other narcissists, when really people are and always have been narcissistic; they just don’t want to feel like they are. Purpose gives us that veil.

So where did Facebook go wrong? Who the hell knows, however, it’s notable to mention Facebook has gotten larger and not necessarily more relevant to our lives. Their purpose has remained stagnant while the culture has shifted. And adding more widgets onto its platform has not changed its purpose. In fact, it’s damaged its previous one. By adding so many functions to a platform, it has created an all consuming monster of information that is slow, spammy and above all, segments user purpose. And like any good marketer will tell you, too many choices cost you bottom line.

Getting in Bed with Gadgets [INFOGRAPHIC]