Markers Mark Ambassador's Club & Creating a VIP Customer Program

I was introduced to Maker's Mark Amabassador Club by my friend Chaz Yoon (LivingProof.com, previously a colleague at eBay). Chaz described it as one of the most unique and compelling "VIP customer" programs. VIP program is a bit of a misnomer... since anyone who registers qualifies as a VIP. But registration alone signifies user activity and allows Makers Mark to continuously engage with fans.

What do ambassadors get?

- To start, their name etched on a barrel of premium whiskey that is aging. Photos during maturation are included. The concept of buying my own personalized whiskey is strange and fun.... and effective. I will certainly buy my own whiskey!

- Access to deals, events and special products (similar to wine clubs)

- A really unique holiday gift... which has to be relatively expensive to create and deliver. It's brilliant.

So how does this apply to you?

1. It doesn't take much to make customers feel special. Just some creativity and fun.

2. VIP programs can apply to more than just your highest spenders.

3. In a world of competition, differentiation comes from product, branding and customer relationships.

Don't Stop at Onboarding New Users. Example from Foursquare.

I rarely visit Foursquare.com (it's one of those destinations that is almost entirely mobile). Nevertheless, Foursquare is doing very interesting stuff on its .com and is clearly focused on using the web to build out deeper content, directories, etc. So I visited Foursquare.com and this was the above-the-fold module I was first presented with. There isn't much ground-breaking - or even truly unique - about it. But it is highly relevant to a theme I have been thinking & talking a lot about recently: active user experience and optimization.

What does this awkward string mean? In short: so much attention is paid to new user experience (registration, conversion, onboarding, etc) that current users are somewhat neglected. Of course active users are not neglected from the a product experience - but the same care with which newbies are onboarded should be given to active users. Conversions don't stop after the registration flow:

- vistor >> - new user >> - active user >> - highly engaged user >> - super user (top 1%)

Back to the seemingly ordinary screenshot I included. It prompted this post because of the care that is given to driving deeper engagement and networking:

1. Tailored for the destination First, Foursquare understands that the act of networking is more efficient / powerful on the web than on mobile

2. Drive to a specific action They also realize that the more friends the better: notifications, engagement, virality, etc

3. Lots of opportunity And that I have 889 Facebook friends on Foursquare (wow) - yet am only connected with a handful of them

4. High converting design So they present this to me boldly, using the Facebook Facepile and a big, bright green Find Friends button.

Again, this is a minor example - but it speaks to the care with which Foursquare is thinking about driving activity as much as they are about new user onboarding.

Facebook Brings Sponsored 'Stories', Ads to the Real-Time Ticker.

I always have to preface posts like this because Facebook is constantly testing new formats / features and it's hard to tell what I see vs. what other people see. In other words, if it's new to me it might not be new to you. So apologies! As Facebook ran out the real-time ticker, it was clearly a move to drive continuous engagement and alter the usage of the core feed. One of the consequences was that the ad units that had sat in the upper right column shifted down ... way down. Not great for advertisers paying premium (and ramping) prices. But, as shown below, that has seemed to allow for yet another ad format to emerge. This one looks a bit like Twitter's sponsored post. Sponsored stories / actions appear in the ticker and are noted as "sponsored" (ever so slightly). When expanded, those stories have standard actions (ie Like, share and comment). Obviously the goal is to drive engagement (and then charge for each interaction). Simple but very smart and effective.

And its yet another ad format - but this time, it's fully integrated into the normal usage pattern and can generate more than base CPMs. For instance, in the example below I could theoretically like the brand, comment, and/or share. Imagine a cost-per-interaction model. Advertisers would of course be excited as it leads to sharing and virality..

Google+ Navigation Crowded with Google+ Promotions.

Here's the Google+ right column. It's getting awfully crowded / busy and its one large promotion for Google+ functions / features: - Google's universal notification header - a floating YouTube search tool (when clicked it expands and plays videos in a mini-browser) - my friends and suggested uesrs to add to circles - Google+ invitations (although anyone can now register) - ability to start a Hangout (Google+'s best feature) - ability to create a Google+ page - Google+'s "Games" center and links to popular / featured games

I am not sure how I feel about. Clearly it differs from Facebook and that's in part because Google is still fighting for adoption and engagement. For instance, it is more beneficial for Google to promote tools than it is to insert ad units. However, this is essentially a vertical-ized version of the horizontal navigation bar that rests atop every page. It's cluttered, redundant and frankly ineffective at doing what Google wants it to do: drive deeper usage. For all the criticism that Facebook's Ticker has received, it is clearly a more powerful usage driver than this is.

Starbucks Gives "Behind-the-Paywall" Access.

I logged into Starbucks' wifi this morning and was presented with the below screen. I find it fascinating that Starbucks has an ad for "full behind-the-paywall access. Free." This strikes me as very much an industry term that is neither: - well known - consumer friendly, or - flattering for the content providers (WSJ, ESPN, USA Today, NY Times)

Agree? Disagree?

Humanizing Your Brand

Editor’s note: Guest contributor Andrew Machado is the founder of Open Home Pro, which empowers real estate agents to give their clients a new type of experience when shopping for a home with just an iPad. Open Home Pro is a Dogpatch Labs Palo Alto company. As I read Joseph Puopolo's article regarding the WWE/The Rock and Social Media this weekend I was taken aback to see one key name missing from the article...Amy Jo Martin.  She carries with her 1.2 million Twitter Followers, has beaten breast cancer and most importantly she's humanizing brands.

Amy founded Digital Royalty which works with great brands like Fox Sports, Nike, but most importantly people like Dwayne Johnson, Shaq and Dana White to improve their social media presence.  Her team has developed some extremely clever uses of social media over the years and I wanted to highlight three of them.

1.  Hunt For UFC

Over the last few years the UFC has not only grown it's business ($465 million in ppv revenue in 2010), but if you look up their CEO on Twitter @danawhite you'll see he is insanely active on twitter.  Nearly 12,000 tweets from him.  To put that into perspective that's nearly 2x my Twitter volume and 3x Ryan's.  

Why is he so active? Because Twitter is a platform that allows Dana to not only grow his business but it allows him to "humanize his brand".

My favorite of their social media strategies is #hunt4UFC where they give away UFC merchandise and tickets in random locations simply by having Dana tweet out clues about where they are hiding.  The video clip below is especially powerful.  You get to see what happens within 60 seconds of the tweet hitting twitter.

2.  Shaq's Retirement

A lot of people saw Shaq's original video on Tout detailing his retirement.  In fact over 500k of you watched it within the first 3 hours, but of course the real magic behind all of this was Amy who is seen in the video above with Shaq before he drops the video.

My favorite part of Shaq's retirement was not only did fans find out first, but he leverages social media to remove the red tape thats usually involved in an announcement like this.  Instead of seeing a press conference clip on Sportscenter, fans got to hear it first from the man on an overcast day in Miami.

3.  Team Bring It

Wait didn't I just see that t-shirt on Facebook.  I uttered these words to myself as I watched The Rock roll on out to the WWE ring on RAW wearing his Boots To Asses shirt we had seen previously that morning on his Facebook page.

Previously and probably my favorite of The Rock's social media innovations was when he took to YouTube to do a "shoot" interview about John Cena to increase buzz about their rivalry.  It's filmed in a way that feels real, raw and resonated with viewers (500,000k).  It's 11 minutes of pure unedited bliss.

As brands continue to adopt great tools like Instragram, Tout, Facebook and Twitter they'll need to continue to find innovative ways to leverage each platform. Social Media presents brands with an entirely new, more visceral way to interact with their customer.

Be innovative. Be real. Humanize your brand.

Three Reasons a Facebook Phone Can Work.

This week we learned of Facebook's internal project (code-named Buffy) to build a Facebook Phone. Much of the tech press laughed: it's too late! It's too crowded! Facebook isn't a hardware company! And so on. Let's not assume failure for three reasons.

1. As I have written before, Facebook a better understanding of what I believe to be a phone's most powerful lever: identity and your contact list.

For most people (which may well be outside silicon valley). Imagine walking into Best Buy, purchasing the phone and walking out with a directory of people, contacts, phone numbers, emails, updates, etc.... simply by logging into your phone. That's really, really powerful. A stub of that already exists through their app and it's a function I use all the time when seeking phone numbers:

2. Core apps are already popular and/or easily buildable. Facebook's Messanger app is currently #2 in iTunes (think SMS). Facebook is #5 (and the experience would be tremendously better if natively integrated). Other popular functions can all be at the app level: - photos: sharing, filters, etc - contacts: really, really powerful - email: messages + hooks to Gmail, Outlook? - music: app ecosystem will support through Spotify, Turntable, Rdio, etc - calendar & events: hooks into Facebook events + opportunity to build out calendaring tools - games...

3. Pricing. Remember why Android took market share so rapidly: pricing pushed towards zero, undercut Apple and allowed them to reach a wider audience.... an audience who is probably more attracted to and a better fit for a Facebook Phone.

Twitter's Role in the NBA Lockout. Fascinating.

Sports fans today got a Black Friday present: the 149 day NBA lockout is on the verge on ending. And the result is a good thing for fans: the season will be 66 games (a better result than the normal 82!), result in greater league parity (ala the NFL), lead to a healthier league (good for everyone), and create a whirlwind December free agency period (the surprisingly great outcome of the NFL lockout). The lockout was painful, mismanaged on both sides and generally could have been avoided... or at least handled far differently and far earlier. But the 2011-2012 season is saved and hopefully goodness comes from the ugly.

One of the most interesting and overlooked aspects was the role Twitter played in a world where:

- players couldn't communicate with the league

- players themselves were not entirely knowledgeable of the latest events / outcomes

- both sides were feeling significant pressure from the public (pressure is a soft word here for disgust for most and hate for some)

- both sides were starved for communication outlets

So everyone took the Twitter: the league, the owners and the players. Some were trying to position themselves, some trying to save face and others trying to voice their opinion in a public manner (since it wasn't being heard privately). Fascinating.

So why Twitter was so important here? First, the NBA and its players could feel the public's disgust... far more publicly. In prior strikes / lockouts, the fans didn't have as much power as they do today. And in prior situations, nobody had the outlets they do today: players and owners were able to immediately express frustration, anger, etc... and to huge audiences. The result was a very public negotiation that made many of those involved come across as confused, desperate, disjointed and/or displeased.

Nevertheless, it provided a platform for all constituents to amplify their voice... and to listen. And while that was debatably an effective / ineffective exercise - it was terrifically powerful for the fans.

Here are some examples:

Miami Heat owner Micky Arison (@mickyarison) took to Twitter to express his thankfulness to his fans. This was retweeted by the NBA (@nba). Takeaway: comes across as desperate.

NBA player Luis Scola (@lscola4) took to Twitter at a time when there was debate within the players union as to whether they should pass the league's proposal. There players were beginning to fracture and many had expressed confusion over the proposal's specifics. In one of these tweets, Luis asks the NBA a question directly and publicly. Takeaway: shows player disjointedness and general player confusion with process / outcome... which shows weakness.

Here's an example of Chris Sheridan (former ESPN NBA writer) and Luis. Chris posted a critical piece about the lockout and Luis retweeted it. Takeaway: fascinating as it shows the players are reading the commentary and clearly trying to share certain opinions.

This is my favorite one. The NBA took to Twitter to do a fan Q&A session about the lockout. It was in an effort to engage fans, show appreciation and help communicate... but it was a terrible idea (and I'm shocked anyone in PR allowed this to happen). It lead to fans spewing negativity, players tweeting questions, and the league being forced to answer uncomofortable questions. Takeaway: trying to do something positive but no an intelligent move.

Twitter's Activity Stream Speaks Specifically to Me

I give Twitter a lot of credit for rolling out their new Activity Stream.Sure, it's quite ugly... that can be fixed. And sure, it's a glorified newsfeed / timeline... but it's core to Twitter. A few thoughts:

1. Twitter, like many mass services, has a findability problem. In May 2008, I wrote that Twitter's problem was social findability. This helps.

2. The web is based on Ego and this certainly feeds to the ego. It answers in real-time what's happening around ME. That's powerful & addiction.

3. I can Twitter becoming two primary streams: tweets and activity. For publishers, activity could be a more powerful hub. For individuals, the normal stream probably is.

4. For publishers and brands, this could become the first step towards a publishing dashboard. The foundation is being laid.

5. It's ugly. Needs serious UI overhaul. Twitter is usually so elegant and simple... surprised by the visual experience here. Again, it's easily fixable.