Jeff Lesser

A Slight Change In Daily Activities: Part 2

In April of last year I made a very difficult decision and I left my job at Giantnerd® for a job at Graphicly. I made that decision for a number of reasons and was extremely excited to try applying my skills in a new way. Once I got to Graphicly I found that they have an extremely talented team of product managers and developers, and they have some seriously nerdy comic enthusiasts. They were lacking one thing though, a clear direction and strategy. This is not really a problem for Graphicly though, they are a hungry startup and they are quickly testing concepts by releasing MVPs and collecting data and then iterating on what worked. To make a long story short, marketing in the sense that I was working on, was another strategy being tested and after 2 months the test was over: paid search marketing couldn’t drive customers at the rate required. Internet marketing in general for them was not a great source of revenue generation or customer acquisition. I was let go.

I knew Graphicly was a big risk and wasn’t upset by what happened. Not every risk comes out on the good end of the potential outcomes. I didn’t waste any time and began looking for my next opportunity. That came just a week later when a company called Parallel Path decided to being me onboard as an independent contractor doing paid search marketing for some of it’s clients. I worked on accounts such as Motherhood Maternity, Stoneside, Hostway, Mentor Graphics, and Verio as well as helping the other paid search specialists on their accounts. Eventually they brought me on as a full time employee.

This brings me to the present, where I have decided to leave Parallel Path and pursue an old opportunity. I am returning to Giantnerd® and am more excited this time around than I was the first time. Giantnerd® has made a number of enhancements to the company in terms of structure and team. They have also implemented many of the ideas and strategies that were in waiting when I left that I believe will take the company to new levels. They have implemented some new strategies that I believe will allow everyone to focus on our core competencies. In short I believe that Giantnerd® is in a better position than they have ever been and I am excited to return in a new position with more responsibility, autonomy, and resources to achieve more.

As of today I am once again a member of the Nerd Herd with a new title, eCommerce Manager. Previously I was the Marketing Manager and my duties reached much further than marketing so the new title is more apt although this time around I will be doing much more than before. I am really excited to bring some new ideas I’ve been learning about to the team and to execute on ideas efficiently, with accountable metrics to understand the true ramifications of every experiment we launch. I am also excited to return to the culture I helped establish and take it in a more complete direction, Giantnerd® has a set of 14 core values that I truly believe in and know that if we can engrain these values in the company there is nothing that will stop us from achieving our goals.

Last April I urged people to join me at Graphicly, and previous to that I likely urged you to checkout Giantnerd® at some point in the 3 years I worked there. If I didn’t, go join Giantnerd® and use it when you need to buy cycling or outdoor equipment. I guarantee you there is no better retailer on the planet.

My Father: The Brave Part II

I didn’t expect so many people to have read my blog and responded that they wanted a follow up post. I hadn’t planned on writing anything else but so many people have asked what’s going on I figure it is only a good thing to keep the story going. The journey has really only just begun so I will continue to tell the story as long as there is one. If you didn’t see part one you can find it here.

When we left the hospital yesterday we had discussed with the nurses when he would be extubated, they told us sometime between 6am and 7am. For those who don’t know (I didn’t) to extubate is to remove the breathing tube that was supplying air for him to breathe. When they remove the tube he has to be able to breathe on his own. I planned to get up at 5am and make it to the hospital in time for him to wake and begin his recovery. Because of my ignorance to the process I thought that they would wake him and extubate him within a matter of minutes however the reality is that he needs to be awake for a few hours before they can extubate him. When I arrived at the hospital he was already awake which was a bit of a disappointment however seeing him awake and not sedate was such a relief that those good feeling superseded any disappointing feelings.

My father was looking good considering the major surgery he had undertaken. He had a couple hours of being awake before he could be extubated. This was particularly stressful because he had the tube in his mouth and couldn’t talk, he had his hands strapped down so he wouldn’t pull any of his tubes out in his sleep, and he was itchy as a side effect of the pain medication. The result must have been torturous as he was itchy but couldn’t scratch his itch and could tell us where to scratch. We eventually got some non-verbal communication going but that was really a rough few hours. To aid in the non-verbal communication they gave us a whiteboard which we tried to use but it was tough for him to write as he was in pain and also on medication. He did manage a few messages though.

The top part says “Where is Laurie” the bottom says “Let’s go home. Up in 1 out in 4”

Finally it was time to begin extubation.

The doctors came in and did a chest x-ray and setup a machine to look into his lungs as well as suction any liquid that was in there. We got to watch a monitor as the scope went into his lungs, this was pretty cool. They suctioned everything out and took a sample to make sure there wasn’t any issues. We waited for what seemed like a long time but was really a matter of minutes for the results to come back. Everything was good so they removed the tubes. It was just Laurie (my Dads girlfriend), my brother David, and me there. We all seemed to be very relieved that the tube was out but my Dad didn’t seem much different.

They still had oxygen helping him breathe through his nose like before the surgery however he was breathing mostly on his own. To give some perspective, when we were waiting in the hospital for the lung to come he was hooked up to the hospitals oxygen system which goes up to 15 - even at 15 he had trouble breathing and talking. Now with his new lung he was at 6 and breathing better than before at 15. About an hour later they moved it down to 4 and that was still better than before at 15! During this time he started to talk. At first it was one word answers to questions but soon we was talking with much more ease and length.

Once the tube was out it was clear that the biggest issue now was managing his pain. He had been on an IV drip for his pain but that had to end for them to extubate him. He wained off most the pain medication to be extubated and now he was playing catch up. Because of this the nurse was giving him periodic doses of morphine through his IV which caused a roller coaster of pain/pleasure. He would be in a lot of pain and get a dose, and then feel better, but soon the dose would wear off and again he would be chasing the pain. This was only a temporary situation until he could swallow. Once he was able to swallow he could take pills which release slower and have a more even and sustained effect.

After a while he was taking some sips of water. This was a huge moment because before surgery you cannot drink or eat anything for a long time. This was the first thing he had ingested in over 2 days! He had some water and then took some liquid medication to help prevent fungus and other issues and eventually took an oxycodone which meant that he no longer needed to be on the roller coaster. I was very relieved about this.

Soon after this he was given a tray of many kinds of different liquids he was able to drink. It included water, apple juice, broth, tea, and jello. I was feeling really good about his progress and everyone was saying how well he was coming along. Dr. Zamora and Dr. Mitchell both stopped by and had good things to say about this recovery.

Here he is drinking some apple juice, and that’s my brother at his side. It’s amazing how excited you can get that a fully grown man is drinking apple juice.

At this point I decided it was a good place to leave my Dad and have my last day at Parallel Path. I went back to Boulder and updated my friends about his progress and finished strong at work.

When I left work I called Laurie who updated me on what I missed. She told me that he was still doing well and the only major thing I had missed was that he got up and moved from the bed to the chair. He spent some time in the chair and then moved back to the bed. She said he looked “strong” and “impressive” when he stood up which is definitely inspires confidence. I am really proud of how determined my father is, he is going above and beyond what the doctors are asking of him.

“Up in 1, out in 4.” Up in one, check!

My Father: The Brave

On Monday, January 23rd, I was working one of my last days at Parallel Path. It was 4:45 and I was getting ready to wrap things up for the day when my Dad called me. This was an unusual time for him to call me so I answered the phone knowing something was different but managing my expectations. He started the conversion with the general small talk of a normal phone call, “hey, how are you?” and “what are you doing?” My answers were shorter than normal, I wanted him to get to the point and then he gave me the news I wanted.

About 10 months ago my father was diagnosed with Interstitial Lung Disease, essentially an issue where the lungs suffer a traumatic event, pneumonia in my Dads case, where they don’t heal correctly afterwards. The main symptom of this is that the person has extreme difficulty breathing. There are a number of treatments depending on the severity of the case, in my fathers case he had been taking medications that were no longer working and our only option left was a lung transplant. He was reliant on an oxygen tank at all times to breathe, and the output of oxygen was consistently at the highest levels the tank could put out - yet he still had difficulties breathing.

He spent months doing tests and trying to get on a lung transplant list. His first choice was to get on a list right in his backyard, at CU. He was a CU graduate, both my brother and I are CU graduates, and CU has a great program with solid numbers to back up their skills. He took the tests to make sure he was a good candidate and he was denied getting on CUs list because of some fatty tissue in his liver that could potentially cause a complication during surgery and recovery. While devastated he was not deterred, he made an extremely difficult journey to Cleveland to look at their program and complete tests for them. This journey is so difficult because he has to be on oxygen 24/7, that means carrying it with him everywhere. Tanks commonly last for 3 hours so traveling to the airport alone is 1 hour, plus the flight, plus landing and getting another tank, plus things I don’t even know about make this super difficult. When he got to Cleveland he had to make an emergency call to have firemen come meet him as his oxygen was too low. Despite the scare he carried on.

Cleveland looked at his data and was ready to accept him into their program. This would involve moving to Cleveland for about 6 months; 3 months before the actual surgery and 3 months of recovery. My  Dad wasn’t ready to commit to that, and being the lovably stubborn and decisive person he is, he had another plan. Get the data and some doctors opinions from Cleveland, and use every mean necessary to get listed at CU. His amazing and supportive girlfriend, Laurie, helped throughout this whole process and through some family connections was able to get my Dads case back in front of Dr. Zamora, the head of surgery at CU. Given all the data and other doctors opinions Dr. Zamora reconsidered and allowed my Dad onto CUs list. This was a gigantic win for us!

My Dads condition was pretty bad at this point, medication was no longer helping him so he stopped taking them. His condition was so bad that he was immediately put at the top of the list for his blood type, from what I understand this is pretty unusual. This was back in November, and we had heard lots of myths about Christmas, New Years, and the holidays in general being a good time for transplants. The thought is that people drink and drive and there is bad weather so there is a spike in available organs. However that is indeed a myth and my fathers physical therapist who was helping him to get in shape for surgery said that she thought before the end of January we would have an available lung. As the holidays passed and my father condition worsened it was clear that something had to happen soon.

On January 18th a lung became available, however it had a very rare blood type which matched to another candidate with the same blood type. That lung went to a man who my father had met named John and he apparently had a rough surgery but is recovering and making progress. We were still waiting for a lung.

This brings us back to the call with my father, his small talk was leading up to him telling me that there was a potential match and to hang tight. I was ready to jump in the car and be to Denver immediately but because it wasn’t confirmed yet they were not going to the hospital. I patiently waited and just as I sat down to dinner at 7 I got the call that the lung was confirmed and everyone was headed to the hospital. I quickly chowed my dinner and sped to Denver going 100mph easily. I figured if a cop saw me I just wouldn’t stop, I’d go straight to the hospital and he could ticket me later. Luckily I didn’t get pulled over.

It turns out that my speeding was for nothing, when you are getting a lung transplant it is a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. I got to the hospital around 8pm and most of my family was already there. We waited and heard rumors about an 11pm surgery time, however this passed without us making any moves. The doctors kept us as informed as they could but much of what they know about the organs they cannot disclose. Everyone kept telling us that there is always the potential that there could be something wrong with the lung and literally up until the moment that the lung is in the body everything could fall apart and we would have to wait for another lung.

We began to hear mummblings about a 2am surgery time. We stayed up talking and joking, trying to stay optimistic while dealing with the obvious anxiety everyone shared. 2am came and went. The nurse thought it was best that my Dad get some sleep as we were now expecting the surgery to happen in the morning. The family that was left went to a waiting area and tried to sleep or occupy ourselves as we waited. Around 4am Nicole, who was the nurse assigned to my father, came into the waiting area and notified us that we were set for a 6am surgery time but that she was going to let my father sleep til 5. It was tough to hold in such great news so we walked around the hospital for an hour.

At 5:15 or so we walked into my fathers hospital room and he and his girlfriend were both awake. The lights were off but my Dad was listening to music and Laurie was on the floor attempting to sleep. Nicole was in the bathroom prepping some things. I said to my father excited to confirm with him “surgery at six!” He responded with “what?” I was confused but repeated myself again excitedly, “surgery at six!” He said, “really?” which is when I realized Nicole hadn’t said anything yet. I felt honored to have been able to break the news to him. We began to final preparations to take him downstairs were we would wait for him to go into surgery.

Around 6:15 we headed downstairs and met with the anesthesiologist and waited to meet with the surgeon. The surgeon ended up being a man name Dr. Mitchell who we had heard great things about, he is chief of Thoracic Surgery at CU. He was a very concise and funny man. He walked into our curtained-off area and said “I’m Dr. Mitchell and I’m going to put your new lung in.” My Dad responded with “thank you” to which Dr. Mitchell nonchalantly responded “you’re welcome” followed by a long paused. Everyone just burst into laughter. He proceeded to tell us all about the surgery, the complications, and the team that would be helping my father throughout the process.

Then it was time to say goodbye. I didn’t realize it at the time but this has got to be one of the most brave moments I’ve ever experienced. My father was about to let someone sedate him, not knowing if he was going to wake up ever again. My eyes are tearing up as I write this just thinking about what it must have been like in his head. It is undoubtedly the right thing to do to get the transplant, but rationality doesn’t take into account mortality. The math is in favor of the transplant, without it he would surely die soon, but with a new lung he has a chance to live a normal life for a while longer. The reality is that once you are under everything is out of your hands. This was my epiphany of my fathers bravery, and I only could realize it now, some 12 hours after the surgery was over.

At around 11am Dr. Mitchell came to tell us that the surgery was completed without any complications and that we would be able to see my Dad in about an hour. It was exactly like in the movies when a doctor comes to tell the family good news, everyone is excited and grateful. Dr. Mitchell was astonishingly humble for having just saved a man life. We got to see my father, still sedated, with machines breathing for him. He looked strong for having just been through major surgery.

Currently, my father is still sedated, as is standard procedure. Early tomorrow morning I am going to the hospital again to be there when they wake him and attempt to take him off of the machines. Hopefully tomorrow he will be up and walking around and out of the hospital within a week or so. My dad kept telling everyone “up in 1, out in 4” which means up and walking around in 1 day and out of the hospital in 4 days, he heard that the record was out in 5 days so he, of course, has to try and beat that.

I am so very grateful to have such supportive family and friends, a talented surgeon (and team), a head of surgery that would reconsider his position on a candidate, and a lovably stubborn father. We are not out of the woods yet and I know everything will not go as smoothly as it has to far but I’m optimistic for his full recovery and excited that my Dad will be able to have a more normal life with a new lung.

Best Albums of 2011

Normally I rank albums in no particular order however this year there is a clear #1 while 2-10 are in no order. Links to to the Spotify album or you can see the whole playlist here.

1. Defeater - Empty Days & Sleepless Nights

2-10

• Childish Gambino - Camp
• Justice - Audio, Video, Disco
• Polar Bear Club - Clash Battle Guilt Pride
• Nero - Welcome Reality
• The Chain Gang of 1974 - Wayward Fire
• Does It Offend You, Yeah? - Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You
• Digitalism - I Love You, Dude
• Foundation - When The Smoke Clears
• Foo Fighters - Wasting Light

*I purposely left off any description of the artists and the albums in hopes that you won’t write off the recommendation to listen based on what I think of an album or your assumption about a genre.

Marketing Idea of the Day: Stop Using Canvassers

Everyone hates being stopped and asked if they have a minute for something they don’t care about. Everyone. Even when it’s something I do care about, like Planned Parenthood, I don’t stop because I hate the idea of someone intruding on my day. This is not what marketing is supposed to be, this is not how we are supposed to go about getting funding for causes.

Rather than alienate the targets you hope to get a signature or money from by ruining their experience on Pearl St. why not find a way to give them an awesome experience and then give them the a short speech and allow them to decide if they are interested in your cause?

There are dozens of amazing street performers on Pearl St, and they can captivate a audience of 100, easily. Rather than interrupt people one-by-one with a canvassers, why not sponsor a street performer? Pay the performer for every performance and then work with them on a speech to give just when they are finishing. They can tell the crowd how they don’t want their money for a change and instead want a signature or for the crowd to give their money to a cause. I think the performer will welcome the steady income (make it worth their while, I bet it is still cheaper than hiring 10 canvassers) and I think the results could be better as well. Help make Boulder a better place and get rid of canvassers, it’s shitty marketing and it makes Pearl St. less accessible.

PS - Does anyone know how to get a measure put on a ballot so in 2012 we can vote to get rid of canvassing, I would be down to put some legwork into that.

Kidrobot.com E-commerce Enhancement Ideas

A while back I was really excited about the fact that Kidrobot was moving to Colorado and put together some ideas I had to enhance their e-commerce experience. I sent them my ideas, had an interview, and never heard anything back from them. I know they filled the position long ago but almost all of my ideas have still gone unimplemented. Regardless of what they thought of the ideas, I think they are pretty basic and worth implementing. We talked about much more advanced marketing stuff that I also know they haven’t implemented yet, maybe they are planning something big. Either way you can see my ideas below.

Simplify the Checkout process

Currently kidrobot.com has a 3 step checkout, I would consolidate this to a single page.

Combine JavaScript

Currently kidrobot.com has many .js files running, I would combine the JavaScript files to allow more simultaneous loads.

Kidrobot.com also has some JavaScript that can be minified.

SEO Meta Information

Currently pages do not have unique meta information which is not optimal for SEO.

Site Speed

Currently pages take 7+ seconds to load for a testing program, real users likely experience slower loads, I would implement a CDN to speed up the website.

Search Indexing Control (aka robots.txt)

Currently the site does not tell search engines whether or not to index or follow a page, this means they are not indexing all of your content and may be indexing some you do not want.

Item Images

There is room on the item pages to implement larger images which causes a better user experience and with products like yours will showcase the beauty and details that are critical.

Buy button

Currently only 60% of internet users would see the BUY button above the fold.

Cart Modification

Currently the cart only shows number of items unless on cart page, this could be built out to be more detailed.

Cart aesthetics do not match the rest of the site, buttons are different and placed poorly.

Merchandising Zones

While the merchandising seems to be based on good rules they do not show the name or price of the item which prevents up-sells or cross-sells.

Merchandising could be taken a step further to also include cross-sells, this would increase average order values.

Cart merchandising is not best practices and should not take the user away from the cart.

Additional Images Zone

The top left is where the eye naturally drifts to first, having additional images here is too much emphasis on the additional images and not the relevant purchasing information.

Item Add To Cart Notification

The text is red which is never a good sign on a website that uses no red, this could also be handled more elegantly with Ajax.

Checkout abandon emails

Sending emails to customer who abandon the checkout with a reminder to checkout. You can also institute rules to this where if a customer has over $200 that they abandon you can incentivize them to checkout.

Choice Architecture

There are moments on the site where you should be choosing things by default for the user and are not (shipping address on checkout when 1 address)

PCI Compliance

Because the site ais not PCI compliant you cannot retain credit card information which deters repeat business.

Shipping Estimates

Shipping is handled at step 3 of checkout, it could be estimated in the cart and selected and retained in checkout which decreases abandonment.

Left Side Refinements

Especially with clothing, refinements on the leftside make navigating a page of 20+ products more easy.

Category Page Sorts

Adding the ability to sort by Price and other simple measures will allow people to shop easier, especially people shopping for gifts.

Category Display

Currently kidrobot.com has categories displaying that show no products when they are clicked on.

Sitemap for Google

I was not able to see the sitemap you submit to Google for crawl your site which is not optimal for SEO.

Product Images

With your toys in particular a 360 view would be a great selling feature.

Google Base

Having your products listed on Google base is free and can enhance your Google Adwords accounts when linked.

Retargeting

Retargeting will push your brand into the visitors mind well after they have left Kidrobot.com, I can see you doing Google retargeting but there are other options to consider with more dynamic content. This is especially important since the products you sell aren’t heavily searched unless by name so keeping those customers that know you already is crucial.

Product Descriptions

Your products are innately creative, so should your product descriptions.

A website is not a catalog, it is okay to get more than 2-3 sentences in for a product description, space on the internet is cheaper than space on paper.

Newsletter Sign-Up

If newsletter sign-up is something that you are after I would put it on every page not just the homepage.

Login

Username and Password labels are not displayed.

Navigation

Long category pages could be paginated to speed up load times and focus users attention.

Social Integrations

ShareThis is an option but there’s the Facebook Like button at minimum to enhance sharing. Also Tweet buttons and +1 buttons should be implemented.

Checkout for non-existing customers

Allowing “Guests” to login and have an account created for them will make their checkout experience easier.

Social Media Enhancements

Kidrobot can take back the YouTube.com/KidRobot name (assuming kidrobot.com has it trademarked) and begin doing videos for marketing. YouTube is the second largest search engine so not having a video strategy is a big miss.

LiveChat

Good customer service will increase sales; a simple but effective method is LiveChat.

Contact Us above the fold

On the pages where customer have questions the most the only way to find the contact information is at the very bottom of the page where many people will not scroll to and you will lose sales.

Canonical Tags

Currently the site architecture is good and doesn’t need canonical tagging but any marketing or operations that create URL modifications will require canonical page tagging.

Consumer Brand Marketing Concept - Justin’s Nut Butter

My girlfriend just got an internship at Justin’s Nut Butter, a local gourmet nut better company. The company is an awesome success story; a local guy who started making peanut butter for himself, found his roommates stealing his snack and thought he was on to something. He went and proved it at the local farmers market and then due to the organic aspect of it he got into the local Whole Foods. That spread to the regional Whole Foods and now he is nationwide in WF, Target, and many other outlets. They have in essence doubled in revenue every year they have been around and are pushing the industry to be greener with the packaging and manufacturing.

They are most famous for single-serving squeeze packs of their concoctions. I say concoction because they make very delicious mixes of nut butters like honey peanut butter, chocolate hazelnut butter, and maple almond butter among other flavors. They also recently started making peanut butter cups which are like Reeses, but don’t suck.

As usual my mind looks at the company and starts turning with crazy ideas for marketing their product and expanding their product line. I believe that marketing needs to be built into the product and I think Justin’s gets this, their squeeze packs are baked in marketing - just ask anyone that’s taken one on a hike with an apple.

Squeeze Bottle

The squeeze packs are a damn near genius idea, but this one comes to me from my uncle who loves peanut butter and apples after he goes on a long bike ride. The problem is that he rides his bike to work and rather than have a large amount of single-serve packs sitting at his desk, he would prefer to have a whole bottle there, squeezable so he doesn’t need a knife, and to keep it green the thing could obviously be recyclable. The tip could be the flat opening tip like you find on mayo so that it could easily be spread on bread without a knife - what’s greener than using no utensils or dishes?

Justin’s Jams

In college I was an economics major but have since honed my marketing skills and make my living doing that. One thing I have no forgotten about my economics classes is the concept of complements. Compliments with an “i” is something you tell a girl to get lucky, complements with an “e” is something that goes well together. In every economics class this is described by using the peanut butter and jelly example. Justin’s Jams is my concept for a line of gourmet jams to complement Justin’s Nut Butter. Jalapeno jams are pretty popular these days and I can’t help but love alliteration, Justin’s Jalapeno Jam. My personal favorite is Raspberry and according to CSU raspberries can be grown in Colorado year round, let’s keep it local!

Justin’s Jams obviously would promote a concert series at Red Rocks providing the perfect opportunity for a pun on the “Jam” part of the name and some experiential marketing, this seems like a great way to get more locals aware of the product and with the squeeze packs giving out samples is next to nothing.   

Justin’s Green Gourmet Nut Butter Truck 

Food trucks are all the rage these days and for good reason - you can get awesome food, made quickly, for usually pretty cheap (low overhead), and sometimes it is brought right to where you are. They are also nice in that they provide a break from the monotony that is lunch when you eat that the same 4 places that are close to your work. Justin’s has a great product that lends itself to being used in cooking as well as snacks. A food truck that had entrees featuring their nut butters as well as simple snack items would likely bring in profits if not break even and get the marketing message out there. Want people to buy more nut butters? Tell them good ways to use it, use the food truck to distribute recipes and snack ideas. You can keep some recipes secret for the truck to use and give out others - when you retire a dish in the truck, give away the recipe so that the customers can make it after that. Oh and throw some solar panels on that truck - keep it green, always.

E-Commerce

This one is a bit of a cheat for me since this is what I am used to doing for a living but even with national distribution in multiple groceries there will still be people who can’t get your product. Sure, there’s Amazon, REI, and other people selling squeeze packs online but what about the rest of your products? What about the people who want to be loyal to a cool small company and not REI? Also, when you sell it yourself online you get to control the experience - from a great online ordering experience to cool packaging with little surprises that will have the customers talking to their friends about your brand - the online sales channel is one that is is ripe for a cool brand like Justin’s. Aside from opening an entirely new channel for sales you can make higher margins without the retailer taking a chunk off the top.

HBR Covers Social Media, The Results: Companies Still Don’t Get It

In a great whitepaper released by the Harvard Business Review there are some staggering facts about social media adoption in the 2100 companies they surveyed.

• Three-quarters (75%) of the companies in the survey said they did not know where their most valuable customers were talking about them.
• Nearly one-third (31%) do not measure effectiveness of social media.
• Less than one-quarter (23%) are using social media analytic tools.
• A fraction (7%) of participating companies are able to integrate social media into their marketing activities

Only a small group — 12 percent — of the companies in the survey said they felt they were currently effective users of social media. These were the companies most likely to deploy multiple channels, use metrics, have a  strategy for social media use, and integrate their social media into their overall marketing operations. 

Let’s dig into those sentences a little closer. First up, of the 2100 companies surveyed about 250 said they were doing social media effectively. Without knowing the companies surveyed this is tough to analyze although I’m shocked they found 250 companies that think they are doing social media right, I can only think of a few companies that are really doing it at the same level they do their other marketing activities at. The second sentence is the key here, essentially these companies are giving social media the considerations they give to TV, display, and other forms of marketing, why though is this worth a HBR whitepaper? Is it not understood that for something to be effective it needs to be well thought out, integrated into the operations, measured, and refined just like any other marketing activity?

…the majority of these companies also said they were still struggling with how to best use the different channels, gauge their effectiveness, and integrate social media into their strategies. Two-thirds of users have no formalized social media strategy in place. Sixty-one percent reported a significant learning curve before they can truly utilize social media. Many companies reported they are still searching to find the best way to demonstrate the impact of social media and the contribution to the bottom line.

The majority of the companies are struggling with social media entirely, is what this starts out saying and then gets into the specifics of their issues. The reality is these companies are struggling with shifting their marketing paradigm from an antiquated “shout marketing” strategy to understanding that conversations are the basis of social media success.

I understand that previously marketing was “let me tell you how much you need what I have” and any backlash was kept within small spheres, but now everyone has a social media soapbox to stand on, the key is to monitor and respond appropriately.

I recently found the Air Force Rules of Engagement for Bloggers and it is a great simple flow chart for managing responding to bloggers. It not only tells you when to respond but how to respond. How is something so simple so difficult for companies to understand?

According to the HBR whitepaper, “for many companies the most pressing challenges with social media are in understanding the potential to make a difference in their business, measuring its effectiveness, and aligning social media activities to an impact on company financials.”

You want to see the difference in your business? You want to see the impact on financials? Stop playing the chicken/egg game. People thought the same thing about all forms of marketing - why spend $1m on a TV spot unless I know I will see return, then someone had the audacity to take a risk and do it, now it’s standard. Take a (small) risk and give social media the same effort you give your other marketing and you will see the difference in your business, you will see the impact on your financials.

There are tons of gems in the whitepaper that I could go into but at the end of the day what needs to be understood is that social media is like all other forms of marketing, you have to approach it strategically and systematically. Create a plan, fold it into the rest of your operations, measure it and refine it. Sure the nuances are different than your other channels, but print advertising and TV spots are different in their execution - just not their approach.

You can find the whitepaper here. And the Air Force Rules Of Engagement for Blogging here.