Wilder Voices

So Google Plus / Google + has been launched and so most people are feeling good about it’s potential. Overall, they do not think it will be a Facebook killer, but there are some murmurs about it taking some of Twitter’s momentum. Personally, I like it and appreciate the clean UI and how Circles works. It ain’t perfect, but you can see its potential.

But the release of G+ has highlighted another interesting phenomenon among early adopters (and a few other folks). It reminds me of the cold war when the Russians and the US engaged in a nuclear arms race. It seems that when Facebook  launched, Twitter launched, LinkedIn launched and now Google Plus, there’s a mad dash to accumulate as many friends, and followers as fast as possible.

When Facebook launched, I was swept up in this game because it made me feel like the most popular kid in the class. Or maybe it was to reassure someone that I had a lot of friends. I ignored Dunbar’s law that I could only have a 150 friends and tried to explain that I knew all of my 2000 Facebook friends. Yes, I know that measuring a friend and someone you can influence is different. But I think the two often get confused.

One of the agencies I worked with even measured influence by the number of ‘Like’ and ‘Followers.’

As I get a bit older and wiser, I wonder if this is really the best way to measure influence. Recent research by Psychologist Antonius Cillessen of the University of Connecticut showed that the kids who are considered popular are often just as friendly as these universally liked kids, but with one difference. The popular kids draw a boundary around themselves, and exclude a few “outcasts” from their circle. Professor Antonius found that you can’t become popular unless you learn to exclude.

So what does this say about our social networks? First of all, people are mixing up the terms popular and influence.

BUT..what is it about the mad dash we go through every time a new service launches. These days, you can even pay a third party to get you more Twitter followers. And if most people measure influence by the number of friends and followers you have, what does that say about Influence? I do see a few posts out there talking about quality vs. quantity, but just the so – called experts seem to ignore that approach and just build out their following as quickly as possible.

Why would I want someone to follow me if I didn’t have some sort of relationship with them. This is where I give Google credit — for enabling me to easily classify the people I know. This makes more sense then how some of the other services are approaching this.

So what is a better way to measure influence? Especially if you are a company trying to spread the gospel about your products? You can definitely focus on people writing about a certain topic, such as analysts and bloggers. Unfortunately, those folks — while important — are being bombarded by your competitors and other companies interested in your space.

So what are our other options? It’s time to get past the numbers game and listen, record and study the conversations that go on within different communities AND within tribes of those communities. In doing so, you can ask yourself about the type of language these people use (the novice vs. the advanced users is one simple division), the rituals they experience, and what their specific reasons are for engaging with others. These few questions are just the tip of the iceberg, but present a nice place to start.

No, attempts to provide marketing tips tonight. Instead, I thought I would highlight Diapers.com’s / Soap.com’s great customer service.

At 8:07 this evening, I sent an email to their customer service team, telling them that the canister of Comet I ordered opened up (and so did the plastic packaging around it) while in the box, thus getting white Comet powder on all the items in the box. And also white powder all over my floor and my son (he likes to help open any package we receive).

And 11 minutes later, Own from Diapers.com customer service team wrote back to me, saying:

Thanks so much for the email. I’m so sorry to hear about the damaged item that arrived within your last order. Please know that we are continually working to develop improved methods of packaging to reduce the likelihood of damage in transit. While we continue to work on this issue, please know that any time you may receive a damaged item, we are more than happy to replace it or issue a refund according to your preference. I have gone ahead and replaced the Comet powder while crediting your account. Your replacement order number is XXX and will arrive on 6/30 via Ontrac.

Since having my first child 22 months ago, Diapers.com has exceeded any expectations I have had. And this comes from a guy who has worked in the ecommerce / internet space for years. I find it amazing how this company and maybe a few others, continue to provide A+ service. Not just in terms of fulfilling product, but also in terms of customer communications. They know that the end of the day, it is about the customer.

These days, people focus on the importance of responding quickly to posts on social networks, such as negative comment on Twitter, etc. Very few people still highlight the importance of responding to your own customers emails and phone calls as quickly as possible.

I also like the fact that they reinforced their commitment to quality with the statement “please know that any time you may receive a damaged item, we are more than happy to replace it or issue a refund according to your preference.”

Diapers.com, thanks for the quick follow up!

It is only 12 noon PDT, and I have met with three companies so far, two of which, have similar change management issues. They both are in large regulated industries, and want to provide the proper training for employees to participate in this new social world. To tackle this, they are establishing a central cross-functional and cross-divisional group to define the appropriate ‘guidelines and guardrails’ (TM) for the company. Then the plan to take this ‘act’ on the road and train different offices, divisions, groups, etc. around the country. While they used common words to describe these programs, such as ‘certfication,’ ‘train the trainer’, etc. neither talked about the following key areas:

1. Partnering younger employees (the ones more likely to adopt new technologies and who are more likely to feel comfortable) with old employees (the ones who have been around the block a bit more and therefore can share real world business experiences). Partnering millennial with company veterans is a killer combination. When I did my research for my book Millennial Leaders back in 2007, I learned that Gen Y is hungry to learn, and open to mentor-ships. Maybe this has something to do with the relationships they had with their parents growing up, where there was less-top-down family management
2. Providing ongoing training so that people can stay in the loop on the latest developments and technologies, and so companies don’t have to worry about people forgetting everything they learned after their initial training programs. There are several ways to accomplish this, such as providing small video updates on the newest technologies or as we do for clients, ‘last month’s case studies of digital risks.’ This is especially important these days as Risk is always front and center
3. Providing the right organizational Design because both internal and external social processes are challenging the traditional overly structured business processes. This requires scrutinizing current frameworks and approaches and layering on top of it social goals and objectives. One of the simplest examples is incorporating social into lead generation, which places additional needs of a companies CRM system. You have to not only captured who referred a product or service, but also who share the product or service (similar but different concepts — Yes, it is worth peeling the onion to his granular level)

I could provide other examples, but I am writing this during my morning Starbucks break, so am trying to think these days in terms of threes. Three bullet points in three minutes (OK, I took a bit longer). Next time, I will focus on the power of Online Leadership!

As some of you know, I am now a member of Human 1.0. Herea re some powerful interviews with leading marketers and innovators.

These is an expanding series of discussions with individuals who are leading their respective companies’ embrace of and experimentation with Marketing 2.0 principles, approaches, and realities.

Gary Angel from Semphonic and I did a webinar today on how to build a database that leverages information from social networks. We focus on one of the holy-grails in CRM: how to integrate prospect, customer, business partner, influencer information into your internaal social data warehouse.

My fellow Human’s at Human1.com and Marketing 2.0 had a great webinar today with the CEO of Brains on Fire, Robbin Phillips

NPR is running a good series on Public Relations’ mistakes. It kicked off this am with a nice show about how BP dropped the ball during the Oil Spill last year.

Probably the most stunning fact in the article (at least for me) is that BP didn’t have a public relations strategy. It failed to communicate the three key messages the public needed to hear: That BP was accountable for the disaster, was deeply concerned about the harm it caused and had a plan for what to do. Another mistake was when BP said ‘Trust us. We’ll be able to make things right,’ at a time when they obviously couldn’t. The oil was gushing like crazy and they couldn’t cap it. I think that that was a horrible misstep”

Things are never ok when you are in a middle of a crisis — so it’s important to call it what it is (Have I used that phrase before)”

One pieces of silver PR lining is that it sounds like Ogilvy ‘s Digital Team came in and showed them how to effectively use PR.

Last night, I was interviewed by John Cass and Frank Days about Agile Marketing. [I will post a podcast of the discussion here next week]

As I explained to them, I first was introduced to the agile web development method at Intuit, when I partnered with an engineer who was leading the development of Intuit’s Live Community and when I managed Seth Webster, who led the Support Website team. In observing how they facilitated their teams, I was able to pick and choose some key aspects of the Agile methodology and adopt them accordingly to our marketing team.

Some key mechanics of Agile:

• Daily check-ins
• Six week sprints (projects)
• Embrace mid-course correction
• Develop requirements based on user stories
• Cross-functional teams at the table
• Build projects are ‘what people are passionate about’
• Step back and often discuss what the team can do better
• Be metrics driven, but also listen to what customers/users are saying
• Uncover efficiencies over time by learning real time

Some key points about Agile:

• A Second Track: In addition to six week sprints, I believe the web requires teams to react and change course even faster, so I built a second track which was less than a week. If our metrics indicated something wasn’t working after a few days, for example, we altered our course (Obviously, you need enough traffic and engagement to ensure that your metrics are statistically significant). My motto for the second track is “Real Time Learning and Just-In-Time Correction!” (TM)
• Every day check-ins: Even before I was introduced to the Agile methodology, I have believed that it is important to have short 15-20 minute meetings every day. Not only does this ensure that everyone is on the same page, it accelerates the process of building a high performing team
• Everyone has a voice at the table: The leader is really just the facilitator and is someone who can make the final decision if consensus can’t be reached. It is important, however, that as many teams as possible are represented at the table and that everyone has a voice and has the right to speak up.
• All data is available: Even though the team might be measured on 10 or so KPIs and key metrics, the team should have access to all available data. I have worked with many companies where individuals try and control all the data, as if they were concerned someone might find out something they don’t know. And the team should be focused on the top ten items, but if someone wants to go off the reservation and take a deeper dive into some of the data, then all the power to them
• Builds Good DNA to handle Crisis’: If your team is meeting every day and is used to consistently responding to user behavior, they will be trained to be more nimble, which will be important if a crisis occurs. It’s difficult to herd the cats into last minute meeting (Agile has set daily meetings) and get people to think about working closely together to formulate a quick response.
• Don’t launch with the Stealth Bomber: Start simple with a few features and build over time as you learn. Yes, the old ‘launch and learn’ approach. Remember that only 20% of what you develop will be used by 80% of your users, so why not engage with them upfront.

We used this approach when we launched the Intuit Online Community and since then I have facilitated this process for several marketing groups. They have hired me as their Marketing Coach, and even though one of my responsibilities is to help them with Strategy, a big part of what I do is work with them to build a nimble cross-functional ‘social business’ process.

Ask your questions and I will tell you more

Today, I received three emails from three different companies telling me that that ‘an unauthorized person’ had gotten access to my email: Brookstone, McKinsey, and Abe Books. That their email vendor (they don’t all name who the vendor is, but it was easy to identify that it was Epsilon*, one of the most respected database marketers in the business. Check out the sentences below highlighted in red in each of the emails — there seems to be inconsistencies in what information was accessed:

From Abe Books:

From McKinsey:

Important information from McKinsey Quarterly

We have been informed by our e-mail service provider, Epsilon, that your e-mail address was exposed by unauthorized entry into their system. Epsilon sends e-mails on our behalf to McKinsey Quarterly users who have opted to receive e-mail communications from us.

We have been assured by Epsilon that the only information that was obtained was your first name, last name and e-mail address and that the files that were accessed did not include any other information. We are actively working to confirm this. We do not store any credit card numbers, social security numbers, or other personally identifiable information of our users, so we can assure you that no such information was accessed.

Please note, it is possible you may receive spam e-mail messages as a result. We want to urge you to be cautious when opening links or attachments from unknown third parties. Also know that McKinsey Quarterlywill not send you e-mails asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information. So if you are ever asked for this information, you can be confident it is not from McKinsey.

We regret this has taken place and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We take your privacy very seriously, and we will continue to work diligently to protect your personal information.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact McKinsey Quarterly at info@mckinseyquarterly.com. For any media inquiries, please contact Humphrey Rolleston at +1-212-415-5321.

Sincerely,

Rik Kirkland
Senior Managing Editor
McKinsey & Company

From Brookstone

Dear Valued Brookstone Customer,

On March 31, we were informed by our e-mail service provider that your e-mail address may have been exposed by unauthorized entry into their system. Our e-mail service provider deploys e-mails on our behalf to customers in our e-mail database.

We want to assure you that the only information that may have been obtained was your first name and e-mail address. Your account and any other personally identifiable information are not stored in this system and were not at risk.

Please note, it is possible you may receive spam e-mail messages as a result. We want to urge you to be cautious when opening links or attachments from unknown third parties.

In keeping with best industry security practices, Brookstone will never ask you to provide or confirm any information, including credit card numbers, unless you are on our secure e-commerce site, Brookstone.com.

Our service provider has reported this incident to the appropriate authorities.

We regret this has taken place and for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We take your privacy very seriously, and we will continue to work diligently to protect your personal information.

Sincerely,

Brookstone Customer Care

Soooo, What’s lessons can be taken from these three companies’ emails

1. None of them have offered me the opportunity to change my email address (I am sure I can do this on the site, but not everyone will remember they can do this)
2. Give us a name (a person) to follow up with, if I want to talk to someone. It’s very impersonal to just sign an email about an important matter such as the one described above with “Brookstone Customer Care” department
3. They all say that they will never share my information. Well, they did, so they have basically lied to me. There’s probably a better way to word this statement and make it closer to reality, such as “Our goal is never to share your information, and we know that we have not met our goal with this incident, and we apologize.” Come clean. Don’t lie to me. I like how Brookstone says “And we will continue to work diligently to protect your personal information.” This tells me they are taking partial responsibility for what happened.
4. Tell me what happened and who is responsible. Not all of the above mention Epsilon.
5. Remind us to be cautious if I receive any emails that ask us for private info — McKinsey and Brookstone do this.
6. Remind users to change their email address and their passwords.
7. Seed your email campaigns with addresses that will let you know if someone else is emailing you (a fake customer) besides someone you intended to do this. All traditional direct mail marketers do this, but my guess is only a handful of email marketers.
8. Companies try and cover themselves with a disclaimer or a small footnote that a third party is managing their customers’ email addresses. Why not just tell users who is managing their email, especially if it is a company like Epsilon, which usually has a strong track record.
9. Unless you are a new media hound like me, consumers do not know what other companies are being hacked. Why not work with some of the other companies and tell consumers the extent of the problem. Again give them the whole story — because seeing as we know which companies are impacted, there is a good chance that the hackers also know.  This could lead to very targeted attacks to garner more personal information form you, also known as phishing.
10. Research the history of data breaches and privacy issues, so you can learn from others’ mistakes. Check out Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
11. Explore other sign-in methods, such as the two step log in, which Google uses. It provides a better security method and requires you to have access to your mobile device at the same time you log – in. Corporate employees might be familiar with the RSA key code, which is somewhat similar and while it is an extra step, it probably is a good thing to have these days.

Basically you get a new code every time you need access to your email, and if this sounds cumbersome, then companies should offer users the option to change the frequency they receive it.

Other big companies were impacted, such as Citicorp, J.P Morgan, U.S Bancop, Brookstone, Barclays Capital One Financial Corp,  Marriott International Inc., Ritz-Carlton and TiVo Inc. Epsilon informed these companies that only the person’s name and email address were exposed, but how do we know that?

One blogger responed by asking why such big corporations would entrust this data to a third party. According to Accenture, 55% of major corporations do. Sometimes it is not just for database management. Sending out large number of emails is a challenging process, so it does make sense to outsource this to a company like Epsilon, which can handle sending out large volumes of email at one time, capture bounce backs, do list merging and purging, etc.

Now that this happened, it will be interesting to see how Epsilon or any of the Fortune 1000 companies involved will change their processes or policies related to customer data. I am sure (or at least I hope) they will have a post mortem discussion about this. But how come the customer never learns about what was decided at these meetings. Us customers don’t need to know everything, nor do we expect to hear about everything that went on behind closed corporate doors. But it would be nice to know that the company did do something different and better because of this.

Brookstone, McKinsey and Abebooks, please tell me what you are going to do that’s different!
The Wall Street Journal has a good article on what happened.

*Disclaimer: I used to work at American Express that owned Epislon in the 1990s.