Foodie? Cook for the Cure is a Fun Way to Give Back

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Anna

I love when brands take good charity ideas and give them a social twist. KitchenAid’s 1,000 Cooks for the cure is a great example of just that. The program encourages cooks of all kinds- from gourmet chef to home cookin’ heroes to use there talents to give back. Uniting a community around a good cause is always an excellent thing.

The twitterverse seems to agree:

How does it work? Well KitchenAid asks foodies to some DIY fundraising for Susan G. Komen for the Cure ® by throwing a fundraising food fanfare at home, at the office, or wherever else your nomage takes you.  There goal is to attract 1,000 cooks for the Cure to put their ladles, spatulas, and emulsifiers to use in the name of charity.

You can find  out all about hosting a 1,000 Cook for the Cure party here.

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A Look Back At the Future of Digital Data Analysis

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Anna

This past week I was knocked out with probably the worst case of flu in my life. To put Flu Apocalypse 2012 into perspective- we’re talking no movement from bed, queasiness at the very sight of food and the inability to keep my eyes open for even the dapperest of heartthrobs plastered on the TV screen. It was awful.

Ever the workaholic, I wasn’t able to resist trying to find some way to make myself useful. I lugged my alternate hard drive next to me in bed and made a pact to finally sort through years of records I had digitally discarded for “safe keeping” into the virtual equivalent of a massive stack of papers in a dusty box in the back corner of a small room. Slowly I plodded through years of essays, PowerPoint research, homemade gifs, excel spreadsheets proving random theories, word documents of scatter-brained notes, and even the odd visio flow chart. While a lot of things struck me as interesting or inspiring or even down right touching- one piece really stood out.

There in probably the darkest of corners, in the most dusted up and cobwebbed digital box sat a PowerPoint presentation on what I saw the future of data to be. There are points of your life where you look back at past work and you internally exclaim, “Wow, maybe I am not dumb. I am actually pretty smart.” This was one of those times for me. Now, the PowerPoint and the explanations below aren’t perfect. Yes, with my new knowledge of the Internet some 5 years later, there are things that I would change.  However, giving 5 years ago Anna the credit and justice she deserves ,I have decided to post the chart and supporting text unedited. It is surprising with all the time and all the changes in the digital industry that this PowerPoint still provides so much insight.

Overview of Data types

  1. Visitor Based Web Analytics, demographics, & frequency: Data aggregated at the visit level linked to a unique visitor id, which can be traced to account data. Audit data to ensure key customer interaction is being coded. IE email, phone, direct marketing between either party
  2. 3rd Party Data: Data evaluating client’s performance as well as key competitors’ and industry benchmarks. Ideally relying on several sources in order to make a more accurate aggregate source as an end result
  3. Social Online Data: Data evaluating Internet and competitor brand perception, hot industry topics, areas for adaptation and growth, and general social users information/background
  4. Competitor Data: Data evaluating competitor activity in market. Including financial, email & direct marketing cadence, in market events, web site, & interactive/ gorilla marketing.
  5. Listening acquired data: Data acquired by listening to the customer. Includes customer survey results, email, phone, and customer service interactions via any medium. Using an audio analysis software phone conversations are easily transferred to text. All text can then be analyzed for tone and emotion using similar software as social media online is analyzed
  6. Search Rankings: Analysis of key words in the industry, how often they are searched, and who owns the top three spots for each of the major engines.

Possible Analysis

Customer Satisfaction Analysis: What are the weak points in the customer communication train? Using not only the standard foresee surveys, we will use data coming from customer service, and social media analysis. Using this data to really listen to the consumer on a variety levels will allow us to better depict the strength of the brand among those who matter most- a brand’s customers

Social media effects on customer adoption/ retention: How is social media helping to retain, acquire, or lose customers? By charting brand perception across time and pairing it with a map of customer attrition and acquisition, a brand can identify what type of social communication is benefiting or hurting them. This could be especially useful in understanding the impact of a new campaign (something like the new social campaign they are doing on Facebook for cards).

High value customer Analysis (for ACQ): Matching backend customer information with front-end web data we can assess the Internet patterns of high value customers. We can then apply this data to incoming customers and create a unique way of identifying this type of customer. A high value customer could not only be based on the traditional financial information, but likeliness to convert, loyalty, cost to maintain relationship, and likeliness to embrace new technology. This would provide an accurate picture of the best “high value” online customer.

Web site navigation& customization by segment: Again using this pairing of back end and front end data, we can better understand those customers who are frequent users of the site. We can identify their most frequent use and help segment the site to customize it to their personal needs.

Search Redirect analysis: Going beyond the obvious multivariate testing of landing pages, using backend data (tagging applications with a mark indicating they came from search) we can find what banners and which sites actually attract the best customers not just the most.

Customer Service Optimization: See what is preventing user from getting the information they need. Using text analysis data of customer service communications we can better understand what customers are frustrated with or need help achieving. Uniting this knowledge with new site help tools can potentially reduce customer service spending by providing the right information, as it is needed.

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The Best of My Social Media Comics Collection

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Anna

I know I promised some survey goodness today, but a few things came up :( That means sadly no results today, but don’t hang your head in too much sorrow. They will be posted tomorrow. What  I got caught up in was organizing old files and prepping some old decks for some new uses. Now while this delayed some data awesomeness, it did result in some pretty epic visual shenanigans. I came across my long lost folder of social media comics.  Now to keep you hanging on until tomorrow, I present the creme de le creme of said collection. Feast your eyes on some digital knavery and smack that smile right back onto your beautiful face.

from nataliedee.com

from toothpastefordinner.com

from agent-x.com.au

from dilbert.com

from joyoftech.com

from failbook.com

from xkcd.com

from nataliedee.com

from toothpastefordinner.com

from theoatmeal.com

 

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Hello Hamburg, Two Days is Not Enough

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Anna

This week my travels took me to Hamburg, Germany. I was in the land of Bratwurst, lederhosen and attractive men for the lovely M2C conference, run by my favourite German- Nils Andres. I must admit, Nils puts on a good show. Each year he rounds up some of the best minds in social media and the result is a conference so good I have nicknamed it “Notes”, because its the one conference I actually end up taking notes at. That says something.

If you’ve ever wanted to know what I look like with no sleep, no make up and no cares in the world, look at the photo on the left. I’ll give you a few minutes of silence to marvel at the well-photographed hotmessedness…

I only had two days in Hamburg. Hardly enough time to explore the local sites, get into trouble or have an torrid romance with a foreigner. However, I did see enough of Hamburg to realize it’s only in my best interest to make sure my travels bring me back here. I am happy I got spend the short time I did Germany and am even more grateful for all I learned. I was going to do an exciting tweet wrap-up and etc etc, until I found my buddy Simone, all the way over in New Zealand, had already busted one out ( she has a habit of doing that). You can check it out here.

Ramone De Leon, Nils Andres, Jaime Punishill, & Me

Presenting in Hamburg was a little nerve wracking because I was sharing some new research I had put together on crisis management. It struck me over the past few months that all crises are not the same, so I spent a good amount of time trying to understand if and how they could be categorized. I found that most things that escalated into a larger issue could be organized and, more importantly, resolved using category specific tactics. Luckily my presentation, Badvocates: Crisis Management and Trolling for Social Change, went over well and I could chock all my worry up to stupid human self-doubt.

All in all, I learned a lot in Hamburg:

  1. Ramone DeLeon may be the most enthusiastic presenter ever. On top of that he has the ability to give free pizza. He may rule the world someday
  2. Conferences with an even share of lady speakers are possible ( and they’re more awesome).
  3. Adrian Parker is attempting to give Scott Monty a run for his title of “best dressed man in social.” However, the community feels he is still too “matchy- matchy”
  4. With out fail, Chuck Hemann will get name-dropped at every conference I am at.
  5. I can get a McRib sandwich whenever I want in Germany; I might move to Germany.

 

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SXSW Wrap-Up: Tweet, Trade and Look Fabulous Doing It

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Anna

I’ve been wanting to share a post-SXSW wrap-up for awhile, but I’ve been waiting on the pretty pictures folks- and pretty they are!

Again in 2012 I had the immense honor to sit on Financial Services panel at SXSW. This years I was lucky enough to be one of the Spice Girls, err Financial Service Rockstars speaking on financial services innovation.  I talked tweets and trades with the lovely Simone McCallum (ASB Bank), Liz Lumley (Finextra), and Sarah Carter (Actiance). Our banter was skillfully moderated by the equally as ravishing Joyce Sullivan (SocMediaFin).

While there was lots to give my brain a work out, there 3 things that I find my mind still coming back to even though Austin is now far away.

1.  The term “local” no longer just applies to physically or geographically close; it has expanded to include digitally close. We need to change the way we look at consumers’ local needs to match this evolved definition.

2. Banks aren’t a hip thing to be interested in and can be considered a taboo topic of discussion. This is is hurting the ability of our current financial services systems to evolve. It is our responsibility to help change the stereotype for the betterment of the industry.

3. Financial Services IS a fundamentally social business. It is the only industry that is an active part of every life decision you make. It’s time for the banks and  consumers to realize the power of that relationship and build upon it.

Below is a pretty sketchnote drawn by Alexis Finch that sums up of the rest of the panel discussion. I hope it supplies you with even more brain fodder.

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Guess What, You Don’t Own Your Brand

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Anna

In a world of branding documents, core messages and related causes it might be hard for a marketer to face the skull-blazing truth; brand identity is no longer owned and created by a company. Scared yet?  You should be.  Today  the consumer owns and defines your  brand- for the good and the bad. The days of using re-brands and multimillion dollar ad campaigns to magically solve corporate health are gone. Now, the modern consumer decides just who your company is, what you stand for and what that means to them as a consumer.

No one can deny the active role ratings and reviews, online discussion and online communities have played in the way companies are perceived in the current market. However, it isn’t just social media that’s played a role in the transformation of the modern brand Identity. Savvy consumers are making more brand decisions based on their perception of a brand from personal and related experiences than ever before. It might even be argued that  social media and digital technologies have finally grown to support this existing need, not the other way around. The internet is now a the home of  the mass collective of consumer thought.

This should not be taken lightly. For example, a person’s opinion of a brand is a like stick. A negative perception in one person, like one branch, is easy to break. However if you culminate together several individuals together with mutual negative opinions, you’ll need a chain saw to cut through the bundle. Thought silos are gone. People are leveraging the collective information to form a new brand identity. So the question is, do you like the brand consumers have given you?

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The Future of Identity Management: Part One

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Anna

Introduction to  Identity Management

While in Austin, TX for SXSW there was one key phrase I heard over and over. It wasn’t a piece of hot gossip or a tip on the future of the web, but rather commentary on a broken system. “ I wish I didn’t have to have my id checked every time I went into a bar- it seems like such a waste of time.” In this case, ID checking created  a strong piece of friction that slows down the speed at which the line moves (efficiency) and creates potentially preventable negative reactions (anger of line standers) with out adding benefit to the individual or the business. Perhaps this is a bit of a diva problem to highlight, but it’s brings to light the crux of friction created by a lack of a central identity.  In short, wasted time. Wasted money. Wasted experience. Nobody wins.

Now, I am not arguing that these ID checks were useless; ID verification to ensure responsible drinking has its purpose. Rather I am drawing attention to a naturally occurring example of something I have been seeing digitally for years- a lack of fluid identity.  The nonexistence of a universal self-identifier makes simple tasks complex, and it wastes time. Recently my thoughts have centered one main salient point, how important the development of this identity management system is to the next stage of technological evolution.

Currently both our online and offline lives are restrained by a lack of constant identity the bridges the gap and provides a consistent representation of who we are.  The more I think about this, the more my head spins into many many nodes of awesome. I find myself sketching and jotting down notes on just how powerful a consistent identity could be- not just for the government or sales folk, but also for the consumer themselves.  Imagine being able to privately pass masked banking information to your accountant, control what data is used to profile you, and define what type of advertisements (both online and within the physical world) you are exposed to. And that’s just the obvious applications.

Identity is more than just the ID in your pocket. It’s not your social security number.  It’s not your full name and date of birth.  Identity is the composite of every piece of data available- online and off that describes who you are.  It’s where you like to shop, who your friends are, and what you do when no one is looking.   Much like DNA, these data points intertwine and create a  map of an individual. A strong identity system would be multi-faceted, recognizing that an individual’s actions adapt based on the surrounding stimuli. For example, how you act around your college buddies, may not be how you act around your wife. While these are technically contradicting personalities, your future identity management system should be able to rationalize the conflict.

Over the next few weeks I am going to be posting a 7 part series that outlines the current problems in existing identity structures, potential solutions, how this empowers existing data and creates new forms of profiling, thus strengthening the role of the individual and resulting in better user experiences.  I hope this will inspire others to become as excited as I am about the future of identity management and we can geek out on it together.  I could use some more smart minds in my identity management obsessed world.

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Social Media ROI: Unicorns, Discoballs, and Diamonds in the Rough.

Posted on March 18, 2012 by Anna

People talking about social media ROI on the internet are making me angry. I am tired, folks. Tired of the bullshit. Tired of the mathematical inaccuracies. Tired of unilateral solutions. Tired of people with no experience claiming to be experts. I need a cold press, a gossip magazine and some chocolate to calm me down. ROI equals money out as a result of money in. Period. I don’t really need to debate this further, because a million people already have and the last thing the internet needs is another repetitive blog post.  I’d rather talk unicorns, discoballs, and diamonds in the rough.

Discoballs are the life of the party and the easiest way to break up single light source and see its spread across the room. Much like the discoball, the easiest way to track social media ROI is to track how your  message breaks up and sparkles across the web. How do we do this? Dum dum dum- Tracking codes. Cha Ching- Referral source. Badda Boom- Average basket value. I could continue listing sound effects followed by metrics, or I could just call a 70s glitter infused dance propellant what it is- web analytics. Using your web analytics program to make sure the right tracking, approach, and benchmarking is done prior to the launch of any initiative will allow you to see how your message travels and reflects across the web. It will also allow you to show how those reflections have resulted in moola. Shiny shiny ROI party spectacular magic.  Party time.

Now onto unicorns. Sure, I believe in them. Have I ever seen one? No. Does that cause me to dispute their existence? No. The second part of social media ROI measurements are much like a unicorn-they’re difficult to see clearly, but its nearly impossible to dispute their existence (unless you are a heartless soul-crushing bastard and hate Lisa Frank). More specifically this unicorn analogy is perfect to represent halo effects of social media on other conversion channels. While I can’t be 100% certain that massive increase on a certain site driving a search term or that direct traffic is the result of a strong word-of-mouth campaign, I also shouldn’t automatically assume it isn’t.  One of the biggest challenges marketers face  in ROI calculation is that the product of events are no longer confined to the channel they launched in.  Indirectly traceable metrics, though while in someways technically impossible to see perfectly, still exist. To see the effects of these halo metrics you can compare trend traffic to traffic during the campaign. Pre- and post-campaign spend analysis also can be effective in seeing potential revenue effects. The super duper data purists are probably braying at the idea of attribution analysis; let’s be honest–that’s tricky and sometimes expensive stuff to do.

Now while disco balls and unicorns are pretty awesome some of the most desirable metrics go unrealized because they aren’t revenue earning, they are revenue saving. Just one little diamond in the rough can be enough to justify the entire program. Story time!! When I worked at Citi, there was a customer who was having banking issues and complaining via Twitter. The customer service team stepped in only to find this wasn’t just any client, but a high revenue, multi-relationship client–one that the bank didn’t want to lose. Social Media customer servicing was able to save the client and in turn the revenue generated as part of the relationship. In short ,customer service had found a diamond in the rough. Now these precious cost saves don’t just happen in customer service. Every time you make a product improvement based on consumer feedback, discover product issues, or are to reduce agency or partner costs should be accounted for. The biggest issue with these gems is not finding them–it’s not discovering their value. Too often these crystals often go unreported, unaccounted for, and therefore are considered to have no value. It’s important you seek out enough information  when these diamonds arise to make sure you can add a little bling bling and revenue sparkle to your balance sheet.

 

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Computer Simulation Theory Cant Tell You Why I Am Laughing

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Anna

During today’s Istanbul lunch, my friend and I began a heated discussion on the future of humanity. I noted that I firmly believe that the future human race will be cybernetic organisms-AKA cyborgs.  Modern technology will allow the human brain to extend into the machines we use and in turn will make us “bionic” (thanks to the  Jeff Gomez’s  TED talk for setting my brain in this direction). In a moment of ultimate geek-a-tude, we found ourselves discussing Nick Bostrom’s  simulation theory.

Bostrom’s work is based on 3 assumptions:

  1. It is possible that an advanced civilization could create a computer simulation which contains individuals with artificial intelligence.
  2. Such a civilization would likely run many, billions for example, of these simulations (just for fun, for research or any other permutation of possible reasons).
  3.  A simulated individual inside the simulation wouldn’t necessarily know that it is inside a simulation — it is just going about its daily business in what it considers to be the “real world.”

Now based on these assumptions Bostrom asks the community which of the following is more likely to be true? Are we the one civilization which develops artificial intelligence powered simulations and happens not to be in one itself or are we one of the many (potentially billions) of simulations that is running? (Remember point 3)

As I discussed this subject I found myself unable to believe that a machine will ever be able to fully comprehend human emotions and feelings, simply because we as humans are unable to understand them ourselves. I have too many times entered a situation expecting to react and feel one way only to be shocked by my emotional response. Day to day, I think that while elements remain somewhat cyclical, the majority of our attitudes and views are largely unpredictable. Billions of dollars are spent each year globally on attempts to understand our feelings through therapy, treatments and self discovery; how can we teach a machine to master the application of emotion, when it blatantly alludes us in our daily lives?

Additionally, if we ever could master the creation of synthetic emotions through artificial intelligence, how would we derive the proper weight of memories, previous experience, attachment and other relational metrics on the recall of a certain emotion? When an individual gets angry it is rarely solely the result of a single interaction. For example, if John Doe gets his wallet stolen, steps in puddle, and forgets his umbrella he is likely to react differently when he hears his assistant is going to be late to the office than he would if he had a error-free day. Perhaps this example is too basic as it does not fully show the web of millions of events that have happened in both our short and long term history that morph and shape how we respond to stimuli and events in our lifeline. Additionally, this example also seems to forget the seemingly random (I can see the argument that this is all part of a greater pattern) nature in which these references are recalled.

While many of the other roadblocks to pure artificial intelligence (such as goal setting, semantics, natural language processing, reasoning and decision making) all seem obtainable with time and focused research- social intelligence seems forever out of our reach. Perhaps I am just waxing on as an attempt to justify my own inability to understand why I feel the way I feel half the time. More likely it’s that I like to think that there’s a piece of life that should and will remain mysterious, exciting, and unpredictably simple.

 

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Turkey, You’ve Got Some Mighty Fine American Colloquialisms

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Anna

In a moment of capricious glory I decided to take a short trip to Turkey with my trusty travel side-kick, Lauren. This could potentially be considered my first real, non-business related, vacation in years. YES- this workaholic has somehow escaped from her desk shackles and is now running free. Istanbul, beware. Glitter, spirit fingers and excessive loud-mouthed-ness has now infiltrated your city.

Since arriving at the airport yesterday evening, I have enjoyed some of the best hospitality I have yet to come across traveling. Doors have been opened, bags carried and smiles abundant.  Our home for the week, Angel Home hotel, is lovely and excessively be-speckled with cherubs and dramatic splashes of gold. It suits that Anna mentality that more flair equals more fun; I couldn’t be happier with the experience so far.

In addition to top notch service I’ve received, I have also heard some of the funniest pick-up lines ever. The men of Turkey sure know how to make a women swoon…err… giggle uncontrollably. For example in the space of my two hour jaunt around the neighborhood surrounding my hotel I heard:

  • “Hold your horses, I want to love you”
  • “Peace out…Why you no call me asshole?”
  • “You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream… and you”

Now I may be wrong, but I am pretty sure someone came to Istanbul as a consultant and taught the men here every bad pick up line and American colloquialism from the 90s. Hilarity. I have no doubt I will continue to be amused by and on occasion find myself snorting back laughter as I hear the men of Istanbul work their best Zack Morris inspired swagger. But hey, is it such a bad thing to have men shouting their affections at me on a semi-regular basis? No? Good, I thought not.

 

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