Tropical Gringo

Hoy es un buen dia.  Una idea que tuvimos Gabriel Amorocha y mi persona hace unas semanas atras esta agarrando mas y mas velocidad y hoy tendremos el primer Meetup de un excelente grupo de profesionales.  Durante nuestra conversacion decidimos que tendria sentido formar un grupo en Linkedin para unir a la industria de online marketing en Colombia.  Ese grupo se llama Online Marketing Colombia y ya cuenta con casi 200 profesionales dedicados a mercadeo en linea. Gracias a este grupo, hemos podido tener unas conversaciones virtuales excelentes sobre como acelerar la adopcion de herramientas digitales en el mercado.

Entre las sugerencias esta la de ejecutar mas eventos o actividades donde los prospectos puedan ver ejemplos reales y escuchar a expertos.  Esto valido una idea que tenia yo ya desde hace unos meses cuando he estado hablando con el fundador del evento de Social Media Week basado en Nueva York.  El potencial para un evento como este es tremendo no solo para los asistentes sino tambien para los patrocinadores y miembros de la industria.

Fuera de esta actividad tan interesante y estimulante, he tenido el placer de conocer profesionales impresionantes y, fuera de esto, personas muy buenas.  El resultado de todo esto es que pronto estare anunciando una noticia muy buena sobre mi rol dentro de la industria el cual me pondra mas cerca a personas que comparten la misma filosofia no solo profesional sino de vida.  La idea es juntarnos para crear un impacto en el mercado y, mas importante aun, divertirnos!

La reunion de esta noche sera para conocernos (hacer networking) y hablar de varios temas incluyendo el Social Media Week en Bogota.  Mañana les escribire como estuvo la reunion con fotos y un video.  Saludos!

During the last couple of weeks, quite a public battle was playing out between NBC and, now, former The Tonight Show host, Conan O’Brien.   Moreover, as announced a few days ago, the embattled comedian and his staff will be leaving the network with an exit package worth approximately $45 million.

Ironically, his ratings jumped substantially during the brouhaha as well as his online support.  Though NBC to some extent uses social media tools such as blogs and twitter, one wonders if the company could have employed such tools to engage more with audiences and come up with a different outcome?

One example of the online support that Conan garnered during the impasse is that created by designer Mike Mitchell.  Mr. Mitchell created the “I’m with Coco” image along with a campaign in support of the late night television star on a Facebook fan page that already boasts more than 300,000 members and has engendered a number of rallies in support of the late night star.

In contrast, Jay Leno’s Facebook fan page has less than 50,000 members and, incredibly, was hacked on Sunday evening to display an image of Conan. Finally, checking blog activity on Trendpedia shows a spike in activity for the keyword “Tonight Show,” among others during the last several days.

Would it have been possible for NBC to translate this Internet and social media interest into a more profitable business result for the network?  One thing is for certain, achieving such a result would have required more than simply using social media tools.  It would have required an organization willing to listen, react and respond relatively quickly to new and interesting options that pop up from such “digital” conversations.  It would have required a mindset where mistakes, such as this particular programming mishap, could be admitted and where fan criticism or suggestions would be encouraged and not lamented.

The actual form that such a strategy should take is debatable. Nevertheless, one company that seems to be embracing social media tools and, possibly, the ensuing organizational transformation that could result is MTV.  Recently, Carolyn Everson, EVP of strategy and operations for MTV Networks, stated that “digital learnings” are making their way into the linear business.  It’s interesting to note that within the list of Top Social Brands of 2009 recently released by Vitrue, MTV ranks as number 4 on the list while NBC is number 68 – CBS and ABC are at 32 and 33, respectively. This would seem to indicate that the network might have some work to do in terms of more fully embracing audience engagement through social media.

Ironically, Comcast, the company due to acquire NBC Universal shortly, has been cited as an example of a company that embraced the use of social media (e.g.,Twitter) as a catalyst to improving their customer service.  This fact notwithstanding, Comcast is probably at the beginning of any transformational process and is actually ranked #100 on Vitrue’s list of Top Social Brands of 2009.

Indeed, It’s possible that the current industry dynamics and prior decisions made by NBC Universal management have placed them in too difficult of a position regardless of their use of any social media tools.  As mentioned above, companies such asMTV proactively mines social media activity related to their brand and culls valuable insights that inform their business decisions.

Conan certainly enjoyed much support through the Internet even mentioning as much in his farewell address.  Nevertheless, the question still remains.  Could NBC have produced a more positive business result by making better use of the increased social media “conversations” around this story?

Recientemente, aunque he estado escribiendo bastante, esto no se ha visto reflejado en mi blog porque he estado contribuyendo a otros blogs.  Por un lado, he escrito sobre mi tesis que Amazon y Twitter deberian aliarsen en el blog llamado Venturebeat en adicion a un articulo reciente sobre un nuevo startup de software social de argentina llamado Joincube.  Adicionalmente, he tenido la oportunidad de escribir para el blog de mi amigo Jesus Hoyos, sobre varias entrevistas que pude tener con jugadores claves de la industria.  Finalmente, contribui un post a PulsoSocial sobre la inversion que viene a America Latina, blog fundado por el admirable Andres Barreto.

Mi compromiso es lograr que mas de estas ideas quedan plasmadas en este blog.  Es una epoca donde los retos economicos (especialmente para EEUU) van a seguir en mi opinion; los medios sociales siguen transformando la web y el Internet movil va cambiar la experiencia web substancialmente.  Es un buen momento para escribir sobre innovacion digital.

It’s been a busy start of the year.  I’ve been contributing articles to a number of blogs and it’s been an extremely satisfiying experience.  Aside from meeting new people, it helps improve my writing (in English and in Spanish).  Among my posts is one dedicated to my thesis that a Twitter-Amazon alliance makes sense as well as a profile of a new social software startup in Argentina called JoinCube.  In Spanish, I wrote a number of posts for my friend, Jesus Hoyos’ blog and for PulsoSocial, a Latin American technology blog founded by the impressive Andres Barreto.

Unfortunately, this has effected the number of posts that I’ve uploaded to my own blog, but I plan on rectifying this.  Although I have been writing a lot (and working a lot), it hasn’t showed as much because of these endeavors.  Nevertheless, I am committed to posting more on this blog and alerting you on my Facebook fan page.

The coming year will certainly be interesting.  I believe that the economic environment will be even more challenging (and for an extended period of time); social media will continue to penetrate further into the web’s fabric and the mobile web will have a profound effect on the total web experience.  Basically, it’s a perfect storm of factors that will drive a lot of change not only into the web, but into our lives.  It’s a great time to be writing about digital innovation!

Mi conversación con Denise Shiffman, autora de The Age of Engage

Después de leer el libro, The Age of Engage, por Denise Shiffman, entendí mejor las implicaciones para las organizaciones de hoy en adoptar estrategias digitales (en particular, mercadeo por Internet).  Cuando comencé mi conversación con la autora, me hizo pensar inmediatamente con un escenario hipotético de que pasaría si la publicidad tradicional ya no existiera?

Entendí que su mensaje de ningún modo es que la publicidad tradicional no tiene un rol dentro de una estrategia de mercadeo hoy en día.   Lo que Denise estaba tratando de hacer con esa pregunta es mostrarme un poco de lo que se requiere en términos de nuevos paradigmas mentales para aprovechar mejor las nuevas herramientas digitales.  Gracias a dichas herramientas, el mercadeo ya no es un monologo entre anunciante y audiencia sino un dialogo (a veces, un dialogo bastante publico).  Dentro de este contexto, una organización acostumbrada a monólogos sin nada interesante que aportar a una conversación con clientes puede encontrarse más irrelevante en el mercado (cómo ha sucedido con algunas marcas).

Denise me explicó que una estrategia basada en medios sociales significa más que utilizar unas tácticas aisladas y tiene mas que ver con asegurar que se comunica algo de valor con autenticidad a la vez que se construya confianza.   Esto es un cambio substancial comparado con el pasado cuando la única forma de llegar masivamente a su audiencia era a través de mensajes cuidadosamente escogidas y con una capacidad muy limitada de entrar en una conversación publica con su audiencia.   El único problema, como lo relata Denise, es que los clientes están escuchando dichos mensajes tradicionales menos y menos cada día.

Gracias a su perfil especial como Socióloga con un Master en Negocios y experiencia como Vice Presidente de Productos para compañías como Sun Microsystems, Denise trae a la mesa su perspectiva original (en mi opinión) como profesional de mercadeo, socióloga y tecnóloga.  Para ella (y para mi después de leer su libro) es emocionante ver la convergencia entre el comportamiento humano y la manera como funciona la tecnología hoy en día (mas social).    La gran oportunidad para las organizaciones, como lo ve Denise, es que se les permite actuar mas como verdaderas personas comparado con antes.

Cuando le mencioné a Denise el Mercado de America Latina y lo que yo percibo con una lenta adopción por parte de las organizaciones de la región, ella rápidamente me recordó que un país como Brasil es notorio por su adopción de tecnologías de redes sociales.   Aun más, estudios recientes muestran que los Hispanos y Latinos son de los mas activos dentro de las nuevas plataformas sociales.

La adopción de las nuevas tecnologías es excelente pero me pregunto porque la mayoría de organizaciones de America Latina (con algunas excepciones) están básicamente ignorando sus clientes y potenciales clientes cuando deciden no interactuar con ellos a través de estas plataformas?  Cuando compartí mi duda con Denise, ella me comentó que, hace siete años en EEUU, cuando los medios sociales comenzaban a crecer, hubo una brecha generacional entre los directivos de las empresas y sus colaboradores.  Mientras mucho de estos últimos escribían en sus blogs y adoptaban estas tecnologías, muchos directivos no comprendían los cambios que estaban pasando.  Siento que esto y otras realidades pueden ser factores claves en explicar el comportamiento de las organizaciones en la región.

El hecho que las tecnologías cada día se convergen mas con la manera en que las personas interactúan es buena noticia para América Latina.  Las culturas de esta región son naturalmente comunicativas y sociables y contar con herramientas que apalancan este comportamiento podría amplificar las fortalezas que se encuentran en estos países.  Es obvio que los usuarios ya entienden esta ventaja y lo están aprovechando al máximo.   Depende de las organizaciones de la región si deciden ignorar a sus clientes y potenciales clientes o romper algunos paradigmas y comenzar a pensar como “si la publicidad tradicional ya no existiera.”

My conversation with Denise Shiffman, the author of The Age of Engage

After reading The Age of Engage by Denise Shiffman, I felt that it was one of those rare books that clearly explains the implications (for organizations) of adopting online marketing strategies.  Having the opportunity to talk with Denise about her book and her perspectives was not only stimulating, but also, incredibly enlightening.  The conversation started off with an excellent mental exercise when Denise posited, “What would you do if TV and print went away?”

This simple conjecture certainly focuses your mind in order to more clearly comprehend the paradigm shift that is happening in marketing, today.  Basically, instead of marketing being a monologue, digital technologies have made it possible to have conversations with your customers: a proposition which can be frightening if the company in question isn’t a good “conversationalist.”  According to Denise, if that happens to be the case and said company embarks on a social media strategy without anything interesting to talk about, it’s likely that few customers will engage (as has happened to some brands).

Denise explained that a social media strategy is much more than making use of some tools.  It involves thinking about what your brand stands for and what you want to communicate.   More importantly, it’s about being authentic and building trust and conversing with your prospects and customers where they happen to be.   This is quite a change from traditional media where companies have been accustomed to controlling a specific message, which is relayed through a few well-established channels (e.g., print, television, etc.) to a mass audience.  There’s only one problem as Denise pointed out, customers are listening less and less to these mass messages.

Thanks to her unique background which includes a degree in Sociology, a Masters in Business and stints as a Vice President of Marketing for companies such as Sun Microsystems, Denise brings her own distinct perspective to the intersection of marketing and digital technologies. Specifically, she finds the current convergence of people’s behavior and the state of technological development truly exciting.  Even more, according to her, technology is actually allowing companies to behave more like real people.

When I brought up the Latin American market, she was quick to mention the fact that a country such as Brazil is known to have speedily adopted social networking technologies.  Indeed, studies have shown that Latin Americans and Hispanics have great adopters of social networking and are among the most active networkers once they adopt these platforms.

User adoption is great, but why are so many companies in Latin America basically ignoring their users by not engaging them more on these platforms?  When I asked Denise this, she relayed her observations from about seven years ago in the US, when social media was just ramping up. At that time, there was a notable generational gap between company directors (including CEO’s) and their younger workforce.  While younger workers were blogging and adopting these technologies, many C-level executives were almost oblivious to the changes taking place.  From what I’ve observed, a similar situation (there are some differences) is playing out in Latin America.

As Denise explained, the Internet offers an incredibly cost-effective, measurable platform for engaging customers. Ignoring this runs the risk of tarnishing your reputation, which is exactly what happened to Dell several years ago when customers filled the social networking “air waves” with tales of the company’s customer service failures.  Back then, Dell was ill-prepared to respond to such communications and its image suffered as a result.  Such situations have a way of hitting the bottom line relatively quickly and the company has since improved markedly in this area.

As Denise points out, there is a convergence of how people behavior and the maturation of digital technologies, which can only serve to accelerate the changes already underway.  Even companies that one would not normally associate with the digital technology adoption such as Indium Corporation, a metal alloy and solder manufacturer, are engaging more deeply with customers through a well thought out blogging and online strategy. It’s up to Latin American companies whether they, too, wish to take advantage of these tools.  The alternative is to bet exclusively on traditional media while their customers flock to digital media looking for interesting conversations.