@AmericanAir

From June 19^th through the 24^th, I followed @AmericanAir, the official tweeter site for American Airlines Customer Relations, http://www.aa.com/customerrelations.  I started flying American Airlines when I moved to Dallas, since AA has a hub at DFW.  I’m used to American now, earning miles, and having been able to redeem them twice to date with no or minimal scheduling restriction.  I’ve been travelling a lot this year, and for the first time, will attain gold status after only 2 more segments.  I thought it would be interesting to follow American this week because I suspected they deal with a lot of upset travelers.  I was curious to see how they handled different situations, what the most common issues they dealt with were, and I hoped to learn something useful for when I might encounter the very same issues…

In the section where tweeter allows you to draft a small description, @AmericanAir writes: “Thanks for checking in! Send your praise, concerns and suggestions to the link below to ensure an appropriate response from American Airlines.”  How interesting!  American Airlines invites you to go to their website to submit your comments?  This seems a little bit odd, considering what Paul Gillin wrote in The New Influencers: “Another truth with the blogosphere [of which twitter is part] is that transparency is key to working in this medium.” It would be very interesting to find out how many travelers, when choosing between tweeting, direct-messaging (DM) and going to the website actually DM or chose the website.  If I were to venture a guess, I’d say probably not that many, since tweeter is a new form of communication, and passengers want to publicly express their thoughts, opinions and emotions… I wonder if American would be better served writing something else in their introduction…

This past week, @AmericanAir tweeted 93 times.  Of these 93 times, 87, or 94% were in response to tweets mentioning @AmericanAir.  This tells me that American scans the Tweeterverse to see what is being shared about its brand.  Actually, AA scans the entire social web, as it posts to tweeter using Tweetdeck, a website that, as we learned in our previous class, allows to efficiently search the social web for mentions of your brand.   American, in that regard is very pro-active, and takes social networking very seriously.  It wants to avoid “blog swarms,” like the one that targeted United a couple of years ago, when a Youtube video stirred quite a buzz:  “United breaks guitars…” (http://youtu.be/5YGc4zOqozo).  Contrast that to today’s timely post by pop-group Hanson “Thanks to @AmericanAir for helping repair/replace the broken guitar. – ISAAC” What are the odds, right? Responding to tweets mentioning @AmericanAir, as identified by scanning of the online social universe, seems to be the primary purpose of the @American Air tweet page.  Only 6 tweets were not in response to passenger comments. 

The six “unsolicited” tweets break down as follows:  two tweets about fare sales (4^th of July travel, international travel); two “fun/exciting” tweets about AA travelers habits or happenings: One is getting married this week-end after meeting her fiancé on an AA flight, the other browses AA.com when she gets bored, looking for future trips; one tweet simply read “ALERT: Reservations is all-hands managing high call traffic due to #weather last night” indicating that AA is aware and is working diligently to resolve the issues; the last tweet was in regards to AA’s work on its environmental footprint, as @AmericanAir  tweets: “We’re testing the #ecoDemonstrator Program w/ Boeing to make flying cleaner for the #environment! More: http://bit.ly/AAECODEMO.”  

Of the other 87 tweets, 15 included requests for the individual originating the tweet to direct message American Airlines back with specific information, or to follow @American Air in order for AA to DM specific information to the traveler.  I did not know Tweeter offered the option to direct message.  Apparently, one can DM @AmericanAir, whether or not she is following, but one needs to follow @American Air in order for American to be able to DM back.  Furthermore, the typical exchange between a traveler and @AmericanAir lasts 2 or 3 tweeted responses.  In that regards, @AmericanAir seems to use tweeter as a chat substitute.  

And now, I am sure you’d like to know what the key topics American customers tweet about that led to AA tweet responses… Two travelers tweeted about they planned to use their AA miles.  Ten travelers tweeted to thank AA employees for helping resolve an issue (wow! That’s 11%) and six more gave a shout out for AA’s Admiral’s club, in-flight internet and plug-ins and cheap ticket prices, some explicitly mentioning AA’s deal finder app (only available for PC right now, as one tweeter noted).  One traveler complimented American on a cool paint job for one of its jets (http://lockerz.com/s/113387928), three passengers tweeted for help with a flight cancellation, and one for help with a seat assignment.  LondonGirlinLA tweeted about not booking an AA flight because of a $600 price difference with USAir; thirteen passengers tweeted to complain about being bumped, delayed, or hit with flight cancellations, which is not all that bad.  @AmericanAir always responded professionally, apologetically and attempted to get additional detail and information in order to better help.  Only three tweets mentioned lost baggage.  A couple complaints dealt with maintenance issues that @AmericanAir said would be addressed promptly: one aircraft’s cabin was filthy, and in the other, some of the TV monitors were not functioning properly.  One tweet mentioned American’s lost opportunity to earn goodwill when not upgrading to first class some of the 25 passengers on a near-empty recent flight.

In conclusion, American Airlines is definitely engaged with the social web, tracking and monitoring what is being shared about its brand. It does not appear to use tweeter as an aggressive advertising tool, though it does play a role in its marketing strategy.  American Airlines has taken to heart some of the advice published by Razorfish, namely the role played by key, social and known peer influencers in the marketing funnel.  This is good for American Airlines, though I felt that the way it used tweeter was more for public relations, feeding information via this new portal to a traditional customer service department.

Week IV - Business Models & the New Era of Competition

Home this week!  Grooveshark playing in the background; not sold on it yet...

Looking forward to the breeze sessions this week... Other than the required reading, the videos on monetizing tweeter and  eCommerce look interesting, so I'll watch those.  I also printed out the "5 business models for social media start-up."  I like being able to categorize and affinitize ideas, so I think this will be a good read...

I think this week will allow me to think more holistically about the social web as business models...
I am also looking forward to start building my klout...

Long Tails, Ant Circles, Razorfish & Other Takeaways

The material this week really showed the impact that consumers actually have on the firms where they decide to shop, or not to shop...

The Long Tail
The week-end started with the Chris Anderson interview and the 98% rule:  Merchants will sell at least one item of 98% of the products they offer.  This led him to develop the theory of the long tail.  Essentially, he starts by drawing a Pareto chart of the sales, and notices that the chart is flattening out, and that the tail is getting longer and longer.  He then concludes that focusing on the top 20% of products no longer generate enough revenue for a business to thrive, and that merchants should not narrow their focus to these.  Adidas has adopted a strategy of extreme customization with its miAdidas brand.  Buyers can go in, and completely customize the colors of all the elements that make up the miShoe. Adidas might very well sell 98% of all the possible combinations.  Talk about a win-win:  I get to design my own shoe, and Adidas gets access to our tastes.

Chris goes on to make several interesting points about "Hit" products:
1.  Hits are typically loss leaders
2.  Social communication works along the long tail, essentially concentrating things towards the hits.  Essentially, if enough people like a product, the product will hit a "tipping point" and become a hit
3.  Heavy users end up in the tail, while mainstream is in the hits.

Ant Circles
Of course, I am referring to the James Surowiecki video.
The concept of "Wisdom of crowds" particularly resonated with me.  He describe blogs as giving us access to a collective intelligence previously untapped. He goes on to say that "Readers know more than the media."  I do believe that a team will reach a better decision/outcome than the average outcome arrived at independently, but it is also true that some members of the group will reach better decisions than the team.  Apparently that shows up over and over in research...  He does have a great caveat: "Groups are only smart when the members think independently," essentially avoiding "group think"

Tweeting/Blogging does not make me weird... That's a relief!
The Evan Williams interview by Charlie Rose was both entertaining and insightful.  Charlie did figure it out, since I was able to find him on Tweeter and am now following him.  So Evan was simply looking to create a new way to communicate.  I think he succeeded.  I love it when he says that blogs, facebook and tweeter are things "normal" people do.  He describes it as an "open way  to live your life."  When he talks about countries where tweeter is big, the list was a little surprising.US, Japan, UK, sure, but Germany and Brazil?
Whether or not he is able to monetize tweeter is the big question.  Evan says he has some ideas; I bet he does...  He places himself on a continuum between social communication ($0) and information ($$$).  The closer he can place tweeter into being a purveyor of information, connecting people to information they value, the greater the potential for profit.

Blog Swarms
Any body can write a blog about anything.  I would suspect this follows the 98% rule:  98% of all blogs are read by at least 1 person other than its originator... and if enough people do and create a buzz, the readership will reach a tipping point, and you'll have a hit blog.  "The origins of social media" gives us a introduction into the blog landscape, what it, what it does, how it does it.  "It's informal but inform" has to be one of my favorite sentences form the chapter.  The author makes a great point on the inter-dependency of bloggers and media.  One does not trump the other, they compliment each other.  Blogs rely on media coverage in order to create commentary, and at times, blogs might break the news because of their proximity to events.  Information, information, information...
What does it mean for businesses:  "This premium on transparency may be the single greatest cultural shift that businesses will face as they engage with social media."  Note that the author does not say "if they engage" but that this engagement is a foregone conclusion.

Razorfish
That name just sounded cool, so I wanted to see what this was about...  What a vast amount of information...  So I've selected highlights that I thought were particularly interesting...
"Ownership of the brand no longer resides in the hands of the brand itself, as consumers and potential consumers are beginning to shape brands as much as brands shape them."
1. Brands must socialize with consumers
2.  Brands must develop a credible social voice
3.  Brands must provide a return on emotion (ROE) to their customers
Because word of mouth (on or offline) is a key influence on customers:
1.  Brands must know who influences perception
2.  Brands must know the effect of influencers throughout their marketing funnel (or the product stages as we saw in last quarter's class)
3.  Know peer influencers matter most at the bottom of the funnel
Social ads need to be relevant, actionable, interactive and personal.  I love Diana Stepner's "10 first steps" for companies to take control of their tweeterverse...
Customers look for brands that help them connect, Brands aren't connecting enough with consumers in a social environment, "fans" of brands visit, and re-visit those sites...

Week Overview

Traveled to Dallas this week, so got a lot of the reading/listening/viewing done late last week.  I've got my rough notes down on paper, and will write these down properly this week-end as I return home.

The materials I reviewed and will discuss in my subsequent blog entry are:
- The long tail.  This discussion will be fun, as in my line of work, we rely heavily on the pareto principle (80/20 rule)
- The origins of social media:  "Informal but informed..."
- The James Surowiecki video:  "Groups are only smarter when the members think independently."
- Evan Williams on Charlie Rose:  His answer on monetizing twitter :"don't know for sure, but I have some ideas..."
- Highlights of the Razorfish report.  The report presents fascinating takeways...

Will be back in a few days...

Privacy & Ratings

Well,
the Alma Whitten kept freezing up, so I ended up watching a video on the same topic, posted on YouTube by  GooglePrivacy.  It's a presentation on privacy given at Harvard LAw School by Peter Fleisher in 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNu1OtkWrOY

Though the video is 3 years old, a lot of the privacy issues he discusses are still relevant today, and I am not sure much has been resolved since...
One statement he makes was right on; he described ads as "the economic lifeblood of all those web 2.0 services."  He then describes 3 ways of targeting ads to the web user, without ranking them in terms of privacy:
 1) Contextual - Ads use the content you are looking at in real time and generates context driven advertisement
2) Demographic - self-explanatory. If the ad is able to figure out your demographic information (you are logged in, or a registered user...) and displays ads targeting that segment
3) Behavioral - If the ad is able to search your browsing history, it can use that history to generate targeted ads.  I'm pretty sure yahoo.mail uses this...

The key issues Peter saw were "transparency" of the privacy policy, the ability for the customer to give or not to give "consent," "security of the information collected, and defining the additional protection for "sensitive" information...  Cool video.

On the NPR star search recording, I had 3 takeaways
1) the journalists described the Star rating system as often "self-fulfilling prophecies."  They did not necessarily make a great case on this point.  Their examples were rather trivial, so I would not generalize this trend.
2) I do agree with them on this point:  We, as consumers, need to be aware of the motives behind the ratings.  They talked about "praise fraud," but there is probably also "bash fraud."  It's interesting however, that unless the experience is extremely poor, or great, few of us would bother to give feedback that such and such widget was average, worthy of 3/5 stars...  Unless you're talking about Netflix.  My wife and I make it a point to rate the movies we watch, in order to improve Netflix's viewing recommendation... Another discussion altogether.
3) I found it interesting the 72% of users trust online reviews...There is no rational basis for that, is there?

This is the new new media

I am starting this week with the required reading and video.  I also plan to read the article on web video, and to watch the Alma Whitten and Star Search videos



What I hope to gain this week is a more keen sense of awareness about:
1.  How much of the web is user-generated
2.  How quickly and profoundly this trend is changing the world we live in.

But first, for this post, I'll highlight my key takeaways from the Crowdsourcing extract.

I think a lot of the chapters takeaways are summarized quite well in the book by Daniel Pink, Drive, therefore I have attached a link to an illustrated synopsis of the book, narrated by the author...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
 

People are motivated by Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose, so as I go through some of the points made in the reading, I will link these to the inner motivation of this generation...

Threadless: The Jakes are tapping into the inner motivation of artists, affording them autonomy (create whatever design your want), mastery (top 10 designs get made) and purpose (express their message). Though it may not pay all the bills, people get to do something they love!

iStockPhoto:  With advances in camera technology, the site plays on the inner-motivations of amateur photographers, again affording them autonomy (pick your topic), mastery (see your picture used), and purpose (express their message). Again, though it may not pay all the bills, people get to do something they love!  iStock is a great example of the theory of creative destruction, but at least in this case, Getty images figured it out, and bought the new industry.  Blockbuster did not realize until to late that the netflix model was taking off, and now netflix has to move to streaming videos, or it also takes the risks of being creatively destructed by the like of hulu...The pace is simply incredible...

P&G is also turning to the masses and engaging them to help solve their problems, as the article describes;

Crowdsourcing is everywhere: CNN has iReporters, YouTube its amateur videographers, etc...


I think the author is right, in that the internet gives us:
1. Opportunities to help
2. Opportunities to pursue interests
3. Opportunities to create/participate in communities

Is the internet replacing education as the great equalizer?

Week I - Pandora, LinkedIn and Facebook

As I start synthesizing my thoughts, Pandora is streaming on my PC

Between this week being our first week, two business trips to Atlanta and Chicago, and figuring out teh workload for the 3 courses I am taking, this will be my lone week I post.

My learning goals for the week are to gain an initial insight into the topics covered in th ecourse, and into some of the services I use on a regular basis, Pandora (love it), LinkedIn, and Facebook.

I started by reading the "Made to Engage" chapter, then watched the videos on Pandora & LInkedIn, and finally read teh GQ article "Do You Trust This Face."  I stopped there as the notes I had taken were gwetting close to the 750 word limit.  I chose the suggested materials based on interest for teh topics as well as the format.

1. Business Principles
1. The three founders truly believe that they have a social mission and are making the world a better place.  Westergren describes Pandora as a business that has a bog impact on people through music; he wants to change the world through music.  Hoffman sees LinkedIn's mission as improving people's life and helping people solve problems, "transform[ing] people's economic life." Zuckerberg is quoted as saying" "we believe that what we're doing is a good thing in the world."
2. They also believe that their companies are bigger than them.  Westergren, for instance, went out and hired a CEO, while Hoffman took over as CEO because his skill set was better suited to the direction LinkedIn was taking:  He is an innovator leading an innovative company.  Incidentally, Zuckerberg's motives are a lot harder to figure out: French writes about his "naive idealism or calculated misdirection."
2. Marketing Principles
1. Denise Shiffman, on page 4 of the "Age of Engage" introduces a key idea.  We are moving from a corporate-created to a user-created web.  Furthermore, the world of entertainment is moving from a "push" mentality to a world where individuals are "pulling" the content they are interested in.
2. "Tapping into this information [available online] will forever change marketing."  Pandora is a top-seller of songs on iTunes and Amazon.  The 90,000 artists on Pandora enjoy unprecedented access to the public.  Hoffman talks about a more intelligent use of "groups," going beyond chat rooms, where you talk with strangers, and using real relationships thereby adding much more value to the discussions.  And of course, there is Facebook, which observers describe as possessing "quite possibly the most valuable database of consumer information in the history of man."
3. Use of data for targeted marketing.  Often times I might do a search for a specific brand of clothing, or a line of hotels, and then that brand will appear in banner ads when I check my email on Yahoo.
4. The role of privacy.  A key issue for Facebook.  My theory is that people are fine shring their musical preferences, or professional background, but are a lot more sensitive when it comes to personal data.  I like the option of opting-in v. opting out... Hoffman's tke on separate social and professional profiles is insightful.  Privacy is both a key and very dynamic topic.  I believe our expectations are rapidly changing.
5. The role of mobile technology. Th eiPhone changed how customers saw Pandora.  You can now take Pandora with you.  (challenging Sirius/XM?)  Mobile technology is huge for connectivity, though multiple devices might have discrete strengths, with cell-phones used for communication, BlackBerry for Outlook functions and the iPhone for teh web.  One of the takeaways from last quarter's marketing assignment was how many tablets were announced in the 11 weeks that spanned our assignment.  The pace of the growth of the tablet market is incredible!  As Shiffman states, "we can no longer write a marketing plan at the beginning of teh year and execute against it over a year."
3. Other Key Ideas
1. "The traditionaol media industry doesn't need to play catch-up; they need to reinvent themselves." I believe this is becuase "opinion" has long overtaken "journalism."
2. "A lie won't stay a secret for long in his consumer powered web." I find it unfathomable that politicians, celebrities or business people would behave illegally/unethically/immorally and expect to get away with it in this day and age.  I blame it on hubris, or utter lack of judgement.
3. "Value isn't static."  This will be something I ponder going forward.
4. "The 6V's."  The idea was compelling, though I wonder how broad an adoption the concept has had

Le Premier Blog

Well, pretty exciting foray into the blogging world I've read so much about...  Allez, au boulot!