LinkedIn Has Failed Me

LinkedIn has failed to achieve its purpose; I fear it has fallen into the same trap as other modes of social media: connecting us with people we do not know.
     For the first time, as far as I can recall, I had the opportunity to use the "Get Introduced" tool LinkedIn offers its users so they can use a 1st connection to connect with someone they do not know. I was excited; I would be able to connect with someone at a company where I had no connections. I could get the inside track before submitting a resume. Everyone constantly tells me I have to know people if I want to get a job. As ridiculous as that "sentiment" is, I have, by way of admitting to myself that people never change, succumbed to the idea that networking is healthy.
     I searched the company I was looking for, and a long list of people came up who were 2nd connections. I found someone in a similar line of work and clicked on the "Get Introduced" option under Connect. Our shared connection was a man to whom I had recently been introduced, and was someone I was fully confident would be able to give me some credibility in just connecting me. I sent the request.
     After a couple of messages back and forth about somewhat unrelated topics, he told me he did not know the man I was asking to be introduced to. He had no idea who he was. Yet they were connected, on a networking site. What?
     How is a site like LinkedIn supposed to function as intended if people do not know the people they are connected to? This is like starting an event on Facebook, scrolling through your thousand and a half friends, and realizing you only know a handful of them. Maybe you met some of them once and don't remember them, who knows. But for the most part, you know only a fraction of your "friends" and interact in person with even less.
     I realize that I am guilty of this problem on LinkedIn. I receive invites from people who are attending the same graduate program I went to, but are different class years. I could never recommend them to anyone or reach out to them for a recommendation either. I have invites from people who are, in real life, connected with someone I know personally, and think it is appropriate to make ourselves 1st connections on LinkedIn. Again, I know nothing about them. So what is the purpose of LinkedIn then? Can it really work if your "connections" are just a giant grab-bag of people you may or may not actually know, much like a Facebook or a Twitter? I feel as if finding someone who actually knows someone will be as difficult as landing an interview.
     All I can say is, forget about it. Job searches are stressful enough without trying to find a connection. The last thing I need is yet another step in the process, which may involve sending "InMail" to half of my connections with zero luck. I would suggest that LinkedIn add a level to their connections, kind of like a 1.5. AKA "I am connected with them, but I do not know this person well enough to make introductions." That would be nice.

Is this strategy?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/krogers-weapon-infrared-cameras-011800830.html So Kroger has installed new infrared cameras that reduce the average customer wait time in line to 26 seconds. Cool. But the real question is, is this strategy? Is this enough of a differentiator to pull customers away from other stores, increase loyalty, increase the frequency with which its existing customers shop or the amount of money they spend? I'm wondering if how long you have to wait in line has an effect on your choice of grocery store. The traditional rule of thumb is driving distance; people pretty much go to the closest grocery store there is. Is this kind of technology something that could change that? If you were to survey customers, how many of them would be willing to drive an extra half mile or so to go to a grocery store where they would, on average, only have to wait in line for 26 seconds? I think this would be a great study to conduct, simply to see if the investment is worth it as a long term strategy, or if Kroger is just spending money on making its existing customers happier and not seeing any kind of market share growth.

Internet Diary

I did this forever ago but forgot to post it. Item 20: Blastpr.com is a website for a public relations firm in Austin, TX. Their site at first seems like there would be too much information on one page, but clicking on page links actually just filters out irrelevant "tiles" from the home page. Clicking on each additional tile of information brings up a short description of that part of the company. It is very easy to navigate, has all the right information and not too much, and doesn't have too many links that take you all over the place until you are lost. (10 out of 10) Item 19: Twitter is something I got on because I felt like I was connected to too many people on Facebook whom I was not very close with. The Twitter account I have set up is only followed by a few people who I feel like I can say anything to. The only problem I have with the site is sometimes it doesn't take tags right. The website is generally easy to use, and the privacy settings are easy to figure out. (9 out of 10) Item 16: On youtube.com I feel frustrated sometimes because I never know if the video I click on is going to make me watch an ad first. Generally I think the site is a little slow, maybe it is just my internet, but who knows. Searching for items is something I also find annoying. I feel like youtube should be more picky about what words they let people use to tag their videos. A lot of the time irrelevant videos come up in a search because people just put whatever they want in the tags. (7 out of 10) Hulu is an interesting site that I used to have a subscription to. I like the setup they have for the videos, and the player they use is very high quality and consistently better than a lot of sites. The search function works great. The only thing that gets on my nerves are all the little short clip videos they have posted. I'm not really interested in watching clips, just full length shows or movies. (8 out of 10) Item 2: Groupon. Hmmm, I've had a lot of experience with groupon and it has generally been good. I have had a couple of poor experiences though. One time I ordered a gift for my mother, was told it had shipped, and after quite some time had passed without receiving it I called and was informed that they had never shipped the item and in fact were back logged and I probably wouldn't receive it for some time. I believe I was reimbursed for the product, which was good customer service. I also recently ordered something that doesn't work, though I'm not sure if this is their fault or if I just happened to get the one product that was faulty .Their app is very easy to use, and I like that I can pull up all of my old orders and see when groupons will expire. I would say that as long as Groupon is around I will keep using it, especially when I go on vacations to cities where food is generally very expensive! (10 out of 10) Item 3: Weather.com. I actually have the weather.com app on my phone, not sure if this is what you meant. It works great, though sometimes the weather doesn't update and it is showing me weather from hours ago. However, when it is working, I can check everything from the hourly forecast for today to the ten day forecast to a three day allergy forecast and also I can keep up with hurricanes during hurricane season. I really like this app and will continue to use it. (9 out of 10) Item 12: I actually did this the other day out of curiousity because I love cars and am always wanting a new one, plus my car is about 8 years old now...starting to fall apart here and there. Anyway, to check my car price I always use Kellybluebook.com. I did this on my phone, and their phone friendly website version was actually very easy to use. They take you through very easy step by step, and also provide the descriptions for what it means to have a car in good condition versus fair condition, etc. They also allow you to check the value of your car based on the area you live in, and also whether you plan to turn it in or sell it to a private party. I really like this site and trust it. (10 out of 10) Item 10: I use Kayak on my phone to make travel arrangements. This app is the BEST app ever for travel. My most recent trip was a lot of extra fun because of this app. It's very easy to purchase tickets and then keep the itinerary right there in your phone with you. You can check on your flight all the time. They let you know right away if your flight has been delayed or if it has changed gates, etc. You can also search for hotels and car rentals this way, and they have a lot of different ways you can filter it. One of the best is the map filter. If you are on a road trip, a lot of times you just want the hotel which is closest to the road. This app allows you to search for hotels in the area and then choose a hotel based on its location. Very easy to use, lots of features, and realiable. It also gives you notifications on when prices change for flights. (10 out of 10) Item 9: I actually have foursquare on my phone and I don't remember the last time I used it. It must have been at least two years ago. I don't really understand the purpose of this app, except to try and get free stuff whenever you go out, which doesn't always work because a lot of the time the place offering free stuff is out. I stopped using it, mostly because I don't see the purpose, plus I can never remember to check in. YOu would think there would be a setting which would allow me to tell the app to automatically check me in when it senses I am in a foursquare location. (5 out of 10) Item 8: Google maps, use it all the time. I like that on google maps they show you the different stores and eating places when you zoom in. A lot of the time landmarks are the easiest way to understand how to get somewhere, as opposed to street signs or what not. I've never really had a problem with google maps, except that sometimes it can be really difficult to change the original path they offer you. (9 out of 10) Item 5: Craigslist. I've used this a few times in the past. I actually used it most recently to see if anyone was selling the computer that was stolen from my house back in January. I used craigslist to sell some stuff for my parents over the summer. It's really easy to use. The only problem I have with it is the obvious one: you are agreeing to meet up with a complete stranger to sell stuff. Sometimes they even come to your house because the item can't be moved from the house unless someone is planning to buy it. It's very nervwracking, and I wish there was some other way to go about this. I like that the setup is very simple, no frills, just easy to search, lots of cities. I just think the security thing needs to be thought out some more. (8 out of 10) Item 1: I recently bought some clothes from American Eagle online, because they sometimes offer free shipping, which is nice. The website is easily laid out, not confusing, they have all the sizing charts right there on the bottom of the page so you don't have to go search for them. I think the site is also very easy to use on my phone. I don't have any problems with it. (10 out of 10)

Starbucks...iPhone App

Continuing my two day blog binge at Starbucks in Bryan...like the alliteration there? Anyway, I came here earlier in the semester and heard an AWESOME song but was dumb and didn't "shazam" it. So naturally I was bothered for days and ultimately had to return to the store after an unsuccessful search on Starbuck's website for some sort of streaming music. I sat in the store for a few hours until the song finally came on. This got me thinking...Starbucks has an iPhone application, which allows you to look at the menu, find a Starbucks, get gift cards, etc. I think it would be neat if you could access a Starbucks radio station to listen to the music they have playing. Now this seems counter intuitive at first...but I think there's a possibility that it could increase traffic to the store, or at least increase the frequency with which the same customer visits. Imagine it, you're sitting in the library at campus listening to Starbucks radio and you take a sip of your worse than sub-par coffee from the cafe downstairs, and suddenly it hits you: I NEED STARBUCKS. It's almost subliminal. Starbucks music in your ears and you can almost smell the coffee and hear the machines whirring in the background as the barista whips up a frappuccino. I definitely think it's worth an experiment. An app for thought.

From Soap Operas to...Billboard and Nielsen?

Take a look at this interesting piece of news from the entertainment industry: http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/chart-alert/1549398/billboard-nielsen-add-youtube-video-streaming-to-its-platforms To sum it up, Billboard and Nielson are now incorporating data from YouTube to create their top 100 charts for music. This means songs with popular music videos on YouTube are more likely to end up in the top 100 than if it was just a song. Take for example, Macklemore's Thrift Shop, which is a great song, but gained most of its popularity through a funny music video. This could have an interesting impact on companies, just wait for it. Remember how P&G basically created soap operas? With YouTube data being incorporated into Billboard rankings, it would be interesting to see a company essentially "create" a music star purely for the purposes of product placement and quote unquote free celebrity endorsement. They could create a celebrity who is brand owned. Follow me through a scenario; perhaps this works, perhaps it doesn't. GAP is looking to revitalize their brand (a problem they seem to always have). They discreetly go on the hunt for some talent and find a girl along the lines of a mash up between Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato and Ke$ha or something like that. She's got vocals, she's cute, she's fun, etc. Woo. They get the best songwriters, managers; whatever it is that goes into creating a star, they get the best. And they launch her out into the world. Tada! She wears GAP everywhere, in all of her music videos; maybe she even goes shopping at the GAP. And she has awesome music videos so people watch them and her rankings go up on music charts so she become uber celebrity. Everybody who loves her loves GAP. GAP is cool again. Magic. Maybe this is a really expensive way to go about promoting a brand, but I was just thinking about the possibility that this kind of YouTube data incorporation could present. Music for thought.

Sneak Attack Marketing

So my Vemma post made me start thinking about sneaky ways to market. I know that sounds pretty bad but I was also thinking about that ridiculous K-Mart commercial and wondering what kind of marketing suicide their agency or marketing department is trying to commit. It's not necessarily sneaky marketing, just more focused on getting attention as opposed to really caring about sending a message. Anyway, back to the point. For our consulting project we had to do some grassroots/guerrilla marketing; i.e. standing around and handing out fliers or talking to people or trying to get people to come check out our display. And really, students are trained, almost like Pavlov's Dog to look straight down and keep walking, don't make eye contact with the people with fliers and clip boards. They will make you attend things and fill things out. So we get ignored half the time. So why not do some sneaky stuff. Look at the people who come for the Brazos Valley Animal Shelter looking to raise money and awareness. They don't stand out there with clipboards...they bring animals! Cool animals like exotic lizards and cute puppies and one time even an African Spurred Tortoise. Of course, it makes sense for them to bring animals. But it could also be an interesting and less aggressive way to get people to come and talk to you about other things. I bring my dog to campus all the time and despite being almost 6 years old, his size and fluff-level make him look like a permanent puppy. Everyone wants to stop and talk to me about my dog and hold him and many try to "steal him". So if I'm running a campaign about something that is not very interesting (ahem natural gas) I could bring my dog, and other people could bring their pets. Suddenly people WANT to come over and talk to us. They can pet our animals while we bombard them with information about our events, get them to fill out response cards, etc. They are automatically in a better and more cooperative mood simply for having held a cute dog. I think it would be worth an experiment. Sneak marketing. With animals.

Vemma

So I recently got persuaded to join Vemma, an energy drink company that uses word of mouth to sell its products instead of using traditional retailers like grocery stores and gas stations. At first glance it appears to be a pyramid scheme, and though I still have my doubts, it's hard to believe that it could be when I know so many people making money off of it. But that's not really the point of my blog. My question is, as a selling strategy, to purely use word of mouth, to create a sales force only out of people who use the product and love the product and want other people to use the product; it's genius really. I'm wondering how effective of a strategy this could be for other companies in the future, and what kinds of industries it would work in. The way Vemma works is you sign up and order two cases of the product. Your goal is to 1) get more people to purchase the product and 2) if they are interested in making money get them to sign up to sell the product as well, which requires them to purchase the product. My friend who got me signed up is really smart about the way he gets people interested. He brings a Verve energy drink with him to class and drinks it. Easy enough. Since it's not a product you find in stores, people ask him about it. He tells them briefly what it is and asks if they want one; he keeps extra in his backpack. Then after class he talks to them about the program and invites them to one of their team meetings (there are a lot of people on his campus selling Vemma, so they have an entire team of people helping each other out). This company is turning thousands and thousands of people into marketers. It reminds me of what a visiting executive speaker said: Everyone is a seller. At some point or other in your life you will sell something, whether it's a product or a skill of your own. So back to my original point. How far can this word of mouth, everyday citizen seller strategy go? Does it work for any product? Is it limited to consumables? I think it would be interesting, and difficult, to analyze the possibilities. I also wonder though, if it is sustainable. For example, if you think of this in terms of a product life cycle, or just a simple line graph, is there a peak number of people they can get to join and sell, and if so then doesn't that put a cap on their sales? What will the company do when sign up growth starts to slow down, or when current members start to fall away as they graduate and get jobs and start families and don't have the time to sell the product or sign people up? I'm curious to know if this word of mouth sales strategy is sustainable in the long term or if they will have to eventually go the route of all other energy drinks and start selling at retailers. I think that discussing alternative selling strategies like this in class would be beneficial; I think it's naive to never discuss out of the box concepts and ways we as marketers can redefine how business is done. I don't just want to talk about how things are done now and how they were done then; I want to come up with new ways to do things and see if they work.