Just 3 stats – from 3 different corners of the marketing world. Our goal: help you learn more about the customer experience – or something we call “Empathy Marketing.” Enjoy.

Stat #1: “2 Million Plus Uniques on Foursquare.com in March.”

This means: Foursquare is “four real” – but has a ways to go. Evidence: these greater than 2 million unique visitors in the month of March represent exponential growth since October of last year, when Foursquare launched.

For the Empathy Marketer: How is location-based marketing changing the way you think? That depends – are you a B2B brand, or a restaurant looking to micro-target? Put your brand in the shoes of a customer or prospect. Will folks care if someone unlocks a badge when they visit your location. THEN figure out if it makes sense.

Stat #2: 75 Million Mexicans are Unbanked.

If you think the online world is the one to play in 24/7, the above estimate comes from a March article in Institutional Investor.

For the Empathy Marketer: Online bells and whistles are great IF you rely on online traffic. Foot traffic is probably much more important to Mexican businesses. Think Western Union focuses its efforts on online marketing – or on making sure that they reach Mexicans living in the US who need to wire money back home?

Oh, and Western Union might not ask much about Social Media Marketing. Social Media Marketing cannot sell your product to someone without a computer.

Stat #3: 65+3>96

The NCAA announced it was expanding its Men’s Basketball Tournament by just three teams, going from 65 to 68 teams.

This is better than the alternative – a rumored expansion to a 96 team format that would have been a disaster.

But I’m not alone in editorializing – and the NCAA scores points for (a) floating the trial balloon about this expansion, (b) listening to the hue and cry from fans about how lame it would be to expand to 96 and (c) backing down.

For the Empathy Marketer: Test and learn. Test and learn.

So, just three little stats; and from three random places. Empathy Marketers: don’t forget to put yourselves in the shoes of prospects, customers, fans. Listen to what they’re saying – to your face and behind your back.

There are no real rules to life, right? For instance, in this day and age, any schmo can launch anything and call it a business. Whether it gets on your nerves or not — well, it’s the new rule. Or non-rule.

So, to celebrate our new freedom as a society, here are 18 rules for everything. Courtesy of your friends at Area 224. You’re welcome.

1. Co-opetition. If you enter the world of business without this attitude, you miss out on ways to make some real noise. Witness RealSMM.
2. Failure is okay. Admit it and move on. I failed with my first startup, a business called U Sphere. I learned a ton.
3. Belt matches shoes. Fail this test, gents, and you look like a goober.
4. Be nice. You can be direct and still be nice.
5. There is immeasurable value in looking someone in the eye. (I thank Jim Alexander for teaching this to me again this past weekend.)
6. The world is not out to get you.
7. Being genuine is a lost art.
8. Pedestrians: obey walk lights.
9. Drivers: watch out for pedestrians.
10. As we’ve said before – Ninjas do not introduce themselves.
11. There is a bell curve of knowledge. Any subject, there’s a small subset of people who know too much, and a subset of people who know nothing. Everyone else is in the middle.
12. Pocket squares are always a nice touch.
13. Assume nothing.
14. The seat in the middle of the table at a meeting holds the most power.
15. Life’s too short not to use chopsticks.
16. Use your phone. Email is great for explaining things. But you can often cut through the clutter with the phone.
17. Passion cannot be faked.
18. Bottled water is way too expensive.

So, any rules YOU live by???

Background: I’m at the bank, and watched a situation unfold. I tweeted about it.

Here’s a blow-by-blow of what I witnessed:

1. Customer comes in, under control but clearly upset, as he had used an ATM to withdraw $400 — but the machine did not dispense his cash, just a receipt.
2. The person at the Information Desk tells him that, since he was not using a card from Chase, he needed to get his own bank to handle the situation.
3. They got his bank on the phone, and he was told he needed to file an online complaint.
4. He was even madder now; since Chase was not offering to rectify the situation.
5. He mentioned that someone behind the counter said “that machine is always broken.”
6. The Chase rep said they couldn’t put an “Out of Order” sign on the ATM.
7. The customer again asked for Chase to give him his $400.
8. The person behind the counter said “No” because it’s not their policy.
9. He asked to speak to the manager.
10. The person behind the counter, the same one who was helping all along, said “I am the manager.”
11. The customer left.

This is what I witnessed; I tweeted about this situation in the hopes that someone would weigh in.

So I ask you, fair readers, “What Would Social Media Marketing Do?”

It’s probably better to ask “What COULD SMM Do?”

(I’m obviously biased in my opinion, but not for a reason you’d think. I was at the bank waiting to get a Notary. I ended up sitting down with a Notary who then introduced a sales guy who wanted to go over my account information. He offered to help me with business stuff; he seemed flummoxed that I was actually working with a very helpful Chase rep in Phoenix, Arizona, on my business account.)

So, Chase (and any other company looking to dip their toes into a pool filled with their own customers, the happy ones and the rabid ones), here are some thoughts:

1. Monitor this stuff. Take one of these sales dudes and make it his job to see what is being said about the company, in real time, online. I’m not just saying Twitter (though that’s a start), but Facebook and YouTube and other places.
2. Get your booty on Foursquare. I don’t use Foursquare but that is beside the point. Location-based marketing is here, and if someone is audacious enough to announce to the world that they are AT YOUR BANK RIGHT NOW…well, saying hello would be a good thing.
3. Want to be my local bank? BE MY LOCAL BANK ON (INSERT SITE HERE). Tweeting from the Evanston, Illinois Chase Branch? Why not. In fact, I’d feel a heck of a lot more comfortable if someone from the bank branch got on and said “Hi from the bank branch, stop by and say hello.” YouTube is great for this stuff. I don’t care if 5 people view the video.

These are just a few ideas — I’d love to hear yours. Banks have a ways to go in this social media stuff, but I’d love to see baby steps.

What do you think?

Above the masthead on the Chicago Sun-Times read this little banner: “Still 75 cents.”

Amidst a global recession, the casual observer might think: “Wow, the price of something is staying the same.”

But observers of this space know that intuitive thinking like this, while safe, doesn’t get you where you need to be.

Chicago’s days as a two-paper town have been numbered for, like, forever. There’s the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. Both can’t survive long-term (right?) so the Sun-Times apparently thinks it needs to compete on price.

How bout this: Compete with Relevance.

Is it that easy? NO. But here’s what’s wrong with the price tactic:

1. It does not communicate value. “Still” 75 cents? That’s spare change. That also tells me you’re less-expensive than your competitor, which means…
2. You’ll get the price shopper – and not the value shopper. Buying a newspaper isn’t buying a car. Might be closer to buying a cup of coffee. Ooh, nice analogy…

That’s where the relevance factor comes in.

The Sun-Times just might be the most relevant paper in Chicago. But they lost me at the masthead.

They’ve hired away columnists from the competing Tribune – and they have brand-name journalists on staff. This is the paper that gave you Roger Ebert long ago.

Can Newspapers Learn from Starbucks?

There’s relevance for ya. Pick one and roll…

Starbucks is relevant not just because of its ubiquity but because of how they communicate value. Every cup has something attached to it that you’re willing to pay extra for — there’s a lagniappe factor here that’s part ambiance, part smell, part music, part coffee. I pay for it – not all the time, but I don’t hit the Dunkin’ Donuts unless I want something quick and less-expensive.

The Sun-Times might be the Starbucks of newspapers, but they have to tell me that. Thus, here’s the 3-step plan for Newspaper Relevance.

1. Personal Brands. Lots of em. Start by taking your individual rock star columnists — I’ll use Rick Morrissey as an example, as he’s one of those recently hired away from the Chicago Tribune — and positioning them as, well, the rock star columnists they are. Give them their own mini-sites or micro-sites. Treat them like personal brands. It’ll make your product stronger — it’s still a muffin if you buy it at Starbucks, but you’re more likely to buy it at Starbucks because it’s showcased right next to the cashier.

2. Perceived value equals value. I received my home-delivery of the Chicago Tribune this morning and looked below the masthead, in small print. “$1.00 City and Suburbs.” The Trib has always been more expensive – it has also always been perceived as the white-collar paper.

The Wall Street Journal – if you talk about perceived value, then whoa, Nellie, that’s something I’d pay top dollar for.

Any newspaper’s relevance alone won’t be determined by price, but the perception of “you get what you pay for” is pretty spot-on.

3. Make your web sites suck less. It’s not a secret — newspapers are not good at doing the website thing. I won’t single out any of the bad ones — I’ve visited scores of newspaper websites, and, save for three (The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today), they all follow the same formula: let’s take a paper product and put it online, but also use it as a means of selling more ads.

USA Today should be singled out for being the most “Web 2.0″ looking of them all; but all three take their product (NEWS) and package it online extremely well.

The Chicago Tribune, it should be pointed out, is doing something interesting with the “relevance” thing when it comes to their “Chicago Breaking Sports” page. As long as the news itself is relevant (read: “actual news” and not rumors), they score serious points for getting in my head.

Can this 3-step program fix your newspaper’s “relevance” issue?

Maybe. Each paper has its own personal brands – think of the reporter who has been at every local high school playoff since 1963. There’s a brand.

Each paper also has a price/value perception issue – and while I’m not advocating across-the-board price raises, or cuts, I am saying that communicating that you’re the lowest-priced competitor means little when free news is everywhere. Give me something worth paying for by showing me you’ve got something worth paying for.

Oh, and every newspaper has to have some web guru, 20-something on staff who can ramp up your quality without sacrificing things like revenue.

Agree? Disagree? Barking up the wrong trees?

Lesson We Learned: Explaining Art + Science of Social Media…

Area 224 returns for not one but TWO repeat engagements of 3 Weeks to Social Media Success.

Up there on our site you’ll see it say “3 Weeks is Back!” That’s because we did this program in December and, well, we had quite a few people ask us if we’d do it again. So here we are.

PLUS – this is more laser-focused, less sessions, and some one-on-one time and group time and…we’re really excited.

Add to cart

BUT…what about Real Estate? Don’t you guys have something for that, too?

YES…our Real SMM product has 3 Weeks to Real Estate Social Media Success. Real Estate people – agents, brokers, investors, title company, mortgage people…etc., they can all learn from the experts (we’ve been doing webinars like these ALL through 2009).

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So, if you ARE in Real Estate, check out the Real SMM site and sign up there. If you aren’t, see more info on our 3 Weeks program right here.

Cheers!

Ever since the Tiger Woods story broke, we’ve been watching it from a communications perspective: How Tiger communicates, what he says when, and whether or not he’s handling this crisis right. We blogged about it last week (you can see that post here).

And, since it broke, we’ve also noticed something really eerie: for someone who talks to the press a lot, who relies on his public image for income (endorsements, public appearances, things outside of golf) — Tiger Woods has really bungled this crisis.

Then there’s David Letterman.

Remember his admission of guilt — for what would appear to be similar “transgressions” — on his TV show?

We reached out to some of our smart contacts in the Communications world to ask why David Letterman emerged from his story relatively unscathed — and Tiger’s story appears to keep going and going, putting his endorsement deals and his status as the first “Billion-Dollar Athlete” in serious jeopardy.

An About-Face of Character?

Gary Unger, Creative Genius, @garyunger on Twitter, says that when image doesn’t match reality, reporters and the public look for more:

“My initial thoughts are that Letterman has been known to be an @ss throughout the years. Recently his rants on Sarah Palin showed him to be ‘not very nice’ as far as continuing to pick on someone who lost. Not good form for the most part. (But now that Palin is back in the spotlight I think she’s fair game). And previously with Bush, Misc. sports stars, some movie stars. But more notably he was called out years ago for his philandering. I believe his wife now was his live in girlfriend for about 10 years. And he had multiple girlfriends at the same time. So Letterman’s character is ‘old news.’

Now Woods is a different story, he’s been projecting this squeaky clean image all these years. Great relationship with his dad and mom. Wasn’t photographed at strip clubs, buying drugs, or even having temper tantrums. And then all of a sudden this accident and some ‘weird’ parts to the story. Then Woods went into hiding. Not a good idea since reporters can smell the ‘weird’ and want to reconcile the weird part of the story to reality. Woods who is likely at base character a nice guy did what nice guys do, they try to stay out of the spotlight when they do something embarrassing and see that they went off the path and want to get back on the correct path.

The difference between the two: Letterman came right out and said it to America and that took the initial sting out of the issue. Reporters don’t have the ‘scoop’ and now can only report, not ‘find.’ Woods gave the sharks what they live for, the scoop. Not only that Woods is not talking, Letterman talked to whoever wanted to talk about it.

Letterman: ‘I’m an @ss, what are you going to do about it’

Woods: ‘uh….’”

Avoid the Phrase “No Comment” at All Costs

Rachel Kay (@rachelakay on Twitter), from Rachel Kay Public Relations (whose blog is called CommuniKaytrix), on Tiger’s “no comment,” thoughts she first shared right after the story broke:

“When we take clients through media training, one of the first rules we teach is to never say ‘no comment.’ The idea is that ‘no comment’ is essentially an admission of guilt. Whether or not it really is, ‘no comment’ can leave people feeling like they are uninformed, misinformed or that a concern is being disregarded. As the investigation into the accident heats up, what was concern for Tiger seems to be shifting to a feeling of what is Tiger not telling us?”

Get Out in Front, NOW.

Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich Public Relations, and author of the Spin Sucks blog:

“David Letterman got out in front of his ‘situation,’ he told people what happened, what he did, and he made it a non-story. Media talked it about it maybe two days and then got bored with the story because there wasn’t any dirt to dig up. With Tiger, just like what you blogged about last week, if he’d gotten out in front of the story (even 24 hours later) and was honest, no one would be digging up all of his mistresses.

This is crisis PR 101. Describe the situation, be honest, apologize, say what you’re going to do to fix it, and live your life. When it becomes a story is when you lie, when you avert questions, and when there clearly is something people want to find out to bring you down.”

So, we ask you, fair readers: how should Tiger communicate from here on out?

Area 224 Managing Principal Dave Van de Walle has been part of crisis communications teams at Aon Corp., TransUnion and U Sphere. He was also Sports Information Director at Chicago State University in the mid-1990s. Here are his thoughts on the Tiger Woods accident and the aftermath:

If you think this is a complex crisis communications problem – the one being faced by Tiger Woods, uber-golfer, the first billion-dollar athlete, spokesperson for Gillette, and multi-ethnic role model of epic proportions – you might be under-estimating how complex it is.

There used to be a maxim about crisis communications: “tell it all, tell it early, tell it honestly.” These are organizational communications rules – but not personal brand management communications rules. BIG difference, and one that Tiger must confront head-on.

He’s his own team.

Seriously, as much as you might THINK he and his caddie (Steve Wiliams) are a team, or he and his wife, Elin, are a team – the reality here is it’s just Tiger Woods.

Now that everyone has a theory, what’s the world’s most famous athlete to do?

Tiger issued a statement asking for space, saying that “my family and I deserve some privacy.” Given the fact that golf reporters respect the guy for his class and dignity and how he treats them, I’d be inclined to cut him some slack.

Let’s borrow rather liberally from the playbook of another World-Class Athlete, Michael Phelps. Remember him? When he won all those gold medals, he grew a large Facebook following. VERY LARGE. 2,800,000+. He engaged with them as much as an athlete of his stature can – not a ton, but you felt like he was at least spending some time interacting.

When Michael Phelps had a problem,  he confronted it head-on, through Facebook friends. Apologizing for letting them down. Then he went back to business, and his support kept growing.

He took control of the story, sure; but he engaged the masses where they were. He worked with the Groundswell. Not against it.

[Remember: after Michael Phelps did all this public apology and sorry I let you down stuff, he had a minor fender-bender? He got out in front of that story, too. On Facebook.]

Meantime, back to Tiger. His site is one-way — comment on the site, but don’t talk with Tiger. In fact, the one-way nature of his site is part of the problem: his is a brand, and it’s personal, but it’s not, well, personal. You feel like you’re interacting with a corporation. Which you are.

Not a regular guy who dominates but doesn’t have too much time for the little people.

How to confront this head-on? Through social media? Some advice for Tiger:

Engage. The masses, the little people, your favorite reporter, another golfer. Someone.

Comment back. Please, give us a token “hey Bob129, thanks for your support! Elin and I are doing well, we’re both a little jarred by the accident.”

Tweet. Seriously, Twitter got out in front of this story and it took on a life of its own. You can start taking it back through a verified account, a little interaction, and some honesty. Even if all you want to say is “my face hurts.”

Tiger, I’m with you on the respect for privacy stuff. I’m sorta with you on the “I’m human” stuff. I’d really like to believe your story — when and if you share it. So long as you start talking with the gallery.

The gallery is out here, on Social Media.

There’s now a lot of the RIGHT kind of activity out there, and we thought we’d share some reasons why we’re bullish on the business climate – as well as the “WIIFM” – “What’s In It for Me?” – for you.

Big Business Paying Attention to The Right Marketing Focus

Yes, we’ve talked to quite a few big business people — large, publicly traded companies, for example — who have decided that they need to take yet another look at how they are allocating funds. And being nimble enough to shift — sometimes on a dime — to Social Media Marketing and Mobile Technologies.

Case in point: Allstate Roadside Services, whose Mobile App is already off to a rousing start. [DISCLOSURE: Area 224 has a client relationship with Allstate Roadside Services to support this Mobile App.] The marketing push around this involves an integrated campaign — not JUST social media — but the decision to launch this in the first place stemmed from success the business had with MINI and a mobile app for MINI users.

Startups Jumping in With Both Feet – And Using the Bootstrap

No better way to start a business than to bootstrap and learn along the way. We did it with U Sphere — and boy did we learn a ton here about what makes things successful and, in our case, why things don’t scale or monetize enough to support the long-term business case.

Bootstrapping — building your business through sweat equity, looking under couch cushions for money, funding efforts out of cash flow — will give you the ability to understand just what the market will support. Or not support.

In any event, it seems like every day we’re tweeting with or getting a request to connect with a new startup. Most will not succeed, but some will figure it out. And all have the ability to learn from what the market tells them. (We did.)

Niche Within the Niche – Find it and Succeed

Self-serving mention of our Real SMM business — Social Media Marketing for Real Estate — and how it’s poised to make some things happen for the real estate industry.

Specifically, helping Realtors make better connections with consumers — i.e., people who will buy a house from them. Going after the overall real estate industry is, IMHO, too broad a focus. The “How Do You Market Yourself?” within real estate question — that’s a niche we think Social Media Marketing can help answer. Not all Realtors will want to get it, but the niche within the niche is where we’ll look for customers.

B2B Marketers Will Figure Out Social Media Marketing

It’s not going to happen overnight, but there’s something in each of the three other blurbs above for the B2B Marketing world.

For instance — where best to focus marketing dollars? Since SMM is trackable, moving ad dollars from print to online will give much better ROI data. Often, the business trade publications (maybe ironically) are the best place for online marketing — usually there’s a robust list, really good niche traffic numbers, and editorial content that drives visitors. (Because trade reporters with really good relationships are the ones breaking the industry stories that can drive traffic for right-now visitors that aren’t reading the print publication.)

We’ve talked to B2B marketers about sorting this out — we were part of a great discussion last week at Website Magazine’s Roundtable Discussion. (Disclosure — that’s not the official name, but Area 224 was there, at a round table, under a sign that said “Social Media Marketing.” The format of the networking event was great — move around every three minutes and talk about your business issues and learn from each other. Which we did.) It’s an investment — Social Media Marketing is an investment. B2B Marketers know that. How to best allocate the investment will take time to figure out — but the answer comes back to one of the discussions we’ve had over and over.

Why Do You Want To “Do Social Media Marketing” In The First Place?

Customer Service? Market Research? Public Relations? Executive Positioning?

B2B Marketers who know that up front — “Hey, let’s use Twitter to do brand research and see if anyone knows who we are?” — are poised for success.

So, Why are You Bullish on the Business Climate?

Had a phenomenal conversation with my brother Jim today. Not just because he’s my brother and always a great guy to chat with, but because he’s moving forward at breakneck speed on a business launch of his own.

I happen to eat this stuff up: nothing in the business world is more thrilling than getting something off the ground.

I won’t share what he’s doing just yet — he’ll do that on his terms and when he’s ready — but I will tell you that our conversation ended up centering on the three things every business NEEDS. Right Now. Be prepared to be surprised, as these won’t be what you think you’d read in this space.

1. Influencers — and a Strategy to Reach Them. Let’s assume that Jim has a crystal-clear value proposition for his business (something he has and didn’t need to explain at all). Who is most important to connect with?

Jim knows his influencers and he’s actually sitting down with them already. The strategy, for him, is coming up with the WIIFM: “What’s In It For Me.” These influencers can be enticed, sure, with the right “thing” — maybe it’s an affiliate relationship, a cross-selling agreement, a cross-promotional idea.

Jim’s well on his way to sorting this out. I like his approach already, and the word “co-opetition” comest to mind.

2. Distribution — Getting The Stuff To Market. Nice, one, Jim — he’s already mapped this out. There are people who can use the widgets and happen to be the logical distribution channels for what he’s got. He’s picked up the phone and called them — again, WIIFM — and talked about what partnering would do for them.

He’s used the term “sub it out” a couple times already: he will tap the right people to implement this solution, so his value here is in his expertise in this niche. (Which is actually a niche within a niche, one of my favorite approaches.) This niche expertise brings us to thing three…

3. Positioning, or, in this case, “Brand Jim.” Because he has his crystal-clear value proposition, and it is something he is 110% passionate about, this will be pretty easy. But the proper positioning here is vital.

I’ll offer that steps 1 and 2 will help quite a bit with these. Aligning himself with the right people (he’s doing that already) helps “position” him as the expert in the understanding of this “niche within a niche” and what it means to the consumer. It’s impossible for him to be positioned as the low-cost leader here, because of the nature of his distribution channel and the influencers he’s already worked with. If he got different influencers on board, he could paint himself into a corner, something he’s very careful about. Plus, there’s a value exchange: you’re not just buying the widget but also the implementation of the widget AND Jim’s expertise in helping you use the widget.

Will this three-step program make you wildly successful? No guarantees of that.

But we’ve seen many a product and service launch that were missing one of these three, and that can doom you from the get-go.

Happy Launching!