Social Media the 4 E's

I truly enjoy social media and believe that as a marketer it is critical to understand how it works.

Recently, Jeffrey Hayzlett the CMO for Kodak talked about how this organization is using social media and what they want to achieve - they call it "Kodak's 4 E's".

1) Engage
2) Educate
3) Excite
4) Evangelize

I believe that these are four very smart tenets for any organization as they wade into the social media waters.

You need to engage the entire organization to get involved and participate in social media.

Provide education to the team to make sure that they know about the best practices and how to get involved.

You need to excite the organization about this marketing tool that is for today and what the future will be all about.

You need to evangelize the team behind the brand. If your own team is not telling the good stories about your brand who will?

Social media makes it possible to reach all your customers at the same time, which is how mass media has traditionally worked. But social media has the potential to reach your customers in a more personalized way and to make that connection with your brand stronger.

Are you loyal?

"Loyalty demands participation, the rest is simply wishful thinking."

I love quotes and this one really hits home for me. Yesterday as I was driving home I pulled up to a stop light and right in front of me was one of my client's vehicles wrapped with the creative that we developed for HealthPartners.

For me I love to see Preston Kelly client stuff out in the marketplace -whether it's a new TV ad for Grand Casino, a billboard for the YMCA, a radio spot for Be the Match and on and on . . . Or it's shopping every Saturday morning at Rainbow Foods, doing some shopping out at the Mall of America or taking a weekend visit with the kids to the Minnesota Zoo. These are just some of the clients of our agency that I love to support.

Supporting clients is something that was instilled in me early on in my career when I worked at Campbell Mithun. One of my mentors preached the importance of using the agency's clients products and services.

I remember the first brand that I worked on was Crispy Wheats 'n Raisins a General Mills product. That first shopping trip after I started working on the brand was out to a local grocery store in Minneapolis. I sat in the cereal aisle for a few minutes observing people as they made their choices. It wasn't long before a customer came by and picked up a box of Crispy Wheats 'n Raisins. I remember that moment and how cool I felt that a customer was buying a product that I worked on. And then I preceded to walk over and put in that same brand of cereal into my cart - oh yes client loyalty.

So today I take pride and feel the need to always be looking for a way to support the clients of our agency. Whether it is using their products or services or visiting their businesses I believe in the importance of supporting them. And I love to see their TV, radio, newspaper outdoor ads across the Twin Cities and following them in the digital space.

Client loyalty is important and I'm proud of the clients that we work with. How about you are you proud of the clients you work with?

What happens when you wear a red shirt to Target?

It's a normal Monday evening and I need to make a stop at Target to pick up a few things before heading home for dinner. I stop at the Target on East Lake Street where we normally shop.

I'm going through the front door of the store and in the first five seconds a man approaches me and asks if I can help him find something. I said I'd be happy to do but I don't work here at Target. I pointed him in the right direction.

As I wonder my way back into the store a boy about 9 comes up to me and again asks me can you help me find the toy section. I said sure I can point you in the right direction but I don't really work here. He says but how come you have a red shirt on then?

OK there is the key. I'm wearing a classic "red" polo shirt that is the official uniform of the Target team. Although at least I'm wearing jeans and not "khaki's" or I would have truly been wearing the Target uniform. Not there is anything wrong with that.

It just goes to demonstrate the power of a color and style for store personnel. both a 9 year old boy and a 30 something man saw my red shirt and quickly assumed that I was dressed in the Target uniform. Credit to Target for creating this easy to find employee uniform for consumers as they are hunting throughout the store.

And think about the blue polo shirts of the Best Buy team. And even at Target Field all the food and beverage vendors that wear neon green so that you can see them a mile away.

As a marketer I think the power of owning a color in the store and making it easy for your guests to find someone to help them is a smart thing. So hats off to Target, Best Buy and the Twins.

Now if I can only remember to not wear a "red" polo shirt when I can to Target again.

What is a great value?

Value is the subjective assessment which the customer and/or market makes about the overall worth of a product or service.

What do you consider great value?

For me it is when my expectations are met (or exceeded) for a reasonable price - value is then realized for me.

Have you been to the movies recently? Actually in a movie theater to see a recent flick?

Last night I dropped my daughter off with one of her friends at the Riverview Theater in south Minneapolis (3800 42nd Ave South) to watch Alice in Wonderland. This movie theate (only one big screen and theater seating) delivers a great value in my eyes.

-Two tickets to the movie = $4.00
-Two medium drinks and a medium popcorn = $7.50
-Total price = $11.50
-My value = Priceless ( to borrow from Visa)

What a great deal at a very nice theater. Yes the movie did not premiere this weekend and that is the niche that the Riverview Theater goes after. But they deliver unbelievable value for an experience that typically costs a lot more at the other cinemas around town.

So while we wait a little bit longer to see the movies - it is often worth it for us because of the cost savings and in our eyes that value that we get from the Riverview.

Any other great value stories that you want to share?

Why do we celebrate?

Today is May 17 and just a normal day for most Americans. If you were in Oslo Norway today however it is Syttende Mai or Norwegian Independence Day. And it is a nationwide celebration as the Norwegians celebrate their 196th year of Independence from the Danes and the Swedes.

Growing up Syttende Mai was celebrated in our house as my father was very proud of his Norwegian heritage. His grandfather Mathias Jenson came to the United States in the 1880's from Voss Norway (for football fans this is where Knute Rockne the old Notre Dame football coach came from). While it was a low-key celebration we had some lefse but no lutefisk since my dad was the only one who would eat the smelly codfish. My dad would tell stories of his Dad telling stories of his Dad and how proud they were of being Norwegian.


Well here it is today and I'm helping our children learn to celebrate the Norwegian Independence day also. No they aren't taking the day off from school or anything fun like that but we will talk about Norway and our heritage (my wife's grandfather Lars also immigrated from Norway in the 1930's). We have several books on Norway and we'll have the flag at our dinner table.


I believe it is important to celebrate your heritage and ancestry because the past is something we should all understand. It is where we came from and to recognize the great sacrifices made by our forefathers. They all took great risks and ventured to a foreign land where the language was different.


One lesson that we talk about tonight is the importance of accepting others from other countries. Because while we are born of Norwegian ancestry, we are now Americans and our country is a patchwork quilt of different people from around the world. And that is the beauty of our country - accepting others.


While Syttende Mai does not carry quite the recognition of say the 4th of July it is still an important date for the Jenson family. And with that I say "Skol" to all. And maybe tonight after the kids go to bed I will pour a shot of Aquavit to toast my great grandfather Mathias and say thanks for all he did when he ventured to this foreign land called America.


Happy Syttende Mai to everyone.

What are your best practices for Social Media?

I recently sat in on a webinar with Geoff Ramsey the CEO of eMarketer and he put up on the screen his 10 best practices for social media. Overall, some good thoughts for these media platforms.

1) Think social marketing, not media - love this one
2) Know your objectives - an easy head nod here
3) Leverage TRUST - absolutely
4) Listening comes first - yes we have two ears
5) Join the conversation - but add value - totally agree
6) Be Authentic. Humble. Transparent - right on the bull's-eye
7) Recruit from your core - yep
8) Target the influentials - always the right thing to do
9) Adopt a long-term, real-time approach - makes sense but things are changing rather quickly so what exactly is long-term?
10) Integrate with other communications - YES

The great thing about social media is that everything is so fluid and changing every day and every hour it does make sense to have some guidelines as we help clients get a foothold in the social space.

From my perspective THE most important thing for any brand or person in social media is to be authentic and transparent. Social media is a two-way conversation and if you are not authentic and transparent with your audience you will be sorry. You will tarnish your brand and your personal brand and who wants to do that.

Be authentic and transparent and if you follow that lead you will be on the road to success in the social media stratosphere.

So step back and look at what you're doing - are you authentic? Are you transparent?

How many screens are there in your house?

Last week there was an article in Advertising Age by Jim Louderback raising the question of how many screens he had in his house. It was prompted by a report from Nielsen claiming that the average American home as 2.93 TV sets a jump from 2.86 in 2009.

I totally agree with Jim that Nielsen needs to rephrase the question and ask how many screens do you have in your house. Isn't that the better question? Let me take you around my house.

We have five television screens in our house that are working and one old analog set that have not bought the digital converter for. We have one high definition TV and four analog sets around the house. So yes we have 2+ more sets than the average American home.

Then you have to count our desktop computer in the den and the laptop computer that floats around the house as screens also - that we watch movies, TV shows and of course surf the Internet.

We have a portable DVD player that is used primarily for road trips but we also use it occasionally in the house to watch a movie.

I also have an iPhone that is truly a screen for watching YouTube or news/sports highlights whenever I want. And I have an iPod that I can watch a movie on if I really want to although the screen is quite tiny.

So we are now up to ten screens. But do you count the three Nintendo GameBoy and DS screens that are used by the kids for video games? Do you count the Flip Video screen that we use to watch our own videos of the kids activities? If you count these four screens that is up to 14 in the Jenson household.

In summary we have five TV sets in our house but then we have another five to nine screens that we use to watch things on.

Truly the way that we watch video whether it is TV programming or movies or games the options that we have range much broader than just TV screens. I think it is time for Nielsen to think about doing a recount on the number of screens in American households.

Think about it - how many screens do you have in your house?