The Practical Travel section over on the New York Times web site has an interesting article today titled Twitter to the Rescue. The author talks about the impact of Twitter on customer service in the travel industry -- with several examples, of course -- then wonders if responding to Twitter mentions really improves customer service:

Whether or not the special treatment will continue as Twitter becomes more popular is another thing. Mr. Johnston of JetBlue said he didn’t want its Twitter account to become a “back channel” for passengers to “sneak around” customer service. Rather, he views JetBlue’s Twitter profile as an “information booth” to point customers in the right direction.

Whoa there! Why think of Twitter as a back channel, a way around official procedures? Why not think of Twitter as a primary communications tool?  The companies who are using Twitter full-face, straight-on are those who will get the most out of it. They know that it's a way to leverage one-on-one communication into effective marketing.

If you are nervous about using Twitter as part of your business plan, consider why. Worried about complaints becoming too public? Then work on filling holes in your customer service. Worried about losing control? Remember that people are going to talk about you anyway. Be involved. Respond carefully. And most of all -- listen!

The Times article also has great tips for consumers:

• To get noticed, start with "@" and company's name.
• Build a following for impact.
• Be specific about your grievance.
• Be polite.

Big thumbs up on the last one!

I've admired the folks over at Razorfish for some time... yep, I wish I could be just like them (even though I'm not too keen on how slow their web site loads). They do an excellent job of quantitatively studying the Internet and online community building and -- even better! -- they share a great deal of data for free.

Case in point: The 2009 Digital Outlook Report. CEO Clark Kokich begins with this observation:

I spent the first 30 years of my advertising career focused on saying things. What do we need to say to persuade people to buy our product or service? How do we say it in a unique and memorable way? Where do we say it? How much will it cost to say it? How do we measure consumer reactions to the things we say to them?

Sounds like he's one of us Baby Boomers. That's how I was taught to do marketing. But, the times, they are have been changing. So I totally get what Clark's saying. He continues:

Now, after 10 years in the digital space, I find myself spending my time talking to clients about building things.

He then describes how advertisers and marketers are changing their focus to helping clients create experiences and interactions and connections -- the kinds of things that truly build brands. I browsed through the report till I found what I was really looking for: Trends in Social Influence Marketing, which was written by VP and Global Social Media Lead Shiv Singh. You may have seen the Top 10 trends in social influence marketing quoted by others.... so I decided to do my own interpretation:

1.  Consumers will pay more attention to social influencers, such as bloggers and referral sites, than traditional advertising.
2. The "sneezers" and influencers will have be in the spotlight.
3. Brand managers will finally realize that consumers are the ones who drive the brand identity. (And it'll be about time.)
4. Social advertising will mature -- which I hope means that they will get smarter about "programmed" advertising and stop putting kid-focused ads on sites simply because moms congregate there.
5. The ability to share information between sites like Facebook and Twitter and other social sites will be easier -- and I hope we'll have the ability to customize privacy settings and determine what's shared with whom.
6. We'll care more about our extended network of friends, not just close friends, in our online communities.
7. Research will focus more on meaningful results, not just counts of web hits and contacts. And what are meaningful results? Authentic referrals, repeat sales, and probably some kind of measure of social interaction.
8. Social influence marketing will be the center of marketing activity, not just an afterthought.
9. The barrier between intranets and the World Wide Web will disappear.
10. The boss will climb down from the ivory tower and participate.

Razorfish will review the list in six months, then at the end of the year to see how well their crystal ball works.  Of course, this list is only a small portion of the report. I'm studying the rest to see what I can apply and share. For now, I'm just letting it simmer....

The readers on Wil Wheaton's blog are an amazing lot. Trolling around the site today, I came across a link to this terrific article analyzing the Star Trek "red shirt phenomenon." So what does Star Trek have to do with marketing?

Matt Bailey, found of SiteLogic, walks us through his analysis. Here's his introduction...

In my seminars, I enjoy teaching analytics because the fun is in finding effective and memorable methods to help people understand the concepts. Read more >

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On the St. Ignatius web site, I've set up a photo album section using Gallery 2. The gallery program integrates quite well with Drupal, which makes it easy for those of us who manage the site to upload and edit photos.

The process is easy... Log into your web site administrative account, and navigate to the album. (On the St. Read more >

As I've told you in an earlier post, my website development tool of choice is Drupal. It's so easy for web designers like myself to set up, but the real advantage is that it is easy to pass off to the client so that they can manage the content themselves.

I started with a single template that I have edited and adapted for four different sites. Read more >