Paul Jacobson

I had a couple thoughts at about 4am this morning after I put our son back down to sleep. Most of those thoughts were ways that Melrose Arch might find useful and which may just help build a little community of fans about the shopping district (in retrospect, it is a little more than just a shopping mall – shopping district sounds a little more appropriate). Of course I am going to preface this email by saying that I am just a blogger and a lawyer, hardly the social media experts advising Melrose Arch, but there is a chance that I might have a useful idea here and there.

One of the reasons why photography is banned at Melrose Arch seems to be that people were taking photos there for use in adverts or otherwise for commercial use. Those uses were presumably problematic for a variety of reasons so the Powers That Be banned all photography unless permission was expressly given. An example of that sort of permission is the form I had to fill in last year.

If you visit the Melrose Arch website it quickly becomes clear that Melrose Arch is intended to be a lifestyle destination (I made this point in my previous post). Melrose Arch also has its Twitter profile and Facebook page, both have fairly anemic followings considering the organisation behind them.

I may be getting a little carried away with Melrose Arch’s appeal but there must be other people who find the district visually appealing and would love to know more about it. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be much attention given to the architecture, the philosophy behind the development or any of that stuff on the site. Melrose Arch has offered me a media pass to take photos and I was invited to join a walk-around but I kept thinking there must be a more sustainable way to make this sort of thing available to all tourists, local and foreign.

This is the part where I actually get to my suggestions. Here goes:
What if Melrose Arch’s security approached people taking photos and gave them a card that –

• thanked them for their interest in Melrose Arch;
• encouraged them to share their photos and videos with family and friends (not for commercial use of course) and even asked them to tag their content with something like “melrosearch” so other people could discover their content;
• pointed out that commercial photography and filming may only be done with permission from the managing agents and how/where to get that permission;
• informed the tourist about Melrose Arch’s Twitter profile, Facebook fan page and website and encouraged them to follow, join and visit (they could even submit their photos and videos to the fan page); and
• perhaps even had a QR code on the card that linked to a site or special offer of some kind for tourists (perhaps 10% off a coffee at any of the local spots serving coffee by displaying the voucher on the mobile phone the QR code links to).

But wait, there’s more. Melrose Arch should take over its Google Maps listing and add more interesting or relevant information like shopping times, profile and site links and more. It could even encourage its tenants to do the same with their Google Maps listings and add to the body of entries for businesses and retail in the district. Imagine if more people added reviews like the one I added?

I didn’t see any links to or mention of Melrose Arch’s Twitter profile or Facebook page on its website. Shouldn’t there be prominent badges on the landing page or something? This one is a little obvious so I am sure Melrose Arch’s agency is working on something already. Another suggestion is to include a dynamic news stream on the “Press Room” page to include mentions across the social Web, as well as mainstream media mentions. Granted there may well be negative mentions but if Melrose Arch manages to cultivate a community of fans, that stream will be a pretty effective way for its fans to share their experiences in a location potential visitors are going to look.

Other suggestions include Melrose Arch shooting videos with people involved behind the scenes like the architect/s, designers, featured tenants and so on which can be posted on YouTube (or various locations) so visitors can find out more about decisions that were taken when developing parts of the district or the symbolism of a particular piece of architecture. That sort of thing. What about a series of sms short codes that give tourists easy access to snippets of information about these same features as they are walking through the district. I’ve seen a phone in version of that in and around Sandton. The idea here is to engage curious tourists on the ground, while they are immersed in their Melrose Arch experience.

All of this is in addition to Melrose Arch’s social media outreach which should include monitoring and commenting on blog posts, tweets, Facebook mentions, photos uploaded to Flickr and PicasaWeb, videos uploaded to a variety of video sharing sites and more. Melrose Arch’s current social media initiatives are a good start but it can do more. It would also be beneficial if Melrose Arch people would engage too. It isn’t clear whether someone actually working there is involved in the Twitter profile and Facebook fan page or whether those profiles are being maintained by its agency. The former is more authentic and more interesting. The latter is just another PR channel.

There seems to be so much Melrose Arch can do to engage more meaningfully, crowdsource its marketing and awareness campaign and build some buzz about itself as a destination. These are just a couple ideas that popped into my head in the early hours of the morning. I am sure the pros can come up with even more amazing ideas that don’t even have to cost all that much! The real question is whether Melrose Arch recognises the possibilities and has the will to do something to achieve them?

I recently published a post about what I regard as silly rules about not being able to take photographs in shopping malls/centres. I have been reprimanded for taking photos in Melrose Arch (a very photogenic centre/complex), Balfour Park and Killarney Mall. The response (or lack thereof) which I received to my posts/tweets has been an interesting case study in social media adoption locally.

While I am vain enough to believe, not so deep down, that these malls should pay attention to what I write about them and respond in a meaningful and constructive manner, this is perhaps wishful thinking and suggests that not everyone subscribes to my notion of effective use of social media. It also points to a limitation of social media: if the person in my position making comments about a product/service/organisation is not influential enough to have a real impact on that product/service/organisation, ignoring that person (in this case, me) is a pretty low risk exercise.

Sure there was a little buzz on Twitter when my post was published and Melrose Arch replied saying it would get back to me but there is no real incentive for them to actually reply to my questions about the policy on taking photographs in their centre. The controversy was a flash in the pan from their perspective. It barely occurred from other malls’ perspective. As much as we talk about social media’s power, it is an abstract for many companies who deploy a social media marketing campaign as yet another channel to push commercial messages to consumers rather than an opportunity to truly engage with us plebs.

The unfortunate reality is that unless you have significant, real-world impact on an organisation, it can ignore you online with little fear of any measurable consequence. Social media is a powerful force for change but it depends on numbers of people participating in that process. If you represent a small movement, the risk is minimal, academic even, and not worth responding too.

This is also where truly consumer-centric organisations will shine. They will listen to the little people because their business is based on one person at a time and an investment in each of those people is worth making. One company that is doing fairly well in this respect is First National Bank. The @rbjacobs persona may not be a real person within the bank but the person behind that persona seems to be making a sincere and effective effort to respond to the little people tweeting about FNB. It is the sort of attention that makes a world of difference to little people like me, even if my thoughts don’t have a material impact on the bank.

Companies that take social media seriously will shine in their customers’ eyes. One day that attention could pay off when some of those customers become truly influential. And if they don’t, they will still have a few more loyal and passionate customers and all it will have cost them is a message here and there which says that they are listening, they care and they are engaged.

This post will not make me very popular in some circles but the point I want to make here has to be made. A big part of marketing today is a strong focus on social media and for good reason. It is a powerful, cheap and effective platform which I, uninformed about the mechanics of marketing as I am, believe will supersede traditional marketing channels in the coming years. It is also a misunderstood platform and phenomenon and ignorant and so-called social media “experts” or “gurus” are misleading their clients into believing they are truly taking advantage of this revolutionary platform when they are just doing more of the same.

As a starting point, watch this video:

Does any of this sound familiar? Having received a pitch from a social media marketing agency, are you still trying to figure out how, exactly, this stuff is supposed to help your business reach more people and make more money, at least for you?

Besides the vagaries of the business and the fact that many posers will struggle to translate the social Web into sustainable and meaningful boosts to your business, many of the initiatives these so-called experts deploy are not really social media instances, they are pretty much what you were doing before the Web went social except these tools are free and you are paying these experts a mint to use them on your behalf.

Twitter and Facebook accounts being maintained by agencies seems to have become fairly commonplace with corporate social media marketing campaigns. I suppose marketing managers unfamiliar with social media take comfort in the knowledge that someone else is taking care of these services, not realising that social media oriented marketing doesn’t mean using Twitter as a communication channel in addition to or instead of, say, email campaigns or magazine ads.

Social media is about people communicating with each meaningfully. In the context of a social media marketing campaign, social media helps people within a company engage meaningfully with customers. It isn’t about Twitter or Facebook per se but rather what those tools help you achieve. Granted I am a lawyer and not a marketing person, but I don’t think I am wrong in saying that you really should research which social media tool/s is/are right for what you want to achieve. I came across a book a little while ago which contained some great advice for marketers who want to use social media to market their products and services. It is called “Groundswell” (here is the blog, the book on Amazon and the book on kalahari.net) and one of the points its authors make is that different markets and campaigns are best served by different social media tools. No one size fits all and anyone who tells you otherwise probably doesn’t really understand what he/she is doing.

Why am I going on about this stuff? I’ve been thinking about this issue for a while now. Social media posers undermine the good work done by innovative and creative agencies to help businesses make effective use of social media by promising the world and failing miserably. Not a new story but its relevant given the tremendous amount of attention paid to social media. The social Web is not a blip. The Web and out digital communications are becoming increasingly social and connected so it serves as a perfect platform for marketers but their efforts must be carefully thought out and authentic.

Simon Dingle made a great point a little while ago which I read as commentary on authenticity in social media marketing:

I am no more impressed with companies using Twitter than I am with them using telephones. Twitter is just a simple tool – it’s what you do with it that matters.

And no amount of PR posturing can disguise a rotten business. Using Twitter to defend a kak product is just lipstick on a pig.

It doesn’t help a business to outsource its voice to a know-it-all agency that promotes the current social media tool as the solution for its marketing needs. A good agency will help a business formulate an effective strategy using the right tools for the job and empower people within the business to engage meaningfully with their customers. I just don’t see how paying an agency to tweet on your behalf is a good use of the platform at all. It converts a social application, Twitter, into yet another one way communication channel (“thanks for your tweet, we’ll get back to you” from the agency doesn’t qualify as meaningful engagement). Getting the engineer who designed the product in touch with customers through Twitter, Facebook, a blog or even a forum (remember those?) is much closer to meaningful engagement and social media’s essence.

Its all about an authentic voice using an appropriate tool, not using the current cool tool because its the current cool tool.

I am periodically reprimanded by some security guard for taking photos of or in the vicinity of a shopping mall. I have essentially been told that taking photos in or of shopping malls is banned with no real rationale. I took a photo of a renovated space inside Balfour Park yesterday and I was told about the ban and also that photos have been banned for more than 20 years. No-one has been able to give me a reason for the ban. The closest was Melrose Arch where I was required to complete a film production request for filming before I could take photos.

I don’t think I have talked about why I even want to take photos of malls. One reason is that I am fascinated by some of the designs and architectural elements. I don’t know much about design or architecture but some of these buildings fascinate me and I feel this compulsion to share my experiences.

This compulsion brings me to the main reason I take photos of these sorts of places and other areas I visit. I think of it as local tourism powered by social media. It really struck home for me how empowered we are if we have a decent mobile phone with a camera and access to our social networks the other day when we were at the Joburg Zoo. We were walking from one section to another and passed a family where everyone was holding a camera-phone. Rather than visit all these local destinations oblivious to their various appeals, I like to capture the interesting and attractive things I see and share them with my communities on the various social networks I frequent.

A number of shopping malls in South Africa have undergone fairly extensive renovations in an apparent effort to make them into lifestyle destinations rather than just a series of shopfronts. The owners appear to want visitors, local and foreign, to frequent their malls and spend as much time as is possible there. Heck, the parking rates alone must make longer stays lucrative. It isn’t always possible to travel outside of your hometown for a break so local destinations are so important. Consider this tweet I noticed on Melrose Arch’s Twitter page:

When you overlay a social media and the social Web, experiencing local destinations becomes a social event if we can capture our experiences and share them. Geolocation means you can take a couple photos or videos while you are having lunch somewhere or just taking the little ones out for a walk and have that content show up on a map. Those maps can be pretty handy for other people who want to have similar experiences. You know, they guide those potential visitors to the locations their predecessors frequented.

I don’t know why shopping malls prohibit photographs and I wish someone in the know would explain it to me. It just seems to me that the people who make the decisions are missing a valuable opportunity to put their destinations on the map in a very meaningful context, literally. Visitors should be encourages to share their experiences at these destinations and interact with them as much as possible. What about QR codes on shop windows linking to their websites or information about the shopping malls themselves (design, history, future plans). Visitors to these malls are increasingly online, mobile and connected and shopping malls have thusfar only managed to achieve lackluster engagement with the social Web. Here are how two of the higher end shopping malls are doing online:

• Sandton City
• Twitter: 568 followers
• Facebook: 511 fans
• Melrose Arch
• Twitter: 148 followers
• Facebook: 36 fans (JB’s Corner, one of its tenants, has 358 fans)

Imagine if visitors were encouraged to capture their experiences and share them? It must be possible to manage security and safety concerns and still facilitate this? I don’t think that shopping malls can really afford to neglect the social Web as a tool in their marketing toolkits. These malls need to realise that engagement with their customers is more about just throwing up a Twitter account and a Facebook fan page. What about engaging with those customers in the malls themselves and encouraging them to share their experiences on location with their social networks. Remember “word of mouth”? Well, this is how it works.

I’ve been a Seattle Coffee Co. fan for years now. My favourite store is the Hyde Park Corner store followed by Rosebank, Nelson Mandela Square and Killarney Mall stores tied for 2nd. I’ve probably been a Seattle fan since the chain opened in Joburg and I have had pretty much the same thing for most of that time. I had an experience at the Killarney Mall store this afternoon that really pissed me off.

I popped into the Killarney Mall store for a tall, harmless, Sugar Mommy latte (my favourite drink) after a little shopping for supper tonight. My first shock was the price. I am used to paying around R25 for one of these latte’s and this one cost me R30 (R16 for the latte base and R14 for the two syrups that make it what it is). I mentioned that this was more expensive than I was accustomed to and the guys mumbled something about a price increase. That may well be true and I have suspected that the cashiers at other stores haven’t been too familiar with what goes into one of these lattes and may have been undercharging me. Anyway, I paid for the coffee and dropped a few bucks into the tip bowl like I usually do and sat down.

The barista brought me my latte in a takeaway cup and set it down on my table. I looked at it and thought it looked too small. I have ordered tall latte’s many times in the past and I almost have muscle memory in my right hand based on a tall takeaway cup. I asked the guy if that was supposed to be a tall latte and he looked me in the eyes and told me it was a tall and went back to his spot behind the counter. I picked it up and it definitely felt like a short cut, not a tall but instead of challenging them, I just had my drink, picked up my stuff and left. In retrospect I should have challenged the guy but I just wanted to have a quiet 10 minutes or so while I had my latte before returning home to continue working.

Barring me having a substantial change in how I perceive the sizes of things, this really pissed me off. Its one thing for a barista to make a mistake but to tell me that it is what it really doesn’t seem to be is just not cricket! Now that I am typing this I times when I get caffeine in my coffee when I specifically say I don’t want caffeine and I don’t get the lattes I order even though I seem to be paying for them. This is probably just about training and if it is, it needs to be sorted out. The Vida e Caffe guys certainly seem to be rocking when it comes to making their drinks. I’d probably defect to Vida except they don’t have the lattes I’m used to at Seattle (ok, I know that sounds a little camp but I do spend a fair amount of time in these coffee shops and I am a little averse to change).

Update (26 August 2009): I just received a call from Barry Parker at the Seattle Coffee Co. about this post. His comment is below and he has undertaken to look into this and make sure that no-one else has had a similar negative experience. Once again an example of social media helping businesses improve.

Image credit: “Look, Seattle Coffee Company in Pretoria!” by firesika licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 2.0 license.

One of the challenges presented by advancing communications tools like our smartphones is that it is so easy to do a lot of our work pretty much anywhere we are connected to a data network. Mobile phones made us easier to call and increasing data coverage makes it easier for us to remain in contact with email, instant messaging, social networks and the likes of Twitter. My E71 has software installed to make it easy for me to send and receive email pushed to my device using Nokia Email, keep in touch on Twitter using Gravity and message my contacts on a variety of instant messaging services using Nimbuzz (I haven’t reinstalled Fring since I got my phone back from repairs). I can be totally connected. The reason why this all presents a challenge is because it is so easy to forget to unplug from our work and take a break from it all.

This was the theme of Nokia’s E75 launch event yesterday at the Skin Sense Day Spa in Rivonia yesterday. It was all about work-life balance and how the E75 is a device that is geared for helping you achieve that. I can see how Nokia tries to market the phone partly as such a device but mostly I think it is more important to develop better habits than it is to pick a specific device. That being said, the E75 has functionality which does make it easier to close the office door.

The launch event started with a talk from Clinton Jacobs from BMI-Techknowledge. I tend to be a little skeptical of industry analysts. They seem to position themselves just ahead of the mainstream adoption curve so they retain some degree of plausible deniability in case their vague predictions turn out to be false. I sometimes see them as pseudo PR people who subtly create markets for stuff under the guise of research.

Clinton Jacobs from BMI-Techknowledge

Clinton spoke about his research and observations on the work-life balance and mobile devices and services generally. As technology evolves we can expect to see greater convergence on a number of levels, including devices themselves. There is also an increasing blurring of the lines between work and leisure.

Social networks and messaging tools are increasingly available on mobile devices in more meaningful formats. That being said, no single device will satisfy all needs. There is a trend towards fewer devices that meet most of our needs. Converged, capable devices have applications as thin clients for Web applications, location based services, in unified communications and in cloud computing environments.

Jacobs spoke about cloud computing and virtualisation trends as having potential. This shouldn’t be news to anyone using social services online in any meaningful way and his comments about these two trends was a reminder how ahead of the curve the SA online community is.

While there is definitely an increasingly mobile workforce it is important not to overstate certain trends. Jacobs spoke about smartphones become becoming [Editorial: There are days I wonder how I managed to do so well in English in school with grammar like this!] laptop replacements alternatives to laptops with 3G access [Update: I have discovered that I misquoted Jacobs, he wasn't saying smartphones are laptop replacements, rather that they offer an alternative to laptops with 3G access]. This is typical analyst speak and not entirely correct unless your business needs are relatively limited and you are comfortable working off a mobile device on an ongoing devices. I love my E71 and almost all my mobile devices and as much as I fantasise about working on these small devices, nothing quite compares to my MacBook when it comes to certain tasks. These devices still lack the power, the form factor and the applications to replicate a laptop.

The lines between business and pleasure/leisure are blurring and one consequence is arguably greater efficiency. This may be but what advanced mobile tools do enable is working from more or less wherever you may be (more or less). Clearly there is a need for converged smart devices but it is also important to maintain harder edges between work and personal life. It is far too easy to work wherever you may be so emphasising these differences can be key to reducing the effects of the continuous flow of information.

Mathia Nalappan’s talk

Nokia SA’s General Manager spoke next. I found his talk to be somewhat more compelling. He talked about de-emphasising the device and focussing on the device’s utility for users. Efficiency is extremely valuable and time is a “precious asset”. I can identify with this myself and I am sure a great many business people can too.

Nokia has partnered with IBM and Microsoft and has removed the barriers to freer flow of emails and information. The E75 is the first Nokia device that comes with Nokia Email pre-installed. This is a very useful application that is a big improvement over the default Nokia email application found on earlier devices. What it does is give you the benefit of virtual push email without the need for an intervening service (like Blackberry, for example). Nalappan said that Nokia Email probably supports around 90% of the email providers available. I have Nokia Email on my E71 and it generally works pretty well. The current version has added HTML support!

Data encryption is a standard feature on the E75 and was added in recognition of the need for this capability in business environments. The E75 also comes standard with mobile VPN technology. Other security features include remote and auto locking to help keep devices secure. You have choice of connectivity options and a feature called Destinations (going beyond Maps) which you can use to set access point preferences. So you can set your preference to wifi in your office or home and mobile networks when out and about.

The E71 has screens for personal and business use. The E75 has this feature too. The feature enables you to set which home screen applications and shortcuts are available so you can tell your device to hide business email notifications and only show you stuff suited for your weekends or after hours. It is a handy feature and a nice way to actively switch off from work. Nalappan also mentioned that the E75 can support multiple phone numbers although I didn’t get details from him about this. As I understand it, the phone supports a multiple SIM setup and I believe much of this takes place at the network level.

Nokia’s strategy is to present a wide range of options for consumers. The phones are available now and in black, red and copper and on all networks. I understood that the devices are being shipped to stores now and should be available shortly if they aren’t available already.

My thoughts

The E75 and the E71 are pretty similar in terms of specifications. One of the big appeals of the E75 is the slide-out keyboard which makes typing and messaging a lot easier. I like that the phone comes with Nokia Email pre-installed. This software is a big improvement over the default email application in other devices, including the E71. I tried the beta version of Nokia Email on the 5800 Xpress Music when I had it for review recently and that worked pretty well too.

The Destinations feature appeals to me and I’d like to see that available for my E71 (I haven’t checked yet to see if it is available). If you are looking for a messaging device and you have been considering the E71 (still a hot item for Nokia – can’t stock the shelves fast enough), then take a look at this device too. It isn’t as slim as the E71 but it feels solid and you may prefer its keyboard.

Note: I have uploaded datasheets, images of the E75 and some other interesting information to Drop.io

Update: Here is a great video with some insights into the thought processes that went into developing the E75. I love these videos. It is great to have these peeks into what the product development teams were thinking when they designed and built these devices.

I haven’t really paid much attention to Gary Vaynerchuk before today. This morning I sat down to watch his keynote speech at Big Omaha 2009 and I’m sorry I didn’t pay attention sooner!

Vaynerchuk made a name for himself talking passionately about wine and built up a tremendous following. I guess that is why I didn’t pay attention sooner, I am not a big wine drinker. What I realised this morning, watching this video, is that while he is a wine expert, he is a powerful inspiration to me now because of his passion. It could have been directed at paperclips and still have the same effect. He is completely engaged in what he does and is completely happy doing it. When he speaks, he is a force of nature and you can’t help but be drawn in by his passion for wine, the Web and just being passionate about what you do. He has published a book recently about just that. It is called Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion (there is an affiliate link in there and you support me just a little more if you get the book through this link) and I am going to lay my hands on a copy as soon as I have a chance. I would love to have an audiobook version just because it would probably be an incredible experience having Vaynerchuk read the book.

In a way Vaynerchuk speaks to what I was rambling on about a little while ago when I spoke about evangelism and passion for the stuff you talk about. Comparing myself to Vaynerchuk would be a big stretch but he sets an example worth learning from and aspiring to. You rarely come across people who are so passionate about what they do and who they are that they infect you with that passion just being in the room with them. One person in SA who comes to mind is Rich Mulholland who is unconventional and brilliant. Any time he speaks I pay attention, regardless of whether I agree with him. I have a constant sense I am learning something valuable when I listen to Rich. We need more people like Vaynerchuk and Mulholland, they teach us more about passion and living a fuller life.