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?

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 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.

I ordered a new batch of Moo minicards a couple months ago to replace the last of the cards I gave out. I was pretty excited about them because I was using two awesome sunflower photos I found on Robert Scoble’s photostream a while ago. I don’t know where the images are in his photostream but I love them. They are the best images of sunflowers I have come across and since I have adopted the sunflower motif as part of what passes for my corporate identity, they are perfect for me.

Anyway, my minicards still haven’t arrived about 2 or 3 months later, nor has the replacement set Moo kindly sent to me when I reported the absent initial set. I have pretty much given up on them and taken this as confirmation that despite the post office’s assurances that theft has been drastically reduced, they are still a bunch of thieves who are now into identity theft using my cards.

None of this has persuaded me to give up on ever possessing Moo cards again. They are very cool and I quickly decided to order a set of the new business cards Moo prints. This time around I wasn’t going to place my trust in our post office so I decided to go all out and ordered 2 packs of 50 cards to be shipped to me by DHL. I place the order this last Sunday evening and received them today. Here is a crappy photo of a set of very fine cards in an awesome card holder:

I used a combination of sunflower images I have in iPhoto (including those awesome photos Scoble took – his are the gorgeous ones with the deep blue sky in the background) and photos I took when I was given a tour of the Constitutional Court a while ago. My photo above doesn’t really do the cards much justice but you get the idea. These cards represent a complete set and I have 10 sets in my 2 packs. I am very happy with them and they are well worth the premium I paid to get them here reliably.

I am giving these fine specimens out to my clients as mementos and souvenirs and all you need to do to get one of these gorgeous items is to give me a call and be my client … Heck, you could just bump into me and ask for one and you can have one too … I just want to hand these babies out now!

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There was a brief discussion the other day on Twitter about LinkedIn and who uses it. I’ve been using it more and more lately, mainly to find out more about people I am dealing with (most of the people I deal with lately seem to be on LinkedIn in varying degrees) and to connect to people I work with.

I’ve started thinking about upgrading my account from a free personal account to a paid business account. The business accounts offer quite a bit more than the personal account. My question to myself is whether I am using LinkedIn enough to justify the $19.95 per month (or even the $199.50 per year). What I would really like to see is a post or discussion about the value of a business account and what difference it makes to a user. Do I need to be a power user to benefit from a business account? Is the correct question even whether I am using it enough to justify the upgrade? Should it be more about upgrading and reaping the rewards?

Are you using LinkedIn? What do you think? I think I am going to post this question on LinkedIn and see what people there think too.

Update:

I found this video on the LinkedIn blog which I am watching at the moment. This comes on the heels of news about LinkedIn’s $1bn valuation:

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linkedin, premium, business account, upgrade

Most of the time when I talk about social media and the law I talk about the fine print and how these services are often not subject to your control and all sorts of things can happen to your pages/profiles without your consent. Most of the time I am thinking more about outages and glitches in the Matrix but there is a far more willful course of action that presents a real danger to your continued use of those services.

Facebook booted Rodrigo Shulz, an “Internet entrepreneur and business angel” who has been around the block a couple times for being a little too vigorous with the service. In a nutshell, Rodrigo is a genealogy nut and was trying to connect with members of his family tree and pass some info on to them about a group he created for a branch of the family tree. It turns out he was being a little too social and Facebook disabled his account about 73 seconds after he was warned to take it easy with all the socialising.

This morning I started adding family members again. I got a 2nd warning email today, and a disabled account email 73 seconds later. Waow… As if you read your emails immediately… Worse than a cease & desist.

This is yet another illustration of how users of these sorts of services use those services at the whim of the providers. You simply don’t have an unqualified right to use Facebook and you can expect to be kicked out or otherwise spanked if you step out of line. The message from Facebook seems pretty clear: be social, just not too social.

Oh, and this isn’t just a dig at Facebook. The next service to pull a stunt could be Google, FriendFeed or some other crowd. One way to see what your limits are is to read the fine print, as much of a pain in the butt that is. You are not in control of your profile/online presence and you need to assume your access could be taken away from you. One option is to look for a service that won’t pull a stunt like that for no good reason and without giving you a decent chance to respond meaningfully.

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