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Steve Mulder

Posts written by Steve Mulder

April 6

The theme of 2009? Curation.

The new meme is the stream, and it’s being taken to the extreme. With Twitter growth exploding, Facebook redesigned its home page to be more Twitter-like: a stream of everything you (never?) wanted to know about your friends. Now Friendfeed has also redesigned to provide a live stream of updates.

The problem with streams is that they rapidly become overwhelming floods as more and more people participate. In theory, the more people I connect with, the more valuable Facebook and Twitter should become to me. In theory, the more reviews or user-generated content I see on a site, the more credible and usable it is.

Unfortunately, reality is quite different. Streams don’t scale, because I simply can’t keep up with the torrent of content. Useful, interesting stuff from my friends scrolls off-screen, pushed aside by fresh updates on just how tasty that hamburger was.

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posted to: Digital Marketing, Industry Trends, Web 2.0 & Social Media | 3 Comments »

December 12

Why Facebook Connect matters

by Steve Mulder

The recently launched Facebook Connect has been getting a lot of attention, but largely for the wrong reasons. Yes, it means people can use their Facebook logins on other sites, which saves users time and reduces the registration barrier. And yes, it means that people can broadcast their activity on other sites to their friends on Facebook, which as we know is an excellent way to broaden reach and increase brand awareness. These are both good things.

But Facebook Connect means more than this. It’s likely a transformational moment.

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posted to: Digital Marketing, Web 2.0 & Social Media | 5 Comments »

October 31

An open letter to marketers: Don’t ruin Twitter

by Steve Mulder

Dearest Marketers,

BusinessWeek is now talking about it. So is The New York Times. Mainstream companies are jumping on board, including recent entry Dunkin’ Donuts. And a bunch of CEOs are too. But please, my friends: Don’t ruin Twitter.

If I had to sum up the most important thing to know about marketing via Twitter (or via any social media tool, actually), it would be this: Market with your customers, not at them. Twitter is not a channel for pushing marketing messages. It is a platform for forming relationships. It’s not one-way, and it’s not even two-way. It’s where multi-way conversations happen and, if you do it right, where authentic conversation (not marketing speak) can lead to awareness, engagement, and loyalty.

For Molecular’s take on how you can use Twitter effectively, check out our article on iMediaConnection. For a list of useful Twitter-related tools, also click to this comprehensive list.

Something like 95% of all email is spam. When so many voices are yelling at customers, they simply stop listening. Let’s not do that to social media tools too.

posted to: Digital Marketing, Web 2.0 & Social Media | 1 Comment »

August 5

Do social media tools constrict or expand us?

by Steve Mulder

During a recent presentation on social media, I was asked a question that still has me thinking weeks later. Someone asked if all these social media tools (blogs, tags, collaborative filtering, social networking sites, etc.) are harming us as a society because by their very nature they help us find people and content that reinforces what we already believe or like, rather than introducing us to new and unexpected ideas. The fear is that by following only people we agree with or products similar to what we already like, we could live a narrow existence and miss out on surprises or things that challenge us.

The question reminded me of a diagram from a few years back. Someone plotted political books based on how likely they were to be purchased together on Amazon and found a clear liberal vs. conservative divide. People tended to buy books that confirmed preexisting beliefs.

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posted to: Digital Marketing, Web 2.0 & Social Media | 1 Comment »

June 3

Is Twitter the next marketing channel?

by Steve Mulder

With many new online products and services, value isn’t clear at first glance. The value of a new site comes less from its positioning or intent and more from how people end up using it. And this value can take a while to emerge.

Twitter is currently in the throes of this gray area of value evolution. Some people swear by it as social glue they couldn’t live without. Some people are bored by the mindless trivia of what their distant acquaintances had for breakfast. Others have no idea what to think about Twitter’s relatively fast growth (despite serious lingering performance issues).

Like any new communications platform that becomes popular, Twitter is under the increasingly curious gaze of marketers. Companies such as JetBlue, Dell Outlet, and Salesforce are dipping their toes in the water to see if this could be another effective marketing and communications channel. On the one hand, it offers the ability to distribute short, attention-grabbing messages that can engage consumers and keep your brand top of mind. On the other hand, it requires real effort to create a Twitter stream that has real value and that opens up an authentic dialog with customers.

We’ll all be paying attention as marketers begin to play in this space. But one truth seems guaranteed: Those who treat Twitter as a platform for true two-way conversations are more likely to succeed than those who think of Twitter as merely one-way messaging. These new communication channels are not about pushing your message out – they’re about engaging and interacting with customers.

Twitter has the momentum, but copycats are trying to push this concept further. Check out Plurk as an example.

posted to: Digital Marketing, Web 2.0 & Social Media | 2 Comments »