The Official Fluid Blog

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Fluid is excited to see you at eTail East in Boston this upcoming week (Aug 8-11). On the agenda:

- Booth #52: Our product and agency teams will be showcasing how Fluid can have a positive impact on your digital commerce plan. Stop by with hard questions or just to say hello. We’re looking forward to meeting you in person.

- Aug. 8th 2:25pm session: Fluid presents “Social Commerce: 5 Strategies that Work.” I’ve 20 minutes to show you cutting edge industry examples of what is working in social commerce and to put a stake in the ground about what two trends will hit next.

My end goal: Get your minds racing with ideas for your social commerce plan. And arm you with examples (ideally a few you’ve never seen) to make the case for action in this area.

Contact Isaac Newton to set up an in-person meeting. (How can you resist meeting Isaac Newton?) Safe travels!

Cheers,
Amy

Google+ is on the brink of 10M users. After I received the coveted, Willy Wonka golden ticket, access to Google+ it’s 10M + 1. I’m in.

I dragged and dropped colleagues (we digital geeks are in Google+ in full force) and friends into circles. I hung out in Hangouts (my favorite feature) and scrolled through Sparks. I floated like I was in a neighborhood without the grounding of profile houses.

Then I watched logged out and watched my Facebook wall scroll with Google+ opinions.

What is Google+? David Pogue of the New York Times explains it well.

The top seven things that strike me:

1. Exclusive invites: Google excels at invitation-only. Gmail invitees forgot to care that their emails were being used for ad targeting. We still don’t mind. The club with the red rope is enticing. Even if we don’t know what’s inside.

2. The “not yet public” launch: Google has downplayed this launch. The NYT blogger above stated “it’s unfair to mention bugs because the service isn’t even public yet.” Really? Put a product launch behind a invitation wall, say it’s just a part of a bigger whole and people will concede on criticism. Brilliant.

3. Aimed at Facebooks’ achilles: Circles within Google+ strike Facebook where it’s weak – filtering and content distribution to specific friend networks. Within 3 minutes I could see streams of content coming only from my work connections. It’s easy.

Plus drag and drop is fun. Remember when digital driving what happened offline was exciting? Now we’ve moved on to Smart Phone and tablets changing the way people interact with computers. Polyvore caught on early. Now it’s everywhere.

If they want to issue a double blow, Google+ needs to kick in search. Hard. Facebook is notoriously lacking in search. (Does anyone else love that the Google+ name can be rough in search because the + can be a command or a proper noun?)

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This week I was inspired. By the power of digital to take a seed of an idea and turn it into a beanstalk as big as the one from fairy tales. And by the fact that great ideas make digital a back up singer to the people who are participating.

I was inspired by: The power of collective action. Open sourcing of ideas. And unabashed sharing that explodes out of the dreams that used to be held in locked diaries.

We talk about these things a lot at Fluid. These examples will fuel our thinking. Here’s what I saw:

1. Inside Out Project: JR won the TED prize in 2011. If you haven’t seen his work this video will move you. It is Banksy with local awareness and impact. It is work that volunteers in the community vs. dropping you in the gift shop. The new addition? A call to action. This week they made it participatory.

2. Open IDEO: The premise: People design better together. It’s an open casting call for ideas that answer socially responsible challenges. The ideas are submitted based on phase of the design process. IDEO is enough to compel a lot of folks to participate.

3. The Internet Wishlist: This one teeters on the edge of a debate over proprietary ideas. That’s why I find it fascinating. A wishlist of ideas for the Internet. Not all ideas should be free. It also matters who’s asking for the ideas (GapLogo anyone?). Who wouldn’t though like the idea of a FourSquare cab-sharing app for when you’re waiting in the cab line at JFK?

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In late January Facebook launched Sponsored Stories. Here’s our initial POV…

What are Sponsored Stories? A great name for ads created from brand relevant content that is produced by Facebook user actions. Important: These ads are only seen within a users friend network.

The included actions: Likes, check-ins, actions within custom applications and Page posts. User postings on brand walls can also be used.

Best case description: Brands are highlighting relevant content that a user may have missed in the steady stream of their Walls.

Worst case description: User actions are unwittingly being turned into brand endorsements without any kick back.

This is not unlike what Gmail does by selling ads based on keywords within emails, although these Facebook ads are more overt with the identification of the user and their action. Twitter Promoted Tweets are also similar – although Twitter’s solution is more closely aligned with search ranking or a Digg model. It is also based on aggregated, anonymous data.

Why are Sponsored Stories important:

- They are a new ad format for Facebook. They dip a toe in the old Beacon pool but don’t dive in fully. I think this is the major reason why they’re launching with lots of non-profit partners – which is smart. Users are going to be a lot more amenable to, and potentially lenient towards, non-profits than to for-profit brands.

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Retailers are bringing it big this holiday. While we, the gift seekers, think of people on our lists, drink hot cocoa and make out under the mistletoe, retailers are busy making gift giving easier.

The four examples you need to see:

1. Etsy’s Gift Guide

The best use of Facebook liking data that I’ve seen yet. Pick a friend and Etsy matches their likes (and interests) to Etsy products. It’s a peep show of the possibilities this public data holds.

2. J.Crew’s Very Merry Gift Guide

This stands out for two reasons: 1. Talk about beautiful, curated collections. It tells a story that makes me forget that it’s cross-sell. 2. Of-the-month offering. Subscription selling finally meets style. Why aren’t more brands doing this? Expect them to be doing so in 2011.

3. Victoria’s Secret Gift Cards (on Facebook)

Sharing gets sexy. Not only can you comment on photos from last night’s holiday party, now you can share a gift card – without ever leaving Facebook. Buying just got easier for last-minute Lucys. (Starbucks has Facebook gift cards too).

4. Coach’s Gift List (on Facebook)

The ripple effect of Polyvore permeates this design (as it continues to do throughout fashion). Drag and drop from Coach’s yummy collection to a wish list within Facebook – and affiliate each item with a friend.

Who’s going to top this in 2011? Fluid has some tricks up our sleeve. Exciting.

Happy Holidays,
Amy

In a head-to-head match between Twitter followers and Facebook fans, Forrester puts their money on Twitter followers. What’s at stake? The winner is deemed to hold the most value for brands.

The score according to the study? Twitter followers are more likely to recommend the brands they follow to friends (33% vs. 21%) and to buy from them (37% vs. 21%).

My interpretation: This is misapplied competitiveness. I’m the first to egg on arm wrestling, cage matches and ego over ability efforts but these channels serve different purposes. Consumer expectations and interactions vary accordingly. The channels can amplify and augment each other. I will be using this data to make the case for each channel independently.

That said, I’m going to cheer on Forrester’s winner with three of my favorite Twitter examples. Share these with your creative team to spark ideas. After all, both mediums need ideas to survive.

Uniqlo’s Lucky Counter: Every tweet means the price gets cheaper. For a set time in September Uniqlo posted a collection of clothing with the simple call to action – more tweets, lower prices. Flash sales meet GroupOn with a twist of simplicity.

World Cup Cheering: Yay open API. The Guardian in the UK created an interface to visually watch the tweets affiliated with each World Cup game. It brings new excitement to goals. Ghana vs. U.S. is my personal favorite.

Diane von Furstenberg’s Fall Collection: In a convergence of social and shopping Diane von Furstenberg integrated iconic lip rollovers on their imagery to let users Tweet or Like in context. (Click on “Shop the Catalog”)

Reminder: I’ve also posted this entry at ad:techNY. Let me know if you’ll be in town for the event next week!

Video.

Apple’s Mac vs. PC campaign changed online advertising with it. Runway shows are no longer exclusive because of it. As video creators and voyeurs we continually turn to it.

In September, ComScore reported that 83.9% of U.S. internet users watched some form of online video content. The average user consumed ~14.4 hours.

Here are four video examples that showcase its power. In each, video relies on compelling content to succeed.

1. Chilean Mine Rescue
33 stories emerged one by one through a claustrophobic hole in the earth. Live. On my laptop at work. During a 33 hour time period, 5.5M of us watched by live streaming video on CNN.com alone. This was 8000% higher than their daily average views. It was social media at it’s finest.

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Join us today for a Webinar focused on Social the Sells. We’ll present 7 ideas that work (and 3 that we’re keeping our eyes on).

Time: 10am PT / 1pm ET

Speakers:
Andrew Sirotnik, Fluid, Founder/CXO
Amy Lanigan, Fluid, Director of Strategy

A sneak peak:
- Sold out sales on Facebook
- Liking after Levi’s
- Mobile sharing during shopping
- Live streaming chefs

There are still a few slots available. Register here.

You’ve heard the news by now. “Fans” on Facebook are no longer. It’s all about “Likes.” We’ve moved from roaring crowds to the realm of school crushes and ice cream.

Prior to the change we did a survey. We wanted to know the degree to which people were getting involved with brands on Facebook. Are fans in it for the arm candy or are they locked in long-term? Is all of this brand fanning one big booty call?

The results: 35.3% described their relationship with brand pages as Love ‘em and Leave ‘em.

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As Kenmore’s social media agency of record we get a fair number of trips in to Chicago. Here are seven observations from our latest:

1. Fluid’s Rachel Roy fan-only Facebook shop resonates – with fans and with clients. Andrew, our CXO, explains why it works here. A 25% increase in fans in the first 24 hours is worth talking about.

2. Lucky magazine is integrating digital into publishing and fashion in great ways. In this month’s issue: Daily Deals for their At Your Service, QR code promos and ads using ShopText (think text-to-give becomes text-to-buy or sample).

3. Social media expertise is excelling in-house. As more brands hire community engagement or social media managers we’re finding big opportunities for strong partnerships. Client understanding will lead the shake out of social media vendors and offerings. Yay.

4. It’s time to upgrade my iPhone. Why? Video. What sparked this thought? I watched a guy clean and squeegee the windows near SFO security with more gusto, style and love than can ever be imagined. It was awesome. He needs to be seen.

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