Influential Marketing Blog

Why Google & Virgin America's Online Scavenger Hunt Campaign Rocked

Early this morning Google Apps partnered with Virgin America to launch a unique campaign where they invited people taking Virgin America flights all day, as well as those sitting on computers at home or work to participate in an online scavenger hunt for clues to answer questions they would pose at you on a website called "Day In The Clouds." The scavenger hunt offered questions requiring you to use many different Google apps and online tools to find the answers, and integrated with Virgin America both for some questions as well as by offering free WiFi to any passenger on one of their flights today.

The campaign generated lots of positive word of mouth for the brands and though it is just coming to a close a few hours from now so the numbers haven't been reported yet, it will likely boost both brands and work strategically to promote what each of them wanted to: Google Apps and the cloud architecture from Google's side, and the ready availability of WiFi on all flights for Virgin America. Going beyond, here are ten quick lessons that you can take from this engaging campaign on what they know about marketing that is fun and engaging that many brands forget.

1. Built on their core products/services. The level of integration so that users had to use many of Google's tools to find the answer to questions and learn about Virgin America's planes, technology and flight schedules as well as how to use the Internet on flights was brilliant. It was done in a way that no other competing brand could have done.
2. Designed for simplicity without compromising. The site was easy to use and great looking at the same time. For every marketing person who has sat in a meeting and listened to a designer argue that it is impossible to do both, just send them the URL for this site.
3. Forged the right partnership. The choice of these two brands together worked perfectly to add to the popularity of the scavenger hunt. Both have high goodwill among their fans and drew a tech-savvy audience to participate.
4. Integrated the brand without being overbearing. The brands were definitely integrated in the questions without making every question about something boring and branded. The light hearted approach worked in this case, because people know clearly that they are on a branded site, and we should realize value of that - but don't necessarily need to shove it into a user's face at every turn.
5. Engaged through fun and competition while educating. The engagement on this campaign was high because the content was great. The format was fun and competition as built into this in a way that made people want to engage and do even better. There were even tweets from flights encouraging plane-mates to do better to beat a competing plane.
6. Created a sense of urgency. The timer counting down to zero as well as the choice to make this only a one day long promotion all added to the sense of urgency for this campaign. It also meant that even on an LA to SF flight (like the one Virgin America took media on in the morning) the time would be enough to complete the quiz.
7. Offered a real challenge. Like most puzzle and game related marketing that Google has done (including their smart Da Vinci Code promotion), they don't tend to dumb the solutions down or make it easy. As a result, they keep people engaged and have them try harder.
8. Involved the right ambassadors. In the morning, there was a media flight that several high-influence tech bloggers including Ben Par from Mashable and Beth Blecherman from Techmamas were on where they played the game and participated in the start of the campaign. These early ambassadors posted about it and drove more interest and traffic to the site throughout the day.
9. Made it shareable. Once you complete the hunt, you get your score and you have the opportunity to share it immediately (which I did) through Twitter and Facebook. It might have been smart for them to have prefilled text that didn't share a score too (in case someone was embarrased by their score and didn't want to broadcast it), but either way this final step meant that people could share via Twitter or Facebook, and also follow the campaign's Twitter account for updates.
10. Had real and tangible prizes. The last smart move the team putting this promotion together did was going beyond recognition and bragging rights. Those are nice, but the winners with the highest scores will get tangible prizes and that is a big motivator to continue to participate even if you may be in it and not want to finish.

Disclaimer: Virgin America is a current client of Ogilvy PR (my employer) and I have consulted on social media efforts for them in the past. I personally did not work on this campaign, however, and am not being compensated or incentivized in any way to write this post. It is my personal opinion of their campaign and nothing more.

How Social Media Could Have Saved FlyClear

This is the sad story of a company that died. Actually, it's more of a question of how it could have been saved. I'm talking about the now defunct FlyClear service run by a company called Verified Identity Pass that launched in nearly 20 airports across the country with a paid service that promised a way to avoid the travel lines at security with a dedicated "VIP" line. The reasons for their demise are relatively easy to understand ... as the number of travellers has reduced, the lines too have reduced and fewer people are seeing the value of paying $99 or more per year to access these special lanes.

Unfortunately for me and about 250,000 others who already signed up and paid for the service, we are now officially out of luck and left with many questions about the service. Will something take it's place? Will we manage to get any of our money back? What will they do with our profile data (including in most cases retinal images and fingerprints)? As a marketer, though, my first thought is about how preventable this seemed to be. After all, the people who had the service loved it. And as soon as travel from major airports started to recover (which is fairly inevitable), the security lines and hassle will again drive more people to consider joining.

So how could social media have saved FlyClear? Here are a few ideas:

1. Collect real life stories. One of the truths about the travel industry is that just about everyone has a negative story to tell. FlyClear was one company that could have benefited from this conversation, because their entire mission was to make the process of travel easier. If they did collect stories of the negative (and the positive stories of customers who had good experiences because of FlyClear), social media would have been ideal to capture them and prove the necessity for FlyClear.
2. Create an army of blog ambassadors. I was only one among many other bloggers who loved the service and blogged about how great we felt it was. Guy Kawasaki agreed, and even tweeted today about its demise echoing what many card holders felt when he said "Clear has shut down http://www.flyclear.com/ I just want to cry. I loved that service..." What if they had reached out to bloggers like myself and Guy and any others that had blogged about the service and brought us together to tell their story and drive members more than just offering us a "refer-a-friend" discount code? My bet is Guy would have jumped on it, and I probably would have too.
3. Leverage Twitter for secret offers and promotion. FlyClear did have a Twitter account that is now taken down, so it is tough to go back and see what they did or didn't do with it, but it would have been the ideal platform to run membership drives, share updates on travel delays and answer customers and potential customers directly.
4. Extend memberships through social media. The nice thing about the business model for FlyClear is that it scaled well ... ie, the more members they had, the better they could do. The problem they had was that they never hit that critical mass. To try and get it, they did offer free memberships to members of hotel frequent flier programs, but they could have done it more actively through their existing members - such as letting them extend free memberships to some friends, and then sell those friends extensions.
5. Launch a last ditch effort. Part of conversation about FlyClear's demise was how sudden it seemed. Surely they would have known about this financial trouble before today - and assuming they did, they could have taken any number of steps to try and get the people who loved the service to help make sure it would stay around. Some might have renewed, while others may have more actively gone out to their networks.

Like many of the FlyClear fans, I was sorry to hear it's gone and will definitely miss the convenience. The worst part is, I would bet that as soon as travel volume (and airport crowds) pick back up again, the other people who might have signed up will be sorry its gone.

Ogilvy On Recession

When it comes to selling services in a downturn, sometimes the best message to send is that we are all feeling the same pain. The economy has been extremely tough for marketing, forcing many companies to lower their overall spend, or at the very least to get smarter and more careful about where they spend. That's a big deal for marketing agency like the one I work at because we depend on clients to see the value (as we do) of continuing to invest in marketing during a downturn. Some time ago, the collective Ogilvy network launched a website at www.ogilvyonrecession.com to share an agency-wide point of view on how our clients might strategically weather the storm and optimize their marketing in the process.

The site features a collection of white papers and thought leadership on how to optimize your marketing strategy in a variety of categories. Yes, you do have to register some details to see them as the site is built for lead generation as much as to share content - but I've seen several of them and the insights within are worth taking the extra step. There was even a great piece over on Behance featuring some promotional business cards that were put together by Leonardo Borges to drive people to the site and bring home the core message that you can save on budget but still keep the big ideas coming. It's a message I definitely associate with. Now all I need is to convince someone to let me get myself some of those business cards.

Disclaimer: I'm definitely biased with this post as it is all about the agency that I work for (Ogilvy) - but I was not part of the team that actually put this site and content together.

The Personality Project: Women of Personality

There are generally three kinds of ideas. The most popular two are the ones that you act on right away and those that you never do anything about. Those are the majority. Most of us love the third kind. Those are the ideas that are too big or complex or important to do quickly, but that you simply cannot let die because of how you feel about them. Today I finally launched that kind of idea. Since Personality Not Included came out about a year ago - I have been getting emails from people sharing their experience with the book and how they felt about it's main premise that businesses (like people) need to have a strong and authentic personality.

Soon after the book launched, I noticed that many of these emails were coming from women working in professional roles and those that had started their own businesses. These female entrepreneurs were responding to the message of personality in a way that I didn't expect. So since that moment I started thinking about bringing those voices together. Of course, part of the reason would be to promote my book ... but like most authors the important thing for me was for my idea to find a home and actually help people change their careers or make their business more successful.

So today, you can download a free ebook called "The Personality Project: Women of Personality." It is an extension of a site that I launched some time ago with a similar mission - to get visionary people in many industries to talk about why personality matters. This ebook features 20 business women that I respect and admire who each agreed to share their story as part of the ebook. These include founders and CEOs, best selling authors, popular bloggers and online personalities and even the first woman to ever row solo across the Atlantic Ocean (and she's now making her way across the Pacific).

See the ebook embedded below and click on it to download a free PDF copy:

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Books marketing blogs

Once you get a chance to read it, please visit each of the contributors sites and blogs, buy their books and support their efforts. The best thing you can do is to validate their ideas and use their examples to improve your own business and your career. And then let them know they made a difference.

PS - If you mention this ebook on your blog or twitter or facebook or anywhere else online, use the tag #wop (on Twitter) or "WOP" (anywhere else) as this is the one that all the contributors will be watching and responding to.

Interview: Personal Branding For The Millennial Generation

If there is one thing you can learn from Dan Schawbel, it's how to choose a niche and own it. He's a 20-something social media consultant for EMC as his day job, but over the past several years he has focused his blog and extracurricular work on becoming a personal branding expert for the millennial generation. In that time, he's launched a magazine, written a blog and even created his own awards for personal branding, which was when I first connected with him.

His first book, titled Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success came out this week where he shares his lessons for creating a strong personal brand and the impact it can have on your career. In this interview he shares some insights from the book and offers an inside look at his path to where he is today.  It's a story worth paying attention to.

1. Why is a personal brand so important to someone just starting out in their career?

A personal brand is inescapable and inevitable, whether you're a high school student, CEO or consultant.  We've already been branded by many people without even realizing it.  The three reasons why every has a brand are that we are constantly being judged based on first impressions, we have to sell ourselves in order to accomplish anything and because we can adopt the same branding strategies that companies or products use.

When you're just starting out in your career, you have the opportunity to define your brand before others do it for you.  In Me 2.0, the first step in the personal branding process is called "discover your brand."  Without investing time in figuring out who you are, what you're capable of, what you're passionate about and establishing goals, you're truly lost.  The sooner you can get a grip on what your brand is, and how you want to position yourself in the marketplace, the more time you'll have to prepare for the real world if you're a college student and the less time you'll waste jumping from one career path to the next aimlessly.

2. Do you always need to know what you want to do in life in order to have a strong personal brand?

Rohit, understanding your brand is mandatory for your business success and overall happiness.  Being able to align your passion with expertise in a specific area is the key to living a great life.  Passion is the fuel that will push you through adversity and expertise allows you to fulfill customer needs (clients, teachers, etc).  The value you provide is a reflect of your brand and the reputation you build up by providing that value over the course of time, is what will allow you to become more successful.  Without cementing your brand in the first place, you'll waste your time on social networks, a blog, on a resume, etc.  Everyone needs to be able to write their own personal brand statement, which consists of "what you do" and "who you serve," and it better be a niche if you want to stand out among everyone else.

3. How do you effectively balance your work in building your own brand with your day job at EMC?

EMC has supported me from day one actually.  They've give me some additional flexibility to speak to organizations, colleges and to appear in the media on various occassions.  I'm in a very interesting situation because I was recruited by EMC, after being a product markter for a little over a year, for a brand new position that I got to co-create with the PR organization, called "social media specialist."  I've become the go-to-person for social media at EMC, so I get to work on some amazing projects, such as blogs, social media press releases and our various social accounts.  There is a mutual agreement and kinship between EMC and I, where EMC's brand helps build my credibility and in return, I help advance the brand with new social technologies.

I don't believe in work/life balance at all.  I think our professional and personal lives are converging as such a fast pace, that it's gauranteed that there will be no separation in the future.  I was telling a bunch of college seniors today at Boston University that when they enter the workforce, their co-workers and management will be friending them on Facebook.  Everyone just has to be wiser on how they support and project a positive personal brand.  Being associated with other brands means you have to think twice before you update Twitter or your Facebook status.

I put in over 100 hours of work a week.  I would say at least 50 hrs for EMC and at least 50 hrs for my other projects, such as my blog, magazine, and book.

4. Before getting the book deal, you launched your own blog and magazine. What did you learn from those experiences that helped you when it came to writing a book?

Rohit, this is a great question.  The second I launched my Personal Branding Blog back in March of 2007, was when I started marketing Me 2.0, without even knowing I was goin to write it.  The blog has build a solid reputation over time, being the #1 job blog by Careerbuilder last year and an AdAge top blog, like you have. Both the blog and magazine are assets that have thousands of subscribers each.  When the book came out, I notified subscribers of both, in addition to the rest of my marketing plan, that the book was available.  The blog and the magazine qualified the buyers of the book because they were interested in personal branding.  Each asset that I own helps promote another asset that I own.  It's one big happy family!

5. What is the biggest lesson college students usually take away from your presentations?

The main theme of my presentation and Me 2.0 is "command your career."  It's the idea that college students need to take ownership of their career and stop relying on everyone else to drive it.  Instead of being in the passenger seat, it's time to take the wheel and press on the gas.  At the end of the day, career success or failure lies in their hands.  They shouldn't be what their parents or teachers want them to be.  Brand YOU is independent.  "Command your career" was my books original title because it was the feeling I had after I was recruited based on my passion.  Instead of being asked to do things, people were coming to me for expertise in social media.

6. Now that you have a book out and are doing all this speaking, what's next for you?

I need to unwind a little because I'm very stretched right now and it's probably not healthy.  I have to take a hard look at everything I'm doing and focus on the areas that will help me the most.  I'm also thinking of writing another book for a different age group on the topic of personal branding.  I'll continue speaking to gain more experience and I'll continue to think of new theories and applications, while keeping up-to-date with technology.  I have a plan, sure, but things are so unpredictable that it's hard to be specific.  My end goal with the book (and in life) is to get every college onboard to have a personal branding course.

6 Ways Ford Is Finding Its Own Voice

Yesterday evening I co-hosted a tweetup in New York City where Ford was unveiling the new Ford Fiesta and a brilliantly conceived social media program to get 100 influencers to take the car on an extended test drive for 6 months as part of the Ford Fiesta Movement. The event was a gathering designed to help put a more human face on Ford and talk about a new Ford car that many of the 20 and 30 somethings who showed up (and are the target market for the Fiesta) may not have known about.

The effort is just one example of a greater shift that has been taking place at Ford over the past year as the company has worked to not only reshape its image in the eyes of the American public, but also to change the way that they tell the story of Ford. It is a rich story to tell, one that is linked to the history of America in a way that few companies can authentically claim. And despite being in the maligned automotive industry that seems a permanent fixture in the negative news cycle, things are changing at Ford. How are they managing to do it? Here are six elements to consider:

1. Having a strong story to tell. In the midst of all the scrutiny, Ford is (and has been) shifting their image from stodgy truck maker to a more forward thinking company making cars that the American public actually want to drive. The relaunched Taurus was a hit, winning top safety ratings - the Flex has had rave reviews, and other cars like the Fusion and Focus are winning many fans.
2. Tapping the passion of employees. Ford has always described itself as a family, and employees often demonstrate a stunning loyalty to the company ... even describing themselves in terms of the cars they have always driven. The old mode of communications would be to keep all these voices silent, and instead only authorize a small group of people to speak on behalf of Ford. Today many of these voices are being encouraged to speak and share their thoughts and experiences online.
3. Making a commitment to social media. Social media has played a big part in this evolution to using the voices of "accidental spokespeople." Scott Monty was hired nearly a year ago as the Head of Social Media for Ford and has actively been offering a voice to the brand and adding social media as a core element of all their communications.
4. Getting out of Detroit. One of the most powerful effects of this shift has been a willingness for even the most senior members of the management team at Ford to get out of Detroit and meet customers. Ford's President of the Americas, Mark Fields and Ray Day (the VP of Communications) even came to the Tweetup last night. Alan Mullaly, CEO of Ford showed up to a blogger event during the Consumer Electronics Show (in a sweatshirt instead of a suit and tie!) and stayed graciously for nearly an hour answering questions and doing podcast interviews.
5. Capitalizing on being Ford. There are not many companies that are as visibly at the epicenter of the American economy as Ford is. Like it or not, the success or failure of Ford is seen by many as a symbol of the success or failure of America. From a communications point of view, this is a major positive ... for the simple reason that the fate of Ford matters to people in a way that AIG or Enron just don't (unless you're a shareholder, of course)
6. Overcoming the American ego. One of the most interesting things for me has been Ford's recent willingness to take cars that have been huge commercial successes overseas and introduce them to the United States market (like the Fiesta and the Transit Connect). For many years, most of Detroit would never have considered taking these foreign cars and allowing them to be revised and sold in America. Finally ego and turf wars are taking a back seat to solid business decisions and introducing cars best suited to succeed.

Any other lessons you think Ford has learned which are contributing to their growing reputation?  Or if you think one (or all) of my points are completely off base, leave a comment and share that point of view too.

Disclaimer: I currently work for Ogilvy and Ford is a client of our team. The Ford Fiesta Tweetup was an official party organized as part of our efforts with Ford and I was on the team that helped organize these events. I have NOT been paid or compensated by Ford to write this blog post, though - and the opinions I share in this post are my personal views only and don't represent what Ogilvy, WPP or Team Detroit thinks about Ford.

3 Ways To Use "Resolution Marketing" In The New Year

It's the first monday of the new year and even if you aren't usually a person to make new year's resolutions, chances are you are still thinking about doing things slightly differently in 2009 than you did in 2008. It's a new start and that's the beauty of the first few weeks in January. They are a time when you can swear off the mistakes of last year and choose to do things differently. It also presents a big opportunity for marketing. Here are three ways that you could use "resolution marketing" to position and promote your brand in the new year:

1. Help break a bad tradition - There is no better time to attack a competitor that your potential customers may have been doing business with for a long time and get them to switch. Utility services like home telephone service or car insurance are often things that people have chosen some time ago and stuck with more out of convenience than any long term loyalty. Target those customers with a compelling reason to break their old (and therefore outdated) tradition and consider switching to you.
2. Offer small "resolution victories" - Many surveys being promoted in media this week could tell you the major resolutions for most people in the US and likely around the world. They range from common things like losing weight and working less to more niche dreams like finally buying that yacht or taking a trip to the Pyramids. No matter what the resolution, people want to feel good about moving towards their goal. Nothing does this as effectively as a "resolution victory." These are the small steps along the way to fulfilling a resolution. This could mean purchasing a Lonely Planet guide on Egypt, or choose Subway for lunch instead of that slice of deep dish pizza. Neither is about achieving the resolution, they are just small steps along the way, but still offer a powerful bonding moment with your brand if you can offer them.
3. Create useful how-to content - Many resolutions are about education or optimization - in other words, how can I learn to do something new or do what I'm already doing more effectively? Both are perfect opportunities to use content to deliver a useful message that links back to your brand. So if you're selling tea, for example, don't just talk about your new flavor, offer some education on an afternoon tea ritual that can be done in a cubicle and transform your afternoon. As long as the content you're creating is useful, it will be relevant and likely to be passed along.

Over the next few weeks, we all have a short time to use resolution marketing before it won't work anymore. Before you accuse me of being pessimistic, I'm not saying that everyone will forget all about their resolutions in a few weeks. But I'm pretty sure that deep dish pizza place near your office will have a lot more business for lunch at the end of this month than they will have at the beginning of it. 

Got Controversy? Why Your Brand Needs One Today

A recently released book that I contributed to asked the question with it's subtitle, "why don't they get it?" It's a fitting question today, as brands are often divided into those that understand the power of conversation and those that don't. Slowly, however, brands are adding their names to the ranks of those that get it. Dell and Comcast are often being praised as two shining examples due to their willingness to have a conversation with customers and actively use of social media tools.

There is one fact, however, that is often forgot. Both of those brands first entered into using social media out of necessity. More importantly, they started after major brand controversies. Dell had to reinvent their reputation after Dell Hell, and Comcast had to combat the incredibly damaging Technician Sleeping On The Couch video. Similar to the natural phenomenon of some forests needing fire so they can properly burn and new seeds can be released, evolving brand communications seems sometimes to adhere to a similar pattern.

Here are a few reasons why having a brand controversy may be your company's best hope to reinvent itself and start to embrace social media tools that initially seem new and scary:

1. Forces you to listen fast. Relying on daily or weekly media clips is no longer fast enough in a crisis. This means your team will need to start adopting social media tools to listen faster out of necessity. This skill will remain in the team, causing them to more actively monitor social media in the future.
2. Understand the real power of individual voices. Before seeing a crisis start from a single blogger or an errant tweet, it is difficult to describe the real power that a seemingly small time content creator can have. After a crisis breaks, it becomes easy to explain this point.
3. Demonstrate to managers why social media matters. This may be one of the biggest struggles marketers face, namely convincing their bosses that social media matters enough to dedicate time and budget to it. Having a crisis and using as well as showing the power of the tools offers a tangible example of why it is worth resourcing and budgeting.
4. Identify key influencers. Often in a crisis, the key influencers in a particular category that have the power to influence thousands if not hundreds of thousands will emerge. If marketers are paying attention, they can start to understand where the pockets of influence really are, and how to influence them.

As I write this post, there is another brand that is rapidly confronting its own brand crisis. Motrin released an ad that was immediately denounced by mom bloggers and social media types as offensive. The controversy really started through public reaction on social media and is now growing beyond those confines. I believe that this may well be the greatest opportunity ever to face the marketing team for Motrin. They now have the ear of everyone in their organization and the chance to do what few Over-the-Counter medications would ever have dared to do otherwise ... embrace using social media. The #motrinmoms controversy is a huge chance for the brand to reinvent its communications. The only question is whether they will take advantage of it or not.

How Obama's Brand Helped Him To Win The Election

Just a few minutes ago, Barack Obama was officially declared the winner of the Presidential election and my vote in Virginia was officially deemed to mean something for the first time by going for the Democrats as part of Obama's huge victory. Looking back, there were many marketing lessons that any business could learn from Obama's campaign, but perhaps the strongest is the power of having a strong AND shareable brand. Obama's logo and brand identity were consistently used across all his communications, but also treated with a flexibility that would drive many holders of a brand identity completely mad. Instead of taking a closed approach to his brand identity, the Obama campaign let people remix the brand for their own uses.

To take an inside look at the power of this brand, I created two visuals that I believe pretty much tell the story of the power of Brand Obama and how it was used to help him win the US Presidency in a way that is much more powerful than I could ever describe. Check them out below and congratulations to Barack Obama and all his supporters for a big win tonight!

The Softer Side Of Measuring Social Media

How do you measure your social media efforts? How should you? Most people in the industry talk generally about measuring engagement as a concept and cite examples such as time spent on a site or number of comments, or inbound links as ways to track this. Others talk about ad equivalency (ie how much you saved by avoiding paying for advertising to achieve the same results) or even tie social media efforts directly back to sales and conversions. All are good models and we use a combination of these on just about every client engagement.

Today at the Executing Social Media event in Atlanta, I shared a thought that I have been having over the past few weeks about a missing element of measurement that has been surprisingly important to many clients we have worked with. Consider it the "softer" side of social media measurement. Here are a few examples:

Metric: Internal Bragging Rights
Depending on where you work, this can be a big motivator. Being able to talk internally about a new social media effort or innovative marketing program is something that can build reputations of those involved, as well as lead to better internal responsibilities and possibly promotions and other good things.

Metric: Industry Recognition
Recognition from peers is a big deal as well, particularly the higher up in the marketing chain you go. Though some CMOs may not admit it, getting the envy or appreciation from other CMOs is just about the best compliment you can get. This doesn't necessarily need to be about winning some sort of award, just getting industry credit.

Metric: Lessons Learned
Sometimes failures can be the best thing to happen to a social media campaign. Doing something wrong gives you the chance to learn from your mistakes and perhaps even make your next campaign much more successful. The problem is that most metrics would record a campaign like this as having no redeeming qualities. That's not quite true and though most marketers know it, many don't have a way to share it.

Metric: Media Non-Coverage
An obvious numbers-based metric is about volume of coverage but there is a softer side of social media measurement when it comes to media. This could include avoiding negative coverage - for example if there is a journalist seeking brands that "don't get it" and your brand is not on the list because of your efforts. Another similar example might be having your brand's point of view portrayed more accurately as a result of social media content you have online.

Metric: Testimonials
One of the most powerful effects of social media is the testimonials that you often get from customers, employees and just about anyone else. These testimonials provide powerful stories that can be retold within an organization. Even if there is only one great video or a single great blog post, these can take on outsized importance when reported as part of social media measurement for a campaign.

To be clear, I'm not suggesting that the "real" social media metrics we might report don't matter. Only that there may be a softer side of metrics that we too often forget, but that do make a difference.