MackCollier.com

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Why Should Your Business Care About NFTs?

Non-Fungible Tokens. Can we all agree that’s the worst name ever?

What does it even mean? And they are selling for millions of dollars??? Suddenly EVERYONE is talking about Bored Apes this and Crypto Punks that.

And you don’t understand any of it. This is the position a LOT of us are in as we begin the new year. NFTs are one of the areas of the burgeoning web3 space that I’ve been trying to wrap my head around for the last few months. In doing so, I’ve been focusing on the potential business impact, ie “Why should your business care?”

What are NFTs

Non-Fungible Tokens. That word ‘fungible’ trips people up. It almost sounds like fungus. Non-fungus token?  Yeech!

Fungible means interchangeable. Think of currency. My dollar is interchangeable with your dollar.  My $3 in Bitcoin is interchangeable with your $3 in Bitcoin.

So it stands to reason that non-fungible means the item is NOT interchangeable. A non-fungible token is unique. An NFT has unique properties and characteristics. You can have two NFTs that are similar, but they will both be different in ways that makes each unique. And when items are unique, that means they aren’t the same, so they aren’t equal. You may have a 1978 Firebird Trans Am, and I may have a 2010 Ford Focus. Both are similar, in that they are both cars, but they are unique cars and as such, they have wildly different values and aren’t considered interchangeable.

Wait, can’t I just copy that JPEG?

Ah the ‘right-click’ theory. That you can easily copy an NFT as an image on your computer and have it as well.

The NFT is much more than simply an image. It is the unique data and provenance associated only with that particular NFT. This is where much of the value of NFTs are derived, and you can’t simply right-click and copy that.

The ownership of an NFT can be verified on a blockchain, as well as its history. We’ll talk more about the business implications of this in a minute. When you right-click that NFT you saw on Twitter, you can copy the image on your computer, but there’s no claim of ownership. For instance, if you wanted to take that image and sell it as an NFT, we would be able to verify that it’s not the same one that already exists, and which has a set value in the marketplace.

Ok, but it’s still just an image, right? I’m still not getting it.

Let’s go back to ownership and the history of ownership. More specifically, let’s go back to The Legend of Zelda.

One of the most prized toys of the 1980s was a Nintendo Entertainment System. I still remember getting that HUGE Sears catalog in the mail in 1985 and seeing that beauty for the first time! I bet a lot of you reading this can remember losing the hours of your youth playing Super Mario Bros, Metroid, Double Dribble, and so many more great games!

Let’s say you and your family are shopping at an indoor flea market. And you walk by a booth with a lot of those old Nintendo video games. You see a copy of The Legend of Zelda sitting there. “Hey!”, you exclaim to your son, “I had this when I was your age! I loved this game!” You see a price tag of $5, and decide to get it. You take your copy home, smiling as you are reunited with your childhood.

I’ve done the same thing. Occasionally over the years I would spot an old Nintendo game at a flea market or store, and I’d pick it up. I’ve accumulated a few over the years, and a few weeks ago as I was going through some old boxes, I came across my treasure trove of old Nintendo cartridges. One of them was The Legend of Zelda. I smiled as I saw the golden cartridge, and flipped it over.

And that’s when I saw it.

Faded, written in black permanent marker were two words: ‘Mack Collier’. That’s when it hit me: This wasn’t a copy of The Legend of Zelda that I had picked up at a flea market, this was actually THE copy of The Legend of Zelda I had owned as a kid! I even remembered why I had written my name on the back of it (in permanent marker, no less!), because at the time I was trading NES games with buddies at school. We would swap games for a week or so, then give them back. Well I traded a game and after a week, the kid I traded with said he had ‘lost’ my game.  I suspected he simply liked my game better and decided to keep it.  So I wrote my name on my copy of The Legend of Zelda to avoid this happening in the future. Ha!

The point in this story is, while there are many copies of The Legend of Zelda game out there in the wild, there’s only one copy IN THE WORLD that Mack Collier owned as a teenager in the 1980s. Luckily, I still have that copy. And my name being written on the back helps verify (at least to me) my ownership, and the record of ownership and the associated story that comes with it. That adds value to this item (at least to me).

The history of ownership helps tell the story of the item (in this case an NFT), and that helps assign value to the piece.

What would be a business example of using NFTs?

Let’s say your supermarket chain wants to start a brand ambassador program. Your program will launch with 100 members. Each member will receive their own, unique and numbered NFT. This will represent their ‘digital identity’ within the program. What the NFT is really doesn’t matter in this example, it’s more about the functionality it enables for the holder. Think of it as an ambassador’s Membership Card that proves they are a member of the supermarket’s ambassador program.

So if you join the brand ambassador program, you are given an NFT that gives you Level One privileges within the program. Additionally, each year you are given 500 tokens that can be used as currency within the program and among its members (Think of these tokens as being similar to Rewards points in a loyalty program).

This is where it can get interesting.  The tokens allow you to purchase items (real and digital) associated with the program and brand. In addition, performing certain tasks can earn you more tokens. Such as signing up for the brand’s newsletter, referring a new member to the ambassador program, filling out a survey, etc.

So what can you do with your tokens?  There are a million possibilities, but for simplicity sake, we’ll focus on three areas:

1 – Use the tokens to buy products directly from the supermarket. Basically, the tokens could replace cash. Or you could use the tokens to buy a discount for a set amount of time, etc.

2 – Sell the tokens to other members. As all members are using tokens to reach certain tiers in the ambassador program, users that have more tokens than they want or need could see their excess to another member.

3 – Using tokens to upgrade your NFT. Remember above that I said when you joined the supermarket’s brand ambassador program that you receive an NFT that gives you Level One privileges? What if you want to upgrade your NFT? Let’s say for 750 tokens, you can upgrade your NFT to give you Level Two privileges. These could include higher discounts, larger token payouts for performing tasks, and more access directly to the brand. This leveling up could go all the way up to Level Five (or Ten, Fifty, whatever). With better perks at each level.

 

The NFT becomes a sort of digital resume or history of that person’s activity within the brand ambassador program. And everyone could trace what the person had done by seeing on the blockchain how the NFT had changed over time. So the activity becomes the ‘story’ of the NFT, and that helps create value for the NFT itself. It’s that ambassador’s digital identity.

You owe it to yourself and your business to learn about NFTs

I started really investing some time in learning about emerging Web3 technologies like blockchains, cryptocurrencies and NFTs a few months ago. At first, I was totally unimpressed with NFTs and focused most of my attention on understanding crypto. But the more I learn about NFTs, the more confident I feel in saying that 2022 will be an even bigger year for the space.

Which would be pretty impressive:

 

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Falling Down the Web3 Rabbit Hole

web3 rabbit hole

In 2008 I got on a plane for the first time in my life. I was a bit nervous as I got on, then we started heading down the runway and I got a little more excited.

Then we lifted off. And we started to climb. As we climbed, I was pushed back in my chair, and I started to get REALLY nervous. I was suddenly struck with the thought that I was about to fall through the bottom of the plane and to my death!

Just then, I managed to look over at the person across the isle from me. It was an elderly woman, and as I am contemplating how many more seconds I have before I fall through the bottom of this plane, I noticed she calmly picked up a magazine and began to read it, not a care in the world.

In that moment I was suddenly struck with a thought: She must know something I don’t. If she was that relaxed about flying on this plane, I probably didn’t have any reason to be nervous either.

I was thinking about that story recently as I’ve begun to educate myself on the emerging technologies that are forming what we are calling Web 3.0 or Web3. A big reason why I decided to learn more about Web3 is because I kept seeing people who are smarter than me, saying that everyone needs to learn about Web3 because it is the future. Just as I trusted that the elderly woman on that plane knew something I didn’t, I decided to trust that these smart people know something I don’t.

What is Web 3.0 and How is it Different From Web 2.0 or Web 1.0?

So each of these periods mean different things to different people and have different start dates. But for the most part, advances in technology, or how we wanted to use that technology, marked the shift from one version of the web to the next.

Web 1.0 – If you were born from say 1970-1985, this is the web you grew up with. This era is generally defined as beginning in 1990 or so, and ending around 2003-2005. This was where everyone was getting their first exposure to the web. This is when you could go to WalMart and spend $70 for the latest and greatest version of Netscape Navigator web browser (yes, we used to pay for web browsers!). The web was a very static place, and often you would see companies launch websites and simply take their offline circulars and put them online. It was difficult, but not impossible, for the average person to create content.

Web 2.0 – This era is the one most of us are familiar with, and it is generally considered to have started sometime between 2003 and 2005. This marked the ‘social’ era of the web, where content creation became much easier. We all suddenly had a plethora of tools to create content, and to also engage with other people’s content. We learned to collaborate easily with other people’s content.

This time period is also known as the centralized era of the web. Because all these wonderful content creation tools gave rise to things like social networks, that facilitated a way for us to all meet with other people easily and easily collaborate with other people’s content.

The problem this created was that the platforms that were built to help facilitate the content collaboration, also took the lion’s share of the profit from the content creators. Every day we went to Facebook and Twitter and created copious amounts of content, that these platforms then took and monetized.  They turned our content into profits, and we got some Likes and Retweets for our trouble.

Web 3.0 – This era of the web that we are transitioning to right now could best be described as the decentralized web.  Web 2.0 was marked by centralization. For instance, we all went to Twitter or Facebook to talk to each other. The platforms were walled off, what you did on Twitter really didn’t work with what you were doing on Facebook. And both platforms took your content and data, and made money off it. Typically, your reward would be a Like or Retweet at best.

Web3 is about decentralizing the web, and shifting power back to the users and builders. It will hopefully be a web where new platforms are built that can compete with existing ones like Twitter and Facebook. But the difference is, the owners will be the users and people who build the networks. If you create content on a Web3 platform that helps grow that platform, then you get compensated, maybe in the form of cash, more likely in the form of tokens or cryptocurrency that gives you ownership in the platform itself. So the people doing the work of building the platform get to share in the growth and profits from that platform.

Additionally, ,these apps will be open source, so if someone builds the next Twitter and someone else builds a decentralized Facebook, the two apps can communicate with each other in way that the current Twitter and Facebook cannot.

I think this is a big reason why we have seen an explosion of efforts by Web 2.0 social platforms to find ways to compensate creators in 2021. These platforms can see what changes will be coming with Web3, and they want to keep creators on their platforms and creating content for them. I honestly think these moves are about 10 years too late.

 

Where Can I Learn More About Web3?

You’re going to see that Web3 has a huge influence over the content I create from now on. As I learn what’s happening, as I start to work with clients on Web3 initiatives, I will be sharing what I’ve learned so we can all benefit.

As I’m learning about Web3, there are three areas I am focusing on; Cryptocurrency, NFTs, and the Metaverse.

So far, here’s some sources I’ve come across that have helped me:

Web3 Twitter List: This is a list I’ve created on Twitter of people who are helping educate us all on what Web3 really is. Please follow this list, I am updating it frequently with new members as I discover new experts who can help us all learn more about what’s next with the web.

Podcasts and Spaces: I am listening to a LOT of podcasts on Web3. I loved this one from Tim Ferriss featuring Naval and Chris Dixon. An excellent introduction to Web3:

 

BTW, I love the passion that the people in this space have for Web3. It reminds me of the early days of blogging, where we all saw the potential and were excited about the future. It feels like we are still in the earliest days, where only the builders and those with the passion for growing a better web are the ones putting in the work.

Sure, there are some Web 2.0 people (even some names most of us would recognize) who are trying to leverage Web3 just as a way to make money. These people are easy enough to ignore.  And besides, if you help build something amazing that helps people, the money will take care of itself.

Web3 offers a world of possibilities for businesses and content creators of all shapes and sizes. If you are reading this post, you owe it to yourself to familiarize yourself with these concepts and ideas, because it’s not going away.  You can learn it now and help shape the direction the future takes, or you can wait 5 years and follow the path someone else has cleared for you.

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Twitter Should Be Bigger Than Facebook

I can show you why they aren’t in two tweets.  More on that in a minute.

I joined Twitter in March of 2007. I actually started hearing about Twitter from online friends in the Summer of 2006, soon after the site launched. At the time, I was working hard to grow my first blog, and wanted to focus my attention there. But more and more friends told me to get on Twitter.

Then SXSW happened in 2007. Twitter made a very smart decision to have a presence at SXSW, because the startup knew that many of its more influential users or potential users would be there.  TV screens were set up all in the hallways in the convention center showcasing tweets as they happened.  Anyone who has been at SXSW can tell you, the hallways are where the magic happens.

After SXSW in 2007, EVERYONE I knew online was gushing about Twitter. I finally relented on March 31st 2007, and joined Twitter.

If you joined Twitter after say 2010, you honestly do not know what you missed. Twitter from 2007-2009 was amazing. It was the most incredible social site I’ve ever been on. Nonstop organic conversations with the most amazing people, from all around the world! At its peak around 2011 or so, I was spending up to 10 hours a day on Twitter, every day.  DMs essentially replaced my email inbox.  I met new friends, made new contacts, did business deals.  All on Twitter.

I loved Twitter in the early days.  The days before the celebs and the media and the trolls found it.  Everyone did.

But the reality is, Twitter never loved us back. I specifically remember a conversation a group of a dozen or so of us had on Twitter, sometime in 2009. As most conversations were at the time, it was organic, and lasted for at least an hour.  It involved several ‘power users’ of Twitter, who all had 10,000 to 50,000 or so followers.  And this was in 2009, when you didn’t see Twitter users with over 100,000 followers every day, if at all. So we are talking pretty big and influential users.

The focus of our conversation (on Twitter) was how it was time for Twitter to officially hire a Community Manager. We wanted Twitter to make an effort to LISTEN to its users, and incorporate our feedback to improve the experience for all. At the time, Twitter was growing like mad. It wasn’t mainstream yet, but it was on the cusp. You had so many smart, passionate users that were so hungry to see Twitter explode. We had so many amazing ideas for how Twitter could become huge.

And what infuriated us, was that Twitter completely ignored us. I think our pleas reached Twitter, because shortly after, Twitter put out a statement clarifying that Twitter wasn’t a conversational platform, it was intended to be a ‘discovery’ or ‘broadcast’ platform.

Twitter said they never intended for the platform to be a place where people went and talked all day.

We were crushed. How could such a popular company totally misunderstand how its core users use and love their site?

But Twitter always has. Twitter has so many creators who have gone out of their way for over a decade to evangelize the site for years.  Twitter has done little or nothing to highlight these creators.  For instance, at its height, #Blogchat was regularly the Top Trending Topic on all of Twitter during the chat each Sunday night.

Twitter never reached out to me or any popular chat host (that I know of) to even say thanks for bringing people to our platform.

They just never seemed to care. That has always frustrated me.

Now about those two tweets…

Ever since Twitter launched in 2006, users have begged Twitter to add a way to edit tweets. This is by far the most requested feature that Twitter users have ever asked for. And Twitter, as Twitter seems to always do, has always ignored completely that its users have wanted this feature.  I can’t even remember a time when anyone in Twitter leadership has ever even addressed the feature request or why it hasn’t been implemented. It comes across as if Twitter simply doesn’t care that its users want this feature.

So imagine my surprise (and frustration) when I recently saw this tweet:

https://twitter.com/TwitterBlue/status/1458110348880343041

Twitter is finally giving users a way to edit tweets (sort of), but it MAKES YOU PAY FOR THE FEATURE.  It’s only available if you purchase Twitter Blue’s monthly subscription.

To Twitter users who have begged for the ability to edit tweets for years, this comes across as such a slap in the face.  Totally tone deaf, yet somehow completely consistent with Twitter not understanding its core, passionate users.

Now let’s look at the second tweet:

https://twitter.com/Clubhouse/status/1460367376721924102

While Twitter seems to go out of its way to ignore its top creators, and always has, Clubhouse goes out of its way to promote and highlight its top creators.  And for extra irony, they are doing a lot of it on Twitter, as you can see above.

This matters. One of the most pressing problems that startups face is growing a community of passionate users who will help the startup’s service or products grow. Many startups bootstrap their core operations at first. Marketing is one of those areas where the startup typically tries to give it a go themselves due to a lack of funds initially. So community management is vital to the early days of the startup in order to retain and grow the customer base.

Clubhouse understands this.  Clubhouse knows if its creators/room organizers are successful, that the platform will be successful.  So Clubhouse is investing in supporting its creators via its accelerator program, and also by promoting them on the platform and by having constant ‘townhalls’ on Clubhouse to discuss what’s happening with the platform, and to review user feedback.

All of this communicates to Clubhouse users and creators that the platform hears them, and appreciates them.  Clubhouse has done more to listen to and engage its users in the last year, than Twitter has in the last 15.

And that’s a shame. As well as a huge missed opportunity.  If Twitter had started in 2006 with the same commitment to engaging its users and listening to their feedback, then Twitter would easily be the biggest social platform in the world right now.  I have zero doubt in my mind.

 

But even though I hate how the platform keeps its passionate users at arms length, I do love the people I’ve met on Twitter, and the conversations that happen there. Speaking of which, I’ve been asked by Social Champ to join their weekly Twitter chat as a co-host. Our session is tomorrow at 10 am Central, hope to see you there!

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Facebook’s Rebrand, PayPal/Pinterest Rumors, Pinterest Creator Fund

Welcome to another glorious Fall week! Hope you’re enjoying the cooler weather and are in the Halloween spirit! Here’s some marketing and breaking business news that’s caught my eye the last few days:

 

I can, and probably should write a longer post on this issue at some point. Facebook’s many problems and user complaints are well-documented. My biggest issue with Facebook has always been that it extracts massive amounts of information and data from its users, while giving the users almost nothing in return. This extends to businesses, who have seen their organic reach on the site fall for years. Now, Facebook is wanting to rebrand, not just to hopefully deflect some of the criticisms, but to also position itself as a player in evolving Web 3.0 platforms and technologies.

More than anything, I think Facebook is the poster child for both the unrealized potential of Web 2.0 companies, as well as the changes that need to be addressed that spurned the development of Web 3.0.

 

So a bit of breaking news. All last week, the rumor was that PayPal was going to acquire Pinterest. Well just this morning, the news is breaking that PayPal has DENIED the acquisition rumors. It will be interesting to see how this affects stock prices for both companies, PayPal fell sharply on the rumors, while Pinterest spiked.

 

Pinterest is the latest platform to offer incentives for content creators, starting a $20 Million fund to support its users. The Creator Rewards program will initially be available only in the US, but should rollout worldwide soon. So any Pinterest user in the US, over 18 and with at least 1,000 followers could be eligible to start making some money off their pins!

 

So that’s the latest marketing news for this Monday. We’ll see what happens with the PayPal/Pinterest news this week.  See you next Monday!

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New Research Reveals How Content Creation is Changing For Bloggers

My pal Andy Crestodina conducts blogging research annually to give us insights into what’s working for bloggers when it comes to content creation. He just published the results of this year’s survey, and I wanted to do a deeper dive into some of his findings.

Successful bloggers spend 4-6 hours on each post

According to Andy’s research, the average blog posts takes 4 hours to write in 2021. This makes sense as more bloggers are moving toward creating long-form content, and we will see that reflected in the survey results.
Additionally, bloggers were asked if they felt their posts were delivering ‘strong results’. Bloggers who spent 6 hours or more on a post reported the highest levels of ‘strong results’ by far. So if you want to write successful blog posts, be prepared to invest at least 4 hours per post. If not more.

The average blog post in 2021 is 1,416 words

And according to Andy’s blogging research, that number has grown every year. I was just discussing this very topic with a colleague. A big reason why longer-form content is more appealing is because it’s harder to write long-form content unless you are an expert on that topic. Longer posts and articles are a key indicator of expertise.
Andy also broke down the length of blog posts, and asked bloggers to rank if their blog posts were giving ‘strong results‘. For instance, for bloggers who wrote posts that were less than 500 words, 16% of them said their blog was delivering ‘strong results’. For bloggers who wrote 500-1000 words per post, that percentage increased to 17%, and for bloggers who wrote 1000-1500 words a post, those bloggers felt their posts delivered ‘strong results’.
Here’s where it gets interesting; For bloggers that wrote 1500-2000 words per post, the percentage who felt their posts delivered ‘strong results’ shot up to 30%. Bloggers who wrote 3000+ words per post felt their blog delivered ‘strong results’ 36% of the time.
Longer content gets better results.

Blogging frequency is down slightly

Not surprisingly, bloggers who are writing longer posts, aren’t blogging quite as often. The average blogger tends to write 1-2 new posts a week. That’s pretty much in line with what I try to shoot for.
Think about the type of content you will be creating. If you are publishing more thought leadership pieces, then you want to go longer, and that means fewer posts. If you are publishing more news or industry-roundup posts, those can typically be shorter, and take less time.
In general, I think you should commit to at least 1 new blog post a week. In a perfect world, I think 2 a week, perhaps Tuesday and Thursday, would work best. But every situation is different. What’s most essential is that you pick a schedule, and stick to it. Consistency is the name of the game, and how you build an audience over time.
Remember, blogging is a marathon, not a sprint.
blogging research

How are bloggers promoting their content?

So I wanted to close with the survey results on content promotion. What’s interesting to me is that social media was listed as the most popular promotion channel, used by 90% of respondents.
But only 20% of respondents said social media was an effective promotional channel, in fact it was the least successful. Isn’t that interesting? Social media is by far the most popular promotional channel and also the least effective.
Why is this? I think a great part of the reason why bloggers aren’t seeing good results from social media is that most bloggers simply tweet or share a link to their new blog post, with zero explanation or context explaining why the post is worth our time. I am the worst about doing this, I need to get better about adding context to ALL links I share, my own, and the links of other creators.
So check out Andy’s blogging research, there’s a ton more of useful information.

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: LinkedIn Exits China, Twitter Spaces Spark Program, Coinbase Gets Into NFTs

Happy Monday, y’all! Fall has finally arrived in the Deep South, and not a moment too soon! Temps are now in the 70s and sunny, this is my favorite time of the year! Here’s some stories that caught my eye the last few days…

 

And then there were none. LinkedIn will pull out of China, marking the departure from the country of every major American social media platform. They will maintain a jobs board, but this is still pretty big news.

 

Twitter is adding an accelerator program for Spaces, called Spark. This will be similar to offerings from Clubhouse whereas accepted members can get access to mentoring and cash to maintain and build their Spaces.

 

You’re about to see a lot of talk here and really everywhere about Web 3.0. You can ask 10 different people to define Web 3.0 for you, and likely get 10 different answers. Here’s how I think about the progression of the internet:

Web 1.0 : Fewer platforms and websites. Websites are mostly a luxury for businesses, limited content creation options for the individual, typically tied to major platforms like Prodigy, AOL and CompuServe.

Web 2.0 : An explosion of content creation options for the individual, but far fewer monetization options. User data is owned by major social media platforms, who are the huge benefactors of content created by users.

Web 3.0: Users will reclaim control of their data, and communities will control and support platforms. Power will shift from the social media companies and platforms, to the individual.

The potential power shift from the corporations to the individual is what has so many people excited about the possibilities of Web 3.0.

If you haven’t already begun to educate yourself on the movements and technologies that will drive Web 3.0, fear not, you still have time, as it’s still early days. But you owe it to yourself to begin to educate yourself on things like cryptocurrency, the blockchain, NFTs and the like. I will be creating more content around Web 3.0 in the coming months.

If you’re on Twitter, I have created a List of experts in Web 3.0.  Following this list will get you up to speed on what’s happening in the space.  You can subscribe to the list here.

Exciting times, to be sure! Hope you have a wonderful week, I’ll see you next Monday!

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Paid Events Coming to LinkedIn and Twitter, Young Adults Using Facebook Less, NFT 101

Happy Monday! I hope you are ready for a wonderfully productive week! Can I complain about the weather for a minute? October has always been my favorite month of the year, by far. The weather is always amazing, low humidity, temps in the low to mid 70s the entire month.

But this year has been a weird Summer and Fall, weather-wise. June-August was consistently 5-10 degrees below normal almost every day, which was VERY welcome! But starting in September, the temps inexplicably stopped falling.  The temps since have been mid to upper 80s.  So now it’s 5-10 degrees ABOVE normal. So crazy. The good news is that starting next week we are supposed to get highs in the low to mid 70s, and lows in the low 50s. Which is finally normal for this time of year. Ready for cooler temperatures and Halloween!

On with the marketing and social media stories I’ve been reading…

 

So LinkedIn is tinkering with an option to let creators charge for virtual events on the platform. This comes after Twitter has begun rolling out an option to let creators charge for Spaces. I think paid virtual events make complete sense for LinkedIn. There are a ton of monetization options being made available to creators of all shape and size right now. If you are active on any social platforms in any capacity, it’s worth your time to see what’s available to you.

 

 

Internal documents from Facebook show that will users under age 30 make up over a quarter of the userbase, they are spending less time on the platform versus their older counterparts. Let’s be honest, Facebook has had a lot of problems for years. The reason why its getting attention now is mostly because politicians are scrambling to leverage them to attack or silence the opposition. Facebook is no longer the ‘cool’ social network it was 10 years ago or so, and young users will avoid anything with even a hint of ‘uncool’ about it. So don’t be surprised if more problems are on the horizon for FB in the coming year.

 

Two topics that I am woefully ignorant on is cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Luckily, I found this guide to NFTs shared on Twitter to help get you up to speed.

 

So that’s it for this Monday, thanks for reading! I’ve added a Donate button to the sidebar on the right underneath the search box near the top. If you’ve gotten value from my content, please consider donating whatever you like. I will use the tips to help offset the cost of hosting, certificates, security and equipment to run the site. So any help is greatly appreciated! Hope you have a wonderful week, see you here next Monday for more news!

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: B2C Dominates Social, Clubhouse and Twitter Add Key New Features

Happy Monday, y’all! Hope everyone is ready to have an amazing week. Here’s a few marketing and digital stories that caught my eye over the last few days:

According to eMarketer, all of the Top 10 categories of businesses that generate social media activity are B2C businesses. The top category, Apparel and Accessories, commanded over half the social activity, more than the rest of the Top 10 combined! This isn’t that surprising when you consider that B2C businesses have far more customers that are creating content and engaging with these businesses, than B2Bs do. Still, it’s interesting to see which categories are generating the chatter.

 

Very interesting new features coming to Clubhouse, revolving around letting users and room owners share audio clips of the content created in rooms. This will greatly help discovery and promotion for room creators. Twitch streamers have been doing this for years.  The most popular ones will do a stream, then go through the hours of content they just created, and pull out the ‘highlights’ and then repost them as shorter videos for YouTube. Which they then monetize as well. Most of the bigger Twitch streamers have hired people to edit and produce their shorter ‘highlight’ videos, so I could see room creators on Clubhouse making similar moves.

 

Are we noticing that all social media is beginning to slowly blur together?  Twitter is now offering profiles for businesses. This is also aimed at ‘creators’ who want to offer newsletters and monetize their Twitter usage. This continues a sincere push by social media platforms to lock down popular and high profile users onto just their category.

 

So that’s it for this week, I hope you are enjoying the cooler Fall weather as much as I am! A quick thought: If you deal with an upset customer this week, just remember that 90% of their frustration comes from the fact that they don’t feel ‘heard’. If you communicate to them that you hear them, and have sympathy for their feelings, you are more than halfway home to handling their issue. Just remember that everyone is going through something, and we all want to be heard.

See you next Monday!

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It’s Time to Kill Your Business

business

“Data from the BLS shows that approximately 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open, 45% during the first five years, and 65% during the first 10 years. Only 25% of new businesses make it to 15 years or more.”

The average business is designed to facilitate transactions with customers.

And that’s why the average business fails.

 

I want to show you a video:

Background: This is Twitch streamer Nick Mercs. He’s arguably the most popular streamer on the planet right now. Earlier this month, 10,000 people flew to Tampa Bay to meet him, and each other. They paid to get there, Nick and his team covered the event for them.

When you watch that video and hear what it was about, you will likely have one of two different reactions to it:

1 – ‘OMG, that’s amazing!’

2 – ‘Heh, that’s cute.’

Regardless of your reaction, everyone who watches that video understands that Nick and the 10,000 people at this event do not have a transactional relationship.

Let’s watch another video:

In this video, pro wrestler CM Punk returned to the industry for the first time in 7 years. The excitement from those in attendance speaks for itself, tens of thousands of people overjoyed. Grown men crying tears of joy, and it appeared that Punk himself almost did.

This is the point at which I will lose some of you in the ‘Heh, that’s cute.’ group. But when you watch the second video, regardless of what you think of it, you also understand that CM Punk and the people in that arena do not have a transactional relationship.

What is a family?

When I watch these two videos, here’s what I see: Nick loves everyone that showed up to #MFAMBBQ2021, and they love him right back.  CM Punk loves everyone who is cheering for him and they love him right back.

That’s not a transactional relationship. It’s a loving relationship. I care about you, you care about me.

I tweeted the #MFAMBBQ2021 video on Saturday during the event. Notice the reply I got:

A member of MFAM corrected me, MFAM isn’t a community it’s a family.

A family looks out for each other. They care about each other.

Families have loving relationships, they do not have transactional ones.

It’s time to kill your business

The definition of a business, as defined by the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, is:

“the activity of making, buying, or selling goods or providing services in exchange for money”

In other words, a business has a transactional relationship with customers. Everything about the business is designed to facilitate the transaction.

Once the customer completes or rejects the transaction, for all intents and purposes, that is the end of the relationship between the customer and the business.

This approach creates several obvious obstacles for the average business. First, they need more transactions. Which means spending more on marketing to attempt to create more transactions. Second, they need more customers, since brand loyalty is not created via a transactional relationship. Which again leads to more costs.

The customer is synonymous with a transactional relationship. If a business is built on simply facilitating transactional relationships with customers, then its costs of doing business will always be higher. The only purpose of the customer is to provide cash to complete the tranaction.  The only purpose of the business is to provide the product or service that the customer wants to buy.

This is why we need to stop thinking about a business being about facilitating a transactional relationship. How we communicate, engage and interact with each other has changed dramatically in just the last 25 years. But the basic function and design of the average business is still rooted in facilitating transactions.

It’s time we changed that.

What if a business existed to invest in the people who buy its products and services?

Let’s go back to Nick Mercs for a moment. As a streamer on Twitch, one of the main ways he generates income is via subscriptions and donations from his viewers. But it isn’t the only source of income for Nick. Another source is sponsorships. One of Nick’s sponsors is Cash App.

On a recent stream, Nick talked openly about his sponsorship deal with Cash App. He noted that when he made the deal with Cash App, he structured it so that Cash App is required to regularly give cash away to his subscribers. Cash App provides money that Nick then randomly gives away to his subscribers.

This could be viewed as an example of Nick investing back into his subscribers. At the same time, Cash App’s sponsorship of Nick’s steam could be seen as Cash App investing in the success of Nick’s stream.  By investing in his subscribers, Nick gains the loyalty of his subscribers, who are known as MFAM (Mercs Family). Since MFAM is loyal to Nick, that loyalty transfers to great degree to sponsors like Cash App. Because MFAM understands that by sponsoring Nick’s stream, Cash App is investing in Nick’s stream, and helping to make it possible.

If Nick was treating his Twitch stream as a business, and a purely transactional one, he would treat it quite differently. He would attempt to maximize subscriber counts and treat subscribers as customers who are purchasing a product (his stream content).

Instead, Nick views his subscribers as a community or family, MFAM. And as he becomes more successful, he looks for ways to take money from his sponsorship deals and redistribute it back to his subscribers. In another recent stream, Nick mentioned that he had set up Instagram accounts for the family dogs, Joey and Jackson.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

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Nick added that once the account has enough followers to start attracting sponsorship dollars, that Nick is going to take the money raised from the IG account and use it to buy pet food for the pet owners in MFAM. Another example of how Nick is creating an investing relationship with his MFAM versus a transactional one.

It’s time for business, and the relationships it pursues, to evolve

A business that is designed and structured simply to facilitate transactions cannot endure. Many businesses across the world are starting to wake up to this reality. We are seeing more and more discussion about how we need to focus on things besides the transaction. Topics such as focusing on customer experience, or customer loyalty or customer satisfaction are signs that businesses understand that they need to evolve.

The problem is that businesses are attempting to focus on these areas, but within the framework of keeping a transactional relationship with their customers. This is addressing the symptom rather than the core sickness.  The issue isn’t that businesses need to focus on customer experience, loyalty and satisfaction, the issue is that businesses need to focus on creating a new type of relationship with the people that buy its products and services.

Businesses need to move from having a transactional relationship with its customers, to having an investment relationship with the people who buy its products and services. And the investment will flow both ways; The business invests in the people who buy its products and services, and those people invest back in the business.

We are already seeing how some businesses are experimenting with this idea of moving from being transactional to focus on investment.  Here’s some examples:

  • Red Bull and Monster Energy both invest heavily in sporting teams and events. Both brands do so to communicate to their customers that they have ‘skin in the game’ and that they want to grow the sports and events that their customers love. This connects with customers, who see that the energy drink brands want to have something more than a business/customer relationship with them.
  • Patagonia’s Worn Wear program is actually about DECREASING transactions. The Worn Wear program is about helping current Patagonia clothing owners extend the life of their clothing by fixing and repairing it. Patagonia’s stated goal for the program is to REDUCE new purchases, and reduce consumption. This communicates to customers that Patagonia is invested in protecting the planet, and it rallies Patagonia’s customers to take up the cause, and to show higher levels of loyalty toward the brand.
  • Clubhouse and its Creator Accelerator Program. This is an initiative that Clubhouse launched earlier in 2021 where Clubhouse will invest directly in room owners that meet certain requirements. In essence, Clubhouse is putting resources, whether it’s money, equipment, or mentoring into what it identifies as promising creators on its platform. Clubhouse is investing directly in those creators, with the hope being that as these creators have more resources, they will continue to grow the popularity of their rooms, which will also help grow the Clubhouse platform. Now what’s missing from this equation, to a degree, is the investment in the room listeners. They are the third leg of the stool and are kinda left out in the cold a bit in this deal. But perhaps Clubhouse and its creators will come up with ways for listeners to both monetize room owners, and for the platform and room owners to transfer gifts or other forms of investment back to the room listeners.

Monster Energy
How do we go from transacting with our customers, to investing in them?

Let’s say we want to move our business from being rooted in facilitating transactional relationships with customers, to a model where the business invests in its customers, and the customers invest back in the business.

What would that model look like?

Let’s use supermarket chain Publix as a hypothetical example. Publix sells groceries. It’s a purely transactional model.

What if Publix wanted to shift to having an investment model with its customers?  What would that look like?

Here’s one possibility: Let’s say Publix is going to invest directly in the health of its customers. Publix is no longer in business to sell groceries, it’s in business to invest in the health of its customers.

Think about the changes that could happen at Publix to reflect this change. When you first enter Publix, you will typically see a spinner rack by the door that has the current sales circular, several coupon books, maybe even a card with a recipe or two on it. If Publix wanted to invest in the health of its customers, perhaps it could replace the coupons and sales with a list of suggested foods for each age group. For instance, there could be guidelines on foods to buy if you are ages 50 and up. One side of the paper could be foods you want to buy to gain weight, the other could be foods to buy if you want to lose weight. There could be custom shopping lists for other ages or interests, such as people who are diabetic, have high blood pressure, etc.

And throughout the store, there could be cooks preparing meals and instructing customers on how to do so. There could be physical trainers on staff or available by appointment to discuss and create a health regime for customers. As customers are shopping, food could be grouped by body type, or age, or medical condition, instead of simply grouping by brand.

This would all likely lead to more expenses for Publix, which would need to be passed along to the customer in the form of higher prices. However, if Publix could show the average customer how to live a healthier lifestyle, wouldn’t that outweigh a modest increase in prices? Would you pay 25% more for groceries if it meant you would get an additional hour of REM sleep a night, have lower blood pressure, and more energy? I think most people would.

In addition, Publix could hold workshops on how to cook food at home, how to better exercise, what vitamins and supplements to take. They could partner with local fitness centers and health organizations.

There are so many other possibilities. And it all starts with a simple supermarket deciding that it no longer exists to sell groceries, but instead to invest in the health of its customers.

It’s time to rethink business, it’s time to end the transactional relationship

Business as usual is fast approaching its expiration date. Advances in technology, especially around how we connect with each other and share information, is prompting us to expect more from the brands that we give our money to. We honestly do want a deeper relationship with brands, but brands have to earn that relationship. They have to communicate to their customers that they value them as more than simply being another transaction.

Brand loyalty is not created in a transaction model. The most successful businesses have higher levels of loyalty from their customers. Your goal isn’t to facilitate more transactions, it’s to earn the loyalty of your customers.

And you do that by investing in them. I have some more thoughts on this, so click play:

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Twitter Communities is Here, Where Reddit Users Spend Their Time, NIL News

Happy Monday, y’all! Hope you are ready for a productive week and getting ready for the Fall weather that is almost here! Here’s a few marketing and digital stories that grabbed my interest:

 

So I have to say, Twitter Communities is the first thing Twitter has done in years that actually has me excited. Twitter Communities will be rolled out on Wednesday. At first it looks like there will only be a handful of Communities based around really broad topics. I hope that with time they will let us drill down into some really niche topics.

What interests me about Twitter Communities is that only members of that community can Like and Reply to each other’s tweets. So there will be conversations happening behind a ‘wall’ that are only available to members of that community.

We’ll have to see how they implement Twitter Communities, but the idea itself has a lot of promise.

 

Tying into the previous story, Reddit is going to soon let advertisers buy placements within highly-trafficked comment sections, directly in the comments. I suspect that Twitter has something in mind along these lines with the coming launch of Twitter Communities. Also, I found it very interesting to note that Reddit says that its users spend almost half their time in the app, reading the comment threads. That’s the power of UGC.

 

NIL laws being passed across the country is one of the biggest marketing and branding stories of the year. So much is happening so quickly.  My friend Kristi Dosh has been all over NIL from the drop, and has created a very valuable hub on her site to collect all the latest news and information.

 

So that’s it for this week! Hope you have an amazing and productive day, see you here tomorrow!