Arriving back home in the Lone Star State to attend SXSW, one of the many presentations that I  watched was  Guy Kawasaki, author of Alltop, interview Google’s Senior Vice President of Search, Amit Singhal. I have seen both of these gentleman speak in the past and I always find a ton of useful insight that I can immediately use in my work. Amit spoke of the type of search engine Google is aiming to build and he shared his excitement of the fact that more and more searches are conducted on mobile devices in place of traditional desktops and laptops.

Search

When asked of the basic search algorithm, Amit said

“The perfect search engine should know exactly what you mean, and give you exactly what you want. The perfect search engine also has to be comprehensive, relevant and fast.

He also pointed out that Google uses over 200 search signals in the algorithm to return relevant results to us, of which keywords is just one component. When Kawasaki asked questions about the specific details of the algorithm (he said the algorithm itself is many more lines of code than he could possibly read) he did say that Google’s goal is to build a search engine that works like the Star Trek computer. You ask a question, and it returns a contextually relevant result.

To illustrate, he said when he searches in Google he uses natural language. What is the weather today? Who is Barrack Obama? And then, (and this was the bit I liked), ‘who is his wife?’. A search like that, performed immediately after the Obama one, will produce the ‘right’ answer as Google understands that it’s Obama’s wife he is asking about.

For content producers, digital marketing companies and website owners, the key implication was clear (and he repeated it often). Produce high quality content and cater to your audience. Produce high quality, relevant content, and produce for your audience. Not for the search engines. Digital marketing techniques like SEO were important to ensure your site could be indexed, but what is really important for good rankings, Amit reinforced, was relevant, customer-centric content.

His tip for digital marketers when it comes to search – “Work for your customers” when it comes to producing content. I like the simplicity of that answer. Serve your customers, clients and prospects with relevant content and the search results usually take care of themselves.

Facebook Search

On the question of whether he sees Facebook as a threat to Google, or the future of Facebook search, Singhal said that time will tell if people want to search within Facebook … and Google will continue doing what they do to produce the ‘Star Trek’ computer of search.

Future Developments in Search

As he wrapped up his hour-long fireside chat with Singhal, Kawasaki asked him of the challenges still facing Google in terms of developing search.

Their focus is now on four areas

1. Knowledge Craft – tapping into the collective knowledge of the internet
2. Speech Recognition
3. Natural Language Understanding
4. Conversational Language

These four areas are increasingly important as search goes mobile – not just on our mobile devices but as we move into the era of Google Glass and similar … where ‘searches’ will be conducted as we move about our lives, without even ‘reaching’ for a device, rather, just interacting with it.

My challenge to myself and my readers is how are we going to think differently about search? Knowing that customers and prospects are mobile, does that change the messaging we serve?

As much as I am a fan of all the latest and greatest Social Media and Digital Platforms for Marketers…in my mind and personal experience nothing comes close to plain ol’ fashion, boring e-mail!

Allow me to explain…believe me that I am a HUGE supporter with both my time and money of marketing on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. However, in the current digital marketplace, if e-mail marketing is executed correctly, there is no greater ROI on money and effort spent. As we transition our information consumption habits from static to streaming (picture a traditional email inbox vs a twitter feed), anticipated email messages will have greater impact and engagment from your customers than a quick post, tweet or pin that they might never see.

Having an email address is more intimate and personal. I would rather have 1,000 email addresses from customers who have raised their hand to hear from me, than to have 100,000 Facebook fans who may never care whether they hear from me or not! The problem with most brands and brand marketers is that they only fall in love with the cursory numbers of their campaigns. If they garner 200,000 new fans, they are dancing in their cubicle and high-fiving their teams. However, as most anyone who has been marketing online for more than 5 minutes understands, it’s all about engagement, conversion and rank. When I look at the analytics and scores of most brand pages, it is absolutely dismal how low the metrics are and worse, the marketing teams don’t have a clue!

It’s time to take a renewed interest in proper e-mail techniques and best practices. In the recent MarketingSherpa 2013 Marketing Analytics
Benchmark Report, it revealed that over 60% of marketers gain little to no insight from the analytics they track. Read that stat again…That’s 60% of marketers unable to gauge the effectiveness of their marketing!!!

Why?

Too often marketers are tracking the wrong metrics. Worse yet, they don’t even know to ask what metrics they SHOULD be tracking. They either blindly listen to their agency “experts” or they get distracted by the numerous statistics available and fail to focus and track the only email marketing metric that matters.

* It’s not your email open rate.

* It’s not your email click through rate.

* It’s not your email unsubscribe rate.

* It’s not your email delivery rate.

* It’s not your forwards and social media shares.

What is the most important email marketing metric?  Your Conversion Rate!

Your Conversion Rate answers the question – How many subscribers completed the action that you wanted? (Your CTA)

Did your email achieve the goal of getting subscribers to view a video, redeem a coupon or register for your  product/service?

Your conversion rate measures the effectiveness of your email. If you fail to track your conversion rate, you won’t know if the
emails you send are working or not. You will venture down the path of ineffectiveness because you are not asking the right questions!

How do you track your conversion rate?

The easiest tool to use is also free. It’s Google Analytics.

With Google Analytics you create tags that you add to the  links in your email marketing messages. Google Analytics then tracks the actions subscribers take after they have clicked through from your email to your website.

When you start monitoring your conversion rates, you’ll have the knowledge you need to succeed with email marketing.

A Case Study On How To Execute Social Media Beautifully vs Disastrously…

This past weekend’s Super Bowl was particulary meaningful to me on several levels…first off, Baltimore is home town to McCormick, Inc the owner of Zatarain’s and Old Bay. Two Brands that enjoyed immense participation, visibility and all around good will during the meal occasions during the big game. Food and business aside, y’all know that I am a complete GEEK about all things digital, social and mobile. Just ask my team…they constantly remind me that there is a world outside of digital!

Anyways, during the game I saw what can only be described as brilliance on the part of the Oreo Cookie brand social team and their twitter page. These guys showcased the absolute timeliness and engagement power that Social Media affords all of us…at least those of us who understand and harness that power correctly.

Advertising Goes Real Time…

During the epic 34-minute blackout during Super Bowl XLVII Oreo’s brand team posted a simple ad that was retweeted more than 14,500 times on Twitter.  The message read: “Power Out? No Problem,” and was accompanied by a picture of a cookie with the caption, “You can still dunk in the dark.”

The AOR for the brand team is 360i and I think they did their clients a supherb job in helping the brand team react so quickly and efficiently.  I read somewhere that the agency set up a team to both listen and engage with the traffic and chatter that was taking place online during the game. There were a couple of quotes in the article that I believe really drive the point home about not only deciding to engage in Social Media, but in also having the right players involved.

“Because Oreo was a Super Bowl advertiser, we had set up a team of folks at our offices with people from Oreo as well to both listen to and optimize the chatter on the Internet,” Sarah Hofstetter, president of 360i, told Speakeasy via email. “Having a full team of creative, social media experts and the brand made it quick and seamless.”

Hofstetter added that Oreo exemplifies several digital branding best practices: “They are relevant, visible and constant.”

Oreo’s instant Twitter ad completely stood out on a night when 30-second TV spots cost $3.8 million, demonstrating the power of ingenuity and social media. Does anyone still need convincing that Social Media and Digital Advertising Are Not Only Here To Stay, But Absolutely Necessary To Remain Competitive!

Now compare and constrast Oreo’s stellar example with Applebee’s major faux paus. A waitress at an Applebee’s in the St. Louis area who posted a receipt online at Redditt with a snarky comment on it was fired after the customer complained to management.  There has been plenty of chatter online about whether or not Applebee’s should have fired the server or not. I can honetly see both sides, but the larger issue here is how the company handled the situation online. OMFG, could they have done a worse job from a PR perspective?  Now believe me, I know that many of us in the position of responsibility for Social and Digital media feel sorry for Applebee’s just as much as we feel relief that this situation didn’t happen to us! However, there are some plain ole “blocking and tackling” execution mistakes that anyone who has been online for more than a month understands…if/when you find yourself in a Social Media Hellhole…stop digging!

As the negative comments came pouring in on the various Social pages for Applebee’s, their social team committed several big mistakes.

Trying to respond to the growing news coverage and share its side of the story with customers, Applebee’s posted a message on its Facebook Page. “We wish this situation hadn’t happened” the post began. Yikes! This obviously shows that they did not understand how to respond to an angry digital mob or ponder the fact that they didn’t have to respond at all.  This whole thing would probably have died down in a couple of days if they hadn’t kept pouring gasoline on the fire!

What went wrong?
Applebee’s says its social media policy is simple: to be as open and accessible as possible. “Transparency matters to us,” said spokesman Dan Smith in an interview. “We want to hear from our guests regardless of the subject matter.” Smith said the company’s four-member social media team gives a personal response to more than 90 percent of the posts. But until this incident, most of the posts dealt with questions about menu items or store locations, nothing like the venom being expressed in these comments.

One example: “I don’t even eat here, so I can’t quit eating here. But I would! You guys just suck that much.”

Smith proudly indicated that they tried to respond to every post, in many cases simply cutting and pasting the corporate policy statement – something that didn’t go over very well. Social media has a new and different set of rules and people who use it have different expectations than other forms of communication. Finally, unable to keep up with the barrage of negative posts, the company decided to shut off the wall, so no more comments could be posted on their Facebook page. Then adding insult to injury they posted a status update with the corporate statement.

That was very bad Social Media JuJu, a horrible idea! It made it appear like they were deleting posts, which is the worst thing you could possibly do in a situation like this.

Applebee’s insists that they didn’t delete any comments or block any posts. However in the Digital world, perception is sometimes stronger than truth. The company and their social media team at the corporate offices have learned a very valuable lesson the hard way. The unfortunate truth and lesson here is that this example appears to be another case of a brand or company not being digitally literate.

Trust me I know from personal, first-hand expereince that it is very complicated when it comes to responding to angry comments on Facebook. The one cardinal rule is that you NEVER hide posts or delete negative comments. (insanely profane or racist comments are a different story)

I would just offer up the advice that companies and Social Media teams be prepared for when, not if a Social Media disaster happens. The wrong response can make things much, much worse and damage your brand reputation and engagement. I recommend that you have internal policies and procedures on how to handle situations like this when they happen…and trust me they will happen.

If you address the negative comments in a positive way, it’s an opportunity to show people you’re listening. You may actually create a more loyal customer or fan just from engaging with them the right way. Companies, brands and those who wish to be digitally literate also need to learn that not responding is sometimes the correct response. If you’re under attack, you may need to get out of the way and let it play out. This is especially true when the conversation has turned so angry and negative that any response will just fan the flames.

I have always been a big fan of Chef Dan Barber and his Blue Hill restaurant’s. After watching him share this story about a Spanish Farmer, I think you will see why he and I share the same philisophy about how we can radically transform the way we grow, harvest, process and serve food in this country…Enjoy!

At the Taste3 conference, chef Dan Barber tells the story of a small farm in Spain that has fo

und a humane way to produce foie gras. Raising his geese in a natural environment, farmer Eduardo Sousa embodies the kind of food production Barber believes in.

Dan Barber is a chef and a scholar — relentlessly pursuing the stories and reasons behind the foods we grow and eat.

Dan Barber is the chef at New York’s Blue Hill restaurant, and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Westchester, where he practices a kind of close-to-the-land cooking married to agriculture and stewardship of the earth. Barber’s philosophy of food focuses on pleasure and thoughtful conservation — on knowing where the food on your plate comes from and the unseen forces that drive what we eat. He’s written on US agricultural policies, asking for a new vision that does not throw the food chain out of balance by subsidizing certain crops at the expense of more appropriate ones.

In 2009, Barber received the James Beard award for America’s Outstanding Chef, and was named one of the world’s most influential people in Time’s annual “Time 100″ list.

“Dan Barber is increasingly becoming known as a chef-thinker, popularizing simple ideas that upend the way people think about the food we eat.”

Gothamist.com

That’s Right, I Said “Chef 2 Chef”…But Is Tim Ferris A Shoemaker? A Culinary Poseur? An Eternal Commis? Or, Is He The Real Deal Who Can Hold His Own With Any Of Us In The Chef World?

My fellow culinary rock stars…our profession has been “hacked” by a truly unique individual who has been described as a cross between Jason Bourne and Julia Child.  I know…kinda a weird visual, but stay with me here for a minute.

Before I had ever got the opportunity to  know Tim Ferriss on a personal level, I had been a HUGE fan of his previous best sellers; The Four Hour Workweek and The Four Hour Body. His perspectives and frameworks on how to look at Entrepreneurship, Digital Marketing, Work/Life balance, Health, Wellness, Lifestyle Design and the 15 Minute Female Orgasm are not only legendary, they are amazingly disruptive to the status quo! In my daily personal and professional life,  I implement something  that I learned from him with great success.

His latest book is called The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life. This book is very different from Tim’s previous books since there are more than 1,500 photographs and hundreds of illustrations and recipes throughout.  (I heard a rumor that I was featured in one of the recipes ♥)

Being an author myself, I also love the way that Tim is publishing, marketing and distributing this book “outside the box” and kinda giving the finger to some short-sighted retailers.

It’s for these and many other reasons that I absolutely love this guy!  I don’t give out compliments or adoration easily or frequently, but this guy to me is the modern day Michael Angelo. He has harnessed the power of bigger, better, faster in so many genres that it is mind-boggling to see where his perspective, products and services have canvassed the marketplace. Business Leaders, Strategists and Entrepreneurs can all learn something of value from Tim Ferriss.

Sure…there are the accomplishments and accolades like TWO, Count ‘em, TWO F*CKING #1 New York Times Best Selling books – being called “The Superman of Silicon Valley” by Wired magazine as well as one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and a frequent presenter at SXSW, but what makes Tim such a Rock Star in my book is that he is so genuine and down-to-earth! Many of you who know me well are aware of the fact that I have met or worked with just about everyone who is anyone in our industry…it’s not braggin’…it’s just plain fact. Most of the elite, top-tier Celebrity Chefs/Chef Celebrities tend to have some air about them. I am not saying that’s a bad thing or that they don’t deserve some of it, but what I enjoy most about Tim is that he has not only achieved a remarkable level of success, but he continues to hone his craft and is the consummate student/apprentice.

His work ethic and personality kind of remind me of the Old School Chef’s or Original Gangster Chefs (OGC’s) back in the day that held fame and fortune at arm’s length…mindful that celebrity is a fickle mistress and never forgetting that there was always something more to learn or to improve upon.

That is why I say Tim is “One Of Us” my fellow Chefs….please join me in welcoming him to our club.

Enjoy our interview

New York City, May 2012

Chef Mark Garcia, Director of McCormick Kitchens will present a series of hands-on workshops, tastings and presentations to the creative and executive team at R/GA’s main office in midtown Manhattan this week. Topics to be covered include Phsysiology of Taste & Flavor, Food Affinities, Core Herbs and Spices and Stocks.

Chef Garcia is uniquely qualified to lead these discussions not only because he is a professional chef, but he also leads the team at McCormick that is responsible for all of the digital, social,  and mobile marketing campaigns for the company’s various brands.

“By framing the discussion centered around flavor with the digital team at R/GA, my hope is that we can help the creative teams “connect the dots” on why we do what we do for consumers and how to integrate those nuances into our digital campaigns and platforms” says Garcia

R/GA is an international digital advertising agency with massive influence across the globe. The agency has worked with major brands like Nike, Verizon, Walmart, Grey Goose and HBO. Known as The Agency For The Digital Age, R/GA is headquartered in New York City and has offices in London, Sao Paulo, Singapore, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Chicgao and Stockholm. The company frequently presents at such dynamic conferences such as SXSW and Cannes. They have achieved numerous industry awards and accolades over many decades that they have been in business.

As R/GA continues to create, execute and refine marketing campaigns and platform design with McCormick, the producers and account directors wanted to teach, train and engage their teams on all things flavor. One of McCormick’s core pillars is “Passion For Flavor” and the company has a corporate mandate; To Save The World From Boring Food, One Meal At A Time.

Are you looking to take your Social Media or Digital Marketing skills to the next level?

I am SO looking forward to attending this week an advanced two-day jam-packed conference for PR, Marketing and Digital Executives that focuses on Social Media and best practices from B2B and B2C companies. Cisco is presenting this summit and will feature case studies from top brands and strategic thought leaders so you can learn practical ways to improve your social media efforts.

Cisco has also asked me to present on the campaigns and digital work our McCormick team has executed this past year with our agency of record R/GA. Not only have we garnered several awards for the work, but the consumer engagement we have experienced with our brands has been nothing short of phenomenal!

I will be sharing the stage with some of the most amazing thought leaders and respected brands that are innovating the way online marketing and digital strategy is happening in the current digital landscape.

Some of the companies represented are

Cisco
Weber Shandwick
Neiman Marcus
SAP
Adobe Systems
Whirlpool
LexisNexis
McCormick and Co.
Citrix Systems
PayPal
Intel
Allergan
Xerox
Southern California Edison
Scottrade
Cognizant Technology Solutions
IBM

One topic that comes up anytime I am having a conversation about the Digital space or the Social Media Eco-System is the subject of engagement…Specifically how to create and maintain a high level of engagement with fans, customers, or subscribers. That mes amis is the $64,000 question and there are more than enough “experts, guru’s and consulting companies” all claiming that they have the answer.

I am not claiming to have all of the answers either, but I can share with you some examples of successful engagement campaigns that I have created or been a part of in the recent past. One of the first things I would suggest you do is ask yourself these thought provoking questions:

1. How do you currently develop relationships in the digital world? What I want you to explore here is are you simply reaching out to potential fans with push marketing messages only or are you offering something of value consistently to potential customers that costs them little to nothing.

2. Are you reaching across multiple social media channels or are you only on the most popular ones that you are comfortable with ? Are you where your audience is or is going? You must stay current on the big platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Google +, etc) but realize that new ones pop up everyday and you must be at least conversational and/or testing them out.  Things change rapidly in the digital world…anyone remember MySpace??

3. How is my product/service/menu different from my competition? If 10 people went to your website and then your competitors website, would the marketing message and style be similar? Could these 10 people tell the difference in any significant way? I would be willing to bet that 8 out of the 10 people would not be able to point out any significant differences among the two sites. The challenge in marketing online is that so many websites are starting to look, sound, and feel exactly the same! Now I am not suggesting you be different just for the sake of being different, but there must be a compelling reason that someone who visits your sites is compelled to take action with you.

Here are 3 key ingredients that every successful marketer does to engage their audience in meaningful ways:

1. Be honest and diligent – Another way to describe this is…Be Your Authentic Self. Don’t try and be something you’re not or that you think people want you to be…your audience will trust and love you for the fact that you show them who you are, imperfections and all. Depending on your product or service, show your fans that you share many of the same concerns, fears, doubts, and worries that they have. I teach in my workshops the power of your story…share some “peeks behind the kitchen door” into you, your brand or your establishment. People love to read or understand the “why” of what you do or have created.

2. Provide Value – this should be a no-brainer, but you can’t imagine how many marketers and brands forget this one key ingredient. In the new digital age you need to provide a solution and stop always trying to be a brand. What is your audience trying to accomplish and how can you, your product, or service help them out?

3. Show That You Care – Again, another ingredient that should be easy to implement, but again, most marketers and brands either forget this completely or make half-baked attempts at showing their fans they care. One Social Media Rock Star who currently is doing this very well is Lady Gaga. Look across some of her social media platforms and take a look at the sheer number of fans she has. Think about this for a second…she has 1/10th the marketing budget of just about any Fortune 500 company, yet she outperforms them on every metric of fan loyalty, engagement, and revenue.

Social media users don’t always follow the most talented people or the biggest brands. Instead, they usually follow with passion people and brands that they truly believe care about them. Movie stars and musicians how have 10 million or more followers can’t know every individual they are connected with online. However, the more successful ones make their followers FEEL like they know them or at the very least the acknowledge and appreciate the very people who helped them achieve the level of success they enjoy.

The more that you can exhibit that you understand your customers needs the stronger the digital connection will be.

The SAMMY awards honor overall excellence and breakthrough achievement in Social Advertising, Media and Marketing. The awards are presented by Digiday (a digital media authority) and incorporate the opinions of hundreds of leading social media and marketing experts, journalists, insiders, marketers, publishers and social technology visionaries. This year, count McCormick as one of the honored few to get a SAMMY.

We won top prize for the Best Social Location-based Campaign for the McCormick Grill Mates “Grill mayor” campaign. It also was a finalist in the Best Social Creative category.

Using FourSquare technology, participants checked in on the grilling done by others. At the end of the campaign, the most check-ins at his or her grill brought the winner the honorary title of mayor of Hunt Valley, Maryland for one day (home of Grill Mates, of course). This specific feature was breakthrough in that it was the first-ever REAL mayor awarded through Foursquare.

There were many fun features to the campaign that kept it playful and interactive. As the Digiday campaign brief stated “By connecting a digital activity with a real life activity, McCormick becomes a powerful part of this summer’s epic cookout story across the country.”

“This was our first significant Social Media campaign for McCormick…which is amazing when you think about it,” said Mark Garcia, Director – McCormick Kitchens. “We have garnered awards in what is essentially our first foray into an integrated Social program. The campaign included other innovative components including a Times Square billboard interaction in New York City with our fans who are on Twitter. This was a successful campaign that had cross-agency integration that maximized awareness with TV, PR and Internet all working to build our fan base.”

I advise my friends and chef clients that when you are engaging on Twitter…think of it like a cocktail party. What I mean is that you should try and keep the conversation light, relevant and interesting. We can all remember a time when we were at a social function or industry conference and there was that “one guy” who once you met them, you found yourself trying to get away from them faster than a chicken being chased by angry chef!

When you first met someone at a party or online, one of the best ways to engage and continue the conversation is to not talk too much about yourself, brag about how great your product, service or widget is and to seem genuninely intersted in the other person. Cocktail parties are meant to be light, fun and enjoyable. When you take this same approach with your twitter audience, you will be surprised how easy it is to get followers and more importantly to engage your followers who will promote and pass on your content.

Lately there has been a LOT of talk for both Rock Star Chef entrepreneuers and Fortune 500 brands about “followers” and “friends” and “likes” in the  Social Media and Digital space. I agree that the size of one’s audience matters, but there are other numbers that are arguably better measures of impact and overall strength of one’s Twitter feed specifically.

As with anything, there are a few essentials:

Number of clicks on your links

When someone clicks on your link, that’s evidence of interest in your content. Your daily click totals are helpful in understanding the overall “health” of your feed, while knowing which of your Tweets garners the most clicks may help you to craft future messages.

Number of retweets

When someone shares your content—even in the context of an opposing opinion—that’s more measurable engagement, as your “handle” and your words go beyond your own subscribers.

Number of messages, mentions, and replies

When someone includes your @ name in a post, they either want your attention (like a cc:) or they want to speak with you directly. Not only is this an opportunity to connect with people and discover more content, it’s a sign that you’re a player.

Size of your engaged audience

All the above (and more) factor into what Klout and other social measurement companies use to help us understand the “quality” of Twitter accounts. If your own following has a good level of influence over their followers, your messages have the potential to be amplified far beyond your own shores.

Time

Using Twitter effectively doesn’t have to take hours and hours. You can take advantage of free tools (see above) that enable you to schedule your messages throughout the day, and with the ubiquity of smartphones, checking in every now and then is easy to do.

Growth of your audience

As the Twittersphere matures, the progressive acquisition of new active followers should be part of your strategy. It is best when done without gimmicks. If people like your posts, they will let you know by adding your account to their streams. If you’re not seeing new followers on a daily basis, you might need to experiment with your content (tone, subject, focus, timing).

Some Final Thoughts:

Remember that having an audience of 100,000 who rarely click on your links may not be as valuable as a following of 10,000 highly engaged people. This will, in turn, widen your reach organically and genuinely—which can broaden awareness of your brand, product or service.