Does your technology work like magic?

Recently I had a technology-challenged weekend and I thought I'd share some thoughts about it.

At the same time, I heard some great comments related to technology from two of tech's top thought leaders:  Jack Dorsey (Twitter & Square) and Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly Media)  

First my technology challenges (have any of these happened to you?):

• My Fitbit went through the washing machine (currently residing in a bag of rice to dry out)
• While working outside in the yard, I seemlessly bluetooth-connected my iPhone to my Jawbone Jambox  and then to tried connect my iPhone to my iTunes library just inside the house through the "Sharing" function on the iPhone music app.  It wouldn't connect.
• I took some nice pictures with my iPhone at a street concert Friday night and wanted to edit them on the device using one of my various photo apps.  I like iPhoto, but it has so many capabilities it is actually confusing and I couldn't get the photo the way I wanted it (and the software claimed it could).
• I finally bought a wireless camera to be able to monitor the house while away.  The setup instructions and step through from the manufacturer were perfectly clear and simple.  Except, they forgot to include the one important step of connecting the camera to the computer one time.  Unbelievably, this was not included in the instructions and I had to spend 20 minutes researching on line.  Once this step was included, the camera worked perfectly and wirelessly. 

Meanwhile in an interview on CBS's 60 minutes on 3/17/13, Jack Dorsey talks about taking his staff out to the Golden Gate Bridge, which he describes as "the perfect intersection between art and engineering.  It has pure utility."  He goes on to say that his point to his colleagues "is that when people look at the bridge, they don't think about the commuters or how it functions.  They admire its simplicity and beauty and good software should work the same way".  He goes on to say (regarding software, technology, bridges) it should just work!

Tim O'Reilly,  in a recent presentation at Stanford, refers to Jack Dorsey's commerce Solution, Square, as working like magic because the app, the device and the technology leverages all the capabilities of the mobile device.   It's a great talk, primarily about mobile, exploiting the device's technology to create simplicity, and available here.

Having been involved in digital technology for most of the past 15 years and observing friends, family, and co-workers who aren't geeks, don't care to be geeks and won't invest the time into figuring out how something works, it has become clearly evident to me that the winners (today and in the future) will be the technology that "simply works" like magic.   Where one doesn't' have to think about it or invest time in it to make it works.

Here's the money quote:  (and this is true for all business, regardless of whether there is technology involved or not)   "It just has to work....every time".  

Think: 'light switch'.

So as I think about my iPhone again.  These are the apps that I don't have to think about and work "like magic" for me:

Brewster

Evernote

Flayvr

Flipboard

Stitcher

WatchESPN

Waze

What do you think?

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Social Media's Split Personality for Franchise Sales and Development

On February 17th I will be a panelist in a day-long Certified Franchise Executive (CFE) class at the International Franchise Association's 53rd Annual Convention in Las Vegas. To prepare, I have talked to a number of Franchise Development Execs and Third-Party Social Media/Marketing Professionals over the past month and the data I've collected tends to put Social Media strategy for Franchise Recruitment into 2 camps:

1. Using social media to engage 1 on 1 with prospective franchise candidates through social media channels primarily with group discussions on LinkedIn and advertising/messaging on LinkedIn and Facebook. I didn't hear much about direct success with Twitter, G+, and the others. This is a time-consuming "needle in a haystack" type of approach that requires dedicated resources but has proven to be able to deliver franchise awards.

2. Using social media platforms as drivers back to a franchise sales BLOG and/or franchise sales website. This sounded much more like a marketing play than a "traditional" use of social media as franchisees do on the consumer side, to provide that 1 on 1 "conversation" with customers. It's simply another channel, albeit important channel, to drive eyeballs to your brand's story that really resides on other website or blog platforms.

Throughout it all, however, the common theme is that franchise candidates will access your brand's social media channels as part of their due diligence and validation, so you better keep up with it and pay attention to the content.

If you are a Franchise Development professional or industry supplier, what do you think?

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Are Ya In or Ya Out? - Franchising World December 2012

I contributed an article on Social Media and Franchising for the International Franchise Association's "Franchising World" magazine.

Here's the digital version



......and the text version:
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"Are ya in or ya out?"  I remember an old newspaper salesperson who would make his rounds every week to local shop owners and ask them that question.  "Are ya in or ya out" was his way of asking if you were going to advertise that week....or not.  

There was no in-between. 

And the same is true for social media.  Either you're in or you're out.   There really is no in-between.  

If you want your brand to be relevant in for now and the future, you really must be IN.

See the sidebar for some compelling reasons why you should commit resources and effort to incorporate social media into your branding and marketing TODAY.  For both franchisor and franchisee, a well executed social media strategy can generate:

• Increased Sales
• Strengthened relationships with existing customers
• New Customers
• Enhanced Customer service
• A Consumer research tool
• Traffic to your website

Now, there are some challenges that go with this which could be show stoppers:

• What are the roles of the franchisor and the franchisee?
• How are you going to measure the results?
• What resources will be invested?
• Is the effort going to be fully supported from the very top of the organization & will it be funded properly.

This last point is the most critical.

The franchising world has the opportunity to take the lead in integrating social media into their branding & marketing strategy.  Franchising has the key components:  Brand names, local entrepreneurial operators at the point of transaction, marketing & social media strategists and other resources at the franchisor level, and most importantly, customers.  Lots of customers.  The conduit for social media success..... are the customers.

So, let's break it down.  Zors and Zees have common goals - how much money do they both keep at the end of the day.  Of course that creates tension sometimes, but healthy unit economics typically make for a good day.... for everyone.  And fundamentally, this is driven by sales.  So as dollars are considered for social media marketing investment, it's easy to say, it's being implemented to increase sales.  Done right, using social media as part of your brand & marketing strategy can increase customer count, frequency, average ticket......and all of the goals listed above.

A couple of franchisors who are leading the way are Tasti D-Lite and Moe's Southwest Grill.  Tasti D-Lite literally wrote the book on how to do this ("The Tasti D-Lite Way.  Social Media Marketing Lessons for Building Loyalty and a Brand Consumers Crave").  Both brands said their critical step was having buy-in from the very top.  Not just an okay and budget, but having leaders who engage in social media themselves and fully endorse the brand's efforts.  Additionally, specific social media campaigns should have specific goals, knowing that they all eventually roll up to the ultimate objective of increased sales.

Increasing your relationships with current customers online is no different than offline.  A happy customer will spend more, make recommendations and referrals, and likely increase their use of the product.  Simply being diligent about responding to customers' brand related digital activity begins to accomplish that.  Over time, this becomes part of the fabric of the brand and the brand becomes known as customer focused and responsive.  But, you must be passionate and unrelenting. 

As an example, Moe's social media monitor saw a tweet from a customer who, from a store location, said  "I didn't get my "Welcome to Moe's"  By monitoring in real time, seeing the tweeter's profile, they called the store, gave a description of the customer from her Twitter photo and the manager found the customer while she was still in the restaurant and he personally welcomed her to Moe's.   Think about all the benefits generated from that one spontaneous act.  The customer now has an enhanced impression of the brand, her loyalty logically has increased and she used social media to tell perhaps hundreds of others about Moe's. 

This is the social media customer conduit in action.  

Many brands are at least at this stage where they monitor mentions of their brand while they figure out what else to do, what the goals and strategies are, and try to find budget.  Brans must now figure out how to take it to the next stage of what will be perceived by the customer as a random act of your brand really caring about their experience.  Customers have different expectations for different products, services, and concepts.  You know your typical customer demographically.  Now you MUST figure out what their expectations are for social media interaction.  If you meet those expectations, the magic happens. 

Some will say it's easier for a food concept to engage customers.  There tends to be more passion for food than perhaps Home Inspections or Staffing.  That said, HouseMaster utilizes social media for customer satisfaction follow-up.  They also make use of their social media tools to monitor consumer satisfaction with their franchisees.   This is yet another output of a well-integrated social media strategy.  If there are opportunities to enhance that image through regular monitoring and then follow-up coaching sessions with the franchisee (if necessary), one could almost justify the investment on this benefit alone. 

So the answer to the question of whether you're in or you're out, has to not only be a resounding "yes" and it has to start at the top. Realistic goals based on your concept must be established with specific measurement agreed upon for each campaign and a realization that sometimes it may be more gray than black and white.  If the end result is simply a more personalized "human" impression of your brand from current customers, you still win the day.  A positive feeling can lead to increased loyalty and recommendations, "shares", tweets , likes and other social media jargon. This is what used to be known as "word of mouth". We all know that this ultimately leads to more sales, which drives stakeholder value, which is the foundation for every brand. 

So.....Are YOU in or ya out?

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