South by Southwest is a conference like no other. I honestly didn’t know what to expect going into it, but it was some of the most fun, cool and exhausting days I’ve experienced. From panels to parties, there was always something going on. And in addition to t-shirts, stickers, and other swag I brought back home, here are 5 trends that I saw from this year’s conference:

1) Foursquare is winning the LBS war

Both Foursquare and Gowalla rolled out new versions for the conference. And both set up engaging experiences and rewards for users while they were in Austin (Foursquare had a special badge for a Big Boi concert; Gowalla had users collect real stickers in a passport for tickets to a Matt & Kim concert) I’ve been an avid Gowalla fanatic for the past year, but I have to admit, I think Foursquare has better positioned themselves for long-term success and scale with their new updates. I attended a panel where Pete Cashmore from Mashable interviewed Dennis Crowley and a large part of the discussion centered around Foursquare’s plans to use the social graph data and personalize the user’s experience. So now you can see what locations your friends have been to, which in turn, will help influence your decision of where to check in. I really like this direction as it takes the core element of Yelp that people love and adds a personal touch. This focus on customer loyalty through an expanded business merchant program (different types of specials for different types of customers) will be really key to their success. I still love Gowalla – it’s by far a superior user experience and visually compelling, but I think Foursquare is moving in a smart direction with their focus on using data to personalize and enhance the experience.

*I should also mention that Loopt, Whrrl, SCVNGR and WeReward all had a very small presence. So small in fact, that I didn’t see or hear too much about any of them. These LBS will be interesting to watch as they have a tough fight ahead to grab share away from Foursquare or Gowalla users.

2) QR codes are everywhere

You couldn’t walk 2 feet in Austin without bumping into someone using a smart phone. So it made sense that QR codes were found on everything from T-shirts to posters to business cards and temporary tattoos. I think this technology is incredibly valuable — the ability to take something static and turn it into something interactive is a powerful tool, especially for marketers. And as the market for smart phones continues to rapidly grow, QR codes will become increasingly important. Other cool mobile innovations worth noting:

• Hashable: an app that helps keep track of contacts you meet via their Twitter handles
• Mobile payments: I paid for a pedicab by using Square, and for lunch at a truck using Intuit’s version. Very easy for both parties.
• Blinx: similar to Contxts, it allows you to give people your digital business card by having them send a text.

3) Group messaging is all the rage

I used GroupMe and Beluga (which Facebook recently acquired) while I was in Austin. It was a great and easy way to coordinate with the larger group of co-workers I was there with. And from all the social chatter, it sounds like GroupMe was the overall favorite. While this technology isn’t completely innovative, it’s actually surprising that it hasn’t come out sooner. It’s extremely useful and helps everyone connect on a more personal level with smaller groups of people from their larger social network.

4) Digital photo/video booths enhance event experiences

Photo booths are always a fun edition to an event. And now, new technology has enabled more interactive experiences. This is a great way for brands to extend the event experience and allow people to share it with others who aren’t there. At SXSW, these were my favorite innovative uses:

• SoBe’s video kiosk allowed you to get a digital makeover with items like mustaches or mohawks and instantly share with friends via a QR code and short URL.
• PepsiMAX had an interactive kiosk (with professional lighting) where you could instantly email photos or a video message to friends.
• Instagram supposedly had a roving digital photo booth, but we never saw it.
• At Google’s 80′s party, you could edit the photos you took in a photobooth on a separate kiosk powered by Piknik, and then email them via your Gmail account.

5) Despite all the cool technology, it’s really about the people

The best part about SXSW was meeting all sorts of people. I learned more from the conversations I had waiting in line than from most of the panels I attended. As a marketer, the same thing holds true — connecting with people (on and offline) and motivating people to action. Whether on a personal level or a customer relationship building one, that’s what it comes down to. Technology can really help with this but there still needs to be that human touch.

Southwest and JetBlue have shown that social media is a great way for airlines to improve their customer service. With American Airlines’ recent Facebook campaign, the list of social media competent airlines has grown to three.

One of the most challenging tasks a branded Facebook page faces is growing the fan base. A well built Facebook page and strong brand equity with consumers does not equal Facebook fans.  Fans aren’t going to magically find you unless you help them get there. A media spend can be costly, however, one of the most impactful and cost effective ways to grow your fan base is to tap into your email list. These people have already shown their interest in future communication. So why not reach out to them and encourage them to connect with you in your social channels? Especially when you have a good incentive and clear call to action.

American’s AAdvantage program did just that. Not only was it a smart move on their part (they gained about 250k fans from it), they gave their fans a great incentive: bonus miles for becoming a fan. And they also incorporated the new additions to Facebook pages — leveraging the visual layout of photos at the top of the page and using and iFrame to allow for interactivity within the tab.

The only downside to this effort is that there are now two robust presences for the American brand: the AAdvantage page and American Airlines page.  The brand would have been better served if they had only one fan page and had AAdvantage as a tab. All American fliers should be fans of both, so why separate them? By combining these efforts, American would have been better able to build stronger relationships with their loyal fans. Now they have to do double duty. Yes, the content is slightly different for each page, but it would have been a smarter approach to build a content strategy that incorporated messaging from both pages.

What do you think about this promotion? Should brands have more than one fan page for different divisions of the brand?

Many marketers are saying that 2010 was the year of social media and 2011 will be the year of mobile. I’d agree with that, and I’d also add that one of the top buzzwords of 2011 will be QR codes. As smartphones continue their rapid growth and reach 50% penetration in 2011, these 2-D barcodes should be on every marketer’s radar. There are some great opportunities with QR codes, but here’s my top 5 reasons why it’s hip to be square:

1. Transform static images into interactive brand experiences
2. Bridge the online and offline worlds
3. Provide quick access to useful information
4. Engage consumers on the go
5. Drive to mobile commerce sites

For more details on what brands are currently using QR codes, the different types of codes and vendors, and best practices for use, check out this presentation I gave earlier in the month:

During a live press conference, Facebook announced 3 new products today that will help enhance Facebook as a better social platform. The overarching theme is giving people more control and confidence over how they can share information and how this information is used by third party applications.

1) Download your personal info

Built on top of the graph API, this product zips up all the info you put on Facebook (messages, photos, videos..) and will send you an email when complete that contains all of your personal information. It is designed for “normal people” not necessarily for developers.

2) Dashboard of apps that you use

This product allows you to look at all the apps you’ve given permission to access your information, the last time they’ve accessed it, and the opportunity for you to change/revoke permissions. This was designed in the hopes of allowing users to more easily and confidently bring their information to any application/context on the web.

3) Groups feature as a collaboration tool

Facebook emphasized that social design is the new way to solve old problems. This groups product was designed to be better than friend lists and algorithms to map out all real-world groups, allow everyone to participate, and be useful in many contexts. Groups will now have shared space, group chat, and email lists giving people control over with whom they’re sharing with and how. Additional features include: a mobile interface, a wiki feature to edit docs, and a graph API for groups (read/write interface).

Groups are not optimized for brands just yet. Facebook insists that pages are key for brands and that groups are really for smaller groups with a max of 250 people.

While these changes are not groundbreaking, they signify a shift in thinking on the part of Facebook. They are actually listening to and identifying needs of their users. While time will tell whether these solutions are helpful, I think the groups feature will allow people to share in a more intimate setting. But as a marketer, I just wish Facebook would listen to the needs of brands and optimize pages and additional features to enhance the brand-consumer relationship.

Have you seen these new products yet? What do you think?

[Reposted from Social Media Today. Also includes an update on Facebook Questions. Original article can be found at http://bit.ly/9eAlFI ]

Facebook continues to beta-test changes on how status updates function for users and Pages. Here’s a preview of what’s to come.

Format. The first thing users will notice is a new format. Instead of having one type of post (status updates) with attachment options, there will be multiple types of posts.

Current format

New format

Privacy settings for each option clearly displayed. When you select the type of post you’re going to make, your privacy settings will show up right next to the option–reminding you exactly who will see what you’re sharing (this change will make more sense in a minute).

Auto-Fill. Similar to using Facebook’s search box, when you begin typing a post, Facebook will try to match what you’re writing with Pages and friends.

Facebook Questions. Facebook questions began beta-testing a few months ago. Over the next few weeks Questions will be rolled out to all US users. It’s important to note that Questions are shown to everyone — so showing privacy settings next to your post options ensures you don’t forget that. (Clear and transparent, that might deserve a gold star).

Similar to the Status option, Questions also has an auto-fill feature. This means users can write their own question or join the discussion on questions already being asked.

Questions will also appear in the right hand rail of your Facebook homepage.

Pages can add a Questions tab. It will be interesting to see how brands will utilize the Questions page. For example, Questions could replace or change how the Discussions tab is used, could serve as a help/FAQ resource, or become a key place for customers to have customer service and product issues addressed.

Are you seeing the new changes in your Facebook account? If so, what do you think about them and how do you think brands will utilize Questions on brand pages?

The location-based service (LBS) market has exploded in the past six months. Starting with a two-sided battled between Foursquare and Gowalla, the market now includes numerous other platforms that all offer unique ways to reward users for “checking-in” on their mobile phones.

Miso and GetGlue give you badges and stickers for watching your favorite TV shows. SCVGNR asks users to do challenges to earn points at different locations. MyTown lets you buy buildings and collect rent in a Monopoly-esque manner. Just to name a few.

But for any of these niche services to succeed and achieve scale now that Facebook Places is in the picture, they need to offer useful and valuable rewards to keep users coming back and engaging with their platform. One service that I think has a leg up on the competition is WeReward. Not only do users get points for checking-in, but those points translate to real cash. And brands win as well by using this service — they receive all the user-generated content to post where they see fit as well as detailed analytics as to who is engaging with them and where. Here’s how it works, courtesy of the local Atlanta NBC station interview I did with WeReward Founder Ted Murphy:

Have you tried WeReward? Do you agree that this model will be sustainable long-term?

This Friday the testosterone-packed, action-filled flick The Expendables opens in theaters. The film includes an all-star lineup of action hero celebs and will surely feature a gratuitous amount of explosions. Whether you’re planning to see the film or not, you definitely need to check out the movie’s YouTube channel.

The channel is actually a very creative page takeover. It starts out as a seemingly average interview with Stallone. Then all hell breaks loose. Characters in the featured videos in the side bar start shooting at Stallone and he responds with gunfire and explosions.

Stills from The Expendables YouTube promotion (click to expand)

The Expendables ‘channel’ is a great example of the unique ways YouTube can be used for digital promotions. Instead of just viewing the movie trailer, the film is brought to life and viewers get a taste of what to expect in an interesting and exciting way.

At the end of the sequence, viewers are given the opportunity to purchase tickets and easily share the channel via email, Twitter, or Facebook.

Email, Twitter, Facebook sharing and ticket purchase (click to expand)

What do you think of The Expendables YouTube promotion? Are there other unique YouTube promotions that you really like? And as Sly says, “DON’T FORGET TO SHARE” your comments.

(If you’re interested in the other digital touch-points for the film, check out Facebook, Foursquare, and the website)

In the midst of the open graph announcement, privacy concerns, and design changes out of the blue, I was surprised to see a call out for beta testers on the Facebook homepage.

Here’s what they’re looking for:

Help us build the future of Facebook.

We at Facebook are preparing to launch a brand new product to the world. We think it will be as exciting as Facebook Photos and Facebook Events, but we need your help to make it great.

As a beta tester, your job will be to ask great questions and provide great answers about your favorite topics. Economics? Skydiving? Relationships? Mexican Restaurants? It’s up to you. You’ll be the first person outside of Facebook to use this product. Your expert writing will be seen by tens of millions of people — including job recruiters. And we’ll bring our best beta testers out to California to tour Facebook headquarters and meet the team.

This sounds very similar to Wikipedia, and with the new Community Pages filling that space, what could they be possibly planning now? Honestly, I think Facebook is having an identity crisis. They are no longer at the point where they should be throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks. With over 400 million users and major brands creating engaging pages for their consumers, there’s a huge opportunity to build on what’s right in front of them, not something new.

I think that Facebook should monetize the brand pages and give companies access to more functionality that will allow them to connect in the most relevant way possible with their unique consumers. What major brand wouldn’t want to pay a fee to customize their space on Facebook and not constantly run into hiccups once Facebook decides to change something out of the blue? And with Facebook fans being valued (albeit questionably) at $3.60 and a new study claiming someone who has Liked a brand will spend an average of $71.84 more each year on that brand’s products or services, this seems like a no brainer.

Maybe it’s because I’m a marketer, but even as a consumer, I would love to have improved interactions with brands on Facebook. Pages allow for an authentic engaging experience, as opposed to ads which just are disruptive and sometimes annoying. So why not shift spending from traditional ads and move towards creating brand pages that foster relationships with consumers? Isn’t that what Facebook at its core is about?

What do you think?

Now that brands have increasingly established presences on Facebook, the next question everyone is trying to figure out is how to grow the fan base. With the change from “Become a Fan” to “Like”, Facebook complicated the matter, and now brands are also trying to figure out the appropriate language to use. Adding “Become a Fan” to brand communications was easy because it was a natural way to speak to passionate brand advocates. Encouraging consumers to “Like” your brand is a whole new ballgame.

Victoria’s Secret has always been a great example of brand engagement on Facebook. And their new promotion not only successfully incorporates the new “like” language but also integrates with an offline promotion, extending the marketing impact.

Victoria’s Secret regulary runs a free panty promotion, so rewarding Facebook fans with an exclusive design was a smart move. Encouraging consumers to think of Facebook while they’re in-store and at home extends the reach of their efforts on the Facebook page. Those who redeem the coupon will definitely show these panties off to their friends and probably talk about them on Facebook. The benefits of word of mouth will draw more attention to Victoria Secret’s page, adding more fans (“connections” in the new world of “Like”) who will engage with the information the brand provides.

This is a great example of how social media can and should be the connective thread between all marketing channels. When brands leverage this correctly, they’ll see greater returns on their efforts.

This is a re-posting of an exclusive article we recently wrote for Social Media Today. We want to share it on Brandopoliscentral.com in case you missed it. the original article can be found at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/184916

Social media is now an active reality for marketers. No longer something to consider as an option, marketers are rapidly increasing their budgets in this space and trying to leverage social media to best connect with consumers. Many marketers believe social media is a low risk, high reward channel. However, these 5 pitfalls will increase your risk and lower the reward, leading you down the path to social mediocrity.

Pitfall #1: Forcing traditional metrics on social media

Social media is evolving, is not a one-size-fits-all channel, and allows for unprecedented interaction with consumers. Because of these factors, trying to apply standard metrics typically used for traditional channels to social media is a like putting a square peg in a round hole. Social media requires using evolved metrics: a customized approach to measurement using a mix of non-traditional metrics that are linked to key performance indicators (KPIs). Non-traditional metrics fall into the categories of sentiment, engagement, effectiveness, and brand affinity.

Click to enlarge

The social media ROI model is different from models for traditional channels, such as television, which have been proven and tested over time. You cannot use the same traditional modeling for social media because such models do not account for changes in the dynamic environment of social media. A smarter approach is to identify KPI’s and build a custom dashboard of metrics based on your objectives and goals.

Pitfall #2: Culture clash

The Web created an always on environment where consumers expect to have 24/7 access to brands. Now with social media, consumers want to have 24/7 engagement with brands. Marketers need to foster a culture that aligns with the consumer expectations in this always on world. This means cutting down red tape and having the right people and systems in place to provide faster reaction times, authentic responses, and genuine engagement. If you don’t do this, you risk dealing with consumer backlash. And you don’t want your brand to end up as another social media fail like Motrin.

United Airlines uses Twitter to connect with customers online and to build a reputation as being customer-centric. The content tweeted includes special fares, trivia, and contest information. However, United fails to consistently respond to consumer complaints or questions via its Twitter account. Furthermore, United has a reputation as having poor customer service, a fact that was highly publicized during the “United Breaks Guitars” viral video incident. The weak presence on Twitter can’t cover up United’s failure to resolve systemic customer service issues. Marketers risk facing a backlash and turning social media efforts into a complete waste if culture and business practices do not support what is being said and done in social media.

Pitfall #3: Focusing on short term wins instead of long term engagement

Short-term wins can be great for generating buzz and grabbing attention for your brand. But to create long-term engagement you need to put the customers at the center of your strategy and provide something that is relevant and useful to keep them coming back. Marketers must understand how and where customers want to interact with their brand in order to add value. Are your customers creators, observers, or information-seekers?  Do they prefer engaging on Facebook, on a Web site, on a mobile phone, via email?

Burger King is constantly on a quest to beat out rival McDonald’s. By launching highly creative (and sometimes controversial) campaigns, they have been successful at generating buzz and drawing attention to the brand. However, results are only short term and fail to achieve real long-term engagement with the brand and grab market share from McDonald’s.  A prime example is the 2009 Whopper Sacrifice on Facebook. While the Whopper Sacrifice stunt received lots of media coverage, just around 82,000 Facebook users participated and only about 23,000 users actually sacrificed enough friends to qualify for the promotion (to be fair, Facebook forced Burger King to disable the app). There are hundreds of consumer-created Burger King groups and fan pages on Facebook (the largest has over 200,000 fans). If Burger King knew its customers were active on Facebook, then the strategic idea would have been to take control of the brand’s presence and provide a central outlet (ie, Burger King fan page) to engage with fans through relevant content, not callow stunts.

Pitfall #4. Being trendy instead of strategic

Social media discussions shouldn’t start off with “we need to be on social media.” It’s necessary to understand why you want to be on social media to ensure that you’re making a strategic move for your brand, not a trendy one. It’s a marketer’s responsibility to figure out which platforms are right for both the brand and the consumer. If this isn’t done correctly you risk becoming a social media/branding/financial fail — your consumers may not accept it positively and even turn on the brand if it feels too fake. Through social media, marketers should channel all the passionate brand loyalty into something productive: feedback, promotions, contests, etc. The key to doing this is focusing on strategic engagement, not jumping on the bandwagon.

Skittles decided to give complete control to consumers without thinking through what that really means. The effect of turning the Skittles website into an aggregation of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Wikipedia backfired when consumers had free-reign to say whatever they wanted. It seemed that the marketers at Skittles forgot that the whole point of social media is to engage with consumers by providing value. Without any monitoring or interaction from the Skittles team, the site was essentially a graffiti wall that had no brand building power. This doesn’t drive relationship building, it’s too superficial and completely unstrategic. Skittles realized the error and its new site is much more controlled, but still allows consumers to share and interact with the brand. On the new site, the overwhelming social media streams are gone and all content can now be shared through Facebook and Twitter.

Pitfall #5 Not integrating and treating as a side experiment

Social media cannot be treated as a side experiment. Marketers need to throw out the “if we build it they will come” mentality and start integrating and directing consumers to brand initiatives. Although social media doesn’t require as large of a budget as traditional media, it doesn’t mean that you can test it out with short-term or one-off side experiments. If you’re going to use social media, you need to commit to it. If you’re not integrating your social media efforts with your overall marketing strategy you risk having disjointed messaging and not reaching the customer — in other words, your social media strategy becomes a wasted effort. Social media should be the thread that weaves together all your marketing initiatives.

UPS delivered a few social media initiatives last year, but they failed to give directions to where they were located. UPS’s strategy is to provide content that is relevant and useful to its B2B customers. At the center is a branded Popurls site. Here UPS is serving as a content curator for business news and tips. UPS also created a Populr Brown Edition YouTube channel and Twitter. While the Popurls pieces are integrated with each other, this initiative is not integrated with UPS’s overall marketing initiatives. The Popurls site is clearly a missed opportunity. The full potential will not be realized unless UPS offers directions to and from these sites and does a better job integrating these elements into its overall marketing efforts.

Avoiding Social Mediocrity

Marketers will need to avoid these 5 pitfalls to be successful. If you don’t approach social media the right way, you’re just setting your brand up for failure. Long-term and strategic thinking should guide your efforts. Social media is not a campaign that begins and ends in a matter of months. It is a long-term commitment of engaging with your consumers to build stronger and more loyal relationships.

About the Authors: Stacy Cohen and Marina Molenda received master’s in Integrated Marketing Communications from the Medill School at Northwestern University. They specialize in Brand & Advertising Strategy and Direct & Interactive Marketing. To learn more about the authors, follow them on Twitter: @stacycohen, @marina81