DC Interactive Group’s SmartMarketing Blog

Back in November we covered the Firefox add-on/desktop application Yoono. As a Christmas present, the folks over at Yoono HQ gave us an updated version of the application a couple weeks ago, and is it ever sweet.

Upon downloading the newest version, I immediately noticed a change in aesthetics and in operations: Yoono now sports a slick silver look and runs much smoother than previous versions, minimizing browser slowdown when streaming multiple updates at once. But these changes were in the rearview mirror once I realized the following.

The new version of Yoono now supports multiple Twitter/Facebook accounts.

For those of us who maintain multiple accounts (On a given day I have anywhere between 3 and 5 Twitter accounts to keep an eye on), this is an unbelievable time saver. Instead of logging in to each individual account, finding something cool, relevant material and retweeting it, then doing the whole process again and again, now Yoono lets me see all of my Twitter accounts’ updates in real time, streaming in my sidebar while I’m free to do other things. It’s a level of efficiency that simply wasn’t possible before.

The screenshot above is what my Yoono sidebar looked like this morning. You’ll notice three different Twitter accounts and a lone Facebook account at the top of the image. I’m still giddy over the freedom it gives me.

Hopefully I already made this clear, but I’ll say it anyway. If you maintain multiple social media accounts on the same platform, Yoono is officially a must-have. The few minutes it takes you to install and set up will save you hours of time down the road.

From its inception, advertising has been used to sell everything: shoes, food, cars, charities and even causes.  That’s because in its most simple form, advertising simply connects those with a need with those who can fulfill that need.  Suffering from credit card debt? Here’s a debt relief program.  Pipes clogged?  Meet Draino.  Looking for public bathrooms?  There’s an app for that.

But “needs” aren’t always obvious if you’re just looking at your product/service as a solution.  Indeed, nobody “needs” a 5,000 sq foot home, or a $1,500 watch.  What those markets “need” are things that demonstrate their importance to themselves and others.

These psychological needs are really the foundation on which much of today’s advertising is built.  And it works really, really well.

So well, in fact, that when Columbia looked for ways to persuade rebels to drop their arms and turn themselves in, they turned to TV advertising.  Yes, TV.  But their spots didn’t criticize the rebels’ cause.  They didn’t try to tell convince them that they were in a losing battle.  Instead, they attacked their pyschological need for freedom which wasn’t being met by being a guerrilla.

Many in-depth interviews with former guerrillas made it clear to the government that the best way to get rebels to quit was to shine a spotlight on what was upsetting to them in their current situation.  The life of a rebel isn’t pretty.  Sure, they had money from drug dealing and other things to have plasma TVs with satellite service, good food and other trappings.  But they also were always hiding, always running and always fearing for their lives.  Some had families that they couldn’t even see for fear of getting those members killed.  They weren’t free, despite the fact that they were fighting for freedom.

So Columbia used an advertising agency to produce TV spots that focused on the needs of these rebels to get their lives back — basically to get their freedom back.  The spots, using actual rebels who turned themselves in, highlighted the feelings these men had when they had to kill a commander and an innocent couple.  Another rebel spoke of the disappointment he felt when he had to miss another birthday being celebrated by his child.  A third described the empty feeling he had when he had to bury his best friend.  The ads end with “Think about it.  There’s another life.  Demobilization is the way out.”

Since the agency knew the rebels watched soccer, these spots ran almost exclusively during soccer matches.  In addition to getting rebels to turn themselves in, the media buy had an added bonus of showing non-rebels that the government was serious (and humane) in its effort to end the guerrilla warfare.

The results?  In 1999, there were as many as 30,000 rebels.  After the aggressive program began in 2002, that number is now down to an estimated 5,000 — despite new recruits.  In fact, one of the most recent spots touts that 8,900 rebels have quit.  And much of the success is due to the fact that they did not advertise to the obvious need (quit the warfare), but rather to the rebels innate need to secure their freedom.

Despite proven success, only 10% of U.S. hospitals and health systems are involved in social media (California HealthCare Foundation).   Even worse, few of the 10% really take advantage of the “social” side of this medium, instead preferring to simply push out messages about services, classes, and general news.  In fact, per the study, only 6% of all tweets (in the sample) were social interactions; therefore, 94% of all hospital and healthcare tweets were simply information.

This needs to change.

For social media to work, hospitals must be social.  Rather than just tweeting news, or uploading press releases to Facebook and LinkedIn (which, by the way, is still important), why not post discussion points, such as “how can we improve our Emergency Department?”, or “we’re redesigning our waiting rooms and would like your opinion regarding the furniture, carpets and wallpaper.”

This article has great information to help, so click the link below for a more thorough read:

Tactics for Achieving ‘Socialness’

A somewhat new website allows builders, real estate agents and anyone interested in housing access to information about the “walkability” of the area by making calculations based on the distance from any given house to nearby amenities.  One important note:  Walk Score measures how easy it is to live a car-lite lifestyle—not how pretty the area is for walking.  So this site is really not for those who are looking for nice areas in which to walk.

Per the site, home buyers rank proximity to daily conveniences as one of the two most important factors in choosing a neighborhood—more important than schools and property taxes.  Anyone can add Walk Score to their website or to their listings with the Walk Score API or the Walk Score Real Estate Tile.

Walk Score API

Beds: 3 Baths: 2 Walk Score: 84
The Walk Score API returns the Walk Score for any latitude and longitude. Use the API to add Walk Score to your property listings and allow people to search homes by Walk Score.

Learn more about the Walk Score API

Walk Score Real Estate Tile

An amenity map for any address.
The Walk Score Tile displays the Walk Score of a property and a map of nearby amenities. It’s simple to add the tile to your property listings, website, or blog.

Learn more about the Walk Score Tile

It is simply amazing how much information there is on the web — not just for people to use for themselves, but also for people to use in business situations.

Yes, you read that headline correctly.  Fascinating isn’t it how social media and the interactive web world has been extended to allow average Joes the opportunity to contribute to a rock star’s body of work?  The Public Record invites users to collaborate with Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee on his new album by submitting vocal and drum tracks to songs on which he is working.

The downside?  All submissions become the property of Mötley Crüe, so say goodbye to the dream of making a fortune in royalties.

“If Led Zeppelin had done this, I’d have sent them my drum parts for sure,” said Lee in an interview printed on money.cnn.com.

I cannot stress enough that this interactivity is exactly where the internet is heading.  As time passes, we’re going to see more and more applications like this for everything from song writing to problem solving.  And it makes perfect sense — why tackle complicated things yourself when you can put a direction out there and ask others to help get you where you want to go?

When it comes to social media, we must continue to think about ways to involve our fan base in the discussions:  ask their opinions for decorating a new facility.  Open your blogs to product and service reviews.  Query your followers for new ideas.

Really, social media is about discussing what you’re doing with your market and learning from them how you can get better.

In the end, you, your followers and your company will be much better off.

I can only hope that Tommy Lee uses good judgment when it comes to picking the best fan submissions for his new album.