Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

Edelman has posted their annual report on public trust, the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer. As a marketer, I rely on it as an important benchmark that captures the specifics of undercurrents we mostly ‘feel’ during any given year.

As such, it’s a great tool to use to understand where, how many times, and what kind of information people long for, in order to trust a brand or organization.

From the executive summary:

“The data portray a savvy consumer who turns first to search engines to see what is available on the topic of interest, and who then seeks out traditional media to confirm or expand on what he or she has learned. Information ubiquity has changed the playbook for corporate communications, the data suggest, signaling to companies that they cannot simply be present with their messages, but rather must be omnipresent through an approach that encompasses mainstream, new, social, and owned media.”

In other words, brands need to be at the top of the search page; in the news (online is good); and elsewhere in social media. And frankly, people don’t need to be bombarded, even a few of authentic touches can engender trust.

There are more fantastic infographics, video presentations, etc. on the Edelman Trust Barometer page.

Mine it for your own organization’s nuggets. The information is, indeed, gold.

One of my clients, K12, is wonderfully fortunate to have a student contestant in American Idol 10. Thia M. is the youngest student to have made the Top 12 cut - at age 16. And to me, it’s a beautiful thing when a student can continue her high school education and participate in one of the biggest entertainment events that this country celebrates. March Madness notwithstanding.

It’s a bit harder to show Thia support and school spirit - since the online version of a pep rally hasn’t really been perfected yet (save Idol itself). So we are all doing what we can - rallying support from schoolmates, family and friends - online, via social media. And it’s been fun to watch the fire catch on, especially on Thia’s Facebook page.

With more than 80,000 students and families in more than 60 countries around the globe, one might imagine that K12’s voting audience might actually sway Wednesday’s results!

I know this is all tempered by the tragedy of the tsunami in Japan and the continuing angst of Middle East conflicts…

It may seem - to some - almost trite to celebrate one talented young woman’s accomplishment, when so many families are truly suffering around the world. But if not now, when?

So if you see some unusual tweets and such coming from me lately, it’s in celebration of, and solidarity for, a 16 year-old’s dream. And the power of our communities - virtual, online, educational, social - to show our support…

…for Thia, for families in Japan, and for peace in the Middle East.

(And thank you, all friends and family, for your personal wishes for my birthday today. I feel celebrated as well! The timing of well-wishes is always good.)

I had a little time to read on the plane to the east coast yesterday, and found some fascinating nuggets in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal that I thought worth sharing.

In an article about large websites (like MSNBC or the Huffington Post) moving toward protecting their visitor data from ad platform tracking tools:

dictionary.com, owned by IAC Advertising, once had so many tracking systems attached to it, that it installed more than 200 cookies (cookies are little code snippets that track your personal information) on a visitor’s computer. IAC has since cut its use of outside ad networks, and reduced the number of trackers installed when visitors pop by.

whoa. there’s a good reason to use the define: function in your Google toolbar! (Google has been tracking your searches for years anyway…)

Urban Airship got more coverage for their work to help magazines offer subscriptions to iPad users, something the Apple store isn’t bake to handle. Magazines can’t see their own subscriber data, because Apple tightly controls that for them.

(See nugget above for why that could be a good thing!)

Finally, in an article about the most recent John Grisham novel’s release, ebook sales were about one-third of the first week’s sales. More importantly, the Hatchette Book Group said digital book sales accounted for 9% of revenue in the US through September. Last year at this time, they were so negligible, they didn’t bother to break them out.

It’s no surprise to me, as I Retweeted the other day, ebook readers are more likely to buy more books…

And finally, there was one very obvious QR code (see what it looks like below, and here’s what it is all about) on an ad from Ben Bridge Jeweler featuring a Tag Heuer watch.

We are going to get to a place soon where scannable codes will be as ubiquitous as URLs in ads. You put a little free code reader on your phone, and you can simply hold it over a code and it’ll literally take you places.

(here’s where the code led: the page has a movie, a store locater, and more content than could ever be put in an ad itself. )

“Checking in” on Friday was good for me. I was one of the 10,000 folks who got a free pair of jeans at the Gap. No strings attached. I was just in the right place, at the right time, with the right tool - Facebook Places on my phone - to do so.

The resulting comments on my Facebook profile are typical of the sentiment around the promotion - that it was confusing, and that it was a counterpoint (nice or sarcastic, you choose) to the recent Gap logo debacle, fresh in consumers’ minds. (Regardless, it stirred up plenty of press - more than 1200 people have covered it in the past three days.)

What is the deal?

Checking in to stores and restaurants is probably a new phenomenon for most people. But it’s easy as finding the place you’re in, and clicking a button on your phone. Once you’ve checked in, you can see who else is there, leave tips for others, or simply share the fact that you’re out and about with your family and friends.

To do so, you either download a little application to your phone - like Foursquare or Gowalla - or you play around with Facebook’s new Places feature. Facebook’s Places was launched in mid-August, and will probably cause location-based programs (which is what these are called) to be adopted more quickly, by virtue of Facebook’s sheer scale, and in their ability to forge partnerships with marketers like the Gap.

Location-based social media programs are only being used by about 4% of all online users today, according to recent research from the Pew Research Center. But just because we’re in a minority today, don’t think our numbers won’t grow exponentially. The 4% who are playing around with location-based programs is about as the same percentage of folks were blogging six years ago. And early adopters of social media tend to be highly vocal and have lots of online connections.

What is the deal for brands?

Just like in the rest of the social media landscape, brands need to know people are broadcasting about them when they’re “in the moment” with the brand. This can be good or bad for consumers - sometimes you can win goods (thanks, Gap!), sometimes you can unlock coupons (Starbucks has been very actively offering special “coupon deals” for check ins for months), and sometimes you can find excellent information in tips left by others.

Like the guy who said to sit on the right side of the plane as you fly out of Reagan airport - or the left side as you fly in for the best view. I’m still grateful for his advice!

The History Channel has created a ton of tips for Foursquare users around the country, which always add to my check in experience. Thank you.

The brands who are actively participating today are doing so with a highly engaged and vocal audience.

Because when we “win/unlock/share tips” the applications themselves can help us communicate our observations to our Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIN communities without lifting another finger to do so.

I’m going to repeat that.

The applications can amplify our observations to (potentially) all of our social connections without lifting another finger. That’s word of mouth.

The sad thing is, most businesses have no clue that we’re doing so.

The brand problem is the brand opportunity

I had lunch on Friday at a chain restaurant (there are nine locations on the west coast) that is heavily used by business people. Because I had a little extra time to check out the tips that other Foursquare users had left, I took the time to do so. I was stunned at what I read:

Whoa. Did you see that? “The pork chops tastes like the grill has a propane leak.”

Imagine this kind of information about your brand hanging out there for anyone to see - for months. My bet is, the manager of this particular restaurant might like to know what a small, but vocal percentage of people is thinking - and passing along - about his / her establishment.

If you have a local business that people are frequenting: whether it be a restaurant, a bar, a dental practice, even a gate at an airport… you should know what your customers are saying about you when they’re “checking in.” You might be surprised. Positively, or negatively. And frankly, you need to know which it’s going to be so you can respond appropriately.

Now. Before adoption really blossoms.

I’ve been looking for an infographic that shows the intricacies of the mobile marketing field, to no avail yet…

Something like the latest version of Brian Solis’ Conversation Prism - that shows the players in social media’s “art of listening, learning and sharing” - and which is truly a thing of beauty. (Head over to The Conversation Prism to see it in its full glory.)

They suggest you look at it to see what you’re missing.

I suggest you look at it to see possibilities… and the beauty of a well-constructed picture that truly is worth a thousand words.

BTW, if you’d like to see how it has changed over the years (it’s pretty remarkable):

2008 version 1.0 is here.

2009 version 2.0 is here.

Now… who is working on this for mobile?