Any serious blogger will tell you that credibility and integrity are incredibly important to what they do. Recently sponsored conversations have gained great momentum as companies start to switch on to the power that influential bloggers have.
As a result services like IZEA , ReviewMe and PayPerPost have sprung up to facilitate this interaction. Whether or not bloggers want to believe it, sponsored conversations have cast doubt over the integrity and authenticity of what they do, and whether you like it or not sponsored posts seem to be here to stay.
From my research into corporate blogs one of the interesting side points that I’ve found so far is that a blog reader’s threshold for sponsored content is entirely dependant on the way in which the sponsored post is handled. My interviewees all recalled and unanimously hated the “terrible advertorials” which were just a bit too hard sell. However, the same people didn’t seem to mind the odd sponsored conversation if it was done with taste and style. So what’s the difference?
In tastefully conducted sponsored posts…
- The blogger discloses that they are being sponsored.
- The post is honest and seems to give unbiased insight.
- The product or service is in line with the bloggers expertise or general theme of the blog.
- Sponsored conversations are the exception rather than the rule (1 out of every 10 post – max).
The first of these points (disclosure) has become such an important part of sponsored conversations, according to the “FTC guidelines“, if there were a financial or other relationship between the advertiser and the endorser that would affect the credibility of the endorsement, that relationship would have to be disclosed.
So, as long as the blogger is clear that the post or conversation is “sponsored,” all guidelines are respected and satisfied. Hence the creation of the “Sponsored Conversation” badge – below (ZIP file here).
Do you think this badge is a good idea? Is it necessary or is it too much? If you ever use this badge please hit me back with a comment – I’d love to know how it goes.
Threadless.com is an amazing example of what a Co-creative platform can achieve in business. They describe themselves as a community-based tee company with an ongoing, open call for design submissions.
How it works.
The diagram below really says it all. Designs can be submitted by anyone with a great idea for a Tee. These designs are then voted for by anyone on the site, any design with enough favourable votes gets made. Designers whose Tee’s are made receive $2000 initially, and then $500 if the design sells out and is reprinted. The Threadless community is incentivised to promote Threadless. They receive $1.50 credit for sending in photos of themselves and their Tee’s. Link sharing is encouraged through the StreetTeam, where sales that come from linking to Threadless are rewarded with Threadless credit. Everyone is rewarded, everyone is happy, and Threadless sells loads of great Tee’s.
On top of this Threadless runs monthly “Besttee” competitions, design challenges, hosts community blogs and forums, posts interviews with designers and runs Tee-V – a Vlog about what’s going on at Threadless.
So What Are The Advantages?
- A loyal loving community that designs, critiques and perfects the product.
- Social Media and Community link sharing instead of advertising – amazing ROI.
- Brilliant inventory management – community forecasts demand before Tee’s are even made – no gambles.
- Low overheads - no professional models, designers, photographers, trend scouts, or physical stores (although they’ve opened one now).
- Consistently trendy products – due to voting.
- Serving the long tail of demand.
If you want to remix your business to gain some of the Threadless benefits try…
- Requesting feedback
- Relinquishing control
- Re-investing in relationships
- Rewarding those who help
- Responding to what people want
- Re-examining your pricing strategy
- Revealing everything – transparency breeds trust
- Re-focusing on giving back – you live in a gift economy
- Realising that your customers have always owned your brand
- Remixing your service to provide a platform where consumers can help themselves and each other
Would love to hear about your experiences with Co-creation, Threadless or both.
In a business case competition we were involved in recently, our team was asked to solve a “hypothetical” problem which the almighty Starbucks faced. The problem centred on customer service and the inability of the company to produce a wide range of customised products in a timely manner. The solution we proposed revolves around co-creation of value.
Our Starbucks Xpress solution enabled customers to create their own unique coffee suited perfectly to their individual taste, in a fraction of the time. The customer orders a base coffee (i.e. a cappuccino) which can be produced quickly by trained staff, then moves on to the self service customisation station to add their favourite extras such as syrup, cream, cinnamon, chocolate etc.
The customer gets their coffee quickly, they can make it exactly to suit their taste, and time spent waiting in lines is cut considerably. The customer wins, Starbucks win; and subsequently value is (co) created. Brilliant!
If this sounds somewhat familiar, then like me you may have noticed Starbucks have actually started implementing co-creation stations to some extent…
On a recent stopover at Hong Kong airport when grabbing a jet-lag busting caffeine injection I was surprised to see something that replicated our service bottleneck solution. It wasn’t quite what we had envisaged during the case competition but it was a step in the right direction. The beauty of this set-up is the potential it had to alleviate the obvious time pressures and language barriers faced in an international airport.
Simple co-creation solutions like Starbucks Xpress can be dreamt up in no time and create value without being overly complicated. For the record the judges liked the idea so much we went on to win the case competition. Go us!
We would love to hear any other good (or bad) examples of co-creation in action.
A week ago I wrote the Gangsters Guide to Business, in it I discussed the pros and cons of a traditional hierarchical business model with an almighty CEO at the top (the Godfather). This is the follow up.
Imagine that Michael Corleone is alive and kicking today, he is sitting at his impressive mahogany desk gazing out the window contemplating the state of his empire. In a moment of rare clarity he realises that he has created a hierarchical organisation with two fundamental problems:
1. One way flow of information – The intimidating nature of authority combined with numerous layers of management mean that the men at the bottom are kept separate from the “made men” at the top. Therefore information about what’s happening on the street can rarely be relied on.
2. Suppressed innovation – In any hierarchical organisation (such as the mob) employees are assigned a place within that hierarchy, the effect of this is that new ideas are often given weight based on the rank of the person with the idea rather than the inherent merit of idea itself.
Social Media Solutions
Tweetdeck
Imagine that Michael and all his cronies are into twitter in a big way (using private status updates for obvious reasons), asides from enabling the bottom of the hierarchy to DM and@reply Michael, it also enables Michael to use a few simple tricks effectively follow thousands of his men to gain greater insight into what they’re doing.
- The Cloud button – shows the most commonly used words by Michael’s following.
- Filter for links – using the filter button type http:// to show all the links that have been tweeted
- Filter for RT’s – using the filter button type @ RT to show all retweets
- Filter for Hash tags - using the filter button type # followed by a relevant topic
- Groups – create groups followers for each section of the family Made Men, Captains & Dealers. Continue Reading »
Why should you have to pay to become a member of a loyalty scheme for the majority of the major airlines? Is there some huge admin fee I’m not aware of? I don’t have to pay (directly) to join fly buys, get a Placemakers “know how” card, a Tesco “Club Card”, or Best Western Rewards etc . The problem here is dominant logic.
Airlines seem to share a dominant logic that their loyalty schemes are so special that they must be worth paying for. Well I’m sorry to say, they’re not. Basically because the airlines have always charged for airpoints memberships they continue to believe they always should; but they shouldn’t! To me this mindset is fundamentally flawed. If you want me to become a loyal customer, you better make it as easy as possible for me to do so. In fact, make it too enticing for me not to! Continue Reading »
Have you ever stopped to consider just how it is that gangs succeed in motivating self interested people to work together?
In James Suroweicki’s Wisdom of Crowds he outlines three basic business models that Hollywood criminals use to organise and manage their operations.
The Godfather (part two) - exemplifies a top-down hierarchy much like a large corporation with Michael Corleone as the CEO.
Advantages:
- Full control – It allows the man at the top to make decisions quickly and have them carried out decisively.
- Stability – It allows for long term investments and planning.
- Wide Spread Control - Michael Corleone is able to delegate the management of his remote operations.
Disadvantages
- Employees can slack off and skim profits – self interested individuals are able to skim profits and seek out side dealings with competitors.
- Stagnant flow of information – as the family grows the lack of information flowing to the top creates greater isolation for Michael Corleone.
- Isolation is bad – limited connectivity to the news on the street means that bad decisions are made at the top.
- People over ideas – New ideas are often given weight based on the rank of the person with the idea rather than the inherent merit of idea itself. Continue Reading »
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