What Twitter Could Learn From America Online.

Go ahead and break out the rotten tomatoes. It’s near blasphemy to mention the much-maligned America Online in the same breath as today’s newest shooting star, Twitter. But digital anthropologists will remember that once upon a time, AOL was the rock star, replete with magazine covers, explosive growth and millions of addicted fans. The early America Online also had something all-too-few Internet darlings ever managed to achieve: a revenue-generating business model.

As one of AOL’s first Greenhouse Partners, I was there for a few of those shining years, soaking up the smarts from the likes of Ted Leonsis, Steve Case and more Harvard MBA’s than show at a Crimson football game.

What Twitter Could Learn From America Online

Lesson 1: User experience anyone? According to Nielsen, Twitter’s growth has skyrocketed to 10 million in the past couple of celebrity-fueled months. But despite lots of tweeps in the social media sandbox, very few are playing.

Here’s the real shocker from Hubspot:

• 54.9% of users have never tweeted
• 42.12 have only tweeted once.

Wimpy participation rates like this simply wouldn’t last for long in the young AOL. “Lurkers” in the chat rooms were encouraged to join the party by exuberant Chat Room Hosts, whose job it was to welcome newbies, manage flame wars and stimulate ‘repeat business.’ Nowhere were these savvy business practices more in evidence than in the Greenhouse properties, where our site survival was dependent on how long members stuck around. Our hosts were all pros at making chatters feel comfortable: {{{ MidnteLace!}}} @@>—>—–! We understood that everyone starts out as a Lurker. Our mission was to transform those silent on the sidelines into active participants.

Yes, of course it feels truly dippy now. We are all waay too cool for this kind of behavior. And yet? What if Twitter created a group of Tweeter Greeters? What if they used the new Verified Account badges for more than celebrities? What if they developed the 2009 version of Twitter Hosts, empowered to do what their AOL counterparts once did?

How many of the 54.9% who’ve never tweeted might join the conversation if they weren’t concerned about being an Accidental E-Hole? Or if they weren’t worried about inadvertently falling victim to Twitter spam, password scams or viruses? Or if they weren’t simply mystified by the endless stream of disconnected me-me-me broadcast tweets?

What if some of the 42.12% who’ve trepidatiously tweeted just once got an authentic reply from the Twitterverse? Inclusion is a magical thing. In the every-Tweeter-for-himself environment on Twitter, inclusion is the happy fairy dust that leads to high engagement.

Lesson 2:  Okay, we get it — you’re an understaffed, overworked, over-caffeinated start-up scraping by with only 50 employees (and 55 million in funding.)

So why not do what AOL did in those formative years? Tap into your masses of addicted Power Users the way America Online once did with the Community Leaders program. Most sites had CL helping with everything from managing message boards to chat rooms to content development. Community Leaders received free accounts in return — a hugely sought-after prize in those days of $2.95 an hour for AOL access.

Obviously, that model no longer exists — but what’s still in full and fervent swing is the heated desire of tweeps to venture behind the velvet rope. Imagine the avalanche of applicants if Twitter asked for volunteers. Imagine the avalanche of applicants if Twitter ‘paid’ these volunteers in customized Tweets (designated colors, fonts or graphics) or added them to the recommended Follows for new users– or invited them to exclusive volunteer events. How about a SXSW Tweet-up at Gingerman Pub?

I’m ready for those tomatoes now.

MotrinGate: Twitter Moms Abuzz Over Motrin Video.

At times like this, I am resoundingly thrilled with my decision to leave traditional advertising oh-so-many-moons ago at the dawn of the digital age.

Apparently, they still don’t ‘get it.’ At least whoever created Motrin’s ‘Wearing Your Baby’ video doesn’t get it. And this corporate cluelessness has now exploded into MotrinGate, thanks to legions of Twitter Moms who have been tweeting upthewazoo all weekend. Pity the poor Motrin exec who shows up to Monday morning’s firestorm. Of course, if they had they had the customer service smarts of Zappos, JetBlue, ComcastCares, etc. they would already know about this Mom-fueled fury and they would have apologized, explained or waved a white eco- diaper.

The video “Wearing Your Baby” is still up and running on the official Motrin website. The video claims that this supposed ‘fashion trend’ of carrying baby in a sling causes ‘extreme pain’ — and thus merits Motrin. Not only is the voice-over whiny, annoying and inauthentic but their ‘facts’ are dicey.

Considering how many zillions of Mom marketing firms there out clamoring to help corporate America, (I spent a chunk of this week’s hugely useful WOMMA conference with Mom-savvy Stacy DeBroff of MomCentral) it seems pretty clear that as one tweeter said: “There’s no way a Mom was involved, or if she was, she was ignored.”

Part of the copy: “If I look tired and crazy people will understand.”

If you’d like to follow MotrinGate on Twitter, simply use #MotrinMoms. Currently MotrinMoms is trending #1 on Twitter — and social media mavens are splashing across all media from new to traditional.

As a Springspotter, I’m pinging Liesbeth in Amsterdam with this trend that shows off the incredible power of mobilized Don’t-Mess-With-Me-Moms.

And here’s one of the videos created in response to Motrin’s original video.

Guru’s Take: The lesson here for corporate America? This didn’t have to happen. All you have to do is ask and Moms will help — with your creative, your research, your buzz. We’ve been having Twitter Product Parties – a nifty way to do Social Media Research — and this 21st century style focus group could easily have prevented this corporate boo-boo. Motrin apparently didn’t ask — and now they’re getting stung bigtime.

Guru’s Take #2: Okay, have been researching and from what I can tell, McNeil (maker of Motrin) is a division of Johnson and Johnson . . . and J&J owns the #1 parenting site on the web: Babycenter. So I am wondering why they couldn’t have tapped into that multi-million strong BabyCenter Mom-community?

Guru’s Take #3: Okay, finally a response from the VP at McNeil.  (Thank you, Katja, for the post and all your hard work.)  Amazing that this semi mea culpa took this long. Amazing that no one from McNeil or the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies appears to be tweeting on the weekend. Even for a complete Twitter newbie, it would have taken all of about a minute for the outraged Motrin tweets to have bubbled up; it was that fast and furious. This whole thing could have been prevented if:

• Someone, anyone, at McNeil (or its agencies) had a clue about social media
• Someone, anyone, at McNeil had a clue about the importance of respecting the VOM (Voice-of-Moms). I’m a veteran market researcher and I cannot imagine letting my clients go without either exploratory pre-production research or post-production eval — hopefully both. I always tell them that research is essentially insurance — it would have prevented McNeil’s 4-Motrin-Migraine.

Yahoo and AOL Go On A Second Date?

It’s been rumored all week. Yahoo and AOL are leaping beyond eyelash-batting and late-night IM’s, and taking that getting-serious next step: the Second Date. Proof that the flirtation has gone past speed dating? They’re introducing their books to each other, engaging in ‘meaningful’ due diligence.

Does this mean a merger (wink-wink) is on the way? Or is Yahoo leading AOL on, like it did to ex-swain Microsoft, who Mom really-really would have loved? Or will Google’s search advertising partnership once again stand in the way of a deeply satisfying monogamous relationship for the Purple One?

Then there’s on-again, off-again Time Warner, who Yahoo turned to after Microsoft got a touch too possessive last spring. “Just because you have $47.5 billion doesn’t mean you can act like you own me!” snapped Yahoo, stomping out of Starbucks in awesome Sarah Lacy-style boots.

And then, like it was so random, but somehow Microsoft read some tweetsabout Yahoo’s hook-ups with Google and TW, and got ticked and yanked its $33-per-share proposal like right before summer vacation. But when Yahoo turned back to Google, thinking they could still be bffs, Google made up some bogus excuse about the government or the FBI or something not letting them be together.

Now everybody’s shares are way down, especially Yahoo’s, which crashed by 63%.  So this Second Date, is like, HUGE.   To help the courtship along, Guru turned to the romance experts at AskMen.com, who offer up this advice on how to handle that important Second Date:

So you made it to the second date. Good job. You’re relieved, you obviously made a good impression and she wants to see you again, but now what? What is she expecting? And, more importantly, what could ruin the potentially good thing you have going on?

K.I.S.S: Keep it simple stupid.
Don’t do anything spectacular or you’ll scare her off. Plan an activity that’s different from the first date, but make sure it’s nothing too demanding. The second date is about getting to know each other better. Have a few options planned, but don’t force her to choose or she’ll feel put on the spot.

Wise words.

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