I had a lot of fun doing this interview with the Zoopy team at the recent Tech4Africa conference in Johannesburg.

I don’t understand some of these social media agencies and “gurus.” There’s so many of them out there that offer a range of services that I don’t think they can possibly deliver on. Let’s look at the one that really irks me.

Brand Reputation Management

What they say: “We’ll manage the fallout when something bad happens and you’re getting negative press.”

The Reality: HOW? How can you possibly manage something you didn’t create. You’re going to suppress negative press? If I have negative press chances are I deserve it and *I* need to react and respond to it. If my product is crap or lots of customers have a bad experience, a certain percentage of them are going to let the world know about it. That’s just how the game works today. With Twitter, Facebook, etc the consumer has become infinitely more powerful than they’ve ever been before and we, as brands, are much more accountable to our consumers (this is a good thing). If we put out poor product, poor customer service, make bad decisions then we’re going to get called out in a very public manner. If you pay someone to bury this negative press, two things will happen 1) it won’t work; it’s impossible to bury all that negative buzz no matter what underhanded tactics are used, and 2) someone is going to find out what you’re trying to do, expose you and you’ll suffer even more damage to your brand.

The key to winning here is three-fold:

Create good products and experiences – Duh. This is a no-brainer. If you’re creating good product and experience, the chances of that product or experience failing is substantially lower, thereby minimizing the risk of a user (or several users) getting upset and taking their grievances online. Look after your customers’ best interests ahead of your own and it’s highly unlikely you’ll ever need brand reputation management “services”.

Create genuine brand evangelists – When something goes wrong or someone criticizes  you on a public forum (blow, facebook, twitter, message board, etc), it’s relatively easy for you to go on there and respond with “NUH UH!! That’s SO not true!” But there’s so much more credence and relevancy and pure power if your users, your customers, your FANS do this on your behalf because they feel genuinely compelled to do so. If 10 of your customers immediately jump to your defense, the original criticism will immediately be discredited AND you’ll actually enhance your brand with that public display of loyalty from your users. And you didn’t have to do anything. So focus on creating something people genuinely love – the rest will take care of itself.

Listen to what’s being said and REACT when something goes wrong – If you’re a young brand without legions of brand evangelists, you may need to take action yourself. If the criticism or complaint is true then hold your hand up and admit to it, apologize, explain the problem and what you intend to do to fix it. If it’s not true then counter with polite, fact-based argument and do your best to reconcile with the complainer. Reconciliation isn’t always possible, some people are just haters. But at least you tried and that attempt is out there for the world to see. But remember, people have to be pretty upset before they start putting time and energy into talking smack about your brand online. That means that they’ve probably expressed their frustrations, be it directly or indirectly, in the past i.e. they’ve given you a chance to remedy the situation. You can’t heed these warning signs if you’re not looking out for them in the first place. So be aware where the conversations about your brand are taking place, monitor the chatter, and react when necessary. Keeping in constant conversation with your customers means you almost always have an opportunity to nip any service delivery issues in the bud.

Have you ever needed brand reputation management services? Why? How did they work? Let me know in the comments below.

I learned something last night.

I was standing on the platform at Earl’s Court Station at about 11:50pm waiting for a train back to Parsons Green when over the PA comes a very odd announcement. An announcement came over the PA in perfect Received Pronunciation and in a clearly rehearsed manner said:

“Would Inspector Sands please come to the operations room immediately.”

I dismissed it as a staff announcement albeit strangely different than the normal London dialect that usually delivers station announcement. I was about to plug back into my music when just a few seconds after the first announcement came:

“Would Inspector Sands please come to the operations room immediately.”

Same delivery, same tone, same voice.

And again:

“Would Inspector Sands please come to the operations room immediately.”

This was getting really creepy. A dark platform with hardly a soul anywhere and a dismembered voice eerily repeating the same message over and over in the exact same manner.

Since it sounded like it could have been a recording, and by now my curiosity was well and truly piqued, I googled the phrase. I expected to get no results, assuming that it really was a staff announcement, albeit a strangely delivered one.

Well, I was wrong. Google lit up with results.

Here’s what I discovered.

“Inspector Sands is a code phrase used by public transport authorities in the United Kingdom. The phrase is used in public address announcements in public places to alert authorities to a potential emergency, and possibly its location, without causing panic amongst members of the public by explicitly mentioning its nature. The exact wording depends on the station, and the nature of the incident, for example “Would Inspector Sands please report to the operations room immediately.“”

There’s even a couple of theories on the origin of the name Mr. Sands. “The use of the word “Sands” may be a pun on the fact that staff must investigate and reset the alarm system before a set period of time elapses, as might be measured in a sand-timer, and the station systems automatically switch to a fail-safe evacuation mode.[citation needed] Alternatively, it may reflect the fact that sand can be used to put out fires. “Mr Sands” has also long been used in theatres as a code for fire.”

Ahh, it all makes sense. A coded phrase to alert staff to a fire alarm going off or something of that nature but without causing undue panic among travelers. Smart. A bit more research and I found some TFL staff saying that it usually means a fire alarm has been tripped and 90% of the time it’s a false alarm.

So nothing creepy at all.

Until I read this:

“During the 7 July 2005 London bombings, the phrase was announced repeatedly on a continuous loop.”

THAT is creepy.

I had fun working with the guys at TAXI on this interview about the future of branding, loyalty, traditional marketing vs. “new” marketing. What do you think? I’d love your thoughts.

http://www.designtaxi.com/article/100759/The-Future-of-Digital-Marketing/

Recently United Airlines (@UnitedAirlines) ran a campaign on Twitter to celebrate the 1st anniversary of their Twitter account, or “Tware” as they like to call it. The basic structure of the campaign involved asking Twitter users to retweet the following:

So essentially, to enter the contest you had to retweet the contest message and hashtag, as well as the URL, which was basically the Ts & Cs for the campaign. You can retweet it every day for the duration of the campaign to increase your chances of winning.

This is a terrible, terrible idea. At best I would call it disingenuous and against the spirit of the platform. At worst I would call if fucking annoying. I would strongly discourage companies from ever doing this type of campaign. Here’s why:

It’s effectively spam. You’re encouraging your followers to pollute their tweetstream with meaningless crap. A few of my friends retweeted the United message and I called them on it. We had an interesting debate about the merits of this type of campaign when a friend said this:

My answer to this is no. Categorically no. And the reason is simple. I don’t follow Southwest on Twitter, and if I did and felt they were tweeting too much per day, I could easily unfollow them. With United’s campaign, I could potentially receive the same campaign message 178 times a day for the duration of the campaign (5 days.) So let’s look at this:

I follow 178 people on Twitter, who could all retweet the same message every day for 5 days. Remember, one increases one’s chances of winning by retweeting the message each day. So, 178 x 5 = 890. I could receive essentially the same tweet 890 times in 5 days. Fuck. That. Of course the chances of that are low but at least 10 of the people I follow retweeted the message at least once so I had the possibility of getting it 50 times in 5 days. Still absolutely unacceptable. The whole retweet thing was bad enough but encouraging users to retweet the same message 5 days in a row is completely ridiculous.

A simple way that UA could have made this a successful campaign AND added value to followers receiving the RT is if they had added a UGC component. For example, instead of retweeting a meaningless marketing message that is of zero value to an entrant’s followers, why not have the entrant tweet a travel tip each day with the contest hashtag. That way the entrant is enrolling in the contest AND providing a service to their followers.

Also,  users should NEVER be encouraged to retweet your same marketing message multiple times to enter a contest, or for any other reason. Ever. Ever, ever, ever.

Let’s be honest here, if your contest isn’t complete crap, then your followers will retweet it because they WANT to not because they have to. I have a feeling that the people I follow who retweeted the UA contest would have done so on the merit of the prize alone and as a service to their followers. I know I would.

I think this quote from Snipe.net sums up my feelings nicely: “Encouraging your Twitter followers to spam their friends with contests and promotions that they very likely may not even be interested in will only result in their followers resenting you *and* unfollowing the original tweeter. I treat RT contests very much like the recent syphilitic plague of Twitter-based games such as Mafia Wars.”

BTW, if you’re looking for GOOD Twitter marketing advice, check out The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web by Tamar Weinberg. It really is an excellent book.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Mexican food, specifically burritos (I know, they’re not technically Mexican but you know what I mean.) I have been on a never-ending quest to find a serviceable burrito in London, ever since I moved here two and a half years ago. Recently, I tweeted my dismay that Chipotle are opening their first UK store this week. Chipotle are literally the McDonald’s of burritos and while I admire their iphone app, you can get MUCH better burritos in London. On the back of my tweet, I received several messages from people asking me to share my London burrito recommendations. So, without further ado, the best (and worst) burritos in London:

1) Chilango (Islington) – My personal favourite for a number of reasons. Chilango has 2 locations in London and a few more scattered across the UK. Started by a former technologist, the Chilango team have put massive amounts of time and energy into bringing a solid burrito experience to the UK. They go on regular research trips to Mexico and the US to hone their already excellent burrito recipes. Never ones to compromise on quality, I’ve heard co-founder Erik (@chilango_uk) rant about the availability of fresh produce that meets his exacting standards. Free refills and good salsas are the cherries on top of what I think is the best burrito experience in London. They’ve also nailed their customer service platform and are genuinely passionate about engaging with their customers. After all, they did host the UK’s first burrito eating competition!

From a Qype review: “My chicken burrito was tasty and well made, and my wife clearly enjoyed her carnitas burrito. Rounded off with chips and salsa fresca and it was well worth the trek. Best burrito I’ve had in London to date.”

2) Benito’s Hat (Fitzrovia) – a close runner up behind Chilango, Benito’s Hat in Fitzrovia puts together a very solid burrito. If you’re looking for a food coma, this is the place to go. Their slow-cooked meat is truly excellent (try the pork), and the burritos are stuffed to bursting with meat, rice, beans, sour cream, etc etc. Their salsas (of varying potency) are excellent too and it’s nice to find Monterey Jack cheese on this side of the pond. Reasonably priced, my only criticism is that there’s very little space to sit down so your best bet is to get your burrito “to go” – just make sure you have a wheel barrow  handy to get it home. Oh and they also deliver – nice touch.

From a Qype review: “The burritos are so good here that my husband ate lunch AND dinner here last weekend…and I was so jealous.”

3) Freebird (Soho) – If you can judge the quality of an eatery by the queue at lunchtime then Freebird should have a couple of Michelin stars. This is literally a stall in Soho that serves up some truly excellent burritos. Made right in front of you, like Chilango and Benito’s Hat, there’s not a whole heap of choices to make when deciding on fillings but what you get is incredibly tasty and fresh and really excellent value for money. Their salsas are excellent and the meat marinades are perfectly spiced.

From a Qype review: “Having been born and raised in Southern California, this is one of the very few places in London that reminds me of a genuine Taqueria. The flavour and freshness of the ingredients, and the spiciness of the salsa makes this an excellent burrito!”

4) Daddy Donkey – Another stall-based operation, Daddy Donkey doesn’t mess around with its burritos. Operating since 2005, a fellow American calls this his favourite burrito place outside of the US…but he’s from the East Coast so what does he know about Mexican food (sorry, Chris!). Seriously though, Daddy Donkey serve up gut-busing, intensely flavourful burritos with a smile – these guys are clearly passionate about burritos. Don’t be put off by the inevitable massive queue, it moves quickly and is worth the wait.

From a Qype review: “As fine a burrito as you shall find in London, jam-packed with more juicy Mexcan succulence than Salma Hayek’s t-shirt.”

And the worst….

1) Tortilla (Fitzrovia) – Ugh. I’d like to share part of a previous review I wrote about this place: “Have any of you ever seen that episode of the Simpsons when Marge develops a gambling problem and Homer has to make dinner which consists of cloves, Tom Collins mix and pre-made pie crust? Remember his face when he takes that first bite? Yeah…that was me when I bit into this burrito. The pork seasoning was just….wrong. Like really wrong. It had flavor alright but it was like chipotle gone wrong, horribly wrong. I thought it might have been a one-off so I ploughed through but no, the taste remained throughout. Carnitas are supposed to be toasty and warm with subtle flavors that let the braised pork shine through. Not with this one though, no sir. It should be noted that I went through what must have been 10 napkins while eating this thing. It wasn’t well put together and the watered-down ingredients destroyed the tortilla within minutes.” Now, in Tortilla’s defence, after reading my review they sent me a very nice email apologising for my experience and inviting me to meet with them about how they can improve. I admire that. They also have free refills and reasonable prices but that doesn’t make up for a weak product. Avoid until they sort their product out.

From a Qype review: “Until something drastic happens I’m resigned to a fifteen minute walk to get some ‘proper’ Mexican food.”

2) Wahaca (Covent Garden) – Oh suppress your audible gasps, I’m serious about this one. Wahaca was one of the first Mexican joints I tried in London and it just put me in a bad mood. It’s so typical of many London restaurants these days, “interpreting” types of cuisine with bland an uninteresting results. It’s what you would expect a winner of Masterchef to interpret Mexican food as (which is exactly what it is). My steak burrito had cabbage and pickled onions in it…..who the hell do they think they are? To their credit, the wait staff are friendly and knowledgeable, and the food is clearly fresh. But it’s not Mexican food and I wouldn’t go out of way to go there, let alone wait in the ridiculous lines that seems to form there.

From a Qype review: “My problem with Wahaca is that the food is just underwhelming. There are some fantastic Mexican places in this city, and Wahaca can’t compete with them.“

During a recent workshop I gave at FOWA Miami, I made an off the cuff comment about my obsession with the travel industry and the pleasure I get from “hacking” airfares and hotel rates. There was a stunned silence and a voice from the back said “Oh dude, you can’t just say something like that and not share that shit!” Consequently we spent a good chunk of time after the workshop officially finished talking about travel, airfares, loyalty programs and the tactics I’ve used to get cheap flights and hotels. At the request of some of the attendees I started jotting down a few nuggets of experience. After I finished the 4th page of scrawled notes, it seemed to make sense to turn it into a series of blog posts because so much of the travel “advice” I’ve read over the years was clearly written by people who have never left their house, let alone the country. And that’s how I arrived at this, the first of what I hope will be many travel related posts. I plan to cover the basics, “hacking” airfares, airline and hotel loyalty programs, and the fear of flying, amongst other things. I hope you dig!

So without further ado, here’s some basic travel tips that so many of us seem to overlook.

• Don’t buy flashy/expensive luggage. It’s a good tip to thieves that the contents will also be flashy/expensive. Your criteria should be; durable, expandable, wheelable. That’s it.

• You can leave the kitchen sink. When you’re packing, get everything together you think you need, lay it out on your bed……now put half of it back. You don’t need it, you really don’t, and there’s nothing worse than having to lug around a heavy bag that’s full of crap you’re not going to wear or use. You can easily pick up extra clothes and necessities if you need them, hand-wash small items, or run them through the hotel laundry. Incidentally, my ebook reader
  was one of the best travel investments I’ve ever made – I have a library of books with me without the need for chiropractic spinal care when I get home from lugging my holiday reading around.

• Hoard travel-size toiletries. I have a whole basket of them at home and I always stock up at Boots, Target, etc…..or in hotel rooms. This makes packing for a quick trip so much easier and you don’t have to deal with buying full size toothpaste, shaving cream, etc at each destination or packing them in your checked-in luggage.

• Prep for security. I know this sounds obvious but prep for airport security BEFORE you get to the conveyor belt. So many times people with a jacket, laptop, liquids, 2 pieces of carry on, a scarf, thigh- high boots, a hat and a water bottle screw it up for the rest of us by spending 15 minutes disrobing while the conveyor belt drags their bag away from them, flustering them even more. Loosen/remove your belt, take your jacket off, untie your shoe laces (or even better, wear slip ons), unzip the pouch on your bag where your laptop is stored, put your sunglasses, wallet, keys, phone etc in your carry on while you’re in line – the people in line behind you will thank you.

• Don’t go nuts with the booze on a flight. Not only do the physiological effects of alcohol increase at altitude but it dehydrates you, can make jetlag worse, and you really don’t want to be “that guy” on the flight. This especially goes for those who aren’t comfortable with flying – more on that in a later post.

• Ease through immigration. If you travel even moderately frequently, the government sanctioned immigration, customs, and security “fast pass” programs can be a huge timesaver. The UK’s IRIS system is one of the best.

• Tip the right people at the right time. Tip hotel housekeeping staff a lot at the BEGINNING of your stay, like on the first day. They work hard and it will ensure a pleasant stay. It irks me that we tip people for opening doors, showing us to our table, bringing us a soda but not for cleaning up our hotel bathrooms and beds each day. I’m completely with Chuck Thompson
  on this one. Oh and to my British friends traveling in America, the easiest way to (roughly) calculate the baseline tip on a restaurant bill is to double the tax – that usually gives you between 15-20%.

• Buy the local transport system’s commuter card. If you’re in a city for more than a day, pick up their transport system’s stored value card (like London’s Oyster and Hong Kong’s Octopus) and put a few bucks on it. Not only is it much easier than buying a ticket for each journey, in many cases (e.g. London) it’s substantially cheaper than a normal ticket and will allow you to travel on undergrounds, buses, trains, trams, etc. Also, the lines for ticket machines at busy stations can be unbelievably long, especially during tourist seasons.

• Don’t eat in hotel restaurants. They are expensive and almost always uninteresting and sterile. Unless your hotel is in the middle of nowhere, there’s going to be interesting local food just around the corner which will almost always be cheaper, tastier and a far better reflection of local culture and cuisine. Don’t be afraid of “street” food either, I’ve had some of my favourite meals from hawkers, dai pai dongs, taco trucks, etc.

• Let your bank know you’re going to be out of town. If your bank is anywhere near as “proactive” as mine, as soon as you use your ATM or credit card overseas you’ll trigger red flags in their system. Enough “suspicious” activity and they’ll disable or even deactivate your card. There’s not a whole lot worse than your ATM card not working when you’re 4500 miles from home.

• Bonus Tip for people visiting the US. GET TRAVEL INSURANCE. If you go to the US and get hit by a car or something (heaven forbid) and you don’t have insurance, be prepared for a logistical, legal, and financial nightmare. So get travel insurance, it’s not expensive and can save you from disaster. Check with your bank or credit card provider as many of them have insurance services built into their account/card products.

• Bonus tip for people visiting London. The Heathrow Express and Gatwick Express are a rip off. The tube will get you to central London quickly and easily from Heathrow, and the scheduled national rail services from both Gatwick and Heathrow are a quarter of the price and not much slower than their overpriced “Express” cousins. Actually, I think there’s a whole blog post on visiting London…..expect that soon.

Finally, if you have any basic travel tips, leave them in the comments, I’d love to hear!

I have seen the future of sport. And it is good.

I was playing golf at Poppy Ridge in Livermore, CA and was just blown away by their tech set up. Take a look at the golf karts…

I love introducing this element to sport, especially golf, because it doesn’t interfere with the playing of the game but brings some data into play, allowing you to play a little more intelligently. Not to mention making the course easier to manage from the Club’s perspective. Is access to data the future of recreational sport?

Inspired by my buddy Josh Spear I decided to compile a list of cities I went to in 2009. From what I understand, Jason Kottke popularized this trend and the general rules are that one has to have spent at least a night in each place. Fair enough. My travel 2009 wasn’t as epic as 2008 but I still count myself very lucky that I’m able to travel so much. 2010 is looking even crazier.

I’ve tried to group trips together with footnotes, which in turn have airport codes/routes for the travel geeks among you. I’ve also added (approximate) number of times I went to each city.

London, England (∞) ¹ ² ³

New York, New York ¹ ² ³ (x3)

Miami, Florida ²

Boston, Massachusetts ²

Paris, France (x3)

Newcastle, England (x6)

San Francisco, California (x2) ³

Livermore, California (x2)

Las Vegas, Nevada (x2) ³

Los Angeles, California ³

San Diego, California ³

Long Beach, California ³

Sebastapol, California ³

Southport, North Carolina ³

Sunderland, England

Taunton, England

Birmingham, England (x2)

¹ LHR-EWR-LHR

² LHR-MIA-LGA-BOS-LHR

³ LHR-SFO-LAS-SFO-LAS-SFO-LAX-SFO-ATL-ILM-LGA-(EWR*)-LHR

* transfer