Five great ways to take social media offline

Nothing is more social than hundreds of people, alone at home, signing into Twitter for a midnight snack of connection, right? Unfortunately, while many companies have given the green light to ‘do' social media, setting up Facebook Pages and Twitter accounts, this pursuit of social media greatness appears to be creating a sort of temporary amnesia when it comes to the more traditional aspects of relationship building. What about the power of touch or shared oxygen?

The truly thrilling frontier is a place where online and offline connections exist in tandem, not in isolation, says Anne Buehner, Associate Social Media Strategist at Red Door Interactive. Smart marketers will begin to put forth campaign ideas and social media tenets that not only dissolve the divide between on- and offline communities, but extend and synthesize stakeholders to connect with brands and one-another at multiple (digital and physical) touch points.

Here are five ways that companies can start moving in this direction:

1. Promote and recognize your social media community in-store. From store windows and t-shirts to receipts and napkins, companies are taking advantage of every opportunity to remind their customers that they're on social media networks. For example, Red Door client Charlotte Russe recently launched an in-store campaign that included signage and window displays featuring Facebook comments, tweets, and photos from social media fans. A mobile and QR Code sign up made it easy for customers to become a part of the social community while still in the store.

2. Create a live experience and provide a way for participants to promote it for you. The Jeep Rocks & Road Tour organized various off-road course events across the country that put people behind the wheel of its new model SUV. After going through a variety of terrain - including a nearly vertical slope - participants were given the opportunity to record a video recounting their experience and could automatically post it on their own social networks. To rev up the momentum of this campaign, Jeep also posted a few of these videos on its YouTube channel.

3. Facilitate Meetups to bring your community together for events in real life. Social technology blogs such as Mashable and TechCrunch have both created MeetUp groups in an effort to bring members of the community together. For its fifth anniversary, TechCrunch encouraged its community of "crunchies" to gather face-to-face and utilized meetup.com as a channel for folks to connect and plan events in their respective cities. In addition, Mashable encourages its readers to meet monthly in more than 1,150 cities around the world.

Similarly, tweet-ups bring a Twitter community together for a live event or mixer. Not only does this provide an opportunity to meet face-to-face with followers, but it can increase awareness of a brand and Twitter account. Attendees are also encouraged to tweet live from the events, thus updating their networks about the brand and activities.

4. Engage your online community with an offline scavenger hunt. Rather than offering prizes through online contests, brands can now mobilize followers through hybrid contents that involve offline activities. Last year, Red Door client ESET leveraged the early adopter crowd at SXSW and promoted its anti-virus software through a scavenger hunt that included a photo booth and interactive media wall. In addition, skateboarder Tony Hawk has hosted the "Tony Hawk Treasure Hunt" for two consecutive years and provides his followers with opportunities to win prizes that are hidden in more than 60 cities around the world by posting clues on his Twitter account. This tactic alone helped increase Tony's Twitter followers significantly.

Retailers can also execute similar tactics to spur foot traffic in-store and direct customers to Twitter - or any online community - for exclusive contest information.

5. Encourage check-ins. While the onslaught of location-based "check-in" services may seem overwhelming, there are many benefits to offering incentives for check-ins. Facebook Deals, for example, allows brands to drive those who like their business in-store and customers to Facebook for the deal, thus marrying the on- and offline communities. When consumers check-in to a location from most geo-location applications, it automatically posts to their Facebook and Twitter feeds (if they set up their accounts for social sharing). Thus, check-ins can increase a brand's exposure exponentially.

Vons and Pepsi both put a twist on basic check-ins when they teamed up with Foursquare. The Vons/Pepsi/Foursquare partnership made it easy for consumers to integrate their Vons Club card with Foursquare and receive special savings from Pepsi. Applications like Foursquare provide ample opportunities for business to offer incentives and syncing loyalty programs with social check-ins is a win-win for consumers and businesses.

Consumers are constantly seeking ways to translate their social media interactions into something more tangible. With new and evolving technologies, now is the time for companies to get creative and examine opportunities to extend the conversation, transparently and authentically, into the daily lives of their social communities. By engaging the social media family across multiple channels, platforms and locations, a brand can build and expand a loyal community of enthusiasts.

How Much Is a Great Idea Worth?

I'm starting to believe that B.S. stands for Beyond Selling, says AdAge columnist Rance Crain. Marketers now seem to aspire to a higher purpose, or they churn out ads whose selling idea is obfuscated by obtuseness and complexity. What are the UPS and Xerox campaigns all about? Is Delta Airlines' "Still Climbing" any more product-directed that United Airlines' "Rising" of a few years ago? And couldn't Allstate's new "Mayhem" TV spots apply to any other insurance company?

Generic ideas that apply to any product in the category should be worth less than ideas that home in on the very core of what your brand is all about. But I'm afraid both are worth about the same in today's marketplace.

This isn't (just) a rant against big-company procurement practices, which were originally set up to value the worth of such staples as office supplies and bulk chemicals. It's also a rant against ads that don't seem to be trying very hard to move the merchandise.

Maybe marketers and their teams have another priority: execution as opposed to strategy. With so many platforms to deal with, it's not hard to see how marketers could be more involved in the mechanics of the message than the message itself. Or, as one agency exec told me, "Execution is becoming an excuse for ideas."

That's certainly what must have happened with the new Xerox campaign, which the company call its "most ambitious and innovative." The basic idea is that Xerox helps companies with business processes and document management, freeing them up to focus on their real business. The result is a mish-mash of elements -- in one spot that I've seen several times and had no idea what it was about (until I read the Xerox press release), a Marriott bellman processes invoices while trying to provide guest services at the same time.

Maybe Xerox is trying to do too much. "Along with the innovative use of brand characters, we're cutting through the clutter with innovative media, like interactive billboards and attention-grabbing digital units," explained Xerox CMO Christa Carone. Lots of innovation, lots of attention-grabbing. The idea gets trampled in the process.

Or take the new UPS campaign (please). To the tune of "That's Amore," UPS is airing a "We love logistics" ditty in commercials that show how UPS can repair laptops for a computer manufacturer, fill prescriptions for medical devices or provide online printing services. UPS refers to its portfolio of solutions collectively as "logistics," but I didn't know that, so I had no idea what the company was talking about.

The print ads take a more meat-and-potatoes approach with the headline, "Why logistics is the most powerful force in business today," and they provide more information about how UPS can help businesses of all sizes with logistics, according to Crain's BtoB magazine.

So why take such a consumer-oriented direction in the TV ads? "The true audience for logistics services are large, sophisticated companies. It is a trivializing approach," Laura Ries, of Ries & Ries, told BtoB. Another observer told me the UPS ads were "talking down to their customers."

Maybe procurement people and other arbiters of today's advertising weigh ads by the pound and decide that if they are complicated and have a lot of moving parts, they're worth more. A powerful yet simple idea just doesn't seem hefty enough to command respect.

I get the feeling that producing great advertising just isn't worth the effort anymore, especially given the short tenure of most marketing executives. It's easier to engineer elaborate, complicated extravaganzas.

So at a time when advertising is being forced down the food chain in the U.S., China, for one, is publicly endorsing its value. Advertising is "fundamental to economic development and sustaining a harmonious society," a top official declared recently. The Chinese government is incorporating advertising as a "pillar" of the country's economy in its latest five-year plan. As Tim Love, vice chairman Omnicom Group and CEO of Omnicom Group Asia Pacific, India, Middle East and Africa put it: "They sure have a very high regard for the profession of advertising."

Has the U.S. ever given advertising that kind of respect? And why should it be a surprise that businesses here have relegated it to the back burner, in favor of redoubling their efforts to make sure they're not being overcharged for ballpoint pens?