The figures will vary from campaigns to platforms and clients but the principles presented here are key. Remember, ROI is return on investment and investing properly requires investing in the right things over the appropriate time period.

I’ve been thinking about how outsourcing has been in place for technical work and there’s no doubt it’ll move up the value chain. One place I didn’t expect to see it happening though, was in the field of finance. In particular, equity analysis. A recent crop of bloggers and independent analysts have been making the news for their coverage of Apple. Over the past several quarters, this new breed of analysts using their own tools and methodologies, have more accurately predicted Apple’s earnings than nearly every professional equity analyst on Wall Street. By building a following through social media, blogs, Twitter and other means, it’s just a matter of time before they displace their incumbents whether or not they intend to do so. They are leveling the playing field and bringing democracy to a highly closed and exclusive business.

How valuable is an open business model, with an open API and an entrepreneurial mindset? Take a look at this Twitterverse graphic by Brian Solis. There are hundreds of companies that have built startups around Twitter, in 19 different categories spanning mobile applications to social CRM to search to geolocation. Suffice it to say, there is a significant halo around open products like Twitter and Facebook, growing the value of the service exponentially. This allows the core company to focus on platform, what it does best.I’ve worked with some clients who would benefit from this kind of thinking. It’s not unlike outsourcing certain functions where it doesn’t make sense to develop the capability if there’s no value add. It also works in reverse; some of the best products have become even more valuable than the platform. Take Mint.com as an example. Using Yodlee’s financial platform aggregation technology, they built a presentation layer that far exceeded what was available — and still does. It sold to Intuit for a cool $170M, a huge multiple more than the Yodlee license that powers Mint. How’s that for value creation?

It’s no secret that Netflix is moving up the value chain. Seeing the need to evolve away from a DVD-mail based business model, they’ve become the Apple of the streaming movie business, accounting for 20% of web traffic during prime time hours. They have quickly become the standard platform — and strong selling point – for any streaming media device, including AppleTV, Roku, Boxee and others. Netflix has also developed applications for nearly all mobile devices, so you can stream from device to device.

Netflix have been working with TV manufacturers to become a content source but its recent announcement about working with the manufacturers to include a Netflix button on remote controls is a huge step forward and I believe, a Trojan Horse for taking over living room entertainment.

Not only are they negotiating for more and more films on demand, they are also working to acquire distribution rights for in-season TV shows. Imagine that: a single content provider for on-demand TV and movies, with no advertising and a simple monthly subscription fee. That is what many consumers have been waiting for and it may be coming soon to a remote control near you.

(Image: Fighting at the Hotel de Ville, 28th July 1830, 1833 (oil on canvas), Schnetz, Jean Victor)

It’s mid-term election season in the U.S. and there’s been a lot of talk lately about whether or not social media can lead to offline social change. Malcolm Gladwell began when he stirred things up claiming online connections were not a substitute for real life relationships and that significant social change could never be an outcome from online social interaction. He pointed to the mass influx of Tweets about the Iranian election protests and the relatively minimal impact they had in changing the situation. Taking a contrarian view, this generated an onslaught of rebuttals here, here, here and here. Suffice it to say, the issue isn’t cut and dry. However, when you step back and think about what gets people interested online but take the next step to take action, there are three main elements of social media that when combined in the right proportions, can lead to a groundswell of real action.

Social media helps keep the barrier to action low. Back in the day, it took a pretty concerted effort to make something happen — research, finding phone numbers, filling out forms, etc. Today, you can convey a powerful message and get constituents involved and recognized with a matter of clicks. With a single click at The Hunger Site, you can donate a cup of food to the hungry or donate a free mamogram or save part of the rainforest. Sure beats digging around for your checkbook or credit card.

It leads to public accountability. When you broadcast that you’re raising money for charity, volunteering time or taking time to vote, you are more inclined to hold up your end of the bargain. It’s a very simple mechanism that can lead to pretty impressive results. It also forces you to keep it on the straight and narrow; blog about something that isn’t right and you will get called out. From Facebook news feeds to re-Tweets and old-fashioned linking, the effect of accountability is real and tangible.

Focus on the interaction, not the technology. A lot of people seem to get hung up on the technical factor of social media and search for a silver bullet that will save the day. If you hear the phrase, “we need a viral Facebook campaign” take caution because that’s like visiting the hospital for surgery without even knowing what you need help with. The most successful efforts are those that have a genuine empathy for what the user outcomes are and build connectors to others. De-emphasize the campaign jargon (which never means anything to consumers) and focus on a quality experience so the users will spread the word for you. Obama’s Commit to Vote Challenge is a very simple 3-step process that is all about enabling action. There’s no campaign messaging, there’s no political slant. The results still need to be tallied, but it’s a perfect example of keeping things simple, decluttering the message and using simple tools to get people to vote. Brilliant.

Update 2/21/2011: The recent uprisings in Egypt and Yemen and now Morroco are a direct result of using the social web to marshall forces in a way that was previously unachievable using traditional means. Without a doubt, the speed and pervasiveness of simple tools as Twitter, Facebook and texting made organizing and mass messaging far more effective than the governments realized. The results speak for themselves.

Years ago, futurists proclaimed that TV and internet would converge and that we’d be surfing the web from our living rooms, relegating our PC’s and laptops for productive work. It became pretty clear that TV is a “leaning back” experience – where one soaks up passively – whereas browsing the web is more of a “leaning forward” activity where people actively focus (or focus on being distracted by YouTube videos). Regardless, no one really found the right way to successfully and thoughtfully bring the internet to TV. And no wonder.

As Steve Jobs claims, the cable TV market is very “Tower of Babel” with varying standards from market to market, few if any international standards and fraught with all sorts of regulatory issues. As a result, Apple has only dabbled in the TV space calling it a hobby rather than a line of business. As content delivery is increasingly being fragmented and distributed via many additional sources, there’s a huge unmet need to consolidate them through a single interface.

Enter Google TV. Now that Android has established itself as a formidable mobile OS, Google is looking to leverage it in the TV space. It does all of the things you’d expect like browse the web, search and use apps but builds on it by connecting to your cable/dish provider as well. Regardless of how polished Google TV ends up, it’s certainly an ambitious position to take and one that’s sure to rile content delivery pipes (eg: cable & satellite providers) to no end. It takes the TiVo concept one step further by shifting not only viewing time, but viewing source.

It’s clearly an assault on the other main device that consumers’ attention is spent on. Besides being able to deliver even more targeted advertising, the real prize for Google is the vast new sources of data about its users’ media consumption patterns and preferences. When they learn to couple traditional online behavior with media consumption behavior, AdSense will be even more powerful. Then factor in that your remote control is your Android phone and it becomes pretty mind-blowing when you consider Google is often the first place people start online and could now be the first place for media and entertainment.

Much like the real estate industry, location is becoming the thing when it comes to reaching customers and closing the marketing loop. Companies like Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla and now Facebook are rushing in to gather even more data about their users, valuable data that provides even more insight into consumer behavior, weaving in sentiment with activity and location.

As consumers everywhere migrate their digital lives to their mobile devices, marketers are rushing to develop the newest frontier of customer engagement. It’s important to recognize that where consumers engage with you matters as much as the content you’re providing; it’s no longer sufficient to simply offer the same thing in dumbed-down format for mobile. With the rapid growth of increasingly capable devices like Android and iPhone, coupled with new formats like the iPad, consumers are expecting an optimized experience that makes sense and makes it worth the effort (and battery consumption).

• Make it relevant. I’ve seen so many brands hop onto the mobile app bandwagon without a compelling brand experience. Quite often, it’s simply rehashing the same web content and repurposing it for mobile. Yelp’s iPhone application is brilliant in utility, taking full advantage of location services even going so far as to providing an augmented reality view of nearby Yelp-rated establishments.
• Empathize with your customer. Whenever possible, make an effort to understand if someone is making a big commitment to visit your store or event vs. one who is casually passing by. It’s kind of like acknowledging out-of-town guests at a wedding or event; a small token of recognition is appreciated. If you know how far they’re traveling to engage with you, take that into consideration when you do meet up in person. It’ll also help you tailor the value exchange they expect from you.
• Complement, don’t compete. Have you seen those audio guides at museums? They are designed to give you background and detail that you wouldn’t normally get just looking at a piece of art. The same applies for location services. Design them in a way that complement the experience but doesn’t detract if you don’t use it. If what you offer is compelling enough, people will use it and often request it. The American Museum of Natural History is taking the guide concept to the next level with its GPS-enabled iPhone app, giving visitors the ability to create custom tours and turn-by-turn instructions.

The promise of location-based marketing is not about bombarding consumers with offers as they walk along a street full of retailers. Short-term discount-based offers are one way to get started and to attract new customers; but beware, there will always be a lower-priced competitor. I suggest using location to learn more about consumers’ behaviors and giving them smart options that extend the value of your products and services. Make it useful and they’ll be on the lookout for you.

A month in and a million sold later, many have called the Apple iPad a “savior” to publishers, giving them a silver bullet lifeline to prevent them from going out of business. Its large, bright screen, familiar interface and snappy gestural interface are excellent tools for providing rich new experiences and to get away from traditional navigational paradigms. As some 50+ million iPhone/iPod touch users can attest, the iPhone OS truly represents new thinking from the ground up and naturally, the best apps are those that embrace the new.

So if that’s the case, can traditional publishers take advantage of this platform and resurrect their industry? At first glance, there are some media players that get it — ABC’s iPad app, along with a handful of others take advantage of the new format. But others, notably Time Magazine, get it so, so wrong. Here’s why.

Revenue model is outdated. Time Magazine is a newsweekly that has existed for decades. You can subscribe to the print version for about $20/year, but the digital versions of the same content vary tremendously. You can subscribe to the Amazon Kindle version for $2.99 per issue, but if you want the iPad version, you’ll have to cough up $4.99 per issue each week, or about $250/year for ostensibly the same content. Why would anyone pay up to 10x as much just to have it in digital format? Almost as bad is the Wall Street Journal. You can subscribe to the full online + print version for less money ($16.41/month) than the iPad-only version ($17.99/month). Again, why would anyone pay more for the same content in that is accessible from only one medium?

User experience. Again, Time hasn’t figured out how digitally savvy customers want to consumer their content. In order to purchase the Time iPad app, one must do so each and every week, purchasing a new, separate app each time. After a year, your iPad will have 50 icons of nothing but Time magazine issues cluttering up your screen. It’s a very odd and unusual way of increasing mindshare. It will more likely annoy users and get people to stop purchasing future apps.

So what to do? Here are a few considerations when trying to stake a claim in the still nascent world of mobile applications.

• Cut the cord. Don’t try to replicate an old business model in a new environment. People have very different expectations of what constitutes a successful user experience. Simply taking essentially a PDF and putting it onto an iPad does not equate to something new. People on mobile devices consume content differently and thus, your content needs to be appropriately created and presented to reflect this. A great example is The Elements, a whole new way to explore the periodic table. The creators threw out old textbook notions of what it ought to look like and generated arguably the most engaging learning application for the iPad.
• Think value before revenue. Before you charge a penny for your app, consider what consumers can already get for free. Unless your offering is a) substantially better in quality, b) more timely or c) a whole new way to enjoy it, then chances are, you’re just replicating the past. Think hard about creating something that can only be experienced on that particular device.
• Change the cycle. We live in a new era where news breaks and it’s old after a day. Week-old news can seem antiquated, especially in this era. Get your news out the door fast. Yes, as 48 Hour magazine has shown, it can be done.
• Be smart with location. The beauty of mobile devices is their ubiquity. With that, you can deliver highly relevant and contextualized content that simply isn’t possible with other devices. Show that you deliver value and consumers will reward you.

I’m very excited and curious to see which companies are willing to bite the bullet and plunge head first into the new game where the rules are still being formed. Better to try hard and fail fast and get back up, than fail slowly and never recover.

Recalls are nothing new and it’s all about restoring confidence. The 1982 Tylenol recall case continues to be the gold standard, when Johnson & Johnson immediately pulled every single bottle of Tylenol off the shelves across the country. And it wasn’t even their fault — someone had tampered with a few bottles and laced the pills with deadly cyanide. They did it quickly and offered replacement pills for free. At the time, Tylenol accounted for 17% of JnJ’s net income and 37% of the analgesic market. Market share plummeted to 7% immediately after, but by putting their customers first, that number jumped back up to 30% shortly thereafter. The long-term benefit of having a brand you can trust is priceless — in pharma, trust is the only thing that matters.

In this day and age, where the social space can magnify the perceived severity of a problem, it really pays to act quickly and I would argue, go far beyond what is required. Now that the cat is out of the bag, here’s what Toyota should consider doing to help restore the public’s confidence:

• Make yourself available. Establish a direct phone, email, Twitter, Facebook, you name it venue for anyone who has questions.
• Respond with action. Staff it with people who are empowered to take action and make decisions quickly. When it comes to safety, no one wants the run-around.
• Listen and listen carefully. Customers have all kinds of ideas on how they want the problem solved and how they want to be treated. Quantify and qualify sentiment and act appropriately.
• Go the extra mile. Toyota executives have refused to go the full-extent and their solution admittedly, doesn’t necessarily solve all of the problems. In this case, it would probably mean replacing cars outright — a very costly but potentially overwhelmingly effective. maneuver.
• Keep in touch over the long run. This isn’t a “one and done” effort. Automobiles are significant purchases, so be sure to reach out to affected customers 2 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 5 years from now. You get the picture.

Toyota is at a critical junction right now. In some ways they’re already behind the curve, so they should really shift into high gear and get going. Customers on the fence need to see action.

When the Web hit prime time in the late 90′s, Siegel was there pushing things forward participating in W3C standards setting and helping companies understand how to get online. Ten years ago, he wrote “Futurize your Enterprise,” which proposed open collaboration with customers — something that we all know as “social” technology and crowd sourcing. The technology finally caught up and the rest is history.

Again, we’re at a point where we can build the next generation of the internet and do it in a smart way so that we don’t have to rely on a few companies dictating the way we conduct business, search and manage our information. If you think this is all science fiction, think again — “Pull” contains real-life case studies of big companies embracing the semantic way of business, where data has context and ultimately, value. If you’re in a business that has been impacted by the internet, read “Pull” to see what’s next. You’ll be glad you did.