Would the 'real' Tweet please stand up?

Though I signed up for a Twitter account back in 2010 while attending the annual Forrester Marketing forum, I only recently started to give it any attention -- ironically, just before the Ellen Selfie made its debut. Perhaps a bit 'late' to the game, I also think I benefit from jumping in with an existing notion of what social media 'is' and what I hope to gain from it so I can participate accordingly.

I have lots of great things to say about the tool, like its openness and 'real-time' spin that makes you feel like you're an active part of events around the world. However, the very thing that I believe makes Twitter an amazing platform for sharing ideas and encouraging global progress, is being undermined by what I call the 'fake' or 'canned' Tweet. If @BarackObama is going to tweet, it should be his thoughts and ideas (even if they are censored). What I don't appreciate seeing is tweet after canned tweet about signing up for healthcare. As a marketer, I'm often disappointed in the way that new digital innovations seem to get taken over by the marketing machine.

The real value in Twitter is to allow the everyday Joe to connect with TV personalities, business leaders and inspirational individuals right alongside their co-workers, friends and family members. A conversation should be two-way. Think about the conversation at your dinner table tonight if you had a list of canned tweets that you were programmed to say. Right after you ask your car-enthusiast significant other to pass the potatoes, he starts rambling off messages that had virtually no relevance to the current conversation:

Wife: "Honey can you please pass the Potatoes? Thanks. Hey, I was thinking of inviting the neighbours over for dinner this weekend, what do you think?
Husband: "If you need new winter tires, check hashtag MichelinXice tomorrow atCanadianTire has a sale." 
Wife: "Huh? Ok, but what about dinner - do you have any plans with your buddies on Sat night that I should know about?"
Husband: "Love the new hashtag RangeRoverEvoque atLandRoverUSA."

What I would love to see on Twitter is a way to identify the real personal-penned tweets from the canned marketing tweets -- similar to the checkmark verification for official account profiles. Sometimes it's easy to discern, but sometimes it isn't. Better yet, I challenge the big brands to give up more messaging control to their subject matter experts and personalities, who really drive readers to want to engage with them on a peer-to-peer level. In the world of social media, I believe it's quality over quantity of communications that will build respect and ensure the medium continues to be valuable to users.

Would the real Tweet please stand up?

(Note: The Obama account does use a -BO signature for his supposed personalized tweets, but they are few and far between the healthcare spam messages!)

Top 5 Quotes from the DX3 Canada Digital Strategy Conference

The Mobile Innovation Store at DX3Canada - Toronto

This week I had the pleasure of attending the DX3 Digital Strategy & Marketing Conference in Toronto. I really enjoyed listening to the engaging speakers talk about their approaches to digital within their organizations. The vibe on the trade show floor was equally as energetic, where new technology startups mixed with seasoned veterans of the Retail, Payments and Marketing worlds. Check out Twoople, which lets you sign up for your own instant chatbox digital 'address', and Spently, which is pushing towards e-receipts (something I am personally anxious to see in a ubiquitous format).

One of the underlying themes I noticed was the digital revolution is about 'telling stories,' and it's not just journalists and marketers that have the ability to tell them anymore. In fact, the most compelling stories are being told through the eyes of consumers, often in unplanned ways. The latest innovations in digital technology & marketing are enabling businesses to respond better to both planned and unplanned live events - but only if they can foster a digital culture that is nimble, open to information sharing, and accepting of failure. One such technology was Candid, a Toronto startup that enables brands to leverage the marketing power of consumers' own instagram photos featuring their products. Another key theme had to be the acceleration of mobile as a core driver of Retail experiences and payments. We heard that over half of our digital time is now spent on mobile devices, and 13% of payments are contactless in Canada - which is truly becoming a world leader in digital payments innovation and adoption.

One of the most moving presentations took us through the Calgary Stampede's use of social media as a crisis management tool last summer. Without placing one paid ad, they were able to sell 160,000 'Come Hell or High Water' t-shirts in 3 weeks with proceeds going to the Red Cross. In true digital disruption fashion, the social buzz created a need for incredible manufacturing & distribution logistics that could never have been forecasted.

Here are my 5 favorite quotes from the speaker series - I look forward to hearing more about these evolving trends in the coming days!

1. "Publishing is now a Paris Café" - Eric Harris, EVP of Business Operations, BuzzFeed
The rise of social media as a way to receive and engage with publishing content puts all types of communications in one place -- serious news sits side-by-side with entertaining photos, jokes, gossip and personal interests. The millennial generation receives their content feeds almost 100% through mobile and social means, so publishers are having to embrace individuals in their complete state. The opportunity for brands is limitless, with short videos, articles & quizzes all proving to be excellent ways of engaging customers in a more dynamic way than traditional online advertising.

2. "Don't ask me what my digital strategy is... ask me what it means for my supply chain!' - Duncan Fulton, SVP Communications & Corporate Affairs, Canadian Tire & CMO FGL Sports & Mark's
Digital disrupts the business model in more ways than just marketing communications. Through testing social media advertising (compared with traditional paper flyers), the Canadian Tire / Sport Check group has seen first-hand the implications on everything from demand planning to distribution, warehousing and customer service. It is crucial to plan and test, to ensure your operational model delivers the digital customer experience you envision.

3. "We're in a remote-first, mobile worker-first world" - Steve Heck, CIO, Microsoft Canada
We heard that 60% of staff time is now spent outside the office, so we need to equip employees to have a great customer experience across devices & applications. These devices need to 'follow them through their day' to ensure a meaningful impact on their productivity, which we want to start measuring.

4. "You don't really own your brand - your advocates do. They will advocate it for you, but it has to be audacious, relevant & fun." - Deanne Carson, VP Marketing & External Relations, Calgary Stampede

If you're able to do something good in a time of bad (crisis), your customers will sit up and take notice. Through social media, they will promote your brand through their own stories and reactions to the ones you tell about your own brand. Video is a great medium for this. But you need to move fast to keep your audience updated and engaged. You might not always get it perfectly right, but you will win respect for trying to communicate as openly and quickly as you can.

5. "The leather wallet model needs to move from leather to glass." - David Robinson, VP Emerging Business, Rogers Communications

The evolution of mobile payments and the 'digital wallet' is about keeping it simple. People like familiarity and comfort, which helps drive discovery & trial of new solutions. Three (3) times is the magic number of times a user needs to try a new technology before adopting it. The first step is to simply replicate a credit card in the mobile 'wallet' format, without upsetting the existing financial banking & payments systems.... this can evolve over time to more remote forms of digital commerce. David predicts that all of our major payment cards in Canada will be available on our 3 major mobile networks by the end of 2014 (except on Apple devices, which hasn't yet rolled out NFC capability).