Isabel Walcott Hilborn

Don't Give Up on Vista

On the front page of the New York Times website this morning was a banner ad that I just had to click: "Don't Give Up on Vista", it said.  Could Microsoft actually have resorted to begging?

Of course not.  Clicking on the ad sends you straight to Apple's site for Mac OS X Leopard Guided Tour.

I think this is the funniest banner ad I have seen in a long time.  Go Apple!

Damning with False Praise

Maybe everyone is rebelling against the fact that it is, to quote a friend, "so slow it makes you say 'Damn!'".  Maybe they're furious about the built-in copyright protections.  Perhaps the marketplace just wasn't ready to update all their hardware to 2GB of memory.  Or maybe corporations are just tired of being held hostage by a monopolistic vendor.  Whatever the reason, people don't like Microsoft's new Vista operating system and their conversation is being overheard:

"For a limited time Lenovo is providing Windows XP Recovery CD media as a way to downgrade from Windows Vista. Lenovo customers that have Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate "qualified systems" may purchase a Windows XP Recovery CD until July 31, 2008".

Yikes!  It doesn't get any worse than that!  Lenovo is also releasing brand-new ThinkPad laptops preloaded with Windows XP.  Hmm, Microsoft, where do you get your early adopters when you've alienated all your early adopters?

What's worse than this?  Lenovo advertising for Windows on their ecommerce site: "Lenovo Recommends Windows Vista Business".  If you don't recommend it, folks, then don't recommend it, OK?

(Via Slashdot via Russ Nelson).

Why You Should Hire Real Social Media Experts

You don't have to have been involved for long in the social media movement to have heard the single most important piece of advice anyone in the know can give you: BE TRANSPARENT(pointing to JD Lasica for this since he knows of what he speaks - but I could point to any true expert saying the same thing). 

And yet, newbie agencies that are advising corporations on their social media campaigns are still ignoring this very important rule. 

The latest in the series is New York Agency drillTeam's horrific advice to members of Target's word of mouth fanclub, Rounders.  Fans were asked to promote Target on Facebook but "keep it like a secret" that they were part of a group that was compensated for their efforts.  (Since this issue is what basically killed WOMMA's credibility, they're fighting it tooth and nail now, and recently included it in their newsletter).

Why is this BE TRANSPARENT rule so important in social media?  For two reasons.

• Because the truth will come out when people talk about you -- that's how social media works. Unlike traditional media, individuals are not dependent on your goodwill to make their living, so they're not afraid to out you. 
• Because, thanks to insincerity, traditional marketing has lost so much credibility that you're now turning to social marketing for help.  So don't ruin social marketing too - then what will you do to get the word out?

I've said this before: When you hire your social media consultants, make sure you are hiring people who have actually been working with online communities and user-generated content for awhile, and not people new to the "social" scene, whose real experience base lies in corporate messaging, "interactive", or online publishing.  You may think that a company like drillTeam, with clients like Toyota, Nestle and Nike, can't steer you wrong.  You may be instinctively afraid of hiring someone with a background at a bunch of user-driven startups with no blue chip clients.  But this is a new frontier -- the experienced pioneers will be better at showing you the route.

Here's a piece of free advice for Target: Add "Always disclose that you're part of this group when you recommend us" to your "code of conduct".  Oh yeah - and fire drillTeam.