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In an article on GigaOm, David Glazer (link to, what else, Glazer’s google profile page) says that Google defines social as, “Who I am, who do I know, what do I do.”

He also says that, “Everything is better when it knows who I am.”

As simple as these statements are, I couldn’t agree more. What I love even more is that they talk in terms of “Social”. Not “Social Marketing”, “Social Networking”, “Social Media”, etc.

Just. Plain. Social.

Social IS who I am, who I know and what I do. Now this doesn’t give marketers an open license to try to be a part of all of those areas, but it helps us understand the power of social. Defining it by marketing, media, networking or whatever else, only limits its potential by putting it into a box.

I doubt many people will argue too much about that definition of social. However, I expect there would be a decent debate on Glazer’s other statement, “Everything is better when it knows who I am.”

I couldn’t agree more with that statement (surprised, I’m sure). Let’s take your car as an example. If my car knew me it would:

* it would know when I tend to leave for work in the mornings, know the weather and be warmed up by the time I go into the garage

* it would know I have an appointment at Ra in midtown and that I just pulled into the parking lot, and it would check me in via Foursquare

* it would know how fast I drive and my driving style and recommend routes that accommodate that

* it would hear me start to swear as the 5th person on 85 cuts me off and start to play music to calm me down

* it would know that I’m a huge Apple fanboy and alert me when an interview with Jobs is on another channel on the radio (as if Jobs gave radio interviews, puh-lease)

* it would know that my schedule says I’m about to pick up my sister and maybe I shouldn’t have the ghetto-rap blasting and instead, switch to music that both of us like by checking our Pandora channels

* it would know when its my birthday and surprise me by playing my favorite quotes from Fletch (which it would know from my favorite movies list on Facebook)

I could go on but you get the point. When things know who we are, they just get better. Anyone care to take the other side?

If you think about it, search is still at a very early stage of development. It really hasn’t evolved much since it was first made popular by Yahoo a long while back. Sure, Google has made it faster to get results and they have a nice clean interface, oh and they figured out that whole advertising piece, but search itself hasn’t really improved.

When you search for something on the web, you don’t get back what you’re looking for. You get back a list of pages that might have what you are looking for. And often times you have to go back and forth from the search results page trying to find the site that has the information you’re looking for.

Recently Google and the other engines started rolling social into your search results, which is a good start toward making strides in search effectiveness.

So now Google has rolled out a new Labs venture called Google Squared. It’s Google’s attempt to start trying to organize your search results into relevant blocks of information, similar to a spreadsheet. Here’s a video:

I played with it and here’s an example of a Square that I created for geo-location checkin systems.

Certainly its at its early stages and needs some work (I had to enter in the initial rows for the Square I created, then it started populating the rest), but you can start to see the potential. While I’ve been a big fan of some of the non-search related products that Google has rolled out lately, especially Wave, I’m glad to see them working on improving the search side of the house.

This blows me away. I’ve been researching, playing with, somewhat obsessing over location-based gaming, check-in apps for the last few months. You can often find me standing outside of a place I’m about to enter, furiously opening apps, checking-in, and then firing up the next app so that I can check-in on many different systems. Only way to learn about them is to dive in.

And yes, I’m locked into several “mayor” contests with folks, often resulting to dirty politics when necessary.

So I was shocked to see this article on TechCrunch about MyTown (passed to me by @kathlenehestir)and how its passed the biggies (Foursquare and Gowalla) in terms of users in little over a month!

Their secret? Apple featured their app for two weeks. Yep. Just goes to show you that in the grand scheme of things, not many people are using these services yet. Not to say I’m not a big believer in them, I sure as heck am!

Alright, gottta run, time to sign up for MyTown and add yet another check-in system to my routine…

The following is a list of 30 reasons that brands are hesitant to get into social marketing. Thanks to my friends that helped with several contributions via Twitter, Facebook, Google Wave, etc…

1. They don’t understand it.
2. Their agency doesn’t understand it.
3. Their agency doesn’t have a competency in it and therefore, they aren’t educating the brand nor are they recommending social.
4. They think social is just for kids (thanks to @thorinhanson for this one).
5. Budgets are already assigned and there’s no way to allocate any to social until “next year”. I love this one.
6. Unable to find a way to measure ROI and/or direct sales (thanks to @PJAtlanta).
7. They can’t measure it at all (current analytics program doesn’t have capabilities, for instance).
8. Unsure of which department it should reside in (PR, marketing, IT, etc.).
9. They don’t have the staff to maintain it. This is actually a valid reason, but one that should be overcome.
10. They don’t want yet another agency and they don’t think their existing agencies can handle it.
11. They’ve had a bad experience in the past and are worried.
12. They have read press on other companies that have had a bad experience and are worried.
13. Their legal team won’t allow it. This one is classic and for most companies, the dumbest reason. I’m sorry, that’s a fact.
14. They are worried about “losing control”.
15. Aren’t aware that they have already “lost control”.
16. They’re overwhelmed with words like Web 2.0 (and 3.0), tweet, statusing, check-ins, geo-location, etc.
17. Fear of being in a uncontrollable forum (thanks to Johnny Helms via Google Wave).
18. Fear of opening up a negative customer service platform (thanks to @PJAtlanta).
19. Don’t know how to incorporate into enterprise structure (thanks to @TobyDiva).
20. Challenge of change. Great point (thanks to @TobyDiva).
21. Ego (thanks to @TobyDiva).
22. They keep wanting to learn before they get started; only way to learn is to get started! (thanks to @SherryHeyl).
23. There’s no champion because its not tied to anyone’s objectives (thanks to @Laura_Nolte).
24. It doesn’t fall into a neat little package within either branding, direct or digital marketing (or experiential, word of mouth, public relations, etc, etc.).
25. Perceived notion that there is not enough content planning or content to drive value for followers/fans (thanks to @gumboshowjoe via Google Wave).
26. Limited reach (i.e. reach won’t be as much as broadcast media) — (thanks to @gumboshowjoe via Google Wave).
27. Slow or intricate approval process to release content or responses (thanks to @gumboshowjoe via Google Wave).
28. The parent company has a Facebook/Twitter account so the brands within don’t need one.
29. Worried about legal implications from brand promises (ex: pharmaceticual company employees claiming that their product has benefits that they aren’t allowed to claim. (thanks to @kathlenehestir via sitting next to me and saying it).
30. They’ve personally never experienced it and are unwilling to try new things. And therefore shouldn’t be in marketing at all!

You want the good news or the bad news about digital marketing? The good news? Ok, the good news is that there is always new technology being created that allows us to reach and engage with customers in new ways. The bad news? The bad news is that there is ALWAYS new technology being created that allows us to reach and engage with customers in new ways.

That’s right, its extremely tough to keep up with all the new things happening in the world of digital technology. Heck, just look at all the cool stuff coming out of CES (good places to start are here and here). And its not enough just to read about the new stuff. To really understand it, you have to jump in. There’s really no other way.

Right now I’m several months in to testing out the geo-location, checkin-style mobile apps. Specifically, Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl and Loopt (I’ve stopping using Loopt because it really didn’t compare with the others). And it took a little while but I am starting to “get” what is so appealing about telling your friends where you are eating, drinking, etc. And FYI I’m really digging Whrrl so far…

Back to the point. I recently tried Farmville. Have you seen the stats on Farmville? Over 70 million people are playing Farmville. 70 MILLION!

However, I gave it a go for a few months and you know what? It got me. And look, I’m no farmer. I wasn’t even exactly sure what the difference between “harvesting” and “plowing” and “seeding”. Seriously. But I became addicted to keeping my farm going. And now I understand more about what makes for an addictive, successful game on Facebook. And that knowledge is invaluable as I work with clients on their digital marketing goals for 2010.

Oh, and you can just try something for a while until you “get it”, and then quit. I had to quit Farmville so that it didn’t become DivorceVille…oh, and you can check out my farm at this point in time