Flightpath's User Experience Designer was published in iMedia Connection this month.  The article outlined four essential tips for creating social media that is usable and engaging including:

• Learning what your user's social media behaviors are.
• Creating a social media space that makes sense in your consumer's lives.
• Supporting ease-of-use with basic usability best practices
• Joining the conversation with your consumers in a way that is meaningful and supportive.

Read the full article here: 4 steps for creating usable social media

While we’re told the recession is over or coming to an end, new studies referenced in an article published in today’s NY Times show that, in light of economic circumstances, coupon redemption is way up over the last 12 months, especially for food/groceries.  Here are some quick stats:

• Redemption up 10% in Q4 2008
• Redemption up 23% in the first half of 2009
• Coupon use up 14% by young, single consumers in 2009
• Redemption of digital (web & phone) coupons up 25% in first half of 2009

Even with that last stat – 25% growth in digital coupons – research shows that digital coupons still account for less than one-half of one percent of all coupons distributed.  Why? The primary reason seems to be that old habits die hard.  This appears to be true from the marketer’s angle (they’ve always distributed coupons in newspapers) and the consumer’s perspective (they’re used to clipping coupons from newspapers).

That said a number of factors are converging, making electronic coupons a more relevant part of the marketing mix, certainly worthy of testing.  These are:

1. Youth: Probably spurred by economic factors, young consumers are taking advantage of coupons – providing a great opportunity for CPG companies to reach new audiences.  Of course, today’s younger consumers are tomorrow’s heads of households. 
2. Mobile: New technologies and systems like those from Cellfire are making instant, mobile coupons (and associated sampling) a reality.  This is an important trend, especially as it concerns younger consumers that are more likely to have a mobile/smartphone at the center of their day-to-day endeavors.
3. Newspapers: Weekend newspapers are still the dominant means of coupon distribution however, it’s no secret that newspaper circulation is declining –especially among younger people, who favor accessing news via the web or other electronic channels.  In many geographic areas, printed newspapers have ceased to exist completely.

In the not-too-distant future, it will be critical to use digital channels (including coupons) to reach significant demographic chunks that don’t read newspapers.

Here are some links to some related sites of interest:

www.coupons.com
www.cellfire.com
www.redplum.com
www.selectcouponprogram.com
www.freebies4mom.com

Many folks that know me know that in the aftermath of the 2001 dot-com crash, I opened a restaurant in NYC's West Village with the belief that there was no long-term future in running a digital agency.  After working 2 jobs for 3 years I (thankfully) figured out that my future actually was in digital marketing but that's not really the point of this post...

Believe it or not, my involvement in the food biz somewhat naturally led to a broader interest in food, cooking, restaurants, etc. that persists to this day.  So, yesterday, when reading a blog post from outgoing NY Times food critic Frank Bruni, I was struck for the first time by parallels in the process of creating great digital experiences and creating a great restaurant.  (In many ways, this is sort of an extension of my last blog post.)

In a companion piece to his 4-star review of Eleven Madison Park, Bruni explained how and why a restaurant that merited a mere 2-stars five years ago, could elevate itself to the rarefied world of 4-star dining.

1. According to Bruni, Eleven Madison Park was a restaurant that insisted on improving. How? Discipline, perfectionism, and impeccably high standards.  Similarly, without these kind of aspirations in digital marketing, it’s impossible to achieve 4-star results. 

In digital marketing, there’s an also an understanding that a key component of achieving these type of standards is to meet data-driven key performance indicators.  And that rigorous, on-going testing, measurement and optimization is the logical, rational path to success. 

2. “Restaurants do improve in fundamental, noteworthy ways, taking customer feedback and reviewers’ comments to heart.”  This is a great parallel for embracing customer insights accrued within social media campaigns, via usability testing or through other feedback mechanisms.

3. Desire To Share: In the same way that most of today’s most successful digital marketing campaigns harness consumers’ desire to share experiences via Twitter, Facebook and other social networking channels, Bruni factors his eagerness to tell people about the dishes he’d had and the pleasure he’d experienced into his measures of success.

4. Gut Feeling: Bruni explains that at the end of the day, the difference between a 3 and 4 star rating isn’t necessarily scientific.  His years of experience give him valuable criteria for analysis, in the same way that a deep track record in digital marketing provide great insights into the success or failure of specific campaigns or components therof.

Restaurants have been around forever but digital marketing is still a relatively new field.  (At Flightpath we often reference our “constantly evolving skillset”.)  So, I think we’re fortunate to be able to derive good ideas and best practices from examples of excellence that are all around us – even if they’re decidedly un-digital.