Two weeks ago I discovered an email marketing company called BombBomb. The thrust of their marketing message, according to their website, is that they specialize in video email. In other words, they provide a platform that allows you to embed video in your email marketing so people can watch a video rather than (or in additon to) reading the text of your email. Sounds great...except that it doesn't really work like that, or at least it hasn't in the past. So I decided to test them.

Is Email In Video Even Possible?
Watching a video in your email has been a desire for quite a while. The problem has been that email services don't pull video feeds like a website does. The work-around for a long time has been to post a picture of the video in the email and when the reader clicked it, the video would open in the reader's web browser. It's not video in your email. It's more like video linked from your email. But what I thought BombBomb was saying was that they had a way to get around this and I wanted to see if they were legit or doing what everyone else was.

I signed up to see a demo and what I got was exactly what I've seen everyone else do. It was an email with an image of a video that opened in my web browser. That's not a big deal except for the fact that this company seemed to be telling people that they had a solution around this.

From my perspective they we doing the same thing all the other email companies do and trying to sell it as a new and unique service. They were misleading people coming to their site. So I Tweeted a warning: 

Notice I didn't mention them by name. I felt like I should just post a word of warning to my friends and followers but I didn't think it warranted me calling them out by name. In the hour that followed this Tweet I got a few "I'm with you on that" kind of responses. Then I got a Tweet from my friend Kyle in San Antonio:

Hmm. The very company I was concerned about was being recommended for doing the thing I thought they failed at. Clearly something was going on here and I didn't know what to think about it. Until...

The CEO Listens And Responds
I got an email from the BombBomb Founder and CEO, Conor McCluskey. Within a half hour of Kyle's Tweet there was a message in my inbox from Conor. Apparently he saw Kyle's Tweet and then found my original Tweet. He then saw in his own database that I had just tried the demo service and he put the two together.

In Conor's email he confirmed that video doesn't play in all inboxes and he asked for feedback about their messaging. He left his cell phone number in the email so I called him.

We talked for about 20 minutes and it turns out the way BombBomb does their video service, video actually does play within the email in about 30% of email clients today. So, my original Tweet about "no such thing as video email" was not as sweeping as I thought.

Still, I told Conor that I believe they're setting themselves up to lose if they emphasize their video services so strongly yet it only works for 30% of the people. He listened to my feedback and said it gave him something to think about. It was a great call and I understood more about the email marketing business and he understood the perception I felt his company was creating.

A bit later there was even a Tweet to me from the BombBomb account:

How To Listen Like BombBomb
I have to admit, as a social media marketing guy I talk about this all the time but it's really nice to see a company doing this well. Conor's using Google Alerts to monitor mentions of his company and that's how he found Kyle's Tweet responding to me.

Conor took a position as one who wants to listen first rather than defend a position. That's huge. In a world where the deer have guns now, the best posture a business can take is to listen, understand, and then respond appropriately. I really commend Conor for emailing me and asking for feedback. I hope it was helpful to him.

As your organization works through all the aspects of the newly empowered consumer voice, consider listening and responding like BombBomb. You never know, you might just get an advocate out of it.

A recent eMarketer report shows that 48.8% of marketers have used "sponsored blog posts" and 39.4% have paid for Tweets. Sponsored posts are any form of paying for blog post coverage within the blog post itself rather than in the sidebar where something can more clearly be identified as advertising.

A new Nielsen report shows that Android owners spend just under an hour a day on their smartphones and spend 2/3 of that time using apps rather than browsing the web. It looks like the lesson here is that mobile browsing is taking a back seat to app use.

Comscore is reporting that mobile map usage is rising dramatically. In May, 2011 there were 48 million mobile users accessing maps on their devices. This number is up 39% from a year ago.

If there were any doubt that access to online video has changed the way companies can get their message out this video may help convince you. I don't know anything about Essure, the product being promoted here, but from a pure marketing and social media standpoint, this video is spot on. It's funny, counterintuitive, a little shocking, and it's nearly perfect for what they're trying to communicate.

Pharmaceutical companies are not exactly known for their creativity or humor but this video breaks the mold. Regardless of whether you like what they're selling or not, I think you can appreciate the smart strategy and creative twist they used here. Enjoy these guys reaction to "the surgery of which men do not speak." (NOTE: This video has some language that isn't suitable for young ears.)

Put this one in your ROI for social media folder: 31% of the respondents to a recent study said they purchase more from companies and brands that they like or follow than from brands and companies they do not.

Mobile video grew 41% in 2010. This new study shows, among other things, that mobile video viewing continues to grow on mobile devices. This growth is up 100% from 2009. Video is not just for televisions and computer screens anymore.

A new Global Web Index study revealed that several Facebook activities are declining in their use. Virtual gifting is down 12.9% in the U.S. and Facebook instant messaging is down 7.5%. I don't know about you but I'm fine with both of these.

Creative marriage proposals seem to be pretty popular now. Perhaps they always have been and YouTube videos just let more us find out about them, but this guy certainly went all out for the proposal. Enjoy this marriage proposal good enough for the movies:

I should admit immediately that I'm not a big LinkedIn guy. I'm not against it. I'm just not a fan personally. I have seen the value of LinkedIn for some businesses and individuals and I'm happy for them. In fact I have recommended LinkedIn over Facebook to clients in certain situations and they've benefited from their efforts there. So, there's my disclaimer. Now to the matter at hand: I don't believe LinkedIn recommendations and you probably don't either. Here's why...

The Truth About Recommendations
Recommendations are intended to give you insight into a person, place or thing that you wouldn't otherwise know. These recommendations come from random, disconnected people who know enough from personal experience to share that with you. That's why Amazon's reviews are so widely trusted and why sites like Yelp and Urbanspoon are huge. It's the randomness of the collection of thoughts and feedback about particular place that lend it credibility.

LinkedIn recommendations, on the other hand, are anything but random. They are filtered and friendly comments by people who have a personal stake in the recommendation. Many times recommendations are traded between people in an "I'll recommend you if you recommend me" sort of way.

LinkedIn recommendations are sanitized and sanctioned by the person who owns the page and that very fact that you're seeing it means that it has been formally approved by the LinkedIn page owner.

Bias Isn't A Secret
Recommendations are meant to give you insight and a third-party perspective, but in reality they're more biased and less genuine than LinkedIn would like you to believe. But here's the kicker: we all know the recommendations are biased. It's true. We know it.

For instance, when you read a recommendation on my own LinkedIn page that says, "There are few people who understand marketing in the Internet world and Bill Seaver gets it..." I think you probably say, "Hmm, that's a bit of a stretch."

I appreciate the comment but when you read that you know the guy is being very kind and very generous with his recommendation. For that reason I think LinkedIn recommendations aren't very trustworthy. They are inherently biased in favor of the person who is displaying the recommendation. We might glean a bit of insight from time to time but we're not going to make any business decisions based upon LinkedIn recommendations and for that reason we should question how valuable they really are.

I've found that I don't believe them and I suspect you probably don't either. Am I wrong here? Do you believe LinkedIn recommendations?

6% of mobile phone users are scanning QR codes according to a new Comscore report. For all the discussion about QR codes over the last year or so it's interesting to see a quantifiable number on their use. The study also shows that half of the QR code scans are on printed periodicals like magazines or newspapers.

35% of all American adults own a smartphone according to a Pew Internet study.

91% of journalists use the Internet for source information and story ideas. The study also shows that the overwhelming majority of them don't think a company is legitimate if it doesn't have a website.

Chalk this one up to random yet strangely interesting things you only see thanks to the Internet: mariachi band serenades a whale:

While in Chicago this week I had the opportunity to take the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) Skydeck Tour yesterday. It's a great vantage point of the city but one thing I learned was that the CNA Center is painted red and has been that way from the start. It's red only for the purpose of standing out. 

If you look at the picture you see that there's really nothing structurally remarkable about the building but painting it red makes it stand out from all of the other buildings. Everyone else in Chicago built their towers taller or gave them unique architectural features if they wanted to stand out, but in this case the CNA people just painted it red. How simple is that?

I think there's a lot we can learn from the CNA Center. Our business may be like a lot like others but we can still do something to stand out. While everyone else is trying to go bigger or give there business some unique twist, how many little things could we do that are the equivalent of standing out boldly without redesigning the entire building?

Red paint is simple but bold. It took guts to do this. It's totally normal except for one thing, and that one thing makes all the difference.

As you evaluate your business, your marketing, and your social media efforts, look for the opportunities to paint something red. It's probably closer at hand than you ever thought.

Seven Times More Likely: According to this study, display ads that are "above the fold" on a website are seven times more likely to get clicked than those below the fold.

71% Watch Online Video: This new survey shows that 71% of adults who use the Internet watched online video during May, 2011.

50% of Small Businesses Not Using Social Media: This recent survey shows that small businesses largely aren't doing much with social media. 50% said they're not doing anything social media. Only 12% of these businesses think social media is a must-have for thier business.

I'm not sure if I've ever used a short film as a video of the week but there's a first time for everything. This film, Plot Device, was created by Nashville's own Seth Worley. Seth's been getting some critical acclaim from Hollywood for this film and I think it's pretty remarkable what a guy with a $10,000 budget can do in this day and age.

By the way, to all the marketers out there....this short film is actually a not-so-obvious promotion for Red Giant Software. Well done Red Giant.

 If you like movies you'll like Plot Device...and be sure to watch through the credits too!

694,445 Google searches every minute: Thanks to Ray I discovered this great infographic that gives you a glimpes of what's happening online every 60 seconds. It's pretty incredible. Other stats here talk about YouTube videos, Tweets, and blog posts.

$120,000 per day. If you ever wondered how much those promoted Trends on Twitter cost you can pick one up for a mere $120K a day. 

13% of all search traffic is local. This Comscore study shows that local searches now account for 13% of all searches on the major search engines.