Storytelling moves all great marketing. And the synergies of interactive, social and print mediums is what drives those stories.

—Ian

*thanks to Griffin Farley

Are you on Twitter? Where in your company’s organization chart do you reside?

Historically companies that have resisted change have suffered. I urge all traditional publishing companies, both in our roster and outside our roster, to watch this video through until the end. In today’s economy, due in part to disruptive technologies, we are all being challenged to look within our organizations and ask “are we doing what is best for us or what is best for our customers.” DK books and Thekhakigroup nailed these questions in this video. All assets in your organization, print and digital, need to be working in harmony with technology, Social Media, UX and one another. Content Strategy can help—Be inspired to tackle change.

—Ian

As a part of my preparation for 2010 I finally cleaned up my bookmarks. In the process of doing so I got to revisit some great agencies that I forgot about. Sleep-deprived, I culled that list and combined it with some Smashing Magazine links and a Hongkiat list focused on top design and curated my own Top Digital Agency list. After being being blown away by the work I went back and checked what sort of presence those agencies had on Twitter. Surely more data and different agencies would deliver different results but I think the numbers are interesting.

Tweets

Avg # of tweets = 327 (minus Weightshift’s Tweets = avg. drops to 214)

% of agencies with no Twitter accounts = %36

% of agencies with <100 Tweets = %60

% of agencies with >1000 Tweets = % .06

Followers

Avg # of followers 1491 (minus Big Spaceship’s Followers = avg. drops to 951)

% of agencies with <100 Followers = %47

% of agencies with >1000 Followers = %40

% of agencies with >10000 Followers = % .03

Following

Avg # being followed 264 (- Sevenedge’s Follows = avg. drops to 171)

Number of agencies Following more than they are being Followed = 4

Number of agencies with >1000 Followers not following anyone = 3

Miscellaneous/Pet Peeves

Number of annoying, long-loading flash intros = 3

% of out of date copyright footers = %36

Last year I harped on how Content Strategists need to be well rounded in all areas.  A similar strategy should be applied to digital agencies and Social Media.  When I didn’t find a Twitter account for an agency, or found one that lacked significant tweets or followers, right or wrong I took them less seriously. While some may prefer calls, emails or form submits (a turn-off) what works for potential customers, especially given the intra-agency work seems more imperative than what we like. It used to be you could be a great _______ and someone else did the marketing and selling.  9,170,000,000 Tweets (and counting) are changing your brand’s perception with or without your help. Soon the rule will be: Tweet first, Google second. Long live the generalist and his ever-longer list.

What are your thoughts about being an agency and having an active Twitter account?

Oh, and Follow me @eatmedia if you like.

—Ian

I ate my first Hershey’s Chocolate Bar in many moons the other day, and from the first bite, I knew something was wrong.

Hershey’s chocolate has always had a cakey texture to it. I could have identified it in a blind taste test no problem. But this bar wasn’t quite right. It was close, but an oily texture had crept in and was taking the edge off the sweetness. My palette was not fooled and it was not amused.

So I took a look at the ingredient list to see if something looked off. It did. One of the sub-ingredients for the milk chocolate was the acronym PGPR. A quick search of the Internet revealed those letters to stand for polyglycerol polyricinoleate. It has been many years since I have taken organic chemistry, so it was unnerving to see a completely unidentifiable compound had migrated into an American icon, the Hershey Bar. My Hershey Bar. The Hershey Bar I would purchase as a treat while I was living abroad because it tasted like home. Say what you will about the quality of Hershey’s chocolate, but it’s one of those things that should never change. It’s American comfort food. The menu at McDonalds may change in countries around the world, but a Hershey Bar was a Hershey Bar no matter where you bought one.

And now it was not. It had been adulterated, and in a very underhanded way.

Another glance through the Internet revealed that PGPR is a non-ionic surfactant made from castor beans that in 2006 was added to the chocolate recipes of both Hershey’s and Nestle as a substitute for the more expensive cocoa butter. Now we were getting somewhere. My chocolate bar had been injected with ersatz cocoa butter with the hope that few people would notice. (I can totally understand Hershey not wanting to have PGPR spelled out on the package since it contains the word ricin, a poison that’s also derived from castor beans.)

But I had noticed and I was pissed off. I headed for Twitter to tweet my dismay to Hershey, but, to my astonishment, Hershey isn’t on Twitter. More swearing ensued. A quick look at Hersheys.com revealed a complicated contact form that wanted me to part with a great deal of personal information. The swearing reached another decibel level. But before I could get too mad, a fire erupted in the office and I spent the rest of the day putting it out.

I awoke the next morning with a start, realizing that I’d left a half-eaten open Hershey Bar on my desk. Our office is in South Florida. Like every other structure in this humid, subtropical climate, we have ants. I pictured my desk swarming with millions when I arrived, the scent of fried ants wafting from my smoking iMac.

I flipped on the lights and saw that my desk appeared as it had when I’d left, Hershey bar sitting there in the open wrapper. There was not an ant in sight. I sat down and picked up the Hershey Bar to put it in the trash. One dead ant fell out of the wrapper. I saw two more lying on my desktop.

I tried not to jump to conclusions.

Then I had a grand idea: Maybe the fact Hershey bars with PGPR now kill ants is actually an unadvertised feature. I was getting added value here and didn’t even know it. Hershey’s just hadn’t figured out how to market a combination chocolate snack/pesticide.

So Hershey’s, you have a big problem here. Not only do ants find you product unpalatable, but it appears to kill them. Is my evidence anecdotal? Perhaps. Does that matter? No. Will I be buying another Hershey Bar again? No.

So what are the content strategy takeaways?

1. Being cheap is never a good content strategy. Maybe you get to make a fraction of a penny more on each chocolate bar, but you’ve ruined your product in the process.
2. Don’t make it hard for people to get in touch with you. I should not have to give up my phone number and birthday to a submit a question on your website.
3. Being a huge, iconic company without a social media presence is insane. McDonalds has 11 staff members on its Twitter team. Look at what Dell has been up to. It’s not too late, but get with the program.

—Jonathan
(@bentpiton)