A New Cuban Revolution

Capitalizing on emerging capitalism.

There’s a revolution going on in Cuba. There are guerrillas walking the streets of Havana. They bear little likeness to Fidel’s cadre, though — the one that installed a Marxist dictatorship in 1959. Instead they’re free-market reformers, responding to Raúl Castro’s 2010 easing of restrictions on small business entrepreneurship. They are the island’s first capitalists in three generations, and they’re creating from scratch a uniquely Cuban approach to guerrilla marketing.

They’ve embraced the guerrilla approach — that unconventional, low-budget and ever so effective style of advertising — not because they’ve heard it’s trendy here in the States. They’re doing it because they have no other choice. Print and broadcast media in Cuba is still state controlled and doesn’t accept advertising. Internet connectivity is severely limited. The new entrepreneurs of 2010 were faced with the challenge: how to let their fellow Cubans know they were open for business.

They met that challenge with ingenuity we should all find instructive. They accepted their limited resources, their limited access to mass media, and worked around them.

There’s the restaurant owner, for instance, who takes to the streets of Havana in his garishly painted MG Roadster (displaying the restaurant’s logo, of course). Cuba’s license plates are color coded, so he keeps an eye out for the blue plates designating foreign tour groups, and leaves discount coupons on their windshields.

And there’s the mobile phone repair company (which also does a brisk business unlocking iPhones). They wanted to differentiate themselves from their hundreds of competitors, so they’ve branded themselves as a “clinic,” complete with a cartoon mascot: a cellphone wearing a stethoscope. That icon is becoming familiar throughout the island, thanks to professional signage and thousands of flyers handed out.

Perhaps most innovative is a popular Havana burger stand. They offer 25% lifetime discounts to motorists willing to carry bright yellow advertising decals on their cars. They also managed to get 30 marchers, all wearing branded t-shirts, into this year’s May Day parade (one of Cuba’s biggest public events). The result was mass-market coverage that would have been otherwise impossible.

At this early stage, Cuban marketing is still in its infancy. The same can be said for all aspects of Cuban free enterprise. But as long as they go on showing this same level of resourcefulness and resolve, their future is bright indeed.

And along the way they might have some lessons to teach the free-enterprise giant just 90 miles off their coast. Here’s hoping we’re willing to learn them.

The C4:

1. In 2010 Cuban president Raúl Castro opened the way for limited entrepreneurship throughout the island. Within months thousands of small business — restaurants, specialty stores and beauty shops — hung out their shingles. 
2. They quickly found, however, that they had no easy way of communicating with their customers. Mass media is controlled by the Cuban government and conventional advertising doesn’t exist.
3. So they embraced what we call “guerrilla marketing.” They leveraged ingenuity, meager resources and every opportunity for exposure. It worked. It’s still working.
4. It’s a fascinating, real-time experiment in creating a free-market system from the ground up. There are lessons to be learned in Cuba. Wise marketers everywhere should pay attention to this developing story.

Crazy? Yep!

You in?

Since 10% of the world’s population is already on Facebook, saying that Facebook is going public is a little like saying Charlie Sheen is going crazy.

But from a business perspective, it’s true (the Facebook part, that is — Sheen’s nuttiness, like Sheen himself, is irrelevant).

Facebook filed paperwork last week for an upcoming IPO. Analysts are predicting the largest tech-sector public offering of all time, maybe even the largest-ever stock launch, period.

We shall see. But what we’ve learned so far, from Facebook’s SEC filings, is in turn instructive, intriguing and even a little bewildering.

The facts: Facebook valuates itself at between $75 and $100 billion. They’re seeking a $5 billion cash infusion, with which they plan a series of strategic acquisitions. And current holders of Facebook stock options, including secretaries, custodians and the graffiti artist who painted their lobby, are about to become millionaires.

But that’s where things get weird.

Facebook stock options have always been a valuable recruiting tool, enticing the industry’s best programmers, designers and engineers. Facebook stock has long been privately traded, so the options have been paying off nicely until now.

But future options, after the IPO, will be seriously devalued, which will in turn hobble Facebook’s ability to bring in new talent. Is Facebook really risking that to raise just five percent of their (assumed) total net worth?

Doubtful. Especially considering that their revenue has grown by double digits every year of their existence. Last year it was a jaw-dropping 84%. This company is not cash-poor.

Something else is going on here, and we will delight in digging deep and discerning what it is. We’ll do so respectfully of course, because we know Mr. Zuckerberg is even now reading these words (Hi, Mark!).

The C4:

1. Facebook, a social media and advertising powerhouse unlike anything ever seen, has filed paperwork for a $5 billion IPO.
2. A successful stock launch will enrich hundreds of Facebook employees who have benefited from deferred options.
3. Future stock options may be diluted due to the millions of new shares about to be issued. This will surely impact Facebook's ability to attract new talent.
4. We're puzzled and intrigued, and watching closely to see who gets egg on their Facebook.

What You Should Know About Measuring Social Influence

It’s no doubt that Klout created a niche market for measuring social influence. But constant criticism regarding privacy issues and calculation methods also set the stage for a host of new competitors to step into the limelight and steal the attention of Klout’s audience.

In the above image from AdWeek, the sudden availability of many new influence measurement tools presents quite a selection of options to choose from when seeking to determine the reach of your social media activities.

Klout. Kred. PeerIndex. PROskore. SocMetrics. Traackr. TweetLevel. Twitalyzer.

Wait — we’re not done yet.

Argyle Social. CrowdBooster. Empire Avenue. My Web Career. PostRank. Sprout Social. TweetGrader. TweetStats. Twenty Feet. Twitaholic. Twitter Counter. Twylah. Who Say.

OK. Now that we have a good — but still incomplete — list going, which one is right for you?

Most of these platforms give some sort of score or idea of your reach. Some just let you compare yourself against other industry users. But each takes different bits of information into account when calculating. Past job titles. Audience size. Tweets, retweets, favorites, likes, tags, etc.

The list of criteria goes on.

But as organizations spread out over all these platforms and begin using their services, the facts and figures that come from each start to lose their importance. Does a Klout score of 54.8 (rounded up to 55) stand up against a Kred score of 548? This presents some problems for organizations that sell social media services, or for social media specialists that are required to provide metrics regarding the impact of their endeavors.

So, which influence measurement tool should you choose?

Any of them, really. Sure, some will come under fire for how they calculate social influence. They always will. Whether it’s from competition or social watchdogs, these tools will continue to be scrutinized. And they’ll continue to defend themselves because they have a product to sell.

But your role in this mayhem is to keep moving forward. Using Klout? Aim to improve your score. Engage more and share more. Using Kred? It’s the same situation — just keep building up your organization’s social presence.

And if anyone shuns your Kred score with their Klout score, just ask them what their scores or metrics are for each of the 21 influence measurement tools mentioned above. All 21 of them — one by one.

The C4:

• Many social influence measurement tools are available, and each offers scoring or measurement in either similar or vastly different ways.
• Choosing the right tool for you depends on how you're going to use it.
• You must determine the value of having a measurement tool — what does this information mean to you and what will it mean to those you serve?
• Comparing scores from different tools is pointless; instead, compare what you hear back from your audience. That will determine who's doing things right.

Image Source: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/million-little-klouts-137032