The Booty Call Incident

Big Brother is Alive and Well

 My son’s cell phone rang. He answered, “Hello?”

“I’d like to speak to Booty Williams, please.”

“This is Booty.”

[long pause] “Is your name really Booty Williams?”

“That’s right. Booty Call Williams.”

“That’s awesome.”

The call was from a telemarketing firm that had purchased my son’s contact information from a magazine to which he had subscribed. My son is among the millions of Americans who see questionnaires as an opportunity to create prize-winning fiction.

That incident happened 14 years ago, yet Pennie and I continue to receive mail addressed to Booty C. Williams. Booty’s evidently-Irish twin brother, Shenanigans Williams, also resides at our address.

According to the data purchased by the telemarketers, Booty and Shenanigans are both are highly educated and incredibly wealthy.

I finally signed up on Facebook. Sort of. Do you remember giving Facebook your cell phone number? In return for giving it up to them, you no longer had to type those twisted, hard-to-read security words, proving that you were a person and not a computer. Call me paranoid, call me crotchety, call me Rod Wilson (Facebook does,) but don’t call me on my cell phone. I trust the privacy policy of Facebook about as far as I can kick a watermelon.

I will, therefore, continue to type those twisted security words, thereby proving that I, Rod Wilson, am a person (albeit an imaginary one,) and not a computer! God bless America.

What happens in Vegas no longer stays in Vegas.

In the futuristic society described by George Orwell in his book, 1984, everyone is under constant surveillance by the authorities. Citizens are reminded of this by the phrase “Big Brother is watching you.” Immediately upon publication of that book in 1949, the term “Big Brother” entered into general usage to describe any overly-inquisitive or overly-controlling authority figure or attempts by the government to increase surveillance.

Friend, Big Brother is alive and well. And he is us.

Who needs private investigators and background checks when you can gather eyewitness accounts, signed confessions and photographic evidence with just a few clicks?

Kirsten Valle writes, “The line between private and work lives is blurring in an era where blogs, social networking sites and party photo sites are increasingly popular. Employers are scanning the Internet for information on job applicants and even checking up on existing employees. Companies worry about photos showing drug or alcohol abuse, racially offensive comments and revealing clothing – anything that could damage a company's reputation.”

People are losing their jobs and their marriages because of things that are posted on social media websites.

On a more positive note, I mentioned in last week’s memo that Twitter and Facebook had lifted online research to a whole new level. Here’s a bit of Twitter eavesdropping I did – without even meaning to – while researching Facebook’s highly touted, hyper-targetable online ads:

RT @danmartell: Facebook has a crazy awesome TARGETED ad platform. If you don't use it – you're kind of crazy! http://www.facebook.com/ads

Drewmack responded:

Facebook ads are a great way to invest your ad $ if you aren't one of those people who care about results. http://bit.ly/2Nb50q

That link provided by Drewmack proved interesting. You should click it later.

Advertisers are hungry for trackable, direct-response “cause and effect” advertising. Deep down, their fantasy is to be able to say, “Every time I spend (x) dollars on advertising, I make (x) dollars in profit.” Advertisers like to think of advertising as a giant gumball machine: “You put in your ad budget, you crank the handle, and out come the results.”

And advertising salespeople have convinced most advertisers that “reaching the right people is the key.”

But success is more often determined by how you crank the handle.

Specifically:

(1.) How relevant is your message?

Are you talking about what people actually care about, or only what you wish they would care about?

(2.) In what psychological environment was your message delivered?

EXAMPLE 1: Everyone knows that more people listen to the radio during morning drive than at any other time during the day. But people during morning drive are thinking about what awaits them at work. It’s during the drive home that they’re thinking about what awaits them at home. Consequently, radio ads tend to work better during afternoons and evenings.

EXAMPLE 2: Facebook ads allow you to target with laser-like precision the customer profiles you want to reach. But you’ll get better results with keyword-targeted Google adwords because Google ads appear when the imperfect customer is in looking-for-answers mode. Facebook ads appear when the perfect customer is in connecting-with-friends, wasting-time mode.

I realize it’s counterintuitive, but “When” is often more important than “Who.”

Quit looking for the right people. Instead, dig deep for a message worth shouting from the housetops. You'll be surprised how many people become the right people when you finally begin saying the right thing.

Roy H. Williams