Tim O'Reilly’s recent blog post about the new Twitter Tees on Threadless got me thinking about social objects and how useful they are but also where they fall short in terms of connecting to a web version of the experience.
I first heard the term “social object” when I was working back in the UK for Steve Clayton and he unleashed the Blue Monster with the help of Hugh McCloud and started putting the stickers on the side of Stormhoek wine bottles and creating posters for people to hang proudly on their wall. Steve and Hugh called them social objects and claimed they started conversations with people, simply because they were interesting.
At first I’ll admit I was skeptical about the idea but since then I’ve actually realized that they can be very useful tools in many everyday situations. Possessing something that sparks someone’s interest and allows you to talk about your product or service -whatever that might be - is extremely useful as it gets over that initial awkwardness of not knowing a random person. It’s like an introduction from someone who is a mutual acquaintance except your inanimate social object plays the role of the connector.
With the Blue Monster, Steve had a tool that not only allowed him to have conversations about how Microsoft was changing, but he had a viral brand that spread across the internet rapidly. It gained such a cult following inside of Microsoft that people started including the blue monster image in their signatures and became so high profile that the marketing team in the UK had to tell people to stop using it.
Now consider social objects that aren’t even attached to your product or service - just everyday objects that are interesting – products that you buy from other companies. I’ve got a couple of them that are part of my social toolkit. The first is my wallet which is interesting because it’s made of paper and has a comic book printed on it. I’ve lost count of the number of comments people have made about it when I’m reaching for my cash to pay for something. Then there are my flip flops, complete with a bottle opener, they’re novel and also extremely useful – and if people are thirsty you can become very popular! Both are great conversation starters and successful social objects.
By making interesting products that fit into everyday scenarios the companies that make the wallet and the flip-flops become popular through viral marketing. Owners of the objects become advocates because it inserts them into social scenarios and the spiral begins, more people buy them and the spiral begins.
The golden leap is tying a social object back to the web so something can happen after the interaction. Think of this as a social hyperlink that connects the physical object to the virtual world on the web. There could be endless reasons why you would want to do this, share contact details, get people to a product page, sign up for an event etc. Not surprisingly technology is the best social hyperlink around, and now that mobile devices are in the hands of everyone connecting from social objects to the web is easier than ever before.
An example of this is Microsoft Tag, a barcode that can be read from any phone (with a quick download of their software). Place this on any social object (my wallet for example) and get a friend to snap it on their phone and they are whisked away to a product page so they can place an order for their own wallet.
So there you have it, social objects connected to the web by social hyperlinks powered by technology – have a great weekend and remember don’t forget to take your social objects with you wherever you go!
Question for the comments: what are your favorite social objects?