"We don't need to keep that old URL..."

As somebody who's been involved in Social Media for a while, I've had a number of websites. And I've allowed myself to fall prey to this logical error. Pharma seems to live this error, but usually buries it under a, "Well, we don't market that brand anymore, so we're going to let it expire...". You have to protect your URLs because bad things can happen.

So... how has this effected me? If you Google yourself, like I Google myself sometimes, you will find that you probably own the front page of Google search results. I've worked hard for about 11 years to make sure that if you Google me... you find me. I've reserved imetbrad.com for a number of years, because it's an awesome URL.I also used to run a PodCast, Whole Lot of Nonsense, and owned a URL for that. I posted comments on other PodCast's sites, had the URL on business cards... you know, did all the personal brand management you're supposed to do. Then I let it lapse... I'm a moron. Let's just admit that and move on. First, it was owned by somebody shilling gear for PodCasters, and now it's owned by a Japanese firm... (no I'm not giving them any more free Google Juice).

"So... this doesn't matter to businesses..."

Oh, ye of little faith.

Heinz is the latest and biggest victim of what happens when you let a URL lapse. An article from the Verge, "Heinz ketchup bottle QR code leads to hardcore porn site" points out what can happen when you go to the effort of doing all the cool social and digital things... and then let your URL lapse. Really? Your marketing managers probably bill back more in coffee as a corporate expense in a month than your URL will cost you.

"Fine... but if that's all Pharma has to worry about... it's no big thing... We'll just apologize like Heinz."

Sure... you can do that.

But let's say that you have a campaign for raising Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) awareness in Australia. The campaign was designed to point out that HSV is a problem bigger than cold sores. The virus can lead to bigger health complications, and people need to be open, honest, and communicative about HSV.  It's a consumer generated content contest... It's AWESOME. The company got some great content, like this YouTube video "Sign from above..." in which a couple tries to decide if it's worth following up on some flirting.

The URL that leads to all this great content, though... has lapsed.

The company is Novartis. The campaign was called "Live and Love".

If you type in the URL for Live and Love, somebody else owns it. I mean, why wouldn't you? Somebody else has already put in all the effort of making the URL marketable.

"Still... not a problem..."

Okay. Let's talk about what's on the site, now. If you go to the website that used to be "Live and Love" discussing the serious importance of HSV, it has now become a site called, "Best Cold Sore Remedies & Treatments". I would argue that this site pretty much sets the conversation back to where it was before the campaign started. Which, I would also argue should not have been an objective of the campaign, and furthermore becomes another example of how Big Pharma is only interested in promoting "disease awareness" when it's profitable.

Honestly, this could have been worse.

Imagine if the URL had lapsed and been purchased by someone who wanted to market homeopathic cures for HSV.

What if an organisation that wanted to stigmatize HSV patients had purchased the URL, and the site was now filled with hate speech?

Okay... ethics be damned... what if a competitor who had a brand that was in direct competition with Novartis' product bought the URL and redirected it toward its microsite, or social media content, or just their corporate home page.

I'm used to hearing companies say that disease awareness is a waste of time because the advertising will be a "rising tide that raises all boats"... also called "brand effect". That's a topic for a whole other post. But, if you're going to invest the marketing dollars in setting up a campaign, a website, advertising, press releases, tweets, QR codes, Foursquare check-ins, Snapchat channels, Instagram content, Pinterest boards... you should really PROTECT YOUR INVESTMENT

"Ok... fine... let's say you're right... HOW?"

Here's a couple of free ideas:

Hold onto that URL. Just keep the thing renewed. It's not that hard. (insert expletives where appropriate).

Redirect it to a sub-page of your corporate page describing what the content was, and note that it is no longer available. You know that abstract you wrote to get funding for your brilliant idea... you can use that again. Repurposing content is what the internet was designed for.

Create a hilarious 404 page... with the abstract... Have some fun with it. Make a cat video. Show puppies trying to fetch content. Paste your website logo on a llama and run it through the streets.

Point to a Slideshare page detailing the program as a white paper... that agency you probably paid to create the campaign, can create one for you... Everybody gets to learn how awesome you are, and you can attract better candidates for positions in social and digital media.

If you want more ideas, you should come check out the agency I work for. We're pretty damned smart.

Taking a few moments to gather my thoughts

I'm sitting back in the office, day after New Years. Honestly, wishing I could be at home, still asleep, hanging out with my family. But nobody pays me if I do that, so I have to head out into the digital mine and dig up some gold nuggets in the Internetz.
I spent a lot of my time this holiday break hanging with my family, going to a couple of museums in New York, and a local one. I'm lucky like that, having some disposable time and income. And, like many of the people I see out and about on a daily basis, I take photos and videos with my iPhone. In fact, I only take photos and videos with my iPhone.
I'm one of those geeks who also uses Instagram to capture, modify, and share a lot of my photos. I've also recently put my toe back into the PodCasting field by doing some short pieces on Audioboo. And all this got me to thinking.
How much of of the lives of a lot of us are now based on geo-location based digital media?
Then I geeked down for a second and asked, how much of our lives are now being created and shared in digital media?
Upside, it's easy. We can snap a photo, share it with our friends, and voila, a thousand or so words saved. We can record a quick audio thought, and voila, I don't have to make sure I spelled reciprocity correctly, and quite frankly, I could never describe exactly how loud those fire engines were anyway.
Then I got to thinking about what I do for a living, Social Media for a Big Pharma company. And I thought, Downside. Almost every big company relies on these text based Social Media listening reports to tell us what people are saying. Heck, most companies who provide the service are just now getting to the point that they can tell if the words people are using are a good or bad thing. Try finding a definition of bad that encompasses both the Webster and Slang versions, and you'll see what I mean.
Now, try applying that sentiment analysis to place, context, time, voice intonation, position in conversation, facial and body language cues, and anything else that can be conveyed in audio or video. And you'll see that there's a whole other set of layers. Or what about photos or videos with no text or audio... silent films are still powerfully used, as was seen in a Novartis video contest in 2010.
I'm not offering a solution here, I'm just pointing out that the human element of Social Media is becoming more and more important. That nut we thought we were all going to crack through language and sentiment analysis? It turns out that was just the soft, leafy seed pod surrounding some other casing that may ultimately contain a nut we need to crack.
Don't you hate it when somebody throws out an idea, and then doesn't sell you the solution that comes with it?