An exclusive, in-depth look into the Super Bowl’s first ever social media command center, the folks who ran it, and how the convergence of technology and people created the ultimate online Super Bowl experience.

Me with Taulbee Jackson, CEO of Raidious

You would think that, the day before the biggest sporting event of the year, the people in charge of the Super Bowl’s Social Media Command Center would be frantic, running around and putting out last minute fires. So imagine my surprise when I walked in and found it to be quite the opposite. Entering the offices of Raidious — the Indianapolis-based digital communications company behind the social media command center — the air was full of activity, but the mood was quiet and calm… almost, I dare say, serene.

And it’s no wonder. Having worked with such brands as Finish Line, Bass Pro Shops and Comcast, Raidious has honed the art of making, managing, and measuring the content that makes digital marketing work. And so, for the folks at Raidious, this really is almost like business as usual — despite this being the largest event they’ve ever managed. A group of 16 Raidious employees and 30 local college and university volunteers were stationed at what can only be akin to iMac Heaven and focused on monitoring all of the Super Bowl’s social media channels. Leading these individuals was Taulbee Jackson, CEO of Raidious. It was my pleasure that he took a few minutes of his day to chat with me

The Super Bowl Host Committee reached out to Raidious for assistance with the committee’s media department over a year and a half ago. Jackson then developed a mission that didn’t compete with the social media or marketing efforts of NFL Enterprises, but to showcase the city of Indianapolis and to create what he calls the “ultimate Super Bowl experience.”

The model was simple: monitor, moderate and publish. Aside from monitoring the Super Bowl’s official blog, Twitter account (@SuperBowl2012), hashtags (#sb46, #superbowl, #sbvillage and #nflexperience), and Facebook page, below is a play-by-play of the action plan:

A 9-screen monitor wall (over 100 sq feet) which provided real-time info from various sources

Mission & Goals

1.  Super Safety – With an anticipated 150,000 visitors to descend on Indianapolis, a main focus of the social media command center is to ensure public safety. They will monitor social media channels for traffic situations, parking recommendations, and anything that could be considered suspicious behavior or malevolent. Additionally, should a crisis situation present itself, the command center will disseminate information for Homeland Security and public safety command centers.
2. Super Service – Part of delivering on the ultimate Super Bowl Experience means highlighting the hospitality of Indianapolis, providing directions, guidance and navigation, and offering information about ongoing Super Bowl events to visitors. The command center will also respond to any negative dialog related to the city or event and to mitigate any negative sentiment — that is, Twitter messages or Facebook comments from disgruntled fans and followers will likely get a rapid response.
3. Capture the Experience – A large function of the social media command center is to gather information, post images and videos, and write content. Essentially, to know what’s happening when and where, capture it and publish it.
4. Amplification – The command center not only monitored conversation, but it was also curators and communicators of content that highlighted positive things related to Indianapolis and the Super Bowl, and used digital channels to spread this information.

Campaigns & Programs

• #Social46 – As part of the effort to make the Super Bowl the most connected story in history, 46 of the most socially influential people (based on their Klout scores) in Indiana were selected to represent the city and state of Indiana, as well as give exclusive insight into all things related to the Super Bowl. Read more.
• #Supercars – To  bring a little “Indy” to the NFL, 33 Indy cars were placed around the state of Indiana, one for each of the 32 NFL teams and one for Super Bowl XLVI. Fans of both the NFL and Indy 500 drove around the state  to find each car. Read more.
• Foursquare – Considering that over 130,000 people checked into last year’s Super Bowl, it was only natural to use location-based Foursquare as a means to deliver flash sales to visitors checking in to local hot spots and Super Bowl events.
• #46Stories – Raidious asked 46 media outlets in and around the Indianapolis area to collect and publish stories and to help generate conversation and hype. The 46 stories series gives fans access to events around the city and also asks for them to share their own stories. Complete archive of Super Bowl 46 stories.
• Content Team – Huddles were spread around the city to act as “human versions of Google.” Armed with Galaxy tablets, members of the huddle teams were prepared to answer visitors questions such as where to find a good place to eat or to provide directions and guidance. Each huddle was comprised of an 11 person team, including a Quarterback (the leader) and a Running Back (a runner of information). Additionally, visitors could take images or record a video at various Social Sharing kiosks that would then be posted to the Super Bowl’s YouTube or Flickr channels.

Thirty university and college students helped monitor online chatter using Awareness, Inc. Social Media Monitoring Hub

Tools & Technology

•  Awareness, Inc. – After test driving many different social monitoring systems, Raidious chose Awareness Inc.’s Social Media Marketing Hub for publishing, monitoring and analyzing conversation streams. Raidious  chose Awareness, Inc because of it’s capabilities and user interface, liking it so much that they even worked with Awareness, Inc. developers to further enhance the analytics portion of the service (to be available in a future release). Using the Hub’s built-in workflow, the 30 university volunteers would monitor and respond to chatter that would then be immediately put into an “editing” queue. One of the 16 Raidious employees would then approve the response and push it live.
• ChaCha Answers Application – ChaCha, also based in Indianapolis, is a service that gives free, real-time answers to any question both online at ChaCha.com and through mobile phones. Raidious used ChaCha to build a list of responses to take the guess work out of how to best answer comments or chatter for the volunteers.
• NSixty – Raidious used NSixty to create the video recording kiosks found throughout the Super Bowl Village. These were available for visitors to create videos via the video recording stations which would then be uploaded into a moderation queue and then published to YouTube or Flickr by a Raidious employee.
• Monitor Wall (NFL Network, WTHR, ESPN) – On the wall of the social media command center was a 9-screen monitor wall (over 100 sq feet) which provided real-time web traffic from Google Analytics (beta), sentiment & web monitoring via Social Mention, geotargeted monitoring from real time trends from NewsMap, and sentiment from WeFeelFine.org.

Measurement & Engagement
The Social Media Command Center tracked five key metrics :

• Reach – this metric is based on the number of people in the direct audience. So, the number of Twitter followers (27, 955 as of this writing) and Facebook fans (currently just over 17,000). Before Raidious became involved, the direct audience was hovering around 5,000 followers and fans. In two weeks time, Raidious grew that audience to over 48,000 (as of Kick off) simply by commenting on wall posts and responding to tweets. Which proves that proactive engagement does indeed work.
• Amplification – this metric is based on the number of impressions generated by the direct audience’s audience. So, retweets, shares and other impressions that were generated by the second level audience (friends of friends). According to Jackson, they were seeing content amplified at 800K – 1M impressions a day — that’s an estimated 14 million audience just in the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. Translating that into cost per thousand, he estimated that they were providing over 500K in value to the Super Bowl’s overall marketing strategy.
• Sentiment – assessing the mood / emotions of the overall audience by looking at the context, tone, emotion, polarity and objectivity of the comments. Sentiment is measured as a positive:negative ratio — the ratio of mentions that are generally positive to those that are generally negative. According to the metrics available at the time I spoke with Jackson, the current sentiment was 3:1 positive ratio — this ratio is not commonly seen above 2:1, so this achievement is something of which to be quite proud.
• Influence – relates to how influential the Host committee is based on Klout score. The Super Bowl’s Klout score is holding steady at 68 while the NFL has a Klout score of 65.
• Activity – how often content was being published. Jackson anticipated this number to increase slightly, but he was also very cognizant of avoiding audience burn.
• As of Friday, fans had already made more than 1,748 videos and 4,502 postcards via the social sharing kiosks with an average of 700+ interactions a day. Read more.
• Jackson estimated that his team was sending one response every two minutes. Compound that number over the 48 hours just before Kick off and you have an activity rate of 1,440 responses.
• Social-TV analytics company, Bluefin Labs has so far tracked more than 12.2 million social-media comments during and after Super Bowl XLVI, primarily on Twitter and Facebook. That’s a 578% increase over the total Bluefin tracked last year (1.8 million). Read more.

It’s clear that the efforts of the Social Media Command Center had two overall accomplishments of which everyone involved (the NFL, Raidious, and all the vendors) should be proud: 1) provided guidance and generated content for people who attended the Super Bowl in real life, and 2) extended the Super Bowl experience to a direct audience of 48,000 plus an amplified audience of 14M (calculating the 2 weeks leading up to the Super Bowl) in various online communities.

I would like to thank Taulbee for his time and a shout out to all the folks at Raidious for a great visit. Most importantly, I would like to thank Awareness, Inc and Scratch Marketing + Media (Jenn Reilly) for inviting me to experience the efforts of the Social Media Command Center first hand.

Top Areas For Social Marketing Investment and Biggest Social Marketing Challenges in 2012

From Awareness, Inc
Creators of the Social Marketing Hub

The definitive social marketing industry report.

In December 2011 Awareness surveyed over 320 marketers from a wide variety of industries and levels of social marketing experience. This report brings to you those insights and benchmarks to solidify your social marketing strategy, grow your social footprint and engage with your audiences for maximum return. You will learn how leaders allocate resources, discover the top social platforms and social media management tools they use,  social marketing investment priorities, and the practices companies will adopt to ensure 2012 is the year of the social business.

You will notice some underlying themes in this report:

• Executives and senior managers are looking for traction in three key areas – ROI, integration of social with lead generation and sales, and expansion of social presence and reach.
• While social marketers feel they do not have the necessary resources to execute initiatives successfully, they must meet the expectations of senior management who demand to see tangible business value.
• Companies experienced in social marketing are moving beyond growing social presence and reach. Their focus will shift to active social media management for increased lead generation and sales.
• You will see less-experienced marketers following their visionary peers, adopting established practices as they move along the maturity continuum.

For more information or to download your own copy please visit Awareness Inc.

Below is an excerpt from ANA Marketing’s The Five Drivers to Creating and Maintaining Brand Loyalty. Visit the ANA Marketing web site to read this post in its entirety. To discover more tips on using social media to build your brand, register for the ANA’s course on The Art and Science of Brand Building that begins on April 18, 2011 in New York, NY.

Cheryl Riina, independent consultant, discussed the five drivers to creating and maintaining brand loyalty. Riina stated that 80% of business comes from 20% of customers, as brand loyalists are committed “true believers.” Technology has revolutionized the way we do business. Resulting from the combination of a radically transformed marketplace, revolutionized communication, and the challenging economic environment, we now have a “more experienced, more demanding, harder-to-please, and tech savvier consumer.” Given the challenges, one might assume that brand loyalty is a phenomenon of the past, but customers want to be loyal because they save time and simplify their lives with loyalty. Brand loyalty creates many benefits for a company, including the following:

Less price sensitive customers;
Reduction of costs and increased profitability/financial rewards;
Brand advocates;
Barriers to entry for competitors;
Greater forgiveness of mistakes;
Greater lifetime value.

1. Brand Awareness:

To create brand loyalty, consumers must first be aware that your brand exists. Explain what the brand is, what it does, and where it can be accessed. Brand recognition and brand recall require top-of-mind awareness, which is the ability of consumers to name your brand first. Getting your name into the vernacular is very important to gaining awareness, and many brands have achieved becoming the generic name for products (such as Kleenex, Q-tips, Saran Wrap, FedEx, Xerox, Scotch, Band Aid, and Google).

2. Relevant differentiation:

Once consumers are aware of your brand, they need to understand what makes you unique. Make a brand promise that is positive and engaging. Promoting the Unique Selling Propositions (USP’s) of brands differentiates them from the others. Examples include “M&M’s: Melts in your mouth, not in your hands,” and Disney as being synonymous with “family fun.” Also keep in mind that evolution is a natural part of a brands life. Brands must evolve with the times, with technology, and changing lifestyles (Riina cites the example of Apple creating trends, instead of chasing them). The ability to evolve differentiates one brand from the rest.

3. Perceived value:

Customers must have the perception that you are delivering a good value for the price. When examining the total cost vs. total value, remember that perceived value is not a price-point issue for the consumer. There is also a lot of value in the customization or personalization of products (such as “create your own” items like Nike sneakers) because they can be tailored to meet specific consumer needs.

4. Accessibility:

Availability is highly important. Be sure to consider all of the following: convenience, simplicity, creativity, flexibility, distribution channels available, location, hours of operation, and inventory management. Additionally, think of your availability as a product in a customer-centric way. You want to know when they shop, where they shop, how they shop, and what they’re going to do while they wait (such as waiting in line and browsing magazines to buy). Multi-tasking is huge right now, and you must consider it.

5. Emotional Connections:

Emotional connections are the fundamental building blocks to establishing relationships with consumers and maintaining brand loyalty. They are powerful and profitable, and they are significant for all brands and categories (at all price points and levels of involvement). Riina discussed how the “4 P’s” of the marketing mix are now the “5 P’s”: product, price, place, promotion, and people. Consumer relationships must be developed and nurtured through active, ongoing, 1-on-1 engagement to develop trust. Reinforce this relationship at every touch point (especially customer service), and think about how your brand makes people feel.

Key points to consider when combining the five drivers of brand loyalty:

Focus: know your brand, know your audience.
Commitment: there must be a companywide commitment to the brand promise and to your consumer.
Authenticity: consumers seek it, and they will know if you are authentic.
Integration: one voice; stand together.
Consistency: total brand experience must be enforced at every touch point.
Communication: instead of speaking at customers, engage in relevant dialogues that promote engagement and feedback.
Understanding: know the wants, needs, relationships, and expectations of your consumer.
Collaboration: interactivity is key, make them part of the process, reward partnerships.
Evolution: technological innovation is critical; stay in front of the curve and work to make your customers lives better.
Passion: inspire and motivate from the inside to make the brand something that others are passionate about.

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) is the advertising industry’s oldest trade association, founded on June 24, 1910 in Detroit, Michigan by 45 companies to safeguard and advance the interests of advertisers and consumers. ANA Today Insights is a newsletter that provides market information on indispensable business insight, collaboration opportunity & industry advocacy. Visit the ANA web site for more information and how to become a member.

In a world dominated by social media every marketer is now a publisher and every publisher is now a marketer. Mass socialization is taking place, with consumers spending more than six hours per month engaged in social media. Fifty-five percent of U.S. adults have a Facebook page today. This rise in consumer conversations means that people are listening to what brands say and how they respond to consumer issues online. When organizing internally for social media, marketers have to first fight the myth that it “can’t be done.”

• The first step is to take a critical look at the social media landscape and any available data, and then educate internally.
• Next marketers must build a comprehensive digital strategy, a framework to deliver that strategy that is specific to the brand, and a usage policy.
• Finally, marketers must execute and activate these strategies in a way that makes sense for the brand. Only join conversations that are relevant.

Find out exactly how Del Monte implemented its social media strategy with the three-step process.

If you haven’t seen the flurry of conversations the past two days, let me be the one to tell you that Forrester has  just released a very insightful report on the use of Location-based Services (LBS). Specifically, the use of applications such as Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt as a means for companies to engage and interact with consumers. LBS applications, as an emerging technology, has a lot of consumers (of the people surveyed 84% had never even heard of Foursquare, Gowalla, or Loopt) and brands wondering if it is technology that is all hype — not surprising since any new technology has a period of adoption while users determine it’s stickiness.

The report contains a lot of insightful information regarding the current fragmentation of the LBS application market — currently, consumers are having to choose between Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt — where even someone like me, who considers herself a hard-core user of LBS applications has a hard time knowing what each application offers that’s unique from the other. And we haven’t even seen the impact that Google could / will have on LBS applications.

LBS Seeks Internet-Savvy Professional Male

But the takeaway that struck me the most interesting was how Forrester’s study shows that men, not women, are the majority users of LBS applications and suggests that male-oriented brands have the potential to have the largest impact.

And based on this information, Forrester’s report makes two recommendations:

1. That gaming, consumer electronics and sportswear marketers should lead the way with testing these apps; and
2. While these male-oriented brands forge the way, other marketers should hang back until these apps gain a larger, more diverse audience.

This data is actually surprising and a little disappointing to me since, in my own personal use of Foursquare, I know more women who use location-based apps than men. Personally, I believe the power of LBS apps is its ability to further drive social sharing… to socialize brand awareness, specials and discounts through the sharing of check-ins on Twitter, Facebook etc., thereby increasing traffic online as well as offline. And who are more social than women? And most women I know consider themselves, like me, chicks who are early adopters of new technology. But then, mom always did say I was in a “special” category all of my own.

Do Location-based Services Underestimate the Influence of Women?

And according to Newsweek, my mom knows what she’s talking about — chicks ARE special. In fact, Newsweek recently discussed how “the women in this country are responsible for 83 percent of all consumer purchases.” And this influence isn’t just for “girlie” consumer products such as cosmetics or clothing, but women are “a major force” for products such as cars and electronics.

The article focuses around a conversation that Newsweek conducted with reknowned consumer researcher Paco Underhill, where he discusses his new book, What Women Want, and explains what makes a product, place, or service female-friendly—and why the marketplace better listen up.

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

If consumer brands take a more passive approach to using LBS, they are allowing competitors to define and perfect a marketing channel that they could be leading. And to be perfectly honest, at the pace that technology is changing today, they also run the risk of being left behind. That is, there’s no time for major brands to play catchup.

Even though current data indicates that more men are using location-based services than women at this time, this demographic will rapidly soon change and, therefore, any brand can and SHOULD venture into location-based services whether they focus more towards male or female consumers as long as using this technology makes sense for them. And let’s not forget that brands who offer consumer services, not just products, have a tremendous opportunity to leverage location-based services — the hospitality, retail and restaurant industries are seeing significant reach with both female and male audiences.

As I always like to say: nothing ventured, nothing gained. If a brand thinks that they can socialize or target its products and / or services better to either male or female consumers, then I think they should absolutely explore the use of LBS applications. Otherwise, as Paco Underhill said: if businesses don’t learn to recognize women’s growing influence, they’ll [be] confined to the dusty heap of history.

Original post:  eModeration publishes new white paper: Communities of Purpose

What happens when communities don’t exactly behave the way we intended them to? Fighting and bickering is normal and actually healthy for communities. In fact, if your members aren’t squabbling every once in a while, there’s a good chance that your community isn’t all that compelling to people. If they fight, they care. That said when things get out of hand, it’s time to take action. Below are some very insightful and more common reasons people fight along with the proposed solutions (as suggested by TheNextEngine.com):

"When Social Media Attacks!" courtesy of Dan Linabury for TheNextEngine.com

The Golden Child

A new member joins the site who seems to be the ideal member: helpful, smart and full of ideas. They become the golden child overnight. The moderator even pays them special attention, making older members jealous.

Solution: Ensure the moderator mentions all members equally. A smart new member is exciting, but don’t forget the older members who helped make the community what it is.

The Delinquent

A small clique forms that takes opposing views to many of the main goals of the community. Eventually they build up enough support that other members not only  take notice, they begin to fear them.

Solution: Pay close attention to this group and be aware of not only what they are saying but where they are saying it. Expect that they may take things of the community and create their own support site or blog. If things get really bad, first banning the group, then banning the trouble-making members may be your best bet to save the community.

The Gossiper

Members with partial information start rumors. Or they make assumptions based on some out-of-context conversations they may read in forums or chat. The rumors begin causing arguments, more rumors and worse: members quit of of distrust for the community.

Solution: Always monitor conversations and when a member alerts a moderator to a rumor, don’t dismiss it. Take it seriously, address the member who started it. If the member isn’t known, or it’s gone too far, make a site-wide announcement. Rumors can kill a community.

The Rebel

A new rule is placed in the community by the company that is either in direct opposition of the community’s aims, or is simply a bad idea that a CEO or marketer came up with out of the blue. Members are outraged by the rule or idea and split into camps, even forming anti-(somerule) groups.

Solution: Pay attention to the aims of the community. All ideas and rules should be filtered through the aims of the community. If it doesn’t directly support the aims of the community, kill it (unless it is part of a legal ruling that must be upheld). Better to keep a strong community thriving than risk it all for the sake of appeasing a CEO’s ego.

Tom Bacon, VP Marketing, VTech, Taddy Hall, COO, Meteor Solutions (@meteorsolutions), and Steve Fowler, VP Strategy and Client Service, Ayzenberg Group, presented four steps to successfully monetize your “Social Media Graph.” Tom Bacon at VTech also shared a case study of VTech’s social media campaign targeted at music aficionados and illustrated with real-world examples about how the right strategy, content, and tactics can make your next social media campaign a huge success.

Discover your “social media graph” by identifying the influential brand advocates generating the most site traffic, the engaging content elements fueling word-of-mouth referrals, and where and how the referrals and link sharing are occurring. Follow these four steps when monetizing your social media graph:

1. Research: Determine who the influential enthusiasts are, what content is driving the viral activity, and where the sharing is occurring.
2. Connect with Serious Fans and Advocates: Enable and encourage sharing via niche communities and mass social sites and seed content when necessary.
3. Activate and Monetize: Increase sharing, engagement, and action through strong content.
4. Optimize: Improve paid and unpaid activities. Target influential sites/communities with immediate calls to action.

To read a case study from VTech Communications about its marketing strategies which includes social media, click here. (You must be an ANA member or become one to read and download the case study in its entirety.)

Original Post: Teaching an Old Brand New Tricks, Marketing Sherpa

Good news: You don’t have to lose sight of your brand’s tried-and-true persona to participate in the quest for deeper engagement at the new social sites. Just think of the social-media generation as a silver-dish serving of people who already want to talk to you; you just need to make them feel comfortable doing it. Easier said than done? Not necessarily. Here are a couple of older brands that are getting it right:

Sharpie, well past pushin’ 40, managed to tap into an enthusiastic user culture in a way we’re pretty sure no other pen brand has. Its Sharpie Uncapped gallery enables fans far and wide to express, in vivid (and permanent!) color, how they incorporate the inky wonders into their creative undertakings.

Think about the number of years kids have been using Sharpies to scribble on jeans, decorate casts and prettify their Converse tennies. Now there’s a fun place to show all that off? Score!

Little Debbie, who first made the scene in the 1960s, is using flickr, Twitter, Facebook and blog outreach to promote a cupcake Share-a-Thon this fall. A series of Smart cars demonstrate Little Debbie’s commitment to the eco-cause, and are also outfitted like the cupcakes themselves. Thus far, the aging mark has done a tasty job of reminding fresh generations of its relevance.

Now, not all instances of successful social-media outreach are even intentional. Case in point: When gay couples were finally permitted to wed in Vermont, 31-year-old ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s celebrated by renaming its Chubby Hubby ice cream Hubby Hubby within the state. Thousands of blog posts and twitter updates later, they realized they had a winner.

How’d these old-timers manage to wow a fresh-faced crowd? At ad:tech Chicago this year, reps from Ben & Jerry’s and Sharpie said they felt social media was just in their DNA. That is to say, the key to winning hearts hasn’t changed with time or tech: It’s still about communicating a message in a relatable way.

The Po!nt: Don’t be social-shy. Let your target demo appropriate your product in ways you couldn’t have imagined—then help them spread the glee! Sure, it’s a scary proposition, but the payoff can be priceless.

Original Post: Teaching an Old Brand New Tricks, Marketing Sherpa

Good news: You don’t have to lose sight of your brand’s tried-and-true persona to participate in the quest for deeper engagement at the new social sites. Just think of the social-media generation as a silver-dish serving of people who already want to talk to you; you just need to make them feel comfortable doing it. Easier said than done? Not necessarily. Here are a couple of older brands that are getting it right:

Sharpie, well past pushin’ 40, managed to tap into an enthusiastic user culture in a way we’re pretty sure no other pen brand has. Its Sharpie Uncapped gallery enables fans far and wide to express, in vivid (and permanent!) color, how they incorporate the inky wonders into their creative undertakings.

Think about the number of years kids have been using Sharpies to scribble on jeans, decorate casts and prettify their Converse tennies. Now there’s a fun place to show all that off? Score!

Little Debbie, who first made the scene in the 1960s, is using flickr, Twitter, Facebook and blog outreach to promote a cupcake Share-a-Thon this fall. A series of Smart cars demonstrate Little Debbie’s commitment to the eco-cause, and are also outfitted like the cupcakes themselves. Thus far, the aging mark has done a tasty job of reminding fresh generations of its relevance.

Now, not all instances of successful social-media outreach are even intentional. Case in point: When gay couples were finally permitted to wed in Vermont, 31-year-old ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s celebrated by renaming its Chubby Hubby ice cream Hubby Hubby within the state. Thousands of blog posts and twitter updates later, they realized they had a winner.

How’d these old-timers manage to wow a fresh-faced crowd? At ad:tech Chicago this year, reps from Ben & Jerry’s and Sharpie said they felt social media was just in their DNA. That is to say, the key to winning hearts hasn’t changed with time or tech: It’s still about communicating a message in a relatable way.

The Po!nt: Don’t be social-shy. Let your target demo appropriate your product in ways you couldn’t have imagined—then help them spread the glee! Sure, it’s a scary proposition, but the payoff can be priceless.