BtoB Online caught up with several CMO’s to get their take on what they are doing different this year versus last year. In short:
·Trend to Online media
·Much more use of social media in marketing programs
·Greater use of rich media (i.e Video)
·Using marketing tactics in a more integrated way to build thought leadership
·Leveraging social media to bring the voice of the customer into play.
I’m very surprised at the number of CMO’s who use the term social media, marketing, and lead generation/sales in the same sentence. I have a hard time bringing social media into that context. Social media, in my view, is about the conversation first and foremost and in being authentic, transparent and honest in that conversation. Lead-gen, and sales are nice things that may, or may not happen, but to focus on those areas as the primary objectives of bringing social media into the mix still confirms to me that most of us in B2B marketing view social media as tactics instead of communication.
(Too be fair to all. These comments are short and may not represent the ideal context of their intentions)
Tom Haas, of Siemens, did say that their goal was to really support a conversation between their company and its customers and I think that is the right goal to have. I also liked the thoughts from Jack Mason, of IBM, who said that IBM has launched a new program using rich media to capture a much more personal, and real side of the people that make up the their brand. This is a brilliant agenda, in my view, as we too often hide behind technology, and don’t get the individuals that make the brand out in front. Of course it may be that I’m the one who doesn’t get it. Nuff said
My wife and I returned from our annual trip to Martha’s Vineyard to ready our home for the rental season. As with any trip these days it’s stressful, taxing and can sometimes be downright painful.
We were in a rush this morning to make the flight, and had to return a car we rented with Enterprise. I always assumed that Enterprise was the car company that car dealers offered you when you brought your car in for repair. When my wife informed that she had attained the best rate from Enterprise I was very surprised, not only at the rate, but also that Enterprise had a location at the airport.
I have come to learn that Enterprise bought National and Alamo car rental in the last year, and that has given them an airport footprint. What really amazed me, besides the fact that Enterprise had provided a better rate than Avis or Hertz, or that they were located on premise at the airport, was the absolutely spectacular brand experience I received when we returned the car.
We were greeted by two folks who quickly welcomed us, and then immediately asked this question: “Was there anything wrong with the car or that detracted from your experience with Enterprise?”I said no (after years of just being happy that a rental car would start, all my expectations were met), which was then followed with “We always want to know if there is something we can do better”. Wow, a car rental company that was actually interested in my experience and if there was anything I thought they could do better. What a novel thought!
A 2nd young lady then took our luggage (I tried to stop her as I really should have been carrying the luggage) and hauled it to the shuttle van, where the driver then hoisted the luggage onto the bus. This was followed by “Thank you for renting a car with us. Let us know if we can be of service for your next trip”.
Upon arriving at the terminal the driver brought our luggage off, and asked us if we needed anything and then said “Have a safe and enjoyable trip home, and thanks for renting with Enterprise”. My wife informed me that upon renting the car (My wife arrived and rented the car a week prior to my arrival) the service was almost overwhelming, as it was such a shock to the system that someone in the travel industry actually cared about their brand experience.
I had rented with Enterprise about two years ago, and I didn’t recall this level of engagement or service. What was even more surprising to me was that their employees actually seemed to enjoy working the job. I wondered if there was a push to evolve their brand experience recently and I would love to know how they achieved an integrated experience after acquiring two additional rental car companies. I couldn’t find any direct evidence, but I did come across an article written in that last year that listed five steps for success which I’ve listed below:
·Ask the customer. Enterprise calls about 2 million customers a year to ask how satisfied they are and whether they would consider renting from Enterprise again.
·Make happy customers count. While pay depends on branch profits, managers don't get promoted unless they keep customers satisfied.
·Link arms with partners. An Enterprise computer system, the Automated Rental Management System, or ARMS, connects Enterprise branches with insurers and body shops to track the progress of repairs, saving everyone countless phone calls and faxes.
·Save money to earn money. The technology, along with Enterprise employees working on site at insurers, has helped reduce the length of wreck-replacement rentals, costing money in the short run but bringing in more business.
·Help employees grow. Most of Enterprise's top managers started at one of its branches. To add opportunities, Enterprise doesn't expand an office that has grown too busy. Instead, it opens another, partly to give new managers a chance.
Enterprise states on its web site: Every interaction with customers, from the start of an Enterprise Rent-A-Car reservation, until the rental car is returned, is an opportunity for us to please and gain a lifelong customer. With more than 6,500 locations in North America and Europe, it is this emphasis on Enterprise Rent-A-Car customer service that keeps the company growing.
In a time where more and more companies are deploying technology to further disinter mediate human interaction, Enterprise is deploying some old school customer service, and pressing the flesh. In doing so Enterprise is building a brand experience, pinned on service, in an industry that is woefully lacking a similar concept. Nuff said.
Kogi is the latest phenomenon in LA dining. Chef, at world famous restaurant, decides to forgo glitz and glamour and create a unique fusion of Korean and Mexican food and serves up these delectable concoctions in roving catering vans all over LA.
I’m not making this up folks, and it’s the stuff that Hollywood is made of. I’m sure the food network is already doing a show on it. While I’m a foodie at heart, the real story is one of a relatively unknown (until recently) mobile catering truck that used Twitter and awesome food, to create a following, and help lubricate word of mouth in America’s 2nd largest city and now the world.
As Kogi is a mobile business, and a small one at that, it needed a way to tap into the following that it had created, and who was already talking about Kogi on Facebook, other social networking sites and blogs. Kogi’s brand director, in a recent Reuters article, stated that they decided to use Twitter as a way to communicate with their “tribe” and facilitate gathering places based on the trucks location. Kogi turned to Twitter. Today you and Kogi’s 23,000 followers can be found on Twitter at twitter.com/kogibbq.
This shows the amazing capability of utilizing a social media tool to facilitate a small business with a large following, and an excellent product. So let’s look at Kogi’s ingredients for success:
1.Great Product: Kogi obviously has a tremendous product. Social media success and for that matter any business, starts with an amazing product or service.
2.The Tribe of Kogi: Kogi’s customers wanted to talk about their experience, and in fact had became a tribe. Seth Godin writes that “a tribe is any group of people connected to each other through an idea or experience”. In this case, Kogi’s customers had become a tribe, but we’re missing a leader. When Kogi stepped in, and utilized social tools Kogi become the leader of its own tribe. A place where a brand wants to be at the end of the day.
3.Honesty: The social community in this case is honest. Kogi delivers an amazing product, people want to talk about, and others want to experience it and Kogi facilitates this. Kogi’s goal is not about selling or hyping, at least not yet, and let’s hopes it stays that way.
4.Word of Mouth: WOM is the best advertising around. This is as old, as the hills, and still true. Kogi couldn’t buy the brand awareness it has now, and is getting through the facilitation of communication across its tribe. Social Media can help any small business if the intent is to converse with the community of customers and prospects; not sales or advertising.
5.With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility: Kogi must now realize the importance of its brand experience, and promise that its customers have come to expect. Any degradation in service and experience will travel at the speed of light in Kogi’s social universe.
6.Innovation: While Kogi’s responsibility to its brand experience is now much greater it has an amazing community of people to listen to, and engage with, and in doing that develop new innovation in its business.
This story shows how small businesses can take advantage of building and tapping into their community. Today, McDonalds and Burger King do not have Twitter accounts and Domino’s only recently started one to help combat the recent wave of bad publicity. Why haven’t the brands, with all the resources in the world, tapped into the tools that help them engage with their customers? Probably because they are still strategizing, and trying to figure out the ROI of a conversation. Nuff said.
Dan Schawbel recently launched his new book Me 2.0. In it, Dan introduces the reader to the idea that in the 21st century you really need to think about building, and enhancing your personal brand via online and offline methods. Dan participated in a blog interview I did last year, and you can read that here.
One of the reasons for introducing this concept to people is that everything you do, or don’t do is indexed on the web. What’s the first thing you do when you’re looking to hire a new employee? Most people these days “Google” them. Everything that person has done, or not done, online is instantly brought forward. In this environment, with an extremely competitive job market, its time to start managing your reputation more as a brand, and not letting your name be defined by others.
Don’t get me wrong. Most of us will never truly have a brand with the equity of Oprah, or Bill Gates or Beyonce. However; we all need to start taking a more professional approach to building, and managing our online persona more like a brand, especially in a digital world.
Tom Peters first introduce the concept of personal branding in an, article called “The Brand Called You”. In it, he remarked “The real action is at the other end: the main chance is becoming a free agent in an economy of free agents, looking to have the best season you can imagine in your field, looking to do your best work and chalk up a remarkable track record, and looking to establish your own micro equivalent of the Nike swoosh. Because if you do, you'll not only reach out toward every opportunity within arm's (or laptop's) length, you'll not only make a noteworthy contribution to your team's success—you'll also put yourself in a great bargaining position for next season's free-agency market." (Fast Company, August 1997). I think we can all agree that we are in the “next season’s free agency market”, and that our personal reputation is what matters most.
While most of us think that all we have to do to build an online brand is to have a Twitter, Facebook, or Linkedin account, however we will have not done anything to build our personal brand equity with just these sign-ons. My belief is that, just as in the business world, the same is true for our personal brand in that we must build equity, and reputation. In a 2.0 world that means conversing, sharing, and participating in your relevant communities, while adding value and proving your personal brand promise. It does take work and effort to build a personal brand.
My blog is really targeted to those over 40 marketers, and to that audience I can’t stress enough the need to get engaged within relevant communities, and to start managing your personal persona offline and online more as a brand, with the goal to build equity in that brand. If you don’t, you will not be as competitive as someone who does. In a world that is increasingly outsourcing talent we all need to be cognizant of our personal brands, and manage them in a serious and astute way especially in the context of a digitally networked world.
Me 2.0 provides a framework on how to start on that endeavor, and in how to track, and build your online reputation. Me 2.0 goes a step further by bringing in the offline world through networking and relationship building that must take place in an integrated approach to building a sustainable personal brand. Dan has a great blog loaded with information that I recommend everyone read. Nuff said.
Recently I have heard several of my professional colleagues across small and large companies, but all over 40, commenting that they didn’t get twitter, thought it was stupid, and didn’t have time for it. I have heard these same musings from work colleagues, and other marketing professionals. In fact I think it’s a badge of honor for some us to say that we just don’t get the social media thing and all its hype, and that we like to do it old school.
I can understand these feelings. Most of us are managing departments, have huge pressures, and we were brought up in a different marketing age, operating under different rules. However; we must begin to understand the paradigm shift taking place in how we communicate, and how we need to market going forward. I won’t go into a long diatribe of all the changes, but I do want to focus on twitter as I believe it to be one of the more significant tools, that we over 40 marketers really need to understand. We need to understand, why our customers are using it, and how it impacts our brand experience and marketing strategy.
To start things off twitter is a communications platform or, as some would call it, a micro blogging platform with over 4M users. It allows its users to send short text messages, about 140 characters in length, on anything they wish. These text messages are called “tweets”. If you like someone and their message you can choose to follow them. The more people that follow you, then the more people you ultimately communicate your messages to.
Twitter can sometimes get a bad rap as most people new to twitter start off by tweeting about their day, as in “I just ate breakfast”. However there are many communities that exist within twitter. For example, I follow people related to social media, marketing, demand generation, and b2b marketing. These people tweet on points of view, and even share linkable information within their tweets. So every time these folks tweet, I get an alert, and I can see what they are saying or simply look at the feeds later in the day. Today, twitter has now become my #1 source of news across my professional peer group.
Why should marketers care about twitter? There are many reasons, but here a few that may get you thinking:
1.Twitter enables your brand to have voice. I started a branded twitter feed about 5 months ago. You can check out it here at http://twitter.com/_Lumension . I did this, as I wanted to communicate on key news and events across Lumension and in the IT Security industry. We now communicate on Lumension news, blog posts and our own commentary on industry events. We have over 250 followers of IT professionals that share a passion on all things information security. We have also learned a few things within the industry that enabled us to respond ahead of the curve. There is debate about whether brands should tweet or if individuals from your company should tweet. My answer is yes. Just start doing it, and you will learn and find what works best for you.
2.Twitter enables your brand to be conversational. Now that we are “tweeting”, people can converse with us. This is where we really want to expand our use of twitter, in getting more conversational with our community. We’re not there yet, but we know that’s where things will get exciting for us. Imagine real-time communication with your brand and customers, partners, prospects, analysts, press etc. Here’s an example of how a major brand like Whole Foods is using twitter to connect with their base.
Here are some of the major brands found on twitter today:
3.Twitter enables you to listen in on your Brand. In my view this is the single most powerful feature of twitter. In the past we had to conduct research to see what people we’re thinking or saying about our brands. Today, twitter now gives us a real-time snapshot into what people are saying about our brands, products, and their perspectives on the experience they have when dealing with us. This is incredibly powerful to marketers. Imagine seeing and knowing what people are saying, and their feelings, complaints, all in near real-time. Then imagine being able to converse with those people in real-time. Starting to get it now? Here’s a video from Gary Vaynerchuk on this and I recommend you watch it.
4.Twitter enables you to extend your brand experience. Imagine being able to see that someone has a question about your product and immediately extending an offer to help. Or more importantly, let’s say you see a complaint. Instead of letting it linger you reach out, and offer additional support or an explanation. No other platform out there can scale this type of brand engagement for so little cost. Twitter is free for now.
In another announcement twitter, Federated Media, and Microsoft announced a Brand sponsored twitter aggregation platform called ExecTweet. Basically ExecTweet aggregates all major CEO tweets into one place, with some community features, while Microsoft sponsors it. Now imagine the opportunity to be the sole brand sponsoring aggregated tweets from key people on topics within your industry.
So how do you get started? A Few recommendations:
1.Get Started. I’m sure that several companies are still trying to figure out who owns social media, what the strategy is (or rather what new power point deck looks best), and how they should get started, let alone deal with the cultural shift on how to deal with open and honest feedback about your company. The point is to get started. Start a twitter feed today. I don’t pretend to be some expert on all this, and we are evolving our thinking everyday in how to best use social media, but at least we are evolving and getting more enlightened. Get started now no matter what your company’s size is.
2.Start Listening: As I mentioned this is the single most powerful feature of twitter. It’s easy to do and I’ll show you Ed’s budget way to aggregate tweets about your company or any topic into one place. First go to http://search.twitter.com/. Enter the brands you want to follow (your own, products, competitors, or other topics). When you get the results then click on the rss “feed for this inquiry”. You will be taken to the rss page where you can then click on “Subscribe to this feed”.
Try it. You will be amazed and see the real power behind this platform.
3.Get Educated. Educate yourself on the changing rules of marketing, pr, and technology. Here are a couple of great twitter feeds that I would recommend you get started with:
Yes, we as marketing leaders are in a new environment where the rules we once knew are changing rapidly, but the fundamentals are still the same. The worst thing we can do is not to educate ourselves, and understand the impact of the changing marketing paradigm. Start opening up today, and I guarantee you will begin to see things in a new light, and with a different perspective. Feel free to share your thoughts, comments and ideas with me on twitter at http://twitter.com/cedwardbrice
First let me start off by saying that I love Arizona. I love the Phoenix metropolitan area and after living in the NY/NJ area I’m thankful everyday I’m here. Where else can you put the top down on your drive home, and watch the sunset in March?
However the city of Phoenix has an identity crisis. It has had an identity crisis ever since people left the central core of cities all over America in the 50's to move to the suburbs. While several cities have had an amazing resurgence in their downtown areas of late, Phoenix has failed to materialize a strong identity with an emotional perception or experience associated with it.
In attempts to rebuild downtown and draw back its audience downtown Phoenix has built a basketball arena, and a baseball stadium. Then came “Copper Square”. Copper Square was a campaign to brand the 90 block district in downtown Phoenix with an identity. This “branding” was an attempt to help revitalize the urban core of Phoenix, as the stadium building didn’t really entice people to stay after the game was over, let alone move into the area.
Copper Square didn’t work in my view because there was no Copper Square. It would have been too logical to carve up some parks and make a real “Copper Square”. No it was a mythical place in a lonely prospector's mind. Now we have coming to downtown, in yet more attempts to revitalize the area, Arizona State University, and the new Light Rail system.
Will those work? I doubt it, but to ensure success the business consortium (Downtown Phoenix Partnership) came up with the bright idea to launch yet another branding effort for the 90 block area. They partnered with local company SHR Perceptual Management to come up with a new brand strategy. Here’s what the brand gurus came up with:
Phoenix. Arizona’s Urban Heart
Logo: A Big Green X
Wow! Doesn’t that just want to make you get up and come to Phoenix? If you lose your way, make sure to find the big green x so you know you’re in the right place. I mean who wouldn’t want to go to the Urban Heart of Arizona. You don’t really come here for the natural, scenic and cultural wonders of the state, do you? No, you come here for the Arizona Diamond Backs, The Phoenix Suns, and the unfilled high-rise condo towers in downtown right?
What Should Phoenix Do
The challenge Phoenix has is that its downtown lacks character. No one goes into downtown except to see a game or work and then everyone leaves to surrounding locales like Scottsdale, Tempe, and Glendale. Here's a video of downtown shot at 8pm that captures the challenge:
For a brand with a city to work there must be some type of emotional connection or experience associated with the town, and this is where I think the latest attempt at branding Phoenix goes awry. Downtown Phoenix is pretty boring when you get right down to it. So if the brand brief objectives were about attracting locals and tourists to downtown we need to have some reason to attract them downtown in the first place. Here are some ideas that might have a more sustainable effect.
1.Get More Grocery Stores: My personal belief is that if downtown Phoenix wants to have a vibrant and self sustaining city center life then they need to start with grocery stores. That’s right grocery stores. For a vibrant center you need people first, and to have people you need grocery stores. Go to downtown Phoenix and you will be hard pressed to find decent grocery stores within walking distance of the unfilled condo towers.
2.Stand For Something: Now assuming that you have grocery stores what does Phoenix want to be known for? Scottsdale has Old Town, Tempe has Mill Ave and University, Glendale now has City Centre. The Urban Heart? That doesn’t sound very appealing, does it? How does this stack up with “What Happens In Vegas. Stays in Vegas.”, which, by the way, is a very bold brand position. Or Austin’s “The Live Music Capital of The World”. I remember when it used to be Seattle. Of course there is the ever omnipresent ‘The Big Apple”. So what could Phoenix stand or be known for? Here’s a few free ideas from yours truly:
a.Phoenix. The Heart of Arizona. This State revolves around Phoenix and it's better than Urban Heart of Arizona.
b.Phoenix Rising: Admit that you’re not where you want to be and then develop a campaign around that. Build a campaign around people and feature the unique individuals and experiences that downtown has to offer.
c.Phoenix. The West’s Original City. Okay just a thought but you get where I’m going.
3.Create a Center of Community: This is more of a development concept. Copper Square never really worked as there never was a Copper Square. X won’t work as there is no X or spot to go to and congregate within a vibrant downtown community. Why not get bold and develop a “Central Park” in downtown, and then promote unique festivals, conferences, etc. The city needs something to be really proud of, that no other city has. We don’t have a waterfront as other cities have, so we need something else.
4.Get Serious About Branding Phoenix and Not Just 90 Blocks. A brand is more than just a slogan or a logo. It’s a promise, an experience that you expect to receive. Currently this “brand” effort is lead by an independent group of business people in downtown and is not really focused on the city itself, but rather a 90 block area. This is the first problem. How can branding a 90 block area be successful when the perception of the city itself is lacking? The city needs to take ownership of this effort and craft a long term brand and marketing stragey around Phoenix. What experience do you want a local to have when they come to downtown? What experience do you want a tourist to have when they visit? I bet this vision has never been developed, and as a result I guarantee that this slogan and logo won’t last two years. Wasting $160K (the cost quoted with developing this new slogan and logo if you can believe that) on a tactical approach focused on a slogan and logo is not the answer. A real marketing and brand campaign needs to be invested in, year in and year out, if you want to change perceptions and beliefs.
So I hope Phoenix and the Mayor learn from this feeble attempt again to reposition the 90 blocks within Phoenix. If Phoenix is going to be successful in repositioning itself it must first define a vision, and then offer a different and unique experience to visitors to the downtown area. This will be the only sustainable brand strategy in the long run. Nuff said.
So I’ve finally taken a page out of David Meerman Scott's playbook and developed an ebook. But we didn’t do an ebook for the sake of doing an ebook. We actually had a few marketing challenges. How does a growing software security company like Lumension Security establish a thought leadership position around its brand and raise the security discussion across the CXO suite. An ebook seemed like a perfect solution for the following reasons:
1.We could communicate a more strategic message
2.We could use this vehicle to start a conversation with bloggers, and other communities relevant to our message
3.We could make it viral and extend our message for little cost
4.We could leverage our communications investment to drive a PR campaign around our message
5.We could add in rich media to add new dimension to our message and increase our content relevancy across various communities and search engines
In developing the ebook we put some investment into it. We worked on our message, we hired a professional writer, we interviewed customers and analysts, we utilized secondary research and we had a designer add the finishing touches. We also wanted to add rich media to the ebook. Why not take advantage of the digital platform to have rich media embedded into the ebook. So we did a series of videos related to key ebook topics.
There was extensive debate over registration and if we should put the ebook behind a registration all. I took a page out of David Meerman Scott’s playbook and said no to registration. Can you believe it? A marketing guy saying no to inquiry generation, especially an old school marketing guy like me. We did this as we wanted the ebook to be accessed without any barriers or friction. Again to go back to our goals. Our goal was not a demand gen goal, but rather a thought leadership and messaging goal. So why add barriers to the message getting out.
We did however want to ensure we leveraged as many opportunities as possible to get our message and relevance enhanced. For example we created a YouTube channel and this is where we host our ebook videos. Our ebook videos actually pull from our YouTube channel. As the videos are played our video on content gains more relevance on YouTube and Google. We also embedded the same videos on our website so our web now has rich media and our SEO gains additional relevance. We created a special video with our CEO just on the topics within the book and this already has 156 views in one week on our channel without any launch of the ebook itself. Okay so it’s not 1M, but its more than 1.
We did a prelaunch of our eBook to bloggers first and then did a soft launch within our company newsletter. Our official launch doesn’t start until next week. Again no request for bloggers to post or comment just wanted to share our message and thoughts.
We will be doing a social media release next week, and will include the html code to a special ebook badge should people want to place the ebook on their blog or web page. It’s a great content offer and we want people to share it and use it. In fact we even placed a Creative Commons license on the ebook. We will also tie into a extensive communications campaign through the 3rd QTR and leverage our CEO to expound on his message. It the tie in of social media and traditional communications is where a little new school meets some old school. But who cares if it’s great content lets leverage all our channels more effectively.
Our metrics are # of downloads, # of blog posts, # of interviews, # of mentions. The metrics tend to be more towards the communication side of the house as this initiative was really about the message getting out and not demand generation.
So there we are. We focused on creating a conversation, we’re reaching out, we’re web centric, we didn’t use registration pages, and we created a powerful message vehicle for not a huge amount of investment. In fact there is no media investment within the ebook. Stay Tuned and Nuff Said.
Measuring the impact, or dare I say it, the ROI of a social media campaign is a growing topic of interest in many marketing departments in terms of how to measure the impact-roi of social media campaigns.
I recently listened to a pod cast of a marketer laud his viral video campaign where he placed banner advertisements on the landing page as a great success. In fact he stated that the metric was “eyeballs” and then said after 1.4M page views they got 44 leads.
Now is the term “lead” used in the context of BANT or a registered inquiry? The hard part is after taking the cost of the agency and video production into account and let’s assume he converts 50% of the 44 leads into opportunities and let’s say that the win rate was 50% so he gets 6 deals. Is demand generation the goal of social media?
After listening to this podcast I thought I felt like I had found an old school marketer who was trying to be trendy by throwing the term “social media campaign” around. I’m not sure that I would walk in front of a CEO and tout Social Media in the context of demand generation, and/or eyeballs. Is this really the metric for social media marketing efforts?
I don’t think so. Rather I think social media is for supporting a conversation with the brand. If you agree with this than perhaps we need new types of capabilities to measure the sentiment of the conversation and how this is trending across many different types of social media networks.
I was looking on the Collective Intellectwebsite. Collective Intellectis a company that is developing a set of analytical tools to determine the impact of Social Media on your company, your brands, your reputation, your image. While I can’t say if what they are doing today is truly unique, I do think they are headed in the right direction. Companies need to start monitoring the conversation about their brand and understand the sentiment and then engage.
On the Collective Intellect web site they had pasted a prior post from Chris Broganon 50 Ways for Marketers to start using social media. It’s such a great list I have reposted it here as well.
However I’ll call on the great thinkers in social media marketing to start pondering what are 50 ways to measure the impact of social media marketing investments, and how to use this insight to improve the communication. Nuff Said.
50 Ways Marketers Can use Social Media to Improve Their Marketing
Add social bookmark links to your most important web pages and/or blog posts to improve sharing.
Build blogs and teach conversational marketing and business relationship building techniques.
For every video project purchased, ensure there’s an embeddable web version for improved sharing.
Learn how tagging and other metadata improve your ability to search and measure the spread of information.
Create informational podcasts about a product’s overall space, not just the product.
Build community platforms around real communities of shared interest.
Help companies participate in existing social networks, and build relationships on their turf.
Check out Twitter as a way to show a company’s personality. (Don’t fabricate this).
Couple your email newsletter content with additional website content on a blog for improved commenting.
Build sentiment measurements, and listen to the larger web for how people are talking about your customer.
Learn which bloggers might care about your customer. Learn how to measure their influence.
Download the Social Media Press Release (pdf) and at least see what parts you want to take into your traditional press releases.
Try out a short series of audio podcasts or video podcasts as content marketing and see how they draw.
Build conversation maps for your customers using Technorati.com , Google Blogsearch, Summize, and FriendFeed.
Experiment with Flickr and/or YouTube groups to build media for specific events. (Marvel Comics raised my impression of this with their Hulk statue Flickr group).
Recommend that your staff start personal blogs on their personal interests, and learn first hand what it feels like, including managing comments, wanting promotion, etc.
Map out an integrated project that incorporates a blog, use of commercial social networks, and a face-to-face event to build leads and drive awareness of a product.
Start a community group on Facebook or Ning or MySpace or LinkedIn around the space where your customer does business. Example: what Jeremiah Owyang did for Hitachi Data Systems.
Experiment with the value of live video like uStream.tv and Mogulus, or Qik on a cell phone.
Attend a conference dealing with social media like New Media Expo, BlogWorld Expo, New Marketing Summit (disclosure: I run this one with CrossTech), and dozens and dozens more. (Email me for a calendar).
Collect case studies of social media success. Tag them “socialmediacasestudy” in del.icio.us.
Interview current social media practitioners. Look for bridges between your methods and theirs.
Explore distribution. Can you reach more potential buyers/users/customers on social networks.
Don’t forget early social sites like Yahoogroups and Craigslist. They still work remarkably well.
Search Summize.com for as much data as you can find in Twitter on your product, your competitors, your space.
Practice delivering quality content on your blogs, such that customers feel educated / equipped / informed.
Consider the value of hiring a community manager. Could this role improve customer service? Improve customer retention? Promote through word of mouth?
Turn your blog into a mobile blog site with Mofuse. Free.
Learn what other free tools might work for community building, like MyBlogLog.
Ensure you offer the basics on your site, like an email alternative to an RSS subscription. In fact, the more ways you can spread and distribute your content, the better.
Investigate whether your product sells better by recommendation versus education, and use either wikis and widgets to help recommend, or videos and podcasts for education.
Make WebsiteGrader.com your first stop for understanding the technical quality of a website.
Make Compete.com your next stop for understanding a site’s traffic. Then, mash it against competitors’ sites.
Learn how not to ask for 40 pieces of demographic data when giving something away for free. Instead, collect little bits over time. Gently.
Remember that the people on social networks are all people, have likely been there a while, might know each other, and know that you’re new. Tread gently into new territories. Don’t NOT go. Just go gently.
Help customers and prospects connect with you simply on your various networks. Consider a Lijit Wijit or other aggregator widget.
Voting mechanisms like those used on Digg.com show your customers you care about which information is useful to them.
Track your inbound links and when they come from blogs, be sure to comment on a few posts and build a relationship with the blogger.
Find a bunch of bloggers and podcasters whose work you admire, and ask them for opinions on your social media projects. See if you can give them a free sneak peek at something, or some other “you’re special” reward for their time and effort (if it’s material, ask them to disclose it).
Learn all you can about how NOT to pitch bloggers. Excellent resource: Susan Getgood.
Try out shooting video interviews and video press releases and other bits of video to build more personable relationships. Don’t throw out text, but try adding video.
Women are adding lots of value to social media. Get to know the ones making a difference. (And check out BlogHer as an event to explore).
Experiment with different lengths and forms of video. Is entertaining and funny but brief better than longer but more informative? Don’t stop with one attempt. And try more than one hosting platform to test out features.
Work with practitioners and media makers to see how they can use their skills to solve your problems. Don’t be afraid to set up pilot programs, instead of diving in head first.
People power social media. Learn to believe in the value of people. Sounds hippie, but it’s the key.
Spread good ideas far. Reblog them. Bookmark them. Vote them up at social sites. Be a good citizen.
Don’t be afraid to fail. Be ready to apologize. Admit when you’ve made a mistake.
Re-examine who in the organization might benefit from your social media efforts. Help equip them to learn from your project.
Use the same tools you’re trying out externally for internal uses, if that makes sense, and learn about how this technology empowers your business collaboration, too. “
The traditional marketing model is being challenged, and (CMOs) can foresee a day when it will no longer work.McKinsey Quarterly, 2005, Number 2
For those of you that read my blog you’ll know that I like to decipher fact from hype, and there is a lot of hype today around social networking to be sure. However there is one thing that is changing or least going back to its core fundamental roots depending on your view and certainly age. That thing is your brand.
While one can point to many evolutionary models of how brands evolve I generally have looked at two main stages of traditional brand evolution:
Branding v1.0: Product or Service Defines the Brand. This is where most brands we know start. A product or service defines the company and its brand. That product or service is delivered in such a way to meet its promise to its customers. The branding is focused on conveying the functional attributes of the product or service.
Branding v2.0 The Brand as a Promise: Eventually competion catches up, and it becomes increasingly difficult to differentiate on functional attributes alone. At this stage a company needs to focus on positioning a differentiated brand promise. This is where the brand promise begins to convey an emotional relationship, in addition to functional attributes, as a means to position the product or services in a superior position within the consumers mind. The more enhanced this brand promise is the more efficiently the company can communicate, and extend its brand into new growth opportunities.
Brand V1.0 & v2.0 has fueled what Seth Godin calls the “Industrial Advertising Age”. In this environment mass mediums of communication worked well in communicating the product attributes and brand promises. These mass channels of communication worked well because they were born in an age of very centralized, and controlled company communications that were focused on telling and not listening. Back in the day when the company controlled the buying process, and told you what you needed to know, when they thought you needed to know it. During this era we saw the emergence of brand portfolio management where brands were clustered according to investment and growth opportunities and managed as a portfolio across communication and budgeting channels.
Brother…The times they are a changing. “The workers should appropriate the means of production”-Karl Marx.
They have and they are, and this is why the brand must too evolve. Why?
•In 1965, 80% of 18-49 year-olds in the US could be reached with three 60-second TV spots.In 2002, it required 117 prime-time commercials to do the same.” (Jim Stengel, Global Marketing Officer, P&G)
•Big Six study (US): People with PVR’s watch 12% more TV, yet 90% of them adskip (Germany : 88.2%)
•78.2% of Germans are irritated by advertising, only 24% actually still watches it (GfK Marktforschung)
•54% of US consumers avoids products & services which “overwhelm” with advertising (Yankelovich Partners)
•85% of Chinese stop watching TV during commercial breaks. More than half change the channel, while the rest do housework, eat, chat or use the bathroom. (McKinsey & Co.)
The internet has disintermediated the traditional communication channels between a company and its customers and placed control, content production, and now media broadcasting in the hands of the individual. Now the brands must become focused on the individual, and seek to establish a positive and compelling experience in the context of a converged product, service and individual consumer.
This is causing an entirely new evolutionary path to be embarked on for those v2.0 brands that will seek to exist in the new networked world of 2010 and beyond.
Branding v3.0: The Age Of The Individual Brand Experience
Everyday we are seeing more convergence between product & experience. My own company SAP is a great example. Its new product Business By Design is entirely online and is converged with our website to enable the user to gain information across the buying cycle, experience the solution, purchase the solution and even update and modify after purchase. Product, customer experience, brand all converged in a network environment.
Look at the Wii. The companies’ website is not about the hardware or the great graphics instead they devote huge amounts of web real estate to enabling you the prospect to watching the experience of a mother and her child enjoy the Wii gaming console.
Look at the recent Tide Super Bowl advertising where they bring you back to the web site and ask you to create your own talking stain advertisement. You can also share advice for stain removals with other stain fanatics. Kudo’s to P&G for taking a commodity like laundry detergent and mashing it up web 2.0 tactics. However this attempt makes me think of Seth’s recent book Meatball Sunday. To this end I think there are some brands that will never converge with product, experience because it doesn’t make sense. So take heed in that I think Brand v2.0 is great for some products and companies and they shouldn’t look to evolve to v3.0.
As product, service, network and brand experience converge the customer becomes the new brand champion to take the company’s message to market. Not the corporation. Note the following:
76% of consumers don’t believe that companies tell the truth in advertising (Yankelowich)
The Edleman Trust Barometer points says that people no longer trust in one source of information
Word of Mouth ranks as a top influencer in B2B buying decisions (Enquiro)
These tends clearly state that the corporation is no longer in control of the message, or the experience. The customer is truly regaining control of the relationship and cementing himself/herself as King/Queen. Here are some of the major shifts I see in this new environment for brands:
Branding v3.0
From
To
1 to Many Communication
Individual Experience
Push Content (Telling)
Pull Content (Listening)
Controlling
Empowered
Company Owned Content
User Generated Content
Company as Brand Champion
User as Brand Champion (Story Telling)
Building Web Sites
Building Communities & Networks
Transforming to Brand v3.0 From Brand V2.0
Transforming a Brand v2.0 company into a Brand v3.0 company will not be easy ( I put myself and my own company into this transformational challenge). The challenge is that while we all recognize the change taking place we, and our teams are too focused on the tactics. We’re like Tide in many ways. Let’s get a blog started, let’s create a community, lets get users to think of adverts, lets put a video on YouTube.
These are tactics and we can all go buy the software to make these tactics happen overnight. The real change is in changing our corporate culturse from a Brand V2.0 orientation to a Brand v3.0 orientation. We need to let go and become less controlling if we’re going to evolve our brand and create a converged experience beyond 2010. This is where the new companies of Facebook, Myspace etc are a leg up on us. They have grown up in a very different way of thinking about business and the relationship to brands and customer experience. They are much less controlling but sill susceptible to Brand 2.0 influences like selling out to mass advertising media channels and selling our personal information.
There is hope for us. While I poked fun at Tide I do give credit to A.G. Lafley who got it right when he said he said “Consumers are beginning in a very real sense to own our brands, and participate in their creation. We need to begin to learn to let go.”
What is Really New?
Are the times really changing? Is the brand really changing? Or are we just going back to our roots in business. Back to a time when a business owner knew all his customers, had a relationship with them, learned from them, and delivered new solutions to meet their needs. Maybe what’s really different is the new technology and networked world is enabling us to find our way back to how business was done, and how should have always been done. Maybe what’s really different is that we now the tools to scale the engagement and relationship and more importantly the innovation…nuff said.
I was inspired by and used several spruces for this work and I urge you to check out the following:
