How do you differentiate your offering while improving service for existing customers and still keep your “cool” factor in your industry? Business is still tough, new competition comes from every corner and buyers are still hesitant. That makes for interesting decisions coming from marketers, product development teams, customer service and other outward facing departments inside of companies.
Ask these questions and you will get answers that come from every end of the spectrum. Almost unanimously though the answers will be connected somehow to social media. If you are outside the social media bubble, then you talk about social in it’s entirety as a the “shiny new toy”. For those inside the social media bubble, you refer to all of the tools, gadgets, new platforms as the “next big thing.” Depending on your perspective, both of those views are correct and both views can help companies solve real business challenges across many of their departments.
But what does the shiny new toy refer to exactly? Assuming the shiny new toy syndrome in this case refers to the use of social media and any new gadgets associated with it, then we might be simply talking about innovation through the use of social. Innovation coming from new processes, procedures, ways of connecting and engaging everyone from the inside out. So I guess the whole shiny new toy discussion is a bit subjective. To newbies into social, the whole experience will be new and, to them, pretty innovative. To veterans of social media it will take a lot more to get them excited than simply dipping their toe in the water.
The other discussion has to look at the opposite of innovation (a new way of doing something) or even perceived innovation. If you are not innovating then maybe you are content to do the same action over and over possibly expecting a different outcome (don’t they call this insanity?). Well let’s not go that far, but there is some wisdom in taking what you already know, with what you already have and simply doing it better. In the corporate world we call this execution. Take for instance, bottled water. To me, the consumer, water is water is water. How do I make my decision on what to buy then when I am thirsty. If I have choices, I will usually buy Dasani. Why? It doesn’t taste any better nor is the design of the bottle all that great. I just know it’s a Coke brand and I happen to trust Coke products. So whatever the messaging or interactions, Coke has executed better IMHO than pepsi or any of the other competitors. This is not innovative, just better executed over time.
So how does your company start growing again or meeting it’s targets? If you always chase the “shiny new object” (which as we learned above is very subjective) then you have little time with your limited resources to execute, to over deliver on expectations. The other option then is to stop chasing the latest new toy, gadget or platform and get back to old fashioned blocking and tackling. After a while, blocking and tackling will get stale though. Maybe there is a happy medium? Time to bring in the proper expertise. This week’s moderator is Greg Verdino from the full service social media agency Powered, Inc. Greg’s long tenure in this industry and reputation as a trusted senior strategist will help us make sense out of setting corporate priorities and balancing the next big thing with proven blocking and tackling methods.
Join us Tuesday 3/2/10 at 12 noon EST for the conversation by following the #sm49 on Twitter or by viewing our LIVE page (which has been recently enhanced). the topic:
Topic: The Next Big Thing is So Last Year
Q1) Why are marketers so obsessed with the next big thing even though so many turn out to be next big busts?
Q2) How do you balance the benefits of strategic innovation with the risks of constantly chasing shiny objects?
Q3) What’s the one social media “old thing” most marketers still get wrong?
