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Posts Tagged ‘social media’

The Next Big Thing is So Last Year

Monday, March 1st, 2010

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?

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Tags: Greg Verdino, innovation, jason breed, marc meyer, next big thing, shiny new toy, social media
Posted in corporate | No Comments »

Fear Factor: Understanding the Value of Adding Social Media to the Mix

Monday, February 1st, 2010

FUD! (Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt) is typically used by sales and marketing types to position themselves against competitors. IBM used to be renown for using this tactic and now it’s being used in a different way. Executives are turning FUD around and using it on their own organizations with regards to the use of social media. While companies widely accept that social media is transforming the business landscape, executives are still reluctant to approve anything more than small tests or pilot programs.

This reluctance by executives is being translated by many to simply infer that they are scared. Looking at it from an executive point of view however might shed a different light on the use of social media. Companies have spent decades building out their networks of consumers, partners, suppliers, employees, and special interests. So why does management shudder whenever you begin to put a “social” in front of the network? Consider, today’s business models are developed with layers of hierarchy and managed very linearly. By this, I refer to the typical order of developing product, inserting the supply chain, managing distribution, creating point of sale campaigns and attracting consumers. There is a very linear process for managing corporate messaging, customer service, measuring consumer sentiment, channel partner alignment and so on. What social media does is dis-intermediates most linear processes and connects disparate networks in ways that enterprises have not yet created “management” solutions for. Like the classic management book implies, we have moved the preverbial manager’s cheese. So what does this mean to social media champions inside companies?

In order to make decisions, executives need clear objectives, relative impact on short term and long term business and data points to back it all up…not theory. Introducing a company’s employees to be social is one way to start (a good post by Rachael Happewill help identify ways to get started). This helps to build confidence, trust and develop skills for those tactical purposes. What is still missing though is the bigger issues surrounding change management and working procedurally in a non-linear environment. For instance, at its most basic, what happens when corporate messaging is spread by consumer reviews not Corp Comms department? What happens when consumers demand (or request) product features instead of market research? Take it a step further now and consider what might happen if your consumers could connect directly with your suppliers and eliminate your company’s rolein assembly? Now it moves beyond ratty little conversationalists to a complete dis-intermediation of non-essential middlemen and your company is no longer relevant (think newspaper business).

In order for companies to consider adopting social across an enterprise, social media strategists need to move beyond campaigns and tactics and begin considering corporate lineages. A research study commissioned by Cisco contained keen observations for agencies and strategists to consider.

“Only one in seven of the companies that participated in the research noted a formal process associated with adopting consumer-based social networking tools for business purposes, indicating that the potential risks associated with these tools in the enterprise are either overlooked or not well understood.”

This is only one of the findings that was pointed out. The entire excerpt was reported by CNNMoney here.

How do we ease executive’s minds and begin socially infusing companies? Our moderator this week is tasked with helping connect those dots. Helping us out this week, B.L. Ochman will provide her years of insight and success at convincing executives to get past dipping their toes in the water. Our topic and questions follow:

Topic: Fear Factor: Understanding the Value of Adding Social Media to the Mix

Q1) Why do executives still doubt social media?

Q2) Do companies have time for social media?

Q3) Are there quick tactics that can be used to build company enthusiasm around SMM?

The twitter based chat will take place on Tuesday 02/02/2010 at noon EST. To participate follow #sm45 on your favorite Twitter client or on our live site.

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Tags: BL Ochman, business process, Fear uncertainty doubt, jason breed, linear models, marc meyer, nonlinear process, social media
Posted in corporate, social media | No Comments »

The Social Media RFP: How to Get the Best Results

Monday, January 18th, 2010

If you want to purchase an accounting system, customer relationship manager (CRM) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform for your company, it’s a pretty established process. There are a few meaningful vendors in your space determined by the size of your company, the features are all pretty clear and there are case studies galor for how-to and how-not-to select, implement and run those systems. Now, if you want to source some external help for social media, well that’s a different story.

We hear how everyone is a social media expert whether they’re certified or self-proclaimed. You can find people who believe many are akin to snake-oil salesmen and of little use. But if you are a company who needs external help, how do you weed through this entirely new industry? That is the point of this post, to effectively source external software and/or services to help deliver on your social media initiatives.

The industry is growing by the day: Agencies (traditional, interactive, digital, public relations, etc), Consultants (individual or small teams), web-development (SEO, measurement, advertising, now with social elements), Software Vendors, Service Vendors and you could continue to sector this list ad nauseum. All of these different components all have varied levels of experience whether personal or corporate and varied levels of perceived successes. Wading through all this fluff to get to someone who can meet your specific needs is difficult at best. One of the most proven methods of sourcing external suppliers is through a Request For Proposal process or RFP. As stated in Wikipedia, an RFP is:

“is an invitation for suppliers, often through a bidding process, to submit a proposal on a specific commodity or service. A bidding process is one of the best methods for leveraging a company’s negotiating ability and purchasing power with suppliers. The RFP process brings structure to the procurement decision and allows the risks and benefits to be identified clearly upfront.”

Where to Start? There is a widely accepted order by which to initiate and execute a typical RFP.

Establish Criteria for Evaluation: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there” ~ Alice in Wonderland. Two key things here: 1) pull together a cross-functional team to develop criteria. this gets broader input and incorporates all departments from the start which will make ultimate buy-in that much easier. 2) evaluate your needs and develop criteria that would best meet those needs.
Vendor Research: Once you have identified the criteria by which to evaluate, begin to research which vendors may fit (large agencies, small consultants, big integrators, small off-the-shelf, etc) and develop a preliminary list.
Request For Information (RFI) or Request For Qualifications (RFQ): Some will say this step is not necessary or that it drags out the entire process too long. I tend to disagree however as it allows you to understand the market better and, done correctly, will provide additional direction for your RFP. From the RFI, you can eliminate roughly half of the prospective vendors on you list.
Develop and Send the RFP: Here are 2 RFP Templates to consider Sample Social Media Template from Social Media Group and Sample Unbranded SEO RFP. Possible organization by Purpose/Goals, Criteria, Timelines, Vendor Questions / Responses, initial cost estimates. The RFP should convey what you are looking to accomplish, the criteria by which you will measure, the expected timelines, additional capabilities and cost estimates. This will elicit consistent responses by which to evaluate and rank the responses.
Review the Responses: taking into account the criteria, evaluate the best responses by committee (remember the more input along the way, the easier the buy-in at the end) and narrow down to a top three (or simply choose a winner – see the next bullet for why not to do this)
Interview the top 3 responses: At this point, you notify the vendors they have either made it to the finals or they have been eliminated from consideration. By having this process, you maintain the most negotiating leverage. During this phase, you can narrow the scope, interview vendors and negotiate final costs. If vendors know they are still competing, they will continue to put the best package together that they can offer. If you wait to negotiate pricing after you award a final vendor, the negotiating leverage moves to the vendor.
Make a Selection:this speaks for itself. Remember to organize timelines and accountability from both sides to make sure everyone knows who’s responsible for what during the installation process.

Now this is a traditional process and for the most part I would follow this procedurally. My one hesitation is actually in developing social media criteria, companies will typically lump technology, strategy development, execution, community management, SEO, advertising purchasing, etc into one big project labelled “Social Media Initiative”. Personally, there is not one company let alone person who could pull this entire project off. My recommendation then, is to create sections of the RFP and allow vendors to submit responses only for those areas where they are strong or to actually create 3-4 separate RFP processes which most companies are not equipped to pull off. Let us know in the comments if there is a better process that you have encountered.

While this is a good start, it does not provide the nuanced detail needed to truly start this process for your own company. For this, we bring in the creator of the Social Media RFP and top strategist Maggie Fox. Maggie and her team at the Social Media Group work with companies like Ford Motor and SAP to deliver social media solutions. She will moderate this week’s session and help us all prepare to source external suppliers to help meet our social media needs. This week’s topic and specific questions include:

Topic: The Social Media RFP: How to Get the Best Results

Q1: How do you formulate a proper RFP that conveys your social media goals?

Q2: How do you identify the vendors, consultants or agencies to send your RFP to?

Q3: How do you evaluate your responses to pick the best solution?

Please join us this week as Maggie Fox moderates our Tuesday #socialmedia chat at noon EST. You can follow along by watching #sm43 from any twitter client or simply from our LIVE page.

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Tags: INgage Networks, jason breed, Maggie Fox, marc meyer, request for proposal, RFP, social media, Social Media Group, soliciting, suppliers, vendors
Posted in Content, corporate, social media | 1 Comment »

Socializing My Business – What Comes After the Chit-Chat?

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Everyone’s talking about integrating social media into our everyday business. Whether you have a small local business or are a global enterprise, everyone is interested in the best way to incorporate social media practices in some way to solve their business challenges. As with any disruptive technology there are no shortages of short-sighted integration strategies. Initially we all focus around the new shiny toys/technology then we focus on the people side and the individuals who are using the shiny new toys are how great they are for it. Eventually we need to evolve, to discover the best ways to integrate into our management and business practices.

Over the last couple of years, we have seen many attempts at defining the RIGHT approach. First, it was Forrester with the POST methodology where the People, Objectives, Strategy then Technology were the core focus. This approach turned everyone into strategists, albeit for the betterment of campaigns. Campaigns are how agencies are oriented, client teams organized by geography then charged with the next big idea to WOW consumers. Therefore, this is how many large companies who outsource their creative and marketing duties with agencies started “trying out” social media, through a number of well-thought out , one off campaigns. The problem with the campaign approach is that everyone figured out that if social media is about developing relationships then a series of unique campaigns could not possibly deliver on the expectations that social media marketing promises.

On the other side of the spectrum, the Dachis Group recently rolled out their methodology around Social Business Design. This approach says that the only way to compete in the future is re-organize the entire enterprise from the ground up with a framework to be a social business by design. There is some good thought here around culture, business process and technology however no company wants to be the first one to scrap decades of legacy to “try” a new way to build a company. Even if the management agrees to it, the shareholders will demand proven solutions.

So where does that leave companies? Right now it depends on their leaders. If you break out small businesses, it comes down to the type of leader that runs the company. Some individuals “get” Twitter or other tools and will figure out how to make them work best to solve their unique business challenges. Other small business leaders still need to be convinced this new “fad” will last before they invest any of their time into it. For each respective small business competing in a local market, it will come down to whomever continues to build better relationships with their consumers whether online or off. If customers feel a connection, they will patronize that local company whether they follow them on Twitter or not. It’s still that simple. Want proof? Look at how many small businesses still do not have a true website…and they have made it this far. Focus on a great product and over-the-top service and people will continue to purchase from you and spread the good word.

For larger business competing in multiple markets or globally, social business will play a larger part of their business success. The speed by which information travels socially is simply overwhelming, good or bad. Consumers have a new expectation for engagement, service and transacting. Companies who succeed will be the ones who are able to embrace this new consumer, employee, partner or shareholder and manage appropriately to those expectations. Note of caution: Simply communicating quickly does not equate to a new, successful social business. So what else is there?

Social business transformation is happening from many fronts and is yet to be perfected. But one thing is for certain, you do need to understand more than just technology and culture to truly apply social to your business. While every business is different from it’s management, employees, culture, focus, expectations, etc your consumers are still the same as your competitors. The big question then is how to win. In my opinion, those who consider the underpinnings of prior corporate revolutions will be better suited to transcend into this new age than those who continue to stay shallow in their thoughts. Consider such areas of practice such as:

Phsychology: Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs which refers to 5 basic needs including: physiological, safety, social, self-esteem and self actualization
Sociology: which is often referred to as the Social Science, is the study of human societies.
Network Sciences: LikeMetcalfe’s Law - which conspires that networks (of faxes, phones, computers, people, or anything else) dramatically increase in value with each additional node or user

These sciences have influenced business revolutions including the information, managment and globalization business revolutions that have helped shape the pace by which we operate today. The question is how the new Social revolution will re-shape traditional business practices today and in the future. Less discussed movements like social production, cognitive outliers, the wisdom of crowds and distributed transparency will certainly help shape this business revolution and the companies who embrace these learnings will emerge as leaders in the future. The only way to get your businesses out front will be to look beyond the shallow dialogue like openess, autehnticity, transparency and building relationships that is prevalent today and start understanding how the sciences will continue to influence business and consumer expectations.

Social, Managerial and Organizational Dimensions will all have an impact on both intra-organizational and inter-organizational aspects in social business integration. To take us through this week’s conversation will be a true change agent in her own right, Kristi Colvin. Kristi has a tremendous amount of experience leading corporate integration of disruptive technolgies. She will lead us through a series of questions to help challenge us to think deeper in managing our organizations through this monumental, customer led sea-change that is upon us. The topic and questions follow:

Topic: Socializing My Business – What Comes After the Chit-Chat?

Q1: Why do we even need to integrate social into our businesses?

Q2: How should you begin to socialize your business and what should you expect?

Q3: What does social business integration look like for employees & the company?

This week’s chat will take place Tuesday 1/15 at 12 noon EST as usual. To follow the discussion, use #sm42 from any popular Twitter app (like tweetchat, Tweetdeck,Seesmic) or from our LIVE page.

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Tags: business integration, jason breed, Kristi Colvin, marc meyer, neighborhood america, network science, social business integration, social media
Posted in corporate, social media | 1 Comment »

Engagement Through Customer Service: Your Contact Center and Social Media

Monday, January 4th, 2010

We hear so much chatter that companies have to be participating in social media. The chatter then leads into who should do it….and Viola! a single person is assigned to it. That person is usually born of the marketing or public relations (PR) team and the goal is rather simple: 1. Listen and 2. chat it up in an effort to create customer relationships. Customer Relationships! are you kidding me?!?! Who in marketing or PR has ever had to directly sell or service a customer (let me help you – not many)? So why don’t we ever hear about social media from the people who are responsible for managing direct customer experiences on a daily basis? That’s right, the customer service teams, talk about resources! Customer support, service, tech support usually have dozens if not thousands of company representatives waiting for you to call. Ahh, therein lies the issue. Customer service is typically reactive and most likely engineered to react via the telephone.

It is interesting to consider though. Customer service is probably the one department with the most experience in developing customer relationships across your entire organization. Every executive understands the numbers associated with keeping a customer versus the cost of acquiring one, yet Service rarely has a seat at the executive table. Executives all proclaim that Job #1 within their companies is to over-deliver on quality and service and yet none really have any idea on what the Experience is in buying from their company. The experience is what social media is all about. Every experience a customer has with your organization plays a part in developing not only that customer’s relationship with your company, but the relationship of that customer’s network too. Developing customer relationships are about managing a series of defining moments with customers (ie: pleasant to talk to, was I treated with respect, was my inquiry answered timely, did rep answer or fulfill my question). Contact centers are traditionally very strong with telephone support so incorporating online social media into contact centers is certainly a challenge. There may be nothing more important however to developing a truly social enterprise than incorporating the contact centers in a meaningful way.

The challenges are abound. Systems are all centered on a phone switch, representatives trained to be reactive and solve problems, integration into core infrastructure including ERP, CRM, even accounting and not-to-mention many contact centers are wholly or partially outsourced. With that last part it now becomes an entire corporate ecosystem that has to change instead of a couple of people in a department. The payoff though is equally impressive for any company who can transform their client relationships with customer service being at the core. Consider a blog regarding a comparison of cameras debating which to get. If your camera company was the only one to contact that person and offer a promotion or simply a closer look through a video demo, your chances of the sale are good, however your chances of developing a relationship through a positive defining moment are great especially when exposed to that person’s network. Consider a tweet for someone in a strange town looking for some comfort food. If you are the only restaraunt who responds and delivers on that experience, youhave created a tremendous asset in that customer’s network however large or small it may be.

As social media has enabled citizens access to limitless information regarding your product and your company, it has also created a new class of customers. These customers have access to insights, reviews and most of all – random thoughts regarding their most recent defining moment with your company. The rules are changing and contact centers must change with them. Social media is propagating a new class of defining moments for companies to deal with. Those moments are no longer siloed to a channel of communication (ie. phone, email, letters). They permeate all channels and the customer expectations are re-set to near real-time for answers and for attention by your customers.

Companies at the front of this revolution to infuse social media into their service channels will most likely be leaders in their respective industries. Our moderator this week is no exception. Shashi Bellamkonda directs social media across Network Solutions, the de-facto leader in all things needed for businesses to manage a web presence. Shashi is one of the few social media all-stars that actually is recognized in the industry for what he does as much as by what he says. Shashi will lead us in this discussion coming with first-hand experience in how major corporations actually handle social media inside their service units. The topic and questions follow:

Topic: Engagement Through Customer Service: Your Contact Center and Social Media

Q1: When should customer service engage with consumers using social media?

Q2: How can contact centers scale to meet the demands of social media?

Q3: How can you determine if Customer Service is being effective with social media?

As always, the chat will be Tuesday (01/05/10) at noon EST. You are invited to join the discussion or at least follow along by tracking the hashtag #sm41 and be sure to include it in all your tweets. Another way to follow along is to use our LIVE page as well. We look forward to a tremendous discussion!

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Tags: call center, customer relationship management, Customer Service, customer support, jason breed, marc meyer, neighborhood america, Shashi Bellamkonda, social media
Posted in Customer Service, SocialCRM, corporate | 2 Comments »

Advancing the Discussion of Social Media & ROI

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Return on Investment or (ROI) is one of those terms that has been mis-used by all in 2009. As we look to 2010, how can we get back on track. We know there is going to be a strong influx of interest in social media projects by companies. In fact, a report from econsultancy and bigmouthmedia suggest that 86% of the 1,100 companies surveyed plan to spend more on social media in 2010 and 13% plan to spend the same amount. The report is further detailed here. With all this investment in 2010, will any of it be tied to ROI or will it be looked at as non-financial impact?

We stated that the term ROI is widely mis-used. Here’s what we mean:

This is NOT ROI:

The return of my Twitter usage is 2009 is 1,637 followers.
I increased the page views of my website by 300% on an investment of $120.
I increased my brand awareness by putting better content on my blog.

The actions above relate to non-financial impact on a business. For more information on Impact on Business we did a post a couple of months ago here. What seems to happen is that we take what is a financial term (ROI) and mix it around with investments in media measurement or listening tools or other social media tactics that are a part of non-financial metrics like building relationships, brand management or engagement. While these are all necessary and they do require an investment, the results are almost always non-financial. Therefore, if you are in front of executives and trying to attain funding or approvals, they will be interested in financial returns as measurement. While redefining the terms to meet your specific needs may be fun or even cute, no one is going to sign up for ROI when it means Return on Interest or Return on INgagement.

So what is ROI? The accepted definition of return on investment is very straightforward: gain from investment minus cost of investment, then divided by cost of investment. In other words, recruitment, engagement, interactions, listening are all very important pieces of the ROI equation however until that customer or prospect does something (ie: make a purchase) there is no financial measurement. The exception to this is the relation to cost savings realized by an investment. A great image of this was done by Olivier Blanchard:

Another important piece of the ROI pie is about actuals. ROI is not about what we think is going to happen, it is about what happened. Or in the words of Olivier again, “It’s not about potential, it’s about actual performance.” So ROI is not a forward looking statement, rather it is backwards looking results. So if you are looking for a quick refresher, check out this widely viewed deck on ROI here.

Olivier Blanchard Basics Of Social Media Roi

View more presentations from Olivier Blanchard.

You may have guessed already on who could possibly by moderating this much needed discussion on ROI. If you guessed Olivier Blanchard aka “The Brand Builder” then you are correct! Olivier has long been a recognized and sought after practitioner and speaker on the topic of social media ROI. He brings a very clear yet in-depth understanding to the topic and we are thrilled to have him moderating this chat with us. The topic and question this week are as follows:

Topic: Advancing the Discussion of Social Media & ROI

Q1: How can strategy & planning can impact ROI?

Q2: What are the steps to integrate SM across a business?

Q3: What is the difference between measurement & ROI?

Please join us this Tuesday 12/22 for the weekly chat event at 12 noon EST. The hashtag for this event will be #sm39.

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Tags: impact on business, jason breed, marc meyer, neighborhood america, Olivier Blanchard, rate of return, return on investment, social media, social media roi, The Brand Builder
Posted in Measurement, ROI in Social Media, social media | 2 Comments »

The Future of Socialnomics

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

Social media: The most important change in business or the biggest waste of productivity? Looking back, 2009 brought about some better examples of the value that social media brings to businesses yet social is still very much an unknown quantity to executives and hard to execute by practictioners. In short, it comes down to the economics of social media or, Socialnomics.

In order for social media and social networks to be truly transformational in the corporate world, they need to show value. Many of the efforts of 2009 were experimental while there were a few glimmers of hope including Ford Motor Company and the acquisition of Zappos (a buisiness built almost entirely on social media). We have discussed the need to move from campaigns to conversations and the importance of hiring an agency that has the skills to best serve your company. For a better understanding of some metrics, Erik Qualman has put together a widely viewed video on the idea of socialnomics. Socialnomics 09

Most of the digital experiments using social media for businesses has happened on two primary consumer networks: Twitter and facebook. In looking into the future, what will be the goto networks next year? What does it take for these networks to entice companies? It’s apparent that size does matter. How about quaility though. Does it matter if the digital network has elements of quality without the quantity of users? Consumers are using social networks to connect with old friends and get access into “a day in the life of” whoever they follow. Will that be enough in the future though? What will consumers require out of their digital interactions with brands? So many questions and not enough answers.

To explore the value and economics of social media we went to the source. Charlene Li has been the source of information for many of us since her days at Forrester, her bestselling book Groundswell and now with her company Altimeter Group. Charlene has influenced corporate executive boards for many years and this week we have an opportunity for her to help shape this discussion. So what does 2010 and beyond bring for the industry? That’s what we will discuss:

Topic: The Future of Socialnomics

Q1: What social networks will prevail in 2010?

Q2: How will consumers use them in the future?

Q3: What will the value metrics look like for consumers / businesses?

This week’s chat will take place Tuesday December 15th at noon EST. Follow along using #sm38 or on our Live site.

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Tags: charlene li, consumer networks, economics of social media, groundswell, jason breed, marc meyer, neighborhood america, social media, socialnomics
Posted in Measurement | 2 Comments »

Stop Campaigning and Start Conversing The New Marketing Paradigm

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

Build a relationship, garner trust and a customer will never leave. Sounds pretty easy!? In fact we have been talking about it since the dawn of time (social media time anyway) with the Cluetrain Manifesto that started in 1999 and identified that the Internet has forced marketing to be more about conversations than messages. Since then we have Valeria Maltoni the Conversation Agent (a past moderator here), a great book called Naked Conversations written by Shel Israel (an upcoming moderator) and Robert Scoble and countless other examples. So why is it that companies still market via campaigns and agencies still win business with this approach?

A classic example of movement for the sake of motion? Possibly. Consider all the money and effort that goes into concept, strategy, creative, execution of marketing campaigns. Brands spend all that time creating a pitch to consumers, introducing themselves time and time again, selling stuff to unwilling customers then when it’s done, they see how much product was sold, cut off the pitch to those customers and prospects then rinse and repeat the whole daunting process all over. So where is the conversation part of this we have been talking about now for at least 10 years? Not the cordial, “wave to each other at a cocktail party” conversation but the relationship conversation that lasts for months, years or longer? The conversation where you find out what each other needs and wants (notice I said both), you know, a real relationship not a manufactured one.

So what does that look like and how do marketers break out of the campaign mentality? Think about the impact of this scenario: A company with multiple brands has a consolidated marketing department focused on customer relationships. They are in charge of courting the consumer and understanding how they live, work and play. From that relationship, the company understands what products (Brands) can help that customer and how they add value to that consumer’s life. Then the Brands become stewards for helping those customers buy the things they need (considering people like to buy things yet do not like to be sold). The company pours their monies into acquiring a customer once then facilitating their purchases across the various products. This is very different than what happens today as each Brand pays to acquire the same customers over and over across all brands independently. This may be some utopian dream to many but the speed of communicating and the ubiquity of access to communicate is forever changing the old norms and customers have left that station. Companies need to figure out how to adapt and soon.

We are very happy to have Tom Martin moderating this topic on tuesday. Tom spends a lot of time in this space covering all aspects of branding, marketing and social media and brings a creative approach to his work. He will help us work through this topic and facilitate a great learning opportunity for all of us. The topic and questions will be:

Stop Campaigning and Start Conversing – The New Marketing Paradigm

1) What is the difference between a marketing campaign and a customer conversation?

2) How do agencies have to change in order to create conversations instead of campaigns?

3) What are some examples of brands or agencies that have succeeded in making the jump from campaign to conversation?

The chat will take place Tuesday 11/24 at noon EST. We will use the #sm35 for the event.

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Tags: Brands, campaigns, conversations, marketing, neighborhood america, relationship, social media, Tom Martin
Posted in Branding, Content, social media | 7 Comments »

Social Media’s Impact on Business (and ROI)

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Feeling like stirring the pot a bit this week so we thought a discussion on ROI should do it.

ROI certainly can stir the pot. But, saying that most of everyone’s conversations on this topic are not actually ROI, rather Impact on Business (IOB), takes the act of stirring and turns it into a blender. Ahh, much better!

So let’s start by saying that just because it’s “social” does not mean it should be held up to standards typically defined by financial returns whether in business, government or non-profits. Someone can start a blog or join twitter simply to better understand the tools or to connect with associates they just met at a conference. This becomes truly social and may at some point have an impact on your business whether financially or some other measure but does not need to be tied into sales goals just because an employee wants to post office pictures so other offices can see how they decorated for the holiday party. That’s a beginners first step into social computing but not what we are interested for this discussion.

What we are looking for here is to better define and understand what we sometimes mean when we refer to ROI as a verb instead of referring to ROI as a financial metric. The real definition of Return on Investment (ROI) is: gain from investment minus cost of investment, then divided by cost of investment. Business books are written, classes are taught, and undergrad studies are derived from this very straightforward metric. When I talk about ROI, I try to dumb it down a bit into either: 1) increase revenues, 2) decrease costs, or 3) increase in shareholder value and that assumes a financial investment of course. So why then, does the term ROI get thrown around so much in the context of social media when no financial gain or costs saved are referenced?

Impact on Business (IOB) is the actual term that should be used when discussing things like: # of followers, brand awareness, mentions, impact, conversations and what ever else you can think of that is not related to a financial calculation. The impact of an employee being nice on twitter is great. The fact that the customer decides to continue service (Retention) as an indirect effect does not make the time that employee spent on Twitter an actual case for ROI. It is however, IOB. Olivier Blanchard actually was the first that I know of to begin this discussion a few months ago here. Companies all over are using social media to have an impact on their business like Kodak measuring Smiles or any company promoting their Facebook fan page.

Many industries discuss IOB like fast food, IT, or big box retailing and it affects every company’s business in some way or another. You can even consider different departments of a company and the impact of HR, Payroll, PR, Sustainability, Operations play in a company. Although often not connected directly to revenue, a company would have a difficult time without those departments. Impact is easier to measure if you don’t have to tie it back somehow to ROI and ROI is much easier to measure if you don’t try to include calculations of impact. To lead our discussion this week is Jacob Morgan, a principal at Chess Media Group, who focuses on Social Media ROI. Jacob is well versed in this type of discussion and brings a lot of expertise to the table. The questions will attempt to progress the discussion from ROI as a catch all phrase to the differences between Impact and ROI for businesses and how to align them. They are:

1. Whether Impact or ROI, what “Investments” could be measured to prove out value in Social Media?

2. How can you prove value from Impact or ROI to executives to continue or try Social Media?

3. What are some examples of businesses attaining true ROI from Social Media?

Plan on joining in this discussion Tuesday 11/10 at noon EST. To join either follow #sm33 on Twitter or follow our LIVE site.

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Tags: Business, impact on business, jacob morgan, jason breed, management, marc meyer, neighborhood america, return on investment, revenues, ROI, social media
Posted in Measurement, ROI in Social Media | 4 Comments »

The Value of Twitter for Businesses

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

From its beginnings in 2006, Twitter has come light years in some ways, yet the service is vitually the same as was when it started. The same can be said for users who saw 2009 as the year Ashton’s users surpassed 1,000,000, but to what avail? And businesses are trying to market, service, sell, and befriend anyone who wants to engage albeit mostly as simply just another channel for companies. So with all of this activity, news and chatter about Twitter, where’s the beef? As still a very new service in a new vertical and still a new age of communications for everyone, we are still trying re-imagine a life with Twitter and other new means of engaging in personal and business communications.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of interesting uses of Twitter that are changing many facets of life including political upheaval (Iran’s Protests), grassroots organizing (tweetups, Obama campaign), breaking news (USAirways flight 1549), and more. While there are some innovative uses of Twitter in business including the usuals: Comcast Cares, Dell, Starbucks and Zappos this is certainly not the norm and, I would argue, most examples of innovative uses of Twitter are more lip service than measurable ROI (I measure ROI with either increased revenue, decreased costs or increased equity).

So with all the chatter, where is the real value of Twitter for Business? That’s a great question and one that only a real professional could handle for this chat. So we’ve enlisted the help of the Social Media Explorer, Jason Falls. This is the first time in 32 weeks that we have had a repeat moderator and Jason is certainly worth getting back. His no-nonsense approach to social media marketing and useage for businesses has earning him a premier class reputation in the industry. The chat will cover the following:

The Value of Twitter

Why Twitter is important for business today?
What has Twitter influenced to date?
Where does Twitter go from here?

As usual, the chat using Twitter of course, will take place Tuesday 11/3 at 12 noon EST as usual. This week is seeing a number of firsts. We realize the #socialmedia has gotten very popular recently and it is sometimes hard to follow along through all the noise. We have figured out how to maintain the integrity of the chat and record a different hashtag(#). So this week we are oging to still promote via #socialmedia, however the actual chat will use #SM32 which equals how many moderated chats we have organized. So be sure to use #SM32 at noon to follow along and participate in the chat.

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Tags: Business, future of Twitter, Jason Falls, social media, socialmedia, twitter, Value of Twitter, where's the beef
Posted in Listening, twitter | No Comments »

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