Marketing

Social media marketing has been around forever…

September 23, 2008 By Dan Thornton

I often refer to social media marketing starting when a caveman went running to the next cave to tell his neighbours about this new thing he’d discovered called ‘fire’. It’s something I’ve referred to in internal and external presentations, and it hopefully drives home the fact that recommendations between friends is something that has gone on since humanity started communicating.

The reason it came to mind recently is that I’ve finally got round to reading a book recommended to me by a good colleague a couple of years ago. Ironically enough, having bought 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey, I got about halfway through, got distracted, and didn’t actually finish it!

I’ve finally got round to rectifying that slightly abysmal failure, and part of the book struck a chord with me when Covey talks about researching the ‘success literature’ of several hundred years, and the fact that early examples all centred around a principled ‘Character Ethic’ approach, rather than the 20th century methods of quick fixes.

And when we all talk about The Best Practices in Social Media, we all talk about ethics such as honesty, respect, listening, being human etc.

Perhaps some of the quick fixes we’ve used for our individual success and our marketing and advertising really are just momentary blips in the evolution of human communication? Maybe that’s one of the reasons the current economic system is being questioned as much as it is at the moment? And why people like David Parmet are calling for bigger differences and effects to come from social media and networks. Along with the likes of Tim O’Reilly and Shel Isreal (links in David’s post).

Maybe it’s also why the likes of myself and David Cushman are impatiently trying to solve the problems of showing returns on investment in social media.

And whilst writing this I’m reminded of the prioritisation method of looking at the things which are Important but not Urgent, and concentrating on them to avoid them becoming Important and Urgent as much as possible. Too often it appears we’re looking at the short term, and not preventing problems before it becomes crisis management.

So if you fancy becoming more effective as an individual or a company, try 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Combine being effective with reading books on understanding the new economy, how ideas spread, and how to join in, and it seems to me you’ll have caught up on Web 2.0 and the last couple of hundred years!

The Measures of Engagement meme (Convincing the disconnected)

September 22, 2008 By Dan Thornton

Another week, another meme! And it’s another one that not only has some real value, but it also bloody tricky to answer in a way that’s not rehashing the work of other intelligent people looking at social media. Dave Cushman started it off as Measures of Engagement – convincing the disconnected, and I think it’s important to keep the second part of the title in mind. As Cush says, if you’re blogging, tweeting, and building your own widgets already, you get it – but there are millions out there that don’t, and if you want companies etc to get involved in the right way, it’s down to us to show some leadership and go outside the comfort zone of the social media echo chamber.

I disagree slightly with Cush when he says those that get social media don’t require the numbers. Case in point – the Adage Power 150, Google analytics, Feedburner stats, Twitter follower counters and all the other things we adorn blogs with. The lack of yardsticks is one problem that currently affects social media usage within businesses, and it’s one of the reasons why I’m a keen supporter of MeasurementCamp‘s proactive focus on sharing case studies and numbers. It’s fine to quote Zappos and WillItBlend ad infinitum, (and I have), but the more relevant and close to your market you can find examples, the more useful it is in convincing the disconnected. And sometimes that’s the approach you need to take, because not every manager is just waiting for you to persuade them onto Twitter or Facebook.

So measurement is a given:

The next stage is to look at what the end result should be. Is it sales conversions or advertising clickthroughs? Are your conversion mechanisms on your website, or are they affiliated via widgets?

Either way, there are two things that work across traditional and new businesses – conversions and the numbers of them.

This is where the battle begins. Social media is an emerging and labour intensive skill. It’s unlikely to drive the same numbers as an SEO campaign, unless you’re really lucky/gaming the likes of Digg.

So what we need is to start tracing the steps of the engaged and the disengaged, and be able to compare the conversion rates – that’s pretty good evidence of the power of social media (If it works…humans have a horrible habit of doing the exact opposite of what you want, at the worst possible moments!).

And controversially, that begins with the traditional web analytics package, whether that’s Google, or a paid service like Webtrends.

That’s something that’s easy to forget in the rush to start driving traffic to the site, and worrying about sentiment. If you’re already using search traffic for relevant keywords to drive conversions, you’ve already got an effective way of getting large numbers of interested people.

So does social media make your boss money?

So you need to be able to show where social media efforts site between someone accidentally browsing round your site because they’re bored, and those coming because they want to buy something that minute. And where in the process social media can enhance the conversions for people arriving via search – is it product reviews, or a Q and A section, or customer service?

Why do we want users chatting?

And if you’re relying on click-throughs, you’ve got more impetus for social media. After all, if people are arriving for content rather than purchases, then it’s down to the content, and the strength of your brand and values to convince them that clicking on a third party will give them what they’re after. If I see a shoddy site, unrelated adverts, and no community or loyalty, then I’m going to distrust that banner stuck in the right hand column and leave for somewhere else before I can be tempted into clicking on anything. That’s where the ‘onsite engagement’ is important.

Isn’t a Facebook fan page a waste of time?

And then it’s onto ‘external engagement’. That’s the bit where you make yourselves available where ever an interested person might be, and do the utmost to serve their needs, in the hope they’ll get to know you and your brand and value it over your competitors. And the basis for this comes from the stats showing how social media efforts increase conversions, and clickthroughs from the first two.

So why bother with trying to get numbers?

If SEO is hugely effective for people finding stuff, and when they arrive they’re engaged and converted, then why bother with the outreach?

Firstly, depending on traffic levels, and the advertising model you use, a traffic boost from a social network (the second biggest source of traffic after search engines) can really drive a particular promotion or great piece of content. And if you can show engagement delivers a high percentage of conversions and a big traffic boost, then you’re really set.

Secondly, not everyone is using search any more. I can’t remember the last time I actively searched for a product review before making a purchase. I still read reviews, but I start by asking my network for people with relevant knowledge that I trust, and then follow their recommendations to extra content.

If you’re not getting recommended, you’re going to be paying more to get search traffic, and you’re not getting the recommendation traffic. Effectively you’re trying to run a marathon with your eyes shut and your fingers in your ears. It’s still possible to win, but it’s going to get pretty tough!

This is the bit where the new tools come in.

You can start monitoring terms via Google news alerts (And almost every social media person has a personal vanity search set-up I’ll wager!). That can get pretty time consuming pretty quickly, which is where buzz monitoring comes in, e.g. Radian6, Brandwatch, Onalytica, Nielsen etc (apologies for anyone I’ve missed). These tools provide various ways for aggregating and managing all the mentions of your brand across the internet. The one downside of having a variety of useful tools is that it prevents some of the useful comparisons – e.g. sentiment between brands using different programmes – but I’d expect the market to slowly coalesce as social media matures…

This is also where you hook into available APIs, and allow people to promote your content on the social aggregators.

And that’s about where I’ve got to!

(I should say in my defence, this has been a bit of a stream of conscious post due to upset babies, meowing cats and other distractions, so I’m really interested in as many comments as possible to help distill the right parts out of this..)

Now the more fun bit…tagging some people who will probably struggle less with this than I did at the start of my social media journey within a large media company.

If it’s measurement, then I have to tag Katie Paine, without any implied buzz monitoring favouritism I haven’t chatted to Giles for a while. I’ll also tag Ste Davies, Luke for a personal brand approach, and Chris because he normally likes to get all argumentative.

Edit: I was going to tag benrmatthews but there was some blog address confusion, which has now been resolved…So he’s back on the list!

The best practices in social media marketing meme

September 16, 2008 By Dan Thornton

Well, it appears I’ve been tagged by Neil Perkin for the ‘Best Practices in Social Media Marketing meme, originally started by Mitch Joel at Six Pixels of Separation.

It was started on August 27th, and I’ve seen it popping up in my RSS feeds on occasion, but thought I’d probably escape – but now I’ve got to try and add to the insights already offered by a worldwide group of very smart social media people. So to recap on most of the ones I’ve seen (apologies if I miss anyone):

Consistency (Mitch Joel)

Embrace your audience (Jason Falls)

Listen and add value (Kipp Bodnar)

Listen (Chris Brogan)

Be human (Kristie Wells)

Reach out to others (Morriss Partee)

Honesty and respect (Paisano)

Watch what people actually do (Liz Strauss)

Provide a platform (Beth Harte)

Tell a story (servant of chaos)

Permission to play (Eaon Pritchard)

Be human (Neil Perkin)

Distilling everything down to the main principles is great for clarity – less so if you receive a meme after everyone else has had a go! So what can I add?

Be Dedicated and Stay Motivated:

Image from Infomatique on Flickr (used under Creative Commons)

Social Media Marketing is not a ‘quick win’ to pick the ‘low hanging fruit’. It’s not something you can switch on for guaranteed overnight success, despite what you may have heard about the wonders of Digg and Stumbleupon. And you can start as many Facebook groups and pages as you like, but there’s no guarantee anyone will come along.

That’s why you need to Be Dedicated and Stay Motivated.

Some companies will need to fundamentally change to make best use of social media marketing. In a strategic sense, it has to permeate almost every facet of a company, and in a tactical sense it has to at least reach enough that your efforts don’t get destroyed by a disinterested colleague who really doesn’t give a monkeys!

Now add the fact that many traditional marketing and business people are wary or sceptical of the need for Social Media Marketing.

And that it’s much harder to prove a direct return on investment that is readily accepted.

For years people have chosen to believe that a TV advert will actually reach all the people who are claimed to be watching a programme, ignoring the power surge from kettles and lavatorial urges of anyone watching a major event.

Yet it’s seemingly harder to realise the value of positive comments around a brand made on the internet as being a indirect return.

But there are rewards for dedication and motivation:

But you can power your way through ‘the dip‘. You can look at the aims of your company in the short, mid and longterm, and talk to the right people to get an idea of what will make a big, demonstrable difference. And use that to decide which tools you might start to use.

You can start compiling case studies to help you to show what’s possible, and start evangelising to people about the possibility. But make it real, not abstract.

You can start to use the tools for yourself to see how ‘normal’ people are using them, and think about how much your company is realistically able to fulfill on, so you’re not building your Social Media Marketing on empty promises.

And once you’ve done that, you’ve got a solid setting for the hard bit – keeping going. And going. And going.

You’ll face issues with budgets, resources, technology, usability, comprehension, changing goalposts, targetting, measurement, fulfillment, and more. You’ll discover how unpredictable those humans formerly known as ‘the audience’ can be. You’ll face skepticism and sarcasm from people who don’t understand, or choose to ignore, the concepts of community, conversation, loyalty, and engagement.

But you need to keep pushing through. Because once you’ve started this stuff, you need to keep going.

If you give up, you’re risking dormant brand presence, annoyed early adopters, and the fact your company won’t adapt. And if it doesn’t adapt, it’ll keep repeating the same mistakes. And in the current economic climate, that just isn’t healthy.

There’s a great quote from Randy Pausch’s last lecture which I’ve started using to keep myself motivated. ‘Brick walls aren’t there to stop you. They’re there to stop the other people who don’t want it as much’. And if you look at the success of almost any individual or project, you can see it in action.

And the payoff comes at the end. If you stay Dedicated and Motivated, you’ll be the person who understands how best to serve the needs of the consumers and individuals who power your company. That puts you in a hugely powerful position, because even if you leave the company, you’ll find plenty of people will move with you, even if it’s in an apparently unrelated market. I’ve seen business consumers follow individuals through 3 or 4 different companies because they believed in the individual’s dedication and service. Now go do that with thousands of online evangelists!

Now to tag some people who I think will offer some intriguing responses. Let’s go for Amanda, Simon, Mark, Julius, and Mark. Covering a few countries, nationalities and specialisms, there!

And if you want to continue it:

Blog it.
Link to Mitch’s blog
Tag it “social media marketing best practices”
And then tag someone else with the meme.

Three thousand words worth of pictures – at least

August 27, 2008 By Dan Thornton

I’ve been a fan of the ‘cartoons on the back of business cards’ work of Hugh MacLeod for a long time, often using the examples of his work and blog to try and inspire other people.

He was soon joined at some unspecified point by David Armano’s ‘visual thinking’ on Logic + Emotion, whose genius has livened up many of my presentations with slides that sum up social media in eloquent visuals.

But somehow I’d missed out on Tom Fishburne until I caught 10 questions with him on Church of the Consumer yesterday. I then spent longer than intended taking a look at a huge range of great marketing related cartoons at www.tomfishburne.com. My discovery ties into his Virtual Post2Post book tour to promote his latest work, This One Time, At Brand Camp. I need a poster of this particular example of silo farming…