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RSSSo without further ado, I give you Dr. Augustine Fou (who also includes a quote from yours truly):
Virtually every advertiser is asking for it. They have all heard about examples of YouTube videos going "viral" and reaching millions of people practically overnight. They have read the stats that say modern consumers' top trusted source for information is "people like them," that they don't trust advertising, and that virtually everyone does research online before making purchases, even if they make the purchase offline. So advertisers have quickly jumped on the bandwagon of "social media marketing." But doing social media marketing usually takes the form of brand pages on MySpace, Facebook fan pages, or YouTube channels of brand videos.
Doing "social media marketing" right is a different story entirely. The landscape and the consumers have changed, but known and comfortable ways of doing advertising have not (yet). Advertisers are coming from a world of meticulously crafted brand messages being blasted out at people through one-way media like TV, print, or radio -- to a world where consumers can tune it all out at the press of a button. Modern consumers, who have too little time and are "information overloaded," reject this form of "being shouted at," no matter how clever or entertaining. However, when they are ready to make a purchase, they do their homework by researching online and reading what "people like them" have to say.
So instead, advertisers "should forget 'command and control' -- forget it," says Doug Atkins, chief community officer of Meetup.com "It's 'nurture and support' now." The brands that "get it" don't try to control the message or how it is spread. Instead, they look for communities of users who have already self-organized -- and nurture and support them with things they really need. For example, American Express supports small businesses around the country with guest lecturers and experts, white papers, resources, and online tools that are useful to small business owners, rather than overt "sign up for this card" solicitations at the Meetup events.
There are large communities and small or niche ones. Some are more influential than others. For example, there are 17 million high school students in the U.S., 50% of whom play sports. "High school athletes are typically role models or 'celebrities at their school' and are disproportionally influential to others around them," says David Birnbaum, CEO of Takkle.com. "Kids look up to them, or simply look at what they're wearing or drinking (Gatorade vs Powerade, of course)."
But "scale" is not necessarily as important as it once was. Advertisers coming from a world where "reach and frequency" was a success metric need to realize that in this new world "scale is out and impact is in." In other words, buying billions of impressions online -- where click-throughs amount to no more than a "rounding error" and the number of people who recall seeing the ad, let alone remembering the message in the ad, can hardly be measured on a logarithmic scale -- is not impactful. Whereas the 200 people who participated in an online chat with Intel engineers about the "Monetevina" chip will have lasting impact because the chat transcript is Google-searchable, and others who have similar questions in the future will find their answers. And according to Josh Bernoff, principal analyst at Forrester Research, an individual whose screename is "Predator" posted 20,402 messages over six years to help others in the Dell support forums, just because "I like helping people and getting the occasional 'thank you.'" Talk about impactful and valuable to the community.
Implications for Marketers and Advertisers
1. Be useful. The best advertising is no longer a message that an advertiser wants to "get out there." The "new" best advertising is something that is useful to the target customers, which ideally also communicates the value of the product or service being advertised. Howard Greenstein, social media expert, cited JetBlue's Twitter activity -- using it as a real-time customer service channel "whose speedy resolution of customers' questions or problems is publicly visible to other twitterati."
2. Make a social media commitment. Advertising used to be about campaigns that started and ended. Social media is not a campaign, but a continuous commitment -- because it takes time for a community and trust to build, which in turn lead to value for both the community members as well as the advertiser. Doing social media campaigns "is like buying a new car each time you want to drive to the grocery store," says Joe Marchese, founder of SocialVibe.com.
3. Read and react in real time. For the first time in history, the two-way nature of the mass medium known as "digital" means advertisers not only can, but must, read and react to customers' feedback or input. When Dell was repeatedly unresponsive to Jeff Jarvis' customer service requests, he wrote about his frustration on his blog, which led to a firestorm of controversy that spilled into mainstream media. Dell now leverages users' input and ideas in their IdeaStorm to create new products and features that customers really want.
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The internet has for the first time given them a toolset to actually have 2-way dialog with customers. However, early uses of the internet for advertising have remained decidedly one-way (banner ads, rich media ads, etc.). Adwords and other search marketing was the first time ads were placed in response to users taking action (typing a search term, indicating they are looking for something)
Social media marketing is really not marketing at all. But like you all said it is about listening to the conversations that are already going on. Except with the internet, advertisers can actually "see" these conversations. The most progressive of advertisers would leverage these conversations to understand the needs and priorities of their customers so they can continue to refine their products and services to serve them.
If I may echo your collective comments - the new medium is 2-way and should be leveraged as such - social media marketing is continuous, and campaign-based thinking does not work - brands are what customers say it is, and no longer what advertisers shout at their customers - social media does not fit neatly into traditional disciplines like PR, CRM, DM, advertising or marketing -- it's its own thing and should be approached as such
I'd love to continue the conversation with you all publicly here or in private.
Cheers, Augustine (augustine.fou@mrmworldwide.com)
I do agree that to harness the true potential of social media, we'll need to be able to have a long term plan and strategy, but this is simply not the role that a marketer will be used to. It seems to me that it's more of a role of PR.
This inevitably points to 1 question - who's, in the corporate structure, responsible for harnessing social media? I can't help but to feel it's PR.
And this leads to another question - does that mean now during budgeting, we actually need to allocate a budget of decent size to PR?
And this leads to yet another question - are PR directly responsible for ROI (in terms of measurable accountability) of such activities?
If the answer to that is No, then it suggests that this should be handed back to marketing.
Oh, but marketing is used to a start-stop mindset.
The cycle goes on and on and at the end of the day, we still can't decide how to do it.
Social media is something you're either 100% committed to, or shouldn't bother with. It's time consuming and requires genuine commitment. As you astutely point out, social media isn't a campaign. It's a community. Thanks again.
Joe Reis
http://AndroidsAgency.com
Companies are confused. Every week a new article seems to redefine what social media means for brand advertisers. This communicates, accurately I think, that the advertising and media industries are still working to understand how they can best help their clients capitalize on the new social media opportunity.
I’ve begun to wonder if we aren’t incorrect in how we are approaching companies on the subject. I’m wondering if we should removed the word "advertising" from this conversation altogether? I believe it muddies the waters. Can a company succeed with a social presence without assembling the assets to function as a social company? The resources and talent needed to succeed socially have less to do with traditional advertising and marketing, and more to do with traditional customer service and public relations.
Wikipedia defines PR as the practice of managing the flow of information between an organization and its publics. Customer Service is defined as the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. These are the brand attributes that make companies social. These activities are grounded in listening to the customer and the market in order to address the needs and concerns of the customer and market. These departments are skilled at deciphering changes in customer perception and market environment, and know the importance of response. They are trained in the art of conversation. Ironically, that just as most businesses have given up on idea of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), the ultimate CRM platform may well have just emerged. CRM, according to Wikipedia, is a multifaceted process, mediated by a set of information technologies that focuses on creating two-way exchanges with customers so that firms have an intimate knowledge of their needs, wants, and buying patterns. In this way, CRM is intended to help companies understand, as well as anticipate, the needs of current and potential customers.
Advertising doesn't know how to listen. It only knows how to talk. So speaking to the marketing department about social media is much like speaking to the accounting department about how you can improve sales. It’s no wonder that companies are moving slowing and acting cautiously. Advertising isn't going to go away, and it isn't going to change. Nor should it. Advertising will remain an important way to build brand and drive sales. But creating social strategies and creating advertising strategies require completely different vocations. I don’t believe the marketing or advertising departments are where tomorrow’s corporate social initiative will reside.
In order for companies to succeed socially they will have to restructure to become social entities. It will happen. It will take time. I believe that helping companies understand where their social assets lie and helping them synthesize these assets to create modern CRM departments that gather information and manage the company’s social face is the answer.
http://net-effect.blogspot.com/
2. Tell people the same things over and over and over again and they will believe it. Say that concept thousands of ways which has been done and it is still the same. (e.g. hasn't this administration worked wonders with this as well as religions?)
Now combine 1 and 2.
One of the things that I think is really sad is that brands will not really "get" the point of articles like this until their staring at market conditions where their market could care less about their brand or their "message".
Jerry Rouleau www.BuilderRadio.com