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RSSWe have always been a very social culture. Lacking an overt class structure and the conventions of the old countries where social mobility was severely limited, we have long traditions of sharing information, open commentary and feedback, collective opinion polling and creative expression. We are a nation of voters, critics, reviewers and satirists. Long before Mark Zuckerberg showed up millions of people were participating in discussion boards, user-groups, chat rooms and professional online forums of many stripes.
Blogs, photo and video-sharing like Flickr, RSS feeds, Twitter del.icio.us and Digg are the latest evolution of our need to say what we think and tell others. Social networks are the digital extension and expression of our love of clubs and fraternal organizations, an update on Aunt Blabby's annual newsy Christmas letter and an outlet to empower and unleash our inner yentas.
The early adopters have jumped into social networks to the tune of $920 million according to eMarketer, three-quarters of which was spent on MySpace (51%) and Facebook (19%). As with most early adapters, the attention gets focused on the means rather than the marketing strategy. Every marketer you meet fantasizes about creating a low-cost viral video that skyrockets them to fame and ROI-heaven with millions of free page views and mentions or replays in the mainstream media. This fantasy is validated by a Feed Company survey in which 71% of creative executives believe that viral video will become a standard marketing practice in one to three years. Forty-one percent of clients told Jupiter they intend to upload video to social network sites in the next twelve months. The hold-up, according to the Jupiter Research's 2008 Advertiser Executive Survey, is cost, anxiety about adapting existing TV creative, and doubts about targeting.
The critical questions for marketers are: How do we insert ourselves credibly into these networks and conversations? What's the optimal use of this two-way communication and distribution channel?
The answer begins with an appreciation of how these new networks are evolving and how people are electing to participate. Social media is evolving as cable TV did, from the broad initial pioneers who prove the concept and attract mass audiences to niche channels that hyper-serve specific market segments or aggregate content into broader sub-categories like dating, health or careers. If MySpace is the pioneer, then LinkedIn is the B2B play, and the contenders for other spots along the spectrum are beginning to line up.
Josh Bernoff talks about a Social Technographics Ladder, a pretentious sounding 6-step construct, to illustrate how people actually use and participate in social media. This idea suggests that some people are online but "Inactive." They basically don't care about any of this. "Spectators" read blogs, watch videos and are passive voyeurs. "Joiners" sign up for things, create profiles and visit sites regularly. "Collectors" are one notch up; using RSS feeds, recommending and voting for content and adding tags to web pages. "Critics" are active participants posting their own content, commenting on blogs, or adding to and editing wikis. And "Creators" sit atop the social media food chain publishing blogs, posting images, making videos, creating mash-ups and downloading music. It's a fair bet that the ladders map to a bell curve with "Inactives" at the right and "Creators" at the left. The hump is moving to the left as more people do more things.
Breakout Solutions, a Fort Lauderdale software provider, called this state of affairs a "social media revolution" and advised its clients, "Whenever a new discipline is introduced that changes the entire dynamics of what influences consumer buying decisions and how you deliver your marketing message, you simply cannot afford to remain unresponsive and stagnant in formulating new strategies to meet business objectives." And while I wouldn't put it quite that way, I agree. So here are five things to do to seed social media into your marketing strategy.
Find your peeps. It's all about targeting. The goal is to comfortably intersect with your customers and prospects. In some cases, you can add social media elements to your Web site and to your marketing campaigns. In other cases, it makes more sense to go where they are already going. Think like an anthropologist. Find your people. Watch what they say and do. Look for patterns. Ask them what they like and what they want.
Dare to be embarrassed. Social media shifts control from brands to customers. It's about what they think and what they want; not what you're pushing. Some think you suck. But you knew that and it's okay. To embrace social networks is to risk being next to content that you don't control, to receive and respond to reviews and criticism you're not used to -- and possibly to take your brand not so seriously.
Lead with your long suit. Social networks give brands the opportunity to expose things they know, showcase expertise, present ideas or designs, float trial balloons and introduce personalities. It's an unparalleled chance to invite customers and prospects into your world. Don't underestimate how into your brand your best customers are. Don't be bashful. Put your people and your best stuff out there. Don't let the lawyers tell you otherwise.
Play around. We're in the early stages. There are no proven formulas and no real best practices. It's a real chance to play around by asking users to send in things, participate in contests, answer survey questions, sample products or services, download coupons, upload photos and who knows what else? Test and learn your way to greatness.
Play to the cheap seats. Social media is like talk radio or old-fashioned telephone party lines. A tiny percent call -- but everybody is listening. The beauty of having friends and linkages is seeing what they are doing and watching them experiment from the sidelines. The numbers of passive and occasional users far outnumber the hardcore players, even among the younger demographic groups. But don't ignore them because they're getting off and getting their own ideas watching what goes on.
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RSS FEEDS
Profession, Where I work: Linked In, Xing, Monster.
Family, friends, connections, Who I know: MySpace, Friendster, Facebook
Opinion, What I like, dislike: Digg, TravelPost, Crowdstorm
Knowledge: Yahoo Answers, Google Answers, Wikipedia .....
The proliferation of Social Media Networks all offer choices to build that Digital Identity Map of yourself.
Josh Bernoff's ladder could also be seen as a level of awareness of ourselves and the value we find in constructing a digital identity. From the "inactives" to the "creators", we see more awareness, engage in the value offered, and I would venture to say it parallels our offline identity in many respects.
Linda Ziskind's response is a thoughtful and inspiring one. The challenge I face, in a very small communications shop charged with everything from internal communications to marketing, Web, print pubs/ads, media relations, events, and community relations is the staff time to do a good job of laying the foundation for community, using the Web and electronic communication as the medium.
The quick fix of putting brochureware up is a placeholder and should be viewed as such by anyone who does this "just to have something up there."
We're just beginning the initial phases of establishing a presence in social communities with a Facebook page and Twitter account (@WSUSpokane). I don't think of it as marketing per se, but as a chance to engage. The next challenge after laying the foundation will be to let people know we're there so they can come and build the community they seek.
We'll use those points of presence not only for information appropriate for prospective students, but also for current students and citizens interested in knowing what we're working on as we develop a relatively new campus and grow our programs.
That speaks to the public policy element Casey Golden mentioned. For those engaged in any kind of public input process, particularly around planning or development, you might look at Civic Blogger, e.g. http://civicblogger.blogspot.com/2008/11/free-free-free-what-does-it-cost-to.html. (I'd appreciate referral to other blogs/discussion spaces around this particular topic.)
It's the TIME to engage in a meaningful way that will be a struggle, particularly faced with tremendous budget constraints that prevent any additional staffing. It isn't "content management" any more, it's "constant engagement".
@BarbChamberlain
To anyone who has been paying attention, the proliferation of social media shouldn't be a surprise. Ever since 1985 when Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant began the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, which became The WELL, people have been flocking to converse with, learn from, and establish relationships with each other in an environment free conventional time and geographic restrictions. These "virtual communities", as Howard Rheingold called them, were powerful lures to a universal, deep-seated desire to reach out and be social in a way that creates local neighborhoods in a global context.
This ability to create communities around shared interests as well as the instantaneous connection of email was a powerful driver of the first online services, like AOL, CompuServe, and Prodigy.
Social communities like Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, are simply the latest incarnations of this quest to connect. From the start, though, marketers have failed to understand the Web as the interactive environment that it is, and have continued to engage as if it's one of the passive mediums they're comfortable with. It's as if brands and marketers are the online equivalent of the ugly American tourist who travels abroad, and when the locals don't understand their requests, simply repeat it slower and louder, as if the listener is simple-minded and deaf.
We need to help brands understand that the Web isn't a magazine with hyperlinks or TV with text. It's a constantly evolving environment where information will always want to be free, it's a democratic publishing forum, and it's a place where dishonesty is outed at the speed of sound. So, s'il vous plait, learn the language.
Nice article - I am sharing with our company and clients. This takes a step back, reviews where we have been and makes some simple, tool agnostic recommendations for what to do now.
Tom O'Brien MotiveQuest
In addition to typical 'brands' of consumer products, it should be very interesting to see how social media perhaps starts to influence public policy over the next 4 years and beyond. We all saw how for the first time video/blogs/tweets had an enormous impact in the election process.
How long does everyone feel it will take for politicians to readily embrace the new social platform of communication and visibility/exposure? Can this type of collaboration accelerate the recovery of our economy?
The operative word here is balance -- adoptive patterns for social media are high right now but they will eventually plateau. There seems to be a rush to say that old marketing modes are dead but I say don't throw the baby out with the bath water -- finding the balance between new and traditional makes for a smart playbook.
Again, congrats on your first article. I feel honored to be the first to comment.