Winds of Change? Adjust the sails, make course adjustments or be shipwrecked.
Winds of Change? Adjust the sails, make course adjustments or be shipwrecked. Analytics matter.
by Stu Wiley December 14, 2009
Does your online intelligence empower you in new directions, or do you feelstuck in the doldrums? Are you using crowdsourcing effectively and measuring online community feedback to derive your ROI metrics?
Engagement with online communities can replace ad hoc qual and quant, and a lot of clients are cutting their ad hoc qual and quant because they just haven’t got the budgets for it, or activities simply aren’t working.
Online communities are exactly the kind of things that clients love talking about, but when it comes to actually investing they might think the approach is not tried and tested. That’s a mistake. The issue is that they have not been in the online space long enough or are not working with a high end firm whose focus has been decades of online participation.
The potential for online to generate insight and demand gen/lead gen is enormous, if you are in a business that needs to justify the expenditure (who isn’t), you may be struggling to cut through the hype and find solid techniques. Costs are reduced online, and you can monitor activities from anywhere in the world.
The tangibility of participating in word of mouth discussions about your brand and product is a measureable opportunity, however companies destined for obsolescence will refuse to be involved – if only from lack of understanding about the new paradigm and insistence on doing things “the way they have in the past”.
We all know the “not applicable to me” trajectory. Ignoring the signs of nature has resulted in numerous casualties, and we are not just talking about ships or boats here. Corporations who either refuse to adapt, or are too slow to adapt are finished. Some of you may already be consigned to this fate.
For example – If you do not have a comprehensive cross functional appreciation for, a coordinated strategy to embrace, and a complete set of corporate policies rules and procedures with regard to Social Media – you are way behind. Web 3.0 is well under way and you missed it. No amount of applied accelerant can bring you to parity – so you’ll have to grind out one precious inch at a time to get back on a survival course. Winning may not be possible, unless your competition is facing the same situation.
Do you know where you are? Do you know where they are? EXACTLY?
Have you done your competitive intelligence benchmarking? Do your analytics bear up to scrutiny? Do you use multiple methods to validate data?
We are at the confluence of two distinct changes: the current economy and the social change in how people deal with each other. Faceless companies who expect markets to come to them are in jeopardy, the rules have changed and corporations are no longer in power over the consumer.
Customers have a voice in the new world, and will not relinquish the role.
A lot of the time creativity in digital strategies comes from seeing new opportunities, the evolution of previous opportunities and making the effort to recombine the factors into something different. This works much in the way that application mashups meld two concepts in order to produce a value. The key is to retain expertise that can deconstruct previous methods, find new accelerators and redesign a new offering our of the newly combined assets. This is a science and fact based art, and begins with qual and quant research. Once you have the numbers – you can design both the offering and the metrics calculations around the new model to produce ROI. It’s simple – the new world requires new math. If your agencies aren’t telling you this and can’t demonstrate it, walk away.
Parts of your portfolio aren’t as successful as they might have been, this creates opportunities to question strategic decisions that have been made in the past, and their relevance when the winds change. Your company can evolve, and adapt quickly to take advantage of the new world. If you do so faster than your competitors you may have clear sailing to the horizon – but if not, you may struggle just to stay afloat – getting mercilessly pounded by the elements. Your current vessel may not be designed for the new environment – so change it to one that is.
The new paradigm creates a requirement for a more rapid cycling of decision making and adjustment – perhaps even wholesale corporate re-design. Given the winds of change, what business decisions are you going to make as a result of online data gathering and market movement, and who is going to help you with understanding data implications relevance in order to make those decisions?
Companies are certainly more risk adverse in this current climate. What they used to guess at, they are not willing to guess at any more, yet they don’t yet know how to drive clarity into the process, challenge assumptions and quantify variables. Boards are asking more questions about what is working and what’s not, but because there are so many silos within organizations, nobody is fully tasked with understanding what’s going on. That’s just not good enough anymore.
The first fact to get hardwired into your brain is that Digital and Social Media impacts EVERY aspect of your business.
Every touch point should be known, and managed appropriately. There are undoubtedly cross channel behaviors that your firm isn’t tracking. Comprehensive policies need to be established and enforced, and measured risks rewarded instead of feared. Forget focusing on minute to minute stock market valuations, lest the myopia create an inability to evolve effectively.
You have to be credible. You can’t go to market without having tested what you are doing – you need to prove the concept, that it has high probability or working, and that tangible benefits can be gained and measured. Rather than splatter random and disconnected tactical “efforts”, hire an expert to design a digital strategy – then hold your online strategy management accountable.
Expect frequent change, and require monitoring on a more frequent basis than before. It is critical to understand where your budget is going with regard to online touch points, and your project portfolio management should tell you daily how much each effort is contributing to the bottom line – increased revenues/margins, decreased costs, increased brand awareness, decreased risk. Set your budgets to focus on opportunities and measurements of growth.
The mathematical techniques aren’t exactly new, it’s how they are being used that’s changed, and in what mix. The geometric nature of online networks requires geometric thinking, and you need to understand that the calculation complexity exponentially grows as a result. Don’t get me wrong however, this is not quantum physics or theoretic. It is tangible and real, but needs to have an adjusted cultural and business mindset in order to function. Knowing what to matrix is equally as important and knowing how. Knowing what data is useful, and which is misleading is also critical.
Think of it this way – you need to build a multi-dimensional representation that represents a multi-dimensional set of interactions and influences with weighted variables. For optimum results, you need to assess both static and dynamic views. Then you need to do the what if modeling. For those who think in CAD this will make immediate sense, if not – don’t despair.
Complex relationship modeling is both an art and a science, where trend and pattern spotting and even intuition have a role.
Decisions that are based on this data need to be faster and more accurate, and more frequent readings taken. There has been long standing pressure for speed but it’s more significant now because the environment your company is dealing with is highly fluid, moves at the speed of computer processors, and only can be responded to – rather than planned out.
If your agency tells you that they can produce a “viral” brand awareness explosion for example – fire them. They can certainly put elements in place that duplicate past viral spreads – and still fail. This is because the customers are in charge, not the company. We are past the time when incumbent control can be achieved. In fact, the more controlling a company is, the quicker they are ostracized in the new economy. PUSH of agendas does not work in the online world that values participation, relationships, trust, and contribution. Corporate cultures that do not understand this paradigm change and power shift are doomed to waste millions of dollars on unsuccessful campaigns, and face extinction.
You are facing numerous environmental pressures and forces in combinations you have never before encountered so start paying attention. If you fight the power of nature (this new phenomena), you will lose. Better to adapt to the variables and empower your company with forward momentum in a different direction than to be the proud recipient of a Darwin Award.
Adjust your sails to the direction of the wind, and don’t simply and stubbornly hold to the same bearing. Listen to the environment and the consumers, whether B2C or B2B. ASK questions and participate in discussions – don’t just broadcast your agenda. Your business credibility is at stake. In fact – trust and credibility are CORE to a successful online presence.
Case in point –
Currently Microsoft runs Windows 7 operating system ads that claim Windows 7 is the result of corporate listening, with messaging that implied that creative “grass roots” ideas <could these be in the form of bug reports?> from consumers resulted in the product. The Apple Mac team is running a presupposition counter campaign that begs the questions – did it really take 7 iterations for Microsoft to hear the customers, or is this merely the same corporate behavior as has come to be expected from a “monopoly”, so how can you trust them when they have let you down’ so many times in the past?
While the campaigns are clearly targeting product adoption and customer acceptance, Microsoft also faces a huge credibility hurdle online and offline with both Mac users and current users of past versions of Windows – who finally have them working the way they want after years of investment and effort. As a result of this – many online debates are being held, with openly skeptical and cynical parties on all fronts.
Which company is doing a better job of harnessing the online energy of debate, antagonism and community loyalty? How is Apple feeding the fire of discontent and mistrust? How is Microsoft neutralizing the efforts? Are they gathering evangelists and influencers? How do you know? Do you think these online public conversations can be measured?
With billions of dollars at stake and possibly the future of personal computing, you can bet that data is being gathered and monitored frequently. Is this really an equal fight or does Apple represent such a significantly smaller marketshare that it’s a red herring? Are their corporate egos involved? Could this be just another generation of Steve vs. Bill? What peripheral companies and messages stand to gain or win as a result? If you are in a technology business, can you leverage this surge of energy and massive marketing spends for your own benefit? Can these factors be measured so that business decisions can be made?
Is this what you and your team do?
*(“ideas and feedback came in both positive and negative forms – bug reports as well as functionality and use case ideas. If you or your company does not understand the uses of social media for product development please call us.)
Adjust your course, adjust your sails (means of propulsion) and manage your data flow more frequently. Time to respond to the consumer driven marketplace is your enemy, not the consumer. You may have to create several legs to get to the same goal, which requires responsive action on a moment to moment basis. Of course you always have the option to choose to run aground rather than harness the wind and go around obstacles, but you risk loss of your entire vessel and the hard earned treasure of corporate assets in the process.
How do you think your investors will feel about that?
Can “in flight” advertising be local?
A jet charter company has to generate more sales leads, at lowest cost of customer acquisition. Squeezing profit out of each flight is critical, and cost effective sales and marketing means the difference between surviving or closing the hanger.
Competing in today’s jet charter space through online channels is more than just showing up first on the search engines.
Many searches result in over a million options. Obviously the sites past the few pages rarely get visited. The perfect website offering the perfect product or service will go unvisited if it hasn’t been optimized for search engines. SEO (search engine optimization) is important and only the beginning to push a website to the first pages.
The buzz surrounding Social Networking sites may cause media buyers to shy away from allocating budget to the social networking platforms. Those who are just now getting on board may be “showing up late to the party”, while the current advertisers are experiencing disappointing click-through rates.
Despite the mixed reviews, there is still plenty of opportunity to become profitable through media buys involving social networks. The opportunity especially exists for local advertisers, and when it comes to advertising on social networks, local advertisers have the home field advantage.
When purchasing media, it is important to ask partners “what are your users’ demographics?” Every media buy should contain a clear and concise definition of the target audience.
Let’s face it, reaching your target audience is the most crucial factor in any internet marketing endeavor, and targeting the right users based on their specific interest or behavior is critical in media buying.
We advocate a surgical approach to mapping audience to advertising and marketing messages. By performing the correct due diligence, advertising and marketing spends can be allocated very efficiently and produce maximum returns using online media.
Cocoa Krispies will help your child’s “IMMUNITY.” Really Kelloggs?
So now I’ve heard everything.
Kellogg’s product box copy and the timing of the release implies that eating Cocoa Krispies makes children immune to swine flu*.
No wonder businesses are cringing when it comes to social media and online business strategies. If an institution like Kelloggs feels they can stretch the truth this far…
What about blatant Social Media impostering? How do you find the real performers in the Social Media game? Is “too good to be true” keeping you on the sidelines? Don’t let it.
Inflated claims can be countered with common sense and validation of substance.
Last weekend was Halloween trick or treating, where a residence had re-wrapped generic giveaway treats with “exotic brand” foil. The anticipation and expectation was high, the stuff tasted terrible.
What are your expectations and are they being met?
What is the level of your businesses common sense?
Do you have the expertise and the capacity to tell the posers in costumes from the proven performers in Social Media?
Given all the layoffs in the world, we shouldn’t be surprised that there is a layer of work-from-home-out-of -job sector that has decided to become web experts. The ethic of “make outrageous claims and they will become real” seems to be standard practice for many hopeful participants.
People hawking tools and gadgets are all over the place. No work required, get rich quick with Twitter claims aren’t helping.
You don’ t have to subject your company to this churn or risk.
You can conduct your due diligence and find a reputable and proven results resource to help you navigate the new world paradigm of social media.
Look for proven history. Depth and breadth results. Consistency.
Social media is simply the new environment in which to use these age old survival tools. The Social Media Environment is geometric and very fast – however it CAN be successfully navigated with a bit of training.
No one hit wonders. No snake oil texture or fishy smells.
Is this Karma for centuries of dubious marketing claims? Last week Kellogg’s got called on the carpet for their ludicrous product box statement that ”Cocoa Krispies will help your child’s “IMMUNITY.”
My household instantly became immune to purchasing anything from Kelloggs, if only for ethical reasons. Would you really trust ingesting a product from that kind of food company? Perhaps Kellogg marketing really would try and coattail a pandemic, or perhaps they created the situation to get negative PR .
I’m actually very surprised that POST or General Mills didn’t jump all over this online. Kellogg just handed over market share to the astute competitor. The fact that this story is all over the web is proof that Social Media impacts all aspects of a corporation. CEO’s – can you hear us now?
Social Media is about transparency and TRUST.
How many of you are familiar with the name Victor Lustig? He’s known as the man who sold the Eiffel Tower back in 1925 to an unwitting scrap metal dealer who believed the story that the city could no longer afford upkeep on the tower and was dismantling it. Lustig simply posed as an authority figure claiming expertise and inside knowledge.
Sound familiar? Is this how you feel about your agency and the expectations when compared with dubious ROI schemes and glowing performance reports? You are not alone.
Defend yourself. In fact, we frequently are hired for online business audits – reviewing digital strategies and touchpoints across all executive and functional diciplines. Much of our time is spent using factual data to build legitimate cases for business use of digital strategies and social media. We go to great lengths to validate, and counter validate the numbers before presenting them. We understand the new math of social media and how it’s applied. Our team is part geometric forensics, and part new paradigm creatives. We help companies navigate the social media frontier.
Do your “experts use up to 200 analytic tools and sources to justify where you should spend your hard earned money and measure results? Don’t you deserve this level of confidence?
Accuracy is much more important than an inflated “pronouncement” – whether good or bad. Or are you happy with your GPS reporting with 100% confidence that you are on the planet “somewhere” so therefore “not lost” is a grand success? How about if you actually paid for the satellites too? Yeah, we though so. Yet this is what many of you are experiencing today at the hands of Billy the amusement park greeter.
What you really need and deserve is a guide team of Bear Grylls, Magellan, and McGyver. Someone to get you where you want to go despite the unknowns, while both maximizing both your experience and the protection of your interests.
Back to the scalliwag Lustig.
Lustig’s first con involved a “money-printing machine”. He would demonstrate the capability of the small box to clients, all the while lamenting that it took the device six hours to copy a $100 bill. The client, convinced of huge profits, would buy the machines for a high price, usually over $30,000 <1925 valuation>. Over the next twelve hours, the machine would produce two more $100 bills. After that, it produced only blank paper, as its supply of $100 bills became exhausted. By the time the clients realized that they had been scammed, Lustig was long gone.
Does the business model sound familiar?
The agencies who “have it covered” or the “expert” web team who promised you first page Google results for your brand produced success for the first month or two… Then what happened?
Did you actually get what you thought you paid for?
How are you doing as of right now? Do you ewven know? Were your vendors and staff able to produce the same levels of validation data despite the economic downturn? WHY NOT?
Unfortunately there are charlatans claiming to be experts, or worse yet – simply wrapping free tools like Google analytics as if they were proprietary intelligence platforms. Thankfully, as they say – the cream always rises to the top.
So, how do you weed out those who claim from those who produce?
First, do your homework. If someone claims social media expertise, their persona and profile should be all over the web, on multiple platforms and in a variety of formats. There should be plenty of public documentation over a significant period of time to back up their claims. Either that – or they need to be under mentorship by someone who can meet this criteria.
We are not talking about Joe Intern who has 6 months experience using a web browser either. We are talking about senior people with 10-20 years of relevent skillsets, and deep backgrounds in the technologies and the uses of online mediums for generating business success. Senior consultants are available in this market- demand they be used on your account.
Client relations are about setting expectations and then exceeding the expectations. Look for teams with a history of delivering performance levels “Beyond the Brief”. Review their blogs, and ask if they are contributing to online dialogues under a pseudonym or secondary identity.
Ask them to explain the methodology behind the analytics and listen for multiple layering and many validation passes. They won’t give away secret sauce – but you should be able to tell whether they are repackaging and misrepresenting a generic solution. Ask them, ask numerous times and note inconsistencies. (We have a service to help you do screening and vetting, an outgrowth of our work for venture capitalists and investors. Call us to arrange a private webinar.)
Forget titles and labels like “Chief Blogger”. Even an agency intern can publish. Look closely at the numbers – if the claims don’t map up to the results – walk away. Even if there is a large brand name attached. Most agencies haven’t figured out how to re-invent themselves in order to avoid becoming obsolete. BTW- the more an incumbent fights, the deeper the audit should be. They may have been milking a cash cow (yours) for years.
For every claim, there should be supportive data. Use common sense. While the explanation might be a bit out of the ordinary, in this economy teams are created from all sorts of previously unavailable talents – ours all have substantial pedigrees. We know what we are doing with regard to online and digital strategies - our analysts use NSA level training and data methods. (The joke here is that they not only know what they are doing but probably what everyone else is doing as well…and no, it’s just a joke.)
Because we go to great lengths to understand the opportunities and risks of our clients, we are uniquely qualified to assist you with your social media success. We will deliver results. A few hints:
Create a scorecard using prioritized criteria. We can help.
Find an expert to generate objective, deep data and insights.
Always validate data using multiple methods and sources.
Make your vendors and agencies accountable.
Google is not enough – and has it’s own bias.
Do a social media audit quarterly.
Use performance incentives.
Ask the hard questions.
Question motivations.
Call the agency’s bluff.
Use our calculations.
Review insights.
Trust quality.
Celebrate.
Repeat.
* Kellogg Cocoa Krispies do not cure swine flu, and Cap’n Crunch is not a real captain – no matter what their marketing people claim. Common sense. citation is USA TODAY – Oct 1, 2009
Afraid of Social Media? Take smaller steps and scale up.
Get moving. Evolve or get run over.
Marketing Sherpa reports that close to 50% of business executives reported that the lack of knowledgeable staff was the biggest barrier to adopting social media for business purposes. With so much information at your fingertips, there is no excuse. The new frontier requires knowledgable navigation – so Hire a Guide. What are you afraid of?
Even though the idea and practice of online social media has been around since well before the beginning of the internet in the form of electronic billboards (remember BBS?) and forums, new technologies, platforms and rules of Word of Mouth social engagement have companies and marketers confused. Look, the paradigm has shifted, so put on your adaptation armor and dive right in. Its not changing back, and those who embrace are less likely to receive a Darwin Award. Get help, move forward and get out of the herd of bleating, scared and perplexed sheep.
As for ROI not being measureable? That’s an excuse used by the sheep. Social Media is not only measurable, there are MORE relevent metrics and data sources available now than in the entire history of our planet.
Fundamentally, the new paradigm requires new math, old measurements and linear thinking do not apply to a geometric environment. Social Media is definately and amazingly measureable. You just have to use geometric thinking.
Know where you are today.
If you dont have a grasp of where you are at this moment and what environmental factors you need to consider – go back two squares. Seriously, even a GPS is smarter than that. The first thing it does when you turn it on is say YOU ARE HERE. You cant figure out where you are going unless you know all the details about where you are today, and what touchpoints exist. Go hire an expert to get a Social Media Assessment or audit, conduct a competitive intelligence sweep. If any of your so called “advisors” miss this step – fire them immediately and find another.
Know what Social Media is, and what it isnt.
Social Media refers to an online environment, not a strategy or a tool. If your advisors claim that it is either – then they dont understand the new paradigm and you are better off finding someone who understands the new frontier. A Digital Strategy can contain a Social Media Strategy- which is a set of methods with which to engage and interact with the environment. A Digital strategy is simply a planning process to help companies design strategies and create a roadmap for meeting tactical objectives. A common mistake many companies make is to think Social Media is a separate channel. A Social Media policy and strategy is a component of each and every functional or operational component of a business. Social Media affects ALL aspects of a business. This needs to be understood at all levels of an organization, and across all silos.
The Social Media environment and the effects on a company are NOT just marketing/marcom, PR or sales issues.
If you need some examples – go to www.clearwiresucks.com, www.glenntilton.com, read how Dominos was impacted by a YouTube video, and PAY ATTENTION. Ignorance has cost these companies MILLIONS of dollars and lost goodwill.
The perception of your company online IS reality.
Define your objective. Define how you will measure success.
Many companies spend countless wasted dollars by not knowing what it is that they are trying to accomplish. Because of this, naysayers will tell you that Social Media ROI is not measureable. If you dont know what you are trying to do and what represents success, how can you possible apply measurement metrics?
There are many possible objectives – usually stated at a functional level. These may include:
Increase brand awareness
Reputation management- Improve trust and brand perception
Improve customer service
Sell products or services
Obtain market trending and competitive intelligence
Identify new markets and addressable niches, and quantify the opportunity
Defend against encroachment by competitors
Improve investor confidence
Generate dialogue and feedback for product development
Improve inter-company communications and collaboration
Improve communications and collaboration with supply chain partners
Recruit new employees
Defend against legal liabilities
Improve operational management
Stack rank your objectives by their probable contribution to Increased revenues/margins, decreased costs or improved brand. Don’t try this all at once. Start with the top 3 and work your way down the list. Scale up as you become more proficient. Hire proxies where necessary. What you may find is that your idea of prioritization and the marketplaces ideas of what they want from your company are radically different. Be flexible and adaptable. Cost savings in one area can be used to fund others.
Develop an Online Strategy.
<If you dont know the difference between a digital strategy and an online strategy (they are not interchangeable) please contact us.>
What conversations do you want to have? With whom? Why those? On what platforms? Why those platforms? Are you wanting to be on Facebook because of the hype, or do you have a measureable objective? What are you going to give in return for the dialogue- what are your contributions? What will those conversations do for your defined objectives? Who are the most influential people in those conversation areas? How will you approach those people and develop trust? Enter into a relationship for a reason.
Listen to what people are saying about you.
Conversations are happening right now about your company, your products, and your brand. Not all of them are positive. Make sure you fully understand the subjects being discussed and the tone of the conversations. If you enter into the conversation, do so for the purpose of answering questions and providing clarity. There are good free tools, but the best ones require subscriptions – often expensive.
Learn the tools and use them.
There are thousands of resources available online. Just search for Social Media tools or go to Mashable.com. Dont be fooled, not all tools are useful, and not all of them do what they claim to do. Case in point is Visible Technologies and their claim of “semantic” monitoring. The fact is that there is no way to absolutely tell of semantics or tone from counting keywords, locations and phrases, and Google and Microsoft have spent billions of dollars on R&D without success- and they own the search engines. Beware the “freebies” such as Millions of Twitter Folloers for $29.95. These are automated, and usually trigger a blackballing from the Social Network administrators.
Find experts.
Dont be fooled by the gadget sellers or tools vendors with “cures for whatever ails” Social Media is about approaching a problem with a solution, not trying to force a tool to be a solution that defines a business problem. If someone tries to sell you a tool first- run away. Find experts who do their homework and analysis first. “If you were trying to build a house and your “architect” told you you didnt need a blueprint, just buy a chainsaw and start building – what sort of house do you think you would get?” If YOU are accountable for results, find experts who can objectively analyze your marketing spends and validate your metrics and assumptions. Make sure that they use MULTIPLE methods of validation, not just Google Analytics. (Whose interest is it in for Google to sell you the message that only their analytics are necessary? How do you think they got so big?) Check your experts out – do they walk the talk? Are they present on various mediums? Or is this a case of synthetic fame on twitter through use of automated “followers”. Just because they have followers does not make them credible. Be smart.
This is NOT push marketing.
You will alienate entire groups of potential customers if you try to use those transparently self serving message and advertising techniques in the new world. You are but a heartbeat from a delete key. Social Media interaction is about contributing, not taking. You will receive back to the extent that you put in. If your campaigns are old school, they are already obsolete. If you think you are going to broadcast ads on twitter and get responses, think again. Let your competitors fall into this trap and damage their own efforts and waste money, but don’t do it yourself.
The people and firms that abuse Social Media are destined to be punished by the same, not only be ignored but actually ostracized. Word of Mouth is VERY powerful and the lashbacks can be severe.
Allocate resources to do it right.
Engaging with people in conversations doesn’t have to be a full time job, and can be shared among many people. The workload is proportional to the objective, so don’t short change yourself. Staff up accordingly, and delegate. Some “authorities” will tell you that to be successful at least one person should spend 40 hours per week. That’s bunk. The resources required depends entirely on the scope of the job. You should however try to source the role with someone who has experience. And just because they can blog, doesn’t mean they know how to set a digital strategy or function in social media. It simply means that they can create and hold appropriate conversations. There are many expert resources that can provide these interim resources for you. CLS Global can, so ask us.
Create GOOD, FRESH content.Create content that is thought provoking and stimulates online discussion or conversation, and not just volume. Repurpose content you already have invested in, as long as it isnt too dated. Create a plan to develop the content and let people know when and where it will be available. Dont hide it behind myriads of signins or questionnaires either. You have about 5 seconds when they decide whether to click or leave. Once you have optimized searches to get them to your content – dont blow it. Seek out conversion experts.
Content is King. Content is critical to add value to the community being engaged. And by add value, we mean real true transparent contribution. If you lie online and are caught, it cannot be reversed. Your content should be truthful, transparent, and represent your values and ideals.
Find expert content managers.
They will be able to help you ascertain the right size, positioning, and relevant content strategies so that you can be sure your content maximizes your positive messages and encourages sharing. If you need resources or need to know how to identify these people, tweet us or send us a mail. Many of the CLS Global staff members were online content managers or directors of content management teams at some point in their career.
The good news is that content does not need to be an expensive proposition. User generated content is free. Blog posts do not cost much. Even online video can be had for significantly less than broadcast. Because the stakes are not nearly as high as content developed for traditional media, you can create a lot more of it, for the same money or much less. Frequency is one of the most important aspects of social media so make sure you are loaded with content on an ongoing basis.
CRITICAL : Establish your policies and procedures.
From C level on down to the lowest on the totem pole, and across all departments in your organization. This is brain dead basic business 101. The environment and ecosystem you are in has radically changed, and you need to change with it. Determine who is being represented when an employee blogs on their personal time, set rules and create disclaimers if necessary.
While some companies will literally recoil from perceived risk and not allow employees to access this amazing wealth of interaction and information from work – DEMAND that the authorities allow you to do so. An isolationist strategy is just that. It spells a death knell for a company. Fear is not a corporate strategy, its an absolute GUARANTEE that investors will quickly seek other vehicles and potential customers will deem you obsolete.
Select your most diplomatic and conversant people to be your interface with this new world, calm composed and quality ombudsmen/women. Engaging with customers should not put you off from doing so. You may find the one customer created nugget that saves your bacon in a recession, or opens up opportunities that you never would have thought of in house. If you are asking questions like – What if people say bad things about us? How do I make sure employees don’t share proprietary information? Won’t competitors check us out and steal our ideas and thinking? ….you really need help to get over this phobia. Hire an expert like CLSGlobal to show you how to set policies and remove these blocks from growth. After all – the entire world is in on this – you should be too.
Bottom line here is to force your company to EVOLVE. If you don’t, the market will decide on your identoty and do it for you. You may not like the direction.
If you don’t have the knowledge, hire trainers. (yes, we do that too.)
Those of us who have evolved and embraced the global change will simply look to do businesses with companies who have, and the companies that dont will become chagrined owners of a Darwin Award. The speed of the internet and Social Media means rapid change, so paying attention DAILY and evolving with the trends is critical for corporate success and survival.
How to Kick Start A Community – an adaptation list
I was involved in communities from the beginning of my long tenure at Microsoft, and helped launch a myriad of tech consultant and developer communities and marketing mechanisms that included the MVP program, the developer marketing program, TechEd Developer Conferences, and a slew of community and beta/co-development programs for a variety of technology and non-tech firms. I’ve run hundreds of technical beta programs and feedback loops, and learned a few things about creation and use of electronic communities for business. Some of the comments below came out of an internal whitepaper I wrote regarding online community development around 1996-1997 when I joined Microsoft’s web server product development team.
Do your homework!
If you have not had a recent online audit or competitive intelligence report done, do so BEFORE initiating any community planning. Then check your homework at every review milestone. Change is constant – so factor it into your plan phases. If your core is solid, you can manage exceptions more easily and proactively. Plus, you will be fiscally more accurate as a result.
If you are relying on ad hoc research or basing your efforts on information that is older than 6 months, you are handicapping your own efforts. Your audience and the mediums they prefer are fluid and extremely dynamic, so you need to use a professional resource to stay on top of recent movements and developments. Knowing how your audience communicates and where they move is critical to designing a successful community site and outreach campaign.
Social Media touches all functional aspects of your company.
If you need help designing a comprehensive cross silo approach, we’re here to help. From establishing corporate policy to coordinating functional campaigns, never lose sight of the fact that Social Media is not a standalone, rather it represents a portion of each of your companies organizations and functional budgets.
Conversations between companies and customers will be the name of the game going forward. One way exchanges will quickly become a thing of the past. Finally, we’ll get to an ecnomy where business becomes personal again.
1. Create compelling content on a recurring basis. Brands sometimes create videos, podcasts, or stories on a daily or weekly basis that encourages members to come back. The web is all about participation, so you will need to understand the workload and frequencies, so that you can budget or hire correctly.
2. Reward users who fill out their profile. Folks like to see other friendly faces, so giving them access to premium features or recognition of those who have the most complete profiles should recognized. Recognize contributions – no matter how small. It takes time, but is worth it.
3. Invite community influencers and advocates to the community first –giving them first right of testing the system and then inviting others. By all means engage them in helping you improve, by giving them credibility and by honestly listening to feedback. Learn to weight opinions accurately, and act on the ones that benefit the most people the heaviest.
4. Invite detractors. Risk being snubbed. (Bet you aren’t going to hear this very often, however a large part of our success with clients comes from advocating participation from all types of participants.) Antagonism is healthy and can create wonderful streams of idea sharing. One detractor turned neutral or positive in public is worth several thousand advocates. Of course this takes finesse, so don’t leave these relationships to your rookies to handle. Give respect, earn respect. Invite a competitors top influencer to “represent” (but never the competitor themselves unless you are confident they can be managed. Remember – shoot-outs in public tend to be messy in front of an audience. Avoid the tempatation.)
5. Encourage interaction through conversations. Ask questions, talk about controversial topics, or host a contest that encourages participation. Don’t survey people to death or ask canned questions, just be human and get into a discussion. One way questions NEVER work, so be prepared to reciprocate.
6. Reward top contributors. Notice this is different than “recognize contribution” above. Seriously – give something to these people for fueling the community energy. If they bail – so will others. Those that participate the most, or perhaps, are the most helpful should be recognized on a leader board, and thanked in public. Unexpectedly, send them something nice as a thank you, or reward them with premium services –never money. Some are motivated by challenges, others recognition. If you don’t know why they do what they do so prolifically – ask.
7. Give participants in the community a chance to showcase their knowledge and perspective. This means ALL of them. Great ideas come from collaboration. so encourage and nurture it. Clip any abusive behavior instantly, and rotate the soapbox. I’ve had absolute beginners come up with some stunning ideas – because they aren’t mired in the burden of minutea. Kids do this to parents all the time. Embrace it.
8. Use the community as a bi-directional information exchange, not a one way mechanism. At Microsoft, I specialized in large community development projects built around iterative participation in product design and development. The practice of conversing became a corporate standardization, much to Bill and Steve’s chagrin. After all, it’s one thing to claim customer listening and be able to actually deliver, yet quite another to implement enterprise processes and systems with their money to support listening and participating as a divisional initiative, and then point to the success metrics and demand it be mandated corporate wide – both internally and externally. (For those of you who remember the “Eat our own Dogfood” policy – this was the genesis.) Product quality and sales spiked. Not bad, especially when original ROI was deemed ”schmoozing or goofing off”.
9. Centralize your community around your real world events. People want to find each other before events, talk about the event during the duration, and then afterwards are key. Use the community in your physical events. Do a build up befoire the event, and a post mortem afterwards. Get content contributrions and ideas of what went well, what didn’t and what could be better. People love giving opinions about “what happened”. (just avoid the gossip please…and be kind to people, not cruel)
10. Use virtual events to integrate community. Create engaging events and participate in others. This is the model of the mjultiplayer online games —tackle a quest together around a core subject –communicate, interact, generate dialogue.
11. Integrate with your website –other customer touchpoints and communication mediums. If you don’t know what these associative linkages might be, hire an expert to help you find them. Always remember, aggregations of human discussion ARE the corporate sites of the future. Make sure your call center, email marketing, and external newsletters all integrate community. (don’t forget email signatures)
12. Encourage employees to get active. A party isn’t much fun if there’s no one there, so encourage the hosts (often employees) to kickstart discussions by talking, debating, and arguing about the news, updates, or even relevant YouTube videos will trigger discussion. Represent your company well, and stay within your corporate Social Media Policy guidelines. (Don’t have any? Have your CEO give us a call)
Of course, you have a community manager on staff, right? If not – we can supply interim managers for you until you get up to speed.
Are business jets valuable? Arnold Palmer
As one of our group focuses is business aviation, we found it interesting that the new advertising campaign by the NBAA and GAMA features Arnold Palmer as spokesperson. Professional golfers have been using private aircraft for decades, so it is no surprise that such a venerable statesman of the sport, as well as long time successful businessman in his own right was asked to lend his stature to the campaign. In short however, this is the first time that Arnie has used social media to reach out, and I’m sure there are more than a few of Arnies Army of fans that also believe in the economic value of proivate business aircraft – whether charter, leased, or owned.
Picture taken at the NBAA conference yesterday by CLS staff. 
American Legend Arnold Palmer Lends His Voice to No Plane No Gain Campaign
National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA)
Orlando, FL, October 20, 2009 – Golf legend and accomplished businessman Arnold Palmer is lending his voice to support the value of business aviation to citizens, companies and communities in a new video and print advertising campaign for No Plane No Gain, the advocacy program jointly sponsored by the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA).
“Arnold Palmer has always been an advocate for business aviation, because he has a first-hand understanding of its essential role in serving towns and communities across the country,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. “For his entire career, business aviation has made it possible for him to succeed in golf and business – all from his hometown of Latrobe, PA, which doesn’t have airline service.”
GAMA President and CEO Pete Bunce added: “Through these new ads, we will be able to draw even more attention to the messages No Plane No Gain has been communicating: that business aviation supports over a million jobs, represents a lifeline for small- and medium-sized U.S. towns, enables companies to compete and succeed, and helps provide relief to people and communities in times of crisis.”
The new advertising, rolled out during the Opening General Session of NBAA’s 62nd Annual Meeting & Convention, includes three print ads and three 30-second video ads. The print and video ads complement one another, and build upon the efforts already undertaken through the No Plane No Gain program to educate policymakers and opinion leaders about the value of business aviation to citizens, companies and communities across the U.S.
With a simple, yet powerful delivery, Palmer speaks to the benefits of business aviation in the ads and responds to those who would devalue the use of an airplane for business. For example, in one print ad, Palmer states: “People who build business airplanes make things fly. People who use them make things happen. A few others make things up.” In one of the video spots, Palmer states plainly: “For more than 50 years, using business airplanes is the single most productive thing I have done.”
Addressing the large crowd gathered at the Opening General Session, Palmer explained why he felt compelled to lend his voice to the No Plane No Gain program. “I know the value of business airplanes,” Palmer said. “I know what they have done for me and my companies. I know how important they are to my hometown. And I know how important they are to this country. So I wanted to speak out and help set the record straight.”
To view the video ads, visit the No Plane No Gain web site: www.noplanenogain.org/Video_Advertisements.htm?m=47&s=385
From the mouth of FaceBook – October 2009
We just had an animated discussion about last weeks presentation by the Midwest director of ad-sales for Facbook – Tom Chisholm. Tom covers 5 Midwest states and accounts for advertising like 3 autos, PG, Kellogg’s, Compuware, Quicken Loans…
Useful social media resources
Managing your brand on Twitter
Forecast – Overseas Online Ad Spend – $25B
Companies Cope with Twitter Imposters
Murphy-Goode tackles social media marketing through a candidate search campaign with over 80k web visitors in a couple of weeks. How much vino will they sell in the process?
- Best Buy – The Future is Digital
- A Nielsen report on Social Networking’s New Global Footprint
- Kodak Develops as Modern Brand with Digital Shift
- Nielsen Social Networking
- Domino’s Pizza YouTube Fiasco
- Deloitte’s 2009 Ethics & Workplace Examines Social Networks
- Social Media & Brand Reputation in a down economy
