Shannon's thoughts on marketing, public relations, social technology, entrepreneurship and other things

This week's Friday Flick is in celebration of the godfather of crowdsourcing sites, Wikipedia.

This video history is narrated by none other than Jimmy Wales, one of the site's co-founders.

The State of Wikipedia from JESS3 on Vimeo.

This video epitomizes what the Internet has become in the last five to seven years. Mateusz Zdziebko, the musician, has taken the ordinary and made it extraordinary by looking at it differently. Where most people see duct tape as an adhesive, he saw a musical instrument. In the same way, social media has taken the notion of community from those you can see to a global spectrum of people you may never meet and who are equally as valuable and important.

It is realm of the possible that makes the new frontier of social technology so exciting. For marketers, public relations professionals and entrepreneurs, now is the time to experiment on what can become viral, what will draw clicks to the site and how far can you push the envelope. Just as television opened up the realm of the possible in the middle of the 20th century, the social Internet has extended the reach.

Sampled Room from Mateusz Zdziebko on Vimeo.

Events are a great way to network, learn and share information; however, they can be expensive, time consuming and unproductive if you don't plan properly. You want to make the most of your experience and get the biggest bang for your precious resources. FutureSimple has put together a great infographic on leveraging your time while there.

Provided by FutureSimple.com

xxx

Does this conversation sound vaguely familiar?

Consultant: Your business should have a social marketing strategy.
Brand XYZ: Why?
Consultant: Because social technology will help you generate buzz, get people talking about our brand and in general help people know who you are.
Brand XYZ: Ok, but why is any of that important?
Consultant: Because you want to engage your customers and begin building relationships with them.
Brand XYZ: And why exactly do I want to build relationships with my customers?

Have you been on one or the other of this conversation?

Most communication vehicles had their turn as the shiny new marketing toy, billboards lined the horizon as cars began to venture cross country, radios gave voices to a generation and televisions brought products into homes like never imagined. By now, most businesses "get" they need some sort of social technology plan, if for no other reason than everyone else is doing it. However, remember what Mom used to say, "If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump to?"

Keeping the age old adage in mind, there should be solid business reasons for getting into the social space. Just as a business gives serious thought to choosing location, messaging and product delivery, so to should serious deliberation be given to social technology. It will take up resources, time, money, man power, etc. that could be used for other revenue generating activities. Is it going to be worth the effort?

To ensure your social technology efforts are yielding the expected results, you must first know what results you want from social technology. Right? Right. Begin by answering these basic questions: how is social media going to help your business and what are your objectives for your social media?*

Consider these sample objectives as you begin outlining your social marketing plan:

• Bring fresh ideas into the organization
• Create word of mouth
• Increase customer loyalty
• Increase product and brand awareness
• Enhance public relations efforts
• Lower customer acquisition costs
• Lower customer support costs
• Lower market research costs
• Lower product development costs

Nugget of knowledge: Your business objectives should be SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based.

*Social technology may not be the right communication or marketing vehicle for your business, and that is okay.

The Interwebs have been abuzz lately with Quora. Quora this and Quora that...Quora, Quora, Quora. See why and imagine the possibilities.

It's time for summer vacation:

• car ready: oil changed, gassed up and washed
• clothes packed: an outfit a day, plus a couple for dress up stuff, lingerie and sundries
• entertainment (car): bag-o-fun packed with electronics, DVDs, CDs, magazines, games and extra batteries
• mail forwarded and dog at the kennel
• picnic basket packed: snacks, water and treats
• stove off, iron unplugged and alarm set
• map in hand: route planned, rest stops and best exits for food noted
• hotel reservations: made last month and confirmed yesterday via email (copies on hand)
• entertainment: amusement park tickets reserved last month and confirmed via email (copies on hand)

You're all set to go!

Think for a second...if you put that much effort into planning a vacation, wouldn't you put in the same amount of effort to planning your organization's social technology? As in the example above, proper planning helps to ensure you'll have an enjoyable vacation, with solutions and contingencies at hand for the unexpected. You should do the same thing for your business, plan, with solutions and contingencies in mind for the unexpected.

Nugget of knowledge: successful marketing campaigns are thoughtfully planned out.

Consider these steps as you begin planning:

1. Do your homework: read blogs and white papers; attend webinars, meetups and tweetups; watch videos --> learn from other's missteps and get motivated by their accomplishments


2. Begin at the end: envision success, know what it looks like --> set your goals and objectives, make sure they are realistic and set a time to reach them


3. Control your brand: capture your name in the social media space --> get your username on as many sites as possible, you will not use them all, but no one else can be you in those spaces


4. Be self aware: know your organization's history and mission, know who your customers are and where they are --> go to where your customers are


5. Get your house in order: make sure your organization is on board with adopting social technology --> who is responsible, resources allocated, social media policies and integration plan into current marketing efforts


6. Check out your competition: do a CASE study


7. Evaluate your progress: make sure you're social media is taking you where you want to go --> set benchmarks as you would for a traditional marketing campaign


8. Go for it! You will make missteps, it is okay --> do, mess up, learn...it's the evolution of success

And yes, you are there now.

Social media marketing is the shiny new toy. Everyone is doing it, trying it and seeing how to make it work for them. Your president wants you to bring in a social media expert to help the organization understand and utilize it to increase the bottom line. A good consultant will tell you it is important to listen to customers. A better consultant will show you tools to monitor what your customers are saying. A great consultant will work with you to take what you hear and use it to improve your organization, product and brand.

Consider some of these marketing insights for your brand and how to use them:

• Who are your best customers, biggest fans and most fervent defenders (brand advocates)?

Action: Reward their loyalty, invite them to be a Brand Ambassador or part of your Product Advisory Council*

• Are you marketing campaigns reinforcing your brand?

Action: Adjust your marketing strategy to support the brand promise

• Are your product development decisions based on what you hear your customers say they want?

Action: Give your customers what they are willing to pay for, not what you think they need

• Who are the movers and shakers (aka influencers) in your industry?

Action: Find your E.F. Hutton and put her/him to "work" for you

• What are your competitors doing and what do people have to say about them?

Action: Fill the gap of satisfaction for their customers

• What insights can you glean around product satisfaction, product management and product development?

Action: Start discussions to garner information

*If your organization doesn't have a loyalty program, consider implementing one.

Nugget of knowledge: Having conversations with your audience, getting to know your clients and ultimately building relationships with your customers is invaluable for long term success.

United should've listened:

Social media marketing is more than setting up a blog, updating your Facebook status and tweeting your organization's latest news. Doing those few activities are only the beginning to truly delving into social marketing. The organizations that "get it," understand the key concept of listening. They listen to their customers...all of them.

• What are your customers saying about your brand and products?
• Where are your customers saying things, which sites, platforms and technologies are they using?
• What are your customers saying to each other about your services?
• How does what they are saying about your brand compare to what they are saying about your competitors' brands?

Posting, updating, tweeting and connecting is no different than robocalling, direct mailing or advertising if you aren't listening to what your customers are saying via Twitter, Facebook, blog comments, etc. Otherwise your organization is just pushing out information you think your customers want via different channels.

Social media marketing requires listening to your customers, responding, listening, responding, listening, responding and so on and so on. Does this process sound familiar? It is called a conversation. Yes, organizations must engage their customers in conversations; it is the essence of social media marketing. However, conversations are only the beginning of the process. The goal is to develop relationships with your customers as a way to solidify brand loyalty.

A few things to remember as you begin to have conversations with your customers:

A sub-par product is a sub-par product, regardless of how wonderful your blog is --> be prepared to receive the good, bad and ugly about your brand
Once you open the listening floodgates, you can't close them --> be prepared to manage the conversations
Social media probably won't be *the* marketing silver bullet for your product --> be prepared to integrate your traditional and social marketing tactics

Nugget of knowledge: Remember the three P's, plan for success, prepare for the unexpected and produce your best work.

Is your organization a good listener?
Does it have processes in place to hear and respond to your customers?

Professional marketers have to get in touch with their inner love, peace and light...and it's all social marketing's fault.

Social technology consultants are telling traditional marketing professionals to be transparent, authentic, trustworthy and community focused. What??? Stop the presses!!!

Yes, social marketing revolves around a level of forthrightness, openness and collaboration that has been unheard of (at least not widely embraced) in the marketing profession. For years, traditional marketers controlled the brand and have cut their teeth on knowing how to deliver it to  the right audience at the right time for the right price. Marketing has been about brand management, conversion rates & conversion velocities, lead generation & close rates, paid media and surveys & focus groups. Then comes along social technology, and consultants are encouraging traditional marketers to listen AND engage with customers in public dialogue, as well as share OR relinquish control of the brand.

You mean...
You're kidding...
You want me to do what...

For some brands this is a sea change in the corporate culture, and for others, it is where they have wanted to go and didn't know how or have the capacity to do so. The key factor to keep in mind, social technology marketing and traditional marketing work together, they complement each other. As 2011 begins, it is imperative that social tools and tactics become a key component of your marketing plans, not a one-off or an add-on. It can provide marketers:

• unbiased market research: marketers should embrace customer ideas, comments and complaints; a user generated comment can be the impetus for the next great campaign;

• unique public relations opportunities: online contests are not a new idea; however, utilizing bloggers, Facebook, Twitter and niche online communities can increase awareness and participation exponentially;

• creative customer service: the ubiquitous 1-800 is still useful; listening to and monitoring online chatter about your brand is more effective as research shows most people won't congratulate or complain, consumers speak with their wallets;

• additional messaging channels: first there was the newspaper, then mail-order catalogs, radio, billboards, TV, direct mail, email and banner ads; now there are sponsored tweets, Facebook ads, Foursquare check-in specials, blog ads...and this is just paid media, imagine the possibilities for earned media;

• and out-of-the-box lead generation: all of the above efforts can lead to increased lead generation and increased sales.

Nugget of knowledge: Traditional Marketing + Social Marketing = A Successful Campaign