Social Media Part 4 - An invite to a beach bonfire!

“There is no such thing as national advertising.  All advertising is local and personal.  It’s one man reading the newspaper in the kitchen or watching TV in the Lounge” – Morris Hite

So if that’s what social marketing shouldn’t be – what should it be?  As I said in part 1, there’s no single rule-book, merely best practice.  To unpack it all in a few blog entries would be impossible.  All I can offer you is my best understanding and the sound advice (hyperlinked) of the thought leaders.  So bear with me...

Here’s where we’ve got to so far.  It’s big, it’s fast and has the potential for almost incalculable reach and engagement - it puts us in touch with an audience far quicker than we ever thought possible.  But besides a handful of glowing examples, it’s often misused simply because marketers can’t get over how lucky they are to have it. 

But in our quest for a piece of the sunny action in social networks, we’ve forgotten to get rid of our old advertising hats.  How does the social marketing paradigm differ from the old world, “broadcast ads at them” paradigm?

When Ford embarked on a journey to build social media as a new communication channel it set a compelling vision:

“To Humanise the Ford brand and to put people in touch with Ford Employees”

Implicit in the statement was the understanding that traditional advertising could only go so far in humanising the brand, in giving consumers a personal touch not only from the product but from the people who assemble it.  At the same time however, Ford did not dispense of traditional advertising, it merely took a realistic perspective about what it could and couldn’t achieve.  It understood that the language of social networks was different to that of traditional broadcast channels.  And it understood that the traditional agency model didn’t necessarily know how to speak this new language.

The best analogy explaining the shift from traditional advertising to the new social paradigm is provided by John Willshire who likens the former, particularly television advertising, to a fireworks display.  It’s impressive, often highly anticipated by the viewer (just look at the pre match buzz surrounding the annual Super Bowl commercials) but unless utterly spectacular (Apple’s 1984 Commercial) or clinically clear in its messaging (Rubbermaid or Google) the effects can be transient.  Also, one fireworks display is very often like another.  Again, this is not to dispense of television advertising, a vital channel for marketers for at least the last 40 years and which in many countries is by no means the oversubscribed and spent force it is becoming in North America. 

Besides, the most powerful form of “commercial” remains that which people say about your brand to others, not what you say about your brand to people.  Built in talkability.  This, remember, is because we are communal and social beings before we are connoisseurs or lovers of advertising.

Thus building a brand’s social presence has been likened to having campfire on a beach.  A group of people is sitting around admiring the sunset, sipping on beer and wine.  Someone sets a small pile of tinder and kindling and speculatively places his cigarette lighter beneath it.  Small though the blaze is, he is impressed by the glow and wonders if it could become something more.  He sets off up the beach to find a bigger piece of drift wood.  He returns with a few pieces, adds more and stokes the flames.  Impressed by his effort, his companions now join in.  They now depart on forays of their own, returning with ever growing armfuls.  There is laughter and excitement as the fire moves from being a fun distraction to a fully-blown communal undertaking.  One big guy even comes back dragging a log.  Before long it’s late at night.  More drinks have been procured and someone has fetched a guitar and is singing old favourites.  A few people are cracking jokes.  Two girls are toasting marshmallows.  Memories are being made and friendships deepened.  An evening which began as a short walk to admire the sunset has turned into a feast of spontaneity, goodwill and memories.

The task of the social marketer is thus to start fires of conversation – small fires at first – either in groups he has created himself or in existing groups where they have a damn good chance of becoming bigger, more irresistible....more inclusive.  No reckless pyromaniac is he – his contributions are speculative, his approach humble and his touch light and deft.  He models himself on the natives of the place to which he brings fire.   He understands not only the fuel he must use but how to keep the fire alive.  He is focussed on facilitating and delivering evocative and resonant conversations to the people he befriends.  He understands that his primary objective is relationship.  Relationship first.  Sales second.  He is focussed on marketing with people, not at people.

In part 5, we will dig deeper into the currency and economy of these relationships.

Part 5 - The "Pay it Forward" nature of Social Marketing

I hear the subdued hiss of cold steel as the long knives are drawn. 

“This guy has lost the plot.  We’re in business to make money.  Money is made by selling stuff.  Communication to consumers must make them buy our stuff not tip-toe around them in the hopes they might one day buy”.

You are all correct.  Don’t hear what I’m not saying.  I am not advocating a bloody revolution.  Some brands, services and businesses shouldn’t be fouling up social networks full stop.  But for those that do belong, social media’s unique role in communication strategy must be clearly defined, and the entire process must both submit to old world disciplines and merge seamlessly with your existing (traditional) media strategy.  Look at “Obama08” – it was a keenly balanced blend of old and new.  And a strategic masterpiece to boot.

And because the social norms of online communities are so radically different to those of “advertised consumer groups”, communicating within social media must be approached with caution, employing a new language in relational patterns that is often counter-intuitive for big business.  Only then can such platforms achieve the results you could never hope to achieve with traditional media.

Apart from being digital in nature (a tongue I am only just beginning to learn), what else is unique about this new language?  In a nutshell: it’s uncomfortably, even recklessly generous.

The language of Social marketing is “pay it forward”.  No room for a scarcity mindset here.  So anyone seeking to enter this space has to radically reframe the concept of value.  And though it’s not a comfortable journey the rewards are significant.  Just ask the Grateful Dead.

An article by Abe Sauer in Brandchannel commented on how the iconic 60s band had become one of the stronger music brands in North America thanks to mastery of this important principle.  Citing “Management secrets of the Grateful Dead” by Joshua Green, Sauer shows how the brand’s refusal to let a sense of greed infect their marketing was building not only loyalty amongst existing fans but stoking demand amongst fans they weren’t targeting in the first place.  

What constitutes “free” in the world of music?  For the GD it was a sense of goodwill in the band’s attitude to the filming of their live acts on mobile devices.  Even with the tightest security at concerts, it realised that a ban on the filming and circulation of footage online would be practically unenforceable. It also realised that anyone inclined to tape a show could become a valuable ambassador somewhere down the line.  Of course, this ceded a major revenue source in potential record sales, but the results of such material in widening their audience have proven incalculable.

As GD lyricist John Barlow points out: “if I give my song away to 20 people, and they give it to 20 people, pretty soon everybody knows me, and my value as a creator is dramatically enhanced”

– and here’s Barlow’s clincher people ...

...“the important correlation is between familiarity and value, not scarcity and value – the best way to raise demand for your product is to give it away”. 

The economy of social networks is counter-intuitive.  It is a gift economy, a pay it forward economy. Of course I’m not saying that social marketing is about giving away free stuff all the time.  But the touchstone is nonetheless one of “giving” – giving information, giving advice, giving feedback, giving encouragement.    It is about projecting brands, not protecting brands.  It’s about relinquishing control, safe in the knowledge that sooner or later all that “lurve” is going to come back to you. 

If you’ve come this far, you’re no doubt asking: “Where do I start?”  Part 6 gives some answers to this question.

 

Social Marketing Part 6: Getting the Story Right

Buying a set of Nike blades doesn’t make you play like Tiger.  (er...I mean the golf side of Tiger).  Similarly, opening a Twitter account or slapping a Facebook and Twitter share icon on your blog/website does not make you a social marketer.  It’s a start though.  But if it’s all you do, it’s a lot like spending good money on 30 seconds of television airtime and then using the slot to flight static visuals of your business card.  You are selling yourself way short.  As said in an earlier post, social marketing is about infiltrating conversations, adding meaning to existing conversations, helping people do what they do best: interacting with other people.  And making sure your brand is quietly at the centre of all that. 

But that doesn’t just happen.  (Well I suppose in rare cases it does).  But in spite of what you might think, online tribes have brains.  Brains that work pretty well and which have efficient filters.  Consider the following:

“there is no such thing as a Mass Mind.  The Mass Audience is made up of individuals, and good advertising is written always from one person to another...when aimed at millions it rarely moves anyone” – Fairfax Cone

All great communication happens as a result of two things.  The first is crystal clarity of who you are talking to.  This is a terribly neglected skill even by old world marketers.  And, as both Seth Godin and Mark Ritson remind us, who you won’t talk to is as important as who you will talk to.  And when it comes to knowing the people in your audience, I don’t just mean their sex, age, marital status and who they vote for – you need the inside track on their likes, dislikes, dreams and fears, hopes and hates.  You need to know their hobbies and a whole lot more besides.  The second thing you need is absolute clarity of what you want them to do - and how having online conversations with them is going to move them towards your business goal in ways that traditional media won’t.  That’s the tricky part I know because you might want to achieve a myriad of outcomes with social media. 

The point here is that targeting and insights are absolutely crucial to success.  So, if you are the manager of a shopping mall, it’s not enough to know the sales numbers of your respective tenants and footfall trended over time.  You need to break that mass of shoppers who visit your mall into segments of interest.  One segment might mostly come to shop for groceries or white goods.  Another for high fashion items and little else.  Some will be culture vultures, passionate about good literature, great coffee and art movies.  A sizeable segment will be teenage mall-crawlers or large families who just come to window shop or perhaps grab an ice-cream cone.  And the list goes on.  But unless you have an insight (or in some cases sets of insights) on how each segment views the mall and its experiences there, you have no real pretext for a conversation with them – much less one in their native tongue. 

Similarly, if you are selling high value homes in gated estates, you are going to need to segment that audience too.  Some buyers will be in their forties looking to sink cash into a nest egg.  Some might be looking to dodge the tax man by investing in a home that never really gets lived in.  Some might just want to play golf.  Some will be investing for their retirement, others for the now.  Do you know enough about the broader region which might attract those segments to your project? Schools? business prospects? hospitals? Weekend getaways? Crime and social stability?  Annual festivals?  Churches? How is the fishing?  What’s the surf doing?  What specials are the birdwatchers seeing?  

Without insight, you have no content.  Without content you haven’t a hope.

Finally, what is your brand’s tone of voice?  We marketers can speak at length on our brand’s values and personality.  We are masters of distilling its essence into three words.  But what does all this sound like over a beer or a mug of hot joe?  In part 5, I made the point that social marketing is all about “relinquishing control”.  Well that is only partly true.  The art of communication is in setting clear boundaries within which conversation can take place – you want freedom within the boundaries, and to know them well enough to see the potential for disaster should you overstep them. 

Understanding your brand’s tone of voice and having a strong content strategy is the very essence of (as much as possible anyway) dictating the terms of conversation within these boundaries.

 Here’s another quote from Morris Hite that sums it up: “if an ad campaign is built around a weak story – or as is so often the case, no story at all – I don’t give a damn how good the execution is, it’s going to fail...”

So before you even consider social media as a channel, ask yourself if you have a story.

 

 

Social Marketing Part 7: Your FAQ's answered

OK, so you’ve done the groundwork.  You understand who you want to target and you have deep insights from which will spring hours of fireside conversation.  Good.  That work is never wasted.  If nothing else, your use of traditional media will benefit immensely from it.  You should have been doing this all along.  But let’s pause some more and consider a few more questions:

·         Have I (and others in my business) really understood what it means to “go social”?

There’s a big difference between having a business agenda and a social agenda.  A Business agenda is about containing risk, controlling information to consumers, protection.  It’s about delivering the bottom line.  If your business isn’t ready for this new adventure though, the effects could be devastating.  As Peter du Toit of Social MediaIQ explains “Social media is a spotlight – it just makes who you are more visible.  If you have a great business and a great product it will highlight that.  If your business sucks it will highlight that.  What these tools do is amplify the attitude of the people who make up your business”.  That said, there are examples of businesses with lousy reputations winning at social media.  One is Comcast, a radical turnaround story.  Click here for more details.  Rule of thumb:  Never dupe your leaders into endorsing a superficial strategy.  As Peter du Toit points out, “There is a huge difference between having a superficial social media presence for your business and a well thought-out strategy. My suggestion: don't do superficial; it can do more harm than good”

·         How comfortable is my audience with these channels?

This is vital.  For reasons almost too obvious to mention.  Just because Twitter is cool doesn’t mean you should use Twitter.  All great entries into this space begin with a deep-dive into people’s existing habits with available platforms.  And knowing that 2.5m South Africans have a Facebook account is just the start.  How many are active on the platform?  How many maintain blogs?  What’s the split between spectators/collectors and creators/critics?  The answers to this strongly dictate not only the technical (platform) choices you make but the way in which you feed content into conversations.  For deeper understanding of how to run a survey of this sort, speak to Peter at SocialMediaIQ or consult this excellent presentation by the Altimeter Group.

·         Is my product/brand/service worthy of an online conversation?

This is just a safety check – at some point in time, most brands will have a challenge that makes them candidates for social media.  In fact, a time will come when it will be essential.  But be sure people are interested in having a conversation with your brand.  A great case study is how the P&G’s “Always” brand infiltrated a female teenage network called Girl Talk to dialogue as equals with an audience that is notoriously resistant to discussions about feminine hygiene.

·         What will social media do that my traditional channels can’t do?

I am not a leading voice in communications strategy but common sense says that because the “social” channel is in its infancy, you should first be sure that the communication outcome you are trying to achieve is utterly impossible without traditional media.  I’m all for bold moves and change but I am not for throwing the baby out with the bath water.  However, seek counsel on the question because even ignoring social media is a decision in its own right.  Sooner or later you will have to reconsider.  Do the research and make up your mind.  And it’s okay to say you’ll wait.

With that word of caution, the most spectacular results I have seen are from brands that already have high spontaneous awareness, i.e. they’ve done the hard yards above the line.  It seems people are more inclined to talk about brands they know or about ideas that intrigue them.  Of course there are many examples of small brands being built in social networks because the platforms allow for such clinical targeting.  Look at Whole Foods, a chain of organic fruit and vegetable stores in the US.  It isn’t another Nike, Starbucks or Obama – but the nature of the service they offer is ripe (npi!) for social media.  Whole Foods boasts some 150 Twitter accounts, many tailored to category specific conversations e.g. cheese or wine. 

Then there are those brands or businesses which, no matter how new, have technology so at their core that social media is a given – for a particularly inspiring example, look at WildEarthTV.

·         The Internet is a big place, how will I build my campaign to a critical mass?

Space does not allow me to do justice to this point so I will direct you to this blog by Peter of SocialMediaIQ.  This question is almost as primal as the one I ask up front – i.e. is your business ready for it?  Because in the best examples, (Zappos, Whole Foods, Ford, Starbucks, Comcast), we see companies where everyone is not only empowered but in some cases expected (Zappos) to use social media as an engagement tool.  This not only produces a critical mass of communicators needed for varied and diverse conversation, but a genuine, real-time window into the heart of your business. 

This is why; if at all possible, you should NOT outsource your campaign to an agency professing expertise in social marketing.  One reason is the numbers game – no matter how hard an agency works, it can never produce the quantity and variety of conversations that a large internal tribe could.  The other is that agencies are not a genuine reflection of your business.  They are a proxy and a poor one at that.  So aim to drive your campaign from within the very tribe of your own business...using as many people you trust from it as fire starters.    This, for many businesses, is unfortunately the ultimate stumbling block.  Few can envision, the way Zappos and Ford did, a world where everyone down to the guy who processes invoices might be a vital spoke in the wheel of conversation. 

An outstanding list of “don’t do social media unless...” questions are found in this great post on Penn-Olson.  Highly recommended.

Social Media - The Final chapter

Two final questions must be considered in this eighth and final post.  What does the future hold for brands in a world where tribes have a bigger and more effective platform upon which to organise and converse?  What does the future hold for Television?

In his book “Tribes” Seth Godin makes this provocative remark:

“Brand management is so 1999”.

No doubt he would have his detractors, but he goes on:

“Brand management was top down, internally focused, political and money based. It involved an MBA managing the brand, the ads, the shelf space, etc. The MBA argued with product development and manufacturing to get decent stuff, and with the CFO to get more cash to spend on ads.

Tribe management is a whole different way of looking at the world.

It starts with permission, the understanding that the real asset most organizations can build isn't an amorphous brand but is in fact the privilege of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who want to get them.

It adds to that the fact that what people really want is the ability to connect to each other, not to companies. So the permission is used to build a tribe, to build people who want to hear from the company because it helps them connect, it helps them find each other, it gives them a story to tell and something to talk about.

And of course, since this is so important...everything the organization does is to feed and grow and satisfy the tribe.

People form tribes with or without us. The challenge is to work for the tribe and make it something even better.”

You may have problems agreeing with this but consider the following chart containing the predictions of Forrester Research, a reputable technology research house.  Study carefully the ominous words in the top right had box – “online groups supplant brands”.  What’s even scarier is the time-frame in Forresters predicts this will happen.  Consider that brands will “lean on groups to define products”.  Consider the new agency model: “A new PR agency emerges that represents online groups – not brands”.  This from the folks that are not only seeing what’s going on but measuring it too. 

For a contemporary example of this at work go to Mumsnet.com, a social enterprising “tribe” of women who either are considering getting pregnant, are pregnant or who are post natal.  It is a colossal entity with massive power.  As you read, British political parties are carrying their fight to this influential portal.  Any brand that doesn’t align with its mission is refused entry; like Nestle whose baby formula ads were barred.

So while brands will by no means disappear, their power won’t come to he who can command share of voice above the line...but by he who owns the biggest share of conversations amongst tribes and communities, be they online OR offline.

Question 2: “What will become of TV as a channel for my beloved 30’ film?  After all, the fun part of my job is sipping foamy cappuccinos with the creative emos at Dumblebum, Doodlebill and Bottom”. 

Let’s consider the NFL Super Bowl as a test laboratory in which to study the changes the 30’ slot is undergoing.  After all, more and more American’s are drawn to the Gridiron spectacular not just for the football but for the commercial breaks too.  When Pepsi gambled big by turning its back on 23 years of history with the Super Bowl some saw it as the writing on the wall for thematic advertising.  The move which, according to Nielsen, was more than vindicated by massive PR value saw a redirection of funds into a social media project called “Pepsi Refresh”, an undertaking that offered people the chance to vote for worthwhile community projects.

The Super Bowl - Not just about the Football

Forrester, however, was quick to but the brakes on any speculation that this spelled the death of TV.  In an excellent commentary the researcher reminds us that while Pepsi’s move was bold, (even radical), social media should never be seen as an end in itself, merely a means to an end.  Besides, the move was as much a branding statement to a young and tech-savvy audience who Pepsi knew would reward such a move.

Though very few other brands went as far as Pepsi, virtually every brand that produced a 30’ TVC for the Super Bowl, did it’s damndest to amplify the material in social networks anyway.  In many ways, as one analyst put it, TV is moving from being the master to being the servant.

Thus, Forrester says, TV is not going away but “will be fighting for marketing dollars on an increasingly level playing field with social and interactive tactics”.  In a nutshell, social networks are moving forward rapidly but TV is standing still.

One last thought before I shut up:

While studying psychology I once took a course in “participative research” – an unorthodox investigative approach involving the collaboration and cooperation of the researcher with his subjects on a challenge or project that is important to the latter.  Rather than parachuting in on the subject for a few sessions of qualitative or quantitative thumb-screwing, the emphasis is on “walking a mile in their moccasins”; becoming one of them whilst sharing in the highs and lows of the journey they themselves are on.  A more formal definition is provided by Wikipedia – “... is a recognized form of research that focuses on the effects of the researcher's direct actions of practice within a participatory community with the goal of improving the performance quality of the community or an area of concern”.

In social media, we have a rare offer from the Gods of marketing to both communicate with consumers and study them at the same time.

This auspicious dichotomy is summed up in an old story which tells of a conversation between Mother Theresa and a journalist.  Said the latter: “The change you have brought to the people of Calcutta is amazing” 

Said she: “You do not understand, I have not changed the people of Calcutta...they have changed me”. 

An angry message to all who are "on" Twitter but not using it.

 Recently, I encouraged a friend to make more use of Twitter – what use was it, I said to him, to have an account and not use it.  In many ways, I went on, he was stopping his friends who were frequent users from getting enjoyment from the platform.   I was “shattered” when I received this response.

 The seething sense of injustice was finally vindicated by Seth Godin in his book “Linchpin”. 

 “Metcalfe’s Law says that the value of a network increases with the square of the number of nodes on the network.  The more people who have a fax machine, the more fax machines are worth.  The more people who use the Internet, the better it works.  The more friends I have who use Twitter, the more the tool is worth to me”

 It felt like big brother standing up for me.

 So, if you are registered on a social platform and not making use of it because you can’t figure it out or it doesn’t seem to work, here’s the deal.  YOU are the problem.  Not the platform.

 

"There's no such thing as Social Marketing" - Interview with an Industry thought Leader

Well actually there is.  If there wasn’t the last 8 entries would have been a waste of time.  But my friend said this and I thought it was worth a second look.  He has impeccable credentials as one of the best media integration strategists in SA (if not the world) so, in an effort to validate some of my claims and insights, I gave him a call.  It was a most troubling conversation, not just because he likes to swear a lot.  Here’s how the conversation went:

Q:           Is there any best practice in social influence marketing as far as you can see?

A:            F&^K all!  Only a fool would claim best practice because 48 hours later it would be obsolete

Q:           Oh...well...is there any one person you have met who is leading the thinking in SA?

A:            I recently met a guy who said his partner was an expert... “don’t forget his name”, he said – but I already have...

Q:           Are there any full service agencies leading the way or at least experimenting?

A:           No, but there are a lot of specialised digital agencies claiming an expertise.  My job is not to understand what they do...but rather to ensure their contribution, if pertinent to the job at hand,  integrates properly with the overall communication strategy...

Q:           Anything else?

A:            Yes, there’s actually no such thing as social marketing...

Q:           ???

A:            All campaigns nowadays (whether online or offline) should be inherently “talkable” or else they’re just pollution...so unless your campaign has a “social idea” – you shouldn’t be thinking about it. 

Q:           What do you mean?

A:            A social idea is something people find irresistible...they will want to talk about it with their mates at the water cooler – it should dominate conversations in pubs and book clubs – people won’t be able to help themselves...social ideas have no regard for platforms – especially the social media platforms everyone is abuzz about...very simply, they will dominate conversations regardless of where they occur.  And yes, some of those will happen online.

A great conversation - summarised as follows:

·         No single thought leader in SA – but small pockets of specialists, some of whom know their stuff 

·         A clarion call for a social idea that is “sticky”, irresistible

and

·         CHANNEL NEUTRAL!!!!  (A bit like Father Christmas, his reach extends way beyond the chimney...)

...and which

·         INTEGRATES with everything else that you do