Groupons Problem: It is Not a Platform

At HBR.com, Rob Wheeler wrote a post entitled Groupon Doomed by Too Much of a Good Thing. Rob discusses why he believes that "Groupon's fundamental problem is that it has not yet discovered a viable business model."

I would disagree as I think Groupon does have a business model, it is just flawed and will never work. What do Facebook, Twitter, Constant Contact, Apple, Google, and LinkedIn all have in common? These firms all have built a platform. These are not single solution apps, like Groupon, but rather large scale platforms that can be used by these firms to add features and functions as well as tap into a community of users to help build out exciting new applications. What exactly can Groupon do to build out its application? Is it a platform? Can people leverage it in many different ways? No. It is what it is - an email application for the most part.

Think of Apples app store and all of the apps that people have built to make the iPad and iPod that much more useful and vital to people's everyday life. Can Groupon do something similar? No.

They key here is if you want to succeed and be relevant in today's web world, you need to build a platform, not a point solution.

 

Social Media: Broader Than Just Marketing

Most of the focus around the use of social media is that it is just a marketing tool. Social media is certainly a new and important form of PR and Marcomm, branding, lead generation (inbound and traditional marketing). However, if you are only utilizing and focusing on the use of social media solely as a marketing channel you are losing out on some other very important things you can accomplish with these platforms, such as:

• Competitor Intelligence
• Product Development
• Beta group
• Product testing
• Focus Groups
• Customer Support
• Strategy testing
• A/B testing (yes, technically marketing but have you tried it?)
• Sales presentations
• Community outreach 

If you are just using social media for marketing purporses you really need to think broader than that and get groups like those listed above involved. It is particularly true with firms that have a a large number of followers as you have an untapped audience that has shown interest in your firm/product that can be utilized for other things besides just leads. After all, the key to social media is connecting and communicating with prospects and by engaging them in other parts of your business you can deepen the relationships and drive leads and create evangelists.
Share any successes you have had using social media to promote other parts of your business!

Content creation strategies

Image via WikipediaCreating unique content probably sounds daunting, especially if you are running a small business and you are already head cook and bottle washer. To ease some of the burden of creating content you should first come up with a strategic plan for all your inbound marketing initiatives including content. Here are a few thoughts on building a content strategy. If you have other good strategies please share them.
What makes good content?: As described in the previous post, content needs to be high quality, relevant and non-pitchy. 
Forms of content: The items you produce do not need to be a War and Peace sized endeavor. People are already inundated with loads of content so it makes sense to make your materials easily digestible and simple to understand. As such, think of delivering quick snippets from research you have done or read, trends you are seeing in the market and why they are important and what they mean to your customers, and, possibly most importantly, links to other content providers that you consider valuable (see here for a post from Hubspot on the importance of link building). You should also consider developing some white papers and cases studies on how you solved a customers pain.
Shareable: All of the blogging platforms have widgets that allow readers to share your content with others. Make sure you have enabled them.
Tracking: Tracking how readers are reacting to the content is extremely important as it will allow you to spot what your followers are most interested in and not interested as in reading and sharing. There a number of different tools available to track your content (good overview here). At the very least you should use a service like bit.ly for simple tracking purposes. 

These are just a few simple thoughts on how to develop a content strategy. Please share your own.

Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss

Content is still the boss, even more so with the increased use of inbound marketing techniques and the proliferation of mobile devices providing any time access to this content and social media platforms. According to Terametric, 85% of companies us Facebook in their a marketing strategy, followed by Twitter 77%, LinkedIn 58%, and YouTube 49%. These statistics show the reach and importance of these channels but they also highlight that there are a lot of firms out there trying to communicate with customers, potentially the same ones you are trying to gain attention from. So how do you differentiate? Quality, relevant and non-pitchy content.

• Quality: The quality of the content increases when the source is seen as credible and reliable. This could be in the form of a well-known author or a large survey where the methodology is clearly laid out for review. 
• Relevance: Somewhat self explanatory, but you need to make sure the content is relevant for your audience. The content should inform and educate your audience about market trends, customer attitudes or relevant problems.
• Non-pitchy: Do you remember the last advertisement or marketing message you saw? How many of these messages do you think we see on a daily basis? Do you remember the last good article you read? The content should not be a veiled advertisement for your product or service. Your content should inform and educate your audience, not sound like a late night infomercial.If your audience believes that all you are trying to do is advertise to them, they will tune you out immediately. 

Content is and will always be the boss. However, given the amount of content that is out there and accessible you need to extremely strategic in the development and dissemination of your content to ensure you are the one your audience is listening to.

Plan your inbound marketing efforts

After describing an inbound marketing strategy I was asked how I would implement and manage all of the different properties and postings.  It is a good question, especially if inbound marketing activities are only part of your initiatives as managing the different platforms can be very time consuming and difficult to track.  If you do not  have a plan the postings cans lose some of its effectiveness as the messaging can seem muddled and ad hoc. In my last post I discussed the different ways to use each platform, now you need to implement a plan to make sure you are getting the most from your efforts.

You need to draw out a weekly, monthly and quarterly plan of inbound initiatives and make sure you know when these will all fall and who will be responsible for managing them. The plan should take into account any upcoming case studies, white papers, webinars, banner or other forms of advertisement and event attendance or other items so you can schedule announcements appropriately. You also need to assign people to manage these events on the different platforms. For example, if you have  technical white paper coming out in two weeks, it would make sense for someone on the development team to write a blog post about the paper and possibly promote it on LinkedIn. You will need to make sure that person is aware of their deliverables and know when and where they need post. You need to plan like a marketing agency would plan for more traditional activities to make sure your messaging is cohesive and accomplishes your objectives.

Anyone else have thoughts on how to plan or some best practices?

Give up control to gain control

Image by HubSpot via Flickr

Websites have evolved from static brochure-ware to more interactive experiences with video, chat, forums, etc. However, with the new social media platforms, you need to re-think how you design your website to take advantage of the power of these mediums. Just having a Facebook or Twitter badge on your site is not enough. You need to consider these platforms as extensions, if not a discrete part of your website. You also need to treat each platform differently to get the most out of it. Here are some thoughts on how to think about each property:

• LinkedIn: More formal than other social media sites and should be used to promote networking, best practice sharing and industry collaboration. The subgroups are a great way to develop specific topics for discrete groups, such as local user communities.
• Facebook: You should use Facebook to develop conversations with your target market. Think of Facebook as the forum for your customers/prospects to informally interact and collaborate.
• Twitter: Twitter is a "volume" play both from amount of information you should tweet as well as how "loud" you want to be heard in the market. I think of Twitter as a communication platform, where you are sending out messages to people versus interacting with them like you do on Facebook and LinkedIn.

You need to utilize each of these sites to achieve a connection with your customers/prospects. Let's go through a use case with an integrated site that includes your corporate domain coupled with the appropriate social media sites:

Let's use Bestbuy as our use case. I am looking to purchase a new camera. I have been on BB's site and identified a few options. I have read the reviews on the site to better narrow my options.  I now go out to Facebook to seek other experiences and gather feedback on my options. I go to LinkedIn to also see if there is  a camera sub group to ask for feedback. After this due diligence, I have chosen the camera I want but do I need to go back to Bestbuy's site to purchase the camera? If the platforms are integrated, I should be able to buy it where I am at that moment. Frictionless commerce is an old concept but it is more important and more possible today than ever with these social media extensions. But we are not done yet.

To add to the complexity you also need to add in mobile as a potential platform. Say Bestbuy has my mobile information from our interactions on the website. My phone sounds and it is from Bestbuy telling me  I am right near a Bestbuy and here is a coupon for 10% off in the store for the camera I want to buy. Ask for Jim if you go to the store or you can purchase it now with the credit card we have on file. Friction? Not so much. And that is the point; your corporate domain is no longer the place to go to purchase something. I am not coming to you - if you want my business you be where I am. And that is the potential with these platforms if you use them correctly.

Extension. Placement. Location. Timing. Sales.

Cleaning out the marketing attic of the mind

Cleaning out the marketing attic of the mind.

• We received our first lead from Facebook. I am still amazed when I look at referral traffic and Facebook is one of the highest referring properties.
• Still somewhat skeptical of Twitter, however. Not sure I have gone to a site to purchase something based on a Tweet. It is good for finding interesting articles, but is that all there is to it?
• Need to start thinking about how and if to include Youtube and Flickr in our social media portfolio.
• The soccer world is not helping to get the US as an avid follower with all the fake diving in the World Cup. Brutal.
• The vuvuzela's aren't helping either.
• If you are interested in Inbound Marketing or how to use social media in general, you must subscribe to http://blog.hubspot.com/
• User generated content is going to be the learning platform of the future.
• The golf industry needs to slow down new product introductions. You can get last year's model's for next to nothing. It is like they have not noticed that consumer spending habits have changed.
• I do not have a good feeling about economic recovery in the second half of 2010 or even 2011.
• When was the last time you saw a really funny commercial? 
• I wonder how the marketing folks at the Bruins office are going to spin next year after the awful fail of the playoffs and the lousy 3 decades. "This time we mean it!"
• Obama could use a new PR and marketing person.
• Not quite sure I get what is happening at Google. I get search/ads, android and apps but not Buzz or them opening a music store. Seems like they are trying to be like Apple instead of choosing their own path.
• Worked on my first logo design project this year. Not as easy as it looks. Makes you appreciate some of the iconic logos out there.
• Very clever: http://www.cheeseandburger.com/ Definitely a bookmark for burger ideas.
• Going to be revamping our corporate website in the coming months. Really need to make it more informal and social. Something our brand is not necessarily known for in the market.
• What is the next great idea in the vein of the iPhone, Google, Facebook, Twitter?