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?
  

Ollie Ollie In Come Free

Image via Wikipedia

As my kids get older, I am amazed that they use the  same expressions in their games and daily play that I did when I was their age. I did not tell them any of these but they have picked them up on their own, somewhere. It made me think about how powerful it would be if you could create your own slogan or brand reputation that is passed from user to user or even generation to generation. There are certainly examples:

• Have a Coke and a Smile
• Good to the last drop
• Snap, crackle and pop!
• I'm a Toys R Us kid
• A diamond is forever
• Got Milk?

And then there are famous characters from Ronald McDonald, the Donut Man, Burger lady, Marlboro man, Flo, and the Geico Gecko as well as  iconic firms like Coke, IBM, Apple, and others that have enjoyed a long held brand respect in the market they serve.

I am wondering with the noise of all the social media platforms if it will be easier or harder to have a long lasting  impact in the marketplace like the ones referenced above. The item that was "it" yesterday can be torn down and replaced extremely easily now and that has huge implications on developing brand equity. Given the power that has been transferred from marketing departments and media agency's to the end user we may see the consumer become the generator of the next great brand or slogan. The hard part will be giving up the control over the message, but that is already happening so the sooner you can embrace it the better off you will be.

Ollie Ollie in come free - who will be next?

Integrate Social Media activities into your CRM/MAP systems

The power of a CRM system and a Marketing Automation Platform (MAP) is that you are able to see a comprehensive view into the activities around your customers. The lense gets even stronger when you integrate your CRM and MAP so you can see both offline and online activities for your customers. The inability to integrate social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogging into your CRM/MAP systems is a negative but it also represents a great opportunity for the vendor that can figure out how we can do this.

Imagine if you looked up a customer in your CRM system and you had a view of all offline activities such as show attendance and phone calls along with all marketing campaigns from your MAP and all interactions with your various social media sites (retweets, blog visits and comments, FaceBook fan, LinkedIn groups). That would be a true Digital ID. I know Eloqua and Hubspot have done some things for tracking social media activity but I do not think anyone has been able to integrate it all into one view. I am not even sure this is possible, but it would make life a lot easier!

Very Good Slideshow

I am also trying to figure out the impact of social media on the b2b buyer. It is not nearly as clear as it is in B2C land. Here is a good slideshow that reviews the potential of social media for B2B firms.

B2B Social Media Marketing: Building the B2B Business Case for Social Media

How many handles should you have on Twitter?

Image by stevegarfield via Flickr

I just came from a meeting where the topic of how many Twitter handles should we have to message out to our customers. This particular unit currently has five different handles and different parts of the business are approaching the social media group to ask for a handle so they too can tweet.

I believe that there is a danger in diluting your overall messaging with too many people tweeting. While the theory is you should tweet more to get your message out, that does not, in my mind, mean that you should have multiple handles tweeting the same or different ideas. To me, that sounds like Twitter spam.

Additionally, the more people you have the greater the risk of someone tweeting something inappropriate.  Everyone has a different ideas of what "Do not post anything stupid" means. A 20-something may think it is ok to tweet anything as that is they the way they have been brought up. An older worker who has not grown up with these technologies may not understand the reach that they have and the impact an off-hand comment could have on your firm and brand.

Your marketing message needs to be clear and concise and the more people voicing that message the greater risk there is in being tuned out.

An integrated approach to technology and market strategy is critical to success

Image via Wikipedia

The firm I work for has several new products being released over the coming months that will require a technology acumen that we are not currently best suited to handle. As a result,  we need to develop a long term technology strategy to support the release of these products. Additionally, our marketing needs to be aligned with the technology road map to ensure that we are messaging our new capabilities in a cohesive manner. If you are a technology company, you can no longer think of your technology and market strategy as mutually exclusive.

SaaS firms like Salesforce.com understand that there is no difference between its technology infrastructure and go to market planning and messaging. However, some firms, in particular mine, do not view technology and marketing as related to one another. An approach like this will dilute our overall messaging and branding and could lead to confusion about who you are in the marketplace. Additionally, if you do not implement a strategy road map that looks at technology and marketing strategy as an integrated unit then you will end up supporting multiple one-off technologies and have to craft multiple messages.

In the past, the positioning of my firm was one as a content provider or publisher. However, we are releasing a new platform that will make us more of a service provider that delivers content, with as much if not more focus on the technology than the content. Our approach to date has been to explore individual technologies like vcms and mobile, an approach that only addresses weaknesses and is not an overall road map. The goal now is to work with the technology group as they map out their needs so we can also adapt our messaging to fit this new world order.

So my advice is to integrate your technology and market planning to make sure each one knows what the other is doing so there is no disconnect.