Involve, Create, Discuss, Promote, Measure - the Social Media Campaign

[Social Media Campaign by Gary Hayes and Laurel Papworth - hat tip Luca Conti]

Whenever someone asks me about social media marketing, my first question is if that person is immersed in the space. Because without that, all that comes afterwards may as well be Greek to them. Gary Hayes and Laurel Papworth put together a useful visual to help explain how things would progress from that starting point. As they say (in bold), and I expand upon:

• INVOLVE - live the social web, understand it, this cannot be faked. Come back to it after you have truly participated. This means going beyond the creation of a Twitter account and posting about your meals, as delicious (and rare) as they may be. This means putting skin in the game. Amber just wrote a timely post on why we should keep giving it away - it being not only content, time and attention are high on that list of qualities you will learn to employ effectively by getting involved.

• CREATE - make relevant content for communities of interest. The act of creation must be one of the rarest and most satisfying experiences we have as humans. It all goes back to value and that is in the eyes and thoughts of the beholder. This is about utilizing the law of attraction. Now before you start creating content, go ahead and follow Geoff Livingston's advice, read The Cluetrain Manifesto - it will help you figure out the difference between what you think has value, and what the market wants.

• DISCUSS - no conversation around it, then the content may as well not exist. This is where it gets interesting. If you created the content the market needs and have given it away freely, then you will also want to be available to facilitate the ensuing discussions. Dialogue goes to the heart of tribalization of business, a topic that Francois Gossieaux has covered extensively.
  

• PROMOTE - actively, respectfully, promote the content into the networks. You see by now that there is a natural progression here. Credibility and value come before the promotion piece. For a good example of that, I would signal Scott Monty who heads social media at Ford. If you search his name in conjunction with Ford, you will find plenty of entries, all positive, about his participation in the space. Check out this podcast by Albert Maruggi of Provident Partners, and learn about the social media plan Ford has put together for the introduction of the 2010 Mustang.

• MEASURE - monitor, iteratively develop and respond or be damned! Measurement is easy compared with responding. There are still many questions being asked about the appropriate responses. While you think about that, consider that ignoring legitimate questions, and not participating to the conversation around your product and service is no longer seen as an option. People now see when you're not there.

A word on terminology. I'm sure the term campaign will appeal to all marketers among my readers and be seen as contrived by the others. It still belongs to the "business as war" metaphor. When are we going to use new words? When are agencies going to start getting involved before creating an ad campaign that hangs its hat on something that goes counter the experience of the people it aims to persuade? Before getting to "promote" you've got to learn by being involved and involving in the creation process.

What do you think? These are still early days, who does it well by you?

Comments

[Len Kendall]

Great Post. It is definitely a challenge from a marketing perspective to delve into this territory on a campaign by campaign basis. The user experience requires a long term commitment of communication with arguably a long early growth curve. That being the case, it is quite difficult for brands to jump in and try to promote a narrow initiative and then pull the plug. A) That isn't the most effective way to gain reach in this environment and B) It can be disrespectful to the community.

As time goes by we're (hopefully) going to start seeing more brands have a consistent role in this space. Where dollars and time required for social media are just as necessary as search or 30 second spots.

[Amber Naslund]

Ah, the oft forgotten "involve" part. I'd even stretch that to say research, learn, and absorb. So often, we find brands charging full steam ahead into the CREATE phase before they even have affirmation that what they're saying is welcome, relevant, or even aimed at the right people.

The investment of time and understanding is a critical one. If you expect your social media endeavors to be more than a flash in the proverbial pan, you must be willing to lay the groundwork and a strong foundation of authenticity and trust. As you say, you can't fake that.

Eloquent as always, Valeria. Cheers.

[Terri]

Thank you - that was a great one, Valeria. I just got done reading an email by a company in India that wanted to take care of any holiday work. As friendly as the tone was, it still had that little bit of mistrust there. Trying to sell to me without even asking me a question first to see if I needed help was a turn off. No one thinks about what would work on them. Which tells me they must lack that authenticity to begin with, or maybe that's an unfair judgement. Hmmm.....

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Len - I'm glad you outlined some challenges/opportunities as we'll take a look at the differences and synergies of a direct response approach with social media tomorrow.

@Amber - part of the learning must be hands on, putting skin in the game. I've seen analysis paralysis and would counsel on testing involvement sooner rather than later. Having said that, to me research from the position of a joiner and contributor is golden. Yes, it's not a date, it's more like a true commitment.

@Terri - asking is important. I think in the eagerness to close a sale, many companies forget to begin the conversation.

[Kevin Urie]

Thanks for the quick cheat sheet! This is a great post to give to co-workers and friends, who are interested in Social Media!

[Geoff Livingston]

Thanks for the Cluetrain reference. A fantastic post that includes a fabulous book.

[Peter Korchnak]

In the "business is war" mindset, social media marketing would be the "permanent war", and look where that has led us in the political realm. New terminology is, indeed, required. Social media engagement? Social media collaboration?

The Cluetrain Manifesto was put together a decade ago. Here we are still trying to convince corporations to get on with the program. It's going to take a while longer, I'm afraid. Keep evangelizing!

[Mark Northern]

As usual, a nice distillation... with your usual astute observations. Kudos.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Kevin - a good primer, I agree. Gary and Laurel did a good job with setting the tone and laying it out visually - that is often the hardest part. Glad it was useful.

@Geoff - I could not help but notice that you have written passionately about it. I feel the same way, it was way ahead of the times even now ;-)

@Peter - I think of social media more like a marketplace for the display and negotiation of ideas. The actualization still happens in the physical world. It's not in their best interest to get on with the program. Not yet, I wonder if ever. Disintermediation of work seems unlikely, so we're stuck with each other - at least for the foreseeable future.

[Sonny Gill]

Promotion AFTER Credibility and Value. If only this point could be tattooed on the forehead of those utilizing social media without understanding this basic and fundamental rule.

Fundamental as it's really a part of human nature. You don't meet a new friend and 2 seconds later ask "Hey, want to come to my store and buy my product?!" It doesn't work that way, in person or online. I've gone as far as trying to explain to self promoters why it's not accepted in social media and shared some simple how-to's - but majority of the time, it's a lost cause.

Can only hope that great layouts of Social Media, like the one you've written here, will help educate.

[Valeria Maltoni]

The online space is quite narcissistic. When we keep our focus on the value as seen by our customers/readers, we are able to counter-balance our human nature. The best sales people are great listeners. Good points and example, Sonny.

[Joseph Rueter]

It seems to me that the people and places who do it well by me are the ones that make it silly (stupid) easy to see and be introduced to where they are online. Most places make it just a single campaign and go through all the difficulty every time with telling people of that one new place. I want to decide from a menu of places where I want to connect with someone or some brand. I don't want to go looking for all the places and then decide. Most places don't have all their campaigns in one place on their own sites. I also don't want to get just your most urgent campaign. I want to decide what I want to interact with. Just because you have a campaign going on out there... does not mean I want to listen and I don't think I am alone.

That info graphic is to my mind spot on. Isn't it true that we all as individuals have social media campaigns going on? That graphic hones in on the notion that we are the "you" in the middle of all of those and more tools for online interaction. As marketers the brands we work on can stand in as that "you."

I can't help but notice the similarity to an insight I had a while back when I made my own page of links to just my stuff. At the time I called it http://www.mynameandaddresses.com . I had friends asking if I could build them a page for their stuff. Shoot, I went back to my page to link out to the places I was being social... that way I didn't have to type the addresses in.

It seems to me that at least these two insights are invlolved. One, active anonymity is no longer a reasonable option in most cases online and Two, active open authenticity gets noticed and goes along way.

I'll tip my hand. I build a site that reacts to these ideas and therefore am already invested in the insights the info graphic illustrates. So, while there are so many places to be active online, why not consolidate them all in one place? Let users decide what they want to interact with. Check out http://www.extendr.com . It is an always in beta approach to making it easy to introduce ourselves digitally. The architecture for the thought that dives the development of the site looks similar to that info graphic.