How Big Brands can Start Testing Social Media

We're now in what I am starting to call the perfect storm for social media. On one side we have lots of very smart and accomplished professionals who are and have been using these tools to network, learn, and some to market themselves successfully to new jobs and careers.

On the other we have many companies that are starting to see the need for different answers to growth than the diminishing returns not guaranteed by traditional channels. Traditional marketing was done mainly on top of media that is now facing a changed reality as well.

Buzz of social media is escalated by the file and rank inside companies, especially in the sales groups, which is where the need for warm leads is always felt. And more executives on the lookout for new channels are asking about a social media program.

Except for social media is not just the tools. It comes with the messiness of contact and interaction - which used to be reserved to the people on the ground on an "in person" basis. In the same way as sales people learn to read the body language of their prospects, marketers now can read digital body language, as Steven Woods says:

we need to think in terms of a buying cycle not a selling cycle. When we use the term “sales process”, or anything similar, we are subconsciously acting as if we are in control. We have to re-orient our thinking to a buying process, controlled by the prospect, guided by their social conversations, and on their time frames.

You probably read it in many of my posts - we're tired of being sold to, but we do like to buy. It's the push/pull tension. Social media, when executed well, is perfect for what marketers term inbound.

Marketing communications and digital media groups within organizations are well equipped to start thinking about integrating social media.

But it shouldn't be an afterthought, something to tack on another five or six jobs or on the tail end of a campaign that places its attention elsewhere. It should be a well thought-out consideration that responds to the tools, dynamics, time frames, and to the appropriateness, timing, and rhythms of the community. Not a small feat, and one that a non practitioner will not get - no matter how hard they may try to learn just from books.

What is a company to do? Start testing a couple of things keeping in mind that:

1. What you don't say is as important as what you do say - choose that carefully. In social media your behavior or stance towards prospects, customers, and the community will be quite obvious. Every impression counts perhaps not as a lead but as either a referral or an occasion for someone to tell you what you do wrong. Are you organized to capture that feedback and adjust your course accordingly?

2. You will need great content, and the skills to share it in different formats - there's a lot more to white papers in thought leadership. In social media, content is also the expression and interaction. Much of what happens is situational. Your people are your content, too. Your marketing communications team needs to be versed in digital media, PR, direct response, psychology, sociology and sometimes translation. The Web is global. Is your team equipped to have global, local conversations?

3. Integrate everything into a flow and know how to track each step - this sounds a lot like Hansel and Gretel. I insist on research and data at your fingertips. How you read the tea leaves is more important than what they look like. For example, many insist that great success in a blog equals lots of comments. I disagree. Comments are intent to like, they don't equal buying. How about links, trackbacks, forwards, etc. You may measure everything, are you measuring the right things?

4. Think less control, more influence - it will help you stay clear of the broadcast model that so upsets the communities you are trying to reach. It will also help you build a good and diverse team (with disclosure, please) to participate in the community. Why not start with asking yourself and the community how you can help? By giving first, you establish credibility.

5. You'll do better if you've got nothing to lose - this is why testing new things will probably work when done in small ways. And while you're at it, stop thinking in terms of winning and losing and start warming up to the idea of sharing, instead. Loyalty programs did not work because you wanted to give with one hand and take with the other. How about we stop the games or we play them with customers in mind?

All of this will not come naturally. Keep in mind that:

• These are not rules, they're suggestions from what I learned by doing.
• It's not a program, it's the way of your customer's environment and the marketplace. 
• The companies that are doing it well, are still testing every day. 

Now is the time to own your brand and create a conversation for your organization, before it becomes a question of who owns it internally. When it fails, it will be your fault. When it succeeds, some other group will want to brag it was all them. Big brands will succeed only when they can align internally for the external good. That can be helped only if they want to.

[welcome to Smart USA]

___________

Additional resources:

My Top 3 Digital Marketing Tactics for 2009
Think Small
Involve, Create, Promote, Discuss, Measure - the Social Media Campaign
How does a Company Dip its Toes in the Conversation?
Ten Ideas for Conversation
How Social Networks are disrupting Everything You Know About Business

© 2006-2009 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Laurens Van den Wijngaert]

Very easy reading but yet o so right! In other words: great post!

I especially liked this one sentence:
"3. Integrate everything into a flow and know how to track each step"

[David Alston]

This is a great post Valeria. It is definitely a shift for many companies but the new methodology indeed works. I often refer to the process as listening for the point of need. Expressions of interest and need are often stated in social media as people try to get assistance to figure out what, when, how, why and from whom to buy. However, this isn't an opportunity for a company to immediately start shilling but an opening to reach out and offer to help or share.

I think the best real world comparison is watching a great salesperson in a clothing store. They take in their surroundings "listening" and understand the exact signs of when a person may need help and gently offer assistance. At that point the person buying feels like that is the natural evolution of the buyer process instead of being interrupted too early in the process or ignored after the point of need. It may be a fine line but very powerful when compared to the inaccurate traditional methods of interruptive marketing.

Again, great post Valeria.

[Brandon Chesnutt]

Fantastic observations.

If this truly is the "down and dirty" year for social media, we need more posts like this to give brands and companies the proper push to get involved.

Brandon

[Bruce Christensen]

Again; I am discovering how much we need to do to catch up to this amazing trend in customer communication.
Thank you for breaking out some important ideas to start testing.

[Lew]

Valeria,

You get it. I have been screaming to the hills with very few echos returned: In today's world, we marketers should be placing most of our efforts and our budgets on Inbound Marketing. But first we need to fix corporate cultures.

According to just-released CMO Council data, "83 percent of marketers say they face change-resistant corporate cultures, conflicts and competition between internal constituencies, and a resistance to operational accountability, visibility and measurement." And that is a problem.

Until alignment of customer touchpoints and accountability plus measurement become top priorities, no strategies or tools will be effective or efficient. Keep up the great thinking Valeria.

[Colby Gergen]

"But it shouldn't be an afterthought, something to tack on another five or six jobs or on the tail end of a campaign that places its attention elsewhere."

A perfect, and very public, example of successfully integrating social media from the get-go was the Obama campaign. They understood that this was not going to be some "tack-on" effort and if they were going to do it, they needed to do it right. They did it right and Obama reaped the benefits.

[Howard Kang]

They key I see here is influence. I love what you said about influence as I believe it's the cornerstone for any brand's social media strategy. When brand's want to focus on your first point, they are essentially influencing future buyers. Being smart, helpful, and cognizant of buyer needs to help influence the word of mouth that is spread.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Laurens - thank you for stopping by. Glad you enjoyed the post.

@David - you provided a really good example of what listening to the point of need means. I'm glad you did, especially when you will see what I have cooking for you tomorrow. Getting that subtle reading in body language, even in a digital format is what tells winners from also rans.

@Brandon - it was a request from a reader that prompted me to put some thought into it. Sometimes we also take what we know and do for granted. Part of the ability to read digital body language comes with experience and wisdom, just like off line in a sales situation.

@Lewis - getting the right mix of inbound marketing is easier than trying to ask companies to change. In my experience, all of the data points in the CMO Council survey (I think I referenced it in a post, too) are very real. The one where I encountered the most resistance is "conflicts and competition between internal constituencies". Thank yo u for the kind words. Coming from you it means a lot.

@Colby - spot on. That was flawless (or as close to it as we've gotten) execution of these ideas from a marketing perspective. Now we're in the delivery phase, and we shall see how the culture fares.

@Howard - there is so much talk about influence, yet the context sometimes is overlooked. What and how in influence are more important than who, often. Social media impressions have a whole new definition, don't they?

[denisr]

Hi Valeria,

I am not sure how perfect this Social Media storm is.

Yes, we have professional on one side that can deliver the service, and buyers on the other side that can incorporate the service.
However, at least here in the belpaese, I am hearing too many companies with their unique approach to Social Media that resemble to much "another sales pitch" for their services, treating it as another lead generation tool.

I believe this is more of a pre-storm. Companies are still at the beginning of the learning curve of all the "social" world, while professionals are going to reach the end of the learning curve.

Said so, providers should not raise the expectation bar of clients, reminding them that they are just testing... and aim for the budget later. Something that on though times like now is hard to remember.

I hope it makes sense :)

[jame]

I truly think that this is a great post. It is amazing. This is a nice and simple article and it's easy to read.