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Social Media Strategy

Social Media Strategy

Are You Reliant?

December 11, 2009

Tonight I had every intention on writing a post about making support of causes front and center in communications, but something happened, and another topic came across the radar that I feel is worth highlighting.

As I got ready to start writing, my amazing ‘let’s get this done’ tool, Write or Die was offline. It’s been my companion in the past couple of months when I needed it most. It shaved unknown hours out of my schedule by forcing me (or perhaps strongly encouraging me) to write. But tonight – no dice. The site is down. Maybe it’s never coming back up – who knows. The point here is that we should never rely on a specific tool or site to solve all our problems. See the metaphor here?

RoadAhead

The reality is that the web changes at breakneck speed and many tools come and go rapidly. There is a lesson in this for all of us. Attaching ourselves too closely to any specific community, site, tool, etc. is potentially crippling if there is disruption with the service we are accustomed to. Think about it – if you can’t live without your Facebook page or Twitter account, you’re on shaky ground. There are no guarantees that the tools we use by default today will be around or relevant a year or two from now. Can you imagine a permanent #failwhale?

Be prepared, and expect change.

The best thing you can do when approaching the road ahead is to be prepared, and be vigilant in your monitoring of the space overall, but expect change. It’s guaranteed to happen. You’re better off knowing that upfront so there are no surprises when things get interesting. If you’re on the right path, you’ll go back the basics – you may ask yourself questions like ‘what is our goal here’ or ‘how can we provide value to those we want to connect with.’ In cases like this, you’re protected from the loss of any particular site/tool/network. Be prepared for your most important communications channel to be obsolete in a couple of years. You’ll be doing yourself a favor by thinking this way. It doesn’t mean that will necessarily happen, but you never know.

Strategize, Strategize, Strategize.

Make sure you know what you are there for before you get carried away. What is it you are trying to achieve? Do you have specific goals our outcomes in mind? How can you get there with what you have to work with? Make sure you are asking these questions because they are network agnostic. You can easily apply this thinking to whatever network du jour might come along. Make sense?

Write or Die is down tonight, but’s not stopping me from posting. It actually gave me an extra post by being down. 😉 The next post I will definitely pick up on the theme – should Causes be celebrated more? Maybe by then, Dr. Wicked will be back up and kicking my ass once again. In the meantime, think about this – what would you do if your most important communications channel became obsolete? Really think about it.

Let me know what you think in the comments. Thanks for being here!

photo credit: iStock

Social Media Strategy

Is Mark Zuckerberg Drinking the Social Kool-Aid?

December 3, 2009

Facebook Open Letter

Is Mark Zuckerberg opening up and drinking the proverbial social Kool-Aid finally? I saw something earlier for the first time that I can ever remember since becoming a Facebook member – a prominent message/open letter from the Facebook founder explaining some upcoming changes to the service BEFORE they are implemented. How many times have we seen Facebook implement changes unexpectedly only to watch the entire community go into a meltdown over it? Is Facebook finally getting the fact that if they involve the community during the stages leading up to a change, they will likely encounter a lot less resistance? I sure hope so.

FB-Open-Letter-LikeThis is one of the things that I think MySpace did a better job of, frankly. I remember quite often seeing notices from Tom on my home page explaining changes to the service or feature set. There was some comfort in knowing that we were all connected and even the founder of the site had an open discussion with the community. In some respects Facebook has operated more like Apple and less like Google or Dell in that respect – you’ll take what we give you and like it, dammit! 😉 Luckily, like Apple, Facebook usually gets it right in the end. But it is nice to see a different approach being taken. I’m sure we all remember many a fiasco when Facebook made unexpected changes in the past. Beacon comes to mind. So does the News Feed actually. And of course, the debacle over the rights to content on the site.

Bottom line – by keeping the community up to speed and making it prominent on the home page, they are sending a signal that they are listening and adapting to the reality that the huge user base is not to be taken for granted. As Brian Solis points out in his latest blog entry, there are signs that some of the crowd that were early adopters of Facebook are losing interest and spending less time on the site. Facebook must pay attention to this and respect the changing needs and desires of this dynamic audience. If you have a couple of minutes, I recommend you check out Brian’s post – there is a lot to chew on in the post and in the comments. This is a great topic for Marketers as they look forward to 2010.

What do you think? Does the open letter signal a shift in Mark Zuckerberg’s attitude toward engaging the community?

Social Media Strategy

How Does Social Media Affect Elections?

December 1, 2009

Today is a big day in Atlanta politics, and I thought it would be appropriate to revisit the topic of social media’s role in politics.  I won’t be getting into the candidates or my affiliation here, but the issue that I want to discuss is how important it is to use all the tools that are available to engage people through the channels they are already using.

VoteLast year, I wrote a post titled ‘Is This the Facebook and YouTube Election?‘ where I mentioned that Facebook and YouTube changed the dynamics of the Presidential election of 2008 in a profound manner.  Many more people were engaged in the process than ever before, and there was an outlet to connect with people in a way that we had never seen in the political process.  The Atlanta Mayoral race reminds me of that dynamic, and perhaps there is even MORE engagement this time.  I find this to be remarkable because local politics rarely gets this kind of attention.  Sure, people get fired up during a Presidential election, but the city level races are rarely in the limelight in this way.

What we’re seeing in the Atlanta race is a willingness to discuss the issues that the community is passionate about, and there has been a great deal of back and forth about the merits of the individual candidates in social channels.  Interestingly, in my conversations with friends, neighbors, etc., very few of those that I’ve spoken with have actually watched the candidates debate on TV.  There have been several televised debates, but many people are simply not tuning in.  But these same people are on Facebook constantly and are engaged in wall posts, video posts, etc. that relate to the race.  There have been several threads that I’ve participated in that have significant engagement with people that I know, and people that I’ve never met before.  Great information is being spread, and hopefully it’s helping people in their decision in the voting booth.  Many people have said they are on the fence, and I can’t think of a better way to get them off the fence than engaging them directly with information and opinions through a trusted friend network on Facebook.

There’s a lesson in this for brands.  People are engaging with each other in these spaces and for many of them it’s the primary way they engage with brands.  In this example, the political candidates are each their own brand, and it will be particularly interesting to see how the candidates use of social media factors into the results of the election.  It’s an incredibly tight race, and they are both doing what they can to get their supporters out to the polls.  There is a difference however – one has a much more robust following on Twitter and Facebook, while the other one is a relative newcomer to the scene.  There was a similar dynamic during the Presidential election last year.  I’m very interested to see if the same pattern holds this time around.

What lessons do you take from this?  Have you been a part of a political discussion through social media that would never have happened otherwise?  How do you think social media affects elections?

Social Media Strategy

Is Being Unreasonable A Good Strategy?

November 30, 2009

UnreasonableI was talking with a good friend last night about ‘the state of things.’  We tend to veer off into lofty conversations on issues that matter to us, and it’s often quite productive for me.  Last night was one of those nights.  While we talked, I remembered a program I ran across called the Unreasonable Institute – they are looking for 25 of the world’s most outrageous minds to encourage and enable to do great things.  The question that came to mind was – do we have to create things that are ‘unreasonable’ to get noticed or attract attention?  Has the status quo stifled our thinking to the point that we have to go far outside the norm to capture the imagination of our audience? I suspect this might indeed be the case.

It seems more and more non-traditional thinking is breaking through in all segments of society – in business, in government, in development, etc.  The fact that this is being celebrated is encouraging and reinforces that we’re actually in a very transformative period right now.

Last night as we talked about some of the opportunities on the horizon, I shared that I recently read a book my cousin Whitney gave me to check out called The City in 2050 published by the Urban Land Institute.  Pretty incredible stuff here – I highly recommend you read it if you are interested in urban planning, architecture, future development and related topics.  The book highlights some very thought provoking insights into a likely urban model for the future.

While we were talking, I Googled the initiative on my iPhone and jumped over to the ‘2050’ page to see how well they were connecting.  What I saw was an incredible opportunity to spread this message much further than it’s being spread right now.  The opportunity that jumped out at me was under the ‘Enter the Dialogue’ section.  If you click on the Creating Blueprints – Enter the dialogue link, it takes you to a page with a paragraph and an email address.  Most of us in the social media space would agree that an email link does not typically qualify for encouraging dialogue, thus the opportunity!  To be fair, ULI does have general links to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn from their home page.

Perhaps identifying initiatives like this one that are well established but lack a thorough engagement strategy and helping them connect with key audiences through social channels is a business model in and of itself.  Could working with ULI and other non-profits to help spread the word about initiatives that matter to the world without a pure profit motive be considered unreasonable?  I bet most people would say it is.  I wonder what the Unreasonable Institute would say?

What do you think?  Is being unreasonable a good strategy?  If so, what are some of the unreasonable ideas that you have for yourself or your business?  Do you find this kind of thinking is encouraged or discouraged in your organization?

By the way, if you are interested in applying to the Unreasonable Institute, you better hurry – the clock is ticking! 14 days and counting until applications are due.

Photo credit: iStockPhoto

Social Media Strategy

What Do Consumers Really Want from Brands in Social Media?

November 9, 2009

Important

Razorfish has just come out with their very smart FEED report that digs into behavior of ‘connected consumers,’ which are the ones that most of us are trying to reach with our online and social campaigns.  The report goes into detail about what these connected consumers are doing and how they are engaging online.  The statistics are pretty amazing, although not altogether surprising (to me at least).

According to the report:

“Based on our 2009 Razorfish Digital Brand Experience Study, 65% of consumers report having had a digital experience that either positively or negatively changed their opinion about a brand. Of that group, a nearly unanimous 97% say that their digital experience influenced whether or not they eventually purchased a product or service from that brand.”

This is pretty straightforward, and should definitely grab some marketers’ attentions.  I certainly hope so!

The piece in the report that caught me was that consumers are looking for deals on social media, and they are not necessarily there because they share the brand’s values.  This definitely raises an important point and it’s a good idea to probe a bit on this to figure out how best to capitalize on this insight. Here are a few thoughts on this:

1. Economics. I think it’s worth noting that we are coming out of a recession and naturally consumers are looking for deals online.  I bet this explains some of the info on what people are looking for in social channels.  But beyond just money, people want something unique or different – something that the average consumer isn’t getting.  Of course, the easy thing to do is just offer a discount or some kind of sale.  But there’s more that we can offer to satisfy consumer appetite in social channels. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water just yet please.

2. Unique Content. There are other ways to reward consumers for being a friend/fan/follower of a brand outside of the typical discounts or sales.  Interestingly, in the FEED report, Whole Foods was cited as one of the brands that is ‘getting it’ and offering info on weekly specials AND shopping tips.  The latter is something that probably costs them very little, but helps customers have a better shopping experience with Whole Foods.  Is this valuable?  You bet it is.  This is getting more into the mind of the customer and really helping them outside of just financial rewards (discounts).

3. Advance Info. Social channels give us the ability to make announcements quickly, and give fans, followers, friends, etc. a ‘heads up’ that something big is happening.  Making big announcements via social channels is a great way to reward these fans that make public proclamations of their brand support.  And of course, the mix of communications is important here.  We don’t want to fall into the trap of only pushing out messages that we want our audience to respond to, but those messages should be peppered in along with other messages that are truly useful to the community.

4. Limited Editions. Nothing groundbreaking here, but this is a concept that can be utilized in social channels to keep fans happy.  If there is a limited edition item that can be announced and made available through exclusively social channels, then this can be used as a thank you to the members of the community.  This not only rewards the community, but it encourages the viral effect, because those who don’t have access to the limited edition item will no doubt want to know why.  When they find out, it’s a good bet that they will join the community so they are in the know the next time around.

5.  Special Events. Inviting fans to a special event is another easy way to show appreciation and reward them for sticking around.  Another old-school tactic, but one that translates well into social channels.  How easy is it to send out an invite to an event via social media?  Pretty easy.  Is this something that the community would value?  Probably so.  This one may cost some money, depending on what the event is, but the potential upside may be worth the investment if done properly.

These are just a few thoughts that come to mind after reading the FEED report.  I certainly think that providing deals and discounts is a strong proposition for many brands, particularly in the current economic climate, but this isn’t the only way to generate loyalty in social media.  In the end, it’s not about the channel – it’s about Marketing.  Some things don’t change just because there is better technology and more communication channels we can use.  Sometimes you have to get back to the basics and figure out creative ways to connect with your audience without falling back on price cuts or sales.

Download the full FEED report here.

Special thanks to @gschmitt and the Razorfish crew for this outstanding report.  It’s a must-read for any marketer.  Give it a read and I’d love to hear your take on what this means for brands.