The Quisenblog

This week’s social media blog posts:
Monday: The two kinds of online consumers.
Tuesday: Creating a Community, Part 1.
Wednesday: Creating a Community, Part 2.
Thursday: Social Media you can own.
Friday: Giving up control.

(This is the eleventh in our series of Social Media posts for the month of October. We look forward to your feedback on this series.)

In our previous few posts, we’ve talked about using existing social networks to build an online community. These communities aren’t “owned” by you; they belong to the members of the community. Setting up and enabling a community doesn’t mean you “own” it. The conversation goes where it goes, where the participants take it.

Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and other existing networks offer lots of users and many possible existing communities for you to tap in to, but you may also benefit by creating your own gathering place. While there is plenty of value to be realized for businesses by following the conversation, there are other times it is of value to “own” the community gathering place. The advantage is that you can present the information you want. You can also help steer the conversation, while still deepening the relationship with your community.

Media that you can “own” includes your web site, tactical micro sites (web sites built for a specific audience or purpose), newsletters, email blasts and blogs (at least your original posts).

Micro sites have become a very popular way to attract and build a community. A micro site is basically a stand-alone web site—built much like the corporate web site you already have. In fact, it may be created as a page on your web site. What generally distinguishes a micro site is its users come for one specific purpose. As an example, if you are a university, you may wish to launch a micro site dedicated to homecoming week. Everything a visitor would need to know about homecoming week, from activities to travel accommodations to player bios and ticket information for the football team, could be found on that micro.

Directing banner ad click-throughs and email blasts to a focused, content-rich micro site can geometrically improve your click-through rates over sending them to your corporate web site (remember, people are online to find quick solutions).

Here is an example of a micro site that has done a great job in building a community, becoming viral (“I have to send this to my Aunt Millie!”) and, yes, selling tons of product. It is a micro site for BlendTec blenders, a brand of rather high-end kitchen blenders. The microsite is called “Will It Blend,” and features a collection of videos that show the company’s somewhat nerdy CEO Tom Dickson attempting to blend all sorts of obscure objects, from golf balls to glowsticks to golf clubs to iPhones. These short minute-long films are entertaining, quirky and demonstrate that the BlendTec 5000 can indeed blend anything.

Micro sites often offer more chance for community feedback that a corporate site. For example, the homecoming site above could include a page of “best homecoming memories,” a photo gallery, and a page or link to help you find missing classmates and leave messages for them. Will It Blend could have visitors vote on their favorite videos or send in suggestions for future vids.

How can you tell if your micro site, email blast or other content has the potential to “go viral?” While this is imprecise to say the least, one question to ask of it is: “Is this more outrageous than what I’d see on TV?” It’s got to quickly capture visitors’ fancies. Also, try to think in terms of “narrow” and “deep.” Pick an audience that is very niche, then push your content so it’s something that resonates with that narrow audience.

In conclusion, Social Media you own can be a valuable way to have more control over the conversation while building a community.

Feedback? We’d love to hear it.

Posted by Mickey

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Mickey Social Media feedback, micro sites, online communities, solutions

This week’s social media blog posts:
Monday: The two kinds of online consumers.
Tuesday: Creating a Community, Part 1.
Wednesday: Creating a Community, Part 2.
Thursday: Social Media you can own.
Friday: Giving up control.

(This is the ninth in our series of Social Media posts for the month of October. We look forward to your feedback on this series.)

Here we are, more than a week into this series on Social Media, and we’ve hardly bothered to utter the terms “Facebook” or “Twitter.” How can that be?

Basically, because up to now, we’ve been talking about the value of Social Media and the importance of adopting a platform that is helpful, transparent, user-directed and focused on the greater needs of the customer. The one thing that’s been missing so far is a network. Where does your community gather? How does its members get information to one another? How do you find people, reach them, and have them willingly pass your information on to others in their spheres of influence?

A community is a group of people with common interests who interact with one another. This can lead to feelings of solidarity, team spirit and a collective intelligence. Community leads to connections between people and products. The challenge is to interact in a manner that comes off as mutually beneficial. One way to involve your customers as a community is to make them “co-conspirators.” Insiders. Let them into your teepee. Proudly show them how sausage is made.

That is where social networks come in. Social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have millions of users and communities who use the social networks to connect with one another. Hundreds of thousands of communities already exist in these networks. The average Facebook user, for example, belongs to more than 2 groups.

The growth of these social networks has been phenomenal. Facebook alone had 300 million users as of September—up more than 100 million since April. And Twitter just passed the 1 billion views mark.

Here are some considerations to keep in mind when thinking about creating an online community or group:

1. Make your content “Buzzworthy.” Ask, “is this something a lot of people would be interested in, or is it simply what I want everyone to know?”
2. Investigate whether communities already exist that you can be a part of or take advantage of.
3. Don’t limit yourself to a single platform, and make sure your content matches the platform.

Here’s an example of a brand that has been quite successful at building a community of its most impassioned users. The brand is Jeep. And the passionate Jeep owner wants to connect with others who feel the same way about their vehicles. So they use Jeep’s Facebook page as a gathering place where they can share pictures, swap stories and help one other source hard-to-find parts or answer performance questions.

By creating a place where its community can gather and share their passion, Jeep has also set up a framework where the bulk of the communication is between followers. These are the exchanges that over time build true brand loyalty.

In tomorrow’s post, we’ll provide an example of how you can use social sites to create a community from the ground up with your company at the center.

If you have any feedback on this or other posts, we’d love to hear it.

Posted by Mickey

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Mickey Social Media brand loyalty, community participation, Jeep, online communities, online networking platforms, valuable content

This week’s social media blog posts:
Monday: The Social Media Manifesto.
Tuesday: Social Media and business.
Wednesday: Your Social Media strategy: What are you hoping to achieve?
Thursday: Social Marketing turns the Media Funnel upside down.
Friday: Action steps for getting your business started in Social Media—today.

(This is the sixth in our series of Social Media posts for the month of October. We look forward to your feedback on this series.)

One of the arguments marketers have used against Social Media campaigns is that it requires too much work
for too little return. “Social Media operates on too small a scale,” they may say. “No way you can expect the number of eyeballs from an online campaign as you would get from a traditional mass media campaign,” the thinking goes.

True. But is the number of “eyeballs” the correct measurement? Shouldn’t we be concerning ourselves more
with “engagement?”

For decades, we in marketing have had little choice but to subscribe to the paradigm of “media attrition.” It goes something like this: “If we hit 1,000,000 people with the same message, we’re bound to influence the behavior
of 1%.”

That means we deliver the same message to 1,000,000 folks with the expectation that we may actually get 10,000 of them to take action.

With Social Media, however, it is possible to affect the behavior of the same 10,000 folks by starting with a far smaller number. Like, say 1,000. Or even 100.

Thanks to the Internet, social networking sites and other online tools and communities, the traditional “media funnel” as we know it gets turned on its head. It is literally flipped upside down. Instead of starting with a big number to get a small one, we start small with the expectation we can grow our community. What the Internet doesn’t deliver in numbers, it delivers in influence.

So whereas 1,000,000 used to equal 10,000, now 1,000 does.

And who, exactly, are these 1,000? They’re your best customers, the ones who already feel like you are part of their “personal brand.” The ones Malcom Gladwell would refer to as “sneezers.”

Finding them may take a little work, but once you identify them, and dialogue with them from the perspective of “what can I do for you?” rather than “here’s what I want you to know,” they’ll react positively and stick with you.

Nurturing a Social Media community takes a little more elbow grease than executing a media buy, but in the long run it’s worth it. Those initial 1,000 souls will become the “medium” of your message moving forward to friends, family and Facebook. Through the Magic Multiplier of social media, that initial 1,000 will soon balloon to 10,000 or even 100,000.

Right away you can see you don’t have to haul in huge numbers initially to be successful in Social Media. For conversation sake, take your engagement number and multiply it by 150 (the equivalent of a 0.75% conversion rate—pretty good by mass media standards). This will give you roughly an equivalent number of unique “eyeballs” you’d have to reach through mass media to achieve roughly the same results. If you engage 1,000, you’d have to reach 150,000, etc. Now ask, “what would I have had to spend to get those eyeballs?” There. You roughly have a working figure to show what that engagement is “worth” in traditional marketing dollars.

And with Social Media, your campaign doesn’t end when your ad budget does. Each member of your community has the opportunity to engage deeper and bring others in.

Looked at it in this respect, Social Media can be as competitive in scale as mass media.

Influencing behavior via Social Media may not work the same way as through conventional media, but the results can be just as effective (the Evian “Rollerskating Babies” video on YouTube for example, has attracted over 11.5 million views, in addition to the other free publicity it has generated. This could translate to a mass media value of more than $1 billion!)

With Social Media, you end up with customers who have chosen to engage with you on a deeper level. They have opted in. They came to you because someone in their personal circle recommended you. And if they have a good experience, you are “made” in Tony Soprano-speak, and won’t have to compete for them on a transaction-by-transaction basis, you’d likely have to do with a mass media campaign.

Just do the math.

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Mickey Social Media audience engagement, campaign success, mass media, media attrition, online communities, Rollerskating Babies

This week’s social media blog posts:
Monday: The Social Media Manifesto.
Tuesday: Social Media and business.
Wednesday: Your Social Media strategy: What are you hoping to achieve?
Thursday: Social Marketing turns the Media Funnel upside down.
Friday: Action steps for getting your business started in Social Media—today.

(This is the third in our series of Social Media posts for the month of October. We look forward to your feedback on this series.)

For brands, Social Media allows for a new way of reaching more and better people in a less intrusive, more personal, more likeable fashion. The barriers that exist in traditional mass media don’t exist in Social Media. People are paying attention to you because they want to. There is an opportunity to provide instant feedback, and a more relevant solution in the context of people’s lives.

As a reminder, when we refer to “Social Media,” we are referring to it as anything you do in the online space that allows others to converse, contribute, add to, distribute or give feedback to.

What are the characteristics of a successful Social Media campaign? What does a successful Social Media campaign look like? While there are many ways to engage with others online, there are a few universal “truths” about successful use of Social Media we hold to be self-evident. Feel free to use the following list as a print-and-post:

1. We’re all social marketers. Online or offline, we all have our communities that share our interests. We’re all looking for places to fit in and for feedback from others.
2. The customer (or user) is in control. The customer decides when (or whether) to engage with us online. Intrusion doesn’t work. You can’t force your message onto users.
3. Transparency is the key. There’s a huge difference between the old way we used to view marketing (“What do I have to say to get you to buy from me?”) and the Web 2.0 view on marketing (“Who do I have to be for you to engage with me?”) Don’t say something or take a stand because you think it’s what customers want to hear, or because or it might “sound good.” If your organization isn’t behind it, drop it. Be authentic. By transparently expressing your values to visitors, and allowing them to see how you “walk your talk,” you’ll set the stage for developing trust.
4. Social Media operates in real time. By being responsive to visitors and customers, it shows you care about them and the community you’re taking part in.
5. Thou shalt not sell. Your goal in Social Media is to solve problems. Once you are trusted by followers as a “problem solver” the sales will come.
6. Everything is “opt-in” (or, in the very least, avoiding the “opt-out”). Key is to maintain a Social Media presence and keep your content fresh, useful and engaging.
7. Cherish the relationship over the transaction. Find out what the customer is trying to accomplish, what they are trying to get done, then do whatever you can to move them towards that. A successful interaction is more than its own reward. It is proof to a customer that you’re in it for more than the sale, and that is how you will earn their trust.
8. Social Media is a long-term proposition. Even if you are using social media for a tactical campaign, your online efforts go on for as long as they have momentum. Your challenge is to keep it fresh and engaging.
9. When customers interact with you, interact right back. Have a strategy in place for how you will leverage that initial engagement you have earned into something more long-term and meaningful.
10. Give away your expertise. The most successful Social Media programs are where you help visitors solve problems. The knowledge and experience you have around your business and industry gives people a reason to consider you a solution.
11. What someone says about you is more important than what you say about yourself. Effective social media is owned, operated and moderated by its users. Your primary job is to listen and look for opportunities to share and solve.
12. Social media is not a strategy, it is the amplifier of your strategy. What is your Brand Vision? How do you want to be perceived by customers and others? How do you want them to refer to you? How is your social media strategy forwarding this Brand Vision?
13. Social Media is about your customers and your community members, not about you. Social Media enables marketers to speak with their audiences (instead of to them) and the participants are the stars…with brands relegated to playing a supporting role.

We’ll have the opportunity to elaborate on many of these subjects as the month goes on. As always, we look forward to your feedback on this series. If you’re not currently receiving the Quisenblog, you can subscribe here.

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Mickey Social Media campaign characteristics, customer interaction, instant feedback, online communities, opt-in, strategy amplifier, successful campaigns

With the explosion of blogs and other “user created content” has come the growth of what some in the media have coined “citizen journalism.” The idea here being that in today’s information-rich world, often the “media professional” is no more than a middle man or filter through which information passes, and that a dynamic is on the rise whereby ordinary citizens are using inexpensive web tools to make and report news to thousands (and sometimes impacting millions).

With the growth of Social Media, could the same dynamic be at play in the world of marketing? Could we now have Citizen Marketers who operate outside the basic control and auspices of marketing/advertising professionals who are so adept at crafting the message?

In a word, absolutely.

Conversations are going on online about every subject you can think of, and in nearly all these cases, these are authentic communications initiated by consumers for the consumption of other consumers. Occasionally a brand or its representatives may be involved, but most of the time, beyond creating the initial framework of the community, the brand serves more as observer and facilitator than contributor.

This speaks to the importance of transparency in the process of online communication. Attempts to control the message, set forth an agenda, or “spin” the news are often met with consumer indifference or outright anger. Key to keeping communities engaged is to make the primary voice in the conversation that of the consumer. A recommendation from a fellow customer, or a impartial rating from someone who has tried the product or service carries way more weight with the casual consumer than any corporate message will.

Let’s be clear, however. While there is unequivocal value in many of these conversations between visitors, there’s also a great deal of superfluous noise and pointless navel-gazing. Here is an opportunity for the marketing pro—to delve into the conversations and determine how to insert a brand in a meaningful way.

So rather than shying away from communities, embrace them. You want to be talked about. Even when conversations go in a way that you wouldn’t necessarily script them, keep an open mind (and an open ear) and ask what you can contribute. Remember, most people are online because they are looking for some sort of solution. See what you can do to facilitate that solution for them. You’ll earn high ratings from John Q. Marketer.

Posted by Mickey

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Mickey New Media blog, citizen journalism, citizen marketers, online communication, online communities, Social Media