Social Media Marketing - What's Missing?
So much has been said about social media marketing: "it's
really effective..." - or the other end of the spectrum - "it's a waste of time...". People's reactions
are all over the map. Through the clutter, though, the evidence
is clear that not only is social media the current path to marketing success, it is the
future.
Can't really say that without backing it up, can I? Some clues to this conclusion come from internet use trends. Think about the most successful websites out there: Wikipedia, Craig's List, Facebook, etc. What do these sites have in common? They are built by a bunch of people. Yup, good old collaborative publishing.
But the most compelling argument is good old monetary results, right? Well here's a good one for you: Dell has reported more than $6.5 million
in sales from direct customer interactions on Twitter alone*. That's
obviously a result you can bank on.
People have certain expectations when making
buying
decisions. Use the consumer electronics industry for example - and the Dell result in particular. Research has made the industry aware that 83% of people share their purchase recommendations
with other people and on average these people tell 15 others about
their recommendation**. Add to that message spread the recent Dell
announcement that they have 3.5 million direct social media
connections*. Think of the exponential spread those 3.5 million people
have should they share their recommendations with 15 others - that's
52.5 million recommendations! And don't think these relationships are
not without financial value, remember the $6.5 million result from Dell's Twitter experience?
OK, I made the case you need to be in social media (as if
you didn't have a clue before reading this...). You likely are already
implementing some elements of social media. But what's missing? In my view the
biggest missing piece is implementing social media into the very fiber of your company.
"Huh?" may be your first reaction. "You're nuts", the
second. But hear me out on this one, please. When I say into the very fiber of
your company I'm not talking about giving your brand away and letting the
hoards control it. I'm talking about implementing strategies that capitalize on
the natural back-and-forth that social media is all about. Create relationships
with your customers that are like
in-person relationships. Listen, respond, share - all those attribute that make
social media so appealing are the attributes you need to instill in your
company and your people.
How to do this is not really rocket science but it does take
a very difficult thing - CHANGE. Yes, a change in culture/behavior is a very
difficult thing to do for a lot of people. But it has to be done.
Once you get into the mindset of listening to your customers
and trusting your people that they can converse with people as one-on-one
relationships you have to address another missing piece in the social media marketing puzzle: You need to think about having multiple ways for people to create those
relationships; particularly online.
If you have a multi-unit business (think franchises, network
marketing, retail chains, etc) you have a unique opportunity to make your local
stores or locations act as your conduit to person-to-person communication.
Think of your local store as the home-base for your marketing efforts. Of
course this includes a website that is set up to deliver both local and corporate
information - and maybe even a way to capture customer input as well. By
building this resource for each location you are in a place to engage your
local store as the center of your local marketing machine.
Now think back to the number of people that are willing to
recommend a consumer electronics' decision (15). Think about how many people would be
willing to share their thoughts on something a tad smaller than an consumer electronic purchase. By creating a way for your customers to think of your business as
local, you can imagine how much reach your brand could obtain as a result. You
know the
old Faberge commercial "I told two friends. And they told two friends. And so on, and so on, and so on..." The possibilities are amazing to say the least.
We've created a presentation that demonstrates the core
concepts of what this post is about and how a LoudClick Enterprise implementation can help. I encourage you to review it to see
exactly how an enterprise can capitalize on people connecting online
using social media. It makes a bunch of sense and points out what is missing in social media marketing.
*Source:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=akXzD_6YNHCk**Source: Yahoo! Advocacy Research
1/28/10-
Paul
