Social has Talent. A {growtoon}.
Jun 29th
Join the growtoonists each Friday for a humorous take on marketing, social media, and current business events.
Joey Strawn is a social media strategist that loves enjoying a good book and then drawing in it. Check him out on Twitter: @joey_strawn
Marketing execs falling behind the digital learning curve
Jun 28th
One of the best parts of my job is having the privilege of observing the inner-workings of companies and their struggle to become a digital literate (and hopefully, digital leading) company.
This is NOT an easy process. In fact, it can be gut-wrenching.
Many of today’s marketing executives grew up in a less-complicated and relatively mature world of TV and print advertising. Not only are they not digital experts, they may not even know enough to ask the right questions that will lead to a successful strategy.
The urgent push to digital
Some companies aren’t making it. Kodak, the dominant market leader for decades could not make the transition to digital and is bankrupt.
Others are re-training aggressively. Johnson & Johnson, one of my customers, is re-training all of their marketing personnel to rapidly improve their digital competencies.
Procter & Gamble recently jettisoned nearly 2,000 marketers, partly as an effort to re-tool and re-align skillsets with strategy and market needs.
I think all of this activity confirms one of the themes of this blog — social media success is not going to be a function of marketing vision or budget. It’s going to rely on radical organizational transformation.
A new study by Jeffrey F. Rayport and Tuck Rickards and reported by The Harvard Business Review seems to confirm that companies are simply not moving fast enough.
We are losing the race
The report states that only nine companies — less than two percent of the Fortune 500 — would be regarded as having a “highly digital” orientation. To be highly digital, a company must pass four tests: it generates a high percentage of revenues digitally; its leadership (both the CEO and the Board) has deep digital experience; it does business significantly enabled by digital channels; and it’s recognized as transformational in its industry.
It’s no news that technology companies — Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Dell, HP, Google, Intel, Microsoft, and Oracle — have boards and executive leadership that are strong in digital expertise.
But boards are also on their way to becoming highly digital in sectors where you would least expect it: Pepsi, Wal-Mart, Ingram Micro, Sysco, Berkshire Hathaway and FedEx.
The authors state: “Given the increasing influence, even dominance, of social and mobile technologies, we expect to see a similar evolution take place in more ‘unlikely’ sectors: health care, industrial goods, natural resources.”
“It’s clear the tide is turning — and it’s turning fast,” the authors state. “We believe it’s no coincidence that the largest and most successful companies in our economy are leading this change. Just consider what some established companies have done recently to address their digital capabilities gap at the highest levels of leadership and governance.”
What are you seeing out there? How is your company making the digital transformation? Is it slow and steady? Is there a sense of urgency? Or, are you like many companies who are falling behind?
Racing photo courtesy of BigStock Photo
It’s easy to buy attention but can you earn it?
Jun 27th
By Srinivas Rao, Contributing {grow} Columnist
As the social web gets flooded with content creators, the supply of attention is decreasing while the demand is increasing. If you’ve ever taken an economics class, then you know that this causes the price of attention to rise. Attention isn’t available at bargain basement prices. Even if you manage to get it cheap, it won’t last long. There’s a big difference between building a tribe and getting an audience.
Attention is a form a of currency on the social web.
I’ve always said that attention is a form of currency on the social web. When people choose to spend theirs with you, treat them accordingly. Embrace the nature of social conversations.
And the attention of an audience can be bought!
Anybody can get the attention of an audience. You can buy ads, and drive tons of traffic to your blog or company web site. But it’s one thing to get somebody’s attention and something entirely different to keep it.
Characteristics of a Tribe
1. The Attention of a tribe must be earned
The attention of a tribe is something that grows over time. It’s created through a combination of great content, relationships and trust. It must be earned.
2. Members of a Tribe Will Defend Their Leader
A few weeks ago I wrote a post that really hit a nerve with one of my readers. He went so far as to say that I should be ashamed of my content and was doing a disservice to humanity (not exactly a light criticism). This was after my reply to his original comment. Rather than engage him, I decided to direct my energy towards something more positive. A few days later I went back to check on the comment thread ou`t of curiosity and noticed that a number of my readers had come to my defense. When you’ve truly built a tribe they’ll become loyal, they’ll sing your praises and defend you.
3. A Tribe is There by Choice
Unlike an audience who you can force to end up at your blog through ads, or a blog post that went viral, a tribe is there by choice. A tribe keeps coming back every single day. A tribe looks forward to your insights, products,ideas, and content.
4. Members of a Tribe Recruit Other Members
If you talk to anybody who has built a sizable audience, they will tell you to get really clear on who your audience is. It may seem counterintuitive. But once you figure who your message is not for, you’ll attract the people who it is for in droves. Existing readers and tribe members will recruit the others. You don’t need millions of people following your work, just the ones who really care.
5.The Ultimate Sign That You’ve Built a Tribe
If you want the ultimate test for your whether or not you’ve built a tribe, disappear for a week without telling anybody. A tribe will notice if their leader is missing. If nobody notices that you’re gone, you’ve probably got some work to do.
So, now you have to ask yourself: Are you building an audience or a tribe? There’s a big difference. It takes time, effort and a genuine desire to make a difference in order to build a tribe.
Srinivas Rao writes about the things you should have learned in school, but never did and his the host-co founder of BlogcastFM. You can follow him on twitter @skooloflife
Top Illustration courtesy of BigStock.com
Blog comments are serious business
Jun 26th
If you have a company blog, you’re probably dying to drum up a few comments that can lead to a community. yet established bloggers have some surprisingly diverse views on the value of commenting and engagement.
Gini Dietrich revved up an interesting debate last week with her examination of blog commenting strategies but I think some important points were missed and I’d like to add my voice to the discussion.
Gini identified three blog comment “camps” …
- No one comments.
- The blogger leaves the comments open for everyone to debate, argue, or agree with one another, but the blogger rarely responds;
- The blogger replies to every comment left on his or her blog post
… and she concludes that none of them are necessarily a predictor of success. There are widely-read blogs in all categories. Her position, and I agree, is that it’s your blog and you can do anything you want with it.
Mitch Joel responded with a post called the Disease Called Blogging and explained his own interesting position on blog commenting:
I don’t think that the blog comments are my responsibility. It’s not a dialogue between the blogger and the reader … I have the spotlight already. The blog comments are your space to shine. The blog comments are not about me and how I respond.
As I perused the posts and the many ensuing comments, there were two big points that I think have been overlooked.
Comments create community, community creates benefits. The community here on {grow} has become an essential part of my business and personal life. Through the blog community, I have made great friends and business partners. I’ve found a group of people who are interested enough in me to maybe even hire me, buy one of my books, or ask me to speak at their event. I’ve hired people from the blog community, provided referrals, and provided help and counsel. The business benefits of blogging have been incredible.
Point number one: If you are writing a blog, why don’t you want to have a supportive community? How can you create a community if you don’t engage? Engaging just makes good business sense.
It’s not just a comment. It’s a gift. Nearly everyone I know would describe their lives somewhere between “busy” and “swamped.” But somehow, each day dozens of people take some of their time — life’s most precious commodity — and devote it to me and this community through the form of a blog comment. Wow. That is just so humbling. I never, ever take a blog comment for granted. What a gift.
Point number two: A comment is an amazing gift of somebody’s time and talent. How can you simply ignore that?
For these reasons, I try to respond to every comment, even if it is a simple “thank you.” Sometimes it’s at 1 in the morning, sometimes it is a day or two late, but I do try to respond. It’s not easy, but it’s important that I show you gratitude and respect.
If you’re a blogger, do you recall the wonder and excitement of the first comment you ever received? Did you respond? Of course you did. I still feel that excitement every day and I hope I never get to the point where I take my community for granted. if I do, you have my permission to give me a swift kick in the ass.
I can’t promise responses on every single post or every single comment (especially if it is simply people nodding in agreement), but I wanted to explain the reasons behind my commenting philosophy.
Where do you fall on the commenting continuum, and why?
Illustration: The Conversation by Renee Kahn
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