5 great resources for social marketers, and one bad one
Oct 27th
I have finally had a little free time to plow through my stack of books and wanted to pass along five little tomes you will love and one that you won’t.
Marketing White Belt: Basics For the Digital Marketer
I love, love, love this book by braniac Christopher S. Penn. One of the themes you have seen consistently here on {grow} is an emphasis on marketing fundamentals. Social is just a channel. To succeed you need to know more than creating a Facebook page. This book fills a gaping need for solid marketing fundamentals. If you are just starting out and want to be a marketer, please read this book! Christopher is such a smart guy and a natural teacher. You’ll really enjoy White Belt.
The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social
By Jay Baer and Amber Naslund – I actually read this book months ago and continue to refer to it and recommend it in my college classes. This is an old-fashioned business book. It’s not flowery examples wrapped around a solitary idea. NOW is a legitimate framework for social media success in an organization. If I had one recommendation, it is that the book should have been longer to cover the rich subject matter. For example, NOW begins with an emphasis on the importance of a company culture that enables social media. This is spot-on thinking and they could have written an entire book on just that one subject … and I hope they do!
Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition
By Mike Stelzner – The title is a bit precocious for the book’s actual subject matter … which is really the importance and mindset of content marketing. But hey, content is king on the social web and this is the place to learn about that. Stelzner, the founder of the wildly successful Social Media Examiner, should know. He tells the story of how content — and the right mindset to use it — transformed his life. Launch explores the ideas of content from every imaginable perspective. It is the definitive handbook for creating and managing content for business success.
Last year I got to meet Grégory Pouy, one of France’s leading business bloggers, and he let me know he was working on an eBook project. I figured, oh we all need more social media eBooks, right? Little could I imagine that he was developing an authoritative FREE reference on eCommerce, filled with great case studies and facts presented in a very entertaining way. I have no idea why he’s not CHARGING for this but let’s not question it. I guarantee you will want to bookmark this resource and share it with your friends and clients!
I got turned on to this eBook by a buddy at Coca-Cola who swears by it. That got my attention! This little book, written by Jim Lecinski, Google’s Managing Director of US Sales, provides an interesting perspective of Google’s view of real-time consumer marketing. Company puff piece? Maybe, but this is an eye-popping multi-media experience filled with insights and relevant case studies. And hey, it’s FREE! Yes, ZMOT is informative, but I’d like you consider this book on another level — how is this a brilliant example of brand building through content marketing?
So I told you there would be a book in this line-up that was not so great and this is it – We Are All Weird
Here’s an example of the circular logic in the book. The book’s basic theme is that mass marketing and merchandising are dead. However, he also says that the efficiency of mass marketing and merchandising is the very thing enabling the wealth to purchase expensive niche market goods. Huh? Doesn’t sound like it’s dead to me.
Godin also marvels at the disintermediation and market efficiency of the Internet that is now connecting obscure goods with niche buyers. Welcome to the 1990s, good sir.
It seems to me that Seth looked around New York City, wondered at the glorious panapoly of goods available in this metropolis and declared it a worldwide trend. Mr. Godin, I would invite you to explore middle America where our commerce is generally governed by Wal-Mart and Taco Bell. Of course you will find weird people there, too.
These are a few from my reading list. What books are making an impact on you these days?
Disclosures: I received free review copies of Launch, The Now Revolution, and We Are All Weird. The links to the books that are not free are affiliate links. I consider Jay Baer a personal friend but would still rip his butt if he deserved it.
The Corporate Battle of the Facebook Likes
Oct 23rd
One of the best things about my job is that I get to meet executives from many different companies, both big and small. I was having a discussion the other day with a digital marketing executive from a seriously huge brand (can’t politely name it) and he told me this story, which he said was OK to share with you …
His company, a famous consumer products company, became obsessed with assuring that their brands had more Facebook “Likes” than equivalent competitor products. It actually became a marketing strategic goal and part of the annual performance objectives for brand managers.
The brand equity is roughly equivalent to something like “Mr. Clean” — successful, well-known, historic, but not exactly the center of daily conversation. A household given.
The company has two success metrics for this social media initiative: 1) Did the brand have more Likes than the leading competitor and 2) What was the “cost per Like?” So internally, brand managers competed fiercely to have the lowest “Like acquisition cost.”
At first, I was amazed that a major brand would have such a seemingly strange view of marketing success but these are smart people so I gave them the benefit of the doubt and tried to figure out what the possible benefits of this approach might be. Here’s what I dreamed up:
- Perhaps they have research that shows there is important value in the appearance — “the social proof” — of having lots of Facebook Likes versus competitors.
- Maybe they are planning to create exceptional content that will reward those people who like the brand and turn them into fans. I don’t think this is the case, but it could be possible.
- Some studies have come out equating Facebook fans with a dollar value. I am skeptical about these generalizations but maybe they have some new market insight about this potential.
- By creating this internal competition, perhaps they are exploring best practices to garner fans.
- Maybe with this experiment, they are figuring out the most cost-effective way to link paid advertising and interaction on Facebook
On the surface, this battle of Facebook Likes seems arbitrary, but what do you think? What is the possible value? Are people getting caught up in this at your company? Are you linking “Likes” to brand loyalty or sales?
Three reasons social media marketing favors small businesses
Sep 22nd
I’ve spent some time this week attending a few online webinars and catching up on my blog reader and I noticed an interesting trend. The conversations, research, presentations, and case studies focused entirely on large corporations.
For example, I sat through a Forrester presentation on new social web marketing analytics and their ideas on measurement took resources that were way out of reach of the small business owner, meaning … most of us.
Look through the success stories in your blog reader. Nike. Ford. Coca-Cola. And of course the ever-present Zappos. Is anybody paying attention to the little guys?
We keep hearing about the great opportunity for small businesses to “take part in the conversation” but is that really true? In the daily dogfight for consumer attention, are they being overwhelmed by the big brand mega-productions, online promotions and games? Are small businesses going to be crowded out by the big chains and big marketing budgets?
No! It’s time for the small business owner to rise up and embrace the social web! Local businesses CAN have an advantage through social media for these three reasons:
Local angle — Social media’s greatest power is when it is used in a way that is targeted and local. I could care less about a tweet from a mega-brand, but I would certainly be interested to get to know a local shop owner in a personal way.
Here’s an example. I don’t follow Starbucks on Twitter and probably never will. However, I do follow Brian Myers, the owner of JaVerde Coffee here in Knoxville. We became friends over Twitter. Although his shop is 15 miles from my home, I go out of my way to support his small business entirely because of our personal Twitter connection. That’s how business works!
Personal touch — One time Brian saw this tweet come through: “On my way to JaVerde Coffee but forgot my wallet!” The shop owner replied, “Come on by, this one is on me.” He just won a customer for life.
Even though companies like McDonalds may fill a room with tweeters, I don’t think they could ever match the connection and loyalty a local business owner can drive with its customers. If Bank of America tweets every minute of the day for the rest of my life I am probably never going to connect with a real person. And for a small business, that is everything. It’s not just about coupons. It’s about caring.
The ROI advantage — Culturally, I think it is difficult for many large businesses to do anything more than check a box on social media because they expect all the results to be neatly assembled on an Excel spreadsheet or infographic. If you have a moment to spare, I encourage you to watch this three minute news story about a small bakery’s use of Facebook. Here are some of the social media benefits described in the clip:
- Higher customer loyalty/number of visits
- Higher rate of spending
- Frequent customer connection
- A channel for customer service
- Emotional connection to the brand
- Source for new product ideas and customer polling
Now if a customer provides an idea for a great new pastry, how do you measure that? I suppose you could create a pie chart. Pie chart! Get it? Oh, never mind.
For a local business using an essentially free social media platform, this list of benefits is pretty impressive. In fact, it’s revolutionary.
So while small businesses may not be getting the spotlight on the blogosphere, there is no question that, done right, there can be great opportunity in this critical segment of the economy.
What is your experience? Do you have any great case studies from your city you would like to share?
Social networking for business benefits, YES it works!
Aug 18th
Why am I waving my fist in the air? You will just have to click on the video to see!
I’m just not much of a video guy but hey, I’m trying! Here’s a little story about a wide web of social connections coming together over a period of two years to create extraordinary new economic value for me, a university, a client, and several valued business partners.
Social networking for business — it WORKS!
What is your best social networking story? Would you share an experience in the comment section?
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