The ever-awesome Mitch Joel wrote a dizzying blog post forecasting that 2012 is The Year of More.

He points out that 2012 will be a year of technological and information abundance:

• Social sharing will intensify and choices will multiply
• The marketing stage — even for small businesses — will be more global
• The opportunity to target in a hyper-local way will create an unprecedented push of “deals”
• Devices are still multiplying, not consolidating
• Brands will be fighting hard to connect with us more directly and more personally
• Sorting through the information density today is difficult and becoming impossible.

Mitch is right of course (just don’t tell him that I said so).  But here is the grand irony. All of these trends fly directly in the face of what consumers really need right now.

We need LESS.

Consumers are paralyzed by choice and overwhelmed by information density. I just viewed a TV ad for something called Deal Chicken. I thought, does the world really need another freaking way to get coupons?  We can’t handle the number of deals we’re already getting!

Time-starved consumers just want to be told what to do. How do I save time? How do I save money? How can I have more fun? Just tell me.  I don’t need to sift through 1 billion results on Google.  I have far too much choice.  I just want to know.

Isn’t it ironic that companies like Facebook and Google are collecting so much information about us to presumably make our decision-making more streamlined and efficient?  Does anybody feel that their information flow is more streamlined today?

Mitch is right. 2012 will be the Year of More.  But that is in direct opposition to what consumers need.  There’s a business opportunity in there somewhere, isn’t there? How are you helping your customers sort through complexity?  How will you tell them what to do?

It’s likely that you (and your customer contacts) are doing the job that used to be done by three people.  The information density of our world is overwhelming. Budgets and resources have been slashed.

It seems that everything is working against our ability to connect with customers and share information that could influence a purchasing decision and close a deal!

On the Internet side of the business, a new model for personal power and influence has emerged.  Enabled by widespread access to high-speed Internet and free publishing tools like blogging and Facebook, a new generation of influencers has emerged who have created a niche by being able to create compelling content and move it through an engaged network.

So now I want to take this idea a step further and push this thinking a new way.  If you have been immersed in the social web for awhile, this idea of influence probably makes sense.  But how do we apply this same model to the OFFLINE world?

How do we establish power and influence by creating compelling content and moving it through a HUMAN network instead of a digital one?

For example, success in sales often depends on your ability to tell the story of your company and the benefits of your product. But that task is more difficult than ever. The competition is fierce, and your procurement contacts have less and less time to learn about what you do … let alone understand it.

So how can we use Web 2.0 communication tools to break through the clutter and move our marketing message virally through Procurement, through corporate gatekeepers, and into the hearts and minds of executive decision-makers?

Here are a few lessons from moving content online that might help move it offline too:

Infographics – While we might be weary of infographics, wouldn’t that be an interesting way to cut through the clutter with a busy purchasing manager?  Instead of giving them a glossy brochure or power point presentation, why not a one-page, cleverly-designed picture of your business?

Aggregate content – When I interview customers during my market research activities, I always ask them what they hate about their jobs.  I look for activities that my client might be able to take on for them to make them indispensable. The answer usually leads back to something about stress and a lack of time to get things done. How can you use Web 2.0 utilities to help customers solve problems and save time?  Can you aggregate industry content in a helpful way so that a message from your company cuts through the clutter once a week?

Make ‘em say wow – Let’s face it. Most company corporate communications are bland. They’re little more than glossy, buzz-laden press releases. Yet the communications that really stand out and get shared ENTERTAIN people!  Do you remember the day last year when the Google logo was a little PacMan game? If you saw it, I’ll bet you remember it, played it, and probably shared it. It was a little thing that helped them stand out and make people go “wow!”  If you have ever seen an example of a corporate marketing communications that makes you go “wow” I’d like to see it.  Rare exceptions … but why?

Visual selling — I don’t know what you call this technique, but many magazines are now doing lists where you can feature the “top 10 of something” by flipping through a picture or graphic and a small amount of text. An example from Inc. is here.  This is an effective communincation format when you want to summarize the highlights, yet I have never seen it used out side of this magazine format. Sort of a Flipbook/infogrpahic combination.

I don’t have all the answers, but what do you think about the idea? How can we apply online marketing principles and best practices to the offline world to get to decision makers?

Yes, this is a real invitation.

If you hate Klout … and you probably do … try to take a deep breath and read ahead with an open mind.

Nothing seems to get rational people in a frenzy as much as Klout and its attempt to measure “influence.”  I have immersed myself in the world of online power and influence over the past six months and feel like at this point I have probably studied this topic more than any person on earth! And, unlike every other blogger on the planet it seems, I’ve come to the conclusion that this is a very important development. In fact, a historically important development.

Before I get into why, let’s knock a few obvious facts out of the way:

1. Klout cannot measure every type of influence. Never has. Never will.
2. Klout can be “gamed.” Is there anything on the Internet that can’t be?
3. It is uncomfortable being publicly rated and compared to other people.
4. Yes, it is stupid that Klout thinks you’re influential about lamps or sheep.  It is still in the early stages of development.

Now, for a different perspective.

Before the Internet, you had to actually accomplish something to be a celebrity.  Today, anybody can drum up some attention for themselves by creating content that virally moves through the social web.

Even me.

In my small world here in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, I might influence my family, maybe some business colleagues, and that’s about it.  But give me a blog and a Twitter account and I have people from all over the world telling me that I have impacted them. That is a situation that could only have happened at this precise moment in human history!  It is a possibility enabled by technology – widespread access to low-cost, high-speed Internet service and free/easy social publishing tools.

Just a few years ago, there is no way you would have heard of Mark Schaefer. Now I’ve been quoted in the New York Times and featured on MSNBC for just one reason: I am able to create, and move, my content.

So even a nobody like me can become an Influencer. And that’s pretty darn cool.  In fact, we’re in an era where you don’t have to be a sports star or a politician to have influence. All you have to do is write about your favorite topic and you can have your chance to be a little bit famous.

Content is power.

The ability to create and move content is the absolute key to online influence.  So think about this — To the extent that you could actually measure that, wouldn’t you also be creating an indicator of relative influence?

That’s what Klout is trying to do.  They are finding the people who are experts at creating, aggregating, and sharing content that moves online. Nothing more.

That may seem rather simple but it’s actually complex, and from an academic and business point of view, a significant development.

“Influence” has been one of the most studied aspects of politics, marketing, sociology, and psychology and yet it has never really been measured in a statistically valid way. Until now.  People creating content is an action. Having a link clicked, or a message re-tweeted, is an effect.  Finally, there is something to measure in this field. In fact there are billions of actions and effects to measure and compare every day!

So an important distinction is that if you’re not on the social web, you’re obviously not being measured. To argue that I should not have a higher Klout score than Oprah is missing the point.  Of course I should have a higher score.   Oprah doesn’t tweet, so she can’t be measured.  That does not mean that GLOBALLY I am more powerful than Oprah. It means that in my little sliver of the online world, among my audience, and on my topics, I can be influential. And, so can you.

A word of mouth revolution

For decades companies have spent big, big money to try to identify and nurture word-of-mouth influencers. This is an expensive and inexact science. Can you see how amazing it is to now be able to quickly, easily, and cheaply find and connect with the people who are influential about movies in Memphis? Or who generate buzz about beer in Berlin?

You can imagine that companies would be all over this.  Some of the biggest and brightest marketers and brands like Disney, Audi, Starbucks, and Nike have incorporated Klout influencers into their traditional marketing efforts. And it is working. According to Klout, each influencer in one of their Perk programs generates an average of 30 pieces of content and millions of possible impressions. The cost per thousand impressions is incredibly low compared to other forms of advertising and it is ORGANIC since it is being generated by people who already love the brands.

Now, you can go ahead and keep writing blog posts all day long about how stupid Klout is and I’ll simply suggest that you are putting emotion ahead of facts and doing a disservice to your customers. Of course all of the negatives at the top of the article are true and valid.  But don’t miss the forest for the trees.  This trend is happening with you or without you, so calm yourself and start to study this as an important online marketing weapon.

Social scoring is improving.  It is a historically significant development.  Big brands care.  And so should you. Right?

One of my strategic partners bought me one of these Cisco umi devices. It’s kind of like high-definition Skype for a big screen TV.  He thought it would be useful for our long distance collaboration.

We ran into technical and service problems and it took us four months before the damn thing was operational. It was also priced too high, and then you had to subscribe to a pricey monthly service plan.  I honestly didn’t know how Cisco was selling these things into a home market which is what they were obviously trying to do through their Ellen Page TV ads.

I have a friend who works for Cisco and I suggested that any Marketing 101 student could have seen the obvious technical, competitive, and pricing issues with this product. All they needed to do was a little analysis and research. “That’s the problem,” he said. “They never did that. They are not even applying any type of basic marketing plans to their new product development and sales efforts.”

Is it posible that a blue chip company like Cisco is ignoring marketing fundamentals?

I have long wondered … when will it get to the point where the product development cycle becomes so short in the tech business that marketing became obsolete?   Here are further indications that we may have reached that point:

• Last week Hewlett-Packard killed its entry into the tablet computer market (TouchPad), just 48 days after it was first put on sale.
• A few months ago, Microsoft pulled the plug on its Kin mobile phones after less than two months of sales.
• Remember how the A-List bloggers gushed about Google Wave? It was buried 77 days after it was launched.
• Pure Digital, maker of the popular Flip camcorder, had planned to release the Flip-Live on April 13, but Cisco, which had just acquired Pure Digital, shut the entire division on April 12.

What the heck is going on here?  How could these big, smart companies make these seemingly big, dumb moves?  Don’t they have any business school grads who know how to do customer, product, and competitive research? Market testing and planning?  A SWOT analysis for Pete’s sake?

I’d like your views on this but it seems that there are a few factors at play here:

• The short product development cycle and rapid rate of product obsolescence forces companies to take shortcuts on research and market planning expenditures. The product launch is now the same as the market test.
• Frequent executive changes and consolidation in the tech industry forces a tendency to “clean house.”
• When Apple is the dominant competitor, it is an expensive proposition to try to compete against them.
• If a product is not immediately perfect, it is crushed by tech bloggers and negative social media buzz.

If I am correct and this does represent a point where the speed of business has outpaced marketing’s ability to research and plan, there are some serious implications for all of us.

Significant brand damage.  H-P didn’t just have a misstep, it breached consumer trust.  How can you put your faith in a company and its products if it is short-sighted enough to dump a major market entry in a couple of weeks? Your most loyal early-adopters just shelled out $500 to buy your tablet and you pull the rug out from under them?

The end of brand-building?   Take a look at this picture of the first iPod.  When it was introduced in 2001, it wasn’t the first MP3 player or the prettiest one, or the one with the most memory, but it was the product willing to stick with a plan and innovate at a breath-taking pace.  Apple didn’t build that brand over night. They did it right and gave the product a chance to grow. What is the world coming to when a company dumps a product before it ever has a chance to catch on?

What about competition?  Did you see that Facebook apparently abandoned its “places” feature after just a few months? This was supposed to compete with Foursquare. Are you telling me Facebook can’t knock Foursquare around? We need competition in the tech industry.  In fact these companies need competition.  The main advantage of Google Plus is that it has slapped Facebook in the face and said “Compete!” We’re sure to get better products out of it.  Apple seems committed to innovation but lets face it, without competition, their pace of change will slow too. Why spend heavily on R&D when nobody is even trying to unseat you?

Is this a weird and unprecedented moment in marketing history — the end of marketing as we know it — or is it simply an extended run of stupid?

The other day I was walking a client through a social media strategy workshop. At the end of the long day, he turned to me and said, “And we’re probably behind on mobile too!”

I could only sigh and nod in agreement.  Of course he’s right.  Just when we were starting to get social media down, the mobile imperative grows stronger. Within a few years, the smartphone will be the first screen of access for a majority of Internet users.  Most of the time, it already is for me.  It’s an essential news, connection and productivity tool for anybody on the go.

There is no time to pause, there is no time to breathe. If you haven’t started optimizing your Internet presence for mobile, you’re probably already behind.

There are 5 billion mobile subscriptions in the world, compared to just 1.7 billion people with Internet access. There’s your business case folks.

New information from the Pew Center’s Internet and American Life Project emphasizes this point. If you’re not familiar with this initiative, it has become my favorite source of reliable research. I’m going to be on a panel presentation with the director in Denver in October and am totally psyched.

Any way, the report points out that mobile phones have become a near-ubiquitous tool for information-seeking and communicating—83% of American adults own some kind of cell phone—and these devices have an impact on many aspects of their owners’ daily lives. In a nationally representative telephone survey, they found that, during the 30 days preceding the interview:

Half of all adult cell owners (51%) had used their phone at least once to get information they needed right away. One quarter (27%) said that they experienced a situation in the previous month in which they had trouble doing something because they did not have their phone at hand.

40% of cell owners said they found themselves in an emergency situation in which having their phone with them helped.

29% of cell owners turned their phone off for a period of time just to get a break from using it.

13% of cell owners pretended to be using their phone in order to avoid interacting with the people around them.

Text messaging and picture taking continue to top the list of ways that Americans use their mobile phones—three quarters of all cell owners use their phones for each of these purposes. Other relatively common activities include sending photos or videos to others, as well as accessing the internet.

One third of American adults (35%) own a smartphone of some kind , and these users take advantage of a wide range of their phones’ capabilities. Fully nine in ten smartphone owners use text messaging or take pictures with their phones, while eight in ten use their phone to go online or send photos or videos to others. Many activities—such as downloading apps, watching videos, accessing social networking sites or posting multimedia content online—are almost entirely confined to the smartphone population.

So how are you and your business adjusting to the mobile world? Have you started?

By Robert Dempsey, Contributing {grow} Columnist

The information density of our world is creating a challenge for every indvidiual and business.  We have not yet reached the Age of Filtering!  And while you may be thinking “more is better,” maybe we can take a sales lesson from an unlikely source – a Thai Food Cart.

The Paradox

Many companies offer a long list of services, which makes their website nearly impossible to navigate and confuses a would-be buyer. While it may seem like a paradox, offering fewer options increases the likelihood of getting more business. To see why, I’m going to use an example of something seen quite frequently here in Thailand – the open-air restaurants composed of between 10 and 100 food carts.

Specialization: The Lesson of a Thai Food Cart

In every Thai town there is one common sight – open-air “restaurants” composed of food carts. Each evening food vendors drive or wheel in their food carts (some are the entire back of a pickup truck), set up tables and chairs, and start cooking. You want to talk about competition? These restaurants can have 10, 50 … even 100 of these carts!  In this environment you have to be very good at what you do. And that means specializing.

These carts run the gamut of tasty offerings:

• Noodle soup
• Roasted pork leg with rice
• Sweet desserts
• Fried chicken
• Sausages

… and many other dishes.  Heck, even the soups are broken into different styles – one cart may be selling pork soups and another chicken.

The point is that each of these vendors specializes in one type of dish. But it’s not limited to food carts.

Many of the restaurants here have a limited menu, offering only curries or 6 different chicken dishes. The restaurants that have a signature menu item are the ones that have the longest line of people waiting to get in.

What is YOUR signature item?

Well I’m assuming you aren’t actually running a food cart as your business but don’t let the example hold you back from seeing the lesson, which is offering too many options to customers may not be a good thing for your business.

When a potential customer visits your website, they don’t know what the right answer is for them. If they did, they wouldn’t be searching for it. But they do know, more or less, what their problem is. That’s where content – be it on your blog or on your sales pages – comes in.

Don’t confuse them with a large list of services, products or solutions.  Show them you understand their problem and can help them solve it.

And Don’t Worry – This Is Very Common

If this is how your website is set up today, don’t feel bad – it’s how the majority of websites are built. Take a look at the site of any large company, hit their home page, and take note of how many actually address a problem within the first 5 seconds of you reading it. It’s going to be very few.

So now the question is, if we know that specialization can increase demand for what we do and probably allow us to charge premium prices to do it, why aren’t more companies doing it? In a word: fear.

Don’t Let Fear Run Your Business

Are you afraid of losing business if you don’t have that long list of services available? I know I used to be. I thought that by not offering a service I was losing out. But what I was really losing was my most valuable asset – time. It was only when I honed in on where my business can provide the most value – direct response social media – and specializing in that, that demand increased and so did my prices.

How can you apply the specialization lesson from the Thai food cart in your business?

Robert Dempsey specializes in direct response social media and blogs at http://DempseyMarketing.com/journal/.

Image courtesy of Heinrich Damm

By Neicole Crepeau, Contributing {grow} Columnist

Facebook is seeing a decline in use. Studies show that users are un-Liking business pages. Consumers are getting savvy and more jaded about businesses use of social media—and they’re responding negatively. The thing is, it’s our own fault.

Social media consultants and bloggers have long urged companies to create Facebook pages and Twitter accounts and start a conversation with their customers. So, lots of companies have done just that. The problem is, most customers don’t want a conversation with a company or its representatives.

Sure, there are exceptions. There are customers who are genuinely passionate about a restaurant, a hotel, a clothing line, or shoe company. Those customers are a minority, though.

It may be worth engaging that minority deeply, as brand advocates. But companies aren’t focusing on deeply engaging with the few people who deeply want to engage with them. Most companies either aren’t doing social media, or they are in a race to acquire as many fans and followers as possible and then get likes and comments from as many as possible.

As I noted in my recent post, If You Want to Engage Me, Make Me Look Good, the conversation approach ISN’T customer-centric. It’s the business, the marketer that wants to engage in conversation with the customer. Just as marketers want blog and newsletter subscribers, and want customer email addresses, they want Facebook fans. They want to be able to regularly contact and message leads and customers—even if they do it in a less promotional, more sociable manner.

Customers aren’t beating down the doors of businesses begging them, “engage with me, please!”

Customers want to engage with their friends. They want to engage with content that amuses, teaches, or inspires them. They may want to engage with their friends about said content.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that companies shouldn’t listen to customers and respond to them. Good companies have been listening to their customers for years, in the ways available at the time. Good companies will continue to monitor, respond, answer questions, address concerns, elicit suggestions, all through social media as well as other means.

It’s the inane and sometimes manipulative attempts to converse and engage people that I’m decrying. With all the competition for our attention, the flood of content and news and status updates, I think consumers increasingly resent attempts to draw their attention with questions, content, contests, and conversations that aren’t valuable, relevant, fun, or interesting. It’s just more noise.

We’ve created a monster, by telling every company that they NEED a Facebook page and Twitter account and that they need to converse and engage. I’m hoping we can slay that monster by taking a truly customer-centric approach.  I hope we begin to tell companies that they need to identify the specific consumers of value to them as a company, and then find a way to be OF SERVICE to those consumers. I hope companies will find ways to serve the customer’s goals online. Find ways to facilitate the conversations those consumers want to be having with their friends. Find ways to entertain and inspire them. Find ways to let consumers take the actions that help them personally or professionally and that enrich their online lives.

So many businesses now are out on the social web expending resources and money trying to get a conversation started on their page and blog. What if they were all spending the same resources and money trying to find valuable ways to serve consumers through their Facebook pages and blogs, ways to help consumers meet their own online goals and enrich their own relationships with one another.  If a company did that for me, I’d be a loyal fan and I’d be visiting their Facebook page more often.

Do you agree?

Neicole Crepeau is a partner in Coherent Interactive, which specializes in web, mobile, and social media design and implementation for small and mid-size businesses. You can read more of her original material at her blog, Coherent Social Media or onTwitter where she is @neicolec.

“I am forbidden to use it,” he said. “The company is trying to figure out what to do, but in the mean time I feel like the world is passing me by.”

This is not an unusual situation. Regulated industries like banks and healthcare have to pay attention to the legal ramifications of how they share information.  Still, I think they are missing a bigger opportunity by not exploring how social media can be used on a very personal and human level.

I asked Jeff: “Does your company forbid you from attending a business networking meeting?”

“No.”

“Do they keep you away from going to a chamber of commerce function?”

“No.”

“Then what’s the difference? This is just another business networking opportunity. You don’t have to sell, you don’t have to advise. You don’t even have to identify your employer. Why not just be yourself and meet cool people and learn from them. Who knows … they just might turn into clients some day.”

This got Jeff’s attention. He was interested enough to enroll in one of my college classes and from that point on he has been on fire with this stuff, exploring several strategies to connect with people in meaningful new ways. And it’s working!

This is what most businesses — even regulated ones — miss. Social networking is not about B2B or B2C marketing.  It’s P2P — person to person. And isn’t that what personal services is all about?

If you are expected to grow your business through time-consuming live networking meetings or expensive advertising programs, doesn’t it make sense to unleash the powerful, cost-effective potential of the social web … before your competitors do?

In addition to the networking opportunities, there are several ways businesses like financial services and healthcare can employ social media within their industry regulations:

Social as a PR initiative. There are many ways to use social that avoids privacy issues. Why not apply social to your PR efforts? JPMorganChase has been able to help over two million Facebook fans focus on the good the organization is doing by engaging users its Chase Community Giving page. A Knoxville medical practice effectively used an eBook and video contests to build awareness for their services … and eventually get clients in the door.

Connection through education. A big part of marketing for financial and medical practices is education. Why not use social as an extensions of current efforts?  Vanguard took a leap this year by launching a Twitter handle and a Facebook program that embraces engagement within regulatory limits.  Morningstar is appealing to investors by providing a series of blogs (“Real Life Finance”) and forums where investors can learn and compare their portfolios right on the Morningstar website.

Mobile on the rise — Forget about social. What about the next wave — mobile?  Mobile is going to have a huge impact on banking, and it’s almost impossible to watch TV or Hulu without seeing a commercial for the latest mobile banking offering.  In a recent survey financial services is dominating other industries in term of iPad use (36.8%). While some financial services professionals take tablets into the field as a sales tool, Google and Bloomberg have developed apps for professional or individual investors to keep track of the market.

Customer service – Neither banking nor medical are known for their efficient processes or paperless service features. There must be some ways to copy what other industries are doing to use social to cut waste, reduce paperwork and streamline service. Chase Bank in New York is allowing customers to deposit checks by uploading a snapshot of the check on their cellphone.

Geo-location — I am the Foursquare “mayor” of my local bank branch. When I walk through the door, the tellers announce “Hello Mr. Mayor,” or “The Mayor is in the Building.” I must say, I enjoy walking into that bank.  As mayor I’m still waiting for my free money, but in the mean time, the bank is creating an emotional connection with me. Isn’t that remarkable?

Many customers, patients, and investors expect you to be there. Not participating sends a strong message and leaves a practice vulnerable to competitors. It’s becoming expected and preferred method of communication by many constituents.  Ignoring physician review sites such as Vitals.com, HealthGrades.com and RateMDs.com won’t make the comments go away.

Those are a few ideas but I’m sure there are many more.  How are you seeing regulated industries such as banking and healthcare use social media effectively? ]]> http://www.businessesgrow.com/2011/05/03/finding-social-media-success-in-regulated-industries-like-banking-and-healthcare/feed/ 61 http://www.businessesgrow.com/2011/04/20/a-process-to-connect-social-media-content-marketing-and-sales/ http://www.businessesgrow.com/2011/04/20/a-process-to-connect-social-media-content-marketing-and-sales/#comments Wed, 20 Apr 2011 11:47:13 +0000 Neicole http://www.businessesgrow.com/?p=9063 By Neicole Crepeau, Contributing {grow} Columnist

You’ve probably heard the term “content marketing.” You’ve certainly heard of social media. How do these two trends fit together in your sales and marketing plan?

Here’s a method you can use to determine where content and social media fit into your online sales strategy.  Let’s start with your good ol’ sales funnel.  These vary somewhat by company, but here’s a typical B2B sales funnel showing the steps a customer typically experiences:

Once you’ve documented your sales funnel, look at the customer touchpoints where your website is important. Your website is usually the hub of your online strategy. Determine where the user is likely to interact with your website.

Next, look at where content can provide a good touchpoint. Remember that content can be distributed allowing the customer to discover it in their own online contexts. Assuming you can reach customers at the various points in the sales funnel, where can content add value?

In this case, content could be valuable in the early stages of the sales funnel, to make customers aware that there are solutions to their business problem. It can also be useful when customers are trying to get buy-in for a purchase, doing detailed research, and during the demo or trial process.

Now, let’s see where social media/social interaction can play a role in the sales process.

Online social contact, not surprisingly, can be helpful at all stages of the sales funnel.

Now you know where the different elements can contribute to the sales process. Let’s look at how they can contribute–keeping in mind the basics:

Compared with content and websites, social engagement is obviously the most personal type of online contact with a customer. It often takes the form of a conversation. Your website, on the other hand, is the least personal form of contact.

At the same time, social media tends to be the least self-promotional. It’s generally frowned upon when companies promote themselves strongly on social media. It’s perfectly acceptable to promote your business and your products on your website, however. It’s both expected and accepted.

Given these caveats, here’s how you might try to leverage content and social engagement in your sales process:

Awareness. At the top of the funnel, you can be present in communities where customers are talking about their business problems, and use social media and content to make them aware that products and services exist. Of course, that means walking the line of self-promotion. You need to be a little more hands-off and neutral when informing customers through social media and content.

Early research. At these early stages, you can try to move the customer to your website through both social communications and content. You use both social contact and content to give basic information about your products and services, the kind of information a customer at this stage of awareness can best benefit from.

Buy-in and short-listing. When the customer is getting buy-in to make a purchase, you can provide support and information. You can develop content that provides data, arguments, case studies, or executive summaries the customer can share with decision-makers. The idea is to specifically target the decision-maker and provide content developed for that person, who may not be the same as the person who discovered the content. On the social side, you can be present and responsive, answering questions that arise.

Likewise, at the short-list stage, you can be available to answer questions, direct the user to appropriate information, and otherwise assist in that decision.

Research and demo. Obviously, the research stage is one that can benefit from a rich set of content and strong social connections. One goal may be to encourage the customer to try the product. If the user demos or downloads a trial version, you can be available to answer questions, provide support, and address any problems. You might want to develop supporting demo content or data sets for specific verticals or roles.

Purchase. Of course, you want to be available before and during the purchase process to make sure it goes smoothly.

That’s how you can use the sales funnel as a way to evaluate the role of content and social media in your sales process.

Of course, there are other tools to use as well, and lots of work to do after this. You’ll need to research your audience and segment them, in order to develop targeted content and social offers. You’ll need to update the website to support these touchpoints, at a minimum creating landing pages to support your content and social strategy. Ads and email may be added to the mix. Etc.  However, identifying these customer touchpoints and the methods you’ll use to integrate content and social media can provide a solid start to your planning and form the basis for your work.

P.S. If you prefer to consume your content via video, here’s a video tutorial of this post:

Neicole Crepeau is a partner in Coherent Interactive, which specializes in web, mobile, and social media design and implementation for small and mid-size businesses. You can read more of her original material at her blog, Coherent Social Media or on Twitter where she is @neicolec.

When Jay Baer speaks, I listen.  In fact, the blogger and co-author of The Now Revolution is one of the smartest guys I know. But he wrote a blog post this week that made me think a lot about the changing nature of competition.

Jay’s premise is that through channels like e-mail marketing and social media, we now compete with everybody.  He states that “consumer interactions with companies are jumbled together like a real-time gumbo” and to be heard and recognized, we have to be mindful of the quality of each email and status update.

Is the traditional idea of competition obsolete?

Certainly this is sound advice, but I don’t completely agree. There is an alternative perspective to consider. Perhaps your competition isn’t McDonalds, Nike, and every other company trying to dominate the social web. Maybe social media helps make the traditional notion of competition obsolete. Maybe, if you focus on basic marketing principles very well, it actually lessens the impact of competition and amplifies your strengths.

I spend a lot of time helping people with their social media marketing efforts.  In a traditional sense, it might appear that I’m helping my competitors.  But my philosophy is, I have no competitors, because there is only one me.  I have my own set of unique differentiators and through my blog and social presence, these points of differentiation become even more defined, profound, and relevant to potential customers.   If you’ve done an effective job defining why your company is different, nurturing those points of differentiation, and using these advantages to solve customer problems, you’ll be OK.

In fact, social media amplifies my competitive advantages.

When I worked in manufacturing, I marveled at how Toyota shared its core competency — The Toyota Production System — with the world, including competitors. It realized that if it focused on intense attention to quality in a way that delighted customers, the marketshare and customer loyalty would follow.  And the other lesson — when attention to this point of differentiation slipped, it brought the brand to its knees. Social media amplifies the problems, too.

In his book Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose, Zappos Chariman Tony Hseih says that he needs to be aware of competitors but doesn’t focus on them as a central corporate strategy.  Instead, the entire company is driven to deliver on their core competency and competitive differentiatior: Delivering happiness in a shoe box. He even wants to teach other companies how to do it.

Certainly Zappos has powerfully used the social web to drive this authentic passion to the masses. I doubt they worry about the “gumbo” Jay talks about because if they stay focused on delivering on their brand promise, the money side of the business will take care of itself. Similarly, if Toyota focuses on core competencies, they’ll win the social sentiment wars, too.

The social web amplifies differentiation

Here’s an example of how this worked in my own small business. One of my competitive differentiators is that I’m … ahem, “experienced,” which is a polite way of saying “old.”  There aren’t many bloggers who have worked in global sales and marketing for nearly 30 years.  I also have a unique educational background that combines traditional marketing with applied behavioral sciences, hence my focus on the human side of social media.

With this experience, I am in a fortunate position to help people in a unique way.  I often go into LinkedIn forums and answer interesting questions.  I don’t worry about sharing my secrets with the competition. I don’t worry about my messages competing for attention. I just try to be me and use my points of differentiation to solve problems in an authentically helpful way.

A few months ago, a lady from California read my answers on LinkedIn and eventually became one of my most important customers.  So here was an example where my messages didn’t get lost in a competitive gumbo, it naturally allowed me to connect with a wider audience who appreciates what I bring to the party. There is no way that person could have learned about me, or my points of differentiation, without the amplification from the social web.

The most important question in marketing

Jay Baer is humble, but he has also done a great job defining and nurturing his points of differentiation in a Zappos kind of way.  Before the advent of the social web, he was an advertising agency owner slugging it out at Chamber of Commerce networking meetings. By effectively using the social web, he has leveraged his strengths to become a respected author, speaker and consultant on the international stage.  He has no competitors because there is only one Jay — he has a refined sense of what makes him unique and effectively communicates that message in everything he does.

This marketing fundamental worked for Zappos, Toyota, and Jay, and it can also work for you. But here’s the hard part. Do you really know what makes you different?

For your company, can you complete this sentence: “Only we … “

That’s not easy is it?  But if you can’t do that, you’re destined to a career of competing based on gimmicks, coupons and shouting louder than the other guy.

If you can find that wisdom, the social web will allow you to amplify that message and tell your story in a remarkable and exciting way.

The irony is that the social web hasn’t “changed everything.”  In fact it highlights the need to focus on fundamental marketing imperatives like defining your points of differentiation to a greater degree!

The social web has shifted the nature of competition dramatically for those who can answer … “Only we …”  Are you seeing this too?

Have you figured this out for your business?  Are you using the social web to amplify your brand promise are or are still trying to out-shout the competition?