How do I get my boss to understand social media?
Nov 2nd
NEWS FLASH: If you are not being supported by your boss and you hope to pressure him/her into supporting your nascent social media initiative through a “grassroots” effort, it’s not going to work. Not in the long run. For effective, lasting organizational change to occur, it must be supported from the top. How do you gain that support when your boss doesn’t get it?
Who is the “sponsor” of your social media effort?
Here are six ideas to get the boss on-board:
Conduct a “pilot” program. One of the most effective ways to get something started is to propose a temporary project. For example, go to your boss and tell her you want to try a new idea for 12 weeks (which sounds shorter than 3 months!). Explain that you will do this as an added, incremental effort that will not interfere with your normal job duties, you will measure and re-evaluate at the end of the period, and together you’ll decide whether to continue or not. Once the effort gets going and gains momentum, it’s going to be difficult to stop unless you completely blow it. So don’t blow it. : )
Money really does talk. Whatever you do, don’t go into a meeting with a company executive explaining that you want sponsorship to measure your company’s “quality of conversations.” If you are still buying into the “it’s all about the conversation” hype, read this (measurement and ROI) and this (focus on money). Of course the social web is about relationships, but everything measured in an organization SOMEHOW relates back to money, whether it’s profits, donors or funding. Social media is no different. Be prepared to explain how your initiative ties to the company’s objectives. If you can’t, you’re not ready for this discussion.
Preach fear in the morning and redemption in the afternoon. Scare ‘em. Seriously. Fear is a great motivator: Fear of what the competition is doing, fear of being left behind, fear of missing a trend, fear of making a wrong decision. Then, after your boss is shaking in his boots, explain what you can do to beat the competition, keep your company ahead, and make your boss look great … for absolutely no investment!
Plan for problems. When implementing change in an organization, it’s important to have a counter-measure for every obstacle you’re likely to face. Literally write down every possible argument and reason people will argue against your social media proposal and then formulate a reasonable counter measure to address them. And the hurdles aren’t just money and resources. It could be politics and competing priorities. Get your supporters to help you think-through effective answers to anything your boss can throw at you and be well-prepared.
Five social media myths that MUST STOP NOW!
Oct 28th
Another equally ridiculous variation is “It’s all about the conversation.” No, it’s not. It’s all about the MONEY.
Why are major brands pouring millions into social media marketing? Just to see how many followers they can get? Because they’re “nice people” who want to “engage?” PUH-LEEEZE. They are trying to make a return for their shareholders. And if they’re not, they should be fired.
Stop fooling yourself. If social media marketing does not contribute to brand equity and/or shareholder value, the dollars, the effort, and the “engagement” will stop. Marketers have been engaging with their customers since the dawn of advertising because it helps feed our families. Please, let’s be honest. We’re all just trying to make a buck. And that’s OK.
Myth number three: “Never sell.”
The reality is, everyone sells, all the time. Behind every business tweet is a person using social media to craft a personal brand image of friendliness, helpfulness, authenticity and intelligence so you will trust them and eventually buy from them. What’s wrong with that? As long as you don’t BLATANTLY SELL, I’m cool.
Myth number four: “Emphasize quality over quantity.”
Wrong. You must have both. You’re not going to earn much of a following if you only blog once a year … even if it’s a really, really good one! Look, this is not like buying a Mercedes Benz that you can drive around for years. In social media, the cars are free so drive like a wild man and if you crack one up, hop on another one and do it again. Quality counts but size matters, too.
Myth number five: “Social media is all about authenticity”
Social media is about being polite and likable. Nobody really wants you to be authentic and hear how bitchy you feel today because your husband snored all night.
Recently a bunch of Chris Brogan’s readers got on him because they thought he was too mean. Hell I loved it when the uber-blogger had a fit now and then. THAT’S authentic! But instead Chris announced he will try to be nicer … that’s what matters around these parts.
I think the goal of most people immersed in social media is the opposite of authenticity. Their goal is “try not to suck.” Everyone is doing their best to channel their inner Oprah. It’s a popularity contest, pure and simple. Call it what it is, folks.
So there you have it. Are you with me on this? Let me know what you think.
And no need to be polite. : )
The REAL math behind your followers, Mr.Twitter Bigshot!
Oct 26th
REALLY?
I dissected his follower list (public information) and estimated HALF were “trash,” meaning they were spam-generated, get-rich quick spammers, or porn. Those followers are not going to be effective in receiving or re-transmitting any message of “influence.” So that brings us down to 40,000 potentially effective followers in TK’s community.
The Harvard study goes on to say that 90% of the tweets are generated by 10% of the users — a user concentration even higher than Wikipedia! So, let’s define these leading Tweeters as the “thought leaders” we are all trying to connect to. This would imply that, on average, TK has just 406 (0.5% of his followers) who represent people who actively contribute to the conversation.But wait a minute — we need to rule out kids, right? In a business setting, let’s assume we want to connect and influence people over 24. That represents just 33 percent of the population on Twitter. Adult, meaningful follower total: 135.
Let’s further assume 15% of all these folks are on vacation or away from their connection for a day (45 people left for TK) and they spend just two hours per day on Twitter where they could actually see and process a tweet from this guy. According to data on Sysmos, about 4% of your users will be active during any one hour of the day. That leaves one person actually seeing and processing your tweet, Mr. Bigshot.
And that would be me. So now who’s boss?
Photo credit: This is an ACTUAL photo of the species Twitterus Poppycockus appearing at a social media forum last week.
Harvard released a study this month showing that among the people who don’t quit, the median number of lifetime tweets is one. I think it’s reasonable to define an “active user” as somebody who tweets at least once a day (less than 15%). Applying that reasonable logic, the number of ACTIVE users this media mogul brags about is actually 4,060.
Studying U.S. keeps East European marketer a step ahead
Oct 20th
I decided it would be fun to feature some of the great people of the {grow} community from time to time. You’ll probably recognize the name Kimmo Linkama as a regular contributor who has distinguished himself with his insights and perspective.
Ever since I connected with Kimmo there have been two things on my mind: How did he get such a cool name and what’s it like to work in social media in Estonia. So I decided to ask him … and share it with you!
Mark: How has your career path led you to your interest in social media?
Kimmo: I’ve had the good fortune to see marketing communications from all sides. I’ve worked on the agency side and the client side, in advertising and in PR, and have had assignments with both national and international audiences. Finnish marketing communications works on pretty much the same principles as in the US, so now that social media is clearly becoming the next “big thing” in marketing, especially in my B2B niche, I need to know what’s happening and what are the best strategies.
Mark: And how’s business in Estonia?
Kimmo: Let me first give you a little background. I’m originally from Finland and moved to Estonia about four and a half years ago. Business is difficult in Estonia, especially with the recession, and I still work almost 100% for Finnish clients.
Europe, in comparison with the US, is extremely fragmented. There are 50 countries and 230 languages (although the official European Union languages only number 23). Estonia, where I live, has a population of 1.3m, about the same as Philadelphia. Finland’s population is 5.3m, a little more than Los Angeles and is the most sparsely populated country in the European Union.
From where I live, Otepää in south Estonia, it is only some 160 miles “as the crow flies” to Helsinki, Finland, where most of my clients are located – although there’s a two-hour boat trip across the Gulf of Finland in-between.
Mark: Sometimes I feel like the social media trend swamped marketers here in the U.S. and we’re still recovering. You are in a unique position of being able to watch for what is happening in the rest of the world BEFORE it hits your region and your customers. How does that help you or hurt you?
Kimmo: It definitely helps. Although most ideas that are taking off in the U.S. reach even my remote corner of Europe very quickly, there’s still a slight delay. That’s why I am – as you said – in a unique position to get on board a little before a new trend becomes mainstream here. The benefit, of course, is that I’m able to get some hands-on experience in social media, so when it begins to really catch on as a marketing ideology, I will know better what I’m talking about and be able to help my clients in a relevant way.
Mark: What social media platforms are being used in Eastern Europe? Are entrepreneurs developing regional-specific platforms or are you seeing global apps like Twitter take off?
Kimmo: We have the whole spectrum: blogs, forums, chats, microblogging. There are regional-specific platforms, but on the whole I think the global applications have so much critical mass that they will eventually come to dominate. For example, the development of the Finnish Jaiku microblogging app, roughly similar to FriendFeed, began almost concurrently with Twitter. When Google bought Jaiku a couple of years ago, it has gradually stagnated, and now a new development, called Qaiku, is trying to take its place. I have my doubts about the chances of survival of these regional developments against the big globals, though. It is more probable that a bigger player will buy them in the end.
Mark: What is social media adoption like in your region? Is it being used for business? What are the hurdles?
Kimmo: Finns have always been pretty tech-savvy. Blogs are proliferating, and Facebook is very popular. A fair number of companies have adopted blogging as one of the ways to get their message out, but for example Facebook seems to be mostly for personal-type contacts. I haven’t yet seen many serious attempts at business use, although some companies do have a Facebook presence. The company pages, however, seem to be mostly of the press release type, publishing company news rather than encouraging dialogue.
Microblogging is done more by individuals; so even if they are clearly associated with their employers, the messages mostly have a personal point of view. I think the biggest hurdle for wider business adoption – if we rule out lack of knowledge – is exactly the same as everywhere else: businesses are so used to traditional push marketing that the idea of losing control of the message is frightening. It takes time to alleviate this fear, but as the trend grows stronger, everyone will have to go with it one way or another.
I also don’t know how many agencies really know how to go about this “new way of marketing” when it comes to recommending the best ways to their clients. I’m hoping my social media experiments, if you will, enable me to fill that void for my part.
Mark: Kimmo, you have such a cool name. Is it a family name or just a common name in your homeland of Finland?
Kimmo: Thanks for the compliment! Kimmo is not a very common first name. I looked it up and there are about 18,000 men with that name. Its roots are sometimes traced back to the Greek St. Evdokimos, but I don’t know how scientific this is.
Feel free to ask Kimmo additional questions in the comment section …
In addition to his contributions to the {grow} community, Kimmo’s blog, “Marketing Communicator” can be found at: http://linkama.wordpress.com/
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-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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