Establishing a global social media foothold (video)
Jun 16th
If you can’t see the video above, please click here: Mark Schaefer interviews Dr. Jon Buscall.
What if you had the opportunity to establish yourself as a pioneering voice of authority in a region of the world that is relatively new to the idea of social media marketing? How would you start?
During my recent trip to Scandinavia, I got to sit down with Dr. Jon Buscall, who is familiar to many of you here on {grow}. Jon is one of the most active marketing bloggers in Northern Europe and is probably the only one who is on his way to establishing a global voice from that region.
In this interview, Jon talks about:
- Establishing a blogging foothold and establishing his personal brand
- The choice to blog in English versus his local language
- Building a global audience
- How companies in Europe are beginning to use social media
I’m sure you’ll enjoy this conversation with one of our community favorites!
When did we forget about strategy?
May 12th
Does anybody on the digital media scene pay attention to strategy? Or, are we so determined to lead our clients into social media nirvana that we dance right over that little detail?
Joseph Jaffe, a regular on Mitch Joel’s wonderful Six Pixels podcast series, recently provided a passionate argument for his point that digital agencies seem to have abandoned the idea of strategy. He would know. He recently served as a judge for a national digital strategy competition and said it was an exercise in picking the least bad submission. “There was nothing there,” he said. “No strategy. No meat on the bones at all.”
This reflects my experience with many clients too. Somehow we got caught up in plastering the world with Facebook pages and lost sight of the true purpose of our business: Create shareholder value through a differentiated — and truly strategic — business proposition.
- Cut costs?
- More advertising?
- Work longer hours?
- Create a Twitter account?
All of these tactics might provide short-term gains … but they’re not really strategic. You can’t cut your way to success or even tweet your way to success and your competitors are probably trying to do the same thing, aren’t they? So if they are, how is this going to create ADVANTAGE for YOU?
There is only one way to create competitive advantage in the long-term:
Listen to your customers more effectively and respond more rapidly than your competitors.
That’s it.
I’ve just saved you a ton of money on business books and consultants because every successful business strategy is based on this idea. Every great product innovation has this concept at its foundation.
And it is a continuous process! Don’t ever assume you know what’s going on with your customers with the speed that the market can shift. Embrace your customers. Keep listening! Keep responding! Keep innovating! That is the core of strategy.
What has your experience been? Is your company really focused on strategy or quick fixes?
The social web: New battlefield, same war
Feb 5th
Jay Baer is one of the few bloggers I’ve found who consistently provides business-based, practical marketing advice. I usually agree with him. But he made a reference to social media marketing on a post this week that struck me as odd:
“… unlike every other marketing tool for the past 200 years, it’s a meritocracy, and that benefits us all.”
I’m only picking on Jay because this is the most recent iteration of a theme I’ve observed countless times — the opinion that somehow the social web is in a special new category where you actually have to EARN the trust of your customers. Another variation is that the social web has “changed everything” about business and marketing.
No, it hasn’t.
The free market economy has ALWAYS been a meritocracy and always will be. If you don’t provide a quality product or service and you don’t represent it in an honest and compelling way, you won’t earn your way into the hearts and wallets of the world’s consumers.
Pre-social media, pre-Internet, even pre-mass communications, the fundamental tenet of marketing was this: Establish a brand promise based on consumer trust and never, ever break that trust. The concept is simple, the execution is extremely difficult.
Marketing is a continuous war to promote and protect your brand, whether it is a company, hospital, university, sports team or individual. Social media offers an exciting new way to connect, but the marketing fundamentals are truly still the same.
The social web is just a new battlefield, not a new war.
How is the social web affecting your battle plan?
Kernels of truth on social media marketing
Jan 13th
If I leave a conference with a few “kernels of truth” I can gnaw on and think about, I consider the time well-spent. Here are a few nuggets I picked up at the Social Fresh conference held in Nashville this week.
“Movements make their audience feel like rockstars.”
To me, the highlight of the conference was a talk by Geno Church. Geno, of Brains on Fire, is an engaging speaker and discussed the distinction between marketing plans and a cultural movement. The most amazing case study of the day was work he had done for Fiskars Scissors (I guess you could call it cutting-edge). By enlisting scrap-book enthusiasts (The Fiska-teers) to contribute as bloggers, they created an army of passionate Fiskar users. If you can make scissors exciting, this guy can market about anything!
“People fill information voids with rumors. Your strategy is simple. Don’t allow information voids.”
Another super-bright guy I met was Dan Zarrella. Dan spends his time poring over Twitter statistics to determine the secret sauce that makes something go viral. He applied evolutionary theory, mathematical principles and psychology to his study. A few Twitter items that people pay attention to:
- Warnings
- “Social proof” as evidenced by large numbers of tweets
- Bigger, bolder, louder statements
- Tweets with “you”
- Tweets that are personalized
- Tweets that occur later in the week
“The biggest failure in social media marketing is not doing anything.”
Paula Berg, who just left her job with Southwest Airlines told some riveting stories about the social web and crisis communications. Remember when the USAir flight went down in the Hudson and the first news and photos came through Twitter. USAir did not have a Twitter account … but started one that day! She also talked about the trust-selling strategy on Twitter, noting that the airline had been on Twitter since 2007 but did not attempt to make a sale through the channel until 2009. When they did, they set a single-day sales record — only using the social web!
Paula also provided an entertaining case study about a rap-singing flight attendant that became a national phenomenon.
“If you don’t think it’s about BUSINESS your gonna be out of a job!”
This was a refreshing and encouraging statement from Jason Falls, an admitted recovering social media purist. He has distanced himself from the “it’s all about community crowd” and in fact playfully made fun of them. Nice to see capitalism creep into the social conversation.
Illustration: Christian Science Monitor
Welcome to {grow}
You’re in marketing for one reason: Grow.
Grow your company, reputation, customers, impact, profits. Grow yourself. This is a community that will help. It will stretch your mind, connect you to fascinating people, and provide some fun along the way. I am so glad you’re here.
-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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