Does everybody need a social media strategy?
Jan 15th
As the hype of social media begins to die down and companies re-evaluate their efforts with a steely-eyed look at the cost versus benefits, I think it is time to re-visit this important question: Does every company really need a social media marketing plan?
This is a very complex question. So to help answer it, I looked at a few companies with brands that might not be natural fits for a social media presence. Adult diapers. Coal. Hazardous waste clean-up. Playing cards.
Let’s explore this important question by taking a romp through some unusual case studies that stretch the boundaries of social media marketing thinking.
Depend Adult Diapers
Do you need a social media strategy? It depends! Get it? Oh, never mind.
Depend, a Kimberly Clark brand, has no apparent social media offerings. With its typically geriatric customer base, the product website offers a fitting guide and coupons but no social media way to connect. A company not affiliated with the brand has set up a rogue Facebook site called “Depend’s adult diapers.” So Kimberly Clark probably should protect itself by nailing down as many name alternatives as they can on the most popular social media platforms.
Should they have a social media component? It’s not a conversational brand, is it? I really don’t want to participate in any diaper polls.
However, they should consider at least a modest Facebook outpost because their future customers will certainly be there. Also, more and more people are using Facebook to search for brand information. At least one competitor, Poise, does have a Facebook page.
Should they continue to poo-poo social media?
Coal
A big argument I hear against getting involved with social media is when a company sells a commodity product. And, there is perhaps no product less differentiated than coal. In a tough business like that, you simply try to excel where you can by managing the supply chain properly.
I know commenters might argue that there are ways to differentiate any business, but the reality is, usually a contract in this market is won or lost by cutting a few cents per ton. That’s life in a commodity business. Why be on social media?
Peabody Energy is the largest publicly-traded coal company in the world. It has an excellent, informative website, but virtually no social presence (a token Twitter account and a weak Facebook page).
Perhaps Peabody’s strategy is to do whatever they can to avoid social media connection. Let’s face it, any company that scrapes away pristine countrysides to mine a product that is a major contributor to air and water pollution is not necessarily part of a conversation that is shareholder-friendly. Coal is important to the world economy, but it’s a dirty, dangerous business that sparks a lot of emotion in people. Should we support coal energy? It is an argument that will never be settled, and one they can never win. If they had a significant social media presence, the debates and hater harpoons would be endless.
Instead, Peabody can provide financial support to trade organizations like American Coalition for Clean Coal, which has a significant social media footprint — more than 1 million YouTube views, a blog, and a meaningful presence on Twitter and Facebook.
Should a company avoid the cost of social media conversation and move it to a trade association? A viable strategy?
Playing cards
I play this little marketing mind game with myself. I pick a product and then imagine what their social media presence might be. Like playing cards. What can you really say about those for heaven’s sake? They haven’t changed for centuries.
Turns out, quite a lot.
I opened a new pack of Bicycle playing cards and was delighted to see an extra card promoting their social media properties: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. These sites are filled with excellent content for people who love card games, card tricks, and even card-related arts and crafts. There are tons of fan conversations going on for this ancient gaming product.
Bicycle has also launched a premium content site called Club 808 that requires a paid subscription. Are there enough card fanatics out there to support something like that? I guess they’ll find out. But it just goes to show that there are content marketing opportunities for even the most common household products.
Bicycle is not a highly conversational brand but this notably non-digital product is finding interesting ways to create new conversations, and renewed relevance, with a digital audience.
Radioactive Waste Removal
You have to love a company with a tagline of “Providing radioactive waste services since 1952.” Straight to the point. And so is US Ecology, a company specializing in one of the most demanding B2B services on earth.
The company has no social media presence with the exception of a short LinkedIn page. Let’s think about their business model. Somebody has a radioactive mess on their hands. There is a well-known and short list of qualified and trained people to clean it up. The customer inquires to see who is available and asks them to get there fast. There probably isn’t much of a negotiation.
Or perhaps US Ecology has some long-term contracts with companies who generate radioactive waste. You probably don’t want to pinch pennies in that case, either.
If it doesn’t need Facebook to generate demand or customer connection, does US Ecology need a social media presence to attract and retain employees? Apparently not. I actually met some of their workers a few months ago and they were happy to have the job. They are paid well and the hours are good. There is little employee turnover in their area of expertise.
If you were the marketing director for US Ecology would you spend money on a social media marketing program?
The world’s oldest company
Fonderia Pontificia Marinelli has been casting beautiful bronze bells continuously in the quiet Apennine Hills of Italy since the year 1000. It is one of the five oldest companies in the world and, in fact, they have been making their bells the same way throughout the centuries.
The bells of Fonderia Pontificia Marinelli toll in the important buildings of New York, Beijing, Jerusalem, South America and Korea. The family business currently employs 20 people, five of them named Marinelli. The company also has a small museum and hosts special events.
They have a basic website circa 2000 and no social media presence. That doesn’t mean that their content is not being shared by social media savvy visitors from throughout the world, but the old ways seem to suit this family business best.
Fonderia Pontificia Marinelli has made it through wars, natural disasters, and economic calamities without fail. Can it keep going without a social media strategy? If you are looking for an epic bronze bell, would you buy from this company, even if they didn’t have a Facebook page?
Somehow, I think they will outlast us all.
So what do you think? Does every company need a social media strategy? Any of these case studies ring your bell?
Why your social media plan needs gurus and storytellers
Nov 21st
By Srinivas Rao, Contributing {grow} Columnist
A few weeks ago Laura Click wrote a really interesting post questioning “who really is a social media expert?“ I’ve never been a big fan of the term and the self-proclaimed ninjas, rockstars, and gurus cause the social web to seem like a giant pyramid scheme. But Laura’s post hit on a key point that organizations and individuals should consider:
“Yes, the “gurus” may have a keen understanding of the tools or know-how to build large networks for themselves, but many don’t know how social media fits into an overall marketing strategy or how to tie their efforts to real results.”
I’m a storyteller, not a strategist
Anytime I get on the phone with a business who wants to hire me to do some social media work and they ask me about, analysis, measurement tools and anything that has to do with numbers I tell them “I’m an Indian person who is lousy at math. Contrary to popular belief we’re not all good with numbers.” My strength is the ability to tell great stories, and create content. Does that mean I’m useless? Absolutely not … and it’s because there is a digital divide emerging.
The Digital Divide
In the digital divide I see two distinctly different and valuable groups. The first group consists of people who really understand how social media fits into an overall marketing strategy (but may lack the storytelling/creative abilities). The second group consists of content creators who may not have the analytical business background but can masterfully deliver an experience that makes people hang on their every word. I think the future lies is in connecting these two groups.
Look to “Gurus” for guidance not gospel
You shouldn’t follow anybody’s advice to the letter. Formulas are designed to manufacture the same thing over and and over again. Following a social media formula or playbook is a recipe for mediocrity.
You could eat the same cereal Seth Godin eats for breakfast, drink the same coffee, and do your writing on the same computer, and you’ll never be Seth Godin. This is because you’re not Seth. Look to the experts for guidance, not gospel.
There’s a difference between tribe members and cult members. Cult members never question anything and follow advice blindly. They drink the “Kool-aid.” Tribe members support the leaders but are also capable of thinking on their own. They bring new ideas and insights into the tribe.
Hire a Strategist and a Storyteller
The person who wrote the movie script is not responsible for putting together the trailer, spreading the word online, and the driving ticket sales. The job of the screenwriter is to do what he or she does best, write an amazing script. The job of the director is to translate that script into an amazing story. Nobody would call Steven Spielberg and say “hey, do you mind sitting down and analyzing the ROI of our social media efforts on this film?”
Most corporate blogs are awful while many personal blogs (written by us starving artists) are amazing. The solution to this problem is obvious. Marry the two. Hire a strategist and a storyteller. Bring in a seasoned marketer who really gets how to tie social media to an overall marketing strategy. Then hire somebody who understands how to tell a story without making an audience want to gouge their eyes out.
I think that key to getting value from blogs and other social media properties is combining strategy and good storytelling. Right now most organizations are only focused on the strategy, and if they happened to be good at storytelling that’s probably what is setting them apart.
Individuals have a voice like never before and if organizations want to reap the benefits of these voices, then let them tell their stories. Free your story-tellers from the red tape that turns corporate blogs into digital graveyards. If brands can learn to embrace the amazing storytellers on the social web and connect them to an overall marketing strategy, I believe the value of an organization’s social media efforts will increase dramatically.
Agree?
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
Social Media Good Samaritan donates tweets to save businesses
Oct 16th
By {grow} Community Member Pavel Konoplenko
The story begins like any sweet story should — with delicious ice cream.
I first visited Ray’s Candy Store, an old-fashioned, hole-in-the-wall family business, when I was strolling around New York’s East Village. The walls of the store were covered with vintage photos of desserts — like Instagram except in real life! There were also articles and reviews covering the history of this beloved 40-year business.
One article in particular caught my eye. The headline read, “Social media saves beloved East Village candy store.” How could social media, this recent tool of our information age, possibly be used to save the decades-old candy shop? After reading the article on the wall and having a brief chat with the man working the counter, I discovered a wonderful story…. the story of Matt Rosen, the social media Good Samaritan who crafted a social media strategy just because he wanted to save this little store.
Ray Alvarez
The store’s owner 79-year-old Ray Alvarez, immigrated to America in 1964 and took odd jobs until he worked his way up to become the owner of the store. ”It’s my heaven,” Alvarez said in an interview in NYU’s Daily Student Newspaper. “I enjoy every minute of it. I came here from Turkey with no papers in 1964. I worked as a dishwasher, then waiter, then saved enough to buy the store.”
But after 36 years in the same location, increasing rent and taxes threatened to shut the little store down. Word began to spread that Ray was shuttering his business and loyal customers came out in full support of their beloved neighborhood store. Ray said, “They would buy anything and hand me a $20,” Ray said, “and then insist that I keep the change! They kept giving me money.”
But even this benevolence was not enough to keep Ray in business for long.
Matt Rosen
Matt Rosen, a long-time Ray’s customer and Internet-startup consultant, stepped in to help. It was clear that Ray needed something with massive reach at a low cost, and the social web seemed to be the perfect solution. So Matt volunteered to manage the pages on Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, and Foursquare that became the hub of an initiative to connect with the thousands of Ray’s customers throughout New York City and beyond.
Through PayPal donations, sales from Ray’s merchandise, and even a benefit concert, Ray was able to raise enough money to keep the store open. In fact, since his foray into social media, Ray has had his best year of business.
Matt was humble when describing his success. “It starts with the business,” he said, “and Ray himself. Without Ray, nothing we did on Facebook or Twitter would have mattered. The call-to-action was really doing something so we wouldn’t lose Ray.”
The goal of the social media effort, Matt said, wasn’t to get a million followers — that wouldn’t pay the bills. It was to keep Ray’s name out there on a regular basis and get somebody who buys one milkshake a month from Ray to buy two or three. Think of the impact on Ray’s bottom line if 200 customers do that.
“This is a simple, relatively painless way to keep Ray’s name out there.” Rosen said. “If my responding to a tweet or thanking someone who checked in on Foursquare brings them back in to the store, then that’s more business for Ray. We know this stuff is working. I can see the metrics.”
Speaking to a local newspaper, Mr. Rosen said he volunteers roughly 15 minutes a day to managing the assorted online accounts for two star clients. At the end of a typical day he searches for mentions on Twitter of Ray’s and responds to them.
In the first month of setting up Foursqure, 130 people had checked in to Ray’s Candy Store through Foursquare. “That’s tremendous,” said Mr. Rosen. “That’s two days-worth of revenue from Foursquare, and it took me just 15 minutes to set up.”
Social media buzz was a huge economic benefit for Ray, but it also brought his dilemma to the attention of a law student who helped him register his papers with Social Security and Medicare. Ray also recently got naturalized recently and is now an American citizen!
And what does Ray, who first saw his first computer a year ago, think about Matt’s efforts?
“Lots of young people are coming now with their iPhones,” he said. “They say, ‘If I do this, I get $1 off, right?’ I say, ‘OK.’” Ray continued, “[Matt] does advertising for me — it’s really high-tech. I still don’t have a television — I don’t know what Twitter is. This is a free country and you can do what you want,” Alvarez said. “How long am I going to keep working here? Until the end!”
Oh yes, follow Ray on Twitter won’t you?
Pavel Konoplenko, one of the most active commenters on {grow}, is passionate about social media and technology and their effect on today’s world. Connect with him on Twitter (https://twitter.com/pavelnovel)
Photo of Ray Alvarez Courtesy of The Villager
6 Factors that turn social media strategy into RESULTS
Oct 14th
After working as a marketing consultant for more than a decade, I know how exhilarating it is when a client really executes well on a strategy.
Unfortunately, I too often see deeply-embedded cultural baggage weighing down a company’s full potential to succeed. Here are the common elements that make the difference between a strategy document gathering dust on a shelf or becoming a dynamic business driver:
1) Active executive sponsorship
I was recently brought in to do a social media strategy workshop with a big health care company. The president of the company greeted me and said “I know we need to do this. We are counting on you to lead us in the right direction.” Not only did she verbally demonstrate support, she was actively engaged in the entire meeting and led the part of the program determining next steps. This active leadership is CRITICAL to organizational change.
There is no such thing as a grassroots cultural change. The person at the top must “get it” and make people accountable for the change. Measurable expectations for change must be driven into performance objectives. Here is the most important thing a leader can do to keep the change going week to week: Ask questions about it in staff meetings.
2) Immersive learning
“Can you just do this for us?”
When I hear that question, I know my client is not ready to commit to the organizational change needed to make a social media strategy work.
The big difference between a company “checking the box” and one that is really being transformed is that people are rolling up their sleeves and learning by doing. They’re not out-sourcing tweets and blog posts. They’re making “content” and customer engagement central to the company’s marketing mission and adjusting job requirements accordingly.
This is excruciatingly difficult. For 100 years, we have been conditioned to pay an advertising agency to handle our customer media and then sit back and wait for something to happen. Certainly advertising is still an important part of the marketing formula. But a content strategy must be organically linked to some extent between employees and customers for it to “take” in the company culture.
3) Patience + Resources
Starting a social media strategy from scratch is like putting a soccer team together while the game is underway — you still have a business to run. Certain players will rise or fall, certain strategies will work or be abandoned as we adjust to the competition and the reaction from the market.
To persevere in this rather chaotic transition, a team should be provided with the appropriate amount of resources and enough patience to allow them to gel and perform. The change is not sustainable if it is simply an “add on” to an already full plate. You wouldn’t take a cross-country trip in a broken-down car running out of gas. The first few miles might be fine, but for the long-term you need to have a vehicle and the fuel to help you get to your goal.
4) Focus
Chasing the shiny red ball is a strategy killer. If you have done the upfront research and planning, you should be confident in following a plan long enough to give it a chance to make an impact. Shifting priorities without following through on a plan will waste time and money faster than anything else.
5) Creative application
A few years ago, I might not have made this such a priority. Back then, it was probably novel enough just being on the social web! But today, everyone has a blog. Everyone has a Facebook page. Are you devoting creative resources to these efforts to really stand out and deliver the goods for your customers? That is becoming increasingly difficult isn’t it?
6) Measurement aligned with goals
Repeat after me. “I will measure my marketing efforts.” In today’s data-filled world, there is no reason NOT to measure. It’s just this simple: How do you know your strategy is working if you don’t measure? Don’t get caught up in the endless ROI debate. Pick meaningful KPI’s that are helping to move the needle for your business objectives.
Well that’s my take on what it takes to make a social media strategy work. What’s your view? Which one of these is the most important to you?
Business icons courtesy BigStock.com
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