Your 2013 Social Media Strategy: Grow a Pair.
Dec 2nd
First I would like to explain this strange headline to my international readers. “Grow a pair” (not to be confused with “grow a pear”) is American slang for stepping up to be tough and bold. Now, on with the show.
There is an infection overwhelming social media strategy development and the virus is fear.
I just read a number of reports all showing how CMO’s are still confused about what to do about social media. Really? It’s been on the table for at least 3-4 years now. Isn’t it time to figure things out?
I’ve had the true honor of working with some of America’s most beloved brands over the past few years. And I can report that the overwhelming reaction to social media by many successful companies is: “Can we please just make this go away!”
Once they learn that they can’t make it go away, they do the next best thing: Shove it off to an advertising agency.
The fact of the matter is, “fear of change” is always the biggest obstacle to progress. Many of today’s CMO’s did not cut their teeth in the digital world, have not immersed themselves in the social web, and simply do not understand it.
It’s time these business leaders stop whining about social media, shatter the status quo, and grow a pair for the new year.
- Stop abdicating leadership to advertising agencies who just made Timmy from Accounting your community manager because he’s 23 and enjoys Facebook.
- If you still have a firewall to keep employees from the social web, grow a pair. Are you shaking your employees down for crossword puzzle books when they punch the time clock?
- Quit fighting over who owns social media strategy. It’s Marketing. Glad to be of help.
- Stop hiding behind your legal department as an excuse to not do anything. If you help them understand what’s at stake, they will help you. Lawyers care about your business too.
- Quit whining about how much time it takes to do social media. Take a little of that newspaper ad budget you’re wasting and re-direct some resources to the digital space.
- If you’re in pharma or another highly-regulated industry, stop waiting for guidance from the FDA or whatever agency and just figure it out. Whoever finally does that is going to have a remarkable competitive advantage.
- If you’re in the insurance, banking or wealth management industries, grow a pair and stop treating your employees like idiots who could not manage to send out a tweet without violating a freaking SEC regulation.
- Stop following a soul-less, cookie-cutter social media playbook devised by your agency. Learn enough about this new channel so you can ask the right questions and be a real leader in this space.
- If you are overwhelmed about social media and don’t know where to start, bring in help. If you want to find an advisor you can really trust, call me. I know a few I could recommend! Also, I recommend the Rutgers University CMD program (where I teach). In this remarkable executive program, you can get up to speed on the digital marketing landscape in one week.
- And most of all, please, please, please quit asking about the ROI of social media when this is simply code for: “If I keep asking for spreadsheets I can stall this thing until I hit retirement.”
So there. (Taking deep breath).
Please. Look around you. Which companies are creating new value today and achieving breath-taking business results? Which companies are declining quickly, and why? You’ll discover that if you don’t have a digital strategy, you are most likely on a path to irrelevance. Don’t go there.
In 2013 it’s time to do this thing. How are you going to integrate social media and digital marketing so that you’re not just checking a box. It’s time to master these platforms to make them work for you. Are you with me?
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
The level playing field has turned into a content arms race
Nov 14th
Have I ever told you how much I love Gini Dietrich? For me, she is such an amazing role model for dong it right on the social web. And if you’re one of the five people on earth not already following her Spin Sucks blog, go do that now.
Gini is a smart and savvy friend and we don’t always see eye to eye, which makes her an even better friend. Last week she penned a post about how Facebook seems to be unfairly squeezing money from us by forcing us to use paid promoted posts to reach people who are already following us. It’s a good point of course, but I fell off Gini’s wagon at this point:
The awesome thing about the web and social media, in particular, is it levels the playing field. No longer do you need millions of dollars to spend on PR firms and ad agencies in order to build your brand and reputation among the masses.
Today all you need is a good writer, a self-hosted website and/or blog, and organically grown social networks. With those three things, you suddenly are competing with the big boys for reputation and credibility. You’re seen as a thought leader in your industry. You’re creating kinship among your prospects. And you’re selling in a way that has never before been possible.
All of the tools are free so it’s a really low barrier to entry. And it works.
You see, I have been thinking just the opposite about our social media world. Yes, three years ago Gini was probably right. When the social web was young almost any foray into social media was novel and attracted attention. It was pretty cheap and the entry barriers were indeed low. You could post a video of a bride falling into a swimming pool and it would go viral.
No longer.
Today YouTube is mainstream entertainment fueled by slick corporate video content. People have increasingly sophisticated expectations about what they’re going to find on your Facebook page, Twitter stream, or blog.
I recently saw a statistic that stated there was more information created on the web in the last two years than all of human history combined. I don’t know if that is true or not and I rarely let facts get in the way of a good story anyway, so let’s just say it makes a point — there is an enormous amount of data to get through these days. Heck, even Mashable makes me dizzy.
The content arms race
To succeed on the social web today you better bring your A Game and a bucket of money. To connect with customers today you need to consistently provide useful, relevant, and entertaining content — and that is not cheap. And as the information density on the web increases, so too will the cost to produce that great content.
Yes, yes, I know there are plenty of companies who are still finding niche success with modest social media programs but as soon as their competitors get in the game, the content arms race begins.
As I wrote recently, the social web is NOT a level playing field. There is definitely a first-mover advantage for people who have the money to create useful content and overwhelming amounts of it (which then become entrenched in the search rankings). In the long term, you probably will NOT be competing with the “big boys” (as Gini states) with just a writer and a blog.
Social media is a mainstream marketing and communication channel that will increasingly be dominated by those with the fattest wallets. Agree?
Photo: I took this shot during a visit to the Kremlin in Moscow
The ultimate content marketing challenge
Oct 30th
The other day I was a witness to content marketing murder.
I was eating breakfast in a hotel dining room which was partially occupied by a BNI networking meeting. A local marketing “expert” was describing how he propelled a new dentist’s office to the top of the Google rankings through his content marketing genius. His story went like this:
“I found that one of the most popular search terms in the dental category was asking about dental care for children. So we created three videos answering those questions. Then we made very small changes to those videos that resulted in 50 more videos. By placing them in many online channels, we actually created 300 different content placements from the original investment in three similar videos. We now own the first nine spots on Google for this search term.”
Here is the sneaky little secret of content marketing. You don’t need to have the best product or service to win. You don’t need to be the best marketer to win. You don’t even have to create the best content to win. You just need to be first and overwhelming.
This is something that bothers me about the SEO-driven content marketing system. There seems to be such a huge advantage to the first-mover who creates a steady stream of content that I’m not sure there is a cost-effective way to catch up. I know some commenters will say that the key is to create even better content. But we all know that better content can’t win if it can’t be found in the first place.
So here is the ultimate content marketing challenge — what if you DO have the best product but you’re second to market? How do you cut through the persistent clutter of determined SEO gamesters to even have a chance in the search ranking war? What if you’re very late to the party and you’re getting your ass kicked?
Image courtesy BigStock.com
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-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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