Social Media is the hot topic of marketing these days. As a recent MBA graduate specializing in Marketing Management, I’ve followed dozens of webcasts, webminars, white papers, news stories and how-to lists online and at offline events. When it comes to a new, and promising trend like this one, there are two profiles of people that spur the buzz on. On one hand, you have the people who feel baffled about it and are looking for information everywhere they can. On the other you have the dozens of people (startups, independent consultants, established agencies, you name it) that say they know it all.
But after hearing so many self-termed experts telling people what to do, I continue to feel that the conversation is based on tactics (like: On Twitter, leave enough characters for a retweet of your post, i.e. RT@yourname) and not enough is being focused on high-level strategy.
I want to use this post to summarize the three most valuable lessons I’ve learned in the past year about Social Media Marketing, from all those online and offline sources. This is BY NO MEANS a “how to” of social media, and I am not an expert, but an interested follower of how SM can change or at least add to marketing strategies. If you’re a marketer, a lot of this language should be familiar, because after all, though SM Marketing is a sign of large changes in the way consumers are relating to companies, products and issues around them, a lot of the marketing basics apply and add to the way we can use SM.
1. Is Social Media Marketing a paradigm shift? Yes and no. There are two different levels to this question. On one hand there is the medium itself. Unlike offline (and some online) forms of marketing communication, it is interactive, immediate and doesn’t have the regional limitations that, say, an event or print campaign may have. However, it is still a medium, or several forms of media, if you consider how different one social network can be from another. As such, there are particular ways to create content for it, as well as limitations. Adapting to a new medium is not easy. Do you remember how the importance of TV changed things at the advertising firm in “Mad Men”? But some changes are easier than others. Static websites were easy for print media firms because they resembled printed pages, but the constant, immediate feedback of Social networks can be very difficult for companies who are used to keeping full control of communications and just putting out the occasional fire if a reporter had something negative to say about their brand.
This two-way communication has led so many of the people I’ve heard to say that this is a whole new world, and that marketers should scrap what they knew about marketing before. In my opinion, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. As my Internet Marketing professor, Paul Cubbon, reminded us, a lot of the Marketing basics apply in eMarketing, and even in Social Media. It is more important than ever to do proper segmentation and positioning; to understand your customer’s needs, which customers you are looking for and how you can add value. In a world where so many things are free and finding a competing product is as easy as opening a browser or using a mobile app, it is more important than ever to know the customer well enough to create true value for them.
But there is a second and more fundamental level of change. It is in the way that we as marketers relate to our customers. In traditional marketing, a marketing research firm presents information about the customers, their habits and the media they consume. These insights influence (or at least should influence) the four Ps: the product itself, pricing, communications and distribution. With the proper customer service center set in place, complaints come in through an 800 number or a “Contact us” page on the website. Maybe a salesperson will come in with some feedback. But many times all these sources of information are handled by different people and few reach the marketing managers. If there is a big issue or a new product, a news release or press conference would be organized.
But now, customers are becoming involved in all of these steps. I remember when a press release was a document that took days (maybe weeks) to be finished, while it passed from the agency to the corporate client, who passed it on to its marketing departments, legal, HR, etc. Now, the viral spread of information necessitates an immediate response, and not all companies are prepared or see the negative potential of that, as United Airways learned with its United Breaks Guitars issue. Confronting an issue like this and the other implications of an ongoing conversation with customers requires a level of training that not all current marketers have, and that some executives say could turn them into a “lost generation” of marketers.
2. A new relationship: This new relationship is far more direct, immediate and demanding than ever before. It is a change in the way consumers (or even business customers) relate to a product, brand and company and how they relate to each other. People who rant online about an experience expect a response, and really soon. They know the power of spreading negative reviews about a company, especially if they do it in a catchy way, like the writer of “United Breaks Guitars” did. So companies that don’t respond can find themselves in terrible trouble, difficult to contain and expensive to respond to (advertising and PR expenses). But companies that react fast can become legends. Virgin Atlantic has become a great example, but catching complaints made in midair by customers on Twitter and sending a flight attendant to respond immediately, or having a representative waiting for the customer just after landing.
SM Marketing means a change in all the 4Ps and related disciplines, like market research, operations, post-sales service and sales. Clever companies are using social networks as a way to gain insights about their customers. I recommend the examples used in the book “Groundswell”, which is by far, the best book I’ve read on the subject. SM can be a different form to communicate with and receive instant feedback from customers about ideas and products. Customers are happy to give ideas, help each other and spread the word about ideas, products and news that they like, which can have a surprisingly attractive ROI (“Groundswell” includes several ROI calculations). This new way of relating to each other can be a great way of spreading the word about a product, but also a new form of behavior that should enter your calculations of how to reach customers, what their life is like and how you should create value.
Apart from the actual conversation itself and the technical details, there is one very important lesson to learn on this subject. Transparency is crucial. The web has given customers more tools than ever to research about your company, product, etc., and SM gives them the tools to share what they find in very short amount of times. I’d recommend beginning a SM project by addressing these issues and preparing your team (and all your company) for honest and transparent conversations, rather than just paying big bucks to an agency for a pretty site and running to the PR agency for conflict management when it’s too late.
3. Rethink the funnel: The biggest change of SM and the internet is that they change the customer touchpoints from the biggest part of the funnel (awareness) to purchase intent, to the purchase itself. It can change everything, especially pricing, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts about the iPad and eBooks. The question is, how can we use these tools to our advantage? And remember that SM is just one element of your company’s Integrated Marketing Communications. So think that even though a person may find out about a product or service from a friend’s Facebook profile, other elements like events, a well-built website for your product/company and search engine optimization are ways to move the person down the funnel, making their lives easier and adding value to them. In a time when a person can scan a barcode and compare products and prices, you can’t take chances. Mobile and location-based applications also have huge potential and will continue to be merged with SM applications to create even more possibilities (like Foursquare has already done).
In conclusion, both of the extremes that I mentioned above are partly right. SM has great potential and harnessing it right can lead to great success, by spreading the word, containing negative word of mouth or getting better ideas for better products. But as a relatively new form of communication, it is still tricky and the rights and wrongs are only starting to be understood. The key is to remember that marketing basics like segmentation, positioning and integrated marketing communications planning are still essential, but that customers have started a new way to relate to products, brands and the world around them, and that this two-way conversation is here to stay.
Where to find more:
§ Books: “Groundswell” and “Grown Up Digital”. “The Long Tail” has some key ideas about niches which can be applied to Search Engine Optimization and SM initiatives.
§ Webcasts: The AMA has good podcasts on the subject, and their Webminar earlier this year was one of the most useful events I’ve attended –online or offline. AdAge has good case studies.
§ Twitter: I share ideas I find interesting on my feed @alicemchacon, and feel free to look at some of the people I follow. Quite a few write a lot about SM Marketing and eMarketing in general.
§ Blogs/Websites: Mashable is a great resource. There are also great groups to follow on LinkedIn with discussions on the subject. There are lots of great blogs out there. One way to find new ones is to see the ones posted by SM fans on Twitter. They are my best RSS feed.
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