The Key to a Killer Social Media Strategy? Choose the right part of the brand cycle to focus on.

When you begin crafting your social media strategy your first instinct may be to start with the sale….  How do you drive a consumer to buy your product?  Focusing on the sale is typically the wrong answer (not that sales don’t matter).

The brand cycle doesn’t typically start with purchase. As you can see below, it starts with Awareness and ends with Loyalty.  Your social media strategy needs to focus the the relevant portions of the consumer experience and create a strong connection (also know as brand equity).

The brand purchase cycle starts with awareness (I know about your product) then Consideration (I am considering purchasing your product) then Preference (I actually prefer your product over the alternatives) then Experience (I bought or consumed your product and what was my experience like) then Loyalty (will I do it again?).

Your instinct may be to focus on the purchase – how are we driving sales.  It is important to remember that the actual sale may not be the best part of the sales cycle to focus on.

There are effective social media strategies for each stage of the brand cycle.

Awareness Strategies – Consider a social media strategy where you post content that is generally of interest to your target audience.  Grab their attention by posting relevant things related to your product that they actually care about.  Trying to sell expensive cooking oil?  Talk about how to cook.  Trying to sell laundry detergent? Provide great stain removal tips.  Listen to your audience, learn what they are interested in and start to talk about the things that they are interested in.

Consideration – They know who you are, but are they really considering you?  Look for people who mention your brand and answer their questions.  Actively seek out people referencing your category or buyers – they know who you are but do they seriously consider you.  Provide information to make sure that your brand is in the consideration set.  Focus on search rankings and make sure that your site is optimized to answer questions.

Preference – Using social media to build preference can work well when done correctly.  You can build preference by showing that you truly care about your audience and your brand and are committed.  Brands that effectively build preference using social media focus on building real relationships.  Be nice.  Show that you care to potential purchasers.  Have flexible policies.  Build preference by focusing on building positive feelings about your brand.  After a social media interaction they should “like you” or “think that you are cool/hip”, etc, based on your brand equity.

Experience – Social media strategies focused on the experience portion can focus on things like customer service or support and feedback.  When focusing on experience you should leverage social media to make the customer experience when using your product better.  Customer service via social media can be a great tool in this.

Loyalty – The final stage is loyalty.  Social media is a great tool to build loyalty.  You can use fan pages and twitter to provide specific offers/incentives/discounts to drive loyalty among existing customers.  It is typically easier to drive more sales from existing customers vs. acquiring new ones.  Focus on showing your customers that you REALLY care (this can also drive word of mouth and build new customers).  Find ways to use social media to *really* give your customers something special.  It doesn’t have to be a financial incentive either – it can be insider information or access to a members club.

Your strategy doesn’t have to focus on just one – it can focus on more than one.  They key is to use social media to build a great brand experience (and this will drive sales over time).  This strategy takes great content and can take longer, but in the end, this is where the real payout in social media is.

The key is to focus your social media strategy on the right part of the brand building cycle vs. blindly trying to drive sales.

Interview with Krista Neher: Successful Approaches to Using Twitter

While at PubCon in Las Vegas, I had the pleasure of moderating a number of panels on twitter.  In the video below Vanessa Zamora of PubCon interviews me about how companies can use twitter.

One of the things that I like the most about pubcon is the diversity of panelists.  In our conversations about twitter, some of the panelists like Dan Zarella focus on the science of what works – how to drive retweets.  Other panelists like Warren Whitlock focus on the brand building side – how to be nice and behave socially on twitter.

There is definitely a time and place for both strategies, depending on your marketing objectives and strategies.

I’ll be speaking again at PubCon south in Dallas, which promises to be another great conference.

2009 is The Year of Twitter – Yes, Twitter is Officially the Top Word of 2009

It is official.  Twitter is popular.

According to the Global Language Monitor “twitter” was the most popular word of 2009.

That is right.  Twitter beat out major international news events like  H1N1 (3rd place) and the election of President Obama (second place).

Shocked?  I was (and I’m a social media junkie).  Is Twitter (in the context of the website) even acknowledged in the dictionary?

Also amusing, twitter is defined as “the ability to encapsulate human thought into 140 characters”.

Also surprising was that 2.0 was rated #6 (and defined as “The 2.0 suffix is attached to the next generation of everything”).

Interestingly only 1 web word made the top 10 phrases – “Cloud Computing”.

This information really highlights the significance of the web in the mainstream.

You can see the whole list here.  You can also see previous years highlights here.

30 Challenges to Social Media Marketing

I have done a lot of speaking presentations recently in Cincinnati and around the US.  One of the key things that we often discuss are rules of engagement for social media.  Especially if you are new to the space, there are some basic guidelines or etiquette that should be observed in order to be successful in the space (we’ll share these tomorrow).

These rules are not unique to social media.  They exist for all social interactions.  In the real world we understand how to behave in social settings because we get immediate feedback from people – we can see their response and reaction to our behavior.

We also learn how to behave over time as we watch how other people interact.  As adults, it is second nature – our socialization as a child prepared us for how to interact with people.

Online social interactions present a few unique problems:

1. We haven’t been doing it very long.
2. We don’t get immediate feedback.
3. It is hard to know when you are offensive.
4. The rules are still being written.
5. We don’t have experience.
6. We forget that we are talking to people.
7. It is easy to be offensive.
8. There is no face-to-face interaction.
9. Automation is tempting.
10. The rules are the same but different.
11. We always want to sell.
12. Softer sales techniques are hard to measure.
13. Social media is hard to measure.
14. Being direct is not the best approach.
15. You have to earn the attention.
16. You are invading on people’s conversations.
17. Value is a must.
18. Content creation as a strategy is difficult.
19. Internal “ownership” issues create problems.
20. Being interesting can be difficult.
21. It is easy to be a dirty spammer (and it can get you results).
22. It might just be a fad….
23. BtoB organizations struggle with the applications.
24. People are not passionate about your brand, so you have to talk to them about something else.
25. It changes all the time.
26. The tools change.
27. The rules and etiquette change.
28. Effective tools vary by community and brand.
29. The same things don’t work for everyone.
30. There isn’t a formula to success (like TV).

As you can see, there are a lot of challenges with Social Media.  As individuals and as marketing professionals it is a tough nut to crack.

The good news?  There are some general rules that will help you overcome these issues.  There are a lot of brands seeing success in the social space and driving sales and ROI.

In the next part of this post (tomorrow) I’ll cover principles for success in social media.

Don’t Forget Traditional Digital Marketing – Pete Blackshaw at ad:tech NY

I primarily attended social media panels at ad:tech NY, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear one panelist (and friend) remind us of the power of some old fashioned, tried and true marketing techniques.

Pete Blackshaw, EVP of Digital Services at Neilson reminded us of some traditional online marketing tools that should not be forgotten in the gold-rush for social media.

His advice?

There is probably a lot of untapped value for brands to better leverage some of the more traditional digital marketing vehicles.

• Work your database - Working with your own database is critical.  These people are already interested in hearing from you.
• Brand Websites are one of the most trusted vehicles – (see the chart below).  People trust brand websites as an information source.  Don’t neglect your website.
• Engage through your website – Brands need to figure out how to better engage through their websites.  Brand websites are often underutilized and act as a commercial for the brand.  Think of ways to use it for engagement.
• Engage Advocates – Advocates are probably already checking out your website and on your email list.  These are your best tools to reach them.

What other non-social media online marketing tools do you think are being neglected by marketers?

How Brands can Listen from ad:tech NY

Social media was a hot topic at ad:tech NY last week, however the discussion moved beyond some of the basics (ie. how twitter works) to a holistic discussion on social media strategy and benefits.

One of the key insights from the panel on Social Analysis (we wrote about this panel yesterday also) was about the value of listening (yup – listening vs. plastering your brand messages across social networks).

Kent Schoen, Product Marketing for Facebook shared some interesting examples.

His key points:

• Brands should listen and respond through the appropriate channels
• There is room for both positive and negative feedback
• Positive brand advocates will be there to help and support you
• Facebook can be a great tool to empower and build community among advocates.

He provided an example of the Toyota Prius Community on Facebook.  The group ha a lot of discussion topics posted and features an “ask an expert” section where experts answer questions.  Perhaps one of the most interesting things about this community is that typically fans are answering each others questions – which demonstrates the true effectiveness of the community.

Is it effective?  Well, they have over 45,000 fans (although I don’t know if they acquired them via advertising), so it seems to be working.  Based on the activity level of the fan page I would say yes.

Jeff Fleischman, Chief Digital Officer, TIAA-CREF shared another interesting example.

Dave Carroll watched as United airlines workers mishandled his guitar.  The guitar was broken upon arrival and United refused to pay.  Dave was so frustrated that he wrote a song about it – which has had over 6 million views.

United then contacted him and offered to replace the guitar – his response?  Too little too late – and he wrote more songs about them.

The impact?  His song (called United Breaks Guitars) shows up at the top of video search results for United Airlines.

So, clearly a Fail Whale for United.  Hopefully they listened and learned from this experience.  Dave shouldn’t have had to write a song for them to care.  They should care to begin with.

Anyone else have examples or ideas on good or bad listening?

Influencers vs. Advocates from ad:tech NY

The panel on Social Analysis: Real Time Insights for your Brand at ad:tech NY shared some really interesting insights on how brands can benefit from listening to social media.

Bonin Bough, Global Social Media Director, PepsiCo brought up an interesting discussion on the difference between Influencers and Advocates when approaching your social media strategy.

When approaching social media we often get caught up with identifying and working with the influencers in our space (ie. the people with the biggest relevant audiences).  While working with influencers can be valuable, working with advocates can produce better results.

What is the Different between Influencers and Advocates?

Influencers are those who yield a lot of influence in your space.  They have a large audience that is relevant to your brand.  They are authoritative within your segment, talk regularly and have a large following.

Advocates are people who love your brand and share their love for your brand regularly.  Advocates may not have a large audience but they have a genuine personal interest in your brand and share that with their friends.

Why Work with Advocates vs. Influencers (especially if they have a smaller audience)?

Here is the thing – influencers probably don’t care about your product if they aren’t already talking about it.  You might try to get their awareness, and maybe you’ll even get them to write a post or two, but you’ll be getting standard press.  While they have a large audience, they don’t really care, and their posts and discussions about your brand will likely be factual and neutral (if you get any at all).

Advocates on the other had are already crazy in love with your brand.  They talk about your brand.  They love your brand.  They want others to know about your brand.

I was in the grocery store a few weeks ago trying to buy margarine.  Some lady beside me randomly started telling me about this Parkay Butter Spray and how awesome it was.  She is a brand advocate (and I actually bought it).  This is a real world example but it happens online all the time.

Want to know who your brand advocates are online?  Do a twitter search, blog search, a regular google search or check relevant discussion forums.

Find the people who already talk about you – they are your advocates.

Don’t have any?

Look at your existing customer base and try to inspire passion for your brand (this is a whole separate blog post – or series).

How to Activate Advocates

Bonin Bough suggests a few ways to activate your advocates:

• Give them access to digital assets (for their social networks)
• Give them special experiences
• Encourage them to talk to others
• Give them exclusive access

Some Examples

Makers Mark Ambassadors

This is an “exclusive” invite-only club for those wholove Makers Mark.  In return Ambassadors get:

+	Your name on a Maker’s Mark barrel.
+	An opportunity to purchase a bottle of Maker’s Mark from your batch.
+	Updates on the aging of your bourbon.
+	Advanced notice of rare, special-release bottles.
+	Opportunity to purchase Ambassadors-only Maker’s Mark merchandise.
+	Many other items that confirm your honorable status.

Lovesac

The people at Lovesac saw this post that I wrote where I declared my love for the lovesac.  They contacted me, said “hey – we see that you love our product – we’d like to send you one” and sent me one for free.  No strings attached.  I talked about it everywhere and got comments and questions on my blog, facebook and twitter.  They activated my passion and gave me something to talk about.

Why are advocates so effective?

2 Reasons:

1) It is Authentic

2) It is Passionate

Anyone else have ideas or examples of good advocate outreach programs?

7 Myths of Social Media Marketing Revealed

Social media is the shiny new toy that every marketer wants.  And why wouldn’t they?

Myth #1: Social Media is Free

Fact: You should expect to invest in social media.

Whether you are spending employee time or paying an agency or consultant, the reality is that social media isn’t free.  What’s more, to be effective in social media a great investment in learning and research is required.  Most social sites are free to join, but using them effectively takes time and sometimes money.

Social media isn’t free – remember – Time is Money!  Doing it right isn’t as easy as signing up.  Be prepared to invest.

Myth #2: Younger People “get” Social Media

Fact: Social Use of Social Media is NOT the Same as Employing it as a Marketing Strategy

It would be like hiring the kid who watches the most TV to write your ad copy.  Sure it might work out (there are some examples of brilliant consumer created ads), but most of the entries are garbage.  The reason  is that it takes more than exposure to the medium – it takes strategy, marketing know-how and great creative execution.

Young people are often more active on social sites like Facebook and Myspace, but don’t confuse this with the ability to use these tools to build your business.

Myth #3: Social Media is Easy

Fact: The Barriers to Entry are Low, but Getting it Right is Harder

It is easy to sign up for twitter or start a blog, but using it effectively to build your business isn’t quite so easy.  Many marketers focus on “getting a fan page” or “starting a twitter account” but creating a social media account is only the first step (although arguably it should be the last step – after developing a strategy and evaluating options and resources.

Many companies fail witht their social media efforts and give up.  Since the barriers to entry are so low, anyone can join, but to be successful dedication, knowledge, strategy, creative and research are required (to name a few).

Social media may be harder than you think – failure rates in corporate blogs are high and many corporate twitter accounts lack any real engagement (sometimes by both the company and consumers).

When using social media to build your business be prepared to roll up your sleves and do some work.

Myth #4: Social Media is Fast

Fact: Social Media Takes Time

Social Media takes time – both to listen and understand the communities as well as to figure out how to use it effectively.

Getting it right in social media is difficult, and it takes trial and error.  TV ads have great ROI but marketers spent decades perfecting the ads down to a formula.  When entering social media be prepared to try different things and measure results.  There isn’t a magic formula – different things work for different audiences and in different communities.

Seeing an ROI from social media takes time.

Myth #5: Social Media Can’t Be Measured

Fact: Social Media is Measurable – But Measure More than just Followers and Fans

Marketers struggle with measuring social media since it doesn’t always result in a direct transaction – especially if you don’t sell products online.  What is more, many people focus on the wrong metrics – like fans and followers – versus effectiveness metrics like engagement and sentiment.

Measuring fans and followers is like using only reach to evaluate the effectiveness of your TV or print ad.  Effectiveness is a combination of how good your creative is times the number of people who see it.

There are a number of effective ways to measure social media beyond just looking at followers and fans.  What are the click through rates to your corporate site from social sites?  How many key influencers in your audience have you connected with? How many people retweet you?  What is your score on Twitter Grader or Klout? How many of your fans visit your page? How many bloggers mention you? What is the sentiment of your brand comments online?  These are just a few, and the right metrics will depend on your goals and objectives.

You can also set up campaigns to specifically measure twitter.  Create a specific coupon code or run social media specific promotions and measure engagement.

Myth #6: Social Media is for Everyone

Fact: Consider Your Strategy First, then Choose the Tool

There are a lot of surprising success stories with social media – companies that you think would have a tough time using social tools that are actually extremely effective.

That being said, social media isn’t for everyone.  If you don’t have the time or resources to dedicate to it you may end up wasting your time completely.  Creating an account that is later abandoned may end up having negative impacts on your organization and can signal that you don’t really care.

Creating an expectation that you will communicate with consumers by a social channel and then ignoring them may create more problems than it solves.

Be sure that you have the right resources before diving in, and set clear expectation about how you will communicate.  If you decide to abandon a social channel, communicate it clearly and provide alternate channels for people to get in touch with you.

Myth #7: Social Media is a Great Way for me to Talk

Fact: Social Media is an Effective Tool for Listening.  Talk Later.

When entering social media, the first question many people ask is “what should I say?”.  The first question should be “Who should I listen to?”.

Prior to entering a social media, spend some time listening to the people that you want to connect with.  What are they interested in?  What do they talk about?  What makes them mad?  What are the acceptable norms of communication?

Companies often jump in and lead with a heavy marketing message versus listening, understanding the community and really joining the conversation.  By listening first companies can more effectively participate in social communities.  Remember, they are social (it isn’t just a clever name).

What do you think?