#MAPmad = Marketing – Advertising - PR mad

I’m speaking at Social Collective ( #SoCol ) end September here in London. It’s at an event committed to raising the bar in SoMe designed for an audience of intermediate to advanced level industry types. The perfect audience for my #MAPmad debate.

Recently, while in Soho downing a few drinks with Darika Ahrens and Paul Armstrong I discovered I was not the only one frustrated with the SoMe situation. Darika had already been doing her part to clean up SoMe as it relates to PR. Paul had already been planning some sort of SoMe smack down – ok, less smack, more getting down to the core of it.

The three of us will be sharing a stage to take on the more dysfunctional SoMe. The M in MAPmad?  that’s where I’ll be sounding off discussing the current landscape.

I struggle with the idea that SoMe is a tool that simply energizes, engages, and allows you to listen. Although I agree, all those things are important, (without them you are failing) I can’t help but want to roll my eyes when some SoMe superstar opens his gob and starts regurgitating the same thing over and over – you just know he doesn’t quite get it – he’s passionate though, bless him. (deep sigh)

We’re beyond energizing right? We’re all thinking in Social Life Cycles now, right?

Social Technology enables brands to create professional crushes between said brand and core audience, including:

1. Industry Stakeholders: <media, government, shareholders, talent>

2. Company Stakeholders: <employees, contractors, suppliers, customers>

Using Social Technology to lower the cost to serve or increase sales is the bare minimum you need to simply get a seat at the table. If you’re still touting that your Social ROI is all about soft attributes – then perhaps your clients can start paying you in soft attributes for your SoMe expertise?

I would argue that if your SoMe is not lowering the cost to serve or driving sales… you are not a SoMe expert or strategist ( or super star, or manager).  Driving sales should really be the litmus test that separates the SoMe people who can actually do their job and the rest of them who are just making noise.

–> a digital campaign has it’s place – but it has it’s place within the Social Life Cycle. It’s not about retro fitting SoMe into some campaign so you can tick off a box. This is about basic marketing that starts with insights, is followed by a strategic plan that considers your social life cycle.

The real work starts post sale but must be planned for pre-sale. This isn’t marketing that sees you through awareness, acquisition, retention, and up/cross sell. It isn’t. This is the business of creating a social life cycle between brand and core audience that breeds professional crushes.

• If you’re shopping for SoMe support – take heart – there are plenty of good <real> ones out there. But do your homework.
• If you are working in SoMe but not yet delivering the bare minimum <meeting objectives: lowering cost to serve or driving sales> it’s never too late. Brush up on your marketing skills, understand the customer life cycle, identify the key moments of truth specific to your business (an MOT is every single time your customer touches your business/brand>, take a few steps back and look at the bigger picture. Start looking at the Social Life cycle.

If I have triggered any thoughts, ideas or differences of opinion – as usual, they are always welcome.

I am playing with something and testing it’s ability to produce live. Please ignore me this one time.

User-generated content and the law

We know it is yet we find ourselves still shovelling offering up the same old marketing and advertising.

Now I’m not one to throw the baby out with the bath water… but I am one to call a spade a spade and the way we do marketing and advertising needs to change.

I don’t have all the answers (just yet) but I am fully ready to acknowledge that it’s time to start digging.

I was recently approached by company X to help deliver a proposal that would drive sales. I asked for a week to do some research. I circled back a week later with a proposal that suggested their focus should be on customer service and operations to plug the holes in their bucket not on driving sales. Their churn rate was 1 in 3. Why spend so much time and energy on finding 900 customers just for 300 to walk away with such a negative experience that they wouldn’t consider returning. They thanked me and moved on. They needed to tick the boxes and meet their targets. I get it.

Some trends worth noting:

• An increase in niche communities will only further splinter the customer base beyond what it is now
• Instantaneous sharing of customer experiences, good and bad – although bad news appears to travel a lot faster.
• A strong dislike for noise <broadcast advertising online>
• The world is going niche
• The Adv. Model is broken – #AdMad
• If 78% of customers trust the recommendation of their network then we have to ask ourselves, “How do we become part of the conversation being had by the 78%?” – it’s certainly not by broadcasting to them
• The adoption model is shortening although not as fast as we’d expect
• Businesses have to work hard at being relevant (to their customer… not to their shareholders, although ironically…)
• I think @EricQualman is right… you have to embrace Social Technology now to even be a player in this market five years from now. And it does not equal facebook!

I wonder about Affinity Marketing and if it’s yet to see it’s full success. I wonder if Loyalty Marketing and Affinity Marketing hooked up to recognize and reward the conversations being had about you and your brand that leads to a sale or referral.

The conversation fascinates me… if you share a similar mindset or have some insight that you feel proves me to be a little off centre – then connect with me – I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

photo credit: Kevin Steele

The Facebook story of April 2010 got my tongue wagging:

• What is the value of generalist and bigger than life communities?
• Is Facebook shimmying to the monopoly corner?
• The advertising model #AdMad is broken, what does the right one look like?
• What does this all mean to us 12 months from now?

The enemy of community is noise (some refer to this as a lack of quality)! It happens the moment the community loses its focus, its purpose.  Typically wanting to be more to more people or by not keeping focus and quality at the forefront of all they do.

The social landscape has become so big <and fragmented> that I no longer consider myself informed on it all. I recognize that I have two choices: remain a generalist with a shallow knowledge of a whole lot, or pick a corner of the landscape and own it.

Generalist vs. Niche – there is a glaring <and I’d bet, welcome> opportunity here. Drop the 50 different RSS feeds, multiple social alerts and the constant monitoring mode and take five steps back. Scan both the social landscape and the market to find your niche.   Is your portfolio diverse but your target customer specific? Or is your product or service niche and your customer base diverse?

If you are already finding your community with too much noise, then you need:

• a plan
• a collaborative approach
• to be OK with your community numbers dropping – giving you less noise and more quality

This year will see a significant increase in niche communities – what I can’t be sure of is how we will make use of the noisy generalist communities over the next 12 – 18 months.

• The more we age, the more opportunities we find to become jaded.
• When start ups grow into big companies, they can lose a je ne c’est quoi in the transition.
• When events become so big and crowded, there’s a tendency to become overwhelmed, to stick with the one we came with.
• When communities get really big, they feel less like a community and more like a city, losing their small town feel.
• When a city’s population doubles and triples, the city can feel cold or outgrow it’s infrastructure.
• When a social networking platform becomes so big it is being referred to as a monopoly, the attraction may eventually disappear.

Certainly not a universal law, but if history is anything to go by, I think we may find that small becomes the new big – that smaller velvet rope networks gain in popularity and our attraction to yesterday’s brands may evolve into a love affair for tomorrow’s.

by the way – if you are wondering what I’m on about… check this out: It’s a Facebook world after all…

Well? Am I missing the boat… if you have any thoughts or ideas, please, share.

photo credit: eatmorechips

Social Technology is an enabler. It enables <insert said business, brand, product, service> to remain (or in some cases, become) relevant.

Although the fundamentals are the same, the way social technology manifests depends on where your efforts are focused.

For the business – create the right message in the right places that generates the pull that delivers the talent, investors and attention that you need to move the needle. Think: Recruitment. Investors. Media.

Inside the business – facilitate a culture of change that reduces overhead costs, increases employee retention rates and makes business more efficient. Think: Management. Employees. Operations.

Outside the business – consistently deliver relevant moments of truth that make your customers not only fall in love with you, but tell their communities about you. Think: Existing Customers. New Customers.

Roping in Social Technology at the point of purchase can work although I am a fan of leveraging social technology holistically. Taking advantage of its benefits and efficiencies from start to finish. My experience has been that this typically makes for far better and more consistent moments of truth for your customer and by default, your shareholders.

photo credit: GTPS