Friday, November 25, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
You can’t win the ground war when you “cover off” on social
I’m not suggesting that assigning
the role to experts is a bad decision. By identifying and compensating social
media experts, it would appear that such brands can make the most of user and
prospect discussions. Plus, brand leaders cannot spend their entire days
watching twitter feeds or analytics tools. But the decision to “outsource”
holds the danger that it will give brand leaders a false sense of confidence –
that they have “handled” social without shifting their own thinking about the
need for direct consumer involvement and interaction.
As a rule I detest military
metaphors because they create both a false sense of us versus them and
trivialize the heroic efforts of people being shot at with actual bullets. But
consider this. The US felt it had covered off on the Vietnam War in the 1960s.
Felt that with its vastly superior numbers and firepower, winning would be
easily accomplished. What US policy failed to consider was what was actually
happening in the war on the ground.
In social, far too many companies
are throwing resources at social as a means of conquering public opinion. But
the reality is that until you are a part of the activity you can’t understand
what’s happening.
You can’t “cover off” on social. It
requires deep, continued commitment to caring about what consumers say, feel,
and suggest. Some outsourced resources are excellent at bringing the most
salient information and ideas forward. Further, some companies are great at
soliciting the input and recommendations delivered by such resources. And
acting on them.
But this little plea is for the
companies that still view social as a channel instead of as a marketing style. View
social as another form of broadcast media.
Hey, reading occasional
aggregated reports of social activity is, I suppose, better than not reading
them. But failure to leverage both the richness and real time insight is
tantamount to ignoring the consumer. In our new marketing environment, knowing
what people are thinking and saying is being “on the ground.” We can’t put
consumer interaction on autopilot.
There are good reasons to hire experts to
help manage the flow of information. But today, YOU YOURSELF playing a role in that
information exchange is essential to being a successful leader.
Axe Excite makes angels fall from grace ?!?
Now, this ad isn't showing in America, where taking on God isn't such a good idea from a marketing perspective. But I'll go out on a limb here to suggest that it might not be such a good idea...anywhere.
Monday, November 21, 2011
When Innovative Isn’t Good
As more and more start-ups focus on advertising and
marketing dollars as their tickets to profitability, it seems appropriate to
provide some texture into how one goes about attracting and growing
relationships with marketers.
The first thing that’s important to know is that a
relatively small number of companies make up the “first wave” of sponsors for
many of the web’s most promising ideas. The reality is that a relatively small
number of marketers have both the “innovator” spirit AND the freedom to
allocate significant resources to unproven platforms. For these visionaries, seeming
“innovative” is a tremendous asset for a start-up anxious to partner with them.
For innovator marketers, the promise of great or at least
buzz-worthy results is sufficient to garner a first investment. They hope to be
early movers in transformative platforms that will have a profound effect on
how people interact with each other and with brands.
The challenge is in what happens next. For a company to
generate significant revenue from marketing programs, it needs to quickly move
beyond an insular sort of innovativeness. This is because most marketers take a
wait and see attitude toward new platforms and tools. They want to see both
results and a sustained commitment to these offerings from the first movers.
In the crucial months after first advertiser commitments, it
is critical that such companies achieve six things:
1.
Building of the rudiments of a service and
support structure for marketers. In general bad service leads to bad sales
2.
A change in brand equity from “first” to “leading”
– a shift that achieves a perception of size and importance
3.
Creation of business stories and case studies
that provide the business results for marketers. People in the next “ring” of
marketers want proof, not promises
4.
Vertical solutions – how the platform can
fulfill needs in leading business sectors including CPG, Auto, Finance, Health,
etc.
5.
Integration with leading reporting and analytics
tools. While specialized reporting can be valuable, achieving scale generally
requires that people be able to use tools they are already familiar with to
analyze and optimize programs
6.
Proactive efforts to drive awareness through
marketing trades and events
So many great ideas die on the vine because they fail to
cross the marketing chasm. Perhaps even more critical than winning the first
customer is laying the foundation for the next ten.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
No comment...well...one comment...
STOCKTON, Calif. (AP)-- A high school teacher is under investigation after school officials said she was maintaining a pornographic website from her school-issued laptop computer.
Lincoln High School teacher Heidi Kaeslin is on paid leave while the district investigates whether she violated its code of ethics, The Stockton Recordreported.
WHETHER IT VIOLATES ITS CODE OF ETHICS?
WHETHER?
WHETHER?
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