Mar 26, 2013 | Branding, Marketing, Social Media
Everybody has something to say, and the democratisation of the web means everyone has the opportunity.
Just take a look at the twitter feeds of some of the big brands, some inane crap written by a 10 year old intellect can attract thousands of “likes”, and the wombats breed just to provide more of them.
So what?. Why should these big brands bother? Surely such nonsense detracts from their brand?
Well, to my mind they shouldn’t do it, building and maintaining a brand is hard enough without putting extra lead in the saddlebags.
On the contrary, the opportunity to say something of value, pass on some wisdom, offer useful advice is now easier than it has ever been. Those thoughts need to be heard, debated, and they add to our lives.
Just a pity that we have to wade through the mountains of crap, despite all the filtering and prioritisation tools available, to find the interesting stuff.
Mar 25, 2013 | Communication, Customers, Marketing, retail, Small business, Social Media
One of the foundations of mass marketing was to be able to segment your market, geographically, demographically, behaviorally, brand preferences, and so on.
In the old days of mass media, it was really the only way to target messages at those most likely to be receptive, match the media selection to the characteristics of your target market.
But what has happened in the social world of networked consumers and crowd sourced comment and content?
An acquaintance runs a wonderful patisserie in a rejuvenated inner city location. It is pricey, but the value is there, reflected in the range, artistic presentation, great service, and above all, pastries to die for. However, some of the comments on the review sites would lead to a conclusion that the products were overpriced, too fancy, and lacked character.
Standing in the queue on a Saturday morning just before Christmas, observing others, and listening to the comments, the penny dropped. Those in the queue were older, clearly successful, were regulars, and loved the place, whereas the casual buyer, the ones far more likely to leave a comment on a review site were most probably Uni students, on their way between the train station and the campus just down the road. These buyers were more liklely to want a cheap, filling, snack rather than a tasty work of art.
The lesson: Do not believe all your read on social media review sites, any more than you believe all you read in a politicians press release.
Mar 22, 2013 | Branding, Communication, Marketing, Social Media
Digital communication is now a major consideration in any marketing budget, depending on whose numbers you believe, digital may now be even bigger than “traditional” communication channels.
So how should you develop your creative and communication briefs?
- Concentrate on traditional channels and adapt for Digital?
- Focus on digital and use traditional as the adjunct?
- Split the budget and treat them separately, or consider the cart and horse to be the one integrated delivery vehicle?
Making these choices, deciding which is the horse, the one that provides the “grunt,” you need and requiring real feeding, and which is the cart, which just needs some maintanence, is the key decision. Then you need to decide how you are going to manage the processes of feeding and maintaining, as they require very different strategies and capabilities.
Traditional media is passive, one way, the objective is to disrupt to gain attention and only then deliver a message with no effective feedback mechanism.
Digital media is wholly different. It has the native capability to be two way, a “conversation,” it cannot disrupt as the initiative is with the receiver rather than the sender, the originator can micro-target to the level of individuals, and there are immediate and hugely detailed feedback loops.
All this means that the manner in which the proposition is presented is entirely different, passive, mass creative Vs a message demanding action of an individual.
When put like that, the dilemma becomes more transparent, relatively easily addressed by a few simple questions:
- Is it a commodity, mass market product, or are you building a market customer by customer?
- Are you aiming to build awareness amongst a wide market profile or engagement of a niche?
- Can you identify and target the behavioral characteristics of your target market, or just the demographic ones?
The answers to these questions will offer insight not just to which is the horse, but how much, and what it needs to be fed to deliver the optimum result.
Mar 19, 2013 | Personal Rant, Social Media
Privacy has been, and remains a key concern in relation to the use of the net, and particularly Social Media. Every time you log on you leave a trail, and as we increasingly log on with mobile devices, the data we offer to sophisticated users is true Big Brother stuff.
This leaked video showing RIOT software (Rapid Information Overlay technology) that turned up on the Guardian website is instructive, and scary, although I guess the old “I have nothing to hide” argument still holds.
I bet the crims do not use mobile phones, or at least the smart (and free) ones won’t, although it may not be likely that the police have the budget to do sensible stuff like deploy this sort of technology, too few press release opportunities for their political masters.
Mar 15, 2013 | Sales, Social Media
A mate recently picked up an great new account, on he had been trying to “crack” for a long time, through a piece of good luck, or good management depending on your perspective. All his product and market knowledge, sales skills and persistence had failed to get him past the gate-keeper and his allies.
He noticed on a social media feed that the autocratic old gate-keeper who had the “repel all boarders” attitude was retiring. A little digging led him to the likely replacement, someone who associated with a groomsman at his brothers wedding.
A few phone calls, and an introduction and he was in a position to discuss delivering a solution to the long wanted customer, and it went from there.
All this from a sales person monitoring and leveraging the power of social media, looking for an opportunity to engage, that in this case emerged from a disruption of the status quo amongst his target companies.
He has consistently said over the past few years that this approach “beats the hell out of cold calling” which was the manner in which the job was structured, and how he was expected to operate.
Seems to me that the old adage of” its not what you know but who you know that counts” has been expanded substantially by social media to “its not what you know, but who you know who knows you both” that counts.
The sales function has been radically socialised by the new tools of the web.
Mar 5, 2013 | Communication, Social Media
Ever wondered about the credibility gathered and built by the tweets, posts, and content created that then become used, and shared, and re-shared?
The opposite of the stone, the more something is shared, the more it gathers moss, the virtual credibility we all seek on the web.
Proximity to the source of information usually enhances the opportunity to assess its credibility, but the paradox is that the wider the electronic distribution of content, the more weight it seems to gather, irrespective of the intrinsic value of the content.
