Time to read: 1 minute. The social media and mobile opportunity for financial services organizations extends beyond account access, bill pay, transfers and the like.  Here it is in a breath:

Discovering customers’ evolving needs, nurturing leads, capturing new business and increasing loyalty.

Today’s customers are re-active.  Many times acting out of fear.  And when they need financial help they expect free, value-added services… to aid in making complex decisions.

My new white paper helps financial services companies to create tangible results with social and emerging mobile media.

Banks and insurance companies you will learn how reach beyond coercing customers to prefer their brand.  They’ll learn how leading pioneers are producing tangible demand with digital.  Leads, referrals and increased share-of-wallet.  They’re doing it using three success principles:

1. Creating utility: Finding ways to integrate with the everyday lives of customers simply and relevantly.
2. Publishing: Offering meaningful, valuable tools and information that prompt desired actions.
3. Exchanging qualitative value: Defining success as being mutually beneficial in qualitative terms

Many of us want to help customers make better decisions by becoming the source of trusted, useful information.  But how can you use content marketing on blogs and mobile applications actually produce leads.  Reliably.

Download this paper today and find out.  Good luck!

Social media leadership means creating DEMAND not preference. CEO’s should be pressing marketers to put sales and leads before tweets and friends… period.  It’s a marketer’s job to create measurable demand not memorable ads… nor preference.  It’s time to lead.

So far, social media is today’s version of mass media branding. It’s a ghost that somehow generates sales and leads – reliably so. Need proof? Just correlate the rise in whatever to your investment in Twitter, Facebook – whatever.

What’s it cost? Nothing really. That’s what marketers told Econsultancy in a recent survey. 32% of marketers who responded to the survey said they spend 0% of their budget on social media. And 36% said they spend less than $5,000 annually on it. Get this… nearly ALL of them use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. So apparently employee TIME doesn’t figure in to cost? Is this marketing leadership?

And what are marketers’ biggest wins for 2009? According to a recent eROI study: increased clicks to their sites and brand awareness. Call me crazy but these ALL seem like problems that can be solved by CHANGING the way marketers operate. And the best way to start is by uprooting an old, outdated belief system.  By changing the core values behind marketing leadership.

Don’t let them skate CEOs – or they’ll just continue to make irresponsible calculations about how social media marketing is free. Action item: Demand marketers embrace the SCIENCE of direct response… and put traditional ARTISTIC advertising in the back seat. That’s the problem I see and what you can do to improve your business.  What do you think?

Time to read: 4 minutes. Who do consumers dis-trust or dislike more than bankers these days?  Exactly.  For most financial services companies social media is playing a failed role in changing this.  Typical social  campaigns are designed to yield marginal (if any) tangible value.  They’re built to fail because banking decision-makers are investing in the tactics without placing them in context of desired business outcomes.  Here’s how Chase failed and how it could have taken a different approach to achieve better outcomes for the bank and customer.  Also, learn how Anchor Bank is using social media to do just that — by capturing qualitative information about the customer that banking services staff use to follow-up on.

The truth is most financial organizations are failing to extract tangible, meaningful value from social media, mobile and digital marketing.  And I know why and how to fix it.

Can you think of anything more important than authenticating bank staff as being trustworthy, reliable and service-focused in today’s environment?  Or empowering them to observe, analyze and better serve customers’ evolving needs?  Digital media offers a reliable means to address this challenge.  Don’t squander it.

And don’t think for a moment that giving money away to charities and small businesses — and then hoping people talk about it — will improve your bank’s business. This misses the opportunity completely.

Here’s what to do

Banks are inherently service-focused.  That’s a real strength that most aren’t leveraging in the digital realm.  Here’s the key to success (real opportunity):

Banks can use social marketing to becoming ultra-relevant to the everyday needs of customers –- needs that evolve faster and are increasingly driven by emotions.

This means everything banks do must be endlessly useful and always in momentary context — equally relevant to the organization and to the customer.

Today’s banking customers see life this way:  Utility trumps novelty, fun or “engaging.”  While a sense of humor is always a good thing to have customers are having a hard time “lightening up” about their finances and those who they entrust with their money.  Customers want better, reliable service — not to feel better about your charitable giving.

So how can social media bring you closer to aligning your bank’s needs with customers needs through actions both of you take on the “social Web?”

Chase’s ‘+1′ campaign failed because it was designed to

Chase provides a brief example of a “social” campaign designed around limited qualitative outcomes.  Of course, it’s been celebrated as a triumph and a great case study of how to use Facebook.  Yet a closer look reveals mass-media era value that is largely based in “buzz” and “conversation” that is detached from creating meaningful customer behavior.

Chase failed to tap into the power of the Web in a way that creates meaningful behavior.  What they settled for was PR buzz around the campaign itself.

Chase’s +1 campaign resulted in customers getting little if any value beyond a momentary novelty.  Chase shorted itself on gaining tangible business value.

In a recent Facebook campaign hoping to enroll student card holders (the desired business outcome) Chase invested in banner ads throughout Facebook that invited students to join a Group page –- people who want to learn about or sign up for their new “+1” credit card.

34,000 or so students earned points for spreading Chase’s message that they could redeem later for DVDs and other merchandise — stuff that students actually value.  Concurrently student organizations could earn valuable points for each new referred student who became a Facebook Group member.

Unfortunately the good news stops here.  Chase’s Facebook Group has no means to capture information on student’s actual state of need.  Do they need a card?  If so what credit line and services do they expect?  When will they or might they need one?

Chase fails to capture and store such vital information — for future follow-up with individual students.  There is also no discussion board to monitor for needs-oriented chat among students –- which could have been fed back into the product marketing organization (this being a best practice).

Chase communicates with members unreliably –- when it feels like it (about once a month or so) –- with Facebook alerts about new offers (commercial information).  The program itself is heralded as a “win” given it is influenced by the involvement of several hundred student “ambassadors” who weigh in on how the program is designed in exchange for points or in some cases internship credit.  But this merely amounts to a digital focus group.

What Chase should have done and why

Chase’s agency said, “Students are engaged, and they’re giving us more feedback than we thought we would get… they tell us honestly what they think.”

Listening to customers is obviously beneficial — but only if you do something with the knowledge gained.   And that takes planning.

More importantly, prompting students to give qualitative information (beyond opinion) about their current “need state” would allow Chase to actively market the +1 card to students more effectively.

Overall this campaign was limited in that it didn’t organize around students’ behavior in a way that induces more, beneficial behavior… that generates valuable outcomes on customer and business sides.   Specifically, Chase’s +1 Facebook campaign was not designed to leverage actions that students are known to be actively taking (or willing to take) given what Chase knows about students.  It did not pair those actions with Chase’s objectives in a way that generated tangible outcomes.

Anchor Bank: A winning value-exchange

Some of Chase’s rewards were tied to consumption of educational content — stories and tips about how students can save money, avoid fees and make dollars go further.  Anchor Bank takes a similar approach by directing prospective customers to its Financial Answer Center using tools like email and Twitter.  The Center itself is a serious investment and an outstanding resource for consumers but offers a tremendous value to Anchor Bank (as compared with Chase).

Anchor asks (does not require) customers to provide their name, address, city, state and phone number when they choose to download an informational document.

Anchor is engaging in a value-exchange with customers — trading the information customers’ need and are ready to consume with qualitative information for Anchor’s use.

Anchor knows that it’s fair game to ask a customer for a little bit of information about themselves as part of the value exchange.  And the qualitative information the bank gains is through the consumption of the content.  If a customer downloads information on “how to pay for college,” as an example, Anchor knows how to follow up with that customer with a focused telephone call or email.

Anchor is successfully selling products and increasing customer satisfaction with social media by capturing qualitative information about the customer that banking services staff use to follow-up on.

After all, isn’t this the goal?  Authenticating all bank staff (not just marketers) as being trustworthy, reliable and service-focused… then empowering them to observe, analyze and better serve customers’ evolving needs.  Digital media offers a reliable means to address this challenge.  But only if you design it to.

Time to read 3 minutes. Time-stretched USAA customers already demonstrated a willingness to use desktop scanners to make deposits.  So the bank decided to make what they’re already doing align with customers’ love-affair with mobile devices.  The result: meaningful customer outcomes and profits using social media and mobile applications.  USAA is one of today’s best examples of social media and mobile device use in banking.  As part of my keynote speaking, I’m often illustrating how leaders like USAA are using utility to create meaningful outcomes.  Read on for all the details.

Run-of-the-mill banks are busy “humanizing” themselves with social media and mobile tools.  But exceptional financial organizations are qualitatively improving customers’ lives and businesses.  And in ways that create profits.

Key strategy:  Uber-relevant utilities

Today’s banks are challenged to become relevant to the everyday needs of customers — customers who’s needs evolve faster than ever before.  Leading institutions are responding with digital utilities.

In short form… the “big opportunity” is to answer skeptical, angry consumers with:

• Utilities that foster trust, reliability
• Services that leverage existing strengths
  (critical thinking, market/risk interpretation)
• Contextually relevant information
  (not memorable, entertaining or persuasive ads)
• Better customer service or self service

… using digital Web media (call it social media or mobile applications if you’d like).

Case in point:  USAA’s Deposit@Mobile

USAA’s value proposition to their customer is simple: Use your iPhone or Android phone to deposit checks from wherever you are.  Never visit a bank or ATM again to make your deposits.  This is just one of a few common tasks their new mobile application offers.  I’m illustrating it given it’s uniqueness — reaching far beyond bill pay and common banking services.  Here’s the process:

1. Download, install, register and open the application on your mobile device.
2. Enter the deposit amount, choose your account.
3. Take photos of your endorsed check.
4. Get confirmation of your secure deposit.

Total time to get the job (2-4 above) done:  Less than 2 minutes.  This useful application makes it easy to deposit checks while grabbing lunch or traveling.

How they did it

What’s the secret sauce?  USAA added a mobile aspect to their pre-existing value (to customers) — the banks raw functional utility.  Not very Web 2.0 sexy eh?  Well, maybe.  It lives on an iPhone after all!  My point: this is deadly effective and based on pre-existing value the bank has earned among customers.

USAA is leveraging what it already know customers want or “need to do” in their everyday lives — and then making it contextually relevant to customers’ momentary needs.

So how useful is USAA’s free app?  Mega-useful.  The handy mobile application has contextually meaningful features like an ATM Locator, a detailed auto accident checklist, a loan calculator that estimates car or mortgage payments and a car rental locator for the nearest Avis, Budget or Hertz.

There’s something for everyone based on where a customer is and what he/she is doing.

Wayne Peacock and his team aren’t “entering the conversation” or mapping its customers “social graphs” or creating buzz or word-of-mouth.  They’re filling a void — a need that customers have demonstrated demand for.

USAA aligned their corporate actions… their value… with customers’ needs — then digitized it.

The REAL promise of social / mobile applications for banks

USAA plans to unveil more useful tools within the application as customers demand them.  And they’ve created ways to “listen” to customers using digital devices too — allowing customers to prompt USAA.

This is the real promise of social media — being able to tap into latent demand and nurture it to fruition (in real time).  The demand could be a business lead or a new form of value that cements customer loyalty.

USAA realized and acted:  Time-stretched customers already demonstrated a willingness to use desktop scanners to make deposits.  They just needed to fulfill the need by making what they already do themselves align with customers’ love-affair with mobile devices.

No social media gurus, “engagement”, buzz or voodoo involved!

Time to read: 7 minutes. Today, Abercrombie & Fitch announced flat Web and declining store sales.  But they have well over 1,000,000 “followers and friends.”   How can this be?  And Moosejaw… they’re missing out on the ‘digital native social commerce’ action too.  Here’s how to improve your social media marketing’s output.  Read on and discover how to create tangible results with social media marketing. 

I noticed that Moosejaw is inadvertently overstating the effectiveness of a Facebook and Twitter campaign and under-utilizing social media’s true prowess.   Essentially, they asked customers to blast and re-blast gratuitous promotional messages about the brand.  But what if Moosejaw created meaning for customers with social media?  What if they prompted customers to do things that, in the end, gave them a more meaningful experience with their products?

A real life reason to take action — buy, encourage others to buy, download an outdoor-life related application that helped customers do what they already want to do in a faster, easier, more fun way?  Or use Moosejaw products in creative, new ways?

With improving your social ROI in mind, I’ll critique Moosejaw’s limited approach and lay out an easy-to-implement path to improve results of social media marketing — using Moosejaw as an example.

Tip: Tie marketing goals to qualitative business outcomes

A quick read of MarketingSherpa’s case study on Moosejaw reveals a set of goals and tactics that create limited success for the brand and its customers — although MarketingSherpa unknowingly celebrates it.  Sherpa’s write-up promises:

“See how a retailer created a product giveaway campaign that required social media users to engage on Facebook or re-tweet messages on Twitter to qualify for drawings.  Not only did they significantly grow their social media followers, but for some products, sales increased 15%.”

Briefly, Moosejaw is a purveyor of outdoor gear and apparel aimed at the 20-30 something crowd — the “digital natives.”  All the more reason for them to get moving on social media marketing.  But therein lies a trap which I’m afraid Gary Wohlfeill and his team have fallen into.

Moosejaw’s expectation of this campaign is part of the problem.  Goals include increasing quantities of things like Facebook Friends, Twitter Followers, “buzz and engagement.”  This is a problem.  Their marketing team was not held responsible for tangible business outcomes — qualitative results.

Tip: Measure correctly

Moosejaw claims sales increased as a direct result of the social campaigns.  But the company did not measure incremental sales by accounting for buying activity that would have occurred anyway.   In other words, they didn’t “subtract out” those naturally occurring sales from customers that would have purchased without the promotion.  They did not invest in a “control group” that would have allowed them to measure the incremental effect.

A true 15% rise in sales as a result of holiday-season give-aways using social media is highly suspect given the holiday season is Moosejaw’s biggest.  People were already primed to buy!

Tip: Create meaningful customer value, not discounts on stuff

But here’s where the story gets interesting.  Moosejaw could have gone much further toward creating a profitable campaign had they focused on creating qualitative value.

The customer value Moosejaw created using Facebook and Twitter was not relevant nor meaningful to customers’ everyday lives.  There was no payoff for customers/participants other than the chance to win stuff.  This created limited results for Moosejaw.

Specifically, customers were asked to behave in ways that simply “blast” promotions across the Web (“virally”).  They were asked to “friend” more on Facebook, comment more on blogs, share more, tweet more on Twitter.  There was no emphasis or requirement on quality of what was being said.

In fact all Moosejaw asked people to do was spread the news of its promotion with “free stuff” as bait.

Moosejaw provided no qualitative outcome for customers/participants.   They did not design the campaign to be relevant to customers’ everyday lives in a meaningful way.

Further, Moosejaw facilitated a negative brand experience.  Participants began to mis-behave and “spam” friends with large quantities of commercial messages (about the promotion).  Hardly a positive brand experience.

Tip: Create utility

But what if Moosejaw had planned to create meaning for customers using social media?  What if they prompted customers to do things that, in the end, gave them a more meaningful experience with their products?  A reason to take action — buy, encourage others to buy products or use Moosejaw products in new ways?

Rather than a give-away contest Moosejaw could have offered customers the opportunity to download an iPhone application or Mac/PC desktop widget custom-designed to improve the experience of using Moosejaw products.

As an example, a skiing/snowboarding tool that lets customers check slope conditions that they regularly romp.  Or a desktop news reader that comes pre-programmed with customers’ preferences for news and entertainment.  Think Bloglines, iGoogle, MyYahoo, MyMSN only for outdoor enthusiasts and customized to hiking, biking, snowboarding, camping or rock climbing.

Think along the lines of Adagio’s Tea Timer.  Tools that both serve a pre-existing customer need and marketer’s need to understand customers’ preferences and momentary “state of need.”

Moosejaw marketing 2.0: A translator of customer needs

By becoming a trusted news source to customers Moosejaw could understand current customers’ preferences and gather highly qualified leads on new customers.   They could do this from moment one and over time — study consumption patterns of media content among customers.

As an example they may notice that rock climbers actually spend most of their time reading about fly fishing — yielding actionable insights on those customers’ preferences and “need state” in terms of what customers actually NEED at the moment.

Moosejaw’s marketing team now become translators of evolving customer need — not just broadcasters of what customers should want or give-away deals.

Expect more: ‘conversation’ and ‘buzz’ isn’t enough

It’s a common belief that more mentions, more “conversation” about a company, the more valuable it is for them.  But this goal is backward.  This goal is relevant in a mass communication world that no longer serves our needs.

Today, there is less value in buzz, positive sentiment and conversation versus creating sales and leads.

“The engagement/conversation/relationship crowd are confused about cause and effect. You don’t sell someone something by engagement, conversation and relationship. You create engagement, conversation and relationships by selling them something.”

Bob Hoffman

In the end, Wohlfeill and his team ran a sweepstakes promotion that gave away products during December.  It was designed to use “social media channels to encourage the audience to connect with the brand there and share the information with friends.”

But notice:  It wasn’t designed to sell or capture “need states” of potential customers.  Selling seemed to just happen — although the rise in sales seems highly suspect given the holiday season.  The tactics employed by Moosjaw’s marketing team were quantitative and mass-communications focused (ie. hoping for actions to be taken rather than prompting them).

And there was no control group.  Measuring the impact of social media programs without use of control groups fails to consider “who would have purchased/acted anyway” (without the promotion).  Results are skewed significantly — toward the promotion being effective.

I hope exploration of this social media marketing example helps you use digital media in ways that power your company.  Because in the end we’re not in this to build Twitter and Facebook a business model!

Time to read: 7 minutes. Experts say “building community,”  “buzz” or “engagement in the conversation” is joy.  But crazy people like me still like to SELL things.  And so do a few remaining Ben Franklin stores.  Today I’ll show you how a Ben Franklin store in rural Washington accidentally discovered how to create a winning social media strategy that drives more buyers into the store.  I’ll also share a shortcut with you: Stop looking for “what works” from agencies and consultants.  Start asking yourself, “what works in our stores?”  Then use tools like mobile texting to supercharge it.

More and more I’m agreeing to do 30-minute “power consulting” sessions as part of my keynote speaking.  I recently spoke at a large gathering of crafters — 10,000 strong!  I ended up coming home with a few remarkable success stories and useful insights.  Here’s a quick one that blew me away.

But first, here’s my big “ah-HA.”  Every retail segment has the ability to create meaningful outcomes using social media — that produce profits (for the business) and value (for customers).  Not Facebook friends nor Twitter followers.  Not buzz.  Not conversation.  Not engagement.  Sales.   How?  By looking at what already works — in the “dirt world” (offline) — and finding ways to apply new digital tools to multiply business (not marketing!) results.

While most of us are busy using Facebook, Twitter et al for the sake of using them (building some 20-something’s business!) some small store owners are quick to learn, execute and profit.  Now the story…

Cut-to-the-chase in 60 seconds

I greeted Adrian Taylor Jr. and Adrian Sr., owners of 2 Ben Franklin craft stores.  We quickly sat down in our cozy trade show “office booth.”  The Taylors jumped at the opportunity to book time with someone they were told was an expert (heh, that’s me) in application of social media.  As it turns out the Taylors were the experts.

The father-son duo had no agenda nor had attended my morning lecture.  They just wanted the goods.  Within 60 seconds they told me about their many-decades old Ben Franklin store and how they just finished up with their biggest holiday season ever.  Ever.  Ever?  Ever… in the worst retail economy — EVER!

So at this point I’m all ears.   I ask, “uh… how’d ya do that, gentlemen?”

A simple but effective charity promotion.  A “giving tree” was set up in the storefront window adorned with ornaments.  Each featured a child in need — a child of an incarcerated parent at the nearby prison.  Children offered up their wish lists.  Their gift requests to Santa included underwear.  Socks.  Hats.  Jackets.  Few toys.

The kids’ requests were just too much for the heart to bear — and they were all within arm’s reach.  Local children.

News of the promotion spread like wildfire across the village (word of mouth).  The store became a focal point of the community.  Giving went wild — from minimum wage employees of the store to others in the community who were struggling themselves.  The store was a-buzz all “season” long.

Oh, and by the way… people bought stuff.

They were in Ben Franklin after all — an affordable place to shop for a variety of gifts and crafts (during a severe recession).  The Taylors designed many-a-good promotion for them to take advantage of.  They prompted purchase behavior as best they could.  And being in business for a few decades, they’re pretty good!

The secret sauce: A qualitative experience

In essence what worked?  That’s right — what has worked for hundreds if not thousands of years.  The store offered a genuine, authentic, remarkably relevant qualitative experience to children who needed help AND customers who wanted to authenticate themselves in a meaningful way.  Customers always want to achieve larger meaning — they’re human!

And the store made sales.  By happenstance?  No.  By design.  Customers who appreciate the opportunity to authenticate themselves in meaningful ways are more willing to SPEND with brands that do the same — especially when prompted by a promotion or call to action.

The secret sauce here isn’t what countless brands seem to think it is:  Giving to a charity or acting a certain way and then talking about it in “social media” and hoping that “buzz” generates positive sentiment about the brand that somehow result in preference… that somehow (the ghost that is “branding”)  result in sales.

Digitize it — complete the experience

I quickly related to the Taylors that they missed nothing in my lecture.  They already understand the “social secret sauce” and simply need to put it into action… which was the foundation of my lecture.

They simply needed to do the same thing — but using digital tools to improve the results for the store and customers.

Adrean Jr. was quick.  He’s a Web savvy guy who, I soon discovered, has a LOT going on at their Web site.  He quickly grasped the concept of using a variety of digital tools to help foster a wider array of qualitative experiences and outcomes — to customers and the business.

He related how days earlier he sent money to a Haiti earthquake relief effort.  The organization he donated to used a simple SMS text to a specified number.  That day he had received a text message BACK.

“The ship has pulled into doc and is offloading the food.”

The charity had just “closed the loop” or completed the INTERACTION with Adrean Jr.  Rather than blast a Tweet and risk missing Adrean Jr. completely they chose the appropriate form of message delivery.  They created a complete experience.

Adrean said, “Hey, we could do that.”

Nuf said.  And so they shall in months ahead.

You are the expert

Adrean Jr. and Sr. put people into their stores using a tool they knew would work:  Remarkably relevant, charitable donations during the holidays.  Their store became relevant and useful to customers — in ways beyond products.

The Taylors developed and implemented a strategy.  They didn’t “do the charity thing at the Holiday season” for the sake of “doing the charity thing.”  Did it make them feel good?  You bet.  Did it help feed their families via sales?  Yes again.

You already have the answers you’re seeking in consultants

In our rush to understand and make use of social media many of us fall into a trap.  We believe we cannot possibly have the answers ourselves.  It’s too technical.

We sometimes believe that the application of new tools like Facebook and social networks are more important than the outcome.  Somehow if we broadcast stuff (our promotions, coupons, employee’s favorite nightclubs, what we’re having for lunch) customers will come.

We sometimes believe that just telling the boss “we’re on Facebook” is enough.  Ok… but that’s not enough.  A strategy is needed beyond “let’s do it.”

Might you already have the “social media secret sauce hokus pokus answer?”  Might you be looking past what you already know you should be doing with social media marketing?

Results by design

In the online world we’re often told by the “experts” that the sales part doesn’t matter.  “Participating transparently in the conversation” does.  In other words, the way people feel about the Ben Franklin brand would have somehow been enough to be a good example of social media in action.  The positive sentiment, the brand lift, the impressions, the sheer number of people buzzing or the gosh-darn “coolness” of it all.  THAT makes it worth the time investment.

I say hooey.  Show me the sales. Others will disagree and say “I don’t get it.”  Those sales will somehow come to brands for being good corporate citizens.  A “humanized brand” and one that is “transparent and honest” with customers.  “We must have that too” they’ll say.

I do “get” one thing.  The need for people to put bread on the table.  And that demands taking marketing from an annual expense to a strategic investment.  PROVE that social media marketing works.  So bring it on “experts!”

And count on me to continue developing case studies with the Taylors — so long as they allow me to!

Oh — and do you all remember Ben Franklin stores?!  I grew up with one — Estes rocket kits, individual candies for a nickle or dime.  Remember?  I had almost forgotten.

Time to read: 5 minutes. You need to create sales and leads with ’social’ media/marketing.  That means finding “what works.”  Discovering stories of businesses creating actual sales, customers, leads, subscribers — not just Facebook friends or Twitter followers.  These practices live in places we cannot predict nor reliably access.  Or can we?  I’ll show you what to look for at conferences, in trade magazines, podcasts, video and slide decks of presentations.  These are the haystacks we often search — looking for buried needles.  Here are shortcuts you can use to find and apply “what works” and avoid what doesn’t.

“How can we make ’social’ pay business dividends?”

It’s the right question but I fear you may be preventing your own discovery of the answer.  So I’m offering quick thoughts on how you can improve your Web marketing batting average.

After years of practicing digital marketing, I research, speak and lecture for a living.  I’m seeing walls being built around “what works” — but not by those who know and want to protect the knowledge.  The walls are built by the same folks who need and deserve the answers.

I recently spoke to retail store owners and manufacturers who supply them.  I briefed an international pharmaceutical company.  In both cases I found savvy, successful business people rejecting what they knew to be true, valuable and actionable.

The irony of Mary

Mary is a real woman who I met but I’ll change her name.  Mary made a decision to not invest her time in me.  She told me why.  I really like that.  She based her decision purely on a quantitative assessment of my professional value.  She cares less about what I have to say and more about how often I say things.  And this, I think, is a problem for Mary.

Ironically, my entire lecture that day aimed to prove the quantitative values system (that marketing/advertising is founded on) is preventing social media success for most marketers.  “How often” and “how many” is being trumped by “better, faster, more easily,” etc.

I respect Mary for wisely choosing to invest her time carefully.  But in my assessment Mary is both failing to use online media to create qualitative value for herself, her business and customers… AND blocking her own path to cracking that nut.

Plainly: How many times anyone tweets on Twitter should not be a measure of their value to an audience or business person.   But for Mary, I could not possibly be a valuable contributor to her, or her business, based purely on my lack of volume… my lack of usage.  “How many” times I said *anything* at all.

Mary told me that I was credible — but not like I could be.  If I Tweeted more I’d be more successful.  It’s that easy.

Mary decided to not attend my lecture.  Fair enough.  She admitted I was an experienced expert (despite myself) but directly challenged my ability to provide value.  Fair too!  Mary told me I’d be far more successful in this business (credible as an expert) if I simply cranked out more social media messages.  Good ones, of course.  (yes, she said that too)

Fair but off the mark in my eyes.  Because what I consider success and what other “social media experts” consider to be marks of success are very different.

Eyes wide shut

Finding useful information about “the social Web” that we can apply to create sales, leads and meaningful customer value is time-consuming.  Got it.  But do you subconsciously believe in a values-system that is no longer relevant — that doesn’t serve you in this new interactive realm?  Could this be a problem for you… like I believe it to be for Mary and others like her?

Might you be walking away from the people with the answers?

Our values system drives our instinctual behavior… and our ability to make good business decisions.  And our ability to have top and bottom line impact.  But our “marketing values system” is failing us.  Digital marketing offers a path to improve results IF we can overcome old behavioral habits.

I ask, are we seeing the answers but just not liking them?  Are we then choosing to “just do social media” as much as possible and calling it a success?

A shortcut

Do you know what to look for at conferences, trade magazines, podcasts, video and slide decks of presentations?  The answers lies in questioning the values system that we’ve been following since the beginning of modern-day advertising itself.  Who’s arguing against it?

Who’s talking about, as an example, applying direct response in a medium that’s built for it?

According to Mary, we should use the Twitter tweet count (frequency) of guys like Guy Kawasaki to measure a speaker or consultant’s ability to create value.  But Mary fails to appreciate that the number of followers is not a score.  It’s a statistic.   Like ‘minutes used on your phone plan’ or ‘number of claimed dependents.’  Alone, it lacks qualitative merit.

I have a friend who once said, “If you follow more than a few dozen people at the same time, you’re a fraud.”  I actually agree.  This isn’t a popularity contest.  This is business.

I argue forcefully that improving your ability to sell more using the Social Web lies in believing that the opportunity is a qualitative one — not quantitative.  Your ability to do more with fewer budget dollars — in a successfully applying social media to your business — rests in your ability to act on this realization.

Social: The new mass media?

Today, social media IS the new mass media.  It’s that mysterious thing that businesses invest in — in full realization of the likely outcome: The inability of Facebook to hit the bottom line in a provable way.

But there are beacons of hope.  Best practices that truly are.  Stories of businesses improving their ability to do more with less budget.  But not with more Friends or Followers.  Actual sales, customers, leads, subscribers.  BUSINESS success:  Qualitative measures of behavior not quantitative “counts” that hope to persuade.

And now you know how to find more of them.  Of course, stay tuned here where I’ll be publishing more case studies in weeks ahead.

The U.S. specialty tea market is exploding with growth.  Adagio is winning because it follows key Web marketing success principles.  Adagio publishes with purpose.

Their marketing-focused blogs and tea-lover tools (like a Tea Timer that prevents over or under-steeping) are highly useful to customers.   Full stop.  This is critical to appreciate (and act on!).

Second, they’re organizing around driving customer behaviors that create marketing opportunities.  They’re allowing customers to do what they’ve already expressed an interest in doing — or ARE (already) doing.

Remarkably successful companies are creating qualitative online experiences that create more frequent customer behaviors.

“The engine of your social efforts is what your business does, not what you hire smart people to declare,” says international speaker, author and branding consultant, Jonathan Salem Baskin.  “The creative part comes in deciding how this reality can become real for everyone else.”

“Consumption of messages isn’t an action, taking an action is an action… the real challenge is to invent ways for consumer behaviors to track with your corporate actions,” says Baskin.

Adagio’s “ethical bribes” are appreciated by customers and profitable to the company — they’re designed that way.  That’s the key.  It didn’t just “happen” because they Tweeted it or blogged about it.  It was highly premeditated based on their target customer’s KNOWN behavior — their NEED.

Useful tools for customers

“When you create a utility you’re creating something that gives people time back.  It becomes less about information as pollution and more about information to help people get through life.”

Nick Law, CEO, R/GA North America

Case in point — Adagio’s Tea Timer is designed to help computer-usin’ tea-lovers by putting a customizable timer (based on tea type) right on their desktop.  Pre-loaded with their favorite teas.  Convenient?  Useful?  You bet but also to Adagio.

Adagio benefits big-time from this non-monetary transaction.   It gathers email address, first name and favorite tea types from customers and prospective customers.  Sure enough, they use that information to market and re-market to customers. 

They use the act of providing value to customers to create marketing opportunities.

Twitter

If you read me you know how critical I am of Twitter use.  Adagio makes me proud.  Featured prominently on their front page they offer a sizable $5 discount on an order just for following them. That’s right.  They provide an incentive to follow them.  Sounds simple but few brands do it.  They’re too busy “humanizing” themselves and having interns tweet gibberish.

Don’t like what they Tweet?  No worries, you still get the $5 — with which you can actually buy a sampler tea product (in fact 2!).  The process was as easy as clicking the offer, providing my Twitter name, checking for a direct message from Adagio and jotting down the discount code.

And here’s where Adagio scores a negative.  They’re tweets are enormously self-centered and pompous.  This week they’re asking Twitter followers to assist them in reviewing and improving their new mobile e-commerce Web site.  Sorry, guys, but I’m not interested in building your business — and nor are a majority of your followers I’d wager.  I’m not interested (let alone willing to) act as a free consultant to improve their mobile e-commerce business.   What action did followers display that gives Adagio this impression?

Blogs & newsletters: Publishing

Adagio is the hands-down winner with their use of blogs and newsletters.  The real story here is how useful its blogs are for customers.  Adagio’s e-commerce business rather quietly — until you start peeking at how they’ve penetrated Google’s search results.  Their blogs are beautiful, useful (to customers), adored by Google and drive remarkable customer acquisition.

Adagio is achieving “page one” Google search placement on high volume queries like “black tea” and niche teas like “golden monkey tea.”  The latter query demonstrates Adagio’s true prowess — it’s ability to use content-focused blogs to generate page one Google listings for its e-commerce site AND its blogs.

Adagio is relying less on search marketing ads (Google AdWords) and more on high quality content.  Simply stated, they’re investing in publishing useful information and making it discoverable.  Not using advertisements.  Using the “natural” search results (where most searchers click!).  Note:  the content is not merely entertaining, fun or “engaging.”  It’s honestly useful and relevant.

Adagio is keen on WHERE searchers click more often — and also WHY they click.  Namely, searchers like discovering useful information, community and tools.  They’re focused on bringing them into the sales funnel using content!  They’re providing customers with “ethical bribes” — a stream (example: e-mail newsletters) of useful content.  Eventually, yes, customers/prospects purchase.

Bigelow struggles with its blog although they’re really trying.  Unfortunately its linking is extremely gratuitous, overdone, haphazard and not well-organized.  But it’s typical.  And this is why it’s simply not creating results.

Bigelow, like so many brands who blog, believes that celebrity gossip is how it will attract readers — a totally different approach from Adagio which blogs to a more sophisticated customer.  Adagio is also more technically expert in executing inbound (to its blog) linking strategies that create better search results on Google for its e-commerce and blog sites.

Video

Here Adagio earns a D (and I’m being generous) with its TeaV featuring Zack Luye.  They’re very busy trying to be cute, funny and entertaining — just like most brands.  Adagio fails to leverage video to provide useful information or prompt customers to take actions.  Adagio is too busy enjoying itself and laughing at itself.

Bigelow mostly falls into the same trap.  But I give CEO Cindi Bigelow props for putting herself on the front burner.  And honestly?  She carries it better than Adagio’s Zack.  While most of what Bigelow is putting out there is rather typical (“branded entertainment” drivel) it is occasionally useful. Ms. Bigelow actually prompts customers repeatedly and she occasionally provides useful information.  The videos are designed to get customers/viewers to DO something.  I give them a C.  They could earn a B if they prompted customers to take more action.

Marketers are publishers

In the past, you used a budget to buy audience.  Now you have to invest in ideas to attract an audience.

Adagio has a bevy of newborn community sites that aim to do just that.  Each will likely blossom based on what we see at their ridiculously innovative TeaChef.com.  Think “cool uses of tea for cooks of all kinds.”  But don’t forget — the real story here is how they’re dominating natural (“organic”) Google search results using publishing platforms that they own and operate.

In my own words

Bigelow and Adagio share similarities — they’re selling products in stores and online.  They also have differences — like Adagio not using a telephone or Bigelow’s discontinuing lower-demand tea flavors because they, “cannot make those passionate fans happy” and turn a profit.  Adagio is ‘co-creating’ specialty teas for literally everyone while Bigelow is busy apologizing.  Very interesting.

When it comes to online Adagio gets it.  Bigelow gets it too but their audience doesn’t demand the high-brow approach — in fairness to them.  Bigelow’s investment in e-commerce (the channel opportunity) is likely far lower as well.  In the end, Bigelow is likely “2.0′ing” (sexing up) itself and not yet taking e-commerce very seriously.  It’s certainly not taking e-marketing very seriously when compared to Adagio nor is it chasing a discerning specialty tea customer.  Ok, I get that

I also need to mention that Adagio pairs its marketing with superior user experience — a better e-commerce machine.   But that’s another story!

What do you think?

Time to read: 4 minutes.

Patients demand more from doctors today than ever before.  But too often they receive little if any “quality time” with their docs.  Our current medical system simply doesn’t support meaningful doctor-patient relationships.  Rather than fight the system, thriving medical practices are applying Internet technologies that create qualitative patient outcomes and strengthen patient-physician bonds in measurable ways.

In other words some medical offices are using affordable, accessible Web technology to supplement the weakening patient-doctor relationship.  How?  For starters, by distributing vital information to patients in personalized, customized ways.

Quick example:  A physician’s office may take 6 to 8 calls per day dealing with arthritis treatment.  Pediatricians take calls dealing with asthma, allergies, etc.  Doctors simply don’t have the time to personally take calls or respond to patient inquiries.  Office staff may or may not step in to provide patients with medication advice, general information about the disease, treatment, etc.  Often the patient-doctor relationship suffers.

Solution example:  Use mobile Web and/or social media technologies to do the heavy lifting — to deliver desperately needed information to patients in a personalized, high-touch manner.

So — here’s what medical practices can do, starting tomorrow, to begin creating more meaningful patient outcomes using Web media.

Organize people and technology to support desired outcomes

Looking for a successful model?  The US AirForce (yes, the Air Force!) provides an outstanding example of how to organize a group of people with a common mission around an objective — using simple forms of communications (email, blogs, social media, etc.) as a tool.  They’re using a discover-evaluate-respond method.

Discover:  An inter-disciplinary team evaluates each inbound communication.  They also monitor discussions mentioning the Air Force across the vast Web using simple, free tools like Google Alerts.

Evaluate: Team members evaluate each opportunity for validity/authenticity (is it a real person making the comment or question?),  strength (does the opinion matter?), etc.

Respond: Appropriate team members respond in a pre-determined manner based on “rules of engagement” that the Air Force has committed to as an organization (just as a patient care provider/practice would).  Not all situations earn the attention of a staff member.  Similarly, if a patient is just being a trouble-maker they may not earn a response; however, if it’s a “squeaky wheel” situation where they need help a response is mandated.

Here’s how to start.

A weekly, cross-functional meeting is the first step.

Create your “rules of engagement.”  Start simple by addressing routine patient inquiries — deciding on how to gather up, process and respond to them.  How will you accept patient inquiries? (telephone, email, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)  How will you respond, within what time-frame and under what limited circumstances?  How will you set expectations among patients for your new communications program? (share the rules of engagement via promises you make to patients)

It’s critical to decide what is a “routine inquiry” and what is “special.”  Routine inquiries like disease treatment information often does not require a physician’s time.  Yet these majority of situations are an opportunity to strengthen the patient-doctor bond.  Digital media simply gives medical offices the ability to scale time more efficiently and deliver a personalized outcome.

Resist the urge to over-automate (de-humanize) and keep the focus on qualitative experiences

Again, most marketers make this mistake — they see Amazon.com sending out highly relevant emails based on a sophisticated “product suggestion engine” and think they can do it themselves for $19.95 a month using a simple auto-responder system with pre-programmed rules.

A lesson can be learned from traditional marketers — who often fail to apply social Web tools in ways that produce qualitative results.   Most marketers tend to focus on interacting in mass — focusing on number of emails blasted, Twitter tweets broadcast, Facebook friend connections made.   Success is in numbers.

Physicians and medical practitioners cannot afford to interact quantitatively.   Qualitative interactions foster a personal, human touch.  A meaningful bond.

Get physicians/specialists involved — when it makes sense

Yes, special situations may arise that require physician/specialist intervention… such as when a patient has already received basic treatment information and is seeking more in-depth research on the topic.  A minute of a physician’s time may be required to locate the most up-to-date cases or research.  Practitioners can set aside 30 minutes a day to process that fraction of total inquiries that demands their attention.

Realize and act on patients’ expectation of value added, personalized services

Patients — like consumers of products and services — don’t just want more free, high-value services.  They expect them!  In the case of medicine it’s very information-focused.  How can your practice deliver?

Facebook changes nothing — yet

First, let’s quickly explore why we should catch our breath when it comes to Facebook.  Jim McCann and his otherwise brilliant team are jumping on the social media hype-and-spin bandwagon and, as I see it, failing to truly innovate. I see this use of Facebook is a gratuitous one based on what I’m observing so far.  Can you afford to follow?  Mr. McCann says…

“Facebook is redefining the social Web, a cultural and social phenomenon that has changed the way we connect with one another,” says 1800Flowers CEO Jim McCann as he whips the ’social media’ hype engine into overdrive — blowing by rational thought.

Facebook cannot re-define the social Web.  Facebook isn’t doing anything that others aren’t doing — it just has more mass.  Secondly, the social Web isn’t a cultural or social phenomenon that’s changed the way we connect with one another.  The social Web merely makes what we’ve done for generations easier, faster and boarder-less.

The “Age of Conversation” is NOT now (yes, the book is wrong too!).  The “Age of Conversation” has existed since the beginning of human existence.  It’s how we’ve always engaged in commercial transactions — commerce, trade, barter.  In this reality-based context, Facebook changes very little for marketers — not yet.  Would you agree?

We’ve been there, done that — it didn’t work

The investment in a pop-up storefront on Facebook is a new idea?  Nope, it’s a seriously old one.  ePods, Affinia!, Nexchange, iMediation and a list of about a dozen other failed companies tried this and failed in the early 1990’s.  Nearly ever major publisher has tried to set up mini-storefronts using simple (affiliate marketing) to complex (drop-shipping) tech tools that link up sellers and publishers.  Fail.

“But things have changed, Jeff… this is the era of Web 2.0!”

Indeed, it is and we now have FAR more media on the Web being created by far more entities of all sorts.  “Consumers” spend FAR more time consuming and creating content than searching or buying.  So now things have changed… right?  According to their technology partner, Alvenda (a rather retro-startup providing those same pop-up storefronts) they have.

1800Flowers believes people are aching to engage in ecommerce away from their ecommerce site. Why?

What gives Mr. McCann the belief that this is going to work — that people actually WANT to shop from within Facebook?  I understand and respect the fact that consumers are busy NOT paying attention to ads and are ENORMOUSLY “engaged” by social media — distracted from buying stuff and only buying what they really NEED these days.  Problem.  Got it… but???

Beware: The ‘it costs next to nothing’ myth

Many of you have said, “but Jeff why not… what’s the opportunity cost… it’s next to nothing!”

I will continue to be accused of having an “anti-experimental” attitude toward social media.  I’m not anti-experimental.  I’m anti-silly; anti-illogical; anti-flash-in-the-pan-voodoo marketing.  I’m pro-reality.

It absolutely costs real, hard-earned dollars to experiment with social media.  Time is money!

Add up the costs of all that time we’re spending experimenting on social media pet projects that are designed to fail.

“But, Jeff, I’m putting a college intern on it…”

Beware: The ‘they’re young, they get it’ myth

Ok… but in real life when you put someone with NO experience on a project you FAIL.  Somehow, with social media, MY thinking on this is the failure — based on the belief systems of most marketers I talk to.  Many marketers believe that the key to success is…

Putting someone young on the project and paying them nothing actually increases the odds of success — they “get it.”

Somehow the experience they get with immersing themselves on Facebook, Twitter, etc.  changes everything.  Their experience is valued — to the extent that we can afford to experiment and hope that remarkable business outcomes happen.

Somehow the (often narcissistic) immersion of young folk QUALIFIES them to get the job done and supports our belief that something meaningful will emerge in social media.  Really?  Really.

‘Branding’ & social media: Re-defining failure as success

“But Jeff, there are countless examples of successful companies that have used college interns or inexperienced talent to net REAL results on Twitter and Facebook.”

Yes but how do many marketers define success?  How many times have you heard a marketer re-define a failure?

“This campaign didn’t achieve the sales/sales lead goal but it was a BRANDING success.”

When marketers’ campaigns fail to actually create tangible business outcomes we often fall back on that comfy space — “branding.”  Somehow marketers get away with this re-setting of the goal-post (for decades now) but research indicates that this won’t last much longer — not in this tough economy.

Too often we hear marketers define success in terms that are un-acceptable to the C-Suite (CFO’s in particular).  Here are a few popular ones:  Twitter followers, Facebook friend count, “engagement.”

How to avoid becoming a social eCommerce failure

The 1800Flowers Facebook storefront is one of two things:

1. A failure to actually innovate (propped up by the belief that there’s no cost involved in trying) or
2. A failure to create brand value to customers and prospective customers

Why is the company investing in social network marketing?  Because it needs to innovate — that’s a core expectation of its many investors.  Why did Amazon acquire Zappos?  Largely based on market expectations.  Yet I believe 1800Flowers has given up on innovation or is simply too large to innovate (which is what many are now saying about Google).

More importantly, I believe Mr. McCann’s crew have failed to create enough brand value among customers to keep their attention.  If a company cannot rely on its database of happy customers, it’s Web site, it’s catalog — everything that it traditionally relies on — what CAN it depend on?

I see the company’s social media pipe dreams as a scream for help in a tough market… I’ll admit.

When it comes to social network marketing we need to act responsibly in this new economy.  The first step in doing so is to realize that many bloggers, trade media and “experts” are irrationally rushing to hail “all that is Facebook” as bold and innovative — automatically and based on faulty reasoning.  I admit this reasoning is quite popular… yet this supports my point.  To rise above mediocrity a company must think strategically — resist following the lead of others tactically.  Think first, then act.  What do you think?