Marketer's Lab

The Guru Glut

2009-12-07T21:19:29-07:00

My unofficial estimates indicate there are now only three marketing people on Earth who are not claiming to be social media experts. Surprised? Shocked? Think the number might be lower? This scale of expertise explosion hasn't been seen since the 90's when everyone went "interactive" overnight.

Why get all spun up about marketers, well... marketing? Social media (however you define it) is clearly the hot domain in the world of marketing, what's wrong with tapping into that energy? A good marketer would be crazy to see what's going on in social media and not want to be part of it.

One big concern is potential for "hucksterism". The early days of search were notorious for a surplus of sketchy search specialists promising impossible results and commanding premium rates. As things played out over time it created backlash for legitimate search firms and tarnished the search industry for a time. Maybe the land grab mentality and subsequent winnowing is inevitable, but for those of us committed to social media for the long-haul, we should remember the lessons learned from search.

Another side-effect of the expertise surplus is what I like to call Master-Of-The-Obvious-Syndrome. You know what I'm talking about, "experts" sharing common knowledge basics as groundbreaking thought leadership. Don't get me wrong, I understand there's a continuum of understanding about social media, many are just getting started or need to revisit social media essentials, but much of the content I see is short in value-add department.

Of course the very nature of social media is the value of the collective conversation. Even with everyone jockeying to out-guru everyone else, some rehashing basic ideas and syndicating, aggregating and propagating, there is an astoundingly rich body of material to draw upon. I learn something new every day and am continually amazed by some of the brilliant minds at work in this space.

The cream does rise to the top in social media and there's certainly no shame in aspiring to claim a piece of the social media thought leadership pie, but we should all try to keep the content bar as high as we can manage.

Lastly, speaking of keeping the intellectual bar high, this profound piece of wisdom from The Incredibles came to mind. When everyone is a social media expert, no one is.

Everything's Better In The Cloud

2009-12-02T11:41:07-07:00

I have to admit my first reaction to the email featuring the Marketing Cloud had me wondering why it took so long for anyone in marketing to get on the Cloud hype bandwagon. I mean come on, Cloud is the big idea in technology and arguably in its buzzword prime. Beyond my natural curmudgeonly initial thoughts, the Marketing Cloud did get my attention.

The Marketing Cloud is an alliance of vendors that includes Alfresco, demandbase, Hoovers, Jigsaw, Marketo, ON24 and pivotlink. The Marketing Cloud website is intended to be a community where marketers can "learn about the Marketing Cloud partners, contribute to the definition of the Marketing Cloud and participate in lively discussions with experts about breakthrough marketing strategies and best practices. Members can register for updates, test drive the solutions, access the knowledgebase and attend virtual events."

While I've been dying to contribute to the definition of Marketing Cloud, I thought I'd focus on diving into the various resources and information the site offers. The site provides access to a small collection of white papers and other resources from the participating vendors (registration required) along with some good general information on what the group is defining as the marketing cloud. A couple interesting scenarios are included that not surprisingly integrate the vendor solutions, but nonetheless provide some valuable ideas.

It's easy to scoff a little at this project on one level because it seems so transparent as a lead generation vehicle, but I think it's a nice example of elements we could be doing more with as marketers. For starters it appears to be a nice collaboration amongst a handful of complementary vendors rallying behind a common idea. These types of collaborations can be tricky to put together and often fall apart in the execution. This one seems to have partners that fit well together and that all clearly tie back to the overall idea.

Beyond the collaboration, it also strikes me as a solid example of content marketing, using interesting content as the gravitational pull, drawing that content from multiple sources and integrating the appropriate social media mechnisms.

To those associated with the Marketing Cloud, nice job. A smart marketing concept, well executed and built around core marketing concepts we should all be familiar with. Now about that Marketing Cloud definition...

Sales Is Not A Dirty Word

2009-11-23T11:26:37-07:00

Jason Falls over at Social Media Today inspired me with this recent post about why social media purists won't last. I'm by no means a social media purist, in fact as passionate a marketing technologist as I am, I've had huge hangups about social media and the collective ga ga factor surrounding it.

Purists are quick to chastise any social media behavior that feels like selling, citing social media "principles" and the danger of corrupting relationships. On the surface I agree, nothing is more annoying than shameless salesyness (I'm sure that's a word) from near strangers or joining what turns out to be a "SPAMmunity" that provides zero value and a steady stream of irrelevant pitches. There's absolutely a need to tread lightly when it comes to selling in the world of social media. That said, treading lightly does not mean avoiding completely.

Selling in the world of social media requires finesse, which is apparently a skill many marketers seem to lack. The "social" in social media brings many of the same norms as interacting face-to-face. Most people, (multi-level marketers excluded) know better than to dive into a sales pitch with someone they just met five minutes prior. Knowing to avoid this doesn't require a sophisticated methodology or process, it's common sense. Conversations clearly can be directed towards products or services you may provide, it's not easy, the kind of cocktail party magic only a select few are truly good at.

The CEO cares about sales, not interactions, conversations or engagements. The numbers that matter are the numbers that should matter to us as marketers. Tangible, meaningful, bottom line metrics that flow into existing executive dashboards and performance measures. Right now the biggest obstacle for continued business use of social media is crossing the chasm from interaction to transaction. Dell has done it, Southwest Airlines has done it, others have done it. We all have to do it.

Determining what to do is often a lot easier than determining how to do it. The debate about whether or not there's value in social media in my mind is over. Of course there's value in social media. The trick now is cracking the code on how to extract that value and moving beyond being uptight about selling through social media and actually being proud of it.

Innovation, Marketing And Imitation

2009-11-20T13:23:24-07:00

Innovation is motherhood and apple pie in business. Who doesn't want to be the next Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg? When we think about innovation we tend to think about revolutionary new products and big, world-changing ideas that define or redefine entire industries. A quick Amazon.com search for books on innovation returns a modest 336,485 results; clearly a lot has been written about innovation. Predicting innovation is the focus of this great piece on AdAge.com by Phil Roos, where he provides some excellent, and slightly surprising insights.

One of the first big insights is that innovation is largely incremental rather than big bang. Innovations come more often through continued enhancement and evolution than through moments where the skies part and an epiphany occurs. Phil's piece goes on to elaborate on how innovation patterns exist and how those patterns can be deconstructed into discrete elements. Those elements are roughly broken into two categories; mainstream and new. The key to innovation in this model is to read the patterns, and attempt to provide value to the "whitespace". Phil also rightly acknowledges that even within this methodology, a little creative genius doesn't hurt.

What are the marketing implications of these insights on innovation? For me the implication is that our energies should be focused not on trying to identify or latch onto the next trendy marketing thing, but on improving current initiatives. One of the best methods of improvement is looking at what others are doing and copying it. Emulate, mirror, leverage, build upon.... use another word if you can't bring yourself to use the word copy, but learning from the experiences and successes of others is simply savvy business. Imitation then, becomes the foundation for innovation.

Best practices as a jumping off point, innovation begins as those foundations are explored, adapted and built upon. Bottom line is this means we should all spend less time chasing after the next big idea and spend more time working to evolve what we already have.

A parting thought on this comes from an unlikely source. Part of the Fast Company 30 Second MBA Series, Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame offers his thoughts on innovation/imitation. Enjoy.

Do As I Say...

2009-11-16T11:18:52-07:00

Is your doctor fat? Is that same doctor espousing the virtues and benefits of a healthy lifestyle? Is your agency pitching the values of social media but not actively utilizing social media to build their own businesses? Apparently, that's exactly what's going on according to a recent RSW/US survey referenced in this AdWeek piece. It seems agencies are in the same mode as many other businesses, falling into the common pattern of setting up presence on key social media platforms, but not actively participating on a consistent basis.

Social media is relentless, an always-on, 24/7/365 campaign. It requires a steady stream of content and a level of participation that demonstrates you're an active part of the community. Given all that, it's not surprising almost every business is struggling to figure out exactly how to tap into the benefits of social media without getting pulled into a resource-sucking social media black hole. What was surprising to me was how many agencies are still struggling to fully embrace social media channels and tactics.

"RSW/US (sponsors of the survey) president Mark Sneider attributed the respondents' limited engagement in social media to laziness and a lack of time." I think Mark is probably right on the money with his assessment, which I would venture can also be applied to most businesses beyond the agency world. If the ROI for use of social media was obviously equal to or greater than other channels, social media would be much more actively used by agencies. At this point it seems clear even the "experts" are still tinkering with social media and working to figure out how to make it work.

This research drives home a couple key points for me. First, whether they've figured it out or not, agencies offering any social media services themselves need to be leading by example. Like the fat doctor, I'm a little suspect of anyone who doesn't take their own advice. Lastly, the exciting part of all this is it demonstrates social media is still a new, vibrant and emerging space. Who wants to work in a medium where every tactic is known and everything has been broken down into a formula? Social media is where the action is, personally I'm glad we all still have a lot to figure out.

It's Not About Engagement

2009-11-11T15:40:45-07:00

Engagement. I can barely hear the word engagement spoken by any marketing/PR/agency type without rolling my eyes. "It's all about engagement, dialog, interacting in new ways with consumers." (generic composite quote from Social Media experts, stated with a slightly condescending tone). We all "get" what the gurus are saying, of course Social Media provides new opportunities to engage interact with clients, prospects and peers. The thing is, engagement isn't the end-game, it's the raw material from which meaningful business outcomes can be developed.

One of the most useful little nuggets of wisdom that has stuck in my mind over the years is the phrase "Begin with the end in mind". This idea is especially helpful when it comes to developing a concise Social Media strategy. Social Media (SM) is capable of generating leads, improving customer experiences, enhancing brand visibility and creating or deepening relationships. Certainly not an all-inclusive list of what SM can be used for, but a handful of the major categories most organizations are focused on.

While all the above mentioned items are equally worthy, and not mutually exclusive BTW, they each require a different array of tools, resources and approaches. What I see frequently is marketers who have thrown their hat into the SM ring, but are not focused on specific outcomes or clearly defined priorities. I need to be careful not to speak in absolutes here, there are plenty of Social Media-savvy marketers out there doing wonderful and amazing things. That said, my thoughts are validated by the recent Social Media Benchmark Report from Business.com which confirms many marketers are "dabbling" in Social Media, in the game but still working to figure things out.

I am a huge fan of dabbling, but dabbling with purpose. Think of engagement as fire, it can be used for heat, light or internal combustion to propel your SUV, but without any forethought on purpose you're likely to end up with nothing more than smoke.