You hear something and you tell someone else.  Even if we extended it a bit, it is “one-to-few” at best since maybe you were telling people in a group at a party or event or maybe even e-mailed a few of your colleagues and friends. But while it is the most powerful and credible form of engagement and communications, it was never easy to leverage…until today!

Social Media changed the game for Word-of-Mouth – it handed it a megaphone! Today, you can share your great experiences and how much you like a particular product/service freely to a potentially very large audience of followers, friends, connections, etc.  Social Media has finally given us the answer to the “leverage” question – it is the AMPLIFIER of Word-of-Mouth!

Word-of-Mouth hasn’t changed, just the ability to amplify what you normally would say “one-t0-one” has changed.  This gives people and companies tremendous opportunity to use it correctly and expand their reach – but it also gives people the ability to misuse it and upset even more people than they ever could before.  Which way are you using it? Unfortunately, the incredible “noise” on the social media channels is caused by not using it the way it was meant to be used.  Trying to “buy” word-of-mouth and get people to share what they don’t really believe in or are passionate about or are not committed to doesn’t work.  It didn’t work one-on-one so what makes anyone think it would work one-to-many? I don’t get it…

But for those that have highly credible word-of-mouth because of the experience they deliver to their customers/clients or the incredible value their products deliver or the improvements they received because of someone’s services, the ability to AMPLIFY WORD-OF-MOUTH is Nirvana and is the most powerful engagement strategy any organization can employ today.  If you are one of these organizations, you are immediately miles ahead of your competition, but you have to start the “word-of-mouth engine” to take advantage of it and further leverage your great work.  Gentlemen, start your engines…

The only conclusion I can come to is that they are afraid of it because it is a deep and serious question and might not lead to what they are selling: the What, How and Where services.  It seems like we have moved into a world of “Fire, limited Aiming, and Ready” these days.  After being in business for over 25 years and helping companies create a solid business strategy, this is always the first question that needs to be asked. Why does social media change this paradigm?  It doesn’t and it shouldn’t.  If an organization can’t answer the “WHY” question, how accurately can they really answer the other questions of “What, Where, and How”?

Take a very simple non-business example everyone can relate to – going to the grocery store.  If we do this the normal way, we start with a shopping list (the What), and then we decide which method we should use to get there (the How) and we make a choice of which store to go to that either is most convenient or has the right products (the Where).  Pretty typical experience and process.  But where you should start is by asking the purpose of going to the store, the very reason you had to plan all the other details out (the WHY).

The Why could start with, “we need to eat and nourish our bodies.” But dig deeper for the answer.  Why do you need nourishment (besides just living)? Are you planning on training for a marathon, a hiking trip up the mountains, to have energy at work, to get fat (hopefully not but you’ll see my point here later), to feed a family, etc.  There are lots of options for Why in this simple example…

The reason the WHY is so critical is that it determines the (What, Where, How) of you accomplishing the Why.  If you were planning on being super active and running a marathon your “what” would be very different than needing nutrition for a very active family.  Shopping for work related foods would be even more different as you would prefer lower calorie and energy to keep you going without adding weight.  No one goes to the store with the Why question answer saying I want to get fat.  But we all buy foods that give us this result.  It is because we actually don’t go there with the “Why” in mind – we just dive right into the “What” is being pushed by the store to make the most profit or is a super deal of the day – not a good way to shop.

As a CEO or Business Owner or other Executive position, I would encourage you to rethink your social media efforts for a moment and ask yourself, “WHY are we even doing this?” While I believe every company should find their own way to take advantage of this incredibly powerful too, I think if you are like most executives I talk with, their “What, How, and Where” don’t match the real answer to the Why question.  Any guesses as to why Brands are being eroded every day and more and more confusion is in the mind of your customers?  Maybe it’s time to sit back and ask the one question that really matters, WHY…

In all my previous training working in a “Big 5″ firm for many years, IBM, and my MBA, one thing was very clear to me.  When calculating and ROI, you first have to have an “I” to worry about the “R” or it’s a wasted discussion.  Meaning…if you haven’t invested anything into the area you are considering, how can you expect to find much return.  This is very real for this discussion because if you haven’t made much “investment” into social media, is it really fair to ask for a big “return”?

You also have to keep in mind the law of “comparatives” in this analysis.  This says that if you are looking to “replace” something with something else, the ROI should be at least as great or greater but certainly not less or it isn’t a good business decision unless it is identified to be a good idea for other reasons.  Let’s talk about this a bit further…

For example, in the case of social media, an executive might not want to “invest” a lot in social media because it is still new and in their mind unproven to them personally.  So the default question becomes what is going to be the ROI of this investment of time and resources?  Valid question – but only if you decide to engage with a solid “investment” can you start to get a solid “return”.  They might have a $10k or $30k/month marketing/communication budget today but only invest $5k/month and expect the return to be greater than their other investments return – not a fair question.

The other factor to consider is what is the return on the other investment.  The majority tell me that their current investment is generating less and less return every day – further illustrating the death of traditional media.  No longer do they get anywhere near the return they did 5 or 10 years ago – the Mad Men model is dead.  So a better question would be, “Can social media deliver a comparable or better return on the same investment I am making in traditional media today?”  The answer should be a “YES” if a solid social media strategy is put in place – not just throwing “buttons” on the website.

So as an executive, ask yourself the ROI question with two things in mind: 1) am I willing to make an investment great enough to see a return; and 2) do I have a solid social media strategy in place that would give me a comparable or greater return than I am getting from my current (declining) marketing investment.  These are the right “I” questions to answer and will give you a much greater success in generating the higher “R” in ROI.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

My message is simple today…

For one day of the year (at least) stop telling everyone how wonderful you are, where you’re eating muffins, who you’re eating muffins with (unless it’s your mother), or anything else about YOU!  Today, use ALL your social media connections, followers, friends, etc. to tell them how GREAT your mother is or how GREAT someone else’s mother is – just talk about Mothers today – and use your social media power to “spread the word” and create massive WORD-OF-MOUTH about them.  This would be a great use of social media – let me start…

My mother passed away a few years ago and I miss her.  But she is not forgotten. I think about her often and the amazing part is when I think about her I remember all the great times we had and great things she did for me – thanks Mom! She was a foundation of who I am today and is a part of shaping my life.  Every mother has this impact, good or bad, but today, remember the good…

My wife is AMAZING – that’s the simplest way I can put it. This blog would go on forever if I talked about all the greatness she possesses…and maybe it should!  She is the “rock” for so many people and is one of those rare individuals who constantly cares more for everyone else than herself.  Her love pours into everyone’s life and everyone is a better person for knowing her.  Our kids are the luckiest on the planet!  Sounds selfish but they are…Happy Mothers Day Lorrie…you are AWESOME.

My Mother-in-Law is simply wonderful – how many times do people get to say that!  You never know when you fall in love what that is going to be like until you live it – I was truly blessed with GREAT in-laws.  But I guess that goes to show the influence a mother has on their daughters – I married theirs and as I said above, she is amazing so I guess the foundation was laid long ago for turning out wonderful mothers in their family.  Happy Mothers Day Valerie…you are AWESOME!

Now it’s your turn…tell everyone about your mom and other moms that have made a profound impact on your life – they deserve it today and your social network will be much better off than just knowing what YOU are doing today…unless its with mom!

Google’s dream is to have everyone use them to find people, places, and things.  If you don’t know, “Google it” and you can find about anything and everything.  And they have to absolutely love the fact that there are billions of pieces of new information entering the internet every year – that makes things harder to find and thus you need Google to cut through all this noise and find what you are looking for.  This is how the search engine game is played and is well known to all of us – it is the standard.  But there is another option for your business…

What if you could be found by your prospects and they never had to “Google you” to find you?  What if you were found ahead of your competition regularly and you weren’t even on “Page One” of the results the search engines retrieved? What if you didn’t have to pay for all that SEO and you were still “top-of-mind” to your customers and prospects? Does any of this sound attractive?

This happens to a select group of businesses every day – it’s called “word-of-mouth” and is the most powerful way to get found without worrying about whether Google likes you or not.  That’s because when someone tells someone else about you (either in person or online) they don’t say, “Oh, Bob at ZYX company is awesome and if you want it done right, just go to Google and search for Bob at ZYX Company.”  No, what they do say is, Oh, Bob at ZYX company is awesome and if you want it done right, call Bob.  You can find him at www.ZYXCompany.com and when you visit them online you can read their interesting stories as well.”

This makes Word-of-Mouth the most dangerous enemy to Google because in this situation, Google isn’t  even in the equation when this occurs.  If your audience doesn’t have to go to Google and search for you because they have the “exact URL”, they will bypass the search engines altogether.  Because of the recommendation by your friend or colleague, this goes around the need for a search engine and directly to learning more about you and your product.

This scares Google to death – being cut out of loop of someone finding what they need without doing a “search for it.”  Think about it…how many of your customers, partners, friends etc. are helping your current prospects bypass Google? If there isn’t a strategic process in your company to help your audience bypass Google, you are missing a huge opportunity and spending far more cash than needed on SEO when you might not even need to.  Think about a new benchmark for your company; how to get more traffic direct to you and having your prospects spending less time on the internet searching for you…this is the FUTURE model for how social media can really drive more revenue while reducing costs – might be worth considering…

Radios have “channels” that you “tune into” and if you like what you hear you go back there frequently and then tell your friends and colleagues about it since you just had a great find.  This could be a variety of interests – music, talk radio, public radio, news, etc.  In fact, if you were like most people, you had different channels for each of these because sometimes you either wanted some variety or you want to “skip and ad” and keep the music going.  This is how most of us were trained to get this information when we weren’t in front of the TV or reading a newspaper (which unfortunately have experienced the same or even more dramatic declines than radio).

The description I just shared with you actually hasn’t changed with Social Media…but the “channels” and our behavior  have changed.  Today, we want it when WE want it, not when the programming manager at the station decides we should have it – we have become an “on demand” world for news, music, commentary, etc.  Instead of tuning into your favorite program, you “tune” into your favorite social channel when you want to get the news, listen to music, get opinions/perspectives, and connect with your friends.  It is on WHAT you want, WHEN you want it. This behavior shift has occurred and is what the audience wants.

The beauty of this is that the “content” is still valuable, just the way we access it has changed.  The news is still important, but now I don’t have to wait until 5pm after someone has “sterilized” it to get it – I can get it real time as it is happening.  Switch hats.  Now you are the one wanting to “advertise” or “reach the audience” that used to be on radio. Now what do you do?  The answer…find out what “channels” your audience is dialed into and share your content on this channel – not in a “pimping” promotional manner, but in a “helpful” manner and they will be ready to listen on the channel they like. Understanding what “channels” your audience is “listening” to has always been the magic – nothing has changed, except the channels.

Develop a “Channel Strategy” to identify where your audience is hanging out and what “content” they would find “helpful” and “broadcast” it to them – they will be receptive and appreciative.  Oh yes, and don’t forget, with sharing over these channels, they can share it to THOUSANDS of their connections, friends, followers, or whoever else they are engaged with over these same and other social channels – the power of WOM (word-of-mouth) is massive.  And since most people know others like themselves, your audience will be the ones that do the work for you in sharing – no advertising dollars, no time – just sharing helpful content on the channels they “listen” to regularly.  We can learn a lot from history – radio is still alive and well, it just doesn’t come in the same box…

I have to admit, I wasn’t sure how well my message would go over based on some of my past experience with marketing leaders – especially those who choose not to accept social media as a legitimate marketing approach.  This group was different.  They were receptive, open minded, and anxious to learn more about what I was seeing in the area of social media – today and in the future.  I have to personally thank John Roth from Versaire Group for introducing me to the group and arranging for our discussion.

After I had spoken for a little over an hour and we were having a lively discussion about the material, someone in the back of the room, Debbie Lematta from AIA Washington raised her hand and asked what I thought was a GREAT QUESTION and one I wish got asked more often, “What “one thing’ really annoys you, someone living and working in social media every day, more than anything else?” I didn’t have to think very long, unfortunately…because the answer is in front of all of us every day. It’s simply one word…

NOISE – from people claiming to be “social media experts” and companies missing the opportunity to use social media the way it was intended.  After talking to thousands of leaders and hearing how they are using it, over 70% of the people are using social media in a way that creates a tremendous amount of “noise” – more and more every day.  Noise, simply defined, is “volumes of self-promoting, non-helpful information their audience didn’t really need to know – making it all about them.”  Unfortunately, this overshadows those who are truly  trying to HELP their audience and share valuable insights, perspectives, and content.  Turning down the noise would change everyone’s view about social media and bring a lot more value to their business.

CEOs, Business Owners, and Business Leaders tell me when they go onto the social networks, all they see is a bunch of “worthless comments that add no value to them and simply take up their time, causing them to be more and more frustrated.”  When marketing, social media “experts”, and others using social media to communicate understand the core value in social media is the PULL factor, not just 365 more channels to PUSH their messages through, it will be an amazing place to find, interact, share, and engage with others and truly get the ROI social media has to offer.

That was my answer and the audience unanimously agreed – NOISE is a primary reason many stay away or don’t “engage” in using social media.  Right now it takes work and time to find the right content on a consistent basis, but it can be done and there are many people sharing great content if you know where to look.  If everyone just asked a simple question before sharing, “Is this going to HELP my particular audience,” we would be on the right track and would significantly reduce the noise factor.  After all, people still vote with their wallets so if companies expect to get any “votes” they better start campaigning differently…

Thanks again to the MM&O group and John for giving me this opportunity to have some fun at 7am in the morning!

It is all “smoke and mirrors” – just like the sets in Hollywood.  There’s no real substance behind this so called “new way to communicate with your audience” claim.  The audience is telling us over and over, “Stop sending me all this crap” and we aren’t listening.  We still keep sending all the crap – only now we have well over 365 channels to send it through.  Nobody wants to hear from you – especially everywhere they go and in everything they read.  We just have to realize this and STOP IT.  I know, it is hard for me to admit, but I was wrong…

Advocacy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be either.  Do you really need that many people out there singing your praises and telling others about you?  No – it’s too much work to focus on such a small group of people.  It is much easier to focus on much larger groups – 10X as many people and just send them stuff on a regular basis.  They will either buy or leave but that’s OK because someday someone will buy from you and that’s all that matters.  Buy Google adwords and blast away – it really works!

It takes a big man to admit defeat – I’m admitting it.  You win!  Stop all this nonsense – business as usual is the new mantra.  Go forth and broadcast your message – it will work eventually and for a whole lot less time investment.  Newsletters really are read in depth by your audience – pump them out and watch the dollars flow in.  There you have it – the new Business Strategy for Success!!  Good luck with it and share your comments with me and all the readers of my blog – we all want to hear your success stories…

(Just one thing I ask before you send me your comments and suggestions…please wait until April 2nd )

Your brand, your identity, your image, the company’s reputation, the quality of your people, are all tied to this basic foundation.  It is often overlooked in all the hype and buzz and excitement over such things as social media but it is indeed the core to your business.  Don’t overlook it – in fact – remind your employees about it as often as possible.  If we don’t keep the promises we make to our customers, we have no foundation upon which to build all this other cool stuff (technical term).  Sounds simple, yes, but often forgotten and overlooked.

In talking with this client and helping them develop their business strategy, that was the one question I kept coming back to – do you have the people and processes in place to keep the promises you are making – implied and implicit?  After some blank stares for a few minutes, I think we all knew the answer.  This is what reminded me that we should all be reminded of this basic principle before we get all excited about something new – take care of the foundation and the house will stand a very long time…

You might think a company with this age and with the products/services they provide (insulation, fabrication, refraction, manufacturing, etc.) would just find a way to “hang in there.”  Not so – in fact they are contrary to what you might think.  Many would consider them in one of the “laggard” industries as far as innovation and especially in the area of “New Media/Social Media”.  I was there on the second day of their meeting and in time to hear the CEO, Rick Smith, deliver a brief, yet impactful speech.  It wasn’t the usual CEO speech I have heard a thousand times of thanking the team for how great they have done all year and keep up the good work and we are going to have the best year ever, blah blah blah speech.  Nope…something different.

While he certainly recognized them for their incredible successes in a down economy, he was focused on something else – INNOVATION.  As he said, “It isn’t business as usual – it is about how can we innovate in ways to improve both our own operations and processes and what we can pass along to help our customers run their own business better.”  This is “Customer Focused Innovation” at it’s finest!  What a concept and coming from what many might think of as a “business as usual” type of industry.  This is what true leadership is about and what allows great leaders to lead.  He is also flanked by Brian Farnsworth, who is equally as passionate and committed to this focus and mission – which makes them a pretty powerful dynamic duo in their industry.

Their mantra going forward is simple – find more innovative ways to help our customers serve their customers better.  This could be internally focused, coming up with better processes in any department, or could be in creating more innovative solutions using the same materials to make life easier for their customers.  It also means putting muscle behind the words.  The words are easy to say, difficult to execute.  They are establishing innovation teams, creating an “innovation culture”, allowing people to fail on the road to discovering new ideas, and even blogging about all this in a new blog, SIMPLIVATIVE.

My hat goes off to Rick, Brian, and the team.  This is HUGE in this industry and without a doubt will give them a leadership position – one that many others will follow.  Will they succeed or fail?  They will fail many times on their way to breaking incredibly new ground and establishing this leadership position that others will watch with envy.  Not easy – but extremely satisfying and rewarding knowing you have the machete in hand and are carving new trails for your industry.  Congrats…can’t wait to follow your SUCCESS!