marketing
Last week was Social Media Week in the UK. As part of this I went to a very interesting Social Media conference in London. Now and again it’s worth stopping and taking time to stand back from a trend and try to get things in context. I took a couple of days out from the sales coal face to do just this and have some interesting discussions before, during and after the conference.
My observations – for the business person – that I have after all these interactions and downloads are:
1. Social Media is still being considered more of a B2C (business to consumer) tool, with very few case studies from the B2B (business to business) world.
2. After a few years of marketing departments using social media as another ‘channel’ to send out their ‘messages’ to ‘consumers’ they are starting to realise that the real opportunity is in listening and understanding the customer in more detail.
3. The main challenge in adopting a social media strategy is internal. Large (older) organisations are starting to face up to the problem that their staff may not be motivated, happy and enthusiastic. So, when customers attempt to engage with them a) marketing are not used to talking back and b) there is often a gap between the brand that marketing have invented and the reality of the organisation.
4. Newer, smaller companies are better placed to exploit the potential of social media as they do not have the hierarchical structure and control baggage of their larger competitors
5. There is a whole generation coming through who do not use email and do not believe what companies say about themselves on their own websites. This is the customer of the future and you need to be active where they are active. You need to go to them as they are not going to come and find you.
6. People may go on-line to buy, but they do not go on-line to be sold too. So you have to be creative in engaging with them. 50% of content (minimum) should be to entertain.
7. Average spend on-line (and donations to charities) are increasing. There is a direct relationship between this and petrol & parking price increases.
8. Marketing (and there close collaborators the agency and PR company) are very scarred that they are losing control of the image / brand that they want to project. It’s almost as if they are nervous about a future board meeting where they are confronted with the true facts of what the customer thinks / feels / believes.
9. It makes increasingly little sense to talk about ROI for social media in isolation of other ways used to engage with the customer (such as the telephone or email) and perhaps ROI is Return on Involvement (or ROE = Return of Engagement)
10. As we no longer have ‘jobs for life’, creating a personal presence on the internet which helps define our views, expertise and value increases in importance and will replace the CV in recruitment and collaboration decisions.
So. just my take on a very interesting couple of days in ‘that London’.
Is it possible for a small business to have a brand? Personally I have my doubts. And I am convinced that for a service industry that works business to business it’s not only impossible – but dangerous – to think in this way.
Let me explain in simple terms.
People buy people. Yes it’s a cliché, but like every cliché it’s based in truth. When you are considering a financial advisor – what’s more important, their logo design or their expertise and personality? Would you work with someone who you didn’t get on with too well if their website looked gorgeous and had consistent design elements? Of course you wouldn’t.
When most people are looking for a personal and professional service like an IFA, solicitor, accountant, architect etc. they turn to their network first and ask ‘Who do you know who…?’ Their network is far more trusted for insight than Google. We trust our connections and network far more than what we see and read on websites and in brochures.
Google is either a last resort, an impulse purchase or for delving deeper into those recommendations. I don’t think it’s the place where decisions are made. It’s where confirmation is sought.
For small businesses if you swap the word ‘Brand’ for ‘Reputation’ it all makes far more sense to me. An individual (or a small group of them) need to develop their credibility, expertise and advocates. This will go much further in developing their reputation – and over time their business – than having a pretty logo.
So all you small businesses out there: forget ‘brand’ and think ‘reputation’ in order to grow.
Posted in marketing
I have this view of the world: marketing is focused on pixels and print and sales is focused on people. It’s a bit of a simplification but the point I am trying to make is sales is about people:people interaction and marketing is mainly people:non-people interaction.
So, when it comes to integrating social media into your business what strategy do you adopt? Over the last few years we’ve seen a significant increase in social media uptake by businesses – and for the most part they are failing. To me it seems that a lot of these businesses hand over social media to the marketing department, who then start to think in terms of ‘messages’ and ‘channels’ and see social media as just another channel to pump their messages down. But here’s the problem – most marketing departments aren’t used to the customer answering back – which is the whole point of social media. And they panic.
On the other hand sales folks are very happy to engage and converse with customers, prospect, well just about anyone in fact. So doesn’t it make more sense if the sales people are on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ or whatever? But marketing get concerned about how this type of interaction may ‘dilute the brand’ or ‘not be consistent with our core values’. So in the end, the customer speaks and few are listening. And those that do listen are often worried about engaging.
Ideally get your sales team involved in social media – but not to push your product – but to grow your contacts, your influence and help people on-line with your knowledge. This will create far more of a buzz and help the business define its area of expertise and value to the market place.
Social media is best when it is used across the entire company to communicate. From stores, to dispatch, from finance to HR – social media is just another communication tool that can be used across the business.
Would you consider limiting the use of the phone, or email to just one department?
Then why limit the use of social media?