Social Media of 2009 – Keep An Open Mind

I am always try to browse 123 Social Media and there was a great post by Barry Hurd called Social Media Benefits – Marketing Comes With a Warning Label. In the post Barry talks about the disconnect between Customer Engagement and Customer Service in the graph shown on this page. There is also a huge dissconnect between business owners and the use of social media marketing.

The entire graph makes a lot of sense except for the bottom of the graph where Customer Service is listed at 17.5%.

We could go into an entire post about the benefits of Social Media to customer service but I wanted to focus on what Barry was talking about in his post.

The Concept of Having An Open Mind with Social Media

As you can tell by the graph, customer engagement is the top reason why Marketing Executives would use Social Media Marketing. I have been preaching this ever since I started my blog. Social Media is very much a “brand development” tool for small business. It is hard to use Social Media for lead generation sources (though it is starting to shift towards the positive on this subject).

As we enter 2009, marketers of all shapes and sizes need to be more open to the idea of adding an element of social media into their marketing mix. With the Internet growing and sites like Facebook and Myspace churning millions upon millions of people daily, it is the time to start focusing on using this medium of promotion.

So why is it hard for marketers to have an open mind about social media?

It isn’t fully explained!

Marketers and Social Media Mavens need to work together in order to focus on a workable model for ROI and brand development on the Internet. Both parties need an open mind to work together in order to keep the “Integrity” of the tool while building a tangible benefit.

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Social Media Trends of 2009

I found this via Jon at Spatially Relevant.

Trendsspotting had a great post on Christmas eve called Influencers, Predictions slides collection. Issue 1. Social Media Trends 2009. You can view the Slideshare

I wanted to re-post and share it because it is a wonderful breakdown of the future of social media.

Controlling Word of Mouth Marketing Using Social Media

A good friend of mine, Hazel Walker over at the Networking Strategist has a great post called Word of Mouth is Always Working. If you read my blog pretty regularly you know that I am a huge fan of two things:

1. word of mouth marketing

2. social media marketing.

There is one point I wanted to take out of Hazel’s blog post and relate it to social media and using social media for brand development. From Hazel’s blog:

“WOM is the most dangerous form of marketing, in that you cannot control people. They may carry the wrong message or a negative message.”

As a social media marketing and design company we try to focus on building messages that can be carried or echoed across many different types of people (you know…something that sticks!). The beautiful thing about social media marketing and the Internet is that you CAN control word of mouth marketing to an extent. Let me step you through a scenario. For sake of argument I will use XYZ company as an example.

Let’s say XYZ decided to create a website for a group of people out of state. Let’s say the project didn’t go so well because of a lack of management on both sides of the issue. We all make mistakes right? They finished up the project and the client decides to spread a “virus” across the channels or the Internet and through their friends:

“XYZ company is the worst to work with! They didn’t even hold our hand and pat us on the head because we took time out of our day to deal with them!”

The truth of the matter? Even though XYZ did an excellent job in saving the project and pushing through to try and satisfy the client… they still spread the “virus.”

The beautiful thing? The client’s friends who are INFECTED will get online and search for XYZ… guess what will come up? Everything good. If you are spending time investing into activity on the Internet, you will find that your content, your best clients content, and your use of social media will hit the search engines first (at least that is what we have found).

Social media marketing is very much rooted in the development of BRAND. If you can figure out how to balance your social media use it will be worth it in the long run. Nothing dissapears on the Internet.

Have you searched for what people are saying about your company?

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An Amazing Social Network: Smaller Indiana

I have been a member of the NING social site Smaller Indiana since it’s inception in late 2007. Since the birth of this site by Pat Coyle and Douglas Karr.. it has been growing by leaps and bounds!

Here are some stats from the 3,798 strong SmallerIndiana.com

Global Traffic year-to-date 2008:

So far this year we’ve seen 193,970 visits from 453 Indiana Cities

The interesting stat is that 66% of the visitors are NOT from Indiana. Talk about a good way to get a state on the map!

Smaller Indiana is an amazing place to network and talk about Indiana as a major mover and shaker in the USA. I would encourage anyone who is thinking about starting a social network…

Go check out smallerindiana.com… it was done right.

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“I Don’t Play on Facebook, Sir. I USE It.”

I am still surprised when many of my friends bring up the fact that they cannot use social media (Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIN, etc) in their offices. Most of them work for corporate America and their bosses still view Facebook as playtime.

Jason Falls has a great post today on How To Be The Social Media Champion At Your Office. What do you say when you are being made fun of for using Social Media? What do you say when you are constantly being beat down with this “new-fangled-fad”?

And what do you say when superiors and peers tell you social media marketing is a waste of time? Jason has six steps to help you along your journey. I am also going to add in a couple of my own.

1. Illustrate the Benefits

2. Make Yourself Available

3. Target the Right Co-Workers

4. Get To The Professional Through the Personal

5. Operate Within The Rules

6. Solve Business Problems With Social Media Tools

I would encourage you to go read Jason’s blog and learn from his expertise. I wanted to add a couple that will help my peers along the way of social media domination in the corporate environment.

1. Show Historical Data of Productivity Enhancement. I know that title sounds like something from the inner vaults of Forrester but I have found this method to work numerous times. I have used the success of Best Buy’s Blue Shirt Nation to champion the use of social media in the corporate environment. This adds to Jason’s first point and if you can show the success of peers…. it will be easier.

2. Work Behind the Scenes and Work Often. I am not saying go behind your supervisors back and start using social media for productivity and marketing enhancement. Ask to use social media for the companies benefit on your OWN TIME. Map and track everything you are doing to show management the value of all things social media. This will also show the leaders that you are serious about social media and SERIOUS about the companies success.

If you ask… you better hustle. Hustle hard and work your butt off.

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Lost In Translation: Why Don’t Marketers Speak Human?

I was browsing through the world of Social Media tonight and I ran across a blog called Socialized by Alisa Leonard-Hasen. She had a simple post dated back in October called Like Humans Do. The post was a simple graphic:

It hit me. HIT ME HARD. A simple design and yet such a profound message. Why don’t marketers know how to speak Human?

As marketers shouldn’t that be what we strive for on a daily basis? How do we create a message that will resonate with our user base? How do we take an idea and turn it into a message that tugs the heart strings? How do we take a product/service/offering and make it “speak Human?”  Why is it so hard?

One last question:

Is the answer Social Media?

I would venture to say… ABSOLUTELY. Never in the history of marketing has a platform been developed where you can tap into a community. We are no longer products and services but people.

Why don’t businesses know how to speak human? They should. There is no better place than here. There is no better time than now.

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Social Media? Networking? Good For Small Business?

Ricardo Bueno has an excellent post at Ribeezie called Social Networking: Is It Good For Small Business?  He piggbacks off of a Seth Godin quote from the Amex’s Open Forum:

“Networking is always important when it’s real and it’s always a useless distraction when it’s fake. What the internet has allowed is an enormous amount of fake networking to take place.”

This quote hit me simply because I have been debating on how to make social media more effective in a marketing environment.  The small business marketing world in Indianapolis is a buzz with the concept of using social media marketing to drive revenue. So how do we go about using social media to drive revenue? Brand development? Pure enjoyment?

Ricardo and Seth hit it right on the head: Genuine Relationships.

When using social media it is extremely important to take time in developing your network on a personal level. The concept is the same with Offline Networking in a group like Rainmakers Marketing Group. Offline and Online networking are extremely similar in many aspects when it comes to mutual respect between individuals.

Respect me. I will respect you.

Add in a personal thing or two. Do you have kids? What do you enjoy most out of life?

I would rather not have posts constantly talking about your new blog post or new product offering. Tell me something that makes it personal.

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Networking with Authenticity or Blandly Giving a Presentation?

Gary Vaynerchuk has another brilliant video on his website called Giving a Presentation vs. Working the Room.

In this video Gary talks about brands using social media in terms of giving a presentation versus working the room. When you are giving a presentation you are speaking to a group of people. When you are working the room (as many networking junkies know) you are getting involved in the group, in the community.

There is another facet of working the room and giving a presentation in social media: authenticity.

Authenticity
When you are working a room at a networking event you have to put on an air of personality and authenticity in order to gain any foothold in an individuals mind. If you are not yourself and try to wear a facade…you will not be successful at networking with professionals.

In giving a presentation there is a small amount of personality involved but is not truly involved in the process of giving a presentation. You are relating information to a group. Push. Push. Push and no Pull.

It is truly important to work the room when you are using social media for your business. Work the room at 30 mins a day. Heck! Work at the room at an hour a day online. You get what you put in!

And Gary ends his post by saying something brilliant:

“Their cost is just their time. They just have to care enough to work the room.”

The cost of your social media endeavors is your time. Plain and simple. If you want to gain a foothold in the Web 2.0 community landscape… make the time.

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Taking Social Media Beyond the Comfort Zone

I was reading through The Next Web and came across a post called the Perfect Viral Marketing in 2010. I thought to myself, “I love viral marketing so why not check out the video that Boris listed underneath the post. The video is an absolutely brilliant video produced by Slate V on Youtube.

I doubt that marketing companies will ever take the concept of viral marketing to the point where they are paying actors to actually relate to a consumer group. The concept is absolutely hilarious.

There is something to learn from the video from a marketing perspective. When you are building and implementing a marketing strategy try to get into the heads of your target market. Don’t take it to the point where you are PERSONALLY entering into their lives.

The concept is worthy enough to note. Watch the video!

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Brogan, Rowse, Lacy, Sanders: A Collaborative Effort, Version 2

There has been quite a bit of collaboration lately on the idea of social media described in terms of Home Bases, Frontiers, Outposts, and Communities. If you have not gotten into the discussion and thrown in your two cents I would encourage you to read the following posts and discuss:

1.The Founding Father: Chris Brogan: Using Outposts in Your Media Strategy

2. Darren Rowse of Pro-Blogger: Home Bases and Outposts, How I Use Social Media

3. Steven Sanders: Home Bases, Outposts, Frontiers and Communities

4. My Post on the matter: Home Bases, Outposts and Frontiers Using Social Media

Steven talks about adding on the concept of communities to the mix of home bases, outposts, and frontiers. In his post he talks about the concept of communities:

If you look at Kyle’s picture of his social media model, you’ll start to notice that it resembles what could possibly be a persons house or lifestyle.  The different areas are the different things a person runs through everyday.

So If you look at this chart belonging to an individual person, then it makes sense that there are similar charts being used by others that help to build your “Communities“.

I like where Steven is going with the concept of communities. Below you will find his version of the concept of communities:

I decided to take it a step further and call the communities concept Borders. To be honest with you it is the same concept at communities but I wanted to keep with the wilderness theme.  Here is my reasoning:

According to Wordsmyth.net borders can be defined as:

The area close to or the dividing line between two countries or political regions.

To me the border defines the outlying area where we still influence and coexist among our neighboring communities. We have out home base, our outposts, the frontiers, and then the border where we wander out and coexist with other communities in the form of communication and collaboration. The only downside to the definition of border is that it means a dividing line. In no way are the borders of our social media “bases” a dividing line but more of place for the facilitation of online relationships and information sharing.

My concept in visual form:

The purple area represents the borders we define in our social media experience. It is an open territory where we cross into other users boundaries and share information. It could be defined as an open border.

Any thoughts?  If there has been any more thoughts shared in the matter please let me know. I would love to add it into the mix.