1 of 4 Customer Types of Social Media: The-Lost

I had a post a couple of days ago talking about the four customer types of social media which was a piggy back post off of Jason Baer’s 7 Critical Elements of your Social Strategy.  I wanted to start focusing more in-depth on each customer type.

First on the list is “The-Lost.”

The-Lost can be categorized as a person or user that has either maybe heard of you or has not heard of you at all. Jason calls this section of a social media marketing strategy the Awareness phase. This is very much brand development on the part of the marketer.

You want to gain the mind-share of a web browser or potential client. We all know that this individual is lost because they haven’t discovered the beauty of your product or service.

We have described what it takes to become a member of the Lost. I guess the question is now: How do you market to an individual that is “lost”?

Using Social Media to Capture the Lost: Join the Community

This is not rocket science. There are many level of an individual in the Lost category. Let’s focus on the Generation Y Lost. If you are seeking to gain acceptance into the social media world of a Lost Gen Y it is important to become involved in the community. Community acceptance is huge for this demographic and Social Media type.

I am a part of Generation Y and I can tell you first and foremost… we are not brand loyal. By joining a community there is an aspect to being transparent that needs to be obtained. You cannot join a Gen Y community as a logo and business name. Go ahead an be disingenuous… and be killed.

Slowly start to work your way into the minds of the Lost. Their friends will help them along the way.

The 4 Customer Types of Social Media

Happy 2009. Okay. Now that we got that over with.. Let’s dive into something of more importance… Social Media Marketing for your Small Business! YAY!

Jason Baer has a great post over at Convince and Convert called the 7 Critical Elements of Your Social Media Strategy. The post is brilliant for the small business owner wanting to get more involved in social media.

Why is his post brilliant?

It talks more about the internal business development than what TOOLS you should be using.

I am all for using Twitter, Plaxo, Myspace, Facebook, and LinkedIN but if you don’t have the traditional elements of your company connected… you are going to fail.

In the post he lists the third step in the seven step process as: Where is the Audience Cyclically? This explains that there are four different relationship patterns inherent in the promotion of your company.

Awareness: Maybe heard of you.

Interest: Heard of you. Visited your Site. No Purchases

Action: Made a single purchase

Advocacy: Raving Brand Lunatics. (Jackpot)

I decided to re-name them and go over how they fit into the overall social media marketing strategy.

Jason suggested that you should only pick two of the 4 Customer Profiles listed above when you are planning your social media strategy. I can agree with the fact that two is more than enough but I would suggest picking only one for your social media marketing strategy.

Why Pick Only One?

If you have planned your SM strategy correctly it is a part of your overall marketing strategy. You only have a limited amount of time and resources to fully promote your business. If you can use SM marketing to only target ONE of the groups… the strategy will be stronger and more effective.

This is especially true for beginners in the world of social media. One is enough for now.

Next up we will be talking about how to target each of the groups.

Social Media Marketing is about Emotion not Automation

Doug Karr at the Marketing Tech Blog has a post this morning called You Know Your a Smippy When…

Before we get started into the Smippy world. I’ve known Doug for quite awhile and would count him as THE one that helped me get into social media specifically blogging. I pretty much take everything Doug says as fact and trust his judgment without fault. He is def. one of my SM mentors.

Part of his post is a rebuttal against my Twitter Auto DM Petition.

Now… I am not going to take offense to the Smippy comment. I actually think it is pretty hilarious. The beauty of social media is that you can freely express your opinions and other people have the right to disagree.

There is one thing I am NOT against and that is social media marketing. My company’s future is built off the concept that you can use social media for brand exposure, as well as, increased sales. Though I think there is a fine line with taking a marketing medium and bastardizing it by setting up direct responses without any regards to the person on the other end.

I’m going to cite an article by Seth Godin called  The Rapid Growth (and destruction) and Growth of Marketing.

Social media, it turns out, isn’t about aggregating audiences so you can yell at them about the junk you want to sell. Social media, in fact, is a basic human need, revealed digitally online. We want to be connected, to make a difference, to matter, to be missed. We want to belong, and yes, we want to be led.

The business owners and marketers that were focused in mass marketing in the past try to systematize processes, “How can we take this tool and automate it to get the most BANG for the BUCK?” When you use Twitter Auto DMs you are not respecting the fact that I chose to follow you. I don’t want to know about your new e-book. I will find it on my own if you were that compelling to follow in the first place.

Any product that automates social media tools is slowly sucking the personality out of your brand (personal or corporate). You cannot try and automate a tool that is rooted in permission based marketing.

If you aren’t taking the time to personally thank people for following you…

Aren’t you just collecting another mailing list?

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Two Rules of the New Web: Be Simple and Be Sticky

Mark Evans had a great blog a couple of days ago called Is Anyone Paying Attention? Talk about some great everyday life visuals to relate to the transitioning of the web from cluttered to de-cluttered. I’m pretty sure I either just made up the term “de-cluttered” or someone said it to me sometime. All of that aside, Mark has a line in his post that was funny and hit me hard at the same time.

The lack of attention is troubling but, ironically, no one seems to be paying much attention to it.

The millennial generation is slowly seeping into the workforce and using productivity tools more often than not. Mark was right when he said online services and websites have one shot to get the attention of the over-used and over-supplied public.

You have ONE shot. ONE.. Numero UNO. Single.

Just one shot to catch the attention of the consuming public. Simple and Sticky. That’s our creed. That should be everyones creed.

Make your website as simple as you possibly can. Use good, smart design to untangle the maze of sales content and information you want to display and put up what gets attention. You have less than 10 seconds to capute MY attention.

Are you going to stick me to a message or push me towards a competitor?

Social Equity Is More Important than Financial Equity

I was surfing through some Gary Vaynerchuk videos and stumbled across this post from March 28, 2008: Legacy Is Greater Than Currency.

The video basically breaks down Gary’s thought on Financial decisions compared to legacy and social decisions. I have been debating internally about the concept of personal branding in the social media marketing realm and this video hits it right on the nose.

As an entrepreneur (and I think I speak for most) a legacy concept is much more important than the financial return a business may bring you. Let’s face it… the first five years of owning a company is pretty much scraping, unless you are a Mark Z, the creator of Facebook.

In the world of social media it is far more important to put emphasis on building your personal brand and personal equity than putting cash in your pocket. This has a lot to do with how you use social media. If you are a business owner and you are using social media as a marketing tool you CANNOT… let me repeat.

YOU CANNOT

Treat your friends and followers as financial equity. You will be eaten alive. I am saying this more towards the people who use Twitter Auto-Response or just write a blog for financial gain. Become a part of the community. Give back to the community. Join the race and enjoy the race.

In the end, you will find that will bring much more to your life than a new Infiniti or a Mercedes.

I am in business because I love what I do. I love everything about social media marketing and branding. If that means I need to make $20,000 a year for five years to truly build a company that helps people do what they love…

Sign me up.. over and over again.

Because in the end you will see far greater return in the long run both personally and professionally.

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Dear Levi 501: Thanks for Making Me Vomit

I am a huge fan of advertising. I follow advertising. I watch and read about advertising. The art of advertising is something that will never get old to me.

So, I am sitting on my couch watching Family Guy last night and this Levi 501 commercial comes on. I already have an idea that the commercial is completely sex charged. What I find is something a little beyond the lines of sex charged.

Please watch the commercial below.

Okay. I’m not really offended by the “sex sells” mantra of clothing advertising because it is pretty prevalent. This does not mean I agree with it, as much as I am just used to it.

This commercial is completely ridiculous for a number of reasons but most of all…

THE CHARACTERS/ACTORS LOOK PREPUBESCENT.

And for everyone that does not know what prepubescent means… We can safely say between the ages of 13 and 15.

Are you serious? Are you seriously coming out with an ad that shows two young (looking) individuals about to romp but SURPRISE they are actually just jumping off the side of a railing into the water…. surprise. What a GREAT joke!

Needless to say I threw up on myself.

If there were two older looking individuals I would have just been weirded out but this is absolutely ridiculous. I would have at least kept my food in my stomach.

Viral Marketing is last year. Enter Echo and Reverberate Marketing.

Boris Veldhujzen van Zanten from the Next Web has a great post called Forget Viral Marketing. It Is All About Reverberating Marketing! . I completely agree with his choice of HATING the term viral marketing. I have never been able to fully stomach the term “viral.” I understand the concept of spreading but Boris hits it right on the head when he says:

I never liked the term Viral Marketing. It just sounds like bad karma. Viruses are associated with diseases and death. Do you want to associate your product or service with that?

It also sounds too easy. All these marketeers being asked for, or offering, a quick ‘Viral Campaign’ by clients. That is like asking for a quick number one music hit or a quick successful start-up. Wishing for it doesn’t make it so.

He proposes to use the phrase Reverberate Marketing instead of Viral Marketing. I like the concept of Reverberation as an echo… spreading from individual to individual. You could also use the term Echo Marketing.

Echo and Reverberate Marketing has a lot to do with social media marketing. Whether you are a small business or corporate entity, we all strive to create a story that will be repeated (over and over again). Social media marketing is the one platform that allows for echo and viral marketing to happen.

How do you utilize social media to spread a story? How do you use blogging, facebook, linkedin, and Twitter to communicate with potential and current clients?

Do you Echo?

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Create Relationships. Don’t Sleep Around.

Matt Rhodes over at Freshnetworks sparked my post today with a quote from the article: Love Your Customers. Use Social Media.

“A brand should be thinking of themselves as part of a consumer’s personal brand rather than the other way around…”

So many times we find ourselves spending money on external branding. How do we get noticed? How do we get the average consumer to remember our brand name? It is all about ME. ME. ME. How do we get them to spend money? Acquisition. Acquisition.

While I think internal branding and design is important to a business’ success, social media has created a space where you can become part of the LIFE of a consumer. Talk about a good way to spark viral marketing! If you are molded into a client or consumers life… the potential of being spread to friends, family, and co-workers is exponential!

We can talk about internal marketing, external promotion, advertising, marketing, branding, and design…

but if you want true results…

use the tools in front of you to create relationships… to start conversations… to monitor your brand.

It is going back to your brand being lovable and NOT a dirty flirt.

Don’t sleep around

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Hustle It and Quit Complaining. There Are People Buying.

Chris Baggott has a great post on his Compendium blog called There Are Still People Out There Buying. During the doom of gloom of an economic downturn (or so I hear) it is always good to read posts that are more encouraging than not.

In the post Chris quotes Ian Beavis from AdWeek:

“There will still be people out there buying cars, and the trick will be to identify them and what triggers them to purchase.”

Despite a economic downturn or the talks of another bailout, there will always be people buying. Money will still be changing hands in the brilliance of American capitalism. So what is the trick? Other than the power of positive thinking? I am going to piggy-back off Chris and take the concept of helping the customer identify you to the hustle.

The Hustle

Gary Vaynerchuk is a huge advocate of the hustle. In hard times… In slow economies… you have to hustle.

The hustle is the process of doing more than the competition and being smart about it.

It is about staying an extra hour or two at the office.

It is about getting up an hour early to write a blog or respond to multiple emails.

It is about doing more than the other guy.

It is about listening in every space of the market and being there.

The hustle is being smart, responding, doing more, and listening.

I am tired of hearing people complain about the market. Hustle the crap out of the market. Think clearly and start a strategy to success. There are people still out there buying. Find them.

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The TRULY CARE Factor: It’s What You KNOW Not What You Think!

I read a post this morning that rocked my world and I wanted to share it with you. Isn’t that nice of me?

Brad Ward of Butler University has become an extremely influential member of social media marketing professionals in the education arena. He is also someone that I try to talk to on a regular basis to share information and learn from each other.

He has a post entitled, It’s NOT What You Think. The post talks about a Seth Godin quote relating to using the tools to capture user attention, people who truly care. The quote:

It’s not about what you think the students want or want the students to want.  It’s about creating and assembling a collection of tools that captures the attention of people who truly care.

What a great quote! Brad breaks down the quote in relation to the education world in his post but I wanted to break it down for the small business world.

1) It’s not about what you think THEY want… We would all like to think we know what people want. What does my client need… want… desire? The truth of the matter is to not rely on your own understanding. In this communication driven world… just ask. Ask your client base what they want! Send out an email and ask what people desire and need. How can THEY help YOU understand?

2)…or want THEM to want. You can plant the seed but it better be a good seed. Nourishment is key to growth. You can’t WANT them to WANT but you can create the environment to help it grow.

3) It’s about creating and assembling a collection of tools… What does your target market use in terms of communication tools? Do they read blogs? Do they have a facebook or myspace account? Maybe they just use email? God forbid it is a direct mail campaign. You need to KNOW what they use and take advantage of the medium.

4) that captures the attention of people who truly care… This is a great line to remember as we are testing this new “fad”, this new form of socia marketing. You cannot force people into blogging or reading your blog. You cannot force a group of clients onto a social network when they do not TRULY CARE about communicating online.

Wouldn’t you rather have clients that truly care about your product and service? I would.

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