Hi Everyone – this is my first entry on Lilly’s Pod. I’m long overdue in setting up this blog.
Back in June, I distributed two e-marketing insights on Social Media Marketing – the first focused on justifying social media as part of an overall marketing program, while the second discussed strategies and tools to make social media efficient, effective and measurable.
I recently attended a Social Media Strategies Summit in San Francisco sponsored by the Global Strategic Management Institute (GSMI). It was a solid event – good speakers and an intelligent audience –facilitating dialogue among attendees. Here are a few takeaways that build on my earlier missives:
The Relevance of Social Media: Ken Pulverman of Oracle gave a very “cerebral” presentation. He correlated the highly networked cells of the human brain that power sensory response and cognitive thinking to the core networks created by social networks and their influence on decision-making. I can’t think of a better argument for justifying the relevance of social media than comparing it to how people viscerally think and act!
And if this doesn’t sufficiently justify social media, check out “Social Media Revolution” on YouTube by Erik Qualman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8. It’s compelling.
Social Networks — Facebook and more Facebook??: Back in June, Facebook surpassed Yahoo as the number two most visited web destination. It’s now nipping at Google’s heels and will probably assume the top spot by year-end. While nearly every speaker mentioned Linkedin, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and MySpace, social media marketing right now means effectively using Facebook. Regardless, the social networking world will undoubtedly continue to change. One speaker indicated that in getting a behind-the-scenes look at what LinkedIn is doing, the marketing conversation may shift to that site by next year.
Multiple Social Network Accounts: Don’t think one Twitter account. Don’t think one Facebook page. Think in multiples. Cisco – “the human network”– reported they have more than 100 Twitter accounts, 300 YouTube channels, 26 Facebook pages and 36 blogs.
Converting the “Lurkers”: One argument often made against social media marketing is that the majority of participants or “lurkers” are not customers but passive observers (translation: marketing to them is a waste). But as in traditional marketing, a wide audience is important. Robin Spencer, a researcher and former Pfizer executive, provided scientific analysis on how lurkers are important in driving scale, input and brand awareness, while Zachary Long of Scottrade, demonstrated how the firm’s online community works to convert lurkers into becoming active customers.
Distribution and Metric Tools: Maximizing and measuring social media was a major conference topic and it’s still an evolving issue. In fact, Hewlett Packard has reportedly developed a formula to measure social media influence but the software to apply it has yet to be created. We are all now waiting!
For the time being, several speakers advocated a mix of free and paid tools to ensure blanket coverage. For monitoring and measurement, Radian6 (a subscription service) was the choice of several speakers. Dave Peck, a social media strategist for meshin, is a big advocate of free tools and recommended Tweetmeme that searches for the hottest topics to retweet; Digg that determines the hot topics discussed across all social media; and Twittercounter, a service of Twitter that provides statistics on twitter account usage. Ken Pulverman recommended paper.li that organizes links shared on Twitter into an easy to read newspaper-style format. Newspapers can be created for any Twitter user, list or #tag.
On the distribution front, Dave Peck is a fan of Ping.fm, (a free service), which updates all social networks simultaneously. Jake Wengroff, my friend and Chair of the conference (who did a great job I might add), recommended SlideShare (a subscription service) that allows users to post PowerPoint presentations and benefit from baked-in analytics. This is a great way to promote an issue or thought leadership platform – a valuable B2B tool!
Social Media and Corporate Responsibility: Corporate Responsibility is one of my focus areas and social media is essential in promoting CR efforts. Matthew Broder of Pitney Bowes demonstrated how social media has helped to expand the company’s Holiday Mail for Heroes (http://www.redcross.org/holidaymail) program.
So what’s the next big trend? In talking with Myles Bristowe, CMO of COMMCreative, he believes we’re arriving at a point where marketing will no longer be driven by what a company tells its customers but by what customers tell a company. I think he’s right. Since we all have “core networks” that are central to our lives and all of our decision making, it stands to reason that companies will develop marketing strategies by communicating with, and learning from, “core networks.”
As a result, I think social network targeting will become an important approach. In effect, companies will develop “core networks” strategies by building followings on select sites, chosen from the more than 300 social networks already available, whose members fit their customer profiles. Since many marketers have yet to take this approach, I’m convinced the early adopters will benefit the most.
This reminds me that social media is still in its infancy and the equivalent to what television was in the 1950s. What CBS was to television in the 1950s, Facebook is to today’s social networks. And just as companies now develop advertising strategies that cut across network and cable TV, companies will undoubtedly apply this same approach to social media networks as the medium evolves. The only difference is that evolution in social media is very quick…in fact, change is only a click away.
What do you think?
