Friday
Fun is Diva Marketing's virtual happy hour from cosmos to Jack to
lemonade. A waiting for the weekend 'playground' time to be
sophisticated-silly. Or sometimes just plain silly.
Top 10 Reason Why Not To Use Social Media
With apologies to Mister Letterman ..
10. Social media is just a fad.
9. Social media is a kid thing.
8. None of my customers are using social media or those network things.
7. Why would I want to know what you had for breakfast?
6. Twitter twits tweets. How you take something that sounds like bird seed as a serious marketing tactic?
5. We don't have the time.
4. No way to determine ROI.
3. Our brand could get blown up.
2. People who use social networks or those blog things just want to rant about things they know nothing about.
and the number one reason not to use social media
1. Social media will break down the carefully built silos in our company and we really don't trust each other enough for that to happen.
When I heard a colleague call social media a "consequence free environment" one word came to mind: Chaos. Dictionary.com defines choas as: a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order. In the business world, where order and analysis are the basis of strategy, it's a small wonder why many marketers think of social media as their worst nightmare!
However, as is often the case of a Google search I saw something else .. another spelling - Khaos - and followed the links. Khaos was the Greek Goddess of the space between heaven and earth. Some ancient writers believed that she was primary source of all things.
Okay .. I promise not to leap into the gaping void and propose that social media is the source of all new marketing. If we think of social media not as Chaos, but as Khaos a new way to breach the void of customers and company, then perhaps we shed light on what is scary in the night but finds purpose in the day.
What do you do if you find your brand in the midst of a 'consequence free environment' where the conversation is more of nightmare than a pleasant dream? Here is a model to help breach the gap. For best results, of course, it should be part of your Social Media Enterprise Plan and dovetail into "In The Moment Marketing."
3 Steps to Khoas Social Media
Step 1: Determine Extent of Influence
a. Follow the conversation
b. Identify the people who are posting and who is commenting
c. Determine viral impact e.g., retweets, blog links, forum discussions, etc.
d. Monitor for main stream media mentions
Step 2: Analyze Meaning
a. What aspects of the brand resonated with customers?
b. Where are the emotional ties to the brand?
c. What is the impact on customers about the brand and the
company?
d. What is being repeated/RT’ed?
e. Is there offline impact e.g., customer call center?
Step 3: Determine Opportunities for Engagement
a. Tell your story in the same platforms
b. Co-create with your customers and fans
c. Join the conversation before it occurs!
Now I ask you, where else can you find social media served up with Greek Mythology?
Update: Thanks to @Attentio who reminded me that this is a circle strategy .. monitoring is the first and last steps; reviewing your results is also critical. So add 3 more steps please.
Today Max and took a walk in the rain. Max hates to get wet and while I might like to fantasy about dancing in the rain with Gene Kelly, being out doors in a cold winter rain with winds blowing is not my ideal of fun. But we were safe. I knew we were going back to a warm house where I could relax by the fire with a hot cup of tea or even a snifter of brandy and Max, of course, could chew on a doggy treat.
There are millions of people today in a small island in the Caribbean who are not safe. The people of Haiti will not be safe for many weeks or more likely many, many months.
Diva Marketing is a wee voice within the billions of web pages on the Internet; however, I couldn't let the opportunity of using the space on this site go by without an acknowledgment, of what my friend Geoff Livingston says, goes beyond the damage of a hurricane to the devastation of poverty.
If there is anything social media has taught me .. it is to believe in the miracles that people can make one-by-one-by-one. Just in case you wandered in and needed one more bit of encouragement to help here are a few sites that provide information.
It's an honor to be aligned with some of the best blogs (be they written by a diva or a divo) and with women who I admire .. many who I am privileged to call "girl friend."
If you're new to Diva Marketing .. Welcome! I cordially invite you to visit awhile and explore some of the posts, interviews and podcasts. Drop a comment & let me know your thoughts about social media .. then go visit some more amazing women of ..
Forbes 20 Best Marketing & Social Media Blogs By Women
Toss of a pink boa to Nancy Chorpenning, who inspired the title of my presentation on social media marketing for NAWBO Atlanta (National Association of Women Business Owners), and was an always awesome support as we developed this session. We felt "Follow The Dots" would be good way to frame the flow from strategy to tactics ... however .. as is sometimes the case one dot led to something slightly different.
As I began building the deck (I often like to mix slides with conversation. People learn differently and PowerPoint offers a visual media.) candydots ran through my mind. I thought it would be fun to include an image of candy dots to help illustrate the strategy trail. When I went to look for graphics I found what I remembered to be "candy dots" were actually called "candy buttons." I decided to have a bit of fun and create the presentation and analogies around a candy theme.
The Same But Different: The candy names were different. The taste and texture were different. One candy was hard while the other was soft and chewy. However, they were both candy. They were both sort of round and colorful. Different but the same.
Using that as an introduction to the session led to an interesting discussion of how not all social media tactics serve the same purpose. That what is right for one organization may not be right for all organizations. Different. However, to succeed in social media all organizations must create a plan that integrates social media into their master marketing plan. Same.
Our Conversation Guide focused on 3 questions:
1. What exactly Is "Social Media?"
2. Is Social Media right for my business right now?
3. Which tools/channels/tactics should I begin with?
As promised to the wonderful women of NAWBO I'm happy to share the deck. Enjoy with some of your favorite childhood candy .. if you can't have a little fun with your social media, why bother?
Blogs and Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and Flicker .. Oh My! The options for participating in social media are like the little, energizing bunny .. it keeps on going and going and going. Social media grows more complex by the nano second.
On the plus side: for the most part, the capital cost of these tools is free or at a very low cost. On the minus side: the price you pay for a social media program is in human capital and time. For an organization that runs lean and mean the execution of social media can be a challenge. Social media is a hungry beast that to succeed demands content.
Enter stage left - PR agencies, advertising agencies and social media consultants who are seizing an opportunity to carve a service niche from their time pressed, staff starved clients. Yes, girlfriend, the agencies are stepping in
and taking over the role and responsibilities of implementing social media initiatives.
But unlike an ad campaign or dropping a media release where no one really cares what name you use, social media is suppose to be different. Tweets and posts are suppose to be from the real people who are working for the brand .. just in case you might want to develop a real relationship. Keep in mind those who hold the conversation control the relationship.
There is a a buzz brewing that reminds me of the
controversy over ghost blogging. However, since on Facebook and often on Twitter
"no one knows your name" seems to be the acceptable norm,
2010 will see more. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it just fact of social media marketing life? Does it really matter? These are some of the questions that John Cass, PR Communicationsand I tossed about.
We thought it would be fun and an interesting exercise to collaborate on a post about the transparency of content writing and social media engagement for client social media channels. We're reaching out to people involved in social media and asking their opinions about the level of transparency owed to a a client when an agency is hired to write content for a blog, twitter account,
Facebook page, etc.
What are the practices that you think should be
followed? Feel free to tell us if you have differences of opinions across
social media channels.
We'll collect responses through January 15th and then share the learnings by cross posting on John's blog and on Diva Marketing. Read John's introduction post on PR Communications.
