A sweet spot is a spot where a combination of factors suggest a particularly suitable solution. On a racquet or baseball bat, it’s the ideal spot you want to hit the ball. It’s the spot where you have a confluence of things that all align into harmony at once. Below is diagram that defines what I think is the sweet spot for social media.
As the VP of Marketing for a dot com start up geared towards IT professionals and major corporations, I assemble multiple focus groups consisting of average Joes to get their opinion on the UI. Not realizing until after the site is built, that perhaps it might have made better sense assembling the typical actual user of the site in garnering user feedback. Huge error.
After having started my first user based community wrapped around a very popular consumer product, I manage the community as if I am a dictator. I say no to everything and listen even less. Big mistake!
These are but 2 of the mistakes I’ve made in my journey through marketing, communities and social media. Encouraged by my friend Mack Collier who has a similar post right now over on his site The Viral Garden, I decided to recount some of the mistakes I’ve made in social media, marketing and managing communities. I think this is a very viable topic right now for a number of reasons, as you will soon see.
Mack mentions that people who are entering the space for the first time-be it social media, marketing, managing communities, blogging, or whatever-may fear that doing anything, any misstep, will be met with criticism, or perhaps a stiff rebuke. Which is not the case at all, in fact Mack’s point is this:
When it comes to social media; no one knows everything, and everyone makes mistakes. I’ve made more than my fair share
Don’t buy into this ‘I don’t have anything to say/tweet/post about’ nonsense. Get out there and make your mistakes, because that’s the best way to learn. And besides, one of those ‘social media experts’ has probably already made all the same mistakes you will
So along with the other 2 mistakes I made above, let me highlight some of the bigger ones I’ve made.
2002 I set up a knowledge base, a BBS, and an instant chat function all to allegedly help our customer service dept. Results? Customer service didn’t know how to use the complicated KB and neither did the customer. The BBS was too complicated as well and the chat function crashed constantly. 0 for 3.
2002, I created an online community that instantly becomes popular and balloons to 3,000 users. At which point, I endear myself to no one as I kick out some of the brand champions for what were in hindsight, petty transgressions. It’s at this point that I am called out for the first of many times, and issued my first death threat as well. Major screw up on my part!
2003 I’m still not listening to the customer. Thinking that perhaps silence is golden as a community manager, I participate very little when the complete opposite was needed at the time. FAIL.
2004 A new product and business unit is created. I create new sites that get tremendous traffic but do very little analysis of the trends, the topics, the hot buttons and customer suggestions flowing in from email and I funnel them to Customer Service, because “I’m too busy!” Apparently, they never read them either. Product tanks. My fault for not listening, at all.
2005– I start blogging to create better brand recognition. But I know nothing and blog/spam with zero regularity. The only gain I see, is a minor SEO bump, but realize that it came from me commenting. So rather than genuinely read blogs, I decide to just lamely comment for hyperlink purposes. It works for SEO but I get nothing out of the exercise. At which point I’m just an SEO loser/hack gaming the system. FAIL
2006 I start blogging again but this time it’s out of a need to communicate with customers better. Obviously I’ve seen some light somewhere. But I read very few other blogs and comment even less. Not realizing that blogging is a 2 way street. It takes a full 6 months for that fact to sink in.
2006-2007 I engage in a full blown reputation management endeavor utilizing social bookmarking, blogging, and participating in multiple social networks. Only problem-I’m not engaging earnestly. Another problem, I create persona’s in the name of the company but not in my name. I’m not transparent, not even close. Apparently I realize the SEO implications but still don’t get that its all about you being you and the conversation. I’m everywhere and I’m not. The reputation management campaign has worked and yet I have zero traction. I still have not understood the basic principles of social media. FAIL
2007– The light is starting to go on a bit more, but it still has not dawned on me to come out from behind the curtain and be myself. It takes the last 6 months of 2007 to realize that transparency actually works in creating better conversations. In the meantime I start joining social networks on behalf of products instead of myself, and continue to push the message as a brand marketer instead of engaging and listening as a person. Mistake
2008– I was very active but not always in a good way. In 2008 I created “more” social networking accounts instead of concentrating on the few where I have become part of the communiy. I blog about too many different things not realizing that my traffic came from being consistent and on point. I also sometimes still forget that traffic comes from participating and reading other blogs. I also forget that the best way to create value and more long lasting relationships and perhaps derive business, is to go beyond thinking like a marketer and to think more like a friend, a peer, and a colleague. I realize now that from all of my mistakes that, as I told my friend Paul Chaney on his Blog Talk Radio show:
Active listening leads to active relationships that translate to real opportunity..
So you see, I’ve made a ton of mistakes, and those were just the one’s that come to mind immediately. The key though, is that I learned from them, and kept trying. But if you never step outside, you will never truly know what’s out there. Bottom line is don’t be afraid to make mistakes. I have to think that regardless of your backgrounds , you have all made mistakes. Don’t let the mob mentality, or some random blog comment or snarky tweet, sway you from trying and experimenting in social media. Let it be a motivator.
I had been throwing the following around in my head after meeting with a quite a few business owners and talking with some respected thought leaders in the social media marketing space and I want to know what you think.
As an SMB you need to ask two primary questions when pitched with incorporating some aspect of social media in to your business and they are:
#1 What is in it for me and my business?
#2 What’s in it for my customer?
Simple enough right? But we’re forgetting someone. Someone as critical to the business as the customer is. Do you know who it is? One of the beauties of social media is that there are so many layers, aspects and dynamic components that allow it to address people it all levels of an organization. Including the sometimes forgotten and under appreciated employee.
So Mr. or Mrs. SMB, what we are really saying is that, if social media is pitched or considered then, the pitcher/social media practitioner, should be focusing on 3 aspects of the business:
For the business owner you will want tangible hard core proof of “If I do this, this is what I can expect for my business and my employees and If I do this, this is what the customer can expect or will do, or this will be the customers reaction. It’s that simple.
If you are a social media marketing…person, show the SMB what the expected results will be. Give them examples of either what you have done, or… if you are in the majority and are just starting out as a social media marketing N00b, utilize the many URL’s that are starting to crop up citing examples of other companies using social media components within their organizations.
Here is a list of links that SMB’s can utilize that may help them in at least understanding more of what is going on should they be approached by a “social media marketing consultant” or are thinking about doing it on their own. At the least, you will get a better understanding of what’s in it for you, and whats in it for your customer!
Why Executives Don’t “Get” Social Media This is a good article on executive level mindsets as they wrestle with including social media into their companies.
The Ultimate Small Business Twitter List This is not only a great list but it also includes a list of Orgs. and their employees or Reps. that serve the small business market.
Here is a great link on Facebook titled, Social Media for Small Business that some of you should check out.
Why Social Media Is Worth Small Business Owners’ Time Taking advantage of all the Web has to offer is like eating your vegetables or getting exercise — most of us don’t do enough, and even those that do could always do more.
My friend, Amber Naslund, who now works at Radian 6 has 2 posts that I think are worth reading. here is the first Getting a social media foothold and The social media starter kit. Self explanatory right?
Lastly we’re going to finish with some video. I encourage all of you SMB’s out there to watch it, as well as newcomers to social media marketing. It includes a number of my friends and colleagues and thus, I would put a lot of stock in what they are saying. They are the genuine real deal: Brian Solis, Rohit Bhargava, Tim Ferris, Toby Bloomberg, David Alston, Liz Strauss, and Paul Chaney,
Lastly, let me say this. IF, you are a social media marketer, wannabe, or whatever… At the end of the day, you better do a pretty damn good job of stating your case. Because no one, and I mean no one can afford to screw up right now and the last thing an SMB wants is for them to be your test case!
This is a cautionary tale that I’ve been thinking about for awhile. Having noticed how much social networks and communities have grown exponentially recently, I’ve noticed that people do things within the context of what we consider New Media, i.e. social networks, and then ultimately regret it later.
The evidence is everywhere. We see the demise of relationships, axes to grind, pure anger, mob mentalities, bruised egos, bitterness, love, hate, and fraud all played out in glorious real time and beyond, thanks to digital footprints.
Some groups seem to be more comfortable with this aspect of Web 2.0 than others. Gen Y and millenials are used to, and comfortable with leaving their mark. They’re comfortable with the ability to express free form raw emotion on their social nets of choice. So much so that they take on the characteristics of an animal marking its territory. They do not care about the repercussion of what they do online. It’s all they know and it’s almost expected and assumed by their peers
Why do they continue to push the envelope? Why do they do “it” knowing that there could be major reverb from it? Some do not care and they are looking for the desired reaction and effect.
Maybe for others, they have no idea? I don’t think they do. At least Gen Y and Millenials don’t, nor do they really care at the present moment.
But that’s just one segment, what about the rest of us?
Some of us do it specifically for that purpose, to get under someone’s skin, to challenge and and to poke and prod what people say. Yet they regret nothing and apologize less. But for them, that’s their schtick.
Others do it and have no idea of the ripple effect it may have online. They have zero clue that their actions, their written word, their audio, that video, once it’s online, that content… ceases to be in their control anymore.
You see online, you lose that buffer of physicality. You lose the ability to “take it back”. Your margin to screw up is increasing and you know what? The statement, “Once it’s done it’s done” isn’t true. It ain’t done. You now not only have to deal with “it” when it happens, but you also have to deal with it every time someone finds it. For years to come.
My advice to you is if you want to use social networks as your primary means of communication, be prepared for any and all repercussions stemming from your interactions…. to now be public fodder.
Last night I was talking with Rachel Happe and Leigh Duncan-Durst on Twitter and we were discussing the following statement I made:
Some industries have built in fan bases and thus are naturals for social media implementation, so .. why the delay? Fear? Lack of expertise?
Fear of social media. It’s more prevalent than you think. Sure some will say they are waiting for the true ROI to shake out. That might be true, but I doubt it’s the main reason.
Leigh brought up some great points: “Is it Fear? Resources? Ignorance? Unwilling to be transparent?” She goes on to add without mentioning industries, “that some large orgs. are terrified of the VOLUME of feedback and detractors so much they can’t see upside.”
Can you imagine being so burdened with the fear of negative press or negative reaction, that you, as an organization, are paralyzed into doing nothing?
Leigh concludes: “They are just not comfortable with that level of transparency. Turning a blind eye negates the opportunity to turn around negatives…Treat customers with respect, respond – and identifyadvocates too!
Rachel then adds: I think the biggest inhibitor of adoption of new tools is that people are overwhelmed and don’t have time to play with them. Sometimes I think you have to drag people into a room and make them play around with the tools until they are comfortable.
I couldn’t agree with them more! So lets review this. Are these the things that are holding companies of all sizes back from utilizing social media?
What else can we add to this list? How many of these are really legitimate?
I know this is going to ruffle some feathers, but right now your marketing initiatives, your social media efforts, your email campaign, your DRTV campaign and more- all of it will rely on one thing in the end. Consider the following scenarios:
I could go on. But I think you get the point. Everything. and I mean everything that you do revolves around…
SEARCH
Think about it.
Last night I was wondering what I was going to write about that hopefully someone new or old in the marketing, social media and PR space would understand. It’s been a crazy week but there were a few posts that caught my eye that led me to this topic.
The first was by Todd Defren about the value of modesty in which he mentions that some of the solid thinkers in the social media space are truly humble about themselves and about what they have accomplished. Imagine that? The people that you admire in the space, have no idea how good they are and in the grand scheme of things, it’s not as important, as it is to help others. Humility in social media.
Another post that caught my eye immediately was authored by Steve Radick essentially stating that social media is scary and the reason is, social media gives everyone a voice, whether they want it or not. It can instill fear and it can intimidate. Which made me ask via Twitter if some felt intimidated or scarred to talk to some of the other better known Twitterati and the answer was a collective yes. Which made me immediately wonder if I did and how can I change that? How can you change that perception if it exists? it’s unacceptable so thus I learned about-Fear of social media.
So in 2 instances we have humility and fear bubbling up from social media. I wanted to write about respect and how we, as social media practitioners may not give newcomers enough of that and that stemmed from the following:
I did a vlog on how I was going to start viewing social media differently; and the more I look back at that vlog, the more I realized that it’s not that others have to do anything different it was me. I complain about the echo and the people that repeat things but fail to really consider who might be the person behind it. Or really who is listening? I’ve judged, I’ve deliberated and I’ve executed before even doing any legwork to justify some of my criticism. For that I apologize. Though I still want to see more from both the N00bs and the sage veterans in this space, I certainly see that not everyone came aboard at the same time. And, they’re still coming aboard! I welcome you with open arms. I apologize with all my heart. Contrition in social media.
Lastly I want to tell you about the good in social media and the good that can come from community and how quickly people can open their hearts for others. David Armano for those of you who don’t know him has a friend that you should meet and get to know. I’m not going to steal David’s thunder but if he doesn’t do anything the rest of the year, he can rest assure that what he did for Daniela will have changed her life forever. Impactful. Social media can be love, can be generous and can be impactful.
So you see, even when I said I had nothing to write and was struggling, it was there all along, right in front of me. To be honest, it’s always there, sometimes it just takes the community we’re in to point it out to us in an ever so subtle manner. I thank you for that. and thus I have gratitude for social media.
Hey you, yea you. before you go and read or write another post that is about another post that is about another post, that chances are, was about another post, lets ask ourselves some questions. Better yet, before you go and tell someone what you “do”, and before you fold the term “social media” in to that, at least ask and answer these questions.
Ask these questions, if not for yourself, then at least for the others out there that are struggling with trying to keep the client focused on what is possible and what is real and what is “doable” with social media. SMB’s hear the buzz but they also need to hear the skinny.
6 days into 2009 and I’m sure we all have our goals set or we’re busy finalizing what we are going to do. I make these lists and I write down thoughts at a furious pace and still, in the back of my mind, I’m constantly wondering what everyone is collectively thinking right now. By everyone, I’m really referring to small and medium sized business owners. The economy sucks and business is wayy down..
They have to be wondering where the business is going to come from or how they are going to get business utilizing their existing forms of advertising, sales, and marketing. The problem is, how effective do those continue to be? Were they ever? Do they know they are not working? Do they utilize metrics or do they fly by the seat of their pants to measure their effectiveness? Do they understand that there is more for less out there right now? Or is it less for less? Their heads have to be swimming. I know mine is.
Initially I would have said No, SMB’s are not aware of their advertising, sales and marketing effectiveness, but in that sense I was referring to “as it pertains to social media”, as in how effective could all these initiatves be if they were using social media, and that is completely true. SMB’s do not know much about how social media might be able to turn the tide.The power. The effectiveness. The impact.
But they do know plenty about what is and what isn’t working in regards to their sales and marketing initiatives. I love what Christian Maurer says about this:
In today’s business climate, sales organizations think that they have to increase their activities to counteract the increased reluctance of customers to buy. These increased activities will however not necessarily be rewarded by higher revenue.One might end up trying to get more juice from an already squeezed out lemon
So enter Social Media. The darling of the last few years. We go from product centric to customer centric. But how do you articulate that social media could be just what the doctor ordered? Well I could wax eloquent on that question for awhile but I’d like to refer you to Kyle Lacy’s 4 part series on social media marketing for the small business as a primer. It’s a wonderful piece and more so, it exposed me to a great blog for small business called The Marketing Spot. I highly recommend you add it to your list in 2009.
Ok so back to you Mr. and Mrs. SMB how do you go about learning whether Social Media is the cure for what is ailing your business? And how do you do it quickly because you don’t have time to ramp something like this up. WHAT DO YOU DO FIRST?
-You could try and learn about “It” on your own but you need to know what “it” is. This might help.
-But then after you figure out what it is, you then need to know who you can trust or what to look for in a social media consultant, because you don’t have time to be doing this, right?
-Once you figured out what to look for, then you need to decide “who to look for”
-So now that you have “that” person or agency selected, now you have to have a strategy and they have to share that with you, so that you know exactly what they are trying to do for you and your business.
–A blueprint of how that person works is a good thing to have, it lets you know exactly how they work and it is a key component that we talk about all the time and that’s transparency in social media. Amber Naslund does a great job of discussing her “blueprint” in this post.
-Now that we have the strategy and the blueprint, it’s time to implement. Don’t worry though, your accomplished social media strategist knows just what to do.
OK, so you know what it is, you know what to look for, you know who they are, you know what they’ll do and you know how they’ll do it. But the last thing we have to do is we still have to measure what they’ve done.
-We talk all the time about how to measure social media but here’s a simple framework for measuring it’s effectiveness.
With that in mind, I end with this; As long as you know upfront what you are trying to accomplish and you adhere somewhat to these steps above, you may just have figured out how to incorporate social media into your SMB marketing plan! But don’t stop there and don’t rely solely on your social media expert/strategist. Take the time to learn as much as you can as you go, so that you can understand the sea change that is happening within the worlds of PR, marketing, advertising and communication.
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As we close out 2008 I wanted to mail in at least one blog post between now and tomorrow night so I decided to resort to a wordle. A wordle is essentially a tag cloud of your site. I like to see from time to time what it pulls out as the thematic elements of what I’m writing about. So here it is. Pretty accurate I’d say.
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