Social Media Marketing – what marketers will do vs. what they should do
Many marketers view social media marketing as (merely) a way to do marketing using social media tools. Consequently most social media marketing programs in the near future will be just that – marketing programs. They will have little in common with the passionate user communities and consumer movements that truly visionary companies will be able to leverage to transform their entire customer-facing processes – from marketing to customer service and new product innovation.
Those that get beyond this social media myopia and realize that the power of social media marketing comes from putting the social in marketing will achieve results that far surpass those of their colleagues.
So let’s take a look at what social media marketing activity we are likely to encounter in the near future and how these initiatives might evolve in the future. (Of course, you do not have to wait for the future – you can go there directly, right now.)
| What social media marketing activity are we likely to encounter in the short term? |
What social media marketing activity should we see in the future? |
| Social media “listening” campaigns to track the chatter and to identify key influencers | Social media “sensing” and “engaging” campaigns to go beyond listening, and analyzing what is being said, to understanding what is being meant and making that information actionable, both internally and externally. |
| YouTube/FaceBook-based incentivized marketing contests around specific brands or products | Sponsored YouTube channels or FaceBook groups and pages centered around fan clubs, causes and shared passions |
| Corporate blogs that are A) not distinguished from the rest of the corporate web site and B) controlled by the messaging/branding police | Editorially independent thought leadership blogs on the industry in which the company operates, a topic about which its customers care passionately or around advocacy related to the company’s markets |
| Company-centric or product-centric virtual communities | Virtual communities centered around the users and their shared passions or causes |
| Company–specific industry-based virtual communities (e.g., small business community) |
Industry focused communities which are sponsored by multiple vendors |
| Product innovation or market insight focused communities that are nothing more than sophisticated online suggestion boxes | Product innovation and market insight-focused communities that leverage the social, i.e. to enable true co-innovation with customers, prospects and detractors |
| Social media-based customer service initiatives that are nothing more than online Q&A systems or bulletin boards | Social media-based customer service initiatives that truly leverage the reciprocity reflex that makes us humans hypersocial – i.e., the desire to help and be helped |
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January 27th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Interesting concept, Francois. I’m really interested in what it takes from a cultural standpoint to be successful in social media. So few large brands are active in social media – 15% according to a recent comment from an OMMA-Social participant (http://twitter.com/julia_briggs/statuses/1150412905) – that I wonder what it’s going to take to bring the majority into the fold?
Rachel Happe wrote an interesting post the other day about building a social culture (http://www.thesocialorganization.com/2009/01/the-social-leader.html). Her focus on leadership (and investors) is interesting… How long will it take for leaders and investors to make the switch from a command & control mindset to one valuing collaboration & relationships?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
Jim | @jstorerj
January 27th, 2009 at 11:23 am
These are wonderful points. The essence of social media and marketing is the user. The shift in the marketing model is being fought by many but I think it is an inevitability that marketing will turn more into an ongoing conversation and we will all be the better for it.
January 27th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Very interesting article! I think we’ve seen some examples of the right column in some companies – for example the Proctor and Gamble innovation site, virtual communities around cancer sufferers that cancer clinics help run to get insight into their needs of their clients – but I agree, we’ll see far more of the left column in the future than the right.
At the end of the day, a lot of companies I’ve talked to know they need to do something with this ’social media thing’, they just don’t know what right now. I think we’ll see them opting for the fast track items in the left column and getting it wrong, unless they spend some real time understanding what social media really means to the people that use it.