Social Media for Marketers

Aircel's "Save Our Tigers" Initiative

2010-02-21T01:40:50Z

If your national symbol was seriously endangered, you'd take an interest in protecting it, right? That's exactly what Aircel is counting on with its "Save Our Tigers" social media based initiative, detailed at the CII Brand Summit 2010 in Bangalore. (Twitter #BrandSummit2010)

The Bengal Tiger, the mascot for the nation of India, is endangered. With less than 1,411 (some say much less) tigers remaining, Aircel has joined with WWF India in the fight to save it. Disclosure: It's a bit of a personal fight for me, too, after my son (age 8) saw two wild tigers in India in late 2009. An animal lover, he cried when he read in the paper a week later that these same tigers were heading for extinction. For me, seeing the tiger make a comeback means my son's children may also see these incredible animals one day.

Note that I called Aircel's effort an initiative, and not a campaign. Aircel CMO Rahul Saighal described the 'Save the Tiger' effort at the Brand Summit, noting that Aircel has made a three year commitment after having spent months working with wildlife experts purely to understand how best to support this cause. This sort of long-term commitment is characteristic of savvy, effective social media thinking. Social means "relationship" and relationship means "commitment."

This is very different than an ad campaign, even an ad campaign that featured tigers or contributed X% of receipts duing some defined period toward saving them. Instead, this campaign is multi-staged, with the initial effort aimed at raising awareness (good), connecting people (better) and then getting them involved (best) using social media publishing tools (like blogs...) to send a clear message to India's governing and wildlife bodies that this issue matters. Without the support of government--driven by public pressure--India's Bengal Tigers stand a fighting chance.

The Aircel effort is timely: An enhanced law is set for ratification that significantly increases the penalties for poaching. Currently, it's actually economically profitable to kill a tiger, pay the fine, and sell the parts. See the problem? Hence the call for public pressure to fix it.

In the US I recall a similar effort, beginning in the 1950s. (Yes, I'm that old.) The American icon--the Bald Eagle--was also endangered, nearly wiped out by loss of habitat, careless hunting, and DDT. Over a period years, driven by public pressure (the Bald Eagle appears on many US coins, like the image of the tiger), DDT was banned. Habitat was restored. Hunters were informed. The result? In 2007 the Bald Eagle, having made a solid comeback, was removed from the endangered species list.

Together, people can make a difference. Social media--because of its massive scale--can make it happen for the Bengal Tiger faster than it happened for the Bald Eagle. Aircel's initiative, powered by a strong public response, will not only help ensure swift enactment but also provide judges with added incentive to actually hand out stiff sentences under the new act.

Want to see social media in action? Take a look at Save Our Tigers. If you live in India, call, write or visit your elected representative and demand enforcement. If you're a blogger, write about this. If you love animals--and especially if the Tiger is your national mascot--then regardless of where you live share this message with others. A few minutes now will bring an incredible expression of awe when your grandchild sees a Bengal tiger for the first time, in the wild rather than a history museum.

Social Media moves into Operations

2010-01-05T03:53:46Z

2010 is here, and with it comes the continued advance of technology into business. That the web has reshaped the way we do business--or view and patronize businesses as consumers--is a more or less foregone conclusion. Sure, in mass markets in developing countries markets are still pretty basic: price and availability rule.

At the same same time, for emerging "upmarket" consumers the world over there is a commonality that is also emerging, powered in a large part by connectivity. People no longer have to travel to gain exposure to "foreign" culture: it arrives as a digital stream via the nearest broadband connection to the Internet. Attempts at censorship aside, information and its accessibility has become the great democratizer, even if only in the immediate spread of pop culture. Music, food, fashion, sports...are all merging based on globally shared tastes, a reality that has only recently hit markets in full force.

Beyond the media-style networks, though, there is a deeper connection that is starting to form: Applications like "The Good Guide" bring business policies--hiring practices, investment policy and carbon footprint--right up next to price and availability. A typical US department store stocks carries a dozen competing models of nearly any product it sells: price plays a role in the decision, but increasingly so does environmental impact.

And so the "market place" fight is moving to Operations. Check out Jeremiah Owyang's "Social CRM" listing and the Dachis Groups' "Social Software Wiki." Here you'll find the tools you need to evolve your go-to-market programs and refit your business to tap the continued push of technology.

2010. Indeed.

Getting International Right

2009-12-24T03:40:15Z

Doing business globally has always been tricky. Conflicting cultural norms, accidental faux pas, and outright mistakes can quickly escalate when local sensibilities are offended.

Spending time in India, I've become much more aware of the my own "assumptions" regarding what's "normal" versus what might be considered offensive. You can imagine my reaction when I saw the Häagen-Dazs campaign from TBWA, launched in India. From a company whose product I love came an execution (almost literally) that rivaled Mortin's "Baby Wearing" idea in its misunderstanding of others (namely, the people who actually buy ice cream in India or "wear" their babies...) very predictable reaction.

Check it out, and see what you think.

The International Campaign

White-Label Platforms: The New Application Layer

2009-11-30T04:35:30Z

I'm currently working with Lithium, Jive, and LOOPPA community platforms to create what amounts to an "application layer" for a larger social ecosystem. It's an intersting approach to managing the simultaneous requirements of rapid scaling, robust activity streams, and multi-constituent, overlapping communities.

In 2007 I was working with the Pluck platform on a project with Meredith (implemented across 20-odd magazine properties) when this idea first popped. Rather than building into a proprietary platform, you can avoid the long dev-cycle of custom while rapidly building onto (in other words, extending) a white-label social toolset.

]]> The architectural problem really boils down to a few basic considerations: A data layer integrated with a single-sign-on that leads to the core white-label platform, sitting underneath a set of content partners and purpose-built applications.

The white label functionality provides the "quick set glue" that holds it all together: Personas and profiles, activity streams, basic CRM, and the acceptance/conveyance of the authentication credentials leading to the end-user apps. It's a pretty slick model for getting the most out of the white-label tools while avoiding the inadvertent (on your part) "lock-in" that can happen when the applications are built inside the white-label platform.

My Road to Social Business Strategy

2009-09-28T14:14:15Z

I was talking with Ted Shelton and others over Twitter a week or so ago about the evolution of concepts and disciplines as The Social Web/ Web 2.0 continues to push us all forward. I mentioned some early talks, and Ted asked me to send my slides and whitepapers from 2004, 2005. Ted co-founded The Conversation Group to explore social technologies and the impact they have on business. Ted just published his group's Open Management whitepaper. Check it out.

As I thought about Ted's request, it occurred that there is a story here and that a lot of others have a story too. At it's core we're all part of what Tim Berners-Lee called "a sea of shared knowledge, with (all of us) working together to come to better understandings." (1995, at MIT celebrating the 50th anniversary of Vannevar Bush's "As We May Think.")

So here my road (it starts in product management and marketing). I'd love to hear about yours, and I'll bet Ted would too.

]]> My background is research (physics, oilfield, NASA/Voyager I,II) and business management (Progressive Insurance). I got into advertising via technology consulting: I co-founded Digital Voodoo in 1994 with my wife. About ten years later, working at Austin-based GSD&M, I becoming interested in three things, each of which I'd talked about in successive panels at ad:tech in 2003 and 2004. No wonder then that I asked Susan Bratton to write the foreward for my book.

Below are the relevant slides for the panels: The decks themselves are the property of ad:tech.

The ad:tech panels involved non-interruptive advertising (San Francisco, 2003), advertainment and disclosure of product placement (New York, 2003, I was moderator), the idea of branding as inclusive of the actual product experience (New York, 2004) and the impact of CGM and Social Networks on the Purchase Funnel (New York, 2005). The purchase funnel work followed a conversation with Powered CEO Dave Ellett and led to a whitepaper (see link below) that pulled these concepts together in 2005.

The first two projects grew out of separate efforts: One was an advergaming initiative that was running simultaneously with work we were doing internally in the strategic marketing group at GSD&M. Message overload and saturation were a focus area, as TiVo and similar were emerging. The other was product placement and the outcry from consumers' advocates around undisclosed payments. Added to this were the ideas of "proactive branding" and the integration of the brand experience into the overall product plan: This was the subject of my panel at ad:tech New York in 2004. So here were three fundamental concepts--non-interruptive advertising, the brand experience as the basis for social campaigns, and disclosure all bubbling up at the same time as Web 2.0 technologies were coming on. WIth important regard to disclosure, it was at this time that a group of us were forming WOMMA, led by Andy Sernovitz (now leading the Social Media Business Council with Bob Pearson) to head off the whole disclosure issue, specifically by taking a stance as an industry group that required disclosure.

Bouncing inside my Product Manager/ R&D brain (with who knows what other space debris!) it all came together for me in a whitepaper called "The Art of Consideration," the title for which came shortly after reading Guy's "The Art of the Start." Good ideas can come from anywhere, as we used to say at GSD&M. The whitepaper held that the product experience, combined with the emergence of "2.0" social networks and publishing applications, was now (or would soon be) the centerpoint of marketing. It coincided with my leaving GSD&M that same month.

I started writing for ClickZ almost immediately: I met Editor in Chief Rebecca Lieb after being introduced by Susan and Pete (Blackshaw) at ad:tech New York in 2005. Beginning in eMarketing, I started pushing my column toward social media and the connection between Operations and Marketing. At the same time, I had launched HearThis.com and was developing a podcast series for WOMMA: I interviewed Fred Reichheld, author of "The Ultimate Question" (it had just come out) and another big block snapped into place: Metrics. Remember, I was a long-time Product Manager. At Progressive to say the focus is on quantitative marketing is putting it lightly. In 2006 I wrote "The Operations/Marketing Connection, " followed by a column on the importance of the CMO's role in taking what is learned on the social web to the COO and building it into the products and services. This remains a great role for forward-thinking CMOs.

More work with Powered--a firm I always being around, a platform deployment for Pluck, and time spent in 2007 and 2008 understanding the Bazaarvoice, Jive and Lithium platforms (DIsclosure: I am a Lithium Referral Partner) and continued strategy work bring my story to where I am now: New Delhi, working with Gaurav Mishra on the launch of 20:20 Social, a consulting practice focused on social business strategy. About two weeks ago we published our first whitepaper on the topic, which I wrote about in my column that led to my conversation with Ted.

There you go, full circle. What road brought you here?

An Approach to Social Business Strategy

2009-09-12T14:40:14Z

Working with Gaurav Mishra, at 20:20Social in New Delhi we've developed and validated a logical, step-by-step approach to the application of social technologies in business.

Building on core business concepts--alignment between marketing and operations, creating experiences that delight customers, and adopting a collaborative culture in business are the keys to predictably capitalizing on the Social Web and the empowerment it has delivered to your customers.

Check it out here.

Twitter as a Social Channel

2009-09-02T04:00:22Z

This is a post I've been meaning to write for awhile -- a tweet this morning prompted me to action.

One of the cliches of social media is that most of it (the content) is meaningless--"Having a coffee" or "getting haircut" or a video of a cat. I've often found myself repeating these cliches (I talk this in my book) and then at the same time have noticed I do the same thing. Hmmmm.. The book is about marketing, and written from the perspective of using social media in your marketing program. But the Social Web is bigger than that -- it's for "people" and sometime marketers are "just people" too.

As background, I have a home in Austin, TX but also live in New Delhi, where I now spend most of my time. As I've been talking with other people about this experience, and thinking back on extended stays in Spain in the early-mid nineties, it has become apparent that Twitter, in particular, has become something of a social anchor for me.

How so? Consider that my family is in Texas, and I am currently in India. As well, I travel frequently to the Bay area, to Boston, and other cities. Three weeks ago, for example, I returned home from Delhi, two days later was in San Jose for SES and visiting friends, the following week spent a day with Community Health Systems in Nashville, and am now am back in Delhi.

If my experience in each of these cities were truly separated--if the only forms of communication between people depended on physical presence or postal mail, for example, this type of travel would be potentially unsettling, in a social sense. Yet, it doesn't feel that way. largely because of Twitter.

No matter where I am, I flip open my G1, and a big part of my social community is right there. This is not to say "as a replacement of my physical community, or "3D friends" as Beth Harte calls them. Rather, it's an augmentation, and one that becomes important as we become increasinlgly mobile. Twitter gives a me a place to unwind socially, to talk with people I've gotten to know about ordinary things (other than work). This in turn brings an apparent cohesiveness to my social community, one that is quite stabilizing for me.

It surprised how important and valuable this had become. I'd love to hear about your experience: How are you using Twitter?

India's New (Business) Leadership

2009-06-30T20:24:04Z

I've just concluded an amazing business trip to New Dehli, Bangalore, and Mumbai. Though my expectations for the trip were high--India is an exciting place to do business--I was completely unprepared for the reception I received.

Beginning with New Dehli, working with india's 2020 Media we presented a series of 8-hour workshops on social media. In New Dehli there were in excess of 100 participants, filling the ballroom of the Hyatt. In Bangalore and Mumbai, the overflow audience actually resulted in turning away those desiring to purchase tickets once the venues had sold out. Filling a venue is always the goal: seeing actual demand beyond that capacity really drove home how energized the India market is in terms of its readiness and interest in social media based marketing.

In working with participants across a range of industries--the hands-on nature of the workshops provided people with the opportunity to join me on the stage and present various components of the plans they were building--I was struck by this new leadership class. What I felt I was observing was quite profound: You could literally see the next class of business leaders and professionals sensing the importance of the Social Web--the place where conversations that impact their businesses will occur--and committing themselves to doing something constructive now rather than waiting. This is a contrast to the US, where many businesses and agencies are still hesitating in their recognition of consumers' impact via social media.

The net result is likely to be a rapid movement into social media across businesses in India, to the benefit of those business. Given the process acceleration that often accompanies technology induced advancement this will occur faster than it has in other locations. For example, as the 3G spectrum auctions begin this fall, the outcome is likely to be a very rapid expansion of social networking and related content services that proliferate on the mobile platform, introducing a wider audience to social media more quickly than would happen if say, broadband to the home or widespread purchase of laptop-based computing platforms were required.

In summary, I am excited about what I experienced and look forward to continuing to work with the people I met on this trip. It was an incredible awareness opportunity for me, and I am appreciative of the efforts of everyone who attended, and to the people of 2020 Media who worked so hard to make these sessions successful.

Next Stop: Dehli

2009-06-19T21:46:00Z

I am heading to India--sitting in Newark in the Continental President's Club right now--to lead a series of workshops on the business use of social media. This has been arranged by 2020Media, a leading PR firm in India and grew out of the presentation I did around my book at SXSW in March. It is really exciting to be developing relationships in an emerging market, and one that is surely important on the world stage.

What's happening now? I've been following Kingfisher Airlines on Twitter (@FlyKingfisher) and installed Aircel's "voice messaging" application in Facebook. The Tata Nano is getting a lot of social press as well--@calebkramer posted "Tata Nano = the netbook of cars." I am looking forward to what I know I will learn over the next week.

How Much Effort?

2009-06-10T14:16:13Z

OK, so I just got called out by Surekha Pillai (@surekhapillai) about my bad blogging habits. She pointed out --correctly -- that as I head out to lead social media workshops my own track record on this blog is pretty poor. February. April. And now this post in June.

I could cite my schedule: 3 cites in the past three weeks, and two continents in the next two. Not good enough. The fact is, being a participant, one of the key elements of interaction on the Social Web, requires more work than consuming a TV spot. I need to be a better participant.

So, what's a reasonable posting scheduling? For most business people, it's probably more like once a week: Keep this in mind when you set up your company blog. Enlist a few people to blog so that content is updated regularly. Otherwise, two things happen:

First, even though the RSS mechanism by which updates are spread about doesn't care, your readers will: They'll lose interest if they don't here from you. Second, and as is the case with me, readers will actually take note of the fact that you aren't participatiing enough. Left unchecked (and please note that I am immediately responding to Surekha) this can turn negative. Obviously, you don't want that!

Surekha, thanks for pointing this out: The truth is that no doubt others have seen my blog and thought the same thing. It's that old saying, "For every one customer who says something, ten are thinking it.." I'll get my act together.

I am really excited about my upcoming trip to India: i am visiting Dehli, Bangalore, and Mumbai with 2020Media on the 22nd, 24th, and 26th of June respectively. You can find full details at SocialMediaWorkshop.net.

In the meantime, look for just a bit more activity here. ;-)

So you're on Facebook. Now what?

2009-04-01T05:01:00Z

As more people join Facebook, the question inevitably arises: "How do I tell the world who I am?" The issue isn't unique to Facebook either -- you could just as easily substitute MySpace, LinkedIn, Orkut or Twitter (although to a lesser extent, as you'll learn in a minute) and then take a step back and ask yourself the same question.

The bottom line is this: If joining social networks is "Step 1" then creating indexable content is "Step 2." Take Facebook as an example. It's a lot like 'Vegas: What happens on Facebook...pretty much stays on Facebook (the very new published status updates excepted.) As long as you and all of your friends and colleagues are on Facebook, and provided that you're all connected...your experiences, stories, and shared content flow freely. That's a great thing, at least as far as Facebook is concerned.

But what about you? What if you are trying to build a larger social presence for yourself, perhaps for professional visibility? More to the point, what if you want people to be able to find you via Google? Not only is most of the content on Facebook highly temporal (meaning, it's of relatively little value a year from now) it's not generally discoverable outside of Facebook. Social networks tell people who you are...but do not necessarily help them find you outside of that particular network.

The key to building a strong presence is creating a complete body of work that captures your thoughts, ideas, interests...and placing into a medium that is open and visible to search engines. Your blog is the perfect candidate. Twitter--which, as a "microblog" is similarly discoverable--helps here too. In effect, your blog posts (along with your Tweets) form the basis of your search friendly content that leads people to your social profiles, where they can learn that much more about you.

Check out Part III of "Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day" along with my column at ClickZ and see how the social channels fit together. Devise a holistic strategy for yourself, and build your own social presence. Not only is this a great way to gain proficiency in the proper techniques of social media based marketing but you'll quickly find yourself gaining visibility as well.

The Marketing and Operations Connection

2009-02-06T15:11:40Z

Fundamental to the effective use of social media in marketing is getting the product experience right. This stands in marked contrast to traditional efforts that focus on getting the message right.

Listening is often the recommended starting point when engaging the Social Web for the first time. Solid advice, too, very much like walking into a party: Before announcing who you are and what you believe, social etiquette suggests getting to know a few people first. The Social Web works likes this, and so listening to what people are saying about your brand, product, service or industry segment is fundamental to the effective use of social media as a marketer.

But what happens if you don't like what you hear? With traditional media, when a focus group or consumer complaint tells you that your message is off, you change it. On the Social Web, the message is not yours in the first place, so you cannot simply "change it." Think about the Coke and Mentos videos: Coke didn't own or create them, so Coke couldn't change them. More recently, think about the "Motrin Moms" conversations: The offending spot was pulled, but the conversation--out of the control of the brand team--remained unchanged. On the Social Web, you have to shift away from control and toward participation. So, how do you participate in a negative conversation?

In the simple cases of factual errors, you can add your voice. Disclosed and transparent, being part of the conversation goes a long way. And if the problem is deeper than that? Then what? What if your product is really not as good as you'd like to think it is?

This is where social media and the Social Web are so powerful, and so useful for business, especially in a tough economy. Coming off of the Social Web is exactly the information you need to make your product better. That, and that alone, will change the conversations that are occurring. Of course, the catch here is that this goes way beyond marketing: This is realm of operations, and it is here that the fundamental difference between the use of social media versus traditional media becomes clear: Social media is driven by Operations, not Marketing. This means that, as a marketer, you need to reach out to the COO and get her on your side before making a full-on dive into the Social Web. Unless you have control over the experience your product or service is actually delivering you are playing with fire. Campfires are great on a chilly night...unless they get of control. Take the time to build a bridge to Operations. That done, your social media based marketing programs are much more likely to produce the heat you need to ignite your market instead of burning your brand.

The New Social Contract

2009-01-17T16:06:14Z

Rich Harwood, blogger and founder of The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation tipped me to Hyundai's "Assurance" program.

The Hyundai Assurance program works like this: You buy a new Huyndai. Then, if during the next year you lose your income, Huyndai will take it back without a penalty. This kind of offer--unlike a price concession that helps move cars but does little to assure a buyer worried about meeting his or her future payment obligations--gets right to intersection of economic uncertainty and the need to sell goods and services.

The Hyundai Assurance program also takes a big step in linking Hyundai and its customers in a way that bonds them over the long term, much the way a family takes care of its own. Not surprisingly, the ripple is already growing on the Social Web.

You can watch the commercial, from Goodby Silverstein and Partners, that introduced the program on YouTube.

Tell The World Who You Are

2009-01-04T18:28:24Z

Suppose we were meeting for the first time. What would you think of me if I handed you a blank business card?

Yet, that is exactly what happens when you follow someone on Twitter and you haven't taken the time to properly complete your own Twitter profile. You've handed me a blank business card and in the process wasted an opportunity to make a favorable impression.

How do I define "properly completed profile?" Start with the basics: A current photo or avatar along with the basic pieces of data that will be displayed. For Twitter, this is your name, location, a URL that points to more information about you, and a brief, meaningful bio. I recognize that not everyone wants to divulge this much info: In this case, something like "Montana, USA" is fine.

Here's the point: I review each new follow personally, and a lot of other people do too. The value of connecting on Twitter (or any other social network) goes well beyond assembling a megaposse. It's about understanding who I am adding to my network so that I am able to tap *your unique skills* and then share with you my unique skills as they apply to your situation. I can't live up to my end of the deal if the only thing I have to go on from you is a blank profile.

In "Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day" I emphasize the importance of completing social profiles. On Linked In, they have a little bar graph that shows you how complete your profile is. When we build social applications we include this type of feature, precisely to encourage completing enough of your profile so that others who find you can learn about what makes you special.

Take a minute today and review your profiles, across your networks. You'll be amazed at how many more people "friend" or "follow" you as a result. It may well be the most important minutes you spend investing in yourself and how others see you.

Grab Your Name (Before someone else does)

2008-12-22T19:51:38Z

You've probably seen "JanetatExxon," the brand jacking of ExxonMobil's corporate identity on Twitter. The message to brands and brand marketers ought to be clear: Start monitoring the Social Web, and take a minute now to at least secure if not invest in your social presence as new networks and services open up. OK, maybe you can't be in all of them...but places like MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn...are all big and mainstream enough that you should be paying attention to these.

Which brings me to this post about a recent Facebook episode that is still unfolding. You can read the details by following the link: The short story is that a bunch (make that a big bunch) of college alumni pages on Facebook have been co-opted for potential use as forced marketing platforms. Check it out, especially if you are involved with higher ed marketing.

Again, the message is clear: Take the time now to sort out your social presence, and begin securing the many references to your brand, ideally before they are used by someone else for something you;d have never done, much less want associated with your brand as if you had.