Failure Point 1: How do you get your culture involved?
Jeremiah says “this is one of biggest issues that enterprise face in terms of embracing social media”. Charlene..”Culture change requires big guns”. Focus on customer satisfaction and existing corporate goals and use social channels to support it. Models of social media embrace at organizations: “The Tire” - outside in, “The Tower” - PR or Comms drive, and “The Hub & Spoke”.
Failure Point 2: How do you make campaigns work?
Failure here is in the fact that we treat it or call it a campaign in the 1st place. This is an ongoing relationship with customers not just a campaign. Long term businesses needs to change - transformation issue again. The bottom line is that customers in the social graph want relationships and value added interaction. If a community is built, interactive, and value-added you can have a campaign but it can’t be turn on or off. Marketing needs to evolve to better include customer experience and on going community management.
Failure Point 3:How do I measure success?
Many marketers continue to use wrong metrics for success. Measure where you are, were you’ve been, where you are going. Like that. Why measure and what are you trying to accomplish, say Charlene. You need also look to the ways that message your existing channel to some extent. Pete measurement in marketing is huge fail irrespective of social media marketing. Marketing needs to have better P&L and measurements. Interesting show hands about number folks that really aren’t measuring it. Amazing. They will fail and lose funding.
Failure Point 4: Does any of this matter?
Motrin example used - many in audience were unaware of the the example. Surprising…and that failure will happen. Realize that and learn from it. It does and will increasingly grow. We are only getting started but many are still unaware of the channel, the content, and its impact. Pete mentioned that we need to remember the early days of e-commerce and where we are now.
Great job and questions from the audience. And Visible Technologies got a nice shout out that we help companies with listening and engagement.
Recently sat down with Sean O’Driscoll from Ant’s Eye View to hear his thoughts on social media and community. Sean has a great blog called Community Group Therapy where he writes often about his past experiences at Microsoft and some of the exciting work he is doing with leading brands who are deploying or activating their own communities or passion based affinity groups. Look for another video about Sean’s partner in crime at Ant’s Eye View, Jake McKee, in coming week. Thanks for stopping by Sean.
I’m continually amazed at how some of the biggest and smartest brands in the world have trouble with the decision-making process over choosing a social media measurement partner. They not only struggle with the process, they often base their decisions on what I would say is an incomplete criteria.
Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised since this is still an emerging industry and area of growing importance to companies. Perhaps the real blame goes to some of us in the business for not doing enough to educate the market about the value and differences of our offerings and the right ways to evaluate the different products and services available.
While attending one of the thought provocative WOMMA dinners the other night in Las Vegas hosted by industry expert Nathan Gilliatt, it struck me that many brands are making decisions on social media companies the same way many consumers make a decision when buying a new car – based on how its looks or exterior design, and hardly ever on what’s really important, namely what’s under the hood.
With that in mind, here’s my car analogy tip sheet to help interested brands in making more informed decisions in the future:
The Dealership: Would your purchase an expensive item like a new car without knowing anything about the manufacturer or the reputation of the local dealer? The biographies of everyone in our industry are readily available on the Web. Start your checklist by looking for people with strong backgrounds in social media research and analytics.
The Dashboard: Don’t be blinded by the fancy interactive dashboards and Flash charts. It’s much more important to understand the data methodologies behind those dashboards that create those results. Without a solid understanding of how the company collects and calculates its data, the dazzling digital displays won’t hold much value for your organization.
The Horsepower: When considering software providers, it’s particularly critical to research the so-called “horsepower” or engine fueling the application. Is it going to deliver your brand what you want to know now and down the road? Will it still be able to move your social media initiatives forward over the next five years or become as obsolete as the Edsel?
The Onboard Computer: The intelligence behind the platform and the people should also be on your checklist. Is the data making you smarter about your business and does it fit into the way your company analyzes other market research and analytics? When you want to go deep and do even more with the information, does the vendor have the talent and team to go beyond just what the technology can provide you?
The Service and Warranty: When things go wrong with a car everyone wants outstanding service and warranty protection. It’s no different in this industry, especially given its emerging nature. There will always be the need for additional support at all hours of the day and night and help when a breaking crisis or emergency strikes your brand. It’s critical to have a partner that will help you in those situations and always be ready to jump in the trenches with you.
With these handy tips, any company can make a better informed decision about selecting a social media partner. I’m also available to help develop your RFP.
Notable analyst’s, Brian Haven and Suresh Vittal, from Forrester Research have just published an outstanding and well-thought out paper about Measuring Engagement. The overall theme of the paper declares that “the metrics marketers use today fail to capture the supercharged social behaviors and intimate relationships people have with brands”. This is very active discussion topic with many of our customers and one of our TruCast platform’s key differentiators - in that enables the measurement of engagement that brands/marketers are having with their customers in the social media space.
Building on the framework that Brian initially developed around the four I’s of engagement: involvement, interaction, intimacy, and influence the authors further detail how to measure engagement and prioritize metrics that are appropriate to customer purchasing processes. Some key highlights/takeaways include:
- Why marketers are failing to take action
- Utilizing an engagement framework for the new social era
- How engagement measurement strategy reinvigorates consumer insight
- Why marketers should prioritize the acquisition of engagement metrics
In sum, a framework and tactical steps are well laid out for marketers in this paper to support why engagement measurement will transform the marketing landscape and require new marketing skills, partners who get it, and convergent marketing technologies.
Toby Bell, a leading analyst at Gartner Research, has just published a great new paper entitled “Policies and Procedures to Manage Enterprise Internet Reputation“. The Gartner team refers to the space EIRM or Enterprise Internet Reputation Management, which entails both search as well as social sites that can have an impact on corporations and brands. Although, that term is unique to Gartner others in the space like Forrester, Aberdeen, and IDC have dedicated analyst’s leading practices in this area as well. Toby lays out some ground rules and steps that organizations should be actively putting in place to understand and interact with search and social media conversations that consumers are having. I strong encourage brands to take a look at his findings, recommendations, and steps to enlightenment.
Some of the key findings:
- “Social media is an unfamiliar territory for enterprises, with very different rules for engagement”
- “…Social media blurs the demarcations between public and private information, increasing the likelihood that consumers will unintentionally or negligently say publicly what they meant to say privately”
- “Time scales on the internet are more compressed and the implications of a negative event can be far-reaching”
Net-net is that organizations need to understand this medium and have a plan for understanding, interacting, and engaging with consumers that are already talking about them.
I’m continually amazed at how some of the biggest and smartest brands in the world have trouble with the decision-making process over choosing a social media measurement partner. They not only struggle with the process, they often base their decisions on what I would say is an incomplete criteria.
Notable analyst’s, 
