Twitter Tools For Strategic Marketing - IMC Feb 2010

Attended Social Media Breakfast Montreal this morning. Adele McAlear gave a very informative presentation on Twitter Tools. Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Twitter Tools For Strategic Marketing - IMC Feb 2010

View more presentations from Adele McAlear.

Social Media: Revealing the Iceberg

Iceberg: More than meets the eye.

That's only the tip of the iceberg.

The saying that there is more to something than meets the eye is a cliche that besides appealing to our paranoia, is grounded in reality.

What you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) may be true of computer interface applications, but people and businesses are complex.

Their "face" or brand represents a fraction of who they are. And, like an iceberg, the remaining amount provides the ballast that keeps the company (or person) afloat and stable.

I was thinking of this analogy while researching  various business models.  I wanted to understand why some companies seem totally unaware that the 90% of their business that lies below the surface is the foundation of the company's public "face" - Think Cher's cheekbones.

When business get tough, bad managers panic. They go into micromanagement mode and start chipping away at that the bottom 90% of the iceberg believing what isn't visible is dispensable.

What do you think happens next? Let's continue the iceberg analogy.

If it were a substantial iceberg, it would begin to sink until there was enough of it submerged to regain its balance. It would probably remain standing, but the proverbial tip of the iceberg would be much smaller than it once was.  And the iceberg would certainly become much less stable, and much easier for the changing tide to displace.

If it were a small, thin iceberg that had its underwater base removed, the tip above the surface would most likely fall over. And, without a solid foundation, the iceberg would become slave to the ever-changing ebb and flow of the tide. In fact, without a foundation, a small iceberg may cease to be an iceberg altogether.

By hacking away at the bottom 90% of the company, the business destabilizes it by compromising the talent and personalities that give the company it's most valuable asset; it's trust factor.

Consumers in social media land have become very adept at seeing beyond the tip of the iceberg. They trust people, not brands.

Because social media tools exist to facilitate interaction through engagement, a company would do well to always remember to have enough ice on hand.

Marketing Beyond Your Website - Social Media Marketing

Why a Social Media Day?

Do we need another Hallmark-ufactored holliday?

Do we need to make another guilt trip to a drugstore at the last minute to buy a card as an appeasement for not calling or paying enough attention to: _____(fill in blank: Mom, Dad, Lover, turkey...)

No, we don't.

But, Social Media Day, as it happens is not a Hallmark day but a Mashable day (and we're not talking potatos here).  It sprung from the creative and entrepreneurial brain of Peter Cashmore, founder of  Mashable, one of the preminent social media resources and blogs on the internet.

Admittedly, I was a bit cynical when I first heard about this idea.  The new media community can tend to be a bit self absorbed; sometimes degenerating into one big circle jerk with early adopters and social media marketing gurus backslapping each other over clicks and followers.

However, I believe social media will change the world. The bigger picture is that it affects more than marketing and new technologies. So I'm happy to hype it even more.

Tonight there will be over 600 Mashable Meetings happening in over 93 countries in the world.  Social media affectionados will get to meet their media mates in person to:

"...acknowledge and celebrate the revolution of media becoming social. A day that honours the technological and societal advancements that have allowed us to have a dialogue, to connect and to engage not only the creators of media, but perhaps more importantly, one another." @Vadim Lavrusik (Mashable)

In a recent blog post Mike Laurie lists some of the ways that we have been changed: (paraphrased)

1. Child literacy: The National Literacy Trust observed a correlation between children’s engagement with social media and their literacy.

2. Ambient Intimacy: Lisa Reichelt, a user experience consultant in London coined the very pleasant term “ambient intimacy.” It describes the way in which social media allows you to “… keep in touch with people with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have access to, because time and space conspire to make it impossible.”

3. Knowledge Was Power: The more you understand about life, the more chance you have at success. These days, Wikipedia and Google have democratized information to the point where anyone is able to acquire the knowledge they may want.

4. The Reinvention of Politics: Social networks may be encouraging younger people to get involved in politics. You only need look at Twitter’s recent impact on the Iran elections, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and even the election of Barack Obama to see that more and more people are getting involved in politics and are feeling they can make a difference.

5. Marketing Flux: Marketing and advertising is transforming itself from an industry reliant on mass market channels to one which must embrace the power of the consumer and engage in conversations.

6. News as Cultural Currency: We’re no longer lazy consumers of passive messages. Instead we’re active participants. We now get news through the network we’ve created, and the news we pass to one another says something about us.

There are skeptics out there that think this whole social media thing is just hype and will be replaced by the next big thing.

Yes, it is hyped and if you're like me, that was a put-off.  However, as the saying goes, "don't cut off your nose to spite your face". 

The truth is that social media is changing your world whether you are listening or not.

How has it changed your life?

I'd Love to Change the World -Ten Years After

11 Must Dos For The Serious Blogger - Jay Baer

I admit, I'm a "list" guy. I work best with a guide and one of my favourite social media "guides" is Jay Baer.

I found this to be a very helpful refocussing exercise.

11 Must Dos For The Serious Blogger

View more presentations from Jay Baer.

Getting reconnected with social media

Love this project and especially am impressed with the intergenerational approach. I have always felt that social media has the ability to make real change in how we interact with each other.

In regards to people who find themselves isolated, be they older, infirmed or simply physically distant, learning the basics of Twitter, Facebook or Blogging goes a long way towards having them connect to their family, friends and the world in general.

This is a very worthwhile project that I hope will be replicated everywhere.

Parkway Seniors 'Get Connected'

Living the "4 E's" of social media

Summertime and the living is E-asy.

A Conceptual Map of the Social Web by Ryan Turner

My passion for social media stems from what it can offer not from what it can sell.

I have a post-it note above my monitor with the four words:
ENGAGE - EMPOWER - ENTERTAIN - EDUCATE

Engage - Listen and recognize contributions
Empower - Create a space to encourage active role
Entertain - Have some fun, make someone smile
Educate - Enrich, bring something new to the table

This is my social media mantra. These words represent not only what I want to achieve in each blog that I write or tweet that I send but in each personal or professional interaction that I have.

As someone who is not a marketing professional, I use my many years of experience in managing arts organizations and restaurants to provide the context from which to execute a social marketing campaign.
And while I believe you don't have to be a marketing expert to practice social marketing, there are some basics that you have to understand.

Take the four "P's" for example: Product / Price / Place / Promotion; they've been around since the "Mad Men" were slapping secretary's asses and still form the bedrock of modern marketing practice.


Trade you 4 "P's" for some "E".*

From an outsider's perspective, it seems that some Marketing and PR firms are having trouble navigating this new landscape. You still see lots of  broadcasting out there. On the other hand, there are some Marketing industry visionaries out there leading the way; interpreting for us the very complex language of the media 2.0.

Social media is still very new, so I'll keep my mantra handy and hope that by using it as a guide, I'll find my way out of the maze.
  

*disclaimer: Any double entendres are purely coincidental and do not represent the habits or preferences of the blogger.

Here is a video of Jeffrey W. Hayzlett, past CMO for Eastman Kodak on his own four "E's":

Still think you can't measure Social Media?

Great update of video showing what employing social media can do for marketing.

 

 

Social Media ROI: Socialnomics