Top 5 reasons online community building trumps old-skool-marketing

I don’t think I could ever go back to old-skool-marketing (OSM).  No dice.  So why would I say this?  Well, here are five reasons I can think of:

1) Relationships - Community building means connecting with people, be they customers, prospects, fans, advocates, partners, influencers, you name it.  Unlike OSM you don’t have a wall between you and the people you want to reach and you don’t lob messages over the wall and hope you hit a target.  You look people in the eye (or virtual eye) and you connect in a real way.  You create real friendships.

2) Visible Momentum - With the ability to monitor and measure social media you can literally see the momentum of your efforts building, with who and exactly why.  And here is the kicker (and I love this part) so does the community.  That’s right if you have momentum the community also can see it and it often helps them determine who they might like to work with.  Of course this can go the opposite way if you don’t have something remarkable to offer a community.  I saw an interesting saying once “advertising is the tax companies pay for not having a remarkable product.”  And the other cool part about this is that a community keeps itself in check on momentum, meaning if the momentum is manufactured and not based on reality then the community figures that out.

3) Heartbeat (constant feedback) - With social media you can actually listen to the heartbeat of a community.  You can hear what ticks, whether what you offer actually causes them to skip a beat and  whether there are issues or product blockages to investigate and better understand (sorry I got carried away on the heart analogies ;)   Frankly, I’m addicted to listening to this heartbeat.  When I went on vacation during March Break I turned listening off and left it off for the few days after I returned.  I felt completely out of touch, flying blind, out of sync.  I don’t think I could ever go back to communicating with a community (aka - old skool language translation - “target market”) without the ability to hear the rhythm.

4)  Ambient Connections - I love how the use of so many social networking tools (my favorites being Twitter, Linkedin, various Ning Networks and Facebook, in that order) allow me say hello to people I should get to know in my community.  Twitter is the best for this because a simple “follow” is not a big commitment. What it does is it allows people to quickly check out who you are, what you do and whether they’d be interested in learning more in an ambient way (as opposed to full-on formal introductions, meetings etc…)  A seed is simply planted.  Whether or not it grows depends on need, desire, common interests etc…

5) Maps and Pathways - Social networks have the ability to be mapped helping you can figure out who knows who.  With OSM, people are lumped together into segments based on demographics, pyschographics etc…  They are grouped based on characteristics.  Unfortunately this type of thinking ignores the amazing power of social systems.  Messages and ideas travel in pathways naturally based on who people know and what interests they share.  And while that might mean two people who get classified in the same “segment” may talk to each other what of the conversations that happen regardless of segments.  With social media you can see these pathways and you can map out how an idea may travel.  And even more amazing is that you can track and measure the message to see if your assumptions were right.

So those are my top 5 reasons I love online community building over old-skool-marketing.  What are yours?

June 4th, 2009 - Posted in social media | | 6 Comments

Marketers are farmers. Increasing yield is not just buying more land & spreading more seeds.

I’ve often wondered why marketing the social media way just feels so natural.  Maybe its rooted (sorry, no pun intended) in my growing up on a farm in New Brunswick.  Maybe it’s the garden I used to grow each year as a kid for a vegetable competition in the county fair in the Fall.  Or maybe it was the 10000 onions I grew, weeded, watered, harvested and sold as a 13 year old to make enough money to buy my C-64 (ah this is taking me back.)  Whatever it was, as a marketer I see myself as a farmer.

(photo credit - Cindy’s World - via flickr)

If you’ve ever planted and tended to a garden or crops you know that it’s a heck of a lot more than just planting the seeds in the spring and harvesting in the fall.  Yes, that’s the general idea but there is a lot more to it going on in between those two points.

Next week I’m presenting on a panel at eMetrics in Toronto.  The topic is social media and measuring from awareness to action (seeds to harvest). This analogy popped into my head when considering the approaches to many traditional marketing campaigns.  In general, increasing yield (actions) for traditional marketing can mean throwing more money at a campaign through more media buys (buying more land) and spreading the message wider (planting more seeds.)  More often than not it does result in improved results (increased harvests) but at what cost?  Is this really the most efficient way to grow business (crops)?  Is this approach really going to fly especially in today’s economic climate?

When approaching marketing from a social media centric view I see marketers considering of other ways to increase yield.  With a farmer, he/she would listen to a number of metrics and react accordingly before planting, during the growing season and at harvest time.

• Is the soil in need of nutrients?
• Which plot of land has the best soil mix for the seeds to flourish?
• Should I rotate the crops so as not to overtax a plot of land with the same crop year after year?
• Is the season predicted to be wet or dry and how will that effect what I plant?
• What crop can give me the best ROI with the land I have and the time I have to give it?
• Are there weeds growing that are smothering the plants enough that I need to remove them?
• Are the plants being attacked by pests and should I spray?
• Is there an early frost predicted and should I harvest now or risk the plants being killed if I don’t?

To me the best farmers know how to listen to the signs before, during and after the growing season.  They are always in tune with Mother Nature (community) and make an effort care and feed for each and every plant (relationships).

Social media-grounded marketers do the same thing.  They listen to their community to assess needs and match that to what they have regarding resources to offer.  They plant seeds at the appropriate time and listen for signs as to how they are doing.  They provide care and feeding where appropriate and reacte to forces outside their control.  And they listen for the points of need when potential rewards are good for both the community and for their business, creating a win-win season.

And because they are “out in the field” in social media they have many metrics at hand to help them ascertain what to do next.  I’ve included some of these metrics in the draft of the presentation found here on Slideshare. Using this analogy, what are some of the metrics you would recommend?

March 27th, 2009 - Posted in social media | | 8 Comments

Hats - a social media metric

Just back from SXSW and had a great time.  Met up with lots of friends and put real faces to the faces I already knew on Twitter and such.  During at least one of the discussions there the topic of social media metrics came up.  It’s a hot topic, especially with the folks with a traditional media background.  Many are used to standardized measures like click-throughs, eyeballs, GRPs and it’s occasionally said that social media doesn’t have metrics because it doesn’t have any standardized ones.  For me that’s completely the wrong conclusion to draw.  Social media has lots of different ways to measure success - and frankly that’s big advantage in my books.  It really depends on what you are doing in order to determine the measurement technique.

Take for instance my favorite event of SXSW this year - All hat, no cattle - organized by @richardatdell, the Dell gang, and @armano.  Yes, you could look at the ton of #allhat buzz on Twitter.  You could look at the real world attendance numbers and the smiles on the faces of those attending - and the compliments after.  But you could also look at the number of people now wearing hats with their avatars on Twitter (@shashib, @conniereece, @catchuplady, @jennfowler, @mackcollier, @geoffliving, @jasonfalls plus myself included - @davidalston. NOTE: I also see that @markdrosos has a hat now too.)

Update #1: Adding more that I missed…

Update #2: More folks I missed (you can see this success metric gets better and better)

I have to thank Geoff Livingston for pointing this out this obvious metric to me.

And it’s true.  Take a look at the hat’s being worn by a number of the folks who attended the event.  Richard Binhammer and David Armano were the original hat guys but the number has grown - and the stories behind why each one is wearing a hat as well.  That’s a pretty cool metric for success IMHO.

Did I miss anyone?

March 20th, 2009 - Posted in social media | | 6 Comments

Slumdog Millionaire is a wonderful movie - but it could be a movement

I saw Slumdog Millionaire last night at the theatre and I loved it.  Not many movies move me but it did and I couldn’t wait to tweet praises for it.  And I did.

I had left the theatre with a new appreciation for the conditions people are living in in India - appalling conditions - in the slums of Mumbai.  I felt like I had taken part in an experience that, maybe if enough people saw it, something could change in the world. I wanted everyone to go see it.

Then I got a tweet from Mathew Ingram and it changed my whole mood. 

The BBC story told of how some of the child actors were paid small amounts of money and were still living in the slums that the movie was shot in.  Say what?  The movie had brought in over $140 million and while some funds had been set up in a trust for the kids when they turned 18, they were probably going to be stuck in extreme poverty until that point. 

Yes, film producers make movies to make money. Thankfully for them they did an amazing job and thus people are flocking to see it at the theatres.  But they know they’ve create a powerful message that’s being carried by the film.  This message is touching audiences in a way that makes them want change.  It’s a similar feeling that fueled the Obama campaign.  That campaign became a movement and we all know how this wonderful story ended. 

Slumdog Millionaire has opened up a new story line and, in reality, that story doesn’t have a great ending.  This movie has a chance to become a moment.  Wouldn’t more people see a movie that promises 10% to a fund that promises to help change the situation in this slum to start with, others after.   And that doesn’t mean just throwing money at the situation but finding resources to work with the inhabitants, to teach, to provide opportunities, to find ways to break the cycle they are stuck in. 

So the question is, with the odds in Slumdog’s favor for an Oscar win, what do you think we’d all want to hear from the director during his acceptance speech?  He can inspire a movement, but will he?

February 21st, 2009 - Posted in viral, twitter, social media | | 3 Comments

People define Brand “Personality”

(photo taken at MarketingProf’s Digital Mixer - and yes, Amber will kill me for using this pic)

There is a term that I’ve been throwing around a lot lately - “becoming an unmasked brand”.   Basically, I’m referring to the process of putting real faces to the brands we know and love - the people that make up that real brand.  Like wearing a mask, for years brands have hidden behind an image that they’ve molded, painting on the expressions that are frozen for long periods of time, unable to react to the shifts in community happening on a daily basis.

It’s a known fact that people are attracted to faces of other people - we’re programmed that way.  It’s also well known that, when given a choice, people will generally work with people they like over people they don’t or don’t know as well.  Social media has also added something to these universal equations - the ability to crowd-source the process for uncovering the “real” in any situation.  Add this all up and you have a marketplace thirsting for their favorite brands to become “unmasked”.

So what are some of my favorite unmasked brands and more importantly who are the amazing people behind each of these “brand personalities”?

New Marketing Labs - passionate about social media, caring, responsive, helpful, witty, great sense of humor, leadership - Chris Brogan, Justin Levy & team

Wine Library TV - energy, passion, focus, you get what you see, would go out of its way to help someone, ardent Jets fan - Gary Vaynerchuk

Dell - leadership, great listener, community player, customer focused, accessible, team player, loves a great cowboy hat - Richard Binhammer, Lionel Menchaca, Sean McDonald, and the entire Dell outreach team.

Every Dot Connects - Friendly, caring, helpful, great Southern accent, wears a fantastic pink boa, big heart for charities - Connie Reece

The Viral Garden - Lending a hand, sharing, teacher, focused, great dry sense of humor - Mack Collier

Comcast - great sense of humor, workaholic :), driven to help customers, hearty laugh, easy to hang around with, helpful, passionate - Frank Eliason and team

Embarq - a great listener, full of life, community supporter, lots of great smiles and a big hug, engaging - Zena Weist

Southwest Airlines - friendly, fun, lots of laughs and great sense of humor, great big hug, sharing, passionate about customers, cool ideas - Paula Berg

Blue Sky Factory - friendly, easy to hang with, focused on the customer, helpful, part of the community, great sense of humor - Greg Cangialosi

Convince & Convert - passionate, knowledgeable, high speed :), ideas, quick wit, great sense of humor - Jason Baer

The Advance Guard - friendly, easy going, great photography, passionate about social media, great story teller, great laugh - CC Chapman

Harte Marketing & Communications - fun, great sense of humour, passionate about marketing, ideas, sharing, easy to get going - Beth Harte

Livingston Communications - Sharing, pulls no punches, great dry sense of humor, witty, great social media expertise, author - Geoff Livingston

Thornley Fallis - great planner, focused, wonderful storyteller, quick wit, sharing, community focused - Joe Thornley, Dave Fleet

MarketingProfs - funny, engaging, quick wit, passionate, knowledgeable, big fan of favorite authors & publishers - Ann Handley

Voce Communications - innovator, customer focused, giving back to the community, dry sense of humor, focused, easy to hang with - Josh Hallett and Mike Manuel

Shift Communications - also innovator, customer focused, giving back to the community, dry sense of humor, focused, easy to hang with - Todd Defren, Bob Collins, & Doug Haslam

And you know what I’ve discovered making this list?  I could go on adding to it for a long time.  I’m thinking of people like Donna Tocci, Pam Martin, Frank Martin, Bryan Person, Matt Dickman, Rohit Bhargava & John Bell, Bonin Bough, Adam Keats, Scott Monty, Ferg Devins, Marc Meyer, Chris Penn etc…  All of these people bring personality to the brands they represent and they do it well.

Who are your favorite unmasked brands?  Do you agree that brands need to “unmask” themselves?

February 18th, 2009 - Posted in social media | | 21 Comments

Newspapers don’t sell news to me

(Image credit - just.Luc via Flickr)

Well that’s not completely true.  Yes, I still scan my newspaper for local headlines, consuming a page typically in about 1-2 seconds per.  And occasionally I will stop on an article that is very relevant to me and read a little deeper.

What I’m getting at here?  Well, we live in a world where one can have any news delivered to a device of their choice, electronically and completely customized to their interests.  And I not only that but we can read unlimited amounts of our custom news if want to - the sky’s the limit.

So why then am I still paying $15 a month for a printed newspaper to be delivered to the end of my driveway - which, by the way, is quite inconvenient especially on cold, wintery days? Yes, that is correct - I’m paying money for news that’s 98% irrelevant, printed on paper I must take to a recycling facility, and delivered in a not-so-convenient manner.  Why on earth?

Here’s why.  My newspaper publisher is not selling me news - it’s selling me “15 minutes of me time.”  Yeah, like Haagen Dazs doesn’t sell ice cream and Philedelphia Cream Cheese doesn’t sell cream cheese.   When I pick up the paper and start reading it at the table eating a late dinner or when I browse through it in the leather chair on a Saturday morning everyone kinda knows to leave me in peace for awhile.  And if they forget and ask me to do something, well then I feel like I have an excuse for that 15 minutes and offer to do it right after.

Perhaps we should be calling them “mepapers.”

Anyone else have a similar view?

February 15th, 2009 - Posted in social media | | 4 Comments

Twitter - A Personalized “Birds of a Feather” Network

Twitter has a lot of great attributes however the one I love the best in the ability for every single person to build their own personalized “birds of a feather” network.  What am I talking about?  Well, Twitter has people from all walks of life, all ages, all types of careers, and all types of interests.  It is a mini version of the world mixture.  What I like about it is that by following people based on your own passions and business interests you basically build your own social network of like-minded people.  And chances are if you are focused on this type of approach and your Twitter bio reflects this then you will probably see the majority of these people you follow following you back.

Personally, my interests are centered around marketing, PR, WOM, advertising, enterprise software and community management.  Thus if you look at my 5600 followers and the people I follow the mix is mostly made of up people with these same interests.

Want a benefit from that approach?  Yesterday I tweeted three separate times asking if my followers were connected to me on Linkedin - and I gave my link there - http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidalston Actually I had never done this type of tweet before.  It was a bit of an experiment.

Now for some of you the thought of opening up your Linkedin connectivity so broadly would be a scary thing.

• What if I have nothing in common with those who want to connect?
• I don’t want to turn down any connections and be rude especially after asking this way.
• What if this opens up the floodgates forever and I can’t stop it?

All good points but here’s what happened.  Three tweets, each about 1-2 hours apart produced 50 Linkedin requests in total.  All of them were relevant to my interests, I didn’t even have to consider turning any down and with each tweet the requests came in for about 10-15 minutes and then stopped.  And the more wonderful effect was that I had a chance to speak with many new people in my “birds of a feather” network in a much deeper, richer way.

Have you built your own “birds of a feather” community on Twitter?  What other great benefits appear when you do this?

February 10th, 2009 - Posted in social media | | 3 Comments

A phone? An office? A meeting? Huh?

Ok is it just me or is “working” totally different than it was just 2 years ago.

What’s a phone?  The fact that my iPhone has a “phone application” amongst all of the other 50 apps probably says it all.  But seriously folks, who actually uses a phone anymore.  I just mentioned yesterday on UserFriendThinking, a BlogTalkRadio show with the Bizzuka guys, that I rarely use my phone on a typical business day.  In fact, I don’t even have a desk phone because the cell phone that I have rarely even gets a call.  So how do I communicate then?  Emails and lots of them (maybe 200-400 sent and received a day), tweets and DM’s, IM, Yams (on Yammer), text messages and posts/comments.  I expect it would take me 10 times the amount of time to do all of this on the phone.  Actually, probably closer to 100 times more.

(Image credit - manyfires via Flickr)

What’s an office?  What I’m referring to here is a typical cube or walled office with a door at the place that sends you a paycheck.  Firstly, I have neither at my “place of work”.  I also don’t typically “go to work” each day either.   I work where I happen to be and that can include home, a hotel room, an airport, a restaurant, my car or heck anywhere my iPhone works, on or off WIFI.  I create, collaborate, comment, and converse all electronically so really being tethered to a single location makes no sense to me.  In fact, I don’t generally even tell people daily where I am physically located anymore (so no more emails to coworkers saying I’m working from home) because I’m just as reachable regardless of where I am.  Heck, half a dozen of my iPhone apps share my GPS location anyway so if they really needed to know…

What’s a meeting?  I remember 20 years ago, when I started my first job, I spent hour after hour in walled rooms with a table and chairs discussing things and taking notes in “meetings”.  And all these appointments started and finished on the hour or half hour and expanded to fill in the time. I swear there were days when I would be in “meetings” all day long and it certainly didn’t feel all that productive.  Kinda depressing eh.  Today, I still have 1-2 meetings a week but often not in a room with a specified stop and start.  In fact, all of my exec colleagues and I at Radian6 share a big open space - we always have.  We are in a JIT (just-in-time) meeting environment.  Want a meeting?  Then ask for attention from the others for a minute or two (which can be difficult with all the distractions at times I admit) and discuss something, decide something, and go back to work implementing it.  Even when it comes to customer meetings 99.99% of these are done virtually using Gotomeeting/Readytalk etc..all via the web.

Personally now I can’t imagine doing it any other way.

So, has your “work” changed?

February 7th, 2009 - Posted in social media | | 4 Comments

Social media as the new alternative fuel

So, waiting in the dentist’s office this morning I caught a CBC Nature of Things show on the new hydrogen powered cars.  Then, when I cracked open my local paper’s business section I saw a great article on how BuildDirect has built its successful supplies business with social media at the core.  So a couple of synapses went off in the noggin’ and viola yet another analogy for y’all to chew on.

(image credit by heidiheidiheidi via Flickr)

I’m a big fan of social media as the primary alternate fuel to power a business.  Radian6 owes a lot to this fuel.  We have spent very little on traditional marketing fuel since the company began.  So, what are some of the attributes of this alternative business energy source that make it such a great choice.

Low Emissions - Yes, you just have to look at the amount of waste you’ll produce when using traditional marketing.  You burn through a lot in order to get maybe 1-3% engine response rate.  Social media is about directly building relationships with the community, avoiding the extra “eyeballs-to-interested” catalytic conversion with traditional marketing fuel, and producing much higher efficiencies.

Very high MPG - When your business has a remarkable product that resonates with its audience then it takes very little fuel to propel it forward.  It’s all about providing little boosts to get things going and to get up the hills.  Remarkably there will be times when you’ll think your vehicle is driving forward on its own.  And, amazingly, if you don’t have the perfect product the fuel will actually tell you what to tweak and improve on.  Try that with traditional marketing fuel.

Powerful & Responsive - Talk about 0 to 60 in seconds.  Social media fuel does not have a lot of additives between the cause and the effect.  Basically your vehicle connects directly with the community, with the right product & solid traction you can get immediate results and continue to accelerate.

Ah, but like hydrogen in today’s gasoline economy there are a few things you must overcome if you want the benefits.

Produce your own fuel - Yep, just like hydrogen there are very few stations you can pull into and get a fill up.  This of course will change over time as there are a number of agencies and specialty firms building reserves in this area of expertise.  Yes, social media fuel is not a commodity.  It takes an investment of time and people resources to produce the fuel that powers your business but, boy o boy, does that engine ever fly when it does.

Highly Explosive - This is the nastier side to the “Powerful” attribute above.  Yes, if you mishandle social media fuel or improperly use it it can blow up in your face.  Just remember, transport the fuel in “transparent” containers, use only “real ingredients” and constantly monitor for feedback.

So, are you ready to switch to the alternative?  Any other pros and cons of this new alternative fuel?

.

February 7th, 2009 - Posted in analogy, viral, social media | | 2 Comments

Driving old school & ignoring the dashboard?

So I took my 2003 Civic Hybrid into the shop this morning because the indicators on the dashboard were lighting up like a Christmas tree.  It started with the DRL indicator, then came the SRS one, then Maintenance Required then yesterday, the engine light.  Ugh, this will no doubt mean money out of my pocket today.

But it got me thinking.  What if I just ignored the dashboard.  I mean, yes the indicators are on but the car sounds fine to me.  In the old days (yeah, when I drove a 1978 Delta 88 to university) there wasn’t a collage of sensors on the dashboard.  You just drove the car until, well, it broke down on the side of the road - and trust me I got more than my share of that back in “the old days”.  But today’s cars, especially hybrid versions, are fine-tuned machines with computer controls and lots of whirlygigs that make sure I brake to a stop faster, I don’t get as injured in a crash,  I get way better fuel mileage and so on.  Yes, I probably still could go it old school and drive like a cowboy of days gone by and ignore the dashboard, but at what cost?

What’s the cost of breaking down on the way to the airport and missing that flight to give a presentation on the other side of the country?  What’s the cost of an inefficient engine burning more expensive fuel?  What’s the cost of me flying through the windshield because my airbag system is turned off because of a malfunction or my ABS breaks are disengaged?  You get the picture.

So what’s the cost of a brand driving it “old school” in today’s high speed, quick to react, snowballing-crises-friendly,  twisty-turny social media world that we all live in today?  This isn’t the 1978 Delta 88 world of our youth.

What dashboard indicators should brands be paying more attention to today?

January 7th, 2009 - Posted in social media | | 8 Comments