Beyond Social Media: Ad Club 11/08

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Beyond Social Media: Ad Club 11/08 - Presentation Transcript

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+ Eric Weaver, 12 months ago

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AUDIENCE: Advertising professionals

VENUE: Seattle Ad Club November 2008 luncheon

SYNOPSIS: Last year we gave an intro into social tools. This year we're showing how brand communications can use these tools to be part of the consumers' solution rather than an obstacle in their paths.

SPEAKER NOTES:

(For the sake of this presentation, I will use "consumers" as a generic term that would include B2B "customers.")

SLIDE 1:
Last year, Publicis' Laura Porto Stockwell and I presented to you. Those of you who attended remember that we discussed demographics, trends in culture leading to the emergence of social media as a powerful communication/community channel, and walked through numerous social tools such as Twitter and Facebook. A lot has happened in the past year. We're assuming most of you are using social tools and our discussion today will be more about where we go from here.

SLIDE 2:
Since our last presentation, one in four of you has a new employer. Bloggers are regularly cited both on broadcast news as well as in the traditional press. Facebook has shot past long-time social network champ MySpace to become the largest social site. In fact, if Facebook were a country, it'd be the 11th largest, between Japan and Mexico.

Many brands have taken to social sites and engaged in social marketing programs. Starbucks, Dove, AllState, and many more have embraced these tools in fantastic ways. Also, the Obama campaign has proven the true power of this medium.

SLIDE 3:
Forrester Research created their Technographic model to categorize the various levels of participation in the social space.

(for more about Technographics, go to http://www.slideshare.net/jbernoff/social-technographics-explained)

SLIDE 4:
This year, Forrester updated their data and we can see several trends over the last 12 months. First, the number of people creating content has only grown marginally. But a large percent of the Inactives have become Spectators and Joiners. Critics and collectors are up as well, indicating significant numbers of Inactives are moving into the social space and participating, meaning the notion that social media might be a "fad" is clearly a falsehood. Once consumers have discovered the utility of collecting or joining, once they've found value in being able to express themselves or consume information, they will NOT relinquish that.

SLIDE 7:
Last year I showed a Google search on the word "Comcast". Comcast's official sites showed up at the top, along with this hilarious and very critical video, at position #7, made by a disgruntled Comcast customer. The video, showing a Comcast technician sleeping on the customer's sofa, had garnered 1.2MM views. [ LINK: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6958342899875420422&hl=en ]

SLIDE 8:
This year, Comcast has moved from target to participant, and is using Twitter to service customers. As people encounter problems with their service, they can interact directly with Comcast's Frank Eliason and get their problems resolved.

SLIDE 9:
Last year, Starbucks often appeared to sit on the sidelines of the social space. Many were perplexed by their seeming avoidance of social tools. This Twitter user is clearly curious as to why Starbucks is not active on Twitter.

SLIDE 10:
This year, Starbucks took to the social space in a huge way, opening up MyStarbucksIdea to solicit operating ideas...

SLIDE 11:
...as well as creating an online community centered around doing good and volunteerism. They clearly are a social wallflower no more.

SLIDE 12:
So....should you be advertising on social sites? Not exactly. Here's why.

SLIDE 13:
Advertisers initially approached social sites like grazers at a buffet table. Each site looked like a juicy morsel of captive audience. 120-million actives! High disposable income! High literacy demo! Insane growth rates! These appeared to be perfect venues in which to run ads.

SLIDE 14:
And so we saw the same old intrusive advertising pop up. Same tired approaches, no real value for the end user.

Last year, I spoke with the managing director of a major digital agency who told me, "yeah, we tried advertising on Facebook. We just didn't get much uptick, so we dropped it. We just don't see much future in social media because of that." After I picked my bruised forehead off the table, it occurred to me that this was a DIGITAL agency. If he didn't get it, who did?

SLIDE 15:
What he didn't realize is that advertisers "showing up" on social networks is like Amway salesmen showing up at a neighborhood cocktail party. No one wants them there...it's clearly the wrong context in which to sell.

SLIDE 16:
And why is that? Let's look at consumers. I'm going to speak about consumers as "we" because we too are not just advertising professionals but also consumers.

We have serious attention deficit. We are fragmented into millions of niche interests. We feel time-starved, constantly.

So time-starved, in fact, that there is now a Girl Scout merit badge for "time management." So that we can teach little girls to wring productivity out of every single second of their day. How messed up is that?

And what's up with guys in the john talking on their cell phones? This is a relatively recent trend that I just don't get. I'm even hearing guys in STALLS carrying on business conversations. What IS that?!? Are we really that time-starved that I need to hear you dropping the kids off at the pool, so to speak?

We're also distrustful of advertising, spoilt by customization as well as media options, which along with time-starvation has turned us into snack-media consumers. So we look for YouTube vids and news articles that are only a few seconds (or few minutes at most) in length.

SLIDE 17:
Several changes in how we use digital tools have shifted the balance of power from corporations to consumers.

First, search allows consumers to find anything they desire. People, products, services, information, music, culture. Anything of interest that is relevant to them.

Secondly, consumers can express themselves far more loudly than in the past. It used to be that consumer expression was found in letters to the editor, feedback forms and over the back fence or water cooler. Now, podcasts, blogs and opinion sites are picked up and amplified by search.

Third, consumers can share items of value with anyone, globally. That includes companies, products and services that they love. Or hate.

The reality: consumers generally don't need marketing, advertising or PR!

You might be thinking, "whoa whoa WHOA! This is my craft! This is my skills set! What you're saying is that what I do is not valuable anymore!"

What I'm saying is that consumers still need to know about offerings and the value they provide. But how they obtain that information has changed, and as a marketer myself, I need to understand that power shift and how I can communicate value in ways that are relevant and valuable to them.

SLIDE 18:
Think about this. As the newly-empowered consumer tries to achieve their goal of getting information, finding shared viewpoints, watching a digital newsclip or finding product rankings, advertisements, in their current form, become distractions, obstacles, impediments to the consumer reaching their goal.

What if, rather than being an obstacle, your marketing efforts were at the consumer's goal line?

SLIDE 19:
The days of having a controlled or controllable message are over. It used to be that a small elite would broadcast their opinion to the masses who had no voice of their own.

Now, however, EVERYONE has an equal voice. Investors can speak as loudly as marketers who are equally as loud as employees or the media. It's a cacophony of opinion mixed with fact. Our major news channels are great examples of this trend.

SLIDE 20:
With so many voices in the mix, now what? Who do you believe?

Typically, you turn to peers for recommendations. "Are Mazdas reliable?" "How do you like your iPhone?" "You flew Virgin America? What's it like?"

You also do this when risk is higher, you have more choices to review and filter, and less time to dig into the details.

SLIDE 21:
Every year, Edelman PR does a fantastic global survey of consumers to identify whom they trust. It's called the Trust Barometer. In 2008, 60% of respondents reported they believe what PEERS say about organizations. Peers are the most trusted group, out of scholars, government, analysts, employees, bloggers, etc.

This has gone up 9 points in one year, since our last presentation. That's a huge jump. It's almost as if to say, the wonkier things get, the more we turn to trusted peers. The more we believe them.

Who's the least credible group? Why, that would be advertisers and marketers!

SLIDE 22:
Consumers don't just share endorsements with one another. We share them widely, using social tools. If we have a bad experience, 63% of respondents aged 25-34 were likely to share that experience on the web.

SLIDE 23:
And once we've received trustworthy messages from peers, we're more likely to trust other information we've obtained. In other words, I tell you I flew Virgin America and absolutely loved it. You read something good about Virgin America, and you are far more likely to trust what you've read because I had already mentioned my corroborating experience.

SLIDE 24:
And here's the main point: trust drives preference. If trust for a company, product or service builds in your mind, it's highly likely that you will buy from that company. The inverse is also true: if there's a perception that a company is self-interested or untrustworthy, most people won't spend a penny with that firm.

The bottom line: TRUST DRIVES TRANSACTIONS.

SLIDE 25:
So how do we build trust? My suggestion is to use social marketing to be part of a valuable solution rather than an obstacle.

My definition of social marketing is "the use of peer-to-peer engagement, dialogue, and connective tools to help your offering be found, be relevant, be authentic and be promoted."

Marketers can use these same tools that empower consumers to ENGAGE their markets. Now, that requires a completely different type of thinking and approach. It's the relinquishing of the "controlled voice" to the noisier cacophony and instead of talking at your market, creating and coaching the dialogue around your offering. It's substituting Pull Marketing for Push.

Let's look at four major tenets of social marketing.

SLIDE 26:
First, BE FOUND.

Search loves conversations. Search engines assume that where there's conversation, there's a wider interest level. Rather than building expensive, complicated destination sites (that's so 2001), optimize your content for search and engage with consumers where they are. That's not a Facebook ad. That might mean, for example, sponsoring a community around a topical area that is important to THEM.

Does your brand have interesting (I mean TRULY interesting) or valuable content? "Nuggetize" that content and place it in many relevant venues. Tag the hell out of your content and place it where it can be found. This may mean creating podcasts on Utterz, short topical videos on YouTube, a set of valuable bookmarks on Delicious, or whatever.

Join online communities, as a MEMBER. Don't bark at the crowd in these communities - invest the time to engage with them as a person.

Be in the end zone of your consumers' search, rather than a lineman trying to block their efforts or persuade them to go elsewhere.

SLIDE 27:
Next, be relevant. LISTEN to your audiences. Engage in conversation.

And don't try to just "roll up and represent", Mr. or Ms. Advertiser - go in listening, adding value where you can, and interacting as you would at a cocktail party. You wouldn't start talking about how great you were at a party. Your brand communications shouldn't act that self-interested either.

SLIDE 28:
Third: be authentic. Everyone talks about being authentic: what does that mean? Just be real. Polished voiceovers: do they sound "real"? Sparkly product beauty shots: they cost a fortune. But does the consumer care about how great the box looks? No, they care about what the product does.

Assume that any information about your company or offering can and will be outed online. So operate totally transparently.

And one important tip: marketers will often spend a fortune on outbound communications. In the past, I'd easily drop $100k on a corporate video. Those days have passed. Better to frequently add valuable content that is authentically produced than super-glitzy videos every once in awhile.

SLIDE 29:
Finally, BE PROMOTED. Make your content easily shared. Ride that wave of online sharing by ensuring the content is TRULY valuable to customers.

A product brochure? Marginally valuable. An ad for a new dishwasher? Not valuable. BUT...for example, Whirlpool has created the American Family Podcast, a series of highly-topical talk podcasts that go into areas of interest for the typical parent. One show might be about Lyme Disease. One might be about lead in the water supply and the effect on children and learning. One might be about bullying, another about "helicopter" parents.

No ads, no self-promotion, just valuable content. Without any promotion of the podcast, Whirlpool had 70,000 downloads a month. True value, sponsored by Whirlpool. Fantastic associative brand value.

You can see here examples of Facebook's Beacon program. If VML's Warren Sukernek adds a Facebook application, and I trust Warren, I'm far more likely to check out the app than if I'd just seen a banner. Sharing is a form of endorsement, and GMC is leveraging the trust inherent in social connections.

Finally, realize that we're all time-starved. Keep your content short and sweet. Make it a valuble snack rather than a ten-course meal that people don't have time for. It's cheaper to produce as well!

SLIDE 30:
So which tools do you use? These are just idea starters. These also work whether or not you're B2C or B2B.

If you're a product manager, blog or podcast about it. Are you excited about the next rev? Share your enthusiasm authentically. Are you selling medical devices? Don't buy ad banners. Create and sponsor a topical community around the condition. Do you have frequent events that you want people to know about? Use Twitter to announce them. For example, Powell Books uses Twitter to announce book signings, new releases, timed offers, etc. Perfect use for Twitter.

SLIDE 31:
And for those of you still unsure about this whole "social media thing," consider the lens through which you may be looking.

I'm 47. My generation was trained to err on the side of formality. To be as inoffensive as possible so that we'd do business with the most people possible. We never bring up religion or politics in a business discussion. We guard our secrets zealously lest they be used against us. We have seen so much technological change that the sheer speed of change can overwhelm us.

Gens X and Y, however, see the world very differently. Formalities are largely ignored. These folks are all about putting personal information out there, not to expose themselves to risk, but to connect with like minds. They'll freely share their views on religion and politics, because they'd rather do business with others on the same wavelength. Things that would freak out our generation (posting personal information) are no big deal to them, because it increases their chances of connecting with people they'd like.

For them, digital technology is like water. It's easy, everywhere, and again, no big deal.

So as you consider modifying your approach to marketing and the decision about social marketing, consider that what might feel ridiculous to you (endless updates on Twitter) might feel very cool and normal to them.

SLIDE 32:
In summary, the power has shifted. And the Social Marketing opportunity is right there:

Empower your customers to become brand advocates.
Extend your brand across the online space without a huge investment.
Bring your content to your consumers wherever they are.
Increase your Google rankings.
Be found at the goal, in the end zone, rather than as an interruption along the way.
And finally: leverage the existing trust between people, rather than trying to buy it.

SLIDE 33:
I'm all over. Friend me on Facebook (http://facebook.ericweaver.com - tell me how you found me first, please), follow me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/weave) or if you have time to read, I post about social marketing on my blog at http://www.branddialogue.com.

THANK YOU! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! less