Sensei Blogs

The Grand Paradox of Social Communications

sam_fiorella@hotmail.com(1 Sam Fiorella) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

You cannot read a marketing or social media blog today without stumbling across the advice: “humanize your brand.” The advice is certainly not a new concept to marketing, but one that has had new importance breathed into it in the face of the ever-evolving digital relationships businesses have with their customers.

It’s the grand paradox of digital and social communications; we’re racing to connect through inanimate computers and mobile phones in order to build stronger relationships with people.

Messages are often misconstrued by our inability to effectively translate our intent to the written word. Doing so is a task that requires tremendous training and skill and very few of us are either so trained or skilled. Yet, with social networks and blog content management tools in hand, we’ve all become active brand publishers attempting to fabricate relationships through social channels.

Some argue that the real problem lies in the consumer’s inability to interpret our intent because each views the same message with his or her own personal filters. The emotional, financial and social states of each member of a business’ community impact how they process the communications received. Businesses using social channels to sell products and services often create content without understanding where the customer is in the decision making or purchase cycle, thus decreasing the likelihood that their efforts will contribute to any form of relationship-building.

Regardless of which theory you subscribe to, digital communications have distanced us from our customers as much as they’ve embedded us in their lives. As a result, the need to “humanize our brand” has become a more urgent priority for marketers. Nuances, colors or even a headline could make the difference between your digital handshake being perceived as firm and strong or limp and weak.

The Relationship Gap

Business leaders are being trained to do more with less, generate more profit with less investment, and sell more with fewer sales people. The very ethos of our capitalist-based civilization moves us towards this goal, so it’s no wonder that social media’s appeal of mass communications with less effort and expertise has captured the imagination of marketers and business executives everywhere. Sadly, the push to communicate digitally has decreased our ability to truly connect with people, build strong personal relationships and create truly outstanding customer experiences. The connections we are making are fickle and tenuous.

Now don’t mistake my intent, I’m not advocating we remove social or digital communications from our vocabulary but I am sounding the alarm for those who have become singularly focused on the social channel to humanize the brand. Social media has become a black hole of sorts, sucking us in and forcing us to create strategies and tactics to counter the impersonal nature of the technology that drives conversations today.

“Humanizing your brand” is certainly an important tactic of modern content marketing strategies, but social content does not humanize your brand. Social content, generated by your marketing team or your customers, is a testament to how human and relatable your brand is; it’s a time-capsule tchotchke that future generations will use to better understand what you were. It does not create what you are. Humanizing your brand requires a culture change that embodies everything a business, its staff and the products and services they produce represent. It’s a way of doing business, not a content marketing strategy.

Do you agree? Can you humanize your business through social media and content marketing strategies? Or is it what I’ve argued, just a testament to the humanity of your brand (or lack thereof)? Share your thoughts below.

Sam Fiorella
Feed Your Community, Not Your Ego

Business Myopia Is Killing Customer Acquisition

sam_fiorella@hotmail.com(1 Sam Fiorella) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

There are many diseases that businesses face in developing and executing effective customer acquisition programs; many of which are self-inflicted.

Myopia is defined as a “condition of the eye where the light that comes in does not directly focus on the retina but in front of it. This causes the image that one sees when looking at a distant object to be out of focus but in focus when looking at a close object.”

In the business world, I’ve diagnosed organizations whose vision of long term goals were fuzzy or out of focus as having business-myopia. Leaders in these businesses tend to focus on short term goals that are more easily defined, more easily focused on.

Business-myopia is not a genetic disease but a self-inflicted ailment brought on by a number of business lifestyle issues including corporate and personal greed. And when afflicted with this condition, every department within the organization is negatively impacted but probably none as much as customer acquisition.

Case in point: in the fourth quarter of 2011 Apple Computers sold 15.4 million iPads, which (when combined with iMacs and MacBooks) means they’ve sold more PCs than Hewlett-Packard (the world’s No. 1 maker of Wintel PCs). Further, today it was announced that Apple’s iPhone eclipsed RIM’s BlackBerry on its home turf: Canada.

Yup, hell has frozen over.

Kerry Chrapliwy, a former executive in HP’s PC group was reported as saying: if a product did not turn into a blockbuster overnight at HP or Dell, it was often killed. “We were always fighting the philosophy at HP of, ‘How do I get this product to market at the lowest possible cost to the highest volume of people?’ There was not enough focus on delivering the right experience to people.”

Despite the closed operating system, higher price points, resistance by corporate users and many other factors that relegated Apple to niche status, the myopia of companies like RIM, HP, Dell and Lenovos negatively impacted their customer acquisition.

Apple embraced a longer term strategy instead of falling victim to business-myopia. In some cases, it even shelved products until the market was ready such as the iPad, which it was developing before it created and launched the iPhone. When it finally launched the iPad, Apple could take advantage of the existing operating system, leverage the developed App market (that provided a wealth of existing content) and benefited from a user interface that was already accepted and loved by the community. The customer experience was already established; a known entity.

Remember MySpace? AOL? Netscape? Once kings in their sectors and thought to be unchallengeable, they fell victim to the same disease and are now relegated to footnotes in the history books. RIM, the inventor of the smart phone and once worldwide leader in the space is now peering up at the vultures circling.

What’s the moral of this story?

Customers’ patronage and die-hard loyalty is not rewarded to companies with the greatest profits; great profits are a by-product of even greater customer experience with your brand’s products.

Any business seeking customer acquisition longevity must have the fortitude to stand up to investors and bank managers that demand short-term revenue results with an argument for the prioritization of customer experience planning.

Agree? Disagree? Is the greatest threat to customer acquisition success business-myopia? Share your experiences or case studies below.

Sam Fiorella
Feed Your Community, Not Your Ego

Rethinking Retail – Invitable Changes Required for Large Retailers

sam_fiorella@hotmail.com(1 Sam Fiorella) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Retailers are currently experiencing the perfect storm and their ships may not be up for the challenge. It should come as no surprise that the classic retail model is undergoing tremendous change.

This is due in no small part to the advance of web and mobile technology and social sharing where retailers are now forced to compete in a playing field where they may not be the dominant species. On top of this retailers are dealing with a highly uncomfortable level of transparency giving consumers access to the “real price” of goods and services.

In an article titled “Retail needs a reboot to survive”, Mark Sigal of Unicorn Labs writes about how savvy retailers like Target and Apple are already starting to try new models; models that promote a unique or differentiated experience for the consumer

One thing is certain, failure to evolve will mean extinction. Just look at how the travel, book, music and video industry has been transformed over the past decade.

Join us this evening, Wed Feb 29th, 2012 at 8pm on #bizforum where will debate…

The future of retail – what will it look like?
The impact of change on society and consumers
The role of social and mobile technology in retail’s evolution
How the brick and mortar retail experience is something we may not want to lose

An Open Letter to Media Publishers (and other Business Leaders)

sam_fiorella@hotmail.com(1 Sam Fiorella) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Dear Publishers (and business leaders),

Your business is dying. You know it. Your readers know it. So what are you doing about it?

The belief that the Internet was the death knell of print – and maybe even cable news – was a bit of an exaggeration although your revenue statements clearly show it’s had a major impact.

I’ve seen attempts to move content online via tiered, paid subscription models, which clearly isn’t working to reverse your financial fortunes. I’m thinking you’re all sending Apple Christmas baskets to thank them for the iPad, which – for a time anyway – has enabled the sale of content via Tablet magazines. Still, adoption for paid digital magazines on tablets is a far cry from the heydays of the print publishing industry.

Lessons from the Music Industry

The music publishing industry took a similar, if not more devastating hit with peer-to-peer file sharing. Attempts by the industry to fight consumers in their revolution failed miserably and they finally had to completely reinvent their business in order to survive. Revenue is now bundled into “lifetime-contracts” that tie up a musician’s brand beyond their recordings to concert sales, endorsement, clothing and perfume lines, movie contracts and online activities. Compilation albums and digital singles have replaced traditional one-band album sales.

The Digital Pandora’s Box

If there’s one lesson we can borrow from the successful overhaul of the music business, it’s that consumers don’t want to be dictated to. Web and social technologies were the equivalent of a digital Pandora’s Box. Once subscribers were shown the free content possibilities accessible via blogs and peer-to-peer sharing, why would they ever go back to paying for a magazine?

The answer? Your audience no longer sees value in content so stop trying to sell it to them. Sell them what they really want and would be willing ot pay for: experience & choice…and the freedom to customize and access that experience across multiple channels from print to Web to mobile and whatever device the creative minds at Apple think of next.

Consider this future:

1. Content bundled with non-content products and services.
Imagine a fashion magazine bundling content with paid loyalty programs at top fashion retailers. Or bundling subscriptions with personal shopping or style consultation? The same could apply to financial publications that provide content bundled with access to financial planning services. Or technology magazines that bundles content subscriptions with access to conferences & trades shows or, better yet exclusive beta-access to new technologies.

2. “Content subscriptions” vs. Magazine subscriptions
The Web has opened up our views – and our demands – to limitless possibilities. We don’t want limits and a magazine’s covers and brand are limits. The past 2 years have seen unparalleled consolidation of publications and media yet why subscriptions are still fixed to individual publications is beyond me. Why can’t I subscribe to self-filtered content that pulls from multiple publications and pay for such a customized experience? Why can’t I have access to content about my beloved Maple Leafs only from Sports Illustrated and Financial News from the New York Post on the industries I wish to follow? Future publications cannot be defined by categories and themes created by you, but by me.

3. Master content licenses
If you wish to charge me for content, you damn well better make that content available on whatever device or medium I choose, whenever I want. And allow me to syndicate content to whatever device I want in order to customize my own experience based on my needs. Content should not be device – or print – specific

4. Interactive Content
Content is no longer static the way that advertising is no longer broadcast but conversational. Social Media has completed changed our expectations. So why is your content not more dynamic? I may value your article and its insights but I would more likely pay for it if I was able to engage a focused, private business group around the content. For example, why can’t I engage industry content along with a dedicated group of colleagues or industry execs to brainstorm how the theories presented could impact our businesses. Imagine the impact on the evolving social enterprise!

You cannot win a revolutionary war against your customers.

This lesson should be heeded by all business leaders, not just the publishing industry. The changes forecast by Web and social technologies require a complete deconstruction of your business model, culture and expectations, not simply a shifting from one channel to another. Leaders today cannot afford to be lazy in their creativity and certainly can't afford to "stay in the box". More of the same will yield less than that which was previously achieved.

Are you brave enough to take that leap?

Signed,

Sam Fiorella
Feed Your Community, Not Your Ego
Follow on Twitter

Rethinking Social Relationships and Business Growth

sam_fiorella@hotmail.com(1 Sam Fiorella) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

In preparation for the last event on the Social Media Masters 2011 Tour (Kansas City, Oct 21^st 2011), discussion leader Shelly Kramer, CEO of V3 Integrated Marketing has me thinking about social media and sales. It’s my opinion that many organizations fail to leverage the power of “social” because they equate it to marketing and relationship building. Certainly engaging through social media channels does market your business and does build stronger customer relationships but they must be a means to an end, not the end goal. Social marketing must support the entire customer lifecycle, which goes beyond marketing. Social relationships without the intent and strategy to drive sales will only result in an empty business wallet. Understanding how to connect the dots from engagement to sales is step one.

Social Media = Dialogue.

Creating a social ecosystem that connects your employees to the business’ audiences as well as connecting the customers with each other, is step one in a social lead generation effort. Lead Generation through social media channels does not end at “dialogue”. It starts there.

Dialogue = Data.

Customer lifecycle monitoring, scoring and analysis allows the marketing team to data mine the social dialogue between the business’s silos and their customers, which can set benchmarks, monitor trend currents and predict future needs.

Data = Knowledge.

The results of advanced customer lifecycle social analysis creates a knowledge center from which all the business’ silos can build better products, branding strategies, key messaging and sales tactics that have a higher response rate that those based on traditional market research programs.

Knowledge = Sales.

This “social knowledge” is what creates the new marketing intelligence, which enhances prospect nurturing programs, sales force automation processes and increases the likelihood of conversions.

A business can only prosper through sale and profit and so marketers must realign their social media engagement planning to shift from building relationship to closing sales.

Please join the #bizforum weekly Twitter debate: Wed October 12^th, 2011 from 8 to 9 PM Eastern where we will debate: Relationship Building and Business Growth. Follow along on TweetChat or your favorite Twitter App. Add your thoughts below - they will help shape the debate!

Sam Fiorella
Feed Your Community, Not Your Ego
Follow on Twitter

Public Displays of Affection Once Again Important for Brands?

sam_fiorella@hotmail.com(1 Sam Fiorella) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The recent explosion of Google+ onto the social scene has once again raised the question of public brand affiliation as demonstrated through “Likes”, Google+1, Diggs, etc. Throughout the past year, debates have raged on the real (if any) value of Facebook “Likes” towards the bottom line of a business given that the majority of Facebook users engage content in the news stream vs Fan Pages.

ComScore recently released a WhitePaper on the Power of Like in which it stated that “the ‘value of a fan’ can be assessed in three primary ways:

· increasing the depth of engagement and loyalty among Fans

· generating incremental purchase behavior

· leveraging the ability to influence Friends of Fans

In reality, the value of any form of advertising – traditional or social – is the amount of exposure to brand impressions that the tactic drives. Social Media marketers will argue that to mean the amount of “engagement” that someone has with your brand but at the end of the day aren't engagements brand impressions. It’s always been about impressions: the number, frequency and reach of impressions that can be generated over a defined period of time.

The Google Effect on Public Displays of Brand Affection

I submit that the introduction of Google+ has opened an entirely new consideration in the debate over the value of “public brand love”; specifically, the impact on search engine optimization. We’ve already experienced this within Facebook as the number of “Likes” a brand receives impacts the number of “friends of friends” that will see and potentially engage with your brand.

Impressions. But this was limited to the Facebook Universe.

The amazingly rapid adoption of the Google+ platform has re-invigorated this debate due to its integration of all things digital into one platform, including the largest and most popular search engine in the world.

Think about your ability to click the Google “+1” to indicate your affiliation with not just a brand but with any page within the brand’s Web site or any document uploaded to the web site - and not just from the brand's site but from within Google's search listings. Or clicking "+1" on videos posted to Googles' YouTube Network. Or the eventual Google+ Brand pages and soon the "+1" icon on every brand's blog or social content. And now consider the future impact of those G+s on your brand (not just their sites) SEO ranking. See where this is going?

The convergence of content and networks into one “Skynet”-like super brain has social media marketers once again buzzing over the importance of Likes. Only this time, it’s G+s.

Agree? Disagree? Share your thoughts below.

[thanks to all those who joined us for the Aug 3rd #bizforum Twitter debate on this topic with fellow Social Media Masters presenter: Matthew Hicks, former PR & Social Media Manager at Facebook.]

By Sam Fiorella
Feed Your Community, Not Your Ego
Follow me Twitter

Embracing Social Change in 2011

sam_fiorella@hotmail.com(2 Jeff Wilson) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT

It seems predictive posts are all the rage right now so in my own mad style, Ive taken a look at the tea leaves in order to share some Sensei-riffic (trademarking in the works) predictions for marketing, social, and the relationship between customers and brands. So rather than give you the usual obvious predictions, I am going to take a step towards the ledge and peer into the darkness. The signs I see herald tremendous change that is just off the radar.

So sit back, relax, and prepare to have your liberal marketing senses offended while enjoying or becoming outraged at this rum-nog fueled post! Cheers!

Prediction 1: Social CRM will be a huge failure.

Why? Because you cannot quantify an emotional human relationship no matter how hard you try. The quest to do so has begun anew with sCRM. To be clear its predecessor CRM is about numbers, not people. What other system does that to people? Right! The prison system!

The same people who created CRM are now pushing sCRM. Same shit, different steaming pile. CRM completely dehumanized the customer by reducing the relationship to math. Next it is horribly lop-sided designed to deliver insight into how to get more money from a customer, not how to build a better, mutually beneficial relationship. Does it actually benefit the customer in any way?

Maybe we should call it CWM (Customer Wallet Management), how about CMM (Customer Money Management) or even CDM (Customer Decision Management) because it has nothing to do with actual customer benefit. Call me jaded but every company that has a CRM profile on me uses it to try and get more money from me with no clue on how to actually gain my trust.

Is sCRM the second coming? Not in my books. All we have done is given marketers yet another source to gather data to try and soak more money from our customers without working on the actual customer relationship. Still waiting for a company to actually put the R in CRM or sCRM for that matter.

My prediction, it wont amount to much and most of the companies offering an sCRM solution will be snapped by bigger CRM players as just another feature while the ones that stay on their own will go stale. Its a great idea with the same poor execution that CRM enjoys.

Prediction 2: Customer Loyalty, not Customer Acquisition will Become the Big Social Play for Smart Companies.

The greatest mystery to me is why almost every company (B2b and B2C inclusively) focus social marketing on new customer acquisition. Is it that old human failing that we ignore the ones who love us? That we barely appreciate those in our lives every day? Maybe its casual indifference or perhaps something far more mercenary Whatever it is, we have been ignoring those most important to us. Maybe we are just too dense to realize we are risking our current relationships for the potential of a couple new ones? Like the man who wakes up one morning to find his wife has left him after years of passive neglect.

I live by some simple rules and one of them is you dance with the ones that brung ya. It may be my bumpkin simplicity talking, but the first people we should be investing in are our employees and customers these are the ones that brung us to the dance. So what happens when you ignore the ones that love you and step out to find others? You make an ass of yourself in the international media, lose your endorsements, your fortune and your game.

Looking at how social networks actually work, I am shocked how many companies remain clueless to the value of social solutions for their customers and employees.

Here is the relationship chain I have identified

Happy employees deliver better customer/social experiences.
These better experiences create happier customers, in turn appreciating employees more.
Happy customers spend more, are more loyal and will defend your brand.
Happy customers are in the public social networks where positive brand experiences spread very quickly.
Happy customers and happy employees are the best brand ambassadors and will actively engage in thousands of conversations in blogs, FaceBook, Twitter and other traditional social platforms like kitchen tables, events and cafes.
The actions of your brand ambassadors attract new customers!! Because everyone who hears the stories wants to be with a company that appreciates them! Go figure.

So why oh why are we focusing on acquisition? As for the execution of a social solution for customers and employees all I can say is make them feel two things: appreciated and exclusive. This is the gas in the social engine.

Do yourself a favor at your next marketing strategy meeting and ask Are we ignoring the ones who brung us to the dance? and see where it goes.

My prediction is the next big social play will be private communities for employees and customers; perhaps even allowing them to (god forbid) intermingle. These communities must focus on delivering a positive customer and employee experience to thrive. Dont be a Tiger.

Prediction 3: The Rise of Social Risk Manager and Social Experience Designer as Specialized Marketing Roles

So now that we have literally millions of so called Social Media Experts to set-up our Twitter accounts and FaceBook pages, we need to look at more specialized positions past the technology. My prediction is that two roles will emerge for mid and large size enterprise: A Social Risk Manager and a Social Experience Designer. Lets throw some lose definitions behind these two roles.

Social Risk Manager: A strategic and tactical position serving to homogenize PR, legal, strategy, and operations into one accountable role. Custodian of the Social Policy and Social Risk Mitigation Strategy, adviser to PR and Social team on risk management techniques/training, and eye in the sky on emerging issues/trends that affect the business and the industry. Throw in a healthy does of analysis to continually adapt the strategy too.

Social Experience Designer: Again a strategic and tactical role integrating the brand/communications strategy to ensure a consistently positive customer experience in the social channels. Social has been largely by the seat of your pants execution with little strategy or rationale, so this role is meant to make Social make sense to the customer. The social experience is designed to utilize the unique factors of the social channels to build the positive perception of the brand in the same way you would design a retail interior or website.

Prediction 4: The Employee Revolution

One of my first posts ever was about the Relationship Revolution over at www.B2BBloggers.com. So we have seen a customer revolution via Social Media, now I predict a social uprising within the enterprise. Why? One simple powerful goal: Improving the Employee Experience. A couple factors at play here

GenY employees are less loyal, so to retain them you need to understand and engage them in different ways.
An employee experience, much like a customer experience, is based on how you engage with them and the experience you design that must be consistent across the company, but diverse enough to promote individuality be that cultural, gender, social, tribal, regional, etc
Allow employees to socialize on topics other than the company! For the love of Pete, when will we learn that we are not the center of their universe? Let them engage on anything they want and let them know its okay to do so.
Global competition means keeping talent. Being social with employees lets you understand emerging needs and issues before they go too far. Plus Social Media has made it way too easy for your employees to get poached; Linked In is crawling with recruiters as is Twitter

Prediction 5: The Awakening that Social Media is NOT a Big Deal, but Social Relationships ARE

No I am not trying to grab attention by being a contrarian, but I think many people just dont understand the real drivers behind the rise of the big social media platforms; that being the rise of social relationships. The basis of every good, long lasting relationship for any human being is communication. Communication or our drive to communicate is like a river its fluidity is its strength allowing it find the easiest course to continue its way to the ocean. In much the same way human communication is fluid finding the easiest route or channel to enable two or more people to socialize.

So now let me connect the dots on this prediction. Social Media is both the channel and the technology that enables it. The success of a particular social platform is based on its ability to enable its participants to communicate easily and quickly while delivering small, measurable improvements to enhance the experience. The companies that deliver this technology are madly looking for ways to monetize these channels driven by the fear that the competition will outmaneuver them. They are currently adding layers of complexity not just in the technology and interface, but to the communication process itself. They are also enabling intrusive communication from corporations looking to reach the participants.

As the channel becomes more complex and more difficult for simple, uninterrupted social relationships to work, human communication will begin to look for a better channel. Let me be very clear here

It is the company that invests in the social relationship, not the social media channel, that will achieve long term success. Its what i refer to as a socially dominant brand trait. More here on the struggle for existence and social traits.

Prediction 6: The Real Role for Social Media is Lead Nurturing

In the same way you cant use one tool to build a house, you cant use one channel to take a net new prospect and drive that relationship through to a sale; especially in B2B marketing.

Lead Nurturing is the art of the relationship and is a long play. Its the same space in time as that point between the first couple dates and moving in together. It takes investment, patience, understanding and time. Has there ever been a role more suited to Social Media?

My experience leads me to believe this is the advantage in turning quantity of leads into quantity and quality of leads. The big challenge? Marketing and sales must work together for it to work.

Of course, once this realization has sunk in, you can actually begin to target your social at specific audiences and behavioral types greatly increasing the power of your social marketing to engage and accelerate sales efforts.

Do you have a lead nurturing strategy yet or is your social strategy doing everything for everyone?

Prediction 7: The Rise of Mobile Marketing

This is a big one and is by far the most exciting communication tsunami coming our way. I have always said that when we looked at social marketing, we were looking at the south end of the horse walking north by focusing on web-based social.

Think about it for a minute. All of the emerging nations (Brazil, China, India, Africa, etc) are bypassing laptops/pcs and going straight to mobile. The magnitude of these market behemoths and how global companies market to these unique populations will end some brand empires and give rise to new ones.

Take India as an example, it is it is projected that India will have 1.159 billion mobile subscribers by 2013 effectively passing China as the #1 mobile market in the world.

How does this impact our ability to compete in these markets? Check out this cool review of Indian and Chinese markets

If you havent started giving serious consideration to the importance of mobile marketing (whether you are B2B or B2C) what exactly are you waiting for?

First movers always, always, always get the market advantage.

Prediction 8: Social ROI Measurement is a Waste of Time

I have watched for about 2 years as marketers focus more and more on measuring customer relationships; social or otherwise. Then it came to me recently ROI measurement is the equivalent of marketing masturbation We do it to pleasure ourselves. Dont get me wrong, we should measure our success along the way, but I have seen this grow into a very unhealthy obsession for many marketers. Is it because we find solace in numbers? Or maybe we can manufacture success in the absence of real proof

Every time I speak with senior execs it always boils down to one thing: Is what you are doing generating profitable revenue? Its another strong argument for marketing and sales alignment to measure the customer life-cycle from first contact to sale.

It seems to be an inferiority complex we cant shake as marketers. We constantly try to prove to the rest of the enterprise that we do matter to more than just ourselves. The obsession has to stop. It takes valuable resources away from activities such as lead nurturing that drives profitable revenue and delivers constant touch with a potential customer.

My prediction is that most marketers will continue to go overboard on ROI measurement endlessly because its their comfort zone. We will continue to measure things that dont matter and report on things that have no bearing to the bottom line.

The marketers that can align with sales and keep delivering simple, bottom line-focused analysis will win the day.

Prediction 9: The Beginning of the Great Social Mergers

You can almost feel it in the air. Some big mergers are coming. There are some real hungry large companies out there looking to get into the social scene in a big way. Meanwhile we have some high potential targets that are not big enough to survive on their own for an extended period, but not small enough to die out quickly.

The Hunters: Apple, MSN, Google and FaceBook.

The Prey: Four Square, MySpace, Twitter, Second Life and a dozen smaller social platforms.

The Dark Horses: Linked In and Skype and other indirect social platforms like Ebay/Kijiji and CraigsList.

Apple: Apple needs a viable social platform past its devices. I dont know that Ping has any merit for them, but a social platform like MySpace makes a great fit to continue to dominate consumer demand for music. Four Square might be of interest as well as this geo-social application gives Apple reach into retailers and their quest for mobile marketing dominance on the iPhone and iPad. Of course this all depends on whether Jobs can get over himself

FaceBook: Is Facebook reaching the point where an acquisition of a smaller, niche player makes sense? Maybe an acquisition to build out its business offering? This is where I see something like Second Life really giving huge depth to Facebook for both consumers and business. Skype would be a very cool addition to the consumer side giving the ability for real face time via video. Lastly, buying out Zynga might be an excellent strategic move as well, but the relationship is dodgey already. Social gaming is a huge part of FaceBooks future to be sure.

MSN: MSN needs a better social footprint for sure. Bing is not a social platform and their deal with FaceBook is simply a strategic alliance. They need to get into the scene. For them Twitter, Linked In and Four Square make excellent targets and integrate well with their business and consumer offerings. With Windows on mobile devices now, perhaps a stronger relationship with FaceBook is in the works. Who knows.

Google: Google is a fascinating and dangerous company in my mind. They already own You Tube, Buzz is a failure, and its easier to acquire a smaller player than try to risk failure again with an in-house project. I really see Twitter being a nice fit with Google. Its adds great depth and power to Googles already dominant search and would really put Bing on its heels. Any of the Dark Horses like Skype, Ebay/Kijiji or CraigsList would also be a very interesting for Google to expand/consolidate its reach.

Prediction 10: No One, and I Mean No One, Understands What Influence is or How to Measure it.

If there is one thing Klout and Fast Companys Influence Project showed us its that no company understands human influence at all. Lets be honest with ourselves number of Tweets/followers does not an influencer make. But this hasnt stopped the bandwagoners from jumping on it early as a possible solution- how many bot owners do you think take advantage of Klout Klub in Vegas?

To me, Klout is an ingenious social game that uses heavy game mechanics to feed two human addictions: acquiring prestige and competing vs. friends/peers. The result? A compulsive need to constantly check and improve your score by ramping up your Tweets to an obnoxious level fueled by a fear of being beaten by a friend or peer.

Can't stop Tweeting, Klout'll eat me.

Optimizing the Enterprise Website for Demand Generation Turning Traffic into Revenue

sam_fiorella@hotmail.com(2 Jeff Wilson) — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I wanted to share a technique my firm has used for the past decade to drive substantial improvement in converting website traffic into revenue. We have been able to prove this prospect engagement process out over a variety of different industries in both B2B and B2C enterprises. We developed this approach to solve a huge issue every single company we met struggled with: Lots of traffic very little conversion.

Here is just a little example of some of the results our clients have been able to achieve using this approach are:

80% increase in qualified leads through the web globally (measured by calls to live sales agents). The only thing we measured was calls and inquiries to live agents so that it was directly linked to sales and not false positives like website registrations and other questionable lead gen measurements. The process we deployed involved 12 unique global sites in 7 different languages and ended up representing 50% of the total qualified sales leads globally and at a cost of 15% of the total marketing spend for lead gen.

$200K revenue in first quarter from zero revenue the year before (measured by web orders). Focused on three key audiences instead of 10 and designed the entire site around an option-based engagement process. Other results when combined with SEO/SEM were a 300% increase in traffic and a max of 4 clicks to delivering customer fulfillment.

So how did we manage to achieve this?

Well, its a synchronization of several factors that is all based on a single, ultra-powerful principle for human relationships: Everyone, without exception, makes decisions based on emotion which is then justified by logic.

Once you understand (and accept) this principle, you need to begin to develop ways to reach your customers emotionally on both a conscious and subconscious level. As human beings, we are constantly being emotionally influenced at a subconscious level by everything and everyone around us and our brains are designed to process this information subconsciously so as not to overwhelm us. The result is a complex set of behaviors, perceptions and belief systems that governs our decisions on a constant basis- all governed by emotions and justified by logic.

So now that we have identified what to do (and why to do it), let me share the how to do it in 3 straight forward steps and lets start with a visual to help understand what it looks like.

(Click to enlarge the image if its difficult to read)

Allow me to briefly explain the example above. This is based on a Fortune 500 client we worked with in the US financial services sector in partnership with an ad agency to target 4 distinct consumer segments.

We identified 3 unique pathways that meet the need of all 4 segments and aligned both the emotional process and logical process with their potential emotional states represented by the Caution Comfort Trust along the top of the diagram.
The demand generation process took the form of a Flash-based interactive presentation that used audio/video to engage the audience. This was embedded on the home page and targeted at specific segments.
They entered the process depending on their emotional state (caution, comfort or trust) which was aligned with corresponding logical milestones of: interest propensity to buy buy.
The process was designed in two seamlessly integrated layers: the emotional layer and the logical layer that advanced them through the engagement process in a natural, familiar and simple way to the end result of some form of commitment (the blue calls to action).
The graphics, audio/video and content were also designed to advance the audience through different emotional states by using imagery and wording that focused on building ongoing rapport and reinforced each step in front of it.
The calls to action were designed specifically to present 3 options each corresponding to 3 commitment behaviors from Do-it-yourselfers to Do it for me to I need time but I will be back.
Regardless of the commitment, the customer was given valuable take-aways such as a retirement vision document or a retirement plan document. By giving away value without asking for commitment, we actually greatly improved engagement. At every step it was on their terms.

Using this example, here is a simple and high level way for you to begin to leverage this technique for your enterprise website. In fact, it is possible to deploy several of these demand gen processes throughout an enterprise site; each one potentially targeting a different stage of emotional commitment or different product or service.

Step 1: Understand the customers emotional and logical decision making process.

This is a research based approach and relies on both internal knowledge of your market, but also customer research to identify emotional triggers and processes for each segment you are going to target. It doesnt require extensive research, but for this to work, you need to understand the emotional needs of your customers.
Once you have identified emotional needs, preferences and how emotions affect their decisions, you need to map it out and overlay the logical validation (selling) process over it to form a framework. This can be a linear process, a closed loop, or any other various processes that fit the needs of your customers; not you. Very important point.

Step 2: Design the content, imagery, and engagement process to meet emotional need

Create a design plan for the process that maps out and evolves the emotional experience as they progress through your framework including:
- Emotional architecture and triggers
- Delivery method Flash, mobile, html, web application, etc
- Engagement method guided tour, do it yourself, interview style, quiz/game show style, etc
- Content A/V, imagery, messaging and copy
The obvious story boarding and audience testing should be done.
Compare the testing results back to your research and key assumptions on emotional need and fulfillment. Identify gaps in the process and adapt to create an end-to-end experience

Step 3: Integrate the demand generation process into the corporate website and other engagement tactics.

This is probably the most difficult part, making sure its integrated properly into your website, marketing tactics and channels (social media, email, events, retail, etc..) and sales (live agents, experts, lead capture, etc.)
The key is to not over complicate things by trying to do too much for too many people.
- Focus on a specific audience and a specific ask; wrap the entire demand gen process around that
- Embed the beginning of the process on the home page as a feature and create doorways from other parts of the website that correspond to different emotional states (caution comfort trust)
- Integrate other ways for them to develop a relationship with your brand into the process so that if they leave prematurely or have preferences for continued dialogue they can continue easily; this includes linking to your customer communities, social media, email, retail channels and events primarily.
- Integrate with your sales, retail and relationship development services to allow immediate follow-through for potential customers.
- Filling out a form or buying online just does not satisfy many people and does nothing for emotional fulfillment. It is an option and should be included, but always allow for human-to-human contact with your brand.
- Give them plenty of take-aways and the ability to share it with others. Also allow them to come back to the point they left; never make them go through it again. Simple functions like remember me or profiles are an easy way to deliver on this.
- Most importantly, allow them to come and go as they please soft sell throughout and present options to commit in simple ways.

Want to try this? Start small and build on your successes

If this is something you want to try then I encourage you to start small for the first couple tries. Focus it on a single audience you know well and a single product or service you want to drive demand on. Keep the process manageable and the implementation simple; tie it to one sales channel, 2 tactics, and access only from the home page.

As you get more comfortable build it out to include several other related products (a great way to market to current customers by the way) or to another similar audience. Just make sure you dont rush ahead and try to do too much. The secret to this working is the ability to keep it simple for the customer and focused on their needs.

Measurement is key and we have always kept that dead simple as well. The easiest measurement is traffic through the demand generation process and commitment stats (online, retail, and sales). Tracking back to sales and revenue is vital and this will ensure senior executives continue to support the program. The great thing here is that Social Media becomes an integral part of ongoing prospect nurturing and becomes much easier to track and measure actual revenue against.

Id love to hear your thoughts on this and connect with anyone who is looking to try it. Im always willing to give advice and help others use what our clients have used so successfully over the past ten years.

Cheers!

Jeff Sensei

The 5 Keys to Successful Online Demand Generation

sam_fiorella@hotmail.com(2 Jeff Wilson) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

It is good to hear senior marketing people beginning to talk turkey about online demand generation now that some of the luster and magic has worn off of social media. And while both customer behavior and online tactics have evolved, the essence of good online demand generation has stayed the same for the past decade; and really its boils down to 5 key factors to sustainable success online.

Before we get into the 5 keys, let’s first reach an understanding on what online demand generation really is.

First, this is well beyond generating a “lead” through a form or SEO/SEM tactics, although these may form a piece of the overall process. The way I like to describe it is this…

From the point of first contact to the last time they (the customer) touches your online presence, you have created a defensible brand position in their mind for your product or service that leads directly or indirectly to self-qualified prospects for long term customer relationships and near term revenue.

The art of generating demand, particularly in an ever increasing complex and noisy digital marketplace, requires an increasingly simple and targeted approach.

1. Create a Consistently Positive Customer-centric Experience

Nothing will kill demand faster than a negative or roller coaster customer experience. As human beings, we love positive experiences; even Goth kids like to feel good by pretending to feel depressed – and acceptance within the experience is part of that positive experience.

A positive customer experience is actually quite easy to design once we understand and align with what customers need.

Be customer-centric by removing all the brand ego from your site and replace it with a deep understanding of your customer. This is far more impressive and memorable than your hype.
Let others praise you, don’t praise yourself. The absolute most trusted opinion on you comes from your customers. Put them at the fore front of your marketing and ensure the praise/testimonials align with what your prospective customers are looking for. And don’t fabricate it, someone will eventually find out.
Help them feel good about their decision to use you. This is the vital acceptance part of the experience where you prove not only that you are on of them, but also that by aligning with you they will gain acceptance of their peers and seniors.

2. Keep it Simple – Keep it Focused

Simplicity is an enabler and focus ensures you only reach the right people with the right message. But simplicity and focus need to go well beyond this for demand generation to work effectively and efficiently.

Simplify your experience and the corporate website. The greatest results my clients have eve had happened when they simplified their website and focused on a few specific target markets.

Strip out the content and sections that don’t add value
Don’t say it in ten words when 5 will do.
Convert content for key ideas and solutions into visuals; a large portion of the population relies on visualization as their key internal processing factor.
Focus the website on the target market only; leave doorways for others to find their way (partners, investors, current customers) to their own portals.

3. Embed a Custom Demand Generation Process

I can’t express how much of a difference this can make to a demand generation program and it has two critical elements.

The overall demand generation process needs to be designed to target specific groups of prospects. This means aligning with how they will experience your brand, not how you want them to experience it. So many times, the approach is so generic it fails to stand out or resonate with anyone.
Embed a custom demand generation process on your corporate website. This is probably the #1 failing of most large companies online and represents the biggest opportunity to turn traffic into revenue. A website demand gen process has these critical elements:
- It aligns with the customer decision making process
- It engages and enables progressive decision-making on every page
- It appeals to a target prospect regardless of where they are in their decision-making process.
- It enables options for follow-up immediately and down the road.
- It feels natural and builds confidence/trust as they go through it.

4. Play the Long Game

So many companies are driven by short term goals that they forget about the huge potential of the long game. In my experience only a fraction of prospects actually buy on our terms, i.e. immediately or within a quarter, the majority however, buy on their own terms which can be anywhere from 3-24 months. It amazes me how many companies do not focus on long term nurturing especially now that social media has made it so damn easy.

Playing the long game is easy, but it takes patience and the right strategy. To do this, you need to create a program that is easily sustainable while treating everyone equally. Social media plays a critical role at this point for “on demand” brand fulfillment as does your integration with more traditional marketing tactics such as events which allow prospects to meet and build real life relationships.

I have always though of this is the art of business romance. Treat it like you are wooing a potential mate or a thousand as the case may be Pay them enough attention to keep their interest but not enough that you will be perceived to be needy or inefficient with your resources.

5. Integrate Seamlessly Within the Greater Customer Experience

Nothing stands alone anymore, not even the much ballyhooed social media channel. Online is only one part of the greater customer experience. The greater customer experience covers every customer touch point and includes indirect touches such as referrals or social media conversations not controlled or influenced by your company.

I have always looked at the integration of online demand generation with the greater experience like Swiss cheese. You need to perforate your demand generation experience model to allow prospects to pop in and out of different channels easily and without diminishing the experience.

Here are a couple simple guidelines to follow to more easily integrate your online demand generation program with other channels:

Make the website the hub of your communications; everything leads to it and it leads to everything.
Cross promote content and channels. Most ad agencies fall down on this big time but tying your online and social elements to tv, radio and print campaigns (and vice versa) is critical.
Tracking and measurement needs to be adapted to look at the whole picture, not just web.
Adapt the program regularly to adjust for change in customer need or preferences.

Applying this Approach to Your Company

I am fond of a crawl-walk-run approach on new things. Get one aspect right, then move on to the next element and keep integrating them together. The rewards of this approach can materialize quite quickly, especially if you have a wide net pulling traffic into your website.

A recent client success of mine used just two pieces of this approach (number 1 and 3) and experienced a significant increase in all key metrics as well as a substantial increase in online revenue. They have now begun to work on rule number 2 and expanding the program to other divisions of their business.

If you have become frustrated with the results of your current approach or are looking for something to help you stand out from the crowd, give a couple of these rules a try. Just remember to keep whatever you do simple and manageable.

I enjoy hearing your thoughts on this and look forward to your comments.

Cheers!

Jeff Sensei

Demand Generation and Social Media for B2B Enterprise

sam_fiorella@hotmail.com(2 Jeff Wilson) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I had an interesting conversation with one of my clients last night and it is one, not just myself, but every consultant and marketing executive has been thinking about since Social Media has become the craze. How do we get the leads?

And by leads, we are talking qualified expressions of interest in doing business with you leads.

What is the Role of Social Media in a Demand Generation Program?

The first part of the challenge is that we are looking at Social Media to deliver leads, and while this can happen, it is more likely that social media is an integrated part of an ongoing demand generation program working at the beginning of the cycle and supporting throughout.

The pivotal role of Social Media for Demand Generation is to attract and engage influencers, not decision-makers. To do this, you need to:

Research your target markets and understand their current needs and issues
Create an editorial schedule that accomplishes two things:
- Discusses the issues/needs
- Discusses the solutions to those issues and needs
Do it without shamelessly promoting yourself. Its not about you.
The rest of the best practices around Social Media engagement apply

How do we Integrate Social Media into Demand Generation?

Integration requires an understanding of the Demand Generation process and the decision-making process of the influencer community you are targeting. Some critical things to remember:

Align the Demand Generation process with the decision-making process
Ensure your content is available in many forms (pod casts, pdfs, videos, webinars, presentations, etc.) to appeal to many personal preferences for acquiring knowledge
Create a Swiss cheese type model of engagement allowing them to pop in and out of the process or different media options anytime, anywhere while staying within an overall demand generation framework.
This is a marathon not a sprint. Think long term, but plan by quarter. A huge mistake is to think that these people are ready to buy based on your quarterly financial schedule. The Social Media component allows continual engagement so that when they are ready (6, 9, or 18 months down the road) you are still engaged and top of mind.

The Social Media Take-away for Influencers

The net result of the social media component within demand generation should be to build rapport, confidence and comfort in your audience. Comfort that allows them to begin to take further steps within the Demand Generation process. This will often lead them to commitment for additional steps such as attending events or webinars, signing up for newsletters, or booking 1on1 calls or meetings with your experts or Account Executives.

Emotional Stages of Commitment

Finally, your Demand Generation program should be walking them through 4 key areas of emotional commitment, each stage built by a combination of marketing tactics and personal interactions with your people.

Rapport - Your ability to quickly engage in a meaningful way that meets their immediate needs
Confidence Increasing credibility through timely, relevant, valuable content and dialogue. Prove you know what you are talking about.
Comfort - Increasing seriousness in commitment to not just the process, but the relationship
Trust - You become a confidante and information, insights, and perspective become freely shared

Done right, Social Media becomes a lynch pin in not just ongoing intellectual engagement but also to gauge audience receptivity to your brand and their emotional attachment to your people.

This is where the rubber meets the road on developing long term, meaningful relationships that turn into customers.

Agree? Disagree? Think Im a lunatic?

Let me know. I love the discussions and look forward to the journey of discovery with you!

Cheers!

Jeff Sensei