I’ll be honest with you: one of the great things about working here at Area 224 is, frankly, cleaning up other people’s messes.
It’s challenging and fun at the same time. And here’s what usually happens – even for the smallest of brands or companies or whomever is on the social webs. We’ll use a hypothetical example of a company that has just purchased the social media silver bullet.
Day 1: This is awesome! We’re going to have customers tripping over themselves to buy stuff from us!
Day 7: Where are the customers? Wait, we should tweet more.
Day 14: We were supposed to have 1000 Facebook fans by now. What gives?
Day 20: John the intern is young, he gets this social stuff. Let him handle it for us.
Day 29: What sort of contract did we sign? Oh, it’s month-to-month? Whew.
Day 31: Social Doesn’t Work.
This mess is, sadly, rather common. And both sides of the social media spectrum – brands and the consultants who love them – are equally at fault.
The value equation needs to be designed up front: what you want to be able to do with your business and how you’ll rely on the agency or consultant to help you.
And consultants: stop selling a bill of goods – this stuff is actually hard work. Honest.
That being said, here’s what we recommend for the “NEXT 30 Days”
First of all, get some numbers. The numbers may suck, in your opinion, but get them.
Did you ask to “get on Twitter?” How many followers did you get? How much interaction? Any engagement?
Do you have a Facebook page? There had to be some activity – quantify that activity.
Whatever the platform, figure out what it is that you’ve spent – in time and dollars – on that platform and your social time.
There’s your benchmark. It’s what we’re going to look at for the next 30 days.
Next, go back to the $64,000 question – “What business problem are you trying to solve?”
Best. Question. Ever.
If you want to use social to gain insights into what people are saying about you, that’s awesome. If you want to use social to sell more of your widgets, that’s awesome, too.
But if you’re not trying to solve a problem – more customers, more traffic, why do our products suck? – then you may want to ask whether you’re barking up the wrong tree.
Your next 30 days can be spent working on whatever social media tactic you think is best. As long as it fits within a broader strategic context.
Yes, there will be one. Are you worthy of election?
Thanks, ChrisL_AK on Flickr
An annual rite of January, the Baseball Hall of Fame Election, got us thinking – when there’s a Social Media Hall Of Fame, who will get in? Where will the Hall be built? What will the induction ceremony look like?
Some Thoughts:
1. The Social Media Hall Of Fame will be reserved for those retired from Social Media. Like the Baseball Hall of Fame, where you have to be retired from the game for five years, it doesn’t make sense to put people in who are still active.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame does this a little differently, electing people and bands after they’ve been in the business for 20 years. It’s also in Cleveland, which, we’re told, rocks. Bringing us to point two…where?
2. The Social Media Hall Of Fame will be located in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Why? Social Media Hall Of Fame induction should really center around the authentic. Those who are truly authentic focus on the Truth or face the Consequences.
3. The Social Media Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony. Unlike the People’s Choice Awards or the MTV Music Awards, the Social Media Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony must include things like Bacon, Slime (from Nickelodeon), and maybe a really schmaltzy host. Not Steve Harvey, but possibly Wink Martindale.
Is this beginning to sound like a really bad idea?
Ah, there’s the point of this post: we all want recognition for our efforts. We all want to get there honestly. We all want, maybe, an occasional star-studded event.
But yesterday’s election of two Hall of Famers – Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven – may have taught us a little something about the craft. The love of the game. Living in the moment.
Are we waiting days, months, years for the recognition we truly deserve?
We may keep waiting – especially in this modern world of craziness.
Danny Brown talked on his site about longevity at the workplace, and how the Japanese have companies that have been around for decades.
There won’t be a Social Media Hall Of Fame.
There will be little victories – in business, in life. You may throw 120 pitches one game, you may get shelled in the first inning of the next.
Don’t keep waiting for your induction. And don’t focus too too much on “Social Media” or getting into a “Hall Of Fame.”
(c) 2010, Area 224We’re far from the “Must Read” status with our blog and website – but we have gotten some decent traffic this year, and it has led to business. Some tips on being readable…
First of all, read others. If you’re in the business of asking for people to visit your blog – or read your book – you need to give. That means spend some time looking for interesting things.
Doesn’t totally matter what business you’re in, or where you’re looking. But take some time to read other blogs. Which brings us to the next thing…
Comment. This will not only make you cool, it will enable you to connect with more people – bloggers, business folks, potential tweetup attendees, whatever.
There isn’t a rule of thumb – see our post yesterday on “You’re Doing It Wrong” – so just go with the flow. Seriously, if you find something you agree vehemently with, comment on it. If you find something you disagree with, comment on it.
Be Prolific. You need to write OFTEN. Daily? Maybe that’s too frequent for you. Weekly? That’s not frequent enough.
This third point leads to questions about “finding your voice” – and specifically whether you need to find your voice before blogging. I cry bulls**t. The best way to find your voice is to start blogging. Start writing.
We have had a point this year — blog often about topics that are in the vein of business communications, social media, startups, and the intersection of thinking, planning, strategy and getting stuff done. To some, we’ve been all over the map – but it has helped us find our voice AND given rise to the concept of Holistic Social Media – which became much, much clearer in the past few weeks.
Final Thought: Don’t Call Them Ramblings. Not everyone can write easily. But the last thing you want to do is tell people your blog is “a bunch of ramblings.” They may be good ramblings, but the quickest turnoff for this reporter is a blog with ramblings from a [insert age group] living in [insert city] trying to [insert industry where you want to make a name for yourself].
Thanks to the inimitable Saul Colt for the inspiration here.
“Everybody is an armchair marketer.” This was one of the quotes floating around back in my HR Consulting days. (I was part of the Marketing team for an HR Consultancy. It was fun, I learned a ton. More on that later.)
Saul Colt — feel free to follow him on Twitter — first got me thinking about “advice” and “the right way” and “social media” (all three; I’ve thought about each separately before) when he said something to this effect:
There is no right way. Do what works for you.
And there we are.
So, I’m guilty — a little — with this “Be Holistic” and all that. Not my intention — it seems that everybody’s an armchair social media marketer, too.
But the goal is not to point out that You’re Doing It Wrong…but, instead, to point at some folks who are doing it right.
Then, you make the decisions based on what works for You. Your business. Your social time.
We’ve let you have the floor, now it’s our turn. Here’s what we think you’ll see lots more of in 2011.
Community. Welcome to the buzzword that won’t die. Are you building community? How are you nurturing your community? What kind of community do you have?
We think this word will take over for the word “engagement.”
BUT…Community will continue – and continue to make sense for marketers and communicators who have to sell this social stuff to the board room.
Want to engage your customers? Meh.
Turning your customers into a community, though, makes a heck of a lot more sense. Community is something you build. People want to join a community that makes them feel welcome. Look for this buzzword to have some meat to it in 2011.
Accountability. Marketers have struggled with this for ages – and, if you’re in the social media industry (there is one), you’re probably smack dab in-between ad people and PR people. And both sides have all the answers. And neither side wants to relinquish control. And…
The web, the social media revolution, internet marketing, holistic social media – all that stuff rolled into one gives marketers the ability to measure almost infinite amounts of stuff. Which means accountability moves to the forefront.
The key on this Accountability movement – getting internal silos to talk to each other. Analytics people – meet the PR team. Ad guys – here are the sales gals.
Spend $10,000 on social? Quantify it to $50,000 in sales. Or move on. Soft sciences – like “brand value” and “sentiment” – those will start to disappear.
Wikipedia QR Code
QR Madness. Last year, you probably could have said that “every brand will have a Twitter account” and been correct. This year, the prediction is that every brand will jump into the QR pool with both feet.
They have to – these little code thingies are becoming vital because so many people don’t use the web on their computer. They use it on their phone. (An estimated 40% of Facebook users are accessing Facebook from a mobile device.)
These codes will give rise to scavenger hunts, brand marketing pieces, interactive content, the list goes on.
If you think about Twitter as a real-time conversation engine, then you can see the potential. People start talking about Justin Beaver (what one of the #224lings calls him), then there’s a rush to see what is happening with the Biebs. Next, you find out that he’s on some show right now. It’s a shared experience.
Time-shifting Glee is okay. Watching Glee while millions of others watch Glee AND commenting with them on whether or not Gwyneth can actually sing: the water cooler isn’t waiting for you in the office the next morning, it is happening right now as you watch the program.
And Brand Marketers can glean lots from what is said.
Your turn: what are the trends you see coming down the 2011 pike?