marketing
Intent Engines and Facebook Verbs
Facebook is releasing the hounds. Those consumers who wish to share whatever it is they are doing, when they are doing it will be able to do so – as long as the appropriate verbs can be properly conjugated and developers promise to publish actions that are ‘simple, genuine and non-abusive’. Facebook also published guidelines of what they are looking for as well as what they’re are not very fond of, which is a way of saying what will not be allowed in the approved verb list.
Complexity Models in Social Marketing (Part deux)
“Social media is maturing and being widely adopted by companies everywhere – many are still not prepared for it.”
In the last post, the aspects that create complexity in social marketing were presented and in this post we look at how to evaluate them.
Aside from the mis-steps in content itself (witness the faux pas of many major brands, ranging from JetBlue, Wal-Mart and GMC and countless smaller organizations) there is, to me, an obvious challenge in identifying the layers of complexity. This post will explore the complexity relating to organizational readiness and how to understand what you’re up against before you even begin.
Complexity in Social Marketing Content for the Enterprise
I read a recent study that was titled ‘Enterprise Content Management’ because I’ve been thinking about the complexities inherent in the world of social marketing for the corporate and large enterprise and I was hoping they had some insight to the kinds of issues I’ve been seeing – short answer is they did not, at least in this report, and not along the lines I’ve been thinking. They did look at a dozen odd vendors, put them in a 4-quadrant rating and declared who exhibited the best vision and execution around what is defined as Enterprise Content, but they left out what I’m seeing as enterprise ‘social marketing content’ management. In this post I introduce the issues at work and in the next few posts show how to anticipate complexities.
Get Local to Communicate Globally
Global digital communications is becoming an increasingly daunting task for companies who now have to content with a 7x24x365 marketing task. The challenge is not in setting up the tools, those are an ever changing variable in the equation, but rather in the tactics and strategy to maximize effectiveness.
The task becomes even more complex when you have to tailor the digital communication to a local context that complements the image and message for a global brand.
But how? Listening, understanding and then engaging in a local context – the basics of any online and digital strategy.
Scariest Blog Post You’ll Ever Read (as a Marketer)
The ghost of John Wanamaker, shimmers into view before you and says “in my day I knew half my marketing investment was wasted but did not know which half – today you have a hundred more options in which to invest… and now 90% of your marketing investment is wasted.”
The image shimmers out of focus and disappears – an image of your accountant materializes and tells you that you’re a business burning through a million a month and when you get visitor to your site, there is nothing more than a form to fill-out for a call back. The phone number on the ‘Contact Us’ page leads to a ‘Dell Hell’ kind of experience and no human being can be reached from outside. Zombies? Yeah – they get through, but only because they’re brain-eating, persistent monsters randomly pushing buttons on their Zombie-phones.
How Brands Will Use Google+(IMHO)
Enjoying the growth of Google Plus for a specific reasons – 1) it let’s me connect to my community in a way that is relevant for the messages I want to post and 2) it’s the best, most viable competition to the behemoth that is Facebook today.
Brands are not yet settled into G+, but it’s reported that Google is looking for the optimum combination of brands and consumers so that it’s a more natural extension of how consumers want to connect to brands. My hope is that it is not yet another iteration of the interruption driven model that has predominated marketing for decades, but I got to wondering what would it look like if G+ actually addressed the paradigm and sought to try something better, what would a brand interaction in G+ look like? Here’s my take on what it might be like.
For brands to connect with consumers on G+, (when they can) the consumer will have to opt-in to the brand and include them into a Circle that they see regularly. I think we’ll see a permutation of the Google AdWords product that is smarter. Keywords will be scanned and the connection between the conversation and the offer will take on a better meaning. I think that brands will be able to better identify the real influencers in respective markets IF (and this is a big if) the brand can be given access to the social graph / Circle stats of the consumer. How will they get access? Consumers will grant it – usually in exchange for something of value. What kind of value? Some people will trade access to their social graph for a cup of coffee at , others will require a bit more consideration.
Accelerators to adoption will include connections between products like +Personal.com, which I really like, but do not yet understand how they’re going to be relevant if I cannot connect my permissions and profile to the social networks I’m using – profile fatigue is starting to set in with consumers and we, as an industry, have to find a solutions. OpenID, Google profiles and Facebook Connect are just placeholders for now and the real power in this space I think has yet to emerge.
What to do for now is to develop a presence in the social space in a way that is both genuine and in a way that recognizes that your persona can vary relative to the audience you wish to address without being disingenuous. Learning this, knowing it and being able to act on it for a brand though will be a challenge – too many of them are wrapped up in an old-school mindsets that places monthly and quarterly.
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Diigo’d Items
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