CK's Blog

Viewing The Social Web as a new "region"... not just a new marketing channel.

When companies globalize and enter foreign markets, a critical success factor that they’ve learned--and many companies have learned it the hard way--is that they must first understand a new region before marketing to the region’s citizens. Otherwise they increase their odds of failure, instead of upping their rates of success.

The exact same principle applies to social media and, more to the point, to The Social Web. After all, The Social Web is not just a new marketing channel, it’s an entirely new “region," given it's a place that boasts such attributes as thriving communities, cultural nuances, a set of rules, common values, accepted practices and a preferred code of conduct.

Web 1.0 truly was a new channel and gave us unprecedented efficiencies for communications, marketing, research, sales, service and support. Google gave us a new way to research stuff, Amazon gave us a new way to conveniently buy stuff and eBay gave us a new way to sell all sorts of stuff. Companies led the way and we were able to connect to the Internet and these company's offerings.

But with Web 2.0, people lead the way and we're able to connect to each another. Because with social media, people now have access to the same media tools as companies, and people, not companies, create and share the majority of content... so it follows that people (not companies) set the rules and fuel the space's growth.

It's not that people no longer need companies in this environment, they just don't need them in the same manner. And instead of being customers of a particular brand or users of a particular technology, people are members of a particular community--and many times they are members of several communities spanning personal and professional interests.

Web 2.0 Rule #5: Work to be momentous in your social media program, not a "me-too!" brand scattered across a million platforms.

Note: This post is part of a current series for both B2Bs and B2Cs that explores 10 (essential!) Rules That No Marketer Should Pass The "Web 2.0 Go" Without. All posts in the series are archived here. In this post we illuminate:  

Web 2.0 Rule #5: Work to be momentous in your social media program, not a "me-too!" brand scattered across a million platforms.

Marketing is a profession comprised of equal parts art and science, a craft that necessitates competencies located on both the left and right sides of the brain.  But focus is a discipline. It’s not a talent or an aptitude that we are born with, it's a skill that we must learn and forever work to hone.  

Focus has always been a challenge for marketers. It’s why positioning around one word and pinpointing one value proposition is such a difficult process of choice and commitment. It’s also why growing one’s brand to tap new opportunities--while being careful not to dilute a brand’s "reason-for-being"--is a best practice, and a mighty big balancing act.

But now marketers face the ultimate test of focus. Because now they are faced with navigating through the social media morass: a veritable Web 2.0 bonanza of blogs, microblogs, wikis, podcasts, videos, Facebook fan groups, MySpace pages, image networks, vertically focused social networks, online communities, link sharing networks, lifestreaming technologies and many more... with many more applications and platforms debuting every day.

Phew!

There’s tremendous pressure on marketers to launch efforts across all these platforms. But there’s also the *stark* reality that once they do, they need to keep blogging, commenting, tweeting, following, friending, facebooking and podcasting. After all, unlike tradeshows and advertising campaigns with finite start and end dates, these efforts keep going (and going).

Is it any wonder that it’s so noisy in here? Is it any stretch of the imagination to understand why the Social Web is littered with so many abandoned blogs, inactive twitter accounts, fan-less fan pages and RSS feeds that, instead of being fed with juicy new content, go hungry for weeks on end?

As with all your marketing initiatives, you want to be meaningful, memorable and momentous. Not a "me-too!" brand scattered across too many platforms. You’re striving to stand OUT. Not blend in. You’re looking to provide your markets with strong signal. Not more noise. And you want to be remembered (and recommended!). Not forgotten. 

So you can’t merely stake a flag across various platforms and move on. Conversely, you need to plant seeds, carefully tend to your efforts and cultivate a community and an avid following around them. Let’s look at some Web 2.0 success stories and what they have in common:

Web 2.0 Rule #4: Change your 1.0 Mindset BEFORE changing to 2.0 Marketing.

Note: This post is part of a current series for B2Bs and B2Cs that explores 10 (essential!) Rules That No Marketer Should Pass The "Web 2.0 Go" Without. All posts in the series are archived here. In this post we illuminate:  

Web 2.0 Rule #4: Change your 1.0 Mindset BEFORE changing to 2.0 Marketing.

The age-old corporate mindset of "We’ll change on our terms and our time schedule" has worked well with past media and through previous market shifts. The reasoning is obvious: with traditional media, companies retained all the power since the use of those media were limited to but a few. After all, traditional media were one-way vehicles (company-to-consumer vs. consumer-to-consumer) and expensive (vs. free) to employ.

But no longer.

In this era, and with social media (aka "Web 2.0"), consumer and professional audiences don’t need to wait on marketers to "get it," or get on board. Hey, meet your new world or don’t. No matter. Because in this world, by not participating, marketers aren't stemming the social media tide... it just flows on without them.

The biggest Web 2.0 learning curve for companies, however, is not in understanding how best to use the new tools or learning the many new best practices. Nope. The biggest adjustment for companies is accepting and embracing that consumers, not them, have new power and therefore, set many of the new rules. It's not just a new set of media but a new order.

What, then, are the implications of these powerful changes? Indeed there are many. But the greatest shift for marketers does not occur in the tools they use—but to the very way they think (and then act). And without fully transitioning to a 2.0 mindset and implementing the cultural, organizational and marketing changes it requires, companies will waste a lot of money and potentially place their brand reputations at risk.

In fact, the Social Web is already littered with many efforts that tried to shortcut this process, just search Twitter on any given day for tweets tagged with the word "#FAIL".

Web 2.0 Rule #3: Make your market the star, your brand now plays the supporting role.

Note: This post is part of a current series for B2Bs and B2Cs that explores 10 (essential!) Rules That No Marketer Should Pass The "Web 2.0 Go" Without. All posts in the series are archived here. In this post we illuminate:  

Web 2.0 Rule #3: Make your market the star, your brand now plays the supporting role.

In the past, companies worked to connect their brands to target audiences. But with social media, marketers must now work at connecting their audiences to each other--in hopes that those connections yield discussions, recommendations and, most important, new purchases of their brands. 

With old media, marketers launched one-way communications and campaigns with clearly delineated start and end dates. But in social media, marketers can hold two-way conversations that don’t have an end date, they keep on going (and going).

Through traditional and broadcast media, marketers had to talk at their audiences, with their brands placed front and center of their messages (so their brands were the stars). But no longer. Because now that social media enables marketers to speak with their audiences, their markets are the stars... with their brands relegated to playing supporting roles.

Switching from star to supporting role is a transition that's far from easy. For some marketers, it's laden with the fear of losing control (or fear of negative feedback). For others, migrating from a broadcasting to a conversational model is a huge learning curve--as many old practices are turned on their head. So what, then, are the key implications when our markets, not our brands, are the stars?

Psst! Both your brands AND your social media programs must provide distinct sets of value to your markets. Yep, Both.

A social media presence is important for today's brands and yields various points of ROI for brand marketers. (I've published an exhaustive (!) list of the many value points here.) But still there seems to be a big enough misunderstanding by enough companies, that it warrants some clarification.

You see, it’s not only how your brand creates value for audiences offline but how your social media initiatives and involvement creates value for audiences ONLINE. Value that complements your brand's value proposition... but value that is both separate and distinct.

In fact, your audience should receive value from your social media programs even if they do not purchase your brand. Why? Because that value will encourage them to discuss, recommend and perhaps even purchase your brand.

For example, if I visit a blog by, say, a professional services company and it provides me with thought leadership--be it a new methodology, new viewpoint or new set of tips for handling age-old challenges--then I have received value from their blog (and I might even hire the company or refer the company to others).

But if that blog were merely a regurgitation of their press releases and product pitches? Then I would receive no value (and their perception would decrease in my mind). No-brainer, right?

Wrong.

You'd be amazed how often brainy companies blunder this principle.