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5 Takeaways from Valeria Maltoni: Rethinking Business in the Age of the Social Consumer

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Number 5

Ben Smith, the leader of Social IRL, is one of the most valuable and generous members of the Kansas City Social Media Community.  His hard work and dedication delivers outstanding and valuable educational content via hosting social media conferences in our region.

Ben attracts and brings globally-recognized social media thought leaders to Kansas City (that's no understatement).  On February 9th, Social IRL hosted Valeria Maltoni, a foremost digital media authority and author of Conversation Agent (one of the the most consistently ranked top 30 global marketing blogs on the Ad Age Power 150).

Important Note: You can access my unformatted Google Docs notes from the February 9th Social IRL conference by clicking this weblink.   Please inform me in the comments or tweet me if you have access problems.

Here are my five (5) takeaways from Valeria's outstanding and thought-provoking presentation.

1. Understand and Determine the Organizational Focus 

Start With Your Organizational Focus.  You have to pick the organizational capability or competence that will drive and differentiate your company's brand and business outcomes:

  • Apple: Innovation
  • Virgin: People
  • Procter & Gamble: Research and Development 
  • Coca Cola: Distribution

Valeria demonstrated how organizational focus impacted each company's share price.  And, the data showed how executing that focus is linked to long-term financial performance.

2. Focus on Your Brand Promise

Valeria defines a brand as:


"The sum of promises, promises kept, and the unbounded expectations market."

Delivering and Executing the Brand Promise are Crucial.  Why?  The stock price represents public trust / confidence in your brand.  And, that public trust / public confidence determines the discount or premium to "trade" with individual consumers.  Higher consumer trust / confidence means a higher premium for your company's goods and services.

Or, it can reflect a lack of trust / confidence.  See the stock price performance of Yahoo, Microsoft, or Eastman Kodak.

3. Prioritize and Focus on the Differentiating Brand Asset(s) Driving Your Consumer Trades

Brand Assets are Your Unique Consumer Trade Currency. The digital age redefines the brand assets most valuable to individual consumers before, during, and after the point-of-sale.  The Internet's real-time speed coupled with one or more of following brand assets is a killer combination:

  • Reputation
  • Knowledge / Information / Data
  • Relationships
  • Influence

Ticketmaster Prioritized Knowledge / Information / Data.   Therefore, organizations need to pick the brand asset they will focus on for their unique trades with individual consumers.  For example, Ticketmaster focused on knowledge / information / data to better inform consumer decisions (i.e., local-centric information, fan reviews, personal buying history suggestions, etc.) by making that brand asset easy to share (i.e., Fan Reviews are easily shared with a single-click via Twitter or Facebook).

Financial Outcome:  Each "share of information" results in a $5 increase in incremental revenue.


4. The Unmet Social Media Opportunity: Empowering Individual Consumer Filters and Feedback Loops 

Consumer Filters, Feedback and Intent.  Valeria defines consumer intent as:

  1. Providing the right information at the right time when someone is making a decision (and that decision may or may not be a "buying decision")
  2. The consumer's perception of value inherent with the brand promise
  3. How the consumer defines the "wisdom of the trade" (i.e., was the time spent gathering information / data a worthwhile investment)

Therefore, influencing how the consumer defines the "wisdom of the trade" is vitally important.  This is why brands need to focus on consumer "filters" and "feedback loops":

Consumer Filters:

  • Culture
  • Language
  • Values
  • Beliefs
  • Attitudes
  • Expectations
  • Intentions

Consumer Feedback Loops:

  • Evidence
  • Relevance
  • Consequence
  • Action


5. Ford Motor Company Case Study in Leveraging Brand Assets, Filters and Feedback Loops 

The Ford Case Study.  Valeria believes brands need to do more in making individual consumers more influential.  We still don't do enough here.  

The process for making consumers more influential can be systematically achieved (e.g., there is a process):

* First, prioritize, and focus on the business problems most vital to your organization.  Example: When Scott Monty became head of social media for Ford Motor Company, he focused on corporate reputation.  This brand asset choice was particularly important when the entire auto industry came under fire for receiving government bail-outs.  

Ford leveraged social media to permeate the strategic position that it was the only domestic automaker who chose not to receive receive government financing.  

See this example of how Alan Mulally, CEO, positions Ford as different from other US automakers because Ford is "requesting access to bridge financing just in case something bad happens" versus "receiving direct government assistance."  (see 2:26 to the end of this video).



 

 

* Second, after addressing #1, pivot your social media marketing strategy to focus on consumer filters and feedback loops that can grow a product / service:

Increase the Influence and Reputation of Your Influencers (see 1:39 to 2:52 of this video describing Ford's succsssful Ford Fiesta Social Media Campaign):



 

* Third, continue actively demonstrating "we're listening, we're listening, we're listening."  Watch how Scott Monty and Alan Mulally work together in answering and responding to consumer tweets.  It's a brilliant public relations play:



 

 

Conclusion

Hear from Valeria Herself.  A HUGE shout-out to Eric Mellin and Robert Madison of Spiral16 for publishing and sharing this great interview with Valeria on the Spiral16 Blog.




 

 

Other great Social IRL presentation content included:

Ashley Mahoney's SocialIRL Recap.  Check out Ashley Mahoney's blog post, Social: IRL Conference in a Nutshell.  She does a great job summarizing key points from other presentations I didn't address in this post.

Important Note #2: My lack of notes during specific presentations wasn't due to a lack of interest (far from it).  During the conference, I received an important client email requiring immediate action (so I missed some of the presentations).

That meant piecemeal, back-of-the-room listening (i.e., Kevin Magee, Director of Sales at Expion, shared some great insights on the current / future implications of localizing and managing social media marketing efforts but I was unable to take detailed notes).

 

Link to Photo Credit by Paul Downey via flickr

 

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The Business Value Behind Social Media: Part 4 – How to Get Started

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Lego Pieces in Box 


This blog series covers insights shared by Chris Brogan, Charlene Li, David Meerman Scott, and Martin Giles (moderator) on The Business Value Behind Social Media (part of The Premier Business Leadership Series presented by SAS).  Part 3 covers the panel's discussion on Walmart's initial social media strategy mistakes.

Part 4 discusses how companies late to social media marketing can get started.  Key starting points suggested by the panel include:

* The Importance of Linking Social Media Strategy to Corporate Strategy

* Before You Create Content, Listen and Participate 

* Figure Out Where Relevant Customer Conversations are Taking Place 

* Define the Business Goals or Results to Achieve with Social Media

This post focuses on the panel's key take-aways and discussion from 29:00 – 36:56 of the embedded video.

 


  


Link the Social Media Strategy to the Overall Corporate Strategy


Apply and Coordinate Individual Social Media Channels to Strategic Execution (32:57 – 33:18).  Charlene explains that corporate strategy isn't just about what the company does operationally.  It's about how the company coordinates the overall strategy with all the different functional strategies.

Link the Social media Strategy to the Overall Corporate Strategy (33:19 – 33:49).  Having a Facebook strategy or social media channel strategy in itself is missing the point.  The key is having a corporate strategy that the organization applies Facebook participation or social media channel tactics to.

Before You Create Content, Listen and Participate


We Can Learn a Lot by Listening (33:51 – 34:12).  David Meerman Scott mentions two (2) things companies can do as they begin their social media participation:

* Watch what's already going on online and and understand who's doing what

* Learn who's talking about your brand, your company, your products, and your industry

Take Baby Steps and Use Other People's Real Estate (34:13 – 34:18).  Deploy your social media initiatives gradually.  There's nothing wrong with commenting on people's blogs and participating in forums first before creating your own channel-specific content.   

A Common Mistake – Undefined Purpose (34:19 – 34:39).  A common mistake David observes among companies – jumping into social media and establishing a Twitter account, or a YouTube Channel, or a couple of blogs without defining each social media channel's purpose.  This just ends up being an uncoordinated mess.  That's why it's important to take your time to understand what your customers are doing online before undertaking larger the online initiatives (i.e., writing and managing a blog).

Where Are Your Customer Conversations Taking Place

Go Where Your Customers Are (28:23 – 29:29).  Understanding where your customers converse in social media channels is key.  Why?  Charlene says this knowledge can help define a specific channel's overall purpose. 

As an example, many B2B companies say they don't use Facebook in social media strategy because Facebook is a B2C medium.  But, what if the company decided to use Facebook specifically for hiring.   

On page 204 of Open Leadership, Charlene talks about how Sodexo, a food and facilities management company with 350,000 employees used Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs to triple traffic to the Sodexo Career Website.  Sodexo increased the number of applicants by 25% and also increased by 50% the number of diverse (female and minority) candidates.  

Determine the Social Media Echo Chambers by Country (29:30 – 30:42).  The panel notes that each geographic region has its own predominant social media channels:

  • United States: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube
  • Japan: Mixi.jp
  • Netherlands: Hyves.nl 

David references the phenomenon that when it comes to a specific social media platform there's usually one dominant player.  Therefore, invest your time building a presence on the dominant platforms:

  • Video = YouTube
  • Microblogging = Twitter
  • Social Networking (especially B2C) = Facebook

Define the Business Goal(s) You Want to Achieve With Social Media

Start with Specific Goals Targeted to Your Current Customers / Fans (34:54 – 35:20).  Chris suggests defining goals focusing on either customer retention or new customer acquisition.  As an example, Chris noted how the choice and purpose of using Facebook as a social media channel completely depends on the stated goal.  If your objective is customer retention of current customers, maybe your purpose on this channel is massaging people.  That tone of interaction is far different than the mood you'd be setting if the objective was new customer retention. 

This is why it's so important to understand where your existing customers or new customers are conversing online.  It makes no sense to invest time and resources in building a new channel / community if the target audience is already talking to each other in an established place. 

Particpate in the Online Conversation Because the Phone's Ringing (35:20 – 35:39).  The analogy Chris makes with social media is to think of each individual channel or community as a "ringing telephone."  If you're still sitting on the sidelines by not participating in social media, you're essentially leaving the phone unanswered (and your its your existing customers or new potential customers who are on the other end of the phone line).

 

Sustainable, Long Term Success Requires a B-H-A-G 


B-H-A-G Means Big, Hairy, Audacious, Goal (35:40 – 36:49).  Charlene says this is the long term planning or vision part of your social media strategy.  Without an understanding of the vision, your team may be setting up its social media initiatives incorrectly. 

* Think thoughtfully about what this all could really be?

* What / How could social media transform my organization?

* What will our customer relationships look like?

* What's the overall impact on our business?

In other words, your company's individual B-H-A-G could be what inspires or provides the strategic foundation for the desired outcome.

If Corporate Fear Sets In, Always Envision What Could Happen If You Succeed.  Charlene points to how the Best Buy TwelpForce initiative is transformational game changer.  Many organizations would say an initiative like that is incredibly scary.  BUT, the outcome is delivering an outstanding customer service experience that other retail competitors are not providing.  This success did not occur overnight.  It took Best Buy four (4) years to get where they are now. 

The potential business outcome could be a powerful and inspirational rallying point which aligns all team members around what you want to achieve with social media. 

Conclusion

Goal-setting and objectives are a common emphasized theme throughout The Business Value Behind Social Media series.  Defining the business outcomes and results your company wants to achieve with social media should be determined and then prioritized. 

Once you know what you want to achieve as a business outcome, it becomes clearer how to:

* Link the social media strategy to the overall corporate strategy

* Understand what you should be listening for in online customer conversations

* And once you know what to listen for in customer conversations, it can help you figure out where the online conversations are taking place. 

For example, if you're a B2C company, you're probably being talked about in Facebook.  If you're a B2b company, there's an increased likelihood conversations are taking place in LinkedIn Forums or LinkedIn Discussion Groups.

You Can't Just Throw Stuff Together in Social Media and Hope It Comes Together Naturally.  If you want to escalate your social media initiatives especially on a global scale, you have to take a structured approach that accounts for all of the aforementioned suggestions.  Having a process to define business goals, link social strategy to corporate strategy, listen carefully, and then go where the customer conversations are taking place is the approach Intel is executing with its 2011 social media efforts. 

You may experience and achieve online visibility initially by just "jumping into social media.  "But, if you want to be a relevant, long-term, online player, you better start figuring out your company's B-H-A-G to inspire the troops.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you will stop by next Saturday for Part 5: How to Measure Social Media's Impact on Your Business.

 

Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist.  He writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy for organizations and individuals in his marketing strategy blog, Social Media ReInvention.  Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+.   


Photo Credit: By oskay Via Flickr

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The Business Value Behind Social Media: Part 3 – How Walmart Learned From Initial Social Media Failures

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Milk Spill 

This blog post series covers insights shared by Chris Brogan, Charlene Li, David Meerman Scott, and Martin Giles (moderator) on The Business Value Behind Social Media (part of The Premier Business Leadership Series presented by SAS).  Part 2 provided the panel's insights on successfully implementing social media guidelines, processes, and goals focused on customer engagement.

Part 3 covers the panel's discussion on Walmart's initial social media strategy mistakes. 

I've supplemented the panel's discussion with examples described in pages 229 to 230 of Open Leadership, Charlene Li's latest book.  In these examples, Charlene writes how Walmart learned and recovered from these initial mistakes by continuing to experiment with different social media initiatives and refocus on its core audience.

The panel's discussion on Walmart's takes place from 19:00 to 20:50 of the embedded video.


 

Wal-Mart's Initial Struggles in Social Media

Many Retailers Made the Same Mistakes in Social Media (19:00 – 20:02).  Chris makes the point how many retailers (not just Walmart) and manufacturers made the mistake of initially viewing social media as just another "push channel" or "another way to push stuff down a different pipe."   

Walmart's Initially Looked Like It May Never Understand Social Media (20:03 – 20:50).  Charlene noted several missteps by the retailer that seemed to proceed one disaster after another.  I've added additional details from Open Leadership to provide additional context:

* 2006 – The Hub Social Network Lasts Only Ten (10) Weeks.  The Hub was Walmart's attempt to compete with then-leader MySpace.  Actors and models populated content and pushed visitors to buy Walmart's products.

* September 2006 – Media Coverage Reveals a Fake Blog.  A blog portraying a couple's cross-country travels in an RV and staying in Walmart parking lots was revealed as a Walmart supported venture.  Broken customer trust followed due to the significant negative news coverage this story received.

* Fall 2007 – A Facebook Group Misaligned with the Intended Target Audience.  A Facebook group focused on back-to-school shopping for college audiences was well-executed, but the group focused on fashion.  The problem is the intended target audience associated Walmart with low price — a complete disconnect.  Further compounding problems were Facebook members who started protesting Walmart's labor practices via comments and turned this site against the company.  


Walmart Learned From Each Social Media Failure 

A Return to the Corporate Mission: Helping Families Save Money.  In pages 229 to to 230 of Open Leadership, Charlene explains how Walmart's determination and persistence sustained the company through some early struggles.  Eventually, the company achieved online victories by focusing on social media initiatives focused on helping families save money. 

* CheckOutBlog.com.  A site which shares the perspective of Walmart's employee buyers' and how they go about selecting merchandise for their stores.

* Bazaarvoice.  A service that provides user ratings and reviews on Walmart's sites.

* Elevenmoms.com Blog.  A collection of mommy bloggers who share tips on how to save money.

The Resolve to Succeed and Courage to Experiment.  Despite all the previous setbacks and struggles, Walmart was determined "to figure social media out," and it tested different ideas along the way.

The Results – A Legion of Facebook Fans and Customer Engagement on Twitter.  These additional anecdotes from Open Leadership are inspiring.  Walmart achieved these online results because it didn't give up:

* Facebook Membership of 500,000+

* Dozens of Employees Engaging on Twitter with Customers

Conclusion

The Walmart example shows how maintaining your resolve to succeed in social media marketing is a big part of the game.  Even though it failed on a very public stage, Walmart kept at it and learned from these initial mistakes.  Now, they're succeeding in directly communicating with their core audience through selected social media channels.

This case study highlights the importance of "failing well."  If you're going to particpate in online conversations (like writing a blog), you're going to fail and commit mistakes.  I know I have.  Hopefully, I will continue learning from those mistakes (just like Walmart). 

Most importantly, participation in social media channels means there's always a chance, you'll fail publicly (in a small or large scale depending on your online visibility). 

But, if you're persistent and resilient, you will:

(1) Prevail in the long run and

(2) Learn a ton about what works or doesn't work for you as an online publisher

That opportunity to continuously learn and experiment is what I love about participating in social media. 

Just ask these self-made entrepreneurs profiled in this recent Business Week – Bloomberg article: Ivy League and Privilege Not Required to Make Billions.  In each case, these individuals cited the value of learning from their mistakes and how those lessons helped them become wealthy in the process.

 


Since next Saturday is Christmas Day, the plan is to publish the next installment of this series on Sunday, December 26th.  I hope you'll tune in to The Business Value Behind Social Media Part 4 – How to Get Started in Social Media.

 

 

Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist.  He writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy for organizations and individuals in his marketing strategy blog, Social Media ReInvention.  Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+.   

 

Photo Credit: by russelljsmith Via Flickr 

 

 

 

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The Business Value Behind Social Media: Part 2 – Open Leadership, Guidelines, Process Discipline, and Goals

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Open Sign 

This post represents Part 2 of a series covering the insights shared by Chris Brogan, Charlene Li, David Meerman Scott, and Martin Giles (moderator) on The Business Value Behind Social Media (part of The Premier Business Leadership Series presented by SAS).  Part 1 provided an Executive Summary of the hour-long panel discussion.

The panel discusses the characteristics of model organizations currently succeeding in social media implementation and management.  Common success factors describing these companies included:

* Social Media Guidelines and Employee Rules of Engagement

* Process Discipline

* Open Leadership (the rules for playing in the social media sandbox as explained by Charlene Li)

* Goals (e.g., defining the business outcome the individual organization wants to achieve with social media)

The summary of key takeaways pertains to 3:33 to 15:38 of the embedded video.


 

Companies Succeeding in Social Media Established Employee Guidelines and Processes for Customer Engagement

The US Air Force and Guidelines (3:33 – 5:08).  All 30,000 members are allowed to participate in social media.  The establishment of guidelines and a structure for interaction were key success factors.  David references a favorite quote from from a high ranking officer about giving Air Force Team Members the opportunity to engage in social media: "If we trust them with a $300 million airplane, why can't we trust them on Facebook?

CitiBank and Defining a Process First (5:11 – 6:45). Charlene describes how the key learning from here is the importance of establishing and putting a process in place first.  This process should define the employee interaction with customers via social media.  Defining the process provides senior management (especially the legal department) with a level of reassurance.  Establishing this process is especially important if the company is engaging in social media for the first time. 

Dell Corporation's Uses Twitter as a $6 Million Revenue Generator (6:46 – 7:30).  Chris liked how Dell started using the Web initially as a means of deploying customer service.  This initiative eventually morphed into IdeaStorm which is their collaboration forum to share ideas on new products and services that customers would like Dell to develop.  He also noted how Dell generated $6 million in revenues for bargain hardware via Twitter.

The Confidence to Let Employees Engage Customers

Open Leadership – The Sandbox Covenant (7:57 – 8:45).  Charlene says "open leadership" is your company's definition of how "open you will be."  It's important for companies to define what are the filters for communication because no company can be completely open – that's unrealistic.  But, the companies using social media effectively have defined their social media strategy and set up the rules of customer engagement within that strategy.  If you don't provide the discipline and structure, you're leaving open the possibility of anything happening online.

The Use of 1st-Person Singular in Online Communications (8:48 – 9:37).  Something David has seen work effectively is implementing a guideline asking employees to express their views in the manner of "I believe" or "I think" to show the employee isn't speaking directly on behalf of the company.  The fear of companies is they now have 1000 company spokespeople.  Far from it.  What they now have is 1000 employees directly communicating with customers.

Preventing Chaos – Deploy Social Media Gradually and Define Goals

Starbucks and Its Gradual Release of Social Media (10:02 – 10:57).  Charlene says Starbucks is one of her favorite examples because its small team successfully and gradually deployed the company's social media strategy.  According to her book, Open Leadership, the Starbucks' social media team consists of six (6) people: two (2) community managers who directly interact with people and four (4) programmers and support people. 

The book also describes how Starbucks chose a more centralized approach at the corporate level for selected channels (i.e., Facebook, Twitter).  According to Alexandra Wheeler, Starbucks' Director of Digital Strategy, the goal is to eventually give their thousands of baristas freedom to operate in social media "but not until the right structures and training are in place to ensure a consistent customer experience." 

IBM and Goal Definition (10:58 – 11:54).  Chris spoke about how IBM started out as "1000 flowers blooming," but it eventually found a way to purposefully harness their social media activity.  They did it by asking what's the goal: 

* Enhance customer service?
* Generate more revenue?
* Be more promotional?
* Build more awareness to our sales funnel via lead generation?
* Is our purpose related to B2C or B2B? 


The Zappos Model Isn't Right for Everyone

Determine the Appropriate Level of Openness for Your Individual Company (12:18 – 12:58).  Chris points out that the Zappos Way isn't for everybody because that model exposes an organization to be in "situations filled with opinions."  And for a lot of companies, these are situation they don't feel comfortable operating in.

Ask Who and How Should Employees be Engaging (13:00 – 13:56).  David says companies engaging in social media shouldn't assume that every employee wants to participate.  Employees shouldn't feel forced or obligated to communicate this way.  In his opinion, he talked about how there's probably a specific personality profile for people who enjoy engaging in social media.  Therefore, if you have these folks in your organization, encourage them to be part of the online conversation. 

How Best Buy's Twelpforce Personally Engaged Charlene Li (13:57 – 15:11).  Twelpforce enables around 2,400 Best Buy employees to share their electronics expertise directly with customers.  These employees use Twitter to converse directly with customers by answering questions usually asked everyday on the store floor. 

Charlene personally tried out this service to better understand what's the best phone with parental controls that she could purchase for her 11-year old son.  A Twelpforce team member replied back with an Android phone recommendation and asked her to stop by the store that Saturday so they could evaluate phones together.  Essentially, someone on the store floor reached out to her and said: "I'd like to build a customer relationship with you."  This type of innovative initiative gives Best Buy a competitive advantage especially over Wal-Mart, Target, or any of the phone carriers.

Conclusion

The biggest fear of large organizations when it comes to social media is their loss of control.  Their customers now have low-cost tools (e.g. social media channels) that can influence the outcome and perception of the most elaborate and sophisticated advertising campaign. 

However, the organizations described by Charlene, Chris, and David are prime examples of companies who have successfully implemented guidelines, procedures, processes, and goals so their employees can directly engage these customers.  And, it's that customer engagement that enables their employees to positively influence customers who not only purchase their company's products and services but are also Blogging, Tweeting, Liking, Sharing, and Digging about these offerings as well.

Please stay tuned for next Saturday's Edition of The Business Behind Social Media, Part 3: Lessons From Wal-Mart and The Importance of Failing Well.

Bonus Section: Additional Links 

The US Airforce and Guidelines from Web Ink Now

* The US Air Force Armed With Social Media
* The US Air Force and Social Media: A Discussion With Colonel Michael Caldwell
* Launching Ideas at The US Air Force
* Free Social Media eBook and Video: New Media & The Air Force

IBM's Participation in Social Media Covered in Web Ink Now

* IBM Blogging Guidelines and the Company's 3,000 Bloggers
* Ben Edwards on the IBM Transition from Outbound Marketing to Inbound Marketing

Altimeter Group and Wet Paint Report on Starbucks and Other Social Media Case Studies

* July 2009 Report: The World's Most Valuable Brands: Who's Most Engaged

 

Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist.  He writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy for organizations and individuals in his marketing strategy blog, Social Media ReInvention.  Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+.   


Photo Credit: By Monica's Dad via Flickr

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The “C” in Content Represents Commitment to Customers

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Letter C 

The "C" in Content Represents Commitment to Customers

What do you think the "C" in Content represents?

I am inspired by Mitch Joel's blog post, My Commitment to You. In this post, he describes his personal commitment to publish the following content for his blog readers:

* 6 blog posts per week (e.g., 312 posts per year) 

* 1 audio podcast per week (e.g., 52 podcasts per year)

* That's 364 pieces of content published per year — Wow!

Here's more inspiring statistics regarding Mitch's company Twist Image and the content volume they've published as of November 15, 2010:

* 2,300 blog posts

* 228 podcasts

* 60 to 80 speaking events

* One (1) book, Six Pixels of Separation

* That's 2,608 additional pieces of content either already published online or delivered to a live audience.  According to Mitch's post, the team created the blog in 2003.  Therefore, the 2,300 blog posts represent the seven (7) year commitment and publication strategy of approximately 330 blog posts per year.  On a weekly basis, that production equates to around 6.4 blog posts per week.

Thus, Mitch Joel honors his commitment to his customers (remember his personal commitment of 6 blog posts per year mentioned a little earlier).  Here's another link to a Mitch Joel post titled, The Hardest Part of Social Media.  He sums up in two (2) words the most difficult part of social media:  The Commitment.

 

Honoring Your Commitment to Customers Drives Customer Acquisition and Loyalty

I published a blog post titled, Successful Social Media Marketing is Neither Free Nor Easy, that struck a chord in 2010.  I described how HubSpot's dogged customer commitment to high quality content development drives their online visibility and lead generation process.  When I published that post in April 2010, HubSpot produced approximately 1,000 blog posts.  Well, they continue to publish valuable content and their library of insightful blog posts on inbound marketing grows daily.

20 to 50 Blog Posts is a Magic Number.  Check out this data point HubSpot conducted with a sample size of 762 customers.  On slide 15 of State of Inbound Lead Generation, the data demonstrates that a company must publish at least 20 to 50 blog posts to generate a significant number of customer leads.  It's safe to say that both Mitch Joel and HubSpot significantly exceed this benchmark.

 

State Of Inbound Lead Generation

View more presentations from HubSpot Internet Marketing.

  

58 Marketing Webinars and Counting.  Furthermore, HubSpot's commitment to customers extends to conducting marketing webinars on the topics of inbound marketing strategy, search engine optimization (SEO) & Search Marketing (PPC), Blogging for Business, Social Media Marketing, Lead Generation & Conversion, Marketing Analytics, and Special Topics.  According to their archives, they have 58 webinars on-demand and another four (4) are scheduled for delivery for the remainder of 2010.

Weekly HubSpot TV Podcast.  Let's also not forget about HubSpot's Live TV Podcast broadcasted every Friday at 4 PM Eastern Time.  So there's another, 52 pieces of customer-targeted content delivered annually.  Here a link to the HubSpot TV Archives.

Integration Across Multiple Channels.  And to top it off, this variety and volume of content development is carefully deployed via an integrated marketing strategy across multiple social media channels and traditional media relations (i.e., speaking engagements, news outlet interviews, television interviews, etc.).

But, that integration analysis will have to wait for another blog post …

 

Commitment to Customers Produces Successful and Measurable Financial Results

Here's evidence of HubSpot's commitment to customers yielding successful financial results.  These recent press releases highlight its customer acquisition success and company growth in the Boston area:

* 3,500th Customer Chooses HubSpot and Inbound Marketing

* HubSpot Wins Sales 2.0 Award for Best Alignment of Sales & Marketing

* Boston Globe Names HubSpot a Top 4 Place to Work in Massachusetts

 

Conclusion: So What Do You Think the "C" in Content Represents?

Creative content isn't enough to succeed in today's competitive marketing environment.  Almost everyone has access to a computer, browser, and Internet connectivity.  And many of those folks are creative content creators.  But, there's hope in genuinely earning online attention and loyalty when competing with these Internet Creatives (even if they have bigger budgets and more FTEs).

Why? Because the Modern Internet permanently reinvents how to leverage personal commitment to customers as a competitive advantage.  Honor your commitment to customers, and you can level the playing field. 

That's why I believe the "C" in Content Represents Commitment to Customers.  This is a hallmark attribute of successful businesses and individuals.  You don't need to be a rocket scientist, you don't have to be a website design guru, an SEO wizard, or even The Huffington Post. 

But, You Have to Have Commitment to Customers (just ask Mitch Joel or HubSpot).

So, what do you think the "C" in content stands for?  Please let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment. 

Thank you for reading, and may you and your families have a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving Holiday.

 

Photo Credit: by Karyn Kristner via Flickr

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Audience Engagement: Responding to Blog Comments in Real-Time

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Audience Engagement 

David Meerman Scott recently published a new book, Real-Time Marketing & PR: How to Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Now.  I'm looking forward to reading David's latest book because his content and insights are outstanding.  He's also published a series of blog posts and a new eBook to introduce his concepts driving real-time marketing and PR. 

I commented on one of the posts titled: Make Your Web Site a Real-Time Machine: A Manifesto.  Here are some screen shots of our dialogue:

DMS Real Time Blog Comments 

 DMS Real Time Blog Comments 2

 

David Responded to My Respective Comments in Real-Time

Speed wins in the Internet Age.  David responded to my first comment in less than 30 minutes! His response to my second comment arrived in less than 2 hours.  To say I'm impressed by his actions is an understatement.

   

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

David's responsiveness is impressive because his book talks about achieving competitive advantages by connecting with customers in real-time.  Even though he was in a different part of the world for a speaking gig, he took the time to genuinely acknowledge my blog comments.  His actions and real-time speed demonstrate his consistency and credibility in thoughtfully engaging and conversing with his audience.

 

Conclusion

Credible audience engagement occurs when you consistently practice what you preach.  In the blogsphere, achieving credibility for one's individual online and professional reputations is critical.  When I read David's responses, I can see these aren't cursory acknowledgments.  And that means a lot to me, because I took the time to read and understand his published insights from both the posts and the eBook.  This is why I often link to his blog posts and cite his content.  It's also evidence of how he consistently works to engage and maintain the trust of an audience he's worked hard to cultivate.

 

Bonus: Links to David's Real-Time Posts and a Recent Video

When you have a chance check out David's posts because they describe the competitive advantages real-time marketing and PR can have in:

* Capitalizing on Real-World Events as These Events Unfold in Real-Time
* Developing New Products and Services
* Testing Marketing Messaging and Positioning With Target Audiences (before final product launch)
* Understanding the Current and Future Implications for Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Here are the links and a video he's published describing a great case study in competitive advantage when leveraging real-time marketing and PR:

* Make Your Web Site a Real-Time Machine: A Manifesto (the new eBook is also here)
* Developing Products Based on Instant Gratification
* How B2B Companies Use Real-Time Blog Posts to Get Trade Media Exposure
* How Real-Time Communications Drives Measurable ROI at Fortune 100 Companies

 

Real-Time Marketing & PR from David Meerman Scott on Vimeo.

Photo Credit: By Martin Thomas Via Flickr

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MySpace’s Reinvention Strategy: Focus On Its Core Buyer Persona

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In Social Media ReInvention Blog, I try to describe how individuals, companies, or entire industries can use social media and/or inbound marketing strategy to reinvent themselves.  This post has a slight twist because it talks about a current social media company reinventing itself — MySpace.  

Remember MySpace?  It wasn't long ago that it was battling for social media supremacy with Facebook.  In the past few years, MySpace has encountered different challenges.  It's new co-Presidents, Jason Hischborn and Mike Jones, have recently described their plans to change the company's direction and focus.  

In this post, I've cited and summarized different sources explaining MySpace's reinvention plans.  The firm's approach looks like it centers on:

* A renewed understanding of its core buyer persona
* Focusing on, winning back, and growing this buyer persona
* Objectives and metrics the company plans to use in measuring its progress

MySpace's Buyer Persona: Under-35-Year-Old Music and Game Lovers
David Meerman Scott defines the buyer persona as "a distinct group of potential customers, an archetypal person whom you want your marketing to reach."  MySpace's core buyer persona can be described as:1

* Self-expressive and creative under-35-year-olds
* Individuals who love music, games, and movies
* 50%+ of its 100 million estimated users are 25 and younger (according to ComScore)
* Deeply engaged users: 13-to-34 year olds who spend 84% of their user time on the site

Giving The Buyer Persona What It Wants.  MySpace's current and future business strategy is to secure exclusive entertainment content.  For example, MySpace users focus their interests in video games (28%) and celebrity and entertainment content (23%).2  High profile celebrity pages will now include updates so the pages have more information and are easier for users to navigate.3  Co-President Jason Hirschorn describes the site as pop culture centric: "You could share your thoughts about the elections in Iraq but it might not be the place that you do that — but you'll certainly talk about what went on in The Hurt Locker and what dress Sandra Bullock wore during the Academy Awards."4

Removing What The Buyer Persona Doesn't Want.  In 2005, Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp. acquired MySpace for $580 million.  This event also marked the decision by co-founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson to position MySpace as a large social portal to make itself more attractive to online advertisers.5  Why? According to DeWolfe in the August 2008 Fast Company article, "some 90% of online-advertising spending goes to big portals."  

New co-Presidents Mike Jones and Mike Hirschborn acknowledge that adding portal-like features features having nothing to do with entertainment was a mistake.  In the last nine months, they've removed sections devoted to weather reports, horoscopes, job boards, and classified advertising.6

Identifying and Attracting Influential Music Fans: Artist Dashboard
The music community (e.g., bands and fans) drove the original growth of MySpace.  13 million+ bands, from Pearl Jam to garage bands use MySpace to promote themselves.  The site is especially important for new bands distributing their own music without a major record label's support.  Paraphrasing Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora, "When it comes to music, MySpace has a monster audience."1

The Artist Dashboard.  I find this new feature interesting and similar to the objective of LinkedIn Answers – identifying and recognizing experts.  The Artist Dashboard is designed to target music afficianados (and attract new ones).  It's a variation of the visual dshboard found in the MySpace Music hub and will become available to all MySpace users.  The dashboard will show a user's activity:4

* Who is reacting to what the user publishes (and where they are)
* A series of achievements and badges describing the user's network influence (i.e., most shared playlists or an early trend spotter)

Here's a picture of the dashboard from the Mashable article by Barb Dybwad:

MySpace Artist Dashboard

 

Driving New Growth With Games: Consumers and Developers
At the March 2010 Game Developers Conference, co-President Mike Jones launched a new MySpace Games strategy to showcase online games on the site and attract more developers.  Jones said during the conference: "Just as MySpace made a real commitment to music, to have the best content, we're now making the same type of commitment with games."7

Consumers. Helping users easily discover and share games virally is a key strategy.  Game activity will be shared via users' notifications and streams.  Personalized game recommendations, popular game charts, and the ability to rate games will all be key features.7

Developers. New features and improvements to attract game developers include:7

* Better application engagement and analytics tools to better understand player demographics, how games are discovered, and how they're shared
* App-specific analytics
* Ability to build 3D games
* A new iPhone app, called MySpace Neon, to provide mobile game playing via the iPhone

Tracking and Measuring Progress: Depends on Whether You're an Analyst or a MySpace Executive
Based on my review of the different news sources, the publicized metrics to track MySpace's reinvention progress varies between internet strategy analysts and MySpace's co-presidents:

Internet Strategy Analysts' Metrics.  The internet strategy analysts discussed tracking metrics centering around revenue, numbers of members, numbers of visitors, and time on site.  In each case, the analysts used Facebook as a comparator.

* Revenues.  For 2010, eMarketer estimates $605 million in revenues for Facebook versus $385 million for MySpace (21% decrease).1

* Number of Members.  Facebook has 400 million members versus MySpace with 100 million members.1

* Number of Monthly Visitors.  Facebook had 111.8 million US visitors (95% increase); MySpace had 66.7 million visitors (5% decrease).6 

* Time On Site.  Facebook averaged 267 minutes per month; MySpace averaged 130 minutes per month.6 

MySpace's Metrics.  Jason Hirschborn and Mike Jones have publicly stated the following objectives they will be tracking:

* Revenues. Jones is quoted in the USA Today interview that "MySpace has been good at monetization, others notice that."  He did not disclose revenue targets during the interview.1

* Growth in Numbers of Users: Hirschborn wants numbers of users to grow to 200 million or 300 million (from the current 100 million).  He declined to provide a timeframe for achieving this objective.3

* Percentage of MySpace Members Playing Games. Jones says approximately one-third of MySpace members play games.  Both he and Hirschborn have targeted 50% participation (perhaps as early as the end of this year).3,4

* Number of Monthly Minutes Spent Playing Games.  MySpace members spend 1 billion minutes per month.  The company wants to increase this monthly usage to 2 billion minutes.7 

 

Photo Credit: From Flickr by jim6800

Sources
1 Once-fading MySpace focuses on youthful reincarnation by Jon Swartz.  USA Today, March 10, 2010.
2 What social media users want [STATS] by Jennifer Van Grove.  Mashable, March 18, 2010.
3 MySpace revamps for revival by Sarah Jacobsson.  PCWorld, March 10, 2010.
4 MySpace co-presidents reveal company's plan for the future [INTERVIEW] by Barb Dybwad.  Mashable, March 9, 2010.
5 MySpace, the sequel by Ellen McGirt.  FastCompany.com, August 7, 2008.
6 MySpace looks to the past for its future by Dawn C. Chmielewski. Los Angeles Times, March 10, 2010.
7 MySpace turns to games to regain prominence by Benny Evangelista.  SFGate.com, March 11, 2010.

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A Great Example of Online Listening & Brand Monitoring: The Ritz-Carlton

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How Many Times Per Day Do We Ask Ourselves These Questions
* Will major companies or brands ever understand the importance of "listening" to online conversations?
* Is this this whole concept of "online listening" just a matter of hype and social media hocus-pocus?
* Does showing online audiences that we're listening really do anything (e.g., start engagement, build goodwill, do anything?)

The Ritz-Carlton Gets It …

J0402585[1]I recently read a great article in Forbes.com: How Ritz-Carlton Stays at the Top.  The article is an interview of its CEO, Simon F. Cooper, who describes a number of the processes and the organization's famous service culture such as:

* Its Famous Service Motto: "We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen."

* Employee Trust: Every Ritz employee is permitted to spend up to $2000 per guest to make sure a guest is satisfied (and that's per guest incident not per year)

* A Compelling Objective: Create an Absolutely Wonderful Stay for a Guest

The Ritz doesn't just talk-the-talk, they walk-the-walk.  Their organization carries the distinction as the only service company in America to receive the Malcolm S. Baldridge Quality Award twice.  

The Ritz-Carlton's Senior Director of Public Relations, Alison Sitch Demonstrates Online Listening, Engagement, and Brand Monitoring

I tweeted about the Forbes article late Wednesday evening around 9 pm – 10 pm and referenced the $2000 per guest factoid because I thought that was pretty cool.  I learned a lot from reading the article, and thought my Twitter Followers might enjoy reading it too. 

Here's what impresses me about the Ritz-Carlton's online listening engagement by Alison Sitch — Check this out:

Ritz Carlton Example 1* I received a "Mention" in my Twitter stream the following morning from @RitzCarltonPR (Alison Sitch) thanking me for the tweet I sent about the article — Unbelievable!

* Not only did Alison thank me but she also sent out 11 "thank you tweets" acknowledging 60+ people who also tweeted about the Forbes.com article (based on my quick scan of her Twitter stream).

* I have never received any type of "thank you note" or communication from a large or prestigious organization like the Ritz-Carlton for any tweets I send (and I've sent out a lot of tweets).

I just think this is a great example of what Chris Brogan says is "showing others how we can be human at a distance." In a cynical age where there's more mistrust than trust in the business world, isn't it great to hear the words "thank you?" 

* If you received a thank you note like this wouldn't it make you feel good too? 

* Wouldn't it make you feel like there's someone genuinely trying to treat you well and wasn't taking your kindness for granted? 

* Isn't that something important to all of us as human beings (whether we're communicating online or in-person?

Please tell me what you think in your comments.

It made me feel really good, and I'm now following @RitzCarltonPr (aka Alison Sitch) on Twitter.  Here's Alison's Twitter profile in case you'd like to follow her also:

Ritz Carlton Twitter Profile