December 8th, 2008 by Nils Maier
The development around Social Media and its adoption in Marketing, gains more importance in the marketing mix. At first glance, it looks like as if the U.S marketers are more courageous in their approach to social media marketing. But at second glance, there are actually relevant successful examples in Germany for the adoption of social media marketing. Langnese and Tchibo are two great examples, on how the social media actually influences the German marketing department. Unfortunately, the big giants Advertisers in Germany are yet to let loose their reservations about social media marketing.
What might be the cause of these reservations from the German Advertisers? A quick and close attention to consumer generated communication platforms provides answer to this question. The digitals communication platforms enable each user to submit contents, as well as to publish them and to connect with other users. Well, what does this imply for the marketers? Quite easy: the brands message seeded in these channels are no longer under direct control of the marketers. Well plain and simple, through this media, the users have taken control over brands communications. Ultimately, the multiplier of brand messages is about being pro consumers and less about classical marketing campaign. We think, this shift of power on behalf of consumers, is what scared most of the German companies, to actually be actively engaged in Social Media.
Although for the most part, this fear is without reasons. Marketers should definitely get in direct dialogs with their target group and their customers. In Social Media, it’s all about direct communications with consumers, since consumers are often also users of social networks, visitors of products valuation portal, as well as forums users and at the same time functioning as brands representatives. Hence, marketers must enter into transparent dialogs in respective platforms with these multipliers. Being pro consumers should also mean for the marketers to give authentic information for their consumers and by using social media strategies, provide a real added value to their target group.
But where and how should a marketer start, in the realm of social media? What should be the first thing to do in regards of social media initiatives? Well, if I – as a company- actually want to get into dialogs with my costumers, then I should better be listening first. Thereby, the first step would be applying comprehensive communication strategies through Social Media Monitoring. But, an effective Monitoring solution is only a small part of the comprehensive social media strategy. Lee Oden provides an overview of fundamentals for communications strategy in social media:
• Audience – Listen and understand your audience and how they communicate/interact on the social web. What types of social networks, media sharing and assets do they engage? What are their goals for doing so?
• Objectives – It’s important to consider both the goals of the company as well as the audience you’re trying to reach. Marketing on the social web is about giving to get. Knowing what your community wants is key in reaching your own organization’s goals because you’re going to give it to them.
• Strategic Plan – What approach will you take to meet the needs and interests of your audience in order to meet your own? Will you engage influencers, will you energize brand advocates or will you create demand by offering non-branded resources?
• Tactics – What social media marketing tactics and corresponding technologies will you use to implement the plan? Blogging, microblogging, social networks, video, forums, blogger relations and outreach. There are many to consider.
• Tools – What specific tools will you use to efficiently monitor, communicate, create and promote social content? WordPress, Facebook or MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Again, there are many to consider.
• Metrics – How will you measure success according to the objectives you’ve identified? What tools will you employ and at what point will you take benchmark measurements as well as interval measurements? Who will you report results to in the organization and will there be success metrics that you can share with the community you’re engaging?
From my point of view, these propositions from Lee are actually quite right. The existing fear of losing control should not lead German marketers to completely ignore this media. Such behavior would inevitably result in complete loss of control. After all, social media is not a temporary phenomenon, but rather it is a long lasting change in communications behavior. Only, a pro active and strategic approach in the realm of social media would enable control in the area of brands communications. Thereby, Leo’s above mentioned strategy propositions do provide some insights. After all, a marketer should not ask the question, if he/she should be engaged in social media, but rather, how long he/she could afford avoiding this social media engagement.
