March 31st, 2009 by Marcus Lauks
Original Article by David Nelles
The benefit of social media is undisputable in regard to the dialog between customers and companies. Particularly, the dialog within 140 characters stood out the most in the core of public discussion concerning the usage of collaborative media in business area. Yet, the Customer Relation Management proves to be the perfect environment for Twitter&Co.
…I think that Twitter has a unique opportunity to tap into the lucrative CRM space.
As stated by Jeremiah and he had his point there. More and more companies are using this very direct and authentic way of communications with their customers. U.S provider for web analytics – Omniture uses also Twitter amongst others social media tools, to connect and nourish the relationships with customers.
Regarding Twitter and customer relationship management, I know it’s been hugely important for us—ClientCare, and really for Omniture as a whole. I love the idea that we can listen to our customers so easily. When there are support issues, we can deal with them quicker than ever before.
Ben Gaines mentions in his statements two important USPs, which obviously speak for the application of Microblogging in the area of CRM. On one hand, it was never before so easy to listen to customers and on the other hand, it was never before possible to assist customers having problems with products or services in a fast & quick manner: two reasons, which strongly support the use of this relative new communication channel. Meanwhile, these advantages of Microblogging are already being often utilized by many companies for their customers – starting from Airlines and Automobiles, to Online Shoes and Tea. The increasingly rapid conversations via Twitter are challenging companies to actually collect and organize the flowing customers’ conversations.
It’s important to first realize that managing a large brand on Twitter isn’t scalable, with hundreds –maybe thousands of tweets about a marketplace a day, individuals will have a very difficult time managing…determining who these people are, and if they are a potential customer is important, who are these people, are they important, where do they live?
With this insights, there are recently promising technical solutions for the application of Twitter in the area of CRM, which guarantee a professional utilization and implementation of costumers contacts. One of the interesting solutions is CoTweet:
CoTweet, currently in private beta and specifically designed to help businesses maximize their Twitter ROI, tweaks the Twitter experience to match that of a more sophisticated CRM solution allowing companies to manage multiple accounts from a single dashboard, support multiple editors for each account, track conversations, assign roles, and create follow-up tasks.
Another promising service for Twitter application in CRM is also being offered by Salesforce. Users of salesforce Saas application can integrate Twitter in their CRM:
The new integration allows businesses to search twitter for mentions about their products/services, find and track conversations, track growth and easily create a database of each in their Service Cloud. Once these conversations are part of the SalesForce Service Cloud, businesses can combine these with other mentions across other networks and communities, establish connections, share knowledge across teams and most importantly, completely integrate customer service departments into the cloud.
Applications like Twitter integration in Salesforce or CoTweet will play pivotal roles in the future for the long lasting use of Twitter in the area of CRM. Especially in Germany, where Twitter starts to gain more public recognition and thus, the relevant amount of data collected via Twitter will rapidly rise quite soon. With this kind of growth, it will be impossible to do the research manually. Hence, those kind of technical solutions are inevitable for companies engaging in social media.
With all the excitement and buzz surrounding Twitter i.e. Microblogging, one should always keep in mind that Twitter is only one part of the CRM strategy in social media. It is very essential for companies to use all the relevant areas of consumer generated channels. Hence, the dialog with customers in forums, weblogs, video platforms and social networks as well as Twitter belongs undeniably to a well polished social media set of companies.
March 30th, 2009 by Marcus Lauks
Original Article David Nelles
Users as brand evangelists – as multipliers of brand messaging in social media? Yet, marketers and communications execs perceive this reality as threat. Although, at the same time marketers don’t actually have any control over their brands in social media.
The success of brands in social media starts out solely through users and their engagement. Coca Cola does seem to understand this concept. The Coca Cola’s page in facebook.com has by now more than 3.3 million fans and it becomes the second largest fansite in this network. However, the success story was not initiated by any Coca Cola execs, but instead the idea originated from three normal users, just plain simple coke fans.
the Coke page, which totals 3.3 million “fans,” wasn’t even created by Coca-Cola, but by a pair of Los Angelenos who just love Coke. In late August 2008, aspiring actor Dusty Sorg was hunting for a Coca-Cola fan page he could join on Facebook. He didn’t find one that seemed legitimate so he hunted down a high-resolution digital image of a Coke can, uploaded it to Facebook and made a page.
However, a change in facebook Terms of Use last November made the creators of this fanpage quite worried. The Zuckenberg network specified that a fanpage, which devotes itself to a concrete brand, may do so only if it’s operated by someone authorized by the respected brand. Therefore, facebook offered Coke the choice whether to take over the fanpage or it will be closed. If one considers the analogy of losing control and social media, then one would likely assumed that Coke would have decided to shut the group down. Even one of the fan page creators commented quite negatively.
“Everyone has this vision that if something like this happens, the big company will send you off to Guantanamo,…”
Yet, Coke surprised the audience in this case. Coke resolved the task not by closing the group or by attempting hostile takeover, but instead Coke sought the dialog with group’s creators and even agreed to help and support the maintenance of this huge fanpage. Hence, the fanpage is given the aid of Coke’s interactive team Dusty Sorg and Michael Jedrzejewski. With this approach, Coke as a brand has shown how important it is to support fans in social media. Had Coke decided for hostile takeover or closing off the fan site with more than 3.3 million fans, it would have resulted in massive reputation risk coming from the huge brand supporters.
After the first bumpy ride in the area of user generated media, Coca Cola seems to learn its lesson. Coke has understood to utilize on users as brand evangelists, rather than to intimidate loyal fan communities in user generated media. The American beverage producer pursues with its decision the long lasting of dialog with the target group. Therefore, marketers of other brands should take this great example to heart and support their fan communities in social media. Such approach would deepen the relationships between users and brands, boost trust and loyalty as well as the sustainability of brand image.
March 24th, 2009 by Marcus Lauks
Original Article by David Nelles
Social media marketing only works when a user gets a real added value through his/her engagement. This means: The interaction with brands in user generated channels must result in a measureable ROI for users, as to achieve successful marketing in this area. Thereby, in his latest post – Tom Smith opts for a change in perspectives regarding this matter. It’s not about the added value of social media for companies but instead it’s more about the added value of big brands’ social media activities for users. Smith derives eight advantages for consumers through social media marketing:
1. Social media can transcend the “black box brand” of the past into a transparent dialog partner. Social media enables user a peek behind the scenes of a brand.
2. Social media differentiates bad products from good ones. Thanks to social media, it’s easier for users to get information about specific products before buying decisions are made.
3. Social media is the perfect channel for customer service. Comcast, Dell and Southwest are few of the best examples. The basic for brands should be to actively present themselves where the target group is, as to always be there for the costumers.
4. Social media allows users to take part in product innovation. The keyword is crowdsourcing for the creation of better products. Tchibo, Dell and Procter & Gamble show how companies can involve consumers in product development.
5. User decides if he/she wants to interact with brands. In classical online marketing, users didn’t have the power of choice to decline massive brand messaging.
6. Social media efforts of big brands are the prerequisites for a free of charge usage of Facebook&Co. However, for a continuous availability and development of social media platforms developers need the money, which would come from a booked and well-planned marketing campaign of big brands.
7. Big companies have interesting stories to be told. Brands like Daimler and Coke do have stories of their own and they certainly offer consumers real added value.
8. Brands in social media are alive through users. One way or another, users’ conversations about brands would take place, regardless of whether brands are choosing to be actively engaged or not.
In the end, it’s quite evident: Social media marketing i.e. active brands in social media offer users a real numerable added value. It starts with transparency through direct customer service and the power of choice, where users can decide for themselves whether they want to be exposed to brand messaging: users benefit obviously from this 2.0 brand communication. This user’s ROI is the key indicator for the success of a brand in user generated media. Brands communication in social media ignites two-way added value, both for users and brands. This applies only, if marketers abide to above mentioned added values. Hence, keywords like transparency and authenticity should be the core focus.
March 16th, 2009 by Marcus Lauks
Original Article by David Nelles
In an interview with AdAge magazine Jimmy Wales gives his estimation about marketers’ strategy of mass collaboration in digital platforms like wikia.com. But Walles also thinks that the real success of this media is often overshadowed by marketers’ fear of losing control. Thereby, brands are still not able to enter into a real direct dialog with users in user generated media.
The fear of losing control doesn’t only apply exclusively to Wiki platform, but rather to the entire area of user generated media. This kind of fear resulted from marketers’ way of thinking that they could control their brands message, just like they did back then before social media surfaces. Well could they do it? The answer is a plain simple No. After all, social media is only a consequent shift of social interaction into a digital environment. Marketers are mistaken if they actually believed that they could control their brands communication back then. Even before social media, brands were already subjected to various discussions by consumers and print media. The difference in social media is that the critical voice of consumers for the affected company is instantly visible. Feedbacks about offered services or products should not ignite fear and loathing for marketers in charge in the company. Social media offers the chance of digital consumer conversations for brand’s benefits. Hence, it was never before so easy for companies to achieve consumer insights.
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March 13th, 2009 by Marcus Lauks
Original Article by David Nelles
Even for companies in B2C area, it’s quite evident that social media serves as a very efficient communication channel in the area of marketing and company’s communication. However, what about the use of social media in the area of B2B? Does a digital and interactive dialog with decision-makers i.e. buyers in user generated media make any sense at all? In regard to this question, Forrester published a survey with quite astounding results. Josh Bernoff described one particular result as followed:
91% of these technology decision-makers were Spectators — the highest number I’ve ever seen in a Social Technographics Profile. This means you can count on the fact that your buyers are reading blogs, watching user generated videos, and participating in other social media. Note that 69% of them said they were using this technology for business purposes.
Why should the communication behavior of private consumers change? Even buyers in companies use user generated channels just like private persons. Sure, the results of Forrester’s survey are referring only to buyers’ behavior from technological sector, but these findings are actually also a good indicator for the global development. A successful and modern B2B marketing should be able to adjust to the shift of media use. But, how should marketers act in B2B area? Just like in every starting process of social media strategy, a detailed market analysis is also needed in B2B:
• Conducting research to understand more about a prospect’s or client’s “buying desires.”
• Finding decision makers for certain products and services.
• Extracting names from a given community for lead generation.
• Getting answers to questions, reaching out to other experts.
• Finding joint-venture marketing partners and creating various “cooperative opportunities.”
Such analysis of target group, multipliers and brands relevant themes can only be the first step to take for the B2B marketers in social media. Besides consumer insights, a well founded Netnographic can also show the way into the relevant communities. Why shouldn’t companies use it? It is certainly advisable for companies to get into direct dialog in user generated platforms with their respective target company i.e. with the person in charge.
For example, it would offer the possibility for a wood processing manufacturer to be active in a carpenter forum. At the same time, it’s not about switching on banners, but foremost it’s about getting into direct dialog with carpenters about daily requirements of wood processing etc. With such dialog, the company can also manage their existing customers in the sense of digital CRM in respective platforms. In the end, a B2B company must implement their brands in user generated platforms to get into dialog with target group. Just like in B2C, such action would convey the brand image and awareness of buyers in respective company. Thus, the improvement of the two mentioned parameters could lead to a sustainable customer loyalty as well as new customers.
Besides the improvement of brand image and awareness, could a good B2B strategy in the area of user generated media actually boost innovation leadership of the company in the respective segment? Well, e.g. A blog – in which employees can classify branch news, comment and even describe the market development and trends – could actually provide strategic benefit for the company. Let us assume, that the results of Forrester survey in regards to the use of social media for company’s buying decisions in the technological area also meet the requirements of other branches, then a corporate weblog, podcast or video channel can be the perfect channel to underline the innovation leadership. Eventually, an image as innovation leader can leave traceable impacts on buying decisions of other companies.
It’s quite obvious that marketing in social media doesn’t exclusively apply only to B2C marketing. Even buyers in companies are increasingly using user generated media to inform themselves before making buying decisions. U.S companies such as Intel, Chevron and Millerwelds show, how it could work, and as shown by the case of Westaflex, German companies are also active in this matter. This development evidently shows that in the area of B2B marketing social media is already being used. Hence, the area of user generated media belongs as well to a fixed part of marketing mix for B2B marketing area. Justin Hitt is right, as he says:
Social media is something I added to my existing mix, in some ways it does it better (saving time, money, resources).
March 4th, 2009 by Marcus Lauks
Original Article by David Nelles
What makes social media attractive? Evan Williams’s prediction is definitely right. Social media appeal to human’s baser need, which is the desire to socially connect with each other. Social networks as technical solution offer the possibility of globally social interaction. Respectively, the state of interaction between individuals in social media is actually a continuation of the offline social interaction into a digital world. From technical tools, Twitter has somehow fulfilled this baser need of human’s social interaction- shown by its huge number of users. However, I have to disagree with one of William’s comment. Well I think, Twitter won’t need the five extra years to get its tool used by broader public.
March 4th, 2009 by Marcus Lauks
Original Article by David Nelles
We’ve talked a lot about varying possibilities of dialogs between users and brands by ways of blogs, Twitter streams or branded community in big social networks. Hence, the importance of direct and authentic dialog was often mentioned in regard to building brand reputation and brand awareness. After all, all these platforms have one thing in common; the buying decisions take place at those platforms, but sales are mainly to be found elsewhere. Yet, how does the dialog work between consumers and brands in social shopping platforms such as Amazon or in other product review portals such as Dooyoo or HolidayCheck? Is it necessary for companies to be engaged actively in those platforms? The answer is easy: Yes, even here marketing execs should be active. Product recommendations and buying decisions in Amazon&Co occur in a pretty concrete and concentrated way. Hence, it is highly recommendable for companies in the area of B2C to use these platforms as potential communication channels for a concrete and direct dialog with users. Furthermore, company’s communication execs should take notice of important rules in regard to the communication between users and brands in these surroundings. On his blog post, Todd Defren summarizes quite reasonable rules of communication for product review platforms:
Rule #1: Take notice, what is actually allowed and what is not. Before companies do actively engage in this area, they should at first read and understand each of product review platform’s Terms of Use.
Rule #2: Listen to consumers. Just like each activity in social media, the dialog begins on these platforms with continuous monitoring of the relevant channels. It’s about getting a general view and afterwards to communicate more efficiently with the product reviewers.
Rule #3: Always play with open cards. Companies should always act in an open manner, meaning they should never pretend to be “just another user”. Users of these platforms wish for an open communication with the person in charge of the brands. If companies take this rule to heart, a sustainable dialog between users and companies would be accomplished.
Rule #4: Willingness for a real user dialog. Even if a negative or positive customer feedback exists: a dialog must take place. Therefore, companies should engage courteously and effectively to all comments made by users – be it good or bad comments.
Rule #5: Handling negative feedback in a constructive way. Companies should be cooperative in handling critical feedback. They should show that they do listen to consumers and thus, try to provide the best solutions. If the critics are too personal and false, companies must not react too defensive and ignorant, instead they should comment in a short and prompt way but not getting too deep into discussion.
Rule #6: The best defense is not offence. If company’s communicator rates a comment as harming the company’s business; it is advisable not to force the hosting platform to remove it. Such action would rather lead to higher waves of attention and it won’t do any good for marketers to be on the bad side with hosting platform. Furthermore, it would only leave bad impression on potential brand evangelists.
Rule #7: Rewarding positive feedback with a thank you. Communication in this area does not only mean to respond only to negative comments, but also to the positive feedbacks. By responding to positive comments, marketers could bind consumers/users more strongly to brands. By means of positive communication between users and brands, an important step is certainly achieved in establishing continuous brands relation.
Review platforms and social shopping platforms do belong for certain to a very important element of a social media marketing strategy. In social media platforms marketers are so closed on sales process then elsewhere. Hence, it is quite essential to offer users in those platforms the possibility of an authentic direct dialog with respected brands. Thereby, company’s execs must pay head to be open and direct in their communications and they should respond to negative critics constructively, or in a deescalated way.
February 25th, 2009 by Marcus Lauks
Original Article by David Nelles
Mirror, mirror on the wall, which one is the priciest blog of all? We’ve known now about the market value of the Top Blogs in Germany, but again the big U.S blogs set the benchmarks with their corresponding financial values. The 247wallst.com analysts have been determining the value of big U.S blogs at regular intervals. Douglas A. McIntyre provides insight on key figures used in the values calculation as followed:
To determine value, 24/7 Wall St. looked at unique visitor and pageviews information from several public sources including Alexa, Quantcast, Compete, and comScore. These services are often criticized for estimating website traffic too low and we have taken that into account to the extent possible. We also looked at audience measurements provided by the blogs themselves when it seemed credible. Our estimated CPMs for ads are based on the current display and text ad environment, the quality of ads at each blog, and the number of ads that it runs on the average pages. The CPM value assigned to each blog is based on all of the ads it runs on its typical pages. To determine margins, 24/7 looked at headcount when available, and estimated costs of operating and maintaining websites. More complex content platforms where assigned higher monthly costs. Current audience growth rates were taken into account. A site which has traffic doubling year-over-year was given a higher multiple than one which is losing traffic. Because not all blogs make money, multiples of revenue and operating income were used to assess value.
The results of the analysis are very impressive:
1. Gawker Properties — $170 million.
2. Huffington Post — $90 million.
3. The Drudge Report — $48 million.
4. Perez Hilton — $32 million.
5. Sugar, Inc — $27 million.
6. TechCrunch — $25 million.
7. MacRumors — $21 million.
8. SeekingAlpha — $11 million.
9. GigaOm — $9.5 million.
10. Politico — $8.7 million.
11. SmashingMagazine — $7.7 million.
12. SearchEngineLand — $4.5 million.
13. Boing Boing — $3.6 million.
14. ReadWriteWeb — $3.4 million.
15. SB Nation — $2.7 million.
16. Destructoid — $2.5 million.
17. Mashable — $2.5 million.
18. Alley Insider sites — $2.25 million.
19. /film — $2.1 million.
20. The Superficial Network — $2 million
21. Neatorama — $1.5 million.
22. Daily Kos — $2 million.
23. Talking Points Memo — $1.2 million.
24. VentureBeat — $1 million.
25. Wowowow.com — $1 million.
February 25th, 2009 by Marcus Lauks
Original Article by David Nelles
What kind of myths in the context of social media marketing are actually NOT out there? Starting with the notion that social media marketing is for free, up to lack of measurability in this area. Often, one hears from marketers about the use of social media for the company’s benefits, which fit into the myths. I’ve summarized the Top 4 Myths in the area of social media marketing:
Myth #1: Social Media Marketing is cheap, if not free.
True is, social media tools are in most cases free for users. One can set up a free Wordpress Weblog, sign up for Twiter Account, and use Digg for social bookmarking or create a group in Facebook. However, it is essential for companies in social media to interact and get into dialogs with their customers in these free platforms. Meaning, companies must create a proper concept to begin with, and then integrate this concept into the existing company’s communications strategy. Thus, these efforts are tied to time and money. For example, a big advertising campaign in social media can cost up to six figures.
Myth #2: Social Media Marketing guarantees instant success.
Yes, it’s true; sometimes one can achieve huge marketing success in social media within the shortest period. One needs only one thing: Luck. Basically, time factor counts the most in the area of social media, since a sustainable and authentic dialog with consumers does not happen overnight. Marketers should not expect an immediate success of social media activities: corporate Twitter with more than 1000 followers or corporate weblog shows 15,000 unique users daily.
Myth #3: We do it best in-house.
If names like Robert Scoble or Jeremiah Oywang belong to circle of employees, then this argument could be justified. Otherwise such intern social media experts are really hard to come by in German big companies – of course with few exceptions. Thus, German companies do rely on support from external specialists for the concept and implementation of social media activities. Until companies enclose the first Heads of Social Media, like Scott Monty, as connector between marketing and company’s communication, more time would certainly be required.
Myth #4: Success in Social Media Marketing is not measurable.
If one takes the classical parameters of online marketing as scale, then this myth is reality. The success measurement of performance based marketing strategy doesn’t fit in the area of social media. But this doesn’t automatically mean that the success of social media is therefore immeasurable. A successful marketing in the realm of user generated media lies not in leads and sales, but in brand awareness and brand reputation. Meaning, the performance success of social media can be seen in conversation’s participation in weblogs, forums, communities and Twitter about brands as well as the tonality of statements.
February 24th, 2009 by Marcus Lauks
Original Article by David Nelles
There are lot of ways for companies to represent themselves in social media, or rather how this media could be used to the advantage of the companies. Here are some examples in Germany: the Customer Community 60 years of VW, the employee’s Daimlerblog or the Customer Weblog Two For Fashion from Otto. Ford Germany tweets, Tchibo applies Crowdsourcing and BMW uses amongst others its own YouTube Channel. Hence, in Germany companies do exercise a quite broad application of social media platforms.
A company in the U.S has discovered another use of platform to its advantage. BestBuy sets out for unsparingly transparency in its new social media strategy. It’s called BestBuy Connect, which is a public social media aggregator for social media activities of the employees. BestBuy Connect summarizes all social media activities of employee’s participation through livestream.
Dawn Bryant explains this particular strategy of BestBuy as followed:
If people outside of this company could really feel the culture and drive that makes this place what it is, we can strengthen our reputation, goodwill, and ultimately grow our talent and grow the company. The beauty of that is that we didn’t need to create anything new, people are doing it and we don’t want to control it, we simply want to make it easier for the rest of the world to find the energy and human-ness”.
From a German perspective, this kind of proposition or rather the notion behind the project is somehow astonishing. In case BestBuy could hold its head high with this particular project, it would definitely be by far the most daring project in the area of social media I’ve ever encountered. What Lee Oden said about this social media initiative:
The objective of Best Buy Connect is to showcase the people, behavior and unedited perspectives/ideas of those who power Best Buy. It humanizes the brand, increases accessibility and fuels transparency. This can affect current and future customer perceptions as well as future employees.
Basically I agree with Lee’s opinion. From a consumer’s point of view there is nothing better than an unedited transparency. Yet, I do have my doubt, whether this kind of directness could be maintained overtime. Although German companies have become increasingly open to social media, this kind of project is still unthinkable. It would probably provide sleepless nights for the majority of company’s executives. Thus, BestBuy tries to minimize the danger in the use of Connect by employees through clearly defined Guidelines:
What You Should Never Disclose:
The Numbers: Non-public financial or operational information. This includes strategies, forecasts and most anything with a dollar-figure attached to it. If it’s not already public information, it’s not your job to make it so.
Promotions: Internal communication regarding drive times, promotional activities or inventory allocations. Including: advance ads, drive time playbooks, holiday strategies and Retail Insider editions.
Personal Information: Never share personal information regarding other employees or customers. See the Customer Information Policies for more information.
Legal Information: Anything to do with a legal issue, legal case, or attorneys.
Anything that belongs to someone else: Let them post their own stuff; you stick to posting your own creations. This includes illegal music sharing, copyrighted publications, and all logos or other images that are trademarked by Best Buy.
Confidential Information: Do not publish, post, or release information that is considered confidential or top secret.
What would happen to the employees, if they do not abide the guidelines:
Get fired (and it’s embarrassing to lose your job for something that’s so easily avoided)
Get Best Buy in legal trouble with customers or investors
Cost us the ability to get and keep customers
It’s a daring project from BestBuy, which I can’t imagine happening for the German market, well at least not at the moment. In Germany, it is already problematic for many companies to run a corporate weblog. Furthermore, this initiative of BestBuy is somehow light years away from the actual German social media reality.
Connect is only an element in the social media strategy of BestBuy. For CEO Brad Anderson, social media is the central factor in the whole company’s communication. BestBuy sets out international benchmark, particularly by its use of social media for the optimization in internal communication of 150.00 employees in over 1150 office branches. Beside employee’s forum and internal wiki, BestBuy has also its own social network.
Brad Anderson and his employees have recognized the company’s added value through social media. Not only that, BestBuy understands the use of social media for external communication or rather for marketing and thus, BestBuy also realizes how social media changes the life of a company. As commented by Peter Hirshberg:
I think Best Buy is a leading indicator what businesses will start to look like in the near future…
Hirschberg’s interview with Anderson in Zeitgeist 08
