Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell, and former Forrester analyst, has recently launched her own company, the Altimeter Group. This week, she gave a keynote at the Social Media Marketing Summit 2008, San Francisco. Known for her commitment to social media, and belief that marketing and advertising are fatally flawed, Li started with a Google search on 'Comcast'. The ninth result is a YouTube video titled: A Comcast technician sleeping on my couch.
"This is why social media is so important," Li said, "this YouTube video recorded by 'Brian' resulted in the Comcast brand going down the toilet. You must understand that the power is now in the hands of consumers."
Marketers today are caught up in a jumble of buzzwords that mean very little. It's a confusing time, but to get the marketing right, you need to start thinking about relationships first. "It's not about selling something anymore; that might be the end result, but to get there, you need to work on the relationship."
One of Li's favorite videos (below) shows the disconnect between advertisers and customers. "It really captures how advertisers see the world, and how consumers are asking for a divorce."
So, how is marketing changing? What are best practices and pitfalls? How do you even start?
When creating your social strategy, Li recommends a four step process:
1. Who is your audience?
2. Very clear goal
3. Action plan
4. Tools, tactics, techniques
To help you determine your audience, you need to consider their level of participation, and classify them according to how they use social technologies. Are they:
Non Active
Watchers: 52% of online users have watched YouTube, 42% have read blogs, 19% have downloaded podcasts
Sharers: 29% have used social networking sites, 28% have tagged online content, 21% have shared online content that they created
Commenters: 32% have rated a product, service or person, 30% have commented on a product, 22% have commented on newsgroup or site
Producers: 12% have created or worked on a blog; 11% have remixed content.
Curators: People that have edited a wiki - moderated a forum
Once classified, you can use that information to start building your community.
For instance, if your target audience is moms, you don't approach them as producers; they're not going to be at that level. However, studies have shown that moms are more likely to comment than any other person online because they value the thoughts of others and want to share their thoughts.
Set up an action plan. Much like at a dinner party, before you start talking, listen first. Find out what people are saying about you by using various online monitoring tools. Li uses Google blog search and Twitter to search for her brand online.
Once you determine what is being said about you online, you can take it to the next level and do something about it.
According to Li, some companies that use the Social Web well are:
Oracle
Prior to running Oracle Open World, Oracle changed its home page for two weeks. The page asked for consumer feedback; community involvement was important enough to interrupt the normal flow.
H&R Block
When H&R Block realized selling was no longer working, they created a page on FaceBook to provide tax advice. They don't say "come and do your taxes with us," on FaceBook; they only offer advice.
Comcast
Frank Eliason, Director of Digital Care for Comcast Cable uses Twitter to look for people talking about Comcast, 'tweets' them, and offers to help.
Skittles
Skittles has a page on FaceBook called 'Mix the Rainbow'.
It's created a spark and now the community is interacting with one another. The company occasionally steps in with light and fun comments; never with sales talk.
A recent series of messages on the Skittles wall:
Derek says: Is it just me, or does there seem to be too many orange ones in the bags now?
Skittles says: Derek despite what you or the Internet may think, we can assure you there is no orange skittles conspiracy - red on the other hand...
Starbucks
Starbucks asks for suggestions on how to make the company better. If you provide a suggestion, Starbucks CIO will discuss the idea on the site; it's not just a black hole that suggestions go into. He explains the back end - or what has to happen on the technical level before they can implement the idea.
Wal-Mart
While most people cringe when they hear about Wal-Mart's many failed attempts to get involved with their community online (think The Hub, Across America, FaceBook), Li gives them kudos for continuing to try when others may have given up. Look at 'Check Out' Wal-Mart's latest offering; it took them a long time to get there, but now, this really works.
All of these companies are closing the loop. The traditional firewall separating customers and companies is falling away; no longer is it an 'us' and 'them' mentality; it's now a 'we' mentality.
The best way to begin is to go out and meet some revolutionaries. Talk to them, ask them what's worked and what hasn't. Take inspiration from them. Realize you cannot do this alone; go and get help.
Li's disappointment with the advice she has seen on the Web has inspired her to begin the Altimeter Wiki, a list of consultants, social media boutiques, PR agencies, and interactive media agencies. Li encourages people working in the space to add their name, "there are no judgments at the moment, but there will be in the future."
Recommendations on finding good help:
In summary, Li walks through the "nitty gritty" details of the action plan:
And her final tip? "Realize that you will have to give up the fallacy that you have control."
Comments
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although I am a big fan of Charline's work overall, and i'm not sure if this is her statement or you guys editorilzing, but I disagree with this audience segmentation model you are proposing:
"To help you determine your audience, you need to consider their level of participation, and classify them according to how they use social technologies."
"For instance, if your target audience is moms, you don't approach them as producers; they're not going to be at that level."
It's quite erroneous to say that "moms" can't be producers, what ever your audience they will be made up of a mixture of all the groups that Charline proposes, the important thing is to have roles for them all. If moms weren't producers then the Fiskateers initiative would have been dead in the water, those guys are up to 5,000 members http://fiskarscraft.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/09/creating-with-p.html
The secret IMHO is provide a framework for users to self select, to identify themselves as more engaged or more creative, any demographic will run the gamut between producers and curators etc. or using the alternative model proposed by the guys at Church of the Customer, let the 1 percenters identify themselves.
Posted by: Karl Long | October 2, 2008 8:31 PM
Interesting segmentation. We are in a web start up about to go into beta and have left demographic segmentation behind in the design of our features.
We've based them on our own segmentation of Hunters (those who actively seek), Gatherers (those who view but don't necessarily lead), Teachers (those who use social media to connect with and lead other users) and Learners (those willing to remain detached but take in what they see).
We've found it a really useful way of designing the interface and tools - however in order to talk to potential clients (retailers) we have had to revert to the demographic groupings they rely on. They don't seem to be able to let it go just yet!
Posted by: Justin Barrie | October 2, 2008 9:47 PM
Excuse me, but moms "aren't at the producer level"?! How insulting. Mommybloggers and moms who blog or vlog or tweet produce content for the web and the notion that it is somehow beyond us is ludicrous.
Posted by: bree | October 2, 2008 10:09 PM
Hi Karl,
Thank you for your thoughts; you bring up an interesting point.
Conferences are notoriously tricky to cover; something is always missed in the urgency to get the words down.
My priority is to cover what is said, rather than what is on the slides. Luckily, at the end of the keynote, Charlene made her slides available to me.
She has since uploaded the slides to SlideShare
The ladder of audience participation that Charlene spoke about is based on Forrester's Social Technographics Ladder, with the addition of 'curators' - a category she felt should be included.
While I can't speak for Charlene, my understanding is that when she used the example of 'moms' she was speaking about 'moms' as the individual, not collectively.
You raise a really good example in Fisk-A-Teers, where a community of moms has banded together, and collectively they are now a 'producer'
Posted by: Lid | October 2, 2008 11:00 PM
Justin,
Thank you for sharing your method of audience segmentation.
There are many different ways of categorizing users on the Web. Charlene's and Forrester’s are one way; yours certainly offers an interesting alternative.
I believe the process is important - regardless of method used. You need to understand who your audience is, categorize it as best you can, and then determine how you will cater for that group.
Bree,
As a mom of two little people myself, I can understand your frustration at the generalization. However, I think that Charlene did not mean any disrespect; she herself is a mom and a blogger. Certainly, I believe that she did not mean producing content is beyond moms, more that 'most' moms don't produce content. You're one of the special 'few' :)
Posted by: Lid | October 2, 2008 11:29 PM
Amused that the "you're not listening to me" video is still doing the rounds, its been a staple of Ad conferences for going on 2 years :)
We are a digital media consultancy, but the issue we find that is the largest one on our clients' minds is not segmentation, or even execution - many of them have done that and got a "good enough" outcome.
The issue is metrics - what does the data collected actually mean, how can you predict outcomes, etc. Thsi si what is preventing a higher level of confidence among the Olde Adworld that the New Media is a good place for them to go.
However, we find that this is the one area that many "traditional" new media consultancies and researchers don't cover. The result, in London for example, being that a collaborative movement - "Measurementcamp" - has started up to help share knowledge and best practice.
Posted by: alan p | October 2, 2008 11:49 PM
Who is Social Media and why should we be reading about them? (rhetorical)
Posted by: Rob | October 3, 2008 12:18 AM
FYI:
Her deck from the keynote is here (for download and viewing):
http://www.slideshare.net/charleneli/social-media-marketing-summit-forum-keynote-oct-1-2008-presentation/
J @ http://www.sumolabs.com
Posted by: Jordan Willms
|
October 3, 2008 1:26 AM
Hi Alan,
I think you've hit the nail on the head.
The Web is changing, and for the past couple of years new media evangelists have been telling marketers that they need to change - and why. I think marketers are now at a point where they agree that 'something' needs to happen, but without hard evidence, especially in terms of 'what's in it for me' they are loathe to put the effort in. And, as you say, at the moment, measurement is not a subject that is covered well in the industry, but I agree that it is high time it is.
I love the idea of the measuremencamp wiki, thank you for pointing it out; perhaps this will spur a decent conversation on the matter.
Jordan, thanks!
Posted by: Lid | October 3, 2008 9:21 AM
Hi, I actually work at social networking site, www.konencts.com for professionals and this is really good advice and feedback.
www.konnects.com
Posted by: Sharon | October 3, 2008 2:22 PM
Thumbs down. You are simply a marketing droid. Your attempt to segment your audience shows this quite clearly. In the real world, we do not have flags sticking out of our heads that label us according to your categories. What started out with a reasonable list of four things to keep in mind quickly degenerated into mindless market-speak. You did recover some points in the last sentence, however. Good luck finding a new job.
Posted by: Dec Malone | October 3, 2008 5:48 PM
Great article. Your are right on target with everything.
Thanks. al
Remember, we are thinking of you at www.thinkingofyouinc.com.
Posted by: Alice Stanforth | October 4, 2008 3:27 PM
This is a very good article. It provides options to talk about. But, there are other medias, that can give more exposure to the average business.
Posted by: Alice Stanforth | October 4, 2008 3:32 PM
This is a good and very timely article. I've been in marketing communications for over 16 years; the landscape is changing so fast it is becoming more difficult to keep up with the changes and stay focused the work that needs to get done.
This sort of information is becoming critical for a marketing mix that will work in the new social media marketplace. A single marketing manager keeping up with all the latest trends simply isn't enough anymore... we need access to niche specialists - and it is very difficult to find them easily online. I look forward to checking out Altimeter Group's list of resources.
Posted by: Char | October 10, 2008 12:02 AM