August 13, 2012 · 9:25 am

Stop Behaving Like A Brand

A research study I read last week got me thinking about how I work with my clients on their use of Facebook and other social media.

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

Wildfire, a company that makes software for social media interaction (Facebook contest pages, for example) conducted an analysis of 10,000 social media campaigns over the last 9 months and focused on the top 10% of performing efforts.  The point was to identify strategies that seemed to work well.  If you’re interested you can get the report (registration required) here.   As reported by The RealTime Report:

Wildfire finds that for each person who shares content from a campaign on Facebook, 14 new people will learn about that campaign in their news feed. In addition, for every 10 advocates (those who are capable of bringing new followers to a campaign) a brand gets to join its social campaign, they’ll get 13 other people to interact with the campaign in some way. Overall, brands that are highly effective in engaging with advocates and content-sharers via campaigns see three times the interaction (Likes, shares, comments) on their Facebook pages when compared to other brands.

Impressive although I wonder how the transition to Timeline and the inability to set a contest or other Wildfire-type tab as the default on a brand page has impacted the results.  Even so, only 17% of fans share brand activity.  Then again, why should they?  Too many brands are focused on building a bigger audience (generating “Likes”) and not on any sort of collaboration among the fan base.  The companies who use Facebook and other social media well aren’t using those platforms as glorified broadcast channels.  Ask yourself what brands you follow (if you follow any) engage you.  I don’t mean they keep you coming back looking for discounts but they almost seem to be people.  You’re interested in what’s going on with them.

One of the strategies suggested in the report is to provide clear calls to action.  I don’t disagree, but how many of your friends ONLY post messages asking you to sign a petition or do something else that they feel is important but might have little relevance to you?  Providing exclusive content is a great strategy but not if that content only has value to the brand.  What’s the user benefit?

Social media isn’t like other media.  As a company, it’s less about you than it is your consumer.  That can be a hard change of perspective but it’s one companies need to make.  Stop behaving like a brand and start behaving like a friend.  I know of companies that do this well – tell me which ones you think are on that list.

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August 10, 2012 · 8:37 am

Non Troppo

It’s hard to know what topic to choose for Foodie Friday in the middle of Summer.

English: Insalata caprese, made from mozzarell...

Insalata caprese, made from mozzarella, tomatoes, olive oil and basil.(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After all, there is no other time of the year when a cook has so many great ingredients from which to choose. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, zucchini and (it seems) just about everything else are near or at their peak season now. It becomes hard to choose a topic just as it is to choose which to use for dinner.
Of course, the ingredients themselves are a theme we’ve hit before. I’ve written about being choosy and not settling for an inferior product, either in the kitchen or in the office.  Today I want to write about the corollary to great ingredients: not getting in their way.

Obviously you can’t put basil fresh from the garden next to a perfect tomato and buffalo mozzarella and expect a brilliant caprese salad to put itself together.  You still need to do some work and add a bit (and only a bit) of salt, acid, and great olive oil.  But, as the italian phrase goes, non troppo – not too much.  Overdressing or over seasoning the great basics just gets in the way of their flavors.  You want to bring those flavors out, not hide them.  Slices of zucchini and other summer vegetables perfectly sliced and roasted can be a fantastic meal.  Bake them in layers and cover them in cheese and you might get a tasteless, soggy mess of a gratin.

It’s the same with your team.  Find the best people, educate them on your goals, help fill in their skill set where necessary, and then get out of the way.  You want to manage them but non troppo – not too much.  How many of us have worked for a micro-manager who wants things done his or her way even if they’re wrong?  How often are you sitting around having drinks after work with your peers and the discussion uncovers widespread unhappiness with how the team is being used?  The better that team is the more likely that they have skill sets in certain areas that are superior to those of their supervisor in those areas.  As managers, we want those people on our team.  They’re not threats – they’re our salvation.

I love cooking in Summer since there’s less I have to do.  It’s more about the shopping than it is the cooking.  Great managing is that way – it’s almost more about the hiring than it is the managing.  You need to manage, but non troppo.  You with me?

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August 9, 2012 · 9:07 am

What’s The Most Valuable Social Network?

Like many of you I’ve been following the ups and downs of Facebook‘s recent IPO and the stock’s performance subsequently. I thought about it again this morning as I read a release from The Incyte Group (via Research Brief) that states consumers want deeper connections with brands – but open social networks are not where they want to build these connections.  Facebook is the biggest of the bunch and while marketers put over $3B on to Facebook’s revenue line last year, if you speak with many marketers the ROI on that spending is unimpressive.  The notion that sort of pops into my head about marketers searching for the best social network to reach consumers is that of a drunken sailor bouncing from bar to bar, spending a little cash along the way, looking to get lucky.  Facebook to Twitter to Pinterest to LinkedIn.  Turns out that’s not what holds the most promise when we’re talking about reaching them via social networks:

(Consumers) do not expect, or even want, these communities to be part of an existing social network like Facebook or LinkedIn. Instead, their preference is for customer communities that are:

  • Run separately from open social networks, but have strong linkages to them so they can easily share information with like-minded friends
  • Proactively managed by companies
  • Tightly integrated with the company’s website

So what, in my mind, is the most valuable social network?  Amazon.  Think about it – much of the time when I’m on Amazon I’m not  actually sticking things in a shopping cart.  I’m researching.  I’m reading reviews to discover new books or music.  I’m commenting in things I’ve bought or used that are for sale.  When you look at the research findings, Amazon meets all the criteria plus it closes the circle by offering products for sale.  It’s not an ad-supported model but their sales were over $12B.  For a quarter. Several times what Facebook or any other social network’s were.

Amazon is the most valuable social network for marketers because it is for consumers.  Now ask the next logical question:  what’s your strategy on Amazon and is it the best one when you think about it as social and not as commerce?  Do you agree with my thinking here?

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