Please accept my apologies for disappearing over the last few weeks. Life has a way of getting busy with things like helping clients, producing a radio show, and performing my mission critical soccer dad duties. Somewhere in between I’ve been able to squeeze in a few hours building my microcelebrity (more like expanding my nanocelebrity). Over the last two weeks I broke the 1,000 followers mark on Twitter (OK, Limeduck I mentioned it in public so you can unfollow me now). Here are some of my observations from the 12 months of tweeting:
The number followers doesn’t mean as much as quality of interactions and conversations. This is an obvious point that gets lost in Ashton and Britney’s battle for supremacy. I thank Ivan at Tipjoy for changing my mind on this.
Twitter has helped me connect with really interesting people I never would have met in my World 1.0 circles (folks like @jeffcutler, @matthew_t_grant, @robertcollins).
A milliscoble of social media infamy is no substitute for my longstanding professional relationships when it comes to new business development.
Twitter is a bit like Vegas. Some thing are larger than life on Twitter. Also many things that happen on Twitter stay on Twitter.
People can become in social media “experts” very quickly. You can find a ton of great info on Mashable and Techcrunch not to mention the blogosphere about social media channels. FOTS (Friends of the ‘Slice) have heard my regular rants that social media are just media that need to be tested like any other channel making “expertise” less important.
I’ve met Chris Brogan three times (but I’m not sure he remembers my name). I want to dislike the whole “social media rockstar” schtick but he is a genuinely nice guy who blogs with a clarity that I admire. I also really like his dad’s poker blog.
The credentials that give someone status in the business world (ie Harvard MBA, worked for Goldman Sachs or McKinsey, etc) are not always a big deal on Twitter. I guess you could argue that Twitter is more egalitarian than the real world.
Twitter can be a powerful promotional tool. The Skeptical CMO team signed up 100 people for our first radio show back in May almost completely through Twitter.
Did I miss anything? There are too many great people and conversations to highlight in one small post.
Shameless self promotion: I’ll be on PermissionTV today discussion all thing marketing, social media and tangy. I hope you can join the conversation.
If you have time tomorrow afternoon, I hope that you can join our second Skeptical CMO and friends online panel. We will be debating how much social media a company really needs.
As a followup to my recent rant about faith-based arguments, I grappling for a better label for a social media proponent. Aside from the obvious consultant label (self deprecating barb), I came up with the idea of replacing “social media evangelist” with “social media pragmatist”.
Imagine what Twitter would be like if people spent more time admitting that some social media were not adding much business value. Conversations could be less opinion based and more factual. We wouldn’t have to hear the same old tired stories about the hype spot of the day or that crummy low margin etailer who everyone loves because its CEO tweets alot. We could get down to discussing business transformation and measurable outcomes. Boring things like sales, leads and net promoter scores could become the only meaningful metrics.
Why is it that someone who is an expert in social media is often referred to as an evangelist or guru?
Do we really need to resort to faith-based arguments to convince people that these new media are important to businesses and nonprofits? Well, I guess if we made stronger arguments based on “the numbers” then we wouldn’t need to ask people to blindly believe. In the B2B world, more case studies from prominent companies would help. Until pragmatic managers get a taste of higher customer retention rates, improved SEO, or increased online sales, then social media will be something that is optional (even if everyone is talking about them online).
Try this next time you explain Twitter or LinkedIn to a friend - share a couple of stories about organizations who turbocharged their sales or customer service levels using social media. Then you won’t have to ask them for their blind faith.
As I blog about new media, I am often struck by the irony of my social media “lifestyle”. Many of my new “friends” have drunk the web 2.0 Kool-aid and spend most of their time on social media talking about social media. From my conversations with them, you would think that these new media like Twitter and Facebook will change every aspect of our lives (heck, even Oprah is on Twitter now). While I remain bullish about the potential of these channels, I have a bunch of concerns about long term adoption by pragmatists and laggards particularly in the B2B world. Here is my logic:
Advertising based business models are weak: Regular readers of the ’slice know about the poor response rates of Facebook ads. Without a strong ROI from this advertising, companies will eventually steer clear of this medium or prices will be driven down to a level reflecting its effectiveness.
Where are the doctors, lawyers and other “regular” business people? I can see them wanting a presence in the social media world but until these media can improve service delivery, increase sales or cut costs, it will be a nice to have experiment for some guy in marketing.
Customer conversations are great: Engaging them online is valuable but it is challenging to measure the impact. We’ll see in the long run if customer satisfaction or retention rates improve from these online interactions.
Someone’s gonna pay: In many cases, however, we just don’t know who that will be. I love what people like TipJoy are doing in the micropayments space but we still don’t have strong revenue models for many of these sites.
Call me old fashioned: One of the things that helped Web 1.0 explode was when business people realized they could sell more stuff by having an ecommerce site. I’m still waiting to hear more of these B2B stories from the social media world.
So what does this mean?
We need to keep innovating and testing. There is a great deal of option value in being a part of the conversations. They are happening out there whether you like it or not. Also, I know this isn’t a very web 2.0 idea but repurposing and syndicating your content through these channels can have a positive impact on your search engine marketing and help you reach prospective customers. Just be don’t be an idiot, be relevant, and add value to the conversation.
With the recent design changes at Facebook, the media is buzzing about the “epic” battle for status update supremacy. If you are looking for an informative article about the growing rivalry, check out a great post by Brian Solis on his PR 2.0 Blog entitled The Social OS, The Battle Between Facebook and Twitter is the New Mac vs. PC.
Both Facebook and Twitter do provide simple ways to enable our oversharing of every little detail of our otherwise mundane lives but in my opinion, this is where the comparison ends. Facebook has realized that status is important and redesigned their site to put status front and center, but there’s still a heckuva lot more to FB than status. In fact, I bet that many Facebook users don’t use status much compared to everything else they can do. The key difference between these sites seems more about openness than functionality. For example, I can get an RSS feed of my tweets but so far as I know, not of my FB updates. And as many of you know, I can then push that drivelstream into untold crevices of the Internet from Twitter.
I understand how both Twitter and Facebook would want to see themselves as our next operating system but I don’t feel like it is the right analogy. Perhaps better comparison is cell phone vs PC or Blackberry vs Mac. Besides features, these sites are quite difference in relation to demographics, user behavior and technology. Here are my reasons why I think that this won’t be the next “Mac vs. PC battle” as Brian Solis suggests:
Size: Facebook is about 20-40 times bigger than Twitter at the moment. I know Oprah tweeted last week but Twitter is still a niche application (albeit one with a crazy growth rate). When Twitter starts taking users from FB or vice versa, then we’ll have a real battle.
Demographics: Facebook is more about students and young professionals. I know, I know Gen X’ers and boomers are the fastest growing segments on Facebook but they are not likely the heaviest users. Twitter by comparison is more about obsessive 30+ professional (don’t trust anyone over 30, right) with a bias towards marketing, social media and consulting.
Openness: Twitter has been all about their open API and third party innovation. Facebook has historically had some issues with embedded apps and is still less open than Twitter.
Exclusivity: Despite recent conspiracy theories about Facebook and Twitter apps not communicating with each other, it is pretty easy to use both concurrently. TweetDeck recently added Facebook updates so I can push my microdrivel to both places with one button. I just need to leave out the Twitter hashtags and other gibberish but otherwise the same status often works for both.
Business models: I think it is cute that Twitter is clinging to its “we’re building business value” message and not worrying about revenue or business models. They have plenty of cash and a long runway to figure it out so who am I to criticize them? Ignoring the fact that the clickthroughs on Facebook ads are grim (~0.03% in some of my tests), they will continue to be a media company driven by advertising dollars. So come talk to me when Twitter and Facebook start fighting for the same ad budget and CMO’s begin making “either or” decisions.
Potential adoption: This isn’t the most rigorous market research, but I often use the “would my mom use this” test with new media. I could see her sharing photos and anecdotes on Facebook but I struggle to see where Twitter fits into her life. As a compulsive Twitterer, I hope that a killer app will emerges that makes it a must have for everyone but today it doesn’t exist. With all the innovation around the Twitter API, there is a good chance this will happen but until then it is hard to see them getting more than 10-20% penetration.
I know it is easy to compare these application but they are fundamentally different animals and in the long run I believe they will evolve to take different roles in our lives. Then again both could be fads (remember how fun AOL was back in the 90’s). I can see it now… poking fun at Twitter on VH1’s “I love the 00’s”.
The Talking Heads were playing on the radio as I made my trek to the train this morning. I imagine many people are asking this very question today about their personal and professional lives. What did I do to get into this situation? I guess the better question now is “what do I do to make the the most of my future opportunities”? All the cliches about hard work and “making our own breaks” aside, now is the time to think about what could happen before it happens.
Many times in my professional life I am asked to help people locked up with too many “priorities”. My strategy is simple. Make a list of everything that is on his/her mind and force rank them by priority (A, B or C). I know we want it all but we can’t. It is better to make a decision about priorities than have it emerge based on unintentional neglect. The decision will be made now or later. Isn’t it more empowering to make it yourself than have it make itself?
I frequently get a variant of this question from many of my B2B marketing colleagues and I usually answer it with a big, fat “it depends”. Are your customers using social media? Are important conversations happening online without you (that you should be a part of)?
To be honest, I felt that way about two years ago when I was CMO of a fast growing software company. It seemed like these new social media channels sprung up over night and everyone (except me) was an expert. Without knowing your particular B2B market, I am going to go out on a limb and take the bold position that there is still time to become an “expert” in social media and use it effectively to grow your business. I know, I know, that is a broad generalization but don’t take my word for it. Ask some of your customers what they are doing. Search for your company’s name in Google blog search. Do a few Twitter searches. Check out Twellow to see if any of your competitors are on Twitter.
My experience is that most of the action in the social media world is in the B2C realm. That is not to say that the “enterprise” types are ignoring these new media, but they are no where near a point of oversaturation. Opportunities exist in many markets to become a thought leader. It is up to you whether it is worth the investment in time and money to make it happen.
I’ll give you three simple things to do dip your toes in the social media pool.
Sign up for a handful of LinkedIn groups. There are many of them. Follow the conversations and drop in an occasional comment.
Find three blogs in your space and start reading them.
Check out what your competitors are doing with social media (ie blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Slideshare, etc)
You will notice I didn’t say “go sign up for Twitter” or “start a blog”. You need to figure out if these media make sense relative to your business goals and competitive environment. In the end, social media is just media. You need to align them with your objectives and ruthlessly test them. Only you can answer the question about how they fit and if you are a laggard.
I spend so much time these days talking about social media that I sometimes forget that these are relatively new channels. The most common question I get these days is “how do I get started”? Facebook? Twitter? Blogging? I know it’s a cop out but the answer is a big “it depends”. Without exactly answering the question, here are a few things to consider when thinking about a social media program for a business that primarily serves other businesses (is B2B).
Your goals: What do you hope to achieve? Is it about awareness building? Maintaining relationships with existing customers? Being a part of the general conversations about your brand? Selling more product?
Your audience: Are they using social media? How frequently? How big is your audience?
Level of engagement with your brand: How important is your product or service to your customers? How interested are they in interacting with other customers?
Where they congregate online today: Which sites? What level of technology adoption/comfort?
Internal drivers: Who will represent your company? Who is using social media today? What is the commitment level from management/the organization?
Content: Who will seed the conversations? Do you have content to share/syndicate?
Regulatory: Are there any compliance or regulatory issues to consider? Do you have an approval processes?
Resources: How much budget? How many people will be involved?
Measurement: How will you know if you are successful? What are your KPIs?
Like the game of poker, social media takes minutes to learn and a lifetime to master. There are many options and strategies. As I have advocated in the past, the best way to identify the right media is test many, kill off the losers and scale up the winners.
Good luck and let me know if I missed any other things to consider.
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