Here is the final set of responses to questions that time didn't permit me to answer during the AMA Marketing Seminar on Oct. 15. Each of these permalinks is tagged “AMA” so you can easily group them together. Thanks again to everyone for coming and for asking such great questions. Q: Chris asks, “Do you think this will impact corporate cultures? And how?”
That's a big question, but I'll try to summarize. One enormous impact of new media will be to force companies to be more open and transparent about their activities, motivations and mistakes. Once customers began talking to each other and sharing their experiences with your company, you have very little control over those conversations. It's going to be a lot harder to hide your blemishes and to keep secrets.
Already, many marketers are finding that their carefully managed product rollout plans are sabotaged by bloggers who get their hands on secret information. I believe that businesses, particularly large ones, are going to have to learn to live in a world where information can't be covered up very well. This will force them to be more transparent with their constituents about their plans. That won't be easy for everybody.
Internally, I expect social media to flatten corporate cultures. Communication within most companies has traditionally been controlled from the top down. But once individuals have the ability to speak freely with each other, those lines become much fuzzier. In most companies, this will be a good thing. However, a company that values a strict hierarchy will be challenged by this. They can refuse to give their employees blogs, but they can't prohibit their employees from communicating off-hours via blogs or social networks. Again, this won't be easy for everybody
Q: Viktor asks, “Will passionate social media users get paid at some point in time?
A: Many of them are getting paid now. For example, I spoke in my presentation about Adrants, which is a one-person operation that is generating good cash flow from advertising. Many models are being developed to reward bloggers for their hard work, although in reality very few people can make a living in this way. I expect that a small minority of people will be able to make decent income as new influencers, but only a very tiny number will become wealthy from it. These are niche markets, after all.
Q: S Law asks, “How do organizations and businesses engage bloggers to get that positive word of mouth?”
A: Much of my book is about this, so I'll refer you to that, or to other books I referenced earlier, including Naked Conversations by Scoble and Israel; Marketing to the Social Web by Weber; What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting by Demopoulos, The Corporate Blogging Book by Weil; and The New Rules of Marketing and PR by Scott.
To summarize, though, you need to take the following steps:
- Get to know which influencers matter in your market;
- Read or listen or watch what they've been publishing and learn what their passions and biases are;
- Engage in conversations about topics of mutual interest. Don't try to sell to them, though;
- Provide interesting and valuable information that they can use to further their interest and create new content for their sites;
- Invite them to become involved with your company as an adviser, reviewer and/or media representative;
- Show your gratitude. In most cases, this doesn't mean paying them so much as treating them as insiders and respected advisers. Although t-shirts are always welcome!
Q: Erika asks, “Have you looked at social influencers in the healthcare provider community? What is the prevalence there?”
A: It's very difficult to estimate numbers for any topic because of the large number of spam blogs. All the services try to filter out spam, but none succeeds very well.
Technorati lists nearly 5,000 blogs as being about medicine in some capacity and 2,000 as being about healthcare, although in reality the numbers are much smaller than that. There does appear to be quite a bit of healthcare information out there. For example, a Google blog search on “diabetes” turns up several thousand posts in the last day, and the top few hundred look legitimate.
In general, people use social media for topics that matter deeply to them, and there's no question that medicine is one of those areas. If you try searching the two sources I mentioned above, you'll pretty quickly get a picture of what's being said out there.
Q: Scott asks, “How do you weed out fake comments, possibly from the company or someone that is one-sided?”
A: Most blogging services offer the option to screen comments. This requires a little extra effort on your part, because you must go in and look at each comment individually before approving it, but this is necessary in some cases because comment spammers tend to send a lot of their trash to certain blogs.
There is no way to verify a person's identity when they post a comment, other than to verify e-mail addresses or search for their name. In general, you need to use common sense and make sure that comments don't betray a bias that could be driven by competitive issues.
I should stress, however, that you don't want to suppress legitimate comments just because they're negative. People expect to participate in the discussion, and as long as their words are reasonable and not profane, they should be allowed to do that. If you start censoring visitors, you will quickly hear from people about it, and often in public places. Don't get into blogging if you're not able to stand a little heat.
Labels: AMA, blogging, healthcare, marketing, PR, socialmedia, spam
¶ 4:24 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Here are more responses to questions that time didn't permit me to answer during the AMA Marketing Seminar on Oct. 15. Each of these permalinks is tagged “AMA” so you can easily group them together. Thanks to everyone for coming and for asking such great questions. More to come!Q: Jodine asks “Another great example of this marketing approach is in the new music industry. Independent distributed musicians that gain their fans from MySpace and other social networks. Is this marketing approach what they call grassroots and/or organic marketing?”
A: That's certainly an appropriate term for it. MySpace, for example, has been a gold mine for independent music groups who don't have the marketing dollars to put into advertising. The idea is to create networks of friends who self-define their interests and share favorite bands among themselves. Also, people who produce podcasts and blogs devoted to music often make it a point to promote lesser-known groups. While these tactics so far haven't duplicated the throw weight of mainstream media campaigns, their popularity testifies to their effectiveness.
Q: Sanjay asks, “Are there any potential problems for a regional retailer with just a few locations?”
A: Not that I can think of. In fact, that person is a natural candidate for social media. Facebook, for example, is a great place to find people nearby who are interested in the products that the retailer sells. If I was a camera store owner in
A blog is also a terrific way to showcase expertise, and if you're careful to label the blog and its posts with regional tags, you'll do better on search engines. For small businesses on a budget, social media is a godsend.
Q: Kristin asks, “How will the change in social media affect crisis communications?”
A: I can think of a couple of major ways. For better or worse, people are increasingly taking their gripes and frustrations to their blogs instead of going through customer service channels. This makes the blogosphere an excellent early warning system. You should have Google Alerts set up for every product and brand you own, and you should also create RSS feeds from sites like Technorati, BlogPulse and IceRocket that can alert you immediately to new topics of blog chatter.
In terms of responding to a crisis, a blog is perhaps the fastest way to get information online. This bypasses the media gatekeepers and insurers that the message is coming directly from you. If you link aggressively to the blog from your website and from blogs maintained by your employees and outside constituents, you can build visibility very quickly. Sites like Twitter are also increasingly being used by marketers to get messages out to the public instantly.
Q: Viktor asks “What's your opinion on intellectual property rights
with blogging?”
A: There effectively are none, and this is a huge hairball for new media. The reality is that many people who are now publishing online could care less about intellectual property or copyright. I have had entire articles lifted verbatim from my blog and even mainstream media sites and republished without any attribution whatsoever. It's not worth going after people legally in most cases, and that tactic can actually create unwanted publicity.
The entertainment companies have led the charge in trying to bring some order to this intellectual-property chaos, but they have encountered a lot of resistance and their tactics have not always been diplomatic. They have done themselves few favors. I'm afraid that these issues will take years to hammer out, and that our notions of copyright may look very different a few years from now. I wish I could be more encouraging, but a lot of people are wrestling with this problem.
Labels: AMA, blogging, crisiscommunications, facebook, marketing, myspace, PR, socialmedia, socialnetworks, twitter
¶ 12:50 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Here are more responses to questions that time didn't permit me to answer during the AMA Marketing Seminar on Oct. 15. Each of these permalinks is tagged “AMA” so you can easily group them together. Thanks to everyone for coming and for asking such great questions. More to come!Q: Stacie asks, “How will social media play out with healthcare vs. consumer products?”
A: Very differently. People typically want to consult with expert advisers on healthcare decisions and their relationships with those people are important. They’re much less likely to turn to anonymous sources for life-and-death matters. That said, the Internet has played and will continue to play an important role in alternative medicine, wellness and background research. Social media will have an important role in helping people diagnose problems, choose courses of treatment and seek alternatives.
In consumer products, social media is already playing a huge role in evaluation and purchase activity. The CEO of Procter & Gamble told the Association of National Advertisers last year that they have to stop trying to control the message. "Consumers are more participative and selective and the trend from push to pull is accelerating," he said. Those are strong words coming from the world’s largest consumer products company.
Q: Anne asks, ”Doesn't social networking skew younger? And, do these networks apply to B2B marketers?”
A: Yes, the most active users of social networks are unquestionably people under the age of 30. If you’re an entertainment, food or clothing company, you’re probably already using these media because that’s where your audience is.
In some markets, though, social media is making a big impact on older age groups, and particularly in b-to-b markets. The information technology market is one of the most active users of blogs and podcasts, for example, and it’s almost entirely a b-to-b business. The travel and hospitality industry is using interactive marketing to reach business people with specific interests, such as frequent travelers and corporate event planners. Professional associations like the Air Conditioning Contractors of America and the National Association of Manufacturers are blogging to promote their members. There will be more examples of this as the younger population grows up and begins to apply the tools they use at home to their business roles.
Q: Patience asks “So why did you choose to not self-publish?”
A: I believe this question is in response to a comment I made about Lulu.com and similar sites that making self-publishing of books fast and relatively inexpensive. There are advantages to working with a commercial publisher, including an established distribution network, retail store presence and a certain cachet that comes from having a publisher endorse your work. This leads to intangible business opportunities that have nothing to do with royalties. You can definitely make more money self-publishing, though. If you don’t particularly care about building a speaking or consulting business, but just want to get a message out, self-publishing gives you more control and potentially bigger profits.
Q: Brent asks, “Are there similar influencers in
A: Yes, although to different degrees. In fact, the number one language in the blogosphere is Japanese, according to Technorati’s State of the Live Web report.
In
I can’t speak to Latin-America specifically. The economy is not as strong in many of those countries as in the
Q: Anne asks, “How do apply this to local or regional marketing? Yelp, for instance is very biased, and doesn't feel trustworthy the way that a more neutral, traditional third party does.”
A: I’m not sure I agree with your comments about Yelp. That site is simply a conduit for its members to post reviews of restaurants and entertainment spots. While such a system is always vulnerable to manipulation, the number of reviews that Yelp lists for some properties is remarkable. In general, the more reviews there are, the more reliable the average rating should be.
You should always be leery of peer-review systems in which only a few people have commented. It’s like research: you should probably through out the extremes at both ends of the scale, because those people may have an agenda.
As far as regional marketing goes, I’d just point out that some of the most active social networks are regional. Going.com, Yelp and eCrush are just three of the many networks that target people who are looking for entertainment and companionship. Also, regional interests like sports and politics are magnets for local audiences.
Labels: AMA, blogging, social_media, socialnetworks
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Q: Eric asks, "How can you use social networking for marketing complex technologies like middleware and software tools?"
This is actually one of the busiest areas of social media a right now. Companies like Microsoft and Borland have many of their developers blogging and maintain active communities where customers and third-party developers can exchange tips and solve problems. In addition, sites like TheServerSide.com and Slashdot.org host very active forums and even live events where software professionals can meet.
The reason social media marketing works so well in these fields is precisely what you mention: their complexity. Most problems can't be predicted in advance, so people rely on each other to help figure out solutions. Buying ad space or forming groups within the existing communities is one way to spread your brand. If you have an installed customer base, consider giving them a place to congregate and help each other out.
Labels: AMA, socialnetworks
¶ 4:51 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
I had the pleasure of being the guest speaker on and American Marketing Association webinar sponsored by Aquent early this week. We had a great audience -- more than 750 people attended -- and there were more than 20 questions that I was unable to answer because of time limitations. I'll answer each of them in a series of blog posts over the next few days. Each of these permalinks will be tagged “AMA” so you can easily group them together. Thanks to everyone for coming and for asking such great questions. Q: [At one point, I referred to a story told by blogger Robert Scoble about a technology vendor who told him that a single link on his blog drew far more response than an article in a prominent technology magazine.] Jennifer asks, “How did the software company evaluate the influence of Scoble's blog?”
A: Simply by traffic to the page linked to by Scoble. This is one of the great benefits of social media marketing: you can easily track referring links from other sites and quickly figure out who is sending you traffic. This is standard information that all Web analytics software provides. Obviously, the people who are sending you the most traffic are the people who should get more of your attention and outreach.
Q: Lidia asks, “I would like to know your opinion related to the large influence this phenomena is having on small kids that are exposed to these new media sites like clubpenguin, etc. How will these affect their personality, their habits, etc?
A: I'm not a psychologist, and it's impossible to predict the indirect impact of the behaviors that social media sites are creating. I believe that a few changes are inevitable:
- Kids will define their relationships very differently, with geography being much less important than in the past. They are already learning to form rich and meaningful relationships with people they have never met, solely through the use of digital technology. They care little about where their friends live as long as they can communicate about topics of mutual interest. If you take this to its logical conclusion, you can see that national boundaries will become less important to relationships in the future. It seems to me that that's a good thing.
- Kids will grow up expecting to be constantly connected and to always have information at their fingertips. Call it the Wikipedia generation. This is completely different from the world of previous generations. Today’s kids will expect to be able to access whatever information they want within a few seconds, and will be frustrated and angry when it’s unavailable. This will put pressure on institutions to open up and give people access to whatever information they need to make a decision. Again, this sounds pretty good to me.
- There's a possibility the kids will grow up being less worldly and less well-rounded than generations that preceded them because of their ability to filter information they consume. I'm hoping that natural curiosity counteracts this trend, but the declining influence of mainstream media may create a generation that is more insular and less aware of world issues than previous generations.
- There's a risk of negative health consequences caused by a more sedentary lifestyle. There's no question in my mind that the current epidemic of childhood obesity is due, at least in part, to the pervasive use of video games and online entertainment instead of physical recreation. It will be up to parents, schools and government to encourage physical activity by kids who don't have as much incentive to get out and play anymore. I don't think we're seeing as much progress in this area as we need to, and it concerns me.
I'm sure there will be many other long-term effects of this new digital lifestyle, some good and some bad. I think the breaking down of cultural and geographic barriers, though, will be a very positive development.
Q: Charlayne asks, “How does a company build "blog" integrity without sounding as if they are their own advertisement? How does a company build positive brand awareness via a blog?”
A: I’ll answer the first part of that question by simply saying don't use your blog to sell. The purpose of a business blog should be to engage with customers and prospects around information that is of mutual interest. Use it to expose smart people in your company, discuss issues in the market, identify customer needs and seek feedback on your products and priorities. Don’t use it to deliver advertisements; if you do, no one will read it and you will quickly lose interest yourself.
The second question is very large and could be the subject of a book. In fact, it is the subject of several books. I’d recommend Naked Conversations by Scoble and Israel; Marketing to the Social Web by Weber; What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting by Demopoulos, The Corporate Blogging Book by Weil; and The New Rules of Marketing and PR by Scott. It’s impossible to summarize the advice contained in all of these volumes, so I will simply recommend that you pick any one of them and dive in.
Labels: AMA, blogging, social_media, socialnetworks
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