“Social Media” Sleeps with the Fishes

March 10, 2010 by Doug Mitchell · 4 Comments

I hope you’re still with me and please let me explain.

Like many of us, I live in an always on, hyper-connected, socially engaging, linking, tweeting, statusing, emailing, automating, filtering, searching, blogging, podcasting, video’ing world that accelerates geometrically each few months. In this world it’s hard to remember that most businesses are still NOT doing much of the above as part of an overall web strategy.

If I meet with 100 businesses over the next week, I’ll find that 50 are “experimenting” with some of the above and perhaps 1 or 2 are strategically using over 50% of the tools to become “a socially findable and recommendable” business. The balance are still stuck with their old brochure site that hasn’t been updated in 3 years because “The girl who built my site for free to start her design career went to work somewhere and we don’t even have the passwords to change things if we wanted to.” (I’ve spoken to 2 businesses doing a combined $45 million in the last 2 weeks in this exact scenario)

It’s ironic that if asked, every one of the businesses in my survey would say the first place they…and their target customers look for information on people, products, places, and services is the web or more specifically, “They Google It”. Yet…when asked if Internet Marketing as a real part of their marketing strategy…vs. simply playing with the tools in an ad hoc manner…nearly all say no.

In most cases, companies are merely bolting on more features to a broken platform…like putting a fresh coat of paint on a rotting structure. There may be some benefit…but ultimately the structure is shaky. This is why social media as a stand alone practice is not the recipe I’d like to see being cooked in most business kitchens.

Can a company see great result with the bolt on approach. Yes. But most will not reach anywhere near their ultimate potential without an integrated web strategy for their companies. I’ve seen the examples like you have of the pizza place or the retail store seeing more traffic by advertising/sharing/connecting on Twitter. Some businesses are more suited to this strategy agreed.

I believe however that the term and practice of “Interactive” or “Social” Marketing is far more relevant and representative of reality. So for me…”Social Media” as a term and practice sleeps with the fishes. To get transformative results, it’s best to take a holistic approach that encompasses the client’s:

Website platform
Business methodologies
Definition of Conversion (call,click,buy,submit information)
User interface
Email marketing
Local search
Local business listing
Social findability and organic placement
Online brand (employees and company)
Target markets
Metrics for success
Commitment level from the top down
Desired keywords and long tail hyper targeted keyword opportunities
Ability of the company to execute on a strategy period…from a human resource standpoint (the NUMBER ONE reason we see failure in the online world is the skewed perception that these tools can just be added to Jimmie in marketing’s role “because after all he’s young and gets this stuff.”) Who’s responsibility is this and what are the metrics of success?

As with other tools (like blogging a few years back) Social Media converts and luminaries get sweaty and preach Gospel on the street corner and proclaim the arrival of the savior (aka Twitter)…but as a disciplined professional you know that without a comprehensive Interactive Marketing strategy behind your efforts that social media is….well….social. It is possible and desirable to state loudly and proudly that you’d like social tools to become transactional and that’s where most companies and consultants don’t execute.

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Filed under: marketing, social media
Tagged: Facebook, Interactive Marketing, Local search, online brand, social media, Twitter

What I learned most from 6 Sigma Training and Social Media Immersion

October 12, 2009 by Doug Mitchell · Leave a Comment

: Image via Wikipedia

When I got done with my 6 Sigma Black Belt training the question looming in the back of my brain was, “Why did we only spend about 1 day of 20 talking about change management and the corporate culture aspects of deploying 6 sigma as a business tool?” My gut told me that culture and inertia are the hardest things to overcome. So here we were handed a new tool kit but but only 1/20th of our training was spent explaining how to beat the house odds.

So it goes in the land of social media or new media engagement tools. So many “experts” and coaches engage clients and give them the tools…while the client says, “Just give this stuff to Jennie in Marketing…she just graduated and is in tune with “The Facebook” and that “Tweeter”. Not good.

While there is no perfect formula and I don’t advocate the “Wait until all conditions are perfect before deploying” model…I do think it’s wise to work with your client to assess and plan for the inevitable difficulty of who will drive these new marketing avenues when the cool factor declines. Are you embracing these tools as a key part of strategy or simply doing it ‘because’? Are you looking for clear and measurable results? Or…are you just dipping your toes in the water to if your strategy will reveal itself? I don’t think any of these strategies are wrong. But, they all depend on the most change resistant element in the mix…the human.

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Filed under: clients and case studies, marketing
Tagged: business, Consulting, Facebook, management, marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Six Sigma

Doing less with more in 2009

December 17, 2008 by Doug Mitchell · 5 Comments

We talk quite a bit about doing more with less. Our clients and potential clients are seeking higher return on investment, measurability, and increased Internet Findability. Online marketing/blogging/video provides all of these in one nicely wrapped package.

B2B Magazine just had a feature outlining some goals/strategies/deliverables they believe will be key for companies in 2009. It’s a great read. We especially like 2nd and 7th topics on the list.

Leveraging social marketing

However you define social marketing, this piece is critical. Start with a blogging foundation and build your social marketing strategy around that. Maybe for you Twitter and Facebook are where you need to be. Focus your efforts and get to providing value to the market. Join the conversation.

Video explosion

We couldn’t agree more. As Google begins to integrate video results into “normal search results” you want to be there! When someone searches on “Plumber Des Moines” and there’s a nicely produced video showing what it’s really like to do business with you, your odds just went up.

Let the other guys spend their money being a bigger part of that monstrosity that killed a bunch of trees and gathers dust we used to call a phone book.

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Filed under: findability, marketing, multimedia, small business, social media, video
Tagged: Facebook, findability, Internet Marketing, marketing, Marketing strategy, multimedia, ROI, smb, Social marketing, Twitter, Video SEO

Social networking is a piece…not the pie

December 3, 2008 by Doug Mitchell · Leave a Comment

We believe in and utilize the online/social tools that we think connect us to the greater market, clients/potential clients, and the business community at large. But these tools (twitter, Facebook, blog) etc. are a piece of the entire marketing pie we’re bakin’ up.

We attend events and meet real people. Those real people connect us to other real people (sometimes directly and sometimes we just get 5 new Twitter subscribers from those connections). We speak around town. A recent Meetup event resulted in 3 calls, not from attendees directly, rather referrals from attendees. Nice.

So remember, you need to have the online social pieces in place. It’s highly desirable to communicate in a manner that your clients and potentials desire (like subscribing to our Twitter or FriendFeed stream to listen in to exactly what we’re up and who we connect with before diving in with us)