I love this style of illustration – it taps into my nostalgic sense of wonder. But what I like most about this infographic from Tab Juice is that it nicely captures some of the changing behaviours that are impacting the way that consumers approach their purchasing. And the lesson for marketers? Understanding your social customer will change what you do and why you do it.
Will 2012 be the year that you really start to grapple with the challenges of social media within your business landscape?
About two years ago I wrote that Social Media is Not Sexy. This post was about the business challenges of social media and just how complex, challenging and incremental it can be within large scale, enterprise sized businesses.
About eight or nine months after writing this post I took on a new role with SAP’s Premier Customer Network. I’d already launched an online platform for SAP’s education team with a heavy social media element – and this new opportunity to work closely with the world’s largest companies in a social media focused role sounded fantastic. But what would it really take? How far could we go? Would it be as unsexy as I thought?
I can recall speaking with Mike Hickinbotham who suggested that there WAS a deep down sexiness to getting big companies to engage in social media. And he should know, working with one of Australia’s largest companies, Telstra – but his point was not necessarily about the glitz and glamour that comes with flashy campaigns – it was about the slow burn that comes from changing the nature of the relationships that we have with our customers.
Over the last 12 months or so, we have been working with some of SAP’s most strategic customers in this way – creating a secure, closed community called PCN Connect. It is still early days – but it is exciting – and maybe even a little sexy – to see this site come to life.
Here’s a taste of our journey so far. But like any social business initiative – there is still a way to go – and it gets more interesting with every step.
The Pivot Conference, to be held October 15-16, 2012 is shaping up in a very interesting way. The focus is to move from “social brands to social business” – which I find exciting – but it also makes me wonder. Do we really feel that we are in a world of social brands as yet? And I am also wondering, can you have a social brand without first becoming a social business? What comes first, chicken or egg?
In the lead up to the Pivot Conference, a research report has been released: The State of Social Marketing 2011-12. You have to register for it, but it is a great summary and well worth it.
Throughout the report, there is a consistent theme – the gap between the business and your customers is wider than you think. My experience bears this out and is reinforced by IBM’s recent Social CRM report (2011). The gap, which IBM terms “the perception gap” is a real and persistent challenge for organisations and needs to be seriously addressed in the coming months.
Take a look, for example, at the business focus for social media for 2012. The State of Social Marketing report indicates that sales, consumer engagement and lead generation are at the top three priorities.
Yet how many businesses have closed the perception gap? How many can deliver on their customer’s expectations – or worse – how many have even begun engaging with their customers about these expectations? The report states that only 34.8% have asked their customers. That’s not a gap. It’s a gulf.
Social Business Comes First
At the recent Social Media Plus conference, I described the challenge that we are facing as being similar to the difference between playing 80s arcade game Space Invaders and Angry Birds. On the business side, we are happily engaged with the invading hoardes – identifying the opportunity then firing off a response. The problem is, is that the game itself has changed. We may be playing Space Invaders – but our customers are playing Angry Birds. It is a profound mismatch.
The idea of a “social brand” sounds good – and there are plenty of examples of successful social marketing now available. But my view is that we have the cart before the horse. Before we can truly claim to have a social brand, we need to engage in the hard work of transforming our business processes and practices first.
We need to become social businesses first – and the social marketing will naturally follow.
I am participating in a TASTY experiment – sharing one recipe with random people via that old social network, email. It was started by one of the original Age of Conversation participants – Bob Glaza – and guarantees me 36 new recipes in my inbox just in time for Christmas.
My recipe – Vegan Pancakes
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon olive oil
(Note: 1 cup = 8 ounces)1. Combine flour and sugar in a bowl
2. Stir in soy milk a little at a time so that the mixture doesn’t get lumpy
3. The mix should be slightly runny
4. Add the olive oil and then place the bowl into the refrigerator for 20 minutes
5. Before cooking, make sure the mixture hasn’t over thickened. Just add a little more soy milk if necessary
6. Cook quickly over a fairly high heat
7. Stack multiple pancakes on a plate in the oven (just keeping them warm)
8. Serve with your favourite toppings
I love these type of activities. They are simple, easy to join, and expose you to ideas and people from the networks of your friends. And these are often the most powerful connections within a network – they are the strength in social media’s weak ties.
If you’d like to participate, here are Bob’s instructions.
We are participating in a collective, TASTY experiment. As such, you have been invited to be part of a recipe exchange. We hope you will participate. We have picked those we think would make this fun.
1. Please send a recipe to the person whose name is in position 1 (even if you don’t know him/her). It should be something quick, easy and without rare ingredients. The best one is the one you know in your head and can type right now. One you make when you are short of time.
2. After you’ve sent the recipe to the person in position 1 below, copy this letter into a new email, move my name to position 1 and put your name in position 2. Only my and your name should show when you send your email. Send to 20 friends BCC (blind copy).
If you cannot do this within 5 days, let us know so it will be fair to those participating. You should receive 36 recipes. It’s fun to see where they come from! Seldom does anyone drop out because we all need new ideas. The turnaround is fast as there are only 2 names on the list and you only have to do it once.
I’d add one more thing to these instructions. If you have a blog or a Tumblr or even a Facebook account, share your recipe and put #TASTY in the title so that it can be tracked.
Enjoy!
I recently spoke at the Social Media Plus conference in Philadelphia. My topic was “social selling” – but rather than just taking a simple route and providing a case study, I thought it would be more interesting to try something different. I wanted to tell the story of my work with SAP’s Premier Customer Network – an unfolding story of our efforts to become a “social business”. But how best to do so? What would resonate?
My colleague, Anand Ramachandran had recently created a presentation using Angry Birds as a metaphor – and on reviewing this, I knew I had a hook. If social media/social business is a “game changer”, then clearly that game is Angry Birds. And the deeper I looked, the more I found.
Here is the presentation – together with a speaking track to fill in the gaps. It looks at what it takes to move from the business simplicity characterised by games like Space Invaders to a complex multi-stakeholder sales process – which is closer to Angry Birds. Along the way I discuss sales process, people enablement and the benefits of connecting open networks with closed communities.
We Are Social Singapore are showing impeccable timing in releasing their Guide to Social Digital and Mobile in Asia – especially as I will be focusing more closely on the Asia Pacific and Japan region through 2012.
There are some fascinating statistics dotted throughout – but the most powerful aspect is the sheer scale of social media adoption that has already taken place across Asia. Just think – there are 750,000,000 social media users across Asia. And that accounts for over half of the population in Brunei, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore.
But if you are thinking social media in Asia – don’t think Facebook. It ranks a lowly fourth with 172 million members. That’s way behind Qzone with 536 million, Tencent with 310 million and Sina Weibo weighing in at 250 million.
And social is only part of the story. The clincher is mobile – with three quarters of the population (or almost 2.8 billion people) registered as mobile subscribers. Over one in five of these have access to the internet via their mobile phone – that’s 623 million people who use their phones to access online services.
But enough with the powerful, mind blowing statistics. Spend some time with the data in the report – but when doing so, think about behaviour. What is taking place with your customers in Asian markets? How does their usage, interest and even the limitations of mobile internet services impact the way you can engage them? What are the opportunities? And what shifts that lay ahead in 2012 can you use to surprise and delight your customers (and confound your competitors)?
In social media, we are often told to “listen first”. But what does this really mean? For most people, the reality is that we “monitor” – brands, products, people and so on. But, for me, monitoring is only the first step. It’s the most basic thing that you can do to begin showing your customers some respect.
But monitoring is done in silence. It’s a form of brand voyeurism.
So, what does it take to go beyond “monitoring”? I took a lesson from one of my favourite musicians – Natalie Merchant. You can read my latest MarketingProfs article How Natalie Merchant Taught Me to Listen along with plenty of other thought provoking content at the always brilliant MarketingProfs site.
Oh and you can always follow my How to Listen chart. Enjoy.
While recently presenting at the SocialMediaPlus conference, I had the opportunity to spend some time with my colleague and fellow blogger, Michael Brenner. It was great to hear, first hand, the work that he has been pioneering with a large global organisation such as SAP – but it was equally interesting to learn of how this is changing his own thinking and professional approaches.
Michael constantly spoke about personal innovation – about the way he was making business personal – and also more social. He is constantly connecting with people all around the world, opening conversations around what it means to be a “social business” and then working to turn this into an operational reality. It is, he explained, a constant process of showing, tracking, engaging, educating and involving people at all levels – from executives and decision makers down to the newest of interns. And at the heart of this is conversation.
But what does it mean in reality? Michael suggests that you’ve got to first turn your lens onto your own marketing efforts. “The fact is, most marketing sucks”. And as he points out in this presentation, it’s not really a question of how to integrate social media into your marketing mix – it’s about transforming the way you do business. And a hint: it comes down to DOING.
Do you consider yourself an average person? Do you do the average things that other average people do? Do you behave a little above or below average?
I only ask, because it seems that average people all over the world are spending a more than average amount of time on Facebook. And this infographic from the folks at JESS3 makes me wonder – do you consider yourself average in this same way? Does this social media diet sound like yours? And what, really, does this tell us about ourselves. Think I may need to get out more – as it seems there are all these friends that I have never met. Maybe we should meet for coffee. Let me know 😉
Customer loyalty programs are funny things. They often walk a fine line between promise and flattery, between exclusivity and exploitation. These programs are laced with words and imagery that reinforce the sense of entitlement, achievement and reference “awards” and benefits.
But in a socially connected world, awards, entitlement and even exclusivity can be turned on its head. Right now, Qantas is at the heart of this new brand experience.
A few days ago I wrote What Qantas Will Learn from its Social Customers. There were five key lessons:
But things have progressed, and by “progressed” I mean “become worse”. Yesterday’s promotional efforts using Twitter and the #qantasluxury hashtag have been widely regarded as a failure or PR disaster. But I think it goes deeper than that. It’s a malaise that goes to the very heart of the brand and the disconnect between Qantas the brand and its customers.
You see, social media can become damaging to your brand when you ignore the real messages of social media – the wide cultural and personal transformations that I call The Social Way. Without understanding and translating these into your business the gulf between your brand and your customers will continue to widen. If Qantas (or their advising agencies) had understood, for example, the Five Stages of Social Media Grief and had applied this to understanding their customers, then perhaps, #qantasluxury could have been a completely different campaign.
What we are seeing is a widespread “falling out of love” with the Qantas brand. And with this comes a sense of loss. Grief. The Australian public and travellers, in particular, are having to come to grips with a changed reality – where the relationship and trust that they once had in the Qantas brand has evaporated through purposeful direct action of the Qantas management and Board.
And when the audience, formerly known as “Qantas Customers” have not yet moved into the “acceptance” phase of the grieving process, any brand activations must be carefully considered, planned and executed.
The Twitter stream of conversation (as shown above) seems to be still accelerating and now #qantasluxury appears to have been awarded the ultimate social media honour – the production of its very own Downfall spoof (see Parodies in this Wikipedia entry). When your customers go to the trouble of producing media like this, it’s the equivalent of entering the social customer hall of shame. It’s not an award that Qantas would like, I am sure, but I have a feeling there is still a way to go before this peters out.