Why TV Advertisements Need to Change to TV Marketing (and the Difference)

Television is changing. Or rather the way people consume content is changing. This requires the way marketers leverage the media to change. The big question is if television executives will follow the same denial path taken by print media executives and prolong the required change only to see business crumble. Will television execs put their head in the sand and expect TV ad revenues to stay where they are or will they start to look at alternative revenue generation.

The four major broadcasters have suffered a collective 7.2 percent drop in traditional TV viewers this season. According to The New York Times, all four major networks ad revenues slipped this last quarter. And it will continue to get worse as evident by the “Zero TV” group … that is the growing five million homes in the United States that don’t subscribe to traditional cable or satellite viewing and find alternate ways to stream content such as Netflix and Hulu.

Let’s face it. How many people watch live TV (besides sports events)? Are we all skipping the ads and fast forwarding on DVR? Even when watching live program TV people are finding ways to skip ads. It has gotten to the point where I start to watch some 60 minute programs 20 minutes late and just speed through the commercials and then finishing viewing at the top of the hour.

While I presented current data, the audience behaviors I described are not anything new. As more and more people shift to new viewing patterns, and streaming content and webisodes become more prolific, the TV advertisement methods need to change. Consumers never really liked push-in-your-face branding, and now they have ways to avoid it. This means that brands need to adopt softer marketing approaches leveraging TV as opposed to straight up ads.

And at the same time, we need brand sponsorship. Advertisements are what pay for the content. So what is the solution? Marketers must be more subtle and apply new ways of getting their product in front of an audience – otherwise, the audience will just ignore their presence.

To give you some examples, I will start with a guilty pleasure of mine – American Idol. (I don’t know why I am hooked. I am not part of the pop audience. I much prefer bands like The National, Wilco, Arcade Fire, Leonard Cohen, etc, but I am sucked into the talent and competition.) As a start, look simply at product insertion on American Idol. It is by no mistake that those big red Coca-Cola cups sit smack in front of the judges and we can see them take sips every now and then. Coca-Cola also did an excellent crowd sourcing marketing program with their Perfect Harmony Contest. The contest provided an interactive experience where viewers had input on Carly Rae Jepsen’s new single “Take a Picture” including lyrics and what back up dancers would wear. All this was done on a Coca-Cola sponsored site. Was it a success? I would not “Call it Maybe”, but call it yes.

Another marketing example on American Idol comes from Ford. Ford was very active in a number of segments that went beyond standard TV ads. Sponsored segments included a fun soccer game by Idol contestants using Ford cars, nice footage of corporate social responsibility showing trips by the contestants to schools. Ford also ran a vote on which car the two finalists would receive.

In another move from Fox Broadcasting, a partnership with Twitter will allow them to sell sponsored tweets with short video clips from TV shows or featuring highlights from live events starting this summer.

Marketers and TV execs must acknowledge that audiences are turning a blind side to TV advertisements. Brands must find new innovative ways to integrate their product into program sponsorship. As digital and second screen technologies and audience usage evolve, there are even more innovative opportunities awaiting marketers.

Make It Happen,
Social Steve

What is Social Marketing? (Make Sure You Really Know)

I have notice there are an abundance of social marketing positions listed everyday and a massive pool of individuals applying for the opportunities. While there is much opportunity on both ends, I am not sure hiring companies and applicants really know what social marketing is and its real impact.

First off, let’s clearly distinguish that social media and social marketing are not the same thing. As I mentioned about a year ago social media is simply platforms for media posting and communications. In no way does the act of posting and communicating infer that brands are successfully marketing their product/service. The social media platforms merely present an opportunity for marketing …. Social marketing.

So the question at hand … What is social marketing? Social marketing is the strategy, planning, execution, and measurement activities aimed at getting your target audience to build a stronger relationship with your brand. This is accomplished through conversations, engagement, content production and curation, customer service, and overall, an enriched user experience. As a result, brands look to increase (and most importantly measure) awareness, consideration, loyalty, and advocacy. Advocacy is the pinnacle result of social marketing as the strongest advocates in the target audience help to promote and market your product.

Here is a list of the key elements of social marketing:

* Target Market Insights – thorough understanding of the target market’s needs, wants, motivations and digital behaviors. (Also see “The Most Important Word for Marketing.”)
* Content – awesome original content, curation of content to support brand position, and initiatives to provoke user generated content (UGC). (Also see “Ingredients to a Winning Content Strategy.”)
* Influence – identification and engagement of brand relevant influencers to generate earned media (Also see “A Real Look at Social Media Influence.”)
* Listening – active monitoring and listening to your target audience on all digital channels.
* Feedback to product group – not only listening for engagement purposes, but listening to capture new product/service offerings, features, support, and potential issues.
* Engagement – monitor for relevant conversation on both brand digital assets and non-brand digital assets. Actively participate in conversations and respond to all inquiries in a timely manner.
* Sharing Optimization – Complete assessment of brand site, social channels, content, and mentions on non-brand digital assets to yield guidance and recommendations to increase user sharing of brand’s content and posts.
* Real-time marketing – Consistent monitoring of current events to produce “on-the-fly” communication based upon planned processes and scenarios.
* Mobile – Recognition that the target audience accesses a high level of digital social content, conversations and information on mobile. Optimization of social engagement and proliferation of content for mobile consumption.
* PR – Integration of traditional and digital PR to yield maximum earned media.
* Metrics – definition of how success will be measured and continuous capture of empirical data. Analysis of metrics to determine ongoing strategy and execution modifications.
* Integration to other marketing endeavors and programs – social marketing is not a separate, isolated marketing initiative. Make sure it is integrated with all other marketing initiatives.
* Integration into CRM (customer relationship management) data and analysis – activities to capture a complete picture and definition of your audience.

So you see social marketing is much more than having a Facebook and Twitter presence. It is much more than simply posting and running promotions to increase likes and followers. As you look to move beyond social media hype to drive measurable results, consider what social marketing really needs to be in your organization.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

Why PR Agencies Should be Great at Social Marketing, But So Few Are

If there is a marketing group or function that should be a natural for driving social, media marketing success, I would pick PR. No other marketing function lives and dies by the success of maintaining strong relationships. And that is the key to social marketing success as well.

Successful social marketing is accomplished by building strong relationships such that your audience comes to the brand’s aid and produces word of mouth marketing, advocacy, and promotion of the brand. These actions yield a trusted source of marketing for the brand … much stronger than the brand’s own marketing.

When we look at the role of a PR agency, it is very similar. PR agencies look to manufacture earned media by key influencers for the brand’s target market. As defined at Wikipedia, “Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the spread of information …Public relations may include an organization or individual gaining exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment. The aim of public relations by a company often is to persuade the public, investors, partners, employees, and other stakeholders to maintain a certain point of view about it, its leadership, [and] products, …”

PR companies are very well suited for driving social marketing success because their entire success is based upon relationships. Relationships are what drive social success. Yet PR companies, for the most part, have not championed social marketing in a successful way. Why is this so?

I will start by suggesting that the emphasis of PR individuals is more focused on “what will the relationship do for me” as opposed to the true objective of building valued give-and-take relationships. Now I know that this statement will not be taken well by a majority of PR professionals. So let me give an example to demonstrate why I could make such an unpopular statement. When I was running a social group for a well known magazine publisher, I had a PR professional on my team. She was so guarded of her contacts at other publications, that even when she went on vacation she would not give me, her boss, the email addresses of her contacts to make sure all activities were taken care of. This is common practice in the PR profession and I understand the motivation. Yes, the PR professional should own the relationship with contacts that yield earned media. But does that mean they are the only one that can talk to the “partner”? If PR professionals are so concerned about a strong relationship to truly produce a win-win for both sides, the PR professional would introduce their contact to numerous people they represents. (Okay, maybe not. But this mentality is definitely foreign to the objectives of social marketing.)

Even when I have written articles for publications and a PR professional has brokered the arrangement, I am rarely introduced to the appropriate “publishing” people. Yes, I understand the “preservation” aspect of the PR professional protecting their contacts. But the mentality of holding back is not conducive to strong relationship building with your target audience.

Another reason why there is a deficiency in PR agencies driving social media marketing success is that historically PR agencies deal with one monolithic type of person – the publisher. The publisher wants hot news and something different that will help to distinguish their journal. Pretty straightforward. The reality is that a brand’s audience is diverse with different wants, needs, and desires. Social marketers can define a target market persona of the individual that they are talking to, to best fit their message and communication. But they also need to recognize that the actual conversation in the relationship is going to take different turns. As social marketers look to motivate the target market it will take greater communication to build trust with a diversified group. PR agencies are not use to scaling this dimension of the conversation.

Thus I think there are very few PR agencies that can deliver successful social marketing today. Most are taking their existing PR model and playing that to a social practice and that spells failure. The PR agency that is willing to say, “Hey, we understand relationship building, but we are going to make it more authentic to a larger and more diverse audience than we are used to,” has a chance for success.

Far too many marketing agencies have taken what they have done well through out the years and applied it to a new channel. This won’t work for the digital revolution because new marketing channels driven by new technology provoke new and different audience behaviors. Everything a successful marketer does is based upon complete empathy and understanding of the target audience. The reality is that I have not seen PR agencies, by and large, recognizing this reality and adjusting appropriately and successfully. Who is ready to be the exception?

Make It Happen,
Social Steve

PS – I get it. I understand why PR professionals are possessive of their contacts. I am not suggesting they change this for a PR practice. But if they also run a social practice, a different mentality is required. This requires a strong social leader that appreciates why PR runs the way it does and at the same time shapes the social practice to be slightly different. This also requires a bit of give from the PR agency to allow a changed approach for their social practice.

The Importance of Blogging Beyond the Obvious

No surprise, I am very bullish on blogging, but you should know there is great value in maintaining a blog with continuous updates. Before I discuss some strong benefits that are not so obvious, let’s go through some of the fundamental values of blogging.

Probably the best reason to blog is that it helps to establish a brand or individual as a subject matter expert in a particular field or vertical. Assuming the brand or individual has strong knowledge and expertise in a specific area, blogging helps to reinforce the entity as a thought leader for topics covered.

In addition to demonstrating to your audience your expertise, blogging provokes conversation and engagement. And when you continuously deliver content in a topical area, your SEO and listing on Google is increased.

And now for the not-so-obvious …

How many times during the week do you have a thought about something that happens in your profession? Do you take time to think it through and detail a solution or position? When you are committed to blogging you force yourself to think it through and work out details. As a result, your knowledge and expertise actually increase. Certainly bloggers work through more solutions than an inactive content producer. Not only that, bloggers sharpen their thoughts and become more attuned to their profession. The preparation and action of blogging take you deeper into your profession. The fact that you have thought through the topic and detailed a solution or stance now makes you better prepared for discussions on the topic whether they are online or offline.

Another important aspect is that when you write an article on a topic, you now have a documented stance and position. When you engage in conversation with others, often the same topic comes up. Point people to what you have written.

I can say without any hesitation that blogging about social marketing has made me a much stronger digital/social marketing executive. So what is keeping you from blogging? Show your stuff.

Make It Happen,
Social Steve

When Looking for Your Company’s Social Media Marketing Leader, Consider ….

Whether you are looking for an internal employee, agency, or consultant to lead your social media marketing efforts you really need a hybrid of digital expertise and traditional marketing experience. In today’s world, everyone jumps to the conclusion that a young digital power user should lead the social marketing efforts, but if you are looking for someone to drive a holistic, integrated social practice that yields company KPIs (key performance indicators), then you need a seasoned professional. At the same time, you should make sure the “seasoned professional” is not only experienced in delivering social success, but is one who is consistently keeping up on current innovations and audience trends and behaviors.

Far too often there is a sole emphasis on knowledge and use of digital platforms. Yes, of course, this is most important as they are the marketing channels that your social leader will be responsible for. But digital channels cannot sit in isolation. They must be connected and integrated with all other marketing endeavors. You require someone that has worked in other marketing channels that can be integrated and leveraged with social. Social marketing is by and large a brand marketing play. Social needs to be integrated both with other brand marketing efforts and direct marketing efforts as well. Make sure your social leader has the knowledge and experience to create synergy between brand and direct marketing.

So your social leader needs to understand the other marketing functions and make sure social is a holistic integrated function. It takes a true leader to make sure social works with other marketing functions. Honestly speaking, this is difficult as most marketing counterparts do not understand social marketing well. In some cases, they are scared by it because of their lack of knowledge. It takes a non-threatening, patient, collaborative person to work through the organizational evolution required.

As you consider other qualifications of your social leader, remember it all starts with your target audience. Ask yourself, “Is the person we are considering going to research and engage with the target market such that a complete and thorough understanding of their wants, needs, motivations, and turn offs are completely understood?” The social leader must be driven by the audience behavior more than hype of new platforms.

And while the social leader needs to be concerned about the target audience’s interest to create awareness and consideration, they also want to make sure that once they turn into a customer, the customer remains loyal. Thus the social leader also needs to understand customer delivery and customer service. In the end, you not only want to use social marketing to increase customer loyalty, but you also want social to create and activate brand advocates.

The next area of knowledge and expertise for your social leader is data, analytics, and the ability to drive rational decision making based on empirical data. Social is not a “feel good” marketing endeavor. Like everything else in today’s critical business world, metrics need to be produced and measurable results need to be demonstrated.

These are some core qualifications that should be required of your social leader along with your companies own details of the job description. But there are some soft skills and qualifications that should be required as well. Your social leader needs to be a mentoring type. They need to be someone that not only has patients to educate others, but one that is enthusiastic about doing so. They must be relentless and collaborative in their execution. I can tell you that while everyone is interested in social, many are still overly cautious about taking steps forward. Social is still very new and still very misunderstood. The social leader cannot be frustrated by slow adoption, but rather take each small win as another mile passed in the marathon of success.

The last area I would touch on for your social leader focuses on the ability to derive a creative strategic approach. Everyone is on the social band wagon and there is much social noise in every brand vertical space. True social leadership will drive implementations that stand above the noise to capture the attention of the audience. Make sure your social leader shows strong signs of creativity and strategy.

In closing, I would just mention a couple other attributes that I hope are obvious. 1) Passion – make sure your leader is passionate about the area they lead. 2) Experience – ask for examples of their social marketing success.

If you have read through up to this point you are probably saying, wow, how am I going to find someone that has all that? You’re right. That is much to ask and there are very few that can fit the bill. And that is the exact point. Not many can really be a true leader for your social marketing, but if you want successful results, make sure you take time to find someone that can deliver what is required.

Make It Happen,
Social Steve

Full disclosure: having recently left the agency I was working at leading the social practice, I am currently searching for and pursuing my next leadership position.

Social Media Highlights the Important Difference Between Marketing and Sales

Marketing is not sales and yet so many seem to forget that. If marketing is not sales, why would we measure marketing success by sales figures? And if marketing shouldn’t be measured by sales figures, does it have any importance in companies?

Some tough questions here, but let’s start with a definition. According to Wikipedia, “Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers. It is a critical business function for attracting customers.” But I would take this a bit further and add that marketing is the act of creating desire, want, and need of a brand and motivating the target market to act. This “act” can be a number of things. Yes, the act can be a purchase, but it can also be many other valuable dealings.

You see, a salesperson asks, “What can I do to get someone to purchase my product today?” A marketing person should ask, “What can I do to get someone to want my product for a lifetime and share my product value with others?”

When you look at these two different questions, you see how brands should utilize social platforms. Social media is best used to build trusted relationships. As brands build trusted relationships they continue to deliver value to a target audience. The relationships create awareness, brand consideration, loyalty, and advocacy. Continuous communication and delivery of valuable content is what reinforces these attributes. And by the way, these things can be measured, and they tee up sales. So while these “marketing efforts” may not result in direct sales, they absolutely have value for companies.

The difference between sales and marketing is short term survivability and long term sustainability – when done correctly. And this is a value of social marketing – it provides long term sustainability as opposed to short term sales when done correctly. Thus the term social marketing is emerging. Social marketing is a valuable business function. Social media is the technologies that make social marketing possible.

Not surprisingly, you do not hear the term “social sales.” Yes, social marketing can tee up sales, but is not typically successful when going at sales directly. We do hear of social commerce. And social commerce “involves using social media, online media that supports social interaction, and user contributions to assist in the online buying and selling of products and services.” Social commerce includes:

1. Loyalty and referral marketing
2. Social CRM
3. Mobile social commerce
4. Better location-based marketing
5. Group buying
6. Social shopping
7. Ratings and reviews
8. Recommendations and referrals
9. Forums and communities
10. Social ads and apps

In most cases of social commerce it is the audience that takes an action. The promotion of sales in social channels comes best from the target audience as opposed to the company itself. It is more authentic and trusted selling. But you can only expect your audience to come rally advocacy and word of mouth as you continually deliver value to them. Don’t push sales in social channels. Let your audience do it as you market to them.

Think about social marketing; ease up on social selling.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

Conservative Social Marketing is Dead – Be Bold

No – this is not a political statement. Conservative social marketing … yes, 98% of brands and companies are too conservative. Nothing bold and thus, nothing that stands out.

The fact is everyone has a social media presence now. But most are “just doing it.” They do some sweepstakes or promotion to get a large following and then just idle along.

Do you really expect your audience to continue to sip your kool-aid, or do you think they will be better served and have greater interest if you spike your social communication and engagement a bit?

I heard a great line this week from Jeffrey Hazylett, author of The Mirror Test and Running the Gauntlet as well as chairman of the Hazylett group that you should consider. He said, “I might get described as a bull in a china shop … that’s an inaccurate description of me or of any agent of change. You see, I’ve never broken a plate or crystal glass.” Isn’t this exactly what you want in your social marketing … To startle and maybe even shock your audience to truly grab their attention and continually keep them interested?

Everyone is looking at social marketing best practice. I do think it is important to look at others and learn from them. But do not just copy others. Do something different. Be bold. Here are some considerations to push you and your brand to the bold side:

- Creativity and originality, first. This is most important as you take toll of the other points that follow.
- Examine your audience behavior and engage in their manner, not yours.
- Have a cause beyond your product.
- Amaze your audience with responses that they would never expected.
- Establish a reputation as a committed content producer beyond product/service.
- Consider video production – be an independent video producer with compelling and entertaining content.
- Make listening and responding the heart of your social marketing – true social engagement.
- Time is of the essence – put real-time marketing in the hands of your most trusted employees … Social communications beyond the “marketing communications” people.

Look, just about anyone can launch their social marketing now. But I guarantee you that you will get negligible results if you just do it and do not take some risk in being bold. There is way too much status-quo noise out there and you need to rise above the hum and make your brand sonic.

I would also add that there is a difference between being bold and being stupid. Consider the Ford debacle in India. Their recent ads of women in bondage in the hatch of a Ford car were not bold, they were stupid. Always start with your audience. Understand them. If you truly know your audience, you will be able to separate stupidity and boldness. The Ford ads were down right offensive. Especially in a country that is getting horrible press related to gang rapes.

Some of the keys to your social marketing success is to a) know your audience and their behaviors and motivations b) learn from others successes and failures, and c) turn it up a notch and demonstrate creativity and originality. When I say conservative social marketing is dead, I am referring to a “me too” attitude and execution. This approach to social will keep you in the noise and never elevate you to standing above the crowd. Is this what you want? Think not. Be bold.

Make it happen,
Social Steve