So it is no surprise that the use of reviews plays a strong role in marketing and customers’ buying decisions. As a brand, you want to give people incentive to take action and write a review on your behalf. The question is, how far can you go before your practices and tactics are considered unethical?

This past week there was an article in the New York Times, “For $2 a Star, an Online Retailer Gets 5-Star Product Reviews.” In that article, Bing Liu, a computer science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, stated “More people are depending on reviews for what to buy and where to go, so the incentives for faking are getting bigger.” And Mary K. Engle, the Federal Trade Commission’s associate director for advertising practices said that “Advertising disguised as editorial is an old problem, but it’s now presenting itself in different ways … We’re very concerned.”

Yes – bogus and deceitful reviews are immoral, unethical and downright wrong. But there is nothing wrong with giving your customers an incentive to post a review so long as you are not manipulating what they say. You want to know how a brand can drive a positive review. Pretty simple. Deliver an awesome product or service. This is the most important factor for success and likely to produce winning reviews. And if you are really doing that why not put some incentive in place? Let me give you two real scenarios…

A number of years ago, I headed up a mainframe product line. We sold high-end computers (7 figure price tag) to corporate enterprises. A B2B play. When it came to final negotiations, the client would always beat us up on price. As they would whittle us down, the final agreement was usually, “OK, we’ll give you x% discount if you agree to do a press release with us.” In other words, the final price was agreed to with the addition of advocacy. The client would agree to state something like “we selected ___ because of their stellar product.”

My second example highlights a word of mouth play by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. Now we all know that Zappos is the poster child for customer support. This is because Tony has the greatest appreciation for customer interfacing to the benefit of both the customer and his brand. When Tony released his book, “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose” he offered the book for free to anyone that had an active blog, some traffic to their site, and were willing to write a review. No influence on what they said about the book, just a gentlemen’s agreement to write a review. (You can read my review at “Delivering Happiness – The Key to a Great Company.”)

So why shouldn’t a company offer their customer a discount or rebate to write a review after purchase? It is going a step too far if you ask them to write something specifically, but a simple request to write their objective review makes much sense.

In a world where buyers are looking for input and according to Hubspot, people are 71% likely to purchase when referred by social media, “marketing reviews” is a win-win for the consumer and the brand (assuming the brand really has something compelling and valuable to offer). This should turn into regular concept and regular practice.

So I have no problem working with brands to put in place a strategy that is aimed at production of product/service reviews and increasing word of mouth marketing. Any reason why you would not do the same?

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

Now I am not saying that Google has released a perfect or even thorough offering. What I am saying is that it is a game changer. A game changer, not necessarily for Google, but for individuals and brands that look for information that is specifically and contextually relevant to the information they seek.

Before I outline why I regard this to be a monumental capability, let’s explain a little more about how it functions and the controversy that is brewing. First, an example of how it works. Let’s say you do a Google search for bicycles as you are starting your search for a new bike to purchase. The search-plus-your-world capability means that any profiles, businesses pages, Picasa Photos, and Google+ post and comments that include bicycle/bike text or tagging automatically appear at the top of your search queue. These entries trump all other listings independent of previous SEO weightings.

The controversy as mentioned in PCWorld’s article “Google’s Search Plus Your World: What it Means for Users” … “Google’s new search feature is raising some concerns about Google prioritizing its own content instead of linking out to third-party sites, which arguably is the whole point of a search engine.” This may raise antitrust issues as Google is effectively capitalizing on its search strengthen to promote its social network. Note that Twitter is troubled by the Google announcement and publicly stated “We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone. We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users.” So Twitter is not part of the implementation, and also note that Google does not and cannot index Facebook either, at least at this time.

Agreed – far from a complete implementation of search and social. And yet, I still believe this is monumental as it clearly highlights the road going forward. What Google’s implementation means is that we are starting to see more contextual relevance to individual’s search as opposed to treating everyone the same. Information provided from your circles, network, and connections are more valuable than a generic search. you are also going to find the most trustworthy information?

And while there are strong benefits for users, there are equally powerful opportunities for brands. What this now means is that there is an added value for brands to establish relationships with individuals. As those relationships build, users will include brands in the social network circles. When brands are added to user social circles, they will automatically jump to the top of the queue for their relevant topic searches.

There is much work required on Google’s Search Plus Your World implementation. Maybe they will never work out the issues with Twitter, Facebook, and other social platforms to produce a holistic integration of search and social. Maybe that spells out an opportunity for Bing or other search engines to look to capitalize and increase market share. Frankly, I have no bias to any one search engine. I am looking for the one that gives me the most relevant search results that are useful to me.

The Google implementation represents the beginning of the end of search (as we know it today). Individual discovery replaces generic search. Yes, we still have search engines, but these search engines help people discover the most relevant information they seek as opposed to simply having search engine optimization be a gaming feat to accomplish. People are seeking greater control with regards to how brands become part of their lives. Brands will be most successful with their target audience if they concentrate on delivering true value and continuous engagement with that target group. If brands accomplish this relationship building with their target market, they will continue to be top of mind not only through social engagement, but through reinforced discovery via search.

And that folks is why Google’s Search+ is a big deal. Agree? Disagree? Comment and join the conversation.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

Here is the one thing you should think about … everyone is getting in the game. Everyone is going to do social media in 2012. If you thought there were too many channels on your cable TV package and a majority of them are junk, think about what the social space will look like between all the brands fighting for impressions and mindshare. How are you going to win over your targeted consumer/business? You better not just wing it!

Just this morning I was reading Mark Schaefer’s {grow} blog and he had a post “Your 2012 Marketing Plan: Tell Me What to Do.” Mark was referring to an article by Mitch Joel where Joel took the position that there would be a number of new social trends flying in the face of the consumer. Schaefer’s position was that the consumers actually need less. My take is that there will be a plethora of messages, social engagement attempts and digital interactions as a whole, bombarding consumers. And while it might be best to have less, dream on. If you manage a brand, the reality is that you are in a dog fight for mindshare and attention. It is harder than ever to capture awareness, consideration, loyalty, and advocates for your brand – unless you play it right and do the pre-design work (not play it to chance).

So my suggestion is that 2012 should be the year of ring in the old and ring in the new … a combination of getting back to marketing basics AND embracing the new digital marketing frontier.

But it has got to start with marketing basics. Having worked on the client side of marketing for a number of years and most recently on the agency side, I see two different, but similar approaches to the marketing basics. The first question from both client and agency perspective is how do brands win awareness, interest, mindshare, purchase decision, loyalty, and word of mouth referrals? If you are not thinking marketing stages and planning before you start social media, I guarantee you will be another example of failed social media. And there will be more cases of failures than successes. Still want to just do it?

The client side approach usually starts with a marketing plan. I wrote about this methodology three years ago when I started blogging, and it bares greater importance today. At a high-level here are your steps:

1) Define your target segmentation – who your product/service is aimed at serving and the demographics and psycho-demographics of each segment.
2) State the brand value proposition – the “compelling reason to buy” for the defined target market segments sought.
3) Articulate a position statement (for internal use only).

For ………………. [target customer]
Who ………………. [key qualifier - form]
Our product is a …… [product category]
That provides ……… [key benefit]
Unlike ……………. [main competitor]
Our product ……….. [key point of differentiation]

4) Set goals – what are you attempting to accomplish through the initiative?
5) Define the target audience you want to talk to. This is likely a subset of the target segmentation. Focus on influencers.
6) State the target audience perceptions honestly – whether they are positive, negative, and/or unaware of the brand.
7) Describe want the marketing offering is (promotion, awareness, lead generation, advocacy program, etc.)
8) Have a call to action – what is the next step you want your audience to do – be careful not to sell too quickly and rather do something appropriately in line with the relationship level established.
9) Define message strategy and channels to be used.

The agency side approach is to form a “Creative Brief.” A creative brief is a document used to develop visual design, copy, advertising, web sites, and yes – social media. The creative brief, consists of a series of simple questions asked and answered to yield the guiding post for the development of the creative deliverable. (source – wikipedia.org) Your social media strategy, plan, and implementation must be creative. Otherwise, you are the equivalent of another lame channel on the cable TV package that no one is going to tune in to.
There are numerous examples of creative brief templates available on the Internet (One example is here.) At MediaWhiz, we use our own proprietary template, but the main gist is:

- To understand the business problem or value proposition
- State objectives of the marketing program
- Define the target audience and psycho-demographics
- Articulate the perceptions of the target audience
- State and understand the competition’s approach
- Define a message strategy (what is the one thing to tell the audience)
- State mandatory elements and deliverables
- Establish timeline, budget, and approvals

As you can see, the two approaches are very similar. But the most important thing is to recognize that there is much pre-work to be done. This prerequisite effort is likely to define the difference between failure and success … The difference between grabbing attention or being yet another organization that simply has a Facebook page and Twitter account up and wonders what the value of social media is.

Social media is an EXTENSION of your marketing. Social media is an EXTENSION of your customer service. Social media is an EXTENSION of your business. So plan and implement accordingly.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

When I look back on 2011 and think about the social media takeaways from my perspective, it is simple … just look at what I have written about. OK – I spared you the pain of going through all of them and did it myself. Funny enough, I pulled the best of the best together and grouped them together and what happened? You get the summary of important social media themes and learnings for 2011. Here is what you may have missed:

Understanding Social Media

The Simple Explanation of Social Media provides an easy to understand explanation of what social media is, what success might look like, and important considerations.

Integrating Owned Media, Earned Media, and Paid Media explains how the three different types of media should be planned to produce synergy and great results. (This was my most popular and top rated article)

Content

Content is the core of social media. Content must be awesome … would you ever share something that was just okay?

4 Ingredients to a Winning Content Strategy calls it like it is.

There actually is something more important than content. Find out what it is in Content is Super Important !!! (But Not King).

Social Media in Your Company

Social Media at Your Company – Policies prepares you and your company to leverage the power of your employees while putting some best practice rules and regulations in place.

It is easy to be impressed by someone that appears to know much about social media, but are they going to produce results for you? Before you get underwhelming results see 3 Helpful Tips when Hiring for Social Media.

Why Most CEOs and Top Execs Don’t Get Social Media explains some key issues from the C-Level Suite perspective.

Planning and Understanding Your Audience

Why is “empathy” The Most Important Word for Marketing. You better understand your audience through and through. How else are you going to appeal to them?

7 Things You Need to do to Turn Social Media Successful Results provides some common sense that is often forgotten when social media planning takes place.

Marketing Demographics and the Ramifications of Social Media:
Introduction to Psycho-Demographics explains marketing beyond traditional demographics.

Ever wonder Where is the WOW in Social Media? Take a look at what might be missing in your social media approach.

ROI and Measurement

Social Media ROI – Don’t Be So Short Sighted – Think Longer Term is probably the biggest mistake people make when it comes to social media. Get a reality dose here.

The Social Media ROI Conundrum is a solid examination at the challenge of forming a defined social media ROI and what to do about it.

Social Media Models

Measuring the Stages of the Cyclic Social Media Marketing Funnel takes a look at the traditional marketing model and how social media is applied complete with metrics.

Digital PR and Outreach for Important Social Media Conversations goes beyond your Facebook and Twitter implementation and explains an equal, if not more important aspect of social media strategy and implementation.

Unifying Loyalty, Rewards, and Social Media is an explanation of yet another integration point for your existing marketing and social media activities.

Social Media Model that Defines the End of the World as We Know It brings it all together and provides the balanced formula and approach for the winning social media program.

Wrap-Up
So we actually covered a ton this year and made some great advancements in social media. Social media is no longer that thing people are thinking about doing. It is part of just about every company’s, every brand’s plans. 2012 will show greater success and more defined best practices. And I plan to be there with you every stride of the way. I am looking forward to providing greater help and guidance and connecting with more of you. Thanks for being an extremely important part of my little social world. Let’s make an effort to engage more in 2012 and help each other out.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

I am sure you are familiar with what has been referred to as the “Arab Spring.” Social media played an important role in allowing a movement to spread and permit the oppressed majority to topple the dictatorial minority. From a marketing perspective, I am suggesting the reverse … that there should be a social movement strategy and execution within social media. Social media success depends on this for its success.

A social movement is aimed at a call to action to change a current state. In the traditional sense of marketing, there has been a focus at moving a target market down the marketing funnel (awareness-consideration-sale). As I have previously suggested, the marketing funnel may have seen its day. But we still want to cause movements from our target market as it relates to our brand. For social media, this movement is relationship based and seeks to accomplish word of mouth marketing.

Let’s first reflect on the social movement as witnessed in the Arab Spring. Why did this happen? I’d suggest the mix of three important attributes:

Will
The will of the people. This is probably the most important aspect. If there is no will of the people, the people will likely not participate in a movement. Whether you are a governing body or a brand, you must serve the people as opposed to serving your own self interest. If not, the common democracy will look to oust you.

Value Proposition
What is the value of the change that is suggested or sought? If it does not create something better for the target market, there is no motivation. The stronger the value, the greater that the target segment will fight, go out of their way, or push for the objective.

Position
Leaders of a movement need to position their offering in a way that is most compelling to the audience they seek to capture. A good position allows the value proposition to be easily understood with regards to the benefits that will be obtained and the differentiation of what is being proposed.

Now bring these three elements to a social media program. Social media should not be about posting on Facebook and Twitter. From a brand perspective, it should be about causing some change. Some movement to the overall objectives of the brand. Some call to action.

We continue to hear pundits evaluate whether social media is a successful and/or worthwhile business endeavor. When doing so, are they looking at social media activities carried on by experienced marketers? Professionals that have experience driving business objectives? You can’t put social media responsibility in the hands of someone that does not have marketing experience and simply knows how to use social media channels.

I saw an interesting interview this week that touches on this issue. The passionate Gary Vaynerchuk was talking about “Why ROI Matters for Social Media.” He was talking about the stupidity of putting social media responsibility in the hands of some that lacked business experience and said, “Your 22-year-old did not use Facebook the last three years to do business. He did it to, like, look at chicks’ bikini pictures.” Maybe a bit dramatic, but you get the point.

So as everyone will be doing their end of year evaluation and New Year predictions, one of the things that many will mention is the 2011 year of social movement and the importance that social media played in the related events. I say yes … there were monumental events. As I look to 2012, I am pushing for some exceptional business results. My recommendation is to learn from this past year and use it to drive success in 2012. Understand the relationship between social movement and social media. Turn it inside out. Make sure your social media strategy and execution are developed based on a focus of causing a social movement. Understand the will of the people, have a value proposition for social media programs such that people share your content and you win earned media, and make sure you position your social activities in a most compelling way for your target audience. This is the definition of true marketing and social media integration.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

So let’s get the reality on the table. Social media does provide a great value to organizations that take a well thought strategic approach and integrate it with other business and marketing programs. Measuring social media return on investment is very difficult to perform because of the inability to hardcode or hardwire social activities to a purchase. But there is no doubt socialization of a brand leads to increased sales. You want some data to back this up?

Bain and Company declared that “Customers who engage with companies over social media are more loyal and they spend up to 40 percent more with those companies than other customers” in their study “Putting Social Media to Work.” Just yesterday I listened to an interview with Wendy Clark, senior vice president of integrated marketing communications and capabilities at Coca-Cola Inc. where she stated that an independent group verified that Coca-Cola fans on Facebook (36 million +) were twice as likely to consume coke and 10 times more likely to purchase. Are these not results you want to see for your company?

When used correctly, social media is powerful because it sparks earned media and/or user movements. The earned media and user actions are stronger than other brand marketing activities because it is a voice coming from a “trusted agent.” Well planned social media endeavors are apt to cause word-of-mouth. It is the equivalent of asking a friend a good place to grab some dinner. Is that not a lead that yields a sale? But how do you track that scenario … pretty difficult.

Getting people interested, engaged, and loyal to brands are some of the great outcomes of social media. Word of mouth, another byproduct of social media, is the most powerful lead generation source. All of these things lead to sales. To use a hockey analogy, if sales is the goal, social media is the assist. The NHL does score players 1 point for goals and 1 point for assists when calculating individual scoring statistics. And yes, awareness, consideration, loyalty, and advocacy are all assists of sales and can all be measured.

As I’ve mentioned a number of times, here are some examples of how you can measure each of the assists to sales within a social media paradigm:

Awareness – look at digital assets you do not own (blogs, portals, other tweeter accounts, etc.) and count the number of mentions of your brand and URL mentions of your site. Use a social media monitoring tool.

Consideration – look onsite and measure the number of visits and pageviews to your site. Use Google Analytics.

Loyalty – derive an equation that includes number or fans, followers, comments, interacts, subscriptions, and return visits to your site. Use Facebook, Twitter, and community analytics as well as Google Analytics to measure return visitors.

Advocacy – look on and off of your digital assets and measure referrals, mentions, positive sentiment, retweets, and reblogs. Use social media monitoring tools, and site analytics tools.

The approach I take with clients is to first baseline measurements for the four categories. Then continue to look at the measurements either week-to-week or month-to-month. Do not worry about an individual period of slippage. You are likely to see a zigzag line over time, but normalize that line. Positive results are somewhere around a 10% increase month-over-month on the normalized curve. Put all line metrics on the same chart. Do you see relationships between the lines? Are you converting those that are aware to consideration? Those considering to loyalty? Those loyal to advocate? There is likely some degree of drop off from stage to stage, but is the percentage of drop off getting better over time? Also add in a sales measurement and see if you can determine a correlation between your social media measurements and sales. I often suggest that there is a “gestation” period between social media awareness and consideration to sales. There is a definite lag of these parameters. Do this type of measurement over a rolling 12 month period. Learn to modify your social programs based on measured results. If you implement this correctly and have a strategic approach to social media, execute with the right tactics, and modify your social program based on measured results, you will have a winning social media program that can be quantitatively justified.

Back to ROI … the technical definition of ROI is (sales – investment) / (investment). It is that sales component in the equation that makes it difficult to measure social media ROI. This is for two reasons: 1) social is not a channel for direct sales. While some use it successfully for sales, overall it is not the best use of social. 2) It is extremely difficult to tag a sale with a social media tracker.

As we roll into 2012 and social media is finally well accepted as a very strong brand marketing initiative, you must show measured value for your efforts. I am certain that somewhere along the line someone is going to (rightfully so) ask you for social media ROI. You now have the background to answer this question. It is now up to you to put a measurement tracking and reporting procedure into your social media program. Ready to deliver measurable results?

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

So my answer to this ubiquitous question has been stop selling and provide some simple education first. Since my blog has been a place to share information, let me share a presentation with you that I give to many clients. The name of the presentation is called “The Social Lounge.” It is called The Social Lounge because it is meant to be a casual experience where you relax and enjoy a straightforward explanation of social media, success, and implementation.

Here it is …

The presentation is a high level look at social media. There is mention of the A-Path (which is social media execution) and parameters to measure success of social media. If you want to drill into these topics one level deeper, see one of my previous articles, “Social Media Model that Defines the End of the World as We Know It.” What else can I help you with?

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

Steve Jobs – the man was a genius. The man was a pitiful soul.

Walter Isaacson does a masterful job in his book, Steve Jobs. He interviewed over 100 people to bring an honest portrayal of a true legend. The book could have used one more edit (as it was released about 6 months ahead of schedule due to Steve’s death), but nonetheless, the biography is gripping, inspiring, and frustrating all in the same breathe.

There is so much that can be said about Steve Jobs. The book itself is almost 600 pages but feels like only the surface has been scratched. But this article is not a review of the book, nor a summary of Steve Jobs. Rather what I’d like to talk about is my personal perception of Steve Jobs and the nerve he struck with me.

First off, Steve Jobs deserves all the accolades with regards to truly changing lives and our culture as so many have already stated. His vision and ingenuity directly affect how generations will act, behave and carry out their lives. How many others fall into that category? Thomas Edison? Albert Einstein? Walt Disney? A pretty esteemed group for sure. His innovations in personal computing, animated movies, portable music players, retail stores, smartphones, computing tablets, and cloud computing define his legacy. Steve’s acceptance and pride of being different and an outsider not only resonate with me, but have been a rally call when I have questioned my own outlook, perspectives, and approach.

But for all the inspiration Steve Jobs has provided for me, I am equally appalled by him. Steve had utter disregard for people and the humankind. He was ruthless, self-absorbed and had no problem or even conscious belittling people and melting their pride, sense of self worth, and overall existence. True leaders bring out the best in people. While Jobs did accomplish this with some, there were far more that he crumbled. He was a tyrant, not unlike some of the most evil men in history, but luckily he did not delve into politics or government rule.

By now you might be thinking I am a bit too harsh and my mere comparison to evil minded men is inappropriate. Maybe so, but I look at Steve Jobs’ pure brilliance and cannot wonder what would have been had he any compassion or care for people.

Steve was obsessed with only having A-players in the Apple organization. As a professional manager and leader, I can appreciate how important this is to drive success and competitive advantage. But as I so often use sports as a metaphor of winning and losing, I think of how many championship teams had superstars and A-players as well as role players to round out a perfect synergy. Winning teams have A-players, yes – but they also have strong supporting B-players.

I think of another executive leader, Jack Welch, who had a 20-70-10 rule when it came to people in his organization. He said 20% were top performers – you had to let them and everyone else in the organization know they were tops by rewarding them in certain ways. 70% were the majority and good performers and core to your company. Then there was the bottom 10% and they needed to be rotated out. You see, strong organizations have balance – exceptional individuals, role players, and supporters.

And then there is Tony Hsieh – CEO of Zappos. I read his book Delivering Happiness. I learned much from Tony. Much like Steve Jobs, Hsieh was not motivated by financial reward. But unlike Jobs, Hsieh built a culture of respect and love for what you are doing. Jobs on the other hand “motivated” people with fear. And when the results were significant, it was usually Jobs taking the credit. In fact, the book portrays numerous examples of Jobs taking credit for things that others had thought of or brought to fruition. There is a leadership quality that differs between Hsieh and Jobs and I could go on and on about the benefits and disadvantages of the two. Let’s just say I favor B.F. Skinner’s approach to behavior modification when it comes to leadership and running a company – reward positive behavior, punish negative, both appropriately in magnitude.

Let me give you an example here. Almost 10 years back, I had an employee on my team that was put on PIP (performance improvement plan). He was a slacker. Basically PIP was 1) a formal way to document and fire under performers, or 2) change the unsatisfactory ways of employee such that they contribute measured value to the company. In a Steve Jobs environment, this would never happen. Jobs would literally berate and lash out at the employee in front of an entire group and fire them on the spot. (He tells a story about looking at his (then) young son, Reed, and thinking about the guy he had just fired and that guy having to go home to his son family … never really sympathizing, but wondering what it would be like.) Anyway, back to my PIP story … I worked with this employee on a crucial mainframe modernization (not an oxymoron) program. He put together a program that resulted in increasing year-over-year revenue for our mainframe – something that had been unheard of to that point. I am proud to think my actions, coaching, and care produced measurable results for the company AND turned a D-player into an important contributor for the company and saved his job.

Steve Jobs pushed the limits as great entrepreneurs always do. He even ran commercials on thinking different, going where no man has gone before; experimenting. But he did not accept failure in his company. He ridiculed those that had, in his eyes, failed. You cannot push for innovation – innovation that calls for experiments – and not allow experiments that sometimes fail. It is worth noting that, although Steve Jobs was extremely successful, he did have some failures. Case in point – NeXT Computer … never came close to be the next computer.

What really bewildered me about Jobs was that his lack of care and self absorption was extended to his family as well. There are many examples of this. One such is Isaacson’s documentation of Jobs’ disregard and dismissal of the daughter he fathered early in his life. The one story that really surprises me most is when Steve’s third round of cancer flares up and he basically knows life is short. His concerns seem to be paramount for his business and minimal for his wife and children. I strive for a work-life balance, but I am often guilty of being too professionally driven. Even so, I cannot understand having knowledge that your days are numbered and not capturing every possible moment with your love ones.

It really comes down to the fact that Steve Jobs thought he was bigger than life itself. Whether it was his psychological inhumane treatment of people or ignoring early recommendations of cancer treatment and thinking that he could will away the life threatening disease with his own rationalized crazy diet. Jobs did not believe his life was bound by the rules others lived by. Look, anyone that knows me throughout my life knows that I have always questioned authority and bent the rules. I think this is healthy. But I do not see this being acceptable to the detriment of other human beings.

I recognize that Steve Jobs was far more professionally successful than I will ever be. I also know that Steve’s intelligence and brilliance far exceed mine. Thus, many can question who the heck I am to question him. I question based on the supreme gift he had (intelligence, intuition, design mastery, and a great technical, marketing, and overall business sense) and not doing more – more for people – less self driven outcomes. So yeah – I have some strong opinions here and I am sure I am not alone. Independent of whether you agree or disagree, add your two cents …

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

TV ads start with the production of the commercial. Then you have to buy the sponsor slot. Take the cost and efforts that are poured into commercial production and create your own killer media for use in social channels. And for your companies that do not have the budget for TV ads, I’ll tell you what … you don’t need the pristine production required by TV for use in social media. But let’s first look at the marketing dynamics of television advertisement. (I don’t claim to be a TV ad expert, but I’ll layout some basics.)

TV advertising – for a long time has been marketers’ number one tool for reaching an audience. In the early days of television, shows were sponsored by companies and viewers saw commercial after commercial featuring the same product. Then things evolved a bit and Nielsen boxes allowed advertisers to target specific demographics. Different companies and brands began to purchase time slots for programs and in essence, share sponsorship. Cost of these time slots varies based upon the ratings of the program. Nielsen extrapolates a small audience sample size to estimate overall viewership numbers and advertising reach. The GRP or Gross Rating Points has been used to measure TV (and print and radio) advertising. GRPs are the product of % reach against a target audience multiplied by average frequency against that target (i.e. 15% reach x 4 frequency = 60 GRPs).

Television serves to increase brand awareness and brand reputation and in some instances drive a direct sale (i.e. Veteran’s Day $2,000 cash back incentive ends Monday). Social not only aims to increase awareness and brand reputation, but takes this one step further by its inherent interactive nature. When successfully implemented, it builds strong relationships between consumer and brand.

Television advertisement is designed around demographics and target markets. That is why you will see beer commercials on televised sport events as opposed to seeing their commercials on say, “Desperate Housewives.” Know where your target audience is and appeal to them there. When it comes to social media implementations, this is where so many miss it. They think they are done by simply putting up a Facebook and Twitter page and posting there. No, no, no. A complete social strategy must consider where the target market exists and congregates just as brands target their audience on specific televisions programming. In social media we call this Digital PR and Outreach as I recently covered in another article. You go to where the crowd is from the start, connect with them there, and then invite them to you social assets. There are two important points here: 1) You cannot just expect your prospect to come to you – you must go where they are and 2) engage with them there – it is about building a relationship.

Now it is true that the social media audience you sought to gain attraction and affinity for is probably smaller than that of the television audience. But let’s peel into a couple of layers here. First off, you can be much more targeted in your social approach and target exact prospects. For example, say your product is automotive. You can access forums, blogs, and portals that are specific to car content, discussions, and reviews. You can use social listening tools and determine where specific auto conversations are happening. You can identify influential people and sites. You can also expect your social activities to go beyond your captive audience. If you plan how your brand gets your owned media shared and also how you can win earned media, word of mouth marketing increases the number of prospects you reach. The mere nature of social media is social (how profound ). Thus, you may actually reach a greater number of true vetted prospects than that which TV provides.

I realize many will view my stance on social media as being subjective. But come on now. Can you really rationalize TV advertisement over social media? In a nut shell, here is my take on why social media is a superior investment.

1) Cost – TV advertisement is substantially higher. In fact, it is prohibitively high for many businesses. Social media is something all can work into their budgets.
2) Reached Audience – Social media, when implemented correctly, allows brands to reach a higher percentage of the primary target market. Yes TV attracts a larger audience, but a high percentage of that audience is not all part of the desired primary audience.
3) Engagement – Relationship building hinges on conversations. TV is a broadcast vehicle allowing for only one way conversations. It is much easier to develop loyalty and advocacy via social media.

Early in this year 2011, economists predicted that TV advertising revenue in the U.S. would increase 6% this year as reported in the Los Angeles Times . But the summer was actually a cool off period for the TV ad market, and the growth pace actually tapered off to less than 2% for the year. TV ad revenue is expected to end the year at nearly $68 billion. While this is still a record, it does signal a slowdown and a reminder of TV advertising’s vulnerability. Furthermore, as DVR viewing increases, television ads will be seen less and thus the effectiveness of TV ads will diminish.

It is time to evaluate marketing spend on a number of activities and today I am questioning TV ad budgets. Has investments in TV advertisement ever been scrutinized to the extent that social media RIO has been? We have accepted TV ad effective measurement in terms of “share of voice” and GRP. I have drawn attention to the importance of social media measurement in numerous articles. (Measuring the Stages of the Cyclic Social Media Marketing Funnel and Social Media ROI – Don’t Be So Short Sighted – Think Longer Term just to name two.) Measurement is important and cannot be avoided. So yes … I think social media effectiveness can go toe-to-toe with TV advertisement effectiveness. I have outlined my rationalization. Now it is your turn to join the conversation and add your take.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

I hope you know where I am going with this. Social media takes an equal balance of art (creativity) and science (empirical data). Historically, “creative types” in marketing have had a great intuitive premonition on human emotion and design of all product/service elements (visual, packaging, advertisement, tag lines, product design, offline and digital presence, etc). They have deep empathy for their target audience and have parlayed that to their brand position and grasped the intersection that produces an emotional tie to the brand. But that is not enough; they look to provoke a behavior. A behavior that spawns action. An action that ultimately results in sales.

On the other end of the marketing scope you have your “scientific types” that understand cause and effect to a formula level that produces measurable results. If the outcome does not produce the objective data driven results, they tweak their experiment aiming to come closer to specified empirical results. They understand tactical implementations and details that boost outcomes that others cannot navigate and rationalize through.

From a social media perspective, art and science must work together. You cannot have social success without a strong play in both. It simply comes down to two issues. The first is that there is so much noise out there. Everyone is on the social bandwagon. There is no shortage of information coming at us everyday. In this world of infinite information coming at us from so many channels, how do we select what matters and what does not. It becomes an art to rise above the status quo and produce something that generates a high level of audience consumption. There are no barriers to entry. Anyone can build a blog, set up a Facebook fan page, and produce content on a whole mess of other communication channels. But the more creative and different the content is from the status quo, the greater likelihood it has of standing out from millions of other channels. Do not undermine the importance of owned media!

The second issue deals with the reality that producing awesome content does not guarantee that it will reach people. This requires good experimental planning. I say experimental, because you have to start out with a strong plan, but always look at the results and make modifications as you progress along. When I set social strategies for clients, it is the outcome of getting to know their brand, their target audience, and understanding the most likely execution avenues that will attract their potential customers. It is based on detailed information gathering and analysis. But this comprehensive and thorough planning does not ensure optimal results. You must preset parameters that you measure and analyze results. Understand the cause-effect relationship of social channels used, frequency of posting, day and time of postings, types and tone of content that has highest attraction rates and provokes greatest engagement. Use this information to tweak “your experiment” and continue to refine. In short, act like a scientist seeking to make a break-through.

Now ask yourself … do you (or the person assuming responsibility) have the right balance of creativity and analytics to make your social media program a success? Are you really giving both the art and the science priority one focus? It is a must!

Make It Happen!
Social Steve