Which departments own the social media platform (where does the buck stop?)
- Depends on the company
- Who’s going to use social media in different ways?
- Figure it out ahead of time make sure delineations are clear–line item documentation.
- Make sure someone from senior team has sense of ownership – a C-level “champion”
Outreach and Community (bring wine to the picnic)
- Go out and start interacting with a community, bring something to the table that’s valuable before expecting anything back; Give people information, no questions asked
- Most important points: be present, listen, connect, be human, measure meaningfully.
What comes next?
- Marketing shifts into business conversations, storytelling replaces ads (content marketing), mass customization)
- Example: give product to customers and let them have video blogs, create content around their experiences (let them drive the car, carry around the camera phone, etc).
- Were Transformers the ultimate experience ad for GM?
Question and answers section
Q: How do you use time efficiently for social media?
A: Email is a huge time-sucker–does all that time employees spend sending email provide business value? Find business opportunities and go after them. Understand that you are doing more than just tweeting; you must have a strategy, identify conversion points, and measure success.
Q: How much of social media is a fad and how much will stick around?
A: Social media has hit a nerve in our collective psyche. Maybe twitter et al is not the end game, but it’s a step along the evolution of new opportunity.
Q: How do you demonstrate the value of social media marketing for a b2b company?
A: See case studies on Chris Brogan’s delicious account. There’s less of a difference than people think between b2b and b2c. The boss is really your client – how do you convince that client to engage in inbound marketing?
Q: Should social media marketing be done in-house?
A: Having an agency run your social media campgins is like having Brittney Spears hiring her PR agent to tweet for her. Agents should be involved as an educator, showing in-house staffers what to do.
Q: What’s the easiest way to win buy-in from Management?
A: Show them a competitor doing the same project and succeeding at it.
Q: How do you respond to managers’ fears of “losing control”?
A: This is a drinking game for marketers: We’re supposed to say, “You never had control of your message to begin with,” and then we take a drink. Remember that an email in-box can spread negative press, too. There was a similar same fear around IM when it was released. consider a social media policy for employees engaged in social media marketing endeavors. You can replace the word “email” with “twitter” in your company’s email policy and it will probably apply.
Q: Should you avoid social media if you don’t have time to fully engage in a particular site?
A: Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Start small and grow your program as you see results.
Q: How do you demonstrate ROI on social media/inbound marketing efforts?
A: Compare the cost of employees who are doing the work versus payback/leads generated.
