Marketing is Social

I was reading through a slide presentation posted by Stowe Boyd that he presented recently on social media . Although I didn't see/hear the actual presentation, one of the slides in the deck really jumped out at me, and I thought it would be worth posting here as we rethink the way business works in the new economy.
In essence, make marketing a social experience with your customers to build better, stronger relationships instead of focusing on how to sell them more of your product offering through gimics. In todays economy consumers have more choice than ever before. This choice coupled with decreased brand loyalty and ever faster comoditization will drive companies to become better listeners. Treating customers like partners through authentic interactions will create lasting relationships and company longevity.

Citizen Marketing

The concept of citizen marketing is born out of a desire for connection and sharing coupled with the complete democratization of production tools, which has created an amateur culture according to Ben McConnell who spoke today at an annual entrepreneur week event called Kickstart, as part of his Citizen Marketers book tour. Overall it was an interesting and lively discussion on the changing face of marketing which has obviously been kept current as the tour has progressed due to the incorporation of recent events and videos.

After the book first came out talking about the 4 F categories of citizen marketers (Firecrackers, Filters, Fanatics and Facilitators), I sensed a likeness to the categories identified in the Tipping Point (Maven's, Connectors and Salesmen). I blogged about it here. Although the book is still on my 'to read' list, after today's talk I still feel these parallels are interesting and applicable.

Besides an interesting discussion on the 4F's a few other key learnings I took away from today's talk:

• Build Word of Mouth marketing into the DNA of your business
• You are your Google results
• The importance of the 3 V's when you think about your customers - Voice, Vote, Vocation
• Google is more than a Search Engine - It is a reputation management system
• New media is now a picking grounds for traditional media to find stories, instead of the other way around.
• Ben is a pillar of fashion with his cool shoes and sweet t-shirt:)

Thanks Ben for a great talk today and it was a pleasure to meet you in person. Good luck with the rest of the tour!

Understanding Social Media

Social media is often used to describe tools that are available for people to produce content and share it, but don't forget that the key word in this term is 'social'. Stowe Boyd has created a great summary of what social media is. His key tenants are:

1. Social media is not a broadcast medium
2. Social media is many to many
3. Social media is open
4. Social media is disruptive

Probably my favorite 'sum it up' quote is the following:
it is the way that we are organizing ourselves to communicate, to learn, and to understand the world and our place in it.

In business it is important to really understand this concept and how it can impact you in a positive or negative way. Media impacts everybody.

Social Media and Business

Most companies know about social networks, and have heard the terms social media and social software, but has it went any further than a buzz word for most? These tools are more than just a way for your teenage kids to spend more time talking to your friends, post their 'deep' thoughts or pictures online. The Net Savvy Executive has created a Social Media Midterm Exam. Now by the very fact that you are reading this post either online or through an RSS reader, already puts you ahead of the game, but pass it on to some others in your organization. It may get a needed discussion going - how these tools can be applied to making your business more effective. The first two questions alone should be enough to invoke the conversation:

1. Describe each of the following:
   1. Blog
   2. Del.icio.us
   3. Digg
   4. Flickr
   5. LinkedIn
   6. Mashup
   7. MySpace
   8. Podcast
   9. RSS
   10. Second Life
   11. Technorati
   12. Wikipedia
   13. YouTube
2. How could you use each of the items from question 1 as a marketing tool? What are the risks associated with each?

Business often follows consumer trends with software, and typically for good reason, but its time to take a serious look. It doesn't mean that all will apply to your business, but with some innovative thinking you might be able to either make your current strategy more effective or open up new opportunities. Second, whether you use them or not other people are so you need to listen. Third, don't just think about your external interactions (eg marketing), think about uses internally for increasing efficiencies, building a better culture or relationship with your employees. Related to this - think about expectations of new employees. As consumer and business productivity software begin to blur, new employees will be expecting to have access to these types of productivity tools. It will not be sufficient for an 'innovative' company to just block access to youTube or state that they are not approved applications.