Social Media Marketing: Lessons for Success Part 3

5. Be first to market if possible. Conventional wisdom says being first to market creates a competitive advantage.  Reality is more complicated.   Market opportunities are constantly opening and closing, and a hit today could be a dud a year earlier or a yawning "me too" business a year later.  You gain the advantage of locking in customers, suppliers or intellectual property.  Entrepreneurs also need to launch before an opportunity closes.

6.  Marketing is key - you need to attract and retain customers.  Mars, the company behind brands like Snickers, Pedigree, Whiskas and Skittles, was celebrated as the Advertiser of the Year at the Cannes Lions 2012 International Festival of Creativity.

Since Mars landed its first Cannes Lion in 1990, the company's commercials have won 77 Lions across categories, which include 11 Gold Lions and a Radio Grand Prix in 2007 for the Snickers "Hoedown" ad.

In making the announcement, Cannes Lions CEO Philip Thomas noted that Mars has won Lions for work in countries that include France, the U.S., the U.K., Brazil, South Africa, Portugal and Chile, among others. He said the festival’s recognition is “a testament to a company which truly embraces creativity and demands outstanding work from its agencies.”

Bruce McColl, the chief marketing officer at Mars, will accept the honors on June 23 during the film, film craft, branded entertainment & content, and titanium & integrated Lions awards. Mars works with Omnicom agencies BBDO and DDB.

Social Media Marketing: Lessons for Success Part 2

3. Understand everything you market and post on line.  How could Coca-Cola have allowed anyone working for them to post a reference to a disgusting pornographic movie on a fourteen year-old girl’s wall – a movie that girl later searched for on the internet to find out what the obscure status update meant.

So where did Coca-Cola go wrong, and what can you do to avoid something like this happening to your own brand? The answer is quite simple.  Never, never allow any “social marketing agency”, no matter how edgy they seem and no matter how often they tell you that they’re “experts,” post or publish anything in your company or brand’s name without checking it first. 

4. You do not control the voting process.  Trying to control the outcome of a contest by disqualifying a charity you do not like (e.g., JPMorgan Chase & Company rejected Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the Marijuana Policy Project) or violating your own rules by giving preference to another (see Pepsi) will backfire.  The Pepsi Refresh Contest made a mistake by not following its own rules, but moving swiftly to acknowledge it, fix it, and moved on. This was failing informatively.

In fact, it might wipe out more than whatever was gained by organizing the contest in the first place.  In turn, the damage to your brand and reputation can be huge.

Social Media Marketing: Lessons for Success Part 1

1. Be Transparent. Social media is not starting but following a trend.  Social media is known for its transparency and speed, but that also means that your mistakes can be very visible. Being up front is a good way to start recovering, says Harvard Business Review.

 

One of the key benefits of social media is that your messages can reach more people faster. But this also means that your mistakes can too.

Taco Bell recently combated a traditional attack (a class action lawsuit charging that the restaurant's meat isn't really beef) with new media techniques.  On Twitter, Taco Bell linked to comedian Steven Colbert's musings on the controversy; on Facebook, they offered free tacos, encouraging customers to make up their own minds about the beef in question.   And while overall sales have taken a hit, its seven million plus loyal Facebook "friends" are as enthusiastic as ever — and the lawsuit was dropped.

So what have we learned?   Success is no longer about fancy packaging and carefully controlled messages.  When everyone can see what you're doing, the most essential values are transparency, honesty and credibility.  You win by matching your image with reality, acting with integrity, and sincerely apologizing when you're wrong. 

2. Customer Service Response Time: Act quickly to fix disgruntled customers.  In 2009, Domino's was blindsided by a YouTube video showing two disgruntled employees contaminating the food they were about to deliver. It was a PR nightmare for the company, until they fired back through social media — uploading their own YouTube video explaining what they were doing to fix the situation and creating a special Twitter account to specifically handle customers concerns about this issue.   Their quick and appropriate responses directly to the people most concerned allowed Domino's  to diffuse what could have been a catastrophic event.

What type of leader are you?

Part 2. Define the type of leader you are or like to follow.  Transformational, participative or democratic leaders are focused on the performance of group members, but also want each person to fulfill their potential. This style draws on people’s knowledge and skills, and creates a group commitment to the resulting goals.  It works best when the direction the organization should take is unclear.  Leaders with this style often have high ethical and moral standards that lead to positive changes in those who follow.

Transformational leaders are generally energetic, enthusiastic and passionate about their goals, values and vision such as Richard Branson.

Authoritarian leaders make decisions independently with little or no input from the rest of the group.  They are sometimes referred to as commanding.  This is classic model of “military” style leadership – probably the most often used, but the least often effective. since it rarely involves praise and frequently employs criticism, under-cutting morale and job satisfaction.

Delegative leaders offer little or no guidance to group members and leave decision-making up to group members.  Here the team takes control of the situation.

A toxic leader is someone who has responsibility over a group of people or an organization, and who abuses the leader-follower relationship by leaving the group or organization in a worse-off condition.  I'm sure you have seen this in your past.

Narcissistic leadership has been documented whereby leaders demonstrate an egotistical preoccupation with self, personal preferences, aspirations, needs, success, and how he/she is perceived by others.   It is not very enjoyable to work in this environment.

What type of leader are you?

Part 1. What is leadership?  What defines a true leader?  Are they born or is this a learned trait?  Perhaps effective leadership can result from both nature (i.e., innate talents) as well as nuture (i.e., acquired skills).

The "Great man" leaders are deemed heroic, mythic and destined to rise to leadership when needed as opposed to those who learned the traits. This style is exemplified by the late Steve Jobs. 

Behavioral theories of leadership are based upon the belief that great leaders are made, not born and focuses on the actions of leaders. 

Participative theories vary in that  leaders retain the right to allow the input of others.  This is often called collaborative and is the kind of leadership style I use. 

Transactional theories focus on the role of supervision, organization and group performance. These theories base leadership on a system of rewards and punishments.  

Managerial theories are often used in business; when employees are successful, they are rewarded; when they fail, they are reprimanded or punished.  How often have you seen this in play where you work?

So where do you fit in?  Stay tuned for Part 2.

E-Marketing: Challenges Ahead

It all starts with W5

What is the selling feature you are trying to convey and do your customers understand your "value" statement?  What strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats do you foresee in the immediate future and down the road so to speak.

Who is your target audience and how are you communicating with them to attract AND retain them?

Why would a potential customer want your product or service over someone else's?

Where do your customers buy their products.  Do they receive a  great buying experience - so much so that they will become repeat purchases and eventually loyal brand followers?

When do your customers prefer to shop and what source of media do they prefer.  Remember demographics - this is key.  Younger buyers behave differently than mature buyers for example.  Do you use and monitor feedback from your website or Facebook page properly to increase sales?

Social Media Marketing: Challenges Ahead

Social media is here and it's time to face the challenges and take advantage of this huge opportunity.  Life as we know it is changing and we better embrace this movement or face the consequences.  Both personal and business practices are changing our lives - they way we spend our time and the manner in which news travels. 

Facebook still commands about half of the social media logins market having gained significant market share from Google and Yahoo over the past 2 years.  Who's left -Twitter, U-Tube and LinkedIn also dominate both business professionals as well as consumers. 

These very same consumers look at website content - they follow their favorite brands with hope to see advertisements, promotions and give-a-ways that they can take advantage of. 

QR codes - the new smart phone scanning technology that takes you to a company or person's website, is catching on fast from billboards to point of sale material to  QR code stickers placed beside UPC stickers.

New products are being tested through comments from Facebook pages and even new recipes or flavors are being chosen by the public - what a fabulous venue to get your customer involved. 

Buddy Media, the social media engagement company, recently completed a study of 320 top brands on Twitter — Fortune 1000 companies like Coke, American Eagle, Microsoft, and Nike — looking at what works and what doesn’t to get maximum engagement, and the greatest degree of virality.  One of the surprising findings is that the best times to engage on Twitter is almost opposite the best times to engage on Facebook.

Studies consistently portray consumers buying patterns being significantly affected by promotions on company websites that they follow.

Good news and fast customer responses can turn a potential disaster into something good.   You must be transparent - that is tell honestly what is going on.  Your brand's personality is your biggest asset when running a social media campaign -- but only if you're authentic and believable.