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Marketers get social media. They are just sick of the buzz.

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Mar 2 2009

Social Media Map

A couple of weeks ago I was reading an article on Buzz Marketing for Technology that highlighted the results of a survey they had asked the members of the Marketing Executive Networking Group to fill out. One of the sections of the survey asked the marketers to indentify which Web 2.0 buzz words they were sick of hearing.

The following chart (borrowed from the original post) shows the results:

Social Chart

I don't find these surprising. As with any emerging technology or business concept, there are always early adopters that have the ability to understand, manage risk involved with, integrate to, and leverage new ideas quickly. In the social media space in particular, Public relation firms and customer service organizations have show themselves to be the early adopters. There are many examples of how these firms have taken the lead to deliver customer experience and awareness that is above and beyond what they could have through traditional channels. Some examples include SanDisk, JetBlue, and Comcast.

So why are traditional direct marketers so sick of hearing about Social Media/Web 2.0 where others are not?  I think there are a couple of reasons:

  1. Marketers already have their hands full trying to get their existing email and direct mail out the door. Until there is a drastic shift in the focus of Direct Marketing and the programs that are being develop to support it, new concepts will continue to be put on the back burner.
  2. There are no enterprise or even entry level technology solutions that allow Marketers to leverage social media or Web 2.0 efficiently and effectively to deliver targeted messaging and capture response to those messages. I think this market will begin to take shape over the next few years but until the new staffing, program execution, and human engagement requirements that come with Social Media are automated, adoption will continue to be delayed.
  3. Return on Investment (ROI) is still king. Until there is model for how a company can explicitly increase lift and profitability from their social networking initiatives as well as complement their existing marketing mix, the social media budget line items may continue to be on the "nice to have" list. Spend some time with a "Social Media Consultant" and you will quickly realize how far we are from quantifying the affects of Social Media initiatives.
  4. Social Media Marketing is daunting. It is confusing. It is broad. The image at the top of this post is just a sample of the social media channels that are currently available. Even though there is a lot of talk regarding the benefits of it and how a marketer can get leverage it, Social Media involves technology and concepts that are far reaching and many times beyond comprehension. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Where do you start?

I am a supporter of social media and the power it brings to managing customer interactions and building relationships with your audience. I am also an early adopter. Because of that, I understand it is going to take a good amount of time, innovation, and packaging to make any of these concepts more than just buzz words in the ears of marketers. From my experience engaging in this space, I know that marketers enjoy hearing about these new ideas but in the end they will always require, if not demand, measurable results that affect their bottom line and, in turn, can be sold to their management.

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Mar 3 2009

Laura Ramos, VP, B2B Marketing, Forrester said:

Dave, thanks for the insight from the MENG survey.

In my research with B2B marketers, I see part of the backlash around the term "social media" term happens because the phrase is ambiguous and includes a lot of tools that are not necessarily social separately but *can* be part of an integrated direct program that builds prospect/buyer engagement in several steps. Getting marketers to differentiate between social media and Web 2.0 tools would help, but this will take marketing discipline and consistency that only time will produce.

Regarding #2, I agree that enterprise and entry level tools are lacking. But truly social media -- like wikis, voting, ranking, and idea solicitation -- require a different marketing mindset than Web 2.0 tools like video, podcasts and widgets. The later we can treat like communication channels, the former we should not. I don't see one set of tools addressing both, which complicates adoption further.

Regarding #3 and #4, I am seeing that measurement and business case are key gaps today. Many social media experts (including a few at Forrester) advise marketers to "just get involved" -- because your customer are already involved and if you are not, then you run the risk of your competitors getting there first. I question this logic. I think it is possible to quantify the value of social activity, but the value comes from replacing/supplementing traditional brand building activities (which are traditionally hard to measure) and for increasing customer (not prospect) engagement.

I would suggest a 5th issue: marketers don't know whether or not buyers are engaging socially and, if they are, does this engagement matter in the purchase decision making process. Forrester surveyed 1200+ B2B buyers recently to try to get a handle on this, and to extend our B2C Groundswell story. Understanding buyer social behavior is not easy because one audience -- technology buyers in our case -- may or may not behave similarly to other audiences. Social Technographics provides a model for understanding buyer social participation, but it must be applied to a specific cusotmer group and then it only tells part of the story. More targeted, behavior-based analytics is where I think Quaero could really help.



Mar 3 2009

Scot Duke said:

I think we are finally ..let me capitalize that..FINALLY..seeing an end to the Direct Marketer's era of wasting time and resources. It served a purpose back in the day when postage was 12 cents and people actually read their mail since they only got two or three pieces a day.
This insistence of traditional marketers in Having to Have a measurable prerequisite to determine the worthiness of a venue or web-site to advertise on is also going the way of the economy. They are going to have to adapt change and taking a risk. Traditional marketing firms have a fear that they now are going to have to adapt to getting their hands dirty by doing grass root social media to valid where their markets are hiding.
The fatigue the consumers have with hearing buzz words intended to impress them on their marketer's intelligence is now nauseating. The flood of social media channels is now starting to cause a backlash in the market resulting in the consumer just not trusting anything they are hearing or reading.
This is bring everything back to square one marketing where the consumer will do the shopping and determine their needs by the quality of the product and services and not by what a slick ad is telling them. In order to be seen marketers are going to have to get to know each of the consumers in their market and then hope that they come back for repeat sales. Finally, it looks like the consumers now have control of the markets ...lets all get out there and get to know them better and learn how we can help.

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