Marketing Through Social Media

A leader in the field of social marketing recently asserted in a twitter post that if customer service isn't involved in your social marketing efforts then you are doing it wrong.

He is absolutely right.

My experience with social media is that most organizations don't know how to really take advantage of social media. The leaders of many organizations only know the basics of social media, as a result they choose to assign it to some department, often marketing, and then announce that they are involved in social marketing.

You see the term social marketing is misleading. Social Marketing is an opportunity for your organization to build direct relationships with your customers, employees, potential employees, suppliers, . . . everyone that your organization comes in contact with. To ask just the marketing department to harness this entire potential as an island within a whole organization is a near impossibility.

The way to organize social media is different for every organization, but the truth remains the same, multiple aspects of your organization need to be involved. I would even suggest that the reason some of the organizations that use social media the best is because the organization is still small enough that those involved are involved in understanding the overall objectives and strategies of the organization, and whomever is involved in the social media can use that direction in administrating the social media efforts.

To make social media start to work for your organization begin by establishing a consistent voice. Get input from all aspects of your organization, find out what information they want presented to their "customers" and run with it.

Wi-Fi? Who Needs Wi-Fi?

Earlier today I read a blog post by Peter Shankman entitled "Is it time to say goodbye to Free Wi-Fi?" The idea of the post is that with the availability and affordability of Mi-Fi products do we really need to have coffee shops offer free Wi-Fi?

Granted, Peter is talking to those people that are still scrambling for a coffee shop to get free Wi-Fi so that they can get their work done. In that instance Peter is 100% correct. If you really want to be able to work anywhere and freely there really is no need to rely on the hospitality of the corner coffee shop.

However, if you are a coffee shop owner you MUST offer free Wi-Fi. Let me explain:

Through marketing we know that when offering a product there are three categories of peripheral amenities that you must consider for any product or service. The must do, the nice to do, and the don't do.

A must do is what a customer expects from a product in your industry. The nice to do is your differentiation, what makes you different from some or all of you competitors. The don't do are things that will turn consumers away.

For coffee shops offering free Wi-Fi is what customers expect. Granted having free Wi-Fi doesn't sell more coffee. But not offering free Wi-Fi will keep you from selling as much coffee. This is not a contradiction. Customers will not make your coffee shop, diner, etc. a destination just because you offer Wi-Fi, but they will make your location a non-destination if they cannot get free Wi-Fi.

What Are You Really Selling?

You have a product and your only concern is that product right?

Wrong!

Sometimes the more important aspect is the customer experience. There are many examples of this, one that comes to mind is Disney Theme Parks, sure a good portion of their product is the rides, but they would not be any different than a six flags, or even worse, if not for the experience that they provide, from focus on cleanliness (finding a full trash can at Disneyland is next to impossible), to each employee being a "cast member" whether they regularly interact with visitors or not.

So what does this have to do with your business, small or large? You are not Disneyland, and may not even aspire to be anything like Disneyland. What does this have to do with you?

Let me give you an example from the smallest, and for most young women the earliest business: babysitting.

Having young children, my wife and I utilize babysitters on a regular basis. Some are better than others, the babysitters that we have been impressed with the most have done one thing very important, they have provided a positive experience for our children that makes the children request them more. One in particular brought a personalized picture for my older daughter to color that she just printed at home before she came. Another did multiple activities with the kids including coloring with sidewalk chalk, etc.

Experience makes a difference, now what is the experience that you provide?

Are You a Dandelion or a Flower?

My daughter loves dandelions. She thinks that they are just the most beautiful thing around.

I started to think about this and started to think about why it is that people don't like dandelions and why some even go to extremes to try and rid their lawn entirely of dandelions. It seems to me that the problem is that they are everywhere, and they are hard to get rid of instead of hard to get.

Flowers, on the other hand, can take more work You definitely can't run over a tulip with a lawnmower and expect it to pop back up next week (believe me I have tried). The reason a dandelion is a weed and not a flower is precisely that it pops up everywhere and will even take over your lawn given enough time.

I also had a conversation with someone the other day about a company I used to work for. This company really likes to have every product they sell to have SAVE in big red letters on it with a marker showing the percentage they save over MSRP, and then trow in three prices that are crossed out to show that they are lowering prices. Needless to say the pages of their web-site are extremely busy and "in your face". This person mentioned that they didn't like the site for precisely that reason. He had even purchased from there before, but doesn't go back because the clutter is distracting and annoying.

What could this company do to bring its costs down? They would get a lot better return if they treated their product like a flower instead of a dandelion. The focus for this company should be on how the company provides value, instead of attacking the customer with an onslaught of propaganda as to why they should buy.

So make your product a flower, especially if it is better, and treat it like one.

Adam Sandler: Same New Story

My kids watch Sesame Street every morning while I get ready for work. This song has been on a few times and every single time it gets stuck in my head for the rest of the day:

One day I was singing this song to myself while walking around the office and it occurred to me that Adam Sandler is a genius.

OK maybe Adam Sandler isn't a genius, but he is definitely a very intelligent person that manages to delight his audience 75-90% of the time. If a company could learn to develop products that their customers not only liked but were delighted about 75% of the time they would be virtually unstoppable.

So why is it that Adam Sandler is so good at getting into our heads whether it is a movie or a song on a kids show about a puppet? Two things: simplicity and unexpectedness.

Simplicity - You always know what to expect out of Adam Sandler, if it is a movie the plot is simply the unassuming/everyman hero has a problem, and there is a girl involved. The hero always solves the problem and gets the girl. The characters are simple, you know the role each plays from the moment you see them on the screen.

Unexpected - You never really know what unexpected thing he is going to say or do next. I mean did you really expect the dragon to "kiss and tellmo"? I don't think so.

The result is that we are kept entertained with something that is familiar and unexpected at the same time. Now to get your brand to do the same thing. . .