Relevant Engagement

Leadership in the Digital Age

This video, the insights and the narrative are spot on.  

Never has there been a time like the present to embrace the ideology.  

 

I believe, this is why people fail today.  You have to be transparent.  Being transparent requires you to trust your instincts and to embrace your beliefs regardless of what you may look like.  

 

Results, Reputation, Cost

It's the old chicken and egg discussion.

Recently I just read a report from MarketingProfs - Where Are the Marketing Innovators?

One key findings: Results trump cost and reputation when hiring outside agencies: Marketing execs say the ability to execute (34%) is far more important than cost (15%) or the agency's reputation (5%). 

Source: CMOs: Where Are The Innovators?  9/2/11

I completely agree that "results" trumps everything.  

Here comes the chicken and egg........if you are successful, you gain a reputation and when you have a reputation of success you have the ability to increase your rates and change the discussion of your services from an expense to an investment.

The other interesting stat quoted: Most (77%) execs want to work with agencies they would consider to be partners, not vendors, and roughly 70% now have engagements that resemble partnerships with agencies they use.

So here, both issues come into play - relationships between an agency and a client.

At the core, we all want to succeed. If we do, we get to keep our jobs. From an agency perspective - here's what we need to get to results. We need a unified vision of success. Any destination is great if you don't know where you're going.  

I can't stress this enough - if you cannot articulate what you want then you shouldn't engage in the effort.

If you pick a tactic because you feel a need to get going (aka "traction") without a vision of success you will fail. If your agency is worth a shit, they should push back and have an honest conversation with you.

You may disagree with my, "you will fail" comment - I respect your thoughts and it's duly noted.  

Here's what I mean by "fail":

1. You won't be able to articulate why you felt it succeed
2. You won't be abile to articulate why you felt it failed
3. IF you felt your efforts failed, I guarantee, you'll never be willing to try that approach again (or it will be damn hard to convince you to try).  This is one of the saddest outcomes of this approach because you might have had success or a piece of insight that is of tremendous value but you'll never use it again - and that is regretable.  Especially in this day and age of continuous improvement through iterative marketing activity. 

To end

If you want results, pick and agency you value as a partner and have meaningful conversations with your partner about what success means to you.  

Launching a Social Command Center (Without The Center)

"Social command centers" are all the rage today and it's not without some merit. Many organizations now find themselves in a real-time business environment where news travels faster than sound, and information is set free. As a result, some forward thinking companies have put "monitoring" in place either in-house or in combination with partners. This isn't enough. And to make matters worse, I've seen companies make the classic mistake of buying a tool BEFORE putting any thought into the design that goes into effective monitoring and response, forgetting the 3P's (People, Process, Platforms). Tech platforms are only one third of the problem.The media hasn't helped. "Social Command Centers" as physical spaces ripped from the playbook of NASA have been documented via Dell, Gatorade and most recently, the Super Bowl. Now, to be clear—a physical space can make listening, engaging and responding in real time effective—but it's not a requirement. In fact, for the organization who wishes to be able to function in real time for the long haul, it's the wrong place to focus on. So, how does any organization who wishes to be better equipped for real-time business move forward? Based on some of the work I've been doing with our analytics teams at Edelman Digital—below are some high level recommendations for setting up your social command center, without the center.

via darmano.typepad.com

14 Ways A CEO Can Benefit From Social Media

It took very little convincing to prove we needed social media for our company and our brand.

via www.jeffbullas.com

How do you generate relationships worthy of loyalty in a Web 2.0 world?

It starts with the corporation. Public or private, the focus MUST be on the customer. So how can you galvanize and focus corporate attention on the customer first? The mission of any great organization should be to enrich the lives it touches - to build relationships worthy of loyalty. Growth and shareholder return will evaporate or never be realized if you do not earn the loyalty of the customer.

Top Brands on Twitter

source: What The Trend a Hootsuite Media Company

Monetization of Social or How much is a Facebook 'Like' worth?

Great questions with the right intent.  As an industry, we need to have answers.

The two questions in the title are THE most loaded questions in our industry right now.

Why do I consider them loaded? 

1. Because everyone wants an easy, one answer, response to the question.
2. Philosophically/Theoretically some know that one answer is simplistic and more complex BUT they lack the patience to sit through the conversations and work it takes to get to an answer or results.

I have no patience for those that think #1 is possible - you're chasing a white whale that will kill your career - if you want to debate me on this issue, please give me a call 816-807-3367.  Don't grumble about it and tell people "this guys an idiot", call me first before you make a fool out of yourself amongst your co-workers.  If you provide a salient case to me and can make me believe there is one universal answer, I'll post your picture on my blog and dub thee a "Fucking Stud."

As for #2, I did a Google search and there are literally hundreds of articles "claiming" to answer this question - I just posted three (I'll save you time - you've read these or something close to it a hundred times):

1. How Much is a Tweet or a Like Worth to You?
2. How much is a Facebook "Like" worth?
3. How much is a Facebook Fan really worth?

The last article is pretty good - the only issue is the dollar amount is associated to the spend and the value is applied over all of the Brands evaluated.  How's that possible - the cost and variations of each Brand make that a very subjective analysis.

I believe this much exposure over time creates the perception that, even if you don't have data to validate what a 'Like' is worth, there has been enough content out there to point people to an answer - these articles don't point to THE ANSWER - they point to discussions about the things we already believe but have not really been able to validate [a 'Like' has value]. 

Personally, I'm fine with that because the issue of the value of Social is far more complex than any other media channel we've seen to date.  It needs to be discussed a lot.  We need to get to an answer far faster than we did with any other media to date.

Issues that make these questions complex - we are asking the wrong questions - we need to start asking better questions.

The wrong questions

• Question: Who's doing it well?  Who's monetizing social or Facebook 'Likes'?
• Answer: The ones that are, you could probably count on one hand AND if they know they sure as shit aren't sharing that secret sauce with anyone.  This is one of those secrets that is a real game changer.  It is like Coke giving Pepsi their formula.  It isn't going to happen. 

• Question: Why can't you show me social case studies that are directional?
• Answer: First, MONETIZATION is subjective to the corporation asking the question.  There is not and will never be a one sized fits all solution.  Second, why would you accept directional results and give it weight for consideration from any other brand?  

The right question
Question: How would you monetize our social efforts?

Answer:

1) Define Success

The number one mistake most marketers make.  THEY DON'T DEFINE SUCCESS.  THEY ASK AFTER THE FACT.  THIS DOESN'T WORK AND CREATES ANIMOSITY INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE MARKETING ORGANIZATION.

What do you want to accomplish? 
- Improved customer retention
- Causes of demand generation
- Understanding loyalty
- Message calibration
- Offline sales

For most companies the answer we hear is, Sales.  By far, the most important objective is sales.  Sales is to corporations what oxygen is to humans.  It's needed to survive.

For most marketing companies they are wise enough to understand that all activities within a consumer-lifecycle has a net positive or negative on sales.  To ONLY evaluate sales and not have success metrics established that feed the sales funnel is short sighted.

If this is the one you want to focus on be prepared to answer this question - are you set up to measure everything?

2) Create a Single Data Capture Solution OR Data Management Platform

You need a solution that allows you to plug in all of the measurement solutions available in the market today.  It must provide for easy access, and modeling capabilities.  It also needs to have a customizable dashboard that allows for reporting views that meet established evaluations as well as ad-hoc requests.

3) Develop statistical modeling frameworks that distills multiple channel metrics into single measurement scores

Two frameworks that can guide you are a CLC Scoring Matrix and a Dimensional Marketing Classification Matrix.

Dimensional Marketing Classification Matrix
This approach allows you to evaluate multiple factors critical to profitable sales success - example: one-to-one to mass communication over purchase value (such as Monetary Value).  This approach allows you to understand how your ecosystem’s scores to determine what touch points are working for consumers and where your growth opportunities lie.  By mapping these indices, product-use stages and/or other client-driven dimensions provides additional context and allows brand managers to monitor how connectivity to the brand varies over the consumer journey THUS allowing you to apply the appropriate weight.

The CLC Scoring Matrix
This approach allows you to add contextual dimension based on your objective.  Below is an example structure.  For the most part, the step within the life-cycle would have the same definition.  The two areas where the definition would be different based on your goal would be the KPI and the Weighted Score you give the KPI's.

4) A protocol to input your insights back into the marketing eco-system.

All of the information and insight in the world gets you nothing if you can't act on it.  You must be able to do something once you have learned something.

Critical Steps

These steps are critical to answering the question: How do you monetize Social?

If you don't have the patience or the commitment to go through the steps necessary to get the answer - don't ask the question. 

Reputation Management - Don't Listen At Your Own Peril

As we enter into the world of consumer controlled world one thing we as marketers need to add to our arsenal of tools is a social monitoring tool that pays attention to the dialogue that is occurring.

via geoff_is_inertia_opposed.blogs.com

Geek vs. Nerd

It is my job to be relevant - not yours.

I have been accused of viewing the world as black and white (my wife, executive coaches, mentors and friends).  Over the years I believe I've matured and now I try and consider all sides of a conversation.  There really is more than one side to consider - the world is gray.  THAT thought was a huge breakthrough for me.  Who would've ever guessed?  Interesting. 

via geoff_is_inertia_opposed.blogs.com

I was reading some old posts and dug this one up from 2005

I hope you enjoy