Back when I worked for Microsoft, I asked Bill Gates a question related to Spanish language marketing. The immediate response was that this was an “international topic whose responsibilty belonged with one of our Latin American subs”. At the time, The United States was the 4th largest Spanish speaking country in the world and the largest subsiderary for Microsoft. My point here is that often times in marketing, the neatly organized lines drawn by senior management get blurred.
Social Media has been one of those topics in the marketing world that immediately gets pushed off to the interactive division of an agency or even worse IT! After all, it is the new kid on the block and involves both technology and marketing expertise. Ironically, it falls right in the center of mainstream marketing and can be the element that makes or breaks a corporate marketing strategy, campaign, or initiative.
In a classic sales funnel, traditional marketing had direct impact on awareness. Efforts were then made to publish the right reviews and testimonials to impact consideration or evaluation phase. With the rise of social media, the control of the information critical to the evaluation phase; however, has been returned to the people.
Classic Sales Funnel
As a marketer, the last thing you want to do is try and force the issue on social media like you did with customer testimonials in traditional marketing. The Thought Pick Blog punctuates this with a list of 10 examples of social media campaign failures. Success is more likely found by encouraging consumers. For example, instead of trying to force yet another survey on a customer, make a Twitter hash tag readily available to them so they can tweet their feedback. I am actually waiting for the day when a marketer takes the customer warranty registration process to Twitter. Why not replace that warranty registration card we find in every product box with a list of 10 places they can share their product experience with others and get help or ideas. After all, the warrant registration card is nothing more than a survey and the warranty attaches to the product with or without the marketing survey in the box. Why not have your customers engage interactively?
My point here is that part of marketing’s role in social media is to promote a company or brand presence in social media and encourage customers to engage. This promotion includes classic point of sale signage, employee talking points, and even reciept printout messages. Advertise that Facebook fan page, Twitter account, and/or blog and let the natural process of social media take place. The organizations who have this down the best are local news stations. These are the same local news stations that are accused of being behind the times.
The downside to encouraging social media interaction is that a marketer has to be willing to take the good with the bad. I will have an upcoming post entitled “When Marketing Meets Operations” where we’ll look at the reality of operations’ role in social media.
Until then, take responsibility as a marketer for not only your social media efforts but for integrating them into the right elements of your traditional marketing strategy.
