We're facing an economic crises of historic proportions, and if your marketing budget hasn't been cut yet it almost certainly will be.  Marketers everywhere are scrambling to figure out how to do more with less. 

One avenue to consider is social media marketing, and we're hosting a webinar with noted Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff where he will explain why SMM is your best strategy in a recession.

This is going to be a great event -- the content will be new and fresh;  when we discussed it with Josh he was excited to not just be delivering the Groundswell material again (The Groundswell stuff is great, but Josh has done it many times).  This content is new, fresh and timely.

We've already received over 400 registrants and the event is still weeks away.  

You can register here  http://tinyurl.com/5rh2zu


more »

• Comments (1)
• Print

We just held a webinar with the good folks at Kodak about their experiences with social media. The content, tone, and style of the webinar were great but we had tons of issues with the audio portion of Webex.  MY apologies to anyone who tried to listen in but couldn't -- maddeningly, some people could hear and some people couldn't.  I'm not even sure the webinar got recorded successfully because of all the issues.

Thankfully, many people were able to attend and got value from it.

Although the technology wasn't under our control, we feel very much responsible for inconveniencing anyone.    If you attended -- or tried to attend -- and had issues, we apologize.

more »

• Comments (2)
• Print

 A recent article on e-Marketer called "Blogs and the Purchasing Decision" highlights the influence that social media marketing (in this case, blogs) can have on purchasers.

Some of the key info in the article says "More than one-half of respondents who had trusted blogs for purchase decisions in the past said the information they found on blogs helped determine when they decided to make a purchase" and "The number of consumers influenced by blogs will rise, based on overall blog readership projections. More than two-thirds of Internet users will read blogs in 2012, up from one-half who did so last year."

That all points to a positive sign that blogs and social media marketing will continue to play an important role in attracting customers and being a key part of marketing.

The article is a quick read and i think you'd enjoy it.

more »

• Comments (0)
• Print

We're hosting a webinar on December 10th with Forrester's Josh Bernoff discussing how to best invest your social media marketing budget in a recession.
more »

• Comments (2)
• Print

I was recently reminded of an informative survey that appeared in Groundswell, the great book by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li.   It's all about trust, and it really is relevant in today's rocky market.

The gist of the survey is this:  people trust other people -- whether they know them or not -- more than they trust the vendor of a product.  While this is a conclusion drawn from a survey, it really is just intuitively clear.  Most people are skeptical of the claims a company makes in advertising, but they quickly believe the opinion of others who have no vested interest in promoting a product.

Here's the chart of the survey, which originally was posted in this informative blog post "Who do people trust?"



The Internet and social media has made this possible where it never was before.  Without the Web, how would you connect with someone who uses a product in which you're interested or someone who shares a passion that you do?  You'd have to find a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend, etc.  Or go to a user group. All way too hard.  Now with a few Google searches and clicks, you can be connected to dozens if not hundreds of other people who can help you.

This is why companies all over the world are trading in traditional marketing dollars and moving to social media marketing:  it's more believable, more influential, and delivers a higher ROI than traditional one-way marketing where you "push and interrupt" a brand message.   Social media marketing connects people to other people who they can trust.  it builds brands in an organic way and generates real revenue.  This movement is accelerated by the economic downturn, where slashed marketing budgets will mean marketing teams are looking for better ways to spend their dollars.

Do you agree?  Who do you trust?


more »

• Comments (0)
• Print

There's increasingly more and more written about Social Media Marketing.  I wanted to offer a few thoughts about the topic.

I'm not going to define it in strict terms, but instead i want to distinguish it from other traditional forms of marketing.

Social media marketing allows companies to engage with their customers, prospects, and partners in ways that have never before been possible.  It's augmenting, enhancing, and, in some companies, replacing "old" forms of marketing. It's radically different from traditional forms of marketing in a few fundamental and dramatic ways.



Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing has typically had two major forms:

• Direct marketing. This type of marketing focuses on directly generating leads and revenue: tradeshows, websites, seminars/webinars, email blasts, direct mail, pop up ads, etc.

• Brand marketing. This type of marketing is "softer" and seeks to create an image or reputation for the company in the mind of the customer: advertising, public relations, analyst relations, sponsorships, logos, tag lines, etc.

 
Both of these types of marketing are characterized by a few common attributes:

• They are one- way, push-oriented and interrupt-driven. These activities are from the company to the prospect. The prospect doesn't ask for them. They are "pushed" onto the buyer, interrupting them from whatever they're doing.

• They are brand-generated. The content comes entirely from the brand to the customer.

Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing is defined by a new set of characteristics:

• It's a multi-way dialog. Brands talk to customers, customers talk to brands, and - perhaps most importantly - customers talk to each other. This is a new type of engagement that was never possible until the arrival of Web 2.0.

• It's participatory. Social media marketing depends on user participation - that's what makes it social. To truly be Social Media Marketing, you users must participate.

• It's user-generated. Most of the content and connections in an online community are created by the users - not by the brand. Sure, there will be content and conversations that are brand-generated, but they will be the minority. The goal is to get your users to talk.

Do you agree or disagree?

more »

• Comments (2)
• Print