As Forrester researcher Nate Elliott indicates “Interactive marketers know they’re not good at measuring the effectiveness of social media. On average, they rate their own efforts to measure social initiatives at only 4.5 out of 10. Marketers fail because they focus on the metrics that are most easily available instead of the metrics that best correspond to the objectives they’re pursuing.”
Calibrero distinguishes between SMM (Social Media Marketing) events and SMM responses. In this dichotomy, the first category encompasses all kind of activities undertaken by a social community, triggered by or in (e-)dialogue with a brand such as comments, blogposts, (re)tweets, video messages and so on. However valuable this spin-off may be, it can never be an objective in its own right. The latter category of SMM responses comprises those responses with financial impact, i.e. commercial leads that can be nurtured and converted to contracts, into invoices and subsequently into revenue and cashflow.
Setting the Social Media hype aside for a moment and applying a healthy dosis of down-to-earth thinking to this fascinating topic, I wonder why social media bloggers, 2.0 gurus and the like only too often seem to dismiss the proven lessons of marketing and sales. As Forrester’s easy-to-understand POST approach stipulates, (social media) tools should always preceded by a clear definition of target audience (People), objectives and strategies. Yet some social media strategists prefer to talk the language of ‘number of followers, friends, comments’.
Now have a look at this CMO guide to the social media landscape. Granted, it provides a colourful insight into the relative benefit some of the most well-known social media brings, and therefore provides some indication of the weight the Marketing Director or CMO should place on leveraging these tools. Yet, the matrix fails to refer to real commercial objectives such as increased pipeline, conversion rate and enhanced sales. Social Media Marketing is expected to dominate this year — so much so that 81% of CMOs plan to link their annual revenues to their social media investment, according to a recent survey by The CMO Club and Bazaarvoice. I wonder though whether the CMO him- or herself will want to get down to the tool level in gauging the merits of ‘going social’. Furthermore, with this significant intended shift in budget, resources and commitment to occur, the CMO guide should ideally be leading the way to drive a tangible return or ROI.
Perhaps this explains why there’s still little awareness or understanding by senior executives as to the real benefits of Social Media Marketing. As my recent, non-academic and by no means representative (with a modest n= 22) LinkedIn poll suggests, none of the 55 & older respondents expect to benefit from social media this year yet. The B2B poll also suggests there is a relationship between company size and perceived social media benefit. Large companies apparently are represented by the 55+ segment, indicating they see no benefit yet. Mid-sized players expect to gain from social media deployment in terms of better knowledge management and innovation whilst smaller companies place their bets on lead generation thru the power of 2.0. Food for further social media thought.
/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/logo_DQ_kleur_2018-1.png00Paul Hassels Mönning/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/logo_DQ_kleur_2018-1.pngPaul Hassels Mönning2010-02-17 23:30:342019-01-17 11:11:32Social Media Marketing ROI – would the CMO settle for anything less?
You are a B2B company or professional. You firmly believe in outstanding quality and customer intimacy. Thereby staying ahead of the pack. Your glass tends to be half full. At least.
Yet you are apprehensive about your commercial or recruitment pipeline, your ability to innovate or the unconnectedness between marketing & sales or marketing & HR. Equally, you realize that for long term success, profit alone does not suffice. Your customers, employees and other partners are increasingly selective about who they want to connect to. And through their (online) networks will tell the world what companies they admire and befriend (or unfriend). Also, they won’t let you get away with greenwashing – you need to build green credibility too.
At the same time, deep down inside of you ‘going social and green’ to you still resonates very much like non-profit, incompetence and grey-woollen socks. As research by Wharton University’ professor of marketing Cassie Mogilner et al shows, customers typically stereotype Non-Profit and For-Profit firms. They generally see For-Profit organisations as competent and business-savvy and on-Profits as warm and caring. The Wharton research shows that decisions in the end are primarily made based on perceived competence. The researchers conclude there is room for For-Profit organisations to build their social and sustainable reputation, just as much as Non-Profit organisations would greatly benefit from adding more ‘Biz’ to their repertoire. Time therefore to see the value and connectedness of Social | Green | Biz in your market too.
Social?
I know. You don’t vote social. Or perhaps you do. Either way, do spend 30 seconds to read on. Tomorrow’s corporate survival, success and impact increasingly depend on today’s insights, ideas, inspiration and innovation. Companies need a social strategy for social innovation as these enablers are all driven by people. People who more and more live and work in their communities of choice. Virtually, these communities are developing as web 2.0, social media networks. In order to connect, organisations therefore need to engage not just offline but in these social media hubs as well. Building better social businesses starts small, within and between teams and between people. Social media can also be leveraged to better listen to customers and prospects out there and (re)connect. Besides a clear social media strategy, you and other executives want to get the best possible insight in the business case & ROI of Social Media Marketing.
Green? The green revolution is all around. Customer advocacy is more and more dependent on a business’ ability to deliver sustainable products and services. Legislation and public sector appetite also propel the market to go green. Also, as a matter of speech, taking a fresh, ‘greenfield’ approach to business is imperative to guard off new entrants into your marketplace. Green therefore applies just as much to sustainability of products, processes and services as it does to fresh ideas, market innovation and staying ahead of the grey pack. For ‘going green’ to succeed, a better insight in ROI of going Green to the business is imperative. Green marketing needs both tried-and-tested business practices to effectively shape and deliver a market proposition, just as much as the benefits ‘2.0’ brings. The power of social media marketing can help better and more rapidly connect a business to a global (niche) audience.
Biz!
Going social and green therefore increasingly equals doing good to your workforce, the environment and your reputation just as much as it benefits your P&L. Social | Green | Biz more and more are inextricably linked.
/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/logo_DQ_kleur_2018-1.png00Paul Hassels Mönning/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/logo_DQ_kleur_2018-1.pngPaul Hassels Mönning2010-02-12 00:42:362010-02-12 00:42:36The Business ROI in Social and Green
As promised in my most recent blogpost last Friday, here’s a second analysis and recap of some of the most inspiring stuff exchanged at the Social Enterprise 2.0 conference (tagged #es20 on Twitter) that was held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands – January 28th & 29th 2010. My previous blogpost covered the marketeer’s challenge of having to start inside one’s organisation in properly deploying social media. Paradoxically to most – as marketeers have been conditioned to look outside for wants, customer segments, opportunities, threats and market trends prior to doing some proper introspection. This blogpost covers the external aspects and value of Enterprise Social 2.0.
Marketing mix 2.0 Various #es20 speakers including SAP’s Sean MacNiven and Ellen Petry Leanse (Google) referred to Forrester’s obvious yet valid POST approach for leveraging social media. Starting off any social media initiative should not only be kept modest in size, but should build on a definition of the ‘who’ (what is the target audience, or People), the ‘why’ (Objectives), the ‘how’ (Strategies) and finally on the ‘what’; with what instruments should one execute the social media strategy (Tools)? KODAK’s Kees Mulder and Nokia’s Jussi Pekka Erkkola for instance propagated moving from the good old 4 P’s (products, place, price, promotion) to the new (?!) 4 E’s in the marketing mix , i.e.:
engage,
educate,
excite,
evangelize.
To my mind however, these 4 E’s were essentially of similar weight in the 1.0 era. Whether in B2B or B2C (or in B2G | Business to Government for that matter), hasn’t the marketeer’s challenge not always been to properly raise awareness, boost customer’s interest and desire, thereby resulting in a profitable transaction and preferably a relationship? An enduring relationship in turn, that ideally renders fans and (super-)promoters of your brand, products and services. The difference in Enterprise Social 2.0 primarily is all about the speed and intensity with which this process now takes place. Also it entails a revised competitive landscape and ‘level’ playing field as web 2.0 acts as yet another of Thomas Friedman’s flattening forces. More players with their own unique service or product now have access to the same global e-market. The same flattening effect goes for branding. As Ellen Petry Leanse phrased it: “your brand is now public property. Just because you have a vested interest, doesn’t necessarily make you into a trusted source”. Petry Leanse (Google’s Head of Enterprise Marketing & Communications) continued to stress that marketing 2.0 moves beyond mere branding and building awareness to “building a movement”. To some, this may sound almost a bit Marxist or at least politically flavoured. I do feel over 1 billion people (and counting!) involved in some social media network, building a movement of committed followers (possibly in a niche) is simply becoming sound business practice.
All in all – I’d argue the new 2.0 marketing mix adds 4 new P’s: psychology, personality, people and participation.
1. Psychology As a 1st year university student of management science back at Groningen (Netherlands) & Warwick (UK) in the 80s, this was one of my favorite topics. Nobody would deny that success in eg sales, marketing or general management to a considerable extent depends on the ability to touch a customer’s or prospect’s deeper sentiments, wants, needs and fears. Yet the public eye seems to perceive the art of psychology as pertaining to the domain of shrinks, medics and alpha ‘grey-wool-sock’ scientists. Wrong. For organisations to successfully engage on the global 2.0 playing field, they should first of all excel at self-reflection. Who do we really want to be, for whom? What’s our passion, why are we in business in the first place? Subsequently, in reaching out to selected communities or crowds, the days of Shout & Send are over. In comes the era of listening and truly showing empathy for your customer- & fanbase. Listening to relevant conversations and when engaging, being prepared to go deep, both require psychological know-how and skill.
2. Personality.
In addition, social media and web 2.0 provides a viable platform for personal branding as eg Dan Schwabel eloquently and tirelessly points out. It also paves the way for leveraging corporate personality. Of which Zappos.com constitutes a fine example on Twitter. As Philips’ tandem 2.0 presenters Hugo Raaijmakers and Marco Roncaglio quite candidly pointed out, “Philips has no automatic presence of its own and needs to humanize itself”. The Roger Smith Hotel’s case shows that the company personality is built by various people of the hotel’s team, not just the general manager or the Head of New Media Marketing, Adam Wallace (also speaker at #es20). “Our employees realize they are on stage too and have come to see that every visitor should be treated and considered a possible New York Times reporter.”
3. People Some folks would argue that people have already long been an element in the marketing mix especially when you are in the services business. I would not disagree. Yet I do see the need for a different perspective here. Every single employee or customer now has the might to influence a company’s reputation and brand. That’s why for a social media strategy to work, one should treat one’s employees all as possible ambassadors. This applies normally just as much as in times of handling a crisis as the panel discussion moderated by Jennifer Gehrt reflected on. And that’s why companies like Vodafone are starting to measure the social conversation with customers in terms of for instance social authority (who’s talking about me), social conversation (to whom do they talk), social sentiment (how do they talk), and social network valuation (churn & promoter scores).
4. Participation It’s imperative for senior management to take part in the intra-company dialogue through wiki’s, fora and blogs as companies like SAP, Airbus and SIEMENS stressed. Externally taking part in social communities is of equal importance. Some might say that listening alone suffices. Why not tap into the millions of conversations going on there and use social media insights to keep a realtime finger on the pulse of the competition or customer trends. As Joel Comm points out in his book Twitter Power, “from a business point of view there is much to be gained from simply listening, without the intention of ever participating”. Generally, having moved external in one’s 2.0 approach, I believe there are few organisations that keep a stealth, low-profile approach as there’s bound to be some form of participation.
The great examples from eg KODAK (thru crowdsourcing 28,000 suggestions were submittted for a new name for the Zi8 digital camera), the RogerSmith Hotel in NY (improved brand awareness and customer advocacy), Dell as well as JetBlue (improved customer service and boost in sales thru Twitter promotions) and LEGO (huge community of enthusiasts sharing videos, innovation and product ideas amongst each other – 275,000 LEGO movies on YouTube. Top 5 have 47m views!) reflect the huge external market potential that’s only just being discovered.
Perspiration (!) might be an additional 5th P to the new social media marketing mix, as various speakers and participants stressed that for social media this mainly takes time, commitment, passion and dedication.
/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/logo_DQ_kleur_2018-1.png00Paul Hassels Mönning/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/logo_DQ_kleur_2018-1.pngPaul Hassels Mönning2010-02-03 09:21:402010-02-03 09:21:40Enterprise Social 2.0: 4 more P's in the marketing mix
Yesterday as well as Wednesday this week I had the privilege of joining the Enterprise Social 2.0 conference (tagged #es20 on Twitter) here in Amsterdam, Netherlands with a crowd of some 50 social media enthusiasts, experts and evangelists. Not to mention top-notch and authentic speakers like Ellen Petry Leanse (Google), Michael Heiss (Siemens), Sean MacNiven (SAP), Georges-Edouard Dias (l’Oreal) and Kees Mulder (KODAK). Blue chip, large enterprise experience was fortunately complemented by Adam Wallace from the NY Roger Smith hotel and Chicago’s 2nd most famous citizen and top twitterer Ramon DeLeon (@Ramon_DeLeon) who’s running 6 Domino outfits downtown there.
The two days brought tons of insights, ideas and great encounters that I will be covering in 2 consecutive blogposts, this being the first one.
Mobile & ubiquitous
“Nothing is closer to my heart than my iPhone”, l’Oreal’s VP monsieur Dias stressed. Therefore, business should embrace going mobile to more closely connect to their customers. The world’s distances, boundaries and differences are becoming smaller thanks to social media. Earlier this week the first tweet from outer space was sent. Britain’s ocean rower Roz Savage even leverages her virtual network in mid-ocean asking for advice and suggestions to fix a broken waterpump. As people’s nature is social, social media are being taken up in the western hemisphere just as much as in places like Brasil or India, where the rikshaw driver puts the picture just taken of him and the US tourists he carried on Facebook. By large, listed companies, the public sector as well as the Boston café that’s put out a sign “we have Twitter”. And unlike popular thought this is happening not just in B2C but in B2B as well. With B2B customer decisions based on peer reviews and word-of-mouth in 93% of all cases (82% B2C), this is a no-brainer.
ROI
Most speakers and participants in #es20 agreed there is no one way to properly or honestly measure the ROI/ return on investment in a business going social. I’d suggest we perhaps should start spelling ROI as ROi as the financial investment is relatively low and key investment is all about time and ongoing commitment. As there’s no social currency or common denominator yet, a 2010 priority to Vodafone is to find a suitable KPI. Enterprises should be starting their 2.0 journey small and gradually reaping the benefits of social media. When it comes to measuring the benefits, more traditional metrics don’t always fully suffice as eg HITS nowadays equals How Idiots Track Success according to SWIFT’s Matteo Rizzi. The ratio of conversations & comments per blogpost or the relative share of voice or conversation might make more sense. Rizzi from SWIFT just like the Philips 2.0 duo (no that doesn’t make 4) on stage stressed social media benefits to their business are being realized in terms of efficiency gains primarily. Perhaps most powerfully, Kees Mulder of KODAK referred to ROI as Risk of Ignoring. With 1 billion people on social communities (and counting), how can any sensible business ignore these masses as possible customers, partners or employees?! Finally, the inspiring SIEMENS’ Michael Heiss presentation almost took a scuba-diver’s approach to social media. To him, it’s Rip4ROI; or stop, think and rest before you act and reap the benefits. Benefits that are made up of a host of factors as shown in this driver tree below.
Listening
Social marketing and media are shifting the world from Megaphone & Shout mode to Connect & Listen mode. The power of listening as well as the sheer need for it are being rediscovered. Besides personal extra ‘ears’ like Tweetdeck (I begin to prefer Hootsuite btw) or Seesmic, there’s solutions including Radian6.com, Social.Arc.com, Buzzmetrics.com, Alterian.com and the pleasantly sounding Cymfony.com to enable the Enterprise Social 2.0 to do just that.
Marketeer’s paradox
To me as marketer, one of the key take-aways of the conference was phrased by all 3 German companies present: SAP, Siemens and Airbus. For social media to be effective, one should start small, building incremental steps internally (eg in knowledge management or internal feedback platforms using fora, blogs and wiki’s) with top management commitment first. This helps answering the question “who do we in essence want to be to whom” – in search of corporate DNA. And helps changing a culture into one that’s receptive to the paradigm shift that 2.0 entails. One can’t change a company’s identity with a bit of make-up on the outside, or doing one-off campaigns sporting a 2.0 image. Customers, employees and other partners increasingly expect companies to show ‘a human face’ based on a culture of openness, trust, transparency and dialogue. With management are often apprehensive of losing control, employees often feel restrained to provide open feedback. With people across the organisation have learned how to better connect, listen and learn internally, this will surely bear fruit when seeking better relationships outside the organisation.
Online business engagement just about ‘zeroes and ones’?! On a binary day like today, January 10th 2010 or 011010 in short, it’s perhaps tempting to view the world in digital terms of just ‘zeroes and ones’. As people in the so-called 1st world are increasingly becoming digital citizens (whether born digitally or as ‘immigrants’), businesses do so too. Becoming digital however does not imply business or business(people) want to be treated in a binary fashion. It merely paves the way for authentic human, 1-to-1 interaction.
B2B networking the 2.0 way My dutch friends, family and colleagues regularly question the value of social media in business, especially in B2B. They argue that building a relationship is done offline, face to face and not in the digital darkroom of Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Nearly all B2B players of some size have recognized the need for BI and CRM. Yet social media still is being frowned upon as the latest fad from Silicon Valley, that is best left to facebook-loving teenagers or Hyves-exploring IT geeks. Others do intend to include social media in their marketing and communications plan for 2010, but quite often seem more inclined to policing their employees in saying and doing the right things on social media. Or merely want to leverage social media to shout more loudly to a wide audience.
Enriching business dialogue by going social Here is where to my mind the social media paradox lies. In a world that’s drowning in information and data, a sustainable competitive edge increasingly relies on rich content stemming from as rich as possible a customer dialogue which in turn produces enriching relationships. Of course nothing beats good old-fashioned 1-to-1 conversation to really understand a customer’s actual motivation, wants and needs. Yet social media can help to mutually (!) find relevant insights, ideas and new contacts that in turn can be shaped into a valuable business conversation, qualified lead or otherwise. Business Intelligence and Customer Relationship Management will significantly benefit from the realtime, social insights generated by relevant communities. Furthermore, customers increasingly expect responsiveness by their business partners, off- and online. The reward for a quick and adequate response to customer queries and complaints will often be positive customer advocacy and customer loyalty, the biggest B2B pearl to cherish. As the 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study which included 2,384 participants shows, US-based B2B companies are also even more likely to use brand awareness, prospect lead quality and prospect lead volume as social media success metrics than are B2C companies. I look forward to seeing social media further mature and take shape, especially on this side of the pond. In my next blog I hope to present you some initial findings of my B2B social media poll and would appreciate your input as well.
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