HFTB Marketing Blog

I attended the Taking Your Brand Online Webinar through BrightTalk this morning. David Meerman Scott, Guy Kawasaki and Chris Brogan were the panelists and all had, as usual, interesting stuff to say.

image by Glenn.Batuyong

Of course there was the ubiquitous evangelism on the benefits of social media… blah, blah, blah.

But the really interesting portion of the webinar for me dealt with the question of whether or not all businesses should blog.

The unanimous answer, interestingly enough, was “no.”

To me, this is great stuff. Social media has a place. But there is always a tendency (or perhaps a law of physics) for the pendulum to swing too far in one direction. And with the rush to embrace social media for businesses, particularly small businesses, the question of whether or not a blog is needed is often not in the conversation. It is simply accepted.

Guy Kawasaki made the point that a home remodeler might not need to spend a portion of his day writing about his latest project when he is more concerned with making payroll in the next 30 days. I agree totally.

That’s not to say that the remodeler might not want to think about other ways to leverage social media (Twitter Search was Kawasaki’s recommendation). But at some point, business strategy needs to play a role in the conversation – hopefully, the starting point. Simply blogging because seemingly everyone else is doing it makes no sense.

So in sum, blogging is not a cure-all for what ails business marketing. It is most definitely a tool that can help – a great deal if done correctly. But tools should be used where they benefit strategic execution. And not simply because everyone else is using them.

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There’s been quite a bit of talk about the DiGiorno Flatbread Pizza product launch/social media campaign lately. DiGiorno, a Kraft brand, decided to deliver their new product to various Tweetups in major cities around the country.

The reaction from the online community has been interesting.

Some are hailing Kraft’s foray into social media as a harbinger of mainstream corporate acceptance of the value of some of the new marketing tools and tactics.

This reaction is a little odd to me.  After all, let’s think about what Kraft has really done.  They’ve found a way to dip a toe into the world of social media without actually taking part.

Trading pizza for influence doesn’t strike me as sound social media marketing strategy.  But perhaps this is only the first step in a larger Twitter presence.  Let’s hope… nowhere to go but up.

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One of the true eternal questions of social media marketing – How do I convince my boss it’s worth the effort (read-in, “measurable financially”)?

Image by ArtemFinland

The folks at Hubspot and Chris Brogan got together this week to present some ideas on just that subject.  And while the answers to the above question where about as grainy as the webinar audio feed, Brogan did a great job of at least framing the subject.  He discusses the landscape of tools that are currently out there and some possibilities for business use of each.

Metrics for actual Return on Investment of social media marketing are conspicuous in their absence.  Which leads to the tried and true marketers axiom that the same can be said about definitive ROI for most marketing tactics.

Uhh,.. not sure where that leaves us exactly, but let’s press forward anyhow.

So what did I take from the presentation?

First, as noted above, Brogan references many great tools marketers can use for social media campaigns.  In my opinion, this alone is worth the price of admission… which is,  free… by the way.

But regardless, I’d recommend the webinar for this purpose alone.

Secondly, social media marketing is happening.  Instead of wringing your hands about metrics, the arguments to simply start participating are strong.  “Start participating” here is important because, to paraphrase Brogan, the conversations about your company are already taking place.  You can either choose to be an active part of those conversations – or not.

What is often missed by companies reticent to dive into social media marketing is that there is a wealth of consumer information about their products or services at their fingertips on a daily basis… and it’s relatively inexpensive (not free by any means, but all in all, inexpensive).

Many companies, including former and current clients of mine, spend large sums gathering this data by other means.  But when confronted with the idea of starting a blog, putting out an enewsletter or becoming a part of a social community, typically balk at the ideas because they are unsure of the payback.  Well, how about a decreased focus group budget to start with?

Take a look at the webinar and Brogan’s slide presentation here.  Brogan is well worth your time simply for his ideas on social media strategy and utilizing the tools that are out there to execute it.

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Attended a great webinar put on by Hubspot this week.  Brent Leary, co-founder of CRM Essentials, presented on How to Use Social Media to Attract More Customers.

You can find the video and slides for download here. Check it out!

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If you answered, “online” you’re a few steps ahead of many of the so-called “experts” in the space.

image by justinsomnia

But all kidding aside, while prognostications about the economy, Wall Street and who’s the right play in Tampa this Sunday abound, many of us are interested in new trends and topics for social media in the new year.  Peter Kim posts an excellent collection of opinions from those in the social media know on his blog.

Check out Social Media Predictions 2009 here.

A couple of particularly interesting observations.  Particularly interesting in part because they have been part of previous entries on this blog (insert shameless plug here).

The point that really caught my eye was David Armano’s prediction that businesses will have to come to terms with the idea that set it and forget it (respect to Ron Popeil) sites and email blasts, while ostensibly cheaper than some traditional marketing tactics and therefore attractive in the current economic environment, are not really leveraging the power of social media.  In fact, without “qualified and passionate people to make them successful,” they might as well not bother.

This idea goes back to my post regarding switching out of traditional marketing tactics to focus on new, or online marketing because it is relatively less expensive.  My original point was that to successfully leverage the true strengths of social media, internal resources (people) have to be empowered to manage, with honesty and candor, the new marketing efforts.  This may or may not be less costly than traditional techniques.  But the point is that simply buying banner ads or putting up a Facebook fan page, while fairly inexpensive, does not a social media effort make.

Social media allows for personalized, real time consumer/business relationships. Relationships, in my experience, typically require dedicated people to initiate, engage and nurture them.

Sorry Ron… but set it and forget it does not apply.

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