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Emerging Trends in Social Media: #MMchat with Glen Gilmore

Our thirteenth MarketerMonday Chat #MMchat was an overdue visit by our SPECIAL guest, Glen Gilmore. Glen, also known as The @Trendtracker, is an attorney, social media consultant & adjunct w/ Texas A&M’s @NERRTC

This is only the thirteenth #MMchat we’ve held and see #MMchat for more details on MarketerMonday Chat our previous SPECIAL guests, transcripts and our upcoming schedule.

Thanks again to @GlenGilmore as well as all of you AWESOME #MMchat tweeps who joined us and participated in this enlightening tweetchat on Emerging Trends in Social Media!

Check out the full transcript of the chat at http://bit.ly/GlenGilmore and please join us next week as @DannyBrown struts his stuff at November 1st at 8:00 pm EST when we’ll be talking about the Increasing Role of Content as Engagement and Marketing Tool ! See you all then!

Cheers

Jeff Ashcroft

@TheSocialCMO

Successful Social Media is More Than A Campaign

Mild rant forthcoming.

I see so many case studies for social media being presented – in their entirety – as:

  • social discounts and coupons
  • a video campaign
  • a clever Facebook contest

But this drives me crazy insane. Here’s why.


Social media is not just direct marketing parked online.

Ultimate social media success by my definition is far more than whether you took advantage of the latest application craze to market the same stuff you always have.
Part of the trouble is that we rarely distinguish between Social Media, The Tools and Tubes and Social Media, The Business Philosophy. And they’re different.

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Deliberately uninformed, relentlessly so [a rant]

Many people in the United States purchase one or fewer books every year.

Many of those people have seen every single episode of American Idol. There is clearly a correlation here.

Access to knowledge, for the first time in history, is largely unimpeded for the middle class. Without effort or expense, it’s possible to become informed if you choose. For less than your cable TV bill, you can buy and read an important book every week. Share the buying with six friends and it costs far less than coffee.

Or you can watch TV.

The thing is, watching TV has its benefits. It excuses you from the responsibility of having an informed opinion about things that matter. It gives you shallow opinions or false ‘facts’ that you can easily parrot to others that watch what you watch. It rarely unsettles our carefully self-induced calm and isolation from the world.

I got a note from someone the other day, in which she made it clear that she doesn’t read non-fiction books or blogs related to her industry. And she seemed proud of this.

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How Duct Tape Marketing legend John Jantsch uses social media

You probably already know John Jantsch from his wildly (and still) popular book Duct Tape Marketing. The book, and the movement it spawned, is based upon simple, back-to-the-basics, marketing systems any business owner to apply TODAY to grow business. John’s taking things a step further in his new book, Referral Engine. He’s a kindred spirit: he starts with a working definition of marketing and then builds a process based upon it.

I especially appreciate where he places social media in the process. Too many of us present social media like it’s a cure-all or the ultimate marketing toolkit. Many have even gone so far as to proclaim the death of direct mail, death of print, death of newspapers, all listing the killer agent as social media.

John has a gorgeously balanced approach. He says, “While the notion of community-building online has become a very commonplace practice, the opportunity for community-building offline is richer than ever.…The converged business [the business blending John’s balance] uses every advance in technology as an opportunity to forge a deeper, more personal relationship with its customers.”

Marketing is a series of decisions and actions. John says, “For the converged, high-tech, high-touch business, the primary decision filter for every marketing process, customer touch point, and tactic is how technology can make the customer experience more fun, more convenient, more engaging, and more frequent.”

Bravo. It’s not about tools or tactics or even policies and profits. It’s about using everything possible to create something for someone ELSE.

John is as delightful in person as you’d imagine he would be. It was fun to grab a few minutes to talk with him on camera while we were together at Conquer & Grow, hosted by InfusionSoft.

Trey Pennington

Is Social Media Just Another Channel? The Potential of Social Media for B2B Markets.

Is Social Media just another channel? Yes, it may be, but it is so much more than that. Social Media is forcing corporations (brands) to look at how they engage with their clients, how they use information, and how they respond to events. It is forcing companies to treat Social Media as part of their overall value chain.

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B2C vs B2B Marketing: Do the Differences Really Matter?

As a professional marketer, you have to know your customers and what motivates them to make a purchasing decision. But are the buyers of products and services in the B2C world really that much different from their counterparts in the B2B world?

The primary differences between B2C and B2B marketing are derived from the emotional perspectives of the buyers. Often, the consumer is focused on quality, comfort, and price, while the business buyer is concerned with increasing profits for his/her company.

“As a general rule, B2B marketing relies more heavily on rational–rather than emotional–product or service benefits,” said Kim Hennig, a B2C marketing veteran and principal of Kim Hennig Marketing, who has delivered record sales, award-winning advertising, and profitable marketing plans for some of the nation’s best-known brands, including McDonald’s, 1-800-Flowers, and Subway. “This is certainly not to say that the business buyer doesn’t have emotional connections to the brands he or she purchases, but there is a far greater need to justify how the features or benefits of a product will have a demonstrable impact on the company’s bottom line.”

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A sad truth about most traditional b2b marketing

“People who don’t care, selling products to people who care even less.”

I was at a conference recently where the senior executives spent the entire day talking about profits, market share and growth… they never once mentioned that the pharmaceuticals they were selling were saving lives, or that changes in the product or its pricing could reduce side effects or the load on the patient and her doctor.

This disconnect is becoming less common, but it still happens. It’s okay to be passionate about what you sell, even if it’s an industrial chemical. It’s okay to be connected to your suppliers and vendors, even if you’re spending company money to buy from them.

Many businesses focus exclusively on saving money (or so they think) when they publish an RFP and take bids for this product or that service. It’s only later when they discover the sticky gas pedal or the customer angry about a stock out that they realize that paying attention to their suppliers beyond price is a good idea.

If you’ve ever met someone who is passionate about tax accounting or warehouse roofing systems, you understand the power that this passion can have in transforming a client. The challenge is for the supplier to hire passionate people and then give them the room and support to actually care.

“Without apology, we care about what we make and the companies (and people!) that help us make it.”

Not an easy thing to say, because if you rely on numbers alone, you get deniability. Blind bidding means you don’t have to care about anything but price. An RFP means you don’t have to compare apples and oranges. Anonymous business clients means you don’t have to answer the phone when it’s easier to send it to voice mail.

Except that caring works. On both sides.

Seth Godin

Takeaways from Altimeter’s “Rise of Social Commerce”

Altimeter Group hosted The Rise of Social Commerce event on October 6th and 7th at the Four Seasons in Palo Alto. Theme for the conference was: The push for customer advocacy. Reinvent your brand through the Rise of Social Commerce

Shoppers want to belong. They want to be heard. They crave a better buying experience. Power is shifting from the retailer to the shopper. Social commerce is filling the void between clicks and bricks to deliver this personalized experience.

Technologies are emerging answer the challenge. Point of Presence (POP) is combining with Point of Sale (POS) to influence, persuade, and guide shopping. Artificial reality and virtualization is enhancing interaction. Social media is evolving to social commerce to improve the in-store experience. Attend this event to understand how companies are capitalizing on these trends to influence shopping on mobile devices, automate check-out and link the voice of the customer to the value chain.

The following points represent my takeaways from this landmark session:

  • Social commerce was defined as “the use of social technologies to connect, listen, understand and engage to help improve the shopping experience.”
  • In 2010, 20% of 200 companies had a social commerce strategy; in 2011 86% plan to have one.
  • 90% of companies will increase funding for social commerce by 8% in 20011
  • It seems that the Social Commerce world is fixated on what they refer to as “frictionless commerce” vs. the value of relationships.
  • The vast majority of discussion centered around how to create direct sales by leveraging the social graph.
  • Although most examples reflected that the companies making the biggest inroads to increased sales are those that allow the most interaction/relationship building it seems most etailers have not been able to let go to that degree.
  • Brands, not etailers, are the ones doing the best job of nurturing/leveraging relationships. Seems it may be because they do not have the pressure of next quarter performance, and the need to show direct sales to senior mgmt, so have more leeway to nurture relationships and plan for the future.
  • “Birds of a feather flock together” clearly points to peers influence more within their personality/behavior groups, therefore a very positive element for OpenSky developing strong sales around taste-makers and affinity groups.
  • According to many presenters the Social Media/Commerce journey starts with curiosity (OpenSky’s discovery factor) and leads to Advocacy… sharing their great experiences (a key to OpenSky success).
  • Influencers, when/if they see the value, can create group habit by including the group in the before, during, and after. What seems clear is that it is important that OpenSky provide the tools for Sellers to allow/encourage their audience to share the fact that they are buying… via input, reviews, forums… which in turn will enable the “group effect’ to help them grow, build their brand and foster the purchasing behavior.
  • The Social Consumer is empowered and has influence of her own. Be certain to provide the tools that allow this consumer to leverage the new found power. She wants a dialogue and wants to be heard and recognized.
  • Influencers do not equal simple amplification of an offer/product value… but add depth and breadth to the relationship.
  • Facebook is not a channel for commerce, but a platform that can enable commerce. Many are mistakenly looking at FB as a channel.

It seems to me the view/perspective I keep hearing is all about leveraging consumer’s social graph to sell more product. But when I hear the case studies, and see where true progress is being made, I hear more about interaction, engagement, and sharing… i.e. relationships.

When I think about social commerce what seems to be the greatest opportunity is growing/nurturing the connection, participation and loyalty of a consumer, which in turn will build ROR… Return on Relationship. This is the first step required to make all this social integration sustainable and long lasting. Relationships are what will lead to the ability to sell more, not using customers to sell more product, but by facilitating/enabling feedback, sharing, reviews, and therefore build dynamic advocates who openly sell product they love and are passionate about.

Ted Rubin

Editors Note: Agenda for event & complete presentations are available at http://bit.ly/RiseOfSocialCommerce

True Love, True Loyalty on #MMchat with Judi Samuels

Our twelfth MarketerMonday Chat #MMchat was indeed a Loyalty Lovefest and our SPECIAL guest, Judi Samuels @ChiefLemonhead was our guiding light! Currently with Maritz Canada, Judi has over 10yrs of experience in Marketing, Marketing Communications, Events, Experiential Marketing and Engagement Marketing.

This is only the twelfth #MMchat we’ve held and see #MMchat for more details on MarketerMonday Chat our previous SPECIAL guests, transcripts and our upcoming schedule.

Thanks again to Judi Samuels @ChiefLemonhead and @MaritzCanada loyalty dream team members @ScottJRobinson1 & @RobinsRich as well as all of you AWESOME #MMchat tweeps who joined us and participated for this LOVELY LOYALTY embracing tweetchat!

Check out the full transcript of the chat at http://bit.ly/JudiSamuels and please join us next week as Glen Gilmore, @GlenGilmore arrives on October 25th at 8:00 pm EST to AMAZE us all with his Trendtracker magic! See you all then!

Cheers

Jeff Ashcroft

@TheSocialCMO

Socialnomics Eric Qualman @equalman joins #MMchat on November 8th at 8:00pm!


GREAT news to share with you this evening and extremely pleased to relate to all #MMchat tweeps out there that Eric Qualman @equalman will be our SPECIAL guest on #MMchat on Monday November 8th at 8:00pm eastern!!


The topic for our chat with Eric is very timely with the growing proliferation of tablets and e-readers as we talk: The future: Social Search, Social Commerce & eReaders oh my! We look forward to Eric’s unique insights and viewpoint in this regard based on his position as a visionary at the forefront of the social media computing revolution!

Hope you’re all as excited as I am to have Eric Qualman @equalman join us and mark your calendars to be with us on November 8th, at 8:00pm for it truly is all of you who make #MarketerMonday Chat matter!

Remember #MMchat makes Mondays MARVELOUS!!

Cheers

Jeff Ashcroft

@TheSocialCMO