Sunday, March 09, 2008

Creating Social Strategies

I'm sitting in on Charlene Li's session on Creating Social Strategies at SXSW. Here's a brief overview of her very thoughtful and comprehensive presentation.

Straight off, Charlene defined "groundswell" - the social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.

According to Charlene (and from my own experiences), most companies are aware of this, but don't truly understand - they just don't get it. So how to go about getting a social strategy planned, created and adopted within an organization?

A word about radicals/revolutionaries
Are you going to be a radical like Thomas Paine? He sparked the American revolution, then continued to foment revolution in France. He became so radical that no one respected him any more.

Or a revolutionary like Thomas Jefferson? A more respected leader, even though he was a staunch defender of Thomas Paine - he worked with others, put plans into place and brought ideas to life.

POST - the process to create a social strategy

People - assess your customers' social activities
Objectives - decide what you want to accomplish
Strategy - plan for how relationships with customers will evolve
Technology - decide which tools/technologies to use

People
The ladder of participation (see below) is made up of creators (18% adults/39% youths), critics (25%/43%), collectors (12%/14%), joiners (25%/58%), spectators (48%/66%), inactives (44%/26%)

Age is a major driver of adoption. For a more detailed breakout of these numbers and fuller descriptions of each category, see Charlene's original post.

Objectives
Traditional roles are changing under the groundswell, from more unidirectional to bidirectional. Some examples:
Research --> listening
Marketing --> Talking
Sales --> Energizing
Support --> Supporting
Development --> Embracing

How are revolutionaries doing it?

BlendTec - used YouTube videos for the now famous Will It Blend series. George Wright, BlendTec's VP of Marketing spent $50 to get this started.
Dan Black, director of recruiting for Ernst & Young used Facebook to connect with students. But he did so in a different way. Lots of questions were asked on E&Y's wall, and he wrote back in a very personal tone. Realized that this was one of the few channels to have a direct conversation with students.
Gary Koelling & Steve Bendt at Best Buy decided to start BlueShirtNation for Best Buy employees. It turned out to be a great support system for employees.
Josh Bancroft at Intel - created an internal wiki for employees: Intelpedia. He got it done quickly and without the usual corporate red tape. Demonstrated that people were already using it/contributing to it by the time management got back to him to discuss the idea.

How to get it done
Lionel Menchaca at Dell.com was a product tech guy, had been there for 17 years - he was knowledgeable and he was a connector. He realized that customer service + product development + blog = getting Dell out of hell. He got direct support from Michael Dell to keep going, personally address concerns & negative comments. Very quickly, the culture within Dell changed:

In the course of 2 months, they took customer suggestions and launched a new product.
DellShares - the Investor Relations team of Dell is now blogging.

Find & support your revolutionaries

Find the people who are most passionate about developing relationships
Educate your executives - teach them about the benefits, and actually get them involved in them
Put someone in charge - someone who has authority
Define the processes & policies - yes, the legal department may need to be involved, but it's best to outline it up front
Make it safe to fail

Final thoughts:

Make it stick with frameworks
Start small, think big
Make social strategy the responsibility of every employee
Be patient - cultural change takes time

Update: If you'd like to see Charlene's slides, they're available on SlideShare.

Labels: Charlene Li, social media, strategy, SXSW

Posted by Scott Monty at 12:32 PM

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Friday, July 13, 2007

iPhone, Meet Total Blender

Of the videos I've seen this week, our friends over at BlendTec are the winners, hands down.

This week, the CEO (as usual) takes his position next to the blender and whips out his brand new iPhone. He quickly tosses it in the blender, selects "Smoothie," and...

I've been following the Will It Blend? videos for quite some time and they're always entertaining. But beyond the awareness/entertainment factor, every marketer wants to know: how does this translate into sales? According to BlendTec, they've seen a huge spike in sales.

Charlene Li sums up the success factors rather well in a post on her blog, citing authenticity, humor, originality and a connection to the value of the product. I don't know about you, but if I were to go blender shopping before seeing these videos, I'd normally have no clue as to what I'd buy. I'd probably pick some mid-range model and hope for the best.

But now if you say "blender," I automatically picture one of these videos in my mind and picture how the product performs. While I might not be in the market for a $400 blender, it's top of mind when I'm considering a purchase. And that's what any good marketer wants.

The relative low cost of using a social network like YouTube for a marketing campaign is certainly attractive in these days of tight marketing budgets. But as Charlene pointed out, there are a number of reasons this one works. But there is one that I think she missed: aligning your brand with another well-known (and in this case well-loved) brand.

In just two days, the iPhone edition of "Will It Blend?" has garnered over 650,000 views. The front-runner for all 55 videos submitted over the last year is...drum roll, please...an iPod! Nearly 4 million views of the world's foremost mp3 player versus the world's most powerful blender. But what makes the destruction of Jobsian technology so much more interesting than say, hockey pucks or oysters?

People who know and use Apple products are typically enamored with the beauty of the design and how well the software and hardware are integrated. The popularity of these particular videos is, I think, due to something as basic as morbid curiosity - the same emotion that causes NASCAR fans to secretly wish for a crash and a car fire. Plus, the sheer hype of the iPhone over the last few weeks undoubtedly drove this. Perhaps a little phone envy plays into it as well?

Bottom line: sometimes, instead of the typical features & benefits approach that 90% of marketers use, a little creativity and thought can go a long way. When you connect to your audience's emotions and give them a way to share their enthusiasm through social networks, your brand will benefit.

Labels: Apple, brand, Charlene Li, Friday Fun, social media, Video

Posted by Scott Monty at 2:17 AM

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About Scott

For hi-res, click here

The best way to describe Scott is "Renaissance Man." Friends and colleagues that know Scott from one facet of his life are very frequently surprised to learn of his interests and talents in other areas.

Scott is a marketing and communications professional focused on the digital industry — specifically on social media. His career spans a number of industries such as healthcare, pharma, biotech, travel, automotive, tech, and communications, and includes a wide range of clients, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.

Currently on the staff of corporate communications in Ford Motor Company, Scott heads up the social media function and holds the title Global Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager. He is a strategic advisor on all social media activities across the company, from blogger relations to marketing support, customer service to internal communications and more, as social media is being integrated into many facets of Ford business.

Prior to joining Ford, Scott served as Consigliere for crayon and spent a number of years with PJA Advertising + Marketing, a boutique BtoB agency specializing in health sciences & high tech.

In addition to his consulting and agency background, Scott is an active blogger and podcaster. He writes about the intersection of advertising, marketing and PR at The Social Media Marketing Blog and also writes The Baker Street Blog, a literary undertaking. Scott has been featured in numerous news and business publications, on a variety of podcasts, and on national television. Scott is a recognized thought leader in the social media industry and frequently speaks at industry events.

Scott received his Master's in Medical Science from Boston University's School of Medicine concurrently with his MBA from BU's Graduate School of Management. He lives in the greater Detroit area with his wife and two young sons, golfs all too infrequently, and has a hidden talent for voice over work.

Oh, and one last little-known fact: Scott coined the term "tweetup."

You may download a headshot here, courtesy of C.C. Chapman and a PDF version of Scott's bio here.

Books in which Scott's work is featured:
The New Rules of Marketing & PR
Twitterville
Six Pixels of Separation
Monkeys with Typewriters
Read This First
World Wide Rave
Get Seen

Disclosures/Relationships

Scott is on the Advisory board of SavvyAuntie
Scott is on the Advisory board of Business Smart Tools
Scott is a judge for the SAMMY Awards
Scott is on the Advisory board of The Hive Awards
Named one of iMedia's 25 Top Internet Marketing Leaders & Innovators
This blog's content is also syndicated on Social Media Today
Plaid occasionally does web work for me and designed this site
No animals were harmed in the making of this blog.

Speaking Events

Scott speaks on social media at events, seminars and conferences around the world. His topic generally focuses on corporate use of social media, becoming an online spokesperson, and specifically on the progress that Ford has made in the recent past. If you're interested in booking Scott to speak at your event, please send an email to speaking [AT] scottmonty [DOT] com. Scott's bio and headshot can be found in the "About Scott" tab above.

Some previous engagements include:

BlogWell - How Big Companies Use Social Media - Minneapolis - August 13

Who is Scott Monty?

Hi, I'm Scott. I'm the head of social media for Ford Motor Company. This is my personal blog, where I share my perspectives on social media - the convergence of marketing, advertising and PR on the Web - for marketers, agencies, the enterprise and the individual. This blog contains my personal views.