Libby and I checked out the Conversation About the Future of Advertising on Monday night at the Fine Line. The event featured Alan Wolk and was sponsored by MCAD and MIMA. The main takeaway for the forty-five minute presentation was "Your Brand is not my Friend." Whole Foods and their use of Facebook was the leading example, but Comcast and Zappos also made appearances.
Mr. Wolk offered five key takeaways in his presentation. Some points we agreed with completely, but we wanted to offer our disagreements on a few of his rules:1) Identify a need you can help with.
Yep.
2) Figure out how to solve that need.
Okay.
3) Approach your target as a salesperson not as their friend.
Hold up. I agree that brands shouldn't try to get all up in my shit as my friends might try to, but I do not want to be met by a salesperson online or elsewhere. We willingly choose to follow, add or become a fan of brands online. This is the permission to take down a few of your big brand walls and talk to me like a real person.
But why can't you be my friend? Google is my friend. I turn to him (or her) to help solve my problems when my friends are not around to give me answers. I choose my friends and I also choose Google over other brands. Jimmy John's is my friend. They bring me speedy fast goodness at least twice a week. Sometimes friends let you down, brands also do that. But at the end of the day, you still go back to that friend/brand. Unless something bad happens and you drop 'em fast, just like friends.
Wolk argued that 1% of brands are "prom king brands," where consumers will wear their logo on a t-shirt. But the 99% of unsexy brands out there (Maxwell House coffee was an example) will have a harder time finding consumers with the passion to "befriend" the brand. Of course not every group can find a way to get a million Facebook fans, but can't ever group figure out something they can offer the consumer in the realm of social media?
4) Don't use Twitter to sell. Use it for customer service or news.
Hmm. Well if I were following, just for an example, Apple iTunes on Twitter and I got notified that today from 3-4pm I could get all my fave tunes for only 79 cents you better believe I'd be all over that. Sure it blurs the line between news and sales, but I think it all depends on who you are and what your product is. Just as Twitter is not the ideal social media tool for all brands, the uses of Twitter will vary depending on each brand and product. An authoritative "this is how you should/should not use Twitter" is taking an expert stance that isn't necessarily true. Use it how you will and use it in the ways that your audience responds to and embraces.
4) Don't use Twitter to sell. Use it for customer service or news.
Hmm. Well if I were following, just for an example, Apple iTunes on Twitter and I got notified that today from 3-4pm I could get all my fave tunes for only 79 cents you better believe I'd be all over that. Sure it blurs the line between news and sales, but I think it all depends on who you are and what your product is. Just as Twitter is not the ideal social media tool for all brands, the uses of Twitter will vary depending on each brand and product. An authoritative "this is how you should/should not use Twitter" is taking an expert stance that isn't necessarily true. Use it how you will and use it in the ways that your audience responds to and embraces.
Clearly if I am already choosing to follow your brand on Twitter, I am interested in it and am receptive to sales. What if I was a fan of Threadless and they offered a promotion code to their Twitter followers? Or what about doing giveaways that involve replying with answers to questions or certain phrases? I will always participate in those if they're from brands I know and love.
5) Don't push, give them a coupon and get out of the way.
Coupons are one of the most actionable and proven sales drivers, but are they the only way a brand can participate in social media?
We all remember from Marketing 1001 that brands can't rely on price cuts, or they become no better than private label in the consumer's mind. The question becomes what other value can brands give their social media connections? I would argue:
5) Don't push, give them a coupon and get out of the way.
Coupons are one of the most actionable and proven sales drivers, but are they the only way a brand can participate in social media?We all remember from Marketing 1001 that brands can't rely on price cuts, or they become no better than private label in the consumer's mind. The question becomes what other value can brands give their social media connections? I would argue:
- These fans are your most vocal supporters. When they sign up to use your app, receive your e-newsletters, or just put their logo among their groups, they are volunteering to listen to you and pledge their allegiance. One of the biggest things you can do for them is to actually interact. Nurture them. Use them in focus groups. Give them free Velveeta to host Super Bowl parties. And once in a while, sure, throw them a coupon.
- Also, they are active in social media beyond just having a mostly-blank Facebook profile. These are your most likely bloggers, Tweeter s, and online influencers. Arm them with the information to write evangelical blog entries. And then read those blog entries and make sure you are keeping these brand champions happy.
No, I don't want to hear from Crest constantly on Twitter. I don't care. But if there was some kind of Facebook app where I could compare the whiteness of my smile to my friends', I would be all over that. And at the end of the game, if you told me that Crest Vivid White would make my smile as white as Jameson's in 7 days, you'd probably have a sale on your hands.
Wait a sec! Where is your step six, Mr. Wolk?
Somebody in the audience asked Wolk about metrics and he didn't really provide a clear answer. We know tracking metrics for social media involvement isn't easy to nail down, but metrics n eeds to be a priority, not an afterthought. Coupons are trackable, clicks and links can be measured, and FB app pass-alongs can also be given a value. As marketers, we need to figure out how to prove that we have a) given the consumer something valuable that has b) impacted sales. If this isn't a key element from day one of strategy brainstorming, it probably won't be clear in the end how you are going to bring your client the sales they're after.
Wait a sec! Where is your step six, Mr. Wolk?
5 comments:
We actually are in complete agreement Erin.
Most of your "disagreements" come from misunderstandings, which I will take into account as I move ahead with this.
To wit:
1. Approach as a salesman, not a friend: By that I meant don't try and pretend you are my buddy. I probably don't care about your brand as much as you think I do. And you're a brand. Not a person. By "be a salesperson" I meant acknowledge that you are a brand and that you are on there to try and sell me something. You're not my friend who is just there to hang out with me.
2. Don't sell on Twitter I distinctly remember discussing the very sort of example you bring up: I talked about how it's okay for Dell to sell things, since that's what they're on there for. And running a quick sales promotion falls under promotions. By "don't try and sell me something" I meant don't come on all hard-sell and try and push something at me or upsell me. Don't tell me why your product is great and why I need to buy more of it. I know that sounds sort of intuitive, but you'd be surprised at how many brands will do just that and see Twitter as a great way to upsell and capture names.
As for Prom King brands, they are not universal. I have a post on how we all have our own "personal" prom king brands-- offbeat brands we feel really strongly about. We will be their most vocal evangelists online: http://tangerinetoad.blogspot.com/2008/05/our-personal-prom-kings.html
3. Get out of the way Never said "give them a coupon" - that was just the example I used for illustration, that if you're giving a coupon, just give it and get out of the way. The ultimate point was again, not to use social media to capture names, send out follow-up emails, and otherwise harass your loyal fans. You can give them all the tools they need to evangelize without spamming them just by putting that stuff someplace they can find it. That's a far more effective method than pushing it out at anyone who's expressed an interest in you.
I am in complete agreement with all the other things you suggest: using them for focus groups, sending them free stuff, etc. That's a lot different than sending them pointless ad-like messages. If you make them feel special, they will like you even more.
Metrics Again, I covered the exact thing you accuse me of ignoring. Coupons and contests and the like are easily measured, same as offline. That's easy. When I talked about "squishy" metrics, it was in reference to perception: specifically how does something like Comcast's Twitter effort effect the perception of the brand and how does it affect sales? That's hard to say. Companies like BossDev can do analyses of blog posts and other online commentary that show what, where and how they're talking about you. But it's not easy to draw a straight line from that to sales going up. The closest I've seen to a metric that made sense was this: Before Dell started their social media effort, if you Googled Dell, most of the hits on the first two pages were negative. After a year or two, they were mostly positive. That's about as good as we're going to get. Why? Because perception does not lead to conscious actions: we are not aware when we're being influenced or how.
I hope this clears things up. Bless your heart for taking so much time to think about everything I talked about and for putting it all together in a blog post. I hope after reading this, you'll realize that we're more or less in complete agreement and post that as an update (given people's propensity not to read blog comments.)
For my part, I will make sure I give some of these point greater clarity moving forward.
Easy, sir. Just looking for lively conversation here
Re: 1 - Acknowledging that you're a brand, not a high school classmate whose buddies are lining up to write on your wall, is definitely important. But just because people know you're a brand doesn't mean they won't want to interact with you more personally. Re: 2, these interactions can include selling if it gives value to the consumer.
Brands are finding success in being friendLY. Many brands are going the route of having a person be the face of the brand (Zappos, Comcastcares, Pancheros, BestBuyCMO) so I think the line is blurred here. Casual conversation with these people/brands can go a long way.
Re: Metrics - Yes metrics are tricky to pin down ("squishy") but that still doesn't make them any less important or worthy of being a priority.
Re: everything else - Your presentation came off a little too "do this, not that, or else you'll lose" and it was very top level (for the newbs). The power to connect really comes from the personal details that brands can have, or added utility -- that is what people should be hearing about also. Marketers look to you as the prom king of social media, and if we agree on all of these things, shouldn't all of them be shared?
Good suggestions all around Erin.
The presentation is very top level because so many people are new to this. But to your point, I may need to do an "advanced" session, in particular because I am not a fan of "do this, not that" type teaching: one of my big bugaboos is the inability of many of the kool-aid drinkers to see shades of gray.
You are right about brands being friend-LY and the benefits of that approach, but you'd be surprised how often you see clients (and agencies) suggesting that say Velveeta be invited to your Super Bowl party, not as the cheese being served, but as one of the guests. I think FPGs (Familiar Packaged Goods) have a different road through social media since people already have an opinion of them (e.g. I either like Cheerios or I don't)
As for Zappos (they are a client) the magic of what Tony Hsieh does is mostly around listening: people are thrilled that the actual CEO of a company they like is talking to them and available to them. And it doesn't have to be the CEO- just having some live person in authority listening to consumers creates such a strong connection and really makes them feel heard.
Finally- you are right that metrics need to be addressed up front. I've found that most marketers get that in regards to contests and promotions- the metrics on those are pretty straightforward. It's in regards to perception where things get shaky: they want to know how they can measure something like that. TV's been around 50 years and we can't figure out how to measure the effect of branding-style TV spots, so branding-style SM efforts won't be any easier.
Thanks again for spending so much time on this: I'm most flattered. You raise some great points that bear repeating and you've obviously been thinking about this stuff in the right way.
Erin,
THANK YOU for not only attending the event and writing such an in-depth analysis afterwards, but for extending the conversation through the comments. For an event series titled, "Conversations About The Future Of Advertising," I couldn't ask for a better reaction. This was a pleasure to read.
Thank you.
Tim
This reminds me of the short post Lam wrote last spring about how brands fit into our real-life relationships.
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