Interview on LinkedIn

I posted a couple questions on LinkedIn. I received very detailed responses from the following people:

How important is social media in maintaining a brand image for both small and large companies? Do you think its best to be proactive or reactionary in your approach?

Ryan Cormier: November 5, 2009.

I firmly believe that social media is as integral to maintaining a brand image for companies of any size as every other piece of marketing that a specific company puts out. Social media allows companies to have an intimate, personal conversation with their customers and prospects, whereas traditional marketing only allows for 1-way communication that can easily be opted out of. For this reason, social media may actually become the most important tool for creating a maintaining brand image in the minds of consumers.

As a result, I feel it is imperative that companies create a PROACTIVE strategy for handling all social media initiatives. Organizations must create value for their followers in order to maintain a captivate audience. This requires proactively researching targets to figure out which social media vehicles they use, how they use them and which types of information they find most relevant/interesting across each medium. Only once a strategy has been put into place and implemented can companies employ any kind of reactionary social media practices. Even then, reactionary methods should be limited to responding to and remedying any negative comments or issues raised about an organization as a PR measure.

Bob Steinkamp, November 5, 2009.

If you're going to use it, it's definitely best to be proactive in your approach.
There's a time investment in using social media, so the real question is whether your target audience, clients, customer, etc. are using it. If they are, it's a great tool for two-way communication, which is what most customers want.

Perhaps the most important thing is that companies of every size should be monitoring social media You may recall that about a year ago, several well-known national fast food chains had some rather unflattering videos show up on YouTube.
Knowing how to use social media allows a company to respond more quickly, when the convesation goes negative or those types of videos appear.
As with any p.r. effort, a planned strategy that includes how to deal with negative social media posts, is always a good idea.

Patrick Murphy, November 6, 2009.

Hi Katie

I keep hearing the social media is like the cocktail party that never ends. If that is true then hiding in the corner will not help. So you have to put yourself out there (within reason of course......)


Our company SiliconCloud is an UK Inbound marketing company, on our home page we have methodology which you can download. It might help at the cocktail party.

Eric Friedman, November 6, 2009

It's *critical.* Social Media is part of your Infrastructure. It's not just a subset of Marketing and no company can afford to let other people be the one's doing their talking for them.

Cheers,

Erica Friedman
Yurikon LLC
Social Media Without Delusion
http://socialoptimized.blogspot.com

Pashen Black, November 6, 2009.

Social media is critical to developing, maintaining and enhancing brand images of companies. When companies rely on ad placements or press release distribution as their sole means of communicating with their target audiences, they are initiating one-way communications and not allowing themselves to go straight to the source and engaging in two-way dialogue. These one-way communication tactics, when used alone, are ineffective.

However, through two-way dialogues, companies can find out what makes their customers tick, which can supplement any traditional research they engage in, and help them establish stronger relationships, which is by far one of the most important things in establishing and maintaing relationships.

Additionally, by not engaging in social media, companies run the risk of positioning themselves as conservative, stodgy with a lack of forward-thinking strategy and offerings an not at all interested in its target audience. And, with the vast abundance of social media networks outside of LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace and companies can creatively enter new markets/categories if they desire and enhance current relationships with all of their target markets: young and seasons, male and female, etc.

Question Details:
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How important is social media in maintaining a brand image for both small and large companies? Do you think its best to be proactive or reactionary in your approach?

Interview with Erin Haskell

In my opinion, Erin Haskell is a genius in the field of marketing/communications especially as it applies to social media use. She is a Media Planner/Buyer for Crowley Webb and Associates.

Hi Kate,

Of course I remember you! How's school? When are you done w/ school?

I'll make some notes/try to answer your questions below:

1-How important is social media used as a component of a marketing plan?
As with any marketing plan, the media used has to be a good fit for the objectives of the project. Its hard to say how important or how non-important it is unless I reference a specific project.

One of the most used social mediums is facebook, and the fastest growing demographic on facebook is women 35+. Linked in tends to be older men and twitter tends to trend older as well. The inclusion of social media is only important if the communications are reaching your target audience.

Take a look at mediapost.com and emarketer.com or do a google search for "media post twitter demographics" or "emarketer facebook demographics", it will give you some good secondary research on who's using what social media.


2-How much money is allocated by your company for social media?
Again, it depends on the project. Social media in terms of hosting a facebook page or having a social fan-page requires a lot of ongoing maintenance -- it's where PR meets advertising and requires a LARGE committment on the part of a client's marketing team/pr team to make the investment into ongoing communications. It's not the type of campaign that you can "set it and forget it".

Social Media advertising (paid ads on facebook/linked etc) are generally able to be targeted very specifically to your demographic. Go to facebook and click on the "advertise" link and pretend to set up an account (don't put in any credit card info-- you don't need to). You can select your demographics and geography and FB will tell you how many people are on FB in your target.

So, to answer, "how much money is spent?"... it depends on the target, but we generally include the paid social media advertising portion in our "online advertising budget line"


3-Do you use it as a tracking mechanism or just a channel of communication, or both?
It can be both-- there are ways to monitor social buzz (i've set up client dashboards to monitor messageboard and twitter and google buzz), and there are also paid services that can give you more actionable, trackable, analytical resutls (google Nielsen Buzzmetrics or Radian6).

We track all web activity using Google Analytics and we have special tools that allow us to track all online advertising activity back to our website to determine what's working and what's not.
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4-Do you feel it is better for brand management to be proactive or reactionary in your approach?

It's always better to be proactive in brand management, but i'm guessing you're talking about a crisis communications type of response. A tool like Nielsen Buzzmetrics allows a company to monitor the buzz goign on in the social space and allows companies to spot potential problems before they happen and respond accordingly. It's nearly impossible to measure without using tools like Buzzmetrics or an online social media monitoring dashboard.


PS-- who's teaching this class? Is it Kathleen? Ask her if she wants me to come in and talk to the class :)


Erin


On 11/05/09 2:28 PM, Katie Heller wrote:
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Hey Erin,

Remember me? The girl that talked WAY too loud about prehistoric sharks on the plane ride to the AAF competition last spring? I was wondering if I could ask you some questions about social media for my IMC class having to do with internet marketing. Here are just a few:

How important is social media used as a component of a marketing plan?
How much money is allocated by your company for social media?
Do you use it as a tracking mechanism or just a channel of communication, or both?
Do you feel it is better for brand management to be proactive or reactionary in your approach?

If you could answer those couple questions for me, I would be extremely appreciative! Thanks and I hope everything is going well for you!

Sincerely,

Katie Heller

Facebook helps adoption!

Okay, Parents Can use Facebook....

The article on Ad Age by Emily Bryson York took a more family approach toward the usefulness of social media. In her article, she discuss how truly far the branches of social media reach, with their impact improving communication for the betterment of parents looking for an addition to their families.

The article talks about how, not only is it easier to contact people using social media, but how effective it is at marketing yourself as a perspective foster parent. Couples can upload videos, pictures, and any other aspect onto facebook to demonstrate to the young mothers that they will be an admirable pick for their baby.

Not only does this benefit the people evolved in the infant-exchange, but adoption agencies are becoming more effective in their placement. Previously, agencies had loads of paperwork and marketing objectives before even being able to place a child in a home. Social media has expedited a process from 18 months long, to a few weeks!

How does this factor into the budget? The cost for adopting a child is not cheap. Domestic children can range from $10,000 to $25,000, according to York, with international adoptions tapping up into $40,000. Most of this goes toward legal fees and a portion to the adoption agency. With the cheap and effective social media outlet to their disposal, agencies can increase child placement and potentially cut some of its marketing budget to save money for everyone in the end.

I am thrilled that facebook and other social media outlets are allowing people some sort of use other than gossip and networking. I love social media, I can’t imagine how patient the generations were before its advent... but it seems that the further along we get into taming this wild beast of communicative power, the more good it does for society as a whole.

Interview with Meg King

This was an interview I received from Meghan King. The conversation initially started on facebook chat but then moved to email. She is a project manager at MS&L and I was specifically asking her about the role social media plays in her work world:

K: Hey Meghan, I was just wondering if I could ask you a few questions for my internet marketing class. I just have a couple of questions: What is your title and who do you work for?

MK: Project Manager, MS&L

K:What types of social media does your company use?

MK: MS&L has a Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn page for the agency as well as specific clients when appropriate.

K: What is the best/most effective?

MK: Depends on the target market. Facebook and Twitter being linked covers the most ground.



K:Do you think it's more important to reach maximum amount of people for brand awareness or to pinpoint your target market? Do you think social media helps or hurts in terms of your goal?

MK: I think its most important to pinpoint your target market. Consumers find brands more believable when they show they understand their specific target market. Putting a mass message out to anyone may lose the 1:1 relationship with a brand.

K: Does your company have guidelines in place for social media use?

MK: Yes, for both client and personal use. There are too many horror stories of people saying inappropriate/offensive things on their social media pages and losing clients. I think you'll find this is common for most companies these days.


K: Thank you so much! Good luck with everything!

MK: No problem, glad I could help!

Interview with Kashi

I contacted Kashi to find out how important social networking was to their brand and message. I was able to do this by going to their web site and joining their facebook fan web site. I wrote a question in about social networking, wondering if their page was all for show or if they have really been utilizing the social world's powerful communicating properties....

I received an email shortly after....here it is below:

Hello Kate,

We believe social media is very important. This is the way we reach out to our consumers. Without loyalty from our consumers we will not be where we are now. We have put great effort into making nutritious great products and are always seeking feedback, suggestions, and opinions from our consumers to ensure our efforts are showing the best results.

We appreciate your interest in our company and products.

Best of health,

Giselle Mendoza
Consumer Relations

Social Networking your Car-Love Affair

Honda's Attempt to Use Social Networking..

In August, Honda began a quiet, new media campaign on Facebook. The basic theme or message was “Everybody Knows Somebody Who Loves a Honda,” and its purpose was to round up and connect fans of the Honda brand across the Facebook social networking realm. After generating somewhere between one million to two million fans, the brand decided to implement a few ads here and there to support the media campaign.

It is a slowly progressing campaign, but for the record, people are participating without any incentive. They just want to be connected and appreciate the brand they love. I think that mentality is a tribute to the strength of the Honda brand and the Honda product.

There has been some criticism on the campaign, however. I was, unfortunately, guilty of “fence-sitting” when I first came across this media blitz, not knowing if I thought it was just a second-rate exhausted campaign, or if it was a patient stroke of genius.

At first glance, you think, everyone has a social media presence by this point in time. The critic would come from the fact that Honda is seemingly only using Facebook as an outlet as opposed to the multiple social networking sites available. In effect, I thought they should have a presence on Twitter, Myspace and any other popular site frequented by the kitties these days. I also thought, why only on social media? The base of their loyal following most likely is significantly less represented on these sites as they are an older, less tech-savvy demographic. By instituting a digital approach, is Honda isolating a large portion of its market share?

But these questions are exactly why it is important to understand the “why behind the buy” and the psychology that goes into advertising a brand or product. Thinking about it, the senior manager-national advertising for Honda, Tom Peyton, said it in few words, but it didn’t detract from the profound statement.

“If we got a million connections, that would be cool...[the push is] a pretty powerful piece of advertising because people are buying into it and we aren’t giving anything away.”

Why spend money if you don’t have to? Spend it when you actually start needing to. I like Honda’s quiet approach because in the end it seems honest. Because they aren’t throwing prizes and surveys at you, it seems as though they are just interested in connecting consumers. In the end, it may be a sneaky bandwagon approach, but as a consumer, it doesn’t FEEL that way, and feelings ultimately drive loyalty and checkbooks.

The last aspect I really like about this campaign is its ability to listen. One of the major flaws of the social networking realm is that it gives everybody a voice....everybody. Most times, when people find their mouths they forget about their ears, or I guess in this case, eyes. Honda, is the eyes. They are listening to their consumers and gaining information about how their product is perceived by even their most loyal customers-people that will do something for nothing.

I take the approach of Honda to be more observational than proactive. I think I like that better. Sit back, wait for your time to strike, when you know that everyone you are targeting is listening and will receive a positive response. By implementing TV with the social media, I think they are piquing the interest of both the younger and older generations and who knows, maybe connecting them under one loyal Honda family. A good honest, trustworthy family? That just may be something everyone wants to be a part of....

Beautify your Profile Pic!

Estee Lauder Hits a Home-Run!

Estee Lauder ran a promotion last week making it possible for women to receive a makeover using their products, complete with glamour shots. These glamour shots are for the women that participated social networking pictures. I was really impressed with this promotion because I think it spoke to a few marketing problems that Estee Lauder has had in the past with its product line.

One, they target women 35-55 years old, isolating a large market share of females that would benefit from their products. I am a believe in a narrow, specific market, but encouraging the young demographics to participate would instill a loyalty to the brand in their older years making the brand more successful.

Two, they are allowing the consumer to interact with the brand. It takes the Estee Lauder products off the pages of Cosmo and allows them to test drive the foundations and face creams. It is in experience that people become believers in a brand. By instilling a favorable imprint on the consumer, they will be more apt to think the product is worth the money.

Finally, it brings Estee Lauder into the 21st century of the cyber world. This demonstrates the versatility of the brand and how it is able to adapt to changing lines of communication between company and consumer. The best way for a company to retain market share in the highly competitive beauty industry is to stay one step in front of the consumer and to demonstrate that they are the answer to their need. The best way to instill this mentality is to open lines of communication. The promotion cut out the middle man and gave the consumer a direct line with the company and it’s products.

The article by Kunur Patel on AdAge.com, a young woman outside the regular target market demonstrated the effectiveness of this promotion. Even though she claims that the makeover was a little bit too “glam” for her liking, she had a positive experience with the brand and loved how it incorporated a human approach to the social media world. It is proof that it is possible to retain a human quality to communication, even in the “written-word over spoken-word”- social media world.

At the end of the day, I think that Estee Lauder hit a home-run with this marketing promotion. This is only my opinion, but they played into a few pre-existing mentalities most women associate with make up. One, they want to be made beautiful and two, they want to show everyone how beautiful they can be. Estee Lauder allows women to do both of these things. They can be the most beautiful version of themselves with the use of their products and they can display it on the largest stage of the world, be it Facebook, LinkedIn or myspace, everyone has the capability to appreciate their beauty. Marketing all comes down to internal psychological wants, and Estee Lauder demonstrated their understanding of that. Genius. I want a social networking picture makeover too.