Why Bloggers think Marketers stink

Mr Flibble. Copyright © 2008 Dominick Reed

 

Cowboys, Snake Oil Salesmen and Bloggers

Like the cry “There’s gold in them there hills!” Social Media has become the business perceived as a license to print money, attracting every shark that smells there’s something to be made from nothing.

Somewhere along the line, word got out that Bloggers were the passport to advertising online with zero financial outlay. Supposedly they’re the golden ticket to Word of Mouth marketing and by harnessing them via press releases and sampling, you can charge your clients tens of thousands of dollars worth of Social Media Marketing without spending a cent.

You just have to read the discussions in LinkedIn’s Social Media Marketing groups to see how many self-named Social Media Experts – with zero relevant expertise – are expounding the joys of utilising bloggers for marketing. And then there are the mountains of online excrement that tell you about the art and science of Social Media, but actually show a lack of insight into the medium.

In all honesty, it’s these kinds of people who give Social Media a bad name.

In the blogging community approaches by some PR companies have already damaged the reputations of those they represent and Search Marketing companies are joining the ranks. Within that, include Market Research survey companies and free competition/promotional websites. Why? Because these so called ‘Experts’ put up their hands to court bloggers, without regard to the psychographics of the medium.

But what would I know?

Under various pseudonyms, I write a number of blogs, ranging from the personal journal to those targeting various communities of interest to FMCG, Service industries and SME’s. And when I say communities, I’ve since met a lot of my local readers in person, many also blog.

Those who regularly read my blogs comment on posts, talk about them in external forums, in Google Buzz, in Twitter and on Facebook. Many now hook up for social gatherings, swarms and tweet-ups too. They also email me, and like me, the Bloggers have a file full of unsolicited mail, aka spam from the kinds of companies I mentioned above.

So I know firsthand and have seen evidence of the visceral response from Bloggers to approaches by brands. Not all Bloggers are averse to being courted by advertisers, but the approach has to be couched appropriately. And this is where most companies fail, at the first hurdle.

Some Insight

Because it is a crowd sourced online medium, the crux of Social Media is listening, chatting and understanding. In approaching Bloggers you must apply all of the above. And by doing this, in terms of identifying your target market, you drill down even further than Direct Marketing ever has. But this is where merely downloading a list of blogger’s email addresses and sending out a templated email will be your undoing.

Blogging outside of business oriented sites is often deeply personal. The name comes from ‘Web Log’ – an online journal. Just as in life, in blogging communities you have niches within subcultures and if you ignore that, the drawbridge will be raised, subjecting your brand to firebombs of negative online PR – from exactly the group of readers you were hoping to promote your brand to.

Clumsy examples: acquiring a list of Food Bloggers and asking a Vegan Blogger to promote Quick Service Restaurants; or asking a Mummy Blogger with four kids to test drive a compact car for review. Hell hath no fury like an irate Blogger, especially when the current statistics are that 90% of the public trust personal recommendations. Those who give may also take away.

You have to understand the philosophy and values of the bloggers you approach before courting them. They’re not professional journalists. Nor do most aspire to that. For the most part they’re amateur Writers, passionate about the subject they write about, that’s what drove them to blog in the first place.

For example, unlike Journalists, sending out a press release does not work. Unlike subscribers to sampling websites, sending promotional packs may also be ineffective. Telling Bloggers that you want to publish their posts or images on your website (but that you own the intellectual property in the T&Cs) is bound to invoke scathing criticism. Telling them to be a Brand Ambassador will see scorn heaped upon you.

The most influential Bloggers are savvy to the fact that you want make money out of them for no remuneration. Would you volunteer to boost the sales of a corporation that posts profits larger than the GNP of some countries, for zero compensation? I think not. You’re not, your ad agency isn’t. So why expect Bloggers to?

A considered Approach

For brands to get results, avoid the smooth talking Snake Oil Salesmen of Social Media, they have but one angle. Talk to Social Media Marketers within your advertising agency. They should take the time to understand who to work with online and then offer an insightful and creative promotion to take to Bloggers on your behalf.

Have them support the campaign with traditional media and PR. That way you can ensure that your established brand values and corporate image will marry with the appropriate gatekeepers for maximum exposure.

The Bottom line is, if you want Bloggers to be your friends, treat them as you would yourself, with manners and dignity.

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You don’t need Social Media Strategists

By Mr Flibber. Copyright © 2008 Dominick Reed

Social Media is dead

While some people prefer a cosy niche, I don’t like pigeon holing people. It feels too narrow in scope to bring out potential.

I’ve never been enthused that Advertising creativity is specialised within the traditional silo’s of media. I have always seen advertising as a whole, with channels appropriated to suit the customers. And now I am at odds with self appropriating the title of Social Media Strategist.

I can carry this title because I came to use the tools and platforms long before many in advertising were aware that they were potentially of consequence to marketing. Ten years ago I was initiating mobile phone marketing, online forums and various web tools that companies could use to reward, educate and motivate staff. At the time it was considered HR oriented, and not appropriate to Customer Relationship Management, but already, back then I knew the time would come.

Instinctively I knew that as the general public became more educated they would decide how they wanted to engage brands, and that time has come. This is a new era. A time where consumers will shape brands, customer service and product development by choosing at which level they engage. More importantly, by making public their views of the brands observed day to day.

I appreciate that company titles make people comfortable. But I envisage a future paradigm where we will have planners who have advertising and marketing skills across all channels. There won’t be Digital specialists, Social Media specialists and Traditional Media specialists.

We will all be adept at thinking through the big picture and running an idea into many facets of branding. And most importantly, gathering the public feedback and devising engagement via Social Media platforms will not be left to Public Relations staff, but will be entrusted to those who understand the full impact and quality of this data, in the manner of Direct Marketing analysis.

This requires an understanding of the psychology of your target market and marketing of your brand as a whole. This insight will guide you in the best way to move forward.

So if a Social Media Strategist approaches your company, ask them what they’re actually offering you? Many such people focus on sending out blanket emails to bloggers or to online survey groups offering sampling, but how do they integrate that into your marketing as a whole? What data will they give you in return and how well do they know the online influencers they are dealing with?

You may be approached by a Social Media ‘Expert’ who is a smart phone application developer or those who will tack a forum or a blog onto your website, but they may only be offering the physical structure. Again, what will they broadcast, how will they converse with your customers and what data will they collect? Do they train the advocates that moderate these platforms or will it be left to you? Do you know how best to interact with online communities?

My advice would be to find a company that is already offering a three hundred and sixty degree view of your brand’s marketing. Find a company that builds your brand personality in a variety of ways across traditional and digital media. But they must also have Senior people able to use Social Media as a quality research tool, who understand the online stakeholders who can build your brand by word of mouth and to provide utilities that suit your customers, as well as being cognisant of the importance of online Customer Service.

Backing that up they’ll need resources that can provide you with the bells and whistles of new media that engage customers. That would be in the form of widgets, Smartphone applications, online TV and radio, to name just a few of the goodies on offer in the Social Media grab-bag.

It may seem premature to declare the death of the Social Media Strategist. I call myself one because via long term immersion, I am one of the rare few brand advertisers that understand this medium, overlooked by many in the industry. But I know that as I educate others, this will no longer be a specialty, because brands ultimately deserve broad thinkers.

The title Social Media is already redundant among early adopters. It is now known as the Semantic Web. It is the natural evolution of communications and in a relatively short time, your brand will also evolve. So please, future-proof your brand by putting it in the right hands.

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Advertising and Social Media

Mr Flibble. Copyright © 2008 Dominick Reed

It’s time for advertising to reflect the change in how we communicate.

As someone who has worked in the advertising and marketing sphere since 1987 I have borne witness to a seismic shift in the way people communicate. While technology has been instrumental in providing new means of reaching each other it has been the change in societal attitudes that have brought about the most fundamental changes in the first world.

The core values that bound traditional communities have eroded. The church and intimate extended family relations no longer drive who it is we socialize with and work with. Class structures are less predominant, along with cultural differences, especially in new world countries settled by migrants.

The nuclear family has eroded leaving a generation who’ve grown up in blended households. They open up to their peers online in order to bond. We are adrift, making our own way, seeking out others with whom to traverse life’s path, through work and play across a significantly larger pool of other people. Our voices can be heard globally.

The instrument that we are increasingly using to seek out others with whom we share common interests and values is the internet. Rudimentary online forums and basic blog rings have evolved into online communities founded on mutual interests. The title Web 2.0 was coined to describe movement towards this user generated content online. Now Social Media has taken its place as the buzzword.

The social media landscape is dotted with many villages that cluster like minded groups of people both locally and globally. Going a step further, Facebook is said to have so many users that were it a country, it would be the third most populous in the world.

Word of mouth recommendations within these online communities hold as much sway now as those of the traditional ‘wise man’ of the village. And so marketers are now turning a keen eye to these communities. After all this is a natural and obvious space for businesses to market themselves to the public. However it’s also a place where traditional advertising has no place.

The transition in advertising

In the late eighties, pioneering Direct Marketers declared that to advertise broadly to the general public was not enough. Why trawl the ocean when you can shoot fish in a barrel? Go directly to the people who are exactly your audience. Later, they instigated Customer Relationship Management, which reached even further into the pockets and minds of consumers to sell brands and products. Traditional advertising agencies then had to change gears, with marketing dollars now being shared with DM agencies.

Then after the dotcom crash came the rise of digital advertising agencies and digital media agencies, who could service marketers with websites and the various forms of adspace now available online. DM embraced email and e-commerce websites as part of their offering. The pie split again and in order to consolidate the shrinking ad dollar, traditional ad agencies annexed both DM and Digital as part of their offering. Now brands are choosing to divert funds into Social Media and ad agencies are struggling to get their heads around the medium.

Social Media combines all the advertising tactics mentioned above, yet it slipped under the radar of advertising agencies, initially allowing Public Relations agencies to move into this space. But in the main, traditional PR agencies are being shunned by online influencers. Why? Because online communities have their own unwritten rules, their own voice; they’re savvy and anti establishment. They can’t be approached as you would a Journalist or a TV Producer.

Why pursue Social Media?

Today we are aware that for many consumers, word of mouth drives more sales than traditional aspirational brand advertising. The term ‘Dead Tree Media’ is affected disparagingly by a time poor populous who want variety and news in real time, and on demand. Today our markets increasingly turn to online citizen journalism unbound by editorial guidelines and legalese, turning away from magazines, journals and newspapers. With PVRs in many homes many no longer even watch TV ads. Conversely, billions of pieces of video footage are viewed online, on demand, and smartphone technology is amplifying this growth.

A different strategic approach is required to corner this market. It has to come from within the social media space. But unlike DM and PR you can’t buy lists and issue a blanket email to online influencers.

You can’t build a social media platform and demand that influencers supply free positive commentary for your website or for them to produce glowing advertorials for no return, because online influencers are driven by their own passion. They’re not media professionals, they’re in their communities because it allows them freedom of expression within the safe confines of a tribe that share their attitudes and opinions.

You need a Trojan horse. Once you’re on the inside you can evaluate what that community wants from your brand. And that fundamentally, is the crux of Social Media Marketing.

In this next wave of marketing, consumers direct exactly how they wish to be addressed, they’ll tell you what they expect from your business and how you can improve your brand. And that kind of information is invaluable, but it will take a fundamental mind-shift to break from traditional corporate practices in order to embrace it.

Welcome to the brave new world of communications.

New Wave Marketing. Listen, the customer talks back

By Mr Flibble. Copyright © 2008 Dominick Reed

Once upon a time…

When business Sales departments evolved from companies sending out traveling salesmen, to using a business tool called Marketing, it used advertising to create inspiring imagery coupled with adjectives that would inspire the householder to buy consumer durables. It shifted sales from talking one to one with customers, to storytelling that would bait them. Ostensibly it began broadcast – or to ‘talk at’ – the public.

First World general public could choose to take note or completely disengage in the advertising space. That is until Direct Marketing emerged. Businesses then began to re-engage the customer one-on-one.

But they were still talking at the consumer, mailing out personalised advertising, until telemarketing kicked in. The knee jerk reaction to telemarketing was antipathy from the public. It’s not that it was wrong to connect directly with customers, they just really hated the intrusion of being approached unasked and were vexed by the relentless sales spiel.

In today’s market place, consumers are better educated to marketing ploys and hence more resistant to the advances of advertisers. Many say that they are not easily influenced, don’t read, listen to or watch ads and don’t worship at the altar of brands. Millenials have shown to be very anti traditional advertising, which as they mature, bodes poorly for mainstream advertising, digital marketing and DM alike.

Word Of Mouth. The next wave of marketing.

Gradually, the next wave of marketing is emerging in Australia; we’re a little slower than the USA in this. In fact North American early adopters are already showing signs of fatigue. But the Australian public have recently raced ahead, in terms of time spent engaging with the next wave. So the opportunity is here.

It’s a reversal of all that advertisers have been accustomed to. It’s no longer what brands broadcast. It’s in fact, all about what the public say about your brand, and they’re doing it online. This is being referred to as Social Media.

Essentially Social Media is a description of the multiple platforms that facilitate the online conversations that billions of people are having online. In order to work with this, the first thing a brand needs to do is to listen to the online conversations that involve their products or services. Appraise how your brand is perceived. Then see what’s happening around your competitors.

Evaluate your brand in the eyes of your target market. Look at what they suggest you need to change and improve on, register what it is they like about your brand. See who influences them online. See who they are and what they represent.

Why is this action vital? Because the current statistic is: 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations.

Eighty six percent of Australian’s online are looking to their fellow Internet users for opinions and information about products, services and brands, and Australians’ engagement with online word of mouth communication is going to increase in coming years as social media plays an increasingly important role in consumer decision making.”*Hitwise

Advertisers have often held that while you may be talking to the lowest common denominator, you shouldn’t underestimate consumers. When you begin to assess your online brand engagement, a picture of public perception will emerge, and it can often be brutal and confronting.

The next step is to allow your customers to engage in dialogue with you. Effective Social Media relies on two-way dialogue between customers and with the brand, and that doesn’t mean simply broadcasting offers or statements about the brand. It is answering comments and discussing topics with consumers.

The key to this is transparency and trust, requiring a brand champion with access to information that can help customers choose your brand and who can also address customer service issues. While it requires a specific voice and personality, it is not PR broadcast.

In simple terms your entry point into Social Media could be setting up a twitter stream and politely responding to any comments made about your brand. It could be establishing an authenticated correspondent to speak on behalf of the company in popular, relevant online forums, or it could be as simple as enabling comments, the ability to share links and ratings on your website’s pages, that are moderated, answered and monitored by a company representative.

This is only the first step, but is a vital stage if a brand is to engage social media properly, avoiding the pitfalls that less prudent marketers have fallen into.

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