Facebooks key announcements at this years F8 are resonating across the social web, and rightly so. They have seized the “semantic web” initiative, sidelined competitors, flummoxed the chattering class and utterly co-opted an otherwise cool concept all in one fell swoop. I am impressed, very impressed yet my panties are feeling a tad bunched at the same time.
In a few short hours the world will awake to foursquareday, a celebration of location based applications and services and the brainchild of the irrepressible Nathan Bonilla-Warford. While the world (or so it seems) is checking in, I’m opting out, taking a breather. The festivities will, I am certain, go off on schedule with my full support but without me.
Across the social web marketing strategies unfold, engagement takes place, tools & tactics are deployed and but, for the best laid plans of mice and men, might well be sufficient to achieve business success. It is not. Not anymore.
It has been a week of Hell in Haiti with what has seemed a never ending stream of jarring images & horror stories – hammering our sensibilities.
I was approached this past weekend by a respected associate, to secure my participation in a relief effort for Haiti. In a week that has seen all manner of creative effort expended on behalf of the beleaguered Haitian people, my friend along with her friends has come up with unique concept, one intended to make Saturday January 23, 2010 the night that we collectively “bring back the smiles” for the people of Haiti.
Speak openly about people who are abandoning social media and you’ll likely be told that you are missing the bigger picture, that folks come and go but in general the trend is towards growth not decline. True enough perhaps but, that comforting mindset counts for little when it’s your customer, your community member, your influencer that leaves.
If content really is King (hint: it is!) then sit up straight. That crown on your head is bound to start to getting heavy.
You are the content! You are the King!
Surprised? Well, don’t be.
Harry,
I wasn’t going to say anything but, damn it, I owe you my honesty. We’re friends after all, right? I mean, if we were out on the town and I noticed you had overlooked the zipper (I know…play on words) on your last trip to the head, you’d want me to clue you in wouldn’t you? Sure you would. I’m not going to let you walk around all night like that.
Suzie Poirier, a well known and respected member of the Twitter community, tweets as AceConcierge from the bucolic environs of New Hampshire. She tweets daily with gusto and effect. Her followers, now numbering just shy of 8,000, are a loyal bunch. When Suzie speaks er, tweets that is, folks listen, comment, retweet and heap tons and tons of #followfriday love on her. She really is a delight so, when she agreed to participate in a short (30 minutes) interview I jumped at the chance.
This post was originally published at sociallymediated.com
In the previous post we discussed (ranted about, perhaps) agile marketing. In this post I am offering evidence of the potential for agile marketing employing social media.
A Recap of Part 1
Social media offers business the opportunity to perform “agile marketing”
Agile Marketing def: A marketing program that is iterative in nature, employs scenario processes, delivers actionable marketing data that allows the business to align its products & services with real customer needs, wants & desires in near time.
A program that is iterative in nature, employing scenario processes has proceeds as follows:
A Real World Example
The client is a popular sports bar & grill, in place for over 14 years, located adjacent to a MLB stadium. They are set up to accommodate large game day and playoff level crowds but capacity is underutilized throughout much of the week even with a bevy of “special”events and promotions. The business has a loyal local customer base, a large regional following, and even enjoys some notoriety out of state. There have been several iterations of the website over the years, beginning in April, 2000, none of which have been seen to aid the business. As for social media, a DJ, who spins there periodically, put up a MySpace page and one of the bartenders put up a series of photos on Flickr. Both used the businesses trademarked name and were not maintained.
The objectives for our social media project were fairly straight forward and limited in scope since we were starting new. The owner wanted to bring in more patrons on nights when there was no game and start to show a return on his website in the form of improved rank/traffic, etc. Let’s see how we fared.
Marketing Assumption: Social media, employed in a conversational style, could be used to drive both foot and web traffic.
Test the assumptions: Accounts were set up on Twitter, Facebook & YouTube. The MySpace and Flickr accounts were acquired & re-purposed. We focused on Twitter and Facebook as the most likely platforms to help us in meeting the objectives. Current stats are:
Twitter – we employed a conversational tweeting style with very little “push”. We tweeted ball games, the area, other establishments, local personalities, etc. and a little about the establishment in general. We retweet, follow, participate in #followfriday and and generally enjoy the stream. The Twitter profile is complete, pictures visible and the website prominent and accessible from the Twitter page.
Facebook - We used Facebook (the fan page in particular) to connect with the existing customer base & promote unique ongoing events that could be readily measured for effect. These were events that the business already had in place and knew the previous attendance.
We offered Facebook friends & fans the ability to sign up, via a nifty little widget, for a “fan” club with special offers and status as enticement. Additionally, we selectively promoted ongoing events at the establishment on the fan page.
Measure outcomes (3 months):
Everyone involved agrees that these numbers represent success. A side benefit (intended) is a significant and growing customer name, email & phone# list. Yummy!
Act on the outcome(s) & Repeat as needed until successful (or not): Stay the course in general. Events are being added (already experiencing successes) to engage customers on days/nights of the businesses choosing and learning from the customers where our assumptions mesh with their needs and wants. A website redesign is underway to address a range of issues including the promotion of the businesses social media status. Work is underway to incorporate social media efforts w/existing legacy marketing efforts to build both brand a social media awareness across channels.
Start anew: We are busy crafting new and creative campaigns to further leverage social media. Along the way we discovered an opportunity to test (think agile) an assumption on the fly. The customer owns another establishment that hosts outdoor activities on a regular basis. They had an event on the schedule for a coming weekend (it was Wednesday of the same week) and we decided to promote the event on the existing Facebook fan page with a little assistance on Twitter. Registrations for the event more than doubled in 2 days. More impressive was the fact that the folks who registered on Facebook were, to the person, new and unique participants.
So, what does any of this prove? Given that the discrete particulars of the campaign and its execution are not fully exposed here, the reader is left to draw broad conclusions. Let me help. This business already had a great “following” – we tapped into that. This business, with considerable existing legacy marketing efforts, had been unable to engage with their following to meet even modest new business objectives. The website was, let me be polite, sub-par and ineffective. The simple introduction of social media in the form of Facebook and Twitter, exercised in a conversational, social manner delivered measurable results in near time. People are coming in and spending money. The website is still sub-par but, we now have traffic and a reason to get the site in order. The results of our efforts are being utilized, right now, to craft new assumptions and create new social media marketing campaigns.
3 months folks, 3 months. Get off the fence and get in the game. The more you play the better you get.
Next Post: A Twitter Success Story – Conversations with @AceConcierge
