GRAY PAPER
Social Media from 30,000 Feet

This is an invitation to skeptics to learn more about Social Media, the online relationship platforms so many people are talking about. It's not a user manual, but does contain the kind of numbers marketers cannot afford to ignore: Millions of potential Brand Loyalists.

 

Change is inevitable and anything, but slow.

Since the invention of the transistor in 1958, the speed of processing data has increased exponentially, approximately doubling every two years (Moore's Law). As of June '09, broadband had 63% U.S. penetration among adults. Download speeds exceed 30 megabits per second, and will be faster, tomorrow. In the same way faster transportation (i.e., cars, trains, airplanes) helped create the travel industry, the emergence of high-speed, low cost Internet access has helped create a new kind of instant communication: Social Media. Consumers in every age demographic are using Internet-based tools, platforms, and Web sites to socialize with each other online (hence the name, "Social Media") in real time to share their thoughts and ideas about: life, families, pets, travel, decorating, products, companies, politics, you name it. Whatever the topic is, someone somewhere is engaged in an online conversation about it.

For businesses, Social Media afford advertisers a new way to connect with consumers: directly. It turns the old paradigm upside down, because now the consumer is in charge. Still, for marketers who have the stomach for it, there is a lot to be gained.

 

People need to find a way to belong.

People are brought together on the Internet by common issues, causes, and products (i.e., global warming, save the whales, WD 40), because they are passionate belongers. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, and YouTube, among today's most populated Social Media networks (along with good old email), are adding new followers at astronomical speed. Twitter had 4 million unique visitors in December '08; as of June '09, they had 20 million. Facebook grew from 59 million to 113 million in the same time period. LinkedIn currently boasts over 40 million members, a 100% increase over July '08. Flickr claims to have added 600 million web-hosted images during the six months ending July '09, bringing total hosted images to 3.6 billion. In July '09, YouTube announced viewers were watching more than 100 million videos on its site every day, a +150% increase over November '06.

 

Here's how Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Flickr describe themselves:

  • "Twitter is a social networking/micro-blogging service enabling users to send and read each other's updates, known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to followers who have subscribed to them."
  • "Facebook helps you connect with the people in your life. You can share as much personal data as you like with your Facebook friends (i.e., stats, links, photos, videos)."
  • "LinkedIn connects...affluent, ambitious, influential professionals. Built upon trusted connections and relationships, LinkedIn has established the world's largest and most powerful business network."
  • "Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world...Flickr is a way to get your photos and videos to the people who matter to you. And since basic accounts are free, there's no reason not to explore further..."
  • "YouTube, founded in February '05, is the world's most popular online video community, allowing millions of people to discover, watch, and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others around the globe, and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers, large and small."

Good News travels fast. Bad News spreads like wildfire.

In addition to major networking platforms, the Blog-O-Sphere is populated by literally millions of bloggers, self-appointed leaders who promote causes of all shapes and sizes. They increase their influence by inviting commentary from followers, who in turn invite new members to join. As of December '07, blog search engine, Technorati, was tracking more than 112 million blogs. Imagine being able to harness the energy and passion of like-minded individuals to promote your Brand (or change their thinking, if you don't see eye to eye)!

 

Social Media as "The Fly on the Wall"

At minimum, Social Media provide opportunities to collect consumer data: What are people talking about? What turns them on? What turns them off? Even if what some Tweeters are sharing appears inane, it's what's on their minds. Understanding the target consumer mindset is critical to positioning any product or service.

Ancillary platforms abound that aggregate online activity by topic to make it easier for social networkers (and marketers) to keep their fingers on the pulse of what people consider important. Here are four examples of online tools that are available for free:

  • "Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff, as voted on by our users. By looking at information through the lens of the collective community on Digg, you'll always find something interesting and unique." Can you digg it?
  • "Delicious is a Social Bookmarking service, which means you can save all your bookmarks online, share them with other people, and see what other people are bookmarking. It also means we can show you the most popular bookmarks being saved right now across many areas of interest. In addition, our search and tagging tools help you keep track of your entire bookmark collection and find tasty new bookmarks from people like you."
  • Google Trends and Google Insights for Search list the hottest trends categorized by Web, Images, Video, Maps, News, Shopping, and GMail, along with search volume details. Google Insights allows searchers to drill down for more information, like category seasonality, geographic distribution (city, state, country, worldwide), and lets searchers set their own time parameters (hourly, daily, monthly, quarterly, annually).

 

The Heart of Social Media

Even more important, Social Media afford marketers an opportunity to engage potential customers in conversation, the first step toward building meaningful relationships that can turn people into passionate Brand advocates. There is, of course, a new social etiquette. Peoples' needs come first, not what marketers want to sell. "Be a good listener." How many times have you heard that one? Conversation is an exchange of ideas. Unless you add value, and are willing to participate in the ongoing exchange, you lose your audience's attention. It helps to hear what they have to say before you start babbling. And remember, in the auditorium of Social Media, there may be hundreds of thousands of spectators listening in. Transparency is another must. People will listen to people they trust. If you belong to an organization, don't hide it. Everything you say must be personal, relevant, and useful, not self-serving. Don't be afraid to engage, because you might hear bad news. If there is a perceived problem with your product or service, the sooner you know about it, the sooner you can fix it. Damage control is all about timing. Marketers who are willing to work with customers to find solutions are way ahead of the game.

Tropicana: An Example of the Amazing Influence of Social Media

This wouldn't be a bona fide Gray Paper without at least one case study. So, here's one to rival the misguided thinking behind the New Coke debacle.

On January 8, 2009, PepsiCo's Tropicana 100% Pure Premium Juice Brand announced its new branding campaign, Squeeze, complete with new packaging. The groundswell of commentary from Tweeters, Facebook Friends, bloggers, and emailers was anything, but kind. Their beloved Brand had been compromised. The iconic orange and straw mnemonic had been scrapped. The typeface was downsized and given a cold corporate makeover. Bold swatches of color that formerly made it easy to pick out favorite flavor varieties and pulp content were likewise downsized, deemphasizing the kind of juice inside. The new package totally failed to highlight the Brand's intended "100% pure and natural without any added sugar or preservatives" positioning. Instead, Brand Loyalists declared the new packaging antiseptic, downright generic, and sales plummeted 20%.

On February 24, 2009, PepsiCo announced Tropicana was reintroducing its former packaging. The following blogger "thank you" provides a fitting summary:

>UPDATE!!!!! It's over. We* won. Thanks Tropicana, for being real and recognizing the opinions of your consumers. Much respect.
*"We" meaning consumers, people who care about design, people who care about iconic things in general - whether they be brands, buildings or cars.

Renowned anthropologist, Barbara Tuchman wrote, "Habit has an especially tenacious grip when the pace of change is slow." (A Distant Mirror, - a comparison of 14th and 20th Century societies). Barbara was still typing her manuscripts in 1978. Today's pace of change is anything, but slow. Getting a handle on a quickly evolving phenomenon, like Social Media, is a daunting task. Fortunately, you don't have to understand technology to benefit from its tools.

Not long ago, I was a Social Media skeptic, myself. And, while I'm still only a short distance into Social Media Country, I've seen the light. I was fortunate to attend Larri Cochran's Social Media Boot Camp 101. Larri is a Social Media expert and colleague at Charlie Company, a team of rapid response experts with the know-how to solve difficult marketing communications problems. Now that we've given you a view of Social Media from 30,000, if you are interested in learning more, we would be happy to meet with you.

William "Bill" Champion, Jr.
Business Development Strategist and Writer
Charlie Company
bill@charlieco.com
facebook.com/bchampion1
www.linkedin.com/in/billchampiontoo
SKYPE Call Name - CasadulceToo
212-671-0405