Your Social Media Mantra

Talk to any digital marketing consultant and they will tell you, any social media effort without a clear vision is an effort that will fail. This is why a social media strategy is so important. With a strategy, you can start thinking about objectives, deliverables, indicators of ROI, infrastructure and more. But Before we get there, I think it is crucial that businesses establish a mantra.

Check out this video of Guy Kawasaki who talks about what a mantra is and why it is so important for companies to embrace this style of thinking:

Mantra’s are about communicating your goal effectively and it should sum up your main purpose on this planet in 3-4 words. As Guy states, it provides focus not only to your customers but to your workforce as well. In social media, we can use this tool to help guide us in our adventure into this ever changing realm.

A lot of marketers still debate the reality of ROI in social media and many corporations have yet to realize ROI from their social media campaigns. Brian Solis talks about this in this article. In it, he states that 53% of CMO’s are unsure about their return from Twitter and 50% are unable to assess the value of LinkedIn or industry blogs. Brian states:

I believe this is the direct result of not tying activity to an end game, the ability to know what it is we want to measure before we engage. Doing so, allows us to define a strategy and a tactical plan to support activity that helps us reach our goals and objectives.

Brian goes on to discuss various ways in which a company can identify ROI metrics and the significance of those numbers to the company. But without a clear vision, how can we even get to this stage of the game? By establishing a mantra, you are able to establish a clear direction for your campaign and determine what ROI is to you and your company.

It sounds like common sense, I know, but you’d be surprised at how many marketing professionals I speak to who shoot themselves in the foot by jumping head first into an implementation plan. It’s amazing to me that many individuals still have not been introduced to the idea of having a mantra, even a personal mantra for yourself. Having one ensures you have the “end game” in mind and that your actions are accountable to this guiding principle.

Micromanagement – White Collar Bullying?

At any stage of life, the bully is a constant in our society and culture. We expect them in grade school, high school and yes, even university. But even after all the adolescence we all know one or two people who just lack social skill and continue to bully and exploit the “weak”. Of course over time as we all mature, the ratio of bullies goes down… but they still exist. Check out this show, Bully Beatdown, a show on MTV that allows real adult bullies to step into the ring with a professional MMA fighter. The premise of the show is to teach bullies a lesson and have them on the receiving end. This goes to show how bullies still exist at an older age.

But what about the office? Yes we have our traditional understanding of what a workplace bully may be: sabotaging your workstation, calling you names, physical harm etc. But what about the subtle act of micromanagement? Not a lot of people may think this, but in my opinion, micromanagement is a form of bullying.

Management’s Strong Arm Approach

A manager’s duty is to manage a team of people, guiding them and coaching them to achieve a goal that supports company objectives. And yes, the manager also plays the role of a gatekeeper to ensure these goals are met. But what happens when the manager decides to really get involved with the day-to-day? Micromanagement is the byproduct and many managers can fall into this pitfall very easily.  Have you ever been in a meeting and felt intimidated by your manager? Have you been in a conference call/brainstorming session and your manager cuts you off and leads the conversation in a different direction? Or maybe you find yourself being told what to do and you have no creative input or autonomy? These are some signs of micromanagement and it is a common error for many aspiring leaders. Controlling your workforce and having them solely produce based on your thoughts, ideas and wants is wrong!

An effective manager will understand proper delegation and will coach their employees without hindering their creative process. By controlling your workforce and forcefully embedding your opinions in them, you destroy the very essence that makes a team so valuable… creativity! Let’s take a look at a marketing manager and assume that the marketing manager has lots of credentials, experience and all that jazz. The marketing manager makes it a habit of shooting down the ideas of his/her team but then making their own recommendation on which direction the company should take. This manager’s idea then gets implemented and the cycle repeats itself. This might not happen all the time, but think about it for a moment. What that manager has done is shut down the creative process for their employees, discouraged them from presenting their own thoughts/opinions and utilizes their workforce to implement their own ideas.  If this was a recurring process, think about the atmosphere and culture you create. Think about your company’s results and whether they are truly achieving the organization’s objectives. Could this then be considered counter-productive management?

The “I’m overworked and I’m never home” syndrome!

I always laugh at managers who make this statement. If this sounds familiar to you, you might have a micro-manager on your hands and I would question their effectiveness in that role. Granted, managers have different expectations and responsibilities than others. But I know so many managers making this statement because they’re not being effective leaders. If you find yourself doing a lot of day-to-day work that you know your employees should be doing, ask yourself why! You are a manager, your responsibility is to manage your workforce, guide them and empower them to develop themselves and become a true asset to your company.

Let’s look at another example, a manager states “I have to do all this work because my employees are either too busy or incompetent”. A micro-manager will look at this and say, “looks like I’m going to have to roll up my sleeves this month”. What they will soon notice is that instead of it being just this month, it becomes a regular routine. Managers will then get burnt out, are never home and life outside of work suffers. But they never stop to do some critical thinking and ask why? Why is this always happening to me? Why am I always having to do all the work? That’s when we have to ask ourselves the hard question, “what am I doing wrong?”. Typically, I’ve noticed that managers don’t spend enough time developing their employees. Whether it’s how to do their job effectively or how you play a role in their future development. Yes, managers have a responsibility to develop their people outside of their job description! Otherwise, how else do you spot the next manager or VP? Managers need to invest the time to coach their employees and to truly make them an asset to the company’s workforce. Failure to do so, indicates a manager who is either not very effective or holding people back to reduce the competition for themselves. These are also signs of bullying and that you are setting your employees up to fail. And that’s not fair to them. To simply use the excuse of “I don’t have time for it” or “I hired this person thinking they know what they are doing!” just doesn’t cut it. A true leader will understand that molding someone into an organization takes time and is an investment… to an extent of course.

Managers need to strive to be a coach and a leader.

Forget the day-to-day tasks and give your employees creative freedom. Trust in your employees and gain more trust by investing in them personally. Yes, mistakes can be made but business is all about making mistakes, so long as you learn from them.  Instead of giving employees what you think is the right answer, maybe next time you’ll challenge them to do some critical thinking and deduce their own conclusion. Remember, you’re not being paid a manager’s salary because your boss wants you to do your employees’ work for them. You’re getting paid to effectively manage your workforce and coach them to achieve company objectives. Maybe next time, instead of saying “this guy sucks”, maybe the employee isn’t right for that role but there may be a hidden talent in which he/she can be a superstar. Managers who are able to adapt and identify opportunities such as this, will distinguish themselves from the rest of the amateurs.

Links: Great article for further reading regarding this topic.

Big Brands and Social Media: Which department owns it?

So you’re part of a big brand corporation and the topic of social media comes up. With all the hype surrounding this new tool, it’s hard not to talk about this great new medium. “Let’s start having conversations with our clients!”… sound familiar? Or how about, “we need to get on board with this and increase our sales“. Depending on who you talk to, these discussions can go very different directions.

Should marketing own social media?

That really depends. Is your advertising team handling this initiative? Cause if they are, you’re in for a big surprise. Andy Sernovitz, author of “Word of Mouth Marketing”, said it best in his interview with the Social Media Examiner. Andy states that when people start to think that social media is an advertising technique and that it is all about campaigns, they’re in a lot of trouble. He goes on to state that social media isn’t an acquisition tool but a conversation tool.

I want to expand on that thought though. Indeed, social media is not a direct acquisition tool and I feel that if marketers continue to go down this path… we are destroying the main reason why these sites exist today. I also agree that social media is most definitely a conversation tool. Not to be confused with a communication tool! A communication tool is very much like a company’s press release roll, a one way communication from the company to the public in hopes that this is the type of information people want to hear. A conversation tool is all about 2-way communication with the public and understanding what the public wants to talk about. It’s about handling customer complaints in an effective and real way when they come up. Now ask yourself, who knows how to do this best? Is it marketing? Public relations? Neither?

The prime responsibility of a marketer is to know thy customer. It’s hard-coded in all of us. Without having this basic knowledge, any marketer will fail in their prime responsibility, which is sales.

Should public relations own social media?

Public relations is all about the relationship a company has with not only their customer base, but the general public. There’s one skill that people in public affairs know how to do better than any other department, converse with other people. Sadly, in most corporations, public relations is rarely recognized for this skill and the department in general is underutilized. Corporations get easily blinded on ROI and sales that they automatically turn to marketing and tell them to own it. But what happens when you run into problems  and the general public turns on your social media efforts? Let’s take a lesson from Honda and their failed attempt to launch a new car via Facebook. Honda not only made a critical error in their campaign, but the overall infrastructure and strategic plan lacked. When people criticized the new car, one of Honda’s managers decided to defend the product and was instantly ousted. I wonder who the executives turned to next to put out the fire?

Social media, in my opinion, is a method to manage brand. People want to “badge” themselves with the companies they do business with. They want to interact with companies to feel like they have a real connection, that added value to the regular business transaction, and they take pride in that. They want to know that when they have a complaint or an issue, someone is actually reading their tweet at 9:00 pm and cares about their opinion. Now I’m not saying that twitter or Facebook is your new customer service channel, much like Steve Jobs, you need to filter and be strategic to who you respond to. But, once we get ourselves into this type of mindset, who do you think should own/manage social media? In my opinion, if your company has a public relations department at its disposal, public relations should really own this piece of the “marketing” puzzle.

In the end, there must be collaboration.

Although I say public relations should own social media, public relations also needs to be careful not to fall into a trap. Too often, public affairs think they know what the public wants to hear and they dictate conversations. Public relations can also be too protective of their brand and this fear or the new world can hinder a company’s social media initiative. Take a look at Wal-Mart’s failure. In their first days, Wal-Mart dictated what can and cannot be posted on their Facebook wall and was not open to any negative engagements with the public. Conversely, Target took a complete opposite approach and gained the public trust. This most definitely increased their “street credit” in the social networking community. By building your brand, your “street credit” and connecting with people in a real way, you will experience an increase in retention, in loyalty and yes… maybe even a new customer or two. Because people will see how you treat your friends/followers/subscribers/etc. and they want a piece of that!

And there’s a lot more to social media than just to have a conversation; social media is part of the digital marketing realm. Although it may not be a direct sales tool, it is most definitely an indirect sales tool.

Corporations need to stop buying into the hype of marketing and sales as the sole factor in the social media equation for ROI. ROI in social media is still being developed as you read this and the scene is constantly evolving.

So when your company is having this common debate, you don’t have to take my words here literally. Take it with a grain of salt and use this information to do some critical thinking. Think about your objective and how you see your company getting the most value out of your initiative. Then start to think about which department you want as your “gatekeeper” and not the “owner” of social media. Regardless of the end result,  there must be collaboration between the two departments in order to maximize your social media efforts.

What a marketing consultant shouldn’t do.

Yesterday, I was in a meeting where we had one of our independent business owners come in to talk about how they utilized social media to increase lead generation. The person brought a marketing firm with them and we soon found ourselves in a sales pitch that is far too common nowadays.

This marketing firm was contracted by this business owner to help generate leads through Google search. While I was listening to them, they had valid points but these points are main stream concepts that every responsible marketer should be aware of. But it reminded me to my days of being a professional sales rep. I asked myself, was I this arrogant? Did I portray the “slick” salesman character? Was I this pompous?

A while back, I wrote an article regarding arrogant marketers. I mentioned that marketers are arrogant by nature. We have to be. But much like in online social netiquette, people want people to be real, genuine and honest.

This marketing firm took over the presentation and started to promote their services to a room of 30 senior level executives. And I can tell you, at least half of them left that room with a bad taste in their mouth with only negative things to say about these people.
So what did they do wrong?

Arrogance - a slight level of arrogance is important to any sales pitch. You have to gain interest and communicate why it is important to do business with you. But much like social media marketing, consumers can only take so much propaganda pushed down their throat. It’s a delicate balance.

The revelation pitch – how many marketers make the mistake of going in guns blazing and make statements like “you need to do this, you’re in the stone age”. Well, maybe not word for you, but you get what I mean. If 80% of consumers go online before making a purchase, don’t you think they have thought of their company on the web at some point? There are reasons why this isn’t happening in that comp[any and as an effective marketing consultant and sales person, you need to stay away from the “gospel” approach and try to converse with your client and find the real pain. Taking the cookie cutter approach and generalizing will only take you so far.

You vs Me - A lot of sales people make a critical mistake of taking a combative approach to their sales process. One of these marketers stood in front of the room and was answering inquiring questions from the crowd and made the statement, “please ask any questions, I love tackling them”. To some, you might be thinking, that’s not combative at all! It depends on how you communicate it and your personality type.

Consultants need to ditch the evangelic approach to their sales pitch and need to do what consultants do best. Listen. After all, isn’t marketing all about the customer?