Where Social Networking Works

The holy grail of training, the “learn from experience” paradigm, is just a polite way of saying “learn from making mistakes.” While learning from making mistakes is effective the mistakes can often be too damn expensive. I don’t think I’ll want my daughter to learn to drive by having a series of “learning experience” car crashes.*

Nor do I think marketers should have to pay the expense of learning what to use social networking media for? Marketing is too dang expensive already. Luckily there are some great resources available. One is Marketing Sherpa, a part-free part-fee site dedicated to all things web marketing.

Here is a chart they published today. It shows quite clearly that social networking works best for influencing rather than convincing, for subliminal rather than hard sell.

MarketingSherpa Social Media Marketing

Like relationships themselves, social networking works on the level of intangibles, the level of thought and feeling as opposed to overt action. Nothing wrong with that. Sales work best when customers are already thinking of and favourably predisposed to your offering.

*Well, okay, maybe little bitty accidents, fender-benders, not head-on-crashes or rolling the family minivan. Fear does focus ones attention.

We Become Social

We now have a Metaplume Facebook site, er, page, and Twitter account. Both aptly named metaplume. Come be a fan, look at the video I just posted and get our tweets. Sweet.

Social Networking for Freelance Professionals

Thinking and quitting smoking seem to be mutually exclusive. Sigh. I wrote my last book without cigs, mostly anyway, so I expect this will get better. Soon, I hope. More gum.

Before exploring more about Facebook marketing I thought I’d take a peek at an actual case study, me. How does a freelance professional, one of the much-touted “knowledge workers” (cough), use and benefit from social networking?

A tiny background. I have three careers (so far): I help Westerners and Chinese work together and Chinese work in performance-oriented offices; I lead Asian region-wide performance improvement projects for Global 1000-type firms; and I create and consult on online marketing campaigns. I write (books, articles, blogs, copy), speak, teach and consult.

I’m fairly well known with a good reputation, but that plus 25 cents buys me a telephone call. I get a lot of business from repeats and referrals, but not enough. How do I leverage my online marketing knowledge to help myself?

In the next few posts I will walk you through how I combine three websites—my personal site (which I’ve had since 1994), my agent’s site and this website—with Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter. While very much a work in progress, I am excited at the synergies possible in a coordinated campaign. Nonetheless it feels a little like pre-Office Microsoft, where all the programs—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher—existed and worked well, but not well together. Combining output from two or more required tricks. I expect nothing different here.

Next I create all the sites, then make them all work together. But before that I need to look for more gum.

Facebook: From Pianos to Pizza

Using Facebook to market funeral services. Not the first service you would think of; quite unlikely actually. Hmm, what next? What other services or products are just as unlikely?

How about heavy equipment sales? Forklifts, excavators, bulldozers: what possible way could companies selling such non-teen products use Facebook? First, who are the target audience? These are big ticket items, so purchasing agents for big companies, bosses for smaller companies, equipment operators and maintenance/repair staff for all companies. I’d say the latter two groups are best choices; they actually use the products and will have a large influence on buying decisions. (I’d say the others are likely involved in too many non-equipment issues to be a useful group.)

What would heavy equipment users be interested in? Maybe the environment, perhaps a “moving dirt doesn’t hurt” group to show that users are also concerned with protecting the environment. Best practices and/or tips always work, but how about a “found in the dirt” group that shares stories and pictures of what they’ve dug up. My brother moves dirt and I’d bet he would be interested. Maybe start a Facebook Events page to promote the “[your company name here] best buried treasure of 2009” contest.

These are just quick ideas, but show (at least I hope show) how easy it is to think social relationship for unconventional products. For my next choices I will open the Yellow Pages at random, and … Pianos to Pizza. Hmm. Piano is easy: groups from Beginners to Jazz to Bach lovers. A “I love my piano” group. Picture Frames. Maybe a group named “mitered corners” or “I framed it,” the first to tips and best practices, a how-to group, the latter a photo-based group showing unbelievable things in frames.

Pilates. I could fill the page: Pilates and yoga and “wellness” writ large almost beg forming a group to learn and share. Pile Driving Contractors. Hmm. See heavy equipment above. Pillows. Pillows? Hmm. For a chain store start “make your own pillow” groups that meet in your outlets. People are passionate about … damn near everything; there must be pillow professionals.

Pipes and Smokers’ Articles. Almost too easy: create a “let me smoke” or a “smokers aren’t criminals” group. I would join, and support whatever company braved the health nazis (can I write nazis?) to create such a group. Finally, Pizza. There are more possibilities than toppings on a deluxe extra large.

Would all these possible Facebook marketing ideas work, or be a good idea? I don’t know—that’s the joy of marketing, you have to spend the time and money to find out what works—but at minimum I think they would be worth taking a closer look. Anyone can use traditional means to market. Perhaps marketing on Facebook should add something new, something to make you stand out. Isn’t that a goal of marketing?

Facebook Generations

Facebook marketing requires commitment. Not every company will want to enter into such an open-ended, friend-building exercise. For them, and all companies actually, the question must be asked: Do you need to Facebook, or any social networking? The answer depends entirely on what you are selling, and to whom. (Another example of how new media uses the same principles and processes as traditional media.)

Let’s start with the negative—what isn’t Facebook (from here forward read ‘social networking’ writ large) suited for? Are there any target demographics where Facebook is unlikely to be useful? Sure seems there should be, the most obvious being seniors. Few associate seniors with computer in general, or using something so “young” as Facebook. Usage statistics however show some interesting trends.

As of Feb 1, 2009, in the US the fastest growing Facebook demographic is women over 55 (175% increase in prior 120 days), with men over 55 facebooking increasing 138% in the same time period. Statistics being what they are—the best way to fool someone—you have to look a little deeper. Facebook users over 55 are the fastest growing group, but still only account for 3% of total American users. Only? That’s 1.4 million users, more than doubling every few months.

Say you are in the funeral business. Should you Facebook? One wouldn’t think so, but maybe, especially if your firm services retirement enclaves in Florida or the southwest (or Vancouver Island in Canada). Funeralfuturist.com offers videos on viral marketing using obituary notices, so can something like a Gravesite Group on Facebook be far behind? It would be a chance to get in front of the curve in the dying business.

Makes you think. Maybe Facebook would work well for closely targeted services like retirement communities, somewhere where creating a group atmosphere is a premium. If you were searching for a place to retire and were passionate about hiking and the outdoors, or [insert hobby name here], wouldn’t you be attracted to a community where you knew before hand had groups you would like to join?

Hmm, if Facebook could work for the least-likely demographic then maybe a marketer should pass on conventional wisdom and look a little deeper into this social networking phenomenon. That is what I will do in the next post or two.

Facebook: Crossing the Dynamism Divide

Much of traditional marketing–the advertising part certainly–was fire and forget, you made and launched the ad then sat back and waited for results. It was static messaging. Then came the internet and advertising became dynamic. Slightly dynamic actually: readers of web pages as static as magazine layouts could now email comments. Radical at the time, viewed from today it wasn’t much.

Because then came broad band, Web 2.0 and social networking, MySpace, Facebook, Ning and LinkedIn (among others). Running an ad campaign on these sites required, well, work. The “fire” part, deciding message, choosing channel, designing the ad, setting it up and launching it stayed the same as always, but now you had to forget the “forget” part.

Much is written about the differences between the four generations in the office today, Traditionalists, Baby Boomers (me), Gen X-ers, and Millenials. About how they have different attitudes and expectations at work, how the former two use email and the latter use Facebook or how the older generations decry the loss of privacy inherent in Facebooking. All interesting but grist for another day perhaps. The divide I want to examine is about making a marketing campaign work.

Marketing department SOPs list tasks that need to be done, and in what order, then they use this during planning to make Gantt and PERT charts showing how long the task from start to end should take. Good stuff, but I wonder how many traditional companies have taken the time to update them.

I got the idea for this post while setting up a Facebook marketing campaign. Going back to my management consultant roots I was planning out the job (I like Gantt charts) when I realized that the tasks after fire were taking up more space on the page than preparing to fire. Much more. That is when the divide about work hit me: “how many Traditionals and Baby Boomers (and non-tech Gen X-ers I suppose) are aware of the work needed (to run a social networking campaign) after work was traditionally over?”

Imagine the conversation, the 22-year-old marketing assistant explaining that she needs all these hours, week after week after week, and the 55-year-old manager wanting to know when she will finish. Hearing “never” is unlikely to make him happy.

But never is the right answer. After “fire” comes fine tune, answer, build, reply, add on, edit, create, adjust, answer again, then repeat as necessary. Maybe the best idea would be to tell him that “I am building relationships with our customers, and relationship-building has no end, it goes on as long as the relationship lasts.”

Or as long as her job does. Like all relationship problems she and her dinosaur manager need to communicate, but that requires each try to see the other’s point. She has to wear dinosaur glasses, he has to put on tech-savvy specs.

Facebook Marketing: Don’t Ask People To Buy

Companies must use the best communication practices for marketing to succeed on Facebook. It is a social medium, and blatant “buy this” advertising or marketing will likely do worse than not work; it might put people off your product or service altogether.

Does that mean Facebook is a bad place to advertise? No, not at all. It just means you have to pay attention to the social nature of the medium, and let that guide your messaging. No different in principle than shaping the way your message might change to different groups, good value to Finance Dept. types, big impact to the Sales staff. Same product, just making the message suit a specific audience.

When just starting out an older salesman took me aside and told me, “Kid, if you don’t ask them to buy they won’t buy.” (He also mentioned something about drinking vodka instead of gin at lunchtime, but that’s another story.) I discovered it was true: you could talk and describe your product for hours but if you never popped the question the customer usually bought from someone else.

Much of good advertising has an implicit “buy this” message. Even lifestyle ads, perfume say, where the product is barely mentioned or shown, and instead all you see is a languid beauty dressed in pearls squired by a Fabio clone to a swanky party, has an implicit “use this perfume and get this life” message. If no “buy this” message then why advertise?

Facebook marketing will not work this way. Rather than a “buy this” message companies need to offer something of actual value. Not tangible value, you don’t need free offers, coupons or similar gimmicks. Actual value could be something that entertains, educates or amuses, makes people think or, best, makes them want to participate.

Starting a petition to stop animal testing for a veterinary office or pet food company is a good example of making people think and making them want to belong. If along the way they learn of then associate a brand name with feelings of “good,” well, that’s the marketing goal.

Some services and products clearly lend themselves to this but at first glance others … don’t. A financial services office offering tax tips is always topical, but who would want to join a group about dentists (besides dentists that is)? Or a group started by a seller of truck parts? Cement finishers? Undertakers? Septic tank clearers? (Found by randomly opening yellow pages.)

I don’t see a problem. Each of these services can create an interesting group. Maybe a group of people sharing dentist stories. Even if humorous dentist stories are few and far between there would be some, and, in a Facebook universe, can grow virally into many. Tips work. I bet truckers and mechanics would enjoy a group that shared tips about truck health, or trucker travel stories. You sell food? Start a recipe-sharing group featuring the vegetables you sell.

The key word is “share.” Facebook is about creating a community: Facebook marketing is about offering people a reason to want to join and share something. The “please buy” message is not simply implicit, it is buried around something of actual value. Focus on value for them and they will find value in your product and service.

What Is Facebook Anyway?

Remember your teen years when friends defined your universe. Family was there, hobbies and sports were good, school was … school, but friends, heck, friends were important! We usually got a little more serious about life (career etc.) in our 20s, but until marriage most of us still hung out in packs. Gossip was currency.

Facebook was built to marry such group bonding to the internet. Started in 2004 by a student, Mark Zuckerberg (another failed-to-graduate-from Harvard future billionaire), for the first years Facebook was reserved exclusively for university students. It exploded in popularity, and was opened to the non-student hoi polloi in 2006. Registration was free, and open to anyone over 13 with a valid email address.

Facebook started as a simple way for people to create a page about themselves, picture and biography, then to allow others to become “friends” and view their page. Critical was the feature that let “friends” see any updates to your page, i.e., not just that you liked pepperoni pizza, cold beer and the New England Patriots, but were going to Cancun for Spring Break. Adding time-sensitive information allowed Facebook to be vibrant, something one checked often … or stayed on all day.

Trivial stuff, sure, but then aren’t most friend-friend conversations about trivial stuff? A friendship is based on the sum of a whole bunch of trivial and a scant few important details. That’s where the next feature came in, the ability to create “groups” based around similar interests. Now you could troll Facebook pages until you found a group you were interested in, join and then share trivial stuff with like-minded people.

If I sound like I am dismissive of this blame my poor writing. If anything I am awed by the genius of Facebook, building a business around the very things we take for granted.

Facebook now offers an amazing selection of applications, small little programs that allow you to write something on a person’s “wall,” “poke” someone or buy them a virtual drink. Sudoku, crosswords and for those who want privacy, scrabble and Texas Hold’em for those who want some friendly competition. And unlike online games, you are actually playing with friends, chatting and trash talking … just like if you were together. That is the brilliance of Facebook, that it allows relationships to be formed, built and nurtured just as in real life. Or “physical life” I suppose, being that Facebook is expanding our definition of reality.

This post is not long enough for all the Facebook possibilities. A few more key ones to mention though are Photo Albums and Videos, more ways for you to share with friends.

Facebook is now a demographic and global phenomenon. No longer for under 30s, the 35-54 demographic is the fastest growing user segment, 256% growth in Aug-Dec 2008, doubling every two months. Astoundingly, it is available in close to 40 languages! Why the explosive growth? Desire for intimacy I think, but that is just me: this question will spawn a generation of Ph.D. theses.

In a later post I will explore the ways Facebook might be used for business marketing. I thought it best though to start with some description of just what the Facebook phenomenon is all about.

How big is it? Well, like Google it has become a verb, to Facebook someone.

Business Is A Social Process

Business in inherently a social process: people selling things to people. It is easy to forget this, bombarded as we are daily by statistics, product rollouts and technological advances. It is much easier to think of “people” in the aggregate, groups defined by demographics. While generalizations are useful, necessary even, they do not describe how business actually works.

Business is one person at a time deciding to buy. The key marketing question is how do people decide what to buy and how can we (our marketing) affect such decisions. How can we market to people, not groups?

Most traditional marketing was/is top down, for groups, an ad in a magazine for everyone. The hope was that enough individuals of the target group would see the ad and decide, I want that. Then came Google’s algorithm, the ability to target ads to an individual. Better, but still one step removed from people: clicking on an interesting link is not a people thing, it is a technology thing.

Irony often is painful, but not always. Modern marketing is a great example: by using
fancy technology marketers can interact directly with people. How? Social networking. The best place to place our message has to be where people socialize. Just common sense.

Which is the best place for stores to advertise, on banner signs in the mall or during the conversation in the car on the way to the mall? When are people more receptive to your message, when they are in “shopper” mode, game face on and skittish about being sold, or when they are in “relax with friends” mode, open-minded and interested? I think most would answer the latter for both.

Just more common sense: people are more receptive to most things when socializing with friends. But how? That’s always been the problem. How can you insinuate your inherently commercial message into a social setting without being ham-handed? Jeered even. Think of how you felt when you discovered you were–surprise!– getting an “join Amway” pitch? Or Nuskin? Tupperware? Mary Kay?

Now change those companies for internet sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Orkut, My Space and Twitter, and change multi-level to viral marketing. The nature of these applications (what can be done) and the new social networking norms (what is okay to do) combine in ways attractive to marketers. Add the broad acceptance of social networking itself–in the last half of 2008 the percentage of 35-54 year olds on Facebook increased 276.4%–and social networking is, or should be, part of a well-balanced marketing strategy.

Making Choices at the Webpresence Buffet

Delicious, “Oh, that smells good!” aromas waft from the side of the room. A long smorgasbord table is groaning with shiny braziers of this, oversize platters of that and, oh, is that a small mountain of crab? So many choices. Cursed with only one stomach I face the enviable task of deciding what to eat and what to leave.

If only marketing was so easy. Cursed with only one marketing budget today’s marketers face an array of choices that make a fancy buffet look drab. Deciding what to use is often harder than actually using what you choose, then you wonder if what you left wouldn’t taste, er, work better than what you chose. Buyer’s regret can happen to anyone, gourmands and marketers.

A gourmand knows all the flavours, common and exotic, and respects the nuance of how scents, tastes, textures and colours combine to create a 4-star dining experience. A complicated task, but easier than creating a successful webpresence campaign. The gourmand deals with a set universe: not many foods are “invented” these days. Not so the marketer.

First, there is the rich palette of traditional channels to choose from, TV, magazines and offering samples door-to-door (which still happens!), a decision that at one time was thought complicated. Ha. Next are the near-new channels, video, text, websites, social networking, blogs and instant messaging. Deciding among the near-new, what, how much and when, then what traditional choices to include in the mix, is now the gold standard for complicated. A lot like facing a 4-star buffet table.

What is the best meal? What should you fill your plate with? At a buffet, a good one anyway, there is no one right answer, just many ways to achieve that warm glow of a satiated stomach. Marketers do not have it quite so easy, but the principle is the same. Maybe my trick will help.

I travel a fair bit, and face the smorgasbord challenge often. The first thing I do, always, is walk the entire spread, looking at everything. Including dessert: more than once I decided that four dessert servings made a better meal than slices of dry roast oxen, chicken with white glue or vegetable (?) surprise. After I know my choices I make up a tasting plate, a little of this and of that. I am careful: something that looks and smells good can still taste like fried sneaker. I now make the real plan: I will eat this, that and that … but not that! Ugh. Knowing what not to choose helps narrow choices.

Sound too complicated? Maybe, but consider: I am always happy with what I have on my plate. I know there may be other goodies I am missing out on, but I only have one stomach. The same is true for my webpresence choices. I only have one marketing budget and a long table of good-looking channels to choose from. If you think you know a better process than taste-and-decide to ensure happiness with what ends up on your plate, then go for it.

Just one piece of advice for those with no plan: antacids are usually sold in the gift shop. Too bad a corporate bad stomach is not so easy to fix during the marketing budget review.